Okay, I'm gonna try and pick things up a bit this chapter. If you feel it's too fast or something, please, please, please, let me know. I'm having issues with the speed. In the original I thought I was going slowly but I had people telling me it was too fast, so I could really use some help. Also I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update. Anyway, Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 3

The Shinx Situation

As we walked to Jubilife I noticed a lot of people battling and training their Pokemon. I nudged Damien.

"You think we should battle?" I asked him.

"Only if you want to," he replied.

"Well, last time we battled, it wasn't really very fun…" I said remembering the endless Tackles and Pounds with a slight shudder. Damien seemed to feel the same from the look on his face.

"Well, what do we do then? There's no way we can challenge other trainers if we can't even get through a battle with each other." Damien said. I bit my lip in thought.

"…Well, I guess we could try and teach them new moves or we could fight some wild Pokemon or something. Most of the wild Pokemon around here seem to be really weak." I said.

"Yeah, look." Damien pointed to a pair of Shinx that were fighting. They both tackled each other at the same time and knocked each other out. I raised my eyebrow.

"Yeah, I guess. I don't think Piplup and Turtwig are much stronger, though." I said, slightly depressed by the thought. Damien nodded.

So we ran around a bit fighting wild Pokemon. We trained for about an hour or so. Slowly, and I mean really slowly, our Pokemon gained experience. I began to feel a bit more confident in Turtwig's abilities. We came upon our umpteenth Shinx and started battling it.

"Okay, Turtwig, use Tackle." I ordered. Turtwig slammed into the Pokemon. But it didn't fall over like they usually did and retaliated with a Bite attack.

"Whoa!" I cried in surprise when the attack hit Turtwig. This Shinx was made of tougher stuff than the others.

"Alright, this should be fun." I laughed in delight. Turtwig seemed to agree. "Let's go, use Absorb!

The Shinx jumped back with a snarl. I flinched. Wow, vicious. I thought with a smirk.

"Alright Turtwig, give it Tackle!" I cried. Turtwig launched himself at the Shinx. The Shinx took the attack and used the force of it to drive his teeth deep into Turtwig's front leg. Turtwig cried out in pain from the vicious bite attack.

"Turtwig? Are you alright?" I asked concernedly. Turtwig winced and nodded the affirmative Shinx still attached to his leg. I nodded.

"Alright, Absorb go for it!" Turtwig shook his leg a bit and Shinx let go and backed off a bit. Turtwig then fired a small green tube-like projectile from his mouth into Shinx. Shinx swayed a bit, weakened. I pumped my fist in the air excitedly.

"Alright, buddy keep it up!" I told him. Turtwig seemed to grin and fired another Absorb attack. Shinx staggered and hit back with a Tackle.

"Tackel right back!" I cried, Turtwig slammed into Shinx and knocked it out.

"Alright!" I squealed excitedly. Turtwig ran up and jumped into my arms. I staggered a bit from the sudden weight and ended up dropping him.

"Oh. Sorry, Turtwig." I said looking down at him. He had landed on his shell and was having some trouble getting turned back over. I crouched down and turned him over with a laugh.

"There ya go, buddy." I told him as I rubbed his shell. His eyes got a glazed look and he leaned into the back rub. I laughed. "I guess you like that, huh?"

I could see Damien and Piplup finishing a battle with another Shinx.

"Alright, Piplup, good job girl." Damien praised her.

Piplup looked over at me petting Turtwig and cocked her head to the side. She ran over to Damien and she started speaking to him in Poke-speech which he, of course, couldn't understand. He could see she was agitated, though.

"What? What's the problem?" He finally cried, throwing his hands in the air out of exasperation. Piplup got angry and jumped up and started pecking him on the hand. His hand started to bleed a bit.

"Ow, ow stop!" Damien cried, swatting at her. Piplup made a frustrated sound and glared at Damien. She pointed to his hand then her head. She began to point to his hand again, but her eyes got huge and round and she passed out.

"Piplup are you okay?" Damien cried. He picked her up and gently cradled her in his arms. I ran over.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"I don't know!" Damien cried, sounding panicky. "She was fine just a second ago!"

"Let's take her to the Pokemon Center back in Sandgem Town!" I said. Damien nodded and began to follow me to Sandgem. We hadn't taken more than a few steps before Damien stopped me.

"Kat, she's waking up!" Damien exclaimed sounding relieved. I let out a big relieved sigh, and hurried over to Damien's side. Piplup sat up in Damien's arms and blinked her big, blue eyes.

"Pip?" She asked. I decided she must want to know what happened.

"You passed out for no apparent reason and Damien freaked out." I said matter-of-factly.

"Do you know why you passed out?" Damien asked her, worriedly. Piplup looked at his bleeding hand and paled slightly. She took a deep breath and pointed a flipper to his hand. I stared at Damien confusedly.

"…Damien made you pass out?" I asked. "Well, I guess he can be pretty scary, but I never really th-"

"Kat, she means my hand." Damien said, glaring at me. I blushed slightly.

"Oh. Sorry, Damien…" I mumbled. Damien rolled his eyes good-naturedly and turned back to Piplup.

"The blood, right?" He asked with a slight smile. Piplup nodded.

"She faints at the sight of blood?" I asked.

"It seems that way." Damien smirked.

"That's pretty funny…" I said trying to smother a giggle.

Piplup turned away indignantly as Damien and I dissolved into giggles.

We soon came upon a guy about our age battling a Shinx with a Chimchar.

"Hey, look Damien, a battle." I said, pointing.

"Cool." Damien said, his eyes lighting up. I grabbed Damien's arm and we both walked closer to watch the battle.

"Good job, Chimchar!" The guy said as his Chimchar launched an Ember attack that burned the Shinx.

"Another Shinx huh?" I mused, finally scanning one with the Pokedex.

-Shinx, the flash Pokemon, female. All of its fur dazzles if danger is sensed. It flees while the foe is momentarily blinded.-

"Cool." I commented, more to myself than to Damien, but he answered anyway.

"Yeah, it's cool." He said. The Shinx kept tackling the guy's Chimchar over and over I figured that must be the only move it knew or maybe it was just be freaking out.

Either way, the guy and his Chimchar were handling it well.

"That's it Chimchar, keep dodging those Tackles now try to hit it with Scratch!" the guy ordered his Chimchar.

The scratch attack connected and the guy threw a Pokeball at the Shinx. It wobbled once, twice, three times then sealed itself with a light ping! noise. The guy picked up the Pokeball with a pleased grin on his face.

"That was a good battle." Damien called to him with a grin. The guy jumped slightly.

"I d-didn't know anyone was watching me." He stuttered slightly.

"Sorry." I said apologetically.

"It's fine." The guy told us grinning, and walked closer. "I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. I know me and Chimchar did," he turned to his Chimchar. "Right buddy?" he asked. The Chimchar made a noise of agreement. The guy laughed and returned his Chimchar.

"So, I'm Denver." He told us reaching out to shake our hands. "I prefer to be called Den, though." I nodded returning his handshake.

"Long names can be a hassle." I replied. "I'm Katrina, but I go by Kat."

"And I'm just plain 'ole Damien." Damien shook Den's hand with a smile.

"Kat and Damien, huh?" Den said. "Those are cool names," he decided. I laughed.

"Thanks, Denver's a pretty cool name, too." I said. Den grinned.

"So, me and Kat just started our journey today." Damien told Den.

"That's cool." Denver said.

"Kat picked Turtwig and I got Piplup." Damien said. "We figured water and grass were good types to start with." I rolled my eyes; we had thought no such thing. Damien was just trying to show off. I watched as the two got into what would probably be a long discussion about Pokemon types and different match-ups. I studied Denver as he chatted animatedly. He was a nice looking guy, I decided. He had happy brown eyes and his black hair hung over his right eye and even though he kept pushing it back it always fell back in the same spot. He was dressed plainly in a light blue flannel shirt, black jeans and plain shoes the same shade of blue as his shirt.

I frowned slightly as I noticed a scar on his eyelid. It was kinda weird. I wondered where he'd gotten it.

"…And that is exactly why there are seventeen types of Pokemon." Den said with a satisfied smirk. Damien looked impressed.

"Wow. You really know your stuff, Den." he complimented. Den smiled appreciatively.

"Well, It's not that hard to learn it, it just takes time." he replied.

"Guys, we should get on the road, If we plan to get anywhere today." I reminded them.

"Yeah." Damien said.

"Where are you guys headed?" Den asked.

"Oreburgh, to the first Gym." I told him. "We're taking the League challenge."

"Hey, I'll come with you." Den said.

"Well, if you want me to." Damien and I grinned at each other. Then turned to Den.

"Sure thing." we said.

Phew, finally Chapter Three. You guys, I am so sorry it took so long. I got stuck on this chapter and it actually was split up into three parts with no connection and I had to figure out how to connect it and I kept putting off writing the battles. I've also had a lot on my plate recently. School, baby-sitting, insane friends, sibling rivalries, and the occasional freak-out, you know life. My life, anyway.

Please bear with me as I straighten out my writing style, I know it has lots of issues and problems but, I'm working really hard to fix them.

Sorry it wasn't worth the wait. I'm gonna try and get another chapter out nest week to make up for it. Okay see you guys later.