The next day at school all anyone could talk about was the Teroa Challenge, even Serena's win against Diantha only got a few sparse comments about Diantha's Mega Gardevoir that almost swept Serena's entire team and the surprising power of Serena's Slurpuff. After the match Blue gave a few more details about the challenge, it would start in roughly a week's time after the end of the school week and in turn school year. Anyone that wanted to register to enter must have at least one Pokémon, be over the age of thirteen and go to the nearest Pokémon Centre before the end of the week so as to get a Pokédex. At the end of the week they would need to go to one of the five major cities of Teroa to attend the presentation before the competition and their clue as to where the first Battle Master was waiting.
It had only taken Zeke a day to figure out that he really wanted to enter and many people at school were the same as him, Ed was adamant he could make it further than Zeke and for the whole afternoon the two had been training and battling each other. Meanwhile Lysa sat on the sidelines watching the two of them, although their parents had reluctantly agreed that the competition would be good for Zeke, Lysa was having a lot more trouble. They flat out refused to let her enter anything because she didn't have a Pokemon and they didn't want her taking Tustles like she had suggested because she had zero battling experience.
"Freckles use Thundershock!" Zeke cried as the second match of the afternoon carried on.
"Liquid dodge and use Bubble," Ed called out to his Squirtle.
But the Helioptile was too fast and she opened her pewter coloured frills and released a blue electric jolt that reached Liquid before he could move and knocked him out. With a sigh Ed returned Liquid and walked across the small stretch of field to Zeke to shake his hand, Lysa gave a quick unenthusiastic applause before going back to her sulk.
"You know this type match up sucks dude," Ed said as he released Zeke's hand from the handshake, "both Liquid and Francis are weak to Freckles, I wish you had another Pokémon to make it a bit more interesting."
"You say this after every battle," laughed Zeke, "you could get a ground type and I'd be screwed."
"Which proves you need another Pokémon! I say we go looking for a new Pokémon for you before we go register tomorrow and we bring her along so she has something to do," Ed said as he pointed at Lysa, "take her mind off the whole thing."
The next day after classes had finished Zeke and Ed grabbed Lysa and headed into the creek that ran behind the school, as they entered the tall gums that bordered the creek began to patch out the sun, leaving odd splotches of light as they walked. Zeke could hear the chirping of Kricketots in the bushes to his right and the cries of Pidgeys above them, in the creek he could see a small school of Magikarp through the crystalline waters swimming lazily against the weak current.
"You want a Magikarp dude?" asked Ed with a sly grin, "could be just like Eric."
"How many times do I have to tell you I was aiming for a Dratini!" called out a deep voice from not too far away.
Zeke and Ed quickly spun around to see Eric and Violet coming towards them from the direction they had just come from, although the pair were twins they looked quite different from each other. Where Violet had the grace of a Froslass Eric was built like a Machoke, only slightly taller, the only things the two of them had in common were their brilliant emerald eyes and their thick brown hair. Although Eric's was much shorter than Violet's.
"Yeah yeah, keep telling that story and someone will eventually believe you," chuckled Ed, "besides I don't think anyone's ever seen a Dratini around Yoma Town, I'd be impressed if you just managed to get a picture."
"Well I dropped my phone trying to grab a ball," said Eric looking at the ground now a little downtrodden.
"Anyways what are you guys doing out here?" asked Violet curiously, "we saw you heading this way after classes finished."
"Finding me a new Pokémon, Ed wants to be able to knock something out for a changed," joked Zeke.
As these words left his lips the bushes rustled and a small green scaly creature with a red belly and a horn on top of its head emerged from the foliage looking up at the group of people curiously. Zeke put his hand on Freckles' Pokéball, but before he could even release his friend another ball flew past him with a flash of blue and yellow like the like the sun peering through the clouds the ball burst open and encapsulated the small lizard Pokémon.
One shake.
Two shakes.
Three shakes and the Larvitar was caught.
"Yay I caught my first Pokémon!" squeaked a small voice behind Zeke.
He span around with a start to stare at his sister, mouth hanging agape like an Exploud without its voice. He had completely forgotten he and Ed had even bought Lysa along with them and now she had gone and caught the Pokémon instead of him. Their parents weren't going to be happy about this.
"Well haven't seen one of them in these parts either," laughed Eric.
"Where did you even get a Quick Ball from?" Zeke's dad asked Lysa, more amused than angry at this point.
When Zeke, Ed and Lysa had arrived back at their place Ed had quickly gone into his place to try and avoid any blame in this situation, at first their mum had blown up, freaking out about how she was too young for a Pokémon and the competition while their dad just sat lost in thought.
"I saved up my pocket money and bought a couple," Lysa said nervously as she looked at the young Larvitar in front of them, "I figured if I couldn't take Tustles then I should try and get something for myself."
"And did you help her?" their father asked turning towards Zeke.
"Nope, she caught it herself," Zeke felt it wasn't worth mentioning that he had wanted to capture the Larvitar himself, their dad was taking it a lot better than he thought and he didn't want to accidentally ruin the situation.
"Well guess there's nothing I can really do about that then," chuckled their dad, "I'd say both of you are taking the challenge then."
"Absolutely not!" cried their mum, "Lysa has no battling experience and they both only have one Pokémon, I am not allowing this!"
"Honey," said their dad coaxingly, "I don't think we have much choice in the matter, trainers of other regions leave home much earlier and they're within the rules to compete. And I'm sure Zeke will be more than willing to help Lysa train a bit, and she can have Tustles as well to look after her."
He gave Zeke a quick glance, he realised he had to agree otherwise their mother would cause more of an argument, "of course! She can even travel with Ed and I if you want!"
Those words escaped Zeke's lips before he could stop himself, although he didn't want to, the satisfied look his mother gave him ensured that he would have to follow through with his mistake now.
"I still don't like this, Tustles is so young and, and…"
"Honey she's a year old, most Lillipup have left their mother's in the wild by this stage," reassured their dad, "she'll be alright."
With a loud sigh she finally conceded and turned away walking to her room.
"Now you better follow through with that offer," whispered their dad to Zeke, "I've calmed her for now, but I want to see you too outside training for the rest of the afternoon."
"Aye aye cap'n!" exclaimed Zeke with a salute, he quickly grabbed his sister's arm and ran out the door, the newly caught Larvitar following them with a look of confusion on his face and Tustles not too far behind.
"You don't have to travel with me if you don't want to," said Lysa weakly as Zeke pulled her out the front gate and started heading towards Ed's place.
Zeke pulled to a stop out front of Ed's place and turned to face his sister, bending down to reach eye level, "look, I know none of your friends are allowed to enter and I don't want to leave you to go by yourself with no experience. And I'll have Ed anyways, we can take turns!"
"Are sure?"
"Does it rain when a Kyogre appears?"
"Yes?"
"I'm am definitely sure, now go tell Ed what's happening I left Freckles' ball in the house in my attempt to escape."
Lysa giggled a little and then ran down Ed's driveway, Zeke turned back towards his house and went inside, upon crossing the threshold he heard sobbing from his parent's room. He froze to the spot not daring to move or make a sound, it was his mum crying and he could only barely make out words between her sniffling.
"I… I… I don't want to lose them –em," she sniffled.
"It won't be like with Lily, they're older and can look after themselves, they'll have each other too," said his dad.
A dawning realisation crept upon Zeke at his older sister's name, a name he hadn't heard in years because it always brought their mother to tears, even the sight of the flower that was her namesake was enough to cause her distress. Many years ago, when Zeke was barely old enough to remember and wasn't even in school yet his older sister had gone missing in the forests to the north of Yoma Town in the middle of winter, the police and almost the entire town had been involved in the search but they had been too late. Late at night almost a whole day since she had gone missing the police captain, Eric and Violet's father, found her small freezing lifeless body curled up on the stump of an old gum tree in the deepest grotto of the woods.
No one really knew how she had managed to even get into the forest or how she had managed to get so deep
Zeke could barely remember the time and in turn had very few memories of his older sister, with Lysa having none of the event or her sister at all, but he knew the pain from his mother. Afterwards she had kept a smile up around the two of them, but he knew for a long time it had been a mask to hide the pain and he finally understood why his mother hadn't wanted them to go. As the sobbing continued Zeke silently walked across the room and collected Freckles' Pokéball and then hurried back outside as quietly as possible so as not to disturb his parents.
The afternoon sun shone a brilliant orange and was angled directly at Zeke's face, he put his arm up to cover his eyes and then saw a flash of purple in the garden across the road. Zeke blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't seeing things and then another small flash of purple appeared among the bushes and then a large barbed ear poked out of some of the branches. Now was Zeke's chance to actually catch a Pokémon today, with a quick flick of his wrist he released Freckles who looked around keenly.
"Use Thundershock on purple Pokémon in the bushes," ordered Zeke.
With a quick hiss and the opening of his frills Freckles released a shower of sparks at bushes, the creature let out a small cry and leapt out of the bushes. It was a male Nidoran to Zeke's relief, glad that it wasn't a Rattata he ordered Freckles to use Thundershock again, but this time the Nidoran dodged the attack and ran at Freckles jabbing him in the chest with his horn.
"One more time Thundershock," he called out, grabbing a Pokéball from his bag.
This time the attack connected and the violet creature was knocked back stunned a little bit, now was Zeke's chance. He tossed the ball with a clear arc across the road and it connected, bursting open in an attempt to capture the wild Pokémon.
With three shakes the Nidoran was caught and Zeke let out a small shout of triumph while Freckles did a small dance next to him happily. Zeke looked down and at the Pokéball in his hand and released his new partner onto the footpath, the Nidoran flared up the spikes along its back in fear but Zeke knelt down beside him and slowly stroked his head, making sure to avoid the large horn.
"Hey, calm down little guy," he said soothingly, "everything's alright."
After a couple more strokes the Nidoran purred happily and rubbed its head gently against Zeke's wrist. The quills along his back pulsed gently each time Zeke touched him, slowly getting accustomed to his trainer's touch.
"I think I might call you Kozzy, do you like that?"
The Nidoran let out a little cry and nibbled gently on Zeke's finger.
"Alright Kozzy it is then, let's go introduce you to Ed and Lysa then."
With a quick turn he headed down Ed's driveway with Freckles and Kozzy in tow.