Heya! Not much to say about this one, except for the fact that it's another sorta-nonsense chapter. I tried to tone down their happy-moments a little bit (in the middle-end-ish part mostly), but I'm not sure how well it turned out.

So...yeah =D

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, and if I did, I would have gotten to fight on LANCE'S side in the Dragon's Den, not my stinking RIVAL'S. Meh.

x.X.x

After he had finished his granola bar, he handed me the wrapper and then scuttled up into the trees again. But it wasn't long before I heard an alarming clacking sound, and then a high-pitched, "Rio!" of surprise. I looked up, jumping back as Riolu dashed straight back down the tree-trunk and ran for it, an angry, spider-like Pokemon behind him. The bright scarlet pincers on its head snapped threateningly, though it couldn't have been taller than my knee. Stunted, stubby yellow legs carried it surprisingly fast toward my Riolu, and a short horn glinted menacingly above its eyes. My Pokemon was making a mad dash up the nearest tree, but his pursuer only followed him until he leapt out of the branches and crouched on the ground as it followed him again.

I dropped my backpack, fumbling it and digging through its contents to see if I had mysteriously obtained any Pokeballs. I knew I should have stocked up in Jubilife!

Looking up, I saw Riolu cornered against the tree, and I stood up and called, "Try Quick Attack!" He glanced over, and then abruptly nodded and chirped, "Rio!" as he zipped forward and sent the other Pokemon reeling with a hard punch.

"Nice job!" I encouraged. "Do it again!" Before his opponent could recover, Riolu darted in again and kicked, dancing out of the way as the spider-like creature lunged for him with its horn now spewing poison. I shuddered, kicking myself for not getting anything like antidotes at the PokeMart, and said, "Quick Attack!" Riolu dipped his head, now fitting in a combination of a kick and a punch in the attack, but couldn't get out of the way in time to dodge the silk thread now being shot from the other Pokemon's mouth. He struggled, trying to get the sticky thread off, and only just barely avoided the next attack: another poisoned barb.

"Rio-lu!" Riolu spat angrily, peeling the silk off of his body.

"Try another Quick Attack, while its not expecting it!" I suggested, moving forward a little bit to see the battle better. My Pokemon nodded, and then bounded forward and aimed a punch to his adversary's head. At that, the wild Pokemon swayed and fell, fainting.

I stood there for a moment, staring at it, and then suddenly beamed and let out a whoop. "We did it, Riolu!" I exclaimed, jumping into the air. Our first battle, won! "We did it! We kicked that thing's spidery butt! Yeah!"

"Rio! Riolu riolu!" my Pokemon cheered, punching empty space. "Rio-lu!" He stuck his tongue out at the other, dancing around, and then ran up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I beamed, holding out my hand for a high-five, which was eagerly met with a tiny black hand.

"All right! Nice job, partner!" I said with a giggle, and beamed when his scarlet eyes shone. A wide smile spread on his face, and he skipped forward and twirled in the air, calling in a singsong voice, "Riolu! Rio! Riolu rio!"

I chuckled, and continued along the route. After around ten more minutes, though, I spun around at a loud voice.

"Trainer!"

My brow creased, and I looked around for the source. Riolu swung out of the trees and landed lightly next to me, asking, "Rio?"

"Dunno…" I answered, tilting my head to the side.

"I challenge you to a trainer battle!" There was the voice again.

"Yeah, but where are you?" I called back, sweeping my gaze around me. My Pokemon did the same.

"Right here!" At that, a boy about my age, maybe older, stepped out of the trees with a Pokeball in his hand. "My name's Michael, and I officially challenge you!"

"Rio-lu!" Riolu answered, putting his hands on his hips and looking up at me. I nodded, a slow smile spreading across my face. If we could do this as easily as we beat that spider-Pokemon, then this guy was in trouble.

"Alright. I accept!" I answered, my voice raising in excitement, and the boy nodded.

"Bidoof, go!" he yelled suddenly, hurling a Pokeball towards me.

"Quick Attack," I told Riolu as the mouse-like Pokemon straightened up. "And keep it up until we wear it down."

"Rio!" Riolu said with a grin, darting forward and taking the Bidoof by surprise. He slowly began to gain the upper hand, attacking again and again and taking only minimal damage from the other Pokemon's tackling and growl. Bidoof soon fainted, and again I gave Riolu a high five. Michael let out a low, "Hmph!" and then chucked another Pokeball with, as I found out, a Zubat inside. The blue, winged Pokemon gave itself a shake, oversized ears twitching, and let out a few clicking noises until it had located Riolu.

"Quick Attack again," I whispered, and he nodded, zipping around a little bit to confuse the bat-like Pokemon and finally lashing out to attack. It reeled, and then Michael yelled, "Leech Life!" The Zubat spun around, still clicking to find Riolu, and sucked in a huge breath. Riolu stumbled, little particles floating from him, and then growled and stood back up, performing Quick Attack again.

"Supersonic!" Michael cried, leaping forward, and I scoffed.

"We're going to kick your butt!" I told him smugly, and he laughed.

"We'll see, brat!"

Riolu bared his teeth, clearly not liking the insult to me, and then whipped around at the Supersonic attack. I saw his eyes glaze over, and my moment of bravado faded. Confusion was something I had been told to keep away from at all costs, and I knew why. If Riolu was confused, he might not have been able to attack, and might instead hurt himself. There went our victory.

"Darn! Darn darn darn!" I muttered, as always wishing I knew better words. "Darn it! Poopie darn it darn poopie!" I sighed, muttering to myself, and called, "Riolu, Quick Attack!" He turned toward me, and under my breath I chanted, "Please, please, please, please, please…"

"Rio…?" Riolu asked slowly.

"Quick Attack! Attack the Zubat! The Zubat, Riolu, Quick Attack!" I said, leaning forward. "C'mon, I know you can hear me…"

"Rio…lu…" He swayed, and then turned and tottered toward the bat-Pokemon.

"Quick Attack!" I yelled, and Riolu turned back to me.

"Rio?" he asked, and then ran toward a nearby tree.

"No!" I groaned, and Michael laughed.

"And you thought you were going to win!" he taunted.

"Watch me!" I answered furiously. "Come on, Riolu! Attack the Zubat!" My Pokemon shook himself, and then blearily looked around. I sighed in relief: he seemed to have snapped out of it. "Quick Attack!" I called again, and he nodded.

"Rio-lu!" he chirped, leaping through the air to lash out at the Zubat. I cheered when it went down, giving my partner a high-five and so relieved. He beamed, crawling onto my shoulder, and Michael huffed.

"Fine," he muttered, handing over a good amount of coins. "Take this, and good battle." Struck by the sudden kindness and "good sportsmanship," as Mom would have put it, I shook his outstretched hand and accepted the money.

"Th-thank you," I stuttered, and Michael gave a sudden grin.

"Newbie, aren't you? Never won a battle?" he asked wryly, and I shrugged.

"This was my first."

"Then good job. Ya definitely deserve the money. See you 'round!" With that he disappeared into the trees again, and I exchanged a glance with Riolu after a moment.

"…Rio?" he asked, and I shrugged and laughed.

"I don't know, either, but look!" I held up the coins, and then dropped them into the front pocket of my back pack. "Our first trainer battle!"

"Rio-lu!" my Pokemon agreed, beaming.

"Okay, ready to keep going?"

"Rio rio!"

"Let's go, then!"

We kept walking, challenged to one more trainer battle before I realized that I could hide from them if need be or not accept their challenge-and that Riolu was getting weak and tired. Nurse Joy had told me not to have any intense battles for a few days, and I was pretty sure all of these battles in a row qualified as "intense." So Riolu and I hid in the bushes and the trees until the trainer had passed, creeping back onto the trail when they were out of view.

By the time the sun had begun to set, Oreburgh Gate-the cave that separated Route 203 from Oreburgh City-was in sight. But Riolu had long retired to my shoulder, and I was starting to get tired from walking so far. We had stopped to rest many times throughout the day, but that didn't keep my feet from aching. Besides, my Pokemon was snoozing in my hair, perched on my shoulder, and I doubted that he would have the energy to fight if we were attacked inside the cavern.

So I veered into the trees and set up camp just off the trail, unrolling my sleeping bag and sitting cross-legged on it while I tried to light a fire with my matches. Riolu stirred sleepily, climbing down from my shoulder to rest more comfortably in my lap, and nestled into my stomach. I shifted into a better position to accommodate him, finally sparking a fire, and decided not to use my precious pancake batter. I did, however, take my cell phone out and fiddle with it, finally finding the camera and taking a picture of my sleeping Pokemon and I, lit by the fire. Then I stowed the little device back in my backpack and got out a bag of chips and some Pokemon food, along with a cold sandwich and a couple of brownies. I split the first one, handing half to Riolu, whose nose twitched as he sat up and wolfed it down. I giggled, munching on my sandwich, and opened the Pokemon food for him as well.

After we had eaten, I poked the fire a little and then curled up in my sleeping bag, smiling as I remembered the day. First-ever battle, first trainer battle, and now there was money jingling in my backpack. Not a bad day at all.

Morning sunlight streamed through the trees, filtering through in watery pools of light on the ground. I blinked, rolling over, and propped myself up on my elbows, catching sight of Riolu swinging around in the trees above me. He saw me looking at him and waved cheerfully. "Rio-lu!" my Pokemon called, dropping to the ground and attempting to drag me out of my makeshift cocoon. I giggled, allowing myself to be rolled onto the ground, and then got up and squatted by the sleeping bag and began to roll it up. Then I plopped down, sitting on top of it to form a cushion between me and the ground, and reached in my backpack for breakfast.

"I think we have some dried fruit, more Pokemon food, another sandwich, and enough brownies to maybe get us to the Elite Four. Good?" I asked, and Riolu grinned his assent. I nodded and opened his breakfast, eating as I stuffed my sleeping bag into my pack and shouldering it, getting up and beginning to walk and chew at the same time. "You know," I said through a mouthful of sandwich as my partner and I walked toward Oreburgh Gate. "I'm usually supposed to stay at the table when I eat, but I guess we don't have to do that. We are a team now, after all, on our way to our first Gym badge. So I don't think we need to follow that rule; do you?"

"Rio!" Riolu agreed, beaming with Pokemon food stuck in his little teeth. I giggled again.

"You've got food showing," I told him, chuckling, and he stuck his tongue up to clean his mouth. "Okay, you're clean now!"

"Rio-lu!"

"Yup. But at least you don't have braces, like Lucy does. She gets food stuck in her teeth all the time. It's funny, too!"

"Rio rio!"

I beamed, and then looked up and halted at the entrance to the gate.

"Ready to go?" I asked my Pokemon, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Riolu!"

"Okey dokey, let's head to Oreburgh! Race you!" I took off, running into the cavern with Riolu close behind, but he soon overtook me and darted easily to the outside entrance, rushing past any trainers and outrunning any wild Pokemon. Then, as I caught up and caught my breath, all too soon, we were in Oreburgh.

x.X.x

About page breaks, mostly I just let FFNet turn them into paragraphs, but sometimes-if the page break is rather important-I'll do a line. Just to keep it from getting confusing.

So I toned it down a little, but I don't want Celeste to just suddenly turn all cold and distant towards Riolu. And, just so no one thinks she's turning into a Sue, I'm planning on having all the won battles in this chapter to give her a little bit of a big head, so that when she challenges the Gym leader, things go pretty far downhill...despite the type advantage.

Other than that, suggestions or thoughts on the story or even OCs would be welcome. Everything but flames ;)