"This is a long shot," Orrie muttered. "I haven't taught you very many offensive attacks but. . . Go, Gonny!" She tossed her Pokeball at her feet. A Flygon popped out, looking a bit puzzled at the battle mock-arena.
Faye's Sandslash made a strange battle cry, waving its arms wildly. "Um... Okay! Sandslash, Rollout!" The spiny Pokemon curled up into a ball, rolling at a high speed toward the foreign Pokemon.
"Uh, Flygon, hover!" Orrie said. "Then Screech!" The Flygon obeyed and let out an ear piercing sound like sharp nails on a chalkboard. Sandslash yelped as it crashed into a tree, but quickly got back up, covering its ears with its claws.
"Sandstorm!" Faye cried, causing dirt and sand to fly everywhere, much to the annoyance of some of the people in the park.
"Uh, Flygon is part ground!" Orrie called, shielding her eyes. "Though you have affected the trainer. . Uh. . . Use your Faint Attack!"
The Flygon crept up to the Sandslash, grabbed it around the spiky neck, and struck it.
"Get it back with toxic!" Faye ordered, shielding her eyes as well. Sandslash jumped away from Flygon, sending poisonous purple ooze flying toward its opponent. The purple ooze struck the Flygon, who at first appeared to be unfazed. After a moment or so, however, it started to wince in pain.
"Shoot!" Orrie cried. "Gonny, try not to move too much!" The Flygon sat still, looking a tad annoyed.
"It's okay! I'll give you an antidote after!" Faye called to her friend, feeling slightly guilty about poisoning it. Her Sandslash still looked ready to fight.
"Oh, th-thanks. That's sweet of you," Orrie said nervously. "Er. . . Use Sand Tomb, Gonny!" The Flygon shot out soft sand at the Sandslash, causing a slight sinking effect.
"Not going to do much!" Faye yelled, giggling. The Sandslash hardly seemed fazed, but flailed its claws around to try and get the sand away from its eyes. "Sandslash, don't worry about the sand! Use Fury Swipes!" The Sandslash obeyed, jumping at the Flygon while trying to slash at it.
Orrie stared at her Flygon and realized she was in trouble. The only offensive attacks she had were faint attack (which required too much movement for the poisoned state) and sand tomb, which clearly had no effect. Wincing at the thought, Orrie cried, "Use faint attack again!" The Flygon used the same sneaky attack as before but a little slower. While Sandslash was in mid-jump, Flygon had suddenly moved before Sandslash saw it. Falling to the now-sandy ground, it growled furiously, but stayed put.
"Oh no!" Faye cried, dropping her backpack and running over to help her Pokemon. "I'm sorry!"
Orrie let out a sigh of relief and also ran to her Pokemon's side. "Don't move, Gonny. Just relax. It'll be okay. I'm so sorry. . ."
"Maybe we should just not battle for now," suggested Faye. "Here..." She grabbed her backpack and dug out two super potions and an antidote. "Here," she smiled nervously, nearly fumbling as she gave two of the items to Orrie before healing her Sandslash.
"Thank you so much!" Orrie said brightly. She gave her Pokemon the medicine and petted it softly. "Probably a good idea, not battling. We're not really the battling kind of people anyway."
"Yeah..." Faye followed suit and began to pet her spiny Pokemon. "So I guess it's not really a fair competition..." She twisted a lock of hair around her finger, unsure of what else to say. "Um... So what have you been up to?"
"Oh, uh, contests and stuff. Berry crap. You know. Oh that reminds me!" Orrie fumbled through her messenger bag and pulled out a Pez-like-dispenser with a Togepi on top. She held the Togepi back and a pink block popped out. "Here," she held her hand out to Faye. "I think your Pikachu would like it."
Faye raised her eyebrows, holding the tiny cube in front of her glasses. "What is it?" she questioned, returning her Sandshrew to its Pokeball and letting out her Pikachu, who had tamed most of the static in its fur. "Machisu, try this," she smiled, handing it to the tiny Pokemon.
"It's a sweet Pokeblock," Orrie muttered nervously.
"Oh! I think I've heard of those," Faye turned slightly pink, feeling stupid compared to her friend as she watched the Pikachu nibble at it. "I think he likes it!" She giggled, and her Pikachu let out a small cry of happiness.
"Yay!" Orrie giggled back. "I'm glad." She looked from the Pikachu to Faye, cleared her throat, and dug out another Pseudo-Pez. She tilted back on the Bellsprout figure and gave her Flygon the green candy. The Flygon ate the bitter block as if it tasted more like a lollipop than battery acid, smiling as it chewed.
"Oh! Right!" Faye gasped, digging through her bag. "I can evolve Pikachu now!" She giggled, then looked over at her Pikachu, who looked as if he were trying to tell her something. "Oh, right! He still needs to learn some techniques..."
"Ooh, Raichus are cute!" Orrie squealed.
"Yeah!" Faye smiled. "But I read that it's better for Pikachu to learn some moves first before you evolve them..." She shrugged. "I just thought I'd be there by now."
Orrie nodded. "Have you ever thought about contests at all?"
"A little... But..." Faye's face flushed. "I don't really know anything about them."
"They're pretty easy," Orrie said. "You pretty much just show off how good they look and how artistically they can use their attacks. . . It's actually a really good way to show off your breeding skills."
"I should have known that," sighed Faye, "I guess I'm more naive than I thought..." She was feeling down after doing quite pitifully in a breeder show the other day, and had just recalled it once more.
"Hey, what's with the attitude? Not many people understand contests. They think it's like a beauty contest or something." Orrie giggled. "Every time I hear that, I imagine Dribble in a bathing suit talking about world peace and I can't stop laughing. . ."
Faye turned red again. "Well... Maybe I could come along to see one of yours sometime," she suggested, her face burning. "You know... If you still want to hang out with me and stuff."
"Oh sure, I'd love that!" Orrie exclaimed. "Like I said, the two can really go together well. Maybe in exchange, you can let me watch you breed!" Orrie stopped, blinked, and shook her head rapidly. "Well. Uh. You know what I mean."
"O-Oh! Yeah, of course..." Faye laughed nervously. "It's not too exciting, though, really..." The thought of Orrie watching her take care of her Pokemon embarrassed her, though she didn't know why. "Maybe sometime..."
"Hey, do you wanna try a practice contest, to see what it's like?" Orrie asked. "I think you'd learn more that way. I mean. . . If you want."
"Oh, um... Sure," Faye laughed nervously, looking over at her Pikachu who looked much more eager.
Orrie dropped her gaze. "Well, if you don't want to, that's fine too."
Faye shook her head. "No, no! I want to, it's just... You'll have to help me. Lots." She smiled shakily.
"Oh, sure. Um. . . How do breeders show off their Pokemon?" Orrie asked.
"Well... Usually in shows. Nothing with battling or anything like that." Faye shrugged, hoping Orrie wouldn't find it too boring.
"Oh so. . . Do you show off how they look or what? 'Cause that's a very important part of contests. The next big part is like I said earlier, attack use. I've heard of battling, too, but uh. . . I don't have experience in that so I couldn't help you."
"Well, basically... And their personality and such is important too, of course." She nodded.
Orrie nodded. "See, you'll do fine. But uh. Well I guess we can't really practice having our Pokemon. . . sit there. So want to just do the appeal stuff?"
"Um... Okay," Faye smiled nervously. "But you're going to have to explain everything to me, I hope you know."
"Okay!" Orrie said excitedly. "Um. . . I wonder if we should go based on category or not. Shoot. This might be harder than I thought." She looked from her Pokeballs to Faye.
"You've lost me already!" giggled Faye, watching Orrie attentively. "There's categories?"
Orrie nodded. "Cute, smart, tough, cool, and beauty. Er. See. . . You give Pokeblock to increase their stats in the different areas. . . And certain attacks work better for certain categories."
Faye snapped her fingers. "Aha! Well, that makes sense. I guess it would make it less biased or something, right?" She shrugged. "But how am I going to know which ones to use?"
"Yeah. That's the hard part. Which of your Pokemon is your favorite?" Orrie asked.
"Well..." Faye bit her lip. "I don't really pick favorites, but I guess I'd say Ivysaur, since it's my first Pokemon..."
Orrie nodded. "Okay, uh. . . What attacks does Ivysaur have?"
Faye scratched her head. "Um... Vine whip, razor leaf, solar beam, leech seed..." She blinked.
"Oh, thank God," Orrie sighed. "That works out nice. All but leech seed are cool attacks. So I guess we can practice with cool Pokemon." She fished through her backpack and carefully looked at each ball. After a minute or so, she tossed a ball, releasing a Flaaffy.
"Oh, okay!" Faye grinned, releasing her Ivysaur. She had no idea how Orrie knew all of these attacks and what type of attack they were, but she decided to take her word for it. "Now what?"
"Well now you use attacks to make your Pokemon seem as cool as possible! Combos really work good in front of a real judge. . . Um." She glanced at Flaaffy, who squeaked cutely. "Actually, Lambchop is a bad example of combos since her attacks are kinda dull but uh. But I'm babbling and probably not making much sense," she apologized, giggling nervously.
"All right! Um... Use razor leaf, Ivysaur!" Faye blushed, feeling like she must be doing something wrong. Ivysaur shot out sharp leaves, but without a target they floated miserably to the ground.
Orrie smiled apologetically. "I should demonstrate an example. Sorry! Okay, Lambchop, use Thunder! Follow that up with Thunder Wave!" Large bolts of electricity shot out into a tubular shape. The following small bolts of electricity sparked in the pseudo-container, creating a very bizarre array of electricity. "That's not that great. We still need to practice," Orrie admitted.
"Wow," Faye sighed, "I don't think I could get that good. Um... So it's better to use combinations?" She tightened her pigtails. "I should have brought a notebook or something..."
"No need for that! This is just for fun and stuff to like introduce you to it. This is so not Coordinating 101. And yes, it's better to use combinations. You earn more points that way if the judge likes the kind you use!" Orrie said.
"Oh, okay. So... I doubt there happens to be any my Ivysaur knows. But oh well... So, what else is there?" She kneeled down and began to pet her Ivysaur on the head. "Good try."
"Oh, okay. If you want to stop. I think you did fine though for not knowing much," Orrie said with a little exaggeration. "In fact. . ." She giggled and dug through her backpack. After some time she pulled out a length of baby blue ribbon and tied it into a typical shoe-lace style bow. "I call it, the Rookie Ribbon!" Orrie slipped the ribbon into Faye's hands, letting her fingers linger on Faye's hand too long. She yanked her hand back and laughed very nervously. "Well, uh, congratulations! And uh! All that! Other. Stuff. Uh." She shoved a finger in her mouth and chewed on its nail.
Faye jumped a little, staring down at her feet in embarrassment. "Um... Thank you!" She looked up and smiled shyly. "It's cute."
"It's just an old hair ribbon," Orrie muttered.
"Still," shrugged Faye, kneeling down and showing it to her Ivysaur, who displayed signs of offense when asked to wear a bow. "Hrmph." Faye giggled.
Orrie smiled sheepishly and watched the exchange between Pokemon and Breeder. Her Flaaffy whined at her feet and she snapped back into a normal state, squeaking, "Oh, yeah, Lambchop! You can play if you want! Just don't go too far away." The Flaaffy walked away in a cheerful stride.
Ivysaur finally let Faye tie the bow on him, and he ran off to catch up with the Flaaffy. "S-So... Um..." stammered Faye, unsure of what to say next. "Thanks for helping me..."
"Uh. No problem! I wasn't a very good teacher, anyway. So, uh, where've you been since we separated?" Orrie asked.
"Um... Well, I mainly did a lot of study in Kanto... I mean, there's lots of great breeders there..." Faye smiled a little. "But I've been in Johto for quite a while and I like it a lot here. It's different, you know?" She nodded. "W-What about you?"
"In Hoenn, mostly. I'd go around other places to catch and train, but that's where I did my contests. I heard the Sinnoh region does a different kind of contests, but the rules are way over my comfort level," Orrie babbled. "I came here to train and catch some new Pokemon, like my Flaaffy!" She pointed to the pink sheep in the distance.
"Ohhh. Yeah, I've never been to Sinnoh or Hoenn yet... Are they quite different from here?"
Faye giggled. "I haven't caught much, admittedly. But my Pokemon are strong! Well... Yours are
stronger, but that's not the point."
"Oh yeah. Hoenn has more extreme weather than here. I mean, it's sunny day and night. . But there there's sandstorms and rain! Sinnoh even has snow! SNOW! Can you imagine?" Orrie sighed dreamily.
Faye raised her eyebrows. "Woah! Really?" she blinked. "I've never seen snow. That's kind of sad, isn't it?" Giggling, she watched her Pokemon from afar.
The two became so absorbed in their conversation that they didn't notice the sun begin to set. As the last ray of pink hid itself under the horizon, a police man and his Growlithe yelled, "Hey! Kids! It's past curfew!" The girls giggled and ran off to the Goldenrod Pokemon Center for the night, unaware of what's to come.