Two bursts of light symbolized the beginning of the battle and both trainers had two entirely different reactions. Skylar's head hung low as he looked at the Pokemon released while his opponent began to smile happily.
On Skylar's side of the field a small fox-like Pokemon stood, delicately balancing on its four legs while staring down its opponent. The said Pokemon was a blue frog which was smirking at the fox.
Skylar had lived in Kalos all his life and knew the Pokemon he handed out like the back of his hand. He had aspired to become one of the chosen kids for years. So he knew that Froakie had the advantage over Fennekin, and evidently, so did the boy.
"Hah, you haven't got a chance!" He mockingly cried.
Skylar gritted his teeth. Of all the Pokeballs he could have randomly grabbed he'd grabbed the one which contained the Pokemon that was weak to the one that the other boy had grabbed! He was really not off to a great start.
"We'll, if you're just gonna stand there...Froakie, Bubble!" The boy yelled, yanking Skylar form his thoughts.
Suddenly Froakie opened his mouth and a series of small bubbles would begin to travel out and head towards Fennekin.
"Quick, dodge it!" Skylar commanded almost from instinct. It looked like all of the battles he'd watched on tv and seen his dad have were really starting to pay off.
The boy watched in confusion as Fennekin leapt to the side and managed to evade the watery attacks. Confused he pointed at the fire type.
"Use Bubble again!" He commanded, confident that the type advantage would allow him to achieve victory.
He was wrong. The fox dodged once more, leaping to the side with surprising speed before dodging the attacks of the frog-like pokemon repeatedly. This clearly agitated the boy who'd stolen the Pokemon. Froakie had an advantage so why wasn't it winning?
"You're cheating! Froakie should have won by now!" The boy yelled which caused Skylar to chuckle and cross his arms.
"There's more to Pokemon than just types!" Skylar announced before pointing towards the opposing water type.
"Use scratch!" The newbie trainer announced and the fox complied.
Leaping towards the opposing Pokemon, dodging numerous bubbles as it did so it was eventually able to hit Froakie directly on the face with a scratch attack which caused it to lose concentration and reach up to its face in pain.
"No! Froakie, use Bubble!" The unofficial trainer yelled desperately.
But it was too late. Fennekin was able to land numerous scratches on the disorientated water type before eventually the frog was able to respond with a pound attack which knocked the fox back slightly.
"Ha! Good work Froakie, use bubble!" The trainer announced.
"Not so fast, Fennekin, dodge and use ember!" Skylar yelled.
The fox elegantly evaded as per its instructions before it launched a fiery attack at the water type. The flames successfully hit and although they mightn't have been effective the weakened and exhausted Froakie was unable to withstand the attack. Suddenly the blue frog fell to the ground with only spirals for eyes.
"W-what? That can't have happened!" The defeated trainer stuttered before his eyes began to water.
"Hey now, don't cry." The girl in pink finally interjected. Speaking for the first time since the fight had begun.
Meanwhile Skylar felt himself grow livid. He couldn't believe that she was consoling him! He'd stolen from her, from the professor and nearly stopped him and two other hopeful trainers from going on their journey's!
"How date you!" Skylar suddenly yelled.
"Hey, calm down." The tanned girl replied.
"She's right you know." A voice familiar to Skyalr added.
Suddenly Skylar jolted around and felt his mouth drop open from the utter shock of seeing who he was seeing. Standing in front of him was his own father. He was quite a large and imposing man, roughly 6'1 and very broad. He was well built, something that was highlighted by the tight, light blue t-shirt he wore.
Wrapped around his waist was a dark blue parka and he wore a pair of navy pants, his expression was friendly and caring. His face bore the sings of agin, moving into middle age, but he didn't seem resentful of the passing of time. Rather he seemed to not only accept it. But relish and welcome it.
"D-dad?" Skylar asked startled. The rage of the moment before having faded away.
"Hi son." The man replied with a nod and a friendly grin.
"Ah! Mr Winter!" The girl in pink replied happily.
"Why hello Shauna. You've grown since we last met!" Mr Winter complimented.
By this point the boy had returned his Froakie and was looking around awkwardly. He wasn't sure whether to run or to merely remain in the position he'd been in. Suddenly looking towards him Mr Winter's expression began to harden before he walked over to him.
"Young man, why did you do what you did?" He asked.
"I wanted to go on a journey..." The boy trailed off.
"Well why didn't you just ask for one from Professor Sycamore?" Mr Winter quizzed.
"'Cause my dad and my ma had a big row. And then she said I was never allowed to go on a journey." He explained.
"What were they fighting about?" The father of Skyalr continued to ask.
"My dad wanted to go to Kanto and challenge the Battle Frontier." The boy explained before he began to tear up again.
"Go on." Mr Winter pressed which chased Shauna to look at the boy who was being interrogated with concern.
"That wasn't too bad. Ma didn't want him to go but she let him. Things were fine for a few months. Until dad lost to Brandon. Apparently he couldn't even knock out one of his Pokemon! So my dad wanted to stay there and learn from him. But my ma didn't want to move and they got into a huge fight." He explained as he sniffed.
By this point Skylar was looking quite guilty. He'd jumped to conclusions and assumed that the boy was acting selfishly without justification. He'd gotten so caught up in the concept of going on a journey himself that he hadn't stopped to consider that this boy might have reason to as well.
He weakly put up a defense. He'd thought of the other aspiring trainers when he exploded with rage, but he knew that he was putting up a hollow reason. He'd selfishly criticized the boy and it was incredibly unfair. And his father agreed, judged by the way he was looking at him.
"See Skylar, things aren't always as black and white as we believe them to be." Mr Winter began.
Skylar solemnly nodded before looking up at the boy in the striped t-shirt who was sniffing and trying to wipe away the tears.
"Sorry, that was uncalled for." Skyalr apologized almost awkwardly.
The boy only sniffed some more but he nodded in acceptance.
"We all make mistakes. Learning from them is what is important." Mr Winter explained in a sagely manner.
"But anyway, I would to congratulate you two on a wonderful battle! Your offensive strategy worked very well. If you refined it and caught some larger, beefier pokemon who could take damage as well as dish it out you could end up with a devastating team. Froakie isn't the best for that kind of team but with some heavy hitters like Tyranitar or Aggron you could put up a virtual defense of offense!" Mr Winter complimented.
The boy in the stripy shirt suddenly looked up in shock, he'd figured that his battle had been a miserable failure. But to hear someone talking about in a positive light and saying that it had great potential was startling to him!
"And you Skylar, you overcame immense difficulties. You were at a type disadvantage and against an opponent who wasn't willing to let you get any damage in! You and that Fennekin are great together!" Mr Winter complimented his son.
Skylar beamed, his father was the top trainer in Wulfric's gym. And he was said to have the strongest pokemon of any gym leader. Although every gym leader had a seperate team of pokemon for every level of challenger based on the number of gym badges they possesed Wulfric was said to have the highest level pokemon and to be the best trainer. Skylar had always known he'd fight him last.
"Say, Skylar, would you like to keep that Fennekin?" Shauna asked curiously, speaking up for the first time since Mr Winter had intervened.
"Yes!" Skylar blurted out and the small fiery fox yelped happily, he got the feeling they were going to get along well.
"Alrighty then." The girl in pink said happily as she clapped her hand together.
Although Skylar was now basking in happiness his crestfallen opponent sadly walked over and handed the pokeball back to Shauna while looking down at the ground. As he did both Mr Winter and Skylar looked over. The ecstasy of getting his first Pokemon was starting to fade. He saw the sadness in the boy and felt sympathy.
"Hey, wait, I do have something that could help with this problem!" The tanned girl happily announced.
Suddenly reaching into her bag she pulled out an egg with a flourish. The egg was large, it was almost the size of a small pokemon, which is what it contained. She smiled broadly as she handed it to the boy in the stripy shirt.
"Here you go, take good care of it!" Shauna happily announced.
"Really, for me?" The boy asked as he began to choke up slightly, but he academe the egg and both the Winters smiled at the sight.
"By the way, what's your name?" Skylar asked curiously.
"Jacob." He replied absentmindedly as he observed the egg with a great deal of interest.
"Well, I hope to see you again Jacob!" Skyalr replied doing his best to put a friendly facade.
"Tell you what Jacob. I'll walk you home." Mr Winter offered.
"That'd be good, Ma's probably worried sick." Jacob replied with a laugh before the two set off and Skyalr watched his dad leave with a tinge of sadness. However the joy of having his new Pokemon was far greater.
"So, want to battle?" Skylar offered to Shauna but she merely giggled.
"I'm way out of your league silly!" She replied before skipping off happily leaving a confused Skyalr.
"Fen." Fennekin offered.
"You said it buddy."
A/N: And without further ado the second chapter of PXY:LOK comes to a close. Some of Skylar's battling abilities have come to light. But don't think every battle will be that effortless for him. Or that he'll win every battle, he's only human like we all are and that'll become very apparent quite soon.
A huge thanks to Ydream08 for being the first reviewer! It really meant a lot to me and if anybody else comes upon this story and likes it, just chuck us a review. If not say why and I'll try to improve.
Finally sorry about the wait, I've been busy for a long period of time and I had to wrestle against a loss of interest in Pokemon and Pokemon fanfics.
So anybody reading this has Origins to thank XD