Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I do however own my OC Skylar and Ydream08 owns Kaila. Enjoy!
Skylar tiptoed out of the building silently, it was roughly 6 in the morning and far earlier than he normally awoke, but this was an exception. He'd spent three hours listening to the benefits of shorts the previous night and he wanted to get out before he could be caught again. Namely so that he could see just what he was dealing with. The Roselia was an interesting addition to his team, and although he didn't care to admit it the trainer knew he needed more pokemon. It just never truly occurred to him throughout his first day as being a trainer.
But it was now his second and he was well and truly ahead. He was glad that it was his second day, it felt like his first day had lasted well over a month! However he presumed that it was just the fact that so much had happened. But still...
Soon he'd reached the entrance and he was able to leave. He grinned as he saw that the sun had just come up and that he was the only one around. Perfect. Walking away from the Pokemon Centre he left the city and was soon standing on the path he had walked along only yesterday.
Reaching to his belt he pulled off both the pokeballs and inhaled before he suddenly released the two pokemon. Reflexively Roselia tensed and prepared to engage Fennekin although it didn't seem to react, it merely stood there calmly.
"Hey now, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you." Skylar explained soothingly while Roselia's stance shifted from aggressive to defensive. It was seemingly shielding itself from the attack it expected to come.
"Fen." Fennekin added which caused Roselia to look at it curiously.
"I know you've had a bad experience, and it probably isn't the first one you've had...but we're not all bad people. I'm sure you can learn to trust me." The trainer continued.
Roselia crossed its arms and looked at him in a skeptical manner. It was apparent that it still didn't trust this human. The trainer who had been responsible for raising it had done terrible things to it. She'd never shown it any kindness, never made any time for it and only pulled it out to do horrible things to innocent people and their pokemon.
It had never relished or enjoyed the concept of robbing innocent people, particularly those who came with noble intentions. It found the concept to be repugnant but had done it anyway due to fear. It often looked at the Roselia statue and wondered if the pokemon that was around was as wicked as it was.
"Perhaps you'd like to walk with me for a while. You know so you can look around." Skylar asked with a chuckle.
The Roselia nodded slightly and the two walked back into the town together. By this point nearly fifteen minutes had elapsed and although Skylar didn't yet want breakfast he decided to keep his eye open for a good cafe to have breakfast in. Kalos was famous for its cafe cultures after all.
"Oh and by the way are you a male or a female? Raise your red flower for female and the blue one for male." The Roselia raised the red flower which caused the trainer to breath a slight sigh of relief.
A male flower pokemon could have been a little awkward.
Not only that but Skylar still had all of the money he'd saved up which had been bolstered by his parents to spend. It was an exciting premiss to be sure.
Soon the duo of pokemon and human had reached the Roselia Fountain and the creature which shared the visage of him. Skylar observed his pokemon staring at the stone replica of himself and decided to kneel down to be closer to the level of the grass type.
"Do you know the story behind that fountain?" The trainer asked.
Roselia merely shook its head.
"Well...it's about a pokemon, a Roselia in fact who came to a town. It was very sick and injured and a nice woman nursed it back to health." Skyalr began.
He was sounding an awful lot like a parent telling a story to their child when they needed an urgent boost of self esteem.
Roselia only gestured with its flowers to tell him to get on with it.
"So, to thank the woman for her kindness that Roselia began to make petals rain down on the town. Soon many more of its friends helped. People flocked to the town to try and see his event. Soon the town had become a city. But the woman's spiteful brother came and took that Roselia away." Skylar continued and the grass type looked quite distant.
"But that Roselia never gave up, it never made petals rain for that wicked man. So he beat it and hurt it but still the Roselia would not give up. Eventually that man just dumped the Roselia back in his sister's city and left. The woman did everything she could to save her friend but it was too late. But Roselia died content." Skylar explained.
At that point Roselia was looking down at the ground. It was hard to tell exactly what it was thinking at that point but he decided to give her some space.
"Anyway, come on, we can go get some breakfast." The trainer added before the two set off.
Soon the two were walking down the main street of the city looking for somewhere decent to eat. It was proving to be difficult. There was just too much choice for the teen to make up his mind so they indefinitely wandered up and down the street. Eventually Skylar found a quaint cafe which didn't see overly gaudy or unnecessarily flamboyant. It was the chain of Staryubucks that had grown exponentially over the last few years.
He was so wrapped in it that he continued to stare at the specials of the morning as he walked into the building. However this led to him encountering somebody who was equally inattentive...
Kaila Marks had been taking a good long sip of an iced coffee, her head thrown back and her eyes closed when she suddenly collided with a boy of roughly her age which knocked them both backwards. Her icy beverage was sent flying.
"What the?" Skylar asked before he looked over to see a teenage girl who seemed to be just slightly older than him.
"My drink!" She exclaimed angrily which led to the younger boy blinking in surprise.
The girl he saw was quite pretty. She had green eyes and unusually long brown hair in a ponytail which went all the way down to her waist. A yellow singlet and brown capris and shoes of the same color albeit with a green pattern across each.
However her expression was one of pure rage. Evidently it was not a good idea to send a woman's iced coffee flying in the morning. Skylar made a mental note to remember that in particular. Of course sending anyone's coffee flying at any time was likely a bad idea, particularly if it was in the morning.
"Uh...sorry?" Skylar was able to stutter out unsure of what to say.
The girl turned to face him and tilted her head to the side curiously. She seemed to be considering the situation. Although her face initially looked angry it quickly changed to a contemplative expression.
"Well, it was my fault really, I should pay more attention." She admitted with a laugh.
"No, I was staring at a sign, I should really look where I'm going." The boy replied.
Suddenly the girl's eyes drifted from him to the small rose pokemon that stood nearby watching the incident with a confused expression on its face. It wasn't too used to actual human interaction beyond intimidation so this was all new to it.
"So you're a trainer right?" The girl asked curiously.
"Yeah, as of yesterday." Skylar replied.
"Well, think we could battle?" The girl asked eagerly.
"Uh sure...I'm Skylar by the way." The younger teen replied.
"Oh, I'm Kaila, Kaila Marks." Kaila replied happily.
"Skylar Winter." The boy replied as he reached to his belt.
Roselia likely didn't yet trust him enough to battle for him and he wasn't eager to rush his pokemon. Particularly since it could have harmful repercussions in the future. Premature battles could scar it and cause irreversible damage to its psyche. And Skylar wasn't willing to risk something like that.
So of course the grass type walked out in front of him and raised its flowers menacingly. It was odd how the seemingly harmless looking rose pokemon could look so intimidating but it did.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" The teen questioned his pokemon in a worried manner and Roselia nodded vigorously.
"Oh well, I suppose I can't argue if it's what you want." Skylar resigned to his fate as his opponent reached into a yellow bag.
"Hmm, let's see. Where is it?" The female asked absentmindedly as she dug through her bag.
Her face was the image of confusion, a stark contrast from the anger she'd first shown when Skylar had first encountered her. To be honest she seemed to be a person who was quick to anger, but quick to cool down as well.
"Ah! Here we go! Elekid, show him what you've got!" Kaila yelled as a small yellow pokemon appeared and landed in front of her.
The pokemon was quite short and looked as it would be quite clumsy. Its arms were quite oversized and it's legs comically small. Atop its head were two prongs which seemed to serve no conceivable purpose. However Skylar decided that he wouldn't underestimate his opponent. But he wanted to get a feel of what it was capable of.
But it did certainly seem like an odd choice. Elekid was an electric type and as such would be at a disadvantage against the grass type Roselia. But it was possible that the pre evolution had some kind of trump card to use against its flowery adversary.
"Alright we'll have a one on one battle and you can take the first move." Kaila explained with a grin beating Skylar to the punch.
"Okay then." The teen replied before grabbing his trust Poxedex.
One feature allowed him to check the moveset of any of his own pokemon due to the data that the machine recorded due to them belonging to him. However it couldn't tell him any specific details about an opposing pokemon.
"Alright Roselia, use a Stun Spore!" Skylar commanded.
However Kaila didn't seem all that bothered by the blatant attempt to paralyze her pokemon and merely smiled.
"Alright Elekid use Quick Attack to dodge and then try to hit Roselia!" Kaila commanded in a rather ambitious move.
The electric type rapidly dodged to the right using the enhanced speed granted by its attack before attempting to circle around and hit Roselia.
"Roselia, Poison Sting!" Skylar commanded.
Suddenly a spike of poison was sent flying at the electirc type which successfully sent it flying backwards. However Elekid bounced back like a champ and was able to quickly stod sliding.
"Elekid, use Thundershock!" The girl commanded with a grin on her face.
This puzzled Skylar greatly. Electirc type attacks were a poor choice against Roselia which was highlighted by the fact that Skylar didn't tell his pokemon to act and when the lightning struck it did virtually nothing to the grass type.
"What the?!" Kaila demanded.
"Roselia use Stun Spore." Skylar commanded.
His pokemon obliged and the yellow spores successfully flew through the air before striking Elekid, only to do nothing which surprised the boy. He'd completely forgotten that electric types couldn't be paralyzed! Annoyed with himself Skylar prepared to launch his next attack.
"Elekid, hit him with a Quick Attack." Kaila commanded. Although she was disgruntled with the fact her attack had done nothing she wasn't willing to give up.
The speedy pokemon struck the grass type with incredibly speed and sent it flying backwards but the boy wasn't willing to let his opponent gain an advantage.
"Roselia use Absorb!" He commanded as a beam of green energy was sent faking towards Elekid.
It hit and the electric type was surrounded by a green light which caused it to stumble backwards slightly. Meanwhile Roselia stood up straighter and gained back the vigor it had lost during the battle.
"Now, Roselia, use Poison Sting." Skylar commanded and the flower pokemon sent a purple stinger flying at its opponent,
"Elekid, Thundershock!" Kaila replied and her pokemon sent a bolt of lightning from in between the prongs at the purple attack.
Two two collided in mid air causing a mild explosion which sent smoke across part of the battlefield. The girl decided to capitalize on this and decided that Elekid should attack.
"Alright Elekid, use Quick Attack." Kaila yelled as the electirc type went flying through the cloud of smoke.
"Roselia jump up in the air!" Skylar commanded and as per its instruction the flower type leapt up into the air thus narrowly avoiding the charging Elekid.
The electric type skidded to a halt due to the impetus it had gained from the Quick Attack, and that left it open to an attack from Roselia who had spun around.
"Alright Roselia use Absorb!" The younger teen commanded and a beam of green energy hit Elekid.
Once more the pokemon stumbled and Roselia landed gracefully, Absorb made it a threat to be reckoned with. It could not only inflict damage to its opponent but also regain health which made it quite formidable to deal with.
"Ugh Elekid, use Low Kick!" Kaila commanded and the electric type obliged.
Elekid ran towards Roselia before delivering a sweeping kick from the left which sent the pokemon tumbling head over heels and interrupting the Absorb. However it did little damage and the grass type was able to regain its footing.
It had been a decent move on Kaila's part and would have worked against many opponents, however trying to hit a pokemon that already had a type advantage or rather Elekid was disadvantaged against with a move that was also at a disadvantage was a recipe for disaster. And it left Skylar a golden opportunity to attack.
"Roselia, use Poison Sting." The younger trainer commanded and a close range stinger of poison knocked the electric type back.
The Elekid stumbled to arise but it stumbled, evidently poisoned by the attack. Which was very fortunate for Skylar as even if Elekid could keep going for a while longer the poison would eventually cause it to collapse.
"Roselia use Absorb!" Skylar exclaimed and although Kaila yelled out in protest it was too late and the green beam of energy struck before cloaking Elekid and causing it to collapse from exhaustion.
Although Elekid tried to force itself up its eyes converted to spirals and it collapsed, knocked out cold from the damage it had taken. At that point Kaila was staring at her collapsed pokemon with a look of utter shock apparent on her face. She was surprised she'd lost, Elekid was a powerful pokemon and it had knocked out quite a few wild pokemon using its attacks.
Meanwhile Skylar was embracing his Roselia and they both had energetic grins on their face. Roselia had battled before but it was only to become a more powerful pokemon to be used to intimidate others. It had mainly just been told to throw attacks at an opponent so it was surprised just how nuanced battles between trainers were. Its new trainer had had it dodging and counterattacking in odd ways.
Eventually Skylar put his pokemon down and the two turned to face Kaila who was at that point returning her Elekid. She'd come to grips with her loss but it still surprised her, Elekid had knocked out quite a few Bunnelbys and Fletchlings in their time together so it seemed odd that they would lose.
"That was pretty fun fight!" Skylar exclaimed with a grin.
"Yeah, I guess it was." Kaila replied before her facial expression grew to mimic her male opponent's.
"Anyway I feel kind of bad about your drink, want to go in, my treat?" He asked kindly.
"Uh yeah, sure." Kaila replied and the two walked in together with the short grass type following them.
Eventually they walked in and had taken a seat before being passed a menu. Skylar was looking to get some kind of breakfast but decided to indulge and purchased himself a brownie and quickly decided on a hot chocolate. He wasn't in the mood for anything particularly caffeinated. Kaila had no such reservations and purchased yet another iced coffee which led the younger trainer to question just how many she drank on any given day.
As they waited for their order to arrive Skylar decided to strike up some kind of polite conversation, he didn't want things to become too awkward considering he'd invited her in.
"So, are you out on a journey?" The boy asked in a polite manner.
"Yeah, my parents wanted me to work hard at school and get some highly paid job. But can you imagine how much work that'd be?! I just want to be a gym leader. That's an easy profession." Kaila explained before taking a sip of her iced coffee.
In response to this Skylar frowned, he knew full well just how hard being a gym leader was, his own father was a trainer at a gym! Only those who took their chosen type to the highest level would even be considered for the position. In addition due to the limit of positions and plethora of trainers at each gym reaching that level was quite difficult.
"Well my dad works as a trainer at the Snowbelle Gym and he works long hours under Wulfric. Not only that but being a gym leader means that you have to be an incredible trainer and that in itself is hard work." Skylar explained.
"Yeah, but traveling around and raising a string team is fun! So it seems easy, and when I'm done with that all I need to do is take a few challengers every now and again but otherwise I'm free to mess around." Kaila explained happily.
This caused Skylar to chuckle. This girl clearly didn't understand the finer points of exactly how a gym was run. She must've heard that gym leaders just sat inside all day accepting any challenges that came along. She was also most likely told that every leader had a different level of skill meaning anyone could reach the position. And they got paid for that!
"Not exactly. Every gym leader needs to raise a separate team of pokemon which have levels relative to the number of gym badges the challenger possesses. They need to have weak pokemon for those with no gym badges and strong pokemon for those with seven badges. Which means all of the gym leaders are theoretically of equal strength although some have more powerful pokemon or are merely more skilled." Skylar began and by this point the older trainer was looking at him with her eyes wide open.
"Also gym leaders spend a great deal of their time working on their gym or their pokemon, they all stay until late at night, sometimes they pull all nighters as they have to work with the trainers in their gym who are their students. Also gym leaders are responsible for the town around them. They aren't police or anything like that but they deal with threats or minor issues in the town. Some are even responsible for the well being of the environment around them." The boy finished while Kaila looked at him aghast.
She stuttered a little before trying to raise a finger but failed. It was apparent that she was utterly unable to grasp what had just happened. Her key to an easy life had just been snatched away from her.
"Oh and also the Pokemon League and the previous gym leader only look for people who are able to cover their chosen type's weaknesses. In most cases a league official is involved in choosing a new leader. They nearly always use pokemon with some kind of type advantage." Skylar finished.
By this point Kaila had recovered and decided to ask a question that had been clawing at her mind.
"What's type advantage?" She questioned curiously.
Skylar nearly fell out of his seat.
After regaining his composure through numerous breaths in and out he was finally able to explain to the oblivious girl what one of the most basic and critical aspects in all of pokemon battling was.
"Essentially certain pokemon possess advantages over one another in battle. For example a water type will have an inherit advantage over a fire type and as such the water type's attacks will inflict far more damage on the fire type then normal. Meanwhile the fire type will do less damage than normal against the water type. However a grass type possesed the same advantage over a water type while the fire type is 'super effective' against the gras type." Skylar explained.
Soon he was in a full on explanation about every type and how it corresponded in the pokemon world. Although his knowledge wasn't perfect and he explained that he was unable to tell her every nuance he was able to get a decently comprehensive explanation out.
"Now the fairy type is tricky. It's a type of pokemon that was only recently discovered, here in Kalos nonetheless! It is totally immune to dragon type moves and is super effective against it but is weak to steel and poison. However what makes it unique is that the immunity to dragon is specific to Kalos. Even the same pokemon in another region don't possess this type. It's believed to be from cross breeding with the fairy types found here in Kalos." Skylar explained.
By that point Kaila's eyes were spinning as she tried to process all of this new information, he'd lost her somewhere about Fire and Grass. She thought she'd understood it ever so slightly but it all became jargon and she was almost certain he mentioned a pokemon or two that had no type weaknesses but she couldn't ask about it as he continued straight on.
However perhaps he'd been talking about pokemon who didn't have advantages. And they'd ended up a spirit in a tomb or with a saber in their eye. Didn't really make much sense to her.
"You should probably look it up on Bubapedia. Or maybe Serebi." Skylwr explained.
Those two were the premier websites for trainer information and Smogon University which was located somewhere in the Johto Region offered quite a comprehensive website about professional battling. It showed some general strategies for every type of pokemon and also had many great tips about how to train or raise the creatures.
By that point Kaila had managed to come around and was looking at Skylar cockily.
"Ha, you may need all of that technical jargon but that just makes it boring, I'm going to make my pokemon so strong they'll be able to plow right through all of this nonsense and I'll become the best gym leader ever. Raising a few teams will be easy and I'll just be so strong that I won't need to train. And I won't recruit any trainers who aren't strong enough to hold their own. Oh and I'll just hire a maintenance crew!" Kaila exclaimed before standing up.
Skyalr was dumbfounded, he'd spent so much time and effort carefully explaining to her some of the simpler points of pokemon battling and he'd tried to be as comprehensive as possible. What had he done wrong?
"Well, I'll see you around, thanks for the drink!" Kails exclaimed before leaving Staryubucks.
By this point his brownie had arrived and he ate it with a complacent and distant look on his face.
A/N: And so another chapter comes to a close. Sorry about the wait but its longer to compensate, 4000 words, nearly double my record! So that's a treat for you. Unless you hate this Fic in which case...ha!
Anyway hope I represented Kaila well Ydream and don't worry, she'll have many more appearances in the future!
Until then have fun and remember to make terrible pokemon related puns!