Oj, I have a lot of apologies to all you people who have found this story. I have had technical difficulties (losing my flash drive repeatedly) and well as motivational issues (Pokemon Bank finally came out!). However, I am back. On that note, enjoy! :)
Chapter 7
The two young trainers had decided to have a bite to eat before setting out towards the east, where Oreburgh City was located. They had found a nice little hamburger shop in the center of town, and had taken residence at two of the tables. At one of them, Inferno and Raptor were having a mild sparring contest to decide who got to eat first, while Gamma Ray and Penguin looked at them like they were brainless idiots and tried to avoid the occasional knockback while they ate their food.
"Why do I always get the rowdy children…?" John mused out loud, taking a bite of his burger while watching his Pokémon from an adjacent table. Rebecca could only smirk.
"I'm not really sure. I guess you just don't have the best luck." She lowered her gaze. "I just can't help but feel we could've done more for Luke…"
"We did what he would allow us," he replied. "Sometimes that's all that's needed." He glanced at his watch. "Are you done with your food? We really should get going if we're going to make it by dusk."
"Agreed. Come on, guys!"
"Let's get moving, you two. Hey, don't throw the food!"
A couple of minutes later, the duo was walking out of the eastern exit of town. Inferno and Raptor hung their heads low, dejectedly, while their trainer was coated in ketchup and cheese slices, glaring at the trail ahead of them without a word spoken. Never breaking his stare, he pulled a spare napkin from his pocket and began wiping off the excess condiments from his clothes and face.
As they hiked up the hill, Inferno seemed to get over the incident from earlier, and he and enguin took to running towards each patch of grass they could find, ruffling the wild Pokémon into the open trail. Thanks to their help, the trainers were able to record every Pokémon in the area.
"Got it! That's Kricketot's data recorded!" Rebecca announced, grinning from ear to ear. "I didn't think we could find those in the daytime!"
"You can't," he replied, grinning as well. "Inferno decided to knock it out of the tree, just for the heck of it! Great work, bud!"
"Chim!" He was about to rustle the next patch of grass, but he stopped when he noticed a human was already there. "Char?"
"Huh? Who's that?" Walking to where the chimp was pointing, he could see a younger boy, a little younger than him, issuing commands to his Starly.
"You can do it, Starly! Hit it with another Tackle attack!"
"Star…" Clearly running out of steam, the exhausted bird made another lunge at the Shinx in front of him. The wild Pokémon, sensing the lack of energy, sidestepped lazily out of harm's way and quickly slammed into the bird while it was still flying.
"Star!" It fell to the ground, finally beat.
"Aw… You did great, little guy…" As the kid returned his Pokémon, he noticed John and Rebecca watching him. The Shinx took off instantly. "Hey, there. You didn't happen to see that, did you?"
"Yeah…" she replied, smiling awkwardly. "Yeah, we did. Do you need help?"
"What I need," he responded, sticking a Potion's nozzle into the button on the ball, "is just a little more time to tire out a Pokémon long enough to catch it. I just haven't had the best of luck today."
"Hey, maybe we could help?" John offered. "At least, if you wanted it…"
"You would really do that?" The kid's face lit up, and he nearly let his shorts fall down in his excitement. "Great! Tell you what: you can get the first one that pops out! I'll get the second one, so that I can learn from you."
"Sounds good." He glanced at Inferno. "Do you mind if Raptor takes this one? I think he could use the punching bag."
"Chim." As he stepped back behind John's feet, Raptor took his position in front of him, eyes already glaring at the grass in front of them. It didn't take much of a hike before a Pokémon leapt at the little Starly.
"Shinx!"
"Star!"
"All right, let's do this!" John shot a glance at his two observers behind him, then at the Shinx in front of him. Well, this is definitely the same one that that kid was fighting earlier. He's clearly not an aggressive Shinx, so a full-blown offensive would just waste energy… Twisting his cap, "Fly low, Raptor! Hide in the grass!"
"Starly!" Immediately, the little bird flew into the tall grass, and the Shinx was quickly confused.
"Shi…?" As she looked around, John noticed the small glint of fear in her eyes. She began to walk around, poking at the grass nearby. As fear turned into slight panic, John took advantage.
"Now, Raptor!" Seemingly out of nowhere, Raptor flew out of the grass behind Shinx and slammed into her back. Not expecting the sneak attack, she fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. Not wasting time, John reached into his bag for a spare Poke Ball.
"Let's do this!" He threw the capsule at the Shinx, but she wouldn't have any of that. She rose to her feet like a ninja and began scurrying to safety. Instead, of pursuing, however, Raptor simply swatted the Poke Ball in the air with his wing like a baseball player as it came by, and the ball instead flew right towards the retreating Shinx. A flash of blue, and then three clicks confirmed the capture.
"Yeah! Great thinking, Raptor!"
"Star." The little bird hopped his way back to his Trainer, holding the ball in his wings like an Olympic trophy.
"Excellent work." He stared at the Poke Ball, coming up with a name. "Come out, X-Ray!" In a flash of blue, the Shinx reappeared net to him, lying on the ground.
"Hey, is he…?" the kid asked, amused.
The Shinx was fast asleep, not even reacting to Inferno's and Raptor's nudging.
"Didn't you just talk about always having the rowdy Pokémon…?" Rebecca whispered playfully.
"Shut up…" was his reply.
"That was cool!" the young trainer cried. "Ok, now it's my turn." He ran around the grass for a minute, and his Starly eventually found a Bidoof. "Hit it with Tackle, Starly!" The little bird quickly lunged towards the brown beaver Pokémon.
"Bidoof…" In retaliation, it tried to Tackle the Starly, but the kid remembered what he had seen.
"Hide in the grass! Surprise it!"
"Star!" It dived into the tall grass, and then slammed into the backside of the Pokémon.
"Let's go, Poke Ball!" The red and white capsule flew towards the unconscious Bidoof, and after three clicks, it was his. "Yeah, we did it, Starly! We caught a Pokémon!"
"Great work, kid," Rebecca said. "You showed Starly you knew what you were doing. You earned this victory."
"I couldn't have done this without you guys," he insisted. "Thanks again." He was about to run off towards Jublife, but before he did so, "The name's Phillip, by the way. Forgot to mention that."
"Glad we could help, Phillip. See you around!" He took off, and she glanced at John, who had finally managed to wake up his new Pokémon. "You ready to press on, John?" She couldn't help but stare at him for a minute.
He was a really interesting young man. While he was very strategic with almost military-like precision, he was also very out-going and carefree, shrugging off his Pokémon's antics like he was used to it, instead reacting only to the serious issues. He was…rather complicated. For some reason, she liked that about him.
"Ready to go!" John announced, eventually getting his Shinx to her feet next to him. "Let's finish this hike."
They continued on their trail, which eventually led to the side of a mountain, with the gaping mouth of a cave glaring at them.
"This appears to be Oreburgh Gate," he was saying. "After this, we'll be there. Come on, X-Ray." He walked forward, and Shinx trudged his feet behind him, with Inferno pushing him forward.
The cave was extremely dark. Almost immediately, Inferno took the head position, so that his flame tail would illuminate the path. X-Ray was a problem, though, so he decided to simply drag her forward through the pass. Rebecca's Pokémon huddled around Inferno for light, and their two Trainers silently followed, glancing around the deep expanse of the cave nervously, expecting a Pokémon to jump at them any moment. Thankfully, they didn't, and Inferno was relieved to see the light appear at the end of the tunnel. As they walked into the light, they were greeted with the dirty smell of coal.
"Well," John spat, coughing a storm as he tried to adjust to the dirty air, "I think we arrived in Oreburgh City." His new Shinx cast a glare in his direction that seemed to be dirtier than the air around them.
Ok, so here's the deal. I love posting this for all to read, and I would really love for others to offer suggestions to my writing, the plot of my stories, etc. I'm getting many more views than I anticipated, but almost nobody has commented/reviewed this yet. I'd like 10 for now. Just 10 comments or something. This can let me know that poeple actually care about what I'm posting. Please and thank you.
P.S. Diance is officially revealed on Coro-Coro! Awesome!