Chapter 2: Steam

The two trudged along the route to Cherrygrove City, shrouded in a strange silence.

Then, (and some may see it as unfortunate) of course, it was broken.

"Hey idiot-"

"I-I have a name, y-you know," Risa stuttered. It was beginning to annoy her enough for her to interrupt about it, though apparently not enough to make her stop stuttering. "It's Risa. Risa Miyamoto."

"Risa Miyamoto? Sounds lame," Heat scoffed, waddling around a small rock. "Maybe even lamer than my name. Which, by the way, is pretty lame."

The tan-haired trainer rolled her grey eyes. "So you keep saying." They trudged along the sandy path. "Hey, so..."

The Cyndaquil groaned. "Where are all the Pokemon? I gotta beat somebody! I want a fight! A fight! I need to beat something! SOMEBODY CHALLENGE US!"

Risa squeaked. "N-no! Heat, that was too loud! Somebody probably heard you!"

He looked at her like she had only one brain cell (if she had none, she couldn't have said anything, now could she?). "That was the whole point. I want somebody to hear me. Preferably a trainer, so they can challenge us to a battle, so I can defeat their Pokemon!"

His trainer looked a bit uncomfortable at this thought. "I've never done any serious battling though. If somebody came and challenged us, we'd probably-"

"SO!" Even Heat jumped at this booming voice from behind them. "Risa Miyamoto of Littleroot Town! Feeling a bit overconfident, are we?"

The trainer addressed turned around slowly, but all she saw was a tree and a few bushes. "Uh..."

She and Heat sort of stared at the bushes expectantly, but for a few minutes, nothing actually happened.

"Challenger!" Heat finally called, able to take the silence, and lack of battle, no longer. "Show yourself! And do it NOW!"

"Heat, don't be so pushy," Risa hissed, albeit weakly.

Then they waited for a few more moments.

Finally, the bushes rustled, and with a rather high-pitched "ohmygoshI'mfalling," a boy tumbled out of the foliage.

Risa simply stared at the boy, who didn't look much older than she was. He looked rather scruffy, which slightly surprised Risa. She reasoned that if he was traveling on Route 29 (and still rather near Littleroot Town), he couldn't have been a trainer for long, and therefore, couldn't have been traveling for a long time. This gave reason for her to be confused as to why he looked so scruffy-wouldn't he have wanted to look good when he left home?

Then she glanced at his clothes (her mind worked sort of slowly, no?). He wore an almost stereotypical boy's trainer outfit: long, baggy tan cargo shorts, a black shirt with a red-and-grey sweatshirt (with, of course, a Pokeball logo as the main print) over it, white socks, and grey tennis shoes. All had a sort of dirtied look to them, as if he had been running on (and rolling in) dirt paths and scrambling through bushes...which seemed as likely a back story to Risa as any.

Suddenly, he jumped up, and Risa saw to her dismay that he stood over a head taller than she did. Of course, his spiky, dark brown hair didn't help at all-it added a few extra centimeters. His light brown eyes narrowed at her, and his mouth turned into a sneer.

"So, you think you can outsmart Ichiro Tanimura with your diabolically-planned hiding behind thick bushes, huh?" The boy, apparently named Ichiro, accused.

Risa held her hands up in defense. "W-we're not hiding...s-see, we're on the path-"

"Do not attempt to confuse me with your excuses!" Ichiro almost shouted, turning his glare on Heat. "I have a score to settle with you-you took the Cyndaquil!"

The other trainer blinked. "I-I'm sorry, did you w-want a Cynda-"

"OF COURSE I WANTED THE CYNDAQUIL!" He half-growled-half-shouted. "I can't have a good Journey without having my rival start out with the Pokemon with the advantage!"

Risa blinked again, clearly confused. "H-huh?"

Ichiro groaned, then rolled his eyes. He thought for a moment, then put his hands on his hips and sighed. "You just don't get it, do you?"

"W-what?"

He paused, and looked her over. "What grade are you in-fifth?"

"No!" Risa whined. "I'm in seventh grade! I'm a first year student at Hoshiwa Middle School in Littleroot Town! I'm just short!"

Ichiro chuckled under his breath. "You mean you're the same age as me, but you don't get it?"

"Get what?"

"The Journey."

"That's very strange. It's like you can hear the capital letter, if you're talking in English. Or maybe...if it's Japanese..." someone said in a serene, calm female tone (as now all three present individuals jumped in surprise at the new voice). "Calligraphy. Nice, long strokes. With jet-black ink...very little water diluting it."

All eyes swiveled onto a Totodile that just popped out of a Pokeball on Ichiro's belt. "Such dark ink...Tanimura, why do you speak with such darkness?"

"I still don't get what you're talking about," Ichiro grumbled at what appeared to be the starter he was forced to choose.

Risa pointed at the Totodile. "So that's..."

"Totodile. I had to get her 'cause you took the Cyndaquil!"

"Um...okay?"

"Argh! No, it's not okay!" The boy groaned, yanking his spiky hair in frustration. "YOU were supposed to take the stronger one! Ugh, if it wasn't for that stupid robbery, I'd have gotten a-" He paused. "No, wait a sec..." Then he promptly began muttering to himself while staring blankly at the ground.

Risa was able to catch words such as "Cyndaquil," "red hair," and "carry the four," but that pretty much kept her in the dark of what her new "friend" decided to start pondering.

Before the little trainer girl could interrupt, he swung around to face her, his face almost livid. "No wait! I got it wrong! The robber-dude had nothing to do with it...it was that sleeping-in rule! Yeah!"

"S-sleeping in-"

Ichiro scoffed, cutting her off. "Duh, it's part of The Journey? Anyways, since you're being stubborn and not giving up the Cyndaquil-" Risa peeped that she never said anything, but Ichiro kept ranting, "I'll just have to fight you! After all, we're rivals, so-"

"Rivals?" The present human female squeaked. "No, wait, I-"

"All right!" Heat exclaimed, jumping forward. His back burst into flames with a soft fizz, and the spiky fire-needles sparkled in the noontime sunlight. The squinty eyes of the black Pokemon glared at the nameless Totodile, preparing for a confrontation. "Hey, Idiot, looks like we got us a rival! Get ready to battle, 'cuz we're gonna whip your-"

"Heat!" Risa pleaded in a whiny tone, her hands balling up in protest. "Please don't, we have to-"

"I accept your challenge!" Ichiro boomed, striking a pose that failed miserably as being threatening.

"So then...it seems that we will soon be at each other's necks, Master of Fire," the still unnamed Totodile calmly informed the Cyndaquil. The said Cyndaquil gave his in-the-near-future opponent a confused look, and promptly ignited his tail-flames.

"I have a name! And it's not 'Master of Fire.' There's no WAY I'd stand for a stupid name...like..." Heat paused. "Well, at least my name isn't 'Master of Fire.' That sounds too boastful for the future champion Pokemon. People might think I'm too confident, or something."

Before Risa could say or even think anything in response to that, Ichiro suddenly butted in with a frantic "what's your name?" Although, the way he shouted it, it was more of a "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" or even a "WHAT'SYOURNAME?"

Heat shrugged, sitting on his two back legs. "Heat. Stupid, but oh well."

"Heat?" The boy mused, tapping his lip in thought. He stayed in deep thought for all of about two seconds before coming to a conclusion. "Furiizu."

"E-excuse me?" Risa asked, both confused and a little embarrassed, for Ichiro said whatever he said while staring straight at her. "Did you...sneeze...just now?"

Her apparent rival rolled his brown eyes, silently informing the surrounding world of the girl's incompetence. "No, no, no. Her name. My Totodile, from this day forth, shall now be known as Freeze!" He then turned to his blue mini-crocodile. "So you're Freeze now," he repeated, just in case she had not registered that fact the first time.

"Very well." Freeze stared up at the clouds. "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice..."

Risa paused, her grey eyes staring blankly at Freeze. "But she's a water-type..."

Ichiro coughed. "That doesn't matter! The point is that our first Pokemon should be named to be opposites! And the opposite of something heating up is freezing-"

"Um, what about 'cooling down'? I thought that was the opposite..." The female trainer piped up, before seriously wishing she hadn't. Ichiro shouted something that didn't sound like a real word, before promptly telling his rival that, "'Freeze' sounds better".

"Anyways," Ichiro began, glaring at both Risa and Heat simultaneously (quite a feat, considering they were about three meters apart). "You're just tryin' to distract me! Scared, are you? Well, I won't let it go on. We're fighting…and since I'm a nice, honorable trainer, I must let you go first." He glanced at Freeze, waving his grubby hand out towards the makeshift battlefield. "So get out there and get hit, or whatever."

"As you wish, Tanimura," Freeze replied in a soothing tone, which clashed with her comical waddle. She wasn't built for grace on land, apparently. "Well, Master of Fire, it looks as if our first great battle shall now commence."

Heat smirked, his back-flame surging into the air. "Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about!" He lunged out to face Freeze, glaring her down with a fiery intensity all but lost on her serene face. "Let's get this thing started!"

A pause. Ichiro glanced across the path-turned-battlegrounds at his opponent. After Risa stared blankly back, he decided to offer some of his selfless advice. "You're s'pposed to attack."

"Oh!" Risa gasped, startled that she forgot to take her turn. Glancing out toward her Pokemon, she tried to remember every single battle study class she'd taken, and work it into some sort of strategy.

"Heat!" She squeaked in a very unconfident yelp. "Use Tackle!"

Heat grumbled a bit about unimpressive attacks before lunging forward. He twisted at the last moment so his flank slammed into Freeze's stomach…and kind of squished his back right foot. Yelping in surprise and pain, he hopped back over to Risa's side, blowing on his foot. "That hurt! Why'd you make me do that?"

The Totodile, meanwhile, was able to gain her breath back, offering a helpful, "It seems as if your Tackle is a double-edged sword. Maybe all attacks, in reality, hurt the attackers as well…interesting…"

Ichiro ignored Freeze's comment, folding his arms across his already beat-up red-and-grey sweatshirt in a confident pose. "Heh! Looks as if this battle's in the bag! Freeze!" His miniature crocodile straightened, preparing to hear her first command. "Use…um…Scratch!"

The reptile nodded, raising her claws in preparation. She then did a sort of fast waddle forward, and whipped the claws across Heat's unprotected face. Finishing her attack with an impromptu whack at his side with her tail, she leapt back over to her trainer. A small smile graced her large jaw. "I seem to have returned unscathed."

Heat glared at her, anger clouding his mind. Even though he had only two official attacks to work with, he lost all ideas of strategy and tactics, instead opting for a lunge forward (as well as an intelligible, yet menacing, shouted threat).

Freeze noticed him midair, and quickly used her tail as a baseball bat, swinging it around to intercept his flying body. The collision knocked him in a haphazard arc away from his target and into the bushes. With a disgruntled "oof!" he reappeared, dazed, at the base of a thorny old plant.

The boy trainer saw an opening in Risa's rock-hard defenses. Flailing his arm outward in a commanding pose, he ordered his final, devastating blow. "Freeze! SCRATCH!"

The toothy water-type lunged forward, both claws raised. She landed before the echidna, slashing her arms down onto his slightly furry body.

He gave a final "owch" before shuddering, then lying still.

Risa blinked her dull grey eyes. Heat wasn't moving…that wasn't like him…or was it? She'd really only known him for a couple hours, tops.

Ichiro laughed. "Hah! You, Risa Miyamoto, you thought you had me beat!" He froze in his victory pose, waiting for Risa to give some snide remark, something to make his The Journey: First Battle complete.

But nothing came.

Frowning and scuffing his sneaker against the dirt path, he gave Risa a sideways glance. "Um, aren't you going to say something?"

The girl sighed sadly. "He…he went down so fast," she mumbled, still a bit frozen in shock. She fumbled around in her backpack for some sort of healing item, her hands feeling numb. "Heat went down…really, really fast…"

Freeze looked up at Ichiro, waddling away from her fallen nemesis. "Perhaps it is best if we leave. Maybe the flame has not risen a high enough heat to simply turn the water to steam…it seems to have been doused out. We should not attempt to drown the ashes."

This didn't help. Risa blinked back tears of…something as she grasped at a reviving potion, and then stumbled over to her Pokemon. Lifting his head, she poured the Revive down his throat.

Ichiro looked a bit uncomfortable, and grabbed his Pokeball. Mumbling something about "yeah, well, it was an easy win, 'cause of the type advantage; not honorable, or anything" he returned Freeze to the sphere from which she came. He then coughed out a goodbye, and fast-walked down the road toward Cherrygrove City.

A short while later, the tiny fire-type sputtered into consciousness, though still coughing weakly. He glared up at Risa. "We lost?"

Risa sniffed, looking away from his intense glare. "S-sorry…"

The Pokemon sighed dejectedly. "Whatever…that stupid Totodile must have cheated, or something…"

"Or something…" Risa agreed sadly. Neither wanted to actually mention anything like the truth. The horrible, horrible truth.

They lost. Not because they were victims of dishonorable fighting, but simply because they weren't good enough to win against somebody of their level.

After sitting together for a long while, Risa finally looked up at the sky. Is this what the whole journey is going to be like?

She didn't like it, if it was.

32 days left…she just hoped that didn't mean 32 more extremely quick losses.

Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me. It belongs to Satoshi Tajiri, Gamefreak, Nintendo, The Pokemon Company, and any other respective legal owners. However, all of the characters in this are the products of my imagination, so I guess I own them. So if you steal them, I will set Heat on you. So there.

Author's Note:Whoohoo! I had this half-written for way too long a time…but I finally just sat down and wrote the rest of it. I guess it got a little emo at the end…oh well. It's done, and that's all that matters. Heheh…the third chapter should go up…quicker. (Hopefully.)