Chapter 5: A Wild Journey Begins!

Stepping out into the morning chill, Keifer closed the door to his home behind him, taking a moment to look around one last time before setting out.

Postwick was definitely the smallest 'town' in Galar, without a doubt; every home was a fair ways spaced out, every house, save for Hop's, had a decent sprawling Wooloo farm behind it, and to top it off, they didn't have a Pokemon Center.

Keifer's home was at the upper end of Postwick; towards the top of the hill, and his mother had the largest Wooloo farm, partially in thanks to her brother Milo, Turfield's Gym Leader.

As Keifer sat off down the hill, he saw Kassi's home; it was a decent bit smaller than his and his mum's home, but she and her mother, Kelly, still made it off of the Wooloo business.

For a moment, the green head debated knocking and seeing if Kassi was home… opting not to though, as he quickly remembered what happened the last time he'd done that.

Kassi's mother, Kelly, had answered the door, with her Munchlax named Chonk hanging on between her legs, poorly hidden by the older woman's shirt. So, suffice to say that conversation had been awkward, especially given that he was there to just drop something off from Jullie to Kelly.

Ultimately just passing by Kassi's house, Keifer figured he'd see her and or Hop sooner or later; they were all fighting to take Leon's title afterall.

Just past Kassi's home was Hop's, and it was the biggest house in Postwick; being a full two floors and having a small battle patch that Leon had put in a few years ago. Keifer had fond memories of Leon having his Pokemon put on mock battles for Kassi, Hop and himself to watch when they were all younger and he even encouraged Hop and Keif to try battling with Buttercup and the former's Wooloo a few times. The two didn't know the right moves to call out but they still had a blast doing it.

Keifer knew just how powerful Leon was; he had managed to take the former Champion's undefeated title from him almost the moment he had turned 18, and Leon had held that title uncontested for 5 years now. It was gonna take everything the greenhead had to stand a chance against him, which made him all the more excited to finally be starting his journey.

Almost half an hour of walking after setting out from home, Keifer finally found himself at the beginning of Route 1. From where he stood, if he just went straight through it was about a 10 minute light jog to Wedgehurst…

But that was ignoring what got Route 1 its' name. If you took just a simple right turn at the fork in the road, you could go the much more scenic route; past foliage, trees and such, alongside getting the chance to actually encounter Wild Pokemon.

Even when he had Buttercup, his mom had made him promise to not go running off down the scenic route; all it took was just one angry bug type or flying type for him and his at the time Chikorita to get in trouble, or worse, danger.

But that was years ago. Now, Keifer was older and therefore, hopefully a little wiser. That, and he had four Pokemon now as opposed to one.

…even if one of them didn't want to be called out unless it was a full-on trainer battle. Keifer put that thought aside as he began to walk down the more scenic side of Route 1. The nearby trees were abuzz with Pokemon, and so was the nearby rustling grass; from Blipbug digging into the ground to Skowvet carrying hoards of berries into their tree nests.

While Keifer knew it was important to not disturb the more peaceful aspects of a Wild Pokemon's day to day, that didn't stop him from battling the more aggressive Pokemon that came charging out of the grass at him. He primarily focused on battling with Rascal as he made his way around the route; Buttercup was already a decent bit trained up and Rina had a slight edge over the bird in terms of training.

Despite Rascal being larger than the average Starly, he was still pretty fast. The Starly was able to dive at anything that got too close to Keifer and also had a solid time fighting on the ground with a few good tackles.

It didn't take long for Keifer to get close to the main path; the scenic route was only about a half hour walk, and he did have a train to catch later that day out to the Wild Area.

Some trainers opted to just go from Gym to Gym, cutting out the middle of going through Galar's Routes and the Wild Area. Those were the few that didn't always make it too far; lack of time to properly bond and train their Pokemon meant that their runs often ended at the second or third gym.

That, and just going gym to gym meant one also lost out on opportunities outside of battling and training; exploring Galar's Cities and Towns, participating in the many fun contests ran around this time of year, and-

"GET EM, ROOKIE!" Keifer's train of thought was cut off by a shout that reminded him of when he was still a little squeaker. As he looked ahead, towards the end of the scenic part of Route 1, he caught sight of a child launching one of those little 'poppers' off a slingshot, hitting a Skwovet that let out a shriek of shock, only to be pecked in the head from a Rookidee – presumably belonging to the younger bloke.

"OI!" Keifer hollered at him. It was one thing to engage in a battle with a wild Pokemon to train or capture them, but this kid was slinging poppers at them and having his Rookidee divebomb them after for seemingly no rhyme or reason outside of just to get a rise from them. "Why are you doing that to these Pokemon?"

"I'm just having fun." The kid spoke with a snark and attitude that made Keifer wonder which parent he got that from. "They're just wild Pokemon – no big deal!"

"You say that but to them you're just a wild human. You wouldn't want them randomly throwing poppers your way, would you?" Keifer tried to hold his cool; it didn't help that some teens once had come and messed with his mom's Wooloo, upsetting them all for a few days; Free Range and Wild Pokemon had a right to not be used as playthings.

"Blah blah blah, so what mister? You gonna cry about it?" The kid teased and jeered at Keifer who just internally sighed. This kid needed to be put in his place. "Whatcha gonna do? Fight me?"

That was his chance.

"I'll take you on in a Pokemon Battle. I win, you're gonna leave these wild Pokemon alone and stop terrorizing them." Keifer made his terms more than clear. While it wasn't an official match perse, plenty of people still set terms outside of regulated battles.

"Oooh, I'm so scared of the big kid! Fine! I'm taking all your money when I win so I don't have to ask mummy for more poppers!" Keifer would've laughed at what the kid said had it not been for the fact he'd just been scolding him mere minutes ago.

Stepping back a bit to give them ample room to battle, Keifer didn't have to let anyone out of their Pokeball; Rascal was already rearing to go. "Rascal, this is our first human battle together, so let's make it count."

He could've sworn he heard the Pokemon shout 'ALRIGHT!' when it chirped its' name, the kid they were facing quickly pulling Keifer away from that.

"Rookie, we won't lose this! Hit them with Peck!" The youngster kicked the fight off with the first move, his Rookidee quickly flying up before diving towards Rascal, beak glowing…!

"Rascal, dodge around it with Quick Attack then hit it with Wing Attack!" Keifer held off on calling the move for a moment, which kept the Rookidee locked in its' crash-course! Rascal easily out-maneuvered it and before the youngster could call another move, Rascal's wings slammed into Rookie, making him slam into the ground.

"Rookie, get back up and use Tackle!" The opposing bird definitely still had some fight left in it, but the Youngster wasn't giving much direction outside of just… calling attacks.

"Rascal, meet them head on with a Wing Attack!" Keifer knew that the Starly was capable of taking a few hits himself; not like the damage would do all too much if all this Youngster's 'training' was just having his Pokemon surprise peck Wild Pokemon to send them running away, tails between their legs.

The two flying-types met head on and Rascal quickly out-powered the Rookidee, sending it spiraling!

"One more time Rascal! Wing Attack!"

"Rookie, dodge them!" The Youngster tried to get his flying type to stop spiraling, but the Rookidee was panicking too much. Rascal flew in and with one final move, sent the opposing bird smacking into the ground with a cloud of dirt, Rookie finally being K.O'ed, ending the battle.

"Great job Rascal!" Keifer called him down and praised the bird. "We just won our first real battle!" The Starly chirped in excitement, saying something Keifer didn't catch as he was focused on the kid in front of them.

"Come back, Rookie." He had his head downcast as he withdrew his partner, kicking a small rock. Rather than scolding him further, and always trying to go for being nice first…

"Hey, look." Keifer closed the gap between the two of them. "You gotta treat others the way you wanna be treated pal. Going out of your way to terrorize these wild Pokemon is only gonna make them aggressive towards you."

"How else am I supposed to make Rookie get stronger then?!" The kid definitely seemed irate about the loss – Keifer would be too if he was in his shoes.

"Why not use something else with that Slingshot? Have your Rookidee knock away stones, properly engage against Wild Pokemon and find a style that suits ya." It's similar advice he'd been given when he was younger and trying to figure out what he wanted to do.

The kid nodded slowly. "Alright… sorry mister."

"It's fine. Don't let me see you doing that again, capiche?" The kid nodded, and after a handshake, Keifer watched him take off towards Wedgehurst; likely to heal his Pokemon and hopefully train in a better way.

That left the greenhead to actually make it to Wedgehurst himself. Before he could get too far though-

"You call that a real battle?" Keifer turned around and standing not too far away, having presumably watched the whole match was someone he was gonna quickly realize wasn't all too great of a person.

He stood around the same height as Keifer… only if you counted his spikey, orange hair, the front of it creating a cross almost that hung between his eyes. He had red jeans on that fit with his black top that covered his white shirt beneath it, a simple yellow pack strapped to his bag.

"Well, I mean-"

"That kid wasn't even trying, yet you act like it's some big victory. You didn't overcome or achieve anything outside of telling the brat some soapy stuff about friendship." The guy spat, rudely cutting Keifer off.

"Why does any of that matter to you? It's none of your business." Keifer tried to keep neutral, but this guy was quickly getting under his skin.

"Because weak trainers like you get in my way." THAT was scathing. "The name's Cross. Now get outta my way or I'll make how you just 'beat' that kid look like childsplay."

There was a fire in Keifer's belly – and not because of his mom's cooking.

"I'm not gonna stand here and take that, you jerk! Just because not every battle is some big spectacle doesn't make someone weak!" While Keifer would go for words first, that didn't mean he was just going to stand there and be a verbal punching bag.

"Then prove it. Let's see how strong you are." Cross glared at him, making enough space for them to fight. "And if you aren't a coward, let's put some stakes on this; When I win, you're gonna take it the way all weak sissy trainers like it."

That nearly made Keifer throw his breakfast up, the thought of having his first non-straight sexual encounter with this piece of work making his stomach churn.

"I'm no coward, and I don't plan on losing to someone like you. When I win, you're gonna apologize and give me double the Prize Money." Keifer couldn't think of necessarily equal stakes – but maybe forcing this guy to apologize would be a decent blow to his crappy attitude.

"Let's stop wasting time and get on with it. Wimpod, get out here." Cross practically barked the words out and his first Pokemon appeared in front of him. Normally, as the name implied, a Wympod was, well… a wimp. Its only ability let it retreat from battle if it got even remotely scared.

But Cross's looked pissed.

"Rascal, you still got more fight in you?" Keifer's Starly didn't seem too hurt from its' training and previous battle, and it gave him a mock thumbs up with his wing. "Arright, then go in Rascal!"

"A Starly? An advantage won't get you anywhere – Scald it Wimpod!" The bug/water type was fast, but so were they.

"Rascal, Quick Attack away from it, then use Gust!" Keifer hollered to him, the bird quickly dodging blast after blast of boiling hot water, Rascal's gust crashing through a scald, not only hitting the Wimpod but also forcing some of the boiling hot water on it, the bug screeching, but not yet retreating.

"Hmph. Lucky shot. Wimpod, Aqua Jet!" Cross shouted angrily and the bug shot at Rascal.

"Fly up!" Keifer called out, but the bug was faster, smashing into Rascal and definitely dealing some dam-

"BUG BTIE DOWN ON IT WIMPOD!" Cross had a savage grin on his face as his Bug/Water type bit straight down into Rascal's left wing, the bird shrieking in pain!

"Shoot shoot SHOOT!" Keifer knew that the longer it held on and thrashed, the more the damage would add up. So, the only way out…

Was up.

"Rascal, up! NOW!" The bird shot up at Keifer's voice…! "NOW SLAM IT DOWN WITH A WING ATTACK!"

Cross didn't have that much time to react; his shout was cut off by Rascal slamming his other wing against the Wimpod and bringing them both down onto the ground with a massive crash, Rascal's wing finally freed!

Keifer noticed that the same aggressiveness in the bug's eyes were now suddenly gone, and without any warning to Cross, its' ability kicked in, the Pokemon forcefully withdrawing itself and forcing a different Pokemon in.

And Keifer almost wished it didn't.

What came out was a Rockruff – the type of Pokemon wasn't an issue given that Keifer could easily switch out…

It's the fact that it looked like the poor thing had been through hell.

For starters, it looked exhausted; panting like it had just gotten done running for its' life. If that wasn't evidence enough of Cross doing something wrong to it, the fact that the Rockruff looked underweight and had several scratch marks and bruises on its' body told the whole story.

Keifer swore he heard Rascal swear under his breath, much like he just did.

"Holy shit." The Rockruff tried to bark, but it came out sounding pained.

"Damnit Wimpod, I thought YOU got over that BULLSHIT!" Cross yelled angrily at the Pokeball, but then turned his attention to the Pokemon in front of him. "What are you waiting for?! Go fight them with a Rock Throw!"

"Cross, you can't actually be serious! That Rockruff NEEDS help!" Keifer's heart twisted as he watched the Pokemon try and subsequently fail to will up more than a few rocks that didn't even make it near Rascal, who was flying at a distance.

"What it NEEDS is to stop being a weak, pathetic excuse and FIGHT!" He hollered at to use the same attack again, but the Pokemon failed once more.

"Rascal, stand down." Keifer didn't withdraw him, but he didn't want the bird to be in 'fight' mode either. "Cross, your Pokemon is not fit to fight."

"So what, you're gonna be a coward just like it? Afraid to push yourself?" He spat. "All that kindness and love shit you preached to that brat a few minutes ago won't get you anywhere."

What made Keifer even angrier was that, whatever methods Cross were using were showing results; despite their type matchup and forcing the Wimpod to retreat, Keifer could clearly see that Rascal was winded.

Despite that though, that didn't make what Cross was doing completely right, either.

"You're wrong. Admitting that you're tired – knowing when you're pushing too hard, being able to admit to that isn't being a coward!" The Rockruff looked at Keifer with shock as Cross expression remained unchanging.

"That just sounds like laziness to me." Keifer shouted in anger as what he had said to Cross either flew over his head or he chose to ignore it. "And at this point this is a stupid waste of time. This weakling is dragging me down, and you're not worth my time."

What Cross did next, Keifer would never be able to see past it.

His Rockruff had padded up to him, maybe it was trying to apologize to him, but…

The pained yelp that escaped it as Cross kicked it away to the ground nearly broke Keifer's heart.

"What the FUCK is wrong with you!?" It took every ounce of willpower for him to not body Cross as the trainer turned away.

"I told you and that stupid weakling; you're slowing me down, so…" As Keifer quickly ran over to the Rock type, they both looked to hear and see what Cross's last words were gonna be.

Both of them watched as he dropped the Rockruff's ball…

And shattered it beneath his shoe.

"Keep that stupid weakling for all I care. Not my problem anymore. And if I see you again, I will fuck your shit up." Keifer had stopped listening as Cross had gone off in a different direction.

He felt a nasty mix of emotions that were all fighting one another to try and bubble over the surface first; rage, hurt, loathing…

"Star!" Rascal was there to rip him out of it, quickly reminding Keifer of the more important issue; the now unconscious Rockruff he held in his arms.

"You're right Rascal, we need to go. Now." Holding the Pokemon close, Keifer started to run towards Wedgehurst.

And internally, he swore that he'd prove Cross wrong no matter how long it took or when, a burning rivalry now having formed between them.

Keifer didn't stop running; almost slamming into a few people as he ran into the town of Wedgehurst. He shouted some apologizes as he blew past people, Rascal right beside him the whole way.

Before he entered the Pokemon center though-

"I… I can't just take him in there like this." Almost every Pokemon Center in the Galar Region was one of the much smaller, more compact ones; nothing like the larger ones in other regions like Alola, Unova or Hoenn where there were special rooms for Pokemon outside their balls, rooms for trainers to stay in, the like.

If he went in with the Rockruff like this, then it'd most likely need to be transported all the way to the PokeHealth building in Wyndon, and from there Keifer didn't know what'd happen to him.

That wasn't to say PokeHealth was bad by any stretch; it was the issue of the fact the Pokemon wasn't in a ball, and if Cross really wanted, he could potentially still get the Rockruff back.

And whatever he'd put it through, Keifer didn't want it to hurt anymore, so he made a choice.

Reaching for one of the last two empty balls on his belt, he tapped the device to the Pokemon's head. The device didn't even shake; stars came out of it instantly. As soon as he could, he'd let it back out and, if the Pokemon didn't want to be around him, he'd let it go or rehome it.

"You too Rascal; you busted your ass this morning and I'm proud of you." Keifer held the bird's ball up and it sounded like it said something, but Keifer's mind was a million miles away from that. After the bird was in his ball, Keifer walked into the Pokemon Center and straight to the counter.

"Good morning and welcome to the Wedgehurst Pokemon Center – are you here to heal your Pokemon?" The Nurse Joy spoke in a bright and bubbly tone – one that, after the rollercoaster this morning had been, Keifer greatly appreciated hearing.

"That'd be really nice. My Pokemon just had a pretty rough battle." It was technically the truth. Keifer quickly unclipped all of his partners Pokeballs and he watched as digital icons appeared on a screen above the Nurse's healing bed as she placed them on it. After a few moments, hearts appeared next to each one and the nurse returned the Pokeballs to Keifer.

"Well, I'm glad you brought them here – they're all well rested and back at full strength." She showed Keifer a genuine smile. "Thanks again for stopping into the Wedgehurst Pokemon Center."

"And thank you for healing my partners." Keifer waved her bye, feeling a small sense of reliefe wash through him knowing that the Rockruff had at least been healed and was, at the moment, safe.

Already having a set of items in his bag, he had no need to visit the small mart inside the PokeCenter. After ensuring his team was safely back on his belt, Keifer made to leave the Pokemon Center, and as he stepped through the door;

"Whoa!" He barely avoiding colliding head first into someone on the other side.

"Watch where you're going you big-" They both recognized their voices. "Keif?"

"Kassi!" Keifer was surprised to see the platinum blonde. "Sorry for almost flattening you like a pancake – was just getting my team taken care of."

"No need to apologize – now, if you HAD bumped into me, maybe there's a chance I wouldn't have complained…" She teased him and Keifer, despite going red, hopefully passed off a non-nervous laugh.

"Heh…" Before he could talk to her further though, Keifer's phone suddenly buzzed, the green head quickly realizing that was the 30-minute warning reminder he'd set for himself to get to the Wedgehurst Train station. "Kassi, I'd love to stay and catch up, but I gotta catch my train to the wild area."

"That's a shame Keif." She seemed like she genuinely meant it, until… "Because Sonia said she could use your tech savvy skills to help fix the flash on her phone." Kassi winked and, at that, stepped past him into the Pokemon Center, Keifer's face going beet red as the memory of THAT crossed his mind.

It was Kassi's 18th Birthday; he, Hop and Sonia were celebrating it with them and at one point, they had started taking pictures, and at some point during that, Kassi was taking pictures of him and Sonia with the latter's phone.

It was all fine; sure, Keifer was a little red because he could never deny how hot Sonia was, but that escalated quickly when she had flashed him during one of the pictures, the greenhead getting to see her large, natural bust. Sonia teased him and before either could do anything about his mounting problem, the sexual tension had been basically shot dead when Kassi's mom had shouted it was cake time, making Kassi's 18th Birthday the first time Keifer had ever been heavy-balled.

"Note to self… if I run into Sonia, follow up on that." Keifer knew that both Kassi and Hop had already had sexual encounters with the 'cooler, older sister' of the group, and had it not been for that amazing cake that Kelly had made…

"Focus! You can think sex later Keif!" He laughed for a second; today really HAD been a roller-coaster, and it was barely noon.

One small jog and one final pitstop later and Keifer was getting on board the express train to the Wild Area. He was surprised by the seeming lack of trainers (and silently thanking Arceus that Cross wasn't there.)

"You are setting out a little early." Keifer reminded himself of this as he took a seat towards the back; this would give him space and quiet to talk to his accidental capture.

Once the train had started moving, Keifer reached for the ball. He had specifically chosen a spot that didn't have a table so there'd be ample space in front of him for the Rockruff.

In a flash of light, the Pokemon appeared in front of Keifer. Immediately, it looked frightened as it looked around, only stopping its' panicked looking when it saw Keifer.

"Hey buddy… it's okay." Keifer gently reached a hand out, the Pokemon, on reflex, flinching away, twisting Keifer's heart a little. He still held his hand out gently, the Rockruff eventually looking to see that Keifer wasn't gonna hurt him.

Tentatively, it reached forward a little, sniffing Keifer's hand. Carefully, Keifer started stroking the Pokemon's head, something that the little guy seemed to genuinely appreciate.

Keifer continued to comfort the puppy-like Pokemon, which, after a few moments leapt into Keifer's lap.

"I don't know what Cross put you through, but you never have to see him again if you don't want to." To Keifer, it almost seemed like some form of weight was lifted off of the Pokemon, who relaxed further. "You don't even have to stick with me if you don't want to. I put you in this ball to protect you and get you healed up."

The Pokemon looked at him with its' head titled. "I can let you out into the Wild Area if you'd like, or even send you to my mum's farm. I won't make you train and battle if you don't want to." After saying that, Keifer saw something in the Pokemon's eyes; a feeling he knew pretty well.

The Rockruff wanted to prove itself, just like Keifer did; they both wanted to prove themselves – not just to Cross, but to the whole world.

"Ruff!" It barked excitedly at him, and Keifer knew the Pokemon's choice.

"I'm glad to hear it pal." He pet it more, but was surprised when it decided to pet him, the Pokemon rubbing its' rocky collar against him; the feeling surprisingly ticklish, making Keifer giggle like a small kid again for a few moments.

Most importantly, he was glad to see that it had potentially moved past or was working past whatever Cross had done. Maybe if he could get through to Kira soon, he could have a proper dialogue with the Pok-

Grrggrrrrrr

The Pokemon almost looked embarrassed; Keifer quickly realizing that he had almost spaced how skinny the Pokemon looked.

But luckily, he hadn't forgotten completely.

"Hungry?" When the Pokemon saw that Keifer wasn't judging, it nodded excitedly. Reaching into his bag, Keifer pulled out the contents of his pitstop before heading to the train station.

"My Aunt Flo's got this great diner back in Motostoke – I'll have to take you and the entire team at some point Rockruff." Keifer split the large sandwich he had in hand with the Pokemon and the two chowed down together.

One step at a time, they'd get stronger together.

Because no matter what, they wouldn't give up, not to someone like Cross, or anyone.

Keifer planned to make it to the very end, no matter what it took.

A.N: Hey all, FairyHat here! I want to thank

you for making it through another

chapter of the story! I just wanted to let ya know that there IS

a Discord server where readers of this story or any other GTiG Content can

join and read stuff early or just make some friends!

discord dot gg slash R3g9js4efK

(P.S, reviews would be greatly appreciated!)