Chapter 2: Fail
"RISE AND SHINE!" Eziray shouted.
"OHMAHGAAAAWD!"Lyla screamed for dear life. Eziray laughed hysterically.
"What are you, an alarm clock or something?" Lyla asked between panicked gasps. Eziray laughed again and nodded jokingly. Lyla glared at her.
"And what are you doing in my tent?" she demanded, more startled than angry. Eziray just giggled and told her that they had to get going before exiting the tent. Lyla plopped her head back against the pillow and looked at Skitty who was wide awake and purring loudly. She crawled up beside Lyla's face and curled up, purring even louder. Lyla laughed and sat up. She stretched for a moment and then packed up her red sleeping bag and pillow. She walked out of her tent and noticed that Aiden and Eziray were already packed up and ready to go and their Pokémon were just finishing breakfast.
"G'morning, sleeping beauty!" Eziray exclaimed.
"Good morning guys, hang on," Lyla replied as she yawned. She then turned to her tent and thought for a moment before realizing that she had no idea how to put it away. Aiden had set it up for her the night before and she hadn't been paying attention to the way it was set up.
"Need some help?" Aiden asked. Lyla blushed a little and nodded. As he broke the tent down and put it away, Eziray turned to Lyla.
"Awww!"
"What?"
"Well if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a little crush on Aiden. Is that why you decided to come with us?"
"Well I certainly didn't come because I have a crush on you!"
The two girls laughed for a moment as Aiden finished up with the tent and looked at them with a confused expression because he had no idea what they had said and only noticed their laughing. He handed Lyla her tent which was all rolled up and compacted neatly so she could shove it into her bag, and she did so.
"Now, Eziray, I know it's hard for you to be seen without a trail of Pokémon following behind you, but it's time to put Charo and Baby away so we can teleport to Littleroot," Aiden said as he called Espeon to come over. Eziray pretended to complain as she called her two Pokémon back. And as they had the day before, they all put a hand on Espeon and teleported instantly to their destination.
"It's a pretty small town. And it doesn't have a Pokémart or Pokémon Center either," Lyla explained as they began walking down a street. Then she added that she had never been there, just read about it. It was a pretty town though; there were houses aligned neatly along the hillside and there was even a little harbor to the East.
"You know, there's a ship that takes passengers from Kanto to that harbor. If you ask me, that's how we should have traveled to Hoenn," Aiden commented.
"Aw come on! The plane was fun!" Eziray insisted.
"That little plane almost killed us…"
"Oh don't exaggerate!"
"I'm not. The damn thing was falling apart. We had the money to hire someone with a better plane, Eziray! You know, one that wasn't so…old…"
"Well we made it here alive!"
"I hope the pilot made it back to Kanto alive…"
"So you were the ones who illegally landed a plane on top of Mt. Chimney the other day," Lyla said, remembering a newsflash she had heard on TV. "Gosh I'm dizzy…how long does it take to get used to that teleporting thing?"
"Tell me, if you ever find out the answer," Eziray replied. She shook her head as if trying to become reoriented and dramatically began to stumble away towards the harbor.
"Now, normally, we don't really do it that way because it really is kind of lame. We like getting the full experience of hiking, camping, and so on. It's just that we really had to get here in a timely manner," Aiden explained. Lyla nodded and Aiden spoke again: "Eziray, the lab's the other way!"
"I knew that!" she exclaimed, pivoting her body and walking the other way. Aiden muttered something to himself and the three walked over to Professor Birch's lab. It was somewhat secluded from the rest of the town because it was up on a hill. It was probably the biggest building in town too. The trainers looked it over for a moment and noticed a jeep parked out front that looked pretty battered, so they wondered if that meant that professor birch was a reckless driver then. They laughed about it as they neared the building. Then they opened the door, and boy, were they surprised when they walked inside.
"Oh my gosh, Aiden!" a girl screamed as she rushed over to him and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. He immediately set her down and smiled awkwardly. She was a tiny little thing; she was only sixteen years old. She had a light pink, pleated skirt that was a tad too short. Over it, she wore a plain white shirt with a collar; she had most likely worn it to school because it looked like a uniform shirt. On top of her head was a thin, black headband with a little pink bow which was off-centered and matched the skirt. Her medium brown hair was layered and very short. It fell just below her ears and in the front, hung just above her icy blue eyes. And finally, she was wearing white, knee-high socks which were tucked into a pair of black dress shoes with a Velcro buckle.
"Aw…you followed me! All…the way…from Kanto…" he said, trying to act polite.
"Yep! I heard Professor Oak telling you to come visit Professor Birch here so I hopped aboard the next boat I could and here I am! What took you guys so long?"
"Is that his girlfriend?" Lyla whispered to Eziray but obviously not quietly enough.
"God, no!" Aiden objected.
"Someday!" the girl exclaimed at the exact same time, noticing a slight look of relief fall upon Lyla's face at Aiden's response. The girl opened her mouth to speak but a man intervened. He had medium-length, brown hair which was very neatly combed. Under his lab coat, he wore a deep blue shirt and green cargo shorts with matching flip flops. This was, apparently, Professor Birch.
"Sorry miss," Professor Birch began, "but I had something to discuss with these two. Aiden? Eziray? Come with me. Your other friend can come too I suppose."
"No, it's fine. I guess I'll stay here," Lyla said. Truth be told, she was very curious and wanted to wander around the lab a bit. As soon as the three left the room, the girl turned to her.
"So I bet you're just dying to know who I am!"
"Um. Well actually, I don't particularly care too much, but you're free to introduce yourself if you want. I'm not going to stop you."
"Well if you're not interested then I won't tell you! If you want to know who I am, you have to ask!"
"…Fine. Who are you?"
"Me? I'm Olivia. I'm Aiden's number one fan. I think it's so cute that you, like, have a thing for him. But do you even know him? I know him. I know everything about him. His favorite color? Blue. Birthday? April 2nd. First Concert? In Saffron City. That's in the Kanto region. Hometown? Celadon City. That's also in Kanto, by the way. First Pokémon? Eevee of course, but she was a gift. The first Pokémon he ever caught was Growlithe. Back in Kanto, he has an Arcanine, Fearow, Nidoking and Nidoqueen, Ponyta, Lapras, and Poliwhirl. They're with Professor Oak and he didn't bring them because he wanted to make friends with as many Hoenn Pokémon as possible. Isn't that cute? Let's see…Likes: music, nature, Psychic-type Pokémon, watching Pokémon battles, girls with blue eyes, such as myself, and spoiling his Pokémon rotten. Dislikes: salad, expensive things, rap music, people who litter, and people who don't treat their Pokémon as friends. And there's plenty more that I know, but you're looking pretty bored now. I betchya didn't know all that, did you?"
"Nope, but I do now. Thanks," Lyla said with a wink. Olivia responded with a death glare and at that moment, Skitty realized that there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that these two girls would ever get along with each other.
"Mya…" she said, uneasily.
"And just who exactly are you, anyway?" Olivia asked with much less enthusiasm. "If I may ask…"
"My name's Lyla, I grew up in Lavaridge Town here in Hoenn, my first Pokémon was this Skitty, I'm a contest coordinator, and I didn't have to stalk Aiden to get to know him," Lyla said with a dignified grin and walked away, leaving Olivia quite livid.
"I've never seen Olivia so angry before. What did you say to her?" Eziray asked with a chuckle as she walked out of the room that she had followed Professor Birch into.
"The truth," Lyla said, sticking her tongue out slightly.
"Wish I coulda been there," Eziray said with a laugh. "But listen, Professor Birch wants to talk to you. Mind coming in?"
"Not at all!"
The two girls walked back into the room and Professor Birch smiled at them.
"So they tell me your name is Lyla and you are just now embarking on your very own Pokémon journey. Now I called you in here for two reasons. One, to get you away from that little annoyance in the other room who's been here for three days, waiting for Aiden's arrival. I swear that girl never stops talking…Anyway, but most importantly, I called you in here to give you a gift. This is a Pokédex," Professor Birch said as he handed Lyla a device. It was a red rectangular device that was rounded off on one side. On the side that was rounded off, there was a white Pokéball shape with a blue center. On the other side, there was a hinge that allowed you to flip the cover around to the bottom of the device. The cover had a green light on the inside of it that was similar to the green light below the screen when you slid the cover open. The screen, of course, was where the image was displayed when you scanned a Pokémon with it. The tip of the cover was moon-shaped and the white Pokéball was underneath so it could be seen when the device was open and closed.
"Thanks!" Lyla exclaimed, taking the device from his hands with care.
"You're lucky! Yours is a more recent model than ours. He only updated ours with the new software so we can identify the Pokémon in this region. I guess that's why Professor Oak sent us here," Aiden said as he held up his Pokédex. It was red like Lyla's but unlike hers the shape of a small book and therefore flater and wider compaired to hers.
"If you all had hurried up and gotten here yesterday, you would have met another trainer who came here from a different region. He's actually a beginner and wanted to start his journey in this region because his dad lives here I guess. He's from the Johto region. You might just run into him. His name is Noah. Let me try to describe him…let's see. He's got light blue eyes, somewhat long black hair. It's really straight and his bangs cover his left eye. He was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt with a skull on it and light gray long sleeves sticking out from underneath. Hm…his tennis shoes were black...and I'm pretty sure his ears were pierced. His tongue was certainly pierced," Professor Birch explained with a slight shiver.
"Sounds like a fun guy," Lyla said sarcastically.
"Oh he really was a nice boy though, about you guys' age. OH and he had a tattoo on his neck. It was some Japanese symbol but I'm not sure what it meant," Professor Birch added. "But anyway, that's not so important right now. Eziray, Professor Oak tells me that you're quite the trainer and you'll most certainly be wanting to take on the Hoenn Pokémon League, am I correct?"
"Yup yup!" Eziray confirmed enthusiastically.
"Then you're going to want to go to Oldale Town next. It's north of Littleroot town. You have a map right? Anyway, you'll need to go to the Pokémon Center there to register for the Pokémon League. Then you can start collecting badges and such. Is that something you would be interested in Lyla?"
"Well…I've been thinking about it and I suppose I'll try it, but I'm really interested in something else…"
Eziray and Aiden looked at her with a little surprise because she hadn't said anything to them about it. She continued:
"I've always been a fan of contests so…I was thinking about becoming a coordinator!"
"That's great!" Eziray exclaimed. "How exciting! Now we've got a variety of dreams among us! It makes things more interesting that way, that's for sure!"
"Well then, I'm not so sure about how to register for that. I'm assuming you could do that in any Contest Hall, but you could ask about it at the Pokémon Center in Oldale Town. The Nurse Joys judge contests so they probably know a lot about them," Professor Birch explained.
"Thank you so much!" Lyla exclaimed, getting a little excited.
"You're very welcome!"
"Come on guys, let's get going!" Eziray exclaimed, grabbing both of her friends' arms.
"But –" Aiden began.
"Bye Professor Birch! Thanks for all your help! We'll stay in touch! Good luck with your research!" Eziray shouted as she dragged her friends from the room, leaving Professor Birch chuckling to himself. The three rushed right past Olivia in the other room too. She had gotten distracted by some interesting-looking machine and didn't notice them. Once outside, Eziray dragged them back down the hill to Route 101.
"Eziray, must you?" Aiden asked as they came to a gradual stop and she panted for a moment.
"Sorry, I just really want to challenge my first gym," she said in between breaths.
"But you don't even know if there's a gym in Oldale!"
"Well the sooner we get there, the sooner we'll find out!"
"They're silly, aren't they, Skitty?" Lyla asked with a giggle as the three trainers began walking down Route 101 to Oldale Town. Skitty meowed and bounced along next to her trainer's heel. As they turned the corner, they found a Zigzagoon standing there, sniffing at an Oran Berry bush. It looked up at them and growled softly. Lyla looked down at Skitty.
"So, you wanna try to catch a new friend?" she asked.
"Meeeeh!"
"Alright, then use Tackle!"
Skitty charged forward and slammed into the Zigzagoon who skidded back and held its ground for a moment, a little bit stunned from the attack.
"Now use DoubleSlap!"
Skitty charged forward again but this time, she swung around a jerked her tail back and forth to hit the Zigzagoon across each cheek, multiple times. When Skitty was done, Lyla smiled and threw an empty Pokéball at the Zigzagoon who was apparently nowhere near weakened enough because it swerved around and hit the Pokéball back to her with its tail. The Pokéball flew straight back and hit Lyla in the face, leaving a large red bruise, and then the Zigzagoon fled quickly.
"Yeah, you just need to try weakening them a little bit more before you try to catch them!" Eziray advised, about fifteen minutes later as Lyla held a bag of ice up to her face.
"Let me see," Aiden said as he grabbed Lyla's hand and gently guided it back down so he could see where she was hit. "It's still red but at least there won't be a bump now. I'm gonna go put the ice back in the cooler to keep the food fresh, okay?"
"Not a problem," Lyla sighed.
The trainers continued on their way to Oldale Town and Lyla kept her eyes peeled for another opportunity to catch a wild Pokémon. Eziray had both of her Pokémon out of their Pokéballs now and she was babbling on nonstop as they walked. Baby slithered over to Skitty who was walking beside Lyla and the two began to converse about something.
"Aww," Eziray said. Lyla looked down at the two and smiled.
"Making friends, Skitty?" Lyla asked. Skitty meowed happily and continued chatting with the Dratini.
"YOU GUYS, WAIT FOR ME!" someone shouted all of a sudden. Aiden twitched slightly as Olivia ran up behind them.
"Why did you ditch me?" she demanded.
"We didn't ditch you, we just didn't want to wait for you," Lyla said with fake politeness. Eziray elbowed her and told her to be nice.
"Sorry Olivia," Aiden said with a sigh. Her face lit up immediately and she threw her arms around him.
"Oh, I know you would never leave me behind, Aiden. I'm not blaming you. It was her idea, wasn't it?" she asked, giving Lyla a death glare.
"Damn, you got me," Lyla said with a smile, realizing just how fun it was to mess with Olivia's head. "Yup, I was the evil mastermind behind it all, and I almost got away with it too!"
Eziray couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Yea, you two think you're so funny! Don't you? Well I'll have you know that neither me nor Aiden are laughing!" Olivia said, arrogantly.
"Olivia!" Aiden exclaimed.
"Yes, Aiden!" Olivia responded.
"I just remembered, I left my sunglasses at Professor Birch's lab…"
"Want me to go get them and then give them to you the next time we bump into each other?"
"Yeah, that would be great."
"Okie dokie! No problem! When's your next concert, by the way?"
"Uh…I don't know, but I'll let you know okay?"
"Alright, well I look forward to it! Bye Aiden! I won't let you down!" she exclaimed before giving him a kiss on the cheek and running back towards Littleroot.
"Well that was fun," Lyla said after a few moments of awkward silence. Aiden sighed and said that he really did leave them behind. The other two laughed and they all continued on their way. It wasn't long before they came across a little black Pokémon, curled up and sleeping off the side of the road next to a puddle of water. Its ears perked as it heard the trainers approaching and it stood, looked around, and then proceeded to the puddle.
"Hey look!" Eziray said, pointing to the Pokémon who was now drinking from the small puddle on the ground. "Why don't you try catching that Poochyena?"
"Okie dokie! Skitty, use DoubleSlap!"
Skitty sprinted forward and smacked the Poochyena several times across the face. It didn't seem to do much other than tick the Poochyena off. The wild Pokémon simply turned its head slowly back to Skitty and began growling at her.
"Oh no…" Lyla trailed off.
"Myeeeh," Skitty cried, backing up slowly. Poochyena barked and Skitty ran in the opposite direction.
"Skitty!" Lyla called as the Poochyena chased it back towards Littleroot. The three trainers chased after them but pretty soon the two were out of sight. They kept running and eventually heard meowing coming from a tree. They looked up and saw Skitty sitting on branch way up high and the Poochyena was nowhere to be seen.
"It's okay, Skitty! You can come down now! The big, bad wolf is gone!" Lyla coaxed. Skitty jumped into her arms and they all got going again. They didn't see any other Pokémon for the rest of the walk. They did, however, spot a ruin on top of a hill and wondered if it was worth taking a look at. In the end, they decided to just keep on trekking to Oldale Town and maybe check it out if they were ever in the area again.
"This must be it," Aiden said as they arrived in a little town even smaller than Littleroot. They saw the Pokémon Center right away and headed in. The Nurse Joy greeted them warmly and both Eziray and Lyla registered for the Pokémon League. Lyla was pretty certain that she wasn't going to collect all the gym badges and participate in the Pokémon League, but she registered just in case she later changed her mind. Then she inquired about Pokémon Contests.
"Oh that's easy! You just go into any Pokémon Hall to register. You'll get a Contest ID Card and get entered into the system. That's also where you go to sign up for contests if there happens to be one approaching," Nurse Joy explained. Lyla thanked her and then Eziray suddenly remembered something.
"Hey! Where's the nearest gym?" she asked.
"That would be in Petalburg City but…" Nurse Joy trailed off.
"Something the matter?" Eziray asked, cocking her head.
"It's just that…Norman is pretty strong and I definitely wouldn't recommend challenging him if you're a new trainer…"
"Oh, don't worry! I'm not a newbie! I came here from Kanto!"
"Well in that case, it's okay I guess. Just please be careful and don't kick yourself too hard if you lose, okay?"
"Don't worry," Eziray said and the three trainers exited the building.
"Maybe I shouldn't challenge him then…" Lyla thought out loud.
"Hey, don't sweat it! Nurse Joys always worry about that sort of thing!" Eziray reassured. Lyla smiled and looked up. She saw a silhouette of something gliding overhead and she brought a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. The Pokémon flapped then landed on the ground beside them. It was a white bird with blue stripes on its wings.
"What's that?" Eziray asked.
"It's a Wingull," Lyla replied, offering it a sandwich from her bag. "They usually hang out by the ocean so I guess this one wandered over here from Slateport City. I've never seen one but I've heard they're pretty pesky. It's fine though. I'm just really eager to catch my first Pokémon! How'd you like to come with – OW!"
The Wingull had latched onto Lyla's hand with its beak and she was certain that it did it on purpose. She told Skitty to use DoubleSlap and it let go immediately to flutter out of the way. Lyla then told Skitty to use Tackle but the Wingull flew out of the way of that attack too. After a few more failed Tackles and DoubleSlaps, the Wingull lost interest, blasted Lyla in the face with Water Gun and flew away completely. Lyla banged her head against a nearby wooden sign.
"At this rate, I. Am. Never. Going. To. Catch. A. Pokémon," she said as she continued to bang her head against the sign.
"Patience, Lyla," Aiden said with a smile.
"Hm? Where'd Eziray go," Lyla asked, looking around. She spotted Eziray several yards away, talking to someone.
"She's probably getting directions to Petalburg. She wants to battle that gym today."
"Today? But I'm tired," Lyla whined.
"Alright, we gotta go that way!" Eziray said, returning to her friends and pointing to the west. Both Aiden and Lyla sighed and followed her to Route 102. They began walking down the route and noticed up ahead that there was a worm-like Pokémon slinking along.
"Ah, a Wurmple!" Lyla exclaimed. "This should be an easy catch! I'm getting tired of all this nonsense. Let's do this, Skitty! Tackle it!"
Skitty nodded, fully pumped, and charged forward. The Wurmple stared blankly as Skitty approached and then it shot some sort of sticky silk that wrapped around Skitty's body and stopped her in her tracks.
"Really? Really?" Lyla said angrily as Skitty struggled to break free of the silk and the Wurmple crawled away. "Is anyone else keeping count here?"
"Four!" Eziray exclaimed.
"It's okay, Lyla. You just need to be patient!" Aiden reassured. "You're new at this, remember?"
"I know," Lyla said with a sigh as she helped Skitty break free.
"Hey! Are you three trainers?"
They looked up and saw a boy standing in front of them and the first thing they noticed about him was the tattoo on his neck. Lyla cocked her head and stared at it for a moment while Eziray challenged him to a battle. As the boy spoke, Lyla also noticed that his tongue was pierced and she suddenly realized that this was the trainer that Professor Birch had told them about.
"Noah?" Lyla said.
"Hm? How do you know my name?"
"Professor Birch told us about you…"
"Ahh, so you're the trainers he was telling me about. You must Eziray, you must be Aiden, but…who are you?"
"My name's Lyla. I'm a new trainer too. These two persuaded me to join them."
"Nice! Yeah, I'm kind of new myself, but we've been training ever since we got here. I heard Norman's tough so I decided to stay on Route 102 for a while and toughen up. So, what'll it be? Three-on-three?"
"Well, actually, I only have two Pokémon with me," Eziray said.
"Hm. I see. That's fine. Two-on-two then!"
"Right. Baby, let's go!" she exclaimed, as Baby positioned herself in front of her trainer. Eziray hadn't yet called her back to her ball from earlier.
"Tailow! Come on out!" Noah exclaimed as he tossed a Pokéball up into the air. A Flying-type popped out and cawed loudly. "Ladies first."
"Baby, use Twister!"
Baby circled the tip of her tail around and around until a vortex of energy began to form in front of her, kicking up dirt and dust. She flicked her tail and the Twister began to make its way towards Tailow.
"Dodge it! Then use Peck!"
Tailow barrel-rolled out of the way of the attack and the Twister eventually dwindled away. Then Tailow's beak began to glow brightly as it swooped down.
"Thunder Wave!"
An electrical charged sparked around Baby's body and she closed her eyes as the sparks extended out and shocked the incoming Tailow. There was no damage done but now spark surrounded Tailow's body and it found itself struggling to move so it fell to the ground. The move had paralyzed it.
"Now let's see if that move we've been working at will be successful this time!"
"Oh no," Aiden said, smacking his forehead.
"Use Dragon Rage!"
Dratini opened her mouth as if she was about to release a massive and powerful attack but only managed to cough up a puff of smoke. The failure made her eyes water and Eziray tried to comfort her. While they were distracted, Tailow managed to get itself up into the air again but she was still a little shaky.
"Quick Attack!"
She raced forward at breakneck speed and smashed into Baby before circling around and cringing once again from the sparks. She suddenly lost control and crashed into the ground due to the paralysis.
"Finish it off, Baby! Use Wrap!"
Baby slithered forward and wrapped her body around Tailow while the Flying-type was trying to get ahold of herself. She constricted her body and then began to crush the Tailow and it cried out in pain. When she released, the Tailow fell over, twitching.
"Damn," Noah said, returning his fallen Pokémon and Eziray praised Baby before calling her back as well "Not a problem, maybe I can end this in a draw! And if not, you get to haul my ass to the Pokémon Center!"
"Hahaha, Aiden, get the stretcher ready! Charo's up!"
"Char!" Charo exclaimed, dashing forward.
"Ah, the Kanto Fire Starter. Have you ever seen Johto's? Cyndaquil! Let's do it!"
"QUIIIIL!" the little Fire-type exclaimed as it blew fire out of the holes on its back.
"Woah," Lyla said, flipping her dex open and pointing it at the Cyndaquil.
"Cyndaquil: The Fire Mouse Pokémon. It is timid, and always curls itself up in a ball. When startled, attacked, or angry, flames are shot from the holes on its back," the dex informed.
"You know what they say," Noah said with a shrug. "Fight fire with fire! Cyndaquil, use Smokescreen!"
Cyndaquil made a facial expression as if it were about to sneeze and then blew out a cloud of dark grey smoke that surrounded the area. Charo looked around nervously, unable to see neither its trainer nor its opponent.
"Now use Dig!"
"Charo, can you see it? When you do, use Metal Claw!"
Charo looked around, claws glowing and read to slash into the Cyndaquil as soon as it appeared. Before it could so much as blink, Cyndaquil came up from underneath the ground and sent it flying up into the air with the super effective Ground attack. Charo opened its eyes in midair in time to see a ball of rotating fire coming towards it. He didn't have enough time to react and the ball of fire hit him square in the stomach, knocking him back to the ground and out cold. The fireball rotated back down to the grown and gradually slowed, revealing that Cyndaquil had been inside.
"What was that move?" Lyla asked.
"Flame Wheel. You really are new, aren't you?" Noah said with a smile.
"Be nice!" she demanded.
"Hey now, don't get so defensive. I just think it's adorable, that's all!"
"Adorable?" Lyla asked timidly with a slight smile as Eziray knelt beside Charo.
"Charo, are you okay?" Eziray asked, stroking his head. He came to and angrily shot a couple Embers into her face. "OW! OW! What?"
"Char! Char! Char! Mandeeeer!"
"Alright, alright, we'll try it your way next time, sheesh!"
"Hey a draw's better than a loss, am I right?" Noah pointed out with a chuckle.
"I guess so," Eziray said.
"So, Lyla, I couldn't help but notice you scanning my Cyndaquil with your Pokédex. Does that mean you haven't ever seen the Johto Starters before?" Noah asked, putting his hands on his hips.
"Uh…no, I haven't," she admitted. He smiled and held up two Pokéballs, releasing what was inside: the Water-type, Totodile, and the Grass-type, Chikorita.
"You have all three?" Eziray asked, in awe of the Johto starter trio. Lyla scanned the other two with her dex as well.
"Totodile: The Big Jaw Pokémon. Its powerful, well-developed jaws are capable of crushing anything. Even its trainer must be cautious…Chikorita: The Leaf Pokémon. Its pleasantly aromatic leaf has the ability to check humidity and temperature. It is very docile and loves to sunbathe," the dex informed.
"My mother's a breeder and she gave all three to me," Noah said, lifting his hand to his head.
"SEEDOT!" a Pokémon said all of a sudden, popping down from a nearby tree. It very much resembled an acorn as it hung from a branch.
"I really don't know what that is, and I'm really much too worn out to care," Lyla said. Eziray whipped out her Pokédex and pointed it at the Pokémon in front of them.
"Seedot: The Acorn Pokémon. It attaches itself to tree branches by using the top of its head and it loves to drop down to scare other Pokémon. Strong winds can sometimes knock it down, however," the dex informed.
"Alright, acorn-thing! You're coming with me! Skitty, we got this! Use Tackle!"
Skitty slammed into the Seedot with Tackle and then followed it up with DoubleSlap. Those were the only two attacks she knew at that present moment, so she kept using them. Eventually, however, the Seedot's body began to glow.
"What, is it evolving?" Eziray asked, cocking her head.
"Um. No. It's not. L-Lyla? Stop. Please," Aiden said, but Lyla just smiled at him.
"Don't worry, I got this! Just a little more…" she trailed off, taking out an empty Pokéball from her bag.
"No, really, you need to stop before – "
Before Lyla could throw the ball, there was a bright flash and Skitty was blasted back by a huge amount of energy that was so powerful, it took the trainers with it as well. When they opened their eyes again, they were pretty much back in Oldale Town and Aiden told them that the attack was called Bide. He explained that Bide absorbs all the damage taken and doubles it when the energy is released.
"You know, maybe I'm just not cut out for this whole trainer thing!" Lyla said, sprawling out on the ground with a sigh. They decided to stop and rest there for a while and wondered if Noah was okay.
Noah wasn't with them because, truth be told, he was fortunate enough to not have been blasted away. He smiled to himself and walked away, heading towards Petalburg City.
"Interesting people. I hope I run into them again soon," he said to his Pokémon who were trailing behind him. The looked up at him and nodded in agreement.
Author Notes:
The two new characters introduced in this chapter (Olivia and Noah) aren't really based off of anyone in particular although I'm pretty sure that Olivia is an anime archetype of some sort, you know, that annoying admirer/stalker who thinks she's adorable and follows around one of the main characters, claiming to be madly in love with him. Yup, that's her. The ruins mentioned in this chapter are significant, by the way. They'll be mentioned again very soon. Anyway, thank you for reading :) I hope you liked it and will continue reading! Don't forget to leave a review!