The rock tumbled along the path. When it came to a rest, Sam kicked it again. Sam kicked it whenever it came to a rest so conversation wouldn't happen between him and Pyro. His anger towards the Charmander had faded a little but what he said still lingered in the back of Sam's mind. The part of dealing with his new face is what really bothered him, not being a better trainer. The scars still hurt at the slightest movement of his face and he could barely keep a permanent grimace from his face. He had to live the rest of his life looking like a freak, but as Pyro said, he would just have to deal with it.
The fire-type lingered behind his companion by a couple steps. Humans released faint odors depending on their moods and he was getting better at identifying them. Right now, Sam was either really angry or depressed, possibly a mix of the two. He knew better than to say anything but he hated silence.
"What attacks do you have?" Sam asked out of the blue. Pyro was taken aback for a bit before he responded.
"Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"I may not be a trainer but I shouldn't hold you back by not helping you get stronger. If I know your attacks, I can at least do something other than watch."
Excitement coursed through Pyro. He might finally have a trainer, even if Sam didn't know it. His heart fell when he realized exactly how many moves he had, "I know Scratch, but that's basically it."
"That's it?" Sam questioned with a raised eyebrow, "You don't have any fire moves?"
"Well, I can use Ember but..." he puffed out a few pathetic tongues of flame, "that's all I can really use at this moment. It'll get better once I get stronger, I promise."
Sam grunted an okay and somehow that made Pyro feel a lot worse. He was supposed to be really powerful but he couldn't even use a basic fire attack. He nearly ran into the back of Sam's legs.
"Why'd you stop?" he asked but Sam didn't respond. Instead, his eyes were fixed down the road. When Pyro looked, he could see the figure of another human getting bigger and more defined as it got closer.
"Hey, I challenge you to a trainer's battle!" he yelled at them once he was twenty feet away. The kid was around Sam's age, maybe a little older and a bit taller too. He had spiky blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Around his waist, a belt held three shiny Pokéballs.
"You want to fight?" Sam responded, causing Pyro to smack his face with his palm.
"Of course I want to fight! Don't you know what a battle is?" he scolded. Sam looked down at Pyro and then back at the trainer.
"Sure, we'll fight," he said, and then just to Pyro, "you ready?"
"Oh yeah," the Charmander smirked, "this is gonna be fun."
He paced in front to face the trainer. Something was wrong though. The kid was smiling like he had already won. He picked a Pokéball off his belt and threw it.
"I choose you, Marshtomp!" he cried and the Pokéball opened to reveal a blue Pokémon with fins all over its body. Both of them swore when they realized that it was a water type. Pyro glanced back at Sam.
"What do I do?" he asked, concern replacing the cockiness in his eyes. Sam started to sweat. Not only did the Marshtomp have an advantage over the Charmander, it was also a lot more experienced since it had evolved already.
"Get in close and try to use Scratch," Sam suggested, for a lack of a better plan. Pyro sighed, already concluding that he was going to lose this battle. He charged the Marshtomp and hoped that he could land at least one hit.
"Water Gun!" the trainer yelled and his Pokémon launched a stream of water that struck Pyro in mid-stride. The force of the attack sent him flying back towards Sam in a heap. He struggled back to his feet. Sam said Scratch again and Pyro repeated the failed attempt. Once again, he was blasted back.
Sam looked desperately around for some advantage he could give his Pokémon. His eyes came to rest on a large piece of bark on the side of the road.
"Stay here and dodge," he ordered Pyro. The Charmander watched him run to away and barely dodged another jet of water. Same grabbed the slab of bark off the ground, "Pyro, catch!" he yelled and tossed the block towards him. The fire type caught it with ease.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" he demanded after narrowly evading another blast of water.
"Use it as a shield to get closer to it," Sam explained. Pyro looked down at the bark and grinned. He held up the plank as the Marshtomp sprayed him and the water dispersed harmlessly across the surface.
"It's on now!" Pyro roared and charged the water type. He blocked its attacks with the slab shortened the distance between the two. However, he got to a point where the blasts kept him pushed him back slightly, making him unable to advance.
Sam noticed that in between attacks, there was about a second of rest. Pyro used this to move forward a bit but only got pushed back on the next blast. An idea came to mind.
"Throw the shield at it!" he ordered during a deluge. Pyro just stared at him but as soon as he felt the attack beginning to fade he understood. The moment that the water stopped, he grabbed hold of one side with both hands and tossed the bark at the Marshtomp's face. It stunned his opponent, allowing the bigger Pokémon to get within striking range.
"Payback time," Pyro growled and scratched his foe with his claws. The water type fell on impact and the Charmander pinned it down, continuing to swipe it across the face.
It looked like Pyro might actually win until he missed a hit. The water type recovered in that small window of time and hit the Charmander with a powerful jet of water that sent him flying. Pyro managed to get to his feet and glare at the Marstomp, who was equally battered. As one, they both collapsed to the dirt, shocking both of the humans.
"Never seen that before," the trainer mumbled and returned his fainted Marshtomp to its Pokéball, "Your Charmander is really strong," he commented, "how long have you been training him for?"
"I got him yesterday," Sam told the trainer before adding, "and I'm not a trainer."
"That's a lie. There's no way you just got him."
"Oh yeah?" Sam asked, crossing his arms, "Explain."
The trainer cracked his fingers and started a rant, "well first, it's a Charmander. That species is native to Kanto only, with some occasionally found in Johto. They're basically impossible to find anywhere else, so you must have gotten it as a starter in Kanto. That means that you've had him for a lot longer than yesterday to travel to Hoenn. Secondly, my water type has evolved into its second stage, which makes it a lot more powerful. However, it just lost to your fire type. If you just got it, you couldn't have trained it much and it would have evolved by now at the size and strength it's currently at."
"Okay, I get it, you're smart," Sam cut him off before he could resume, "but I wasn't lying. I just came from Littleroot and Professor Birch gave me him. The only reason why I have a Pokémon is for protection for a job I'm doing."
The trainer was confused and stopped talking, so Sam took this as an opportunity to pick up the fainted Pyro and carry him over his shoulder. He started to walk north again when the trainer caught up to him.
"I didn't catch your name," he said and stuck out his hand, "my name is Daren. What's yours?"
"I'm Sam," he said and accepted the handshake. He pointed to the Charmander, "this is Pyro."
"You name your Pokémon? That's odd..."
"Why, you don't name yours?"
"Nah, too much difficulty thinking up good names, but Pyro seems suitable for a fire type."
"I didn't think of it, he told me his name," Daren looked at him quizzically.
"What do you mean he told you his name?" he asked curiously. Sam didn't quite trust him yet to tell him his secret.
"Don't worry about it," he said a little too quickly and changed subjects, "why are you heading back north? Weren't you travelling to Littleroot?"
"I was only going there because Birch offered me the delivery job," he chuckled, "seems like you got it already, so not much point of me going there. Why did you need protection anyways, it's not like the job is too hard."
Sam removed his hat, removing the shadows that covered his scars. When Daren saw them, he recoiled instantly, horrified by them.
"What the hell happened?" he exclaimed at the sight. Sam's face darkened a bit but he told him everything, the attack, the healing process and the job itself. The Masterball was left out because Sam wasn't going to trust this guy with that information just yet. Daren was quiet for a long time, the only sound coming from their footsteps.
"Are you sure it was Team Rocket?" Daren asked, "I mean, you don't usually see them around Hoenn, they're more Kanto and Johto based. Team Magma or Aqua seems more likely."
"That's what I thought too," Sam said, "but Magma and Aqua are just eco-terrorists. One wants to expand land mass and the other wants to expand the seas. Neither actually does anything, it's always been Rocket that goes to the extremes."
Daren let out a long whistle, "that must be one hell of a valuable package," he commented absentmindedly, "Team Rocket must really want it if they would come out so far. You'll have to be careful, anyone could be a spy."
Their walk fell into silence again. Sam adjusted his pace so he was a little farther away from the trainer. Daren seemed to realize that what he said sounded a little menacing, "I didn't mean that I would want to steal it," he said, quickly trying to fix it, "Birch was thinking of giving me the job also. Plus, I have had an unpleasant run in with Team Rocket. Not as bad as yours, of course, but it's not something I want to repeat anytime soon."
Their walk fell into silence again and after a while, Sam said, "You know, my mom gave me a lot of extra money," he staring down at his feet, "I don't need all of it and I can probably buy something expensive with the extra money. It might just be enough for a spare ticket on the S.S Anne."
"What are you getting at?"
"Well, I'm not that good at handling Pokémon and quite frankly, you are experienced. So maybe you want to join me on the trip, give me a few tips? Pyro's a good partner and all but he might not be so helpful if we come across a larger water type."
"Okay, I see what you want. Yes, I will join you for this trip. I've got nothing else better to do."
They both grinned as Oldale Town came into view. For Sam, gaining a human companion would make this trip so much more bearable.