As White jogged her way to Professor Juniper's lab, She noticed Cheren and Tepig outside along with Juniper. They turned and waved at her when she got closer, and she slowed down and stopped beside them.

"Hello White!" Professor Juniper said in her normal kind tone. She was holding a cup of coffee in her right hand, and her left arm was wrapped around her waist.

"Professor, thank you so much for the pokemon that you sent us," White said graciously.

"I heard you picked Snivy," Juniper said conversationally.

"Oh yes, ma'am," she tried to be as polite as possible around the professor. Something about her made White feel a little uneasy. Although she was very friendly and seemed very generous, White, for some reason, was cautious of her kindness.

"Did our pokedexs come in?" White asked.

"Yes. Yes they did. I'll wait to hand them over to you until Bianca gets here. Speaking of, I hear you two had a little skirmish in your room. How did it go?"

"It went okay, I guess. We messed my room up a little," White said. Her eyes flickered over to Cheren who had a little smile on his face. She was sure he had already spilled every detail about the battle to the professor.

"Oh, I hear it was a little bit better than okay. I heard you won by thoroughly observing your opponent and exploiting its weakness."

White found herself grinding her teeth slightly. While it was nice to be praised, it really wasn't anything special. Snivy was the one who fought the battle, anyway.

"I wonder where Bianca is?" White tried to change the subject.

"How about while we wait for Bianca, you two battle?" Professor Juniper said slyly. Before White could interject, Cheren responded.

"That's a great idea, Professor."

White snapped Snivy's pokeball off of her belt and threw it in the air near her. Snivy exploded next to her while trying to do an activity. He was practicing quick pirouettes, and White knelt down beside him.

"What are you doing, Snivy?" she said, a little confused at her partner's recent obsession with spinning.

He tried desperately to explain to her in words and noises she could not understand. She tried her best to translate what he said to her, though.

"Are you maybe trying to learn a new attack?" White asked after watching him spin unnaturally fast and stop completely, leaving a small swirling cloud of dust in the air.

"Sniv!" he said proudly.

"Well, would you like to battle? Maybe you could test it out on Tepig," White asked her little lizard pokemon.

Snivy looked across the grassy field in front of Professor Juniper's lab where Tepig was already in position, smoke coming from his little nostrils. Snivy looked a little unsure, but scampered into position anyway.

"Go Snivy! Tackle Tepig!"

Snivy began to bound over to Tepig, who stayed rooted to his spot. Cheren pointed to Snivy and ordered an attack from Tepig.

"Use your new attack. Ember, Tepig!"

Tepig looked like he was chewing on something for a moment. In the next, he spewed tiny ember flames from his nostrils. They began to descend like flakes of flaming ash upon Snivy, who has now looking wearily at the blanket of fire above his tender leafy head. His running never slowed, though.

"Get out of range! Roll up to Tepig and tackle!" White said frantically. Grass was weak to fire. If Snivy got singed, it would all be over. Snivy managed to roll out from under the fire attack and leap into the air for a tackle. Before he made contact with the little pig, it flipped on it's back and exposed its large, rubbery belly. When Snivy came in contact with it, he was bounced back into the grass, where the hot embers were still sizzling on the ground. A portion of Snivy's tail caught on fire and the little lizard lost control. He ran back and forth wailing, and White had to holler at him to snap him back into the battle.

"Put your tail out on a safe patch!" she pointed to an area in front of her that was more gravel than grass. He ran over and squirmed around in the dirt, effectively putting out the fire. Snivy clenched his teeth and put himself back into battling position again. Tepig and Cheren each had matching confident smirks on their faces.

"I learned a lot from your battle with Bianca. I've spent the past half an hour training Tepig to learn his first attack, ember. Don't take us as lightly as you took our friend earlier, or you'll get burned. Right Tepig?" Cheren said, straightening his glasses. Tepig snorted his approval as Professor Juniper watched White closely. She was already hatching a plan in her head as she watched Snivy clean some of the dust off of his burnt tail, and rub some out of his eyes. The battlefield was now less grassy and more burnt to a crisp, leaving soot where the greenery once was. Snivy was looking a little out maneuvered at the moment, but White grinned when she thought of an idea.

"I won't make the same mistake twice. Ok, Snivy. Let's go. Trust me on this one, run in for the tackle attack!" Snivy didn't question his trainer's decision to repeat his charge, so he began to run towards Tepig even faster this time through the burned grass.

"Ember again, Tepig!" Cheren said quickly. More flames began to engulf the battlefield and fall, threatening to hit Snivy from above. Before Snivy made contact with Tepig, White snapped her fingers.

"Skid to a stop! Right in front of him!"

In that moment, Snivy completely understood what his master wanted him to do.

Snivy came to a stop right in front of Tepig, showering the little pig's face with ash and sand.

"Tepig! Push Snivy back into the embers with a tackle attack!" Cheren said quickly.

Tepig was, however, a little preoccupied with all of the grit in his eyes. He attempted to rub it out, but it wasn't working. Tepig tried to listen for Snivy, and charged forward. He missed the nimble Snivy by several inches and slammed his face into the ground, leaving him even more disoriented.

"Meet him head on with a tackle!" White said happily.

"Dodge it, Tepig!" Cheren blurted out. Tepig still could not see, and Snivy smashed into the front of his opponent, sending him flying from the sheer force.

"Send him higher, Snivy! Spin!" White wasn't sure what Snivy's new attack could do, but she knew at the speed he had been spinning earlier he might be able to send Tepig up higher; the impact from the fall would likely be able to knock him out. Snivy saw his chance and spun quickly to meet Tepig as he reached the height of his fall. Faster than any of them could follow their eyes, Snivy spun around Tepig, creating a small tornado around the pig pokemon. Snivy's sharp leaves seemed to be released in the spiral as well, damaging Tepig in the gale, as Snivy guided them straight into the ground.

Tepig hit the ground with a thud and Snivy landed on the scorched grass, skidding backwards on his feet gracefully. He looked up at White and she could read it on his confident face.

And that's what *I've* been working on for the past half an hour.

Professor Juniper whistled, impressed with the display, and Cheren asked for Tepig to return to his pokeball. White walked up to him slowly and was looking at the scorched ground.

"That was such a good battle, Cheren. I don't think we would have won if Snivy hadn't shown me his spin attack before."

"That," Professor Juniper said while walking up to them, "Was Snivy's Leaf Tornado. Generally they can't learn it until they are very experienced in battle."

The three of them looked over at Snivy, who wobbled for a second and then fell into the burned grass with a thump.

"Snivy!" White shrieked and she ran to his side.

"Are you all right?" she asked the passed out pokemon. Professor Juniper followed her quickly.

"Return him to his pokeball. He really overexerted himself out there. I'm surprised he didn't pass out from just attempting the leaf tornado."

White fumbled with his pokeball, and managed to return him into it with a shaky hand. She stood up to Professor Juniper.

"What do I do now, Professor? How long do I let him rest? I don't own any potions yet and-" she aid worriedly.

"White, calm down. Professor Juniper has a machine to heal pokemon in her lab," Cheren said a little bewildered by White's innocent reaction.

"That's right! Both of you follow me! I'm sure your pokemon could use a little refresher after that tough battle!" Juniper said cheerfully.

Inside the lab, White and Cheren set their pokeballs down on a strange device that looked like a giant deviled egg tray. A rubbery, see-through capsule enclosed around them, and an image of both pokemon came on the monitor above the device. Under their pictures were descriptions such as their typing, and their height, weight, and current condition.

"So this heals all of their wounds?" White said anxiously.

"Oh yes. And it works very well. This is what the nurses use at pokemon centers," Juniper responded. After a few moments of silence Cheren put his hand to his chin thoughtfully as he often did, and decided to speak up.

"So now you see what I'm talking about, Professor? White is very talented in battle."

"Yes, I was surprised how well White and Snivy worked together. You and Tepig were very impressive as well," Professor Juniper said while typing in some commands to her pokemon healing computer. White didn't really understand the large machine, but she could see the progress bar on the large screen was nearly finished.

Somewhere in between their conversation Bianca came in and apologized for being late. Cheren recounted the battle to her.

"White ended the battle by using Snivy's leaf tornado. I must admit, it looked pretty cool," Cheren said with a cough. The machine finished and the dome retracted, letting Cheren and White grab their pokeballs.

"Speaking of leaf tornado! White, I wanted to tell you that Snivy really has no business using an attack of that caliber. It is over his head, and when he uses it, he expends all of his energy. Do you understand? Never use it."

White bit her lip as she picked up Snivy's pokeball. This was exactly the attitude that Professor Juniper had. She had to order everyone around. White would never hurt Snivy in any way, but just hearing the professor tell her what to do like she was a child made White feel a little angry inside. The last thing she wanted was to be treated like a kid. She was 17 years old after all, practically an adult.

"Yes, Professor," White said as pleasantly as she could manage.

"I can't wait till we battle again, White! It's going to be so cool!" Bianca said excitedly.

"I think we just need to focus getting out of Nuvema right now," White groaned. She didn't really enjoy the rivalry that was blossoming between herself and her two friends. Everything had always been very equal between the three of them. Now White felt as if she was in some sort of spotlight.

"Pokedex time!" Juniper announced. She stuck her arm inside the large pocket of her white labcoat and revealed 3 black tablets with face-plates that had an edgy pokeball design on them.

"Here you go, here you go, and, last but not least, here you go!" she said while she handed each one of them a pokedex.

"While you are on your travels, catch as many pokemon as you can. I want to see you all making lots of progress on these little buggers, ok?"

The three of them nodded. White was a little uneasy about it. Catch as many pokemon as she could? It sounded crazy. Where would she keep them all?

"Once you capture 6, the ones after that will automatically be sent to a computer network via your pokedex," Juniper explained.

"That makes sense," Cheren said with a nod, "and to get those pokemon out, we just swap some in our party with the ones on the PC at the pokemon centers, right?"

"That's correct," Juniper said bobbing her head up and down. As she shook, her beedril hive hair shook with her. Now White understood, but in her mind something seemed a little off about the whole thing. Well, Professor Juniper did give her a pokemon, so she would at least do what she could to help her.

"If that's all, professor, I would like to get going immediately. If you need anything else, just call me on my xtransciever," Cheren said. The three of them thanked the professor for the opportunity to go on the adventure, and they stepped outside together.

& & &

Sorry I had to establish all of this boring stuff. The fight was at least fun though, right? Anyway, the next chapter will take us down route 1, where White decides to take a detour…and her detour takes a turn for the worse.