"Well look who we have here."
The moment Yun passed the gates of Eterna city a familiar, gloating voice froze her mid stride. Her kimono had been replaced by a much more comfortable, not to mention more sensible, track suit in bubblegum blue and her hair was now in simple low ponytail but Yun still easily recognized her former classmate.
"Hiroto-san." She greeted hesitantly while plucking at her ratty aviator glove.
The other girl wore a smile, but it was far from kind. "You only just made it to Eterna now? Figures, I guess it has been hard on you with that weak bug as your starter."
Yun fought to keep the frown of her face, glad that Reign was securely in his Pokéball so he wouldn't have to hear her insults.
With a nonchalance she didn't feel, she shrugged. "Reign isn't weak, I've just been taking my time."
"Is that so." Clearly dismissive, Akane appraised her, eyes trailing over the three Pokéballs on Yun's belt. Suddenly, Yun felt grateful that Twinkle had not been very keen on walking because she knew what the other girl was going to say before it even left her mouth.
"I guess you'll have to show me then. Let's battle."
Her shoulders stiffened while she considered the challenge. There was absolutely no part of her that wanted to forfeit, not to her, but two of her Pokémon had just battled and she hadn't bothered to use the few potions she had, figuring she could just as soon heal them in Eterna's center. Then there was Tenno, so clearly still tired and with a glaring weakness to the one Pokémon Yun knew her classmate possessed. That Buizel knew water gun and had more than enough agility to match her bird.
Akane also wasn't wearing her Pokéballs on her belt, nor anywhere visibly on her person. They were likely hidden in the pouch she had tied around her waist so Yun couldn't tell how many Pokémon she had but Yun guessed there must be a reason why she was so confident.
Considering all of this, Yun deflated. There was no point to taking her up on the challenge, no matter how badly she wanted to take her down a peg, she wouldn't force her Pokémon to exhaust themselves in some stupid grudge match. And for what, a petty insult?
"No..." Yun started but stopped when she realized something else. Akane had been in Eterna longer, possibly a lot longer if her previous comment was something to go by. "How many badges do you have?"
The other girl's eyes narrowed when she worked out Yun's angle. "Two." She bit, perhaps only truthful because lying about your badge count was illegal and could easily be traced.
Relieved, Yun smiled. "Hm, too bad I only got one. I don't accept your challenge, my Pokémon are tired but maybe some other time."
The other girl shook her head, a sneer in place. "I shouldn't have expected anything else, you spineless Wurmple."
"Probably not." Yun agreed easily before walking away, throwing one more comment over her shoulder. "But don't worry, next time, I'll be sure to show you what my team is made off."
She ignored the mocking laugh that answered her and marveled at how composed she was able to remain. Before she started training, one wrong look from the other girl was able to shut her down and she was never able to reply, always simply letting it wash over her. Taking off her glove, she eyed the white scars on her right arm and considered the one good thing that came out of the ordeal. She now knew for certain that Pokémon teeth had hurt her a lot more than those stupid little insults ever would.
Yun followed the signs that guided trainers to Eterna's Pokémon Center. The city looked, for a lack of better terms, greener than Oreburgh, with more open space and more plants lining the streets. Gardenia's doing, no doubt. But Yun barely payed attention to her surroundings, much too busy forming a training schedule for her team in her mind. If she ever ran into her former classmate again, she really, really wanted to make the other girl bite her dust. That meant not hesitating too long to challenge the Gym, she certainly couldn't take as long as with Roark.
Battles with Gardenia had more optimistic success rates but only just slightly. Most trainers still took more than one try and Yun wouldn't always be able to depend on a last minute, slightly overleveled, addition to her team.
After she reached to Center and had her Pokémon healed, she made her way over to the Gym. Gardenia worked on appointment only and Yun wanted to make one right away, so to set herself on a time limit. The receptionist kindly informed her that during the low season Gardenia only appeared in the Gym once a week. She would be back six days from now and that was the earliest Yun could book a battle, which suited her just fine.
Her next stop was the Pokémart, where she stocked up on enough food to nearly max out her bag's storage capacity and cause a major dent in her funds. Then she received her new reinforced gloves, made for handling poison types. They were sleek, black and actually fit, to Yun's immense relief. The tiny steel plates woven into the black material made the movement of her hands a bit stiff but Yun was hopeful this would improve once she broke them in a bit more.
fter some deliberation, she decided to stay in the center for the night as it was getting late by the time she was done with her errands. Tomorrow she would head over to the Eterna forest and camp out there, training her Pokémon until it was time to face Gardenia.
Tenno seemed to have calmed down from his post evolution eating frenzy and appeared more awake than before which led Yun to make a late evening walk so he could spread his new wings. His flight was sloppy and unsure, much to Yun's surprise, but she supposed if she suddenly grew to be twice her size in less than a minute she would need some time to adjust as well.
He also made a rather sad attempt to rest on her shoulders, accompanied with a frustrated cry when he couldn't fit on one shoulder and her head was in the way when he tried use both. a wing slapped against the back of her head when he hopped off and landed on the ground, head hung low.
"There there, Tenno." Taking pity on him, she looped one arm under his chest and the other under his tail as she scooped him up, holding him to her chest. He was surprisingly light so walking around with him was less challenging than she had imagined it. "Don't worry, I will grow too." She didn't mention that it would take a lot longer for her and that, as both her parents were on the small and scrawny side, her growth would probably not be that spectacular.
The idea that one day he'd be able to perch on her shoulder again seemed to placate him somewhat and he turned to rest his head on her shoulder as she continued forward. Thankfully Eterna city was well lit at night even by the time she returned and the walk actually helped her to sleep soundly.
The next day she let Tenno out on the way to the forest so he could practice flying some more. Route 205 allowed them to challenge Pokémon they had thus far not seen before. Including a few Buizel. Yun saw this as an opportunity to train against the one Pokémon she knew Akane had but just as she had guessed, it took exactly one water gun to the face for Tenno to decide he absolutely hated battling them and start avoiding them. The Buizel were fast and Tenno maneuvering was not as agile and precise as before, so she had to put Reign to the task to finish what her bird started.
It was a similar story for the Shellos that roamed the area and the one time Tenno had attempted to pick on a Pachirisu. Overall route 205 was not a great success for her newly evolved teammate. That changed when they entered the forest, the occupants very vulnerable to both fire and flying types, and a few instant victories were able to bolster his severely bruised pride.
Eterna forest, while many complained about how winding and tiring traveling through it was, was a sight for sore eyes for Yun. It sheer size was perfect for prolonged training while the whole area was regularly patrolled by rangers and there were camping zones scattered between the trees that provided first aid if anything went wrong. To her it was perfect combination between wild and somewhat safe. It allowed her to focus wholeheartedly on training and a lot of that focus went to her newest addition.
Twinkle, despite being a higher level than both her boys, needed a lot more extensive training to get up to snuff. It was a frustrating endeavor to teach her how to respond to her opponent's moves on her own initiative as well as training her to follow more complicated commands. There was the added difficulty of not knowing how much exactly the previously secluded and wild Pokémon actually understood. There could not have been a greater difference between the other two, whom had, now that Yun thought about it, almost trained themselves.
It was partly because of her nature, Yun believed, a defensive and slow Pokémon like Twinkle waited for the enemy to come to her. But Twinkle had a few glaring -double- weaknesses and she still hoped to be able to teach her steel type to be a little bit more proactive in attacking and defending. In the end it was simply a matter of learning to communicate and understand one another, because Twinkle showed her again and again that she was more than willing to put in the effort as long as she understood what she was supposed to be doing, and it was a good reminder for Yun that not all Pokémon learned the same way.
Days passed by in a repetitive blur while she trained her Pokémon up in the Eterna forest and while progress with Twinkle was slow, it was still there. Tenno was let out to pick off any opponent he chose, with his type alone he was able to dominate over most of what the forest's regulated parts had to offer. Reign was kept a bit closer but she could just as easily focus on something else as he battled nearby. There was nothing in the forest that could really challenge her team expect for the occasional trainer she ran into. After four days her score stood five wins and two losses, which she could content herself with even if losing always stung.
If she wasn't working with Twinkle or Reign she would look for a clearing so she could help Tenno with his flying. Unfortunately, there weren't many of those and they weren't very large, the dense trees protecting it's many bug residents from larger wild flying types. But they made do with what they could find and Tenno was regaining some of his previous confidence in the air.
It was at the end of the fourth day, when it was slowly bleeding into the fifth that she encountered something different. The forest around her started... screaming.
The sound high pitched and grating woke her up with her heart pounding in her ears. Reaching for the entrance of her tent, she hesitated. A ranger would have heard it as well and would come to investigate, there was no need to leave the relative safety of her tent. But while the sound had scared her, there was something even more terrifying about sitting in the dark, oblivious of what was happening around her, waiting for something to find her first...
Another scream broke her out of her stalemate and she reached for her flashlight. She glanced at Twinkle, somehow sleeping through the noise, and recalled her, then she reached for Reign's Pokéball. Of her three Pokémon, he seemed to be able to deal with nighttime the best, she even suspected he might be nocturnal. As expected he readily looked at her, nothing drowsy about him.
"I heard screaming." She whispered. "We're going to investigate."
The look he gave her was reproachful, as if asking 'are you sure?', but he climbed her arm obligingly when she offered it.
Taking a deep breath, the part of her that almost died a few weeks ago screaming 'no' in her head, she opened her tent and peered outside with her flashlight. She was halfway convinced it was the same part of her that also didn't want to be caught unaware.
Nothing but the shadows moved when she directed the beam of light around, so she crawled out and quickly rose to her feet.
"Do you see anything?" Still whispering, she addressed her starter. His response was to point his tail behind her and she turned around slowly, following with her gaze as her breath caught in her throat.
It was right behind her, red eyes glowing in the dark as it opened it's mouth to unleash another blood-curdling scream. Yun stifled her own scream by slapping a gloved hand over her mouth hard enough to make her face tingle, then she calmed down, recognizing the creature floating before her.
She had read about them before coming here, despite the ranger's best efforts, they plagued the area occasionally. There was something about the Eterna forest that regularly birthed Misdreavus from Pokémon that died on it's ground. These ominous but mostly harmless ghosts, lived off of scaring people, turning their fear into energy.
"So I guess, I'm your target tonight huh?"
The ghost cackled at her and then floated around Yun to scream a few more times. It didn't have the same effect as before now that Yun knew where it came from but it was still loud enough to make her jump. She wondered if it was wise to chase it off, the forest's information leaflet had mentioned nothing about that.
"Alright, shoo, you've had your fun." She said bemusedly when the Pokémon started laughing again.
It danced around her for a bit longer before it, seemingly satisfied, vanished from sight.
"Is it gone?" She asked Reign, hoping he had some sort of sixth sense that allowed him to keep track of ghost types. Unfortunately that didn't seem to be the case as he just shrugged. But Yun got cold standing around in the dark forest and contented herself with going back inside her tent with her curiosity satisfied.
The Misdreavus of the forest were a pest but as far as Yun knew, also relatively harmless for ghosts, aside from driving the occasional kid to hysterics they weren't known for actually attacking anybody.
Still, as distant screams occasionally pierced through the night, Yun had trouble finding sleep again. Tomorrow they would camp out somewhere else, she decided.
AN: I guess it's obvious I played Pearl as a kid. Mismagius is one of my all time favorite Pokémon so even if the random Pokémon generator didn't want to give Yun one for her team I still wanted to mention them (in the form of misdreavus). Their sprite (especially the pixel ones) looks like one of those scary ghost ladies coming to get you xD Though Yun's team is not fully decided yet and it may happen but the chances are low. Currently there is one slot left that hasn't been determined.