Sorry it took so long! I had some personal problems, some things were not saved properly so had to be redone and last of all, I realized I am very bad at writing battles. I hope you will still enjoy it.
The first thing Lexi saw when she walked through the red door was a big, purple colored crystal. It looked sharp and Lexi could see her own eyes staring back at her. She wondered if it was an actual crystal or just a fake one made of glass. The whole room was covered with them. Some of them as big as a tree, others only the size of a natu. She could hear her steps echo loudly between them and felt very self-conscious about the noise she was making.
Lexi continued on the tips of her toes. She thought about turning around and going back to the Pokémon Center, but she knew it was just the stress messing with her. Everything would be fine. As soon as she would stand in front of the Gymleader she would be able to relax, knowing that she had made her decision and didn't have to try and avoid it any longer. She would fight, and she would win.
Lexi could now see the battlefield before her but didn't see a Gymleader anywhere. She did see Aiden to the left of her, far away on the dark purple stands. Did it help seeing him there, knowing she had a friend nearby? Or was he just going to be another pair of eyes, looking at her every move, judging.
She jumped a little when two bright spotlights appeared, one in front of her and another at the other side of the field, showing her the Gymleader. It was a heavy middle aged man, wearing something that looked like a suit made of thousands of little crystals. His short hair was still black but his beard had already started to grey, and Lexi noticed he was missing a finger.
Lexi wasn't sure what to do and kept silent. The Gymleader looked at her, squinting his eyes for a second and then started talking with a deep raspy voice that echoed through the crystal covered field.
''Well, I guess I'll start the conversation then, my name is Jasper Keizel. What is yours?''
Lexi could feel her face getting red and took a step back, away from the spotlight.
''My name is Lexi, I'm from Filium Town.''
''Filium Town, that isn't that far away. This will probably be your first badge then.'' Jasper said and gestured her to come closer. The movement caused the small crystals to hit each other, creating a ringing sound. ''And how is Professor Redwood doing?''
Lexi was taken aback by this question and it took her a couple of seconds to come up with an answer.
''He is fine…I think. He seemed happy, gave me a pokédex and some other stuff''
Lexi wished she would have just walked away when she had the chance. She was making such a fool of herself. She hadn't expected him to ask her about Prof. Redwood or anything else that had to do with her, and had no answers ready. Why didn't they just start battling?
Lexi saw the Gymleader looking to his right and noticed a referee had appeared next to field. A short man, wearing black shorts and a red shirt with a pokéball logo, bowed down and picked up two small flags.
The field lit up entirely, causing Lexi to quickly shield her eyes, and the referee started talking.
''The fight between the challenger Lexi Blue and Gymleader Jasper Keizel is about to begin. Each side will have the use of 2 pokémon and the battle will be over when all of either sides pokémon are unable to continue. Only the challenger may substitute pokémon.''
And with that, the battle started.
Lexi sent out Pero, who immediately smashed his wrists together even though he didn't have an opponent yet, and the Gymleader smiled as he released his sudowoodo from a green pokéball.
''Rock Throw'' Lexi whispered, leaning forwards. Pero punched his hands through the stone floor, creating many small stones around him, and started firing them at the sudowoodo.
Sudowoodo dodged them just in time and the rocks flew past it, shattering a crystal and causing a horrible loud echo that made Lexi cover her ears.
By the time Lexi could focus on the battle again, Sudowoodo had already ran towards Pero and kicked him into a crystal. When Pero got up he didn't seem the slightest bit hurt or weakened, but his eyes had narrowed in anger.
''Low Kick again!'' Jasper commanded to his pokémon, causing Pero to get thrown to the ground a second time. And though Pero still seemed very angry, Lexi could also see he had taken some damage this time.
''Rock Throw now!'' Lexi yelled, certain that Sudowoodo would be too close to dodge it. While lying on the ground, Pero pushed his hand deep into the floor and threw the rock towards the sudowoodo with all his strength.
The rock hit its target hard, causing Sudowoodo to stagger for a bit. But the effect it had was minimal. Sudowoodo seemed unscathed, still standing upright and proud, while Pero looked angry and hurt. Lexi panicked as she looked at her pokémon, all kinds of thoughts racing through her mind. Why was this fight so difficult? Why did the attack not work? What was she supposed to do now?
Jasper ordered another Low Kick and by the tone in his voice she could hear it was the final one.
''Dodge it Pero, quickly!'' Lexi didn't know what else to say, she had no clue what to do anymore and she had lost all the confidence she had.
She saw Sodowoodo's leg collide with Pero and knew the fight was over, she had lost. Lexi clenched her fists and tried to process what just happened, but on the other side of the room she saw Jasper look at her expectantly. Lexi widened her eyes in shock. She still had Serafine, the battle wasn't over yet. But she didn't want to keep fighting, she didn't want Serafine to get hurt as well, but she didn't want to get laughed at for quitting.
Lexi returned Pero to his pokéball and reluctantly threw Serafine's pokéball onto the field. The ponyta looked around curiously and only after first examining the floor beneath her hooves, did she turn to look at her opponent. She looked playful and full of energy, like she had no clue what a mess Lexi had made before.
Lexi felt touched by the amount of trust Serafine seemed to have in her, but she felt horrible knowing that she would lose that in a couple of minutes.
''Serafine…uh..'' Lexi began, she tried to remember the moves of her pokémon but it was like her entire head was filled with cotton, like her brain couldn't process the smallest bit of information.
''Sudowoodo, Rock Throw'' Jasper ordered, pointing his four fingered hand at Serafine.
''Serafine do…uh…do…Ember''
But the small ball of fire didn't seem to effect Sudowoodo in any way as he ran towards Serafine with a big rock between his branch-like arms. It let out a short cry as it flung the rock towards Serafine.
It seemed to hover in the air for ages, as Lexi followed it with her eyes. But when it eventually hit something, it was not Serafine but simply the ground.
The attack had missed. The rock had been too slow and Serafine was able to dodge it.
Lexi got some of her confidence back and smiled at her pokémon. She still had a chance to win, just because Pero couldn't do it, didn't mean Serafine would be unable to do it as well. She just had to make sure she wouldn't get hit.
Lexi straightened her back and ordered Serafine to use every long distance attack she had, while also dodging everything that got thrown at her.
And this technic worked for quite a while. Serafine graciously jumped around the room while fire shot around left and right.
But then it happened. Serafine tripped over a small crystal and before she could get back up, a big rock hit her side and she tumbled over. Serafine got up, breathing heavily. Her body was filled with scratches from the crystals and her shiny coat covered with dust.
Serafine looked at the sudowoodo and let out a deep snort. She opened her mouth, an orange glow forming between her teeth, and leaned backwards, putting all her weight on her hind legs to balance herself.
She was almost ready to shoot when another rock flew through the air, hitting her right on her chest, disrupting her attack and making her fall to the ground once more. But this time her eyes stayed closed and a voice echoed through the room.
''The ponyta is unable to battle, Jasper wins.''
Lexi could feel tears forming in her eyes and quickly wiped them away with her sleeve.
''Don't be too hard on yourself,'' Jasper said gesturing to Serafine. ''You tried your best, just made some novice mistakes.''
''I don't get it,'' Lexi murmured, ''I won every other battle I fought, what's so different about this one?''
''Well,'' Jasper started, ''First of all I'm not just another beginning trainer, I am a Gymleader. I have trained and battled for years, I'm not supposed to be easy to beat, if I would be, the victory wouldn't mean much, now would it?''
Jasper gave her a small smile before he continued. ''Your pokémon are strong, you have trained their strength well, but battling is more than strength alone, more than just attack and dodge. You can combine your moves or use those of your opponent against them. Use your environment to defend yourself or get the upper hand. Instead of staying away from the crystals you could have used them as a defense or even an attack, you could have used your moves to trap my Sudowoodo, or make it harder for him to move around.''
Jasper's voice got more flat as he proceeded ''I think you have only trained by battling other people, seeing the win or loss as a sign of growth or lack of it. But training is more than that. You have to train the entire pokémon, not just its power. You have to know its weaknesses and strengths in battle, improve your relationship with them, have a plan.''
It was silent for a couple of seconds as Lexi tried to take in all the information she had just been given. In some way she knew what he said was probably true, but she wasn't ready for it now. At the moment she was angry and disappointed with herself, and needed time alone.
''Now, I believe I had a second challenger. Why don't you come down boy'' Jasper waved towards the stands and Aiden hurried down. Lexi turned around and walked back to the red door.
Aiden tried to say some comforting words as they passed each other but Lexi took the egg from him without a word and kept walking till she reached the Pokémon Center. There she gave her pokéballs to Nurse Joy and sat down on a yellow bench to wait.
She mindlessly brushed with her hand over the egg as she thought about what happened. Maybe she should have waited and watched Aiden's battle. Would he get mad at her for not staying?
Lexi frowned and put the egg next to her. Pero would surely be angry at her, maybe Serafine as well. Did her parents feel this way as well if they lost a fight, or were they always a good sport, learning from their mistakes and moving on? Lexi wished she could do that, but it wasn't that easy to shake off the feeling of disappointment and regret.
Lexi looked up when she heard Nurse Joy call her name. ''Here you go, your pokémon are fine now. They might still be a bit tired, but that will go away after a night's rest. We hope to see you again!''
Lexi put the pokéballs back on her belt and walked to the door. Outside the temperature had started to rise even more and Lexi coughed as the dry air irritated her throat. She sat down on a metal bench which felt like it was on fire, and looked at the people and pokémon passing by. Some were carrying wooden planks or chairs, others boxes full of all kinds of colorful objects. Only rarely did she see a person with nothing in their hands.
Suddenly she saw someone walking towards her. It was Aiden. He helped someone who had accidently dropped a bucket with spray cans in it, then carefully sat down on the bench. They sat there in silence for a while till Lexi got too uncomfortable with the quietness.
''So…did you win or lose?'' Lexi asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Aiden looked at her for a moment before he replied. ''Yes, I did.'' Lexi could now see the small blue and grey badge pinned on his jacket. It consisted of 3 small blue circles put together, with in every circle a small greyish pebble.
She could feel her jealousy growing so she quickly looked back to the ground.
''But I do have to say that I probably wouldn't have won if it wasn't for you. Because of the advice Jasper gave to you, I was able to beat him. So…thanks.''
Lexi wanted to smile to him, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, she was still bothered by what had happened, and now she was jealous as well.
''Maybe you should talk about it you know, it could help.'' Aiden looked at her expectantly. Lexi thought for a moment. It felt like a huge risk to tell him anything and she would rather just talk about it with her mom, but he was her travel buddy, she should start trusting him a bit if she wanted them to become good friends.
''Well, I just feel disappointed,'' Lexi eventually admitted, ''I feel like I've let everyone down, like I'm not good enough. And I angry at myself for it.''
''I think it is logical you feel disappointed, everyone feels like that when they lose, it is normal. You had certain expectations and they weren't met. So just feel it, accept it and then let it go. And don't put so much pressure on yourself. No one expects you, a novice trainer, to just win every battle you enter. I mean you had a type disadvantage and everything.'' Aiden said with a serious look on his face, that disappeared as he added, ''Or something like that, my dad always says these things.''
Lexi thought about what Aiden had said and focused on her disappointment. It was normal to feel it, she had every right to, accept it and let it go. The pressure she had felt seemed to lessen a bit and Lexi let out a long sigh.
''Thanks Aiden, that helped.'' Aiden stood up from the bench and offered his hand to Lexi.
''I saw people set up some stalls, maybe we can look around a bit.'' Lexi nodded and together they walk towards the stalls. Lexi was probably still going to call her mom later, but for now, she felt better.
(_)
''Berries! Get your berries here! Great, tasty, juicy berries. Blue, green, red, every color you can imagine. Delicious and affordable!''
''Decorate your pokémon with the most beautiful ribbons and hats. Every pokémon deserves to shine! The very best of Crocuta's wares''
''Have your children broken everything you own? Is there no plate left in the house? Get these special Pinsir plates, super strong, almost indestructible!''
The market was incredibly busy. The sun had reached its highest point, making it almost impossible to find shade but nobody seemed to mind as they followed in the line of slowly moving people.
Lexi could barely hear herself think. There were dozens of stalls and everyone tried their best to sell their goods. There was a stall with powders and bottles completely draped in orange curtains with an old woman behind it, who was bickering with the man next to her because his pokédolls had fallen and broken one of her most expensive products.
On the opposite of that was a woman selling homemade pokémon food, which had such a strong smell that Lexi started to feel a little nauseous. But Aiden, who walked next to her, was very interested in everything and tried to make conversation with everyone he made eye contact with.
''Hey look!'' Aiden pointed, pulling her towards a stall. The lady behind it smiled widely, trying to seem friendly no doubt, but it just reminded Lexi of the Gengar doll her old friend Nat used to bring with him if he would sleepover. Lexi looked at the objects on the small table before her as the woman started talking.
''These are very special figurines, made from special wood from Vulpes Forrest. They use Nidoran to cut the wood which gives it this beautiful raw appearance. But don't worry, they are all sanded.''
Lexi picked up some of the figures to look at them a little better. They all looked very pretty, a bit coarse but still detailed enough to easily recognized the pokémon it was representing. There was a beautifly sitting on what was probably meant to be a log, a small machop holding something above his head, a pichu with his arms stretched out like he wanted a hug, but the one that Lexi was the most drawn to was a figurine that stood at the back, almost obscured by the other ones.
It was a zigzagoon. The figure was standing on all fours, looking up with its mouth slightly ajar. She picked it up and ran her fingers over it. Its bristly looking wooden fur actually felt really smooth.
''What do you have there?'' Aiden asked. Lexi showed him the zigzagoon and Aiden inspected it for a moment. ''Do you like it?''
''Yeah, I think so.'' Lexi looked at the small wooden figure in her hands and when she looked up she saw Aiden hand over some money to the woman behind the stall.
''You don't have to do that, I can pay for it myself'' Lexi reassured, but Aiden put up his hand and shook his head. ''No, this is a present.'' Aiden waved goodbye to the woman and continued down the path, ''A little gift to cheer you up. Now, let's go and have a fun, and tomorrow we will just go to the next town and start over.''