Maylene was a nightmare to fight. The young woman wiped the floor with her and afterwards, Yun fully understood why this was the point in the gym circuit where almost 50% of the trainers quit. She wasn't even nice about it and had plainly mentioned Yun should just give up. Apparently she lacked spunk or something like that. Yun admitted she had been too crushed by the devastating defeat to really pay attention to what the older girl was saying.
It had been like a smack in the face, a winning streak against other trainers on the way to Veilstone had made her overconfident, no longer used to being challenged. It had started out so well too. Tenno had taken out her Meditite in record time, then her Machoke followed suit -though with a bit more trouble- but then her Lucario had trounced all three of her Pokémon, one after the other. Only Twinkle had managed to stand her ground for a little while, a miracle considering her double weakness, but eventually, she too caved to it's relentless onslaught of attacks.
So now she found herself somewhere well into route 210, known for being particularly long and winding, knee deep in a gentle stream while the summer sun peeked though the foliage. It was like walking your Growlithe, Yun mused as she watched her fish looping around her legs.
With no immediately goals, now that she had run into the wall called Maylene, she had turned her focus on Fish's recovery in between training her team. The process was going a lot slower than Yun had imagined it would, having hoped to be able to re-home him after she had reached Veilstone city.
But even now, almost a month after she had saved him, traces of his condition still clung to him. At least he was a lot more responsive and active than before. Darting through the small river with great enthusiasm before hurrying back to her side. He recognized her too, because he avoided other people near him but never her. He seemed happy every time she released him for food or a swim and it gave Yun a certain sense of peace, knowing she was doing something right.
She reached in the water and stroked her hand over his healing skin, something he seemed to enjoy, the scales hadn't fully grown back and it still looked pink. It might be one big scar, like the pink white line running along her eyelid, but she had hope that as a Pokémon his healing capacity was better than hers.
Maybe, she was just making excuses for herself, maybe she didn't really want to release him.
She shook her head, she just couldn't see herself moving forward with a fish on her team. Just about three months had passed since she had started training. The weather was still nice for now but she could feel the chill in the air when the sun was lowering in the sky, announcing the impeding arrival of autumn. There was no way she'd enjoy these trips through the water as much anymore, let alone when it was winter.
Straightening her back, she decided to move out of the creek. Reign and Tenno were waiting in a tree, sitting on the same branch, while Twinkle was -surprisingly- at the water's edge. Though her typing was supposed to make her at least weary of water, Twinkle had a strange fascination with the guest on their team. The usually quite and inanimate member of her little gang had taken to lingering nearby every time Yun released her charge and would occasionally even start chatting with him.
And it looked like, Yun surveyed as bubbles rose to the surface around Fish, he was talking back. She shrugged and decided to let them be for a little while as she dried off her legs and switched her new water proof sandals for her hiker boots.
"Alright guys, back to training."
She recalled Fish and made sure her three Pokémon stood at attention.
"Tenno, we're going to work on your agility some more." Her bird slumped and Yun fully understood why, they've been working on the same thing ever since they lost to Maylene. But the truth was that to press his flying type advantage, Tenno needed to get up close, this had led him straight into the waiting arms of the Machoke. The injuries he sustained from that encounter had slowed him down during the battle with the Lucario where he could have used ember from a safe distance if he had still been in a good shape.
If he was going to face the same opponents again, he needed to be so overwhelmingly fast and flexible, that he could strike and back out before his opponent could retaliate. She had him fly and loop around the trees as fast as he could to practice, something that undoubtedly bored him to bits. She often caught him sneaking longing glances to where his teammates were actually batteling.
"After that, let's see you put all that training to the test against a worthy opponent."
The offer made him brighten up immediately and he flew off to get to work. She would have to put in some effort to actually find this opponent as none of the Pokémon on route posed much of a challenge for her team anymore. Perhaps if she went a little off route, with two badges she was now allowed to do that in certain area's.
"Reign, you know the drill."
He nodded and scampered off to find local Pokémon to challenge. His job was simple, to win as many battles as he could. Against Maylene, she had sort of sidelined her starter, thinking there wasn't much he could offer against the gym leader's larger, battle hardened, Pokémon. So she had called on him when her other Pokémon had been defeated, against the Lucario, the absolute worst opponent for him.
Lucario could not be poisoned, but the other two could be. And she had been wrong to lean too heavily on one of her Pokémon for victory, effectively tiring him out before the toughest battle had even begun. Next time, she was planning on sending in Reign first to poison Maylene's team and then send it either Twinkle or Tenno to deliver the finishing blow.
Reign's venom would develop and become more potent as he grew, so all he could do to train was gain to gain as much experience as possible.
"Twinkle, let's look for those Geodudes again."
There was no visible respons from her but when Yun turned to leave she followed along just the same. She still required the most hands on approach to train and Yun was now coaching her to use iron head from an angle instead of head's on. It would be nice if she could catch either the Machoke or Lucario in the shins to slow them down but she shouldn't be too obvious about it, too easy to block or dodge.
Geodudes, much like her steel type, preferred not to move to much, that made them ideal targets for the early stages of Twinkle's practice. She had her circle around and zigzag towards them before using iron head. Unfortunately, after two weeks of the same thing, Twinkle showed no signs of doing this unprompted. Still choosing for a straightforward rush whenever attacking by herself. So they couldn't move on from Geodudes to more nimble opponents. At least she was attacking off her own accord by now, there was that.
At this points, Yun was considering to teach the steel type code words for certain manoeuvres, it might be faster than waiting for her to become comfortable with making her own split second decisions during a fight.
Twinkle blinked up at her after defeating yet another Geodude and Yun bend down to pet her head. "It's a good thing you're such a good Pokémon, you know."
She didn't say anything back but Yun didn't think she imaged the way her blue eyes curved in what might have been a smile.
During the day, she checked in on her other Pokémon regularly, making sure to never stray too far from them. As the sun started hanging low in the sky she gathered the three of them and ventured off route for the first time since before she even had a single badge. For now, all but Reign had been returned to their Pokéballs as she scanned the area.
"Mhm, you see anything that would make your teammate happy?" Yun ventured conversationally.
They were looking for a tougher than usual opponent. She could have traveled a bit further back to challenge another trainer but there was no guarantee she wouldn't end up against a team of six Magikarp again. There was a surprising number of trainers who thought it was funny or inspiring to try this.
Reign kept an eye out but as the hours progressed and the sunlight became weaker, neither of them found a strong Pokémon to challenge.
Instead it found them.
A soft zooming sound was her only warning before she was knocked to the ground. She barely managed to roll out of range as a green blur descended on her. Suddenly Reign was there, taking a wide stance before her and shooting pin missile liberally.
She recognized the human sized Pokémon just as it swatted Reign aside. Scyther. It dashed for her again and she rolled over once more but not before it's claws managed to tear a gash open on her cheek.
A click was followed by the release of Tenno and the bird wasted no time in rounding on the other Pokémon. Yun scampered to her feet to appraise the battle. The outcome should have been predictable, with the Pokémon's weakness to both fire and flying type moves. However, the Scyther was fast, even faster than Tenno, and managed to blend into it's surroundings perfectly, confusing even Yun in it's movements.
It tried to get to her two more times, both times Tenno and Reign stopped it's advance, before realizing it would have to take out her Pokémon before it could do that. Her heart was hammering in her chest as both her boys fought to keep the green beast at bay. With a trembling hand she touched her damaged cheek and grimaced as her fingers came back red with blood.
She watched her Pokémon struggle with an opponent that was clearly several levels their senior and was caught in a sense of déjà vu. It was similar to the last time she had gone of route, faced with an impossibly strong foe.
Tenno received a cut to his chest when he attempted to hit the Scyther with acrobatics, Reign retaliated with a poison sting but was send flying with a strong kick for his efforts. An ember hit it's mark and the scyther changed direction toward Tenno. He managed to kick off the branch he had been resting on just in time to avoid another devastating slash. The branch was cut clean off the tree's trunk.
Then Reign was there again with an iron tail aimed at it's legs in an attempt to slow it down. The Scyther disappeared so fast, Yun saw nothing but a blur move. Then it was in front of her, dark gleaming eyes meeting hers with a glare. Her breath caught in her throat.
It was so much like last time.
Except it wasn't.
Another click signaled Twinkle's release and in that moment she didn't need explaining. A well aimed rock tomb knocked the bug type back into the waiting wings of Tenno. It retaliated with a series of wild slashes to fend of the bird and Yun's eyes relaxed and her breath evened out.
She watched as her team worked together to herd the much faster opponent into each other's attacks. Tenno was twisting and twirling around the Scyther with a deftness and experience he hadn't possessed during the first encounter. Reign his shell had hardened and his poison had become more potent. When she Scyther's movement started losing some of it's grace, she knew it was starting to take effect.
It wasn't the same, her team was not the same.
Tenno feinted a dive to the Scyther, making it dash to it's right where Reign set off a series of pin missiles that guided the bug type backwards straight into another rock tomb. Then it stumbled and Tenno capitalized on it's weakness to fire a strong ember. The Scyther hit the ground with a muted thud in the same moment that Twinkle started glowing.
Blood dribbled down her cheeks sluggishly as her mouth opened in shock. "T-Twinkle?"
The blinding light receded to reveal she had easily tripled in size, her steel armor ran down her back in plates with large spiked jutting out from her spine. Her legs had become sturdier with the new addition of claws adorning her feet and a small tail completed the transformation.
"Wow." She breathed in awe. The second evolution on her team wasn't any less monumental then the first.
"Laaai!" The expression on Twinkle's face was rather comical, looking easily just as surprised as Yun. Her mouth hung open to reveal a row of tiny but sharp teeth.
Tenno settled on a nearby branch and was chirping something at her while Reign opted to stray much closer and poked her hind leg inquisitively.
"Twinkle?" Yun ventured to hold out her hand. There was always the question of how much an evolution might change a Pokémon.
Tenno had remained himself for the most part, though he had matured and became less inclined to challenge everything that breathed his way. Or perhaps it was simple that not every battle was as challenging to him anymore as back when he was a pint sized baby bird.
At first glance, her steel type appeared more expressive than before. Then again, her metal armor was no longer covering all of her face.
Twinkle looked at her hand, blinked twice and then bounded over to knock her head against Yun's open palm. Pins and needles ran though her arm as the metal collided roughly with her hand but Yun smiled regardless when Twinkle closed her eyes contently.
Then her legs buckled and she collapsed to the grass, snoring peacefully, completely worn out.
It was not the same, she surmised while sitting on the ground with her newly evolved Pokémon sleeping soundly. A quiet had descended on the clearing in the aftermath of the battle, the defeated Scyther was lying a little ways off from where they were and Yun know it was better to move on before it woke up. So she recalled Twinkle, allowed Reign to climb up her shoulder and carried Tenno so he wouldn't feel left out.
She would travel to a campsite so a ranger could take a look at her cheek and probably lecture her about being so careless. The thought made her smile.
Yes, things had changed.
She was no longer so helpless and no longer so scared.
AN: Well, I wrote this (small) time-skip right before a review brought to my attention that I might be going through the story a bit too fast, oops. Anyway, it prompted me to read through the whole thing in one go and yeah... I do see it. The pacing is a tad off. It's just that I'm trying to go somewhere with this story and I never thought it would take me 20+ chapters to get there xD patience has never been my virtue. But I should have added a bit of training here, and a tad of character building there. For now, I'll focus on the new chapters but I might go back and flesh out the old ones some day.
Anyway I wanted to take this moment to thank all reviewers again, I'm amazed (not to mention grateful) when people go out of their way to tell me they are enjoying my little story and I'm always happy with new insights.