It had the effect she was hoping for, or perhaps dreading. In any case, a fire lit in Chihiro's eyes.
"Alright, that's the spirit!" The more she thought about it, the more excited she seemed to get. "Yeah, lets do this!"
Yun tried not to regret her spur of the moment idea. This might even be a good thing, it would give her valuable experience and when she lost she wouldn't lose that much money as she barely had any right now. Silver linings.
The older girl recalled her starter and released Desmond. "We're packing, old guy."
"You seem chipper." The psychic commented but didn't ask anything. He could read their minds so he probably already knew what was going on, Yun thought. Similarly Chihiro didn't reply, she just hummed as she started taking down her tent. Hers was a proper tent.
Yun had a lot less work with her own. The weather had been gentle so she hadn't required a tarp. Now it was just a matter of folding it up. After she was done she sat on the ground waiting for the ranger to finish up. Usually she would offer to help but Desmond was already helping by using his psychic abilities to levitate the parts of the tent while Chihiro packed them. It kept her from having to bend down to much, Yun realized.
Soaking up the morning sun, she stroked Tenno's feathers to calm her nerves. She prayed her Pokémon would at least do well against Roark.
"Aro?" A quiet call sounded behind her.
Yun turned her head to see over her shoulder and wasn't even surprised to see the little metal Pokémon standing a short distance behind her.
"Back again?" She questioned. "Nelly isn't here right now."
Shifting her position until she was half facing the little Aron, she held out her hand and the Pokémon took a few steps forward to inspect it. Strangely, Tenno didn't react to the other creature at all, but simply cocked his head. Perhaps it didn't look mean enough.
"You're a curious baby Pokémon aren't you." She coed.
"That's not a baby"
Yun startled when she heard the psychic's mechanical voice enter her mind and plucked her hand back as if she was just caught doing something stupid. Then she turned to look at the unevolved Pokémon again. Weren't Aron a little bigger? This one wouldn't reach her knee, and while she had never before seen one in real life she had imagined the steel type more impressive somehow.
"It's not?" At the arrival of the psychic the armored Pokémon had lowered it's head like a bull preparing to strike. Cradling Tenno to her chest, Yun decided it was a good idea to get up just then. Small or not, that thing weighted more than her, one headbutt to her shins and they would break.
"Not at all. Pokémon ages work different than those of humans and even among the different species there is a big variability. Your Tenno is like a child, your starter perhaps a teenager but this Aron is likely older than you and a proper adult."
"Oh. Can you tell me why it's here?" She wondered out loud.
"Isn't that obvious?" It was Chihiro who answered with a meaningful wink to Yun as she appeared behind her fully packed.
A few seconds passed before Yun caught on. "Oooh... Oh no."
There was no distinct reason why she shouldn't have an Aron... later on. But her friend had explained to her the merits of keeping her team small. The more Pokémon you had the slower their growth would be, which had immediately made sense to her. She had recalled the boy that had goaded her to go off route. With no badge and three Pokémon, he had beaten her with numbers but the two Reign had battled with had been one trick ponies. Since her own team was fairly independent, the ranger had suggested an absolute maximum of three Pokémon until she had a few badges under her belt. She planned to follow this advice and her heart was still set on a water type.
"Sorry buddy, no can do."
The pleading look the blue eyed Pokémon gave her was a bit heartbreaking but her mind was made up. Aron had a double weakness against ground-type which two of Roark's Pokémon happened to be. Besides, Reign already knew iron tail. She released Tenno onto her shoulder and turned to Chihiro, ready to leave.
"Roo-o." A soft cry, similar to the one that made her enter the mine, called out to her.
"I'm such a sap." She grumbled.
Chihiro stifled a laugh as Yun recalled her bird and shrugged off her backpack to grab her last empty Pokéball. With a little uncertainty she stepped towards the wild Pokémon and bend down her knee while offering it the Pokéball.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into... but welcome to the team, friend." She said with a begrudgingly fond voice.
Though it wasn't what she had in mind a part of her was still somewhat flattered by a Pokémon that really wanted to be caught by her. Reign had gotten saddled with her and had no choice in the matter and Tenno hadn't seen it coming at all but had simply been too weak to resist capture. It was nice to know that one of her Pokémon actually chose her. So now that she was starting to accept the idea, she was excited for the new addition to her party. The Pokéball activated as she pressed the white button against the Aron's forehead. The steel type happily closed it's blue eyes as it disappeared in a beam of red.
"What are you going to call it?"
Yun shrugged. "I'll figure that out after I get to know it." The Pokéball was now oddly heavy as she attached it to her belt. Despite what she said, Yun allowed herself a glance at her new member's Pokédex entry.
Her eyebrows steadily rose as she processed the information presented to her. Level 23? That was higher than she would have guessed and higher than her badge clearance. Then again, she was the original trainer... It was also a female, information Yun stored away for later when she needed to come up with a name.
"I probably don't even have to tell you this but you shouldn't be using a newly caught Pokémon in a gym battle." Chihiro had a stern look in her eye.
In a placating motion Yun nodded vigorously, not even tempted as she knew nothing of the Aron. She dropped her Pokédex back in the pocket of her coat at the same time Chihiro turned away towards her psychic.
"Alright then, lets go Desmond. We've got a gym to challenge!"
Before Yun could comprehend what was happening, the old mine site disappeared and Oreburgh city greeted her. They had teleported straight to the Gym and it's large entrance loomed before her. Sudden and sharp, panic started to rise in Yun. She had mistakenly assumed they would walk back and now her time to prepare herself mentally and evaluate her strategy was cut short. Very short.
"Here we ar- drat, I should have let Nakamura-san know we were leaving." The ranger deflated. Then the older girl pulled out her phone and started typing while murmuring. "Oh well, he'll figure it out sooner or later."
Connecting the dots, Yun figured Nakamura was the ranger standing guard over the nature reserve and was appalled at Chihiro's lack of proper communication with her colleague. However she didn't get to dwell on it as the older girl turned to her.
"You ready?"
Suddenly feeling queasy she started stuttering. "Y-yep. Ready as I'll e-ever be."
With a knowing look the ranger patted her shoulder. "You'll do fine, trust me." Then she steered her inside. The automatic doors opened and she vividly imagined them being the jaws of an Onix, ready to swallow her whole.
He doesn't always use the Onix, Chihiro had explained, only when you try to usurp him with fighting, ground or steel types. With Onix' iron clad defense against physical moves, even types that had an advantage over it wouldn't hurt it too much. She just needed to make sure she didn't reveal her trump card too early.
"We're here for a gym battle. I take it we won't need an appointment." Her friend addressed the receptionist. The bored looking guy wearing a tell tale beige shirt sighed before looking up. To Yun's surprise, he seemed to know her and immediately started chatting excitedly.
"If it isn't our number one fan. Here for some nostalgia? Unfortunately, it's been pretty quite since most trainers from this year already have their coal badge. So not many battles to watch I'm afraid. We've got the occasional sponsored kid coming in but they're few and far in between. If you come back in January, people will be queuing fo-"
Chihiro held u her hand. "Hold on, we're not here to watch. I mean, I guess I am but she," the older girl pointed at Yun who tried to hide behind her, "is looking to challenge the Gym."
The receptionist's eyes lit up. "I see, Roark will be happy to hear it. Training card please."
With shaking hands, she gave the card to him and he inserted it into a reader.
"Number of Pokémon you're carrying?"
"Three." She answered hoarsely. Then he returned her card.
"You're all set. Let me notify Roark, he should be nearby. In the mean time you can go through that door, walk to the end of the hallway and take the last door to your right, it will take you to the battlefield."
She turned to Chihiro, expecting the girl to take the lead but she just shook her head. "I won't be following you, I'll be heading to the stands."
With the prospect of walking in alone, her nerves increased tenfold but she bid the other girl as well as the receptionist goodbye with a somewhat steady voice. Then she took off, hurrying to try and stay ahead of the nerves. The instructions she had received led her to a large plain dirt field. There were white lines sprayed upon the ground that marked the battle area, a few boulders placed about and far off the the side there was a raised platform for the stands. Other than that there was nothing distinctive about the place she would be fighting the Gym leader at.
"Hello, hello, welcome to my Gym."
She nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice interrupter her inspections.
"Hi." She croaked, her throat feeling incredibly dry as she took in the Gym leader.
The warm smile he wore underneath a construction helmet did nothing for her nerves but she attempted to steel her resolve either way.
The young gym leader tipped his hat towards Chihiro, who had quietly taken place in the stands, before turning his attention back to his challenger.
"I trust you know the rules but just in case I will repeat them. The victor will be decided when the last Pokémon of the opposing team is unable to continue the fight. The challenger is allowed to substitute their Pokémon while the defender, that's me, is not. You may use up to six Pokémon, I am limited to three. No items are allowed during the battle nor will there be time-outs. Do you have any questions?"
She shook her head, not trusting her voice.
With that out of the way, Roark released his first Pokémon and Yun knew what it was going to be before the glow around the Pokémon faded. Geodude, he always opened with one of his Geodudes. If she was lucky, his second Pokémon would also be a Geodude.
Roark had a three way strategy to deal with overconfident trainers relying on their type advantage. One of Geodudes knew thunder punch, the other fire punch. If you didn't come at him with a water or grass type, Roark would limit them to two other moves. For the more physical opponents he had his Onix and all of that was thrown at a challenger before he even released his final and strongest Pokémon, Cranidos.
Yun took a deep shaky breath and released Tenno. No matter which of the Geodudes stood before her, Tenno would stay well out of reach of any type of punches.
"Alright Tenno," She called out sounding rather shrill even to her own ears, "you know the drill, do your best." The flying type dipped his head in understanding and started circling, taking in his opponent en surroundings.
Roark raised an eyebrow at her when she gave no further instructions to her bird.
"Rock throw." He ordered.
His Pokémon molded a piece of rock between it's hands and threw it high. The Pokémon's moves were slow but once the rock was launched it flew with impressive speed. With a surprised squawk, Tenno barely managed to dodge, losing a few feathers in his hurried getaway.
"Careful, you can't get hit by that." It was probably unnecessary to remind him, but Yun felt she needed to say something.
In retaliation the bird spat out a blob of fire, something they had been training to make more powerful. It hit the Pokémon dead center as it didn't even try to dodge. The fire also seemed to have little effect besides a few blackened scorch marks. But Yun knew that and had warned Tenno about it. They were going to have to chip away at the rock types, little by little.
Knowing only quick attack, peck and ember. The fire move was the only one actually able to hurt the defensive Pokémon, even if it wasn't by much.
So he spat out three more embers in rapid succession, all hitting their mark, before Roark decided to intervene.
"Protect yourself with your arms."
The rock creature covered his main body with is long arms and large hands, leaving nothing of it's front exposed. Yun found it odd that the Geodude wouldn't defend itself on it's own initiative. It just took those three attacks without even moving. The fire now expelled on the rock types arms, seeming to have even less effect than before.
"Circle around, and go for it's back."
The stone like creature was anything but flexible and Yun had an inkling it's arms wouldn't be able to cover it's back if it tried. Tenno responded immediately and changed directions to fly around the Geodude, squarely hitting it's back with the next ember. It rocked forward a bit with the force of the attack and that was the first sign that their efforts had any effect.
Roark allowed a few more of those hits before he instructed his Pokémon once more.
"Spin."
Geodude was slow, but it was able to spin a lot faster than Yun would have guessed. Tenno kept trying to go for it's back but only managed it half of the time. To make it worse the spinning dispelled most of the fire. Yun wasn't sure whether waiting it out would be worth it. Would the Geodude even get nauseous from all that spinning like people would? For all she knew it could go on forever.
Tenno lost his patience before she did and dived for the rock type, attempting to peck it.
"Rock throw."
Cold dread prevented her from shouting out to her bird as the Geodude unfurled to form it's move. This would be over in one hit.
But she underestimated the speed of her bird. Tenno unleashed an ember close range, right in the rock type's face and then flicked it's body to the side with the furious beating of it's wings to avoid the retaliating blow.
Chihiro started cheering loudly and Yun felt her cheeks heating in pride.
"Well done, Tenno!" She called. The Geodude was trembling now and with the possibility of victory looming over her, she started to gain confidence. "One more, Tenno, finish it!"
In response, the little bird inhaled deeply to release the next ember.
Only nothing but smoke left it's beak, his fire power all used up. With barely any pause, Tenno folded his wings and shot to his opponent like arrow. There would be no avoiding it, he had to make contact with the Geodude to keep on attacking.
"Another rock throw." Roark instructed coolly.
"No!"
AN: Any suggestions on a name for the Aron? I have no inspiration...
A bit of explanation on the sponsored trainer bit. You might have thought if there are only seven candidates it's very unlikely for Yun to be running into other trainers. However as in the games even toddlers can challenge you to a battle, I imagine anyone can own Pokémon and battle with them. They just can't all challenge the gyms unless they are old enough and sign up for the badge circuit. Which they can do at the beginning of every year in this story. Sponsored trainers are allowed to start earlier, at the end of their school year. Also I imagine there being more than one school in Sinnoh, how many and if students get sponsored depends on the type of school (league regulated) and it's size. It's very hard to write this type of info in the story as Yun and everybody else is a local and they're already familiar with all of this so there's no need for a 'canon' explanation. This part is easier when you do an SI.