AN: Rough week, this is unedited and I definitely haven't managed to proofread. Sorry for any and all mistakes.
After one more week, Yun was forced to return to Veilstone city because her supplies were running out. And while the noises of Sinnoh's wildlife scampering around in the underbrush no longer scared her, she could not say the same for deafening sounds of the city.
Situated so close to the northern sea and with it's natural stone walls embracing half of the city, the climate here was always a bit colder than in most other cities, barring Snowpoint. Yun found herself having to put on her jacket for the first time in a while.
The city was brimming with soon to be trainers when she got there. Summer camps were over and school wouldn't start again for all twelve-year-olds applying for the upcoming season. They weren't allowed to challenge the gym circuit just yet but that didn't stop them from testing their chances against certified trainers.
It was like that before but now, with autumn beginning and the start of the season coming closer, the kids their excitement was practically palpable. Yun was challenged eleven times before she even made it to Veilstone's department store. She took a deep breath to steady herself before perusing the store's impressive selection of goods.
Having been there before, she knew this place was nothing like a Pokémart. Sure, anything you could find in a Pokémart, you could just as well get here but that wasn't true the other way around. It was like Jubilife's shopping district had gathered into one building. If you couldn't find what you were looking for here, then you weren't going to find it anywhere.
It took longer than usual for her to restock her supplies, because she kept getting distracted by new wares in almost every aisle. But the combination of her parents' strict upbringing in handling her finances and her limited bag space kept her from buying any useless trinkets. Except for an adorable Skorupi pin. But it didn't take up much space, one of the reason's she had used to convince herself, instead it was attached to the outside of her bag, and it was so cute.
That was it... and a whistle that supposedly recalled bird Pokémon from a long distance, not that Tenno ever had trouble finding his way back to her before but,... better safe than sorry. Plus it was golden with little copper flames on it, so basically a must have for a fire-flying type. Another must have was the nourishing steel polish for Twinkle's armor, she was definitely looking a little less shiny after a few weeks in the outdoors.
So... after her exclusively necessary shopping, Yun took to hiding her Pokébelt and gloves so she could pass as a regular kid to make her way to the Center.
Thanks to her small stature and lack of any other features that stood out, she managed to get there unbothered. Other's were not so lucky, and she caught more than one trainer looking absolutely harassed with some even having people lining up to challenge them.
With the influx of soon to be trainers, the prices of a room made her wince but she booked one anyway. The eleven victories, while dull, exhausting and not very rewarding, had at least given her enough profit to stay the night. Most of these kids had just received their first Pokémon, as it was the time of the year for sale season in starter stores. And so they were like Yun had been in the very beginning, extremely inexperienced.
It really drove home the advantage that sponsored trainers were given above everybody else. It would take her year-mates a long time to catch up to her. She knew that in later stages of the gym circuit the difference mattered little as a few months more or less meant nothing compared to years of training. They were expected to have the most explosive growth in the first few month anyway, after that it became a slow grind for experience. But she also knew that statistically, sponsored trainers made it further than the non sponsored ones.
It was with relief that she closed the door behind her and enjoyed the relative peace and quite of her room, even though it was the middle of the day.
She would go out again, she decided, once she steeled herself properly for the press of the mass. Reign could use the practice and many starters were around his size. That and Twinkle still needed to adjust to her new proportions and what better way than to do so than facing harmless baby Pokémon. Though facing an experienced trainer would probably pay off more immediately.
But before she did that, she would allow herself to relax a little and read up on Lairon's Pokédex entry. Settling back on her bed, she also pondered about building her team.
After much deliberation and not without mixed feelings, she decided that she was going to spend Akane's victory money after all. It was just sitting there at the moment, waiting to be stolen like last time. Better to invest it in something for her team, something that couldn't be easily taken from her, something like a good TM.
This time it would be for Twinkle. Logically, she should choose Tenno as the second member of her team and she would have too if he had had a more diverse move pool to choose from. As it stood, most of the moves a Fletchinder could learn through TM were fire, flying or normal type -which he already had acces to-, or non-beneficial stuff like rain dance. While Twinkle's spread of options was much more interesting.
She had two major candidates she was considering. The first being the obvious earthquake, she had seen enough league battles wherein this move was showcased to know it deserved respect. With it, Twinkle's limited mobility was a non issue and she would pack quite the punch with her natural strength.
Then she had another, let's say... weirder preference. Shock wave. She knew that Twinkle would never be able to cause as much damage with this move as an actual electric type, and it didn't mesh well with her usual attack style. But - she wouldn't be in this dilemma if there wasn't a but- shock wave never missed and she wouldn't have to move an inch to use it. On top of that it gave the whole team more coverage as they had no effective way of dealing with water types now and two of her Pokémon had a type weakness against them.
Not to mention that Crasher wave was the next gym leader to challenge after Maylene, Yun just had to believe they would get past her, so this would really help her along in the future.
The logical part of her said earthquake would pay off more in the future, but the part of her that wanted to advance now really preferred shock wave. Maybe she could have Twinkle choose, if Yun could figure out her answer. She smiled as she imagined releasing her Lairon in the department store, that would surely earn her a few dirty looks.
Perhaps a few good battles would give her the inspiration she sought.
Mind made up, she donned her gloves and belt once more and even pinned her two badges to her shirt for good measure. That would get the competition going, and hopefully attract the attention of slightly more experienced trainers.
"Hey, you little girl! Let's battle."
Yun grimaced when a loud cheeky brat pointed at her the second she was out the door. Even at first glance, she could tell he was not the competition she had been hoping for.
"You're shorter than me, kid." She deadpanned while trying to asses whether he was her age or even younger. With two Pokémon on his belt, he could be preparing for the season, he might have already started like her or- she thought as she eyed his immaculate designer sneakers- he could be one of those rich kids allowed to play with Pokémon well before their time.
"Am not!" He denied. "I'll show you who's short after my Pokémon beat you to the ground."
He reminded her of the boys in her class. They would shout about their awesomeness from the rooftops, willing everybody around to listen. So different from most girls she knew, who hid their ambitions and then secretly reveled in every milestone they reached, every person they beat. Yun wondered if she would ever have the confidence to causally admit to being better than somebody else.
She wasn't quite at that point, and might not ever be, but she also refused to submit to this kids taunts. So she tucked in her chin and replied with a phrase her father enjoyed tossing around now and then. "The man that once did sell the dragon's skin, while the beast lived, was killed by hunting him."
There was a perverse satisfaction in watching his brows furrow before his mouth slowly opened as he deciphered her words.
"You- well, whatever! Let's fight!"
Except for Gym battles, the challenger would always release their Pokémon first so Yun waited with choosing her Pokémon until the boy selected one of the two Pokéballs he had with him.
"Get her, Jester." He grumbled.
When the light cleared, Yun was faced by a Pokémon she did not recognize. It was feline with dark navy fur accentuated by white ends, a faint static reached Yun's ears from where the creature was standing. There was nothing particularly eye catching about this Pokémon and she guessed it had to be either normal or fairy type. Faced with an unknown opponent, she hesitated a bit before calling on Twinkle, her most defensive Pokémon. Perhaps she was being too cautious, but nothing would sting more than losing to a kid she had essentially written off the moment she had laid eyes on him.
The boy gasped when her Lairon entered the scene and Yun reminded herself that while not on the same level as a rare Milotic, her steel type was not a common sight. Especially when evolved.
Twinkle eyed her opponent with hooded eyes, assessing the situation and waiting for her opponent to make the first move. Yun for once opted to do the same.
"Get it with confusion!"
Wrong choice. Not that the attack itself would harm the steel type that much, but if she got confused, the battle could easily take a turn for the worst, depending on how long it would take hold. Yun scrambled for an order that would prevent this but she knew the moment the beam of psychic energy was released that Twinkle was too slow to evade it.
The attack almost seemed to bounce off her armor and Twinkle, thankfully, looked mostly unimpressed.
"Aw, man." She heard the boy mutter.
"Iron head, left."
She charged the unknown Pokémon from the right and Yun smiled. They had practiced some commands before resurfacing from route 210. One of the few Twinkle executed reliably was when Yun called 'left or right' and she went in the opposite direction before switching to the original side in the last moment.
Yun gleefully anticipated the switch and grinned when Twinkle threw herself to the side and... missed. The blue feline had seemingly known what it's opponent had planned to do and had moved out of the way well before Twinkle could touch it.
"Haha, nice try but you didn't actually think that such a basic trick would pull the wool over Jester's eyes, did you?"
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes she did the mature thing, and stuck out her tongue.
It wasn't entirely impossible that the creature had made a lucky guess but something about it bothered Yun. It had started moving away before Twinkle had even changed course... Confusion, the ever present static. Her eyes widened minutely when she figured it out. It wasn't fairy type, it was a psychic.
This complicated things, Twinkle wasn't terribly fast to begin with and now they had lost the element of surprise. She frowned at her opponent. There was no way of knowing how strong of a psychic this thing was, it hadn't talked yet and while that didn't mean it couldn't, it gave Yun hope that it wasn't a fully developed psychic.
"Twinkle, use rock tomb, over and over, don't stop even when you're attacked."
Not every psychic could teleport, in fact it tended to be rather rare, and Yun was relying on the chance that the feline Pokémon couldn't do it. She was proven right when the furry creature scrambled to stay ahead of the falling rocks, taking a glancing hit here and there. Yun happily ignored the counter commands the boy screamed at his Pokémon. Confident in the fact that she had turned this into a battle of endurance, a categorie few could rival Twinkle in.
The occasional retaliating hits that came her way didn't do much damage and often came at the cost of the psychic's evasion. It wasn't long before the feline stumbled and fell beneath another onslaught of rocks.
Yun grinned in victory when the boy recalled his Pokémon with a pout. This was the first psychic she had battled and her team had come out on top. Twinkle was panting in exertion, having gotten a proper work out, so she recalled her for the next round.
Less confident now, the boy released his final Pokémon.
This time it was Yun's turn to be surprised, not because she didn't recognize it, no, precisely because she did. "Are you for real? A dragon?!"
She wasn't the only one who noticed the new arrival, a crowd was starting to gather around them accompanied by notable excitement. Some trainers would go their entire career without ever even seeing a dragon, letting alone battle one.
The boy, so confident before, now seemed to visibly wilt under the attention.
"Ugh, yeah... well. Nova is pretty new to the team." He gestured towards his Gible.
Yun released Reign, despite not having the best type match for the battle. If Reign couldn't finish it off, then he could still poison the dragon and make Tenno's job easier.
"You know the drill, Reign." He would always focus on poisoning first and damage second.
The boy appeared to have gathered his wits and squared his shoulders.
"Let's try this again. Dragon rage!"
"Careful, Reign!"
There was no need for the warning as the Gible hadn't visibly responded to it's trainer's command at all nor did it have any attention for it's opponent. It was angrily staring down the crowd with a low warning growl.
"Come on, girl! Focus." The young boy shouted, cheeks quickly reddening.
Reign didn't seem to know what to think of the situation and bounced on his legs uncertainly, hopping a little closer to his adversary with each bounce. Eventually, while it's trainer continued to shout orders in the background, Reign struck with his stinger landing a clear hit.
That prompted a reaction as the dragon, she instantly turned around and spat out a blob of blue fire that Reign narrowly managed to dodge. Like a barrier had been lifted, the dragon suddenly only had eyes for the battle and started a full on brawl with the scorpion Pokémon. It was a good thing Reign was faster, the Gible's current form much slower and ungainly compared to it's evolved species, so the bug managed to stay mostly unharmed.
"Use sand attacks! Sand attack!"
The Gible did no such thing and kept trying to tackle and burn the more agile bug. Reign needed no commands, using poison sting whenever he could and he managed to use iron tail on the dragon's small legs once, slowing it further down.
When the Gible started blinking rapidly and shaking it's head a few times, Yun smiled. It was over.
When the creature started swaying, Yun felt her confidence rise. Then it started growling and before she could fully register what was happening a bright blue fire filled her vision. It was only instinct, one she gained dealing with wild Pokémon regularly over the past few months, that allowed her to duck just in time for the fire to pass overhead.
"Nova, what did you do?! You can't- ack!" The boy had to jump aside to avoid another dragon breath aimed at himself.
A murmur coursed through the crowd, catching the Gible's attention and making it turn it's head. A few more dragon breaths were released towards the onlookers and the frantic shouting of the trainer were joined by a few panicked screams as not all managed to dodge. An older boy had to rip off his burning sweater and toss it to the ground while stomping on it, another kid's hair was smoking nearby.
In the midst of the chaos, Reign was hovering nearby the dragon, uncertain and all but forgotten.
"Recall it!" Yun yelled but her voice was drowned out by the noise of the crowd. "Reign finish it!" She then tried.
His hearing was perhaps much better than that of people or maybe it was because he was closer but he spurred himself into action. He aimed the next iron tail to the back of the Gible's head. It connected hard, making the dragon's eyes roll backwards as it collapsed to the ground.
"Well..." She tried to say something to diffuse the tension but with all eyes turned on her, she quickly found herself turning red in the face. "I, uh, that was definitely something else, huh?"
A few chuckled, other's just looked at her. The boy that had challenged her kept his eyes firmly planted on the ground.
She turned to her Pokémon for comfort, noticing he was also looking at her.
Releasing a deep breath, she smiled at him.
"Well done, Reign."
AN: Did I just quote Shakespeare... if you replace dragon with lion... then yes. Also did Yun use the equivalent of constantly hitting the A button in a fighter game on that poor kid xD sure did.
TM's are so illogical sometimes. Twinkle can learn aerial ace... brother how, will she sprout wings and fly!? That and water pulse, a type she is weak against. But things don't get really interesting until she evolves into Aggron, that Pokémon can do anything, I swear.
Just so you know, I would never put shock wave on a Lairon in the games. Their spatk is basically non existent and they're too slow for the move to be an advantage against most water types.