Single post in Life of a trainer

Chapter 20 – Furret’s first fight (and Hoothoot’s too) Andy was still in Ilex Forest, sitting under a tree. He was eating some sandwiches Sophia had prepared for him. He looked at his four Pokémon, who were sharing some home-cooked Pokémon food from the daycare. He had called them all from their Pokéballs for a lunch and so that they could get to know the latest addition to the team. Kim, his Furret, was sitting next to Bear, his Primeape and they both listened to Benny, his Butterfree, who was talking to the Hoothoot, who he had decided to call Merlin. At one point both Benny and Bear laughed, Kim had a shy smile and seemed uncertain if it was okay to laugh and Merlin looked at Andy with a tilted head. “Hey, Benny,” Andy said. “Don’t tell too many embarrassing stories, alright?” “Free!” The Butterfree replied, but whether that was an ‘Okay!’ or ‘I will tell them what I want, because you can’t understand me anyway!’ was impossible to tell, although Andy assumed it to be the first option. Now Bear started talking and he puffed up his chest as he was probably boasting about something. Andy chuckled, either Bear and he were more alike then he had first thought when he had met him, or some of his good qualities, he didn’t have any other qualities but good ones, had rubbed off on his Pokémon. After a while, when everyone was done eating, Andy returned everyone except for Kim to their Pokéballs. He wasn’t in the mood to walk alone and he felt like keeping the Furret with him. The Furret seemed to enjoy the stroll. She sniffed around and run ahead, only to come back and walk next to Andy for a while, until something caught her attention again. Andy enjoyed watching her like that, it was nice to see how she had opened up to him. They walked like that for a while when a boy appeared from between the trees. The boy first looked at Kim, and then at Andy who had stopped walking and examined the boy curiously. Kim backed away until she was behind Andy, where she sat with her tail wrapped around her body and shyly peeking from behind his legs to the boy. “Are you a trainer?” the boy asked. “I sure am. The name is Andy.” The boy nodded and came closer. “I’m Rick. Would you be up for a battle? I’m going to challenge the gym leader in Goldenrod City and I would like to practise some more.” “Sure thing!” Andy was excited, as he always was at the prospect of showing his skills. Rick took a Pokéball from his belt and held it in his hand as he looked at Andy. “Shall we each use two Pokémon?” After a nod from Andy, Rick called his first Pokémon to the field. A Croconow. “Alright Kim, are you up for it?” Andy asked his Furret, but Kim shook her head and made sure to stay behind Andy. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but directly after showed a smile. “You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to, princess. Let’s see, who shall I pick then.” He took one of his Pokéballs and nodded to himself. “Alright Merlin! Come to the field!” The Hoothoot came from his Pokéball and looked at the Croconow in front of him. “Are you ready for your first battle?” Andy asked. Merlin looked back at Andy and calmly flapped with his wings to fly up and sit on a branch in a nearby tree. “Oh come on!” Andy exclaimed. “Why don’t you want to fight?” “Hoothoot,” Merlin said and he started to rearrange the feathers on his chest. Andy let out a sigh and rubbed his face with a hand. “That counts as one Pokémon,” Rick said. “You called him to battle.” “I know,” Andy sighed. He glanced at his Hoothoot and shrugged. If Merlin didn’t want to battle, he’d pick one that was always eager to fight. He called his Primeape to the field, who let everyone know he had arrived by a loud cry and started some stretching exercises. Andy smiled as he watched his Primeape, who was obviously ready to battle. “Alright Bear, start with your low kick!” The battle started and Andy noticed the Croconow was well trained, but so was his Primeape. From behind his legs Kim watched, letting out a concerned noise when Bear was hit by a water gun, but Andy reassured her that he was used to battling. From the tree branch Merlin was also watching the fight with some interest. Bear managed to defeat the Croconow and made a little victory dance as Rick returned the Croconow to his Pokéball. He then called his second Pokémon to the field, an Ekans. The Ekans hissed at Bear, who growled in response. “I’d say they’re ready,” Andy said cheerfully and ordered his Primeape to use his Seismic toss. From high up in the tree Merlin was still watching the battle. Bear was doing a good job, but this was his second battle and the first one hadn’t been an easy victory. At one point in the battle the Ekans used a Poison sting and the attack was too much for Bear to take and he fell on the ground. Andy returned him to his Pokéball. “You were awesome Bear. Have some rest now.” After putting his Pokéball away Andy looked up to Rick. Rick showed a smirk. “Well, it seems I won. It was…” “Hoothoot!” Merlin interrupted Rick as he came flying down and landed on Andy’s shoulder. Andy looked at him, the surprised look on his face quickly changed to a smile. “Merlin, you’re ready to fight now?” Merlin nodded. “You wanted to see how I do as trainer first?” The Hoothoot nodded for a second time. “And now you’ve decided I’m a skilled enough trainer to battle for.” “Hoot.” “Well, I am honoured that you in your infinite wisdom decided I am good enough to battle for.” Merlin let out a small sigh and flew to the field. Andy chuckled softly and pointed to his Hoothoot. “The first Pokémon I called to the field isn’t defeated yet. It seems you haven’t won just yet.” “So it seems,” Rick said. “But that’s just a matter of time! Ekans, use your Poison sting!” The Ekans unleashed his white needles at the Hoothoot, who was hit by them and flapped his wings as they stung his chest. “Use Peck!” Andy ordered and Merlin flew down, using his beak to peck on the head of Ekans, who retaliated with a bite attack. Then Merlins eyes started to glow light blue and the same colour surrounded Ekans, who tried to break free, but failed. “Hoot. Hoot.” With his mind Merlin lifted the Ekans from the ground and slammed him in the ground. Andy looked at it, confusion was always a fascinating move to see and now he had two Pokémon who could use it. “Tackle!” Merlin nodded and flew to the recovering Ekans. He tackled him and for a second time Ekans tried to Bite him, but Merlin was able to evade it and used his peck instead. Then Ekans was able to wrap his body around Merlin and squeezed. “Don’t give up! Use your Hypnosys.” “H-hoot,” Merlin replied and his eyes started to glow yellow. He looked intensely at the Ekans, who’s eyes started to close and the wrap lost it’s strength as he fell asleep. Merlin flew away from the sleeping snake and landed not to far from him in the grass, tilting his head as he looked at him. “Come on Ekans, wake up!” Rick shouted. Andy stretched his arms and put his hands behind his head as he watched Rick calling to his Pokémon to get him to wake up. Merlin didn’t give Rick any noticed and stretched one of his wings to work on his feathers. Rick let out a sigh and took his Pokéball. “He’s not waking up, I guess you win.” “Well done Merlin! You are fantastic!” Merlin looked at him as if he wanted to say ‘you just now realized that?’ and Andy started laughing. He liked his newest addition to his team even better. During the entire battle Kim had been hiding behind Andy, making herself as small as possible. It wasn’t until Rick and Andy had shaken hands and Rick was on his way again that she relaxed again. Andy scratched her head with a smile, she really was shy, but Andy didn’t mind, he enjoyed having her in his team. When they were just with the five of them, she had shown herself to be a caring Pokémon and she got along just fine with Benny, Bear and Merlin. For some reason she seemed to stick close to Bear a lot. They continued their walk to Azalea town. Just to be certain he had asked Rick if he was going in the right direction. The forest was nice and all, but he did want to get to the city eventually. Just like before Rick had found them, Kim seemed to enjoy the walk and stopped to sniff a berry bush, before eating some of the berries. Andy waited patiently for her to finish her quick snack. She even plucked some berries for him and he accepted them, thanking her for the treat. Andy was just eating the last berry when a voice came from behind. “Hand over your money.” Kim jumped up and ran behind Andy, who turned around to see who was asking for his money. Behind him, Kim looked carefully at the stranger. “Why would I?” Andy asked him. “It’s mine.” The man in front of him had a red scarf around his face to keep it hidden. Some kind of thief, Andy wasn’t impressed. His hand went into his pocket, any of his Pokémon were more then capable of dealing with the man. “Let me rephrase that,” the thief said with an impatient undertone in his voice. “Your money or your life.” “I’d rather hold on to both if you don’t mind.” “I mind.” The man took a small knife from his pocket. “Now, if you don’t want lose your life I suggest you-“ “Furret!” Kim shouted and she came from behind Andy and ran with high speed up to the man, using her quick attack on him. The man fell on the ground and looked angrily at the Furret. He lashed out with his knife, but Kim jumped back and stood on her hind legs when her body glowed white and she made several copies of herself. The man looked confused at all the Furrest around him and lashed out a random one, but went right through it. “Nice work princess!” Andy said. “Use your quick attack again!” Kim got down on all four legs and ran up to the man in high speed, knocking him down again. The thief scrambled back on his feet and ran off. “Furret! Furret, fur!” Kim shouted after him, standing on her hind legs and a grinning Andy walked up to her. He scratched her head as he watched the fleeing man. “I see that with you around I have nothing to worry about. You were amazing, Kim.” Kim looked away shyly. “Don’t be shy, you deserved that praise. Come, let’s go to Azalea Town. I long for a hot bath.” “Furret,” Kim said, nodding and she got down on her four legs again to continue the path next to Andy.