I had barely nodded once before Iolani grabbed my hand and dragged me out the door. Her excitement was palpable. “Come on! There’s a field right around the corner!”

  Oxide was flying above the both of us while cheering in excitement, clearly excited to have her first battle.

  In no time flat, we arrived at the arena. Where a few of the senior sponsored kids were just wrapping up a battle. It was a regular battlefield, with sand and rocks taking up the majority of the field with an artificial pond for aquatic Pokemon in the center

  “Hey everyone!” Iolani called out with a wave, “Anyone up next?”

  The blue haired girl from earlier walked up with a Vaporeon beside her. “Nope, the field is yours! Need a ref?”

  Iolani nodded, “You offering?”

  The look on the girl's face exuded confidence, “Of course I am squirt, jus’ gotta know what the rules are.”

  I looked at my opponent, “I only have two Pokemon, so two on two with no switches?”

  She grinned, “Mhmm!” She then dashed off to one of the trainer boxes.

  Our ref shook her head, “That girl is gonna rock all our socks off in the circuit this year.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked her.

  “She’s got enough enthusiasm to rock the boat a decent bit.” she explained. “Honestly, I'm excited for it. Can’t let stuff get too boring.” She looked at me, “What’s your name by the way? Never got it from you earlier.”

  “Psyche.” I answered while offering my hand. “And yours?”

  “Rain,” she answered with a chuckle. “Nice name by the way, you pick it out yourself?”

  I rolled my eyes with a smile at the obvious ‘code phrase’, “Yes I did thank you.” I began walking towards my trainer box to prevent Iolani from combusting on the spot considering how she was visibly shaking with excitement in hers. “Skirt go spinny?” I called back to Rain.

  She cackled, “Why of course they do! Now get to your spot so we can see what this year’s new trainers are bring to the table!”

  I rushed over to my box and took a deep breath to center myself, that odd feeling from earlier coming back even stronger bringing with it a small rush of excitement. I looked up and locked eyes with my opponent.

  We were going to win today.

  Rain was already at her position, and upon asking if we were both ready and getting affirmative responses, shouted in a commanding voice.

  “This is a battle between Challenger Iolani, and Trainer Psyche! This will be a two on two match with no substitutions! The trainer that knocks out both of their opponent’s Pokemon first will be declared the winner!”

  She raised a hand straight up, then snapped it down. “Trainers! send out your first Pokemon!”

  “Dewpider!”

  “Oxide!”

  I pumped my fist while Iolani grimaced, the type advantage in the first round was mine!

  Oxide had used my head as a springboard to leap off into the field where she crouched in a battle position with her cheeks sparking.

  On Iolani’s side, a Dewpider scuttled forward, and eyed Oxide with a wary look behind the bubble of water surrounding it’s head.

  “Come on Dewpider!” Iolani shouted, “Let's show them how hard you’ve been training! Start it off with a Bubble Beam!”

  A stream of bubbles launched from the Pokemon, rushing towards Oxide.

  “Jump to the side, and Double Team!” I ordered.

  Oxide complied, leaping to the side and conjuring up a group of after images which scattered into the air. The missed attack impacted the spot she had just been in, sending small chunks of mud flying.

  “Go in for a Nuzzle!”

  “Spray a Bubblebeam into the swarm and keep it up as long as you can!”

  Without having to focus, Dewpider’s Bubblebeam came out much faster and washed over the copies. Each illusion only taking a few bubbles before fading away with them.

  “Just hang on Oxide!” I called out. She needs an opening, but trying a Thundershock will drain her too much!

  The copies continued to push forward, trying their best to weave away from the Bubblebeam, but more were being lost by the second.

  Then finally, the attack ended.

  “Go for it Oxide!”

  The thing about longer attacks, is that if a Pokemon isn’t trained for endurance it often will take a moment or two to attack again.

  Taking full advantage of this, Oxide’s copies all rushed the stalled out water spider and one of them pushed her head into the water and rubbed her cheek pouch all over the poor thing’s head. The water bubble adept at protecting it from fire type damage only serving to conduct Oxide’s electricity further.

  “Get it away with Bug Bite!”

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  Oh no you don’t. “Follow it up with Tail Whip!”

  Dewpider lunged for Oxide only for sparks of electricity to flicker over its body and lock it in place. Oxide whipped her fan-like tail around and swept Dewpider off its feet and kicked it to the ground with a thud.

  “Nuzzle it again!”

  “Don’t let it attack for free! Infestation all around you!” Iolani cried out.

  Dewpider’s body practically burst point blank right in Oxides face. A bunch of dark squiggly shapes were flung all over and died once they hit the ground, but anything that hit Oxide quickly latched on and began sapping her strength.

  It didn’t stop her from following up the order I gave and delivering another shock of electricity which proved too much for Dewpider.

  “Dewpider is unable to battle!” Rain called out, “Emolga is the winner!”

  As Iolani returned her Pokemon, Oxide pulled back a bit and landed before flashing me a shaky thumbs up as the infestation she was given continued to wreak havoc on her.

  “That was a nice first round Psyche!” Iolani called out, “But Oxide won’t get far with my second!”

  In a flash of light, Iolani’s second Pokemon was revealed to be an Alolan Vulpix.

  Oh, Oxide is screwed no matter what.

  “Continue!”

  “Alright Vulpix, Ice Shard!”

  With a deep breath, a cluster of ice was launched towards Oxide, too fast for her to so much as think about dodging.

  She took the attack head on, the ice hitting her with the sound of breaking glass and releasing a small puff of mist. She struggled for a few moments in an attempt to push through the super effective attack, then fell to the ground with her eyes spinning.

  “Emolga is unable to battle! Vulpix is the winner!”

  I recalled Oxide into her pokeball. “You did great!” I whispered to her ball, “I’ll get you a treat soon.”

  The Vulpix seemed to be a bit bored with the outcome, letting out a big yawn.

  Ignoring the attitude, I pulled Ionia’s pokeball off my belt, “Alright let’s finish this!” Ioina’s form appeared on the field in a shower of light, and got a sizable reaction from our audience.

  The Hatenna line was well known for how vengeful they could be towards those who lacked control of their emotions after all.

  “Continue!”

  “Lead it with a Disarming Voice!”

  “Give me another Ice Shard!”

  The hunk of ice came out just as quickly as before, but the pink ripples from the Disarming Voice collapsed it, and continued on to deal a slight bit of damage to Vulpix as it reached her.

  “Great job stopping that Ionia!” I cheered. “Try for a Confusion!”

  She jumped forward, and the tip of her tail glowed blue, a matching blue aura surrounded Vulpix’s body and she levitated off the ground and slammed down into it with a cry of pain.

  “If they want to block shards, then use Powder Snow!”

  Another deep breath in and a wave of fine snow swept across the battlefield.

  “Try blocking it with Confusion!”

  Ionia’s tail tip glowed again for a moment before flickering out as the move failed. The snow swept over her, chilling her while forming a bit of ice on her, but not enough to completely freeze her over.

  Iolani hadn’t let Vulpix remain idle either, sending her running in to shorten the distance.

  “Use another Disarming Voice!”

  Ionia burst with another cry, the pink hued energy rushing over Vulpix’s form and crackling against its skin.

  “You’re close enough! Use Ice Shard!”

  Faster than Ionia could react, the hunk of ice hit her, knocking her back a fair bit as her feet were dragged along the floor of the arena.

  She wasn’t looking too good now.

  “Just a bit closer then do it again!”

  I grinned as it hit me. “Ionia teleport in and scream!”

  Ionia flickered away just as the Ice Shard slammed into the ground where she was, and reappeared right in front of the Vulpix and unleashed one of the loudest Disarming Voices I’d ever heard her perform.

  Just like the Infestation from earlier the burst of Fairy energy was heavily concentrated right after being released.

  And being right next to that couldn’t be too good for the defender.

  As if on queue, a knocked out Vulpix fell to the ground as Ionia panted next to her.

  “Vulpix is unable to battle! Hatenna is the winner, and that means victory goes to Trainer Psyche!”

  As Vulpix was returned, I rushed out onto the field and pulled Ionia up into my arms. “That was great ‘Nia!” I quietly cheered, “That Teleport practice yesterday is really paying off!”

  “Hey Psyche!”

  I froze, was she mad at me for beating her?

  I turned to find Iolani running up to me with a smile.

  “That was a great battle!” She cheered. “The way you ordered that final move was so cool!”

  I blushed and raised a hand to shake, “I uh thanks? Your Pokemon were really tough.”

  She accepted the handshake and then led me off the arena towards the group of trainers chatting about the battle. “Yours were too! We got lucky that Oxide had moved in! If that Infestation hadn't done so much, she might’ve been able to land a Thundershock on Vulpix!”

  We reached the bleachers and sat down.

  “Uhm well Oxide can’t really use that move yet,” I winced, “she’s pretty young still so she doesn’t have the strength to handle it yet.”

  “Alright come on you two!” Rain called from the exit, “We’re all headed to the Center and you both just had a really rough battle! Gotta heal up!”

  After getting up and dusting ourselves off, we rushed after her.

  ***

  “Okay so, Iolani, you're definitely improving,” Rain explained, “but you need to take advantage of your Pokemon’s movement more often.”

  After getting to the center and checking in all our Pokemon to a staff that looked thrilled to have something to do, Rain had pulled us into a booth after getting some water bottles for us, and said she was going to give us a few tips as a present.

  “I mean,” she paused to take a sip of water, “Dewpider barely moved! If he had moved backwards while firing that Bubblebeam, Emolga would’ve dove right into a second Bubblebeam to the face which would’ve easily knocked her to the ground and in range of another attack.”

  She turned to me, “On the flipside, Emolga should be scattering her Double Team images more. She would’ve gotten in much more cleanly if she did. Also I guess you probably already have this planned, but you need to get her a ranged move of some sort. Emolga, while squishy, are incredibly difficult to hit when they play their cards right, we all should know…”

  Rain didn’t have to finish her sentence, the Nimbasa Gym was the source of almost everything the species was known for.

  “Anyways, I liked what I saw out there! Who knows maybe you’ll be able to go toe to toe with us at the conference!”

  Before we could answer, I got called up to the counter.

  “Hello,” the nurse greeted, “Your Pokemon are as good as new, and are ready to be discharged!”

  I took back the two canvas balls, one painted and the other plain. Oxide then jumped from the tray on the counter to my shoulder and waved goodbye to the staff with a smile.

  “Thank you miss!” I chirped back before walking away.

  I tapped my chin, “Oxide I think it’s time for us to go all in on training.” I grinned as the echo of that feeling passed through my mind, “I was a bit hesitant at first, but I want to challenge all the gyms and beat them!”

  “And to do that, we need to take advantage of what Juniper gave us!”

  Boilerplate time!

  As always, a big thank you to for help editing!

  Pokemon seen this chapter:

  Dewpider

  Current Team:

  Ionia (Hatenna)

  Trained Abilities: Anticipation

  Moves: Teleport, Confusion, Play Nice, Life Dew, Disarming Voice

  Oxide (Emolga)

  Trained Abilities: TBD

  Moves: Nuzzle, Tail Whip, Double Team, Quick Attack

  Do you want more words written by me?

  A Spark of Sylvan Flame A story about a trans farmgirl facing off against plant aliens, with items bought from an AI chip in her head!

  Thanks for reading! :D

  -DeliriousSprite