บท 10: The Start Of Something Else

On the Pokemon training fields. Cinder and Korrina are standing opposite of each other.

Cinder has already fetched Storm and was already contained inside his pokeball. While his newborn Gible was standing close to him at the side, the baby pokemon was still clumsily trying its best to properly walk. Right now, it was sitting beside his foot, curiously watching what was going to happen.

Cinder took his time to inspect the the area. 'The ground is good and compacted. The grass patches are still wet from the rain last night. There's some chances Storm would slip from such areas, but with me in command I could notice it clearer here from the perspective of a trainer.'

This was his first pokemon battle, Cinder was going to give it his all, especially when it is against Korrina. He already knew she was going to use Riolu, which is a fighting-type, according to her. Storm's disposition against fighting-types are neutral, the same could be said with their opponent, so the battle would depend on the trainer's wits and experience.

Experience was not in Cinder's trainer history yet, fortunately the battle stimulation he had done from when he was still a student was still somewhat similar, although it couldn't compare to the real thing. Meanwhile, Korrina was a trainer that had started a few weeks before, much earlier than Cinder. So, he expected she already has a few battling experience on her hand.

He took a deep breath after his quick deduction of the arena and his opponent. He unclipped Storm's pokeball from his belt before expanding it, which he then threw the pokeball on his side of the field.

"You're up, Storm!" Cinder says a bit redundantly, with a flash of white light, Storm appeared. "Get ready, we are up against Riolu." He reminded.

On the other hand, Korrina grinned and held up a pokeball before rearing her arms back. "C'mon out, Riolu!" She cries, throwing the ball skyward.

With a flash of similar light, Riolu appeared on the field.

"Lu?" When Riolu appeared, it looked around. Seeing Storm, who was a familiar pokemon, he looked at his trainer in confusion and asked.

"Cinder and Storm has challenged us to a battle. There's no way we will back off, right Riolu?"

Riolu looked over at Cinder and Storm, who was ready for the battle. Riolu jumped from his place and pointed at Storm, issuing a challenger of his own. "Ri! Ri!"

Cinder smiled at that. His starter didn't back off from the challenge as he barked and growled. Storm might look like an adorable pokemon still, but his eyes gave him away. They were burning with fiery determination.

Both pokemon scanned their opponent, with both eyes narrowing against each other, releasing a growl that builds in their throats which was slowly getting louder.

Not knowing that a certain newborn Gible was eyeing them with an unusual glint in it's eyes.

"Are you ready, Cinder?" Korrina said.

"Ready!" Cinder replies with a grin.

Storm sparked released a spark that was surrounding it's wool. Trying to intimidate it's opponent.

Cinder smirked seeing that, then he started off the battle. "Start with Thunder Shock!"

"Dodge it!" Riolu was a fast one, as it immediately darted out of the way. While keeping it's eyes on Storm.

Cinder didn't expect the attack to hit, he was just testing his opponent's speed, and he was correct to do so.

"Use Growl, followed by Thunder Shock!"

"Cover you ears while dodging Riolu, then use Quick Attack."

Storm opens its mouth and lets out a loud, piercing bleat that distorts the air, after which he released Thunder Shock towards Riolu.

Unfortunately, Riolu had covered his ears and was able to dodge the Thunder Shock easily, dodging both Growl and another Thunder Shock. Before Storm could fire another Thunder Shock again, Riolu hit him with Quick Attack. The sheep pokemon flew back a few feet and landed on its side, giving a startled cry of pain.

"Keep it up!" Korrina encouraged her Riolu, seemingly starting to get the groove of the battle now that her pokemon landed a hit.

Quick Attack was hitting continuously but was not doing enough damage fast enough, because...

Storm's ability, Static, comes into play. When Storm was getting hit by the continuous Quick Attack that made contact, a hit had triggered the independent chance to activate Static.

Quickly noticing this, Cinder did not waste a second as he reacted swiftly.

"Electric Terrain!" Cinder opened his mouth and commanded, his palms are sweaty because he was now beginning to feel nervous.

Electric Terrain is a move that boosts the power of Electric-type moves used by affected pokemon by 50 percent. It was one of Storm's locked egg moves, however, the pokemon managed to use it somehow yesterday on their training, constantly using Thunder Shock had made the wool pokemon unlock the egg move he inherited from it's parents.

Additionally, Riolu was paralyzed by Storm's Static Ability, which made the pokemon much slower and was now much more easy to strike with an electric-type move.

Storm releases multiple bolts of yellow electricity from its body, causing its body and the surrounding area to glow yellow, powering up his Electric-type moves.

Knowing that this was a chance, Cinder followed his tactics in mind.

"Thunder Shock! Keep it going!" Cinder called out. Iron Tail wasn't going to deal enough damage against Riolu's fighting-typing, so he was only left with Thunder Shock to work with.

Korrina gritted her teeth and cried out. "Dodge the attacks you can evade, use Endure when you can't move!"

This time no matter how hard Riolu tried to move, he couldn't as paralysis took effect, when the Thunder Shock was quickly zooming towards him, he had no choice but to use Endure, crossing his arms in front of his body.

The attack exploded upon impact, which was quickly followed by a second, third, fourth and finally fifth Thunder Bolt.

All the while, the glint within Gible's eyes were shining with thrill at how the battle was progressing.

When the dust cleared, both the pokemon looked exhausted and weak. Storm was standing on all fours, but was clearly tired from using continuous electric-type moves in quick succession, not to mention the Quick Attacks that landed on him.

Riolu was also standing with both feet, but barely. The little canine pokemon was scratched up and heaving. Its entire form was trembling, his knees were scuffed likely from when he endured the Thunder Shocks, and he was holding his shoulder as if it was causing him a significant amount of pain. He looked utterly spent.

"Thunder Wav-"

"I concede." Korrina interrupted. It was clear who was going to win, going any further would just be causing her Riolu needless pain.

She sighed, pointing Riolu's pokeball towards him and returned the pokemon. Being in suspended animation inside the pokeball would give Riolu relief from the pain until she could get him to the pokemon center for healing.

"What..."

It took a few moments for the situation to sink in, before the feeling of victory surged through Cinder's bloodstream. The feeling of disbelief was finally twisting in to a splitting grin as he almost ran towards Storm. A startled Gible attempted to dash after him, the baby dragon's short stubby legs carrying him behind the young boy.

After reaching Storm, Cinder quickly knelt down on one knee in front of his partner. He exclaimed. "Storm... That was amazing!"

He struggle to resist the urge to hug his companion, knowing that it might make the pain he was feeling worse. Nevertheless, the grin on his face was all that the pokemon needed for his mood to turn bright. "You're so awesome!"

The young Storm lifted his head and returned his smile. He let out a weak, yet happy bark in response to his words. Closing his eyes for a moment in exhaustion, as he panted before a Gible who was clumsily walking towards them reached them.

The wool pokemon tried it's best to look imposing to the dragon, not wanting for Gible to see his state and exhaustion. The Gible looked towards Storm with awe and something else...

Rising to his feet, Cinder could feel the emotions surging through him. They had won their first ever pokemon battle! Not against a wild pokemon, but a trainer. He wasn't expecting for them to win, but they got lucky that they managed to paralyze Riolu, which made Storm power up and release multiple Thunder Shocks to deal enough damage for Korrina to concede. Even still... Luck or not... They had won!

It was an exhilarating experience to say the least.

A tug at his leg brought his attention to a grinning Gible, which started to throw jabs in the air and then pointing at himself when he got Cinder's attention. Cinder laughed, he was happy his decision to make his baby pokemon watch the match made it so work up towards battling. Well, it was something to expect from a dragon-type which was infamous for their fondness for battling, the show was only a fuel to the fire found within them.

The sound of footsteps entered their ears, Cinder and his pokemon turned towards Korinna who was approaching them. Her expression was bittersweet as she halted infront of them. A small smiled adorned her face, but her eyes showed a different emotion, disappointment.

As the girl came to a stop, she was finding it slightly difficult to look him in the eye, her pupils shifting downwards every now and then.

"Heh..." Korinna started, a mild awkwardness on her voice. "You know...I slightly expected for us to win when you told me last night you just started your journey two days ago. I... Didn't expect to lose."

Cinder blinked at her, offering her a friendly sincere smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I ranked quite high in our school's battle stimulation and received a few pointers from Professor Oak when we were at his corral helping out. Furthermore, we couldn't have won that when your Riolu wasn't luckily paralyzed by Storm."

"Oh stop it." She snorted as she knew he was trying to console her, nevertheless, she felt gratitude that he didn't at all jabbed at her defeat. She responded energetically. "I won't lose next time we have a battle. When we do, you better prepare yourself."

"Promises, promises." Cinder waved her enthusiasm away. But, he did smile at her which is to say he just said that half-heartedly.

"Thanks for the battle, Cinder." Korrina smiled gratefully. "At least I know just how far I have to go to train my Riolu in some things."

After saying that, she grabbed her backpack and then grabbed some things after shuffling what was inside that got in the way. She tilted her head and then said. "Heh, I kind of spent most of my last cash on my stay here in Kanto." She admitted in a somewhat sheepish tone. She held out her hand. "So I'm afraid this is all I can give you to congratulate you for your first pokemon battle." Her tone was dramatic, but she was casual with it.

Cinder took the money and nodded at her. "It's fine." His smile widened a bit. "The next time we battle, it would be much more epic than a one on one."

"Certainly!" She returned the grin with her own. "After all, I have a few more pokemon in me that you didn't even knew of."

"We'll see about that then."

"Gible!" The baby dragon who was at the side with Storm, made it's presence known by thrilling at them. Flexing and tapping a foot on the ground hard.

The duo looked over in surprise, and then burst out laughing which lasted a minute.

Noticing that Storm was really tired, Cinder returned him inside his lokeball to rest. He picked up the hyper baby pokemon within his arms as he faced Korrina.

"So, you are leaving after recovering Riolu in the center, right?" He asked for confirmation.

Korrina nodded.

His voice was somewhat hesitant. "Welp, won't keep you for too long. I know you want to leave and cover as much ground as possible to arrive in Pallet Town sooner."

"Just take care out there, okay?" The boy declared. He reached out his hand, as some fire in his eyes returned once more.

Korrina accepted his hand, matching his gaze with her own. "And you better not expect me to lose next time."

"I hope you won't expect me to make it easy." He felt the fire in his own brightened as they shook, likewise, Korrina does too.

"Heh, just make sure you don't slack off then. I want it to be satisfying when I win." Her grip started firm, but became tight as she sent him a smirk.

It didn't last long, however, and both of the teenager's grin became more serene and legitimate as the two seperated. She sent Gible a friendly look and a wave. "Don't cause too much trouble, okay?" As Gible returned her wave.

"Good luck out there, Cinder."

Cinder nodded with a bittersweet smile. "Same to you."

The moment hung for a decent bit, a mixture of bittersweet emotions and mutual respect. Finally, Korrina broke it, slowly turning around to leave as she offered her final wave. "Well then, later."

Cinder and the baby dragon within his arms stared at the departing girl's back as he waved back. In the grand scheme of things, their time spent together hadn't been considered long as it was barely a day, yet it somehow felt otherwise. He was tempted to asked her to join him on his journey, but he wasn't selfish enough to say that when he knew she have something else to take care of personally. He adjusted his gray hair as her figure disappeared. He then addresses another thing that weighed him currently.

"I'll be putting you down now okay Gible? You aren't... Exactly light to carry for a newborn pokemon."

"Gib?"