//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: A Passion for Battle // Story: Fluttershy’s Pokémon Adventure // by ShadowFirePon3 //------------------------------// Fluttershy nearly tripped twice going up the stairs, still not completely coordinated with this human body. Luckily, no one seemed to notice her missteps. She really didn’t want them teasing her. To her surprise, quite the contrary. When they had reached Professor Oak’s front door, Gary even held it open for her. Though, one glance back down at the crowd below told her that he would be nice to about any girl, as a large group of them in cheerleading uniforms started chanting his name. Risking a few words, Fluttershy looked at Gary and said, “You must be pretty popular with the ladies.” Gary puffed out his chest and declared, “It’s the Oak family genes.” Then he laughed a little. Fluttershy tried to imagine the Professor being a ladies man and joined in Gary’s laughter. Fluttershy took a deep breath and then stepped through the door. Gary came in after, closing it behind her. As they entered the lab, she could still smell the pizza in the air, which made her stomach turn in a knot a little bit. But despite that, she felt fairly calm. Excited, but not nervous anymore. They came to a stand with a glass dome on top. Inside were three Pokéballs that were marked with some characters that Fluttershy couldn’t read, though she didn’t have to in the end. When the glass dome opened up, Damian and Gary took two of the balls, leaving one that Fluttershy assumed was hers. The characters on the balls must say what Pokémon is in it, which meant that this ball in her hand contained her Bulbasaur. Damian and Gary pressed the button on their balls and tossed them into the air, and sure enough, in a burst of energy came Charmander and Squirtle. They each then placed the ball back on to the stand, in their respective places. Fluttershy gazed in amazement as the two creatures appeared. They were so adorable that Fluttershy nearly squeed when they jumped into their respective trainer’s arms and started talking in their own language, which sounded mostly like their names. She just stood there with her ball in her hand, eyes sparkling as she watched Squirtle and Charmander being coddled by Gary and Damian. Unable to contain herself, Fluttershy enthusiastically pressed the button on her ball and tossed it up into the air, catching it, and the Pokémon that came out into her arms. She immediately started to cuddle the little Bulbasaur, who tried to pull away from her because it felt embarrassed. Leaping out of Fluttershy’s arms, it voiced its protest against being so suddenly grabbed and cuddled. “Bulba! Bulba Bulbasaur!” Everyone looked in surprise at Fluttershy and Bulbasaur, as Fluttershy looked as though she was just heartbroken and about to cry. Bulbasaur suddenly looked at all the disapproving faces and up at poor Flutter’s nearly tearful eyes, then sighed as it swallowed its pride and hopped back up into Fluttershy’s arms and gave her a big hug. Fluttershy hugged back and tried to hide her sinister smile of victory over the situation, but Damian and Gary noticed and almost busted out laughing. Bulbasaur pulled back a little and looked over at the two other trainers in confusion, not aware of what just happened. Trying to quickly change the subject, Damian turned to Gary and said, “So, you want to see just who’s got the better Pokémon? You sounded so sure of yourself outside.” “You’re on!” Gary said with great enthusiasm. Fluttershy followed the two boys out into the back fields with Bulbasaur still in her arms, where they took their places and set their Pokémon down. All four, the trainers and the Pokémon, had a fierce but happy look about them, and Bulbasaur turned around in Fluttershy’s embrace and enthusiastically pointed to the battle about to take place. Damian began. “Charmander, Flamethrower!” Gary just raised his eyebrow at this. “Squirtle, Tackle.” Suddenly the two Pokémon went into action. Charmander took a few steps forward and breathed in deep, as Squirtle ran forward, gaining speed and closing in on Charmander. Try as it might, all Charmander could blow was smoke, to his trainer’s surprise. Squirtle however, slammed forward into Charmander and sent it flying back a few feet. Shaking his head in disapproval, Gary called the match off and Damian rounded on Professor Oak. “Hey, what gives?! You gave me a defective Charmander!” He roared. Professor Oak was about to reply, but Gary beat him to it. “Are you sure you’re cut out to be a trainer, Damian? Only a moron would try to order their Pokémon to pull off a move that they haven’t learned yet.” “Watch it Gary!” Damian said, ready to punch Gary in the face. Gary just shrugged. “These Pokémon were bred to be healthy, but have not been trained yet for battling. That’s our job as the trainers, not the breeder’s. I bet all three of them are only around level five or so, meaning that they don’t know how to do most of the moves that they can learn. That’s the way that it’s supposed to be. Your Charmander probably only knows scratch and growl at this point.” Damian looked furiously over at Charmander, who cowered back at the look that its trainer was giving it. “Well, whatever.” Damian said, tossing a Pokéball at Charmander. “I’ll train it up nice and strong, then we’ll have a real battle.” Gary rolled his eyes as Damian picked up the Pokéball with Charmander inside. Without another word he grabbed his Pokédex from Professor Oak and left. Once Damian was gone, Fluttershy stamped her foot on the ground, feeling bad for the Charmander and a little upset with herself for thinking Damian reminded her of Rainbow. Instead, he reminded her more of Lightning Dust, from what Dash had told her about being at the Wonderbolt academy. “I hope Charmander will be ok. I’m not sure I like Damian.” Fluttershy said, mostly to herself. Gary laughed. “Don’t worry Fauna. Damian’s a jerk at times, but I think he just needs to learn what being a Pokémon trainer is all about. I don’t think he’s the sort of monster that would mistreat his Pokémon, but I agree that he does need a good kick in the rear.” Gary grabbed his Pokédex from the Professor and also grabbed Fluttershy’s to give to her. As he handed it over he continued, “But you know, maybe you and I should have a battle. You seem like you could use a quick tutorial on it. What do you say Fauna?” Bulbasaur looked up at Fluttershy and nodded its head repeatedly in approval. Fluttershy looked down at the excited little Pokémon in her arms and nodded back. “Well…. Ok. But I don’t think that I’ll be all that good at it.” Springing out of her arms, Bulbasaur rain around in several circles in the area that Damian and Gary just fought. Then, it suddenly stopped, took a stance, and gave a challenging look to Squirtle. Seeing this, Squirtle also ran out to the same spot and pressed it’s forehead against Bulbasaur’s and the two playfully pushed on each other, psyching themselves up while waiting for their Trainers to begin the match. Gary took his place, same as before, and Fluttershy took Damian’s place. “Are you ready?” Gary asked. “Yes.” Fluttershy said back, timidly, though with an admirable attempt at sounding confident. At once, the two Pokémon jumped back in one giant leap from each other, and prepared to battle. The fighting spirit of the two Pokémon clashed in the air and even Fluttershy could feel the urge to battle. It overwhelmed her and, before she knew what she was doing, she gave the first command. “Bulbasaur, tackle!” She called out, and Bulbasaur complied with two lightning fast steps and a sudden leap at Squirtle. “Dodge and then tackle back!” Gary quickly called, just in time for Squirtle to react. Almost immediately after, Fluttershy quickly said, “Roll out of the way and then tackle!” Bulbasaur was in mid first tackle and Squirtle had just jumped out of the way and began its tackle. Hearing Fluttershy’s command, Bulbasaur dug its right feet into the ground as it landed, then quickly pushed with all of its might, sending it rolling to the left and away from Squirtle’s attack. Digging its front claws down, Bulbasaur then swung its hind legs around and kicked off with them into another tackle attack, just as Fluttershy had said to. This time it hit its mark and sent Squirtle flying back a few feet. Both Gary and Fluttershy took a second to be astonished at Fluttershy’s quick commands and Bulbasaur’s ability to follow through. However, Fluttershy was astonished for just a little longer than Gary, which gave him his opening. “Squirtle, tail whip!” He said, as quickly as he could. Squirtle began to shake its tail from side to side in a hypnotic way that Bulbasaur couldn’t help but relax its muscles to, effectively removing some of the adrenalin effect in Bulbasaur and making it a little weaker. Fluttershy didn’t know what just happened, but called out, “Tackle!” to which Bulbasaur complied, but mysteriously found that Squirtle took the attack head on and didn’t budge. In fact, despite Bulbasaur’s best efforts, Squirtle was pushing back, and then flipped Bulbasaur backwards like a tatami table. “Follow up with a tackle!” Gary said, confidently, to which Squirtle sent Bulbasaur flying backwards with a full on tackle attack. Realizing what Gary had done, Fluttershy called out, “Bulbasaur, run around in circles and shout your name as loud as you can!” Bulbasaur didn’t question it, though Gary and Squirtle almost fell backwards at the ridiculousness of the command. To Gary’s surprise however, his grandfather, who had been watching the match intently, had folded his arms and nodded approvingly at Fluttershy’s tactic. Not knowing why the Professor was doing so, Gary decided that he should go on the offensive. “Squirtle, tackle Bulbasaur immediately!” He shouted. Squirtle tried and missed, as Bulbasaur hopped over the attack and continued running and shouting. “Again!” Gary called. Repeatedly, Squirtle tried to tackle Bulbasaur, and repeatedly, Bulbasaur evaded it. “Now, tackle!” Fluttershy commanded. Having worked back the adrenaline that Squirtle’s tail whip had taken from it, Bulbasaur slammed into Squirtle at full force, with all of its strength unhindered. This sent Squirtle flying back even further than before. “Tail whip!” Gary said, and Squirtle complied, though struggling to get to its feet. “Growl!” Fluttershy commanded in response. Both Pokémon began their hypnotic status attacks, one to lower attack strength, and the other to lower defense strength. When both trainers called out for a tackle attack, the Pokémon clashed. Having lowered the respective stats of one another, their tackle’s met with a stalemate between the two. Gary gritted his teeth. “Push it to the side and tackle!” Suddenly, Squirtle’s strength shifted from pushing against Bulbasaur’s attack, to pushing it to the side, which knocked Bulbasaur off balance. As Bulbasaur fell to the side, Squirtle took a quick hop backwards and then leaped forward in a tackle which made full contact. Bulbasaur was sent backwards and landed with a thud. Try as it might, it couldn’t get back up, and after a valiant couple of attempts, Bulbasaur lay in defeat. Squirtle walked over to Gary, who patted it on the head and congratulated it as he put it into a Pokéball. Fluttershy took a second to breathe. Her heart was racing a mile a minute and though she had lost the match, she had never felt more proud of herself. She ran over to Bulbasaur and picked him up, patting him on the head. “You were amazing Bulbasaur,” She smiled as she took a Pokéball from her backpack. “Thanks for doing your best.” Bulbasaur smiled and pressed its nose against the button on the Pokéball presented to it, opening the ball and going inside as a sort of red energy. “That was about the last thing I expected from you, Fauna.” Gary said, rubbing his forehead for sweat. “Indeed.” The Professor agreed, walking up to the two of them. “You’ve both shown great potential as Pokémon trainers. You reacted well with your Pokémon and played some great strategies. Especially you, Fauna. Not many trainers would think to have their Pokémon try to get pumped up in the middle of a battle, but it was an effective method to countering the effects of tail whip.” Fluttershy blushed and hid part of her face behind her hair. “Honestly, I didn’t really know what I was doing most of the time. I just acted on instinct when I saw how Bulbasaur was feeling weak.” “Well, those are some great instincts.” Gary said, giving Fluttershy a thumbs up, though she had no idea what the gesture meant. “How about we battle again, later on down the road? I bet you’ll be an even greater opponent the next time we meet up.” Initially, Fluttershy’s reaction was to cower back a little, but the thought of a heated battle like that again got her heart pumping fast, and it felt good. A passion flared in Fluttershy that she was very unfamiliar with, and she decided to let it take over. “Anytime.” She said, mimicking Gary’s thumbs up, and a confident smile that she had never known, spread across her face. Gary started walking back into the lab. “Do you want a ride to Viridian? A couple of my adoring fans will be driving there in a few hours. Save you a day or two of walking through the woods.” Fluttershy considered it. “No thanks Gary. I might find another Pokémon or two to add to my team along the way if I take my time and walk.” “Suit yourself.” Gary shrugged. “About the only Pokémon that you’ll see on the way to Viridian are Pidgey and Rattata.” “That’s ok.” Fluttershy smiled. “I want to make friends with all Pokémon.” Professor Oak clapped his hands. “That’s the right attitude Fauna. And do be sure to use the video phones at the Pokémon center’s to check in here at the lab from time to time. My number is programed into your Pokédex, just press the top right button to look at and program contact information, if you meet people you’d like to stay in touch with.” “Sure thing Professor.” Fluttershy said, making her way to the front door. “Hey gramps.” Gary said. “Do you even have a Pokémon for that lazy bone head, Ash? If he even shows up that is.” Professor Oak scratched his head. “Well, I do have one, but it has some personality issues and it’s up to Ash weather or not he’ll take it. If not, next time around he’ll just have to show up on time like everyone else.” Gary continued talking with the Professor as Fluttershy went out the front door and made her way down the steps. Trying not to get scared by the ever growing crowd of Gary Oak supporters, Fluttershy left the front gate and started her way down the road to Rout #1. To her pleasant surprise, many of the supporters for Gary also cheered her on as she began walking. Feeling very nervous, she waved and smiled back at them, then continued down the road. She may have lost her first competitive match, but thinking back at how badly Damian flopped when he faced off against Gary, she felt very happy with how well she did. Now, it was time to go out and make new friends. And unlike at the Grand Galloping Gala, she’s supposed to capture them. Fluttershy laughed a little to herself when she thought of how out of control she got that night. But this was going to be different.