Act 1: Interlude 1

Act 1: Interlude 1

After resupplying and saying their goodbyes in Oldale, Lee, Brendan, and Zinnia set off onto the road after deciding to leave the same day. The heatwave of the week prior had finally subsided, allowing the trio to shorten their break at noon for more progress. After the sun had vanished over the horizon, they would build camp and rest for the night, often training and socializing before bed. Three days of progress saw them a mere part-day outside of Petalburg, leading to now, the end of the third day in a darkened forest clearing.

Above a crudely outlined battlefield in the grass, a ghostly ball of fire illuminates the dark surroundings, showing Brendan and Zinnia staring each other down in the middle of a heated battle.

"Swablu, duck!" Zinnia franticly cries.

A raging Watergun narrowly misses the flailing bird pokemon, instead crashing into a tree behind her and stripping chunks of bark clean off with a rip crack! from the force. Across the makeshift field, Brendan's Mudkip bellows in anger at the miss.

"Again!" Calls Brendan.

Unfortunately, Swablu is caught by the rapid follow-up. The blast of water is like a sledgehammer to her small body, throwing the bird to the ground where she crashes with a shrill cry.

Alongside the makeshift battlefield, Lee, Vulpix, Brendan's Shroomish, Zinnia's Shelgon, and Zinnia's final pokemon, a small Goomy, all watch. Lee is seated on an old log with Vulpix on his left. Shroomish sits at his feet while Shelgon stands with Goomy atop his shell.

Or rather all of them sans Vulpix are watching. Vulpix sits with her eyes closed, focusing on maintaining the hovering ball of flame above the battlefield to give the fighters enough light to work with. The sun has long since set, and Lee came up with the exercise as a way to kill two birds with one stone. The fighters get light, and Vulpix gets to practice.

Goomy's tiny body shudders as he looks at the savagely grinning Mudkip, who waits for Swablu to struggle to her feet. The little dragon burbles and chirps something with a shaking voice.

Under Goomy, Shelgon rumbles something that eases Goomy's trembling.

Lee glances back to the campfire, where a large pot of stew he's making for dinner simmers over a fire grate. 'Probably only a few minutes left on that,' he thinks to himself before pushing his thoughts outwards. 'Hey, love? Any idea what Shelgon said to Goomy?'

The fiery werelight above the battlefield wavers some, but Vulpix quickly stabilizes it and reaches out to him.

Fear. She sends an image of Goomy with Mudkip in the background.

Reassurance. This feeling comes with an image of both Shelgon and Goomy.

'So Shelgon was reassuring Goomy that he'd protect him from Mudkip then?' Lee asks, looking between Mudkip and the still unsteady Swablu. 'Not surprising. The Goodra line is pretty passive with Sliggoo as the exception, and Mudkip is downright monstrous sometimes. He's going to be a force of nature as a Swampert,' Lee sends back, thinking about yesterday when Goomy and Mudkip had clashed.

Mudkip raises his head from his own bowl and gives an excited cry in agreement.

Lee rubs his chin and inspects Mudkip. Indeed Mudkip learned Foresight, as when Swablu used Mist earlier in the battle, she began to pick away at Mudkip from the safety of the lowered visibility before his eyes began to glow. Following that, he knocked Swablu from the air.

Mudkip's skin in the last few days had begun to lighten in color like a Marshtop's, and the middle prongs from Mudkips gills had begun to lengthen, showing everyone versed in the Mudkip line that he had only a short time before evolution took hold.

"Already?"Lee wonders to himself aloud, idly ladling another bowl out and handing it to Zinnia, missing her words as he thinks. 'It's never really explained in the anime or games what sort of timeframe the adventures take place in. For such a huge change I would have figured it takes, well... longer. All the research I've poured over says it can take years for a pokemon to evolve. I fully expected inconstancies, but...'

A pair of fingers snapping in is face pulls Lee from his thoughts. He looks up to see a pair of ruby eyes staring at him.

The hand not holding an empty bowl rests on her hip as Zinnia raises an eyebrow. "Did you hear a word I said? You were staring into the fire awful hard."

Lee looks around, noting all the pokemon are in the process of eating. He lets out a short laugh and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, I was lost in thought there."

Zinnia rolls her eyes and blows a lock of her hair from her face before flopping down next to him. "You do that a lot, you know? I said do you have any idea what pokemon you're getting next? If we're going to Rustboro first, I think you'll want something other than a fire type to challenge Roxanne."

'I do, in fact. If I remember correctly, Ash got his Treecko from the Petalburg Woods. Once we get back into civilization I can check online and see if any poke-watchers have spotted any Treecko in the area. A little unoriginal of me, but why fix what isn't broke?'

Lee can feel a flicker of irritation from Vulpix for the unintentional slight, but he just shushes her wordlessly. He sits, careful not to jostle Vulpix too much, and digs in his pocket, withdrawing his Pokedex. Taking the little device out of sleep mode, he scrolls over to the 'notes' function. Near the top of his list of 'potential additions' is Treecko. "I have it on good authority that there is a Treecko colony somewhere in the Petalburg Woods. The Treecko final form, Sceptile, is a fast attacker with fairly balanced physical and special attack attributes and the ability to learn rock and fighting moves to ward off pokemon with type advantages," Lee says with a grin, already feeling a boyish excitement over the prospective capture. "Sceptile's array of cutting attacks also makes it an excellent tank-buster with the ability to carve through defenses easily in a scenario where time might be critical. A Treecko would provide a great hard-and-fast offset to Vulpix's more methodical style."

Zinnia blinks and even Brendan looks over with surprise, making Lee flush some. "What?"

"You really thought that out," Zinnia says, hugging one of her legs and resting her chin on her knee. She smirks and says nothing else.

Brendan shakes his surprise away before grinning with stars in his eyes. "Hey, Lee! What pokemon should I get next?" Brendan asks, sitting close and pulling out his Pokedex. "I was thinking maybe, uh," he pauses for a moment then snaps his fingers when it hits him."Oh! A fire type because then I'd have the basic trio of elements, right?"

Lee sighs and makes himself comfortable. Vulpix noses his cheek, but her quick exhale and the mental tether makes her amusement clear as day. "I already know you're not going to stop pestering me, are you? Before asking 'what type', ask 'what role does my team need', then proceed to type. Type is important and all that but more often than not a poorly optimized but filled role is better than not having it filled at all. For example..."

Brendan hung upon each word, and although Zinnia's eyes were on the fire, Lee had her ears.