Day 107

[from Pokémon xTreme]

It wasn't long before both Taylor and Keiran had selected their starter Pokémon. Taylor had chosen an Eevee, having seemingly been swayed by its cuteness, while Kieran had chosen an Elekid. Taylor was perfectly happy to leave Ellen's house and begin training right away, but Kieran had other ideas.

"Hey, you wanna battle?" he asked. "Let's check out our new Pokémon!"

Taylor shrugged. She'd been planning on training anyway, and it couldn't hurt to see exactly what her Eevee was like in battle. Ellen had told her it had perfect IVs and a strong egg move - whatever those meant - but until she saw it in battle, she had no idea how strong it actually was. "Sure," she said. "It'll be good to get some battle practice."

"You got this, Taylor," said Brandon encouragingly, patting her on the shoulder.

"In your dreams," retorted Seth. Kieran nodded in agreement, smirking.

Taylor was a little too nervous to partake in this pre-battle repartee. Instead, she merely plucked her single Poké Ball from her belt, holding it in one hand and her smartphone in the other. She opened the Pokédex app, which automatically tracked her party through wireless chips in the Poké Balls, and showed her real-time information on her Pokémon's moves and status during battle. It was an invaluable tool during battles, and one that Kieran also had open in preparation for the fight. "Okay, ready when you are," said Taylor.

"Alright, here goes nothing!" said Kieran. "Go, Elekid!" He threw his own Poké Ball and Elekid burst forth, spinning one of its arms round a few times to generate the electricity that stimulated its muscles. It was a fast Pokémon, and reasonably powerful; like Taylor's Eevee, it had perfect IVs, meaning it was as strong as it was possible for an Elekid to be. However, its Nature - which lowered its Attack bur raised its Special Defence - was not exactly ideal when all its moves were physical moves.

Taylor's Eevee had no such problems. "Go, Eevee!" said Taylor, sending out her own starter. She quickly consulted her Pokédex, but before she could check its moves properly, Kieran spoke up once more.

"My Elekid's faster, so it's my turn first!" he declared. "Elekid, use Fire Punch!" Elekid duly obliged, cloaking its fist in flames and whirling its arm around to build up power, before striking Eevee directly in the face. Taylor gasped as her Pokémon took the blow, but despite stumbling backwards slightly, Eevee stood firm.

"My turn now, then!" said Taylor. "Uhh…" She took the opportunity to properly consult the Pokédex, checking the moves she had available to use. Tackle was a fairly standard damage-dealing move. Charm would severely lower its Attack, something she wasn't sure was necessary since its first attack hadn't done much damage to start with. Instead, she decided to lower its defences, in order to finish it off quicker. "Okay… Eevee, use Tail Whip!"

Eevee turned round and wagged its bushy tail cutely in Elekid's direction. The cuteness was enough to cause Elekid to lower its guard slightly, reducing its Defence. However, at the end of this first turn, Elekid still held the advantage in terms of remaining health, and since it went fist again in the second time, it could stretch this advantage.

"Elekid, use Ice Punch this time!" said Kieran. This time, Elekid's fist was cloaked in ice crystals as it whirled its arm round in circles, before delivering another blow to Eevee. Eevee withstood this one as well, but its health was down to below half now, and it was starting to tire a little. Taylor knew she had to end this quickly if she was to avoid losing her first-ever battle.

Consulting her Pokédex once more, she realized her Eevee had another attack: Covet. This one dealt more damage than Tackle, and would also steal an opponent's held item, if it happened to have one. This must have been the "powerful egg move" that Ellen had been referring to. In any case, there was no reason for her to use Tackle when she had this move at her disposal. "Eevee," she declared, "use Covet!"

Shaking off its slight weariness, Eevee strode over to Elekid and began to beg cutely, its eyes opening wide in a pleading expression. Elekid was immediately caught off-guard, and a moment later, Eevee struck, swiping out at the Electric Pokémon with one of its front paws. Had Elekid been holding an item, it would have been snatched away from it, but instead all it did was deal a heavy amount of damage to the weakened Pokémon, sending it stumbling backwards, pinwheeling its arms to try and regain its balance. Taylor's choice to weaken Elekid before striking it had made all the difference, and now the match had swung dramatically in her own favour.

Kieran gritted his teeth, growing agitated. He hadn't expected Eevee's attacks to be so strong in comparison to Elekid's. But it wasn't over yet: he still had one slim chance of winning. Ice Punch, being an Ice-type move, had a 10% chance of freezing the opponent. If the next blow froze Eevee, it would be left incapable of moving, and Elekid would be able to easily finish it off.  It was a slim chance, but it was the only chance he had left to avoid defeat.

"Elekid," he called out, "use Ice Punch again! Freeze it solid!" Elekid pinwheeled its arm once more, charging up another frigid punch. Once more it landed squarely on Eevee, causing it to stumble backwards, and with its health now dangerously low, its front legs were starting to buckle and one eye was closed, panting a little against the pain. But it was not knocked out, and crucially, neither was it frozen. "Damn it," muttered Kieran, who knew in that instant that he had lost.

"Hang in there, Eevee!" cried out Taylor, growing concerned for her tired Pokemon. "You're doing great; just one more attack! Now, use Tackle!"

Eevee nodded, steadying itself, before charging at Elekid and tackling it head-on. The blow was more than enough to knock out the tired Elekid, sending it sprawling to the floor. The battle was over, and Taylor had won.

Suddenly, the rookie trainer found herself flooded with a powerful sense of joy and accomplishment. This may only have been a practice match against a fellow rookie, but it was a victory nonetheless, and a perfect start to her career. "We did it, Eevee!" exclaimed Taylor joyfully. "We won!"

Eevee staggered round to face Taylor, still limping a little, and gave her a weak smile. Already, perhaps, Eevee could sense that Taylor was going to be a good trainer. Taylor recalled her victorious Pokémon back to its Poké Ball, and Kieran followed suit, scowling as he returned his defeated Elekid to its ball.

"Don't feel too down, Kieran," said Seth encouragingly. "You still fought pretty well. Once you get some more practice under your belt, that Elekid of yours will get plenty stronger."

"I know," said Kieran, "but that doesn't make me feel any better about losing."

 "I guess not," conceded Seth. "Still, I have to admit, that's a pretty strong Eevee. I think it helped that it had STAB moves and your Elekid didn't."

"STAB moves?" repeated Taylor blankly.

"I think I have a lot of technical terms to teach her," said Brandon. "But for now, I think we should go heal these Pokémon back up again. Ellen's got a healing machine in her house, so let's head back inside for a bit."

"Alright," said Taylor. "We'll go training afterwards, right?"

"Actually, before we get onto that, I think I need to explain some stuff first," said Brandon. "It'll help if you know what you're doing and what you're aiming for right from the get-go."

"I know what I'm aiming for," said Kieran, as he followed Seth back towards the house. "I wanna be the strongest trainer in the world. That's the point, isn't it?"

"Kind of," admitted Brandon.

"Yeah, I think we'll head over to Viridian Forest after this," said Seth. "There's plenty of weak Flying and Bug-types there that this thing will make mincemeat out of. Easy practice."

"We'll probably go there tomorrow, yeah," said Brandon. "I need to teach you how to catch a Pokémon for yourself, that's a really important skill to learn."

Taylor nodded. "I'm looking forward to it," she said, as the four of them headed back inside Ellen's house in search of the healing machine.