[X] My Assistant

[Living Arrow]

Travelling back to Port Barley after the events at the Petropolis Grand Invitational had been a long and gruelling affair for Lori. Well, it had involved public transport which inevitably meant sharing elbow room with all manner of undesirable and social reprobates. If she was not worrying about her bag being stolen from off of her shoulder, the young Trainer was replaying the events of the tournament again and again to find the moment that had made her act so foolishly.

*Who really thinks they can play the hero and go down some stupid hole to save random people they’ve never even met before!?* She demanded of herself for the fiftieth time as the stench of body odour from her latest ravel companion drifted her way. Holding back a gag, she politely turned her head the other way and cried inwardly. *At least Cesc smelled good!*

*Hey! Stop thinking about him, dammit!* Lori blushed in spite of herself, heat rising in her cheeks to decorate her skin with blotches of ruby embarrassment.

The coach pulled up to a stop at the edge of the town in the later hours of the sunny morning, a couple of miles from her final destination, and freedom announced itself as the coach doors clunked open.

*Close enough!* Lori told herself, springing up from her seat without a backward glance for the stinking hobo next to the window. Cuddling her bag close to her chest with one hand while squeezing the length of her intensely red hair in the other, she hurried to the front of the vehicle.

“Thanks!” She smiled and bowed her head politely to the driver (a sweet old man who she doubted spoke any English) and skipped down the steps to the sidewalk. The coach pulled away with the hiss of its brakes releasing to leave her drinking in the fresh air of the coast. It had been a while since she had been in Barley, and the town hadn’t changed a bit, but she felt like a different person to the rookie that had picked fights with bullies on her first day in the town.

*Never again, Lor.* She reminded herself of the boys that had threatened to cut off her hair when she’d defended another beginner trainer at the bus station. She shuddered at the memory, pushing those thoughts down to her toes where they couldn’t plague her thoughts anymore.

“Pipster,” Lori clicked open the green-capped Pokeball of her Piplup and grinned as he materialised in front of her, “we’re back in Barley.”

“Lup, Piplup!” His cheery reply was a welcome change to the dismal mutterings of the ‘people’ on the coach.

“And you know what that means, right?” She prompted him. A blank expression was her response. She rolled her eyes and pumped her fists energetically, the infectious enthusiasm of her naturally bold demeanour finding its way back to the front of her otherwise woolly teenage brain. “It means we get back on a ferry and go to Fidona! That Gym badge won’t win itself, y’know?!”

“Lup!”

“So, let’s go!” Lori cheered, breaking into a run down the final slope into the town with her Penguin Pokemon close on her heels.

[A Kitty Cat]

Ledian buzzed forward with amazing speed the moment it's trainer commanded it to and instantly set in to tackle Natu head on. Marwan could tell that his little green friend was prepared to dodge before it was even though. Marwan wasn't entirely sure of the myth about Natu and the two eyes seeing into the past and future but if there was ever a way to convince him it would be watching Natu Dodge the tackles that were being thrown at it.
Marwan was aware of the huge difference in power between the two, one bug type attack from the clearly superior Ledian would be more than enough to knock out Natu but defeating the bug wasn't the plan, wearing it down was. It was surprising, to say the least, that the man in black was deciding to only attack with tackles though Marwan knew what to expect when a Comet punch was about to be thrown.

“Natu, now's our chance to try and do some damage, peck!”

Natu took a quick leap forward before flapping its wings with all its might. The familiar silvery sheen covered its beak as it flew towards the Ledian.

“Dodge it Langley!” cried out the man in black and that is exactly what Langley the Ledian did, Natu was able to brush up against the bug but what little damage the small peck did was hardly comparable to what was about to follow.

“Ledian, Comet Punch.”

The Pokemon swung itself around and reached out to the Natu, barely grabbing it by the leg.

“Natu try to get away!” cried out Marwan to little avail. Ledian wound its arm back and with an astounding amount of power unloaded a powerful punch into the body of Natu. The small green ball of a Pokemon crashed into the ground beneath the battle and bounced as if it was made of rubber.

“Again! Finish it off!” the thug cried out. His voice was full of confidence and pride as he watched his Ledian wind up. Marwan panicked and called out to his Natu.

“Natu, Do something!”

The injured bird rolled over to look at its attacker, badly injured and barely able to fight back the small bird was engulfed in a faint purple aura. The glow slowly grew as time seemed to freeze, Ledian was simply fluttering above, arm cocked back and ready to fire, but for whatever reason the attack never came. A black beam shot from Natu into Ledian and connected the two on an unseen level, Natu was stoic as ever but the Ledian started to flutter about in an erratic pattern was was clearly having a hard time processing what ever was being beamed into its head. Both trainers stood in silence as the scene unfolded in front of them.

“Night Shade...” Marwan murmured, unable to think of anything else to say.

The scene came to an end when Natu was unable to keep up the attack, a minute had gone by but the Ledian was still ready to fire off a comet punch when it was finally able to shake the mirage out of its head. The moment the attack ended the punch had come down like a hammer from the sky into Natu, pummeling the Pokemon into the ground. Marwan was helpless in doing anything to stop the attack, he was expecting Natu to faint but not for such a brutal attack to be used.

“Growlith, come out.”

In a flash of light Growlith sprung out of its ball, Marwan reached for Natu's ball as Growlith looked around at its new surroundings. The puppy could tell what had happened, it instantly saw Natu sitting in the crater that was the ground zero of the battle. Marwan couldn't read the minds of his partners but if he knew Growlith as well as he thought he did he knew this would fire the Pokemon up more than anything. The puppy was clearly more determined than usual, certainly more than the fight against Roxxy.

“I'm going to crush your stupid dog. That's what you deserve for standing in our way!” The man in black sputtered with a sneer. His voice only worked to aggravate Marwan even more than his actions already had.

“Growlith we need to give this everything we got. This is serious.” Growlith gave a quick bark and took it's spot in front of the Ledian. Marwan figured Ledian was still more powerful but had all of his faith in Growlith winning.

“Let's take the first attack. Ember!”

Growlith suddenly unloaded a spray of small flaming orbs from his mouth, a shotgun spray of super heated shots filled the air. The Ledian attempted to dodge out of the way but was caught by a couple of the shots. It didn't appear to do a large amount of damage to the bug but clearly had an effect.

“Growlith I know you can do this. Tackle it!”

Growlith took off like a bullet from a gun in a mad dash towards its opponent, Ledian readied itself for the attack and tried to predict the right time to move. The faster Ledian had no problem dodging every attack that Growlith had thrown at it. Every tackle met with an equally quick dodge and any attempts to fly up above Growlith's range was only met with a barrage of embers.

“My Growlith has twice the energy your Ledian is going to have, just call it back and end this.”

“I'm going to win this, stop trying to make me back out!” The man in black responded.

Marwan figured that Growlith's hyperactivity could pay off here, if Ledian couldn't get close without taking a hit than it also couldn't hit Growlith with that comet punch. Marwan was a little confused though, so far Ledian had only use tackle and comet punch but there was no way it only knew two moves. What was this guy planning?

Marwan continued to half focus on his thoughts and half focus on the battle. Except for the fact that the battle was more like a dog chasing around a bug than an actual Pokemon battle, Ledian couldn't get close enough and Growlith showed no signs of tiring down. The injures from the previous ember attack seemed to be taking a toll on the bug as it was clearly having trouble keeping itself flying.

Marwan snapped out of his stupor when he finally realized that if the opponent wasn't going to do anything other than try and punch as Growlith he might as well end the fight here.

“Growlith, calm down.” ordered Marwan and Growlith suddenly came to a stop and simply stared down the bug.

“Tackle him Langley!” The thug took the bait. The moment the Ledian got close to Growlith Marwan shouted out to his Growlith. Ledian had no chance to escape the fiery torrent that flew forth from Growlith's mouth. Ledian dropped like a pile of bricks, its wounds finally overtaking it. Growlith fell over onto its side, clearly worn out from all the action though mostly okay.

“No, that's impossible! She was so much more powerful than you!” cried the thug, sobbing over his injured Ledian.

“Why did you only use two offensive moves? You had to have had more moves up your sleeve.”

“Don't you tell me how to use my Pokemon!”

Marwan was too fed up with the young man to talk any further, he snapped his fingers for Growlith to come to him and went to catch up with the rest of the group.