2 Chapter 2

4.) Random pokemon

He cursed under his breath, grabbing a ball out of the box before turning to run out the building. It was smarter to take a ball from the box, they wouldn't notice one pokeball among dozens was missing. If he had taken one of the three starters they would know immediately. He just hoped he didn't get a useless pokemon.

Kalen weaved through the forest, stopping under a tree. He pushed through a bush and smiled. The bag he had prepared was sitting right where he left it, packed with everything he needed. He looped it over his shoulders and headed deeper into the woods.

A few hours passed before he felt safe enough to stop. He sat down and pulled out the pokeball.

"Please don't be a bug," Kalen murmured, crossing his fingers before letting the pokemon out of its ball. An explosion of light erupted out of the ball.

"Magby!" The baby pokemon cried, turning to look at its new trainer. There was a moment of silence as the two stared at each other.

"Eh, could be worse," Kalen said with a shrug, Magmortar was pretty strong. He pulled out his pokedex, registering himself as a trainer then pointing it at Magby.

"Magby, the Live Coal Pokémon. Magby has a magma-like substance in its body, and it emits super-fiery breath."

"Alright," Kalen clapped his hands together, leaning forward to stare Magby in the eye, "I'm gonna be the strongest trainer there is, you with me?"

Magby nodded and Kalen grinned. He returned Magby to his pokeball and started walking again.

"Hey! Are you a trainer?" Kalen stopped and turned. There was a kid, baseball cap on backwards and a yellow shirt.

"Yeah what about it?"

"Let's have a battle!"

Kalen smirked, this was a good opportunity to test both his knowledge and Magby's skill.

"Alright then."

"Yes!" the kid fist pumped, "Let's win this, Bidoof!"

The little beaver popped out of its ball in an explosion of light and chittered.

Kalen grimaced, at least he didn't get that useless furball.

"Go Magby."

"Bidoof tackle!" Bidoof leapt at Magby, head lowered in an attempt to damage him.

Kalen had spent years studying pokemon, he knew everything there was to know about them, there was no way he would lose his first battle and to a bidoof no less.

Bidoof was inexperienced, his tackle was a lot slower than some videos he had watched which meant the force behind it would be less as well. Magby could easily dodge it but it would be much better to...

"Magby ember!" Kalen shouted when the bidoof was a few inches away from the fire pokemon. It wasn't giving Magby very much buffer to process the order and carry it out but Kalen had a hunch that Magby wasn't new to pokemon battles and had some ingrained instinct in him.

He smirked when he was proven right, a rush of flame engulfing the bidoof at point blank range, stopping the bidoof's charge. Bidoof cried out, staggering to a stop.

"Ember again," before the other boy could react, Magby shot out another spurt of flame and Bidoof fell on its side, fainted.

A beam of red light returned Bidoof to its pokeball before the kid ran up to him, stars in his eyes, "Wow! You're so cooool! That was such a good battle!"

Kalen internally rolled his eyes, the battle had been very boring in his opinion but he supposed any battle would be cool to someone just starting out.

"Did you just get your Bidoof?" he asked, more out of politeness than anything else, he honestly didn't really care.

"Yeah! My dad gave me him to start off with. He said if I got enough gym badges he'd give me a super strong pokemon!"

Kalen felt a jolt of envy at the mention of the kid's dad before violently shoving it down. He blinked as the kid shoved his hand at him.

"My name's Joey by the way! What's yours?"

"Kalen," Kalen turned away and left, this kid was seriously draining, the amount of energy he had was exhausting. He didn't want to admit it but he was also off kilter. He had spent his whole life being ridiculed and mocked, he wasn't used to being treated with normal human decency, usually anyone who did that was plotting something. The kid seemed innocent and genuine but he couldn't stop the wary suspicion building in him and decided to just leave.

"Oh, by Kalen!" Joey yelled as he walked off.

He went deeper into the forest before stopping, looking around. The area around him was populated by some burmy, kricketot, and he could see a few combee flying around. Perfect

Kalen let Magby out of his ball, "Ok Magby, time to train." He didn't fool himself into thinking he was strong just because he won against a new trainer. He needed to get stronger.

The next few hours was spent battling against the various grass type pokemon around, using the type advantage to burn through them quicker. At the end of the day, Kalen collapsed against a tree, exhausted. An hour in, he had let Magby train by himself and used the time to train his own body, who knew when he would need to run away, Arceus knew it happened often enough before.

Magby also came back and Kalen passed the fire pokemon some of his food before biting into the sandwich he had picked, looking up into the stars. It was a peaceful night, and for the first time in years, he felt content.

Kalen was used to being alone, trusting no one but himself, it was a tiring way to live. But looking at Magby, his eyes softened. This was going to be his lifelong partner and he was already growing to care for him. Things were going to be different, he swore, he'd no longer be weak, he'd no longer be picked on, he'd be the strongest pokemon trainer ever and everyone who had ever made fun of him, he'd prove them all wrong.

The bushes rustled and he perked up, slowly going over to shove the leaves aside. In the dying light he saw a blue critter scuttling away.

Before he could proceed a noise caught his attention and he turned, just in time to catch a little brown flash disappear. Kalen paused, indecisive. He knew he could only catch up to one of them, but which one?

1.) Blue critter

2.) Brown flash