"..."

"Poli!" The blue tadpole-like pokemon barked out.

"Woah, a Poliwag." Cinder recognized the pokemon instantly, the professor's corral had a dozen few around, sometimes Cinder and his friends from Pallet played along with them. He hadn't thought about catching one, but the challenge they have in the future against the Pewter Gym would go much easier with a water-type. Poliwag's final evolutionary stage had the potential to either evolve into either the mighty Poliwrath or the frivolous Politoed.

He took out his Pokedex and opened it up to scan the pokemon.

"Poliwag. The tadpole pokemon. Poliwag has very thin skin. It is possible to see the pokemon's spiral innards right through the skin. Despite its thinness however, the skin is also very flexible. Even sharp fangs bounced right off it."

"This Poliwag is Male and has the ability 'Water Absorb', additionally it also has the hidden ability 'Swift Swim'. This Poliwag knows the moves: Hypnosis, Water Gun, Pound, Bubble Beam and Mud Shot. Its egg move is, Ice Beam, which has been unlocked."

Cinder adjusted his stance. This was it. The first time they would try and catch a wild pokemon together. It's time to see if Storm's training was effective or not.

"Watch out for its psychic attack, Storm." He informed. "And get ready for battle."

"REEP!" His starter barked, standing ready for his next command. Fafnir cheered at the electric-type beside Cinder's legs.

"Okay, Storm. Thunder Shock." Cinder ordered. Holding out an extra pokeball in hand, ready to catch the tadpole at any given opportunity.

Storm fired the bolt of electricity, which was noticeably became much faster, as it tagged Poliwag who was eyeing them with vigilance and curiosity.

The tadpole pokemon cried out, as it landed on its legs a meter behind its original place.

It leaped in its place with anger at the sudden attack. Poliwag glared at Storm and launched a stream of bubbles.

Cinder recognized it as Bubble Beam and snapped. "Thunder Shock! Blow them away and then use Double Team. Follow it with an attack, Iron Tail!"

Storm let loose a full powered Thunder Shock seeing the stream of bubbles, the surge of electricity collided with the Bubble Beam, destroying 'most' of it. Apparently, his Thunder Shock wasn't powerful enough, luckily Storm managed to dodge it with Double Team, a dozen afterimage flickered encircling the Poliwag while a few disappeared because of being hit by the remaining bubbles.

A second later, the original Storm dashed towards the tadpole from behind. His tail glowing with a metallic luster, which he quickly struck towards the opponent's back.

Another cry of pain sounded out in the clearing surrounded by the forest trees, Cinder's eyes widened when he saw the first-stage Poliwag getting up, albeit in much difficulty while groaning and moaning in pain. He was clearly injured, and it wasn't like the two attacks, Thunder Shock, and, Iron Tail was able to hit it perfectly. Especially, Thunder Shock, as it was meant to be super effective against Poliwag's water-typing. This made up Cinder's mind for good.

He was catching this pokemon.

He had no intention of letting it recover and counterattack, without wasting time, he commanded Storm quickly. "Thunder Shock!"

Poliwag was already having difficulty evading the attack because of its injuries, however, the tadpole did something which surprised Cinder and Storm too.

Poliwag fires multiple smaller balls of mud at the incoming attack from ground.

When both attacks met in the middle, a small smoke exploded from the collision.

Fortunately, Storm was quick to react as he darted at the Poliwag's position a second later, at the same time unfortunately, because he didn't expect a second round of multiple small balls of mud going on his way, Storm stared at an incoming ball that was slowly expanding on his pupils. Which slammed on to his face hard, followed by a couple which landed on various parts of his body.

Storm was stunned temporarily from the Mud Slap, but recovered fast enough to avoid a Pound that Poliwag attempted to smash into his forehead. The sheep simply sidestepped on the side, and countered with an Iron Tail with a spin of his frame.

The attack slammed on to the tiny body of the tadpole, this time Cinder didn't let himself get distracted as he focused more on the battle.

"Paralyze Poliwag with Thunder Wave! Follow it up with full power Thunder Shock, now!" Cinder shouted.

Storm releases thin streams of electricity from its body. Which managed to zap Poliwag before its body slammed the ground. Then, Storm blasted the Poliwag without mercy, causing the water-type's body to spasm and recoil skywards from the countless volts surging into his body.

Cinder expected Poliwag to fall after that, but was once again surprised when the tadpole tried to help itself up, a much too familiar fiery determination blazing within its eyes. Sheer determination kept it on his feet, but his body seemed not to possess that sturdy will of his, as he flopped forward, exhausted.

Cinder saw its body sparking and knew it was unable to move. He primmed a pokeball and hurled it towards the water-type.

The young boy and his two pokemon watched with bated breath as the ball wriggled and shook violently. Even after being crushed by an electric-type, Cinder couldn't believe the willpower of the tadpole to utterly refuse to surrender. It tried to break free for nearly ten seconds before finally settling down and allowing the capture device to click close.

"Well, that was one hell of a fighter." Cinder said. Storm seemed to agree as it tiredly groaned. "You did a good job Storm, I'll get you some healing potions in a minute."

Cinder picked up the pokeball from the ground and smiled at it. "You will be a great addition to the team, Poliwag. You really surprised me with your determination, I can't wait to meet you."

But that's for later, he still has a Mareep to attend to.

After fetching and clipping his new pokemon on his belt, Cinder immediately got to work with the potions. Storm's wounds were light, so after a few moments, it closed up and he was spotless as before. Although, he was still tired from the battle, potions couldn't recover those after all.

"Let's rest for a few minutes before continuing. What do you guys say?" Storm and Fafnir voiced their agreement. The former tired, the latter becoming hype as it approached Storm and began conversing with the electric-type with admiration.

It was within Gible's nature to be fond of battling, Cinder noticed that as Gible watched more battles, the more his excitement for it was developing. He hoped this wasn't a major problem. Although, the fact that Cinder was raising Fafnir from an egg was a golden opportunity to correct a problem that was normally far more difficult to fix.

Cinder patted Storm and Fafnir while he was thinking this through. And after a good amount of time, he asked Storm. "Are you good to go now?"

"Ma." Storm said with a nod. He was now not as tired, but his electricity is still not fully charged yet.

Cinder realized this too. He was able to know his starter's full capacity after their training at Viridian's Pokemon Center, so he knew that was what Storm was trying to say.

"Alright. Before we continue though, we should officially meet our third member in the team, shall we?" He said a little bit too happily. He couldn't stop his smile appearing on his face when he remembered the great pokemon he just caught. "We need to be careful how to approach this."

Poliwag is a new member in their team now. Wild pokemon often varied in terms of how they reacted after being caught.

He released Poliwag from his pokeball.

Storm and Fafnir looked on curiously as Poliwag emerged from the opening of the pokeball.

The tadpole didn't look crushed up from the battle, most likely because it had some time to recover inside the pokeball. Nevertheless, the damage done to it was still noticeably clear.

Cinder knelt down, crouching until he was at eye level with Poliwag.

"Hey, Poliwag." Cinder said awkwardly. How should he do this?

"Poli." Poliwag looked over at Cinder curiously. Crooking his eyes in confusion.

"We caught you. You are a pokemon that is within my responsibilities to take care of as a trainer." Cinder informed the water-type. "Do you want to come with us? I really want to have you in my team, I greatly admired your determination on the battle earlier."

"Poliwag." Poliwag nodded. He was game with it, Cinder was a little surprised how quickly he agreed. Nonetheless, he felt joy surge through him because,officially, this was his first pokemon which he captured through battling.

"Glad you are willing to join us, Poliwag." Cinder revealed a soft smile. He then turned towards his other pokemon present. "This is your future teammates. Guys, come here and say hello to Poliwag. Poliwag, this is your new family and friends."

Storm didn't know how to approach the water-type with a greeting. Before, they were battling for capture, but now they were a part of a team and family. However, remembering the words Cinder told him shortly after they met. 'I'll be counting on you, you are the leader of the team, after all...'

He toughened up and stilled himself to approach Poliwag, Fafnir followed after the electric-type.

...

Quite surprisingly, Poliwag hadn't been much of a pain over its getting captured. Cinder made it clear to the pokemon that he was the trainer, and he captured it, and would help it grow, Poliwag decided to go with the flow as well. The tadpole pokemon have not been too much of a stuck up on his defeat against Storm. Which, Cinder and Storm found fortunate. Although, the pokemon did occasionally throw a jet of water at that drenched Storm's face, it was with no intention to harm the electric-type though, it was but all fun and games.

Then again, water pokemon were quite friendly overall. The Poliwag he knew over at the Corral sure was one and was fun to be with.

Cinder and his team had now been covering a good amount of ground from their walking through the forest, they encountered a few wild pokemon and had some battles with them, although Cinder had no intention of catching another one yet. After all, he still needed to get used to Poliwag before planning on catching another one. Most of the battles were covered up by Storm, while Cinder used Poliwag a few times to get to a groove with how the Poliwag battled. He looked at the time and noticed it was now 4:30PM. He decided the progress they had was enough, so they walked forward a little bit to find a good spot to camp on the night.

"Hey, you! Do you want to have a pokemon battle?"

It didn't take too long for them to find one, it was a clearing that seemed to have had a few trainers set camp before, as they were approaching the place a voice suddenly called out to them that made their head turn towards the source.

It was a boy, with brown hair, plain features, with a pokemon on his hand.

This was the first trainer that Cinder came across since they entered the forest, and conveniently for him, the other person was up for a battle.

He nodded his head towards the trainer. "Alright. Are you up for a two on two battle?"

The young trainer grinned and responded. "Hell yeah, I only have two pokemon anyway. The name's Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenvewve Ugwemubwem Ossas."

Cinder, Storm, Poliwag and even Fafnir stared at the young man blankly. Who would name someone with such a ridiculously long and bad name like that? It sounded way too similar to Poliwag's gurgling with the water in his throat, except, without the water.

"Alright... Ogwamvebwe-"

"No! Not that, it is Uvuvwevwevwe Onyetenvewve Ugwemubwem Ossas." The young trainer seemed to have been offended as he loudly corrected Cinder. "It's simple."

"..." Cinder just kept his silence at that.