Chapter 13: Shopping

The trio walked over to the largest Pokemon Center to drop off all of their Pokemon. Xander and Cynthia only had 3 balls but they saw Dahlia drop off 6 balls. Besides 2 basic red and white Pokeballs, the other ones were Safari, Great and Ultra Balls. 

'She must have been trying to catch some pretty strong Pokemon,' Xander noted to himself but didn't comment. 

With their Pokemon under the care of Nurse Joy and her team of Blissey, the trio walked to the shopping center to go and buy supplies. At least that was Xander's original goal. 

So when he was dragged to the clothing section of the place, he let out a groan. 

'Not girl shopping. Anything but girl shopping!' Xander complained to himself. He had to watch Cynthia and Dahlia try on dozens of outfits that neither of them was even going to buy. 

After an hour of watching them, he finally got tired and decided to walk around to try and find some new clothes for himself since he wanted Cynthia's opinion on the supplies that they would get. 

When he walked over to the men's section, he quickly went over to the pants area to buy some hiking pants. Although he liked his white sweatsuit, he realized that it wasn't a good idea to wear it during his journey. It could easily get dirty and there were also several tears from when they were attacked by wild Pokemon. 

So after picking out several pairs of black and dark grey hiking pants, he made his way over to shirts to get a few basic grey shirts with different types of symbols on them. He also added a set of Hisuian Dark Slate snow pants and a jacket for when they were in the colder areas of Sinnoh. 

When he does with his purchases, his total savings went from 200,000 Pokedollars to 180,000 (these are comparable to Yen, not actual dollars.) which wasn't too much of a difference to him. 

Once he was done shopping, he realized that only 15 minutes had passed since he had left the girls. 

'Crap. Should have taken longer to shop for myself,' Xander thought as he slowly walked back to the hell that was the women's section. It took another 2 hours for the girls to finally get tired of shopping.

The trio then made their way up to the Poke Mart to buy some supplies. Xander and Cynthia restocked all their Pokemon food and got a few more potions, Pokeballs, some bait, and some Pokemon repellent. 

Just as they were about to check out, Xander saw something that caught his eye and that he would be unable to get in Sinnoh. 

He rushed over to the stack of stones before picking up a light blue one with a snowflake symbol in the center. 

'An Ice Stone? Thank goodness. I can evolve Vulpix with this,' Xander was excited to see that he was able to get one. These were usually sold in other regions and were incredibly hard to find in Sinnoh. Luckily for him, Veilstone City had the largest store in the region. 

Xander looked at the price and sucked in his breath when he saw that it would cost 50,000 Pokedollars. Adding in the other supplies he was planning on buying, he was about to deplete half of his savings in one go. 

'It's gonna be worth it, though. With Vulpix evolved into Ninetales, I can compete in more trainer battles and earn that cash back much easier.'

With these words in his head, Xander went ahead and brought the Ice Stone with him to the register to purchase it. As soon as he put his watch over the scanner and heard the beep, he felt his heart ache knowing how much his savings had decreased. 

With all their supplies purchased, the trio returned to the Pokemon Center to pick up their Pokemon before getting a room at the center together. Since they were a group of 3, not 4, they would have to pay for the room. Luckily since the Pokemon Center was run by the League, the trio got it for very cheap.

After bringing their stuff up to the room, the group went to the training area to watch Vulpix evolve. Dahlia was especially interested since she had never seen an Alolan Vulpix or Ninetales. 

When they got to the training area, there were 15 other teens there, most of them either battling with one another or doing training exercises with their Pokemon. When the group of 3 entered, a few of them turned to look at them and were shocked to see Dahlia present.

While they were walking through the street, Cynthia and Xander also noticed that many people had been paying attention to their group but mainly Dahlia. Both of their faces burned with embarrassment at the fact that they did not recognize the most recent champion. 

The trio walked into a corner before Xander summoned Vulpix from her Pokeball. As soon as the white light faded, the little princess glared at Xander before turning around and sticking her butt out at him. 

"I know you hate strangers but we have to let the nurses take care of you," Xander tried to appease Vulpix. While she wasn't shy around strangers, she didn't like them either. She hated it the most when random people touched her precious fur. 

'Stupid, human! This queen's fur is not meant to be touched by commoners!' Vulpix growled, not turning around to face Xander. 

Seeing her act like this, Xander felt humiliated while Cynthia and Dahlia laughed at her antics. Although Cynthia was used to seeing this, it was Xander's first time meeting Dahlia and he wanted to make a good impression. 

"Look, I got your favorite snack to make it up to you," Xander pulled out several blue poffins with yellow sprinkles on them. These were the dry-flavored ones with a little bit of sourness added to them. 

Vulpix smelled the poffins and turned her head slightly to look at it before turning back around with a humph. Xander smirked when he saw that he had her attention. He just had to pull out his trump card. 

"I also got you something super special. Remember that Ice Stone I've been talking about? The one that can help you evolve?"

Hearing this, Vulpix turned around and looked to see if Xander was telling the truth. When she saw the stone in his hand and felt the cool energy coming from it, she let out an excited purr.

Xander and the others laughed at her changing her mind so quickly. Seeing that she had acted out of character, Vulpix gave an embarrassed whine before walking up to Xander and rubbing her body against his leg. 

"Alright, alright. We won't laugh anymore," he laughed as he picked her up and held a poffin to her mouth. 

Vulpix nibbled on the poffin like a dainty princess but she still ate it all in less than a minute. She then purred, saying, 'Hmph. The taste was acceptable. I shall allow you to feed me the rest.'

Xander shook his head at his Pokemon before feeding her the rest of the poffins. Once she was done eating, he set her and the Ice Stone on the ground. 

Vulpix walked over to the stone and pressed her nose against it before her body was covered by a blinding blue light that released a large amount of cold air.