Rachel put her Poochyena down and quickly hugs me. I blush a bit embarrassingly and hesitantly hug her back. After the hug, she starts herself back up again. Rachel begins talking about all the things she's been doing since she left littleroot. She left not that long before I started my journey so she was also fairly new to this trainer thing as I was.
I look at her and stop her mid conversation. I always saw her as my rival, a big one at that, so I pull out my badge holder and I show here my rock-type badge, "Look at this Rachel, I think this finally means I beat you in badge collecting since I already have my rock-type badge! Yeah, it was pretty hard all things considered", I say hiding the nervousness in the back of my mind. It wasn't easy at all...I was partially horrified in the process.
Rachel looks at me in surprise and observes the badge carefully before pulling out her own badge holder and shows me that she also has the rock-type badge, "Ha! Getting this badge was supposed to be easy. Don't think you're all that just because you got one badge", she says smirking. The look of surprise then appeared onto my face and I put away my badge holder.
"You...uh...Well! I'm still gonna be the Champion of Hoenn and when I do, you won't be able to beat me with the pokemon you have and I bet that you can't even beat me now!", I cross my arms and look away triumphantly.
At the time, I didn't fully realize what I had said until I said it, but even then I didn't even think she would come out different.
"Well then...Why don't you back up that claim and let's have a battle right now!", Rachel said pulling out 2 poke balls as well as making her Poochyena take a fierce stance. I look at her and glare intensely while smiling.
"Oh, you have no idea what you're in for...", I said grimly. It was a threat, and a very real one at that.
I get like this sometimes. If I ever feel too competitive, if I ever feel too excited, I will waste no chance at displaying who I am, or who I could be..........I'm still gonna be the Champion though, that much is certain but still, you know what I mean. My competitive mindset kicked in.
We step just outside of Rustboro and I walk away from Rachel to get some distance to command my pokemon and we start.
"Send out your pokemon Daniel, I already have my Poochyena", Rachel said. Then, i'll do the same! I send out my Poochyena and he yawns. What the hell man! Read the atmosphere! Two childhood friends/rivals are about to throw down and here you are falling asleep!
I sigh and I go back into battle mode, "I'm not gonna go easy on you! But since this'll be over fast, i'll let you go first". You know, I can feel I'm getting a bit too cocky... I realized this when Rachel looked at me angrily instead of looking cocky herself.
She made her Poochyena use bite. At the same time I made mine use growl to try and spook it. It somewhat had an effect but her Dog bit mine and it bit down hard. Poochyena felt the pain, but didn't let out a noise. This was the first time I admired a pokemon other than Gardevoir. I caught myself a real tough guy. I make my poochyena bite back and he does. At this point me and Rachel had no idea what to do...The sight we saw just made us stare...in awe...
The two dog-like pokemon were using bite on each other but the way it looked it...it just looked so cute! It was if they were playing around. We stared at the sight, as well as some others that showed up and watched with us. After watching we just returned them to their poke balls and took a sec to get our minds going again.
"Just as I thought, you aren't a total pushover", Rachel said going back into her battle mood
"Ha!, that's not all I've got, there's more where that came from Rachel!", I taunt, also going back into my battle mood. Both of our fierceness slowly started to go away as we both began to start having fun with this battle.
"Go! Marshtomp!", Rachel said throwing out her starter. Now, I could do the smart thing and send out my Wingull who's flying water...not like..actual flying water, but I mean the type he is. Or I could make the stupid decision of sending out my Combusken and rely on her Agility and speed...and hope that all of Marshtomp's attacks miss. I sigh and I reach for one of my pokeballs.
Then, all of a sudden. A red laser shoots out from one of my pokeballs. It was her. The female pokemon I have yet to learn how to control. She sent herself out again...But this time it was different. Ralts' horn glowed brighter than it ever has before. Even worse, she had a deep red aura swirling around her, almost as if she herself couldn't control her own power. My happiness and excitement replaced with pure and utter fear. Rachel felt the same way. She was frozen and couldn't even say a word. Marshtomp observed my Ralts with determination. I couldn't process what either of the two pokemon were thinking. That was until, she told me.
"Why...?"
I heard a voice in my head say that word and it made me shutter...and it also made me tear up.
"Why is it always the others you rely on?"
At first I was confused until Ralts turned to me slowly and the voice spoke again, "I want you to rely on me now...only me...". And with that, Ralts was suddenly covered in a white light, the red aura still piercing the air around us. She's evolving?! Right now!? Marshtomp sprung into action, he took a deep breath and used water gun. The blast seemed to head straight at Ra-....Straight at Kirlia. for the time it took for the blast to reach her, she emerged from the white light. Her form changed into her slightly bigger evolution. I held my breath as I started to imagine how this would end. I was scared, I didn't want anyone or anything to get hurt. That's when my instincts kicked in. I looked over to the small crowd who stuck around after we both returned our Poochyena's and I yelled at them to run. With looks of horror they obey and I turn back to the battle and I watch as Kirlia is holding out her hand towards the Marshtomp and staring blankly with something on her face. Marshtomp was holding its head in pain. Rachel was watching still frozen unable to say or do anything, because what could she do?
I stood up straight, now or never...
I take a deep breath and I slowly start walking over to Kirlia. She senses me and turns to me while still holding up her hand toward the pokemon she's harming. She says nothing, and I notice the thing on her face were her tears. I just keep walking. Her aura coming from her horns still raging, but still I press on. It's as if I was walking into a tornado. Still walking towards her slowly, I get cut on my cheek a bit by that rage. I see Kirlia hesitate slightly probably knowing she had harmed me. She's not completely insane yet...I still have a chance to get her back to normal.
"Do not Fear your pokemons power...Love it...and accept it for what it is..."
I stand before Kirlia who then puts her arm down as she looks straight at me. I kneel down, to her and she grits her teeth in anger and looks at me, "Why is it always the others you put your faith in?! Why is it never me?! What I want is for you only look at me!!".
I knew I was the only one who heard her voice. Even if I looked crazy...I looked her dead in the eyes and spoke softly, "Because you're the one I want to protect the most Kirlia...". I smiled warmly with tears starting to form in my eyes.
Her eyes widen. Her anger disappears and her horn stops glowing bright and her rage starts to settle. I hug her gently and I pet her head. She starts to cry more. And after hugging her for a while...I started to cry too...
Did I hug her out of love...or did I hug her out of fear...?
