The entire gang left the hall from the lab after that.

"So, who is your starter Trent?" Victor said conversationally when we left the building. Honestly I wasn't expecting them to make small talk to me at all.

"Oh! I mean, He's a-" I am cut off my response as a overexcited yanma flies over and decides to nest in my head yet again. "Yan!"

"Whoa! A yanma! I saw one those once yesterday on -!" Gloria excitement is quickly cut off by her brother giving her a flick on the back of the head.

"The television. We saw a yanma on the tellie." He says. Calm as a cucumber even as I raise my eyebrow at the awkward scene, already sensing some sort of bullshit. And if I can sniff something going on here, Sonia and Leon absolutely can as well.

The easiest place to find yanma around these parts is the Slumbering Weald after all. And that is not a place for newbie trainers to run around in.

Leon himself looks like he is about to ask the two of them about it, but his brother interrupts him before he can get a word in "Nevermindthatlookatmyawesomestarter!" He then releases his Pokemon from a plain pokeball (I bought a nest ball for Goggles, he likes it better then the plain ones.), a streak of red light flows out of the ball, unleashing a green, humanoid shaped little thing on the ground.

The chimp Pokemon grookey comes out, two feet and one hand excitedly grabs the stick from his vine hair and begins banging it on the ground to demonstrate his excitement at being out of his ball.

"All righty! This is my buddy Zarude!" Hop steps over his Pokemon, standing next to him puffing his chest "He likes chesto berries best! And sunbathing as well!" Where did i hear that name before? Sonia certainly looks pleased at it.

"Gro keey!" The grass type put both his hands on his hips, staring daggers at Gloria. Huh. She must have beaten him pretty hard. Gloria herself just looks back at him with a smug smile on her face.

"Alright man! We got another battle to win! Against those guys this time!" The Pokemon looks at his trainer, before looking back at me and exclaming his own name.

I have no idea what the grass type expression or his tone means. He at least doesn't look uncooperative.

Goggles on the other hand, tugs at my scalp. A questioning little scratch. I move my hand up to caress his head "Yup, this is going to be our first battle. You ready for this buddy?"

"Yo!" Was my Pokemon's excited response. He took off from my head and flew straight into the small battlefield that served as the yard of the house-lab fusion.

"All right!" Hop dashed towards his spot in the arena, while me and grookey kept a leisure pace towards our spots.

I looked backwards to see the twins and Sonia moving towards the benches. My eyes meet with Gloria's for a second, causing a sensation of deep discomfort running down my very bones. I quickly avert my gaze as I reach my marked spot.

But i did notice the grass is... weird? There are uneven patches here and there and I am sure me and Goggled trimmed it like, last week.

Weird.

Leon stepped in the edge of one "Okay! I will be the acting judge of this match! Rules are simple, one versus one, single round and first to knockout! And remember to have fun!"

Honestly i should probably be more nervous about this. Hop is the brother of Leon and definitely knows more about Pokemon battling than I do, but honestly facing a guaranteed loss is a lot less nerve racking than a potential loss an-

"Fake out Zarude!" Oh shit i got lost in thought there.

The green monkey dashes across the battlefield like a athlete, Goggles staggers backwards from the sudden burst of speed before getting poked in the eye with a tree branch as the grass type jumps to reach my bug. I need to think!

Grookey is a physical attacker. What can he do against a flying opponent?

"Poke him again Zarude!"/"Keep him off with gust! Fly high!" Our voices overlap as we shout commands to our Pokemon. Zarude gets ready to jump again, but Goggles wings begin beating even faster than normal, generating flying type energy to push upwards while the throwing the grookey back into the ground.

This is it! Just maintain aerial advantage! "Keep going with gust!" I shout as the wind howls, it's not particularly loud, and at the distance I am from the fight the currents do little more than to ruffle my clothes.

"Run! Buy some time!" What is he trying to accomplish? Zarude is very fast and agile, managing to avoid the worst from the small gusts of wind my yamna is creating, but to what end? The flying type energy charged air is still brushing against his grassy skin, and if his expression of hurt is anything to go by, he is still very much affected by these brushes.

I look around for an answer. The grass. The grass on the battlefield is way too tall. I can see it growing taller! That's too fast! Even with the sharp wind thrown around the battlefield cutting off the top of it periodically!

Zarude has Grassy Surge! Zarude is grounded and Goggles isn't, so grookey will be gaining health and stamina back while my Pokemon tires himself out! He is trying to stall me!

"Stop doing small ones! Charge up a big gust!" Not something we trained for! But I have no idea how much damage the small gusts that are half hitting their marks are doing, they might be outpacing the grassy terrain, but Zarude clearly has better stamina then Goggles and the tune of this battle would change quickly if my 'mon's wings got tired and he couldn't gather flying type energy anymore.

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Goggles immediately stops spamming gust and begins to hold Flying type energy, his wings begin glowing a with a light blue hue, his eyes closed in concentration.

"Now is our chance! Throw your branch!" The monkey Pokemon does not respond for a second, simply holding his beloved stick closer and giving his trainer a look I cannot see from this angle. However, the "Groo?" Noise it makes sounds saddened.

"Release it now!" I scream as I see an opportunity to attack while my opponent's back is turned. Goggles shouts a mighty "YOOO!" as a gust twice the size of the previous ones manifests right beneath the opposing 'mon, lifting him off the ground, the simian flails in the air as the wind lashes at his body, cutting through his grass-like fur before abruptly stopping, letting the 'mon fall face first into the ground.

The grass stopped growing at an absurd rate, so that's good.

"And that's match point! Winner is Trent Crawler!" Announces Leon, voice booming while he motions with his arms to end the match.

Both me and Hop rush towards our Pokemon. Goggles gently lands on my arms this time, I am being as gentle as I can possibly be, feeling the accelerated heartbeat of my 'mon.

"You did good dude. Get some rest." I quickly bring up his nest ball, letting him turn into red light before going to rest inside of the ball.

"THAT WAS SO HYPE!" Cheered Gloria, standing up and throwing fists at the sky

"Great battle the two of you! I almost wanted to let charizard out to play!" Encouraged Leon

"Good job Trent!" Said Sonia while slowly clapping.

Oh shit I won.

Holy shit I won?

"Hey dude! Great battle!" Hop approached me, extending a hand at me.

It takes me a moment to process he is offering a handshake and I should accept.

I let out an awkward laugh as I avoid eye contact like the plague. "Good Battle! Uh- I-i got kinda lucky with type matchups and all."

"Yeah it's cool! Gotta learn to lose if ya want to win! Learning to play on the back foot is more important then knowing when to push the advantage ya know?" Huh. He is taking this surprisingly well.

"OK! WE BATTLIN', BRO!" I heard Gloria shout from the benches. She was basically dragging her brother by the collar to the battlefield when I turned to look at the two of them. "What? Come on! We still need to get our pokedexes!"

"Its fine! We got all day and me blood is burning for a battle! And both THEIR Pokemon are out of it!" The girl argued "Alright alright, you don't need to be so loud!" Her brother conceded with a exasperated sigh.

Leon just laughs at the scene, Sonia looks amused and I am simply horrified by the scene.

How can she just... let loose like that? Talk like no one is watching? (No one is judging?)

"Hey man, we should probably move. Gloria is unstoppable when she gets excited like this!" I look at the younger Taylor brother and slowly nod. Switching our position with the twins.

Hop sat in the middle between me and Sonia. It was... weird. I was not half as awkward as I think i would have been after i had just met him. Like I was more comfortable in his presence after battling.

Now sitting next to hop, Sonia turns and asks "So, Zarude huh? Are you also in the business of chasing legends?"

"Huh? I mean, not really? I just heard Zarude is this cool cryptid ape Pokemon, and Zarude liked the sound of the name!" I see Sonia visibly deflate at the boy's answer.

And it finally hits me where I heard the name Zarude before.

"Oh yeah! You mentioned a zarude when you went sasquatch hunting in the slumbering weald last year!" I say, quite happy to have remembered that conversation and being able to use it to tease Sonia with it now.

"The sasquatch isn't real! Everybody knows the pictures of it are fake." Sonia scoffed at the notion "But Zarude! He is real! He might not live in the slumbering weald, but something sure does!"

I rolled my eyes at this. We had these discussions often, all in good humor. Sonia always says its good to debate non-believers to make sure your arguments are sound and to confirm areas where you need to do more research. I just find her hobby hilarious to diss.

"Huh... so about this something that lives in the slumbering weald... do you have any pictures?" Hop asked tentatively. His tone was more mild than any other time he had spoken before.

"Go Ronaldo!/Caduceus!" The twins voices took us out of our conversation, all our eyes on the flying pokeballs on the battlefield.

Two Pokemon came out at the same time in flashes of red, a white furred little guy with orange accents and bunelby ears touches the field with a loud "Scor!" while staring down an similarly little reptilian Pokemon with very large eyes and a yellow crest atop its head, the reptile looks around before settling his eyes on his opponent "Sob...".

Scorbunny and Sobble. Two very rare Pokemon that are considered national symbols of Galarian culture. Leon gave them some pretty good starters.

Did they ask for those specifically or did Leon chose for them? Do they all have hidden abilities? Did he get from a breeder? How old are they? They couldn't possibly be the children of Leon's own rilaboom, cinderace and intelleon right?

My musings are once again interrupted by the sounds of battle.

"Water gun! Aim for the eyes!" The water type's cheeks begin to fill at his trainers command, while a hint of determination appeared in the newfound focus his eyes had "Pound to cartwheel!" Was Gloria's confounding response to the move.

My eyebrow raises, but my mouth soon falls the moment the normal type energy making the entire body of the rabbit Pokemon glow a shining white light, a jet of water shot towards it a blink later, but the fire-type turning normal type had already begun performing a Arceusdamn cartwheel forwards. The stream of water passed harmlessly in between the ears of the scorbunny while it was still upside down in midair.

"THAT'S MY RIVAL!" Chants hop from the benches standing up, I just send Sonia a look as she shrugs helplessly.

That was absolutely Libero to turn the Pokemon into a normal type to avoid the water type weakness. I've seen plenty people using quick attack to dodge, but never using pound to make a cartwheel go higher than normal. And did she use the light of the normal type energy to throw the aim of the sobble off?

That sobble probably has sniper, so it did not matter much considering how he only missed his target by an inch.

Grookey with grassy surge. Sobble with sniper. Scorbunny with Libero. These are some very rare Pokemon with even rarer abilities.

My fingers begun drumming again. I shifted on my seat.

"Uh... hop?" I divert my attention from the battle, with the scorbunny gaining on the sobble, things are going to end pretty soon anyway, he responds to me without even looking away from the battle "Yeah?"

"How... how long have the three of you had your Pokemon?"

"We got them two days ago!" He says with a smile before looking back at the battle.

No wonder Zarude refused to throw his beloved stick at Goggles. He probably had that stick for much longer than he knew his trainer.

My gaze shifted back at Gloria and Ronaldo. The 'mon was very at ease with its trainers and her commands, even when she asks it to do some sort of acrobatic maneuver I never heard about before, like a backflip but fowards (Gloria later told me it was called a Gainer). Hell, they are in better sync with each other during battle than me and Goggles and I had him for YEARS.

Two days. Two days and I already have a sinking feeling I would lose to Hop if Goggles did not have an overwhelming type advantage against him. Two days and Gloria already has me feeling like I am falling behind.

Oh gods I am going to get my ass kicked this entire journey aren't I?