Chapter Four - Meet Jazz

Buneary woke up to the sound of something moving nearby. He grumbled to himself, and snuggled deeper into his sibling's coat... only they weren't as fuzzy as usual. Warmer, but not as soft.

He felt at the surface around him with his paws. It wasn't fur, but it was warm, and he felt pretty safe overall. He opened one eye, just a smidge. If it was nothing then he'd go right back to sleep, as he should.

But it wasn't nothing, he was huddled up against Broccoli's chest. The human had removed her armoured chestpiece at some point, and she was sitting up against a tree, though her lower body had slumped forwards, so it was more like she was sleeping up against it.

She had both hands around Buneary's back, fingers entwined so that he was kind of stuck there... not that it felt bad or anything.

Buneary yawned. This was probably embarrassing, but it was also nice, and he was still tired, and... and he heard something shuffle behind him again.

Twisting his head around, Buneary looked back, then squeaked in alarm.

There was a human!

Broccoli started, then came awake all at once. She sat up, which sent Buneary tumbling backwards off of her front, but he was quick--even half asleep--and managed to push himself off so that he landed forehead first onto the ground, tackling it into submission before pressing his face into the dirt to show it who was boss. "Un!" he exclaimed as he flopped onto his feet.

Broccoli bounced up to hers, then blinked a few times. There was a faint glow around her for just a moment, and Buneary, now slightly behind her, noticed the dirt accumulated on her skirt falling off as dust.

"Oh!" Broccoli said. "Uh... hi!"

The other human had taken a step back. It was a younger human, a girl. She was frowning at Broccoli, only sparing Buneary a quick glance before she crossed her arms. There was a single pokeball attached to her hip.

"Our eyes met," she said to Broccoli.

"Uh," Broccoli replied. "Yes? Hi! My name's Broccoli! Do you want to be friends?"

The girl pursed her lips, cheeks puffing out a little. "I don't want friends. I want a battle," she said. "Or are you too lazy to want a fight?"

Broccoli glanced back, meeting Buneary's gaze for a moment. He shrugged in return. Pokemon battled each other all the time, and he knew that humans battled with pokemon too, but that was about it. Usually if one of his siblings wanted to tussle, they wouldn't wake him up from a perfectly nice snooze for it... unless they really wanted to get smacked around.

"I'm sorry, miss... uh, but no thank you?"

The girl frowned harder. "What, do you think I'm too weak?" she asked, her tone rather waspish.

"I try not to think that kind of thing at all," Broccoli said. She gave the girl a big, bright smile, all teeth and dimpled cheeks. "Sorry! You just woke me and Buneary up, we walked through a part of the night, but I got tired and settled down for a snooze."

The girl uncrossed her arms, balled her hands into fists, then recrossed them. "Well, when will you be ready for a fight, then?" she asked.

"Preferably never?" Broccoli said. She looked around, then went 'ah!' and walked to the side of the tree they'd been dozing on. She picked up something big and metallic, and Buneary recognized her chestpiece. She started to strap it on.

"Is that armour?" the girl asked.

Buneary yawned and rubbed at his eyes. That had actually been a pretty good snooze. He looked up, taking in the sun's position in the sky. It wasn't too early in the morning, though he could have guessed that from the quality of the bird song.

"Yup! To keep me safe," Broccoli said.

"From what?" the girl asked.

Broccoli glanced up at her and blinked. "Did you just say that you wanted to fight me?"

"You don't need armour for that!" the girl snapped back. She was very close to shouting, actually.

"I know that you don't need armour for a fight, but it sure does help," Broccoli said. She finished tying her plate in place, then started to twist her body left and right at the waist before she bent down in half and touched her toes.

"Now what are you doing?" the girl asked, obviously suspicious.

"Stretching! You don't want to pull a muscle, do you?"

Buneary almost chuckled, but then he remembered pulling some muscles himself... did stretching really stop that? He looked at what Broccoli was doing. She was tilting her upper half all the way left, her right arm extended above and her left on her hip.

He did the same, feeling a bunch of muscles pulling in his sides. Not painfully, but still. Then he did the other side too. Broccoli noticed, but she just grinned down at him, as if he was doing something good.

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"You are the weirdest trainer I've ever met," the girl said.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not," Broccoli said. She did a few more stretches, something like a lounge, then more toe-touching. She even stretched her neck and ears. "Alright! I'm done and ready!"

"Finally," the girl said as she took a few steps back and palmed her pokeball. "Get ready to be clobb--"

Broccoli scooped Buneary up, and proceeded to run.

"Bun?" he asked. What are we doing?

"We're running away," Broccoli said. "It's the smart thing to do when you want to avoid a fight.

Buneary nodded. That made perfect sense to him.

"Wait! Hey, I said wait!" the girl trainer said as she ran after them. "Please? Wow, you're fast." He flicked an ear up and over Broccoli's shoulder so that he could hear her better. "Wait! F-fine! We don't need to fight... and I'll be your friend or whatever."

Broccoli stopped so hard her shoes skid across the dirt. "Really?" she asked as she turned to face the girl.

The trainer was about fifty hops back and red in the face. It stood out. She was wearing black shoes and black-and-purple... pant things? Buneary wasn't sure what they were. Socks? They came up from her feet all the way to her thighs, then stopped at a pair of shorts. Her coat--because trainers wore coats, he supposed--was a glossy purple as well. There was a lot of purple going on with his girl, actually. Her hair was a dark, almost black purple, and her eyes were a much brighter shade of the same colour.

She stumbled closer, then put hands on knees to pant a little. "Wow, you're fast," she said again.

"Thank you!" Broccoli replied. "I have high stamina!"

"Are, are you sure you don't want to fight?" the girl asked.

"I'm pretty sure, yeah," Broccoli said.

"Bun, bunear bun bun," Buneary said. I wouldn't mind fighting her pokemon.

Broccoli blinked down at him. "Really?"

He shrugged. Fighting was fun, every pokemon knew that. And he was sure that Broccoli would step in if things were too dangerous.

"Hmm, I'd rather not, though," Broccoli said to him, and Buneary shrugged again. If she didn't want to, then that was fine too. He felt a little... useless, being carried around and everything. His tummy grumbled, then Broccoli's did the same. "Ah."

The girl caught the sound, then grinned. "Okay, how's this then, if you fight me, I'll give you, uh..." she reached into a small satchel by her back and rummaged through it before pulling out a pair of small, shiny bars. "These!"

Buneary looked up to Broccoli for guidance. Those looked like trash.

"They're candy bars," Broccoli explained to him.

"Huh? No, these are nutrition bars. Every trainer worth their salt should carry a few, just in case," the girl said.

Broccoli hummed, then placed Buneary down onto the ground by her feet. "You really want to fight, huh?" she asked the trainer.

"I... yeah!" the trainer said.

"So, what's your name? I'm Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch, and this is Buneary, Buneary... uh, hey do you have a family name?"

"Un," he said with a shake of his head.

"Just Buneary, then," Broccoli confirmed to the girl before she extended a hand in her direction.

The girl stared at it for a moment before reaching over and shaking it. "I'm Jazz," she said. "I'm going to be Johto's poison-type gym leader!" She was standing strangely, on one leg, with her hands together in a weird pose. Was she stretching too?

Broccoli stared. "I'm sorry, this is the second time this has happened, but I don't know what a lot of those words mean in that context. But it's nice to meet you, Jazz! I hope we can be friends!"

"What do you mean, you don't know what those words mean," Jazz snapped back as she stomped back to a more normal pose.

"Uh, in order? I don't know where or what a Johto is, I know what poison and type mean, but not together that way, and why does gym need a leader? Wouldn't there just be an owner? Unless it's like a communal gym?"

Jazz shook her head. "What? No... wait, that's a Buneary... Are you from Sinnoh? Don't they have gyms there?"

"Actually, I was just in a place called Dirt? Uh, you wouldn't happen to know how to get there?" Broccoli asked.

Jazz narrowed her eyes, then fished the pokeball from her belt again. "Fight me, and I might tell you," she said.

Broccoli sighed. "Okay, fine, I'll fight you. Are there any rules to this or is it just a fight-fight?"

***