Chapter 9: Rebellious Rascals

Outside the Kodoarla building, Ceailean and Marie were heavily panting. Having run a full sprint for 2 blocks straight caused them to not be able to think about anything else but rest.

“Marie…” huffed Ceailean, “I don’t know why I let you drag me into things.”

“Lighten up a little C, just admit it’s a little fun to be a rebel.” said Marie.

“I’ll admit that it’s more stress than what I want to deal with.”

“C look, it’s gonna be fine. Just try not to think about it too much. Now, since we’re here, why don’t we get us a room.”

“I guess, but what will make people think that it’s your Pokémon?”

“People walk around with their pokemon all the time, it shouldn’t be the least bit suspicious. Now come on let's go.”

Ceailean sighed and followed her inside.

After booking themselves a room, they walk in to see a neatly decorated room with two beds, a TV on the wall, and a small table to boil their own coffee.

“Ah! This is so cozy looking, what do you think Fennekin?” asked Marie.

Fennekin wriggled out of her arms and sniffed around the floor a bit. It went up to the window and jumped up upon the windowsill. It had a sad expression as it looked out into the city, as if it was longing to be somewhere.

“What do you think it’s thinking about?” asked Ceailean.

“I don’t know, maybe it's really looking forward to leaving but can't yet.”

“I doubt many can get that sad looking on just adventure sickness. How about you try and get to know it since you’re the one who decided to let it come with you.”

“You say it so accusingly.”

“Because I can’t shake the feeling that we’re gonna be in trouble sooner or later.”

“C, you worry too much.”

“I’m just saying. But let’s at least get ourselves acquainted first.”

Marie nodded at his plan. She walked in Fennekin’s direction, but she kept her distance.

“Fennekin,” she asked gently, “are you alright?” Fennekin looked back to her.

“Fennekin.” it replied slowly.

“Is there anything you need, anything I can do to help?”

It simply shook its head no.

“Well, in any case, I still haven’t introduced myself. My name is Marie, and that’s Ceailean behind me.” Fennekin turned it’s whole body as it looked at them curiously. “We came from Snowbelle. It’s a beautiful place where snow covers the entire town and the sun perfectly highlights everything.” Marie walked closer to Fennekin. “If you’re gonna be traveling with us, I want you to know-” she placed her hands on the windowsill and lowered herself to Fennekin’s height, “-that we will help you with whatever you need okay. We’ll be the bestest of friends.”

Fennekin seemed to only nod its head in understanding.

“We still have a lot of time to explore the city if you want Marie,” said Ceailean, “Where do you think you want to go?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Let look at-”

“Fenn Fenn, Fennekin!” called out Fennekin, pointing to something out the window.

“What is it, Fennekin?” asked Marie. She looked to where it was pointing. But upon seeing what it was, she became disheartened. “You wanna go there?”

Fennekin gave a firm, decisive nod.

“Where does it want to go Marie?” asked Ceailean.

She hesitated giving her response, “It’s...Lumiose tower. Look C, I can understand if you don’t want to go. Me and Fennekin can just go by ourselves-”

“Marie stop.” interrupted Ceailean. “You don’t have to worry about me. Let’s just go to places you want to see without having to tiptoe around what they mean to me.”

“R-Really, you mean that?”

“It’s all in the past, isn’t it.”

“Okay cool, you hear that Fennekin. We’ll take you wherever you want.”

Snom then suddenly emerged from Marie’s beanie and gave confident, “Snom!”

Marie then scooped Snom from her beanie and held it out for Fennekin to see, “Oh yeah, and this is Snom. I bet you’ll be the best of friends.”

This was the first time they both saw Fennekin smile. It was a simple happy smile, but it was good for the both of them to see that Fennekin is comfortable in its new environment.

Marie stood up and pointed at Ceailean, “Drop your stuff C, we’re going sightseeing!”

“If you insist,” he said, dropping his duffle near a bed. Marie put snom back in her beanie.

Fennekin gave one last determined look at Lumiose tower before following Ceailean and Marie out of the room.

“Wow! It looks so tall up close.” said Marie.

Ceailean and Marie stood at the base of Lumiose tower, admiring its architecture. Fennekin, who resided within Marie’s arms, had its attention elsewhere. It constantly sniffed around, reaching out its nose in every direction it could face.

“Hey, looks like Fennekin is busy looking for something.” pointed out Ceailean.

“Really? Hey Fennekin, what’re you looking for?” asked Marie.

Fennekin shook her head to pass off the question. It jumped off her arms and ran towards the tower, beckoning for them to come along.

“I guess you’re done for now huh?”

They followed it into the tower. Inside was a huge room with shops lining the walls. The floor was illuminated and colors around every sign flashed invitingly. In the center stood a glass elevator that led straight through the top of the ceiling.

Marie ran up ahead of Ceailean, “Woah, this place is so pretty! Fennekin, please wait up.”

Fennekin ran straight for the elevator, eagerly awaiting the two of them.

“Hey this just occurred to me,” said Ceailean, “Maybe Fennekin wants to have a gym battle.”

“A gym battle?” questioned Marie. “Fennekin you don’t really want to have a gym battle right now do you?” It responded with a nod. “Oh no, you don’t honestly think we’re capable of winning a gym battle right now.” Fennekin shook its head vigorously and slammed it’s paws on the ground to emphasize how fired up it was. “I guess I won’t stop you, but you should know I’m not an experienced trainer either. We’re for sure going to lose.”

“Woah hey Marie, I just noticed that we never decided who Fennekin belongs to.”

“Huh, isn’t it mine?”

“What, come on I don’t even have a pokemon. I think Fennekin should be mine.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“It clearly wanted to come with me, and I’m the one that scooped it up so technically I caught it.”

“Can’t you just settle with Snom, it's a strong pokemon by itself.”

“Certainly Fennekin wants to battle with me.”

Ceailean made his way to Fennekin and picked it up, “I don’t think it cares who battles with, right Fennekin?” It gave him a quick glance before jumping from his arms to Marie’s. It then began licking her face affectionately.

“Ahahahaha, stop Fennekin I get it.” Marie held it with her outstretched hands and turned to give Ceailean a smug look. “I think it’s pretty obvious who it wants to battle with.” She then made her way to the elevator. Ceailean just gave a defeated sigh and followed Marie.

Arriving to the top of the tower, they exited and made their way down a hallway to the spector stands. They both watched in awe at the scale of the arena, noticing that every surface was covered in a yellow energy.

Ceailean placed his hand on a seat only to receive zap to the hand which caused him to reel it back from pain.

“Woah, what was that?” asked Marie.

Ceailean observed the surface of the gym more closely, “I think it’s electric terrain.”

Then a loud voice shouted, “Now Heliolisk, use bulldoze!” They quickly look to see that a gym battle was already in progress. Wanting a closer look, they ran down the stands and stood directly next to the battlefield.

“Get off the ground with your beam Gurdurr!” It planted the beam into the ground and jumped to perform a handstand on its other end. The bulldoze rushed over the ground, making it look as if there was air passing under a blanket. When it rushed past, the opposing trainer shouted, “Now, use slam!” Gurdurr gripped the beam hard and it glowed a bright white. It stood on the ground again and swung its beam over its head.

“Dodge it!” Heliolisk then slithered away from its position just as Gurdurr slammed the ground, causing the ground to crumble from the force. “Now get close and use focus blast!” Heliolisk made its way behind Gurdurr, charged up a large yellow energy ball in its hand, and jumped straight towards it. The focus blast collided with a huge blast and both Pokémon were engulfed in smoke. With both Pokémon unable to be seen, Ceailean finally takes notice of who the challenger was.

“Huh! Hey look, the challenger is Crisis.”

“Who?” asked Marie.

“It was that guy from the train with all the weird questions.”

“Oh, that’s him?”

Heliolisk then jumped back from the smoke and stood ready. As it cleared, they saw that Gurdurr was struggling to its feet.

“Gurdurr, are you still able to battle?” asked Crisis in a cool manner. It then fully stood up and gave Crisis a gesture that it was still able to battle. “Good, now use brutal swing!” Gurdurr raised its beam over its shoulder and charged.

“Heliolisk, use parabolic charge!” Heliolisk produced a ball of electricity that shot straight up into the air. Bolts of electricity sparked everywhere, hitting Gurdurr mid charge. Despite being hit, it still charged relentlessly. Heliolisk simply ducked as it swung past him and collapsed behind it. It laid on the ground with swirly eyes, signifying its defeat.

“Gurdurr is unable to battle, which makes the gym leader Clemont the victor.” announced a robot acting as referee.

“Gurdurr return.” said Crisis, holding out pokéball. A red beam shot out and enveloped Gurdurr, pulling it into the pokéball. Crisis said into the pokéball, “It was my inadequacy to contribute to the battle as a whole that has caused your failure, nothing more. I applaud your efforts.” Ceailean noticed that Crisis looked different from when he met him on the train. His face expressed annoyance and had a slightly hostile appearance.

“You did wonderfully Heliolisk, return.” said Clemont. Heliolisk gave him a smile before also being returned to its pokéball. “I must say, you have a most interesting team of Pokémon.”

Crisis scoffs, “It matters little.”

“It matters a lot. Your Pokémon all clearly tried their hardest, but I can’t shake the feeling that happens to keep you back.”

“What could possibly, they have all given an equal effort.”

“I think that's it. Perhaps without any competitiveness to drive them, they aren’t able to push themselves further and beyond.”

Crisis seemed incredibly insulted, “That is ridiculous! My only flaw is not having enough contribution to my efforts.”

Clemont seemed a bit confused, “But if you are limited in scope you would need your Pokémon to try the hardest they can.”

Crisis broke eye contact with Clemont, “Nonsense. If I wasn’t limited to the constraints of this asinine organization you call a league, all of my Pokémon would be able to work together to their fullest.

“That’s the challenge of it. You must be able to push ahead with only the Pokémon you believe will help you the most.” said a voice from the stands. Everyone looked to see a little girl with a small yellow bag. “How can expect ourselves to grow individually if every challenge we face if-”

“Enough child.” interrupted Crisis. “Me and my Pokémon will never act on our own volition. We will always work in unity, as close to a singular entity as possible. With that, conflict will never ensue and any and all obstacles will be passed through with utmost efficiency.”

A slight pause. Then the girl said, “Tell me one thing. What does volition mean?” Ceailean, Marie, and Clemont all buckled at the absurdity of the question.

Crisis only sighed disappointingly, “Forget it, clearly you wouldn’t understand.” He turned around and made his way through the sliding doors. No one said anything as the door closed behind Crisis.

The girl pouted, “Hmph, how rude! He didn’t even answer a simple question.”

Clemont scratched his head, “Bonnie, volition basically means voluntarily.”

“I wanted to hear it from him.”

Fennekin then found it appropriate to leap over the barrier and grabbed Clemont's attention by jumping up on his legs.

“Huh? Hey look it’s a Fennekin. Where did you come from?” asked Clemont. Fennekin continued to jump onto him, clearly wanting something.

“Oh no Fennekin, please come back.” yelled Marie, having come down from the stands.

“Oh, did you guys happen to be spectating our battle?”

Marie picked up Fennekin, who was now acting hostile towards Clemont, “Yeah -erm, it was -ah, really cool.” Marie was struggling to keep Fennekin in her arms.

“Man, it’s incredibly obvious that Fennekin really wants to have a go. Did you guys happen to come here for a gym battle?”

“Well uh, not for a particularly serious one per se. You see we had just picked up Fennekin from Professor Sycamore’s lab and it seemed like it really wanted a battle. You wouldn’t mind right?”

“Of course not, I would love to help any new trainer in any way I can. Do you happen to have any other Pokémon?”

“Just one.” Marie then pulled her beanie off her head, revealing a stirring Snom taking in its surroundings.

“Woah, I’ve never seen that Pokémon before.”

The robot then made its way over to the group and observed Snom, “Hmm, it appears to be a Snom. Native to the Galar region.”

“A Snom? It looks pretty cool.”

“No way Clemont, that Snom is super cute!” said Bonnie who had also joined up with the group. “Why don’t you meet Dedenne.” She pulled up her bag and what popped out was Dedenne, which greeted them happily. Marie squealed from its sheer cuteness and both girls went into a spiel of gossip in the background.

Ceailean took an interest to the robot and asked, “Hey, did you happen to build this?”

“Why yes I did sir, glad you seemed to notice my genius.” said Clemont in a self absorbed manner.

“I only ask because I have a friend that does stuff similar to this and I kinda rubbed off from him.”

“Well maybe one day I’ll meet this friend of yours we’ll share our research together.” Clemont then had a slight realization, “Oh that’s right, I still haven’t introduced myself. I’m Clemont, the Lumiose city gym leader.”

Bonnie had taken notice and cut off her conversation to introduce herself as well, “Oh, and I’m Bonnie, Clemont’s adorable little sister.”

“Nice to meet you both, I’m Ceailean and she is Marie. We are both from Snowbelle city.”

“Snowbelle? Oh, I remember the first time I went to Snowbelle, I had a lot of fun in the snow.” said Bonnie.

Clemont chuckled, “Well, with that out of the way, are you ready to begin our battle.”

Marie gave a determined look, “Yeah, ready when you are.”

“Well then, let’s get started.” At the end of his sentence, electric terrain wore off and everything in the room went back to normal. “Since you’re just starting out, I’ll make it a one on two to make it fair.”

“Whatever you say, Mr. Gym leader.” said Marie. Ceailean and Bonnie relocated themselves to the spectator stands and watched in earnest.

“Clembot, you mind being a referee for us?”

“No problem, master Clemont.” Clembot walked to the center of the battlefield while Clemont and Marie to opposite ends. Snom stared sharply at Clemont from above Marie’s head. “The battle is between Clemont the gym leader and Marie the challenger. This will be a one on two battle. The first one with all pokemon unable to battle will be proclaimed the loser. Trainers, please present your first pokemon.”

Fennekin urged Marie to let it battle first by jumping around eagerly. “Don’t worry, I planned on letting you go first anyway.” she said. “Fennekin, I choose you!” She pointed out to the battlefield and Fennekin charged ahead, growling as it put itself in an aggressive pose.

“Hmm, I haven’t actually mentioned this yet, but if you haven’t noticed yet, that Fennekin is actually very special.” said Clemont, pushing up his glasses that blocked his eyes with a white shine.

“Really, how so?”

“There’re a special group of pokemon called shiny pokemon. They have distinctly different features compared to their original counterparts. As with your Fennekin being black and red, while normal ones are yellow and orange.”

“Oh that’s so cool,” said Marie surprised, “Does that mean they’re better in battle too.”

“Well, technically no. It just means that your Fennekin is a one in ten thousand.”

“Oh well, that doesn’t matter. A Fennekin is still a Fennekin, and mine will still try its hardest.” Fennekin continued to growl at Clemont without concerning itself with the conversation.

“Nice to see you’re so understanding. In that case, Luxray, come on out!” Clemont threw his pokeball and out came a Luxray, which looked down upon Fennekin with a dreadful glare. This caused it to stop growing and back up a step, but still it gritted its teeth.

Clembot looked to both trainers before raising its hand and announcing, “Trainers, battle begin.”