“Gooom!” Brave roared as she pulsed, knocking the flames of a flamethrower away as she charged right into Charmanders fire.

The draconic energy swept the flame away and let Brave charge right into the surprised lizard's face.

Then she roared and a water gun slammed into Charmanders face earning a cry of pain.

Huh, I didn’t even know she had that move!

“Back off Goomy quick!” I called, and Brave hesitated a bit too long. Charmander rose up, and the old man called out.

“Dragon Breath!”

Charmander instantly attacked, a burst of purple flames shot out, and washed over Brave who cried out at the super effective move. Brave wavered and fell back.

“Return!” I called out, and Brave disappeared.

I smiled at the pokeball. “Good job Brave. You’re amazing, we’ll keep working on it. I promise.” Then I replaced the ball and grabbed another.

“It’s your turn Riolu!” I called out and Riolu hit the floor before looking around in surprise before seeing the pokemon opposite her.

“Rio! Riolu!” She called out pointing in shock looking around and then at me.

“Yeah it’s a battle, silly!” I told her, and she jolted at the word before shaking and then throwing both arms into the air.

“Rioooo!”

“Is everything alright?”

“It’s our first battle together that’s all! Riolu focus up, let’s use what you learned, okay?” I explained to the old man who nodded, still looking pleased.

“Very well. Charmander! Flamethrower!”

“Vacuum Wave!” I called out, but as something I should have expected. Riolu is a little shit and instead of attacking with Vacuum Wave she yelped and ran away from the flamethrower that went at her.

“Riolu! Vacuum Wave back! Push back the fire!” I called, but she didn’t listen to me, instead continuing to try and dodge the attack, before finally she didn’t quite get away.

“Rioooo!” She yelped holding her butt as the fire burned her, and then she got angry.

I sighed, as I realized she wasn’t going to listen to me at all.

She charged her claws glowing with a Metal Claw.

Which was a terrible choice of course, but Riolu was angry and not listening, she charged in, and thanks to some tumbles managed to get close even as Charmander continued to blast fire at her, slamming a Metal Claw into Charmanders face, causing the poor lizard to yelp at the scratches on his face.

Then he roared and blasted an even larger Flamethrower into Riolu’s face.

I winced as she was launched back sputtering and rolling, and already close to being out.

“Riolu! You have to listen in a battle! Vacuum Wave this time!” I called, but she turned to look at me with a glare, before turning back to Charmander and I almost returned her there.

But I held off.

If she wanted to do this herself… Then I wouldn’t interfere.

Riolu’s body highlighted as she tried a Quick Attack, getting in around the flamethrower, but it wasn’t enough.

A moment later Charmander hit her with a scratch of his own and she cried out falling to the ground as she skidded across the earth.

She was done.

I called out a return and sighed.

“I think that means you win.” I told the old man, who looked a little embarrassed.

“Your pokemon, Riolu? Will she be alright?”

“Oh yeah, we don’t get along great. We’ll have to sit down and have a talk soon I think.” I said with a shrug.

“Well young lady, it was a fun battle!” He assured me, and I just smiled.

“It was! I haven’t lost in a long time, old man! So you better be proud! I’ll let you tell people you defeated me!” I told him joking.

“Hah! Well young one, all journeys start slow.” He offered but hesitated. “I’ve never seen many of your pokemon.”

“I traveled out of Kanto to a distant land and made lots of new friends!” I explained proudly. “They’re all young, and need experience. So I brought them here to get some.”

The old man nodded, smiling as he reached out and patted my shoulder. “Impressive young one. Why don’t we get our pokemon healed up, and I’m sure there are others that wish to battle you.”

“Yeah! It’ll be great!” I cheered happily.

And I was happy. Win or lose who cared? My pokemon would get stronger, but more importantly. I looked around the crowd, and felt like I was just like the other kids.

Sure my pokemon were rare, and I had a full set, but most of the kids here were about the same level of power.

I felt like I was just another kid spending an afternoon after school battling today.

I smiled as I rushed off to the pokemon center. A bit of healing, and I just knew my dragons would be ready for round two.

Riolu on the other hand needed a talk.

—--

“Satisfied?” I asked Riolu after releasing her. We were inside the pokemon center break room. I had decided a more comfortable environment would work best. Riolu after popping out had instantly jumped onto the couch and bounced a bunch.

Riolu really liked soft things.

But she was ignoring me now.

“Riolu.” I prompted, and again she ignored me just bouncing happily and pretending I wasn’t there. “Okay. I’ll take you back to the Stable, you’re still welcome to stay as Lucario is training with me… But we’re done.” I answered back bluntly. Getting a reaction.

“Rio!” Her shocked gasp didn’t make me change my mind.

“Riolu… I want to train you, I told Lucario I would make you a strong pokemon… But part of that is listening to me during training and battles. I can’t train you, if you don’t listen to me.”

“Rio! Riolu lu!” She argued and it took me a second to understand what she was getting at. She was making the motions for Vacuum Wave and then a denial.

“Ah, see that’s where you are wrong.” I told her bluntly. Getting a glare from the pup. “You’re Vacuum Wave is the move I’ve had you practice the most remember? It’s gotten strong. Against Charmander one of three things would have happened. You’d overpower the Flamethrower. Be overpowered by the flamethrower. Or the attacks would cancel out.” I explained offering up three fingers, and she just scoffed in turn.

“Riolu! Lu!”

“If your attack overpowered Charmander, you’d have the advantage.” I explained then lowered a finger. “If he overpowered you, at least the attack would have been blunted, using up so much energy getting through your own attack, and giving you a chance to dodge. If it was even, then Charmander would have no choice to switch to close combat moves. You noticed it didn’t you? Charmander used Scratch. It didn’t have a lot of experience in battle either.”

“Rrrrrr.” She growled, arms crossed and I sighed. I wasn’t getting through to her. She was being defensive.

Her refusal to listen wasn’t a matter of logic. She just didn’t want to listen, so she didn’t.

“So we’re back to the start. Do you want to find another trainer, or just wait until Lucario is ready to leave?” I asked, and Riolu blinked at the sudden question. “I’m not going to kick you out, but if you don’t want to stay, then Lucario probably won’t stay for long either. I told Lucario I would train you, but I can’t do that.”

“Rio!” She grumbled as she rose up and then just paced back and forth for a bit. “Riolu. Ri, lu!” She then pointed at herself and flexed her arms and pointed at me, and stuck her tongue out.

Then to my surprise she got a bit worked up.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Rio! Riolu lu rio, riolu! Rio ri!” She chattered away pointing and I nodded, breathing in and out.

I get the issue now.

“You… You want to know why you aren’t doing the same training as Lucario.” I said and Riolu nodded.

“Rio!” She punching her chest, and I nodded.

Okay, this wasn’t just Riolu being a brat, but her actually being upset that I was training Lucario, but not putting Riolu through the same training.

She was confused, and defensive.

“Okay. Fine. Let me explain it. The reason you aren’t doing the same training as your mother is because if we did that training, you would get pretty strong, and then it would take you ten times as long to get any stronger.”

She blinked at my explanation and scoffed.

“I’m serious. Arcanine. Milotic, even Dragonite to a lesser extent. I made a mistake in my training of them. I had them get too strong too fast, too specialized. I didn’t focus on making all of their abilities strong, instead I over focused.” I pointed a finger right at her nose, which had her crossing her eyes to stare at it. “I’m not holding you back. I’m making sure that when you evolve you will be unbeatable!”

She looked from finger to my eyes, then she scoffed at me. She stood up on the couch and slapped a paw to her chest again. “Riolu rio rio!” She said, sounding overly proud and looking down haughtily at me.

“Riolu. I’m not going to fight you over this.” I told her. “Not this. This is too serious. Being a Pokemon trainer is important to me.” I had told myself long before I became a trainer, I wouldn’t do an Ash and Charizard. If a pokemon didn’t want to be on my team, I wouldn’t force it. “I’m not going to send you into a battle if we can’t work together plain and simple.”

I looked at her, and she looked at me, and I knew.

We didn’t have the connection of trainer and pokemon. It wasn’t like with the others, where I knew we were unified in purpose.

Riolu was too headstrong and we still didn’t get along…

Not that I had really done too much to change that. I had treated her respectfully while training, but we still pranked each other outside of it.

“Do you want to battle with me?” I offered this time for maybe the first time actually speaking to Riolu directly.

This time I wasn’t agreeing to Lucario, who was pressuring her daughter, but speaking to the pokemon that I think I could eventually get along with… Most of the time. Probably.

She looked at my offered hand in surprise. And then our eyes met.

I was serious and I did my best to convey that.

For a moment, there was something there. It felt like Riolu was more than before. That there was an understanding between us that was beyond just the physical.

Riolu was testing me, I think.

Whatever she found she huffed a moment later and stood up landing on her feet off the couch and putting her hands on her hips as she peered up at me before finally she nodded.

Reaching out she placed a paw in my hand.

I blinked.

She blinked.

“Paw BEANS!” I gasped in delight! I had never seen the inside of Riolu’s paw before, and while it was curled in sort of like a fist, it had little pink beans!

“Rio!”

“So cute!” I cooed, and she was definitely unhappy with me as she glared back as she tore her paw away from me.

“Aww. I wanted to push them some more.” I whined, and she scoffed putting both paws behind her back like she was protecting them from me.

Heh. I’d get those beans someday!

I shook it off. Right, it was time to test our fresh agreement.

“There’s a Charmander out there that needs an asswhooping.” I informed Riolu, who jerked at my language, before her muzzle split into a sinister smile. “Let’s go kick some ass. Together.”

“Rio.”

—--

“Oh? Back again?”

“Yep! Riolu and I want a rematch if that’s okay!” I called out to the old man that was once more resting on the stands around the battle fields. There were two kids fighting with Pidgey and Rattata right now, but that battle would end soon.

He looked at Riolu seemingly checking her over and then he nodded.

“Very well. I can’t deny that I’m interested in seeing more of your strange Pokemon.” He offered with a gentle smile.

I smiled back sharply, noticing Riolu was sharing my look.

The old man blinked at our smiles, but seemed to just accept it as is.

A few moments later the kids cleared the arena, and Riolu and I took our position.

“Go Charmander.” The old man called and Charmander cheered happily as it appeared looking around with a gentle look until it saw Riolu, and then moved into a battle position, mouth full of teeth.

“Char!”

“Begin!” The old man called out, and I threw out a hand.

“Vacuum Wave!” This time my call out was heeded, and even as Charmander prepped a Flamethrower at the old man's call Riolu shifted sideways gathering power at her hip.

Truly the Kamehameha wave position was the strongest of all!

And then as the stream of fire left Charmander, the flame was wide, but not well concentrated. Charmander was young.

And then with a roar as the flames were about to reach her Riolu cried out. “Riooooo!” And thrust her Vacuum Wave forward. The attack struck the flames and blew straight through it splitting the fire that suddenly sprayed wildly as it was punched through.

Charmander didn’t even see it, too focused on the flamethrower the Vacuum Wave slammed into his face, rocking the poor cutie lizard back and sending him rolling on the dusty lot a cry of pain escaping him.

“Rio!” Riolu cheered happily at the reversal of the last match.

“Quick Attack!” I called out, as Charmander rose up, and Riolu jerked, looking like she was going to hesitate, before she glowed white and burst forward in a blur of speed.

“Charmander! Use Flamethrower! Force her back!” The old man called and Charmander tried, but Quick Attack was too much for him.

Riolu appeared slamming into the Charmander knocking them both into the dirt, but Riolu had just landed another strong attack, and Charmander was feeling it.

“Vacuum Wave!” I called out, as Charmander rose onto his arms and legs and made to just blast the area around her.

“Rio!?”

“Do it! Then use the gathered energy as a shield!” I called out and Riolu instantly slammed her paws together in front of her, and then as she stretched them apart the whine of the Vacuum Wave starting up whistled over the arena, and when Charmander burst with a Flamethrower instead of slamming right into Riolu, it slammed into the orb of spinning energy and suddenly it was sucked in and reflected, and flame spun crazily, not that it left Riolu entirely untouched.

“Launch it!” I called and Riolu winced as she adjusted her grip on the attack and then sent it forward.

It wasn’t as strong as it could have been, it had been weakened considerably by the Flamethrower, and how quickly Riolu had brought it forth, but she had trained for days on this one move, learning how to compress the energy she put into the Vacuum Wave to enhance its strength.

And, Riolu also really wanted to win.

“Char!” The poor lizard hunkered down to try and last through the attack, but it ended up sprawling, knocked around.

The dust took a moment to clear at Riolu was ready, paws clenched into fists and ready for another attack but as it all cleared away Charmander was slumped looking knocked out.

“Charmander, return.” The old man called and Riolu looked up in shock looking from him to me, and I was smiling happily.

“You won!” I assured her, and Riolu brightened, leaping into the air and cheering at her victory.

A moment later she was next to me and leaping, and we spun around for a second as we both laughed in delight at our victory.

Then she was once more on her feet as I put her down and she looked up at me.

I looked down at her.

She swung a fist into my side.

“You little!” I growled as I bent over from the blow, and she burst into laughter.

“Ri ri ri ri!” She mocked me, arms wrapped around her stomach as she laughed at me.

“Are you alright?” The old man asked, hurrying over looking shocked, but I waved him off.

“I’m fine. Riolu you little brat.” I grumbled at her, rubbing my side.

She just smirked at me, but I could see the energy flowing through her. She was incredibly excited to win.

“Return.” I called out and she disappeared. I'd have to find Lucario soon to let Riolu gush to her mom about her first victory.

The Old man was looking down at me with a concerned look on his face.

“Riolu barely tapped me.” I assured him. “She’s a bit of a prankster, and we don’t always get along. That was just her way of telling me ‘don’t think it means we are best friends.” I told him. “Besides, if she really hit me, I would be sending her into the ground.” I told him, patting my bicep with one hand.

“I see.” He spoke, but didn’t seem like he agreed.

“How’s Charmander?”

“Oh, he’s doing fine. A rest and he’ll be happy as ever. You gave him a good battle.”

“Thanks! You’re pretty good at battles!” I offered him, and the man had a little wistful smile on his face.

“Oh I was quite good in my youth. Not someone a youngster would know. I was no Blaine, but I did well on my journey. Your own must be going well. To have so many strange pokemon.”

“It’s… Been interesting.” I decided for a moment thinking back on all that I had done. I hadn’t really thought much about the journey as a whole, but looking at the old man who was reminiscing…

“I guess It’ll be something I think about all my life… But mine isn’t over yet! The League first, and then maybe a new region! New pokemon and friends and enemies to make!”

The man let out a laugh that caught him off guard. “I don’t think making enemies is normally a part of the journey.”

“Heh. They’re just doing it wrong then!” I decided smiling brightly.

Now, I still had some more friends to give some training to. I looked around and nodded.

“Hey you!” I yelled until my eyes met with another kid. “Our eyes met! That means we have to battle!” I proclaimed and the boy looked confused for a minute before scoffing.

“You sound like an old lady!”

“Shut up and fight me!” Proclamation complete I sent a wave at the old man who tipped his hat to me, as he walked back over to the bleachers and settled in to watch.

—--

Back home. I was going over everyone’s experience, while also doing some skinship.

“You were very good.” I told Brave as I squeezed her a little. “We’ll work on Dragon Pulse some more, but you really caught that Rattata off guard! It was very impressive.”

“Goom!” She delighted as I showered her with attention and discussion about what we had done wrong and what we could do better.

Of course there was a problem that I was ignoring.

I smiled down at Brave, even as warm breath was huffed across the back of my neck. What’s that? Something behind me? Ah you must be mistaken!

I continued to shower Brave with affection.

“Grrrrrrrr.”

“Ah, someone must have left a motor on somewhere.” I muttered blankly and then went back to telling Brave about what her tackle had looked like from my point of view.

I ignored the massive cold nose pressed right into the back of my neck. Nope. It didn’t exist.

Just like the Arcanine who had been absolutely locked onto my ass for the last ten minutes, definitely wasn’t there.

Nope.

She certainly wasn’t throwing a tantrum after missing out on battles! That couldn’t be! Finally Arcanine seemed to realize I wasn’t paying attention to her and she reacted.

“Aaaaaarc!” She whined, flopping back loudly and then rolling back and forth while howling.

I of course was struck by her tail multiple times which I couldn’t ignore. Knocked around by tail whip I put Brave down and looked at Arcanine who was having a tantrum.

“Why are you acting like a baby?” I asked her without giving in at all.

Arcanine stopped rolling, her howling ended and she looked at me pleading. Yeah you can’t trick me. I know you weren’t throwing an actual tantrum! You just wanted attention so I would go find a battle for you!

I narrowed my eyes. Jangmo-o’s tantrum must have been noticed by my too smart for her own good dog.

“No it didn’t work.”

“Aaaarc!” She howled returning to rolling around like she was dying.

“What is going on out here?” Uncle Leo called out as he stomped out looking shocked at the sight of Arcanine and I. I was crouching beside her with my chin in my hand as I watched dispassionately.

“Arcanine is throwing a faux tantrum because she didn’t get to battle. Even if she knows they were battles for the little ones.” I reminded her, but that only made her stop rolling to look at me, with a pleading look. “I’m not going to find a challenge for you right now. I’m still giving after action reports to all the little ones.”

“Aaaaarc!” She howled again, and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to ignore her.

“Better stand back Uncle Leo.” I offered as I rose up and then leapt.

“Aaaaarc-eee!” She squealed as I leapt right onto her belly and grabbed on

“What’s this? It can’t be my strong girl who never loses a fight! No, she wouldn’t be crying and whining like a baby right?” I asked, making her pay attention to me, and in that moment as I turned it around, Arcanine went still, all of her howling and playing over as she then changed tactics.

She started pretending I wasn’t there. Shifting her head away from me even as I tried to meet our eyes.

“Oh? What’s this?” I wondered as I continued wiggling around trying to get her to look at me, but she refused. Finally I huffed and nodded. “That’s what I thought. If my battle pup is a good girl, I’ll try and find some good warm up matches before the League.” I said and that earned me her full attention and her tail waking up going full speed.

“Yeah yeah, don’t give me that look.” I told her, reaching out to push her muzzle away, only she wiggled around until she was staring at me, and then our new game was made.

I didn’t notice when Uncle Leo left, but at least the noise was over.

“C’mon you great pile of floof. You can help me explain to the little ones about battles.” I decided. It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but it was good enough.