Trials of a Champion - Kanto [Pokemon x OC]

53 Together Forever

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. One by one, Paul's boots repeatedly sank into the eight inches of snow blanketing Evolution Mountain. Crunch. He maintained a slow and steady pace. We preferred keeping his tripping streak at zero for the day. Crunch.

I followed his lead.

Aiming to get as little snow as possible on my clothes, I imagined his gigantic prints like stepping stones and hopped from one to the other. You could call it a difficult version of hopscotch, or the frozen version of the "Don't touch the floor because it's lava" game.

"You sure this is the shortcut?"

Eevee followed my lead. Nearly her entire body disappeared every time she landed.

Luxio brought up the rear.

"This seems a little more dangerous than I expected."

Paul stopped and turned around, hands jammed into his pockets like usual. "It's just a little snow, and we're making good time. Look. We're already halfway up the mountain. At this rate, we'll be in Saffron City by nighttime."

"Yeah, that's great. It's just ... there's so much snow up here. Thank goodness I put on some pants before we started—Waah!" I tripped and performed the good ol' face-to-floor trick.

A pair of boots moved towards me. "You okay?"

"No." Sniffling, I sat up and shook the snow off my face and hair. Luxio used his tail to brush snow from my torso. "I'm tired, and I'm cold, and I'm sick of all this snow. We're gonna need a ski lift to get up this damn thing. Not to mention..." A mass of grey clouds loomed in the distance. "Those look scary."

Paul followed my gaze and then clicked his tongue. "Tch. You're not afraid of a little storm, are you? We'll get to Saffron way before it hits as long as we keep up this pace and stay on course. Come on." He grabbed my hand, and with a great big heave, dragged me up onto my feet. "We're not about to let a pile of snow stop us, are we?"

"I suppose not." Eevee jumped onto my shoulder with a smile. I scratched her chin. "Just hope you're right. I don't want to become a popsicle, you know, so I'm trusting you to get us all across this mountain safely."

"Quit worrying already. It'll be ... hey, where'd Raichu go?"

"What do you mean? She's in her Poké Ball."

"Huh?! Really?! Why? Was she whining about the snow just like you are?"

His comment earned himself a snowball to the face, courtesy of my foot.

"I'm not whining. I'm cold, idiot. And she didn't whine about it. Actually, ever since she evolved, she's had a change of heart about the idea of being confined to a Poké Ball. She went inside all by herself right before we started hiking. Probably preferred to take a nap, instead."

"So, she's lazy?"

My eyes narrowed. "What was that?"

"Nothing." He gave off his smug grin and shrugged. "You're just encouraging your Pokémon to be slackers, as usual, aren't you?"

"Oh, shut up and keep going, squad leader." I shoved him forward. "My Pokémon are not slackers. Especially Raichu. Not with her awesome battling the other day. I was so proud of her for learning Brick Break and Thunder. It was incredible, and that power. Being hit by 100,000 volts of electricity is such a rush!"

"I still can't believe you did that," groaned Paul as he rubbed his temple. "And I got shocked trying to stop you. Remember that?"

My cheeks heated up. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Hehe... Raichu's just so powerful."