Putting the Pieces Together

12: First Battle

Rose stepped out of the lab and stretched. It felt nice to be out if there! She looked at the scene around her. She free; so open. Rose could do anything now. What was she going to do exactly?
Rose looked around for a person to ask for directions. Nobody seemed like they would be the person to ask. All there was were rich people, models, and busy workers. There wasn't even a tourist anywhere!
She walked around a bit. Maybe it would be better if Rose looked for someone near a route gate. She ran over to one. Great! There were already two travelers in sight. Rose walked up to the one that looked a bit safer.
"Excuse me sir, but would you by chance have a route to recommend? I'm a new trainer, so I need directions." She asked. The man smiled at Rose.
"Of course kid! Can I asses your new pokemon first?" She nodded and grabbed her pokeball. Rose threw it up, and Swablu popped out. Swablu cooed and nuzzled her trainer. The traveler looked at the pokemon and smiled.
"I think this is the perfect route for you kid; route 5!" He chuckled,"Here go ahead and have this map. It'll tell you where to go and a bunch of other cool stuff." Rose thanked him and went through the gate. Swablu floated next to her. They looked at each other
"Ready?" Rose asked. Swablu cooed with a smile. Rose grinned back and walked through the gate with her partner.
The route didn't look very special at first. All there was in front of you was paths, grass, and trainers. Then you payed attention and saw it. A giant skating park was to the very right of Rose. She lit up at the sight of it. Fun!
"Come on Swablu!" She ran over to a bench and snapped on her skates. Rose tried out everything on the rink. She was horrible at the air tricks, but the rail riding kinda came naturally to her. Rose went around until she was dripping with sweat. Swablu followed her as she sat down at a bench.
Rose took off her skates and looked at the sky. It was getting dark. She would probably have to camp out here tonight. There wasn't enough money for her to stay the night in Lumiose. Once Rose won a couple battles, she would have enough hopefully.
"Come on, let's find a good spot to camp," she told Swablu. Rose walked around for a place to sleep. It was a bit hard, but when you jumped off the right side off the fencing of the skate park, a small grassy area opened up. A ledge even blocked off one of the entrances for other people. Rose rolled out her sleeping bag and folded up a blanket for Swablu.
"I'm going to need a tent when I get more pokemon," she thought aloud. Swablu cooed in agreement although Rose had a feeling she was more worried about rain. Her species of pokemon had the tendency to be neat freaks, and wet supplies would fit under the category of messy. Rose watched the pokemon in amusement.
"I'm gonna have to give you a nickname someday," she suddenly thought as she and Swablu settled down to go to bed. Swablu nodded sleepily. What was Rose gonna name her partner? Her eyelids began she feel heavy. The nickname would have to wait till tomorrow then.

Light shined through Rose's eyes. She opened them and the sunlight almost blinded her.
"Ugh..."Rose sat upright. Time for a new day then. She looked at Swablu, and saw her waking up. They smiled at each other.
"Time to get up buddy,"Rose told Swablu. They began to prepare to leave. Rose took out packaged blueberry muffins and water, and Swablu cleaned off all of their things with her wings. Then Rose packed up all everything while her pokemon ate. She could eat on the road since she had hands. They got up and began to go west.
The walk was quite uneventful for the two of them until a voice called to Rose.
"Hey!" Rose and Swablu spun around,"How can you just pass up us trainers like that?" A young girl was standing in front of four others. Rose wore a confused look. How did she miss them? She ran up to the group.
"Sorry. I wasn't really paying attention I guess," Rose apologized as she looked at the group. The girl had blond hair in pigtails and flowy clothes. She had obvious spunk and reminded Rose of one of her friends. The other four did too. She pushed those thoughts away though. Now was not the time.
The girl instantly smiled,"Then it's ok! You have to battle one of us now though! You fine with me?" Rose smiled and nodded politely. She wouldn't mind having her first battle with this girl.
"Great! I'm Zoe and this is my partner Fletchling," Zoe threw her pokeball in the air. A little bird pokemon came out. It tweeted loudly to challenge Swablu. Rose watched how quickly it flew. It must be so light to do that so easily. Swablu glared back ready for it's first battle. One of the boys walked in the middle of the distance between Zoe and Rose.
"Hey, I'm Caleb and I will be the ref for your battle," the boy greeted. Rose waved at him.
"You girls ready?" Caleb asked. The girls nodded,"Let the battle, commence!"
"Go Swablu!"
"Go Fletchling!" The two pokemon flew at each other and began to attack. Rose flinched when they met. She was so thrilled when she saw Shauna battle that trainer, but this felt different. Rose could see the battle in a whole new light. Swablu wasn't just any pokemon either. When she got hurt, it seemed as if Rose was being hit too.
She shook her head.
"Swablu use round!"Rose commanded. Swablu nodded and backed up. She let out a beautiful note, but the longer she held it out, the louder it got. Soon everyone was holding their ears. It must have been even worse for the side it was directed to. Rose grinned through the pain. The power of pokemon was amazing! She commanded Swablu to dodge an oncoming attack when the singing stopped.
The battle was long and drawn out before a pokemon fell. Fletchling shot an ember at Swablu. The flame caught onto her wing. Rose and Swablu panicked.
"Ahh! Um ok, just shake the flames off ok?" Rose tried to calm Swablu down. She shook her wings frantically. Zoe tried to take this as her moment.
"This is perfect Fletchling!" Zoe called,"Dive at Rose's pokemon and we'll win!" But it wasn't that easy. Swablu was flying around like a maniac trying to put out her wings. Fletchling tried to find a good moment to attack. It flew back and forth tiredly. Being damaged wasn't helping it's situation.
Finally, Fletchling flew at Swablu, and she moved out of it's way. The pokemon drove itself into the ground. The flame finally went out on Swablu's wings as she watched Fletchling fall. Everything was quiet. Caleb went over to Fletchling.
"Zoe's pokemon has fainted. Rose is the winner!" He called. Rose jumped up and down. Their first battle was won! Swablu flew over.
"If only your wings caught on fire sooner," she joked. Swablu pecked at Rose playfully. A cough sounded behind them. Rose turned around and looked at Zoe. The prize money was in her hands and she was grinning at her.
"Good job Rose. You have fine skills in battling," Zoe handed over the money to Rose.
"Thank you Zoe. It was a great fight and I hope we meet again," she said. Everyone said goodbye and parted ways. Rose looked up at the sky. That was amazing!

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heyo! I am going to let anyone to give suggestions for Swablu's nickname. I know I do not have a good following yet, but I wanted to offer. The name will probably be written in the next update, so you probably have a couple days. I will also be looking up names. See you later!

Sorry to say, we now have a nickname for Swablu and Rose's next pokemon. Hopefully you guys can give in feedback for some other thing.