Going forward and beyond {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book I}

I Zoey's P.O.V

"Well done Piplup!" I heard a girl exclaim, as I reached the Pokemon Center's training grounds. "Now try to put more power into your Peck!"

There I found a girl about my age with black hair and a pink dress, training with her pokemon. She had a Buneary, Oddish, and Aipom by her side as her Piplup demonstrated the beauty of his beak. Piplup's beak grew in size as he put more power into his attack.

She's clearly a coordinator, I thought, pleased.

As I was about to approach, her Aipom suddenly took a defensive position her tail raised and ready to attack. Glameow jumped in front of me to defend me. But I did not even notice that, I was too deep in thought. That Aipom was different from the rest of her team. She is much more aware of her surroundings, unlike the rest of the team and their trainer that were too engrossed by the training, she noticed me approaching and rapidly took a practiced defensive position.

Was the Aipom part of the girls' team? She was too battle-ready for having been trained by a coordinator. I mussed to myself.

"Ah! Hi!" The girl's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She had finally noticed me and turned around to greet me with a beaming smile. I blushed slightly, she's very pretty. "Do you want to use the training ground too?" She asked, crouching down to pat the Aipom- the monkey pokemon finally relaxing. "Do you mind sharing?"

"N-no. We can divide it into two," I answered. "Are you entering the Contest? I'm Zoey Nozomi, by the way."

"My name is Dawn Berlitz. Yes! It will be my... our first Contest." She rapidly corrected herself, smiling at her pokemon who smiled back. There was a familiarity around them that did not speak about a newbie trainer, but she clearly was one- where did it come from? And from where have I heard the last name Berlitz before? "Are you entering as well?"

"Yes, I am. It will be my third Contest," I answered.

"Do you have a ribbon already?" She asked, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Yeah, I do." I chuckled, showing her my ribbon case- she's so cute!

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed, her pokemon cooing in admiration as well.

All except for Aipom. She did not look impressed by it. She was clearly not a newly caught pokemon.

"Is this your team?" I asked, very curious about the origin of the monkey pokemon.

"Yes!" She said, clearly proud. "This is my starter Piplup!"

"Pip-Piplup!" He exclaimed, puffing his chest in pride.

I heard Glameow snickering and I barely could hold on to my own laughter. They are all so adorable!

So, I just said: "Nice to meet you Piplup."

"This is Buneary, the first pokemon I caught." She continued, rubbing the bunny pokemon's head. "This one is Oddish, she decided to join us a couple of days ago."

"Nice to meet you," I smiled at the young pokemon, who smiled back.

"This one is the newest member Aipom," she simply said, sharing a secret smile with the monkey pokemon.

"Well, these are my oldest partner and starter Glameow and my mischievous Misdreavus." I presented, laughing when Misdreavus decided to jump out of my shadow and scare Dawn and her team. Once more it was Aipom the one who rapidly jumped and attacked, but as she's a Normal Type none of them got hurt. "Not used to Ghost Pokemon?" I asked seeing the reaction.

"Nah, Ash has a Ghost Type but Honedge is quite the calm pokemon with a nobility aura around her." She answered, holding Aipom back with a hug. "Sorry about her, she used to be part of Ash's team and she's used to jumping into a fight at any given moment."