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Chp 3: Decision

Seth's eyes fluttered open as he felt something prickly and wet running over his cheek. His hand reflexively went up and rubbed his face, feeling the stubble there on his palm, and soft fur on the back. He looked over to see Soul close by, the source of the lick.

"Morning." He croaked. His voice was hoarse.

"Ready to head out?" Soul asked, smiling excitedly.

Seth snorted loudly, his nose a bit stopped up, and rubbed his eyes. "Gimme a bit. I'm getting in the shower." The room they were in only had a single bed, and he could feel the weight of Sky sitting on the other side of it. Soul was on the floor right next to him. She stepped back a bit to avoid being bapped by the swinging sheet as Seth moved it to get up. He was still fully clothed from last night. As he got up and moved across the room, he peeled off the dirty clothes and dropped them haphazardly along the way. When he entered the small bathroom, he didn't bother to close the door, and got into the shower stall, before starting it. A few moments after the water started to flow, the curtain opened behind him, and someone stepped in. "Hey Sky." He said, not even needing to look.

"Are you okay?" The espeon asked.

"I don't even know anymore..." He ducked his head under the water.

"I don't either. That's what worries me. You have so many emotions floating around inside. It is almost like a storm." She said. She walked around him to get some water on her fur. He could see the worried expression on her face.

He reached down and rubbed her chin. She nuzzled into it. "That sounds about right." Over the sound of the shower, voices could be heard. Soul must have found the remote. Ever since she figured out how to work a TV alone, she had been a menace. "I just don't know what to do... Everything just feels... I dunno, wrong." He said, leaning against the wall.

"You don't have to go along with this if you don't want to." She explained, nuzzling his leg.

"I really don't, but I do want to make you both happy again. If this is what it takes, oh well. The pokemon league awaits." He reached over her and turned off the water. "Come 'ere, I'll dry you off." He said, reached out and grabbing a towel for Sky. Once he had gotten her to stop dripping, he wrapped the towel around her midsection to keep her warm. "Go on and get Soul up to speed. I'll be out in a sec."

"Alright." She said. But she did not immediately hop out of the tub. She placed a paw on his foot, and looked up at him. "We'll make it." She said. She held that look until he nodded. Now satisfied, she jumped out and he heard her pad away, out of the room. He reached out and got a towel for himself. He stopped to look at himself in the mirror.

Short and light black hair, a bit of stubble around the chin and sideburns. Enough that he needed to shave. His eyes were sunken in, dark rivets under them, adding to his disheveled look. Above that were two bright blue eyes, though they weren't too bright now. They looked dull. Below his face, he was certainly more muscular than he had been a year ago, but he hadn't trained in a while. He looked next to the sink and found a tiny can of shaving cream and a cheap disposable razor in a plastic bag.

A short time later, he emerged into the room, with a clean shaven face. Sky was sitting on the bed next to Soul. Soul immediately hopped up. "Alright, get dressed and let's go!"

"Calm down. We've still got some work to do."

She grumbled and sat back down, turning her attention to the TV again. Seth got back onto the bed, allowing the girls enough room at the foot to relax. He took his pokedex off the nightstand and turned it on. From what he understood, pokedex's used to only be for cataloguing pokemon, but now, they did nearly anything. He opened the internet browser, had to connect to the hotel wireless, and then began to research.

The Sinnoh league was much more structured than the one he was familiar with. You could sign up at any gym, but you had to fight through each gym in order. And, they had come up with a new system, where the gym leader would have a large set of pokemon with different power, so they could fight any trainer on an equal standing. Oreburgh with rock, Eterna with grass, Veilstone with fighting, Pastoria with water, Hearthome with ghost, Canalave with steel, Snowpoint with ice, and Sunyshore with Electric. None of the gyms looked like a problem. Some would be hard for one girl, but the other had a type advantage there.

He switched over to a map, and found directions. "Straight east, and through a short cave, then we'll be in Oreburgh City."

"Okay, alright, we'll go after this show. Office Aura just started." Soul said, waving her tail dismissively at him. "Damn." She said as it suddenly went to commercial on a cliffhanger. She had been watching a comedy about a lucario, capable of speech, getting an office job. A couple of commercials went through, until sad music started. "Oh shit..." She said.

"Hi, I represent the shelter for abandoned pokemon, right here in Sinnoh. Ever since the Great Migration, cruel trainers have been leaving their pokemon for more exotic ones." The lady held up a mangy poochyena. It was missing an eye. "Please, we need your help. Come make a new friend. They need you. Hearthome Shelter for Abandoned Pokemon."

"Fuck off!" Soul yelled, swatting a paw through the air. "You ruin everything!" The commercial ended and she returned to her show.

Seth looked back down at his dex. He zoomed out the map and plotted out a course to the next couple towns. It didn't look too hard to get around. He returned to the dex's home, and activated the scanner. He pointed it at the girls, who remained unaware as they both watched TV. A moment later, two entries came up. Each had a description of moves the girls knew and graphs of their strength. The league here imposed the four move limit on battles, so he would have to pick them out carefully before each match. The girls were both plenty strong, in both stats and practice. And he could always fight... but that would be too risky. Somebody could draw the connections and figure him out. This is for them anyways.

He got up and went around the room, picking up the few things that were his and packing them away. The room had its own mini PC, and he went over to it to withdraw one of his suitcases. It appeared on the pad next to the desk, and he took out some clothes, placing his old ones back inside. He then deposited the suitcase again. As he dropped his towel to get dressed, he noticed Soul eyeing him. "Down girl." He said jokingly. She smirked and looked back to her show.

Soon enough, the show ended. Soul was up and ready the moment the credits rolled. "Alright, time to hit the road."

+++

They made it outside, checking out at the front desk on the way. Once they were outside, he lead the way up main street. The street was still dirty with the aftermath of yesterday, though there were a couple of people cleaning up. Once they reached the northern part of the city, the road split four ways. They took the eastern path, with a sign directing them to Oreburgh City. With that, they left the city, returning to the wilderness.

"Okay, it's a straight shot. We've got plenty of money, and you two are plenty strong, so we can just go. No need to look for a fight."

"I could do with a stretch. We haven't gotten much exercise lately." Soul said.

"Okay, we'll see what we can do. Speaking of which..." He said, pointing up ahead. There was a set of stairs built into the hill, leading up from the concrete path they were already on. Beyond that was grass and trees. But just in front of the stairs was a battle. It was between an arcanine and a rattata.

It was going about as one would expect. The young kid who owned the rat pokemon was getting dominated. The smug teen who had the arcanine gave the order. The arcanine looked down at the rat pokemon, nearly a sixth of his size, who was viciously gnawing at his paws, to little effect. He raised one of his titanic paws and as gently as possible batted the rattata away. The rattata rolled a few times before stopping belly up. It let out a noise and went limp.

"Kid, you're not good enough. Go home." The trainer said, flipping his brown hair out of the way. He had it so that it hung over his left eye. "Arcanine, come." He ordered. The large orange hound trotted back over to him and sat. "And who are you?" He asked, looking at Seth.

"Seth. You?"

"Call me Ace. I'm here to stop just anyone from making the league challenge. With the trainer school in Jubilife, kids always try to enter the league but they can never make it far. Easier to stop them here. So you want to pass?"

"Yes I do." Seth said with a smirk. "I assume that means you want a battle." Soul didn't even wait for an answer. She already stepped forward and took her place. The arcanine looked at her and growled fiercely as he moved to his place with a predatory glare. "Get 'em." Seth gave the order.

Soul roared in her native tongue, raising her horn to the sky. A silver sheen ran over it. Arcanine did similar, howling at the sky, causing the sunlight to brighten around them. Before Soul could make a move, Arcanine vanished in a puff of dust. A trail suddenly appeared, leading to Soul, where Arcanine now was. He tackled her at high speed, knocking her off balance and sending her skidding. She tried to use her claws to stop it, but the pavement was unyielding. When she did stop, she leapt forward, swinging her claws down as they radiated dark energy. It left a jagged trail through the air as it cut into Arcanine, sending him back a couple inches. As this was a battle, neither were putting harm into their attacks, so all it really did was sting a bit. The pain was barely above an itch. Had she wanted him dead, that attack would have cleaved him apart. He responded with his own attack, a fire fang. They began a process of trading powerful blows, until Soul scored a critical hit, forcing Arcanine to leap back or be overwhelmed.

He jumped a few feet back, more flames already coming out of his mouth. This time he shot a blast of fire at her. Soul used her powerful legs to leap into the air and over it. She spun through the air, swinging her scythe shape tail down at him. The power of gravity increased the impact, and the attack grew in size with critical power. Arcanine saw it coming, and his body tried to backpedal instinctually, but he realized too late that he was only ducking down, instead of getting out of the way. As she released the built up power, she created a wicked trail of darkness through the air. It struck Arcanine, hitting him into the ground. His head hit the dirt, leaving a bruise on his chin.

"GAH!" Seth yelled. The fire blast had come right at him at blinding speed. He had been too focused on watching Soul fight, that when she dodged, he was face to face with a wall of fire, with no time to react. It exploded in a shower of flame.

"Seth!" Sky yelped. Seth dived forward, rolling like he had always been taught as a kid. The flame quickly died out. Seth felt no serious pain, but he was sweating and his skin was tingling and red. He carefully touched the exposed skin of his arms to make sure he was okay.

"Oh shit, are you alright?" Ace asked, running over.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Seth said, standing and brushing off his clothes. He shivered at the feeling coursing through his body. It was like his entire body had fallen asleep with the tingling. He had to stop for a moment to calm his breathing. "Fine." He said again. He looked down to see Sky next to him, and Soul just behind Ace. He reached over and brushed his thumb against the blue colored gem on the Espeon's head.

"I'm sorry master." Arcanine groaned, covering his head with his large paws. Ace turned at the sound of his hound whimpering.

He walked over and patted him on the head. "C'mon, get up. This guy's strong, too strong for us. Here." He reached into his coat pocket and took out a potion, spraying it over Arcanine. He looked back at Seth. "You're certainly worthy to challenge the league. Go on ahead." He held out his trainer card. Seth approached and allowed him to swipe the card in his pokedex, transferring the prize money.

"So tell me one thing. Why stand guard here?"

"Well, Volkner, one of the gym leaders, is my friend. He always complains about how weak most trainers are, so I thought I'd help him out. I consider it my job to weed out the newbies before they start challenging gyms. A few years ago, gyms were for training, but nowadays the gym leaders are all really strong. Even if they use weaker pokemon, their experience alone beats most kids who try. And me and Arcanine get some practice before we take on the league." He smirked as he stroked the fire dog's mane. "Anyways, go on ahead. You might just give Roark a run for his money."

"Thanks." Seth nodded. The girls came up behind him and they got on the move again. They transitioned onto grass, and as they walked, there was kid looking for pokemon. The kid looked over, but when he saw the two pokemon behind Seth, he immediately looked away.

"There's a bunch of kids. Since when did pokemon training become so easy?" Soul asked.

"Well, this is one of the two paths to the first gym, so I would assume all the rookies are around here. As for the age, the league here has been running for way longer than back home. It's a lot safer to be a trainer here." Seth explained.

"I've already noticed that." Sky said. "There are many more trainers out here, and it's more developed than the other paths. If we stay on the path, it's like we never left town."

"Yeah, well, here's the cave, so we'll see about that." Seth said. They stepped through the hole in the wall and into the cave. As they entered, a loud screech sounded out from inside. "I swear to god." Seth muttered.

"What?" Soul asked.

He just shook his head. The cave was mostly a straight shot to the other end. They could already see the end of the tunnel in the distance. However, just after the entrance, there was a ninety degree turn, with a slope leading deeper into the cave. It was plenty bright, though not as bright as the sun. Lights were attached to the walls further in. They kept going, until another screech sounded out. Seth looked up to see something moving. "Shit!" He yelled. "Run!"

On the ceiling, several forms detached, dropping down and diving at the group. Seth couldn't understand them, as all they did was screech, but that would have made it scarier. The swarm of zubat chased them from the cave. Seth was screaming, and Soul was laughing at him. They made it out of the cave, and the zubat swarmed around the entrance, before darting back into the cave.

"Shit! Fuck!" Seth swore, leaning on his knees. "I hate those damn things!"

"AHH!" Soul shouted, jumping at him. He flinched and fell on his ass. This caused her to burst into laughter again. "You big baby!"

"It's not funny." He said. "Zubat are evil!" He reached back to rub his rear. The stony ground was not very forgiving. He looked over to Sky to see her covering her mouth with a paw, presumably smiling underneath. He took a couple deep breaths before getting up. "Whatever. We made it. Oreburgh City." He said, looking down to the rugged mining city.