A Rocky Start

Kuro and his venipede, which slunk over his shoulder, gazed at the beaches of Seachorme Isle with amazed looks as the ferry they were riding came into one of its harbors. They'd been at sea for a whole three days to get from their destination to this resort island, and they were getting anxious. The ferry had hardly finished docking when Kuro leapt over the railing and broke into a dash once he landed on the pier. Venipede jumped off his shoulder and began creeping at a decent speed behind him as he ran. Their training had already begun. Running out onto the beach, they began to sprint along the wet line of sand at the water's edge. They continued running until they'd come far from the resort area, and the beach was beginning to get a little rocky. Kuro overlooked one large rock and tripped over it, getting a large mouthful of sand as he plummeted face first into the ground. Venipede came up behind him to see if he was alright, then turned to inspect the rock that Kuro'd tripped over. It's feelers vibrated as it listened to the rock while poking it with its nose. Turning to Kuro, Venipede began to shake and jump excitedly. Kuro wasn't sure what it was trying to say until the rock began to shake and an orange pokemon emerged from underneath it.

"Alright! It's a Dwebble!" Kuro could not contain his excitement at the appearance of a bug pokemon. The Dwebble seemed a bit scared by his outburst and began to scuttle away. A huge grin spread across Kuro's face as he twirled on the spot and pointed at the retreating Dwebble, "Let's get it Venipede!"

Venipede dashed after Dwebble, cutting off its path and glaring menacingly at it. The Dwebble tried to decide what to do while Kuro began giving instructions. "Venipede, start it out with a poison sting!" Venipede reared back and shot a group of purple stingers from its mouth at the Dwebble's body. It reacted by retreating into its rock and letting the poison sting glance harmlessly off. Kuro knew it was using withdraw. After Venipede's attack was over, Dwebble emerged from its home again and quickly crawled up to Venipede, delivering a furious swipe with its claw. "Fury cutter..." Kuro mumbled as he watched. He wasn't worried. Fury cutter was a weak move to begin with, only getting dangerous with consecutive strikes. Venipede forced the Dwebble to leap away by firing another poison sting attack at it. It followed up with another poison sting, making Dwebble retreat into its rock again with withdraw. Kuro suddenly had an idea of how to finish this fight. "Venipede! Use your screech attack!" Venipede obeyed and let out a nasty screech that clearly was bothering the Dwebble inside its rock. Its body popped back out with its eyes disoriented as Kuro gave Venipede its finishing order. "Use defense curl then hit it with a rollout!" Venipede curled its body into a tight ball, then wheeled itself along the beach at Dwebble, sending sand and pebbles flying. It struck Dwebble with an amazing force, the power of the rollout having been reinforced by the defense curl. Dwebble flew through the air from their point of impact and landed in the water's shallows in a heap. Kuro dashed towards it and leapt pointlessly into the air as he brought his arm back and flung a pokeball at Dwebble like a baseball. The ball smacked into Dwebble and absorbed it in a red light. The ball splashed into the water and began to shake violently. Kuro clenched his fist in anticipation, the grin still etched on his face. After a few moments of the shaking, the ball stopped with a loud tone that signaled the successful capture. Kuro scooped the ball up and began to jump up and down with uncontrolled excitement while Venipede circled around his feet in "victory laps". This was their first capture as a team and a new addition to their bug family. After he'd calmed down enough, Kuro began to run back the way he and Venipede had come so that they could get some rest after the day's work.

On a nearby rock in sea chrome unseen by the trainer fighting the dwebble with his venipede sat the mist veil city gym leader, Isaac Kennedy who wore his usual hood and goggles which concealed his face. He yawned as he watched the waves then went back to watching the trainer remembering the day he caught his first pokemon a slakoth who now is his one of his most trustworthy pokemon vigoroth, he was a pain to catch since he was using his ghastly against him. As the battle concluded and the trainer succesfully caught the dwebble isaac decided to meet this trainer and test him. As isaac thought this his gengar arose from the ground and staired at him with a uncertain look like he was saying why would you take on a new trainer who hasnt even made it to the gym yet. "its alright spectre i just wanna test this kid" isaac said as he pullled out spectres duskball then called him back then jumped from the rock and approached the kid as he stepped the sand crunched underneath his sandles.

As he approached the new trainer isaac thought of what this trainer could be a fan of he seemed to like insects which were as creepy as ghosts. Isaac stopped 10 feet from the kid who was abut to run back to the town. "Yo kid wait up, that was a nice catch you did how about a friendly battle if you dont mind" Isaac said as he waited for a response and then yawned slightly as his boredom started to leave.

A bright light seemed to shine behind Kuro's eyes as his face lit up at the chance of a battle. Venipede was already raring to go, taking a position between Kuro and the approaching trainer while trying its best to look tough. Kuro grinned at the sight and hastily accepted the challenge without even asking the other trainer's name.

"Awesome! This is my first real battle. I hope I can make a good impression." Kuro was already getting jumpy as he distanced himself a little from the trainer and shouted some words of encouragement to Venipede. "Just do your best buddy. I believe in you!" Venipede seemed pumped by the words and began to excitedly rear up continuously. Kuro grinned even wider and waited for the opponent to decide on his first pokemon for the match.

"aint this gonna be fun" isaac said as he let out a slight chuckle and moved his coat up to reveal 1 duskball and 5 normal pokeballs on his belt. Isaac thought of to send out and he decided to freak the kid out by sending out golurk but he knew it would be too much of overkill. "hmm who should it be" isaac thought to himself then he snapped his fingers then grabbed dusknoirs ball then tossed it without saying a word. As he did this the pokeball stopped in mid air then opened up shooting a red beam that formed dusknoir then vanished and the ball shot back to isaac and he caught it with ease then looked at dusknoir who then looked back to isaac shrugging then staired at the trainers venipede.

"Dusknoir lets have some fun so dont go ending the kids venipede so quick" isaac said to dusknoir and as he did dusknoir just hovered there waiting and going to let the kids venipede make the first move.

"A Dusknoir..." Kuro's voice shook as he and Venipede faced this unexpected opponent. Ghosts alone were trouble to bugs like Venipede, but a Dusknoir was a very strong ghost-type. But Kuro wasn't going to let that scare him away from his first battle. The fire returned to his eyes as he shook off the initial surprise and began to battle.

"Venipede, keep yourself moving to avoid being an easy target. While doing that, try and lower Dusknoir's defense with a Screech!"

The centipede pokemon responded immediately and began to sprint along the beach in zigzag motions to try and evade Dusknoir. While moving, it let out the same screech attack that it had against Dwebble earlier. Kuro's plan was to compensate for the ghost resistance to bugs by softening Dusknoir's resistance before attacking.

Dusknoir watched the veniped run around and use screech on him, it harrdly even affected him even if it did dusknoir wouldnt show it, it just wasnt in his nature. "hmm if i remember corectly venipede has this nasty ability to poison foes pokemon once they had made contact so no shadow punch..." isaac thought to himself then he looked back at the trainer and saw the fire in his eyes. "Dusknoir use focus blast but hold its fire until i tell you to hit him" isaac said to his pokemon and as he did dusknoir nodded then his mouth in his chest opened and a orb of white energy formed and as it did dusknoir focused on it forcing it out of the mouth then holding it between both of his hands.

"Dusknoir fire it at the venipedes front towards the sand" Isaac said as he kept his hands in the pockets and as he did dusknoir nodded then fired the white orb towards the sand where the venipede ran and hopefully sending it fly into the air.

Kuro didn't know what they were planning by firing focus blast near Venipede instead of directly at him, but most he could manage to say before it reached his pokemon was a quick "Try and dodge it!" Venipede would have tried just that on its own, but the orb was just too fast. As Venipede leapt to the left, the blast impacted the ground in front of where it was positioned and sent it sailing backward through the air along with a large amount of sand. Kuro thought fast and called out to it as it flew, hoping it could react in time.

"Venipede, use defense curl to soften your landing!" The purple bug responded immediately, curling its body into a ball. When it hit the sand covered ground, it rolled a good 30 feet before slowing down to a crawl. "Stay curled up and use rollout!" Kuro shouted, getting excited now that Venipede had things set up. Dusknoir's defense was hopefully lowered and Venipede's rollout would now be boosted by its defense curl. Venipede's rolled up figure made a sharp u-turn and barreled toward Dusknoir, scattering sand as it rolled directly at it.

"what a crafty kid, performing such an odd tactic once his venipede was in the air he might be fun to fight once he reaches my gym" isaac thought to himself then looked to see a speeding purple wheel of venipede dashing towards dusknoir. "dusknoir lets end this now, use shadowpunch on the spinning venipede" isaac said to his pokemon and dusknoir nodded in approval and as he did he cocked his fist backwards and it started to emminate a blackish purple glow. He held the punch for a moment and as the venipede neared him he punched slamming the evil aura fist at the curled up venipede. If the fist collided with the venipede it should stop it dead in its tracks and send it flying away unconcious but also causing that nasty ability to activate and poison Dusknoir.

Venipede was slammed as it approached Dusknoir and was sent flying back once again by the shadow punch. It's rolled up form was forced open by the force of both the blow and the air as it launched up and away from Dusknoir. It's eyes were unfocused and inattentive as it crashed into the sandy ground in a heap. Kuro's face turned from excited to worried in a flash as he rushed over to see if Venipede was alright. Seeing its crumpled form, he carefully picked it up. "You did a good job buddy." Kuro turned to his opponent with a dumb smile on his face. There was no hint of bad sportsmanship on his face. "Thanks for the battle. I know that I have a long way to go. I hope we were worth your time, though that doesn't seem likely. Hehehe." In order not to be rude, Kuro stuck around in case his opponent wanted to say something, though he wanted to get moving back to the pokemon center to get both his pokemon some care.

Isaac saw as the fist collided with the venipede and sent it flying, isaac slightly sighed as he thought dusknoir used to much strength on it but the momentum of its rollout hurt it the most. Isaac looked back to dusknoir who looked back then started to move around woozily an effect of the poison point ability of the venipede, isaac pulled out dusknoirs pokeball and recalled him. "well if youre going to the pokemon center ill head there with you cause youre little friend there hurt my dusknoir with that ability of that venipede of yours" isaac said as he looked at the trainer then held out a hand to shake "ohh you can call me Isaac Kennedy, Leader of Mist Veil City Gym" isaac said as he withdrew his hand then started to walk with the kid his hood still covering his face and goggles covering his eyes.

"and the battle was preety interesting youre gonna be a good trainer once you get good enough, you might even get good as Kazuya of the elite 4 who also favours bug type" isaac said as he looked to the city which they almost neared and the pokemon center in sight.

Kuro took out Venipede's pokeball and recalled him to get some rest while they made their way back. Accepting the opponent's handshake, his face was painted with a look of shock as Isaac revealed who and what he was. He'd just battled against a gym leader. He'd lost terribly, but that was unimportant. The fact was that he and his partner had gone through a great experience and even seemed to have mildly impressed the gym leader. Kuro was happy to receive praise, feeling that his and Venipede's hard work was showing results.

"I really am grateful for the lessen we had today. I aim to be the best trainer one day, with a team full of bug pokemon. I grew up around many bug pokemon and believe them to be the best. I want to show that to the world."

They reached the pokemon center, and Kuro handed over both of his pokeballs with Venipede and Dwebble inside. He waited in the lobby and pulled a pokemon egg out of his bag and just sat there running his hand over it, occasionally humming a cheerful song.

Isaac listened to the trainer and waled into the gym silently listening like he usually did. As isaac entered he heard Nurse Joy speak "welcome isaac its been a while since ive seen you here, hows the gym" Nurse Joy said in her kind tone and isaac nodded then handed her dusknoirs ball and received it back then walked to the phone. Isaac turned around to see the kid holding an egg then he turned back to the phone and one of the caretakers of the Mist Veil Gym answered "Yes Isaac sir what can i do for you" the caretaker asked "send me a nincada from one of the trees please i have need of it" isaac said and the caretaker listened then walked out of the room and as he did two of Isaacs other pokemon leapt in frony of the phone it was his Shedinja and Sableye. "its good to see you two ill be back to the gym soon" isaac said and as he finished the caretaker returned with a nest ball "transfering it to you sir, and we will see you soon" as he finished that the phone went off then the transporter system activated then there was a bright light then the nest ball was right there.

Isaac grabbed the nest ball then walked to the trainer and stopped in front of him. "kid, here have this its a Nincada from Mist Veil, treat it right and i looked forward you to making it to my gym" isaac said as he turned around and as he exited he threw out his Golurk and jumped to his shoulder and shot off like a rocket and headed back to Mist Veil to take a nap and see his other pokemon.

~EXIT~

While Kuro waited for the center to finish with his pokemon, Isaac seemed to be making a call somewhere. Kuro didn't pry, but instead continued to massage the egg he'd received from the man in his home town. It would occasionally rock in his lap, as if something was moving inside. He looked up as Isaac walked in front of him and held out a nest ball. His face brightened again, this time with gratitude, as Isaac mentioned the pokemon resting inside. Before Kuro could say a word after taking it, Isaac called out his Golurk and was shooting away. Kuro realized that he had forgotten to introduce himself and ran to the door of the pokemon center and shouted after Isaac, "My name's Kuro Akarui! Thanks for everything!" He wasn't sure if Isaac could hear him or not, but it was good to have sent some form of thanks. Nurse Joy called him over and returned both of his pokeballs. Setting Dwebble's and the new nest ball on his belt, he popped Venipede out of its ball and the two sprinted out into the open air, ready to train some more.

~FIN~