After a smooth training. The group made their way inside the Pokemon Center. Clan had his pokemons looked over by Nurse Joy, since they were physically exhausted and fatigued. Especially Anguisa, who's body was not up to condition yet with training.
Expectedly, Clan had an earful of reprimanding from the nurse when she knows Anguisa had been training, the little dragon was also not spared. Nurse Joys were scary when angry, the two stayed silent the entire time. Fortunately for them, it didn't last too long, it was very embarrasing when a crowd of trainers were also looking their way with humor.
After returning Solaris and Anguisa to their pokeballs and handling them for Nurse Joy to take care of. Clan headed off towards his room. He wanted to quickly have a shower and a change of clothes since he was so sweaty and smelly.
Clan's thought goes through this entire day. It was very exhausting true, but he had gained another wonderful pokemon to add in his team. It was unplanned since he didn't even dare imagine catching a dragon pokemon with how he had just started his journey. Almost every rookie trainer won't even have a dragon-type as a pokemon their entire season no matter how hard they tried on finding one, they were just too rare and exotic. Clan thanked Arceus for his luck, having Anguisa was a blessing in disguise when he had encountered her, direly injured body, on the route. He knew, she and Solaris would become the best of partners, he would take care of her no matter what, she will become his main pokemon that will be in his now growing family.
Clan couldn't still believe the incredulous circumstance. He now was so looking forward to introducing his new partner towards his parents. But before that, he and his team had to eat dinner after they are done being checked.
...
Opening the door, Clan stepped into the room to find the absent roommates he had earlier, were now currently inside. Then, Clan blinked as he recognized who they were.
He faced towards the two youngster who, one was minding his own business with the pokedex in his hand and the other, was someone he knew all too well, his blond friend, Barry.
Clan stared stunned at his childhood friend, disregarding the purple-haired youngster who was pre-occupied at the moment. He quickly reacted, exclaiming in delight. "Barry!?"
"Clan!?" Barry also reacted the same way as he had. They eagerly approached each other. The purple-haired youngster looked up from the commotion, his eyes flashed in recognition when he saw Clan.
"Barry, why are you here?" Clan asked as he neared his friend. "Weren't you supposed to be with Dawn?"
Clan had actually thought of waiting for both his childhood friends before setting out together on their journey, but figured they would run into each other sooner or later. But, from the looks of it, Barry wasn't planning to go with them from the start, or did something happened? Clan thought.
"About that, to be honest with you Clan. My father already had given me my Pokedex and a starter pokemon as a present, prior to the day we can obtain this things from the professor, he had been around the area in Jubilife with his pokemon for a task, they fetched me in Twinleaf and dropped me here the day before he was called back by the League." Barry rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I was about to tell you and Dawn, but decided to wait for you guys here to surprise you both since you'd eventually be passing the city."
"So that's what happened! I was wondering why you guys didn't replied to my spam messages in the PokeWeb!" Clan sighed as he shook his head. He raised his eyebrow after a moment. "What happened to Dawn though? I haven't met her from the batch I was on when I recieved my pokemon from Professor Rowan."
"Really?" Barry tiled his head. "I don't know. Maybe her mother also had the same idea as my dad did, she may already be on the way here."
"Um, maybe." Clan shrugged. He was somewhat sad since he thought he had reunited with both his friends. Still, he couldn't help but ask. "So, what starter pokemon did your father gave you? I'm guessing a really rare and strong one, taking into account your father's personality."
Barry laughed as he grinned. "I'll show you if you accept a battle with me! For me, that's the best way for us to show each other our pokemon."
Clan's eyes lit up, he responsed with a competetive grin of his own. "Alright you're on! How does a one-on-one sound? I only had two pokemon in my team, one of my pokemon couldn't really fight right now because of her condition."
"I see... I'll meet you at the field then!" Barry noticed some sadness in Clan's tone but he didn't think too much of it. He walked out of the door and sprinted through down the stairs.
"Clan Eclairè, your pokemon are waiting for you at the front desk."
"Woah... great timing." Clan murmured to himself. He lesurely walked out of the door, to get his pokemon from Nurse Joy, his pace was faster than normal.
This left the purple-haired young man alone. Surprisingly, he also walked out of the door, following the halls towards where the training field was located.
...
After fetching his recovered Pokemon at the lobby, he immediately headed back towards the training field.
Clan thought back to his other battles, all featuring Solaris considering he was his sole pokemon at that time. In their battles against a number of trainers and the occasional wild pokemons around Route 202, one thing stood out.
Solaris had never lost. He won all his battle handily.
With that thought, he confidently stride towards where Barry was on.
He and Barry were friends, they grew up together on the same town. But, no one would deny they were rivals. They both had the same passion towards pokemon battling, they fought a couple of tomes because of their few contradicting views towards pokemons, but officially this would be their first ever battle since becoming Pokemon Trainers.
So no one could imagine how important this was for the both of them.
Barry stood at the other end of the battlefield, he was holding a pokeball in his hand, ready to release what's contained inside for their battle.
"Excited much, Barry?" Clan's voice called out on the other side of the field. He also unclipped his pokeball from his belt and readily enlarged it in his hand. "You'll soon be surprised at how terribly you will suffer a loss from this."
"Ha!" Barry clearly was not impressed at Clan's attempt of taunting him. "We'll see. Let's get this started already. I've been looking forward to this my whole life, Clan. I was so sick of how you're always better than me in everything, I wanted to see if you are also better in battling."
Clan couldn't help but feel an ill feeling about those words on his skin. The venom in it was clear to Clan, he furrowed his brows as he focused his gaze on Barry. This battle was clearly something more to Barry than just rivalry... Clan didn't let this affect him though, he shook those words, but he was also frustrated, he had worked hard to get to where he was now. He thought his friend could understand that, but it seems Barry had developed some kind of grudge against him. He didn't mind, they are still friends at the end of the day, he won't be childish about it. He unclipped his other pokeball and released Anguisa at his side, he knelt down to her level then patted her head. "I want you to see how we battle, is that alright Anguisa?"
Anguisa looked at the opposite side of the field noticing Barry curious glance at her then back at her trainer, she nodded in agreement.
"Are both Trainers ready?" A Pokemon Trainer volunteered on being referee.
A small audience had gathered as the two trainers took up their positions. Clan could also spot the deep purple-haired teenager in the crowd.
Clan and Barry simultaneously nodded towards the referee. Seeing that, the referee lifted his head and yelled in announcement. "Begin!"
Clan grins and hold up his partner's pokeball before rearing his arms back. "Solaris, c'mon out!" He called out, throwing the ball skywards.
Barry also did the same action. "You're up Rhyhorn, let's show'em what we're made off!"
With two flashes of light, two pokemon materialized against each other. Clan narrowed his eyes at the Pokemon Barry unleashed.
The rhinoceros pokemon, Rhyhorn, with a body covered in gray, rocky plates in the middle of his side of the arena. Its underside and rear were smooth, and it had four short legs with two claws on each foot. It had a triangular head with narrow, red eyes, two fangs potruding from its upper jaw, and small, triangular openings on the upp side. A spiked ridge ran across its back, and it had a single short horn at the top of its snout. The low, rumbling roar it released, made Clan think of hundreds of boulders strinking the ground at the same time. The most dreadful thing about his oppenent was, it possessed a Ground/Rock Typing, he was in a double disadvantage in type match up.
'This could be bad.' Clan glanced towards his pokemon, he was laughably little compared to the wide and broad Rhyhorn, it was like David vs Goliath, literally. He wasn't confident they could win this match.
Solaris didn't get intimidated by this pokemon, however. He wasn't afraid as he radiated a will to battle it out with the pokemon. Solaris also realized that they were at a disadvantage, but he still wanna try. The little pokemon loudly chirped in battle intent towards the Rhyhorn. He was as unweavering as an Kyogre(ocean) and as fierce as a Groudon(blaze).
Clan stared at Solaris, noticing how he shined in vigor. He grinned as his expression also turned into something identical to Solaris.
'I can't be cynical right now. Solaris isn't even a little bit bothered by our opponent and he is the one doing the fighting, so how can I, his pokemon trainer be discouraged?' He thought. 'We can just treat this battle as a test to see how we will manage with a rock pokemon.'
While this thoughts were running through his mind. Barry started the battle in earnest. "Rock Polish! Then use Tackle!"
"Wait for Rhyhorn to come close, if you're comfortable with the distance, blind-side it with a wisp of Ember before hopping diagonally. Then use Slash and follow it up with Ember!" Clan commanded evenly and in a normal volume, seeing that shouting would only give away what they are planning to their opponents if they overheard. Solaris chirped in understanding, fully knowing what he meant by his instructions.
The Rhyhorn roared before it began to glow with transparent dark brown energy. When it dissipated the gray rocky plates that made up its hide looked to have been polished to a shine. The spikes pokemon roared once more before it began to charge towards Solaris at speeds somethings its size shouldn't be capable of reaching. Clan knew, however, hat the technique Rock Polish somehow increases the speed of rock types significantly.
Solaris screamed in a thrill right back at the incoming broad stone tank. When it was just a meter away from him, Solaris released a half powered ember, but enough to cover it's frame from the perspective of his opponent's eyes. The plated rhinoceros gave out a cry of discomfort when the too bright wisp was struck in front of its eyes. It closed its eyes, charging aimlessly forward.
Solaris evaded the rhyhorns Tackle with a hop easily, while his claws were shining with a wicked light and struck the area bellow its upper plated armor between the plates on his leg where rhyhorn's flesh wasn't protected, one of the known weaknesses of a rhyhorn's biology.
Barry's pokemon let out a deep cry of pain, as it was sent to its side due to the momentum of Solaris's attack carried. Rhyhorn's stubby legs frantically moved around to right itself up, before it could fully manage to stand back up, it opened its eyes to only stare blankly as Solaris fired a full-powered ember at the front of his face.
Being subjected to such pain again, but this time his cries were visibly more painful to hear. Rhyhorn's eyes were tender like any other is, his eyes couldn't possibly be also made of rocky plates. Barry sweated when he saw the misery his Rhyhorn was in, he ordered in agitation. "Rhyhorn keep your eyes closed! Use Magnitude!"
Rhyhorn steadily rose from his feet. It slowly rised the frontal part of his body, then he strongly brought down his legs and heavily stomped on the ground.
The ground beneath the field fiercly shook, the moment its legs came into a heavy fall contact on the ground. Solaros began to unsteadily stepped around side to side, his head was also rattled in dizziness.
"Horn Attack!"
Clan's eyes widened in alarm and cried out. "Dodge it Solaris!"
This time, Solaris wasn't fast able to move fast enough to didge the attack. It did tried to dodge even wothout the command shout of Clan, but in the position that he was very close to the Rhyhorn, the space wouldn't be enough for him to dodge. Still with eyes closed, Rhyhorn bellowed forward before smashing his horn on to where his vision last saw Solaris.
The move connected on Solaris's tiny frame, he was knocked out across the field like a rubber ball as his thrills of agony reached Clan and Anguisa's ears. Clan gasped as he saw Solaris skidding through the ground before stopping near his feet.
Solaris winced in pain as he got up with great difficulty. Clan's worried gaze bore at his pokemon's back. "Are you alright buddy?"
A thrill of the same full vigor was his response. Solaris looked deeply in to Clan's eyes as they stared at each other unblinklingly, he chirped and faced the opponent they had.
Clan smiled and his eyes also focused on the match, it still wasn't over, until they say it is. Anguisa saw through those silent interaction between the two, she looked up at Clan's steady and sweaty face. Then she looked at her fighting teammate, she suddenly found this kind of battling very entertaining and her heart also couldn't help but beat faster as the fight goes on. She loudly barked at Solaris and waved both her paws at him, cheeringly.
Clan and Solaris both smiled at her but was also surprised but nonetheless they were happy. "Let's give this all we've got, Solaris. Use Growl then follow it up with Night Slash!" Clan took a risk, he still wasn't in the know of his starter's other egg move besides his Peck, this wasn't the ideal moment to test it out. However, he had no other choice, it was the only more damaging move other than Slash that could deal sufficient damage to Barry's Rhyhorn.
"Finish this! Meet the attack head on Rhyhorn then use Bulldoze."
Solaris bolted forward with impressive speed, he had improved quite a bit of speed compared to before because of training, it wasn't that crazy of an improvement but it was something. He zoomed through the field swiftly his eyes glaring at the rhinosauros.
Lifting its frontal body again, but this time, the soles of Rhyhorn's front stubby foot were glowing with ground energy. When Solaris was within its desired proximity, he struck down brutally.
Solaris, much to Clan's relief and surprise, slid through between the legs of Rhyhorn through the side diagonally. Like last time, but this time he slid through and used this opportunity to follow through Clan's instructions. The thrills behind Solaris's throat became deep, the sound it makes made Rhyhorn flinch, it hesitantly took a step back but after a quick moment attacked again with another Bulldoze, but the brownish energy gathered on his rising front legs were visibly lighter and weaker. Then, it smashed down aggressively...
"Do it!"
Upon Clan's desperate shout. Solaris, exhausted and was now panting, met the attack directly with his Night Slash. Solaris's claws glowed with an outline of dark black energy and with a powerful swipe...
"BOOM!"
A small cloud of black smoke exploded from both attacks meeting head on...