Glory's Long Road: Episode #02 "First Trial"

With a new day just begun, Erik and Sandopan stood together outside a rather 
large building. A row of marble pillars lead to a door, a few metres away. 
The sun's rays caught the minerals in the rock columns at a low angle, 
giving them a glistening appearance. The hedgehog glanced upward, wondering 
why they had not proceeded in yet. "Sand?" Erik looked down, seeing Sandopan 
pointing a claw at the door to the gym. "Just needs a second to get ready." 
Erik took a single deep breath, an attempt to sedate his nerves. "Let's go." 
And with that, the two proceeded down the row of marble pillars to the door. 
Lightly pushing it open, Erik and Sandopan stepped into the gym, greeted 
only by the smell of chlorine in the air. The gym area is empty, except for 
two girls standing by the pool.

One was a fairly tall blonde, hair to her shoulders, dressed in regular blue 
jeans and a green top. The other was somewhat shorter, with her long purple 
hair in a ponytail. She wore a black swimsuit, which had an amethyst sarong 
wrapped around her waist. The blonde took notice of Erik's entrance.

"Hmm, somebody's here early."

"Indeed." The purple haired girl mentioned back. "You here for a battle?"

"Yes I am." Erik answered, stopping at the edge of the pool. The blonde 
stepped beside the other woman, to whisper in her ear. "Angela, you notice 
what he has?" She did her best to keep her voice down. "It's kinda hard not 
to Lise."

"Don't you think it would be a tad harsh to simply blow this guy away?" 
Angela twirled several strands of long purple hair around her finger. 
"You're right, especially when he's so cute with his blue hair and all." Her 
sister blankly stared at her for that last remark. "What?!"

"Nothing." Erik interrupted into the conversation of the two sisters, "Umm, 
ladies?"

"Sorry about that." Angela apologized. She looked out over the pool. 
"Carlie, come here for a minute!" A few moments passed before a young girl, 
around 12, broke the surface of the water, and climbed out of the pool. Her 
orange hair clung to her wet skin. "Yah sis?" Lise pointed to Erik. "This 
guy here wants to have a battle, and we'd thought we would leave it up to 
you."

"Really!" Her elder sister nodded in agreement. "Alright. How does a one on 
one sound to you?"

"Perfectly fine." Sandopan began to sharpen his claws against one another, 
anticipating the rush of battle. "Ok." Carlie clapped her hands twice. 
"Satarumii, come out." From the pool behind her, a purple Satarumii burst 
from under the surface of the water. Slowly, it floated down beside its 
trainer. As the two step aside for the battle, Lise shouted out to her 
little sister. "Get ready for this." Carlie nodded, signaling Lise to start 
up a stopwatch. "Go!"

Taking the opening attack, Erik issued first orders. "Slash." Sandopan 
lunged inward, left claw drawn back. "Dive back into the water." At the last 
possible moment, Satarumii dropped back into the pool. Skidding on the wet 
concrete, the hedgehog barely came to a halt. Uneasily, he teetered on the 
edge, nearly falling into the water. This isn't good. Erik cursed to 
himself.

"Knock him in with a Swift." Satarumii shot out of the water once more, and 
firing a volley of stars from its central core. Sandopan regained its 
balance in time to step back from the edge, and block a few stars from the 
poorly aimed Swift. He stopped for a moment, looking at the distant 
Satarumii. Touching claw tips together, he forged off a small orb of 
yellow-green energy. From this, he fired a burst of stars. The tightly 
packed Swift slams into Satarumii, each hit knocking it back slightly.

Carlie decided on a change of strategy. "Come in and finish this with a 
Water Jet." Satarumii flew toward Sandopan, who steped back further away 
from the pool. The purple starfish stopped a quarter metre from its target, 
and beginning to spin around. Turning back on, Sandopan shut his quills, 
laying them flat to his back, as spinning seastar unleashed a quick barrage 
of water shots.

"That's it." From the sidelines, Lise encouraged Carlie on. Satarumii slowly 
stopped its rotation. With a slight amount of spray, Sandopan returned his 
quills back to their normal positions. He turned back to face Satarumii.

"It survived the attack?" Angela got out, stunned as the assault continued. 
Sandopan jumped up, slashing a thin cross into the red crystal. On the 
descent down, the hedgehog carved two more deep parallel grooves, dragging 
the floating star down. Staemii attempted to move away, but is met with a 
shattering roundhouse. The force of the impact crushed its core, and tossed 
the star out into the pool, landing with a splash. Angela quickly recalled 
the fainted Satarumii for her sister. Lise showed Angela the stopwatch, not 
quite believing the time given. "Only a minute five to win. He's good."

"Definitely." Angela removed a small blue hexagon-shaped badge off her 
sarong and tossed it over to Erik, who caught it with one hand. "There's the 
Turquoise badge for your victory. But I would like a match, if you don't 
mind."

"You good to go Sandopan?" Having recovered from the first battle, he 
quickly agreed.

"Well then, Nyorozo go." Angela held out a pokeball, and released out the 
tadpole. "Open up with Double Slap." The tadpole darted forward, making wide 
swipes with open hands at Sandopan. Each time, the slaps were blocked by a 
forearm, but at the cost of ground lost.

"Sandopan..." She cut him off. "Nyorozo, grab a hold of its arms." Using its 
speed, Nyorozo grasped Sandopan by the arms. Erik's pokemon attempted to 
struggle free, but to no avail. "Bubble Beam." The blue tadpole tilted back 
its head, taking in a deep breath. Sensing an opportunity, Sandopan jumped 
into the air. Just as Nyorozo brang his head back forward, it was met by a 
hard drop kick to the face. The impact broke the grip, sending the hedgehog 
to the ground on its back.

"Finish it." Rolling off his back, Sandopan charged toward the dazed 
Nyorozo. Throwing his weight into the attack, Sandopan slammed the back of 
his left claw into the side of Nyorozo's head. This proved to be the knock 
out blow. Angela recalled her pokemon even before he begins to fall. 
"Incredible. That Sandopan just took out two water types, and shows few 
signs of slowing down." She glanced to her sister, looking to get her to do 
battle. "Hey sis, you going to have a shot."

The eldest only shook her head in refusal. "Not now." Purple eyebrows rose 
up as Angela turned back to Erik. "Woah, you got Lise frightened. Now that's 
something else." Taking all this modestly, Erik downplayed the pair of wins 
"It's nothing, seriously." He looked to Sandopan. "We'd best be going. See 
you around." With that, Erik and Sandopan walk to the exit.

Once Erik was out of earshot the youngest piped up. "Lise, how come you 
didn't fight that guy?"

"No reason."

"Are you sure that's the truth?" The only reply Angela got from Lise was a 
simple grin as she spun a pokeball on a finger.


End Episode #02

Pokemon Report
*-----*-----*-----*
Sandopan's Resistance To Water
Normally, ground-types have a weakness to water moves. However, Sandopan has 
built up a partial resistance to water. Little over a decade of 
Newfoundland's harsh marine climate is the reason for Sandopan's partial 
resistance to water, as well as ice.

Water Jet
Hitodemon/ Satarumii hover in the air, and spin around, releasing numerous 
Water Guns. The whole attack resembles a common lawn sprinkler.

Translations
Hitodemon = Staryu
Satarumii = Starmie
Nyorozo = Poliwhirl