mostlyajerk | Like no one ever was

"Erm, bone club annnnd growl?" As far as Barry could remember, he didn't often fight with Scully, he was special and he was always afraid of him getting hurt. "Use growl." It would hopefully lower any attacks coming his way before they launched into a proper attack. Barry resisted the urge to worry too much over his Cubone, decided to just have faith. He could do this, he was a big boy, not unlike Barry.

Cubone growled and stooped low, ready to attack, ready to make move. It was clearly Barry who was being hesitant, not the pokemon.

"He wants to fight, Barry. You just have to let him. He trusts you completely, so he'll do as you say. That's a great sign of your bond, but that also means that if you hesitate, he'll get hurt. Do you understand?"

Len's eyes narrowed. "You see how he holds the bone? He's ready to use it. Fair warning, Ponyta's are very quick, so you'll both have to think on your feet. You can do this, Barry, but you'll have to trust in yourself like he trusts you."

"Okay, I can do that." Barry took a deep breath and pushed aside all his concerned and protectiveness to try and do this right. If he ever wanted to be taken seriously as a trainer, he had to actually be willing to fight with his pokemon. He waited until the timing was right before he commanded Cubone to attack. Scully launched at the Ponyta and just missed it, hitting the ground instead. "Keep trying!"

Fortunately, Scully did and managed to get her leg the second time around, knocking her off balance. Scully stayed his ground and growled again, ready to go. Barry grinned. "Oh man, he's doing it! Did you see that? He landed a hit."

"Yeah, he did. See, your advantage, the advantage of every trainer and their pokémon is that you have two heads, you can work together. It can be a disadvantage if you don't work together well, but you two have a bond. I can see that. So in this case, Scully knows what he's doing and he has good reflexes, but you can think further, you can try to predict how the Ponyta's going to move. That's how you can get it."

Strategy. The reason he had gotten into this, the reason he was so good at it. "Go get it."

"Scully, you know what to do." The Cubone didn't hesitate to land another hit while it could, just to make sure the Ponyta didn't turn around and kick both their asses and while she was down for the count, Barry fumbled with his pokeball, almost dropping it. In his defence, these things so didn't fit well in his pocket so they were hard to get out. He threw the ball at the Ponyta and watched, eager, hoping this worked.

Hey, it still went better than the last time he tried this. At least the pokeball hit a pokemon this time and not a random passerby.

"Look at that. You caught her." Leonard smiled when the pokéball locked and this time he said nothing, watching how the trainer handled himself and his pokémon after this. It said a lot about somebody's character after all and he didn't want to waste his time training someone that didn't have respect for their team.

"No way, I caught her? This is amazing. We did it, Scully! Oh man." Barry rushed over to his Cubone and held him for a quick moment before grabbing the pokeball and holding it up like a total dork. Fortunately his pokemon was just as dorky and was basically dancing around his trainer excitedly as well. Realising what an idiot he must have looked, Barry cleared his throat and got back up, brushing himself down. "Whatever, wasn't too hard. We did good." Yes, try to downplay the excitement and look a little cooler, good plan.

"You better be happy, kid. That was a great catch. Remember, a Ponyta or Rapidash will never burn its trainer, not as long as you have a good bond. Someone like you shouldn't have any issue." Leonard finally pulled his hands out of his pockets. "You better get her to a Pokécenter though. And remember to keep on training. Keep getting better. You have to be good to challenge me one day. I look forward to it."

"Oh yeah, of course, I'll get her there right away and then we can start hanging out." That was the best way to bond, after all. Barry smiled sheepishly as he stood there with Scully holding onto his pant leg and Pichu peeking his little head out of Barry's pocket. "Hey, so, how can I repay you? I mean this was amazing, I don't know many guys who'd give free advise like this and I really owe you. Is there anything I can do?"

"Not really. I just like having strong opponents and who knows? Maybe you'll be one some day." Leonard looked at Barry and smiled. Cute. Just like his pokémon. But the Cubone had certainly proven to be fierce as well. "Remember, you need to study battling, just like anything else. The more you know about your own pokémon as well as about your opponents, the better. In the end, in my experience, it's the trainer with the most knowledge who has the upper hand."

"Good because I'm way better at the thinking than the fighting. I've never been very good at the whole hand to hand thing myself so I don't have much faith in just clobbering the other person. I like to think about it." He liked that he had a bond with his Cubone and he knew that it could get him a long way, he just had to make sure he bonded with all the others too. "I don't think I'd ever be as strong as you but I'm willing to try. It'd be amazing if one day I could face a guy like you and actually win."

"That's the goal, Scarlet. Who knows. I was just a skinny, brainy kid when I started out too." A runt, as Mick liked to say. Fitting, given his first pokémon had been a Snorunt. These days he had a lot more of course, but his first pokémon was the only one he always had with him. "Do you know where the nearest pokécenter is?" He already expected a no, so he turned to lead the way. "You'll be able to ride on the pokémon you caught today one day."

"No, I'm still new here. Someone gave me a map but I've never been able to read a map in my life and I can't get a GPS signal in the woods." Honestly, who could make sense of maps? Barry smiled apologetically and then started walking beside Leonard, feeling slightly less lost then he had been earlier. Cubone followed along after him, happily trekking behind them at a nice pace. "I guess everyone starts somewhere, huh? It's hard to think of guys like you being at all like me though."

"I don't know if I was quite like you, but I was a lot younger and I spent more time thinking than doing. Took me a while to find the balance there. I lost a lot, starting out." Leonard took the map from Barry and unfolded it, held it the right way and handed it over to him again, pointing out where they were going. "Maybe you should see about getting a flying type. They are good at pointing the way when you get lost."

"I do that too, I'm more interested in studying my pokemon than trying to catch and battle them." He even felt bad that the Ponyta got hurt and he knew that was dumb but he just felt like he'd done wrong. All he wanted to do was spend time out here with the pokemon and maybe train a few up. He wasn't cut out for much more than that. "I want to a flying type, I just can't even seem to get one. The last two I saw flew away and, as you've seen, my aim really sucks."

"It comes with time. I didn't get my first flying type until a good time in. I always want one that wants me too, I suppose. No good building a partnership on adversary." Leonard shrugged and took a turn as the paths crossed, making sure Barry could follow where they were on his map. "There's talk about a trainer who just travels with pokémon without ever catching them, but I don't know if that's true and I don't know if that's what I want. I like to be recognised as the trainer. They respect me."

"I think I met him, he seemed nice. I don't think it's that hard to do, I mean I never caught this Cubone and I hatched Pichu myself, this is my first caught one and I don't know, I kind of think she liked me." She kept turning up nearby but she never went with him, she always looked like she wanted a fight. He really hoped she didn't mind losing. "Sometimes pokemon just like you. Me and Scully have been together since I was eleven, we just bonded. Nothing can ever measure up to that kind of bond."

"But they are your pokémon. They see you as your trainer. That's still a different thing. I don't know what to make of it, to be honest. Maybe I'll meet him one day. He's been causing trouble, so I might have to meet him." Leonard wasn't certain what to do about it. "Your Scully and your Ponyta could train together. With Scully, you want to focus on his speed especially. Coordination is important for any Cubone. The Ponyta seems like a fighter. She might have a lot of experience already. Do you plan on getting any badges?"

"Erm, I mostly try to plan what food I'll eat and where to set up my tent, I don't have a plan that far ahead. I'd like to get badges but if it happens, it happens, you know?" It wasn't that Barry was lazy or unmotivated, it's just that his motivation mostly lied in the science side of this and mostly, he wanted to study his pokemon and learn what he could, maybe contribute to STAR labs. Professor Wells wanted him to collect more data and hell, it seemed like a lot of fun. Fighting still made him a little nervous. What if Cubone got hurt? "I want to give it a shot before I cancel it out. Maybe once Ponyta is more trained up, we can start fighting other trainers. I'll see how much they like it."

"Seems like a good strategy. Sometimes you get real fighters. You can get ones that love to compete. My partner has one that pretty much caught himself, he was so eager to just get cracking." Didn't look as if either of Barry's pokémon were quite like that. "Whatever you do, you are special. You have a bond with all of your pokémon. That's good, whether you go into battling, breeding or anything else."

"I see a lot of myself in my pokemon I guess. I don't get how you couldn't. They're like us in so many ways, just tinier. Well, sometimes. I saw one the other day that I had to crane by neck back to see." It always shocked him to see how big and terrifying some pokemon could get. He hoped one day he could get a pokemon of that level, whether or not he was a fighter, he loved the idea of studying from the beginning to the final evolution. "What was your first pokemon?"

"That was her." Leonard didn't have to feel around, he just pulled the pokéball off his belt, pushed the button and released her. Froslass hovered in the air before them, smiling and immediately moving over to first encircle Leonard with her arms, the air cooling as she did, then moving in front of Barry instead, actually bopping his nose. "Of course, she evolved. She started out as a Snorunt."

"She's amazing." Barry laughed and jerked his head back a little to avoid another bop, clearly fascinated by her. There was a nice cool breeze coming from her direction and given how hot it was today, that felt really good. "You must have really trained her up. I don't even think I could come close to beating a pokemon like that. Well, right now. You never know." Barry gave Leonard a playfully challenging smirk. Hey, who knew what the future could bring? One day he might have some pretty powerful pokemon.

"She's very strong these days. I tend not to use her in regular battles, doesn't leave much of a chance to anyone, does it?" She preened at that comment, clearly very proud of her strength. "But sure. If you train enough, a lot is possible. But you have to start from the bottom. And I guess the lesson to remember is that you can win with any team, if that's what you want. It's not always about power."

Like no one ever was

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