Shield and Soul Adventure: Episode 1. The Journey of Johto

Steven Sit's against a tree, watching both Creeps and Knight duke it out, he was training both of them this way, but he was only commanding Knight, so anyone nearby might think Creeps was wild.

"Knight! Metal Claw again!" the little Aron jumped at the Haunter and clawed at it, Creeps retaliated immediately with a Shadow Punch. Knight was knocked out "Good fight you two" Steven says

A woman that had been watching the trainer's fight stepped forward at that. She had arrived about half-way through and stood still, finding a bit of fascination in the way that he was training his pokemon. "That's quite an interesting methodology," she spoke out, hoping she didn't scare the trainer. "Having two companions fight one another. It not only trains their strength and abilities, but also creates friendly competition and helps two partners to release stress."

Steven turned to face the voice "Yeah, it's better then fighting some pokemon that are probably weaker as well" he says with a smile on his face. Creeps picks up Knight and floats on over with a grin on his face "Haunter" it says

The woman listened and could only agree; there wasn't that unknown factor of a wild pokemon's strength. "So tell me, what brings you out here," she asked, looking around as the breeze began to blow lightly. "Looking for a pokemon after training or are you just out here to train?" She then looked to the trainer's pokemon and smiled back. "Hello Haunter."

"Just out here to train, wouldn't mind catching one or two more pokemons" Steven says "What about you... uh... I'm sorry, I realised I never introduced, Im Steven, nice to meet you" he says with a nod.

The woman just nodded gently listening to Steven. "It's nice to meet you Steven... I'm Alex," she spoke kindly to the trainer. "So who're these two big guys?" She was referring to his pokemon.

"The Haunter is Creeps" Creeps held Aron in one hand and raised his hand "and other is Knight" Creeps then put his hand down and raised up Aron "Then i have these two here" he threw up two pokeballs and out came a Phantump and a Duskull "Phantump and Duskull are these ones"

"Well," Alex began. "It's nice to meet you all," she told the pokemon, giving each of them what seemed to be a warm smile. "I don't have that many pokemon... I just have a couple, but I've been travelling with them for a couple of years now." She scratched her cheek gently. "I guess that would mean I know some things, but I don't feel like I do." She chuckled a bit. "So tell me, have you challenged the gyms yet?"

"I haven't even thought much of it, my only thought was just to travel the world" He says "I guess while I travel I can actually do that, wouldn't be to bad, probably even fun" Steven thought about it "Welp, from now I shall actually attempt them" he says

"You should be careful though. Some gyms are pretty strong," Alex told Steven. "Travelling is one thing; training while you do to challenge the gyms is another." She looked away from her right arm a bit, a bandage on it. "I should know; I've come across a couple of incidences where I got in trouble for thinking recklessly."

Steven looked at the bandage for a moment then back at Alex, "What happened exactly?" he asks, normally people dont like speaking about their injuries, but only if it a major incident or it's traumatizing. Steven stood there to see if he'll get an answer.

Alex seemed a little hesitant to begin speaking, but she ultimately put her left hand over the arm. "Well, it'd be a bit difficult to explain," she told Steven. "Would you rather see what happened for your own eyes? It may be a bit more meaningful than if I just spoke about the incident."

Steven put his hand out as to say stop "If it's difficult to explain, then it's best for me to stay out of your business" he says, he puts his hand down and has a calm but serious look

"Not in all instances is it that way," Alex told Steven. "Who knows... Maybe if you saw it I could explain it a bit better..." She then scratched her cheek again. "I just contradicted myself... Or did I? I don't know." She sighed a bit before she grasped the wrapping that was surrounding her bandage. "But you should see it though... I'll think of how to explain it so it won't be so overwhelming." She unwrapped the bandage and then pried up a corner, lightly pulling it back revealing a cut that was at least seven inches, with a split as though it looked like the letter "Y." It seemed a bit healed, though the wound obviously had been healing for at least a couple of months. Alex seemed in thought.

Steven stared at it for a little bit "This was during a pokemon gym battle?" he asks, he was expecting a burn or something, but it looks more on purpose then anything "was it a pokemon that caused this?" he asks

"Yes," Alex told Steven. "I don't believe it was intentional though... I don't think a pokemon that's tame would consider doing such a thing." She looked to the wound. She seemed a little upset it wasn't healing that much. She was thinking. "I was battling the opponent, but my pokemon was too close to me... When the leader told it to attack, my pokemon jumped away and I got slashed."

"I see" Steven said "have you... showed it to anyone in the medical department at all? Maybe one of them could help" He says, the Aron finally awakens in Haunter's hands and the other two went off to playing.

"Of course I have," Alex told Steven. There were little black threads in the wound holding her arm together. "They just said to keep it bandaged well and let it air out every once in a while... They gave me bandages to change it with, but I'm getting close to running out and it isn't that healed yet." She looked to her arm and covered it back up with the bandage, replacing the wrapping around it with two little clips to hold it in place. "It started burning about a month ago and I asked a doctor about it, but he said that it's nothing to worry about..."

"Odd, I wish I could help with the situation your in..." he says, Knight jumps out of Creeps hands and runs off to the other two to play, Creeps follows Knight to supervise

Alex shrugged a bit, sighing because even though she'd love to push it off, she was, in reality, worried about the wound. "I can't say I know why it isn't healing much," she told Steven. "I kinda wish I had something to take my mind off of it, but, well, what can a seventeen-year old girl do about it? I don't have many friends that became trainers."

"I could be a friend of yours, if you don't mind" he say with a friendly grin on his face, Aron runs back over and sit's down looking at the new person he hadn't seen before

Alex looked down to Steven's aron before him anew. "I don't see why not," she told him, her voice a bit enthusiastic to have a friend she could be around. "I see no problems with it either," a voice spoke in their minds, a pokemon popping up beside Alex after a small flash. The noivern stood proudly, greeting Steven kindly before she then spoke again. "Do not worry about my speech... Such is the telepathy I possess," she chuckled.

"Ah! A Noivern, a Kalos pokemon, never knew such a pokemon could possess telepathy, interesting" he says "nice to meet you", Aron smiles and jumps up and down excitedly

Noivern looked to the aron that was jumping up and down in excitement. She took it that the pokemon hadn't seen one like her before, the pokemon waving her tail towards the younger one playfully. "I originally came from Kalos," Alex told Steven, her shrugging gently. "Noivern's been with me since the start of the journey..." "Yes, and I am very disappointed the leader didn't call off the attack before you were bombarded with blood," the pokemon spoke. "It was such a close call... Why not call it off before damage was done..."

Aron happily played with the tail "Aron!" it barked "The trainer probably didn't know that was going to happen, then again, I don't know what happened, but let's not just stand here thinking about it, let's actually go do something instead of thinking of what can't be changed" he says