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"On Route 1? Seriously?" Wayne couldn't help but laugh, tipping his head back as his shoulders shook up and down. He ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head until he came to a stop. "Man, that sucks. Hey, if you want I could get the professor to send you one. I got her registered to my Xtransceiver."

He held his arm out and showed Henrietta what looked like a watch, but instead of a time display it had a blank screen. Wayne started to take it off to hand it over, "Tap it to make it turn on and then find her name from the contacts list - it's pretty simple."

Wayne stopped moving just as the strap came undone, "Or... if you wanna get strong enough to traverse the mighty Route 1," this time he couldn't help but grin, "we could have a pokémon battle and toughen you up."

"Cool, I wanted to battle anyway," Wayne said with a grin. In truth, he felt his pokémon needed it just as much as Henrietta's and he didn't mind the chance he might lose. She seemed like she seriously needed the confidence boost. "Alright," he span on his foot and slung his arm over the shy girl's shoulders, "battle arena's that way! Solosis, come on!"

The psychic type put the weights down and turned around to see his trainer waving over to him. He started to roll over but stopped in front of Darumi and told it to get a move on. Then, with the training mat crackling under his weight, Solosis followed after Wayne and Henrietta.

--

The battle arenas were around the back of the Pokémon Center. The floors were made of asphalt with white lines marking out the trainer stand zones and the fighting area itself. Once one of the arenas became free, Wayne took his spot and told Henrietta to do the same, "before someone runs in and steals it."

Wayne held his wrist and cracked his fist, Solosis rolling up to his side. He knelt down to the pokémon but looked over to Henrietta, "I'm gonna be using Solosis. Pick whichever pokémon you think can beat him. Ghost types have the advantage so you might wanna use your Melty dude thing."

He looked down at Solosis while Henrietta was to make her choice, "Okay, you ready for this?"

Solosis manipulated his membrane into nubby arms and used them to shrug.

"Alright, that's better than a no. Here," he tipped the rest of the lemonade over the pokémon's head and Solosis drank it as before, looking refreshed again, "can't go around making excuses. Anyway, I have an idea."

Wayne leant in close and whispered something to Solosis before standing up and looking over to Henrietta. "Ready when you are!"

The power-to-size ratio of a Joltik was unbelievable. It was less than half an inch big. Wayne focused on it quietly as Henrietta got out her move list. She had the first turn; now it was Solosis'

"Go," he shouted and Solosis sprang into motion, his body spinning around like a car wheel. He sped forth as the Thunder Wave swept over the battlefield, "jump up!"

As Wayne observed earlier, Solosis could manipulate the consistency of its membrane to become rubbery, which it normally used to bounce about. Now it was using its speed from moving forward and combining it with that. For a second, Solosis became a pokémon super bouncy ball and bounced into the air, allowing the Thunder Wave to sweep the arena below it and defuse before it reached Wayne.

Solosis was a target here, but hopefully it'd be enough of a surprise to stop Henrietta from calling out another attack. Now that Solosis had trained its psychic power, its next attack should do more to Joltik than it did to Hitmonlee.

"Psywave!" Wayne commanded and Solosis launched a burst of purple psychic light at its diminutive foe.

Alright, one hit in the bag. One or two more was all they needed to win. Just need to keep up this pace.

Another Thunder Wave was on its way and this time Solosis had nothing to push off against. Nothing except...

"Bounce off a Light Screen!" Wayne shouted up to the psychic type. It seemed to hear him because a second later, a thin purple screen of light formed just above it.

Unfortunately, its momentum wasn't as great before. While it hit the screen with all the elasticity it could muster, it wasn't enough to spring out the way of the impending wave of electricity. Solosis bounced downward, but was caught in the edges of the electric technique.

He began to free fall, knocked sideways by the Thunder Wave. If it hit the ground now, it'd shoot right out of the arena and Henrietta would win the match. Wayne grit his teeth and then yelled up, "Bring it together! Go back to normal!"

Solosis fell and hit the arena, the asphalt breaking apart chunks at a time. The pokémon sat in one place and Wayne watched intently. After a few seconds, it shook its head; Solosis was still in the game, though taken aback by the landing.

Solosis opened his eyes to see that Socant had landed on his membrane, right in front of his view. Wayne noticed it too; while the bug was little, it was lighting up with sparks. Then he had an idea.

Leech Life began drawing up Solosis' energy and restoring Socant's power. It wasn't a lot, but it was super effective. It also meant that Socant was latched onto Solosis and wouldn't be able to get off right away.

"Rollout!" Wayne commanded and Solosis heard the order. Paralysis slowed him down, so he took a few precious moments to get going but when he did he started speeding around the arena. If Socant hadn't managed to get off by now then it'd be getting squashed repeatedly as Solosis rolled about.

((Just posting so I don't hold Nio up. Then I'll be gone.))

"It was no problem at all really." Avan grinned. It wasn't often he was thanked and it was nice to hear. Baku never did, even after searching for and eating the dreams. Ingrateful pokemon. However Munna thought differently. Their partnership was equal exchange. Still though, it would be nice.

It was then he remembered why he started down route 1. There was something he had to see Professor Juniper for. He didn't have a Pokedex, and would like one. Avan thought that being in possesion of such a device would make his searching a lot easier.

"It was nice meeting you Robby, but I have to get going. There's a few things I have to take care of in Nuvema." With that, Avan continued towards the town.

Socant was blasted from Solosis by the Psywave. The little bug would hit the ground some distance away and lay unconscious. Henrietta, at the same time, fell to her knees in defeat.

Her head lowered and her hands rested on the ground, propping her up. Hair fell at the sides of her head, blocking her peripherals and she sighed. The day had gotten off, it seemed, to a bad start. The Lillipup, the pack of lillipup, the cute boy laughing at her and subsequently defeating her. Add to that the pain involved with moving and you had a real bad morning.

Taking Socant's ball she announced, "return" as she tapped the button to recall the Pokemon.