Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Luka walked through the forest he thought of the thousands of Pokémon that inhabited the area. Living off the flora and each other in their fight for survival. It was quite grim when you thought about it. So, he decided he would not think about it.

He was just about to step onto a large leaf when he noticed an orange rustle beneath it. He unplugged his headphones slowly and bent down to poke the leaf. Something leapt up from beneath the leaf and Luka was sent sprawling backwards onto the forest floor. He slowly picked himself and dusted himself off before he looked at the thing that had jumped at him.

Before him stood a Ranger, at least, that was what Luka assumed she was from the orange uniform. The woman pointed emphatically at Luka and shouted, "I challenge you to a Pokémon Battle!"

A look of annoyance passed over Luka's face, "First you stupidly surprise me, then you send me sprawling on the floor and now you want a Pokémon Battle? What kind of Ranger does that to people?"

The Ranger looked confused for a second, "Well, I'm sorry young man. I'm here to prevent anyone from getting lost in the forest. If I didn't scare people away then they wouldn't go back nicely to the path."

Luka moved his hand to his belt and plucked Kai's Pokéball from it. "I accept your challenge, ma'am on the condition that if I win I am allowed to travel the way I want to. I'm here to train whilst I head back to Nacrene City."

The Ranger thought for a moment, "Ok, young man. You have yourself a deal." She selected a Pokéball from her belt and shouted, "PANSAGE, I CHOOSE YOU!"

The grass monkey Pokémon pranced out of its ball and aped around a bit. Luka smirked, "C'mon Kai. You can do this."

The little Tepig appeared, looked once at the Pansage and then trumpeted a little. Kai was afraid of battling but there was one Pokémon that the Tepig would quite happily attack: Pansage. One of Luka's flatmate's Pansage had once stolen Kai's food and had quite badly humiliated him which had lead to Kai's absolute hatred of Pansages and the monkey trio in general.

The Ranger smiled her inane grin and ordered, "Pansage, use Fury Swipes." The monkey ran up to Kai and started frantically slashing the Tepig's face with his claws.

"Kai, use Ember and back away as far as you can."

Kai grunted and let forth a torrent of flame from his snout, more than he had ever done before, and the Pansage was set momentarily alight. It shrieked and squealed as it burned in the flames.

The Ranger looked horrified, "Pansage, Leech Seed!"

A seed sprouted from the tree on the monkey's head and leapt through the air to attach itself to Kai. Kai squealed as his health was sapped little by little whilst the Pansage regained some of its lost health.

"Kai, Tackle and then use Ember again."

Kai nodded and despite the seed that was attached to him he charged into the Pansage, sending it flying into a nearby tree. Kai then grunted again and let the flames leap forth from his snout. The Pansage was hit once again but this time was not set alight.

"Pansage, use Dig!"

The Pansage hit the ground and then burrowed deep beneath it. Luka's eyes widened as he realised what would happen if the attack hit. Kai had been able to deal with a limp Fury Swipes but a Dig would finish him. Kai was looking around himself frantically, trying to see where the Pansage would turn up.

Luka closed his eyes for a moment and suddenly he felt as if he could see the near silent movement of the Pansage. "Kai, use Defense Curl and when I say go, Ember once last time. Ok?"

Kai nodded firmly and waited for the signal. Luka opened his eyes and pointed at the ground beneath Kai's feet. A faint crack appeared in the ground and Luka shouted, "Beneath you, GO!"

Kai nodded and jumped into the air before turning around and sending a blast of embers down upon the emerging Pansage. It had no room to dodge and lay fainted half in the grassy earth.

The Ranger looked on in a mix of horror and awe. She had thought this trainer would be an easy defeat. He had seemed slightly cocky before their battle, telling her how to do her job, and his Tepig looked like a scrawny little runt. Somehow, the young man had defeated her and her 'stellar' Pansage. "Well done, young man." She produced some Chesto Berries from a bag and held them out to him. "Take these and make sure you travel safely. Also, a tip for not getting lost in the forest when heading for Nacrene, always head to the East and you should find a path that always leads you back to the main pathway."

"Thank you, ma'am." Luka nodded and took the berries from her.

"What's your name, young man?"

"Luka. Luka McFly." He grinned as he picked up Kai and turned away to head off further into the forest, "Thanks for the battle. It means a lot to me." He walked off and the Ranger was left wondering what he had meant by that.

As the arena became sunny, the pansear would soon realise that it would be best to move out of the range before melting the ice. The waves would soon crash down on or near the pansear as they would've had the not been frozen. Flurry took his chance while the pansear was distracted. He launched a surf attack, shooting himself through a wave straight at the pansear.

Saden watched how the pansear dodged every attack. It was a worthy competitor, but it couldn't last forever. It had to tire out soon and that's when he would make his final strike. He also watched Flurry fight and realized the spheal's true power. All he had to do is motivate him by promising naps and this spheal with fight like no other.

(A wave within a wave. Waveception much?)

Flurry saw the solarbeam coming but it was far too late. He attempted to ride the wave above the attack, but it only blocked a small portion of the damage. However, it was enough to keep him standing. He would not back down now. He had already exerted so much physical effort for it to go to waste. He had to stall until he woke up and could rest again. The spheal kept his distance but worked up even more waves. This time the waves were twice as big as before, capable of getting the monkey wet even from the long range. Flurry circled the monkey, for both offensive and defensive purposes. Then from the top of the wave he shot a blizzard down at the pansear. However this wasn't the normal blizzard that occurs with no weather effects. The sunny day had melted the attack, instead making it send a large storm of water. He slid off the waves as they crashed down, quickly rolling away from the pansear.

Saden smirked as Flurry lasted through the solarbeam and made his impressive counter. That melted blizzard attack was genius, and Flurry came up with it in his sleep. He had one tough spheal, that's for sure. He just hoped his spehal would wake up before the pansear could get in a finishing blow.

As Luka strolled away from the Ranger he tickled Kai's head. "You did amazingly, Kai! We won! We won our first battle and we did it together!" A massive grin was plastered over his face as he exulted in his first victory.

He had noticed something in that last battle. His synaesthesia had allowed him to know where the Pansage had been. Would that mean that he would be easily able to target the right enemy if it used Double Team or if it tried to trick him? He would definitely have to try that out as a tactic.

He thought a bit longer as he walked. In Pokémon Battles it was quite clear that long winded orders were not very efficient. It looked as if Luka would have to plan out his strategies and teach them to his Pokémon. Well, he had the time. That was what he would do next.

Words, sentences, they took time to use. Distance closed, the word blizzard was met with "Solar Beam", instant charged and fired, Chili's few to Saden's many.

The beam fired, annihilating the liquefied water and, at the zero distance, likely smashing into Spheal before he ever used Rest. But that was only in possibility.

Pansear would then land after the water hit the ground and he'd roll his neck and follow the order "work up" to power himself up a third time.

He's moving fast for a Pokemon who took Solar Beam to the face. Only one explanation, he's healing. Chili studied the Spheal, eyes closed, it had used Rest.

Had it used it again? Either way, it just meant that Spheal would continue to use it as many times as it could to heal itself. That changed things.

Chili smirked.

"Time cannot calm my passion, my fire is so hot the second law of thermodynamics doesn't even apply!"

Pansear was moving then, creating distance between himself and Spheal. Chili was baiting the enemy.

"Come on, you're fighting the strongest of the Striaton brothers, show me some real skill."

Chili placed his hands on his hips. "I already figured out your strategy. In other words, Pansear just needs to pick at you so you have to heal," he said.

Did the other trainer think Pansear was going to grow weary? Human beings endured hours of extreme exercise to put themselves at the exhausted collapsing point, Pokemon could train to much higher heights, their stamina was endless. If this was going to be a stamina fight, then first and foremost Spheal needed to actually be stronger enough to stand up to Pansear.

The water came but Pansear had the distance to avoid it, zipping off to the right as the artificial sun overhead slowly faded away, taking away the melting boost the opponent had previously. Now it was stuck with basic ice attacks and learned water attacks.

Pansear had his own long range attack he could use. Below Flurry came the plants, the vines, aimed to grab and throw him on his a**, to use his weight against him, Grass Knot, following the order, "Grass Knot" by only a second.

The other trainer wouldn't be able to use water, rather, to formulate water and dodge an attack at that distance, in other words, it would have to rely on its ability to move.

Which would have to rely on its trainer's ability to see tiny spawning vines before it was too late, since if Flurry relied on acknowledging them, with the distance and the nature of how the attack moved, it would already be too late by the time he did.

Is that was he believed? That he outmatched Chili?

Chili laughed. "You don't get it, do you?"

Rest was a move that restored life, but even so, if Spheal continued to use big moves, or force bigger moves out of himself, he would tire out long before Pansear ever got hit. To put it simply, health was not stamina, it was the same as the difference between HP and PP in video game terms.

And Spheal had, more than once, used a large move. If this was a battle of endurance, Spheal would lose. If it was a battle of time, Spheal would lose.

And if it was a battle of power? Spheal would lose.

"Dig and hit."

And Pansear went underground, kicking the hole to collapse it so that the water wouldn't follow him under.

While underground, hidden from view, and where Spheal would likely land(a good 10x10 radius around it, actually), Grass Knot would begin to form. It would remain under the earth until the Surf crashed down, the force and water would then reveal it to trap Spheal in the net and smash him with his own weight.

Meanwhile, Pansear would appear safely on the other side of the arena.

"If you're aiming to make an unavoidable move because you're afraid of getting close, you gotta do better than that."