Chapter 019

A red feathered pokemon, was lightly propelled into the air, bouncing painfully on the hard, battle worn grounds of the training field, and rolled head over heels towards Clan's feet, and, the pokemon who used to be filled with battle intent from the beginning of the battle, was now laying there at his sides, unmoving and exhausted, everything about his posture indicating a creature that was positively spent.

Clan moved his gaze upwards, surveying the field. The dust was beginning to clear, but it was doing so in Clan's eyes so painfully slowly. As the dust finally began to clear up just enough for everyone to take it in, a figure of the rhinosauros could be visible, breathing through its nostrils heavy breaths, exhausted. But, was clearly in a better condition than its opponent. It was limping, Clan noticed, the leg where Solaris focused his move to strike had left a small but deep claw mark on its durable hide.

The small gathered crowed cheers and a giddy Barry runs to hug his Rhyhorn .

"We... lost..." Clan murmured. It was a sight that Clan could not process. He knew they were in a very bad disadvantage from the very beginning, but he still had held some hope, that maybe...

He felt disbelief at his first time losing a pokemon battle.

Then, he felt anger, angered at himself, as he felt that he could have done better on instructing Solaris on the battle more earlier.

However, that negative emotion quickly died as he shook it out of his mind. He quickly accepted the results, he was a pokemon trainer, winning and lossing is a part of what the journey would show you, just because he lost, doesn't mean in the future they will. He just had to train hard, being beaten is part of the process of his dream in becoming strong.

Clan's eyes were unfocused, if anyone would look at him now, they would think that he was in shock of his loss. However, a certain old man sitting on a corner inconspicuously, knew what was happening on the youngster's mind. He's maturing, the old man smiled like he had discovered a precious jade.

It was only until he heard Barry's triumphant shout, was Clan brought back to the real world from his thought.

Clan scurriedly scooped up his starter and pulled his delicate body into his embrace securely. Anguisa pulled his denim pants and growled low in worry for Solaris. Clan smiled at the little dinosaur pokemon, he comforted. "Solaris will be fine, Anguisa. We will immediately have him looked up over by Nurse Joy, then we will have a nice dinner together."

Anguisa let her eyes rest on Solaris's body for a few seconds, before growling at the back of her throat in agreement lowly. It was nice to see that Anguisa was showing concern to Solaris, Clan gently patted her for further comfort.

"That was a great battle!"

"Yeah! Dude, that was epic!"

"Don't be so down man, you almost had it even when you were in such so much disadvantage."

Clan didn't noticed, but when he looked towards the crowd, he noticed some were cheering for him for showing an impressive battle, the older trainers were trying to lift up his mood by cheering him up for a job well done, Clan could see that. He smiled at their direction in sincere appreciation and nodded their way, humbly. He accepted their kind gestures.

He reaches for Solaris's pokeball and returned him, after muttering. "You did a great job, buddy. You always do, now take a rest. Return." Before he was sucked and enveloped by the red light, Solaris opened his clear eyes and crooned at Clan weakly in response, as Clan stared down at his starter resting on his embrace, smiling soothingly.

The sounds of footsteps had Clan turned to see Barry making their way towards them with his Rhyhorn. Anguisa turned her head to see them approaching as well, glaring at the rhinosauros pokemon all the while.

"Man oh, man! That pokemon of yours is really tough, Clan! Was that the starter pokemon you chose?" Barry had a wide grin on. "I haven't really had an idea of my Rhyhorn's true strength, sorry for sending your little chic flying Clan, that pokemon still was alright for being our opponent."

Rhyhorn grumbles something besides Barry, that sounded like a vague agreement.

Clan's smile fall some when he heard that particular comment about Solaris, it was as if they were belittling them. He narrowed his eyes. "You're Rhyhorn didn't came out of that unscathed, either." When he said that, his eyes rested on the deep claw marks on Rhyhorn's front leg. "I think my partner had done a job well done on the fight, even when we were at a double type match disadvantage against Rhyhorn, Solaris still had your pokemon limping."

"Don't tell me you're getting salty, Clan?" Barry crossed his arms and asked with an amused scoff. "Eclairè, don't be upset just because I beat you, I'm gonna fine you! Did you really expect that the reason was our type match up? Don't make me laugh, maybe you had just fluke it at the exams, ranking higher than me and Dawn. You loss because I'm better, accept it."

Clan stared at Barry blankly. They were the best of friends, they grew up together at the same Town. He thought that, having been hangin out with Barry most of the time, he knew well enough to to know what's in his mind. But, seeing this side of Barry for the first time made Clan consider, apparently he may not know his friend that well... or was he hiding this since we were in Town? The venom in his words before the match was also concerning. He didn't expect, was his ego boosted so much, just because he won against me?

Clan narrowed his eyes further. hid teeth grit themselves, grinding inside his skull, but he just released his frustration with a growl and by fiercely shaking his head. A loss was a loss, but that doesn't mean Barry could talk about it like he was gonna be on top of me now. He plainly smiled in response to Barry. "Yeah, it's my loss, I know. I'd like to test our strength next time against each other again. To answer your first question, yes, Solaris was my starter pokemon that the professor gave me, he's a Torchic, as you can see, a fire-type pokemon."

"Woah! So that was a regional starter from Hoenn? Can't say I'm not disappointed, I think Rhyhorn, my father gave me, was so much better than it." Barry snorted dissmissively with his hands raised. "If I were you, I'll fine the league for giving you this, our region's starter is much better. Also, can't blame you for losing, my Rhyhorn is an offspring from my father's Rhyperior, after all."

'Thought so.' Clan thought as he looked down at the Rhyhorn, it had a good set of moves and it showed great finesse performing those moves, with just a bit of training and honing, in no time it will master it all. Clan also deduced that the Rhyhorn wasn't really that young, it was more bulky and its plate were made of well chosen mineral, Clan had guessed that it was somehow related to Mr. Palmer giving it to his son, Barry.

Clan sighed, as he habitually rubbed the area between his brows. "I congratulate you for your win, Barry. It was a good battle experience for me. Now, if you excuse me I want to get Solaris checked into the Pokemon Center after that last move on her. I'll see you in the room after I'm done."

Barry crossed his arms and tilts his head. "Oh, haven't I told you yet? I'll be continuing my journey, now that I had already met you here, it wouldn't be worth my time staying here any longer."

Clan raised a brow, he said in slight surprise. "Aren't you gonna wait for Dawn?"

Barry snorted in response. "Nah, Dawn isn't really into battling. She's more into coordinating and that wouldn't be entertaining to me." He turned around, leaving behind those words. "See ya around, Clan. I'll be challenging the Oreburgh Gym before you do."

Clan nodded lamely in response, he and Anguisa stared at them until they were out of sight. In any other day, Clan would have talked through Barry on to reconsidering that course of action he would take. It was already evening, it wasn't ideal for any trainers to venture through a route at night and Barry wouldn't be progressing much by walking at this time, it was stupid to even think of. Clan held his tongue though, he didn't like Barry's current ego, it made him felt awful for doing this, but he would bet a million Pokecredits that Barry would dismiss his concern based on what he saw right now.

...

After handing Solaris pokeball for the third time today to Nurse Joy, he waited on the lobby with Anguisa still staying close beside him, eyeing every human who passed by in caution and suspicion.

Clan saw this and began thinking on how to help his new capture to trust humans more than before. He knew it would be quite a challenge, however, Clan was responsible for Anguisa and he really wanted to help her, and maybe find the one who captured her, to make her take revenge on that person, evil persons needs to be justifully punished. But, for now, he first had to take care of her condition first.

"How's your body Anguisa? Do you feel any better than compared to before?" Clan asked. He always had to check at Anguisa personally since the pokemon may had been uncomforable in any way.

Anguisa looked towards Clan and growled while rubbing her tummy.

Clan chuckled in amusement. "You're hungry? Don't worry, after Solaris is done recovering we will eat dinner together." He was also as hungry as his pokemon, he couldn't wait to see what the chef in the canteen cooked for dinner today. "How'd you feel seeing the battle earlier, Anguisa? I mean, I know we lost and it isn't worth celebrating for, but I noticed you were quite pumped up out there, when you're spectating the battle between Solaris and that Rhyhorn, Barry had."

"Ax- Axew!"

She really was interested, Anguisa began growling and chirpping in fascination, as she tried to explain in gestures towards her trainer how Solaris and him were so awesome to look at when they were battling. She also stood up from the bench they sat on and began shadow boxing the air.

"Oh, really? You think you can take that Rhyhorn, Anguisa? Solaris may had been defeated, but he's no push over either, lets see next time. But first, we should train hard and then, when the day comes, we'll payback Barry on our loss. We will defeat him and his team, then we'll show him. Since you're also in my team Anguisa, you will never slack off, right?" Anguisa agreed with a snarl and began pumping her fist in an uppercut to show her own fire.

Clan laughed delightfully at Anguisa being such a sport. He was now feeling high spirited, thanks to this. He smiled and carassed Anguisa's scales softly.

Anguisa leaned on the touch, as she closed her eyes and crooned at the back of her throat enjoyably. "After you're body is up to condition, we will immediately start training, after seeing how well you can fight first of course. At most, in two to three days that would happen, but right now, we should focus on recovering your malnutrition first." As he kept carrasing Anguisa, Clan couldn't help but think about the supplies he currently had in his possession. He had used one of his two super potion on Anguisa today to lessen her pain. Additionally, he had to restock on pokemon food since he already had none, and that's important.

Luckily, his parents had gave him an allowance for his journey - a thousand pokedollars. Which was a lot for him and his family, Clan was relucant to accept this much, but was coerced by the protests of his parents.

Pokedollars and Pokecredits aren't the same - Pokedollars are Fiat-money, a league-issued currency that can be used by anybody, anywhere. While Pokecredits are, cryptocurrencies, existing in digital form as they are created by computers and had a private Porygon programmed. Pokecredits are only allowed to be used by Pokemon Trainers normally. Even then, both currencies have the same value.

Currently, Clan have seven-hundred pokecredits in his pokedex and he still hasn't spent most of the money his parents gave him. He can restock on pokemon food heavily and some other supplies, since he was sure he needed it in case. So this left Clan with a balance to work with of: a thousand and six hundred-ish Pokemoney.

...

"Clan Eclairè, your pokemon are waiting for you at the front desk."

Clan stood up with Anguisa, and they made their way towards the front desk. After recieving his pokeball and thanking Nurse Joy, he immediately released Solaris to see how he was doing.

With a thrill, the chic pokemon materialized. Solaris glanced up at Clan and chirrped in a greeting. Clan knelt down and scratched him below his wing, which Solaris gave a delightful croon. "Hey bud. I see you're now all recovered... Listen, I know we were defeated there, and it was our first ever defeat. I felt like I had let you down there and didn't do my job correctly, and I know you must've felt awful for experiencing that also, but we will train harder, right bud?"

"Torchic!!" He recieved a chirp in response and an eye-smile from his starter. Clan smiled then stood up, his face turning determined as ever before, one could literally see the fire igniting within his eyes.