The Confidence Within.

The Forest

I walked through Route 104, the Route was a small path on the coast, with a beach roaring off to the side, leading to
Petalburg Woods.

The Route was uneventful, other than a trainer challenging me to a battle. He had six Wurmple, by the end of the fight Ralts was exhausted.

I really need to get more Pokémon. Ralts can't battle on his own forever. With that thought, I stepped into the woods to look for some new Pokémon.

The woods were very dark and vast, someone without a Pokenavi with a map could easily get lost easily. Trees cascaded shadows upon the woods.

Bits of light slipped through, flowers flourished where the light shone. Pokémon cries could be heard from all over the wood as the clean air blew through on a nice and gentle breeze.

I cautiously stepped through the inviting woods. One of my hands rested on the strap of my bag. I can't let my nerves get the best of me. There's nothing here that wants to hurt me.

About half an hour later I had made good progress trekking through the dark forest. Things were pretty peaceful with Ralts by my side.

The Pokémon ran around and examined every flower he saw, often dragging me off track down some random path and digging up a buried item. His eccentric attitude was certainly helping me get all kinds of healing items without spending a penny.

Unfortunately, I hadn't found a Pokémon a wanted. Just a bunch of wild Wurmple. Then Ralts stomped on a mushroom, the mushroom leaped into the air. Landing with its teeth bared.

"Hang on, what kind of Pokémon is this?" I asked myself, while Ralts and the mushroom went right into battling. The little mushroom didn't have arms and its green legs were really stubby so when it tried to headbutt Ralts the mushroom fell on his face.

"Mushroom Pokémon. I should know this! I whipped out my trusty notebook and flipped to the page where I wrote down what Pokémon appeared in what areas of Hoenn. I had never finished that little side project but I covered a good area around Petalburg.

I scanned the list for Petalburg Woods. "A Shroomish! That's it! Alright Ralts, let's give it everything we've- oh?" Ralts and the Shroomish had stopped battling and were now frolicking around in a patch of flowers.

I couldn't help but smile. "Great job Ralts. Seems like you've made a friend, plus Shroomish is a pretty rare and powerful Pokémon." I took a Pokeball from my bag that Ralts and I found in the woods.

Shroomish looked up at me. "Shroomish?" I tossed the sphere at the Mushroom Pokémon, the ball hit him on the head and opened. Sucking in the Pokémon, the ball closed and shook three times before making a ding sound.

"Alright! We caught a Pokémon!" I cheered, picking up the new ball and letting out Shroomish. "Welcome aboard Shroomish. Ya know, I had an idea for a nickname for you. I wouldn't give it to Ralts because he might still evolve into a Gardevoir." Ralts made a squeaking sound. "But you won't become a Gardevoir, so I'll call you Rodney."

Rodney seemed to be fine with the nickname so I took that as a yes. Ralts teleported onto my shoulder and looked down on Rodney, sending him some sort of telepathic message.

Ralts is totally jealous. That is amazing. I kept that thought to myself, and with that, we continued on as a stronger team than before.

As we were nearing the exit I heard something nearby causing leaves to shuffle and branches to break. Rodney whipped around and growled at the bushes.

Then a grown man emerged, he was maybe 30 years old. Dressed like some sort of guard, if that castle's theme was black. He had a sword in his belt and was dressed in plates of armor. An H was etched on his chest piece.

"Wh-who the heck are y-you?" I asked, slowly backing away.

"Spread the world child. Team Crown has risen, I am a member of the Ruby Crown division. And you are a fool to invade this area." The man said. His lips curled into a fierce smile.

Rodney and Ralts growled at him now, both of them were ready to attack. "You b-better go a-a-away," I warned, summoning any courage I had buried within me.

The member of this Team Crown laughed. "I think I'll take those Pokémon, they're quite rare. Go Lairon!" He tossed up a Pokeball. The ball opened and a giant metal quadruped stared me down.

Metal armor covered every square inch of Lairon's body, he stared at me with cool blue eyes and stomped his foot like he was ready to charge.

"Iron head!" The stranger yelled. His Pokémon charged forward, easily knocking away both of my Pokémon without stopping. I jumped out of its path and helped up Ralts.

"There's no way we can stop this thing. It's just too strong." I murmured.

Suddenly Rodney jumped high into the sky and began to glow blue. A large translucent fist enveloped him, he fell s taught down onto Lairon and crashed onto the iron Titan.

Lairon was thrown back and landed sprawled on his side. "Did that Pokémon with no hands just use a fighting move?" The Team Crown guy scratched his head. "Whatever, I like the idea of a Shroomish anyways. Lairon use metal sound!"

Wait? What is this guy planning? What was metal sound again? I had my question answered by Lairon scraping its foot against one of its legs, generating the worst sound over. I covered my ears from the noise, suddenly I was kicked in the chest by the Team Crown member. Ralts moved to help but was overcome by the noise again

Rodney's Pokeball fell out of my bag as I was knocked over. The man scooped up the Pokeball and used it to return Rodney. Then his Lairon stopped making that awful sound.

I sat up with a groan, clutching my middle. "Wait. Give Rodney back you monster!"

The man just laughed. "If you want the Shroomish come and get it." He walked over to the exit.

Pushing past the pain I stood up. "St-stop it." I was about to charge at him when I suddenly stopped. I was overcome with fear. I can't stop him, I'm not strong enough. But this is Rodney. I have to try right? He's my friend! But I still couldn't move.

The fear had complete control over my movements. Any courage I had was squandered by my inability to stand up to this man's power. But he took Rodney.

I'm too scared, I can't win against this guy anyway so what good does it do? This is Rodney! My Pokémon! I can't abandon him, at least I can say I tried with everything I had.

I charged at him, finally feeling unfrozen. "Give! Him! Back!" His Lairon leaped in my way and snarled at me. Ralts teleported in front of me but Lairon hit him away again. Then the Lairon leaped at me.

I opened my eyes a few hours later, all I remembered was being knocked over by the Lairon and hitting my head. I felt around and found the bump that was left over from my fall. "Ralts? Ralts are you here?" I called out, remembering everything that had happened.

My first Pokémon stumbled out of the bushes and sat down next to me. Ralts was covered in bruises and scratches. "Ralts I'm so sorry. First and foremost we need to get you to a Pokémon Center." I picked up the small Pokémon and we walked out of the evil forest.

I couldn't believe that Rodney had been kidnapped and I wasn't even able to do anything about it. If I had been a stronger trainer I would've been able to save my own Pokémon.

Wally stop beating yourself up, you tried your hardest and that's what counts. Plus we're going to get him back. After you take me to that hospital machine again of course. A voice echoed through my mind.

"Hang on. What was that?" I looked around apprehensively. There weren't many trainers on this path so it couldn't have been anyone I could see.

Oh, shoot! Yeah, I probably should explain. It's me Wally, your Pokémon, Ralts! Hero of space and time, transcender of all laws. The very first Pokémon to ever speak to a human. That's true, right? I feel like that's true. It is. Yeah, it's true.

———

Thanks so much for reading today's chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. I'm so sorry it took almost three weeks to get this one out but I promise I'm going to try and keep it consistent for the next few weeks. Maybe even two updates in one week.

That's all for now, have a great day! Bye!