Shade was busy watching everything from atop a tree. She was very well hidden and was quite happy and content with just staying up there, but she knew she had to start roaming around. She looked at her PokeGear and noticed someone was dangerously close to her. She looked down at the ground and found a guy with a Delcatty. Raising an eyebrow, it seemed the guy was checking his Gear as well and trying to find where she went, probably. She released her Leavanny right next to her. The Pokemon looked at where she was, then down at the potential opponent Shade was looking at, and then at Shade. She gave a "what are you doing?" kind of look that verged on disgust. Shade looked over and sighed.
"Well, we can either fight this guy, win, and get his Pokemon, or we just sit here and do nothing."
The Leavanny just shrugged. Indifferent? Interesting. "Well, do you want to fight? You can do what you want if you fight, I won't have you do a move you wouldn't want to do."
The Leavanny gave Shade a weird look. Normally humans would demand they get obeyed, right? So why not her? The Leavanny just shrugged again before taking out a token that was wrapped around her taken with some string. Shade hadn't seen that there before and wondered how she didn't notice it. After looking at the tag, she saw that her name was Foli and what her Ability was. Interesting.
"Foli? Nice name actually. My name's Shade," the young researcher smiled back at the Leavanny, which gave her some rolling eyes. Shade just raised an eyebrow and looked back down at the ground to see their opponents were going to be on the move soon. "Come on, if you want to fight, then fight. If not, then we'll just hang back then."
Foli just looked down at the opponent, and just shrugged before making her way down the tree to land right in front of the Delcatty. Shade, happy that they were getting somewhere this time, expertly navigated the tree limbs to get the forest floor and smirked at the man in front, who seemed quite shocked. He looked like the typical single guy with 30 Cat Pokemon living with him - all with the awkward polo shirt, shorts, sandals, and pale skin with dusty brown, unkempt hair and grey eyes.
Shade didn't say a word, but instead crossed her arms and stood there with an imposing look and a steely, almost stone cold glare as she looked through the guy's eyes. He looked quite stricken with fright, not because of being ambushed, but because of the way this lady was looking at him. Was she crazy? Was he going to get hurt? He just crouched down on the ground and yelled at his Delcatty. "Get her away from me!"
The Delcatty just looked back at the man, then towards Foli and Shade with a protective and concerned look on her face. She charged at Foli with quite some speed, but the way she was running was quite reckless, as she was putting quite a bit of power into it. Shade knew this was Double-Edge. Leavanny simply jumped over the Delcatty and slashed her leaf blades at Delcatty as the cat was passing by underneath. Caught off guard, the cat Pokemon fell to the ground and got up, only to be confronted by the Leavanny with glowing green leaf blades. The cat Pokemon just headbutted the bug away, sending the Leavanny careening backwards. Shade quickly looked at her Gear to check Leavanny's moves. Leaf Blade, X-Scissor, Swords Dance, and Air Cutter... Interesting combination.
Shade waited to see if Leavanny gave any kind of body signal to ask for Shade to take control. Nothing. Not even when the Delcatty began getting the upper hand with Double Slap, slapping Foli numerous times in the face with her paws. Not even when the Delcatty showed off the Water Pulse and attempted to soak the Leavanny and confuse the poor bug with the pulsating water circle. Not even when it used Icy Wind, blowing the chilling wind towards Leavanny and sending it to the ground, shivering. But Foli got back up each time and buzzed defiantly. What was the Leavanny doing?
As the Delcatty was going for another Icy Wind, Shade couldn't help herself but shout out a command. "Air Cutter!"
Leavanny, taken aback by the command, stood there for too long and was forced to dodge, nearly getting hit by the wind again. She looked at Shade confused and Shade sighed. "I'm sorry, I did tell you that you can do whatever you want. It's just a reflex. I thought it would be better to use that, so you wouldn't have to get close and you could overwhelm with your attacks."
Foli, nodding a bit in understanding, now knew that Shade had some strategy. Just like her former trainer. She soon got angry though. Nobody could be like her trainer. Nobody. She glared at Shade, who was now even more confused. The leaf-covered bug rushed forward with glowing green blades, crossed them in an X formation, and then slashed them at the Delcatty. The cat was unable to move fast enough, getting hit and getting sent back. Delcatty fainted.
The man, who was still crouched down in the fetal position, saw that his Pokemon was defeated and he just let out a whimper before rolling the cat Pokemon's PokeBall over to Shade. The researcher picked it up and thanked the man for the battle before kneeling down to tend to the cat Pokemon, not noticing that the man got teleported away by the Escape Rope function. She checked her med-kit for anything of use, but then realized that a Revive was better, especially if she needed two Pokemon to battle soon. She had the Delcatty swallow the Revive and sprayed her liberally with a Hyper Potion before petting the cat Pokemon awake. Grateful, she mewled in content before being returned in her PokeBall.
Looking back at Foli, the bug was giving her a surprised look, as if she had never seen anyone else that compassionate before, except her trainer. No, nobody could be like her trainer. She defiantly crossed her arms together and looked away, clearly frustrated. Shade, confused, just sighed and asked. "Do you want me to heal you, or are you good?"
Foli shook her head and walked over to her PokeBall attached to Shade's belt and returned herself. Well, at least they wouldn't be short on anything, but they needed to find more PokeStops. Shade looked at her PokeGear and saw quite a few enemies heading towards a PokeStop, but she was closer to it. Could she make it?
She climbed up a tree to get a good view of where the PokeStop would be and it was in a ravine. Interesting. She decided to make her way there, using the treetops as cover as she hopped expertly through the branches. She had to get there quickly before they did and judging by the speed of the red dots, they seemed to be making good time, but were still slow.
After several minutes of traversing the treetops, she finally made it to the edge of the forest and the entrance to the ravine in between the mountains. She chose to run up on the cliff and get a good view in the ravine. Even though she made great time, the three people she saw heading towards the PokeStop were already in the ravine. Crap. The best way she could get there would be to sprint her way up above before sliding down. Putting her work-out sessions with her Pokemon to good use, she began to sprint her way to the PokeStop. This was extremely risky, but she had to get there.
After a good few minutes of her shifting between an all out sprint to a light jog, she was finally above the PokeStop, which was camouflaged to look like the rest of the rocks beside it as it was near the edge of the ravine. Well, the opposite side of the ravine that she was on.
Cursing to herself, she looked down to see how steep the cliff was. It wasn't actually that bad, but it was still hella steep. She would have to be careful going down. It wasn't like she could easily walk or run down the cliff face, she would have slide down and leap off and hope her momentum would carry her to the pole on the other side of the ravine, which was a good 15 feet away. Looking down, she saw the enemies were getting closer. She had to act now or never.
Steeling herself, she jumped off the side of the cliff and slid down, her body crouched and her feet staggered, so as to keep contact with the cliff face as she slid down at an alarming rate. Creating lots of dust, her descent nearly ended halfway down before she leaped off the face with a strong push from both legs. She looked like a superhero in slow motion as she was completely horizontal and traveling at an okay rate with her arms extended out in front of her. The three people who were walking towards the PokeStop looked with either an appalled or awed look or a mixture of in between as they watch this lady slide down a cliff and seemingly "float" across the ravine's gap to get to the PokeStop first. A couple thought she was a showoff, while the other guy thought she was quite admirable.
As she got closer to the PokeStop, she could feel her body descending faster towards the ground. It was a nice curve, but she figured in a split second that if she didn't grab that pole, she would break something slamming down to the ground. In what felt like agonizing minutes, her descent closer to the earth was interrupted as her fingers graced the pole. Thank Arceus! She pulled at the pole with all her strength as her body hugged the pole and the remaining force of gravity acting upon her forced her down a couple feet, which coincidentally had her land on the ground by her jumping off as she slowed down a bit. Scanning her PokeGear, she took the three guys' stunned looks as an opportunity to take what she needed.
A Revive and some more food was found in the PokeStop, but also a Razor Claw. This would be useful for Foli. Pocketing the items quickly, she made her way up the PokeStop's pole. The three young men were shocked and began charging towards the PokeStop, but as they got there, she was already at the very top of the pole. Of course, the pole didn't reach the top of the ravine. She could hear them angrily shouting at her and trying to get her to come down. She leaped off the pole and began climbing the ravine's face, finding pockets and little holds for her feet and hands as she traversed the wall slowly. Rock climbing was never her forte, but she had done quite a bit of rock climbing with her sister back in the day. She was rusty, but she was glad she still had it.
After a minute, she found herself at the top and rolled over on her back as she made it. That was close. Now time to get out of there while those guys get out of the ravine. She could hear them yelling at her and each other for letting her escape. Giggling maniacally at the adrenaline rush she was receiving, she got up and began making her way to another PokeStop. Which was past the ravine and into another forest. Interesting. She ran her way there, trying to keep an eye out for Robin and Acacia to team up with before she got out. She found a red dot heading that way, so might as well see if that was one of the two.
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Meanwhile, back at Shade's family's ranch, her siblings were practically celebrating, but also cursing her name for scaring them like that. She had done something amazing, yet nearly gave their poor mother a heart attack and her blue-haired brother nearly got an anxiety attack. The Darastrix Family name wasn't only rising in reputation, but also showing off how hardcore their training put them physically, as they would train with their Pokemon to gain as much as their Pokemon would gain. They just hoped she would have an easier time with the Leavanny. The announcer was practically just as amazed as most people would be at her great athleticism. Apparently, being in a lab hadn't sullied her physical abilities, due to her actually training while she was working. Still, it was quite a risk that would have taken her to the hospital with more than several fractures and broken bones if that had not worked out so well, and she was a mere three feet away from actually hitting the ground.
Still, her family wished that she was more careful in the future.
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