The Snow Never Bothered Me Anyway (Solo)

Celine adjusted the scarf around her neck awkwardly, slightly annoyed at the scratchy material. She looked around the barren landscape, shivering as a cold wind blew snow against her face. She had come to Snowcap Mountain to train her team and get to know the newest member better -she hadn't even named the elekid, yet.

Auro was flying overhead,  wheeling across the sky in a free form flight, enjoying himself in the air currents swirling around the snow that was gently falling from the clouds. Celine rarely confined Auro in a pokeball, as he preferred to fly around with her.

She looked down at the other pokeball on her belt. This was the perfect time to release her elekid. She hadn't wanted to before, as the elekid had seemed somewhat violent and she hadn't wanted to pay for any damage he might cause.

"Auro, can you come down here?" Celine called to her partner, and he gave an agreeable cry, alighting on a small rock outcrop not far from her. She smiled at her partner. "I'm going to release that elekid we caught back on Route 3, OK? Protect me if he attacks, will you?"

Auro let out a soft cry and rolled his eyes, as if to say, 'of course I will.'

Celine chuckled and picked out the pokeball, pressing the button on the middle of the pokeball to release the pokemon within. A red light bathed the snow as the elekid's outline appeared and then cleared as the pokemon was released from the displaced space within the pokeball.

The elekid shook itself and looked around at its surroundings, seemingly confused. It looked at the ground and touched the light snow layering the ground and then looked at his paw in confusion as the snow stuck to his paw. Celine grinned at the elekid's behavior -it was obviously young, and hadn't seen snow before.

"That white stuff is snow," she said softly. The elekid's attention snapped to her, and he took a step backward in surprise, a strange sound like the whirr of a machine echoing around the cold environment. The elekid recovered from its shock and bared his teeth at her, growling at her. Electricity arced from one of its plugs to the next.

Auro shrieked angrily and flapped his wings furiously, blasting the elekid with a buffet of air and snow picked up by the wind. The elekid made an angry noise and turned its attention to Auro and shot an arc of lightning towards Auro. Auro was prepared for it, and dodged the lightning, quickly flying over Celine's head and landing on the elekid, forcing it to the ground and barring his own, much sharper and bigger teeth at the elekid, growling angrily.

"Auro, that's enough. Let him up; I think he gets the point," Celine said, making shooing motions at her old friend. Auro growled in annoyance but followed her command, releasing the elekid and flying up to land next to Celine, prepared to attack again at any sign of aggression from the electric type.

"Look, I know you're angry that you were caught, but if you didn't want to risk getting caught by a pokemon trainer, you shouldn't have been in a human-populated area. Besides, this really is for the best. You'd never be able to get as strong as any pokemon would want to be on your own -you'd definitely never be able to evolve into an electivire without a human's help. So why don't we make a deal? You join my team as a cooperating member, and you'll get way strong, really quickly. You'll be able to defeat enemies just like that!" Celine snapped her fingers to accent her point.

The elekid looked contemplating at her words. He looked at Auro, as if to ask 'is this girl serious?' Auro let out a shriek, stretching his wings wide, as if showing off. The elekid rolled his eyes. He looked back at Celine and pointed at Auro and then at himself, electricity arcing across the plugs on his head.

Celine frowned. "Are you asking if you'd be able to beat him one day, if I trained you?" The elekid looked pleased, and nodded his head vigorously. Celine grinned. "Wellll, I can't promise anything, but if you train really hard, probably." she shrugged carelessly.

The elekid grinned maliciously and shot a challenging look at Auro, before turning back to Celine and bowing, signifying his agreement to her terms. Celine smiled widely. "That's great! Welcome to the team, then, Elekid!" She put out her hand.

The elekid looked at her hand strangely. "You're supposed to shake it; it signifies that we're in agreement." Celine said. The elekid shrugged and put his paw into her hand, and she shook it gently. "So, did you want a nickname, like Auro has?"

The elekid looked thoughtful. Eventually, he nodded his head. Celine grinned. "Great! Alright, so what would be a good name for you... not something obvious and totally uncool like 'Sparky' or something like that, obviously. It has to be 120% cool." she stated. The elekid nodded his head vigorously at that. Celine hummed thoughtfully. "Well... Raikou is the Legendary Beast of Thunder... how about Raiden? It's not exactly Raikou, so it's not copying or anything, but it's still got that 'coolness'."

The elekid nodded his head, looking pleased. "Raiden it is, then!" Celine announced happily.

Raiden made a noise that Celine supposed must have been happy, as he didn't look mad or otherwise annoyed, though it was hard to tell, since he sounded like a machine starting up or maybe an electric generator.

"Anyway... should we get to the training, then, guys?" Celine started. Auro let out a cry of agreement, and Raiden nodded his head, eager to start the training. "Alright, guys. I know Auro's limits pretty well, but I haven't gotten the chance to see what you can do yet Raiden, so let's start there. I know you have the moves Quick Attack, Leer, and Thundershock. Let's see a Thundershock on that rock there," she pointed to the rock that Auro had landed on earlier.

Raiden nodded once, and then began charging the Thundershock. A few moments later, he let out a blast of electricity. Celine noted that the electricity seemed pretty strong for such a young pokemon, though it seemed like it took longer for him to get the move working than it should. The Thundershock arced through the air and landed a few feet away from the rock Raiden was meant to  hit. Celine winced. And the elekid definitely needed to work on accuracy.

"Alright, Raiden. The actual blast is pretty strong, which I'm really happy about, but we'll have to work on getting the move started quickly, and on accuracy." Celine said. Raiden looked down, disappointed. "Hey, it's alright. That's why we train, no? To overcome our own shortcomings," Celine said, patting Raiden softly. "For now, let's move on. Let's see your Quick Attack. Try to hit Auro."

Raiden nodded. He stared at Auro challengingly, and Auro rolled his eyes. Raiden ran toward Auro quickly, becoming a blur that Celine couldn't track. Auro flapped his wings and maneuvered himself to the side just in time to avoid Raiden. The elekid plowed into a snowdrift, and Celine sighed. "Auro, really?"

Auro just looked at her innocently, and Celine shook her head. She walked over to where Raiden was wriggling in the snowdrift, making frustrated whirring noises as he attempted to remove himself from the snow. She chuckled as she helped him out, grabbing onto his torso and pulling him free.

Raiden shook himself off and shot Auro a disgruntled look as Celine looked on in amusement. "Alright, alright, that's enough you two. Let's just move on. Let's see your leer, Raiden."

Raiden huffed in annoyance, before focusing his attention on her. He lowered his face and then looked up with his eyes, flashing her a cute grin. Celine smiled. "Awww, aren't you cuuute," she said. Raiden rolled his eyes and butted his head against her shin. Celine chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah, alright. So I think the first thing we need to be working on is that aim of yours. Power and quickness mean nothing if you can't actually hit your target. I want you to practice trying to hit that rock with Thundershock while I work with Auro a little. Do you think you can do that, Raiden?" Raiden nodded, and scampered off to do just that.

Celine rolled her eyes and turned her attention onto Auro. "Can you try to be a little more welcoming, Auro? I know you don't like his attitude, but he's part of this team now." Auro snorted, tossing his head and flashing her a hurt look. Celine frowned, walking over to her oldest friend. "Hey, you know he's not going to replace you or anything like that, Auro." She said, patting him on the head. "You're my best friend, Auro. No one could replace you. He's a new friend, that's all." Auro gave a small whine before rubbing his head against her hand. Celine smiled and stroked him, causing Auro to purr in delight as she scratched his favorite spot.

"There ya go. Now come on, don't you want to get some training in too?" Celine said cheerfully.

Celine turned towards the challenge, grinning as the ninja-dressed boy crossed the snowy path to her. "I accept your challenge! Raiden, let's see your battle skills, hmm? Typical battle rules, I assume?" She shot the last question towards the ninja boy.

"Yeah! Normal battle rules apply, a one-on-one battle, no switching pokemon!" the boy told her.

"Alright then. Come on Raiden, let's show him what we're made of!" Celine said. Raiden stopped his practicing and bounded over to her excitedly.

Okay Raiden, let's start this battle off with a leer, then strike with a Quick Attack when he's distracted," Celine said to Raiden quietly as the ninja boy released a Gulpin from its pokeball.

"Gulpin, quick, use pound on that elekid!" the ninja boy yelled.

Celine rolled her eyes at the boy's lack of tact. "Dodge it," she said lazily.

Raiden waited for the gulpin to get close to him before dancing aside nimbly to avoid the clumsy attack. Then Raiden blinked at the gulpin and grinned slyly at the poison-type disarmingly. Then he became a blur as he slammed into the gulpin, knocking the poison type back a few feet.

"Alright, Thundershock while it's down!" Celine called. Raiden nodded and charged up the Thundershock, firing the electric shock towards the gulpin, only to miss once again. Celine grimaced as the gulpin got up and attacked again, this time succeeding in knocking Raiden down.

"Try again, Raiden. Thundershock!" Raiden nodded, looking determined to hit his target this time. He let loose an arc of electricity, and this time it hit the gulpin, causing the pokemon to cry out in pain. Then it fell over, shivering and twitching. "Nice job, Raiden, you paralyzed it! Celine said excitedly. "Now, finish it off with another Quick Attack!"

Raiden nodded and flashed towards the gulpin, slamming into it harder than before, knocking it back, causing the gulpin to slump over, unconscious.

The ninja boy seemed disappointed as he returned his pokemon and walked away, but Celine couldn't be bothered to really notice as she picked up Raiden and hugged him. "Well done, Raiden; you won your first-ever battle!" She grinned. "There's still work to be done with that aim, but I'm so proud of you!"

Auro let out a shriek, but it didn't seem mocking or anything of the sort, more congratulatory. Raiden nodded his head towards the ancient rock-bird and Celine grinned. There was nothing like the bonding of her team!

"Okay guys, back to training. Raiden, I want you to keep working on that accuracy with Thundershock, alright?" Raiden nodded.

"Auro, let's work on that Supersonic and Dragon Breath combination. I want you to be able to release that Dragon Breath immediately after Supersonic is fired off, so we can get the right effect." Celine said.

Auro nodded and started his Supersonic move, trying to release the purple-blue flames after he was done. Celine was training this move combination for visual effect only -it had no real battle usage, since Dragon Breath was usually strong enough for Celine not to bother using Supersonic much. No, Celine wanted to use the combination of the wave-bending Supersonic and the beautiful visuals of Dragon Breath to impress Contest judges with the creativeness. She hoped that if they timed it right, the waves of the Supersonic would create spiraling flames of the Dragon Breath.