Reaching out to the PokeBall marked with a leaf symbol, it burst open with a flash of greenish-yellow light, ending up as small, sharp-jawed leaf tortoise in your hands, not to heavy to hold as he looked to be, him sitting there chewing on some grass.
"Ah Turtwig, the Tiny Leaf Pokémon, a dependable enough decision" Rowan nodded.
Cyrus was about to speak up, but Cynthia then brushed past him and said "I've been... cautious how Gible will do against Ice types, those not in short supply in Sinnoh, so I'm feeling the Fire Starter's my best bet", taking the PokeBall which burst open to reveal a sparking Chimchar, who scratched itself behind its ear.
This left Cyrus simply staring down, eyes narrowed, at the last PokeBall on offer, which he took before anything else could happen. This left him with the blue penguin Piplup, who he barely chose to make eye contact with.
"Hey, have you guys ever battled before?" Cynthia turned around to Cyrus and you, raising Chimchar's PokeBall.
You just shook your head, while Cyrus replied "Extensively within Battle Simulators... but admittedly not once in actuality".
Cynthia then grinned "Okay then, how about you and Evelyn mark this occasion with your first real battle?".
"Whatever it is, just keep it outside," Rowan cut in with "I'm not about to have the stature of this place disturbed by inexperienced trainers".
You nodded, not really seeing any issue with this, but Cyrus on the other hand had to take a step back.
"What? But I'm at a direct type disadva- Oh fine then" he snarled, his eyes shifting over to you. "I doubt you would possess any sense for strategy anyway. Piplup, attack".
His Piplup waddled fast as it could over to you, but Turtwig seemed up to the fight. Your Starter though had to tuck itself into his shell as Cyrus' Piplup pounded on top, almost striking said shell like a drum.
"Feh, stop fooling around. Get back before that turtle breaks out of hiding" Cyrus gave the command through gritted teeth. His Piplup did try to turn its way around, but not before your Turtwig could promptly pounce on it and tackle it to the ground.
"What the- Don't just lie there, hit back!" Cyrus sounded like he could've snapped. His Piplup did try to kick your Turtwig out from under, but your tortoise was able to roll back onto his shell, while he got caught on his back for a while as Piplup then tried to ram him, he was able to flop back onto his feet and withdraw into his shell before Piplup could attack again.
Calling out to your Turtwig to tackle, one of the few commands he'd know at this early stage, your Starter leapt towards and rammed into the Piplup on his side. Even though the Piplup didn't quite look about to faint, by this point Cyrus was left clutching his head. "Why isn't it working- bah, return!" he hissed, calling Piplup back into its PokeBall.
Turtwig sure seemed pleased about this, closing his eyes and opening his mouth. Cynthia too was beaming at the whole sight, slowly clapping at your victory.
"Wow, you seem to be a natural at this, Evelyn! Ah, guess that'd make sense, even if that was your first battle, you would've been working with Pokémon a while before this, right?" she asked, spinning a PokeBall of her own on her figure before flicking it up to catch it.
"If your Turtwig's up for it, guess I should join in too," she went on to say "I ought to see what Chimchar can do, and I know Gible's always raring to go. Two against one I know, but you seem to have a decent handle on battling". That seemingly decided, she then sent out her Gible, its teeth already bared.
You shrugged, maybe beginner's luck right would be on your side? Still, unlike Cyrus who barely seemed interested, in this case you may have had to think about how to deal with a Dragon-type this early on:
[ ] Turtwig's a Grass-type, can they climb trees? You might want to get him somewhere he has the advantage, but you don't know if he can climb up fast enough...
[ ] Stay on the defensive, focus on shell withdrawal.
[ ] Just go all-out with attacking to try and get this over with.
[ ] Call back Turtwig and call things off, you'll give Cynthia a proper battle once you have a second Pokemon.
[ ] Write-in.
(Note: I wanted to use a remix of Cyrus' theme for this fight, but couldn't find one that really fit early-game, so went with a Galactic Grunt remix instead. No idea where I'll find an early game version of Cynthia's theme...
Rolled for Turtwig's Nature, and actually got Adamant which is pretty good, seeing how Torterra's mostly Physical. I was thinking of giving the Starters here their Hidden Abilities instead, although Turtwig's Shell Armour, while decent, isn't quite as good as Iron Fist or Defiant, so I was curious if anyone wanted to switch it for Strong Jaw?
Of course, this isn't going to be that mechanics-focused a Quest, although I might add in a dice roll for the next post's outcome.)
