Justin Time to See the Sunrise!

[CLOSED TO LAZARUS AND ACTI]

The sun was just barely peeking up from the sky when a young man with messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes stepped out of his hotel and into the already bustling streets that reeked of fish due to being close to a market area. His nose wrinkled a bit at the smell, but he merely sighed and decided to look around.

A coordinator this young man was, one with no knowledge of when the next contest would be, or if he even had a chance with it. Justin was a beginner coordinator, slightly trained from watching television with his mother along with first hand experience of her work. He knew the basics of the contests, and how they were rather random in their appearing within this region. He would just have to hope he was in the right city when it popped up. Cadencia seemed like a likely place, but he knew he wasn't quite ready for the big league.

He only held a lillipup, given to him by his mother, and a houndour, given to him by his father. The two could do little but breathe fire and act cute, they would need more training, especially the houndour since it had no experience in the art of coordination, in order to even begin in the competition for the ribbons. Not to mention that three pokemon were needed to join the competition, and he needed some back up in case one of his pokemon were unable to perform or if it happened to be double battle. That would require a full six-pokemon team!

Justin walked along the edge of the side walk as the block came to an end and a bridge arced like a meowth's back to allow any boats through along with allowing citizens to walk to another block without hassling the boat drivers. He made his way onto a bridge and stopped halfway to gaze at the sunrise.

'Where should I even begin?' he wondered.

The city was nice, pretty, and clean. It was the complete opposite of the girl who was walking through it. She didn't know the name of this city nor the region it was located it, but she knew that it was the start of her new journey, her new life. Her home city of Castelia made her feel trapped; she was too afraid to leave it. Here there was nowhere to hide, no reason to stay in one place. If she could just fine some answers and directions she'd have this whole place at her fingertips, but currently it wasn't time to ask questions.

The girl, known as Lily White, had, less than an hour ago, escaped the ship she had snuck onto. She had a slight fear that someone had spotted her leaving, but she knew this early there weren't many people out and about. There was only the occasional passerby, awake for some reason. They would give her dirty appearance funny looks as she passed them. Lily didn't care; she was used to them. They were far from the first glares she had gotten.

Walking beside her was a Scraggy known as Spike. He had been Lily's loyal partner and companion since as long as she could remember. The lizard stayed alert at all times. His head was always moving around, scanning the area for threats and dangers.

With a glance Lily noticed this. "You should probably stop. You're making it look like we have something to hide," she spoke. She looked around a bit for any eavesdroppers and then looked back at Spike, her voice softer. "And, well, we sorta do..."

Spike nodded and quickly began acting more natural. He knew what his trainer had said was truth. He really did trust her, and she trusted him. Still, his gaze would shift every once in a while, but he didn't look suspicious.

In Lily's arms was a Pokemon egg. She didn't know what creature was inside it, but she hoped it was strong and a viable team member. Her only other Pokemon other than Spike was Spark the Shinx, and she was a bit too young to be battle ready. One of Lily's goals was currently to expand and diversify her team. It was currently lacking in variation.

Lily's aimless wandering lead her to an arched bridge. She began walking across it and then stopped to appreciate the view. She wasn't one for this kind of thing, but the sunrise currently going on was something she believed to be important to remember. It marked her first steps into... wherever she was.

Deciding not to let Spark miss this, Lily carefully held her egg in one hand and used her other to procure the Shinx's Pokéball and send the electric feline out. She looked dazed for a second, as if she was interrupted from something, but quickly looked up to Lily. The girl pointed out to the sunset.

"Okay, I'm not one for these cheesy speeches, so I'll make this quick. This sunrise is supposed to be some big symbol of our journey ahead just because I say it is. I find it fitting, so appreciate and remember to keep it in your mind and heart an-"

Lily's "speech" was interrupted by a truck passing across the bridge. Although the trio was on the sidewalk on the side of the bridge, the passing vehicle ended up spraying some water from a puddle on them. It had recently rained by the looks of it, and Lily had noticed a good amount of puddles. She looked down at herself and her Pokemon. They were all wet, and Spark looked terrified. In a split second the Shinx bolted off away from Spike and Lily after being startled so much.

Cursing, Lily began running after her Pokémon. Spike followed. Although young, the Electric-type was surprisingly fast. They ran past a boy who was also on the bridge, but Lily payed him no attention as she pursued her runaway Shinx.

Justin's peaceful time of life decisions and contemplation was soon interrupted as a shinx flashed by. It was quickly followed by the sound of a frantically running trainer that unleashed a chain of cursing that seemed to be endless and unbroken by censorship.

The blonde hair boy blinked in surprise as he watched the two go, and was surprised once more as a ball in his bag began to shake before erupting into a burst of red and white as a canine pokemon, his houndour, bust out of her pokeball and watched the two run by with her ears perked up and ready for the chase. She looked back to Justin and barked twice urgently, as if asking him, "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

"Come on Ira, it's not our-" his response was useless as his hound darted away from him and after the shinx, being naturally faster than shinx and quickly catching up to it. Justin groaned as his hand rose to cover his face in frustration, for the only time the houndour usually disobeyed was outside of battle and in situations that involved justice like these.

'Well, i'm not going to get anywhere other than losing Ira just standing around...' he thought before forcing himself to chase after his dog and the trio. The houndour was weaving her way through the legs of the crowd easily, trained in this manner to catch run away crooks due to her past as a police pokemon. She could see the distance between her and the shinx shrinking constantly, and decided that if she managed to run enough past it, she would turn and use a leer attack to stop it dead in its tracks in fright. That usually worked with criminals...right?

(I went with the stats of the pokemon on how naturally fast they were, shinx has 45 and houndour has 65 scraggy even has 48 so he's faster than shinx xDDD)

The wet Shinx only ran faster as she was chased down by the Houndour, now running in fear of being killed or eaten by the Pokemon pursuing her. For such a little Pokemon she had a lot over energy. Still, Spark eventually succumbed to exhaustion and gave up. She stopped and stared at what she believed was going to kill her, tears welling up in her eyes. This was it, her last few moments before death in took her...

"Arceus..." Lily muttered, returning the Shinx to her Pokeball. The girl shook her head. She grumbled some more as she noticed the Houndour that had chased down the blue feline. She wondered who it belonged to and decided to ask Spike for help.

"Spike, ask the Houndour who it belongs to," Lily commanded. The Scraggy nodded and walked up to the dark canine. He raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"An' just who're you? Do ya got a trainer or somethin'?" the Scraggy asked in Pokemon speech.

The hound watched as the red beam struck the shinx and sucked the fleeing pokemon right back into the pokeball. She was soon after approached by a scraggy that asked her of her origins. The hound puffed out her chest as she spoke in a manner of higher authority, "Sir, I am a servant of the law, your trainer needs to control her pokemon better or just keep them inside the pokeball to prevent disasters from happening as this could have-"

"Ira!" the young owner of the Houndour spoke sternly. The houndour's head snapped towards her trainer in surprise and made a sheepish grin and a nervous laugh before slinking her way behind her trainer's legs with her stubby tail between her own.

As the coordinator finished recalling his pokemon to his side, he looked up to see just who had caused his pokemon to run off like that in the first place. It was a young girl, looked to be younger than him with blonde short hair and scrawny limbs. She looked as if she had just finished doing some dumpster diving with her clothes and scarred face.

Justin did the sensible thing, but he didn't apologize for his houndour's actions, "Control your pokemon," he said rather bluntly.

((Lulz for the irony))

The Scraggy rolled his eyes as the Houndour who was addressed as Ira was returned. "You just sound like some goody-two-shoes to me," he muttered before heading back over to Lily's side.

Lily glared at the boy. He seemed to be a bit older than her but still rather young. So that was his Pokemon, she mused.

"Control your pokemon."

Crossing her arms, Lily glared harder at this stranger. His own Pokemon seemed older and more experienced than her Shinx. Why was she being reprimanded for it?

"The pot called the kettle black," she shot back at him. "You control yours and I'll control mine."

"The pot called the kettle black, you control yours and I'll control mine."

'What?' Justin wondered, confused by the saying he had never heard of before and how it had any relevance to this situation. He figured that he was supposed to be the "pot" and she was the "Kettle" and he was calling her something he actually was? Weren't pots normally any color the owner wants them to be, mostly silver?

He dismissed the trivial subject from his mind and defended his pokemon, "She only went after you because you couldn't handle your own, but yes she does need some more self control in these types of situations." He cast a glance at Ira, the hound wagged her stumpy tail with a sheepish smile as if trying to ignore how much trouble she had gotten herself into.

"Look, Spark is MUCH younger. I'm doing my best with her, got that? If anything, your mutt over there just made things worse." Lily snapped. It wasn't her fault the Shinx had come with, nor that Spark was such a scaredy-cat!

Spike looked at Ira, a smug grin forming on his face as his trainer called the canine a mutt. He knew that Lily was getting angry and knew that if Ira's trainer said the wrong thing Lily would blow. It would only be a matter of time.

'What the-I just admitted that Ira needed more work, why is she still blowing up on me!? Was it really necessary to call Ira a mutt anyways?' he thought.

The blonde hair boy growled as if he were about to snap back at the trainer, but instead turned around, "What ever, this is only getting both of us heated and will end in nothing but trouble. I'm just going to go my way and you go yours and we'll be finished with each other."

This girl was wasting his time and energy, he needed to get to a route to train or perhaps find some trainer willing to battle and help Ira and Beez get some sort of training done. They needed to learn more moves, become stronger, more diverse in their move sets. Not to mention they needed to get some new team members, so much to do so little time...or a lot. Justin didn't quite know exactly how much time he had before the next contest, so it would be best to be prepared as soon as possible.

"I have more important things to do than to argue with some girl on the side of the street," he huffed as he returned Ira, who had cast a glare to the Scraggy that clearly stated how much she wanted to rip his throat out and wear that saggy skin of his as a robe.

Although not angered, Lily wasn't going to let one get away just like that. She felt his leaving was cowardice, and a smug grin kept on her face. She decided she was going to keep this going, perhaps have a little fun.

"Ah, so you admit defeat, huh?" Lily said. "I expected you to be one who doesn't finish what they start. Typical, typical..."

The girl turned around and began to walk away, although slow enough to be kept in the boy's sight. "I guess I'll just be taking my leave, too. There's no point in staying if you aren't going to fight back."

Justin leered at the girl as she turned around smugly and spoke of him admitting defeat. He reached into his bag and pulled out a pokeball, tossing it onto the street and allowing a lillipup to appear from the small sphere with a burst of energy and joy. It barked twice and chased its tail for a moment before giving another bark at the girl. His toungue lolled to the side as its tail wagged and his trainer spoke.

"Well if you wanted a fight then you should have just asked. One on One since you said your shinx was rather young. Its not good for pokemon to battle at too young of an age, they would just get hurt."

Beezlebub, the lillipup, sensed his trainer's anger dripping in his voice as it transformed into his own. He gave a growl of his own as his body shook, aiming to look intimidating but instead looking more cute than terrifying. His ears backed against his skull and his teeth bared as he too challenged the scraggy to a battle.

"Well, I didn't know you had it in you. You're on, but are you sure it's okay to be battling around here?" Lily asked. As much as she wanted to get the battle started immediately, she didn't want to cause any damage to public property. Owing money right off the bat woukd not be that good for her. "Anyway, I'll use Spike, then."

Spike looked at the Lillipup. What could such a small and cute Pokemon do against him? Barely a scratch, he was sure. "Your trainer's makin' a big mistake sending a Pokemon like you up against me. I'm not goin' easy on ya, either," he warned.

Beez made a sour face towards Spike that seemed to say, "We'll see about that," but the pup itself didn't actually speak even in the language of the pokemon. It was unknown whether the pup could speak it itself, but it must have since it could understand the words of other pokemon and the intentions of his owner.

"There's a plaza just over that bridge on the other side of this block," Justin spoke, having seen the park area while he was searching for his hotel when he had arrived. "Shouldn't be too many people there at this time of day..." he added without waiting for an answer. He turned and started his way there, his pup not noticing him leave for a moment before turning around with some frantic yips.

Well, it seemed like Justin was going to get some training in today after all, just not in the way he had expected. When he reached the area he stood on the soft grass a bit to the side of a sidewalk so pedestrians wouldn't get caught in it but still watch if they were nosy enough. His lillipup bounced along until he stood in front of Justin, "Get ready Beez, that's a fighting type. You know what to do," he spoke to the lillipup. The odds of Lily hearing were low due to distance, but Justin wasn't trying to hide his planning and was just talking to Beezlebub.

Lily followed along and took in the city who's name she still didn't know. Her Scraggy followed, and the mysterious egg was still held in her hands. She could just feel the egg moving. She hoped it would hatch soon.

Once they reached the plaza Lily went to stand at a distance perfect for commanding her Pokemon in the battle.

"Ready," Lily said with a nod. "You can go first if you'd like, we'll win anyway." Spike stepped forward a bit and pulled up his shed skin defensively. It was really just instinct, as his "pants" just fell back down anyway. A look of arrogance crossed his face and he crossed his arms, ready for whatever his puppy opponent could dish out.

"Alright then. Beez, go Play Rough with them," Justin commanded his pup pokemon. His arms crossed as we watched the battle, studying his own pokemon to see how he did in the fight soon to come. The young man was more of a coordinator than a trainer, so he was more focused on how is pokemon appeared rather than how strong they were. If his pokemon weren't good enough to make it through the first rounds, their strength wouldn't even matter anyways.

His hand reached up to his goggles and touched them unconsciously as he waited for his lillipup to finish the attack. The move was slightly risky due to the below average natural accuracy, but it hit a fair decent amount of the time and was reliable enough to use frequently.

Meanwhile, the lillipup gave a bounce as the command was given. Beez lowered his head and bent his fore paws forward in a bit of a "play" stance that dogs do when they're excited. He gave a playful rap before skidding to the side and then to the other side, repeating the same thing. The pup seemed to be trailing a pink aura as he did so, before it finally dashed towards the scraggy. His tongue lolled behind him as he dashed towards the yellow pokemon with loose skin, unafraid to ram into him with the full speed and power of a Fairy Type Move.

Lily and Spike's confidence was drained as they realized that this Lillipup had a powerful Fairy move that could easily knock out Spike if they weren't careful. Still, Lily did her best to keep her cool demeanor and while hiding her surprise she commanded her Scraggy.

"Kick up some dirt and dodge," Lily commanded. Spike nodded, putting trust in his trainer's instructions. With a few kicks he tried to shoot a cloud of dirt with his Sand Attack at the puppy's face and then dived away to the left.

The pup yelped as the dirt stung his eyes, he pawed at them with some whimpering as he got most of the sand out, but his eyes were still watery. Justin studied the match for a moment before calling out, "Odor Sleuth! Then Again!"

The pup gave a nod as its nose began to glow a bright green, Beez's sense of smell was being empowered as it sniffed about for a bit before whipping its head in the direction of the Scraggy. It had locked onto its scent and proved the sand attack to have been useless against it. The Lillipup began to become cloaked as it readied itself to charge towards the scraggy once more in the powerful four times effective attack.

Neither Lily nor Spike was expecting that move, and the Scraggy was hit and tackled by the Lillipup. The Scraggy was flung backwards into Lily, causing the trainer to lose her balance. The egg originally clutched in her arms was flung out of them, and before Lily could react to try and reclaim it it landing with a sploosh into the waters of a nearby fountain. Letting out another string of curses, the homeless trainer rushed over to the fountain to see if it was okay,

Upon examination, the egg was cracked, but moving as it bobbed in the water. Lily watched as some of the cracks became larger despite it not being jostled by anything other than the water. It was hatching! Lily stared at it intently, not caring much for the battle. She really wanted to know what was inside.