Pokemon: Duty or Justice?

A few hours of blissfully silent walking later, and in the distance, Janine could finally see the massive city that was Maulville. Stopping for a brief moment, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of awe, not at its size, but the sheer difference between game and reality. It was neither the two-house hamlet in the original games nor the weird 'indoor city' from ORAS. No - it was a proper city. Even from a distance, she could see towering apartment buildings, large offices, and, of course, the Mauville Gym. 'Wooh. That's a big gym.'  A building that wide looked truly massive when it had to be at least 3, maybe even 4 stories tall.

While there were bigger cities in both Kanto and Johto that she had seen, most Kanto and Johto buildings were small, not to mention wooden, compared to the towering steel she could see here. Of course, Slateport had been a proper city, but she had quickly left it after having been annoyed. 'Sadly, I won't get to explore you this time Mauville, but I will when I challenge Wattson.' Entering a few minutes later, she idly showed her ID to the Officer next to the road, before being allowed in. 'They're at least keeping up a minimum showing of security, I'll have to ask if that's normal sometime in the future.' 

After all, considering she was in a foreign territory, she had long since logged out of any account or application that held truly confidential information. Thus, in the Indigo League App, she no longer had the combined access of a Master-Rank trainer and Gym Leader. 'Now then, time to make my way through this maze of a place and onto Route 117.' 

"You there, stop!" Coming to a halt as a teenager a few years younger than herself came charging up to her a fire in his eyes, and three Poke Balls on his belt. A purple eyebrow rose on Janine's face as she could see the fire practically spewing from his eyes.

"My cousin told me what you did to him! I challenge you to a battle!" '... I suppose this is Karma in place. But… you only have 3 Pokemon. You too are going to get crushed.' 

Before responding, Janine tilted her head to the side, only to spot her Spinarak with his eyes open, looking at the trainer with a slight amount of interest. 'Well then.' 

"I accept, but only if you use all three of your Pokemon against my Spinarak."

"Hah! To think a foreign trainer would be so arrogant after crushing the spirit of a kid. Deal, come on, let's go to the nearest arena." As the teenager turned around, her lips twitched. 'You're just a kid too.' 

Ignoring the confused, amused, or even hostile looks from all the passersby on the street who had heard the interaction, Janine followed after the still-unnamed teen. Amusingly enough, he also, just like his younger cousin looked like the perfect caricature of a youngster, if only a bit older.

A few minutes passed before they came upon an almost park-like area, except instead of benches, swings, or a bunch of forests, there were instead dozens of sandy or dirt-filled fields with people battling on them and a sparse spattering of spectators around most of the fields.

The teen leading her instantly bee-lined to an empty field. But, what was strange was that there were already people waiting there, and they too, were wearing the yellow and blue 'youngster garb'. 'Aah, he was looking out for me. A trap?' Honestly, it was kind of amusing, and she had a faint idea of what was going to happen when she won this battle… 

Considering she saw four spectators, and each of them had 3 Poke Balls on their belts as well, it was kind of obvious. Looking down at her Spinarak, who was subtly stretching his legs, eyes darting between each of the 5 'Youngsters', Janine had to hold back a smile. 'Good to see that all that Poke-Ninja training didn't go to waste, and you understand what's gonna happen.' 

It seemed like Mauville no matter the universe - was destined to grant if she dared to be arrogant enough to think 'the protagonist' a back-to-back-to-back battle. 'This will be a decent stamina test, to say the least. 15 Pokemon versus a tiny little spider…' Holding out her Phone, the Youngster quickly tapped his watch against it so that their battle would be registered with the League. 'Interesting. Is that the current version of Poke Nav?' Getting past that currently irrelevant thought, Janine walked onto the opposite side of the field from him and finally spoke once more. "To be clear, me demanding you face me in a 3v1 was to make things more fair, my Spinarak is far stronger than any Spinarak should ever be. So don't feel too bad when you lose, ok?"

For some reason, Janine's words only seemed to rile him and his 'Family? Friends? Gang members?' up even more. "Hah! You're only saying that because you're trying to get me off my game. My team and I will show you the errors of your ways! How dare you bully a little kid!"

"Yeah! You're gonna lose!"

"Yeah, he said it!"

"Totally!"

'Well, at least I warned him.' One of Spinarak's legs slapped the side of her head, and he gave her a half-hearted glare that clearly said, 'See? Look what you've done!' Before jumping off of her shoulder and landing on the packed dirt battlefield. 'Yeah, I get it! I know I messed up already… I should have never accepted that battle against the kid.' 

"Go, Sparky!" Considering they were in Mauville and the youngster had clearly gotten 3, if not 4 badges in the last season of the League, she wasn't surprised as the larger-then-average electric dog Pokemon popped out of it's ball, a vicious snarl already rumbling out of it's throat.

The Pokemon was clearly far more powerful than the last trained Pokemon she had 'fought,' yet… 'This is gonna be another slaughter.' Even a couple of months into their training together, her Spinarak had been far more in control and trained, she could tell just by the way the Electrike crouched, the way his muzzle shifted, the way his tail dragged, and how feint bits of electricity sparked off of him.

This was a Pokemon that had been trained with no understanding that battle skill and mastery of moves were just as important as pure raw power or speed. 'Well then…' 

"Go ahead, you can have the first move." At her words, the Youngster seemed to only manage to get angrier.

"Fine then! Sparky, Howl, and Quick Attack!"

Not even batting an eye at he was trying to buff up with Howl, Janine calmly called out, "Scarestation."

"Huh what's tha-" Before the Youngster could finish his question, the Electrike went to Howl and shuddered as he was hit with a Scary Face, the normal type move causing her tiny Spinarak to appear to grow in size for the poor dog. In response, the Electrike in fear slipped up in his control, drastically lowering the speed at which his normal type energies for Howl were gathering. Yet, the Electrike continued on, and just as the Howl barely managed to finish, a chittering noise could be heard. Spinarak had launched the second part of his commanded attack, and a tiny pale seed soared through the air, before landing on Electrike.

"AWOOOO!" A howl ripped from the electric dog, his fur standing on end, muscles seemingly bulging out, and veins popping in his eyes as his physical capabilities were bolstered, and then, before he could go into a Quick Attack, he faltered. Roots popped out of his fur wavering in the air, and beneath his shiny yellow coat, dug into flesh, showcasing the 2nd part of Janine and Spinarak's combination attack, Infestation.

"Fight through it Sparky! I don't know what move that is, but Quick Attack!"

A'las, with his speed lowered from his fear of Spinarak, and wincing in pain with every move, it was almost cruel what she ordered next as the Electrike flickered with a white aura as he rushed forward. "Sucker Punch." 

On a baseline level, an equally trained Electrike would be faster than a Spinarak, likely even when affected by Scary Face. But, her Spinarak was not merely on the same level, and in fact, far eclipsed this poor Electrike. From physical training to mastery of moves, even just the ability to predict their trainers and understand what move they would likely to command next, the gap was massive.

Needless to say, Electrike had only crossed a quarter of the distance when a glowing dark spindly leg slammed not into his face, but into the thorns and branches poking out of his skin, causing them to dig in deeper. Then, even without being ordered her Spinarak launched a point-blank Shadow Sneak. Usually, he had been trained to Night Shade in such a situation, but that move was far harder to tone down the power. 'Good choice buddy.' 

As the shadows riled up around Spinarak, he lunged forward horn first and slammed directly into the damaged Pokemon. The Electrike fell down. "Y-you'll see! That was just my first Pokemon! Sparky return!" Janine let out a sigh. 'Well, it looks like we're really doing this.' 

"Spinarak get back on our side of the field, be ready to Plan A."

"Come out, Bally!" 'Really?' She wasn't even surprised as the Youngster released a Voltorb. Not focusing on the Voltorb and trusting that Spinarak knew what to do with his pre-orders for this part of the match, Janine glanced at each of the spectators and had to hold back an eyebrow twitch. 'Youngsters as well, but with different color hair. Blue, Red, Green, and Brown.' Turning back to her current opponent, it was only now that she clocked the meaning behind his hair being Blonde. 'I suppose this counts as my first true Anime world moment?' 

Sometime in Janine's musing, Voltorb had been knocked out. "Hey! At least pay attention to the battle, you big bully! Come out, Bolty!" As a Magnemite, because, of course, it was a Magnemite that was released, Janine adjusted her focus onto him. 'I really hope the others don't challenge me.' 

-

So of course, they did. At least she got four more official wins under her belt! 'Why do I have a feeling I'm gonna be ambushed by even more Youngsters in the future?' Surely not. Surely they too wouldn't go complaining, and she'd be stuck with this for the entirety she was in Hoenn?!?

Suddenly Janine had a deep sinking feeling that she had really fucked up. 'No, no. Something so absurd is unlikely to happen.' Pushing those horrible thoughts away as she stepped into a Poke Center for a quick check-up, something quite imperative considering Spinarak had to beat down 15 Pokemon in a row, Janine quickly handed over her Poke Ball before finding a seat to get some rest for herself. 'Luckily I still have time before the Gyms officially open, so this delay doesn't matter.' 

With that, an hour quietly passed, and Janine did her best to ignore the glares coming from the Five Youngsters, who also were waiting for their Pokemon to be healed and checked up on. 'I hope this doesn't become a theme, bad days, good evenings.' 

Picking up her Spinarak, who was confirmed to be in excellent health, if a tad tired, Janine quickly left the Pokemon Center, not wanting to deal with glares coming from a bunch of kids any longer than necessary. 'Now then, Route 117, and hopefully Roselia!' At that thought she thumbed the stone that was still in her pocket, still undecided on what to do. 'There are no official laws about Roserade because they don't know that they exist, so I COULD evolve Roselia instantly. Move wise it's no problem, as for the most part that stupid 'Wait till level X' stuff doesn't matter like in the games. But, it would make their future growth a bit harder after an initial burst.'

The main worry for most other trainers would be not being able to handle capturing Roselia who in reality was a middle-stage Pokemon, one that was amusingly enough only a bit weaker on a baseline species level compared to Ariados, and then immediately evolving it. Particularly with no badges.

But, in all honesty, she'd be very surprised and even gleeful if a newly caught Roserade could even match her Spinarak, let alone if he decided to evolve into Ariados. So in turn, Janine had no worry about the strain upon her Type Energy if she did evolve it. 'But, smooth sailing, or choppy waters in return for Instant Power?' 

Janine knew what she should do, but it was still hard to hold back on not getting a fully evolved Pokemon so early in her journey. 'No. I need to take it easy. Every step needs to be firm and carefully planned out, especially if I one day want to be able to not just bond and maintain, but even improve not just one team of Pokemon, but possibly even multiple.' 

Letting out a heavy breath of air as her thoughts subsided, Janine was greeted with a grassy route in front of her, with trees and ponds in the distance, and a few hundred feet away, just outside of Mauville, a rather large building with wooden fencing surrounding a large plot of land. 'The daycare.' Contemplating going in there to get information, Janine eventually decided to walk right by it and start searching. She had time, and there was no need to rush. If she truly needed help in a few days - she'd ask! 'Now then, if I was a Roselia looking to get stronger, good battles, and be trained, where would I be?'