Encounter 2: Let the battling begin!

[attr="class","axscroll"]Startled, Axel jumped in place and his head shot upward. His hands instantly clutched his bag out of instinct. Once he felt the egg inside, Axel tightened his grip. Damn, he had forgotten about that egg. Although he had no idea what Pokemon it was, Axel was excited to see it hatch eventually.

He glanced to Penelope and down to her Pokemon. Blinking, a grin soon formed on Axel's face and he relaxed his stance. "A battle, huh?" Axel asked, pushing his bag back behind his back. "Now that's a way to relax." Penelope's Pokemon was yellow, which probably meant it was electric, right? So if he was right then Holly had an advantage. Right? Maybe. He was still learning, don't quote him.

"Name's Axel, nice to meet you." Axel said introducing himself as he picked off Holly's Pokeball from his belt. "I'll let you take the first move since you had the courage to challenge me." There he went again, getting a little too confident before the battle even began. One of these days, he was sure to regret it. However, he was feeling a little lucky today. He tossed the Pokeball forward and took a few steps back, giving Penelope and her Pichu some room. In a flash of light, the Chespin stood before Axel. She raised her paws and jumped high into the air, bouncing on her heels and waiting for the Pichu to make a move.

[attr="class","axscroll"]Penelope understood Axel's thought process it seemed. Battling was a way of relaxing for Trainers, most of the time anyway. He was sure that in the future he'd be stressed out in a battle or two, but right now Axel had been enjoying himself in each and every battle so far. Even if he had only one battle before hand, and that was against a wild Pokemon... eh, details, details. No one needed to know those but him.

Axel had to pause his thoughts and stare. This girl didn't waste any time, did she? She and her Pokemon were eager (maybe a little too eager) to take the first move and get going. "You got this, Holly. Don't let'em intimidate you." Axel encouraged, keeping his bag hanging in front of him. He had to make sure not to move around too much or too roughly, he still had an egg inside. Maybe if he kept it warm enough it'd hatch by the time Axel got over to Oldale.

The Pichu brought Holly's guard down. She dropped her arms and bit her lip. That Pichu was too cute, how could she hurt it too much? And that Tail Whip, that was too cute. "Hey, Holly! Snap out of it! Get in there and use Vine Whip!" Axel called out. She was already too distracted by two simple moves. That wasn't a good sign. The Chespin shook her head and huffed, running forward with her arms outstretched. Vines snapped out of her wrists and she flailed her arms as she closed in, trying to hit the Pichu as hard as she could.

[attr="class","axscroll"]"Alright, direct hits!" Axel exclaimed, happily watching from behind Holly. His first battle was going well it seemed, although he didn't exactly know what he was doing other than throwing out commands here and there. Holly was basically on her own here. One to two moves shouted out and Axel's job was basically done. Maybe this whole battling thing was easier than he thought. However, the Pichu recovered from the attacks. "Careful, Holly, it's recovering. Be on guard." The Chespin nodded, readying herself for whatever the Pichu threw back at her.

The Pichu fired off two Thundershocks, both making a direct hit onto Holly. She squealed slightly in pain, the electricity tickling at her body and causing some shocks to shoot through as well. However, her typing protected her from full damage. Rather surprised herself, the Chespin recovered and looked down at herself, expecting to see some burn marks or something. She was alright though. Holly chattered happily and grinned widely, clapping her paws together. She was still holding back on the Pichu though, it was still too adorable.

"Awesome! Okay, use Tackle now, and then Vine Whip afterwards!" Axel called out. He was really getting into the battling thing. Holly obeyed and cried as she rushed forward, attempting to tackle the Pichu and bring it to the ground to slap it again with a Vine Whip.

[attr="class","axscroll"]'Damn, that little Pichu is fast.' Axel thought to himself. He thought for sure that Holly was going to tackle the Pokemon down and deal a decent amount of damage. But Penelope was quick to have her Pichu's back, telling it to dodge the incoming Vine Whip. Although the Tackle had hit, the Pichu managed to dodge out of the way from the Vine Whip. Holly's paws instead slammed into the ground. The Chespin recoiled from the attack and retracted her vines, jumping up right. But despite the set backs, the battle seemed to be going well for Axel and Holly. That was, until, the Pichu charmed her again.

'Dammit.' Axel cursed to himself. Holly found herself lowering her guard and attack. How could she harm such a cute face like that? There was no way! But if this kept up, Holly's attacks wouldn't do anything. At this point, Axel felt like it could be a long and drawn out fight. Between the Thundershocks and the super weak Vine Whips. But the question was, whose Pokemon was weaker at the moment? Axel honestly couldn't tell, he was silently hopping it was Penelope's Pichu and not Holly.

The Chespin yelped in surprise when the Pichu grabbed her shoulders, sending a shock through her body. Even though the move barely effected her, Holly wasn't happy about the move at all. "Holly! Take advantage of that, use some Vine Whips!" Axel yelled out. If the Pichu wanted to be that close, it'd have to pay! Holly wiggled her way out of the Pichu's grip and raised both hands, slamming them down and attempting to hit the electric type with two more Vine Whips.

[attr="class","axscroll"]At this point, Axel wasn't too sure what he could do. Holly only had physical attacks, and the Charm had taken her attack stat way too low, her attacks were barely doing anything. But the Pichu wasn't doing that much to Holly either. Her typing was strong against electric types, so right now it just looked like two Pokemon slapping each other until the other one fell. And Axel was hoping that Holly could power through and take down the Pichu, even if it took a little while.

"Come on, Holly! You can get through this, keep up the Vine Whips as best as you can!" Axel encouraged. There wasn't much he could do other than encourage and cheer Holly on.

The Thundershocks came in again and Holly could feel herself getting weaker. She wasn't too sure how healthy the Pichu was, but she could only guess. At least the Pichu wasn't able to paralyze her yet, that was one thing she was thankful for. Again, the Chespin raised her hands and tried hitting the Pichu with a Vine Whip twice.

[attr="class","axscroll"]It felt more like a waiting game than it did a battle, although Axel assumed that some battles were going to feel like that. But he couldn't help but shift his feet in place anxiously as he waited for Holly to be able to move. The only thing that kept him sane was occasionally rubbing the egg inside his back.

Again, the Pichu released the Thundershocks. The Pokemon shocked Holly through her vines and caused the Chespin to squeal out in pain. "Holly, you can beat it! Just keep up the Vine Whips!" Axel encouraged. If Holly was going to win this battle, then she needed some damn good encouraging words to get her through it.

Holly stood tall and rushed forward again, crying out as she ran back into battle. The vines came out again, and this time Holly tried to wrap one around the Pichu and toss it around like a rag doll. She was desperately trying to bring the electric type down in any way she could, and it was really showing in her choice of moves.