“Alright.” Well, at least they were close. Not like he was getting tired; no way he could travel around Hoenn if he got winded from this walk.

He stopped once the man spoke again, staying in place as he heard the man walk away. This spot did seem to lack any leaves or grass around where he could feel; an arena maybe? He knew there had to be plenty of these around here with how much people liked to battle.

Hideo smiled as the man seemed to respect his skills. “You’re right~” he hummed, though that left him with a lingering question: what did he intend to do then?

The answer: to test him. It was pretty uncommon for his mentors to actually assess him first. Most just assumed he still knew nothing; maybe the people running the program told them to expect that.

Whatever the case, Hideo was optimistic about this guy.

He heard several Pokeballs open up at once. The exact number, he wasn’t sure - it was definitely more than one, but he didn’t know how many the man sent out.

The Houndoom, he recognized immediately; his eldest sister had one just like that for as long as he could remember. The Sandygast, however, he didn’t recognize; it definitely had a unique cry, but it was one he hadn’t heard before, so he was at a loss there.

But that last one caught his attention the most; he could hear it land on the ground, even from as far away as it was. And that loud roar caught him off guard, making the boy jump - even his Dewott was taken aback. It must have been a big one.

If the man had sent out more Pokemon than that, Hideo didn’t know.

It took a moment for him to regain his composure. “I’ve done plenty of Pokemon battles before!” he boasted, digging through his pocket to get a couple more Pokemon out. If this guy was gonna use some big guns, he’d do the same.  "I'll let you see just how good I am at them!"

He chose his Pokemon, letting them out simultaneously; his Ferrothorn’s feelers hit the ground hard, sinking in slightly as it adjusted to the soft ground, while his Perrserker landed with considerably more grace. Both powerful Pokemon, more than ready to duke it out. Hideo wanted to make a good impression.

Even if these two were a little harder to control.

He lifted up a single hand, raising a single finger. “My only question is this; what’s the first exercise?”

Skids Lawrence

Hideo nodded as Skids explained what they’d be up to. “Makes sense. Not every battle has to be until someone’s ko’d.” He had fights with his siblings to know that. And he could understand keeping a tight lid on what they’d be doing exactly; there’d already been plenty of times where he had to think on his feet.

Hideo opened his mouth, ready to answer the man’s question, only to stop when informed it was merely rhetorical. Rocky was the first Pokemon he ever got, when he was just a little Rockruff. But even then, Rocky was always fiercely protective of him. He was strong, loyal, and knew how to help when he needed to. Hideo could always rely on him.

Unfortunately, Hideo hadn’t brought him this day. Reliable as he was, he did need a break every so often. And Hideo trusted the Pokemon he had with him well enough.

As for the one that was also strong, but he didn’t have fully trained? That, he did bring with him. In fact, he had it out right now; Sir Fightsalot was a strong Pokemon, and the first Perrserker he’d ever met, but he was also incredibly rowdy, always trying to get into fights with his other Pokemon, and tended not to listen to him.

Of course, were he to think about them further, he’d realize they were a lot more similar. But that wasn’t something he wanted to admit.

“Well...they’re both really strong, but my starter listens to me a lot better than my ‘wild card’.” His Perrserker rolled his eyes, looking over Skids’ Pokemon, picking out which one would be a good fight. “I knew my starter since he was a- well, not evolved. My ‘Wild Card’, I caught evolved. My starter is always keeping an eye on me and knows when to take things easy, but my ‘Wild ‘Card just wants to battle all the time.”

He thought he could tell where this was going. “I guess you want to help teach me how to better control my ‘Wild Card’ Pokemon?”

Skids Lawrence

Hideo shook his head. “Nah. I felt like Rocky needed a break. He’s a Lycanroc - the Dusk kind. People say they can be pretty hard to keep under control, but he’s been pretty good to me. We’ve been doing a lot lately, and he’s been battling a lot, so I wanted him to have some time off.”

“I guess the closest I got to a starter with me right now, is the first one I ever caught. Here, lemme show you her. Lemme switch Slaps out real quick.” He drew his Dewott back into his Pokeball, letting his Ariados out to take his place. “This here is Squeeze. She-”

He was interrupted by her near-pouncing on him. She wrapped her forelegs around his body, hugging him tight.

“She earned her name. She used to outright jump on me when she was a Spinarak, but we had to compromise after she evolved, since she weighs more than I do now.” He brushed against her head, scratching behind her ears. “She’s gotten pretty strong too. She also likes to keep a close eye on me, and she knows when to take things easy and when to get serious. She’s even a lot friendlier than Rocky!”

That earned a happy "riiiiii!" from the spider.  “So I guess for this exercise, we could treat her like my ‘starter’. Sir Fightsalot is my ‘Wild Card’.”

Said Perrserker was sitting down, extending and retracting his nails as some way to pass the time, staring straight at Skids' Pokemon.

Skids Lawrence

Hideo couldn’t tell what Fightsalot was doing, but he was pretty sure Skids’ Houndoom wasn’t growling for no reason. He could tell his Pokemon wasn’t fighting yet - he wasn’t the quietest Pokemon, and his main way of fighting was just rushing in, so he’d know if he ran in and started a fight. But whatever he was doing was agitating Skids’ Pokemon

It probably just served to show how much rougher he was than his Lycanroc. Rocky would just try to scare people off before getting into a fight. Even with Pokemon, he wouldn’t strike unless he thought a fight was going to break out anyways.

“Spiker, can you make sure Sir Fightsalot doesn’t do anything 'till it's his turn?” He received an affirmative grunt as the massive Ferrothorn stomped its away over him, standing by the Perrserker. Fightsalot scoffed, but lied down on his side, content to just watch for now; at least he’d get some contentment from watching a fight.

“That should keep him under control.” For now. “Sorry about that. Perrserkers have their name for a reason. Goes to show why he’s my wild card, huh?”

A joke to hide his embarrassment; he would’ve just pulled Fightsalot back into his ball by now, but Skids seemed like he had plans for this. And he trusted Spiker enough to keep him in line if he acted out.

“Alright, Squeeze, time to start with Mr. Lawrence’s first lesson.” He pet the massive spider on the head, gently pushing her in front of him. He didn’t actually have the strength to push her - he struggled enough prying her off as a Spinarak before learning a trick to making her let go - but she got the message, letting him go and walking in front of him. “Though I do gotta warn you; she’s got a mean web game!”

Skids Lawrence

“I guess you’re right,” Hideo added, though it didn’t really do much to alleviate his mild embarrassment. He’d been able to get other Pokemon to behave faster than him; heck, there’d been a few he caught after Fightsalot that were behaving better. His Perrserker was rough, but he felt he should’ve gotten through to him by now. “Guess it’ll just take some more time.”

Hopefully, that really was all he needed.

So with Fightsalot secured, it was time for them to start the lesson. Hideo’d expected them to get set up, like a proper Pokemon battle. Not for him to just immediately order his Houndoom to attack.

It caught the boy and his Pokemon off guard. His Ariados tried to move out of the way, but was too late, catching a spicy hot pair of fangs to the side. That “Riiiiiiiiii!” she let out was a lot less joyous than the last.

But that shout was enough to get the boy to his senses. “Squeeze, get him back for that! Smack him real good with your Cross Poison!”

Of course, she was already preparing the attack by the time Hideo ordered it; her forelegs glowed purple as she crossed them in front of her. She turned around as they reached their peak brightness, ready to fire off the purple X towards the Houndoom.

Skids Lawrence

Each pokemon was different, Skids had Salemn for years. And the ol dragon still would act up. Some pokemon were just very hard to tame, some were just stubborn or instant on staying the way they were. Perhaps he could try to help Hideo out with that wild card of their's? He did want to see how they operated in a pokemon battle with em. For now though, his focus was just gonna be on this battle. And the battle was kicking off now with the fire fang landing and the general shock fading.

"Pull back a little, make a gap between you two!" Skids ordered, causing Holo to take to her speed to move away from the spider as they were prepping their cross poison.

The glowing of their limbs was a clear thing to be wary of, cross poison was a attack that was launched at the opponent. Thus...speed was honestly the saving grace with such a move. Holo's four legs carried her swiftly and soon enough the purple X was launched into the air. It sailed through the air to approach houndoom.

"Turn roun quickly, let lose a flamethrower!" Skids ordered.

A sharp back left Holo as she spun to the side, narrowly escaping the floating X. Alright, so that was something he was going to have to watch out for. Holo had speed on her side but that didn't mean she was skilled enough to out maneuver every cross poison that came her way. The dog pokemon took in a deep breathe as she came to a halt, a burst of flames left her maw as Flamethrower was unleashed at the opponent. Flamethrower had a long reach too, just like how Cross posion would sail through the air except for one difference, the flames still remained connected to Holo as she released the compressed torrent at the other.

Hideo Kino

Holo dodged Cross poison
HOlo used Flamethrower against Squeeze

Squeeze’s attack was a clean miss, her opponent dodging before she could even get the attack off. But even with the miss, the attack did its job; the Houndoom was off her, and even a good distance away. The pain from the bite lingered, but fortunately that pain was all that remained.

Hideo didn’t even have time to ask Skips what the point of the fight was; another attack was already ordered, a Flamethrower attack. He didn’t have to be familiar with that one to know what it would entail. “Squeeze, dodge it!” he ordered.

That bite had left Squeeze much more wary of her opponent, in particular of her mouth. So when she saw it start to glow, she immediately complied with Hideo’s order, leaping to the side the moment her opponent opened their mouth. It was a narrow dodge, and she definitely felt the heat, but Squeeze managed to avoid getting roasted.

From what Hideo could hear that fire from, that Houndoom had gotten a good distance away quickly. Faster than he knew Squeeze could move. Speed was certainly on his opponent’s side here; it would be best to neutralize - or at least limit - that advantage. “Well if you’re gonna move around...Squeeze, use String Shot! Tie that Houndoom down!”

With little fanfare, save for her head cocking back for a moment, Squeeze shot the white web forth from her mouth, aiming to wrap the Houndoom up so she’d be a much easier target to nail down.

Skids Lawrence

Good, the two of them were working together. And Skids was sure that they caught onto how the flames from a houndoom worked. With the string shot, the web traveled at a faster speed than the cross poison had. So the stick substance grappled onto Holo's hind legs. Causing a loud and sudden yelp to leave them before a snarl left them. A very angry gaze was directed at the spider. Welp...perhaps Holo wasn't fond of sticky things on/in her fur? Hm...noted.

"Good call!" Skids praised, his high energy still there. "Let's spice things up with Inferno!"

Asnarl left Holo as she seemed to take in a deeper breathe, her eyes glowing like embers that just got hit with the fire bellows and thus they sparked to life. However, no flames escaped her maw. Instead the ground under Squeeze heated up and if the spider didn't skitter on fast enough, a torrent of flames would burst from the ground that would swirl around her.

Hideo Kino
Notes:
Stringshot hit Holo, her speed has been slowed
Holo is using Inferno (for how the move looks, I'm just going off of pictures I've seen.