Chapter 1:

"Alright," Kaylo touched the brim of her white sun hat and turned it a tad to the right. It wasn't noticeable, since the hat looks the same all the way around. "Now Kovou, use Spark!"

Electricity surrounded the black, yellow and blue lion-like pokémon before her. "Lux!" It cried as it charged at its target, an orange otter-like pokémon with a yellow ring around its neck. When the two made contact, the electricity transferred to the other pokémon and knocked it over.

"O.K. that looks good," Kaylo reached into her yellow duffle bag and pulled out a small pokéball. "Pokéball," She pulled her arm back and pressed the button on the front of the pokéball, making it grow. "GO!" She hurled the pokéball at the weakened pokémon.

The ball hit and opened, drawing the pokémon in with a red laser. The ball landed and shook a few times. Kaylo and Kovou watched anxiously as it shook. Finally it stopped and made a ping sound.

"YES!" Kaylo jumped up, "I caught a buizel!"

"Lux luxio!" Kovou exclaimed.

The excitement of a young trainer's first catch, there is nothing quite like it. Although Kaylo was only nine and only happened upon her victim en route to Pastoria City from her nearby home in the Valor Lakefront resort, the moment was still monumental to her. She may not be recognized as a real trainer because of her age, and has yet to embark on a journey to challenge all the gym leaders and take part in the pokémon league, but it seemed none of that really mattered to her now. She steadily made her way to the pokéball on the ground, trembling with excitement, and picked it up. "Hey little guy," she spoke to the captured pokémon through the transparent red top. The response was minimal, as Buizel only laid there and looked up at her feebly.

"Hey," Kaylo said, "you're still hurt. Don't worry, I'll take you to the pokémon center." She and Kovou ran ahead to Pastoria city which was not too far from their seaside location. It wasn't really an emergency, so once she arrived at the city, Kaylo slowed her pace, waving to a few of the residents she had gotten to know in the past year she had spent trekking over to the city from the resort.

"Well hello, Kaylo," Nurse Joy greeted her with a warm smile. It kind of embarrassed Kaylo that Nurse Joy new her by name since that meant she had come here a lot. "Training not go so well?"

"Oh no, not at all," Kaylo approached the front desk. "I haven't been to the gym today."

"Then to what do I owe this visit?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Ta da!" Kaylo held up Buizel's pokéball proudly, brimming with excitement at this grand accomplishment.

"Well would you look at that," Nurse Joy took the pokéball. "A little Buizel. And by the looks of his condition I'd say you trained Kovou well."

"Thanks," Kaylo said, beaming. "And that's when we hold back for capture."

"Have you shown Wake yet?" Nurse Joy asked as she put Buizel on the healing machine.

"Uh no," Kaylo said, almost sarcastically. "He's hurt because I just caught him, I'm not gonna show off an injured pokémon."

"Well, there's no worrying about that," Nurse Joy turned around with the pokéball in hand. "Your buizel is fully healed. We hope to see you again."

"Nothing personal, Nurse Joy," Kaylo took the pokéball, "but I don't."

Nurse Joy gave her one of her usual warm smiles. "Well, I'm always here for you, and so are any of my sisters wherever you go. And with some good old fashioned rest and relaxation, any pokémon will be good as new."

"Thanks," Kaylo waved one last time as she ran out the automatic glass doors of the center with her first pokémon in tow.

"Alright, little guy, time to say hello!" Kaylo threw the pokéball into the air.

The pokéball popped open and released the little orange pokémon. It stood on all fours, timidly looking up at the other two.

"Hi," Kaylo crouched down to its level. "I'm Kaylo, and this is Kovou."

"B...bui?" Buizel simply stood there meekly.

"And now you're part of our family, K?"

"Bui?" This statement seemed to only confuse the little pokémon.

"You're one of us now," Kaylo extended a hand to Buizel.

Buizel remained still, unsure of what to make of this gesture. Kaylo streached her hand further and scratched Buizel's head. Buizel's back foot started to twitch as if he were trying to scratch himself, but he wasn't. It began to increase in speed as Kaylo continued to scratch, and Buizel closed his eyes. His two tails began to spin faster and faster until they were just a blur behind him.

"Woa," Kaylo stopped scratching Buizel causing him to look up. "You've got, like, a propeller on your butt! Awesome!"

Buizel stopped spinning his tails and looked back at them, confused by how thrilled she was with something so normal for him.

"Hey, you have two tails just like a floatzel," Kaylo exclaimed. "And they really do work like a propeller. Sweet. I'll bet you can swim so fast with those!"

Buizel stood up on his hind legs, rubbing the back of his head with his forepaw out of embarrassment.

"Then that settles it," Kaylo stood up. "You will be known from now on as Tails!"

"Bui!" Tails replied, excitedly.

"Now let's go!" Kaylo ran off through the city and Kovou soon followed. Tails stood there for a minute, wondering just where it was they were going, but eventually got back onto all fours and followed. The group ran through the city streets winding by people coming and going at a leisurely pace. Tails glanced around at the passing people, never having been around so many humans in his life. He was suddenly jolted to a stop as he crashed into the back of Kaylo's legs.

"Aww, gotta watch where you're going there," Kaylo turned around and stroked Tails's slick coat. Once she stopped, allowing Tails to regain consciousness, he stared up at the colossal building that they had all stopped in front of. It was round much like the colosseum and had two rows of windows around the entire structure with a row of orange and yellow panels above the bottom row that matched the roof and a large pokéball above the top row in the front. The building itself was a lavender color with a blue stripe at the base. Two pillars of the same color blue rose up from the ground either side of the glass doors.

"Tails, hurry it up, you slowpoke!" Kaylo waved to him from the doorway, snapping him out of his slight daze. He sprang forward, landing forepaws first, putting a little extra speed in his start, and followed Kaylo into the building.

"Well look who finally showed up," a very large man greeted them as they entered. He wore blue pants with an orange waistband and a white cape tied around his neck that fell over his shoulders.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Crasher Wake," Kaylo said, walking into the Pastoria gym as if she lived there, "but I had a little stop to make, right, Tails." She stood there proudly for a moment, expecting an enthusiastic reply from her pokémon. When she didn't get one, she turned to where he stood. "Tails?"

"Bui..." the water-type's voice was in a hushed awe as he stood on his hind legs looking around at the large open interior and the enormous pool surrounded on either side by more bleachers than a high school football field.

"Tails!" Kaylo snapped, partially annoyed at the pokémon's lack of attention.

Crasher Wake only laughed heartily. "Seems you haven't trained him yet, have you?"

"No," Kaylo smiled nervously. "But that's kinda why I brought him here. Isn't that why I've been coming here for more than a year, to train?"

Crasher Wake laughed again. "Has it really been a year already? It seems like just yesterday that weak little girl and her shinx showed up at my door asking how to be tough!"

"I'm not weak anymore, and Kovou isn't a shinx, if you haven't noticed!" Kaylo said, smiling from ear to ear from her achievements. It didn't take the whole year for her to get to a level where she could at least be proud, and she's only gotten better since.

"Luxio!" Kovou also held his head high in light of his accomplishments and his trainer's praise.

"So true," Crasher Wake said, with a tone of amusement and a chuckle or two as he reminisced about all the failures and successes he'd witnessed. "And now it's Buizel's turn. Hey, Tails, was it?"

"Bui?" Tails turned to Crasher Wake and tilted his head.

"Like it or not, you're gonna get tough, and you'll get tough real fast. I'm a master of water-type pokémon." Crasher Wake took out a pokéball. "So, meet your training partner."

He threw the pokéball into the air making it release a white light. As it began to take shape, Tails gasped in awe, for it was much bigger than he was. The glow broke away in tiny glittering sparkles, leaving there another orange pokémon that looked quite a lot like him. It had the same yellow raft, but instead of going around its neck, it wrapped around its arms and back above its two tails.

"Hey Floatzel," Kaylo greeted the pokémon. "This is Tails, I just caught him today."

"Float," Floatzel folded its arms and looked down at Tails.

"B…bui," Tails stared up meekly.

"Well, now that you're acquainted," said Crasher Wake, "we've got training to do. First on the agenda is your moves. What does he know?"

"Uh…I don't know," Kaylo said, nervously. "I just got him."

"Well, then, let's find out now!" Crasher Wake said. "Tails, show us your stuff!"

"Bui!" Tails saluted. He breathed in deeply and held it for a minute before shooting out a stream of water from his mouth.

"Water gun," Crasher Wake observed. "Very basic water move, but perfect for a newbie."

"But I'm not a newbie!" Kaylo insisted.

Crasher Wake laughed and placed his massive hand on Kaylo's head and twisted her hat to and fro, forcing the brim over her eyes. "You're still at the rookie level. And don't forget, Tails is a newbie."

Kaylo grabbed the brim of her hat and pulled it up to allow her to see. "Humph," she snorted as she turned her hat to fit on her head the way she wanted.

"What else you got?" Crasher Wake asked Tails.

Tails leaned back a little, then, with a powerful shove of his hind legs, he thrust himself into a bounding leap forward. A white glow trailed behind him in an arch, still following as his forepaws hit the ground and propelled him forward in a rapid dash.

"Quick attack," Crasher Wake nodded his approval as Tails began to do loops. "A good move to practice strategy since it can be used in a few ways."

"Really?" Kaylo asked. "Cool."

"Next," said Crasher Wake.

Tails didn't slow down for a moment, he leapt straight up from the center of his circular path, twisting his body as the glow of Quick attack faded away. His two tails began to glow with a golden yellow hue as he turned. Upon reaching the top of his leap, Tails flicked his tails upward, pulling himself into a flip. As he flicked his tail, golden stars shot from it, creating a sort of pinwheel of stars shooting out in all directions.

"Swift," Crasher Wake said, hardly phased by the display.

Kaylo, on the other hand, stared in awe, mouth agape. "Wow!" was the only word that escaped her lips as she stood, dumbfounded.

Tails continued to flip, although he stopped the attack. He came hurtling towards Floatzel, and landed firmly in front of the larger pokémon. "Bui!" He stood confidently with his hands on his hips.

Floatzel only stared at him, it's arms folded. Then it smiled, and roughly rubbed the top of Tails's head.

"A little showy," Crasher Wake remarked, "but that won't harm his fighting."

"I…is that…?" Kaylo struggled to find words, "did he…? Were….? Was that….? Huh?! Were you watching the same thing as me?!"

"It was nice, don't get me wrong," said Crasher Wake, "but not what we're here for. It's important to not get distracted so easily. If your opponent pulls something like that, it's probably to distract you and therefore, break through your defenses."

"But I could do the same thing to them, right?" Kaylo asked.

"Don't get too caught up in it," Crasher Wake warned. "It might work, but if you're trying too hard to dazzle 'em, you'll lose sight of the battle."

"Got it!" Kaylo nodded affirmatively.

Crasher Wake nodded and smiled proudly. He'd grown pretty attached to her in the year she'd visited him for training. Knowing what he did about her home life, he took it upon himself to act more or less in place of a father figure for her. "Well now, got anything else?"

"Bui!" Tails said, excitedly. He got back down on all fours and ran a little ways away from Floatzel. He began to scratch and kick against the floor, creating a spray of mud.

"Mud shot," said Crasher Wake, "or is it mud bomb? It could even be mud slap."

"You don't know?" Kaylo asked, surprised that there was something her mentor did not know.

"My Floatzel never learned…whatever it was Tails just did," Crasher Wake admitted.

"It was mud slap," said a dirty-blonde man with glasses as he approached them from the back room of the gym.

"How can you tell?" Kaylo asked.

"I'm the ref, I have to know these things," said the man. "Mud shot is more concentrated into a single blast and mud bomb is composed of multiple blobs of mud shot at the opponent and usually originate from the mouth."

"Eww, gross!" Kaylo said, partially amused.

"Either way, it's a ground-type move," said Crasher Wake. "That will come in handy against those pesky electric-types."

"Lux," Kovou growled.

"Hey, nothing' wrong with 'em," said Crasher Wake. "But for a water-type master like me, they can get quite annoying. So, anyway, now on to some real training."