Pokemon: Duty or Justice?

Like often in the past couple of days, Spinarak's eyes began to flicker blue. Normally, they'd have tried to combo this move with another, or do some kind of action, perhaps even just changing position on the battlefield.

But; this Roserade was a wild Pokemon that had just evolved, and had no one commanding it. Using the most optimal of tactics would not only be quite unfair but would also be quite unsporting considering the friendly conditions.

As the speed-enhancing move was completed, Roserade hadn't been just sitting still and keeping quiet. Nay, as Spinarak began to vibrate with Psychic energies enhancing his body, a bright green aura had been building around Roserade, before just a split second after Spinarak's agility went off, the move she had been charging did as well.

Grass began to gently sway, flowers bloomed, and the sun just seemed a tad bit hotter. 'Grassy Terrain.' A valid trade-off for the wild Pokemon compared to a mere single usage for agility, and spoke highly of the wild Pokemon's battle experience.

Lips twitching upwards at such a move, Janine's voice held a tad bit of excitement as she called out, "Scary Sneak!" In response, multiple things happened at once. Spinarak began to carefully craft the two moves as he rushed forward, shadows beginning to envelop him, yet at the same time, a menacing aura seemed to build up. The combined results of the Ghost and Normal-type moves created a horrifying visage that amplified the two moves more than a mere 1+1. 

However, on the other side, Roserade seemed to stand up straight, grass rippling around her, and as Spinarak fully submerged into the shadows in a Shadow Sneak, she waved her hands causing pollen to drift off of her roses and directly in the line of movement of Spinarak's Shadow Sneak! 'I've never seen a Pokemon with this level of skill… Was the clan's training really that curated?' Snapping out of her thoughts, Janine quickly called out commands.

"Go around it, change to Furious Psychic!" At her command, Spinarak ducked around the line of the pollen that was likely to be Stun Spore, his Scary Face fading only halfway through not enacting its full effect upon the Roserade, alongside the fact that he was no longer being covered in shadows and as such fully revealed himself, perfectly showcased that his eyes were once more glowing blue.

A blast of Psychic energy seeped off of Spinarak directly towards Roserade, and as it blasted forward he trailed behind it. 'Perfect. You can't use stun spore or the Psychic will blast it back onto you, and you can't tank it - it would do too much damage to you. But if you move, you won't be able to use Ingrai - eh?' 

Roserade's eyes turned gold as she raised her roses up in front of her, mouth opening at the same time. A multi-colored circular ray of light formed between the Pokemon's two raised-up hands and mouth, before shooting out and crashing with the Psychic launched by Spinarak. 'Eh?!? But the only way Roserade can learn Extrasensory is by…' 

Instantly Janine held back the flush, not thinking about the connotations of such a thing, before shouting out, "Another Psychic followed by a fast punch, force the issue Spinarak!" 

Perhaps forcing the fight to rapidly move forward would seem insane to others, but Janine could feel through the bond that Spinarak understood her command and plan. Her partner trusted in her, and so he instantly stopped charging up for a Furious Swipe, and once more launched a blast of Psychic.

Having no other option, Roserade once more countered it, but that was what they had wanted. As soon as Roserade launched another blast of Extrasensory, Spinarak began to glow with a dark light, before turning into a blur in a boost of speed, the mysterious and strange nature of Shadow Punch allowing him to rapidly speed up due to an opponent attacking him before he launched a devastating attack that landed directly onto Roserade!

"Rose!" Shouting out in pain as she was launched backward by the punch, the Roserade didn't just flail around in mid-air, or lash out in anger. Nay, this was a battle experienced Pokemon, no matter if she was 'wild'. Twirling her hands out even as she sailed through the air, hundreds of petals seemed to appear in front of those ever-so beautiful red and blue rose hands, before like tiny little blades sparked against Spinarak's carapace.

While the hurriedly used Petal Blizzard struck clear - it did not do much to her Spinarak who was already following up the attack, his natural typings making grass moves far less likely to make a noticeable impact - at least at this level of strength where such things as typing still mattered quite a bit.

It was this key fact that allowed Spinarak to fearlessly charge forward even as in a last-ditch attempt, just as Roserade landed on the ground her hands raised up into the sky, and a truly titanic flurry of petals began to dance through the air. 'Seriously? She even knows Petal Dance?' 

Spinarak charged forward ignoring as this newly whipped-up storm of flower petals cut far deeper into his Carapace causing blood to begin to seep out, and his energy far more rapidly sapped. "Shadow Sneak into face-first Psychic." It was impressive that even newly evolved Roserade could whip up such a Petal Dance - an incredibly potent if a tad risky move, but alas. This was a miss-match that simply couldn't be counteracted without the help of TMs and careful training from a Trainer. Simply speaking; even if Roserade were quite a bit more powerful than she was now, she would still lose due to the natural moves that she had access to without the careful grooming of an experienced hand, and the bond formed between Trainer and Pokemon allowing the learning of moves usually restricted to TMs.

But as mentioned, Roserade did not have that bond. So, as Spinarak slunk through the shadows, and exited them directly underneath Roserade, the remnants of the move latching onto the wild Pokemon, all three members of this battle knew the results.

Spinarak eyes flashed blue, and a wave of force directly impacted Roserade from mere inches away, causing her to go flying through the air, before a few seconds later landing on the ground with a solid thud.

The battle was over. 'That was far closer than I expected… This Roserade has trained far more than I could have ever expected from a Roselia, perfectly knew how to fight with its current skills, and honestly - if Spinarak wasn't a Bug/Poison type and thus perfectly counteracted anything she could do - we might have had a potential to lose if I didn't try something special.' It appears her earlier thoughts about a freshly evolved Roserade being impossible to match her Spinarak… turned out to be a bit untrue.

Stepping forward across the slightly ruined battlefield, Janine could hear the soft noises of the crowd speaking amongst each other - far too soft, and far too many of them for her to even attempt to interpret, and so instead she focused on the Roserade who was pushing herself up off the ground. "That was a good battle - really. You're far more skilled than I had ever could have imagined!" 

The Roserade who had obvious dings and bruises across her body did a happy little bow before a melodious giggle escaped from her. "Rose, Roserade!" Looking around in response, a smile formed on Janine's face.

"So that's why you did it, huh?" 'For now… they aren't focused on the loss and yesterday. But instead, on the future…' 

The Roserade swayed, her roses blooming outwards in response as she nodded. Then, in a shocking turn of events, she reached out and one of her arms curled around Janine's. "Rose-rose!" Then, she began to walk in a certain direction, dragging along Janine who didn't resist. 'Mhm? She has something to show me?' 

Interested, she kept up with the Roserade, who even then continued to have her arm wrapped around Janine guiding the way. Not reacting as Spinarak hopped back up onto her shoulder, Janine gave a confused look as Roserade a couple of minutes later paused in front of what looked to be a tent made out of flowers and grass. 

"Rose?" Janine's confusion only grew as Roserade turned to her asking a question, which she slowly nodded at. "That's right if the Hoenn league found out you evolved, they would capture you and study you, after all - you're the first of your kind that they would know about. I'm not sure what would happen to your family, however."

Roserade gained a worried look before her arm untwined itself from Janine's and she held up one flower, in a 'wait' motion, before ducking into the tent. A few seconds later the Roserade came back out - but what she was carrying caused Janine's eyes to widen. 'Wait, what?!?' 

Resting in the center of the petals of the blue rose, was a familiar stone. Not quite as Shiny, but still brimming with energy, and clearly still just as valid to use to evolve a Pokemon. 'Well… that changes things.' 

"You're worried about what will happen if more of your family evolves?"

"Rose." The Roserade somberly nodded, her gaze resting on the stone with a look of excitement, but also tinged with fear. Thinking for a few moments, Janine's eyes as well remained locked in on that stone. Truly, she hadn't expected Shiny Stones to be unlike the elemental stones that were destroyed after usage.

This… caused some problems. "You have a few options," Janine began slowly, her thoughts still churning, "The first option is you hide away the stone, and you yourself hide for as long as possible. Eventually, this evolution will be found by someone else, it will just take some time." By her estimations, Sinnoh should likely be at least slightly opening its borders and the flow of information within the next 2, at most 3 years. "However, you're more powerful than ever, and in the coming weeks and months, you'll naturally gain strength as you do your best to master your new body and new moves. It's possible you'll catch the attention of a League-trained Psychic Pokemon, or a wild Pokemon seeking out battle."

Roserade tilted her head, clearly understanding Janine wasn't done and had more options available. "The second option is more complex. I'm not from Hoenn, so I could get my clan to move yours to Kanto and I can guarantee a safe location where your family won't be tested or forced to be caught. But, you'd be leaving your home." The Roserade wilted at that, clearly not enthused about the potential of separating her family and children from all that they had known. 'Honestly, I'm not either. Let alone the fact that doing something like that would possibly burn a few of our very limited operators in Hoenn.' 

Shaking her head, Janine continued. "The third option relies on a bit of luck, and the hope that Hoenn doesn't want to play hardball with my clan, and in turn - the Indigo League. I can capture you, and use you in my League Challenge. Show you off in the spotlight, and while they'd obviously draw from the clear similarities that you're an evolution of Roselia, they won't be able to say anything or else risk facing serious issues. All your clan would have to do is not use the Shiny Stone for a few months, go into relative hiding to recover, and make sure that the rest of the Roselia and Budew not of your clan go back to maintaining the route." 

A normal clan Heiress or daughter of a Gym Leader saying that would be arrogant. But, in this case, Janine knew otherwise. Her father would within a year or two become a member of the Elite Four, and thus, Giovanni's staunchest and most important ally.

No one wanted to piss off a poison specialist of her father's caliber, there were just some Type Specialists you didn't mess with in fear of them doing something extreme. That category of person was of course comprised of Ghost, Poison, Psychic, and Fairy types. On top of that, she honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Hoenn league had some suspicions about her father's exact level of power on his team - after all, he had been a Master-ranked trainer for over a decade. 'Still… quite risky, but luckily we're up for such a challenge.' 

The three options she could think of listed out, Janine remained silently as Roserade thought, hesitation and indecision clear across her face.

Then, she slowly nodded her head. "Roserade." The hesitation was swept away with determination, and the broadest smile she had given since arriving in Hoenn spread across Janine's face as she reached down and pulled out a Poke Ball.

"I'll do my best to make sure you won't regret this Roserade, and trust me; I won't leave your family unguarded." With those words, she reached out and gently tapped her newest Pokemon with the Poke Ball, causing a flash of red light to cover the Roserade, before she disappeared into the ball.

One shake. Two shakes. Three shakes. Ding.