Within Alden's hand, the ball cracked open in response to Alden's voice. Like when May called out the Torchic, a bright white beam flashed outward from the Pokeball, revealing a little blue tadpole-like creature with fins on its head and tail. It also had orange spiky fin-like things poking out of its cheeks.
"Mudkip!" The little creature exclaimed.
The Mudkip stood on four stubby little legs and turned to look at Alden. Its black bean-like eyes glimmered with anticipation, and Alden sensed an excited expectation for battle from it, almost as though it just wanted to charge in headfirst without any thought. It then looked back at the Poochyenas waiting for orders.
Upon spotting the Torchic and Mudkip, the two Poochyenas stopped barking at Professor Birch and dashed over to fight.
"Pooch!"
"Poochyena!"
Alden observed the two puppy-like creatures with a hint of curiosity. The two Poochyenas showed a willingness to battle, but not an eagerness to.
'They aren't going to put a lot of effort in, it seems,' Alden noted. At the same time, he saved mentally saved over his first save slot in his game menu, still leaving the tenth slot as the moment he met May for the first time.
"Alright! We've got this!" May confidently exclaimed. "A young Torchic should know scratch, right? So, go, Torchic! Go scratch the one closest to you!"
"Torchic!"
"Support Torchic with a Growl, Mudkip," Alden said.
"GRRR. Mudkip!"
While Torchic charged forward, Mudkip opened its mouth and bellowed. A slightly visible aura of sound waves shot outward at the two Poochyenas, causing them to stumble slightly.
At the same time, Torchic hopped up and slashed down at the closest Poochyena with its sharp talons glowing with a subtle white energy. The Scratch cut across the puppy-like Pokemon's neck, causing it to yelp. However, it did not bleed, nor did any of its fur even fall out.
'Huh. They seem to be pretty tough despite taking damage,' Alden noted inwardly.
While Torchic scratched the first Poochyena, the second one charged forward with a subtle white glow around it. It accelerated and charged into Torchic's side. The Poochyena that had been hit by Scratch followed up with a similar Tackle while Torchic was still tumbling backward and sent it rolling across the ground. Both tackles looked a little lacking in energy after Mudkip's growl, though.
"Hang in there, Torchic!" May yelled. "Retaliate with Ember!"
Torchic chirped angrily while hopping back onto its feet. Its orange plumage showed some traces of grass stains due to its previous tumble, but it still looked pretty energetic. It sucked in a breath of air, and then spat out flaming pellets from its beak.
"Tag team that Poochyena with Water Gun, Mudkip," Alden commanded. "Then charge and tackle the other one."
"Mudkip!" Mudkip confidently responded. It puffed its cheeks, then spewed a jet of water.
Unable to respond in time, the Poochyena failed to dodge all the flaming pellets of Torchic's Ember despite trying to do so. The flames arrived too quickly for it, though. The ember pellets torched its fur in multiple places, and it yelped due to the searing pain.
The moment the pellets ended, a water jet smacked into its side and sent it tumbling across the grass. The water move also put out a few embers that caught fire on the grass at the same time.
After skidding to a halt in the grass, the wet Poochyena with singed fur remained still with its eyes spinning in circles.
In Alden's view, he spotted what looked like a glass-like surface cracking and fading away as the Pokemon fainted. He wondered if it was a type of defensive aura, but decided to focus on finishing the battle for the time being.
The other Poochyena barked and glowed white while charging at Mudkip who knocked out its partner. In return, Mudkip also glowed white and Tackled forward with reckless abandon. The two charged forward and butted heads with a loud crack. Both tumbled back under the impact, though the Poocyena obviously took more damage from the exchange after bouncing back twice as far as Mudkip.
"It's getting tired! Use another Ember, Torchic!"
"Tor!"
While Torchic fired up another round of fire pellets, Alden kept an eye on Mudkip who stumbled back and forth while shaking off some dizziness.
"Snap out of it, buddy. You got this."
"Mudkip!" The creature responded with a shake of its head.
"Nice. Help out with another Water Gun."
"Mudkip!"
Like before, the second Poochyena fell under the combined barrage of fire and water.
"We won! I won my first Pokemon battle!" May exclaimed. Then, she turned to Alden, raised a hand to give him a high-five that he immediately reciprocated, and said "Nice teamwork, Alden! I honestly didn't expect that from our first battle together. You must watch a lot of league battles."
"Heh, yeah."
Alden then knelt and patted the Mudkip that hopped back over to him. Its eyes gleamed as though seeking praise.
"Haha. You did great, Mudkip. Good job."
"Mudkip! Mudkip!" Mudkip happily responded and hopped around in circles with a happy smile on its adorable and derpy little face.
May smiled and turned her attention to Torchic who also approached, albeit in a more calm manner as if to say, 'As expected of the great me. It was an easy victory.' It confidently strutted toward May while showing off the yellow plumage on its head.
Picking up on the confident attitude of the Torchic, Alden chuckled. He looked back down at the happy Mudkip prancing around him as though it didn't have a care in the world.
Grinning from ear to ear, Alden hoisted the little guy into his arms and patted its head. Although Mudkip's smooth head felt a bit damp, Alden didn't mind at all. He also felt how heavy the creature was in his arms, though he had no trouble lifting it. It just felt heavier than its small stature the size of a house cat might indicate.
Claps echoed as Professor Birch approached them. May and Alden, both holding Torchic and Mudkip in their arms respectively, looked up at the man who walked over with a relieved smile on his face.
"Very good. You two did very well. Thank you very much for your help, there. I forgot to bring any Pokemon with me aside from those ones in the satchel, and those Poochyena caught me off guard. How about you two head back to my lab, and I can thank you properly there."
"What about these Pokemon, Professor?" May hesitantly asked while holding Torchic close to her chest, obviously unwilling to part with it.
"Go ahead and hang onto them in case you run into other wild Pokemon on the way back. I need to clean up my materials here before heading back to the lab, so go on ahead of me. I'll meet you there shortly."
Heaving a relieved sigh, May nodded and said, "Okay. Sounds good, Professor. Come on, Alden. Let's head back."
Nodding, Alden briefly glanced at Birch's awkward smile, then focused on May and said, "Sure. See you at the lab, old man."
"Ugh. Can't you go back to calling me Uncle Birch like you used to, Alden?" Birch replied with a light laugh while rubbing the back of his head.
Alden shrugged and responded, "Aren't I a bit old for that?"
"Never."
"Hm. Well, alright. See you at the lab, then," Alden said.
May looked between the two, not wanting to interrupt their moment. Once they finished, she and Alden walked back toward Littleroot. However, unlike when they left earlier, they now carried cute Pokemon in their arms.
When they reached the skinnier path out of view from the open field of Route 101, Alden paused. He waited a moment, causing May to halt and look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"One sec," Alden commented.
May nodded in return.
Alden turned back around and peeked around a tree at the edge of the path. He saw Birch organizing his satchel. A few moments after that, the man looked around as though trying to make sure nobody was around and obviously failed to spot Alden hiding in the trees. He then pulled out two Pokeballs and returned the two fainted Poochyenas to the Pokeballs in a sneaky manner.
"Heh. Knew it," Alden mumbled to himself while turning around, only to come face to face with May's beautiful sea blue eyes.
"Something wrong?"
"Ah, nothing. Was just curious about Birch, but he's got that last Pokemon we didn't take, so he should be fine."
"Oh, gotcha."