Looking for Recruits

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A Charmander stepped around the small pond just outside of Grassveil Town. After his recent training session in the Shadowhue Forest, he decided to get back to what he was still looking to do. He had failed to find anybody anywhere that would serve as an appropriate teammate as of yet. Still, though...he wanted to find somebody worthy of creating a team with him. But so far, he'd had no luck simply asking around town or looking in the local dungeons for other training Pokémon. So this was the last place he could hope to find somebody...and he could only hope that he would find some better results. But so far, he was rather unimpressed with what he saw.

All around him were mostly younger Pokémon, play-battling or simply playing games with friends and family. There were even a few Pokémon here for a peaceful picnic. This area of the pond was definitely not what he was looking for. So he let out a frustrated grunt, put his claws behind his head and walked forward, making his way to the less-populous shore on the opposite side. This side of the pond was obscured from the rest by some heavy brush on the side. Sometimes, Pokémon would use the foliage to leap into the water from above...but for now, the area seemed empty enough. Maybe he could find somebody doing some training or practice battling out this way. Or at least somebody who didn't seem to be with a young child or be a young child themselves.

All Hidon could hope for was the presence of one Pokémon...just one! He only needed one Pokémon who could give him a good fight that would be willing to join his team. But was he going to be that lucky?

Pilot puffed his chest out and wore a cheeky smile in an effort to look as unharmed and confident as possible. The bird was a natural performer, so the act looked rather convincing. "You done yet? Want to give up, hotshot?" He looked down at his foe, who seemed to be getting a bit weary from the battle. The bird had to admit, he was too, but he did his best not to show it.

Finally deciding against using another Brave Bird attack, Pilot fluttered to the ground, keeping his distance from the fiery lizard. Maybe there IS a way that I could beat him on the ground... He thought, a fake grin still plastered on his face. He took a deep breath, focusing on his enemy. The bird had just used Focus Energy. If I can land a lucky shot, maybe it'd end the battle...

It was a hopeful though, but the bird was a gambler at heart. He enjoyed taking chances, and this was probably one of the biggest ones he could've taken in the battle. The rush of adrenaline Pilot got waiting for Hidon to make a move was exhilarating.

Hidon's glare did not falter, even as Pilot puffed out his chest and wore that ridiculous smile. Still, though, he couldn't believe it. This guy was standing tall and proud, as though he hadn't even broken a sweat at this point. Meanwhile, he was standing around with slightly heavier breathing than normal, trying to shake off a feeling of tiredness that was still trying to creep up on him. Was this Taillow really in such a high league that he wasn't feeling tired at all? Well, he'd have to fix that, won't he? He couldn't go having some stupid, unevolved bird Pokémon be stronger than him, after all.

When Pilot asked if he were going to give up, he growled and clenched his fists. "In your dreams, runt!" Hidon declared, pointing one of his claws at him. "I wouldn't surrender to you in a million years! Not when I'm about to beat you into the ground!" He seemed slightly offended at even the suggestion of surrendering. In his mind, that meant that the Taillow viewed him as weak. And his pride would not allow that to stand. He certainly couldn't have a Pokémon underestimating him like that!

When Pilot finally fluttered down toward the ground, the scowl that the Charmander had been sporting for a moment was turned upside-down into a small smirk. Oh, he was asking for it by coming all the way down here. After taking a couple of seconds to decide which move to use, he began his forward rush. As he dashed, his body became enveloped in that blue draconic aura. The aura soon began to swarm around his right arm, which he planned to swing as powerfully as he could, hoping to deliver a decently strong Dragon Rush to the left side of Pilot's face.

C'mon... Pilot thought to himself as he waited for the impact, Hit me! Hit me! His heart was beating so hard that it was almost audible, and another huge rush of adrenaline pumped through his veins. Any sane Pokémon would have jumped out of the way, but the tiny bird wanted to test his luck. Just before the Charmander reached him, Pilot let out a loud skree, and unleashed the strongest Peck attack that he could muster.

Of course, in the heat of the moment, the bird didn't even know if he had hit his opponent. Whether he had gotten a critical hit or missed completely, it certainly didn't slow Hidon down. The avian Pokemon received a swift punch to the left side of his face sending him flying several meters and into a tree. An audible crack could be heard as Pilot's left wing was crushed between the tree and his body.

Not good... Pilot thought as he struggled to his feet. Pain seared through his entire body. His other strategy had worked much better... But did he still have that option? Could he even fly after that attack? Just before attempting to take flight, Pilot looked back at his opponent, who was likely still a few meters away, to see if his attack had damaged him at all...

The Charmander smirked widened when he realized that the Taillow had no plans to get up and fly away from his attack. Good. That would make it all the better and all the more satisfying when his Dragon Rush connected. As he drew nearer, he pulled his fist backward, readying to thrust it forward and smash his foe into the tree behind him. But as he approached, something rather unexpected happened.

The bird Pokémon had let out some kind of screech, which took him slightly by surprise. This surprise caused him to accidentally pull back slightly on his attack, though it still powered through to meet its target in the end anyway. But unfortunately for Hidon, that gave Pilot the perfect opening to strike first. Both attacks met their mark, with the Taillow slamming his beak powerfully into his stomach just as he managed to land his own punch. "GRNGH...!" Hidon growled with pain.

Despite the fact that he had the superior attack, his opponent's strength drove into him almost as hard...the critical hit had been scored, dealing even more damage than usual. He was thrown back himself, albeit not very far. It certainly didn't help that his punch had been thrown with overconfidence, so he hadn't bothered to keep his guard up or maintain solid footing. And for a moment, he simply laid there, trying to recover from that painful attack. "Ergh...." he groaned, sprawled on the ground. However, he soon found the strength to roll over and force himself back up...well, onto one knee anyway. "Ngh...g-geez...th-that's some power, to do that much with just a Peck attack...." he grumbled.

He did not seem to be aware that the blow had merely been a critical hit, rather than Pilot's own raw strength.

Pilot, taking notice of the damage he had done to his opponent, couldn't help but grin, in spite of the searing pain going through his body. Only this time, it was a genuine smile, not a fake one meant to deceive his opponent. Had his gamble payed off? It sure looked as if it had. Sure, his wing had taken some serious damage, but it appeared as if his foe had suffered almost as much in the process. It didn't even look like he could stand up!

He stopped himself from taking flight, seeing this as an opportunity to rile the fiery lizard up. If I just annoy him a little more, he'll tire himself out, Pilot thought to himself, smirking. After catching his breath, he decided to heckle Hidon. "Yo, hotshot," The avian Pokemon taunted, "You done yet? I've got training to do, you know..."

"...And right now, you're not really giving me the workout that I thought you would have."

Hidon growled as he struggled to get back to his full height. He was taking his sweet time, though. He'd taken more damage from that initial Brave Bird than he thought he had...plus the damage from that strong Peck attack. He was undoubtedly in rough shape. But he couldn't let his opponent get the better of him. No way. Not him. He had to do something to end this and he had to do it quickly. If he let this fight prolong much longer, he'd end up unable to continue fighting. That thought caused a picture to appear in his head of him sprawled on the ground with the Taillow perched on his chest victoriously, mocking him.

The picture was enough to get him back on his feet, through sheer force of will and anger. There was no way he could let that picture come to pass. He couldn't let this guy of all Pokémon win! He could practically feel his inner flame starting to rekindle from his determination. He was already starting to heat himself up...

So when Pilot decided to push his buttons even further, it was a remarkably simple task. His eyes narrowed and the flame at the tip of his long tail flared up for but a moment. "You want a battle to properly warm you up, do ya?" he said, clenching his claws into fists once more. "Fine! But don't come crying to me when you get scorched!" Then, without another word, he immediately began charging forward again. As he charged, flames slowly ignited around his body, surrounding him in a dancing, crimson hue. His body rushed forward, though at a slightly slower pace due to his body's exhaustion. He aimed to crash his Flame Charge into the little smart mouth as hard as he could in an attempt to slam him up against a nearby tree.

Of course, should his attack fail to land, he would likely end up colliding with the tree himself. While it wouldn't cause him any real damage, it would be a bit damaging to his pride to have missed his big shot after trying to sound so cool mere moments beforehand.

Pilot watched Hidon slowly get up, taken somewhat off guard. When the fiery lizard mentioned "warming up", his expression changed to one of horror. Did he know Flamethrower or something? Surely, a ranged fire attack would give his opponent a distinct advantage. But why hadn't he used it earlier? As the fire on the Charmander's tail grew larger, Pilot became even more worried. He knew that Hidon's Blaze ability was activating, which would boost the power of his fire moves substantially. He would get burnt to a crisp if his foe knew Flamethrower!

But then, the Charmander began a slow charge towards the bird, cloaked in flames. Oh, it's just another stupid physical attack, Pilot thought to himself, rolling his eyes. Just as Hidon came close to Pilot, he dove to the side, avoiding the brunt of the attack. The two had come so close that some of the bird's feathers were scorched, but they never made physical contact. A moment later, Pilot heard a satisfying smack. The lizard had run right into a tree, just like before! How comical. He couldn't help but chuckle.

Still cackling, the avian Pokemon dusted himself off with his good wing, and turned around to observe his opponent.

SMACK!

Instead of meeting soft feathers that housed bird Pokémon muscles beneath them, Hidon found himself colliding with the tree that had been right behind Pilot. His eyes had widened merely half a second before impact. His body recoiled off of the tree, causing him to stumble backwards, back toward where Pilot had dodged. The unmistakable sound of laughter met his senses which angered him, but he could do nothing about it right now. Right now, he needed to be focused solely on maintaining and recovering his balance so that he didn't...!

THUD!

...fall. "Ngh!" the Charmander grunted as his back hit the ground, teeth clenched as he started to brace himself halfway through the fall. "D...darn it, who put that tree in my way...?" he growled to himself, looking up and allowing his vision to focus again so that he could return to the battle at hand. It was then that he realized the blue and white coloration before his eyes was not that of a sky and clouds. Although they were present, they were more in the background. The coloration before him also bore red and yellow-ish beak....

It was then that Hidon realized it. Not only had he embarrassingly rebounded off of the tree, suffering a bit of damage to his pride, but he had also found himself supine on the ground, arms at his sides and tail sticking out from between his legs. But the worst part of it was where he had hit the ground. He was currently laid out on the grass right before his foe. He was virtually right at the feet of the Taillow he was fighting. In his desperate struggles to save face and keep his balance before, he had ended up simply stumbling back even farther than if he'd just not tried to recover his balance. So when Pilot turned to observe him, he would see the amusing sight of a Charmander stumbling too far and still ending up falling not even an entire meter from where his talons were resting on the grass.

When Hidon fell on the ground next to Pilot, the bird's laughing intensified. It took him a while to calm down. When he finally caught his breath, Pilot decided that he should degrade the Charmander even further. After all, he had won, right? He could do whatever the hell he wanted. "Who put that tree in my way?" He mocked Hidon, grinning cheekily. "That tree just jumped right out at me!" His mimicry of his opponent was creepily on point; songbirds such as himself had an innate talent in imitation, and he was certainly no exception.

Pilot began to chuckle again, and paced in front of the foe. He was basking in the moment, taking great pride in what he had done. Sure, his left wing was probably broken, but who cares? As long as his pride wasn't broken, it didn't bother him that much. His injury would also give him the opportunity to say "you should've seen what happened to the other guy". The only real problem was that he wouldn't be able to join the guild as a cripple.

Of course, Pilot was only assuming that the fight had been ended, and that Hidon wouldn't get up. If his opponent regained enough energy to launch a surprise attack, it would undoubtedly connect, as Pilot would be too distracted to react in time.

Through a spinning head, which collided with the ground when he fell, he could hear the small bird Pokémon's laughter and further mockery. His teeth clenched even harder and he could feel his face turning slightly hotter. He grew slightly redder in hue in his embarrassment. He wanted nothing more than to punch this bird's lights out, but knew that he needed to take this moment to recover. Still, that didn't stop his body from instinctively reacting to the degradation. His claws tensed slightly, digging into the earth beneath him in fury. They wanted nothing more than to slash this mocking bird to ribbons.

Soon enough, he couldn't resist the temptation any longer. After only a few seconds after Pilot began pacing in front of him, he started moving again. He pushed himself back up again, flexing his claws. Then, in one swift movement, he brought the claws forward. He didn't have the distance nor focus at the moment to set up his Flame Charge or Dragon Rush. And this attack would take less energy and feel just as satisfying if not more so. His claws slashed through the air, attempting to half-punch, half-Scratch attack the bird Pokémon in the face as hard and quickly as he could. Exhausted as he was, it probably wasn't much, but it would hopefully be enough to at least flatten him.

Pilot squawked loudly as the attack connected with his face, drawing blood. It had actually hit the unsuspecting bird quite hard, and managed to knock him to the ground for a brief second. Quite exhausted from the fight, it took him a few moments to get back up and glare at the Charmander. He felt his face with his good wing, and realized that the attack had actually created a sizable gash on his cheek. "Did you really just do that?" Pilot asked, for the first time looking quite irritated.

Letting out another skree, he charged at his opponent, intent on finishing the job. The bird collided with the exhausted Charmander, pecking the daylights out of him. "You're gonna regret that!" He yelled, carelessly keeping himself within the range of the lizard's physical attacks. He hoped that he would knock him out quick, or else he would be risking taking more damage...

Hidon felt a slight sense of satisfaction when he managed to claw at the bird Pokémon's face successfully. He didn't even bother to follow the attack up, if he even could have. Instead, he simply stood there and basked in the glory of his feat. he even let out a laugh of his own, just like how Pilot had laughed at his fall before. He'd taken the Taillow by surprise and floored him. This time, it was Pilot's turn to take his time getting back up again. Finally, the bird Pokémon returned to his feet and Hidon's own laughter died down. "Hm...?" Came his response. "Well, what're you gonna do about-?" he started.

The Charmander was quickly interrupted, however, when Pilot let out another skree and charged at him again! "WAH!" he exclaimed. "Wh-what the...?" He felt a consecutive barrage of pecks, causing him to stumble back, trying to desperately back away. "G-get offa me, you idiot bird!" He swung his arms around wildly, not even bothering to aim his Scratch attack at the pecking Taillow. He knew that, at the moment, he couldn't take much more of this. He was going to succumb to the bird's powerful attacks soon. But for now, he just needed to stop him or shoo him away before he ended up cornered by a tree...!

"Not so tough now, eh?" Pilot cawed, continuing his relentless assault on Hidon. His foe's attempts at retaliating seemed to be ineffective at best, not inhibiting him from attacking at all. Of course, most of his Peck attacks still didn't hit their target, as the attacks were being executed very sloppily due to the bird's anger. It shouldn't take much more to put this dope down, Pilot bitterly thought to himself, starting to pant heavily. I can tell... He's getting desperate. C'mon, just faint already! I can't keep this up for much longer...

The sudden change in pace of the battle was clearly taking a toll on the bird, draining his energy and leaving him out of breath. He was panting heavily, but it wasn't stopping him from viciously pecking at his opponent. They were getting rather close to the tree, and if Pilot managed to pin Hidon, the battle would likely be won. Of course, if Hidon managed to scurry away, he would have more of a shot, considering that Pilot was starting to become exhausted...

Hidon opened his mouth to make a reply at Pilot, but he was quickly shut up before he could even say anything by another fierce Peck attack. It seemed that his wild Scratches were not sufficient to keep the Taillow away. Thankfully, though, the Peck attacks were almost as wild, missing quite a lot without him having to even put up much of an effort in evasion or blocking. He growled and struggled with Pilot for even longer, unable to keep himself from losing ground. He took step after step backward, only actually getting struck by the occasional jab of the beak.

Eventually, however, the Charmander realized he could go no further. His back had been pressed up against the tree and he cast a quick, distracted glance backward. "D-darn it...!" he growled, realizing his situation. With no more room to back up, he would be unable to continue evading as many of the Pecks as he currently was. This was bad...if he couldn't get out of this, he was done for...!

Finally pinning Hidon against a tree, Pilot stopped his bombardment of pecks for a brief moment, focusing on his target. This is it, I bet, He thought, staring intensely at the Charmander and taking a deep breath, He'll be out for the count. The bird had just used Focus Energy again, intent on knocking out his foe in a single, well-placed attack. Sure, it gave gave Hidon a split-second window of time to evade the attack, but he was likely too exhausted to utilize the opportunity.

Rather than saying some cheesy one-liner ("Hasta la vista, baby"), Pilot showed no hesitation. He knew that if he gave Hidon any longer to move, he could escape, and another opportunity could be lost. Using all of his remaining strength, the Taillow jabbed his opponent in the head with his beak, hoping that it would knock him out cold...