"Holy crap, dodge first!"
Seeing the Ice Beam hurtling toward them, Xiaoyun hurriedly grabbed Dawn's hand and started looking for a large tree to hide behind.
"Xiaoyun, what do we do now?" Dawn asked him, catching her breath after dodging the Ice Beam.
"It's fine. You can just catch it, Dawn, and that'll settle it. This Buneary mastered Ice Beam on its own without any training. Its talent should be pretty good."
As he pulled Dawn out of the way of Buneary's attacks, Xiaoyun considered its performance and felt that this Buneary suited her very well.
"Go, Dawn! I choose you!" Before Dawn could think, he pushed her toward Buneary with the hand holding hers.
"Come on, at least let me get ready!"
"Mimi." Seeing Dawn emerge, Buneary prepared to attack and teach this human a lesson, but Dawn interrupted it.
"Wait, Buneary! I want to battle you. If you lose, you have to become my Pokémon."
Dawn pointed at Buneary and challenged it to a battle. She had encountered Buneary several times since starting her journey, but for various reasons, every attempt had ended in failure. This time, she was going to catch this Buneary no matter what.
"Bun?" Buneary tilted its head as it looked at Dawn. It kept feeling that the girl before it had some inexplicable sort of... obsession with it?
"Go, Piplup!" Dawn opened her Poké Ball and sent out her star player, Piplup.
"Pip, Piplup!"
Piplup had already battled Pokémon like Buneary several times. Seeing this rabbit again, it raised its head and patted its little belly, declaring that dealing with it would be as easy as taking something out of a pocket. Just wait for this penguin to go capture it.
"Bun?" Buneary looked at the Piplup opposite it, wondering where this idiot had come from.
"Go, Piplup! Use Bubble Beam!"
Dawn could wait no longer. Preparing to strike first, she ordered Piplup to attack Buneary with Bubble Beam.
"Piplup!" Hearing the command, their star player Piplup sucked in its belly and began gathering power in its mouth, spitting out streams of blue bubbles to bombard the area around Buneary.
"Bun!" Buneary was no pushover... er, though it did seem to be a plant-eater.
Still, Buneary was a rabbit, after all. Gathering strength in both legs at once, it used Bounce and easily avoided the continuous barrage of Bubble Beam.
After dropping out of the air, Buneary's two ears, curled like dollops of cream, shone with the white light of Dizzy Punch as it swung at Piplup like a boxer.
"Piplup, dodge it, quick!" Seeing that Buneary had not only dodged Piplup's Bubble Beam but was now attacking it with Dizzy Punch, Dawn panicked a little and ordered Piplup to use the divine skill, "dodge it," to evade the attack.
"Pip."
Piplup saw the rabbit opposite it raise both ears, ready to hit its handsome face. Hearing Dawn's command, it took off on its two short little legs and started dodging. It remembered that taking this move to the face would leave it all woozy.
"Mimi." Buneary's Dizzy Punch hit nothing but air. Thinking that this little fatty ran pretty fast, it began forming another icy-blue beam and fired it at Piplup.
"Piplup!" Seeing the rabbit start attacking it from a distance with Ice Beam again, Piplup thought that this rabbit really was fierce. Wasn't it going to take a break?
Without waiting for Dawn's command, Piplup took off running again.
"Ah, Piplup!"
Seeing Buneary chase Piplup all over the place with Ice Beam, Dawn did not know what to do for a moment.
"Piplup!"
Just as Dawn was trying to think of a way to help Piplup escape its fate of being chased, water enveloped the little chubby penguin. Controlling the current, it flew up and evaded the Ice Beam that had almost struck it.
"What's this?" Dawn looked in confusion at Piplup flying through the air wrapped in water, not knowing what was happening.
"Dawn, that's Aqua Jet. Piplup probably just learned it while being chased."
Xiaoyun was rather impressed, too. Should he praise this little fatty's talent or what? Learning a new move while being chased around counted as a special kind of genius, he supposed.
"Aqua Jet?"
"Piplup, use Aqua Jet!"
Hearing that Piplup had learned a new move, Dawn was delighted and immediately ordered it to attack Buneary with Aqua Jet.
The skies had cleared, the rain had stopped, and with its new move learned, Piplup felt it had what it took again.
"Piplup!"
Hearing Dawn's command, Piplup's entire body became enveloped in water, turning into a jet of water as it charged toward Buneary.
"Mimi."
By now, Buneary was starting to tire, too. From the Ice Beam it had fired at the two humans at the beginning to its constant use of moves in its chase with Piplup, this little fatty kept dodging here and there, and it simply could not land a hit. It made Buneary so mad.
On top of that, Aqua Jet was a priority move that was also guaranteed to hit. Unable to resist, Buneary could only watch as the little fatty steered its Aqua Jet right up to it.
Bam!
Piplup's Aqua Jet struck Buneary. With Buneary already having little stamina left, this jet of water left it lying helplessly on the ground, both rabbit ears drooping.
"Pip, Piplup."
"Dawn, quick! Throw a Poké Ball!"
Piplup and Xiaoyun reminded the forgetful Dawn at the same time, lest this Pokémon get away again.
Prompted by their reminder, Dawn took a Poké Ball from the pocket beside her skirt and struck a pose, silently reciting, The pose has to be precise, the movement steady, to nail it in one shot. (Dawn maintained that she had only remembered the first version.)
"All right, go, Poké Ball!"
Dawn struck her pose and hurled the Poké Ball hard. This time, it finally hit Buneary, which was powerless to resist.
Ding, ding.
Once the ball hit Buneary, Dawn kept her eyes fixed on it. As the Poké Ball rocked, her heart flickered along with the flashing light on it.
Ding!
"Yay! I caught Buneary! I knew there'd be no need to worry!"
"Pip, Piplup!"
Seeing the Poké Ball stop rocking, Dawn walked over and picked it up, happily raising it above her head as she spoke her catchphrase. Piplup happily flapped its little wings beside her, cheering her on.
"Very nice! Congratulations, Dawn, you caught your first Pokémon." Xiaoyun looked at the girl with a smile, generous with his praise.
The girl cradled the Poké Ball like a priceless treasure, an expression of delight on her delicate face. This was the first Pokémon she had caught, and she really was very happy.
"But Dawn, let's let Buneary out and treat it first."
"Come out, Buneary." Dawn let Buneary out, and Xiaoyun stepped forward to give it some basic treatment.
"It's nothing serious. It just exhausted itself earlier. A little rest will do."
Seeing no wounds on Buneary's body, Xiaoyun figured it had probably exhausted itself a little by using too many moves while chasing Piplup earlier.