After a little while of wandering around the aptly named 'Surge Steppes', watching lightening bolts crash into distant pillars of iron, it finally dawned on Nero that he need not be entirely alone on a journey like this. Yes he didn't want to be around people, but a Pokemon was a different matter. It was just a collection of data after all, not another human in another VR kit who would be nothing but a bother to him right now. Knowing that the creature he was now releasing from a Pokeball was just a set of numbers was comforting when Nero just wanted something easy to fill his time with today. He'd purposefully turned off the 'speech' setting for the Pokemon for that exact reason - well, that and the fact that Pokemon had never talked in the old games that he'd played, so ti had felt like the more natural choice for him.

Cyndaquil materialised on the ground beside him and let out a chirp of excitement at seeing his trainer again, causing Nero to smirk a little at the sight of it. It was stupidly cute really, wasn't it? Actually, that wasn't a good thing. His lips flattened back out again as the ever=present worry that he wouldn't seem 'cool' enough snuck its way into his head again. He needed to get on evolving this one as soon as possible. Maybe finding a wild Pokemon to battle would help with that - or maybe not, he didn't actually know how leveling up worked in this game yet...

They were far enough away from the distant storms at least that there was no rain to bother the small fire type, and so Nero and Cyndaquil were able to walk on through the tall grass in search of something new to battle, both itching to get themselves properly stuck in to this exciting world around them.

The fire slammed into the Yanma and, perhaps unsurprisingly given the type match up, seemed to cause a significant amount of damage to the creature. It let out a strangled noise and tried to flap its singed wings, getting itself airborne again before turning towards the Pokemon that had attacked it. Cyndaquil was panting ever so slightly at the force of his own attack - Nero had noticed that in the rival battle too. He took damage from his own attacks it seemed, or there were negative consequences to exhaustion, or something like that. It seemed like an issue that would be worse in the early game and one he might think about less once his Pokemon were all powered up, but it was something to keep an eye on for now.

It didn't seem to be bothering Cyndaquil too much though, who was soon bracing for the Yanma that came barreling into him. Unlike in the rival battle when each attack had slashed the visible health bar significantly, this seemed like barely a scratch. That tracked though, didn't it? Wild Pokemon were always weaker than trained Pokemon. Good, that meant that coming out here to level up, or... something, was the right decision. At the very least, he'd get some practice in without having to worry about rushing to a Pokemon Centre again - or a shrine out here presumably?

Without needing any further instruction, Cyndaquil fired off a second ember while the Yanma was still flying away, aiming to catch the Pokemon in the back before it could flee. It had Nero raising his eyebrows in surprise at how ferocious the little creature was. Alright, maybe cool as well as cute, he took back his earlier concern about that. He doubted the Yanma thought it was something to underestimate either by this point too.

Ha! Nice work from his starter there! Not only did the ember hit the approaching bug smack in its big compound eyes, but it knocked it right out of the sky. The direct hit did enough damage to knock the enemy out, and Nero let out a cheer as the Yanma crashed into the ground before it could land another attack on Cyndaquil. The fire type echoed his trainer's cheer, jumping excitedly and shooting the fire in his back out as far as it would go. A solid victory, and a nice little bonding moment for the two of them as well it seemed.

Ah, but what next. Catch it, right? He could have up to six if this was the same as the old games, and so far he had fire, electric, and dark. A bug would be a good extra type there then, and he'd just been singing the speedy thing's praises too, hadn't he? Alright, but then... not sweeper? It didn't feel very tanky either, but, there was a third one too. Support or healer or something like that. Usually he'd dismiss anything passive like that, but actually, the old man's grass type that had helped him in the rival battle had been a support 'mon, hasn't it? And even though they'd lost, they'd only gotten as far as they had done because of its healing. Support wasn't useless then, and being able to zoom around the battle field to heal up those in need was probably beneficial. A speedy support then? Seemed like a good plan for a Yanma.

Taking the Pokeball out of his inventory, he threw it towards the downed bug, hoping that he'd remembered the tutorial correctly for how to do this. After all, just like the others, it had been a little bit manic in the end.