Alice couldn't help herself. She hadn't even gotten around to retrieving her running shoes from Mom's house yet because she was too excited to find out what the rest of the game was like. That was why she found herself on Route 1 possibly long before she was meant to, because she was too interested in encountering her first wild Pokémon. She knew there was nothing the catching tutorial could possibly teach her that she didn't already know... even though she fully intended on circling back around eventually for completionist reasons.

It was quite idyllic, walking among the autumn woods rich in the fiery colors of the season. Every footstep let out satisfying crunching noises, and she occasionally thrilled her inner child by jumping into colorful leaf piles. "C'mon out, Stella!" she called, tossing the Chikorita's Pokéball in the air and grinning as he appeared beside her. "Ready to find a new friend?" she asked, gesturing toward the tall grass.

"Wait one second." Stella narrowed his eyes with something like determination, and then charged toward the nearest leaf pile, which exploded in a flurry of color when he rushed through it.

She laughed delightedly. "Yeah, kill that leaf pile!"

"Now I'm all warmed up!" He waved the leaf on his head around and made the cutest little chirping noise as he charged into the tall grass next.

Stella's attack hit home, which was great. The attack looked like it winded Impidimp a bit, but obviously not enough for it to be done yet. It let out some incredibly annoying shrieks that made Alice's ears ring a bit. Oof... if she caught it, she'd definitely need to train it out of that particular habit. It sprang forward to use Bite, but only managed to graze Stella since he was ready for it.

"Nice dodge," she praised him. "Keep up the light footwork! Let's try another Razor Leaf."

Stella nodded, then paused as the Impidimp crept up to him slowly with its hands up. "Uhhhh?"

It cupped its hands and began whispering something once it was close enough to Stella. Alice mentally ran through the movepool Impidimp had access to and let out a warning shout too late. "It's trying to use Confide to lower your special attack! Ignore it!"

"Ugh..." The Chikorita made a face of disgust. "It told me it rolled in some poo earlier and it liked it. Have some class." He made a retching noise at the Impidimp as it offered its forearm for him to sniff.

"Mental note not to touch that one before it has a bath." She had to suppress a giggle though. She had a bit of an immature sense of humor. "Well, Razor Leaf is a physical attack, so let's stick with that!"

Without further hesitation, Stella attacked with another Razor Leaf.

"Yes!" Stella's attack did well enough to lower Impidimp's HP a bit more. "Okay, another turn or two outta do it..."

Neither of them expected the Impidimp to retaliate so quickly. The creature charged Stella with ferocious energy, catching Stella entirely off guard and taking the full brunt of the attack. Her heart dropped at the sight and it was dawning on her now, how silly it was to just skip the entire first part of a game like she had. She'd become arrogant, confident nothing could possibly hurt her or Stella when she was armed with her vast knowledge of the franchise. It didn't change the fact that the beginning of the game, when your Pokémon was at its weakest and you only had one, was when you were at your most vulnerable.

"Assurance, huh?" That's what it'd looked like to her. It laughed mischievously at her, as if to confirm her suspicions. "We're not backing down! Stella, hit it with a Razor Leaf!"