Shorties

Roxas is the first to get Pokemon GO. He’d refreshed the app store obsessively until it showed up and promptly set up his account…only to be thwarted by the servers for the entirety of the first two days.

Xion is next, and somehow manages to avoid the server issues, getting a leg up on catching Pokemon on the quiet walks she takes to have time to herself. She catches a Pikachu on her first day, and even though Roxas is a little jealous, she’s so enthusiastic about it that he can’t help but smile.

Axel, admittedly, was never as big on Pokemon as the rest of them, but he decides it could be fun, and anyway, Xion and Roxas won’t shut up about it, so he downloads it Friday. The late start means he misses the server problems that crippled Roxas in the first two days of the game’s release. His indifference is quickly replaced with a kind of mania, but after all, isn’t the point of the game to catch ‘em all? He discovers that the quickest way to do so is to drive around town, because he can cover more distance and hit all the different spawning areas, and even though that won’t hatch his eggs, it’s okay, because he’ll go with Xion on a walk later.

Xion looks a little alarmed when she finds out that Axel is playing while driving. Roxas frowns because Axel only ever seems to do it while Roxas is gone, and this is the first sign of their rivalry.

On his own day off, Roxas spends the day riding around the city on the bus. This is perfect, because the frequent stops means he can get all the Pokestops, too.

There’s a gym on their block, right next to their building. Someone claims it before any of them hit level five, but they all agree that it’s their gym, and they’re the only ones that can control it.

Axel reaches level five first, after all the Pidgeys and Rattatas he’s collected, and it’s no surprise when he chooses Team Valor. This is the second, and defining point in his rivalry with Roxas, who chooses Team Mystic.

Xion, meanwhile, opts for Team Instinct. She’s happy just collecting as many Pokemon as she can. Demyx, they find out later, is on Team Instinct, too. This surprises no one.

What is a surprise is how often their gym is yellow.

Usually, it’s Roxas and Axel, constantly battling for control, so that the gym doesn’t get past level one before it changes hands again. They both claim other gyms nearby, and even on the other side of town when they’re out, but as soon as they’re home again, the air is charged, insults and curses exchanged whenever they best one another.

And while they’re going at it, Xion and Demyx swoop in to claim the gym as their own, and together they easily bring the gym up to a second, and then a third level, all the while laughing at the looks of affront that both Axel and Roxas sport. Still, no one ever gets that upset about it, because Xion and Demyx really aren’t that competitive.

Roxas and Axel are, though.  Gyms are only the beginning.  Leveling is a race.  Earning badges is a race.  Completing the Pokedex is a race.  Roxas catches an Ivysaur on his way home one night, and Axel eats the last sea salt ice cream out of spite.

They fight, a real fight, with real insults and cold shoulders, for all of two days before Xion steps in.  When they make up, they agree that it’s a silly, childish rivalry.  Pokemon GO is just for fun, anyway.  At least, that’s what they say out loud.

Internally, they’re both already planning a strategy to lay the other to waste once the game allows player vs player battles.