《Pokémon: Mystic Journey》 Beginning鈥檚 mayhaps Pok¨¦mon Pretty self explanatory, one word and you know that Shaymins gonna hit the fan. In a world where your dog can turn into some type of omega god if you don¡¯t have an eviolite, or that evolution prevention stone some of the adults say is necessary to have, it makes one wonder about life. Is it worth living in such a dangerous and unpredictable world? The answer is¡­ HECK YEAH! Being a Pok¨¦mon trainer¡¯s the coolest thing to ever happen even more so since people found out about evo stones, mega evolution, z-moves, dynamaxing, teracrystalization, need I go on. Tomorrow marks the day I, Evandros, get my Pok¨¦mon license, become a Pok¨¦mon trainer and the first step to becoming a Champion with a capital C. A dream many wish for but few succeed, even my dad really wanted to be one once upon a time. Of course there''s a lot to consider before becoming a trainer like your typings on your team (to mono or not to mono), the national stats of a Pokemon (created for a basline on a Pok¨¦mons¡¯ potential), what type of moves to train (tale of Goldilocks and the three ursarings), a theme, which gym to take first, which region to go next circuit, how many Pok¨¦mon you¡¯re even allowed, etc etc etc etc. Its all neat stuff like picking the team comp on an mmorpg or a moba game, its all about experience and reading about the gameplay and such. Its just unfortunate that I¡¯m not a reincarnated Pok¨¦mon trainer or some rando from another world, those library books fueled many little kids into finding Solagleo or Lunala; too bad staying up all day and night doesn¡¯t summon those particular Legendary Pok¨¦mon, only Darkrai or Cresselia. But considering that Professor Oak is going to give me a Pokedex as well as Pokeballs and a starter, I think I¡¯ll be able to get all the information I need from the little mechanic encyclopedia on all things Pok¨¦mon. I mean, I''ve already started reading up on a bunch of cool Pokemon like Heracross and Salamence, plus we had to do a lot of tests and studying to get ready for our journey just to make sure we don''t do anything dumb on our journey like not taking care of our Pokemon or heading over to areas we aren''t supposed to be traveling at like Victory Road which trainers with five badges or more allowed to travel through. That''s actually the very first hurdle to becoming a champion, tests... it honestly makes sense now that I think about it. Most people just give up being serious trainers after their first battle and just accept their fate as a mediocre trainer or go and try other professions like rangers or coordinators, some just give up outright. Have I been saying trainer too much? Not me, hehe, since I¡¯m plannin to be the cream of the crop; stronger than heavyweights like Lance Blackthorn, Cynthia Shirona, Steven Stone, and last but definitely not least Leon. Having people like these help set goals to others and is a good marketing scheme for stores to overprice stuff like pok¨¦balls, evo stones, and held items; for that there is no doubt. Thankfully, poke balls and a lot of the standard stuff doesn''t really increase in price since the league keeps a really tight leash on that sorta stuff. And certainly scum like Pok¨¦mon hunters, gangs (like the one in Alola or Indigo¡¯s very own Raikou Raiders) and evil organizations like team plasma which for some reason no one believes me when I say their evil little nasty plotting Togepi with tiny little- ¡­ its just mean telling people to ditch their close friends just cuz Pok¨¦mon seem a bit scary in their eyes, plus the hypocrites all seem to have a pok¨¦ball on their person with one creature or another. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I¡¯m glad they only stay in Unova otherwise I woulda noped myself right into Galadia or Alola like any normal citizen that hates evil old mens¡¯ guts. Why, if I got my partner tomorrow I might just be tempted to just run and kick team plasmas¡¯ lapras and maybe their ekans right at it. Before my imagination can even begin to imagine using Lugia themself on those bunch of bozzos (my greatest dream which I never forgot for some reason or another, still hella cool) a duo of Eevee¡¯s jump onto my bed and snuggle with me. These two cute fluff balls are two perfect examples of what happens when idiots listen to that Arceus awful organization, I found the brother and sister 3 days after their trainer left them in the wild when they were visiting from Unova and since the two were bred to perfection it meant that they had virtually zero survival skills. We ended up checking and they did previously belong to a ranch and the trainer who released them got a black mark on his account for unlawful releasing of Pokemon or something. If my mom, the elementary school teacher of our class in Pallet town, hadn¡¯t taken us out for a field trip I never would¡¯ve snuck away (3 years ago and still my nickname is ¡®immature¡¯) and found these two mere moments from just giving up. It¡¯s always a little gut-wrenching every time I remember how skinny they were or how thick their fur was with dirt and mud from attack moves by the nearby inhabitants, the worst part was their eyes¡­ Leaf, the younger sister of the two licked my nose to take me out of my thoughts again, she always knew when I would remember that day and how I always started crying whenever my thoughts completed their cycle on that event. And ever since that day she always stuck by my side even when I went to school much to my mothers amusement and annoyance, all the kids would think I did it on purpose because my mom was the teach and I was gonna keep my cutie Eevee once I got my license. The other one, Shadow, looked up but kept his cool look like always, as the older of the two he remembered that event to full detail and his tail always stiffens whenever Leaf licks my nose, she doesn¡¯t remember much except she was hungry and I came and helped unlike him. He actually thought that seven year old me was a dangerous Pokemon and his first thought was to punch me in the shins, it probably also didn''t help for the two of them that Shadow was an off color Pokemon so his white fur stood out in the forest; it was actually how I found them. Shadow is always looking at me whenever Leaf isn¡¯t around as if thinking I¡¯ll ditch the two of them the first second I can... probably. He isn''t very open about feelings, especially his. He stays at home all the time except whenever it¡¯s midnight. Then he goes Giratina knows where doing Mew knows what, if I didn¡¯t know any better I would assume that he¡¯s finding escape routes and safe locations for the 2 of them to stay. But I know better, he¡¯s just learning proper survival skills from the local Rattata and Nidoran. It took two years for him to start letting the duo Eevee snuggle hug which just meant they crashed on my bed instead of their pet beds only because of one cold night where a local Snorunt decided to start making mischief. I honestly don¡¯t know what I¡¯m gonna do with him since when I asked he refused to join my journey but he still mooches off the household just cuz he¡¯s cute. He¡¯ll probably end up staying with mom, unless one of my friends ends up catching him to take him along but that seems like a stretch since he doesn''t really like other people. Tomorrow. Just need to sleep and my story begins. Close my eyes; snuggle with Leaf and leave an arm open for Shadow as always, the little stinker decides to sleep at my feet instead but I know he¡¯ll snuggle as well. He can¡¯t stand the smell of feet and is just waiting for me to sleep first. ¡°Tomorrow our journey begins Leaf just wait you¡¯ll see¡± I yawn out as my goodnight. Blinding light, Legends know and unknown all converge at one spot, villains¡­ villains¡­ villains at large causing mayhem, a hero that doesn¡¯t exist, a hero yet to exist, Lugia blasting team plasma buildings left and right with a righteous fury, trials of the island combined with the pok¨¦mon league to make the greatest conference to ever exist. Yeah... that''s a pretty goofy dream. Beginnings of the Journey Tomorrow is now TODAY. YAY. I blitz off my bed to the bathroom the second my timer turns on knowing that a second too late and my mom will hog the bathroom all to herself for wayyy too long for my big day. As soon as I use the bathroom I immediately start combing my black hair, not that it needs much combing anyway since I just went to the barber for a buzz cut a couple days ago. It actually looks good with my blue eyes considering I was only cutting it for convenience¡¯s sake, I mean why would anyone go into the wild with long hair. Thats just asking for branches and dirt to get stuck in there. I then rush to my room to start changing my pajamas into my non-adventuring clothes and head off out of my room to the stairs that lead to our kitchen downstairs. But I¡¯m wondering why she hasn¡¯t come out of her room I mean today is only¡­ I gave my head a big smack for being an idiot brain, it¡¯s the weekend so of course she¡¯s going to sleep in for at least another half hour maybe more if she had to drink coffee yesterday cuz of the people at school; since she won¡¯t be waking up anytime soon I¡¯ll have to make my own breakfast. A perk of having the best teacher in the world as your mom means you can experiment whatever you want and she¡¯ll call it a ¡®learning experience¡¯ so she can run off to school early and set up all the evil surprise quizzes and see what the school plan for rainy days and other stuff may be since only a few weirdos would wanna go out in the rain, it just so happens that I¡¯m one such weirdo. Just then, the Eevee duo go to the lounge and wait for breakfast patiently while I make to get their Pokechow into their respective bowls, an adorable bowl with a little Pichu for Leaf and a dull looking bowl for her shiny brother. ¡­I can¡¯t be trusted to make them actual food instead of store bought stuff since the last time I gave them my experimental cooking Leaf cried because of how bad it was and Shadow probably thought of committing torture attempts that would count as war crimes. It was either that or that he thought the food was the greatest thing in human innovation. So instead I take my experiments to the local Grimer and Muk which can be found eating trash in the garbage filled land just a twenty minute walk to and fro the house, it isn''t actually that stinky since the local poison types do this thing where they control stuff like scent so they can make even garbage smell like flowers. I eat my own bacon and eggs with some bread and get the boxes filled with my beautiful creations to the garbage eating Pok¨¦mon. After sprinting to the local trash center I wave hi to the security guard in charge who always waves back and head to my meeting place with the poison types already waiting. ¡°Dig in fella¡¯s¡± to which they reply in grunts and happy trills. They love the food because I made it but they seem to be a little avoiding eating my creation of Slowpoke tail dipped in chocolate coating with Paras mushrooms saut¨¦ed in moomoo milk, that means that my skills are getting better. YES. But now here comes the hard part. ¡°Hey guys, I¡¯ve got an announcement to make.¡± instantly they hush up. ¡°So you guys know that I¡¯m going to be going on an adventure right?¡± to which I get a few nods. ¡°Well, today''s that day and it means I won¡¯t be back until a very long time alright.¡± I don¡¯t look at them when I say that but from the lamenting wails of ¡°Grimer¡±, ¡°Muk¡±, and even the odd poison type saying their names¡­ none of them were happy to see me leave. ¡°But this doesn¡¯t mean goodbye forever, I¡¯ll come back someday and when I do I¡¯ll be the best trainer in Kanto¡­ no I¡¯ll be the best in the world alright¡± happy trills and noises come out from my declaration. ¡°So I was wondering if any of you wanna join me to be the very best in the world.¡± The answer was obvious from the silence, no problem since these guys were bred and kept in trash zones near cities because they don¡¯t want to battle, plus you aren¡¯t allowed to catch any Pok¨¦mon from within here unless it¡¯s an emergency or they show signs of wanting to battle. I just say thanks for being my friends and start heading to the lab after spending a couple minutes playing with them. When suddenly officer Jenny is in front of me seemingly waiting for me to exit the dump, almost as if sh- Mom ¡°I¡¯ll head home now¡± I say to which she replies ¡°Make sure you do.¡± After sprinting back home I use the garden hose and secret soap bar in the back to wash my hands before heading inside to gather a couple choice materials. The Eevees notice me holding up incense sticks and walk to the shrine in the back. I always do this in my daily routine to the point that it¡¯ll be a bit hard to let it go. I start praying for good luck on my father¡¯s gravestone after lightning the incense sticks. Everyday I would do this and Leaf would always be at my side patiently mimicking my actions. It¡¯s always a pleasant surprise when her brother comes to pay his respects. They both have probably realized this¡¯ll be the last time I¡¯ll be doing this. It¡¯s quite uncommon for people to die due to Pok¨¦mon mostly just being accident¡¯s, but my dad passed when he was doing ranger work and tried calming down Pok¨¦mon that a trainer left in the wild. Another reason I hate team plasma, but now isn¡¯t the time for bitter memories. Once the incense sticks fizzle out I head back inside and put on sunscreen and my circular hat which I forgot to do in the morning even though I know that my semi pale skin can get sunburnt quite easily. One last check making sure I haven¡¯t forgotten my phone and I start heading to the lab alone. No wild Pok¨¦mon are allowed in the lab unless it¡¯s been granted permission to enter and my mom still being asleep. After saying goodbye to the Eevee duo I start walking at a sedate pace to the lab and start taking the sights in, Pallet is a small town and each house is spaced quite a bit from each other but everyone knows the community is close knit. With each step I take I see more wild Pok¨¦mon just waiting for a new trainer to either battle against or be caught by, very few of them don¡¯t know the tradition that takes place and those few are gonna be trashed first and foremost by adults who want to keep the kids safe, all the others that don¡¯t wish to fight are just observing the kids that will come out of the lab with new partners alongside them and then try and wait to find our if they became as amazing as professor Oak had once been. I¡¯m actually a little scared now that the lab keeps getting bigger and bigger with each step I take and before one say could Alomomola I¡¯m standing right in front of the sliding doors starting to have second thoughts when I get attacked by some ugly fighting type Pok¨¦mon from distortion. ¡°What are you still standing around for dweeb? Lets head inside already¡± oh, it¡¯s just the local red headed Primeape Amy. If I didn¡¯t know any better I would¡¯ve thought she just used aura to bruise my back, but I do know better and she¡¯s only using her muscles to try and kill me. Before I can even think of arguing we¡¯re already inside the waiting room and I can tell Amy still wants to talk with the way she keeps looking at me from her magazine she picked up. After an eternity that was actually just five minutes I decided to strike a conversation while we wait. "Hey did you ever get around to doing that science quiz thing that Miss Dolores put up on wizzkid?" Her eyes sparkle remembering the last homework from our science teacher. "Oh yeah, it was so cool how we did that mix and match thing for the DNA and then we''d, like, see the actual Pokemon the DNA belongs to and the fun facts. Oh man, I kinda wanna just stay a bit longer and do stuff like that but being a trainer''s gonna be so cool." ¡°So still gonna pick Squirtle?¡± The question gets a snort out of her. ¡°Of course~ we already discussed this, plus this Squirtle is gonna have Aura Sphere so that pretty much sealed the deal remember?¡± She retorts tossing her auburn hair in my face. Her braids hurt the most. After talking for another fifteen minutes, with her ¡®playfully shoving¡¯ me around, my new bruises were allowed to rest once someone came through the door. ¡°Yo, Mirielle finally showed up huh¡± UGH, why did Amy just say that. The stupid Bouffalant doesn¡¯t even realize that she said the wrong thing because Giratina knows she¡¯s got the social awareness of a Slowpoke, honestly makes one wonder why she always has the right words for me. ¡°Mirielle, I¡¯m so glad you came so quickly. Otherwise Amy here would have killed me with her ¡®playful¡¯ jabs¡± I make sure to air quote the word playful. See, that smile and light giggle are exactly what she needs and everyone start¡¯s brightening up, even the receptionist and some baby Pok¨¦mon that cross by. Course she sits next to Amy and we starts talking about how her choice of Pichu is perfect for her since she doesn¡¯t really want to battle a lot. We also have to reaffirm her desire for journeying since she always gets shy after she starts thinking about being outside the town for so long. We can always tell when she starts getting anxious by the way she twirls some of her black hair that goes a little below her shoulders. Twenty minutes turn into an hour, an hour turns into an hour and a half and when it¡¯s been almost two hours since Amy and I arrived the door gets slammed. Only after the person who ran into it takes a step back does it open and allows him to come through. ¡°Hey mister Slowbro, glad you could make it finally.¡± I verbally jab at him, seldom does the car loving dude actually arrive on time. He just pull back his frizzy silver hair and says. ¡°Well, I actually have a reason why I¡¯m late. The Dodrio drivers just announced their newest model and it¡¯ll be out in a few months.¡± ¡±Doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯ll still be slower than a Rapidash you know¡± Amy for the back-up. I don¡¯t know whether to be happy or annoyed that we¡¯re on the same page about this. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Well, I think it¡¯s cool that James thinks of something other than those contests and the movie studios he kept on talking about.¡± Mirielle spoke and honestly. True. "Hey, movie studios are awesome. How else would we have big cinematic movies in the first place." Again. True. Now that all four of us were together the receptionist sent someone to get the professor and promptly proceeded to guide us towards an open stadium with a table and four pokeballs filled with creatures and multiple empty ones behind them, all of which is right in front of us. Wordlessly we wait in anticipation for the professor to arrive and officially begin our adventure. After about ten minutes of waiting all four of us perk up when we hear footsteps growing louder with every second. ¡°Greeting¡¯s intrepid youngsters, my apologies for being late I was researching a very interesting rock type Growlithe, for now I must congratulate you as you are about to become Pok¨¦mon trainers who will go on to make fabulous memories. Before we begin I will explain the rules you must adhere to for your journey such as keeping only six Pok¨¦mon maximum, though your carry limit can be increased depending on how mature you have been during your journey.¡± The Professor then explained about how we can¡¯t do anything illegal, what constitutes as something illegal, and how we will need specific papers to be allowed in dangerous areas such as Mt. Silver. We follow along and even answer a couple questions he shoots at us. Amy gets most of the biology questions while I get a ton of the general rules. James and Mirielle were more than fine with answering about stuff in cities. ¡°Now that we¡¯ve gone through all the actions you cannot partake in how about all of you start heading towards the table and stand beside the Pok¨¦mon you wish to take with you." With that the four of us scooted over to the table and stood beside our choices, Mirielle was at the leftmost while Amy was at the rightmost. I was in the middle of Amy and James and judging by the way both of them were fidgeting it was safe to say that the invitation to open the four marked poke balls was tantalizing. "Now, how about we start from a left to right order shall we?" said the receptionist, I was 70% sure that she was a robot but judging by the way she was trying to stifle her giggles when looking at us it was obvious she was a living being. Or maybe she wanted us to think that. Slowly Mirielle started by picking up her five empty poke balls in front of her and then took the sixth ball with her chosen partner. She picked up the ball and unclipped the lightning mark from her ball whilst pressing the button and aiming it towards the ground, suddenly out came a flash of light which landed on the floor and as quickly as it came it then disappeared and left a yellow rodent that was on all fours before suddenly standing up and balancing itself with its heart shaped tail. "... Professor, why does my Pichu look different?" "Well unfortunately the Pichu you were going to receive had recently managed to evolve and became the Pikachu that stands before you." A yell of ''Pika, Pika'' and some snapping of fingers led all our gazes back towards the Pikachu who looked like we should have appreciated her entrance more. "Sorry Pikachu for taking the spotlight but this is necessary for your trainer to learn more about you," the professors reasoning placated the electric rodent but it was mostly the scratches from Mirielle that eased it. "now Mirielle I want you to unclip the paper from the back of the electric magnet while your fellow trainers open their pokedex and aim it at Pikachu We all started to our task and suddenly everyone''s pokedex, sans Mirielles'', beeped with a screen stating that our DNA was locked to our respective machine. While that was happening Mirielle unhooked the paper from her clip and started opening just as our pokedex was showing the list of details regarding this Pikachu.
Name Pikachu
Type Electric
Ability Lightning Rod
Nature Hasty
Health 45
Attack 80
Sp. Attack 75
Defense 50
Sp. Defense 60
Speed 120
Total stats 430
Moves Nuzzle, Growl, Electric Terrain, Electro Ball, Disarming Voice
¡°Now what you need to understand is that this Pikachu is not allowed to evolve similar to its parent, as the second Pikachu to be on a champion team this one¡¯s parent is champion Chase¡¯s partner Pok¨¦mon.¡± warned professor Oak. If what he¡¯s saying is true, and why wouldn¡¯t it be, he just gave a guaranteed champion tier Pok¨¦mon right out the gate to a new trainer. If people found out about this, many would have expectations around her and would try and force her to become a champion herself, a role that my current friend could never handle, and they would forcibly condition her to become one. The Professor and the receptionist are the only ones aside from myself who understand this and judging by the way they look at us it seems that they are trying to gauge our understanding of the social aspects of being a trainer. If people trying to force her to be champion was bound to happen, then there needs to be someone who is clearly her superior in battling with a far greater reputation taking the spotlight instead; something I wouldn¡¯t actually hate to do. Sensing that the moment of revering Mirielle¡¯s partner was over James then set down his pokedex on the table and repeated the actions Mirielle had just done ending it by unclipping his leaf shaped magnet from the filled ball and pressing the mechanical button before tossing it up just for it to open and a light to come out before falling to the ground, out of this light came a green frog-like creature with a plant bulb on its back. Wordlessly, James decided to hold his hand a few centimeters shy from the Bulbasaur which waited a few seconds before nuzzling the hand. We all gathered the information for this Bulbasaur, with Mirielle having locked her DNA with her pokedex, and looked at the blurb of information about it before locking into its stats.
Name Bulbasaur
Type Grass/Poison
Ability Overgrow
Nature Adamant
Health 45
Attack 49
Sp. Attack 65
Defense 49
Sp. Defense 65
Speed 45
Total stats 318
Moves Curse, Tackle, Grassy Terrain, Power Whip
¡°Unfortunately, due to the low power and young age of your Bulbasaur I will have to ban the both of you from using Power Whip until your partner masters how to use Vine Whip,¡± The professor warned ¡°other than that you are allowed to use all the other moves and any moves that Bulbasaur learns naturally.¡± Right then the receptionist cleared her throat and pointed to the poke ball that landed very far away. ¡°Hehehe, I forgot to tell you all but until you learn how to position the ball to land back into your hand I would suggest opening them while they''re still in your hands.¡± Oak chuckled Mr. Slowbro had the decency to look embarrassed and started towards it right when I put down my pokedex and took my empty balls into my pocket, right then Amy got impatient and was motioning for the both of us to go at the same time. I acquiesced to her request by nodding and we both took the remaining poke balls and unclipping our respective magnets before pressing the mechanical button and releasing our respective partners at the same time, after which we tried our own methods of taking our partners to accept us. Amy gave headpats to the Squirtle and another hand to give scratches under its chin, meanwhile I motioned Charmander to give me a hug which it did and then started rubbing it¡¯s back noting that the flame on its tail started growing brighter the longer we embraced. Coos and cries of sadness appear when both of us move away from our partner and wordlessly we open our papers to view at them together as we left our pokedex¡¯s back at the table.
Name Charmander
Type Fire
Ability Blaze
Nature Brave
Hp 39
Attack 52
Sp. Attack 60
Defense 43
Sp. Defense 50
Speed 65
Total stats 309
Moves Dragon Dance, Ember, Beat up, Growl, Scratch
Name Squirtle
Type Water
Ability Rain Dish
Nature Quiet
Hp 44
Attack 48
Sp. Attack 50
Defense 65
Sp. Defense 64
Speed 43
Total stats 314
Moves Ice Beam, Aura Sphere, Yawn, Water Gun, Shell Smash, Tackle
¡°Similarly to young James¡¯s Bulbasaur you cannot use both Ice Beam and Aura Sphere until you receive proper training; understood?¡± Amy nodded at the professor¡¯s question. We both moved back to the table to join our friends and their partners that were sitting on the table, we then all pocketed our pokedex and started moving towards to pick up the books we were given before Amy decided to have a brilliant idea for once. And this doesn¡¯t involve me nearly dying, yay. ¡°How about we all have a Pok¨¦mon battle against each other, the platform at school that the teachers use sometimes could work.¡± A solid plan that would be both safe and a teaching lesson to occupy kids, did my mother put this plan in the Primeape¡¯s head. We all nodded to it and started discussing about when it would happen tomorrow since we would need to start heading out to other cities eventually and even though we were mature 10 year olds we were still 10 year olds. Plans set we all went to our parents to give them the news and then asked the principal if it would be permissible, thankfully we were given the all clear and headed home with our respective partners to introduce them to our families. When I came home my mother was surprised to see I had a Charmander since its evolution was also one of the Pok¨¦mon that went rampant during my father¡¯s last patrol, it wasn¡¯t the creature¡¯s fault that it¡¯s trainer dumped it at a random location so I shouldn¡¯t hate it¡¯s species or any other Pok¨¦mon that gets released from trainers. Unless the Pokemon¡¯s inherently evil like some Malamar or really mean like Zangoose and Seviper. I placed my books on my bedside for midnight reading since I was gonna stay up late with excitement and took out my pokedex where Leaf and Shadow could see. They already know what I was going to do with it and they wanted to find out their moves when they woke up tomorrow morning to which I agreed. As I got into bed in my night suit my sleeping partners and Charmander were all ready to lay asleep with me¡­ ¡°Hey Charmander, would it be okay if I gave you a new name instead?¡± A happy char was all I needed ¡°How about Chardon, maybe Char for short¡± another happy char, or should it now be Char? Soon after, Chardon and Leaf snuggle on my right with Shadow on my left as I keep the nightlight on for reading up on the rules on being a trainer. I just knew I wasn¡¯t going to finish this anytime soon and was bound to give this a reread afterwards incase I miss anything. Too bad I didn¡¯t start with the other book, it would¡¯ve helped me later when I thought I was gonna die. Trainer battles It was now tomorrow again and I couldn¡¯t be more excited. I turned off my alarm clock simply cuz I woke up early and headed into the bathroom with a pep in my step. After freshening up I headed to the kitchen and started making my breakfast before heading back upstairs to wake up my mother and the Pok¨¦mon currently asleep on my bed. Chardon woke up first and started heading over to me for me to pick him up if I was interpreting that universal sign correctly. I checked around my house to look for a good toothbrush for Char and started teaching him how to brush his teeth which he took as a fish in a river, seems he likes staying clean. I was careful cleaning him as I was using a wet wipe anywhere near his tail. After Char finished we headed to the kitchen right when the timer started chiming and I started putting on mittens before opening the oven and taking my freshly made pizza onto a stand for it and started ringing a bell. Now I might be a bit experimenting but if there was one dish that I excelled with it was the pizza, only because I would make it using my mom''s recipe. Suddenly I hear feet and fur stomping above me with a door slamming shut and a cry from one of the starving creatures above, Char was curious as to what the hype was about so I decided to give him a slice which he took a curious nibble from, then a bit, then he wolfed the thing down in seconds. Such is the curse of my amazing cooking, no one has ever been able to resist and the only reason I am allowed to experiment at all is because of this delectable dish and the few masterpieces way after. After I told Char to be patient my mother came running down and seated herself at the end of the table, the end near the pizza I might add. ¡°So, big day¡­ you''ll leave Pallet, have a trainer battle amongst your friends, and face against the gym leaders to head for the championship tournament.¡± My mother stated my itinerary while she fidgeted and stared at the special breakfast. Right then, the Eevee duo came as fast as they could and seated themselves on the raised chairs we keep for small Pok¨¦mon. I went back to the kitchen for my second pizza, this one filled with the vitamins and minerals necessary for Pok¨¦mon to excel when battling and naturally healthy for both Pok¨¦mon and humans. When I came back there was only one slice left of the first pizza and all the culprits froze being caught red handed aiming for the last slice. I just calmly extracted the pizza from my mothers hand and took a bite while placing down my second pizza. This time they all ate slower but still finished the pizza to only two slices before 2 minutes had passed. After I had the last 2 slices from the second pizza mother came back downstairs ready for her day as a school teacher and motioned for me to change to which I raised an eyebrow, it¡¯s only natural I go to school in my night suit during pajama day. She gave up pretty quickly and we both exited the house, but not before getting all the Pok¨¦mon in the house to come with us, and set out on going to school together. After a few minutes of walking we get to the school and start walking through the front gate 20 minutes before school starts before splitting up. I headed to the battle platform and waited for my friends to come, and the first to arrive only takes 40 minutes. By now my classmates and a couple of other grades are aware that I¡¯m here for more than just studying at school because I have a poke ball and there are different Pok¨¦mon with me, so they got even more excited when Mirielle came in travel clothes with her parents and Pikachu which had a sunflower hat on its head. She seemed stunned at my clothes but one quick look around revealed that it wasn¡¯t me going crazy or something like that. ¡°Glad you could make it, I know this¡¯ll be a great idea.¡± I started off the conversation ¡°It¡¯s such a pleasant day I¡¯m glad we will trek today instead of yesterday.¡± she replied ¡°so, are you ready for a battle.¡± Look at how confident she is, I¡¯m happy for her, but unfortunately she¡¯s the one who¡¯s going to lose. ¡°Unfortunately you¡¯re the one who¡¯s going to lose,¡± I say with a smirk ¡°if you face me that is.¡± We then chatted normally while we waited for Amy and James. It doesn¡¯t actually take that long for Amy and James to come, it actually looks like Amy went to Mr. Slowbro¡¯s house and dragged him all the way here. It just occurred to me that I¡¯m the only one between the four of us who decided to go to school in pajamas. With all four of us we play Rock Paper Scissors and then the two with the most wins get to battle first followed up by the losers battling. I end up facing Mirielle first and we head to our respective ends to start the match. My mother comes up to the middle and begins stating that this is a casual match between the two of us. ¡°Are both trainers ready?¡± ¡°Yes/Yeah¡± ¡°Then ¡­ begin¡± We sent out our starters who looked ready to begin. ¡°Char use Dragon Dance¡± ¡°Pikachu use Growl¡± ¡°Repeat Char¡± ¡°Huh, you as well Pikachu¡± This was slowly becoming clear that Mirielle was only reacting to my orders, so I maxed Char¡¯s speed as fast as possible with his dragon move before really starting the match. ¡°Alright Char lets start with Growl, follow it up with Ember¡± ¡°Wait what?!? Pikachu us-¡± A loud yet cute growl sounded out, as this happened a blue light emitted from Pikachu, signifying a stat decrease. and drowning out whatever order that Mirielle was about to command. Right after, Chardon whipped his tail at his enemy, the flame from the Charmander''s tail sent small burst of flames that hit the Pikachu who had failed to dodge the attack which had a ratatat sound similar to a gun being fired before Pikachu shook it off whilst still standing. "Pikachu use Electro Ball quick!" "Chardon, use Scratch to deflect and hit with Beat Up!" "Pikachu, g-get ready to use Nuzzle!" As the orders were being called out, not many people were really watching sans the new trainers, the Eevee duo, and the trainers'' parents. This was mainly due to these being fresh new Pok¨¦mon that had zero previous training or any worthwhile battle experience, the school was more used to seeing battles from trainers with at least one or more badges and it didn''t help that the battle started out with a stat war before really kicking off. But hearing these new orders, some kids decided to look up from their conversations to the battle and were surprised by something. For starters, the Charmander was moving faster than the Pikachu could charge up her attack and by the time the Electro Ball was ready the newly dubbed Chardon was only a quarter of the pitch away. When the electric energy was fired the Pikachu took a few seconds to look and see if its attack had properly landed, the attack meanwhile was met by a pair of claws with a white outline that was trying to change the direction the direction of the Electro Ball, it seemed that both battlers had partially succeeded in their orders; though it seemed that Chardon had not really received much damage from the attack and was rapidly gaining on the opponent Pikachu. Before the Pikachu could ready up Nuzzle, it was hit by the dark type attack and suffered a hefty amount of damage. In a moment of retaliation, Pikachu hit the opposing Charmander with the electric physical attack which was debuffed even though it had a guaranteed status condition occur. "Dang. Char you¡¯re stunned now!" I yelled to get his attention "move back and fire Ember from a distance." "Pikachu can you still fight?" An energetic ''Pika'' was said before "Use Disarming Voice and then follow it up with Electro Ball" Despite having its speed cut in half Chardon was still faster than the Pikachu and managed to move towards the other side of the arena before being hit by the fairy type attack, whipping his tail once more he managed to strike the Pikachu again before the electric type could ready up an attack one more time and this time it went flying back and falling into the ground. A pensive ten seconds passed while Mirielle and I were holding our breath waiting for Pikachu to stand back up when my mother said. "Pikachu is unable to battle to battle, the victor is Chardon and Evandros." It took a second to realize before I started jumping with joy with a big smile on my face saying ''YAHOO'', similarly Chardon was also looking quite pleased with himself and gave his mightiest roar that he could muster. On the other side, Mirielle didn''t look that sad, the fact that Pikachu lost seemed to have her relieved and she picked up her partner Pokemon before meeting me halfway and shaking my hand on a good battle. We both gave our Pokemon to the Chansey nearby and headed back to watch the other two battle. While we were sitting down the Eevee duo came to the both of us tried to snuggle, with Leaf on my lap and Shadow on Mirielle''s. They then started yipping and started looking at my pocket that had a spare poke ball just in case I want to catch something before pointing at themselves. "I think Shadow and Leaf want to be caught now, and Shadow wants to go with you Mirielle." I say "W-Wait WHAT?!!" her outburst got a few looks and she looked around sheepishly "But, but, but, a-aren''t they yours?" "Nah, not really, I mean Leaf and I made a promise I would catch her as soon as I''m allowed but Shadow doesn''t wanna go with me. Judging by how peaceful he looks right now, he probably thinks you could be a better trainer for him more than I ever could." That got her quiet, then she pulled out a poke ball from her skirts pocket and aimed the button right in front of Shadow. The little Eevee then stood very still before pressing his nose to the button and being sucked in by a white light, the poke ball only shook once before giving a click of confirmation. After that I pulled out my own poke ball and Leaf pounced on it before she too disappeared into her very own poke ball. We then went straight to James and Amy to tell them about captures and they both looked and sounded happy for us before James said. "Hold up, doesn''t that mean that Charmander''s move Beat Up is even stronger now because you have a new member of the party." A few seconds passed before "Urgh, he''s right. You''ve got an unfair advantage over us don''t you." Amy groaned as if it was a fact "Well we all know that I would only use either Leaf or Chardon against you guys not both at the same time." "Except for me I hope" Mirielle joined the fray with. "Of course, I wanna know how good I am in a double battle and right now you''re the best partner I could ask for." Sincerity was the key and in seconds Mirielle was flush with delight, but why was Amy smirking? "What are you planning Machoke?" "Oh, me? Nothing, nothin- did you just call me a Machoke." Amy, Amy, Amy, who else would I say that to. "Well anyways James and I will have our battle before we battle you guys." The battle between those two wasn''t anything special and just like my match not a lot of people were watching, mainly because Amy started the battle with Yawn while James ordered a Tackle. This resulted in Bulbasaur taking two Tackle attacks from a Squirtle that doubled up using Shell Smash, after waking up James ordered a Grassy Terrain with Bulbasaurs bulb sending a seed onto the ground that activated the field move and immediately started healing up the grass type bit by bit. Of course Amy would have none of that and ordered another Yawn which Bulbasaur dodged and James retaliated by making this an endurance battle by triple stacking Curse while dodging Yawn and tanking the odd Water Gun. It was a really slow battle, Mirielle and I even got Chardon and Pikachu at the third Yawn of the match, but Amy won by a critical hit Tackle after deciding to do hit and run tactics. Stolen novel; please report. I think the coolest thing out of the battle was the way Squirtle moved out of the way of a tackle by using Water Gun as a mobility boost to run away. After they got their Pokemon healed it was now time for my battle against Amy as she was the winner between the two. But we were told to speed this up since most of the kids actually wanted to go into class instead of watching. Mirielle and James would have their own battle against each other at the same time as us. Despite the adrenaline that all trainers feel during their matches, regular people watch from outside without the feeling of defeat or victory that could be attained through each moment spent formulating tactics or striking the enemy, not many people feel the rush as trainers do, so while they cheer for high level matches like champion Alder or Diantha there are usually empty spots in tournaments where lower tier trainers compete. Understandably you wouldn''t have the same level of excitement if you watched a match which held a Dragonite and a match with a Baltoy or Cleffa, and that''s ok cuz honestly I just wanna go beat up gyms as fast as possible and surprise everyone with a super-ultra-mega level Pokemon that could Gigantamax or has its own z-move like Snorlax. Anyway, Mirielle and James had to move somewhere a little further back into one of the smaller battle rings that students are allowed to use for their family and the league mandated Pokemon for better understandings on the life of a trainer. To make it fair Amy and I went to another battle ring adjacent to the other two''s maybe to check the competition, maybe because we wanna see the tactics either might employ. Amy and I met in the middle of the battle ring and Mirielle''s father would referee the match while my mother would referee the Mirielle''s own, you know for fairness. Pretty simple stuff really, you just shake hands and hope the human fighting-type in front of you doesn''t snap your hand in half and to Amy''s credit she didn''t but she was really darn close. "Both trainers ready?" "Yeah" we say in unison "Begin" was all we got before we chucked our poke balls out to the field. "Char, move back and use growl!" "Shell Smas- wait wait wait use Water Gun!" Amy yelled out The Charmander did just as told and looked quite cute with its little move, meanwhile Squirtle was in the middle of completing his move before aborting it and instead spent precious seconds gathering energy to fire the blast of water in its mouth. This was more than enough time for Chardon to dodge and in retaliation shot a few wisps of Ember which forced Squirtle to retreat in its shell, before it realized that the attack was a fake out. In reality this was my setup while I was waiting for Amy''s match to end noting how each time Squirtle thought it was gonna get hit that it would retreat in its shell to mitigate the damage, so I told Chardon to use Dragon Dance whenever Squirtle would shelter up. "Hey?!!? Chardon is using a stat buffer without a command!" Amy looked incredulous at this "Bro... do you not remember about making preexisting orders or something, you took so long I came up with this while waiting. Like, come on, we literally just watched Lances battle last week where he said nothing the entire time he beat that rock type specialist from Unova." Which idiot managed to replace my idiot and gave me a new idiot, I''d like a refund please. Then Chardon made a big mistake, he took his eyes off of Squirtle which capitalized on the opportunity by firing a Water Gun. My little buddy got hit head on for the first time and looked a little scared because his flame on his tail got a little soaked, not taking into account just how much damage a fire type takes from a water attack. In retaliation Chardon took a big breath in with his chest looking wayyyyyy puffed out and fired a black smog right at Squirtle and covering the field. "Woah," I brilliantly spout out "Char just learned Smokescreen" "No ''Woah'', how are we gonna see the battle now," Amy growls at me "Squirtle use Shell Smash then Water Gun everywhere, try to hit Charmander." Now, every fire type trainer worth their salt knows that sooner or later their mon will learn Smokescreen and this situation will happen. They also know that while the black smoke impairs sight, it also looks clear in the eyes of Pokemon that are partnered with the fire type, unless it was aimed at the partner instead in which case everyone sans said partner would have clear vision. Chardon just learnt this move in battle so he probably can''t see eit- Right then an orange creature is ejected from the smoke, the fire on its tail really tiny and he looks to be unconscious. Immediately, after Chardon was knocked out the smoke started dissipating showing a Squirtle quite pleased with itself, the turtles shell however had multiple scratches at the back and the water types face had a small burn mark showcasing that Chardon had used our previous strategy and did an additional Dragon Dance before initiating melee. "Well that was anticlimactic near the end there for us but at least your Charmander was looking happy." Amy tries console me "Yeah, and Squirtle seems quite happy for himself with having two wins under his belt." I relent On the other battlefield James and Mirielle are already finished, mainly because Mirielle started things off with a Nuzzle before moving to use Electro Ball and Disarming Voice. None of these moves were very effective against Bulbasaur but the low speed went even lower when James used Curse again presumably sealing his chances, it turned out however that Bulbasaur had managed to learn Vine Whip and herded Pikachu to a corner and started bashing the little female rodent with stat boosted Tackle''s and kept the electric type from running by keeping it in place with Vine Whip. Pikachu did manage to get out but at the end of it but she just didn''t have the energy to deal consistent damage, presumably because she was working overtime using Nuzzle to force the grass type to drop her. Mirielle had the good conscience to forfeit and took her loss quite well, seems the girl doesn''t hate battling but she probably won''t battle much if at all. Again, this is the reality of low tier battles, they''re either really quick or they''re dragged out so far that it just becomes boring for anyone who doesn''t live out in the sticks or some dude who''s never seen a Pokemon battle. Pokemon are tough sure, but you can easily tell how strong a Pokemon is not by any physical tells, mainly because many water types or legendaries don''t usually have scars or anything like that, but by the weight a Pokemon brings just by being in the room. It''s why most Pokemon in the wild might follow a leader that''s a different type or size than the others, because you can tell which Pokemon is the strongest in the room. Only when you start heading to mid tier battles does this weight start appearing and it''s really hard to tell which mon is stronger between mid tier trainers but if you compare a Pokemon from mid tier to a high tier you can tell without even looking at their battles or shape that the high tier is stronger. After the battle concludes we all give our Pokemon to the nurse Joy and Chansey that are waiting, both of whom seem happy not only by being asked to come here and taking care of our partners but also because of Mirielle''s call to surrender. While we wait, it seems that now would be the best time to check up on Leaf and Shadow to see what their move sets might possibly be. It would also be a good excuse to pet the two while we wait for the final battles that are about to take place.
Name Eevee
Type Normal
Hp 55
Attack 55
Sp. Attack 45
Defense 50
Sp. Defense 65
Speed 55
Total Stats 325
What deviates between the two is their natures and move sets, I mean it was obvious to me that whenever Shadow left he was either training or learning survival skills but to actually see the end result is kind of amazing showing just how much of a battle monster he might become as opposed to Leaf. The only problem would be his null nature which doesn''t increase or decrease any of his natural abilities compared to a generic Eevee, Shadow''s just normal and that is just fine.
Nature Serious
Ability Adaptability
Moves Mud Slap, Swift, Quick Attack, Growl, Leer, Tackle, Double Kick, Iron Tail
And then there was Leaf''s which was a fairly good move set and a great nature, but it was a little lacking compared to her elder brother. Nevertheless, I would obviously start training my two partners as soon as we hit the road because a good solid foundation is what''s necessary for anything in life whether it be a job, studies, or even Pokemon.
Nature Adamant
Ability Run Away
Moves Swift, Mud Slap, Quick Attack
No matter the moves each Eevee has we swiftly started our final matches to finish this battle royale. But honestly the group seems to be wanting to travel together and no matter how fun that might be I wish to travel by myself, its what my dad did when he started his journey and despite our promise for me to stop thinking about him once my journey started I really did want to keep some part of him deep inside of me. "Hey guys?" I ask "Yeah/Huh/Yes" They say together. "Sorry but I wanna actually travel by myself you know," I continue after waiting for a response that wasn''t there "I just wanna start on some secret training and some other stuff, plus I wanna see how well I do by myself really." None of them seem against the notion I was saying and readily agreed to me not being part of the team, the only person who looked even remotely saddened by this was Mirielle. *Sigh* The poor girl probably blamed herself somehow, she always looks like this whenever I say I have to leave... nah definitely not, I mean we''re just friends. Anyway we all start heading over to nurse Joy and Chansey who have finished healing our Pokemon and we all begin our final battles against each other, not to be a spoilsport or anything but my bet was on Mirielle and I winning. It''s just classic type advantage and until trainers become mid tier they usually only win by either this or having really creative and powerful tactics. Finally, Amy and James''s parents manage to come for the final battles but an important piece of info is that Amy''s mom married James''s dad resulting in them being step siblings. The other two parents are also there, it was just a divorce that spilt their family and nothing tragic thankfully, but it was obvious they were only there to see their kid off and then they''d leave back to their homes in different cities. Anyway, just like last time Mirielle''s father was the judge in my battle against James and the other battle was being refereed by my mother. "Are all trainers ready?" "Yeah/Yup" "Then... Begin" and with a hand wave we tossed our poke balls out into the field. With mine landing a few meters away from my feet and his landing in the stands on my right. "Chardon use Ember" "Vine Wh- DODGE QUICK" bad move, if he used Vine Whip to move he would have more speed than Bulbasaur actually has. Just like that Bulbasaur got hit fairly quickly and only dodged the latter of the attack, after seeing rapid success I told Chardon to keep it up and he continued whipping his tail flame right at the opposing Pokemon. After the third hit of Ember the poor grass type fainted, signifying my win against James. Hey, if it ain''t broke then don''t fix it amiright. Upon seeing that we won, Char then began roaring his little head off, the smug look that entire time showed that he was really happy to have more than a 50% win rate starting off the journey. On the other side, the battle happening was already at an end and my bet was right. It seems that Mirielle was on the aggressive at the very start and hit Squirtle with a Nuzzle then Electro Ball combo that swiftly disposed of the water type Amy was partnered with. Kinda rough that their parents came so late that they could only see them lose, but hey, the early bird gets the worm or in this case gets to see their kid eke out a win. Moving on, with that over only James and Amy went to get their partners healed mainly because Char and Pikachu didn''t actually get harmed this match. Char and I were being smothered by my mother and Leaf while the same was happening with Mirielle''s parents and Shadow, but her Eevee was only there to be petted by the girl. Once the step siblings came back with their partners they were also being hugged by their parents alongside their Bulbasaur and Squirtle. After a bit of family togetherness the groups all dispersed with all the other parents handing pre-prepared bags filled with essentials and the items given to them by the professor and a magnetic belt or leather strips that could be placed onto the side of their bags. All of them seem to have Silph Co. bags and that was easy to see since James was going to wear a fanny pack and Mirielle got an even smaller purse that could move as far apart as a medium sized refrigerator if I was doing the mental math correctly, the only person who was going with a bag in their group was Amy but like no surprise there. Anyway, they start heading to the road that connects with route 1 which no doubt means that they''ll be leaving ahead of me so I can at least just wait a couple hours before I start heading out. This also means that I can have lunch with my new partners and my mother in Pallet for one last time before I head leaving, which always means we head to this grilled burger place with food specifically for Pokemon, Leaf loves the restaurant we''re heading to because the Farfetch''d that cooks there always makes a little extra fries just for her. It''s not even two yet and I already know that today''s gonna be a great day. Chapter 1 As my steps take me further from lovely Pallet to Viridian City with my two trusty partners outside of their balls, I''m glad and a bit apprehensive about my decision to travel. I mean sure being a trainer is gonna be the coolest thing in the world and being able to meet new people maybe from all over said world is gonna be awesome but it also meant that I might run into something on my journey that could be dangerous or force me to stop altogether. Who''s to say that there won''t be some law which forces me to quit being a trainer because I''m too young or something else, like the local evil organization Team Rocket or those Nickit in Wooloo''s clothing Team Plasma. No matter, since I already know from recent ranger reports and old timely traditions that there are almost no trainers on route 1 since there isn''t anything of interest on this dirt trodden path. Not only because of the marked Fearow forest filled with the evolved and un-evolved versions of the bird Pokemon but also because of the multiple winding roads, steep hills that forced the road to become curved and a pain in the ass at times, with almost no Pokemon of exceptional interest bar a few Pikachu, a Kangaskhan herd, and a few Pokemon that were dumped by their wild parents or trainers into this road since it''s safer than all the others in Kanto. This route is the most boring and the longest due to Pallet being away from all the other cities and the pollution of this region, in a place next to the seaside, so most Pokemon only have to worry about newbie trainers and rangers making sure everything is safe. I just so happen to be one of these newbie trainers. After about an hour of travel by foot it seems that carrying two Pokemon on my head and left shoulder right after lunch is my limit and before I know it I have to take a break. As I sit next to a tree I look down from the highest hill I''ve ever climbed to look at my home one last time ... beautiful was all I could think, if I ever came back I would look at the town under this tree again. Maybe with all the partners I''ll catch. While I took a short respite to look down at the different crisscrossing hills and long winding road I already begin trying to think up of training methods for my Pokemon to train their skills. First on the list is starting with some friendship building exercises, alongside having Leaf learn how to use Growl, judging by evolution paths (should either choose to evolve) the normal type debuff move would work better on an eeveelution more than a Charizard so I think having Leaf focus on it more than Chardon will leave me more room to help the fire lizard on other moves. After all, there is a reason why most trainers usually only use around four moves in gyms instead of like thirty, with each move that a Pokemon has to train they also have to upkeep with the other moves therefore only having 4 to 5 is a tactical and clutch move for aspiring youngsters and casual trainers. Anyone who tries to upkeep more than four or even five on all their Pokemon is either really good or a bunch of Tauros dung tryna lose their weaknesses or countering niche situations early on when they don''t even have a specialized formula for training and junk. That''s why its important to get all the bases ready and prepare for those weaknesses with experience first and only then will I start helping them learn a move that could applied to a lot of general areas, at least that''s what the book Lance Blackthorn wrote said to do. The training exercises were for me to place a couple items on the ground away from each other, blindfolding one of my Pokemon, and then having the other one tell what item the first was supposed to get. My partners seem to be the trusting type because they completed the exercise 9/10 times, the last only happening due to a mistake made by the non blindfolded not remembering what item they were supposed to get more than anything; *cough* Leaf *cough*. Then the part I was most excited for, and no matter how many articles or books I read, this would always be the most entertaining part of training. I was going to start move practice. "Alright, since we''re so far from anyone and because I wanna make sure we don''t accidentally pull ahead of the others we are now gonna start training." I then started marking fallen branches and some twigs with some chalk I stole from mom and others, leaves, or pen ink before picking up a few stones. "So I want to start with Leaf using Swift to hone in on certain marked branches before using Mud Slap on them while I throw these rocks at random areas and Char has to move while hitting them before they fall down, alright?" Both nodded in agreement waiting eagerly to use their moves, actually Leaf was just eager to do something while Char was probably eager to improve and never lose again. The Charmander line had a bit of a pride thing going on. As I began training Char while he moved around whilst trying to hit the rocks with Ember I constantly kept a lookout towards Leaf to see how she was progressing, it turned out that despite knowing Swift and Mud Slap she never actually used the moves and the way the attacks were moving you would think of them as Slow and Mud Tickle instead. The Swift always hit but the lack of training the move made it as effective as a regular bubble popping, distracting and useful for maybe a contest but utterly useless in battle, while the Eevee seemed to miss half her Mud Slap''s. Thankfully she seemed to quite versed with Quick Attack so I later instructed her to use the move to not only attack but also to use it for mobility while using the other two moves, since it was super exhausting to do so, the gains were little but I knew that the potential for these three attacks was massive especially against Brock the first gym leader who always has at least one Pokemon with dig and other rocky moves since he''s a rock type specialist. Meanwhile Char was only faring a little better with his training going from only hitting half the rocks while moving to getting two thirds of the rocks charred in some form, normally if a Pokemon has a fire type attack they first have to train intensity before anything else but since the dots of flame came from my Charmander''s tail I have an advantage by having Chardon heat up the intensity of his tail flame which would probably up the intensity of his other fire attacks should they come from other areas such as the mouth or fist since they all use his flame sack aside from his tail which has a smaller flame sack connected to itself. Naturally, this would normally tucker out fire types but since Char would be carried by me or would be out during the night as a makeshift campfire we could do this training later in the day. After getting conclusive results from accuracy training around forty five minutes later I stopped it to instead have Chardon use his two physical attacks against a boulder, after noting down just how extensive the damage from Beat Up and Scratch was on the boulder I then started asking Char to use Dragon Dance once and repeat the process and after he used it for the sixth and final time we ended the damage check up. We had to move to a third boulder for the final test because the other two were crushed. "Alright, that was really great you two," I said with a smile "next time though I''m going to check the difference between Chardon''s strength when he uses Beat Up with and without Leaf in a poke ball on my belt while Leaf will continue move training, well, her moves" that got a yip of approval from my normal type. "Oh but while we move I actually want Char to help you learn use Growl," I remember "having a status debuff move will definitely help against most of our opponents in the low tier." Just like that we take a ten minute break to recuperate and then my partners get on their personal human ride with Char showing how to mold normal type energy into sound so as to effect enemy Pokemon, turns out that if a Pokemon who knows Sing extensively used Growl before the sound move it would make it easier for Sing to actually land since its just a matter of shifting the type energy; if what Amy says is true. This time I keep walking for about 3 hours before the sun is high enough that I can feel it on the back of my head, it was so hot I had to return Leaf and Chardon into their balls and proceed to travel by myself. Being by myself on Route 1 is kind of lonely but it was also really rejuvenating with the Pidgey that flew above me, the Rattata in the grass on my right scurrying for some berries, that off color Ralts bleeding on that rock, a pack of Growlithe running towards Pallet Town''s general direction. wait... OFF COLOR RALTS BLEEDING ON A ROCK?!? I run over to the little empathy feeling Pokemon and immediately try to assess for damages, luckily the damage was easily seen on the chest with an X symbol and I couldn''t find any other injuries on the body, maybe the little fella has some internal wounds as well? Immediately after, I call both my Pokemon out to set a perimeter and hopefully ward off anything that was following the little fella. As I start spraying some potion that I have on me onto the injury of the psychic type I also bandage up the spot with some gauze and gently try to wake up the previously injured Pokemon so that they can give an answer. A quick glance towards my partners shows that they''re stunned seeing a pool of blood next to and on top of the Ralts, a normal reaction since not many people have actually seen Pokemon bleed, mainly because the only way they bleed is if something or someone was actively trying to kill them after they''ve gone unconscious. If this were to happen then the unconscious party would immediately regain enough energy to run away, this was mainly seen in footage of Seviper and Zangoose skirmishes that usually end when a ranger or trainer comes and stops it. The only reason I didn''t freak was because I''ve already seen blood up close... No matter, the Ralts wakes up with a fright and starts moving in terror as fast as possible. I actually have to restrain it and give words of peace in as soothing a voice as I can muster, slowly it does stop resisting and starts calming down. After the Ralts becomes calm I start talking in as peaceful a voice as I could possibly have. "Hey little fella don''t worry ok, you''re safe now alright?" I look towards it in the eyes waiting for it to nod which it eventually did. Slowly, I move and start to let go of the shiny Pokemon who visibly relaxes the more arm space I give it. "Hello, um, are you ok because I could run to the nearest city for better treatment if you want?" Ralts then tenses when I ask about her injuries but otherwise it seems to be relatively fine "just to make sure your ok I''m gonna use this pokedex on you to check your condition and stuff like that." I slowly say while pulling out the device in question. ''Ralt ts Ra'' and a hasty nod is all she gets out before the device beeps and starts listing details on the small psychic.
Name Ralts
Type Psychic/Fairy
Nature Modest
Ability Telepathy
Hp 28
Atk 25
Sp. Atk 45
Defence 25
Sp. Defence 35
Speed 40
Total Stats 198
Moves Calm Mind, Disarming Voice, Teleport
Aside from this information I did find out that this Ralts is of average size and does not have any current health deficiency so all the damage inflicted towards it has been healed or is steadily recovering. Nevertheless since Ralts is not a known and sanctioned Pokemon in Route 1 it is the duty of every trainer who meets a non-sanctioned Pokemon to investigate for more of the species and to see if the Pokemon need to be relocated, after all who wants a Tyranitar to live five minutes away from a large city. The standard league rule book was very heavily implicating this as a major rule and that means I could either find a cool Pokemon or a fabled legendary while being allowed to supposedly do work for the government. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. For now though this poor Pokemon needs to recover lost blood and energy through the only way most trainers and professionals use for former injured Pokemon when they''re recovering in the wild, with some food. Leaf already seems to know and pulls out the three feeding bowls I have in the bag just in case I think to catch any Pokemon, really I was thinking that having a Pidgeot or a Raticate would be cool but seeing how I might just have the perfect dragons'' bane right here in the color blue I probably should keep my emotions under check. Ralts are natural empaths after all so having conflicting or strong emotions is bound to make them upset. Since I have to begrudgingly use the store bought chow, since I don''t trust myself with proper nutrients and ingredients meant for specific species and battle Pokemon whole also to make sure that I have something for any new captures along the way, I decided to just hand a few pastries I was keeping for dessert to my present company who took their one full pastry each easily enough. It might just be because the scent makes it hard for them to resist since the old man that runs the bakery in Pallet managed to get a Slurpuff and Alcremie from his grandson who''s right now in Galar for the league tournament, think the guy ended at 16th position in the tourney but that just means that if I enter Galar I at least gotta be in top 4, just to break records ya know. They all eat the pastries up quick enough, with Leaf savoring since she''s had poffins from the same bakery before, and then eat their chow with a little less speed. I didn''t actually give Char and Leaf a lot since they already had breakfast and lunch, just enough to make Ralts comfortable enough to eat it. Arceus above is this boring but necessary book something that everyone reads? or do they just skim through to the important parts... HOW ARE THERE SO MANY LAWS AROUND PARKING TRAVEL POKEMON. Unbeknownst to my mental breakdown, Ralts was looking curiously at the book and proceeded to take it out of my hands and started reading all that the little fairy type could. Leaf''s left ear slightly twitched showcasing that a Pokemon is either training or using their aura (just neat info we found when we met a Lucario trainer in Pallet), probably the Ralts reading the book is helpful in training its psychic typing. "Hey Leaf?" A ''Vey'' which I know translates to ''yeah'' and I spring the big question. "Boy or Girl" I said while pointing at Ralts. Leaf then placed her tail on the left, signifying female. Good, it would''ve been awkward getting the gender wrong at crucial moments. I haven''t sprung the travel question since I kinda don''t want to read that darn book so I take a little bit to get a small ringed notebook which was halfway finished with drawings, more specifically my drawings. At least Eevee are easy to differentiate and I already knew what Chardon''s gender would be weeks in advance. Man, now I gotta study up on Pokemon biology of Ralts and anything else I catch. Looking at the scenery for a few seconds I decide to draw something far more interesting, my current camping buddies. I take a second to look at Leaf remembering more than observing her and her glossy light brown fur, the left ear 3 centimeters smaller than her right, the way she breathes in every 3 seconds and each time she swishes her tail with the end part which is lighter than the rest of herself to one side and then another, the way her milk chocolate little chest fur puffs out with each breath, the black button nose under her dark chocolate eyes. That together with her heart shaped tail which indicates she is female, and her end hair at the top of her hair which is the same color as her chest and tail end together are all indicators that she is currently well taken care of as stated by the healthcare professional assistant at professor Oak''s lab. Its been about a year since I could see her ribs poking out of her skin and she seems healthier this week than the entire first year she was with us. That was how malnourished she was. Anyway the sketch ends up finished in about 30 minutes, plenty of time for me to now start talking with Ralts. "Ralts, is it ok if we talk?" I decide to be upfront about it/ ''Ra Ralts'' seems like an ok to me "Ralts aren''t naturally found in the wild here in route 1," she freezes but I continue on "so I''m gonna have to check for any nest or place you used to live in before bringing a report to the rangers who make sure everyone stays safe, people and Pokemon." That seems to have scared the Ralts, so probably she sustained her injuries during a scuffle in her home. The only question is if it was one of her family or an intruder. "You just need to show where you live and if it''s too dangerous then we can get a ranger to check on it." I think she understood that there would be someone stronger that would come and help because she then looked content after I said a ranger would come and help. "Anyway we should check once it becomes daytime since the sun''s already starting to set," an effect due to being in the near end of winter time was that now when it would be 5:30 the sun would start setting "for now we''ll camp near the area but we won''t head to your nest alright." After that I pick up all the items that were taken outside my bag and place them back in sans the league book since it was still in Ralts'' little stubs and we started walking behind her towards somewhere near the supposed nest. It seems to be behind a very thick set of trees within a short 10 minute walk into the Route 1 forest that wasn''t infested with Spearow, everyone knows that there''s a faster path to Viridian through there but usually most trainers and Pokemon need medical attention if they even manage to escape. As soon as I finish packing we start following Ralts into the trees, thankfully, as far away from the located Spearow nest as the forest allows and we stop in front of a set of Bamboo away hiding what must have been the grove that she was living in before. We all decide to move back a fair bit and I end up spotting a pretty cool looking, spiky Pineco with its exterior cone having some green looking moss so I decide to catch that one. You know, since bug types are the easiest Pokemon to catch and the best for beginner level trainers. Plus if there''s any trainer in the high tier or champion tier with a bug type like Yellow or the Kalos guy Casio or Ca-something then you know that the bug type is an absolute beast. Yellow accentuates the abilities her Butterfree has to a degree no one thought possible while Ca-something has a Pinsir that managed to beat two of Diantha''s team before getting knocked out without using mega evolution, these two alongside other choice trainers showed that bugs could be just as dangerous as all the other typings so the only people who diss on the bugs either have a phobia or are just idiots who believe that their team typings are naturally the best. Typings wise bugs are probably better than grass types since grass 5 weaknesses. Now we move back by about a 20 minute walk only about 50 minutes away from where we met Ralts, yup I just walked with my team for around an hour and 10 minutes. As I start getting the tent from my bag out I immediately open my poke ball to allow the freshly caught Pineco out and let them talk with the rest of my team. Why does Pineco look at me so sadly? Just as fast as the bug type came out they seem to hop towards the others and starts chatting. They seem to have quite the conversation because even though I finished setting the tent they were still talking as animatedly as they were when I started. No matter. I''ll just check the pokedex to see what Pineco''s stats are.
Name Pineco
Type Bug
Nature Brave
Ability Sturdy
Hp 50
Atk 65
Sp. Atk 35
Defence 90
Sp. Defence 35
Speed 15
Total Stats 290
Moves Spikes, Self-Destruct, Swift
Pineco seems to be a female ... ... ... "Hey Pineco," I get something like a resigned sigh from the bug "do you know how to properly use Swift." ''Pine co Pineco'' she burble curiously, I think she said something like ''Yeah why''s that matter.'' "That''s great, you could show how to use Swift to Leaf and then learn different status moves like Toxic Spikes. Maybe even get a TM of Gyroball just to help learn Automize and Iron Defense or something in case you evolve later on." I blurt out It seems to take a couple seconds for Pineco to realize what I said, but then the little girl seems to start shaking and tearing up as she seems to cry; I think they''re actually happy for her since they seem to really perk up from the bug types story she was telling previously. "Well now that that''s been said how would you like to be part of the team." oh, I almost forgot "Oh right, if you say yes then I''m probably gonna give you a nickname alright." Pineco then hops into my lap and wriggles happily, and she became even happier when I brought out the Pokeball that caught her. "Welcome to the party... hm how about Tabitha and sometimes in battle i''ll call you Tabs alright." Seems Pi-Tabitha likes that and hops right onto the button of the ball, sucking her in before it dinged and shot out yellow star shapes. This signifies that not only is the catch a success but also that the Pokemon seems to be eager to be part of the team. A neat feature that can really help a trainer learn a lot about their team, since there are some Pokemon who might not want to battle and sometimes some Pokemon might be more enthusiastic about battling than before. Immediately I send out Tabitha and everyone in the group congratulates Tabs all the while she seems to be crying happy tears, maybe she was ostracized from her family or got lost? Either way I''m happy for both her and my partners since now I could be rated from newbie to beginner rank so long as I win another five matches and participate in either a tournament or a gym battle. Newbie is basically baby gloves and if you lose against beginner or higher ranked trainers then you don''t have to give any money to the opponent but you do if you face off against other newbies, though I think the actual term is rookie trainers. Anyway, now seems to be a good time to bring out food for everyone. I open the bag and get out four bowls this time for everyone and ask to use Chardon''s tail to heat up some Risotto I made a couple days ago, a simple enough dish that it feels a little disrespectful to change it up, and eat the bland rice broth while looking at everyone gathering around Char and his tail. Even Tabs. Considering that bugs and grass have a natural fear of fire either Tabitha already trusts her new friends or she just doesn''t want to be alone. ... Probably the second option. No matter cuz when I head into my tent after cleaning the bowls for human and non-humans I finish changing into pyjamas before urging everyone into the tent to sleep. Then I slip into my sleeping bag and get ready for some not quite easy because I''m out in the wilderness rest.
Being an ''Eevee'' is sooo cool, I could turn into any ''eeveelution'' (funny word) I want and everyone would love me regardless. Being a grass type would be sooo cool, that''s why I make sure I''m called Leaf. Because I wanna be a ''Leafeon''. Being a sister is sooo cool, I get to see just how strong my big brother is and how awesome he''ll be when he turns into a ''Flareon'' like he wants. Being part of a team is sooo cool, I''m gonna be able to learn how to use my moves correctly and be a super duper ''Eevee''. Being my trainers bff is sooo cool, his mom made me take animal psychology lessons to help him with buried trauma. Being outside is sooo cool, I get to sleep safely with new friends. Chapter 2 I wake up all refreshed with the clock on my right showing that it''s ''6:30'' at least that''s what I think it says since Ralts seems to be in the way. No matter, I just gently get out of my sleeping bag without waking everyone up and head out of the tent to start gathering freshen up; there''s even a river about a 10 minute walk away so I''ll be able get back in 25 to 30 minutes. When I start changing Tabs comes out of the tent as quietly as possible by gently rotating herself from her bottom stump, seems she regrew her moss so its either a biological function or I didn''t scrub her good enough. Actually, the fact that she could rotate with her stump could be beneficial with learning a certain normal type physical attack. "Hey Tabitha," the Pokemon in question quietly trill something that sounds like an ok, judging by the tone. "Maybe you could spin to destinations instead. You know. To learn moves like Rapid Spin." She stops moving altogether for a few seconds and I really hope I haven''t brought up a sore topic when... ''Pi Pineco co neco Pine'' seems she''s crying happy tears again, almost like what I said is something incredibly ground breaking, before she starts rotating on her bottom stump and trying to spin to where I am. Judging by the fact that she''s emitting slight traces of normal type energy we might be on the right track, plus if her rotation skills develop she might be able to dodge attacks or initiate moves without stopping at all. For now though Tabs will have to deal with dizziness and actually moving forwards (right now she''s really having trouble) when rotating but give or take a few more training sessions she might just learn her first physical move that won''t damage her. After going a little further we reach the stream and I start using the fresh water to clean my face & teeth while Tabs begins drinking the water. To our right there''s a family of the Sandshrew line and to our left a couple Slowpoke are fishing for food using their tails. Even further apart there are the average Rattata, Raticate, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, with a cascade of local bug & bug types from Kanto and Johto at the river as well. The unwritten rule of nature is that streams are natural safe zones for creatures above the water, while it is a danger for the fish and not most fish Pokemon. After using the water for myself I end up putting some of the water in a couple flasks for use in the future because there won''t always be a stream nearby. Tabitha seems to be finished and is waiting for me, when I signal I''m done with a nod she seems to wriggle a little before rotating with gusto aiming for our camp. I follow with a light jog and keep an eye out on nearby Pokemon in case they might turn aggressive against us, usually this would only be the Spearow of Route 1 but you never really know. We make it back to camp and by now all the others sans Leaf have woken up... *Sigh* just like always she''s only gonna wake up when I start cooking. Jokes on her I''m gonna just take out the store bought food. When I bring out the bowls Chardon does the unthinkable and wakes up Leaf. RIP bud. Halfway through filling the four bowls I pause due to hearing an angry ''Vee'' ring out and sounds of a scuffle before Char ends up booted out the tent. Moments after Leaf comes out looking chipper as if nothing happened. I just finish placing the food and start looking at Chardon to see how he''s doing. He''s looking fine but I think he shouldn''t train too hard physically for now, dang. If we have to battle any Pokemon right now I''ll have to use Tabs and Leaf first. Well I''ll just have a fruit and a jerky strip while looking at the pokedex for nearby Pokemon to prep for any moves I need to keep an eye out. Oh. Ralts took the league book out and is reading it again. After finishing all our food and me cleaning up the bowls used, I pack up the tent and start moving towards the grove Ralts lived in previously. It took 20 minutes to go back to the bamboo forest. There I took Tabs back in her poke ball to help with her dizziness from rotating for 20 minutes straight. "Well. Lets just get this over with ok Ralts." An affirmative ''Ral'' is enough to know that if we don''t do this now then she might never come here again. I take a step. Then another. Then enough that the bamboo thin enough that we''re now in the middle of her home. I didn''t think a bamboo forest could look so beautiful but I''m happy to be proven wrong. Ralts seems to be scared and a second of looking around shows just why. Cuts. Tons of Cuts. Something really sharp or really strong lives here now and easily cuts down whatever is in its way. That also helps validate why Ralts had a cut on her body. Before I could even think of leaving or formulating a plan a rustle sound comes out to our right. Instantly Leaf and Char understand to be on guard and their respective tails stand up while Ralts seems to be shaking like a leaf. Standing in front of us is a Scyther. The bug flying Pokemon. Shoot, Chardon will have to start the fight. I open my pokedex and the information blurbs out.
Name Scyther
Type Bug Flying
Nature Adamant
Health 70
Attack 110
Sp. Attack 80
Defense 55
Sp. Defense 80
Speed 105
Total stats 500
Moves Wing Attack, Fury Cutter, Quick Attack, Night Slash, Counter, Brick Break, Steel Wing, Agility, Double Team, Leer
Thankfully it doesn''t know Rain Dance but Agility is gonna be a problem. This one is obviously one of the stronger Pokemon playing for more territory and if we manage to get out of this I''ll have to inform the rangers to ensure stability. Enough about that, we have to battle now. "Char Dragon Dance then Ember. Leaf use Swift but stay back." both eagerly use their moves but the Scyther doesn''t take this lying down. It uses Double Team before realizing Swift is an always hitting move and used Fury Cutter instead. By this time Char had stacked one up and used Ember at Scyther which barely managed to get away from the fire attack, Leaf then came to my side and positioned herself in front of Ralts and myself but did nothing else. "Ember one more time, aim wide" I also snapped my fingers. That got Scyther to notice me. Scyther had to dodge the attack by retreating further backwards since it only knew physical attacks and using Double Team again would only be useless as they would dissipate immediately. This gave Char enough time to stack up again and his running speed was only barely lagging behind the Scyther. After Scyther moved back it decided to stack speed with Agility before attempting another attack, not good. Have to make sure we''re on the offensive. "Chardon use Growl then Ember one more time," the normal type move flinches Scyther only momentarily but that was all that was needed for an Ember piece to hit. Then another. Then the last. See, if all Ember strikes hit then it would be classified as a critical hit. Mainly because the fire pieces would have a brighter glow than normal and cuz most times at least some bits would fizzle out regardless of the skill of a fire type. So having Chardon land all pieces is actually something major and helping tremendously. After a few seconds Scyther comes back into view, slightly singed and even closer than before, since this Pokemon is usually skilled with stealth attacks I can''t use Smokescreen despite an accuracy decrease on it. Dang this takes down a few strats I could use against it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Char one more Growl then fend off with Scratch" have to look panicked for Scyther to engage, can''t let it know about Beat Up otherwise our only way to win is shot. Scyther seems too pick up on my voice and facial features to think it has us cornered, I mean Charmander''s would usually be special attackers so it probably has us beat. This thing is pretty skilled because it managed to use its Wing Attack, Night Slash, and Brick Break at the same time using its blades alongside the skin bit above the blades and its wings. "Ralts I need to catch you to win ok," this got the Ralts to look curiously at me before nodding "ok wait one sec." I toss one of my backup poke balls on her and she gets sucked into the device with stars. Good to see she''s eager but I may not need her to be in the fight at all. A sound of blades clanging zones me back into the fight. Char has a few scratches here or there but nothing worthwhile to report, specially due to Growl taking effect earlier, while Scyther doesn''t look like it got even a nick during this time. The opponent however seems to have the most damage right now but that might not last for long. Right when Char looks like he''s gonna deflect an attack is when I yell out to him. "Beat Up bud, all out!" Char immediately cycled the dark type attack, with the speed boost from dual Dragon Dance, and tanks the Wing Attack Scyther was using just to aim his own attack at Scyther which couldn''t dodge now. With three Pokemon on my team now, Chardon would have a stronger Beat Up compared to using Scratch right now. Using Ember would have a big enough delay that the attack wouldn''t come out fast enough so this is the best I could do. The move connects and all four hits take place, damaging the Scyther even more. Beat Up also has an added knock back effect which Char capitalized on by using Ember one more time. Just when I think we might have won Scyther gets back up and charges another Agility. This is bad. Real bad. "Char use Growl, lower attack as much as possible." Char can''t win. This was obvious. But to think the gap was this big... *GASP* I know. I send back out Ralts and bring Tabs into the fray. Ralts was looking scared and Tabs was determined to fight, meanwhile Leaf looked sad to see Chardon get injured. Just as Char hit another cutesy Growl I immediately talk to Ralts. "Ralts use Calm Mind while we wait ok." An affirmative ''Ra'' is all I hear before a ''Scy Er Cy'' and a wham which blows my partner into a bamboo shoot. The force was enough to actually break the shoot and he moved even further back. "Tabs switch in and use Swift," Have to control the pace "Roll when Scyther gets close." The battle immediately starts with Scyther trying to retreat but unfortunately for it Tabs has amazing control on her Swift. The attack does some damage but clearly it was weaker than anything Char put up and the flying bug realizes this and immediately lunges to Tabs. The sweetheart immediately rolls away and manages to dodge a Wing Attack before spewing out Swift whilst rolling; this actually ends up being perfect due to the homing system of Swift and Scyther has to not only catch my own bug but also make sure it doesn''t take too much chip damage. During this time I get Chardon into his ball for him to recover but I have to pay attention to the battlefield as well otherwise I might not be able to see Scyther aim at me instead. Thankfully Tabitha''s opponent is only looking at her and is now aiming to use Night Slash instead of Wing Attack. The dark attack is faster and is aiming to hit Tabs from behind when suddenly she stops using Swift and rotates to the left just enough to dodge the hit before tackling into Scyther and disengaging immediately. YES YES YES! She just learnt Rapid Spin during the battle and her quick thinking hit hard at Scyther. She seems to have gotten dizzy though and that was all the opposing bug needed to hit a Wing Attack at Tabitha. The only reason she''s even standing now is because Sturdy activated. "Tabitha get close with Rapid Spin and hit the big S" Tabitha the blessed soul looks at me in a determined way and nods her head before spinning again. This time she uses both Swift and Rapid Spin in tandem and getting close to Scyther who seems to have used Leer on Leaf and Ralts while I wasn''t looking and used Self-Destruct right as Scyther was about to use Brick Break on my bagworm Pokemon. Tabs begins lighting up even further with normal type energy before an explosion occurs and Scyther was blown away 10 meters from where he was previously. Tabitha meanwhile is in the epicenter of the explosion and when the dust fades I see she''s knocked out on the ground, I then beam her into her poke ball giving praise to her feat and telling her to take a long rest. I then wait for the inevitable. Scyther gets back up. Kinda obvious since no matter how many hits Chardon or Tabitha did they haven''t been able to take down this bug so of course it would get back up. Good. This is Ralts'' moment. "Ralts you ready?" An affirmative yip from her shows that she''s fully stacked up. "Then enter and use Disarming Voice." Scyther will try to dodge since it took more damage than what Ralts could have dished out by herself but since this is a perfect accuracy move it won''t be possible. Just as suspected Scyther tried to dodge but got hit by Ralts and took a large amount of damage, a plus six special attack will do that. The bug decided to screw all that and aimed at Ralts with a Steel Wing, so it knows type advantage, too bad that my fairy knows Teleport and and vanished to the other side of the battlefield and hit another Disarming Voice. Scyther to its credit grit its teeth and ran through the move and tried to hit Ralts. Ralts dodged the attack but seeing it now I can tell she won''t move as fast as she did previously, either due to it reading to train its psychic power or it always had an abysmal energy reserve. Already it''s taking longer to charge up another attack and Scyther capitalized on this by using Agility again and zipping to Ralts who used her fairy move after Scyther was running. "Leaf use Quick Attack and move Ralts away." I said hurriedly Leaf only just barely got to Ralts and moved her away after Disarming Voice ended but in return took a Steel Wing to the face. Before she even moved too far I already had a poke ball ready to send her back in and the beam touched her only a moment after the attack hit. Ralts looks pissed. Maybe at me. Definitely at Scyther. She used Disarming Voice once more but also used another move. Ralts used Confusion. It was a critical hit. Only now. Only now does the Scyther hit the floor, stars in its eyes signifying that it is knocked out. I picked out an unused poke ball and held the button for three seconds then tapped the button twice to signify that this is a dual type I''m catching. Tap once for bug then wait two seconds. Tap six times for flying. Toss onto the aforementioned Pokemon. And now the poke ball is teleported to the nearest ranger base for evaluation and analysis. Maybe I could''ve kept it, but I know that my team only barely managed to knock it out and having a stronger Pokemon that''s hostile to the entire team just because its strong doesn''t really seem like the smart thing to do. It''ll take a couple minutes for a confirmation so I go and pick up Ralts using one hand and send out all my Pokemon in my free hand. They all look hurt but judging by the way they look around and perking up when Ralts says something they must have been looking around for Scyther. I take out a couple bottles of potion to heal the scratches and physical damage on my three hurt ones while the fourth is just laying down on the ground in exhaustion. After that''s done I get out a few energy treats which help Pokemon with recovering a low amount of energy that they would have used. A few minutes of them all resting and me tending to them and a poke ball appears on the spot that Scyther''s ball was previously. Ralts was on edge for a few seconds but me informing her that the ball was empty set her at ease. A ding on my pokedex informed me that the rangers agree with the Scyther being too high level for this area of the forest and are sending it to a new location right now. We all agree to just spend an hour lounging in the bamboo grove before I beam up Chardon and Tabs before I start walking to the outskirt and follow the Route 1 path with Leaf on my shoulder and Ralts on my bag. A few hours of just walking and looking at everything excitedly before it becomes around 11:47ish and I start thinking on the battle. I caught Ralts and both she and Tabs learnt a new attacking move that they can use. Tabitha probably hasn''t noticed yet but Ralts definitely realizes she has a new move under her disposal with how she uses it every few minutes to crack a rock or boulder that''s near us. Chardon dealt a critical hit and only a day into catching Tabs did I tell her to use Self-Destruct. Ralts got tired doing six stacks and three moves and would''ve gotten hit if Leaf hadn''t saved her. Overall this was a very sloppy fight for any beginner level and higher trainer. I''ll have to train really hard to make sure my team is strong enough for the gym. Oh right. "Hey, hehe, uh Tabs." The Pineco looks at me "I guess Rapid Spin means that three quarters of your moves are normal type." I don''t know why I find that funny, I just do. ''Something, something, you sure you''re not a normal type'' typa joke. Tabs looks at me quizzically but Leaf probably says something to explain her trainers weirdness. The day is just uneventful walking and admiring nature with me stopping. just once to do a landscape drawing that accidentally took an hour to finish. The night came and only then did I set things up and place all my Pokemon out. Should probably talk to Ralts too but honestly I''m too tired to do that so after taking everyones dinner bowls and cleaning them I head for bed and enjoy the embrace of night with my Pokemon snuggling to me.
Being a trainer Pokemon now is... surreal. Talking with the Eevee ''Leaf'' has shown that this trainer can be trusted but I have reservations on this. Still... he did save my life and helped me protect what was once my home. I know that I''m not native to this Route and also know that the boy is taking me to register my presence, I just wish to go home but father says I must evolve into a Kirlia before I was to return. So I will stay with this group if only to grow stronger. The Pineco is shivering... it would be ill fitting if one of my allies were to be weakened so I guess I might give her a closer spot to the ''Leaf'' to stay warm. The Ralts line can handle the cold at this level with ease. I used to live on a mountain after all. Chapter 3 I woke up on my third day as a trainer to become the very best. Of what? I have no idea. But I will be the best. Looking around I see the different Pokemon that I call my team. Leaf is snuggling closely with Tabs while Char is placing his tail close to Ralts... SHOOT I FORGOT. A sigh uncontrollably exits my mouth after my major blunder. Well, I was planning on talking with Ralts yesterday about me catching her but I might as well do it after she wakes up. I try and get up as soon as possible and exit the tent, after washing up Tabs appears out the tent and looks at me before chittering excitedly and starts using Rapid Spin. She stops when I ask her, mainly because everyone else was still asleep and no one should wake Leaf up early, but it seems she was just confirming about whether she actually learnt the move yesterday seeing how happy she is. After cleaning up Tabitha from her mold that she seems to regrow every single day I then place it into my bag before taking out my teams'' bowls and start cooking their meal in a pot. Which I do by lighting up the branches underneath using my own flint and steal, gotta stay self-sufficient after all. Soon after, everyone exits the tent with Leaf being first, of course, and Chardon exits last. Notably, everyone perks up when I place their bowls filled with food in front of them, I only give Tabitha water since it''s not like she can eat anything anyway since she''s right now doing photosynthesis atop a tree before she came down to drink. Pineco can''t eat anything but Forretress'' are able to eat since they hide their real body underneath a shell of bug cocoon and steel. After everyone, including myself, finish eating I start cleaning up the rest of my partners which lets me notice how Chardon sigh in pleasure whenever I brush his scales, who knew that he likes to keep clean, and Leaf keeps on wriggling whenever the brush or my hand stroke her back, specifically the spot right in front of her tail, before I move to the last of my party so I could talk with Ralts alone. "Hey Ralts," an inquisitive ''Ra?'' and I know I have her attention "I never had a chance of asking but do you wanna stay on my team?" She quickly answers with a nod of her head. "Well... do you want a nickname then?" She hesitates a little before shaking her head "That''s fine, thanks for sticking around and sorry I caught you and didn''t do this sooner. I was just too tired yesterday." She seems to sympathize with me on that, seeing how she pats my leg in gently. I then start on an important aspect of being a Pokemon trainer. Training. I instructed Tabitha to help Leaf with using her ranged moves and only after Leaf has some success in aiming and strengthening her moves should they start using Quick Attack and Rapid Spin as movement techniques. Meanwhile Chardon was instructed to use Ember inside his Smokescreen in an attempt to learn how to master the black and smoky move, of course to make this more interesting I also marked a few spots on nearby boulders, trees, and dirt to continue his accuracy training. Ralts would be with me to test her Confusion and Disarming Voice while using the different levels of Calm Mind. Ralts and I moved to a different area, with a notebook I wasn''t gonna use for drawing, where there were a bunch of boulders for us to test her capabilities. We unfortunately had to redo the experiment in the middle of the testing because her Confusion started immediately improving by the third use of it with her second boost of Calm Mind. During the testing we had to stop for a 15 minute break during her use of attacks when Ralts shifted into a plus five Calm Mind. Her energy reserves aren''t bad but they definitely need some improvement. On the plus side a book I read on special attack users said that if she keeps a passive plus one effect of Calm Mind at all times she should be able to increase her recharge rate alongside helping her actually keep calm. After finishing the first testing she let go of her plus six energy effect and took a ten minute break before we redid the process two more times. I can now somewhat accurately see how Ralts can fare against Pokemon near or above her level and I think I can properly gauge just how strong she needs to be. After all, just buffing without having a proper idea of the opponent can mean wasted energy through the constant energy used by buff moves within battle and sometimes using them is just overkill. The whole thing took about an hour and ten minutes and by the time we came back towards my team I could see that they made multiple improvements in their abilities. Firstly Chardon. He could now use Smokescreen and isn''t affected by his move if he doesn''t wanna be but he found a way to use the black smoke as an excuse for accuracy training seeing as he was aiming at the boulders I marked which had scorch marks that were closer to target the more recent the attack was. He immediately came to us when I called for him and he showed that he somehow was able to make the debuff move only affect those he wishes, seeing that Ralts and I could see through it just fine and when he reused the move I could see but Ralts couldn''t. Secondly Leaf. She seems to have been able to strengthen her Swift seeing as they''re properly star shaped. Moreover, she seems to have moved onto using Swift and Mud Slap in a pattern while attacking, with Mud Slap on Tabs'' Swift before using Swift in an attempt to get to Tabitha and maybe nick her. Already her accuracy with Mud Slap is improving as she only hits it on large clumps of her opponents'' star attack seemingly at the right time. There still are flaws, like how it takes around three of Leaf''s Swift to take out one of Tabitha''s or how she misses Mud Slap completely, but the improvement can be seen. The weirdest thing is that she wacks away any Swift that gets too close with her tail. Thirdly Tabitha. She seems to have tried to strengthen and increase the amount of her Swift she can dish out to try and force Leaf to train her hardest. She also seems to have continued to use Rapid Spin with Swift and had laid down Spikes at certain areas to force Leaf into dodging the field effects. Her Swift was already amazing so I guess that there isn''t gonna be much improvement from there. Oh that reminds me... Leaf can learn Calm Mind as well. That means I might have Leaf as the all-rounder of my team... then Tabs can be a tank while Char can shift to a melee fighter, that''ll leave Ralts as my dedicated special attacker. Team composition is important after all. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Wait no, Leaf has a terrible nature for special attackers so she can''t be an all-rounder. Since everyone trained as best as they could while I was away I should start hitting the road again so I can make it to Viridian City. I pack up everything and head off with Ralts on my backpack reading the league rule book (how did she get that, she never opened the bag) while Tabs and Leaf are playing tag using Quick Attack and Rapid Spin, seems that Leaf easily catches up to tag Tabitha but my bug type positions herself so she can immediately go for the tag back, and Chardon is at my side trying to breath out a gout of flames while doing punches in one-two jabs; Char is only doing this because I want to make sure he has as many points of attack as possible. About a while in Leaf had to tap out and now rests on my head. Meanwhile Ralts is too tired to practice her energy training so she''s resting in her pokeball which she looked at for a little bit before smiling and entering it. I had to stop for a little cuz Leaf needed to use a bathroom so I stayed nearby while she was at a bush. Char''s flame was starting to wane by the time Leaf started sleeping on my head so I sent both of them into their balls before I continued on my walk. Since nobody else was around Tabitha, Arceus bless her soul, stayed on my bag and wouldn''t leave me alone since she was scared I might get hurt. Definitely not an excuse to photosynthesis on the road. The biggest problem is that I''m bored... huh. Bored is a funny word. Bored Bored Bored Bored Bored Bo-
A little ahead on Route 1
"-hat''s why I think waters wet." A kid who might''ve been a fighting type in her past life finished. "Water isn''t wet though, it only makes other things wet." Said a shy girl who was too into this argument to fluster. "Ladies please, if you two keep on talking like this I might just stay here until Evo comes... then I might enjoy some peace and quiet," interrupted a boy with grey hair "speaking of Evandros... why do you think he stayed back?" "Could be tons of things really like his mom wanted a few more moments ''fore they say goodbye, he might know some super secret training, or he might''ve known about something like a Latias nearby." "Um... I don''t know about the Latias Amy, but maybe he might have some secret training for his Charmander and Leaf." voiced the shy girl "Or he might not want to go on a journey with m-us. He might not want to go on a journey with us" She said the last sentence hurriedly "Nah Mirielle, the guys nice, I mean he calls James ''Captain Slowbro'' but there isn''t any heat or smugness with it, its'' just he doesn''t really notice some things." Amy spoke "Like how he didn''t notice I dyed my hair blue or how you''ve got a major crush on ''im," That got Mirielle to start blushing and blurting out denials on that last claim. "but yeah he just doesn''t really notice stuff." "I think that''s only half the story." said the boy "You would James." Amy retorted "Do you guys ever notice how he always knows when something important is going on," Mirielle was listening intently to James while Amy was looking away but her ears were focused on the conversation "like, he always knows somethings up even if he didn''t know the specifics and how he helps people having disputes or how he tries to warn people about upset or rampaging Pokemon. Heck you could have a mental breakdown and he''d have an ice cream in your face with a megawatt smile to cheer you up." Amy got silent at the last bit, concern for her step-brother flashing in her eyes but one shake from the silver haired boys'' head and she drops the subject. Mirielle meanwhile was too lost in thought to notice this, instead thinking of the boy who wasn''t scared of her and instead gave her a chance. The one who helped poke a hole in her shell of insecurities. She would stop her entire journey if it meant she could talk with him for a little longer. Maybe then she might have the courage to say ''I lo- "Anyway how about we start thinking about who our other catches might be... I personally want a Slowpoke for the nickname and cuz it''d learn Flamethrower. But a Slakoth would be massive to catch, you know, cuz Slaking." James said "I think a Pidgey from here might be the best thing I could take, but a Mankey from Route 23 would also be useful. I think I might take some other fighting types like Scraggy or Stufful... but maybe Tyrogue would be for the best." Said Amy "I-I think that I''d like a Mimikyu or Snom or a Caterpie or a Ledyba or an Emolga or a Pachirisu or Cleffa or an Igglyb-" this list would continue on for quite a while which caused Amy to be interested in the cute Pokemon and gave James ample time to send out and feed his newest partner in secret before sending it back into its ball and refocus on the convo.
-red Bored Bored Bored Bored Bored. Great now I''m bored saying bored. In my defense I did just say bored 24,734 times. 24,735 times now. Its getting dark now so I should really start getting camping but I feel like walking in the dark. Sue me. I send out my entire team after they had their naps and place Tabs on a strap of my bag like a decoration you''d put to show off at school with strict orders to nap now that everyone else is awake, Leaf and Ralts are at my shoulders, while Chardon is on my head as my very own makeshift headlight. I keep walking for what must have been an eternity but was probably an hour of night traveling before my feet decide that they hate me and get all wobbly. Weak. I decide to heed the message my body is trying to convey and go into an open field with a bunch of flowers nearby just a little off the road. When I get to the flower field a bunch of Bellossom, Sunflora, Sunkern, some Oddish, an Ivysaur, and a Vileplume are having a dance. It actually looks really fun and before I know it Leaf and I are dancing with the wild Pokemon, though I had to tap out by the fifteenth rotation since my legs were killing me. I did ask if there was anyone that wanted to come with me to be my Pokemon but there weren''t any takers to that so I dropped the subject and instead fed my team before going to sleep. Oh Wait, I stop before I enter my tent where the rest of my team were starting to sleep except Tabs who already clocked out, I completely forgot a crucial aspect of training Pokemon. Battles. "If anyone is awake tomorrow could you guys help train my team a bit," I can trust that the docile Pokemon have at least enough experience between themselves to be able to protect their home. Judging by their nods they do have some power to them. I head into my tent for some sleep with thoughts on how each of those Pokemon might help my team.
Elsewhere
Fate hatched two destined creature. One good. One evil. Only Arceus knows what fate has in store. The god of creation smiles. This... this will be entertaining muses the celestial being. But one thing strikes odd to the creature. ''Why is there no Ash Ketchum in this universe'' He stretches his perception within his multiverse, his domain. But not further. Never further. In almost every universe within his domain this one boy is always there. In his worlds where Pokemon, his creations, exist. And in all of them he is the one to save the day. So the fact that such a crucial universe should not hold one is quite, how to put it, ssstrange. Yes. Strange. This universe requires more mythical creatures to assist the beings within thus Arceus decreed three creatures into existence. A blue Mew, to find a worthy protector of the people and Pokemon. A pink Celebi, in hopes of seeing through the best timeline. Finally a turquoise and purple Cresselia, to assist she who made the Milky Way. Now... to find that Solgaleo who face painted the creator of all beings when he decided to take a nap. It took the power of a Lugia''s Hydro Pump to clean all that mess out. Chapter 4 I woke up and realized I was the second one up today... how did Leaf get up so early. Then I smell a sweet scent and head out to Leaf dancing with the wild Pokemon in the flower field. Its actually so cute I took a video for a couple minutes before snapping a pic. The sound the pokedex makes when I exit the tent gave a notification that the rangers did accept that the Scyther was too high level to be there and could have caused forced evolutions to multiple Pokemon in that forest. The reward for doing this task was an additional 500 bucks in my bank account. The additional money is pretty helpful since I could use the money on a TM for my team. When I exit Leaf seems to have been really happy hanging out with the grass types but she immediately came running for morning hugs, a tradition that''s pretty routine with her since I''d always do it before going out of the house. Only after I exited did Tabitha come out and after I freshened up Chardon and Ralts came out the tent as well. After everyone was ready I got the attention of the Pokemon present wild or not by clapping my hands together, as everyones head swiveled to look at me. "Alright guys, I''m thinking that we start things off easy alright." Gotta phrase it in a way that even Leaf would enjoy training. "I want Leaf to try learning Iron Tail so she''ll be doing dodging and deflecting practice, Char I want you to start relying more on your physical attacks but just like yesterday I want you to try firing an attack from your mouth so if you get pinned you can attack from both the mouth and tail. Tabitha will be trying to learn a bug type move, preferably Bug Bite or Struggle Bug and maybe even Pin Missile, while Ralts will be increasing the strength of her moves using only Confusion and Disarming Voice." I then look at the wild creatures of the field. "If any of you think you can help with any parts of their training please help them," I then finish things off with "and if any of you wish to battle please wait at the end. Thank you for listening." Soon afterwards my team is now training either by themselves or with the help of the local Pokemon. One thing that the rule books say is that the rangers take strong and unruly Pokemon off Route 1 excluding the Spearow population which lived there before humans came around. Therefore, it wouldn''t be an exaggeration to assume that the Pokemon who were strong but docile like most grass types would be allowed to stay here if they don''t cause any trouble. My eyes are locked to the Bellossom and Vileplume nearby helping Leaf with her Iron Tail training using what must be their weakest attacks because when I scanned them. Because. Well.
Name Vileplume
Type Grass/Poison
Ability Chlorophyll
Nature Docile
Hp 75
Attack 80
Sp Attack 110
Defence 85
Sp Defense 90
Speed 50
Total stats 490
Moves Petal Dance, Absorb, Razor Leaf, Moonblast, Poison Powder, Toxic, Acid, Growth, Grassy Terrain, Strength Sap, Bullet Seed, Sunny Day, Sludge Bomb, Attract, Hyper Beam
Name Bellossom
Type Grass
Ability Healer
Nature Gentle
Hp 75
Attack 80
Sp Attack 90
Defence 95
Sp Defense 100
Speed 50
Total stats 490
Moves Quiver Dance, Leech Seed, Swords Dance, Grass Knot, Petal Dance, Absorb, Razor Leaf, Moonblast, Poison Powder, Toxic, Acid, Growth, Grassy Terrain, Charm, Dazzling Gleam, Giga impact
Seeing how both are using the same grass type move I''m guessing they''re using Razor Leaf but like really weakened because every now and then the leaves become super strong and really really fast to the point that Leaf can just barely dodge them with only light nicks. Also, both wild Pokemon look really apologetic whenever that happens so they probably haven''t held back as much as today with their attacks. It actually got to the point where I asked Leaf to use Growl six times just to make sure that the attacks wouldn''t do much damage. Tabitha meanwhile is by herself training as much as she possibly can to use her type moves but seeing how she''s having trouble I probably will have to get her a TM to get her started. Seeing her fruitless results I decided to shift her training to being able to use Spikes as obstacles and Rapid Spin in an attempt to increase her speed and turning when using the normal move. Ralts meanwhile is being helped by the Sunflora who would combine both Reflect and Light Screen to make a semi permanent barrier. Though after I told them that Ralts only knows special attacks they then stopped using Reflect and would refresh Light Screen when it looked like an attack was going to get through. I looked at the Sunflora through the pokedex but they don''t have a deep moveset and they seem to switch Pokemon every refresh to preserve their energies, so it looks like Vileplume and the Bellossom that''s helping Leaf are the strongest of the bunch. I think after this Ralts will not only be able to quick spam Disarming Voice but also use Confusion faster and stronger than she could previously. Meanwhile Chardon is training with the Ivysaur in learning how to use only physical attacks and getting near any ranged attackers. The Ivysaur is using Vine Whip to keep Char away while peppering him with Energy Ball and whenever Char gets too close the Ivysaur trips him up using Grass Knot to move a bit further away. There isn''t any real progress with Chardon until about halfway through when Char would start predicting where the Vine Whip would come from. The way he did it was to point his tail at where he would use Ember to deflect but instead he''d move away from that place, though he still hasn''t tackled the Grass Knot problem since no matter how high he jumped he would still fall down. Everyone took a break to have breakfast at what was now nine o clock but after that they all wanted to continue trying for a good while longer. Ultimately it took about 3 more hours before everyone stopped training. Like any good trainer I gave my team breaks at any time possible but they put their heart out with todays training making me notice something interesting. Leaf is really amazing. Not only did she manage to learn Iron Tail. She also learnt Trailblaze and Sunny Day. How? She literally spent as long as the others but is now able to perfectly use these moves. She also started using Mud Slap with Swift alongside Quick Attack with Iron Tail while simultaneously refreshing Sunny Day. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO USE MORE THAN THREE MOVES AT ONCE. No Pokemon in history excluding legendary Pokemon have been able to use four or more moves at once. Not even the Pokemon on Red''s, Cynthia''s, and Leon''s team or any champion tier trainers team. Ever. Albeit the total time to use all the moves was 20 seconds but the fact she could even do that is insane. I think... I think Leaf is serious right now. She''s trying really hard and managed to land a couple hits on her grass sparring partners. Not only that but she is clearly tired yet the look in her eyes shows that she''s only focused on training really hard. I had to get her to snap out of her trance for her to notice the shaking legs and how she started sagging further to the ground with each step she took. She closed her eyes and, BAM, she started using Rest to recover her flagging energy. In more realistic events, none of the rest of my team gained new moves or grand improvements to their skills. I mean, they still improved but not at Leaf''s level. Char managed to get around a meter close to Ivysaur using a tactical amount of Smokescreen while Ralts started increasing her recharge rate and strength of her moves to the point where two Sunflora would use Light Screen. Tabitha might have been moving faster using Rapid Spin, I don''t really know, but she definitely takes longer to get dizzy and needs less time to recover now. I fed everyone a hearty lunch, spoon feeding Leaf seeing how tired she was, and then my team and I said our goodbye to the grass types.
I''d like to say that the three days after meeting the grass types was filled to the brim with excitement but then I''d be a liar. Aside from a couple battles against a Pidgey and some Rattata for attempted food thievery nothing really big has happened. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. It was very boring just walking and even when I was in a rhythm I still needed some form of attention. So I read the league manual book on the ''do''s and don''ts'' section. Hey, blame the people that skip the boring bits; even if those boring bits might save their lives. In terms of my team there''s been marginal improvement but without anyone to battle and only training amongst ourselves I don''t know if they''re still at newbie rank or beyond. No one has learnt any new moves except Leaf who managed to copy Growl from Chardon alongside Baby-Doll Eyes when I said she needed to stop playing at night to go to sleep, and the aforementioned fire lizard who learnt Tail Whip. Meanwhile, Tabitha is trying really hard to learn a bug move and Ralts likewise is focused on learning a psychic move. None of the Pokemon I''ve seen have really been on my catch list since its mostly been Spearow and Pidgey with the occasional Rattata nearby, I did see a cool looking Growlithe but it ran away before I could catch it. A little ahead there seems to be a Weedle on the ground... Weedle aren''t meant to be anywhere outside Viridian Forest in Kanto so this must either have been caught by a bird to be eaten or there''s a Beedrill infestation nearby. Meh. Seems like a good time to test out Leaf since she''s never had a chance to fight wild Pokemon before. That Scyther didn''t count since Leaf got one-shot by that thing. "Leaf battle position," as the ball opens and a shining white light bursts onto the ground the normal type tenses her muscles to an ''attack and dodge'' position and starts things off with Swift. The poison bug notices the pop of my poke ball and proceeded to use String Shot on Leaf right as my order ended. Fortunately she noticed the move and dodged before she fired her own move at the opponent. Poor Weedle wasn''t able to dodge even if it wanted to and the little thing was blown back. However that wasn''t the end as the little bug continued using String Shot and managed to snag a few bits around Leaf, the blue energy that signifies stat lowering even happened to signify a speed loss. "Reposition using Quick Attack," as she did that I decided to finish the fight early "then use Mud Slap." The little Weedle must have been assuming that Leaf was either stuck or too slow to dodge since it used a Poison Sting on where Leaf was a second ago, but my normal type pal decided to jump above and behind the Weedle which gave Leaf an even easier time since she just had to use her mud attack right behind her back. Imagine my shock when Weedle used String Shot to pull itself away from the super effective attack. Though Mud Slap did come out a bit slower than usual, if it was nor- Gotta keep focussed. "Leaf, ''Triple 3''" a simple command to speed up her moves. The sheen of steel envelopes on her tail before being overlapped by a white featureless energy envelopes her body, finally ending with grass energy down below on the paws of her feet that then encompasses her body alongside her Quick Attack. This ultimately took a total of about twelve seconds to finish but Weedle took the waiting time to hit Leaf with a nasty looking Bug Bite alongside another String Shot, which slowed down the charging of the attack even more, before charging up its Poison Sting for a clash. Knowing the outcome I decided to just catch the little bug after checking its info on the pokedex.
Name Weedle
Type Bug/Poison
Ability Shield Dust
Nature Lonely
Hp 40
Attack 35
Sp Attack 20
Defence 30
Sp Defense 20
Speed 50
Total stats 195
Moves Electroweb, String Shot, Poison Sting, Bug Bite
Seeing the electric type move in the bug''s move pool just enforces I should catch the little thing. Just as I finish looking at the pokedex I take a look at the battle finishing up. The results were set in stone. Leaf won. She also got a speed boost from her grass type attack but that doesn''t matter right now. I toss a poke ball at the Weedle and the ball starts shaking. Once. Twice. Thri- nope it got out and starts looking frantically everywhere using String Shot, hitting the poke balls of the rest of my team and keeping them stuck inside, before using Electroweb on Leaf locking her in place and then subsequently spinning around and using String Shot on my feet keeping me in place. "Leaf use Swift!" I frantically try and open one of my other partners balls but my right hand can''t reach any of their buttons of their poke balls holding my party. The Weedle still half crazed takes the Swift and skids right in front of me before hitting the closest thing nearby with a Poison Sting before it snaps out of its craze and looks at me before all becomes painful. Leaf looked stunned before firing a Sunny Day to burn the Electroweb and then used Swift once more to hit away the String Shot on my belt which allowed Ralts and the others to jump out of their balls as the status move had encompassed the buttons that would allow them to exit. Tabitha then used a Rapid Spin on the Weedle before circling back to me. Heads hurting... maybe I should sit down... yeah, I should do th-
As the chosen partner of the boy, not much could phase Chardon, knowing that he and his trainer would reach higher heights than anyone has ever known filled him with giddy. Chardon was pleased with the addition of the Eevee called Leaf. Seeing his trainer garner the attention of the Pokemon that could fill any and every role with the numerous typings was the right call as Leaf was the friendliest thing he has ever known. Then he saw her get serious and the pride for his trainer grew tenfold with the choice he made. Chardon was confused when his trainer took a Pineco which didn''t know any moves to physically damage opponents other than Self-Destruct. But his confusion turned into awe when his trainer was taking into account at the usefulness the Pineco could show when it evolved. Weakness only to the flame is a considerable typing and having a teammate who could help smite the dragons they would no doubt face is incredible investment on his trainers part. Chardon was understanding of catching the Ralts at the time and understood keeping her. She is strong and with the help of her new family the Ralts defeated her previous opponent, learning a new move within the heat of battle. The flame in her shines brightly and hearing that she could evolve into two forms intrigued Chardon, hearing that one would shift her typing from a fairy into a fighting type capable in close combat directed his attention. If she so wishes Ralts could be the sword or bow of the team, smiting from either a long distance or right in front of opponents just like Chardon himself. But all of it might end today. "What can we do?" asked Ralts. "There are a few trainers that left ahead of us, maybe they''d halp" shouted ''Leaf'' frantically, flubbing help in the heat of the moment. "I''ll teleport myself and Leaf to the trainers, it would be impudent for our own trainer to stop his journey so early." haughtily spoke Ralts, one might think she did not care if it were not for the worry in her voice and the unsaid feelings that emanate from her mind. "They will be further up the path, take haste and go." Chardon finally spoke after assessing the area that his trainer was stabbed at. Minor bleeding but nothing major, the poison was the key worry. The psychic fairy and the normal Pokemon vanished in the blink of an eye and it only took Chardon a few moments to understand that Ralts used Teleport before rounding out to the newest potential adversary. "And you better not leave until we are finished. Lest the fire burn you alive for your insolence." The Weedle shot a glare at us but stopped when he noticed the fire of Chardon''s tail and the fact it was now two versus one. "The human should not have been so close. Had it been farther away it would not be harmed from that attack nor would I prioritize it above the opponent. It had not yet earned my approval so I decided not to join it." It said vitriol in its voice when it addressed Chardon''s trainer who was sporting a new look wearing a plain blue shirt with green jeans. Nice look if it were not for the purple and reddish blood at one area near the waist. "YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW AND YET YOU HADN''T THOUGHT TO JUST RUN AWAY! YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING ELSE! YOU. YOU. YO-" "ENOUGH ''Tabitha''," good, that snapped her out. Had she continued she would have accidentally activated Self-Destruct and the attack would damage their trainer even more. "do you not think the rest of us are angry. We are to blame just as much as the bug is... our trainer would want to keep the Weedle, no? You can see his hand is clutching an empty poke ball." "What are you on about Chardon," ''Tabitha'' seems to have calmed down. Good. "Arceus you aren''t going to help catch him now, are you!" Chardon heads over to their trainers'' right hand and opens it up. Upon his palm is a ball half red & half white with a little button in the middle. Chardon holds the button on the ball as he picks it up. It expands into something big enough that it requires Chardon to use both hands to hold it. "Now, how about a battle. Hmmm," Chardon scrunches his face in thinking "you may choose which one of us you will battle but do it with haste lest I lose my patience and strike first." Ending it of with a devilish smirk. Upon taking a look between the two Pokemon the Weedle would no doubt face he decided to cut his losses and pick the fire type in front of him. Otherwise the Pineco would initiate battle and would genuinely try and kill him. Both Chardon and Weedle moved far enough away that they won''t injure the unconscious boy. Bug and lizard start combat to decide whether the boy would have his fifth Pokemon.
After thirty seconds of travel via using multiple rapid Teleport''s both Leaf and Ralts found the trio of trainers ahead on Route 1. They were sitting down taking a break from traveling the road for a few minutes. Ralts reused Teleport to get as close as possible ending up only a few feet away from them. "Hey! Evandros is injured! He got poisoned, please help!" Leaf said as loud as she could. In seconds a poke ball on the side of a girl with a black hair opens up and reveals a silver Eevee only slightly taller than Leaf much to the trainers shock. The Eevee quickly rummages its trainers purse and comes out with a Pecha Berry the girl had in a compartment alongside a few other berries. "Thanks big bro," even if it isn''t the time Leaf would always give thanks or apologies "we gotta go byeeee." Ending the bye with a goodbye hug. Just as fast as they came the pair of Pokemon disappear once more. Leaving behind three very confused humans and one worried Shadow. Chapter 5 Wha... What happened. Oh right... that Weedle managed to use a Poison Sting on me. And then I blacked out. Man, that sucked. For now I look around and try to make sense of what''s happening. In front of me is my tent, shoddily made to the point that a stiff breeze actually managed to tumble it down. Next to the tent are Leaf and Ralts who looked surprised that it fell down, with Ralts looking both embarrassed and frustrated at it. On my right is Chardon with his back facing me, peering over his shoulder it looks like he''s checking the second book given by professor Oak in an attempt to understand the darn thing. Right now he''s just leafing past the ''Paralysis on Human & Pokemon'' section if the title on the last page means anything. On my left meanwhile is Tabitha with the Weedle, they seem... to be talk...ing. "Why''s the Weedle still here?" my question ended up spooking everyone in the clearing sans me. They all spin to look at me before Leaf instantly tackles into me nuzzling me while tearing up a little. "Hey, hey don''t worry," in the most soothing voice I can muster I try and ease Leaf "everything''s fine okay." That seems to mollify Chardon and Ralts, with Ralts poorly hiding her relief and Char looking like this was obvious, but Tabitha still looks oddly scared as she seems to be trying to relieve her emotions by using the Weedle like a punching bag. Still... "Guys I still don''t know why the Weedle''s still here." Tabitha stops her attempted murder of Weedle, much to the poison types relief, and instead moves towards me before poking my right hand. Which has a poke ball. Wait~ "Weedle''s joining the team?" This time they all nod much to Tabitha, Ralts, and Weedle''s displeasure. "Well cool, how about we start walking towards Viridian City." They all seem happy with this and soon after a power nap- I was still very tired- the team trails along with me towards the city. Though I''m now conflicted about Weedle, if it really doesn''t want to be on my team then I''ll need to take it to Viridian Forest to be properly released. Well at least nothing that big''ll happen while I walk... I hope.
Yup. Nothing happened. I''m now at least an hour''s walk away from Viridian City and nothing important happened the entire time. If I didn''t specifically wish for the rest of the route to be boring I doubt I would''ve even still been sane. The barest of things happened, just a couple more battles against some Pidgey''s and every night my team had to send some Rattata scampering. The only slightly interesting thing that happened was a Spearow that wanted to fight me but even that ended quickly with a two hit KO from Chardon using Beat Up and a well placed Ember. I didn''t even need to show off my new ball throwing skills or use any of my tactics I''ve hashed out with my team. In terms of training I''m thinking of having Char use both Tail Whip and Dragon Dance at the same time since they seem to mesh well together but my lizard can''t seem to use them both at once in an actual battle since the completion time is ten seconds, too long for an actual battle. Meanwhile Ralts and Tabitha still haven''t learnt any new moves, though their mastery of their current moves is going well with the exception of Self-Destruct which I won''t really use in battles anyway, Explosion is agreed upon to be the better of the two. I''ll need to get TM''s for them. Leaf seems to be using Quick Attack even better than before with the way she seems to decelerate and accelerate in the blink of an eye, though she needs to still learn how to moves in tight corners. Maybe some battles against other trainers will help. Weedle... isn''t listening to me unless I make him battle one of my other team members. It''s fine since we sped up his charge rate and size of String Shot and Electroweb but I can''t seem to get it through his head that he needs to practice just like the others. I''ll have to make him battle in some un-winnable situations to get him to realize that he needs training just like the others. Oh, speaking of Weedle, I asked the little poison bug if it wanted a nickname but he looked at me like I murdered a pack of Growlithe so I took as a no. I''ve gotten to about half the way before something seems a little odd... seems like a bunch of Pokemon poachers are on the south-east of Viridian City about a while away. They''re on the right of Route 1 which seems to be cordoned off for some reason. I''ll tell mister Blue about it when I visit the Earth gym, not to battle, as my excuse for meeting the second strongest trainer of Kanto alongside being my senior lab trainer. I think professor Oak is the third strongest but the only time I''ve ever seen him battle is when he used his Exeggutor to stop an unruly Electabuzz of some trainer who was using the ranch space. I head near the city and immediately ask for directions to the Pokemon center from the Officer Jenny who was sitting in one of the three Viridian police stations. I then walked at least ten more minutes before I started seeing buildings, and another fifteen minutes before I came in front of the center. Heading in everyone seems to be hiding because my fellow lab trainers are behind the counter probably waiting to surprise someone. So I decide to say hey. "Hey guys," they get a bit spooked... why? "you can come out the desk now." Slowly they all stand up looking a bit dejected. Suddenly a pop noise sounds out causing me to yelp out in surprise. "Eep" the noise seriously spooked me to point I jumped. A second later I realize it was just a party popper that Amy had behind her back. The biggest clue was the way Mirielle was glaring at her but the confetti behind the red headed Primeape was a pretty big giveaway. I just inhaled through my nose, put my face in a neutral look, walked right in front of the three, and then gave them the biggest hug they have ever gotten, my laugh quickly following. That really startled everyone most of all Mirielle who needed to sit down a bit for some reason. I hope I didn''t hug too hard. "An~yway, I''m gonna check out the gym in the city before I take a room, anyone wanna come." They all agree and before I go I give my team to the nurse Joy who saw everything unfold, the evidence being her tittering laughter and the Chansey next to her openly guffawing. Before we go I hand my poke balls of my team to the Chansey who brought out a metal tray and is pointedly aiming it at me. Then we all head back out to walk in the city. A-after we turned back and asked where the earth gym is. We all took about twenty minutes to go to the gym mainly because all of us were gawking at the tall buildings and how many people and Pokemon there are on the streets. I mean, I''ve seen how big cities are but usually that was with dads Salamence before they... Well... its been a long time since I''ve seen a city. Anyway, we all move along and come infront of the Viridian gym to check the place out. The lights are on and a receptionist is there but there aren''t a lot of people inside. When we head in the receptionist motions for us to go to him which we do. "Hello there, are you all trainers?" Mr receptionist, oh his name tag is Bradford, says. We all nod and upon seeing this he continues by saying "Then we apologize but mr Oak will not be available for any gym battles until the league year starts." "Oh no sorry, um we''re here because we wanna talk with mr Blue because we''re also lab trainers." I say hurriedly "Yep/Yep/...Yes" the trio behind me has spoken, and Mirielle took two seconds less time to reply to an unfamiliar adult. Yay. "Then please show your pokedex for ID," I hand Bradford my pokedex and upon verifying he types on the computer in front of him "in that case mr Oak will be available in about two hours. Is that acceptable with all of you." We all give our chorus of acceptance and start exiting the gym before suddenly being stopped by a dude maybe a year older than us. "Hey!" Loud "How come ya guys get to meet Blue and we can''t, I''ve been waitin'' for a gym battle since yesterday!" It seems his accent has him say ya instead of you. Either that or he''s snubbing us. "Sorry about that but we didn''t ask for a gym battle though," James FTW "we''re actually from pallet... and professor Oak''s newest lab trainers." nooo~ James that pause caused dramatic effect dude. A few people who were looking at us due to the commotion we ended up causing weren''t really paying attention but the instant James said who our sponsor is the gazes immediately took a sharper tone. Guess I have to say something. "We actually plan on starting when the league year officially starts," good I properly set our boundaries, but still gotta be friendly "but if anyone asks I personally am down for a quick battle m~aybe tomorrow. We''ll see." And with that we all head out again only to be stopped again. UGHHH. Anyway its the same older kid who''s name I don''t know but he''s now holding a poke ball in his right hand. "Yeah right, ya probably have an in with Blue that''s why that receptionist is lettin'' ya go through no prob. I can''t stand kids who just get whatever they want so I''m gonna put ya through the ringer." *Sigh* Maybe this is an opportunity to test out my team. Yeah let''s call it that. And if the kid ends up putting his money where his mouth is then obvi I''m wrong about him. "*Sigh* Yeah sure, but I gotta get my team from the center," end this with no negotiations "I''ll either accept a one v one or a two v two for now though." The kid seems mollified for now and we head over to the Pokecenter to get my team and use one of the back battlegrounds each center is mandated to possess. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "One on one brat." Gosh is he trying to ruffle my feathers, or maybe Rufflet my feathers. hehehehehe My laughter seems to have ticked him off even more now, seeing him look as angry as an Annihilape really is funny. But I should be focused so I put on my neutral face and enlarge one of my parties ball. Now he''s looking shocked and a little spooked before he enlarges his ball. As one both of us press the button but where he keeps it in his palm I threw it in the air before both open up shooting out a bright white light, after all, I did learn how to throw and catch a poke ball for battle use; I just can''t do any fancy tricks okay. As one both lights fizzle out revealing the Pokemon on the battle field. On his side is a small purple creature with a round body sans its large ears, its feet, and the little nubs that are its arms, with both the end of its ears and feet are highlighted by a yellow section. Its little eyes are like an unfinished plus sign and its mouth seems to be set in a constant whimper. On my side is my first partner, one who''s yellow flame becomes noticeably brighter in anticipation of a real fight. His smooth red scaled body is just raring to fight with the way he keeps clenching and unclenching his muscles, with three sharp claws for toes and four clawed fingers, Chardon is ready for a challenge. A nearby trainer kindly sent out a the evolution of that Unova Pokemon Gothita which promptly set up a barrier looking like the act was nothing of importance, said trainer then asked if both of us were ready which got affirmations from both sides. "3,2,1" Whismur and Charmander lock eyes right then "Go" "Whismur use Pound" "Char use Smokescreen" Both Pokemon spring into action with the Whismur running to Chardon to let out its physical attack, unfortunately for it Chardon used a moved to take away the little whisper Pokemon''s accuracy. "Char after DD use Growl." Already my little lizard is using dragon energy, anticipating my move usage seeing how I drilled it into him how to properly set up. Later I''ll need to inform him when and where this Strat is viable but for now newbie and beginner rank battles don''t have moves like Defog or Haze used in them. "Whismur get outta there." Bad move from him seeing how his Whismur is literally a sound based Pokemon. A proper sound move would still hit Char, since the only way sound moves would miss is if the opponent is far away. Just like I was saying Whismur almost got out only to be... not affected by Growl? A quick show of using my pokedex says that Whismur commonly have the ability Soundproof which is basically self explanatory. Internally I smack myself for wasting an opportunity but externally I just continue the battle. "Whismur use Growl" the purple opponent straightens its ears in anticipation of using a move. "Char use Ember instead," soon a staccato of little fireballs hit the opposing Whismur who gets thrown back before using an attack "now use Tail Whip." That status debuff works and from the look on the dudes face he wasn''t expecting the battle to go like this. "Whismur use Echoed Voice." Shoot that''s a bad move for us. My face turns into a slight grimace at the normal move. Whismur straightens out its ears to inhale from the holes hiding underneath and then bellows out one of the biggest screams I''ve ever heard. Unlike Disarming Voice which lets out a charming cry that''s soothing to the ear, this is just plain screaming using normal type energy. Char grimaces while covering his ears and looks at me, good, another tactic which is for when he can''t hear a command is to turn to look at me. I nod. Just a plain up and down of my head. Char then lets go of his ears and moves to Whismur who still hasn''t finished the move, judging by how the energy is so visible from Echoed Voice it seems that the move turned into a critical hit. Right when Chardon is next to Whismur the little thing runs out of normal energy and has to stop to recover. This was enough to seal the deal with one good Beat Up. One hit turns into two which turns into three which turns into four and by the fifth Whismur gets knocked back again and this time stays down. After ten seconds have passed the Gothita trainer then signals that I''ve won and with that I take off my neutral face into a joyful one. I walk up to Chardon and give him a big hug. The fire type still in my hands I look back to the trainer who had challenged us only to find him leaving. A few people look at me funny when I go to him and ask for a shake of hands for a good battle. The only response I got was "buzz off brat." Rude till the end. I ask around if anyone knows who that kid is and apparently the guy is called Will Ganto. Apparently he''s also a newbie trainer as he''s also starting this league year. After getting my info and putting Chardon into his ball I ask if anyone else wants to battle and there''s a guy who looks like he''s fifteen that wants to do it. Seems he''s really confident since he says I can use all my Pokemon against his two. Judging by the dirty looks adults and kids alike give him he must be a newbie crusher but I said alright to it. The Gothita user still hasn''t moved from her position and instead keeps using the Gothita... actually. I send out Ralts from her poke ball and she looks around before disregarding everyone around us. "Hey after this do you think you could help teach Ralts how to use Light Screen and Reflect." I already knew that Ralts was trying to learn those moves but wasn''t able to grasp the basics of either move even when training with the Sunflora a few days back. The trainer nods her head and gives her phone number for messaging before asking both of us to get into position. The newbie crusher sends out a Nidorina which raises it barbs in anticipation of a good battle. He also seems to be nervous when I put on my neutral face... why? Never mind, gotta focus. When the battle begins Nidorina immediately uses Toxic which Ralts dodges by using Teleport. "CM into C Ralts" the empath Pokemon understands and stands still to quickly charge up a Calm Mind before being hit by a Double Kick, good thing Ralts is resistant to fighting moves otherwise she would''ve been knocked out. After being thrown back Ralts used Confusion which was stronger with only one boost, the Nidorina then got blasted back with Confusion but is still standing despite being a mono-poison type right now. "Nidorina use Bite" "Ralts repeat" Nidorina runs to Ralts in hopes of landing the dark type attack only to hit nothing. This time Calm Mind was helping already as the Teleport was even further away then the last Teleport and Calm Mind was used with Ralts being too far away to get hit by an attack from Nidorina, which gave Ralts barely enough time to use another Confusion against the poison type before Nidorina got too close and managed to knock the opponent Pokemon out. Before the newbie crusher can send out a new Pokemon I instead switch out Ralts for Weedle while the opponent sends out a Swellow. He seems to smirk but I put Weedle here for two reasons. Reason 1 is because I need the bug to listen to me. Reason 2 is to make sure I win. When the battle resumes we quickly spout out our orders. "Swellow use Pluck" "Weedle ''bag and tag''" please listen Weedle. The Swellow gets in close not bothering to get ready to dodge as its a flying type and the opponent is a bug, it definitely will win against Weedle. But I''m gonna make sure its a pyrrhic victory for the opponent, at least before I crush him. Weedle in the last second tosses out an Electroweb that locks and lowers the speed of Swellow who fell to the ground only a foot away from my Pokemon. Before using Poison Sting right onto its exposed back. "String Shot" "Get outta there Swellow" Weedle''s bug move hits the flying type causing the Swellow to be further locked in place making it even harder to struggle out of the trap its in. "Now move back and use Electroweb once more" "Use Aerial Ace or something Swellow" This time Weedle takes a second to debate that order and instead uses Bug Bite, the flying type took the opportunity and used Aerial Ace to break out of its cage and hit Weedle with what I understand is Pluck and definitely not an Aerial Ace. Weedle didn''t stand a chance and was promptly defeated by one hit from the flying move. I return Weedle, knowing that this battle will have curbed his doubt in my abilities so long as I win it, and promptly send out Leaf with no order. In reality that was an order to ready up a Quick Attack instead of ''Battle Position'' which is to ready up a Swift. Just as fast as she came Leaf was on the other side of the arena with a knocked down Swellow. "Duo 3" "Wing Attack" Swellow gets up and tries to move in close to hit a Wing Attack but due to being slowed down twice by Weedle it wasn''t able to dodge a Quick Attack & Iron Tail combo to the face. Quickly sending it down into the ground with an audible thump. That seemed to throw off the newbie crusher even more and that gives me valuable seconds to order a new command. "Switch into Duo 2" "HUH" Leaf aborts her current steel energy and shifts into a normal and fairy energy combo. Before the Swellow can look away, its promptly gets its attack stat lowered twice by Growl and Baby-Doll Eyes before it can run away. The trainer seems to be even more thrown off and didn''t give an order to the likewise shocked Swellow. "Duo 4" "Swellow Air Slash quick!" Leaf then turns off the fairy energy and instead a grass energy while the normal energy shifts back around her body before she began running towards Swellow who managed to get off the ground. The Swellow then charges flying energy and shoots lines of powered up wind towards Leaf who just keeps on running and dodges the attacks before jumping and slamming into the flying bird once more. This time only one of them gets back up. Seeing Leaf win this fight I motion towards the trainer who was being the referee. "Gonna call it?" shifting my face back into the regular look of a normal grin on it, the question made me notice how quiet the areas gotten and only after I say something does the trainer get knocked out of her stupor and motions that I win. Leaf upon hearing that the battle is over runs up to my open arms and jumps right into a big ol'' hug. After heading to the guy and getting paid money I moved back to my fellow lab trainers. Who look surprised by something? Hey... since when did Shadow come out. I gently put Leaf onto the ground and she immediately runs over to Shadow to give the older Eevee a big hug. "What... was that?" Amy asks "Was what?" I rebut "You know, the off color Ralts, the Weedle that knows Electroweb, Leaf over there used two moves at the SAME TIME! THRICE!" Gosh she really is dumbfounded by my team huh. She''s shouting. "Oh well, I found Ralts who lost her home to a Scyther so I went and beat it up with Leaf, Chardon, and Tabitha- a Pineco that I caught; Ralts beat the Scyther and I sent it to the rangers before continuing on and going to a flower field with an uber strong Vileplume and Bellossom that trained Leaf; I found out there that she can use upto, like, five different moves at the same time and on like my sixth day on Route 1 I found and caught Weedle." A basic summary but a useful one. I then head back inside to give Ralts and Weedle to Nurse Joy who... also looked a little dumbfounded by Leaf. I get the feeling this''ll cause an even bigger impact than I believed it would. Anyway I spend the rest of the day with my team and introducing all of them to Mirielle and James since Amy wanted to have a couple battles herself. The trainer with the Gothita came over to me and soon we talk about the type of training we use for our psychic Pokemon, I explained about how Ralts increases her energy reserves by using psychic energy to lift up nearby rocks to levitate them and how she sometimes uses the energy while she reads- sometimes as a nightlight when its time to sleep. The- I now find out is a Gothorita- trainer, who told me that her name is Cherry Louncrest, told me that she uses Reflect and Light Screen to both master the moves while using intense amounts of energy to increase reserves and recharge rate. "I just can''t believe that I didn''t think on using classic psychic energy before Gothorita learnt either of those moves. Her overall energy would''ve been way higher before she evolved." Cherry very nearly facepalms herself while saying that, only stopping due to a purple glow on her hand. "You won''t even let me lament my failure huh partner?" the eyes of the psychic type lose their energy and she does a curtsy nod at that "Well, I''ll try to make less mistakes ok." This cracks a smile on the aloof Gothorita. After giving some basic instructions on getting started on Light Screen and talking about what we want to do when the league starts and which Pokemon we wanna catch next Cherry decided to head to a nearby store since her mother asked her to get groceries back to their house. About an hour later we all head over to the earth gym, Amy rejoined us about ten minutes after Cherry left looking confident as she beat two different people with Squirtle and one person who recently hatched a Shinx with her Fletchling she caught before coming into Viridian City. Mirielle then said that she caught a Rookidee alongside Amy''s catch since the potentially flying steel type Pokemon had a broken wing. It''s also why she won''t be able to use it in any battles until a week later. We get into the earth gym and are moved into an empty battlefield with only one other person inside. Blue "Hey there kiddos, how''s it going," spoke the grandson of Oak "hope gramps didn''t bother you too much before you became trainers." "Oh no," spoke Amy looking a little flustered, did she always have thin eyebrows "the professor only talked about the things we wanted or needed to know so he wasn''t a bother at all." "Well then how may I help you." Blue asked We all then started asking questions about how being a trainer on the road feels like and questions similar to those. Amy did sometimes ask questions about what Blue''s favorite food and things are though but I didn''t really pay it any mind, James looked had a little smirk though so something is obviously there that I''m missing. Eventually after 15-20 minutes of asking questions all of us start heading out. Oh right I almost forgot. "Um mister Blue I have to tell you something." "What is it kiddo." "I saw some poachers southeast of Viridian City. There seemed to be more than fifty of them in the cordoned off area on the right of Route 1- um left if you head to Pallet- just wanted to let you know." And with that I jog to catch up to my friends. Chapter 6 After heading out with my friends we all just agreed to check out a cool sports building, and as five time mini golf champ I just ha~d to show my skills to everyone that isn''t Leaf. Somehow I lost to Mirielle Since this was a game for fun I decided to go easy on everyone and let Mirielle come in first, my pride and amazing skill preventing me from going anywhere below second place. After that James decided to head to Route 23 in hopes of catching a Nidoran or Houndour so we all walked over to there. James ended up seeing a Totodile but something seemed very odd about it, after catching the little thing it turned out to be a Zorua. Dang, James lucked out, the last seen Zorua sighting was about eight years ago apparently and its parent Zoruark ended up causing a major mess in Unova before disappearing. For some reason James ended up sweating to the point he had to excuse himself to freshen up, don''t know why though. Oh and he was all jumpy the entire time. There was also a Mankey that appeared and Amy immediately battled it with her Fletchling, the entire time they implemented a hit and run tactic using Feather Dance and then striking hits using Wing Attack. It was somewhat boring but Amy seemed to have a feral grin and sweating just as hard as James was and also was jumpy, apparently it was an adrenaline rush from being in a battle. At the end Amy won but ultimately she decided against catching the Mankey since apparently it wasn''t strong enough to join her team, which is kinda like how I didn''t catch that Spearow at the end of Route 1. She also ended up excusing herself and by this time it was starting to get a bit late so Mirielle and I agreed that after our next encounter we both would head back to the pokecenter. We continued exploring the Route and came across a small infestation of Rattata out in the woods. I decided that this''ll be good training for Tabitha and had her use Swift against all the normal type rats, an improvement in the move was that Tabs could quickly send out a plethora of Swift which isn''t really useful in a single or double battle since there would be too many attacking stars that wouldn''t hit their target alongside being a major energy drain; but here, it was a chance to see just how effective Tabitha could be with AOE attacks. Most of the Rattata ended up scurrying away after the first few hits but a decent chunk still remained so I decided to test out how strong her Self-Destruct is against multiple opponents. Tabitha used Rapid Spin to head to the middle of the group and overloaded in normal type energy which detonated and knocked out the rest of the purple rats. I then took my selected Pokemon''s ball and sent her in to take a good nap. "Why''d you just use Self-Destruct?" Mirielle asked "Good question," I replied alongside a thumbs up "I haven''t really seen Tabs use that move before in detail so I wanted to check how far and how strong the move was, plus a flashy attack like that''ll send most weak wild Pokemon scurrying. Oh, and Tabs doesn¡¯t actually get hurt when she uses the move; just knocked out." That seemed to mollify her and before we knew it the two of us were heading back into town together. Though, Mirielle was a bit away from me when we started walking she ended up getting so close we bumped shoulders before she scrambled back to her previous position away from me. Maybe she thinks I''m as sweaty as the other two and doesn''t want to take a shower for doing nothing. Either way we get into the pokecenter to see that Will guy take a poke ball from nurse Joy and start heading out. When he saw me he just shoulder tagged me and walked away like nothing happened, Mirielle ended up getting super angry at him but since he wasn''t there she just decided to show me her Pokemon. Though, she ended up getting really nervous with showing them in the center since it had quite a few groups of people milling about so instead we went to my room to see them, then I realized I hadn''t booked a room to rest at so I took a key from nurse Joy who was standing behind her desk alongside giving Tabitha for a quick check up to see if anything is wrong. We went to a hallway on the right before taking the second hallway on the left and opening the third door to the right. The room was sparse of any details and only had one window but it still had a cabinet on the right, mini kitchen on my left, a desk underneath the window, and a bed on the right of the desk and a bit ahead of the cabinet. There''s also an open door on the left of the cabinet and upon inspection its just the bathroom. Despite my terrible explanation skills the place is quite spacious in order to accommodate large sized Pokemon since it looks like it could have two Snorlax in here and you could still send out the rest of your team no problem. Though it can''t fit a Wailord so that must suck for some of the water type''s fans. After depositing my bag onto the desk I send out my entire team sans Tabs onto the bed. All four of them look curiously at the new room before I clap my hands once just to together to get their attention, after that I did introductions of my team to Mirielle who ended up getting snuggle hugged by Leaf. Mirielle then sent out her team in the center of the room and began showing my team her Pokemon. First up was he Pikachu, followed closely was Shadow who also was succumbed to a snuggle hug, and finally her newest catch Rookidee which looked way bigger than the pokedex said is meant to be their regular size. A normal Rookidee is meant to be 0.2 meters tall, this Rookidee is 0.5 meters tall. I sat down on the chair in front of the desk and then checked its stats to see what its moves and stuff are and...
Name Rookidee
Type Flying
Ability Keen Eyes
Nature Jolly
Hp 38
Attack 47
Sp Attack 33
Defense 35
Sp Defence 35
Speed 57
Total stats 245
Moves Tailwind, Peck
"Tailwind is a decent move but you should have Shadow teach your team how to use Leer; Pikachu would definitely benefit from learning Double Kick and Quick Attack," my conclusion after looking at the dex is "then just train to use moves like Hone Claws for Rookidee and do some battles to gain experience. I-if you wanna beat Brock for the first gym that is, I know a lot of people who didn''t do gym battles and they''re doing quite well now." The last sentence was said hurriedly because I was worried I was rambling on for a bit. Why am I overthinking stuff? If Mirielle thinks I''m being weird then she''s keeping quiet about it, instead she ends up sitting on the bed in the corner and asks for me to keep talking. I honestly wanna go outside to do some landscape drawings of Route 22 since the mountainous and forrest parts looked really good in contrast but I humor her and keep talking about stuff like getting specific pokechow for our teams, what our team composition might be, what our cleaning routine for our Pokemon is, and which movie we should all watch together. We came to a compromise that for the first movie we would watch an adventure movie starring a Carnivine but the second one would be this really heartwarming story of a deaf girl and a blind Pidgeot meeting their destined lovers, I wonder why she seemed so embarrassed about the last movie since it was a hassle to get her to agree to it. Some coaxing and it turns out her mom was the female lead in the movie back when she was 16. Still gonna watch it because I loved how the ace trainer and his Braviary saved the girl and Pidgeot in that storm, subsequently realizing that they''re falling in love for each other. Anyway after all that I stand up getting off the chair I was sitting on and put my team sans Weedle into their poke balls and pick up the little poison bug alongside my wallet so we can head and buy the pokechow, the movie recording, and a few extra poke balls for me. Mirielle decided to head to her room which she was sharing with Amy on the left hallway from the entrance of the center and told me to wait which I did, twenty minutes later and Mirielle exits her room wearing a new frilly pink dress, a sunflower hat, and smelling like the roses on a Roserade. "My mom has that perfume," that seemed to be the wrong thing to say judging by her slight slump "because she knows I love that Roserade scent." Now she''s fine... with... it? I don''t really understand what''s going on. Anyway, we soon exit the left hallway from the desk into the waiting room of the pokecenter and take the sliding doors out and into the city. While exiting a few people recognize us as the lab trainers from Pallet, since a lot of other lab trainers from Indigo are at least five badge trainers, it seems that they have high expectations about us especially with Amy and I showing our battling to them alongside giving them a view of some of our Pokemon. We went to a nearby mall that was around twenty five minutes away and I was thinking that whoever made these roads was thinking of people traveling on foot instead of using other modes of transportation, there still were roads to allow trucks that could go to and fro the city but they were mostly filled with supplies for most the restaurants and shops here. Some people were using cars to travel, Mirielle noted it first, but they seemed to be the upperclass and car fanatics with high positions or had a far commute and didn''t have a flying or land travel Pokemon available. Behind from a car called the Dodrio Maceber, Dodrio was the company name and Maceber (Mace-ber) was the type of car, there was a person riding a Stantler which was looking quite drowsy; either this is their routine or the Stantler is just plain exhausted. After getting into the mall we went into a shop on the ground floor that had some rental movies we could take, the second floor was next which had Pokemon specific chow and nutrients for battle Pokemon alongside ten poke balls which we split amongst ourselves with Mirielle taking the free premier ball with the purchase. Overall the poke balls cost the most as they were two thousand so Mirielle and I split the money for that but I was adamant to buy the pokechow which only cost about twenty for both our teams together, which left my friend to spend 8 bucks to get the three movies we rented. When we went back to the ground floor from the escalators I saw a really cute accessory store for people and Pokemon alike so I coaxed Mirielle into going, surprisingly it wasn''t very hard to do as she seemed extremely happy by the suggestion. We went in and I picked some star stickers that I''d place on my teams poke balls alongside a really neat looking handkerchief for me because I just realized I forgot to pack my one from back home. I also bought a hanky for James and Amy out of the goodness of my heart and not because their respective gifts had a Slowpoke and a Tyrouge on the stitching. Mirielle was looking at a couple earrings and a bracelet for a very long time before looking at her phone and... sighing? Oh, she must be thinking about the expenses or something. Never fear for my pocket money doing house chores throughout my neighbourhood is here. I bought the earrings that were small ruby colored with sparkling glitter inside and the bracelet which was a simplistic design in the color blue. It cost me about three hundred and forty three dollars but that was because the bracelet is made using crystals that could withstand most sound moves that Pokemon could hypothetically use against you, the lower level ones like Supersonic or Screech. After some quick mental maths and checking with Weedle about whether I was right and it turns out I still have around three thousand dollars left, not counting the money I got from that newbie crusher, thanks to the starting cash we all got from Prof. Oak. Mirielle and I then left the mall since neither of us wanted to buy anything else or eat some fast food so we went to a nearby park, after sending our location to the step-siblings, to watch a play that''s about to take place. We headed in and I let Weedle roam up a tree we are sitting near before Prim- Amy and James came and sat next to us. We then let out our entire team to watch the play alongside us but Chardon and Bulbasaur got bored and decided to drag Pikachu and Squirtle somewhere else, Shadow did not get the luxury to follow them because the two of us know that Leaf would get sad that he left without her, otherwise everyone else was enjoying the performance. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. I ended up shedding a couple tears alongside Leaf and James funnily enough brought up a dex entry on Eevee which the pokedex then blurted out "Its genes are easily influenced by its surroundings. Even its face starts to look like that of its Trainer." before the guy snapped a picture of us. He seemed to really chuckle before being elbowed by a similarly laughing Amy. By the time the play had ended the sun had fully set and we all decided to head back into the pokecenter because the room Amy and Mirielle are sharing has a tv inside which had a DVD player. When we all entered James seemed to be busy on the phone so I ask what he''s doing. "Well... I''m looking at both where the nearest training battle grounds are... and when we''ll have to leave for another city." "Oh ok," I say "then just tell us where we need to go for later today, I''m actually planning on doing a few battles to get a TM for Tabitha to get her started on using bug moves so I''ll need a bit of cash but after that I''ll be available." And soon we all get comfy on our spots, James and I relegated to sitting on chairs while Amy and Mirielle would sit with all the Pokemon on their beds to watch the movie. Both girls got creeped out by my bugs so I kept Tabs on my lap and Weedle on my head. Weedle didn''t seem to hate that as much and snuggled into a comfy position on my head to watch the film. The first movie was cool I guess, there was a ton of budget and the story was well written, but the second movie was the absolute best. Seriously I''ll have to ask for an autograph from mrs. Naita when we get back. By the end of the first movie almost everyone was smiling or at awe of the movie but by the end there were a ton of bittersweet smiles and shed tears since the ace trainer had a heart condition and by the end passed away after spending three years together with the blind girl. Mirielle was looking embarrassed by the movie, something that James caught, and I told them what she told me. The look of betrayal and shock almost made me want to do an evil laugh, almost, instead I just gave her a hug and said sorry. That seemed to satisfy her. After we watched the movies I went to the shop to give them back while the rest of the gang headed over to one of the battle arenas nearby to train all our teams, I took Tabitha and Ralts to see the mall and before we know it I bump into Cherry who explained that she was gonna train Gothorita by doing a few battles. She agreed to head over to the battle arena and even complimented the staff''s ability to judge when a Pokemon is able to battle or when it needs to rest. With that out of the way I head over to the shop and give the movies before heading to the arena battle just in time to see a female Pikachu alongside Shadow battle side by side against a Geodude and Spinarak. Mirielle won that battle with some difficulty knocking out the Spinarak but losing Pikachu against a Rock Throw before finishing off the rock type with a Quick Attack into Double Kick. Apparently today is a double battle only day and so far James won using his two Pokemon confusing the opponents before Zorua got hit and lost her illusions but Amy lost because she told Fletchling to use a Wing Attack against a tanky Airon when she should have told the flying type to assist Squirtle against a feisty Phantump. Before I know it I''m with my friends and after I ask Ralts to try and follow Cherry''s instructions on how to use Light Screen I head to the battlefield to use Weedle who I sternly scolded to listen to me otherwise the thing that happened with Swellow will happen again and Tabitha who didn''t get to battle before now. My opponent sent out a Bunnelby and Buneary, heh seems like we both chose a theme huh. Remember neutral face. Oddly enough the opponent also got creeped out by something before snapping himself out and getting ready. One of the staff members sent out an Indeedee to set up a barrier and after getting ready the match starts. "Tabitha get in close and use Self-Destruct, Weedle use Electroweb on Buneary" A small clap from my hands and Tabs understands. "Chad Babe us- GET AWAY" Tabitha used Rapid Spin to get in close and instead of using Self-Destruct she used Swift to attack and lock in the two Pokemon long enough for Weedle to use Electroweb to snag and slow down Buneary who are typically the fastest Pokemon between the group. Bunnelby managed to not get hit by retaliating using Mud Slap but the other bunny Pokemon got hit by the full brunt of both moves while also getting debuffed alongside being stuck. "Chad use Laser Focus, Babe use Defense Curl" "Vice Versa" Tabitha used Swift and Weedle used Electroweb but now Bunnelby got locked into the web and both Pokemon got hit by the star attack which bypassed Defense Curl as it was a special attack. Bunnelby did manage to use its move and that got me to switch tactics. "Weedle reel in, Tabitha finish off" This time Weedle used a liberal amount of String Shot to lasso together both bunnies and Tabitha used the move I initially said. We won. I sent Tabitha in her ball, giving lots of praise to her, and moved to the middle of the field to pick up Weedle and shake hands with my opponent alongside getting some extra cash when suddenly the field is filled with a shining white light. I look on in awe as Weedle changes its body by using webbing to encase itself in a cocoon before the light fades. Weedle just evolved into Kakuna. It was kinda expected since the Weedle and Caterpie line evolve really fast compared to most other Pokemon but its always nice to see one of my team members getting stronger. I take out my pokedex to see my poison bugs'' stats.
Name Kakuna
Type Bug/Poison
Ability Shed Skin
Nature Lonely
Hp 40
Attack 25
Sp Attack 25
Defense 50
Sp Defence 25
Speed 35
Total stats 205
Moves Electroweb, Poison Sting, Bug Bite, String Shot, Harden
Kakuna gives a buzz of excitement at having evolved and Tabitha quickly woke up, after I let her out again, from her self induced knock out and seemed to be¡­ happy(?) for the newly evolved bug. I meanwhile move the pokedex to check her condition but she didn''t learn any moves which is fine, I think she actually strengthened her Self-Destruct since it wasn''t as explosive or powerful back on Route 22. I head to shake hands with the opponent who looked to be around 13 and head over to my group to let Tabitha rest and to celebrate Wee- Kakuna''s new form. All the Pokemon are really ecstatic about Kakuna evolving sans Ralts and Tabs who look a little pissed at him, don''t know why though. Anyway after that I have around two more battles using Char, Leaf, Ralts, and tested out Kakuna. Already his newest move Harden is useful with the way Ralts used him as a shield and battering ram against the Spinda and Pancham of that battle. After the third battle showcasing Leaf and Char using boosted Ember and Trailblaze under a Sunny Day my account is a total of 5k dollars and thus I decided to let my team rest, which Leaf and Ralts didn''t want to do. So I waited for a match to pass by which Cherry did using a combo of Corpish and Gothorita. After she won against a girl who used a duo of Ponyta and Venonat I went back up to do one last battle. This time the guy who was gonna battle me was shoved aside by some kid who looked ten just like me. From the gossip and murmurs the people watching were saying apparently this gal is supposedly a trainer who got sponsored by Lance. Aight. I''ll just have to try really hard to win this match. "How about we have a good match uhhh..." I circled my hand at her to ask for her name. After she realized I genuinely did not know who she is she looked surprised and then looked annoyed at me. "Valencia Emiliano, lets just get this over with." Yay she''s looking at me like I''m beneath her. Just for that I''ll try even harder against her. "Give it everything we got guys" I murmur to the two poke balls in my hand, both wiggle in anticipation. "Trainers ready?" "Yeah/Yes" "3,2,1, Begin" We both chuck out two balls from both sides before they open up and release four separate creatures. On my side came the familiar Eevee and her empath partner. On the opponents side came out a small dragon ice type from the Paldea region alongside a small fire fox used mainly by lab trainers from Kalos. In one moment I realize things will be hard for us as Fennekin and Frigibax ready up. "You know what to do" "Triple 3 on Frigibax and set up" Fennekin moved first aiming a Flame Charge to Ralts who was in the middle of using Calm Mind. Ralts dodged using Teleport before finishing her buff move up. Frigibax meanwhile charged up a Dragon Rush and met Leaf in the middle of the field in a clash; slowly Frigibax was moved back by the Iron Tail, Trailblaze, and Quick Attack combo before losing the clash and falling just in front of its trainers feet who looked surprised. Sadly that wasn''t enough to take down the Dragon type as it looked only slightly winded. "Frigibax use Icicle Spear on the Ralts, Fennekin use Ember on the Eevee" "Ralts Confusion on Frigibax, Duo 1 Fenn then Duo 4 on Frigi" My order for Leaf ended faster than Valencia''s order for Fennekin so my partner was already midway charging up her attacks when the fire fox had just started. Meanwhile Ralts used a boosted Confusion to hit Frigibax who got confused, but not before two stalactite shaped ice blocks hit her. Leaf had finished and sent the star and mud combo at Fennekin who had to abort her own move to dodge but ultimately got hit by a stray Mud Slap decreasing her accuracy for the rest of the match before aiming a Growl and Baby-Doll Eyes combo at the confused dragon, harshly reducing the dragon types attack. "Frigibax stay still and get reoriented, Fennekin use Heatwave" Shoot "Confusion and Duo 1 once more, aim to defend!" Frigibax still confused listened to its trainers orders and promptly sat down to quickly get reoriented whereas Fennekin used a major powerful fire type attack, both Leaf and Ralts tried to deflect or block the attack but it was too powerful for them and both got hit by the super heated air. The good news though was not that Heatwave is a coverage move that doesn¡¯t do much damage if there is more than one opposing Pokemon on the field and away from each other but that prior to the move being used Fennekin had its fire energy boosted signifying that Blaze was activated; that means one solid hit and Fennekin will be down for the count. For now though I have to continue battling to make that a reality. "Ralts one more boost, Leaf quadruple 2" "Frigibax Dragon Rush into Aqua Tail, Fennekin get back and use Calm Mind then Howl" "Leaf attack Frigibax instead, Ralts finish and Disarming Voice" stupid me for not using that fairy move earlier. Ralts and Fennekin both finished Calm Mind right after one another, thanks to Flame Charge boosting the fire fox¡¯s speed, and unlike before where Leaf and Frigibax met at the center it was now a clash in my side of the arena. Even with two debuffs in its attack stat the icy dragon just wouldn''t quit, using its momentum with Dragon Rush it then pushed Leaf slightly backwards using Aqua Tail. Leaf was barely holding on with Trailblaze, Quick Attack, and Iron Tail as it was but out of nowhere she emitted a cutesy Growl which caused Frigibax to falter just enough to be thrown back once more, not getting up after ten seconds pass. This turn of events shocked Valencia who didn''t order her Fennekin to use any move against the Disarming Voice in time. Exhaling slowly I take a look around and notice just how quiet the entire room has gotten, seriously why are people so weird every time I win. I motion to the referee of the match and the teenager refereeing for this battle quickly gains his wits before signaling that I won. Somewhere in the crowd someone starts clapping before the entire arena is filled with tumultuous applause. After the barrier is set down I move over and give my two Pokemon a hug before a white light once more envelopes the room. This time Leaf starts glowing, her body beginning to create ribbon like feelers before suddenly the light and feelers disappear. Leaf looks stricken by her supposed evolution and began yipping in inharmonious squeaks, all I could really do was hug her a little tighter and keep her in my arms and after a while she visibly calmed down. After sending both her and Ralts into their balls I head over to Valencia who looked at the whole thing with a weird expression on her face, which subsequently turned into a face of rage and happiness after I walked towards her. I raised my hand from my hip to shake hers but instead of doing that she slapped it away and threw money at my face before storming away. Odd. Really odd. Anyway I pick up all the cash that was thrown onto the ground and head over to my group who look... surprised? "What... the hell... was that!" Primeape shouted out the last part. "Valencia is practically guaranteed to go into the league conference at the end of this season, how the distortion did you beat her." This time it was Cherry who said that. "How is she guaranteed?" was my question... why they looking at me like dat. "Emiliano is her mothers family name because miss Otegano never got married and decided to adopt a kid, not only is Otegano a champion tier trainer... she was Lance Blackthorn''s instructor before he became champion if the rumors are correct." Mirielle added to the convo. "Neat but not really that big of a thing right?" Seriously what''s the big deal. "We shouldn''t judge people on who their family are, instead judge people by their own actions and intentions." "Valencia... beat Falkner and was about to head over to Azalea to beat Bugsy the last Johto league conference before having to stop... because she wasn''t old enough to... legally travel for the gym circuit." James adds "Well, I''m sponsored by professor Oak and did those battling and caring for Pokemon tests just like you guys before he sponsored me. It was a close match considering that if Fennekin used Heatwave one more time we would have lost but we didn''t because we didn''t give up." Again they look at me funny. "Anyway how about we head over for some dinner at a restaurant, our Pokemon deserve it after all that battling. My tre-at~¡± saying treat in a sing-song voice we all head out of the battle arena and promptly had a meal at a restaurant that Cherry said is to die for. Which it was because it was soooooo delicious. After exiting the restaurant we met Cherry''s father who worked a regular office job and both father and daughter said their goodbyes while heading to their home. We meanwhile headed over to the Pokemon center to go to sleep since we all agreed we would do our own activities in Route 23 and the city. After saying goodbye to Amy and Mirielle in the middle of the center James and I went into the right hallway before he took the first left hallway leaving me by myself until I reached my room. Sending out my party I told them that the plan for tomorrow was to have Ralts continue training Light Screen with Cherry''s Gothorita while the rest of the team would train for the Pewter city gym. I look at the shopping bag in my room and can''t believe I forgot to give those earrings and the bracelet to Mirielle. I walked over to the front of their room, knocked on their door, and gave Amy the bag since Mirielle was in the bathroom. I did inform her that I forgot to give the bag to Mirielle so once she gets out Amy had to give it to her, we even pinkie promised which she knows she should never break. After heading back in my room I go to the bathroom to use it and change into some pjs before going to sleep with my team. Chapter 7 Man yesterday was fun. Compared to the week spent on Route 1 this bed makes me almost regret traveling the wild. Almost. All the reasons I don''t can be found in the Pokemon center especially the ones on my bed, sans Kakuna who slept on the windowsill. I get off the bed quietly and head to humanity''s greatest creation, the bathroom. Oh how I missed this area of private relief. The toilet, the shower, the sink with constant clean water, the bidet, the soaps. Oh I can''t believe how long its been since I''ve used liquid soap, it was torture, but I know that I''ll be heading to another city soon so I might as well enjoy everything now. After coming out of the bathroom I realize that I probably took a very long time using it. Judging by how everybody including Leaf had woken up, but Leaf understood why I took so long as she corralled Ralts and Char to the bathroom. Once Leaf got out I put her plastic rose clipping back onto her hair and spritzed her with some lavender just the way she likes it, only reason I didn''t do it during camping was because we might accidentally draw wild Pokemon to us when we least expect it. That left me with cleaning up Kakuna and Tabitha before heading to the mini kitchen and sprucing up some actual breakfast for my team, one thing that I made sure I didn''t forget was actual food for my Pokemon instead of pellets. Since they now have to battle they''ll require multiple ingredients filled with stuff like vitamins and minerals to maximize their energy throughout the day alongside the regular pokechow. For Ralts its a simple salmon with blackberries, almonds, strawberries, all mixed in some brown rice. For Leaf and Char I use all of that alongside chicken breast, quinoa, and tofu. That leaves Tabitha and Kakuna who honestly don''t need anything other than water right now as Kakuna is in a cocoon and Tabitha is a pinecone. All of my party do need to drink though so I give them all some local Miltank milk and yogurt alongside some regular water. I meanwhile cook some eggs for myself before I begin my morning workout, which started about three days ago when I was worrying about whether I''ll be able to carry my team once a couple of them evolve. After we all finish eating I send my team back in and head over to the waiting room for my friends, they actually take so long I decided to call my mom since I forgot to do that yesterday. The phone booth takes a few seconds but soon after a couple rings pass mom picks up. "Hi mom" "Oh hello dear, its great to see you after waiting so long. I get that you just entered Viridian." "Actually... I came here yesterday but I got so occupied that I could only call today." "Oh. Well it¡¯s still good news to see you didn¡¯t wander off to another town. No matter, I have great news regarding Striker." Hold on "WAIT DAD''S SALAMANCE," realizing I stood up and was yelling my head off I sheepishly cough before settling down and continuing "well w-what''s the news?" "Striker got out of his coma and after a few weeks will be permitted to come back home." "T-thats great," I choke up at the next bit "i-is he still g-gonna..." "The doctors say his battling and flying days are long over ever since his right wing got torn off," mom has a sad smile as she knows just how happy Striker was after a good fight and flight "he won''t battle again but he can still play around with a couple friends. I know Bouffalant and Starmie miss having him and the others around." "Yeah..." The conversation lulls a little before both of us talk about what we want to do after the league year ends, honestly my minds in a tizzy now. Striker... I missed riding the big lug around. Poor guy probably doesn''t realize dad and his other Pokemon are... NO. Stop moping, me. Keep positive, keep smiling, keep making him proud. The call ends after a bit and I then call up professor Oak with some questions on why Tabitha has such a peculiar spiky body which keeps on growing moss. "Well Evandros, I honestly do not know the right answer but if you send Tabitha over I will look over her," the professor thinks for a bit before continuing with "for all we know Tabitha might be a regional variant of Pineco therefore she might change typing upon evolving or might even have an additional evolution similar to the Linoone of Galar." "Alright professor, once I get more than six Pokemon on my party I''ll send over Tabs to you, but I¡¯ll still ask for her from time to time though." After analyzing on what I fed my team and finding it satisfactory the professor then gave a few tricks that each Pokemon can use for future matches. "But you will have to excuse my tactics for your Ralts, I have not studied that species in as much detail as the rest of your party. Now, if you''ll excuse me pizza is here and I must get it first or else Dolores will eat all the pepperoni slices without me." And then he ended the call. Struggle Bug is about four thousand pokedollars so I''ll have to go win a few more battles, otherwise my funds''ll get really low. After a while I check my pokegear... pokegear... POKEGEAR. Shoot I forgot it at home. What am I? An author who made up a plot point so he makes up a stupid excuse as to why it wasn''t introduced in the first few chapters! A quick call back to mom and I find out that she sent it a week ago when she was cleaning up my room. *Phew* that''s one less worry, just gotta head over to the building where they keep mail and deliveries. Right... how am I gonna get there. After going to nurse Joy once more and heading over to the mail center and back I finally acquired a pokegear, yipee and all that jazz. By the time the girls came out I had already started checking social media on the handheld device and found that my friends and I are some of the biggest regional up and comers alongside Valencia and a trainer who got sponsored by Janine, there''s a competition about to happen in two weeks at Celadon city, and a cover piece on how Blue beat up a couple team rocket bases yesterday. Neat. The three of us gave our good mornings and we all decided it would be best to just shoot the Slowpoke a message and head over to route 22 again. By the time we got to the path James sent a message saying that he would be there in forty minutes. The best thing about him is that he always arrives at the time that he says after he¡¯s already late as is. Anyway, we head to the area and I send out Tabs to be my guard while I spend some time just doing a rough sketch of the layout. The rest of my team was sent out to practice their moves. Mirielle and Amy went ahead with Rookidee, Pikachu, Squirtle, and Fletchling out while Shadow would stay behind and catch up with his little sister. About three quarters into my sketch out came a Chansey that soon after started playing together with Leaf and Tabs, I left them to it since Shadow decided to guard me just in case. It was a good thing he did because a super aggressive Spearow came and tried harassing us before being beaten up by a single Double Kick. Wait a minute... that''s the same Spearow from last time... wonder why its so aggressive. "Spearow wait, come back," Shadow stopped growling at the bird but was still in an attack position. Though it was too late as the bird already flew away. I finished my sketch and was about to begin putting finer details but something bothered me, why did the same Spearow come here; it didn''t even seem to be overly aggressive now that I think about it more like cautious or wanting to tell or learn something. Before I could go into deeper introspection on the possible thoughts a bird known to be the equivalent of a flying Mankey would have to act like this, Amy and Mirielle are almost back so I should quickly finish up in case we need to move quickly. About maybe five minutes after my guesstimate on when they would arrive they come freshly shaken up and with both having a couple leafs and twigs in their hair. The basic gist is that Mirielle caught a really docile Mankey and both had to run away because a Nidoking and Nidoqueen were nearby having a battle against a couple Ursaring''s. Amy was kinda chuffed at that and subsequently caught a Spinarak minding its own business... aren''t Ariados usually near Spinarak though? When voicing my question both girls paled and immediately wanted to leave so I packed up my finished rough sketch and ordered everyone sans Leaf into their poke balls. We said goodbye to the Chansey and started heading out when something caught my eye. Specifically a small bird with a blue body with three white tail feathers alongside large white feathers covering its head. Its face has five blue tips at the top making it shaped as a crown. A proud bird that challenges Pokemon far bigger and stronger than itself to get stronger, getting more powerful even when it faints or gets injured. Before I know it, my hand is holding a poke ball for Rufflet. Like seriously, Rufflet are known to be prideful Pokemon to the point they would leave a trainer if it thought the trainer was holding it back. The movepool and strength of Braviary is understated despite the fact that trainer Hilbert became champion and his ''Brav'' holds second place for most teams defeated, first was Leon obviously and third became Cynthia shortly after Red disappeared for a while. Anyway, I gotta catch this Pokemon. I cock my hand into throwing position and... A poke ball appears in front of the Rufflet, it gets sucked in and one roll becomes two before a ding sounds out. James comes out of the corner and looks at his poke ball he threw with elation and mild surprise that quickly turns into confusion when he looks at me. I meanwhile keep the look on my face and begin my final journey to Mt. Silver so Articuno may take me. Amy and Leaf sensed this and immediately begin stopping me despite my determination. Poor Mirielle doesn''t know what to think and the only other person who knows what I''m doing is Shadow who just delegates Pikachu the task of stopping me as she reluctantly uses Nuzzle on me. "Thanks Pikachu," Amy sighs in relief "now lets get him back into Viridian since that Spinarak family might be nearby." Fifteen minutes later with James and Amy carrying me alongside Ralts trying to lift me up using her psychic powers the paralysis wears off and I start trudging along with the crew. Still bummed out on not catching a cool Rufflet as my sixth Pokemon so I made everyone agree to head to the battling arena from yesterday and popped a message over to Cherry that we were heading there. When we got there it turned out that today was just a regular one v one day so I could have more experience using Tabs and Kakuna. Though I had to wait for James to do a battle with his... new Rufflet. Still sour I got cheated out on a super cool Pokemon. Rufflet was super cool and used moves like Work Up into Leer into Wing Attack. Poor Butterfree couldn''t stand a chance against it. He didn''t really listen to James in the beginning but by the end of that fight he was puffing its chest out at being the victor and dutifully flew to perch on the silver haired boy''s shoulder, saying something and then pulling James'' hair so that the Galarian human went somewhere. My fight was less exciting since I had a battle against a Metapod user with my Kakuna who couldn''t properly aim his Electroweb without using String Shot first but by then the Metapod would use its own String Shot on Kakuna before jumping away. I had to resort to Kakuna using Harden and Poison Sting while the opponent used Harden and Tackle. The shed skin ability making it impossible for any poison effect to truly stick around. Ultimately I won but man was it boring, not that I said that out loud since I didn''t want to hurt Kakuna''s feelings. After a couple more, battles which ended much quicker, My total amount became six thousand so I decided to hand Ralts over to Mirielle and headed over to buy the TM for Struggle Bug which costs five thousand dollars leaving me with precisely one thousand fifty. Bug Buzz was unavailable but since I made a promise to Tabs I was gonna keep it. Heading back I used the TM on Tabitha and can finally say she knows an actual bug type move, the TM then crumbled into pieces that were biodegradable and could be thrown in a recycling bin. Only reason it cost that little was because it was a one time use type. I came back in time to find out that Amy won her match using Fletchling but that was because her Spinarak wasn''t listening to her. Seems she''ll have to spend time to make it want to fight with her. "Hey Evandros good news," Cherry says "Ralts learned Light Screen and can now start working on Reflect." Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. With that bit of good news I looked at Ralts who was hard at work making a more solid version of Light Screen, the regular version looks more ephemeral than anything but sometimes trainers can get confused and get the moves wrong if they haven''t properly studied the two moves; so Cherry says. "Great," I say "how about you guys finish up battling since I wanna check how strong Struggle Bug is now that Tabs knows the move." A couple of congratulations for buying a TM and I start chatting with James and Amy in the stands while we wait for Mirielle and Cherry to finish their battle. Mainly it was about how annoying I was for getting them those handkerchiefs that fit both to a tee since Amy began pummeling me into a pulp and James took a few seconds to look at it before eloquently saying ''huh?''. Cherry did her battle with her Corpish from yesterday and ended it with an uber strong Vice Grip before Mirielle did a battle using her Mankey who switched from ecstatic to really pissed when the battle began, it still listened to her orders and by the end switched back to a happy and docile look so that must have been its battle face more than anything. That''s good considering that trainers have to regularly bury their Primeape since it would get so angry it would die. It only got really angry when it got hit by a Quick Attack. Once they finished we all just stuck around for a bit talking amongst the five of us before heading to the Pokemon center to heal our Pokemon. We found out that last year Cherry only did contests so this year she''ll be doing gym battles which Mirielle finalized on doing as well. Though only Cherry will stay in Viridian to battle the gym since the rest of us are waiting for the coronation to commence the start of the year. Apparently we all will get a free potion and two poke balls if we stick around. Halfway there I stopped... shoot there''s thieves inside the center. I ran to the center as fast as possible with the others following after a few seconds of confusion, mainly because I was shoving a few people aside to get to the temporary resting place. Just as I came near the front of the doors leading in, an explosion occurs that blows me onto my back. A few seconds later... team rocket grunts come out of the door. Four men with three Ekans and one Golbat with bags filled with presumably poke balls stolen from trainers who left them for care. Crap, gotta stop them. "Hey," that got their attention and I continued as I was starting to get up "as lab trainer of Professor Oak it is my duty to stop you four." I pressed the buttons on all my Pokemon sans Kakuna who''s still tired from the last battle. Two of the grunts looked surprised at the fact some kid would think of stopping them while one showed greed when looking at Char and Ralts, the last one seemed unfazed so he must be the leader. I was proven right when the one in the back said "Get the fucking idiots'' Pokemon quick, I ain''t gotta use Arbok against this twerp." translation for ''get the kids Pokemon and run before Jenny gets here, Arbok got injured so I¡¯d rather not use it.'' most likely anyway. "Ekans use Smog" All three other grunts say. "Golbat use Wing Attack" says leader grunt. "Char use Ember, Ralts confusion, Tabs Swift overload" I didn''t need to give Leaf a command since she already started using Iron Tail and Trailblaze against the Golbat. Char was the only one who got his attack out in time to clash with the trio Smog but Ralts plowed through the attack through her own move and hit the opposing poison types. "Char DD and Ralts CM" by the time I got the order out Tabs hit all four opponents and Leaf finished off her own clash with the Golbat with the help of some stars damaging the opposing flying type. "Leaf use Triple 3 and Tabs use Struggle Bug" Char and Ralts both got boosted stats by the time Leaf and Tabs began their attack and boosted one last time to get their power high enough to finish the fight if needed. Leader grunt must have come to the same conclusion that the four of them can''t win using their current Pokemon so he sent out his Arbok that must have paralysis seeing the electric currents passing through its body alongside a Frillish. "What are you waiting for cunts, send out the rest of your ''mons" which they do despite the clear uncomfortable emotions on their face. A trio of Rockruff that seemed to be barely willing to listen to the group get sent out and reluctantly get set to battle when seeing the odds. Shoot this just turned into a nine v four. Luckily for me that''s when the rest of my group came and saw what''s going on. "More of these idiots?" one of the surprise grunts says "Lets just break em and skedaddle boss." I would have chuckled because no way did he say skedaddle in such a serious voice. Amy already sent out Squirtle and Fletchling who''s already somewhat injured and James sent out two different Rufflet''s, bad move from James because if Zorua has its illusion break these grunts will give up all the other Pokemon in those bags just for the dark type. Mirielle wants to help but she gets stopped by Cherry and both start heading around the group battle to check up on some unfortunate civilians who were closer to the blast with Pikachu and Corpish heading inside the center to find any injured people inside. The fight got a bit more fair as it turned into a eight v nine. "Ralts use Disarming Voice, Duo 1 on Arbok and Frillish, Tabs use Rapid Spin on the Ekans, Char Smokescreen" I couldn''t hear what all the others said when I gave out my order but all the Pokemon in the fight got into action. The fairy attack Ralts used aimed perfectly against all nine of the opponents and only the Arbok that used Sludge Bomb and Golbat that used Air Slash managed to reflect the move. That gave Fletchling enough time to quick attack into Golbat and a Rufflet joined in the battle in the air against the Golbat. The Ekans used Smog again and without any psychic move to stop it the move unfortunately hit Ralts, Char and Squirtle. The Frillish attempted to use Aqua Ring into Water Pulse but got interrupted when Ralts used her voice move. Squirtle used Water Gun against the Rockruff who dodged sans one and proceeded to use Rock Throw against Tabs, the Rufflet on the ground, and Char. Char dodged the attack and filled the arena with a black smoke that debilitated the accuracy of the enemies moves while Tabs moved too fast to get hit and proceeded to smack all three Ekans, the only one who didn''t dodge was Rufflet who turned out to be the real one because it took the hit and used Peck against the Rockruff that hit it. Leaf managed to hit the Frillish but the Arbok easily used Poison Tail and smacked Leaf''s move aside. Arbok then moved to use Poison Fang on Leaf but she used Duo 4 to harshly lower the attack she was going to get hit by. Tabitha then came in clutch by shoving Leaf aside and took the poison move head on with Rapid Spin no doubt causing the Arbok to feel mild discomfort in its teeth. Out of that exchange only one Ekans and the Rockruff that got hit by Squirtle fainted. Though Tabs is on her last legs since Sturdy activated so I had to return her. Easily the strongest Pokemon is the Arbok and there''s no doubt in my mind that none of us can beat it in a one v one. Ralts and Rufflet were the most damaged but both still wish to battle. "Char use Beat Up on Arbok, Leaf use Triple 3 on Arbok, Ralts Confusion on Arbok" Hopefully the others get the hint and begin attacking the other Pokemon on the field. My hopes were confirmed as James sent out Bulbasaur who began attacking both Rockruff with Vine Whip while the actual Rufflet was using Peck and Tackle against a Ekans. Squirtle was taking on the other Ekans and Frillish joined the battle in the air due to the fact it can float. My Pokemon used their moves on Arbok who just blew away Chardon with Poison Sting, beat back Leaf with Ice Fang, and managed to Wrap Ralts using its tail. Char did come back and managed to land the other four dark type combo moves but that seemed to annoy it more than anything. "Ralts use Teleport into C, Leaf Duo 4 then Duo 2, Char use Ember then DD" Ralts got out of the passively damaging move and fired a Confusion that hit but subsequently got hit by a Dark Pulse and fainted, Leaf harshly lowered its physical damage once more before using Quick Attack and Iron Tail into the Arbok that couldn''t defend itself in time due to its paralysis. Char hit the Arbok again but it didn''t even faze the opposing Pokemon before using DD to boost his speed and attack. Leaf unfortunately got too close to Char and the leader grunt capitalized this by using Sludge Bomb on both of them knocking both to my feet, both Chardon and Leaf are almost down for the count as Blaze activated and Leaf had trouble standing. I had to return Leaf and looked around and my stomach sank. Rufflet and Fletchling got knocked out while only the two Rockruff got returned, Zorua had its illusion broken and now can''t fly while battling against the Golbat and Frillish while the other two starters are in similar conditions to my own. I returned Char and ran a bit back to heal Leaf and come up with some type of game plan. I didn''t have to worry about Cherry or Mirielle since both were hiding behind an alley with the injured civilians and were battling a couple trainers. Oh wait those are two other grunts. James and Amy took the cue to retreat and both returned their own Pokemon before following behind me closely, right on time this was when Valencia appeared and used Frigibax, Fennekin, Budew, and Pidgeotto to hold off the rocket grunts. All questions of why the heck she was here were ignored as I ran behind a nearby car and sent out Leaf who promptly used Rest. I also sent out Char and Tabs. James and Amy came around the corner and sent out the Pokemon who hadn''t fainted. James then ordered Bulbasaur to use Grassy Terrain to heal the group as minutely as possible, every little bit helps after all. I decided to send Kakuna in the field of grass "What''re we gonna do?" James asked I- I tried really hard to come up with some scenario where we win but that Arbok is just too strong for any of us right now. "I don''t know" that''s all I can come up with. Leaf woke up and... doesn''t accept that. "Sorry Leaf but there''s nothing we can do, even if you evolved into a Sylveon it probably wouldn''t help." Sylveon are inherent special attackers, Leaf has an adamant nature meaning her evolution would be detrimental in the short and long run. Leaf keeps on yipping and saying her name, probably telling me to not give up, when she starts emitting a white light and changing shape into a bigger form. She first has feelers growing like a Sylveon but suddenly the feelers disappear and instead a shape similar to a leaf appears on her head while her tail became near paper thin. As the evolution faded, Leafeon stands before us looking ready to fight. This might just be our chance. Opening the pokedex I see Leaf''s new stats.
Name Leafeon
Type Grass
Nature Adamant
Hp 65
Attack 110
Sp Attack 60
Defense 130
Sp Defense 65
Speed 95
Total Stats 525
Moves Swift, Mud-Slap, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Trailblaze, Growl, Sunny Day, Baby-Doll Eyes, Rest, Razor Leaf
This might just be what we need to win. "Okay guys game plan," I say "Bulbasaur and Squirtle will handle the Ekans and Frillish. Zorua will aggro Golbat so that Kakuna can Electroweb it and keep it from flying. Tabs will help with Valencia''s Budew for anyone that needs it while all the other Pokemon face off against Arbok." I pick up Kakuna and Tabitha before giving a thumbs up and begin heading back in the battle. One of the surprise grunts grunts out "boss the twerps are back" "Then beat this little shits Pokemon and finish them off." A quick look at Valencia''s team and it seems Fennekin fainted but all the others are mildly scuffed. The only Pokemon that didn''t look hurt was Golbat but that was about to change. "You ok Valencia?" "I''m fine now lets finish these assholes off" "Alright BEGIN PLAN" Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Tabitha work together to beat the Ekans and Frillish while Kakuna and Zorua face off against Golbat. Meanwhile Leaf aims a Sunny Day in the air before she uses Razor Leaf and Trailblaze while Char uses Ember. Amy and James start giving orders to their Pokemon while I give Valencia the plan which she quickly agrees with. The greedy grunt is missing but I can''t care about that since I have to beat this Arbok. Budew moves back to help against Golbat while Frigibax and Pidgeotto use Dragon Rush and Wing Attack to help against the evolved snake. "Leaf Quad 3, Char ''DD position'' into Beat Up" "Pidgeotto use Quick Attack, Frigibax use Aqua Tail" "Dammit Arbok use Gunk Shot" Leaf powers up Trailblaze, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, and her newest move Razor Leaf into one attack taking long enough for Pidgeotto to hit Arbok with quick attack and Chardon to finish positioning himself behind the Arbok while using Dragon Dance. Frigibax used Aqua Tail on the snake only a little after Valencia''s bird but both ended up getting hit by the poison type move with the normal type bird fainting. Char got into position and readied up Beat Up while Leaf finished her charge up and slammed her tail right into the Arbok who flew backwards into Char who immediately began using his combo move of Beat Up as fast as possible to throw back the big snake. "Leaf use Duo 3" "Frigibax Icicle Spear" Leaf blitzes into the purple snake and gives one last hit using her tail to throw it closer to Frigibax to allow the dragon to finish off the tough opponent. Frigibax hits only thrice before the Arbok gives a big roar... and falls to the side in exhaustion. We won? WE WON. "Yahoo" I yell jumping in the air. Wait. Dang it, what about the rest of the Pokemon. A look backwards shows my fears are unwarranted as all the enemy Pokemon are either fainted or already recalled. Zorua ended up fainting but Budew, Tabitha, and Kakuna were more than enough to knock out the Golbat. In the distance an officer Jenny is rapidly appearing riding her bike alongside an Arcanine running alongside her. Compared to the Pokemon battle the grunts were wayyy easier to manage now that they had no Pokemon to use with one of the surprise grunts having fainted. That reminds me, we gotta find the greedy grunt. Oh wait Mirielle already took care of him. It took ten minutes of interrogation from all of us to find out what we were all doing prior and during this rocket raid and half an hour to verify that we were who we said we were. By the time my group of five and Valencia all got verified we were all told to head home for now and rest since this must''ve been a really exhilarating battle. Only then did I realize that everyone was sweating or on some adrenaline high. Everyone ''xcept me and Vali... Welp, all''s well that ends well. And we each got like five thousand bucks for capturing each of the four rocket grunts. My balance is now twenty one thousand and fifty, yippee. A quick selfie with me and the group plus Valencia and I start heading into the center as soon as we''re allowed entry and man is the place busted. The roof and doors got blown off and the inside looks like a bomb was set off... which might''ve been what actually happened. Anyway the hallways into the left and right look relatively unharmed so I said goodnight to everyone before I went to my room and sent out all my Pokemon, seeing all of them even if a couple are no longer fighting fit fills me with relief. I think the anxiety of facing off against literal terrorists is starting to set in... nope I''m just hungry. So I make dinner from the stuff in the fridge. I made foods filled with nutrients that each Pokemon will need... until I found out that Leafeon don''t eat for necessity but more for curiosity and habit. She and I just shared what she was meant to eat while I hogged the blackberries I previously got for Leaf. A quick look on the pokegear shows that only two other places got hit, a hospital and a poke mart with items on the higher end of the spectrum which recently got a shipment filled with crates of max revives that are meant to be delivered past victory road. The hospital had a lot of grunts there, most of whom are said to have escaped and it happened before the other explosions. Maybe the hospital was a cover while the other teams got Pokemon and rare items? And they did partially succeed since a lot of stuff is supposedly missing in the mart. Dang, if I didn''t notice those grunts then a lot of people would''ve lost their Pokemon and even more would point fingers at the league to take responsibility. Now the damages are relatively at a minimum for the regular person. There are a few pictures of my group fighting against rocket grunts alongside some other trainers most of whom are older than us but there was one six year old kid who used her dads Swampert to beat up a rocket Houndour with a really funny caption of the picture taken. The rest of the day was anticlimactic with me just staying inside doing some polishings on the rough sketch I made earlier today of Route 22. I did message and call Cherry, Mirielle, James, and Amy with all of them saying they want to stay inside for a bit or they wanna go do some training (Amy) so I just watched my favorite tv show on my pokegear after calling mom after maybe like an hour and a half of cleaning rough edges and stuff. Somehow Ralts learned Double Team and the fact that Leaf freaking evolved is super cool and really shouldn''t be as ignored as it is right now. I''ll get Kakuna and Leaf cakes to celebrate their evolution later. An odd distinction that my leafy bud has is that she now has a floral pattern of roses around the leaf on her head alongside some lavender on her back. There''s apparently a big response thing happening tomorrow when there was meant to be a coronation happening as a result of the raid today. Man am I tired. Meh, I''ll just sleep it off. Interlude 1 As the sun began rising once more, into the start of another day, Valencia reminisced on the words spoken to her during her childhood. ¡®Battling is putting one¡¯s honor on the line.¡¯ Valencia recited as she straightened her back and placed her arms to her side. That was what her clan heads always said whenever she wanted to train. That was what Lance''s actions showed when he guided her. ¡°Battling is the way the world understands who is at the top, who possess the power to control the world, and who are required to bow down before others.¡± He had shown more than spoken. Everyone in the world wishes for power, and Pokemon are the closest thing to that wish. Even now she herself had only received one badge and yet there are many men, women, and children that look towards even her with respect and awe; albeit the praise might have correlation with her mothers status as a powerful trainer and the rarity of some of her own Pokemon. This was always implemented in teachings of her childhood. A serious affair where one must put their all into the fight, where emotions as such must be thrust aside to allow victory. ¡®So why? Why is it so... FUN?¡¯ She thought The rush, the thrills, instincts and knowledge working in tandem to improve and adapt one''s Pokemon. And yet, the only fun battles she ever had were the ones with her mother, her mentor, and the gym battle with Falkner from a year ago when her Pokemon barely scraped the win. At least, that was until yesterday. A boy with black hair and brown eyes, considerably pale in skin and only slightly shorter than her, his jovial expressions and the looks of joy he gave to others around him would not be remiss on a ¡®class clown¡¯. Many would call him handsome were it not for the ugly scar that cut from the bridge of his nose to his right eye, and ironically enough he had a line going horizontally on his right pupil, alongside the fact his right hand seems to have lost the area that held the nail of his middle finger. Appearance-wise he looked just like an average child who got in an accident. A pity case if it were any other person. But then he battled her. For the first time in her life, she lost against a trainer that was neither her mentor nor her mother nor some trainer that was older than her by years. Someone who was actually her age. And it was FUN. For the first time in her life she was overconfident of her abilities and it had led to her losing. A boy who looked as old as her, not like the teenagers her mother forced her to battle that always froze up when witnessing Frigibax use Dragon Rush. Or when Fennekin and her other two would use their attacks. Always, Always, Always they would freak out and start making mistakes, even trainers who were 14 years or older would be startled by such a high powered move being used by rare Pokemon. Even if most of them would snap out of their stupor and proceed to beat her team. Hell, those rocket thugs were so low level they probably were hired after they failed to obtain their first gym badge. But... hired goons will always be low tier trash that don''t possess the talent, skill, and hard work that trainers must have for even their first battle. ¡°Most people should just accept they will never be worth anything much, especially when those factors combine into one such as yourself.¡± Her cousin had said. And yet... and yet she suffered her first defeat against another taking the gym circuit. To make matters worse, it was someone with no badges. Her musings of new strategies to employ against him are paused as a car parked parallel to the sidewalk that she was standing on. The door of the car that was holding the lady that took her into her new family opened up and out comes a lady as tall as the fabled Lt. Surge and as strong if not stronger than Maylene and Chuck the fighting type specialists, her toned muscles hiding underneath her heavy coat. Her blond hair shaved on one side and only reaching to her ear on the other side. Slowly the woman walks into the hotel she used to reserve a room for Valencia, likely one of the many she had already planned for the young trainer. Without a word, Valencia takes the woman onto the uppermost floor into the hotel room that possesses a balcony large enough for a Steelix and promptly shut the door behind the two. Right after the click of door locking occurred, the strongest lady Valencia knows gives a heavy sigh and takes off her coat before laying down to rest her feet on the couch. She then took out a homemade bento box that Valencia had specially prepared for her and started eating the contents inside with a fork and spoon instead of chopsticks, proceeding to gobble it up in a feral manner similar to how a dragon feasts. This. This was her mother. One of the greatest trainers of her generation and most knowledgable individual in Paldea. If none had guessed from her few interviews after beating Falkner at age nine, then I would always inform them this one simple fact. She wanted to be everything like her mother. Her hair a golden yellow compared to Valencia¡¯s white, therefore she had dyed her hair to look like her mother. The muscles of her body, weight training helped set the initial stages but training with my Pokemon will make the young girl as strong as her inspiration someday. The weight of her very presence within the room, only through setting up a reputation of being as strong as her mother would allow Valencia to achieve this. Blue eyes a lighter shade than her own, initial attempts to get lenses to change her eye color to were refused as her mother would not even humor her request. Today she comes to check up on how the young girl is on her official journey while also taking a quick nap; traveling to multiple regions in the span of a week is taxing for anyone, especially when she had to give a major speech and keep a facade in front of the cameras each time. ¡®I believe the last speech was something about a charity event, so she probably had to rub elbows with the ¡°rich and snobby¡±.¡¯ Valencia mused. After setting up some chamomile tea for her mother, the young trainer layed down on top of her foster parent while giving a peck on the cheek. The parent in question¡¯s hands moved ever so slowly, as if the person she wishes to touch is made of glass, before she finally uses one to rub Valencia¡¯s hair just the way she likes it. The other hand caressing her cheek allowing her to feel the rough, scarred appendage once more. She didn¡¯t know who her parents were, no one at her adoption center really does. But what she does know is who her mother is. It''s simple, before she was seven, she never really felt love, the workers in the orphanage just couldn''t give their attention to all the kids, and now she gets to feel it in every message that''s sent and every smile she receives. After a while of this relaxation, she gets up to finish making the tea as the kettle begins whistling. Her mother drinks the hot beverage she made and immediately after decided to nap. The perfect time to feed her Pokemon. After forty minutes pass her mother wakes up, stretching and only cracking one spot on her back. Her eyes filled with the love she''s always shown the young girl for these past three years but for once in her life its crossed with mirth and curiosity at the same time. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "A little Starly told me something very interesting that happened recently." She says her voice deep but hoarse from overusing it in speech after speech. "Oh... what may it be?" Valencia asked unaware of the next sentence. "It was about how my darling daughter sent out her strongest Pokemon in a double battle and lost to one of Professor Oak''s lab trainers." And as Valencia¡¯s face paled, she smirks only the way a Meowth that caught its pray would. "W-well you see w-what had hap-happen wa-" "BAHAHAHAHAHAHA" She burst into a laugh that wasn''t melodious and made her stop after a bit. Still sounded nice to hear. "Don''t worry dear, lab trainers end up being a league of their own," still having light giggles she continues saying "I remember battling that May girl from Hoenn like it was yesterday, despite being so new to being champion she still ended up winning by the skin of her teeth and made me rethink about some of the other trainers such as that group from Kalos or the four from Unova with one who only took a couple months to become a candidate for being a normal type gym leader." She then stood up and gave Valencia a hug as the young girl was in the middle of processing what she just said, brushing some loose hairs away from the face in front of her. "The most important thing darling is that you make sure that next time he can''t win, alright. The second most is that you only lose to gym leaders and trainers who are either around or above your badge level." She then stopped hugging me and bent down onto her knees and looked at her daughter with pride. "Now tell me, how was battling this boy." It made Valencia shift her left foot a little in slight embarrassment before answering "It was fun. As fun as battling you mother, if not more. I got to realize a couple mistakes in my tactics, and I realized that I shouldn''t get overconfident just because I seem to be the superior trainer." She stopped to scratch her head a little before continuing in that line of thought. "Well, if I battled him again right now I would have a fifty-fifty shot at winning even if I got serious." "Because of his Charmander." "He didn''t use a Charmander." That seemed to mildly surprise her before she asked her daughter to continue. "Yesterday after I battled him, I looked at the matches he was in and he did two double battles with his Charmander, one with his Pineco, one with his off color Ralts, two with his Eevee, and two with his Weedle that evolved into a Kakuna before the second match. I went and checked his battle record on that day. I faced off against his Eevee and Ralts." "Oh, how did the battle between you start." Cringing at the thought of the beginning, she soldiered through nonetheless "I told Fennekin and Frigi to do our usual strategy of using Flame Charge and Dragon Rush to overwhelm the battle from the very start but his Ralts teleported and used Calm Mind while his Eevee used Iron Tail, Trailblaze as it was definitely increasing speed, and a normal type move all at the same time which overpowered Frigibax." Her mother had a thoughtful expression on her face, the one where you don''t notice you¡¯re sticking your tongue out, but motioned for the story to continue. Then Valencia told her mother about how the Eevee used two different moves twice at the same time and the Ralts afflicting Frigi with Confusion. She told her about how she hit his team with Heatwave from Fennekin and how she ordered Frigibax to use Dragon Rush into Aqua Tail despite having a double debuff and how Fennekin used Calm Mind and Howl to boost her overall capabilities. The strongest trainer she knows face went blank when she told her how the Eevee used four moves at the same time to combat Frigibax and how that was what sealed the match, which should have been impossible since no Pokemon has ever been able to use more than three moves at once. The giant woman then looked back at her with an expression showing she was interested and calmer than she would normally be. "I think you''ve just found yourself quite the unusual and interesting rival," I must have been really shocked because she then continued with "oh, hush child even I have a few rivals of my own and each of them has caused me to become a stronger trainer than I ever could''ve been without them." Though the tone at the end was tinged with something like regret, the new trainer couldn¡¯t really decipher it. She then had a serious expression before asking "How are you feeling about your loss?" This wasn''t that hard to answer for Valencia "I actually feel great, it¡¯s odd really, for the first time there was someone my age who managed to beat me. And it wasn''t as one-sided as against you or Lance or any trainers you brought to help me train because I think maybe a day or two of training and some new tactics are all I need to beat the version of him from yesterday, yet because he''s around my level he''ll probably be hard at work training his team after the rocket incident especially since both of us faced off against some rocket grunts. His Eevee even evolved into a Leafeon which helped him beat up an Arbok." A pleased smile adorned her Mother as she nodded along except for the very end, when the new trainer said that her smile turned fragile and she proceeded to hug Valencia before excusing herself. Why would sh- ¡®STUPID STUPID STUPID¡¯ Valencia thought as she reprimanded herself. ¡®Why would I say that I faced off against international terrorists in front of my mother, knowing her she is probably going to bark up the wrong tree and beat up everyone who was remotely related to the incident.¡¯ She thought ¡®Shit¡¯ If there was one thing she would ask to change about her mother, it would be the extreme measures her bull headedness takes whenever someone she genuinely cares about gets hurt. Though Valencia was touched by the prospect that her mother cares about her so much it was outweighed by the fear that what happened last time her mother demanded retribution was going to repeat itself. It was hard seeing the full body cast, that was when her thoughts of her mother as the strongest in the whole world shattered. When her world broke in two. She sighed, thinking that she better head over to the celebration event taking place tomorrow before leaving Viridian to challenge the traditional route of Pewter for the first badge leaving Viridian for her last, before taking time to train and ready up for the conference. She opened her rotom phone thinking that she might as well make waves on social media for now and then after a quick training session take a light nap before heading out to challenge the open battle arenas, that would be the most optimal use of time for her.
She seems to be taking her loss well, good she''s far more competent and level-headed than when I was her age. Today was going to be about an important message, the elders wanted to inform her that marriage talk is happening behind her back and how the damn geezers would only let her into the talks if she manages to give a good showing this year. But seeing her have a rival so early in her journey is good, especially since it''s a fucking lab trainer of all things. It takes sheer will not to burst out in laughter at the insanity that some of them and their rivals have shown. If possible I''d wanna give her the time she needs to foster a relationship but her tendency to copy me is unintentionally stifling her. The only way to nip the bud right now is to ensure that this lab trainer ends up being such a wall she no doubt has to change and improve herself, adapt herself, to even begin the ascent of what true elites call power. I hate being like this sometimes, but it''s a lesson a parent always have to learn at some point. That it helps their child grow to sometimes lose... even if it hurts like a bitch seeing them mope and cry. Honestly, I would''ve just gotten her another dragon type if she did cry. Again my thoughts roll back to the fuck I was thinking back when I adopted her, the shitty geezers kept on yapping about an heir so instead of telling them to shut up like usual I decided to fuck with ''em and got Valencia. Those were the best three years of my life and if it weren''t for the fact I just can''t feel that way with anyone I would of hooked up with someone just to know the hell I was missin. ¡®Cept for Lizzie, but its been so long since last I saw her and those feelings have long since disappeared. In the meantime Charles still wants to do the big inauguration ceremony in Viridian, if he wasn''t one of the few people I could trust and call a friend I''d just knock the shit outta him and drag him back to his office. Knowing him he''ll probs have some crappy reward for the ones who fought those rocket goons. Actually that gives me an idea. ''Nine search around for those who faced off against rocket today.'' Only a second passes before the third poke ball on the holster pops out a male golden yellow fox with bits of sunset orange fur on the tip of his tail. Eyes already glowing blue with psychic energy before dissipating. ''Finished, I see the plan and must say that this is both a good and terrible idea at the same time.'' Just like that the psychic fox disappears into his ball. I can''t deny that this is a terrible idea but it''ll definitely showcase the potential of those kids. Now, where to steal borrow some eggs.
A couple Pokemon view the city in the distance. One with white fur, dark blue skin, and a horn similar to a sickle. Another is bipedal lupine with steel tips on its paws and chest. ¡°Mighty lucky those kids were, eh Lu¡± the first one spoke ¡°Not luck. Fate,¡± said the second ¡°what say you Xatu.¡± Behind both and staring at the fading sun is a green bird with a round head and cloak like body. It turned its head 180 degrees to look at the both of them. ¡°Yes and no. They were lucky that other child appeared when she did, otherwise they would have lost their Pokemon.¡± The bird took a second to look at the sun once more before continuing. ¡°It seems like the trials of the future are beginning once more. Absol, are your wounds from saving the individual Red healed?¡± The white quadruped chuckles for a few seconds ¡°The wounds that girl Lorelei¡¯s Pokemon inflicted are healed, it¡¯s just old old age thats making me feel like shit nowadays.¡± ¡°Well we still have a job to do so hurry along, the strings of aura point north and i would rather get there in time instead of being ten minutes too late just because some old geezer wanted to try out poffins.¡± The lupine barked out. ¡°Yes we must make haste, moreover the chosen is being guided by my apprentice so we have no reason to stay any longer.¡± Slowly they all shambled along to the very edge of the cliff they were standing on before suddenly moving at speeds a human or Pokemon could barely dream of. The three knew that once a year or two passed all three would pass to the otherworld. But Arceus be damned they will give a hell of a fight saving the world. One. Last. Time. Chapter 8 Another day, another chance at being the best. Why are there messages from Professor Oak? Seems like there''ll be a big event for all the people who helped with the rocket raid on the city. Ok. Another stealthy journey to the bathroom, this time taking Chardon for a shower, and I let Leaf and Ralts use the bathroom after I''m finished. A quick scrubbing of Kakuna and Tabs before making breakfast and getting water and now I can head over to the middle of the center to meet up with the others. A quick message to the others and they all confirm except for Mirielle but Amy said that ''she in batroom rn'' suffice to say that she meant to add a h before room. I headed into the waiting room and waited on the least damaged couch. Looking around most of the damage was cleaned alongside some new glass doors being installed, though the roof is still being worked on. A couple people pass by and look at me before deciding to sit on a different couch. weird. Soon after all my friends converge to the waiting room, even James came on time which is mildly frightening. An odd thing is nagging at me though. "How did everyones sleep go?" why did that make Amy flinch, and why are the others even more worried? "Seriously guys is something wrong?" James answers first "I had a nightmare about that Frillish." "Really? I got freaked out by that Arbok." Cherry spoke "... Mine was about the explosion" Amy murmured "W-what Amy said" Mirielle added Then all four looked at me as if it was my turn. What did I dream about again? Oh, yeah "I had a dream about a flower field with Leaf as an Eevee, and then Leaf evolved into a Leafeon." I sent out Leaf to make a point. It seems like everyone was too tired or busy to either remember or find out that Leaf evolved. Yesterday must''ve been really frightening. Gotta take their minds off yesterday but how... Oh I know. "Hey guys lets all have a bowling round before the conference, or maybe a contest on cutest Pokemon or something." that seems to take their mind off this whole rocket thing. We head off to a bowling alley where I drank a really large amount of water and at the very end it was neck and neck between Cherry and myself. She needs the win to take her mind off this whole thing so I throw a gutter ball twice, of course not at the same place because even if I''m dumb I''m not stupid. After I paid for everything since it was my treat we went to a battle ring and sent out our Pokemon one by one before grading them by cuteness points. Of course Leaf won mainly due to her lavender scent and those amber brown eyes using her only fairy type move. Second place was Pikachu and third was Bulbasaur who fell asleep in the middle of the contest. James is still worried judging by how he''s holding a poke ball with a Pokemon in his hand and spinning it around... *sigh* there''s only one thing I can do now. "James," a confirmation from him and I continue on "I''m heading to the open battle centers and I''m gonna fight beginner tier trainers ok." First he just hums in agreement but once he processes what I said his eyes open wide and he looks at me like I''m a madman. I just send back my Pokemon and begin heading around the town to different battle arenas challenging any trainer who are beginner tier or below. For beginner tier trainers I used Leaf and occasionally Chardon while all the others would face off against newbie tier trainers. After my tenth win in a row I looked around for James and it seems like he''s in the middle of his own battle with Rufflet and in the end just barely won. Rufflet using Leer before Peck was the right play against the opposing Lotad. When I head to him it seems like he''s gotten his head clear. In fact the dude seems more confident on something, what that might be I have no idea. At one pm we all head over to the town hall to listen to the big speech that''s said to happen. The building was at least four stories tall and sleek white as compared to the blue and black buildings next to it. The design is like a generic town hall with the outside spanning about six evenly spaced windows on the left and the right. It''s pretty big all things considered. In the front was a stage and podium with no one there yet. There were a lot of people waiting when we got there and it seems like there are a bunch of ace trainers keeping guard of the place, most likely to prevent a surprise surprise rocket raid. While waiting there was Whismur guy and Valencia there so I chose to say thanks to Val for being ''Valiant''. She did not like the joke. Anyway about like five minutes of waiting some old guy came up to the podium to begin some type of speech. "Greetings trainers young and old it is I, Charles Goodman the president of the Pokemon league committee." An old man with a backwards cap on is our league president... THAT IS SO COOL. "It is a pleasure to announce the new Pokemon league conference, and to all participants, may you all have a wonderful journey of growth and adventure." And with that the awesome Mr Charles proceeded to leave the stage only for some really tall and buff lady to appear. Why did Val just stiffen? "Greetings trainers, I am Emiliano Tristy and it is a pleasure to meet you all." She took a second to look at the crowd, her eyes darting to some trainers like my friends. "The recent event that occurred due to team Rocket was barely controlled thanks to gym leader Blue destroying two separate bases of the criminal organization, unfortunately the ace trainers and rangers were out of town arresting the individuals and were unable to handle the threat that occurred within the city." The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. After taking another second to pop out a Ninetales next to her she continued on. "It is with great pleasure that I can say that despite the injuries caused to civilians there were zero casualties, and for that I must congratulate the individuals who bravely fought against team rocket." She waved her arm to the stairs on the right of the podium (her left) right as a few carts appeared. "All those who faced off against team Rocket please come stand on the podium to receive your reward." A few people in the crowd began shifting towards the podium but a couple of them were lifted up and placed further back in the crowd for some reason. It took maybe five minutes for everyone to reach the podium and stand on the stage but apparently that wasn''t everyone as a few seconds later a couple people were picked up and placed next to me. Oh, Mirielle was one of the two who didn''t come up, the second person was a dude who looked 8, I''ve never seen him before. Now the group is about thirty six people standing here including the little Swampert kid, hehe. Once supposedly all of the people who faced off against team Rocket were here miss Tristy continued. "A round of applause for these ''valiant'' individuals," how did sh- clapping occurs snapping my thoughts away before fading after an appropriate time "as a token of our appreciation we will now be giving all these trainers Pokemon eggs found outside the region alongside specific type pellets for all their current Pokemon." Wait dat be big. Pellets are the lifeblood of regular trainers trying to feed their group of Pokemon as they''re filled with nutrients and vitamins that would have fed a regular Snorlax with one bag. But there are always nutrients or minerals that a typing does or doesn''t need which the generic version just can''t fulfill so the higher tier trainers usually buy chow just for their Pokemon''s typing. The chow for specific typing can cost up to six hundred dollars per bag which is why no sane beginner or newbie trainer should buy them, unless they were rich. Having a specific psychic fairy chow for Ralts and a poison bug chow for Kakuna is massively helpful since the disparity in food quality is even more noticeable in dual types. The carts that were holding chow open up and a blue tinge surrounds the different bags of food before being deposited on each trainers feet. Oddly enough I got a steel fairy chow including the ones that will actually help my team. Looking around some people also got confused as to why they got extra chow with the girl getting a water type chow despite having no Pokemon herself. Then it clicked and I opened up my pokedex to check the list of Pokemon available. "Steel Fairy Pokemon lines: Mawile, Klefki, Tinkatink" that was the list of what was available for now and some people nearby got the hint as to what their Pokemon eggs might be and asked for a list of the specific typings of their chow to which I agreed for the dual types since mono typings have way too many Pokemon. The Ninetales looks on in amusement on my clear spoiling of some surprise, if it was meant to be a surprise they could''ve tried a little harder to keep it as one. "You have to understand that we only had half a day to accomplish this but yes we could have done a little more" was that the Ninetales. "Yes" Oh. Neat. Bingo Bongo Blorgo. The Ninetales looks at me with a chortle escaping its mouth, oh ye I made it- "Him" him laugh. Anyway I get the hint and put away the pokedex to pay attention to the words Mr Goodman says, it started with something about how trainers should be courageous but also know their limitations, the speech seems to be ending now so I just wait for the eggs to appear. This time Ninetales takes the center stage and in a grand display of psychic prowess that would no doubt make a Metang jealous-"Only a Metang" would no doubt make a Mime Jr. jealous "Now you''re just messing with me" Ninetales picked all of us up and took off the cloth covering the eggs all at the same time before picking up the eggs and gently placing one in front of each of us before letting us down once more into neat rows instead of the mess that we previously were with all our respective chow in front of our feet. Will I catch a Vulpix, battle with it, train it telepathy, and then evolve it... probably not judging by the fact I have a potential Charizard in my poke ball just waiting to evolve. After a couple photos of us all the trainers that aren''t a part of the speech begin moving off stage. This is my chance to- "Don''t even think about it" Awww why not "Because my trainer would take away my favorite toys" alright I won''t happy, Mr Nine. A smile takes place on the fire types face before he was sent back into his ball. I did stay till the end to hear about any new rules or anything to be careful of but other than an infestation of some Bisharp improperly released there wasn''t anything big; though Mr Nine, Cherry''s Gothita, and Ralts alongside a couple other psychic types force released themselves outside their poke balls in panic before calming down and being sent back. Weirdly enough the unknown Pokemon in James''s poke ball was extremely shaky before calming down as well. At the very end we got a couple poke balls for free and an antidote before being told to go on our ways. I got out relatively quickly and had to wait for the others. Easy enough until you realize that I have to wait for captain Slowbro as well who will no doubt come after everyone else has left. A wait that felt like an eternity but really was sixteen minutes later and now my friend group is ready to go. Though there was a slight hitch to the plan. Namely Miss Tristy came to our group to say something. James, Amy, and myself were thrusted a poke ball with a Pokemon inside each while Cherry and Mirielle were given a few items alongside miss Tristy sending out an Indeedee that knew Heal Pulse and subsequently aimed the move on one of Mirielle''s poke balls. "Use these gifts wisely you five, now to give my daughter a similar reward." And then she left. A quick check on the ball that hit by the psychic move and out came little Rookidee who had a perfectly healed wing. The three of us who got a poke ball from her began opening it to check what was inside and lo and behold the three Rockruff that belonged to the Rocket grunts are standing in front of us. We all were stunned but I snapped out of it and put an open hand towards the Rockruff to allow them to sniff me as is proper ranger protocols. The step siblings both copied me and two of the rock type puppies began rubbing into us with their rocky tuft of fur which felt really nice and scratchy. The last one just stares at me before taking its poke ball from James before giving it to me and sending itself back in. I gave James the poke ball of one of the remaining rock types and the two jumped into Amy and James''s arms. After we left the townhall we were heading to the center when Cherry motioned to draw our attention. "Sorry guys I kinda want to stay in the city and beat Blue before leaving, it''ll take a couple months at least though so go ahead without me." Cherry spoke worriedly By my guess Cherry probably want''s to beat Blue first and face off against Sabrina last. I ask her if that''s her plan and she nods. "Nah that''s fine, I''m gonna face him for last so its alright" Amy said with a weird grin. "I was gonna head to Celadon after Pewter to enter a tournament in two weeks so I was always gonna split off," after a second I also say "plus I wanna save Blaine for last so I wouldn''t really be able to join Amy or the others." We all headed to the center which was already in the middle of repairs to get all our gear and such. A short while later, with Cherry guiding us, we were standing in front of Viridian Forest. "Oh right. Don''t worry about Ralts not really getting Reflect since she''s really close and a battle will be all she needs to learn the move." We all gave our goodbyes and Mirielle gave a short hug to Cherry which sparked me into giving a hug and then James and Amy turned it into a group hug with the excitable rock pups in their arms before we left Cherry waving goodbye. I already placed some ground rules that no fire or electric type moves could be used in the forest in case of a fire so Pikachu and Chardon would only be able to come out during night time. And with that the four chosen lab trainers headed over to the forest in order to do their first gym battle... after a toilet break. "I''m so sorry but I really need to go." I tell the other three while bowing and everybody began laughing at me when I shuffled away. Chapter 9 Honestly, the public bathroom''s of Viridian get a ten outta ten from me cuz that place was cleaned and well maintained. It also had breath mints which was neat. And then I remembered on the toilet about something important, like any male, specifically I forgot my pokegear and some other stuff back in the rented Pokemon center room. After sneakily running over to the center and back I came to the group with the things in my hands. Trivial in the long term really, it was just a snow globe of Cirrus town, a comic book on Jack the Eiscue, and the pokegear that I forgot again. Running back only took ten minutes overall, and the group only chuckled at my lamentations while Miri was giving me back my poke balls, so I''ll count this as a win however small. We went to the entrance of Viridian Forest and five minutes in there are some discrepancies that are easily noted within the home of most of Kanto''s bug types. Firstly, there doesn''t actually seem to be a lot of bug types within the forest. Secondly, the Pokemon within the forest are all enraged and quick to attack trainers. Most likely because of Team Rocket situating here which probably made them on edge since high level Pokemon and moves were no doubt used against and for Blue when he took down the base here. I know this as after the five minutes James got attacked by a couple Joltik, this caused Captain Slowbro to give up his role as travel leader... then a couple minutes later when Amy got jumped by half a dozen Weedle she made me travel leader. Now, the most important part about being a ranger is to know the different ways a person can get in danger and how to get people out of said danger. Within the forest that means knowing the different Pokemon nearby, bug types, and their temperament means that a lot of people are gonna be in danger very quickly; case in point, a dude maybe a couple years older than me was gonna try to catch a Beedrill, the one in question was in a very large swarm of bugs. It was easy to get him to stop once he noticed all the pointy stingers that would be going after him if he did do it. If the others think that I''m going the wrong way then they don''t speak it out loud since they easily accept me moving left, right, or going back cuz of some bugs. Along the way there were more examples of people who needed help. A kid around our age needed to take his Pokemon to a center because the poor Pidgey was heavily poisoned, a bug catcher who was about to piss off the group of an Ariados, a really pretty lady was about to get hit by her Minun''s Thunderbolt since the move got hit back by a Mirror Coat from a Dewpider, and even a dude stuck in quicksand (I didn''t even know quicksand existed in the forest). But I also saw that there were Pokemon that needed help as well. A Rattata bullying a group of Caterpie, and then later there was a Raichu that needed to chill out because it was confused and was attacking everything in sight which was probably caused by a Pokemon using Rage Powder or something. Notably, there was a Geodude which the ranger books heavily state should be in caves and mountains but never the forest as many Pokemon in Viridian forest are weak to the rock type and the new inclusion could heavily alter the current ecology, so I knocked it out and then tapped the button five times to signify rock typing before throwing my poke ball at the unconscious rock. James ended up explaining to the other two what I did while I was waiting for the confirmation ball that would come back to me. We make decent progress despite the zigzagging through the forest and from my calculations we might just have to wait one to two days before reaching Pewter. Maybe three hours in, we decide to have some lunch before moving again. We all concluded that we would send out all our Pokemon to play except for Spinarak who would only come out when we make lunch. On my lap, which was criss crossed applesauce style, I have Chardon who was being gently stroked by a fireproof brush (which costed like 250$) while to my side was Mirielle who was petting Pikachu on her shoulder with Mankey on her lap, sporting a flower circlet courtesy of Leaf, and all three were reading the same romance book in front of them, mom has that same one and let me tell you it is a ten outta ten with only a slight kissy scene at the end. It was more Mirielle reading aloud for Mankey and Pikachu since one of the two didn''t actually know how to read, but they are starting to learn. Mom and I made sure to teach Leaf and Shadow how to read since one time they thought a tin of knitting supplies was a tin of biscuits, plus Leaf would feel left out when I did homework and she didn''t understand; especially English. On our right Leaf, Rookidee, Ralts, Zorua, and Tabs are playing together (I think hide and seek) while ahead of us Amy was cuddling with two of the Rockruff and Squirtle. On our left was my Rockruff having a battle against James''s Rufflet with both himself and Bulbasaur watching to ensure there wasn''t any major harm caused. Both seem to really like to fight... seems like both of our Pokemon in the battle seem to be really persistent on getting stronger; but others like Fletchling, Shadow and Chardon are kinda paying attention to the battle as well. Fletchling took this time to fly down from the sky onto my head for what I assume is a nap while Shadow was being a vigilante little daredevil keeping the crew safe, too bad I already checked the area and found nothing dangerous. The three of us who caught the rock doggies decided to check their dex entry and...
Name Rockruff
Type Rock
Health 45
Attack 65
Sp. Attack 30
Defense 40
Sp. Defense 40
Speed 60
Total stats 280
Moves Rock Throw
Their moveset is really bad considering they''re Rocket owned, we tried to entertain the thought that they were recently hatched but the biology dex says that these guys have been alive for at least a year. Mine just learnt Tackle mid battle. Mine has the ability Own Tempo while the the other two have Vital Spirit. Great abilities all around as higher level battles have a lot of status moves used against oneself and having something to withstand confusion and hypnosis is far more helpful than having the ability Keen Eyes. Mine has the Lonely nature, James''s has an Impish nature, while the one Amy owns has a Jolly nature. Maybe that''s why one is battling while the other two are snuggling up to Amy. Anyway now seems like a good time to search up about Brock, after all we only have about four to five days to prep for the guy and then I''ll only have nine to ten days to prep for the tournament in Celadon. Maybe take a break after, could definitely visit gramps in Fuchsia before going to Vermillion A quick search into the gym on both forums and official sites are showing the basic stuff such as a list of Pokemon used, the tactics, and what people recommend against him. Only a day in and a couple trainers have already started battling him so I get to see three of his Pokemon used. This year is guaranteed with a Geodude, Onix, and Roggenrola. While previously Brock used two Carbink and a bunch of Geodude, Onix, and Rhyhorn since these Pokemon are more abundant in Kanto. The rock types used alongside the others are a recently unveiled Kabuto and Omanyte since he had to up the star rating of his Lileep on account of it beating up wayyy~ too many Pokemon in its first and second year. He also has an Admin Carracosta which he only brings out to pummel a trainers team when said trainer lies about their badge level. Onix looks to be the Pokemon that he uses to nod at trainers at the peak of one star if what the forums say, most likely he just uses them against trainers that could''ve aimed for a two star battle but decided to come in early. Now seems like a good time to make lunch so I get up and coax Chardon to aim his flame underneath the pot I''ll be using. I think mushroom sauce with chicken and potatoes is the best thing I can make right now, especially since the mushrooms I got yesterday are so fresh. Back onto my pokegear, tactics wise the gym leader always starts things off with Rock Throw and from that one gesture he probably figures out whether the opponent is flying blind or made sure to check his battles. Since I already know about the Rock Throw and I can''t lie about it that means I get one free shot at his Geodude which could be used for set up with Ralts... I''ll have to think about my own tactics later. Anyway it seems like he uses different tactics using each of his Pokemon like water moves with Omanyte, speedy attacks with a Rock Polish Kabuto, Light Screen Carbink, Smack Down Rhyhorn; I''m oversimplifying it and there are different moves he uses but for the first badge he mainly tries to use rock themed moves like Defense Curl which isn''t actually a rock type attack but fits the general theme. Also have to add that sometimes Brock can use two star Pokemon against trainers stronger than his Onix but he only did that against Red all those years back with his Onix from his personal team that later evolved into a Steelix. Rock''s aren''t known to be tanky in special defense so Ralts will definitely see some use unlike Char, Tabs, and Kakuna... but why though? Is it because they have type disadvantage? ...This was my least favorite part about the search, the stigma against type disadvantage Pokemon used in gyms. Its not even a trainers fault because some just don''t have money for buying poke balls or don''t have space to catch a Pokemon they only need for one badge, that''s just asking for that Pokemon to get released immediately after that win which would no doubt cause distrust between said Pokemon and the people that it might later meet. Though, the search showed something interesting. People who win the fight against Brock end up getting as many views if not more than people using rare or powerful Pokemon. Just one example is a girl beating Brock with a Ponyta and Caterpie reaching three k views while another girl won with a Piplup and Bagon reaching only two thousand, a perfect example of type disadvantage fights being cooler then using tried and true methods like type advantage or rare and powerful Pokemon. If I face off against all the gym leaders with type disadvantage and neutral Pokemon then there''ll be more attention on me compared to the others, poachers might even aim for my Pokemon considering I have a rare Ralts and a Charmander... better me then them, they should enjoy their journey so with my mind set up I should probably get my head out of the clouds and tell the others. "-and that''s why you should expect me to jet-ski onto a Magmortar over a volcano. Oh, guess who''s back in the land of the living." Amy teases at me. I just roll my eyes "hardy, har, har" the group kinda gets focused at my left eye so I move the conversation along "Anyway I have some tactics and ideas I think all of us can use against Brock." That got their attention. "To start things off all of the current Rockruff in our group are gonna learn Trailblaze as its a type advantage move." Easy nods from the group, so I continue on. "So I think I''ll start things off with Amy since you technically go into this in a bigger disadvantage compared to the others. I think you should use Squirtle last and first use Rockruff which will force Brock to use a rock and ground type against you which Fletchling and Squirtle will have an easier time dealing with. Definitely try to train Rockruff up for speed and making sure it can''t be hit by any Pokemon aside from like a Zapdos cuz it has a Jolly nature. Make sure to keep Spinarak out of this unless your Fletchling gets knocked out too fast against Brock''s second Pokemon. Roost and Gust for Fletchling will definitely help but make sure to train Ember since you want the little bird to be as far away from Brock''s Pokemon if possible. You definitely want him to send out a Carbink so you can use Spinarak to attack with poison type moves after significantly weakening it with String Shot and Constrict. Honestly, I think it would be good if you caught a Machop in an outcropping at Route 3 and I''ll even send you the coordinates if you wish. Oh, also make sure your team trains to dodge Rockruff''s Rock Throw okay?" By around halfway Amy started writing notes on her poke dex to try while looking at her team, the food on her plate no longer diminishing. She still gave a thumbs up at the end. After taking a bite to consider who to tell next I choose "James, your up now. Honestly you''re probably the most neutral of the group since you only have one Pokemon with type disadvantage and two of your Pokemon have type advantage moves against Brock, the only reason you aren''t at the top is because you currently have four Pokemon so Brock will match that amount. I want you to start after Amy and send out Zorua first but make sure its illusion is Rockruff so Brock thinks twice about using a rock and ground type, the-" "Then use Rufflet to bait out Omanyte, Roggenrola, or Kabuto before switching into... Bulbasaur to finish off his second Pokemon... and then use the actual Rockruff against what''ll most likely be... a Carbink since Zorua is a dark type. At that point the last Pokemon will be Onix or a second star Pokemon but if I play my cards right I''ll have... two to three of my party ready to fight it." James interrupts. I open and close my mouth a couple times before replying "y-yeah basically, I also heard that Lycanroc can learn Counter so it''ll be a good investment to learn that move if you can, I know from your last battle with Zorua it knows Counter so the two could work together to learn moves like Snarl. You could also save a switch if Zorua and Rufflet learn U-turn just incase the last Pokemon ends up being too tough for one of your Pokemon that needs to slightly rest. Rufflet can learn Hone Claws and Bulk Up so that might be a good investment. I know you''re training Bulbasaur to be able to handle using Power Whip so I think you should keep that up." Miri then coughs to get our attention "Can I say something?" "Yeah sure" we all reply easily enough. "I don''t really want ideas on what I should do since I kind of already have a plan against Brock... is that okay?" It goes without saying but I''ll say it anyway "Obviously, just make sure you double check and do some training with our Rockruff okay?" The girl nods and I begin eating my food. Not even five minutes pass by and the pot is empty aside from the sauce and a single chicken strip and I gave a bit of the sauce to Tabs and the rest I just put into a container, seems like Tabs can eat it and actually likes it so I should probably get some berry smoothies for her when we get to Pewter. I kinda feel like I''m forgetting something but I don''t remember what. Must''ve not been that important then. Oh right. "Amy... you forgot to send out Spinarak." Primeape whips her head back at me from her bonding with Squirtle before getting her party to be ready in case the bug she caught gets fighty and/or flighty. It was kinda anticlimactic how the little bug first blinked its eyes before looking around and seeing the group of people and Pokemon before huffing and having the chicken strip in mushroom sauce which I handed out after a good ten seconds of waiting for it to do something. Amy then realized she had to feed the bug as well and got the chow for poison and bug types. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. After maybe ten minutes later we all decided to get up and continue our trek, only this time the group was Ralts, my Rockruff, Shadow, and Spinarak who was really warming up towards Amy and not really that oddly Kakuna. Poison bug solidarity and all that. Maybe ten minutes into our walk and I notice some person is ahead battling a rock type with their water type. While we''re walking Ralts took the opportunity to read the league rule-book while Rockruff was making sure there weren''t any approaching Pokemon using his nose next to Shadow who was using his ears. Oh right. I also forgot to nickname Rockruff. "Hey buddy," I motion to said Pokemon who looks back at me with an affirmative ''ruff'' "what do you think about having a nickname?" My rock type proceeded to look away and blow air out of his mouth in thought before giving a curt nod. "Okay how about Rocky... no that seems so generic. Maybe Brock, nah that''ll just make others think I''m his fanboy." I really don''t know what name to give my lupine partner... hold on a sec. "How about Lupa, you okay with that?" Rockruff spends a couple seconds scrunching his face up in thought before giving an affirmative yip. I kinda talk about immediate moves Lupa should learn and the little Rockruff immediately denies using Tail Whip or Growl, considering both revolve around cuteness I think I''ve got a fighting style ready for him but that''ll only be ready when he gets Trailblaze and his battle style''ll be further accentuated when he evolves to access Accelrock. Two minutes later and I realize something is wrong with the trainer. Their water type fainted. I ran in their direction, a little bit to the north-east before an eternity but what must''ve really just been ten seconds pass. I hear a scream. After jumping over a group of Kakuna and sprinting a bit further I see it. A trainer on the ground. Blood on the ground right where his head is. Like ???- The trainer is the main priority so I send out Leaf, plans for the future be damned if it means that I can save a person. A quadrupedal creature with fur like grass, with a tail and part of her forehead shaped reminiscent to a Leaf. She uses Quick Attack to force the opponent away. The opponent Pokemon dodged, being only barely faster with a light sheen signifying that it''s got a boost in something. Probs speed. In front of my eyes the trainer seems to be safe and the blood seems to be coming from his broken nose, thank Arceus. Near him is an unconscious Krabby. I get pulled away from my assessment when I hear a cry of anger. Oh right, the enemy Pokemon. I look at the opponent and do a double take, I thought this thing was a rock type, seriously why is this grass type here. Its a little stubby thing with three green orbs on its head. Clearly this little fella is a grass type, so why am I feeling like its a rock type? A quick look at my pokedex explains it.
Name Bonsly
Type Rock
Ability Rattled
Nature Naughty
Health 50
Attack 80
Sp. Attack 10
Defense 95
Sp. Defense 45
Speed 10
Total stats 290
Moves Tearful Look, Copycat, Harden, Defense Curl, Stomping Tantrum, Rock Throw, Rock Polish
A... Bonsly. This little thing must really be persistent to be raring to battle. It seems to even be using Tearful Look. Oh wait its just crying. Now it''s using Tearful Look. "Leaf use Duo 6" Is what I wanted to say before Leaf got slammed back by some type of ice type attack. For those who don''t know, ice is strong against grass. "LEAF" I shout in worry before trying to school myself, luckily the grass eeveelution is more than ready to fight. On second thoughts, now that the threats been assessed. "Leaf, come back and protect the trainer and his Pokemon, someone else is gonna deal with this." My Pokemon dutifully listened to my order and moved away from the Bonsly who constantly kept an eye out on her. I take out a poke ball and chuck it into the air where it opened in half releasing the creature from within, blinding light going from the air onto the ground. Kakuna is ready to fight. "Okay pal use Electroweb into String Shot." Kakuna dutifully did just that. Of course, despite the sparking net wrapping around the little Bonsly it decided to use another ice attack I really think might be Ice Beam onto the white string laced with bug energy aiming for it, good news is that ice type energy shifted to normal type so Copycat must''ve run out. I also forgot that it has the ability Rattled so it almost got boosted in something, can''t remember what though. "Good, now use Poison Sting" I know that its his weakest move, he knows its his weakest move, and I genuinely don''t believe that Celebi''ll give us a cheap shot like a poisoned effect on the Bonsly. The point of using the attack is to have some distance while also forcing the little rock to try and use Copycat on the poison move, which it sadly didn''t this time as it took the hit and gave back with Rock Throw. "String Shot to a tree!" Kakuna takes a second to process the order before using his string to pull himself out of harms way, time that forced him to dodge too late as the rock attack barely hit Kakuna and off balanced him, the little cocoon bouncing until he crashed into a tree. "Reorient and use Poison Sting again" The Bonsly expected the poison barb to aim at him and jumped to dodge. But we aren''t finished. Not by a long shot. "Now, use Electroweb into Poison Sting" this time the move hits the Bonsly while its still in the air and due to the nature of Electroweb Bonsly is stuck until it gets out, the blue light signifying a stat decrease, but it still kept some of its shine. Bonsly must''ve been trying to use Harden or something before it got startled and forgot to finish its move... shoot that''s good for Stomping Tantrum. Right before my assessment on the ground type move finished, Kakuna had already fired off Poison Sting onto Bonsly. "Good, now use Poison Sting into Electroweb one last time. Then get in close and use Bug Bite." I almost shouted out that last part out loud before I remembered that I''m in a forest. This time the little Bonsly aimed Rock Throw again, but due to the speed decrease Kakuna improvised his string move to dodge before aiming Poison Sting again at Bonsly. Thankfully Bonsly decided to use Copycat right then to contest with the Electroweb which it couldn''t overpower as it had low stats in special attack. The electric type move hit and gave Kakuna enough time to hop towards Bonsly before hitting it with Bug Bite. Bonsly lost its sheen entirely before regaining it after the bug move hit. So most likely Rattled increases speed from bug moves. "Kakuna jump back an-" Bonsly faints. Just like that. Done. How? Its not li- A groan right next to me alerts me to the reason, specifically the guy''s Krabby. Well... the only thing to do now is wait and help out the poor fella. "Lets see here," I say aloud, mainly to steel myself, as I begin checking for additional damages "some s-scrapes on the hand and a couple on the face, a bruise to the chest probably by Bonsly, and a broken nose. Should probably set that before it gets too late." And just as I give the nose job, the rest of the group comes over to see me roughly move the nose of an unconscious kid with a loud crick following shortly with two fainted Pokemon with Kakuna and Leaf nearby. They might''ve wanted to say something but right then the guy groaned and started trying to stand up, any person can tell you that getting up immediately after hitting your head is a terrible idea. I keep him locked down and try to keep him calm, which is kinda hard since the guy is trying to resist me which in hindsight is a natural response. "Dude stay calm and keep lying down," I start in as soothing a voice as I can "the Bonsly''s fainted and if you stop I can look after your Krabby." He kinda deflates and just lies down. Thankfully my group realizes I''m just trying to help him and begin looking after the Krabby and, with a word of warning, the Bonsly. Both Pokemon overlooked by the rest of my team. "Hey Evo," Amy gets my attention with a careful voice "your hands are shaking." I look down and realize she''s right, granted the last time I was in this situation someone died so~ "Oh yeah probably the adrenaline." I lie while giving her the most confident smile I''ve got, somewhere between the range of winning a game of hide-and-seek and getting one''s favorite video game. Code from summer camp when we met those bullies maybe a year back. Amy wisely drops it before giving the simplest sign she could, two open palms towards the middle of her chest then putting her hands down flat before using her left hand to point at me. I- I can''t lie to her, not after our promise, so I just make a fist and shake it left and right. She proceeded to hand me a water bottle and squeezes my shoulder before moving to check the guy out, he fell unconscious again. Man, I''m really thankful I met her in summer camp four years ago. When the dude finally woke up once more he was groaning a whole lot less and after a few seconds of waiting he tentatively took a glance around noting the multiple Pokemon and people in his vicinity. His Krabby came too a while back but it can''t fight since its claws got broken off, nothing to worry as the claws quickly regenerate and by the end of the week they should heal back, but it decided to stick around and wait for its trainer to wake up. Once he came too we started asking him about details about himself as gently as possible. James was the one who started the conversation with "So... mind telling us your name?" "A-Aron... the names Aron." We all just sit around in silence, which Aron probably realized. With a groan he continues "my mom forgot the Pokemon existed when she named me." "Coo'', coo'', coo'' coo'' coo''." Amy near whistles out. "Ignore the owl and please tell us which city you''re from." I say getting a playful punch to the head, Amy seems to be extra careful since the punch was more of a pat as her hand was open this time. "I was heading to Pewter since I''m from Viridian, I... wanted to save Blue for last and catch really strong Pokemon. Then I met that grass type, Bonsly you said, and here we are." Oh, now I know why the little rock type had Ice Beam from his Copycat. "Bonsly is a rock type." He looks at me a bit before face palming himself. Krabby mimics him as well which was really funny to see considering it didn''t have any of its claws and needed to be picked up since it couldn''t walk sideways anymore. Well at least the guy knows his typings. Bonsly itself woke up shortly after we got him standing up and lended him some water to clean his face a bit, I also took the time to clean my hands, and though the rock type was really angry it seemed to be frustrated at itself. Actually. "Hey Bonsly," I got its attention with a growl from it as its response "do you wanna be caught by one of us." That shut it up. Aron decided to interrupt, hurriedly saying "W-wait I can''t catch it since I don''t have any poke balls, plus I don''t think I could trust that Bonsly anytime soon." I look at him. "Valid point, but my offer still stands, I want to catch the little guy," I slowly get up and cautiously walk over to Bonsly, the little fella looking up at me as if I''ve either grown horns on my head or that I''m crazy "so what do you say. Wanna join me." I enlargen a poke ball that I took from my belts pouch and hold it in front of Bonsly. My words must''ve shook it cuz it took a few seconds to think before turning around and yelling something. Out of nowhere a Sudowoodo appears and chatters with Bonsly who headed back towards it. The common theme of most Pokemon is that if they have scars then their either really strong or they just contest for land a lot and considering that Viridian Forest is not only very big but also only has a couple grass types that you commonly see around here... this Sudowoodo must be really strong. It has a conversation with Bonsly who nods along before coming back but it doesn''t touch the button on the ball, instead it gets into battle stance against Kakuna. I take that as a question to challenge the little rock so I get behind Kakuna before... he shakes his body? Instead he looks towards Lupa who''s shocked by the turn of events but nevertheless gets ready to fight. Okay, two attacking moves I can use against three attacking moves and a few status moves. No pressure. James gets a rock while Aron and Mirielle have a discussion before she sent out Rookidee and says bye to him and his Krabby. Guess he isn''t gonna stick around for the show. James then proceeded to throw that rock into the middle of the field. Both sides tense up in anticipation. When the rock landed on the ground both parties began moving. Both were attacking. Lupa landed the attack first since he used Tackle and Bonsly used Copycat. "Lupa back off and strafe shot with Rock Throw." Lupa is the first to disengage and gathers rocks around his tail to fire off onto Bonsly who took the hit and didn''t even flinch before firing back with its own Rock Throw. "Jump right to dodge, then get in close using Rock Throw as a shield to Tackle." My chosen partner moves right, barely dodging the rocks and gathered his own on his tail except this time he didn''t fire them immediately and kept them in front of him. Bonsly used Rock Throw again, to hit my Pokemon but the attack was intercepted by previously summoned rocks, before tanking a hit from Rockruff''s Tackle. Gotta stay in mid range so Stomping Tantrum doesn''t hit "get back and circle around Bonsly before firing Rock Throw." Rock- sorry Lupa followed my instructions and began running around, something to know is that Rockruff like most versions of dog Pokemon have a large amount of stamina. So he could run circles around this Bonsly for ages. My worries proved correct when Bonsly used Stomping Tantrum right then but due to the attack having a small area of effect, like Play Rough or Flame Wheel, it didn''t hit Lupa who deliberately kept staying just out of reach to fire Rock Throw after Rock Throw. By maybe the third rotation of cat and mouse, except the roles were vice versa, Bonsly was blown back by Lupa''s attack. The energy from the attack was far more stable this time around so clearly it must''ve been a critical hit. Now''s the perfect time to throw the poke ball while Bonsly is almost beginning to touch the ground so I threw a poke ball at it before it bounced up into the air. It touched. One roll. Two roll. Click, I win. With a smile on my face I happily sigh before picking up and raising the capture device into the air. Feeling a bit incensed and in the moment I say "I just caught. A Bonsly! Whipee!" Then as soon as those words left my mouth the poke ball glowed before disappearing. Wait WHY? Amy had the answer "Oh yeah, you''ve already got six Pokemon don''t you?" Oh yeah I already have a group of six. Sudowoodo doesn''t look fazed which makes me think that it was previously owned by a trainer. It bows its head towards all of us and walks away shaking its hands as it goes further away into the forest, eastwards towards the nearby mountains. We all decided to continue walking just a little longer before beginning to set camp to wait for Mirielle''s Rookidee. Maybe a ten to fifteen minute walk north just to get away from the nearby Beedrill horde. Apparently the Kakuna pods I jumped over evolved and attacked the group while I was helping the trainer, something I said sorry for a bunch of times, and though they ran off the new Beedrill no doubt were running towards where they thought the older Beedrill will be thus it was imperative we moved a little bit away. We waited two hours for Rookidee to come back, she came quickly most likely because the guy rushed to get out and probably stumbled upon some Ace trainers or some of the stationed rangers, and every twenty minutes we would be assailed by the different Pokemon native to the forest. Previously I was worried about facing off against Erika and Koga... now not so much since I have a few counters for their dual grass, bug, and/or poison types. Once Rookidee came back Mirielle found out it apparently learnt Mean Look while it was escorting Aron. After setting up camp with all of us in different tents we all sent out our Pokemon, I can''t use Char in the forest so I kept up his punching training in hopes of learning Thunder Punch, Drain Punch, and Fire Punch. He still had to keep his tail below the pot I was using to cook some classic porridge. Other than that the rest of the group had to stay on high alert since the smell of food incensed even more wild creatures to aim for our supplies. Once dinner was made Mirielle decided on catching this cute Scatterbug that was playing with Mankey the entire time. Dinner was uneventful aside from a Paras that tried to Stun Spore the entire group. Paras are really dangerous so I made sure that Chardon blew it away with a sprinkling of Ember. Once it became time for sleep we all decided that we would take shifts to allow us optimal times for sleep while maintaining security. If nothing happened then I would have just woken up James to take the next shift before going to sleep... but something did happen. Arceus, I didn''t realize how affected they were by nightmares, I had to go to each of them once just to calm them down and get them to think calmly. I had to leave Ralts with Amy as she cuddled both my Pokemon and her starter, James entire team decided to sleep with him including Rufflet who donned the same face of worry upon assessing his trainer, and Miri... I left Leaf with her and told her to keep her entire party out if it made her feel safer. Even if they could be trusted with staying awake, the night would only further theirs haunts within their mind. Its probably best if I just stay up the entire night. No. Maybe leave a third of the time to the group before resting, even my Pokemon need their sleep. Tonights gonna be a lo~ng night.
So many inconsistencies are found in his behavior each day they spend with him. So much previously thought as normal is once more put into question. And again the same worries about him are surfacing. Who really is Evandros, and who the hell made him look like he scrapped against a Mightyena and lost. Once more Mirielle has to quash her first fears she felt when she saw the boy, on a summer day where the grass smelled like dewdrops. The color of the Burgundy tent and lavender scent coming off of Leaf, the sister of her own Shadow, soothing Mirielle into security. Though it still doesn''t stop the small, insidious, and fearful part of her giving her more doubts on her decision to journey into the unknown. Especially with a boy as scarred as the one who saved her, one so quick to save others at the detriment of himself. One that almost was about to die from an explosion. That part was squashed and stabbed with each breath her chosen Pokemon brush onto her back, arms, and even her face. Though her mind was in turmoil of her choice, her heart knows that if given the chance she would gladly journey again. Mirielle just needs to get stronger than she thought possible, stronger than her group of friends and stronger than the gym leaders. Maybe then she''ll have the confidence to do what she wants. Chapter 10 Waking up from only having three hours of sleep always feels bad when you''re a kid. And judging by mom taking ten years to get up from overnight grading it must be worse as an adult. Slight migraine aside I''m just a bit groggy, nothing drinking water and freshening up won''t fix. Carefully shifting my egg aside I get out of the tent and it seems like everyone else has their Pokemon out, except for Fletchling and Pikachu, battling off against some Oddish and a Gloom. Obviously my friends are winning but a Ralts using Light Screen and Reflect to protect their teams always helps. Turns out Ralts learned the psychic shield against physical moves when she was helping face off against the Beedrill horde. The rest of the day and the day after was similarly eventful with facing off against Pokemon every thirty or so minutes and helping out trainers heading to either Pewter or Viridian. In terms of my team Leaf finally learnt Tail Whip and after a couple battles of using Bug Buzz Tabitha seems to be starting to learn how to use bug energy in more physical ways. There are no changes with Char and Kakuna but that''s expected until they train enough to evolve. Lupa is trying his hardest to learn Trailblaze from Leaf alongside the other Rockruff and both him and Char seem to be working together on something but other than that he hasn''t learnt any moves. After Ralts learnt Reflect I''ve been having her train with Mirielle''s Pikachu on using Double Team since it would be beneficial for both of us. Of course we can''t put our all into training since we were constantly traveling but it was fun hanging out and facing off against the wild Pokemon. For the others they''ve also been training but the biggest highlight was Scatterbug practicing Struggle Bug after witnessing the same move being used by Tabs alongside practicing Bug Bite from Kakuna on the last day of our stay in the forest resulted in the little bug type evolving into Spewpa and learning both Harden and Protect. Spinarak was also there trying to learn Struggle Bug and Electroweb but all the bugs got really happy for Spewpa evolving. Finally, during the nighttime we were so close we all decided to just walk the rest of the way to Pewter and reached the city by 10:43ish before we went to book our rooms in the pokecenter. James then helpfully reminded us to register to the gym now or we might have to wait even longer in a line tomorrow. So we went past most of the city and the local museum before looking at the giant structure of what seems to be a rock but somehow something opened it up from the inside and made space for a full on three story building to live inside. Probably one of Brock''s Onix. Thankfully the place closes at 11 so we had time to register. Heading inside was even weirder than looking from the outside since there was such a divide between the natural rock from outside to the sleek and office style registration room. Forget a gym battle I was worrying about having to take a job interview, before I realized that I''m a kid with at least twenty k in my wallet so I don''t really need one. The others were similarly disoriented by the change and by the time we were in front of the desk to talk with the receptionist named Chantel it took us a second to remember why we came before we all told her about wishing to battle Brock. She tapped a little on her computer before looking back to us and saying "Brock is busy until the end of tomorrow, a couple at the start of the day after, and a few at the end of the week. The rest is open slots for you kids." I made a showing of rubbing my chin before giving an answer. "Thanks but I think I''ll be challenging at the end of Tuesday while the others will be challenging at the end of the week, so like five days later." When the others started disagreeing I raised my hands up and tried to placate them "L-look I already have a strategy ready against Brock and I''m gonna do a four vs four battle before taking a bus to Celadon to participate in a tournament, we''ll still see each other but probably in Cerulean or Vermillion." They''re still kinda sour about me leaving them for a bit but they still give the details of which Pokemon they''re gonna use against Brock. We all are gonna do a four vs four. I also gave the list of Pokemon that I''ll be using before she scanned our id''s on our pokedex and stated soon after that the process is complete. My picks managed to shock my group before they began barraging me with more questions about why I picked them and not one of my other choices. Seeing no reason to stay any longer and not go to sleep we all headed to the center to deposit our Pokemon and go to sleep after getting our Pokemon back. A call to notify mom that I''m in Pewter with my gym challenge happening in a couple days and that I just got out of the forest, then I change before going to sleep. It was nice lying on a bed and not having to force myself to stay awake. After a really long time I managed to wake up to the sounds of music and explosions. Oh. Leaf turned on the tv in the room to watch her favorite show. I got up and went to the bathroom that Chardon was occupying and decided to just wash my hands and brush my teeth before he left. Once Chardon did just that I then relieved myself before washing my hands again and heading to the mini-kitchen to begin cooking some breakfast for my Pokemon. Essentially I can''t give them any chicken or stuff like that since I''m almost tapped out on those so for the morning they''ll have chow until I head to a nearby supermarket. I just toasted some complementary bread and slathered it in marmalade. After breakfast it took me a bit to realize that something smelled. That smell was me. I then headed to take a shower so I could change into some other clothes... before realizing I didn''t do laundry back in Viridian so only a grey shirt with a Rotom picture on it is clean. I shot a message to the others on a group chat about heading to a Laundromat to clean my clothes. Everyone agreed and in three minutes we were all in the middle of the center waiting for Amy to finish her call with her mom and a different call with her dad. After asking nurse Joy for the nearest laundromat we headed over to dump all our clothes, though I forced everyone to force their white clothing away from their colored since I learnt my lesson the last time I put my red shirt with white underwear. Granted the end result looked pretty cool but I don''t think the others would appreciate the new colors. After heading away we all collectively decided to train together to prep for Brock, for this I made a conscious decision of sending away Leaf to switch with Bonsly since I wouldn''t be using my grass type anyway. Of course I explained to Leaf and even made a call to professor Oak to leave Leaf at my mom''s place until I come back. The entire group then headed over to an outcropping near Route 3 where there weren''t any Pokemon there. Just a stretch of dry and rocky land. We all then came up with a strategy of using our rock types to use Rock Throw at some of our Pokemon to not only get their resistances up but to also improve their dodging ability. The rest of our Pokemon would try and learn any moves that they might need for the upcoming battle. After every twenty minutes the group training with Rock Throw would take a short break before the rock types would have a battle against each other, with Bonsly almost always winning with me telling him to use Stomping Tantrum, while the others who were training their dodging would try and practice their own moves. Halfway through the day we took a well deserved break. A good local restaurant that dual classes as a supermarket later and I get the bright idea that we should do a couple battles to get more experience against trainers. Suffice to say the group actually disagreed with me since in their eyes I should spend more time practicing my moves before battling Brock. Convincing them that I would only battle hard for today I said that I should battle the three of them in really tough fights to get the most out of it. I then had to do like thirty battles against the other three and maybe ninety percent of my total battles resulted in a win. The only times I didn''t win was against Squirtle with Chardon and Tabs against both Rookidee and Fletchling. Having the opportunity to battle in type advantage and disadvantage was interesting and was a really great experience. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! We had to stop since all our Pokemon were tired sans Ralts, Lupa, Pikachu, Rufflet, and Shadow. Those five were training together to practice their moves and how to fight against each other while all the others were resting in their balls or having a picnic together. I have found that my hair seems to be the perfect amount of fluffy for a bird to consider it a nest as Fletchling and now Rookidee both land and rest on my head when they want. I also found out and exclaimed about the fact that Amy dyed her hair blue! Seriously how long did I not notice?! "Uhh actually it was blue like five days before we left Pallet." At my shocked expression she continued on "I really wanted to know how long until you''d notice, you tend to not really figure out something obvious about a person but you''re like amazing on knowing someone on like the mental level." "Psychological level" James corrected. "Dang really?" how have I not noticed that? Amy continues "It didn''t really come up since there wasn''t any need to, I know you at least try to be sincere about stuff like that little video you tried making with Mr. Lazle''s Chatot to celebrate my birthday." "Keyword tried." At my blush on that debacle she bursted into giggles. Overall the day was well spent and half of the next one continued in the same fashion. At that point I decided to give my Pokemon a break since I didn''t want them to go into this with no energy. I also forgot to ask if Bonsly wanted a name. Upon questioning the little rock type he happily nodded to it. I can''t really think of a good name so I decide to do a Ethan from Unova and proceed to name it by its final evolution. "Alright, how about Woody?" No new moves from all my Pokemon except for Tabs who learnt Pounce, a great move for her to use and a decent substitute for Bug Bite. She was crying happy tears to learn her first physical bug type move. The day after passed with me finalizing my strategies and letting my team rest a little before heading into the gym. When it was almost time for my battle the group decided to go and watch me in the stands of the gym arena. A classic gym has to determine whether you deserve to battle the gym leader first regardless of badges so in these challenges you''re allowed to use any Pokemon you own, not planning to abandon their efforts I plan on using Lupa into Woody but this''ll be for just this gym since I want to gauge just how strong I''ll need to be for future battles. In the waiting room there were a couple trainers who are gonna go before me waiting and reviewing their strategies before they''d come on. I didn¡¯t need to do that since I already prepped it this morning. A different member of staff from the gym came up to me when it was time to begin and put on those little microphones that you could clip onto your shirt, before he explained some rules and confirmation of my chosen Pokemon against Brock. I headed to my side of the arena towards a platform but before that I did a double take. In the area where large Pokemon could watch the battle a familiar blue dragon type was lying down next to a buffalo with an afro and a creature that looks like two purple starfish decided to merge bodies. Looking around I see my mom with Leaf in her lap in the stadiums. I almost went towards the Salamence and my moms Pokemon but knowing the rules I have unfortunately give a wave. A kid maybe a year older than me who looks suspiciously like the gym leader comes up to the other side of the arena looking ready to test me. He huffed at me before taking his clip-on microphone and begins talking "Yo, I''m Brock''s younger brother Forrest and there ain''t no way you''ll get past me." Feeling incensed I shot back "You''re a thousand lightyears away from facing me." Apparently the crowd loved that, with Striker and Bouffalant laughing at some inside joke. Just seeing that threw a little off... its been a long time since I saw those two together. Anyway I get my head back in the game and ready my battle face... which again managed to spook my opponent but Forrest shook it off in seconds and motioned to the referee to ready. "Trainers ready?" "Yes/Course" A flag is waved down. Two poke balls are chucked into the air. From Forrest''s side a Rhyhorn is shot out. From my side comes out Woody. Both got into fighting stances. "Rock Polish/Rock Polish" I smirk while he clicks his teeth in frustration, nothing has changed except for our Pokemon having a lighter sheen. But if one of those Pokemon faints then the other has an already active speed boost advantage. That''s just asking for a snowball effect. "Iron Tail" "Copycat" Soon both meet in the middle to exchange their attacks but where Rhyhorn has to turn around Woody doesn''t so he slams into the ground and rock type before getting smacked back with the super effective attack. Both groan in pain but that was always the plan. "Woody use Tearful Look, then use Harden." "Rhyhorn ready another Rock Polish, then use Crunch." When my rock type cried Forrest''s rock type began becoming shinier before running forward. Luckily there was enough space for Woody to use Harden before getting hit again. The dark type move further bolstering Woody''s speed. "Use Copycat again." "Back up for Drill Run" This time Woody was able to land a hit before Rhyhorn could back up, something the species isn''t known for, which caused the dual type to get knocked onto its back. It tried to get back up but it wasn''t able to before it took a flash of ice type energy towards the underbelly. The referee waited a few seconds for confirmation. Rhyhorn didn''t get up. Woody won. A quick look in the pokedex and it seems that Woody managed to learn Hidden Power and it''s an ice version of the move. Forrest returned his Rhyhorn before taking a look at his belt and picking up a different ball and chucking it into the air. It opened with a ''pop hiss'' sound coming out. This time I''ll be fighting an Onix. I motion towards the referee "I''d like to switch out." and he nods while I begin sending Bonsly back into his ball. I take out one of my balls to mimic what Forrest did just a few seconds ago and out comes a Rockruff ready to rumble. The referee raises his flag high into the air before bringing it back down to resume the match. "Lupa move back and fire Rock Throw." "Onix use Harden" That''s bad. The already high physical defense of Onix became even higher, though it took an attack to the face. "Stay as far away as possible and keep firing Rock Throw" Forrest only says one word "Bind" Lupa to his credit made sure to keep moving away from Onix as fast as he could, sacrificing certain areas where he could have fired to run away, hitting Onix at least four different times. Unfortunately Onix did manage to catch Lupa in Bind and proceeded to slather my rock type in dragon energy, judging by the even worse effect that is paralysis I believe that Lupa got hit with Dragon Breath. "Switch! I''d like to switch now!" I practically yell. The referee raises his flag again to pause the match and give me enough time to return Lupa. Normally since this is a challenge and not the actual badge I could potentially send out a third Pokemon, whereas Forrest would be forced to only use two, but I decide to keep my original plans and send out Woody again. With a nod from both myself and Forrest we continue our match. "Tearful Look into Harden" "Stone Edge then Dragon Tail" Due to Woody being faster he was able to finish both his moves by the time Onix created Stone Edge, the rock attack sending Bonsly back but not knocking him out. When Onix gets close enough to hit Woody I order him only then. "Stomping Tantrum" Forrest has a look of surprise pass his face as Onix was moving too fast to not get hit by the move before becoming calm again. "Dig" I click my teeth as my Bonsly just barely managed to hit Onix before getting smacked by Dig to the other side of the field, next to Forrest. Poor thing probably can only take two more hit. "Tearful Look then Copycat" "Use Rollout" This time he clicked his teeth. Woody began shedding water from his eyes, the move further reducing the amount of power that Onix can do, and due to his speed Woody managed to use Copycat to begin Dig instead of clashing Onix with Rollout. "Onix get ready to jump up and use Iron Tail" Onix stopped rolling to comprehend the order, nodding once before standing up. I couldn''t give an order since Woody wouldn''t be able to hear. Just like we all knew, my Pokemon jumped from the ground to slam Onix from below but unfortunately wasn''t able to dodge the Iron Tail onto the face. Both seem to be only two ground type attacks away from fainting and I can''t use Dig again to dodge him. "Rock Polish then Tearful Look" "Dig" I needed more speed for this. Woody again got his first move off before Onix could even start. He also got his second status move off a little before the opposing rocky snake dug into the ground and vanished. "Tearful Look into Stomping Tantrum" Forrest was trying to understand why I would make such an obvious flub before he heard the second move and quietly cursed. When the opposing Onix managed to hit Woody it wasn''t prepared to get hit by double the power from the ground move. Woody fainted. And Onix was in just as bad a situation. I returned my little rock type before sending out my second choice. Even afflicted with paralysis my Pokemon was more than ready to win. The referee lowered the flag to resume the match for what I knew was the last time. "Lupa run in close using ''Rock Shield''" "Stone Edge" What Lupa is using isn''t a new move as it''s just our previous idea of gathering Rock Throw and keeping it while running to block any attack. Onix despite being a small wind away from fainting just didn''t go down. The Rock Throw slammed into the Stone Edge to create an impromptu smokescreen blocking everyones view. Then, out of nowhere, Lupa landed on top of Onix''s head and something sparked in his mouth before bitting into the rock snake. Onix gave a groan and roughly landed onto the floor jostling Lupa off. I waited for my Rockruff to stand up. He did. Giving a howl of dominance. "Onix is unable to battle! The challenger wins!" He yelled out to the crowd. An applause filled the arena, though first star badges aren''t that exhilarating, I kinda feel like we gave a better showing then most. Forrest to his credit just chuckled and nodded his head before heading off hurriedly. Opening up the pokedex on Lupa shows that he learnt Fire Fang, though it doesn''t seem to be the full power of the move. I''ve seen stronger but this is a good start. I won the challenge. And in five minutes I will win the gym battle. But for now I give the staff my two Pokemon I used for this challenge and head over to the waiting... but not before waving to everyone I knew. The Real Battle Starts Now. Chapter 11 Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. I''d like to say I was reviewing the strategies that Brock can employ on my pokegear. Instead my mind wandered and now I''m watching the pom-pom style Oricorio dancing the salsa. However I did have a short conversation with Ralts and Kakuna. Apparently my battle with Forrest came out on the net already and a few people were surprised that we both only used rock types, then they were even more surprised my pure rocks beat the dual rock ground types that Forrest was using. I may try to play it off but that Onix was a beast. Maybe Char or Ralts might be able to beat it but I know that it would give almost all of my team a tough fight. A message pings my pokegear. Its encouragement from mom and the others, even Cherry and Professor Oak. Inhale. Exhale. The original staff member who brought me here in the waiting room is now motioning for me to start heading to the stage. Inhale. Exhale. Heading out the crowd seems to be cheering for me, the only one who isn''t is Brock himself. He jumps from the railing off the stadium onto the field seemingly uninjured before sauntering off towards his side of the arena. I also head to my trainer box, prepping for what he might start with. Brock motions to silence the audience before he''ll start talking. With a press on his microphone he starts things off with "Are you ready challenger?" I grin something I just know is feral before replying with "HECK YEAH I AM!" purposefully keeping my microphone off just to yell that without worrying about someone bursting an eardrum. Brock then did something I wasn''t expecting. He fiddled with his microphone again and asked "Are you certain with your choices?" I nodded. There wasn''t really anything different I could''ve done and if there was then I''d probably only find out during the battle anyway. He took a poke ball and proceeded to toss it onto the field. Out came a floating rock with two arms yelling out "Geodude!". I wasn''t idle in that time and from my side white light faded to show an orange colored lizard with a flame on the tip of his tail, where Brock''s choice was loud mine was more subdued. Like a candle flame just waiting to be tossed onto an oil spill. The referee lowered the flags to start the battle. "Rock Throw" while I gave no order. He already knows. Chardon jumped right while exuding a black smoke that covered a portion of the arena preventing Geodude from seeing my fire type. Brock waited a couple seconds, probably to see what I would do, before he came to an epiphany. "Rock Blast" Giant blocks of rock proceeded to move towards where Chardon is but by now he would be finished. "Move away and finish set up" Chardon exited the smoke and did what must''ve been his third iteration of Dragon Dance. "G and keep moving while firing Ember" "Rock Throw" Just like with Lupa, Chardon keeps his distance while using his Growl and then his fire type attack. Ember was mainly being used to block the rocks being fired but a few did hit Geodude before the rock type fired back using its own move. Brock then changed his plan. "Dig to get in close" "DD" Another time to power the speed and physical strength of my Pokemon. "Now run to the hole Geodude dug." With Char being near the original hole he''ll have an easier time spotting Geodude by the shifting rocks near the dug ground. Just as thought, the rock type proceeded to jump out near Char only for the fist aiming at my fire type to just barely miss. "Point-blank Smokescreen" "Geodude close your eyes and Dig" "G then fire Ember into the hole" Chardon spew black smoke right into the Geodude''s eyes before the rock type could properly close its eyes. Geodude then sunk into the ground once more, the sound of cuteness being weaponized to lower attack once more, only for Geodude to be hit by a staccato of little bits of flame that flew into the hole. "DD" This got Brock to crease his head in worry, my already four times boosted Pokemon has gotten another buff in speed and attack. "Geodude ''right hook''" "Retaliate with Beat Up" All of a sudden the ground near Chardon flew into the obscuring the arena only to be blown away by a very angry Geodude using Hammer Arm onto Char. My lizard took it like a champ and countered with four well placed strikes onto the rock type. With a five times strength boost I already knew the outcome. The referee signaled to stop the match so Brock could return his Pokemon. I raise my hand "I''d like to switch." Other than a questioning tilt from Brock and confirmation from the referee I quickly send Char back in. He already knows he''ll have to be used again, I wouldn''t uber stack buffs to keep him somewhat fresh just to only use him once. This time I was the one who tossed out the poke ball first. On the field came out a circular, spiky green bug type waiting to fight. On Brocks side came out another Onix. The large rock type seems to be rounder and more polished then the one Forrest used meaning its probably older or stronger, maybe both. With another drop of the flag the battle begins. Brock ordered first "Dragon Breath" "Rapid Spin to dodge, then use Pounce" gotta hold out on that move for now. The Onix took a deep breath before firing a gust of wind from its mouth laced with draconic aura. Tabs spun in place before moving backwards and then left to dodge the attack before keeping up the move in order to get closer to Onix. Seeing no easy answer Brock resorts to "Sandstorm" Tabitha gets in close and swaps normal aura for bug aura before slamming into Onix, then she proceeded to jump away from the giant rocky snake. The giant rock type doesn''t even flinch but it obviously becomes grouchier as its speed decreased. "Pounce once more" In retaliation the Onix finished its Sandstorm only to be hit once more by a bug attack. Neither time was it extremely hurt but it''ll probably be better to stay further away from it for now. The giant raging wind filled with sand buffets my bug type as she isn''t ground but that''s probably for the best. Cupping my hands to my mouth I yell as loud as I can to order Tabs "Now Rapid Spin and USE THRICE!" hopefully she heard it. Brock meanwhile calmly shouts out one word "Rock Throw!" We both gave our orders. Now we wait.
This wasn''t what Amy had in mind when she thought of her first gym badge, even the trainer challenge seems to be a bit too much. If this is the level trainers need to be for their first match then no wonder 70% of the population never got a gym badge. The sounds of the raging wind brings the blue haired girl back to reality. No one knows what''s happening inside, and until the storm abates no one will. Its clear that Evo thought this all out and Brock... Brock isn''t even serious. Yet any second he could be and that second would showcase defeat towards any trainer. Now her thoughts of training for the next few days seems like it might not be enough. Thankfully Evo agreed to let the group keep a couple of his Pokemon before their own battles and with three trainers working together the results might be enough to push their Pokemon over the edge allowing each of them to win. Amy just hopes she doesn''t have to face off against two Onix in one day. In her lap Squirtle and Rookidee both squirm seeing the possible battle they might face, Rockruff meanwhile has just constantly oozing excitement ever since Evo''s Lupa took down that first Onix, and Spinarak is shaking like a leaf. However they all have sparkles in their eyes watching a friend of their trainer''s use four Pokemon with some type of disadvantage or neutrality facing off against strong trainers like this. Arceus, Amy isn''t even fighting and already her legs are shaking in both anticipation and fear. On her sides Mirielle and James both have their eyes glued to the match just trying to figure out what''s going on, no doubt they both understand that next time they''ll be the ones on the podium ordering their Pokemon to fight if the clenching of fists from her stepbrother and tightening of arms around Pikachu are anything to go by. Some cheering brings Amy towards someone she now has even more respect for. Evandros''s mother. A woman with lean arms, black hair, brown eyes, a fair complexion and a button nose cheering with a smile all the while. On her lap she holds both Leaf, the only Pokemon that Evo had any type of type advantage with, and Shadow, the little bugger that''s only ever been open with his trainer. Doesn''t she have three badges? If so then it would be laughable to even try to challenge her Pokemon in battle. She even brought four fully evolved Pokemon with her. Drifblim, Bouffalant, Starmie, and an injured Arceus damned Salamence. All four are down in the large Pokemon stands cheering for Evo, no doubt not even fazed by the moves being used. Another boom sounds from below, this time the sand starts fading to show what''s been happening in the match. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. On the field was a chipped and slightly bruised bug type, who took a glancing blow judging by how she was still willing and able to move so fast. It all makes sense now, why Tabitha was used. Spikes. Strewn on the flat, rocky ground is an entry hazard that deals a set amount of damage bypassing a Pokemon''s innate defense and if Brock tries using the move himself it''ll just be negated with Rapid Spin. This is the type of plays that trainers should use, maybe it would be good to invest in Spinarak learning some different status moves like Poison Powder or that Pounce move, offense is good and all but without strategy and quick thinking even Ultra rank trainers will lose to Great rank trainers. Of course to allow the usage of Spikes that means that Onix wasn''t injured at all during the time spent in the whirlwind of sand. Regular trainers would tell you that that''s a wasted opportunity. Brock tries to say something before being cut off by Evandros raising his hand nice and simple. The scarred boy below speaks into his microphone, his words projected from the speakers above "I''ll use my final switch now" ''What is he thinking?'' Amy thought "Oh. So that''s what he''s going for." All three trainers look at the mother within their group. Smilling softly Miss Olden was lightly chuckling. So why were her eyes, a soft brown like his are, so bittersweet? She looked at the three children next to her and her voice was filled with mirth when she began explaining. "His father lost a lot of battles against his brother who loved to use Spikes and status moves, so much so that Danny taught half his team Defog, Rapid Spin, and Misty Terrain." She pointed a finger to Evo "Watch him closely, he''ll now use a Pokemon who either uses status buffs to clean sweep Brock''s Pokemon now or a Pokemon that''ll force Brock to switch his Pokemon multiple times over."
From my grip I fling the ball above the field where it pops open to let loose the Pokemon stored inside. On her head are the two familiar orange horns on her head, the one on the front being bigger then the one on the back, and her head is covered by a blue hair in a manner similar to a bowl cut. Ralts begins the battle with a quick Calm Mind. Brock doesn''t take this threat lying down though. "Stone Edge" "Teleport to dodge," right where we said "and use CM" Large swaths of rocks emerge from the ground aiming towards Ralts only for said psychic type to no longer stand where she was, instead she was in the right corner on my side. She then used Calm Mind once more, the move becoming smoother and faster with each iteration she completes. "Dragon Breath, right in front of it" "Disarming Voice after he does that" The draconic wind bashes the ground in front of Ralts kicking up a dust cloud that prevented both myself and Ralts from seeing Onix. When the fairy type used her voice move, it didn''t hit anything. DIG "Teleport up into the air and use Calm Mind to empower yourself." Too late. Ralts was smacked aside by the head of the large Onix. The only thing stopping my Pokemon from panicking was an immediate use of Calm Mind to steady herself more than anything else. "Confusion, then use Disarming Voice" "Sandstorm, then Iron Tail" Ralts managed to get her move out before Brock could say his order, the psychic orb clashing into the giant rock type, only to be struck again by a sound based move. Sandstorm then took affect but sight wasn''t an issue for Ralts since she could scan the arena for brain waves that all living things are meant to possess, no, the issue is that Onix doesn''t get hurt by the sand and the steel type move is super effective on my fairy type. "Use Teleport just as planned, then only use Confusion!" I yelled in case she couldn''t hear under the rapid winds. Onix slams its tail where Ralts was but found nothin'' but dirt. Even obscured by the sand I could see its big head look around only to be hit by something purple once, then twice, and after the third hit it shifted it fell to the ground unable to get up. The referee came to the same conclusion that I made. "Onix is unable to battle, please select the third Pokemon" Just like that I have all four, albeit three are ranging between lightly and heavily injured, while Brock''s down to two. Plus Spikes makes sure that any Pokemon he sends out will be just as hurt as my own. Brock has no choice however and sends in a Carbink that immediately gets hurt by Spikes. However the battle doesn''t start yet. Instead the referee motions for me and asks where Ralts is. Oh right. I whisper to him and make sure to have my hand above my mouth to avoid any lip reading. "Ralts is under the hole that Onix dug." With that he looks at Brock and nods before continuing the match. Brock basically orders his Carbink to set up Light Screen to protect itself while he tried figuring out where Ralts is. The move doing well to stop the first few hits from Confusion only to let the move pass at half its original power. "Use Meteor Beam, sweep the entire field." The move hits nothing though and Brock then looks up to check the roof just in case before focusing on the field, noticing the dug up ground where his Onix used his ground type move. "Ally Switch into... number 2" Carbink uses psychic energy to swap places with a Pokemon with four arms and two legs that protrude from its round, rocky body. "Graveler use Bulldoze." Shoot "Switch Plan!" I shout The ground and rock type brought one foot up before slamming it into the ground causing some shaking to occur. It would''ve managed to get Ralts if she hadn''t already teleported into the air. If he was gonna swap Carbink then I could swap Ralts too. "Ally Switch" I raise my on-field Pokemon''s ball and another one to allow a quick and seamless switch-in. In place of Ralts was the second choice of this fight, Tabs. "Graveler use Rock Polish" "Pounce, then move away using Rapid Spin" Graveler began using its multiple hands to clean its body of any specks of mud and dirt making itself shinier and in turn faster finishing the move only to have its speed only slightly decreased by Tabitha hitting it with Pounce. The Graveller then tried to slap away Tabitha with its back left hand with a ground move but missed when she spun away. "You''re faster then Graveler when using Rapid Spin so keep chipping it" "Hit it with Rock Blast" Tabitha keeps on spinning as fast as she can to dodge and attack, similar to those bullet hell games, and slamming into Graveler at different points in an attempt to unbalance the rock type but due to the low center of gravity, or the fact that it might be too sturdy to move, the plan was hitting a roadblock. It''s a good plan that relies a little on luck. I''m just not very lucky. After the second hit on Graveler, Tabitha got hit thrice by the opposing rock type and promptly fainted. I didn''t prep for a Graveler and its showing with the match-up now, if I had know he''d use that I''d probably teach Lupa Roar and use him here to continuously switch out all of Brock''s Pokemon for an easy win or even waited a couple more days. Lame Strats are Strats after all. All I can do now is use everything I''ve got against the evolved Pokemon. Kakuna is outright useless against the ground type so I only have two choices. After I send back in Tabs and thank her for the hard work I unclip a previously selected Pokemon. Emerging from the ball, his tail flame blazes alight in anticipation. "Char keep moving and use Growl." Brock brought his arm forward "Rock Throw in a sweep." Char barely managed to dodge Graveler''s rocks and only after the initial sweep was finished did he use his normal type move. Thinking on their feet Graveler then threw a Mud-Slap in an attempt to stop Char who could only use Ember to intercept the ground type move. Tail Whip and Smokescreen are both out since we haven''t managed to use either while moving, Ember won''t hit and getting too close means a Hammer Arm or Rock Blast. "Growl, then finish with one last DD" "Rock Polish" Growl hit Graveler first and Dragon Dance followed right after, both moves finishing before Graveler could do his. "Now run in and use Beat Up" "Punish with Rock Blast" The move was a quadruple hit on Graveler. It wasn''t enough. The boulder shot two rocks in front of itself right onto Char''s face. "Its not OVER! Char use Ember straight ON!" My flaming lizard listened and obliged my order. Moving his tail to the front of his body from under his feet, he fired a staccato of shining Ember''s that hit Graveler straight in the face. Then. He went limp. The referee motions for me to send back my Pokemon and to switch out my next choice. With a steely look, I throw out, probably for the last time, Ralts. This Graveler knows bulldoze and a couple other ground moves so the hole Onix dug isn''t viable. "Graveler use Rock Throw" "Ralts use Reflect, then DV" Graveler is faster than Ralts but my psychic type makes up for that by being stronger in the move department. Basically this means that when Graveler used Rock Throw, Ralts could barely get the physical barrier up in time but when she did the shrapnel of the rock was thrown right back to the donor who dodged it by rolling away. Still couldn''t dodge the subsequent fairy move thrown at its face. It fell back in pain unable to completely shrug off after getting hit by Spikes, a couple hits from Pounce and Rapid Spin, a boosted four hits from Beat Up, a couple uses of Ember with one probably being a critical hit, and finally a Disarming Voice. The place got really loud after that Graveler fainted, louder than when either of the Onix fell. Brock then returned it before sending Carbink back out who immediately got affected by Spikes again. Carbink who was already below half health due to switching twice and getting hit a couple times fainted easily enough. Using the hole Strat we mostly finished it off but I had to switch to Kakuna to hit Carbink after Brock told it to use Iron Defense which affected the psychic waves or something, anyway we just had to use Electroweb to lock it down and then a few String Shot and a bunch of Poison Sting''s later Carbink was defeated. With that I got my first badge. I let go of my breath that I didn''t even know I was holding. I won. But this is just the beginning. I''m probably the first to beat Brock with zero type advantages, heck Blue and Red both battled Brock with water and grass types each. With a sigh of relief I step off the podium and begin walking over to Brock who likewise is walking to meet me in the middle. We shake hands and he gives a couple words of congratulations. "By the way you might wish to try and teach your Charmander some more ranged moves, Ember is a good back-up but having a second move regardless of what type it is might be helpful. Other then that I think you did things well enough with a disadvantage." I''ve got the biggest grin on my face, all I can say is "Thanks." He just laughs explosively. Wiping a tear out his eye he ends it off with "Being on this side of type advantages, I can always understand why people wish to be generalists. Anyway this was one of the more fun battles compared with the regular rock vs fighting or steel. Take care and here''s the badge." And with him handing me a small pin that looked like a rock, he left; waving to the crowd all the while. I likewise also head back... but not before heading to the large Pokemon stands and hugging mom and dad''s Pokemon. The only one able to escape my cuddly wrath was Driblim who just flew further up to mom, the shy little guy. Meh. I walk over to the hallway I entered and proceed to leave the gym, I can''t forget healing my Pokemon after all. Heading over to the Pokemon center to give the balls with all my injured teammates I let out the only one I used lightly. Kakuna was noticeably sad about not seeing a lot of use during the gym battle. He noticeably became more enthusiastic when I told him about how I''ll be using him against Misty, maybe Sabrina or Surge if I need to, Blue, and hopefully Blaine with one of them just being able to be challenged in like a month or two while the other three would be uber strong to the point that he''ll need to be the strongest Beedrill he could ever evolve into for those three. Only when Kakuna was jumping in anticipation did everyone come into the center. Before I could say anything I was tackled by a green cat/fox-like creature who kept on yipping and purring and hugging to the point that the only thing I could do was hug her to keep her down. After that, mom and the group were congratulating me for the win... now that I think about it, that Graveller wasn''t a first badge Pokemon or it might be and Brock just wanted to keep him for the really strong first badge trainers. Or it could''ve just been a second badge Pokemon since I was handling Brock pretty well. Anyway the good news resulted in the group heading for victory nachos and wings, my treat of course, after I got back the MVP''s of today''s battle. Suffice to say all seven of my Pokemon had a hearty and filling dinner. I also finally got to sneak cuddle with the resident ghost type. Later, mom had to scold Drifblim for leaving me on a tree after that. Out of everyone, Striker was the one who was most happy with me having beaten Brock with type disadvantage. His scales being a little rough but no less appreciated when he''d rub his head on me. Having time to really look around I kinda got a little pang in my chest, don''t really know why. We mainly just talked about fun stuff like what we''ll be doing before facing each other in the conference this year with Amy bringing up some of the dumb and embarrassing things I did in summer camp while saying I''d be a champion someday. Honestly I''d rather prefer being an animator or try being a chef nowadays. Mom unfortunately wasn''t gonna stay and proceeded to ride her Bouffalant home after we finished dinner, she had some homework and essay stuff to work on since it isn''t the weekend. Now was the perfect time to take a stroll around, maybe even challenge a couple people with Kakuna since everyone else was tired or Leaf who left with mom. So I excused myself to have a walk and headed over to the nearby park to use the swings. There was a dude who was fine with battling me and he ended up losing with his Snorunt. After that, I had a lot of fun going up and down the swings. ... I should leave Rockruff, Leaf, and Bonsly with the group to prep for Brock. Maybe even Tabs and Kakuna for Spikes or bug moves. Definitely gonna catch a water type or two when I head to Celadon for the gym battle, then maybe I''ll post something saying I''m headed to Vermillion to have trainers and poachers on my back when I head back from Fuschia. Am I being paranoid? No. Team Rocket exists, gangs exist, dumb trainers exist. A few minutes of swinging later I pick Kakuna up, the guy loving going down slides, and head back to the group. Maybe to have fun with them for the last time. Kakuna''s trying to tell me something. Ah, I''m forgetting to smile. The pang''s a little stronger now. How would you deal with it dad? ''Simple answer kiddo. Just smile silly, then your fake feelings''ll become real in no time.'' So I smile, abating Kakuna''s worries, and move on with my life like everyone else. Chapter 12 Today is Wednesday, the day after my gym match. I had to leave kinda early in the morning for the bus to take me through the commercial route to Celadon, the road not allowing travelers on foot from either city. I kept Ralts and Char in my lap while I''m sitting in the bus. The rest of my Pokemon either with the group or in Tabitha''s case with professor Oak in an attempt to understand why she looks slightly different from a regular version of her species including the moss she grows on her body. There isn''t a whole lot a person can do on the bus except to browse your phone or look outside, aside from Ralts continuing her practice of raw psychic energy, so I made sure to pack a couple Pokemon TCG packs before leaving the bookstore with (you guessed it) a book from Pewter for the ride. All things considered, this book on the history of war in Sinnoh and Kalos is really interesting, especially considering the index stated that there''ll be a part where some unidentified Pokemon appears to stop the conflict of Kalos in the later chapters. By mid afternoon we arrive at a recharge zone for the bus to refill in electricity, since no car company was allowed to use fossils for fuel after researchers brought a Tyrantrum to a public rally. Aside from the charging unit and the buildings next to them, holding memorabilia of tourist stuff that some people on the bus began buying as soon as they got off, there''s also a lake nearby with some really cool Pokemon. A clear expanse of water holding a myriad of fish and fish Pokemon swimming around doing their daily business. I''m literally just one step away from jumping in and catching one of them except... I almost forget that I can''t swim. It''s kinda too bad but, honestly, meh, since I can just look near the lake and chuck a poke ball at whatever catches my fancy. It doesn''t bother me. Inside the lake there''s a bunch of Magikarp, a few Goldeen''s, some Slowpoke, and even a Shelder. But none catch my eye unlike one Pokemon deep in the crystal clear water. Almost hidden away is a Clamperl. Usually not a lot trainers catch it due to the terrible move pool, rarity, and the expensive items required to make use of the Pokemon''s two evolutions but I feel like using a Pokemon like that will really make me more popular. Plus it has a really hidden move that I''m pretty sure isn''t just a rumor. So I gently put down the egg incubator and send out Ralts who was previously in her ball since she tuckered herself out near the end of our stop. "Ralts, please use your psychic energy to gently move the Clamperl down there so it''s above the lake. I wanna catch it." With a nod she lets her orange horn glow blue before the water of the lake moves slightly as Clamperl was pulled up into the air. Odd. It should have thrashed or resisted with anything it could. Only when it came up did I realize why. It was asleep. Like full on snoring like a Grumpig asleep, like dad did. How does a pearl make so much noise? It honestly doesn''t matter so I rap my knuckle on the hard exterior in an attempt to wake up the little water type. After my third attempt it blearily opens its shell to look around only two realize it''s now in the air face to face with a human. It didn''t freak out. It only hit my face with a low powered Water Gun, probably because it thought I was holding it and that using the move would startle me to drop it. Too bad the blue shelled Pokemon is being held hostage by Ralts and not myself. I just chuckle and then cupped some water from the lake to throw it onto the water type. It chuckling with my antics before we go into a laughter filled water fight, even Ralts joined after lowering the little shell onto the edge of the lake. After a bunch of playing, one of the tourists'' guides came to call me back. I nodded at him before looking back at Clamperl. Wordlessly I bring out an open poke ball which the pink pearl in the middle tilts its round body to convey confusion. Realizing the poor fellow might be seeing the first poke ball in its life I take out Char''s poke ball and send him out before sending him back in, the display impressing the little clamshell. Looking back at the Clamperl, it seems to make the motion of thinking by tilting the pearl in its body one way and then another before nodding with its Pearl, shooting one last spray of water at my face before being lightly booped by a red and white ball. I keep the ball in my hand while it tries making movement to roll around, the ball stopping its movement in two shakes before giving a light ding sound. Seriously, if someone asked me about my favorite catches then this and the way I caught Leaf were better than compared to Ralts, Tabs, Bonsly, and Kakuna. No fighting or unawareness between either party, just friends. Since it isn''t really the time to stand around and do nothing I put the ball into my belt and and pick up my egg before heading back into the bus. There wasn''t really a lot I could do except send out my team, since they weren''t too big, and play chess on my pokegear which was annoyingly getting messages by some companies hoping to sponsor me early on. Basic sponsor reviewing on forums showed that most first badge sponsored trainers end up getting scammed or they become exclusive to the company that sponsored them, something detrimental to a lab trainer, so I just mute all my messages. By the time we get to Celadon my gear was at like half its battery and I think I managed to erase at least 70% of my personal hotspot''s internet on just baby Pokemon videos, rivaled only by dog and cat videos, and playing a couple games. I''ll show my party about songs later once I get settled into a Pokemon center. Once we did get off the bus it was 8:43 pm and the mall was still open so I got the party to have some dinner in some random restaurant I''ve never been to. I then finished up dinner with my party trying spaghetti carbonara before heading to get a room at the Celadon center. And just like that, I went to sleep in my room with Clamperl in the sink and the other two snuggling close to me.
It was five AM in Galar. The research into Galar particles going smoothly. By the research groups estimation it would only take ten more years before the science of these strange particles is unlocked and the secret on how to create these particles artificially through regular Pokemon might become a reality, instead of having to rely on that monstrosity that was captured thousands of years ago. The scientist didn''t pay attention to the room turning red. Why would he, too used to the particles filling the room and affecting the Pokemon they would study on. By the time he realized there was no sanctioned study it was already too late, the room being filled with a green powder bringing great lethargy to the scientist only solved by closing his eyes and resting. Ten minutes. Ten minutes passed as all the data was collected and wiped off the servers. Years of work gone in ten minutes. If that was the only issue then it would''ve been solved with twenty more years of research and studying the captured monstrosity, despite some protests from the scientists as they could barely be in the same room as the captured creature without having a nose bleed through years of acclimatization. However, there is never only just one issue. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. A bomb had gone off, and energy was soon absorbed from the creature in its giant round cage. Two hours later. A man with power over the entire Galarian League was overseeing the wreckage desperately trying to find some of the evidence he had stored. Luckily he anticipated for such events and had some research in private servers that the infiltrators were unable to destroy, however the destruction of his secret base made the man far more anxious about the situation of the future. "Casualties?" He knows the answer but refuses to listen to reality. A woman with cream colored hair and a calm disposition gave the rundown right next to him, her eyes unmoving from her tablet with current details and press scheduling even while they were walking through a tower located in Wyndon city. "Thirteen injured and one in a near-death state, security footage shows that one of the scientists are unaccounted for alongside the data wipe." She then tapped a little on her tablet and shifted the topic. "You have a meeting in seven minutes with the executives and police force on your next course of action." Normally the man would be smiling, his face already marked with lines from years of doing so, but this situation did not call for a smile. His people were injured, his solution to help his region is down to a fifth of what it was, and to make matters worse whomever took that data took one of his people. No, he could not smile even if he wanted to; thus it was a good thing he did not require to have any press meetings today. "Have the base and creature shifted to below Rose Tower, double our current research staff, and gather some ace trainers. Then get a meeting set-up with the hero''s kin." A curt nod from his assistant later the man was heading to an elevator towards his supposed equals. The man straightened the cuffs of his suit and ensured there were no wrinkles, his left hand rolling the ball of his ace, his mind was still reeling at the audacity of whomever it was that sanctioned this on the peaceful state of Galar but it would go back to one thing. Why? If it was destruction of the region then all the thieves needed to do was release the creature captured so long ago, and yet they didn''t. So the question on his mind was not ''why did they?'' but ''why didn''t they?''.
Thursday early morning is always when I start waking up. I actually woke up late in the morning today. No matter, I just head over to the bathroom and freshen up. A clamping noise alerts me to my newest catch from yesterday. "Good morning Pearl." Pearl... a bit corny but it sounds nice. Clamperl was looking at me like I just gave a box of puppies to her, her gender being revealed when I asked about it on the bus the day before. She nodded her little pearl head and began bobbing her giant shell in the sink. Since I do need to use most of the resources of a bathroom, I temporarily took her out of the bathroom and used everything except the shower since I don''t really need one. Getting out I began making breakfast for my current party before looking closer at the competition about to happen. Nothing serious since there''s no battles, it seems like a marathon where trainers have to run and swim in different sections plus a baton pass for the finalists. Rules are you can''t cheat or hit the other participants and their Pokemon with anything ranging from pebbles to moves. Since I can''t swim I''ll just leave it to Ralts or Pearl, then Tabitha and Woody will be running in the beginning since they can''t hold the baton. Then finally it''ll be Leaf, Char, Lupa, and myself. Poor Kakuna can''t run long distances really fast and doesn''t have any speed buff moves like Rock Polish that Woody has. Mind made up I enter the competition online and head to a nearby park. Heading left from the center I see just the place with a bunch of space and more then enough water in the park to the point it was somewhere between a pond and a lake. Sending out my team I tell them about my plan, Ralts easily agreed to using her psychic power to glide through the water and learn basic paddling while Pearl was already moving around the water, splashing water onto the three of us who tried to dodge it. Chardon agreed to doing some running with me and we both agreed we''d do a lap of the park pond before handing a stick we''d carry to signify the other has to start. Maybe half an hour later some trainer came around and asked me for a battle in the middle of waiting for Chardon to finish his run. "Sorry, I really can''t right now m-" "But I need to be in a battle right now." The sentence was whispered but the urgency interrupted my own. Really there''s nothing I can do. "Sorry dude, my teams too busy training. Maybe ask someone else." With that the guy begins walking away in sadness, but why is there a camera guy nearby? Meh. Chardon came right about then so I begin doing some stretching before going running myself. Today isn''t meant to be based on extreme training, just enough that we have ideas of what our limits are. I''ve still got a week and a half to train and then I''ll battle against Erika afterwards. We had to take a break after two hours since all of us were too tired to train anymore or, in Pearl''s case, too bored to continue. Technically she moved using Water Gun in the lake so she didn''t really need to expend energy. Since she seems willing to do anything else at this point I just carry her on my head and begin heading to the nearest battlegrounds in hopes of testing her moves out. Following that I make sure to send Chardon and Ralts back in. Taking out my pokedex to see if there''s anything that changed from Yesterday, I aim my red pocket device onto my new crown.
Name Clamperl
Type Water
Ability Shell Armor
Nature Docile
HP 35
Attack 64
Sp. Attack 74
Defence 85
Sp. Defence 55
Speed 32
Total Stats 345
Moves Clamp, Water Gun, Confuse Ray, Rest, Sleep Talk
Oh. Sleep Talk is new. But honestly it was bound to happen, what with the snores the little princess can make. Though I kinda was hoping for the move Snore. Messages on the poketch takes my attention away. Seems like Mirielle wants to talk, so I abandon my previous plan and go to the center for a chat. Heading to one of the phone booths I type in her number and call her, soon after the screen shows her face with the Pewter center waiting room as the background. Mirielle smiles before openly gushing when she takes a look at my new headwear. "Aww, its so cute~" I chuckle at that "Yeah she really is. Anyway, how''s it going with training?" "Its going great, thanks for lending your Pokemon. Um, I was wondering how Celadon is holding up." I lean back into my chair. "Well other then some random guy asking for a battle and some other person recording them nothing big''s happened, I didn''t battle him anyway since I''m kinda busy for this ''aquathlon'' into relay race event happening here." Aquathlon was paired with air quotes and, judging by Miri using her poketch, she promptly searched up what that meant. "Anyway did you get to look at the Pewter Museum, I was a bit too hasty and came here when I really should''ve stayed back a day or two." She looked up from her device to give a serious nod before breaking off into a smile. "Yeah the museum was really informative, I really liked the little tour they gave us, plus we were able to touch a couple of their fossil Pokemon they had. Also I sa- Spewpa not now please." The little bug type had crawled into her lap and was doing a little spin dance much to Mirielle''s embarrassment, which was furthered by me spinning on my swivel chair. I really bonded with it and Tabs once we all realized we love spinning. "A-anyways I was gonna say that I saw Professor Oak and he apparently wanted records on different bug and grass types that trainers caught, especially any caught or recorded Pineco. So I went to him and helped him out a little against some wild Beedrill and now I''ve got this really cute Smoliv that the professor and I saw hatching in Viridian Forest." Smoliv... isn''t a national Pokemon introduced through any nature organizations... shoot some trainer must''ve abandoned their Smoliv or one of its evolutions inside the forest. No doubt the professor understands the implications. "Did he leave shortly after you caught Smoliv?" She nods. "Great, that means more time to train your little buddy against Brock alongside the rest of your team. Just don''t use him against Brock himself, instead against one of his gym trainers since you already slotted the other four against Brock." With that whole revelation done with the two of us began talking about some of the fun stuff we plan on doing, I tell her about how I''m thinking of continuing schooling for a regular job after I aim to beat at least one conference while she tells me about how she realized wants to be an explorer studying different habitats of Pokemon and animals alike. A pretty cool aspiration. After ten minutes of just talking passes we both say our goodbyes so I can focus on testing out how strong Pearl is. An easy task against some of the no badge trainers staying in the Pokemon center waiting to challenge Erika. Today and the subsequent week before the competition is based on bringing Pearl upto snuff alongside increasing the capabilities of my team, then after beating the grass type gym I just take some me time before running headlong into the rest of the gym challenges. A perfect and planned out journey, I just need to catch something first. Chapter 13 It''s now Saturday the thirteenth, ten whole days have passed and today is the competition taking place. I''m not allowed Tabs since professor Oak is adamant about researching her but I currently have everybody except her and Kakuna since rest of us are planning on doing this competition, which involves speedy movement which is not something Kakuna can do right now. Its not gonna be as impressive as the gym battle that Mirielle and the sibs plan on doing but it''ll definitely get the heart pumpin'' a whole ton. Heading to the field a little ways outside the city brought to my attention the abundance of ground types like Diglett and Sandshrew in the area but eventually I did get to the designated registration area. The rules and races are simple. No using moves to hurt another person, no using moves to buff yourself, and no cheating or sabotage. The race starts with a standard 10 kilometer race before a 5 kilometer swimming race and then another 10 kilometers to the finish line. Since we can swap out between Pokemon and people for the race I''ll start this off with Leaf into Pearl and finish the race with Woody, which means that I''ll need to let them all out beforehand on their respective areas. By 1 pm there''s a big crowd ready for the race to begin. The starting lineup has over twenty different Pokemon and six people on their starting line waiting for the match to begin. When the referee drops her flags feet start moving as fast as possible to get to the swimming section. From the looks of it Leaf isn''t the fastest but she also isn''t slow, managing a pace that keeps her in sixth place out of twenty six falling behind the really fast Pokemon like Ponyta or Doduo. Once she reaches the lake that Pearl is waiting at Leaf immediately taps Pearl and shoves her a ways away, its legal since it doesn''t break rules but kinda morally questionable when a Machamp does that with an Igglybuff. Pearl then begins moving through the water at a speed that Ralts can''t reach even when she uses Calm Mind and Confusion to push herself though Pearl isn''t the fastest as that goes to one of the dead last Pokemon''s partner, a Sharpedo, but still manages to boost our ranking from sixth to fourth at the end. Now comes the final part. Woody just has to get over to the end and manage at least twelfth place. When Pearl reaches the end of the lake she bumps into my Bonsly to begin running which he dutifully does so with gusto. I know he''s the slowest of my entire team in this race but since he was dutifully trying his hardest to keep up during running practice I just had to let him have a moment to remember the event by. My second rock type started behind an Electrode, Rattata, and Tangela and managed to just barely get ahead of the mentioned grass type, though he got passed by six different Pokemon and a lady. By the time he got to the finish line he was in eleventh place. Yess. That means we qualify to the relay race. I take back Pearl and Woody to get them some seats in the stands since the rest of us will be competing. The rules of the relay are simple as well. There will be seven laps and after each lap someone else has to switch in, you can switch in multiple times so long as someone else did a lap after you did yours, and the whole no cheating or using moves thing still persists. The lap is only 500 meters. Logistically, I plan on putting Lupa at the start and second last so that he can recover and do two laps and I''ll have Leaf go second and then last. That means Char, myself, and Ralts will only need to go one lap each with the baton. I''m kinda most worried about Ralts since she can''t use her psychic energy to help herself move faster but then I remember that I''m a human that''s gonna compete against Pokemon and now I''ve got two people I''m worried about. In terms of my opponents the only ones I''m really worried about going against is the trainer who used that Doduo and Rattata alongside one of the human only groups. All the others either used Pokemon that aren''t really fast or Pokemon who can''t hold the baton in any way. The first lap starts and Lupa is seems to be first only to get out-sped by a Tyrouge and a Pidgey. At the very end he just barely gets past the Tyrouge and lets Leaf take the baton with her tail. Leaf moves into first past the Pidgey''s trainer only to then be second as the Doduo came onto the field this lap. Some of the faster Pokemon came out this round and it''s taking Leaf all she can muster to keep second. When she reaches the end of the lap she turns around and lets go of the baton from her tail to let Char get it as fast as possible. The third lap has some of the slower Pokemon come onto the field, unfortunately that Pidgey is back and now it and the Doduo''s team''s Pokemon are a little ahead from Char. He can barely keep fourth place before he reaches me and passes me the baton. Fourth lap and I''m on now, keeping a steady pace and even breathing I can''t actually afford to think about how fast I am or who''s in front of me. Unfortunately I flag behind a bit at the last quarter of the lap but I manage to get the baton to Ralts. Fifth lap and it seems having multiple Pokemon to compete was the correct option. With shaky breaths I look at the competing teams and see that the Pidgey and its trainer are exhausted from going in twice, the only teams that might be able to get first is my team alongside the human only group and the Doduo group. Ralts isn''t fast at all, being only slightly faster then Woody, but she manages to keep a solid fifth place. When she reaches Lupa she proceeds to use psychic energy to get the baton into his mouth so he can run as fast as possible. Lupa seems to be fine in the sixth lap, he even runs past one of the dudes from the human team and reaches second place before passing the baton to Leaf. Leaf runs as fast as she can and runs past the Doduo''s trainer. She pushes herself to get first place but further behind her a white and blue light starts emanating from one of the other team''s Pidgey. You gotta be joking. In the middle of the race Pidgey evolves into Pidgeotto and reaches a speed that Leaf can''t hope to compete with, getting to the finish line faster than the Doduo was running. To make matters worse one of the other teams switched a Rotom in that moved as fast as lightning. We came third place. That''s actually okay with me. I wasn''t trying to win that badly, I just wanted to compete in a tournament and get at least sixth place like dad did. The prize I got was an Everstone, a useful but currently unnecessary item. Pretty good all things considered, the winner ended up receiving a Cleanse Tag which essentially acts like a permanent repel for ghost types if you keep one on your person which I really wanted. I also got a neat bronze medal at the end for reaching third. Competition participated in, I can now focus on training up my Pokemon. Stamina and speed won''t be an issue and I''m only planning on using Ralts, Woody, Lupa, and Pearl this time so that gives me more time to spend on the four of them while all my other Pokemon help out. For now my team deserves some treats for doing so well, an easy fix once we head to the nearest bakery. Receiving some cookies from a Galarian Darmanitan I pay before heading to a park for a picnic, shooting a message on the results of the competition to my friends and mom with a pic of the bronze medal. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Once I get to the park I send out everyone and congratulate them on getting third place. Some of them were more then happy but Chardon and Lupa were a bit glum about not getting first, even if both of them tried to hide it. That just means both get cheer up hugs from Leaf and myself. Actually... "Hey Leaf?" ''Eon'' "Uh, I was wondering if you''d be fine with training to learn some moves that Leafeon typically don''t really learn." The grass type quadruped nods her head, which gave a waft of lavender each swing. I take a moment to enjoy the scent before continuing "Well, since you know Sunny Day and Trailblaze, I was wondering if you could use the two moves together to replace the grass type energy with fire type energy so that you could learn Flame Charge which would be super helpful against ice types and make you more resistant to fire attacks." I take a notebook filled notes on her and her training. "Then I was wondering if you could supercharge Mud Slap and make it really big so that it could turn into Mud Bomb or Mud Shot instead or like try and learn how use psychic type energy from Rest and combine it with Leaf Blade to make Psycho Cut or do the exact same thing with normal type energy from Quick Attack to learn Slash." By the end of my little rant, the grass type and those listening actually end up really intrigued by the concept. I just think that since Leaf can combine moves to make stronger combo versions of them then it would be entirely possible to combine moves to learn even more moves. What if she could make a fire type Leaf Blade or something like that. Though the odds of something like that are really tiny since there is no fire type version of a cutting move. I''m just thinking of ways to combat future poison, fire, and ice types since psychic, ground, and fire are the counters for each type respectfully. The pictures I end up doodling of Leaf using different moves has the entire present team interested at the potential moves I can think up for them, like how I thought up of ''Stone and Shield'' which is admittedly a really boring and long name so I change it Rocky Guard. My musings and the picnic were kinda cut off from a random kid appearing. "Hey mind having a battle?" Looking around I realize that someone wants to battle me. This just might be the perfect thing to cheer up both Chardon and Lupa so I easily agree. I motion Chardon and Lupa forward as my picks. He then sends out a Krabby and Oddish. hmm. "Actually, you mind if we do a two-on-two single battle?" I ask "Yeah sure. Krabby forward-ho!" he shouts out "Chardon have some fun!" I shout back Ralts decides to be referee this match and throws a rock in the air. His Krabby is definitely gonna start with a water move so instead of attacking how about dodging with Smokescreen. "Char, start just like against Brock okay?" He nods his head in understanding. The rock hits the floor. "Krabby Water Gun" just as predicted. A burst of water is shot out of the little crabs mouth hitting smoke. No cry of pain indicates that the move missed. "Alright Char use Growl then get out of the smoke, then Tail Whip." "Get in close to use Razor Shell." Char is far enough away that both Growl and Tail Whip can be used before he has to dodge Krabby. Actually its kinda odd he manages to use two moves and dodge an attack. "Wait pause," Char cuts off smoke from his teeth, presumably more Smokescreen "how many badges do you have?" He then shows a sheepish expression. "Oh um. I don''t have any badges but I was planning to go to Pewter then Cerulean for easy wins." "Dude I already have a badge from Pewter." Was he just running around asking for challenges? His face morphs into understanding before he nods his head. "Then how about we keep battling still? I kinda want to know the skill gap between the two of us." "I... meh, ok." I shrug Ralts huffed in annoyance and then picked up the same rock and threw it in the air again. Chardon and Krabby both got ready to move. It hit the ground. Both jumped. Chardon spewed Smokescreen once more while Krabby tried hitting another Razor Shell. "Get back and pepper with E." "Krabby use Water Gun and then get close to use Metal Claw and Razor Shell." Chardon got hit by a spurt of water more through luck than skill but he didn''t let that unbalance him too much as he tried to keep moving on his feet. Keeping his eyes on Krabby as he moved, Chardon kept spraying the little crab with ineffective embers while said crab either moved away or rushed through the attack to get to Char. This little game continued for a few more seconds until Krabby managed to catch up to Char and slammed him with a Metal Claw. "Now use Beat Up, then Ember point blank." "Finish him off Krabby." Oh my gosh, he only got two hits in and he thinks he''s almost won. The dude was proven wrong when Char proceeded to hit the water type with six hits that connected to the slightly weakened shell of the opponent, who was aiming to use Razor Shell once more. Pushed back Krabby who didn''t realize it was almost beaten until Chardon aimed his tail right at its face and blasted it with tiny wisps of flame. With that his Krabby fainted from getting hit thrice and having its main stats that it uses lowered. "How about my Rockruff against your Oddish or maybe my Clamperl?" I ask He returns Krabby and nods his head "I''ll fight your Rockruff." Was all he replied with. Lupa noticeably perked up when he was mentioned and was already between me and him raring to go judging by his yipping. He just loves to fight. For the last time Ralts got a rock and instead of throwing it in the air with her hands she decided to throw it through Confusion. It was in the air quite a bit but ultimately came down. I almost didn''t notice her walk away and shove her face in Leaf''s fur. "Oddish use Growth" "Lupa use Trailblaze" The little plant bulb grows slightly bigger with longer leaves on its head while Lupa ran towards it in a textbook Tackle, except he had green energy suffusing his body which then boosted one of his stats the second it started. "Now use Fire Fang" "Absorb" With the increased speed Lupa managed to be faster then the grass bulb and hit his super effective move causing massive damage before getting hit. Oddish opened its mouth and a slight green energy left its body into Lupa before coming back in greater quantity, no doubt the physical showing of Absorb. "Bullet Seed" "Snarl then back up and Rock Throw" We would use Fire Fang again but Lupa can''t use the move twice in a row for now, so we have to resort to using other moves while he recharges fire type energy. My rock type already began moving backwards in anticipation firing off Snarl before Oddish could use Bullet Seed. The moves collide, Lupa managed to stop two seeds from hitting him before the dark energy washed over and damaged Oddish, lowering its special attack back to normal. Too bad it wasn''t able to stop the third seed that came out of its mouth. Lupa flew back in pain from the collision of that singular seed, but he managed to stay upright just long enough to use his only rock move clutching the match. "Oddish dodge." He yelled out. Too late though. The little bulb Pokemon got hit and fell down back first with the classic whirling eyes, a sign that it fainted. Wiping off the metaphorical sweat on my brow I blow out air in relief. "That was a really close match dude, I think if you spend a bit more time with Oddish then you could do the Pewter and Cerulean gym no problem. Krabby definitely needs to be more prone to dodging or using its moves to block instead of taking attacks head on, ya know." The guy meanwhile seems to be paying attention only after he returned Oddish. "Well I haven''t really trained with Krabby cuz he usually hangs with my dad but I could definitely do the training with Oddish before I leave. By the way what would you say is the best Pokemon for me to catch right now?" I hmm a little before replying "Probably a flying type or an electric type since that make your team more balanced and have an easier time against a variety of Pokemon. But there''s nothing wrong with becoming a specialist if you feel like you synergise with Oddish more then Krabby. You''ll really only find out once you have your journey and catch a couple Pokemon." He seems to take what I said into consideration. Then he nods his head. "Alright I''ve come to a decision." Oh? "And what might that be?" "I''ll follow along with you and catch a couple Pokemon before challenging Cerulean, then I''ll do Pewter and Viridian. Who knows what other gyms I''ll do after though." "That would mean we exchange contacts... Evandros by the way." The last bit was said while pointing at myself. "Elian, pleasure to meet ya." And with that I exchange contacts with him before we then hash out plans on how long we might journey. Having a trainer of a grass type help me train while here is a massive boon and no doubt will pay dividends on increasing the defenses for my Pokemon with type disadvantage against the typing. With pleasantries and planning over I ask him to come along and watch a couple battles that I would do against some trainers, Leaf would be used against this guy with a Ponyta that beat Erika already while the rest would be used against trainers more on my badge level. Afterwards the next few days would see me solely focus on training Ralts, Woody, Lupa, and Pearl. With the help of Elian from time to time. Chapter 14 It was the day before Evandros''s gym challenge and two trainers were on a practice field guiding their Pokemon. As Evandros and his new friend Elian finished their training for their respective gym challenges. Both made their Pokemon do simple cooldown exercises alongside themselves as they agreed they needed to train up their own bodies as well. For Erika''s gym Evandros would use Pearl, Lupa, and Woody while Elian would use his Oddish and his dad''s Krabby. While Elian was asking about tips on how to handle the pressure of a gym challenge Evandros couldn''t help his curiosity surrounding his friends change of plans. "Hey, dude, sorry if it''s rude but, like, how come you want to challenge Erika? I thought you wanted to fight Brock and Misty first." Elian had a look of surprise before hiding his face behind his hands. Only after a few seconds had passed did the beginner tier trainer actually reply. "Um, don''t take this in wrong way but like... I kinda, sorta, swapped my plans out when I watched your gym battle." Elian shut his eyes in fear of before realizing there wasn''t any laughter or stuff like that coming from his friend. Looking at his friend, Elian was surprised by Evandros''s neutral face. It took a couple seconds more for Evandros to compute that sentence before he widened his eyes and looked Elian, a hand pointing to his face. "Wait! Because of ME!?!" The lab trainer shouted out. Then apologized to the lady and tiny Growlithe standing next to him for his outburst. Chuckling a little at the extreme response, Elian replied with "Yeah man, have you even checked out pokenet? Your battle was buzzing with tweets and stuff, and apparently it''s gonna be featured in some analytics thing where some calcs are gonna see how you won as well." Taking a moment to press a button underneath the sidewalk light, Elian continued on. "And then I realized that if I wanted to get Dill to that level of famous, I needed to make her go through tough fights right from the get-go. So, I''m gonna challenge Brock and Misty for my fourth and fifth badge since at that stage they have actual strategies and Pokemon against grass types instead of just baiting and capitalizing on mistakes and stuff. The first thing is to challenge Erika then Janine while we''re in Fuchsia, then maybe I''ll challenge Surge and I''ll think about my plans after that." After a "sweet" from Evandros, both of them then went into a collective silence admiring the scenery; though Evandros had his mind occupied and like an itch it needed to be satisfied. Keeping Leaf out, Evandros began viewing his battle. It looked okay, since there weren''t any blatant mistakes, the only improvement would be to get some new moves into his Pokemon but that could be solved with the natural progression of time since they weren''t move learning prodigies like his Leafeon who had already gotten Razor Leaf down fairly quickly and had begun learning Leaf Blade. Next came checking the views and comments on his video on pokenet and what he saw was surprising. A whopping 11 thousand likes and over 100 comments. Most one badge trainers barely got over a thousand if they were lucky, while those who would wouldn''t have more than 5 thousand such as the girl who used a Ponyta and Caterpie who was currently sitting at 4.6 thousand likes. The comments meanwhile were surprising since a lot of people were talking about the moves Evandros had ordered and if it would be better or not to use different ones in certain scenarios. Other than that there were people talking about how cool, inspiring, rigged, unfair, awesome and a couple other descriptive words on how the battle was. There was speculations in the comments about why the new trainer hadn''t used his Leafeon alongside some dms asking the same thing, and those got the same reply. ''Sorry, but I''ll use her against Blaine, Janine and maybe Sabrina, so watch out for that'' which then causes a flurry of questions that Evandros simply ignored. After replying to the positive comments Evandros turned off his gear and began looking around with a noticeable uptick in his mood. His plan of putting all the attention on him in the early stage so his friends had less to worry about was working. His friends had sizable amounts of views but they were mainly from people who thought they were gonna do what he did. Funnily enough, there were more than a couple trainers who tried challenging the gyms with type disadvantage and those who won ended up getting a couple predictions that they were gonna get higher than most trainers typically got to in their journey. Finally, after their quick ten minute walk, both aspiring trainers found themselves in front of a battle club of a different brand than the one in Viridian. After all, Pokemon battling is not only a job but also a sport as encapsulated by Galar and their stadiums. Entering inside, Evandros immediately payed the battlers fee, which was a simple twenty bucks per hour, and began walking around trying to challenge people at the one-to-two badge level as he wanted to put pressure on his Kakuna and Charmander to evolve them into their next stages. It took a while but he did manage to have a friendly battle against an elder gentleman and his Jynx using Leaf. The battle was very fast paced and the Jynx could not use any of its regular stall tactics of using Toxic, Icy Wind, and Charm as Leaf had a continuous Trailblaze activated alongside using a Sunny Day in the beginning of the match. Her Leaf Guard ability prevented the Toxic from poisoning her and the decrease in power of its ice moves due to the consistent heat inevitably lead to the dual type pokemons'' defeat. The lab trainer chuckled when seeing the grass type try to use Sunny Day and Trailblaze together and fail at the attempt, since it seemed like only Yesterday that he had told her the plan for learning future moves. Seeing the battle spurred more than a couple trainers into battling the young lab trainer and soon Evandros had a few different battling requests. His second battle consisted of a Seadra which could use Dragon Breath and unfortunately paralyzed Chardon. This battle was an inevitable slugfest which ended only after a surprise Dragon Rage from the fire type, shutting down the water type and knocking it out. A good sign that his fire lizard was close to evolution as the species only learnt the move alongside Fire Fang days before evolving. His third was nothing really amazing. Just his Rockruff quickly finishing an Oddish with a Snarl into Fire Fang. Oddly enough, the sound waves from the dark type move had pushed back the spores in the air away from Lupa. The fourth battle however was one of the more rousing fights. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. As Evandros had moved back out of the battlefields to heal his Charmander and Leafeon, giving praises to all three of his pokemon on their victories, he was cut off from regaling the rest of his current pokemon the second battle by a snobbish voice. "My, a Kakuna and Clamperl, are you challenging Erika using such weak pokemon? Because if so then it might be time to head back home or at least to a lesser gym." Quickly calming down his pokemon, the miffed lab trainer looked at the girl behind him. Standing there was a brunette with shoulder length hair with quite the smug look. Though her face wasn''t where his attention was at, it was her belt. Holstered on its magnetic locks were two pokeballs just waiting to be used. "You''ve caught two pokemon, huh. That''s cool." He genuinely replied with a smile. That very clearly was not the reaction the girl was expecting as she lost her smirk, adopting a quizzical look. "How many gym leaders have you beaten?" Evandros asks. "Only Erika?" The question was quite a weird tangent, and the brunette was unsure of what the point of it was. "Good for you," he wholeheartedly spoke "but you have to understand that trainers work in different ways, I like catching different pokemon and making them strong. Cuz if you have a ton of pokemon, then if you''re a good trainer, you''ll have a ton of friends; at least, that''s my methodology." ''Since she''s only just started this year, she must''ve never traveled and met up with different types of trainers on the road or in other streets. It''s not her fault she''s talking dumb.'' Evandros thought. The young girl took it in quite a different way ''Is he mocking me? Does he think he''s better because he caught more pokemon?'' and similar questions to this line of thought led the girl to believe he was looking down on her, creating quite the unfortunate misunderstanding. Spurred on, she growled out "I challenge you to a battle, don''t disappoint." With a hand on her mouth as she spoke that last sentence, hiding a barely visible smirk. Perfectly fine with battling, and not realizing the misunderstanding, Evandros nodded and headed to an open battle field in the building that was almost fixed up by a Geodude with a cap on its head. He ended up snapping a pic of the rock type to his bff. As they waited for the field to be fixed up the lab trainer tried to talk to his opponent, only for said opponent to look at him with barely hidden disdain. The young boy was only slightly miffed by the cold front, mainly just confused from the behavior. Once finished being fixed, a referee came onto the podium on the side of the field and began counting down. In unison both threw out their choices. On the girls side was a speedy brown bird with no wings and two heads. It appeared with croon and it was easy to tell what Pokemon it was due to the fact that it is one of the only wingless bird that Kanto students study up on. While on the scarred boys'' side appeared his Kakuna. "Go fo-" "Electroweb and String Shot." Though Evandros''s voice wasn''t very loud, it was firm and had cut over his opponents''. Trying to give her pokemon the call to get in close and using Peck again, the trainer and her Doduo were startled by an electric webbing locking down the flying type while simultaneously damaging it with super effective type energy. To add insult to injury, a green string wrapped around the flying type''s neck and further slowed the movements of the two heads as they couldn''t really move as they normally would. Now thoroughly slowed, Kakuna took a moment to harden and become tougher for the next part of the plan. "Get out of there Fluff!" She yelled visibly flustered. "Now, reel yourself in and Poison Sting. Stinger only." While Doduo was using a normal type move to cut the webs, which only hurt a tiny bit with each swipe of their beaks, the normal type was unaware of the fast moving object aiming at its chest with Poison energy. Kakuna crashed into the Doduo, stinger first, and inflicted not only poison damage but also the amount of pain of a fast moving object repeatedly hardened in a proto-tackle. It was also to be noted that the stinger on Kakuna''s body held its most powerful poison so a direct hit guaranteed the Poison Sting as a critical hit. Just like that Doduo fell, a bit quick but expected considering its trainer must have used its type advantage to tip the scales to her favour. Kakuna''s eyes widened noticeably at the defeat of a flying type and jumped with joy soon afterwards, which surprised Evandros since the bug type didn''t like to show outwardly show his emotions. As if that wasn''t enough, he did one final celebratory act. He evolved. With the outer carapace cracking; the shell holding Kakuna gave way to two massive stingers, then two massive wings, and finally a body similar in design to the carapace of its prior form with clear differences. Examining itself, Beedrill''s red eyes looked at its yellow and black abdomen before panning its head to its wings and then his trainer. Evandros meanwhile was grinning like a madman, actively restraining himself from jumping over to his pokemon on the field he gave one command. "Use your wings Ka-Beedrill!" He yelled with excitement. Given the ''go ahead'', Beedrill looked back at its wings and saw them flutter at a speed he was not aware of. Slowly, his body moved up into the air and when he stopped wobbling erratically, he aimed his stinger arms at the opposing trainer in a classic ''come at me'' style. Snapping out of her reverie of witnessing an evolution; the young trainer sent back her Doduo, with a few words of consolation, before sending out her second and last pokemon. On the field appeared a floating psychic type held in some type of green fluid, its actual body being green as well and having no hands as its stubby head was the only thing incased in the fluid. The referee called the match again. Now incensed to try and finish this fight with Beedrill, Evandros told his bug type to move around the psychic type to prevent being grabbed or hit by any moves. "Psybeam Darling" "Get in close, Poison Sting" As the first stage form of his opponents'' was using a powerful psychic move which left it vulnerable to attacks, Beedrill flew forward and did a little spin so that the beam of psychic energy only barely missed him before deciding to ignore the order for Poison Sting. Instead he hit the opposing pokemon with Twineedle, a bug type move which hit twice and was super effective to his opponent. The psychic type fainted. By being hit twice by a bug type move. And with that the battle ended. Shifting from foot to foot in excitement; Evandros ran as soon as the battle ended into the middle of the field to his still flying Beedrill and gave a full body hug, with Beedrill taking care not to stab his excited trainer with any of his three stingers. Giving excited praise to his newly evolved pokemon, Evandros only faced his opponent when she had almost reached him in the grounds. Giving a handshake to his opponent he decided to add a few words of advice as well. Mainly on how she should train her Pokemon to move around when using Psybeam or Confusion and how she should''ve continued with her first order in the beginning of the battle or just told Doduo to dodge, the battle wouldn''t have snowballed in his favour if she had, before taking the 100 bucks and moving back to the rest of his team with Beedrill. Upon meeting back with his friend and his own pokemon; Beedrill was immediately pulled into a hug by Leaf and Woody while the other gave praise to him, except Lupa who was staring at the battlefield, and Pearl who was in her pokeball and didn''t get released out until the end of the battle. He had kept her as safety insurance just in case Beedrill didn''t beat the girl. Evandros wanted a battle specifically for Woody and Pearl so he went and challenged a girl with a Machop and a guy who had caught two Weepinbell which was perfect practice since Bellsprout and other grass types were known to have evolved at the two badge level. After that he headed back to the rest of his Pokemon and praised them for their amazing efforts today, like always. Picking up his egg from Chardon who held onto it the most after his trainer, Evandros decided that enough was enough and that his three chosen pokemon should rest now. They had done all the preparations they could do. Lupa and his improved Fire Fang, Woody and his Rollout, and Pearl with her Rest into Sleep Talk to ensure that she didn''t get affected by any sort of conditions in the match. Since the water type was so new she would either be the last resort or an option to get some quick and easy knockouts under their belt. His battle against the gym was starting tomorrow and his chosen mix needs to be in tip-top shape, alongside his own mind. Chapter 15 Today is Sunday, four days have passed since I took part in that competition. Today is also when I scheduled my gym battle. I really have to thank Elian, Oddish, and Leaf for the way they helped me train my three for today, otherwise I wouldn''t have a couple ideas for todays battle, alongside some new moves. I also have to thank Ralts for forcing me to check the league website for Celadon to realize that the gym only does a three v three against trainers who have one badge, it was kind of embarrassing how I hyped her up only to force her on the sidelines. Heading to the large three story building that houses the grass type gym I notice that this gym is exclusively run by women. Its also one of the harder gyms to win against so obviously that must mean something. Inside has a big contrast when compared to the Pewter gym as within this one there''s plants and other fauna as far as the eye can see. Thankfully there''s a straight path that trainers can take to talk to the receptionist lady. Manning, or is it in this case womanning, the desk is a different kimono wearing lady than the one from last time. She notices me arriving on time for the gym battle and begins taking me to a different section of the building. She begins with. "As you know every gym has their own trial a trainer can do to be allowed access to battle a gym leader," I did not know that, makes sense though "and the Celadon gym has a test of cunning and identification." We stop almost 50 meters away from a wall. "The trial is simple, find four items that may help trainers in and outside of battle. Failure to do so will either mean you are forced to repeat on another day or you will be challenged at a higher badge level than you currently possess." She hands me a pamphlet with six different items listed. They''re all probably easy to find and even now some are sticking out in the plants and trees like a sore thumb... but didn''t she say the trial is about creativity or something. That probably means the easy stuff is off the limits and the hard to find stuff is what I''m really supposed to find. Hmm, the items in the pamphlet seem to be showing Pecha, Oran, Razz, Wiki, and something called a Kebia berry while also showing how to find a Big Root which is something that helps with life-draining moves like Absorb. Actually, there seems to be a few berries and mushrooms near here which aren''t listed in the pamphlet. A few meters to my right underneath a tree root is a blue strawberry like fruit that''s the color blue, from the identification book professor Oak gave its pretty obvious that this is a Rawst Berry and next to it is a pear shaped berry in the color yellow with brown polkadots. This one is an Sitrus berry commonly known as the better Oran Berry due to having better healing properties and not having a bitter taste, which many Pokemon enjoy when trainers switch healing berries. I''ve already found half my required amount, all I need now is one more berry and a natural item or something. About ten meters to the left of where I found the berries is another item, but it turns out to be an Oran berry. Ten minutes pass and I only just barely managed to find a yellow berry with blue half-filled circles serving as polkadots. I don''t remember what it does but I know it''s a berry due to its weird shape, you wouldn''t look at something like this and think ''yup, this is totally a normal fruit and definitely not a berry that''ll help a Pokemon in battle''. After that is some more fruitless searching for another twenty minutes, seriously there''s so many Pecha and Razz berries over here. Soon afterwards I realize that the receptionist lady is coming here, quick gotta find something. I start leafing through the foliage with renewed fervor, discarding Wiki and Oran berries as I go, until eventually I find this strange berry which looks like a black seed with a white question mark on it. I also found this little springy mushroom that I thought was neat, you know, incase one of the berries isn''t an actual berry and cuz it looked so cute. Soon though her Breloom manages to bring her near enough to me so that she could use a megaphone. "Trainer please head into this direction as your time is up." In a smooth motion I begin walking towards her. Soon enough I''m right in front of miss receptionist... right I forgot to ask her name. "Um miss, what''s your name? I feel like it''d be kinda rude to call you miss receptionist lady." She looked at me a little curiously before coming to some conclusion and giving a harumph. "Trying to buy time for your Pokemon isn''t a nice thing to do you know." Oh, she must think I was trying to cheat. "No no, not at all. My Pokemon are in their balls and I only did the test by myself. Here check it out." I got the different berries and showed them to her, only to be stopped by Breloom who sniffed the berries before reluctantly nodding its little mushroom cap head. That''s odd. "Um, why is your Breloom looking like I''m forcing it to eat its medicine?" She just looks uncomprehendingly to the berries... Shoot, I was meant to find an item. A little worried about passing I take the little cutie pie mushroom "I-i also got this if this counts as an item." Please let this be enough. Breloom took a sniff of the mushroom and nodded again, grimacing even more at that. She then frowns for a few seconds before asking Breloom to sniff again, sending out a Slurpuff who also sniffed. Both nodded their heads, one happy and the other perturbed. She then morphs her face into a smile replying "Please excuse me for one second." before hurriedly walking away deeper into the forest in the building. ...This is it. I failed. The forums were talking about how it was so hard to find the right berries and now because I didn''t do enough I''m gonna have to retry or leave in shame. I''m sorry for being a failure mom. What will I do now? Obviously challenge again, but what''s the right answer? Was it a combination? Did I need another item? Was I supposed to get multiple of each berry? Stupid Stupid STUPID Halfway through my self-berating of my terrible choices I must''ve made, another lady wearing a yellow kimono with red and black outlines came with miss receptionist. They both take a second to look at me. The lady in the yellow kimono asks "... a-are you crying?" "M-maybe." OH GREAT JOB ME, now they''re gonna ban me and take away my trainers license for being rude. "Um, I implore you to please stop. Fortunately, you have passed." Wait What? "Wait What?" I look up and wipe my eyes before widening them in realization. I was just crying in front of Erika, please someone just kill me already. She looked at miss receptionist lady before coming to a realization. "Ah, you must have been thinking that due to Lindy leaving in such urgency that you failed correct?" I nod and sniffle a little, gosh why won''t I stop crying already. "Well she just came to me to ask the precedent on the matter, I''m afraid you just might be the only trainer who got all four items that were not listed in the brochure, not only that but you found a springy mushroom which dragon type trainers would pay top dollar for." Gosh she has such a soothing voice. Wait. "B-but I thought t-this was about creativity and identification." Please stop being so teary-eyed me. "This was about cunning and identification. Though originally the challenge was meant to be about finding items without a list it caused too many trainers to lose to the point that there became a backlog of trainers held here in Celadon. We then had to modify the challenge for three badges and below, though it remained the same for four star and above as you really must know this essential information from memory." She replied before sending out a Vileplume, then everything got a little less blurry and I wasn''t as distressed from almost losing. Erika then took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and attempted to hand it to me, only to be rebuffed as I had my own. After a few seconds she began explaining. "Due to the fact you obtained five items that were not listed in the booklet you are permitted to battle me in a gym battle, though I recommend you take a few minutes to prep yourself up before challenging me since the match will be recorded." "Okay." After slapping my cheeks to snap myself out of it. "I''ll have the battle now if you''ll let me, after I wash my face." Oh wait "Um, could I keep the cute mushroom?" Please don''t cancel our battle, please don''t cancel our battle, please don''t cancel our battle. After looking to be in the act of thinking, miss Erika then nodded her head in agreement and motioned for us to continue walking. We went back to the pathway in the buildings forest, only this time going behind the receptionist desk which I initially registered from. We did take a short break for me to wash my dirty hands and face and that really nice of miss Erika. Heading through a pair of doors I immediately noticed that although there were cameras located throughout the room there wasn''t any stands or any proper place to sit. Miss Erika must''ve noticed because she then explained "Our gym is more likely to use spore attacks during each battle then not, so after one too many poorly managed barriers that didn''t protect the people and challenger it was decided to be safer to simply record the challenge and put it on a dedicated channel," She then looked at me before continuing. "and do not worry about any status move affecting you, we have always kept an antidote spray near the challenger to use on them lest they get afflicted with any condition in such scenarios." The field that would be used was grassy, flat, and filled with a few trees on the side furthest from the referee''s high chair. The referee for today is another lady who seems to keep with the kimono style but with a sharper black and grey color, probably to show that she''s the referee. Erika then began moving to one side of the field so I mirrored her and headed for the other side. Once we were both onto a small square on both our sides, that was our dedicated trainer zone, the referee lady began explaining the rules. "Today''s match between Erika-sama and trainer Evandros will be a three-vs-three with both trainers being allowed two switch-ins. Both trainers are only allowed to use one revive and potion. Standard league rules. Held items are allowed. Do both trainers comply?" "Yes/Yeah" "Then both trainers ready your first pick." This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Wordlessly both of us reached into our pockets to retrieve our starting poke ball. "Trainers. Ready in 3, 2, 1. Start." Two orbs with a red and white color scheme were tossed into the sky. Both opened at the same time and the contents within spilled to the floor in a flash of bright white light. As fast as it came, the bright lights receded to show two forms. On Erika''s side is a little mess of vines, its green mass hiding the little body inside. Just a little in front of me is a small, lupine, and quadrupedal creature eagerly shifting from side to side with an excited snarl escaping his mouth. "Tangela, Vine Whip, probing strikes." "Lupa use Trailblaze to dodge and get close." Both Pokemon started moving before our orders had even finished. Tangela began the offensive by sending out three of the outermost vines on its body towards Lupa who began sidestepping the attacks in favor of getting close. He didn''t. He managed to dodge two of the vines before being forced to contest the third one and then stopping to duck the fourth. "Keep running forward. Rocky Guard." "Return the vines and use Razor Leaf" Only after her order did miss Erika look at me with a questioning gaze, before focusing on Lupa. Seems like Erika isn''t planning on having the vines do a backstab, instead opting for a close range move that might do critical damage. Just as she hoped the energy for the grass type attack gained a sharper hue before zooming to the now dangerously close Lupa. Though, my rock type wasn''t idle. On his tail and forehead appeared two rocks stronger then the ones used in the Pewter Gym and against our newest buddies'' Oddish. The rocks were positioned so that it they could easily be shifted to protect Rockruff and act as a non-damaging substitute that could be used as an attack. When the leaves slammed into Lupa they were able to get through the first rock with only a third of the overall leaves, then when the second rock was shifted in front another third was used to pierce through. Though, by then Lupa got a clear gauge of the direction the attack was coming from and proceeded to sidestep the rest before running to be right in front of Erika''s Pokemon. "Now use Fire Fang." "Sleep Powder" Tangela wasn''t able to use its attack, its spores that were about to fly towards Lupa were burned away alongside the vines of the grass type. "Vine Whip to push it away, then Poison Powder." "Sidestep with Trailblaze, then push back with Snarl." Tangela scored a couple hits with its wriggling vines that act both as its body and weapon before Lupa dodged the rest, the poison mist being tossed in the entirety of the grass type''s radius only to be blown back by weaponized sound alongside said grass type. Tangela is now further from the trees where it would have an advantage as its vines could''ve been even more of a danger, I completely forgot about is looking up the abilities a Tangela may have so I don''t know whether it has something like Overgrowth or Chlorophyll or maybe even Libro. What I do know is that Lupa is now double buffed in speed so he won''t have trouble catching up to and beating the opposing Pokemon. The main issue is that Lupa won''t be able to strike Tangela without getting hit up close and from afar with Snarl is a bad idea as we opted to merely get him acquainted with as many moves as possible... so instead "Quick Attack, in and out." "Vine Whip, wall and counter formation, dear." Tangela began extending more and more vines from its body then the previous two times combined and started placing them in around itself. Too bad Lupa was too fast and hit Tangela at least three times in the time it took to protect itself, too slow to do anything but not unfocused. "Get in the box and finish it off with Snarl" sound waves bounce around from walls or anything solid, so the Snarl should hit multiple times if Lupa aims it right. Just as predicted the dark type energy bounced back after being fired at the Tangela, dealing damage equivalent of using the move twice despite the blue glow of a debuff appearing only once. Tangela has fainted and Lupa is bouncing on the balls of his paws in wait. Taking a moment to review the fight, all Erika did was nod her head in approval. "Skiploom, onto the field." "I''m keeping Lupa in" the multiple speed buffs will be more then enough to keep the fight going for a while. On 1 both of us say our order to our pokemon. "Fire off Rock Throw, then Trailblaze closer." "Cotton Guard, move and then Bullet Seed dear." The rocks on the Rockruff''s tail materialized faster then its regular use and sailed at its opponent at an incredible speed only for it to miss as the Skiploom merely floated into the air and puffed up cotton around its body. Undeterred, Lupa began lunging towards his grass type opponent in an aura of green making him faster as he goes. The Skiploom tried to blast out pellets of seeds but it was too slow and the rock type knocked into it, latching on with its claws. "Fire Fang now!" "Poison Powder" As the rock type ignited and bit into his opponent, Skiploom blasted out a ton of purplish powder which Lupa breathed in through his nose. Coughing, Lupa stopped latching onto the grass type and fell on the ground before himself back up. "Taunt" "Quickly Mega Drain" Unfortunately for her, her pokemon was afflicted with dark type energy forcing it to use the same move instead of another one. This was useless as Lupa was already poisoned so the powder has no effect on him. "Rock Throw while its under Taunt" "I withdraw Skiploom" "Lupa wait" Listening to its trainer, the rock type didn''t fire the rocks on its tail and simply kept them charging. "Why are you withdrawing Skiploom?" Erika only answered the question after she gave praise to her grass type. "It is mainly due to the fact that that Rock Throw would have knocked out Skiploom and there would have been nothing she could do to stop it or even dodge, so it was an easy decision to take her out of the battle instead of letting her suffer a predestined fate." That''s an easy enough answer so I give a nod. "Will you be continuing using your Rockruff?" Erika questioned "Oh yeah, Lupa doesn''t really like switching out so he wants to battle until the very end, even though he could have rested for a later match-up." Accepting that answer Erika gathered a pokeball from her right hand instead of her left. Tossing it onto the field, a Gloom appeared ready to strike. Just as the grass type came out, Lupa reflexively scrunched his nose in discontent but he still held on. Those training sessions against Oddish using a bad scent was really helpful in that regard. "Sunny Day... then Sweet Scent" "Fire it then use Rocky Guard, make sure to use Fire Fang if it gets close" Lupa moved first, his boost in speed offsetting his exhaustion and the poison in him, firing his already created Rock Throw before making another one to be used into what our first maneuver together was before running right at Gloom. He sparked his teeth causing an eruption of flames in his mouth which was further boosted from the weather effect that Gloom pulled off. The only problem was Sweet Scent. The barrier in the field could do many things; it could block powder moves, regular moves, and to a lesser extent bulldoze and earthquake. What it can''t do is block out smell. When Sweet Scent hit it wasn''t sweet at all. The move smelt like burnt trash added with Skuntank stink. It even made me, the kid who goes into garbage centers to feed the local poison types, curl my nose. I had no doubt that it smelt even worse for Lupa and I was correct when even his battle lust wasn''t enough to keep him from moving forward. He started running as far away from Gloom as possible trying his hardest not to breathe and scrunching up his nose. "Mega Drain" Faster than when she threw out Sunny Day, the grass type fired an orb of green light at Lupa that bypassed his rocks that covered and protected him before going back to our opponents grass type. With that, my rock type fainted. "Great job Lupa" I tell him after sending him back into his ball. Putting his ball back into its magnetic lock, I pick another one to grab and toss into the field. Onto the field appeared my second rock type. "Gloom took down Lupa but he''s the only one left, it''s currently a two-to-one so its okay if we take our time okay." An order, not a suggestion. "Bon" and with a nod from his head I can tell he''s willing to listen. "Gloom use Bullet Seed" "Dodge then TL, then DC and Rollout" Gloom fired out blasts of seeds aiming to strike Woody but my rock type simply moved faster by setting up Rock Polish while running, a neat trick I was trying to teach him, until the grass type had to take a breath to fire another salvo. Then, Woody used Tearful Look to lower the attack and special attack of Gloom. Technically, only Lupa had a good move pool to use against most the pokemon that Erika has, and while Woody is as trained he isn''t really as strong as my other rock type, so Woody and Pearl agreed to stalling our opponents out and staying on the defensive. Which means we have to take as few hits as possible while making them as meaningless as possible. A wail and some water flowing from my Bonslys'' eyes cause a blue aura to momentarily surround the grass type opponent before he gets smacked by a seed, then another, and before a dozen more can hit Woody is moving again at a faster pace. Once Gloom has to take a third breath does Woody actually begin an offensive strike. He curls into a ball, white type energy moving in a circle using his body, causing an increase in his physical defense before rock type energy surrounds him. But there is a clear difference then regular. The brown aura which barely covered Woody regularly is now bigger than a Miltank and rapidly approaching Gloom. Gloom, meanwhile, wasn''t doing nothing. Our opponent used some move which made it grow larger before Erika ordered it to use Acid Spray on the floor, probably to limit our battle space and made Gloom try to ready up another Bullet Seed. "Jump up when needed Woody, not too high though otherwise you''ll get hit." "Fire in accordance to the plan" It was a neat trick that we found with Defense Curl and Rollout being used synonymously would lead to the rock move becoming stronger, a niche we needed filled temporarily. It also meant that the added defense would allow Woody to shrug off a few seeds. I was proven right when he jumped above a puddle of poison and rammed Gloom in the side. The grass type unable to follow as Sunny Day is starting to fade. "Renew Sunny Day and set up Sleep Powder" "Stop it with Hidden Power, then Rock Throw Gloom" Two meters away, Woody stopped and fired an ice beam (not the move) to a fire ball about to enter the air snuffing it out. "Dodge and Mega Drain" Gloom moved fast enough to only get lightly scrapped by the hit before firing a green orb "Spin backwards with Rollout, then Tearful Look" Brown aura encapsulated Woody before he started moving out of range of the Mega Drain; then, after he was safe, moisture appeared from Woody''s eyes forcing Gloom to become a little smaller. "Bullet Seed" "Move, then once you''re safe use DC into Rollout again" A repeat of last time occurred, with Gloom firing seed after seed in hopes of beating Woody. Then when it had to take a breath Woody began using Defense Curl before a light brown au-. "Sunny Day now" "Stop and Hidden Power it" Another repeat with Woody barely able to stop using Rollout and instead using his ice type move at the orb of fire that nearly went into the air. Unlike the first moments of the battle Woody is now closer to Gloom then in the beginning, so if we don''t try to keep sunlight out of this, the speed boosted Gloom would be able to dominate the rest of the match. "Rock Throw, move when it attacks" Too far away to get hit by powder moves, too close to dodge, and just the right space to hit with our own moves. Erika said something about petals then pink leafs started whirling around Gloom. The rocks that were fired went in for a second and then sliced like butter in the next. "Stay away, Defense Curl and Rock Polish only." "Sunny Day now" Woody could only buff himself up as we watched the petals move in the air swiftly, only to move faster as sunlight appeared once more. The sun seemed to invigorate our opponent as the pink leafs began increasing taking nearly up the entire arena in hopes getting Woody. "Rollout but stay in place, just keep spinning ok" A nod, then Woody curled into a ball. Spinning faster and faster while staying in one place, the dirt underneath him began to give way as he dug and dug into ground to dodge the petals. Woody dodged it but just barely. Only when the petals stop did I give my order. "Come out now and use Rock Throw" but Woody didn''t appear from the same hole. He made another one. Right underneath Gloom. Hitting it with a more earthy tone before firing off a Rock Throw, he hit the ground touching down on the pink petals which filled the field. Before falling asleep. Gloom looking a bit bashed up and tired took opportunity to fire a green ball looking more solid then Mega Drain at Woody, knocking him out while he was asleep, before trying to take a step and forward and face planting instead. It was confused. Not looking a gift Rapidash in the mouth I immediately recalled Woody and sent out Pearl. "Rapid Spin into it and then use Clamp" Erika seemed to go with a move that didn''t require movement. "Sweet Scent" Sweet Scent came out faster then Rapid Spin but Pearl closed her clamp so nothing could get in or out as she started moving, the petals blowing away in the wind followed Pearl''s path, and hit the, currently, downwards facing opponent before opening her shell and closing it again; but this time with a body in her shell. Clamperl is one of the few species that can''t smell just like its evolution Gorebyss but Huntail can smell so her evolution could be either depending on her curiosity. For now she has a battle to finish off. "Now finish it off with Water Gun" "..." A blast of water and Gloom was pushed away rolling on the floor by the sheer force of the move. When it stopped rolling it was facing up and with a knocked out expression on its face. "Erika-sama''s have all been fainted or withdrawn, the winner is Evandros from Pallet Town." "Yes, Yes, YES!" I cheered before heading into the field and giving a big hug to Pearl. Erika came onto the field shortly after I did. "Huh, it appears that the Sleep Powder is no longer active here." That caused a questioning gaze from Evandros. "The Petal Dance that Gloom used had Sleep Powder puffed into the leafs, that was why your ''Woody'' had fallen asleep." Well that explains that. I look down and notice that Pearl is actually asleep as well so it seems like the Pokemon was affected... maybe she used Sleep Talk for Water Gun and ended up spraying the Sleep Powder away. "Moving onwards, Evandros, it is my pleasure to give you the rainbow badge. May your journey onwards lead you to excitement and powerful bonds of friendship. Moreover here is the TM for Grass Knot, may you use it wisely, and your winnings will shortly be transferred to your trainer account which is a thousand five hundred." Taking the badge and TM before showing them to Pearl, who was on my head now, I thanked Erika and made my way out of the gym meeting up with Elian. He looked super worried while he was outside the building and it only got worse when he spotted me coming out super stiff. "Don''t worry dude," I say after he glares at me because of the prank "you can do the exact same thing to me after you get your badge, though I probably would realize its a prank at this point." And on that note, we headed into the pokemon center to get my team healed up and to celebrate my second badge. Interlude 2 A computer screen blinked on. The user of said screen moved their cursor to join an annual meeting that occurred every month, due to the changing times and additions in members. In the meeting five people were already present. One of these individuals was a man with spiky brown hair and an expression on his face that some would assume that he was sleeping. He gave a greeting to his fellow member. "Hey Erika, nice to see ya." Said the man lackadaisically. Tittering at the nonchalant greeting at an otherwise serious call, Erika replied with "And a pleasure to see you as well Brock. Is anyone going to be delayed?" Another man with blond hair in a buzzcut, who looked to big to be in the chair he was sitting, in replied "I heard Sabrina''s got a movie she''s making in Unova right now so she might be the only one held back a bit. Tardiness like that''s gonna be unacceptable with the report we all got." A teenager who looked like he might be turning into an adult soon gave the rebuttal "Surge, you gotta lay off her man. Just cuz she wants to pursue something other than battling or refining her psychic abilities doesn''t mean she isn''t interested in being a gym leader anymore. Plus her replacement''s pretty good at his job, smart too unlike a military nut I know." Before Surge could give a rebuttal, another two people joined the call. One was an old man wearing a lab coat who looked extremely exhausted while the other was a red headed woman wearing a jacket over her swimming suit. "*CRASH* Sorry guys, I tried teaching my Psyduck how to use Metronome while it''s asleep and now it just uses Hypnosis on itself twenty-four seven. Did I miss anything?" Replied the redhead "No you did not Misty. And are you really fine to join these meetings Blaine, its no secret that your health has recently taken a turn for the worse." Softly spoke a woman in a black ninja costume with a red scarf around her neck. "I''ll live, I ain''t gon'' die till that bitch Agatha croaks." Despite the harsh words Blaine held a soft smile when thinking about one of his old rivals. "Till that day comes, I''ll keep teaching young''uns how real battlin'' can be. Young''uns like you Janine." This caused Surge to scoff at the old fire type specialist''s words. "Using just your'' head ain''t gonna solve everything old man, having power to back your words or just having the strength to make people fear ya is how battling should be done. It''s why I was the third most feared in the war anyway." Before this conversation could continue into unfruitful yelling on which side each gym leader believed in, ''an argument that never seemed to end'' Erika thought, Lance appeared. Taking a look at the list of who was in the video call, he took a sigh at the lack of appearance from the Saffron city gym leader. "Sabrina''s gonna be late huh." He stated more than asked. "Well, I have the other four gym leaders here so they will be listening in from my side of the call. The details of why they''re here is classified as is natural." Another screen appeared showing a man with his Mr. Mime cleaning the background, which happened to be a semi-busted battlefield inside a purple walled area. This was gym trainer Tyron who is known as the temporary Sabrina whenever she has to head for her movie shootings, it also helps that he''s the second best human psychic in Kanto as he was the leagues greatest ACE psychic since before Sabrina learnt how to harness her powers from her father. After team rocket began displaying their strength and subsequent defeat he was ordered to run the gym alongside Sabrina to ensure she never joined forces with the team, a leash she accepted due to the orders of Giovanni. "Sorry I''m late guy''s I had to deal with finishing up with a seventh badge trainer. I''ll send the report to Sabrina afterwards, she''s busy." Tyron explained, using a backscratcher without holding it. A clear display of his psychic abilities, one which only Erika and Janine were interested in. Once all twelve gym leaders had appeared on call; Lance began reading reports and discussing everything that might be important. This would range from some pokemon being hostile to certain cities that didn''t have gyms to poachers in the silver range starting to show up. Most these issues would be dealt with by the rangers and wandering trainers however it is always important for a gym leader to leave their city of residence and show that they weren''t stationary pillars that criminals could ignore. Only when the meeting had drolled on long enough for every gym leader present to feel old and tired did Lance begin to talk about the crux of the regular meeting. "-and now onto more disturbing news. *Sigh* Team Rocket attempted to attack Viridian City." Now all eight video calls had the gym leaders straightening up or tensing themselves "Has there been any attempts to contact you Surge?" "Nope, there must be some rocket members on the higher up chain of command leading this resurgence cuz only Archer and a couple others actually knew about the bosses orders. So they''re under competent rule and a strong trainer or trainers willing to do whatever they plan. I also have some sources sayin'' that the masked marauder''s around town alongside some of the other operatives on his level." That information made some of the more emotional members grimace. The masked marauder was a dangerous man capable enough to handle a gym leader by himself, his Tyranitar was a known monster of destruction and the fact that he resurfaced means that Surge was right on assuming that someone competent, or rich, was leading the team. Nothing to be said about the potential danger if more skilled criminals like him are rejoining the organization. "Well thankfully the files that weren''t immediately deleted in their bases in Viridian Forest and Route 1 show that they plan to recombine the legendary birds once more, only this time their plan is to get not only Kantonian ones but also Galarian ones so the current champion is trying to talk to Champion Leon and President Rose. There''s also a scarce mentioning on ''Project Placement'', whatever that means, however there wasn''t any actual information. Good work on spotting them and taking them down so efficiently Blue, Erika. With your fast response we''re digging through files and projects that have been flying under the radar for too long." Lance spoke The grass type specialist easily nodded to the praise and continued her act of silence, opting to review the files of projects that had been happening in her city; keywords ¡°had been¡±. Adopting a smug smirk of satisfaction for a second before wiping it away, Blue responded with "It was nothing. Honestly a hundred of those chumps couldn''t give Ninetails and Machamp a good warm-up but they did have a couple Pokemon that were perfect for a hit and run. I gotta be honest, if I hadn''t gotten that tip then I probably would''ve been stretched too thin to get ''em all plus the data we stole off ''em." "Oh? And who might have given this tip?" Questioned Blaine. "One of this years lab trainers, a kid named Evandros I checked on his account and he already had a team of four in Route 1 which includes his Ralts. The kid said he saw some poachers but it could''ve been his Ralts sensing ''em since Team Rocket had their base a kilometer or two off route. He also turned his Eevee into a Leafeon when the stragglers tried to steal Pokemon from the main Pokemon Center." When Blue explained the individuals in the call gave their own signs of respect, however minor it might have been, but the last sentence caused Surge and Blaine to grimace. An action that Janine had noticed. Voicing the question of why their body language shifted, Surge then decided to explain the shift in mood. "Evolving pokemon earlier then they should naturally will lead to problems in their development in their later stages, especially pokemon with stone evolutions. A lotta trainers want to evolve pokemon like Sunkern or Poliwhirl as soon as they get them but they don''t realize that they should have development before they decide to do such a thing. Its a mistake many people in the war, myself included, did to amp up the power of their Pokemon quickly which then lead to those Pokemon having a skill gap they couldn''t cross even if they were meant to on regular circumstances." Blaine was nodding along to everything Surge had said even if it was, in his opinion, quite lacking. Expressions of understanding adorned the type specialists within the call, understanding now why their predecessors had always informed them to only evolve Pokemon once they were trained to certain thresholds. Noticing the somber mood, Misty decided to shift the topic into a lighter one. "So how''s everybody''s gyms holding up?" This lead to chuckles amongst the group, the only people that would be challenging this early were overconfident trainers who had a vendetta against the gym that stopped them in their run the year before or newbies challenging for their first badge. The first month had only just finished so now the real tactical trainers from last year would begin gathering their badges in the coming few months. Tyron decided to speak up "As you can tell by the destroyed state of the arena behind me, I faced off against a pretty strong seventh badge trainer who ended up using an ingenious way to destroy my Trick Room with X-Scissors. I heard from him that he''s gonna challenge Brock so watch out okay." Giving a nod over to the Pewter gym leader. Others began regaling tales of their past month''s battles against the rerunners who had new tricks or Pokemon up their sleeves. Only after Surge stopped guffawing at the audacity of one trainer who used an Explosion with their Electrode did the group begin talking about this batch of new trainers. "-eah honestly, I liked that girls'' battling style with the dancing and nonverbal queues but any tactical trainer or Pokemon like Metang or Alakazam would be able to tell what each move would signify at some point in her journey. The dancing Growlithe was pretty cute though." Misty ended, saying the only interesting battle she had against a new trainer. "None from me unfortunately, only a stubborn brat who was willing to battle me every week until his Pokemon got strong enough to win. Points for determination though." Blaine replied. The four with Lance gave similar remarks, their battles either bland or easy. Brock had something to add about this years hot topics. "As you all know I face off against the most people starting their journey and this year the lab trainers were no exception," Brock began "all of them had the beginnings of a style or the makes of one like how a kid named James was fine with baiting out moves and tricking me with his Zorua, or the girl Amy who went full offense and didn''t leave my Pokemon a moment to breathe even if it would have been better for her to just not attack, and there was this other girl named Mirielle who relied on her Rookidee using Mean Look to lock my picks in before switching her Pokemon into something that handled them like her Eevee or her Pikachu both knowing Double Kick. She also was willing to send out a Scatterbug which ended up using copious amounts of String Shot and was a key contributor to my Onix losing. All solid strategies in my opinion and only time will tell if they develop into powerful trainers with those styles. They all had classic issues like stuttering and calling out a wrong move or two but that''s something experience can fix. I also fought against that girl Valencia, she didn''t stutter like beginners would and her Pidgeotto knocked out most of my two star team with sneaky uses of switching and her Sewaddle evolving in the middle of her battle into a Swadloon. Didn''t even need her dragon type for her second badge because her Sewaddle used Sticky Web early and her Fennekin dealt a majority of the damage to my four selected before I could knock it out." "Guess Lance''s protege can walk the walk. Now I won''t feel so bad crushing her." Lance merely grunted "She''s not my protege. I just simply her some advice on how to handle any dragon types she catches and helped her calm down her Frigibax. I don''t even know when the rumor started but it was probably the girls'' family heads looking for extra publicity." Blue noticed Brock hadn''t spoken about Evandros and took the moment to ask about the last lab trainer. "Oh, were there four ready Pokemon this year?" Misty asked "Yup, Gramps ended up having four ready Pokemon for the Pallet trainers that passed this year and probably could''a gotten more from his cousin Samson if he really needed. Though, he ended up getting the Pichu from somewhere and wouldn''t tell." Blue answered. Brock took that moment to give his reply "Yes I can confirm I fought all four, it''s just that the last one was a bit of an abnormality." This caused the people on the screens to adopt questioning gazes, all except for Erika. "Well to start it off if you check his online license then you''ll see he has a Leafeon, as confirmed by Blue, but he didn''t use her in my gym at all; instead he opted to battle me personally in a four vs four with his Charmander, Pineco, Ralts, and Kakuna and before me he beat my brother Forrest using a Bonsly and Rockruff." "Doesn''t that just mean that you went harder on him, not only cause he picked Charmander, I mean even if he beat up team rocket to stop them from stealing balls from a center, if he forgot the type chart and opted to use his non-evolved pokemon against me then I probably would''ve beaten it into his head to use his stronger one''s with some resistances no?" "That''s just the thing Surge; I did make the battle tougher for him not only because he challenged earlier than the rest but also because he didn''t use his Leafeon, which was in the stands with someone I presume was his mother. He had a good head on his shoulders and set up Spikes early with his Pineco under a Sandstorm so I wasn''t able to notice until it was too late to counter. The reason it''s abnormal is because he still won even though I used a second badge Graveller." This caused the group present to become more interested, after all even powerful trainers paid some heed to the type chart; it was why Red felt confident against Brock when he used his Poliwhirl, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu while Blue never sweated against Erika with his Ninetales, Pidgeotto and Charmeleon. Typings, no matter how much some people might detest it (Mainly Surge''s hate towards ground types), is an integral part of battling that can never be forgotten. "Well, if he challenges all of us with type disadvantage Pokemon then it would not only make him a powerful opponent in tournaments but it would also be a looming axe over others heads," Tyron thought out loud "his opponents will always be wondering if he''ll suddenly use a Pokemon that''s resistant to their Pokemon''s attacks or is super effective or something, heck even I''d be scared if he caught a dark or ghost type." "Hehe" Erika giggled. An action that everyone noticed. "Oh? And why, pray tell, is Ms "Queen of the flowers" suddenly giggling without any of us?" Said Misty air quoting Erika''s supposed title "Well it must come as a shock then that he ended up challenging me two days back." Easily replied Erika Brock, unable to resist his curiosity, asked "And what was your gym challenge like?" "Honestly, surprising in good ways," noticing how she had everyone hook line and sinker Erika continued "firstly he had knowledge beforehand of multiple types of berries and some items found naturally if the small chat at the end I had with him was any indication. He ended up retrieving none of the berries listed in the brochure and even a springy mushroom he kept for himself. Secondly when we battled in the standard three v three he ended up starting with his Rockruff which was more then strong enough to beat two of my three pokemon of the second badge level, so I used a three badge Gloom against him, more as a challenge as I would have given him a badge regardless of the outcome. The Rockruff was valiant but he is a dog variant so his sense of smell was far too sensitive to stick until the end. His Bonsly was quite cute and he showed excellent prowess in switching strategies, where his Rockruff was always on the offensive this time Evandros took things on the defensive on the spot. Using debilitating moves to reduce Gloom''s power and buffing himself to move faster than Gloom regularly would, he used Rollout as a dodging mechanism against Bullet Seed and waited out until Sunny Day fell before he started attacking. He was on the ball the entire time and would give orders to his Bonsly that I saw no fault in and by the time I managed to knock his second Pokemon out my own one was confused, heavily damaged, tired and had less power in her attacks. His final pokemon was a Clamperl which was fresh and quickly finished off Gloom before she could recover. All in all he ended up battling me with multiple type disadvantages and still won handily. If I had resorted to using a weaker Pokemon then that Gloom then his Rockruff or Bonsly probably would have knocked most my other choices out." Now the gym leaders were excited, not for a tough fight but for a rule breaking battle, all except Surge. "Someone here''s gonna have to tell him about his Leafeon though." Blaine then answered "Then whomever he challenges next will have to inform him. Hopefully with his Leafeon present. Going by his logic that might be Janine, Tyron, or Surge and maybe Misty but whomever he challenges for his third badge must tell him." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! And with that the gym leaders moved on and began planning for a private meeting face-to-face to further discuss any plans of action against Team Rocket, alongside further surveillance near the legendary birds before signing off.
Elian was feeling nervous. It wasn''t because of his gym battle today, though that challenge was ankle biter itself, no. It was because win or lose, he would be leaving town with only one Pokemon. It also didn''t help that his new friend was new a star prodigy in battling, if he knew that he was meeting Evandros then he wouldn''t have given cash for trainer tips from that crackpot a few weeks back, so he knew that win or lose there might be rumors of him by next week when they travel together. Heading down with Dill, Elian had a light breakfast as his stomach was too queasy for anything heavy. He knew in his brain that he had a solid chance at winning, heck he even managed to get Krabby and Dill a few hits on Leaf and both could take a couple attacks that they were super weak to from battling his other friends before he met Evandros, but his brain also thought that there wasn''t a level difference between a no badge trainer and a one badge trainer other then validation so what does it really know. Noticing the turmoil in his son. A sun tanned man with golden hair shoved a white piece of enclosed paper under his boy''s nose. Elian barely noticed his father placing something under his nos- "UGHAAN" The boy yelled, reeling from an ugly smell that even his starter Oddish shirked away from. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR!!" he shouted, Dill giving similar remarks in Pokespeech. His father merely chuckled at his son''s antics before moving a box to him. The box had more of the little paper pieces inside with the name ''Skuntank Smelling Salts, Salvation indeed'' with the picture of a Skuntank giving a thumbs up and smily face. As he was reading it he realized that the smelling salts got him out of his funk, but he was still miffed at the betrayal to his nostrils so he stuck out his tongue at his dad. Now with a clear mind he looked back at what he researched about Erika and the Pokemon she used for her first badge. Either Oddish or Weepinbell were always used for the first badge; the second Pokemon after her first would typically differentiate between Hoppip, a Snivy, and a Bulbasaur. She had others, but they were so rarely used that it was hard to find videos of them being used. Elian knew that the best bet was to breeze through the battle using Ice Beam with Krabby but he also knew that this would be the first and hopefully last time he would battle Erika so he wanted it to be memorable enough for a TM and some advice for his future catches near Fuchsia and Celadon. Plus, Erika is a gym leader, there''s no way the grass type gym leader wouldn''t have some type of counter to Ice and Fire types. Elian entered soon finished his meal and gave a hug to his father before taking both of their Pokemon to the gym. Drilling himself on what berries could look like and what was just a fake berry he didn''t notice a couple of his friends walking ahead of him. He finally did when he bumped into them when they stopped at a red light on a sidewalk. "Elian/Lee-Lee?" "Kit, Pan?" The boy gave a hug to his two best friends in the whole wide world before explaining to them that he was just getting final prep for his gym battle. "Wait, I thought your dad''s Krabby was for his disability? Are you sure he can stand not having it?" Kit asked. Elian gave a groan in annoyance "For the last time dude, my dad is nonverbal not an amputee or something. He just doesn''t talk so he has a Chatot that talks for him. Krabby''s a catch from dads'' hobby that liked him enough to stay. Plus dad knows sign so he could talk with his hands instead." The affectionately dubbed ''Boy Blunder'', for the fact that Kit could really put his foot in his mouth whenever he wanted, nodded along and easily switched the topic to how Krabby and Dill might do. Pan seemed to think that the battle would be hard for him since Krabby is a water type, if she knew Elians'' new friend then she''d have a heart attack at age 9, while Kit seemed to think otherwise since he knew his pal had taught the crab an ice move. Discussion on Dill was more mixed because she was a poison type and a grass type so the odds were in her favor until Pan brought up that Hoppip and a couple other of Erika''s Pokemon might already know psychic, flying, or fire type moves to lower their weaknesses against bug and poison types. The discussion continued so long that by the time the boy had reached his destination they were still talking about how useful the spore moves Oddish had would really be. Waving good bye to their best friend the two others continued on to do their scout duties, mainly cuz they were part of the scout club called the Tediursa cubs. They said they''d wait outside once they were finished though. Steeling his nerves once more he sent a message to his friend Evandros and a couple others then proceeded to head into the building where all his training will be put to the test. Gods even entering was terrifying for him, not in the ''I''m gonna die'' sense but in the ''I got a bad report card and mom wants to know'' kind of sense, like something really bad or humilliating is gonna happen if he passes through. Repeatedly breathing in and out in a calming method, Elian finally managed to get through the door after a few minutes of loitering outside. And inside was beautiful. He had seen the gym''s interior in a video once of the different plants grown throughout the building but being here face to face, with all the species of flowers both rare and common with plaques of their scientific and common names, brought a whole new sense of wonder. He so wanted to stand next to the plants, read their history and observe their beauty but he had a challenge he got around to booking and he wasn''t gonna miss it. Following the clear-cut path to the receptionist, a lady wearing a red and pink kimono currently sitting down behind a desk lodged into a part of the wall, Elian felt his hands getting clammy and sweat glistening off his forehead due to the intense anticipation of his challenge. He was only barely paying attention to the lady in the kimono, as he was playing out the strengths and weaknesses of his Pokemon, and followed her into a different part of the gym where the flora was more overgrown and the trees here were thicker then any in the park near his house.. Only after snapping her fingers at his face did he stop disassociating and thinking up half-cooked plans. The lady then explained about the rules and how he needed to find three different berries before handing a brochure to him. The brochure held pictures of berries and some natural items but Elian didn''t really need it, he usually went berry picking with his dad and knew how to find blackberries and berries from the bushes and trees near the farm they would visit. The test only lasted five minutes which mainly consisted of climbing trees and walking around. When he got three berries listed in the brochure, which were all Oran Berries, Elian headed over to the lady to give them. The lady in the kimono sent out a small Tropius, around the size of a medium sized person, which took one sniff of the berries before nodding to its trainer. The lady then sent Elian away to a waiting room with a couple other trainers, all of whom looked just as young as him and were probably also starting out their journey. All of them noticed him but didn''t give any indication that they wanted to talk as they were too busy planning with heir Pokemon or chanting things under their breath or some other task to take their minds off of their first badge. At this point, Elians'' nerves started getting to him and he began reciting the moves of his Pokemon and what ones Erika used regularly. ''Oddish, Bellsprout, no Tangela, Hoppip, Gossifleur, Cott-'' "Um ''scuse me?" He looked up and noticed a girl sitting next to him with her Furfrou. "Do you mind not talking so loudly? It''s a bit distracting to the others." Elian didn''t even realize he was talking out loud but looking around he realized that everyone aside from the girl talking to him were staring daggers at him. "S-sorry sorry, I was just reciting the Pokemon that Erika''s shown for the first badge throughout the month. I know she always uses Weepinbell or Oddish so I was trying to remember what the rest of them were." Despite apologizing he still held some embarrassment for his behavior. "Oh no. You don''t need to apologize to me, you were clearly thinking of strategy for your badge. I, actually wanted to ask about what Erika might use but no one wants to talk to strangers. Atira by the way, that''s my name, heh." "Well my name is Elian, pleasure to meet you Atira." Flashing a smile, Elian continued "Well like I said she always uses at least one poison and grass type so if you have something for that then you have it a little easier. Other than that she frequently uses Cottonee, Gossif-" And thus, the two began talking about what they would do for their first badge and what the gym leader might respond with. Elian found out that Atira had Furfrou and a Hoothoot while he divulged his current team members. Time flashed by and the other beginners had slowly exited out to challenge for the Rainbow badge. During this time Elian kept on thinking about his week and a half worth of training with his new friend Evandros. During this specific time, Elian had experienced more training then ever before, he would wake up and do early morning training with his Pokemon for like an hour then he would take a break before doing some short mid-day training and finally Evandros would force him and his Pokemon to do some training in the dark with low visibility. Initially it was daunting, then it became routine, and then it finally became fun especially with the tangible progress that Dill and Krabby showed. He saw firsthand just how strong his Pokemon are now so he wouldn''t doubt them. Especially after the wins they were racking against other trainers. At some point it was time for Atira to leave so that she could challenge Erika herself, but not before handing a contact number to her new friend. Elian patiently waited, quieting down due to his nerves coming with back with gusto now that he wasn''t occupied with something else on his mind, his face a mixture between stress and discomfort. Once it was his time he robotically got up and shuffled slowly to where the arena was. His nerves left him once more after he saw the battlefield. On the left side of the field were trees that were perfect for hiding in while on the middle and right side was a grassy field that you could easily see someone that wasn''t the size of a Joltik in. His thoughts were then interrupted for the fifth time today as he saw movement from the opposing side. Coming in from a corridor was Erika, gym leader of Celadon, with a light smile to her face and an air of professionalism that paradoxically both eased and ramped up Elians'' anxiety. She had a slow pace as she walked closer, every step filled with purpose, until finally she stood in front of him on the opposite side of the field. "Greetings, I presume that you are my opponent mister Elian." Elian immediately nodded back with a light blush, mainly from how pretty the gym leader was. "Then let us have a momentous battle, and the true beginning to your career as a trainer." A teenage girl was on the side acting like a referee. She was most likely a gym trainer because she wanted to learn more on the strengths of grass types, either to counter or shore up weaknesses in her Pokemon. A very common thing for trainers both young and old. "This will be a standard 2-on-2 Pokemon battle. The challenger will have two substitutions available. Any and all misplay, cheating, or malignant misconduct is grounds for trainers to be suspended indefinitely. Are both trainers ready?" "Yes/Y-Yeah" both trainers replied. The referee counted down, then both released their Pokeballs. On Elians'' side is Krabby, he chose the water type because it would handle whatever grass may send out with Ice Beam, Bubblebeam, and Metal Claw, and if worst goes to worst then he could send out Dill to buy time for stall tactics. On Erikas'' side appeared an Oddish, which notably calmed down Elian by quite a bit as he has experience with the species. "Oddish use Absorb." Panicking slightly, Elian took a bit before squeaking out "I-Ice Beam Krabby" As the battle begins Oddish had already fired off his move when Krabby began preparing its ice type attack, so the water type was unable to dodge the super effective hit. The blast had blown the water type backwards but thankfully his concentration hadn''t wavered too much so the beam of light blue fired true and onto the blue grass type, who wailed out, frost covering its body. Realizing his advantage, Krabby hurried towards the Oddish and began using Metal Claw. Erika, undeterred focused on Oddish and said "Stun Spore then use Absorb." Thinking back to how Evandros would counter the very same move with Pearl, Elian hurriedly yelled out "Use Water Gun to bog down the spores!" Krabby began moving towards the grass type in hopes of slamming it with his claw before hearing its trainer and starting up the water move while Oddish had already shaking its head laboriously in hopes of blasting out the green spores. Despite not having much practice with the basic water move, Krabby fired its Water Gun in a wide radius of Oddish, not dealing any substantial damage but blasting large chunks of spores in the air away with the water. Still heading in, Krabby slammed his now metal claw into Oddish''s face flinging the little bulb backwards with some serious airtime. With a grin at his good fortune, Elian yelled out "Now use Ice Beam!" Krabby gathered ice type energy in his mouth only to then freeze up, static clinging his body. Elian''s face fell at the sight, somehow Oddish had managed to hit his water type with Stun Spore. "Oddish use Growth." Eyes shooting towards the Erika, Elian realized he needed to try to order Krabby to use Ice Beam otherwise the next hit his Pokemon takes will be the last. With a worried expression on his face Elian yelled out his order for Ice Beam once more. Krabby tried to power through the paralysis but that was taking time. Time that was beneficial for his opponent. "Now use Absorb." Erika requested. Despite being a weak move Absorb was still a grass type attack so not only would the move be super effective and do lots of damage, but its user''s own typing can further strengthen a move. Combining all those factors and the fact that used it Growth to empower itself further meant really bad news for Krabby. Right as Krabby fired its Ice Beam so too did Oddish fire the green light of Absorb, the two moves clashing in between the two of them. The first Absorb that hit Krabby had tired out the crustacean and Elian could plainly see that with how the water type was struggling to overpower its opponent in a beam clash despite the type advantaged attack. He grimaced in fear of what would happen if Krabby failed; the Oddish would recover some of its energy that it lost and he would have to send out Dill who wouldn''t have any good moves against Oddish and Erika would pick up on that and send out another poison type to smother any chances of victory. His worries were for naught though, as the water type somehow gained a second wind and further poured more power into its beam with a yell basically screaming victory. The move traveled along the light of Absorb and hit its mark onto the grass type Oddish who was blasted back once more. This time, not getting up. Elian knew that this was only half the challenge, but he still couldn''t stop himself from screaming in happiness at the end result. His fathers'' water type had, for the first time, beaten a grass type. One of his Pokemon had beaten the type advantage. "You did it Krabby! Great Job." He said, stoping himself from jumping for joy. Krabby didn''t have any reservations and even with the paralysis scuttled around blowing small bubbles. Erika too was chuckling at the end result. "My, My, it has only been two days and yet another of my starters child was knocked out by a water type of all things. She won''t be too pleased to hear that. But let us focus back to the challenge now." Erika stated before holding a second Pokeball in hand. Elian crossed his toes and fingers hoping it wouldn''t be a Weepinbell or a Hoppip, hoping that the Pokemon would at least be manageable for Dill since Krabby is barely hanging on. A light on Erika''s side of the field dissipated to show a large yellow flower atop a green stem and in front of what looked like red hair. Elian was slightly relieved. His final opponent was a Gossifleur. From what he studied with Evandros and by himself, the Gossifleur line isn''t that strong but its abilities Cotton Down and Effect Spore would be something to watch out for and when this species had Tailwind behind them or any windy move on their side then they would be nigh untouchable. Though since this was the first badge it would be unlikely for any of the usual tactics that the species would use for high level battling to unfold here. Once more the referee signaled the battle to begin. Without hesitation Elian yelled out "Icy Wind!" to use the light body of Gossifleur against itself, preventing it from getting too close. Unfortunately Krabby was still afflicted with paralysis which meant that its movements were laborious and slow. By the time the crustacean had fired its attack, the young Gossifleur had moved out of the way and fired three small balls of green energy. Thinking quickly, a Metal Claw was raised to deflect the most definitely super effective move. But it couldn''t block the two small seeds that grazed its head. The two immediately burst into vines restricting and sapping energy out of Krabby and no matter what Elian yelled out, Krabby couldn''t move out of the way or use any attack. He didn''t block the Leafage that was aimed at it once more. He didn''t get up. Despite knowing that this was now a fair battle, Elian was now actively panicking in this gym battle facing against Erika. His thoughts a rampaging tsunami in his mind filled with thoughts of failure and doubts of his capability of winning. Elian was too out of it to notice himself robotically recall Krabby into his ball, and he didn''t notice the white light that called out his starter. He did notice the smell. "EEWWW?!" he shouted. This was the second stinkiest thing he had smelt today, but it was also what got him out of his funk. Finally looking down Elian for the first time noticed Dill on the battlefield. Realizing the fact that he was being dumb, Elian suddenly smacked his cheeks and put his game face on which wasn''t really a game face and was more an angry frown. "Sorry Dill, that won''t happen again." In the meanwhile, Erika was smiling at the development. So far she saw good behavior and reflexes from the rookie trainer and his Pokemon and with the scene that unfolded showed the sincerity he possessed alongside his will. Not many trainers can handle losing a Pokemon in a gym that well on their first try; that number becomes smaller if the Pokemon was swiftly and easily knocked out, regardless of any previous battling it may have done with different Pokemon, so to see him bounce back was good. It was also easy to note the strength of his team was almost ready for the second judging by the power of his Krabby and the slightly darker coloring of his Oddish, clearly the boy was new but he also diligently trained. Elian didn''t have the mentality or the number of Pokemon to register for the second badge but he does have clear training and his rapid fire response to Stun Spore was quite well done in her honest opinion. Unless her newest challenger did anything incredibly stupid, Erika would be willing to give this rookie trainer a badge regardless of whether he won or not. Now however was clearly time to test him further and push any for any weaknesses his Oddish might have. "Stay far and use Magical Leaf." With haste, Elian yelled out "Use Acid, then Growth, ok!" With an affirmative bob of her head, Dill fired out a glob of the poison attack to defend against the grass attack before becoming slightly bigger than previously. Deciding not to give Erika an advantage, Elian spoke "Now Poison Powder around the field, as much as you can." "Head into the trees and use Leaf Tornado to blast back the Poison Powder" Erika countered. As the powder was already being fired out of the grass and poison type, the flowerling Pokemon had began running to the trees. Seeing this, Dill fired another Acid in front of the Gossifleur''s path from escaping the purple powder that was already propagating within the air. Gossifleur prematurely fired off her Leaf Tornado to move away the Oddish and the poison move in the air to escape. The attack wasn''t actually damaging to Dill but it worked in moving her and the powder away the grass type. Oddish, meanwhile, had restarted her Poison Powder and by now there was so much in the air within the battlefield that the entire top was sprinkled with tiny purple particles perpetually falling. In a stroke of luck for Elian noticed that Gossifleur had grunted in pain from using her attack and that her complexion was already turning purple, so he yelled out "Finish it now Dill!" The female Oddish, sensing blood in the water, fired a powerful glob of purple that nailed Gossifleur onto her back. She tried to get back up... but fell right back down. It took a second for him to realize, but once he did Elian whooped and ran to pick up and toss Dill into the air. "WE DID IT, we did it, we did it, this is amazing Dill" he softly spoke to the grass type in that was now cradling in his hands. For some odd reason Elian was now practically starving despite having breakfast like an hour ago and a banana in the waiting room. He then noticed Erika going his way and walked to meet her halfway now clutching his starter in between his arms. "Well I must say it brought fond memories seeing a delightful little grass type facing off against me once more. But now it is time to grant you your very first badge, a monumental achievement that will hopefully further your career as a trainer." With a flourish of her right hand it opens to reveal the rainbow badge and a green disc signifying a TM. "This is the TM for Mega Drain, a step up from Absorb and the first and most crucial aspect to mastering the move Giga Drain is to possess mastery of this move which I have no doubt that your Oddish will inevitably add in its repertoire." Taking both the disc and the badge into his left hand, Elian couldn''t stop the grin spreading along his face and Dill was a harder time doing the same task. Thanking lady Erika, Elian began walking away from the battlefield and towards the exit hallway so that he could finally read about those flowers at the front entrance. All in all, today was a good day for the young trainer; and his first step towards being a fully fledged trainer. Once he got a few pictures of the plants he decided to walk out and noticed two very sweaty people waiting outside for him. Kit and Pan must have ran while doing their duty as scouts. Evandros was right. That prank did feel good for the soul. Chapter 16 Before I can leave Celadon I have one thing left to do and that is to enter the Celadon Department Store to obtain groceries and TM''s. ...So I guess I have two things left to do before I leave. Oh, also, Elian is here as well and he''s really giddy about his win against Erika. He forgot to get a travel pillow and some other stuff for traveling. Walking towards the building I can easily see why Celadon is prideful of this building, I mean it''s gotta have at least ten floors. [Mom, do you think I should buy a shirt or something?] I text her. I wasn''t really expecting an answer but she sent a cute baby sticker with the word yes so I guess I kinda have to now. Entering in there seems to be the regular grocery store but a sign says that if we go down a floor we can find kids clothing so Elian and I promise to meet up on the fifth floor were the TM''s are. ...I guess I now have three things to do. Me and my big head. We are allowed to keep out small Pokemon inside, so long as they aren''t fire types or rowdy, so I keep Tabs and Ralts out to spend some time with the two of them on account of the fact that Professor Oak needed Tabs for some research and how I was training Beedrill and Chardon together and needed Leaf for my winning team. Tabs seems to take a liking to all the clothes I pick but Ralts wants me to choose something in a pink or purple tones so I put a couple different shirts over my chest before we collectively decide to take a white and pink striped shirt with an Audino over it just cuz. Mainly because it''s on sale and I probably really need to save cash for the TM''s I''m gonna choose. I also take a cap that can be altered to fit Ralts head or my own and a little cape for Leaf, even if she is at home right now. Putting it all into a shopping bag after heading to the checkout, I head over to the fifth floor using the stairs mainly to talk with Ralts and Tabs since it had been a while since I saw either of them. Once I stepped got off the stairs and looked around, I was immediately gobsmacked by the sheer selection of TM''s here, entire rows were filled with moves ranging from most popular like Flamethrower or Surf or the highly coveted Giga Impact and Hyper Beam. Though my three picks wouldn''t be any of those it was still interesting to browse and see what the moves were, some were really cool like Protect or Detect while others were interesting like Rain Dance or Misty Terrain. I currently need either power, utility, or a wildcard for some of my Pokemon. Once Elian arrived with a bag holding some thick gloves and other stuff we picked the TM''s we wanted. He picked Protect which was really smart of him while I picked up Agility, Double Team, and Thunder Punch. All my TM''s were reusable aside from Agility so they cost more than the quintessential move that Elian picked, it''s probably for Dill or maybe a Pokemon he has an eye out for. He payed for his and I paid for my own before we went downstairs to the ground floor to pick some ingredients up, those and emergency rations in case we run out. Only after that was finished did we begin to leave the building, heading over to Elian''s house cuz his friends wanted to give a farewell/celebration party for him that I was invited to. It''s a really fun party and even the reserved Beedrill and Lupa were having fun hanging out with some of the more solitary Pokemon though it took a bit before people were comfortable petting and playing with Tabitha, on account of her being a bug type, but other then that little kerfuffle it was a very nice party. The cake is nice. It''s an ice cream cake, the cherries on top were my favorite part. After the party though we headed off and began walking over to Route 7 so that we could challenge the really dangerous Lt. Surge, a monstrous trainer who doesn''t hold back any punches even against newbie trainers and a man who''s entire battle style is based around power. I couldn''t wait to get off the route so that we could take a short cut towards Vermillion city mainly because my grandpa lives in Fuchsia city. The walk is probably gonna take a week at any rate so I made sure to input the TM for Grass Knot for Leaf so that she could practice it and speed up the activation time of her other moves with and without combining them, though at this rate we''ll only have really fast trios and quads for like really weak moves like Growl and Baby-Doll Eyes which can be useful for debuffs. Pearl is also gonna be with Leaf, mainly to practice Confuse Ray and Aqua Ring and training up her general control and power so that she could learn moves like Muddy Water or Hydro Pump. Once we leave the check post and enter the actual beaten path do I notice Elian slightly shaking after looking at the abundant trees in front of us. "It''s gonna be okay dude," He nearly snaps his head to look at me. "remember that you can send out Dill here if you want, I was thinking of keeping out Beedrill, Ralts, and Tabs." Those words seemed to ease him as he immediately palmed his red and white colored ball and released the little Oddish. I released my three and put Ralts on my backpack to do some general psychic training. I''m probably gonna have to research what general fairy training might be but for now I''m thinking on focusing her psychic powers to learn the aptly named Psychic which can allow a Pokemon to pick up any other Pokemon that isn''t a dark type. Tabs meanwhile is just gonna practice Bug Bite and Struggle Bug since she got Bug Buzz down and doesn''t really need more practice on her other moves. Beedrill is mainly here to coach my bug type even though their relationship is somewhat cordial at best. The bug type is my only evolved Pokemon and he knows Bug Bite so he''s bound to help now that he knows I can make him stronger, he doesn''t even complain about training anymore now that he''s not a Kakuna which was a major upside that I''m still getting kinda used to. As we start walking a little bit off the beaten path, to train on the go, we start meeting tons of trainers throughout the day and a lot were willing to battle against me. The toughest battles at most were people with two badges this early on but there was a girl who got her third badge this season and, other than that girl, I won all my battles while Elian had around a 50/50 win rate. Though, he was starting to get his groove in battling and won most his battles in the later parts of the day. By the time the moon was shining in the sky I called for dinner and some night training, making sure to train with my team, before we have dinner. It was relatively simple; I just did some push-ups, some jogging, jumping jacks, and a bit of tree climbing while the team was practicing their moves. Dill was by herself since she needed to get Mega Drain down before she could practice Giga Drain and judging by the green light that was barely getting brighter the more she practiced it seems like she''s gonna get it down relatively soon, maybe not until we reach the next town. Ralts is practicing with Beedrill and Lupa to get down Double Team since my psychic type can make one illusionary clone that doesn''t look too wonky while the other two can barely make even a blob in their relative shape come out. Double Team is gonna be super important so that''s their main priority before learning any extra moves, but Ralts has a bit of a head start from when we first arrived in Celadon so I''m fine with giving her Grass Knot to practice with Woody and Thunder Punch to practice with Chardon. Speaking of Chardon, he''s over by himself, like Dill, practicing Metal Claw and perfecting Dragon Rage which is a bit difficult since the moves takes a really long time before you can use a different dragon type move naturally so unless we made it a finishing move it probably won''t see much use; I also made him challenge himself by using Dragon Rage on nearby marked stones and Metal Claw on marked bark so even if he doesn''t master those moves he might learn Cut or Slash or maybe Dragon Pulse hehe. The last one is probably unattainable but who knows. A loud crash just behind me makes turn my body around, from where I was doing squats, and witness Tabs dropped on the floor with a worried Woody next to her. Those two are meant to practice Rollout which is a pretty difficult move for most Pokemon that aren''t rock types... which explains why Tabs has a bruise with a relative size to the tree bark that''s indented next to her. I take a minute from my exercise to console and cheer up Tabs and before you know it, she''s up and rolling again. Woody also seems to be enthusiastic especially since I think after this he''s gonna try to learn Grass Knot and Mimic to finally evolve. Once my training is done, I do some cooldown stretches that mom taught me before relaxing for a couple minutes. Taking my mind off the exhaustion I''m just texting friends and playing chess online, I keep losing whenever my elo goes past 700 but that''s okay, all while listening to some dnb music. Once some time has passed I make Ralts continue practicing her ''sky tactic'' while Beedrill tries to get Agility down and Lupa tries to learn Bite. Woody stays near Ralts so that they could practice Grass Knot together and Tabitha is with them practicing Reflect, more for future plans than anything. Chardon meanwhile is with me so that I can actually cook meals with his tail acting like a stove while he tries to breathe fire out his mouth and get Thunder Punch down. His fire coming from his tail doesn''t have the intensity to shoot out powerful moves like Flamethrower or Fire Blast so I''m trying to come up with exercises for him to use his flame sac, it seems like a mental block thing so I might have to wait for him to evolve. I''m thinking soup. Elian then approached me with a kind of questioning gaze. So I gazed back. He blinked so I win. "Hah winner, winner we''ll be eating chicken for dinner. Since I''m making soup, I already have it precut." His expression then turns confused as he say the eloquent word "What?" I blink a bit before realizing who I was facing. "Oh sorry, I thought we were doing a staring contest, my bff Amy and I would randomly do them and if I won she had to eat whatever I make but if she wins I have to make whatever she wants or it could be for turns on who uses her dads gaming pc or whatever else the winner decides. Sorry, I know you''re not her but, like, I have muscle memory to keep my eyes open whenever somebody pays extra attention." Elian shifted a little, one boot rubbing the other, before saying "...Well I did come over to ask about what you''re cooking but I also wanted to know how you do it." "How I do what?" "How do you like take care of your Pokemon and train them up and remember their moves," me tilting my head clearly doesn''t work as he then looks at me and say" like I know that you have that notebook where you write down movesandstuffofyourteambutIwasalsowonderingbecauseyouclearlydon''tplanonnotcatchingmorePokemonandwiththewayyourgoingaboutthingsitwouldseemlikeitwouldbenearlyimpossibletowinontypedisadvantageeverysingletimebutyoudoitinboththegymbattlesbutalsoagainstregulartrainersand, like *Gasp*, youcouldhavewonagainstthatgirlwiththethreebadgesifyouhadtypeadvantagebutyoudon''tandit''sstillworkingforyousoIguessmybigquestionis; how do you handle training up so many Pokemon when I could barely keep up with training Krabby and Dill?" By the end of it Elian was taking big breathes from talking so fast but clearly it has the attention of everyone present as my team all stop practicing to look at me. I put the spoon I was about to stir the pot with on my chin "I guess its cuz I''m pretty good at multitasking like, uh, before my journey I was part of this karate club after school, the gaming club during lunch, I went to school early as a member of the agriculture club and it was our duty to water the plants around our school and the crops at the roof of it, I learnt cooking in my free time and I still found time to play with Leaf and my friends. So I thought that if I could do all that and still find time to relax by reading or taking naps, then I was sure that I could handle taking care of multiple Pokemon at least more than the traditional team of six you''re supposed to have for the league championship. But when I tried to train wild Pidgey and Rattata or my mom''s Pokemon- well- none would listen to me. So I went to Professor Oak- because he''s basically, like, the Pokemon guru- and I tried asking why they wouldn''t listen and he said "Pokemon listen to people they are willing to spend their lives maybe traveling or staying at the same place until they both grow old." and then got an idea for a haiku. Soon afterwards he started showing up to school and showed us how different trainers had different varying strengths and sizes of teams that they had. I then had the idea to train as many interesting Pokemon I met and to train them up to be as strong as champions if I ever did the gym run. So I guess you kinda have to find out exactly how many Pokemon you can take care of by yourself. It''s just a matter of when not how." Elian was mindlessly rubbing Dill''s little belly as he digested my words. I have to add the veggies in the soup and as I put mushrooms in it Elian nodded before heading a bit away to continue training with his partner, Dill was taken away after giving me the stink eye about the mushrooms. My Pokemon all do the same, Ralts took some carrots and Chardon roasted some corn, and once more we all do what we need to. "Hey, did you read the newest comic of detective danger?" Elian nods and smiles "Yeah it was sooo cool how they introduced Shan the conqueror and then they decide that he''s actually helping them out, I mean that''s crazy cus for the last thirty issues Shan has been villain numero uno and like its absolutely bonkers with epilog-"
I should say that the next couple of days were boring, mainly cuz of the walking, but they did have interesting bits in between. Because I didn''t have any gyms or tournaments planned, still have that Everstone, I could take as many battles as I wanted which half the team was ecstatic about; even if Beedrill, Chardon, and Lupa didn''t like to really show it. I think they have a rivalry thing going on. My entire team was racking up wins with more and more ease as we continued traveling along the road. And with the way that Chardon took to it with more gusto, trying to put more power and energy in his battles, kinda notified me that his evolution was practically any day now. The only issue was that Ralts was being the total opposite and becoming less energetic about battling, which is surprising since she likes battling, any attempts that I try are met with expressions of wanting to still battle so that''s honestly an issue for when we get into a city and I can have a heart to heart on it with a Pokemon translator. Speaking of Ralts and battling, due to the amount of times I''ve had to send my Pokemon back into their balls to naturally heal I''ve changed Ralts''s (Ralts''? Raltses?) plan to now focus on Life Dew; a great move for double battles, some sustain for her, and helping the team out after battles. Plus Mom''s Starmie knows the move and it feels sooo good having the rejuvenating water splash onto your face. The weather forecast on my Nav says that there''s a chance that it might rain today; not heavy rain but like a decent amount, like an inch or two of it. Elian was even more serious about battling but he knew when pushing Dill into more battles was detrimental so I didn''t need to give him any heads up. I think he wants to have Dill evolve but honestly the grass type should only evolve when she starts prepping for her third badge or after the second, somewhere in that line. I said as much but he still wants to try to train her up enough especially considering that Dill is actually like four years old which is practically a teenager in Pokemon terms. Pokemon are classified as babies if they''re three months or younger, and some species have even less time as babies due to the rapid maturity that they may obtain with key examples being dragons, ghosts, steel, and psychic types. Do I want a dragon type? Probably not unless its something calm like a Dratini. Anyway, my team seems to be getting their new moves down even if they are a bit clunky at times. The third day of our off-road traveling is the one where I have an idea of what my team is capable of especially with half the team being close to evolution. So I take a stick and I draw an X on the ground which has the entire present parties attention, except for Beedrill who got sent away to stop a dispute between a Fire type and a group of probably Pidgeotto. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Moving left of the X is a straight line that''s parallel to the X, then one more left is a circle, and once more is another parallel line, then circle, line, circle, and a final line before taking out a pokeball. Sending out Lupa, who got a pretty nasty hit from a grass type, I wait for Beedrill before beginning a debrief of my new and improved ''battle plan 2.0'' now with new additions and ideas. I also give Elian my nav to record my big tactic speech to Leaf and Pearl and any future catches, with Dill on the side practicing Venoshock Tapping the stick to the X on the ground and maintaining eye contact with my entire team I begin "As you can see this is an X," other a huff from Beedrill and a chuckle from Woody there isn''t any talking so I continue "this X represents an opponent in a battle," now I have Beedrill''s attention "and these lines and circles are going to represent roles and the type of battlers you guys are going to be when facing off against opponents." Where I had everyone''s interest I now have their attention. Each of them are practically giddy in anticipation of what these roles might be. Moving the stick to the left once I begin once more "This line here is meant to represent a Pokemon that will be a wall, can take lots of damage, dish some back, and will break any momentum that the opponent may have had previously if she hasn''t already been sent." Immediately Chardon and Ralts knew something was up once they heard she "She will stop opponents and her main role will be to ensure that the opposing trainers will have to counter their main plans around her whenever they want a serious battle. She will almost always be sent first and she will almost always make the battle harder for the opponent. She is the tank, the wall, she is Tabitha." I flourish the stick to point at her as I finish. Suddenly the spotlight is on Tabs, the Pokemon who I unfortunately spent the least time with as she had to be with Professor Oak for a research thing, and immediately she looks at me with a startled expression. "Now the reason why Tabs is the wall and the reason why you guys and Pearl and Leaf aren''t is because Forretress, the evolved form of Tabs, is a known tank and Tabitha herself is pretty tough already; being able to take hits from Chardon and Lupa better than Beedrill before he uses Harden or Ralts before she puts up both screens. With the capability to learn Reflect, Poison Spikes, Spikes, Stealth Rock and Toxic alongside Forretress''s natural ability to withstand almost all attacks except for fire type moves; Tabitha will be the Pokemon that I will always trust to start a battle once we go into the conference." By the end Tabitha seems to be happy crying again before giving a big sniff and nodding with determination in her eyes. I smile before moving the stick to the left again, and now everyone on my team is waiting with anticipation about the circle "This circle is meant to be three Pokemon that are clearly meant to battle up close to their opponents and leave no room for them to prepare or defend themselves," the battling trio are practically giddy about this role and are giving the other two side eyes "these three can have some long range options but they will almost always have speed and strength hand in hand and only use really powerful moves if I, or they, think that they can use them." "The first is Woody," my starter and his two rivals look at the small rock type in shock but I continue on "Leaf," now the three are exchanging side-eyes since they clearly want this role, despite there being (1,2,3,4-) 7 roles available and they haven''t even heard 5 of them yet "and finally Lupa." The rocky canine is jumping for joy like he won a marathon while Beedrill and Chardon are now sitting in a corner really glum. "I''ll explain this role first before going into Beedrill''s role," that causes the poison type to perk up slightly "now the key thing about this role is that the three I mentioned are going to be training so that they are impossible to beat up close but they will also be training so that it''s impossible for the opponent to be too far away. They''ll use moves to increase their speed and Woody will be the only one with the option to increase his defense. The key thing to note is that Leaf already has a clear cut plan I''ve already got for her and Woody is not only a close range fighter but he''s also a sort of wildcard, uh, but I will need to talk with Lupa about what Lycanroc form he wants to evolve into since one form has speed while the other form has power and gives a lot of dark moves. But that''s for later once we''re in a town and I can actually research about Sudowoodo and Lycanroc." Tapping the stick to the second line which Beedrill paid rapt attention to "This is a disruptor which is a Pokemon that severely hinders opponents but also takes their time when doing so. The opponent will typically not suspect the disruptor other than thinking that they''re annoying but what they won''t realize is that the disruptor is critical in breaking the opponents Pokemon, as many as this role can face off against. Beedrill is in this category since he''s currently learning Agility, Double Team, and pretty soon Fell Stinger now that you''ve evolved. You should also learn Toxic like Tabs and Venoshock like Dill is trying to do but those are plans for later. The disruptor doesn''t learn flashy or powerful moves but you will take down the opponent however long it might take, that I can promise." Beedrill nods and even though he''s got really a lot of really tiny eyes, it''s kinda easy to see the fire in them. The stick moves onto the second circle "This category is a mid range fighter which is what Chardon and Pearl will be." Chardon nods in understanding but doesn''t do much else. "This role can fight from up close and from far away and they have the luxury unlike the past two roles to use really powerful moves such as Solarbeam for Chardon as coverage against rock and water types or Blizzard for Pearl against grass types. But you will also have really strong moves of your typing. The key thing is that you two will be able to have enough space to set the weather and I''ll be training you guys so that you can always find time to use a buff and or debuff move. No status moves except for maybe Fire Spin and Toxic cuz I''ve heard Clamperl can learn that over in Sinnoh." The stick moves over the third line and instead looms over the third circle. I note that Ralts stiffens up somewhat because she knows that this is addressing her. ... "That''s all for now," she snaps her head up "the last three are long range disruptor which will be a Pokemon that can stand not being close to the opponent like a Whimsicott, the circle is a long range fighter like Gothitelle or Glalie, and the final last is a long range wall like Slowbro who handle hits but mainly stays away. Elian, mind passing the nav over?" An uncomfortable silence dawns on the group as they realize I skipped over the last three roles and didn''t touch on one of my Pokemon. Elian notices the uncomfortable atmosphere but he hands me the nav nonetheless. "Raltts can I talk to you for a bit? In private please." I specify and now she''s shaking slightly, the others start protesting against me doing whatever I''m going to do. She walks to me though, slow steps but they''re still taken nonetheless. I walk a bit away from the others until I know I''m out of their earshot. I take a deep breath and decide to adress the Copperajah in the room. "Is something wrong Ralts?" she shakes her head in denial "Then how come you''ve been scared to battle?" She freezes up. I sigh a little, more from her thinking that she could hide it "I''d just like to know what I''m doing wrong so I fix it and make things right with you. Am I training you wrong?" She looks at me with wide eyes before rapidly shaking her head "Then do you hate battling because if you do then that''s fine, I''ll still be your trainer if that''s the case, and we could try contests or you could be a companion in our travels." I take care not to say any negative words like ''just'' or ''I''m not mad'' but she still shakes her head. This is gonna be a tough pill to swallow "D-do you not wanna be my Pokemon?" She teleports and tackles into me... crying now but shaking her head nonetheless. I whisper as soothingly as I can to her, one hand rubbing the blue hair and orange spike thing. "Then what''s the problem?" She takes a few seconds to stop crying before her body is outlined by psychic energy. Slowly something comes into view. My Pok¨¦dex. Before I can question it she opens the dex and her little hands type away on the keys. A mechanical blurb is said out loud, she must have toggled the function. ''Kirlia the evolved form of Ralts, the emotion Pokemon. It is said that a Kirlia that is exposed to the positive emotions of its Trainer grows beautiful. This Pok¨¦mon controls psychokinetic powers with its highly developed brain.'' It takes a bit before I come up with the correct question. "Do you not want to evolve?" She nods, rapidly, vigorously, and looking down all the while. "Okay." I reply nonchalantly. She snaps her head and looks at me incredulously; which causes me to laugh. "If you didn''t wanna evolve you could''ve just asked. You saw how I was fine with Leaf not evolving into a Sylveon, I''m fine with you not evolving. Plus it doesn''t change your actual battling style at all, instead it makes me prioritize it over other training plans I had for you alongside a couple minor revisions for the future." With every word, Ralts was beginning to look more and more hopeful. "Plus, I wouldn''t be a good trainer to you guys if I forced you to evolve, you know. Pearl doesn''t wanna be a Huntail even though I could have evolved her in Celadon since Deep-Sea Fangs are wayyy cheaper than Deep-Sea Scales, so I won''t evolve her into one. Oh that reminds me, let''s head back now." my wording on the last sentence got her curiosity. When we head back into camp it''s like there''s pin drop silence. Tabs, Woody and Chardon show the most emotion but to my surprise even Beedrill is worried. Lupa seems to be napping probably to continue recovering from our latest fight so I don''t know his opinion. I look around before saying "False alarm guys, Ralts just doesn''t wanna evolve." I then head over to my backpack before retrieving a thin floss and loop it around a little rock, and add a couple other colors into it just for craftings'' sake. Once I look away from the project I head back to Ralts who''s still looking nervous. Bending down causes her to shut her eyes and stiffen but when nothing happens she opens them and looks towards her left hand. A left hand with a friendship bracelet holding an everstone in between. "Now whenever you want to evolve later down the line, all you have to do is take the bracelet off." It takes a couple seconds for the words to compute inside her head before it snaps up to look at me, but she puts a hand on the back of her neck since she''s been doing that a lot lately. Then water falls down her cheeks. I flail around a bit trying to see what''s wrong but it turns out she''s doing a Tabitha and giving happy tears because not a moment later she smiles and hugs me. Oh right "Uhh, if any of you don''t wanna evolve then just tell me and I''ll get more everstones okay." I say with a thumbs up. Everyone just looks at me dumbfounded about something, which makes it feel like I made a mistake somewhere. Oh well. Wait that reminds me "Ralts? Why were you freaking out about our talk anyway, couldn''t you have checked my emotions or mind or something?" She looks at me and slaps a hand on her head before putting signing the numbers one and two. Huh, she could''ve checked my mind. Sweet. That means silent tactics in my head when she battles. Mondo cool. Anyway I probably should talk about her role now... since she won''t be turning into a Gardevoir and much less a Kirlia I guess she isn''t a long range fighter anymore but instead a long range disruptor. She''ll probably have to learn Hypnosis, Confuse Ray, Dream Eater, Will-O-Wisp, and a couple other moves like Disable because she won''t have as much power in her moves. I say as much to the team and they all decide to look past whatever was the weird thing and started talking with each other. Lupa even woke up when I was talking about Ralts'' (What is the plural of Ralts anyway?) role in the team, which kinda makes me think he wasn''t sleeping at all. Her actual training plan hasn''t changed but some moves will be harder for her to learn later down the line so I really need her to practice molding type energy once she learns enough to be a menace in the battlefield. She''ll also need to increase her durability and running speed since she won''t get the natural benefits of evolution to better handle hits in the future plus Double Team works better for Pokemon with speed to their name. ...Dad did have a Ponyta on his team. He always felt warm. Anyway, after telling the team and sending the video over to mom, so that she could show the bits for Leaf and Pearl, it was kinda time to begin moving again since we were only gonna rest our feet for half an hour and practice. The Nav says that we''re practically right beside the next town so it stood to reason that we could walk even during the night to register to their Pokemon Center. The walk had us encountering a few other trainers who were willing to battle but they sadly informed us that it''s still gonna take half a day to reach HopHopHop town. The battles had Ralts in all of them and she was showing more passion in them than ever before, which was great, and she managed to perfect the ''sky tactic'' in the last one which had her win against two different Pokemon and severely weaken the Pidgeotto who managed to find Ralts up in the air and quickly knocked her out with an Aerial Ace. Honestly, everyone on the team was ecstatic about battling once they heard their roles and the only one who didn''t get a chance was Beedrill simply because Tabitha knocked out the Pidgeotto and won. Also he needed to sleep early so I kinda forced him to do so beforehand. Actually my entire team needed rest after the intense battling and the only ones who had enough energy to deny it were Ralts and Chardon. One was happily kicking their legs while sitting atop my backpack and the other decided to walk with me the entire time. By the time we decided to hunker down and have dinner it had already been midnight. There was a bit of trouble where Pokemon were being scared from a Snubbul but once I explained that that was the way he looked the nearby Pokemon, which were mainly Poliwag and Oddish, tried to befriend him and as thanks we got some neat berries. It was only when it was time to sleep that I noticed something coming our way and dangerously fast. "Elian move, somethings nearby." He groggily listened to me and we both sent out kept our Pokemon close to us. The bush on our right began rustling. Now our right. Then out of nowhere powder was suddenly above us. "Ralts use Reflect and Light Screen and box us in!" The psychic does so and in a flash purple screens are reflected all around us, illuminating the surrounding field alongside our campfire. Looking at the spores its easy to tell that they''re sleep spores by the white and green coloring. From the light we saw small little orange bugs, each of them having two small mushrooms growing on their backs. I took out the Pok¨¦dex for a second to see confirm in case they were dittos, the dex then showed the information:
Name Paras
Type Bug, Grass
Ability Dry Skin
The ability was all I really needed listed. See, Paras typically lose consciousness once they evolve due to their mushroom but it was noticed that Paras and Parasect with the Dry Skin ability would have shriveled mushrooms that were too weak to hijack the evolution process especially in Alola where the climate is extremely hot and humid; that was actually where they found this out. Apparently the mushrooms already knew about it or got tipped off by scientists because it caused a big fight between Parasect that had Dry Skin and Parasect that didn''t and even now the Parasect without will, without fail, attack and try to kill the members of their species with that specific ability and attempt to destroy any eggs of those specific members. Dry Skin means that the Parasect that is leading them has a consciousness but it also means that Chardon can handle them. My rule of not using type effective Pokemon put to the wayside when there is actual danger involved. "Ralts open up one wall. Chardon head in and fight, fire moves will be really really really effective okay so don''t use them a lot since just one hit might knock them down." Any energy he might have expended in the previous battles was seemingly recovered once he noticed he was fighting against a Pokemon he was naturally super strong against. He knew that meant this was serious. Elian orders Dill out as well to box a Paras, probably to catch it once I relayed the ability to him. There were a dozen little bugs that were trying to hit Chardon with Scratch or Absorb or something else but they all got knocked to the wayside by uses of Ember or Metal Claw since it could deflect moves better than Fire Punch. Some did hit him and on any other day it wouldn''t matter but so soon after a tough battle the shallow injuries were piling up and would lead to exhaustion. Pretty soon, after Chardon had already demolished all the current Paras and Elian caught the one that Dill successfully used Venoshock on, the big kahuna of the Paras had appeared. With semi-translucent eyes it was clear that this Parasect had control over its body and could therefore strategize. It looked at Elian and myself before focusing on Ralts, Chardon, and Dill who were the only three out. It sprayed some powder out, except this was laced with multiple colors, and charged Dill only to immediately disengage due to an impromptu Fire Spin from Chardon''s tail. Ralts could only keep the barriers around Elian and myself because it was too dangerous for us to breathe the spores so Chardon, who was too far away, unfortunately inhaled some of them and looked a little purple. Good thing I have a couple antidote sprays in my bag but I can''t actually use them since my starter is too far away. "Use Acid Spray!" "Position it and fire an Ember, then get in close and Metal Claw to hook it." The upside of being poisoned was that Chardon couldn''t be affected by most other status effects but poison was the deadliest of them all so I had a clock ticking over the fire types head. The Parasect moved once more with the glow of bug energy and moved in a zig zag formation that caused Dill to miss the globs of poison it fired off while Chardon had a similar experience with Ember; moving close Chardon countered what was likely X-Scissors with his steel move using one fist while the bug type used both its pincers. Being slightly pushed back by the momentum and not being able to put his all into stopping the attack due to the poison in his veins, Chardon got slashed on his chest by the not very effective move. His already bruised body was thrown back with a very deep cut into his scales and it was taking his all just to get back up. "Finish it off Chardon!" He snapped open his eyes and roared- the first I''ve ever heard from him- and raged, orangish aura surrounding his body as he jumped back up. Poisoned and tired all the while but clearly he obtained a second wind. Blaze. This was Blaze? Vali''s Fennekin didn''t have nearly as much a change in power or her aura when she obtained it. Whatever. Fight now, think later. "Use Fire Spin to cut off an exit then use Fire Punch!" I''m yelling. Why am I yelling? Why am I sweating? Chardon used Fire Spin, the move flowing above the bug types head before running down and blocking off any escape points for our opponent. With nowhere to go but forward, Parasect charged Chardon with a normal type move which was probably Scratch yet it looked far stronger. Undeterred, my fire type retaliated the move with a far brighter Fire Punch; the flames a bright red with splashes of orange mixed in between as he matched and subsequently overpowered the opposing Pokemon. Parasect, noticing that the fire was getting brighter the longer time went on, tried to move back but Chardon grabbed both pincers in his now steel infused claw before letting loose the strongest Flamethrower I''ve witnessed. His mouth ajar as bright orange flames came barreling out of his throat and straight towards the dry skinned opponent. When he cut it off, all that was in front of him was a charred and far too damaged Parasect. It had fainted though. I screamed in delight. He roared in acknowledgment. Bright light encapsulated his form. By this point Ralts had let down the barriers protecting us so I ran straight at my starter. The light had barely faded before I tackled him. Our bodies tumbling down to the charred grass and dirt with us laughing because of the amazing job of my starter. Eventually we both unraveled from our hug and stood up so that I could take a look at him. His orange scales became a dark red and his white belly changed into a creamy color. With a horn on his head and an elongated nostril Chardon had a smirk on his face but his muscles were still clenched... oh right he''s poisoned, I''m literally an idiot for forgetting gosh darn it. I run over to my bag to administer him with some antidote but it was plain to see that the damage had still been done. So I asked Elian if we could just skip sleeping and jog to the nearest city, which he was perfectly fine with doing most likely due to the incident that almost got us captured and, in a worst case scenario, maybe killed. I noticed Ralts still standing where she was previously when the Paras infiltration tried attacking us so I motioned for her to come along. She teleported onto my backpack and Elian and I began walking towards the next town. "So... what kinda dessert do you wanna eat for catching your first Pokemon?" Chapter 17 The city ended up being another hour away, by the half hour mark we started seeing lights from the city as the stars started disappearing due to the light pollution. That was something everybody learned in survival class. Once we entered there was a big sign on the side of the road which said the cities name. "Look, this place is called HopHopHop town." Elian being too sleepy to really pay attention asks "Why is it called that?" "Apparently the creator of the town loved Hoppip so he named the city after his twenty Hoppip he always had around." "Oka- There''s no way you just have this in your head." "Well... the plaque here says that." A thud occurred behind me which turned out to be Elian''s face on the floor. He put his hands on the ground and pushed himself up saying "I''m okay, I''m okay, just really really reallyreally tired." Now that was something I was sympathetic about. The conversation ended as we found a patrolling Officer Jenny looking around with a little machine, apparently some kids were missing and there were a lot of psychic energy around me which was probably because of Ralts. We went off on our merry path as we now had instructions to the Pokemon Center. She also gave a warning that having a Pokemon use moves on a person can have weird effects that might take a while to notice. We registered our teams, Elian giving a warning about Paras being a new capture and me informing them that Chardon had evolved, before getting keys to our respective rooms and heading to them. Ralts was injured from battling other trainers but she decided to stay with me for whatever reason so I obliged and let her. Most the damage was superficial anyway and having an Oran berry and some zzz''s would fix her right up anyway. The bed''s of the Center are always comfortable enough to sleep in, better than my sleeping bag at least, so it was pretty easy to rest. The bustling noise of the city made it kinda hard though.
Ralts got comfortable on her trainers bed, sharing the pillow together as the two of them were too exhausted. ... still. The act of evolution was a phenomenon that many were privy to but very few achieved it within a battle. It was the ability to transcend ones built in limits and allowed one to reach farther than one imagined. A month ago it was a joyous act that allowed those who could climb mountains to shine brighter than stars. Now it was a leash that reminded her of her previous obligations. Ralts wants to evolve since it meant she could return home to father. Ralts doesn''t want to evolve since it meant she had to return to father. And now she was sleeping alongside the human that had showed her ice cream, cake, cookies, and other joys such as the joy of winning battles. She had a team of friends and companions; she was even getting along with the damn Beedrill for Legendaries'' sake! She sighed in frustration which was momentarily halted as she dug her body even deeper into the bed, hoping to make a comfortable impression on the soft memory foam. It was softer than the leaves she would sleep on before being caught. The noise from the outside was annoying though, but not scary like the sounds within the forest at night or even midday. Like the day she nearly died to that Scyther. She wants to evolve... but father never said when she had to; just that she did. Shakily grabbing the Pokedex from her trainers bag using her psychic abilities, Ralts began perusing the known list of moves that she could learn. She memorized them, word for word, every effect of each move and the typical power that can be brought out. It was easy to stay awake due to the loud noises outside. She would be this long range disruptor... but she wouldn''t stop with just harassing the opponent, no no, she had plans to grow as strong as any other Pokemon. All to repay the debt she had both as a friend and a Pokemon her trainer had saved.
Waking up was easy, it''s just opening an eyelid and then another eyelid. Getting up is way harder. Counting to three before getting out of bed, I notice that Ralts is still sleeping pretty heavy so I pull the blanket over her before heading to the bathroom. Makes sense she would tucker out from all that battling the past few days. Since I probably will take some time to meet gramps I guess I can focus more on just plain battling instead of doing the gym challenge for a few weeks at least. After using the bathroom I head to the waiting area to receive the rest of my team. "All your Pokemon appear to be healthy, if a bit tuckered out from the injuries they''ve sustained." I nod along to Nurse Joy''s assessment "Other than trying to ease your Charmeleon into his new body, your Pokemon are all without any health complications. We hope to see you again." The thing about Chardon seems a lot like what happened with Beedrill once he got his wings and legs. Simple enough. Heading back into my room has me noticing the slight scuff on Chardon''s ball, the one I''ve had the longest and used the most out of anyone on my team, and pretty soon I''m tippy tapping in happiness as I walk back to Ralts. Ralts is still asleep so I make sure to busy myself with making food from whatever I still have in my bag and a little extra to celebrate. Ralts starts to stir by the time everything is nearly made so I take it as the cue to send the rest of the team out. Everyone begins to wake up once they''re sent onto the rug in the middle so I guess they were also sleeping in the suspension thing the pokeball uses. "Hey guys, big news. Chardon want to tell ''em?" They all look tot the orange lizard only to double take at the dark red lizard who preened at the attention, even if he didn''t want to show it. The entire team was giving their complete attention towards the fire type as they yipped and yapped and made a bunch of other sounds as they demanded the story from the one who evolved. Chardon meanwhile was trying to get the team to calm down so he could actually speak which gave me time to finish up the breakfast treats for each of them. By the time they had finished harassing Chardon I had finished some nice treats for each of them, some were blended for Tabitha. Beedrill woke up Ralts so that she could eat and in a few minutes we all dug in into breakfast. Once we ate I searched up the nearest laundromat and headed there with Elian to clean up our clothes we used. The time we spent waiting for our clothes was spent browsing videos or checking up the forums to take notes of some moves we might teach our Pokemon later. "So how''s Paras doin''?" Elian took a second before replying "He''s a bit aggressive but he''s stopped trying to attack me, so I think it might be going well. Honestly, its a bit more trouble than Dill ever gave me but I think since she''s stronger that I''ll be able to handle Paras if he does attack." we spoke a few more words with each other before we ended the conversation to look at our devices. The forums didn''t really have anything new on how to train a Ralts, Clamperl, or a Rockruff so I decided to check my match out. It seemed to get more views now more than ever and a lot of people realized I was going with type disadvantage Pokemon on purpose which apparently gave me a lot of hype because its never been done by generalists but a lot of people were still commenting about how I should have used my fire and bug types in the grass gym. I decided to reply with ''thats too boring don''t you think?'' which got a lot of people raging really quickly, it was easy to give thanks for praise and I did say thanks to the guy that pointed out that I should do some smell resistance for Lupa and my other Pokemon to prevent what happened with Gloom; that was pretty smart and something I hadn''t actually considered before. Rubbing the Pokemon egg from last month has me remembering that it might hatch soon, if the pokedex indications were right. Should probably get some metal since most steel types eat iron and other minerals like emeralds, plus I still have that bag of food from the opening ceremony if they really need it. Gramps is gonna be really happy if it hatches before then, he''s been really excited to see the team in person for a really long time. Too bad grandma and grandpa are over in Olivine otherwise I could show them too, I guess I could travel there at the end of the year so it''s not that big a deal. The washing machines finished their cycles so we shoved our clothes into a dryer and headed to gather stuff, I was gathering some metal while Elian was looking for highly nutritious plant stuff for Paras and Dill which was next to some really expensive dirt. The rest of the day was just training and battling to break Chardon into his evolution; which was easier said than done since the trainers here mostly fielded grass types and the ones headed for Erika mainly had bug and fire types. Some guy tried to trick me by sending out his Ponyta against Lupa in the beginning but it was a pretty easy match for him since all he did was use a couple Rock Throw''s and knocked it out. I kept him in and then he had an easier time fighting the guys Weepinbell since he was stuttering a lot. Overall, I was getting a new win streak after losing it the first time just yesterday and since we were in a city it meant I could battle without any reservations on keeping a party member out for safety. A whopping seventeen battles against different trainers with more than one Pokemon for each of them had thoroughly exhausted my team so I thought it was a good idea to take them to a park nearby to relax. The picnic was really nice and soon afterwards we found this gang of kids that were all pretending to be Pokemon. Half the team, the battling fanatics, wandered off elsewhere while the other half decided to stay with me. "Oh, Chardon," he grunts in acknowledgement "do you mind keeping the egg safe? I''d rather trust it with you than keep it here where I might forget it or someone might bump into it while playing." He looked at me with an ''are you serious'' kinda face before nodding and taking the canister that the egg was held in before following the other two with a skip in his step, even if he would deny it if I ever brought it up. We all played until sunset but by then they should''ve had their parents come around and start picking them up. Any questions were rebuked with them going "Bulba" or "Woopah" or something else so I got weirded out and looked around. Then I noticed that barely anyone was in the park in the first place aside from a couple who had a baby in a stroller. Luckily the Officer Jenny from yesterday arrived with the wandering three, though they all had scratch marks and bruises now. "Young man, are these three your Pokemon?" "Yeah, these guys were bored so I told them to wander around the park." "Then are you aware that they had left this park and were found battling a local gang in nearby alleyways?" Wait that doesn''t sound right. I look at the three of them but they seem to not keep eye contact, they were looking down on the floor. "Well, unless they had a good reason for disobeying my orders," they all shrunk down "that would mean that they''d be banned from battling for a really long while. Especially because they fought a group of dangerous people without my permission or even my knowledge." Lupa and Beedrill both jolted at that and then began pointing to a Pokemon that was a bit away from us. Said Pokemon had scratches, bruises, and some scorch marks on their body but they still had the strength to glare at my three. The most notable feature though was that they only had on hand and the other looked like a stump that the disabled usually had. "Did that Pokemon do something while you were in the park?" The two nodded and Chardon shrunk down. They then pointed to the egg that was notably with the officer next to them. "Did they take the egg away?" All three nodded, Chardon slower than the other two. "One moment please." Excusing myself I headed to purple and white Pokemon that was behind some trees, who was glaring at me now that I was approaching. I sit down in front of them and stare long enough that they break eye contact first before taking a question. "Why did you take the egg?" They moved their right hand a little as purple energy cascaded around their body and outlined a clump of dirt, then they pulled their hand closer to themselves to gather some dirt using a psychic move or something. Showing images as she spoke in Pokemon.
Earlier
"Do you really require having to carry that egg around? We could be doing training for our roles." Said a yellow and black striped Pokemon "I''ll have you know that as starter it is just as much my responsibility to monitor and help the team with progressing. Both old and new members." Said a dark red Pokemon "But what if the thing that hatches is too baby to even fight in that conference thing master talks about." Whoofed the brown canine Pokemon walking alongside them. "If it cannot battle or chooses not to then the leader shall decide how to raise it, until then I will carry out this duty granted to me. It might be a test of faith for us." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. "Oh? And you speak as if the boy has a dedicated passion for battling, we all have seen how he prefers to not send us out in battle most of the time. He considers it a waste even if he tries not to show it." "So many eyes now that you are a Beedrill and yet you are still so blind?" Beedrill harrumph''s at that "Can you both not see the gains that we have achieved as his Pokemon, he may not love battling as much as his fellow man but he still pursues it with a passion. You cannot fault the candle for not burning as bright as the sun." "You''re right I guess, master does give lots of tips and stuff on how I can improve and fight and train and roles and a bunch of other stuffs." Seeing that he was quickly losing his compatriot he questioned "But Lupa, what if he decides to stop battling altogether since he doesn''t have the passion to stay the course?" Lupa gasped and then ran in front of the other two as if it was a big deal "Guys, I don''t wanna stop fighting! I love fighting!" "He won''t stop anytime soon and even if he did everyone knows that a fire can only burn for so long. When he inevitable" conceding this point "retires as a traveller I am certain that he will still have time for more casual battling such as the ones he partook in just today, though under smaller scales and with less focus. Actually, it might be fun to battle against other trainers without any orders ourselves." That got Lupa to calm down. He didn''t really care about how important a fight was so long as it was rigorous and blood pumping, and a battle where the other person has the advantage is always a tough battle. Beedrill similarly didn''t care but he found that talks like this where he played Giratina''s advocate were more enjoyable. He saw before one of those water dispensing things where the metal box would throw water in the air for one''s mouth to catch and feeling quite competitive he motioned to the other two. "How about we wager who can spill the least water from that metal box? The winner gets to receive the boys full attention next time we train." Despite knowing that it was a trap, Chardon decided to humor the Beedrill especially since a one on one training session was too good an opportunity to pass up. He left the canister holding the egg on the bench next to the water fountains and got into position alongside the other two. On the count of three they immediately pressed down the button that would send water out and with Extreme Speed began guzzling down the water, making sure the others weren''t spilling any to drink from it faster. Unbeknownst to them, a hungry Pidgeotto had taken notice of the unguarded egg when it was scanning for food. It flew at astounding speeds to steal the egg, only to be deterred by a blazing speed Ember. Quickly sidestepping the attack the Pidgeotto continued towards its prey, only to block twin stingers with its wings. It was then pushed back towards an unfamiliar dog Pokemon that had a clear dark energy around its fangs. It was able to barrel roll away from the fangs but couldn''t account for the Metal Claw that slashed its back. Thinking that this was too much trouble for a simple egg, the Pidgeotto flew away to find food elsewhere. "That was way too close! We''re heading back right now!" Chardon growled, flames licking out of his snout in anger. Beedrill was much less worried "Relaaax worrywart, the egg is still here right?" Beedrill pointed to the bench where the egg was placed and- "Where''s egg?" Lupa asked "..." ... "SHIT WE LOST THE EGG!?!" Beedrill and Chardon yelled. They quickly began searching around in a perimeter. Beedrill employing Agility while Lupa used Trailblaze to boost their speed so that they could quickly find the egg. It was the fire type who found the egg first, or rather the person who had taken the egg. Looking at the fire type with disdain is a purple and white bipedal Pokemon, Chardon noticed how one of its hands was a stump while the other had three fingers. It also had downwards spiral horns and pink markings above the eyes. Under more normal circumstances Chardon would resort to diplomacy first considering that this Pokemon was clearly disabled; however as a Charmeleon he now had quite the temper so he addressed the strange Pokemon by saying "What the hell are you doing with my egg!?!" "The beh''er question is why ya left it unguarded ya daft sod." She easily replied, and he knew it was a she from the voice. "That Pidgeoh''o could''a stole this egg." Taking a deep breath since what she was saying was the truth, Chardon continued with "That egg belongs to my trainer. And he entrusted me with keeping it safe and showing it that stupid park. I am going to take it back and make sure this never happens again alright. Now, could you please give me back the egg? You can even come with me and pity my trainer for having really stupid Pokemon if you want." Her glare lightened as she smirked at the self jab "Hmm I don''t kn-" Suddenly a group of humans wearing black clothing appeared. "Well, well, well look what we have here. An egg, a Charmeleon, and resident pink ass." The glare that was leaving the unidentified Pokemon was back in full force as she held the egg tightly against her chest. Chardon could practically smell the greed rolling off these five punks. He also counted eight pokeballs in the group. Odds like that weren''t the best but if he made a ruckus he could attract the attention of the local police force or hopefully his trainer. There was a part of him, a sizable part, that believed he could take all of them by himself; he squashed that part down and brought himself back to reality. "I''ll fight, you take the egg back to the park. My trainer has Pokemon that can help, a Ralts that can Teleport you and the egg away if you need it." The wild Pokemon looked at him in shock, who was this self-sacrificing hero and what did he do with the bumbling lizard that was here ten seconds ago. "You''re the Arch-Bishop of Banterbury if you think I''m gonna leave you here with these sod-" "I don''t care!" She flinched at his tone which got the groups attention "The egg is the most important thing alright, keep it safe; that is an order." Wordlessly, the Pokemon took a step back then another but the group of harassing trainers had sent out five Pokemon to box the two in. The group consisted of Pokemon native to Kanto and Johto: a Ponyta, a Murkrow, a Golbat, a Houndour, and a Pinsir. The egg thief flinched at the Murkrow and Pinsir so odds were they were super effective against her. Chardon didn''t care. With a powerful roar he gathered the attention of the group when he used Fire Spin to clear a path for the purple Pokemon who quickly took it and ran full force in between the spiraling move and away from the group, heading deeper into the city. "Split up, Anthony and Corrin beat her ass and take the egg. Houndour use Crunch." Before Chardon could stop the two and their Pokemon from getting away, he had to dodge the dark move aimed at him. Now he was left with the Murkrow, Golbat, and Houndour who were all firing off attacks in sync with each other which implied that they were used to fighting with advantageous odds. Unfortunately for them, Chardon was familiar with the exact opposite. Using Metal Claw to block the Wing Attack of the Golbat, Chardon aimed his tail and fired an Ember at the Murkrow who was about to take a swing at him. The attack was blocked by the Houndour who seemed to get stronger from getting hit so it would be annoying but he couldn''t wastefully fire his own typing around. Moving quickly, he smacked a Fire Spin on the Golbat as he fired an unstable Sunny Day from his mouth which blew itself up immediately in front of the other two who got blinded by the explosion. Seizing the opportunity Chardon ran towards the Houndour whilst setting up Dragon Dance to further boost his power as he quickly socked the mutt with a boosted Thunder Punch. The Houndour flew away as Murkrow blew Gust onto Chardon who couldn''t see the Golbat who used Payback and hit Chardon with twice as much power as he initially hit. Undeterred, Chardon rolled with the hit before jumping and whacking the Murkrow with Thunder Punch and nearly knocking the stupid bird out. He ran to finish the job but was body blocked by Golbat who had used Zen Headbutt to block him. Under his trainers command Chardon would have used a quick Beat Up and quickly ran to finish the job with Murkrow; however, he was not with his trainer and decided to use Thunder Punch again as the Golbat was a flying type and electric really hurts flying types. The two then contested for a moment and were stuck in place until they were broken apart as Chardon was hit by the Houndour who used Foul Play to inflict serious damage. Chardon had his back to a wall, figuratively and literally, since he needed to go and ensure the egg was safe but he couldn''t do that because he was ganged up on and even if he did faint one of the Pokemon it still wouldn''t matter since one of the trainers here had one in reserve. All he could do was trust that the female Pokemon had ran to the park with the egg. He swore that thing would never leave his sight before picking himself up and giving a cutesy Growl, the smirk on his lips ensured that the Pokemon knew he was using it mockingly. The Houndour and Golbat came at him with full force using Zen Headbutt and Foul Play again so he did the most logical thing. He waited. And waited. And only when they were right on top him did he jump. A calculated jump that pushed him on top of the heads of both Pokemon before using the both of them as springboards to push himself towards the surprised Murkrow who couldn''t dodge the rapidly approaching Fire Punch. ''One fainted'' Chardon thought. Looking back he saw that the Golbat and Houndour were rushing to him again so he blew out Smokescreen. The two were enveloped by the hot, ashy smoke for a short time as Golbat immediately began flapping its wings to blow the smoke apart. It didn''t notice the fire type in the air that bashed the back of his head with a Thunder Punch. It crashed down onto the ground only to be struck once more with a Metal Claw that saw it flying into one of the humans. ''Two fainted'' He thought Now the Houndour was scared, its partners in battling had fainted. "What are you whimpering for! Use Mud Shot or Foul Play or something!" The Houndour jolted straight from the voice of his trainer and gathered a brown energy towards his mouth. Seeing this unfold, Chardon moved quickly and gathered all his draconic energy towards his mouth before firing off Dragon Rage. The two attacks met in the air but one plowed through the other and try as he might, the Houndour was too slow to dodge the dragon move that promptly knocked it out. ''Three fainted'' Chardon thought before roaring out "Who''s next?!?" The three recalled their Pokemon before the one who had the houndour sent out a Pokemon he was somewhat familiar with. "Ariados, circle him and Toxic" An immediate Fire Spin was dodged as the bug type spun webs to move on the walls, making it harder to actually catch the bug and poison type. ''This is gonna take longer than I anticipated,'' thought Chardon ''hopefully she''ll have returned to the leader.''
She was having a real rotten time now. First it was rough enough as it were to find any decent meals here in the dump of a region called Kanto. Then there were those bumbling fools who left an egg out in the public where any Ekans or Pidgeotto would easily find their latest snack. Now she has to run with that same egg since one of those fools had told her to run away and protect it from the local gang. She body blocked the latest Ember aimed at her to ensure the egg was safe as she ran full force from alleyway into alleyway trying to maneuver herself towards the other two bumbling idiots and their stupid trainer. Pinsir was right above her but a quick use of Psychic to throw a nearby chair had thrown the bug back again. She didn''t know why she was putting so much effort into keeping the egg safe but right now she couldn''t find a damn to give that question. If she ran a little more she could find a station filled with Bobbies. She tripped. Somehow she already knew that as she had already positioned her back to the floor to protect the egg. "Well *huff huff* well *huff* look who the Meowth dragged in." One of them bad eggs spoke. Frankly, she was too terrified to give a response as her actions caught up to her. "Pinsir, take off her other hand to show what happens when someone messes with us." Fear gripped her and refused to let her go. Each step that bug type towards her was another reminder to never stick out, then she wouldn''t have been caught and wouldn''t have lost her hand. Just as the Pinsir was upon her a loud buzzing noise filled the air. It was then promptly followed by a body that flew so fast that she didn''t realize that the Pinsir was thrown away from her and into a wall. She dared to look up and saw- "I told you that was egg. Smelt like egg too." "You said the same thing at least ten times already, so sorry I didn''t take you seriously." -bumbling idiots two and three. Someone just kill her now. One of the humans spoke up "Tch, reinforcements huh? We''ll just beat their asses and sell ''em off." The other human giving a "Yeah" in agreement. The bee thing motioned to her "Now, why do you have the egg?" She couldn''t stop herself from replying with "Cuz you idiots were fine with leavin'' it as Pidgey food." He chuckled at the accusation (who the hell chuckles at that) and nodded before motioning to the humans who sent out two more Pokemon "And what about these humans." He spoke with venom at the last word which surprised the Pokemon; doesn''t he belong to a human? "Wanna steal the egg and sell it off, bumbling idiot one told me to run away and find your trainer if I could. He''s by himself against three others." The bee nodded along before readying himself up. The dog next to him having already knocked out the Ponyta. The human who recalled the fire type was now freaking out "That''s that same Rockruff I fought earlier today. Shit its that trainers Pokemon, the one with two badges." She placed that info in the back of her head, it meant something precious to have more than one badge and it explained these three''s strength she witnessed during this whole escapade. "And why should we care?" "I said his Pineco was shit when it got beaten by a Spearow and the bastard sicced that mutt on Ponyta and Weepinbell." Human number two simply said "Relax, he ain''t here so the mutt and his pal don''t have any friends to help ''em, remember." That calmed human one down as he motioned his little grass type to focus on the ''Rockruff'' as he was called. This seemed to be a bad call as the little dog had already reached the grass type and was throwing it around with a Fire Fang. The Beedrill had moved forwards and knocked out a fellow psychic type with a bug move that was used once but had hit the opposing yellow Pokemon twice. The two then ganged up on the Pinsir that tried to retaliate with a Rock Blast only to faint from a Poison Sting and Snarl that struck it. "Let''s get outa here." Human number one said. Human number two nodded and began running only to be stopped by a giant fire type dog and a very angry copper, one o'' them Jenny''s. "I believe the two of you are going to be really sorry now." She said. Only then did Indeedee relax.
Now
"So to summarize, you stole the egg while they were drinking water and then some guys in a gang found you and Chardon, then Chardon ended up fighting four different Pokemon to help protect the egg and you as well. Then afterwards, Lupa and Beedrill found you and took down another four Pokemon together. Is that basically it?" The Pokemon then shifted the dirt to show a picture of a Pidgeotto "And you stole the egg because of the Pidgeotto." they nodded. "Hmm, well I''m kinda disappointed that they didn''t keep the egg with themselves," She looked at me with a harder glare "but I can''t really be too mad if a psychic type nabbed the egg when they did make sure the egg wasn''t in harm." her glare eased up a little "I guess I also have to thank you for making sure the egg was safe." I still have my bag on me so it was easy getting a potion out. "Now this might sting a little but it''s better to face a little pain now instead of having a lot of pain later okay?" She reluctantly nodded at that and I went to work fixing her up. The guys who hurt her clearly weren''t holding back and some places had dried blood implying that it''s been going on for a while. "Hey, do you have a trainer?" she took a moment to gaze at my smile before shaking her head "Well I was thinking, and this is gonna sound crazy but I was thinking that I kinda need someone to make sure that my egg is safe and that everything I do is helping it develop and hatch. I also kinda need someone who doesn''t really wanna focus on battling to make sure of that. So what do you say to sticking around until the egg hatches and maybe even a little after?" Taking a second to look away from her wounds has me noticing her wide eyes that were staring at me like I grew a second head. "Dee" she replied before walking over to my team who were all now chatting amongst themselves. A hush fell on my team as the ones who hadn''t met this Pokemon were examining her dirty, wiry frame and then started asking questions to the battling trio and her about what happened and why an officer has the egg. She stayed and answered them probably really easily before motioning to me. Realizing I was being called up, I went over to see her answer. She simply rolled her eyes and shrugged before a fist bump with her working hand. Taking that as her answer, I took a pokeball and bumped it onto her fist. She smiled, a tiny and fragile thing, before being sucked into the light of the pokeball. One roll and then a ding and then I knew that I needed to uphold my end of the deal. "Officer Jenny, can I go so I can tell Professor Oak about my new catch and why I need her on my party to keep the egg safe." The police officer looked at the spot my new Pokemon was previously standing at before looking at me and going "hmm" before nodding at the request. She gave me the egg and thanked my Pokemon for helping take down a small gang that was a nuisance in the town, though not before scolding me for negligence of Pokemon and the three for illegal battling, before giving me the egg and heading off to the area in the park with the kids acting like Pokemon; she thanked me for that tip as well since there were a bunch of kids missing in the city. "You guys do know that it''s gonna take a while before I can trust you with keeping the egg safe when I''m not around right?" The three reluctantly nodded at that. "Good, cuz if our new team member shows she''s as responsible as I hope she''ll be then maybe I can trust you guys with taking care of the egg while she''s around." Chardon perked up noticeably while the other two were fine with the arrangement. "Oh, and one last thing;" they tensed when I got near the three of them "Good job, couldn''t be more proud of how responsible you are." giving a hug to the three of them. Beedrill was most surprised at that for some reason. Standing up I say "It wasn''t really your fault the egg got away, just bad luck that''s all." before picking up the other three and carrying them in a big hug. Something they all appreciated. Since my hands were full with the other three, Chardon got to hold the egg while we headed back to the Center. Smiling all the while. Chapter 18 "-and that''s why Indeedee won''t be battling, not only because of her injury but because I made a promise to not use her in any battles unless I really need to." I was on a call with Professor Oak about why I wanted Indeedee to immediately transfer to me. There was also something called a companion license where a non battler would be allowed on top of the team of six so long as the trainer received a license to do so, Professor Oak says that he might be able to get one for Indeedee once he finishes the check up. Professor Oak meanwhile was only paying half his attention to me as the other half was spent examining and healing my apparently psychic and normal type to properly see the extent of her injuries her malnutrition from a lack of eating. "Of course you can take care of Indeedee but I believe that it would still be better if she stays here so we can come up with a dietary plan to help her gain some muscle back that she lost." That was a valid point, one I can''t really refute especially since Leaf is on the screen and super giddy about having a new friend. "Alright, I''ll be back in a Center in a few days so once Indeedee has a plan I''ll be taking her then yeah?" "Yes, that would give enough time for taste testing and seeing which nutrients she currently requires. I must say that all your Pokemon are quite healthy compared to others of their species so I trust that you will be able to take care of this fine specimen from Galar." Indeedee harrumph''s at the assumption but her cheeks get a little red after hearing the compliment. "By the way, how are Leaf and Pearl doing with the new food plan?" Professor Oak writes something down on a notebook before replying with "Quite splendid, it helps that the food you have instructed the assistants about is quite delicious and varies depending which day it is; even I''ve started munching down whenever we run out of ramen cups." Tha-thats food made specifically for Pokemon consumption though, with pellets that only Pokemon should eat. "Anyway, expect a comprehensive update of your pokedex as soon as I receive the information correlated with the Indeedee line myself." The rest of the conversation was a simple yes and no quiz on how my journey''s going and what I plan to do before the Professor had to inevitably end the call. Dialing up the phone again has me face to face with mom since it''s the weekend. It was nice chatting with her because apparently Drifblim and Starmie seemed to be really happy with Pearl around to play pranks on Bouffalant. Striker is apparently adjusting really well now that he''s back home with mom, mom said that he''s apparently really miffed that he can''t battle anymore so tries to do it behind her back but Drifblim keeps an eye on him to make sure he doesn''t get into any trouble. Elian and I decided to leave again tomorrow but instead of going to Saffron and then to Vermillion we would just cut through the forest directly to Vermillion so that he could challenge Janine and then head over to Cinnabar or head back to face off against Surge. He also wants to go to this place called Dark city to challenge the bug type gym there, it''s also apparently the only gym in Kanto where you have to do a double battle. The rest of the day was spent introducing Paras to my team and just relaxing since we already trained. We still had to be careful since the little bug type was more jumpy than any other Pokemon that I had seen being before. Probably was really wild if it was having such a hard time adapting to a trainer. The next day had us spending some time getting stuff before heading southeast of the city to reach Vermillion where we saw a drastic decrease in trainers but an increase in Pokemon willing to battle. Made sense considering we were going off of the beaten path. I was fine with battling but since the Professor said that I can''t catch Pokemon for a while, for some reason, I had to politely tell each of them that I wasn''t gonna catch anyone for a while. Most left me when I would explain, which kinda sucked cuz most of them were cool like a Poliwag or Vulpix, but a few like a group of Mankey were perfectly fine and were lining up to fight each of my Pokemon. It was perfect training that let me see how some of the Mankey had telltale signs that they were going for a big move while others had less discreet tells and stuff even though they didn''t have trainers. Since they were fighting types they probably just trained together or had a hierarchy based around fighting since the stronger ones seemed to have more fruit next to them. The only problem in the journey is that it isn''t really exciting seeing Pokemon doing the same training over and over again so I spent some of that time to read comics. My favorite comic is about the heroine Creati who had a special move called V-create where she''d make a super cool bomb that would make a V shape. Her backstory involved Victini which is a fire type legendary. Anyway, they were all progressing really well with their moves so I made sure to show Chardon how to fire a Flamethrower from his mouth. I think it was just a problem with a mental block or something since Dragon Rage could fire from the mouth just fine and nowadays there are whiffs of red flames that leak out his mouth whenever he tries to use Flamethrower. Still no concrete flames though. Other than that there wasn''t really much of anything going on. Most the stuff I had to deal with was either easy or boring. Ralts was having a lot of trouble with learning new moves so I decided to make her focus on Thunder Wave but before she could do that she at least needed some way to protect herself from close range so to kill two Pidgey with one stone I decided to teach her Thunder Punch first to help her familiarize herself with electric type energy and to have some close range options available. After Thunder Wave it might be good to finally focus on actual special attacking moves though. Another issue that has to be dealt with was that Woody was showing signs of being ready to evolve with the way he was starting to mimic the swaying of trees. I had to look into forums to find out what these signs meant but it turns out that it won''t stop even when he evolve since it''s a characteristic of the Sudowoodo line. Other than that it was a little annoying how Tabitha would regrow her mold but Professor Oak told me to place it all into a ziplock bag so that he could receive it to study or something. I''ll have to send it via pokeball since a neat feature about ''em is that they can store regular stuff and you can use the transfer system to mail things to people which is kind of a hassle for non trainers so they usually just go to the postal service to deliver stuff, like mom did with the nav which I''m really grateful for since it would have been pretty annoying trying to use a map; I probably would''ve gotten really lost if on like the way to Pewter and pulled the gang to Celadon instead. The next few days had very few trainers traveling the way we were so the few battles we did have were typically small scale since the Pokemon here were more prone to trouble you. I made a couple of experimental stuff like squid ink used as a sauce for goat bladder and other stuff as a sort of punishment on Beedrill, Lupa, and Chardon. Of course, to make things fair Indeedee would also be a test subject for this stuff. Suffice to say, I didn''t need to do any other punishment since they got the message pretty clearly while I got more of an idea on what stuff is tasty and what clearly isn''t. Man I gotta get a poison type some time soon, they handle bad cooking way better and I think no one would genuinely expect a Muk in a league battle. There wasn''t anything of note happening, just us stopping every now and then to help out other people and mons. It was simple stuff like spraying a bit of Antidote on a Pokemon who got heavily poisoned or giving bandages to people who had bleeding shins and stuff (Elian dealt with those type of issues since he had experience with bandages) or even just battling wild Pokemon that were being bullies for no reason. Some of the local Pokemon were really grateful about that. Elian was having trouble training Paras who was paying as little attention to him as they possibly could. I asked him if he had asked Paras why it was being like that but all he said was that he would at some point, which I think means he isn''t gonna even try until we reach the Pokemon Center which was somewhere along our way to Vermillion. He did seem to steel himself though, so I believe he''ll do it. I also had to change some training plans like making Ralts dodge moves without Teleport or making Tabitha try and take hits to develop her durability and since the team was so willing I ended up creating a team running track everyday where even I would do the random challenges we all set up on our respective parts of the track. It was all about training in areas we weren''t familiar with; especially since it helps with training endurance, reflexes, and speed at the same time. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It was a pretty good exercise where I got to see what some people thought was hard while others thought was a cakewalk. Like for Chardon the challenge on his part was to hit targets while moving which seemed to be tough for Woody and Beedrill but for Tabitha''s part you have to run while spinning around obstacles which Lupa and Chardon couldn''t do even if they went slow and steady. Because of that I would always end up in the middle of the pack, mainly cuz I was pretty used to almost any challenge because I used to play with other people the same thing, by the end of the race which got everyone fired up to not be behind me. I knew that after a while the entire team would end up beating me in the race so I was fine with the current results. It ended up being our fifth day walking in the wilderness when we would find the center. I called the Professor to see what sort of food plan and exercises that Indeedee had to do and unfortunately I didn''t have some of the ingredients listed for her necessary food so she still had to stay back in Pallet Town. It was mostly high fiber or nutrient stuff that I had for Ralts since she''s a psychic type but it wasn''t actually enough for two Pokemon. I did show her the egg and how it was fine to Indeedee. She was a little miffed that she couldn''t come with me for now but she''s fine with hanging out with Leaf and Pearl back home. The two others were also on camera and after saying hi and checking up on them the Professor then informed me on their progress and how Pearl learnt two moves. If they''re the moves I''m thinking of then the water type is halfway into filling her role as a mid range attacker on the team, just have to get a deep sea scale since we agreed that was thee best evolution for her. I also messaged Amy how things were going and she ended up telling me she was staying at a Center near the base of Mt. Moon since the gang needed some classes on spelunking and how to move around a cavern. They were also doing some odd jobs for the residents around the area since apparently some of the people who lived there had a lot of experience with going in caves so the three were soaking as much knowledge as possible. Mirielle and James seem to be doing well. Kinda funny that James found an actual Slowpoke and it took three whole days before he asked it if it wanted to caught and then it took another three days for it to give a simple nod to the question, which is hilarious and now the group chat is just Slowpoke stickers. I also sent some photos to Vali and she''s seen them, if the little checkmark at the bottom of my texts means anything, but she doesn''t really reply other than a couple photos of where she is. If my geography is right, and it probably should be since I got good grades on that part of the tests, then she''s over on the other side of Mt. Moon and is just letting her team recover from traveling within the mountain. She also showed her badge case and for now she only has the Pewter city''s Boulder Badge. Honestly, the stories I''ve heard of the place make me kinda glad that I didn''t go there; my luck would have probably led me to getting lost in the mountain and end up right where I started. But what if there was secret treasure. Dark caves... but mystic treasures. Zubats and Geodudes everywhere... but ancient fossils. Possible bounty hunters... but rare rock types like Larvitar. *Sigh* Guess I''ll have to cross that bridge when I get there. The battles in the Center were way more rapid and trainers were fine with sending out their entire team for a single match due to the Nurse Joy and an actual building nearby, which was great since my team was really itching to fight against lots of opponents. They all were raring to face off against the first Pokemon that would be sent out which would always be a Pokemon that they were weak against like a Magnemite for Ralts or when I started with Tabs against a Skarmory. Every time one of my Pokemon got knocked out I''d try my best to send out a Pokemon that was weak in typing against the opponent or at least was neutral to them like how rock types do neutral damage to grass types but are super weak to grass moves in return. Sometimes though, I''d only have the option of using a super effective Pokemon like how Chardon was stuck by Mean Look so I had to keep him out against the other persons Butterfree which ended really quickly. No prize on guessing who won though. I mean, I do win faster when I have the type advantage but that''s so boring nowadays. Fighting an uphill battle seems like a lot of fun, plus it always ends quickly when my Pokemon is naturally super effective against the opponent''s Pokemon. That''s why I never use Beedrill, even when he was a Kakuna, against psychic types even if he is weak to them due to his poison typing so long as I have some switches available, same thing with Ralts against poison or dark types but if it was a dark and poison type then I''d keep her out since she wouldn''t be able to easily KO it. Elian was also getting some wins with Dill and his Paras was interested in how the grass type was able to beat his opponents using status moves or by going on the offensive. There were some wrong calls that did cause Dill to eventually lose to a Tediursa but all in all I think Paras was willing to see his trainer as just that, his trainer. I think I managed a win streak of fourteen before I finally lost against someone in a three v three. His Eevee using Shadow Ball was really unexpected and because of that he did manage to knockout Ralts really easily, then it was a two against three which gave Beedrill and Tabs a lot of trouble and sadly they weren''t able to turn things around. They did however manage to knock out a Pokemon each and that set up with Spikes nearly made the other guys Magby faint from a couple Poison Sting''s. We stuck around the center for a night but ultimately had to go and leave for Vermillion which was probably only a week away, calling home and checking up before leaving. But, after a few days of traveling, there was another issue I didn''t account for. "*Sigh* This is soo boorrring." I end up blurting to Elian Taking a moment to motion Dill and Paras to work together on Mega Drain, he stews on what I said before asking "What''s boring exactly?" "Just the walking and stuff. I mean I love seeing my team grow stronger but I just really wanna play on my pc back at home. There''s a new season battle pass coming soon and I wanna see which characters got nerfs or buffs and stuff, plus I''ll need to play ranked again once the new season arrives so I wanna make sure my gameplay and map awareness and stuff hasn''t gotten worse." The worst part was that I was fresh outta new issues to read which made things even more boring, you could only reread the same volume so many times. Maybe I should buy a tablet or a laptop once we reach Vermillion. "Huh, I don''t really have that kinda issue. Honestly, its been really fun training up Dill, and Paras has been kind of a handful, so I guess I just haven''t noticed the time pass by." We had to pause the convo because we immediately got challenged by a group of Victreebel, the group was a light challenge for Dill and Woody since they were mainly preoccupied with Ralts learning Confuse Ray and spamming it on them. Only once the wild Pokemon had left did I restart the convo. "But like, honestly I do feel really happy that Ralts learned a new move and everything," the fairy type preened under the comment "it''s just it gets really repetitive after a while and I''ve always sucked when doing stuff that takes a really long time to really get going, ya'' know. It''s why I dropped out of caligraphy class and coding and why I really hate grinding games." Oooh a penny on the ground. Picking it up has me notice a little grey Pokemon that was resting beside the coin I picked up so I give it back to them and a small piece of a pecha berry, I''ve found that a lot of wild Pokemon like the sweet taste. It takes the penny and pecha piece before waving bye and scurrying away. "Well maybe you have to take a break from all the boring stuff and have a little fun, like my friend Kirito had a problem where he couldn''t study history so he searched up how to make studying fun and did like a different way of doing it. Nothing comes to mind right now since we are out in the wilderness but I think it would be fun to not focus and battling and play some games on your Nav. Since we can''t really read or anything when we walk, I think that you should make up some fun games or take pictures of the wild. Or you could talk with your Pokemon about random stuff, that''s really helped with keeping Dill and I interested while I walk." "I get what you''re asking... but I''ve already tried all of that and at this point I''m so bored when walking that I read the league manual for fun. For Fun." My intensity kinda made Elian jump, it was either that or the rampaging Nidorino near us that I sent Chardon to beat up, and after that he did try giving other options that I could try like having a Pokemon practice while walking or playing eye spy but I already tried those things. I''m gonna need more ''fun stuff'' when we reach Vermillion because there was no way I was gonna spend another week or two with nothing to do, just the thought of that was driving me nuts. I think I have more than enough to get a tablet and headphones. It was a good thing that I sent my entire team back into their balls except for Tabs who was sleeping on my backpack. Ohmp, nav call. I have to move the pink egg in my hands a little bit before reaching the nav and answering the call. "Yellow?" I answer the call with. "Hey pumpkin." Only one person calls me pumpkin. "Hey mom, how are you?" "I''m fine, just checking up to see how you''re doing. How''s your new friend Elian handling traveling?" I move a bit away so that he can''t hear the rest of the conversation. "Honestly, he''s doing better at handling the whole traveling thing better than I am." Concern is laced in her voice as she replies "Why? Is something wrong? Do you need me to come pick you up?" "No, no, nothing like that. It''s just it''s so boring traveling and doing nearly nothing, but he''s totally packed with taking care of his team so he''s been less bored than me. I guess I''m just feeling really homesick." Does homesickness really just feel like intense boredom? "Well, just know that at any point you can always come back home. I just wanted to check up on you and see how you''re doing but it sounds like you''re doing well, so I''m gonna go back to planning for a field trip for the second graders after asking a question okay." "Okay mom." I reply "...Are you doing this journey because you want to or because you have to? Whatever the answer is you can always come back home whenever. Anyway, love you, bye." She hung up. ... I mean of course I did the journey because I wanted to; why would I have to do it? I mean... being top eight like dad... but... no, this is what I have want to do. I want to reach there, I want to. I hold the egg tightly to my chest to make sure it doesn''t slip before heading back to the makeshift campsite that Elian and I made. "Hey who was ca-, are you okay?" Oh, that''s Elian. "Yeah I''m fine... just thinking about stuff." He nods along to that before we sit in silence, mainly to not disturb the nearby Pokemon. Right? Chapter 19 The rest of the walk over to Vermillion was uneventful and quite easily forgettable except Elian managed to use Paras in a fight and the little bug type didn''t disobey him at all, except when it used Poison Powder instead of Stun Spore. I just needed to get some stuff from the port town and then I would be slinging into the wilds again to head over to Fushcia and gramps'' place. For now though, I had to get the necessary stuff for Indeedee''s food plan, update the pokedex to include galarian entries, resupply on basic essentials, switch out the team to include Leaf and Pearl, and definitely buying some audio books on the nav since the Center has wifi. Actually arriving to Vermillion city made me realize that it was a lot smaller, or the better word would be compact, than any other city I had previously been in. There were clear signs of it being rebuilt, probably from an attack to the city, here or there but otherwise it was bustling with commerce just like Celadon with skyscrapers the size of Viridian. Stalls were hung showcasing different items, rare stones, TM''s or something simple like a cloth that guarantees shine on whatever you clean with it. I ended up buying the last one for Pearl since the guy showcased it on another Clamperl and I should really get some nice treats and stuff for my team, it''s only right after all. Mind made up I headed over to the nearest toy store for Pokemon of different typings and I bought a whole bunch of ''em. I also got two cute Clefairy and Murkrow dolls. Tabs started stirring awake due to the loud sounds so I returned her back into her ball, to let her have her well deserved rest. Honestly, the entire team should take a break for now so my next step is the Center where Elian headed off to because Dill got seriously injured against a Magby an hour prior to entering the city, nothing really serious but it should probably get looked at asap since we didn''t have any burn heals and Life Dew could only help so much. One of the balls on my belt started shaking so I let ''em out. It was Ralts who was acting pretty clingy so I let her sit on my shoulder as I walked to the center. I also showed her the rubik''s cube I bought for her but she didn''t wanna interact with it so I easily put it back into my bag. Finding and then checking into the Center was reflex at this point as I gave my trainer id and my entire team who were all taking a mid-day nap since they tuckered themselves out with training. Ralts was a bit reluctant to leave my shoulder but once I managed to coax her I realized just how much weight she had gained since journeying. Most of it is definitely muscle but maybe because she''s young she must be growing still... actually the entire team should be growing due to their ages all being close to a little kid so it stood to reason that they might need to eat more than I give them; then I guess I should give more treats in between the three meals a day. ... Maybe I should check out the Vermillion gym? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, scouting out the opponent and seeing their weaknesses would definitely be a smart thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. ... I didn''t notice the change in scenery until I reached the gym and entered the stands, which were bright yellow like everything else in the building. The match was going to be pretty simple, some guy with six badges was challenging for his seventh. He was just finishing up some puzzles he had to go through before he could challenge Surge, all while dodging attacks thrown by Pokemon who were clearly trying to hit him. He flipped a switch and then a door on the other side of the hallway he was in opened up which caused the attacking Pokemon to renew their efforts with gusto. It seemed like wasn''t gonna make it but he managed to vault over a trash can and then slide under what must have been a Thunderbolt to reach the door that slammed shut as soon as he passed. The crowd then started taking some refreshments from some vendors so this must be where a short break is placed for the challengers'' sake. Neato. With popcorn in my hand I take a moment to adjust the egg, because what type of rational person would leave an egg by itself in a locked room, before eating some popcorn and listening in to the chatting beside me. Seems like this guy is challenging the gym for a second time but he doesn''t really have good prospects of winning since his last challenge was just last week. Asking how close he was last time made me realize that the six badge would make me challenge using my entire party of six but I also found out that he lost 4 to 6 and Surge didn''t need to pull out his final Pokemon. Soon the challenger arrives out of the entryway to look upon the stands and the battlefield, but his attention was only on the latter. Rightly so, as not a moment later a huge man with scars littered across his whole body came from the opposite direction; the tough demeanor combined with his camouflage tank top and his brown pants make him out to be just as much a military soldier as everyone refers him as. My gaze flitted to him for a second but it mainly stayed on this trainer. More specifically, his expression. He''s determined but there''s something else. It''s tough to describe... no it''s just that I don''t know what it is, simple as that. Surge said some words but I don''t care. As one they both send out their Pokemon, a Electrode and the trainer brings out a Rapidash. The battle begins and it''s easy to see that the Electrode outspeeds the fire type but the trainer easily returns it for a much more favorable matchup with an Umbreon. It immediately does something that causes Surge to put away the ball he was picking up, so maybe Mean Look, before the two engage in what I could only describe as a slugfest with the Umbreon using Wish to periodically heal itself due to the Electrode getting three hits in for every one that Umbreon lands. Despite that, the trainers still smiling... no that''s not right. That guy is downright giddy about the battle... he, at least I think that he- "He doesn''t really care about winning. He just wants to battle because he loves to battle." I end up whispering The person next to me looks at me so I apologize and they wave it off. The rest of the battle passed by with each of his Pokemon smiling all the while as he himself said his orders with something like pride. He won. 6 to 5. The sun was coming down now that the battle had finished, it took twenty three whole minutes of battling. Heading back to the Center I was staying at was easy enough, I even had some snacks left for my team to munch on. The nurse gave me my team and it was a matter of time before I headed over to my room and released them all. "...I know you all are really tired but I really want to battle right now. Does anyone feel up to it? If not then I''ll try to send Leaf or Pearl but that''s gonna take some time to actually do so I''d really like if one of you can fight even if we end up losing." The team looks at me and it''s a testament to their exhaustion that none of the battle trio are stepping forth. Suddenly one of them comes forth, brimming with that same determination that that trainer had in his eyes. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. It took me a couple seconds before I could look away from his gaze "Are you sure? I can always get one of the other two in case you aren''t feeling up to it." He shook his head at that suggestion, the sound of a maraca with each shake, before giving an energetic shout. "Alright then Woody, I''ll be using you for a battle or two but that''ll be it. Sorry for forcing you." He merely shook his head again and started walking to the door. I followed soon after. He was putting pep in his step but I could still see it, the grogginess and how he took a moment too late to react to the things around us. Why was I doing this anyway? I just came back from the wild and my first thought was ''let''s have a battle''? I mean, wouldn''t it make more sense if I at least gave him some time to rest? But I just couldn''t get mom''s question out of my head. What did she mean by that? It didn''t take too long for me to find someone willing to battle,`after promising that I did have two badges to my name despite being a first year, to this boy who was going against Surge for his third badge in his second year as a trainer. Woody began heading to the arena but I stopped him to talk one last time before the battle. "Woody, if at any point you feel like stopping then I will stop the match right then and there. If I''m gonna be honest, I don''t really know why I want to battle right now so if you feel like you need a break then I''ll take you to nurse joy before getting dinner ready. Okay?" ''Bo bon ly'' was his reply which confirmed that he wanted to do this. For some reason my team decided to come here to the arena and watch the ma- "Wait where''s the egg?" ... The team looked at each other before Ralts waddled slowly to the stands with a canister that was wayyy too big for her to hold. It was honestly so cute I had to take a picture before Chardon took the egg into his larger grasp. The battle commenced without much fanfare, with Woody facing off against a Poliwhirl. "Tearful Look then Rock Polish" "Rain Dance and hit ''em with Bubble Beam" Both our first moves came out at the same time and both our Pokemon did them at the same time as well. The only difference was that Bubble Beam came out faster than Rock Polish so Woody had to abandon his move to rapidly dodge the really fast bubbles aiming for him. "Rock Smash" Poliwhirl started running as well, faster than Leaf even if she used Trailblaze, and came in for a big overhead punch- "Dig" -that missed by an inch. "Icy Wind the ground and then use it." As Poliwhirl began blowing out a cold gust of wind that froze over the closest parts of the wet battlefield, both the trainer and Pokemon begin looking around which immediately tells they don''t have any of the ground shaking earth type moves alongside having no buff up moves. But even without them it was easy to see the energy in the water types movements. For some reason I just knew the next hit would really hurt. Soon though, Woody came up from behind the Poliwhirl with a readied up Rock Throw that slammed into the back of the water type. Though it recovered fairly easily as it used its hands to flip back onto its feet, a Water Gun fired fairly easily in retaliation. It wasn''t as put together as the Bubble Beam or Rock Smash but it did get Woody in a glancing blow, and my rock type nearly fainted from just that. A sharp pain in my arm had me noticing that I needed to cut my nails, wait I''m battling. Oh I have an idea. "Woody, move around and Stomping Tantrum randomly. Don''t bother with hitting Poliwhirl." He followed orders and began trying to circle the water type as its trainer ordered it to see Water Gun, Crushing the ground and destroying the thin layer of ice that was covering the ground. The water move wasn''t hitting so its trainer ordered it to use Body Slam. It also used Aqua Jet to slide faster than my Pokemon to slam it with its powerful body. That''s what I was waiting for. "Now use GK" The order snapped the other guys'' head to me as he tried to decipher the move. "Stay back and Bubble Beam again." But by that point a small blade of grass had snagged Poliwhirls'' feet, having easier access than what the ice would have allowed. The attack disrupted it as it fell prone which gave my rock type enough time to curl up and hit it with Rollout. The semi-slick battlefield not helping gain much momentum but was still doing enough for my rock type. This time when it went flying it couldn''t catch itself as its little arms were too slow in pushing itself off the ground and by then Woody had came back for a second swing. One that didn''t miss. All in all the battle wasn''t as much as I was expecting. It was just a regular fight, like always. "Man that was a cool battle." Now it my turn to snap my head in a direction. The guy I was just fighting said that, so my response was the eloquent "Huh?" He takes a moment to look at me before realizing something "Shoot, I said that out loud didn''t I? Sorry its kinda a habit." "Wait, no. Um, why did you say that it was a cool battle?" I think something in my voice let him know that it was a genuine question as he gave a genuine answer in return. "Well I guess we can start with how almost every opponent I''ve faced off against mostly just use the same move over and over again which makes me mostly beat them if I tell Poliwhirl or Buizel to Rain Dance to make them faster, like what you were trying to do with Rock Polish. I remember that against Brock ya know." I easily nodded so he continued after sending his Poliwhirl back into its ball. "Well it started getting boring since people couldn''t put it into their thick skulls that they needed actual strategy but it seems like you''ve got it down. Battling trainers with fresh strategies is perfect for my Pokemon since they can develop muscle memory and experience for the wild and wacky stuff that top trainers do and I can develop more ideas and counters or even steal ideas from other trainers. It''s actually why I''ve started watching performances from contests. "I love seeing Pokemon do things that are more than just "attack, attack, attack" that''s why I started my journey; to see what wonderful stuff people can do when they think outside the box. Getting badges lets me battle even better trainers but if I could then I''d probably take a shot at a contest or something. Does that make sense?" He asked while rubbing the back of his neck. Somehow, it really did. "Yeah" I reply with a nod of understanding. "So, what''s your goal for the journey?" It... takes me a minute to realize "I guess, aside from getting in the top eight and being one the best rookies this year, I don''t really have any plans; heck, I don''t even know if I''m gonna do the same thing next year." We decided to sit in the stands and talk as he rubbed his Buizel''s little head, pretty soon I was copying him but with the egg. "That''s fine. My friend Cristina from Sinnoh ended up quitting but she gave me Buizel since the little guy still wants to do gym battles and my own Houndour was more than fine with being a house pet, its actually given me an excuse to be a water type specialist like Misty so I''m trying to copy some of the stuff she and her sisters do." "But isn''t Wallace the best water type trainer and performer since he got made champion in Hoenn after Steven Stone resigned?" he blinked at me before nodding a little. "Huh, guess you''re right. I just forgot about him since he isn''t from Indigo." Fair enough. We chatted a bit more before we to the waiting room in the Center. I went to see Elian while he went to get Poliwhirl patched up. I caught sight of Elian in a corner reading a magazine on fashion and stuff, so it was pretty easy to sit beside him and ask how Dill was doing. "Nurse Joy said that Dill will be perfectly fine in a couple hours since it''s just a really bad burn wound but she warned me not to use her against fire types for the rest of the day." I easily nodded along as I gave a magazine to Ralts who began reading out to Tabs, while Woody is on my lap as I kept a sponge underneath his eyes to soak up the excess water in his body from the rain entering it, Chardon was more than happy with keeping the egg safe and the other two were striking up a conversation with Paras. "Hey quick question. How many Pokemon do you think you can beat in a fist fight? This magazine is saying that the average person can handle most newborns and even some Pokemon like Goldeen and stuff." He asked. Which then became a really long discussion about whether flying types would count since they could just fly away. Which then became a discussion of whether baby birds actually knew how to fly since my mom told me about rehabilitation centers that help abandoned birds with learning how to fly. I even pulled my nav to search for one here in Vermillion. We continued talking until Dill was cleared from the center, then Elian went to take a nap since he was feeling tired from being tense and worried for Dill for the past hour or so. Since there wasn''t anything to do now I just went to eat some sandwiches from a Paldean store. That trainers name is Landon. "Woody, when do you think you''ll evolve?" The little Bonsly seems a bit surprised at the sudden question but he easily relays his answer over to Chardon, who was still munching on his six foot sub, who gives a simple so and so gesture with his claw. "Then after our own nap, we''ll have to work really hard to make sure you evolve and grow stronger. The same for the rest of you." It was said passingly. The team stilled before all giving shouts or roars of affirmation. Maybe I couldn''t have the same enthusiasm but I could still try. What did Landon say about performances. Right, they''re contests and last I heard Fuchsia has a small contest hall for beginners, I could try that. So what if I don''t really think battling was all that cool? So long as my Pokemon are willing then I''m fine with reaching for the top. Maybe even higher. You never know. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." Just gotta get past my own sore muscles, I completely forgot that I can''t even freaking bend my knees right now. Chapter 20 One good nap later and I''m training Woody to evolve, which is really easy. You just need another Pokemon to use a non-damaging move or an attack he isn''t familiar with and all he has to do is use the other move twice in a row, maybe even once but just holding it for a bit. I don''t even need a quarter of a field for him to practice. "Now, like I explained before about Mimic, the move description from Indigo says "A move for learning one of the opponent''s moves, for use during that battle only." while the move description in Alola says "The user copies the target''s last move. The move can be used during battle until the Pok¨¦mon is switched out." okay." ''Sly bon'' and some quick nodding. "So basically you''re gonna aim for Copycat but instead of using the move once you''re gonna be able to use it as much as you want while Mimic is active and, unlike Copycat, you have to keep the energy for Mimic up while you use the move. Basically it''s to keep focusing on using one move and only one move." ''Bon bonsly bon'' Woody replied. He already knew all this but having a reminder after every ten times seems to help so I just repeat it when giving him a snack to keep his energy up. I then have a take step back again so that Dee-Dee can use Psychic on Woody once more as a refresh before letting him down gently. Purple energy begins surrounding his body before he is floating up again and then lightly put on the ground he was standing on. Woody on his part, made sure to take a moment to first remember the feeling of the psychic move on him before normal type energy began surrounding his body once more. Then it all transferred over to his little orbs on his head which began shifting into a white color. White then slowly turns to gold. A Rubik''s cube is picked up by psychic energy before some of the squares begin shifting around so that one side is filled with the yellow tiles, taking a good twenty seconds to do so as he doesn''t want to break the toy. It promptly drops. Because Woody isn''t concentrating anymore. He''s too busy evolving. His legs become a bit more spaced as his body elongates upwards before branching off into two ways in the middle. Both arm-like extensions have three fingers each before orbs appear on each finger, big and round. The light eventually fades as Woody looks down at me, and isn''t that crazy, before looking down on his own body. His yellow spots on the area where his head used to be before shifting his gaze over to his hands. He shakes them and the sound that comes out is similar to that of maracas, I know the instrument because my next door neighbor Mr. Hitoshi has a bunch of different instruments he likes to buy when he goes traveling on holidays. Pretty soon the entire team came over to congratulate him. Elian''s busy with something his dad texted him about so he couldn''t be here to watch. "Well this seems like a good point to tell everyone that Woody now knows Hammer Arm, which is a really strong fighting type move and super effective against steel and rock types." The gathered Pokemon all look at me as I focus on the pokedex aimed on my newly evolved Sudowoodo. Then Lupa remembers that he''s a rock type and starts jumping in giddy. I think its starting to set into the evolved rock type that the three who want to have the most battles are all now weak to him in some way as he starts trying to move behind me. "Sorry Woody but you gotta break into your evolution first, so you''ll have to battle them anyway." The look of betrayal on his face was enough to have me giggling and pretty soon everybody else joined in; Woody harrumphed but he was smiling so we all knew he didn''t really mean it. But I do point out that he should do some stretches and exercises while in the room so that he can feel how his hands and body move. He dutifully does so after I tell him about some basic arm stretches and the toe touch one. With that out of the way, it was now time to start making dinner. Something I''m more than comfortable with but the recipe for Dee-Dee''s new dietary plan isn''t something I''ve ever made before so it was cool checking the cooking time for it or which veggies to chop; her drink meanwhile needs some Wiki and Leppa berries mixed into a juice. As an Indeedee she has a fairly human body so a lot of her food is gonna have to be good for calorie intake like porridge or soup but some high quality moomoo milk will definitely help for bone growth and other stuff. Dinner was quickly served and everyone got to enjoy their food; Dee-Dee was pleasantly surprised when she tasted banana and Oran berry in her porridge but the professor told me it was one of her favorites so I quickly got some since for the most part I''ve just been buying Pecha, Lum, Aspear, and Sitrus berries.
Earlier
A pokeball appeared in the transfer slot of a PC within the Pokemon Center. Picking it up and pressing the button on it revealed a thin and humanoid Pokemon. "Hey Indeedee, how''s it going?" My question is answered with a passive look, as if she wants me to do something. Easily accepting the silence I move on "Well, how about we go over to the team and see how they''re doing?" She takes a second to think it over before nodding and giving a quiet ''Dee'' We move along at a leisurely pace, since we aren''t leaving the building, and the time is spent asking how her visit in Pallet has been. Since mom has to teach she wasn''t able to give the psychic type that much attention during most of the day so it was on Leaf to give her and Pearl an introductory walk around my hometown. So that means that she spent a lot of time with showing the Clamperl and Indeedee all the sights while mom would show the best places for dinner and lunch when she was able to. Indeedee looks at me and only then do I realize that I was giggling out loud. "-heh, sorry I just realized that you''re my Pokemon but you''ve spent more time with my mom. hehe." She looks at me strangely but noticeably untenses cuz I''m still giggling about that. By the time I stop we''ve reached the door to my room and a simple keycard swipe later shows... half my team playing with the new UNO cards while the other half is watching tv. Everybody noticed the door opening so they saw the normal type next to me who immediately speed walked over to the group playing with the cards since Chardon was playing and had the egg close to himself. She was stopped by the fire type who said something that caused the entire team to laugh and- is Indeedee blushing?- and the now slightly pink faced Pokemon just sat down next to the egg and motioned for her to get dealed in. I went to watch tv for a bit before forcing the entire team to take a nap since it''s still the day where we came to the port city Vermillion. There was a lot of fuss but the fact that no one really physically objected, and the promise of tasty treats when they woke up, had let me know that they were really tired. Indeedee declined to join them so I decided to take a walk with her after tucking the rest of the team to bed, which was barely big enough for all of them on it. "Hey Indeedee?" I ask as I pull the curtains over the windows. ''Dee?'' "Mind if I call you Dee-Dee instead? I just like nicknaming but if you don''t want one then that''s fine as well, its like Ralts and Beedrill." Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. She takes a moment to understand the question or something before slowly nodding. Her only hand smoothing over the fur on her other arm. Trying to loosen up the conversation a bit I change to a new topic "Well Dee-Dee, have you read any shoujo manga before?" She shakes her head and, before she can blink, I''ve got out a manga about a villainess who can read peoples minds but gets flustered at the honest thoughts of a prince. It''s honestly really cute and my new hyperfixation. Quickly handing it to her, I wait with a smile for her to read the thing. It''s kinda half the team''s (including myself''s) favorite manga right now. Beedrill thinks it''s boring and Lupa doesn''t understand the intricacies of love while Pearl thought it would be fun to spray the book with water, but she did later genuinely try to read it before motioning that she can''t read. So I kinda started teaching her, Beedrill, Lupa, Tabs, and Woody on how to read since everybody else knew. Maybe then they might appreciate my reading options. With that out of the way everyone quickly took a nap while Dee-Dee read it and occasionally looking away with a wiggly smile. Then the two of us went out for a walk, since her plan involves some light exercise this could practically be the exercise of the day. We walk around the port town, visiting the pier and the different people and Pokemon working in tandem before heading over to a park and trying out one of those Ducklett boats. Once we got on it was just some slow cycling while we looked around. "Hey Dee-Dee?" ''Dee?'' "Well I was wondering about what you wanted to do once the egg hatches," the grip she has on said egg noticeably tightens "well its because I was wondering if you wanted to be a team healer or if you wanted to do contests or something entirely different. I also kinda noticed on the calls that you''d clench up when I told Leaf and Pearl on what to practice for battling." She tenses, notices that she tensed, and then physically untensed. But she was still clearly uncomfortable since she had subconsciously stopped cycling. "Look, I''m not saying that you should immediately try something out; all I''m asking is for you to see anything you might like to do whenever you''re comfortable and have free time." We spent a bit of time with me mainly cycling before a second set of feet began whirling their pedals. A look to the left had me observing the psychic type no longer frowning as her face was marred in thought. After the ride we decide to head back since it''s been more than an hour since we left the others to nap. "Oh right, I kinda forgot but would it be okay if I scanned you with my pokedex? I''ve done it with everyone else so far." She took a moment before slightly nodding. Wordlessly I took out the pokedex and
Name Indeedee
Type Normal and Psychic
Nature Sassy
Ability Synchronize
Hp 70
Attack 55
Sp. Attack 95
Defense 65
Sp. Defense 105
Speed 85
Total stats 475
Moves Double Slap, Play Nice, Fake Out, Feint Attack, Take Down, Drain Punch, Baton Pass, Pay Day, Psychic
"Hey Dee-Dee?" She doesn''t give any indications about not liking the nickname as she tilted her head towards me. "Quick question, do you like battling close range?" She shook her head "Okay, um, then do you only have moves from back when you hatched?" another shake "Final one, was your trainer kinda dumb?" She looked shocked at the words that came out of my mouth. "I mean, just a quick look at other Indeedee''s battling on the Internet lets me know that your species is meant for longe range stuff like Psybeam or healing moves like Wish and Heal Pulse but whoever your previous trainer was not only didn''t use you correctly in battle; he also made you learn moves that weren''t even a good fit for you. I mean, Drain Punch and Feint Attack on a psychic type is wild when you clearly need stuff like fairy moves since they synergise better with you than a type that practically weakens you after a single move. Sure a dark type move is better against ghost types but you don''t even need any of those since you''re a normal type so any ghost attack is just gonna be useless against you. Like maybe I could be wrong about his training methods but whoever this guy who was your trainer is clearly didn''t look at any online info or even just a regular book about what you cou-" Later I would apologize for my rant about her last trainers'' dumb decisions. For now though we were walking to the Center with me bashing on whoever her previous trainer was while she was smiling and listening intently.
Now
It''s only been a day into me saying that we would focus on evolving Woody and he''s already done it which is awesome, but since I need to rotation out some of the team I''ve been thinking Beedrill and Ralts for now. Though I kinda need to make sure that they''re practicing together, like how Ralts could learn Psychic from Dee-Dee and I think that Beedrill could practice poison moves with Dill. But it''s been a while since I had Leaf and Pearl on the team and it would be amazing for Pearl to help out Tabitha with Iron Defense. I guess if Woody hadn''t evolved then I would''ve sent him back since Tabs has nearly got Rollout down but he''ll need time to get used to his body and could learn punching moves other than Hammer Arm; I''m already thinking of using the Thunder Punch tm on him. Lupa should be okay with going back plus he''d be able to practice Fire Fang with dark type energy for Crunch or Bite so it wouldn''t be hard. Tabs is out of the question since I''ve only had her for around a couple weeks at most. But then, who should I bring back? Hmmm "Hey Chardon?" The fire type looks away from his bowl and gives a nod showing he''s listening "Well I''m wondering about who I should rotation in and out." The others perk up but otherwise don''t really pay attention to the conversation. "Well, I''m thinking of sending Lupa back to the ranch but I''m not sure if I want to bring Leaf or Pearl back into the roster." The rock type kind of deflates a little so I quickly add "But since I''m only gonna bring one back then Lupa will either practice against a water or a grass type while there." and like a switch the little rock type is happy once more; you can tell since he''s wagging his tail a bit. Chuckling at the cute display, I carry on "So I''m wondering about who should be in the team right now. Pearl who''ll face off against Surge, or Leaf who hasn''t been in the team for a long while now. We can always skip Surge for later anyways but that would mean your'' and the rock type duos gym battle will be a little less tough. Plus instead of five, it''ll be four at most in the Cerulean gym if we do it like that so it''ll either be Ralts or Beedrill on the team. Not both." Nodding along to the information, Chardon looked around to the rest of the team before pointing to the glass of water and then himself and some berries. I just chuckled at that. "Chardon, you''re my starter which means that most of the time you will be on my team because you''re technically the second in command of the team if I ever wasn''t able to help you guys battle or even just do regular stuff." But he is right. I don''t really need him on the team right now since most of his training is singular with him trying to learn Flamethrower but having trouble with his mental block since I''ve seen him puff out fire from his mouth whenever he gets frustrated. Thinking about it a little, I nod at the logic, Lupa and Chardon could practice dark type moves together while the fire type learns to deflect attacks with Metal Claw from Rock Throw''s used by my canine Pokemon and Lupa would have to face off against a Charmeleon. Its solid. "Okay, you and Lupa will go to the ranch while the others are here. And since I probably won''t use you against Surge it might be good to go forward with perfecting Thunder Punch while you''re there. The main focus, however, should be on trying to perfect Beat Up to do that other version." Searching up the move showed me that the dark type attack could create illusionary clones of the Pokemon in the party that weren''t fainted and each would have the natural strength of each Pokemon. That version makes it useless when more than half the team are special attackers or really weak offensively but since my team has a lot of physical attackers, it''s a decent dark type move for psychic types like Sabrina''s gym since they won''t be able to stop most of them without getting hit at least once. Oh right. "Speaking of Flamethrower." Chardon looked up and flinched from a rapidly approaching berry. His mouth opened in defense and a spew of flames came out to block the berry, continuously being pumped out for a few seconds before the line gets cut off from the shocked fire types mouth. Everyone looked at the Charmeleon and then at the charred berry on the floor. "There, you now know Flamethrower. Make sure you can do that consistently okay?" His wide eyes look at me before narrowing in determination and I think a little bit of respect for helping him through his mental block. He nods and then eats his dry food with gusto. With that out of the way we finish up dinner, where I took pics of Woody realizing he could grab stuff now and also realizing he doesn''t really know how to hold things with his maraca orbs, and the very next morning the entire team is swapped around and ready for traveling. Chapter 21 The very next day from the dinner conversation on switching the team around and Woody evolving started off with me having an extra battling filled day where the entire team minus Dee-Dee got to battle. And I mean the entire team. Currently Pearl is using Rapid Spin to get away from a very angry Elekid, giggling as the Thunderbolt the electric type fired off missed its mark entirely, before her increased special attack boosted her Water Gun into something near the baby stages of Hydro Pump and fired off a powerful concentration of water which knocked out the fairly battered battery Pokemon. Heh, wordplay. With a grand total of thirty three wins and two losses I finally decide to quit while ahead and mosey on over to Leaf and the others with a very smug Clamperl on my head, Tabitha in my arms since she was my first choice that did some set up and baiting before being returned in case the water type I had might faint against the flying and then electric types. Halfway through my matches I went over to the Center pc and placed my starter and rock pup into the transfer slot and ran back onto the field outside with the two choices, which confused more than a couple people as I ended up battling in two v twos instead of one v ones today which meant twice the actual battling in the one afternoon. Some battles even had three v threes which was where Tabitha really shined and most people became even more afraid of my Clamperl, Ralts, and Charmeleon not understanding that it was the Pineco that was the scariest one to face. I also got to battle Landon. He''s got a really neat Buizel that beat Lupa before it and Poliwhirl got knocked out by Beedrill who was really thankful that he didn''t skip out on runs when his wings got too soaked to fly. Elian was over by my team with his own, busy with cleaning up the dirt and grime that Paras had accumulated in its match against a Rhyhorn while Dill was being checked over by the Nurse Joy from Vermillion. Actually arriving got me tackled by my only grass type as she felt particularly in a hugging mood, one which Woody shared in since he had the incredible ability called ''having arms''. Then for fun, Tabs and Pearl to joined in the group hug; with Tabitha exiting her pokeball. The rock type was especially excited with battling today since he had both a new body but also two new moves with Thunder Punch and Hammer Arm, I still have the renewable TM available for future teammates with arms. Tabitha was similarly excited when she used Pounce on an unsuspecting Flareon before firing a Struggle Bug at the then slowed down fire type, debilitating the Pokemon''s fighting ability even more. A lot of people thought it was scary how a common bug type shut down an Eeveelution so easily but, honestly, this is the kinda stuff that''s expected of my team from me nowadays and Tabitha''s got one of the most important roles in the team; its a lot of pressure but she''s willing to handle it. I still praised her for it, since she did a good job and all. Honestly, with the whole being in an actual city thing the entire team¡¯s given their all into working themselves to the bone and even now Dee-Dee had to give a Sitrus berry juice over to Ralts who saw the most use in these battles as the secondary Pokemon held, something that people noticed and tried to account for so I would use some random Pokemon after a bit which would frazzle my opponents. Elian chuckled at the downtrodden expression on the other guy "Man, it''s still funny seeing people get all destroyed when they lose against you." Which had me curious enough to look over. Looking back at the other guy and my friend was right; before the battle he was bragging about his Elekid and its super powerful Thunderbolt only to now stomp over to the doors into the Pokemon Center. I didn''t re~ally care but that was probably a good a reason as any to stop battling and prepare for Fuchsia which went really easy since all I had to do was pack some extra supplies and get a little bit of experience with my fire starter kit since Chardon wouldn''t be in this leg of the journey. It was pretty neat how Absorb and Mega Drain could dry leaves so that they were just right for burning. Probably should teach that to Leaf more for camping¡¯s sake than anything, but a Leafon able to use Mega Drain would be a massive thing. Dee-Dee still hasn''t given me an answer on what she wants to do but that''s alright, since she''s a non battler I asked her if she could learn a healing move and she was more than fine with practicing a move that had practically zero harmful potential. I think she might go for Heal Pulse but she did talk to Ralts so it could be possible that she practices Life Dew but they could have also been talking about how to use Psychic so I don''t really think Life Dew might be an option. I wouldn¡¯t really know, I can be kinda dumb sometimes. Amy told me that when we got our test grades before our journey and I was confused on why I got a really bad grades... before helping me study up on history class. Once we had prepped we both started heading to Route 11 which would lead over to Fuchsia City and we would inevitably face off against Janine. The other way to the city was closed off for now. It was also interesting to note that a lot of other people were not going to be heading to the gym holding the poison type specialist since it''s labelled as an extremely hard to beat gym, to the extent that most people held off until the sixth badge normally so if I wanted to make waves I could enter at the gym for my third badge but if I do really well then I could get a quick pass into some of the more extreme medicines for Pokemon like Max Restores or at least Hyper Potion''s so I should probably hold off... maybe for the fifth badge then. Plus Pokemon in the southwestern area of Kanto were typically tougher and more prone to violence than in places like Route 1 or Viridian forest. Its just a little unfortunate that I don''t have an electric type like Mirielle has Pikachu, then I''d at least have some better options than having Ralts use Thunder Punch on Tabs and Pearl for my training plans going forwards. With some luck she might even turn it into a Thunderbolt or something while she practices on learning Thunder Wave. But moving on, the road was pretty bare since not a lot of trainers want to frequent the hilly and somewhat dry place, the trees being quite spaced apart from each other and preventing themselves from becoming a part of the forest that is near the traditional town that we''re heading to. Tabs gets plenty of time practicing how to use Reflect while Ralts gets to practice Thunder Punch as one hammered at a dark purple wall of psychic energy while the other renewed and strengthened it regularly. Since Surge uses physical moves more often, it was practically a no brainer to focus strengthening up Tabitha''s only way to withstand attacks better. And even if an attack got through the barrier it would be severely weakened and my bug type was tough enough to shrug off the electricity with ease due to the less than powerful punches from the unfortunately weak body of Ralts, since most fairy types are almost always less physically inclined alongside the Pokemon being a first stage form. Pearl also gets to stay out as my new hat since I don''t actually remember where I left my last one... probably all the way back in Viridian if memory serves right. Anyway, the little prankster got to show off Rain Dance and soaked my clothes so I thought it to be a fair punishment to keep her on my head. That meant she could only use the weather move on Elian and Dee-Dee but since I expressly stated that those two were off limits, she decided it would be a perfect time for her to learn Iron Defense. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I reluctantly held her on my head so that Tabs and Ralts don''t simultaneously get hurt when Thunder Punch gets fired off; turns out water can conduct electricity back onto the users if they aren''t careful with their usage. Sad news for my neck, I know. The walk also had Woody being used as the training ground for Tabs, Ralts, and Paras who was on the rock type''s head trying to copy the move Struggle Bug from Tabs now that he was less paranoid of Elian and myself. The rock type was out so that he could test out his maraca orbs as we walked which was perfect with some flamenco music I downloaded on my nav. Moving onto Elian, my pal from Celadon was having a little discussion with myself, Dee-Dee, and Dill as he talks about caring for eggs. Turns out that his dad, who is a farmhand, occasionally helps take care of eggs that the owners of the farm find on their grounds so he and his dad have experience on the subject. After a couple days, we ended up in front of the area of Route 11 that has Diglett cave, which is a major shortcut that someone can take to go to Saffron without setting foot in Vermillion or Lavender Town, but since we were going to Fuchsia we didn''t need to enter it. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. We still did a short walk inside the cave. It was a little uneventful aside from the gang of Geodude and Graveller we fought before finding some rubies. I gave half of my share to some Aron that were brave enough to walk up to us as a little snack for them before we left the place. Then a day later a flash flood happened with a massive thunderstorm out of nowhere. We took shelter near a cave while Ralts and Dee-Dee would occasionally psychically grab some Pok¨¦mon stuck in the rapid river near us. Ralts managed to snag free a couple more Pokemon using her emotion sense compared to Dee-Dee who unfortunately doesn''t have the ability to sense emotions or the ability Telepathy which notifies Pokemon about any Pokemon within their radius. I was soaked from playing out in the rain and most our pokemon that weren''t the psychics were playing outside with me, the least surprising was Leaf who loved rainy days as much as I did while the most was Woody who found out that he didn''t have to worry about overfilling with water anymore since he became a Sudowoodo. Elian and Beedrill, like Ralts and Dee-Dee, opted out since they wanted to stay dry. Other than that, the walk through Route 11 was pretty uneventful but at some point we ended up on Route 12. The biggest clue was the Silence Bridge, a long wooden construct that starts from Lavender to the ends of Route 13. It was also directly underneath water so I had the executive decision to send out the entire team and have a break near an area which could classify as a beach before we went onwards. I was also smart enough to buy an inflatable ball and pretty soon we were playing keepy uppy. I was the best at it, naturally, but Ralts was a close second since she would use her psychic energy to slow the ball before bouncing it in the air. Though, the one who won was actually Leaf. I called hax but Dee-Dee would neither confirm nor deny the allegations. Ironically, Ralts learnt Psychic after that. The move of concentrating a ball of psychic energy, not the thing all psychic types could do with training version. We actually got to meet a couple fishermen who live on the bridge or at least somewhere near it and had more than a couple battles. Elian also noticed that we somehow lost a couple fruits and other edibles but since no one walked up it could only be chalked up to a bird Pokemon or a psychic type. Hopefully not a ghost. "Wait, do you have phasmopokephobia?" I kinda blushed unintentionally at that before nodding "and cryopokephobia. But only wild ones, it''s mainly trauma from when some Pokemon attacked me when I was five." Elian took a long look at me "... so your biggest fear is Froslass?" "... bruh, you did not just say that." Needless to say, we both agreed to steer clear of Lavender town and just head to Route 13 as we spent only a little time after the stolen fruit case trying to catch the perpa- perpitr- the thing that stole the berries. The bridge was nice and it was pretty cool how a couple water types would land on the bridge just to fight us, most those battles were split between Beedrill and Elians team since Woody mainly wanted to do some training with Pearl and whatever trainer we came across. I also had the pleasure of watching how Dee-Dee cared for the egg since I could recognize how she held it carefully and walked with it like the pamphlet I got about eggs says someone should do. It was funny how she would get all defensive when we stopped on the bridge to train or have a battle with wild Pokemon or fishermen, as if I was gonna use her or the egg in a battle if... actually that''s kinda worrying now that I think about it... and it doesn''t help that Ralts and Leaf always look at Dee-Dee with worry whenever she goes all defensive. "Hey Dee-Dee, if you''re uncomfortable then return yourself into your ball. I''ll hold the egg until the battles finished okay?" She hung her head at being caught out but she puffed up before shaking her head. So she wants to stay out and face her worries head on; that''s pretty cool. Most of the fishermen had really strong Pokemon so most of the time we had to tell them our badges before they would send out a Pokemon but even then they would send out something a little too strong for our teams so Ralts got really good at Life Dew and Dee-Dee got the hang of Heal Pulse, once I told Ralts that Life Dew could be used on herself as well she became happy at the thought of having some sustain. I also had to explain what sustain meant in non-game terms. Paras also learnt Pollen Puff so Elian considered it a major win, I heard that the move was a staple in most bug teams alongside Bug Buzz and Quiver Dance and when I relayed that to him he was really proud of his bug type. Our berries keep being stolen though. Ralts says that whoever does it blips into her emotion radar and then the next second is gone so it''s either a Pokemon using Teleport or a ghost. "Hey Evandros, how about using something like Sleep Powder on our berry pouch to sleep whatever is stealing them?" "Well it''s not like we have anything that knows Mean Look or Disable. Maybe if we do that then Beedrill can set an Electroweb on whatever it is that''s taking them. And if it doesn''t work then we know that its a psychic type so we probably could saturate the field with dark energy." "Magic Guard?" "Magic Guard." Plan set up, the berry pouch in our bags would become filled with Sleep Powder to catch whatever is trying to take our stuff. It was only on the second day of waiting that something tried again. Ralts was on my head with her little cap while Leaf was carrying Dill on her back as her superhero cape billowed in the air; Beedrill was the only other Pokemon I had out so that whatever that was stealing our stuff wouldn''t be able to run away. The egg was kept close to me as my other psychic type was in her ball so that whatever that comes out won''t try and harm her. "So I was thinking for Tabs that after she perfects Reflect and could use it to help herself and Woody by doin'' that thing we-" Ralts suddenly yanked my hair and I swiveled onto our bags which showed a sputtering- Abra... We were being stolen from by a freakin Abra! While I was stuck being all surprised by the psychic type, Beedrill decided to continue with the plan and fired an Electroweb that pinned the yellow Pokemon to the ground. Elian had the perfect shot to make his Pokemon attack but he stopped for some reason and pointed at the Abra and- "Oh, it''s already asleep." I stated which made me deflate even more. Elian replied "All Abra need to sleep a lot so it probably just stole from us since it was probably easier than finding berries in the wild." "Well maybe it''ll be fine with being caught then. Hmm, Ralts could you talk psychically with the Abra and see if it wants to be caught." The emotion Pokemon moved over to her fellow psychic before her horn flashed purple as she had a mental talk with Abra, her Telepathy ability coming clutch otherwise we might have needed other ways to communicate. After a bit her eyes and horns stopped glowing and she nodded her head in our direction. "Well, I know I can''t catch it; its only been a little less than two week since I got Dee-Dee and I''m still not allowed to catch another Pokemon until another weeks passed." Stupid capture rules based on Pokemon with more than just issues. Elian then realized that that meant that he was the only person who could catch a Pokemon and then pulled Dill and Paras aside to have a talk; having understood the value of a good conversation. He came back after a while had passed and I had made some simple food for our team and the wild Pokemon, whether he got caught or not didn''t really matter as much as being nice. I also made some cold egg and mayo sandwiches, considering that two of us were humans. He took a deep breath before looking at Abra and pulling out a pokeball and calmly walking over to the yellow fox thing, gently tapping the red and white ball on the psychic type before it got sucked in. It rolled once. Then it stopped and made a ding noise, signifying that someone successfully caught the Pokemon. Elian then flopped onto the floor while I wordlessly handed him his sandwich. "You didn''t tell me that catching a Pokemon without battling it would be more stressful than with battling." He accused while still lying on the wooden bridge. I laughed at that before shooting back with "But it''s funny." He shook his head while chuckling before getting up and sending Abra back out. The Pokemon apparently startled awake by whatever happens from being turned into hard light and sucked into a ball, which now that I say it like that seems really scary. Elian motioned to himself with a finger "Hey Abra, just to reiterate I''m gonna be your trainer alright." I gave him a bowl filled with psychic type chow which he wordlessly took before placing it in front of Abra. The Pokemon simply nodded and began slowly munching on the chow, his eyes glowing a little purple like Dee-Dee and Ralts whenever they''re out of their pokeballs, before opening its eyes in surprise and chowing down with gusto, and his eyes look a lot like slits once the glowing stopped. I think he wasn''t prepared for how tasty chow can be, especially the ones made for specific typings. By the time he introduced the new Pokemon to his team, and my own a little later, it had already turned nighttime so we agreed to go sleep a little bit off the bridge.
''Woody'' That was his name. He doesn''t remember why he said yes to the nickname but it probably doesn''t matter. He loves his name. It reminds him that his trainer wanted him and would keep him for as long as the rock type wanted. His feet were touched by the lapping waves of the sea, the night making it difficult for his eyes to follow the movements. When did he stop being afraid of water? Any Bonsly knew that if they didn''t filter out water on a daily basis then they would die. He had even seen it happen on rainy days in the forest for those unlucky few that didn''t enter a cave or a burrow fast enough. How the water filled their systems until they couldn''t function. Until they couldn''t live. But somewhere along the way he stopped being afraid of it, just like how he stopped being afraid of real grass types. He had fought a Poliwhirl, three Krabby, a Goldeen, and his teammate Pearl. And he battled with Pearl regularly. Great Mew, when did Pearl stop being ''Pearl'' or Tabitha stop being Little Bug. And there it was, his trainer had made this the new norm for him. Fight Pokemon he was weak to and help his teammates move past their own weaknesses. He got cut a hundred times from grassy blades, sprayed a hundred more, and if you asked him he was willing to do it all in triplicate. Because it wasn''t a burden nor was it a punishment from the gods; it was him and his trainer believing that these were just obstacles to his growth and that soon he would progress to the level where these weaknesses were negligible at worst. Because his trainer believed in him. Because he believed in himself. A clamshell tapping into his feet had brought him out of his musings. It was a peculiar shape, enough to cause him to hold the shell and take it back; his trainer always accepted anything they wanted to keep from Lupa''s mildly amusing rocks to the interesting sticks that Leaf brought along. This would be his first... and probably not the last. Chapter 22 Dear Mom, So, Route 12 was uneventful- aside from Abra being a berry thief- due to it mainly being a bridge and most the battles on it were against the occasional wild water type or a fisherman, Route 11 was uneventful because it was a short walk to Route 12 that only took a few days. Route 13 on the other hand, is actually quite interesting. Firstly, because we saw a herd of Tauros running on a field, and secondly, we went to a place called Sunnytown shortly after leaving the bridge''s south side and there were a ton of trainers who mainly had grass and poison types which was great training for both our teams. Elian really needs the training since he plans on battling Janine the first chance he gets- he even booked the battle online- so Beedrill and Dill would be having double battles against Abra and Paras before Beedrill would battle Dill. Since Beedrill was Beedrill and Dill was Elian''s starter it was obvious that the other two were hopelessly outmatched even if they gave a really good try; so we kinda agreed that I would lead Beedrill and Dill against the other two in double and single battles against Elian and his Pokemon so he could understand how the other two should battle against poison types which really helped Paras since he was more frail to the typing than Abra who could use Psywave and blast ''em in a wide cone area. By the way, we found out that you can use Light Screen at an angle to bounce an attack so Ralts sometimes shapes hers like a spoon to blast Psywave back onto Abra which is majorly funny and ironic at the same time. Because Elian was practicing against poison types it was practically mandatory for Beedrill to use Poison Sting in every battle just to get the possible poison effect on each of Elian''s Pokemon so that they could get used to how painful the attacks and status might be when put up against their resistances and weaknesses which led to my bug type learning Venoshock. That came as a shock (heh) to me since we were doing a lot of practice with Twinneedle and Harden so I thought his second poison move would have been Poison Jab which is practically mandatory on a Beedrill. Although, its not like Venoshock is a bad move since a lot of the team may start learning how to use Toxic after we get around to the six badge level which Tabitha, Pearl, and Beedrill are super excited about. Leaf actually doesn''t want to learn Toxic, which is fine with me, so instead we just did some rearranging of our callouts again since more than a few people managed to correctly predict what some of her moves would do. Online people call her a monster because noone knows what moves she might use when she does her duos to her quads. Its also kind of odd that three badge trainers get hit by the duos and the occasional trios when it just takes too long to actually use them against Chardon and the rest without taking a hit, at least, before she boosts herself with Trailblaze. Something interesting about the town is that they had a bike gang but the gang was one of those good gangs that does community service and not like those guys who tried to steal the egg, Chardon and Dee-Dee back in Hophophop town. Elian and I got to battle the gang leaders in a double battle using Dill and Beedrill. It started off with Paras getting on Beedrill who used Double Team and Agility to avoid getting hit before the grass type began firing Sleep Powder on the Golem and Cloyster who fell asleep to the white powder which gave Beedrill an opening to trap them in his now becoming his signature on the web Electroweb. Heh, I did a funny. Ralts agrees since she''s laughing where she''s sitting. Anyway, after that Beedrill began using his new move Venoshock once Paras got the now stuck opponents with Poison Powder before using Mega Drain on both of them. They still tried firing with Rock Blast and Icicle Shard but since they were trapped and couldn''t really move it quickly became obvious that Elian and I were gonna win the fight; and we did with no major reveal or new move from the opposing Pokemon. Though, Beedrill did have to use String Shot on Golem to keep it more tied up since it nearly broke out of its Electroweb cage. At the end of the battle we became honorary bike members and for the next couple days we just kinda trained while checking the restaurants they recommended to us like a pretty cheap and tasty burger shop and this cool bakery place with really neat muffins. Both had Pokemon accommodations too so during summer break we could go back and try them out with Striker and Driblim and the rest. We mainly stayed in town for so long because that freak storm broke the Sunnytown bridge so we had to wait a bit for a boat ride. You know about how I had to send back Tabitha to Professor Oak since he was still studying her for his project thing... Wait, if she is a regional variant Pineco then won''t she have a different typing than Steel? Oh, or maybe she might even have a mega evolution or third form like the professor said. Honestly, depending on what she turns out to be I might have to change her plans a little like Woody''s. Turns out being a rock type makes you naturally tough and with how doggedly he gets into training to take blows and blast them back at the opponent he might just be a hybrid between an attacker and a tank maybe like a revenge counter character type. It mainly depends on if he learns Endure and Counter since he already has stuff for nearly every type. When I shared my thoughts with him he didn''t really seem to get it aside from the fact that he''s a mix between his previous role and Tabs'' role combined so he''s probably my first or second pick in a battle which made him pretty happy and made Pearl of all Pokemon a little jealous. All that aside, that meant that I got Chardon back since he did need to do some training against Pearl to get himself ready against water types while she needed to be able to withstand his increasingly powerful Thunder Punch. I also finally swapped Beedrill to the ranch; I hadn''t done it before since I was worried he''d hurt the local Pokemon or try to run off. Speaking of Thunder Punch, Ralts ended up managing to blast some electricity to a tree once but it seems like Thunder Wave and Thunderbolt is still gonna be a little far away. So far her attack seems more like a Thunder Shock. Also, I''m probably just a day''s walk away from grandpa''s place so I''m gonna visit him but I don''t know if I should stay at his place. I kinda wish I called earlier than yesterday but grandpa said he was happy I called to let him know at all and that he''s got a room for me and Elian. Is it normal that I feel kinda guilty about that? I know I don''t need to say this, but thanks for checking up on Beedrill and Tabs once every single day. I''ve noticed that the two really get into training to the point that it stops being helpful to them and ends up hurting them the entire day in a bad way, I''ve tried to make a habit of them not doing that stuff but Tabitha has pretty low self-esteem and Beedrill is really eager to become stronger and puts 220% of his energy into it when he thinks I''m not looking and the first thing I found out in Pewter was to make sure there was always at least someone more responsible like Chardon or Ralts with them to stop them if they go overboard. Love you, -Evandros
The ding of the computer was all the confirmation I needed that the email was sent so I logged out of my account and promptly shut the computer off. I already looked up all the stuff I needed to, like the price of a deep sea scale in Kanto and information on the two Lycanroc forms, but they weren''t all that useful since I most likely won''t be able to evolve Pearl until we get enough money to buy a freaking Dawn stone which is mega expensive in Kanto and Lupa seems like he''s perfect with either evolution. Plus, Own Tempo was an ability that zero Rockruff apparently had since they already have three abilities with Keen Eyes, Vital Spirit, and Steadfast so I sent a message over to Professor Oak about it and he said he''d try to contact the regional professor of Alola. This would be so much easier if both of them had just a single evolution they could turn into like literally everyone not named Dee-Dee; and she was an even simpler scenario since she can''t give these evolution headaches. One''s too expensive to evolve and the other fits both roles too well while having a never seen ability for his species. Huffing at that disappointing search, I get up and close the notebook I had opened to keep track of this info before putting Ralts on my shoulder since she was more than happy to just read a newspaper of all things; she already filled out most of the puzzle sections even though its only been 15 minutes since I bought it. The egg was safely in my bag in my room since it was too dark to actually travel. Heading back out to the main waiting room was a pretty quick affair mainly because of the stuff I didn''t tell mom. How I''m not gonna challenge Janine, how Leaf is trying to learn moves she shouldn''t have access to, how annoying having Tabs off the team right now is for my plans. How I''m grateful Chardon''s back, not as much Lupa. But that was mainly because lighting and stoking a fire for camp was pretty annoying after the tenth time, especially after the freak storm. Her question was still rattling around my head at random parts of the day which kinda sucks since I''ve already got my answer when I was in Viridian. I almost didn''t notice myself taking six different balls from a tray and walking over to the battlefield, as a hundred and one different thoughts were buzzing around in my noggin. It was majorly annoying losing Tabs, even if it was for a valid reason; it felt like I was making a mistake even though I still could use her against Surge and win. She was kinda the lynchpin of the battle, without her there wasn''t really a chance I''d win. It was gonna be a three v four with Ralts, Tabs, and Pearl on my side. Surge would be all sorts of tough with his most likely Pokemon being a Raichu and Magneton, Magneton would be easy if Tabs lands her Bug Buzz and Pounce while Raichu would be manageable with Pearl, but the other two would be wildcards between Electabuzz, Voltorb, Luxio or some other Pokemon he has in reserve. It also didn''t help that his would be evolved and none of my options would have that boost, stuck in their weaker forms as they were. Though evolution wasn''t the biggest issue. The biggest one is the fact that Lt. Surge is known to rile up his opponents any way he can, he''d never cheat but he would certainly skirt around the rules if he saw that it would make the other trainer angry. Sometimes that meant using Pokemon that were way above the badge level. Plus his main battling style consists of speed and power so any hit that someone is gonna take is gonna be fast and hard. So yeah, Surge was probably gonna be a bigger problem than Misty or Janine or whomever I challenge later on and there was little I could do to change that. That was why I made Ralts use Thunder Punch on Tabs and later practice on Pearl before and after she would use her latest move. To make them get used to getting hurt by electricity and moving past that. But, apparently, it was gonna be a problem for future me. Oh, wait. I could just send Ralts to the ranch instead of keeping Beedrill there and have her train with Tabitha and it wouldn''t be detrimental for Pearl since she can train to take the nastier hits from Chardon now that she''s got a workable Iron Defence ready now which is gonna be awesome for Iron Tail training when she evolves. Guess future me came up with a solution for past me. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Sometimes I can be a little dumb. Relaying to Ralts that she was gonna be sent to keep an eye out on Tabs while the two train together, emailing mom again to stop any misunderstandings, and an apology to Beedrill for sending him away for 4 days with a Pokemon who''s relationship with him was only recently cordial which made it kinda a pain for him but the prospect that Beedrill got to battle against Chardon and Lupa again enticed him enough to he not complain. His last battle against Tabs was a loss for him since most his moves are useless on rock and bug types, or bug types using rock moves, so he''s now trying to work out how to use fighting type energy for something like Rock Smash or Brick Break so that he has options for rock and steel types and since Woody is kind of the only one on the team who has a fighting type move its kinda agreed that the rock type will work with him to have options available. I''m personally hoping for Brick Break since the move is known to break screens like those made by a Mr. Mime or ones made using Reflect and Light Screen. We were really only a day away from Fuchsia now so we could stand to take a more relaxed pace and enjoy meeting the wild Pokemon around here such as Weepinbell and Magby''s. After I send over Dee-Dee to be reviewed to the Professor so that he could send her to a specialised Nurse Joy to see whether the psychic types health was improving or declining under my care would I finally have permission to catch another Pokemon and I was practically dying in anticipation on catching either an electric type or a poison type. It seems kinda silly in retrospect but I wanna catch Pokemon from all 18 typings, though I''ll probably do a trade to obtain a ghost type and an ice type respectively. Plus, I''d at least be able to go to this place in the town labeled as the ninja academy to battle against some former gym trainers and people who want to qualify as a gym trainer to the Fuchsia gym. Winning would mean that I could get a TM which would be huge if it ends up being something like Toxic or Protect or even Poison Spikes. Okay, so maybe I really wanted a move which causes poison status. It would be perfect against Surge and I''d probably only get to have a week of practicing the TM to normal standards anyway so I''d rather pick a status move instead of an attacking move. On account of staying a full week in Fuchsia and probably challenging the academy sometime in the middle. See, battling Surge would be like a puzzle. Do I want to teach Pearl how to use Soak on his Pok¨¦mon to punish them in case they use Volt Tackle and Wild Charge? Could I teach someone Encore to force what would no doubt be a Voltorb into using just Rapid Spin or Charge? Would Tabs be able to set up both Spikes and its poison variant freely or would she have to be knocked out and resort to Self-Destruct which he would no doubt be able to predict? Will having Ralts focus on using Psychic to hold her opponents instead of blasting them back really the right call? I know that I don''t have the power or the speed to match Surge- maybe Pearl could but not my other two picks- and having a personal limit on who I use sucks big time. ...Except I also had a limit on who I was using against Brock and Erika when I challenged the two of them as well, it was just that they were more fair compared to Surge otherwise the battles against the two of them would''ve been impossible. My notes on what Clamperl are rumored to know has some okay moves. Whirlpool wouldn''t be good since they could just shock that instead so maybe focus on improving Confuse Ray with Ralt- no I switched her. Okay, okay, then maybe Muddy Water sinc- no too powerful to get in a week and a half so maybe a move called Brine since the move has been sometimes known to stop electric moves from fizzling into existence when a Pokemon gets hit by the water move on account of the salt or something. It would mainly function as a status move to shut down electric moves like Mud Sport does but if she can get it as an attack then that would be a major boost since its also known to be devastatingly powerful if a Pokemon is even somewhat scratched up from battling. And with a workable Iron Defence she could withstand electric moves to a certain degree, Ralts could set up screens and debilitate the fast opponents with Grass Knot, and Tabs could do Reflect and handle electric moves due to us working her into having a resistance against them which is great for her future development as well because steel types aren''t actually unaffected by electric moves despite common misconception back in Pallet; I blame the Magnemite line because it was practically the only steel type that used to exist in Kanto. All this strategy stuff makes me nearly miss Elian which would have been a little embarrassing on account of his Abra battling a Skuntank that knew Flamethrower apparently. The battles wrapping up so I head on over to his side and wait a bit. Lo and behold, Abra teleports to the side of the Skuntank and blasts it with a Psywave in a cone shape which is enough to blow it onto its side and knock it out. Elian wins. He happily shakes hands with the opponent before walking over to me and then the two of us begin chatting away as we head on over and away from the Center placed on the road and begin heading over to Fuchsia. The reason why its so close to the city is because the Center in Fuchsia is apparently an ancient landmark and- even though the services inside of it function well enough for most medical needs- its the really important ones that get quickly transferred over to this one. Mirielle once talked about it to me in the library at school. The walk on the road was pretty uneventful since it was mainly just battles against wild Ekans and Growlithe aside from a battle against this one guy who had three badges and was traveling to his hometown. It seemed like he coasted a lot on type advantage to make sure he won his fights since I beat him in a four v four using Pearl, Beedrill, Leaf, and Woody with only half the team being knocked out by the very end with half the fight being in type disadvantage and the other half in type neutral for us. By the time night had fallen, we were able to see some two story buildings in the distance and we pushed forward trying to reach the town. There''s only gonna be so many days before you start dreaming about sleeping in a regular bed and not the hard mattresses that the Pokemon Center uses or the sleeping bags one brings onto the road. At what must''ve been around 7:30ish we managed to enter the city gates and marveled at the sight of the traditional town as we followed the foot traffic to the Center in hopes of finding how to navigate to Grandpa''s place. Nurses Joy happily gave directions and it turns out that his neighbourhood was only a twenty minute walk away from the gym which was neat for Elian. As we walked we made sure to take in the sights and even though the place looks historic- with a bunch of old timey pharmacies selling herbs and stuff or like the occasional street vendor- and it clearly has a system in place. I slowed down to take in the sights because this place wasn''t like any of the other towns and cities that we''ve went through. Celadon and Vermillion were major infrastructures with really high buildings while Pewter was a smaller version of the other two. The closest comparison might be Pallet but we didn''t have a lot of people living in town and only one school because not as many people opted to live there. This place could fit three Pallet Towns and still have space left over. By the time we came to his neighbourhood I had bought the entire team some dango and had some for grandpa. Man, I haven''t seen him since the new year''s festival. I wonder how he''s been. His house was easy to find... on account of him being in front of it and waving at me. "Grandpa!" I quickly run over to him to give his special grandpa hug and he quickly braces himself for the borderline tackle. He doesn''t prepare for Leaf joining in on the fun. "Erghh... you two mind letting my back rest. Your shaking up all my sand." "Bahahah, grandpa, you''re not that old yet." "Hmph, so you think I''m getting there in age? Huh boy." I nod "Yup, Gramps is a big ol'' fossil. Gramps is a big ol'' fossil." I singsong. He clutches at his chest dramatically "Oh the indignity, to be name-called in this day and age." He takes a moment to get up with mine, Woody, and Chardon''s help before addressing the team and Elian "Well, it''s useless to just stand around. Come in, come in. Let me make some tea for you all, the good kind and not the one your mother thinks I should be shoveling down. Bah, whoever thought green tea was a delicacy was a madman; of that I can be certain." We all head in, with me telling the team to wipe their feet on the mat, and we all walk in barefoot; on account of leaving our shoes on the shoe rack when we got in. Grandpa had quickly herded us to the living room and had put on a kids show- something that Pearl and Leaf were paying full attention to- while Dee-Dee was making sure that Beedrill and Chardon didn''t scratch or burn anything; something that embarrassed the two of them immensely when they realized that I noticed. By the time he came back he already had a tray full of milk tea, his favorite, and some snacks that Abra and Leaf took immediately. The milk tea was great and by the time I was halfway done grandpa decided to start talking. "Well, I''ve heard and seen many things about you both from your mother and what my neighbors have to say, Evandros, but I think I would like to know about your team just as much. Your father and grandmother were always so happy when they talked about them, and right now you''ve already caught twice as many as they used to have during their entire first year. Though my neighbor Mrs. Anderson seems to think you might need a refresher course on type advantages." I lay down the cup and sit in a seiza position, something that Leaf emulates and what causes the rest of the team to follow suit "Well, its been great being a lab trainer since I got to meet Chardon," The fire type somehow managed to sit even straighter than before "he''s kinda the second in command of the team. I got him as my starter and since then he''s faithfully followed me around. He also seems to like bubble baths so I buy bubble mixture just for him." "Then we''ve got Leaf who needs no introduction," Grandpa lightly chuckles "she kinda started naturally evolving into a Sylveon but somehow managed to become a Leafeon back in Viridian city. She''s still Leaf though but she''s kinda stopped being a glutton for food since she can do this neat thing where her fur is now kinda like grass, especially the lavender parts, so she lays out in the sun to photosynthesize; she can still eat a full pizza box though." The little fox wasn''t listening, too busy getting scratches from grandpa. "Next I''d introduce you to Ralts and then Tabitha, my Pineco, but the two of them are currently with Professor Oak right now so I''ll move onto Beedrill." The aforementioned poison type was having trouble doing a seiza so he gave up and was merely sitting down. "I caught him back when he was a Weedle back on Route 1 and I still don''t know why he was there and not in Viridian forest but at this point I don''t think either of us cares all too much, anyway he''s kind of a grump but you can bribe him if you promise him a lot of battles and make sure to polish his stingers." "After Beedrill I got Lupa," the Rockruff was also not paying attention as he was also busy getting scratches but from Dee-Dee "I actually got him after that whole Team Rocket thing happened in Viridian since a lot of the young Pokemon needed a place to stay so I got to keep him. He''s also as enthusiastic about battling like Chardon and Beedrill but he can mainly be bribed by good food and scratches." "A little before that I actually got the egg and I think that it''s gonna hatch any day now. I''ve narrowed it down to Klefki, Mawile, or Tinkatink." Chardon was unconsciously rubbing a hand over it and practically everyone noticed how it seemed to wiggle under his touch. "Then during Viridian forest I met Woody when he broke this guy who had a Pokemon name''s nose," said rock type was bashfully rubbed the back of his head while blushing and Pearl and Dee-Dee were shocked while the rest of the team started laughing at his expense "I don''t really think I can explain just exactly why I wanted him on my team, but I did want him so I battled him with Lupa and caught him right after." "Then during my travel from Pewter to Celadon I researched a little about a local lake in the area in between and how it was rumored to have a Clamperl and other rare water types so I had Ralts use her emotion sense and mind reading abilities to find her and before I knew it I ended up with Pearl joining the team." The water type decided it was prime time to use Water Spray on me. "And as you can see, she''s a bit of a prankster. She also likes it when I deep scrub her shell and it helps her use her latest move." Grandpa was intrigued "Oh, and what move might this be?" "No spoilers grandpa, you get to find out like everyone else. But I found out she could learn it because a Huntail over in Unova used it in an official match." "Next, I caught Elian over in Celadon but he doesn''t like being in his pokeball so I keep him out most of the time. Between you and me he''s not really that good in battles." I stage whisper the last sentence and that got me a good natured Paras thrown in my face. Is Quiet a good nature on a Paras? Taking the little guy off with a chuckle, I continue "Then I got Dee-Dee in Hophophop town when I was traveling from Celadon to Vermillion and I offered her to stick around until the egg hatches and if she thinks that she would like to stay on the team then she can be a permanent member even if all she does is stick around and help heal the team a little. She hates doing battles so please don''t try ask about when I might use her, there were already enough people in Vermillion and Sunnytown who asked that." "And that''s basically the entire team right now, aside from Tabs and Ralts who I''ll see if I can show you during the week. Now it''s Elian''s turn I guess." Seeing the floor was on him, Elian straightened up reflexively "Well I only really started my journey when I left Celadon three weeks ago but, uh, I think I''ve been doing really well." He then points to the Oddish in the room "This little Oddish is Dill, she''s my starter and I''ve had her since I was eight. We''ve practically become family ever since I got her from my dad." If plants could blush. "Then I caught Paras- who I just found out makes a good throwing weapon- before we reached Hophophop town and I spent most of the week after making sure he felt comfortable being on my team. He and Dill work really well together since both of them are great at using their powder moves." Said Paras and Dill were preening under the praise as they''re talking between each other and Beedrill about something. I don''t know since I can''t speak Pokemon, obviously. "Finally we have Abra, he decided to follow us on Route 12 because it was easier to get food but I think he''s starting to like being on the team." Grandpa took a couple seconds to digest the information before chuckling at something and clapping. "Well, I''ve heard some mighty interesting things during my life but hardly have I ever heard trainers speak of their Pokemon in such happy tunes. Most trainers would rather pick the shiniest and most powerful Pokemon on the champions team but to hear that you caught an Abra because it was hungry of all things, many trainers wouldn''t willing pick a Pokemon who''s willing to play pranks on them either. Though the violent one is pretty on track, any so called ''self-respecting'' trainer would pick the meanest of the bunch and not to change their behavior as you''ve done with, um is the name Woody?, your Sudowoodo. Your father and grandmother would have been so proud of you Evandros and happy to see such an upstanding friend in your midst." By the end of it the two of us were practically red colored lightbulbs. I mean, grandpa''s probably saying it because he''s grandpa, but nope, just looking at his face its easy to see that he''s a hundred percent honest about what he''s saying. That kinda makes me really happy, actually. Grandpa then started standing up and cracking his back before waving us along. "Now, I know just how tiring a journey can be so how about I show you to your rooms and you both can begin the next day refreshed eh. Evandros, Elizabeth is coming to Fuchsia tomorrow for your dental appointment the day after and I''d really like to spoil the two of you with some ice cream, so would you be a dear and get down some bowls for everyone?" I don''t know what I was worrying about, grandpa''s the coolest. Chapter 23 "Your an awful lot of attention to your notebook out on this sunny day Evan''." "Sorry grandpa, its just that I''m super excited to see Striker again." He chuckled at that. "And not your mother?" "Well, of course I''m excited to see mom again since it''s been a month since we met face to face but Striker''s different type of excited." Something in his eyes shifted and he nodded. Could someone''s smile be sad? "I get it. I admit, I also want to meet Striker really badly." I then decided to put the notebook down and enjoy the sun. My dentist appointment was unfortunately at the same time as Elian''s gym battle. Which was at 11 with no hopes of rescheduling for either of us for any reservations today and tomorrow. I was bummed out because I wouldn''t be able to watch as a friend of his but other than that it didn''t really affect anything since this specific gym never actually sent out its recorded matches so trainers would only be able to believe word of mouth from other trainers and the few they deem to allow to watch the match. I decided to do a little training by myself before grandpa and I set up stuff for our picnic while we would wait for mom. Leaf was finally able to turn on fire but she had to stop, drop, and roll as Pearl sprayed her with water since the fire actually began burning her; once we manage to get past this hiccup then every single ice type will shudder in fear of my Leafeon. Because of our arrangement, we planned that he would first challenge himself against the ninja academy today while I spent time with my mom and grandpa, while afterwards I''d battle the academy the day after tomorrow while mom was still around because today was a Friday so school would be off for the next two days. She arrived via Bouffalant, who was more than happy to stretch his legs on a long trek, and Drifblim, who was actually really fast once she used Tailwind. Though because she arrived at like 3:35ish pm Elian had already went off to get himself a potential TM, more battling experience against poison types, and some prize money. I, meanwhile, had spent the time introducing grandpa to Ralts and Tabitha who were taking a short break from their future gym battle so they could afford to wait around a little with me and meet another member of my family. The three of them hit it off swimmingly with Tabitha being really excited to meet another person related to me while Ralts was more intrigued by the concept of a grandpa which tells me that she never had nor met a grandpa before. Gramps was happy at how happy my Pokemon were and then told me he was really proud that I kept Tabitha and asked for permission about keeping Ralts. It felt really nice. He also kept on saying about how good it was that I spent most of my time traveling helping others but I waved that off since it was only natural to do that stuff. Plus it gave the team even more opportunities with doing stuff like mediating fights between others or learning how to fight large numbers when others gang up on them. Dad was a ranger and that stuff was apparently second natural for him. When mom came to town and found us, she saw grandpa and I over at the nearest park with most of my team playing or hanging out a little ways away- I wasn''t gonna let them out of my sight after that whole thing with Dee-Dee- and whoever wasn''t over there was getting their fur or stingers a good and nice clean. Dee-Dee was being protective over the egg, ''and for good reason'' everyone on the team probably thought, but even she was enjoyed having her fur cleaned smoothed over while she talked with Beedrill; I think the only person who doesn''t is Lupa but he loves a good scritch. She quickly sent out her team and Striker, who was much more energetic than the last time I''d seen him, before sitting down with us "Hello everyone" "Hi mom/Indee/Bzzz/Great to see you one last time Elizabeth" Mom just rolled her eyes at that last part "You always say that Albert and someday its gonna happen and I''m gonna think its an elaborate prank and then everyones gonna think that I never really cared about being your daughter-in-law." Grandpa flashed a smile at that "I already put it in my will that if that ever happens you get everything I own, including my vinyl records." "Eh, I''d probably sell all that junk for Evandros'' college funds. You told me yourself that there were only a few Pre-war musicians and most of their records are borderline depressing." There was a whole host of questions that I had but the only one I spoke was "College funds?" "Yeah sweetie, in case you decide to drop being a trainer then you kind of have to do advanced studying to get some of the cooler jobs like being an engineer or doctor or even a police officer." She then ruffled my hair and giggled "Well, anything you guys have planned? Mew knows that I''d love to spend some time relaxing." We all then proceeded to have a really nice picnic with some homemade sandwiches that grandpa and I made together with Chardon and Dee-Dee, and when I realized that the fire type actually liked being depended upon whenever I cook while the psychic type liked to prepare stuff like the tomatoes and lettuce while holding the knife in her hand as she holds the fruits and veggies using her psychic abilities. These are some mean sandwiches since they''re stuffed with corn, rye, chicken, lettuce, olives, mayo, and finally tomatoes; grandpa tried making me put onions and all I have to say is never again. After finishing up with polishing Beedrill''s stingers I got up and retrieved Pearl. Pearl understood the assignment and the four enjoying the sun had to run away quickly from a flash rain. Fingers and stingers and paws were all pointing at the two of us but we knew it was actually Leaf who did it, the little minx had a playful side that even scared her usually unflappable brother. I was just getting Pearl to Starmie so that the water and psychic type could help her with both Brine and Confuse Ray since they knew the two moves. We all went to grandpa''s afterwards and helped mom with the luggage she brought. I kinda wasn''t allowed to help since almost all the bags were too heavy for me so they were carried by Grandpa and the three psychics- that sounds like a book name- and mom got situated at one of the guest bedrooms. I then told about my plan to stay for a little under a week here before going to Vermillion again and challenging the electric type gym. "-and I know that I could use Beedrill but I think its better for him to have more time practicing moves and getting down that trick we''re trying to stop his wings from weakening before he battles the Cerulean gym. I was thinking of teaching him something like Toxic Spikes since most of his species are used to setting them up to force the opponent on a timer." Grandpa''s also here listening in but he said he only wants to hear my reasoning. Mom then looks at the team hmm''s mysteriously before answering. "Well I can understand Beedrill and I know that Chardon will be the star against Misty while Lupa and Woody are sort of self-explanatory but why not use Leaf? I mean, it''s not like her typing is super effective and she''s only resistant against electric types. I''m pretty sure you''re allowed to use a defensive eeveelution the way they were meant to be used like an Espeon walling off status conditions or a Vaporeon setting up a cushion for its teammates." I was shaking my head before her sentence was finished "Its because Leaf has a resistance to electric types due to her grass typing; its why I''m not going to use her and haven''t used here against Erika. I already promised her a fight against Sabrina, Janine, and Blaine and only for my eighth badge will I use a type resistant Pokemon and that''ll be Chardon." The fire type in question was not here, as well as Woody, so the two were on a video call listening to mom and I speak. He did this weird squawk/roar thing when his name was said so I moved on to explain to him. "Chardon, you might be a starter but you''re also my partner Pokemon. The last gym battle is always gonna be the hardest, so of course I''m gonna use my heaviest hitter and it just so happens that almost I''ll be using almost all Pokemon had on Route 1, so why not give ''em a show right? Plus Blaine is known to use the Rhyhorn line and is more of a Pokemon living in volcano''s specialist than a fire type specialist." It wasn''t even a debate and I made sure to explain that in my tone before I addressed mom again. "Anyway, I''m just saying that if the egg hatches or if I catch a poison or a dark or any typing that''s neutral or weak to electric then I''m gonna use them and not anybody I have right now. Heck, I might just use Dee-Dee and her only role would be to set up Calm Mind and Wish before using Baton Pass if I can get her to learn those moves in time." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Mom made a ''go on'' motion with her hand so I explain. "Dee-Dee hates fighting and that''s pretty obvious once you spend a couple minutes with her so the only reason I''d ever send her out to battle is to set up stuff likes screens, healing moves like Aromatherapy, and buffing herself up before shifting the buffs over to Pearl who I wouldn''t have to worry as much about since she could use Iron Defense and go from -1 defense up to +1 and a +2 special defense down to +1 so she''d still be tanky enough to handle most of what Surge has on his team; even if you ignore the +3 special attack and her Rapid Spin that she could use to further increase speed without drawback. Though I should have Ralts learn Aromatherapy as well since it would work really well with her whole disruptor thing." "Seems to me you really don''t want to learn the strongest moves around and you''re focusing more on tactical ones." "Well duh," my team looks at me in confusion, both around and through the video call set up "look guys, its not like I don''t want to eventually teach you all stuff like Flare Blitz or Hyper Beam but those moves are usually big on the stamina drain and stuff like that and right now I want to make sure you guys have the skills and technique so that moves like those shouldn''t be our finishing strategy and more like our pop ''em off whenever nothing else can do the trick strategy. That''s why the three with the strongest moves are Woody, Chardon, and Leaf who know Hammer Arm, Iron Tail, Leaf Blade, and Flamethrower; and Hammer Arm was more due to evolution luck than anything else. I''ll eventually get around to teaching all of you stuff like Hydro Pump or Draco Meteor but right now you should focus on the moves that I say we should focus on." Aside from some unhappy frowns from Beedrill and Lupa, the entire team nodded in understanding. Dee-Dee meanwhile was perusing my pokedex and the screen was on the move section- oh she''s looking up what Aromatherapy does- and then nods while purposefully clenching her fist in front of me for a fist bump. I bump her back, don''t really know why we did it though. "Well, any plans on what to do with Ralts? You''ve already established about Pearl and Tabitha but last I remember there isn''t really anything other than ''improve Thunder Punch into Thunder Wave'' and I don''t think those two moves are gonna be good picks in the gym." "Honestly, she''s meant to use Psychic to restrain whoever''s out against her and send out a Life Dew and hang it above herself before finally using Ally Switch into Tabs or Pearl if they get too tired or hurt depending on who I say would really profit off the scenario. Confuse Ray''s also gonna go really big so I have her practicing those four moves alongside trying to learn Thunder Wave. If the others fall then she''ll Confuse Ray and finish off any Pokemon using Psychic since I''m pretty sure not many electric types know dark moves." She nodded along to my reasoning before raising her hands in defeat. Then we all decided to watch a movie but Professor Oak came into the video call and explained that he needed Tabs again so I''ve gotta head back to the Pokemon Center to hand her over; and Ralts as well so both my Pokemon can train. Sure I''d like to do some one-on-one training with all three chosen for Surge but sometimes other stuff happens. Today''s still a pretty great day.
As the cheers of the stands reached a crescendo and the referee of the match raised her right hand into the sky it had become increasingly clear. Mirielle had done it. She''d gotten her second badge. The beginning part of the exhausting battle had started with the rookie trainer sending out Rookidee against Misty and forcing her to reveal her all three of her Pokemon with Whirlwind and then using dodging tactics with the flying type to think up of some basic plans of who she would send out. The next part was about systemically using Pikachu against her Staryu and Mankey against her Krabby. Both of whom would be paralyzed by Pikachu''s Thunder Wave. There were some kinks in the plan, cracks forming with each and every second. Like how Misty''s Krabby was just as adept at using Iron Defence and Metal Claw as any of its water moves. The most dangerous one was when the water type specialist switched her Staryu into the Goldeen which somehow knew how to use Drill Run to nullify the charge of Pikachu''s electric attacks The young trainer then had to swap again into the tired Rookidee and force the flying type to battle the fish Pokemon through a hastily placed Mean Look. It was a two vs two and only one of Mirielle''s Pokemon was fresh while one of Misty''s was paralyzed. Or so she thought. It turned out that Staryu had the ability Natural Cure so the status ailment was solved as soon as the water type had left the field. It was a stroke of luck alongside absolutely perfect timing that Rookidee had evolved into Corvisquire, the secondary stage of the mono-flying type, and had used a combination of Gust and Whirlwind to make a powerful rotation on the pool which turned the water into a whirlpool that smashed the Goldeen into the side of the pool before a Quick Attack had finally knocked out the persistent fish; but at that point the flying type was too exhausted to battle. It was down to a final one vs one confrontation She had to wipe her forehead with her hand to halt her sweat and the spray from the pool from obscuring her view more than once. And through a monumental effort on both trainer and Pokemon''s part, and despite the best efforts Misty to prevent it, the victor had been decided. After all, what water type could match well against an electric type without having some tools to combat paralysis and a whole bunch of Thunder Shocks. As she clutched the the small badge in her hand and the adrenaline from having such an intense battle began leaving her body, Mirielle shakily walked back to through to the hallway she had come from while having the sense of mind to send out Vivillon to keep herself steady on the thin walkway she had traversed to challenge the water type gym leader in the first place. "Thank you Vivillon." Her words caused a light blush on the bug types face as she curled her antenna over her face. The yellow and orange winged Pokemon then chittered in her undecipherable language, but one didn''t need to know the language to understand the intent, and Mirielle knew that her Pokemon was saying that this act was nothing important. "Thank you anyway." And with that, the bright red-faced Pokemon could do nothing but sigh and accept her defeat. Slowly, Mirielle got her legs to stop shaking like a leaf as she then transitioned into walking with Vivillon on her shoulder. A smile tugged her cheeks upwards, she had won. By the time she had really and truly realized that, she had already left the blue tinted double doors of the gym and was embracing her two traveling companions out on the sidewalk with utter joy as all three had received their badges and they could begin heading along to Vermillion. She might even meet Evandros. ''Will he be any more stranger than last time'' she idly wondered. Only time would tell.
Today''s kind of become a crummy day. Apparently Professor Oak forgot that he needed to do some check ups on my team so he kept Chardon and Woody even as I sent over Ralts and Tabs to his lab. Now I''ve only got three Pokemon to use in battles, four in total with Dee-Dee. My entire plan for the ninja academy rests on the shoulders of who I''ve currently got. Now I''ll have to refill my bag with ethers when previously all I needed was potions. Plus there''s that examination thing for Dee-Dee coming up before I leave the city so I won''t even be able to catch anyone that wants to join the team, I''d even take a Rattata or a Magikarp. Thankfully, there''s a guy near the Center who''s a move tutor and his Growlithe and Houndour are willing to help Lupa learn the basics of Thunder Fang; but man. If only I could have either Woody or Chardon because right now it seems like I''m grasping at straws here. Well whatever, better trainers have done more with less and all that lovely jazz. I began walking back to grandpa''s house to find that Elian''s already inside. "Think fast!" I may have yelped as I caught the TM he threw it at me; I can admit that. I take a breath just so I can do a dramatic sigh before I can read it and- "Pretty cool huh?" "They gave you Curse?!" He caught the TM as I threw it back to him "Yeah, oddly enough its gonna be majorly useful since none of the team is even that fast and the extra physical defense ''ll go a long way for Abra since he doesn''t know Calm Mind yet but thanks to Ralts he''s managed to get the basics of Thunder Punch. But Paras ''ll definitely appreciate the extra boost in his physical capabilities especially since he''s got Fury Cutter. I''ve heard about this move called Trick Room where the slowest is the fastest and the fastest is the slowest and using Curse might make us unstoppable if I can get anyone on the team to learn that move." "Man, now I''m probably gonna get something crummy like Sand Attack." "Pfft, I don''t think they even make a TM for Sand Attack." "Well, they''re probably heading over to a TM making machine thingamabob just to make a TM for Sand Attack if my lucks anything to go by." "You know, there was an old saying that Celadon has, um, I think it goes like ''The seeds of success must always be watered by love, compassion, and effort for one to expect a bountiful harvest''. I don''t really get why we say that but we say it a lot when someone we know gets a job or a diploma or gets married." Mom then decides to butt in on the conversation. "Well, in ancient Kanto back when the towns were merely tribes and we had these major kerfuffles of one tribe trying to take over all the rest, it was actually the tribe that lived in Celadon that initiated talks of peace and managed to get the help of tribes from Pewter down to Vermillion. Their attempts with Viridian were rebuffed for a bit until they got five whole tribes to back them up. That quote was taken directly from the head of the Celadon''s tribe leader who would later become the second recorded Elite Four member in Kanto history. It basically means that any success you achieve would be through your own efforts because you cared enough to want to succeed." Of course, she says all this major history stuff while eating popcorn on grandpa''s couch in the living room. "Where''s grandpa?" "Taking his midday nap, the joys of becoming older." I couldn''t help but snort at that "Yeah right, then you miss doing the cool stuff that happens during the day like those midday buffet things that some restaurants do." "Mmm, good point; but naps are better." She then looked down at her popcorn bag before standing up "And with that, I think that I''d like a nap too. Kinda woke up early because of school." She''s probably one of the few adults that could genuinely say that as a reason to nap. I don''t know if that''s cool or lame. Well, there''s really nothing I can do today since I already told everyone on the team about the issue and gave them the rest of the day off. "Okay mom, I''m going over to the closest arcade. Does anybody wanna come with?" Course, everybody''s team was either in the room or out on the small backyard grandpa has so I quickly got a gaggle of Pokemon and Elian following along to go check if there even is an arcade in the traditional city which probably should be categorised as a town. I managed to spoil Bouffalant and Striker with some ice cream and cotton candy, none for me since I''ve got my dental appointment tomorrow. The rest of the Pokemon got to try out naps. I think the Pokemon with me agree that my plan was much better than what the others wanted to do. Plus I confirmed that Striker has both Wing Attack and Steel Wing so I politely asked him if he could move the artificial wings he makes using the move and he can. By tomorrow I''ll get him ready to fly again. Chapter 24 "-ut Magby just won''t listen you know." A girl around my age explained. Today was my dentist appointment so I was just in the blue and white waiting room with a couple kids around my age who were willing to talk. The posters were pretty funny because there were a couple cartoonish Girafarig and Mawile that were shown to be brushing their teeth. "Well, Alice, my mom and Professor Oak always say that when you have issues with your Pokemon then you should always try to talk it out. That advice really helped me because my Ralts didn''t want to evolve anytime soon but she thought that I would''ve kicked her off the team if I found out. I talked with her and now she wears an everstone until she''s ready. Have you had a heart to heart with Magby?" I said. She looked down at her lap, since we were sitting down, and took a bit before she shook her head. "Well... not really. I guess I''ve just been telling her stuff instead of listening." "Well, now that you know what you did wrong you can at least go and talk with Magby. Does your mom have her pokeball?" She then nodded before running off to her mom who was talking with a couple adults, including my mom, about school and politics; why would anyone talk about that stuff it''s like the two most boring conversations you could be talking about. I''m in a pretty upbeat mood since the dentist said that there weren''t any cavities in my teeth and now mom''s trying to schedule a later appointment for something so now I basically have to be in the city at that due date, which wouldn''t really be that hard since its only like two or three months in the future. Something about my teeth needing to be aligned after all my baby teeth fell out, I didn''t really get most of what the dentist said. I was also pretty happy because of what happened with Striker.
Before
I woke up at 8 like usual, heading over to the bathroom and moving Pearl into my room while I brushed my teeth and stuff before getting out and greeting Elian who now woke up at around the same time as I did since we''d been traveling together for the past couple weeks. Me and mom wouldn''t actually be heading out to the dentist till 11am so I took the opportunity to make some breakfast. I was on my way into the kitchen when I spotted mom, heard her talking before I actually saw her, with a hand in a cookie jar and very wide eyes looking back at me. She took a moment to look around before addressing me. "...Don''t tell your grandfather!" Of course, because this was such good blackmailing material, I then immediately asked for some ice cream after the appointment for my current team and also to head off and do some training with Striker and Starmie''s help. She, of course, accepted the offer and almost immediately I forgot what just happened. Ten minutes later I was heading over to the edge of town with five Pokemon, two that didn''t technically belong to me since they were legally mom''s, and a chipper attitude to really start the day. Lupa was previously handed over to the move tutor guy, who had a glowing recommendation by Nurse Joy and a general feeling of trustworthiness, and he said to give him about an hour to begin the process of learning Thunder Fang. Most move tutors were weird like that, they could teach you any move that might even remotely be usable by their own Pokemon but most of the time they would only give a barebones version so that the trainer themselves could experiment and see if the cost of training the move is less than the benefits of maintaining another move. It also kinda sucks how if a non-electric type wanted to use electric moves than their only options were Thunder Fang and Thunder Punch since Volt Tackle was Pikachu-line exclusive and mainly electric types get moves like Wild Charge, Nuzzle, and Volt Switch. Anyway, that wasn''t what I should be focusing on but instead on two very important things. Having sufficiently gotten as far away as possible from the outskirts of civilization to have some proper privacy I begin to explain the current training plan. The place was sufficiently open enough for multiple people to have their teams out and about while still having privacy with the trees everywhere and blocking the view for anybody passing by the area. "So, Pearl, you''re gonna try to learn Brine with Starmie just to get the salt effect, since it''s basically a stronger Water Gun with a twist. Leaf, continue practicing Flame Charge but use Rain Dance to weaken it first- I can''t believe it took me this long to come up with that. Striker''s with me to test something out & Dee-Dee can just hang around and do whatever." Everyone readily nodded except for Striker who had a questioning gaze as he knew I asked specifically for him for something. Once the three Pokemon began their training, I took the other two- because Dee-Dee was gonna follow my little plan- over to a open patch that didn''t have any rain falling down on it. "So Striker, like last time I want you to use Wing Attack." He easily did so, with one wing and a little nub which was on his left side. "Alright, now try to use Wing Attack to how it used to be when you had both wings." This was more tricky and the dragon began growling from the focus he was maintaining while doing the task. Ultimately he succeeded. "Great! Now move it to how you would when you''re gliding in the air!" I yell at him. Striker snorted but began shifting the massive blue tinted wings to curve a little. "Perfect! Now look down!" Maybe it was how different the command was but Striker blinked in confusion before actually looking down at the trees. And I do mean trees. Once his mind caught up with him, he yelped and lost focus on his Wing Attack and began rapidly falling to the ground- which would''ve been painful if Dee-Dee hadn''t used Psychic to grab hold of him again. "Okay, now get him down gently." I say to Dee-Dee, who didn''t need the command since she was halfway done with the task. I run up to his new location which was a good ten meters from where he had started, and as the rain from Rain Dance was splashing down on us I got to see the dragon type''s expression. Even if he didn''t have a humanoid face, it was obvious to tell when someone was in disbelief and shock. By the time Dee-Dee had caught up while holding the egg, Striker had finally snapped out of it. He looked at us for a second before doing the cry-laugh thing that Tabs did back when I caught her and stomped over to glomp Dee-Dee and I in a big dragon hug. Very much known fact about the Bagon line: they dream of flying since the very moment they hatch and if a trainer can turn a Bagon and Shelgon into a Salamence then that trainer gets that dragon''s trust and loyalty for all time, unless that trainer goofs up big time. Having lost his wings means that he lost the most important part of being a Salamence... other than losing his trainer. Dee-Dee was giving highly sympathetic pats on his neck while I was scratching the scales under his chin at just the spot mom always says he likes. Soon, a deep croon resonated from the dragon type and he shifted back a step to fix us with a determined gaze. Well... I still have a good forty minutes before I have to go back and get Lupa. Might as well use them.
After
The morning after the dentist appointment was the same. Except for one detail. Elian had decided to leave yesterday with a group of trainers heading over to Dark City. It had been a pretty sad ''see you later'' but we had a lot of fun doing one last battle. I won but that was because I decided to counter Paras and Dill with Leaf whose Leaf Guard ability made status inflicting moves useless against her and Abra against Lupa who had Snarl. Even then I still needed to use Pearl and was down to two Pokemon by the end of it, with one poisoned and the other heavily exhausted. Being a Gloom brought massive power behind each of Dill''s attacks. Now I had the opportunity to go and challenge the ninja academy, which was basically a trainer challenge thing like what I heard the Bellsprout tower does for beginner trainers. We were still frustratingly close yet far from perfecting a workable Flame Charge but my hope is that by having Leaf attempt it in the coming fights with a bunch of Pokemon while under the effects of normal weather, rainy weather from Rain Dance, and finally sunny weather from Sunny Day it would be the catalyst that would allow Leaf to finally get it down. It would be the perfect counter against fairy, bug, ice, and steel types with half those typings being super effective against her. If we could just get it to work. I was already heading over to the academy since mom was sleeping in today and since grandpa had nothing better to do he decided to tag along with me just to see how I battle. Then he''s gonna show me how to play something called mahjong and checkers. "You might not realize it but you can find out a lot about another trainer when you battle them in high level matches, and to a lesser extent any sort of activity that requires the mind. Not basic stuff like another persons birthday or favorite color but instead stuff like their general personality and the way they deal with conflicts and issues. That was actually how I found out that I really liked your grandmother, heh, when she trounced my a- butt." he hastily amended. I didn''t know that since grandpa usually talked about what grandma was like after they got married. I still teased him about losing to grandma. By the time we finished walking to our destination, we were at least a solid two kilometers away from the city over to where Elian said he managed to find the place since it was notorious for occasionally changing location, just like the challenge Janine had for trainers with six or more badges. It wasn''t a noteworthy building, almost entirely made using bamboo and wood. There was a door we could go through but it was obvious that the guy behind the door had noticed us and was getting others ready for the challenge. Sliding the bamboo door aside showed a simple room with only minimal items strewn about. Some bowls of katsudon which implied we were interrupting breakfast, a tv, and some notebooks. The guy who was talking to the other people that were just here was evidently a woman. She bowed in greeting before addressing us "Greetings and welcome to the ninja academy. I must assume that the young one is either enrolling or doing the challenge Mr Morgan." Grandpa waved her off "Please, Mr Morgan was my father. I''d rather be called ''Dr Supreme Overlord of all Humankind'' Morgan, might make a poor fool believe that half that hogwash might be true. And my grandson here wishes to do the challenge since he''s on his journey right now." The lady nodded and quickly addressed me. "Well young man, seeing as how you wish to challenge the students of Fuchsia ninja academy I have to inform you of all the rules and regulations. Please sit down and jot down any points you believe you might find confusing." Then she began talking about how the challenge was meant to go once she confirmed that I had two badges. Basically it was a big hide and seek where I had to find six trainers hiding and all of them would challenge me in a battle so it was probably a good idea I bought those ethers from the store yesterday. The hiding places would all be in a kilometer radius so they might hide in the ground or somewhere else. The challenge would persist until I either gave up or until four hours had passed. Once I found each one of the ninjas I would then battle them in a two v two. If I managed to get at least three then I''d win a random prize, beating four gave me better options from the prize pool, and getting five let me have a random pool between TM''s and battle items, while six would allow me to pick any two prizes that they had onsite. I didn''t have to re~ally worry. I''m pretty good at hide and seek. Once the challenge officially began I sent out Lupa to sniff the bowls of food and get us towards the area with the least trainers so that the team could have a higher chance to recover from their exhaustion early on. The ninja lady gave a weird smile at my actions which gave me more than enough incentive to follow through with it, the smile could''ve been for the guy I was singling out after all. We got to the south side of the building and began walking in that direction to find out that the ninja we were following had masked their scent. It was only a minor setback since I easily sent back Lupa and swapped him for Leaf since she had slightly better eyesight than the rock typed canine. Eventually we stumbled across a dude who looked a little older than me in the trees and pointed at him. He noticed and quickly came down from the tree, putting the book he was reading away. "Mou, you found me so quickly." He stated more than asked. I was still obliged to give an answer though "Yeah, it was pretty easy to follow the scent you had before you erased it, then we just followed the general direction and looked for hints along the way." He hummed and nodded before pulling out a pokeball from seemingly nowhere and easily tossing it out. The light coalesced into a bipedal shape and in front of me was the evolved version of a Snubbull. A Granbull "Pakkun, prepare for battle." This was the perfect opportunity for Leaf. "Leaf show off your newest move, we''ll mainly be using it to attack for this battle alright." and she easily nodded as she jogged in front of me to stance up into battle position. He picked up kunai from somewhere and tossed it into the air randomly, only it wasn''t random and it landed on a rock nearby with a distinct tink noise. "Mean Look into Scary Face, stop any escape." "Duo 3, then attack" Since I wasn''t gonna bother switching to Pearl or Lupa for this battle I was able to get a pretty good head start into the fight as my grass type used Double Team and Agility at the same time. She didn''t even need my prompting to begin circling the enemy Snubbull who lost track of which Leaf was which and fired Scary Face off on the wrong one. It was then that Leaf ran right at the fairy type and was sparking an orangish red before tackling the opposing Pokemon, a grunt escaping her due to the pain. The other dude merely sharply inhaled before nodding and grunting. Pakkun, who was previously shouting from pain, stopped in its tracks and ran to get Leaf in an Ice Fang. Leaf on the other hand dodged back using Quick Attack which gave me the chance to observe the black burn marks on her body, fewer than before but more than we hoped for. "...This won''t work. Return." And with that Pakkun was sent back. Though Leaf wouldn''t be able to against whatever is sent next. "Sneasel, out and Claws." Maybe that''s just a shortened order for Hone Claws? Well whatever. "Attack again, but DT and SD" I accidentally forgot to make an order for using Double Team and Sunny Day at the same time. Leaf rolled with it though. As Sneasel was making with the claw scratching, Leaf went behind a tree and two of her alongside a bright orb of light came out. "Take that Leafeon down." Now with even more speed to her already fast baseline, Leaf began circling the Sneasel in a green blur which quickly became bright orange-red again. Sneasel aimed an Icy Wind to slow down its opponent only for it to be ineffective against the sun boosted fire type move, though the ice move had popped the double. Really, Leaf shouting from pain was mainly attributed from the fire move being too hot- I had palmed Dee-Dee''s ball and almost ordered her out because of the cry. Almost immediately, she rushes at the Sneasel in what I believe ''ll be a one hit knockout. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Sneasel instead accurately blocks the attack with a dark move of some kind- maybe Knock Off- and manages to outmuscle the flaming bullet that was Leaf. Her Flame Charge cut out as she was tossed away from the blow but she quickly got up and had the Oran Berry I gave her so what Sneasel used probably wasn''t Knock Off. Either way, it meant that somehow the Sneasel was stronger than Leaf by a wide margin if she couldn''t blow past it. "Leaf use Duo 3 again, if you can''t outmuscle then just outspeed." "Taunt" Leaf had already begun the process of using Double Team and Agility but the energies fizzled out pretty quickly. The bad part was that Leaf had gone from calm to extremely angry. The worst part was that Ice Shard''s had been fired and scored shallow hits on her flank as she moved to dodge them. "Leaf use Duo 1 to strike, then try doing it again but instead use the fire version" She had already begun running towards Sneasel going back into a green blur but with hints of white as the Trailblaze-Quick Attack combo was used to bash into Sneasel who, this time, couldn''t move fast enough to dodge or block the attack. It slammed backwards into a tree but had already begun getting up and firing some slightly melting Ice Shards but they were ineffective as Leaf blurred through them while on fire. Although this time there was no shout of pain as something in Quick Attack was helping with keeping Flame Charge from hurting her. Definitely gonna have to confirm that later. Right now. Sneasel''s on the ground face down from taking a super effective strike to the body. The other dude merely hummed and returned Sneasel before taking a look at Leaf who was panting from exhaustion and pain. He and I both noticed that there were no new black marks. He then looked at me to find the same conclusion. That whatever Leaf just did to learn the actual Flame Charge had worked- and with Pokemon- that meant that it could be replicated once, twice, or even a hundred times if it was required. He then shrugged and sent out a slightly rested Pakkun, maybe not to win but to definitely tire out one of my original partners. I was proven correct when he informed the fairy type "Sneasel''s down, make this difficult for them. Dig." Even though Leaf managed to snag them with a quick Razor Leaf, Granbull managed to get down into the dirt. Maybe against Woody or Beedrill this might''ve worked but with Leaf it was just... "Fire off Swift into the hole. A whole ton of it." Once the majority of the flying stars went down the hole it was only a matter of time unti- The Granbull was blown out of the ground right behind Leaf before falling down back onto the ground. Leaf then ran right at the fairy type while using a Quick Attack to finish it off only for it to fizzle out of existence We got duped. Right underneath Leaf, our opponent was lunging with another Ice Fang. And with no way to dodge we couldn''t stop it. Unless... "Leaf use Flame Charge! Full Power!" I yelled. Leaf followed the order dutifully and with the boost of power from the sunny field helping all fire moves the Flame Charge was bigger than ever before. And this time, there was no shout of pain. With its ice move nullified by the fire, Leaf quickly cut the attack positioned herself to hit the fairy type with an overhead Iron Tail. Pakkun had slammed down onto the ground. It was obvious that it was knocked out. The other guy just grunted before returning his Pokemon. I was slightly busy sending out Dee-Dee and getting a Burn Heal and a Potion. Leaf didn''t mind that the two of us began immediately working together to heal her of her injuries but was instead really happy by the pampering. "Hey Leaf," my second bff yipped in reply "I think you just figured out how to use Flame Charge. Great job." After we were done I gave her a new Oran Berry and sent her, along with Dee-Dee, back into the pokeball. The ninja dude was already walking over to the shack with a book in hand. It was pretty easy catching up to him since he wasn''t even walking that fast and my pokegear showed that only twenty minutes had passed since this challenge had started. So long as I kept this pattern up, then I''d probably be able to find the other ninjas before the third hour had passed. Ninja dude was only willing to give short answers whenever I asked stuff so by the time we had finished walking to the shack it had been in silence. The lady sighed when she saw that the other kid was there but became surprised when he handed a slip and sat down to eat a bowl of cold katsudon. I wasn''t paying all too much attention as I sent out Leaf again and instructed her with sitting down and resting until later use. Having around a little less than half an hour of rest should be enough for her to be fighting fit. I thought about sending out Dee-Dee since I wasn''t gonna use her and I''d rather leave some company for gramps but that was incorrect since I needed her Heal Pulse in case things get dicey like with Leaf. I sent Lupa back out and he began sniffing again to find the others as well. Turns out that the other five had all went in the same general direction so I''ll maybe find a couple together before I can head back. It turns out that I was right in that I''d find a couple of them together. One was hiding in the dirt while the other had taken residence in a nearby pond. One got surprised by Lupa digging her up while the other got shocked by Pearl sinking down to say hello... and maybe splash an underwater Water Gun at ''em. They were pretty peeved about the way I found them. The problem about having only three battle Pokemon is that eventually I''m gonna have to fight with a type advantage due to having too little teammates to do anything about it. So it was really unfortunate that one had a Houndour and Shuckle while the other had a Beedrill and Murkrow with the only battling Pokemon I had available were Pearl and Lupa who I used. Also the Houndour one wanted to fight Pearl since she spooked them while the Beedrill one wanted to sic her Beedrill on Lupa. Suffice to say the battles were pretty quick. I''m nearly an hour into the challenge and already got half the ninjas. Though apparently there was someone called ''Hatake-san'' who I had to be really worried about because he''s the strongest ninja trainee here. My team was mildly exhausted and at this point the scent of the other ninjas would be too weak for Lupa to sniff out so I made a tactical decision to make the team relax for about ten minutes or so under Dee-Dee''s care. Definitely not to spend some time talking to grandpa and the egg so I could rest my feet for a bit, the uneven terrain and loose dirt certainly hadn''t been killer on my ankles. Somewhat rested up, I took the team with me to go in the general direction of the ninjas and began searching from there. The rest seemingly were by themselves now since the guy we found was northwards when our previous finds were in the east and west of the wooden hut. He only had an Arbok and Magikarp. Arbok didn''t have Fire Fang to counter Iron Tail. Another was southwards. He was pretty bad at the ninja hidey thing. But... "Machoke u~se Cross Chop then Low Kick!" "Lupa, Rocky Guard. Then jump and use Thunder Fang." His Rocky Guard broke easily enough to the fighting type attack but it gave the rock type canine enough time to get another bite in with a mild amount of electricity to course through the Machoke. It worked. The fighting type was now paralyzed. "Now Machoke, use your burning determination to break your gates with a Close Combat!" Oh no, Guts! "Get outta there, Double Team and Rocky Guard." It was a fruitless endeavor. Lupa and his two clones got caught in the mishmash of punches and kicks. He didn''t get up. "Return, that was a good run pal." Machoke was now paralyzed though and since Lupa had already dealt with his extremely loud Noibat it was up to Leaf to take him down. "Ready up Leaf." Which was codeword for ''start with Mud Slap'' Soon as she came on the field she had thrown a batch of mud right at Machoke''s eyes, temporarily blinding the fighting type, before she capitalized with a Quick Attack, Iron Tail, and Leaf Blade combo. It was annoying how Machoke actually seemed to battle better without any eyesight than with, seeing as how the fighting type managed to dodge the attack Leaf used and stopped the follow up Leaf Blade and Iron Tail combo with another use of Close Combat. Aside from that first guy, every battle except this dudes had been a relatively easy experience so maybe he''s this Hatake-san everyone talked about. "HAHAHA! Show him your blinding youth Machoke!" ...or maybe the last guy will be Hatake-san since this guy doesn''t really seem like a ninja. "Leaf, Swift into Duo 2." As Machoke somehow managed to run at exactly where Leaf was, the Leafeon decided to fire Swift from her mouth. The massive body of Machoke once again dodged the starry attack. It didn''t dodge the follow-up. And with that, Machoke had finally choked and I could put my all into finding the real Hatake-san. "Brilliant job Machoke, now team, we must train even harder so that we can aim to be stronger! One hundred laps around the forest, GO! But first, the slip!" I tried to ask that for directions on where the last ninja might be but all I got to see was him and his four Pokemon running back to the hut in blinding speeds, a trail of dust obscuring the rest of his team. Well... I better get on with finding the last ninja since Leaf and Pearl are still fresh. After I heal up Lupa of course, I''d be a bad trainer if I ignored his injuries just because of the nature of the pokeball and its injury freezing effect or whatever. This last guy was probably anywhere in the forest at this point so I made sure that Lupa was out on sniffing duty for any sort of scent while Leaf and I kept a lookout for any ninjas running on trees. We spent a whole hour walking like that, going in a clockwise of the hut and making sure to look at every nook and cranny of the forest for any hidey holes. At this point, I give up. Five out of the six is a good number to achieve so the odds of me getting a TM for Sand Attack is probably really low. I sent out the whole team and took a leisurely walk finally being able to enjoy the scenery and look at the wild animals and Pokemon. On the right of us, fly''s were being caught by Spinarak and Ariados webs. And on the right, there were a few Poliwag playing in a pond. It was only when we reached the hut that I realized that I am a big doo-doo butt. The last ninja wasn''t away from the hut. They were hiding on top of the hut. I asked Dee-Dee to psychically grab me and bring me to the roof of the hut. Lo and behold, the last ninja who''s probably the one everyone says will wipe the floor with me. He''s pretty surprised to see me but he masks it pretty quickly and jumps off the building to run away. He doesn''t get far. Dee-Dee grabs him. Once I get down with some help and head on over to him he stops struggling and just sighs before tossing out a pokeball, being let down now that I was near him. It opens with a pop hiss sound to reveal a... Misdreavus. Thankfully, its caught and I just saw him release the ghost type otherwise I''d probably try and run away from it. I send forward Leaf since Pearl had gotten poisoned for the third time today when she was against that Arbok so I''d rather keep her back to finish off any opponents. "Shadow Ball." "Duo 4, use Quick Attack to boost your speed but don''t use it to attack." Leaf had already struck away the orb of ghost type energy that the Misdreavus had thrown using the combo of Leaf Blade and Iron Tail which gave me an idea when the ball didn''t immediately blow up but then little ghost had decided it would be the best option to use Growl. The cutesy sound cutting Leaf''s attack power before she hit Misdreavus with the combo attack. Deciding to cut my losses, I told Leaf to use Duo 3 before Misdreavus could use Taunt or Disable. The ghost type instead used another normal type sound move that lowered Leaf''s stats again despite her using Double Team and Misdreavus not even facing the direction of the right Leafeon. It wasn''t Growl because you still did need to face the opponent when using that specific status move. Leaf also saw that it was the perfect opportunity to attack again and whipped up another Duo 4 but Misdreavus used a purple and red colored move right as Leaf began converging. "Wait Leaf! It might be Destiny Bond." The ghost type move used was a favorite of Agatha''s and practically every ghost type can learn how to use it.. Though I was proven incorrect when the ghost energy turned into a trio of floating flames. That moment of hesitation meant that Misdreavus had plenty of time to make the flames wash over the clones of Double Team and the actual Leaf. Her already low attack having been weakened even further by the burn meant that her next hit didn''t do a lot of damage to the Misdreavus but the follow up Mud Slap decreased the ghost types accuracy. The other guy decided to cut his losses seeing that his next order was. "Weaken. Make that Leafeon fresh meat for Mightyena." Whatever moves they''re planning to use it''s clear that we definitely we don''t want them to happen, maybe they''re more status moves. The Misdreavus decided to faint. I''m not even joking. It used a ghost move, and probably said some mean words, and just fainted. I was also right in thinking that it was a status move. And Mightyena is a common enough Pokemon that everyone in Indigo, Hoenn, and Sinnoh remembers what their abilities can be. Intimidate, Quick Feet, and Moxie. And with the way this guy was acting, it was probably the dreaded Moxie; an ability that increased a Pokemon''s attack and gave them a slight boost of energy with each opponent beaten. The dark type came out just as I was pressing the button to return Leaf, resetting all her stat changes and leaving it all to Pearl. The only problem was that the return function didn''t work no matter how many times I sent the beam of light to collide with Leaf. So, there was a Mightyena with the Moxie ability facing off against a heavily debuffed Leaf. Okay. Try not to freak out. "Double Team then Trailblaze, if it connects then Swift." Where there were four Leafeon''s on the field there were now six, which was slightly odd because of the minimal increase, all running right at Mightyena. "Odor Sleuth to find it then SP." The dark type used its snout to smell the correct Leafeon before standing very still. Alarm bells were ringing but Leaf was way too close to order a retreat. She ran in a green outlined shape ready to tackle only to get socked in the jaw, causing her body to fly to the side. Mightyena chased Leaf with some very fiery fangs but a quick use of Double Kick hit the snout of the dark type dealing little damage despite the super effective hit. It gave Leaf time to get her legs under her and move away from the dark type. "Do Swift then Trio 3, cripple it as well!" "Detect then Fire Fang." Frustratingly, the dark type managed to dodge a very quick, and small, use of Swift and began advancing on Leaf who sat on her hind paws and began using Growl, Baby-Doll Eyes, and Tail Whip so that she could harshly lower the attack and lower the defense of Mightyena. For some odd reason she was having a lot of trouble with managing to use her moves so she took some time before she fired off her status moves on Mightyena. The dark type simply did like any good dog and followed the orders of its trainer, but it was plain to see the stat drops that occurred from it looking only at Leaf as it bulled over to the grass type. She quickly sheathed herself in flame as well, which seriously spooked the ninja guy but didn''t really faze the Mightyena, before trying to gain enough momentum to at least do a little damage. They collided in flames and fur as both stopped the other from advancing from their spot on the battlefield. The dark type definitely got off the worst in the initial exchange but one simple snap of jaws and Leaf was down. And that included the effects placed on her, one of which was probably Mean Look. Only then was it possible to return her, though I didn''t miss how her muscles stopped clenching super hard once she fainted. That''s the second time she''s gotten hit with Mean Look today. But this guy did it way better. Maybe this is the Hatake-san everyone was badgering on about. Well whatever. Pearl enters the field and immediately the other guy face faults. ...Something tells me that he doesn''t have a lot of options against long range opponents with his Mightyena. That something was correct because immediately starting the battle with a Water Gun had the Mightyena pushed back. It managed to dodge the three different Confuse Ray''s that Pearl aimed at it but it couldn''t dodge the Water Gun''s that would follow-up without getting hit if it wanted to get close. It still tried to get really close with what I assume is Sucker Punch but it didn''t really have any way to deal damage after Pearl used Iron Defense and a subsequent Rain Dance which was frankly overkill in my opinion. Brine was still too unpracticed for us to actually use it and hope for an effect but Pearl still spewed a smattering of salty water that caused Mightyena to momentarily scrunch their nose. The other dude still tried his best but ultimately, since Mightyena didn''t know Thunder Fang... or any ranged option for that matter, Pearl quite easily won having hit Mightyena only twice with Water Gun. A fact the other guy wasn''t too happy about seeing as he trudged into the ninja hut. I followed after Pearl and Leaf got healed. It was good that I had the foresight to bring a couple bottles of burn heals as well. Soon, I entered the building with all seven ninjas inside along with grandpa. Turns out that everybody aside from the ninja guy I just fought were watching TV. Once everybody noticed me enter, and the last dude I fought gave a slip of paper to the ninja lady, did everyone present give me some polite clapping. "Well congratulations young man. You''re officially the second trainer to complete the full challenge this season, please come with me to retrieve your prize." Then the ninja lady began walking further into the hut which was strange since from the outside it doesn''t look that big. She briefly sent out a Venomoth which used a move or something and suddenly we were in a warehouse filled with items. I was stunned by whatever just happened so I wasn''t prepared for us to keep moving along, which the ninja lady did. I yelped a bit as I power-walked to her side and we proceeded to an area of the warehouse that held something major. Held Items and TM''s. The vastly different items and devices were on one side while the other held discs in all different colors. From memory I could remember that the umbrella could prevent weather effects on the user and that the black sludge could heal poison types. The TM''s on the other hand I couldn''t make heads or tail out of due to them not being coded or numbered which meant I only knew their typing. Ninja lady then decided to speak up. "I understand that this is a somewhat difficult decision for you so I shall hand out a list of what is available for trainers of your current badge level, though your strength might currently exceed it." and then she handed me a slip. Looking through it informs me that I''m not getting anything as powerful as Thunder or as dangerous as Toxic but I still have access to Thunderbolt, Magical Leaf, and moves similar to that. Thankfully I have access to Toxic Spikes and Protect which a lot of the team will appreciate having access to. I inform the lady as much only for her to rain on my parade by telling me that all TM''s are single use. If that''s the case then its imperative that Tabs gets Toxic Spikes since it''ll come easier to Beedrill through training compared to Tabitha so I can have her practice it and then help teach Beedrill how to use it. Plus she could chain it with regular Spikes. But if that''s the case then I should be careful on my last item choice. Something that could benefit the majority of the team or at least one member. That meant the list got shortened further by cutting off utility moves, since Double Team and Agility are good enough. The current list is mainly Ice Punch, Rock Tomb, Ice Beam, Shadow Claw, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, Air Cutter, and Bulldoze. I thought about Fury Cutter and Dynamic Punch but those moves are merely rumors on what the Charmander line has available. Or I could get Black Sludge for Beedrill as some form of passive healing. Or I could get one of those Power Weight things to increase the growth rate of any new team members. The choice shouldn''t just be me though. With permission, I sent out the current team and explained our predicament. I could either get my first item for Beedrill or I could get five out of eight TM''s would almost certainly go to Chardon. They all had the same thoughts that I did. I could always get these items or TM''s but I should ask the entire team on a team vote first. The ninja lady accepted the request, seeing as she was right next to us the entire time. I got to write down the list of items that I''m thinking of getting and her email so that she could send the item to me. We then exited the weird warehouse and came back to the hut with grandpa and the six ninja trainees still there, because why would they actually leave. Grandpa and I started heading home after I got a confirmation that I''d be getting a wireless transfer of payment for completing the challenge. "-and that''s basically why I''m calling the five of you for this group meeting on what to decide." I explained to the other half of the team. "Most the items I picked are pretty expensive so we''d probably only be able to buy one of those things if we need to since I''m trying to save up for Pearl''s evolution which is gonna be pretty pricy." The team was paying rapt attention to what I just said aside from Tabitha who was doing that happy cry thing she usually does when someone is nice her. We all then decided to put it into vote. I was being impartial unless we reached a three-way tie. Beedrill and Pearl were of the opinion to get a TM. Lupa, Chardon, and Dee-Dee- who was surprised she was part of the voting process for some reason- voted for the high quality Power Weights. Ralts, Tabs, Woody, and Leaf all quickly voted for the Black Sludge. Something that surprised and confused the bug type. With that out of the way I proceeded to message the ninja lady with my choice before saying bye to the part of my team that was behind the screen. Wait... she said single use. I realized that I had to make a very quick emergency call before someone used up their Curse TM. Chapter 25 The rest of the week passed by in a blur of training the team and hanging out with grandpa, with the addition of Ralts who was trying to learn how to use Baton Pass since Tabs could now handle getting hit with Thunder Punch from the likes of Woody and Chardon on a regular basis. Mom left at the end of Sunday after a family dinner since classes were back on; but not before forcing advising me to study since I had an agreement where I was a part of the school so long as I did any necessary tests online. I also headed over to the Pokemon Center to use their battlefields and even helped with taking any emergency Pokemon they had to the Pokemon Center that was a little way''s away from the city. At the end of the week, I was always gonna post be heading back to Vermillion especially since it''ll only be a week itself to actually reach the city. I placed a reservation to battle Surge in a timeslot that would give me maybe a couple days of prepping anything I may need in the city. I managed to find a lady who was willing to spare some time with her Lilligant to teach Dee-Dee how to use Aromatherapy so she managed to learn how to use the move, unlike Pearl who only manages to make a very short range blast of Brine since she doesn''t have any mentor to help her along the way. I also bought Disable for Ralts since it was gonna be a really crucial move for her and kind of a lynchpin to our plan that I came up with for Surge. Speaking of Dee-Dee, I had gotten a confirmation call about Dee-Dee needing to be admitted to the Center so that they could do an analysis on her. If for whatever reason they found that I wasn''t fit to be her trainer then I''d have to transfer ownership to a willing trainer; worst case I''d lose my trainers license. So as you''d imagine I am trying my best to not think about it. I didn''t need her to worry about it so I didn''t tell her about all the consequences, just that if they don''t think that I''m the right trainer then they''ll send her to someone else. Now it was time that I handed her over to the Pokemon Center for her examination. As soon as I handed her pokeball over to Nurse Joy I was ushered into a waiting room that wasn''t in the main lobby. Since the place is all traditional it doesn''t have stuff like a TV to watch so I''m kinda wasting my time by drawing a few things from pictures I snapped on my pokegear. I wonder how things are going?
In a white room filled only with colorful posters some furniture, a pop hiss sound occurred before a white light coalesced and turned into a bipedal, pear shaped Pokemon. Her chocolate eyes analyzed the furniture and saw that the color scheme picked out was made specifically for easing a patient, from the color scheme right down to the scent of the place. Dee-Dee could stand to have the place smell like less lavender, she already gets enough of it from her teammate. She looked at the furniture in further detail and saw one padded chair behind a table which had a notebook, a pencil holder with some of its namesake, and a file holder. There was also a very comfortable looking couch. Immediately after her observations, another pop hiss filled the room with another light coalescing into another bipedal, pear shaped Pokemon. His chocolate eyes didn''t bother with surveying the room, only at looking at her. It was after the second pokeball opened then that the only human in the room began talking. "Before we begin the physical, it is preferred that we examine your previous files as another medical nurse catalogues your mental health while ensuring you stay comfortable. If you have any issues please do inform the nurse Indeedee. We hope you have a comfortable stay while here." Dee-Dee was only half listening to what the member of the Joy family was saying, she was too busy sharing information about how her life had been to the male Indeedee. She showed him about her experience with her previous trainer, even sharing how she lost her hand to a Pinsir. She showed him the care her new trainer gives her and the weird crew that he picked up before catching her. He showed her about his experience at nursing academy, even sharing about how he passed his exams and dutifully stayed with his designated Nurse Joy. He showed her cases where he comforted Pokemon and humans in abusive relationships. She recoiled from their connection after the second case that was shown. Her male counterpart looked apologetic but his body language showed a different story. And to make matters worse, Indeedee placed an emotional barrier which prevented the two of them from conversing in their minds so as to prevent any mental influence from either side. ''So, things are probably going to be a load of tosh'' Dee-Dee mused. Indeedee then proceeded to sit down on the executive, padded chair before taking a notebook and pen that were on the table in front of him. He made a go ahead motion towards the couch and Dee-Dee took that as a sign that it was time to sit and face the music as the surroundings only mildly eased her anxiety. A click of a pen got her attention as she rounded back towards her male counterpart. He opened the notebook and placed his attention back to her. "Now as this is mandatory, I shall be asking you several questions regarding your current and previous trainers alongside any previous places of residency prior to any captures. But first I am inclined to inform you that for this current examination of health this entire conversation and anything said during the physical can and will be recorded for any future use." He coughed into his hand before continuing "Now that we have officially started I would like to state on record that the Pokemon currently being examined has deigned to show past memories of her experience under her previous trainer and her current trainer. May the examined Pokemon please state their name, typing, and origin of birth so that we may begin." "My former name was Mind Healer but it''s now Dee-Dee, my typing is normal and psychic, and my origin of birth is Glimwood Tangle." The Indeedee had his brow raised even as he jotted down the information "And was the new name given by yourself or a human?" "It was given to me by my trainer Evandros." Indeedee jotted something that she said before he continued. The wait was infuriatingly short. "Can you please state any places of residency that you might have lived in for an extended period of time." "Aside from Glimwood Tangle I used to live in the house of a man named John. He was nice and it wasn''t until he gifted me to his son Peter that I went anywhere else. I mainly dealt with issues such as cooking, cleaning, and setting up the tent." "And Peter is your former trainer." "One of, yes." Indeedee made a ''go on'' motion with the hand holding the pen, not taking his eyes of his notebook "I was traded for a Galarian Ponyta to the trainer before Evandros. I don''t remember his name because he never told us- the Pokemon under his care I mean. He was the one who trained me as a battler but the eejit didn''t know or simply didn''t care that my strength lay in special attacks and not physical attacks. He came here to Kanto since nothing seemed to be working for him in Galar and made me use Feint Attack on an extremely strong, wild Pinsir that was using Vice Grip at the same time, and that''s how I ended up losing my arm and pretty soon my second trainer; not like I actually considered him a trainer. " "Sounds like a real daft sod." He muttered as he continued writing. Dee-Dee eased up a bit after hearing that comment "After he tossed me to the wayside, I just simply couldn''t trust humans but with my hand I knew that I''d never really survive in the wild again so I was stuck in the town he left me in; it''s Hophophop town in case you were wondering. Stayed for more than half a year on those streets" The sound of pen on paper continued as he never looked up, muttering apologies to her with halfhearted effort. "So if you couldn''t trust humans, why did you get caught?" "His mind is so beautifully open enough that it''s easy to see his thoughts. I knew that what he spoke was the truth because his emotions were like waves that I could tangibly see and considering that his Charmeleon, Beedrill, and Rockruff were so willing to protect the egg he has, alongside the fact that he gave them free rein unlike the other two I belonged to, was reason enough to accept our arrangements. He gave me the option to be given away if I ever want but I actually like our arrangement, proper." He said nothing, merely writing down on his notebook. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She had to sit in uncomfortable silence until he finally spoke up, his pen no longer etching words onto the notebook. A question this time. "How would you rate all your trainers on a scale of 1 to 10?" Dee-Dee couldn''t really understand why exactly he wanted that information but she was willing to share it. "Um, so Peter was nice and sometimes he and his Pokemon would help set the camp as well to take the load off me occasionally. Honestly, aside from the trading incident he was very cordial with me and never tried to force me to battle so maybe a 6 or a 7. My second trainer was a douche, simple as that, so its an easy 1 but if I could use more numbers I''d use -6 because if I had the chance I''d be the first one to put him six feet under." She joked. He just gave a glance and wrote down something while humming. It was very annoying. She continued after that awkward pause "Evandros is perfectly willing to set the camp up by himself, never makes me battle, and lets me hold the egg he takes care of so its an easy 9, 9.5 max." "Not a 10?" She could see that he had his pen close to the paper to write something before Dee-Dee realized that she misspoke, if she talks about the flaws of her trainer then there''s the possibility that she might be taken away. Honestly, if Peter had traded her to her current trainer instead of that brutish Galarian then Evandros would have a full 10, her distrust with humans being the main reason she rated him a 9. She couldn''t say that though, more due to her worry about being placed away to deal with her distrust with humans, so she decided to tell a flaw. "He hates onions." And left it at that, hoping that the Indeedee in front of her ends up thinking that she''s an avid onion fan or was making another joke. The male normal type hummed once more and wrote something else. Dee-Dee felt like she might''ve given the wrong answer, and that definitely didn''t help her nerves. The next few questions would be roundabout ones that she had already answered when she was first admitted into a Pokemon Center by Evandros. He kept on infuriatingly humming as he wrote something down, what exactly she didn''t know but it was clear that it was about her and/or her trainer. There was no clock to see how much time had passed and whenever she looked he always wrote something down to the point that she stopped trying halfway through her sixth question she had answered. It also didn''t help that whenever she found her mind wandering that she would sense a second set of emotions close to her but whenever she focused it would be gone with the wind. She had enough out of her male counterpart when he asked what moves she knew, as if she hadn''t already informed the Nurse Joy and Chansey of this Center. "Look, I get that you need to ask questions and try and see if I''m even me and to see my mental health, but unless this farce of a meeting gets somewhere then you better just hand me over for my physical." The Indeedee raised his hand holding the pen into the air between them to give a placating gesture in an attempt to calm her down. It was the left hand. It had the opposite effect. He coughed into his hand when he finally looked up from his notebook and began addressing her. "Look, I understand that you are uncomfortable during this procedure but you have to understand that this is all a standard mental evaluation. If we find that for whatever reason that either your physical or mental health has deteriorated from when you were first admitted to your trainer then in the worst case we will have to-" "I know, I know. You take me away from him and his team." "-review all his Pokemon and retrieve them and his trainer license from him indefinitely." Her eyes bulged. "YOU WHAT!?!" She practically screamed. His eyes for the second time this meeting looked at her with pity "He didn''t tell you." He stated more than asked. Dee-Dee felt like she had the lurgy. She barely heard him, she was too busy thinking about the new consequences about the evaluation. She knew that she was physically healthier than she was back when she first met him but it wouldn''t matter squat if she managed to bungle up this mental check. She questioned each and every answer she gave to the one sitting in front of her, things like if she spoke too much or too little or if he thought she wasn''t treating this seriously enough. Was the right answer to give Evandros a 10 instead of a 9? She snapped out of her thoughts when he snapped his fingers. He didn''t need to be an Indeedee to sense the emotions roiling through her, and the loud sound was enough to get her out of her spiraling thoughts. "Listen to me, so far it seems like your answers will most likely appease the council that will review your case and unless you do anything too drastic you might even be able to stop anyone from reviewing him. Now, I hope that I have your attention for the remaining examination. And before you have any thoughts about embellishing your current trainer, please be aware that we can and will know when you lie about him as, you probably already know, I am an Indeedee alongside my many years of experience in understanding body language." The sarcasm placed in the last sentence wasn''t really funny but it managed to ground Dee-Dee''s thoughts. ''So that card is out of the deck'' Dee-Dee thought before admonishing herself for even thinking it. It wasn''t like Evandros was a crook you hanged before a copper. She just needed to be honest and get everything right. Honestly, she was more shocked by the severity of the worst case scenario more than anything else but, after giving it proper thought, had found it be quite a reasonable punishment. The next few questions were answered with Dee-Dee''s full attention since she had even more incentive to not mess anything up than before. Her counterpart sighed after receiving the answer to the latest question, an act that made the female Pokemon''s heart leapt out of her chest, before shutting his notebook and setting aside his pen. If Dee-Dee had nails then she would be chewing on them due to the stress. The male Indeedee only addressed her as he finished standing up. "Well, that appears to be all the questions that I can ask. Please head out of the room and a nurse available will review your physical condition." Just as she began getting off the couch that she was on, a male- and human- nurse appeared and motioned for Dee-Dee to follow him for the physical examination. She tried her best not to slink away, worry clearly shown on her face. As the door fully closed behind Dee-Dee, a fake wall opened to reveal a pink blob that waddled to the only psychic type in the room and handed over a piece of paper with notes written on it. If one looked closer they would be able to tell that each note had the letter Q and then a subsequent number before each note. Though the two were working on the same case, it appeared that the blob was not happy with the Indeedee. "That was a dirty trick you pulled on her. A council? The only people who''ll review what you wrote is yourself and Nurse Joy. And what even was that with the whole cold asshole role you decided to take on?" Indeedee took the notes from the only other Pokemon in the room before addressing her. "Well, I needed her to think that way so that I could see her response. And the asshole thing was because it''s both fun and being angry means that a person''s too busy to be panicking which we definitely don''t want. But I''d really rather not have my methods questioned by a rookie fresh out of the academy." Chansey face became noticeably flushed after realizing she overstepped but before she could say anything she was cutoff. "Take this as a lesson instead of an admonishment. Now, I want you to look at the emotional readings you gave me today with the emotional readings of the Chansey who initially checked her." He said before giving her two different papers. As the questions themselves were the same, the only difference to note would be the written notes themselves, something that would be used as a major basis for the mental evaluation. "Hmm, there''s not much but she seems to be a little more nervous now than she was the first time, if the Chansey there properly categorized each emotional level. She seemed extra annoyed during question four to question nine and then there was an underlying note of dread, minor than anything else she felt, during the later questions. Other than that, there''s more happiness during question two when asked about the trainer and became even happier during question three when asked about the Charmeleon, Rockruff, Ralts, and the egg." "And did you feel it as well?" Chansey hesitantly nodded. "Then please inform on record of how many sources of love she has." "Currently four, and all four felt different. I couldn''t really determine who they were associated with but one shined brighter when she mentioned Glimwood Tangle while the other three definitely belong in the group of her current trainer, one might even be her trainer but that''s up for discussion." Indeedee nodded to no-one in particular, his thought process reviewing the notes taken by himself and the Pokemon that oversaw her initial mental examination. He looked at all the evidence in front of him and took knowledge from the memories shared to him; honestly this wasn''t even a debate. He had come to a conclusion the minute that they shared memories. "I''ll be writing her down as stable and give the acceptance paper to let her stay with her team. My best guess is that it will be the same designation from Nurse Joy. I''d also like to put a footnote on his trainer account as a potential trusted trainer for trauma Pokemon." Chansey smiled at the happy ending the latest patient of the Pokemon Center would receive. Now it was simply a matter of her passing the physical examination before she could be handed over to her trainer.
Thirty minutes later
Man, drawing some of the team is pretty pebbles, I can''t believe it''s been since Pewter that I last drew anything. Granted, I''m drawing online and using overlapping pictures and not coloring them in but still. Since only the only new members after Pewter were Pearl and Dee-Dee that meant that they were the first thing I drew; the second being pictures that I had of Beedrill, Chardon, and then Woody. I hadn''t even finished with the sketch for Dee-Dee- since I was prioritizing drawing the new members before the old ones- before Nurse Joy, a Chansey, and an Indeedee came around with Dee-Dee. It was pretty easy identifying who was who since the other one had their horns up in the air while Dee-Dee has them downwards. My palms are really sweaty right now and I may have almost dropped my drawing pen, since I am not a finger painter, before I stood up and waited for the results. Nurse Joy easily assuaged my nerves by showing me a piece of paper. It looked like one of those passport papers you get, except it was made with information about Dee-Dee. Although, unlike a passport paper it had a big stamped message that said ''approved''. "We are happy to inform you that Dee-Dee is now a designated non-battler on your team. Please be aware that you may only have one or two non-battlers at any time." And with that, it became official. I let go of the breath I wasn''t even aware I was holding before putting on the biggest grin I''ve grinned this past week and gave Dee-Dee a hug. The other Indeedee said something in Pokemon speak which caused my Indeedee to smack them upside the head, the Chansey next to them chuckling at the display before asking for a handshake. It was a pretty weird request but I''m fine with doing it. "Oh my," I look at Nurse Joy who''s looking at the Chansey with elation. She then rounded back to me to explain about her response "you see, Chansey here isn''t really good with human contact. She always runs off when anyone that isn''t a nurse here in the Center comes near her, so to see you not only shaking hands but her being the one to initiate it is a real surprise." huh... neat. Well, now that we didn''t really have anything left in town we could finally head straight north and get ready to battle Surge. I''m definitely getting that badge. Chapter 26 "Did you make sure to pack your pokeballs?" "Yes, Grandpa." "And did you make sure to bring all your clothes from the laundromat?" "Yes, Grandpa." "Good, I remember when your father went on his journey, the poor feller forgot to pack his tent and came back home in the middle of the night." I nodded along to what grandpa was saying, with Leaf and Dee-Dee out since Lupa had overexhausted himself trying to learn a move alongside his regular training while Ralts and Pearl just wanted some extra sleep since the two were working together to get Brine to do the thing we want it to do. Grandpa patted me on the back... then began laughing after I stopped overcorrecting myself once I stopped nearly falling over; its not my fault that he''s a construction worker with beefy arms. Once I gave him a hug goodbye, me and my two Pokemon began walking away to the northern exit to head in a straight line to Vermillion. The only reason I hadn''t used it before was because it wasn''t an official route so typically it would get a ton of rangers patrolling and making sure that people are okay but due to the fact that its only a few days from Vermillion and the fact that there''s a town means that it doesn''t get as many patrols as a regular route would from the rangers, the authority meant to maintain it mainly being the police. But thats okay since its mainly used by workers and trucks so the odds of anyone trying to steal there would be non-existent. In no time at all, we managed to go to the road that would take us straight to Vermillion. That was also when I had a pokeball wiggle, which meant that someone wanted to be let out. Taking the pokeball off my belt, I pressed the button to release Ralts who immediately decided to take over my backpack. She also decided to wear a tiny cap with a slit for her horn that I had bought just for her, something which made Dee-Dee grumpy since when I was buying hats Pearl had ''advised'' me to get the normal type a visor cap like the ones old people wear when they go to play bingo. Dee-Dee was not amused by our choice but she easily accepted it after a day or two of having it around to block the sunlight from her eyes. ... Shoot, I forgot to buy my own hat again. After half an hour of walking I had come to the same conclusion that I always did. That walking is super boring... and I forgot to download songs on my gear again. That meant that the only way to make it less boring would be to talk with the team. And thats what I did. Since Leaf would zip this way and that while we''re walking and Dee-Dee was a bit too focused on the road- that meant I still wasn''t out of the doghouse after that medical evaluation thing- I decide to chat with Ralts. "So, think you''re ready to face Surge?" "Ra Ralts." She said, conveying to me her confidence and determination. I then overextended my step and nearly fell; an action that made Ralts yelp as at the sudden displacement and Dee-Dee to forget about her anger with me as she started fussing over me. I waved the normal type away as I found my balance before I spoke again. I took Ralts out of my backpack and held her, kinda getting why girls like having dolls "Ralts you just spoke to me." She looked at me like I might have hit my head before tenatively nodding. "No, I mean like you just spoke in my head. Well, more like you showed me your emotio-" "RAAA?!" Ah. There we go. The loud exclamation from the little fairy type managed to bring Leaf back to us in a giffy as she looked around for any danger. Dee-Dee waved her off before telling her something- with kind of a shocked tone- but it didn''t really interest the Leafeon who just shrugged and decided to walk near our vicinity instead of running off. Anyway, back to Ralts. She was still looking a bit surprised about what I said but it was mainly being overshadowed by excitement. She looked so happy that I just couldn''t resist a prank... Pearl was really rubbing off on me. "Ralts, you do know what this means right?" "Ra Ra aa lts a?" happiness and expectation bubbling in my head with each word spoken. This time I didn''t misstep and continued speaking. "This means you''ll be the official taste tester of everything I make since you can tell me whats bad or whats good." It was like flipping a switch with how the slightly pinkish body of the tiny empath turned into the white sheet that her non-shiny counterpart would regularly look like. Suddenly, the excitement in my head was replaced with dread and tiny hints of resignement as the psychic type looked at me as if I kicked a Growlithe. Somehow, I managed to hold my laughter in until I took a picture of her looking like she found out that she had to plan a funeral. The other two Pokemon who were empathizing- or sympathizing in Leaf''s case- began laughing at her misfortune of being pranked. It also somehow managed to summon Pearl from her ball since her sixth sense on pranks was tingling. At some point, I managed to stop laughing long enough to say "But in all seriousness, thats pretty awesome. We''ll probably start working on it after beating Surge but for now buying you the TM for Disable was definitely the right call." Ralts wouldn''t talk to me after that for at least a couple hours but I managed to get back on Dee-Dee''s good side so I considered it a win. That was how the majority of day one occurred, me walking with Leaf running around and Dee-Dee on my left holding the egg as Ralts took residency in my backpack while Pearl became the latest fashion trend of hats. By the time we stopped for the night, I sent out Lupa to use Fire Fang on the sticks that we had gathered to make a small fire and the entire team decided to take turns throwing sticks into the campfire- it was something that I had been learning how to do when both Lupa and Chardon had been with the Professor. Then we did some nighttime training and took turns on keeping guard while the others slept. There was a complication when a group of Ekans tried attacking us at night but Ralts blew them all away with Psychic before I could even catch one of them. I definitely want a poison type like Koffing or Ekans and the town we were gonna pass has an abandoned factory which houses poison types and a few electric types near the generators. Ooh, or I could buy some shiny coins and toss them so that I could get a Murkrow. I had that same Lugia dream again. The morning had me pretty groggy which was kinda unusual but I chalked it up to staying up past midnight as a Watchog. The grogginess left once I started washing my face. This then led to me finding out that my Pokemon were starting to copy my wakeup ritual of freshening up, which was good because that meant that I only had to brush Lupa and Leaf''s teeth, clean the egg, and brush Pearl''s shell using a highly dense brush and a cleaning cloth. After we had another round of finding sticks, we had breakfast ala stew before packing up and heading back onto the road. Oddly enough, there wasn''t any trucks or cars but that was alright since Fushcia is pretty traditional so they might not have a lot places to store cars and stuff. Alarm bells only began ringing when the route became quiet, and I don''t mean like everybody on the team stopped talking, I mean there was no bird chirpings or grass rustling near us. The only sounds were my team and I walking on the dirt path. Just to be safe I made sure to send a ping to the official ranger channel just incase before directing Lupa- who was out just like everyone else- to try and sniff out anything strange while directing Ralts and Dee-Dee to sense anything weird. Most likely it was a case of a Pokemon in a new territory or something dangerous happening nearby. I was proven when Ralts and Dee-Dee directed everyone to look northwest, and since they had a clear range on how far they could sense stuff it was pretty obvious that whatever bad or weird was happening was a walking distance away. It wasn''t really a question about whether I''d check it out or not, I have five Pokemon and one of them is Ralts. Same number as against Team Rocket with the difference being that we were loads stronger, plus with the bonus of being a type generalist meant that I had a team that could adapt to any situation. If we needed to of course. We began walking off route towards the place that Ralts and Dee-Dee were pointing towards, since we were going for stealth while keeping the team energized enough for a battle I sent everyone aside from Ralts back into their pokeball''s and was right now holding an unused pokeball incase I needed to chuck it at a rampaging Pokemon. After a short walk where we didn''t hear any noise at all, Ralts tugged at my hair to make me stop and thats when I noticed it. A roar and sounds of fighting. Since I wasn''t worried about being heard just yet, I sent everybody back out and we slowly began sneaking our way to were the fighting was happening. The sounds were generally becoming louder the farther along we sneaked and at some point I was able to see who exactly was making that noise. A bloody Tyranitar. Like, an actual, currently bleeding a bit, Tyranitar who''s trying to protect itself against four different Pokemon who probably belong to the humans there since there were four humans waiting around and shouting orders when needed. Two of them took out pokeballs and returned a Machoke and Scizor before sending out a Muk and Victreebel who fired two globs of poison that were blocked with haste by the Tyranitar who instead got hit by the Tropius and Cloyster. Though the biggest evidence that these guys were hunters are the cages that they''ve got loaded on a couple, big four-by-four trucks and those loading thingees you can attach on the back of a truck. So, the rangers are already getting my ping so I bump it up from potential danger to an S.O.S signal which immediately gets responded so thats good but that Tyranitar is still getting its ass kicked because it being quadrupal teamed on. Its never fun being in a one v four situation especially when the other team is using your counter picks. That definitely needs a supporter or a tank but these guys are probably way stronger than us and they''ve got numbers. Numbers. Thats right. "Dee-Dee and Lupa you two go around the guys to their trucks and free the Pokemon in those cages, any that want to fight heal them and send them along and heal any that don''t and ask them to stay. Lupa''ll handle any strong guards they''ve got on those trucks." I whisper. "Ralts, Leaf, Pearl we need to buy them time and keep those four''s attention while making sure Tyranitar doesn''t get caught by them so use your buff up moves. Leaf''ll be mainly debuffing their Pokemon, Ralts''ll be using Disable and Confuse Ray tons of times while using Life Dew to patch up Tyranitar, and Pearl will be mainly fighting." Game plan having been set we all started to move. Oh yeah. "Dee-Dee wait a bit and then use Heal Pulse on Tyranitar and then go, I can just make it seem like Ralts did it." Nobody actually moved when I said my orders, instead they were transfixed with looking at the Tyranitar''s in fear or looking at me like I was telling them that I wanted to rule a city. Being careful not to arouse suspicion I make everyone move back a bit away from the fighting in the meadow as I adress what that was. They all got pretty upset once I told them that these guys are hunters and were relieved that we''d probably only have to delay the fighting for another ten or so minutes for rangers to arrive. I restated my initial plan and the normal type nodded before beginning to glow slightly purple. Lupa stayed since Dee-Dee could sense where the Pokemon were. Once the other three nodded that they buffed themselves enough I gave the signal to Dee-Dee that she could fire Heal Pulse. The light quickly went like a laser beam that connected with the unsuspecting Tyranitar, freaking the rock type a bit before it realized that it''s wounds were closing and injuries were being healed and gave a big roar of satisfaction before going on the offensive by aiming for the Tropius. The four hunters snapped their heads towards the area where the Heal Pulse initially came from and what they saw was a Clamperl, a Ralts, a Leafeon, and me who was behind the other three exiting the treeline. "Tyranitar is aiming for Tropius so Light Screen any poison moves that Victreebel and Muk try to use, other than that just battle." And with those encouraging words the three rush into battle with Leaf setting up a Rain Dance since she was the fastest and Pearl aiming a Water Gun at Muk while Ralts and Leaf began dealing with Victreebel and Cloyster who were ganged up together. "Damn kid, stay the hell away from our paycheck. Victreebel use Toxic!" "Muk use Mud Bomb!" "Fire away with Hydro Pump Cloyster!" I didn''t really hear what the last guy said since he was too busy worrying about his Tropius currently being bombarded by a smorgasbord of rocks falling from above it by the use of Rock Slide. Also I was making sure to be as far away in the field as possible since I definetely didn''t wanna be caught by them. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Sunny Day, Confuse Ray Pearl." Sunny Day procced Leaf''s Leaf Guard ability which meant that she took point in front of Ralts to protect the fairy type from the Toxic while also weakening Hydro Pump enough that it could barely be blocked by a few Light Screen and dealt minimal damage to Leaf. The Confuse Ray from Pearl made Muk miss its Mud Bomb and gave Pearl the chance to get close to it and use Clamp since it dealt a predermined amount of damage that wouldn''t change before using a point-blank Water Gun to shoot herself away from the retaliatory Mud Slap. The Tropius trainer took out his pokeball and returned the flying type who I just noticed had fainted from the devestating super effective attacks of whatever rock type move that Tyranitar used. This caused all four trainers to lock eyes and then send out all their Pokemon. Suddenly instead of it being a three v four it was now an eleven v four. These guys are probably masters at using numbers to their advantage. What did mom always say about that one quote. Jack of all trade, master of none... is oftentimes better than the master of one. "Ralts and Pearl! Only use Confuse Ray. Leaf use Solar Beam. Tyranitar use a buffing move" "Machoke and Hitmonlee use Protect!" "Same deal Muk"" "Wide Guard Sawk!" Evidently, there was no Solar Beam that came out as all the Pokemon clambered behind the four stated Pokemon. What did happen was a burst of Confuse Ray''s, the Growl and Baby-Doll Eyes combo paired with Tail Whip''s, and Tyranitar growled as a warning to me before listening and using what was probably Rock Polish since it had the same gleam that Woody would regularly have when he used the move. "Victreebel get that kid with Vine Whip, Golbat use Sludge Bomb, and Razor Leaf Gloom!" "Sludge Bomb Garbodor and Muk, Close Combat the Tyranitar Machoke!" "Cloyster use Hydro Pump, Sawk and Hitmonlee use Close Combat!" "Golbat use Sludge Bomb, Scizor get that kid too!" Half the Pokemon didn''t listen since they got hit by Confuse Ray''s but the other half still followed orders. Ralts used Teleport to get on top of the only Golbat that wasn''t confused and started whamming its head with a flurry of Thunder Punches while Tyranitar took the time to use Rock Tomb defensively. Of course, Cloyster''s Hydro Pump shred through the rocky defense like a hot knife going through butter so Pearl had to give her all and gambled with firing off Brine against the stronger water type attack with mild success; the attack didn''t hit Tyranitar but it did blast her back into rock type and nearly knocked her out. Scizor was the only one who was aiming for me, since Victreebel was confused, but a quick Flame Charge from Leaf dealt some serious damage on the dual typed opponent, alongside stunning the group of hunters long enough that Ralts had finished beating up her ride and used Psychic to grab hold of all the fighting or poison types. With a clear shot for a full power Hyper Beam right from Tyranitar. Tyranitar didn''t waste any time, it was probably really peeved that these guys had been fighting it for a really long time and were always spread out. The giant orange beam of light took time to charge, enough time that the Sawk Pokemon and the Victreebel managed to break themselves free from Psychic''s hold. After it was fired on the remaining bunched up Pokemon, Tyranitar took a knee from exhaustion and Ralts took a moment before she used Life Dew to freshen both herself, Pearl and Tyranitar from any physical and mental exhaustion; though it didn''t really have an effect on Tyranitar other than cleaning it of old blood and making the rock type stop clenching its muscles as hard. Now there were only Scizor and Cloyster that were close enough to attack Tyranitar but Muk and the remaining Golbat unfortunately only got caught by the fringes of the rock types'' Hyper Beam. So there were still six Pokemon on the field. Suddenly a pokeball- no, an ultraball is flying through the air and makes a hit on Tyranitar''s face. It fell down and opened up with Tyranitar not having enough energy to try and resist. The ultraball then started shaking after it sucked the rock type up, moving this way and that, before making a clicking sound. All the guys then shouted in huzzah while I was just standing there wondering. "Hey Tyranitar, why don''t you get out of the ultraball? You do know that Pokemon can freely exit and enter their ball right?" I ask the black and yellow orb. To further prove my point I return Leaf and she lets herself out of her ball the next second. Without her speed buffs but thats unimportant. ... A pop sound occured and Tyranitar was back up and standing, though it might have been the trick of the light but its cheeks were kinda pink and Ralts was clearly laughing at something. It cleared its throat and roared, issuing a challenge to the remaining six, and I think the circumstances are really affecting the four guys since my best guess is that they never fought against actual human trained Pokemon in a long time. Either that or they don''t have counters against Pokemon who use utility moves. Someone pulled something out of their pocket. Is that a gun!?! "Ralts, shield against the humans okay!" I yell as I very energetically run behind some cover. The guy who pulled the gun out shot it and then I had the epiphany that, no, it isn''t a gun and its just a tranquilizer with loaded darts. My bad. Either way my action was unneeded and is resulting in the Scizor coming to get me again but everyone is way too far or busy to help. I wonder how Dee-Dee and Lupa are doing?
A little before
The dark and thick foliage that was blocking the hunters line of sight was a great boon for the Rockruff and Indeedee. While both knew that they could go with reckless abandon, a thought that made Lupa whine about not doing that, they also knew that any Pokemon that was standing guard would be alerted and ready to counterattack. They both went a little further into the forest since Dee-Dee could sense where the locked up Pokemon were through their emotions. As the two ran as carefully as possible, they saw glimpses of the ensuing battle. As viewers of the conflict they were able to see subtle things that all the trainers and Pokemon may have missed. The way that the giant beast called a Tyranitar glared at their trainer only a little less than it did to the hunters, the rapid Disable Ralts had fired on Muk to stop it from using Toxic after Pearl had barely smashed the Mud Bomb, or even how the flying four legged thing had landed a ghost move on Tyranitar that immediately made the rock type''s movements sluggish even as it fired the attack that knocked out the giant Pokemon. After the initial attacks were all fired off, they ran right to the two white trucks with either blue or yellow stripes on the side and saw the cages. Black bars held Pokemon inside, some being common ones from the region such as Pidgeotto or Graveller while others were rarer and held more value such as the Elekid that was discharging electricity in its cage in the hopes of breaking out of it or the badly beaten up Sneasel. The cages held a red and white pokeball motif with a key slot in the middle. "Hey, mind if I break the locks." Lupa asked, tail curled between his legs as he grimaced. Dee-Dee nodded at the request and that was the only confirmation the rock type. Simple brown stones began materializing around the rock type''s tail before being fired off onto one of the cages. Lupa and the captive Bulbasaur were crestfallen as they saw that the attack did nothing to the cage. Dee-Dee suspected that was the case, no way would the outside not be as tough as the inside, and she looked at the hunters but didn''t notice any obvious keys on their person. "Lupa sniff for the keys. Little Bulbasaur, have you tried using your vines to open the lock; my trainer is fighting the hunters so you have time to try." And that was all she said before she hurried to the front of one of the trucks and opened the door to begin checking for keys. Lupa and Bulbasaur took a moment to look at each other before both shrugged and did what the normal type had asked. None of the other Pokemon had spoken since they were not only unaware of the species of Dee-Dee and Lupa but also from fear of being found out by the hunters and punished brutally. All except for Elekid and one other. "HEY, HEY, GET ME OUTTA HERE NOW!" Elekid yelled, stopping its electrical discharge to get the two free Pokemon''s attention. An act that came with a lot of shushing sounds from the Pokemon near it. "Have you checked the bluey driving machine. The human who handled the keys left something there." A bruised Kadabra said. Dee-Dee nodded to the psychic type and went to the front of the white and blue truck, taking a few extra moments to heal the badly injured Pokemon around her with Heal Pulse. Once she was inside she began searching everywhere she could, on the floor to the dashboard and even the sunblocking thing that they placed for the people in the front and found nothing but the key to the truck. She then remembered that there was this thing called a glove compartement that John''s father had used to store important things like papers or keys to his store when he went driving. Hoping that that was common human behaviour, she used her good hand to open the glove compartment only to hear the jingling of keys. Smiling to herself, she rustled through the storage area and came across a set of keys. Praying to Sir Calyrex, she began placing the keys she found into a cage holding a family of Graveller. With each wrong key, morale from the Pokemon in cages and the two out of them plummeted. Dee-Dee placed the second last key onto the cage and wiggled it in defea- The cage clicked and Dee-Dee took no time psychically ripping the handles away to free the three Graveller in the cage. Spurred on, she moved to another cage and swiftly began unlocking the cages of the Pokemon and freeing them. Some immediately ran away, some came out of their cages and stayed nearby when asked, while others were simply too afraid to leave their cages. Lupa had counted about forty six different Pokemon in the cages and of those forty six about seven had ran away as fast as possible, the others staying behind for either healing or for whatever other reason. Lupa whined when he thought about the other reasons, because that meant that they would go into battle against the ''hunters'' which made him remember he was on guard duty against any powerful Pokemon which would make him remember that there wasn''t anything guarding the cages which would make him become upset that he didn''t get the chance to battle. And all of that combined made him want to rush into the fight and battle all the Pokemon there. But he couldn''t. So he stayed and quietly whined about the injustices of the universe. Once everyone was healed as best as possible, since Dee-Dee was running out of juice from extensive move usage, they all began shouting about how they''d punish the humans that locked them away. It was only through great force of will and the Pokemon present being smart enough to know that they needed a plan that they weren''t already heading off into battle, something that groused Lupa and more than a few of the Pokemon present. Dee-Dee, after calming everyone down enough for her to be the only one talking, coughed into her only hand and addressed the Pokemon gathered around her. "Look, I understand better than anyone that you want to beat up the smelly humans that did this to you. I lost my bloody hand because of one of those belching tightwads. But we need a plan because my human and my friends are there distracting the other humans long enough for you to escape. Help will be on its way in a couple minutes," That made a quarter of the mob deflate since they thought that they wouldn''t have a chance to fight "but I think thats a bullshit reason to not get some licks in against the idjiots that did this to you. So lets beat their bloody faces in!" and like a switch those who deflated were the tallest standing, their faces clear with giddy or laser focused. Dee-Dee continued "Now, my human is tinier than the other four and he''s gonna be far from the group so Lupa will use Rock Throw to aim at all the Pokemon that we''re not pals with and you lot will mob them. Then everyone can get one punch in on each human before they get carted away." and with a sharp snap of her finger the mob ran onto the area with the hunters. Prepared to take some action. Dee-Dee only had a couple more uses of Heal Pulse left in the chamber, hopefully she wouldn''t run out of them after the fight is finished.
Man, getting caught by your underwear by a Scizor is majorly embarrassing. And my team isn''t willing to do anything since Scizor has a claw at my face ready to fire a move at any second. The only one willing to attack is Tyranitar but the team persistently said stuff that made Tyranitar stand down. Honestly though. "Guys keep on battling. I read that humans can take attacks like Hyper Beam for breakfast so I''ll be fine." Of course, Scizor decided to smack me on my head using its other claw. I then realized that what I read was a hoax when something wet began sliding down my face, and touching the substance so that I could see it on my fingers revealed that its blood. Scizor and the hunters were a bit startled by that, and the team became really pale, so odds were that they didn''t know that that was gonna happen. Them being startled was great since a rock type canine I know came onto the field and used Rock Throw on all the hunters Pokemon aside from Scizor. Then came the wild Pokemon. Lead by Dee-Dee. It was a slaughter fest. That thing about the Pokemon not being ready to fight even numbers. It was doubly true when faced off against extra numbers. And the wild Pokemon didn''t stop at the hunters'' Pokemon, they aimed for the hunters as well. "... So, since you guys clearly lost. Mind letting me down." I ask Scizor. It huffs before complying and Pearl, Ralts, Leaf, and even Tyranitar come over to me. The team tried getting hostile with Scizor but a few words to calm them down and Scizor saying something made them not immediately attack. Even though Ralts and Leaf stopped being all tense, Pearl still looked like she was seconds away from attacking. Pearl. Pearl. Bearl. Barrel. "Barrel. Ease up, its aight. Scisszroy decided to stoooop, yaknow." All eyes cmea to. em fro som erason. "Hey DeeDeeDee is hre. And Lulu too." I gspb in del- dle- happy "Yay, is it my birthday?" Ooooh. Burple. Wait... what was I just talking about? The entire team look over me in worry- since when was I lying down on the ground- and Tyranitar, Scizor, and even a Wooper are here too. "What? Did something happen?" They all sigh in relief after I said that. Wait... memories are coming back. I put on a dopey grin and point to Dee-Dee. "Oooh, burple likey." And immediately snap the pic of everyones reaction before bursting into laughter. Pearl joins in on my laughing and, like a switch, the tension in the metaphorical room disappears. Once the wild Pokemon finish up with beating up the hunters, the rangers arrive with perfect timing. The next ten minutes is just a bunch of answering questions and waiting for a police truck to cart the bad guys away, who ironically were currently stuffed in the cages that they brought. Tyranitar had picked up the ultraball that it had been caught in and was staring at it for a while now. "Hey Tyranitar," it shifted its attention to me "why don''t you just keep it." It lifted an eyebrow at me "Well, with the ultraball you won''t be able to be caught anymore by any hunters since you already have a ball. Plus there''s a neat trick that Beedrill- one of my other Pokemon- does where he can enter and exit the pokeball without me being near it so you could probably sleep in the pokeball in a small cave without ever stepping foot in it. Plus Pokemon can rest up in a pokeball without having to worry about stuff like status conditions afflicting them so that they have enough energy to go around searching for the right berries and stuff to take care of the serious stuff like poison or burns." It then growled something to Dee-Dee who pulled up some dirt and made a drawing of a cave. Then she shifted it from a cave into smoke? No an explosion! And then an image of the cave but blocked by rocks. "Oh, you lost your home because of these guys?" A deep rumble that raised the hair on my neck confirmed it. "Well you could either try to find a new home, explore the world, or give a person your pokeball and stay with them." I say as I pet the Wooper. Tyranitar looked at me before nodding and going elsewhere. Guess that was goodbye. I wave as he goes and I''m pretty sure he waved back with his tail. Once Officer Jenny arrived the Pokemon that were present were all patched up and given a clean bill of health to go back to their homes. Everybody aside from a Bulbasaur, an Elekid, Wooper, and Tyranitar had stayed. The Elekid wanted to go with one of the rangers while Bulbasaur took a liking to Officer Jenny who couldn''t resist chucking a ball at the grass type who found that they liked carting away bad guys. I went over to the present officer to give my final statements. "-and yeah, thats basically it. By the way, are you heading to the town between Virmillion and Fuchsia?" "Yes, due to the fact that I am stationed at Gringey City." Though her smile became wibbly wobbly for a sec when she said the place''s name. "Do you think I can come along for the ride?" "Of course, I was always going to ask in case you wished to get treatment for..." she pointed the side of my head where I found blood previously. "Yeah of course. Getting a hospital trip might be the best idea. I got all loopy before Dee-Dee used Heal Pulse so I need to check and make sure that doesn''t happen again... and buy some new underwear." Transportation taken care of I headed back to my team and began giving them thanks for such great before I sent them all back into their balls with promises of treats for a job well done. Ultimately, I had to stop holding Wooper so I put him down gently onto the ground and patted his head before heading back. Though I didn''t take more than three steps when Wooper decided to stand in my way. My mind was beginning to take a trail of thought that was becoming more and more likely since Wooper began nuzzling my leg. I wordlessly held out a pokeball which made the little water type jump with joy and chitter some happy noises. "Well Wooper, you can decide what to do once you join the team. Whether its battling, doing contests, or just coming along for the ride. But either way." I tossed the ball in an underhand which let Wooper slap the capture button, quickly being turned into red light as he got sent in. A click sound gives me the confirmation and I take the ball and place it on my belt alongside the others, who feel warmer than they did five seconds ago. Chapter 27 "Alright. So, the CT and MRI scans both show that any possible damage that was done to your brain tissue has been healed. You still have a closed, hairline fracture near your coronal suture but the injury should naturally heal in about a few days since your Indeedee used Heal Pulse on you. Please note that you might need to take some medication in case of headaches or nausea but other than that you are fit enough to travel after a night or two of resting." Doctor Wexler said. He then directed me to the pharmacy so I could get some painkillers just in case. Leaf took extra care in memorizing the way to the pharmacy and practically pushed me to take some painkillers. Great. I''m stuck in Gringey City for the night because of my head injury. Though I did manage to save a whole day of traveling by taking the ride with Officer Jenny so that balances it out, and I''ll probably have to take a mode of transportation since the doctor said I can''t travel in the woods as I regularly would, which''ll suck because a lot of improvement from the team happens from battling and training on the move; It''s just something I''ve been noticing lately so I instruct the team to polish their skills while in the ranch instead of making them learn new ones. Speaking of Officer Jenny, she said that I couldn''t post the picture I took or say anything about what happened until the news actually talked about it which wouldn''t happen for at least another day since there was a Team Rocket raid story being covered right now and a bunch of other really important stuff that was happening, apparently there was a law against sharing news before the official news centers could share it. That meant that I couldn''t post the picture I took with the team, Wooper, and Tyranitar with the hunters in the background. At least the Pokemon Center is right across the street. Entering the place shows me that there isn''t a whole lot of foot traffic that gets into this place, on account of the Nurse Joy that''s reading a magazine who looks genuinely surprised that someone entered through the front before she probably remembered that I was here before. She looks like she''s debating about continuing to read her magazine or not before sighing and standing up to get a tray with five pokeballs from the back wall. She then places them on the counter as I step up. "Here you go. Hope to see you again, yada yada and all that." before huffing and going back to reading her magazine. She doesn''t seem as nice as all the other Nurse Joy''s. Leaf shoving her nose into my hand makes me move on from the less than pleasant service to go and get the team some food since I''m currently banned from making anything until I get better. I had a little portion of chicken nuggets while Leaf had some fruits and veggies. I also made sure to get some food for later from the cafeteria for the first time in my life and headed over to my room. They have chocolate chip muffins which taste pretty good, if a bit lacking in the chocolate chips. Leaf pushed me along to where the phones are instead of where my room is. ... I probably should call mom and the professor to tell them about what happened. They probably won''t be happy about what happened.
¡°What were you thinking!?!¡± Evidently, mom wasn''t happy. "Yeah, I know that what I did was pretty dumb, but mom they would''ve gotten Tyranitar and ran away with the Pokemon they poached." Across the screen mom''s face was going through a rollercoaster of movements with most of the expressions being frowns. "And anyway, I realized that sending back Leaf into her pokeball in the middle of the fight was a pretty bad move so next time I won''t do that." Mom pinches the bridge of her nose and then sighed in what must be exasperation. I could barely hear her say "''next time'' he says" She looks at me from the screen and shifted her eyes up to where my bandages are. "You really are planning on doing this again. Aren''t you?" "Well, no, not really. But if something like this happens again and I''m there and able to help, then shouldn''t I help?" I respond. She probably realized that she isn''t gonna win in this conversation anytime soon, so she shook her head "You know you''re going to be grounded for at least a decade, right?" she says before directing her gaze to Leaf. "And Leaf, please make sure something like this doesn''t happen again." she stated more than asked. I nod in understanding, the Leafeon who I had found as a starved Eevee when I was seven readily nodding to the request, and then I sent out Wooper to show mom my latest teammate. I then had to promise that I would always try to find some way to help deal with a situation that doesn''t involve battling the bad guys if I could help it. Professor Oak was the complete opposite of mom. He didn''t change his expression through the entire retelling, only asking questions about what happened next or what my team was doing at the time. By the very end he sighed and said that he could send over anyone aside from Beedrill since he still needed to do some testing on him. I asked for Tabs and to swap Leaf with Chardon if possible, to which he said that he wouldn''t swap Leaf but he could send over Tabs and Chardon while I was staying at the Center in this city. Then, after retrieving two members of my team, I was finally heading off to my room. Opening the door to the standard room, I chucked out everyone''s balls onto the floor so that they could let themselves out, which they did. The only two members of my team who weren''t aware of what I went through paused in their greetings and immediately came over to my side with horrified looks on their faces, though that didn''t mean that the rest didn''t also come over to check on me. I waved them off "Relax team, the doctors said that I should rest for the rest of the day but tomorrow I''ll be right as rain, and we''ll be able to head to Vermillion." The travel plans were immediately met with protests even from the normally energetic Lupa. I sighed in exasperation. "Listen, we are going whether you guys agree or not, alright. The doctor said I could take off the bandage tomorrow and I''m gonna take it off tomorrow. The only thing that''s gonna be different is that I''ll be taking transportation like when we met Pearl. But I promise that I won''t try to get into any more trouble until I''m alright, alright. Dee-Dee, could you fill up the tub for Pearl and Wooper. Oh, also we got a new team member; I''ll buy some cupcakes when we get to Vermillion for everybody." And with that I unceremoniously flopped onto bed ready for sleep, finally noticing a teeny tiny headache that was causing a dull thud in my head. Sleep coming much faster than it usually woul-
The Pokemon in the group looked towards the two psychic types who were paying extra close attention to the boy lying down in his temporary bed, almost all of them sighing due to one reason or another when the psychics gave nods towards the group. Silence then overtook the one room flat as none of the gathered party knew how to open up the conversation. The only one who probably could was too busy being by her trainer''s side to speak. Ultimately, the one who started the conversation was the mono-water type within the group. "Okay, what the hell was that." Pearl demanded to Mind Seer and Leaf. One didn''t hear while the other was confused by the vitriol aimed at her. "What are you talking about?" The fairy and psychic type asked. "You know what I''m talking about." "Uh, no I don''t." "Oh, for the love of pokechr- why the hell were you two so chill with that Scizor after it attacked Evandros." She practically screamed, spitting out the species name of the Pokemon as if it were the devil. "Because something like this already happened," Dee-Dee butted in "innit it, Chardon and Tabitha." Chardon simply nodded while Tabitha was debating between being part of this conversation or being by her trainer''s side. She chose to be part of the conversation since Leaf looked like she wasn''t going to be moving anytime soon. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "When Poison Lance was a Weedle, he hit Evandros with a Poison Sting and it was pretty bad. We had to get a Pecha Berry from his friends who were a little ahead of us since Evandros collapsed when most humans who get hit by Weedle''s take a couple more stings before they faint, and we just assumed that Poison Lance had managed to get a critical hit and successfully landed the poison effect and moved on. Plus, the fact that he''s been trying to make up for it by doing subtle little acts like making sure his stingers don''t stab Evandros when our trainer goes in for a hug or actually sharing his food and time with anybody else are pretty big reasons as to why we forgave him." Chardon started, since he had been drilled about trainer safety protocols when he had been selected as a lab Pokemon. "Then when we were in this city called Viridian, Evandros ran into these Pokemon thieves called Team Rocket and got hurt by an explosion that they caused inside of a Pokemon Center. He didn''t get hurt that bad since he only fell down from the shockwave, but he did get a few nasty scrapes on his hands and knees. That was when we met Lupa since he''s a former Team Rocket Pokemon and we fought him when battling those thieves and then he was given to Evandros to be rehabilitated by a trainer like most evil team Pokemon usually are. Evandros searched it up with his friends." Tabitha continued. Lupa was listening intently at this part with his ears flat on his skull but no other indication of his emotions. "And then there was that time near Pewter City where Evandros got shocked by a Mareep with hiccups and fell unconscious by him for a solid couple minute. He still wanted to help the Mareep and his family with their hiccup problems afterwards." Mind Seer ended, before she looked to Dee-Dee "But how did you know that?" Dee-Dee shrugged as she took the warm Pokemon egg out of its container and left it in between her trainer and Leaf. "Indeedee can read minds and memories, I worried that Evandros would be an abusive arse so to make sure I wasn''t making a very bad deal I read his memories while he was asleep. Only of the past year though, anymore would''ve been an invasion of privacy and I had a weird feeling like I''d be turned into bloody shepherd''s pie if I looked too much." "Wait, wait, wait. Rewind for a second here. You all had to deal with this shit happening to him constantly on the journey? Then why the hell aren''t you more protective of him? He''s only a human for Arceus'' sake." Pearl demanded. "We do though." Everyone, even the laid back Wooper, looked towards the one who spoke. "We do protect him, that''s why this is the first time in a month that he''s been hurt by something. It''s because we''ve been trying." Leaf lifted her head to look at four Pokemon caught after Route 1. "And it doesn''t need to be said about how everyone in the team will try their hardest to make sure that Evandros will be safe." Having said her piece, Leaf rested her head on the bed as she dutifully stayed by her trainer''s side. Dee-Dee nodded to the little speech before doing what she was told, heading to the washroom to fill the tub with water so that Pearl and Wooper could have a pleasant sleep. Somehow, the Clamperl managed to slouch onto herself without any body parts capable of doing such an act. Her mind filled with burning hot shame that flowed in her as her first real task of keeping her trainer safe had ended in a failure, sending a silent vow that she''d keep a watch on him as well. The Wooper in the room, who hadn''t said a thing, finally decided to open his mouth. "Wowee, you guys must really care about him if you''re feelin'' so down in the dumps after beating up some bad guys." A short snort came out of Leaf, the grass type surprised by the statement. "Yeah, we do." Came her response, nods following immediately after. Chardon came up to the blue axolotl Pokemon "What''s your name little one." He asked. The water and ground type smiled and replied with "Oh, my mum calls me Water Fruit but a lot of my siblings are called that too, so I guess my name could be Punchy since my pa taught me how to use this weird move called Power-Puff Punch. But I also really like your guys'' names." Chardon chuckled lightly "Well, if you ever want a name like ours then just ask our team leader." Lupa butted in "Yeah, yeah, boss makes some pretty good names for us. I let him name me Lupa since it sounds like my evolved form, Lycanroc." He said with a fierce smile on his face. "No, it doesn''t" Mind Seer corrected "No, it doesn''t" Lupa repeated, his smile still there. It took a second before he realized what the Ralts had said before looking at her in surprise. Punchy giggled at the interaction between the two and watched as the team worked in tandem to set their bowls and get ready to dig into their food. Though he still had a question. With a dopey grin on his face, the Pokemon temporarily called Punchy scrunched up his face in thought before asking "By the way, what are cuppy cakes?" "... You''re going to love being on this team." Someone said and Punchy smiled wider in delight as a bowl was passed to him. He already did.
Turns out having bandages on one''s head when they go to sleep makes said bandages soaked in sweat. 2/10 would not recommend. ... It probably didn''t help that everybody that wasn''t a water type had decided to sleep next to me, bringing their warmth onto the bed as well. Ralts considered it funny, so I''ll take the win and go to the bathroom. Pearl was already awake and tried to cajole Wooper out of the bathroom. Seeing the two of them dripping wet also reminded me that I should clean them with towels before letting them loose towards the others. Pearl accepted the drying, but she doesn''t seem to be in a talking mood considering that she just slammed her shell shut on me. I still talked to her even if she doesn''t wanna reciprocate. Wooper came next and, when I picked him up, I knew that I had the perfect name for the little guy. "Hey Wooper." "Woo pah?" He asked with a little head tilt that made him even more adorable. "How would you like to be called Marshmallow?" Apparently, I asked the right thing since Woo- Marshmallow started snuggling and making happy noises. I have officially peaked in naming Pokemon, all future names will never encapsulate a Pokemon as perfectly as Marshmallow does Wooper. Course after drying the two and using the bathroom I decided to take off the bandages. "Huh, no blood. Thats a good thing, right?" And Chardon, Ralts and Dee-Dee nodded to show that I was correct. After doing the daily routine with everybody, brushing their hair or cleaning their teeth or shell or pinecone body (Despite the reservations of one Dee-Dee, to the amusement of one Chardon), I made the team march with me towards the cafeteria; the Nurse Joy in the lobby not even sparing us a second glance. I kinda had to slow down halfway because I was starting to have a major headache, which Chardon had accounted for since he had brought the pack of painkillers. The slowing down was also a good call because the doors to the lobby opened up, with Officer Jenny coming through. She seemed glad to see me and my team before taking a second glance and realizing that there were two extra Pokemon in my party putting my total number from six to eight. She dropped it once I said that I''d send someone back to Professor Oak when I''m leaving town. "Um, were you looking for me?" She straightened a bit before replying with a "Yes, you forgot a few things at the station, and I just wanted to pass along the bus timings to both Vermillion and Fuchsia City." before handing me one of my comics, my pencil bag, and a pamphlet with the symbol of a bus. "Thanks Officer Jenny." I say before Leaf motions me towards the cafeteria where I have breakfast together with the team. Though I do have one last question. "How did you know that I was gonna take the bus anyway?" I ask She smirks before replying "Because I knew you were going to skip town at any point today since you are a trainer after all, so I made sure to come early and give you a warning about going into the wilds the day after a head injury. By the way, thanks for finding those hunters; odds were that some ranger would have caught them eventually but without your effort I wouldn''t have caught my third Pokemon and a lot of those wild Pokemon would have been mistreated. So, thanks." Giving a short bow before bidding us goodbye. "Huh, I think that''s the second time ever I got personally thanked by someone for helping out." I say aloud. Of course, the Nurse Joy gives a noncommittal hum and didn''t even look up the entire time. As the entire team and I are eating, I decide to open the pokedex and use it on Marshmallow.
Name Wooper
Type Water, Ground
Ability Water Absorb
Nature Relaxed
Health 55
Attack 45
Sp. Attack 25
Defense 45
Sp. Defense 25
Speed 15
Total stats 210
Moves Tail Whip, Power-Up Punch, Recover, Guard Swap
How does he have Power-Up Punch? He doesn''t even have hands. Honestly, this is a pretty decent set of moves for a beginner Pokemon. I''ll have to look up what Guard Swap does but rest are self-explanatory. Now I just gotta get him to learn a bunch of physical ground and water type moves and something else that''s defensive like Amnesia and pretty soon Marshmallow will be a really tough tank. I even relay as much to Marshmallow who doesn''t really get it but is just happy that he''ll be a part of the team. Tabitha, though, stills when she heard that Marshmallow is also gonna be a tank like her; thereby making her slightly less unique for the team. Of course, to make sure that I remind her how important she is I decide to face her and speak the truth. It also helps a bit that Ralts handed me my training journal so that I can refresh on what Tabitha''s training plan is. "Hey, Tabs," I start "after battling Surge I think it might be high time you start trying to learn how to use Curse. It''ll be a major part of your battling strategy every time after you set up the initial Toxic Spikes and regular Spikes." The newfound attention making her perk back up, with words of encouragement aimed from most of the team towards both her and Marshmallow. Eating together with eight of my Pokemon really brought home the time I''ve spent journeying and, despite the fact that it''s been just a little under two months, it''s flied by real fast even if the walking bits feel like they take an eternity. I can''t wait for next month. Eventually though, like all good things, my time in this city was about to end so I send back Lupa and Chardon so that they keep practicing for their battle against Misty and her water filled battlefield with Woody who somehow managed to commandeer a small pond and made frozen blocks on it using his ice version of Hidden Power so that they could do mock battles with the local water types. With the Pokemon who I''m challenging the gym with on my belt, I step into the bus heading over to Vermillion knowing that in about three days my gym battles coming up. Chapter 28 Three days. Three days in the grand scale is a miniscule amount of time. Three days isn''t enough to build a house or a rocket. And three days certainly aren''t enough to learn how to decently play the guitar. But in the small scale it is a fairly huge amount of time. Three days are more than enough to learn how to bake cookies or learn how to ride a bike. And three days are enough to competently play shoji with your grandpa. For me, three days was on the latter scale. "Alright Ralts, just like we practiced. Use Baton Pass." I said to the psychic type, having set up a couple Calm Mind''s. Like when she uses Ally Switch, Ralts began gathering purple energy around herself, with the only difference being that she''s slowly doing it right now to make zero mistakes. Having already used the move successfully, she followed along with whatever step she needed to do to make the purple around herself a little lighter before she was automatically recalled over to her pokeball in my hand, the pinkish purple energy stayed there for a bit before heading into the second pokeball in my other hand. A pop hiss occurred, and Pearl came out to do an immediate Brine on the field, turning the salready broken ground into more of a wet and torn up place than she usually would with her newest move. In total, the time it took for the move to be used is a whopping seven seconds if you discount the time it took for Pearl to actually do anything. A death sentence in a battle if Ralts doesn''t get off a Confuse Ray or something but it''s the best we can work with right now. The battlefield itself was set aside into two areas, one where the Pokemon that would fight Surge would practice and one where the ones who wouldn''t would practice... try saying that five times fast. Anyway, for me, three days was more than enough to upgrade a move for Ralts, teach Toxic Spikes through a TM for Tabitha, and finally to perfect Pearl''s new showstopping finishing move. Three days was also enough for me to study the Pokemon that Surge would use for the third and fourth gym badge and see how he uses powerful moves like Thunder and Discharge fairly often. The list of all the Pokemon that Surge uses that don''t have fur are simply the Magnemite, Magneton, Voltorb, and Electrode that he uses, Pokemon that have fur on the other hand are Raichu, Jolteon, Electabuzz, Manectric, Flaffy, and a Luxio. I just have to hope that he won''t use four outta the ten Pokemon he has available since all his options that have fur will be practically crippled of their electric capabilities when he faces me, or more precisely when they face Pearl. Unfortunately, I don''t really have a good option against Magneton, due to its electric and steel typing alongside the fact that it can levitate, which is why I posted in that job board that regular trainers use to get money to have battles against the Magnemite line which led to a lot of battles against opponents weak and strong. That kind of cut into the money that I got from helping capture those Pokemon hunters, because apparently bad people can have bounties put on them. Being a Pokemon hunter''s hunter is apparently a real profession. Though most call them bounty trainers because they go after people with league approved bounties. An added bonus was that three days was enough to find a place that had a deep sea scale for sale... but I wouldn''t be able to buy it just yet because it''s fairly costly and unless I get a pretty big win like against a certain gym leader or by doing a whole ton of battles like I do in towns when I''m not preparing for a gym battle. ...But I did get a special item for Pearl thanks to a quick catch request that involved getting a Seadra. Though the only negative that I''ve got about my prepping is the schedule. Wake up, eat, train, rest, battle, rest/lunch, train, eat, sleep. The harsh training regimen being one that I typically adopt for a tough fight, like back in Pewter and Celadon, or when I cram for exams. Taking a brief moment to look past Pearl I see that the three Pokemon who won''t be doing the gym battle are diligently training. Since Flame Charge with Leaf was such a success, I thought ''why not do the same process but with Rain Dance combining with Trailblaze instead of using Sunny Day.'' Sort of like a water type Flame Charge... a Water Charge? Waveblaze? Oh, what about a Splash Dash? Yeeaaah, that last one sounds a bit right, and it leads to me making a note on my gear in case the move actually works. So far, it''s still in the conceptual phase. Dee-Dee decided to also learn Safeguard for some reason so she''s practicing how to use the non-damaging move from whatever research I could do online to collect the learning steps for the move. She''s got all the time in the world and since she doesn''t really need to do any dangerous stuff or move around a lot she''s mainly been as close to the gym training side as possible to give words of advice to Ralts on how to use the normal type switching move. Marshmallow on the other hand was kind of a unique experience. I couldn''t teach him anything from Pearl since she''s too busy prepping against Surge and I don''t have anyone to train him otherwise on ground moves that Wooper typically know. So, my first order of business was to teach Marshmallow the type chart and what interactions that some typing''s have with water, ground, and fighting moves. After that I wanted him to learn his very first ground type move. So, I enlisted some help. Specifically, the help of the local battlefield fixers. Marshmallow is shadowing a Graveller whose main job is to patch up any breaks and tears that happen to the battlefield. And by shadowing I literally mean following the rock and ground type around in their comparatively massive shadow and watching them fix the ground using the move Bulldoze, listening to the sage advice of the rock and ground type while they were on another field that needed fixing. It took a bit of back and forth before Marshmallow showed me how well he can use his move pool, with Power-Up Punch being the quickest he could do as it took five seconds to ready up while Guard Swap and Recover took the longest using a whopping seventeen seconds for each move. That was gonna be a problem until we got to the point where Marshmallow could actually shrug off powerful attacks as if they were pin pricks or a light slap. For now, his training consisted of trying to increase his reaction time and move speed while trying to learn Bulldoze. I clap to get everyone present''s attention, sending out Tabitha and Ralts as well. "Alright folks, that''s enough for today." I say, to the disappointment of Dee-Dee of all Pokemon "Ralts, Tabs, and Pearl will be having their gym battle in about four hours so the rest of you get the day off. We''re stopping here because Surge is known for not pulling his punches, so I want the team at their full power and ready for a slugfest. This means that I expect the one''s about to battle to take a nap and recharge." The three protested a bit, with one particular grouchypuss spraying me with water, but they eventually agreed and returned to their balls, but not before Pearl sprayed me with water again. Wiping the HO2 off my face and run a hand through my hair, I address the rest of the team. "Who wants steamed broccoli and asparagus?" Cheers fill the air from Leaf and Dee-Dee and before long Marshmallow goes with the flow. And that was how I spent the rest of my time while waiting, munching on fruits and veggies while relaxing with half the team. I even brought Beedrill for the break just to catchup with him and see how he''s doing with his new item. It was amazing how fast four hours could fly by when one''s relaxing. I already knew where the Vermillion gym was, on account of visiting it last time I was here, so it wasn''t really a surprise for me when I arrived twenty minutes early. I welcomed the cold embrace of the air conditioning, since the heat coming from the midday sunlight was making me work up a sweat, and promptly headed over to the receptionist who was nice enough to send me into the trainer waiting room while Surge finished up with his latest challenger. Everybody was in either in groups discussing their battle plan or by themselves trying to ease their nerves, so I opted to be by myself to make sure I don''t disturb anyone. I revised the battle plan over and over while I was waiting. Let Tabs run the show and set the field, switch to Ralts against any Voltorb or Electrode to use Disable on their Rapid Spin, stall and set up even more, Baton Pass into Pearl to mop up the battle. A boom of cheers jolted me out of my thinking and a gym trainer called my name out in the waiting room before he escorted me to the challenge area. The most notable thing were the levers placed around the room which had areas fenced off by electricity, with the fences themselves only being as high as my chest. The second most were the Pikachu and the de-evolved version of Luxio that were on podiums on the right and left side of the room. The third most notable thing being the closed door at the end with an electric clock right above it. A quick scan from the pokedex shows that the other Pokemon is a Shinx. The gym trainer didn''t even wait before explaining the rules. "''Kay kid, pull the levers to drop the electric fences. Dodge the electric attacks from the Pokemon on the side or block ''em if you want. You gotta pull all five levers before the timer ends and not get tagged once by the Pokemon or the fences else you lose. Capiche?" He didn''t even wait before leaving back the way we came from, the door closing behind him. He said electric attacks, right? Without a second thought, I send out Marshmallow and Dee-Dee. "Listen up guys, I''m gonna need you to guard me while I pull the levers around the room. Dee-Dee," I start while looking at Marshmallow apologetically "since you don''t really have much practice with grabbing moves from the air, I was hoping you would instead use Psychic to pick up Marshmallow and... use him to block the electric attacks." Okay now that I''m saying it out loud it''s clear to that it''s a ridiculous and slightly inhuman solution. "Okay, now that I''m saying it out loud, I realize how crazy that sounds so we should probably find another way tmmph-" Dee-Dee smooshes a finger against my lips to probably tell me to shut up before she and Marshmallow start nodding. She takes her finger off my lips so that I can speak. "You guys are okay with it?" They nod again. Huh. Sweet. The time for chitchat was over though since the ceiling lights shifted from white to red before turning yellow. I take a deep breath and motion to first lever, which was on our right and near the Shinx. Green light fills the room, and we run. A Thunder Shock from the Pikachu comes straight at me only to be blocked by my blue ground type before he was quickly swished over to my right to block the random electric attack from the Shinx. That attack that the feline Pokemon used was probably really powerful since the electric type then spent some time regaining energy while the Pikachu was still peppering us with Thunder Shock after Thunder Shock that were taking longer and longer to reach us as we went further away from it. This meant that I could quickly pass between some fences, shimmy along a couple other fences, and smack down the first lever without too much hassle. Immediately, a quarter of the electric fences in the room shut off and I took a sec before running over to a lever that was still on the Shinx side of the room. I was really lucky that Dee-Dee used Psychic to shove my body left, that electric laser that Shinx used came out of nowhere. Jumping left to dodge an electric fence and moving in a zig zag formation due to the placement of the fences led to the second lever. Another quarter of the fences became disabled and we three were off once more. After that we went into an unintended rhythm where Dee-Dee would use her mastery of Psychic to use Marshmallow as a shield against the Pikachu while I would duck and weave the electric laser move that the Shinx would use since they came so randomly that Dee-Dee couldn''t get a rhythm on them. Getting the third and fourth levers was a cinch at that point. It was also really helpful that the fences were only chest high, so you''d be safe from any electric attacks if you were crawling, but it would kill a lot of time if you were going the careful route. Once you combined all those factors with the fact that all the fences were now disabled, it meant that the fifth lever reavealed itself and soon became mine for the pulling down. A loud bzzt noise sounded out and the closed door from before opened up for me to pass through. It also meant that the Pikachu began firing its attack with renewed gusto and even the Shinx was shilling out more laser attacks then when we started. I couldn''t actually head to the door with the clock ticking down because the attacks were coming in too frequently for Dee-Dee to entirely block while running. Thats when I had probably the dumbest idea in the history of ideas. "Dee-Dee! Throw me to the door using Psychic!" I yelled, since the sound of a running current and laser beam were going off so close to us. Dee-Dee, to her credit, only looked at me like I was crazy for all of two seconds before dropping Marshmallow on the floor to then cover me in purple energy. She took a pitchers pose and then threw me straight at the door, faster than anything the electric types could send out. I reached the door. Still under her control, I suddenly stopped the second I passed through the doorframe, my stomach begging for a bathroom right as I was gently lowered to the ground. I leaned onto a wall to slow my heart from the aftereffects of running as fast as possible and barely managed to return the two of them and thank them for their service before a gym trainer came to me. "...hmm." And that was basically his only vocabulary as he motioned me towards a second waiting room, different from the first one mainly because there weren''t any decorations and the people waiting were all different, minus a couple people. I sat down only to jolt back up when a loud buzzer sound filled the room; the sound was probably some motioning thing since three trainers headed off while one came back only to leave from the door with an exit sign. Slowly, the room filtered with people entering and leaving as time passed, and before I knew it, I was called up to take my battle. Going along with a couple other people that were also called out, we caught the tail end of a battle between Surge and one of the guys who left before we did. The trainers Rhydon dodged a Flash Cannon and managed to make a Stone-Edge to cover up a last-minute move which made its horn start spinning like a drill but it was all for nought when the opposing Magnezone used a steel move that''s apparently called Magnet Bomb, that last attack circumventing the Stone-Edge entirely and hitting with unerring accuracy and was too much for the ground and rock type to withstand. The cheer from the crowd making it clear that this was the final matchup, and that Surge had won. Somebody beside me gulped at the monstrous display. I wasn''t about to lie and say that it didn''t scare me a bit either. My picture from my trainer id popped up on the side of the wall so I said bye to the other two before heading up. I know that the trial that I took wasn''t something they gave to the three-badge level so I was definitely gonna fight Surge''s four-star team. And if that was the case then my next gym battle ''ll be the five-star level. Even as I headed towards Surge, I saw the look of recognition which meant that he personally knows about me, and if he knows me then it wouldn''t be too big of a stretch to assume that other gym leaders probably know me as well. Which meant that the real fight... starts now.
Surge was having a fantastic day. He woke at o five hundred and ran through all the channels that Team Rocket would regularly use to send him covert messages and found nothin'' from the boss, just some namby pamby admins beggin'' him to come back into the organization. He then ran through a series of exercises with his Pokemon, did a perimeter sweep of Vermillion to flush out a gang member or two, instructed his private crew to do some digging on the info he got about the bosses'' potential whereabouts, and then had a morning coffee. He then enjoyed his favorite pastime that just happened to be his job. Crushing the hopes of every little kid that entered the doors of his gym. Thats not to say he was a sadist, though he kind of was just a little teensy bit thanks to the persona he puts on, but there was something refreshing seeing the broken looks of a thousand kids and finding that one that would look at him with defiance: coming back stronger and better in every single goddamn way just to beat the electric type gym leaders'' ass. It was why he was still a gym leader, why he wore metaphorical shackles instead of physical ones. Because he was the best in molding the right mindset out of future geniuses with a level of skill that no gym leader in the entire history of Indigo had managed since its conception. A soldier always knows the look of a soldier, and Surge was one of the best. Which was why he couldn''t stop the smirk on his face when he saw his latest victim challenger. He sized up the latest kid in his path, judging the boy to be around 130-135 centimeters, which was a normal height for a kid even if he was a little bit on the smaller side, but that number would shoot up as he grew older. His hair was starting to grow to his ears but it looked decently clean, so the boy had been staying in Vermillion since otherwise there would be knots or a fleck or two of dirt or leaves on his head. His shirt, a regular brown tee with pictures of different trees on it, was perfectly clean and ironed so Surge would wager that he''d been wearing a different shirt before he came to the gym and that the kid spent less than a week in the city considering the boy was previously in Fuchsia. Internally, Surge chuckled as the kid''s eyes sharpened when the boy stared at him; one of those eyes having a horizontal line going through it in the middle of his right pupil, in between his scar that touched his nose. He could understand why weaklings would be freaked out by those eyes that looked at you as if you were prey, but all Surge could see was the baby fat that lingered on the kid''s cheeks. From what he''s seen and heard, the kid would be a perfect soldier with the right training as he grew up, maybe if Surge was nice then he could foster a relationship with the kid to be his mentor and make a true monster. Alas, Surge would sooner cut off an arm than play nice with a kid that didn''t earn his respect. "So," Surge started "you''re the little hotshot lab rookie looking to get a smackdown, huh." Falling into the bait, the young boy introduced himself "I''m Evandros from Pallet Town, and I''m gonna beat you." The crowd loved the fighting words from the boy but everybody knew that a comeback was coming. "Pfeh, you and what Pokemon. Is it ''gonna'' be that weak ass fairy you got or that little pinecone you call a battler," Surge had maybe broken a few rules to see what Pokemon the kid would field today but he knew he was hitting the right buttons as the kid clenched his teeth, though Surge wanted more. He wanted a specific Pokemon called out and used in the battle. "In case you haven''t heard kid, I''m invoking a star up which means instead of a three badge four v four challenge, this''ll be four badge five v five. And I don''t want you crying home to mama about the asswhooping you and your pathetic Pokemon are about to get. You wouldn''t be able to stop me even if you brought that little cig lighter you call a starter." "Oh yeah!" Evandros nearly, not quite just yet, yelled "Well I know you''re only saying this to get in my head and I don''t need to listen to you." He straightened up a bit as he spoke. It was a weak rebuttal all things considered. God, Surge was going to love blowing his fuse. "Heh you might be right kid," Surge said leadingly "but I wouldn''t say anythin'' I don''t believe. After all, I know you went and completed that little ninja challenge over in Fuchsia which would have been perfect timing for you to challenge Janine for your third badge instead of me. But you didn''t, instead you came here and the only difference between a fight from me and her is that you won''t have to use that little Leafeon you got in your back pocket against me." Evandros stilled, so Surge continued "I''ve seen those little clips of you, saw how you used type disadvantaged and neutral Pokemon against Brock but you still used your rock types because, by your definition in the comments ''Brock had a near equal amount of ground types as he does rock types''. But by that same definition you should''ve used that little kit you call a Leafeon against Erika since she has a ''near equal amount of poison types as she does grass types'' but you didn''t. So, it got me thinking." The mountain of a man made a show of it, pacing and moving his hand as he spoke. He noticed that the boy he was trying to get a rise out of was clenching his jaw and hadn''t noticed the buzzing pokegear, which had only started buzzing as Surge had started his monologue so it was clearly someone watching right now, that was above his quickly whitening knuckles. He had a pleading expression upon him, his face nearly begging Surge to stop his train of thought and just continue with the battle. Surge continued "Now it took me a bit but obviously, things were starting to get clearer and clearer with every image. You didn''t use your Leafeon against Brock but considering your current self-imposed challenge that was a warranted decision, then you didn''t use the grass type again in a setting where most of her powerful moves would have near zero effect which came off as strange, then you beeline over to Fuchsia and you don''t even challenge the poison type gym leader and instead ran over here with your tail between your legs. So, I got a little theory outta it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The theory that you''re scared of using that little kit, that you don''t want the world to know just how weak she is, just how useless she is." Those eyes that look at you like a predators'' were gone, replaced by low eyebrows and wide pupils that promised pain. ''Bingo'' Surge thought A near imperceptible nod over to his referee made the young man pick up his flags and begin saying the regular spiel that pertains a fourth badge challenge from Surge. Surge knew that the kid would, in most cases, send out his Pineco first since it would be the smart play. Outside of a gym battle, Surge would have sent out Electrode to nip that problem in the bud, but, alas, he wasn''t outside of a gym battle, so he opted for a less-than-optimal choice. ''''Least kid gets brownie points for not completely losin'' it'' Surge thought Just as he predicted, his latest challenger sent out a Pineco against the gym leader''s own Luxio and if looks could kill then Surge would''ve been dead at least a dozen times over. It was also nice to note that the Pokemon were listening in from their balls; that meant that he could pull off mind games on them to force a Pokemon out if he needed. "Charge" Surge ordered automatically, having to make sure he didn''t put too much thought into the fight, otherwise he would accidently make too many right calls. "Field" The kid ordered Both Pokemon took their time setting themselves up, one using a boosting move while the other reluctantly placed traps onto the field. Luxio then automatically decided to use Shock Wave while the bug type he was facing took the attack and barely lost their concentration at throwing out the second set of Spikes. "Now use Rollout!" "Move and use Swift" The field traps would hurt like hell for a later Pokemon but for now they were useless. A fact that Surge capitalized on by making Luxio mobile so that he wouldn''t get hit. The Swift was merely to piss off the Pineco even further. It worked... a little too well. The normal type move was only barely causing any damage, but it somehow made the bug type even faster than it was beforehand. What was an even chase of cat and mouse, or in this case pinecone and cub, became more like Rapidash and Slowpoke as the electric type couldn''t move himself fast enough for the bludgeoning strike that tossed him into the air, even with the power of a quick Trailblaze to boost his speed. Said Pineco moved as fast as it could to take a U-turn and come back in for another hit. "Volt-Switch, get yourself out." Surge demanded and it was only through sheer discipline that the feline picked himself up as fast as he did. Body sparking, Luxio ran to collide with the rapidly approaching bug type, only to side-step and hit the Pineco from the left. The bug type''s attack destabilized as the electric type returned himself for an Electrode that was almost out onto the field. "Return, Tabitha" Evandros said before sending out his Ralts close to Electrode Deciding to hit two Pidgey with one stone Surge went with the obvious move. "Rapid-Sp-" "Disable" And all Surge could do was click his teeth at the outplay. Electrode tried to use Rapid Spin to take out the field, but it didn''t work thanks to the rapid use of Disable hitting his second electric type in the chest. To the electric types credit, it immediately tried to use Thunderbolt but the psychic type merely teleported to Electrode''s back and blasted it with a powerful yell that created pink soundwaves which crashed onto the ball Pokemon. Surge could do nothing but send Electrode back, maybe for a minute or two considering that the Disable might last a fair bit. Though there were a couple of ways that he could use to destroy the field traps, keeping this specific Pokemon around was crucial in making sure that the field was definitely taken care of, the second most being to take out that Ralts. Said Ralts capitalized on the empty field by using Calm Mind. Wordlessly, Surge sent out the best counter he had to the psychic and fairy type. Three eyes looked down onto their opponent, its magnets whirring in confusion just like how his personal one used to do when it saw itself sent out against a weakling. "Magneton, use Thunderbolt" "Double Team into Confuse Ray" Surge didn''t quite care about the interaction that was about to take place since he was too busy watching the kid rationalize something in his head. He just needed a light push over that last ledge. Surge was going to give him a kick. "Ya know, if you wanna call it quits then you better do it quick before I mutilate the rest of your Pokemon." He spared a glance and was mildly disappointed that the Ralts only had a minor burn mark from getting shocked while Magneton was clearly confused. The kid nodded, looking as if he wasn''t paying attention at Surge''s words but the clenched jaw and the quick raising of two balls was answer enough. "Baton Pass" Surge''s mood soured as the psychic type took its time returning itself. The stat buff on special defense and attack would be perfect for a Charmeleon or a Clamperl but it would be practically useless for- A quadrupedal Pokemon touched the field, looking around in confusion as it knew that it very much was not meant to be used here. "You said you wanted Leaf in a gym battle, well she''s in one now." The ki- Evandros quietly said, his voice almost not loud enough under the roar of the crowd and the rapid whirring of the Magneton. "Stay still and use Magnet Bomb Magneton" "Use duo 2 Leaf" It took a second for the whirring noises of Magneton to cease and a second longer for it to understand the command. This gave ample time for Leafeon to move with a burst of green and purple energy and collide with the opposing steel type; the attack doing nothing more than giving a scratch and putting Magneton in a tailspin. "Sunny Day into Flame Charge, let''s go!" That line made Surge snort even as the Leafeon used Sunny Day, the only fire type move that was available to all grass types, and the gym leader wondered what his rendition of ''Flame Charge'' would be. This Leafeon is known for using two attacks at the same time so maybe she could use Quick Attack and at the last second charge its Type Energy with Sunny Day for a proto-Flame Charge. Or was it a code word for another move like how some trainers did to make their next attack a surpri- Surge''s eyes widened into saucers as he stared at the Leafeon on fire. He was a seasoned vet who saw more battles than any other gym leader aside from Blaine and Pryce, of course he''d seen the move used enough times to know that this was the real deal. Apparently, so did the crowd judging by their stunned silence and a few shocked gasps. Surge shook his head as he considered what to do next. Magneton would no longer be confused if he got hit by the next attack, but odds were that it was going to do a shit ton of damage. Lo and behold, Magneton went into the ground like a sack of potatoes while the Leafeon was still zipping around here or there. The good news was that the steel type was no longer confused, the bad news being that the steel type''s opponent was too fast for Magneton to do anything other than wide ranged attacks or setting the field. Surge opted for the latter. "Use Electric Terrain" "Finish it off!" Magneton would go down, but he still had Electrode in case the Leafeon became too much of a problem and needed an explosive exit. All in all, Surge wasn''t too worried when the Leafeon pushed through the wide ranged electric field that was being set and slammed into Magneton one final time. The added momentum of the attack through the boosted speed combined with the inherent physical power that the Leafeon line has made it too much for Magneton to continue. But... if Evandros evolved the grass type with a stone then it most likely would have hit its threshold a long time ago, by all rights it shouldn''t be able to handle a fight like this even if its moves were super effective. The only other method to help it along would be rare candies but those were strictly kept under League supervision or in the black markets and the kid was way too serious to ever buy illegal stuff. Surge was already willing to hand over a badge from the showing he''d seen. But he wanted more out of Evandros so he sent out his Raichu onto the field. Immediately, Surge knew something was wrong with the field. Sure, it had Spikes strewn about but the flinch that Raichu gave was not something that a little bit of damage would cause. So there had to be another factor. His eyes, so used to finding weak points in a battalion''s formation, spotted a hint of purple and Surge could do nothing but smile ruefully at the schadenfreude. The Pineco had set both Spikes and Toxic Spikes at the same time, taking great care to layer the purple spikes with motes of earthy brown that mixed with the battlefield, and considering that its focus didn''t break too much when it was doing it meant that Evandros probably trained his Pokemon to not flinch from electric attacks too much. If he was going to be played like that, then he could ramp things up a bit. "Rain Dance into Thunder" "Keep moving and use Duo 1" This specific Raichu was trained in being able to dodge speedy opponents, so it wasn''t a surprise that she backflipped over the attacking Leafeon as she swirled her arm to set up a Rain Dance. Her grass typed opponent opted for a Swift as she moved with the speed of what Surge could tell was Quick Attack, but it wouldn''t help. Thunder rained down at blistering speeds, blowing up patches of ground where Raichu''s opponent previously had been or might go, and it was only going to be a matter of time before the Leafeon would make a mistake in judgment. Surge was fine with making that mistake for her. "Grass Knot" "Sunny Day! And use it whenever Raichu uses Rain Dance" Though Surge had said his order first, it was Evandros'' Pokemon that made the first move. Sending a ball of fire up into the air just as she finally tripped from the rapid blades of grass that snagged her foot. Raichu didn''t even need the extra power and speed boost that came from using Rain Dance to fire off a perfect Electric Terrain boosted Thunder onto the Leafeon, the attack not doing as much damage as Surge would have liked due to the boosted special defense that was a byproduct of the Calm Mind used by Ralts, alongside the natural resistance that grass types had against electric attacks. Leafeon burst into flames once more and ripped herself free from the Grass Knot to continue speeding and evading, which was bad for Raichu since she was still poisoned, hit by two layers of Spikes, and got hit by a boosted Swift. All in all, it was probably best to finish the Leafeon off now before Evandros got even more momentum. "Leaf, Duo 5" "Raichu use DV" Surge knew that he couldn''t bet on getting the right counter for the right combo moves that the Leafeon might use so he opted for a coverage move instead. Pink soundwaves emanated from Raichu as she sang the fairy type attack against a combination of Swift and a ground type move. Though, that wasn''t the real attack. "HP, seven ''o'' clock." Though the Leafeon was fast, she wasn''t able to dodge the rapidly approaching Hidden Power Ice. She was blown back onto the other side of the field, closer to Surge and away from her trainer, but the grass type shrugged off the super effective hit to dig into the ground- "Swift" -right where Raichu could get a few hits in without worrying about damage, the electric type also automatically setting up another Rain Dance due to the fact that the Electric Terrain had nearly fizzled out. It probably wasn''t going to do a lot of damage, especially because the electric type on the field was starting to flag due to the poison coursing in her veins. Surge made sure to keep an eye both on the field and on the trainer. The kid was pretty wound up and his knuckles were still fairly white, his body tense, and his eyes were still promising pain, but he wasn''t looking at where his Pokemon might erupt from the field which was good since that would be a rookie mistake and easy read for the high-level trainers like Surge himself. A slight tremor behind the electric type occurred and she jumped away, firing off another Hidden Power at the epicenter of the tremors. Hitting- -nothing but Swift stars and a Sunny Day, destroying the distraction and leaving herself wide open. Raichu''s eyes widened as Leafeon came out right underneath the electric type who was stuck in the air unable to dodge, and it was only her quick reflexes that Raichu used Iron Tail to block the super effective Dig... but with momentum against her and with little time to actually prepare for the counterattack Raichu was blasted even higher into the air; her descent leading her to Surge who could do nothing but return his knocked out Pokemon before she got hurt from the fall. He would rather keep the last Pokemon as a surprise, so he sent out Luxio. Due to Raichu using Thunder all willy nilly, the field traps had been destroyed so Luxio didn''t get hurt by any Spikes or Poison Spikes. That said, it just meant that Surge only had one poisoned Pokemon, one lightly injured Pokemon, and one fresh Pokemon. Evandros on the other hand had two lightly injured Pokemon, one heavily injured Pokemon, and two fresh Pokemon. All that meant that Surge was going to have to push a little deeper for any further plays, maybe use a five-star Pokemon at the end. But for now, that Leafeon was too fast for the rest of Surge''s team. "Duo 1" "Roar" Even with the rapidly sleeping Leafeon being on the other side of the field, Luxio managed to roar so loud that the grass type was blown back and returned into her pokeball. One of the other pokeballs on Evandros'' waist opened and out came the Clamperl, just as Surge thought it eventually would. Clamperl was one of the kids'' newer catches, but Surge had at least an idea of its capabilities. It would be just like when he would protect the beaches of Kanto against the navy that Johto had used, facing off Shellder and Cloyster and Slowbro''s with the occasional Slowking and Octillery. There was a genuine reason as to why Surge never faced off against water types nowadays. "Do you want us to use everything we''ve got?" Evandros asked Surge gave a chuckle that was both amused and mocking "Kid, I''m a gym leader. Ask the Joy''s what happens when some punk gives a statement like that." A cursory glance at the stands showed that the viewers were starting to get heavily invested in the battle, considering that it was fuller than when the kid first came out of the entry way; that normally should''ve been impossible since the last match was against a guy wanting his seventh badge. Another glance onto the Pokemon in front of him showed that this Clamperl had a pristine shell, nuggets of knowledge from talking with Misty helping with that analysis. The boy merely nodded, as if he was expecting that reaction. "Alright then, Pearl use Shell Smash!" Surge''s mind buggered for a second, memories of that cursed move used by Misty and Blaine against him, before he snapped back into reality and ordered a retaliatory "Trailblaze!" ''Oy vey,'' Surge lamented in his mind ''if it''s not one thing with this kid then it''s another.'' Luxio gathered speed as it used the grass type move to try and hit the Clamperl who dissolved a white feather-like thing while it was finishing up its move. And Surge called it ''it'' because he didn''t really have a good understanding of what differentiates a male clamperl from a female one due to the unintended scarcity of them being used in general but especially in his gym. "Dodge and use B" "Hit it with Charge Beam instead." The Clamperl moved as fast as it could to jump up and over Luxio as it was readying up its water type attack. Luxio dug his claws into the dirt to stop his momentum as he began readying Charge Beam. Shell Smash was a move that boosted the speed of a Pokemon way higher than a Trailblaze but due to Luxio''s innate speed and the training Surge would subject his Pokemon to, alongside the general slowness of a Clamperl that most clam-attributed Pokemon generally had, both attacks met in the middle. The obvious conclusion would be that the water type move would be pummeled by the electric type move, even with the rain helping boost the attack. ''Nothing is obvious with this kid'' Surge mused What should have been a quick and easy one hit ko for his Luxio was instead a mind-boggling clash between an electric attack and a water attack struggling for dominance, mainly due to the fact that electric type moves should always beat water type ones. The tie only lasted for a few seconds before the water move began travelling upwards the electric current, the salt water initially only moving at a snail''s pace before turning into an avalanche of power rushing to meet its electric aggressor; even though Luxio''s attack would be a critical hit. ''Wait, salt water?'' Surge thought Then it hit him... but at that point it was too late. Luxio was blasted back, only barely clinging to consciousness as he roared in both pain and anger at the disrespect that he''d received from a water type. "Luxio don''t use electric moves! Go for a Swift instead!" Of course, discipline was put to the wayside when a person or Pokemon was too angry at something. Luxio squared his shoulders in the way he normally would, to use Charge, but his fur didn''t get up in the regular way that it should. That was because the salt water in his fur was preventing him from using electricity. The Clamperl that Surge saw in a new light decided to use another Shell Smash before shifting to the beginnings of Iron Defense and Surge could do nothing but return Luxio and motion to the referee that the electric type wouldn''t battle. ''Screw what everyone else might think,'' Surge thought ''this Clamperl is the most dangerous one in the kids'' team.'' He needed to take out this Clamperl as fast as possible with Electrode otherwise he would be forced into using a fifth star Magneton or Electrode, one would be countered by Evandros'' Leafeon but both would be helpless against that Ralts. With a quick chuck, Surge tossed his Electrode as far away from the water type as possible. "Agility into Light Screen" Surge ordered, noting how the white top of the electric type had a light purple shading. "Confuse Ray" A fact about Electrode is that they are one of the fastest battlers in the entire world, they might not have the speed of a Rapidash or an Arcanine but they are feared when one of the circular electric types is in a field due to not only their explosive tendencies but also their speed and rapid turning that allows them to dodge attacks near instantaneously. All of that combined meant that Electrode got off the Agility first, rolled to the left to dodge the ball of ghostly energy that was Confuse Ray, and set up a Light Screen as its final act. "Now, use Rollout" "Tch, focus on dodging," Evandros said "once you get a clear shot then use Brine." What came next was yet another game of cat and mouse, but now both trainers were on the opposite sides of the game. Electrode would bull one way, only for the Clamperl to jump the other way. If the Clamperl saw a shot at getting Electrode and took it then the ball Pokemon would retaliate by letting the water type move contest with the Light Screen as he struck the water type with Rollout, the attack not doing as much as it could due to the prior Iron Defence set up. Round and round the battle would go, who would drop? Nobody knows. ... ...Well, not nobody. Surge saw the frustration clear on his opponents'' face, the kid was trying to find a way that he could win this match up easily and was finding some difficulty. It probably didn''t help that the electric type would randomly stop and fire a massive Thunder that the Clamperl could only barely dodge. Surge smirked as the kid picked up the water types pokeball and returned her, he capitalized on it by ordering an Electric Terrain. Mind made up, the kid unclipped a new ball from his belt and sent out his Beedrill. Surge had the pleasure of battling this species and knew that the kid was going to try a status move first. So, he went for the easiest choice to use. "Agility" Evandros ordered "Discharge" Surge barked aloud The electric type move, strengthened by the Electric Terrain, damaged the bug type and left a few parts of his body black and burnt. Though, those same burns were already being healed so the kid probably gave a berry or that leftovers item. "Discharge again" "Get through while using Harden and punish with Twineedle" Yet another boom of electrical energy being fired occurred but this time the Beedrill was covering itself with the hard sheen of the defensive normal type move as it advanced, shaving off minute amounts of damage to come to the perfect position of striking with deadly accuracy. Surge knew he could do nothing more, Electrode had been slowly chipped away by the poison and had gotten scrapes from Brine strikes that they couldn''t fully dodge and now the electric type would be battered and faint by the next attack. So, Surge at least made sure he finished one of the kids'' Pokemon off. A whistle was all he needed. Somehow the kid knew a mere second before the Explosion would occur and tried to warn his Beedrill about it... but it was too little, too late. A massive ''BOOM'' occurred, and it was only thanks to the soundproofing of the barriers that nobody lost their sense of hearing. It took a couple seconds for the dust to settle, showing blackened bodies unconscious and on the floor. Surge gave a nod of respect to Electrode and returned them easily enough. He took a second to glance at the kid and noticed that he had already returned Beedrill and was now holding up four different pokeballs. Seems like he was debating on who he should send out next, and Surge would let him choose this time because if the kid went overtime with his decision than Surge would get to use a move free of charge. The rain had stopped falling by the time Electrode had used Explosion but the Electric Terrain was still up and running. That Clamperl was still kicking but as he just saw, the water type didn''t do too well against speedy opponents so he could use another Electrode or a Jolteon to counter it. The Pineco could move fast but it didn''t have quick enough reflexes to dodge a Pokemon around its speed level, so Surge would have to use an Electrode or a Jolteon. The Ralts had quick enough reflexes and teleportation on its side, so a counter would be a Pokemon with super effective moves like a Magneton or a Jolteon. Finally, that Leafeon was extremely damaged and could become extremely fast while having quick reflexes, so he needed a Pokemon that similarly had fast reflexes to counter it like an Electabuzz or a Jolteon. Surge went with the surprising choice. He picked Jolteon. On the field the two opposing Pokemon took a second to look at each other. Both were eyeing the other up in curiosity and a hint of wariness. Why wouldn''t they? Afterall, both Eeveelutions must have had their own reasons and circumstances to evolve into different forms. "Heh, even I can admit you''ve done good kid. But this is the end of the line for you and your Pokemon." "... We''ll see about that." Surge''s grin widened from those fighting words. Both Jolteon and Leafeon acted without any words from their trainers. They paced around in a circle while using Agility, Jolteon clearly faster than Evandros'' Leafeon although the gap wasn''t too far apart that the gym leader could rest on his laurels. Ultimately, someone had to break the silence. "On the offensive Leaf, use Flame Charge." Like the crack of whip, the pacing in circles cease as the Leafeon bursts into flames and lunges at her opponent who just barely turned the full blow attack into a little nick on his side. The electric type then stopped being stunned from the fiery display of the grass type long enough to fire off a retaliatory Thunderbolt that the Leafeon dodged through the quick use of Double Team. "Discharge" Jolteon fired a giant omni-directional wave of electricity only for Leafeon to use Dig to dodge the attack, the grass type popping right back out and harrying the electric type with Swift as she moved closer for another strike. The lightning Pokemon simply countered with his own Swift which was a much stronger version of the ranged attack and forced the grass type to fall back and use what was most likely Mud Slap in conjunction with Swift. The next minute continued in similar manner. When Jolteon fired off a Shadow Ball then Leafeon would punt it back with Iron Tail leaving Jolteon exposed for a strike from Quick Attack. When Leafeon tried to strike using Dig then Jolteon would fire an Electroweb on the ground that Leafeon would have to spend precious moments breaking through only to find that Jolteon had repositioned elsewhere and had used Thunderbolt once more. Unfortunately, despite the evenness in skill there was one clear difference between the two. One was an extremely injured and tired Pokemon while the other was fresh and ready to battle. The deciding factor wasn''t when both clashed in a battle strength or even when one got hit by an attack. It ended when Leafeon was too tired to move, she looked back at her trainer and he simply nodded as he returned her into the pokeball to rest giving words of thanks and retiring her from the match. This gave time for Surge to think even more on the Pokemon used. Every Pokemon he used were firmly on the four star level and every Pokemon that Evandros sent out were all clearly at the four star level but if he had been challenged maybe a week or two earlier they would be around the high three star level... but that was supposed to be impossible for the Leafeon, an evolution before a Pokemon is strong enough to meet the prerequisites that most its species have to go through find themselves having a lower power ceiling than others and that was doubly true for stone evolution Pokemon; but a non factor for Pokemon who evolve through friendship or love. Leafeon don''t evolve through friendship and there weren''t any mossy rocks in cities so it couldn''t have been through that, which has to mean that the grass type evolved through a stone. But that didn''t make sense to Surge. If that was true then that Leafeon should have been having a hard time reaching past the third star level but it was clearly at around the mid-high four star level and didn''t really show any signs of stopping anytime soon. His head was trying to wrap around the walking abnormality that was Leafeon just as his gut took action and ordered Jolteon to use Calm Mind as the Electric terrain had nearly fizzled out, the Light Screen gone completely. This time, the Pineco came out onto the field. Evandros taking a couple seconds to use his pokedex to probably recheck all the moves that the bug type had learnt. "Reflect then your newest move Automize." Surge ignored the phrasing of the last part of the order and simply said "Thunderbolt" Pineco couldn''t dodge or defend against the electric type attack and simply took the punishment as she used Reflect, placing weirdly shaped versions of the barrier onto the field but it most likely were made to deflect attacks like Pin Missile for Ralts. She the only thing that didn''t let her faint was the Sturdy ability that most Pineco had. She then rolled aside from the second Thunderbolt and used Automize which was definitely how she managed to become faster than Luxio. She didn''t become faster than Jolteon but when she rolled it became a battle of around even speed. Of course, Jolteon is an electric type and electric types are mainly known for their speed and special attacking power. Another game of cat and mouse occured, and Surge was willing to let it play out. He might regularly beat the snot out of a kid with more thoroughness and aggression than most other gym leaders, but even he knew when he needed to be a lesson or a stepping stone for a trainer and when he just needed to be a dumb heel. Jolteon was racing ahead, curving this way and that to dodge the bug type''s advance, taking care not to bumb onto the weirdly placed Reflect barriers all around the field. Surge was fine with the current impasse. The bug type, evidently, was not. Just as Jolteon took a right turn, the Pineco immediately went full speed onto a Reflect screen and its weird curve allowed the bagworm Pokemon to end up right on Jolteon''s left side. It rammed right into the electric type with as much as it could gather from Rollout and managed to push the lightning Pokemon off of his feet. Sparing no expense, as the bug types rage hadn''t dissipated when she was returned, Pineco immediately fired a Struggle Bug attack to slam into the side of the electric type; the attack had a sheen to it that made it clear that it was a critical hit. "Swift and Dig" Surge said calmly "Self-Destruct" Evandros said with a tone of finality Shit. Before Jolteon could even begin firing the honing stars, Pineco didn''t even hesitate to begin glowing a bright white. Surge could admit that his less than kind words were biting him in the ass in the eleventh hour. Again for the second time today, a massive ''BOOM'' occured and obscured the battlefield from all watchers. The crowd waited in baited breath as everyone watched the smoke and dust dissipate. Evandros simply pointed his pokeball onto the battlefield and managed to return Pineco back into her ball before saying some quick words to her and clipping her pokeball back onto his belt. The smoke was gone, and the only thing left on the broken and charred battlefield was a fainted Jolteon. Surge didn''t wait for his referee to motion that the kid won before he returned the electric type and began walking over to the kid, the ten year old unphased and walking to meet Surge in the middle. The mountain of a man loomed over the pipsqueak, neither saying anything for a bit as both sized the other up. Slowly, Surge held his hand out with the Thunder Badge, the TM for Shockwave, and a slip of paper. Surge internally chuckled when he saw the look of confusion on Evandros''s face as put the first two items into his pocket before opening the folded paper. In it was Surge''s signature and the words ''Good Luck''. "Hehehe," Surge chuckled "that was a damn fine showing you did there, kid. That slip has my signature and it''ll grant you an automatic automatic pass into the safari zone of Indigo." Surge wouldn''t ever apologise to anyone, it just wasn''t in his programming to apologise. So he gave the closest thing to an apology. Surge didn''t bother hiding his cackle as the kid held the paper closer and snapped his head up in a mixture of surprise and confusion. Deciding to cut to the chase, Surge asked "By the way, how did your Leafeon even evolve?" Flummoxed, the kid replied with "Oh, uh, Leaf evolved kinda strange. For a second she was gonna be a Sylveon then she randomly became a Leafeon." Now Surge was perplexed "Huh? You sure you didn''t hand her a Leaf stone." Evandros shook his head "Well then, were you and Leaf near a mossy rock?" "Mossy what?" "Come on, a mossy rock. I don''t really get how but there''s some moss that gathers in forests thats just chock full of grass TE- er Type Energy. Type Energy is like the energy that a Pokemon uses to use moves." "... So a move like Grassy Terrain-" "Would be full of grass TE or like how Electric Terrain is filled with electric TE." Surge noticed how the kid had a lightbulb turn on in his head and proceeded to begin jogging away. The gym leader huffed in amusement and heading back onto his trainer box to wait for the field to be repaired once more, sending his fainted Pokemon through the transfer system to be looked after by Nurse Joy. He waited patiently for the next victim. Interlude 3 "-and then Surge said that Grassy Terrain is a move which uses grass TE or something and mossy rock is known to have grass TE, so what if the moss on Tabitha''s body that day got filled with grass TE and led to Leaf evolving into a Leafeon?" Samuel gently stroked his chin in thought. In all honesty, this was a more concrete hypothesis than anything else the professor might have thought of. If it were true, then humanity might have just accidently found out how to create an artificial evolution room for grass types who evolve from stones thereby turning the entire market of grass stones obsolete. If, of course, because it wasn''t guaranteed to be true. "Hmm, I see where you might come to this conclusion so I will see what I can do about it, young Evandros, but do understand that it might take months of research to find any correlation between the two." It wasn''t a no, Samuel made sure of that. "But to see if this is true, I will need Tabitha back in the lab for more moss collection, we used up most of our previous reserves with our testing." The young trainer in the screen easily nods and a few moments later, Oak''s ranch welcomes Tabitha once more and says goodbye to Woody once more. If Evandros ever enters a competition for most switching of team members, he would most likely achieve first place. "Oh, by the way. Surge gave me a note which lets me have a pass into the safari zone, do you know why it would do that?" Dammit, what was Surge thinking giving a free pass to a child that didn''t even have four badges. Doesn''t he know that the whole point of the gym challenge was to train the damn trainers. Samuel didn''t let his frustration show, instead he smiled happily at the news and replied "My, my, it might seem like a prank but that note he gave has his signature so the safari zone security will be able to check the validity of the claim, though I do hope that you will spend some time with the egg instead of rushing into the safari zone. It will be any day now that it hatches so it would be best if you spend at least a month with simply taking care of the young Pokemon inside before adding any new catches." Samuel internally sighs in relief when the kid on the screen nods to the reasoning. They chat a bit more, talking about his young sponsee''s progress and how he is doing with his online schoolwork while he spends his time travelling, before inevitably the call has to end as Evandros says he wishes to talk to his mother. The call ends and Samuel Oak finally droops into his chair. He knows that he should be going to his aides and assistants and giving them orders, but he really wants a few moments of privacy, so sue him. Still, he begins using the computer once more to send a few emails to the respective researchers, professors and Professors with the capital P before he opens poke.net to see what might be discussing on the online forums. His headache, caused by Pokemon researchers around the world, probably already knows.
PokemonTrainers Indigo Community / Off Topic / NEW POST Topics / Up&ComingTrainers : Evandros Morgan''s Leafeon posted by @ SquiggleWorm43 Guys. Guys! GUYS! I just cam out of the Vermilion Gym where this kid was just battling Srge and Surge said that he bumped him up a star level so Evandros was gonna batle him against Surge''s four badge team. Everybody was waiting for the kid to lose his shit when Sruge started dissing his Leafeon but the kid kept his cool and set spikes and usign Disable and Confuseray and other status moves before sending out jhis Leafeon. Tell me why this bruda sent out a grass type that used fuckign Flame Charge on a Magneton. I probably explained it really shitty so I recorded the battle on my phone and it in this link right here but that probably wasn''t the craziest thing there. Comments 3K | Likes 7K | Resends 2.4K Blastnoise1 Me before opening Poke.net: ughh the cogs of humanity toil endlessly Me after opening Poke.net: Asrigberuigvjn AHHHHHH Leafeon on fire ---Kaly_recs Call a freaking fire department a Leafeon burst into flames ---Slowpoked13 I am sooo happy that people are freaking out just as much as I am. ---Countrybumpkin007 Word dude, now excuse me I have to prepare for the apocalypse. ---MaryllMania @Countrybumpkin007 why do u need to prepare for the apocalypse ---Countrybumpkin007 Because a Leafeon just spontanousley combusted. -- [click to see more replies] Pokepedia_3 And remember kids, if you see a Leafeon use Flame Charge that''s probably a Zorua but if it is a Leafeon then get yourself off the crazy pills ---Pokepedia_3 Okay, I actually watched the video and wtf that''s a Leafeon using Flame Charge ---BlazeingFireTypes116 Lol, wtch the sheeple get freaked out over a grass type (I''m five seconds away from getting my shotgun and praying to lord Mew) ---Serenitea33 @BlazeingFireTypes116 dude same, the people get a glimpse of truth and suddenly they can''t handle it (I''m hugging my emotional support Munchlax rn) -- [click to see more replies] Tired_Snorlax2 I dont know wats worse. The Leafeon using flame charge or the fact that the kid managed to teach his Leafeon flame charge ---Broskivillion I think everybody is freaking out over the Leafeon so much that they forget that this kid had a star advancement ---Hoennruler10 @Broskivillion sorry if this sounds dumb but what''s a star advancement? ---Broskivillion @Hoennruler10 It''s alright. To answer your question, a star advancement is when a young trainer has shown themselves to be at a higher level of strength than they normally would be. So the gym leaders would challenge the opposing trainer at the higher level to help them become more used to battling people at their level instead of their Pokemon being stronger and it being a stompfest. Since Evandros beat Surge it means that he will now fight at the fifth badge level for his fourth badge and his sixth badge level at his fifth, so he would have to fight his last two gym leaders at the maximum power they can bring into a gym challenge short of bringing their true teams. Most people would consider this a really big handicap but if you look here then you''ll see that most the famous trainers around the world typically experience a star advancement during their early years so we can use predictive analysis to presume that Evandros has about a 40% chance of making into the league top 8 sometime in the next couple years. ---FelineFriend111 bd I aimt reding all that. -- [click to see more replies] CallingAllSteelix So is everybody going to ignore the Clamperl that overpowered that Luxio? DudeAwsome I don''t really see the big deal, Leaf''s always been ablr to use multiple moves at the same time so I tried mixing Sunny Day with Quick Attack with Trailblaze. The fact we managed to make Fla,e Charge with a weather move means we can probably do the sane thing with Rain Dance. ---VoltageSupremo Holy Shit, it''s Evandros''s account. Major fan dude, also ahhhhh water type flame charge. ---PrettyPonyta24 Hello, I am a breeder wondering if it might be possible to discuss about attempting to breed the move onto Eevee''s. My Flareon is more than willing to do so. ---MahoganyTownResearchStation Hello, this is the Mahogany Town Research Station wondering if you might be okay with temporarily loaning your Leafeon to study its genetic structure. Further details may be hashed out with your legal guardian and your sponsor. ---MossDeepTownResearchStation Hello, this is the MossDeep Town Research Station wondering if you might be okay with temporarily loaning your Leafeon to study its move usage. Further details may be hashed out with your legal guardian and your sponsor. ---FairlyFairFairy lol, watching the breeders and research stations coming out of the woodworks while eating. Also, I will eat every single one of my pokeballs if this kid manages to make a water type Trailblaze. -- [click to see more replies] ChaosReigning I subscribed to the kids account, it used to be pictures of his Eevee and her brother and some drawings of Pokemon, now its pictures of him and his Pokemon hanging out like that one where he went to an arcade in Fushcia. My brother was in that pic in the background. Evandros''s handle is DudeAwsome. ---OptimumAnalysis why is his account called dudeawsome ---DudeAwsome I was seven
DudeAwsome: Okay so Officer Jenny says that I can release this picture now that the news kinda talked about it. Also, I guess this is the official reveal of my latest teammate [The picture Evandros talks about is a selfie with his Leafeon, Rockruff, Ralts, Indeedee, and Clamperl. Next to him and his Pokemon is a small blue axolotl known as a Wooper while taking up the majority of the background is menacingly bruised and bloody Tyranitar. In a corner of the background, a group of four men and their Pokemon are being arrested. Worryingly, Evandros''s head had a red liquid going down from the side of his head onto his cheek.] Comments 387 | Likes 5K | Resends 3K PowerBomber771 UmmIf you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ---Noisechoise uhhhhh ---PrehistoricMermaid ehhhh ---Confusions999 eeeee!?? --[click to see more replies] Charmachomps1 WTF THATS A FUCKING TYRANITAR ---Poli_nap24 If you''ll look closely you can see that that same tyranitar has a ultra ball in its hand. HE CAUGHT A MEW DAMNED TYRANITAR ---Gravellerstan53 Nah the kid caught the Wooper. He''s currently trying to teach the water type how to use bulldoze and its the cutest thing ever. That said, HOLY BIRDS HE TOOK A PICTURE WITH A TYRANITAR. ---PlasticHAter707 I''m glad that were all ignoring the fact that HES FUCJING BLEEDING. ---TerrifyingGhoul So my brother showed me a news article about how some trainer basically stopped a group of four Pokemon poachers from stealing wild and rare Pokemon like Tyranitar. Um guys, those four in the background looking really freaking similar. ---PowerUpPrincess Excuse me what. --[click to see more replies] PowerUpPrincess Evandros what the heck It''s barely been two months ---DudeAwsome what Ames ---PowerUpPrincess Don''t what Ames me. How did this even happen. ---DudeAwsome Nothing really happened. I was just heading from Fuschia to Gringey city and then I saw those four dudes were jumping tyranitar. I made Dee-Dee heal him and then basically fought em off until Dee-Dee and Lupa ended up breaking their cages with Pokemon or smthn and then the rangers came and then officer jenny came and then I went to the hospital and found out that Ive got a hairline fracture that should heal by tomorrow or smthn. Wooper liked me so I named him Marshmallow and caught him. ---PowerUpPrincess ...dude your moms gonna ground you sooo hard when you get back home. ---FairlyFairFairy I am loving this interaction --[click to see more replies]
PokemonTrainers Indigo Community/ On Topic Topics / Trainers: Evandros Morgan posted by mods This is the official Pokemon trainer analysis done by poke.net on the most intriguing trainers this side of the regions. Official Trainer Info Badges Obtained: Boulder Badge, Rainbow Badge, Thunder Badge Age: 10 Home Region: Indigo Pokemon Owned: 10 Licenses Obtained: Trainer License, Non-Battler License Known Team: Chardon (Charmeleon)(M), Ralts (F), Tabitha (Pineco)(F), Leaf (Leafeon)(F), Beedrill (M), Lupa (Rockruff)(M), Woody (Sudowoodo)(M), Pearl (Clamperl)(F), Dee-Dee* (Indeedee)(F), Wooper (M) A brief look into Evandros''s account DudeAwsome shows that he''s been taking care of his Leafeon for more than a couple years as a young Eevee. We also know from his numerous comments on the subject that he never once trained any Pokemon before his actual journey, saving the experience for his future team. He also seems to love giving his Pokemon nicknames, barring Beedrill and Ralts. As a lab trainer Evandros had to pass rigorous tests of not only Pokemon care, but also survival training and general geology before he would ever be allowed a lab starter from the one and only Professor Oak. Please be aware that a regional Professor can gift up to 18 Pokemon to starting trainers around their region so Evandros might either be a one in four or a one in eighteen depending on how many people passed this year''s application and the amount of Pokemon available to Oak. Furthermore, Evandros has stated that he and his friends had discussed the Pokemon available to them and had all agreed on their choice of Pokemon beforehand and were happy with their final choices. Although he has given quite a controversial battling opinion with making his Pokemon fight opponents they are normally weak to, Evandros himself has shown plenty of good traits as a trainer; being flexible and creative with his team and their fighting styles when most young trainers would be more than willing to use the same strategy for all their Pokemon. e.g. making a clear physical attacker with limited special attacking moves focus on special attacking moves like its teammates or making a frail Pokemon like Sneasel into a defensive tank like a Snorlax. He''s quick on calling out attacks, occasionally abbreviating them, and has made his Pokemon throw a few feints to catch their opponents off guard. He''s also more than willing to let his Pokemon do their own decisions which is a know double-edged blade but is, for now, working for the young trainer. His official battle record trainer ID is a w-l-d of 237-48-19 meaning that he loses after once every 4.9 wins making his official win rate 81.667% which is a very high number but not a very unusual one for promising trainers. However, what is notable is the fact that this is a culmination of battles within two months which is a frankly rare phenomenon as starting trainers become reclusive and less likely to participate in trainer battles the more badges they win. Evandros has effectively done the exact opposite and the number of battles after every badge seem to be increasing instead of decreasing, though the young trainer openly only fights people after they are aware of the number of badges he has. One thing to note, is that a majority of the losses come from trainers who had more badges than him at the time. Now onto his Pokemon: Chardon (Species name: Charmeleon) Ability: Blaze Known Moves: Scratch, Ember, Growl, Tail Whip, Dragon Dance, Fire Punch, Beat Up, Fire Spin, Sunny Day, Dragon Rage, Metal Claw, Thunder Punch, Smokescreen, Flamethrower As a starter Pokemon, Chardon holds vast potential to become a powerful contender against any opponent with his long- and short-range moves. Under his trainer, Chardon has shown the ability to think on his feet while simultaneously obeying any orders he might receive, the fact that this member of the Charizard line is so willing to follow his trainers'' orders is a point for Evandros''s capabilities as most young trainers find members of the pseudo-dragon line obstinate and more than willing to follow their natural instincts. Usual tactics of riling up the Kanto fire starter may be a fruitless endeavor and it is advised against using a water type to defeat this specific fire type. Leaf (Species name: Leafeon) Ability: Leaf Guard Moves: Quick Attack, Growl, Baby-Doll Eyes, Tail Whip, Swift, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Razor Leaf, Mud Slap, Iron Tail, Double Team, Agility, Trailblaze, Flame Charge(?), Leaf Blade(?) As an eeveelution, Leaf has shown how the genetic instability of their species makes each and every one of them unique. Leaf is currently one of three known Pokemon that can use multiple moves at the same time with an equal or greater amount of power whereas most Pokemon need to be trained to be able to use combination moves without them losing their efficacy in any way. Unlike the other two, Leaf has managed to learn a previously unattainable move for anything that isn''t a Smeargle or a fire type. Her natural strength from her species combined with the fact that she might be able to replicate moves such as Leaf Blade and turn them into the fairy type is what makes her such a dangerous opponent. It is noted however that she is a close ranged fighter who does not do well in a battle where she has to fight something far away from her. Tabitha (Species name: Pineco) Ability: Sturdy Moves: Rollout, Swift, Struggle Bug, Lunge, Rapid Spin, Reflect, Self-Destruct, Spikes, Automize(?) Evandros''s first official wild catch, Tabitha sports speed and debuffing her opponents more than most caught Pineco. Willing to follow an order to blow herself up, this Pineco is a sneaky Pokemon that can catch opponents off guard with her traps and her attacks that cripple anything that relies on speed and special attacking power. Overall, an average member of her species that might shine brighter when she evolves but definitely should not be underestimated. Ralts Ability: Unknown Moves: Confusion, Psychic, Thunder Punch, Grass Knot, Double Team, Confuse Ray, Reflect, Light Screen, Disarming Voice, Baton Pass, Calm Mind, Teleport Ralts is a fairly uncommon Pokemon from the Hoenn region that has three different forms it can turn into if the species is a male. Similar to Combee and Salandit, being a gender affects the evolution pathways of this Pokemon. However, Ralts is known to be sporting an everstone on her left arm in a classic friendship bracelet so both the psychic type and its trainer have decided for the empath Pokemon to hold off on her evolution or potentially not evolve for the foreseeable future. This decrease in combat power is instead dealt with by Evandros teaching the psychic type moves that either inflict status conditions or empower her teammates. Overall, this Pokemon has a debilitating weakness to Taunt or Misty Terrain which prevents status conditions from happening but can still be a tricky long-range opponent to face for anything big, close-ranged, or slow. Beedrill Ability: Swarm Moves: Electroweb, Bug Bite, String Shot, Harden, Twinneedle, Double Team, Agility, Poison Sting Beedrill is a fairly common bug type within Kanto and is known for being weak and frail when they have to battle individually. Evandros has understood this fact and instead has his Beedrill try to make itself hard to hit using a combination of Double Team and Agility. Due to the Beedrill line having abysmal special attack, the young trainer instead focuses completely on improving the bug types physical power and uses Electroweb as a defensive and locking mechanism so that the opponents Pokemon will have difficulty catching this elusive Pokemon. Overall, this frail Pokemon can become a dangerous threat to a team if left unchecked so make sure to have the regular counters for facing Beedrill''s while also having a few moves like Shockwave or Swift. Lupa (Species name: Rockruff) Ability: Own Tempo(?) Moves: Tackle, Rock Throw, Bite, Double Team, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Snarl, Trailblaze, Rocky Guard(?) Another Pokemon from outside Indigo, Lupa is from the region of Alola. Received after defeating Team Rocket in Viridian, this rock type has shown itself as a scrappy little monster that won''t back down until the very end. Creating an improvised move dubbed ''Rocky Guard'' as both an offensive and defensive tool, this rock type is constantly aggressive within a battle and Evandros has complemented the canine''s battle style with his current moveset. A very close-ranged fighter who sometimes ignores his trainers order for a couple extra hits on his opponents, this rock type might have difficulty facing off against tricky opponents. Woody (Species name: Sudowoodo) Ability: Rattled Moves: Tearful Look, Defense Curl, Rollout, Copycat, Rock Throw, Rock Polish, Stomping Tantrum, Hidden Power (Ice), Dig, Mimic, Grass Knot, Hammer Arm, Thunder Punch, Rocky Guard(?) Woody was caught as a Bonsly within Viridian Forrest and although he has less than stellar showings within both the Pewter and Celadon gyms, this rock type has always put a decent showing and has been showing decent growth due to its new evolution and the introduction of its new favorite move Mimic. This close range fighter has decent long range options for protecting himself while also being an absolute tank thanks to its evolution. Using grass, water, and steel types against this Pokemon may be a wrong choice as the latest clips of him have shown very swift defeats thanks to the new boost in power. Pearl (Species name: Clamperl) Ability: Shell Armor Moves: Water Gun, Rapid Spin, Clamp, Iron Defense, Confuse Ray, Rain Dance, Shell Smash, Brine Evandros'' second Pokemon that originates from the Hoenn region, caught sometime between his gym battle in Pewter and his entry within Celadon, this water type has shown great utility as a defensive and offensive Pokemon due to its moves Iron Defense and latest move Shell Smash which it was speculated to have by @HappinyHater666. This water type gave a decent showing within the Vermillion gym and has a higher official win rate compared to its fellow teammates. A more straight forward long-range battler than Ralts, this water type simply needs a bit more variety in its moveset before it can become a dangerous threat. Dee-Dee (Species name: Indeedee) Ability: Unknown Moves: Heal Pulse This Pokemon is a non-battler and Evandros probably travels with this psychic type for personal reasons as Dee-Dee doesn''t battle and wasn''t with Evandros until he left HopHopHop town. As a non-battler, Evandros is not allowed to use her in an official and unofficial battles otherwise his trainer ID might be suspended. We moderators speculate that the young trainer simply travels with the psychic type more as a friend and less as a trainer. Wooper Ability: Unknown Moves: Unknown His newest catch. Not much is known about Wooper aside from his typing and gender.
Samuel stretched his back, sighing at the kricks that came from staying seated for too long. He looked back at the screen, at how the world was slowly being shocked around the entire world by a new discovery. He idly wondered if this was Evandros''s plan or if it was a happy accident. He felt guilt that the young trainer didn''t have a full battling team of six to defend himself against those poachers. He often felt regret, from past failures and the pressure of being associated with himself might had caused. Spending a bit more time to look at the rest of his new lab trainers, alongside some of the more notable new trainers, Oak stood up a sigh and headed over to his assistants to see what they''ve done so far with their current research. He was starting to feel old. Older now thanks to his new grey hairs. Another buzz from his personal cell caused him to sigh in exasperation, no doubt yet another one of his friends in the scientific community and he was pleasantly surprised to find it was his grandson Blue calling his phone. Samuel answered and forgot all his worries for the next few minutes, feeling lighter than he ever had in years as he happily spent time with a family member that didn''t hate him. Chapter 29 The entire day was filled with people entering the center I was in and trying to find out how Leaf used Flame Charge, it was kind of annoying since literally no one aside from my friends messaged me congratulations on winning the gym battle but it was expected at this point. My initial plan of being more famous than the others was working... a bit too well actually. I wasn''t at that stage where people knew not to bother me yet, but I bet it would real soon after Chardon evolves and I show Beedrill off a bit. Unfortunately, after talking to mom and Professor Oak I was too tired to actually leave the center and really talk to anyone so I retrieved the rest of my team from Nurse Joy and headed to my room, making sure to lock the door once I realized that I got followed to it. Somehow Ralts and Woody managed to make the room slightly soundproof by using Reflect, Woody copied Ralts using Mimic, so I was able to rest and recall the entire battle to the egg, which was starting to wiggle every ten or so minutes, and the team. Due to the whole temporariness of Reflect screens, Woody and Ralts had to regularly insulate the room from the outside noise every now and then while I was still awake. I couldn''t leave the room since there were still people milling around outside it, so I just had leftovers, and the team munched on high quality chow, my entire weekly budget mainly spent on restocking their food for each week. The next day, which I hoped wouldn''t have as many people running after me, still had people milling about. So, I got a genius idea. After having breakfast in my room again, I headed outside with Ralts and Beedrill, getting immediately bombarded by people asking for a trade or tutoring or breeding rights or an interview or research and it was all very annoying but they all stayed a certain distance away from me thanks to Beedrill trying to intentionally be intimidating without actually hurting people, so I just went past them and started jogging. We went in a swift pace outside the center and headed off into the city part of the port town. The crowd following me increased as we went, and I was surprised to hear that me and the team had a few fans within the throng of people trying to catch my attention. After making sure that we were a bit ahead of everyone following us, we bounded around the corner of a building, into an alleyway, and the crowd probably stopped in confusion. Why, one might ask? It was because Ralts had teleported us back into my room. I took a quick recheck with the entire team over anything I might still need to pack, finding that everything that I was gonna take was already packed in my bag. The second time I exited my room was with a completely different outfit, Woody by my side, and my backpack. Nurse Joy smiled knowingly as she booked me out of my room and then promptly rebooked me in a room that was in the opposite side of the center. Since I didn''t want to out myself immediately, I took a walk with Woody, Marshmallow, and the egg into the harbor side of Vermillion; anyone that wanted to talk to me was now on the complete opposite side of the city. Woody and Marshmallow were less famous than Leaf, Ralts, or even Tabs who was a common bug type here in Indigo so nobody gave me a second glance aside from congratulations about having an egg. Since I got a big cash prize from beating the Vermillion gym at effectively the fourth badge level, way bigger than the cash prize from a third badge, I headed back into the jewelry store that held deep sea scales. The cashier recognized me from last time and went to a cabinet to bring out a wooden box into the front. I let Pearl out of her ball to see the item that would allow her to evolve, celebrating with her at getting closer to her evolution before I bought the deep sea scale and headed back out. She kept it in her shell body just to make sure it was safe, even as she was being returned. The rest of today would be a relaxing day, the team deserved to rest after that gym battle so I sent a message to Mom asking for her to get treats for the team in the ranch while I headed over to where the city might have a beach. Course, that''s when I met Vali. She had her back facing me as she and a few other people my age were with her trying to look inconspicuous as they looked at a big storage warehouse on the docks. Having had Pearl rub off on me a bit, I sneaked up behind them without them noticing I was there. "Yo" I said on Vali''s right. Everyone had the desired effect of being spooked and jumping way in freight, a lot of hands landing on pokeballs on their belt before they took a second to look at my grin and the recording pokegear in my hands. "Oh," Vali said with a sigh "it''s just you." "Yup" I replied with a pop at sounding p. The only other guy in the group took a moment to lower his guard before he spoke "You know him?" My friend broke my heart by saying "Unfortunately" I took a moment to hold my chest in mock pain, exaggerating every step back I took with groans of pain before I fell into Woody''s open embrace as I pretended to faint, making sure that my antics wouldn''t lead to me dropping the egg. He and Vali looked absolutely done with me and I wasn''t able to hold back my laughter any longer. My chain of actions, alongside Marshmallow cuddling Vali''s Rosellia, eased the rest of the group enough that the jumpiest one exhaled in relief. I decided to end the charade and asked her "So who are your friends, and what''re you doing here in the harbor part of Vermillion?" "These are my travelling companions; I¡¯m essentially meant to build connections with them since their parents or other family members are all rich and powerful in the economic or political scene.¡± The other guy looked like he was gonna blow a vein with how hard he was glaring at Vali but since there wasn¡¯t a rebuttal then it must¡¯ve been true. ¡°Oh, okay.¡± And I wisely dropped it. ¡°But still, that doesn¡¯t really answer why you guys are sticking around a warehouse.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been following a paper trail of what could potentially be some Pokemon thieves that leads us to that warehouse where they might be keeping most of their acquisitions.¡± Other guy does not look happy that she¡¯s being so open about this stuff. ¡°Valencia, why are you telling this¡­ trainer about our hard-earned tracking?¡± I decided to answer for her ¡°Because this trainer has a Ralts that can sense emotions like fear or greed so if there are a bunch of scared Pokemon then Ralts will find them and if the guys in the warehouse are thieves, then she¡¯ll be able to find that out as well.¡± It was almost like I pressed a big red button when I was told not to with how the others in the group paid their full attention at me. They all focused on Ralts as I sent her out who just huffed and teleported herself on top of my head. Today was Dee-Dee''s break day so she stayed in our new lodgings probably watching tv shows and doing a few puzzles I bought last time I was here with Elian. "Alright Ralts, are there a bunch of scared Pokemon in that warehouse?" I asked She took a glance at the giant building made of concrete and metal before her head spike thing began radiating with purple energy. She then made an affirmative noise but in that type of way where she''s uncomfortable from the negative emotions, I even shuffled a bit because she accidently shot that uncomfortable feeling into my head. I looked back at the others with a tiny grimace "Well, you guys heard her. There''s a bunch of Pokemon there." One of the girls, someone who was taller than me by a decent bit, nodded and replied with "Then they really are thieves. Father''s business partner said the owners of this place only rent out to a textile business so that they could store their materials; Pokemon are naturally classified as living things so either they are thieves or they simply have a few illegal business practices." The last girl replied with "Either way, we''ll definitely have a pass into the safari zone." Wait "Safari what-now?" I ask The guy huffs "Everyone knows that you may only have a pass into the safari zone with a notable achievement to one''s name. With this we will at least have a one-time ticket into the area." Huh "Wait, is that why Surge gave me a free all-time pass into the safari zone?" Pin drop silence ensued. To prove my point, I put back the egg into my bag and pulled out the note from Surge with his signature and everything. Ralts started chuckling which led to Woody chuckling which led to me chuckling even though I don''t really get why we''re chuckling. I just easily chuckle if one of my Pokemon chuckle. hmm chuckle. Thats a really weird word. Chuckle. Sounds like Shuckle but really its chuckle. Oh, the dude was saying something. "-ats why it''s imperative we have to do it ourselves. Were you even listening?" "Nope" I reply with a smile Tall girl took over "Basically, one can go to the safari zone if one has a notable achievement that helped society. Actions such as community service, taking down or notifying the authorities about illegal operations, or doing acts of valor can allow a pass into the safari zone or a similar stipulation if one wishes." I nodded along and that''s when last girl came up to me to shake my hand. I shook it as I gave my greetings "Hi, sorry being super late with the greetings but my names Evandros Endo-Morgan from here in Indigo; the Morgan part was from my dad''s side and Endo was from my mom''s. How do you do?" "Hey yo, the name''s Anne Lopez. I''m from Paldea but we moved to Johto shortly after I was born; and I do quite well." That was the only greeting I could get before someone else came over. He was also as tall as the tall girl but unlike the others he actually recognized me, to make it even weirder I also kinda remember him but with the whole being a wandering trainer thing it was bound to happen. "Y-you." he sputtered, acting all weird like he couldn''t believe that I was here. Vali forcefully steered the conversation "Yes, he is here, and you can have a battle with him later Will. What did you find about the warehouse." Will grimaced and nodded before exhaling "Well, Loudred says that he could hear the faint sound of Pokemon in there. But the walls are pretty insulated so he can''t fully confirm." "Then what''re we waiting around for, everybody is here and we got some extra muscle. Let''s just blow this popsicle stand and then get our passes." Anne said. Vali and Anne were the only one''s not looking at me like I was a liability, so I shrugged and took the lead; me and my Pokemon walking ahead of the others to the front of the warehouse. I decided to knock on the door but the surprised grunts and the quick "No don''t" whispers were pretty clear that I probably shouldn''t have done that. A really beefy adult opened the door and even I could sense the greediness in his eyes looking at Ralts before he lowered them to meet my eyes. "Whaddya want kid?" He questioned with a rough tone. "Oh, I just wanted to meet those Pokemon that you''ve got in this place." Not Will slapped his forehead in frustration for some reason. Immediately, those greedy eyes became angry and defensive as he reached for a pokeball. A quick uppercut on the chin from Ralts was like a signal for a race. Nobody noticed the big guy getting knocked out until we were all through the door, our eyes taking a second to adjust to the change of lighting. Everybody in the group began sending out Pokemon. Vali sent out her Pidgeotto, Fridgibax, and the evolved form of Fennekin while Roselia used String Shot to tie up the warehouse grunt Ralts managed to knock out. Will sent out Loudred, Machoke, and a Slowpoke while Not Will sent out an Umbreon, Growlithe, and a weird normal type dog. Tall girl sent out an Electabuzz, a small electric and poison type, and a Magnemite while Anne sent out her Squirtle and a weird looking Pikachu; a regional variant or something. I sent out Leaf, Beedrill and Pearl since the other three were already out and ready for battle. Similarly, the other people in the warehouse began realizing that we were going to stop their illegal operations and began sending out their teams and giving orders to further back grunts to move the Pokemon to a secure location. To stop that, Ralts used Teleport and brought me and my team to the back area which was filled with cages in rows with Pokemon of different sizes and regions all stuck in them. The positioning of the teleport made me lock eyes with a heavily injured Bagon, it didn''t even bother giving a look of defiance which was typical for their species. ... If I didn''t already think that these guys were bad dudes before, then the cages filled with scared Pokemon would''ve changed my opinion easily. The two grunts guarding the cages immediately sent out their Pokemon to attack me and the team, foiled only by a rapid use of Light Screen and a double screen of Reflect. Taking a look closer clued me in that each grunt only had two Pokemon, the mishmash of Pokemon in the cages and the fighting on the other side of the warehouse making it a bit difficult to really see and hear what those four Pokemon really are. Though, more grunts were coming. "Woody, you and Leaf handle one grunt, and Beedrill, you and Pearl handle the other. Ralts, you and Marshmallow stay back and help with breaking these cages." Orders done, I sent a quick message over to Vali that I was with the Pokemon and they''d be safe for retrieval before I dialed the number for the VCPD and told them all about what was going on. There were around thirty people here but these grunts were weaker than those hunters trying to steal Tyranitar so I didn''t need to worry too much about the team especially since they were absolutely shredding through the Pokemon the grunts had sent out. Pearl''s use of Shell Smash was wickedly unfair as she curbstomped anything that tried to battle her as well as Beedrill being more of a ninja-assassin going through the entire warehouse, dodging attacks with his increased speed from Agility combined with his usage of Double Team, and using a combination of Twinneedle and Electroweb to debilitate or knock out the opposing Pokemon. The only people who were having a difficult time with these guys were tall girl who had an unfortunate match up against a grunt using ground types and Anne who was battling really defensively and waiting for the other guy to say his orders first. Vali was the only one aside from me who was absolutely dominating whatever matchup her Pokemon were getting into, giving orders and keeping a cool head even as her Pokemon kept advancing past every grunt and their two Pokemon standing in the way. At some point I tuned out how four of my six were having battles without a trainer to guide them as I began looking for a key, none of the grunts that Ralts would knockout had any keys aside from car or house keys so there''s probably a head honcho here with them or they''re upstairs in the only room within this giant rectangular building. Either way, my job was plain and simple, keeping the grunts from taking the cages was a simple affair especially since they were dropping like flies getting hit with bug spray. The metaphorical bug spray being my team, Will''s team, and Vali''s team. Course, by the time there are only a few stragglers is when the door to the room upstairs and a guy with eight pokeballs on his person began slowly walking down from the only stairs in the entire place. Since he was gonna be closer to me than everyone else, I asked Ralts to send a message to the team to reconvene by my side as I shot another message to Vali. The grunts who weren''t knocked out or got hit with String Shot or something else ended up running to where this guy was gonna come down from, if they didn''t just run away through a back entrance or two, but I wasn''t too worried. If this guy was as strong as the hunters, then he''d have a difficult time battling both mine and Vali''s team back-to-back, if he was weaker then it''s basically over before it even began, and if he''s stronger than I can just waste his time waiting for Officer Jenny to come around and battle him. Any way you put it; we won. Head honcho didn''t seem to think so, even as he took his sweet time watching the last few battles take place around the warehouse. By the time he finished walking down the stairs, and advanced past the grunts, we had all finished up our battles and were waiting for him.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He then did a slow clap like one of those movie villains. "Well, well, well," "classic villain entrance" I whisper to the team who try to not giggle "look who we have here. Guess we got a few famous faces amidst us boys." He jeered "I bet people would pay a pretty penny for all you''s ransom." I decided to cut him off before he could monologue further "We already called Officer Jenny, so she''s probably gonna be here any minute now." The others looked at me questioningly, so I just brought up my gear again for them all to see my call history. There was also a weird beeping noise that was happening. I check the gear, but the noise wasn''t from that. *Beep Beep* I checked the others, and the beeping noise wasn''t coming from them. *Beep Beep* I tried paying close attention at the sputtering head honcho, but the noise wasn''t coming from him. *Beep Beep* I checked behind me, but the noise moved just as I moved. *Beep Beep* I finally realized it was coming from my bag so I opened it up without really paying attention to whatever head honcho was still mumbling about and figured out the noise was coming from the incubator. *BEEP BEEP* The noise was coming from the incubator... the same incubator with an egg inside it. ... "HOLY SHIT MY EGG''S HATCHING!?!?" I yell. That made everybody pause. Delicately, since I was holding something extremely valuable, I took out the egg from the incubator and felt the warm and jolting ovoid in my grasp. "Enough! You kids barge into my operation, take down my workers, and treat me like nothin''! Well, I''ll show you why you don''t mess with Blazin'' Barry!" Was head honcho still talking? I wasn''t paying too much attention at the popping noises of Pokemon being released, on account of the egg about to hatch any second now, but I did notice that head honcho send out a Magmar, Magcargo, Flareon, Camerupt, a monkey mono-fire type, and two Houndoom. "Leaf, use Rain Dance. Pearl, use Brine. Woody, Mimic Pearl. Ralts, Life Dew anybody who needs it on our side and then support. Beedrill, do whatever man, I trust you." With my orders done, I stopped paying attention and sat next to the Pokemon in cages with Marshmallow by my side; even the injured ones in their cages paid close attention to the rumbling egg in my hands. I don''t care how long it takes, I''m going to watch this egg hatch, even if that means I miss my team doing a battle against a weirdo. My team could handle it, I trusted them.
Woody was ecstatic, he gets to finally do one of these big battles where his trainer battles evil humans and beats them up so that they could free trapped Pokemon. All those time''s he got sent into a forest to stop a dispute between a few Pokemon was finally going to come in handy. He just wishes that it wouldn''t happen right when that egg his trainer''s been carrying for months finally decided to hatch. It was supposed to be a quiet and momentous occasion where everybody on the team would look to see the new baby Pokemon hatch. Woody idly noted how Poison Lance was heavily blushing, and how the humans on their side just looked shocked as his trainer walked back towards the cages, and he also warily noticed before the others how the big bad human who was in front of the other big humans began visibly losing his temper. "Alright, make that punks Pokemon suffer, you lot." and that was the starting signal to begin their new match. The fire types in front of him all charged up a fire attack each, so Woody got in front of his team members and used that Rocky Guard move that Lupa and Evandros had come up with. The powerful flames washed over him ineffectively and slowly became weaker as Pearl and Leaf worked together to make a super-fast Rain Dance. Mind Seer gathered some of the falling rainwater and began turning it into a floating blob before she took bits of water out of it and spread it on the injured parts of Pokemon that didn''t belong to the grunts, even Woody had to admit to how nice it felt when she put a small splash of it on his arms that he didn''t realize were aching from exertion and the stamina he recovered from the move. Poison Lance was nowhere to be seen but he''d been training to do just that so Woody didn''t worry too much as he stepped back and used Mimic on Pearl who fired a powerful blast of water akin to what could be a low-level Hydro Pump. Everyone except for the poor Macargo dodged and Woody winced in sympathy as the fire type was blown back and didn''t get up from the super effective attack. Woody then fired a significantly weaker version of the same water move at the Flareon that tried to dodge but its foot caught on some electric webbing that didn''t hurt it too much, Woody''s water move hurt it worse but only tossed it backwards instead of knocking it out. His fairy type teammate, after using Life Dew on all the Pokemon in cages and the ones that belonged to the friendly humans, teleported onto the Magmar and began pummeling the back of his head with Thunder Punch even as Leaf snagged his feet with Grass Knot and the combined efforts of the two Pokemon made the fire type fall like a tree in a lumberyard. The one girl, Woody''s trainer had called her Vali, began relaying orders to her team that Woody couldn''t make out since he was too busy trying to take down the Houndoom. Her dragon type was already rushing in to contest the dark and fire type who saw it play out and attempted to dodge. Woody realized what Houndoom would do and promptly used Grass Knot to trip the fire type who could do nothing except watch the speeding bullet that was Frigibax. A moment later, Woody moved on to stop Flareon and Camerupt from trying to hurt Mind Seer as Frigibax followed the impacted body of Houndoom that was flying into a wall. The big bad guy in the front watched all this and had a look of trepidation, Woody noted, before he took a pokeball from his back and sent out a really wrong looking Charizard, after all, all the Charizard''s Woody had seen pictures of didn''t have glowing purple eyes. Ralts stopped her assault to look at their trainer, so Woody looked behind himself right as he was punching Camerupt''s face, and he immediately became worried. Where before his trainer was slightly relaxed and had been paying full attention at the egg, he was now holding the egg and Marshmallow close to himself as he inched away from the newest fire type with a scared look and a pale complexion on his skin. The rock type didn''t really know much about human body language, but he could guess that humans acted like that when scared. So, Woody had been right that the Charizard was wrong looking. He''d have to beat it. The fire type immediately began looking for the nearest prey, Woody stepped up and set a Rock Polish to remove the sluggishness that came from Hammer Arm.
The gargantuan fire type looked at what she thought would be her newest predator, her mind filled with so much rage and anger and pain that she couldn''t think of anything other than destroying what stood in her path and promptly ran towards it.
Woody simply stood still and used Harden while he waited for the fire type to get closer. He idly noted how the big humans were all scared of the giant Charizard and how the other fire types shivered in fear when she first roared and never stopped roaring even as she ran while coating herself in flames hotter than Leaf''s Flame Charge under the effects of a Sunny Day. He noted how every Pokemon was gripped with fear, how the ones in cages that yammered and yelled about being free were deathly silent, how his teammates were filled with grim determination as they used status moves or attacks that didn''t connect with the Charizard that hadn''t stopped running at Woody, and how his trainer was keeping an eye on the Charizard just as much as he was keeping an eye on the egg. Woody wasn''t afraid though. He''d been afraid of water back then since it could kill him, and he was no longer afraid of it. He''d never be afraid of fire because fire can''t kill him as easily as water. He noticed all of it in the time it took for the great beast to collide with him, his ability Rattled sending the adrenaline in his body into making his brain sharper and picking up more details instead of ignoring pain like those of his species that had access to Sturdy, sending him skidding backwards from the hit and breaking a significant portion of his newly set up Rocky Guard while keeping her momentum to manage a direct hit on him. But he didn''t falter nor break into pieces from the hit. That was good. That meant he had a chance at beating it, however small it might be. Running back towards his new opponent, Woody used the regular version Rock Throw and fired at the fire and flying type to score a clean hit. His attack hit fiery flesh and if he wasn''t paying close attention then he wouldn''t have noticed how the fire type''s eyes twitched in further pain. He readied up Thunder Punch on both fists and then began a slugfest. Burning claw met electrified fist. Blazing fire met stony skin. Rocky constructs met flaming wings. Neither faltered and neither advanced. Caught in a dance of flame and stone & lightning that seemed to last an eternity. Scrapes and wounds began accumulating as neither side stopped their attacks, the other Pokemon clashing around them as the fire types belonging to the bad humans stopped his teammates and the ones that were under the good humans from interfering and vice versa when the bad human thought he could strike Woody. A loud noise began, harming the fire types while doing nothing to the other Pokemon field, and Woody knew his Ralts teammate had a hand in the attack through her telepathy ability coordinating with the user to harm only those that belonged to the big bad human. He noticed it before his opponent. A new person entered the battlefield. Woody knew what this new challenger was trying to do, regardless of how reckless it might be, and he had to make sure that it worked since it would greatly boost his own chances of survival. He slipped under Charizard''s guard, razor claws chipping away a part of his face as he went under the arms of the fire type, and he grabbed Charizard from the back making sure that she couldn''t disengage even as she roared and screamed and burned and cried. ''Wait, cried?'' he thought. It was too late to back down now though, Woody kept holding onto her to let Marshmallow use his move and when Charizard tried to fire flames from her mouth she suddenly found it shut by lightning powered webs, courtesy of a certain Beedrill. Marshmallow gathered the energy within him and then fired a purple orb that split into two with each colliding with both Pokemon before it exited them and entered the opposite one. Mind Seer immediately teleported Marshmallow to safety and Woody disengaged from the fire type before the burning started extremely hurting. Mind Seer apparently could already tell that Woody had been badly burnt ''was it that obvious'' and began spraying a burn heal on him while muttering death threats at him if he did something stupid. The elixir helped but Woody had to get back into the fight. Nobody else had the strength or typing to withstand Charizard even while she had the power of her fire cut in half from the rain. He couldn''t keep his last thought out though, Charizard was scared but why would she be scared when she''s the strongest thing here. It''s not like her trainer is an actually tough and menacing person and her pokeball looked brand new and shiny in the way that said that it had only recently been obtained and hadn''t gone through much use. He then looked at her, really looked, and he saw ribs showing through the skin and a paler shade of skin covered in flames that hid the unnaturally gaunt body. She didn''t get sent out a lot either to eat or fight or do anything really, but she was still angry and scared and constantly in pain. The rock type realized he had a stupid idea, one worthy of death threats from the fairy type fussing over him. "I know it sounds stupid but get the Charmeleon feed from Evandros''s bag and ready up Life Dew and Confuse Ray, I''ll be mimicking one of them." "I already know the plan dumbass; I''m reading everyone''s mind right now including yours." was her reply "Oh" Woody dumbly replied, before he noticed how the psychic type was glancing back at their trainer in worry. She looked back up to him "He was super scared when that Charizard came out all angry, couldn''t even think straight, but he calmed down once you started fighting her and didn''t immediately turn into a smear on the wall. He''s been thinking of what the rest of us should do, you know, to make sure we don''t get predictable but he''s hardly had any sort of criticism for you." She replied Woody could only nod at that, he hadn''t used any all-encompassing moves like Swift so, of course, she wouldn''t have reason to truly enter his mind unless his trainer had an order for him to carry out. He''d think about the weird feeling in his chest after he finishes the fight. Mind Seer lightly punched his leg even as she nodded and left, making her ability work overtime to coordinate everybody, even as she headed over to their trainer who was keeping a close eye on the egg and less on the Charizard battling that dragon type belonging to Vali that was covered in a white light. He apparently was evolving even while fighting and, since Guard Swap connected, every blow from the dragon and ice type made Charizard go through more pain than any attack that Woody had used. "Poison Lance! Make the dragon fight something else!" Woody yelled aimlessly and it was only because Woody wasn''t an egotistical fighter that led to the Beedrill humoring the request and swiftly picking up and dropping the dragon onto the injured Magmar that was beating up the Electabuzz. The Sudowoodo ran forward and gathered the attention of the dragon in all but typing, willing his body to drop the effects of Mimic that he''d used to copy Brine from Pearl, as he went towards the flames once more. This time when the two engaged Woody battled defensively, blocking and redirecting hits while mainly aiming with Thunder Punch to try and get a paralysis effect. His mind running a mile a minute as he took a moment to analyze his opponents fighting style. Charizard fought with raw power, using powerful legs to keep advancing and mainly fighting with her maw and claws, and wild savagery but for the most part it was a very simplistic fighting style focused on lunges and claw strikes which heavily reduced the different ways the fire type could fight. That was good. If the Charizard fought with intelligence, then he would have broken a while back. The sounds of battles continued around him and Woody could only grimace at the sounds of explosions before he used Harden once more and blocked a fiery headbutt from his opponent with a Thunder Punch that she almost entirely ignored for another swipe of her claws.
It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hur-
As the battle progressed, Woody was beginning to find it easier to fight. He could see his opponent use the same attacks in the same patterns and found that he could move to dodge or block those attacks mere seconds before they actually happened. That didn''t mean that the fight was now magically easy or that the rock type could relax. This time he wasn''t fighting to buy time, for a knock-out, or in the worst case to kill. This time he was fighting for a moment to stop the fire type from moving. Where before he would take every opportunity to use Rock Throw when he could, this time he used Thunder Punch to inflict paralysis. Where before he would''ve appreciated another Pokemon trying to get a cheap hit on the fire type, this time he yelled at them for even making the motions to try. She should have dropped a while ago, through only her visible wounds. The fact she was still somehow standing and burning so much was a testament to whatever torture she must have gone through to still roar and fight. Woody profusely thanked Lord Celebi when his psychic type teammate came around and was carrying some pokechow in her arms. Rattled let him pick up on how the fire type was heavily injured on her left leg from the brief scuffle against whatever Frigibax evolved into, but the rock type hadn''t made any advancements to strike it until it was necessary. Now it was necessary. The fire type went in for another lunge with her claws outstretched and her body blazing only to find her prey had ducked under the strike, fast enough that the claws didn''t strike his face again, and with a swift movement put his all into the Hammer Arm that connected with her left leg; his electric type energy having been depleted a moment ago. Like a mighty oak whose base had been eaten by a Bidoof, the powerful Charizard couldn''t prevent herself from falling down for the first time this entire battle. She tried flapping her wings to not fall onto the ground but a very quick use of Reflect stopped the fire type from gaining any altitude. Immediately, like the battler he''s trying to be, Poison Lance fires an electric webbing once more and manages to cover the fire type''s entire body. Woody used Copycat to do the same thing but smaller and focused more on her claws. Her flaming body would burn the entire webbing so the Ralts decided to use Disable and shut off the move that had been going since the second she started fighting. Left with no other options, the fire type began gathering flames in her mouth, but Woody shut that off with another quick use of Copycat. The shiny Ralts, seeing the opportunity, used Confuse Ray on the fire type. The ghost type move was known to directly alter the way a mind perceived things and only through sheer force of will could a Pokemon break out of its effects; it could make illusions appear in one''s head, change things to alter one''s depth perception, or even make Pokemon see friends as foes and vice versa. The fire type stopped roaring due to her confusion altering her surroundings and shifting her mind away from constantly being afraid and angry. With no better opportunity, Woody took the chow and gently opened her maw and let some of the food into her mouth. Charizard, who was initially very heavily against it, stopped resisting soon after the food touched her tongue and subconsciously crooned for more even as she inhaled the food designed specifically to be as tasty as possible for the fire type''s pre-evolution. As Woody fed her, his teammate went onto the next step and began using Life Dew to heal her injuries and relax her even more. To make things easier on the fire type, she gathered up the electric webbing holding the Charizard in place using her psychic abilities and tossed it onto the group of bad humans subtly trying to escape; completely uncaring about the screams of pain that soon came from that action. Soon though, the effects of Confuse Ray began fading and the purple glow of the eyes that had been dimmed by the status move was glowing brighter and brighter, so the two teammates swapped places. Woody mimicked the effects of Life Dew and began using the move while Ralts focused on feeding the fire type as she fired another Confuse Ray every now and then. The bad human who sent out Charizard and the others began yelling at his team to stop the Sudowoodo''s plan, but he didn''t account for the fact that Woody''s teammates were still battling. As the rock type took a second to look around, he noted his teammates and the good trainers'' Pokemon had already knocked out Magmar and Camerupt so there were only three Pokemon the big bad human had and those three were losing badly. Poison Lance had opted to show himself and was battling the two Houndoom with a couple of Vali''s Pokemon by his side, Leaf and the Umbreon were destroying the Flareon, and Pearl was in a battle with the Loudred, that trainer Will called the normal type that, against the fire type monkey that the boy who was being mean to Woody''s trainer had called a Simisear. All the other Pokemon belonging to the good humans had been returned or were keeping watch over the bad humans, who had a Pokemon or two of their own guarding them, to make sure they didn''t run away. After what must have been the seventh spoonful of pokechow, Mind Seer asked him "Sooo, how was the overall experience?" She must have felt that the fights were wrapping up now. Woody took a moment to think about it before he replied "Honestly, I liked it. I felt like I was actually doing something with my strength instead of hiding away. Plus, at least this time Evandros didn''t get injured." "Yeah, he only got emotionally scarred by whatever the fuck happened that made him so afraid of Charizard''s, making his mental progress take a step back. No big deal." She said with a sarcastic tone to her voice. "But on a serious note, he''s probably gonna bounce back now that Charizard''s sleeping. And that''s good since the egg''s gonna hatch any second now." Woody didn''t address how his friend was now copying their trainer''s mannerisms and simply stood to walk over to his trainer, Life Dew still running since the rock type does not want to risk a fight against a rejuvenated and fully healed Charizard when he himself feels like crap. Mind Seer similarly followed alongside using Psychic to pick up and gently carry the fire type with them. "I should probably learn Hypnosis." She suddenly sprung while they were shuffling over to their trainer. Woody looked at her "And what brought this on?" She only huffed and pointed at the giant fire type that was floating behind them. The rock type nodded "Yeah makes sense, and we should probably stop that bet about how long Evandros is going to think that his Rock Tomb TM is apparently Rock Polish." The two chuckled. Because that meant that somehow Lupa of all Pokemon would win the bet. When they get to the cages which are all in neat rows and stacked on top of each other, neither could pretend not to notice how the Pokemon inside said cages looked at the two Pokemon with reverie in their faces at fighting and beating such a powerful foe with most of the attention going to the wounded Sudowoodo. They sat down next to their trainer even as they continued using Confuse Ray and Life Dew to stop the pain and anger within the Charizard. Slowly, their teammates began coming back after defeating their respective opponents. "They''re finally coming now" their trainer said, and it caused them all to look at him.
"Our new friend''s gonna be here any second now" I whisper to the team. They all, even Beedrill, look with anticipation at the egg and chitter quietly A crackle shut us up really fast, and another made me shove my gear over to Ralts who sighed but dutifully recorded the event. Slowly, the pink and grey jagged lined egg began glowing into the pristine white that Pokemon gain when they''re evolving. Taking its time, a part of the egg is pushed out as a hand tentatively feels the air and soon afterwards another joins it on the right. The top back part was being pushed harder than anywhere else but pretty soon it too gave way and like dominos stacked against each other, the entire egg collapsed around and over the newborn. The light faded immediately afterwards, and I knew that we were all burning the memory into our minds, because in front of us was a new Pokemon. The first thing I noticed was how tiny she was in my hands; she was just a little smaller than Marshmallow but also heavier too. The second thing I noticed was her hair that went backwards and turned into a second mouth aside from the one on her yawning face. She looked unperturbed (is that the right word?) when she opened her eyes and saw the team looking back at her. "Hi there little one," I whisper "I''m so glad you''re here." Apparently, that was the right thing to say since she perked up and dove right onto my lap to give me a hug. I was careful not to antagonize her second jaw as I rubbed her back in a circle rotation that mom does whenever I get upset or want a hug... yeah, I should probably call mom. Sirens were becoming louder and louder, and I knew that these Pokemon in cages were all gonna get a happy ending by the end of the day. I already got mine after all. Chapter 30 "Blehm." I groggily said, because I had some Leafeon fur in my mouth thanks to a certain someone while I was trying to sleep. As I woke up from sleeping on my back, I slowly noticed a little heavy blob resting on my chest. Wait, that''s my new little one. Mawile. She somehow noticed a gaze on her and started waking up as well, sitting up and doing a cute yawn that made her overbalance and fall onto her back. It made me giggle and I picked up the baby and went over to the bathroom to clean her up. Using the bathroom sink, I found out she really likes baths, especially bubble baths like Chardon, and she was super happy when I cleaned both her front teeth and her hair mouth thing''s teeth which were bigger and there were a lot more of them. A couple of her hair mouth teeth fell out but my cursory research on Mawile and other fairy and steel types had revealed that it was a normal thing and was actually helpful since it relieved them of any discomfort. Other than washing and brushing my teeth as well, I didn''t use the bathroom and simply played with Mawile until someone else would wake up so that I could relieve my bladder. It took ten minutes of happy screeches from Mawile being tickled for Ralts and Dee-Dee to wake up with happy smiles, probably from the positive emotions being brought out by the steel type. Temporarily handing over the responsibility to those two, I headed into the bathroom and deposited Pearl and Marshmallow outside before I shut the door... then opened the door to put Mawile out then shut the door... then did it again... only to open the door because the little one started crying when she couldn''t get into the bathroom. I really needed to go. Maybe I should invest in diapers, one of those anti-smell ones, at this rate. Ralts ended up being my saviour by putting on TV and Mawile was too entranced by the glowing screen to notice me leave the room. I came out to find that she did notice after a while and now everyone was awake trying to pry Woody''s hand out of the mouth hair thing she has. "Aww, whittle baby''s hungwy?" I ask and Mawile immediately let''s go of the hand in her second mouth to run into my embrace. "What are you guy''s laying around for? We''re going down for breakfast." I tell the pile of Pokemon on the floor, smug grin on my face as the little one in my hands snuggles into my shirt. To show that I was joking, I picked up Ralts and put her on my shoulder then let Marshmallow rest on my head. Woody, in a similar fashion, put Pearl on his head and the rest of the gang picked themselves up before we went over to the cafeteria with its nutritious baby Pokemon food which I didn''t have on hand. We all had breakfast, and I had the distinct displeasure of being noticed by people which led to people questioning me which led to reporters coming over for an interview. With no excuse, I basically had to talk to them as the team ate in relative ease thanks to Woody and Beedrill''s posturing. At least this was less exhausting than yesterday.
Yesterday, after the egg hatch
I knew that these Pokemon were all gonna get a happy ending by the end of the day. I already got mine after all. Pretty soon, Officer Jenny and a bunch of police officers came over and began rounding up all the bad guys while I was fussing over Mawile and checking all the information I had on how to take care of the steel and fairy types when they''re babies. It wasn''t a lot but it did say that I should be careful with the hair mouth thing since it could take my hand if I''m not careful, plus I should be expecting to have some of the hair mouth teeth fall off every week and especially during the baby period which would last a month as per usual for an egg. Oh, Vali and Not Will were coming over with some police officers. "Hey, kid, thanks for taking care of this operation but we''re going to need your Pokemon to stop doing whatever they''re doing to that Charizard." I must''ve looked at them like they''re dumb or something because the two officers mood sours. "Listen kid, as per normal procedures a trainer must listen to the orders of the police. You got that." "No, no, I get that. It''s just that that Charizard will start rampaging the second Woody and Ralts stop whatever it is that''s making the purple stuff around her disappear." "The hell are yo- is this a joke to you?" I raise the hand that isn''t holding Mawile in a placating manner "No honest, that Charizard had purple stuff floating around her and now it''s mostly gone." Not Will and Valencia were looking at me like I had a screw loose. Course, that''s when my savior Officer Jenny comes around. "What''s the hold up?" She asks "This kid ain''t complying. Says something about a ''purple stuff'' floating around the Charizard" one of the cops replies Ralts notices some major emotion was coming from Officer Jenny so I took a second to look at how stiff and pale she was. She then put her full focus on me. "Can you confirm that that is what you said. About the purple aura around it." "Well, yeah, I mean it''s fairly visible. Everyone can see it, right?" Vali, Not Will, and the two officers look at me weird but Officer Jenny just looks at me and the Charizard before calling for a ''special unit''? "What''s going on?" I ask "I''m just confirming the validity of your claim. Nothing major, hopefully." She said, muttering the last bit out. I then had to wait and keep Mawile''s attention by showing her the different Pokemon and people around her as some guys in suits came along with a briefcase and took some weird handheld machine out and hovered it over Charizard. They then checked the machine once it started beeping and gave a nod over to Officer Jenny who somehow became even paler. "Oh Legends, um, yeah I think for now it might be best to return it into its pokeball and then give it to the proper authorities. The league will now handle this issue and you will be fairly compensated for your actions and bravery." ¡°Wait, what¡¯s gonna happen to Charizard? She¡¯s pretty docile right now because Ralts is using Confuse Ray and Woody¡¯s using Life Dew; plus the purple aura stuff practically disappeared once they started feeding her.¡± The guys in suits paid interest to what I was saying, considering they were writing down what I said with serious faces. I then decided to pull out my heavy-duty brush that I use for Chardon¡¯s scales and began brushing her in all the places that my Charmeleon likes. There was a lot of yelling ¡°NO¡± and some cussing but the guys in the suit began waving their machine at the fire and flying type and seemed surprised by whatever it was showing. ¡°U-unbelievable. The shadowfication seems to be receding.¡± The smaller one said. ¡°Well yeah, Woody told me about how the Charizard was barely let out and fed, and Ralts helped explain the fact that everybody was scared of the starter and how the starter was scared of everyone, so when the purple stuff disappeared I just assumed that maybe it sticks around Pokemon who don¡¯t feel safe or loved or something.¡± The guys in suits had a brief discussion before the taller one between the two stepped towards me. ¡°Here take this as a thank you from the League¡± The tall one said before he handed me a card and pamphlet. The card just said team extension pass and the pamphlet was holding a card to something called a ''Shadow Pokemon Purification Class'' that seemed to be taking place in Viridian City. ¡°What are these?¡± I ask for clarification ¡°The pass will extend your current team limit by one slot and can be redeemed by giving it to a League official member such as gym leaders and ace trainers, police officers, and any administration related to the League.¡± Smaller one explained while tall one was packing the equipment away before heading over to head honcho. ¡°The pamphlet is because you have officially become the third most knowledgeable individual about Shadow Pokemon, with actual experience, about dealing with them and it might help you better understand what they are with the current information the League has amassed; alongside you potentially being called upon as a guest instructor to show what you have already amassed about Shadow Pokemon.¡± Oh, Okay. ¡°Um, could I give it to you to extend my team limit right now. I have a feeling more stuff like this is gonna happen the longer I go on my journey.¡± I say as I hand the team limit pass back to the guys in suits. Tall one sent Charizard back into her pokeball while short one took the pass with a smile and an ¡°Understandable.¡± They left shortly afterwards, making sure to use that machine they¡¯ve got on a few of the Pokemon in cages who were defensive but didn¡¯t try to fight the noninvasive scan. Shortly after they left, we experienced a problem as the officers were taking my statement. The Pokemon would not leave their cages. When I or my team would take them out then it wouldn¡¯t be an issue but for some reason, they wouldn¡¯t trust the police even if I explained that they were the good guys. I had to stay back longer than Vali and her friends because the ones that were in cages got aggressive towards people when they got too close. That meant that I had to stay in the convoy that the Pokemon would travel in towards the Pokemon Center for an immediate checkup. It was fun since the Pokemon were cool with me and they basically worshipped Woody who had passed out the second the ride had started, plus they made sure to not make a fuss since there was a baby on board. It also helped that whenever something caused one of them to be distressed then Leaf would get there before Ralts would even notice. Thankfully I didn¡¯t have to stay with the Pokemon when they would get their checkups since they trusted the multiple Chansey and single Blissey that brought stretchers to take the Pokemon inside. I said bye to them as they were being carted into a side entrance. I just went through the regular entrance and sent everyone including Mawile for a checkup. I also asked if they could let me know how the ones in cages were doing because they were for some reason fine with me being with them. The Nurse Joy seemed a bit surprised by me knowing about the previously caged Pokemon but she allowed it after reviewing my pokedex again. Next came the hard part. Explaining things to the Professor and mom. "Evandros Endo-Morgan" Mom started. "Wait, wait, could I just explain what happened before you decide to ground me? I didn''t even get hurt this time." That was the wrong thing to say. Literally the biggest fumble I could have done.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The story was pretty simple with little actual danger involved, so I decided to give the full version. Mom lost a bit of tension when I told her that I was with a group this time, slightly softened when I told her about the Bagon and other Pokemon in the cages, paled a bit and became even more worried once I introduced the Charizard, and sighed once I explained how Woody and Ralts beat Charizard by being nice to her. "I also found out that she''s something called a shadow Pokemon which made the Officer Jenny really scared, and she called some guys in suits to help deal with the fire type. Oh, and my egg hatched." "Oh that''s great" mom said before she realized what I said, then her whole face became excited. I then had to promise mom that I''d give her a call with the new baby really soon which I acquiesced. I was still gonna be grounded the second I stepped foot in Pallet Town but since I''ve already got three badges, and my travel route will involve getting number four under three months, it probably won''t be that big of a problem. Plus, I''ll be able to spend time with the whole team all at once so it''s a win-win for both of us. With that out of the way I then had to call Professor Oak. "Why do I see you being authorized for a team extension?" I told the Professor the same thing I told mom and nodded along even as he sighed from me going through another one of these experiences with bad guys. I don''t think he was that worried though since I was calling him immediately after the stuff that happened, and I didn''t have any injuries that needed me getting to a hospital. "Oh, by the way Professor, I think I''m gonna stay in Vermillion for the next couple weeks so would it be alright if I could hang out with the whole team and introduce everybody else to Mawile. She just hatched from the egg I''ve been carrying, so I don''t think it''s really wise to travel with her until she grows a little bit older." "Hmm, so long as you make sure to send them back before you leave town then that''s fine. But please, try to not get involved with these sorts of events, your mother looks like she''s five minutes away from a heart attack." "I''m sorry if it''s worrying you guys'' Professor but if I see something that I can fix then I''ll probably try and fix it." "*Sigh* You know, you''re just like your father in that regard. I remember him saying that exact phrase when I asked why he wanted to be a Ranger." Before he ended the call. ...I''ll think about why my chest is hot later, for now I should go checkup on Dee-Dee and maybe take a nap. Since it was a new room on the other side of the Center I didn''t have to worry about any paparazzi waiting for me which was good. Unfortunately, I stumbled across a crying Dee-Dee who latched onto me the second I opened the door which was less good. I then had to spend the next half an hour trying to console Dee-Dee and make sure she was feeling fine; I did get told that she might do this after she becomes more open towards me, but I didn''t expect to deal with abandonment issues as well since she seemed to be fine. I guess it is kinda my fault since I told her that I''d be back in an hour tops and now it''s been several because of the whole dealing with the consequences of my action''s thing. When I got the call that my team was ready for pickup, I picked up Dee-Dee and carried her all the way to the reception to find six pokeballs and one Mawile being carried on a tray that a Chansey held. Dee-Dee wasn''t crying anymore at this point and became transfixed by Mawile who immediately jumped at me, so my poor arms had to hold her steady while Dee-Dee retrieved the others. "The freed Pokemon still need time to adjust to their freedom so you will be allowed to visit them tomorrow." Nurse Joy said That was a reasonable enough ask so I went with Dee-Dee and Mawile to the cafeteria to get some food for the team. Unfortunately, I then had to enter a room to be asked questions by League officials who wanted to confirm my statements that I''d said to the police. Somehow, after everything was dealt with, it became nighttime so I had to sleep since I was extremely tired and could only barely browse pokenet and answer a few questions and junk. Oh well, I still have the next couple weeks to do whatever I want while I raise Mawile.
Present Time
The reporters were seriously annoying, but not too much since, after I got a message from Professor Oak that the rest of my team was able to be transferred to me, I went and brought Chardon who was much better at scaring reporters into patiently waiting for their turn to ask me a question. After everybody, including myself, finished their breakfast I returned the team aside from Mawile and Ralts and had the psychic type teleport the three of us back into my room after answering the bajillionth question about how I managed to get Leaf to Flame Charge. Since I had everybody I decided to register Mawile to a pokeball, which she happily did after seeing that everybody else did it, and headed out to a park for a picnic. The walk was pretty nice with me holding her in my arms while we walked, she''s currently too tiny and weak to go on long walks of her own volition but she''s in her growing stage so she''ll eventually be tall enough to hold my hand when walking. Once we got to the park, I let everybody else out, set up the picnic mat somewhere a little away from prying eyes, aaaand then proceeded to do math homework. "What? Tests are coming up." I tell the team before letting them do whatever so long as they stay nearby. Immediately, the battling trio try to slink away and get caught by Dee-Dee while Woody just stands still and let Marshmallow and Mawile play around him. Pearl, Leaf, and Tabs all stay nearby and chat while Ralts decides to stick by me and the two of us tackle all the different homeworks I have to finish. By the time the latest stuff about fractions was finished, I remembered that I never scanned Mawile with the pokedex so I''ve got no clue what her moveset is. I aimed the thing at her but since she was so close to Woody and because he''s the biggest and closest thing on the scanner it ended up picking him up and...
Name Sudowoodo
Type Rock
Ability Rattled
Nature Impish
Health 70
Attack 100
Sp. Attack 30
Defense 115
Sp. Defense 65
Speed 30
Total stats 410
Moves Tearful Look, Harden, Defense Curl, Rock Polish, Copycat, Rock Throw, Stomping Tantrum, Rollout, Hidden Power (Ice), Dig, Grass Knot, Mimic, Hammer Arm, Thunder Punch, Rocky Guard, Reflect
"Umm, Woody~" The rock type hears my call and walks over to me. "umm, okay, uh- do you ju- okay so- how do you know Reflect?" The Sudowoodo clearly did not understand what I was saying so I took a deep breath and tried my best not to freak out right now because it really will not help. "The Pokedex says that you know how to use Reflect." The Sudowoodo was a bit surprised but he didn''t see it as an issue or anything, not in the way I see it. "Sudowoodo can''t learn Reflect," he still didn''t really understand "humans typically use TMs on all Pokemon to see whether they''re compatible with those TMs or not. Sudowoodo are not compatible with Reflect so that means it should be literally impossible for a Sudowoodo to know Reflect. You just broke about four different rules surrounding TMs with this." Now he understood and looked at his arms wide eyed before he concentrated and a small purple pane of glasslike energy appeared just a little above his hands. Great, just great, both actually and rhetorical (or is that sarcastically) I now have a move¡¯s rule breaking Leafeon and a move¡¯s rule breaking Sudowoodo. ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s think about this. Woody have you done any practicing with Ralts about learning Reflect.¡± To which he shakes his head. Alright then, honestly that makes sense since the only times I saw him ever do anything close to Reflect was when he tried to practice Mimic when we were going from Vermillion to Fuschia and the late night insulation that he and Ralts put up a couple nights ago... Oh. "Woody, I don''t want you to freak out but I think you managed to learn Reflect by practicing it with Mimic." "Su?" "Well yeah, that sounds weird, but honestly I''ve never really heard about anybody actually using Mimic in their battling strategy. It also kinda hurts that nobody ever uses Sudowoodo in the first place since they''re so rare. I''ll email people to ask if that''s how you learnt Reflect but honestly, I think we''ll have to do most the research and testing stuff ourselves." With that out of the way, I could finally hone the pokedex over at Mawile to see what her stats are.
Name Mawile
Type Steel, Fairy
Ability Hyper Cutter
Nature Adamant
Health 50
Attack 85
Sp. Attack 55
Defense 85
Sp. Defense 55
Speed 50
Total stats 380
Moves Growl, Astonish, Sucker Punch
Definitely decent moves, she''ll be able to go pretty far with Astonish and Sucker Punch but if she ever wants then I should teach her Swords Dance to really boost her power. Notetaking done; I then move on to doing geography homework with Ralts who actually seems to like doing it with me so the homework isn''t all that boring. Of course, as if my life wasn''t already hectic with the stuff I need to do, that''s when Vali and her friends make a beeline for me. I give a decent whistle that makes everyone come over to me, placing Mawile into my lap and Pearl on my head as is customary in the hat wear guidelines. Lupa and Leaf hear their approach after Dee-Dee and Ralts manage to sense them coming right towards me. Lo and behold, Vali''s friends arrive with her and... Anne, right Anne, at the front trailblazing towards me. "Dude, that was sooo cooool." she says while holding onto my hands, her mouse Pokemon shaking paws with Leaf. Huh? "You should explain yourself better Anne," Not Will says "she means she found your performance during the warehouse raid yesterday pretty amazing, but that is a sentiment I think we all harbor. Plus some of u-" "Your Beedrill moved Arctibax away from Charizard," Vali cut off "was that on your order?" Beedrill did what? "Beedrill did you do that?" The bug type nodded as if it was obvious "Huh, he must''ve had a good reason then. Plus, Woody found out that we didn''t really need to fight Charizard to knock her out or anything." She mulled the answer over while Not Will started from where he was cut off. "...In addition, some of us are here to express our apologies," Ok I have no clue what is going whatsoever "some of us, myself included, believed that you were going to be a liability since we had never met you or seen you battle and your brash nature to go immediately without a plan certainly didn''t help our opinion about you. Obviously, we should have at least looked you up online since any rival of Valencia''s was always going to make a big splash." "Okay, first off, apology accepted, second off, Vali and I are rivals?" She looked affronted when I said that "What did you think we were?" with a very angry look "I dunno, friends maybe? Like, you text me just as much as the rest of my friends back in Pallet Town, so I naturally thought that we were just friends." I explain to her She looks shocked somehow. Why was she shocked? And why is everybody, even the Pokemon, laughing? "You- we- I- ugh you''re so insufferably weird! You see purple stuff coming out of Pokemon, managed to teach a Leafeon a fire type attack, evolved said Leafeon without a Leaf Stone, constantly go into gym battles with a type disadvantage, stopped two different groups of Pokemon hunters, and now you ruined my plan of being a rival because you see me as just a friend!?!? I had this whole plan hinging on us battling every time we meet and pushing ourselves to our limits and now, I get told by the one person I actually view as an equal that we were just friends?!!?" Oh wow, I did not need this negative energy all over my geography homework. "Look, Vali, I''m fine with being a rival even if I don''t really understand what being a rival means. It''s just that you never really said anything about being rivals so I just assumed we were friends. If you don''t wanna be friends, then that''s cool but you kind of have to tell someone that you view them as a rival for them to know that you''re rivals." "Yes, I want to be your rival you anomaly of a Pokemon trainer! I''ve wanted to be your rival since we first battled!" She yelled Seriously, why is everybody still laughing. "Okay, now we''re friends and rivals." "Thank You!" before she stomps away, Braixen chuffing as they followed their trainer. At some point Anne manages to stop giggling long enough that she can actually talk. "S-so you really didn''t think she was your *giggle*" "Yes, I didn''t because nobody actually said anything about it. Do you automatically assume that someone wants to be your rival after a single battle?" "Heh, well you already know Valencia and myself so let me introduce you to Adrien, Evelyn and Will." I shook all their hands even as they were still giggling at the turn of events, Tall- Evelyn was an emotionless wall but I could see the way her indifferent face slightly twitched every now and then. After greeting them all I clapped my hands together "Okay, well now I''m going to go back to doing homework. If anybody else is interested, then they can also do their work, but I''d really like it if you guys kept noise to a minimum. No loud music and stuff like that basically." And I went back to sitting and pulled geography back into my lap after handing Mawile off to Dee-Dee and Chardon. "You''re doing homework even during your journey?" Will asked "Well duh, I''m a lab trainer so I can''t skip out on studying even if I really wanted to. I could do the bare minimum but that''s not really how I roll." "Huh" and that was all Will said as he gained a contemplative look in his eyes and sat down on the picnic mat, the others following suit. It was nice with them being quiet enough for Ralts and I to work together on the assigned homework. I actually managed to finish most the geography stuff and was going to go do history if the sun wasn''t going down. The team and I said bye to Vali''s friends as we packed up and began heading back to the Pokemon Center that I''m staying at. "The rescued Pokemon are allowed to see you now." was all Nurse Joy needed to say as I promptly went over to the rescued Pokemon to say hi to all of them, I already had a bit of a silly idea, but I first needed to see a certain Pokemon and find out if they were fine with it. They were and after a bit of back and forth with Nurse Joy, Bagon was sent to mom who immediately asked why the heck a new dragon type was registered under her. I told her the plan and, not even twenty minutes later, I now had a picture of Striker caring for the baby Bagon as if she were his own. It was only evening so there was plenty of time for me to do some training with the entire team and see how Chardon was progressing with Beat Up. He managed to make the blobs more consistent to how the team looks but he still didn''t get the strength of the team members trick down pat just yet. That was fine, I still have the rest of the two weeks. Chapter 31 This science homework was beating my ass. Aside from that, everything was going great. It''s been nearly a week since the ''Vermillion Warehouse Raid'' as the news is calling it and I finally was finished with most of my schoolwork that I needed to complete before my midterms, mainly because of Ralts'' wonderful appreciation for studying and being a super study buddy that finally could say a word or two into my head through telepathy since her training has been a bit less taxing since we''ve been trying to go into different directions. Speaking of training, in chronological order: Chardon was currently trying to learn Dragon Breath as he was improving his use of Beat Up. The problem with Chardon''s Beat Up was that he was having trouble imagining the Pokemon he would try to copy for his shadow clones so I had the brilliant idea to have a picture of one or two in front of him while he would use the dark type move to really get the details and distinctions in. My plan worked and now the fire type can do at least two clones of different members of the team before the rest start destabilizing. Leaf was still having hang ups with Splash Dash so instead I asked her to try and learn Leech Seed with some videos from Ellian and James showing their Gloom and Ivysaur respectively try and explain how they use the move. Having some longevity will help Leaf stay a monster and make sure she doesn''t run out of energy like the fight against Surge. We were finding half decent success on both endeavors. Tabitha was helping Beedrill learn how to use Toxic Spikes, and the added practice of poison type energy would help her later learn how to use Toxic, while she focused on her trick where she would use Rollout or a rolling move to attack and then Reflect to change the direction of her movement or block the opponent from dodging. We still needed a way to learn Curse and I was of the opinion that we should definitely get a one-time TM for her, but she convinced me that I should get a multi-use because we might need it for another person. Ralts has been focusing on learning Hypnosis and actually coordinating with me during battles by trying to speak to me through telepathy. Sure, it didn''t really boost her battling capabilities but this was a break period for her since I wouldn''t be using her for the next two gym battles so she could rest a bit easier. Also, she managed to use Thunder Wave but we''re currently putting it on the wayside since Thunder Wave was explicitly learnt so that we could progress into Thunder Shock and then Thunderbolt. Beedrill, as previously stated, is working to learn Toxic Spikes right now alongside Poison Jab which is finally making some progress thanks to him and his efforts with poison type energy. He also has to learn how to use Giga Drain since a little bit of extra survivability never hurt anyone, though it''s been borderline impossible for the bug type even with Ellian''s Gloom giving advice and examples through videos. Lupa has been learning how to use his new Rock Tomb move with Woody because I somehow read Rock Tomb as Rock Polish. For some reason a lot of the team gave their bowls over to Lupa who absolutely gorged himself for the past few days. We still haven''t decided which form he wants since neither really feels right so the rock type has been learning Stomping Tantrum from Woody and Iron Defense from Pearl while we mull over the pros and cons. Woody has been an absolute trooper with the way he lets me know how Mimic works and the two of us have been focused on learning a move through solely using Mimic, it was why I was having a bit of a move learning craze right now. All the research papers and junk that Ralts and I have been sifting through have basically nothing on the normal type move but there was a neat paper that said Pokemon who used Copycat on moves that they would later learn had found it a little easier than those that didn''t know Copycat. I''ve already emailed a Professor in Alola about Mimic and the struggle that Lupa and I have had trying pick what form to choose so hopefully he''ll write back soon. Dee-Dee was just happy with making sure the rest of the team didn''t faint from exhaustion. She emphasized this fact by always carrying around a lemonade with those umbrella thingies inside and a straw she would intentionally slurp really noisily out of to get a rise out of Chardon specifically, she always succeeded. And if I saw her sneakily use a little Heal Pulse to soothe the team then it wasn''t really my problem. Marshmallow had his first official battle, and he did brilliantly with Bulldoze, Tail Whip and Power-Up Punch. Now he''s learning how to use Water Gun from Pearl and then we might take it up a notch with some extra moves on my list. Speaking of Pearl, the reason she wasn''t in the list is because she''s right now taking mandatory break. "Why?" one might ask. Well...
Evandros was patiently waiting in the lobby with Mawile and Dee-Dee after the first day of having his entire team. He wouldn''t say how glad he was that he finally had everybody, but it didn''t really take an emotion reader to know how he constantly buzzes with joy every time he sent them all out. Right now, the entire team needed a checkup since Tabitha accidently fired too many Toxic Spikes onto the field and his entire team that was practicing were all hit by the status move. Thankfully, he had immediately returned them all and had Dee-Dee deal with the spikes on the field. Armed with a newfound knowledge of what happens when someone spooks the dear bug type, Evandros was planning on chewing out Pearl for her little prank during training time; something he had expressly explained she was not allowed to do. A chime on his pokedex alerted him to go to the front desk to receive his team, which he dutifully did. "Thank you, Nurse Joy" he automatically said "You''re welcome, it''s always a pleasure to see a dutiful trainer care for their team. Though I think you might want to stick around a little." Evandros blinked in surprise "Uh, okay." "Now I believe there is something you need to discuss with one of your Pokemon." Nurse Joy took a deep breath before beginning her explanation "It appears that Pearl has a Deep Sea Scale in her shell." Nurse Joy could see the nickname registered to the Pokemon so she called them their nickname after the first couple times Evandros had met her. "Yeah, we pretty much decided that she''ll evolve into a Gorebyss for a while now. Now we''re just gonna ask a friend if they''re fine with trading to evolve her." "Well, once you do evolve her then it would be highly recommended that she does not battle for at least two to three weeks." "Wait, why?" "You see, some Pokemon upon evolution experience massive changes to their physical form beyond simply becoming bigger and stronger. Charizards need time to acclimate to having wings, Lombre need time to become bipedal, and Pokemon like Milotic need time to be able to fully use their battling potential to move around in both water and land. Once your Clamperl evolves it would be highly recommended that she doesn''t battle until she unlearns her previous battling habits and learns new ones instead." Mentally, Evandros compared this to how once a person learns a tank then they need to shed all those skills based on attracting enemy fire when they switch to a jungler or healer. Outwardly, he nodded to the explanation. "Oh, that makes a lot of sense actually. Thanks Nurse Joy." "It''s my pleasure, by the way if you really do wish to trade to evolve her than I can be your trading partner. Trainers worried that someone might steal their evolved Pokemon after trading usually ask for this, so the Pokemon League helped create this option." "Really," Evandros said excitedly "thanks. You don''t know how much of a hassle you just saved us."
What greeted me after the trade was a pink and serpentine-like creature wiggling around on the ground with her new semi levitation ability she gained on evolution. She has a long, thin mouth and a purple fin on both her head and her tail with a thin pink fin underneath her head. With purple shells on her body, Pearl had evolved into a Gorebyss. And she keeps hitting her head on the floor every time she tries to turn. Just like Nurse Joy said, Pearl''s new body was causing her major problems in the control department since she couldn''t move the way she regularly did. So, my training program for her is to get used to the way her body moves and to complete the obstacle course I made with rope and cones without bumping into anything, then we would head over to a park pond, and she would swim around in it doing tight turns and certain routes she has to take. She''s failed so far but she''s only been evolved for a couple of days.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Speaking of evolution, her stats had increased by quite a bit.
Name Clamperl
Type Water
Ability Swift Swim
Nature Docile
HP 55
Attack 84
Sp. Attack 114
Defence 105
Sp. Defence 75
Speed 52
Total Stats 485
Moves Clamp, Water Gun, Confuse Ray, Rest, Sleep Talk, Rapid Spin, Confuse Ray, Iron Defense, Rain Dance, Shell Smash, Brine, Confusion
She managed to learn Confusion upon evolution and her total stats increased by a whopping 140. Her moves still functioned the same even if she couldn''t really aim her attacks properly, but she wouldn''t be battling for a couple weeks anyway so it wasn''t a big deal. Plus, she already knows Rain Dance and now her ability is Swift Swim which''ll double her speed like crazy. I had the dubious pleasure of buying blood packets for Pearl, since Gorebyss drink blood to feed, and ran into Anne who took one look at the plastic bag full of blood packets that I was holding before deciding to follow me so that she could find out if I was doing a blood ritual or something. I think she would if I really was, and I don''t know what to do with that information. Also, side note, when Pearl evolved, she dropped her pearl that used to be her head in her shell body which Nurse Joy said could be sold for a lot of cash or donated to charity that helps Spoink''s who get hunted for their pearls. Apparently, her pearl was now a psychic pearl which probably meant that Pearl herself had psychic type affinity upon evolution, say that five times fast. Anyway, the two of us agreed to give the thing away for charity since we were already pretty loaded from that warehouse raid thing. Plus, her new scales were Deep Sea Scales which we could sell once they fall off naturally which meant we had that passive income stuff now like Milotic trainers. The team haven''t been the only ones hard at work. I''ve been doing my due diligence by studying up on this type energy stuff and have actually been looking at the research stations that want to study on how Leaf can actually do the stuff she does, there''s apparently an Eevee research station here in Vermillion so I''ve set up a meeting with them to see what they could find out from Leaf''s genes. Moreover, because we''ve been static, I''ve been able to go to a non-Pokemon gym and do regular human training stuff while the team intensifies their previous training regimen. I can now proudly hold up Woody for twenty seconds without my arms turning into jelly... on days when my arms don''t already feel like jelly. Vali and Anne have also been coming over to hang out and just talk, Anne and I hit it off like a house on fire while Vali''s been slowly trying to come to terms that I''ve been viewing her as a friend this whole time, with them occasionally inviting the others who I really do not mix with. Adrien kept on being annoying with the way he would disregard half the people that want to battle him and then complain that his team never gets a proper challenge, Evelyn never says anything and whenever I do end up having her in a conversation to find out stuff she likes she gets cross with me and leaves like I''m the one who isn''t saying anything in the conversation, and I thought that I''d be friends with Will but he always runs away whenever I try to talk to him and he keeps on giving me these weird looks like I''m somebody that I''m not supposed to be. I already accepted that I wasn''t gonna be friends with everybody, but it was still weird to see it happen right in front of me. Everybody aside from Will come from rich families so I don''t really have much in common with them since stuff like video games or sports were ignored by the gang so that they could focus on learning ''traditional'' things like playing the piano or learning how to wear a kimono or that weird rich speak thing they sometimes did whenever they get flustered, which with me was a surprisingly common experience after a night out bowling. Will and I couldn''t stop laughing after the fourth ''perchance''. Vali got that battle she wanted, and she lost the five v five because she asked me to not use type disadvantage and a lucky shot on her Swadloon, not Roselia as I later learnt, got hit by a mimicked Fire Spin from Woody which basically sealed the match. We were both on our last Pokemon and it was pretty fun having that aerial battle between Pidgeotto and Beedrill which ended as a dual knockout. She was also lucky the flying type knew Defog and tossed the Toxic Spikes that had poisoned Arctibax and Braixen away. Anne said that Will also wanted to battle me but when I asked him, he was pretty adamant not to which I could respect. Anyway, the five of them were currently preparing for their gym battle against Surge so they all decided to do their training in secret and away from each other which was pretty weird because I usually do all my training with a battle partner or against lots of trainers to see how I was shaping up. None of this, however, even begins to describe the difficulty of raising a baby Pokemon. Mawile wakes me up during the middle of the night when she gets scared by something like a scary looking Pokemon she saw on the street or lightning when there was a forecasted thunderstorm at night. She''s practically joined to my hip with how much she tries to stick close to me which isn''t a bad thing, but it always leads to bathroom time being a major bother. And the entire team all say that she''s really rowdy when I''m not in the room, so they stopped trying to help me leave the room without her; traitors the lot of them. On the other hand, seeing her growing in real time has been a fascinating experience and I''ve been taking photos at least twice every day. After I showed her the first couple pictures, she always smiles whenever I aim the pokedex at her, because it has a better camera than the pokegear tiny lens, and she comes running right at me to see her picture every single time. I''ve also been picking drawing again because I completely forgot about it the second after Dee-Dee''s appointment. Beyond just training, I''ve been able to hang out with the team and enjoy some fun doing stuff like going to museums with everybody or playing catch with Chardon because he wasn''t allowed to enter the museum or even just cooking up stuff that we all agreed tasted weird but good. Mawile, Chardon, Dee-Dee, and Woody are now my official cooking assistants. I also found out Beedrill likes listening to rock so I got a music player and downloaded a few songs he could listen to on headphones; he didn''t know what to do with that. I am currently finishing up my science homework since it''s the only thing I didn''t do and it''s the topic about cells and the organisms that we can''t see with the normal eye. It says that the ''mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell'' because it''s like the energy station of a cell and makes the energy that a cell needs to survive. I give up, I''ll finish it tomorrow or later today. I get up and take Ralts, Leaf, Marshmallow, and Mawile out of the local library since the others wanted to experience a massage parlor so I let them. They all were returned to me, by the parlor, all woozy and like their bodies were made of cotton candy. Dee-Dee was laughing at Chardon since she took a spa treatment instead. The bill was pretty easy to pay, even though I have a couple extra costs thanks to Lupa eating a lot of cucumber eye covers and everybody''s face masks. Beedrill was stumbling around on the ground since his wings were wet and would need to wait a bit for them to dry, and by the dirty looks he''s giving I''d say that the culprit is Pearl who carefully decided to wrap herself around my shoulders. Fashion accessory and other team members acquired; I headed off to the meeting with those Eevee researchers in town. Hopefully, they might get some answers out of Leaf''s genetics that Professor Oak and I couldn''t find out.
Dear Professor Kukui, This is Evandros Endo-Morgan, a lab trainer under Professor Oak, and I was wondering if you could help me with a bit of a revelation my Sudowoodo showed me. My Sudowoodo, nicknamed Woody, accidentally learnt Reflect which Sudowoodo''s cannot learn since TM manufacturers first began cataloguing what TM''s are compatible with what Pokemon. I hope you can understand my distress at the issue because my only theory as to why he managed to learn the psychic type move is that his use of Mimic ended up teaching him the status move. Woody does not know any other psychic type move. I have attached a video of him using Reflect down below. Currently my hypothesis is that a Pokemon with the move Mimic can learn moves that they normally would not be able to learn if they practice the move for about a month, I am currently seeing whether this is true by having said Sudowoodo learn Dragon Dance from Chardon my Charmeleon before potentially moving onto a fire type move. The reason I sent you this email is because I was wondering if you have any insight towards how Mimic functions since you are the regional Professor that studies different moves, any help or texts regarding the status move would be highly appreciated since I found zero actual papers that address this topic beyond Mimic being required to evolve Bonsly and Mime Jr. All the best, Evandros Video of Woody using Mimic Video of Woody using Reflect
Kukui read the email, he checked the videos, then he read the email again. This had hit him like a Confuse Ray and now the Alolan Professor didn''t know what to think. First things first, he checked all research material he had on the normal type move and found that the kid who sent the email had been right about the scarcity of research done onto the move. At least it was more interesting than finding out the advantages and disadvantages of Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon, and Frenzy Plant; as if the three moves hadn''t already been extensively researched by the scientific community. Tapus'' give him Strength it was sooo boring. If what the kid was saying turned out to be true... well it could cause an Explosion of interest from all parties. "Very interesting," Kukui mused "guess I''ve got that excuse for a vacation."