"Mi..." Hobbes gave a tired cry as the defeated pokemon fled, and surprisingly the cry wasn''t in response to his torn disguise.
"Don''t worry, buddy, we''ll find one soon. They''ve gotta be coming from somewhere," I said, reassuring both him and myself.
We''d been searching and battling for four hours now, and the sun was starting to set over the horizon. With how easily we''d found the first ditto, I''d foolishly thought that it would be easy, that in just a couple of minutes we''d have the new addition to the team. I''d even been prepping an empty pokeball in my hand, ready for capture, when the ditto had flung a chunk of sticky dirt at Hobbes, an obvious use of the move mud-slap.
For a moment, I''d been stunned. Dittos only knew a single move, transform. Had we stumbled across some weird variant that was somehow capable of learning other moves? But a second later I realized my mistake.
It wasn''t a pure ditto we were fighting. It was a digto, a fusion of diglett and ditto.
With the similar size, purple coloring, and distinctive dopey smile, I had misidentified the digto as an unfused ditto, and Hobbes seemed to realize my mistake at the same time. He was slowed by the mud that coated his disguise, but not enough to seriously hinder him. Before the digto could unleash another mud-slap, he dashed forward and clawed at the digto with shadow sneak, the digto releasing a cry of pain and immediately turning to flee.
Neither Hobbes nor I gave chase. For our plan to work, we needed a pure, unfused ditto. We just needed to look around a bit more to find one.
What followed was hours of quick battles and disappointment.
Pidgtos, pidgey-ditto fusions. Catertos, caterpie-ditto fusions. Rattatos, rattata-ditto fusions. Sentros, sentret-ditto fusions. And so, so many more digtos. Yet no pure dittos.
"We''ll find one soon..." I said again, just as much to Hobbes as to myself.
Typically, unfused wild pokemon outnumbered fused wild pokemon by at least twenty to one, but that obviously wasn''t the case here. Dittos were renowned for their ability to fuse with any other pokemon, yet I hadn''t believed it would be this difficult to find an unfused ditto.
Despite their easy ability to fuse with any other pokemon and the fact that fused pokemon were highly sought after as more powerful than their unfused counterparts, dittos weren''t a popular choice for serious trainers. There was a time about half a century earlier, when Silph had just developed the poke-splicer that could trigger fusions between captured pokemon, that dittos were extremely popular, but trainers quickly realized that not all fused pokemon were created equal.
Typically, fused pokemon were more powerful than their unfused counterparts for one or more of four different reasons: improved stats, improved typings, improved movesets, and improved abilities. A meowth fused with a skarmory would hit much harder than just a base meowth, though not any harder than an unfused skarmory. And a steel-normal typing was considered much better than a pure normal typing, gaining numerous resistances while only adding weaknesses to ground and fire. They would have access to both of the fused pokemons'' movesets, a much wider pool of potential moves to surprise an opponent with (although they would still have to train hard to learn and be proficient at all the moves available to them). And finally, a fused pokemon''s innate ability would often become an amalgamation of the two fused pokemon''s abilities, which was almost always a direct benefit.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Ditto, however, offered none of these.
When untransformed, ditto had some of the worst base stats in the game. In this world, that translated to any pokemon that was fused with ditto was, at best, only as powerful as it had been prior to the fusion. Ditto was normal type, which -- while it didn''t add any weaknesses besides fighting -- didn''t add any resistances either, aside from its immunity to ghost, which wasn''t a particularly common type of attack. The only move that ditto could learn was transform, a move that was extremely difficult to use effectively in battle. And even for those who managed to master transform and utilize their opponent''s likeness and moves better than the opponent themselves, the move used up a few crucial seconds at the beginning of each battle. Seconds that the opposing pokemon could use to buff themselves up or close the distance before the ditto fusion was ready.
Finally, there was ditto''s special ability: limber. All this did was keep ditto and ditto fusions from succumbing to paralysis, their flexible body unaffected by the annoying status condition. While undoubtedly useful, this ability was nothing compared to what something like huge power, or hundreds of other stronger abilities, could offer.
So while a few people here and there still sought out dittos for the ''prestige'' of having a fused pokemon without the risk of a rejected fusion, serious trainers one and all looked down on them for being, essentially, a wasted fusion.
My situation with Hobbes, however, was different.
We would still face the issue of a ditto fusion not benefitting Hobbes any in terms of his ''stats'', but that was fine; in the same way that ditto normally got around its abysmal stats with transform, mimikyu was already somewhat of a ''gimmick'' pokemon in how he utilized his disguise to take the first hit of a battle. And while the normal typing didn''t typically bring much to the table if it was part of a dual-typing, there was one exception to this: the ghost-normal type. It would become immune to normal''s biggest weaknesses -- fighting moves -- as well as one of ghost''s biggest weaknesses -- other ghost moves.
Of course, mimikyu was a fairy-ghost dual-typing already, so there was no guarantee that a mimikyu-ditto fusion would end up as a ghost-normal type over a normal-fairy type, but it was a fifty-fifty shot, so I was hopeful.
The two birds of how useless the move transform typically was and the relatively weak ability limber could also potentially be killed with a single stone. And that stone was ditto''s hidden ability: imposter. Imposter invalidated transform''s biggest weakness by activating a transformation immediately upon entering a battle, rather than taking a few seconds while the opponent had time to set up their own moves.
In the games, each pokemon had one to two possible normal abilities, and then most had an extra hidden ability that was much rarer and could only be acquired through special circumstances. I hadn''t been able to find much about hidden abilities in this world, unfortunately; with how many different total potential combinations of pokemon fusions there were, any ''special abilities'' would easily get lost among the noise of what people would claim made their pokemon unique. But with how the broad strokes of the mechanics on this world seemed to line up with my meta-knowledge, I assumed they had to exist. It was just up to me to find a ditto that possessed imposter.
Unfortunately, as the hours passed and we hadn''t yet found a single ditto, my hopes of finding one with its hidden ability were swiftly dwindling. I was confident that we''d find a ditto eventually, but with how long it was taking us to find one, my original plan of simply tracking down dittos by the dozens until one of them had imposter was no longer feasible.
In the end, though, that wouldn''t be an issue. I''d have preferred to catch the perfect ditto: one with imposter and with impressive stats, stronger and faster than its brethren. A ditto that wouldn''t weaken Hobbes'' and my future battling prospects. But at the end of the day, all of that was secondary.
Before everything else that made ditto a good potential fusion for Hobbes came my friend''s desires -- and for that, I would sacrifice all of the other benefits and more.
"Mi!!" Hobbes called excitedly, and I turned to my companion, pushing through the few feet of tall grass that separated us. Ditto fusions weren''t the most aggressive nor dangerous of pokemon, so we''d spread out a bit as we wandered through the grass to increase our odds of running into an unfused ditto. It wasn''t too far, so in a few seconds I caught up to Hobbes, looking around for what caught his attention.
And then I smiled.
Finally, we found a ditto.
Chapter 9: The New Teammate
"...are you sure about this?"
"Kyu!"
"Really? It''s only the first day. We can find another one, you know..." Hobbes turned to me, his torn disguise flopping cutely to the side, but I could feel his glare from the eyes hidden underneath. I raised my hands defensively. "I''m not questioning you. It''s just..." I gestured to the ditto. "...he doesn''t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed. Ya know?"
The last was said at a whisper to avoid insulting our potential new teammate, but it likely wasn''t necessary. The opposing ditto seemed more than just a little occupied in its attempts to transform into a mimikyu.
So far, it was...less than successful.
I knew transform was a difficult move to master. I had a decent amount of experience with training Hobbes to use mimic, which was already extremely complicated -- yet was supposedly an order of magnitude easier than transform. Instead of copying just a single move, transform copied everything about the opponent: their appearance, their types, their moves, their stats -- everything except HP. I expected it would take a LOT of practice before Hobbes could successfully use transform in a battle after we found a ditto to fuse with.
So it wasn''t unexpected that ditto might not have perfectly mastered transform. But with it being the wild pokemon''s only move, I expected at least a little more mastery than what it was currently displaying.
The amorphous purple blob had been attempting to transform into mimikyu from the moment Hobbes had found it. Yet even in the three minutes since then, it was only partially successful. The ditto seemed confused as to the difference between Hobbes'' disguise and his actual body -- it''d managed to match Hobbes'' stitched-together covering, but its trademark eyes and dopey smile were located on top of the disguise, rather than underneath. As it was, I doubted the ditto would be able to use mimikyu''s signature ability, disguise, or even any of his other moves.
As Hobbes and I watched the ditto attempt to master the transformation, the edges of its disguise turned purple before elongating into dark tentacles, attempting to mimic the way it had seen Hobbes move across the ground. But with its weight poorly distributed over its transformed body, it overbalanced and faceplanted into the dirt.
My hand similarly planted itself into the middle of my face.
Rather than try and right itself with its flailing dark tentacles, the entirety of the upside-down ditto turned momentarily purple before it reformed in the correct orientation, smiling face facing Hobbes before it tried to charge forward in what have, generously, been considered a shadow sneak.
Before it once again face-planted in the dirt.
Even Hobbes looked less sure of himself than he had a few seconds earlier. But after a moment, he nodded and let out a determined "kyu!"
I shrugged. "If you''re sure..." I pointed at the opposing ''mimikyu''. "Hobbes...shadow sneak."
As expected, the transformation wasn''t perfect enough to include Hobbes'' disguise ability, but it was apparently good enough to change the ditto''s type to include ghost. After the single super-effective rake of Hobbes'' claws across the dittos body, the ditto fell backward with a cry of pain, dazed.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
I didn''t hesitate. Grabbing one of my few empty pokeballs, I tossed it toward the downed ditto. Once it got within a foot of the pokemon, the ball froze in mid-air and opened, red light arcing from the ball to envelop the wild pokemon. Then, a moment later, there was only the pokeball, resting softly on the ground with the center dot lit up red.
Once, twice, and then three times the ball shook on the ground as the ditto fought against its capture. But it wasn''t powerful enough to escape, not after Hobbes'' attack, and the button dimmed to its normal white, signifying dittos capture.
"Nice!" I called reaching down and giving one of Hobbes'' shadow tentacles a high-five in celebration. It perhaps wasn''t exactly the type of pokemon I''d been expecting to catch, but this ditto was my second official pokemon ever, and the first I''d caught in the ''traditional'' manner. Regardless of the quality of the captured ditto, it was a reason to celebrate.
Normally, this was the time I''d rush to a nearby pokemon center to heal up and get my new pokemon tested. Pokemon centers had scanners that were free to use for trainers to use on newly captured pokemon that would tell them their types, abilities, and learned moves. Alternatively, if I''d been one of the pokemon professors'' sponsored trainers, I could have used a pokedex to accomplish the same thing.
But I didn''t have a pokedex, and Merraga didn''t have its own pokemon center. There was a small clinic where I could get my pokemon treated if I was in dire need, but it lacked any of the technologies and higher-quality treatment that pokemon centers in larger cities provided to trainers. A potion applied in the field would do just about as much as what the clinic could do.
So that''s what I did. After walking over and picking up the pokeball from the ground, I pressed the button in the middle to release the newly captured ditto in a flash of red light. It was still injured from Hobbes'' attack, but it had returned to its normal ditto form after being captured, and it blinked its two dot eyes up at me in confusion.
"Hey, buddy," I said, crouching down next to my new pokemon. "How you doing?"
The proprietary technology of pokeballs and how exactly they worked were closely held secrets, but the effects were well-known. As long as the captured pokemon wasn''t too strong, it wouldn''t be able to attack their new trainer -- and I was confident this ditto didn''t fall into the ''too strong'' category.
Regardless, Hobbes stayed close by my side, ready to jump to my defense if he was needed, but he didn''t seem too worried either -- more curious about his new teammate than worried.
"Ditto!" the ditto cried before shaking its head, its purple body morphing as it half-transformed into...something. Was that me? Its body was vaguely humanoid, but it was much smaller than my size, and I certainly didn''t think I was that ugly. At the very least, my face wasn''t anywhere close to that droopy.
"Why don''t you go back to your normal form, and I can get you healed up," I said as I pulled out a potion from my backpack, screwing on the spray nozzle to the top of the container. Ditto didn''t change until Hobbes spoke up with several cries of ''mi'', a short conversation transpiring between my two pokemon before the ditto shrunk back down into its normal six-inch-tall blob shape.
There were no signs of any wounds on ditto''s body, but that didn''t stop me from spraying it liberally with my potion. I wanted my new pokemon to be in a good mood for what I said next.
"So, ditto...I''m Marcus, and this is Hobbes, my best friend. We''re on our pokemon journey right now -- traveling around the region, battling trainers and gyms, and building a team of friends." I wasn''t sure how much of what I was saying was getting through. Pokemon, even wild pokemon, had an intrinsic understanding of human communication, regardless of the language spoken, but that didn''t necessarily translate to an understanding of what was being said. ''Pokemon journey'' had a ton of connotations that I doubted ditto fully understood -- but the pokemon stared at me with a surprising amount of intensity, so I continued. "We''re trying to become as strong as we can, to be the best team we can possibly be. I don''t know exactly where this journey will eventually take us, but if we want to go far, power is essential. And you are a part of that -- I want you to be a part of our team."
I took a deep breath, glancing at Hobbes, who responded with a resolute nod and a quiet ''kyu''.
"I want you to fuse with Hobbes."
Chapter 10: Splicing
Ditto lunged forward, and Hobbes dashed forward to meet it. But rather than make a move toward me as Hobbes had expected, all of ditto''s focus was on Hobbes. It glomped onto Hobbes, flexible body surrounding him in as close of an approximation to a hug as he could manage with a body as gooey as his was.
Hobbes looked up at me from under his disguise, desperately asking me what to do, and I just laughed.
"That''s a good sign, I''d say. Seems like he''s eager to get fusing." In response, ditto simply hugged Hobbes harder, his disguise deforming under the ditto''s body. "Okay, okay, let''s back up. You''re not gonna fuse by hugging."
It took another few seconds, but eventually Hobbes managed to push ditto off of him, and ditto looked up at me in question.
"We''ll be using this," I said, holding up the DNA splicer. "This''ll cause you and Hobbes to fuse together, permanently merging into a single pokemon." Ditto lunged forward to grab the splicer, but I pulled it back out of its reach at the last second. "Whoa. I''m glad you''re excited, but this is important. There''s no taking this back, you know -- if you choose to do this, you have to be committed. Are you sure?"
"Ditto!" ditto called, still reaching for the splicer I held above my head, and I sighed before looking at Hobbes. I hadn''t been planning on fusing ditto and Hobbes so quickly. At the very least, I''d have liked to leave the field we''d found ditto in before starting the fusion, and more preferably I''d had liked to make it back to a pokemon center to check ditto''s information and have a nurse oversee the process. But ditto seemed unwilling to wait that long.
I looked to Hobbes. "You willing to get this started now?" I asked. While I''d have liked to do it in a pokemon center, there honestly wasn''t any reason for me to delay. While I wanted the best possible fusion for Hobbes, this wasn''t like the game where you could catch pokemon by the dozens and then release any that didn''t have good enough stats. Beyond the cost of buying so many pokeballs, each trainer was only allowed by the league to have a maximum of ten pokemon at any time, and even released pokemon counted toward that number for a full year after being released.
And even if the league didn''t have that limitation, I now knew this wasn''t a game. I had no intention of treating my pokemon -- living, breathing, intelligent beings -- as playthings that could be discarded if they weren''t ''good enough.''
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Hobbes looked to me, then to the ditto, then back to me before giving a resolute nod. "Mi!" he said, confidently, and nodded.
There was typically a certain amount of danger involved in any fusion, a risk that any two pokemon wouldn''t be compatible, killing both of them in the fusion attempt. Pokemon centers had equipment that could marginally lower that risk, which was part of the reason I had wanted to return to a larger city before attempting the fusion, but I didn''t have to worry about that with this fusion. Ditto was the only pokemon that had a one-hundred percent success rate of fusions, something about its transforming nature allowing it to fuse with any and all other pokemon. So, it was with only a small amount of trepidation that I placed the Silph Co. DNA splicer on the ground and showed ditto the prong it needed to touch. Then, after admonishing the small pokemon to hold tight to the prong for the entirety of the fusing process, I turned to Hobbes at the other end of the device.
"Mi..." Hobbes said as he hugged me, perhaps sensing my apprehension, and I smiled at my friend.
"I know, I know. We''ve talked about this before. It''ll be fine. I...I just worry."
"Mi mi, kyu."
I smiled again at my pokemon before presenting him with his own prong and stepping away, wiping my watery eyes with the back of my hand.
I knew Hobbes would be safe, that there was no danger of a rejected fusion. I knew he''d still be there at the end of the fusion. But I also knew...he''d be different.
Changes were a fact of life -- much more so for pokemon than for people. Perhaps that was why pokemon seemed so much more willing to fuse, joining together -- and potentially losing -- aspects of their personalities that made them unique. The possibility was always there for so many pokemon that had evolutions, the chance that they would change so dramatically. Such as magikarp evolving into gyarados -- both their bodies and minds changing so drastically in their constant pursuit of power. Most pokemon accepted it. Embraced it, even, as shown by ditto''s enthusiasm for fusing.
But it was harder for me to embrace. Not when I''d potentially be losing my best friend.
Not entirely -- but pieces of him might be different. And those potential pieces already seemed like they were too large of a price to pay.
But it was what my friend wanted. More than just wanted -- yearned for above almost everything else. Despite how calm he looked compared to the pokemon opposite him, I knew Hobbes had much more enthusiasm for the coming fusion than ditto. It was what we''d been planning and working toward for so long, after all.
So, after checking to make sure that both ditto and Hobbes were each touching their own prongs, with no pieces of grass or anything else obstructing the connection, I gave my friend one final, bittersweet smile.
And then I pushed the button on the connected remote, initiating the fusion.
Chapter 11: Dimikyu
White light enveloped Hobbes and ditto, until all I could see were their silhouettes joined together by the splicer. The two white silhouettes slowly got brighter as their outlines merged, meeting in the middle to form a new, single silhouette. The edges danced, wobbling in different forms as if deciding how to fuse the pokemon together, and my heart leapt into my throat.
If the fusion was going to fail, this was when it would happen. Intellectually, I knew they would be fine -- but it was much harder to believe that in my heart. I held my breath as the fusion continued.
The light intensified, getting brighter and brighter. I tried to keep watching, but eventually was forced to hold my hand up in front of my eyes. Even then, the light was too bright, and I shut my eyes and looked away.
Until there was a soft clinking noise, and all the light faded.
I opened my eyes and blinked away tears, trying to adjust to the sudden dimness. All I could see were spots.
"Hobbes?" I called.
"Di?" I heard in response -- and finally, my eyes adjusted, revealing the single pokemon before me.
At first, I thought the fusion had somehow failed. Hobbes'' disguise sat on the grass, identical to how it looked prior to the fusion -- but there was no sign of ditto, so I assumed something worked.
"Hobbes? Is that you?" I asked again.
And then two dark purple claws reached out from under the disguise, and I stumbled backward in surprise. Only for the two tentacle-y claws to catch me before I could fall, pulling the disguise in close for a hug. "Di! Dimikyu!" Hobbes called, and I hugged the pokemon back in relief.
"You''re okay! Does this mean...? Can you remove your disguise?" I asked after a moment of simply enjoying my pokemon''s presence.
"Kyu?" Hobbes replied, releasing me from his purple claws and backing away. The disguise undulated, as if whatever was underneath the disguise was attempting to escape, before Hobbes'' sad voice echoed up to me again as he shook his head. "Di..."
"Don''t worry! That wasn''t what we were counting on, anyway."
"Di!" Hobbes voice responded as he perked up.
"Are you ready?" I asked, and Hobbes gave me a confident nod. I took a small step back, pointed to myself, and called out in my best ''pokemon trainer'' voice. "Hobbes! Use transform!"
Once again, white light enveloped Hobbes, though this time it was thankfully less bright than when he''d fused. And then the light dimmed, revealing his attempted transformation into a copy of me.
I tried -- and failed -- to hide my grimace.
It was better than the ditto''s attempt to transform into me. As I''d hoped, it seemed some of Hobbes'' practice with mimic carried over into understanding of transform. Or, it was entirely possible that the original ditto simply wasn''t that smart, and this was just a sign of Hobbes'' higher intelligence.
I wasn''t going to suggest that out loud, though. Even though, to me, Hobbes appeared to only be a slightly modified mimikyu, I knew the recently captured ditto was just as much a part of my new pokemon as Hobbes was.
No, the problem with Hobbes'' transformation wasn''t in the size or proportions, as the ditto had struggled with. This new form stood at my exact height, with arms, legs, and a head that more or less matched up with mine.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The issue was that Hobbes seemed to bring his disguise with him into the transformation.
Rather than as a human, Hobbes stood before me as a scarecrow: a puppet-like simulacrum of humanity. His eyes were buttons. His mouth, a stitched-on smile. I could see the seams that held him together at each of his joints. And in the opening at the ends of his long sleeves and pant legs, I could catch glimpses of the purple darkness that comprised his true body.
A small purple tentacle extended out from the neck of the scarecrow''s clothes, and I caught a glimpse of a small, dark eye looking down at Hobbes'' human-transformed body. And then with a mournful cry, Hobbes turned and ran into the grass of the field around us.
"Hobbes!" I called before dashing after my pokemon -- but he was gone.
It took fifteen minutes of wandering before I finally tracked down my pokemon. Hobbes sat at the top of a hill that overlooked the fields around us, grass swaying in the gentle breeze. The sun had well and truly set by this point, the last light of the sun only barely enough for me to see his form. He no longer looked like a scarecrow mimicry of humanity; rather, he looked like a stuffed doll of a diglett, a brown bag with sewn-on eyes and fake mud along the sides. A mimicry of another pokemon rather than a mimicry of humanity.
That had been Hobbes'' dream. The dream of all mimikyus, if my recollections of pokedex entries of a previous life were to be believed -- to be seen and to be loved. It was why we had chased down a ditto fusion for him: of all the pokemon, it was the one I thought had the best chance of overriding his previous'' body''s limitation of killing whoever looked upon it.
Yet now, it seemed even worse. Rather than being trapped in the self-imposed isolation of his disguise, it now seemed as if his disguise was permanently fused with his form -- regardless of which form he took. Even as his body shifted, taking on the likeness, moves, and abilities of whoever he copied, the disguise followed. A permanent separation between him and everyone else.
I sat down on the hill next to him and looked out over the grass.
Around us, the light dimmed further until I could see no more than a few feet in any direction. Off in the distance I could see Merraga, only a few lanterns marking the small town. Stars appeared in the sky, and a sliver of a moon rose over the edge of the nearby mountains.
"Can you keep a secret?" I finally asked some twenty minutes of silence later.
"...di..."
"Do you know the ugliest pokemon I''ve ever seen?"
For the first time, the diglett-mimicry looked at me in confusion, surprised by the non-sequitor. But after a moment more of silence, Hobbes seemed to realize it was a serious question and responded. "Kyu, kyu?"
I shivered, and then chuckled. "No, it wasn''t the Mr. Ditto. That was the scariest pokemon I''ve ever seen, not the ugliest. Thank you for the reminder, though, and for the nightmares I''ll be having tonight."
Hobbes gave a trilling chuckle that faded after only a second.
"No, the ugliest pokemon I''ve ever seen is also a fusion: a fusion of gloom and crobat."
Hobbes rapidly turned to face me with incredulity. I chuckled -- it was a comfort that, even after the fusion, in the dark and while transformed, I could still read my friend''s expressions under his disguise.
"I''m serious. Objectively, Kisses is the ugliest pokemon I''ve ever seen. But, here''s another question: who do you think is my second favorite all-time pokemon?"
"...kyu?"
I nodded with a small smile. "That''s right -- Kisses." I reached out and grabbed Hobbes'' small form, pulling him closer into a side hug. "His appearance has no bearing on that ranking. And neither does it have any bearing on my all-time favorite pokemon." I picked up Hobbes and set him on my lap, looking directly at where I knew his eyes were hidden underneath the disguise. "I wanted to be able to see you face-to-face because that was what you wanted. Because I knew it was a dream of yours. But don''t you dare think for a second that it would have changed how I think of you."
"Di..."
I leaned forward with my head against the top of his diglett disguise and closed my eyes. "You''re my best friend. Whether I see you face-to-face or not won''t change that. Whether or not we get separated and have to spend years apart won''t change that. Whether you become the most powerful pokemon in existence or decide you never want to battle again won''t change that." I leaned back and gave a firm nod. "So you''re just going to have to get used to it."
"...kyu."
I lay back into the grass as Hobbes, still on my stomach, transformed back into his default body. I didn''t bother to search for my bag, left behind at the site of the fusion. I didn''t worry about setting up my hammock or eating a late dinner.
I simply lay back and watched the stars with my best friend.
Chapter 12: Photos Home
I woke up groggy and confused, with a sore back and wet clothes. I blearily opened my eyes, only to have a copy of my own face, except with button eyes and a creepy, stitched-on smile, staring back at me.
"Gah!" I called, scrambling back away from the monster.
Hobbes chuffed out a laugh as I fully woke up and remembered the previous day''s events. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon; as uncomfortable as my ''bed'' was, it didn''t take more than the slightest bit of light to wake me up. Coupled with the morning dew coating all of the surroundings -- including me -- I would have to rate it as a less-than-pleasant way to wake up.
"Is this gonna become a thing?" I wryly asked Hobbes as I rolled my neck. Like pretty much all ghost pokemon, Hobbes enjoyed a good prank. With his normal disguise, he was limited in his options. But with his new ability to transform...
Hobbes just laughed again in response.
I hadn''t been too worried about spending the previous night out in the open. This close to Merraga, it was unlikely for there to be any pokemon powerful or aggressive enough to pose a serious threat to Hobbes or me. My bag, however, was another issue, and after stretching I hurried to track down my wayward equipment before any curious ditto fusions could dig around for the food stored within.
It didn''t take long to locate it. Hobbes and I hadn''t exactly been subtle in our earlier day''s travels, and it was easy enough to follow the path of bent and pushed-aside grass back to where Hobbes and the ditto had fused. Luckily, my backpack was still there, fully zipped up and with all the supplies intact.
I breathed a sigh of relief before breaking out breakfast for myself and Hobbes. "We''ll have to get you tested once we get back to a pokecenter, but for now you''ll have to stick with your normal pokechow," I stated. It was unlikely, especially since Hobbes looked so similar to how he looked as a mimikyu and because it was a ditto fusion, but there was always a chance for a pokemon''s diet to shift or require special additives after fusing. It wasn''t something we''d know until we got back to a pokecenter and had him scanned, but it wasn''t a big enough issue for me to feel obligated to rush away from Merraga immediately.
"So, I was thinking," I said around a mouthful of granola bar as Hobbes cheerfully ate his own breakfast. "We spend at least a day training to make sure you''re familiar with your new form. I''d usually say you''d need much longer, but you''ve only gained one move. Transform will take ages to master, though, so it''s something that we''ll have to continuously work on as we travel. In the meantime, we just need to make sure you''re able to use all your old moves with your new body."
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Kyu?"
"Yeah, you don''t look different, but what if one of your moves reacts differently? You''re most likely part normal-type now, so I''m sure that will have some effects on something. Better to be safe than sorry." I was unsure exactly how same-type-attack-bonuses -- better known as STAB -- worked in this world. It was widely recognized that moves matching the type of the pokemon using them were typically stronger than moves of different types, but that could simply be a matter of familiarity. Hobbes'' possible new typing would give me a good chance to figure out the nuances behind the mechanic. "After that, I was thinking maybe we''ll check out the mine before leaving Merraga. It''s supposedly been abandoned for years, so I bet there are quite a few cool pokemon in there." As close as I had lived my entire life to the infamous Rock Tunnel north of Lavender Town, I''d never actually been inside any of the many natural caves that dotted the Kanto region. Kisses'' zubat half had originally been caught in Rock Tunnel, and I knew there were tons of other unique pokemon that could only be found in the underground cave systems. But my parents hadn''t allowed me to explore, citing the dangers of cave-ins and getting lost, in addition to the wild pokemon. And after my adventure in the Lavender Tower, I had been inclined to follow their directions.
But I was on my pokemon journey now. If I wasn''t willing to brave a little danger to explore someplace new, what was the point of it all?
And besides, the abandoned mine was unlikely to have nearly as complex of a cave system as most of the natural caves, and I doubted it had been abandoned for long enough for any pokemon truly powerful to have claimed it as their own.
Plan made for the day, Hobbes and I hurried to finish our breakfasts before I packed away the rest of the supplies.
"Oh! I almost forgot," I exclaimed as I noticed my flip-phone, forgotten in the side pocket of the backpack. "Mom and dad made me promise to send them pictures of you after you fused." I flipped it open and pointed the front towards Hobbes. "Say cheese!"
Hobbes stayed in his normal form for the picture, his purple arms barely visible in the shadows of his familiar disguise. I figured he wanted to save his creepy human-transformed form to prank my parents like he had me -- which was fine with me. I''d been annoyed at first, but I had learned to appreciate a good prank almost as much as Hobbes.
I snapped three different pictures from a couple of angles, and frowned when my phone seemed to glitch before each one, static momentarily appearing around the edges of the screen before it returned to normal. I opened up the gallery to make sure they were all there, and they all seemed normal, so I tucked the phone back away without further thought. Hopefully, the morning dew hadn''t been enough to damage any of the internal electronics.
Even if I''d had service, my phone wasn''t ''smart''. I wouldn''t be able to send the pictures back home until we got to a pokecenter or someplace that had a computer I could upload them to and then email my parents, but I figured it was good to take the pictures now anyway. I wanted to capture the memory of Hobbes'' first day as a dimikyu -- if not for my parents, then for myself.
A few minutes later, with food eaten, pictures taken, and supplies fully packed, we began our day of training.
Chapter 13: To The Mine
The day spent training past relatively uneventfully. Hobbes wouldn''t have been considered a ''high level'' yet if he were in a game, and even if he were, mimikyus didn''t exactly have a huge move-pool. Larger than dittos, of course, but much smaller than the average pokemon.
This world didn''t have ''levels'', of course, but I still thought they were a helpful way of approximating a pokemon''s power. Hobbes still mostly relied on his ''early game'' moves, and while he was stronger than most other starters of kids just setting out on their journeys, he wasn''t stronger than most third-stage evolution pokemon. If I had to guesstimate, I''d put his power at around level twenty-five or so.
We spent the day drilling through Hobbes'' moves: shadow sneak, astonish, scratch, double team, and baby-doll eyes. It only took a few repetitions of each before Hobbes was able to use them just as well as he had been prior to his fusion, which I considered a good sign. I didn''t bother with practicing mimic -- while it was a powerful move in certain situations that we''d spent hours upon hours training to master, the move was rendered somewhat redundant with his new ability to transform. And besides, mimic required an opponent to train; I didn''t feel it was necessary to terrorize the local ditto-fusion population any further when it wasn''t necessary.
The only move that might have been weaker after his fusion was baby-doll eyes. It was difficult to tell without an opponent and because it did no direct damage anyway, but the aura of pink that surrounded him when using the move seemed slightly weaker from what I remembered a few days prior. I wondered if that was a sign that he''d lost his fairy typing in the fusion, but decided to withhold judgment until we made it to a pokecenter where he could be scanned.
If it was, I didn''t think it would be a huge loss. The only other fairy-type moves he could naturally learn -- from my game-world knowledge, at least -- were charm and play rough, and neither of those would come for quite a few ''levels.'' I planned to lean more into his new ability to transform over training his own moves, anyway.
Even though we spent the whole day in the fields outside of Merraga, the training was a nostalgic reminder of our time stuck at home as a youngster. We''d only started our journey a few days ago, but the familiar routine of testing and measuring the power of moves brought about a pang of homesickness in the unfamiliar environment. I had no intention of indulging that desire -- I was on my journey, and was dedicated to fully embracing the adventure -- but I resolved to call home as soon as I got back to someplace with service.
We ended up staying in the fields for the night, finding a small copse of trees for me to set up my hammock. After how uncomfortable my previous night''s sleep had been, I considered going back to Merraga, but ultimately discarded it. Every town was required to provide at least some form of cheap temporary housing for trainers on their journey. Typically, this was in a motel-style building attached to the pokecenter, but since Merraga was so out-of-the-way of normal trainers'' routes, they only had a small closet-like space attached to the local clinic for trainers to use. And if the oil and gas lamps Cayden saw lighting up the town as he walked through were anything to go on, he doubted the room even had electricity or a place to charge his phone.
One of the few positives about going back to a flip phone after having smartphones in his previous life was their extended battery life. His phone could last for a full week before it needed a charge, and even longer if he was out of service and not using it regularly -- he didn''t have to worry about his battery running out anytime soon.
We woke -- once again -- at dawn, thankfully fully rested after settling down as the sun set the previous evening. And after eating a quick breakfast, we set out for the mine.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Di..."
"Oh, come on, don''t be a baby," I said as I pulled my flashlight out of my backpack. It only took an hour of walking until we stood at the base of one of the low mountains, and thirty minutes after that, we located our first mine shaft.
It was horizontal into the side of the mountain, with two sets of tracks leading into it. A large metal door blocked off the entrance, secured with a massive padlock. But the door was clearly a late addition to the mineshaft, barely wedged into place and hardly proper security; gaps surrounded the edges of the metal where a cold breeze blew from the dark, as wide as a foot in some places.
Plenty wide enough for me to squeeze through.
"Kyu, dimikyu," Hobbes cautioned, but I knew he was just as curious and excited to explore as I was. He looked with me into the dark as I pointed my flashlight into the largest gap at the edge of the door. There wasn''t much to see -- just an empty, round tunnel, extending further than the light from my weak flashlight was able to shine.
"We''ll be careful. We''ll just explore for a few hours. If we don''t find anything cool, we''ll turn back. And if we find anything too cool for us to handle..." I gave Hobbes a savage smile. "...we''ll run."
Hobbes just sighed, playing the part of a disappointed mother, shaking his head and letting out a resigned "di".
Truthfully, I wasn''t nearly as confident as I was projecting. Caves were considered one of the most dangerous environments for trainers to explore, and for good reason. It was impossible to get any signal for wireless devices further than a few feet into the cave, which meant it was impossible to call for help if something went wrong. And even more than caves on Earth, cave-ins in the pokemon world were always a possibility. Shifting rocks from tunneling onix or golem could leave even a cautious trainer trapped or lost, doomed if they didn''t have a pokemon with teleport or dig. The recently developed and crazily expensive ''escape rope'' items could simulate a teleport out of a cave, but I didn''t have near enough money to afford one. Besides, they had an extremely limited range and could only teleport a trainer to a nearby location with a ''receiver'' -- one of the main reasons so many caves had pokemon centers just outside of them.
And all those didn''t even include the most dangerous reason many trainers avoided caves: the small but always possible chance of stumbling into the forgotten home of a powerful pokemon and provoking its ire.
But despite all these dangers, I was determined to explore the mine. And for all Hobbes'' worries, I didn''t think this would be a repeat of the Lavender Tower misadventure. I had good reasons for why I didn''t think this was a bad idea.
For all the similarities, this wasn''t a natural cave -- it was an old, abandoned mine. On Earth, that would have increased the danger, as mines were typically less stable than caves. But here, it made it safer. There weren''t likely to be many species of pokemon that called the area beneath the mountain home before the mining operation began, or else they never would have been able to start mining in the first place. And with the door blocking off the entrance, I doubted many pokemon would have been able to move into the vacated place in the meantime. I was sure that some pokemon lived down there, but it was much more likely to be smaller and less powerful pokemon that claimed the abandoned habitat, rather than one of the uber-territorial forces of nature that could kill me with barely a glance.
And at the end of the day, the mine was cool. The caves beneath Kanto were some of the least explored places in the region. They were nothing like the standardized routes most trainers starting on their journeys stuck to, carefully monitored by rangers and with exhaustive lists available on the net of possible pokemon encounters. Every time someone set foot into a cave, they were setting foot into the unknown, with the possibility of finding rare pokemon, magical rocks, and riches beyond imagination.
Most legendaries in the games called caves their homes, after all.
This mine wouldn''t be that. I had no illusions of stumbling upon the home of mewtwo, capturing him with one of my two remaining pokeballs, and then sweeping the Elite Four. This was just an old, abandoned mine. More than likely, I''d find nothing more than some forgotten tools and a zubat or two.
But the feeling was the same. That feeling of excitement and adventure, of setting foot where no man had gone before -- it was intoxicating. And if I wasn''t willing to chase that feeling when it was offered in a relatively safe environment, could I even call myself a real pokemon trainer?
So with Hobbes leading the way, I squeezed through the gap next to the door, stepping into the dark of the mine.
Chapter 14: The Boring Mine
The mine shaft was cool. Surprisingly cool, in fact -- I knew caves were typically colder than the outside, but this was more than I was expecting. It wasn''t cold enough that I expected to find ice types, at least not near the entrance, but it was certainly closer to that than I thought it would be.
Luckily, I was prepared. It was spring, and I was unlikely to need them for the majority of my journey, but I pulled out a jacket, thin pair of gloves, and a warm beanie from my backpack. They weren''t enough to completely ward away the chill, but I figured they''d be more than enough as long as I kept moving. Plus, I didn''t expect to be down here for more than a few hours.
While I pulled on the heavier clothes, Hobbes transformed into his human (scarecrow?) form, dramatically shivering in mimicry of me. I very intentionally ignored him. As a ghost pokemon, he was in no way immune to the cold, but he didn''t feel it in the same way I did -- it would take a full-on ice attack for him to suffer the type of ''chills'' he was mimicking. But even if it was only to make fun of me, his transformation was good practice, so I didn''t tell him to stop.
Soon enough, though, I was more appropriately dressed, and we resumed our trek down the mineshaft. The tunnel was narrow and vaguely circular, likely carved out by an onix, but smoothed out along the bottom for the two rails to run straight and even; I didn''t have to worry about tripping as long as I stayed in the middle. And I was short enough that I didn''t have to duck, either.
The uniformness of the tunnel only lasted for another hundred feet, though, in a slightly downward slant below the mountain. The first deviations were smaller shafts branching off of the main shaft. They were much narrower, and I explored the first two with Hobbes, but they only extended twenty feet before they dead-ended in walls of stone. So I chose to ignore the next dozen or so branches, choosing to continue walking down the pain path.
I couldn''t remember what they had been mining here. I was sure I''d read what it was at some point in my research on Merraga, but it wasn''t something notable enough to stick with me. I was sure, at least, that it wasn''t something like gold or evolution stones -- I''d have certainly remembered if that had been the case.
We started to see more leftover evidence of the old mining operation: rags, what might have been old tools, and other pieces of trash that were evidently not worth it to clean up. Most of it was remarkably well preserved after years of sitting abandoned, especially with how damp it was. There weren''t any pools of water or stalagmites, but I could feel the humidity in the air, and I had to wipe my hand dry after catching myself once against one of the rock walls.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But for all that the environment was somewhat interesting, it wasn''t what I was looking for. Where were the rare pokemon? The mythical items left behind? I knew it was unlikely that the mining operation would have left anything of true value behind, but I was just a teenager less than a week into their journey, and Silph Co. was a multi-billion pokedollar corporation. I figured there would be at least something interesting they might have left behind for me to scavenge.
But no, all I could find was trash and rocks, stuff that wouldn''t even be worth the effort to carry them back out of the mine. Even with my low expectations, it was disappointing. Perhaps, even with my rationalizations, I had still been conditioned by my time playing the games that stumbling upon rare items was simply a matter of course. It was disappointing to see how I, once again, didn''t truly take into account the reality of my new world.
We didn''t give up immediately, though. We continued to march down the tunnel, progressing ever deeper into the cold underground. It didn''t get much colder than it was near the entrance, but even with my warmer clothes and the hike, I couldn''t contain the occasional shiver. Every hundred feet or so we passed another off-shoot, each one seeming to just be more of the same after a quick glance inside with my flashlight. The tunnel got rougher and narrower as we progressed, with obviously less effort being made in the deeper areas to cater to ''comfort''. I had to duck for the first time under a protruding section of rock, and then had to do so ten more times in quick succession.
But even with the tunnel getting ''rougher'', there was no sign of it ending. The tracks still followed the main tunnel, and I could still feel the cool breeze blowing on my face. There was obviously still a lot of cave left to explore -- but would it be worth it? If we ended up walking through another mile of tunnel without seeing anything new, I''d be extremely disappointed.
"How ''bout we break for a snack?" I called out to Hobbes. He''d been examining the walls and occasionally exploring into the offshoot tunnels as we''d walked, using shadow sneak to catch up whenever he fell behind, but even he seemed to be getting tired of the repetitive monotony. For the last fifteen minutes, he''d simply been walking by my side in his default form.
"Kyu," he nodded, and then climbed up the side of the tunnel to a small perch about a foot above my head while I dug around in my backpack for food.
"Five more minutes," I decided a minute later, speaking around a mouthful of jerky to my pokemon. "We''ll keep going for five more minutes down the main tunnel. Maybe explore one of the side tunnels. And then we go back if we don''t find anything interesting."
"Di," Hobbes acknowledged. It would be disappointing to have come all this way for nothing, but I supposed that was the nature of adventuring. Not every day would be filled with non-stop excitement. And, honestly, the boring-ness was probably a better outcome than the danger of my first adventure.
Of course, it was exactly as I had this thought when I felt the faint vibration of the rock beneath my feet.
Chapter 15: Crevasse
The faint rumble, interspersed with a few cracks of breaking rock, didn¡¯t last long. Just long enough for Hobbes to dash back to my side and for me to question every decision that led me to that point. We stood silently in the tunnel, one of my hands pressed against the rock wall and the other barely grazing the back of Hobbes¡¯ disguise.
¡°¡I think we should head back to Merraga,¡± I said a minute later when the rumbling finally quieted down. Potentially dangerous pokemon were one thing; a cave-in was something entirely different, a danger I had exactly zero ways to predict or survive should I stumble into one. Which meant the best option was avoidance.
But when I turned to hurry back up the tunnel, I was stopped by a purple tendril wrapped around my leg. I pointed the flashlight back at my pokemon and raised my eyebrow.
¡°Di, di di¡¡± he mumbled, staring off into the darkness further down into the tunnel, and I frowned.
There was more to the connection between a trainer and his pokemon than just a pokeball, and I could more often than not understand the gist of what Hobbes was saying. But more complicated conversations required more than just my ¡®trainer¡¯s intuition¡¯, as some people called it.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t get that,¡± I admitted. Hobbes paused in thought before nodding resolutely, taking a step back, and then transforming into his mimicry of me. He opened his mouth as I stared at him, wondering if his transformation had somehow allowed him to master human speech, but I was disappointed when his mouth opened and closed soundlessly. He then pointed into the darkness further down the tunnel, continuing to flap his mouth, and realization finally struck.
¡°You hear voices coming from further ahead,¡± I guessed, and Hobbes nodded in satisfaction.
¡°Di!¡±
I turned the flashlight from my partner to the darkness obscuring the way forward, illuminating the next twenty yards of bare rock with a pair of cart tracks along the ground. ¡°Can you understand what they¡¯re saying?¡±
¡°Di¡¡± he responded, deflating, and I nodded.
It was suspicious to hear human voices in a place so cut off from the rest of humanity, and my first instinct was to retreat. Someone was unlikely to make it this deep underground unintentionally, and anyone intentionally hiding in a place like this was equally unlikely to appreciate visitors.
But¡what if they needed help? We had just recently heard what might have been a cave-in, and I couldn¡¯t exactly throw stones from within my glass house of exploring places I shouldn¡¯t. If it turned out to be some other hapless fifteen-year-old trainer who managed to trap themselves under a ton of rock¡
I wasn¡¯t sure what I would be able to do to help them, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to forgive myself if I didn¡¯t at least try to help.
¡°Let¡¯s go check it out,¡± I decided, and Hobbes responded with a nod as he turned to lead the way into the darkness. But before he could get more than a step away, I reached out and caught the edge of his disguise. ¡°Let¡¯s be careful, though. And quiet. No need to advertise our presence until we know who and what we¡¯re dealing with.¡±
Hobbes gave me another, slower nod, before turning back down the tunnel. And pushing past the foreboding feeling in my stomach, I followed.
Our pace was faster than it had been before we heard the rumbling, but not so fast that we made any loud noises. The acoustics of the cave were weird.
For the most part, the only things I could hear were the faint trickling of water and my own footsteps. And near the entrance, where the tunnel was smoothly carved with few protrusions to break up the sound, I could hear a long ways, much further than if I were outside in the open air. Yet as the tunnel got narrower, the walls rougher and I was forced to duck under and step over medium-sized embedded boulders, the sounds were a bit more¡confusing.
Sometimes it still seemed like all the sounds were magnified, like every brushed pebble was echoing like thunderclaps in my ears. Yet then I would step around a particularly large rock protrusion and encounter a small pool of water, droplets steadily drip-dripping into the pool with loud drops, but impossible to hear on the other side of the protrusion.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In the end, I learned that I couldn¡¯t trust my ears. Luckily, I had Hobbes with me, and his hearing was much better than my own. Every few minutes, after I¡¯d send him a questioning glance, he would nod in encouragement, assuring me that we were still on the correct track to find the source of the voices.
Until finally, we came upon the source.
It was a tiny crevice in the edge of the tunnel. If I weren¡¯t feeling so paranoid, I might have missed the split in the path, dismissed it as nothing more than a slightly deeper shadow. But with Hobbes leading me, I pointed the flashlight into the narrow passage.
¡°It looks tight,¡± I whispered.
¡°Di, di di,¡± Hobbes responded, just as quietly.
I paused, listening. ¡°¡I can¡¯t hear any voices, but I can definitely hear something.¡± It was repetitive and sharp, almost like what a brass bell being struck might sound like ¡ª the noises of what I¡¯d imagine a mining operation would make. ¡°Can you scout the passage? Make sure I don¡¯t get stuck?¡±
¡°Kyu!¡± Hobbes answered, then disappeared down through the rocks.
It didn¡¯t take long for him return, but it was long enough for me to get nervous, sitting alone with only my flashlight to keep the darkness at bay. I startled at his reappearance but had the self-control to not make too much noise.
¡°Di, di,¡± he explained, reaching for my backpack with his purple tendrils.
I handed it over, wincing. It was good that I was unlikely to get stuck, but if the backpack were to make that big of a difference, I was sure to be in for a claustrophobic few minutes.
I led the way with Hobbes and my backpack following behind, moving slowly and carefully to keep from bumping my head, elbows, or knees too heavily against the rocks. And a few minutes of awkward climbing later, it opened up just slightly, and I realized I could finally hear the voices Hobbes had alerted me to so much earlier.
¡°¡could you lose control like that!?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry sir, it won¡¯t happen again.¡±
¡°It better not. If it does, I¡¯ll be finding someone else who can actually handle the geonix, and you¡¯ll be stuck with the rest of the grunts with the sableyes!¡±
¡°¡yes sir. Sorry sir.¡±
¡°Now get back to work! We need the west passage cleared for excavation by the end of the day if we plan to make this month¡¯s quota.¡±
I leaned forward as I listened, struggling to make sense of what I heard. This certainly sounded bigger than just a stupid trainer causing a ruckus at the bottom of a cave. It sounded like there was an entire operation of people working in the cave system.
If there were, I could probably just leave ¡ª it was unlikely that they would need help, and even more unlikely that I could offer any meaningful assistance if they did need help. Yet something caused me to hesitate.
On the practical side, they probably had a faster way out of the cave than trekking all the way back through the mine tunnel I¡¯d walked down. Surely they¡¯d allow a teenage trainer to make use of their exit, which would save me hours or potentially even days of travel time to the next stop on my journey ¡ª even if I didn¡¯t know where that next stop might be.
Yet I hesitated to call out or climb any further from my tiny passage of rock. The mine was supposed to be completely abandoned. Wouldn¡¯t there be a sign posted somewhere if it was started again, even if it was only barely connected to the primary mineshaft? Wouldn¡¯t I have found something online about the new operation in my research into Merraga?
Although, with how narrow and hidden the connection between the mineshaft and these peoples¡¯ operation was, a sign or information online perhaps shouldn¡¯t be expected. And I¡¯d traveled far enough through the mine that I doubted I was still anywhere close to Merraga anymore. But I couldn¡¯t get rid of the niggling feeling of suspicion in my stomach.
So once I realized there was enough light emanating from further down the passage for me to see, I flicked off my own flashlight and slowly ¡ª carefully ¡ª resumed my climb down.
Until finally I encountered a small opening in the passage and looked out into a massive cavern.
Large floodlights connected by extension cords were placed sporadically around the chamber, illuminating the massive room. Three larger tunnels branched off in almost equidistant spacing around the cavern, a strange amount of geometry for a cavern that looked much rougher than the mine shaft I had just left. Aside from a small section off to the side where there were a few tents set up, the ground was exceptionally rocky, as if the entire cavern had been only recently dug out of the earth with no intention of making it permanently accessible for humans. A few planks of wood had been laid out in lines over the rougher portions, and there seemed to be a generator next to the tents that¡was it powered by voltorbs in cages?
I couldn¡¯t see the entirety of the chamber from my vantage point, the opening to my passage in a shadowed corner of the room about fifteen feet above the ground, and despite having so recently heard voices, there weren¡¯t any humans or other pokemon besides the voltorbs in my field of view. I slowly scooched my head further out the passage, as quietly and slowly as I could manage, until I caught sight of a man wearing a dirty suit sitting at a desk on the other side of the tents. And I immediately froze.
Because despite having never seen the logo in this life, I immediately recognized the symbol sewed into the fabric of his suit¡¯s chest pocket: a large, red, capitalized ¡®R¡¯.
The symbol of Team Rocket.
Chapter 16: Crevasse pt. 2
My eyes widened, and I tensed to hold in the gasp that threatened to escape. I of course knew about Team Rocket, that most iconic of villainous pokemon teams. But I¡¯d yet to see or hear any mention of them from my parents, the news, or in my explorations of the internet. Despite growing up close to the ghost tower in Lavender Town, I¡¯d never even heard whispers of an evil organization killing pokemon, nor of the marowak they were supposed to have killed. I¡¯d hoped that the existence of Team Rocket was one of the areas in which my meta knowledge diverged from my new reality.
Unfortunately, it seemed like that wasn¡¯t the case.
If Team Rocket was real, did that mean the other evil team organizations were real as well? Was Team Galactic somewhere in Sinnoh, at this very moment working to destroy and then rebuild the universe?
I wasn¡¯t the protagonist of this world. I had no illusions about being destined to save the pokemon universe or anything like that ¡ª my adventure in the ghost tower taught me that my life was just as fragile as anyone else¡¯s. But if there really were multiple other teams out there threatening to destroy the world¡surely I could at least give the authorities in those regions a quick phone call?
I shook my head. That was a problem for the future ¡ª right now, I was still in Kanto, where I (presumably) would only encounter Team Rocket. I¡wasn¡¯t entirely sure if that was a good or a bad thing. On the plus side, there was no danger of Team Rocket destroying the world or anything like that. Unlike so many of the other teams, they were motivated by one thing, and one thing only: profit. They were the least likely to destroy the world as we knew it, the least cartoonish in their goals and motivations. Yet out of all the teams, they were ones I could most easily imagine mugging or even killing some random trainer just setting out on their journey. Especially if that trainer tried to interfere in one of their operations.
No, I had no intention of getting mixed in with whatever was going on here.
Sure, I would likely call in an anonymous tip to the authorities once I got out of the mine, but that would be the beginning and hopefully end of my involvement with Team Rocket. This was a real world, with real consequences, and a normal pokemon journey was already dangerous enough; I wasn¡¯t about to risk cutting my journey short by getting tangled up with mobsters.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
So as I took one final look around the cave, attempting to memorize any details to include with my anonymous tip that might make the authorities take me seriously, I readjusted my feet within the narrow crevasse to prepare for my climb back up to the mine shaft.
And somehow, one of the rocks shifted underneath me.
A dull thump echoed into the cavern, and I pulled my head back as the Team Rocket member¡¯s head shot up. I held my breath as I tried to slide further back into the darkness of the crevasse, but I was scared to shift my weight too quickly and make any more noise.
¡°Smithson, that you?¡± the Rocket member called, and the only response was the continued faint clatter coming from down the tunnels. ¡°Ekshrew, koffdude,¡± the man said a moment later, and I tensed upon hearing the unmistakable sound of two pokeballs opening. ¡°Search the cavern, make sure none of our workers escaped. If it¡¯s a wild fused or rare, knock it out and bring it to me. Otherwise¡eliminate it.¡±
¡°Shrew!¡±
¡°Koff!¡±
I looked back up through the crevasse, barely able to twist my neck to look into the darkness above where I knew Hobbes was waiting.
Ekshrew and koffdude. Unless the Rocket member had some weird nicknaming scheme, those would be fusions of ekans and sandshrew, and koffing and geodude. Not too terribly intimidating, even if there were two of them and they were both fused.
The main problem was the terrain. I did not want to have a confrontation with part ground and rock types deep in an underground mineshaft. And I especially didn¡¯t want Hobbes to have to try and fight them while we were wedged in the crevasse, trying to climb back to freedom. The passageway was tight enough that I wasn¡¯t sure we could switch places for him to protect our rear, and it would be oh so easy for the ekshrew to follow us, closing whatever lead we might gain in seconds with its narrow body. And then all it would take was a single magnitude to do both of us in.
Luckily, it seemed we had a bit of time. The way the cavern distorted sounds disguised our location, and the Rocket member directed his pokemon to start their search closer to the entrance of one of the side tunnels rather than toward the corner of the cavern where we were hidden. But with how methodically the pokemon were searching, I doubted we could remain hidden forever, which meant we had to move. The only question was: where?
With the two pokemon searching for us, and without the distraction of the Rocket member arguing with his subordinate, could I climb back up through the crevasse silently enough to avoid detection?
I wasn¡¯t sure. And that wasn¡¯t a dice roll I wanted to make.
So with a deep, quiet breath to prepare myself, and a fervent prayer that I wasn¡¯t making a huge mistake, I leveraged my arms against the rock walls on either side and slowly ¡ª carefully ¡ª pulled myself out of the crevasse.
And into the cavern.
Chapter 17: Stealth Mode
The shadows that shrouded my corner of the cavern weren¡¯t as deep as those inside the crevasse, but they were enough to hide me from immediate detection. I clung to the wall ten feet above the ground, as Hobbes squeezed around me with my backpack and hung from the wall using shadowy purple tendrils. As a ghost pokemon, the darkness was not nearly as much of a hindrance for Hobbes, and I allowed him to guide my hands and feet to the appropriate holds down the wall, gently testing each one to make sure they wouldn¡¯t shift before committing my weight, until I made it to the ground. I shuffled behind a short stack of boxes seconds before the ekshrew gave an annoyed hiss and moved to search the corner I had just vacated.
It didn¡¯t take it long to find the hole that led to the crevasse, and its tongue flicked out curiously before it slithered upward. I released a tense sigh, relieved that I hadn¡¯t tried to retreat back to the mine shaft ¡ª I doubted I¡¯d have been fast enough to make it out before the ekshrew caught me.
Although, my current situation wasn¡¯t much better.
Ideally, I¡¯d be able to hide until they gave up their search, and then retreat through the mine shaft or out through whatever entrance the Rockets were using, with them being none the wiser to my presence. But the koffdude was still methodically moving through the cavern, and I doubted my current hiding spot was enough to evade its notice. If I wanted to stay hidden, I had to escape its search area ¡ª which meant I had to move.
Hobbes was on the ground next to me with my backpack, peering around the edge of the bottom of the stack of boxes, and I crouched down to be next to him.
¡°We need to get out of here,¡± I said, my voice barely more than a breath. ¡°Do you know which tunnel leads to the surface?¡± Hobbes had access to senses I lacked, and I hoped he could divine some clue as to the path out of here.
But I was disappointed when Hobbes shook his head.
There was a slight breeze that I thought was blowing down the tunnel on the far side of the cavern, but I had no idea if that meant it was the exit or if it just led deeper into the cave. Regardless, it was my best bet. Plus, it led away from where the koffdude was currently searching and wasn¡¯t adjacent to the Rocket member¡¯s desk.
¡°We¡¯ve got to move before the ekshrew gets back,¡± I whispered to Hobbes, and he gave another quick nod. ¡°Let¡¯s go for that tunnel. Scout it out?¡±
¡°Di.¡±
He used double-team, his outline blurring until he was all but invisible in the darkness. And then, without a sound to mark it, Hobbes disappeared, shadow-sneaking across the cavern. I waited in tense silence for most of a minute, scared that any second the ekshrew would pop back out of the crevasse, but unwilling to move without having more of a plan.
¡°Di!¡±
Finally, Hobbes returned, getting my attention with a quiet squeak. A thin, purple tendril reached out from under his disguise, grabbing my hand, and I gave a firm nod.
¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± I said, attempting to convince myself that it was true.
And then we were moving.
It wasn¡¯t nearly as fast as Hobbes could move unhindered, but it was much faster than I¡¯d have been able to go if I were on my own, checking my own sightlines and watching for every loose rock underfoot.
I didn¡¯t worry about any of that. I just trusted my pokemon and tried to step lightly.
It wasn¡¯t a non-stop dash across the cavern. Hobbes picked a route that meandered between large stacks of boxes, pulling me behind them and pausing while he checked if koffdude was still distracted on the other side of the cavern. We stopped for a full minute in one hiding spot, and I waited in a tense crouch while he peeked over the edge before a firm tug signaled for me to move once again. At one point, the ekshrew emerged from the crevasse, hissing and making ¡°shrew¡± noises at his partner in crime, and we were able to move even further during the distraction. Until finally, with my legs tired from the tension and constant crouching, we stepped out of the main cavern into one of the three connecting tunnels.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
I stretched my back, straightening fully for the first time since climbing into the crevasse, but I didn¡¯t let out the sigh that wanted to escape. Hobbes was preening from his successful guidance, and I rubbed the top of his disguise in thanks, but I couldn¡¯t allow us to relax. We weren¡¯t out of this yet. Not by a long shot.
¡°Scout out ahead,¡± I whispered. Hobbes sobered up and gave me a serious nod. ¡°We¡¯re looking for a way out first. But if we can¡¯t find that, a place to hide.¡±
I pulled out my phone as Hobbes scuttled away ¡ª zero bars. It wasn¡¯t a surprise, but I allowed myself to dream as I flicked through a few apps, hoping that one of them might give me some way to communicate with the world outside the cave. But I was left disappointed, the lack of connection even causing some of the apps to glitch out as I opened them. I snapped the phone shut as Hobbes reappeared and grabbed my hand with another tendril.
The tunnel was dark, lacking any of the floodlights that illuminated the main cavern, but I couldn¡¯t afford to turn on my flashlight where it might be seen. I followed Hobbes into the darkness.
¡°¡more diamonds,¡± I whispered to Hobbes as I gently replaced the lid to the half-filled box. I never thought I¡¯d be disappointed to find what had to be at least a few pounds of diamonds¡but that was the situation I was in.
Since seeing the Rockets, my mind had been awhirl with the possibilities of what they were searching for down here: evolution stones, fossils, rare pokemon¡I¡¯d even considered mega stones, which I still wasn¡¯t even sure existed in this world. It was sad to realize their goals were so much more mundane.
Diamonds ¡ª boxes and boxes of them. There were a few other types of precious stones mixed in, but for the most part, it seemed like the entire purpose of this operation was diamonds.
More mundane than my hopes, but no less mind-boggling. I didn¡¯t how much they would be worth in pokedollars, especially without being able to easily tell the quality of the diamonds, but the sheer quantity had me thinking this mine might be enough to crash the entirety of Kanto¡¯s economy.
Of course, that was assuming these diamonds had the same worth as diamonds in my previous world. I had no idea how the presence of pokemon like carbink might affect the diamond industry. But still¡they had to be worth something, right?
Regardless, I decided to pocket a handful of the glittery stones¡as evidence. In case the authorities needed proof of what the Rockets were doing. I had to juggle my beanie-wrapped flashlight, dimmed so that it wouldn¡¯t give away our presence in the darkness of the tunnel, but eventually I managed to pack the diamonds in a pocket they couldn¡¯t easily slip out of.
¡°Kyu!¡± Hobbes quietly called a warning, and I flicked off the flashlight before crouching behind a larger rock outcropping. A few moments later, I saw the bouncing of a flashlight¡¯s beams across the walls as two Rocket grunts walked through the tunnel.
¡°¡I¡¯m just sayin¡¯. With how much they¡¯re makin¡¯ from this operation, you¡¯d think we¡¯d get paid better than this.¡±
¡°I hear that. Cooped up in the dark all day, we deserve more! Especially those of us on sableye duty. Little gremlins give me the creeps.¡±
¡°At least you¡¯ve got a shot of getting assigned somewhere else,¡± the first said with a sigh. ¡°With my granbull, I doubt I¡¯ll ever get a better assignment.¡±
¡°Hey, your fault for choosing it as your signing bonus.¡± They paused just a few feet away from my hiding place, and I held my breath as they opened one of the boxes I had so recently been examining. ¡°Wait a sec. I coulda sworn this one was more full. You didn¡¯t try and take any off the top, did ya? I wouldn¡¯t rat you out, but I¡¯m hurt that you wouldn¡¯t cut me in.¡±
¡°Hah! You insane? They¡¯ve got this place locked down tighter than a snorlax¡¯s pantry. No way to smuggle anything past the checkpoint, and you¡¯d be an idiot to try. Remember Sammy?¡±
¡°How could I forget? I had nightmares about his screams for weeks¡but then where¡¯s the rest of the product? I coulda sworn it was more full?¡±
¡°Ah, you¡¯re crazy, it¡¯s just as full as it was. Besides, our jobs ain¡¯t security. If someone took some off the top, it¡¯ll be found in the checkpoint.¡±
¡°What if it ain¡¯t a person? What if one of the sableyes slipped their mask?¡±
¡°Not a chance. But if it makes you feel any better, we¡¯ll check all of ¡®em when we get back. Need to give number four a thrashing again, anyway ¡ª had another escape attempt last night.¡±
¡°For real? He¡¯s persistent, I¡¯ll give him that¡¡±
The voices slowly faded as they turned and walked back up the tunnel from where they came. Only once I was sure they were gone did I flick my flashlight back on and step out of my hiding space.
Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t sound like this tunnel led to the surface, and if their discussion of ¡®checkpoints¡¯ was correct, none of the tunnels would provide an easy exit. But there was something in their conversation that tempted me to investigate this tunnel a bit further.
¡°Sableyes, huh?¡± I muttered to Hobbes, who looked at me curiously. ¡°Seems like we might not be Team Rocket¡¯s only enemies down here.¡±
Chapter 18: Change of Plans
Hobbes and I trailed after the two rocket grunts, staying far enough back that we couldn¡¯t see their lights, but close enough that their continued conversation carried back to us as faint, indecipherable echoes. The tunnel got rougher as we progressed, and we were clearly in a more recently developed section of the Rocket¡¯s operation. It never got to the point that I had to climb anything, but I found myself stepping over and ducking under protruding rocks more and more frequently. Which, generally, was a good thing ¡ª it meant I¡¯d have plenty of hiding spots if we crossed paths with any other Rockets.
Though it was hard to feel appreciative of that fact after I accidentally stepped into an ankle-deep pool of water, my ¡®waterproof¡¯ boots not doing much when the water was above the boot¡¯s lip.
Hobbes laughed at me as I squished with every other step, and I considered bumping him into the next pool I saw ¡ª a wet costume would be about as uncomfortable for him as a wet sock was for me ¡ª but I barely managed to control myself. The noises from further down the tunnel were getting louder ¡ª a repetitive, dull thumping that I thought I could feel through the rocks as much as hear ¡ª and it wasn¡¯t the time for horseplay.
As the tunnel gradually brightened from the lights up ahead, I once again flicked off my flashlight. Slowly and carefully we approached the bend in the tunnel, prepared to dive for cover if someone decided to come back toward us. Until finally, after a signal from Hobbes that the coast was clear, I peeked around the rock separating me from the lights.
It was another cavern. Smaller and rougher than the previous, and obviously newer, loose rocks littered the ground. It was much dimmer than the first cavern; they still had lights, but there was no cage of voltorbs powering them, so they were all smaller and appeared battery-powered. On the far side of the cavern there was another geodude fusion pounding against the walls with its fists, pausing every couple of seconds to scoop out a handful of crumbled rock and tossing it over its shoulder.
The geodude was fused with something flying, almost certainly with something in the zubat line. Its arms hung down below a body that was much more streamlined than a normal geodude¡¯s, with a pair of recognizable wings extending from its shoulders. I hoped it was a geodude-zubat fusion, and not a geodude-golbat fusion, but I couldn¡¯t be sure. Thankfully, I was positive that it at least wasn¡¯t fused with a crobat, since I was familiar enough with the shape of Kisses¡¯ wings to recognize any crobat fusions at a glance. The two lesser evolutions¡¯ wings, however, looked too similar for me to confidently distinguish them in just a few seconds.
¡°Hold!¡± one of the rocket grunts called, who I noticed was now wearing a hardhat, and the geobat paused its punching. ¡°That¡¯s enough. Take five, and then get started on the west wall.¡±
The geobat gave a bobbing nod before flying to the ceiling and latching on with two tiny, previously hidden feet, its muscular arms crossed in front of its body as it hung upside-down.
¡°Bring ¡®em in!¡± the grunt called, and a second grunt ¡ª Cayden wasn¡¯t sure if it was one of the ones he¡¯d eavesdropped on earlier, as there were more than just the two he¡¯d seen in the tunnel ¡ª unlatched the front of a crate meant for a single large dog, and five sableyes tumbled out.
The sableyes didn¡¯t waste any time before dashing for the loose pile of rocks on the ground, sniffing like bloodhounds with their hands phasing through the top layer as if dipping through a pool of water. It didn¡¯t take one of them long to find what they were looking for, and with a call of ¡°Eye!¡±, it returned to the fully physical world and dug into the piles of rock with a frantic intensity.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Only after it emerged with a tiny diamond in its clutches and frantically tried to bring it to its mouth did I notice the net encircling its face. Or perhaps it wasn¡¯t a net¡maybe screen was a better word? It wrapped all the way around the sableye¡¯s head, attached with a black collar that was almost invisible in the dim light against the sableye¡¯s purple skin, and the mesh was too fine for the pokemon to get the diamond through to its mouth.
¡°Oy! That¡¯s enough, there ¡ª into the bag with the rest, number three!¡± a grunt yelled as he tossed a thick cotton rucksack in the direction of the scrabbling sableyes. He pulled a stun baton from his belt and activated it a few times threateningly, the sableyes flinching from the buzz and flash of electricity arcing between the prongs, before he turned back to the cage. ¡°Ya still in there, number four? Heard you¡¯re in need of another lesson.¡±
I didn¡¯t notice it at first amid the five other scrabbling sableyes, but there was a sixth sableye, left behind at the back of the cage. It looked practically identical to the rest of the sableyes: it had the same hunched, purple gremlin body, the same diamond-like eyes above a too-large mouth, with an identical mesh screen wrapped around its head. But while it physically looked identical to the rest of the scrabbling pokemon, its mannerisms couldn¡¯t be more different. The other five kept their focus down on the rocks in front of them, refusing to lift their gem-eyes from their tasks and risk making eye contact with any of the Rockets. They flailed about through the rocks, futilely attempting to eat whatever gemstones they came across and being stymied by the screen and the buzzing of another Rocket¡¯s stun baton each time.
This sableye, however, stood tall, or at least as tall as it was able with its c-shaped spine, meeting the gaze of the glaring grunt without flinching. Its claws twitched as the Rocket approached, but it otherwise didn¡¯t react to the zaps of the baton.
¡°Think yer tough?¡± the grunt snarled, but I noticed he didn¡¯t move within arms¡¯ reach of this sableye. Instead, he reached for his belt and threw out a pokeball. ¡°Granbull! Go!¡± he called, and in a flash of red light, a granbull appeared. ¡°You¡¯ll learn yer lesson¡eventually.¡±
The granbull looked confused for a moment, flinching back from the eyes of the too-close sableye before the grunt activated his baton, and the fairy-dog pokemon seemed to realize the situation. Its wide mouth turned down as it let out a low growl, clenching its paws into two fists as it approached the smaller pokemon in front of it.
What followed¡was the worst beatdown I had ever witnessed, one I hoped to never have to witness again. Even the most charitable wouldn¡¯t call it a ¡®battle¡¯ ¡ª sableye had both the evolution and type disadvantage, and only managed a single attempted scratch before it was grabbed by the granbull and pummeled into the rocks. Once the threat was gone, the grunt joined in on what I could only describe as torture, zapping at the downed sableye with his baton next to his pokemon.
I winced with each pained ¡°say¡± that echoed in the chamber, and retreated after the first thirty seconds of brutality. Even still, I could hear the impacts and cries of pain for another minute before the cave blessedly fell silent.
¡°Learned yer lesson?¡± the grunt asked before the sound of the stun baton powering up echoed once again through the cavern.
¡°Don¡¯t kill it,¡± another grunt called. ¡°These buggers don¡¯t exactly grow on trees, ya know.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I know its limits,¡± the first grunt responded before laughing. ¡°It¡¯s given me plenty of opportunities to learn, after all.¡±
I was about five yards down the dark tunnel from the bend, Hobbes by my side with my hand over my mouth as I held back the tears that wanted to spill forth. But at the sound of the rest of the grunts¡¯ laughter, backdropped by another pained cry of ¡°say!¡±¡something in me hardened.
I took a long, slow breath as the pained sounds from the cavern blessedly fell silent, this time for good, and I held my eyes closed for a count to ten. When I opened them, I met the gaze of Hobbes, his costume barely visible in the dark of the tunnel. In his posture I saw an anger that mirrored mine, with none of his earlier joviality or hesitance.
Good. We were on the same page.
I¡¯d been curious about what the Rockets were doing down here, and had enjoyed acting the part of spy on their activities, but I¡¯d never seriously intended to get personally involved. Our original plan had been to stay hidden, to avoid interacting with Team Rocket at all while we made our escape, trusting the authorities to handle the evil team after we got back to civilization.
But sometimes¡plans change.
Chapter 19: Something Foolish
Despite our anger, we didn¡¯t immediately charge into the cavern and challenge the Rockets to battle. Aside from being likely suicidal, such a tactic wouldn¡¯t even be particularly helpful; the sableye was no longer being punished, and it was unlikely that he would die if he hadn¡¯t already.
Pokemon were remarkably resilient, ghost pokemon especially so ¡ª at least against physical and long-term injuries. While pokemon centers were an absolute necessity when this world¡¯s culture centered around pokemon fighting against each other in battles to the near-death, most pokemon were hardy enough to survive all but the worst injuries on their own. But ¡®surviving injuries¡¯ was very different from ¡®recover perfectly from injuries¡¯, and pokemon centers ensured those pokemon who loved to battle could continue to do so throughout their (hopefully) long lives.
So the sableye would hopefully be okay for a while. Because as much as I wanted to punish the Rockets, I had no intention of sacrificing Hobbes¡¯ or my own life to do so.
Hobbes and I explored until we found a depression behind a protruding rock against the wall of the tunnel, a nook large enough to hide the both of us should someone come walking through the tunnel even with floodlights. It took some flexibility and awkward contorting to fit the both of us inside the nook, but eventually we managed to get situated. And we settled in to wait.
Twenty minutes later, I was starting to go a little stir-crazy.
The light from the cavern didn¡¯t extend far into the tunnel, and it was pitch black in our little nook, my eyes unadjusted even after twenty minutes of darkness. A rock dug into my lower back, and shifting only caused even more rocks to poke me from other angles. My left leg was asleep, and my right calf felt like it was starting to cramp. And next to me, Hobbes wriggled in his own discomfort, his little shadow-claws digging into my side.
¡°Quit fidgeting,¡± I told him in a low voice. I wasn¡¯t too concerned with being overheard; I could only make out every third word that was said within the nearby cavern, and not even that whenever the geobat resumed his punching into the wall.
¡°Di, kyu!¡± he responded, wiggling his claws into my sides even harder, and for the next five minutes we jostled each other like siblings in the back of a car, only settling down after realizing how loud we¡¯d gotten.
I sighed. I¡¯d figured they wouldn¡¯t be making non-stop trips to empty bags of diamonds in the crates, but with how rapidly the sableyes were finding diamonds during my peek, I¡¯d worried they would be passing through the tunnel sooner rather than later. And with how difficult it was to get into our little nook, we couldn¡¯t afford to wait to hide until someone was already marching toward us.
So, after sighing again, I accepted the discomfort and pulled out my phone to distract myself. Brick that it was, it still had over a forty percent charge from when I¡¯d charged it before leaving home three days earlier, so I wasn¡¯t too worried about prematurely draining it the rest of the way. I pressed a few buttons, navigating through the menu, until the game ¡®ekans¡¯ came up and I began to play.
It wasn¡¯t the most engaging of games, barely a step above ¡®pong¡¯ in terms of entertainment value. But it was amazing what the human brain could latch onto when it was trying to distract itself.
Or rather, human and pokemon brains. Hobbes shifted until he could also see the screen, cheering after each successful berry eaten and jeering whenever I crashed into the wall or my own tail.
There was a lot more of the former than the latter. Two minutes in, I had already beaten my previous high score, and two minutes after that I was still going strong with double the previous number. Hobbes¡¯ cheers slowly quieted as he looked at the phone with suspicion, but I didn¡¯t give it any thought. I didn¡¯t know what it was ¡ª the darkness of the tunnel, the stress of remaining hidden, the inability to easily move any other part of my body ¡ª but I was on fire, and I wasn¡¯t about to let him distract me.
¡°Ya hear that?¡± I heard a voice, sounding as if it came from just outside of our nook, and I hurried to flip the phone shut before the sound of my ekans dying beeped out. A second later, I saw the beams of two flashlights illuminating the tunnel, and I carefully eased lower into my seat.
¡°Hear what?¡± another voice responded.
¡°I don¡¯t know, it sounded like beeping.¡±
¡°Eh, I heard nothing. Yer just going crazy down here.¡±
The first grunt sighed. ¡°Probably right. I need to get another post. Haven¡¯t seen real sunlight in over a week.¡±
¡°Hah! Good luck with that. No way Temper will agree to that, not with the assignment not even half done.¡±
¡°A man can dream, can¡¯t he¡¡±
I released my breath in a whoosh of air, before hurrying to climb from the nook as their voices slowly faded down the tunnel. I¡¯d counted four Rocket grunts in the next chamber ¡ª for the next several minutes there would only be two. I hoped I wouldn¡¯t be fighting directly, but sneaking would be twice as easy with half the eyes and ears keeping watch.
And if I did have to fight¡well, two grunts were better than four.
I shook the tingles out of my legs, quickly stretching to remove the kinks as I made sure my backpack was securely strapped and everything in its proper place. Then, I turned down the tunnel toward the cavern¡and gestured for Hobbes to lead the way.
I waited at the edge of the cavern for him to scout. But almost immediately he returned and motioned for me to follow.
Stolen novel; please report.
The geobat was still hammering away at the wall, though a different wall than he had when I¡¯d observed earlier and with much less enthusiasm, each of his strikes looking perfunctory compared to his earlier excavations. In another corner of the cavern, the two remaining grunts were reclining next to each other on a large blanket, their arms behind their heads and their hard hats pulled low over their eyes.
It seemed that one of the two Rockets who¡¯d made the trip down the tunnel was a supervisor, and these two were taking advantage of the lack of oversight. I wouldn¡¯t complain ¡ª it made my job much easier. Sticking to the edge of the cavern, hunched over and stepping lightly despite the repetitive pounding of the geobat¡¯s fists, I followed Hobbes through the cavern until we crouched behind the cage holding the sableyes.
The gremlin pokemon eyed me but didn¡¯t call out as Hobbes began to talk with them with rapid squeaks of his name. I couldn¡¯t understand anything the other pokemon said, but their responses were short, and as time went on Hobbes¡¯ squeaks became more and more annoyed.
Until, one by one, the sableyes turned away from him to curl up in different corners of the cage. Leaving only a single sableye eying Hobbes speculatively.
¡°Eye,¡± the last sableye said. I wasn¡¯t familiar enough with the species to recognize injuries, especially not in the low light against its purple skin, but I would guess this was the sableye that had been ¡®punished¡¯ earlier, both from its demeanor and the rasp to its voice.
¡°Di! Di di, kyu, dimikyu,¡± Hobbes replied, his voice a bit less frustrated than it was earlier, before he turned to me. ¡°Di, dimikyu dimikyu.¡±
I frowned, concentrating on my partner. Not on the sounds he made ¡ª while pieces of the tone and meaning could be understood through his pitch and inflection, it wasn¡¯t enough for a nuanced conversation like this. No, I focused on the bond between us, the intangible connection between a pokemon and their trainer.
¡°You¡¯re saying¡something about the nets on their heads. It¡¯s what¡¯s keeping them from being able to escape?¡±
¡°Di!¡±
I looked at the sableye in the cage, stepping until I was practically pressed against the metal bars, but the sableye shrunk back.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I won¡¯t hurt you,¡± I said, keeping my voice calm and level. ¡°But if I¡¯m going to get you out of here, I need to look at that net around your head. I promise I won¡¯t hurt you.¡±
I forced myself not to twitch as I waited for the sableye to respond, staring into its diamond-looking eyes without blinking. We were on the clock, but nothing could be gained if I didn¡¯t have this pokemon¡¯s trust; I couldn¡¯t rush this.
Slowly, the sableye moved to the edge of the cage, positioning itself within easy reach of my hands, and I breathed out a sigh. I noticed a couple of the other sableye watching on curiously, but none of them approached, and each of them looked away after they saw I¡¯d noticed them watching.
I turned my focus to the net surrounding the sableyes head. It was extremely fine, closer to a mesh than a net ¡ª I supposed it had to be if it was to prevent the sableye from eating any of the diamonds. But how was it able to keep them from phasing through? I¡¯d never heard of anything that could prevent a ghost from phasing. Coming from Lavender Town, I would¡¯ve thought that would be something I¡¯d know about, if it existed. But the wire mesh seemed completely mundane to my senses, feeling like nothing more than a simple, light metal. I frowned.
And then the sableye shifted, and I noticed the collar the mesh was attached to. It was pitch black ¡ª blacker than anything I¡¯d ever seen, as if it was sucking in the light that touched it, which was the reason I hadn¡¯t noticed it earlier in the dim light of the cavern. But looking at it now, I instinctively knew this was what was preventing the sableyes from phasing. I reached out and placed a single finger against the collar, the sableye twitching as I did so.
The collar was cool and smooth to my touch, and I felt around it until I found the front, where there was a latch with a small keyhole on it.
¡°¡don¡¯t think that¡¯ll work,¡± I muttered to myself before looking at the sableye. ¡°I¡¯m going to bring out my pocketknife now, to see if I can cut your collar.¡±
The sableye stared at me for a full three seconds before giving a slow nod.
I reached and pulled out my small multi-tool from the pocket of my backpack, flipping it open to the wire cutters. The collar was snug around the sableye¡¯s neck, so it took some finagling as the pokemon tensed under my touch, but I was able to get the collar wedged between the cutter¡¯s blades. And then I squeezed.
It felt like I was trying to cut through solid stone. There was absolutely zero give, even after I shifted to get better leverage. Something I did must have annoyed the sableye, though, because it flinched back and became intangible for a few seconds, and I dropped the multi-tool in surprise.
It hit the edge of the cage with a metallic clang, and I ducked low.
¡°¡settle down over there!¡± one of the grunts called toward the cage without lifting his helmet, and I released my held breath. But then I frowned as I retrieved my tool and turned back to the sableye.
Wasn¡¯t the collar supposed to prevent it from becoming intangible? Yet I¡¯d just seen evidence to the contrary, its entire body becoming momentarily translucent and intangible, and I stared at the collar in bemusement. Until suddenly, realization struck.
¡°¡you can¡¯t phase through the collar,¡± I mumbled. ¡°You can phase through the mesh and everything else just fine ¡ª just not the collar. And it¡¯s just there to keep the mesh attached, so you can¡¯t get at any diamonds or escape the cage.¡±
The sableye nodded, giving me a look as if it were obvious, but I ignored it, my focus returned to the mesh around its head and the cage that contained the sableye. The bars of the cage formed a grid, each square of the grid barely big enough for me to slip my forearms through ¡ª certainly not big enough to fit the entirety of the wire mesh encircling the sableye¡¯s head. But the collar around its neck was much narrower. And the mesh didn¡¯t feel especially robust when I¡¯d examined it earlier¡
¡°One more try,¡± I muttered to the sableye, who reluctantly stood within my arms¡¯ reach at the edge of the cage. I once again positioned the wire cutters, but this time just above the collar, against a small fold of the wire mesh.
¡and cut through it with a quiet snick.
¡°Yes!¡± I whispered and pumped my fist before returning my focus to the mesh. It took a bit of time, and I had to ask the sableye to rotate several times throughout the process, but finally I snipped through the last wire ¡ª and the sableye was free.
Or at least more free than it had been. It was still trapped in a cage, in an underground cavern entirely populated by enemy Rockets. But hopefully one of those was about to change.
¡°See if you can phase through, now.¡±
The sableye nodded before turning slightly translucent. And while the collar stayed put around its neck, snug against the sableye¡¯s intangible skin, the sableye was able to move through the bars of the cage with the rest of its body just fine, the collar slipping through the gap in the cage¡¯s bars.
¡°And you¡¯re out!¡± I called out in an excited whisper, before turning to the rest of the sableyes. ¡°Now who¡¯s next?¡±
But none of the other pokemon so much as glanced in my direction, each of them staring at the ground outside the cage where they huddled.
¡°Di, di¡¡± Hobbes sadly muttered from where he¡¯d been keeping a lookout, and I frowned.
¡°¡are you sure? Even with proof I can get them free?¡±
¡°Kyu.¡±
I sighed. It seemed the rest of the pokemon were more cowed than I had expected. Although¡perhaps it was for the best. Cutting through the mesh wasn¡¯t quick, and I hadn¡¯t been keeping close watch on the time as we¡¯d worked to free the first sableye. The other two grunts could return any minute. It was regretful, leaving so many captive pokemon behind, but there was nothing I could do for them if they refused to accept my help.
It was time for us to get out of there.
Chapter 20: Escape
Sneaking out of the cavern was just as easy as sneaking in had been, the grunts and geobat still completely oblivious to their surroundings. At the entrance to the tunnel, I gave one last regretful glance back to where the remaining sableyes huddled in their cage. And then I stepped around the bend, losing sight of them.
It was regretful, but I couldn¡¯t think of anything else I could do for them aside from alerting the authorities once we got back to town. And despite my melancholy, I couldn¡¯t help my sigh of relief as I stepped out of the lights of the cavern, finally hidden from view from the oblivious grunts.
Only to freeze when I realized the tunnel wasn¡¯t as dark as it should have been.
Standing only a few feet away were the two other grunts. With their flashlights pointed directly at my face, I could see nothing but their silhouettes. None of us moved as we simply stared at each other ¡ª they were frozen in what I presumed was surprise, while I hesitated in indecision.
Should I fight? Run? Try and bluff my way out? I had no doubts that these were ¡®bad guys¡¯; their treatment of the sableyes made that obvious. And I had little doubts that they¡¯d hesitate to do the same to me, if they knew I was ¡®stealing¡¯ their sableye.
Their surprise was an opportunity, a chance for me to gain the advantage in a situation where I was hopelessly outnumbered, yet still I hesitated. I was a pokemon trainer with plenty of combat experience, but those were in sanctioned pokemon battles where fights only started after both trainers were ready. Starting a battle before the opposing trainer¡¯s pokemon were prepared was grounds for automatic forfeiture, and targeting a trainer before they even had released a pokemon could lose you your license or even land you in prison. So when the moment came, I hesitated, feeling guilty for even considering attacking before they were prepared, while Hobbes waited for my command as he¡¯d been trained to do.
Luckily, Sableye had no such training or compunctions.
Before the grunts could so much as reach for their pokeballs, his eyes glowed with a soft white energy, and I flinched back from the sudden danger that emanated from the white crystals. I wasn¡¯t the target of his leer, though, and the two grunts stumbled backward, falling to the stone in their fear.
But it didn¡¯t last long. Only a second later, sableye drooped as the white energy faded, and the grunts recovered from their artificial fear. But it bought me the time I needed to regain my wits and firm my resolve.
¡°Hobbes! Don¡¯t let them release their pokemon!¡±
¡°Di!¡±
The grunts were reaching for the pokeballs on their belts, but Hobbes¡¯ shadow sneak was faster. He slashed at the straps securing them, pulling the belts ¡ª pokeballs and all ¡ª free before the grunts could grab hold. Two seconds later, I found myself in possession of two belts, each with two pokeballs and a gun attached.
I gingerly held the belts, unsure of what to do next as Hobbes and the grunts glared at each other. I wanted to steal the sableye they were obviously abusing, not the pokemon that may or may not be just as complicit in their crimes. But I just shook my head as I quickly unzipped my backpack and stuffed the two belts inside.
¡°You better watch yerslf, kiddo, before you do something¡¡± the grunt on the right ¡ª the one who¡¯d been punishing the sableye with his granbull ¡ª began to snarl. But I ignored his words.
¡°Let¡¯s get out of here!¡± I yelled, and ran around the grunts before they could respond. ¡°If they try to follow, attack,¡± I said to Hobbes, loud enough the grunts could hear.
The grunts snarled in anger, but the threat, when they didn¡¯t have any pokemon to defend them, was enough to keep them from chasing as I fled down the tunnel. Within seconds, I rounded the bend and was gone from their sight, but I could hear them yelling at the two other grunts to grab their pokemon and give chase.
I stumbled over a rock, barely catching myself before face planting, and then remembered to flick on my flashlight. I wasn¡¯t sure how much time Hobbes had bought us, but I was sure pursuit was incoming. Should we hide? Keep running? Or fight?
The two grunts each had two pokeballs on their belts. Assuming the other grunts had the same number, we had to worry about a maximum of four other pokemon. As much as I could tell from my quick spy session and some major assumptions, none of the grunts were particularly skilled trainers. Hobbes was strong, but those were still worse odds than I was willing to take, even if the sableye was willing to fight with us.
Speaking of¡I looked around, searching for the sableye, only to find him fifteen feet back and struggling to keep up. He was tiny, barely a foot tall when hunched over, and he moved in a loping sort of run on all four of his tiny limbs. That wasn¡¯t the issue, though ¡ª the issue was that he was already panting hard and limping every time his left rear leg touched the ground.
I winced. I¡¯d already forgotten that the sableye had suffered a harsh beating less than an hour earlier, and pulled off my backpack and started to dig through the pouches while I waited for him to catch up.
Potions were amazing. As I understood them, they were miracle cures that my former world could have only dreamed of. But they weren¡¯t the perfect fixes to ¡®hp loss¡¯ that the pokemon games presented them as.
¡°Where does it hurt the most?¡± I asked sableye as he closed the distance, brandishing the purple spray bottle. The sableye shied back without saying anything, and I struggled to control my frustration. ¡°I won¡¯t hurt you; I want to help you. But I need you to tell me where it hurts to be able to help.¡±
A painfully long couple of seconds passed before the sableye held forward his left leg and gestured to a section along his thigh.
I couldn¡¯t see anything obviously injured about the leg, but I thought that maybe there was a small section of skin slightly darker than the rest. Regardless, I sprayed the expensive potion liberally up and down the sableye¡¯s leg, who hissed as the liquid touched his leg but didn¡¯t move away.
The potion was almost half-empty by the time I stopped, storing it back in my backpack and standing tall. ¡°Hop on,¡± I said to sableye, who was running its purple claws over its leg in surprise. He looked at me in surprise. ¡°It¡¯ll take some time for the potion to really do its work, time we don¡¯t have ¡ª for now, it¡¯s faster if I carry you.¡±
Sableye looked reluctant, but after Hobbes let out a few frustrated calls of ¡®di!¡¯, he latched on to the back of my backpack and we resumed our escape, this time sticking closer together.
As we jogged, I searched for nooks or side tunnels that could serve as a good hiding place or escape route, but nothing presented itself. Which might have been for the best; I was pretty sure that I had the grunt¡¯s granbull in my backpack, but if they had any other similar pokemon that could learn odor sleuth, then any effort to hide would be useless.
Which only left escaping. Though with how the grunts were talking about the ¡®checkpoint¡¯, and with how lit up the main chamber where the crevasse was, I couldn¡¯t imagine escaping being much easier. But I shook my head, refocusing on my steps; finding an escape route wouldn¡¯t matter if I twisted my ankle before even getting there.
It wasn¡¯t long before we passed the crates of stored diamonds, faint voices of the pursuing Rockets echoing from behind. For a single moment I felt temptation as I looked at the slightly-askew lid, my single pocketful of diamonds feeling insufficient in light of the danger I was currently facing. But I brushed the temptation away and continued to run.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
All too soon, we rounded the last corner of the tunnel into the main, well-lit chamber and slid to a stop as five heads turned to us ¡ª three of Rockets and two of pokemon. Angry looks at being interrupted morphed into expressions of confusion and surprise.
This time, though, I didn¡¯t freeze.
¡°Hobbes! Go for their belts!¡± I yelled, and Hobbes surged forward with a shadow sneak. He was fast enough to slash through and snag the first Rocket¡¯s belt, but before he could approach either of the others he was met by the ekshrew and koffdude that were already out of their balls.
The Rocket¡¯s pokemon had no compunctions about attacking Hobbes two versus one, and he only barely dodged the ekshrew¡¯s bite. But his dodge left him exposed, and he took the koffdude¡¯s rock throw directly to the ¡®face¡¯, his costume ripping along the top and almost tearing his fake head clean off.
He let out a mournful cry, but I wasn¡¯t worried. His ¡®disguise¡¯ ability meant he wasn¡¯t truly hurt, just annoyed at the repairs he would need to make to his costume later. But disguise only worked once, and dimikyus weren¡¯t very bulky without it; any more direct hits like that, and he would start to struggle.
What we needed was time: time to think of a new plan, time to sneak away, time for the sableye to recover. But that was the one thing we were sorely lacking ¡ª the Rocket who¡¯s belt Hobbes hadn¡¯t stolen was reaching for his pokeballs, and I was sure more reinforcements were coming from being us.
I made my call.
¡°Hobbes! Get rid of that belt and transform into the koffdude!¡±
Hobbes didn¡¯t hesitate despite the unusual order. With a quick flick of his purple shadows, the belt went flying onto a ledge in the corner of the cavern, out of easy reach of any Rockets, and he began to transform.
With his unfamiliarity with the move, it wasn¡¯t instantaneous. It wasn¡¯t even quick, taking close to ten seconds for his transformation to complete, a short eternity in most pokemon battles. But Hobbes had bought himself a bit of space with how easily he¡¯d weathered the first rock throw, and the Rockets were still reeling in surprise; without any commands otherwise, and since Hobbes was no longer attacking, the two fused pokemon gave him the space to complete his transformation.
¡°And just who do you think¡¡± the Rocket trainer of the koffdude and ekshrew, who I pegged as the leader of the operation, began, but I cut him off with a yell.
¡°Defense curl!¡±
Hobbes glowed with white energy as his new form ¡ª a puppet-like mimicry of the koffdude ¡ª curled its arms around its body. Geodudes were a common sight in lavender town due to the proximity of Rock Tunnel, so Hobbes had some practice with the move through mimic. At the same time, I shuffled sideways around the cavern, moving my back away from the tunnel even as the voices of the pursuing Rockets chased me from behind.
¡°Stop that kid! He stole a sableye!¡± I heard, and the glares directed against me sharpened.
¡°Hey, kid,¡± the lead Rocket called again as the grunt whose belt Hobbes hadn¡¯t been able to steal released his pokemon, a fusion of paras and zubat. ¡°You don¡¯t want your pokemon to get hurt, and I¡¯m sure that you don¡¯t wanna get hurt. Why don¡¯t you recall him, give us back our sableye, and we can all talk this out like civilized people?¡±
I ignored him, my head swiveling back and forth as I searched for a way out. Sableye hopped off my back to stand next to me on shaky legs as Hobbes continued to follow my last order, his defense increasing with each passing second.
The Rocket¡¯s smarmy smile morphed into a frown. ¡°Fine, you wanna play this the hard way? Have it your way. Ekshrew, wrap! Koffdude, acid! Everyone else: take that kid down!¡±
If I had any remaining doubts about Team Rocket¡¯s evil-ness, they were gone after the flurry of moves that flew indiscriminately across the cave.
Hobbes took as many as he could, unwilling to even attempt a dodge when I was so close behind him, and I dove to the side, the sableye only a second behind me. I just hoped Hobbes could withstand the attacks.
He should be able to; both koffing and geodude had better-than-average defenses, boosted even further by his defense curl, and his new rock-poison typing would be resistant to most of the moves his opponents could throw out. I just hoped none of them had any usable ground-type moves, as that would be four times supereffective against Hobbes¡¯ temporary new type. Luckily, there weren¡¯t that many easy-to-learn ground-type moves, at least not ones that didn¡¯t require some environmental preparation that this cavern didn¡¯t supply, like mud-slap or sand tomb. And hopefully none of the opposing Rockets were stupid enough to try using something like earthquake or ¡ª heavens forbid ¡ª magnitude while we were in a cave.
BANG!
I clamped my hands over my ears and huddled further behind the crate I crouched behind as the bullet pinged off of several rocks, ricocheting around the cave. Perhaps I needed to reevaluate my estimate of the grunts¡¯ stupidity.
¡°YOU IDIOT!¡± I heard the Rocket leader yell. ¡°Are you trying to kill us all? Just use your pokemon and TAKE! HIM! DOWN!¡±
My search for an escape became more frantic. The crevasse we¡¯d entered through was only a half-dozen yards away, but there was no way we¡¯d be able to slip into it and escape. Not without a distraction ¡ª but there was nothing. Just the stack of crates I hid behind, too short to topple over onto my opponents. Several tents scattered around the cavern. The three tunnels, heading off in three different directions. The cage of voltorbs, powering the floodlights illuminating the cavern¡
I moved before giving myself time to second-guess the decision.
¡°Hobbes! Smokescreen!¡± I called. I wasn¡¯t sure if he could hear me over the battling, and it wasn¡¯t a move he had any experience in, but he was transformed into a koffing fusion ¡ª smokescreen should be second nature for that evolutionary line. As I crawled across the rocky ground to lay beside the cage of sparking voltorbs, the smoke poured forth, dark, heavy, and cloying.
It wasn¡¯t enough to completely fill the cave, but it would hopefully buy me the time I needed. The latch to the voltorbs cage wasn¡¯t locked. A heavy plastic bar held the latch in place, likely to keep the voltorbs from being able to manipulate it with their electricity. In seconds, I pulled the bar free and flung open the gates.
The still-sparking voltorbs just looked at me, content in their captivity, and I snarled in frustration. I looked down at my hands, prayed that the insulation of my thin gloves would be enough, and prepared to reach into the cage ¡ª when sableye popped up outside the bars on the far side of the cage, his mouth open in a wide, terrifying smile: astonish. The voltorbs flinched back, rolling under my arms, and out of the cage.
The cave plunged into darkness.
¡°Hobbes! The crevasse!¡± I yelled, my voice blending in with the grunts¡¯ own yells of surprise. I had to trust my friend would meet me there, because we didn¡¯t have time to waste. Already I could see the lights of a couple of flashlights swinging wildly around the cave, their beams seeming physical as they shone through the thick smoke.
I grabbed sableye¡¯s arm in one hand as I held my dimmed flashlight low to the ground with the other, sneaking through the dark of the cavern to the crevasse. ¡°Climb up and out!¡± I whispered to the sableye before pushing him inside. Hobbes appeared a second later, still in his koffdude form but with his disguise practically torn to shreds. He was panting for breath and purple shadows dripped from his disguise, and my heart ached for my friend, but we had no time. I held up my backpack and gestured to the crevasse.
¡°Go on up, I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡±
¡°¡kyu!¡± he responded, and I winced at the pain in his voice.
¡°There¡¯s no time! We need to get to town and call for help. Just take my backpack and go ¡ª I promise I¡¯ll follow.¡±
Hobbes gave a reluctant nod and followed my orders, and I squeezed in as Hobbes floated up the narrow crevasse. It was a tighter fit than I remembered, and I struggled to rotate my body into the same orientation that it had been on the way down. My arms were over my head, and I dug my fingers into the rocks on either side to pull myself up. My elbows couldn¡¯t flare out as much as they needed to, though, so I was forced to find new handholds every six inches, caterpillaring my way up the crevasse a handhold at a time. I could feel a bit of blood dripping from my nails where they caught against the rocks, but I couldn¡¯t afford to slow down. If any of the Rockets noticed my feet dangling within the shadows of the crevasse before I got all the way up¡
Then, the worst happened: the crevasse narrowed. Not by much, apparently not enough to slow me on the way down when I had gravity working with me. But enough that I couldn¡¯t find the leverage to pull myself further up. My feet dangled below, unable to find a foothold, and my back pocket ¡ª the pocket filled with stolen diamonds ¡ª was wedged against the rocks around my waist, holding me in place.
If I was caught because of a stupid handful of diamonds¡
I mentally swore off any future greed as I battled against the claustrophobia, but after a few seconds with no forward progress, I closed my eyes and made my decision. It was why I had asked Hobbes to go out first ¡ª I didn¡¯t think Team Rocket would kill a kid, not if there was no financial benefit for them. And as long as Hobbes made it out to warn the authorities, there was no reason for them to add homicide to their crimes today.
But as I opened my mouth to yell, to tell my best friend to leave me behind and get help, my pocket sparked with a flash of yellow light. Not my back pocket holding the stolen diamonds ¡ª my front pocket, containing my phone.
And suddenly, I could move again as gravity lost its hold.
Now weightless, I yanked against the rocks overhead with renewed energy. A few of the diamonds fell from my back pocket as I pulled, but I didn¡¯t allow myself to hesitate, pulling with all my strength. Until finally, I squeezed free, and practically flew up the rest of the crevasse without gravity holding me back. A minute later I emerged into the mineshaft overhead.
I didn¡¯t bother to listen for pursuers or question the sudden disappearance and subsequent return of gravity. I just recalled Hobbes into his pokeball, pulled the sableye on top of my backpack, and sprinted up and out of the mine shaft.
Chapter 21: Officer Bragg
I lay back in the grass, lazily watching the clouds drift by overhead. My arms were outstretched to either side, and I breathed in deeply before exhaling just as deeply, allowing my muscles to fully relax as I simply¡was.
I¡¯d been terrified the entire run up the mineshaft and back to Merraga. It hadn¡¯t really registered in the cave how bad of a situation Hobbes and I had found ourselves in, and the little bit of distance was enough for me to almost collapse in a nervous heap once reality punched me in the face. But we¡¯d still needed to escape, so I¡¯d forced myself to run all the way to the ¡®pokemon center¡¯ of Merraga, where they had the single working telephone in the town.
That had been almost two hours earlier, though, and I couldn¡¯t maintain my freak-out forever.
The building wasn¡¯t really a pokemon center, just this town¡¯s imitation of one that served as Merraga¡¯s treatment center, pokemart, sheriff¡¯s station, post office, and even hosted square dancing with live music for the locals on the weekends, if the faded flyer posted to the cork board was to be believed. The man managing it obviously didn¡¯t believe my claims of a criminal organization mining diamonds underneath the nearby mountains, but he hadn¡¯t stopped me from using their phone, an old-fashioned landline, to call out to the nearest actual police station. And he was currently treating both Hobbes¡¯ and the sableye¡¯s injuries, so I couldn¡¯t complain.
All I could do was wait for the response from the police station. It had been hard to tell over the phone, but the person taking my call had sounded similarly dubious when I told my story, but she¡¯d assured me they would send someone to Merraga to check it out.
I was worried that their laissez-faire attitude would give the Rockets time to track me down and silence the loose end, but when no one had stormed the town after the first hour, I allowed myself to start to relax. An illegal mining operation was one thing; storming a town to eliminate a witness was something entirely different.
Eventually, I spied a tiny dot in the clouds along the southern horizon. It swiftly grew into the form of a man in uniform atop a pidgeotto, and I waved my arm toward him as he circled over the town. I wasn¡¯t sure if he saw me, but a few moments later he came into land, and I shielded my eyes from the dust his mount¡¯s wings kicked up.
¡°Are you Marcus?¡± he asked, wasting no time as he hopped to the ground next to me and pulled up his goggles.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°Yeah, are you here to investigate the Rocket hideout?¡±
¡°I will, if I decide it needs investigating. I¡¯m Officer Bragg. Why don¡¯t you run through with me everything that happened, first.¡±
It took surprisingly little time, all things considered ¡ª I hadn¡¯t actually been in the cave with the Rockets for more than an hour and a half, and most of that time had been spent hiding in the dark. The officer listened with polite disinterest as I told my story, making notes in a small notebook and nodding every few seconds.
¡°And do you have any evidence to corroborate your claims?¡± he asked, and I winced.
¡°No, not beside my word,¡± I said, but then I paused. ¡°Actually, I completely forgot¡¡± I reached into my backpack and pulled out one of the stolen belts, pokeballs and gun still attached. ¡°I stole this off of one of the Rockets¡¡± I began, but before I could say any more I found myself facedown in the dirt with a pidgeotto¡¯s claws digging into my back.
In hindsight, pulling out the gun without warning wasn¡¯t the smartest of decisions, but in my defense I was extremely tired and not thinking quite straight. Luckily, this world didn¡¯t have quite as negative of a history with guns as my old world, and the officer didn¡¯t overreact. After a few urgent questions and a close examination of the belt ¡ª along with the confiscation of it and the other belt from my backpack ¡ª I was allowed back to my feet.
The officer used a small, fancy-looking handheld device to scan each of the pokeballs, and his frown grew after each scan. He used the same device to make a call to what I presumed was headquarters, reading off the serial numbers etched into the balls, before turning back to me with a much more serious and focused look to his eyes.
¡°These are unregistered, which is highly illegal. Did you know that?¡±
I shrugged. ¡°No, but it doesn¡¯t surprise me. Team Rocket are criminals, after all.¡±
His frown grew. ¡°Do you know the pokemon inside these balls? And is there anything else you can tell me? Any other information or evidence you might be leaving out?¡±
¡°One of them is a granbull, I think. The rest, I have no idea.¡± And then I paused. Because I realized there was another piece of evidence I¡¯d left out ¡ª a piece of evidence that I¡¯d prefer if the authorities never knew existed. But I¡¯d so recently sworn off foolish choices made out of greed, and I couldn¡¯t go back on that decision only a few hours after it was made. So with a sigh, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a handful of diamonds. ¡°I also have these. I swiped them from one of the crates they had in the mine.¡±
The officer¡¯s eyes widened, and he reached out and plucked a single, tiny diamond from my hand, holding it in front of his eye before gently placing it back. ¡°Hold onto that, for now. I think I need to call in some backup. Stay here.¡±
I nodded as he walked away, fiddling with his fancy device, and I plopped back to the ground, staring up at the clouds. It had been a long day, but it seemed unlikely that it would end any time soon.
Chapter 22: Officer Jenny
I had hoped the authorities would respond with force when they heard about Team Rocket¡¯s operation. But I wasn¡¯t quite prepared for the level of force they deemed was necessary after Officer Bragg decided to believe me.
It started with just a few dots in the sky, miles away against the blue over the mountains. I was the first to notice them, laying on my back in the grass and staring in their direction, but I initially dismissed them as a flock of pidgeys simply because of how many there were. But as they drew closer, flying in a perfectly straight line, I realized they were much too big to be simple first-stage pokemon, and I pushed myself into a sitting position.
¡°You know anything about that?¡± I called to Officer Bragg, who¡¯d been messaging and talking on his device almost non-stop for the last twenty minutes. He glanced to the sky before nodding.
¡°That¡¯s the reinforcements. Follow me.¡±
We walked to the edge of town ¡ª not too long of a walk, given how small Merraga was, and a few curious townspeople followed behind with a mishmash of pet pokemon by their sides.
The flyers grew larger as we waited for their arrival, and I started to be able to pick out a few of the pokemon: one fearow, a couple of pidgeottos and pidgeotto fusions, and even a massive tropius loaded down with supplies in the back. But once I saw the pokemon leading the charge, a woman with recognizable blue-green hair on its back, I could focus on nothing else.
The noivern-noctowl fusion glided to a stop in the field in front of us without a sound as the rest of the convoy landed behind it in a storm of wind. And from its back jumped Officer Jenny, the symbol for Fuschia City on her hat.
Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys was one of the most curious ways in which this world mimicked the anime. There were dozens of them scattered across the regions, seemingly indistinguishable to everyone except each other, and aside from the champions and pokemon professors they were some of the most respected trainers in the world. Gym leaders were more powerful, both as trainers and politically, but only because Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys refused to get involved in politics and their teams were typically limited to less than three pokemon. They were still powerful, much more so than the average trainer, but the respect they commanded came from their ideals rather than their strength.
Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys were paragons of their respective fields of justice and healing. It didn¡¯t matter how corrupt the rest of the police force or city¡¯s authorities might be ¡ª an Officer Jenny would always pursue justice, regardless of whose nose it might tweak or where the trail might lead. And regardless of your status, ability to pay, or the severity of yours or your pokemon¡¯s injuries, everyone knew that if you made it to a pokemon center with a Nurse Joy inside, you would be taken care of.
The world would be a much better place if there were more Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys around, but unfortunately they were extremely limited in number. I had only seen a Nurse Joy a few times before, and never an Officer Jenny. There were constant rumors that the Lavender Town pokemon center would be getting a Nurse Joy in the next year or two, but those rumors had been flying around every year since I woke up in this world and had yet to come to fruition. Currently, only those Kantonian cities with gyms had Nurse Joys.
There were a multitude of theories of how exactly Nurse Joys and Officer Jenny¡¯s worked. Some thought they were twins, identical sisters in a massive family that never seemed to age. Others thought they were aliens or angels, messengers of a benevolent higher power. And still others thought they were pokemon, having somehow learned human speech and how to avoid capture. No one with any power was asking, for fear that the Joys and Jennys would leave their city to serve their ideals somewhere else, and the women weren¡¯t offering up any explanation.
I had my own theories, of course, but that was all irrelevant as the Officer Jenny in front of me walked forward with a frown to speak with Officer Bragg. The noivowl followed behind her, the feathered, bat-like form casting a shadow over the officers.
And then she turned to me with a smile.
¡°Hello! I¡¯m Officer Jenny! You¡¯re Marcus?¡±
¡°Y-yes,¡± I said, my voice cracking, and I winced. There were a multitude of fan clubs for the Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys for several different reasons, and I would be lying if I denied being at least a bit of fan myself.
Her smile widened. ¡°Nice to meet you! I hear you¡¯re the one who found this hideout when you were out exploring someplace you weren¡¯t supposed to be.¡± She winked at me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t give you a fine for that. In the future though, if you see that someplace is blocked off or a sign telling you to keep out, please respect it. They¡¯re usually there for your safety.¡±
¡°¡understood.¡±
She gave an approving nod before her smile turned more neutral. ¡°I know you¡¯ve already talked to Officer Bragg, but why don¡¯t you run through everything with me, one more time. Start at the beginning, please.¡±
I nodded. ¡°I arrived into town the day before yesterday¡¡±
It took a little bit for me to find my rhythm, but Officer Jenny was a good listener, nodding along and only occasionally interrupting to ask insightful questions about things I might not have thought to mention ¡ª like the fact that hardly any of Team Rocket¡¯s supplies seemed to be long-term, with everything set up in temporary tents and packed away in crates.
¡°Hmm. That probably means that either the operation is only temporary, or they¡¯re close enough to a population center for them to resupply what they need daily. Although the grunts complaining about not seeing the sun seems to conflict with both of those¡¡± she mused, before nodding at me. ¡°Continue, please.¡±
It took another couple of minutes, during which the rest of the officers were unpacking supplies carried in on the tropius and setting up a large tent for what I presumed was a temporary base of operations, but eventually I finished my story.
¡°You¡¯re lucky you got off so easily,¡± Officer Jenny commented with a stern frown. ¡°You know that, right?¡±
¡°Yeah, I know¡¡±
She nodded before smiling again. ¡°As long as you learn from it. You may be on your adventure, but that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t be safe, too!¡± This last was said with a strange cadence, as if it was the motto of an ad campaign, and I gave a dubious nod in response. She grinned before turning and yelling at one of the other officers. ¡°Jennings! You ready?¡± After hearing the affirmative, she turned back to me. ¡°We¡¯ll be raiding the caves, now. I doubt they¡¯ll have stuck around for long after you escaped ¡ª Team Rocket is annoyingly good at disappearing if you give them half the chance, but maybe we¡¯ll get lucky. Between your description, noivowl¡¯s hearing, and arcasol¡¯s nose,¡± she gestured to the massive bird-bat pokemon over her shoulder and patted the other pokeball on her belt, ¡°¡we should be able to find their cave no problem. But just in case, stay in town for the next few hours. I might be able to find someone to give you a ride out to Fuschia City afterward, if you want it.¡±
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I gave an emphatic nod. I hadn¡¯t originally planned on visiting Fuschia City next ¡ª I wanted to eventually challenge some gyms, and Pewter City was the traditional starting point for most trainers on their journey. But even if I immediately left Fuschia after getting there, flying would save me hours of travel time.
Plus, I¡¯d get to fly. Despite how the games might¡¯ve made it seem, pokemon with the ability to carry humans through the sky weren¡¯t as common as one might think.
¡°It¡¯s settled then! Be back in a jiffy!¡±
And with that, I settled back in to wait.
It wasn¡¯t something I was typically very good at, as my parents could attest. But in the wake of my clash with Team Rocket, I found myself not minding the downtime as much as I normally would.
¡°We need to have a conversation,¡± I said, my voice serious.
Officer Jenny had led most of the other officers off on the raid fifteen minutes earlier, after which the man in charge of Merraga¡¯s ¡®pokemon center¡¯ had returned Hobbes and the sableye to me, mostly recovered. Hobbes was still obviously exhausted, but his costume was back in place and he had no injuries that I could see. The sableye continued to hunch in on itself, flinching away anytime I or anyone else made too loud of a noise or moved too suddenly, but I took the man¡¯s word that he was at least mostly physically recovered. I still planned to bring him to a better-equipped pokemon center once we got to Fuschia¡assuming this conversation went well.
I led the sableye a couple dozen yards away from the temporary police headquarters to give us some privacy before sitting down in the grass, gesturing for Hobbes to sit to my right and the sableye across from me. Then, very carefully, I set my cell phone down in the grass to my left, completing the square.
¡°All of us need to have a conversation,¡± I continued, looking pointedly at the phone. And then I waited. Five, ten, fifteen seconds¡until finally, reluctantly, a red and blue duck-like pokemon materialized above the phone in a kaleidoscope of geometric shapes.
A porygon: an extremely rare and unique pokemon, famous for the fact that it was the first pokemon to be artificially created. I couldn¡¯t say I was surprised though; given the last few hours to clear my head, it wasn¡¯t too hard to deduce what was hiding in my phone.
There were only a few pokemon that could hide themselves so completely within my device, and only one I knew who could learn the move magnet rise, one of the few possible explanations for the miraculous temporary disappearance of gravity in the crevasse. Coupled with the fact that we had been exploring around an old Silph Co. headquarters, the purported creators of the first porygon several decades earlier, and the puzzle pieces started to fit together.
¡°How long have you been out here?¡± I asked with a gentle voice, well aware that, despite its friendly and innocuous appearance, I was still dealing with a wild pokemon.
¡°Beep, beep beep, bzzzt. Beep bzzzzt,¡± the porygon responded, and I frowned. This was the first time I¡¯d ever heard a pokemon ¡®talking¡¯ without using its name, and a glance at Hobbes confirmed that he was just as lost as I was.
¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t get that. How about yes-no questions? Beep for yes, and buzz for no.¡±
¡°¡beep.¡±
¡°Have you been here for the last forty years? Ever since the old Silph Co. office closed?¡±
¡°Beep bzzzt.¡±
I rubbed my temples, realizing this would be more difficult than I expected. But then the porygon beeped again, catching my attention before it dropped from where it was floating to the ground, its eyes closing.
¡°You¡¯ve been¡asleep?¡±
¡°¡beep, bzzt.¡±
¡°Power-saving mode,¡± I guessed again, realization striking, and the porygon beeped. ¡°You were somehow left behind when the Silph Co. offices were abandoned. But there¡¯s no technology in Merraga, there hasn¡¯t been for decades. At least not the type you can inhabit, none with cyberspace ¡ª at least not until I left my phone in the grass to chase after Hobbes the other night.¡±
The porygon beeped again, sounding a little guilty, and I nodded. I was sure there was more to the porygon¡¯s story ¡ª there was no way it could be out here for forty years without there being more story to tell, power-saving mode or not. But that wasn¡¯t the conversation we needed to have right now. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not mad at you. You did what you had to, and you saved my bacon back there with Team Rocket. You¡¯ve much more than paid me back for any issues you might¡¯ve caused on my phone. But we need to talk about your plans going forward.¡± I paused, glancing at the sableye to make sure he knew I was also talking to him here, and then nodding once I confirmed I had his full attention. ¡°Option one: you can go free here and make yourself a home in the wilderness around Merraga.¡±
¡°Bzzzt, bzzzt!¡±
I chuckled as I held up a hand to forestall the porygon¡¯s protests. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t force you into any of the options, and there are others too.¡± Once the porygon calmed down, I continued. ¡°Option two: come with me to Fuschia, and you can go free there. Now, there are some caveats to that; they don¡¯t allow just any wild pokemon to roam the streets of a big city like Fuschia, especially not pokemon as powerful as you two have the potential to be, but there¡¯s plenty of wilderness nearby for you to make a home if you¡¯re looking for a change of scenery. That wouldn¡¯t be too different from if you were to stay here, though, with one potential exception: the Safari Zone. You both belong to rare enough species of pokemon that I think you¡¯ll be granted admittance. In the Safari zone, you¡¯ll be fed, taken care of, and safe from predators, poachers, or malicious trainers like Team Rocket.¡± I glanced at sableye as I said the last, but he had no noticeable reaction. ¡°Also, there will be a lot of trainers in Fuschia. I can leave you with the pokemon center, and I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be able to find you a trainer whose goals match your own, whether that¡¯s to be a competitive battler on victory road or to be a pet pokemon living the rest of your days out in indolence. You especially, porygon. I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s a company in the world that would turn away the digital protection that you can offer.¡±
The man who¡¯d healed Hobbes and the sableye confirmed that sableye hadn¡¯t been captured, which meant that in the eyes of the league he was essentially a wild pokemon. I was a little worried that the officers might try to stake some claim to him as ¡®evidence¡¯ in their investigation into Team Rocket, but I was determined to ensure he would be given the option to live a life away from the horrible captivity he had previously suffered.
The porygon and sableye were obviously listening to my words, but neither looked particularly enthused by any of the previous options. So, taking a deep breath, I started my final pitch. ¡°Or, option three: you join me on my journey. I would become your trainer, and you would be my pokemon.¡±
¡°Kyu!! Di, di!¡±
I chuckled. ¡°Yeah, I agree with Hobbes. The best option, but we¡¯re both a bit biased.¡±
That diffused some of the tension that had built over the last few minutes, and the sableye finally broke his silence. ¡°Say say, saybleye.¡±
I looked to Hobbes for the translation, who thankfully was better able to understand the sableye than the porygon, relaying the message in a few squeaks of his own.
¡°What¡¯s my goal?¡± I reiterated, and the sableye nodded. ¡°That¡¯s a big question. Lots of trainers would give the easy answer: to be the strongest, to train until they¡¯re the very best in their region, if not the world.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I don¡¯t really subscribe to that. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I want to be strong. On that front, my goal is to get all eight Kanto badges, and if you were to come with me you would definitely need to train hard. But strength is just a means to an end, not the end itself. Getting strong just for the sake of getting strong¡¡± I shook my head. ¡°No hate to those trainers who have that as their goal, but to me that always felt a bit¡hollow.¡± I shifted to lay on my back, staring up at the sky as I continued to talk. ¡°For me, it¡¯s about the adventure. This world is amazing, with so many places to explore and mysteries to solve. Look at what I¡¯ve seen and experienced just in the first couple of days after leaving home. I intend to experience as much as I can of what this world has to offer. But more than that, I want to experience it with my friends.¡± I tilted my head up from the ground and smiled at Hobbes, who trilled back. ¡°Hobbes is my best friend. I hope the rest of my pokemon will be similarly good friends, both with me and with each other. To me, chasing adventure is just as meaningless as wanting to be ¡®the best¡¯ if you don¡¯t have friends to share that adventure with.¡± I took a deep breath before meeting the eyes of the sableye and porygon once again. ¡°So that¡¯s my goal: to build a team of best friends, a team that¡¯s strong enough to survive whatever this world throws at us. And to see as much of this wide, amazing world as we are able.¡±
I pulled out two pokeballs from my backpack ¡ª my last two pokeballs, after the ditto¡¯s ball had broken after it fused with Hobbes ¡ª and placed them on the ground in front of the porygon and sableye.
¡°What do you say?¡±
Chapter 23: Dietary Needs
It didn¡¯t take as long as I had expected for Officer Jenny to return from the raid. Which I suppose was a good thing, or at least better than her taking longer than expected. As much confidence as I had in Officer Jenny¡¯s capabilities as a trainer and officer of the law, I would prefer Team Rocket to escape than see Officer Jenny and her compatriots injured in a battle.
She came in fast, riding an extremely cool-looking fusion of absol and arcanine, hopping off and returning the massive doggo before she even touched the ground. She first checked in with those officers manning the temporary headquarters, spending ten minutes speaking with different people and then talking into a radio. But after that, she turned my way with a wave and a smile.
¡°How was it? Did you find it?¡± I asked.
¡°Yeah, followed your directions no problem. Had to widen the path connecting their caverns to the mine to get everyone through, but we had the pokemon for the job.¡±
¡°Was anyone still there? Did you catch them?¡±
She gave me a calculating look. ¡°Do you really want to know? You aren¡¯t involved in this anymore, and it¡¯s not something you should have to worry about.¡±
I swallowed, considering for a moment before firming my resolve. ¡°I¡¯d like to know, if that¡¯s okay. Even if there¡¯s nothing I can do, and knowing makes me lose some sleep¡ignorance would be even worse.¡±
Jenny looked at me for another second before giving a sharp nod. ¡°We weren¡¯t able to catch them. By the time we got there, everyone and everything was gone ¡ª though they left more behind than I¡¯m used to seeing in an abandoned Rocket hideout. They must have packed in a hurry, so I¡¯m hopeful we¡¯ll find some clues to track them down. But enough about that! It looks like you had some success of your own while we were gone,¡± she said with a pointed glance to where I had three pokeballs hanging from my belt.
I returned her smile. ¡°Yep! Sableye decided to join me, along with another guy I met outside of town. Want to meet them?¡±
¡°Of course! Though I will say, I¡¯m a bit surprised you chose to keep the sableye. They¡¯re not the easiest pokemon to raise.¡±
¡°Nah, I¡¯m from Lavender Town and my starter is a mimikyu. Ghost pokemon don¡¯t bother me.¡±
Officer Jenny stared at me for a moment before releasing a ladylike giggle, followed by a very un-ladylike snort. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. That¡¯s an admirable attitude to have, and I wish more younger people weren¡¯t as prejudiced against certain types. It¡¯s just¡I was talking about sableye¡¯s diet, not his typing.¡±
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
I paused before releasing the pokemon on my belt, deciding to hear out Officer Jenny first. ¡°¡his diet?¡±
¡°Oh, you don¡¯t know?¡± she asked, and then winced when I shook my head. ¡°Well, sableye is one of the more expensive pokemon to keep properly fed. Many of their nutrients can come from normal pokechow, but they¡¯ve got a unique requirement of crystals as well.¡±
¡°Crystals?¡±
¡°Yeah. Any type of crystals will keep them healthy, so even salt is good enough for a pet sableye. The problem is that the ingested crystals increase their defenses, so for a battling sableye, the harder the crystals they eat, the better.¡±
¡°¡and the hardest crystals¡¡±
¡°Are diamonds, yes. Which is why so few battlers use sableyes, aside from their rarity. A sableye¡¯s optimal diet is not cheap.¡±
I drooped in place, suddenly aware of my practically non-existent savings.
¡°Hey, don¡¯t worry,¡± Officer Jenny said consolingly, patting me on the shoulder. ¡°There are cheaper options too that are almost as good. Quartz is plenty hard, if I¡¯m remembering right. And it¡¯s not like he has to eat the expensive or fancy stuff, either; uncut and rough crystals will work just as well, so maybe you¡¯ll be able to strike a deal with a jeweler or some mining operations or something. Plus, it¡¯s not like you¡¯re starting from scratch. You¡¯ve got that pocket full of diamonds; with some rationing, that¡¯ll last you at least a week.¡±
I looked up at her with surprise. ¡°I get to keep them? I assumed you would confiscate them¡aren¡¯t they evidence or something?¡±
She winked at me. ¡°Consider it a reward for reporting a Team Rocket hideout. A finder¡¯s fee. We¡¯ve already found more than what¡¯s in your pocket left behind in the caves, so it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll miss it.¡±
¡°Thanks!¡± I said enthusiastically. My future financial issues weren¡¯t solved, not by a long shot, but an extra week before I¡¯d need to start draining my bank account to feed sableye was a huge help. Before setting out on my journey, I¡¯d allocated a portion of my saved funds for food and supplies for any pokemon I might catch along the way, but I hadn¡¯t factored in one of my pokemon needing literal diamonds as part of their optimal diet.
¡°Oh, before I forget,¡± Officer Jenny said. ¡°Officer Bragg will be leaving for Fuschia with the Tropius in a few minutes. You¡¯re welcome to join them, or there will be some others making the trip over the next few days, too. Or you can make your own way, of course, if you like.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll take you up on that. The ride today, that is,¡± I said. The Merraga doctor had reported that, despite sableye¡¯s extensive smaller injuries that he¡¯d healed, his biggest issue was malnutrition. But he¡¯d failed to mention any of sableye¡¯s special dietary needs ¡ª which made me wonder what else he might have missed or forgotten. The sooner I could get my pokemon checked out at a full pokemon center, the better.
¡°Well, then I¡¯ll leave you with Officer Bragg. And, once again, thank you for your help against Team Rocket today.¡±
¡°I didn¡¯t exactly do much¡¡±
¡°I disagree. You would be surprised by how many people wouldn¡¯t even take the time to give us a call after stumbling across Rocket activity, much less stick around to make sure the investigating officer believes your account. If more people acted like you, maybe we could save more of the pokemon Team Rocket abuses¡¡± she shook her head before smiling at me one last time. ¡°Not that I expect you to get any further involved with Team Rocket. If I hear from you again, I want it to be because you¡¯ve qualified for the pokemon championships, not because of any more criminal shenanigans.¡±
¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±
Chapter 24: Fuschia City
I let out one final whoop of excitement as the tropius descended toward a field just outside of Fuschia City, my wild green hair blown even wilder in the wind. I¡¯d almost lost my cap in the first two minutes of the ride, barely catching it and stowing it in my backpack before it was lost forever in the mountains that separated Merraga and Fuschia. Now I let my hair flow free, enjoying the cool breeze massaging my scalp.
Hobbes was perched behind the tropius¡¯ head, his purple shadows clinging to the larger pokemon¡¯s neck as he chattered something in its ear ¡ª most likely trying to persuade it to do one final loop-de-loop before landing. He was unsuccessful, unfortunately, and we glided down to the empty field without any further aerial acrobatics.
Sableye had elected to stay in his ball for the journey, while Porygon had joined us in the flight for only the first five minutes before retreating to cyberspace on my phone. It seemed he preferred resting within the technology to a pokeball, and I wondered if I would need to upgrade my phone to something a little more sophisticated. It was an absolute brick of a phone, after all, and I would assume a more technologically advanced device would make the pokemon more comfortable.
Which made me wonder¡did Porygon also have strange dietary requirements, in his case related to technology? He¡¯d claimed to have been in a power-saving mode outside of Merraga ¡ª was that caused by the lack of technology for him to ¡®feed¡¯ off of?
It was one more reason to get them both checked out at the pokemon center, ASAP.
Luckily, I wouldn¡¯t have to wait much longer. After a surprisingly gentle landing, a quick farewell to Officer Bragg, and a brisk walk into town, I was there: the Fuschia City pokecenter.
It was four stories tall, much larger than any building in Lavender Town. The top two floors of the center were shared rooms that trainers on their journey could use for a token fee, basically just hostels with lines of narrow beds and small living areas separated by curtains. There were also several hotels and motels in the city with more private rooms for rent for journeying trainers, but they were much more expensive.
The sliding front doors of the center opened with a whoosh, and I stepped into the air-conditioned space with wide eyes.
I¡¯d obviously been inside pokecenters before. My family took Kisses to the Lavender Town pokecenter for a yearly checkup and Hobbes after any serious battles. But that was a small-town pokemon center; Lavender Town wasn¡¯t the particularly heavily trafficked, as it wasn¡¯t along any of the major routes and didn¡¯t have a gym to attract wandering trainers.
The Fuschia City pokemon center was an entirely different experience.
Over two dozen trainers wandered around the main lobby, each of whom had at least one of their pokemon with them out of their balls. Some were visibly injured, having just come from losing battles, while others seemed perfectly healthy and happy, perching on shoulders and calling out their names while their trainers went about their business. On one side of the lobby there were a series of free-to-use computers, in front of which were several trainers calling home and showing off their newly caught or fused pokemon to their parents.
The diversity of the pokemon, too, was more than I was accustomed to. Paras, sentret, ledian, skiploom, shellder, doduo, flaaffy, gligar, exeggecute, magnemite¡ª and those were just the ones I could see in a single glance. There were more beyond, many of them fusions that I couldn¡¯t immediately identify.
¡°Look out! Coming through!¡± I heard from behind me, and I hurried to step away from the still-open doors as a trainer rushed in with a beat-up aipom in his arms. He immediately rushed to a counter on the left where a Nurse Joy waited
I followed the trainer to the counter at a slower pace, my head on a swivel as I walked, and by the time I got there the aipom had been returned to his ball and was being carried away on a cart pushed by a chansey-kirlia fusion.
¡°Greetings! Place any pokemon you would like healed on the counter in their balls, and describe their injuries, please.¡±
¡°Ah, I don¡¯t need any healing, actually ¡ª I have two newly caught and one recently fused pokemon, and I¡¯d like for them to have a full check-up.¡±
¡°Oh, for general check-ups you¡¯ll head over there,¡± the pink-haired woman said with a smile and a gesture to the counter on the other side of the pokecenter. ¡°They¡¯ll take your pokemon and make sure they¡¯re in tip-top shape! Now, if you could move to the side, please¡¡±
I glanced back, seeing another pokemon trainer rushing into the center with an injured tyrogue, and stepped out of the way. Despite the trainer¡¯s wide eyes and slightly frantic calls for assistance, his pokemon didn¡¯t appear to be in nearly as bad of shape as the previous aipom. But Nurse Joy greeted him with calm, earnest concern, listening to the description of injuries while the tyrogue rolled its eyes and fidgeted in its trainer¡¯s arms.
I decided to cut the trainer some slack. He looked about my age and only had a single pokeball on his belt ¡ª he was probably brand new on his journey, and possibly had just finished his first battle; it was understandable to be a bit nervous for his pokemon¡¯s health in that situation.
¡°Hey, time to get back into your balls,¡± I said to Hobbes as we approached the second counter. ¡°You too, Porygon.¡± Porygon materialized in the air by my side where my phone was stored, looking curiously around the center for a moment before zeroing in on the line of computers. ¡°Nope, not right now,¡± I called before he could get any ideas, and the duck pokemon looked at me with sad eyes. ¡°These don¡¯t belong to us. I¡¯ll ask permission from the workers, though, see if they¡¯ll allow you to explore after your exam is finished.¡±
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Porygon nodded and gave a quiet beep, mollified for the moment, before he disappeared in a flash of red light into his pokeball. There was no line in front of this counter, and I set all three of my pokeballs down before explaining to the man in a white smock not too dissimilar from Nurse Joy¡¯s outfit what I was looking to have done. After a few clarifying questions and filling out a form with my info, he took the balls to the back and told me they¡¯d be returned in about three hours.
And suddenly, I was left alone in the pokemon center, without my companions or anything to do. It was strange, and not something I had expected for my journey. According to the web, the most dedicated trainers ¡ª all the ones who saw any level of success in the gym challenge ¡ª were going nonstop. If they weren¡¯t challenging a gym, they were battling. If they weren¡¯t battling, they were training. And if they weren¡¯t training¡they were falling behind.
It was part of why I had so little desire to be the champion. A journey like that left no time for sightseeing or adventure, no time for truly enjoying the journey instead of chasing the destination. But even if I¡¯d planned to have some ¡®down¡¯ time, I¡¯d expected that time to be spent with Hobbes and the rest of my pokemon, not alone in a new city¡¯s pokecenter. Though, as long as things didn¡¯t go terribly awry, this should be the only time I would be stuck completely alone. Somewhat paradoxically, more serious injuries from battling could be resolved much quicker than a full check-up of a new fusion or capture. A heal pulse or two, supplemented by a potion or antidote overseen by a Nurse Joy or someone else experienced in healing, and a pokemon could be back to full health in no time. A full check-up looked deeper, however, for potential underlying issues that a simple potion would not be able to resolve.
I glanced at the line of computers with a similar expression to Porygon before turning away. It would be nice to reconnect with my parents and Kisses, but Hobbes would kill me if I video-called them without him. Plus, I wanted my family to be able to meet my new team.
So I settled into a row of seats that were lined up against the wall, between a lanky teen with a brown farmer¡¯s hat pulled low over his eyes and a youngster in shorts excitedly chatting with an older man on his other side. I pulled out my phone and opened the ¡®ekans¡¯ app, eager to see exactly how much of an effect Porygon had had on my earlier high score.
Five minutes and more than ten frustrating deaths later, I pushed the phone back into my pocket with an annoyed frown, as I heard a low voice from beside me. ¡°¡is he gone?¡±
I looked to my right at the lanky teen. Between the large fluffy scarf wrapped around his neck, the hat pulled low over his eyes, and how low he slouched in his seat, he looked to all the world like he was asleep. But I didn¡¯t think I was imagining things, so after a glance back and forth to make sure no one else was nearby, I whispered back just as quietly. ¡°Is who gone?
¡°The youngster.¡±
This time I was sure it was the teen next to me. The youngster on my other side had left sometime in the last few minutes, along with the older man, so I nodded. ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s gone.¡±
¡°Thank goodness,¡± the teen sighed, sitting up and removing his hat, and I got my first good look at him. He was tall and thin, with ash-white hair that hung almost to his neck, his bangs partially shading his eyes. He gave me a nod. ¡°I thought he would never leave.¡±
¡°¡you were avoiding him? By pretending to be asleep?¡±
¡°Yeah, well, I couldn¡¯t actually sleep. Believe me, I was trying. But I just woke up an hour ago.¡±
I looked at the clock ¡ª it was five in the evening.
¡°Don¡¯t give me that look ¡ª I¡¯ve got nothing against youngsters, usually,¡± he said, misinterpreting my questioning glance. ¡°I used to be one not so long ago. But that kid¡all he wanted to talk about was his shorts. ¡®I like shorts! They¡¯re comfy and easy to wear! These are my second favorite pair.¡¯ And on and on¡I had to do something to get away.¡±
I snorted a laugh. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s reasonable.¡± I gave him a nod. ¡°I¡¯m Marcus.¡±
¡°Sebastion, but everyone calls me Seb.¡±
¡°Nice to meet you Seb. But I gotta wonder¡why didn¡¯t you just leave?¡±
¡°Just got a new ¡®mon, he¡¯s gettin¡¯ checked out now. I can¡¯t leave him here all alone. Even if he never knew the difference ¡ª gotta be supportive, an¡¯ all that.¡±
I nodded. ¡°I just caught a couple of new pokemon too, they¡¯re going through the check-up as well. What did you catch?¡±
¡°Slowpoke.¡±
¡°Oh, nice! Fishing off the coast?¡±
¡°Er¡something like that.¡± I looked at him curiously. ¡°Well, I was fishing. Just got a shiny new rod from the mart and decided to give it a shot. Found a preem spot on the coast: great sea breeze, some comfy roots to rest in, just the right mix of sun and shade¡¡±
¡°¡you fell asleep,¡± I guessed, and he nodded.
¡°When I woke up my rod was gone, replaced with a slowpoke. Great trade, I reckon.¡±
¡°Yeah, slowpoke are amazing,¡± I agreed. ¡°Not the best first evo, but a slowbro or slowking? Especially if you¡¯ve got one with regenerator, it¡¯s one of the best water pokemon in Kanto, in my opinion.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, they¡¯re great. But I don¡¯t subscribe to too much of that ¡®strategic¡¯ team-building nonsense ¡ª just gotta find the ¡®mons I vibe with, and the rest¡¯ll take care of itself.¡±
¡°¡do you not plan on taking down any gyms? Strategy is pretty important for battles.¡±
¡°Oh yeah, just finished Fuschia¡¯s the other day,¡± he said before pointing toward his hat. Following the pointing finger, I noticed the tiny heart-shaped pin attached to the brown leather ¡ª the soul badge. And I struggled to keep my jaw from dropping.
¡°You beat Koga? As your first gym?!¡±
Getting a single badge this early into the season was an accomplishment ¡ª Seb already had more badges than my dad had managed on his entire journey. But to get that first badge from Koga? The notoriously difficult poison-type gym leader?
That was extremely impressive.
¡°Yep, mostly thanks to this little guy,¡± he said, patting his scarf. Two eyes blinked open, a tiny mouth stretching wide as the slakoth yawned tiredly before he adjusted himself across Seb¡¯s shoulders and went back to sleep. ¡°With a solid finish from my other pokemon, of course.¡±
My mouth opened and then closed several times as I struggled to find words. ¡°¡how?¡± I eventually asked.
¡°Like I said, it¡¯s about how you vibe. The connection,¡± he responded with a shrug. But then he hesitated. ¡°I guess strategy isn¡¯t bad. I just don¡¯t think it¡¯s as important as some people say.¡± The nurse on the other side of the pokecenter¡¯s counter called out Seb¡¯s name, carrying a pokeball on a tray, and Seb stood from his seat. ¡°But hey, you seem like a chill dude. Why don¡¯t we put it to the test? Wanna battle?¡±
I shook my head. ¡°Can¡¯t right now, all my pokemon are getting looked at and won¡¯t be out for another couple of hours.¡±
¡°Nah, not right now. I¡¯ll give you my number and we can battle tomorrow. At the battle courts? First thing in the morning?¡±
I looked up at him, standing over me with a slakoth draped over his neck and soul badge pinned to his hat ¡ª and I nodded. ¡°You¡¯re on.¡±
Chapter 25: Learning the Ropes
It was late by the time my pokemon finished their checkup, but not too late for a call home. Hobbes took absolute delight in transforming into his horror-movie version of me and being the first one to greet my parents in the video call, still laughing to himself five minutes later at their reactions. After getting over their initial scare, my parents and Kisses absolutely loved my two new pokemon, showering them with enough words of affection that the two were begging to escape into their ball and phone after just a few minutes.
My family was less enthused with Hobbes¡¯ new form, mostly because they knew how much trouble he would get into with transform. But after lecturing him ¡ª and me as well ¡ª to be responsible with his new power, they were similarly affectionate to the small pokemon.
It was late by the time we got to bed, and I worried we wouldn¡¯t be ready the following morning for the battle with Seb ¡ª Hobbes was still new to his fusion, after all, and I hadn¡¯t had a chance to do any training with Porygon or Sableye. But a quick message to Seb¡¯s phone relieved my fears.
It turns out his and my definitions of ¡®first thing in the morning¡¯ were very different. We scheduled our battle for eleven a.m., which gave me and my team roughly three hours after breakfast to train and figure out a battle plan.
Luckily, the checkup didn¡¯t reveal any further issues with my pokemon. Sableye and Porygon were both somewhat malnourished and consequently weaker than they could be, but that would resolve itself with time. I sprinkled a small portion of my poached diamonds on top of Sableye¡¯s pokechow, which he devoured with almost scary gusto.
According to the nurse who looked over my pokemon, Porygon could subsist perfectly fine on the standard pokechow as long as he got some access to a technological device. The sophistication didn¡¯t matter as much as the fact that the device could connect to ¡®cyberspace¡¯, at least when it came to his nutrition. Porygon might prefer to explore more sophisticated devices and networks, but that was just for pleasure. The nurse permitted Porygon to use the center¡¯s computers, but warned against trying to breach into anything that was designated ¡®off-limits.¡¯ Apparently the pokecenter, and many other important networks, had porygon of their own to defend them, and they would take great offense to any attempts to circumvent that security.
I was a little worried that Porygon, after being out of contact with the world at large for the last several decades, would accidentally stumble into one of the off-limits areas in his curiosity. But the nurse assured me that was impossible ¡ª a porygon would take to cyberspace like a duck to water, and there was no way he could miss the warnings.
The only interesting result of Hobbes¡¯ check-up was his new typings. According to the tests, he was primarily a ghost type, secondarily a normal type, with fairy type as a distant third. Unlike the games and anime, it was entirely possible for a pokemon to have more than two types, just as it was possible for the types to differ in intensity. For example, while bulbasaur was a grass-poison type, its grass typing was much stronger than poison. This meant that a bulbasaur¡¯s strongest attacks would typically be grass-type moves, with poison moves being second, and all other types third. This functioned the same way defensively, with bulbasaur being most weak to fire, flying, and ice, slightly less weak to psychic, and normally resistant to types like normal and rock.
The fact that pokemon could have more than two types, and that those types could vary in intensity, threw a wrench into much of my previous world¡¯s pokemon knowledge. But thankfully it didn¡¯t change my understanding of matchups too much ¡ª a gyarados¡¯ partial third dragon typing would make it slightly more resistant to electric attacks than I would expect, but not to the level that electric attacks would be weak against it. For the most part, it just affected the potency of different pokemon¡¯s type matchups, not what those matchups actually were.
For their part, Porygon was almost entirely normal with just a smidgen of electric and psychic types, while Sableye was perfectly split fifty-fifty dark and ghost.
We found a mostly empty field just beyond the battle courts outside of the city to do our training. There were a number of other teams sharing the field, but they were each focused on their own pokemon and training so I resolved to do the same.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°Okay! Here¡¯s what we¡¯re gonna do,¡± I called after releasing Sableye and calling Porygon out of my phone. ¡°Hobbes, you need to practice transform. For now, don¡¯t worry about speed, just focus on the transformation being as thorough as possible. Take turns transforming between Porygon and Sableye.¡± Thus far, he¡¯d been pretty good about being able to transform into pokemon he¡¯d encountered on his first try ¡ª better than the ditto he¡¯d fused with, at least ¡ª but so far he¡¯d only tested it on familiar pokemon. Before yesterday, he¡¯d never encountered a porygon or a sableye, so I hoped they would pose more of a challenge. ¡°Porygon, Sableye, show me what moves you know, and we¡¯ll figure out where to go from there.¡±
My team jumped to their respective tasks with varying levels of enthusiasm.
Porygon demonstrated an impressive variety of moves: tackle, magnet rise, agility, conversion, thundershock, psybeam, and what I think might have been recycle ¡ª it was difficult to tell without a berry on hand for testing. The move that interested me most, however, was conversion; it acted similarly to transform or mimic in that it copied some aspect of its opponent, but in this case it only copied the typing.
Sableye¡¯s moveset was smaller, including only leer, scratch, astonish, shadow sneak, and night shade. Those weren¡¯t bad moves, as I knew first-hand how powerful shadow sneak ¡ª and other priority moves ¡ª could be in the right situations. But from his shifty glances and hesitation at the end, I suspected Sableye was hiding at least one more move from me. Which was fine; he¡¯d just come from a terrible situation, and despite his choice to follow me as his trainer, it was understandable for him to still hold some distrust toward humanity. Trust could only be built through time, so I would give him the time he needed. But even with his limited moveset, I was excited for Sableye¡¯s potential. With how quickly he was able to use leer, I was almost certain he had the ability prankster, which gave his status moves a higher priority.
Traditionally, pokemon moves could be divided into three categories: physical, special, and status. The physical moves corresponded to a pokemon¡¯s physical attack and defense, while special moves corresponded to their special attack and special defense. But the divide between special and physical functioned slightly differently in this world than in the games.
Basically, physical moves were any attacks that relied solely on a pokemon¡¯s physical body, while special moves were attacks powered by the pokemon¡¯s external manipulation of ¡®type¡¯ energy ¡ª in the case of Sableye¡¯s night shade, ghost-type energy. But manipulating type energy, or aura as some called it, was not an easy or quick process; a special attack almost always took longer to perform than an equivalent physical attack, requiring the user to build up the necessary energy before unleashing it upon their opponents. Unlike physical moves, however, most special moves could be performed from range. So as long as two pokemon didn¡¯t start too close together, it would take about the same amount of time to attack with a special move as it would to close the distance and attack with a physical move.
Status moves were similar to special moves in that they utilized type energy for their power, but while special moves manipulated that energy externally, status moves were the internal manipulation of type energy. They never did any direct damage, but they could be used to boost a pokemon¡¯s future attacks, weaken an opponent¡¯s defense, or any number of other buffs or debuffs.
I wasn¡¯t sure how it worked, but the prankster ability allowed a pokemon to internally manipulate type-energy much faster than what was typically possible. Which meant stableye could get two or more status moves off before his opponents could even use one, and I was sure his speed would increase even further with training. With leer as his only current status move it wouldn¡¯t be that much of a game-changer, but I knew the potential was there for Sableye to be an amazing battler.
That was all for the future, however. With how new they were to battling and to having me as their trainer, the best thing I could work on with Porygon and Sableye was their willingness and speed with which they reacted to my commands. So that¡¯s what we did for the next two hours ¡ª taking turns, I would call out different moves and other directions, and they would respond as quickly as possible.
That was what we were still doing two and a half hours later when I got a message from Seb saying he was up and ready for our battle, so I called my small team back together.
¡°Okay everyone, let¡¯s take a breather and have a quick snack ¡ª not too much, you don¡¯t want to battle on a full stomach.¡± Sableye looked at me with sad eyes, begging for more than the light sprinkle of tiny diamonds I gave him, but I refused to be moved. ¡°In just a few minutes, we¡¯re going to have our first battle as a team. I want you to give it your all, but remember ¡ª this is just a friendly. There¡¯s no money or other stakes on the line. We don¡¯t hate or want to kill our opponents. Our goal is to enjoy ourselves and to learn.¡± I paused, thinking, before continuing. ¡°I¡¯ll have to confirm this with Seb, but let¡¯s try to stay away from knock-out blows. I¡¯d like each of you to be able to battle more than once, which we can¡¯t do if you¡¯re unconscious.¡±
I received confirmation from each of my pokemon before nodding myself.
It was time to battle.
Chapter 26: Teams First Battle
Seb and I stood on either side of the battle court, staring at each other in silence. My cap was flipped backward while his wide-brimmed hat was pulled low over his eyes. Unlike some of the other matches going on in the courts surrounding us, there was no referee to call the start of our battle; ours was just a friendly, without any money on the line or need for a third-party officiant. But that didn¡¯t mean we weren¡¯t taking this seriously. This was some of our pokemons¡¯ first real battle, and we were both prepared to give it our all.
It was a truth Seb had reminded me of when I¡¯d suggested pulling the punches. There was a time and place for that, certainly, but we weren¡¯t in the wilderness without access to quality healing ¡ª as brutal as battles could be, a quick trip to the nearby pokecenter would have our teams back in fighting shape in no time. Having our pokemon hold back now would be doing them and ourselves a disservice.
So, despite the lack of a ref or any actual stakes on the battle, we were prepared for a tough fight. We stood staring at each other, waiting for the other to flinch. Until, without any signal, we simultaneously reached for our belts and threw out our first pokemon.
¡°Slowpoke, go!¡±
¡°You¡¯ve got this Porygon!¡±
The two pokemon appeared in flashes of red light, Slowpoke looking around in confusion while Porygon called out a series of beeps that sounded more like a modem connecting than a battle cry.
I nodded. As expected, he started with his slowpoke. I figured that would be his go-to ¡ª neither of us wanted this battle to end with a sweep from our starters. Seb didn¡¯t know the identity of my pokemon, though, so I¡¯d elected to return all three to their balls before approaching the courts. It wouldn¡¯t be much of an advantage, but if I was taking this seriously, I¡¯d reach for every advantage I could get.
¡°Porygon, magnet rise! Get ready to dodge water gun!¡±
Porygon was already floating a foot off the ground, but sparks gathered around him and he shot higher into the sky, completely out of range of any physical attacks from the slowpoke. He wasn¡¯t out of range of water guns, I knew, but the extra distance would hopefully give him the space to see them coming.
¡°Slowpoke, use amnesia!¡± Seb called. I wasn¡¯t sure if the slowpoke obeyed, or if he even understood the command ¡ª he looked just as confused as ever. But a few seconds later, I noticed a pink aura of energy appear around the slowpoke¡¯s body, just barely visible against its skin in the sunlight.
¡°Don¡¯t give it time to buff itself, Porygon! Use thundershock!¡±
¡°Beep, bzzzt,¡± Porygon called, before a bolt of electricity arced from his body to the slowpoke. But if slowpoke was injured from the attack, it didn¡¯t show it.
¡°Keep using amnesia, slowpoke!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t let up!¡±
It took some time ¡ª a surprisingly long amount of time, given the move was supereffective ¡ª but eventually slowpoke started to show pain. As the slowpoke, still wreathed in sparks of electricity, flinched back, Seb used that as his cue to change things up. ¡°Slowpoke, disable!¡±
¡°Recycle, now!¡± I immediately called. But Porygon hesitated before glancing back at me in confusion. ¡°Just do it! Recycle!¡± I called again, and Porygon bobbed in place before normal energy gathered around him in preparation for the useless move.
But it was too late. Just before the move completed, slowpoke completed his own move, and the court flickered with a flash of pink energy.
¡°Porygon, thundershock again!¡± I called, hoping I¡¯d seen wrong. But when Porygon tried again to use the supereffective move, nothing happened, and he let out a disconcerted bzzzt. Between Porygon¡¯s three damaging moves, slowpoke was resistant to psybeam. And we couldn¡¯t afford to wait for the disable to wear off, not when the slowpoke could just stack more and more amnesias in the meantime.
¡°Tackle instead! And keep tackling!¡± I called, and Porygon bobbed in the air before charging the slowpoke.
¡°Confusion!¡± Seb yelled as Porygon crashed into the larger pokemon, and a few seconds later Porygon faltered, breaking out of his latest charge.
¡°Conversion, and then tackle again!¡±
We were lucky the slowpoke was so slow to formulate its own attacks. Porygon obviously wasn¡¯t used to battling ¡ª a simple confusion shouldn¡¯t be enough to knock him out of a tackle ¡ª but hopefully the resistance that came with mimicking slowpoke¡¯s psychic/water type would mitigate that. Energy gathered around Porygon as his body shifted with his use of conversion, the blues becoming lighter and the reds moving closer to pink. And then he charged forward again, determined to finish the battle.
It wasn¡¯t particularly elegant. Both of the pokemon were new to battling and had limited movesets. I¡¯d already played pretty much all of Porygon¡¯s cards, and I¡¯d be willing to wager Seb had done the same with his slowpoke. But that didn¡¯t stop the two pokemon from fighting ferociously, Porygon charging the slowpoke with tackle after tackle, and the slowpoke responding with confusions. Just once did the slowpoke try a tackle of its own, ignoring Seb¡¯s command to keep using confusion, but the swing of its tail was so late it was almost closer to catching Porygon on his next tackling pass than it was on the one slowpoke was aiming for. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
They couldn¡¯t keep it up forever, though. Porygon performed one final tackle, his charge wobbly from all the confusions as he impacted against the slowpoke¡¯s head ¡ª and the slowpoke flopped onto the ground, its eyes closed as it fell unconscious.
¡°Beeeep!!¡± Porygon cheered his victory as Seb returned his slowpoke, and I let out a whoop of encouragement with him.
¡°Good battle!¡± Seb called across the court as Porygon flew back to hover by my side. ¡°Who¡¯s that pokemon, though? I¡¯ve never seen it before.¡±
¡°A porygon,¡± I replied, willing to take a break to chat if Seb wanted. Giving Porygon time to rest before the next battle only benefited me, though I doubted my pokemon would last much longer into whatever Seb was going to throw out. He was already on his last legs from the confusions, and the slowpoke was Seb¡¯s only ¡®new¡¯ pokemon. ¡°They¡¯re pretty rare, and aren¡¯t often used for battling.¡±
¡°Well, he seems to be good at it,¡± Seb complimented, but then his smile turned savage. ¡°Don¡¯t expect him to do as well against my next pokemon, though.¡± He reached for his belt and released another pokeball. ¡°Komala! Go!¡±
I sucked a breath between my teeth as I watched the light-blue koala pokemon appear on the court opposite Porygon. It was a pokemon from one of the newer gens, a rare one, and I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d ever seen one since coming to this world. But it did explain, somewhat, how Seb had been able to defeat Koga so early in his gym run.
Komala was a normal-type pokemon with a unique ability, comatose, which made it completely immune to any status conditions. It would¡¯ve been a great counter to Koga¡¯s typical strategy of poisoning, paralyzing, and putting his opponents to sleep. Coupled with the fact that Komala was a single-stage pokemon, which meant it would be much stronger at the lower levels than the average, and I could see how he might have been able to eke out a victory.
Comatose wouldn¡¯t help him now, though. Maybe after some training Porygon would have better access to status-affecting moves, but for now, his strategies were much more limited.
¡°Porygon, psybeam!¡± I called.
¡°Slam,¡± Seb called at the same time.
And despite the komala¡¯s eyes remaining closed, its head ducked down with its chin resting against its chest¡
It moved.
¡°Porygon, magnet rise!¡± I called desperately ¡ª but it was too late. Porygon had drifted closer to the ground in the wake of the previous battle, and I hadn¡¯t thought to correct him, thinking there was no way the small koala-like pokemon could traverse the court so quickly.
I was wrong.
Using the log it carried like a pole vault, the komala launched itself at Porygon and slammed the log down on top of his head.
In less than a second, Porygon was down, and I recalled him to his ball before the dust had a chance to settle.
¡°Good effort, Porygon,¡± I muttered to the ball before slotting it back on my belt, and my hands hovered over the two remaining balls. I itched to send out Hobbes, to test the might of my partner against what looked to be a surprisingly strong opponent. But no ¡ª this battle was for our new pokemon to get their bearings. I doubted Sableye would do much better than Porygon against the komala, but I would give him a chance.
¡°Go, Sableye!¡± I called, and the gremlin pokemon appeared in a flash of red light.
¡°Say!¡± he called, before hunching over even further upon seeing the crowds of people in the courts around us.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about them, Sableye, they aren¡¯t watching us,¡± I said, ignoring the few curious gazes directed at the rare pokemon occupying our court. ¡°Just focus on the battle.¡±
Sableye hesitated, but then eventually gave a slow nod.
¡°Ready?¡± Seb asked, politely waiting for my pokemon to catch his bearings. It wasn¡¯t something that was required in a normal pokemon match, even between youngsters, so I appreciated his restraint.
¡°Ready!¡± I called back. And then I immediately yelled, ¡°Sableye, leer!¡±
¡°Komala, stockpile!¡± he yelled at the same time, and the komala tore a small branch off of the log it carried and stuffed it into its mouth at the same time as Sableye¡¯s eyes glowed with a white light.
¡°Keep it up, Sableye!¡± I yelled, while Seb just stood silently, seemingly content to let his previous command stand. I didn¡¯t mind ¡ª stockpile boosted both komala¡¯s defense and special defense, while leer only lowered his defense, but with Sableye¡¯s limited moveset, defense was all I cared about. And while Sableye could keep using leer as long as he had the energy to do so, stockpile was limited by the amount of food the pokemon could eat ¡ª as long as we kept it up long enough, leer would eventually outpace stockpile.
If Seb was cognizant of this fact, it didn¡¯t show on his face. Komala continued to munch on branches from his log ¡ª which amazingly regrew almost instantly ¡ª while Sableye leered with glowing eyes. Until finally, Seb called out another command.
¡°Rollout.¡±
I winced. With Sableye¡¯s rarity, I¡¯d hoped Seb wouldn¡¯t recognize that he was a ghost type and attempt another slam, a move Sableye was immune to. But either through knowledge or instinct, he chose the rock move rollout instead ¡ª we wouldn¡¯t get a free attack.
¡°Wait, and then scratch when he comes close!¡±
Once again, the komala moved with surprising speed, especially for the first turn of a rollout combo. But we were ready this time, and Sableye dodged out of the way of the rolling blue pokemon before slashing at its back with blinding speed.
It did absolutely nothing.
It took only a moment for me to realize what had happened ¡ª Sableye had used shadow sneak instead of scratch. But that moment was enough to give the komala the advantage.
¡°Dodge again! Shadow sneak away!¡± I called as the komala turned at the edge of the court and accelerated at Sableye even faster than before. Sableye attempted another dodge, but this time he was too slow, and the edge of the komala clipped him, knocking him heavily to the ground.
¡°Get up, Sableye! You¡¯ve got to dodge!¡± I yelled, and Sableye struggled to push himself back to his feet. The komala took longer to arrest its momentum and turn to face my pokemon, giving Sableye some much-needed time to recover from the impact, but its speed was increasing even further as it arced around the court in a wide turn. I frowned.
Sableye was almost back on his feet, but Komala was already charging directly at him, even faster than before. The distance between them closed in a blink, but just before they collided ¡ª Sableye disappeared in a flash of red light.
¡°That¡¯s your win,¡± I called as I lowered Sableye¡¯s ball to my side. ¡°He couldn¡¯t have taken that hit.¡±
Seb gave a relaxed nod as the komala drifted to a halt, uncurling from its ball in front of its trainer. ¡°Smart move. Komala hits hard once she gets going.¡± Then he glanced pointedly at my belt and the one ball remaining. ¡°You finished?¡±
I smirked as I plucked Hobbes¡¯ ball from my side and it expanded within my hand. ¡°In your dreams.¡±
My partner appeared in a flash of red light. And in an instant ¡ª much faster than after any of the previous switches ¡ª the battle was back on.
Chapter 27: Disguise
¡°Rollout!¡±
Seb didn¡¯t hesitate to repeat the same command he¡¯d given against sableye, and the komala didn¡¯t hesitate to follow the command, curling into a ball and rolling at Hobbes with dizzying speed.
¡°Dodge and slash!¡± I yelled, and Hobbes tensed, though he didn¡¯t otherwise react to my command. For another second he simply stood there, the hems of his disguise flapping gently in the breeze as the komala charged him. Closer, and closer, and closer¡
Until, at the last possible second, he blurred. He dodged the rollout by mere inches and then slashed out with a claw an instant later, scoring a weak hit on the passing pokemon.
I gave a satisfied nod. It wasn¡¯t much, but the more hits Hobbes could get in without taking any of his own, the better. And I knew what my partner managed to pull off was much more impressive than it might have looked to a novice observer.
Unlike Sableye¡¯s earlier ineffective shadow sneak, Hobbes had attacked with slash, a move that could actually affect our normal-type opponent. But it hadn¡¯t just been slash ¡ª by itself, the move wouldn¡¯t have been fast enough to both dodge the rollout and strike back. It had been a shadow sneak-slash combo, using the priority move to dodge the attack and then slashing afterward.
Using two different moves in combination like that was much more difficult than my partner had made it seem, especially when the moves were of such diametrically opposed types like normal and ghost. But Hobbes had pulled it off, though at the cost of some of the power his slash would normally contain.
¡°Again! But don¡¯t push it too far ¡ª dodging is more important!¡± I called, and Hobbes gave a tiny nod. The komala sped up as it rolled around the arena, Seb remaining silent as she came in for another attacking pass.
Once again, Hobbes waited for the very last moment to dodge with shadow sneak and then strike out with slash, this time to even less effect. The komala was moving fast enough, now, that Hobbes could barely switch between the moves before she was past.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about hitting back ¡ª just dodge!¡± I yelled.
¡°Di! Kyu!¡± Hobbes called back, determination ¡ª and a bit of nervousness, to those who knew him ¡ª clear in his voice.
This was a tough matchup for my partner. He was recently fused, which would normally be a powerful boost for a pokemon, but ditto didn¡¯t offer any of the typical advantages of a fused Pokemon. And the one advantage it did offer ¡ª transform ¡ª Hobbes was still too inexperienced with to take full advantage of, especially against a pokemon he¡¯d never before encountered. Plus, the normal versus ghost matchup was always tricky.
The biggest difficulty for us, however, was Komala¡¯s power. Most of our training had been against other youngsters or old, retired pet pokemon from Lavender Town. Seb was barely past being a youngster himself, true, but he was also a one-badge trainer, and komala was a single-stage pokemon. That was a huge step up from facing a youngster¡¯s freshly caught rattata.
Komala rolled past twice more, Hobbes waiting and then dodging with shadow sneak at the last possible moment. On the second pass he was almost too slow, and my heart stopped for a moment when I thought he got hit. But just like all the previous attacks, he dodged out of the way with inches to spare.
It couldn¡¯t last. Komala was getting faster, and Hobbes was already starting to tire from his liberal use of shadow sneak. Seb hadn¡¯t called out any other instructions since rollout, either due to a limit of the move itself, like in the video games, or simply because it wasn¡¯t necessary. There was a limit to the power any pokemon could achieve with a move like rollout, but whatever that limit was, the komala hadn¡¯t yet hit it. She was practically a blur as she zipped around the arena, and I knew Hobbes had no chance of dodging this next attack. As fast as shadow sneak could make him, he wasn¡¯t faster than a fully-charged rollout, not when the pokemon behind the attack fully committed.
It was what we were counting on.
¡°¡get ready¡¡± I muttered under my breath, barely loud enough for my pokemon to hear.
And then, as the komala rolled at him at blinding speeds¡
Hobbes didn¡¯t move.
I¡¯m sure at least some of it was my imagination, but it felt as if the arena jumped beneath my feet when the thump of the colliding pokemon echoed over the courts. For a moment after there was silence, the gazes of all the surrounding battlers drawn to the cloud of dust that shrouded our battling pokemon.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
And when the dust settled¡Hobbes stood tall.
¡°Slash! Get him while he¡¯s down!¡± I yelled.
It took a moment for Seb to issue his own commands, surprised as he was that Hobbes was still standing after taking such a massive hit. But, faster than I hoped, he recovered.
¡°Defense curl! And then wood hammer!¡± he called.
From there the battle was a slog of traded hits as the two pokemon went at it like they¡¯d insulted each other¡¯s mothers. It lacked the nuance of the earlier trades and Hobbes was obviously outclassed physically by the other pokemon, but overall it was the best situation we could have hoped for. We couldn¡¯t afford to let Komala set up with another round of rollouts, so Hobbes kept up the pressure with scratches and slashes while I hoped Hobbes¡¯ earlier attacks, coupled with the free hit he got after blocking the final rollout, were enough to win out.
And, eventually, my hopes were proven correct. The komala collapsed to the ground in a bruised heap, disappearing a moment later in a flash of red light as I let out a whoop of victory.
¡°¡is your pokemon okay?¡± Seb asked, concern evident in his voice, and I toned down my excitement as I realized how Hobbes might look to an outside observer.
The neck of his costume tilted at an almost ninety-degree angle and one of the ears had been entirely torn off. The costume¡¯s body had several large rents torn in it with faint hints of purple darkness barely visible through the gaps. For someone unfamiliar with the mimikyu line, it looked as if my pokemon was in extremely bad shape, and it was understandable for any observers to be worried.
If they were familiar with the mimikyu line, they should be more than worried ¡ª they should be terrified.
But Hobbes was no longer a simple mimikyu. No, he was a dimikyu, a mimikyu-ditto fusion. And despite retaining some of the properties of mimikyu, such as his disguise¡¯s ability to absorb the power of the first attack that hit it, he wasn¡¯t quite the same.
A normal mimikyu¡¯s costume was simple fabric and thread. Empowered by the power of the pokemon underneath, sure, but it was still just a covering for the mimikyu¡¯s true body. But a dimikyu¡in a certain sense, Hobbes¡¯ costume was his body. He could transform it at will, taking the shape of whatever he desired with the costume following suit.
He no longer had to worry about his ¡®true form¡¯ harming those he loved.
Though Hobbes had always loved to battle, both for its own sake and out of a desire to join me on my journey, it had never been something he¡¯d been able to fully embrace. Because in every battle there was always the worry: what if something destroyed his disguise and someone were to see the body underneath? It wasn¡¯t as big of an issue in youngster battles, as few first-stage or unfused pokemon had the power to destroy his magically-reinforced disguise. But we both knew that in higher level battles, his costume being destroyed was a matter of when, not if.
But now those worries could finally be put to rest. I knew Hobbes had been nervous before this battle; I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t nervous myself. This was the first time we were truly putting his new ¡®costume¡¯ to the test. But now that it had turned out successful¡
¡°We¡¯re good to keep going,¡± I said with a smile. Seb still looked unconvinced, however, so I looked to my partner. ¡°Hobbes?¡±
¡°Di.¡±
His one word had enough confidence that even the most skeptical of observing trainers and pokemon gave approving nods.
¡°If you¡¯re sure,¡± Seb said, but I noticed the smirk pulling up the corner of his lips. ¡°Don¡¯t expect me to go easy on you now, though. This one¡¯s my final pokemon, and my starter. Go! Slakoth!¡±
Hobbes was still pouting from my shoulder ten minutes after the loss, his ripped and battered costume flapping in the breeze.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, I should have seen sucker punch coming,¡± I apologized. ¡°He already told me his starter beat Koga ¡ª I knew he must¡¯ve had a way to attack quickly.¡±
¡°It wouldn¡¯t be much of a sucker punch if you knew it was coming,¡± Seb commented from my side with a laugh as we walked from the battle courts.
¡°True. But I¡¯m still annoyed I didn¡¯t expect it.¡±
Hobbes hadn¡¯t truly been knocked out from the unexpected blow, but he had been dazed enough that, coupled with the earlier hits he¡¯d taken from Komala, we decided to call the match. Even with Slakoth¡¯s signature ability truant slowing him down, the sloth pokemon would¡¯ve had more than enough to time finish Hobbes off before he could¡¯ve recovered from the first hit.
Seb¡¯s starter hit hard for a first-stage pokemon.
¡°Let¡¯s get you and the others looked at, and maybe we can return for some more battles afterward,¡± I commented.
¡°¡kyu,¡± Hobbes answered with a disgruntled chirp.
I laughed, before turning serious. ¡°How¡¯s the costume? You don¡¯t feel any pain from its damage? I don¡¯t feel any sense of impending doom, but you¡¯re sure we¡¯re not in any danger from those glimpses we got of you?¡±
¡°Di, di kyu,¡± Hobbes answered, and I sighed in relief. We¡¯d been confident that there was no risk of death from seeing underneath Hobbes¡¯ new body¡¯s ¡®costume¡¯ ¡ª he had an intuitive understanding of his powers, after all. But it was difficult to let go completely of the niggling worry, especially after years of being so careful.
Hobbes must have felt the same way, because after a few seconds of silence he glowed with a white light before his costume reformed around him, appearing good as new.
¡°Huh, that¡¯s convenient,¡± I commented. ¡°We should still get you checked out at the pokecenter, though. I doubt using transform to fix your costume has actually healed any of the damage you took in the fight.¡±
¡°Di.¡±
We walked another ten paces toward the pokemon center, Seb by my side having a conversation with his own pokemon, before I stumbled. Seb laughed and offered me a hand up, but I was too caught up in my own thoughts to respond.
Hobbes had just fixed his costume with transform.
He had fixed his disguise ¡ª his disguise which, when undamaged, let him negate a single enemy attack ¡ª with a single use of transform.
Chapter 28: Safari Zone
Unfortunately, Hobbes¡¯ ability to reform his disguise with transform wasn¡¯t quite as overpowered as I first believed.
With a few quick tests on the streets of Fuschia City, using Seb¡¯s slakoth¡¯s claws to temporarily damage Hobbes¡¯ costume, we determined that it took Hobbes roughly nine seconds to ¡®fix¡¯ his disguise with transform.
Nine seconds was an absolute eternity in a pokemon battle, especially higher leveled battles. For comparison, it only took Hobbes three seconds to use a normal transform, which was already pushing the limits of what I would consider the slower end of viable moves, especially for a move that didn¡¯t do any damage. I was sure we could get both of those times down with time and some training, just as I was also sure there would be situations where we could use Hobbes¡¯ ability to reform his disguise to great effect, even at its current slow pace. But it wouldn¡¯t be the free ¡®auto-win¡¯ button I¡¯d first imagined.
Which was actually fine, to my mind. Power was well and good, and I obviously had no intention of purposefully handicapping my pokemon. But half the joy of pokemon battling came from the possibility of defeat, from the opportunity to get knocked down, learn from our mistakes, and then come back stronger than we were before. If Hobbes had a method to perfectly negate the damage from all attacks¡well, it really wouldn¡¯t even qualify as a ¡®battle¡¯ anymore.
That wasn¡¯t to say that I didn¡¯t intend for my pokemon to become as powerful as they could possibly be. Regardless of how we trained, the world was wide and there would always be others more powerful than us ¡ª either through their own fusion ¡®gimmicks¡¯ or through sheer strength. And I wasn¡¯t so deluded as to forget that there were motivations for chasing power outside of the dueling arena. As my recent encounter with Team Rocket had reminded me, a trainer¡¯s safety on their journey was often directly proportional to their pokemons¡¯ strength.
For the moment, though, we decided to resume our walk to the pokemon center. It wasn¡¯t unusual for trainers to have pokemon out of their balls in the streets of the city, or even for those pokemon to use the occasional non-violent moves. But it was frowned upon to have a full training session in the busy city streets, which our impromptu testing was dangerously close to becoming. Plus, I had injured pokemon still in need of treatment.
In no time at all we arrived at the center and had our pokemon healed. I released Porygon and Sableye to congratulate them on their efforts in their first battle and make sure they weren¡¯t punishing themselves for their defeats.
Surprisingly, Porygon seemed much more down on himself than Sableye, despite having an objectively much more impressive showing. Thankfully, my over-the-top praise managed to get him out of the funk that getting knocked out had put him in, and he ended up giving embarrassed bzzts as I described his battle against slowpoke to an impressed Hobbes.
Fifteen minutes later, I was preparing to head back to the battle courts. I hoped to find more opponents for Porygon and Sableye to sharpen their (in Porygon¡¯s case) metaphorical claws against, but before I could leave, Seb waved me over from the pokecenter¡¯s entrance.
¡°Hey bro, just wanted to say ¡ª good battle.¡±
¡°Thanks, you too.¡±
¡°Yeah¡I was a little worried yesterday with how you were talking about strategy an¡¯ all that. But you¡¯re cool. You vibe with your pokemon.¡±
I squinted at the friendly trainer. I wasn¡¯t sure I agreed with his philosophy or even truly understood what he meant ¡ª any serious trainer had to make use of strategy if they wanted to win, and it wasn¡¯t like he was above using strategy himself. His usage of sucker punch proved that much.
But I decided to take the compliment as it was intended and gave him a shallow nod.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
¡°So I¡¯m gonna go check out the Safari Zone,¡± he continued a moment later. ¡°Wanna join?¡±
¡°The Safari Zone! Of course!¡± But then I hesitated. ¡°Doesn¡¯t it have some restrictions though? And a fee?¡±
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s actually why I asked. You aren¡¯t allowed to bring any pokemon inside, they have to stay in a daycare while you safari ¡ª a normal daycare, not one of those weird experimental training daycares. And I¡¯d like for my pokemon to have some friendly faces while they¡¯re there.¡±
I nodded, considering. I definitely wanted to check out the Safari Zone. They had some of the coolest and rarest pokemon in Kanto, plus they had been the pioneers of much of Kanto¡¯s effort to relocate pokemon species from other regions. So I¡¯d be willing to wager they had many rare pokemon from other regions, too.
However, the price to go on a safari wasn¡¯t quite as reasonable as it was in the games, and the odds of catching one of the truly rare or powerful pokemon were low. With my current funds, I couldn¡¯t justify such a large ¡®frivolous¡¯ expense, not with how much traveling I still needed to do before my first gym challenge.
I had no intention of mimicking my new friend and challenging Koga for my first badge.
But just as I came to that decision, Seb continued.
¡°¡I¡¯d really like my pokemon to learn that not all opponents are enemies. Sure, sometimes they will be. But most of the time it¡¯s good to be able to play with and learn from those they were just battling. So if you¡¯re willing to leave your pokemon at the daycare with mine for a few hours, I¡¯d be happy to cover your fee.¡±
For a moment, I hesitated, my pride warring with my greed. On the one hand, I didn¡¯t want to accept a handout, not from someone I barely knew.
On the other¡
Kangaskhan, chansey, dratini, scyther, and all of their amazing fusions.
Greed won out, and I accepted the offer with a smile.
Dropping our pokemon off at the daycare was a simple process. It was a building adjacent to the Safari Zone, a massive gymnasium with a doorway leading to an even more massive yard, complete with ponds, caves, and any other common habitat a pokemon might desire. Dozens of pokemon could be seen napping and playing in the space, with uniformed trainers, their own pokemon by their sides, walking among them and making sure there was no conflict.
There were a few rooms off to the side where those more aggressive pokemon who didn¡¯t get along well with others could be stored, for an additional fee. Thankfully, none of our pokemon fell into that category, and after filling out a couple of forms, I was waving goodbye to an eager-looking Hobbes and Porygon and a nervous Sableye.
A short walk later and we were at the Safari Zone, ready to see ¡ª and hopefully catch ¡ªexotic pokemon in their natural habitat.
After the safety briefing, of course.
¡°¡and no matter what anyone has told you or what rumors you may have read online, do not throw rocks at any pokemon. I repeat: do not throw rocks ¡ª or anything else, for that matter ¡ª at any of the pokemon you encounter. They may be less startled by your presence than others, but these are still wild pokemon. Throwing a rock at them will not make them easier to catch. It might make them angry, though, and you will not have your pokemon by your side to defend you. If we catch you throwing anything at any of our pokemon, you will be arrested, assuming there is anything alive left to arrest.¡±
Aside from that detail, the Safari Zone mimicked the games in almost every other aspect. We had a certain amount of time we could wander freely, with a couple of small handheld buzzers-slash-radios to alert us when our time was up or call for help if it was needed. No battling or antagonizing the pokemon was allowed, but we could attempt to catch whatever caught our fancy.
In practice, this meant we had to persuade any pokemon to join our teams before trying to catching them, as capturing a pokemon that didn¡¯t want to be caught without battling first was practically impossible, even with uber-expensive ultra balls with their boasts of increased catch rates. Unlike the games, we were allowed to use whatever balls we had on hand to catch pokemon, though the headquarters did sell ¡®safari balls¡¯ ¡ª a different-colored version of a normal pokeball, sold at an exorbitant markup.
There were a number of different ¡®areas¡¯ within the Safari Zone, each with its own biome for the pokemon that called that area their home. Some of the areas had special rules which would be made obvious upon entering the zone.
Beyond that¡we would be free to explore and interact with whatever pokemon we saw. Of course, we still had to listen to another half-hour of rules and safety presentations, and we signed what felt like dozens of forms absolving the Safari Zone of liability in case of any accidents. By the time we wrapped up the paperwork, Seb¡¯s eyes were drooping and he was yawning every five seconds.
But eventually, we were finished. And, with the rest of the thirty-person group going through the same introductory presentation, we were free to explore the Safari Zone.
Chapter 29: The Vibe
As soon as we stepped into the first area of the Safari Zone, the thirty or so people who went through the same introductory speeches and form-signing scattered, each heading in a different direction with their own desired pokemon in mind. Considering the price of admission, there were a surprising number of young kids in the group, some alone and some accompanied by their parents. Though, for those who could afford it, I supposed it made sense. What better way to get their first starter than the Safari Zone? The pokemon here were often powerful, they were much more rare and unique than the standard pidgeys, rattatas, or caterpies many youngsters ended up with, and ¡ª most importantly ¡ª they didn¡¯t require any existing pokemon in order to catch.
¡°You have any plans for pokemon in the zone?¡± I asked Seb as the crowd dispersed. ¡°Any area you¡¯re wanting to explore?¡±
He shrugged, yawning and covering his mouth before he answered. ¡°Nothing super specific, just gonna go with the flow. Got a few pokemon I want to see, but not gonna try and catch anything unless I really vibe with it.¡±
I frowned. ¡°You mentioned that earlier¡what do you mean by that, exactly? Do you not use strategy to build your team?¡±
¡°I mean, I guess? There¡¯s definitely pokemon I think are cool or strong. But really clicking with them¡that¡¯s much more important than a specific pokemon species.¡± Seb glanced at me, his half-lidded eyes shadowed by his hat. ¡°It¡¯s about the connection more than anything else ¡ª like between you and your dimikyu.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t that just a matter of time, though? I¡¯ve had Hobbes for what¡¯s felt like forever. Of course I have a special connection with him.¡±
¡°I guess,¡± he said with a shrug. ¡°But then I¡¯ve known people who never get that connection with their pokemon, regardless of how long they¡¯ve had them. And those are usually the same people who are most concerned with building the ¡®optimal¡¯ fusions and team and all that. In my experience, it never ends well.¡±
For a couple of seconds there was silence.
¡°My dad¡¡± he chuckled. ¡°My dad ain¡¯t a battler. At all. Didn¡¯t get a single badge on his journey. But despite hardly ever training for battle¡his pokemon are stronger than almost anyone else¡¯s I know. Not gym-leader strong, but way stronger than they have any right to be.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m no expert, obviously. Only have a single badge to my name. But it¡¯s something to think about.¡± He yawned again. ¡°For now though¡I think I see a rock over there calling my name.¡±
I wasn¡¯t sure how he managed it; it wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d had a particularly strenuous day or anything like that. But thirty seconds after excusing himself and claiming a position leaning against a protruding boulder, hat pulled low over his eyes as the grasses around him swayed gently in the breeze, he was asleep.
I spent close to a minute looking at him incredulously, waiting for him to stop snoring and declare it all a prank, but he never moved. Apparently, he really was that tired from our single battle earlier.
I shook my head ¡ª maybe he¡¯d been up at the crack of dawn for a secret training session with his pokemon. I shouldn¡¯t judge. But I still could hardly believe he¡¯d spend so much money on the Safari Zone only to sleep the limited time away.
I had no intention of following his lead. With a halfhearted wave goodbye to his sleeping form, I turned and marched to where the signs marked as the entrance to ¡®Area 2¡¯.
The Safari Zone was an amazing place, and now that I was alone I was able to more fully appreciate its wonders. Almost every pokemon I saw was rare and powerful, and they were easily visible in greater numbers than pokemon could normally be found.
In the wild, there were always caterpie, rattata, pidgeys, and more hiding just out of view, waiting for the unsuspecting human or pokemon to march through their patch of grass or under their tree. But in the Safari Zone there were tangela, golducks, doduos, pinsir, exxegutor, and so many other rare pokemon, all standing tall and unafraid of the humans and dozens of other pokemon wandering amongst them.
Part of their behavior could be attributed to the lack of predators or other threats ¡ª none of the pokemon found in the public regions of the Safari Zone were carnivorous. And part of it could be attributed to the rangers I occasionally saw wandering through the areas, pokeballs on their belt and ready to keep the peace. But still, it was an impressive feat, managing to create a harmonious paradise for dozens, if not hundreds, of different pokemon species.
At the entrance to one of the areas I waited in line with a half-dozen other tourists to take my turn to pet a rhyhorn, the rock pokemon placidly munching on stone-looking pellets as the kids and adults rubbed its rock-hard skin. In another area, I collected some feed from a ranger to hold up for a friendly girafarig, the pokemon¡¯s long tongue lapping up the treats and then wrapping around my hand as it searched for more. In a third area I simply wandered, spotting the flash of what I thought might have been a scyther leaping between the branches of the trees like a ninja, gone before I could get a closer look.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Yet even as I walked among the amazing sights, I couldn¡¯t get Seb¡¯s words out of my mind.
If it was any other random trainer I might have dismissed it out of hand. But Seb already had his first badge barely a week into the start of the season. From Koga, no less. And I seriously doubted he¡¯d be a one-and-done like so many other trainers.
Slaking was an insanely strong pokemon, one I¡¯d considered at length for my own team. Slakoth weren¡¯t as rare as some other non-kanto pokemon, and while it would be a struggle to do anything impressive with just the first stage pokemon, a slaking fused with something that could mitigate the downsides of its signature ability, truant¡honestly, it was difficult to imagine a stronger non-legendary pokemon.
Yet Seb had already gained his first badge with just slakoth. It didn¡¯t prove his point, but it certainly lent it more weight than it otherwise might have had.
And it wasn¡¯t like I hadn¡¯t considered similar lines of thinking. What was the famous quote¡? ¡®Weak pokemon, strong pokemon ¡ª that is foolish¡real trainers should use their favorites.¡¯
Or something like that. It had been a long time since I¡¯d played the Johto games.
It certainly made sense in the anime, where Ash¡¯s bond with pikachu was enough to take on legendary pokemon. Or in the games, where grinding for hours could enable even a rattata to solo the Elite Four.
But this wasn¡¯t a game or tv show. Though it used to be a game for me, it was now my life, and life was rarely so balanced. I found it hard to imagine any scenario where a rattata could land a single blow against a charizard, much less defeat a legendary pokemon, regardless of how long it trained or how much its trainer believed in it.
And yet¡I couldn¡¯t completely discount it, either.
Pokemon raised by trainers were typically stronger than their wild counterparts, even discounting the use of battle strategies. The internet was even less reliable a source here than in my old world, yet there were enough accounts of pokemon displaying remarkable feats of power when their trainers were in danger, of overcoming what should have been insurmountable odds, that they couldn¡¯t entirely be dismissed. There were even stories of humans performing similar feats, of using type energy in ways normally restricted to their pokemon.
Was that the result of their bonds with their pokemon? Or just years of dedicated training?
I had no idea. And unfortunately, I also had no idea how I might find out. I supposed I could ask one of the gym leaders, but high-level trainers in this world were notoriously secretive with their training methods. If a gym leader knew the key to strengthening their pokemon and themselves far beyond normal levels, yet weren¡¯t already sharing that key, why would they choose to tell me?
And even if all of Seb¡¯s words were true, it still didn¡¯t explain what it meant to ¡®vibe¡¯ with my pokemon. I could believe in the bond between myself and Hobbes ¡ª he was my best friend and I loved him like a brother. But if someone asked me how we got to that point¡I wasn¡¯t sure how to answer.
Time was obviously a major factor. And we definitely got along great with each other, rarely getting on each others¡¯ nerves despite the hours and hours we spent together every day. But that felt like a consequence of our bond more than it did a cause.
It felt similar to some of my friends in my old life. None of my friendships had been as close as my current bond with Hobbes, but I had a few I would¡¯ve considered family. Yet, if I tried to articulate what made us such close friends, or how exactly we got to that point¡I was drawing a blank.
Would the bonds between myself and Porygon or Sableye ever be as strong as my bond with Hobbes? When catching a wild pokemon, how could I possibly know if we had the capacity to ¡ª in Seb¡¯s words ¡ª ¡®vibe.¡¯ It felt similar to knowing which pokemon could fuse with others; though certain scammy infomercials might claim otherwise, aside from ditto there was no guaranteed method of knowing which pokemon could successfully fuse with others. Most agreed that need and the compatibility of the two pokemon ¡ª their ¡®vibe¡¯ with each other ¡ª were part of it¡but no one I¡¯d ever talked to could articulate exactly what that meant.
My thoughts chased themselves round and round in circles, even as my feet carried me through the different areas of the Safari Zone. Hours passed as I ambled around, looking at the beautiful scenery and the pokemon that happily called this place their home. Until I was eventually startled from my introspection by a buzzing in my pocket.
¡°ATTENTION PATRON: YOUR TIME IN THE SAFARI ZONE IS UP. PLEASE RETURN TO THE ENTRANCE.¡±
The speaker on the side of the buzzer started to repeat the message until I found the small ¡®acknowledge¡¯ button on the side and began the walk back to the main entrance. I hadn¡¯t caught any rare pokemon on my short expedition, but I wasn¡¯t too disappointed. I¡¯d enjoyed the afternoon, and while still wasn¡¯t sure what it meant to ¡®vibe¡¯ with a wild pokemon, I was fairly sure that I didn¡¯t ¡®vibe¡¯ with any of those I¡¯d seen in the different areas.
It wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d noticed until after I¡¯d given Seb¡¯s words some more thought, but one of the things that united all the pokemon in the Safari Zone ¡ª in addition to being rare, herbivorous, and well taken care of ¡ª was that they were all content.
They lived in a virtual paradise; why wouldn¡¯t they be content? It also explained why I¡¯d seen so few fusions in the Safari Zone. There was no need to fuse, not when they already had everything they could ever need provided for them.
These were not the pokemon who could be persuaded to join me on my adventure.
It took some of the sting out of my ¡®wasted¡¯ hours spent wandering, and it further explained why the catch rates in the Safari Zone were so low in the first place. After seeing much of the various areas firsthand, I doubted any of the tourists we entered with would be leaving with new companions.
¡which was why it was such a surprise to get back to the entrance and see Seb excitedly waiting for me, newly caught tauros by his side.
Chapter 30: Daily Grind
¡°¡and you just stumbled into each other?¡±
¡°Yep! Turns out my napping spot was his napping spot, first. So I shifted over to give him some space and we just chilled for a bit. Turns out we vibe pretty well, so he decided to join my team!¡±
I shook my head. I was getting thoroughly annoyed at that word, ¡®vibe¡¯ ¡ª I was starting to suspect Seb was just using it as a substitute when he couldn¡¯t give a proper explanation. But I couldn¡¯t argue with the results.
We were walking through the streets of Fuschia back to our rooms in the pokemon center, and I glanced to Seb¡¯s belt and the four pokeballs stored there ¡ª or rather, the one pokeball, two great balls, and one safari ball. Unless any of his pokemon fused, he was nearing a ¡®full¡¯ team already, an impressive achievement so early in the season, especially considering his pokemon¡¯s power. While trainers were allowed to carry up to twelve pokemon, sanctioned battles were capped at six versus six.
¡°What¡¯re you planning for tomorrow?¡± Seb asked as we walked. His slakoth was once again draped around his neck, while Porygon floated behind me next to Hobbes. Sableye and the rest of Seb¡¯s pokemon were back in their balls.
It seemed like all of our pokemon had a good time at the daycare, Porygon especially flying at me and buzzing excitedly when we returned after the safari. Sableye was a bit harder to read, but he at least didn¡¯t seem like he¡¯d hated the experience, and all three of my pokemon had spent the majority of the time playing with their new friends in Seb¡¯s team, if I¡¯d understood Hobbes¡¯ and Porygon¡¯s cries correctly. But now it was late, the sun setting over the road leading out of Fuschia, and after the day we¡¯d had I wanted nothing more than to return to our rooms at the pokecenter and collapse into bed.
¡°Nothing too exciting. Probably just some more training and time at the battle courts. I want to get started toward Pewter City, soon, but I¡¯m not in a huge rush.¡± I wasn¡¯t too far behind my new friend in terms of number of pokemon, but Porygon and Sableye still needed a lot of training before they were ready for more serious battling.
¡°Oh? You planning on challenging the gyms in the traditional order, then?¡±
I shrugged. ¡°Might as well. I¡¯ve got a few other things I¡¯d like to do around Pewter City, too.¡± Brock was the traditional ¡®first¡¯ gym for aspiring trainers for a couple of reasons: he was much less intimidating than many of the traditionally later gym leaders, and though his pokemon weren¡¯t weak, the rock type¡¯s many weaknesses to commonly found starter pokemon types made many view his as the ¡®easiest¡¯ gym. ¡°How about you? You know what gym you¡¯re challenging next?¡±
¡°Eh, I figure I¡¯ll just go with the flow, see where I end up,¡± he responded with a shrug. But then his shoulders sagged. ¡°Not for a bit, though. My parents got my family some tickets for the S.S. Anne, starting tomorrow. So my journey¡¯s gonna be on hold for a while.¡±
I whistled. Moreso than even the Safari Zone, the S.S. Anne was the premier vacation spot in Kanto for the rich and famous. ¡°I doubt it¡¯ll slow you down. From what I¡¯ve heard, that ship¡¯s a battler¡¯s paradise. And that there are much more varied pokemon to face than you¡¯ll find battling youngsters or bug catchers.¡±
¡°I suppose,¡± he said with another shrug. ¡°It¡¯s still annoying. I was looking forward to getting away from everything and everyone on my journey, yet one week in and I¡¯ll already be stuck back with my parents.¡±
I gave a half-hearted nod. That made sense, but it was hard to feel sorry for him when a ticket on the famous party-slash-battle boat cost more than half of my parents¡¯ yearly salaries.
¡°Wanna trade numbers?¡± I asked instead as the pokecenter¡¯s sliding doors whooshed open in front of us, Porygon zipping forward excitedly as I pulled out my phone. ¡°If we end up in the same city, I¡¯m sure my pokemon would love a rematch.¡± I smirked. ¡°Just don¡¯t expect to beat us so easily next time.¡±
His frown turned into a smile. ¡°Heh. You¡¯re on.¡±
The next few days settled into a comfortable routine. Each morning my pokemon and I would wake up early, eat a quick breakfast, and retreat to the clearing outside of the city for a morning training session.
Hobbes spent most of his time practicing transform, which I suspected was something he would have to get used to. Transform was a move with a ton of nuance, and I doubted he would ever reach the point that we could call the move truly ¡®perfected.¡¯ For the training sessions, with only Porygon and Sableye as targets for practice, he alternated between transforming as quickly as possible and making the transformations as ¡®perfect¡¯ as they could be.
Since all of Hobbes¡¯ transformations included his patchwork disguise, we couldn¡¯t easily determine the success of the transformation from looks alone. Thankfully, we didn¡¯t need to ¡ª unlike ditto, who often used their transformations to blend in with the targets of the move, Hobbes¡¯ goal was just to steal his opponents¡¯ power. So after each transformation we¡¯d measure and compare the strengths of his transformed forms¡¯ most powerful new move ¡ª thundershock for Porygon and night shade for Sableye ¡ª to judge the success of that transformation.
While he was doing that, Porygon and Sableye had their own training regimens.
Porygon was working on his power. Thundershock had been supereffective against slowpoke, yet the dopey pokemon had taken a staggering number of the electric attacks without showing any signs of injury, even accounting for its use of amnesia. So we found a burnt-out stump in the middle of the field for him to repeatedly thundershock with the goal of packing more power into each of the attacks. Speed and accuracy were secondary concerns until we could get his attacks to contain enough power to force his opponents to take him seriously.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
In truth, it wasn¡¯t too surprising that he struggled with power. Even before his decades-long hibernation, he had never been a battler or even had any experience as a wild pokemon. It would be a long journey for him to get to where he could match other pokemon at his level, and even longer for him to match a pokemon like Hobbes that had been battling for years. But he was determined to join me in battles, so I would do my best to train him to reach his goals.
Sableye was having slightly different issues. The most obvious was his tendency to ignore my directions in battle, instead doing whatever he thought was best at the moment. But I knew that was just a matter of trust, which would hopefully be resolved with time. The more pressing issues were his moves ¡ª or rather, his lack of moves.
At present, scratch was his only non-ghost-type damaging move and leer his only status move. With so many of the common pokemon of trainers early on their journey possessing at least a partial normal typing, that left him with a severe lack of options in many matchups.
So I was working with him to expand his move pool. Detect and disable were two moves I knew the sableye line of the game world could learn, and they would drastically expand our options into even higher-leveled battles. So I tasked him with standing with his eyes closed as close to Porygon¡¯s thundershocks as was safe in an attempt to ¡®feel¡¯ the energy of the attacks. Not in the literal sense ¡ª that would be easy enough to do by simply stepping into the attack ¡ª but by sensing the usage of type energy to generate the shock. Which I hoped would eventually allow him to preemptively dodge or even prevent the use of that type energy.
I was no expert when it came to teaching moves, but that method of practice made sense to me based on my limited understanding of how detect and disable worked. Unlike in the games, detect worked differently than the move protect. While protect created an ¡®impenetrable¡¯ barrier of normal-type energy to foil incoming attacks, detect gave the user a sixth sense of approaching attacks, allowing them to dodge by the narrowest of margins with temporary prescience. Of course, this meant that successfully using detect also required a certain amount of speed and for the attack to be limited in scope ¡ª there would be no chance of detect preventing damage from a move like boomburst ¡ª but it was still an extremely powerful move, at least if the online videos I¡¯d watched of it being used were to be believed.
And disable had the potential to be even more powerful, though I had less idea of how it would function. I had to assume that it involved the manipulation of an opponent¡¯s type energy while it was still in their bodies, in the same way detect involved detecting that type energy, but I was really just guessing. Hopefully, the fact that it was in game-sableye¡¯s learnset would enable Sableye to learn it with a bit of focused practice.
I wandered between the three pokemon and offered what advice I could: judging the results of Hobbes¡¯ transformed attacks, encouraging Porygon in his assault of the stump, and gently reprimanding Sableye whenever I noticed him peeking through his eyelids at Porygon. And when it looked like they had a handle on their own training¡I trained myself.
There were videos of trainers in this world wielding incredible powers ¡ª of people like Bruno going toe-to-toe with hitmonchan, of swimmers holding their breath for dozens of minutes at a time, and whatever spookiness it was that Sabrina did. I know the anime had some mentions of ¡®aura¡¯, but if that existed in this world I hadn¡¯t felt anything like it myself. Regardless, I figured it couldn¡¯t hurt for me to be in the best shape possible, so I rotated between running laps, doing pushups, and holding my body in an arched ¡®boat¡¯ position.
After around four hours of non-stop training, we would take a quick break for lunch before spending the rest of the afternoon in the battle courts, challenging the others hoping to train up their own pokemon before starting a gym challenge.
I didn¡¯t take the battles too seriously. I didn¡¯t try to throw them or anything like that, but neither did I treat winning as the ultimate goal. It was just another form of training for my pokemon, perhaps even more important than our morning exercises in the field.
Most of the battles were one versus ones, since I wanted to give each of my pokemon plenty of time to rest between their matches and watch each other battle. There was little, if any, money wagered on the outcomes of the battles, and only twice did we have official referees to oversee the matches.
I wasn¡¯t keeping a strict count, but after a week of battling my pokemon were sitting at close to a fifty-percent average winrate, with Porygon being lower and Sableye being higher. As hard as he was trying, Porygon just didn¡¯t have the power to match most of the other new trainers¡¯ pokemon. He was improving, but it would take more than just a week of training to equal the months or possibly even years of battling experience some of our opponents had. Win or lose, I made sure to encourage him after each battle and caution patience, reminding him that growth was a long journey. But he remained frustrated with himself after each poor showing regardless of my words. Thankfully, Hobbes picked up the slack, turning into Porygon¡¯s number-one fan as he cheered louder than anyone else from the sidelines of all my floaty friend¡¯s battles. He even took to transforming into terrifying versions of Porygon¡¯s opponents in attempts to distract them mid-battle, to surprising success. Porygon appreciated that assistance less than he did the cheering, but it gave Hobbes endless joy to see the startled reactions of the opposing pokemon after seeing their horror-show reflections.
Sableye had still yet to successfully use detect or disable, though I thought he might be close to at least detect. And I still suspected he already knew another move that he was keeping hidden from me, but I was resolved to be patient and let him reveal that in his own time. But even with his smaller move pool, he saw much more success than Porygon in the battle courts.
Too many of his opponents simply didn¡¯t know how to deal with his ghost-dark typing. Coupled with his natural ferocity and liberal use of shadow sneak, he was able to eke out wins in most of his battles. They weren¡¯t pretty, as he was quick to trade blows when he should have dodged or charge forward when he should have waited. But it usually ended with him standing tall and his opponents in the dirt, so I didn¡¯t critique him too harshly.
And as for Hobbes¡he probably could have won all of his matches, had he gone all out with his base form¡¯s moveset. But he¡¯d been fighting against youngsters as a mimikyu for ages ¡ª it was time for him to learn how to fight as a dimikyu.
So at the start of each of his matches, he used transform and attempted to win with the stolen form of his opponents. It¡wasn¡¯t particularly successful, especially early in the week. Many of the trainers were novice enough to wait for him to complete his transformations before attacking, but even with the extra time, his new forms lacked power compared to the originals, especially since so many of the forms and their moves were new to him.
His previous experience with mimic helped somewhat, at least when it came to using his opponents¡¯ moves. But using a mimicked move wasn¡¯t quite the same as using a move copied via transfom, so there was a learning curve. But learning he was, and he won more and more of his battles as the week went on, most of them from strategic use of his immunity to the first hit with disguise.
But regardless of how much we were learning and growing, we couldn¡¯t stay around Fuschia City training forever ¡ª we had places to see, new pokemon to catch, and gyms to challenge. At the end of the week, I packed up my supplies that had somehow made their way into all corners of our rented room and checked out of the pokemon center.
It was time to head to Pewter City.
Chapter 31: Toughness
There were lots of different methods of travel in the pokemon world.
Planes, trains, cars, and boats were the most obvious. But they were a bit frowned upon for use by those adolescents on their journey. After all, could it really be called a ¡®journey¡¯ if one simply drove from gym to gym, never stepping foot onto the routes between towns or encountering a single wild pokemon?
Then there were the ¡®pokemon¡¯ methods of travel ¡ª surf and fly were the two most utilized in the games, but there were other less common methods as well. Namely, dig and teleport. Unfortunately, each of these came with drawbacks.
Dig was more commonly used as a tool of exploration than it was a mode of transportation. I supposed it could be used to travel between towns, but it would take a small eternity and was likely to draw every curious underground wild pokemon in the region if you tried to go too fast.
Teleport was the fastest by a long shot, but it was also the rarest, and it generally required an extremely powerful pokemon to use it effectively for travel. Sure, every wild abra would know teleport, but their version of the move wouldn¡¯t take them more than a hundred yards in a random direction. For a pokemon to be able to bring their trainer along with them on a teleport between cities, much more across the entire region, they needed to possess at least alakazam-levels of power. Which was not exactly an easy metric to meet.
Fly was much more common, given that pretty much every flying type (and even some non-flying types) could learn it. But just like with abra, just because a pokemon could learn the move didn¡¯t mean they could use it effectively for transportation. No matter how powerful a pidgey might be, they wouldn¡¯t be carrying their trainer in their talons across the region. The tropius I¡¯d ridden a few days earlier was one of the few ¡®mass transit¡¯ flyers that I could think of that wasn¡¯t a hyper-aggressive dragon type or legendary.
Surf was by far the most accessible. Even a goldeen, coupled with some waterproof bags and other supplies, could keep a swimmer alive and comfortable in the open ocean for days at a time. Which some people even did, searching for wild pokemon in the deeps or battling other trainers in the arena that gave them the greatest advantage. But I didn¡¯t think that would ever be me.
I didn¡¯t think I had full-blown thalassophobia or anything like that. But the thought of spending that much time in open waters, no land in sight, with tentacruel, sharpedo, bruxish, and who knew what else potentially swimming just beneath my feet¡
I planned to avoid surfing any more than what was necessary.
All of those options were moot points, however, due to their biggest restriction ¡ª you actually needed a pokemon with the moves to use them. I hoped to eventually teach Porygon teleport, assuming I could scrounge up the money to afford the TM for it. But that was far, far down the line, given my current finances.
That left either walking or good ol¡¯ pedal power as my only two remaining options. Bikes thankfully weren¡¯t as comically expensive as they were in the games, but even at a good pace it would take me upwards of a week to bike all the way to Pewter City from Fuschia, much longer if I walked. And I wasn¡¯t sure if the remaining diamonds I was sprinkling on top of each of Sableye¡¯s meals would last that long.
So I bought a bus ticket.
Sure, it was frowned upon. But it wasn¡¯t actually prohibited. And at the end of the day, the health of my pokemon came before whatever strangers or anyone else might think of me.
It did end up being a miserable two days, however, for both myself and my pokemon. Crammed into a window seat over the wheel well, I ignored the judgemental looks of the other passengers as I tried to doze without my head slamming into the window every time we hit a bump. My pokemon were forced to remain in their balls (or my phone, in Porygon¡¯s case) almost the entire time, only released for meal times at the few rest stops during the cross-region road trip.
Hobbes suffered the most of the three. Neither Sableye nor Porygon seemed to mind their confinement as much, but Hobbes had grown accustomed to spending almost all of his time outside of his ball and was just as grumpy as I was when we finally arrived in Pewter City.
It was just after noon when the bus pulled into the station and announced the stop. I¡¯d hardly done anything but nap, stare out the window, or play ekans on my phone for the past two days, but I was strangely exhausted despite all the sleep I¡¯d gotten. I wanted nothing more than to get a room at the pokecenter and collapse into bed, and from the look on Hobbes¡¯ ¡®face¡¯ it seemed like he had the same idea. As soon as we got off the bus I released him onto my shoulder, where he sulked with his disguise rumpled around him.
But I didn¡¯t give in to the temptation. The last of the diamonds were nothing more than crumbs at the bottom of the cloth bag. We were in Pewter City, the city of rocks, and it was time to get Sableye on a proper diet.
The bell dinged over my head as I crouch-walked through the door. Sal¡¯s Rock Emporium lived up to its name; from the first step into the store, I was surrounded by rocks of all shapes and sizes. Crystals, jewels, and other knick-knacks on display stands, meant to catch the eye of passers-by and children dragged along behind their trainers. Held items, evolution stones, and even rarer rocks sat behind glass cases, locks on the other side of the counter preventing any casual theft of the valuable goods. And on posters behind the counter were listed prices of bulk purchases of various rocky resources ¡ª apparently Sableye wasn¡¯t the only pokemon with a special diet.
¡°Chop, sandchop,¡± the pokemon behind the counter cried, and I looked at it with a raised eyebrow. The sandslash-machop fusion just stared back at me with a welcoming smile until another voice called from the back of the shop.
¡°One sec, be right with ya!¡±
¡°Thanks, take your time,¡± I called back before slowly straightening up and removing my hand from Sableye¡¯s shoulder. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
We¡¯d had a long, serious talk before stepping into the store. I¡¯d told him what we were doing and that I would like for him to be present, but only if he could control his impulses. I kept my left hand ready on his pokeball, ready to return him the moment he made a move toward what I was sure to him were delicious temptations, but thankfully he controlled himself. His hands were twitchier than normal and his gemstone eyes were wide as he stared at all the sparkling rocks surrounding us, but he didn¡¯t make a move toward any of them, so I slowly returned my attention to the shop around us.
One entire wall was pure stone, unadorned aside from the display shelves drilled into the rock. It was something I¡¯d noticed in my short walk through Pewter City ¡ª whenever possible, the designers chose to lean into the theme of ¡®rock city¡¯. Obviously not all buildings could take advantage of it, but with Pewter City nestled into its rocky valley, Indigo Plateau to the west and the crags of Mount Moon to the east, there were enough stone protrusions for many of the buildings to be built adjacent to or even into the cliffsides. It made me wonder how they dealt with rockslides, but after a few seconds of thought I gave it up as likely pokemon shenanigans.
¡°Sorry for the wait ¡ª I¡¯m Sal. How can I help ya?¡± the namesake of the store said as he walked through a doorway from the back, wiping his hands on a rag before tossing it on the counter. He was an older man, probably into his fifties or sixties, and he looked like someone who used to be in incredible shape but the inevitable march of time was finally starting to catch up to him. Despite that, there was a pep to his step as he looked me up and down, his gaze pausing for a second on Hobbes perched on my shoulder.
¡°Marcus. I¡¯m looking to hopefully purchase some diamonds in bulk. They don¡¯t have to be polished or cut or anything, just rough diamonds, as cheaply as possible.¡±
If Sal was surprised by my request, he didn¡¯t show it, simply reaching below the counter and pulling out a laminated placard that had different quantities of various minerals and their associated prices, a more condensed version of the posters on the wall behind him. He slid it across the counter and pointed to the section devoted to diamonds.
¡°There¡¯s a bit of wiggle room if you need larger amounts; let me know if you¡¯re looking for anything different than what¡¯s listed there. Won¡¯t find any better prices anywhere else ¡ª if you do, bring back proof and we¡¯ll match ¡®em.¡±
I nodded as I scanned through the placard, finding the section for the amount I¡¯d calculated Sableye should eat in a week ¡ª and I winced when I saw the price.
In the grand scheme of things it wasn¡¯t a ton, considering the fact I was purchasing diamonds by the pound. But it was still way out of my price range.
¡°This for a pokemon?¡± Sal asked as I bit my lip, pondering what to do.
¡°Yeah. A sableye,¡± I replied, gesturing to where Sableye had his face pressed to a nearby glass display.
Sal¡¯s eyes widened as he noticed Sableye for the first time, before they narrowed as he gave a low whistle. ¡°Rare pokemon, that. Super useful in the mines. Don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d consider selling it? Or maybe a trade?¡± He jerked his head to the sandchop standing next to him.
¡°Sorry, no,¡± I answered, concealing my frown. If the sandchop was bothered by his trainer looking to trade him away, he didn¡¯t show it. And Sableye seemed too engrossed in his examination of the rocks to care about our words. But it didn¡¯t exactly endear me to Sal.
¡°Eh, worth a shot,¡± Sal shrugged, unconcerned with my refusal. ¡°I guess you¡¯re turning your guy into a battler? Looking to up its defense with the diamonds?¡±
¡°Yeah, an Officer Jenny suggested it to me. She said diamonds would be best, but that there might be some cheaper alternatives that are almost as good¡you have any suggestions?¡±
¡°Far be it from me to correct a Jenny¡but when it comes to rocks, they¡¯re not exactly the experts.¡±
This time, I didn¡¯t bother to hide my frown.
¡°She¡¯s not wrong about certain minerals being better for your pokemon than others,¡± he continued, and Sableye turned to face him, finally paying attention. ¡°If you want your sableye to be a successful battler, you better watch its diet. But everyone always jumps to diamonds as the ¡®best¡¯ option. Not as often with sableye, we don¡¯t get many of those through here. But graveler or onix? Everyone thinks they¡¯ll just feed ¡®em enough diamonds and they¡¯ll be indestructible.¡±
¡°¡is that not true?¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s not true!¡± Sal exclaimed, then he sighed. ¡°They just hear that diamonds are the hardest material on the planet and think it¡¯ll be the best ¡ª but let me ask you this: what does ¡®hardness¡¯ mean? Scientifically.¡±
¡°Er¡¡± I paused, thrown by the sudden question. ¡°How difficult it is to break?¡±
Sal just shook his head. ¡°Hardness means how easily it can be scratched. So something like chalk isn¡¯t hard at all ¡ª you can scratch it with your fingernail. While diamonds can¡¯t be scratched by anything but other diamonds. But it has nothing to do with how ¡®breakable¡¯ the material is. That¡¯s usually what we¡¯d call toughness ¡ª and diamonds aren¡¯t all that tough. You can break a diamond with a hammer without too much effort.¡±
I frowned. His words were triggering some memories from my old life. Maybe from a late-night youtube video? Unfortunately, my materials science memories from my previous life weren¡¯t nearly as clear or as thorough as my knowledge of pokemon.
¡°What would you recommend instead, then?¡±
¡°Depends on what you¡¯re looking for. For fighting someone like Blaine or Lorelei, you¡¯re gonna want something that doesn¡¯t conduct heat ¡ª diamond is one of the worst for that, by the way. Cubic zirconia is what I¡¯d recommend if that¡¯s what you¡¯re looking for. Most minerals don¡¯t conduct electricity, so unless you try to feed it gold or something similarly idiotic you should be good against electric types regardless of what you choose. If you want a higher speed, you¡¯ll want a lower-density mineral ¡ª I¡¯ve seen some trainers feed their pokemon amber, but you¡¯ll be sacrificing pretty much any defensive benefits, so I can¡¯t say I¡¯d recommend it. As for general defense¡well, there¡¯s a number of different metrics with that: compressive strength, shear strength, tensile strength. But like I said, the most important is toughness.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the best for that?¡±
As if he was waiting for that very question, Sal reached forward and tapped at the placard in my hands. ¡°Jade. If you¡¯re looking for resilience against physical impacts, you won¡¯t get any tougher, at least not from a mineral. Almost as hard as quartz, and not terrible heat resistance. It¡¯s denser than some of the others, but its toughness more than makes up for it, in my opinion. Plus, it¡¯s easy on the eyes. Feed your pokemon jade for a few months and they¡¯ll be a lock for whatever beauty contest you put them in.¡±
I looked at him skeptically at that. I didn¡¯t want to disparage my pokemon, but I doubted Sableye would be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, regardless of his diet. And Sal¡¯s words were starting to sound less like a geology lesson and more like a sales pitch the longer he went on.
Although¡from the way Sableye had been staring at some of the prettier rocks on display, it was possible the ¡®beauty¡¯ sales pitch wasn¡¯t meant for me.
To be fair to Sal, the prices of jade on the placard were quite a bit less than diamond, so it didn¡¯t seem like his words were completely based on greed. I¡¯d walked into his shop already looking for diamonds ¡ª all he had to do to ¡®upsell¡¯ me was keep his mouth shut.
The problem was that I had no real way to verify any of his claims. With the way the internet in this world worked, it was a nightmare to search for any lesser-known specific information. All I¡¯d most likely be able to find were a bunch of unverifiable claims from other trainers¡¯ experiences in a couple of forums. Would those be more reliable than the guy in Pewter City with a rock shop named after him?
I was distracted from my musings by the ding of the bell behind me, and I looked back to see a face both new and startlingly familiar.
¡°Ah, Gym Leader Brock! Come in, come in.¡±
Chapter 32: Gig Work
Brock looked different from what I expected. Similar enough to his pixelated representations that he was still recognizable ¡ª the same squinty eyes, spikey hair, and earth-toned outfit. But this real-world version of him was...well...real.
He was the first character from the games or show that I¡¯d met in this world, and the absurdity of it hit me like a ton of bricks. Was he just a game character, with pre-programmed likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses? His entire life and personality nothing more than ones and zeros? If he was, what did that make me? A ghost in the program, just waiting until I made a big enough splash to get noticed and deleted? It was an existential crisis I¡¯d thought I¡¯d addressed and put behind me during the first few months after I¡¯d woken up in this world, but I evidently wasn¡¯t quite as well adjusted as I¡¯d thought. Thankfully, the presence of the two adults didn¡¯t allow me to spiral too far. ¡°What can I do for you? Anything wrong with your order?¡± Sal asked.
¡°No, it¡¯s great, steelidon is loving it,¡± Brock responded. ¡°There were a couple of held items that caught my eye the other day, though, and I thought I¡¯d come by to give them another look.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± Sal answered. ¡°Give me a few seconds to get this customer settled and I¡¯ll be right with you.¡±
¡°Take your time ¡ª I wouldn¡¯t be a very good gym leader if I couldn¡¯t tell a smooth stone apart from a rocky helmet by myself,¡± Brock responded with a chuckle.
Sal¡¯s smile was stilted, seemingly a bit bothered to leave such a prestigious customer on his own, but he eventually turned back to me.
¡°I see two different jades listed here,¡± I hurried to ask. ¡°Is there a difference between them?¡±
Sal nodded. ¡°Jadeite and nephrite jade. Pretty similar overall in terms of quality. Nephrite is cheaper and a bit tougher than jadeite, but it¡¯s a little less hard. Jadeite is what most people think of when they hear ¡®jade¡¯, and its got more of the distinctive jade colors.¡±
I nodded. Nephrite jade seemed like the best option, then. Of course, I was still taking Sal at his word about the properties of all the different kinds of rocks or what was ideal for a sableye¡¯s diet, but the presence of Brock ¡ª the rock-type gym leader ¡ª went a long way to vouch for his trustworthiness and expertise. And the fact that the ¡®ideal¡¯ gemstone for Sableye was looking to be much cheaper than diamonds or even the other jade option helped boost his credibility.
Unfortunately, ¡®cheaper¡¯ didn¡¯t mean ¡®cheap,¡¯ and my finances weren¡¯t near enough to afford nephrite jade in the quantities Sableye would need.
¡°Er¡I don¡¯t suppose you have any deals for trainers on their journey?¡± I awkwardly asked.
¡°No, sorry, no deals,¡± Sal responded with a small frown. But then his eyes flickered over to where Sableye had his face pressed to the glass of another display case. ¡°Although...I could use a pokemon like your sableye in the mines. No, I¡¯m not asking for another trade,¡± he hurried to add after seeing my face. ¡°I was thinking of something more temporary ¡ª a trade of services, if you will. In exchange for the nephrite jade, your sableye comes and works for me for a few days, depending on how much you need. We can hash out exact amounts, but as a starting point, I¡¯d say three days of work is a fair trade for a month¡¯s feeding supply.¡±
I¡¯d been ready to decline on the spot, but at the mention of the amount I hesitated. That would be huge for my finances, and I doubted I¡¯d ever find a better deal. It would suck to lose Sableye for three days of training, especially at such a critical time in his development, but getting him on the optimal diet ¡ª with a guaranteed continued source of that diet ¡ª would more than make up the difference, at least in terms of power.
There was really only one thing left to check.
I took a step closer to Sableye before kneeling down to be closer to his diminutive form. He¡¯d evidently heard at least some of our conversation, because he¡¯d pulled his attention away from the shiny rocks and was looking back and forth between me and Sal.
¡°What do you think, Sableye? In exchange for some good rocks to eat, would you want to work for this man a few days in his mine?¡±
Sableye shrunk down, his hunched posture becoming even more withdrawn, and he physically flinched when I said the word ¡®mine.¡¯ I waited for a few seconds when he didn¡¯t respond, during which his large, gemstone eyes darted back and forth as if searching for an escape.
I sighed. I couldn¡¯t say it was a surprise or that I blamed him, considering his history. But a small part of me had hoped. He hadn¡¯t directly answered my query, but his body language was all the response I needed.
¡°Sorry, no deal,¡± I said as I turned back to Sal. I pulled out my wallet, did some quick mental calculations, and plopped all but a single bill onto the counter. ¡°I¡¯ll take six ounces of nephrite jade, please.¡±
Sal was frowning, but he nodded, collected the money, and then walked into the back of the shop to collect my order. It was almost physically painful to see the last of my cash disappear, but I would be fine. It cost nothing to set up a campsite outside of town and I still had plenty of cold rations and normal pokechow in my backpack. The six ounces of jade should last Sableye around three days, and we could probably double that time with some judicious rationing. It wasn¡¯t ideal, but Sableye could survive on just regular pokechow if it came to that. It wouldn¡¯t be pleasant for him or help his future battling prospects, but he wouldn¡¯t go hungry.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I had almost a week to make more money before it came to that. As Sal returned with the ordered jade and I left the shop to find a bench outside, I considered my prospects. It wasn¡¯t ideal ¡ª in all my preparations, I¡¯d never considered that I would run out of money so quickly. But neither had I expected to burn through all three of my pokeballs in the first couple of days or for one of my newly caught pokemon to have such an expensive diet.
I could, of course, always call home and ask my parents for money. My parents weren¡¯t rich, but neither were they poor, and nephite jade wasn¡¯t that expensive when you didn¡¯t care about having it cut and shiny and set into jewelry. But along with my own natural reticence to calling home and asking for money, there was a stigma to trainers doing so.
It was impossible for the league to enforce, but the general expectation was for trainers to allocate a certain amount for their journey and when it ran out to return home. Originally, the practice was intended to act as a ¡®time limit¡¯ for those trainers who weren¡¯t progressing, preventing lazy trainers from treating their journey like a never-ending vacation. Those trainers who were competent enough to keep earning gym badges should also have been competent enough to earn the money they needed to survive, either through battling or other means. It was a lesson on economics to go with the lessons on life and pokemon the trainers were already being taught.
Of course, similar to regular life or economics, things were rarely so fair. The tradition put no limits to the amount of money someone could start with, nor were there any actual regulations preventing trainers from calling home for more. Not that I could throw stones ¡ª similar to the bus situation, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to flout tradition if there was truly need. My parents probably wouldn¡¯t even be annoyed ¡ª I¡¯d asked for hardly anything from them prior to leaving, convinced that Hobbes¡¯ and my years of battling experience would see us through despite our comparatively minimal starting funds.
And perhaps it was just the stubborn teenager in me, but I still wanted to prove that confidence to be well-founded. It would be tricky, as without a safety net a single bad loss could drain everything I had left. And my confidence in Porygon and Sableye securing battle victories wasn¡¯t nearly as high as my confidence in Hobbes. But I believed we would be able to make it work.
I heard footsteps approach my bench from behind, distracting me from my plans. I looked up to find Brock ¡ª Gym Leader Brock, I mentally corrected myself, since no good could come from treating the powerful and respected gym leader like a familiar cartoon character ¡ª standing over me.
¡°Hello. I¡¯m Brock, Pewtor City¡¯s gym leader.¡±
¡°...I know,¡± I dumbly replied. And then I shook my head. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m Marcus, nice to meet you.¡±
¡°Ditto,¡± Brock replied with a smile, his eyes flashing to where Hobbes was still perched on my shoulder practicing small-scale uses of transform. And then he looked at Sableye, quietly sitting on the bench next to me. ¡°I saw what happened in there.¡±
¡that felt a little rude, pointing out our poverty, but I didn¡¯t let the friendly smile fall from my face. ¡°It¡¯ll be tough, but we¡¯ve been training and working on our battling strategy. We¡¯ll figure it out.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sure you will. But...¡± He paused, leaned in close, and lowered his voice. ¡°...what if there was another way.¡±
If this were any other world, or if it was anyone other than Gym Leader Brock, that would¡¯ve been my cue to run off screaming. But this was the pokemon world, where each teenager had a menagerie of superhuman bodyguards. And this was Brock, one of the most reliable and ¡®normal¡¯ of the gym leaders. So instead, at a similarly quiet tone, I replied, ¡°What are you suggesting?
¡°A job,¡± Gym Leader Brook answered, standing upright and speaking at a normal volume. ¡°Recently, we¡¯ve had quite a few reports from young trainers running into town from the slopes of Mt. Moon, terrified for their lives and thinking a legendary pokemon was hot on their heels. Yet when questioned, none of the trainers could provide a reliable or consistent description of their pursuer. So, I would like to hire you to find the source of these accounts, be it a wild pokemon or some other source. And, if it is within your capabilities, to pacify it. You will be paid, of course ¡ª I was thinking a starting flat payment of four hundred pokedollars, with potential bonuses upon completion?¡±
Four hundred was the exact amount Sal had quoted for a month¡¯s supply of nephrite jade ¡ª I was sure that wasn¡¯t a coincidence. I squinted at the gym leader suspiciously. ¡°Why me? Doesn¡¯t the league have rangers, or gym trainers, or YOU to solve issues like this?¡±
¡°Sure, we could probably get to the bottom of it. But, not to brag, my time is valuable, and those others you mentioned only slightly less so. And while this mysterious assailant has left many trainers and their pokemon scared for their lives, none of them have actually been injured, nor have there been any recent missing persons reports in the area. I¡®m authorized to hire out journeying trainers for missions deemed to be ¡®low-risk,¡¯ which this one appears to be. And as for why you specifically? A number of reasons.¡± He held up a hand with three fingers raised. ¡°All the reports so far have come from new trainers fresh on their journey ¡ª the cause of these frights seems to be targeting the young, which means you have a better chance of stumbling upon it than me or most of my gym trainers.¡± He lowered the first of his fingers. ¡°I¡¯ve got a sneaking suspicion you¡¯ll be capable of handling this issue.¡± The second finger dropped down. ¡°And finally, and most importantly ¡ª I think you deserve the chance.¡± He lowered his hand and looked at Sableye. ¡°Believe it or not, there unfortunately aren¡¯t too many trainers who will put their pokemon¡¯s comfort above their own, especially younger trainers with new captures. It¡¯s a mindset that, I believe, should be rewarded.¡±
There was a beat of silence, a pause during which I eventually realized he was waiting for my response. I glanced to Hobbes and then to Sableye, meeting both their gazes for half a second before looking back at Brock.
There was really only one thing for me to say.
¡°I accept.¡±
Chapter 33: Whos That Pokemon?
It was exciting exploring the slopes of Mt. Moon, my eyes peeled for any signs of the ¡®terrifying legendary pokemon.¡¯ While I¡¯d grown accustomed to seeing new, strange pokemon on a daily basis in the three years since I¡¯d awoken in this world, the mountainous slopes were an environment I hadn¡¯t yet had the opportunity to explore.
The crags above Rock Tunnel were similar. But while those ¡®mountains¡¯ formed a similar ecosystem, they were much smaller ¡ª both in area and elevation ¡ª than the peaks that surrounded Mt. Moon. Combined with the fact that the mountains north of Lavender Town were practically impassable, with nothing more than overgrown pokemon trails to follow over the top, meant pretty much everyone stuck to Rock Tunnel if they wanted to get to Lavender Town from Cerulean. Which meant I hadn¡¯t seen as many mountainous pokemon as one might expect of a kid who grew up next to one of Kanto¡¯s biggest tunnels.
In contrast, the slopes of Mt. Moon were crisscrossed with dozens of trails from hikers, pokemon, researchers, and more. Almost as many trainers hiked over Mt. Moon as braved the depths beneath. There were pros and cons to each path ¡ª over the top you avoided the hordes of zubats, paras¡¯, geodudes, and their respective fusions, but the weather near the peak could be just as dangerous and even more unpredictable, especially during the fall and winter months.
On the other hand, the pokemon that could be found on the surface had much greater variety, and, in my opinion, were much more interesting than those in the ¡®tamed¡¯ caves of Mt. Moon. You lost out on the chance to potentially resurrect some cool fossil pokemon if you went over the top, but that was always a long shot, especially without specialized digging and excavation gear.
On the surface, there were gogoats, machop, gligar, mankey, durant, heatmore, and so many more. If I was lucky, I might even encounter a jigglypuff or clefairy. It wasn¡¯t quite the variety and rarity of Mt. Silver, but it was closer than anywhere else I¡¯d been save the Safari Zone.
As I hiked, I kept on the alert mysterious terrifying culprit. But just as much, I watched for new and exciting species of pokemon. After years of battling as a youngster, I thought myself competent when it came to identifying the fusions of common pokemon. Rattata, pidgey, diglett, geodude, bellsprout...even when fused, they all had unique characteristics that made them easy to identify, if you knew what to look for. But with so many pokemon species wandering about that I was less used to encountering, I found identifying them much more difficult.
¡°Hm...I may need the hint for this one,¡± I finally admitted. Hobbes was transformed into the shape of the mysterious fusion we¡¯d caught a glimpse of a few minutes prior, though with his disguise that wasn¡¯t as much help as it might be. It was a quadrupedal pokemon, and I was almost certain one half of the fusion was nidoran¡á. But for the life of me, I couldn¡¯t figure out the other half.
Though it had nidoran''s recognizable ears and horn, it had longer legs than a normal nidoran ¡ª closer to a dog or cat than a rabbit.
Hobbes looked at me, double-checking that I indeed wanted the hint, before he cleared his throat and let out a cry.
¡°Shoran! Sho, sho!¡±
I frowned. That was...less helpful than I thought it would be.
It was at times like these when I felt sympathy for Oak and the rest of the natives of this world. It was easy to imagine them all as idiots, especially after I had first arrived, for not cataloging all the different pokemon and their respective fusions. But it wasn¡¯t as easy as I might have first assumed.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The average person, growing up in a small town, would generally only encounter pokemon native to their area, and even then, usually only the first-stage or middle evolutions. Only after going on their journey would trainers encounter a greater variety, but unless they traveled far or advanced beyond the first gym, they¡¯d most often only see the more common pokemon native to their region.
This was the original reason for the pokedex in the games and show ¡ª for trainers to be able to identify what they were facing when they traveled far and wide, which in turn allowed Oak to develop his compendium of the different pokemon species and their evolutions. Yet there was no pokedex in this world, at least not that I knew of, and fusions immeasurably complicated things. Higher-leveled trained pokemon were almost always fused, so even someone who fanatically followed every conference battle might never see an unfused golem (despite the high frequency of geodudes) or other fully-evolved pokemon.
Further complicating things was the fact that not every fusion of the same two pokemon would turn out the same. Common wisdom dictated that each fusion had a ¡®head¡¯ pokemon and a ¡®body¡¯ pokemon, each determining different traits of the final fusion, but I had no idea how each was decided, what traits the ¡®head¡¯ and ¡®body¡¯ affected, or even if the common wisdom was correct. My only personal experience with fusions didn¡¯t exactly have an abundance of physically-identifiable traits.
There were still so many unanswered questions about fusions, too ¡ª what allowed pokemon in the wild to fuse without the assistance of a DNA splicer? Could three pokemon, or a single pokemon with an existing fusion, fuse? What really was the difference between a fusion and certain evolutions like dugtrio, magneton, escavalier, or even just normal pokemon like exeggcute or maushold?
All of this together meant that ¡ª even for me, someone who had spent literal years watching, playing, studying, and otherwise interacting with various forms of pokemon media ¡ª identifying the pokemon that made up a fusion wasn¡¯t as easy as one might expect.
So, I wasn¡¯t too disappointed in myself for being unable to identify Hobbes¡¯ copied form. I¡¯d been able to identify the pokemon that comprised every other fusion we¡¯d seen today. But that didn¡¯t stop Hobbes from laughing uproariously at my failure, his repeated cries of ¡®sho, shoran¡¯ echoing off the cliffs around us. Porygon didn¡¯t seem to entirely understand what was going on, but he was happy to join in on the fun, his bzzts and beeps happily adding to the cacophony of noise around us.
¡°Fine, fine, you¡¯ve had your fun,¡± I said to no avail, my two pokemon continuing to laugh at my expense. ¡°Not like either of you guessed it either,¡± I added, which only made my pokemon laugh harder. My only consolation was that Sableye had chosen to stay in his ball for the hike, so it remained a two-versus-one rather than three-versus-one.
Even as Hobbes kept laughing, I examined his form closer, hoping for a clue that would reveal the fusion¡¯s origins. His tail had a slight, shiny tint of red, which immediately made me think it was part fire type. Liteo or pyroar? Neither of those looked like they fit, and of course neither had the ¡®sh¡¯ in their names that Hobbes¡¯ cries of ¡®shoran¡¯ implied.
Perhaps my guess of fire type was incorrect? That was easy enough to test ¡ª I couldn¡¯t think of a single fire type pokemon that didn¡¯t learn ember at a low level, so Hobbes should have access to the move if it was. If that didn¡¯t work¡I might have to consider the possibility that Hobbes was somehow messing with me with a fake cry, though I wanted to save that possibility for the very last. If I incorrectly accused him of cheating I¡¯d never live it down.
I waited for his and Porygon¡¯s laughter to die down. It had already continued for much longer than I thought the ¡®joke¡¯ had warranted, but after a few seconds it was quiet enough that I thought my pokemon could hear me over their cries.
¡°Hobbes, can you try to use the move...ember...¡± my voice faded out as I stopped to listen.
Because despite my pokemon finally falling silent after I started to talk, the echoes of their laughter continued. It grew louder and shriller until it sounded as if a woman was being horrifically murdered just around the next bend, and I felt as if an invisible hand had reached into my chest and grabbed ahold of my suddenly pounding heart. Hobbes didn¡¯t hesitate, transforming back into his base form and letting out a warning ¡®di¡¯ toward the source of the screech, while Porygon floated timidly behind my shoulder.
Much sooner than expected, it seemed we had found our target.
Chapter 34: Fear
The screech didn¡¯t last long. But a few seconds after its last echos faded, a new screech rose up, this time from our right. We whirled to face the new source. But between the trees and pillars of rock that dotted the slopes of Mt. Moon, there were plenty of places for our opponent to hide, and we saw nothing. A few seconds later, the second screech cut off to be replaced by a third, originating from a new location. Followed by a fourth, and then a fifth.
None of the reports had mentioned more than a single pokemon¡which was still possible, if the pokemon was stealthy and fast enough. But just in case, I called to Porygon in a quiet voice.
¡°Watch my back, but do not engage unless more than one attacks,¡± I muttered, and Porygon gave a quiet bzzt in response. There was a reason the one-versus-one format was so common in pokemon battles. Many wild pokemon ¡ª most, but not all ¡ª respected a ¡®fair¡¯ fight, even if they¡¯d never before encountered a human. Give them an opponent to fight, and that¡¯s where they would direct their energy. But the moment a trainer tried to beat them two- or more-versus-one¡that¡¯s when their attacks might start to be directed at the trainer behind their pokemon opponents.
I didn¡¯t want whatever we were facing to think I was trying to overwhelm them in an unfair battle. But if they tried any underhanded tricks¡Porygon would be ready.
¡°Where are you? Show¡ª¡± I coughed, clearing my voice after it cracked. ¡°Show yourself!¡± The screeches continued, never originating from more than one point at once, but now containing a hint of manic laughter within the screams. My heart pounded in my chest, and I fought against the desire to flee, to sprint back down the trail to town as fast as my legs could carry me.
Just a few minutes earlier, the sky had been bright, yet now it felt as if the world was shrouded in a haze of grey. Evening had been approaching, but it wasn¡¯t late enough to be as dark as it now was. My eyes darted back and forth, staring at the long shadows that hid monsters within them. The fear was all-encompassing. It surrounded me. It was drowning me. It was¡
¡familiar.
With that sense of familiarity, the worst edge of the fear faded, and I was able to think just a little bit clearer. I¡¯d been in a situation like this before. Almost exactly like this, I realized, as I glanced down to where Hobbes called out his own challenges of ¡®kyu!¡¯ into the darkness. In Lavender Tower, on that fateful day I¡¯d gone exploring and met my best friend.
¡°Ghost pokemon¡¡± I whispered.
And as if summoned by my words, our opponent revealed itself.
A small, purple-blue body faded into existence, floating a dozen yards in front of Hobbes. Only a couple feet tall, it was clothed in a similarly-colored dress with a necklace of red pearls around its neck. Long hair flowed in tresses down its back, blown along with its dress in a non-existent breeze. On its face were two wide red eyes and a mischievous smile, and as it caught my gaze it called out its name.
¡°Misdreavus!¡±
I hurriedly averted my gaze, not eager to take a mean look or scary face, but my mind raced. Misdreavus weren¡¯t supposed to be on Mt. Moon ¡ª they were on the restricted pokemon list, confined to the caves and slopes of Mt. Silver. I didn¡¯t even think we had any in Lavender Tower. How had this one gotten here?
Fortunately, it appeared to be alone. I took a second to think through my memories of misdreavus¡¯ lore ¡ª now that I¡¯d identified its source, the fear was thankfully less all-encompassing. I knew misdreavus fed off of others¡¯ fear, which had something to do with its red necklace, but I couldn¡¯t think of anything else that might help resolve the situation. If this misdreavus had somehow been unable to find its way back to its home on Mt. Silver, maybe it would accept help as a compromise? It couldn¡¯t hurt to try.
¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt you,¡± I began, and the misdreavus¡¯ eyes narrowed. ¡°But you can¡¯t keep scaring trainers like this. Not on this route. I can try and get you home. But you¡¯ll need to trust me.¡±
The misdreavus¡¯ smile widened before pink and purple lights burst from its body and coated the rocks, grass, and trees around us like a layer of psychedelic paint. Wonder room, I realized, and I sighed. Plan B it was then.
¡°Hobbes, you¡¯re up.¡± Like a dog finally let off its leash, Hobbes dashed forward with shadow sneak. The misdreavus¡¯ eyes widened in surprise before glowing with an inner light, targeting Hobbes¡¯ rapidly approaching farm. But Hobbes had already peeled off, choosing to abandon his move rather than trade hits with the wild pokemon, and I nodded in approval. His disguise could only block a single hit ¡ª best not to waste it so early into the battle. And if the earlier screeches were actually the move screech rather than simple noise ¡ª which I could only assume to be true from the way my body had been reacting to the sound ¡ª Hobbes¡¯ defense was already severely weakened. We couldn¡¯t afford to just mindlessly trade blows.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Thankfully, this was a wild pokemon. It obviously wasn¡¯t stupid, based on how it had been targetting only younger trainers on the mountain paths with its fear attacks. But it was unlikely to use the same strategies I might expect from a competent trainer. We just had to wait for the opportunity...
¡°Now!¡± I called as the misdreavus began to growl, and Hobbes dashed forward in another shadow sneak. He was too fast for the misdreavus to switch to another move before making contact, and a purple claw raked across the misdreavus¡¯ chest.
It was weaker than it otherwise might have been. Waiting until after misdreavus had committed to growl meant Hobbes¡¯ attack was already lowered by the time he made contact, and wonder room meant the misdreavus¡¯ normal focus toward the ¡®special¡¯ stats was instead skewed towards physical defense. But it was still a super-effective move, and Hobbes was no slouch. The battle was already all but decided, and from the look on misdreavus¡¯ face, it knew it.
But rather than try to flee, or surrender, or continue to battle using one of its previously tried moves, it did something I did not expect.
It began to sing.
It was a strange, arcane song, one with words I felt I could almost understand, words that whispered on the very edge of my hearing. Strange symbols appeared in the air around misdreavus as it continued to sing, glowing faintly in the evening light.
Hobbes¡¯ didn¡¯t have to be told what to do. He sped forward in another shadow sneak, attacking while the misdreavus was focused on its move. It took the second shadow sneak to the chest, wincing in pain but not aborting its song. And then, before Hobbes could attack with a third shadow sneak, it finished.
The glowing symbols linked into two chains, one wrapping around misdreavus and the other shooting through the air towards Hobbes. He tried to dodge, but the chains followed, and a second later they wrapped around his disguised form. And it was only as the glowing symbols at one end of the chain slowly began to fade that I recognized the move for what it was.
Perish song.
I clenched my fists at my sides. I should have expected the move ¡ª it was introduced in gen two, practically made for misdreavus. But in the games it had always been a ¡®high-level¡¯ move, not something I¡¯d expect to find on a random pokemon on Mt. Moon.
It was a mistake.
¡°Hobbes, return,¡± I called, my friend and partner disappearing in a flash of red light as I secured his seldom-used pokeball to my belt. I didn¡¯t know how a move like perish song would function in this world. Pokemon were normally incredibly resilient, but in the games perish song bypassed defenses entirely, causing all pokemon who heard it to faint in three turns. But how long would ¡®three turns¡¯ be in the real world? And would it just end with him fainting?
I didn¡¯t want to take the risk, not with a move that had the word ¡®perish¡¯ in its name, and not when we were so far from a pokemon center. So I sent out Sableye instead, the gremlin pokemon appearing in a flash of red light where Hobbes had been standing moments earlier.
¡°Dreavus!¡± The misdreavus called in anger upon realizing its original opponent had been replaced.
¡°Say, sableye!¡± Sableye responded in challenge. And a second later the battle was back on as the misdreavus¡¯ eyes once again started to glow. In a mirror to Hobbes¡¯ actions a few seconds earlier, Sableye started to move forward with a shadow sneak of his own, only to pause when I called him back.
¡°Don¡¯t bother, Sableye, just endure. Status moves only, try to detect any incoming attacks.¡± With perish song already counting down the seconds until the battle¡¯s end, there was no need for Sableye to risk himself.
Sableye looked back at me. For a second I thought he would disobey, choosing what he thought was best over his trainer¡¯s orders. But with what seemed like a combination of a sigh and a sneer, along with another cry of his name, he obeyed.
Detect wasn¡¯t as good for dodging moves like confusion as it was for dodging those moves that had a more defined target, and Sableye was still far from mastering the difficult move. But training it in a battle against something other than Porygon would hopefully speed up the learning process. And on the positive side, using only detect and leer meant there was little chance of Sableye accidentally hurting himself in his confusion after the misdreavus used confuse ray.
The battle didn¡¯t take long after that. Sableye took a couple of hits from his increasingly desperate opponent, but the misdreavus wasn¡¯t strong enough to knock Sableye out before the arcane symbols wrapped around its body faded out.
When there was only one symbol left, the misdreavus turned to flee, recognizing its imminent doom. I didn¡¯t give Sableye any commands to stop it ¡ª from the rate the symbols were fading, it only had a few seconds left. And it was fast, but not fast enough to truly escape in that short amount of time.
It dashed for the trees, barely disappearing behind a trunk before it let out a single, final cry of ¡°vus!¡±
And then the mountain was silent.
The last remnants of wonder room faded away. The sun was once again shining, slightly dimmer than before the misdreavus arrived but no longer shrouded in a mysterious haze.
And when we hiked to where the misdreavus had fallen, unconscious but still alive, the stones around its neck were a pale pink rather than the vibrant red of a few minutes prior.
The fear was gone.
Chapter 35: Payment
We stood around the small, unconscious form of misdreavus wondering what we needed to do next.
Or rather, Sableye and I stood, while Porygon hovered. Hobbes was still in his ball ¡ª I wasn¡¯t sure if the effects of perish song would be removed by switching him out, and I didn¡¯t want to risk releasing him before getting to a pokemon center in case they weren¡¯t.
And I only presumed we were wondering what to do. That¡¯s what I was thinking, certainly, but Sableye looked more angry than anything else. Which was understandable ¡ª it couldn¡¯t be fun to be someone¡¯s punching bag without ever getting the chance to punch back. I was just happy he wasn¡¯t trying to attack the unconscious wild pokemon.
We¡¯d found and defeated the source of the fear attacks, as Gym Leader Brock had requested. But what should we do now? Even if the misdreavus accepted its defeat as a sign to never bother another trainer, we couldn¡¯t just leave it out here. It was an unconscious pokemon far from its normal territory ¡ª as much as the games and show often taught otherwise, wild pokemon could be absolutely savage against those they considered ¡®outsiders¡¯. If we were to leave now, the misdreavus unsheltered and unable to defend itself, I doubted it would see another sunrise.
¡which I supposed would be a solution to the fear attacks. But as soon as that thought entered my head, I brushed it aside. That was not the type of trainer I wanted to be. Sure, misdreavus were a ghost pokemon that literally fed on the fears of others. Many would argue that it was better off dead. But I knew pokemon could be more than just their pokedex entries, that even the ¡®worst¡¯ pokemon could be better than their base natures.
Or at least that¡¯s what I wanted to believe. I glanced at my two new friends, to Sableye poking one of the red stones around the misdreavus¡¯ neck with a stick and Porygon hovering cautiously behind him.
¡°Don¡¯t try to eat those,¡± I warned the gremlin pokemon, and he looked at me askance. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re basically the physical manifestation of fear, or something like that.¡± If anything, this made Sableye even more intrigued, but he at least stopped poking them with his stick. He moved to poke the misdreavus¡¯ forehead instead, the stick passing clean through.
I smiled. Until I was proven otherwise, I¡¯d try to look for the best in pokemon, be they wild or my own. And perhaps even after proven otherwise.
That still left the question of what to do about the unconscious misdreavus. I cursed my lack of financial foresight ¡ª if I¡¯d had an extra empty pokeball this could¡¯ve been resolved easy-peasy, and I resolved to always carry at least a couple extras on me should I ever get out of my current financial woes. But in the meantime¡
I cautiously leaned over misdreavus and poked its forehead with my finger. Just like the stick, my finger and then hand passed through with no resistance. I was tempted to try and touch the necklace, instead ¡ª the stick had been able to touch the red pearls ¡ª but I held myself back. I had no idea what special properties they might have, and even if I could safely pick them up, I didn¡¯t want to try to drag the misdreavus along by its neck.
¡°Sableye, do you think you can carry it back?¡±
Sableye turned to me with its gemstone eyes.
¡°Hey, don¡¯t look at me like that. Porygon can probably help with magnet rise, but neither of us can actually apply any real force. As a ghost type, you should be able to.¡±
Sableye reached down and poked the misdreavus with a single finger. And, sure enough, the opposing ghost-type was pushed away by his touch. Sableye turned to me with a barked exclamation of his name.
I was still a novice when it came to understanding my new pokemon. Porygon¡¯s beeps were completely indecipherable, but I¡¯d gotten better over the past week at understanding the meaning behind Sableye¡¯s cries. It wasn¡¯t nearly to the level that I could understand Hobbes, but it was more than I could interpret from wild or other trainer¡¯s pokemon.
Thankfully, Sableye¡¯s body language made his question perfectly clear. Why should I carry it?
¡°I mean¡we¡¯re kinda doing this for you¡¡± I responded, and when Sableye simply looked at me uncomprehendingly, I elaborated. ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re doing this job for Gym Leader Brock. He isn¡¯t directly paying us with your food, but it¡¯s close enough. He¡¯s giving us the exact amount needed to keep you healthily fed with the gemstones you need for the next month. It¡¯s why we were at that shop yesterday. Why we accepted Brock¡¯s request in the first place.¡±
I had thought that was obvious ¡ª Sableye had been present for the entire conversation, after all. But either he had been more distracted than I¡¯d thought by the rocks in Sal¡¯s Emporium or he simply didn¡¯t grasp all the nuances of our words. Because when understanding finally dawned, he didn¡¯t hesitate to pick misdreavus up and throw the tiny ghost pokemon over his shoulder.
I chuckled. ¡°Porygon, see if you can lighten his load.¡± Porygon beeped at me before a single spark of electricity shot from his body to the misdreavus, and Sableye straightened by just the slightest amount. ¡°It¡¯s a long walk back to the city ¡ª let us know if you need a break or another use of magnet rise.¡±
In my head, I imagined a sudden burst of commotion when we stumbled into the pokemon center two hours later. Nurse Joys calling for help, chanseys running forward with carts filled with potions, and other trainers looking on in curious worry. Something like what I had seen in my mom¡¯s many favorite emergency room TV shows, though with less fake Nurse Joy wigs.
Reality was nothing so dramatic.
A few trainers looked up when we walked in from the darkness, but they just as quickly looked back to their phones or their own pokemon. We walked to the back of the line for healing, which was thankfully short this late in the evening. When we got to the front of the line, even the nurse ¡ª just a regular nurse, not a Joy ¡ª barely reacted to seeing an unconscious ghost-type being carried outside of a pokeball.
Who knew? The place built to take care of injured pokemon wasn¡¯t surprised to see one.
What finally did get a reaction was my admission that misdreavus was wild. The nurse said something to the unfused wigglytuff at his side, who waddled into the back and returned a few moments later carrying a pokeball. A flash of red light later and a machamp-poliwhirl fusion stood menacingly over the unconscious ghost-type. ¡°We¡¯ll need to head to one of the back rooms to help you further,¡± the nurse explained. ¡°What can you tell me about this pokemon? Moves, weakness, potential typings... anything you noticed might help.¡± As he spoke, the polichamp moved to grab the misdreavus from Sableye, only to have its lower set of hands pass right through.
¡°It¡¯s a misdreavus, a ghost-type,¡± I explained. A moment later the polichamp¡¯s eyes began to glow, the spiral on its stomach slowly rotating, and a purple light encircled the misdreavus, gently lifting it into the air. The nurse gave a gesture, and we all followed him down a hallway to a small, empty examination room. ¡°It normally only lives on Mt. Silver, at least around Kanto. I don¡¯t know how this one got here, but it¡¯s been scaring trainers on Mt. Moon. I was given an assignment by Gym Leader Brock to find the source of the attacks, and after I knocked it unconscious I couldn¡¯t just leave it there. So... here we are,¡± I explained as the polichamp released the misdreavus from its psychic hold onto a large examination table and then stood with its arms crossed ¡ª one pair across its chest and the other behind its back ¡ª over the unconscious pokemon. ¡°Oh, also, it knows the move perish song, which I have a question about. One of my pokemon heard the song, but I withdrew him before it activated. Is he safe to release, or will he need to be healed first?¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The nurse, who had been looking more and more worried as I¡¯d continued my explanation, gave me a distracted smile.
¡°As long as he was withdrawn before the song triggered and knocked him unconscious, he should be fine, though if you like we can examine him and restore him to tip-top shape.¡±
I gave a grateful nod. ¡°That would be great, thanks. Could my Sableye also get some healing while you¡¯re at it?¡± Neither of my pokemon really needed the healing, assuming the nurse was correct about perish song. Sableye had been in worse shape after some of our training sessions than he was after the battle with misdreavus, but there was no need for him to suffer any temporary aches when we were already at the pokemon center.
¡°Of course,¡± the nurse said, and I withdrew Sableye before handing over his and Hobbes¡¯ balls. ¡°For this ¡®misdreavus,¡¯ though...I¡¯m going to have to make a few calls.¡±
I nodded. That wasn¡¯t unreasonable, since I was sure it wasn¡¯t every day that an unconscious, wild pokemon on the restricted list was brought in for healing. I pulled out my phone, which Porygon immediately phased into, and settled in to wait.
The hour of waiting passed quickly, all things considered.
The polichamp never left its post over the misdreavus, standing menacingly without taking its eyes off of its charge. It might have made me nervous, but I was too engrossed with the new game Porygon managed to download onto my phone.
It was this world¡¯s version of Pong called ¡®Fetch¡¯d¡¯ ¡ª instead of controlling paddles, I moved what was supposed to be a farfetch¡¯d¡¯s leek back and forth to keep a floating pokeball from bouncing past. Functionally, it worked exactly like the classic game, and the appeal of it over ¡®Ekans¡¯ was that it could be played two-player, with Porygon taking over the role of the AI.
It wasn¡¯t the most exciting, and the game itself felt a little sketchy with the way banner ads that weren¡¯t appropriate for children kept popping up, but I felt secure about my phone¡¯s safety with Porygon managing security. And the occasional beep or bzzt from my phone every time I lost or scored a point proved my pokemon was having a good time, which was what mattered the most.
It was starting to get late, though, and I was feeling the exhaustion from hiking all day. So after passing the phone to Hobbes, who had been returned along with Sableye with a clean bill of health after a quick healing session, I closed my eyes and tried to get comfortable in my plastic chair.
I must have dozed off, because Sableye was the one playing on my phone when I startled upon hearing the door open.
¡°Gym Leader Brock!¡± I exclaimed, hopping to my feet and rubbing my eyes.
¡°Marcus, I hear you were successful in your quest. And much quicker than expected.¡±
¡°Yeah, I got pretty lucky. And it turned out to not be too difficult. Just a misdreavus outside of its normal territory.¡±
¡°That¡¯s what I was told,¡± Brock responded before turning to the still unconscious misdreavus. It hadn¡¯t stirred once during the trek down the mountain or in the hour of waiting since, so I hoped it would be okay. I didn¡¯t have much experience with pokemon being unconscious for any length of time, since I¡¯d never waited to heal Hobbes whenever he¡¯d been knocked out in my youngster battles. But hopefully the fact it had been triggered by a perish song rather than blunt force or a more physically destructive attack meant there wouldn¡¯t be any lingering damage.
¡°How did you get here¡¡± Brock mumbled, looking down at the small pokemon. But he didn¡¯t spend long in contemplation, pulling a pokeball from his belt and tossing it at the unconscious ghost-type. It only rocked twice before dimming, signifying a successful capture, and he turned to the still-watching polichamp. ¡°Deliver this for healing for me, please. I¡¯ll come pick it up in a few minutes.¡±
¡°Champ,¡± the pokemon responded, accepting the ball and carrying it from the room.
And then Brock turned to me.
¡°Sorry you had to wait so long. I didn¡¯t expect you to find the culprit so quickly, and was dealing with some gym business.¡±
I shook my head. ¡°It¡¯s no problem. Like I said, I got lucky ¡ª I expected to spend at least another couple days hiking all over Mt. Moon. Waiting at the pokemon center for an hour is nothing.¡±
He smiled. ¡°Well, long or short, you were successful at the task I assigned you, and you deserve your payment.¡± He pulled out a couple of bills and passed them over. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see my trust in you was well-founded.¡±
I took a moment to admire my newly restored funds. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn¡¯t all that much, close to what I¡¯d started my journey with before I¡¯d purchased supplies in Celadon. But I didn¡¯t need to buy a splicer with this money, at least not immediately, and even after just a week of feeling the pinch it was relieving to have a bit of a buffer.
I turned back to Brock. ¡°Did you know it would be a ghost-type?¡±
¡°I suspected. I¡¯m no ghost specialist, but after a while as gym leader you start to notice trends with reports like these. This fit the profile of a potential ghost-type attack.¡±
¡°So you sent me to handle it? Because I¡¯m from Lavender Town and have ghost pokemon?¡±
He shrugged and gave me a smile. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were from Lavender Town, but¡yes. In addition to those other reasons I mentioned before you accepted. Ghost pokemon are rare, and often require a¡unique mindset to successfully train. I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re a type-specialist or anything like that. But a trainer your age with two ghost-types already? I was willing to gamble on you over anyone else we had available to investigate. And it seems my gamble paid off.¡±
I nodded. I supposed his logic made sense, and it wasn¡¯t like I could ¡ª or wanted to ¡ª argue against my results. But despite growing up in Lavender Town and training Hobbes for years, I¡¯d never considered myself a ghost expert or specialist.
Now that he brought it up, though¡it bore consideration.
Type specialists were extremely common among trainers, for reasons I still didn¡¯t entirely understand. A majority of the most powerful trainers, including all eight gym leaders and the Elite Four, were type specialists, with all their pokemon falling into one or a couple of types.
Some claimed it came down to the difficulty of training pokemon of different types, that splitting focus too much between strategies and conflicting moves weakened the team. Others claimed it was about the bond between trainer and pokemon, that each trainer naturally connected with a certain type and could better train and battle with pokemon of that type. And others still insisted it was fully strategic, allowing trainers to set up environments and arenas that are most beneficial to their type and have them persist throughout the battle.
Those all had merit, yet I had a hard time believing they outweighed the benefits of type diversification, of having a pokemon capable of countering whatever situation or pokemon they might face. Regardless of the reasons, though, it was tough to argue with results, and most trainers that made it past the first two gym badges ended up specializing.
I¡¯d originally planned on becoming a generalist trainer. There were simply too many cool pokemon of too many different types for me to consider limiting myself to just one. Yet maybe I should reconsider the possibility?
I shook my head. It was another factor to consider, along with Seb¡¯s philosophy of ¡®vibing¡¯ with caught pokemon, but it wasn¡¯t something I needed to deal with immediately. Three pokemon were more than enough for the first gym ¡ª splitting my focus with a fourth or fifth pokemon so soon after catching Sableye and Porygon would likely just slow us down. I could consider how I wanted to further build our team after getting the first badge.
I looked back at Brock, who stood by the door looking ready to leave. ¡°What will happen to the misdreavus? If I¡¯m allowed to ask.¡±
¡°Of course. I¡¯m not sure, yet. For most pokemon like this, we like to re-home them into their native habitat. That might be difficult with this one ¡ª misdreavus feed off of fear, at least partially, and it¡¯s learned humans are an easy source of fear. We don¡¯t want to release it on Mt. Silver only to have it immediately find its way back to a population center. Otherwise, we¡¯ll need to find it a trainer. For a restricted ghost-type, that usually means Elite Four Agatha.¡±
¡°Thanks. For letting me know, and for this.¡± I held up the hand that still clutched the wad of bills.
Brock gave me another smile, his eyes disappearing completely. ¡°You earned it. I look forward to seeing you again in my gym ¡ª don¡¯t make me wait too long.¡±
And with those final challenging words, he was gone.
Chapter 36: Fake Out
I immediately made use of my new funds, booking a room in the pokemon center for the night for myself and my pokemon. I planned to return to camping in the wilderness around Pewter City the following nights ¡ª my near-poverty was too recent for me to be too frivolous with my new funds ¡ª but between the late hour and my exhaustion from the long day of hiking, I had no desire to spend the next hour stumbling around in the dark, looking for and then setting up a campsite.
The next morning, our first stop of the day was Sal¡¯s emporium where I spent exactly half of my newly acquired funds to purchase two weeks and two days¡¯ worth of nephrite jade for Sableye. He stared with obvious desire as Sal weighed out the specified amount, his eyes practically glued to the bag as we left the shop and found a secluded training area close to route three. Thankfully, he managed to hold himself back until I prepared his breakfast and thoroughly mixed in the recommended portion of gemstones, but dug in with almost desperate hunger when I¡¯d pushed the bowl his way.
I was a bit perplexed by his gluttony since it wasn¡¯t like the gemstones were too different from what he was used to, at least since I¡¯d rescued him from Team Rocket. It was more than the small handful of diamonds I¡¯d previously been sprinkling on top of his meals or the bits of nephrite jade he¡¯d gotten the day prior, but not so much more that I thought deserved such voraciousness. Perhaps it was the fact that he¡¯d earned these gemstones in a much more direct way than any of his previous meals?
I watched him eat for a few seconds more before shrugging and preparing food for my other two pokemon. Regardless of the reason, I was glad he was enjoying himself.
Thirty minutes later all of us were fed, cleaned up, and ready to start training.
¡°One week!¡± I said as I held up a hand with a single finger raised, my three pokemon watching me curiously. ¡°That¡¯s how long we will train before challenging the gym.¡± I held up my other hand, this one with five fingers raised, and lifted two more fingers on the first. ¡°Thirty-five percent. This is the number of trainers who defeat a gym in the first year of their journey. If you only include those trainers who defeat a gym on their first try, the number goes down to fifteen percent.¡± I paused, lowering my hands. ¡°I intend for us to be among that number.¡±
¡°Di! Kyu!¡± Hobbes cried in agreement.
¡°Bzzzt!¡± Porygon echoed him.
Sableye remained silent, but his eyes were glued to my face, so I gave an approving nod.
¡°It won¡¯t be easy. Gym Leader Brock will be a challenge many times more difficult than any trainer we¡¯ve faced before, and to even have a shot we¡¯re going to need to step up our training. But with effort, focus, and a little luck, I believe we will be victorious.¡±
My pokemon let out another series of battle-cries, this time even Sableye joining in.
I gave another approving nod. It was time to train.
This training was very different from what we¡¯d been doing in the field outside of Fuschia City.
That training had been important. Essential, even, given the state of my pokemon at the time. It had been a building up of their foundation, a targeting of specific weak points, and of ensuring they were truly as desirous of battling as they had indicated. I was sure we¡¯d return to similar training in the future, both when we added new members to our team and when there were specific areas we needed to target for improvement.
But that wasn¡¯t what we needed now. Right now, more than anything else, we needed power. Which meant one thing: battling.
Lots and lots of battling.
I pushed them as hard as they could go, over and over. Against each other, against trainers wandering down route three, even against the occasional wild pokemon that wasn¡¯t scared off by the sounds of combat. And when they could go no further, I took them to the pokecenter for healing before starting all over again.
It was a type of training that would¡¯ve been disastrous for a human. The human body can¡¯t handle being treated so recklessly, can¡¯t push itself to its limits so consistently without taking time for rest and growth. Even for pokemon, we couldn¡¯t train like this forever. After too long, it would start to do more harm than good. We weren¡¯t playing one of the pokemon games where we could just endlessly challenge the same opponents over and over again for ¡®levels.¡¯
But for a week? With two of my pokemon still being so new to battling?
It produced amazing results.
Porygon¡¯s previous hesitation was all but gone. His moves came out in half the time and with twice the power, and he no longer flinched back from incoming attacks, trusting that if I didn¡¯t tell him to dodge, he would be able to withstand whatever came his way. His floating speed was close to fifty percent faster than it was at the start of the week, measured in repeated suicide sprints that we did together to ¡®keep warm¡¯ between battles. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Sableye¡¯s previous ferocity was redoubled as he grew accustomed to the heat of battle. He didn¡¯t hate his opponents ¡ª I made sure to have several talks with him to make sure we were on the same page in that regard. In battles for sport against gym leaders or other trainers on their journies, they were our opponents, not our enemies. But that truth wasn¡¯t evident in the way he fought, and more than a few opposing pokemon and trainers were left shaking after some of his battles.
Sableye also got better at listening to my instructions, though he wasn¡¯t perfect. In the heat of the moment he would often still trust his instincts over my words, though the rare mistakes didn¡¯t bother me too much. The goal wasn¡¯t for him to ignore his instincts, as they were a powerful tool in most situations. The goal was for my instructions to become his instincts, for him to instinctively trust that whatever I told him to do was the correct choice. We weren¡¯t there yet, and wouldn¡¯t be for quite a while, but the battles were a step in the right direction.
And as for Hobbes¡to be honest, he didn¡¯t gain much from our week of nonstop battling. Our years of training had long earned him any similar easily-acquired gains ¡ª further improvements from him would have to come the hard way: through slow, dedicated effort towards improvement.
That wasn¡¯t to say he didn¡¯t participate in as many battles as his two teammates. He actually ended up battling more than Porygon and Sableye, since he often emerged unscathed from his battles and didn¡¯t have to take as many breaks for healing or rest.
But even Hobbes lost some of his matches, most often when he transformed into a pokemon or type he was less familiar with. His transformations were improving, but as long as it wasn¡¯t an unfavorable matchup, he was still much more capable in his base form.
Sableye and Porygon ended the first day with about a fifty percent win rate, with Porygon¡¯s being slightly lower than Sableyes. By the end, they were both sitting closer to eighty percent ¡ª a marked improvement.
While gratifying, those numbers didn¡¯t necessarily mean much in comparison to someone like Gym Leader Brock. Battles against wild pokemon skewed the numbers, and even the results from trainer battles could be deceiving. Most of our opponents were other trainers my age, those who¡¯d had their pokemon for just as long as I¡¯d had Porygon and Sableye, many of which were traveling to Cerulean in hopes of an easier matchup against Misty after failing to get their first badge from Brock.
Yet not all. Some of our battles were against those who¡¯d emerged victorious from the Pewter City gym. Others were against older trainers, those humoring the young trainers camping around the city or even some on a second or third journey, aiming for a conference championship. Victories against those trainers, when they happened, were the most satisfying, and were what had me most confident we were ready to challenge the gym.
Before that, though, we had one more battle to fight.
In order to make it fair to those trainers fresh on their journey, the battles for the first gym badge were two versus two. Each subsequent badge added one additional pokemon until it capped at six versus six in the fifth gym, with the assumption that any trainer who was able to make it that far was more than capable of capturing and training a full team.
What this meant for me, though, was that only two of my pokemon would be participating in the upcoming battle. Hobbes unquestionably would be one ¡ª his power was obvious enough that neither Porygon nor Sableye questioned his automatic inclusion in the roster. But the second spot¡
My pokemon would battle for it.
I stood at the halfway point in our makeshift arena, a small glade surrounded by trees a quarter-mile from route three, with a pokeball held loosely in each hand. To keep things fair, I wouldn¡¯t be coaching either side ¡ª this battle would be determined by whatever my pokemon could bring to the table on their own.
¡°Sableye, ready?¡± I asked, and the pokeball in my left hand gave a slight shake of acknowledgment. ¡°Porygon, ready?¡± I asked again, and the seldom-used ball in my right hand shook. I lowered both hands and prepared to release. ¡°Then¡begin!¡±
My throws weren¡¯t perfect. Sableye¡¯s especially was a bit off from the center of his side of the ¡®arena¡¯, since I didn¡¯t have much practice throwing left-handed. But to my surprise, when the red light escaped from the opened ball, it didn¡¯t seem to matter. The light that represented my ghost pokemon flashed across the field to where Porygon was in the process of materializing like normal, only to form into Sableye mere inches from Porygon¡¯s revealed form.
Porygon gave a bzzt of surprise upon seeing his opponent already so close. But he didn¡¯t have time for anything else before Sableye struck.
I nodded. I¡¯d suspected Sableye had more moves than he¡¯d shown, and now it was finally revealed: fake out. A somewhat unique move, fake out could only be used on the first turn after a pokemon was switched in, but it was guaranteed to make the opposing pokemon flinch, essentially acting as a free source of chip damage. That was how it functioned in the games, at least. In this world, it appeared to be the result of Sableye manipulating where he would come out of his pokeball to catch his opponent by surprise. Functionally the same, but with some ways it potentially could be further exploited. And Sableye was already demonstrating one of those ways.
For all that Porygon had learned to be more aggressive, he preferred to fight at range, using a combination of magnet rise and either thundershock or psybeam to blast his landlocked opponents into submission. Sableye knew this, and he wasn¡¯t giving his opponent a chance to gain range.
Scratch after scratch after scratch, Sableye was unrelenting in his ferocity. Most of his other moves were ghost-typed, making them useless against Porygon, but he didn¡¯t let that slow him down. His eyes were glowing as well, indicating a leer or two mixed in to lower Porygon¡¯s defenses, but mostly it was just scratches ¡ª over and over and over.
Porygon didn¡¯t take it lying down. Lightning arced out of him and into Sableye. His colors shifted towards purple as he used psybeam. But Sableye was neither confused nor paralyzed, and he refused to let Porygon gain the space he desired.
It wasn¡¯t elegant or particularly clever. It was about as close to a barroom brawl as a pokemon battle could be, simply trading blows with no thought to defense. But, at least for Sableye, it was effective.
Porygon had been growing by leaps and bounds, but he still couldn¡¯t match Sableye in aggression or power. With more nuanced strategies taken out of the mix, the battle was a foregone conclusion ¡ª and two minutes later, it reached its inevitable end as Porygon collapsed to the ground with a final pained beeep.
¡°Porygon is unable to battle!¡± I called as I withdrew my digital boy, giving his ball a small pat. ¡°Sableye is the winner!¡±
¡°SAYYY!¡± Saybleye gave a screech of exultation upon hearing the verdict. He wasn¡¯t in much better condition than Porygon after the fight, with smoke drifting up from his skin where he¡¯d been hit by particularly bad thundershocks. But he was victorious.
It was time to challenge the gym.
Chapter 37: Pewter City Gym
¡°It was a good effort. Sableye just came in with a better strategy this time.¡±
Porygon gave a plaintive bzzt in response.
¡°Look at it this way,¡± I continued to attempt to console him. ¡°The loss is just more training for the next gym battle. Because, regardless of the outcome against Brock, there will be more gym battles. And some of them will be losses. That¡¯s what separates the good trainers from the truly great trainers ¡ª not just how they win, but how they respond after a loss.¡±
I honestly wasn¡¯t sure what I was saying at this point ¡ª I¡¯d been unsuccessfully attempting to console Porygon ever since healing him in the pokecenter an hour earlier, and was just throwing out cliched quotes I remembered reading in my old world in the hopes something stuck. But after those last words, he started to float a little bit higher, so hopefully he was starting to get over his disappointment.
We were currently waiting in the gym¡¯s lobby. Hobbes and Sableye were both in their balls ¡ª I wanted them as rested as possible, without any distractions leading to the upcoming battle. Not that they would be facing Brock right away; if every trainer fresh on their journey could directly challenge a gym leader, Brock would have to battle non-stop for hours every day to get through the volume. No, this first battle would just be against a gym trainer, someone who worked for the Pewter City gym, likely someone a few years older than me who performed respectably on their own journey.
Even for the chance to battle a gym trainer I¡¯d had to reserve a spot three days in advance. Thankfully, I¡¯d been told we wouldn¡¯t have to wait as long after winning this battle ¡ª a day or two, at most.
I shook my head. I shouldn¡¯t be getting ahead of myself. While the gym trainers wouldn¡¯t be as difficult as Brock, they were still a step above the average trainer we¡¯d spent the last week battling. We couldn¡¯t allow ourselves to get complacent ¡ª that was how foolish mistakes happened.
¡°Marcus Ironstone?¡± the receptionist at the front desk called, and I hopped to my feet, disregarding the jealous stares of the other trainers waiting in the lobby. ¡°Welcome, Mr. Ironstone, are you prepared for your battle?¡±
¡°Yep! And just Marcus, please,¡± I responded, concealing my wince upon hearing my last name.
My ancestors on my dad¡¯s side had apparently been rock-type specialists of some small renown, and had chosen the name ¡®Ironstone¡¯ to represent the strength of their rocks. Of course, this had been before the steel type had been discovered so it made a bit more sense. Now¡well, even if I had any rock pokemon it would be hard to view the name as anything other than cringey.
Though this was an anime world ¡ª I should be thankful. There were much worse names I could¡¯ve ended up with.
¡°Well, Marcus, I¡¯ll just go over the rules with you one more time. It is a two-versus-two battle until fainting or forfeiture. You are allowed one substitution ¡ª any substitutions beyond that and the subbed pokemon will be ruled unable to continue battling. These rules apply to both sides. You are allowed to use any pokemon registered to you, fusion or not, but Gym Leader Brock will only use pokemon that have at least one-third rock typing. Do you have any questions?¡±
I¡¯d been nodding along with her words, nothing she¡¯d said new or unusual, but at her last words I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Gym Leader Brock? What about the gym trainers, will they also have the rock-type limitation?¡±
The receptionist frowned before turning back to her computer. ¡°Hm¡while it appears you were originally scheduled to battle a gym trainer, as of two days ago you were given a special exemption to skip that battle and face Gym Leader Brock directly. Will that be a problem?¡±
I frowned as I rubbed the back of my head. Special exemption? Was this because of the assignment I completed for Brock? I hadn¡¯t expected it to have any effects beyond the immediate payment, but who else but Brock could¡¯ve had the authority to skip me past the gym trainers?
Which led me to the next question: were we ready to face Brock already?
I hadn¡¯t expected to challenge a gym leader today. I¡¯d thought we would have at least one more night and morning to go over strategies and fine-tune our plans. But¡would that really change anything? I didn¡¯t plan for us to do any more serious training, and none of the strategies I expected to use on Brock were any different from what we¡¯d planned for the gym trainer. One extra day wouldn¡¯t make us any more or less prepared than we were at present.
So, after taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I shook my head. ¡°No, that¡¯s fine. Where do I go for the battle?¡±
The receptionist smiled at me. ¡°Follow me and I¡¯ll take you there.¡±
The Pewter City gym arena was pretty much exactly what I expected.
Made up almost completely of stone, the only ornamentations to the mostly bare space were three large pillars of rock extending three-quarters of the way to the ceiling, breaking up the otherwise monotonous space. The stands were stone as well, close to two dozen rows of stadium-style seating, though currently almost all of them were empty. All gym battles were free to spectators, and it was a common pastime for many to analyze matches and follow promising trainers on their journey. Thankfully, that wouldn¡¯t be an issue for me today, as there were only a couple bored observers who most likely had nothing better to do with their afternoons, along with a small contingent of Brock fangirls. If we won a few badges, my team would have to get used to fighting in front of an audience, as spectators were much more common for third and higher gym battles later into the season, but for now I put thoughts of future fame out of my head.
It was almost time for battle, and my pokemon needed my full focus.
¡°Stay by my side, and don¡¯t interfere in the battle,¡± I admonished Porygon as we rode up the slow elevator to the top of the platform where I would stand during the battle. The warning was unnecessary and mostly given out of nerves, but Porygon gave a quiet beep of acknowledgement and floated even closer to my shoulder in reply.
From the platform looking down at the arena, there were a few additional things I noticed. The first was how much more of the battlefield I would be able to see compared to the average arena in the trainer battles I was used to. It wasn¡¯t like I had no idea what was going on in regular battles, especially since most pokemon at my level were rarely taller than waist-height and the arenas about the size of a tennis court. But the platform made everything so much easier to see ¡ª necessary in the larger arena of the gym or with pokemon the size of elephants.
The second was that, in addition to the three stone pillars, there were several divots scattered in seemingly random locations throughout the arena, what looked almost like impact craters. It wasn¡¯t obvious what might have created them, but I had what I thought was a decent guess, and it gave me confidence in my plan.
¡°Glad to see you didn¡¯t wait too long to challenge me!¡± I heard, and I looked up to see Brock smiling at me from the platform on the opposite side of the arena. ¡°I apologize for rushing you through, but I was getting impatient ¡ª you seemed plenty capable of getting past my gym trainers, though.¡±
I frowned. Was he just referring to my ability to beat the misdreavus? Or did he have contact with some of the trainers I¡¯d faced over the last week? I decided it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°You¡¯re that eager to lose? I can¡¯t complain ¡ª it gets me to the second gym faster.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Part of me was horrified at my words, at the autopilot trash-talk that I was spouting against Brock. It was a bad habit of mine when nervous or facing those more powerful than myself. It hadn¡¯t come up recently, as it felt kinda rude to trash talk someone I considered weaker, but this situation more than met both of the requirements for my mouth to start spouting off on its own.
Luckily, Brock didn¡¯t appear offended. He let out a hearty laugh before giving me a wide smile, his eyes disappearing into slits. ¡°I like the confidence. But don¡¯t get too ahead of yourself ¡ª I might not be as easy as you expect.¡±
With those words, he turned to look to the right side of the arena, where a woman in a black and white uniform stood, and gave a nod.
¡°This match will be between Gym Leader Brock and challenger Marcus for the Boulder Badge,¡± the referee called, and I released a breath when it seemed the secretary had passed along the message to omit my last name. ¡°It will be a first badge challenge, two versus two, with one substitution allowed. Gym Leader Brock, are you ready?¡±
Brock nodded confidently, tossing a pokeball up and down in his hands.
¡°Challenger Marcus, are you ready?¡±
¡°Born ready,¡± I replied, attempting to adopt a confident pose of my own.
¡°Then on my mark¡release!¡±
Brock threw his ball onto his side of the arena, and I threw my own a split second later. My throw was closer to the middle of the arena than his, but still just barely on my side ¡ª hopefully, it would be close enough.
In the two hours since his victory over Porygon, Sableye and I hadn¡¯t had much time to develop strategies around his newly revealed move. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t need much for him to take advantage of its utility. When the opposing rock type appeared in a flash of red light, the light that contained Sableye was already darting across the arena.
¡°Geott¡ª¡± the geodude-pidgeotto fusion began to cry, but was cut off by Sableye¡¯s sudden appearance right in front of it. The flying-rock type flinched back, but if Sableye¡¯s fake out did any damage, it didn¡¯t show.
¡°Scratch, Sableye! Same as with Porygon ¡ª don¡¯t let up!¡±
Scratch wouldn¡¯t be very effective against the rock-type, but I didn¡¯t want to risk switching to shadow sneak. Pidgey was part normal type, and depending on how much of that typing the fusion inherited it could be completely immune to the ghost type attack. While Sableye had the momentum and they were in close-range combat, it wasn¡¯t worth risking the chip damage that scratch was guaranteed to provide.
Sableye continued to attack with his trademark ferocity, scratch after scratch coming out as the geotto¡¯s wings flapped in an attempt to escape. Sableye was too close, though, and he didn¡¯t give it the room it needed to take to the air.
But the geotto wasn¡¯t Porygon. The scratches didn¡¯t do as much damage against the rock type, and it had an experienced trainer backing it up.
¡°Defense curl!¡± Brock called, and the geotto instantly responded, crossing its two meaty fists in front of its body to take Sableye¡¯s scratches. ¡°Good! Now sand attack! Lose it and take to the sky!¡±
The geotto¡¯s wings started to flap even harder. But rather than trying to escape, this time it whipped up a flurry of sand that had Sableye squinting his gemstone eyes. And in that split second of hesitation, with an attempted scratch that was just slightly misplaced ¡ª it broke free, its wings carrying it into the air.
¡°Gust! Pepper it from above!¡±
¡°Dodge them, Sableye!¡± Sableye dashed backwards with shadow sneak, the mini-tornados of gust just barely missing his shadowed form. ¡°Now night shade!¡±
Night shade was a move I didn¡¯t previously have much experience with. It wasn¡¯t one of Hobbes¡¯ moves, and despite growing up in Lavender Town, I didn¡¯t have much experience facing other ghost types. It was only recently, during one of the training battles between Sableye and Porygon, that I¡¯d discovered some of its quirks.
Night shade ignored type advantages.
Not completely. Night shade was still weaker against normal types than it was against other types, especially heavily-normal types like Porygon. But unlike with other ghost-type moves, normal type pokemon were not completely immune. Plus, it had the benefit of doing flat damage that bypassed the physical or special defenses of the opponent.
On the flip side, it was an extremely weak move in almost all other aspects. But against a part normal pokemon that invested heavily into their defenses? It was perfect.
Sableye¡¯s eyes shined even brighter than normal as purple waves traveled through the air to encompass the flying geotto. It let out a cry of pain, but it continued to use gusts as the two pokemon traded hits.
Brock stared at me as I looked across to the opposing platform and smirked. Normally, his rock type pokemon excelled in fights that traded blows. Their resistances and high natural defense meant that, as long as they weren¡¯t at a type disadvantage, they would almost always end up on top. But the early chip damage from his fake out and scratches, coupled with night shade¡¯s special properties, was giving Sableye the advantage.
¡°Geotto¡all out,¡± Brock eventually called, and I frowned.
In higher level battles it wasn¡¯t uncommon for trainers to develop codes with their pokemon, ways to instruct certain moves or combinations of moves without giving any warning to the opposing trainer. But this was the first time I had faced it directly, and I studied the battlefield for any signs of what Brock was planning.
The geotto was already on its last legs as it flapped its wings, rising up until it was soaring right next to the ceiling. Sableye could probably finish it off with just a few more night shades. Was it worth it to tank whatever attack Brock was preparing in exchange for those final few hits?
From its position near the ceiling of the arena, the geotto tucked its wings and began to dive. I sucked in a breath in surprise.
From my years of training with Hobbes to use mimic, I was familiar with all sorts of flying-type moves, more than any non-flying-type trainer had any right to be. Gust, wing attack, aerial ace, air slash, I knew them all, and this move was none of them ¡ª it was a move much rarer, one I¡¯d only seen in recordings from conference battles.
Brave bird.
¡°Sableye, detect!¡± I yelled.
For an instant, I could see him hesitate, my instructions warring with his instincts to dodge with shadow sneak. It wouldn¡¯t work, I knew ¡ª as fast as shadow sneak was, it wasn¡¯t fast enough to dodge brave bird, not when the geotto was already mid-dive. But at the last moment, a split second before it would have been too late¡he listened.
Sableye¡¯s gemstone eyes shut as he slipped into the hyper-focused state of detect. He shifted back, his hunched body moving so much smoother than usual as his legs slid along the ground. The geotto followed, adjusting its trajectory to aim at the shifting ghost type, but Sableye continued to move with preternatural grace. I held my breath ¡ª Sableye was still a novice when it came to using detect, and dodging brave bird was a big ask. I didn¡¯t know if he would be able to avoid the pwoerful move.
I didn¡¯t have to wait long to find out.
Whooomph.
The arena seemed to jump beneath me as the geotto slammed into the ground with insane force, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. I squinted, attempting to see through the cloud¡
Sableye stood tall, unharmed.
Surprisingly, the geotto was also still conscious. I¡¯d expected it to knock itself unconscious from the recoil of brave bird, but despite still appearing on its last legs, it was able to pull itself back to its feet at the bottom of the small crater it had created.
Rock head, I realized, one of geodude¡¯s abilities which allowed it to ignore recoil damage. In this case, it wouldn¡¯t matter ¡ª it looked like a single scratch would be enough to finish off the injured fusion. But before Sableye could dash forward to end it, I held up a pokeball.
¡°Sableye, return!¡± I called, and despite looking back at me in annoyance, my pokemon didn¡¯t fight as the red light enveloped him and pulled him back to my side.
¡°Challenger Marcus has withdrawn his pokemon! He has no substitutions remaining,¡± the referee called, and I nodded as I tossed out a new ball.
¡°He¡¯s weak, Hobbes!¡± I yelled as my partner appeared in a flash of red. And then, a second later. ¡°Transform!¡±
Appearing on my half of the arena and with the geotto still trying to recover from the failed brave bird, Hobbes was able to finish his transformation before his opponent could get an attack off. His transformation was his usual horror-movie patchwork-style mimicry of his opponent¡¯s form, but it looked as complete as it was going to get, and I nodded in approval. He needed to be in as good of shape as possible if he was about to face what I expected.
¡°Take him down with rock throw! Don¡¯t take a hit!¡±
The next few minutes were a bit tense as Hobbes and the geotto danced around the arena. The opposing flying-rock type was obviously much more skilled in his form, but he was tired and injured from his fight against Sableye. When gust didn¡¯t work, Brock tried to have him close the distance and use peck, but Hobbes continued to dodge and throw rocks at his opponent. And eventually, it paid off.
¡°Gym Leader Brock¡¯s pokemon is unable to battle!¡± The referee yelled as Brock returned his unconscious pokemon. He gave me a suspicious look.
¡°You¡¯ve done your research,¡± he called across the arena as he fingered the second ball on his belt.
I smiled at him, happy to give Hobbes a bit of time to catch his breath. While geotto could fly despite being essentially rocks given form using flying type energy, it wasn¡¯t as agile as something lighter like an unfused pidgey, and I was happy to give Hobbes a break after all his dodging.
¡°It kinda is your signature pokemon,¡± I responded, and Brock smiled.
¡°I suppose he is, at that.¡± His hands firmed around his second pokeball before he threw it into the center of the arena. ¡°Go, dugix!¡±
¡°DuuuuggiiIIIXXXXXX!!¡± The massive hydra-like heads of the dugtrio-onix fusion appeared in a roar that shook the platform beneath me, and I clenched my hands at my sides.
Sableye and Hobbes were able to take down half of Brock¡¯s team while remaining relatively unscathed. But the battle for the Boulder Badge was still just beginning.