ã€ŠCatching a Conquering Landscape (Pokemon OC)ã€‹


 Prologue

    The peak of the east tower was my preferred spot in the east bunker of Viridian as the vision towards the forest ahead was simply terrific. I will never not like to do night duty here.

    The silence was also great. The south and north towers were not so far away from Viridian as to completely shut down the sound of the city which, even as it slept, still produced some urban sounds. The sound that reached the east tower was a blend of peacefully snoring pokemon, Rattata, Caterpie, and Spearow all sleeping together and the wind hitting the foliage and trees of the forest.

    Ah, a relaxing sound with a great view.

    It¡¯s such a shame that it didn¡¯t even last one hour into the night.

    ¡°Did you guys watch the Championship battle?¡± Asked Trainee Brian.

    Despite him cutting off the good silence I smiled. Three months ago when I was first informed by the Territorial Department that a sixteen years old teenager was going to be sent to my company I was not happy, prodigy or not, history has proven time and again that putting kids or teenagers in the military most times didn¡¯t end well, and no Officer wanted to be the one responsible for making sure that the Region didn¡¯t get another crazy wandering master causing problems.

    Thankfully for my company High Command might have done a good job on the screening this time around. The kid was not too immature even for an adult dark-type trainer. Hoenn knows that with that Sidney fellow.

    Sergeant Roger, now dressed in his new sergeant attire, which I must admit had been a long time coming, responded. ¡°Everyone watched it, kid.¡± He was trying to be serious and own his new position as a sergeant but was just as much a battle fanatic as everyone else and probably would not resist talking about it.

    Some minutes of silence passed and the trainee spoke again. ¡°Do you think Drake can come back in the next cycle?¡±

    Roger frowned and didn¡¯t waste any time biting back. ¡°Did you even watch the match? Of course, he can¡¯t, fucking Stone¡¯s brat is a menace, winning is one thing but the way he did it¡­ Not even Blackthorn did Champion Larry that dirt.¡±

    I, unfortunately, was obligated to interrupt their conversation. ¡°Decorum. Sergeant Roger.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Captain, Champion Lance.¡± He corrected.

    Trainee Brian didn¡¯t look convinced, Drake was Drake of course, The Dragon Master, but I knew Sergeant Roger was right. Metagross as a line was already powerful enough as it was but what that teenager¡­ No, what Champion Steven had done with weaving, mixing, cutting, and all these new fancy terms trainers used these days, surpassed anyone¡¯s imagination.

    A frown involuntary appeared on my face, it was a shame, Drake always looked like he was going to die on the seat, and if someone told me he was going to be defeated like that¡­ If I hadn¡¯t seen it myself I wouldn¡¯t have believed it.

    Even if Drake now knew about the bait, the next cycle Stone would have something new prepared. That Metagross will probably be even smarter and will have even more tricks up on his sleeve, he had info on Aggron and Skarmory but he would have to worry about Claydol and those new fossils, Armaldo and Cradily...

    I shook my head to clear my mind. I had to stop thinking about it if I didn¡¯t intend to unexpectedly look up at the sun tomorrow. I could still spend hours upon hours thinking about matches and battles, a habit developed since my younger days in the Gym Challenge, before the League even.

    I chuckled a little, my body may be old but my mind was still sharp which proved how it really was a great hobby for a trainer to have.

    When not on night duty of course.

    The conversation between Trainee Brian and Sergeant Roger came to a stop. I turned to check on them at the place where the three-man squad was, just to the side, and saw a nervous expression on Brian¡¯s face.

    I silently hummed. Spending a life playing charades with our teams made us, trainers, develop the ability to read body language very well.

    Brian shook his head and gave up on the question that was on the tip of his tongue. I knew what he wanted to ask. What every kid and teenager trainer both in Kanto and Johto, and even people who just accompanied the pokemon battle world, had been asking for days now.

    Who, between Champion Lance and Champion Steven, would win in a six versus six match? Unfortunately for Trainee Brian, he was not a civilian to be able to consider these kinds of questions, fortunately for him, however, he was just smart enough to know not to ask out loud questions like that while in the Indigo military.

    Especially not with his squad¡¯s present company, myself for one, the captain of the company who would need to write a report about a subordinate asking questions that some in the army would call treasonous but also in front of one of the most patriotic officers in the army, vice-captain Giovanni who, knowing him for years as I did, would push for Brian¡¯s expulsion from the army the second the question left his mouth.

    Trainee Brian then, smartly, came up with another thing to say. ¡°Sergeant Dylan says that Drake can come back though.¡±

    There it was. A dark-type trainer¡¯s natural inclination towards provoking others, Brian was new in the company but already famous for this habit.

    Sergeant Roger¡¯s face became red. Everyone knew of the rivalry between the two new sergeants that was carried over to the army from their Circuit and Conference days. That took me back to my time in a three-man squad, although if I had jested with my squad leader as a trainee like Brian did I would have cleaned toilets for a month back in the day.

    Luckily for Brian, I, and by extension my company, were a lot more forgiving with jokes than those old old farts, even Giovanni had a sense of humor that sometimes caught me off guard, even if it was a small one.

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    Sergeant Roger, who seemed like he was going to blow up, controlled himself just in time and scoffed. ¡°At least the civilians have the excuse of not being able to see the match. Dylan is just being stupid as always. No way Drake can come back.¡±

    That seemed to end the discussion and my sweet, sweet silence came back.

    I did the mandatory hourly check on the pokemon, Aria¡¯s Noctown, and Brian¡¯s Murkrow, and both seemed relaxed and calm, I did not see my newest pokemon but since he didn¡¯t chime in I just returned to face the forest.

    ¡°What do you guys think his moniker will be?¡± Brian came again.

    Private Aria ultimately couldn¡¯t hold back and joined the conversation. ¡°I thought his moniker was the Metal Head?¡±

    ¡°That is his Circuit moniker, when you enter the ranks you have to take on a new one. I¡¯m keen on something like the Steel or Stone Claw, you know because most of his pokemon have claws.¡± Brian¡¯s responded and joined his fingers to imitate a claw.

    I almost scoffed out loud, of all the new trends that I tolerated from this new generation of trainers this moniker thing was the most foolish.

    The fact that it all started because new trainers liked the old callsigns of the Great War left a bad taste in my mouth, the army hadn''t called Blaine ¡°Inferno¡± or Pelton ¡°Sky Scar¡± because they were ¡°cool¡±, they called them that because they hadn''t known their names yet. Elite Four Agatha never had a moniker because Johto knew who she was, when Agatha appeared everyone just called her Agatha, not a stupid moniker.

    The softness of the League had really done us all a disservice.

    The squad talked for five more minutes about the technicalities of the new Champion¡¯s stomp, many captains would have shut down the talk because of night duty, but I allowed it, after all, young Brian was just really enthusiastic that someone his age became Champion and needed to vent a little.

    The chatter even made the city guard duty a little more bearable. I could feel, however, that my¡­ Right-hand man finally had enough.

    ¡°Enough you two. ¡°Said the vice-captain. ¡°You can speculate about matches and battles tomorrow when you are out of night duty.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Echoed between the three and I chuckled.

    That was enough to silence the squad¡¯s discussion and the silence of the Viridian forest, the forest wind, and the snores of pokemon returned.

    After some minutes Giovanni, a bit hypocritical I must declare, whispered to me. ¡°Are you feeling alright, Captain?¡±

    I smiled at him and raised my right arm. ¡°Well, I could use a hand.¡±

    The vice-captain didn¡¯t look amused, but the others snorted especially Brian who, because I was hospitalized when he was introduced to the company, didn¡¯t know that I was a bit of a jokester myself.

    ¡°It is good to know that your lack of hand did not affect your sense of humor,¡± Giovanni said with a raised eyebrow.

    ¡°What? That old thing?¡± I acted surprised. ¡°Eh, it was slowing me down anyway.¡±

    The squad was smiling, even the pokemon, but my vice-captain stubbornly remained too serious for his own good.

    I put my left hand on his shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry for me, my friend. Worry for the man who did this for when I get my hands on him he is going to wish I was a Gengar.¡±

    He finally smiled, even if a little. I knew from experience that acting angry sometimes convinced people that you were fine, people thought that expressing your emotions was good. I never got that one. The truth was that at my age things like losing a hand were just a more advanced form of living with my back pain. To some extent I hadn¡¯t lied before, to an already declining body losing a hand was not much, I was just glad that my hand was there for most of my life.

    Two hoots sounded from the Murkrow and we all snapped our heads in his direction.

    He looked worried. Seconds later a voice manifested into my head.

    There is an army incoming, at least fifty trainers and two hundred pokemon, poison and dark mainly, some ghost and psychic too, they are taking their time, ten minutes until engagement¡­ Our scouts were dispatched. A voice whispered in our heads.

    ¡°Ring all the alarms in the bunker, wake up the Gym, and then come back.¡± I felt the Psychic get far enough away to snap the bond.

    Brian released his Sneasel, Houndoom, and Mightyena. Arya released her Ledian and Gligar. Roger¡¯s Rhydon, Rhyhorn, and two Onyx smashed in front of the great bunker. Giovanni released his Nidoqueen, Nidoking, and Rhydon. And I released my Persian, Dodrio, and Kangaskhan, just this mass release must have woken at least half of the company that slept inside the bunker.

    Just as we finished, the alarms of the bunker activated and the city-wide alerts of Viridian soon followed. Lights all over the city began to illuminate the night sky. Civilians should be moving toward the shelters soon.

    After two minutes all the fifty-three trainers of the company were now awake and taking various positions outside the bunker, the pokemon began to be released and formed preliminary lines on the ground and sky.

    A massive purple figure exploded from the thick tree line.

    Thunderbolts, beams made of ice, projectiles of water, and big rocks were launched by the fastest pokemon as they tried to intercept the target, none of them came close as it flew straight into the sky frontline and horribly slammed, slashed, or kicked at least six pokemon.

    Three Pidgeot, two Fearow, and a Skarmory screamed and were immediately recalled by their trainers. Three pokeballs didn¡¯t activate.

    It didn¡¯t stop to attack us again and just soared towards the city, more specifically its Gym. It went unconcerned that someone might follow but some did try, like Brian¡¯s Murkrow and David¡¯s Altaria. However, as much as it pained me to not give it its due justice I had a job to do, and going after that just to lose more combatants was not part of the plan.

    Decades of battles gave me the skill to immediately know which pokemon I can take and what the cost will be. I knew just from the speed and the force of those moves, an Aerial Ace and Air Slash, that that Crobat was at least Elite level. The only one who could defeat that with minimal loses was Marco.

    ¡°Do not pursue the Crobat! Leave that one to the Gym Leader! There are more coming.¡± We did have time to optimize. ¡°Form six platoons, three heavies, main and flanks, two lights behind the flanks and one behind the bunker as reserve. cover all the positions on the template!¡±

    Some shouted more than others, but everyone responded. ¡°Yes, captain!¡±

    The lieutenants started to move around, as a standard company only had four platoons, two veteran sergeants had to be promoted temporarily to lieutenants. The newly divided pokemon began to reform the battle lines, and Roger¡¯s squad moved to one of the light platoons.

    Giovanni and I didn¡¯t move. We would be on the main body as it should be.

    I felt Hypno return and our connection snapped into place.

    I asked him what the contact time was, Two minutes.

    Every trainer and pokemon froze as a screech of defiance echoed all over the Viridian hills. A screech that awoke the instincts of flight or fight in every human that heard it. It soon passed and the accustomed platoon began to move again.

    I turned to catch the shape of Spirit, the ace of Gym Leader Marco, against the now bright night of Viridian. Its wings flapped so hard that even we could feel the wind. It ascended to the skies to assault its new enemy just before a sandstorm engulfed the massive Flygon and then began to expand to cover the Crobat, the entire Gym, and then the skyscrapers that sat around.

    I turned and looked at my team. At one time we were thirty-one, now reduced to ten, of which just seven could fight at this level, all of them were outside the bunker or in my belt, both groups ready to throw their lives away one more time in the protection of our Region and I could not have been more proud.

    ¡°Let¡¯s show how out of the depth those terrorists are, right, old friends,¡± I whispered. I didn¡¯t need to shout, they listened anyway.

    ¡°So, Charles.¡± My vice-captain screamed above the sound of pokemon moving. ¡°The first day you come back, you just suddenly decide to catch up on night watch today and this happens?!¡±

    I laughed as dozens of shadows began to appear from the deep forest. Then the dozens became hundreds and a storm of pokemon, mostly Beedrill, Arbok, and Golbat, flew towards our position.

    ¡°It''s almost as if I have the worst luck, right, Giovanni?¡±

 Johto Chapter 1

    ¡°When we pokemon trainers, plan for something be it a match, battle, spar, or training session, don¡¯t be surprised when the plan fails or changes along the way. To use plans is not the reason we plan. It is to know how to plan and to speed this process so much so that it can be used on the fly when the prepared and practiced plan inevitably fails.¡±

    The brown-haired girl named Rose was telling me about her team as she put the basic grooming kit in the small cart. It was a fairly common and normal grass-type team, an Oddish and a Sunkern. She told me that she wanted to be a grass specialist, but that she also wanted to catch more pokemon that had both grass and poison types like her Oddish.

    I smiled as she asked for tips about grooming, training, and the ¡°top¡± quality food for her pokemon. I, as a good Pokemart employee, ignored the last part and didn¡¯t reveal to her that she would not find any top-tier quality food here. What I did do instead was guide her throughout the many aisles while describing some exercises that would work for her team specifically and some tips about training grass types in general.

    ¡°What about fighting wild pokemon, mister?¡± She whispered and looked around as if someone would appear and scold her. ¡°My friend told me that to be a great trainer you need to go off-route and challenge powerful pokemon.¡±

    My smile dropped a little and I felt an urge to slap my face. Damned be the day that those two decided to become pokemon trainers. Remember your training, what was the ideal path here? Lie? No, she would not believe me, and considering that she was barely twelve years old she would probably make stuff up in her mind. Sincerity? Eh, might work.

    ¡°I will be honest with you, Rose, yes, it is, in fact, a good method.¡± I nodded and her face lit up. ¡°However, it¡¯s very dangerous to do that.¡±

    I stopped walking and turned to her. ¡°As you are now allowed to go on a journey you should also know some things about this type of risk taking. That, for example, for new trainers such as yourself when you stick only to the main routes there is a two-point-six percent chance of you dying by the end of your journey,¡± she froze at the serious talk that her parents probably didn¡¯t have with her. To be fair to them they probably didn¡¯t research this type of thing and it''s not like the Indigo government or the Pokemon League were waving that information everywhere. ¡°Now, every moment that first-year trainers spend outside the routes and into the wild, the chance of dying goes up. At the end of your journey if you spend half the time outside the traditional routes your chances of dying go up to forty percent.¡±

    She looked a bit shaken so I put my hand on her shoulder. ¡°I know it''s tempting to try to be the next Red or Blue, but they are the exception of the exception. It''s best to go slow and steady okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    ¡°However.¡± I dramatically sighed. ¡°I like to negotiate, not prohibited, so let''s do a deal. You can only go off route when you have at least five pokemon and three badges.¡± I extended my hand to her and she went to shake it. ¡°And only one kilometer away, fair?¡± I added.

    She paused a bit but then nodded with a smile. ¡°Yeah, it''s fair.¡±

    I smiled and we continued our walk. The grass session was big since it was one of the most common types but soon enough we reached the food section.

    ¡°Grass-only pok¨¦mon need Pokefood type d1, but grass poison types, like your Oddish, need Pokefood d2.¡± I said and she picked one kilo of each and put it on the small cart together with the basic grooming kit. ¡°To make them eat it without much resistance, you will want to mix a variety of plants, vegetables, fruits, and nuts on an individual basis. You can buy it here or, when you are capable of going in the wild your pokemon can find some for you.¡±

    She also took some toys that we passed by and then I led her to the cashier where my manager, Clarisse, was waiting to pass the items and check her Trainer Card, Rose then opened her Silph Co. backpack and put the food in distinct parts of it then she took out her Trainer Card from her purse.

    I couldn¡¯t help but take a quick look at it, after all, how could something so small cost so much?

    She passed the card to the machine, and it chimed as it acknowledged the payment. She released her Oddish, collected her backpack, and left. The little grass type jumped by her side.

    ¡°Good work, Scott,¡± Clarisse said as she wrote something on her computer, when she was done she turned to me. ¡°And thank you for staying late yesterday.¡±

    I waved my hand and smiled. Now she was cool and collected. It didn¡¯t even seem like yesterday she was about to cry because of that young mob. ¡°It was nothing. I''m glad to help and get the nice bonus¡­ But there are a lot more trainers than normal. Nothing like the last couple of years, right?¡±

    She stopped what she was doing and looked at me funny.

    I confusingly turned my head and she, not seeing any other reaction, sighed.

    ¡°For such a smart guy, you are really out of touch with the news.¡± She spun her monitor towards me, and on it were some news people discussing something called ¡°Champion Lance¡¯s Great Announcement¡±. ¡°Champion Lance is going to give an egg for the first years that go the farthest in this year¡¯s Kanto and Johto Conferences.¡±

    My jaw dropped and my shoulders sagged. ¡°Surely it¡¯s not from the first team.¡±

    ¡°Yes, they are.¡±

    I put my hand on my forehead. ¡°Legendaries¡­¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± she said, ¡°Kids from all over the world are going to come to Indigo to begin their journey here and, with luck, take home a dragon.¡±

    I took my hand off and leaned on the counter, smiling. ¡°Maybe some luck, but not as much as talent and determination.¡±

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    She smiled back and rested her face on her hands. ¡°At least the conference might be good.¡±

    I smiled and thought about my Conference fanatic pokemon. If Cape could speak he would have said the same thing.

    ¡°¡­ And if I know the mayor and the city council well you will have a lot more things to do.¡± I looked at her confused and her smile transformed into laughter. ¡°Like the one you have today.¡±

    My face dropped as I realized what she was talking about.

    -

    I dragged my arm through my forehead to take off the sweat. Today was really hot.

    My partner for today¡¯s tournament and I stood below an area on the field that was covered in shades to escape a little from the heat. Soon enough the finalists would come back and we would again be under the sun so we had to use that opportunity as much as we could.

    ¡°Who do you think is going to win?¡± I asked the Kadabra.

    The pokemon had been stoic and not expressed any hint of movement ever since we stopped in this shade. I almost thought he was not going to respond when emotions that were not mine streamed into my mind, mostly disappointment and then a little bit of humor. It took some seconds but I got the joke he was trying to make. He didn¡¯t know who would win, but he knew that we both would lose.

    I snickered and a small smile grew in the Kadabra¡¯s mouth. I looked up the stands as there were a lot of people for just this Beginner¡¯s Tournament. It seems as if Clarisse was right when she said that there would be a lot more beginner tournaments. Lots of new trainers from Johto and beyond were coming to pursue that dragon egg and most would begin their journey here, in Azalea City.

    I clicked my tongue, Azalea City simply didn¡¯t have the same ring as Azalea Town. It¡¯s funny how fast things change, a year ago people called Azalea a town. Now, however, as Azalea¡¯s population had reached two hundred thousand people last year, the city council decided to change Azalea from a town to a city, the seventh city in Johto. Some members even pushed to change the name of the Gym to Azalea City Gym, Gym Leader Bugsy, however, said that he would not change the name and would leave the decision to his successor.

    That did not go well with parts of the trainer society of Azalea who already didn¡¯t like Bugsy because they felt that he was not respected by the rest of Johto, especially the teen trainers and the youngsters who put the Azalea Gym in a group they called the ¡°casual¡± gyms.

    I rolled my eyes at those kids as they obviously ignored the battles where Bugsy and his teams dismantled five and above badge challengers.

    Nevertheless, Bugsy being perceived as an easy badge was splendid for the more civilian parts of the city who cared more about economics and less about its reputation. First, second, and even third-year trainers flocked to Azalea for their first or second badge and the city council organized many pre-season events and tournaments to get the trainers to enjoy the city and spread the good word so that next year more trainers come here to spend money and not in Goldenrod or Violet City, the other two parts of the trio of ¡°casual¡± gyms.

    What did that mean for me? More well-paying work.

    Finally, the two kids returned for the final and the loud announcer began the introductions. I was almost dead on my feet and just wanted to finish this quickly so I could finally end this day, go home, and watch some battles with Cape.

    ¡°On the right side. Trainer Stacy.¡± I looked, together with the crowd, as a little girl wearing blue clothes got down to the field and took position on a square-shaped by white lines. ¡°And on the left side, Trainer Jeffrey.¡± A boy with purple shirt and painted blond hair walked down to the arena waving his hands to the crowd and I almost rolled my eyes, another Blue lookalike.

    As the announcer was finishing the Kadabra teleported to the other side of the field, I took another sheen of sweat from my forehead, straightened up, and left the shade to take my place in between both of them.

    ¡°This will be a one-on-one battle. Trainers, send out your pokemon.¡± Both kids raised their arms, pulled back, and then launched their pokeballs at the ground. The two pokeballs smashed against the ground and I winced. Many children thought, probably because of the League media empire they watched and consumed, that they needed to¡ª or can¡ª throw pokeballs like a baseball. I shook my head, whatever, not my problem.

    The familiar red beam left the pokeballs and materialized in a Sentret, on the side of Jeffrey, and an Azurill, on the side of Stacy. I looked to one side and got a smile, I looked to the other and got a nod then I raised my hand with three fingers and started the countdown as the crowd followed my lead.

    ¡°Three!¡­ Two!¡­ One!¡­ Begin!¡±

    ¡°Aqua, use Water Gun,¡± Stacy said.

    ¡°Use Quick Attack, Speedy!¡± Jeffrey shouted.

    The Azurill opened his mouth and water energy began to slowly gather inside. It didn¡¯t look like it had much practice with the move. On the other side, the grey-glowing Sentret pushed the ground with its tail and ran towards the blue pokemon but it was not, actually, very quick.

    Maybe it had a lack of physical training and was relying solely on the move¡¯s energy or didn¡¯t know how to coordinate the move with its body yet.

    Whatever the motive it wasn¡¯t fast enough to reach the Azurill in time and was knocked by the Water Gun straight on the shoulder and thrown off course by the hit. Well, at least he landed near the Azurill.

    ¡°Use Scratch!¡± The boy shouted and white energy collected on its stubby arms, but the little pokemon was definitely feeling pain because it tried to walk on its two stubby legs to its smaller opponent, the pain making him forget that Sentrets ¡°walked¡± with their tails, which gave the Azurill time to attack with another Water Gun, which sent him into the ground.

    ¡°Another Water Gun, Aqua.¡± Water energy started to accumulate in the panting Azurill''s mouth.

    ¡°That¡¯s bad.¡± Said Jeffrey. I almost smiled. You tell me, kid. The Kadabra on the other side didn¡¯t look amused whatsoever. ¡°Speedy, dodge.¡±

    The poor pokemon struggled but was able to dodge by rolling to the side. ¡°Nice! Quick Attack again!¡±

    I sighed silently as the clearly tired pokemon wouldn¡¯t be able to attack in time, however, when I looked over at the Azurill, she was more tired than the Sentret, I sent a small prayer for Arceus that she got her pokemon yesterday because it should not be this tired after just three weak water guns.

    The Sentret was able to land its first strike at the Azurill with Quick Attack and she was thrown two meters back and the little blue ball rolled a bit. When I looked at her I saw that her eyes were closed. She had fainted.

    The barriers came down while the Sentret pushed the ground and shakily stood up.

    ¡°No!¡± The girl ran into the field and cradled her Azurill. ¡°Blue!¡±

    ¡°Yes! You did great speedy!¡± The boy also ran up to his tired pokemon and gave it a high five.

    I coughed loudly. ¡°I will ask that both trainers withdraw their pokemon into the pokeballs.¡± After they did, I declared the winner. ¡°The victor of the battle and this pre-season Beginner¡¯s Tournament is Trainer Jeffrey.¡±

    People began to cheer and the only thing that I could think of was how in the world the people could find this exciting. I know they probably are not that into training or battling but, come on, people in Johto watched the Conference battles and saw Hyper Beams and Giga Impacts powerful enough to smash down houses.

    I could only think about my home and my bed as I watched the mayor give a small speech about cooperation with pokemon, the spirit of battle, of the importance of nurturing the next generation, and then give the trophies to the three ¡°trainers¡± in the podium.

    Later, after saying goodbye to the Kadabra and having changed into my normal clothes in the locker room, I was exiting the arena when I remembered that I still needed to go to the library to talk to Jeremy.

    ¡°Fucking hell, this day doesn¡¯t end,¡± I whispered under my breath.

 Johto Chapter 2

    ¡°In or out of battle a pok¨¦mon trainer must always search for opportunity. A powerful pokemon in the wild is an opportunity to train; A blunder by your opponent is an opportunity to achieve victory.¡±

    After the tournament ended the sun started to set and all I wanted to do was to go home.

    Yesterday, however, Jeremy called me and said he had some good news and that he needed to talk to me in person. And so, at the behest of my best friend, I dragged myself to the public library in which he worked.

    Since I knew I was going there to talk to him I had, in the morning, put some books in my bag that needed to be returned. Though now I regretted it and hated myself. The tournament that I arbitrated was in the central district of the city so I had to walk all the way over to the western district with three books in my bag, together with my work clothes and a bulky laptop.

    I looked towards the sun. The temperature was fading but still not as fast as I would have liked. The only good thing about going to the library now was that usually at this hour it was empty and then I was able to talk without the need to whisper. I walked through many blocks. The modern buildings and the crowds of people and diverse pokemon of the central district were soon replaced by the old traditional style buildings of the Slowpoke district, a welcoming lack of activity, and, of course, the lazing Slowpokes and the children and elderly who accompanied them.

    After half an hour of walking, I reached the small, white-marbled building and as I climbed the steps, sweat dripping from my brow, I noticed that at the very last step sat a Slowbro who was reading a book by holding it with psychic energy. It turned its head to me and nodded in greetings which I returned. Looking satisfied, he returned his attention to the book.

    I briefly observed him and his shell tail. It was not rare at all to see Slowpokes in Azalea because of the Well, they were in many places in the city, lazing about, sleeping in parks, ponds, fountains, and trees and some even played with children and their families pokemon, especially near the Slowpoke district, but to see a Slowbro was unusual. Their evolution was stranger than most, so not many people knew how to evolve them, most just knew that it involved a well-trained Slowpoke and a Shellder.

    I entered the library and saw Jeremy, the green-haired man with glasses dressed in formal work attire, at his familiar counter by the library¡¯s entrance. I looked around the room and to my surprise there was another person in the room, at one of the tables, far from the counter, sat a small black-haired girl, probably twelve or thirteen years old, in a white long skirt and pink blouse, she looked very engrossed in her book.

    ¡°Hey, Jeremy, I brought some books I took last month,¡± I said quietly as I put my bag on the counter, opened it, and began to take out the books.

    ¡°Hey, friend who only visits when I call, how you are doing ?¡± He said amused. He took the books and began to update, on his computer, the system catalog.

    I chuckled quietly, Jeremy was a friend I had made when I was just a child who came here regularly to read books. At the time he was an assistant to the old librarian who, after Jeremy became old enough to take his position, retired and allowed Jeremy to take his position. He was also the only one of my few friends who knew that I wanted to be a pokemon trainer.

    ¡°Same old, same old, how was here today?¡± I asked. ¡°With this many people in the city for the pre-circuit events and tournaments, there must be more circulation here than normal, right?¡±

    He looked up from his computer and pushed up his glasses. ¡°More than usual but not that many, it is what I tell you Scott, young people don¡¯t want to read books anymore, not even trainer or pokemon related ones. Most trainers at the pre-circuit tournaments are casuals who are looking for fun battles and the more serious ones use laptops and the Pokenet nowadays.¡±

    I, of course, knew of laptops and the Pokenet, I had my own in my bag, a cheap one, but enough for my purposes. One thing, however, that struck me about the Pokenet, when I did use it, was how empty it was. Having been officially opened to the public just five years ago, it didn¡¯t really have that much material as it depends on people to fill it, which takes time and, in some cases, money.

    I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s why they are so bad this year then.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, oh great pokemon master.¡± He chuckled and crossed his arms as he finally finished with his computer.

    ¡°I''m serious,¡± I said, ¡°today I refereed a semi and a final from a beginner tournament in the central district. The final was a Sentret versus Azurill, the Azurill was just able to use three weak Water Gun before becoming too exhausted and fainting from a single weak Quick Attack.¡±

    ¡°Ok, that does sound bad.¡±

    I reveled in my argumentative victory and looked around the small library and its gorgeous bookshelves full of books. It is not that I am against the Pokenet but there is absolutely not enough information there right now to offset reading books like trainer manuals and trainer biographies in the public libraries. The government was not idle though, most of Jeremy¡¯s job these days was to digitalize all these books so that the people who only use the Pokenet can, at least, have a chance to read them.

    ¡°So what¡¯s the news that is so important that we need to talk in person?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, I almost forgot.¡± He grinned at me and leaned forward, pushing his fingers together like a villain in a movie. ¡°You know that one pokemon from your list that you wanted?¡±

    ¡°Which one?¡± I laughed and asked before fully understanding what he said. ¡°You¡¯ve remembered my list, how nice of you.¡±

    ¡°If you stopped talking about it for a second maybe I would forget.¡± He was exaggerating I''m sure. ¡°Three months ago you said you wanted a Baltoy.¡±

    I spent some seconds thinking and then recalled that conversation. A while back, three months if Jeremy was correct, I showed him the full list of pokemon that I would like to train, more or less eighty pokemon, when I truly became a trainer. Jeremy then told me that his father, who is an archeologist with a specialization in lost human civilizations, occasionally found some of these pokemon at sites that he excavated.

    My eyes widened and I went still. ¡°He found some?¡±

    He pushed his glasses up with a smirk and smugly leaned back. ¡°He found a group near some underground cave south of Alph, I talked to him, and if you want to buy one he can do standard price at a discount of thirty percent.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± I almost shouted.

    ¡°Shh.¡± He put his finger on his lips and briefly looked at the girl. ¡°Yes, at first he wanted to make it twenty, but I convinced him to lower the price a little more¡­ So? Are you buying?¡±

    I stopped to think about it for a minute.

    The clay doll pokemon, Baltoy. He was not on my first team candidates just because they were so rare, with their habitat being underground ruins, and when they did get unearthed they sold very fast so if you were not in the right circles when you became aware of a new batch they were already gone. Their evolution, Claydol, held great potential and I firmly believed that no trainer had ever unlocked the full extent of what was possible with one, not even Champion Steven.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Considering the standard price which a Baltoy would sell it would still be expensive for me and, of course, would delay the journey by¡­ Three months, if I wanted to buy another pokemon before starting, which I did, that meant that I would start my planned circuit debut four months behind, however, a Baltoy was too good to pass, and if I started to train him right now, starting four months late two years from now wasn¡¯t going to be a problem as he would learn Teleport.

    By the smirk on Jeremy¡¯s face, he was having fun seeing the changing expressions on mine. ¡°Yes, I am buying it. Legendaries, I don¡¯t know what to say, thank you very much.¡±

    ¡°Sure¡­¡± He nodded distractedly and then inclined forward to look at something small behind me.

    ¡°Can I buy one too?¡± Said a tiny voice from behind me.

    I yelped and almost jumped from where I was leaning on the counter. The girl who was supposedly engrossed in her book had silently walked behind me. Now that she was near I could see that she had a pokemon belt with two normal pokeballs in it.

    ¡°I''m sorry, can you speak a little louder, miss?¡± Jeremy asked.

    ¡°Can I buy one?¡± She repeated more loudly, ¡°I will pay full price.¡±

    ¡°Uhm.¡± He looked at me and then back at her, it was easy to see that he was a little embarrassed. ¡°I will have to speak to my father tonight to see if he wants to sell another one, in the meantime, could you give me your number? I will call you when I have the information.¡±

    She picked up a pencil from her bag and a notebook and then ripped a piece of paper from one of the pages, slowly wrote her name and her number on the counter, and then gave it to Jeremy, who read it.

    ¡°Well, Miss Sophia, I will contact you with more information later, ok?¡±

    ¡°Ok, I will be going now, it is my understanding that the library will close soon, correct?¡±

    ¡°That is right, 7 p.m.¡±

    She nodded, put away her things in a backpack, heaved it on her shoulders, and left.

    ¡°A strange little girl,¡± Jeremy said.

    ¡°I think she was ok. Probably just eager for a psychic.¡± He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. ¡°She is probably a psychic-type trainer, I saw a Slowbro outside sitting on the stairs. I think it was waiting for her.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that makes sense.¡± He nodded.

    ¡°Thank you again, Jeremy, I appreciate the help¡­ And when I become a famous and rich trainer I will award you generously.¡± I shook his hand and then pulled him into a hug.

    ¡°Haha, I¡¯d hope so. But really don¡¯t sweat it, I will call my father today and then you can get the Baltoy in more or less a week in the Pokemon Center near your house.¡± He leaned on the desk. ¡°So when do you think you can begin your journey?¡±

    ¡°If I get everything I want right. It will start in two years.¡±

    ¡°Well eighteen is not that old to start a trainer career, in Unova and the rest of the new world they begin at sixteen.¡± He said. ¡°At least Cape, and now this Baltoy, are going to be beasts when you leave for your journey. How it¡¯s going? The training I mean?¡±

    ¡°He is already good enough for a second badge match, as always strangely obsessed with Aerial Ace but I think I can make it work for him to the high ranks.¡± I responded. Cape, my Heracross, already was way ahead of the curve and that is with only training on the weekends. ¡°Speaking of him I have to go, he is probably waiting for me, I promised that we would watch the rerun of the Lily Conference.¡±

    ¡°Really, you?¡± He looked me up and down. ¡°Watching the newbies group stage?¡±

    ¡°What can I say? He likes watching battles.¡±

    He laughed and made a whipping motion, ¡°Whipped, but do tell him that when the elimination stage begins, the little fellas and I are going to your house to watch with you guys. Guess what, Rockarm is going to be fighting and Taylor wants to watch.¡±

    I chuckled a little. Wherever the little Rhyhorn sees a Rhyperior fight¡ªwhich is very rare as there were only three non-wild ones in the entire world¡ªTaylor becomes ecstatic and starts to jump up and down, which, if he was a normal example of his species would probably destroy my floor. Thankfully, he was half the height of an average Rhyhorn, so it was just adorable.

    ¡°Sounds good to me, the pizzas are on your tab though.¡±

    ---

    A half-hour stroll later I had reached my apartment complex. I climbed the stairs on the side of the building and reached for my door when I saw my neighbor, who was a student from the university nearby, leave her apartment while checking something in her purse. A small and familiar Rattata was perched on her shoulder.

    ¡°Hi Nancy, Mic.¡± I waved at them.

    The Rattata reacted first by making a squeaky cheerful sound at me. The blond girl in jeans and a jacket was distracted and startled by the call. She looked up and when she saw it was me, she smiled and replied. ¡°Hi Scott, Ah, I have something for you, wait a minute please.¡±

    She went back into her apartment and came back right away with bound letters in her hand.

    ¡°A deliveryman came to give some letters to you, but since your Heracross didn¡¯t answer the door he knocked on mine and left them with me.¡± She said.

    I slapped my face and she smiled. Legendaries, Cape was probably too engrossed in the battles again. I swear the apartment might be on fire and he wouldn¡¯t move a muscle, and that was being a bug pokemon.

    ¡°Thank you for holding it for me, Nancy, and I''m sorry for the inconvenience.¡± I took the letters and bowed to her.

    ¡°Haha, no problem, that¡¯s what neighbors are for right, Mic?¡±

    ¡°Tata.¡± The little guy, again cheerfully, responded. She passed me while delivering a pat on my shoulder and then went down the stairs, the Rattata still on her shoulder.

    Now that I thought about it, I never saw Mic in another place that was not on her shoulder.

    I entered my apartment, took my shoes off, put the letters onto the center table of the living room, and went to look for Cape where he obviously would be, in our room, or more precisely in front of the television. I opened the door and saw the insectoid pokemon sitting in his green puff and watching the final battles of the group stage.

    The Heracross had heard the door opening and slowly turned its head to watch Scott with wide eyes.

    I sighed. ¡°Cape, we agreed that you would wait for me and that we were going to watch the rerun together.¡±

    My starter quickly got up, walked up to me gave me a quick hug, and then gestured to the other puff, the yellow one, and tried to get me to sit on it and watch the last battles of the day before the rerun started.

    ¡°First of all,¡± I flicked a finger at his forehead, they both knew that it had done nothing because of his exoskeleton, but he still put on an outrageous look at the ¡°violence¡±, the joker. ¡°I know you like to watch battles but if someone knocks on the door you have to answer¡­ I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s a good battle or not. Second, there are some letters that I need to see before watching the battles. Later, I will watch the rerun with you so call me when it starts.¡±

    ¡°Cross.¡± He nodded and saluted, he was really obsessed with saluting for some reason and walked back to his green puff to watch a Swablu fight a Nidoqueen, I stayed for just one minute just to see who might win.

    The Swablu was good. It had good, synergetic moves and was proficient in them but was, by its size and muscles, trained to be a bulk fighter focused on physical moves, unlike Leader Clair¡¯s Altaria who trained with a focus on speed and so it was relatively slow, which was probably why it had been hit by some Poison Stings and was now falling because of an Water Pulse. It could come back, it was, after all, exchanging some blows, but it probably won¡¯t, that Nidoqueen looked too experienced to squander a lead like that.

    ¡°The Nidoqueen is going to win,¡± I said before leaving the room. The last thing I heard from the room was a groan from my pok¨¦mon. He probably had waved his hands to the air in exasperation too. I smiled at his shenanigans. Cape was smart but he hadn¡¯t yet developed the skills to analyze battles as they were happening, which is why one-sided battles like those in the group stage were still thrilling for him. Every new twist was a mystery.

    I reached the living room, went to the kitchen, and prepared a sandwich and a coffee. While the coffee was brewing I looked at the sink and smiled at the clean dishes at the dryer. I never asked Cape to wash the dishes after he had eaten his afternoon meal. I knew it was hard for him with only two claws. However, the first time he saw me wash he was so fascinated with the cleanness of it that he always did it even if he took three times as much to clean as I would.

    I sat on the sofa with my coffee and picked up the letters.

    There were two. I picked the first one. It came from the Laboratory of Goldenrod and opening it, I saw that it was a letter from Professor James, who this year was focusing on researching pokemon status moves. It was a rejection letter.

    I had applied for this program that had opened there for pokemon trainers one month ago. The professor was searching for people who were interested in status moves for his research, and he probably decided to go with the safe option of taking people who were already trainers. I didn¡¯t blame him but I still felt a sting of disappointment. It was not my first time being rejected so I took a deep breath and forgot about it.

    Ok, it still hurts a little bit. I will forget about it tomorrow.

    I put the letter down, picked the other one, read the dispatcher, and scratched my head in confusion. It didn¡¯t have a name. It just said that it came from a laboratory in a place called Pallet Town.

    wn.

 Johto Chapter 3

    ¡°¡­You know you found a good pokemon by the spark in its eyes, every Pokemon Master calls it a different thing and explains it differently, hard work or killer instinct, the driver or the grinder, the hunger for conquest or the appetite for victory, but all of them agree on one thing: Pokemon who don¡¯t have it might reach mountains, pokemon who have it¡­ They go far beyond.¡±

    The one and only pokemon laboratory of Azalea was smaller, much smaller, than most. A two-story building right between the limits of the new and modern central district and the old and traditional Slowpoke district. A sign on the front of the building had written "Azalea City Laboratory", the words curving along the edge of a big painted pokeball above it. To the side of the pokeball was a drawing of a Slowpoke giving the lab a bit of a personality.

    It was not that Azalea didn¡¯t have the funds to fund one big laboratory or two, which was common for a city with its size, or to maintain a proper pokemon professor full-time. It was just that there was not much incentive to it. Azalea did not have a tradition of generating great trainers, nor did it have many corporation headquarters like Goldenrod, a military science and innovation complex like Olivine, or a powerful and rich clan of dragon masters who funded everything like Blackthorn, in fact, the first pokemon that the orphans of the city ¡°caught¡± came from Leader Bugsy, when that role should be filled by the city¡¯s pokemon professor.

    What were the benefits of having a pokemon professor in your city? Someone more civically minded might ask.

    A lot. If they invented something that could be commercialized, like Professor Oak with his Pokedex, and registered it in your city, then that city would gain a portion of the royalties of that product. Their research might help in some way the city itself, like Professor Ryan who, with the help of grass and ground types pokemon, created a new type of soil for Pewter that was fertile, Pewter City was now almost entirely self-sufficient where before it needed to import a giant volume of food from other cities.

    Did Champion Lance and Elite Four Lorelai have to Fly or Teleport over to Celadon to tell its food industry that, no, they could not in fact sabotage the Pewter City efforts to make food more affordable and that if they tried it again, they all would be locked up indefinitely?

    Yes¡­ Well, the benefits of living in a martial state some would say.

    Another great benefit of having a pokemon professor was network. Say that the pokemon professor of Goldenrod needed someone with certain specific characteristics, abilities, and knowledge, and the only person in the world who could fulfill these requirements lived in Azalea, what was he supposed to do? Call the very overworked Gym Leader? The busy Mayor? Or the understaffed and underfunded laboratory assistants and ask them to search for this person amongst hundreds of thousands of people?

    You are not going to find that person.

    So it was a surprise when THE Pokemon Professor Samuel Freaking Oak asked me in a letter to go to the Azalea laboratory so that the LAs there could connect to the laboratory of New Bark Town where Professor Oak was visiting because he wanted to make me, ME, a work offer.

    I looked at my watch. Fifteen to 7 a.m.

    ¡°Hera?¡± Cape said stoically, probably wondering what I was doing just standing still for at least two minutes.

    I bowed a little to him. ¡°Sorry, sorry, I''m just a little too nervous about talking to The Samuel Oak.¡±

    Heracross scoffed a little and I glared at him, I knew I shouldn¡¯t make him nervous but. ¡°Professor Samuel Oak won the conference twice and was Champion for an entire cycle before he became a pokemon professor.¡±

    His eyes opened wide and now he was standing still, Cape was probably the biggest fan of conferences and because of that knew how difficult it was to win it all. Conference winners are like super celebrities to him, which for the pokemon world they were, and I had told him about the championship and still chuckled when I remembered that he had grumbled for weeks because they were not available for civilians.

    After waiting for him to recover we walked to the door, the poor bug type still rigid at the thought that he was going to see a Champion, and knocked. Almost immediately, the door opened, and a lanky and tall man who appeared to be in his thirties, with brown receding hair, and glasses and dressed in formal clothes with a lab coat atop it, appeared and scanned me up and down for some seconds.

    ¡°You must be Scott Wood right?¡±

    I exchanged a glance with Cape. ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Great, come with me.¡± He seized my arm and yanked me past the entrance, into a corridor and past three rooms, one full of electronic devices, another that looked like a server room which had a Snorunt who snored in a comfortable round bed, probably to not let the server overheat, and another full of scraps and pieces of metals in which one Magnemite floated around.

    I looked behind briefly to see if Cape was following. He was easily keeping up with us with his wings while looking at everything with curiosity, he was still a fairly young pokemon so he was still very impressionable about new places.

    At the back of the two-story building, we reached a location the size of a large bathroom. It was empty except for a bulky computer with a big screen, a big keyboard attached, and four chairs. The LA, who briefly announced himself as Mike, seated me and Cape, who before Mike addressed him I could have bet he hadn¡¯t noticed. He reached for the control panel and before touching the keyboard turned back to us.

    ¡°Are you ready or do you need something before we connect to New Bark?¡± he asked, sweat dripped his face, apparently he was more nervous than us.

    ¡°Could we maybe¡­ Get a cup of water?¡± Cape nodded in agreement.

    He nodded, picked a handkerchief from his breast pocket, wiped his forehead, and said. ¡°Of course. I will just start the call and then I will get a jar for you two.¡±

    He then turned and started to type on the keyboard. The screen, which before had an interface that showed servers with the words ready written near them, flicked for some seconds, and then a loading screen appeared. It took a while which didn¡¯t help my nerves or those of Mike, who sweat a little more.

    Finally, the screen changed to a generic white laboratory background, and a man who looked fifty years old was seated on the other side of the screen. He looked to the side at something.

    The man had brown hair greying on the sides, brown eyes, and tanned skin, his face was rough, however, he sported the same small smile that he always seemed to have in interviews and documentaries, it made him seem as if he always had a joke ready to go. He wore a red shirt with the same lab coat as Mike. He was, without a doubt, the most famous professor in all of the Pokemon League, Professor Oak. The image was a bit blurry though.

    ¡°Hello? Is the connection good?¡± Said the professor, the voice came a while later than the time his mouth moved. Then came the sounds of a keyboard being typed and everything seemed to stabilize and now we could see the image very well.

    ¡°That¡¯s better.¡± He looked towards the camera. ¡°Hello there! I am Professor Oak, I would guess that you boys are Laboratory Assistant Mike and Mister Scott Wood and Cape, right?¡± He said and I was startled a bit at the fact that he already knew Cape¡¯s name.

    ¡°Yes! Professor Oak, we are.¡± Said Mike, standing very straight, arms on the side.

    ¡°Excellent! You did a good job Mike, I will be sure to send commendations to your resume.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir! I will be going now but will, very briefly, be back to bring water for them as per their request, one second please.¡± Then he quickly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

    The professor turned to me. ¡°It is a pleasure to meet you, young Scott.¡±

    ¡°No, the pleasure is all mine, Professor Oak.¡±

    He laughed. ¡°So polite. If only my grandson was more like you, but I digress.¡± He waved his hand in the air. ¡°Do you know or perhaps imagine why I called you here today?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir, but probably someone or someplace to which I sent my resume might have forwarded it to you as some sort of recommendation?¡±

    ¡°Excellent guess, but no.¡± A knock on the door interrupted him. ¡°You can enter, Mike.¡±

    The laboratory assistant entered the room with an entire jar of water and two cups and very quickly poured the water into the cups, gave each to us, put the jar on the side arm/table of the chair by my side, and then left again.

    When the Professor heard Mike close the door, he continued. ¡°Well, as you might already know, every year pokemon professors are obligated to produce a one-year research. We can, of course, continue with the main work of our lives, in my case, updating the Pokedex and learning more about pokemon and the bond they can have with us, but we also need to show more immediate results sometimes.¡±

    I nodded. Everyone minimally acquainted with the profession knew that. Something that the famously modest Professor didn¡¯t say was that he was the one who instituted those rules and guidelines when he became Champion of Kanto more than fifty years ago. He had basically shaped the profession of pokemon professor by himself, not only with hard directions enshrined in law but also by how he conducted himself. He was the original professor that, at some level, all other professors modeled themselves after.

    He nodded, satisfied, and then his smile seemed to become a bit more honest. ¡°Well, this year I am going to study the effects of the ambient in certain pokemon species in Alola, there are what trainers from the Pokemon League call alolan forms, Rattata, Meowth, Grimer, and even a new type of Exeggutor, amongst others, that have different appearances, types, moves, and behaviors¡­¡±

    As the Professor continued to speak about Alola and his research I started to panic. Professor Oak wanted me to go to Alola to capture different forms of pokemon but Alola wasn¡¯t part of the League and didn¡¯t have a conference¡­ Well, I mean it would probably not be too bad if I worked for him for the standard one-year contract. I could come back and start the circuit the next year, it''s known that the pokemon assistants of Professor Oak have a very good salary and he would pay entirely for my license and food for my pokemon.

    ¡­Yeah, I could absolutely do it.

    ¡°¡­Yes, it will be a very busy year. I still have to call our newest Pokemon Professor Kukui to¡­ Ah, I see I have lost you, it''s fine, I have this nasty tendency to ramble about whatever I am thinking at the moment. Many people call it a curse but I think it¡¯s a gift actually!¡± He laughed.

    ¡°I''m sorry, professor.¡± I straightened up. ¡°Then you would like to employ me to go to Alola with you, correct?¡±

    He froze mid-laughter. ¡°What?! No, I am going to Alola, you, most likely, will not.¡±

    It was my turn to freeze. I looked at Cape, who also looked puzzled as well so I knew it wasn¡¯t just me that was confused. We both turned back to the professor. ¡°So what we would be assisting you with?¡±

    He coughed and adjusted his lab coat. ¡°Well, before we get to that we need a bit more of my perspective to understand the matter at hand. Is that alright with you?¡±

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    I nodded. ¡°Of course, Professor.¡±

    He smiled. ¡°Let us start by, clearly, the start. To put things in simple terms I, three months ago, asked my smarter and more intelligent than me companions, my Exeggutor and Alakazam, to search, for one entire month, in all kinds of papers, records, and archives all across the regions affiliated to the Pokemon League for the person that would be most compatible with thirty questions that I gave them so that they can find me the perfect candidate.¡±

    My eyebrows rose in awe. He had just instructed two, at least Elite-level pokemon, to spend one month searching for the most perfect human just for a job, and they accepted it.

    ¡°Perfect candidate for what?¡± I asked when he didn¡¯t continue.

    ¡°Well, now that is a secret. However, if you pass this interview, and it is really an interview do not worry about that. I feel it will be a very good exchange for the both of us.¡± Seeing my silence as approval Professor Oak¡¯s smile became a little more humorous. ¡°The famously called most intellectually gifted singular-mind pokemon and the most intellectually gifted three-minds pokemon known to man, Alakazam and Exeggutor, devoted hundreds of hours, four hundred to be specific, to compile a list of individuals who fit my criteria, and then organize them in a ranking list, and in the first place, you, Scott Wood, with 93.3 percent match.¡±

    ¡°¡­ So, What does that mean?¡±

    ¡°It means that we are having this interview right now.¡± I gulped as he pulled out a stack of papers. ¡°Data, statistics, and crude raw information have their place, but I found, in my experience as a scientist, that sometimes, most times actually, you need context. So let''s look at some context.¡±

    He pulled the first page from the stack and his eyes went over it. ¡°It says here that until you reached eight years old you were a little troublemaker, not unlike my grandson, a little bit worse in fact, broken windows, pulled girl¡¯s hair, terrorized after other children and pokemon in the street, got sent home from school seven times in one year and then suddenly, you¡¯ve changed. Some months after your ninth birthday you became the most well-behaved child in your orphanage, began to help the matron, the helpers, and the other children, tend to the orphanage¡¯s garden and take care of pokemon who visited, began to always bring home straight A¡¯s from assignments and tests¡­ How does that work? Why did you change?¡±

    I started sweating as I finally realized that having a Pokemon League officer look over your life might be very¡­ I don¡¯t even know how to describe that.

    ¡°¡­Ahn.¡± I tried to think of something that someone would say in an interview. A very, very harsh interview. ¡°I think that¡­ What started my change of behavior, the reason I mean, was because I became interested in pokemon and pokemon battles, and began to focus a lot on that goal¡ª¡±

    ¡°Would that interest have something to do with the book ¡®Pokemon Trainer Manual¡¯ by Master Luke Masao, the second edition, to be precise.¡±

    My eyes widened. How does he even know about that? Is he spying on me? How? I just read the book, in my closed-off room, one hour before going to sleep! I took a deep breath, realized that this was probably going to be the hardest interview of my life, even more than the Pokemart one, and just nodded nervously.

    He nodded in return, still smiling, and discarded that paper to the side in favor of another one. ¡°Out of thirty questions, there were two which you did not pass. One of them was ¡°Did the person ever commit a crime before? If yes, what crime and why?¡±. Evidently, I should have been more specific because in this question they, my supposedly brighter-than-me companions, wrote that when you left your orphanage, at fourteen years old, you ¡®stole¡¯ a book from the orphanage¡¯s library. Matron Elena, a good woman I assume, did notice it but chose not to speak about it, and simply let the book go with you.¡±

    Mother Elena knew?! The fact that I stole the book from the orphanage¡¯s library still made me feel very guilty all those years later, so much in fact that I sometimes avoided going to visit the orphanage. My heart began to race and I began to sweat even more. ¡°How did they get that?¡±

    He looked at me, his sharp eyes seemingly probing my face through the screen, then looked at the paper again. ¡°Before you left, there were one hundred and seven books at the very small library of the orphanage, and exactly when you left, three days apart to be precise, Matron Elena changed the number to one hundred and six. She reported in her monthly inventory to the city council that one book was too damaged to leave in the library so they tossed it away.¡± He looked at the camera again, straight into my eyes. ¡°The book that she reported that was too damaged was, coincidently, of course, your favorite book. The one that you reread every month since your ninth birthday, correct?¡±

    Damn. Now I''m just afraid. What was he before becoming a professor? Special forces? I was stunned.

    He sighed at the look on my face. ¡°I know its not really¡­ appropriate to employ this type of surveillance for a simple appointment. However, after the troubled times we faced two years ago and the infiltrations in the League and the Indigo government by Team Rocket it was decided that there needs to be a more incisive process to determine who will work in public service. I will respect it if you want to walk away now but you must know that I am not here to judge or belittle you just because one time, when you were younger, you swiped one book. Everyone has something they did that was not right in their youth and by your face you are not exactly proud of it, right?¡±

    I nodded. It was true that the war with Team Rocket had shaken the confidence and approval of the Indigo government and its Officials and that now they were extremely strict, especially to gym leaders, but also to all positions even tangentially related to matters of national security. As someone who accompanied the news very closely at the time, I praised them when they decided to ¡°squeeze¡± the leash so to speak. It would be a little hypocritical of me to criticize it now. Besides, it is a chance of a lifetime for a few hours of embarrassment. I took a deep breath and nodded again.

    ¡°So?¡± he asked. ¡°How did that book change your troubled and difficult young life? Be completely honest and, again, I am not here to judge you, I am here to understand you.¡±

    I took a sip of water and waited for a whole minute for my mind to form some type of coherent thought. ¡°After I read that book for the first time I found¡­ I¡ªI guess I could call it my calling, or vocation, or whatever. After reading it I watched some battles and read a little more about being a trainer and talking to Mother Elena and my friends I decided that I wanted to become one and that I could only do that if I did as the book said and put my life in order and sought to do better myself.¡±

    ¡°Interesting.¡± He moved on and pulled another paper. ¡°At fourteen years old, the age where you need to begin preparing to leave the orphanage, the orphans, under the companion program, are given by the League representative of the region, who is almost always a pokemon professor, one pokemon for them to take to their new home, to help with anxiety, nervousness and other unfortunate effects of no longer living together with your family and, or friends. As Azalea City doesn¡¯t have a pokemon professor.¡± He stopped to click his tongue in disappointment. ¡°That falls under the purview of the local Gym Leader, in this case of course, Leader Bugsy, who, for the sake of time, instead of searching for a good match between child and pokemon, just administers a test based on knowledge of pokemon and pokemon care to form a ranking in which the first place has first pick of pokemon, the second has second pick and so on and so forth.¡±

    He turned the page and analyzed it for a second.

    ¡°I don¡¯t exactly agree with Leader Bugsy''s methods but it is his gym and at least he makes the children who did awful at the pokemon care part of the test take summer lessons about it.¡± Professor Oak said with a smile. ¡°Now, out of fifty-five participants on the test, you got first place, with a total of forty-four questions answered correctly from a total of fifty. Congratulations by the way, and then¡­¡±

    He moved his chair slightly to the side and on the empty space on the screen appeared a video that began to play, I immediately recognized the place. It was the grassy and green battlefield of the Azalea Gym.

    Two women entered the arena each followed by a file of kids. The two matrons of the two orphanages of Azalea and their children. That was a video of the day when we, the orphans of Azalea, chose our pokemon.

    The gym field was cleared of the obstacles that it had when the trainers came to challenge Leader Bugsy for the badge. And instead, there was now fifty-five pokemon, fifty-five children, the two matrons, five gym trainers, a mean-looking Yanmega, and Gym Leader Bugsy, who called the first place and then congratulated me with a handshake. Of the fifty-five pokemon, there are five files of ten, and at the front of them five.

    The video didn¡¯t have audio, so it didn¡¯t pick up what Bugsy said to me but I remembered it like it was yesterday.

    He stood at my side, with his characteristic bug catcher clothes, and said, ¡°I hear that you want to be a pokemon trainer, the five pokemon at the front are the ones which I have total confidence can reach at least elite level if you train them right, you should choose one of them.¡±

    An intelligent looking Paras, a very serious and still Venonat, a Scyther with crossed arms, a very muscled Pinsir, and a very normal Surskit. I could not just sit there all day thinking about it, there were fifty-four children after me, and so, in that nervous spot, I remembered the advice on how to pick a pokemon in the Pokemon Trainer Manual. It didn¡¯t glorify the ones who were born strong and knew it, but the ones who put in the hard work and had the motivation, the spark in their eyes.

    The video then showed me pacing back and forth between the five pokemon and looking just at their eyes to see who had that. The pokemon were obviously confused, the other fifty pokemon stood behind them, waiting, and when I reached the place between the Pinsir and the Surskit I saw him. A glaring Heracross who looked at the five in front of him like it wanted to just walk over there and challenge them for a fight for their spot.

    No. It didn¡¯t even want to be amongst the five. It wanted to beat every single one of them and then stand in front of them. The only one. The best. Right then and there I knew, those five prized pokemon might work hard or push themselves to be great, but they wouldn¡¯t work harder or push themselves like that starved-for-glory Heracross.

    The younger me on the screen walked past the five and pulled the Heracross out of his line. He looked extremely confused, but soon beamed as he noticed that he was the first pick.

    The Heracross in question grabbed my hand and squeezed.

    My friends called me crazy, stupid and an idiot, even Mother Elena wasn¡¯t too sure about that. It didn¡¯t matter. The surprised and, after some seconds, approving sharp look from Bugsy said it all. I had passed a test, walked right into another one, and passed again.

    The video ended and Professor Oak came back to the center of the screen, he looked a bit more serious than before. ¡°Very impressive.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡± I didn¡¯t look at Cape because he was probably on the verge of crying and then I would cry too. ¡°Can I get that video?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I will send it to you. Let''s continue.¡± He pulled another paper. ¡°You work at a Pokemart in the morning turn, which means that you passed through their extremely rigorous selection and training process. Then you also work as a referee on the side after your shift, you are earning well above the average, and sinking money into preparing for a pokemon journey.¡±

    He pulled three clipped papers. ¡°These are the many positions that you applied for, laboratory assistant with a focus on pokemon training, programs for people who want to become trainers, and trainer sponsorships applications. Thankfully you didn¡¯t apply for work of the less savory kind, pokemon hunters and slayers are, unfortunately, needed, but it''s rare that one never strays away from the law.¡± He looked to the side at someone. ¡°Real law, not one-time book theft.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I saw those¡­ Jobs but I never was drawn to them, I want to train, not capture, kill, or sell pokemon.¡±

    He hummed and laid a little back on his chair. ¡°Elucidate to me then, why do you want to go on a pokemon journey, and more importantly where do you see yourself if you continue this road? What is your objective? The eight badges? Conference winner? Elite Four? Champion? Just becoming a master perhaps.¡±

    ¡°The reason¡­¡± I looked at Cape, who looked back. ¡°I think that there is not something deep about it. It is just the simple fact that I like it and that I think I can do it.¡±

    The Professor put a hand on his jaw. ¡°What do you mean by can? And what would be it?¡±

    How could I say that without sounding arrogant? ¡°I¡­ Watch the conferences every year and I see the same boring matches and the same battle tactics. I know that I can do that, that I can get to that level and then go beyond it. My objective is to surprise and dumbfound my opponents. I want to create new strategies, new tactics, new moves, and new approaches. I want to see my route opponents, the gym leaders, my conference rivals and the crowd completely lost at the sight of what I will bring to the field, power, versatility, and creativity on a level never before seen¡­ That is what I imagine when I shut my eyes to sleep every night and I want¡­ And I feel that I can make it a reality. So I want to try.¡±

    Professor Oak¡¯s eyes widened at my improvised speech, he recomposed himself and then sighed. ¡°We¡¯ve indeed been in a box for quite some time, and I do have some blame for it.¡± He saw my inquisitive look. ¡°Learning is great, but when you catalog and classify too much, it can become a mold that is difficult to break away from. The new trainers read the Pokedex and articles written by great trainers and pokemon professors and they see a route to be traveled and not a machete for them to cleave a new way never before explored¡­ You know, I watched you and Cape train, a refreshing new approach with Aerial Ace, continue to work on that.¡±

    I felt pride inflate after such praise from Former Champion Oak. It even made me ignore the blatant admission of spying.

    ¡°So if you began your journey in two years, what would be your goal?¡± He asked.

    I paused for a second. ¡°Conference winner.¡±

    He froze for some seconds and then laughed loudly ¡°Haha, you¡¯re very lucky, I''m not going to offer you a job at the lab or the field.¡± He grinned and pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat. ¡°I will sponsor you as a trainer and you will begin your journey this upcoming season.¡±

    My eyes bugged out and I almost jumped off my seat. That was fantastic, amazing, a job would be good but a sponsorship would mean that I would only be focused on the journey, training, and trying to elevate Professor Oak¡¯s name by participating in tournaments and other fast events. Well, in my case maintain his good name, but why start this season? ¡°It needs to be this season?¡±

    ¡°Of course, a pokemon trainer who desires to be revolutionary must be prepared for when the plan changes,¡± he said smiling wide, ¡°so now the perks, every pokemon trainer sponsor gives to their sponsored particular benefits which function as the ¡°brand¡± behind the trainer. I, as a person whose name carries a certain credibility, have to do right by my trainers, then let me talk about those benefits, starting with¡­¡±

    He bent down and picked up something from under the table, it was something that vaguely resembled a suitcase but smaller and more futurist-looking. He put it on the desk and opened it by pressing a button on the side. Inside it were three pokeballs neatly fitted in three circular slots. ¡°Fire, Water, or Grass, is a question that every sponsored trainer of mine has to answer.

    ¡°Now Scott. Which one is going to be a part of your journey?¡±

 Johto Chapter 4

    ¡°¡­Training can be hard or boring, training can also be easy or pleasant, don¡¯t become attached to the idea that to grow is to suffer,  train is a process to learn and to practice, with a little imagination it can mean anything and everything, here are some examples...¡±

    The first thing that I did the next morning was go to the Pokemart and resign.

    Poor Clarisse almost had a heart attack thinking I had snapped because of the word load. When I explained to her that I had gotten a professor pokemon to sponsor my trainer career she was shocked since she didn¡¯t know about my plans to become a pokemon trainer, but then she was very supportive and even said that she was going to watch my match for the hive badge in the Azalea Gym.

    I also used my trip there to buy some things that I would need soon immediately, like food for my new pokemon, some toys, and some puzzles for newborn psychic-type pokemon.

    Then I went to the City Hall to get an official copy of all the necessary documents and then I had to go to the Pokemon League Center to give them these copies, do a background check, and then do a quick interview, not nearly as intense as Professor Oak¡¯s. Everything went well and I was officially registered for the next Circuit and gained my Trainer Card that acted not just as a recording of my badge progress and battle victories and defeats but also as a debit card for poke dollars.

    That also meant that I was able to lawfully receive the packages that Professor Oak sent me via Dragonite, I had to wait two hours as the orange dragon had to diverge from his route to pick up my Baltoy when I told Professor Oak about my new pokemon he told me that he would ask the dragon type to get it from Alph for me, where Jeremy¡¯s father was, it even worked out as he wouldn¡¯t need to pay for transport.

    When the Dragonite landed at the League Center landing pad, I was just a little bit disappointed that it was not Professor Oak¡¯s famous three-meter high Champion-level Dragonite, but of course, it was not going to be and I was just a hopeful idiot. It was still very cool being near the legendary dragon that was the official pokemon of Indigo. Cape was very impressed as he walked around the confused and amused dragon to inspect him.

    The dragon was also wearing a deliveryman¡¯s hat alongside a huge bag, together with the goofy grin that peaceful Dragonites always sported made him look very charming, but what he had to deliver took more of my attention, of course.

    The professor had sent me the newest model of Pokedex, a Silph Co. bag as he had a partnership deal with them, a pokeball belt along with the two pokeballs that held Baltoy and Bulbasaur. He also transferred my monthly salary. As the professor is not a corporation the salary that he gave me was just enough to buy the basics like food and potions as it was expected of even a mildly successful pokemon trainer to win money in battle bets. If he had employed me as a PA I would make more with the grant from the League but also would have to work for it.

    It was a shame but I had a good amount of money saved that I had guarded for my Trainer Card and Silph Co. bag, so it was not too bad either way, at least for now.

    As we walked through the streets I looked at my watch, 2 p.m., Cape and I had just left a restaurant after a quick bite to rest after the hectic morning and were now going, for the first time, to a pokemon trainer park to get to know our new teammates.

    After a short walk, we reached one of the four parks that the city had. It was a large piece of land in the north of the city near its border. It had a place for every type, a lake for water types, big rocks that resembled mountains for rock types, sand to simulate desert for ground types, and even a large charcoal floor for fire types.

    We walked around for an empty spot. We passed a teenage girl who was talking to an Aggron near the rocky part of the park. A kid was observing two flying pokemon making maneuvers in the air as part of some type of exercise and a woman and a Primeape in a meditative pose, so presumably meditating, and then we found an open green field with no one around, perfect for a talk.

    We stopped and I grabbed my new Bulbasaur¡¯s pokeball from my belt and clicked on the middle button for a controlled release, most kids and some more flamboyant trainers, to use a kalosian word, pokemon trainers liked to throw the pokeball to release the pokemon but the pokeball also had another method that was more to my taste, just click the middle button and point to where you want the pokemon to be released.

    The red light left the closed pokeball, gathered in the ground, and formed an average-sized Bulbasaur in under three seconds. Ah, the miracles of modern technology.

    The little pokemon blinked its eyes and looked at me then to Cape and around the grassy field. ¡°Bulba.¡±

    I bent down and Bulbasaur turned to me again, silently eyeing me. I patted him on the head, which he leaned and rubbed into. ¡°Hello, Bulbasaur, I''m your trainer. My name is Scott Wood, and this Heracross here is named Cape.¡±

    ¡°Bul¡­ Saur.¡± He chipped happily and then ambled more closely towards us.

    Pokemon that came from professors, before being sent to or collected by their future trainers, received an explanation from the professor about what was going on and where they were going. He already knew that he was going to be a part of a battling team and so he was very calm about this whole situation.

    I gently grabbed him by the sides, raised him, and then cradled him in my arms. ¡°You are going to be part of the team from now on, are you ok with that?¡±

    ¡°Bulba.¡± His large mouth opened wide and curved up in a smile, I squeezed the cute pokemon very softly and put him on the ground again.

    ¡°Nice, I will be counting on you Bulbasaur.¡± He gave two little jumps on the same spot and nodded. ¡°Now, besides you, we also got another new teammate for us to greet.¡±

    I took the third pokeball and clicked on it, this time the red energy condensed into a floating pokemon made entirely of earth, a Baltoy.

    I eyed the floating pokemon, who seemed to be completely unresponsive. Well, looks like a Baltoy alright.

    Baltoy are part of a group that pokemon researchers and scientists call true inorganic pokemon, pokemon who don¡¯t have anything organic in their bodies and therefore are, of course, made entirely of non-organic material, each one of them has their own specificities and ¡°biology¡±, a Bronzor, for example, had as much in common with a Baltoy as he has with Pidgeot, even if both are part of the true inorganic group.

    Specifically in the case of Baltoy and Claydol, what we do know about them is that they are a mixture of a body made of soil that is held together by ground-type energy, and an inorganic mind, and in the future minds, composed of psychic-type energy. That is why they are found almost always in ruins of ancient civilizations, because almost always these places are buried under the earth, accumulating the ground-type energy necessary to form the body and because of the combination of the echoes of the people who had lived in those ruins, together with the inspiration from the architecture, paintings, tools and other things created by human intellect, it collected enough psychic energy to construct their minds.

    From that combination rises a Baltoy.

    However, sadly, a Baltoy trapped inside those ruins never develops what scientists and philosophers call consciousness because the minds created by psychic type energy still need mental training to grow and gain sentience, training that they don¡¯t have trapped inside the ruins, there are stimulus there, the architecture and paintings, for example, but no one to instruct or teach them what the ruins are or mean, so they end up never developing awareness of self.

    When archeologists find Baltoy, and more rarely Claydol, they are just floating around, looking and moving through the ruins as they search for meaning in them. Many described the scene as quite sad. A pokemon that should have sentience looking at ruins full of meaning, tradition, and knowledge, all the while cursed to never comprehend any of it for decades or even centuries.

    Because of all of that when Baltoy reaches humans, be they trainers or civilians. it was recommended to treat them as children whom you have to teach for the first to three months, depending on if they are a new or old pokemon, to fully awaken their sentience.

    I had to explain all of that to my other two pokemon who seemed to ask why the Baltoy didn¡¯t talk to them and just stood there silently watching, after all of that was resolved, we sat together in the grass ground, except for the Baltoy, of course, who floated.

    ¡°Ok, now it is time for me to name you guys,¡± I said as I petted Bulbasaur¡¯s head, who leaned into it again. ¡°You know, when I was a kid at the same time I was learning about pokemon training and battling, I was also learning about geography, which is the study of places and environments. You know, many terms are used when describing the different lands that humanity and pokemon see and visit¡­ When I thought about what I was going to name my team of pokemon when I finally had them, that idea always kept coming back. So there we go.¡±

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    They looked at me, Cape with his legs and arms crossed, Bulbasaur curled in the grass by my side with his eyes following mine, and the Baltoy that floated in a soft up-and-down motion as he looked blankly at me.

    I gestured towards my starter and he puffed up his chest to show himself to his new companions. ¡°Cape is what we humans call a large and narrow landform that extends into a body of water, I named Cape that because just like a cape extends and cuts into oceans, rivers, and lakes, his large and pronged horn extends and cuts into the sky,¡± Cape grumbled into a familiar joke that had taken me a few days and many hours of mimicking for me to understand. ¡°Yes, yes, and into the bodies of your enemies too.¡±

    He seemed satisfied with the addition and the following admiration of the Bulbasaur, who stood up and turned to me, animated.

    ¡°So with that, Bulbasaur, from now on, you will be called Jungle.¡± He cooed, curiosity mixing in his tone. ¡°It is a tropical land, which means that it has lots of sun and sunlight, it is also covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, lots and lots of vines, bushes, and trees. It fits as you have vines, vegetation, spores, and¡­ Jungles are known to be very dangerous to the overconfident and unprepared people who tread on them.¡±

    A fierce grin slowly formed on Bulbasaur¡¯s face. He jumped up, landed upright, and put himself into an attacking position as he imagined an opponent in his way. ¡°Bulba¡­ Saur!¡±

    ¡°Excellent,¡± I said as I laughed in amusement. I then turned to the Baltoy. ¡°Now, for you I considered many names but after thinking a lot about it, I decided that your name should be Mesa, this name comes from a flat-topped mountain or hill, they are wide, flat, and elevated landforms with very steep sides all around them. I will not explain in what way you remind me of a mesa right now as you are not conscious to understand it but when you do become curious, ask me and I will tell you.¡±

    The little Baltoy did not understand now but, as a psychic type, they can remember very well, after they gain sentience they usually go back through their memories to understand them, so talking to them as you would any other pokemon will make them feel good as they looked back on their lives, some of them had described it as discovering gifts but in the past.

    ¡°Ok people, let''s start with some examinations. Cape, you can begin with stamina training, I will just give a fast examination on Jungle and Mesa and then they can train too, after I finish with Jungle you will help him train and I will train Mesa, okay?¡±

    ¡°Hera.¡± He saluted and then took a bit of a distance to start running around two trees. In this exercise he had to run, in a very controlled manner to not waste stamina, to one tree, go around it as closely as he could to increase maneuverability, and run to the other tree and repeat until he became too exhausted or, in this case, until I called him back.

    I approached the curious Bulbasaur and began to examine him, and to my unsurprised self, there was nothing abnormal about him. Jungle was a very healthy and normal Bulbasaur, his head, two vines, teeth, four limbs, and his bub were all very colorful which meant that this Bulbasaur was very well treated and fed, his body was slightly muscular which meant that he already had some exercise so it was not needed to start with physical conditioning, at least for the main body. This examination was more a formality than anything else really as I was certain that Professor Oak and his team would never let a pokemon be less healthy than it could possibly be.

    Then I grabbed a new journal from my bag and noted down my observations of Jungle¡¯s exam,  and then his size and weight as well as the length of his members and vines with a measuring tape that I also had in my bag and then finally called Cape.

    The Heracross stopped running and flew to us, he had spent five minutes doing the exercise and was panting a little.

    ¡°Jungle, I will tell you what you are going to be doing and Cape here will maintain a full-time eye on you while you train, I will also be observing but while I also examine Mesa, ok?¡±

    ¡°Saur.¡±

    ¡°Ok, right now the best thing for a Bulbasaur to do is to strengthen their vines, they are going to be your main method of physically attacking your opponents for all of your life after all, so what you are going do is grab that thick branch on that tree and pull up with your vines¡±¡ªI pointed at the specific branch on a tree just three meters away from us¡ª¡°right now you vines are not very strong since they are not always being used unlike your four limbs that support your weight all the time, so we have to get them up to speed. You are going to do five series of five to start, Cape will pace you slowly since it''s your first time so you don¡¯t need to rush okay.¡±

    ¡°Bulbasaur.¡± He nodded and moved with Cape towards the tree, as he passed me I scratched his head and he made a cooing noise and slowed down to enjoy it, but when he saw that Cape was almost at the tree, the little tortoise began to adorably run after him.

    I chuckled and turned to Mesa, who was observing both pokemon as they moved to the tree. When he saw that I was looking he turned to me and, following Jungle¡¯s example, got closer to me so that I could examine him. ¡°All right, let''s begin.¡±

    I began by feeling the hardness of his ground body, it was not too hard to make a sound when lightly hit by my finger, but also not too soft as to sink, so he must have at least twenty years of life. I searched for any scars from battles with wild pokemon, some ghosts and ground types might have been born or found ways to enter the ruins and ended up fighting the group of Baltoy, the people from the archaeologist team took care of any wounds or problems the pokemon might have had when they found them but if the wound was too old the pokemon might lose flexibility in some areas, he didn¡¯t have scars so probably no fights for him and his friends, then I started to gently move his arms and head to see his flexibility, thankfully, everything seemed normal.

    Then I opened a new journal for Mesa and noted down his tests and then his approximated weight, which I tested by holding him, and the length of his members and body, same as I had done with Jungle.

    ¡°And¡­ finished, let''s train.¡± Then I took from my bag a puzzle game that I bought at the Pokemart when I went there to resign. It was similar to a geometric sorting board for children but a little more complicated as it was geared towards psychic types infants, I picked one piece and showed him ¡°Can you levitate this piece?¡±

    Mesa just stood there and nothing happened so I guess that he can¡¯t use psychic energy, not enough intellect to generate it yet probably.

    ¡°Ok, this training is simple, you just tell me where to put the pieces and I do, ok?¡± The little Baltoy floated up and down, focused his eyes on the piece in my hand, and then turned to the puzzle, looked it over, and pointed, with his ground-made arm, to a spot.

    I tried to put it there and it did not fit, he leaned back, confused. ¡°It''s not going in, it must be in someplace else.¡± He bobbed in an ¡°ah, of course¡± manner, which I found very amusing, and then pointed to another one. It was still the wrong one but I tried it anyway. In situations like these, the important thing is to have patience and not try to show the pokemon the right way but let him find it himself, failure builds intellect after all.

    After some minutes, I saw that Cape and Jungle were coming back and was about to call them when a voice interrupted me.

    ¡°Hey, my dude, this place is for trainers to train, not for you to play with your new pokemon.¡± A voice told me from behind me.

    I turned and saw two kids more or less twelve years old. One of them was a dark-haired boy with arms in his hips and beside him was a Shroomish, another kid, a short-haired girl in baggy travel clothes with a worried face and who looked like she wanted to be anywhere else stood behind the two of them, a Starmie was by her side.

    I stood up and said. ¡°I am training.¡±

    He made to disagree but Cape and Jungle finally reached us, the kid looked at them and probably recognized that I was really a trainer but as kids normally do, he doubled down.

    ¡°No, you are playing with a toy.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a form of training psychic type pokemon.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t believe you, but whatever, if you are reeeally a trainer then you will want to battle right?¡± He said and pulled a pokeball from his belt and showed it to me with a straight arm, it reminded me of a pose some characters in a children¡¯s cartoon about pokemon training used to do when they challenged someone.

    I examined him and saw his battered and torn in some places clothes, they were stylish traveling clothes that poor people would not have so he was a well-off trainer and at least a second-year trainer if he was looking like that before the circuit even started. I looked at my team, two of my pokemon were too new and didn''t even know many moves.

    Cape might be willing but in my orphanage, between Mother Elena and the other workers and volunteers there was a saying ¡°Bad-mannered children would not be rewarded¡±. I would know as I used to be one.

    "No, we don''t want to fight."

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight with you, actually.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t do that! It''s against the rules.¡± He took a step forward and clenched his fists and Jungle tensed.

    ¡°Whose rules?¡±

    ¡°Rob, let it go, and let''s get out of here.¡± Said the girl as she finally approached us.

    He turned back around. ¡°What?! No way Mel! He can¡¯t refuse! He is playing around the beginner¡¯s park, obviously he wants a fight and now he is just being an assh¡ª¡±

    He stopped talking as the girl called Mel looked above and behind us with her eyes and mouth wide open.

    Me and the kid also turned and we saw a huge, two-meter-and-a-half, Aggron glaring at us. His body was relaxed but even just standing still the sharp points in his steel armor screamed danger.

    ¡°What is happening here?¡± Said the girl in front of the Aggron. It was the girl that I had seen when I entered the park, the one near the rocks. Now that she was near I could see that she was at least fifteen years old and had blonde medium-length hair and blue eyes, her blue and grey schemed sweatshirt and pants were a little less torn and battered than the two kids, but they still had some tears here and there, what was interesting was that her clothes also had some kind of armor in some parts like her knees and elbow. It looked really cool. The only part of her outfit that was not blue or white was her black hiking boots.

    At her waist was a bulk belt that proudly displayed eight pokeballs, which signaled that she was at least a six-badger trainer. She stood there straight and with her arms at her side, waiting for a response.

    Since the two kids were stunned I took charge and said. ¡°This one challenged me to a battle and I said no, so now he is challenging me again, but now he is doing that by screaming.¡±

    ¡°I saw him approaching you.¡± She nodded and turned to the kids. ¡°Is it true?¡±

    The boy called Rob was too shocked to speak, so the girl, apparently, called Mel yelled.

    ¡°Sorry!¡± she said and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away, he didn¡¯t resist and off they were, both the Shroomish and the Starmie pokemon ran after them.

    ¡°Thank you for helping with that incoming headache.¡± I bowed towards her.

    ¡°It was nothing.¡± She nodded and was about to turn to go away when she stopped and glanced at the puzzle and then at me. ¡°I would recommend for people who started later like you to go to the parks outside the city to train.¡± She looked around. ¡°If you stay here situations like this one will become common very fast.¡±

    She then left, the massive Aggron by her side followed while causing little tremors every time his limbs stomped the ground. I pulled the Pokedex and checked an average Aggron weighed 360 kilograms, and that Aggron was taller than normal and looked like it was trained to be a heavy physical attacker. He should be about 500 kilograms. That¡­ Was a lot.

    I sighed and put down my Pokedex and began to put away the rest of my things. ¡°Let''s go guys, we will continue this in another park, outside the city this time.¡± The Aggron girl was right after all.

    I began to gather my things, the toys, and the writing materials and sighed. I didn¡¯t think I would have to deal with this kind of shit today.

 Johto Chapter 5

    ¡°If someone wants to get to the end of the road and become a pokemon master, there is a price to be paid, danger needs to be part of the journey, the training should never stop no matter how tired you are and a healthy dose of fear and paranoia must always make itself present...¡±

    ¡°Are you sure you are not dreaming right now?¡± Jeremy asked again from the other side of the table.

    I looked up at him from where I was eating my pastry and rolled my eyes at him, that joke had gotten old half an hour before.

    After being saved from literal kids by the Aggron girl I had walked to the park outside the city as she suggested and had spent a couple of hours training in there. It really was a more calm and relaxed atmosphere even though the pokemon there were bigger, stronger and were testing some pretty incredible moves. The most notable ones were a furious Charizard who looked to be trying to melt a rock with Flamethrower and an Altaria that was practicing Moonblast over a lake.

    Every now and then I stopped a little to look as the incredible flying dragon pokemon created a ball of energy that resembled the Moon, pushed it into the sky, and then the ball exploded in a controlled way so that its fragments hit a copy of a Pidgeot created with Double Team, it was a very slow build-up and it often exploded or missed due to the move not being stable enough, anyway, It was breathtaking.

    Another thing that grabbed my attention was the contrast between a place that had little kids with small and weak pokemon and more responsible teenagers and adults with powerful but well-trained pokemon. The pokemon park had kids trying all kinds of times all the time and running around the place, which was why I had to search for an isolated area. Here every trainer had a space recognized by the others and stayed within that space for training. It made me consider never using the pokemon parks inside the cities and only sticking with the ones outside.

    Two hours later, at the end of our training, I had some observations about my team.

    Mesa got forty percent of his tries correct in his puzzle, which showed that he didn¡¯t have any intelligence whatsoever, and based on that it would mean that it could take at least two months until he fully ¡°woke up¡±, one month for him to develop enough psychic energy on his body to increase his intelligence and then another month for him to awaken his sentience.

    Jungle had just done some stamina exercises for me to get a feel about how he would do in a fight which was not good unless he fought a weak pokemon. I told Jungle and Mesa that tomorrow we would be practicing moves, Jungle looked animated while Mesa just looked back blankly.

    Cape got to train Aerial Ace on a tree so he was pretty happy.

    It was afternoon when we packed up and went to Jeremy¡¯s house to introduce Jungle and Mesa to him and his pokemon, on the way there we picked up some pastry for us to eat together with them as a snack, Jeremy and Fancy loved pastries, we also got some Pokesweet for Taylor.

    To say that he was surprised when he saw me with a Bulbasaur would be an understatement. The last time I had talked to him was a fast call asking him to tell his father that a messenger would be going to collect Mesa from the post office in Alph so there was no need for him to pay the transport fee when he went to post the pokeball there.

    So when I got to his house and explained to him that, actually, I was being sponsored by the Pokemon Professor Samuel Oak and that it was him who had taken care of the transport. The first thing he asked me was if I was crazy and the second thing was from where I had stolen a Bulbasaur from.

    It took a little while for him to calm down even with me showing the letter from Professor Oak and my Trainer Card, which had written behind it that I was being sponsored by Officer Samuel Oak but I didn¡¯t fault him for thinking I had stolen a Bulbasaur as it was a pokemon that only certain people and organizations had access to.

    Now Cape, Jeremy, and I were sitting at his dinner table while Jeremy¡¯s pokemon, Taylor the Rhyhorn, and Fancy the Phanpy played with Jungle while Mesa silently floated above the couch and observed the play.

    ¡°I am sure.¡± I finally responded after I took a sip of my coffee.

    He took a bite of his pastry. ¡°So that¡¯s it? He just talks to you about your life story asks some personal questions and bam, decides to sponsor you and gives you a Bulbasaur¡±-¡ªhe snapped his fingers¡ª¡°just like that.¡±

    ¡°Actually, after everything was said and done he explained that he had a more selfish reason to sponsor me but also said that he wants to see if I can discover what it is during my journey.¡±

    ¡°What does that make you? A pokemon detective?¡±

    I laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but if I am a pokemon detective the only hint that he gave me is that it has something to do with pokemon journey.¡±

    ¡°¡­People do always say that pokemon professors are crazy.¡± He took the last bite and wiped his hands with a tissue. ¡°So what is your plan from now on?¡±

    ¡°Train for the remaining days until the circuit season begins, then challenge Bugsy¨C¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, you are a line cutter now.¡± He referenced the nickname given to trainers sponsored by League Officials since they, I guess we now, have priority when challenging Gyms for the first time. ¡°Are you nervous about your upcoming battle with the Bug Master of Azalea himself?¡±

    ¡°Not really, Cape will sweep him.¡± The pokemon in question grinned at my prediction. ¡°And after that, I will be going to Goldenrod by the sea route and keep my eyes open for any ice or fairy type pokemon that I can catch.¡±

    He raised an eyebrow. ¡°Dragons?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Dragons.¡±

    It was no secret that having the biggest and strongest Dragon Clan in the world shows us yearly why dragons are considered the strongest type affected our trainer¡¯s teams. People from Johto searched, and therefore used, more dragons here than in any other region, only losing to Hoenn because of the Draconid tribes they had.

    ¡°Damned dragons¡­ Well, you could get a dragon yourself, you know, level the game.¡±

    ¡°Way too expensive, and if I bought one right now I wouldn¡¯t be able to train him in time for the conference, dragons take too long to grow even when well-trained, which is rare because most tend to resist training unless you have techniques and methods that trainers take years to develop.¡±

    Dragon energy was famous for being the most destructive and volatile type energy of them all. It took months for a dragon to control just a single high-level move.

    ¡°Hm, speaking of training, have you guys trained yet?¡±

    I nodded at him. ¡°I got Jungle and Mesa today and we immediately went to do some light training.¡± I decided to not tell him about the situation at the first park.

    ¡°Oh, nice, and how was their first training?¡±

    ¡°Good, Bulbasaur will be spending the next weeks strengthening his vines and perfecting Vine Whip, also according to the Pokedex he has, from one of her parents I assume, Power Whip, it is too powerful to use right now and would give him a recoil but in the future, it will become a very powerful weapon, especially when he evolves and gains more vines.¡±

    ¡°And Mesa?¡± He said.

    ¡°These first weeks we will only do puzzles to build up his psychic energy and learn some normal and ground moves. After that, we will focus on psychic energy moves.¡±

    We spent some minutes in silence, just watching our three pokemon playing in the living room from the kitchen.

    ¡°¡­Do you know what you are going to do after you win the conference, Scott?¡± Jeremy said.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked, wondering at the sudden change of topic, and then grinned. ¡°Are you that certain that I''m going to win? You do know that you can¡¯t bet in Gym matches right.¡±

    ¡°Someone has to believe,¡± he said with a grin, ¡°but seriously, you won the Conference and are now a professional trainer, what do you do now? Government work? Military? League? You never told me what your endgame was and I''m worried you are looking too close and not seeing the big picture for your future.¡±

    I spent some time thinking about how to respond to that.

    ¡°I don¡¯t have one,¡± I easily admitted, ¡°but that¡¯s the thing, right? The pokemon journey¡­ kids and teens leave their houses because they know that in the future they want to work with pokemon. Because they recognize that whatever they do in the future is tied to pokemon.¡± I looked at Cape who was looking at me and taking in my words.

    ¡°Pokemon trainers don¡¯t know how they are going to live, how they are going to make money, or where they will end up the next year, they can only count on their team and in what they are doing right now, the future is the future¡­ Part of the journey I feel. The routes, the Gym matches, the hard life on the road, is figuring out what you want to do with the power you accumulate.¡±

    And then it hit me. ¡°Maybe that is what Professor Oak wants.¡±

    His eyes widened. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°He said that he had written thirty questions to find someone to do a job and the one who got closer to one hundred percent was me. He was looking for someone who had the profile to do a job but then easily pivoted to a sponsorship instead and never talked about what the job was supposed to be?¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± He nodded.

    ¡°Maybe the questions and the interview are the first test for the job, and the sponsorship is the second. Maybe if I win or do great on the conference then he will know that I am really the guy for the job and is going to offer a job that matches the person who the thirty questions are supposed to find.¡±

    Jeremy leaned back and crossed his arms in thought. ¡°That is possible,¡± he said, ¡°well, either way, putting aside our theories about how Oak¡¯s head works. I liked your answer, I guess I forgot that a journey is an expedition of discovery and of finding your purpose in the world. I just thought that you, being older than normal and kind of a planner freak, would have something ready for beyond the conference.¡±

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Jeremy, I plan for pokemon journeys, battles, and matches, not for my entire life,¡± I deadpanned, ¡°And it''s Professor Oak for you, punk.¡±

    His eye roll was cut short when we heard a crash in the living room, when we got there to see what had happened we found that while playing around Jungle, Taylor and Fancy had knocked down a vase that rested beside the TV, they all looked at us with wide eyes.

    Mesa, meanwhile, just floated closer to the broken pieces of the vase and stared at it, seemingly fascinated. Thankfully no one was hurt.

    ¡°I will pay for that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± He said, looking at the Rhydon and the Phanpy with dull eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t even know why I bother buying vases anymore.¡±

    -

    I put my hands in my jacket as I watched Cape come back.

    The team was once again in the same pokemon park that we had been going for the last two days, technically it was warm but the place we were in was having a strong wind. These last couple of days of training went well. Mesa began to understand basic commands and was training some easy moves like Rapid Spin and Mud-slap, his puzzle was going the same as always though.

    Jungle¡¯s vines were already stronger, when we started training his Vine Whip was not doing anything to the tree we had been using to train, but now, after two days of conditioning and practice he was able to leave a very, very small dent on its bark, in a month, maybe two, he is going to be able to smack them down at this pace.

    Today, however, we would start to branch into the Leaf attacks, starting with Razor Leaf.

    Cape had focused on his fighting moves for our next gym battle with Leader Whitney for the last two days, his objective right now was to learn Counter for the Miltank that awaited us and if he could, Brick Break. So now, after two days of only training normal and fighting moves, he was doing what he loved the most.

    The horned pokemon again pushed down from the ground with his short but powerful legs and his wings began to beat as the characteristic sound of a bug flying filled the plain field.

    ¡°Aerial Ace.¡±

    The Heracross¡¯ wings and arms glowed with flying TE, and a strong wind picked up as he flew quickly in a random zigzag pattern, envisioning his enemy¡¯s response to his airborne assault. Imaginary Water Guns, Embers, and Psybeams were dodged and when he got close to his target he cut suddenly towards the ground and rose again with even more speed, almost vanishing from sight.

    The only indication that he had passed by his foe was a fairly clean and deep cut that appeared on the side of the tree and joined five others. Perfect, the only flaw was the fact that he gave away which arm he was going to use by overloading one over the other.

    Cape flew back and landed beside me, painting from using six Aerial Ace in a row, even if they were at half-strength.

    ¡°Good job Cape, you got the timing right nine times in a row,¡± I said as we high-fived, ¡°The only thing was that one of your arms gave you away, remember to always distribute flying energy to your two arms equally so that they won¡¯t know which you are going to use.¡±

    He saluted and sat down on the grass to rest. Jungle came forward as I knelt to speak to him.

    ¡°You turn then, green guy,¡± I said, patting his head with one hand and neck with another. ¡°I am going to throw sticks into the air and your goal is to cut it with only one leave per throw okay?¡± He nodded. ¡°Your objective in this exercise is to create a perfect throwing motion so focus on your body and don¡¯t worry about actually hitting it ok, just the general area is good for now.¡±

    He nodded with a smile and then his face twisted into a concentrated look.

    I stood up and took the pile of nine sticks that Jungle and Mesa had procured for this exercise, right now Jungle was able to use three Razor Leaf with three leaves each before becoming exhausted so in total he was only able to produce nine grass energy saturated leaves before having to rest, by making him use one at a time instead of all three I was able to extend his training.

    ¡°Ready¡­ Go¡± I picked one and threw the stick forward and high into the air where it began to descend in a curve.

    The Bulbassaur locked his eyes into the stick and from his back, in the outside part of his bulb, a single perfectly created leaf rapidly sprouted, he then awkwardly twisted his small body to the side and the leaf sailed through the air, it went into the area of the stick but missed it by what looked like three meters.

    Jungle¡¯s eyes widened in surprise and he grumbled. ¡°Buuulba.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the misses, little guy, just focus on your body, if you can make a perfect throwing motion the accuracy will rise soon after okay?¡±

    He stopped, thought for a bit then nodded and put himself into his personal ¡®ready¡¯ position again. I was about to throw another stick when someone screamed. ¡°BRACE FOR ONYX!¡±

    Cape and I turned to see from where came the scream when an Onyx erupted from the ground fifty meters from us. It was a trained pokemon if his teeth were any indication, too clean to be a wild one, and was clearly very mad by his eyebrows, glare, and snarling mouth.

    He looked around for a second and then began to stomp and hit the ground with its body and tail, I fell to the ground by the shakes as Cape took to the air and stood in front of the three of us ready if the Onyx decided to come here.

    The people around the area came running and released or called for various pokemon. They quickly made a circle of pokemon to contain the Onyx. A Camerupt stomped forward with a determined look while a Marowak jumped from a tree, a Rhydon, and a Nidorino followed in front of a trainer and a Poliwrath with a black belt landed from a big jump, together with Cape they formed a cordon around the Onyx, above us an Pidgeot glided in the air.

    They were ready to attack but the Onyx didn¡¯t move from his spot and just continued to madly hit the ground with his head, body, and tail.

    The Poliwrath trainer, a bulk teenager dressed in a martial arts uniform with ripped sleeves screamed. ¡°To whoever owns the rock! if you don¡¯t control it in the next five seconds I will faint it!¡±

    His frowning Poliwrath lifted his clenched fists and flexed his legs but just as he finished his phrase a Sandslash emerged from the same hole created by the Onyx. She, as I was able to notice it was a she, looked around at the other pokemon and, ignoring them, jumped fast at the Onyx¡¯s head while beginning to spin like a ball, her body took a silver shine and then it delivered a very localized Gyro Ball to the Onyx¡¯s head who stopped moving and fell to the ground.

    Everyone froze as a kid ran up to the pokemon barrier, passed in between a Rhydon and Marowak, took a pokeball out, and retrieved the Onyx while the Sandslash walked up to him.

    He scratched his head with an embarrassed look. ¡°Sorry, sorry guys, my bad, it was Rage training and he went crazy for a little bit. Sorry.¡±

    The other trainers grumbled, swore, and rolled their eyes, some chastised the kid about letting his Onyx dig away from him but soon enough everyone went back to their training and no one batted another eye. It was, after all, an uncommon but not unexpected situation in pokemon parks, even those outside the city where trainers were more experienced than in the city.

    Not as safe as I thought then. I didn¡¯t want to admit that I was a little shaken by the situation.

    ¡°Wow, that was a little scary, right,¡± I said and checked my team.

    They looked okay. Mesa just observed as always. Jungle looked just a little wary but was otherwise okay too.

    Cape, however, had his eyes fixed on where the Onyx was recalled, I recognized that face, the sight of that battle, as brief as it was, had awoken his hunger, it had settled in his normally gentle eyes and would disturb him like an itch if not liberated.

    Maybe it was time to go have some battles? I glanced at Mesa and Jungle, Mesa, in the last two days, was able to use Rapid Spin and was almost grasping Mud-Slap, Jungle¡¯s Vine Whip was packing a little punch and his leaves were sharp enough.

    I shook my head. They had made progress, however, they were not ready yet, so it would be just Cape this time, he had fought before but it was high time to make his debut as the pokemon of a real pokemon trainer.

    He turned to me, sensing my conviction through the fighting energy that dwelled in his body. His narrowed eyes burned with a determination that I knew I couldn¡¯t contain.

    Yeah, it was time to have some battles.

    -

    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe that we are finally going to have a battle in the Battle Hall,¡± Alice said, ¡°this is going to be great!¡±

    I smiled at her, it had been a long time since Alice and I had battled.

    Alice was a seventeen-year-old girl who had been my senior at our orphanage. Ever since she left the orphanage at fifteen she¡¯s been working at a hotel in the central district and studying journalism, she was going to be graduating from her university next year and wanted to specialize in pokemon related topics, not just about the tournaments but also about wild pokemon disputes, disasters and the plights in the Frontier and the Unknown World.

    I remember when she was a ten-year-old kid and became obsessed with journalism. She watched dozens of journalists report and present the news and decided that she wanted to do it too, so she mashed two things that she liked, journalism and pokemon, we had formed our friendship over the latter one while in the orphanage.

    Her main hobby, outside of drawing and running, was coming to the battle hall on her day off and fighting with Spike, her Ariados, that she got from Bugsy, and she was pretty good for someone who didn¡¯t train at all.

    When I called her and said that I wanted to battle like we usually did at least twice every month, she told me that now that Spike had evolved into an Ariados we would have to fight in the Battle Hall because her poison had become too corrosive to fight in normal parks where it could get in other people and other pokemon due to not having the psychic barriers that a place like Battle Hall had.

    We met in the South District, the newest district of Azalea, which housed all the modern buildings, including the Battle Hall, a giant and impressive stadium for casual pokemon battles, It had been created by the Saito Clan, a clan of pokemon trainers based on Fuchsia, in cooperation with the Pokemon League and The Indigo Region, it was created with the idea of giving new trainers and civilians a place to experience battles while inside the protection of cities.

    It had been, to say the least, a great idea that bore great success, trainers and civilians loved the first one built in Fushcia so much that it had spread throughout the entire Kanto, then Johto and then Hoenn, and if it wasn¡¯t for the Arena Corporation in Sinnoh, it would have had Sinnoh too, in the last five years every city within the Traditional Eight Gyms in Johto had one.

    I looked around the big structure, it was really a marvel of a building, ten standard small-sized battlefields that occupied an entire block, all of them with one battle happening simultaneously. I had never fought here before as a non-trainer needed to pay fifty dollars to fight two battles a day within a ten-minute limit, a pokemon trainer on the other hand only needed to pay fifty poke dollars which meant paying only ten dollars.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you are so thrilled about this,¡± I said to the short-haired girl.

    ¡°Battling in parks is okay but it just looks like two kids scrapping around, but here in the Battle Hall it makes it look more authentic, like we are fighting in a tournament.¡± She noticed my skeptical and unimpressed expression. ¡°You will see soon enough.¡±

    I was just messing with her, of course, I could see the appeal of fighting in a true field, with an arbiter and barriers, it would be nice to be inside the fight too for once instead of by the side. ¡°Just so you know, I have something new prepared.¡±

    She groaned ¡°I will have to start banning again. Just to remind you, Cape is already prohibited from using Aerial Ace, ¡°she said while clicking her tongue, ¡°seriously, a bug learning a flying type move should be considered a betrayal of kin.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, next time Cape will fight with one claw behind his back.¡± I laughed at her pout. ¡°But, seriously, don¡¯t let Cape hear you say that you know how he is with that move.¡±

    ¡°Hm¡­ Give me a hint then, a new move or new tactic?¡± I just smiled, and in response, she stomped her feet. ¡°Ugh, you¡¯re so boring.¡±

    We spent ten more minutes catching up on the line, she talked about what she was learning at her university and on her internship on the local news station and I was doing my best to invent fake stories about my work on the Pokemart and fake complain about the amount of tournaments Azalea was having. When we finally reached the end of the line and were asked to enter one of the five booths, we asked the cashier for a zero badge field token and she asked if we would pay with a Civilian Fee or Trainer Card.

    Alice, smiling, took out fifty dollars and gave them to the cashier, and then looked over to me just in time to see me handing out my Trainer Card to the cashier, who smoothly took it and began to process our payments.

    She did not freeze, yell, or jump, all things I considered she possibly could do, she continued as normal but now her face was stuck in a creepy smile and her eyes were frozen wide, she took the Battle Hall Token from the cashier and greeted the employee that was going to show us to our field and he flinched a little bit after looking at her face.

    While we waited for the other two people still battling at our expected battlefield she turned to me, still with a creepy smile on her face. ¡°You fucker.¡±

    I laughed and the judge waved us to enter the field, a Rhydon was smoothing the field as there were some holes in the soil and a Zubat was flying around holding a machine on his talons that fixed some blurred white lines that denoted the field.

    The stands were not that full, at this time of the day most people who frequented the zero badge battlefield or were working if they were casual battlers or training if they were new trainers, but there were some kids and some elderly folk.

    The judge recalled the Rhydon and called. ¡°Battlers, please release your pokemon.¡±

    I clicked the button on my pokeball and pointed her to the ground while Alice clicked the same button on her pokeball and threw it at the field, from the two red lights that came out from the pokeballs an Heracross and an Ariados appeared at opposing sides of the battlefield, both glared at each other, two years of rivalry weighted in their eyes.

    The judge checked with both of us as the Psychic barriers came up and then raised his hand. ¡°Ready¡­

    ¡°Begin!¡± He then slashed the air toward the ground and our battle began.

 Johto Chapter 6

    For a moment both pokemon glared at each other after the arbiter began the battle, Alice and Spike as always waited so it was our job to take the initiative.

    ¡°Get close,¡± I said the phrase that would make Cape move toward Spike slower than normal, we were very aware that going fast was not good here because of Spike¡¯s favorite move, Poison Sting. Cape, as agreed between Alice and I for almost a year now, couldn¡¯t use Aerial Ace, but he could still fly. His blue carapace opened and his wings flapped as he leaped off the ground and began a slow flight towards the other side of the field.

    ¡°Poison Sting to keep him away,¡± Alice ordered, her most frequent tactic, the one that had made me exhaustively train Cape in dodging projectiles.

    The Ariados¡¯ spike began to gather poison type energy and glow with a sickly purple, seconds later six spike-shaped stings made of poison energy began to be shot one after another from the Ariados and rush towards the Single Horn Pokemon.

    Cape tensed his body to dodge as always but I cut him off. ¡°Don¡¯t stop, Harden your hands and parry them.¡± That was a gamble as we had never done or trained that specifically before, we had just seen videos of pokemon using this tactic and had talked about it. Cape, true to two years of hearing my commands, didn¡¯t hesitate for even a second and adjusted his body to those of the pokemon in the videos.

    I grinned, let''s see if our hand-eye coordination training would pay off.

    Cape¡¯s arms glowed with grey light as normal type move coated his hands, he flew forward and began to hit the spikes one after the other on the lateral surface of the cone-shaped Poison Stings, avoiding the barbs and at the same time knocking them to the side, not even slowing down his advance as he passed the white line that divided the two sides of the battlefield.

    ¡°What?!¡± Alice shouted and even the Ariados took a step back in surprise, meanwhile Cape was closing in fast, ¡°String Shot wide open and Poison Sting.¡±

    A pale green web shot out from the Spike¡¯s mouth and threatened to engulf Cape, followed by the first two Poison Stings, we had lost to that String Shot two times when Spike had first learned it more than one year ago and had been fighting around it, but now, with how much Cape had grasped Aerial Ace, we had another card up our sleeve.

    ¡°Gust it away,¡± I said.

    The Heracross¡¯ wings began to glow light blue with flying-type energy, they did a very hard beat and wind rushed forward from that single action, bashing the web away. Maybe if they had fully mastered String Shot, which would have made it come out thicker and heavier, our pitiful imitation of a real gust wouldn¡¯t have worked.

    My blood heated up and I felt a grin come up to my face when I saw that both Alice, the arbiter, and even some people in the stands who knew anything about pokemon were surprised by it, Heracross, after all, just didn¡¯t learn Gust. The Poison Stings, however, were still on their way and this time they were too close for Cape to prepare Harden to parry them.

    ¡°Roll away and dodge!¡±

    The Heracross flapped his wings once more, this time flipping over to the side by his back, dodging the first two stings, then he flew to the side passing close by the other four stings who had somewhat turned to follow him and closed on the Ariados by its back who being an Ariados quickly realigned to face Cape.

    ¡°Fury Swipes,¡± Alice said as Cape approached Spike. Her voice curiously lacked emotion, she was planning something, a trap probably. I smiled a bit wider now, Cape had been too arrogant this last week because of all this new and frequent training, let''s see if Alice and Spike can get him off his Rapidash.

    Spike¡¯s glowing legs began an attacking dance where two of them were on the ground while two were attacking, and then they changed places as the spider pokemon moved around, unfortunately, it showed inexperience with the move as it was slower and not as coordinated as it should be.

    Cape counteracted Fury Swipes with Fury Attack, and he had trained his move. Arms hit legs as he parried three strikes in a row and hit the Ariados on the side of the head with a punch, then parried two more to the sides, unbalancing its disoriented opponent.

    ¡°Horn Attack!¡± I shouted and he went for the finish, grey energy had accumulated on his horn while he had been exchanging attacks and was now ready to be unleashed, Cape took a step back, lowered his head, and began to ram his cross-shaped horn on Spike center.

    ¡°Bug Bite!¡± Alice shouted and the Ariados¡¯ body bent down even lower than it already normally was, almost scraping the floor, to try and let the horn pass while he lunged forward to bite Cape on his face but the Heracross just jumped and flipped his body up into the air, then he moved his neck allowing his horn to go even lower and hit his opponent in the head.

    The arachnid slumped to the ground and fainted.

    I sighed silently. If Spike had trained more his body with strength and speed exercises it would have been fast enough for it to work, unfortunately, it was not today that Cape was going to take a reality check. Of course, I would love for him to always win but alas it was impossible and so I would prefer that he was brought down in a low-stake battle like this one instead of in a Gym.

    The arbiter stepped in as the psychic barriers came down and we recalled our respective pokemon, then he raised his hand in the direction of my side of the field. ¡°The winner of this battle is Scott Wood and Heracross.¡±

    There were some claps from the stands as we began to leave the area by the opposite gate from the one we had entered as in the battlefields, we entered by one side and left on the other, in total the battle had lasted almost three minutes.

    The last thing I saw when I turned back to look at the field was two people entering to begin their battle, I turned back as the field vanished and released Cape as soon as we began to walk away from the field, he turned to me and held my gaze.

    We agreed then.

    Alice and Spike had been formidable opponents these last couple of years but¡­ Yeah, we were not satisfied.

    ---

    We briefly visited the mini pokemon center inside the Battle Hall to see if everything was all right with our pokemon. They said after a fast examination that our pokemon would just need to rest, after that, we went to a snack bar inside the arena of the Battle Hall to eat. We sat at one of the various tables on the mini food court.

    I then released Jungle and Mesa and introduced them to Alice who was fascinated with them. After she stopped petting the little Baltoy¡¯s head, which she liked because it looked like a doll, Cape, Jungle, Alice and I began to eat some snacks while Mesa, who just eats one time a day a special mixture of inorganic pokemon food made of minerals, watched us. Spike rested in his pokeball, sleeping.

    ¡°Seriously what tauroscrap,¡± Alice sighed as she pinched Cape¡¯s cheeks while he laughed, ¡°That even looked like a weak Gust, how can a non-flying type pokemon use pure flying energy better than flying pokemon! Trauroscrap it''s what this is.¡±

    The sound of Cape¡¯s laughter was contagious and I laughed with him, Alice was seriously mad about that little gust and the jump to the air to hit the horn attack, she knew that she wouldn¡¯t have won anyway, Spike simply didn¡¯t pack the punch needed to faint Cape anymore, and poison, its only effective weapon, had only one method of being delivered that only worked with distance and even if he did get poisoned Cape would just end the battle before the poison would do its work.

    She knew that but didn¡¯t care.

    ¡°And you!¡± She turned and pointed at me. ¡°Why did you wait for me to be in front of the cashier to tell me that you¡¯re now a pokemon trainer, I didn¡¯t even know you wanted to be one.¡±

    She had always thought that I wanted to be a pokemon battle analyst or a trainer advisor and I didn¡¯t bother to correct her, I never told anyone that I wanted to be a trainer in case it didn¡¯t work out, I had just told to Jeremy because he had deduced it, of course, with how many training books I read in the library it was not hard to guess it.

    I also didn¡¯t want the pity that other kids in the orphanage got when they said that they wanted to compete in the Conference or become Champion. The adults, and me when I researched it, knew how rare it was for an orphan to get the money to even begin the journey.

    I took a piece of the chocolate cake I had ordered. ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to and would have waited for two more years if a good opportunity hadn''t presented itself.¡±

    She tapped her chin. ¡°That''s why you never wanted to go to the Battle Hall, you needed to save money right?¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, I always thought you were just a cheapskate.¡± Then she began to drink her milkshake.

    ¡°Rude,¡± I said.

    Cape nodded in support with a mouth full of little treats. Alice rolled her eyes at me, looked at Cape, and pulled one of his cheeks. ¡°I guess someone doesn¡¯t want any more treats.¡±

    He stopped nodding and was now shaking his head and waving his arms, when we both laughed at him he crossed his arms and grumbled.

    Alice turned to me. ¡°Well, what was that great opportunity?¡±

    I briefly told her about how Professor Oak had contacted me, interviewed me, and offered a sponsorship. I just left out the intelligence work done by two Elite-level psychic pokemon, the tense interrogation, and the talk about my life story, so it became a very fast story. Just as I finished she, amazed at the story, was about to say something when a little girl¡¯s voice interrupted us.

    ¡°Osu!¡± We turned towards a young maybe twelve years old girl. She had medium-length black hair that was tied in a high ponytail and brown eyes, was wearing a black shirt and black shorts on top of black leggings, the clothes also had yellow sidelines to give some contrast with the black, it reminded me of the style of Unovan clothes, they usually had a primary color and the a secondary to give highlights or contrast.

    She stood near our table, sported a big grin, and had one arm raised as if to greet us.

    Since she was a stranger I didn¡¯t feel any inclination to say anything and just looked at her, as the silence stretched she began to lose the big smile and her arm started to tremble. Alice¡¯s surprise wore off as she noticed the nervousness of the girl and took pity on her.

    ¡°Hello, Is there something we can help you with?¡±

    Her body went stiff at Alice¡¯s question, her face then took a determined look and she pulled her raised hand to her mouth to clear her throat. ¡°Yes! Can I sit here?¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­¡± Alice said as we looked at each other, I shrugged. ¡°Okay?¡±

    She pulled the last empty chair around our table and sat down. ¡°I''m sorry to interrupt your talk, but as I was sitting behind you.¡± She explained as she pointed to a table behind me, ¡°I couldn¡¯t help but overhear that you¡¯re a trainer sponsored by Professor Samuel Oak, right?¡±

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Alicia looked at me and this time I had to speak. ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°I knew it! I was in the stands and saw your guys battle and I knew you had to be someone special. You see! Everyone knows, even in my homeland of Paldea, that trainers sponsored by the League Professors are strong battlers, one only needs to look at the last ones!¡± the girl said, referencing Blue and Red, ¡°even better, I see that you have a Heracross, a fighting pokemon! I, Dendra, aim to become a fighting type specialist and so was wondering if I could interest you in a fight between your Heracross and my Makuhita!¡±

    I stopped a little to think. ¡°So you just saw us battle and then decided to follow us to this snack bar and listen to our conversation?¡± I said.

    She, now with eyes wide and horrified, leaned back in her seat and waved her arms around. ¡°I-I was just nervous and was waiting for a good time to come ask you for a battle! That is all! I swear!¡±

    I leaned back in my seat and glanced at her belt which held three pokeballs. ¡°Paldea is very far away from here, what are you doing all the way here?¡±

    She started to become red and then raised her arm behind her head to scratch it. ¡°Ahn¡­ Hmm¡­ Haha, you know, fighting and such, training, catch new pokemon, you know? The whole thing right, Haha!¡±

    I stared at her and she began to become even more nervous until I couldn¡¯t take it anymore and laughed at her silliness, she was just a kid nervous to ask for a battle, furthermore, why was she lying when she was so bad at it?

    When she saw that I was just joking she relaxed a bit.

    It was obvious that she was one of the foreign beginners who came here to Indigo for Champion Lance¡¯s dragon egg quest after I had been made aware of the announcement by Clarisse it was easy to notice the foreigners in the crowd if you paid a little attention, people dressed in clothes, styles and hairstyles from Sinnoh and Hoenn, and even from the Western Continent, as the regions there were so different in clothes and styles that they were easy to spot, had come to try and gain a Dragon from a Champion level pokemon. I didn¡¯t even know why she was trying to lie, it was a public challenge after all.

    I know that we in Johto had the reputation of being competitive, serious, and zealous people but we would not kick down or give a tough time to someone just because of an attractive prize.

    ¡°A fighting type specialist with a Makuhita, huh.¡± I crossed my arms in a thinking poise, well, Cape wanted to fight still and we had been talking about battling fighting types, I looked at the Heracross, who slightly nodded. ¡°Sure, I will give you a battle.¡±

    Her nervous expression faded into a smiling and bright one and she pumped her arms. ¡°Are you serious?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    She jumped from her seat and punched one of her hands with a fist.

    Alice jumped in. ¡°Your region doesn¡¯t have a League, do you know how the Battle Hall works?¡±

    She took a big breath as if to calm herself further, it made me feel a little bad about teasing her if her anxiety was this bad. ¡°Yes, I already went there many times to battle since I arrived in Johto at the beginning of the month, it''s really amazing what you guys have here, we don¡¯t have this kind of thing in Paldea¡­ We should though!¡±

    Alice, the black-haired girl, and I left the coffee after we finished our food, Alice even paid for a chocolate for the girl, and after paying the cashier we returned to the Battle Hall.

    ¡°I''m sorry, Dendra, we didn¡¯t even introduce ourselves yet,¡± she said, ¡°my name is Alice and the name of this oddball right here is Scott.¡±

    ¡°It''s great to meet you guys!¡±

    ---

    Dendra and I skipped the first line as we still had our tokens for the second battle, when she had watched Alice and me in the stands she had already fought her first battle and was taking a break so we were put on a second, much faster this time, line to fight.

    Dendra talked about the pokemon she wanted to train, which included but was not limited to a Machop, a Mankey, three Tyrogue, a Torchic, and a Riolu.

    I, of course, didn¡¯t say that she might have more chances of seeing the three legendary beasts than a Torchic or a Riolu, I did hear some trainers behind us giggling at the girl, who seemed to not notice it.

    Sometime after we were finally in the field and across each other, one interesting thing was that as soon as Dendra stepped into the field, people who were watching other battles began to come over, it looked like the little girl was good at battling if she was attracting this much attention.

    ¡°The battle in field 3 will be between Trainers Dendra Navarro and Scott Wood,¡± the announcer said to the whole battle hall, as was normal when two trainers fought, this time more people in the zero badge section began to make their way towards the stands near us.

    As the arbiter stepped up I noticed that I was a little more nervous than normal because of the crowd, however, one year of being an arbiter myself had roughed me up to noise¡­ and to a lot of absolutely healthy criticism about my ability as one.

    ¡°Trainers, release your pokemon.¡± She and I both did the controlled release instead of the throwing one and a Heracross and a Makuhita took the field.

    The Makuhita in question, named Chopper as Dendra had told me while we were in line, was smaller than the average Makuhita, most were one meter or higher, this one had at most zero point seven meters, and looked to be filling in, so maybe sixty kilograms, we could maybe push him if necessary, something that couldn¡¯t be done to normal examples of this line.

    The arbiter looked at both of us to see if we were ready then raised his hand. ¡°Begin!¡±

    I didn¡¯t waste time. ¡°Cape let''s test our fighting moves, get close.¡± Cape began to slowly walk towards the center.

    ¡°Meet him in the middle, Chopper.¡± The bigger pokemon also began to walk forward, he had his hands up front, so he probably had Force Palm, most Makuhita choose between two main styles of fighting, or they liked to swing and counter, imitating Unovan boxing and Kantonese Karate or they used to push and grab moves normally found in Johtonian Sumo, this one looks like a push and grab type.

    Both pokemon advanced forward cautiously and when they reached five meters of distance between them, they ran at each other. Cape tried to swing his horn at him with Horn Attack from one side to another but the bright horn passed by when the Makuhita stopped and dodged back from the horn trajectory, my eyebrows rose at his unusual degree of flexibility for his line.

    ¡°Arm Thrust, press him!¡± Dendra shouted. Chopper regained his balance in two long steps and came forward with an open palm which began to glow with the dark orange color typical of fighting moves.

    ¡°Match him, Cape.¡± Cape quickly ducked the first attack and slammed his own orange glowing palm at the Makuhita¡¯s face, the pokemon took it but at the same moment that he received the attack his hands blurred and smashed into both sides of the Heracross, then he made a one-two combo with arm thrust that Cape, still dazed, barely managed to block the first an parry the second.

    ¡°Get some distance.¡± The Makuhita tried to move in for a grab, but Cape hearing my command, jumped backwards and when Chopper tried to reach him with an Arm Thrust, Cape, with a glowing gray leg, kicked his palm pushing himself back outside the Makuhita¡¯s range.

    ¡°Whirlwind.¡±

    The Makuhita¡¯s hand began to glow and he started to slowly shadow palm at the Heracross but every time he palmed the air, solid and compact winds were pushed towards Cape, the first wind hit the unprepared and unbalanced Heracross and he flew across my side of the arena and almost left the field before his wings slightly opened and stopped him.

    My eyes widened at how many Whirlwinds were coming as I said. ¡°Fly and dodge.¡±

    Cape fully opened his wings this time and began to weave around the pillars of wind created by the Makuhita who stood in the middle of the field.

    I hummed. So that¡¯s how she was battling.

    If we stayed and fought she would win by sheer move exchange and if we stayed away she would push us out of the arena, making us get fouls for leaving the field, I didn¡¯t know how many fouls the Battle Hall allowed but with the time limit there probably wasn¡¯t that many. Ingenious against easily scared people.

    One thing that bothered me though was that Cape was obviously in better physical condition than Chopper, him being a smaller-than-normal Makuhita, so how did he get hit with that Fake Out?

    ¡°Cape!¡± I shouted as he dodged another Whirlwind. ¡°Come here for a minute.¡±

    He flew backwards towards me all the while never looking away from Chopper and his winds. ¡°Cross?¡±

    ¡°Let loose at half strength,¡± I said as he still dodged the winds, ¡°attack one time and then threaten him two times, I want to see what he does.¡±

    The bug and fighting pokemon nodded and flew forward and the Makuhita stopped launching Whirlwinds and got ready for an attack, Cape raised his claws, showing that he was ready.

    I rolled my eyes at my dramatic Heracross, I was not that much of a show-off but Cape had this fascination about Aerial Ace and wanted to spread its word like a religious person so he insisted that I always needed to call it before he used, that meant that I had to train his reaction time so that at the first letters he was already using it to give no chance for the enemy to react.

    It did help with making him react faster to other commands as well so I can¡¯t actually complain.

    ¡°Aerial Ace!¡± Cape¡¯s wings and arms became full of flying-type energy so fast it looked like they caught fire and before I even finished speaking he vanished. The Makuhita spun backward with widened eyes just in time to receive a flying energy-filled arm to the shoulder.

    He was thrown away by the force but used his rotund body to roll on the ground instead of hitting it and landed upright.

    That was good, but what was even better was his reaction to the next two Aerial Ace as Cape made to attack him by the side and back but at the last moment diverted. What was the reaction from Makuhita? He didn¡¯t react to it, he just looked lost and confused, his instincts told him about an attack coming but something else stated that it wasn¡¯t going to happen.

    ¡°Chopper, stop,¡± Dendra said with apprehension in her voice from the other side of the field, and the Makuhita¡¯s head seemed to clear as he focused and looked around for the horned pokemon who appeared behind him.

    I hummed at that sequence of events and a shark smile bloomed on my face as the answer became obvious, Detect. a fighting move used to see an attack before it happened, young trainers talked about it as if that move was overpowered. Seeing the future was too good to be true, so what was the catch?

    You can only see attacks that will actually hit you, so feints like the ones we did he was not able to see, in fact, it looked as if an undertrained Detect confused the pokemon who used it as he had to decide between it and his instincts.

    ¡°Cape, come back.¡±

    As I waited for the flying Heracross. I thought about the Detect as it was rare to see a Makuhita at his size learn Detect, in fact, when a Makuhita learned detect he should be almost evolving, but at 0.8 meters he was not even fully out of his baby phase.

    A hush of air indicated that Cape had come near me and soon enough the Whirlwinds tailed him, Cape dodged them as I whispered my plan to him, and when I finished he showed his second nature as a fighting type by grinning at my idea.

    ¡°Cape¡­ Aerial Ace!¡± He hit his arms together and accelerated, turning into a blue blur that disappeared from the field.

    ¡°Ready yourself, Chopper,¡± Dendra said in a soft voice, she could probably see the writing on the wall but didn¡¯t want to give up, in her situation I would have done the same.

    Chopper again looked puzzled, he had probably activated Detect again, but it wouldn¡¯t help.

    A blue burr passed him by at ground level and suddenly he was in the air. Two blue claws grabbed together one of his legs and lifted him to the sky. Grabs, unfortunately for Chopper and Dendra, didn¡¯t count as an attack as far as Detect was concerned.

    The poor Makuhita waved his little arms around trying to do anything but by the time he got his bearings Cape had already swung him around himself once in the air and threw the Makuhita at the ground. Not as strong as he could have, of course.

    The ground was hit and a loud boom echoed across the entire battle hall as broken pieces of soil hit the psychic barriers, making them glow pink and a cloud of dust flew out from the newly formed crater.

    People in the stands became silent and even battles that were happening around us stopped to see what had happened, after all, it was not every day that the zero badge field produced a sound like that.

    Cape floated down towards our side of the battlefield and landed in front of me, panting but ready to continue if necessary which was not because as the cloud of dust cleared we could see the form of a Makuhita fainted in the ground. Dendra promptly recalled him

    ¡°The winner of this battle is Scott Wood and Heracross.¡± Everything came rushing back as the voice of the arbiter took away the tension in me that I hadn¡¯t noticed I had.

    The crowd, about sixty people, in the stands began to cheer and howl. Cape turned to me and grinned before flying up to give me a high-five before I recalled him, I walked towards the center, dodging the crater, but stopped when I noticed that Dendra was not approaching for the handshake.

    That¡¯s when I finally noticed that the people, particularly the ones on her side of the stands, were not just cheering and clapping the good fight we had but were also booing her and talking shit.

    ¡°Go back to your region! Loser!¡± One kid shouted.

    ¡°The pushing bore lost!¡± Another laughed.

    ¡°How it feels to lose to a real trainer!¡± This time it was an adult man, and he was not alone, there were more two adults in civilian clothes cheering her loss with less than kind words.

    In total eight people of the thirty were throwing insults at her.

    Her face was set in a small smile but I could see that her eyes were strained, that her body was tense, and that she was distracted as though she was trying to get lost.

    I walked up to her and she flinched a little, I also could sense the arbiter¡¯s gaze following me from behind and didn¡¯t forget that somewhere in this arena there was a psychic type pokemon, so I didn¡¯t approach her too much and just extended my arm towards her.

    I saw her body relax and the smile on her face became a little less forced as she grasped my hand, I then sensed the arbiter approach after releasing his Graveler to fix the ground. We turned towards him and each of us shook his hand.

    As we both were on her side of the field, which was the one we entered, we had to walk all the field to leave, some people were still booing but I just ignored them and not even looked towards them. It seemed that I was really disgusted that people were picking at a twelve-year-old girl for battling by the book.

    However, at the last second, my gaze was drawn towards the stands and I saw that, on the last row of the stands, there was a man with lilac hair, dressed in bug-catching clothes and with a big bug net made of wood resting on his arm, he stood up from his seat and faintly glowed in pink before vanishing. It looked like I just made my Gym battle a little more difficult.

    I sighed, now that Bugsy had seen that battle he knew he could challenge me a little more, and so I would need to adjust a bit. I looked at Dendra who was walking a little in front of me and thought of her Makuhita, well¡­ Technically, I was going to do it anyway.

 Johto Chapter 7

    ¡°¡­ don¡¯t be afraid to spread knowledge, especially the knowledge you don¡¯t need to hoard, when people come towards you and ask for your hard-earned expertise remember this lesson from someone who took too long to learn it: One can only learn by teaching.¡±

    We left the battlefield and went straight to the pokemon center, once there the nurses said that Chopper would have to stay the night to be in observation, fortunately, Makuhitas were very sturdy and rarely had broken bones or things like that, so there were only bruises and bumps, they just wanted him to stay in the Center as a precaution.

    Dendra and I then met up with Alice and we sat at one of the tables outside of the battle hall.

    ¡°That was an incredible battle!¡± Dendra said, ¡°Chopper will be so happy when he wakes up.¡±

    ¡°That was a great battle,¡± Alice said with a kind smile, ¡°it didn¡¯t even look like you both are beginners.¡±

    Dendra rubbed her nose in embarrassment. ¡°Well, I did train Chopper a lot before coming to Johto so it''s not that special.¡±

    ¡°No, it is special,¡± I said, finally entering the conversation, ¡°I watched a lot of battles between beginners and never heard of a pokemon so young learning Detect.¡±

    ¡°You''re embarrassing me, Mister Scott, Haha.¡± The girl smiled.

    Alice¡¯s eyes flicked from me to Dendra, her face was bright but it had a tightness to it, she was forcing herself to appear positive, she might have fooled strangers but I knew her.

    She was worried for the little girl, she had been in the stands with the crowd and heard the same things we did.

    Alice cleared her throat, a sign that she wanted me to follow her lead. ¡°You know, as you probably know from hearing our conversation from before in the snack bar, Scott is training every day in a Pokemon park outside the city but he needs someone to bounce ideas with and train, you know, trainer stuff, right?¡±

    The smiling girl, oblivious to the manipulation offered her two cents. ¡°Yeah I know, in Paldea I had friends that I fought and traded tips with every day, it was great!¡±

    ¡°Yes, so what do you think about you and Scott training together? You two, great trainers that you are, can learn so much together.¡± She clapped her hands together with a smile like she had a great idea, I was amused by her humble imitation of Mother Elisa.

    ¡°Really!?¡± the girl said, and then glanced at me and coughed. ¡°I mean, if mister Scott wants, I''m okay with it.¡±

    I didn¡¯t wait for Alice¡¯s incoming glare and nodded. ¡°It''s going to be good for us both as trainers, tell me the address of where you are staying, and tomorrow, at seven o¡¯clock, we will pick you up and show you where the Park is.¡±

    After that the conversation devolved towards more light topics, like favorite foods and hobbies, Dendra and Alice both liked running, and when it reached five pm Dendra decided to go to the Pokemon Center where she was staying, we exchanged contacts and she left.

    Immediately after she left Alice turned to me and lost the smile.

    ¡°Thank you for going along with that, after what I heard in the stand¡­ I worried about a young girl like her going about this stuff alone.¡±

    I nodded and checked my watch. ¡°She stayed with us for almost two hours and no one came to see what she was doing, no one called her and she didn¡¯t tell us anything about any friend or family that she had here¡­ You would think. with how kids are, that after one month in the city, she would have at least some friends.¡±

    She sighed. ¡°Are you going home now?¡±

    I looked towards the Battle Hall. ¡°I just need to do something and then I will go.¡±

    I didn¡¯t move and she also didn¡¯t. ¡°¡­I know that, in general, our people are kind and compassionate, but we can¡¯t know what horrible thing can happen until it happens¡­ Scott, I know that what I am asking is a lot, no trainer likes to share their training and secrets but could you please train her and her team a bit until they are able to defend themselves?¡±

    I turned back to her with an amused smile and an arched eyebrow.

    ¡°Well, I was already going to do it anyway.¡±

    She blinked. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I think you are under the impression that I would not gain anything by training her Alice. Well, let me tell you an educator¡¯s secret,¡± I then said one of my favorite sayings, ¡°One can only learn by teaching.¡±

    ---

    I yawned as I checked my watch, eight and thirty AM, I always began my team¡¯s training at eight but Dendra and I had to do a detour to the Battle Hall Center to pick up Chopper which wasted a little of our time.

    ¡°Alright, team, this is Dendra Navarro and her team, Chopper the Makuhita, Cross the Hawlucha, and Ress the Sandile.¡±

    The girl in question was standing still with her pokemon in a file by her side like we were some kind of army. I guess Johto, or more broadly, the Indigo Region would be seen like that by outsiders, with our reputation to being a serious people. At least her team wasn¡¯t as stiff, Chopper was concentrated, Cross glared at us as if to judge if we were any good, and Ress was just continuously yawing.

    Her team was loaded with interesting pokemon but the highlight, at least for me, was the Sandile, the pokemon that one day would become Krookodile, a very famous line in tournaments in the other continent, mostly seen in Unova, but in Galar, Kalos, and Paldea too.

    Every time someone showed one it was a great battle, each one with a different style, Ground, Dark, Fighting. There were even Dragon Masters who had them and taught them dragon-type moves. There were no powerful or weak line of pokemon but if there were, that one would be considered a powerful one. At the very least it would be interesting to help train one.

    ¡°Relax, we are not in the army.¡± That made her deflate a little, other regions really took the cliches from Indigo too seriously. ¡°From now on we will be training with them until we fight Bugsy, we will briefly talk about what we will train today, and then¡­ We will train, that¡¯s it.¡±

    Cape and Jungle cheered at my speech¡ª Jungle had taken the sarcastic humor of Cape very well¡ª while the clay pokemon watched them, Dendra and her pokemon also had their own commemoration and then we were off.

    We talked a bit and decided that Cape would be paired with Cross, for them to exchange pointers about flying and how to use fighting moves while in the air, Hawluchas had a natural disposition towards fighting in the air and I wanted to see if Cape could pick up anything from him, the flying pokemon, on the other hand, needed a sparring partner to practice moves in the air, as the Makuhita couldn¡¯t do it, so they would be sparing after a quick warm-up.

    Jungle and Ress would be on physical exercise, just as the Bulbasaur and the Baltoy were new to my team, Sandile was the last pokemon that Dendra got before leaving Paldea, so they needed the exercise.

    Then I sat with Dendra and Chopper to talk about our battle.

    ¡°Mesa, can you keep an eye on the two of them for us please,¡± I said to the pokemon that floated by my side, he made his affirmative up and down floating and turned to keep his eyes on the two pokemon, similarly, the Makuhita was turned slightly to keep them on his field of vision while they trained. For now, they were just running around to warm up and build stamina.

    ¡°So let''s talk about our battle,¡± I said to Dendra, who looked nervous while she held a notebook and a pen to write down what I was going to say, ¡°Remember these are not things that you should take to heart, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay, Mister Scott.¡±

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    ¡°Alright,¡± I said and took out from my bag a notebook that I called Battle Log, it is where I wrote about all my battles, ever since I got Cape two years ago.

    It had logs about all the almost forty battles I had fought with him, almost all with Alice, I lost the first six in a row to her, because she had one year of advantage over me but after that, almost all were wins for me unless she learned something new that got us by surprise, like Spike¡¯s String Shot, three were with Jeremy when I had just got Cape, I had nagged him for a fight. I lost the first one but didn¡¯t lose the next two. My first win against him was close, but the second we won handily, which he said meant that I didn¡¯t need to fight Taylor anymore, which I agreed.

    He was just worried about the little Rhyhorn being wounded and I respect that, not every pokemon needs to battle after all, competitive battles are just one form to express companionship.

    I began to leaf through the notebook. There were other fights here with other acquaintances from inside and outside the orphanage but one thing that they all had in common was that all those battles needed, at most, one page each for me to dissect them. They were very simple battles.

    This time, the fight with Dendra had deserved one page and a half.

    When I told her that she stuffed her chest and turned to Chopper. ¡°You heard that Chopper, the first ones to have two pages dedicated to a fight!¡±

    Chopper clenched his fists and nodded to the girl. I could tell that the Makuhita was not really amazed but it tried to act like it for the sake of his trainer.

    ¡°Ok, now let''s begin with your Detect. It is a good move, even a great one, however, leaning on it all the time is¡­ I don¡¯t really have a better way to say it so I''m just going to say it, lazy.¡±

    She nodded, she had probably come to the same conclusion after the fight, that spoke of someone who liked to correct its flaws when they lost a battle, a valuable opponent I would say.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s easy to fix. Detect is a buff,¡±¡ªshe turned her head to the side, confused, so I specified the word¡ª¡± an enhancer or in this case a substitute, for reflex and speed training, so if you can train Chopper in those areas and combine that with Detect it would make it even more effective, maybe even avoid blows entirely and not trade for them.

    She nodded and wrote it down on a sticky note.

    ¡°Another thing is that Chopper seemed to become confused with feints and non-attacks which explains how Cape was able to grab him, that is also easy to fix, after Cape and Cross finish up, Cape is going to spar with him and use a lot of faints and grabs.¡± I turned to the small Makuhita.¡± Chopper, ignore the attacks and focus on Cape¡¯s movement when he uses faints and grabs, Detect takes care of attacks, your attention must be on your opponent¡¯s body so that you can see what they can do instead of direct attacks.¡±

    Chopper nodded as Dendra groaned.

    ¡°I feel so stupid because for sure that would be a problem, it was written in the move description, ¡®Attacks only¡¯.¡± She said while caressing Chopper¡¯s big cheek, which he seemed to like.

    I laughed. ¡°Sometimes you need a good battle to understand a problem, don¡¯t worry, you''re not the first to not fully understand a complex move.¡±

    ¡°I know, but still¡­ Let''s continue please!¡±

    ¡°Ok¡­¡± I turned to the Battle Log to see what I had written the night before. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is a problem right now, but when Chopper begins to learn more powerful moves that are, by consequence, harder on stamina and energy, he will not be able to maintain Detect running all the time and also use his Whirlwinds like that.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we know, soon enough we will begin to modify Whirlwind to be more expansive instead of concentrated so that it can be used in the mid range and then learn Mud Shot and Rock Throw for long range.¡±

    ¡°Ok, for you that¡¯s it, can you guess what our weakness in that fight was?¡±

    ¡°What? You had weakness?!¡±

    ¡°Yes, a very glaring one.¡± She closed her eyes in thought, but by her face, she was not getting it. ¡°There was one thing that I ran away from during that battle.¡±

    With that tip, she was able to get it. ¡°A close fight?¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Yes, Cape is very strong, fast, and agile because of all his training, he should have been able to defeat Chopper just on physical might alone, but one thing he does not have is experience battling Fighting Types so on the first exchange I already knew that he was not going to win the battle if he continued like that. I will be counting on you guys to correct this problem.¡±

    ¡°Well, leave it to us, Mister Scott, Chopper will kick Cape¡¯s butt so much he will gain a black belt.¡± This seemed to animate the little Makuhita. ¡°Alright, while you wait, why don¡¯t you start warming up.¡±

    Chopper nodded and went near where Jungle and Cross were training to do a light run and jump in circles.

    I put away my notebook and moved from sitting in front of Dendra and with my back towards where the pokemon were training to sit beside her, then I called Mesa for us to do some puzzles, and he started hot with three misses.

    ¡°So, have you made any local friends in the month you spent here?¡± I said while Mesa, by himself, paused to deliberate what he was doing wrong and why the circle didn¡¯t enter the square.

    She smiled. ¡°I didn¡¯t have time, or I am training or I am fighting, no time to make friends!¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡± I let the silence fill the air for a minute and then asked.¡± And why did you choose to come to the old Johto region and not to fresh Kanto.¡±

    These were the nicknames by which the people of Indigo referred to their Regions, which highlighted the fact that Johto had come first and was a lot more traditional than Kanto as it was settled by Johto and since its independence embraced the new and modern, especially in terms of technology.

    ¡°There are more chances of finding some pokemon that I want here¡ª¡°

    ¡°Oh yes, I do remember you wanting a Torchic and Riolu.¡±

    ¡°Ahh! I was talking about what I wanted not what I would one hundred percent get.¡± She squawked and after taking some time to calm down continued. ¡°¡­I also like history, Kanto seemed too modern for me, Johto has Ecruteak, Blackthorn, Violet City, I want to go see those famous places that I read about and my¡­ My family also thought it should be safer here than Kanto.¡±

    Cross and Cape finished their ten-minute training. Dendra got up and explained to them that Cross would continue to practice some land moves and Cape would be sparing with Chopper, after everything was set in motion she came back and sat down again.

    Seeing Cape and Chopper have a friendly spar was nice, they were smiling as they traded blows or not, as Cape half the time attacked, half the time feinted and sometimes tried to grab some member of the Makuhita that he thought was overextended, however, the more experienced pokemon, most of the time, was just setting bait for Cape, which made him begin to focus in which ones were baits and why he thought that to be the case.

    A very productive training spar for both, I would say.

    ¡°So what do you think about that?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Dendra turned from the Jungle and Mesa to me.

    ¡°Do you feel like Johto is more safer than Kanto?¡±

    She paused and hugged her knees. ¡°¡­ I mean, nobody has done anything to me.¡±

    ¡°Adults yelling insults at a twelve-year-old hardly constitutes nothing, and for a reason so stupid as that. If you were an adult¡ª maybe¡ª we could say that it was understandable, it is expected of adults to not be hurt or provoked over words, however, you are not an adult, you are a young girl who is not supposed to endure this kind of stress and anxiety that those words burdened you with.¡±

    ¡°I''m not stressed or with anxiety right now, am I?¡±

    ¡°You froze in a battle,¡± I whispered and she went stiff at the words. ¡°It was not because you had that problem like many young trainers do, it was because you were afraid of what would happen if you lost¡­ Let me guess, when you win they grumble, kick some dirt, and go away but when you lose they scream and swear at you, so when you noticed that Detect was not working you panicked, froze, and lost the battle while thinking about what was just about to happen.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± She began but in the end, just didn¡¯t say anything more.

    ¡°It''s alright you don¡¯t need to say anything, for now, you just need to know that yesterday you made two friends who will have your back in case anything happens, from now on if you need something or something happens you can call Alice or me, okay?¡±

    She, still stiff and hugging her knees, nodded. ¡°Ok, I will.¡±

    ---

    Two days after we began training with Dendra¡¯s team the Johto Circuit started.

    This year the Circuit began September 6th and ended March 26th, at the end of it the people who had eight badgers out of the sixteen official gyms of Johto and were inside the Silver Citadel would automatically be in the group stage of the main and most prestigious pokemon tournament of the Johto Region, The Silver Conference.

    So to commemorate our official start as trainers Dendra, while training, had the idea of doing a sleepover to see the circuit opening that happened a little before midnight. We invited Alice and went to Jeremy¡¯s house for the sleepover, which he didn¡¯t know would happen until we got there with the games and the food. He was not that annoyed. We watched a couple of movies and played some board games until the opening ceremony began.

    When midnight came and the Circuit officially started, which meant that the websites of the Pokemon Gyms were officially opened, I picked up my laptop and entered the Azalea Gym website to confirm that they were crashing as always but to our surprise, the site was running smoothly so we sent our challenges and the scheduler returned to us in ten minutes. I would have my Gym Battle in three days, so on September 9th, passing over the Gym Trainer Battle since being sponsored by a League Official meant that I didn¡¯t need to do it.

    Dendra was scheduled on the 14th for her Gym Trainer Battle and her Gym Battle was on October 20th, I consoled her by saying that I would win against Bugsy, travel to Goldenrod, win against Whitney, win a tournament or two, and then come back to see her Gym Battle.

    She didn¡¯t see the humor and Alice told me to shut it.

    It would not be possible for me to see her fight, of course. October 20th was the date for her to fight Bugsy if everyone who took the Gym Trainer Battle passed, which seventy percent of trainers didn¡¯t do on their first try, so she would probably fight at the very least on September 24th.

    We also made some travel and meeting plans because I would be going relatively fast by the Gyms unless I lost so the best we could come up with to meet up was that I would be going to Goldenrod and from there to Violet, Dendra would be going directly there after defeating Bugsy and we would have a fight again to see how we improved, then I would be going to Ecruteak and then for Olivine, where I would again meet Dendra after she beat Falkner and went straight to Olivine, and from there I would be going to Cianwood and she would turn back to Goldenrod.

    For now, that was the plan we were working on. We watched one more movie and went to sleep, Alice and Dendra slept in Jeremy¡¯s double bed and Jeremy and I slept in his sofa bed I finally learned why Taylor and Fancy slept in the living room. Jeremy snored.

    On the morning of September 7th I, still in Jeremy¡¯s house and still sleepy because of Jeremy, went to use my laptop and saw an email for me, it was an invitation for a meeting with other trainers scheduled two days from now.

 Johto Chapter 8

    There were small rumors that there were secret meetings and talks between top-tier trainers.

    Some people said these groups were organized by the year that you began your journey as a pokemon trainer. Some said they were organized by Type, or by age, or by how many badges a pokemon trainer had.

    But almost everyone agreed that pokemon trainers just traveled way too much to maintain connections like the ones seen, for example, in the known and popular Pokemon Groups of Sinnoh, who were mostly created and used by kids in the youngster program who were from the same city. Kids from ten to twelve at most got two badges by the end of their circuit, one from their own city and another from the modern Gyms where it was closer and safer to walk to and back from your own city.

    Proper pokemon trainers just traveled way too much between cities and Regions to maintain connections like that and in Indigo was even worse since here it''s acceptable to simply vanish to off-route places like Mount Mortar or the Frontier for training during the off-season.

    However, I had always imagined that having a network of trainers who helped each other could be a very powerful thing in the pokemon world. If you wanted to find things in promotion in other cities. Information on wild pokemon that you wanted to catch, a  technique that you saw that someone might know how to teach or train, and most importantly, having people to battle.

    Having sparring partners was even more important when one considers that the stronger a trainer becomes the more they begin to hoard and hide their knowledge and experience, even refusing battles in hopes of catching people off guard in tournaments and Conferences, so making friends and allies with other trainers earlier on became even more important.

    After discussing this with Jeremy, Alice, and Dendra who was unfortunately not invited, they agreed with me so I sent an email back accepting the invitation.

    Now, two days later, I was in front of a charming two-story yellow house.

    I released Mesa and was thrilled when the Doll pokemon leaned back and opened his body and eyes wide, showing that he was surprised at my new clothes. It was an emotion he still hadn¡¯t displayed before, normally he always saw me in my old everyday clothes, jeans, white or black shirt, and black shoes and when it was cold I wore a plain old black jacket.

    Today, however, I had put on the new traveling clothes that I had bought just two days after the interview with Professor Oak. I had assumed that I would only wear these clothes when I went to battle Bugsy but I decided, and the others agreed, that the only thing to do when meeting fellow trainers was to dress like a trainer.

    So I was wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt, black cargo pants with lots of pockets, very comfortable blue hiking shoes, a light sleeveless black traveling jacket since it was warm and I also wore my Pokeball Belt.

    I walked up the three steps to the front door and knocked. After some seconds the door opened and a kid, probably twelve years old, appeared. He had brown hair and eyes, and like me also wore traveling clothes, but his were dark and red, he had a Pokeball Belt with two normal pokeballs on it, and in his hands, he had a sheet. When he looked at me he froze.

    ¡°Hello, I''m here for a trainer¡¯s meeting, is this the place?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is, name please?¡± He coughed.

    ¡°Scott Wood and this is my Baltoy, Mesa.¡±

    The boy looked at the piece of paper, nodded, and then made room for me to enter. ¡°We will just pass through the house. The meeting will take place in the backyard, my name is Roland by the way.¡±

    Mesa and I entered and he closed the door, then we began to make our way through the house which looked very homely, like a house that you would see in a sitcom, the thing that attracted my eyes the most were the pictures. There were a lot of them, everywhere. It looked like a normal family lived here, a father, a mother, two kids, an older girl and a younger boy, four or five pokemon made regular appearances here and there, interesting enough they were all from the Western Continent, a Luxray, a Lipard, an Emolga and an Amoonguss.

    We exited the house to a big backyard. There was a big outdoor wood table with space for maybe eight people, there were three girls there, two seated on opposite sides of the table and one that was standing, they also looked to be twelve years old and I began to panic a little.

    Was this a kid¡¯s meeting? I knew that rationally, at least for the first half of the circuit, most of the trainers I would speak, interact and battle with would be twelve years old, seeing as I was also a first-year trainer, but still, it would be awkward to be the only sixteen-year-old in the middle of a bunch of twelve years old.

    When the girl who was standing saw us she excused herself and came to talk. The guy that accompanied me, Roland, just nodded to her.

    ¡°It is great to meet you, Scott Wood, right? My name is Katy Anderson.¡± She was a blond girl with green eyes and a single light blue streak on her hair. She was wearing a white shirt with a light blue jacket and grey cargo pants, she extended her hand and I shook it.

    ¡°Good to meet you too,¡± I said.

    ¡°I''m glad that you came, I thought that someone like you wouldn¡¯t come.¡±

    ¡°Like me?¡± I said, a bit confused.

    Her face took a nervous look and she seemed to struggle to speak.

    ¡°Now that everyone has arrived we can begin the meeting right Katy?¡± Roland said

    She turned to him. ¡°Yes! Of course, the others are waiting for us.¡±

    So it''s just four kids then, great. Not that I have anything against kids but¡­ I was expecting at least someone at fourteen or higher.

    While we followed her to the table I looked around and saw that some pokemon were by the side while a fully grown, and very muscled, Luxray, probably the same one from the photos watched over them, they were normal pokemon for the most part, there was a Sentret, a Zubat, a Snubbul, the only outside the norm was a Palpitoed which was a water and ground type pokemon from Unova.

    So obviously Katy Anderson was an Unovan or, at least, one of her parents was based on her surname, probably the father who was a trainer too now that I think about it. The pokemon in the pictures appeared a lot more when he was in them too and now that I was getting near to the Luxray I noticed that he also had faded battle scars, so another pretty big tell.

    We sat down. Mesa briefly looked towards where the pokemon were but then turned back, his mood right now was disinterested so I didn¡¯t even ask if he wanted to join them, he just floated near me for now. I looked around the table, as all five people were now seated. Katy, who I was almost sure was the organizer of the meeting sat between one girl and Ronald while I sat at the other side of the table with another girl.

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°I just want to start this meeting by saying to you three thank you for coming today, My name is Katy and this is Ronald we are both pokemon trainers and we had this idea about having a meeting between trainers.¡± Ronald nodded to her. ¡°If you guys could introduce yourselves.¡±

    As the girls didn¡¯t seem to want to start I cleared my throat. ¡°My name is Scott Wood,¡±

    ¡°Jess Brin.¡± Said the girl sitting by my side, she had medium dark hair in a ponytail.

    The other girl, a redhead wearing a white ivy hat said. ¡°My name is Emilia Cord, nice to meet you guys.¡±

    Katy nodded. ¡°Roland, if you can start.¡±

    Roland nodded. ¡°Well. Katy and I have been battling in the Battle Hall for two months now in preparation for our journey and, in between the battles that we fought there, when we were resting we also watched a lot of fights and what we saw from you three were some of the best battles that the zero badge section ever saw, of course, we have invited more people, exactly ten, but we knew the majority would not turn up.¡±

    That is the competitive world of pokemon training rearing its head.

    ¡°But, of course, five is still pretty great to start the kind of group that we have in mind,¡± Katy added.

    ¡°So you want to make a group?¡± Said the dark-haired girl, Jess. ¡°What do you want to set up exactly?¡±

    ¡°In simple terms what we imagined,¡± Katy said and gestured to Roland and herself, ¡°Is a group of trainers who are united by a common goal, to become better trainers and battlers by cooperating instead of the mainstream Johto way of competing all the time.¡±

    ¡°We want to create a group where whenever we meet, be it on the road or in cities, we will train together and trade information and tips so that we can support each other in our journeys,¡± Roland said.

    ¡°We think that if we get together to share tips about battling and training and develop a healthy rivalry while we do our respective journeys, we will have a greater chance to even get to the conference in our first year.¡± Katy completed.

    The girl on my side of the table, Jess, snorted. ¡°The conference? Do you think that we can get to the conference in our first year just by holding each other¡¯s hands? Do you believe in the power of friendship too?¡±

    ¡°We know it sounds a little too good, but you know, there are precedents, there are many times in Conference history that groups of two or three made it to the Conference by doing the circuit together, Maxwell, Sarah and Kent, Miran and Samantha, Samuel Oak, and Agatha.¡±

    Hmm, bringing renowned trainers was a good point.

    To get to the Conference at twelve years old is hard, not just because it is physically and intellectually challenging, but because you also have to possess something of an iron will, there are many challenges along the way that are going to set you back again and again and unless you have a very strong will to succeed you will not get to the end. For a kid, just seeing your pokemon being beaten down once is already very hard. I can see how sharing the burden might be the way to go in these kid¡¯s case.

    Jess rolled their eyes seemingly uninterested but I saw how her eyes had briefly widened at the mention of those names. ¡°Okay, continue with your offer.¡±

    ¡°Roland,¡± Katy said. The boy nodded and took a laptop from a bag that was on the ground, then he opened it and turned it to show us what seemed to be a website.

    ¡°There is the problem of how we will maintain communication in a big group who might not take the same routes, it''s very difficult to get a signal on the routes to speak on the phone so we searched a bit and we found this.¡±

    Roland turned to us. ¡°This site is called the Pokemon Battle Forum and it was created by the Sinnoh branch of the League, you can register and then you will participate in the forum which is a space where people post threads and talk to each other by writing, sometimes even someone big will post some tips and tricks, like some past conferences winners or finalists.

    ¡°You can also create writing groups in it so what we can do is create a group and everyone will, sometimes, write about their own progress and what they found out, moves, tactics, things like that, then when we get to cities we can read what they wrote and answer without the need to call each other.¡±

    Katy nodded. ¡°If anyone sees a rare pokemon that someone wants, they can just write it and when that person gets to a city they can read up the information, for example.¡±

    The three of us spent some seconds in silence, and then finally the girl by my side, the dark-haired one said.

    ¡°That sounds okay, I guess, it doesn¡¯t sound so hard to maintain, but I am sponsored by a League Official, I will be going pretty fast and will not have time to stop and wait for you guys to catch up.¡±

    Katy smiled. ¡°That¡¯s the good news. Everyone here is sponsored by a League Official.¡±

    What? I looked around at the two girls and saw that they were surprised too.

    Roland then explained. ¡°We watched a lot of people fight in the Battle Hall and every time the announcer said the name of the winner in a good battle we would write it down and then later research it on the site of the circuit. They need to put a pin explaining that this or that trainer is sponsored by so and so person on the profile of every sponsored trainer.¡±

    I didn¡¯t know that as I had never entered the League website, so now that was another thing to do then. I saw that this was news for the two girls as well.

    ¡°Why would they do that?¡± Asked Jess, her browns narrowing in annoyance.

    ¡°For transparency of course,¡± Katy said while shrugging,¡± Roland and I are sponsored by my father who works at the League as a Ranger Instructor, ah, but don¡¯t feel obligated to tell who your sponsor is, that¡¯s okay if you want to keep it to yourself.¡±

    Now I also understood Katy¡¯s and Roland¡¯s reactions when they met me. They already knew who I was sponsored by and so were afraid that a trainer sponsored by someone with the status that Professor Oak had, who is known to be pretty high on the League and who consistently sponsors great trainers such as his newest ones, Red, Blue, and Leaf, wouldn¡¯t want to work with people who were sponsored by a Ranger Instructor, thankfully for them and me they tried sending an invitation anyway instead of just assuming that I wouldn¡¯t want to participate in something that I was quite liking so far.

    They had put thought into this presentation, by inviting just people who could keep up and involving the pokenet in an actual positive manner. If all five of us were as good battlers as they thought. It could be good for everyone involved. As for speaking of Professor Oak. I didn¡¯t want to scare the two girls or derail the conversation so I would keep that to myself for now until everyone has decided by themselves. With no pressure from the powerful name.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know if that will work out or not, but it''s worth trying,¡± Emilia said.

    I offered my thoughts. ¡°I like the idea. As someone who accompanied the trainer scenario for quite a while, this is definitely something that I hoped would exist between trainers, particularly I think it is also a great use of the Pokenet as well and if this is successful maybe it would be the start of a new way of training in Johto.¡±

    I, of course, had hyped it up a bit at the end to sell the idea to Jess who seemed to be on the fence. She hummed and thought about it for a minute.

    In Johto, the norm was that trainers should live isolated lives and train alone. It was not a rule or an enforcement, but a cultural phenomenon. Some people, however, didn¡¯t like that approach, and considering that I only became a trainer because someone was thoughtful enough to write a book about Pokemon Training, I also differed from that approach.

    ¡°I will participate but only if I know who your sponsors are,¡± Jess said, ¡°and since I am asking that I will start, my sponsor is an Academy instructor in Sinnoh. I came here to take my shot at the egg.¡±

    What a surprise. The hardest to convince about working together came from ¡®soft¡¯ Sinnoh.

    ¡°My sponsor is my uncle who is a Veteran Gym Trainer at Azalea Gym,¡± Emilia said.

    Then they turned to me. ¡°My sponsor is a Pokemon Professor, as we will probably search each other on the League website later, I will already tell you that the Pokemon Professor in question is Professor Samuel Oak.¡±

    The two girls who didn¡¯t have the information reacted as expected, Jess¡¯ expression, which mostly had just been set in a frown the entire time, opened up in surprise and she leaned back from me and Emilia¡¯s eyes widened.

    After the how or why questions, which I answered as briefly as I could, Katy commented. ¡°You know, we invited some trainers with less influential sponsors than Professor Oak. Some of them respectfully rejected but most were just arrogant. We were worried that you were being sarcastic in your email and just wasn¡¯t going to appear.¡±

    I hung my head as Blue would probably do that if the stories about him were to be believed. That reminded me that, also being sponsored by Professor Oak, I might one day meet Blue or even Red.

    After that everyone agreed to participate in the group, Katy and Ronald already had some names for our group but in the end, we all decided on Project, just because it would work something like a group project. We decided on a few more things about how the group would work and even planned to speak more about how our travels would work.

    Katy, Ronald, and Emilia wanted to go to Violet City next because there were some pokemon on those routes that they wanted to get, while Jess wanted to go to Goldenrod, so Jess and I made a note to speak to each other at some time, to see if we would want to travel together. They also wanted to have a sparing session for our newest pokemon, the ones without experience in battling so far. We marked the date of that session right after my match with Bugsy which would happen after tomorrow.

 Johto Chapter 9

    It was September 8th, one day before my fight with Bugsy.

    Dendra and I were seated in the stands of the Azalea Gym. I hadn¡¯t actually wanted to come here as I had already visited this place many times when I was younger to see the matches, both to enjoy them and to gather intel on how Bugsy battled. Dendra, however, was from a place that did not have Gyms and wanted to see for herself how a Gym Battle worked.

    I glanced at my watch. It was almost 7 a.m.

    Bugsy schedule was well known. He battled the first badge trainers from 7 to 11 a.m. then took a one-hour break, followed by one hour of paperwork and other tasks, things like signing the battle certificates for the League that proved that the challengers won in his Gym, inspecting the next day¡¯s agenda, checking up on his Gym Trainers to see if everything is going alright with the Gym Trainer Battles. Then from 1 to 3 p.m., he battled the veteran trainers, the next two hours were classified on the Azalea Gym website as miscellaneous, which meant training gym trainers and pokemon, reading the reports from the veteran gym trainers tasked with checking the city, the nearby routes and surrounding areas for problems related to pokemon and relegating tasks, like feeding the Gym¡¯s pokemon and dividing the night shift.

    Dendra was looking around trying to discern what people around us were saying.

    ¡°I have a question.¡± She whispered, she did talk loudly normally but in crowded spaces like these, she did not feel comfortable doing it. It¡¯s not like there was much of a crowd, Bugsy¡¯s Gymnasium is one of the smallest Gyms in Indigo since Azalea¡¯s population had always been small until five years ago. It could still fit five thousand people total, using the inner and outer stands but for beginner¡¯s matches like these the Gym only opened the inner stands which could house two thousand people between both sides of the Gym. Right now it had, if I had to guess, eight hundred people, but all of them, including us, were near the field, crowded together.

    ¡°Yes?¡± I said.

    ¡°Is it a challenge or is it a match?¡±

    I paused for a second. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I¡ªIt''s just that some people are calling it challenges and other people are calling it matches. What is the difference?¡±

    I was looking at the field as the Gym Trainers began to make some last-minute preparations but stopped to think about it. That was a curious question with an actual interesting answer.

    ¡°Before the Pokemon League was created. It used to be called challenges because trainers went to the Gyms to have real fights, a challenge in the truest sense of the word. They fought in really vicious battles to get a badge because, at that time, getting eight badges meant that you could challenge the Elite Four and the Champion right away.¡±

    She gasped. ¡°The Champion could lose his position at any time?¡±

    Today that is probably unimaginable considering that they could only be challenged every two years, only by the top eight trainers in the Championship ranking, and only if they won against the Elite Four, who were not considered part of the eight.

    ¡°Yes but at that time being a pokemon trainer was way more dangerous so there were a lot fewer challengers. The Champion still got a couple every month or so but after some advances in technology, particularly in pokemon health, and the creation of the Pokemon League which brought a lot of marketing towards becoming a trainer, training exploded out of control, suddenly the Elite Four and the Champions were battling every week, a couple of Champions even lost because of fatigue. It was chaos for a while... So after all that the League proposed to the affiliated Regions the creation of another branch of tournaments and after some years of planning. Now there were the historical Championship, now with the ranking system and the two reigning years, and for the other trainers the Circuit and the Conference.¡±

    ¡°How many years was that?¡±

    ¡°The change?¡± She nodded. ¡°Almost one hundred years ago.¡±

    ¡°Wow, I didn¡¯t know that the Conferences or the League were so new.¡±

    I nodded. When they passed every year on the TV it seemed like they existed forever.

    ¡°So, back to the subject. When this system was first implemented people said ¡°challenge¡± when someone wanted to get the Championship Badge to enter the rankings and ¡°matches¡± when it was for the Conference Badge. Today, however, people use both terms interchangeably, Bugsy calls everyone a challenger for example. ¡°

    She asked me what books she could read about it and I said that it would be better to ask Jeremy since he could find some good ones in the library.

    We then waited for a couple minutes and when it was five minutes to seven Bugsy emerged from the double doors in the middle of the Gym, he had the same bug-catching clothes that he always wore when on Gym Leader duty, and in one of his hands was a large bug net and on his belt were sixteen pokeballs.

    He waved to the crowd while walking to the middle of the battlefield and turned on the microphone in his ear.

    ¡°Hello, dear audience, are you ready to see some challenges?¡± Blasted from the speakers

    We could feel the vibrations on the ground as the crowd responded with cheers, claps, and from the little kids jumps. Bugsy then walked up the steps of his platform which stood between the height of the battlefield and of the stands and spoke.

    ¡°Challenger, If you dare to battle the Bug-Type specialist, step forward!¡±

    After that we spent half an hour seeing Bugsy fight, his battles against the first years always went the same. Two against two. The first year released a pokemon and Bugsy responded with another of equal strength. If the challenger chooses a strong pokemon Bugsy will send out the stronger of the two that he prepared for the match, if the challenger releases a weaker one, Bugsy will send the weaker one.

    How to win the match? Wrong question.

    The true question is how to pass the match.

    If the challenger could demonstrate that they had trained for at least some weeks with their pokemon they would ¡°pass¡± which means that they have to show that their pokemon knew how to use attack moves adequately and how to dodge or defend. The basics of a pokemon battle, attack and defend, if they could do that, Bugsy would perform a loss.

    The only thing you couldn¡¯t do if you wanted to ¡°win¡± in Bugsy¡¯s Gym was to win using only pokemon that have a disadvantage against bug types unless you were a type specialist. Bugsy had, on the record, said that he would not let bug pokemon suffer this embarrassment.

    I began to sag on my seat as it became quite repetitive after a while. The only nice thing about going to see the matches was the fact that Bugsy had varied his teams since becoming a Gym Leader six years ago, before, all we would see were pokemon mainly from Indigo, Sinnoh, and Hoenn but now I could see some pokemon from the Western Continent, the Venipede, Sewaddle and Joltik lines had been displayed in the one hour we¡¯ve been here which pleased Dendra.

    Unlike me, Dendra was not bored at all but recognized that she had seen everything that she needed in the eight matches. She had written in her new journal all about Bugsy¡¯s fights and his more used pokemon. It almost brought a tear to my eyes. After one hour we went back to our training at the Pokemon Park.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    -

    I glanced around the room at the other seven people. Most were nervous, some were calm and one, who had been lucky or unlucky enough to be the last one of this hour slot was sleeping, a Poochyena was sitting by his side probably with orders to wake him up soon.

    I looked down at my hands and saw that they were still, calm. Even then I had to face the truth that I was worried, not nervous or anxious, just worried.

    Worried that all the training that we did might have been the wrong training to fight Bugsy, and that we would be set back on our journey one month because of a loss.

    I had never been worried about a battle before.

    My hands closed in fists as I tried to squash this worry. I did not have any reason to be nervous, Bugsy would not defeat us. We should be two weeks of training away from Jungle or Mesa being able to win us our second badge. There was no way we were going to lose.

    A man dressed in the colors of the Azalea Gym, green and brown, entered and spoke a name and the trainer that was called went with him. Soon after, one by one, the trainers went, the time passed and my worry began to grow again when someone called my name.

    ¡°Scott Wood?¡± said one of the two Gym Trainers who was in charge of running today¡¯s matches.

    ¡°I''m here.¡± I rose from the bench and followed him, we passed through a corridor that connected the building that we were into the front of the Azalea Gym. When we reached the double doors we stopped.

    ¡°Just one second for me to confirm with my colleagues if everything is ready.¡± He said and put a hand to his ear.

    After one minute he nodded. ¡°You can enter now. Good luck, challenger.¡±

    I said my thanks and entered through the double doors. As soon as I entered I could see the view that many other trainers, countless actually, had seen of the Azalea gymnasium.

    A rectangular long grassy battlefield with some very small hills, with foliage, plants, bushes, and trees, some big at the edges of the field, and some small and thin ones spread in the middle. I climbed towards my platform and the arbiter asked if I was ready, to which I responded with a nod, as I looked to the stands I could see, Jeremy, Alice, Clarisse, and Dendra looking at me, they looked eager.

    Bugsy rose to his platform, on his belt were six pokeballs which meant that he had three matches left. His face sported a small smile.

    The arbiter then spoke. ¡°This battle will be between Challenger Scott Wood and Gym Leader Bugsy. It will be two on two battle, no switches.¡± He waited a bit for the words to sink in and then continued. ¡°Challenger, release your pokemon.¡±

    I picked up the first pokeball on my belt and as soon as my hand touched it she began to enlarge from its passive mode. I clicked on the middle button and pointed the pokeball to the field which released a red light that condensed into Cape.

    As soon as the familiar Heracross appeared on the field my worries faded the same way that, years ago, when I had a test, I turned the sheets over and saw that I knew the answers to the questions because I had studied for it. I knew that Cape and I were ready, we had trained for two years for this.

    We would not fail.

    Bugsy looked at Cape, but not in the way that a normal person might. It looked as if he was analyzing every centimeter of Cape, his strengths, his weaknesses, and how he could best test him. It was normal for Bugsy who, in his younger days, had been nicknamed by other bug pokemon trainers the Walking Bug Pokemon Encyclopedia, a moniker he was proud of.

    Without waiting for the arbiter to speak, not that he would, Bugsy gently threw a pokeball on the field and it opened to reveal a pokemon that I hadn¡¯t seen in Bugsy¡¯s hands the day before, an Accelgor, The Shell Out Pokemon, it had a big pink head and a smaller body that was covered by blue strips, which were actually membrane, he had been released already in his line¡¯s iconic pose with the crossed arms.

    He looked around for a bit and then focused on Cape. He seemed satisfied with what he saw and then he unlatched his arms which came to rest beside his body.

    I quickly revised what I knew about Accelgors. They were fast, very fast, and struck hard. As good at fighting at close range as they were at long. But I didn¡¯t need to be Bugsy to see, by his size, that this one wasn¡¯t even a two-badge pokemon. He would be tough but not even close to difficult for us.

    Pink barriers were raised, and the two pokemon took positions, the arbiter checked me to see if I was ready and then he began the match.

    ¡°Accelgor, Quick Attack.¡± Bugsy said and the Bug pokemon began to emit grey energy all around his body and then he jumped forward in a zig-zag pattern.

    ¡°To the air, Cape.¡± Cape jumped high, opened his wings, and began to fly high and back increasing the distance from the earth-bound pokemon.

    ¡°Water Shuriken.¡± The pokemon hands glowed blue, Water energy flowed out from his ¡°wrapped¡± hands and took the faint shape of shurikens. He jumped one last time using the remaining energy of Quick Attack and rotated. Six shurikens, three launched from each hand, were hurled towards Cape.

    ¡°Parry.¡± Cape¡¯s hand glowed grey and he began to strike the shuriken at the center to disable them, the last two, however, changed directions at the last moment and faintly slashed Cape¡¯s torso which made Cape flinch in pain.

    Damn. He had put thought into the fight between Drenda and me.

    ¡°Aerial Ace.¡± Cape¡¯s wings and arms glowed and then he vanished in a soft blue blur.

    ¡°Dodge.¡± The Accelgor was turning around in an attempt to follow Cape¡¯s movements, and by the way that he twitched sometimes he could.

    Cape appeared at the right side and Accelgor turned towards him. However, that was just a feint. Cape had become really good with those after training with Chopper.

    Cape blurred again and appeared behind the Accelgor, who still turned and dodged his head out of the way but was hit on his body, he didn¡¯t flinch or recoil and when Cape got close to him and tried to use Fury Attack he was able to respond to each of Cape¡¯s strikes with blocks from his own arms and then create a bit of space between then.

    ¡°Tackle, Wrap and Absorb,¡± Bugsy said and his pokemon head glowed as he promptly jumped forward to try and headbutt Cape who crossed his arms into a block. Cape was pushed back still and this created more space for him to undo some of his ribbon-like membranes and use them to wrap Cape¡¯s incoming arms, both pokemon glowed green showing the Absorb at work, Cape suddenly staggered due to the sudden feeling of fatigue.

    ¡°Hold him down and Tackle into Arm Thrust,¡± I said. It was a bit over the top, but Cape wanted a sweep so we had to dominate.

    The Heracross pulled at the wrappings on his arms and then rushed the locked-down Accelgor, who tried to organically cut his membranes to get away but couldn¡¯t in time. Cape, with his arms, smashed him in the side of his head and into the ground using his superior strength. The Accelgor still tried to get away but Cape ended the fight with an Arm Thrust to his head.

    The pokemon slumped to the ground and the arbiter declared a win for us. Bugsy recovered the Accelgor into his pokeball and then released a Surskit, the pokemon he probably would have used early if I had led with one of my weaker companions. It was a weaker pokemon, just as fast as the Accelgor.

    Cape used one weaker Aerial Ace and the pokemon was down.

    The arbiter announced another win and then the match as Bugsy and I met in the center of the field.

    ¡°Congratulations, Scott Wood.¡± He then gave me the Hive Badge, which I immediately put on my badge case, and a one-time use TM, the TM49 Fury Cutter. ¡°I am glad to see someone with a good head on his shoulders entering the Pokemon scene. Keep it up.¡±

    He then turned to the exhausted Heracross who glared at him and gave a gentle laugh. ¡°Are you still mad about that? Well in my defense everything went very well, just as I, Bugsy, predicted.¡±

    I was surprised that he was talking so much, usually, he only gave the rewards, a motivational phrase or advice and then left, I guess we did win fast. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±

    He responded while caressing a spot on Cape¡¯s head that made the Heracross slump in delight. I made a note of the place.

    ¡°In my searches for pokemon for the orphans, there are always ambitious pokemon like Cape here, and between the orphans, there are always ones who search for¡­ Motivated pokemon to train.¡± He turned his eyes towards me. ¡°Rarely are they the first pick though¡­ Now I have to get going.¡±

    He was walking away towards his platform.

    ¡°Thank you, Leader Bugsy.¡±

    He stopped and turned slightly. ¡°No, thank you, Scott, I bet you are going far, and if you take a bug pokemon with you, well, all the better for me¡­ Ah, I almost forgot, you are marked from here on out so as I said keep it up.¡±

    Then he walked away through the double doors.

    Cape and I were leaving the battlefield when Cape turned to me with a questioning expression.

    ¡°Marked?¡±

    The Heracross nodded. Marked was a thing of myths, just as the meetings between top trainers have been, we were only now able to know that this truly existed because of Blue¡¯s big mouth, in an interview someone had asked why his Gym battles were more difficult than normal and, of course, Blue had bragged.

    ¡°When you do great in a Gym match that Gym Leader might mark you, which means that they believe that you¡¯re a trainer ahead of the Gym challenge curve, so the next Gym Leader now knows that they can pump up the difficulty to make the Gym battle a real challenge,¡± I said.

    Cape seemed to like that very much and I agreed with him, more challenging battles would push us further. I also believed that that was a good system to filter good and bad trainers, after all, there were always some rich kids who hadn¡¯t trained or learned anything about pokemon battles but showed up with powerful and well-trained pokemon. They easily won their first badge and then think it will be smooth sailing from that, just for the next Gym Leader to really kick their teeth in and humble them.

    Depending on the Leader it could even be humiliating Kanto¡¯s Surge being the worst one in that regard, he was famous for making bad trainers with strong pokemon run away crying from his Gym. Complaints were raised, but well¡­ It was war hero Lieutenant Surge.

    When we reached the end of the corridor on the side of the building that led to the street. I saw that there was a familiar group there waiting for us.

 Johto Chapter 10

    When we stepped into the street Cape and I were jumped by Jeremy, Alice, Clarisse, and Dendra. Alice was the first to reach and engulf us in a hug, which I returned, and then came Jeremy, Clarisse and finally Dendra who began to chat animatedly.

    ¡°It was not that hard of a battle, I thought it would be a lot harder than that!¡± She said while frowning and then seemed to remember something. ¡°Congratulations by the way!¡±

    I laughed at her disappointment. ¡°Well it was not supposed to be hard for us, it is supposed to be hard for beginners,¡± I said, ¡°it will probably not be too difficult for you guys too.¡±

    That somehow seemed to make things worse. ¡°Ah, Chopper will not like that.¡±

    Then Clarisse and Alice began to speak about the battle and how they knew we would win easily. Cape was occupied speaking with Spike and Taylor. Since we were still on the sidewalk most of our pokemon were in their pokeball to not crowd it.

    We were so distracted speaking with them that I almost did not notice the two big picnic baskets by the group¡¯s side. Alice explained that they planned a picnic as a way to commemorate the win. We then walked to the nearest civilian park near the Gym. It was a small and plain grassy area with a tiny artificial lake in the middle for water pokemon.

    We spread a big towel on the ground and released our pokemon, Jungle, Mesa, Dendra¡¯s team and Fancy joined Cape, Spike, and Taylor. Clarisse didn¡¯t have any pokemon since she was very busy as the gerent of the Pokemart.

    Cape took the center of the group of pokemon and began to explain to the group how he won both battles and totally made Bugsy cry in shame, I caught that one by the crying motion he made with his hands. Chopper, Cross, and Spike saw past the bullshit parts of the story but Jungle, Taylor, and Fancy seemed to have fallen for it, Mesa was unresponsive but his attention was on Cape.

    I had checked Cape before leaving the Gym. He would have to rest a bit, but the cuts from the shurikens had just damaged his carapace which should heal in a day or two by itself with a little rest. When the story, longer than it should be, finally ended there was a cheer for Cape. Which inflated his ego by a lot.

    I looked over at the games and playthings that Jeremy and Alice took out of a bag for the activities part of the picnic. They had different types of balls for us to play, board games, and even some frisbees. We then played around with the pokemon, minus Cape who had to rest, Jungle and Cross were particularly good with frisbee, and Dendra was very good with the soccer ball. Alice, Jeremy, and I were not the most active people one would find and soon enough we stopped to sit on the towel.

    Dendra and some pokemon, Jungle, Spike, Ress, Taylor, and Fancy played hide and seek. Cross and Chopper were not playing but stayed alert to not let them get too far away, after that game ended we discovered that Spike, the Ariados, was great at it, who would¡¯ve guessed?

    Alice, Jeremy, Clarisse, Cape, Mesa, and I played a couple of board games. Dendra and the pokemon played until they were tired and we all sat down to eat. There were many types of food, fruits, sandwiches, cookies, sweats and also someone had done fries, onion rings and other fried things. We spent one more hour together and then we had to go.

    My team and I would be going home to let Cape rest and the others had things to do. Clarisse had some shipments from the Pokemart that she needed to look over. Jeremy had to home to go prepare for his work in the afternoon since he had asked someone to stand for him in the library during the morning and Dendra wanted to go see a new Unovan movie that was recently released.

    The walk home was very special for me. I did get out my badge case just to look at the Hive Badge a couple of times and make sure that I really had it. It was the culmination of all that Cape and I worked for these last couple of years.

    Legendaries! When I met Professor Oak in person I might hug him.

    I had been ready to wait for two more years but now I couldn¡¯t imagine waiting even one more year for this.

    I turned to Mesa, who was my only pokemon accompanying me, and showed the Badge to him. ¡°See Mesa¡­ Today Cape gained this for the team and one day you will help him get another one.¡±

    The Baltoy looked at the badge and made a spin.

    After some more minutes of walking, we reached our apartment building and entered our apartment.

    Cape just laid about in his puff and watched a movie which was fair after all the work he put in the battle, Jungle decided to sit on the other one and I played the puzzle game with Mesa until lunch and after it, Cape came back to his puff, and the Bulbasaur and the Baltoy divided the other one in a very cute manner with Mesa sitting and Jungle resting on his lap, they soon enough fell asleep.

    After washing the dishes I laid in my bed to read a book about the pokemon masters of the last thirty years.

    I read for half an hour and then glanced over at the TV and, noticing that the plot of the movie had slowed down, put down the book and turned to Cape.

    ¡°You know, I was thinking that we should get a new hobby.¡±

    ¡°Hera?¡±

    ¡°Yes, our hobby of training and studying became a job so now we need a new hobby.¡±

    ¡°Cross,¡± he said, ¡°heracross.¡±

    ¡°If you are doing something you like with no monetary compensation it counts as a hobby,¡± I said and sat on my bed. ¡°Now that training is going to be¡­ Already is a nine-to-five job. I was thinking about getting something to distract us when we are tired of it. What would you like to do?¡±

    Cape thought for a bit and then put his hands together in a rectangular shape and moved one of his claws.

    ¡°You want to take pictures?¡± He nodded. ¡°That¡¯s great. Before we leave Azalea I will buy you a camera.¡±

    I laid on my bed again and picked up the pad and added that to the list and glanced at the other things there. We still needed to put our things in storage. I already had talked with the apartment owner about giving it back, and then I needed to have that battling session with Project and¡ª

    There was a clap and I glanced over at Cape, who had done the action to call my attention. When he saw that I was looking he pointed at the TV.

    I got up and walked close to Cape. Before, the TV had an adventure movie and now it had a news program with breaking news in the lower part of the screen. I focused on what the anchor was saying.

    ¡°¡ªhours ago, inside Johto borders, in the Western Zone, League Rangers engaged in an aerial battle against a group of Salamences that invaded through the Frontier, our sources claim at least three of them were spotted. The rangers halted the dragons until Gym Leader Jasmine and her Gym Trainers could reach the area and expel the Salamences back towards the Frontier.

    ¡°As of now, we have no information as to possible deaths. It¡¯s known that two villages reside near the area where Gym Leader Jasmine and the group of Salamance fought. Our production tried to contact them but we were unable as the fight damaged local communications¡ª¡±

    The program then turned to a discussion around a table with experts who talked about the wild Salamances, what pokemon Jasmine might have used and what were the extent of the damages.

    Invasions by wild pokemon were not that uncommon. However, big and aggressive ones like Salamance were very rare, small pokemon like Sneasel frequently travelled between the two sides to pick some easy food but they were small, had an instinctual aptitude toward sneaking and knew not to hurt humans. Wild Salamence didn¡¯t need to come to our side since they had plenty of food in the Unknown World, and as they never entered here before they had no concept of holding back.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The news went on to show videos of famous Salamence fighting, Drake¡¯s Strike, Lance¡¯s Spear, and, of course, Pelton¡¯s Havoc.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Cape, they are nowhere near here.¡± I scratch the same spot that Bugsy had, making Cape relax a little.

    It was really a bizarre situation. Salamence were also known to not stray from their territory, why would they try to pass the Border?

    I just hoped that the Rangers didn¡¯t lose their lives or their pokemon.

    -

    ¡°Dodge, Flare.¡± Said Roger.

    The Vulpix jumped to the side just as the Lebyba passed by her.

    Emilia took the sweat off her forehead and said. ¡°Turn around and Supersonic.¡±

    The Ledyba named Knuckle slowed down her flight, turned around, and began to gather energy to use the sound attack but simply didn¡¯t have the time.

    ¡°Ember.¡± The fox pokemon gathered a small fire in her mouth and released three small balls of fire on the bug pokemon, who dropped the gathered energy and flew to the side.

    I was not surprised, Supersonic was a difficult move to use, not only did the pokemon have to gather the normal energy but still needed to shape it to produce sound.

    I looked around to see if no one had wandered near us. If one of the attacks of the pokemon got in a child we would not hear the end of it. Project, our trainer group, Dendra and I, were together today sparing with our weakest pokemon in a civilian park since they were really weak the law allowed us to train here but it still would be better to be alert even if Flare¡¯s Ember could not make even second-degree burns.

    I felt a bump in my leg and looked down at Jungle, who smiled at me. I crouched down and gave him some pats. We had already fought against Katy¡¯s Winpod, named Baine, and Jungle had won, Baine had been fast, but thanks to the aim training with Razor Leaf, Jungle had managed to hit him enough for us to call it, of course when Jungle used it he had not sharpened it enough to cut. He had tried to befriend the little Winpod too after the fight, but that line was just too timid.

    Katy, Jess, Dendra, and I were on one hill overlooking a plain field where Ronald, with his Vulpix, and Emilia, with her Ledyba, were sparring. Ronald, I learned, wanted to be a fire pokemon specialist, and had as his starter a Growlithe and, most recently, a Vulpix. Emilia wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father and become a bug specialist, she had a Yanma as her starter and a Ledyba, both pokemon were stronger than normal specimens that her father had searched for her in Ilex Forest.

    Outside of those fighting. Katy wanted to be a water pokemon trainer, she had as a starter Tylla, the Palpitoed, the Winpod Baine and then Asha, the Ducklett, and Jess was another fellow generalist, she had a Hippopotas, named Quake, and a Starly named Velocity, two lines commonly found in her homeland, Sinnoh.

    ¡°We are going to leave after tomorrow then?¡± asked Jess.

    I nodded. ¡°ten a.m. is good for you?¡±.

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    It was the day after my win against Bugsy and tomorrow morning Jess was going to be battling him for her badge.

    We, Project, had talked about the routes we were going to take and had decided on the groups. Katy, Ronald, and Emilia would go to Violet City, and Jess and I would be going to Goldenrod. Dendra would be going after all of us to Violet, where Jess and I would meet her while the others would go take the Ghost badge in Ecruteak and then come back to Violet so that all of us could participate in a big tournament that was going to happen there.

    ¡°Do you mind if, after we leave Ilex forest, we take the Sea Route?¡± I asked.

    She seemed to think for a moment. ¡°Actually, I was going to suggest the same thing, better battles and more challenges that way.¡±

    I nodded although it was not what I had in mind.

    There were many routes in Johto, most took the traditional route, the route that the first Champion took to unite the city-states into the first iteration of Indigo. Well, at least historians believe that that was the route he took.

    The drawback, however, is that in the last decades, the rangers became so efficient at their job, with all the technological advancements like the radio and internet, that the routes were now so safe that even someone with zero pokemon could walk on them. The rangers routed out the more dangerous and aggressive pokemon and pokemon lines so veteran trainers began to make their own alternative routes that passed through areas where these pokemon now lived, and then went to catch these pokemon or use them as training.

    Just outside of the fittingly named Ilex Forest Route, was a connection to the Sea Route, which passed through all of Johto coast by hugging close to the sea instead of the traditional route which was away from the coast. I would be going there to find an ice-type pokemon, but Jess seemed to like the idea of a more difficult journey.

    Well, whatever the motive, I was glad she was coming along. Going alone was definitely not ideal and now I felt less pressure to catch a pokemon in Ilex Forest.

    My attention was drawn back towards the fight as the Ledyba finally collapsed from exhaustion, Vulpix couldn¡¯t hit her but she also couldn¡¯t hit the Vulpix. Ronald and Emilia decided to call a draw.

    As they came back towards our hill Jess and Dendra moved forward to our improvised arena. Dendra released her Hawlucha, Cross, and Jess released her Starly, Velocity.

    ¡°I''m glad that you brought her,¡± Said Katy, ¡°I think I speak for everyone when I say that we were unsure about what to think about her.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°People don¡¯t like how she fights in the Battle Hall but she only fights like that there.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, she is proving to be a good fit for our group though.¡±

    ¡°That is incredible, ¡°Roland said as he looked around,¡± six people who already could win their second badge training, sparing together, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if this was the first time this happened in the history of Johto.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised either, when I told my father about our group he looked at me like I had grown another head,¡± Emilia said.

    ¡°My father thinks johtonians are weird,¡± Katy added. ¡°Even Mother.¡±

    ¡°So he thinks you are weird too?¡± Laughed Ronald and she balled her fists and turned on him.

    Roland and Katy began to bicker so I paid attention to the fight. The Hawlucha had the upper hand, Starly was faster but he had the ability to maneuver in the air, which made counterattacking the air strikes of Velocity easy.

    ¡°When I was in elementary school my father told me to make a study group,¡± Katy said, coming back to the topic. ¡°So I tried to make it one time and no one wanted to participate, they just said to study alone or that they wanted to study alone.¡±

    ¡°¡­ I hate to say it,¡± Ronald whispered out loud, ¡°but they were trying to say that they didn¡¯t want you to pass them on the board.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I got that soon enough. Thanks, Ronald.¡±

    He responded with a thumbs-up.

    That brought me memories. In school, every Friday of the last month we went to the board to see how we did in that month¡¯s tests. I also remember having more friends when I was a problem kid than when I climbed over to the third spot on the board.

    ¡°Now that I think about it our culture is really competitive.¡± Said Emilia and then tilted her head. ¡°What is that Unovans calls it again?¡±

    I knew that one. ¡°Toxic.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Maybe they are right?¡±

    ¡°If there is a group that thinks that, then it would be us,¡± I said.

    ¡°Maybe you guys are on the fence, but I think it''s all pretty stupid,¡± Said Katy, ¡°people become stronger when working together.¡±

    I understood Katy. Indigo as a whole did have a very competitive, ambitious, and sometimes even bloodthirst culture. Our people have never forgotten our origin as the beginning of civilization.

    It showed up in our ancient stories, songs, tales, paintings, and buildings what we did and how we did it, by zealously killing, slaughtering and, more recently, competing with each other until we had strong enough partners to protect ourselves from the outside.

    Sinnoh, Hoenn, and the Western Continent didn¡¯t create pokemon training, they had adopted it but they had not paid the price as we had.

    However, I also understood that those times had passed.

    We still produced powerful and incredible trainers and together Indigo was still the strongest Region in the world, but now we could see that the others were catching up by different methods. Sinnoh had Cynthia and Hoenn had Steven. Trainers were so strong that, for the first time in a long time, people were questioning if the Indigo Champion was really the strongest. The Western Continent also was finally producing trainers at the level of our Elite Four.

    Their approach of collaboration and association was working and I hoped it would work with this group too. We spent some time in silence just watching the battle when Emilia suddenly asked.

    ¡°Did you guys see the Salamence in the west?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Crazy right?¡± Robert said. ¡°My mother said that she didn¡¯t remember the last time something like this happened.¡±

    ¡°My father said that Jasmine might have lost two maybe even three pokemon if she had fought alone,¡± Katy said.

    ¡°She did not?¡± I asked.

    Katy shook her head. ¡°She only held them down until Lorelai could get there.¡±

    ¡°Having a parent in the League is better than watching the news then.¡± Ronald wondered out loud.

    ¡°My uncle said that when I get to the Western Zone I should not go into the wild and only stay in the main routes and Cities.¡± Said Emilia. ¡°He said that the Salamances were not the only thing that passed the border.¡±

    Everyone stayed in silence for some time just watching the battle and trying to deal with the idea that there might be more to this story than it seems.

    ¡°I will listen to this warning,¡± I said, ¡°when a League Official tells you to not go somewhere it''s probably a good idea to listen.¡±

    Then Dendra and Jess''s battle ended with the winner being Cross. The training we did had been paying off I guess.

    -

    It was night and Cape was playing around with Jungle and Mesa as I was again reading the book about masters. I wanted to finish it up before we left.

    After some time Jungle and Mesa retired to their pokeballs to sleep, their energy didn¡¯t even come close to Cape¡¯s, who sat at his puff and began to watch a show match between two ACE trainers of Hoenn.

    I took a deep breath. ¡°After tomorrow, after we give our apartment and before we leave the city we are going to visit Mother Elena before we leave.¡±

    ¡°¡­ He.¡±

 Johto Chapter 11

    I stopped at the entrance of the cemetery and checked my watch. It¡¯s nine and thirty a.m.

    I released my three teammates and Cape, Jungle, and Mesa appeared in flashes of red. The newest companions glanced around at the unfamiliar place.

    There were other people around us going in and out of the cemetery. They were also here to visit their loved ones that departed. An old man in an expensive kimono with a Persian, a young teenager with traveling clothes, a young woman with a kid both dressed in formal black, and others of different ages and backgrounds.

    I felt my legs begin to move and my pokemon followed in a line, Cape as the last one, to keep an eye on the younger ones.

    We soon reached the big and circular gravestone in the middle of the first and most prestigious section of the cemetery. On the top of the expensive grave was a statue of a man and a Scyther. The man had an axe in one hand and a whip in the other. The stone Scyther was so detailed that I could even see his many scars.

    I remembered them from my history classes. Ilex and Xeli, the founder of what would become Azalea Town and his mighty pokemon. I also knew that written on the gravestone would be the names of many of his clan members, including his wife, Azalea.

    We passed through his gravestone and then the gravestones of important people. The great men, women, and pokemon that made Azalea what it is today. Trainers, lords, mayors, builders, and war heroes, and finally we reached the public service gravestone. The city reserved a part of the cemetery for public workers near the entrance. It had been one of the first sections built, back then when all of Azalea¡¯s population were, in a way, public workers. And by that I meant serfs.

    I felt like smiling at my joke, but the air here was too oppressive for that. People from Johto were already generally serious and this location made that even worse.

    I followed the path that I had walked the day of the Burial and as we walked we saw an old woman in a kimono, a priestess, moving in our direction. A serious Misdreavus in front of her, seemingly guiding her, and a Haunter behind her, apparently following her. As we passed each other we bowed. The pokemon that accompanied her merely glanced at me and mine.

    The Misdreavus was solemn and the Haunter, somber. Not even a hint of a smile or laughter from either of them.

    That would have been a strange vision for people who knew anything about ghost pokemon but who had never entered a cemetery. Places like these, that honored and remembered the dead, seemed to be the only places that they respected. I had come here five times and seeing a Haunter without a smile on its face still left me with a sense of wrongness.

    I shrugged that thought away as we finally reached our destination, a walkway.

    The new path invited us to step on it but I stopped and looked up at the plaque on a nearby post. L-23. When I first came here, on the day of the burial, I almost followed people¡¯s example of writing down the sign to not forget where Mother Elena was buried.

    I believed that it would be disrespectful to write it down and that I somehow had the duty to never forget where her grave was. To brand the path we took to get here into my brain. It had seemed more right than just writing. I had become angry that people thought that I would need a clue to remember where she was.

    The day after that one I acknowledged that it had been a stupid thought. People moved on with their lives and forgot important things all the time. When they needed to remember something important people would note it down, not because it was not important but because it was. If it was not for that signpost in a few more years, when people came back to visit her, they would not remember the path they took to reach the grave and probably would have to ask the Temple priest or priestess for help.

    On my second visit here I fixed that and wrote it down in a journal. Maybe in the distant future, I will need to look it up. Not today though, this path was still fresh in my mind.

    A movement by my side made me alerted to the fact that Jungle had begun to approach me, probably wondering why I was so still, but Cape stopped him. My starter already knew that I needed a moment to compose myself.

    I fixed my trainer clothes and soon enough I was ready.

    I turned to my team. ¡°Come on, guys.¡±

    We walked the last stretch and finally stood before the familiar rectangular-shaped stones, her gravestone.

    The inscription on the main and higher stone read ¡°Matron Elena Rain¡± and under it ¡°Loved Mother of Many¡±.

    I checked to see if we would need to clean the grounds but it was already spotless. No doubt someone had visited her grave, at the very least, in the last couple of days and cleaned it. It could have been any one of us.

    I bowed and prayed, after that, I took out from my bag her favorite sweet and laid it on the stone.

    Then I began to speak about what I was up to. I told her how Alice, my friends, and I were doing all right. About the monotonous days of work at the Pokemart and of arbitration of tournaments. Told her about the letter that moved forward my life in years. Meeting the famous Professor Oak. About finally going on a journey and of our victory against Bugsy. Showed her Jungle and Mesa. The little green guy was confused but after speaking a little with Cape he seemed to get it and then tried to bow, which ended up being more like a nod. Mesa floated near the grave, trying to decipher it. When I explained to him that it was not a puzzle he went back to his original position.

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    I imagined what her response would be.

    She would be glad that we were all okay, would say that I was working too much, and that she would talk to the mayor if I needed to take a break from arbitering. She would be intrigued by the letter and would ask if she could talk to the famous Professor Oak, she did say one time that he had been one of the best Champions around. She would say that it was finally time for my journey and would be glad to know that Cape and I had won against Bugsy, she was always saying that the ¡®bug boy¡¯ was too arrogant for his own good, as if he was not one of the thirty best trainers in Johto.

    Like Alice, she would have babied the Baltoy, and would try to show her small garden behind the orphanage to Jungle, she was famously hard to impress so she would not care at all that he was a Bulbasaur.

    I smiled and remembered that one time that a former orphan who had become fairly rich came back and narrated the story of how he had done it to us, the little orphans, and her. I remember that we were very impressed as he had been very smart about the way he gained his money, something about making something that already existed more affordable, a common way to wealth sure, but he had done that in a very interesting way.

    Elena Rain, however, had not been impressed at all, and just said good job as he had just cleaned the floor, and that was after he had spent one hour on this story! He was, to this day, still a donor to the orphanage.

    I finally talked about how we would be leaving Azalea and only coming back sporadically. She would have probably been sad but also would have been the first to push me out of town. Finally after what seemed hours. We left her grave, the walkway, and the cemetery.

    It would be a long time for us to come back, I knew that, but when we did I sure hoped that we would have some nice stories to tell her.

    I looked at my watch, 9 a.m. One hour left before we left Azalea City.

    -

    I was at the western exit of Azalea, near the station that held the official entrance to Ilex Forest. My team and I were doing some last-minute training before Jess got here and we left for Goldenrod.

    The station seemed very oppressive. I became acutely aware of my palms sweating. I had never been outside Azalea before.

    I shook my head and looked forward to where Cape was trying to learn Counter, which was a difficult move to learn and to use. It was the second compound move that Cape learned, the first being Aerial Ace. A simple move was one that you just needed to gather energy and release. A Tackle, for example, was a simple move.

    A compound move is a move known to demand more complexity, Counter used fighting-type energy as a sponge to soak physical damage. If that was all it did, it would be just a less efficient Harden, but it also gathered that force and, if you timed it right, it would let you use that damage and redirect it back to the opponent with even more force added, fighting pokemon that battled in the Conference could even get it up to double of the original attack.

    How did that work? Type energy shenanigans that scientists wrote many, many articles about.

    What I did understand by reading some of the more dumbed-down articles about Counter was that one facet of fighting energy was the tendency towards control since almost all pokemon of the fighting type spontaneously created martial arts and, or sports, which were just movements with method and technique. It was then theorized that at least one part of fighting energy nature was that it demanded control to use it. Counter performed based on that aspect to control the physical strength of the opponent and redirect it back.

    Easier said than done, of course.

    Cape right now was learning how to use fighting energy to hold the physical damage and Jungle was being his training partner.

    ¡°Bulba.¡± Growled the grass type as rushed forward as a grey blur to hammer into the Heracross who had crossed his orange glowing arms to receive it. Cape grunted at the attack, and the glow in his arms pulsed once but rapidly faded away, indicating that he had failed for the ninth time in a row.

    ¡°Cross.¡± He said, annoyed at the failure.

    ¡°Legendaries, Cape. It is your first day of trying that move, just try again but don¡¯t think about success today¡­ Actually, take five to calm down.¡± He grumbled but did as I said. He knew that he would not be able to even begin to use Counter with his state of mind as it was, it was all about control after all. Jungle began to trot forward to mess with him.

    ¡°And you Jungle.¡± He froze. ¡°Since Cape is resting you can go back to try to form a seed.¡± He jokingly sighed, curled down, and began to train growing a seed in his mouth. For Jungle we were hoping that we could get Bullet Seed and Poison Powder for Leader Whitney¡¯s badge. I had already talked to Jungle and Mesa that for now on they were in a¡ªhealthy¡ªcompetition to see who would be the second pokemon that would participate in that battle.

    Speaking of Mesa. I turned to see how he was doing.

    He was floating nearby, looking at a rock and trying to use psychic energy to move it. When he was able to do that with ease, we could start learning Confusion. If he could do that by the time we left Ilex Forest we could begin to learn Rock Tomb. Those two moves will later on be the base to learn Psybeam, Power Trick, and Ancient Power, the three moves that combined were the reason I put Claydol on my list. The rock glowed pink for a split second. Mesa continued to glare at it, but it did not move anymore. Unlike Cape, Mesa, for now at least, didn¡¯t experience frustration so he could continue to try until he was physically or mentally tired.

    Soon enough Cape¡¯s five minutes were up and he continued to try to learn Counter. We continued to train for some minutes and then stopped to rest and wait for Jess.

    After half an hour I looked at my watch, 10:15 a.m.

    She was fifteen minutes late. I turned my head towards the city to see if I could spot Jess coming and began to tap my fingers on the grassy field. I noticed that Cape had begun glancing towards me. He knew how I felt about unpunctuality. Jeremy sometimes called me a control freak. I was not, however, I liked people who did as agreed. It took ten more minutes until we could see Jess.

    She reached the place where we were and began to speak. ¡°I am sorry. My alarm didn¡¯t go off.¡±

    I forced a smile. ¡°No problem. Let''s just go.¡±

    As we began to make our way towards the Ilex Forest station we heard a big noise coming from the north of the forest as if something had exploded. Soon enough two Pidgeots left the Ilex Station and began to fly towards that direction. Each had one person on them, both vaguely wrote the colors of rangers.

    Cape and I looked at each other when a pinging noise began to sound in some place in my body. I vaguely noticed that it happened to Jess too. I searched the many pockets of my traveling pants until I found the cause. My pokedex had an alarm on it. As the new model was touchscreen I clicked on the red triangle that had appeared on the screen. The sound vanished and the screen was overtaken by a text.

    It began with ¡®Code T012 on the northwest boundary of Ilex Forest and Azalea¡¯, and below were instructions for civilians to get away from the area and the clarifications about the code, 012 meant a wild and aggressive group of pokemon nearby. T meant every trainer above one badge.

    Jess and I looked at each other and then we had the same realization. They were calling us to help with an emergency.

 Johto Chapter 12

    It took me a full minute to digest the fact that we were being called for an emergency. I took a deep breath and recalled Jungle and Mesa.

    ¡°Come on,¡± I said to Cape who began to follow me.

    ¡°Wait! Where are you going?¡±

    I looked back at Jess. ¡°They are calling us so we have to go.¡±

    ¡°What! No, we don¡¯t, we don¡¯t need to go.¡± I could hear the panic in her voice.

    I looked at her.

    ¡°Did you not read the contract?¡±

    ¡°What contract!?¡±

    ¡°The one you had to sign to get the Indigo trainer passport. You know, the one that explains that in Indigo you are obligated to respond to emergence calls?¡± My annoyance at getting caught by an emergency alert when I should be far away from here began to leak over.

    She stammered. ¡°I¡ªI did not read it completely¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, we have to go now or we are going to risk losing our trainer licenses.¡± And I would not be losing that now that I had just gotten it.

    I began to walk and heard Cape''s confident steps and, after a while, I also heard steps from Jess. We made our way north and soon enough we saw what looked to be a great assembly of trainers. Trainers from all over the city were walking or flying towards the already large group. I remembered the news talking about emergencies like these two years ago and this vision was eerily similar to the news footage of the big group of trainers in Celadon that besieged the Game Corner, which was then revealed to be a Rocket base.

    We slowed down when we noticed the smoke and the flames.

    A fire had started in Ilex Forest and we could see that the Firefighter Brigade and their pokemon were already there. They were trying to contain the flames which seemed to be growing stronger. Many water pokemon, from the firefighters and from trainers who were recruited formed a line to hold it. The most prevalent, of course, were the Slowpoke, at least thirty well-trained Slowpoke were using Water Gun to stop the fire from spreading through the grass, there were also other pokemon, the Poliwag, Psyduck, and Horsea lines were present, and even a couple of Gyarados that were using Hydro Pump. And, of course, the Seaking of Fire Chief Richard.

    The massive water type was collecting the water forming on the ground by the moves of the other water types and sending wave after wave of Surf towards the biggest parts of the fire. Behind the firefighters, the trainers, and the water pokemon, was a big line of trainers being funneled into three groups, one near the city, one near the forest, and one in the middle.

    I returned Cape, since there was no danger yet, and Jess and I entered the large line. The line was long but moved very fast and when I reached the beginning I saw that there were two people, a pokemon ranger and a gym trainer from Azalea, sorting the trainers, both seemed to be at least forty years old by the weathered faces and greying hair on the sides.

    I finally reached them and the pokemon ranger looked at me, while the gym trainer held a device in his hand, it looked like a cellphone but bigger and bulkier.

    ¡°Full name.¡± Said the ranger.

    ¡°Scott Wood.¡± I saw the Gym Trainer type my name on a handheld device.

    ¡°How many badges?¡±

    ¡°One.¡±

    ¡°Group Three.¡± He made to point his arm towards the group that was nearest to the city when the gym trainer stopped him and showed him something on the device.

    ¡°Group Two,¡± he said,¡± he has a strong pokemon who can down the Yanmas.¡±

    The ranger looked me up and down and nodded. ¡°Group Two then.¡±

    I knew better than to question that call and went towards group two, the group that was between what I assumed was group one, who were right behind the firefighters, and group three, who seemed to be guarding the city.

    I looked back to see that Jess had been directed towards group three. Who I assumed would be the last line of defense for the city itself and probably the safest group, which was good for her. When I got to my group, I saw that there were at least fifty members and more were getting here from the line.

    Three minutes later the people who were still on the line were all sent to group three and a veteran ranger called for the attention of the almost one hundred pokemon trainers in group two.

    He grabbed a megaphone and began to speak. ¡°Listen well for I will only give you the scenario one single time¡­ Somehow a powerful Coalossal, a rock and fire type pokemon native to the Western Continent has appeared in Ilex Forest in an area near the City and attracted the rage of a swarm of Yanmega and Yanma, they are in combat right now. Gym Leader Bugsy is ready to engage and subdue the Coalossal but when he does that, he will also be dispersing the swarm which will fly in all directions, including toward Azalea. That¡¯s where we come in.¡±

    He stopped to let that sink in. ¡°Group One¡¯s task is to thin the Yanma and to engage the Yanmega that will be coming in this direction. Group Two¡¯s task, our task, is to stop the Yanma who make it past Group One, and finally, Group Three is to engage the Yanma who are able to make it past us. The operation will begin in five minutes. Release and pass this information to your pokemon. Rangers will soon be passing through the group to give quick individual advice to each of you.¡±

    I released my team, knelt on the ground, and informed them of the situation. Cape was stoic and serious after he heard what we would need to do, Jungle looked worried and tense, so I put him near me and patted his head to calm him down. Mesa just bobbled in an affirmative.

    I looked around at the other trainers. It looked like this group was composed mainly of one to four badge trainers since few trainers even had five pokemon.

    Since I was at the back of the group it took a while for one of the maybe ten rangers assigned to our group to approach me.

    I briefly explained Cape¡¯s strengths since the other two did not have any strong points yet. He thought for a bit and said. ¡°Since you are a beginner let the others do the heavy lifting, your Heracross should only use Aerial Ace to finish the Yanma. Maintain the Bulbasaur and the Baltoy near you for protection, remember that while region pokemon like the Yanma are not likely to target a human they may be imprudent or irrational because of the fight with the Coalossal. Good luck, trainer.¡±

    And then he left for another person.

    My team and I glanced at the burning forest. There was only one minute to start but that one minute went by a long time.

    Someone blew up a horn. The sound startled us. The firefighter brigade and the trainers in charge of containing the fire began to fly or be teleported away.

    A strong wind came from our backs and we looked up in time to see a gigantic Yanmega, easily four meters from head to tail, fly out from the city in the direction of the fire. We waited for another minute when the high sound of a Screech traveled towards us from deep inside the forest. Seconds later we began to hear the buzzing of the Yanma line but not one or two. Many, many, buzzing sounds were coming towards us.

    A swarm of Yanma flew out of the forest fire and quickly reached their first obstacle, Group One, which was formed by at most thirty members. They had formed a barrier of ice and water-type pokemon who unleashed Icy Wind towards the forest and the swarm. The bug pokemon slowed down. And then came the storm of attacks.

    Beams made of grey light and ice raced toward the flying and bug types and smashed them back violently. Electric types discharged thick bolts of lighting that raced from pokemon to pokemon and the flying types in the air released their Hurricanes, the many concentrated tunnels of cutting winds ripped apart the Yanma¡¯s wings. Even in bright daylight and with the distance I could see shadows jumping from Yanma to Yanma, who then fell from the sky seemingly from nothing. The main concern of group one seemed to be attacking the wings or fainting them outright.

    After the first barrage that thinned the Yanma, the flying types hiding in the clouds came down. The more prevalent ones were Pidgeot and Fearow, but there was also an Altaria, a Noctowl, a Golbat, a Gliscor, a Skarmory, and even some pokemon from the Western Continent like Braviary, Unfezant, and Corviknight. These pokemon began to glow in cerulean lights, some more darker than others, and dived down to knock out the Yanma who had escaped the barrage.

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    Everything seemed to be going according to the plan when the Yanmega finally came, and with them, they brought the earth. Yanmega is one of the pokemon more closely associated with Ancient Power for a reason. They were one of the lines that evolved when they learned to control the peculiar power that was Ancient Power. It was, in many ways, their birthright. There was also the complication that they were possibly the only pokemon line who, while not touching the ground, could use Ancient Power.

    When the Yanmega reached the end of the forest and saw what was happening to their Yanma their bodies collectively glowed purple and large swats of dirt and earth rose above the tree line all across the edge of the forest and began to compress and morph themselves into big chunks of purple glowing rocks of dissimilar shapes. Those rocks were then thrown towards the pokemon on the ground and the trainers behind them like a landslide.

    This landslide without a mountain would have probably engulfed Group One, pokemon and trainers alike, but the rocks that were coming began to glow even more, showing that a group of pokemon from the trainers were fighting back with their own Ancient Power. The rocks slowed down enough for many big and strong land-based pokemon like Rhydons, Nidoqueens, Nidokings, Golems, Onyx, and even a Gigalith to stop them with their massive bodies and moves like Rock Smash or Rock Blast, and even Rock Tomb which erected massive barriers of rock to stop the rolling rocks, I also saw a familiar huge Aggron on the front, towering over others.

    The Yanmega were occupied wrestling for control over their Ancient Power and that gave time for Group One to release many new pokemon, these ones clearly stronger than the ones already released. The most noticeable was a raging Gyarados, a Dragonite who flew together in a pattern with a Flygon and an Altaria, and also the biggest Chandelure I had ever seen. These and other pokemon rushed forward and began to engage the Yanmegas.

    I could not see more since the Yanma that came together with the Yanmega were coming towards us since Group One was now occupied. If I had to guess I would say it was less than one hundred Yanma incoming. The more experienced of us were at the front. We didn¡¯t have as many flying types so many of our pokemon tried to knock down the Yanma by using Water Gun, newly mastered Ice Beam, or other moves that could do the same with mixed results. I wasn¡¯t in any danger right now as the battle was focused on the front.

    The Yanma raced down to attack and the ground and rock types responded by throwing rocks, Some ghosts tried to deliver dark energy slashes and grass pokemon were trying to hit rapid seeds or razor-sharp leaves.

    Soon enough the Yanma began to retaliate. I looked towards a place where an Onyx was being hit by many Yanma.

    ¡°Cape, there.¡± He looked at where I was pointing. ¡°Help the Onyx.¡±

    The bug type nodded, crouched down, and spread his wings. After a second of gathering the flying energy, he jumped hard forward and disappeared. Four of the seven Yanmas surrounding the Onyx fell as a light blue blur slashed their wings, one after another. As Cape appeared again a Yanma made to Quick Attack him but a Fearow that was flying by interrupted it with a Peck.

    Cape was able to return and we began to follow that strategy. Every time we saw the cooperative Yanma begin to focus on a pokemon or another I sent Cape to try and disperse them. It worked well enough.

    The Yanma began to spread out over the groups and some got close to us when Cape was away but were soon rebutted by Jungle¡¯s Vine Whip. My closest call was when a Yanma dived towards a Geodude that was near us with Quick Attack. The Geodude responded by hitting back with a Body Slam. The collision between them raised the earth around them. I raised my arms as I was going to be pelted by the rocks and the soil that were thrown in our direction but Mesa surprised me by glowing pink. The rocks and the soil stopped in the air and fell to the ground like rain.

    I didn¡¯t have time to celebrate the Baltoy finally using psychic energy as the Geodude had been flung away but the Yanma was still there and making to fly away.

    ¡°Vine Whip the wing!¡± The bug and flying type fell again as one of his wings was whipped by Jungle, and turned to us. Mesa didn¡¯t waste time and flew forward to hit its head with a Mud Slap which fainted him.

    ¡°Great job, Mesa.¡± The pokemon looked at me and nodded.

    The next minutes were quiet, Jungle and Mesa were still by my side and Cape was still doing his thing but soon enough the Heracross began to slow down so I asked him to stay put with us.

    Now that the fight was dying down I could concentrate on more things.

    I noticed that some trainers and pokemon were not fainting the Yanma but killing them. There was a particularly vicious team of electric pokemon where a Luxray and a Magneton were using very powerful Charge Beams directly at the heads of the Yanma. It was not against the law when done in an emergency, but still¡­

    I shook my head and looked towards the city for the first time since the fight had begun. I didn¡¯t see any Yanma making it past us but if they had I hoped that Jess would be alright.

    After five more minutes part of the Group One turned back and unleashed attacks on the remaining Yanmas, finishing the fight for good. The firefighters and trainers with water pokemon were back again. They went deeper into the forest this time as the moves used in Group One battles had extinguished a large part of the flames on the edge of the forest.

    Soon enough everything became silent and everyone stopped when they realized it had finally ended. I looked around, everyone was exhausted, even if our group had only fought for about ten minutes. I could not see anyone hurt or any pokemon dead but some younger trainers were crying, probably from shock. It was not every day that you faced a swarm of angry bug pokemon and not everyone was like Bugsy who was fearless around bug types.

    Cape thankfully had not been hit by any move. He had been very careful to not attack any Yanma that looked old or strong and only attacked the younger and drained ones. He was just really exhausted. I rummaged through my bag for a bottle of water and gave it to him.

    I noticed that the fire in the forest had stopped and then thought about Bugsy and the Coalossal. I remember reading about that pokemon, a mountain-like rock and fire pokemon made of coal and commonly found in Galar. A pokemon that has two types that are strong against bug pokemon. It was simply the worst matchup possible for Bugsy.

    I hoped it was a situation where Lorelei or someone else came and helped him. If that didn¡¯t happen¡­

    -

    Mesa and I found Jess sitting near the barracks that the people from the General Hospital and the Pokemon Center built. Her Hippopotas was by her side as she hugged him.

    Some trainers from Group One were hurt by a Yanmega who seemed to be very proficient with Ancient Power. They had some broken bones and had to be hospitalized. Some rumors also said that a pokemon from one of those trainers, an Ursaring, had split that Yanmega in two in anger.

    Jess looked tense and nervous. I sat at her side and we looked as people rushed by. Most trainers were too mentally or physically tired, including me to be honest, but many decided to delve into the forest to try and help the wild pokemon who had been affected by the fire. On my walk here I had already seen a group of trainers rushing in a group of burned Mareep and one trainer had brought two coughing and crying Teddiursa.

    Those were the best cases, Ilex Forest was full of bug types and those were the least brought here.

    ¡°Are you all right?¡±

    ¡°Y¡ªyes.¡± She said.

    ¡°Did you fight?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ There were only like three or so Yanma, and they didn¡¯t go to the area that I was in.¡± She looked like she was going to stay silent but then spoke again. ¡°You people are crazy.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°You put people with barely any training in these situations.¡±

    I stopped to think about how to explain it to her. ¡°It makes sense what you are saying but consider this, the trainers from Group One and most of Group Two could have handled that situation by themselves if you think about it¡ª¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I''m saying!¡± She frowned.

    I frowned back. ¡°What I am trying to tell you¡­ Is that Indigo doesn¡¯t want new trainers to be in danger. They want new trainers to experience danger.¡±

    Her face twisted in confusion.

    ¡°The trainers from Group One, one day were the trainers from Group Three. They were only able to act so calmly today because they had experienced those kinds of situations yesterday, an experience that they gathered by watching the kind of fight that you watched today. The next time you are in danger, maybe real danger, you will be able to react better than if it was your first time.¡±

    ¡°¡­ That makes sense I guess.¡± she said and her body deflated, ¡°I still think it''s crazy.¡±

    ¡°Fair.¡±

    We spent some more time in silence.

    ¡°Do you want to go back to the city, rest there, and travel some other day?¡±

    She spent some minutes thinking about it. Things had begun to slow down on the side of the rescuers, many people had used psychic pokemon to search the large area around the Bugsy and Coalossal fight which had ended five minutes before ours, and most people were fairly sure that all the humans or pokemon that could be rescued were rescued. Some were still out there, searching, psychics did have difficulty sensing dark, ghost, and bug types, dark being the worst, almost invisible to them, and bug being the more noticeable of the three.

    ¡°No,¡± she finally said after some minutes, ¡°the city will be somber for a while, and I don¡¯t want to see that¡­ I just have to call my family to say that I¡¯m okay and then we can go.¡± She took a cell phone from her purse. A Pokegear, a cellphone from Sinnoh marketed for trainers. It''s said they can even connect between regions.

    I nodded and got up.

    ¡°Ok, I have to call some people too, will be waiting near the station.¡±

    She nodded and Mesa and I left. We soon reached the station. I looked at the sky, it was almost midday. We were later than I ever wanted, but that problem seemed small now. I got out my old and normal cellphone and called Jeremy, then Alice, and then Dendra. It would cost a pretty penny but it was worth it to reassure them that I was okay.

    They reacted as expected.

    Jeremy was in shock. The library was on the other side of the city so he hadn¡¯t been warned about the situation yet. He went on to ask for things in detail. It brought to my mind that even though it didn¡¯t seem like it, it had only been fifteen minutes of fight. Alice already knew and was glad that I was safe. Dendra was able to pick from my tone that it had been difficult, but her questions focused more on aspects related to the fight itself.

    When I finished I was still waiting for Jess when a trainer that was going to enter the station stopped and came up to me. He said that he was the trainer of the Onyx and shook my hand, thanked me, and left. That made me feel good and I would later tell Cape about it.

    Ten minutes later Jess finally arrived. Her eyes were slightly red and her voice was rough.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    She passed by me to enter the station and I turned to look towards the City of Azalea for one last time in what would be a long while. I could swear that the city had been brighter in the morning.

    It was not the farewell that I wanted.

 Johto Chapter 13

    ¡°I can¡¯t deal with THIS!¡±

    I looked towards the rising sun and bit into my sandwich.

    We have been in Ilex Forest for five days and things were not looking good for Jess.

    There was a fact that was important for trainers to know about routes, the more active parts of the routes are near cities or big towns. Kids, adults, and even the elderly who have casual battles as a hobby spend time there to challenge trainers who are leaving and entering the city or town. That fact resulted in Jess being 6-10 right now on the route.

    It was not because she was a bad trainer or anything like that. It was because she only had two pokemon, combine that with the fact that she had a lot more challengers because¡­ Well, she is a kid and it looks like she would be easier to fight than me. That meant that her pokemon had been exhausted the first day outside Azalea and she had, as a consequence, lost more than won. Now that we were away from the city she was on the way to recovery. She had won her last three battles.

    I, on the other hand, was able to win most of my matches and held a record of 5-2.

    The two losses that I had were from one thirteen and one fourteen years old who were trying out their newest and weakest pokemon, and by weakest I meant that one was a capture from the base of Mt. Silver, a Sneasel who toyed with Cape. So I guess I got him the defeat he needed for his ego. Two defeats and two victories for Cape, actually.

    Another win came from Jungle and the last two came from Mesa.

    ¡°What is your problem!?¡± I turned my head to her just as I finished my sandwich and saw Jess shout once again at the mirror in her right hand. On her left hand, there was a hairbrush.

    ¡°Just let it stay like that. Looking like that is part of the life on the road.¡± I managed to say without smiling.

    ¡°You¡¯re only saying that because you have short hair.¡± She said.

    The hair on my eyebrow disagreed. It was not as short as I wanted and it had been an oversight to not have cut it before leaving Azalea.

    Jess grumbled again and threw her hands in the air. I did say that she should forget about it but, to be honest, if I was her I too would not forget about that. Her dark hair of medium length had puffed up so much she almost looked like a wet Whimsicott and every day it became more and more puffed and as a result a shore to put it into a ponytail.

    If I was younger I would probably have said out loud that she wasn¡¯t helping Sinnoh¡¯s image of a soft region right now. However, with the wisdom of someone who grew up with many kids in the orphanage, I kept my mouth shut.

    A grunt came from the other side. Cape was practicing Counter again but this time with Quake, Jess¡¯ Hippopotas. Cape had learned how to use Counter against Jungle but Quake packed a lot more punch and so the difficulty had been ramped up. Cape needed to pull a lot more fighting energy to use Counter against the Hippopota¡¯s head Tackle, which in turn made the controlling part of the Counter a lot more difficult.

    Jungle was a little farther away practicing Bullet Seed. I glanced as his mouth glowed green for some seconds and then released three glowing seeds towards a tree, the seeds punched deep into the bark and stuck there. Soon enough he will be able to control the rate of the fire and make more seeds. He will then be ready to train his aim against Velocity, who was¡­

    ¡°Where is Velocity?¡± I looked around the plain area of the route and at the trees and vegetation around.

    She didn¡¯t even turn from her mirror as she furiously tried to brush her hair. ¡°She is probably around looking for seeds.¡±

    My first thought was to go look for her but if she didn¡¯t leave the route she would be fine. I glanced towards the forest one hundred meters away from where we were. The limit of the route, when the plain and dirty route gave way to an uneven and wild forest.

    The official routes had between five hundred meters to five kilometers in length depending on the route. This route, plainly named Ilex Forest, was in the middle between the two, two kilometers, and we were just one hundred meters from the end of it. If we passed that imaginary line we would be officially on our own. The government or the League would have no responsibility whatsoever after that point.

    I shook my head with a smile, laws were funny like that.

    A piece of plastic floated on my left side and I turned to see Mesa doing a puzzle while floating up two pieces, one a circle and another a triangle, with psychic energy. The Baltoy glared at the puzzle and moved the circle piece to the circle slot. Ever since he stopped those rocks from hitting me, he had become a lot smarter which resulted in a big growth of his psychic energy.

    The puzzle that before he had a fifty-fifty chance was almost at eighty percent accuracy right now. Soon enough I would have to change that one for another more difficult.

    It was alright though, I had brought three on the Pokemart, one more difficult than the other so we were set for a long while.

    What I didn¡¯t expect were his battles. He was on the way to learn Confusion but the highlight right now was his telekinesis that had improved greatly. He had used it to great effect in his two victories.

    My ear caught some noises of shifting foliage coming from the forest so I whistled. Cape and Quake stopped fighting and turned towards the forest. Jungle ran back to be near us. The pieces of the puzzle dropped from the air and Jess finally stopped brushing her hair.

    From the wild forest emerged a kid with torn and dirt clothes and messed up hair. He appeared to be 14 years old. He stepped out from the thick foliage and brushed off the leaves from his clothes.

    I noticed a determined Jess put her brush on the mini table. She got up, straightened her clothes, and called for Quake before advancing toward the obviously confused boy.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    I breathed a deep sigh and gestured for Jungle and Mesa to continue their training.

    -

    The moon really was beautiful when one was away from the city. It was not even the lights of Azalea since, as a pretty conservative city, it didn¡¯t have many lights that blocked the sky at night. I would say that it was more the atmosphere of being near a campfire that made me appreciate the light from the moon.

    I looked down at the pan full of soup and threw in the vegetables.

    We finally stopped our walk two hours ago and set up camp. I had spent some time writing in my journals about the progress we made today while Jess drew a tree in her drawing notebook. Now I was finishing up a soup while Jess prepared the food for our pokemon.

    Cape wanted to help her but Mesa, always eager to test his telekinesis, volunteered to help her. Cape and Jungle were watching me make food and Velocity was preening herself.

    ¡°Really, That shouldn¡¯t count.¡± She said as a bowl floated near her and she put the food from the containers on the bowls.

    I stayed in silence and just slowly stirred the soup. That bowl floated over to Velocity, who didn¡¯t stop the preening and just acknowledged the bowl with a chirp.

    ¡°I mean, he just used a stronger pokemon¡­ It didn¡¯t even listen to him all the way.¡± Another bowl went towards Jungle.

    I knew that right now would be the perfect time to comment on something. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s tough.¡±

    The last bowl floated to Cape.

    She was wrong, of course. She had decided to challenge that obviously more experienced trainer, after he had warned her that he had gotten three badges last year, and even after he had shown her the Scyther that he caught in the forest and by the look on that Scyther¡¯s face, he had seen and probably done things.

    She stayed in silence and then a click from Cape¡¯s camera filled the silence. I smiled at him and another click went off. A picture of me making soup while Jungle was eating near my leg would be a good one.

    I finished the soup and poured a bowl for Jess.

    I looked at the pokeball on Jess¡¯ mini table where he was resting. The only one that wasn¡¯t going to eat right now was Quake. That Scyther had gotten him good in some places and Jess had to use another potion on him so now he was resting in his pokeball.

    After everyone had eaten it came time to clean. I put away the cooking equipment and the food from the pokemon and Jess was cleaning the pan. One thing I could be thankful for was that Jess at least did her agreed part¡­ Even if her own side of the camp was a mess.

    I put Jungle back in his pokeball as soon as he fell asleep and opened a book.

    She was sitting on a rock with her drawing notebook when she suddenly spoke. ¡°I want to go off route.¡±

    I looked up from the book I was reading, my face involuntary frowned and Cape looked up from where he was looking at the photos that he had taken today. Even Velocity stopped preening herself and looked at her trainer with exasperation.

    ¡°Why?¡± I asked coldly.

    ¡°¡­ I want to fight and catch stronger pokemon.¡±

    I sighed. ¡°First of all, we only have five potions left between the two of us. Second, I know that you are upset about losing to that guy.¡± She turned and glared at me. ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look. The guy was a second-year trainer. He was able to catch that Scyther and Quake was barely able to dodge that same Scyther.¡±

    ¡°We would not go too far,¡± She said, ¡°and between our five pokemon we could catch a Scyther.¡±

    ¡°We can not catch a wild Scyther between our five pokemon and it is not worth the risk right now and you know it,¡± I said and sighed. ¡°Look, we have a long way to go on our journey, why don¡¯t you wait for when we are in Route Thirty-Seven or Thirty-Eight, our pokemon will be stronger and we will have more teammates to work with.¡±

    She grumbled and went back to drawing. Cape and the other pokemon turned back to what they were doing and I turned back to my book.

    I understood that she probably thought it would be a good idea. The League did their job very well with marketing, fiction books, movies, toys and, recently, games. The only thing worse than kids thinking that going off-route was a good idea was the fact that the League didn¡¯t speak against it.

    After some time I closed the book and decided to call it a night.

    -

    ¡°Cross.¡±

    ¡°Hera.¡±

    ¡°Heracross!¡±

    I jumped up from my sleeping sack to find Cape looking down on me inside the tent. I glared at him and he raised his arms.

    ¡°Hera.¡± He said nervously.

    ¡°What is it Cape?¡± I rubbed my eyes and yawned.

    I turned to the side and picked up my watch from where it lay beside my bed sack. six a.m.

    ¡°Why are you waking me so early, Cape?¡±

    ¡°Cross.¡± Cape was at the entrance of the tent and was gesturing for me to come out.

    I got up from the sleeping bag. Put on my boots and my pokeball belt and walked out of the tent. I looked around and not seeing anything strange I turned to Cape who, seeming me up, flew to Jess¡¯ side of the camp and pointed to her tent.

    I walked near there.

    ¡°Jess? Are you okay?¡± Nobody responded.

    Cape crossed his arms and then pointed towards the thick forest where a passage had been opened in the thick foliage. My face fell and my drowsiness cleared immediately.

    ¡°Cape, are you sure she is not there?¡±

    Cape nodded. I furiously rubbed my eyes one more time, walked up to her tent, and opened it. She really was not there. There was just a big mess of things and her sleeping bag. No pokeballs either.

    I cursed and walked back to my camp, releasing Jungle and Mesa on the way.

    ¡°Jess went off route. We are going to find her.¡± I said as I put on my jacket, and picked up my knife and my bag that had my potions and other useful things like antidote and emergency kit. ¡°Jungle you are going in the pokeball. You can¡¯t run fast enough to keep up but be ready if we need you. Cape you are going in the front. Mesa, you follow me. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    I returned Jungle and we ran towards the opening of the thick forest.

    Cape¡¯s hand glowed with flying-type energy and he accelerated towards the thick foliage and began to cut us a way in. We slowed down just as we entered the Forest as the terrain made it difficult for me to walk, Cape, however, took to the forest like a fish on the water.

    ¡°Keep your eyes open for any sign of Jess,¡± I said, ¡°or any wild pokemon.¡±

    We walked through the forest and occasionally saw a Caterpie or a Rattata but they ran away as soon as they saw the Heracross. Cape was occasionally flying up to the top of trees to see if he could spot something. We walked for another minute until Cape saw some movement to our left and flew ahead to check it out.

    ¡°Heracross!¡± He said and continued on his path.

    We followed him and after we passed some thick vegetation and trees we saw Jess. She was dashing through the foliage in roughly our direction. She was running away from a group of three Seviper. Two were smaller and slower than an average Seviper but the one on the front was bigger, at least three meters in length, and way more muscled than it should be normal.

    Cape didn¡¯t need a command. He just blurred forward with Aerial Ace and crashed his horn into the leading Seviper¡¯s big body. He caught her unaware and was able to push her way off to the side and into a bush-filled slope and away from Jess and the other two Seviper. The other two slowed down and warily turned towards us. I released Jungle and Mesa caught up to us.

    Jess turned and ran in our direction and I could see that she was carrying in her hands a baby Minccino, a little furry and gray pokemon who looked upset by his frown. She took one of her hands from him, grabbed a pokeball from her belt, and clicked it. Red light shot out from the ball and formed into Quake who growled at the two Seviper who had been slowly getting close.

    ¡°You have Velocity?¡±

    She nodded while panting. ¡°She¡¯s around.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°Focus on the two. Jungle help her. Cape and Mesa will handle the bigger one.¡± She nodded and walked behind me to stand behind Quake and Jungle.

    The Seviper suddenly pounced out of the grass and into Cape with dark glowing fangs. Cape used Harden and crossed his arms, he received the strong hit and was briefly pushed back but was able to push the Seviper back.

    The big Seviper, bigger than some trees around us, began to coil itself and prepare for another strike.

    ¡°Cape, time to put your close combat training in action.¡± Cape punched his hand in an attempt to intimidate the Seviper. ¡°Mesa, don¡¯t get close. You are on Sand Attack duty.¡±

 Johto Chapter 14

    I had to assess our situation.

    We were surrounded by a thick forest and would not be able to run. To my side was Jess with Jungle, Quake, and Velocity against two average Seviper. They should be able to win either by fainting them or making them run away. Meanwhile, Cape, Mesa, and I were up against a huge, strong, and probably smart Seviper.

    We most likely will not faint or make it run away.

    The only way we are going to get out of this situation with all our pokemon alive would be to stall the Seviper and wait for Jess to finish up her fight and then help us.

    I took off the sweat from my forehead.

    ¡°Stall,¡± I whispered to my two pokemon, ¡°we will wait for Jess to finish up her fight.¡±

    I took some steps away from the incoming fight as the pokemon spent some time sizing each other. Cape took some steps forward to stand in the path of the Seviper and Mesa floated back. Mesa was too fragile to be hit by a pokemon like that, especially with that sharp tail.

    The Seviper, realizing we would not attack first, began to slither forward while slowly moving its body from one side to another on the grass. I noticed that Cape had begun to twitch nervously and realized that it was Swagger.

    ¡°Stay still Cape, It¡¯s trying to provoke you,¡± I said.

    Cape nodded and shook his head to get rid of the effect and Mesa didn¡¯t seem affected. The Seviper was still slithering forward when it finally reached Mesa¡¯s range. ¡°Now, Sand Attack.¡±

    The ground around the Baltoy glowed and the soil under the grass transformed into sand that began to rise and gather around. The sand mustered in the ground in front of Mesa and then briefly glowed pink before bursting forward like a wave towards the Seviper¡¯s approaching head.

    The snake stopped the Swagger and dove down to dodge the sand and, in the same action, pounced towards Cape with its mouth open for a bite.

    The Heracross dodged by jumping to the side but as the Seviper passed him by it swung its bladed tail towards his body. Cape used Harden on his left hand and deflected the poison-dripping blade before rushing forward and, with his other hand, punching her body up with an Arm Thrust.

    The poison pokemon was tossed away by the hit and, while surprised at Cape¡¯s strength, almost took a load of sand in the face from Mesa but it dodged at the last second by twisting its body in the air. It landed on the grass and quickly slithered back and around to wrap Cape with its body.

    ¡°Fly away!¡±

    Cape turned and opened his wings to fly above and away from the wrap. The big snake opened its mouth and pounced to bite on Cape¡¯s wings with a flaming mouth only to finally take a tightly packed pound of sand on its face, pushing its head to the side and enabling Cape to fly to the top of a tree and out of the Seviper¡¯s reach.

    I was going to praise Mesa when I froze as I realized that the Seviper had just used Fire Fang. It was not a good Fire Fang, not as fast or as natural as a fire-type pokemon could make but it had used it.

    The Seviper was or had been, a trained pokemon.

    I didn¡¯t have the chance to process this information as the poison pokemon shook its head, taking off the sand from its face, and rapidly tried to pounce towards Mesa only for Cape to come down from the tree and hit the Seviper¡¯s body with an Aerial Ace infused arm.

    The snake received the strike with a grunt and, reacting way faster than I expected, turned around and bit Cape¡¯s other arm. He cried out in pain and began to hit the Seviper¡¯s head with his other orange glowing arm over and over. The poison pokemon groaned every time Cape hit her eye, head, or jaw with Arm Thrust but even then it didn¡¯t let Cape¡¯s arm go.

    I saw its near-sealed mouth glow in a sickly purple color and knew that Cape was poisoned and that the more time stuck there the more poison energy the Seviper would inject and the faster it would act.

    I clicked my tongue. I would have to risk Mesa if I wanted Cape to get out alive. ¡°Mesa, Rapid Spin on her throat.¡±

    The Baltoy didn¡¯t hesitate and began to float towards the Seviper but, before he could begin to spin, a white furball jumped ahead of him. It was the Minccino and its eyes were glowing pink.

    The Seviper lost the enraged look on its face and began to look puzzled. Cape, to his surprise, was suddenly released from its mouth and, even in pain from the poison, managed to complete his last Arm Thrust to her jaw as the pokemon stood there dazed.

    The poison pokemon flew back because of the strike but even then it was able to twist its body in a way that, even as it was pushed back, it slam Cape¡¯s body away. He didn¡¯t have time to defend or dodge and took the hit. It was a blow so strong he flew by me and hit a tree behind Mesa and me.

    I looked back and saw that the big and strong tree that Cape had hit had been shattered to the ground into many pieces, an orange glow was dissipating in the air and Cape was already getting back on his feet.

    Insane. Cape had managed to use Counter on that surprise attack and then hit the tree to dissipate the physical damage that he controlled from the Seviper.

    A grin invaded my face despite the situation. He really was a crazy bug.

    My grin dissolved as I looked forward again and saw the Seviper rise and Glare at the ground in front of Mesa where the Minccino was.

    The little pokemon froze in fear.

    ¡°Mesa!¡±

    Sand began to rise from behind the Minccino but the snake pokemon had already pounced and was about to chomp the little pokemon when a flying grey blur hit the Seviper on the head and forced her to the side. The Minccino took the chance and ran behind Mesa.

    I looked to the side.

    There were no more Sevipers and now Jess, behind Quake and Jungle who were together with a Zangoose, were encircling the Seviper.

    A Starly, Velocity I imagined, trilled as she stopped at the other side of the poison pokemon, the grey energy from the Quick Attack fading away. Meanwhile, a battered Cape had flown to stand in front of me, one of his arms dangled by his side.

    I exhaled in relief. We had won and now was just a matter of driving away or fainting the Seviper.

    ¡°You guys are okay? Wounds?¡± I whispered as Jess approached.

    ¡°None on my side¡­ Cape is looking bad.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but he still is going at point, you guys just hit it on the sides.¡± Cape raised his good arm in approval.

    Jess nodded as the Seviper, now free from the influence of Baby-Doll Eyes, looked at its new enemies. The snake¡¯s face twisted in fury.

    I thought it was going to turn around and flee but then its body began to twist and wave strangely, not like Swagger though. It looked more like...

    My face twisted in shock and I heard a gasp from Jess. The air around us changed from relief to despair from those who had seen that move before in Conferences.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    The Seviper¡¯s body began to flash in the grey light. The red eyes glowed and its muscles began to contract and grow bigger and bigger. Wisps of pure gold could be seen here and there glittering across its scales. The Seviper, before, had been three meters in length and now it looked like its body had grown by half a meter.

    It was not even close to decent but it was using one of the most powerful moves ever created in Indigo, Sword Dance.

    The exhausted and glowing poison pokemon began to lower itself to strike in Cape¡¯s direction when another Zangoose, this one visibly bigger and stronger than the one with Jess, dropped from a tree above the Seviper and Slashed its face with a claw.

    A grey light brightly flashed as the claw touched the face.

    The Zangoose landed on the ground and hopped away from the retaliation of the sharp tail. The tail missed the Zangoose by centimeters but hit two trees and both were cleanly cut in half by the Sword Dance¡¯s powered tail.

    My eyes widened and I began to sweat as I looked at the damage of that single swing.

    As the trees fell the Seviper glared at the Zangoose before flinching back in surprise as it realized that the Sword Dance was disappearing.

    The Seviper muscles deflated, the golden wisps faded away and the poison pokemon looked even more tired.

    I took a deep breath and looked at the Zangoose in awe. If that tail had caught even a little piece of him he would have died and even then he risked his life to use a Disable to get rid of the Sword Dance. Cunning and fearless that one.

    The Seviper, now extremely tired and almost fainting made to run away but the older Zangoose ran forward and tried to hit the back of its head with a silver glowing claw and, even as dead tired as the Seviper was, it still dodged the attack and made to strike back with its body but Quake, the Hippopotas used Sand Tomb to disbalance the Seviper while Velocity hit the Seviper with a quick attack from one side, the Seviper tried to jump in the air but her body was struck by a couple of green whips that stopped the jump,

    In front of me, Cape bent his knees and pushed off the ground.

    The Seviper¡¯s head, moving to one side and the other to see who would attack next, didn¡¯t see Cape until he was right beside it. The blue glowing horn smashed into the snake¡¯s head and the Seviper finally fell to the ground.

    Cape landed on top of the poison pokemon and raised his good arm to the sky.

    ¡°Hera¡­ Cross!¡± The sound reverberated through the trees. Cape then fell on his butt and slipped to the ground

    I waited some seconds to see if the Seviper would rise.

    When it didn¡¯t I rushed forward while opening my bag and grabbing an antidote and some potions. The first thing I did was use the antidote on his bitten and mangled arm, then I used a potion on the hit he took to the body from the Seviper, Counter couldn¡¯t stop everything after all, and then on his back from the release on the tree. Then I came back to his arm and, after the antidote stopped the poison energy, used two entire potions on his broken arm.

    He stood silent the entire time but had a small smile on his tired face. Crazy bug.

    After that, I returned him and Jungle, who looked tired, to their pokeballs.

    I sat on the ground for a bit and after some seconds heard Jess¡¯ steps as she began to approach from behind. ¡°Is he okay?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ He is going to be okay.¡± I said and soon enough I felt my heart rate begin to increase and my body release adrenaline as rage surged forward.

    I, sitting on the grass, turned to look at Jess ¡°What are you doing!?¡±

    She flinched but didn¡¯t respond.

    ¡°What is your problem!?¡± I put my hands on the ground and stood up, uncaring about the fact that we were in a possibly dangerous forest. ¡°Do you know what passed through my head when we didn¡¯t find you at the camp? What would have happened if I hadn¡¯t come after you!?¡±

    ¡°¡­Pokemon don¡¯t eat humans.¡± She whispered to herself, but I did hear it.

    ¡°Hungry pokemon don¡¯t care about tomorrow if they are going to die of hunger today! They could have killed and eaten you!¡± I stood up. ¡°And what about your pokemon!? And mine!? You almost killed them today! I¡ª¡°

    Two loud claps interrupted me and all of us, humans and pokemon, turned towards the Zangoose who had clapped, hard.

    The one with Jess had walked to stand near the bigger one and now that I looked at them together I could clearly see now that they were father and son.

    By the patterns on their red fur and their musculature, they were both male. The older one had many scars across his entire body including one that seemed to go from one side of his face to the other. He was at least one meter and five which made him a little smaller than me and he was standing by the side of the three meters Seviper with a cold indifference.

    The other Zangoose, on the other hand, was nervous and cautious when approaching the fainted Seviper. He had very little in terms of scars and had only one meter and two at most, which made him look even more like a child when standing next to the bigger one. As if their body language didn¡¯t scream father and son.

    The older Zangoose, noticing he had our attention, pointed at my waist, where my pokeballs were clipped in my belt, and then pointed to the Seviper.

    ¡°You want us to catch the Seviper?¡±

    He nodded.

    ¡°¡­ Why?¡± Said Jess, still frozen in place.

    The Zangoose looked to the sky, rolled his eyes, and then repeated the same gesture, pointing at the pokeballs and then at the Seviper.

    ¡°Why do you think he is asking us to do that?¡± Jess said.

    ¡°The Seviper is a trained pokemon right?¡±

    The Zangoose coldly nodded.

    I looked back at Jess. ¡°You might not have seen it but the Seviper also knew Fire Fang, combine that with the fact that it had a very rudimentary understanding of Sword Dance¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was a rudimentary understanding!?¡±

    I sighed, nodded and glanced at the Seviper.

    Sword Dance was a very complex move that was certainly impossible to grasp without a trainer¡¯s help. For a Seviper to have it in the wild means that someone released her here and that could be a problem because a trained pokemon, unless killed by a more powerful wild pokemon will dominate the wild, especially when in the Ilex Forest and having Fire Fang to threaten the bug types.

    I grabbed an empty pokeball from my bag, clicked the button, and threw it at the Seviper.

    The big snake turned into red light and was pulled into the pokeball. It shook one time and then stopped with a click. I walked to the pokeball, picked it up, and looked at it.

    It¡¯s a shame that I already have a poison pokemon¡­ Actually, I think that even if I didn¡¯t have one I wouldn¡¯t want this Seviper. The Seviper line had problems that made it difficult to work in a team. It''s not that they were a bad line, but in the specific function of competitive battling they were not the most versatile poison pokemon, and in terms of a striker or switcher, which are the positions where Sevipers usually found themselves, there were other types that were more favored than poison.

    It was not that they couldn¡¯t reach the top, but it would mean more work would be done for less return.

    Not to mention the fact that this Seviper seems to have some kind of grudge against trainers if it chooses to use Sword Dance instead of running away.

    ¡°Are you going to keep it?¡± Jess asked.

    I put the pokeball away. ¡°No, I will give it to the ranger post when we reach the next one.¡±

    The rangers had posts all over the routes and in Ilex, they had three. We had already passed the first one and should be near the second.

    I turned to the two Zangoose.

    ¡°Thank you for the big help. You saved our lives with that incredible use of Disable.¡± I bowed to them. The big Zangoose nodded and the small one smiled.

    ¡°Let''s go back to the route.¡± I turned towards the camp, I sensed her hesitation, and looked back at her.

    ¡°We¡­ have to do something before that.¡±

    My look turned into a glare. ¡°What now?¡±

    She bent down and grabbed something grey from the ground and showed it to me. It was the little Minccino.

    Actually, what was a Minccino doing here?

    Minccino is a line from the Western Continent. I knew that in the last decade some trainers, probably spies for the government now that I thought about it, would travel to the other continent and bring back some pokemon lines and release them in the wild for our trainers to get but who would have thought to bring the Minccino line. A Darumaka or a Roggenrola could understand, unique pokemon with unique mechanics, but we already have a lot of pokemon who could fit the same role that Minccinos do, the Igglybuff line comes to mind.

    ¡°Shoving her in my face should make me understand something?¡±

    ¡°Her?¡± Jess looked at the little pokemon and then shook her head. ¡°When I came here it really was to fight and catch something interesting and strong but then we found this big tree with many Minccinos and other pokemon that were being attacked by that group of Seviper, so I was going to run away, but this baby.¡± She shoved the Minccino in my face again, which now looked very angry, in my face. ¡°Fell off from the tree and was about to be found, so I just grabbed him¡­  Her and ran away.¡±

    That explained the chase by the Sevipers.

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°We have to get him back to his tree!¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°No, now that the Seviper is captured she can go back to his tree.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°She is just a baby and there are still two Sevipers somewhere around here, we can¡¯t let her go back by herself.¡±

    I examined the Minccino stuck in her arms and noticed that it was not a kid at all, its body was fully developed and she didn¡¯t show any signs of hunger. It was just small for its line.

    I hummed. That explains the angry look, probably about the baby comment.

    Nevertheless, the Minccino did help us with the fight, Cape would still be stuck in the Seviper¡¯s mouth if she didn¡¯t help us. However, I would not be risking ourselves without some guarantee.

    ¡°I will only do it and¡­ Allow you to do that if the Zangooses can accompany us to the tree and back to the camp.¡±

    She turned towards the Zangoose with a pleading expression and even showed the Minccino still stuck in her grasp. ¡°Pleease.¡±

    The smaller one smiled and looked towards his father. The older and now seemingly tired Zangoose shrugged his shoulders and the young Zangoose looked back at Jess and nodded.

    She commemorated and I sighed. ¡°Let''s go, I still did not have breakfast.¡±

    Jess smiled and began to walk towards the presumed direction of the tree. ¡°¡­And we also have to finish our conversation later at the camp.¡±

    Her head dropped.

 Johto Chapter 15

    Now that we were not running around the forest trying to find Jess my team and I, minus Cape who was recuperating in his pokeball, could admire more the beautiful and mysterious forest as we followed Jess to the tree.

    Ilex was a vast wooded territory that covered one-third of the path from Azalea to Goldenrod, in other words, a gigantic forest.

    It had been discovered by settlers from Kanto more or less two thousand years ago. They reached the limits of the forest by following the shoreline of Johto and when they found the huge forest they were unable to rest or settle even near it because of the powerful pokemon that lived inside and had to go the long way around it. Centuries went by until the first champion of Kanto, searching for new adventures the legend says, trailed the path that in the future would become the main route and reached the so-called Impenetrable Forest.

    His guides tried to get him to go around it but he simply denied that strong suggestion and decided to cut straight through the forest with his legendary fire pokemon.

    The ensuing hike through the forest was so impressive at the time for the people who knew that the forest had been impassible for almost one thousand years, that it was written down in much more detail than other events of the First Champion¡¯s life. It was the sole reason that we knew that one of his pokemon was an Arcanine.

    He and his entourage became the first humans in recorded history to pass through this forest and, of course, just knowing that it was possible gave new life to expeditions to conquer the forest. Trainers from all over the, at the time, small regions of Kanto and Johto came to try to settle the forest and obtain the fierce and powerful pokemon within.

    One hundred and forty years later the Angio clan established a base near the southeast of the forest and vowed to conquer it. Thirty years later Ilex was born and the rest was history.

    Of course, knowing all this history did not do the forest justice.

    As I observed the shaded trees that were so close together they almost didn''t allow the sun to shine through. The soil was soft and all the plants and leaves had at least some water dripping down from them because of the humidity. The walk through the uneven soil of the forest, combined with the fact that the densely packed trees didn¡¯t permit wind to pass through and cool us down, made me sweat a bit during the walk.

    Since we were still near the route we didn¡¯t see many pokemon, just a couple of scurrying Rattatas and one Fearow flying about. This could also be because of the Seviper that we fought.

    After five minutes we reached the Minccino¡¯s tree, the young Zangoose walked in front, followed by Jess, her team, me, and my team, and finally the elder Zangoose at the rear. I glanced at Jess¡¯ shoulder bag where the little Minccino was placed after her arms got tired. He had his head out of the bag and looked up at the big tree with worried eyes.

    I looked way up at the tree since it was a big one. The trees in Ilex averaged twenty meters high but this one looked to be, maybe, thirty, full of leaves and branches that went in all directions. The base of the tree had signs of fight and also of slithering on the soil, there were many places in the bark that looked to have been slashed.

    I looked at the high branches of the tree and saw that some pokemon had poked their heads out to look at us with alert glares.

    There were five Minccino but I could also see many Caterpie and Weedle, a couple of Budew, Pineco, Oddish, Rattata, a Pikachu, a bunch of flying pokemon, many Pidgey and Fearow and a couple of Farfetch¡¯d. It was obvious that these pokemon were not together in the tree because they wanted to but probably because the introduction of a trained Seviper upset the balance of power in the Forest and those pokemon were forced to gather to survive.

    They were wary of us but when they saw that the Zangoose were with us the pokemon visibly relaxed. The older Zangoose walked near the tree and began to speak up at the pokemon for a couple of minutes.

    He finished his speech and then the pokemons in the tree began to celebrate, jumping up and down and giving out loud and endearing cries. Most of the grass and bug pokemon began to leave after a while, even the Pineco fell and rolled away, and soon enough just the Rattata, the Pikachu, Minccino, and half of the flying type were left on the branches.

    I looked down at Jess, who was trying to get the little Minccino out of her bag. It was a struggle between the two but she was able to do it and then she extended her arms and presented the little Minccino to the tree like it was an offering.

    The group of Minccino looked at the little one with huge and surprised eyes and then began to slide down the tree. The biggest of the group walked forward and stopped five meters away from Jess and began to scream with the little Minccino who, now that she was out of the bag, jumped out from Jess''s arms and began to scream back in a match between the biggest and the smallest.

    Jess put her hands on her head in panic.

    I didn¡¯t understand what they were talking about but I could at least guess.

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    ¡°Velocity.¡± The pokemon in question was perched on the branch nearby and looking around. When I called her she turned her head to me. ¡°That Minccino, she fell from the tree or jumped from the tree?¡±

    The Starly chirped two times. I nodded and turned back to the discussion.

    The little Minccino had jumped forward to use Baby-Doll Eyes on the Seviper, so it had guts. Probably when she was up in the tree she wanted to fight the Sevipers while the big Minccino and possible leader of the bunch wanted to hold on and defend the tree.

    So she did not fall from the tree. She had tried to attack the group of Seviper and Jess had saved her from her foolishness.

    As I came to this realization the discussion intensified and they began to scream in even more high-pitched noises. Jess''s face turned to shock as she realized that the Minccino wasn¡¯t that friendly with the others.

    When I was almost turning to Jess to say that we were done here the entire group of Minccinos seemed to come to a decision. The five Minccinos including the biggest one turned their backs on the little one and climbed up the tree. The little Minccino¡¯s big eyes were narrowed in slits and her little paws were clenched hard as she watched them climb away from her.

    Jess made to speak but I gestured her to stay silent. The little Minccino put her four legs on the ground and began to walk the way we came and since it was the way we needed to take to go back to our camp we began to follow her. We, and also the two Zangooses for some reason, trekked behind the angry Minccino. We spend three minutes walking with the scowling Minccino ¡®guiding¡¯ us in the direction of the camp.

    When we got to a small elevation in the forest she stopped, stood up, looked around for a bit, and then fell on her butt and began to sob uncontrollably. ¡°Minccino!¡±

    The sob turned to crying and tears began to roll down from her big and closed eyes. Jess immediately rushed forward to try to scoop her up but the pokemon pushed her off with her tail and continued to cry on the ground.

    ¡°Min, Minccino.¡± She cried out.

    I looked to the older Zangoose who looked back, then pointed to the little Minccino, then back to the tree, and shook my head in a question. He nodded in response.

    I sighed as I watched the Minccino cry and thought about what I should do here.

    It would¡­ Probably not be too smart of me to do this but the Minccino helped us. Showed courage and I did have space for a normal type pokemon on the team¡­ Well, now I''m just making excuses for myself.

    The truth was that I was just feeling really sorry for her. Being banished from your home for trying to do what you thought best for your family must hurt badly. I remembered Mother Elena and thought about what she would do, what Alice would say in this situation, and what I wanted to do.

    I walked around the Minccino and knelt in front of her. Then I picked up an empty pokeball from my bag, put it on the ground, and rolled towards her.

    She saw the pokeball coming towards her and the crying and sobbing gave way to confusion.

    ¡°I was told that you jumped from your tree to fight the Sevipers right?¡± The Minccino didn¡¯t react, she just continued to sob and cry while looking at the pokeball.

    ¡°That was a bad decision you know.¡± The Minccino glared up at me through the tears but it didn¡¯t have much effect. ¡°But you were brave and you showed that you have guts when you helped us with the Seviper¡­ Do you know what pokemon trainers are?¡±

    Her face twisted in a ¡®kind of¡¯ expression.

    ¡°We are humans who catch pokemon from the wild, like you, and make them stronger than they ever could have imagined.¡± She looked between the pokeball and me. ¡°You were banished by your family but if you want to you can come with me, to become part of my team and to become a very strong pokemon. You can click on the button on the pokeball and from here on out it will be my job to give you a home and to make you the strongest Minccino in the world.¡±

    The little pokemon thought for a long time and then turned back to look at the big Zangoose who now had his arms crossed. He held her gaze but didn¡¯t do or say anything.

    She finally turned back to the pokeball, wiped her tears, although I could still see quivers, and walked forward. She reached near the pokeball and locked her determined big eyes with mine as she clicked the pokeball. She turned red and was pulled inside it.

    The pokeball shook two times and then it stopped moving and the iconic sound of a successful catch went off.

    Jess approached me while I collected the pokeball and put it on my belt. ¡°I thought about doing it but, you know¡­¡±

    I nodded. She was thinking with her head and with the information she had and I couldn¡¯t fault her for it. There were what pokemon trainers called unrecorded lines, it was a catch-all term to refer to all the pokemon lines that have not won yet any Championship or any Conference.

    When someone wins the Championship their name goes up in the Hall of Fame, a specific place where the Champions of the region and their main teammates are engraved to be remembered for all time. When Johto and Kanto were unified for the last time the place that was agreed on to be the Hall of Fame of Indigo was a gigantic cavern in the Indigo Plateau. And when the Conference system was implemented in the regions it was also planned for them to have an equivalent of the Hall of Fame.

    In Johto, we created the Winner¡¯s Monument, an obelisk in the middle of the Silver Citadel where a plaque with the champion¡¯s name and his teammates would be attached forever.

    Unrecorded lines are pokemon lines that did not participate in a Champion¡¯s or Winner¡¯s team and therefore were not recorded in the Hall of Fame or the Winner¡¯s Monument. Most pokemon, of course, are not recorded there for many reasons, there were ones like Milotic or Slaking, who would be considered strong by beginners, but never had the luck of finding a trainer who was able to take them to the finish line and, of course, Western Continent pokemon are rarely present in both, even the considered ¡°stronger¡± ones.

    Most pokemon, however, never got there because of bias, no one tried to catch what they thought were ¡°weak¡± pokemon, no Raticate, no Beedrill, no Seviper, and no Cinccino.

    ¡°If the path toward the top was not clear, you were just gambling that this pokemon that you caught in the wild would be different from the dozens of other pokemon like it who hadn¡¯t reached the top.¡± That was what a pundit in a TV show about the Conference said when asked about unrecorded lines.

    I used to believe that shit too.

    I looked at the Minccino¡¯s pokeball and remembered two years ago in the Indigo Plateau Conference finals when a Thunder from a Pikachu ravaged an entire coliseum. It was needed the combined might of an Alakazam, an Arcanine, and a Nidoking to put down the electric type whose line, Raichu included, had never had a plaque before.

    The truth was that there was no such thing as a strong or weak pokemon line.

    There were just good trainers and bad ones.

    Jess didn¡¯t have the confidence in herself to pick up and train a ¡°weak¡± line and that was okay.

    I did.

 Johto Chapter 16

    With the company of the Zangoose, we made our way back to the border between the forest proper and the route, I had returned Mesa and Jungle and Jess returned Velocity as they were exhausted from the fighting and the walk.

    As we were leaving them behind to enter the route we stopped and turned back at them. The bigger one had stopped while the younger one was looking at us curiously.

    I bowed. ¡°Thank you for the help you gave us. I''m sure if it wasn¡¯t for you I don¡¯t know if we would left there alive.¡±

    The old Zangoose nodded and the younger one smiled, I had noticed that he did that a lot. I expected them to leave when suddenly the bigger Zangoose reached out to the smiling one and gave him a hard tap on the shoulder that made him stumble forward. The surprised Zangoose glared at the other one.

    Jess was curious but I had already figured out what the older one wanted when he agreed to escort us through the forest and then back to the route. The younger Zangoose sported a type of lack of confidence that I had only seen before in one other person, Jeremy. The lack of confidence of someone who had an amazing father and thought that he couldn¡¯t live up to him.

    Jeremy had wanted to follow his father''s profession as an archeologist. However, archeology is a dangerous profession as ancient ruins usually had all sorts of dangers, ranging from dangerous crumbling structures all the way up to some ancient and powerful pokemon guarding some ruins.

    We, in Johto, still remember that time when a group of archeologists a couple of decades ago found some underground ruin north of Mahogany and were killed by a Glalie that had slept for about three hundred years and was estimated to have lived for about seven hundred years. Jeremy didn¡¯t like that exciting life and decided to live as a librarian. His father took it hard for some years, and just like Jeremy that Zangoose probably lived in the shadow of his father so it was no wonder the older one wanted him to travel.

    Jess was clueless still so the Zangoose pointed at the pokeballs at her belt and she glanced down.

    ¡°What?¡± She said, her voice becoming higher the more that she understood what was happening. ¡°You want to come with me?¡±

    The Zangoose nodded warily.

    ¡°Yes!¡± She then threw herself forward and hugged the pokemon whose eyes widened in surprise. ¡°Yes, yes, yes!¡±

    I looked towards the older Zangoose and saw that he also looked amused. Jess stopped celebrating, took out a pokeball from her belt, and offered it to the Zangoose who clicked on the button and was turned into red and swept into it.

    When she released the Zangoose again her turned around and hugged his father, who looked surprised but soon hugged him back. I heard Jess sniff.

    The three of us walked back into the route, and when we looked back the older Zangoose had already disappeared.

    We reached our camp, now with the Zangoose who was looking around curiously. We checked our things and everything was in place, thankfully. I would not be blindly patriotic and say that Johto was perfect. There were trainers who said that they had their stuff stolen from their camps.

    Sometimes it was a ghost playing a prank, but sometimes other trainers were stealing your stuff.

    In the middle of our camp, where we lit a fight yesterday to make food, were some stumps of trees around it that we used to sit down. I approached one and sat down.

    ¡°Sit down.¡± I motioned for the stump in front of me on the other side of the extinguished fireplace.

    She quietly sat down on the stump.

    I looked into her eyes but she diverted them to the side. ¡°why did you go off route?¡±

    ¡°I thought it would be fine to go just a little bit to fight some pokemon.¡±

    ¡°Quake had just recovered from fighting a powerful Scyther, you only have two pokemon, you went in without notifying anyone and you almost killed your pokemon and possibly yourself getting involved in a situation you had no stake in,¡± I said while counting the facts in my fingers. ¡° You checked all the boxes of stupidity, you know that.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she whispered.

    I sighed. ¡°It was a good thing actually that the Zangoose stopped me from screaming at you more.¡± Her face twisted into confusion. ¡°I''m not your family. I''m not your guardian and I still don¡¯t view you as a friend. You¡¯re a trainer now, a semi-adult as far as the Regions are concerned. I don¡¯t have any right to scream at you and going off-route or not is your decision.¡±

    She stayed in silence, wondering what¡¯s the point I''m trying to make.

    ¡°But there are things I can manage... If you do something like that again, I will travel alone from now on and I will recommend to the rest of the group to take you out of it.¡± She finally looked into my eyes and glared with something akin to defiance. ¡°You were lucky that you were traveling with me, but if you were traveling with any other of the kids¡­ Some of them might not have gone after you but some might and then not only you killed yourself and your team. You also killed them and their team.¡±

    Her glare melted and she dodged my eyes again to look down.

    ¡°And if their families ask me if there was anything I could have done differently to make sure their children were alive? I would have to tell them that yes and that I knew how dangerous you were to t-¡ª"

    ¡°I understand,¡± she said with a quiver, ¡°I understand, so please stop.¡±

    ¡°... I hope we don¡¯t need to have this conversation a second time because there is not going to be a second time¡­ I''m going to make breakfast for my team, did you guys eat already?¡±

    "We already eat before leaving.¡±

    I nodded, stood up and walked to my side of the camp to begin making our food. Some time later when the bowls were full of Pok¨¦food and the treats were ready I released my team, all four of them now, to eat.

    Cape¡¯s exoskeleton was bruised both in front where he took the hit from the Seviper¡¯s body and from the back where he released the output of the clumsy Counter on the poor tree, not to mention his mangled arm, which made it so that I had to feed him, despite that, the bug pokemon¡¯s smiled as if he had just watched a great Conference match. Mesa and Jungle, on the other hand, were fine, just tired from the fight. Mesa especially since he never had to use so much psychic energy. As for our newest companion¡­

    I turned my attention to the little pokemon as she walked from one side to the other checking everything in the camp. The first thing she had done when I released her from her pokeball was swept the dirt and dust from the things on the camp, not that our camp was dirt¡­ At least when compared with Jess¡¯ camp.

    Now she was running around seeing everything that she could. As a wild pokemon, she might have seen humans walking through the forest but she probably didn¡¯t know what was a hammer, a cell phone, or a pen.

    I spun my pen on my hand as I turned my gaze back down to the worn journal in my lap. The journal was opened in the last two pages. I wasn¡¯t going to use the pen, of course, as there was not a lot of space to write in this journal. The action was more of an exercise to distract me while I thought.

    After looking again at the two pages I dismissed most of the names. Names that recalled ice, rock, desert, ocean, lake, and beach were all rejected. But there was a section specifically for pokemon found in forested areas. A Minccino¡¯s name, just like the pokemon itself, was full of possibilities so I grabbed a lone sheet and wrote the four names that most called me.

    I looked over as the Minccino, on top of a rock, was trying to sweep the floating Mesa with her tail and becoming increasingly mad as the dirt on the pokemon made of soil wasn¡¯t falling from him.

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    ¡°Minccino.¡± She looked over at me. ¡°Baltoy are made of soil, you¡¯re practically trying to skin him alive.¡±

    She looked from me to the Baltoy and then her eyes widened and she nodded. Before she left in search of a new cleaning target I called her over and she approached, followed by Mesa who seemed to like his new companion.

    ¡°I think you already met everyone right? Cape, the Heracross, Jungle, the Bulbasaur and Mesa, the Baltoy?¡±

    She nodded. ¡°Minccino.¡±

    ¡°You also saw that everyone has a name, right? They have a pokemon line but they also have a name which is unique for each of them.¡±

    ¡°Min.¡± The Minccino nodded again.

    ¡°And now that you¡¯re part of the team, you also need a name.¡± She seemed to think for a moment and then nodded again this time slower. ¡°Minccino are normal type pokemon, and normal type pokemon are synonymous with one word, you know what that word is?¡±

    The Minccino shook her head and leaned forward. I noticed that my other pokemon had begun to get close, they probably heard when I said ¡°name¡± and were curious about what the little pokemon would get.

    ¡°The word is a possibility. A normal type pokemon strength¡¯s, beyond their biological advantages, is that they are the most diverse type in terms of their battle style, learning moves from other types, and even inside the normal type moves there was a lot of diversity by itself,¡± I said, ¡°so it¡¯s natural that even finding a name for you would be hard as there are so many options. But I was able to narrow it down to three. Which of them is going to be your name I will leave it to you, all right?¡±

    The Minccino was enthusiastic and nodded rapidly. ¡°Minccino, Minccino.¡±

    I also rapidly explained to her that the team¡¯s name was linked to landscapes and sceneries, which she seemed to like.

    I raised my thumb. ¡°The first option is Forest. That is the name you might choose if you want to you want to honor the place that you came from. You¡¯ve come from Ilex Forest, one of the roughest forests in the world, and in there, twice you showed courage by trying to defeat a pokemon way stronger than you.¡±

    The little pokemon shook her head hard and I shrugged. It makes sense, it wasn¡¯t like she defeated the Seviper or even struck her. I thought the Baby Doll''s eyes were nice but maybe she didn¡¯t feel the same... And also the forest was where she was cast away by her family, she might not want to be reminded of that.

    I raised my index finger. ¡°The second option is Meadow. A meadow is an open field, often created by us, humans. I thought you might like it because meadows are famous for being used to produce many things and just as a meadow can produce many different things, hay, fodder, or livestock, we can lean on your aspect as a normal type and craft you into a versatile combatant. Someone who can use and do a little of everything on the battlefield. What do you say?¡±

    She spent some time thinking about it. I wouldn¡¯t rush her, of course, choosing your name is a big decision. In the end, she shook her head and made some gestures that I was able to understand after some time and help from Cape. She didn¡¯t want to be a versatile combatant.

    I then raised my three fingers. ¡°All right. The last one is Hill. It¡¯s a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. You know¡­ your line, for us humans, is considered a ¡°bad¡± line.¡± The Minccino''s eyes widened in surprise. ¡°People look at you and then compare you to a dragon, or fire, or water, or any other type, and then decide that Minccino and Cinccino to not up to that standard. That at most you are to be used as a house pokemon or as a pokemon to entertain the children¡­ A pokemon not fit to fight¡±

    Legendaries. It hurt to speak those words and then look at the bright and big eyes of the Minccino dim in dejection. I stopped a little to let it sink in. ¡°Min¡­¡±

    ¡°But¡­ A hill is a place that reaches high. That challenges people to climb to climb it. If you want to, you can choose this name as a promise for the people who will doubt you, and then, in the future, you can prove that you can reach high.¡±

    She looked down and stayed in silence for longer than when the meadow, of course, she thought that there weren¡¯t only three options.

    ¡°There is a fourth one.¡±

    She looked up and one of her eyebrows rose in curiosity.

    ¡°You wanted to show to the other Minccino that you were capable of defeating the Seviper, right?¡±

    She nodded. ¡°Minccino.¡±

    ¡°And you are also the smaller of them all, right?¡± She glared at me and I smiled at her.

    ¡°You wasn¡¯t going to win against the Seviper but that just showed that you were the most courageous of them all, the smallest and also the bravest¡­ There is a low area in the middle of hills and mountains, the lowest location between high positions. Amongst those Minccino you were the smallest¡­ But you can become the strongest. You will show them, the Minccino and the people, that even while being the smallest of a small line, you still will be a powerful pokemon. If you choose this name I will teach you how to defeat that Seviper and then defeat even stronger pokemon than that¡­ You might never be an overwhelming dragon or an explosive fire type but you can have the beauty of a sword.¡±

    The Minccino''s eyes narrowed and a small smile twisted itself into her mouth.

    ¡°You want to hear the name?¡±

    She eagerly nodded.

    -

    ¡°Cape is looking pretty strong, right?¡± Jess idly commented as we watched Cape spar against a team composed of Quake, Velocity, and Blade, Jess¡¯ Zangoose. Four days had passed since our encounter with the Seviper and we were east of Timber Town, the small town at the end of the Ilex Forest route, doing some last-minute training before leaving the city and taking the Sea Route.

    The next days of traveling through Ilex Forest were boring compared to what happened that day.

    We soon after arrived at the post of the rangers, gave them the Seviper, and explained what had happened. The rangers were surprised that we were able to capture a pokemon that had a move like Sword Dance, even if it was weak, and appreciated our help by giving us some money as recompense for the capture.

    We also had Cape looked over by their healing staff and they had given him a localized healing on his arm to accelerate the process but otherwise said that he was going to be all right and would just experience some discomfort because of the poison energy still running on his body.

    Not even an antidote made miracles after all.

    With Cape healing my other pokemon battled more. Jess battled twelve times and won eight times. And I battled seven times and won six times, two times Mesa won, three times Jungle won, and Valley won one and lost another. I was actually offered nine battles but didn¡¯t feel like accepting the three offers from two-year trainers, since Cape was still recuperating I didn¡¯t want to fight with another one of my pokemon just to lose and have to wait for them to recover as well.

    Now that Cape was fully recuperated I had him do some light training yesterday and today he had proved what every trainer was told and knew in theory but saw only once they became a trainer.

    A pokemon grows stronger proportionally to the difficult challenges it encounters.

    Jungle, Mesa, Quake, and Velocity had experienced an improvement in their growth as fighters the very next day after fighting in Ilex Forest, I suspected that even Valley had. They were stronger, quicker, and were learning and mastering their moves faster after the encounter with the three Seviper, but Cape, who had only begun training normally yesterday, had simply left them in the dust already.

    His reaction time was off the charts and his new mastery of Counter allowed him to do some things that five badge pokemon were capable of, even though he hadn¡¯t trained with it again until today. He was already a little stronger than Quake before but today he easily won against him, and then won against Quake and Velocity, then won against Quake, Velocity, and Blade. And now was fighting equally against them without using type energy.

    He easily dodged Velocity¡¯s Quick Attack, Quake¡¯s Sand Attack and Sand Tomb that threatened to engulf him, and also Blade¡¯s Fury Swipes and Hone Claw. Only to come back at the smallest of openings to deal hit after hit that left them stumbling back in pain, again, without using any move or type energy.

    We still hadn¡¯t tested Aerial Ace but it was safe to say it would be hit a lot harder than before.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I finally responded after some time of watching Cape still beating the three. ¡°It seems that Cape won a lot on that fight and that a broken arm was a good price for it¡­ You know what upsets me the most Jess?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Other trainers are going to look at Cape and ask themselves why he is so strong¡­ And if they find out that the reason is that we went and fought a wild and powerful pokemon off-route.¡± I turned my head to her. ¡°They are going to have another proof that going off-route is the best option and will put themselves in danger because of us.¡±

    She stayed in silence and, after a while, I turned towards where Jungle, Mesa, and Valley were.

    Jungle had gotten the hang of Seed Bullet and next on his list was Leech Seed and Growth. Making a Leech Seed was more difficult than Bullet Seed since it had a more complex structure, so he was sitting down on the grass and working on that now.

    Mesa and Valley were a little more to the side. The Baltoy was helping train the Minccino by using his telekinesis to throw rocks at her, and she was trying to master Pound by using it on her tail to strike them away.

    I hummed. When the Minccino evolved into Cinccino she would have access to the special oil that Cinccino produces all over their body.

    That oil could be used as skin treatment but its main usage as a biological defense mechanism of the Minccino line was to make the Cinccino able to sweep type energy away. When I reached the city the first thing I looked at was how the people in the Western Continent used Cinccino in battle and to my surprise some middle-level trainers used them, primarily as a switch or a buffer pokemon, which was not what Valley was going to be.

    But they developed enough the oil usage of the Cinccino to a point where they were able to bat away things like Energy Ball, Thunderbolt, or even physical moves filled with type energy like Brick Break, but they never seemed to put a lot of work refining that ability to the limit.

    What would a Cinccino be able to do with that biological ability if trainers treated it as the Teleport of the Abra line or the Aerokinesis of the Dratini line? Would it be able to bat away a Draco Meteor? How could we make it work against a move like Solar or Charge beam? Interesting questions.

    I looked at my watch, nine in the morning.

    We finished the training and prepared a quick bite before we took the road. As I was eating I opened my laptop to write to the group about our progress. Jess and I decided to not tell the others about the Seviper situation just yet and wait to speak in person with them in Violet, to make sure they didn¡¯t try something similar.

    I was about to begin typing when I noticed that I had received an email from Jeremy yesterday. I opened it and began to read. My eyes began to widen as I read the four paragraphs of text.

    Jess noticed my shock and left her team to come talk to me. ¡°What happened?¡±

    I looked up at her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s an email from a friend of mine in Azalea¡­ Bugsy lost his Scizor and Shuckle in the battle against the Coalossal.¡±

 Johto Chapter 17

    I pushed my feet deeper into the wet and hard sand.

    Beaches for me always were places that my classmates went to during the summer break. Not everyone went to the same beaches of course. Rich parents took their families to the amazing beaches of Hoenn, Alola, or Unova on airplanes and humbler parents took theirs to good ones in Cianwood or Cinnabar by ships.

    Azalea¡¯s founders had placed the city in the middle of the peninsula to avoid the attacks from the deep water pokemon at the time when we hadn''t dominated the nearby waters yet. That unfortunately made it so that the distance from there to every beach around was at least two weeks of travel. That meant that the city council wasn¡¯t eager to send orphans on an expensive four to six-week trip. Just for them to see the beach.

    So this was the very first time that I saw a beach in person and my opinion is that it wasn¡¯t that impressive. It wasn¡¯t bad but it was just like I saw on the television, a lot of sand, the sun, the ocean, and the waves. Maybe that is why I wasn¡¯t a water-type trainer or maybe the famous beaches were somehow better.

    I looked around and saw that almost no one from the city was here on the beach, I couldn¡¯t fault them since the water was cold from what Jess told me.

    We had reached Briny Town yesterday after three days of walking west from Timber Town. It was a small fishing town of about five thousand people. It had a small pokemon center that was not Joy-affiliated, a small port, a Community Center, and some years ago, a pokemon park had been built for the trainers that used the sea route. It also had a small garrison of rangers who routinely went out into the sea to bat away some aggressive pokemon such as the Sharpedo and Crawdaunt.

    I was sitting on a towel and relaxing while looking at the waves. At my side, sitting on a rock and frowning her big eyes was Valley. She hated the beach as she was from a pokemon line that zealously liked clean things, she could probably already imagine herself finding sand in our things even months later. I had offered to return her to the pokeball but she rejected it as always. I thought that maybe she was developing a fear of missing out or of rejection.

    So why was I on the beach? Training on one side and Jess on the other.

    Jess wanted to catch a water pokemon. I also wanted to if I couldn¡¯t find an ice-type that is, but it was not like we would find impressive pokemon in here, at most, a lost Magikarp which was fine if you were really confident about having a Gyarados in the future but even then it wouldn¡¯t help this year or even the next. They were almost as slow as dragon type to evolve.

    At fifty meters away Cape was doing his favorite thing, training Aerial Ace.

    In the last two days that was all that he was training. As I had guessed his fully powered Aerial Ace had become too powerful for him to use reliably, so he was in remedial training to get it back under control.

    Mesa was near us and was using this opportunity at the beach to improve his sand control. He couldn''t produce as much sand or soil from the ground yet, but soon enough he would, and then would run into control issues so he was already playing around with having a vast quantity of it. Right now he was trying to make a copy of himself but way bigger and was¡­ not completely failing at it.

    It had arms at least.

    Jungle meanwhile was enjoying the sun, and in that sense, he was somewhat being productive since one day we would like to also exploit the Sunny Day and Synthesis combo that made grass-types a pain to battle against. Learning how the sun felt and understanding how your grass-type body interacted with it was, funnily enough, working.

    At least thirty meters in front of us and near the ocean were Jess and her pokemon. She had her feet on the water and sported a fishing rod. She had already waited thirty minutes for her line to move and I was actually surprised at her patience.

    I adjusted the cheap umbrella that Jess had bought to cover me and decided to lie on the towel to relax a little.

    Some minutes later I decided I had already relaxed enough. I sat down and opened my laptop to do some research to decide what moves my pokemon would learn next. I felt the judging eyes of Valley follow me but I ignored it and focused on my laptop.

    Cape was easy, Pin Missile and Brick Break, long distance and more power at close distance. Jungle needs to learn Sleep and Poison Powder, Mesa needs to learn Psybeam and Rock Tomb, which he will then teach Cape. Finally but not least, Valley will learn Echoed Voice, Sing, Swift, and on the side Charm and Play Rough.

    After I had noted it all I couldn¡¯t resist and opened a new tab and a news site on it. I didn¡¯t need to search as on the front page was an article detailing news about Bugsy¡¯s battle with the Coalossal. The article began with setting up the stage for what had happened. A Coalossal mysteriously appeared in the middle of Ilex Forest and, after finding itself in a confrontation with a swarm of the Yanma line, began to burn down the forest and many of the pokemon inside it.

    The journalist, Alex Wilson, decided to spend some paragraphs talking about the Coalossal and what the League was able to discover about it. Apparently, it was a hundred-year-old Coalossal, a very powerful specimen who knows fire, rock, normal, and ground moves. Samples from him show that he was from the Unknown World of the Western Continent.

    That information made the League discard the possibility of it being the fault of a reckless young trainer since there were just under a thousand people in the entire civilized world who could even enter the Unknown World, let alone capture such a pokemon from there.

    The League and the Indigo Government were now investigating the possibility of it being a terrorist attack.

    Then the article jumps into the battle, assessing that the League suggested to Bugsy to wait for reinforcement but he, seeing the forest fire growing out of control and with the possibility of it reaching Azalea or another town nearby, decided to engage the Coalossal.

    Then the article goes into much speculation about what the fight would have looked like. I didn¡¯t pay attention to that and jumped right at the end. Where it said that Bugsy ended up losing his first Scizor, who was the mate of his first Scyther, and also his first Shuckle, the fourth pokemon that he caught. His starter, a Forretress, endured a lot of the flames and was so burned that he was in intensive care.

    ¡°Minccino.¡± I looked to the side. Valley was pointing forward to where Jess should be. I looked forward and saw that Jess was in a screaming match with another trainer.

    I sighed and got up ¡°Cape.¡± A bunch of sand blew up near us and my starter was now by my side. Valley was furious as the sand from his landing almost reached her and her seat of stone. ¡°Take care of our things, the rest stay here and train.¡±

    I walked forward through the hard sand and against the wind that came from the Whirl Islands. I, again, knew that this beach was not a good example of what a beach could be. Alolan beaches had very thin sand, good sun, and rarely experienced too much wind.

    Professor Oak would probably be experiencing them right about now.

    I reached the kids. ¡°Jess, what is going on?¡±

    Both turned to me.

    ¡°Scott,¡± she said. ¡°I found a Tentacool and now this guy is saying that it¡¯s his.¡±

    I looked to the ground nearby where the mentioned Tentacool was sitting on the sand and relaxing. Not a worry in the world even with the screaming match nearby.

    ¡°You reached it first but I saw it first.¡± The boy, same age as Jess, pointed to her, pointed to himself. And then pointed to a high dune away from here. ¡°I saw it from there and was running here where you almost tripped on the Tentacool.¡±

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    ¡°It¡¯s what I call destiny, dumbass.¡±

    ¡°Dumbass!? Who are you¡ª¡±

    I tuned out both voices and approached the Tentacool.

    ¡°Hello, do you want to be caught?¡±

    The Tentacool¡¯s eyes moved at me and it seemed to shrug with its two tentacles.

    I nodded and pointed to the two kids. ¡°Do you have a preference for one of those two?¡±

    The Tentacool turned its body to look at the kids. It spent some time in silence, glanced from one to another screaming child, and then shrugged again. Not very picky then.

    I walked back to the glaring kids. ¡°All right, break it up, I guess no one wants to give up the Tentacool?¡±

    They both turned to me.

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°No way.¡±

    ¡°Then we will decide this the trainer¡¯s way¡ª¡±

    ¡°A coin toss?¡± The boy said and we both turned to look at him with stunned faces. He scratched his head with an arm.

    ¡°¡­With a battle,¡± I said slowly, ¡°we will decide it with a battle.¡±

    -

    We had prepared a space on the beach for the battle for the Tentacool.

    If we were in the town we couldn¡¯t have done this but the beach was far away enough from the town since there were times in the year in which the Whirl Islands caused great waves and tsunamis on the western coast of the peninsula. Anyone trying to build a truly coastal city would be in for a rude awakening in the Summer.

    Jess was on one side, the boy was on the other. I was in a familiar spot in the middle, as an arbiter, and the Tentacool was by my side, sitting in the sand like a prize that he was. I explained that it would be a two on two and gave the call to release the pokemon. Jess released Velocity, the Starly, and the boy released a Weepinbell.

    I confirmed that they were ready and then gave the sign to start.

    The Starly spread her wings and flew high while the Weepinbell released six tentacles and prepared to dodge any incoming attacks.

    ¡°Double Team and harass it.¡±

    The Starly began to glow in grey energy and then it separated into three copies that flew around and encircled the Weepinbell. It did not panic though and I hummed. That calm¡­ Some grass pokemon just by hearing flying types already enter in panic.

    This battle might be complicated.

    ¡°Poison Powder all around.¡± I blinked in surprise. That was the beginning of a well-known anti-double team strategy. The question was now if the boy knew the rest or if he was just using a move. Another question of course was if Jess knew of it.

    The purple mist began to expand from the Weepinbell¡¯s mouth. ¡°Bat it away.¡±

    All the copies batted their wings and the poison flew away in a direction.

    ¡°Wrap.¡± Two tentacles of the Weepinbell shot up and firmly wrapped around one wing of the surprised Starly. Another one batted the other wing and the Starly went down.

    ¡°Growl to weaken him.¡±

    Thankfully, Weepinbell didn¡¯t learn Absorb but the battle was as good as over now. The Weepinbell tried to bring the Starly to near itself. It ended up suffering a lot of Growl from that but was able to bring it close enough to use Stun Spore and Sleep Powder.

    Velocity soon enough fainted.

    ¡°Starly is unable to battle,¡± I said and Jess glared at me. What? I''m just doing my job here. ¡° Trainer send out your next pokemon.¡±

    She returned Velocity and released Quake. The boy¡¯s eyes widened and I could sympathize. It wasn¡¯t every day that one saw a Hippopotas and, of course, they were fighting on a beach, the perfect terrain for him.

    ¡°Growth, Bell.¡± Vines began to pierce the sand and the grass and poison pokemon began to slightly glow and grow as the soil¡¯s nutrients were used to strengthen him.

    ¡°Sand Attack.¡± Vast quantities of sand around the Hippopotas rose like a wave and flew forward to engulf the Weepinbell, who stopped Growth and jumped over the fast-approaching wave of sand using its tentacles. Meanwhile, a little sandstorm had begun and I became thankful that we decided to do this battle away from our things. I would never hear the end of it from Valley otherwise.

    The Weepinbell dodged almost all but one Mud Shot glazed it and threw it away. When the Weepinbell began to stand normally. It saw that Quake had disappeared and then noticed that it was beginning to sink into a Sand Tomb. It tried to get out with its tentacles but was hit by a Mud Shot from one side, and retaliated with a fast Vine Whip that hit Quake but soon enough the grass type began to drown in sand.

    It would be able to hold for some time but the boy decided to return it. Quake had really shown how terrifying a fight against a Hippopotas could be. It was a pokemon that instantly initiated a Sand Storm, hid with Dig, and attacked at a distance but also could do a close ambush. A real predator.

    And in a sand arena even¡­ I would be feeling even dirt if the boy hadn''t said that it was all right with him to fight on the beach.

    ¡°Weepinbell was forfeit. Trainer, send out your next pokemon.¡±

    He threw a pokeball and the big pink pokemon that got out of it gave me pause. It was a Lickitung. That was interesting. Well, how would I fight a Lickitung in Jess place¡¯s? Lickitung are considered the light version of Snorlax, juggernauts o steamrollers that would flat you with physical might if you get too close to them. The difference is that Lickitung had the addendum of having a member that can hit at a distance, their tongue.

    If it was me and I had Quake to use against a Lickitung I would first use Sand Tomb to lock the Lickitung down and maintain my distance to try and assault it just like Jess had done with against the Weepinbell.

    ¡°Sand Tomb.¡± Good call.

    ¡°Rock Tomb to make a platform.¡± The Lickitung that had been sinking into the ground rose. The sand under its feet had condensed and transform into a rock plataform.

    So it knew Rock Tomb. One of the interesting things about types like water and ice or ground and rock was their interaction. Water could become ice and ice could become water. In the same manner, ground could become rock and rock could become ground. Lickitung was not a ground type, but it seemed to have enough practice with Rock Tomb to the point where it could bat away Quake¡¯s energy influence at a distance.

    Well, back to the drawing board. There was only one way that Jess was going to win this, going to the unintuitive route of close combat.

    Usually, it was not recommended to fight a Lickitung at a close distance. They are way stronger than they look and their tongue can be used as a third arm to strike in a close fight. Their versatility as normal types also made them a pain in close combat. But that is the only chance that Jess has if she wants to win this battle since the Lickitung has a powerful long-distance weapon.

    And this ended up as a test for Jess. As a trainer, could she discard the previous plan and try something new? It was tempting here to do the same thing that won the last fight. But the pokemon changed and this one seemed to have the tools to make what you did before obsolete.

    ¡°Mud Shot and Sand Attack, take it away from the platform.¡± Well, a miss. I took care to not let any emotion show on my face but I was a little disappointed.

    The Hippopotas began to sand swim around the Lickitung trying to knock it down from the Rock Tomb platform that grew by the second, creating a little island to the Lickitung in the middle of the sand, which in turn forced Quake to get close to try and transform the rock back into sand.

    The Lickitung attacked. The head moved back and forward and its tongue moved with an impossible precision to hit Quake¡¯s head. The hit was so strong it echoed through the beach, it looked like it was harder than a punch from Cape. Quake began to slow down in pain, maybe even had a headache.

    ¡°Rock Slide and Rock Smash.¡± The boy said. The Lickitung jumped to the border of the rock and that part cracked itself from the rest of the platform and slid towards Quake with the Lickitung surfing on it. The Lickitung arm began to glow with an orange glow.

    So that¡¯s why he wanted to fight on the sand.

    ¡°Dig, Quake!¡± Jess shouted. The ground type seemed to awake but the Lickitung leaped from the sliding rock and gave a Rock Smash fist to Quake¡¯s face, who flew up from the sand floor.

    Sand immediately began to react to try and enclose the Lickitung who began to once again try to make a rock platform. Quake tried to run away but the pink pokemon took hold of one of the Hippopotas¡¯ hind legs and its tongue wrapped itself around his neck while glowing with the lavender color of ghost-type energy, Lick.

    The fight turned into minutes of grappling and struggle of strength and endurance as both pokemon were trying to see who would give up first. Exhausted, Quake finally fell to the sand and the Lickitung delivered a Stomp on his snout to faint him.

    Well, Jess was soundly defeated.

    The now cheerful boy returned the Lickitung and strolled down towards the Tentacool and me. Jess returned Quake, crossed her arms, and slowly moved towards us.

    ¡°The winner is trainer¡­¡±

    ¡°Joshua, thank you,¡± said the boy who was approaching with a drawn pokeball. He presented it to the Tentacool and it moved one of its tentacles to click on it. The water pokemon was then sucked into the pokeball, which didn¡¯t even twitch and soon gave out the sound of a capture.

    He grinned at the pokeball and turned to Jess ¡°Good fight¡­Jess right?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡± She said tersely.

    ¡°Well, Jess, Scott¡± the smiling boy turned to me, making it clear that he remembered my name but, surprisingly, didn¡¯t remember Jess¡¯ name. ¡°It was a pleasure to meet you guys, goodbye.¡±

    He then ran away towards the tall dune that he had come from.

    Jess and I stayed in silence for some minutes when finally she sighed.

    ¡°All right, what did I do wrong?¡± She rolled her eyes.

    I glanced at her and smiled. ¡°Today you have some self-evaluating to do. Tomorrow we will analyze the battle together and do some planning on how to eliminate what you did wrong.¡±

    ¡°Urgh. That sucked. I lost a Tentacool.¡±

    ¡°There will be many other water pokemon on the sea route but that was a great battle. It showed you weak points, and what you have to work towards, and will make it so that next time you are better. In my book that is worth a Tentacool.¡±

    She rolled her eyes and we began to make our way back to where my pokemon were securing our things. I looked at them in the distance. If there was one thing that this battle reminded me it was of one thing.

    I saw Cape, Jungle, and Valley admiring Mesa¡¯s sand statue, this one much, much better than the last. At this stage in both our journeys, which were admittedly more advanced than most beginner trainers, we had to rely on our strengths, impose them on our opponents, and trust in our pokemon.

    It was time for me to sharpen those strengths in my other three pokemon.

 Johto Chapter 18

    After leaving Briny Town, Jess had one fishing rod broken by a Corsola and another by a Krabby, until she was finally able to fish a Mantyke.

    She spent the next two days gushing about the ever-present cute smile on the pokemon¡¯s face. While she didn¡¯t catch Valley, she¡¯s been jealous of how cute the Minccino was and spent a good amount of time with her, even though Valley didn¡¯t like her back.

    Mostly because the pokemon couldn¡¯t handle the mess that Jess called camp.

    Valley, again, was very judgy about cleanness and, after learning the word for it, organizing. She had even invented and then seized the role of camp manager.

    The normal pokemon even declared that Mesa would be her second in command. The Baltoy liked to help her to practice his telekinesis, but I was also beginning to suspect that Mesa genuinely liked to organize. And if that was true it would be great since it was indicative of a forming personality.

    Nevertheless, Jess now had a cute pokemon of her own to fawn over and I was glad for her.

    However, for me the Sea Route was a disappointment.

    In our four-day walk through the route, we had yet to catch even a glimpse of an ice-type pokemon. We didn¡¯t even see a pokemon that would evolve into an ice type, even Shellder, the most common one, hadn¡¯t shown up on the shores of any of the beaches that we explored.

    I almost gave up and caught a Corphish since a pokemon like that who, on top of having a dark type in the future could also change from a physical attacker to a special attacker on the fly, would be a great addition to the team. The only thing that stopped me was the incoming winter, where ice types would be a lot more common, especially in the north.

    That, and the fact that Crawdaunt were difficult pokemon to train also contributed a little.

    Now, after four days of travel, the sun was setting as we finally dragged our tired and sweaty bodies past the entrance of Oliver¡¯s Town. We slouched on a nearby bench and watched as the people, mostly trainers and their pokemon, walked in and out of the gates.

    We spent some time just resting and then released some pokemon to accompany us. Jess released Velocity and I released Mesa. The forms of a Starly and a Baltoy materialized in front of us.

    They greeted us and looked around at the city. Mesa looked particularly interested in the blue and gold banners and flags that depicted some water pokemon. These articles decorated the whole town and were impossible to miss.

    I briefly leaned forward and explained to him that It was all related to Champion Oliver, the ninety-seven Indigo Champion that was born in this very town, and that while the water-type Champion only stayed two years with the title, it had been enough for his hometown to change it¡¯s name in his honor.

    Jess, with her kid energy, stood up and gestured for me to follow. I unwillingly stood from the bench and followed her while Velocity settled on her shoulder and Mesa floated after us.

    We had rushed in the afternoon to get to the city before nighttime, we just had to reach the Pokemon Center, get a room, and sleep.

    We reached the main street just as the lamp posts suddenly lit up and pushed away the shadows. I smiled since it was nice to see again the older models. I had always liked their design and had been dejected when Azalea changed to street lights.

    I looked around the main street now that I could see clearly again, and what drew my attention was a chatting Marril and a smiling Delibird trailing a man. Well, I could also catch both a water-type and an ice-type.

    I was still debating if I should catch just six pokemon and focus on a main team or catch eight pokemon who would be slightly weaker but would give us an advantage in flexibility at the Conference. There were good examples of both approaches working out, so I guess it would depend on whether we would encounter an interesting pokemon after we catch our sixth member, and the progress that the team would make until February.

    And thinking of that, I made a note to make a reunion with the team today to discuss what each would want to do here in the town.

    Now that we were in Oliver¡¯s Town, the biggest town in the entire length of the east of the peninsula, we finally had a Battle Hall to practice. Cape and Valley would probably like to battle more while Jungle and Mesa would maybe like to work on their moves and strategies. It was not good to assume, however, and I ¡ª

    I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back as a dashing troupe of screaming little kids playing tag passed by.

    ¡°I know that you like to get lost in your own head, Teach,¡± said Jess, ¡°but maybe wait until you are out of the street.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, good call.¡±

    Soon enough, after walking to almost the end of the main street, we reached the front of the Pokemon Center and got in the large line to register for rooms. The line went from the reception, at the back of the hall, to the street corner. This Pokemon Center was five times bigger than the small one in Briny Town and was Joy-affiliated, but it looked like that wasn¡¯t enough to deal with the needs of the trainers that the Sea Route brought here.

    What probably worsened the situation was that the majority of trainers that used the Sea Route had three or more badges, and four-badge battles were where difficult-to-treat wounds started to happen, things like spinal cord injuries and, in the case of a battle against pokemon who specialized in cutting like Scyther or Skarmory, loss of members.

    I¡¯m not too proud to admit that I will probably freeze the first time I see an amputation. Thankfully it was not as grim as when we didn¡¯t have the incredible medicine of today, but regrowing limbs put pokemon in Centers for almost a week, which debilitated them by occupying the space that could¡¯ve been used for many lightly injured pokemon who could have healed in two or three hours.

    My fingers twitched and I was thinking about pulling out my notebook to write something when Jess, who was in front of me in the line, looked back. ¡°So Scott, after you get an ice pokemon do you have another specific pokemon or type in mind?¡±

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    I dodged her eyes and thought about my list of almost a hundred pokemon. ¡°¡­ Not specifically, why?¡±

    ¡°I was thinking if we could, after we leave Goldenrod and if we became strong enough of course¡±¡ªI smiled¡ª¡°take a detour to the mountains to the east to catch a fire-type pokemon.¡±

    The mountains in the east of Goldenrod would be a good place to train our more powerful techniques and start practicing my strategies for field manipulation, especially for Mesa and Jungle.

    ¡°That could be arranged,¡± I said. ¡°At the rate that we are going, it will be easy to scare away wild pokemon and catch a fire one¡­ If I catch an ice type that would go smoother though.¡±

    ¡°Is it strange that we didn¡¯t find ice types yet?¡± Jess asked as she, being from Sinnoh, didn¡¯t have a reference to compare to.

    I hummed. ¡°More or less, in this region sometimes it just comes down to luck, and I¡¯m having a bad one.¡±

    The almost elderly man dressed as a hiker in front of us, though not elderly enough to use the special line, turned back. ¡°My apologies, I couldn¡¯t help but overhear that you are having a difficult time trying to find an ice-type pokemon, is that right?¡±

    We looked at each other and I nodded to him. ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    ¡°Well, I have traveled these parts for many years now,¡± He smiled and gestured to his pokemon belt which had three great balls. ¡°And I learned some things, let me tell you younger ones about a place where I think you could find a frosty, do you have a map?¡±

    I took my map from my bag and the man, named Spencer we learned, marked on our map the location of Gray Lake, a lake east of the town following the road. He told us that by October it was already way colder than some lakes were at the beginning of December, and that some ice types usually waited for the winter there. We thanked him and talked a bit more until his turn came.

    The next two days we rested our legs and mostly battled the trainers that passed through Oliver¡¯s Town in the Battle Hall. As predicted, Cape and Valley wanted to fight and Mesa and Jungle favored working on their moves.

    Valley learned Echoed Voice and liked it very much. Echoed Voice created a concentrated tunnel of sound that not only stunned enemies if used on their heads, but also was strong enough to cause a weak physical blow, and since Valley used it while running around her enemies, they tried to unconsciously knock her away leaving openings for her to attack with a strong Pound tail. As I used her mostly against weaker one or two badge level pokemon she had come out with a record of five to two.

    Cape struggled but was jollier than ever. His record of two and five would look bad without context, but it made sense when looking at who he fought against. He had fought four badge level pokemon, and his losses were against a Fearow, a Pinsir, a Nidoqueen, a Primeape, and a Hitmonchan.

    With his new mastery of Counter, generous use of Harden and Endure along an outstanding deflect technique he managed to keep out the injuries that plagued the fourth badge level battles.

    He even used Counter in creative ways.

    In a battle that he won against a Rhydon, the rock pokemon had restricted him to the ground because he had an electric move. Cape received a strong punch and used Counter to move the force to his leg, and broke the ground below the pokemon, which destabilized and locked down the Rhydon in a crater to take hit after hit until it fainted.

    That clearly showed me, again, that what Cape was lacking right now was a way to knock down his sturdier opponents. Stacking hit after hit was not for a strong pokemon like Heracross so I decided to leave Pin Missile for later and focus on Brick Break for now.

    While Valley and Cape were recuperating in the Pokemon Center I took Jungle and Mesa to a battle session of their own. Even if they favored move training that didn¡¯t mean they shouldn¡¯t fight a little and they did as well as Valley.

    Jungle was a defensive fortress. The grass pokemon had put on mass and muscles and now only heavy-weight pokemon could move him. His sturdy vines were able to knock away long-ranged attacks that were thrown at him. Razor Leaf¡¯s control had also improved and getting close to him meant suffering bloody cuts.

    He ended up with a record of three to one and his one loss was against a Larion that he couldn¡¯t cut or smack. But we were already training Sleep and Poison Powder for that scenario.

    Mesa meanwhile started to exercise his new moves. Quake had taught him Sand Tomb and Dig, two moves that, while not mastered, were already showing results in his battles. He also got the hang of Confusion, which caused him to win two battles. On the training side he began to learn Psybeam and, after what we saw from the Lickitung, Rock Tomb.

    Soon enough he will be what is expected of a normal well trained Baltoy. A controller who could switch rock to sand to mud and to rock again, all the while hitting hard with psychic moves.

    These two days filled with rest, training, and battles ended, and after resupplying at the local Pokemart we finally left the city and began our walk on the east road towards the interior of the peninsula and Gray Lake.

    -

    It was the night of our second day traveling to Gray Lake. It was a different night than usual. It was colder for one, and the light from the moon and stars was dimmer than normal so we made a big fire to deal with both problems.

    The only thing that we could hear was the crackling of the campfire and the clicking of Cape¡¯s camera as he tried to get a good picture of the camp as it was brightened by the flames.

    Tomorrow morning we would reach the lake and camp there for at least three days to train and catch an ice type. Jess, Valley, Mesa, Quake, and Velocity were out of the pokeball and around the fireplace finishing the tasks that Valley had given us. Jess and I were tired of the trek today and were ready for bed.

    The distant crack of a stick breaking washed away our drowsiness. Our pokemon tensed and I picked a lantern that I always left hanging from my belt at night. I turned the light on the place where the stick broke.

    It didn¡¯t help much but we were able to cut a figure on the dark and green background.

    Between the tall grass was a man who was slowly approaching us. He was dressed in black and purple clothes that almost blended in the shadows. I noticed that he was as pale as the barely visible moon and had a thin body like he had not eaten in months. His face sported the most vacant smile I had ever seen in my life.

    A lot of pokeballs painted in black decorated the belt that he wore. No, not normal pokeballs, Ultra Balls.

    I quickly shut down my lantern and put it on the ground.

    ¡°Good night, kids,¡± He nodded, still mostly shrouded in darkness. ¡°Since this night is dark and cold might I partake in the warmth of the campfire?¡±

    I thought fast and decided that denying the man would be a mistake, maybe my last if he was not the nice kind of master or didn¡¯t have a good head on the shoulders.

    ¡°Of course you can, sir.¡±

    ¡°Ha,¡± he began to walk and spoke to something at his side.  ¡°You hear that? This one has good eyes and knows the importance of respect.¡±

    The shadowy vegetation moved. Yellow eyes materialized from the dark and I felt my body lock itself at the sight. Jess gulped loudly as a green body seemed to detach from the plant life and walk closer to us, in pace with his trainer.

    A Cacturne, and not a common one.

    Of course, Cacturne is not a common pokemon, but this one¡¯s body emanated dark energy with every step that he took. It had a darker shade than the normal green of his line and his physique had more in common with a fighting pokemon than a grass one. He looked more like a younger Electivire than a typical Cacturne.

    They both sat side by side on green stumps that rose from the ground as they leaned back. The master put his hands near the fire for warmth but the Cacturne almost seemed to turn into a statue as he looked to the ground. We all stayed in silence.

    I glanced to my side and saw that Jess had frozen since the visage of the tall, thin, and pale man, together with his dark clothes and attitude cut a frightening figure.

    I decided to probe a little, if I was going to die here I might as well know why.

    ¡°So, sir,¡± He looked up at me with a smile. He seemed more like a corpse who had died with a smile. ¡°By any chance could you tell us your name?¡±

    His smile widened a bit but it didn¡¯t make him seem any more alive.

    ¡°They call me Brian.¡±

 Johto Chapter 19

    Pokemon Masters have great importance in society.

    They are guards that defend the regions from threats. The first line between the outside and what we¡¯ve built inside the Regions. They work in the Frontier, Government, the Pokemon League, and the Army. They are asked to perform tasks in the name of protecting the Region and its people and in exchange for that hard and dangerous work, society labors to support them through benefits and the high salaries that masters have. It¡¯s an arrangement in which both sides exchange what they need to live or in other words, security for funding, and funding for security.

    Two parts of a whole, the whole being the Region itself. Two parts that cannot exist by themselves.

    Masters, however, are asked to make terrible sacrifices. In more mundane professions the sacrifice made might be to spend time away from home to travel for a company, not building a family to have time to work towards a great personal ambition or working yourself to exhaustion for a month or two to launch a product in time.

    Masters sacrificed way more than that. The Harrington Report estimated that a pokemon master who worked at the Frontier or Mt. Silver would lose at least five pokemon in a ten-year period. Five companions that they raised by hand, probably since they were young kids trying to win the Conference. Some masters even described their pokemon as their family or children and then were asked to sacrifice them for our protection.

    The Regions raised many masters. How many would turn into crazy hermits who wandered the Unknown World, unable to enjoy the world they defended? How many would go into murderous revenge against a perceived or real offense? How many were put down by the ISD before they could fulfill a nefarious and ambitious plan?

    As Indigo learned with Team Rocket, too many.

    The master named Brian returned his eyes to the fire. I felt something in my brain flicker, it was there but I didn¡¯t know what it was. A dark type Pokemon Master named Brian?

    ¡°Such a beautiful night. Wouldn¡¯t you two agree?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s art.¡±

    Jess¡¯ eyes blinked with disbelief as she looked between the two of us while her hands dug deeper into the pockets of her winter jacket. Cape hadn''t taken his eyes off of the indifferent Cacturne. The other pokemon didn¡¯t react, they were too tense for that.

    They could feel the power of the Cacturne.

    ¡°Yes, yes, I quite agree...¡± He leaned back from the fire and took the whole camp. ¡°Looking at this group right here enjoying a nice campfire at night makes me nostalgic¡­ Tell me, how are your journeys progressing?¡±

    ¡°We are doing well, sir,¡± I said and Jess nodded.

    ¡°Everything going well then? No unexpected events?¡±

    ¡°None, sir.¡±

    ¡°No criminal organizations to fight I presume?¡± He whispered. We shook our heads and he nodded. ¡°Good. The funny thing, however, is that I heard, as I was traveling south from Olivine, that a rock type pokemon burned down Ilex Forest. Since you two are coming from the south I assume you know something about this?¡±

    Jess''s eyes flicked to me and I slightly shook my head for her to not ask about the inflection on rock type. The less we knew the better. More importantly was how he knew we were coming from the south.

    ¡°Yes, that is true, sir.¡± I took a pause, ¡°I''m a native of Azalea and we both were in the city when it happened¡­ And helped with the crisis.¡±

    ¡°Not quite a relaxed journey, then.¡± The master''s dead eyes fixed on me. ¡°And I guess you don¡¯t have much information about the incident on top of what has been passed by the news?

    I glanced at the motionless Cacturne. ¡°¡­ No we don¡¯t.¡±

    Brian nodded. ¡°Nevertheless, Indigo is going in the right direction if we have trainers as dutiful as you two who show up to emergencies. In my time I unfortunately witnessed trainers running away from alerts more times than helping with them. I reported them, of course, so I guess that might have had an effect... I even heard rumors that a ten-year-old was the first to enter a dangerous raid against the Rockets two years ago at Celadon. He went on to win the Kanto Conference if I¡¯m not mistaken?¡±

    Jess and I both nodded. ¡°Yes, sir, that would be Red.¡±

    ¡°Red?¡± He chuckled and turned to Jess on the other side of the fire. ¡°Such a shame that we need to hide our youngest prospects with those made-up names, but I''m not surprised that this Red fellow was brave as a Braviary, trainers sponsored by Professor Oak have the reputation for being quite the fearless type,¡± He turned his head towards me. "Correct?¡±

    Brian was waiting for an answer so I stiffly nodded. He knew who we were, or at least who I was. I should¡¯ve known, no master would step on a twig without knowing exactly what he was doing. Now, what does he want?

    He dismissively moved his hand. ¡°Well, I have been in the Other Continent for quite some time so forgive me for speaking so much about such unrelated topics to our conversation.¡±

    I almost rolled my eyes. But that piece of information made us relax a little. No crazy or dangerous Pokemon Master would be allowed to enter a plane that passed the Medial Ocean.

    Now we knew that he was, most likely, just joking around with us. He might have a reason to be speaking to us but at least now I could speak more freely.

    ¡°It¡¯s no problem, Master Brian,¡± I said, ¡°we are happy to talk with a Master but, and I don¡¯t mean to upset you sir, could you please fix the surroundings¡±

    Jess¡¯ eyebrows furrowed and her body turned as she looked around trying to find what I was speaking of. Master Brian looked pleasantly surprised.

    ¡°Bravo, Scott Wood, as expected of Professor Oak¡¯s trainer.¡± He said and snapped his fingers.

    The biting cold and the deep darkness that forced us to light a big campfire were sucked away as if someone were using a vacuum cleaner on the whole forest. Jess and the pokemon¡ª Cape and the Cacturne not included¡ª jumped in surprise as the entire landscape began to change. Jess gave a sudden scream as goopy shadows fell from the trees and passed under our feet to gather behind our camp. We all turned in that direction and saw the outline of a small creature begin to form between the small grass behind us.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The darkness formed red eyes that skimmed us. Yellow lines began to appear all over the sleek body that lazily rested in the grass. An Umbreon, and like the Cacturne, that one was way bigger than it had any right to be.

    ¡°What the hell was that?!¡± Jess¡¯s jaw went slack.

    ¡°A master¡¯s manipulation,¡± I murmured. A Cacturne and an Umbreon, huh? ¡°The Dark Marauder?¡±

    ¡°Good attempt.¡± I looked back at Brian who laughed. ¡°But I¡¯m no mindless brute like that one, I have technique... And he¡¯s also from Hoenn and way older than me.¡±

    ¡°Can we focus on the fact that we were inside of an illusion this whole time,¡± Jess said standing and looking at the the Umbreon.

    It was no illusion. The Eevee evolutions were the masters of field manipulation, capable of warping their own bodies to become the field. Even for their standards, however, that had been the most realistic field manipulation I had seen, even counting Conference Finals. That Umbreon had truly become the night.

    I only assumed what was happening because it would be too much of a coincidence for a dark-type master to appear right on the darkest night. I could only guess what was the range of that.

    ¡°Snowstorm Shadow?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s a woman.¡±

    ¡°Why the cold then?¡± I frowned. ¡°Why not just make it darker?¡±

    He hummed. ¡°It makes more sense for the simple human mind if something dark is also cold¡­ And Dark and Ice are closer than one might think.¡± He gave a dry chuckle. ¡°But then again everything is closer than you think when you get far enough.¡±

    I decided to stop trying to guess his moniker.

    ¡°Stop ignoring me,¡± Jess grumbled, still standing and still a bit afraid.

    ¡°My apologies, Jess Brin, I did not want to make you feel excluded.¡± She was quiet at the sound of her full name. ¡°Speaking of, how are you Zangoose and Mantyke doing?¡±

    Jess stilled and palmed her belt. I fully turned towards her and saw that two pokeballs were missing. Her face paled and she stopped breathing.

    ¡°Jess¡­ Jess!¡± she looked with fearful eyes. ¡°He is just joking around. Your pokemon are safe.¡±

    The lanky man nodded in agreement. ¡°He still tends to do stuff like that, unfortunately.¡±

    The sound of a punch hitting flesh echoed from the tall grass. We looked towards the forest just as a small pokemon was thrown from the grass and landed face-first on the ground. The pokemon was pink and, while on the ground, we could see a lone tuff of black hair growing from the back of its head.

    Another pokemon exited the grass from the same place, this one a lot bigger. It was a bipedal and fox-like pokemon with a combination of black fur and red hair. A Zoroark.

    The Illusion pokemon made its way to Jess and extended a hand that had two pokeballs in retracted form between its three claws. Jess quickly grabbed them, put them back on her belt, and then took some steps back until she was standing behind me.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you two met too many Impidimp.¡± Master Brian sighed. ¡°At least, I hope you didn¡¯t since they are rightfully known as little bastards in the Other Continent.¡±

    The Impidimp raised its head to glare at the dark-type master.

    ¡°Anyways," Brian sighed. "I think we played enough, don¡¯t you agree?¡±

    We exchanged a glance. Jess gulped.

    ¡°Now, how do you catch a water pokemon?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Jess asked.

    ¡°A fishing rod?¡± I guessed.

    ¡°No.¡± The dark master smiled. ¡°We dangle a bait in front of it.¡±

    My eyes widened. Shit.

    ¡°You are going to Grey Lake, correct?¡± Brian asked.

    ¡°¡­ Yes.¡±

    ¡°To catch an ice type pokemon?¡± The dark master rolled his eyes at the lack of response. ¡°Come on, it''s not like it''s hard to make that connection. However, don¡¯t you find it strange that you aren''t finding ice pokemon on the coast?¡±

    ¡°Ice types are rare on the coast,¡± I said.

    ¡°Not to this extent, they aren¡¯t¡­ But that might have something to do with the poachers that are luring them to Grey Lake and capturing them en masse. And yours truly was tasked with hunting them down since I''m passing by the area¡±

    A group is trying to capture a lot of ice type pokemon? Why? I shook my head. Forget why, that has to do with us being bait. ¡°What do you mean by bait? Can¡¯t you just show up and arrest them¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, no,¡± His small smile vanished into a cruel visage. ¡°They are going to see me coming from kilometers away. They have someone decent in charge. You see, what makes them a problem of my stature is that their operation halts when someone comes even remotely close to the Lake. They run away like Rattata and hide until the person, usually a trainer trying to catch ice pokemon, goes away. A bunch of vermin that are delaying me from getting my vengeance.¡± He snarled.

    Don¡¯t ask, don¡¯t ask.

    Jess thankfully didn¡¯t ask too. ¡°So what is your plan to catch them if they go away?¡±

    ¡°They wait for people to get out, correct?¡± We nodded. ¡°So I find myself thinking, what would happen if someone stayed there?¡±

    ¡°They would go away?¡± Jess said.

    ¡°No. Nobody stops a big operation like this one for just one measly trainer, Jess Brin.¡± Brian shook his head. ¡°We don¡¯t know why they are gathering the pokemon, maybe money, maybe some other reason. But my guess as to what''s going to happen if you stay long enough is that some brutes dumber than a door are going to appear and try to intimidate you to leave. That will be when I will swoop in and capture them, you go your merry way and I interrogate them, invade their base, and inflict copious amounts of pain before handing them off to the Defense Department. Piece. Of. Cake.¡±

    I stopped to think. That doesn¡¯t sound that bad of a scenario. Making a master owe me one would be good. And also¡­

    ¡°Does that fall under the Civilian Act?¡±

    ¡°Clever kid. Yes, it does.¡± The dark master nodded.

    ¡°And you only need one bait, right?¡±

    ¡°Scott?¡±

    I turned to look at her. ¡°Remember our talk after the incident?¡±

    She seemed like she wanted to argue but after some seconds she looked away.

    Master Brian grinned. ¡°The best bait would be the twelve-year-old, of course, no one suspects a true beginner. But we of the League are not so cold as to choose a younger person for even a slightly unsafe undertaking like this one if we can help it, of course... I also don¡¯t want to talk to her uncle. So you, the sixteen, can be the only bait.¡±

    He snapped his fingers and a Wigglytuff appeared near Brian with a pink glow. The pink pokemon had a very cheerful expression which comically contrasted with the somber faces of Cacturne, Impidimp, Umbreon, and Zoroark. She also had a big bag strapped on her back.

    ¡°Wiggly.¡± She said cheerfully to Brian and the others with a raised pink arm. Only the Umbreon and the Impidimp gave a sign of listening to it.

    ¡°Wigglytuff, could you please teleport Jess here to Oliver¡¯s Town, please?¡±

    ¡°Wigglytuff!¡±

    The pink pokemon strolled to Jess and extended her arm. Jess returned her pokemon, gave goodbye, and reluctantly grabbed the Wigglytuff arm. Both briefly glowed in pink light and disappeared.

    ¡°Now, as per the act, the reward for your help.¡± He threw me a journal that appeared in his hand. ¡°You can use this to train while at the lake. You can copy it, but I want it back later.¡±

    I looked at it and saw that the tag had written on it ¡°Notes of Year Two¡±.

    ¡°However,¡± Master Brian began to search in his many pockets for something. After a full minute, he took out a normal pokeball and showed it to me. ¡°Since you are Professor Oak¡¯s trainer and I kind of owe him one or two favors. I will offer you the chance to convince this ice type to go with you. I found it wandering about in Unova and it said it wanted a good trainer. And who¡¯s more competent than a trainer vouched by Professor Samuel Oak himself?¡±

    He threw the pokeball to me and I caught it. His Cacturn and Impidimp instantly turned into red lights that flew toward their pokeballs. The Umbreon jumped above us and landed on Brian¡¯s side while the Zoroark landed on the other side.

    ¡°Clever, I can use him as the reason why I¡¯m staying at the lake for so long,¡± I said. Brian pointed to his head and winked. ¡°But what if I find something better at the lake?¡±

    ¡°Unless you find Articuno himself I don¡¯t think you are going to find something better.¡± He laughed. ¡°Good luck, Scott. Train for some days and find some way to have fun with your pokemon. Think about this whole thing as a vacation and don¡¯t worry. I will be watching you.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t reassure me at all.¡±

    He raised an eyebrow and he and his pokemon disappeared. It was not a Teleport this time. He simply vanished from the camp, even the stumps that his Cacturn created had vanished. The only things that proved that he had been here were the journal and the pokeball.

    I put down the journal on a rock and grabbed my Pokedex to check the pokeball. It was already temporarily authorized for me so I guess he knew that I would take the job, or would have forced me to?

    I used the scanning function to scan the pokeball and my mouth dropped when I saw which pokemon was inside.

    It was a Cryogonal.

 Johto Chapter 20

    When Spencer said that the lake got colder early, I expected cold water, not this.

    Cape crouched and shaped a ball of snow between his claws which then he threw at Valley. The gray pokemon screeched angrily and raced after the bug pokemon, not that she would catch him. He had fled to the air.

    I looked away from the both of them to assess our surroundings. The ground and the trees around the lake were covered in snow as if it were already winter. The lake was not frozen but I could see parts of ice forming above the water. It was crazy to think that thirty minutes ago we had walked on a autumn road.

    There was probably some mystery around why this lake was like this.

    Maybe an ancient ice pokemon sleeping on the bottom? Had Articuno blessed it at some point in history? I shook my head. It was not my job to figure that out. Besides, the Government or the League probably already knew the answer. I can just ask Brian the next time I see him If I saw him at all that is.

    A chilly wind reached us from between the trees around the lake. We sat down to put on our winter clothes. I wrapped a big green scarf around Jungle and put on Cape a thermal jacket. Mesa and Valley told me they didn¡¯t need anything. Finally, I slipped into my jacket and changed my shoes for boots.

    We were able, thanks to Mesa¡¯s telekinesis, to clear a space to set camp and to light a campfire. The clearing where we set camp was four hundred meters away from the lake¡¯s shore and, if the signs of past campsites told me anything, was where most humans would camp.

    Camp set, I went through Cape¡¯s backpack to take out our cooking supplies and began to prepare our lunch together with Mesa.

    The sound of a collision made me look up from the pan. Cape and Valley were at it again.

    Every time we stopped the first thing the Minccino would do was challenge Cape to a fight. The bug pokemon was incessantly bugged by her, but since he didn¡¯t seem to mind I left it at that.

    After lunch, I took Jungle and Mesa on a stroll along the surprisingly big lake while Cape and Valley rested. We saw some pokemon walking around. A Walrein and a Sealeo guarding a group of rolling Spheal. A bunch of Snorunt wandered near the shore, and that was it. These were all the ice pokemon that the Gray Lake had to offer.

    It would be frustrating if I didn¡¯t know that ice types were being abducted.

    The Snorunt left my sight and disappeared between the trees. If I didn¡¯t already have an ice pokemon to convince I would have stopped them to see if one would like to come with us, I would have liked to train a Glalie or a Froslass. I reached into my belt and took out the pokeball that Brian had given me, Cryogonal¡¯s.

    The Cryogonal line was known to be a strong line in terms of pure manipulation of its own type, above even Glaceon.

    As Brian had put it, unless Articuno itself appeared to us, this was the ¡°best" ice-type pokemon around, with best meaning the one who could become the best user of ice-type moves and ice manipulation.

    I put the pokemon on my belt. There was only one person I knew that had a Cryogonal, Gym Leader Brycen. I remember seeing the news about a young actor who became Gym Leader.

    Unlike Indigo, Unova didn¡¯t put much responsibility on the shoulders of their Gym Leaders, viewing them more as teachers and testers than fighters or protectors. That made it so that they were allowed to be weaker than their counterparts here. That said, I watched his eight-badge matches this morning and while his starter wasn¡¯t on the level of an Indigo Gym Leader ace it was still an impressive pokemon.

    His Cryogonal released devastating and precise ice attacks while able to escape hits by shifting from ice to steam. It rushed across the air while chilling both the field and its opponent, and created from thin air ice chains that locked and froze its opponent. The ice pokemon was also quite flexible for a pure ice type, moves like Ancient Power, Solar Beam, and Night Slash made the Cryogonal a good option against difficult matchups

    I wanted all of that and more.

    ¡°We are going back,¡± I said to Jungle and Mesa.

    Soon enough we were back at camp. I gave my team directions for them to practice their known moves. It was easy training since they would be present when I released the Cryogonal. Before that, I just had to update my pokemon journals with the training we had since leaving Oliver¡¯s Town. I also thought about what Brian had said.

    It wanted a good trainer but what exactly did it mean by that? And why? It could mean many things. Maybe it wants to become stronger? Learn new moves? For what? Or did it want a good trainer to have a good team, friends, or companions? Many pokemon wanted to make friends, especially those that were born alone like Cryogonal.

    I looked at the blank page in front of me. My pen hovered above it but it didn¡¯t move.

    I sighed and Mesa, who was nearby doing his new second-level puzzle, turned his head to me in what I recognized as an interrogation. Maybe this could be a new type of puzzle.

    ¡°Mesa.¡± The Baltoy floated towards me. ¡°Remember the pokemon we are going to meet later. It says that it wants a good trainer, so what do you think makes a trainer good?¡±

    Mesa moved up and down in what I recognized as an ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± motion.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    I smiled. ¡°I guess you never had another trainer to even know if I''m a good one, right?¡±

    Some pokemon would disagree with what I said simply out of affection for their trainer, I knew that Cape would. Mesa, however, just nodded. I enjoyed the honesty and hoped it wouldn¡¯t be lost when he developed his personality.

    I smiled at him and patted his rough head. ¡°Well, if you find out what is a good trainer one day, let me know, all right?¡± Mesa nodded.

    Well, better get this over with. I put my laptop away, stood up, and clapped my hands.

    Cape who was trying to learn Brick Break by repeatedly hitting a tree far away from us looked up and flew to the side, landing near the previously singing Minccino. Valley jumped on his head and grasped his horn to not fall off. Then Cape flew towards me but slowed down a bit to grab a surprised Jungle who was training Leech Seed.

    The aerial unit, as I called it, landed near us and spread out around the camp.

    ¡°As you guys know we will be meeting a temporary, maybe permanent member of the team.¡± I smiled at them. ¡°Let''s make a good impression on him.¡±

    I took the Cryogonal¡¯s pokeball off my belt, twisted the button to get rid of the hibernating stage that Brian had put the pokemon in, and then released him.

    The red light condensed and then turned blue, glacial blue to be precise. The pokemon looked just like the pictures. A one-meter-long floating hexagonal made of ice plates that had two glowing eyes and a mouth. Its eyes went from one side to the other as it took in the new beings around it.

    ¡°Hello, my name is Scott Wood, and this is my team, Cape, Jungle, Mesa, and Valley.¡± The Cryogonal made a sound of ice breaking. ¡°Brian said that you could be a nice fit on my team and left you with us to see if you like it here.¡±

    The Cryogonal floated closer, apparently sitting near us. I sat back on the stump that Cape had gotten for me, and my pokemon sat down on a fallen tree that Cape dragged near the extinguished campfire.

    ¡°So, Brian told me that you wanted a good trainer. Could I ask why you want one?¡± Flocks of ice shifted along the Cryogonal¡¯s body, trying to communicate something perhaps.

    Pokemon would normally communicate with humans using body language. But some, like Cryogonal, have difficulty with more complex ideas or information since they don¡¯t have the normal tells that humans can pick on. The Baltoy line would too, but they had telepathy to make things easier.

    I raised a hand to stop him. ¡°Since I can¡¯t understand you. I will throw away some questions and you make some noise if I¡¯m right, okay?¡± its body shifted a little in what I hoped was an affirmative. ¡°Do you want to be stronger? Do you want to learn new moves? Do you want friends? A family?¡±

    The Cryogonal didn¡¯t move an inch at each of those questions. I looked around for help, my eyes met Valley. ¡°Do you want to be the strongest or the greatest Cryogonal?¡±

    That made it move. But it was not a clear sign of affirmative, it was more like how Mesa completely halted sometimes to consider something. Then the ice slowly shifted dismissively.

    ¡°No then.¡± I hummed. I thought about what it could be but was coming up blank. ¡°One part of being on the team of a trainer is to grow stronger. You denied wanting strength, but maybe strength is a way for you to get what you want?¡±

    The ice pokemon¡¯s ¡°eyes¡± narrowed and I could tell it was pleased. ¡°Well, I doubt we will figure out exactly what you want today, but if you need strength we can work with that, what do you think about we train for now and leave the talk for the night?¡±

    The Cryogonal¡¯s whole body shifted, the ice plates of its body changing places with each other, and it rose from where it was near the ground. I noted down in my head that big shift as an affirmative shift.

    ¡°Let''s start with an examination and then you can show me what moves you know¡±

    -

    The Cryogonal was a little bigger than one meter, heavier than normal, and also harder, so it must have lived some already.

    That was not uncommon for Cryogonal as they were able to easily hide from humans. If they were in a snowy place they would be camouflaged in the area and if they were in a warm place they could choose to turn into mist because of the heat. They were able to move silently even inside cities in their mist form.

    The examination also revealed that he mostly hit things. Its body was full of little imperfections that showed that he would usually ram into things, probably pokemon. That was further collaborated when he showed me his moves. The only two ice long-distance moves that he knew were Bind, which he used with his chains, Ice Shard and Icy Wind.

    In contrast, he knew Rapid Spin, Slash, Body Slam, Take Down, and even Substitute. The last one was especially telling since it showed that he even learned a move to stop being hit so many times.

    I looked up at him from the journal. ¡°Did you live outside of snowy places?¡± Its whole body shifted, which meant an affirmative. It was rare but not unheard of since Cryogonal were born on snow clouds, it might have been born in the winter of someplace that didn¡¯t have a lot of snow. ¡°So you never had the chance to train too much of your ice moves, you needed to conserve energy to resist the heat.¡±

    Another affirmative.

    ¡°Well, we could begin training ice moves here since this place, as you can see we have snow, and is cold.¡± We turned and looked at the snowscape. ¡°But if we want to move around it would be better for you to know the interaction Rain Dance¡ªSnowscape.¡±

    I put away my journal and rose from the stall. ¡°Snowscape is a move that would make the terrain more cooperative to you. But if you were to produce all of it by yourself it would be too exhausting. So what trainers figured out is that if you use Rain Dance first, which uses one-fifth of the energy that Snowscape needs, you can then utilize the rain to make a Snowscape almost for free. That way you could train anytime you want and in any place.¡±

    The body of the Cryogonal shifted inward. I didn¡¯t know what that meant so I just continued. ¡°So what I propose is that we split our focus on mastering the ice moves you already know but didn¡¯t have the chance to train and in learning Rain Dance, what do you think?¡±

    By the shifting of its whole body, it agreed.

    -

    It was night and after talking a bit more with Cryogonal I decided to check my e-mails to see if I had anything from Jess.

    It had two messages. The first one was from Jess. She just wanted to say that she should be going ahead to the north since Brian said to her that he would teleport me to Goldenrod.

    The second one was from an interesting e-mail from Professor Oak.

    Hello Scott. I hope you are well!

    I heard from Brian that you two met and that you are going to help him with his mission against the ice pokemon poachers.    He also told me that you are going to try to catch the Cryogonal that he brought from Unova. Well, I hope that you have a safe time!

    While it might be a little too soon for you, meeting and learning from people who are better than you is one of the best ways to grow quickly and immensely. Brian is a good trainer and a good man so I hope you two can foster a good friendship.

    Finally, I have a request for you. Brian is a good man, that he is! But even good men have to do bad things sometimes. I sure hope you don¡¯t entangle yourself in Brian¡¯s business. However, at my wise age, I know better than to expect sound decision-making from my sponsored trainers.

    So as a warning (also¡ªand I''m going to ask for your forgiveness here¡ªto clear my consciousness), I''m going to say this: Don¡¯t become involved in his affair.

    Sincerely, Professor Samuel Oak. PLP.

    Well, that wasn¡¯t ominous at all.

 Johto Chapter 21

    We woke up early to train.

    My pokemon were released, except Mesa and Valley who had slept outside their pokeball, and we had a quick bite before all of them dispersed to do their training.

    Normally I would focus on one pokemon per morning, then we would walk for two hours, then eat lunch, and fight against trainers and each other in the afternoon. But since we didn¡¯t need to worry about the traveling part of the journey, I decided to walk around to see how my pokemon were doing in their training.

    I also invited the Cryogonal to come with me. Since we needed to convince him that we could make him strong, showing him our training could help. The ice pokemon accepted.

    The first one we visited was the one that trained the farthest from the camp, Cape.

    As we reached Cape¡¯s training ground we saw at a distance the bug pokemon collecting fighting energy on its arm and hitting a tree, or at least trying to.

    Brick Breaker is one of the most utilized moves of all time in high-level battles. Almost any pokemon that could swing a major limb of its body can learn it, either through a TM or by training. It worked on the principle of movement. Swing a fist or an arm while gathering fighting energy on your limb, either an arm or leg, and you could use it.

    Not as simple as that, of course.

    The trick that made Brick Break better than Arm Thrust was the fact that the pokemon didn¡¯t use just the fighting energy of its arm. They collected the fighting energy from the entire body and put all of that on a single limb. That small quantity of fighting energy resided inside the bodies of all pokemon who could use Brick Break and represented the aspect of movement that exists inside fighting type energy.

    That fact, ironically, made it harder for fighting pokemon to learn Brick Break.

    An Ursaring, for example, had very little fighting type energy without training, so collecting all of it from its body, and maintaining it stabilized to use was easy. But if you were let''s say, a Heracross, you had a lot of fighting energy naturally. You could pull the energy easily, but you pulled a lot which made it difficult to control.

    ¡°Cape.¡± The sulking pokemon turned to us as me and Cryogonal approached the battered thick tree that he used for training. ¡°Show me what you got.¡±

    The bug pokemon arm glowed and he tried to perform the move on the tree.

    I put my hand on my jaw. There were¡­ Several things were wrong here. ¡°Cape, your feet are not properly placed on the ground, your posture is not straight enough, and you are not putting enough spin on your hip¡­ Actually, make the initial stance.¡±

    I walked around the embarrassed Heracross adjusting his stance. I was also a little embarrassed. I thought that Cape, being a fighting type pokemon, would naturally know how to learn his own moves better than I could show him.

    We watched the videos together, I explained the move, and gave him tips, but I guess that even fighting types need help to learn and to spot mistakes.

    ¡°Brick Break is different from Arm Thrust. There you only need to move your arm. This time, you need to first create motion and then pull the energy to your arm. Swing just like this see¡­ Try now.¡± I took some steps back to give him space.

    Cape¡¯s punch was way better now. The fighting energy flared across all of his body and rushed toward his arm. The tree shook strongly at the hit. I could also see that the flow from body to arm was moving much better now.

    Cape stared at his fist and smiled.

    It was good, but it still wasn¡¯t a true Brick Break. Now he reached the second obstacle, control.

    ¡°Look, Cape.¡± I put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I know you are prideful. But if you can¡¯t do something it¡¯s ok to speak up and ask for help. It''s why I¡¯m here, okay?¡±

    Cape nodded, still a little embarrassed. ¡°All right. Move back to near the camp, please. I will begin making rounds like this every day and you are too far for me to walk here and back.¡±

    The bug pokemon nodded again and the three of us made our way back to the camp. Cape went to another tree to continue training, this time nearer the camp. And Cryogonal and I went to see Jungle.

    The grass pokemon was sitting down on a towel we put for him to not be directly in contact with the snow. He was still but his green bulb seemed to be stirring.

    ¡°Hey, Jungle,¡± I said from afar. I knew he was working on his powders and I didn¡¯t want to inhale something that could put me down for a whole day. ¡°How are the powders going?¡±

    Jungle looked up at me and motioned with one of his two vines for me to come closer. I did and the Cryogonal floated behind me.

    The Bulbasaur waited for me to get close and then his bulb began to slightly open. For a second I thought that maybe he wanted to show me the powders and jerked my hand to cover my mouth and nose, but stopped when I saw a small red light coming from inside his bulb. I got closer and saw a miniature sun glowing between the petals of the bulb, Sunny Day.

    It was not ready to be released, not even close. But it was there.

    ¡°Wow,¡± I said, speechless. ¡°This is incredible, Jungle.¡± The Bulbasaur, looking up at me, smiled smugly.

    It really was. Most people waited until their Bulbasaur evolved to then train the Ivysaur on that move. Sunny Day was a complex compound move. I didn¡¯t know exactly how it worked, I had videos of it being used but I didn¡¯t have a full explanation on how to do or train it. For Jungle to discover on his own might be a fluke or it might be something else.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Jungle. Do you like training the powders?¡± The pokemon stood still. ¡°And please, be honest.¡±

    The grass pokemon¡¯s face relaxed and he shook his head.

    I hummed. ¡°Okay, you still need to learn the powders, just to be safe. We don¡¯t need any holes in our fundamentals. But we can turn the powders into secondary training and focus on Sunny Day and Synthesis since you seem to have a talent for it. It will take you towards the long route but it might be beneficial if we play this right.¡±

    I spent some more time explaining my plan to Jungle while the Cryogonal listened. After that, we were ready to leave the Bulbasaur.

    ¡°All right. Work one hour on Sunny Day, and one on Poison Powder and Sleep Powder.¡± The Bulbasaur bounced off the ground and nodded.

    I caressed his head, which I knew he liked, and then we left towards Valley.

    As I walked through the snow the Cryogonal passed me by and turned his body towards me. Then it began to slowly shift. A question.

    ¡°What do you want to know? Why did I change my plan?¡± The Cryogonal¡¯s ice plates shifted in approval.

    ¡°I mean¡­ Training can be boring but some paths are more boring than others. If you can make it easier for your friend and companion to get from point A to point B, you should do it¡­ It''s what I think at least.¡±

    The Cryogonal became silent, seemingly mulling over it, as we reached the space where Valley was training.

    Valley received us with a happy shout. ¡°Minccino!¡±

    ¡°All right," I chuckled. "Valley, show us what you got.¡±

    It was more than I expected. Valley learned Sing, Play Rough, and was able to evoke the ¡°stars¡± of Swift, and it was now just a matter of learning to control them, and then learn to control them in a fight.

    ¡°How is Charm going?¡±

    The Minccino head hung low and its ears dropped.

    I hummed. ¡°Show me.¡±

    The Minccino faintly glowed with fairy type and stuck an elegant and gracious poise. The Cryogonal shifted in a way it hadn¡¯t before, it sounded like disapproval. We both could tell that something was wrong. Thankfully I had read a good description of the move and was able to catch its pitfalls.

    ¡°I understand.¡± The Minccino stopped and looked at me, preoccupied. ¡°Valley, you have to play to your strengths with Charm. Charming someone is not about hiding behind a mask of grace and innocence. It¡¯s about revealing your inner self and letting it shine through.¡±

    ¡°Min?¡±

    I laughed. ¡°You are not a Kalosian noble, you are a Johtonian warrior.¡±

    ¡°¡­Minccino!¡± The wide-eyed pokemon shook her head and smiled.

    The Minccino tried to use charm again. This time she stuck a battle stance, her four limbs on the ground, a sneer on her face, and her large tail pointed towards the sky, ready to swing down and deliver a strike.

    This time the pink shine of the fairy energy glowed in a satisfied and strong sheen.

    The eyes of the Cryogonal narrowed in a smile, a smile of approval.

    ¡°That''s it!¡± I clapped my hands. ¡°Congratulations Valley, you learned all the moves you needed to, what do you want to do now?¡±

    The Minccino¡¯s eyes narrowed, and then she smirked.

    -

    ¡°Sorry, it took so long to get to you, Mesa,¡± I said to the Baltoy as he turned to us. ¡°Valley asked for quite a list of moves and I had to show her how to do at least three.¡±

    The Baltoy slightly nodded its head, then raised an arm to greet the Cryogonal. The Cryogonal shifted his plates towards the sky, greetings.

    ¡°You were working on mastering Psybeam and Rock Tomb, and its interactions with other types right?¡± The Baltoy nodded. ¡°Show us please.¡±

    A ball of pink appeared in front of the Baltoy, then it was compressed into a small ball the size of a fist. The ball blasted forward and stretched, turning into a beam. It hit a tree and pierced it halfway through the trunk.

    The floating of Mesa wobbled, he had become exhausted.

    ¡°Good job!¡± The Baltoy stabilized itself, raised a hand to me and I slapped it. ¡°If you are too tired to show the Rock Tomb we can do it later.¡±

    The Baltoy shook its head and turned to another side. His body glowed and a little spike of rock surged from the snowy floor. It was a hard rock transformed from the soil below the ice. It stood at one meter high from the ground.

    Mesa began to glow just as the rock began to disperse along the ground as it became sand, and then it rose with snow between pockets of grains. The snowed sand reunited and stirred into itself, becoming mud. The mud floated to the sky and Mesa began to wobble.

    ¡°Mesa, you all right?¡± I walked towards him.

    The pokemon glowed again and the mud paste formed four big lumps of mud. A lot of water fell from them as they became rock again and then they fell to the ground at the same time as Mesa.

    Snow rose to catch the Baltoy. I grabbed him as he almost fell to the side. I picked up Mesa, and put him on the ground, after some seconds it was clear that he had just fainted from the effort.

    I sighed and returned him to his pokeball.

    The Cryogonal shifted slowly, a question.

    ¡°Thank you for the help. Mesa likes to do things like that, normally he does not go this¡­ Big, but I think the revelation that he could use snow to make mud made him go a little crazy. Well now that we visited everyone. It''s your time now,¡± I said.

    The Cryogonal shifted rapidly, enthusiasm.

    ¡°I did some research today when we were having breakfast and, apparently, there is a trick to teach Rain Dance.¡±

    That article that I read, which was inspired by a chapter in a book by a water pokemon master, went into detail to explain how Rain Dance worked and how to take a shortcut to teach each different type of pokemon the move. For ice types, the article suggested teaching them Aurora or Ice Beam since creating a ball of energy and turning that into a beam was one-third of making Rain Dance.

    ¡°We are going to learn Aurora Beam. And then use what we learn from that move to learn Rain Dance.¡±

    This time, the shift of its ice plates was still one of approval but it was a bigger one than before. So an enthusiastic approval.

    ¡°Now, remember when Mesa used Psybeam?¡±

    -

    After eating lunch we decided to rest a little. Valley tried to get up to train her new future moves but she was too full and just laid down again. I was not as dead as them since I had not eaten as much. It wasn¡¯t me that trained hard all morning after all.

    I used this opportunity to finally pick up ¡°Notes from Year Two¡±, the journal that Brian had given me to learn from. I opened the book and began to read.

    One thing I hadn¡¯t understood when Brian had first given me this book was why he gave me the journal from his second year instead of his first.

    Now as I finished the first chapter, which was an analysis of the previous year, I understood why. He didn¡¯t go to the Conference in his first year. He halted at the sixth badge. Three times he tried and three times he failed to pass through the wall that was the sixth badge.

    My face was stone as I put down the journal for a second.

    I had researched Brian after he left, the government site has a list of every pokemon master that worked for the Indigo Region, together with a brief description of their feats and accolades.

    Brian had been born in Johto. He began his journey at twelve years old and was judged a promising trainer at fifteen, after ending up in fourth at the Silver Conference. He then entered the army and was sent to Kanto to help with the emerging terrorist group that would become Team Rocket.

    He had been a rookie in the division that fought the first real battle of that war. The battle in which Gym Leader Marco was killed, and the battle that opened space for Giovanni to become Gym Leader.

    That kind of guy couldn¡¯t reach the Conference in his first year.

    I remembered what I had said to Professor Oak, that I would win the Conference. I had not said that I would, really, but it was the spirit of the thing.

    Needless to say, that first chapter didn¡¯t help with my self-esteem.

 Johto Chapter 22

    After five days, we had easily settled into the routine we ran on our first day in Grey Lake. We woke up, ate something, and trained.

    In three days Cape learned Brick Break and moved on to Pin Missile. He also began to take lessons from Mesa to learn Rock Tomb.

    Mesa, Cape, Cryogonal, and I watched a Conference battle between a Rhydon and a Rapidash one night since I wanted to show Mesa how he could use Rock Tomb in battle. Cape ended up liking what the Rhydon had shown and asked Mesa if he could teach him, to which the Baltoy agreed.

    Mesa, for his part, was mastering his known moves and doing his second-level puzzle to grow his psychic energy.

    He had learned a lot of moves in a short amount of time so now was the time to consolidate them. Mesa was practicing so hard that he would probably reach the beginning of the fourth level by the time we reached Violet City.

    The only thing he would suffer from would be a lack of battle experience, but we could resolve that with battling sessions when we joined up with the kids of Project.

    Jungle learned his powder moves and then swiftly moved towards trying to accomplish a successful Sunny Day.

    He made some progress but became stuck on that front so I suggested that he train another move to switch things up, he sullenly agreed and was now alternating between trying to learn Sunny Day, Seed Bomb, and Acid Spray, the last one he liked way better than Poison Powder since he didn¡¯t need to create powder, which was the part he found annoying.

    Valley¡¯s list of moves she wanted to learn included Encore, Tail Slap, Facade, Thunder Wave, Trailblaze, and Knock Off. She was focusing on the first three for now since for the others we would need more specialized training. I had to put my foot down to not let her ¡°try¡± my solar charger to train Thunder Wave.

    She, as always, spent time battling Cape, their fights were extremely one-sided but at least Valley was learning some good battling principles, one that was literally being beaten into her was to not try the same thing twice when it didn¡¯t work the first time, which I found funny since that was the first lesson I taught Cape with the help from Alice and Spike.

    Meanwhile, the hopefully future member of the team was breezing through ice moves. The Cryagonal learned Aurora Beam in one day, and Freeze-Dry in another. The winter climate really helped him learn fast. He was now dividing his time between learning Rain Dance and Ice Beam, which was an advanced move for his type.

    In the afternoon, my pokemon decided to battle.

    Mesa built a small arena near the camp, and every afternoon at least three spars took place there. Cape was in first place, undefeated against the others, then came Mesa, who only lost to Cape and sometimes Valley, then Valley, and finally Jungle, the Bulbasaur had not focused so much on fighting and was trying to catch up.

    Cape, however, was not satisfied with his companions and began to roam around the lake, never too far and never alone, to challenge some wild pokemon. His most consistent partner was the Sealeo I saw the first time I took a stroll near Grey Lake with Jungle and Mesa.

    Cape had actually wanted to challenge the Walrein, the boss of the group. But the ice pokemon just laughed Cape off, and I had to agree with him, as strong as Cape was he was not enough for a third-stage evolution.

    Most people thought that evolution made a pokemon stronger, and that was somewhat true but people sometimes got it twisted, pokemon evolved because they became strong enough to evolve, not the contrary. And that Walrein certainly looked like it could throw down against some powerful mons in the Conference.

    The Cryogonal chose to not participate in the spar so he stayed with me in camp while I read Brian¡¯s journal, and copied the useful things I could pick up.

    ¡°Notes from Year Two¡± would be a treasure trove if only it wasn¡¯t such a mess. Thirteen-year-old Brian wrote about anything and everything that grabbed his attention without order or logic, jumping from topic to topic, rambling about this and that.

    One page might have musings about his battles for the day, and being two-year trainer battles meant that, most times, they had something interesting. The next page could have only two vague sentences about something he discovered while training his pokemon, most things were, of course, about dark types and dark-type moves.

    He knew a lot of dark-type moves, how to train, and how to use them, I copied them all.

    However, the two most interesting parts were, first, about the Gym Leaders, for all of his disorganization, kid Brian had pages and pages detailing the things he learned about the Gym Leaders. Of course, the leaders of nine years ago would not be the same. The only ones that still were active from that time were Pryce, Chuck, and Morty, all three were written about in the journal in detail, but all the new ones were not in the journal.

    I knew that Bugsy became Gym Leader four years ago and I remember the news channels talking about Lance¡¯s cousin Clair taking over the Blackthorn Gym from Sky Scar¡¯s son six years ago. The rest I didn¡¯t remember the circumstances, but, anyway, I wrote everything about every Gym Leader, even the old ones. Some stuff here was too, in general, useful, I could even train my pokemon with some of the stuff here.

    The second interesting thing was how Brian wrote about dark types.

    Most times he wrote like a regular trainer, detailing good and bad matchups, creating plans to deal with his disadvantages, and planning the order in which he would use them in battles, be it a Gym match, tournament match, or even normal on-the-road ones. But other times, he just went on writing about his feelings and what his ¡°intuition¡± told him would work or not.

    There were two times were he wrote five full pages of poetry about dark types, and by what he wrote, he must have been writing those deep into the night.

    These poetries were at the same time pointless and fascinating. It''s almost as if he wrote a lot of fluffy and pomp around some genial sentences that gave him clues to some big idea about dark-type pokemon.

    After reading for some time I concluded that he wrote the poetry and, after that, he read them to glimpse concepts from what he wrote, almost as if these concepts were buried inside his mind and he used poetry like a form of meditation to take out what he only knew on his subconscious.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    That¡­ Was very interesting.

    I noted the poetry down and continued reading. I was able to read about two-thirds of the journal until day six.

    -

    On our sixth day at Grey Lake, I was reading Brian¡¯s journal after lunch when Cryogonal floated up and looked to the other side of the lake. I felt all my pokemon get closer to me from where they were fighting in the arena.

    I looked up as two men approached from the treeline on the other side of the lake. Both men were over twenty and dressed in winter training clothes. Both had pokemon at their side, one, the taller of the two, had a Primeape and the other a Wobbuffet.

    They got closer to us and stopped just outside the range of the Cryogonal, which was the pokemon with the most range out of my team.

    ¡°Hi, can we help you?¡± I said

    ¡°Hello, kid.¡± shouted the taller of the two, he had black hair and red clothes. He was the one with the Primeape. ¡°What are you doing here in this freezing lake?¡±

    ¡°Training my Cryogonal,¡± I gestured to the ice pokemon. ¡°What about you two?¡±

    ¡°We''ve come to catch some ice pokemon.¡± The blonde one smiled, the Wobbuffet seemed amicable, but again all of them were. ¡°You know, we were thinking of spending a couple of days training while we search for a strong ice pokemon.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± The taller one said. ¡°But you know how it goes, secret training and techniques, we don¡¯t want rivals to see what we''re doing, right? We were coming and going to see if you would be gone so we could use this space to train. But, you know, you¡¯ve been here for almost a week¡­¡±

    I would need to stall, if what Brian told me was true he might be some kilometers away so I would need to wait a bit.

    ¡°Well, I guess we spend enough time here, right team?¡± I said to my pokemon who nodded back. ¡°Could you just go around to see the pokemon on the lake? We just need some time to eat something, pick up our things, and then we will be going.¡±

    The blond bowed with a smile. ¡°Thank you, junior. We expect to see you at the Conference.¡±

    The other guy lightly rolled his eyes at the blond. They began to slowly walk away while chatting between themselves. I could see that they were acting since they were doing a really poor job at it.

    I began to take out some Pokefood and put it in bowls for the pokemon. Then I began to make myself a sandwich while my pokemon took down my tent and put away everything. After ten minutes had passed the guys were back and this time they were not walking, they were rushing towards us and their faces didn¡¯t look happy.

    ¡°Look, little shit.¡± The blond guy. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­

    A rush of air passed through all of us and we all fell to the ground, then we heard a big sound, as if something had hit the ground hard. I looked up at the same time as the two guys looked back.

    A huge Corviknight, a steel type most commonly found in Galar, had hit the ground behind the trainers forming a crater. It was glaring at the two of them and their pokemon. The steel type slowly raised himself from the ground with its legs, which made him stand at about two times the blond guy. It seemed to enjoy the fear in the trainer¡¯s body.

    The two pokemon froze for one second but quickly made the dumb decision to jump on the Corviknight. The Primeape and the Wobbuffet glowed and leaped at the Corviknight. The bird pokemon extended a single wing and whipped it forward. A flash of black later and both pokemon were on the ground, fainted.

    Their trainers ran to the side, towards the treeline, but a Weavile jumped from the Corviknight¡¯s back and passed its leg under the two men who fell on the ground. They stopped trying to get up when the pokemon passed his claws close by their faces.

    Claps began to resound from behind me, and when I turned there was Brian, as calm as he had been when we met in the forest. He glanced towards the two men on the ground and smiled.

    ¡°Good job, Scott,¡± Brian said. Zoroark appeared at the side of the men with a rope and began to tie them up. ¡°That wasn¡¯t so hard, was it?¡±

    ¡°No, but I was a little shaken when they were coming in my direction.¡± I glared at him.

    ¡°Well, Corvi made his best time to reach you.¡± When Zoroark dragged the two tied men towards Brian he clapped his hands like he got a present on Christmas. ¡°The goods were delivered, now I just need to¡­ Get down.¡±

    Cape was a second slower than Brian. He grabbed me by my waist and pulled me back just as a Hitmonchan exploded from the tree line and tried to jab Brian.

    That jab would have destroyed Brian if it wasn¡¯t for a green shield popping in front of him.

    Both attacks collided and I saw both the attack and the barrier being distorted by the force of the collision. It seemed as if gravity was trying to snap back the point where both smashed together. The green Protect emitted a groaning sound and the Hitmonchan winced hard.

    As soon as the force from the punch ended the shield went down and a Crabhammer from a Crawdaunt would have smashed the fighting type¡¯s head clean into the ground if he hadn¡¯t put a guard up in the last second.

    The Crawdaunt had just come into existence beside the Hitmonchan.

    As it was the Hitmonchan was just slammed back. Its feet slid down on the ground, opening large trails in the snow.

    ¡°Thanks, Umbreon,¡± Brian said. it was important to notice that while Brian had screamed he had not seemed concerned for himself at all, In fact, he didn¡¯t even stumble from the shockwave that the Hitmonchan¡¯s Mega Punch caused as it met the Umbreon¡¯s Protect. ¡°Now, who is trying to meddle in official Government business? And more importantly, my business.¡±

    While he was talking, Zoroark appeared beside me and, in a move faster than I could see, clicked in all my pokeballs. All my pokemon, including Cryogonal, appeared shocked as they were recalled to their pokeball.

    A man walked out from the forest, where the Hitmonchan had jumped from.

    He wore a business suit, and had slick black hair and dark glasses, on his belt there were several Ultraballs, just not as much as Brian¡¯s. When he got closer he seemed surprised and he took off his glasses as if he couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing.

    ¡°Brian?¡± He then laughed. ¡°My friend, how many years has it been? I didn¡¯t even know you were in Johto again.¡±

    I looked over at Brian. I couldn¡¯t see his face and he was in complete silence. The man who called out for him seemed content to wait and my anxiety spiked, maybe they were buddies.

    Then a maniac laugh began.

    It started slow, like a whisper, but soon it grew and then began to build up and up until it seemed like it wasn¡¯t going to stop. I couldn''t see Brian¡¯s face but I could see his mouth wide open as he laughed. I noticed that Zoroark at my side flinched at the sound.

    The Weavile, Umbreon, and Crawdaunt gathered around Brian just as the ultraballs on Brian¡¯s belt opened.

    Red lights jumped from them and assembled around Brian. The first one out was a bulky and flaming Houndoom with even more curved horns than normal, then a floating, grinning Sableye, a big Skuntank, an enormous Slaking, and a Bisharp with crossed arms.

    ¡°Guys, remember when I complained about this mission?¡± Brian¡¯s voice was drowned in amusement. His pokemon glanced at the man and most seemed to smile as wide as Brian. ¡°I take back everything I said, the legendaries are at our side if this mission is leading us to Roger. And you Basil, I''m going to break you until you can only open your mouth, and then I will only want to hear a single thing from you, Rocket scum.¡±

    The man, Basil, seemed to become a little more serious as his posture leaned forward, like a predator about to charge.

    ¡°You talk a lot, Brian. Let''s see if you can finally handle that big mouth that you¡¯ve always had.¡±

    From the forest behind him appeared his pokemon.

    A raging Primeape, a wall of muscles in the form of a Machamp, A spinning Hitmontop and a twisting Hitmonlee, A jumping Breloom, and a laughing Toxicroak joined the Hitmoncham who maintained his guard up in front of the man called Basil.

    Finally, a Hariyama jumped forward and smashed into the ground in front of the group, he glared at the Slaking as he smashed a fist into the ground.

    By my side stood Corviknight and Zoroark while both groups looked at each other.

    Weavile, Houndoom, Umbreon, Crawdaunt, Sableye, Cacturn, Slaking, Skuntank, and Bisharp on one side.

    Hitmonchan, Primeape, Machamp, Hitmontop, Hitmonlee, Hariyama, Breloom, and Toxicroak on the other.

    I looked from one group to another. One was a group of aggressive dark types who followed a maniac dark type master, the other was apparently a Rocket, a possible master, who had no qualms about squashing a human with a Mach Punch.

    Where the hell did I end up in!?

 Johto Chapter 23

    ¡°Smash them.¡±

    The Hariyama surged forward with one step that blasted the ground behind him.

    Brian said nothing, but his Slaking gave a massive jump and knuckle-walked to meet the Hariyama. The two giant pokemon pulled their arms back. Hariyama¡¯s massive fist glowed with a vivid bright orange, while the Slaking¡¯s muscular arm shined grey.

    The encounter between the pokemon and their moves created a powerful explosion that pushed everything away.

    Snow, the earth, the trees of the forest, and even the freezing waters of Grey Lake were forced back from the two pokemon. The shockwave reached us and, if it weren¡¯t for the Zoroark holding onto my shoulders, it would have flung me away like a rag doll.

    Both teams seemed to treat that as the bell to begin the fight and every single pokemon moved, and they moved fast.

    As soon as they moved, I lost almost every Pokemon.

    The only ones that I could keep up with were the Slaking and the Hariyama, but even then I could only see that they were moving, and following their hands and feet was impossible. I could only see the aftermath of their exchange.

    The Hitmochan and the Cacturne were fast, extremely fast. But I could almost follow and understand what was happening, and the only reason that I could was that the grass type was trying to slow down the punching pokemon by growing, from the ground, strong and thick plants and trees that tried to grab or trip the fighting type. The furious eyes of the Hitmonchan on the rare occasions where it needed to slow down were as telling about how it felt about its situation as the physical response it gave to the Cacturne.

    It was pulverising entire parts of the pokemon with invisible punches.

    It enraged the Hitmonchan even more when the green body regenerated.

    Sometimes I saw hints of the others. A fireball was launched one second and extinguished the next. Long strokes of darkness that rose from the ground to bat away at something that moved too fast. Ghost-type energy hitting fighting type energy. Sometimes poison simply came into existence while melting snow, earth, and trees.

    This reminded me of one of the first arguments that I saw when the Pokenet opened to the public. It was about whether the League should display matches above Conference level to civilians. I never had an opinion on the topic, but one argument from the people who said that they shouldn¡¯t was that the battles at that level were too fast anyway.

    I always thought that this argument was stupid. After all, we could slow down the footage, and we could bring on experts to explain what was happening on the screen. But, watching this battle, I understood.

    I can¡¯t even tell what is happening or what they are doing.

    Colours glowed and transformed in split seconds. Black, orange, red, yellow, green, purple blazed as they were unleashed.

    These were pokemon at the master level. I had studied pokemon training and battling. I knew what they were doing.

    They were mixing their attacks by sequencing them one after the other, weaving them by combining two attacks into one, and finally, they were cutting themselves by using two or more moves of different types at the same time, the ultimate expression of a pokemon¡¯s control over the conflicting energies and aspects inside their bodies.

    My eyes narrowed, my jaw tightened, and my hands clenched.

    So many years of reading, watching, and studying, and even with the fight between Slaking and Hariyama, I couldn¡¯t understand anything that was happening.

    My eyes were drawn to the river as a Machamp and Crawdaunt appeared, with the former holding both arms of the latter.

    Finally.

    The Machamp¡¯s entire body glowed with orange light, probably the result of Bulk Up, while the Crawdaunt¡¯s armoured body sparkled in bright golden light and many other colours. At least I knew it was using Sword Dance. The Machamp hit six fast punches into the Crawdaunt with its unoccupied arms until the water pokemon opened its maw and spewed a Hyper Beam right into the Machamp¡¯s face, who dodged with an unnatural reaction.

    The Hyper Beam still cut through his shoulder.

    But the fighting type didn¡¯t let go of the crab¡¯s arms, but his hold on the water pokemon¡¯s arm loosened enough for the Crawdaunt to pull back one arm and bash the recovering Machamp¡¯s face with a water-covered claw.

    Both pokemon then sped up and continued to brawl, now visible since the Machamp was slowing down the Crawdaunt by not letting go of one arm. The dark type now tried to pull or throw the Machamp into the Lake¡¯s water.

    I heard a thunder raging from the crater in the middle of the battlefield.

    The Hariyama and the Slaking were still fighting.

    Glowing punches, kicks, elbows, and knees that I still couldn¡¯t see, flew towards the Slaking who, true to his normal typing, used various moves from across different types to dodge or deflect the invisible strikes while opening space for his own punches and shoves.

    Rocks, soil, ice, and lightning, I recognise as they slammed into the massive Hariyama in an attempt to stop him. I also noticed flashes inside the crater and around both titans, ghost, grass, and fighting energy flashing about in one breath and being snuffed in the other, all along broken ground.

    My eyes widened as I realised both teams were trying to help their heavy-weight fighters, probably because there was no one else who could stop the opposing titan from getting to the trainer.

    Their fight did not just dictate the middle of the battleground, it dictated the battle itself.

    I remembered at that moment that these pokemon were supposed to have trainers and I looked at both Brian and Basil and my eyes widened as I saw they were being attacked.

    Orange and green colours appeared and disappeared near Brian as something green tried to hit him again and again and was stopped each time by pure dark energy, sometimes he flinched when it seemed like the strike was going to connect, but he seemed to treat it more like a nuisance than a life-or-death situation. He also appears to survey the battle, trying to piece something together.

    On the other side of the battlefield, near the snow-covered trees, the fighting master named Basil took a more direct approach and jumped or rolled from one side to another, each time a flaming attack or pieces of flying metal got near him.

    I couldn¡¯t see Houndoom or Bisharp, but they were attacking, and by how some more physical attacks, such as dark covered blades and slashes were deflected, Hitmontop and Hitmonlee were there to protect Basil.

    Brian turned around, dismissing the destructive battles happening behind him. He pulled his sleeve to look at his watch and then shouted at me.

    ¡°Scott, look at Corviknight¡¯s head!¡±

    A laughing squeak sounded from my left. I turned to look at Corviknight and on his head was Weavile. It looked as if it was resting as it lay down on the uninterested Corviknight with both arms behind its head. It turned its head to me when it noticed the attention and winked one eye.

    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve had your fun, can you come and help, you useless cat?¡±

    The cat in question rolled its eyes and disappeared. What the hell was that?

    Seconds later, a boom brought me back to the fight.

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    The Hitmonchan who was trading blows with the Cacturne, and winning by the nasty colours on the green type¡¯s body, was suddenly bouncing through the ground, creating little fissures each time it hit the soil until it landed on the lake¡¯s water. A Breloom crashed from the sky and hit the ground hard, breaking a leg. The Toxicroak appeared and looked around, confused, just to receive a hit on his face which sent him flying, but not far enough as he was hit again, from above this time, which smashed him into the ground.

    All three were automatically and silently returned to their Ultraballs, one of the many advantages of having these very expensive pokeballs.

    ¡°Take down the tower and give me Basil.¡±

    Now free from their battles, Cacturne and Skuntank disappeared toward the Hariyama.

    A lance of poison flew into the flank of the massive pokemon who, in exchange for taking a silver punch in the gut from Slaking, rebounded the lance with a strike from his palm. From his other side, he didn¡¯t have a choice and was forced to tank an Energy Ball followed by two Solar Beam in the span of two seconds, courtesy of Cacturne.

    The duo of Cacturne and Skutank continued to batter the fighting pokemon from behind while the Slaking pressed him with the melee, forcing the heavy pokemon to focus on him.

    That continued for an entire single minute that seemed to stretch for an hour by the sheer number of attacks that appeared to be launched at the fighting pokemon, they fitted more attacks in one minute than most pokemon would learn in their lifetime, and finally, the Hariyama faltered. It was subtle, but was there.

    Since the beginning, the colossal fighter showed no sign of fatigue, pain, or even one second of indecision, and now I saw.

    A twitch of its head, a sloppier step than normal, and a laborious punch all crammed into one movement exposed his condition.

    At that single moment of vulnerability, a single slash cut both tendons of the giant Pokemon. Blood spilled onto the damaged ground and a snickering Weavile appeared holding onto the shoulder of Slaking.

    The Hariyama didn¡¯t flinch from the attack. He didn¡¯t fall. He didn¡¯t even frown, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to walk, and when a fighting pokemon couldn¡¯t use his feet, that was when it knew it had lost.

    Even though his Ultraball didn¡¯t return him, it was over.

    The remaining pokemon, Primeape, Machamp, Hitmontop, and Hitmonlee. retreated and returned to shield their trainer. Seconds later, Houndoom, Crawdaunt, Sableye, Cacturne, Skuntank, and Bisharp surrounded them.

    Brian vanished from where he was just thirty meters away in front of me and seconds later appeared on the other side of the battlefield behind his Crawdaunt, with Umbreon by his feet.

    I couldn¡¯t hear what they were saying, but the talk didn¡¯t last even a minute.

    Basil¡¯s remaining pokemon, even the Hariyama, who seemed ready to continue the lost fight, returned. Basil fell like a puppet that had his strings cut and a red light left his body.

    The light smashed into the ground away from us and near the treeline. It grew, and grew larger, and then grew a little more until it took the shape of an almost three-meter-high Nidoqueen.

    There was a quiet moment as the poison and ground pokemon took the destructive scene before her.

    She first looked to the left, at me, Corviknight and Zoroark, then at the middle, the crater where Slaking and Weavile were, and finally to the right, at the group of pokemon around Basil¡¯s body.

    Her eyes narrowed on Basil¡¯s unconscious body.

    She raised her head, opened her massive mouth, and roared to the skies before smashing her way toward the pokemon around Basil. Halfway through the massive poison pokemon stopped and turned her head to the side.

    At me.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s an annoyance.¡± I looked to the side and Brian was there, Umbreon at his side, and Basil, tied up and unconscious, on the ground.

    The humongous poison pokemon that dwarfed the Hariyama gave a single step in our direction and Brian flung out three Ultraballs toward the Nidoqueen. From one surged a mountain of muscles, a Tyranitar, from another a raging beast with three voices, a Hydreigon, and from the last one, the almost comically small disaster pokemon, Absol.

    The Tyranitar, smaller than the Nidoqueen by one entire meter, held onto her body to stop the giant pokemon. She pushed him back ten, twenty, thirty meters towards us. I doubted he could stop her.

    And then he stopped her.

    Pillars and columns of rock rose from the ground to support the Tyranitar in halting Nidoqueen. He used ground and rock to give him enough leverage enough to stop her.

    The purple pokemon flexed her muscles and all the rocks summoned by the Tyranitar broke away from them.

    The Tyranitar, surprised, took a quick backhand blow that tossed him away.

    Corviknight raised a wing to shield us from random rocks.

    Before she could continue her march, Hydreigon fell from the sky to deliver an extremely powerful full-body Giga Impact to the pokemon¡¯s head. This shockwave travelled all the way from the head of the Nidoqueen to the ground and shook the ground all around. I had to kneel.

    The dragon didn¡¯t stop and hacked at the Nidoqueen¡¯s back with bites and strikes of different types. Tyranitar came back running and punched the front of the pokemon of the distracted pokemon with a roar.

    I gaped as the pokemon ignored all of that. She used one hand to push away the Tyranitar and reached to her back with the other to pick up the Hydreigon¡¯s main head and smash him on the ground.

    The Absol stood up and looked around as Brian¡¯s pokemon encircled the Nidoqueen.

    ¡°If he had that thing, why didn¡¯t he release that before!?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a rocket failsafe, one of many.¡± He gestured to Basil. ¡°Basil was a Rocket Executive, and every executive has a pokemon personally trained by Giovanni with them. Their pokeballs only open if the executive gets knocked unconscious. These pokemon¡¯s orders, given by Giovanni himself, are to kill every witness and secure the executive until Team Rocket can retrieve him or her. That¡¯s what made a pain in the ass for even master-level trainers to capture an executive.¡±

    I glanced at the Nidoqueen that was being attacked by the surrounding pokemon. ¡°Are you going to win this?¡±

    ¡°Two years ago, I would have just bailed.¡± Brian stopped to nod at Umbreon and Zoroark as both were called by the Disaster Pokemon to help. The Corviknight stepped up and secured Basil with one claw. ¡°But since then, we¡¯ve created an approach to deal with these situations. Tell me if you can spot it.¡±

    I turned back to observe the fight.

    Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and the tired Slaking worked together to share the burden of going toe-to-toe with the brutal poison pokemon, and the other pokemon worked by delivering precise attacks when openings presented themselves. The only pokemon that was not fighting was the calm and still Absol.

    The Absol was a line capable of seeing the future or, better yet, one path of the future. The more clearly, reliably, and trustworthy they see the future, the more energy they need to spend, and they spend buckets of energy for just one minute of the future so, to maximise this natural ability they stay completely still and use nothing else, just their Future Sight, the real Future Sight.

    That is why people associated an unmoving Absol with a future disaster. Today, people see a normal, relaxed Absol going about its day and they lose their minds. Pathetic.

    ¡°Death by a thousand cuts?¡± I tried. ¡°The Absol is seeing the future and directing the group of pokemon to attack when those three give them openings.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry, I guess that¡¯s my fault. When I say ¡®we¡¯ I was talking about the League. My team will never win this fight, at least for now.¡± Brian responded and then showed me something that looked like a Pokedex, but I knew it was a communication device that the Defence Department gave to Indigo masters for wide-range communication. ¡°What we are trying to do is to buy time for someone to come and help. Depending on who responds, we can exhaust the Nidoqueen into collapsing or even faint her. We call it an R036.¡±

    I gestured to the twelve pokemon holding back the sole Nidoqueen. Bruises were already visible in the Tyranitar¡¯s armour and the Hydreigon¡¯s hide. ¡°All of this just to wait for someone to come and help.¡±

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t get it twisted. I am a master, but Giovanni was not the strongest Gym Leader of Kanto, and leader of Team Rocket for nothing. I am more on the Erika side of things. Well, it will still take some hours for someone to show up, so give me my journal and show me the Cryogonal so that I can make you go away.¡±

    I didn¡¯t like the way he put it, but I took the journal from my bag and gave it to him, then I released the Cryogonal.

    ¡°Hey, Popsicle. How are you doing?¡± The Cryogonal¡¯s eyes narrowed and Brian laughed. ¡°So, are you going to go with this one?¡±

    The pokemon stopped for a full ten seconds, and when my heart had just begun to race faster, the Cryogonal shifted its whole body, approval.

    ¡°Excellent, return your pokemon, please.¡± I looked at the Cryogonal with a smile and returned him. ¡°Good work on both tasks. I will sing praises to the Professor and the others¡­ And I hope you will sing mine when you reach my level.¡±

    ¡°I¡ªI don¡¯t even know if I will get to your level.¡±

    Brian looked at me with a strange look in his dark eyes. ¡°Trust me, Professor Oak would not have made you his sponsored trainer if he thought you couldn¡¯t get at least to my level.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know why I gained my sponsorship.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need to.¡± He shook his head and a big burst from the battlefield shook us, me way more than him. It came from a meeting of punches between the Nidoqueen and the Tyranitar, which the Tyranitar naturally lost. ¡°Don¡¯t be fooled by the genial and eccentric personality of Professor Oak. He does nothing for no reason. If he sponsors you, it¡¯s because he believes, and I would take his beliefs very seriously.¡±

    I stopped trying to beat my head against a wall. ¡°I didn¡¯t finish your journal. Did you get to the conference in your second year?¡±

    He sneered. ¡°I have more talent and focus than poor Basil here, but let¡¯s just say that Professor Oak would not have become my sponsor¡­ Now, I see that help is coming, so you best be on your way.¡±

    A scream from a dragon sounded in the distance, and the distant sound of the wind being cut was unmistakable. A Dragonite was coming.

    ¡°One last question.¡±

    ¡°What, now?¡± Brian asked.

    ¡°You could see what was happening in the battle?¡±

    ¡°Ah. The ever-present question¡­ Yes, yes, I could.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± He laughed at my desesperated face.

    ¡°Find out yourself. Wiggly?¡±

    ¡°Wigglytuff!¡± a pleasant voice responded and for a second, everything faded away into black. The Lake, the snow, the ground, the pokemon, Basil, and Brian all were gone in a second and I was standing on top of a hill.

    I looked down and saw the giant and sprawling metropolitan city of Goldenrod.

    I heard a sound from behind me and turned to find Brian¡¯s Wigglytuff lying under a tree, laying in its shade. Her bag was resting against the tree and she was panting heavily.

    ¡°Wi-¡ªWiggly.¡±

    I knew that after that massive teleport, she would need at least one hour of rest. ¡°Do you need something to eat or drink?¡±

    The pink pokemon¡¯s ears stood up. She raised her head, looked at me with her big blue eyes, and beamed.

 Interlude - The Meeting Room

    I never thought that being an ACE trainer would be boring.

    After having placed in the top sixty-four in my last appearance at the Indigo Conference, and having reached the top thirty-two the year before, I decided to stop fooling myself and get a real job. I already had gotten an offer from the government from the year before so I went ahead and applied to become an ACE trainer.

    An employee of the Indigo Region, an ACE trainer, would surely have exciting things to do and to learn, I imagined.

    The problem was that I was placed in Olivine, at the headquarters of the Defense Department, the second safest place in the entirety of Indigo behind just the Indigo Plateau. I wasted years and years, two to be exact, patrolling the halls of the large concrete building and its lush green surroundings while bored out of my mind.

    The only saving grace was the training that I got from the senior staff of the HQ, occasionally the masters of Indigo, and sometimes the League Officers who passed by. And of course, my particular training time to not let my personal skills rust.

    I would never hear the end of it from my clan if I returned weaker than I left.

    Oh, and I guess the beaches were nice.

    I sighed.

    Right now, I was resting, not really, but sort of. I was slouched about on one of the two nice seats near the back wall of meeting room six.

    Meeting room six was a lovely meeting room, way more spacious than any of the others. The illumination was also really nice, very spooky. The giant oval boardroom table made of black timber was stunningly beautiful, only surpassed by the seats around it, I didn¡¯t even know how to describe those chairs.

    Even my chair was comfortable, in truth, I was making an effort not to fall asleep. This chair is just so comfortable.

    I had been stationed¡ªat the last minute¡ªto secure the people who would be having a meeting here, very exciting work indeed.

    I frowned at the time on my watch, the meeting was about to start and my partner, Vincent, was still missing, and even ignoring my messages.

    I would kick his butt if he made the Captain yell at me again.

    The beautiful mahogany wood doors opened and Captain Grace entered. The forty years old man looked around the room and then began to make his way towards me

    Eyes wide, I quickly fixed my posture, got up, and saluted him. The forty-year-old man looked around the room as he got closer, I thought he was going to give me a grueling lecture, something about always standing straight, but he walked past me, and sat on the chair next to mine.

    He also didn''t say anything. A first.

    I sat back on my chair. ¡°Are you going to yell at me?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Strange,¡± I whispered.

    ¡°If you must know,¡± he sighed, ¡°it''s because now is the only time when you can actually relax in your duties.¡±

    The door opened before I could speak and a short elderly man dressed in a black suit entered the room. He had pale skin and sharp eyes with dark circles under them, I had heard about him.

    Under Secretary Avery of the Internal Security Division stood there, holding the door open.

    Which meant¡­

    The sound of a cane hitting the floor made my body freeze.

    An elderly woman with greying blond hair entered the room through the open door that Avery held for her. She wore a purple dress that bellowed as she moved to the center of the big room, unhindered by her cane. Her harsh face decided to settle between a smile and a sneer as her eyes inspected all the corners of the meeting room.

    Then her eyes landed on them.

    It was Agatha, the Fourth Elite and Secretary of Defense of the Indigo Region.

    I was slightly later than Grace to stand up and salute.

    Now I knew why he said that I could relax. I glanced down at Agatha¡¯s shadow, where her troupe of Gengar no doubt were, waiting for someone to attack its trainer so they could have the excuse of self-defense.

    ¡°Elite Four Agatha, Under Secretary Avery.¡± Saluted Captain Grace. ¡°A pleasure to see you both, sirs.¡±

    Agatha reached the middle of the room. Avery, after closing the door and accompanying her, pulled a chair¡ªthe chair in the middle of the table¡ªfor her to sit on, and then sat at the chair to her right.

    ¡°Grace, my dear.¡± Agatha nodded, and then her crazed eyes landed on me. ¡°And who is that young lady?¡±

    ¡°ACE trainer Aria Hanzo of Mahogany, ma¡¯am,¡± Grace said. ¡°She is the only cleared ACE trainer that we could pull on short notice. The others were sent to hold Mt. Silver since General Pelton is coming to the meeting.¡±

    My head snapped to Grace ¡ªPelton ¡°The Sky Scar¡± would be coming here. The war hero, the elder dragon?¡ªI was raised with stories of his feats and this would be the first time I would see, in person, the mysterious and legendary figure that these days dutifully secured the whole eastern part of Mt. Silver. Alone.

    Elite Four Agatha nodded. ¡°Are you a poison trainer, little ninja?¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± I said.

    ¡°The Defense Department could use a cleared poison ninja.¡± I didn¡¯t see and was also certain that even if I looked there would be nothing on his face, but I felt displeasure oozing from Grace. ¡°Age?¡±

    ¡°Seventeen, ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°Almost then.¡± She grinned like a Sharpedo. ¡°Next year I will send you a transference letter.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, ma¡¯am.¡± I smiled.

    That was an incredible and dangerous opportunity. That could be my coffin or it could be my route to progress past my limits, to leave this stagnation. Other people would say no but I always have bet on myself and my team.

    The door opened again and more people entered.

    They began to arrive over the next five minutes, almost fifty in total. Most were dressed in military uniform, some more casually in shirts and jeans as if they were going to buy groceries, others were dressed like trainers, and a couple wore pokemon professors'' lab coats. The military people were the only ones I recognized since I saw those same people walking around the headquarters.

    I began to notice, as they arrived and took their seats, that the only thing in common between all those people was that they were all elderly. There was not a single one that I would say is less than sixty years old.

    As they sat down they began to make small talk with each other or in small groups, asking about family, friends, teammates, and how they were doing individually. What I mostly heard from where I was sitting in the back was, as it was common for the elderly, about their health problems. Their backs hurt, they had to begin to eat more healthily because some doctor told them to, and someone even talked about their diabetes.

    This ¡°reunion¡± reminded me of the only time I had been allowed to participate, silently, in the meeting of the elders of the clan. I had just finished the ACE training camp and was about to leave my village to take post in Olivine when my grandmother invited me to the meeting.

    I was fascinated.

    It was both strange and captivating seeing my sweet grandmother discuss issues that ranged from whom to send to deal with the questionable missions that the government issued to us, to the building of a park in the newest part of the village. In one breath they talked about their old games on the weekend and the next about an ambush they needed to sprung on a crazy master in the Frontier.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    I was half-convinced that they only allowed me to participate to show what would happen if I went crazy myself.

    The door opened again and this time the person who entered was well-known, Pokemon Professor Oak, or as the Indigo Government called him when he was in official Region business, Champion Oak. The charming professor walked to his seat, which was in front of Agatha, while amicably greeting the other people in the room. He sat down and Agatha glared at him for a second before glancing at the empty chair.

    ¡°Who are we missing?¡± She asked loudly, silencing all the other conversations, and immediately rolled her eyes. ¡°Pelton, of course.¡±

    The people used the delay to talk to Professor Oak, who began talking back to everyone. Every one of the forty-nine members seemed to want to talk with the Professor about something or another, but when he found the time, the professor turned to Captain Grace and me.

    ¡°Good day for you two.¡±

    ¡°Champion Oak.¡± Captain Grace responded.

    ¡°Pro¡ªChampion Oak.¡±

    The grandfatherly figure smiled and ignored her slip-up, he then returned to his conversation with the other two pokemon professors.

    Minutes later the door opened again, everyone expected to see the Sky Scar, no doubt, but a lanky and handsome dude wearing black clothes and a belt full of Ulltra balls was the one who entered the room. He looked around the room and didn¡¯t like what he saw by the sourness of his face.

    My body tensed as I made a sign for my Beedrill that was hidden on the ceiling to attack him if he made any reckless movement.

    He took a step to the side and held the door, and then Sky Scar entered.

    Pelton looked exactly how he appeared on the television and in the history book pictures, just way older. He was a small, and seemingly frail old man, who wore purple robes, the usual attire donned by the elders of the four dragon clans of Blackthorn. His head was bald and he sported a big grey beard that went to his chest. His black eyes, I knew, didn¡¯t see much anymore.

    He looked just like a normal old man, far from the image that I had in my head. The recognizable scar that ran from his forehead to his chin and through his right eye was still there though.

    I also knew that Pelton could beat my entire team, all eight of them, with his weakest one, even if that pokemon couldn¡¯t use any dragon moves. Fuck that, even if that pokemon didn¡¯t use any moves I would lose.

    The elder dragon.

    ¡°Sorry for my lateness, I had to stop to help young Brian here.¡± He gestured with his head to the tall, lanky man to his side. ¡°I also brought him here for him to give us first-hand testimony on a sensitive mission that he took that may be of interest to us.¡±

    Pelton took his seat near Champion Oak and the other people in the room focused on the young man.

    ¡°Master Brian, report.¡± Commanded Agatha.

    The man gave a short salute. ¡°Esteemed elders, I was directed by the Territorial Department to handle a situation in Grey Lake, south of Goldenrod. Ice-type pokemon were being lured to that location and captured by the hundreds by what seemed to be a big trafficking operation, so my mission was to destroy the operation, arrest key personnel who might have information about the hows and whys, and release the ice-type pokemon back in the environment.¡±

    ¡°What was the outcome?¡± One of the people in the room asked.

    ¡°The personnel were captured and the base was destroyed. I, together with Pelton, was able to release two hundred pokemon but we were unable to find the other four hundred that were supposed to be there by the accounts of the people who worked in the base, they also didn¡¯t know where these pokemon were sent to, but we do know they were paid for.¡±

    ¡°What was the approach?¡± Champion Oak asked.

    The other elders looked at each other, confused at the question, which meant that the master, was, of course, a trusted person who didn''t need to be asked the question.

    I knew the question, of course.

    The Government and the League had a common directive. It wasn¡¯t enough to solve a problem, how you solved it was as important, and sometimes more important than the solution in the eyes of both organizations. The instructors at the ACE training camp hammered that lesson in our heads as they told us that it was a lesson that humanity learned many times over in the course of the thousands of years of our history.

    How do your superiors stop asking about your approach to a problem? Prove time and again that you understand its importance and they would trust you to do the right thing. It was even one of the requisites to being able to claim a master¡¯s title in the eyes of Indigo and League.

    The pokemon master, however, didn''t seem surprised or offended at the question as some other masters might be.

    ¡°According to the ranger reports, direct confrontation would not work as every time someone approached the lake the operation stopped and the people behind it hid, probably a master-level pokemon scout. So I enlisted the help of a sixteen-year-old, first-year trainer named Scott Wood to stay in the area and wait for the people running the operation to appear and expulse him.¡±

    ¡°Scott Wood?¡± said Under Secretary Avery. ¡°He is your new sponsored trainer, no? Champion Oak.¡±

    ¡°Indeed,¡± said the smiling professor, ¡°born and raised in Azalea, I was surprised when I learned that he met young Brian here, thankfully he could be of help.¡±

    Brian nodded. ¡°Scott Wood stayed there for five days and on the sixth, he was approached by two thugs that asked him to leave, my Corviknight flew to the location and knocked them out, then, what I assume is the leader of the operation showed up, Basil Miller. I was able to capture him and with the help of Pelton I transported him and his team here¡­¡±

    Someone struck the table, hard. An elder dressed in clan clothes close to my side of the room smashed his fist into the black-painted wood table. All the other people in the room turned to him.

    His face was red and his eyes narrowed as he glared daggers at Agatha.

    I felt a cold chill run up my body.

    ¡°The Hy¨­nosen request for the prisoner to be given to us after interrogation and verdict.¡±

    ¡°I will forward your petition to Lance,¡± said Agatha, ¡°I can''t promise however that I will speak favorably of it.¡±

    ¡°Agatha...¡±

    ¡°Enough.¡± Agatha''s face darkened and the shadows that hid in the room moved as their trainer spoke. The man, by his ashen face, seemed to remember with whom he was speaking. He leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. ¡°Continue, Master Brian.¡±

    ¡°As I was saying, I fought against Basil and was able to knock him unconscious, however, he still had his fail-safe, R036, a Nidoqueen.¡±

    I studied this Brian, Basil Miller was one of the sixteen Rockets Executives after all, one of the weakest if not the weakest, but even then, to capture him is no easy feat especially if he had Giovanni¡¯s pokemon with him.

    He briefly caught me looking at him and I dodged his eyes.

    ¡°I presume that Sky Scar was an okay help at least.¡± Said a large pokemon professor.

    Most of the elders in the room at least cracked a smile at the comment, some even laughed.

    ¡°Pelton, is the pokemon rehabilitable?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but Brock will not be able to handle it.¡±

    ¡°Bruno then.¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Pokemon Master Brian Brin, good work, you¡¯re free to continue your hunt.¡±

    Under Secretary Avery finally spoke. ¡°You think that your target will try his luck passing through the mountains to get to Kanto?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so sir, all the clues that I was able to gather show that he is planning something in Johto.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure you can defeat him?¡± A woman in uniform and with lots of medals over her chest leaned forward. ¡°He is not like Basil, more in the middle of the pack that one.¡±

    ¡°If he had his fail-safe with him I would say it¡¯s impossible but, as of right now, I can beat him.¡±

    The woman hummed.

    ¡°Does anyone have any more questions?¡± Agatha said and waited for a beat. ¡°You are dismissed, Master Brian, you can speak with the treasurer for Basil¡¯s reward.¡±

    Brian nodded, saluted, and left, not before stealing a glance at me. I coughed on a fist to hide my embarrassment at being caught checking him out. As soon as he left a discussion began again.

    ¡°Why would Team Rocket try to capture ice types?¡±

    ¡°Are we even sure it¡¯s the Rockets? Maybe this Basil is doing this alone.¡±

    ¡°They were disbanded.¡±

    ¡°I read the reports, an operation of this size must have backers.¡±

    ¡°Are the assets secured?¡±

    ¡°We check them regularly, and they are fine.¡±

    ¡°Should we send someone after those?¡±

    The conversation extended for ten minutes and I was impressed.

    No one in the room spoke in direct and concrete terms. Every sentence seemed to be constructed in a way that no one could get meaning without some more complete context, an elusive conversation meant to confuse or blur understanding. Looks like not even the Headquarters is a safe place to speak plainly for this lot.

    After the discussion about the topic of Basil and the ice-type operation ended, they moved to another topic.

    The next subject was about the Salamence that entered into the Region through the Frontier. They were certain that these dragons followed someone who invaded the Region, and apparently, the main culprit was Brian¡¯s target if I understood correctly what they were speaking. They discussed where he could be and left some instructions to deal with the rock master in case they were seen.

    People began to leave as soon as the topic ended, mostly military.

    Then it began to become boring, with problems concerning a lot more the two professors, excluding Professor Oak who decided to just listen, they talked science language which I didn¡¯t understand. The two professors spoke the most out of everyone, but it was also so coded that it seemed like the words and phrases that went back and forth just slid off my brain.

    After that talk, another wave of people left, and also both professors.

    The next topic was the economy, which was so boring I didn¡¯t pay any attention at all. I just came back from my daydream when some more people rose to leave, mostly the civilians. There were now just twelve people in the room, including Captain Grace and I.

    The last topic was security.

    They talked about the Frontier, Mt. Silver, and the Unknown World, the masters that were there, and what the problems were, something about funds¡ªDammit-¡ªIf I wasn¡¯t so tired of just standing still in a chair for three hours I would have probably paid more attention, even if it was all coded, maybe it would have something interesting, maybe.

    This last chat was extended for another hour.

    I was looking at an empty space on the floor of the nice meeting room when a nudge on my arm almost made me jump.

    I looked to the side and Captain Grace was frowning at me, shit. He gestured with his hand that it was time for us to leave. First, six people that were seated left, and then Captain Rogers and I walked out of the room after them.

    The last thing I saw of the fancy meeting room, as Captain Grace was closing the door, were Avery, Agatha, Pelton, and Champion Oak still sitting on the four chairs in the middle of the big and empty meeting room, and talking.

    I was still impressed that four of the ten strongest trainers in all of Indigo were inside that room, four people with teams who could collapse the entire Region by themselves.

    Then I imagined what I would feel if I had the power that those four people wielded.

    I couldn¡¯t wait to get that letter.

 Johto Chapter 24

    We were sitting down in a pink caf¨¦, waiting for our food.

    I didn¡¯t expect that the criteria by which Wigglytuff would choose where we would eat would be by which place had the most pink.

    The first thing I did after having been teleported to the outskirts of Goldenrod was to release my team to let them know that we were safe and now, by teleport, very far away from Grey Lake. I briefly explained to them what had happened after they were returned by the Zoroark, the fight between both masters¡¯ teams, and the appearance of the powerful Nidoqueen.

    Cape and Valley were, naturally, quite mad that they hadn¡¯t seen the battle, Jungle was just glad that we were safe, the cute little guy, and while Mesa and Cryogonal hadn''t shown much emotion, they used their body language to express their feelings of relief.

    After everyone calmed down I returned Jungle, Mesa, and Cryogonal, leaving me with Cape, to carry the tired Wigglytuff¡¯s bag, and Valley, who didn¡¯t like to stay inside her pokeball.

    I had, for a few seconds, wondered how I would find somewhere to eat in the huge city of three million inhabitants when I had never been here before, but it seemed like Wigglytuff had been here before, many times in fact if the way she navigated through the streets were any indication.

    Goldenrod was big so we still had to walk for thirty minutes to where she wanted to go and I now understood why people

    A completely pink caf¨¦ named The Fairy Spot.

    We entered the big pink saloon, sat at a table, and made our order to the waitress.

    The vibrant Wigglytuff didn''t need to check the menu, she just pointed at something in there to the waitress who nodded and noted down her order before taking ours.

    Thankfully the caf¨¦ had internet, so I didn''t need to waste money calling Jess on the phone.

    I contacted her by chat in the pokenet and asked her where we could meet up. I was waiting for a response when Cape and Valley began to interrogate me, in depth, about Brian¡¯s battle, and surprisingly enough Wigglytuff sometimes interjected to add her own commentary, which meant that she was watching the battle.

    Soon enough, the two crazed-for-battle pokemon stopped with the questions and began to talk between themselves, by the vigorous energy on their side of the table they were still talking about the battle.

    Since I was just waiting for Jess¡¯ response and our food I decided to try and talk to Wigglytuff too.

    ¡°It looks like you came here before.¡± The pink pokemon who was looking around the place and admiring the waitress''s uniform, no doubt admiring the pink in them, turned to me and nodded quickly. ¡°Did you ever come here with Brian?¡±

    The pokemon covered her mouth with her pink arms and giggled while nodding. I couldn¡¯t fault her, imagining Brian, who dressed like he was a serial killer from a Unovan movie, sitting here in this pink place and eating pink food put a smile on my face.

    The Wigglytuff and I began to talk but it was difficult to communicate since she didn¡¯t know how to use body language as well as Cape. I was able to learn some things though, for example, that she was not a League or government-assigned pokemon but was, in fact, Brian''s actual pokemon and that she had been his pokemon for about three years.

    I was surprised since most masters don¡¯t like having pokemon that are not in their type specialization and are assigned pokemon to help transport, navigate, and sometimes battle.

    Our conversation was cut when the food arrived.

    I saw that Wigglytuff had ordered a completely pink strawberry pie, which she cut and then ate very slowly as if to taste every single piece of the pie. Cape, Valley, and I had just ordered a few sweets since we were not that hungry.

    Sometime after she had finished the pie, she was just resting on her seat with a blissful expression when her ears, which were laid down, suddenly stood up.

    ¡°Wiggly,¡± she said as she looked up. ¡°Wigglytuff!¡± She stood up and gracefully bowed to us, then she grabbed her bag from where it was laid near Cape and waved goodbye before leaving the caf¨¦ in a hurry.

    The last thing I saw from where I was sitting was a pink glow and then she was gone.

    I looked over the chat and saw that Jess had given me the location of the Gym of Goldenrod

    She said in the message that it was near where I was and that we could already schedule our matches. I had no problem with that so I put the location on the city map on my laptop, paid for the food, and left with Cape and Valley to our destination.

    -

    After Jess and I met outside Whitney¡¯s Gym, the biggest in Johto with space for thirty thousand people, we entered by one of the eight entrances, and like the other entrances, this one had five booths dedicated exclusively to scheduling matches, so while everyone in Johto wanted to schedule a match the process to do so was quicker than Azalea, which left me very surprised.

    Jess''s match would happen on October the second and mine would be on October the third, today being September twenty-nine, thinking about the fact that I had traveled more than twenty days as a pokemon trainer left me energized despite my mental tiredness.

    The time we spent on the Sea Route hurt though, we lost four days of travel since going the normal route would be faster, just to not find an Ice type.

    I looked down at the Cryogonal¡¯s pokeball¡ªWell, it did work out in the end.

    We had to walk more than ten minutes to get to the Pokemon Center where Jess was staying. There was one right by the Gym but it was always so full you had to wait hours before a room got free.

    We reached the Pokemon Center and after getting a room for me and the team, Jess and I sat together at a table in the Pokemon Center lobby with Cape, Valley, and Velocity. After I told the whole story of what had happened to Jess and Velocity, including the absolutely crazy battle, the first question she had for me was:

    ¡°So he just gave you a Cryogonal, just like that?¡±

    Cape and I looked at each other and began to laugh.

    Jess looked at the both of us and huffed. ¡°What are you guys laughing about?¡±

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°A friend of mine in Azalea said the same thing when I told him that Professor Oak gave me a Bulbasaur after I passed his interview.¡±

    She rolled her eyes.

    ¡°Well, seeing that battle would be nice.¡± she sighed. ¡°But you really didn¡¯t see almost anything?¡±

    ¡°Well, I saw almost all the fight between Hariyama and Slaking, the brief grappling match between Machamp and Crawdaunt and Nidoqueen against Brian¡¯s team.¡±

    ¡°Why does he have a Slaking again, and a Corviknight?¡±

    ¡°Well, Slaking and Corviknight are lines that have some dark type energy inside them, that''s why they can learn many dark type moves,¡± I said while checking on my laptop where we could train. ¡°Masters don¡¯t limit themselves to what the Pokedex or the professors, remember that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir, is this going to be on the test also?¡±

    I rolled my eyes. ¡°When did you get here by the way?¡±

    ¡°Yesterday,¡± she said, ¡°since I didn''t know when your ¡°trip¡± was going to end I just decided to walk straight to Goldenrod. Well, I did spend one day in a small city to participate in a mini-tournament.¡±

    ¡°Really? How did you do?¡±

    ¡°Seventh place, it was for trainers between year one and three.¡±

    ¡°Well, I hope you weren''t disappointed.¡±

    ¡°Please, I just entered because there was no entrance fee, the town was trying to attract attention to a big festival or something like that.¡±

    After we talked some more about what had happened in our separate travels, I decided to retire to my room. I was exhausted but I wanted to at least look at one or two three-level badge battles of Whitney.

    ¡°Bul.¡± The cute sound caught my attention and I turned around on the chair to look at Jungle, who had Mesa by his side.

    They were looking at me with Cape behind them, the bug type had a smug grin on his face

    ¡°Something wrong?¡± I said to the two pokemon.

    ¡°Bulba.¡± Jungle said with determination in his eyes.

    He then began to make some cute questioning sounds while the Baltoy was just moving his arms up and down, I got the feeling that they were curious about something.

    ¡°Cape,¡± the pokemon stopped smiling, ¡°explain, please.¡±

    Cape rolled his eyes, and then came around and pointed at the screen of my laptop, at the battle that was playing. Whitney against a three-badge trainer.

    ¡°Oh, I see, you guys want to know who is going to participate in the battle?¡±

    They nodded and I laughed with Cape. He already knew that we would be fighting a three-level badge match instead of a two-level badge because of the Mark that Bugsy put on us when Cape swept his match.

    ¡°When I told you guys you were competing for the second spot in the match what I didn¡¯t say to you was that this next match was going to be three against three, so both of you are going to battle.¡±

    The normal course that people took to get badges said that one and two badge matches were two on two, three and four badges were three on three, four and five badges were four on four, six and seven badges were five on five, and the last badge, the eight, was a six on six.

    It would be my second badge match but because of the Mark, I would be considered as challenging for the third badge, so a three on three.

    And I wanted to use Cape, Jungle, and Mesa in that match.

    Both pokemon spent some seconds in silence and then I saw their posture change as they began to understand that they were tricked, then Jungle began to run around while screaming, while Mesa began to move his arms in outrage.

    ¡°Calm down, guys, it was just a little prank to get you both to work a little harder.¡±

    ¡°Min.¡± Valley was sitting on top of a drawer and glaring at Jungle who was making a mess of the Pokemon Center¡¯s room. However, she decided to ignore them in favor of crossing her arms and glare at me. ¡°Minccino.¡±

    ¡°I know you want to battle, Valley, but they entered the team first and trained more¡ªalthough not as hard,¡± I said, appeasing her a little. ¡°Next time will be your and Cryogonal¡¯s turn.¡±

    The Cryogonal who was watching both pokemon¡¯s frustration turned to me when I spoke his name.

    He floated to me and his ice plates shifted, a lot.

    I didn¡¯t understand what he wanted. ¡°Cape, can you help?¡±

    The bug pokemon reached out to my bag and took out my pokemon¡¯s journals, where I had all the information and plans for them, if it was anyone other than Cape or my pokemon I would have been nervous right now. Cape then put them on the bed and instead of opening them he just pointed at the tag on them, their names.

    ¡°You want a name?¡± The Cryogonal eyes smiled. ¡°I have some ideas, want to hear them?¡±

    The whole body of the Cryogonal shifted, approval. Jungle and Mesa quieted down, and then together with Cape and Valley they settled down to watch what name the ice type would get.

    ¡°Well, the candidates are, Glacier, Iceberg, Fjord, these are more commonly associated with Ice and Snow, then you also have some water ones if you like, Ocean and Sea.¡±

    I spent some minutes explaining what each of them meant and how they could apply to him, like how Jungle would be as dangerous as a wild jungle or how Valley wanted to gloat as the best Cinccino in the world.

    He spends the same time refusing them.

    Glacier and Iceberg he didn¡¯t like how it sounded, Fjord he liked the sound but didn¡¯t like the description of what a Fjord is. He denied anything that was water. In the end, nothing appealed to him and then we decided to sleep and resume this talk for another day.

    -

    The busy streets of Goldenrod showed why this city was the economic heart of Johto.

    Most people moving along the big roads of asphalt and concrete were dressed in suits and carrying briefcases, entering and leaving skyscrapers, they were the ones that made the bureaucracy and trade sectors work. The second group were, of course, trainers.

    Goldenrod had the most Pokemon Centers, the most Battle Halls, the most Pokemart, the most trainer-focused stores, and the most tournaments of all the cities in Indigo because there were so many trainers here.

    ¡°I would think that after traveling so much you would rest a day or two before going to the Battle Hall?¡± I said to Jess.

    ¡°There is something I want to buy in Goldenrod but I don¡¯t want to take it out of my funds, you know,¡± Jess said and gave a small laugh.

    ¡°All right?¡± I shrugged. ¡°By the way, you remember when Brian told us that he didn''t want to talk to your uncle?¡±

    She slowed down a bit and nodded.

    ¡°What was that about?¡±

    ¡°Huh, you know my uncle is a Gym Trainer right?¡± I nodded. ¡°He is the right-hand man of the Gym leader of Solaceon Town, and the next in line to take the Gym if Sinnoh doesn''t make another fire-type master like Flint.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that is nice for your family I imagine.¡±

    ¡°Well, it''s complicated,¡± Jess said as she looked over at the store we passed. ¡°My uncle is not considered a master so if he takes over the Gym the League will probably not accept his nomination.¡±

    ¡°I know they have more power there, but what happens in Sinnoh if the Pokemon League doesn''t accept the nomination?¡± I said.

    The Pokemon League is an international and private organization founded in Sinnoh almost one hundred years ago by a group of rich people, they made a contract with the Sinnoh government to take over the maintenance of the routes and take care of the main tournaments.

    Five years later it burned into the ground, hard.

    Amongst its problems were corruption, failed marketing strategies, and extorsion practices like charging for pokemon healthcare, something that was free when the government was funding the operation.

    It seemed that the normal rich people weren''t able to understand the needs and wants of trainers it seems.

    Sinnoh was left with a failed and bankrupt company and for the first time in its two hundred years history would be unable to fund and maintain its routes, tournaments, and even its Championship, it had to create a big emergency debt to cover the costs for the next three years and when it seemed like the whole structure behind the economy of pokemon training would go back to the hands of the Sinnoh government, the richest trainers of Sinnoh got together and bought the, at the time called, Pokemon Federation and changed her into the Pokemon League.

    Since then, the League has been made up of a board of the most powerful and influential trainers in Sinnoh, and later on, with the expansion, in the entire Eastern Continent. The League now runs the trainer-related operations of Sinnoh, Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto, including the Conferences that they created.

    But because of concessions they simply don¡¯t have the same massive political power in Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto as they have in Sinnoh, where it''s known that they can influence a lot of things.

    ¡°Well, at the worst, they close the Gym, and at best they simply pick someone from outside like they did with Fantina.¡± She said,¡± The thing is that my Uncle will be out of work, but I guess he could do another thing, he is no master but he is also not weak¡­¡±

    We stopped talking as we got closer to the Battle Hall. It seemed like a crowd was forming outside the large building.

    We reached closer to the crowd and tapped a teenager on the shoulder. ¡°Do you know what is happening in the Battle Hall?¡±

    ¡°Two famous people are going to battle I think?¡±

    ¡°You think, so why are you mobbing the place?¡± Jess said.

    ¡°I just want to see who it was.¡± The defensive guy said. ¡°I just know that one of them is a famous trainer from Blackthorn.¡±

 Johto Chapter 25

    We eventually entered the Battle Hall stands with the crowd. The trainers weren¡¯t even in place yet, and that meant that this was probably a publicity stunt or some kind of rivalry, perhaps. Whatever the case, they were waiting for a crowd, and while we were forced to wait, I picked from the surrounding conversation the names Aiden Hageshi and Hazel.

    I didn¡¯t know these two, so either they never made it to the Conference or they were first-year trainers. Cape and I watched the Conferences every year since we met two years ago, and I didn¡¯t remember those names.

    Not to say that I knew nothing about at least one of them.

    ¡°So Scott, this always happens when two famous trainers battle?¡± Jess asked. ¡°The entire Battle Hall stops to see them?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never used the Battle Hall too much before... I¡¯m a first year too, remember?¡±

    ¡°Hum. You know anything about those two, at least?¡±

    ¡°I heard their names. Hageshi is the name of one of the four dragon clans of Blackthorn. They are famous for their training of the Gyarados line.¡±

    Jess frowned. ¡°Gyarados are not dragons.¡±

    ¡°The Hageshi clan was created three hundred years ago,¡± I said with a smile. ¡°Pokemon Professors began measuring type energy in pokemon and sorting them eighty years ago. Good luck explaining to them what is or isn¡¯t a dragon.¡±

    ¡°That is interesting, I guess. Gyarados does learn dragon moves... Wait. They begin with a Magikarp as a starter?¡±

    ¡°They journey later than the other trainers from Blackthorn after the Magikarp evolves. Normally, they only need to wait one year.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fast.¡±

    ¡°Yup, trade secrets of ancient dragon clans.¡±

    After a few more minutes of waiting and with the Battle Hall halfway full, both trainers appeared at the double doors.

    Aiden Hageshi was the first one to enter the arena.

    From here, I can see that he appears to be fourteen years old and has blue hair. He¡¯s dressed in the typical attire of trainers from Blackthorn - a clan fleece sweatshirt, baggy travel pants and hiking shoes. The colour scheme was all black, with light blue lines to show what clan he belonged to. I remember Alice telling me that this was the new fashion of the Blackthorn youth.

    He had three pokeballs on his belt.

    The teenage girl that came after him, Hazel, looked more plain and older, sixteen maybe. She had medium brown hair tied into a ponytail, wore a green T-shirt, blue hiking pants and boots.

    There were five pokeballs on her belt.

    He walked proudly, head high and body straight. An exemplar Blackthorn, would say both the people who loved them and people who hated them. The girl walked with purpose, but her eyes never left the boy as she walked to her place.

    When they were ready, an arbiter got closer and spoke the instructions, which echoed over the arena for the crowd. The only notable one was that it was a three-on-three.

    Both nodded to the arbiter, and the match began.

    The first pokemon that Aiden used was his starter, a small Gyarados, a recently evolved one. Hazel responded with a fully grown Noctowl. They exchanged some moves.

    The owl pokemon hit harder, and the Gyarados collapsed in minutes.

    The dragon trainer released a Swablu next, this one young too. It got a few hits in but fainted in one minute against the larger owl. At last, a Horsea appeared as Aiden¡¯s last pokemon. The water pokemon fainted the Noctowl with precise strikes but easily lost to Hazel¡¯s next pokemon, a Natu.

    The pokemon won by using Teleport, Confuse Ray, and then finishing it with a Peck.

    For me, it had been fast; it had been boring, and the crowd seemed to agree. A third of the people in the stands were booing the match. I got the feeling that they were booing the Blackthorn boy more, which made me think he was the one who began this mess.

    When everything went back to normal in the Battle Hall, we had lost an hour. Jess and I were able to get some tokens for the first badge battles. I used Jungle and Mesa the most today, with Valley sometimes coming out.

    Over the next few days until the match, I wanted to get as much battle experience as I could into the two pokemon that would fight the Gym Match with Cape, Jungle and Mesa.

    Since Cape was so advanced in fighting, we decided he would do fewer battles and focus more on mastering his moves, especially Rock Tomb and Pin Missile, which would be good against Whitney. We also decided to not fight with Cryogonal just yet since he couldn¡¯t fight for long without Rain Dance to make Snowscape.

    This first day was a positive.

    Jungle fought seven battles and won five, mostly because of the strength of his whips and Razor Leaf. Mesa fought five battles and won five by adapting to each opponent with his many moves. Of course, we were fighting against other first badge trainers, kids mostly, so I couldn¡¯t let it get to our head.

    At the end of the day, we left the Battle Hall with our pockets a little more full, and more importantly, a little more confidence for our match against Whitney.

    -

    ¡°So what? You think that there is something spiritual about pokemon training?¡± Jeremy¡¯s icon blinked as he talked.

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    It was morning, and I just had breakfast.

    I sent a message to Jeremy asking when we could talk, and he said that he could talk now. He was in the library, but since it was empty and he had finished with most of his morning tasks, he could talk right now. I then linked to his computer at the library.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    This poetry was crawling in the back of my mind for some time now, and I needed a fresh take on this. I told him the details behind Brian¡¯s journal and the poetry. The sound of his fingers tapping on the wooden desk as he thought about all of this made me feel a little nostalgic.

    ¡°This poetry is long?¡±

    ¡°At least six pages.¡±

    ¡°Well, read for me a passage that you think it¡¯s important then.¡±

    I looked through the pages of poetry I copied from Brian¡¯s messy journal. Since the poetry seemed to have been building up to a revelation at the end, I read the last page for him. Big paragraphs full of twisting and contradicting notions about dark types.

    ¡°Interesting. Have you tried teaching dark-type moves to your pokemon yet?¡±

    I blinked. ¡°... Not yet.¡±

    ¡°Maybe all of that is just that thing that you talk about when there is meaning...?¡±

    ¡°Aspect?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that. You always say that moves use aspect. Maybe this Brian fellow is just trying to get in the mental state to teach his pokemon. Maybe poetry is his meditation.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, maybe.¡± I was sceptical, or in this case, confident that there was something more here.

    Jeremy read my face. ¡°Look, if you really want to test this, try to teach your pokemon a new move, then try to ¡®get¡¯ into this... Aspect with them. And do try to rest a little. You¡¯re looking tired.¡±

    ¡°Just woke up too early.¡± I yawed. ¡°Thanks, Jeremy, I will try the advice.¡±

    We talked a little more and got off the call. I turned back to my pokemon. Cape, Valley and Mesa were outside while Jungle and Cryogonal were in their Pokeballs.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, team.¡±

    I sent a message to Jess that I would train in a pokemon park. She was probably sleeping, but it wouldn¡¯t hurt to let her know.

    I returned all of them, except Valley, who hopped on my shoulder. We left the Pokemon Center, and I opened my Pokedex to follow the instructions that I put there to a pokemon park that had a space for water types, a space for grass types and a space for ice types. The last one was the one where we would train.

    Since Goldenrod, being a massive metropolitan city, was always full of trainers, it didn¡¯t have just normal pokemon parks, it also had specific parks for specific types. I was able to find one with ice type where Cryogonal could train for a long time.

    We had to take a bus and spend almost one hour to get there since it was on the other side of the city.

    We entered the park and walked to the frozen and snowy space. It was not a lake; it was just a very thin pond of water that the ice pokemon that inhabited this part of the park occasionally froze. Those pokemon could not be caught since they were considered workers of the city.

    I walked to the surface and released the rest of the team. A Heracross, Bulbasaur, Baltoy, Minccino, and a Cryogonal appeared from red lights, my pokemon.

    ¡°All right guys, you know what to train. Cape, continue to work on Pin Missile. Jungle, you are going to spar with Mesa, just long-range and vines.¡± I took a little metal cube from my bag and gave it to Valley, who looked at it like it with sparkling eyes, literally. ¡°Your battery, you remember how to use it?¡±

    She nodded and set off first, already climbing a tree. The others spread out, and then it was only Cryogonal and I.

    ¡°Okay, I want to try something different from Rain Dance today.¡±

    Cryogonal¡¯s plates shifted slowly, curiosity.

    ¡°You know Slash, right?¡±

    The Cryogonal¡¯s flat body turned around and then it spun around while its edge glowed grey. The pokemon released a wide, fast, and sharp line towards the sky. It didn¡¯t go too far before dissipating.

    ¡°Nice. We will use that as a base to learn Night Slash.¡±

    I put my bag on the ground and took out the copy journal. I leafed through the pages until I found the description of Night Slash in Brian¡¯s words. Night Slash was an interesting attack because until it got close to the enemy it was invisible, and just showed when the dark energy that hid it dissipated, which left little time to react.

    I read the description and the entire content two times before closing the journal.

    ¡°Slash is an attack with no other purpose other than cutting. It¡¯s a frontal attack, an attack made with no other motive other than striking the enemy and dealing damage. Night Slash, however, carries the aspect of surprise innately found in the dark. Dark types are predators, more precisely, ambush predators. They wait for the night and when their prey is ignorant of the surrounding danger, that¡¯s when they strike. The only thing that the prey should feel if the hunter is good is surprise.¡±

    Less eloquent or pretty than how Brian wrote in his description or his six-page poem, definitely more practical though. The expression of consideration in the Cryogonal¡¯s eyes told me that it served its purpose.

    ¡°When you bring the dark energy, remember that you don¡¯t want to hurt. Well, not just hurt. You want to hide and surprise.¡±

    The Cryogonal turned to the emptiness of the ice ¡®lake¡¯ and its sharp edges glowed with normal type energy. A minute passed, then three, then ten, and nothing. Finally, the ice type lets the energy dissipate.

    The Cryogonal turned to me and shifted one part of its body, a negative.

    I hummed. ¡°Let¡¯s try an approach that some pokemon trainers use then.¡±

    I turned around to look at the rest of the team, more specifically, Cape.

    ¡°To learn a move imagination sometimes just isn¡¯t enough.¡± That¡¯s why Cape needed Jungle and Quake to train Counter. Now was his turn to help. ¡°We need to practise. You know how to turn into mist, right?¡±

    The Cryogonal nodded. Having been born in a warm place, Cryogonal was forced to learn it, unlike others Cryogonal born in freezing places that had to learn this interesting natural power of theirs.

    I motioned with my head to Cape.

    ¡°You see Cape over there.¡± The Cryogonal nodded. ¡°Turn into mist, get into range and try to use Night Slash into him, a very weak one.¡±

    The Cryogonal eyes narrowed in protest.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I said a weak one, but don¡¯t worry, you are going to use a new move that will also be slow, and Cape has freakish reflexes. He will not get hit, but you will learn the perspective of a dark type. Before releasing the slash, imagine Cape¡¯s face if you did strike him. Go.¡±

    The Cryogonal sagged but soon dissipated into a snowy mist. If I didn¡¯t know he was there, I wouldn¡¯t even notice the cloud against the ice and snowy surroundings of the frozen and snowy scenery.

    The mist moved through the air and stopped when it reached close to Cape, maybe thirty meters. I, knowing Cape, saw his shoulder twitch, which told me he already knew something was wrong and was just waiting to strike back.

    The cloud stopped, and while I waited for the Cryogonal to try his Night Slash, I thought about the surprise that Night Slash was supposed to inflict.

    I remembered the times when I would come home and Cape would be so immersed in the matches and fights on the television that he rarely failed to be surprised when I opened the door of my room.

    The mist was still.

    That one time when two top-level trainers were fighting with their powerful pokemon. Cape didn¡¯t react even when I opened the door and stopped by his side. I remembered the fright on his face when he looked up after I touched his shoulder.

    The realisation that he was not alone in the room¡¯s darkness. I felt it.

    Cryogonal¡¯s cloudy body released something invisible to the eyes. Seconds later, a thin and slow slice of dark-type energy appeared behind Cape.

    Cape turned and batted it away with a grey claw as if he were slapping a paper ball. His narrowed eyes locked onto the cloud that was Cryogonal and then flicked to me. From where I was, I saw him huff before turning around and spreading his wings to give Pin Missile another try.

    The cloud came back to me and gathered onto ice plates that shifted into place.

    ¡°Well, I count that as a success.¡±

    The plates shifted with reluctance, approval with a tint of concern.

    ¡°If you are so worried, just offer to teach him Night Slash later and you¡¯re good,¡± I said. ¡°Now that you know how to do it, you just need to practise. That first one wasn¡¯t only slow and weak, it was also visible halfway through. Let¡¯s try it some more and then we will go back to Rain Dance.¡±

    The Cryogonal slumped but followed as I walked towards a big rock covered in snow, a rock that was about to gain fresh cuts.

    I considered what I had learned from this experiment.

    Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt... Something.

    I don¡¯t know what that was, but it¡¯s probably related to Cryogonal¡¯s attack. He took a long time to release that Night Slash, and that happened right when he released the move.

    People, commenters and trainers alike talked a lot about advantages.

    This trainer has more advantage because he has a more ¡®powerful¡¯ pokemon, this one has more experience, this one has more TMs. Many terms that meant the same thing, advantage, vantage, lead, and my favourite, edge.

    Of course I would need to test more, but I think I just found mine.

 Johto Chapter 26

    Cape, Jungle and Mesa were in front of me, seated around the room. Valley and Cryogonal were there too, but to the side. The stars of our second gym match would be the first three.

    Our first gym match had little significance to Cape and me. Two years of training, even if only on weekends, guaranteed that Cape could easily take on Bugsy. Now, our team¡¯s strength and my skill as a trainer would be actually tested. After all, with discipline and focus, together with two years of preparation, one should expect success in most things, particularly in the first gym.

    ¡°All right, I will brief you on what we can expect from Whitney and her team.¡±

    The three pokemon nodded.

    ¡°The first one out will be Jungle. Since you¡¯re the most inexperienced with battles, you will fight against the easiest of them, don¡¯t take your opponent lightly though.¡±

    The Bulbasaur grunted and clapped his vines.

    ¡°Then Mesa will come next. Besides winning your fight, you will also have the job of setting up the terrain for Cape¡¯s fight. We will make the terrain difficult for them, sand and rock. Cape will fly if needed, there¡¯s no need to hold back.¡±

    The Baltoy floated up and gave a spin.

    ¡°Cape¡­ You just need to hit things.¡± The Heracross smirked. The bug pokemon was more than ready for his role, as were the other two.

    That reminded me of a question that lingered in my mind: can Jungle and Mesa win without Cape? I¡¯m sceptical by nature, so my first reaction would be to say no, but I couldn¡¯t help but notice my own confidence about this match. I wouldn¡¯t tell them that I believed we could win without Cape thought. It might put too much pressure on them.

    ¡°Whitney is a normal type trainer, so expect them to use attacks that are effective against your type, which means don¡¯t get hit, and no physical blocking. She also has a style dependent on velocity and ending a battle in one hit, so be prepared to fight something fast and hard-hitting.¡±

    They nodded.

    ¡°Her ¡®weakness¡¯ is that if her attack doesn¡¯t hit, she leaves a window for retaliations, so hit back unless I stop you.¡±

    Cape smirked. He liked to hit back.

    ¡°That¡¯s it.¡± They were surprised by the abrupt end. ¡°She uses many pokemon, but at this level, she mostly fights the same with them all, so you don¡¯t need to worry about individual lines. She will probably spice something up to test a potential new mark, but otherwise, we are fine.¡±

    We spent some more time talking, specially moves, and then we decided to go out to get lunch. After returning most of them, I walked out of the room and down the elevator to the lobby of the Center. As I was nearing the exit, I heard a voice call me from across the hall.

    ¡°Hey, Scott, Valley.¡±

    At the tables around the lobby of the Pokemon Center sat Jess. She was sitting with two other teenagers, one guy and one girl. As I approached with Valley on my shoulder, I noticed they shared many physical characteristics: brown hair, green eyes, jawline and nose.

    ¡°Hey, everything all right?¡± I stopped near the couch. Valley squeaked a hello.

    ¡°Yes,¡± She said. ¡°These are Rebecca and Anderson, they¡¯re twins in case you didn¡¯t get it already. They¡¯re from Sinnoh too. We battled in the hall¡ªI lost, doesn¡¯t matter¡ªthey are asking if they could come with us to Violet?¡±

    I hummed. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡±

    ¡°Ah, thank you very much. We don¡¯t like to travel alone,¡± The girl, Rebecca, said. ¡°Usually we would pick up a more sizeable group to go from city to city, but since Jess says you are strong, and she isn¡¯t weak herself, we decided to ask you guys.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, maybe we could train on the way there.¡± The guy said.

    ¡°We would be happy to,¡± I said and turned to Jess. ¡°They know about the detour to the mountains?¡±

    ¡°Ah, true, true.¡± She turned her head to them. ¡°We are going to the eastern mountains to catch a fire type, and after that, we will begin going north. Is that a problem for you two?¡±

    ¡°No problem at all. We aren¡¯t in any rush,¡± Anderson said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± The twin continued. ¡°This year we are just testing the waters, you know. We weren¡¯t even supposed to start this year, but our family sent us here because of the stupid egg.¡±

    ¡°As if we had a chance. Everyone is coming. People who have been learning pokemon training since they were in diapers, and they expected us to have even a slight chance.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s rough,¡± said Jess. ¡°We¡¯re going to order something. Want to eat with us?¡±

    I looked around. ¡°¡­ Really?¡±

    ¡°Really. What¡¯s with you and the food here?¡±

    ¡°I just don¡¯t like it.¡± I shrugged. The food from the centers tasted too bland to me. I made to leave. ¡°Wait. When do you guys want to leave the city?¡±

    ¡°Hum, Jess said that your match is going to be after tomorrow in the morning?¡± Rebecca asked. I nodded. ¡°We can leave the same day in the afternoon then?¡±

    ¡°Sounds good.¡± I smiled.

    -

    Valley was hanging out on my shoulder, glaring fiercely at the panting.

    The painting depicted a battle. The focus was a fight between two pokemon fighting, a colourful Clefable and a rusty Dragonite. At the borders of the unrealistic panting, a small feminine shape and a large male silhouette shouted at each other.

    ¡®Dragon¡¯s Fall¡¯ was written on the museum label.

    ¡°See?¡± I smiled at the Minccino. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m hoping you and Cryogonal are going to do to dragons at the Blackthorn Gym and the Conference.¡±

    ¡°Mi¡­¡± Valley nodded. She extended herself to look closer at the panting details while I petted her fur. The curiosity on the Minccino¡¯s face was adorable, she¡¯d never seen things like that in the forest after all.

    One thing that came out from the brotherly interaction that Cape and Valley developed was that Valley liked to see Cape¡¯s pictures. So when Cape said he wanted to visit the National Gallery, only Valley wanted to look around. Well, she and Mesa, but he, along with Jungle, were too tired from their battles in the Hall, so they, together with the rest of the team, were in their pokeballs.

    Jess¡¯s match with Whitney was tomorrow, and the next day would be mine. Now, however, we were just enjoying the exhibition. There was a time to train and to rest, after all. Jeremy had said that I looked a little too tired.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Cape was far away, at the other side of the huge hallway where they displayed pictures. He liked photos of scenery and was spending quite some time examining one of a floral field.

    Valley, of course, had been drawn to the paintings, paintings of battles particularly.

    The gallery didn¡¯t lack on that front. Most paintings were of pokemon matches, battles, or battlefields of wars that Indigo took part in, and some that it didn¡¯t. Some were propaganda from the government, clans, or individual trainers, but most were just painters flexing techniques, or who liked pokemon battling and truly wanted to paint them.

    Pokemon battling was after all the most popular ¡®sport¡¯ in the world, as the League said.

    Valley tugged at my shirt, and I walked over to the next panting. This one is a famous one, the ¡®Battle under Mt. Silver¡¯, the battle that made Kanto. I remember learning about this in school. Valley seemed entranced by it. I was about to explain to her what I knew about it when someone spoke to me.

    ¡°A nice painting, right?¡±

    I looked to my side. A boy was there. He was young, twelve at most, with blonde hair and blue clothes.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°¡­ Why is that a nice painting?¡±

    ¡°It''s well painted, and I like the history behind it.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Valley, who accompanied the back and forth, decided to ignore us in favour of smiling at the painting.

    ¡°Screw that!¡± The boy said. And Valley and I flinched at the volume. ¡°You are my rival!¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know who I am, do you?¡±

    ¡°¡­ No.¡±

    He grabbed his head with his hands. ¡°Okay, listen here. From now on, I, George Reed, the next best ghost type trainer in Indigo, am your rival. You better remember that!¡±

    He grumbled before walking away to the exit. The people around glared at him since he¡¯d screamed in the middle of the quiet hall.

    Cape was already by my side since he heard the shouting. The silly bug was thrilled. His hands were clenched and his face had a silly smile. He had watched a few documentaries about some trainer¡¯s life which painted the idea that having a rival was expected, something that every respectable trainer should have.

    The Heracross turned back and walked away, back to his pictures with a grin on his face.

    I glanced at Valley. ¡°Don¡¯t become another Cape, please.¡±

    ¡°Min.¡± She nodded.

    We turned back to the paintings.

    -

    Gym Leader Whitney had already battled many trainers in this hour slot, and now was Jess¡¯ turn.

    I had just arrived, since I didn¡¯t want to see battles that didn¡¯t interest me, and spent some time searching for a good seat that had some cover. They would close the retractable roof of the Gym when the snow began to fall in the next months, but for now it was open to a harsh midday sun.

    I finally sat down, and the people clapped in excitement as Whitney walked out of her double doors. Her pink hair bounced up and down as she jumped and waved to the crowd with a full smile, something she always did as she returned to her spot after the five-minute break to fix the field.

    The field of Goldenrod had big tiles painted in a mixture of Whitney¡¯s favourite colour, pink, with the normal type colour, grey. When they were destroyed, ground type pokemon would descend to the field to fix the enormous blocks.

    When she stopped on her raised platform, her eyes locked across the immense field of the Goldenrod Gym at her new opponent, Jess, who was a little slouched, not as confident as when she fought without a crowd glaring at her, of course.

    ¡°Welcome to the Goldenrod Gym Trainer Jess¡­ Let¡¯s have some fun!¡± She raised one arm to the sky and the crowd went wide. Only Whitney¡¯s charisma could make a crowd excited over a two-badge match. She¡¯d been more famous as a singer and actor than as a trainer, at least before she took over the Gym.

    Jess faintly nodded. She wore her normal travelling attire, cleaner than it had been on the road, of course, but more battered than when we left Azalea, with rips and blemishes that would not fade anymore. Far from the girl who almost broke down in the Yanma swarm.

    In her belt were her four pokeballs.

    ¡°Gym Leader. Trainer. Release your pokemon.¡± The arbiter said.

    Jess and Whitney retrieved their pokeballs from their belts and opened them towards the field. Blade appeared on Jess¡¯ side. The Zangoose had been training and his body reflected that; He was sturdier than when we found him at Ilex Forest.

    So Jess had decided to give Blade some experience in matches.

    On the other side of the field, a Doduo appeared, a fully grown one, on the cusp of evolving perhaps.

    ¡°Begin.¡±

    ¡°Peck it, a lot!¡±

    The Doduo¡¯s eyes locked into Blade and the bird pokemon darted straight into him. Its two beaks glowed with flying energy.

    ¡°Counter attack.¡± Blade walked forward to meet the Doduo, hands glowing grey. He used them to deflect the many pecks that the bird launched as it danced around him in a circle. Cape will be proud. Blade had trained deflect with him and compared to my Heracross, the Doduo was slow.

    ¡°Rock Tomb.¡±

    ¡°Dodge.¡±

    A little rock the size of a basketball moved like a wave over the ground to tumble the Doduo, It reached before the pokemon could dodge and the bird tripped. Blade didn¡¯t waste time and hit one of its heads with a Metal Claw. But the bird rolled with the hit and jumped back on one leg with minimal damage.

    I smiled at the application of Rock Tomb. It was not as massive or complex compared to what Quake or Mesa could do, but it got the job done and that¡¯s what matters.

    ¡°Nice hit,¡± Whitney said, only her genuine face saved the comment from sounding sarcastic. ¡°Show them you also can dish out, Doduo. Put him on the ground.¡±

    The Doduo raced again. This time, one head was looking around while the other was completely focused on Blade. The pokemon got closer, and the Zangoose used Quick Attack to surprise its opponent.

    He burst forward, but instead of slashing the bird, he caught air as the pokemon hugged the ground. Their legs glowed orange, Low Kick. A leg jutted forward and tripped Blade, and while in the air, the legs changed places and the other hit him from above. An attack worthy of a fighting type.

    The pokemon had done as Whitney asked. It had put Blade on the ground. Hard.

    Two bounces across the floor later and the Zangoose flipped around to stand on four limbs. Though he now had a limp, it was a bad fall. The bird let him breathe for a moment, then came back at him.

    They exchanged some moves at first. But the Doduo was able to capitalise on the limp and piled hit after hit. Soon enough, Blade was on the ground, and the bird stood up. Battered and tired, but on its feet.

    ¡°Trainer, retrieve your pokemon and release the next.¡± The arbiter warned.

    Jess recovered Blade and released Quake. The Hippopotas glanced around and then glared at his opponent.

    ¡°Begin¡± The arbiter announced.

    The pokemon looked at Quake and then moved from one side to another. Their beaks opened and gathered together, a blue ball forming between them.

    ¡°Mud Shot,¡± Jess called later than she should have.

    Three balls of hard mud rushed across the pink and grey field, one in the middle and two to get the pokemon if it tried to dodge to either side. The Doduo didn¡¯t. The first ball hit the bird pokemon and smashed him back, though not before they released their move. A floating blue ball turned into a beam that shot into the sky of the stadium.

    Clouds formed, and a drizzle began in the middle of the field.

    The arbiter didn¡¯t need to warn Whitney. A Bibarel was already standing in the field. It looked up at the rain with a smile on its face.

    ¡°Get close, Bib!¡± The pokemon¡¯s eyes narrowed.

    The water pokemon smashed his tail on the ground and it pushed the pokemon forward. Water energy firing behind him like a jet.

    Rocks rose, forming barriers to stop the barring pokemon. Punches flew in response, smashing the rocks on the way as they rose. The Bibarel stopped close to Quake and opened its mouth. A blue pulse hit Quake.

    Despite his weight, sixty kilograms last time I checked, the ground type flew high and away while the water pulse ravaged his body. Smoke rose from the crash of Quake¡¯s body on the floor, concealing the ground type¡¯s fate.

    The fight halted. And the Bibarel was waiting.

    Six disc-shaped rocks floated up where Quake had struck the ground. They slid towards the Bibarel. It didn¡¯t use Rock Smash again. Instead, with more agility than a Sneasel, it chose to dash around them, rolling back and forth and jumping up between the rocks.

    I grinned. That was Whitney¡¯s ¡®mistake¡¯, and Jess didn¡¯t let the opportunity go.

    The Bibarel tried to dodge the last two rocks but couldn¡¯t since it was busy shrieking in pain. Quake had surged from the ground to Crunch the pokemon¡¯s lower half, locking it down for its rocks.

    The first hit the pokemon¡¯s torso, the second also stuck it on the other side, and the dazed Bibarel swayed. Finally, it experienced Quake¡¯s newest move, Rock Smash. The big glowing head of the Hippopotas smashed into the head of the water type, and the fighting type energy was effective enough for the normal type to fall back.

    The water type still tried to fight back and even hit Quake with a Water Gun and Headbutt. But Sand Tomb rendered the pokemon immobile. And Jess had learned from the fight for the Tentacool. She now was not afraid to leverage the physical might of the Hippopotas line.

    Crunch by Crunch, Rock Smash by Rock Smash, the locked-down Bibarel finally fainted. Quake looked beaten, especially after enduring those water moves. But he was standing, and that was all that mattered.

    ¡°The winner of this battle is Hippopotas, and the match, is Trainer Jess.¡±

    People clapped at the fight.

    Jess and Whitney met in the middle of the field. They talked for a second and Jess walked out of the arena with cash, a TM and, more importantly, her second badge, the Plain Badge.

    Tomorrow I will get mine.

 Johto Chapter 27

    ¡°The battle will be a three on three!¡± The arbiter said.

    I hummed. No switches then.

    The crowd vibrated slightly as we got ready, shifting and fidgeting. These couple of hours were reserved for trainers who sought the second badge, which always were two on two matches.

    The crowd knew that, or at least a dedicated part knew.

    The unaware turned to the side to ask their fellow spectators what was happening. And the more fanatical fans responded with their hypothesis. A hypothesis that was true.

    This was a marked match.

    A pokeball opened in my hand and Jungle materialised on the field. On the other side, Whitney¡¯s, an Aipom was already there, the normal pokemon was upside down and with his back towards us, dancing for the crowd on that side.

    ¡°Begin!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s blitz!¡±

    The smiling Aipom turned around and dashed forward. As it advanced from Whitney¡¯s side towards us¡ªall four limbs on the ground¡ªits body flashed pink, and the pokemon became faster. Crossing the middle of the field, a bluish light that moved like a cloak of wind clad his body, and he became faster. The common combination of Agility and Acrobatics.

    He drew close.

    ¡°Spread Razor Leaf and prepare for a close attack.¡±

    Sharp-as-knifes leaves bloomed from the Bulbasaur¡¯s bulb. Jungle twisted, and the leaves flicked in a spread-out pattern to catch the hopping pokemon. Aipom¡¯s tail whipped back and forth, and six stars surged from the grey shine on it. The greyish stars smashed into the wall of leaves, opening a small spot where the normal type was able to fit in.

    Meanwhile, Jungle¡¯s mouth moved as he prepared his seeds.

    ¡°Vine Whip.¡±

    Two vines lashed out at the pokemon closing in on Jungle. He dodged one vine, dodged two vines, and closed in, ready to twist its body to punch with the tail¡ªuntil a bunch of powder hit its face.

    The pokemon¡¯s eyes widened. However, it didn¡¯t hesitate; the pokemon jumped forward and his grey tail-fist pummelled Jungle¡¯s face. It was the first time a Jungle fought a pokemon that reacted so well to this powder tactic, and so he was not ready for the hit.

    The punch sent him tumbling through the pink and grey tiles of the Gym. The Bulbasaur rolled around and when he stood up from the ground. He had a purple bruise on the right side of his face.

    The Aipom didn¡¯t leave untouched, though. Jungle used the roll to whip a vine into his side, leaving a red marking on his torso. Its body also turned even more purple, and a resolute grimace formed on the normal pokemon¡¯s face as poison energy ravaged its body. A more powerful pokemon might shrug off the weak poison energy. Yet, the Aipom wasn¡¯t, and a timer had begun.

    Jungle needed to draw out the fight.

    ¡°Sleep Powder around if he gets close!¡±

    Shouting that information didn¡¯t deter the purple and blue glowing pokemon as much as it should. It came running straight into Jungle, who responded with Razor Leaf followed by Vine Whip. Whitney¡¯s pokemon gave a forward roll and his massive tail-hand slapped the ground. Sand rushed from between the tiles and flew upward to hit the leaves like a big wave.

    The Aipom¡¯s eyes were closed as he barrelled through the sand wall. They opened just as green whips came for him.

    The monkey pokemon twisted and curved his body over and around four whippings of Jungle¡¯s two vines to reach him. Its tail smashed into the floor again and sand mud condensed around it. The normal pokemon jumped and lashed out its mud enclosed fist-tail at Jungle.

    It would¡¯ve hit if Jungle didn¡¯t open his mouth and Bullet Seed the Aipom¡¯s body as it spun in the air.

    Four of six seeds smashed into the Aipom¡ªbody, head and arm-¡ªand threw it away.

    The purple pokemon twirled around the air until it dropped to the ground and slid across the tiles. It then twisted and stood up. Its body had green bruises, and every movement seemed to pain the pokemon. Moving quick wasn¡¯t an option anymore.

    Shame that Jungle couldn¡¯t make Leech Seeds fast enough to contend with Aipom¡¯s speed. In any case, winning now was just a matter of time. Jungle¡¯s Bullet Seed and Poison Powder already finished the fight.

    Now it was a matter of not losing to a last-ditch effort.

    ¡°We are going again, Jungle,¡± I said. ¡°Razor Leaf.¡±

    Leaves rushed the pokemon.

    ¡°Let¡¯s leave a gift, dear.¡± I heard the smile in Whitney¡¯s voice.

    We didn¡¯t expect a more powerful version of the stars from Swift barrelling towards Jungle. The leaves caught most, but some made it through with sheer speed alone. Three massive stars were closing on Jungle.

    Whipping my pokeball, I pointed at Jungle and clicked the button. Whitney returned the Aipom quicker. Leaves pierced the wall below Whitney¡¯s platform just as stars smashed into the ground below mine.

    ¡°Both pokemon were retired. Since both trainers retired their pokemon at the same time, the next release will be done together.¡±

    I glared at Whitney, who smiled back and gave a little wave. That Swift would have fainted Jungle. She didn¡¯t give me time to call change.

    Flashes of red jumped out of our hands.

    On her side stood a green, reptilian pokemon with a red zigzag pattern on its belly. A Kecleon, and not a common one.

    I watched a lot of footage of Whitney¡¯s third badge matches, and the Kecleon line appeared a lot. This pokemon was Whitney¡¯s way to test the trainer. Usually, her first pokemon provided a head-to-head fight in which little direction is needed if your pokemon is well-trained.

    The second battle tested the trainer.

    ¡°A Baltoy!? Oh no!¡± Whitney shouted, the Gym structure amplifying her voice. ¡°Gira will be sad, she wanted to fight another psychic for such a long time¡­ Are you not going to do anything?¡±

    ¡°Sand all around.¡±

    Sand surged from the ground like a tornado, splashing around Mesa in a circle-like wave. Whitney beamed as her Kecleon appeared. The green pokemon was covered in sand and was on our side of the field, just to Mesa¡¯s side. The illusion in of Whitney¡¯s platform dissipated.

    The Baltoy twisted towards the normal type and threw a wave of pink psychic energy. The chameleon opened its mouth and ripples made of fine water travelled forward to collapse together with the Confusion.

    My eyes narrowed at the Kecleon¡¯s feet.

    ¡°Shadow Sneak on the side.¡± I warned. ¡°Double-sided attack.¡±

    A small rock wall grew by the Baltoy¡¯s side and stopped a solid shadow whip from hitting him. The same wall slid over to his front, stopping Kecleon¡¯s extended grey tail. Its tail still almost cut the stone wall into two, and Mesa finished the job by dividing it.

    Rock turned into mud, and the two parts of the wall--¡ªnow clad in pink¡ªcharged towards Kecleon. The pokemon dodged the upper half by dividing itself into two copies, and then divided again to dodge the lower half.

    Four Kecleon were spread out. They looked at Mesa, waiting to see what he would do. They were doing their job, Whitney used that pokemon line to ask a question after all. What will you do?

    There were many forms to answer.

    We won¡¯t play this game.

    ¡°Rock Tomb.¡± I raised my arm, showing five fingers to Mesa, and Mesa glowed.

    The four Kecleon looked up at the border of rock that Mesa erected.

    It extended all the way from one side of the field to another and rose until it reached the stands of the massive Goldenrod Gym. Mesa heaved his arms, and the wall pushed forward and collapsed, failing on the hidden Kecleon and his four illusions.

    As they were swallowed by it, they glared at the wall.

    And then, an orange light shined.

    A hole exploded on the top of the curved shape of the rock. Kecleon rushed through it towards Mesa. A point of grey shining in one of its fingers as he closed in.

    ¡°Flash!¡± I warned and raised my arm to cover my eyes. ¡°Rapid Spin!¡±

    The pink barriers darkened to protect the crowd from the blinding light.

    Fuck.

    Cape would¡¯ve hated to fight Kecleon.

    As I put my arm down, I saw Kecleon laid on the ground. It was tired; it was also hurt, but way more tired. Breaking through reinforced rock was not as easy as the pokemon made it look, and then there was also the Rapid Spin, which seemed to catch him since he now laid far away from the ground type.

    Mesa was also hurt. There was a crack in his torso, probably the work of a second Brick Break.

    ¡°Psybeam.¡±

    Pink light condensed in front of Mesa.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    The Baltoy stopped when Whitney withdraw her pokemon as I knew she would. She was the most gentle of Johto Gym Leaders, always returning her pokemon when she felt that the battle was over.

    I observed her as she put her hands on her hips and gazed over the field.

    The ground was turned inside out, most of the tiles were broken or outright didn¡¯t exist anymore. There was a massive mound of earth and rock on one side of the area, and the crowd, famous for being the most vocal of Johto, was in silence. I didn¡¯t know their reaction. I didn¡¯t want to take my eyes off Whitney.

    ¡°That was okay, but I think we can put up a better show.¡±

    She passed her arm over her belt and raised a pokeball¡ªa white one¡ªand threw it. Whitney didn¡¯t throw a lot of pokeballs, only when some more artistic-oriented pokemon asked for it. The red light condensed as the sphere hit the ground, and a pokemon that resembled Brian¡¯s teleporter appeared on the stage. It was their previous form, though, Jigglypuff.

    The stands stirred at the look in the pokemon¡¯s eyes.

    When I looked up Whitney¡¯s footage, some pokemon lines appeared more than others.

    I remembered three different Aipom, each fought the same¡ªand in a simple manner¡ªsince it was in their evolution where they branched off. The two Kecleon who fought using illusion and subterfuge, or at least tried to, like the one we fought. Those tested the trainers¡¯ ability to help their pokemon with information.

    She also had two Jigglypuff.

    The first fought like a normal one, using Sing, Sweet Kiss, Disable, Charm, and Echoed Voice, all moves associated with its line. Whitney used that one mostly to test trainers and pokemon who were too passive. The other was dangerous and ruthless. People called it a prodigy. A pokemon who not only dominated its moves as a Jigglypuff but was also proficient in many moves of other types.

    She also had a mind born for battle.

    The peak of Whitney¡¯s three badge team. The one who tested four badge level pokemon¡ªthe strongest pokemon in a trainer¡¯s team that fought for the third badge. Some news outlets said that someday that she could become part of Whitney¡¯s main team.

    This was the one, if the arrogant smirk and narrowed eyes were any indication.

    The crowd stood up to clap and cheer. It was the greetings of expectation. The pokemon briefly turned to the crowd and acknowledged them with a bow.

    I sighed.

    Of course, it would be too easy to win with just two pokemon. Whitney would also lose reputation if she lost for a mark without giving it her all.

    ¡°Begin!¡±

    I touched my pokeball. ¡°Confusion, full power.¡±

    The pink wave rushed across the field towards the Jigglypuff who smiled. Water Pulse easily destroyed the Confusion in an explosion of energy. A small wind tunnel¡ªEchoed Voice¡ªpierced the explosion and made to hit Mesa. The Baltoy spun in the air, dodging by centimetres.

    Fuck. ¡°Rock Tomb, full power.¡±

    Mesa knew what that meant. It meant that he wouldn¡¯t be fighting anymore. He spun again and pierced the ground, digging into it and hiding under the earth, to the confusion of Jigglypuff and Whitney.

    For a few seconds, nothing happened and then¡­ Rocks.

    Earth rushed from below in mounds made of rock and earth. It was not the mountains that Mesa one day wanted to make, but it did the job. They covered all the middle of the field. Boulders of small sizes, medium sizes, and large sizes reached for the sky. Where there was no rock, there was empty space. Mesa did have to use the earth around.

    This place waited for Cape to use.

    The Jigglypuff, who had stayed in place while Mesa did his thing, looked unimpressed. Its face was closed as the pokemon puffed up¡ªher body growing like a balloon¡ªand hopped on top of a rock pile, waiting. Not for long, though, Mesa emerged, spinning dizzily from the effort. Echoed Voice cut through between two small elevations of rocks.

    I glared at the hole where Mesa was as I stuck his pokeball in my belt.

    ¡°Trainer Scott returned¡ªand retired¡ªhis Baltoy. Please release your next, and last, pokemon.¡±

    I took out my last pokeball for this match. The first I¡¯ve ever had, and freed Cape. The light condensed above the ground and the Heracross fell, smashing the ground with a punch.

    I smiled at the dramatic bug¡¯s entrance, but focused when both pokemon looked at each other.

    Cape glared up and Jigglypuff peered down at him.

    ¡°That one is strong, don¡¯t hold back.¡±

    ¡°Cross.¡±

    ¡°Begin!¡± The arbiter said.

    ¡°Aerial Ace.¡±

    My bug blurred, and Jigglypuff glowed pink.

    The pink pokemon turned around on her rock and crossed both arms, blocking Cape¡¯s blue punch. The attack pushed the Jigglypuff off her rock and into the side of another, but it didn¡¯t have the same force it usually had.

    Reflect.

    ¡°Get away!¡±

    Cape pushed off with his wings just as lighting flashed in his pillar. This one had a lot of moves to combat every type. Thunder Wave, Icy Wind, Water Pulse, and these were the only ones I remembered. And, of course, the gimmicks.

    ¡°Close combat.¡±

    Another Aerial Ace put Cape in front of the Jigglypuff, both stood on the uneven terrain of earth. Cape rushed, and they exchanged strikes. For every one Cape tried to hit, Jigglypuff dodged using its elastic body or blocked with a punch of her own.

    Cape finally had enough and followed a sequence of practised punches that ended with Horn Attack. Jigglypuff curled up, enhancing her defence on top of the Reflect. The Horn was ineffective. She then rushed forward to Pound the Heracross. Cape was no easy prey though and was ready with Counter. He received the strike and made to strike back.

    I saw his body stiffen and his movement became slow just enough for Jigglypuff to dodge under the punch, push on the ground and hit him on the jaw with a grey Headbutt. Cape was thrown off Jigglypuff¡¯s boulder.

    He was falling to the depth between Mesa¡¯s rock. ¡°Pin Missile!¡±

    He twisted and used his claw to hold on to the side of the rock. His wings opened and green energy was released from the inside. Bug energy thorns rushed up like arrows at the Jigglypuff. Cape jumped after them, flying up towards the pink pokemon.

    The Jigglypuff sneered down.

    It looked around at the rocks surrounding it and glowed brown. Rocks broke upwards. They floated for a single second, and then they fell, trying to stop the missiles and crush the flying bug.

    Cape would not let it.

    The fighting pokemon twisted and rolled in the air. Dodging what he could and destroying rocks with Arm Thrust when he couldn¡¯t. Meanwhile, Jigglypuff used a Water Pulse to stop the Pin Missiles who passed the rocks. Cape accelerated with a flap of blue wings, exploding through two rocks with a smile, and punched up the normal type.

    The Jigglypuff flew up backwards. She was followed by Cape, who shot past the peak.

    My face dropped as I focused on the pink pokemon sailing up and down from the rocky peak. That Jigglypuff had a very weak green hue around her.

    The light of the sun reflected something above the Heracross. ¡°Above!¡±

    Cape¡¯s smile locked up as he noticed something was wrong. My voice reached him, and his wings flapped, twisting him up mid-air to see another Jigglypuff falling towards him. The pokemon was curled up and its seemingly heavy body had a metallic sheen around it. It was one of her gimmicks. Self-Gravity with Gyro Ball.

    ¡°Harden, Endure. COUNTER!¡±

    Two distinct tones of grey flashed across Cape¡¯s body. He crossed his arms to gather¡­ The Jigglypuff slammed into the Heracross. I covered my eyes as coloured lights danced around my vision. Pink, Silver, Grey and Orange glowed back and forth as both pokemon fell into the deep ground.

    I brought my arm down as the lights dimmed. Smoke covered rocky pecks in the middle. A brown mist made of crushed earth obscured the entire field. Cracks ran all over the depressed piles of rock that Mesa created.

    A small pink form jumped back from the impact and jumped back two times to stand just outside the smoke riddled valley of crushed rocks.

    A cracker half-hidden by fog.

    A small huff of scorn rang from inside the soot, alerting me that Cape was conscious.

    A huff? That was not good¡­

    Wait.

    No.

    That¡¯s great.

    If I had to pick one thing about Cape to talk about, it would be how much Cape loved battles of course. We¡¯ve talked about battles every single day for two years since we met each other. I watched together hundreds of Conferences, tournaments and gym matches with him.

    I taught him. I trained him. I knew him.

    I knew that Cape breathed battles.

    However, there¡¯s one thing in professional battles that Cape hated.

    Trickery.

    The fighting type loathed the feeling of being tricked; he¡¯d always felt cheated when something that he saw happen in televised battles wasn¡¯t real. Double Team, Smokescreen, Smog, Baton Pass, Flash and, of course, Substitute. He respected them¡ªprobably¡ªbut he hated them. Hated. Them.

    And he¡¯s never been tricked before in a fight.

    Laughter erupted from me. I probably looked a little crazy, but it was because I knew that what was about to happen would not be fun.

    For the Jigglypuff, of course.

    I stopped; I still had a part to play, after all.

    ¡°Cape!¡± My shout attracted the attention of Whitney, Jigglypuff, and from the people in the crowd since the clapping stopped. ¡°Aerial Ace!¡±

    A hurricane of blue light washed the smoke away from the field and towards the sky.

    Cape was inside a crater¡ªwings glowing blue and a crack on his chest.

    He was crouched.

    He was mad.

    Cape smashed into Jigglypuff. Jigglypuff defended.

    They brawled.

    Rage fuelled Cape¡¯s Fury Attack. His daunting face was intimidating, just not as much as the grey blurs that were his blue limbs as they smashed into the Jigglypuff, brutally beating the pink pokemon with straight punches, circling kicks and a slashing horn at a speed that I hadn¡¯t seen before.

    Most missed, some hit.

    Those that hit, hit hard.

    The Jigglypuff whipping back and forth in front of him proved that.

    The normal pokemon that was slowing collecting bruises was not helpless though, and on the brief chances it got, it used everything on him. Thunder, water, rock, ice, and occasionally, a Brick Break, would strike Cape. But the bug pokemon was so mad that it shrugged everything off, racing forward to not let its opponent escape.

    For the first time in this battle, Whitney intervened. ¡°Break away.¡±

    The pokemon glowed grey and touched Cape¡¯s arm as it smashed into her face. Grey energy dissipated from Cape¡¯s limbs. The Heracross didn¡¯t care. His arm turned to orange, and he whipped it forward in a punch. The pink pokemon, eyes wide after realising its mistake in stopping Fury Attack and choosing Brick Break instead, puffed up and used its defensive combination, Defense Curl, Reflect, and Stockpile.

    Obviously, Brick Break would still hurt.

    A Brick Break from a fighting type, I would wager it would hurt a lot.

    The Jigglypuff received the punch straight in the gut, her eyes popping out in pain. But at least it was thrown away from Cape and in the middle of Whitney¡¯s side of the field.

    ¡°Sing.¡± Whitney said in a tone that broke no argument.

    By the half offended and half pleading look on the Jigglypuff¡¯s face, I could piece together how it felt about the move. The Jigglypuff sang and its voice travelled far away until it hit the pink barriers.

    It was Cape that had a timer now.

    No matter. If we could explore Cape¡¯s rage as fuel, we would win.

    My artist was feeling the song, but I had to yield it.

    ¡°Rock Tomb, lock it down.¡±

    Cape smashed his feet, and two mounds of Mesa¡¯s rock cracked from their base and rose. Cape GRABBED them and threw the two massive blocks of rock¡ªeach rock the size of a Wailord¡ªat Jigglypuff. The pokemon looked with trembling eyes while it sang. She was about to use a move when the rocks moved to the side of it and moulded into a half-glob behind the Jigglypuff. She looked around in disbelief.

    No more escape now.

    ¡°Endure.¡±

    Grey light flooded Cape¡¯s body. It was rare that we needed to use it for a final showdown.

    ¡°Aerial Ace.¡±

    Cape crouched on the ground.

    His blue exoskeleton, broken at the chest, unfolded. Blue light exploded from the Heracross¡¯ wings, mixing with the grey of the Endure. He lowered his head, glared at the trembling Jigglypuff, and pushed.

    ¡°Horn Attack.¡±

    The crazy looking glowing blue bug pokemon vanished.

    ¡°Stop him!¡± The Gym Leader shouted, and for the first time¡ªand for a short period of time¡ªI could see the true Whitney. No smile. No happiness. No carefree demeanour. No emotion.

    Frowning eyebrows, pressed lips and fists that clenched on the railings dragged my eyes to the other side of the field. I wouldn¡¯t be able to see Cape anyway.

    Jigglypuff seemed to, though.

    Moves surged forward as she sang with wide eyes. Yellow lighting, blue pulses, freezing wings, and broken rocks tore from the wall behind her, closed on something too fast to see. A second later, all of them were broken. Cape, too deep into his rage, had deemed them tricks too.

    I blinked in surprise.

    Cape smashed into the ground. The field. The earth.

    And dragged all of that into Jigglypuff.

    Breaking the pokemon. The barriers of rock behind it. The field.

    The pink barriers?

    Pink light immersed the arena as a Kadabra floated above Whitney. The psychic pokemon raised its spoon and pink barriers contained the area of collision between the bug and the normal type.

    An earthquake destroyed the ground and broke the earth. It shook the arena, which, in turn, shook the people. Screams briefly filled the air.

    Cracks spread through all sides.

    Since the collision happened on Whitney¡¯s side, a large crack rushed up the wall under her. Another Kadabra floated people away from that area as a precaution, but the crack stopped just before reaching the stands. It was not even close to what happens in eight or seven badge matches, but it was unexpected that this would happen in a second badge match, and so the measures to counter these kinds of things were not active.

    Whitney would have to respond about this later, and I would probably feel guilty.

    But now? I had no interest in it.

    My eyes were glued as the Kadabra took down the pink barriers. It waved its hand, and the smoke flew away. Revealing one pokemon standing and another half-buried on the ground.

    Cape was panting. His exoskeleton was twice broken, one in the chest and another beginning on his horn and breaking down all over his body. He still glowed grey, Endure still running all through his body.

    His pokeball was in my hands, but I had to let him enjoy the moment for a few seconds.

    ¡°The winner of the match is Trainer Scott. The winner of the battle is Heracross.¡±

    The crowd¡ªstill in shock¡ªjumped as one.

    Claps.

 Johto Chapter 28

    ¡°What was that!?¡± Was the first thing Jess said to me after meeting me, and she hasn¡¯t stopped talking about the match since.

    After the applause from the crowd ended, I returned Cape to his pokeball and met Whitney on the edge of the field since the field itself was in no condition to be stepped on. We shook hands and Whitney awarded me the plain badge and the TM 70, which was Flash.

    Whitney¡¯s Gym Trainers then directed me to the place where pokemon that had serious injuries in the Gym Match went, the small and private Emergency Center inside the Gym.

    I was the only person here for now.

    The nurse at the counter that collected my information said that they were rarely needed in the morning since that was the time slot of the first and second badge matches, where serious injuries rarely happened.

    Whitney is set to fight some five badge matches in the afternoon. These are the matches that fill the place.

    As I was left alone in the small white lobby, the first thing I did was release Valley and Cryogonal and inform them about what happened. I asked them if they wanted to see the match now or wanted to wait for the breakdown that we would be doing with the others when they were all well.

    Cryogonal was happy for us but decided to go back into the pokeball and wait for the breakdown. He was a little awkward inside human structures, being as big as he was. Valley, of course, wanted to see the battle right away, so I grabbed my laptop and entered the Goldenrod section of the Pokenet. I clicked on the page of today¡¯s fights and played the video for her.

    She cutely sat in the chair with the laptop in front of her. The chair easily had the space for both.

    Soon enough, I met with the doctor in charge of my pokemon, a Joy, who informed me that Cape, who had his carapace broken in two places, a broken arm, and some light internal injuries¡ªonly the Legendaries knew what that meant¡ªwould have to stay three days to be fully healed. Mesa¡¯s problem was exhaustion and he would have to stay the night.

    Now, I was just waiting for Jungle, who just needed a couple of hours to heal his mild injuries.

    Jess eventually made it past the crowd outside. Most of them, I heard from her, wanted to congratulate and take pictures with me, while some wanted an interview or some words about the match to print in a pokemon battle journal or another. The Gym Trainers that guarded the Center were sceptical of her claim that she knew me, and she had to call me to ask to add her to the visitor list.

    Now, we were both sitting in the white chairs in the white room, waiting for Jungle to be released. The prediction from the nurse was that he will be discharged in half an hour.

    Since Valley had finished watching the match, Jess sat down on her seat and brought the Minccino into her lap. Valley was so lost in thought after watching the match that she didn¡¯t even protest.

    ¡°How on earth was Mesa able to do that scale of field manipulation?¡± Jess continued with the talk. ¡°That was five badge-level shit!¡±

    ¡°If he wanted to continue the fight, then that definitely was too much, or ¡®five badge level shit¡¯ as you put it, but he put all he had left and more in that move so that Cape could use Rock Tomb.¡±

    ¡°Which he didn¡¯t use a lot,¡± she pouted, ¡°only at the end.¡±

    She probably wanted to see what her Hippopotas could do with a field like that.

    ¡°We had to start with the big guns right away.¡± I sighed. ¡°Cape is not good enough with Rock Tomb to use against that Jigglypuff¡­ We thought Whitney would send out an easier pokemon to fight.¡±

    ¡°But then how the fuck he shaped those rocks at the end?¡± The swear word made a grey-haired nurse passing by glare at her. Not that Jess noticed.

    ¡°Emotion-fuelled strength. Cape hates moves like Substitute, and I knew his anger would empower that Rock Tomb.¡± I laughed. ¡°I imagined that he would create a wall behind the Jigglypuff or something like that¡­ Definitely not that.¡±

    ¡°Scott,¡± Jess said with a straight face. ¡°He grabbed those rocks, Scott. He. Grabbed. Them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ And he will probably try that again.¡±

    ¡°Not for a couple of weeks, he won¡¯t,¡± Jess snorted, and then peeked at me. ¡°¡­ You know you¡¯re blowing up in the Pokenet, right?¡±

    I felt my body tense. ¡°Ah, really?¡±

    ¡°Well, the match was just broadcast to Goldenrod for now, but¡¯s already a big deal. Last I checked people from other cities are already asking why the Goldenrod forums are losing their minds. And when the League release the full official battle tomorrow for all the Region? Ohhh, then you will blow up for real.¡±

    ¡°Well, it was bound to happen.¡±

    ¡°I thought you were going to react badly. The last beginners who blew up like that were Red and Blue and you seem to hate them.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t hate them. I hate what people made them out to be.¡±

    Jess shrugged and turned back to her phone. I leaned back to rest a little since I was tired.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Who knows? Maybe you will show the youngsters that it¡¯s all right to begin their journeys later.¡± I jumped a little when a recognisable voice came from behind our chairs.

    We turned around in our chairs to see Whitney behind us, near the entrance of the Emergency Center. I checked my watch. Her morning slot must have ended ten minutes ago. I shook my tired body and stood up while Jess stayed in her seat since she didn¡¯t want to take Valley off her lap.

    ¡°Gym Leader.¡± I said as I approached her.

    She giggled. ¡°We¡¯re not in any formal setting, you can call me Whitney.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°I just passed by to say that I¡¯m sorry,¡± she briefly bowed. ¡°I may have taken things too far, as my League contact already yelled at me¡­ But at the same time, I¡¯m not sorry! That was a great battle!¡±

    ¡°It really was. I didn¡¯t expect that you would use that pokemon, though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I knew about your Heracross from the mark report. I figured that if he wasn¡¯t on par with Puff then she could just throw at some point. But she has been getting too much of a big head for a while so I hoped that you guys would really win¡­ And you won!¡± She laughed loudly while placing her hands on her hips.

    She attracted some attention from the medical staff behind the counter, but no one seemed to have the courage to tell the Gym Leader to quiet down. Regardless, it was just us here, anyway.

    ¡°Regardless, I am very sorry for your Heracross. He will be looking at two weeks of rest, minimum.¡±

    ¡°Cape will not mind; the fight was so good that he will be in the clouds for a month.¡±

    ¡°A fighting type through and through.¡± She nodded, still with a smile on her face, and then she leaned forward. ¡°Whatever you¡¯re doing with him, and your other pokemon I assume, keep doing it. That will make you reach far.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it,¡± Whitney said. ¡°Another thing before I go, you¡¯re not getting another mark. The match was good, but you didn¡¯t make it so one sided as to warrant making your next match a five-badge level match. Anyway, I wish you good luck on your journey. I will watch it, probably.¡±

    She passed through the doors of the Emergency Center, waving a hand back. I walked back to my seat.

    ¡°Cape will become stronger again, right?¡±

    Valley ears twitched, and her face twisted into a frown.

    I took a deep breath. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    There was no way to know how much Cape would grow after this massive beating.

    Half an hour later, Jungle was ready to go, and we left the Gym. Whitney was kind enough to let us use one of the back doors that employees of the Gym used.

    *

    A push woke me up. I looked over my shoulder and saw Valley¡¯s scowling face staring at me. She stopped, both arms extended towards my body for another shove. Yawing, I rubbed my eyes and sat on the bed.

    ¡°Morning Valley, what is it?¡±

    The Minccino spun around and pointed at my cell phone that was sitting at the bedside table. Curiously, I picked it up. The first thing I saw was the time, almost midday. The second thing I noticed was that I had ten lost calls and a lot of messages. I took off my bedsheets and got up while Valley ran up to the small bed fixed on the wall and laid down to sleep some more.

    She had watched the match a lot of times and had slept later than me. She even had to learn how to click on the button on the laptop to replay the video.

    I sat at the table and looked over the missed calls. There¡¯s one from Jeremy, Alice, Clarisse, Dendra, some more distance friends from the orphanage, and some other acquaintances from my time working in the Pokemart and tournament arbiter.

    Most of the messages, on the other hand, were from unknown people. Some were from the people with missed calls. The first messages that I read were from my friends. They said that they watched the match, and that they liked it very much. Jeremy told me that Taylor and Fancy were thrilled by the battle. Similarly, Alice also told me that Spike was running up and down in excitement. Clarisse and Dendra congratulated me. Dendra did use a lot more words than Clarisse, and talked about the reaction from her Makuhita, who was looking forward to fight with Cape again.

    He probably will not like the result or will. I don¡¯t know with those fighting types.

    The next message that caught my eye was Professor Oak¡¯s. His was a short and concise ¡®Good battle, Scott. You¡¯re doing great!¡¯.

    Most of the unknown messages were from people who just happened to have my number and decided to randomly congratulate me on the win. The next most recognisable one was from the mayor of Azalea, who I briefly talked to two times and saw a handful of times in closing ceremonies of tournaments. His assistants probably got my number from the arbiter registry for him¡ªor more likely, his staff¡ªto send this message.

    The rest of the messages were from individuals I truly didn¡¯t know, and I was perplexed about how they got my number. They said many things which I didn¡¯t bother to read, not with an empty stomach.

    Fortunately, there was one message, one more recent, from Jess. It asked if I wanted to eat with her and the twins in the lobby of the Pokemon Center. Normally I wouldn¡¯t, but by how tired I am, I will have to give in to the bland food of the Pokemon Center.

    Sighing, I changed out of my pyjamas and grabbed my wallet.

    ¡°Valley, I¡¯m going to eat something in the Pokemon Center. You want to come or wait here for me to put the food later?¡±

    No response, so I took it as a no. I was leaving with Cryogonal and Jungle in their pokeballs.

    Upon leaving the room, I went down to the lobby. The lobby was big and, at this time, packed, but it didn¡¯t take long for me to find Jess¡¯ dark hair and the twins¡¯ blond hairs on the ocean of people.

    As I made my way there, I began to feel conscious of the fact that trainers were looking.

    Of course that here, in the Pokemon Center lobby, there would only be trainers, some of them probably watched my match and then passed along for other people.

    Now, half the lobby was watching me as I sat down by Jess¡¯s side.

    ¡°Someone¡¯s popular, teach.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t start.¡±

    ¡°Well, after that spectacular battle I don¡¯t blame them.¡± One of the twins said, Rebecca I think, said.

    ¡°I agree. My Flaaffy and I watched the final battle three times now.¡± Anderson said.

    ¡°Ah.¡± Seeing the twins here reminded me of something. ¡°I forgot that we were supposed to leave the city after my gym battle, sorry.¡±

    Anderson scoffed. ¡°No apologies necessary, if I were you, I would actually be insulted if someone blamed me for what happened in that match.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, someone would need to be crazy to do that. And, again, we don¡¯t mind waiting. As we said, we aren¡¯t in any hurry.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for being so understanding. I am still sorry, so I will pay for the food at least, yours too Jess.¡± I smiled as they began to reject. ¡°No, no, I also gained a good money from the Gym Match, so there¡¯s no problem.¡±

    That began a chat about what we could order from here. Soon enough, we were ready to order, and I waved a hand to get the waitress¡¯ attention. We told him our order, and after a twenty-minute wait¡ªthe place was kind of full¡ªthat we spend discussing the match, the food came and we dug in.

    I was in the middle of eating my enormous sandwich when I noticed that the twins were distracted by something or someone coming up from behind me. I turned to the side just as a little kid stops by my table. I didn¡¯t know the kid, but his clothes were distinctive enough. His blue hair was also not easily found outside of Blackthorn. It was the dragon clan kid that had the battle that stopped the Battle Hall, Aiden.

    He crossed his arms. ¡°I want to travel with you.¡±

 Johto Chapter 29

    Three days later, we would be leaving Goldenrod.

    I just had to pick up Cape on the Pokemon Center counter¡ªhe would be transported here¡ªand we would leave Goldenrod City. I had already messaged the twins, Anderson and Rebecca, and Aiden, who we decided¡ªlogically¡ªwould come with us, to wait for us at the east exit.

    I reached the counter and gave Nurse Joy my trainer card.

    ¡°Scott Wood, right?¡± She asked while checking my trainer card on a machine by the side. She also took back my room key.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Ok,¡± she said as she typed on her computer. ¡°Just wait a minute please, I will be back soon with your pokemon, and the doctor¡¯s recommendation on how to take care of him.¡±

    I nodded and she left through the double doors behind her.

    I ignored the sound of Jess tapping her feet.

    A tug near my neck made me glance at Valley. The Minccino hung on my new jacket¡ªcourtesy of the money from the match¡ªand was looking around the Pokemon Center lobby. Sometimes, she would glare at a pokemon passing by that she thought was strong. They, of course, ignored her. The disadvantage¡ªor advantage if you knew how to use it¡ªof being a Minccino.

    After seeing the Gym Match, Valley had become more aggressive.

    I think she¡¯s frustrated by how much Cape was widening the gap between them. I would have to speak to her about that behaviour on the road. Not that there¡¯s anything wrong with that, in other regions it would be considered rude, but we¡¯re in Johto. It¡¯s almost expected that in any Johto team, there would be a ¡®bully¡¯, an aggressive pokemon that would give sharpness to your team, still, I just didn¡¯t like it.

    After some minutes of silence, Jess finally spoke. ¡°Are we really going to take Fancy Pants with us?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    She scoffed again.

    I don¡¯t really know why Jess didn¡¯t want to travel with Aiden. Dragon¡¯s trainers were the ones that got most of the top sixteen rankings in the Silver Conference, and the ones that won the most. The last one had five dragon trainers among the top eight, and one finalist. If you wanted to win the Conference, you had to pass through them. In that context, Aiden was the perfect candidate for us to train against. He might not be the strongest dragon trainer¡ªquite green, actually¡ªbut there are things to learn, even from the weak.

    He also seemed like a fine guy when we spoke that day. He had agreed to some terms that we put forward.

    Blackthorn trainers had a reputation regarding ego, so I had to make certain things clear from the get-go.

    The nurse returned with a small trail that had a pokeball and a folded letter on the side. She took the pokeball and gave it to me.

    ¡°Here is your pokemon,¡± she said as she passed me the pokeball, and then she grabbed the letter. ¡°And here are the instructions that you have to follow to get your Heracross back on his feet as soon as possible.¡±

    I took the letter, thanked her, and then grabbed my bag. Jess already had hers on her shoulders. With one last look around the lobby, we left the Pokemon Center, our temporary home this past week.

    -

    The first day was good. We had covered a lot of ground since we decided to use the first day to just walk and begin training tomorrow since we were late to meet the others. Our three newest companions fortunately agreed. Even though Aiden seemed tired by the end of the hike, which made me think he didn¡¯t walk much.

    Katy, Ronald and Emilia had obtained the Fog Badge and were halfway back to Violet from Ecruteak. They now had three badges. Meanwhile, Jess was probably already in Violet City waiting for her match against Falkner.

    The Violet City beginner¡¯s tournament would start in two weeks, so we had to hurry.

    We will reach the mountains after tomorrow, but we will not slow down or stop for a day as we might have if we had more time. We decided to just walk around the mountain range in the hopes of stumbling into a lost fire type.

    Regardless if we catch them or not, we will then rush to Violet.

    Right now, we were setting up camp in a nice spot we found on the Goldenrod plains. The gigantic city¡¯s surroundings were mostly farmlands, even around the road we were taking, so today we had a very galarian feel to our journey.

    ¡°How are you doing, Cape?¡± I asked as I gave him his medicine.

    Cape swallowed the foul drink with a grimace that turned into a smile. The Heracross was sitting on a soft towel. The lines that broke through his exoskeleton were still there but very faded, as if he had spent a few months in a hospital. An organic cast held his broken arm and would continue to hold it for a few more days. The fact that he only needed three days to get this better made me think about how different pokemon training must have been a century ago.

    Valley nudged my leg and pointed behind me where Mesa floated. The Baltoy was looking confused at the instructions on how to set up our new tent, he didn¡¯t know how to read yet. Something I had to remedy since he wanted to read.

    ¡°Just a second, buddy,¡± I said to Cape and turned to Jungle. ¡°Keep an eye on the old bug.¡±

    Jungle gurgled happily while Cape rolled his eyes.

    I walked near Mesa, and he floated to me the instructions. I looked at the four-page instructions and sighed.

    -

    An hour later, we had our new¡ªand bigger¡ªtent all setup. Despite the hefty price, all my pokemon could now sleep outside their pokeball, even Cryogonal if he wanted.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    I left my pokemon with Cape and moved to the place between the three tents, where the campfire was.

    The twins and Jess were already there, sitting on one of the two trunks we had picked up from the forest to put around the campfire which was not yet lit since it was not that dark. I decided to sit alone in the second trunk.

    Jess had Blade, her Zangoose and Wave, her smiling Mantyke, were out. The Mantyke was playing with Anderson¡¯s Chinchou.

    Both twins were electric type trainers. Their uncle¡¯s an electrical engineer who caught a few electric type pokemon to help with his work. Anderson and Rebecca grew up with them, and when they were kids, they decided to become electric type trainers.

    Anderson¡¯s team had a Flaaffy, an Electrike, a Chinchou and a Tynamo.

    Rebecca¡¯s had a Jolteon, an Electrike, a Magnemite and a Pichu.

    Besides Anderson¡¯s Chinchou, Rebecca had her Magnemite floating around, and both Electrike were also out, running around the camp to spend enough energy so that they were able to sleep later, which was a common problem with electric type.

    The three people from Sinnoh were talking about their respective cities, how they grew up, what were their common hobbies, and which TV programs they watched. Since I didn¡¯t have anything to contribute to the conversation I took the time to analyse and write the breakdown from our match against Whitney.

    After an hour of work we used a match to start the fire. Mesa and Valley got here. The Baltoy began to levitate the things we would need to cook, pans, pots, knives, cutting boards, can openers, and also the food we would cook.

    Valley gave one task to each one of us. She gave me the cutting board, one knife, and some vegetables. Rebecca knew how to cook a little so she would help us while Jess and Anderson took care of our preparing our pokemon¡¯s food.

    The twins found all of this strange, but went with the flow.

    Aiden joined us a little later. The exhausted teenager sat down on the same trunk as me.

    ¡°That¡¯s a very organised operation. I¡¯m impressed.¡± He said, and Valley stuffed her chest.

    I nodded. ¡°We¡¯re making vegetable meat soup. You¡¯re going to eat?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ Yes, I will.¡±

    ¡°You want to help us cook or you¡¯re going to help with the cleaning?¡±

    He hesitated for a while, ¡°I will help with the cleaning.¡±

    I nodded and continued to work on the food, now I needed to cut the meat.

    ¡°So what we will be doing tomorrow?¡± Aiden asked after a while.

    ¡°We have a very common routine. We start the day by training, normally we train moves and strategies in the morning, and then we walk for three hours until lunch.¡± I stopped a little to cut a particularly hard piece of meat. ¡°After lunch, we train again, but this time we have friendly spars between our pokemon. Then we walk for another two to three hours and set camp. At the camp we train for another hour, just to strengthen what we learned during the day, and then we eat and sleep. That¡¯s our routine.¡±

    He nodded.

    ¡°I learned from speaking to Jess during our walk today that we will go see the eastern mountains.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, we want to see if we can catch a fire type.¡±

    He nodded. ¡°And when we get to the mountains, how high are you guys planning to go up?¡±

    I stopped cutting for a second to think about what he asked. Everyone knows that mountains are like wild forests. The deeper you go into a wild forest, the more powerful the pokemon you¡¯ll find. For mountains however, instead of going ¡®deeper¡¯ you have to go up or down the mountain to find powerful pokemon. These places have a very well-stabilised pecking order. The stronger the pokemon the higher or the lower he is. Go down into profound caves and you¡¯ll find powerful rock or ground type pokemon, go up and you¡¯ll find powerful fire or flying pokemon.

    Needless to say, this was dangerous, and that¡¯s why our group would go around the mountain, just near enough to catch a wandering and weak fire type, not nearly enough to attract something that lived inside of it.

    ¡°We aren¡¯t getting close to the mountains. We¡¯re just going around,¡± I said, looking at him.

    His eyes widened in surprise, which I found strange. He wanted to go there? And did he really think that we would?

    ¡°You can say what¡¯s on your mind.¡±

    ¡°What I¡­ Learned from my studies into pokemon training is that a pokemon becomes stronger the more adversity it encounters, stronger pokemon being the easiest adversity to find.¡± Aiden said that in a half-stated, half-asked tone.

    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡±

    He spent some more time in silence. ¡°And¡­ From what I could gather, your Heracross is only as strong as he is because of a situation in Ilex Forest.¡±

    ¡°¡­ Interesting,¡± I said. At the other side of the campfire, the chatter continued but quieter now. ¡°So, the relative that investigated us for you gave you the Ranger report on our situation?¡±

    He leaned forward, and his body language changed to something more confident¡ªto him at least¡ªnow that he knew we were talking straight. Of course, I grew up around kids so I can easily recognize childish confidence. I remember my younger days in the orphanage when I, or another bigger kid, would tell a little one something and they would scoff.

    Like the time this kid¡ªI can¡¯t remember the name¡ªwas swinging really fast on the swing and Maggy told him to go slower. He didn¡¯t listen and ended up with a broken leg.

    ¡°I know what I need,¡± he said. ¡°My clan has been training pokemon for hundreds of years. We know how to make our pokemon powerful, and you guys now do too. You guys fought three strong Seviper and now you are strong yourselves, strong enough to go after more challenges.¡±

    I laughed. ¡°We fought three strong Seviper and now we are strong? That¡¯s so reductionist it¡¯s funny. Yes, that¡¯s true, but we also entered that situation unwillingly and we both agreed that it was dangerous and that we shouldn¡¯t repeat it.¡±

    Aiden narrowed his eyes. ¡°What exactly are your objectives here?¡±

    ¡°Here?¡±

    ¡°I mean this year. Do you guys want four badges? Seven? Reach the conference?¡± He glared at me.

    ¡°We are both shooting for the conference at least, but we don¡¯t need to, and won¡¯t, run that kind of risk.¡±

    ¡°I agree, you don¡¯t need to,¡± that caught me a little off guard, ¡°but it¡¯s always good to be as strong as possible when we reach the conference.¡± He said as if he was reading a textbook. He then looked around at the others across the campfire who now were fully silent and listening. ¡°And we are four trainers and at least ten pokemon between all of us. You guys are already stronger than normal for this time of the year, we should use that to press on, and try to enlarge the difference between us and normal trainers.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true, but we will not do that now. The conference is months away, we¡¯re in no hurry to explore the wild right now.¡±

    ¡°The earlier we start the better.¡± He leaned forward. ¡°We don¡¯t even need to go that high. Again, you guys are strong. You guys won against Whitney and before that against the Seviper¡ª¡±.

    ¡°Dragon types are weak against fairy types.¡±

    His body recoiled back as if he¡¯d been struck. That was a sensitive topic for the young dragon trainers of Blackthorn. The older trainers had little problem with that statement. It was somewhat true. But the young generation¡ªraised with pride, or arrogance, that only life experience tempered¡ªreacted badly to that statement.

    ¡°That¡¯s out of context.¡±

    ¡°As out of context as saying that ¡®we fought Seviper and now we¡¯re strong¡¯. The truth is that our pokemon almost died. They didn¡¯t because Cape is strong, not the other way around¡ª¡±

    ¡°But now he¡¯s stronger, and now you can take more risks, you can¡ª¡±

    ¡°Listen very well, Aiden Hageshi,¡± I waited for him to quiet down before continuing. ¡°If you¡¯re here looking for danger for your pokemon or ours, I suggest you leave tomorrow morning. I already have a kid to take care of, but she learned her lesson. Jess and I¡ªand now the twins¡ªare travelling together to train with and against each other, and occasionally, to catch pokemon. We are not interested in doing dangerous things or putting our partners at risk for strength. You understand me?¡±

    We glared at each other for a few minutes until Aiden huffed. He got up and went back to his side of the camp.

    I looked over at the other side. They stopped looking and went back to speaking about Sinnoh.

    ¡°Let¡¯s finish the cooking,¡± I mumbled to Valley and Mesa, who were looking at me with wide eyes.

    Not that I was hungry anymore.

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 Johto Chapter 30

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 Johto Chapter 31

    The Charizard crouched down and jumped. The ground cracked and the trees of the forest behind the pokemon swayed violently as the dragon reached the sky.

    "Run!" I screamed.

    We ran across the dirt and rocks, leading the group were the Anderson, Rebecca and Magnemite, with the twins'' age and fitness, it wasn''t hard for them to take the lead over Jess, who dropped to the second place. Behind her was Valley, the Minccino was running forward and clearing the way by pulling branches or pushing big rocks out of the way. Guarding the rear was Aiden, Mesa, and I.

    Speaking of Mesa, the Baltoy suddenly turned and pointed in a direction.

    "To the right!"

    Magnemite was the first to understand the instruction, the steel type passed the twins and turned to the right, the twins followed, and then the rest of the group. Meanwhile, the sound of flapping wings had finally come closer. I looked over the shoulder to see the Charizard''s chest expanding like a balloon.

    "Rock Tomb!"

    The brown of rocks filled my vision just before the red of the flames could reach me. Mesa had raised a half dome behind and over us to halt the Flamethrower. The flames still flew over the wall and above us, hiding the blue sky and heating the air.

    Sweat began to form on my skin.

    Anderson and Rebecca screamed while Aiden looked at the flames with a tight face. The sound of a pokeball opening made me look forward in time to see a Hippopotas firming his legs on the ground.

    "Mud Shot!" Jess screamed while pointing at the Charizard, and a ball of mud exploded forward like the shot of a canon.

    The flying pokemon''s wings pressed to the right, and the pokemon avoided the attack by going to the left.

    The ground type move still messed the wind and made the Charizard momentarily lose control of his flight. In a split second, I noted that the dragon had little experience flying. The Charizard of the Conference could easily dance between attacking moves while flying. Comparing them, this one might as well have never been in the air before.

    Damn it, brain. Not the time.

    We ran for ten more seconds with the time Quake bought us.

    "A cave!" Rebecca screamed in the front¡ªMesa had found the entrance of a cave. She and Anderson were the first to enter, followed by Jess. Quake and Valley stopped at the entrance. The Hippopotas settled down and again began to shoot shower balls of hardened mud that forced the Charizard to move.

    I could be there already but Aiden was exhausted, he was already tired from the walk and now was slowing down. Fuck it. I grabbed a pokeball and clicked the button while pointing it near the cave, then I grabbed Aiden''s arm, put it over my shoulder, and pulled him while Mountain manifested. The ice type''s glowing eyes widened at the sight of a Charizard falling towards us.

    "Ice Shard!" The Cryogonal opened his mouth and spikes made of ice formed in front of the pokemon''s body and then were shot above us. The Charizard''s hands glowed with a silver light, and the second the claws touched the shards, they were shredded.

    "Icy Wind." A cone of rapidly flowing snow with ice fragments flew forward and engulfed the dragon. That was a bad call as the dragon just ignored it and continued to dive towards us, fire concentrating on his mouth.

    The dragon was above us when Jess screamed. "Now!"

    Valley''s Echoed Volley was the first to hit, the tunnel of wind barely did anything against the dragon, but just to the side, a Psybeam hit the Charizard, it still didn''t move the pokemon, but stopped his momentum.

    Cryogonal then took the opening and used his best move, the move that he perfected as an untrained pokemon, Slash. A grey line rushed forward and tried to cut the Charizard in half. The dragon staggered and looked down to where Slash had made a slighter red line on his belly. The dragon looked up, uncaring, and his wings flapped harder as he dived again.

    I glanced at Aiden, who had a pokeball on his hands, and then I grimaced at the dragon above, who was ready to burn us to a crisp.

    Thunder rumbled, and a yellow line bolted from inside the cave and struck the Charizard, stopping his dive while also washing over him. I blinked rapidly as white blinded me. I was able to see though bright spots the dragon''s muscles seize and its face went from rage to pain in a second. The pokemon veered off course and hit the ground, causing the ground to shake.

    I pulled Aiden and five seconds later; we were inside the cave, Mesa and Quake collapsed the entrance of the cave, and Flaaffy, who I noticed was breathless, raised a fist and fire erupted from it, illuminating the cave.

    "Thank you Scott."

    I leaned against a wall and panted hard, between the breaths of air, I could see that all of Anderson''s pokemon were out, Flaaffy, Chinchou, Electrike and Tynamo. They all looked exhausted.

    "What happened?" I asked.

    "Anderson''s pokemon charged Flaaffy up and she launched a Thunderbolt." Rebecca responded.

    "Great job, Andi," Jess said. "That was fucking amazing."

    The boy smiled back at Jess. "Don''t thank me, thank my team."

    Jess grabbed Chinchou while rubbing Flaaffy''s head, who leaned in to enjoy.

    "What we do now?" Rebecca asked.

    "We wait here until the Charizard goes away and then we leave." Anderson shrugged.

    "No." Aiden said between deep breaths. "We have to move."

    Anderson rolled his eyes. "Why would we need to move Blackthorn?"

    "That Charizard was a horrible flier¡­ And was redder than normal¡­ Which means that it is a cave dweller."

    That doesn''t sound good.

    "What does that mean?" Jess asked.

    "It means that as soon as it stops spasming it will be digging, hunting for us," he said.

    Fucking hell.

    "All right." I stood up. "let''s move."

    ---

    Jess suddenly asked. "What would make a Charizard attack us?"

    That cave was, interestingly enough, connected to a lengthy system of tunnels, and we were walking through them, trying to find another place where we can leave here. The only light illuminating the way were our lanterns and Flaaffy''s Fire Punch.

    Thank the Legends for Silph. Co bags.

    I took a swig of water from my canteen and thanked the Legends for Silph. Co bags. These tunnels were also hot, and until now, the only pokemon we found here for now was some Diglett that escaped as soon as they saw us. Mesa was trying to guide us out of these tunnels. Quake would have been here too if he wasn''t too tired because of the Mud Shot.

    "It''s normal for Charizard to have bouts of anger." I said.

    Rebecca nodded. "After a Charmander evolves into a Charmeleon they do become more aggressive."

    "They don''t become more aggressive, they become more competitive." Aiden glared at them, still huffing. "The aggression is a side effect of a bad trainer not knowing how to provide what they need."

    "Ok, great dragon master."

    I ignored Anderson. "Can you elaborate on that?"

    "Some pokemon lines, particularly dragon type lines, become more competitive as they evolve¡­ A trainer who knows what they are doing will provide suitable challenges for these pokemon and they will not be as aggressive anymore."

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    The silence returned, and continued through the rest of the walk, only broken by the echoes of our steps on the ground, the sound of crackling flames on Flaaffy''s fist and the occasional banter between the twins.

    Mesa was twirling in the air, and I noticed he was content with our time here, he was a ground type after all. Meanwhile, Valley was scowling at the walls and ceiling.

    "Why do they fight so much?" Jess suddenly whispered beside me; we were on the back together with Mesa.

    I glanced towards the group, and then whispered back. "Anderson thinks that Aiden is spoiled."

    "What?" She twisted her head to look at me with narrowed her eyes. "I didn''t mean them; I was talking about the twins. They are just fighting all the time. They''re brothers right? Shouldn''t they be¡­ Closer?"

    I almost chuckled. Sometimes Jess really reminds me she''s a kid.

    "They''re bantering. Its normal between siblings¡­ They are almost supposed to do that."

    She still seemed at a loss.

    "Do you have brothers or sisters?" I was almost sure she didn''t since she would have brought them up the last month we have been travelling together, but it didn''t hurt to ask.

    "No, in fact, I''m the only one in my generation, my uncles didn''t have kids."

    That made sense. I also didn''t have sibling, but there were kids on the orphanage that sometimes formed a very strong connection, almost as if they were really brothers and sisters so it was easy to see how siblings were supposed to work.

    "Look¡­ They are family, which means that they have to stay together even though they have different personalities that clash with each other, so instead of separating or fighting for real, they settle for banter. They are fighting, but deep down they are treating it like a joke, and so it''s just a joke"

    She remained sceptical.

    "If you pay attention, they never fight about truly important things."

    "Whatever." She then smiled. "By the way, I think I understand the emergency alert better now."

    I raised an eyebrow at that. Jess and I hadn''t talked about the Azalea Forest incident since that day.

    "Don''t give me that look, it''s just¡­ I told you that I didn''t fight and that was true, but it was also because I froze up. A fight happened near me, but I just didn''t move to help even though Quake wanted to¡­ I think that I would have sat still in front of that Charizard if that was my first incident."

    "I guess you understand our culture better now." I chuckled.

    "Ass."

    I felt a chill run down my spine, before I could question Jess we were interrupted by the group stopping. Mesa, who was in the front with the twins, was pointing forward with an arm.

    "There''s something in front of us." Anderson said, looking at where the tunnel turned right.

    Flaaffy, the two Electrike, and Magnemite, who were leading the group, buzzed, preparing themselves to release attacks. The sound of steps echoed through the tunnel as we stared the passage. We tensed as light began to illuminate from that passage, and the steps slowed down as whatever it was coming also noticed that we too had light.

    "Hi?" A small voice came, it wasn''t an adult''s.

    The group exchanged glances.

    "Hi!" I said.

    "Hey!" Another voice¡ªolder than the first I noticed¡ªsaid, and the steps accelerated until, around the corner, a group of three people appeared.

    The one who was leading the group was a teenager a little smaller than me, he was wearing standard travelling clothes, ones that you could buy in any store, and his hair was short and black. He was probably the one who spoke last.

    After him came two brown-haired kids, a girl and a boy, the girl seemed older; she was taller and was holding the boy behind her back¡ªsiblings maybe. They had normal clothes, as if they had just left home or school, grabbed a bag and decided to travel. The boy was also holding a Budew in his arms.

    The clothes of the three were also dirt and ragged, as if they also had just ran away from a Charizard.

    Just like us.

    "Fucking finally, it feels like we have been walking for hours." The boy said as he approached. "Do you guys have signal?"

    He held up his Pokedex.

    "No, we also don''t have."

    "Shit¡­ look, we have to get out of here, a Charizard attacked us."

    "We found him already." Anderson quipped.

    "We also have been attacked by that Charizard."

    "You too?! What are the rangers doing?"

    I thought about telling him that we were outside their jurisdiction. We could call for help, and they would respond, but if they got here too late to help us¡ªand something happened¡ªwe couldn''t sue them as we could have if we were on the main routes.

    "Were we go now?" The girl said.

    I glanced back at the tunnel we entered from, and then ahead at the tunnel they came from.

    "No idea." I looked down at Mesa and Quake. "Suggestions?"

    Mesa and Quake exchanged a look and then the Baltoy floated forward, passing through the two groups and pointing to the tunnel where the new group had come from.

    "Is there an exit there?"

    The Baltoy nodded.

    "Let''s go."

    There was a little protest by the new guys since they just had come from there, but soon enough we wall were walking the tunnel where they just had come from, and that also gave us the opportunity to learn more about them.

    The sixteen-year-old name was Alex, and he was a rich kid. He didn''t say that but it was obvious. Alice taught me how to spot rich people''s clothes, and as we walked, I noticed that his clothes were even better than the ones Blackthorn. The posh way he spoke also didn''t help.

    The brother and sister duo, Elen and George, didn''t talk much, but it was clear what they were, they were those kids that went on a journey just for the tradition of it. Gone were the days where every single kid went on a journey, but there were parents who let their kids travel, hoping that they would travel one or two routes, get tired and come back, so they didn''t buy travelling clothes or gear.

    Alex explained that he found the kids around the mountain just before they were attacked. I asked how they escaped it and they said they just ran from it. Jess tried to ask them about what pokemon they had. Alex didn''t want to say his. Elen had a Caterpie, and George had a Budew and a Zubat.

    "Are you feeling a little cold?" I asked Jess and she looked at me strange.

    Soon enough, the walk came to a stop as Mesa raised his rocky stumps towards a wall. The dirt and ground washed away like water and sunlight entered. We all left the cave and looked around; they were somewhere around the mountain. I couldn''t see the road so this seemed like another side of one of the mountains, which was bad, roads were a lot safer than the open wild.

    I released Mountain. The Cryogonal glared around, daring a fire breathing lizard to come and get him. The pokemon seemed disappointed when he didn''t find any.

    "We need to move away from the mountain." Aiden said.

    I nodded. "Keep your eyes on the sky."

    The entrance that Mesa made was not at ground level so we had to slide to the bottom to begin to walk out of the mountain landscape, and into the forest where we would be able to hopefully get signal or use our maps.

    The walk was quiet since nobody wanted to make a sound. A glint of something made me close my eyes for a moment but then it just vanished. We were already quite far from the mountain, and some people were already silently commemorating when Mesa spun around to look back just as a rumbling sound came from the mountain.

    I turned just in time to see the landslide happen.

    Rocks, dirt, and smoke washed down the low side of the mountain to reveal a Charizard. The pokemon blinked many times as the sunlight entered his eyes¡ªwhich I found strange since he had a flame on his tail¡ªBut as it raised its head, its eyes locked on us, and it screeched before the pokemon jumped from the slope and began to run after us.

    "Run."

    "No signal yet!"

    "Mountain, Mesa!"

    "Mud Shot!"

    "Thunder Shock."

    "Thunder Wave."

    Everything happened at once, the pokemon unleashed their attacks and then we turned to finish our run over to the forest. We were just halfway there, though. Glancing back, I saw the Charizard dodge the attacks with easy by twisting his body, and now I was certain that this was another Charizard. The other one was not good at dodging and this one made the attacks seem slow motion. There was also no mark of Cryogonal''s Slash.

    A scream from the people in front of me made me stop.

    I looked forward to see a familiar Charizard, this was the one with the belly wound, even the angry eyes were the same. The pokemon jumped forward, having learned his lesson about flying.

    My pokemon were in the back, even Valley had run to the back. I grabbed Cape''s pokeball; he was still injured but he would have to do, the only other option was Jungle but that was even worse.

    Just as the pokemon was picking up speed a silver object flew from above us and hit him in the chest, bouncing from him and stopping at our foot. The Charizard was pushed back but it wasn''t hurt. Still, the enraged look gave way to confusion just in time for the silver ball to release unto him a Thunder Wave way stronger than Flaaffy empowered Thunderbolt.

    The Charizard''s muscles locked up again, and his enraged look came back even stronger, but I relaxed. Thunder Bolt naturally locked up muscles, but Thunder Wave was crafted specifically to immobilise pokemon and prevent them from moving.

    I glanced down at the ball of silver to see green tips all over its body. The ball rolled to the side to reveal two distressed eyes looking back at me. It was a Ferroseed. A pokemon that was very much on my list. The sound of crackling made me look up at a formation of huge rocks besides the mountain where a small pokemon was, and by its colours¡ªyellow and black¡ªit seemed like a Mawile. She appeared to be¡­ laughing.

    Remembering the other Charizard, I looked to the mountain, only to see it standing still while glaring up at something with a grimace. Following its eyes, I saw a pokemon floating above us. A pokemon I''ve thought about yesterday, Magnezone. It was easy to see why people were so interested in them.

    The size by itself was already intimidating, but there was also visible electricity sparkling around it as if it was about to release a Thunder unto them.

    "Someone better explain to me what is happening here." A Skarmory was landing between us and the Charizard near the mountain.

    "The Charizard attacked us." Someone spoke, but I was too shocked to notice who it was. It was the blond girl that helped me back in Azalea when that kid challenged me to a battle.

    I focused on what they are saying.

    "Oh, really?"

    "That''s right. Of course we didn''t do anything to them. They just attacked us." It was the rich kid, Alex.

    She stared at each other of us and then at the two Charizard, who were still¡ªone involuntarily so.

    "What do you think Blackthorn? You too think a couple of Charizard would attack humans for no reason."

    The Charizard near the cave growled at the phrase but a loud spark from above shut it down.

    Aiden froze and then stared between the two-fire breathing pokemon, examining them. His tight face began to relax, eyebrows rising as he seemed to understand something.

    Finally, he sighed. "Who stole their egg?"

    She gave a small smiled and walked up to us and then closed in on the sibling, the non-twins ones.

    "What!" Elen screamed. "We didn''t take any egg from anybody."

    The blonde girl waited half a second and then nodded. Then she extended her hand towards the boy holding the , and now I was able to notice that he looked miserable, and it was not because of all the running. I recognised that misery, the same one I had when I stole that book from my orphanage''s library.

    Guilty.

    He the grasp of his sister and pulled from his pocket a hibernating pokeball. The blonde girl took the pokeball off his hands and, with her Pokedex open, disabled the owner''s security that pokeballs had. She then clicked on the pokeball''s button and seconds later there was a Charmander on the ground, looking around confusedly.

    A very subdue spark later, and the Charizard near the mountain rushed forward and grabbed the Charmander with one arm before retreating inside the cave.

 Johto Chapter 32

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 Johto Chapter 33

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 Johto Chapter 34

    Pokemon Center rooms are the same everywhere. I don¡¯t know why, but they always are.

    A bedroom slightly smaller than the one on my old apartment and a tiny bathroom. It was fine when we stayed in Goldenrod, but now we¡¯ve added another pokemon to the team, a giant ice disk that was currently hovering in the middle of the room, just above the bed.

    I peeked over my shoulder to look at my team. Valley and Jungle were chatting to each other while lying in the double sized bed below the Cryogonal. Cape was sitting on the brown rug, back against the bed, smiling as he flicked through the pictures he took on his portable camera. Mesa, meanwhile, was looking over my shoulder at the journal I was writing on.

    A big sixth pokemon and we¡¯d need to do like the trainers with big teams did and rent a large room in trainer hotels. I really didn¡¯t expect we¡¯d have to do it so soon in our journey.

    I turned back to the journal, finished the last paragraph on the page, and pushed away from the desk. Mesa floated back so I could rotate my chair to look at them all.

    ¡°Okay team,¡± I said, and the pokemon who were distracted turned to look. ¡°The beginner¡¯s tournament of Violet City starts tomorrow, and I have a few important things for us to address as a team.¡±

    Everyone nodded or made a small grunt of agreement.

    ¡°First, as I said, this is a beginner¡¯s tournament. They¡¯re for beginners, so I will use mostly the newest ones on the team. This tournament is a good way for them to get fighting experience quickly. Mountain and Valley will be the ones fighting the most in the first day¡ª¡±

    The Minccino began to jump up and down in the bed while happily squeaking.

    ¡°And towards the end of the tournament, as the weaker trainers and pokemon are weeded out, I¡¯ll bring out the strong veterans, Jungle, Mesa and Cape, in that order.¡±

    Valley froze in the air and deflated after she landed in the bed. Cape and Jungle laughed at her.

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of rules in the tournament,¡± I continued with a smile. The only ones who didn¡¯t groan at the word ¡®rules¡¯ were Mesa and Mountain. ¡°I will not bother trying to explain all of them to you guys, but just know that I¡¯ve read them. The only thing you guys need to remember is that if I say something, you must do it. That means stopping when I say stop, Okay? Cape? Valley?¡±

    The two offenders grunted and nodded. It¡¯s not like that happens often but sometimes those two are so lost in a battle that I have to repeat two or three times for them to stop, especially when they¡¯re sparing against each other.

    ¡°The next thing is¡­¡± I checked the notebook. ¡°Avoid injuring yourselves. Two days after the tournament ends we¡¯ll be going against Falkner. That means no pulling off crazy stunts like what Cape did against Whitney, or even what Mesa did with Rock Tomb. Remember, no tournament prize is enough compared to winning a badge.¡±

    After all, winning a badge gets us one step closer to the greatest tournament of them all, the Silver Conference. Their dry nods didn¡¯t appease me, but if things get back I can still recall them. I glanced at the notebook again.

    ¡°Now for our strategy, I still don¡¯t know if our group will fight right after noon or more to late afternoon. If closer to noon Valley will go first, if closer to evening, Mountain will go first. Of course, temperature will also be taken into consideration, a hot day doesn''t help a Cryogonal after all.¡±

    The team¡¯s two newest pokemon nodded.

    "Well, let¡¯s start with Mountain¡­¡±

    -

    I was looking at my laptop. Specifically, at the site where the tournament groups would be announced in just a few minutes. Around the table were the other members of Project. Sitting to my side were Robert and Emilia who were watching a live stream at Robert¡¯s laptop where the tournament organisers were assigning the groups in a randomised format.

    At the other side of the table were Jess, Dendra and Katy, who were comparing the trainings the two groups did in the last two days.

    Jess, competitive as always, didn¡¯t want to train with the others before the tournament. The reason being to not give away her moves and strategies. Since I already knew what she was working on,¡ªI suggested at least half of those after all¡ªshe asked me to train with her. Katy, Robert and Emilia agreed with her that it was a good idea and did their own training.

    We thought that Dendra would be training with them, since they travelled together, but she annoyed Jess so much that she was allowed to train with us. Thus, she was the only one who knew how all five of us fought.

    I briefly suspected that Dendra didn¡¯t get along well with the trio while journeying together, but at breakfast and dinner, where we all ate together, they talked and joked like good friends, so that was probably wrong.

    Between catching up with Project and our training, Jess and I didn¡¯t see the others on our travelling group.

    The twins told us they¡¯d be exploring the city like tourists and we hadn¡¯t seen them since. It was really disappointing that after our match with Falkner we would be splitting up. They didn¡¯t have a sponsor and would need to wait almost three whole weeks for their match with Falkner. They also didn¡¯t want to follow Dendra¡¯s steps.

    Aiden would continue with us since he was sponsored by his clan and would be fighting Falkner even earlier than us, but he was busy training for the tournament with a friend from Blackthorn who happened to be on the city. We hadn¡¯t seen too much of him the last two days and he always looked too tired from training to hang out with us.

    ¡°Shut up, you dork!¡± Jess said, making me look over the screen to see her clamping Dendra¡¯s mouth shut. ¡°Be generic, ge-ne-ric! Do you want to tell her everything, your little spy?! And you! Stop trying to goad this dumbass into revealing all my secrets.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to speak anything Jess, trust me!¡° Came the muffled protest from behind the hand.

    ¡°Jess, let her go,¡± I said.

    ¡°Thank you Scott,¡± Dendra sighed in relief as Jess retreated, and then turned to her. ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to say anything important... again.¡±

    Jess glared.

    ¡°And I¡¯ll repeat myself, I don¡¯t need any ¡®secret¡¯ information to beat you.¡± Katy calmly said, one hand supporting her head and the other holding her phone. ¡°I¡¯d even forget whatever secrets Dendra was going to say.¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t,¡± Ronald piped with a smirk, eyes not leaving the screen.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to say anything!¡± Dendra whined.

    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you a spirited bunch,¡± Someone commented from beside our table.

    A tall teenager was lingering near our table with a joking smile. He was clearly a Blackthorn judging by the famous hairstyle and the clothes similar to the ones that Aiden wore. The only difference was in the colour of the lines, instead of blue, his was red. The belt that he wore had eight great balls in a black and red pattern.

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    From beside him came out the thinner form of Aiden, clothes scuffed and dirt. He looked almost dead on his feet.

    ¡°Hey¡±¡ªhe yawned¡ª¡°guys.¡±

    ¡°Hey, aren¡¯t you too young to be out of bed at this time?¡± Jess responded while grinning.

    It was a testament to his level of tiredness that he didn¡¯t react at all.

    ¡°Go to bed Aiden,¡± the Blackthorn trainer said. ¡°And do something to relax tomorrow, before the tournament.¡±

    ¡°Okay, thanks Akashi,¡± he began to walk, but then stopped. ¡°It wasn¡¯t their fault.¡±

    ¡°Yeah yeah,¡± the teenager rolled his eyes.

    The people at the table exchanged confused glances. Did we do something to Aiden that was wrong?

    When Aiden turned around the corner out from the canteen and towards the elevator, I turned to the Blackthorn.

    ¡°Is there something wrong?¡±

    ¡°Not anymore, no,¡± he said with a small laugh. ¡°¡­ Well, Aiden just let it escape that you were the ones who made me fly over to the mountains to ask a family of Charizard why one of their Charmander was outside their cavern.¡±

    I pieced together the clues, ¡°You¡¯re an Moeru.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± his smile changed into a proud grin. ¡°Akashi Moeru, if you¡¯re wondering.¡±

    The Moeru clan was one of the four clans of Blackthorn. The clan that specialises in the Charmander line. Not just that¡­ I remember seeing a Charizard at the Plateau Conference.

    ¡°Did you participate in the last Plateau Conference?¡±

    ¡°Yep, top eight, soon to be first place in the Silver one.¡± He coughed. ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter right now, what matters to me is that your little group gave me work right in the middle of my leisure time.¡± He raised his voice a little. ¡°I came to this city just to be a commentator on a little tournament or something like that, kick up my feet, and binge-watch a show that a friend recommended, and suddenly I¡¯m receiving a call from rangers to fly south to handle a situation with a family of Charizard.¡± He raised his voice again. ¡°Do you know how difficulty is to communicate with a group of angry Charizard? Do you even understand just how confusing that can be?¡±

    I stared at him, we all stare at him, even some tables around were watching his rant.

    I see... He¡¯s likely one of those trainers who like to do comedy bits. Huh, there should be a study about why trainers are more¡­ quirky than normal people. I took a swing of my coffee and glanced to see if the site had updated the groups yet. They didn¡¯t.

    ¡°Mister Akashi, please behave yourself.¡±

    ¡°Yes, miss joy.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re setting a poor example for the children by behaving this way.¡±

    ¡°Yes, miss Joy. I understand. My apologies.¡± He briefly bowed.

    The exasperated Nurse who seemingly just teleported to our table walked away towards the counter.

    He turned to us, ¡°So, what do you have to say for yourselves?¡±

    Jess coughed, and the Blackthorn trainer glanced at her, ¡°¡­ Sorry about that?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not interested in getting any apologies,¡± he said, confusing us and sounding pleased with that. ¡°Actually, I just wanted to inform you guys that we caught some illegal hunters in the possession of the siblings of that Charmander. Apparently, they didn¡¯t have enough pokeball to capture all four siblings, so they just left him there.¡±

    "Fucking smugglers." Jess cursed.

    "Language," Dendra hissed.

    "Yes, but we already reunited the Charmander with their family," he said, and I frowned.

    ¡°Oh that¡¯s good then.¡± Jess said.

    ¡°Good? It''s great!¡± Dendra said.

    I looked at him again, this time more carefully, and noticed a small black badge camouflaged against his clothes. He was a Ranger Trainee, more specifically, a Frontier Ranger Trainee by the sigil of a barrier on the badge.

    ¡°It is, isn¡¯t it?¡± Akashi said. ¡°The job may have been untimely, but it was satisfying at least. And also got me in the good standing with my superior, so I should thank you guys actually.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Jess said, and we waited.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s all now,¡± he nodded, apparently satisfied. ¡°Good luck at the tournament.¡±

    Akashi Moeru then turned on his heels and walked towards the door. He was a long distance from us when someone spoke again.

    ¡°Wait¡­ He¡¯s going to be the commentator tomorrow at out tournament?¡± Ronald asked.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what he said.¡± Katy said, already back on her phone.

    "He didn''t thank us." Emilia whispered.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be right back," I said as I got up and ran until I caught up with Akashi, who was just outside the Pokemon Center.

    ¡°Strange,¡± he said before I could call him. He turned, hands in his pockets, and a raised eyebrow, ¡°Not many people run after me, and those that do are usually the ladies.¡±

    ¡°I have something to ask you.¡± I said, and he waited for me to catch my breath. ¡°Those hunters... they¡¯re not with the group that was in the Grey Lake, are they?¡±

    Arashi paused for a few seconds and stared at my eyes, searching for something, ¡°These smugglers? No. They¡¯re not close to the level of the ones that the Poltergeist captured there, or the ones he¡¯s after.¡± A tight smile appeared on his face. ¡°Sometimes I hate my ability to say so much in so few words¡­ Whatever, try to get some sleep tonight, you¡¯re going to need it for tomorrow.¡±

    Akashi turned and left.

    The only thing I remembered after that was the information that nobody that I knew was on my tournament group. I don¡¯t remember anything else until my head hit the pillow. Once there, I think about the fight between Brian and the Rocket.

    In my dreams, the thing I saw most was a Mach Punch from a Hitmonchan coming at me. The second thing was a giant Nidoqueen glaring down at me.

    When I woke up in the middle of the night, I wondered how he knew I would have a nightmare.

    -

    I was having breakfast with Aiden when Dendra entered the canteen, saw us, looked around for anyone else, and then crept towards our table.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± she whispered as she sat down at the table.

    ¡°Good morning,¡± I greeted back while Aiden just nodded, still looking a little tired from his training yesterday.

    ¡°It¡¯s a good thing I found you guys alone,¡± she said. ¡°Scott, I need your help.¡±

    ¡°What do you need?¡± I asked, suddenly alert.

    ¡°You know how in the last two days we have been occupied with training?¡±

    ¡°¡­ Yes¡± I slowly said, not knowing where she was going.

    ¡°Hum, how would you feel if I told you I still don¡¯t know how the tournament actually works.¡±

    Aiden stopped eating his sandwich to glance at her with a raised an eyebrow while I just scratched my chin in thought.

    ¡°Please say something,¡± she begged when I didn''t respond.

    ¡°You¡¯re telling that you don¡¯t know how the tournament that¡¯s going to be starting,¡±¡ªI glanced at the canteen clock¡ª¡°in four hours from now, and that which you¡¯re participating in, works, are you?¡±

    ¡°Ugh,¡± she almost shouted. ¡°That¡¯s why I don¡¯t want to tell the others. They will just make fun of me. Scott please help.¡±

    I agreed, kids do have a tendency to be mean.

    ¡°Okay, what do you actually know about the tournament?¡±

    ¡°Well, I know that all the matches are three on three, there¡¯s one switch, no items allowed. And there¡¯s a group stage¡­ I heard you guys talking about that yesterday.¡±

    That¡¯s it?

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°Yes! That¡¯s it!¡± she whispered.

    I sighed. ¡°Do you at least know that it will be happening at the Battle Hall down the street?¡±

    ¡°I also knew that,¡± she nodded proudly while Aiden¡¯s gaze was fixed on her with a blank expression.

    ¡°Okay, listen. The tournament will begin with sixty four trainers. The first part, which will happen today, is the group stage. Last night, the sixty four trainers were separated in sixteen groups of four, and today each of the participants will fight three times against the people from his own group, the one who gets more points wins the first place on his group and move on to the elimination stage.

    ¡°The elimination stage will be just that, elimination. Sixteen people will turn into eight, that will turn into four, into two, and then the final happens, and we get a Champion.

    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of little rules but I don¡¯t think you would break any of them on accident, but just in case listen to the judge if anything happens.¡±

    ¡°I see... But just sixty four, I though more people would apply?¡±

    Aiden and I exchanged a quick glance. He rolled his eyes.

    ¡°A lot more people signed, but the tournament cut it at sixty four,¡± he explained.

    I nodded. ¡°The registration process is actually a sign in for an invitation to enter the tournament. The tournament judges had to look at each of our pages in the Pokemon League and dismiss about two hundred trainers who were not considered fit to give good fights.¡±

    ¡°This tournament may have only beginners,¡± Aiden said, complementing, ¡°but it¡¯s one of the biggest this season.¡±

    ¡°What!? So how did we all entered?¡± Dendra asked.

    ¡°Most of our group would get in on just the fact that we have sponsors, but for you, my guess would be that they saw your fighting history. You did spend a lot of time in Battle Halls and the Pok¨¦dex does register matches.¡±

    From the stories that Ronald and the others told us of their travels, he makes it seem like Dendra was challenging everyone she came across.

    ¡°He¡¯s right, you¡¯re probably one of the few trainers invited to this tournament with just one badge,¡± Aiden said.

    ¡°Hah! That¡¯s not news to me!¡± she said, ¡°My team and I are awesome¡­ Wait, does that mean that everyone on the tournament is really good.¡±

    ¡°Yes, among the trainers who have between one and three badges, yes they are,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes!¡± She jumped from her seat. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to tell Chopper and Ress that! They will love this.¡±

    Then she left, running to the entrance of the Pokemon Center.

    Aiden turned around. ¡°She knows when the tournament starts?¡±

    ¡°If she doesn¡¯t even know what group she is,¡± I responded, and then sighed while taking out a pokeball from my belt. ¡°I will send Cape to get her.¡±

 Johto Chapter 35

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 Johto Chapter 36

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 Johto Chapter 37

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