Happenings Between Goals (PG-15)

[The Teller]

So this is my first serious attempt at writing fanfiction. It'll be a typical trainer story, but I hope it'll at least be an entertaining typical trainer story. Rated PG-15 for overall story, but the first several would probably more qualify for PG or even G. I'll put the chapter in a spoiler below so as to not break the website.

    Spoiler:- undefined:

Show Spoiler

 

Happenings Between Goals

Chapter 1: To New Lands

I started my journey in the fall. I had just graduated high school during the spring and spent my summer relaxing, saying my goodbyes, and preparing. Everybody was going their separate ways. Many of the kids my age would be going on similar journeys, but were starting off at other destinations. Others were staying near the area and taking local jobs. Some weren’t even going to be trainers at all.

It was my high exam scores and copious amounts of volunteerism with the local shelter that allowed me the opportunity to board a plane and fly thousands of miles away from my home, overseas, and to Sinnoh. It was well known that the region was a lot harsher and more competitive about its trainer program and especially the gym challenge. The reasoning, from what I understand, is that by constantly pushing trainers to their limits, even the beginners (especially the beginners; better to start early than late), it will, in turn, produce powerful trainers that can defend the land wherever they go, and incidents like the Team Rocket Takeover at both Saffron City and Goldenrod City won’t happen again. Since it was such a steep incline in difficulty (unlike the “easy mode” Johto is), only burgeoning trainers who meet the Pokémon League: Sinnoh Branch’s strict requirements are allowed to participate in the gym challenge. Such requirements include exceptionally high exam scores and an extensive background in caring for more than three different types of Pokémon.

It was rather unfortunate, but my hometown didn’t have any starting Pokémon to give to us beginners. Mom said it was because of recent budget cuts. The traditional starting Pokémon are specifically bred to be easy for beginning trainers to handle and are often times quite rare outside of captivity. Since they’re so prized, the costs for importing some to a town for beginning trainers can be high. There’s also the rumor I once heard that the starters don’t take to breeding with much enthusiasm. They’re like Spinda; they just seem to want to not-breed themselves out of existence. No matter what the reason was, none of us got any Pokémon to practice with or to protect us with. We were assured that wherever we go, there would be suitable Pokémon for us there.

As the plane touched down in Veilstone City, I wondered what my starting Pokémon would be. Would it be a grass, fire, or water type? Again, I had heard rumors that some places, due to stock shortage, would give out Pokémon not belonging to one of the three traditional types. Someone even said something about a small town giving out an electric type, the irony being that the closest gym used ground Pokémon.

‘A fire type wouldn’t be so bad,’ I thought, departing the plane and walking down the terminal. ‘Fire types are supposed to be rare up here due to the high latitude and cold climate.’

After I had gathered my belongings, I stepped out into the city and took it all in. The entire city had a bowl shape to it, being surrounded by mountains on virtually all sides besides the north. I think my History teacher said something about it all being carved out of rock over millennia of water erosion, or something like that. This in no way stopped the wind from constantly blowing in my face. Most of the buildings were perched on stony hills, giving everything a “bumpy” look to it, and seemed to be scattered every which way, as if all the buildings were built at random and not by a city planner. I wagered that the purpose of placing the buildings on hills was to prevent flooding damage. I wondered how often this place gets flooding.

The people in the city were hustling and bustling, busily and quickly walking to their destinations on the cobblestone roads. They talked amicably to their friends about this and that. A group of young women, probably in their early 20s, walked by, chatting loudly about someone they knew, laughed, and headed into a large building with various sales deals signs posted on the windows. Knowing the girls back home who went to a big city, this was probably the famed Veilstone Department Store. Being a guy, I was more interested in trying out the Game Corner that I had read about in the brochure on the plane ride over. I heard that powerful items are the rewards for a huge payday at the slots. Unfortunately, thanks to some militant, anti-Pokémon abuse group, all the Game Corners had to stop giving away free Pokémon as top prizes. According to the news, one such Game Corner had to stop giving away freaking Dratinis! How cool would I be if I hit the jackpot and walk out of this town with my starter and a freaking Dratini?! Those heartless monsters! Now I don’t feel like going to the Game Corner as much as I did a few minutes ago.

Turning my souring face away from the thoughts of complete ownage, I saw a truck carrying some kind of storage house on its back. Was someone moving here? Did they get flooding insurance? As I walked down the street, I saw a lady (probably pompous) walking her Lillipup, a pink-dyed Furret wrapped around her neck. Who would dye their pet something like that? Isn’t that illegal? Passing her, I saw some people setting up for some sort of presentation while the cry of a large bird Pokémon sounded above.

On the far side of the city, overlooking everything else in the city, stood a large, menacing building with two satellites out front and what appeared to be spikes running down the side of the building. The satellites didn’t seem to be working though, and no one was entering or leaving the building either. Squinting my eyes, I thought I could see a sign in front of the satellites with the name of the building on it, but if it was electronic, it wasn’t turned on either. The whole place seemed to be abandoned. With spikes running down its sides, that’s a good thing.

Stopping on a street corner, I dug a note out of one of my bags. It was something the dean of students had given us on graduation day. It told us where to go, if we wound up in a major or semi-major city, to get a starting Pokémon. Unfortunately for me, the designated area for Veilstone was on the other side of the city, probably a good hour’s walk from where I was at. I suddenly wished this place had subways.

I breathed a heavy sigh and continued my epic Pokémon journey to cross a city unmolested to get a Pokémon to remain unmolested. I didn’t want to waste what little money I had for a cab, so I resigned to my fate of a long walk.

‘Even if a wild Pokémon were to jump out at me from behind a dark alley, I don’t have any Poké Balls to catch them with,’ I bemoaned to myself, making note of the Poké Center that I was passing by.

After walking for five minutes, I finally reached a bus stop and waited there until a bus came. As luck would have it, the bus was going towards the registration building. I flashed my newly minted trainer identification card (allowing for free passage; thanks Congress!) and took a seat. I was glad I managed to catch the bus when it finally stopped a block away from the registration building twenty minutes later. Who knows how long it would’ve taken me to walk there myself?

‘Complaining about a twenty minute walk when you’re about to go on a region-spanning journey. Yep, great way to start. Totally not regretting my life decision at all,’ I thought, stepping off the bus and making my way towards the building.

It wasn’t a hard building to find. The royal purple sides would tip anyone off. A trainer stepped outside the building holding what was probably his first Pokémon, a Stunky. That poor man. At least he seemed happy about his predicament. Better a bad Pokémon than none at all, I suppose. This didn’t stop me from giving him a strange look as he passed me, though I don’t think he noticed. I walked into the building, hoping for the best.

Inside, it was buzzing with trainers new and old, Pokémon, and administrators. I couldn’t help but to get excited all over again, as many of the Pokémon I saw I had never seen before. Any region professor will tell you that new species are being discovered all the time, so even though we saw and read about a lot of species in class, we couldn’t possibly cover every species known. It was this reason why the Pokédex was invented and subsequently given out to promising trainers across the globe. With so many people around the world using the device to record data on never-before-seen Pokémon, it eases the load on the scientific community and speeds up the discovery process simultaneously.

I had to stand in line in order to get my Pokémon, which was already quite long. This was probably partially my fault for starting my journey in the fall (like everyone else does) and not sooner. However, since this region is rather selective, I was willing to bet that however long my line is, the people from my school were standing in much, MUCH longer lines right now. By the time I finally got to the front of the line, the administrator looked absolutely exhausted. I would be too, if I had to work the busy shift during the rush season.

“Trainer ID card and a second form of ID, please,” she said, none too pleasantly.

I handed her my ID card and a copy of my birth certificate. She read them both over and turned to the computer next to her. She started typing information in. After a few minutes, she handed me back my materials. I thanked her but she didn’t respond, still typing away at the computer.

“Your Trainer ID card has now been validated. You can use it to gain free access to city buses, any accredited Pokémon Center in the Sinnoh region, along with the Poké Marts inside, challenge any accredited gym leaders within the region, participate in any of the contests held within the region, challenge the region’s Elite Four and Champion if you meet the requirements, and gain trainer discounts on various merchandise throughout the region. In addition, when battling other trainers, you set your Pokédex to “Battle” and once your battle is through, you swipe your ID card through the side slot in the opponent’s Pokédex for each Pokédex to register the battle and handle the prize money accordingly. The Pokédex will keep automatic check on the status of each of your Pokémon inside their Poké Balls, so it will know who wins and who loses. Please keep your trainer card on you at all times. The cost of replacing a lost or stolen trainer card is $150, so please keep that in mind. Please remember that all privileges that come with owning a trainer card are valid only in Sinnoh. If you plan on traveling or battling outside the region, you must apply for a new trainer card before traveling,” she recited.

She HAD to have reciting all of that. She probably said it enough times a day, every day, for who knows how long, and she said it all flawlessly and without pause. She didn’t look up at me once until she was done with her speech, making sure I understood everything she said.

“Do you have any questions?” she asked.

I shook my head no.

“Good. Then the only thing left to do is to choose your starting Pokémon and register it with your Pokédex.”

She reached for something underneath the desk while I fished out the Pokédex I was handed during the graduation ceremony. It was already loaded with all the essential information a trainer could want (as of this past summer). The lady pulled up a chart with three different Pokémon on them, along with various information about them.

“These are the three Pokémon that you can choose from,” she said, handing me the chart. I must’ve looked confused, as she continued. “Please go over to the waiting area and read everything carefully,” she said, pointing to another part of the room. “Once you have made your decision, please go up to the Pokémon counter and inform the teller of your choice. Thank you and good luck on your journey.”

She sure didn’t sound like she was wishing me good luck, and the look she gave me indicated that she no longer wanted my presence, so I walked to the waiting area. There, I could see other trainers mulling over the three possibilities. I sat down and looked over the graph.

The three Pokémon I could choose from were Ditto, Tynamo, and Beldum. I had heard of Ditto before. That was a well-known Pokémon in any region. The ability to transform into any Pokémon is a unique ability and could definitely come in handy, but I just couldn’t see myself training one. By itself, untransformed, it’s rather boring. Furthermore, it can only learn one move. Also, to be a competent Ditto trainer, you have to know what moves your opponent’s Pokémon have, which means you have to know a very wide range of Pokémon and their movesets before jumping into any battle. That’s just too much trouble for me. Plus, I don’t like its face.

The other two Pokémon I haven’t heard of before. I entered “Tynamo” into my Pokédex and up came the specie’s entry page. It was an electric type that levitates off the ground, allowing it to live out of the water, despite looking like a Barboach. An electric type that levitates would mean that it has no real weaknesses, a real plus in my book. According to the graph, however, Tynamo can only learn four different moves. No known Tynamo has been observed using any other move other than those four, and the four moves aren’t that powerful either. It has also been observed that Tynamo is incompatible with any Technical or Hidden Machines, though the reason why is still a mystery. To make up for its weaknesses, it has the aforementioned lack of type weakness and, at a late level, evolve into a much more powerful form, which in turn is capable of evolving into an even more powerful form after that through the use of a Thunder Stone, meaning a quick double evolution if I have one handy at the moment of first evolution. So basically it’s a case of weak now, strong later. I considered it while I looked at the entry for the third Pokémon.

Beldum is a steel/psychic type Pokémon and is incapable of having its attack powers, defense powers, or its speed lowered by an enemy attack. Scientists have observed that its evolved forms can willingly lower their stats by their own attacks. Its typing grants it many resistances and an immunity to poison attacks; its only weaknesses are to ground and fire attacks. I know from watching battles on TV, however, that ground-based attacks are quite frequent in the high tier battling community. Beldum is quite strong for a base form Pokémon and evolves quicker than Tynamo. However, its biggest drawback is the fact that it can only know Take Down. That’s it. No in-bred moves. No TM or HM compatibility. Nothing it knows leveling up. Just Take Down. A move that hurts the user as well as the opponent. I could see many trips to the Poké Center and spending all my money on Potions for this guy. Oh wait, the Pokédex says it doesn’t have a defined gender. So it’s not a guy or girl at all. So much for the contest circuit. The graph says that both Beldum and Tynamo grow at about the same rate.

I’d say I knew who I was going to choose immediately, but the truth is that I sat there for over half an hour debating over the two Pokémon. I would’ve debated longer had I not realized that if I didn’t make a decision soon, all of the Pokémon would be taken by less choosy trainers and I’d be stuck with a stupid Ditto. And so, I walked up to the Pokémon counter and got the teller’s attention.

“Have you made your decision?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “I’ve decided to take Beldum.”

“Okay. I’ll just need to see your trainer ID card and Pokédex, and I’ll take the graph back.”

I handed them to her.

“Thank you. I’ll be back in a minute.”

She left to go get my Pokémon and do some more paperwork and registering. A few minutes later, she returned with four Poké Balls, my Pokédex, and my trainer ID card.

“Here’s your Pokédex and ID card back. This Poké Ball,” she said, holding up one of the four balls, “contains your Beldum. It’s already been registered in your Pokédex. These other three Poké Balls are extras to help you get started on your journey. Remember, you must register each of your Poké Balls after you catch a Pokémon to your Pokédex in order for it to register your Pokémon, analyze its stats, and update your listings of caught Pokémon. If you do not, your Pokédex won’t acknowledge your new Pokémon and the caught Pokémon will be a free-for-all for anyone with a Pokédex to keep as their own.”

I nodded my understanding and pressed the button in the middle of the Poké Ball, extending its size. I tossed it to the ground, whereupon it opened and materialized my first Pokémon. Upon seeing it for the first time, my eyes immediately widened.

“No way! My starter’s a shiny Pokémon?!” I yelled.

Everybody looked my way. Some started snickering immediately. What?

“Um…no it’s not,” replied the teller, looking over my shoulder at my hovering, metallic blue, shiny Beldum.

“Yes it is! The graph showed a Beldum as being grey in color. It also showed Ditto as being pink, and I know shiny Dittos aren’t pink, so this has to be a shiny Pokémon.”

“Dear, those graphs are over twenty-five years old. The colors have all faded over time. The picture only looks like Beldums are grey. Dittos, likewise, are a much sharper hue of pink than what’s shown in the picture. And if nothing else, if your Beldum was shiny, its rear claws would be golden, not silver.”

Indeed, my Beldum was blue and silver and, just to make sure, I consulted with my Pokédex, which showed a picture of a regular Beldum which was, yep, blue and silver. I instantly turned every shade of red, included some which weren’t invented yet, and wished I had a really cool baseball cap to hide my face under.

“Oh. Sorry,” I said, meekly.

Beldum floated up to my face and stared at me. It was completely silent.

“At least you’re not laughing at me, huh, Beldum?”

It didn’t reply verbally, but I got the sense that it was agreeing with me. Picking up its Poké Ball, I thanked the teller, who also wished me good luck on my journey (she seemed to mean it more than the administrator), and made my way to the door.

“Sir! Wait!”

I stopped and turned around. The teller was running up to me.

“I’m sorry, sir, but in all the commotion you caused talking about your 'shiny' Pokémon, I forgot to mention something important. Scientists don’t know why, but for some reason, the Pokémon in this region seem to get more powerful the further east you go. As you can gather, we’re pretty far east right now, so there’s a good chance that you’d be completely overwhelmed by the wild Pokémon outside of the city. As such, it would be a good idea to catch one of the trains here at the train station and go to Canalave City to begin your journey. The wild Pokémon there will be much easier to handle. I’m sorry again for not mentioning this back at the counter.”

“That’s okay. I’m sorry I made such a spectacle.”

She forgave me, wished me luck again, and headed back to the counter. Beldum and I looked at each other, and we finally stepped out of the registration building.

The sun was at its high point in the sky and the temperature was starting to warm up a bit. Still not enough to shrug off this jacket, but better than this morning. I took out the town map from one of my bags and located the train station. I sighed again. It’s like they purposely built this place to be as time-consuming to me as possible! The station was on the other side of town, towards the western mountains, a little more than a few miles from where the airport was. I guess I should find that bus stop again.

“Come on, Beldum. I don’t know how much of the world you’ve seen already, but you’re about to see even more of it.”

Beldum looked at me but again didn’t say anything. I was starting to think that maybe Beldums simply don’t make a sound. We got to the bus stop, waited for a bus to arrive, and rode it ‘til we got back to the same stop I had been to earlier today. Stepping off the bus, I noticed that a crowd was forming near what I guessed was the town center. On top of the makeshift stage, I noticed that the people standing there were the same ones that were setting up for a presentation earlier. They were all dressed identically, looking a bit like a cross between a Drifblim and a chef’s outfit. They surrounded an older man, dressed more bizarrely than they were. He wore a purple and yellow robe, the two colors mostly separated from one another down the middle, with two eye-like patterns across the front, a weird formation at the top that looked like castle battlements, a red monocle on his right eye, and an odd hair style. I walked up to the crowd just as this strange fashion disaster started speaking with a booming, bass, commanding voice.

“I thank you for your time. My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon liberation. I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and Pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other. However, is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans only assume that this is the truth? Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of trainers. They get pushed around when they are our ‘partners’ at work. Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying? Now, ladies and gentlemen, Pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called Pokémon?”

The people around me started whispering to one another.

"That's right! We must liberate the Pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and Pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and Pokémon, and the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention."

And at that, the people beside him gathered around him and whisked him away, some staying behind to deconstruct the set. Apparently he didn’t want to answer anyone’s questions. Not a very good way to reach out to people. Everyone around me was abuzz. People were yelling at each other as to whether the speaker was right or not. I heard the sounds of Poké Balls opening. Don’t tell me that people were actually releasing their Pokémon? After just one talk? Did they have that big of an epiphany? Sure enough, a Staravia was soon flying over the crowd and off into the distance. I looked at my Beldum, who looked back at me.

“I spent the better part of my whole life waiting for this day, waiting to meet you. Why would I want to go and throw that all away now? Besides, only true monsters would subject their Pokémon to selfish commands and see them as just tools.”

I don’t know why, but I could tell that Beldum seemed quite pleased with my answer, even though it didn’t have a face.

“Are you having your last words with your Pokémon?” someone asked.

I looked around and saw a young man walk up to me. He looked to be slightly older than I was with long, green hair, a trucker hat, a cube of some sort on a keychain attached to his pants and an atomic symbol attached to a necklace that he wore. He wore a black shirt with a white, button down shirt over it, khakis, and, strangely enough, green shoes.

“Excuse me?” I asked, slightly offended.

“I’m sorry if I’m intruding on a private moment. What Ghetsis said a minute ago really struck a chord with these people. I myself am a Trainer and I was absolutely inspired by his message. Humans capture these magnificent creatures and force them to do menial tasks that are far beneath their potential and if that isn’t enough they also force them to fight for their lives solely for the entertainment of humans. It’s disgusting. I, for one, am friends with my Pokémon and treat them with the kindness and respect they deserve and value them as my true friends. Pokémon aren’t mean and deceptive like humans are.”

He said all this as if he was in a rush. I’ve never heard someone talk so much in so little time. His attention suddenly came to Beldum.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“It’s a Beldum,” I replied, wishing he would go away.

“I wasn’t talking to you! Your Beldum was saying something to me.”

At this point, I felt like I should just return Beldum to his Poké Ball and run as far in the opposite direction as possible. These are the kinds of people you meet in that same dark alleyway I mentioned earlier.

“Your Beldum is quite intelligent, but I fear it’s mistaken in its belief that not all humans are evil.”

“It doesn’t have a mouth! It can’t even say its own name!” I countered, exasperated.

This man looked back to me.

“You can’t hear them either, can you? What a pity. Still,” he said, reaching for something behind him. “I’ve heard that a Pokémon’s true voice can be heard in the heat of battle!”

He brought out a Poké Ball. Now? I’m having my first battle now? Here?

“I’m sorry, for both of our Pokémon, but I must hear the true voice of your Beldum!”

He threw his Poké Ball towards me and out popped a purple feline I recognized as a Purrloin. People around us stopped talking and started looking at us instead. All eyes on me (and this nut job). I suddenly forgot everything I knew about Pokémon battling.

“Annerire, use Scratch!” he commanded.

The Purrloin ran towards Beldum and leaped for it, claws extended. In the blink of an eye, it scratched Beldum right across the eye and the side of its head. It was then that I heard a faint, but sharp screeching noise. It was Beldum. It was hurt. My Beldum. My Beldum! That was all it took to snap me back to my senses.

“Beldum, Take Down!”

The air behind Beldum suddenly looked wavy and it shot very quickly towards the Purrloin, who had just landed on the ground.

“Jump on top of it to dodge!” ordered the man, and it did just that.

“Circle around and hit it while it’s in the air! Use your momentum to increase speed!”

Beldum whizzed past the man and curved upwards, doing almost a complete 360 degrees before landing harshly on top of the still airborne Purrloin. It cried out in pain as it was flung to the ground at harsh speeds. Unfortunately, Beldum had hit the ground as well and tumbled back towards me, no longer floating.

Everyone stood silent, watching the two Pokémon. Slowly, Beldum started lifting itself above ground again, although just barely.

“Annerire…” the man whispered, and then ran towards his fallen Pokémon. He knelt down to it and gingerly picked it up.

“You did just fine. Good job,” he cooed to his feline. “You win. Your Beldum had many interesting words to say during the battle, despite how short it was.”

He stuck out his hand.

“My name is Natural Harmonia Gropius, but you can just call me N.”

Though I probably shouldn’t have, I grabbed his hand and pulled him up, with him shaking my hand in return. He at least seemed to be naturally concerned with his Pokémon’s well-being, despite being a crazy lunatic.

“Mine’s Eric. Sorry, but that’s all you get for now.”

He smiled.

“For now, huh? Someday I hope to meet you again and maybe by then I’ll have proved myself worthy of knowing your last name.”

Okay, this guy was starting to get really creepy again.

“Uh…sure.”

“I have to get going now. Even though I learned something new today, it still doesn’t change my ideals. I have to change this world for Pokémon, because they are my friends. I hope that in some way you can help me with that goal. Bye!”

And without another word, he spun around and walked away, leaving me stunned. The people around me started talking again, though now they were occasionally looking at me and pointing. I looked at Beldum, who looked worse for wear.

“Looks like it’s time for you to take a little rest,” I said, as I returned him to his Poké Ball.

I decided then that the next course of action was to go to the Poké Center and heal it up. As I made my way to the center, a woman stopped me.

“How dare you! After that man had just got done talking about using Pokémon for trainers’ selfish reasons, you go ahead and have a Pokémon battle! Right here in the town center for all to see! You should be ashamed of yourself!”

The people around her nodded in agreement.

“Lady, I wasn’t the one who initiated that battle! That other man did! I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, either! Maybe if you had paid more attention, you would’ve noticed his Purrloin attacking my Beldum before either of us had a chance to react. And all that’s beside the point! If you honestly believe that all humans treat Pokémon like animals, like tools, that we’re all heartless beings, then maybe you should do some self-reflection, because I’m pretty sure you’ve had Pokémon in your life before and they haven’t come out of it for the worse. Everyone here has had Pokémon in their life and guess what? There hasn’t been a Pokémon revolution yet! If things were truly as you and that robed man say they are, people and Pokémon wouldn’t be living in such harmony as they are right now!”

The lady was taken aback and I used the opportunity to storm past her and towards the Poké Center. The nerve of some people! How can they be so easily swayed? Can they not think for themselves? Do they need a charismatic figurehead to tell them what to think? I think this is why trainers are constantly out in the wild and away from people.

~~~

At the Center, I handed Beldum’s Poké Ball to one of the nurses.

“Just this one?” she asked.

“Yep. Got into its first fight today. Took some heavy damage.”

“I bet. It’s not until you’re in the big leagues that you can win a battle without taking any damage. Since this is apparently your first time here, I’ll explain how the system works. You give one of us nurses your Pokémon, preferably inside their Poké Balls, and take a number. Then you go and wait in the waiting area until your number is called. There are computers in the waiting area where you can go online and check your emails and also transfer Pokémon from a stored location to here and vice versa. I’m sure you know that you are only allowed six Pokémon on you at a time. I see that you've brought plenty of bags with you for your journey. If you'd like, we can also use the computer transfer system to digitize, store, and transfer your nonorganic items from one Center to another."

"That'd be really great, please. It's a pain dragging a house with me from one location to the next."

"Okay. Go through your belongings and figure out what you want to take with you personally and what you'd like to transfer, and to where. As you're doing that, I'll explain more about the Center's functions. Over by the front doors is the Poké Mart, where you can shop for supplies. Behind the elevators are vending machines for snacks and drinks. At roughly 9am, 1pm, and 7pm, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served to trainers and their Pokémon, though don’t expect anything fancy. All Poké Centers are open 24/7, though most of our services are closed for the night at midnight. You can stay the night at any Poké Center if there is room. If we’re all full for the night, the staff can direct you to other places within the city for a place to stay the night. If, in extreme cases, every place is full, then trainers are welcomed to stay here for the night, but will have to sleep on the floor. We will provide sleeping bags in those cases until we run out, so it’s best advised to bring your own. Do you have any questions?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Ok then. If you've decided on which belongings to store, I'll take those, and I’ll also take your Pokémon into the back. Be sure to take a number.”

I gave her my name so that she could make a storage account for me, handed over Beldum's Poké Ball, and walked to the waiting area. I only had a Pokémon for less than an hour and I’m already without any once again. This blows.

~~~

I spent an entire hour looking through old Pokémon magazines before my number was finally called. About time. I walked up to the front counter and talked to the nurse. She handed me back my ball, thanked me for waiting, and wished me well on my journey. I let Beldum out of the ball, mostly to make sure it was my Beldum and that it was alright. Beldum looked to be in much better condition and hovered up to my face. I smiled and, for some reason, stroked the top of its head.

“Come on. Let’s go to the Poké Mart and buy some supplies.”

After we had bought a couple Potions and a Paralyze Heal (I remember going to a Poké Mart once where I found a foreign-made can of Paralyze Heal that was hilariously labeled “Parlyz Heal”), we exited the Center and headed to the train station.

 

So there you go. Feel free to nitpick and all that. Obviously, my story doesn't quite run on the same rules as the games, but then again, whose does? I'll explain more about the "rules" as time goes on, starting with the next post.

[The Teller]

Gonna break my 1-per-month schedule just this once here in order to gain a following, get reviews, and prove that this won't end up yet another dead fic. So please review. I do want to know what everyone thinks of this.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 2:

Show Spoiler

 
Chapter 2: A Challenger/Friend Approaches in Jubilife City

We were fortunate not to be stopped by anyone else on our way to the station. As I entered the building, one of the station attendants spotted me and walked over.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “But you’ll have to put your Beldum back into its Poké Ball if you wish to ride any of the trains today.”

“Why?”

“Beldum use a magnetic force to stay afloat, and that magnetic force can cause some serious damage to the station’s electronics and the more technical parts of our trains. I’m terribly sorry, but the only way to nullify the electromagnetism is to keep the Pokémon inside the Poké Ball.”

I looked at Beldum, who seemed sad to have to go back into its ball, which is odd considering that it doesn’t really have a face. It was only just then that it hit me. Perhaps Beldum was using its limited psychic powers to communicate to me, being only strong enough to communicate feelings to me rather than words.

“Sorry, Beldum. I know I said you would be seeing a lot more of the world than you have, but it looks like you won’t be seeing as much as I’d promise. Don’t worry, though. I have a feeling we’ll be traveling on foot for most of the time after this. I’ll let you out as soon as I can.”

With that, I returned Beldum to its ball.

“Very good, sir,” the man said. “Now then, do you need help figuring out where to go?”

“Well, I need to go to the front desk and ask about train schedules, I guess.”

“Do you know your destination?”

“Yeah, Canalave City.”

“Ah, that’ll make things much easier. Come with me.”

We went to where the tickets were being sold, which also had all the current train departures’ time and destination scrolling on an LED display overhead. To my dismay, it didn’t look like any trains were going to Canalave City today.

“When does the next train leave for Canalave?” I asked.

“Never,” the man said pointedly.

I must have heard wrong.

“What?”

“There’s no trains going to Canalave because there’s no tracks leading to Canalave. Besides going through some thick woods, the only way to the city is across the Canalave River.”

“Oh.”

Well how was I supposed to know that? I can’t remember every geological aspect of every region they teach us in class.

“Looks like the route with the least amount of stops is the train leaving for Jubilife City in about an hour. From there, you can probably catch a ferry from just outside the city that’ll take you to Canalave.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

I walked up to the ticket sales employee.

“Hello, I’d like one ticket for the train leaving for Jubilife in an hour.”

“May I see your ID?”

I handed him my trainer ID card.

“I’m sorry, sir, but this doesn’t have your birth date on it. I need to see a valid ID that has your birth date on it.”

“O-kay…” I said, thinking this was weird.

I shuffled through the bag I didn't store and finally found my old (but still valid) driver’s license. Thank goodness that there wasn’t a line behind me. I handed him the card. He looked at it.

“Thank you,” he said, handing me back the card.

Now I was even more confused.

“Don’t you need it?”

“Only if the person looks too young to be traveling alone without a human guardian.”

Was I just carded?!

“Is this trip one-way?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay, the total comes to $32.16. Will that be cash or credit?”

Wait, what?

“Um…isn’t train fare free for trainers?”

“No it is not. For car and bus transportation, it’s free, and for air fare it’s 10% off, but there are no discounts or wavers for train fares for trainers. Do you still wish to purchase a ticket?”

I sighed again for what seemed like the millionth time today and dug out my wallet and handed over my emergency credit card my parents gave me before I left. I really didn’t like using it already.

“Debit,” I said. Not like they can mail a statement to me when I’m on the run.

He swiped the card and handed it and a copy of the receipt back to me, having me sign the other copy. Then he handed me a ticket.

“Have a good day.”

Leaving the ticket counter, I checked my Pokétch. I had roughly an hour before the train left. Just enough time to go back out and find something to eat for lunch. Now that I thought about it, what DOES a Beldum eat? I checked the Pokédex. Iron scraps and raw meat, huh? Well, I don’t think I’ll have access to those very much. Sorry, Beldum. It’s Poké Kibble for you. Oh, I should probably let it out once I’m outside.

“Time for lunch, Beldum,” I said, releasing Beldum from its ball.

It looked up at me, wondering something, probably where we were going.

“I’m going to find a place for me to eat. Once I’m done with that, we’ll find a store that sells food you’ll eat.”

Beldum seemed satisfied with my answer. Walking around town, I managed to find a cheap place to eat and, once I gulped down my meal, the waitress was helpful enough to point me in the right direction towards a shop that sold Pokémon food for inorganic Pokémon like Beldum. She said it would be a bit more expensive, though. I’m really gonna have to start battling trainers once I get to Canalave, or I’m going to be broke in no time. Hey! Why didn’t that N guy give me any prize money when we battled?! But wait, I didn’t set my Pokédex to “Battle” either. He didn’t give me time to think! He attacked first! Stupid, cheapskate trainer.

I walked along with Beldum until I managed to find the store (would it hurt to put a bigger sign out front to draw trainers’ attention?) and went in.

“Hi! Is there something you’re looking for?” said the shopkeeper.

He glanced over to Beldum, who stared back at him. Then again, I think the only thing Beldum can do is stare at things.

“A Beldum, huh? I reckon you’re looking for some food for the little feller?”

“Yes, please. It says in my Pokédex that its diet consists of iron scraps and raw red meat, but I can’t carry that around all the time.”

“Obviously not. Fortunately, we carry some bagged Pokémon food for Pokémon that don’t normally consume organic substances, like steel and rock types. In Aisle 3, you’ll find a selection of Pokémon food that’ll be just right for your Beldum.”

“Ok, thanks.”

“No problem.”

I walked down Aisle 3 and found a huge selection of assorted Pokémon foods. I honestly didn’t know which one to get Beldum. Beldum, on the other hand, eyeballed every package hungrily. I had a feeling that if it were up to it, I’d be buying ALL the food in this Aisle. Thank goodness its psychic powers aren’t fully matured yet. I chose the bag that had the closest metal-to-meat ratio and headed back to the front counter. The man rang me up.

“Good choice, young man. I’m sure Beldum won’t be tricking you into feeding it anytime soon with this.”

“What?” I asked, looking at Beldum suspiciously.

“Haha! I’m just kidding there, boy! I have a feeling you’re a new trainer, which means that Beldum of yours is pretty young as well, so its powers aren’t strong enough to manipulate you just yet.”

“Oh great. I’m so glad I have that to look forward to,” I said sarcastically, giving Beldum another look.

The man laughed again and swiped my credit card. Pretty soon I was out the door. I opened the bag and suddenly realized I had no dish to put the food in. Beldum took that moment of opportunity to dive claw first into the bag and start feeding.

“Hey! Stop that! That’s supposed to last you all day! I said stop it, Beldum!” I yelled, trying to pry Beldum away from the bag. Who knew that it’d be so hungry? It’s not like it could express hunger on its face.

Tried as I might, I couldn’t pry Beldum from its food. I would later check the Pokédex and find that a Beldum’s average weight is over 200 pounds, and I would also have to keep in mind its psychic-assisted electromagnetic powers that it probably used to resist my pulling. Pretty soon, the entire bag was empty. Immediately once it was done gorging itself like a Snorlax coming off a diet, it had the audacity to look up at me sorrowfully with its one eye, trying to act cute and innocent. But I wasn’t having it.

“No, you were a greedy Gulpin and ate your entire day’s meal in five minutes flat. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get anything for dinner. I’d punish you by returning you to your ball. Fortunately, we have to get to the train station right now anyways, so you’re going in whether you like it or not.”

I returned Beldum to its ball and threw away the bag that was SUPPOSED to last me all day. Do they not feed their Pokémon at the registration building?

~~~

I was lucky to only have to wait ten minutes for the train to arrive once I got to the train station. It seemed like it was going to be a crowded train, though. The crowd gathering around its platform was larger than I expected. As long as I got a seat, however, I didn’t mind. Once the train opened its doors and released the people already on the train, the crowd slowly made its way onto the train. I showed the ticket puncher my ticket and boarded as well, finding a window seat near the back. Once the doors had closed, the conductor’s voice came onto the loudspeaker.

“Good afternoon, everyone. This is Train 649 headed to Jubilife City. The time now is 1:05pm. The expected arrival time is 4:15pm. Please turn off all electrical appliances for the duration of the trip, as the electro waves they give off may disrupt the mechanics of the train. Electric Pokémon and other Pokémon that give off such waves should be kept inside their Poké Balls at all times. We apologize for any inconvenience. We thank you again for choosing Veilstone Velocity and hope you enjoy the ride.”

People around me started turning off their cell phones and computers while the stewardesses walked down the aisles for inspection. I turned off my Pokétch. When are they going to make riding trains such a non-hassle? I don’t recall this much restriction when we rode the subways in that one city years ago. I resigned to mostly staring out the window for most of the ride once the train started. I hadn’t really brought anything else to preoccupy my time.

Mom had given me an atlas before I left. I dug that out and looked at my current location. From the looks of it, the quickest path would be passing straight through Mount Coronet. But hold on. Mount Coronet is basically one big magnet. How can we pass through this safely but I can’t release Beldum? How is passing through this even healthy for you? If we go around it, we’d basically be going straight down to the lowest point in the country and coming back up to where we are now. That’d take most of the day, not 3 hours. How are we doing this?

Just then, I heard a digitized tone beeping ahead. I looked up and saw one of the overheard mini TVs flick to life. A woman appeared on the screen with a picture of a tunnel to the side of her.

“Thank you for your service. Shortly, we will be passing under one of Mt. Coronet’s many 'mu tunnels,' so named because of the materials that were used to build them. All of the mu tunnels were built with 'mu metal,' which is a type of material that is used to provide a pathway for magnetic waves to travel outside of the designated area that we don’t want the waves to reach. This is because of mu metal’s high magnetic permeability, which in a way allows it to 'absorb' magnetic waves and, in the case of these tunnels, redirect them. All of the tunnels are built six feet thick with this material. This is why we can safely travel underneath the mountains without being affected by the natural magnetic current, but we still need to ask you to turn off all electrical appliances and keep your electric and magnetic Pokémon inside their Poké Balls at all times. Please enjoy the rest of your trip!”

The commercial faded to black, only to then reappear and repeat itself. It sure was convenient for the TV to turn itself on just in time to answer my question. It sounded too technical for me, so I just took their word for it. After about an hour of doing nothing but watching the scenery go by, we finally got to the tunnel in question. It took another 45 minutes just to get through the whole thing! Whoever heard of such a long tunnel? The entire rest of the trip was just as boring, though the change in scenery from the mountainous Veilstone to the more plains-like Jubilife was an interesting sight.

~~~

“We are now arriving at Jubilife City, the city of joy! The current time is 4:14pm. Please wait until the train comes to a complete stop and the doors open before exiting the train. Please keep all electric and magnetic Pokémon inside their Poké Balls until you leave the train station. Thank you for riding Veilstone Velocity!”

The train came to a stop and I exited, immediately relishing the chance to stretch my limbs like a cooped up Persian. Once outside the building, I decided that I should probably let Beldum out, though I don’t know how something like Beldum could get stiff.

“Alright, you can come out now,” I said, tossing the ball.

Beldum came out and looked at me, like it was confused as to why it was in its ball for so long.

“You know full well why you were in that ball for so long. Don’t give me that look. You’re not going to charm your way out of this.”

I then realized what I’d just said. Beldum? Charming? Maybe I was growing attached to this Pokémon faster than I had realized. Anyways, I looked around town to gather my surroundings.

The city was quite large, much like Veilstone, but less rocky. One of the buildings nearby had a huge flat screen TV at the top advertising my Pokétch. This reminded me to turn mine back on. A clown outside the building’s front doors was yelling advertisements to passersby. Hmm…gonna have to remember to find a route around him. I also saw the Poké Center in the distance. The bright red roof was unmistakable. However, Beldum hasn’t battled since the weirdo, so a trip to the Center wasn’t necessary. Other, indistinguishable buildings littered the city. Cars drove along the paved roads.

Looking at my Pokétch, I saw that the exit I wanted was to my right. Turning that way, I made towards the exit. Turning a corner, I smacked face first into someone else.

“Ow!”

“Ah!”

From the sounds of it, his face was hit, too. We both looked up at each other.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“It’s okay. I sped around that corner way too fast.”

We both tenderly rubbed our faces to assess the damage. Nothing broken on my end. Nothing bleeding. All my teeth still there. I was good to go.

“Well, I won’t be needing cosmetic surgery anytime soon,” he said.

“That’s good. It’s a good thing you didn’t bump into Beldum then, right?” I replied, gesturing towards Beldum, who was too busy eyeing my face to notice I was talking about it.

“I guess. A Beldum, huh? I take it that means you’re a beginning trainer?”

“Yeah, I am. Just started out today.”

“Cool. I’m a new trainer too, though I started out a few days before you, I guess. I was going to head on down to route 202 and do some training before heading on over to Canalave City to challenge the gym leader. Maybe catch some new Pokémon so I’m not relying on my own starter. You wanna come with?”

Oh. I guess it would make sense to do some training before rushing off to fight the gym leader. I guess I just assumed there would be some wild grass between here and Canalave. But if the boat ride skips over all that, then I’d be screwed.

“Yeah, I can tag along. It’ll be fun. We can do double battles against wild Pokémon!”

He laughed and stuck out his hand.

“I’m Greg. It appears I’m going to be your battling partner for awhile.”

I shook his hand.

“I’m Eric. Cool trainer. Ace trainer. Champion. I go by a lot of things.”

Suddenly, I saw a glint in his eye. I knew that glint. Mom said she saw the same thing in me when I first saw a televised Pokémon battle. I grinned.

“You think you can handle this? My win-lose ratio’s favoring win right now, just so you know.”

“Let me guess, 1-0?” he asked, smugly.

I frowned. Though it wouldn’t take a genius to see through my exaggerations.

“That’s not important. What’s important is that I show you just how awesome my Beldum is!”

“Bring it!”

We walked far enough away from each other to give our Pokémon some room and set our Pokédexes to “Battle.”

“Let’s get ‘im, Geodude!” he said, throwing a Poké Ball at me.

Out popped a Geodude, who gave a battle cry. Everybody knows what a Geodude looks like.

“A Geodude? You couldn’t pick a more common Pokémon for a starter?”

“At least Geodude isn’t some masochistic, self-injuring arm,” he taunted.

“Oh, that’s it. Beldum? Take Down!”

Beldum’s iris narrowed as it focused on the target and shot out towards the offending pebble.

“Geodude, Defense Curl.”

The Geodude curled up into a ball and clenched itself before Beldum hit it, knocking the Geodude back a few feet, causing it to hit the ground, bouncing only a couple inches off it before uncurling.

“Now, Rock Polish!”

The Pokémon spun rapidly into the ground, piercing the gravel and concrete while Beldum returned to my side. From my classes, I knew that this technique made the user faster than normal, so I anticipated a bulky bullet coming out of the ground at any second.

“Tackle!”

“Dodge!”

Beldum barely managed to avoid the Geodude as it shot past Beldum and clear into the air.

“Now! While it’s still in the air! Take Down!”

Beldum used its psychic powers to swiftly zoom back towards the enemy, colliding with the Geodude. I heard the rock type cry out in pain above, though I was more concerned about Beldum. Since it almost never makes a sound, I don’t know if I would be able to hear it if it were in pain. However, I still remember its battle with Purrloin and how it screeched when it got scratched, so I know it’s capable of sound.

Both Pokémon dropped to the ground, but both still looked ready for battle. Beldum picked itself up, by which I mean it retained its hovering ability, and stared at the Geodude.

“Tackle!”

Before I knew it, that nasty pebble sped right past Beldum, hitting it hard and knocking it to the ground before I could call out orders.

“Again! Don’t let it get up!”

“Beldum! Get u…”

The Geodude hit Beldum again, this time sending it tumbling towards my feet. A faint, crackling sound came from it. Beldum was losing. Since Take Down damages the user along with the opponent, I didn’t know whether I could risk having Beldum continue fighting.

“Beldum…I don’t think you can win this.”

Beldum looked me in the eye and struggled to stay afloat again.

“Eric, I think you should call your Beldum back. It’s too weak to continue fighting, and I’m not about to forfeit just because your Pokémon’s stubborn,” Greg warned.

I carefully weighed my options and came to the unfortunate conclusion that Greg was right.

“Beldum, return,” I said, returning it to its Poké Ball; the entire time, Beldum kept giving me that look.

Greg walked over to me after recalling his Geodude. We swiped each other’s Pokédex.

“It put up a good fight. That’s the dangers of training a Beldum, though. It can’t attack without attacking itself, so you need to consider each move more carefully than with other Pokémon,” he advised.

“Yeah, that’s true. I battled another trainer and won, but we never set our Pokédexes nor swiped cards so I didn’t win any money, so now I’m below what I started with.”

“Ouch, that blows. Well, come on. Let’s get to the Poké Center and heal up your Beldum.”

“Beldum didn’t really faint, so I guess I can just use a Potion on it and save us some time.”

“How many Potions do you have?”

“I bought five.”

“We don’t know how long we’ll be on Route 202, and I’ve heard it’s an hour’s walk between here and Sandgem Town. Let’s just take the cheap approach for now. You’ll learn to live by that motto as a trainer. Besides, like you said, Beldum didn’t really faint, so we shouldn’t be at the Center for too long.”

I nodded and we headed back to the Center. When we got to the counter, a nurse with an “Allison” nametag greeted us. I handed her Beldum’s ball.

“Just the one, hon? You know we can heal more than one Pokémon at a time.”

“It’s the only one I’ve got,” I replied.

She checked Beldum’s status on a computer.

“And it’s already bruised and battered. Beldums only know Take Down, hon, and that injures itself along with the opponent. You need to choose your attacks more carefully or else it’ll be in worse shape than this,” she said, not changing her tone of voice at all.

“I know,” I said, feeling annoyed that she was telling me something I already know AND was just told by Greg.

“Don’t take this lightly! New trainers never fully realize what it means to be a Pokémon Trainer. They think it’s nothing but battling and defeating others. It’s not. Those creatures you’re pitting against one another are living beings too, you know, and they have limits. But because you’re their trainer, they’re willing to go over their limits to please you, and that can sometimes result in serious, even life threatening consequences. If you don’t take proper care of your Pokémon like you would a human child, you could wind up with a dead companion on your hands.”

Whoa. She was taking this far more seriously than she needed to.

“I get it,” I gritted, about to launch into my own spiel, but Greg interrupted.

“I get why you’re saying this, but in case you’ve forgotten, we’re in Sinnoh. They don’t allow stupid trainers in here for competitive purposes,” he said.

“That only means those ‘smart’ trainers get an overinflated ego and don’t think they can lose and thus start to view their Pokémon more as tools than living things. This problem exists in every region, no matter how strict the standards are,” she rebutted.

“We’ll keep your words in mind,” Greg said back stoically, effectively shutting down the conversation for all involved.

“Good. I’ll go and tend to your Beldum then,” she said, walking off with Beldum’s ball.

We went to the main lobby.

“What a *****,” I said, as soon as I was sure that she couldn’t overhear us.

“Yeah, I know. And she’s a nurse, too. Shouldn’t she be all smiles and warmth? Anyways, it’s a good thing I stepped in during that conversation and stopped you from making a fool of yourself. You wouldn’t have gotten your Beldum treated otherwise.”

“I wasn’t about to start a shouting match.”

“You wouldn’t have because she would’ve banned you from the Center before you would’ve had the chance.”

“She doesn’t have that authority!”

“Yes, she does.”

I grumbled to myself as I sat down and waited for Beldum’s recovery.

~~~

It wasn’t until after another hour of waiting that the PA system announced that my Beldum was ready for pickup. Greg and I had spent the time getting to know one another, figuring that we’ll be spending a lot of time together, at least until we both earn our first gym badge. He seemed like a good guy, someone I can be around for a long period of time without snapping and killing him in his sleep. I did sense a slight bit of superiority in his manner, though. Just because he started off a few days earlier and was obviously qualified enough to be here in Sinnoh doesn’t mean that he’s inherently better than me! When Beldum evolves, I will thrash his stupid pebble so hard.

Nurse Allison handed me back my Poké Ball and I thanked her with as little emotion as possible. That’ll show her. Somehow. I could hear Greg sigh behind me. I bet he rolled his eyes, too. We made our way out of the Center and headed down to the south end of the city.

“I hope there aren’t a lot of steel or rock types on this route,” I said, more to myself than to Greg.

“I don’t know what’s on this route, but I think steel types are reclusive and usually live in more rocky terrains like caves and mountains, so we shouldn’t see any there. Not sure about rock types, though. And we should both probably steer clear of any ground types we come across, unless you think we can tag team them together,” Greg offered.

“Two on one sounds fair,” I replied. “Especially if we’re at a type disadvantage. Though I’m totally throwing a Poké Ball at it when you’re not looking for a catch-steal.”

“You ***. I’ll mangle BOTH your Pokémon and leave you high and dry if you do.”

“You mean you’ll FAIL to mangle either of my Pokémon and have to run crying to the cold, uncaring arms of Nurse Allison.”

He must not have seen that coming, because he suddenly burst out laughing, covering his mouth and bending over slightly. I smiled and laughed too, proud that I was able to get such a strong reaction out of him. He can seem a little too stiff at times.

We finally made it to the south exit. My first route as a new trainer lied just beyond the gate. Greg and I looked at each other.

“Ladies first,” I said, making a sweeping motion with my hand.

He made a sour face and attempted to kick me. He succeeded.

 

So those "rules" I was talking about last time? As this is my story, I can use whatever established characters I want, whatever Pokemon I want, whatever region and time period I want, I can explain things away however I want. Get used to it. There's going to be a lot of "THAT'S NOT HOW THE ANIME WORKS!" stuff going on here. Also, Fun Facts. They'll be included in every chapter posting, including this one! They'll be bits of info about the world this story takes place in. FF#1: The Pokemon League has been hiring younger and younger gym leaders in order to reach out to a younger and younger audience (to get more of them to become Pokemon trainers, which in turn means they'll buy more League merchandise). FF#2: You don't have to necessarily beat a gym leader in order to get a badge... FF#3: This story is on four sites now. Find them. The fun facts will be different for each one of them.

[The Teller]

New chapter up today! Will something exciting happen for once? Let's find out!

    Spoiler:- Chapter 3:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 3: Route Rumble 202

The route had a clearly defined dirt path cleaving through some woodland, swerving here and there. It was obvious that this was the path one must take if they wanted to avoid wild Pokémon encounters. However, we were not one of those people.

“Soooo…are we going to venture all the way to Sandgem Town, or just stick nearby the gate?” I asked.

Greg raised a brow at me.

“You think wild Pokémon are just going to hang out near the gate where people are constantly walking in and out of?”

“I guess that doesn’t make sense.”

“We’ll venture as far as we need to. We’ve both got Potions and Antidotes, and it should be too far west for electric types to appear…”

“I don’t have any Antidotes,” I interrupted.

“What? Why not?”

“Beldum’s a steel type, in case the metal coating didn't tip you off. It won’t take any poison damage.”

“It’s still possible for a steel type to be poisoned, you know. If we come across something that’s sharp enough and poisonous enough to pierce Beldum’s skin, then yeah, it’ll get poisoned.”

“This far west, though? What would be strong enough to do that?”

Suddenly, we both heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. We both ran towards it. Greg peered over the bushes and saw something running away.

“Ah ha! Something like that!” he said, pointing at a pink thing trying to make a getaway.

“Geodude, let’s go!” he said, throwing his Poké Ball towards the escaping Pokémon.

His Geodude came out.

“After it, Geodude! Use Tackle to slow it down!” Greg ordered, running after the Pokémon with me right behind.

It was then that a winged bug-type swooped down in front of me.

“Yanma!” it cried out.

“We’re not far from the gate! I’m going to keep after this fella! Meet me by the gate in a few!” Greg yelled back, still chasing the pink thing with his Geodude.

“Alright!” I hollered, sending Beldum out.

Let’s see here…Yanmas are supposed to be really fast, but what about their defenses? The Yanma looked at me and Beldum curiously. Let’s find out.

“Take Down!”

Beldum shot towards the bug, but it shot towards Beldum as well. The two collided with each other, but it was clear that the Yanma has sustained considerably more damage than Beldum. As the bug flung to the ground, Beldum spun around and hit it again. The Yanma collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

“Good job, Beldum, but take it easy on the Take Downs. I don’t want to have you burning through my Potions before we get back.”

I turned my attention back to the Yanma.

“Guess I should catch you n…HEY!”

Another Yanma had swooped down and snatched my soon-to-be-captured claim right off the ground and was carrying it off into the sky.

“Get back here, you thief!” I shouted.

I turned to Beldum.

“You think you can reach them?”

Beldum stared at the two Yanmas flying off into the horizon at high speeds and then back to me. It wasn’t a promising look. I sighed, feeling defeated even though I won.

“I guess at least you got some experience out of it. It’s not like we’ll be catching every wild Pokémon we come across. Come on, let’s head back to the gate.”

I turned around, then second-guessed myself. Had I turned around while battling the Yanma?

“Um…I don’t suppose you could see out your Poké Ball and know which way is back to the gate, do you?” I asked Beldum.

Beldum’s look remained unchanged. I wish I had a telepathic psychic Pokémon. Like if Mewtwo was real. I was I had Mewtwo. I could totally control it, and I’d be AWESOME. Mewtwo would know how to get me back to the gate.

“Let’s just start walking and hopefully we’ll reach a boundary at some point. Hopefully either the gate or the Sandgem entrance.”

We walked for a few minutes until we were suddenly stopped by another bug Pokémon walking calmly past us. I immediately recognized it as something called an Anorith.

“Shelmet,” Anorith said quietly to us, as if it was trying to correct me on something.

Huh? I became confused. I dug out my Pokédex and scanned the Pokémon.

“Shelmet, the Snail Pokémon; type: Bug. When attacked, it defends itsel…”

I turned the Pokédex off. Oops, my bad. I guess this is a Shelmet then. I can’t be bothered to remember all of the Pokémon names! It looks like it would be part steel, though. I wonder if the Pokédex was wrong about its typing. Still, we need another member for our party, and this will do as any.

“Alright, we’re definitely catching this one,” I said to Beldum. “Let’s start with, what else, Take Down!”

Beldum complied and hit the Shelmet, who tried to defend itself by spitting a purple liquid at Beldum. Beldum seemed unfazed, however, and succeeded in hitting the Shelmet, who rolled over to its side.

Perhaps I was too eager, or perhaps I was afraid of another Pokémon swooping in to steal my thunder, but I chose right then and there to fling a Poké Ball at it. The device hit it, sucking the bug into itself and dropped to the ground, shaking. I held my breath as it continued to shake. Beldum stared at it, preparing to strike again if the Shelmet managed to escape. After what seemed like just enough time for me to pass out, the Poké Ball finally stopped shaking. I exhaled and shouted to the treetops.

“Yeah! My first capture! Whoo hoo!”

I sprinted over to Shelmet’s Poké Ball and picked it up. Then I looked at my Pokédex to see its stats. It was in healthy condition and was surprisingly female. The Pokédex would need another minute for it to fully analyze Shelmet and give me her ability, which tells me that she’s capable of having more than one. After a minute, the Pokédex said that she heals herself in rain and, since she already displayed the fact that she knows Acid, she must also know Leech Life. All good to know. Beldum stared at me.

“Great job, Beldum! We have a new addition to the team. I’d let her out, but I don’t know how damaged or mad she is right now. It’s probably best that we go back to the gate now. I still don’t feel entirely safe with just two Pokémon.”

Beldum blinked, but I couldn’t interpret what it was trying to say.

“Come on. Let’s go. Hopefully we’ll find Greg there.”

We walked along until we found an open path, which we took a left on, hoping that we were going in the right direction. I had a feeling that Greg would call the cops to find me if I wound up in Sandgem Town and he thought I was still lost on Route 202. Walking towards what we hoped was the gate, I kept spying some bug Pokémon just off the path, weaklings like Caterpie and Wurmple, and sic Beldum on them for the battle experience. It wasn’t until I heard the cry of another Shelmet that I remembered that I should be training my new teammate as well. Looking around, however, I could not find the source of the cry. That Shelmet was a lot smarter about blending in than the one I caught. Figuring that I was on somewhat of a time crunch, I left it to its own devices and continued walking.

After walking for fifteen minutes, I finally saw another person walking my way, though it wasn’t Greg.

“Excuse me,” I said, pointing behind them. “Is this the way to the Jubilife City gate?”

“No, you’re pointing to the Sandgem Town border. Did you get lost in the woods?”

“Yeah, but at least I got a new Pokémon out of it.”

“How nice. What was it?”

“A Shelmet. I think she’s a lot cooler than the Caterpies and Wurmples around here.”

The woman laughed.

“Only a man would think that. Caterpies turn into Butterfrees and some Wurmples into Beautiflies. But Shelmets turn into those scary Accelgors.”

“Exactly! That’s why, even though my Shelmet’s a girl, she’ll be a lot more awesome as an Accelgor than a Butterfree or Beautifly.”

“Well when your Shelmet evolves, you let me know and I’ll show you how much better both Butterfree and Beautifly are in battle.”

“Oh she’ll take you on, all right. And your team won’t know what hit them.”

We laughed and I thanked her for the directions and she left. I decided to go back into the forest to train Shelmet and Beldum.

It wasn’t until half an hour later, whilst I was beating up a lone Kakuna I found with Shelmet (after I made sure that there wasn’t a nearby Beedrill colony), that I heard a familiar voice.

“About TIME I finally found you! And here you are, blissfully training away without bothering to remember that we were supposed to meet up some time ago.”

Based on how much nagging and sarcasm was crammed into each sentence, I figured it was Greg.

“I got lost. I ended up almost walking all the way to Sandgem Town before someone turned me around. But I got this awesome Shelmet out of it! Shelmet, finish it off with Acid!”

She did as such and the Kakuna fainted.

“Good work, Shelmet.”

“Shel,” she whispered back.

Greg folded his arms.

“And how’s Beldum doing?”

Beldum was currently in its ball, resting.

“Taking a nap right now. I’ve been training it, too. Running out of Potions, though.”

“Well let’s get back to the main road and go back to the gate.”

“I say, if we stick together, we can just walk back to the main gate through the woods, training along the way. Two Pokémon are better than one, right?”

He sighed.

“Shelmet,” Shelmet said, poking at my leg.

“What? What is it?”

She looked at her Poké Ball.

“You want to rest, too? Okay.”

I returned her to her ball.

“You’ve got two Pokémon resting now. And you want to continue training?” Greg asked.

“They’re not exhausted,” I said back. “It’s like they’re taking a breather. If something comes up, they can fight. Plus, your Geodude can help fight off anything bulky.”

Greg seemed to think about it for a minute before replying.

“Okay, I’m only going through with this because I feel like I’m still not strong enough to challenge the gym leader yet.”

“Awesome! Let’s go then!”

For the next several minutes, we were an unstoppable team, taking out whatever nature threw against us. Greg’s Geodude had apparently grown strong enough to use Rock Throw, which helped considerably against Metapods and Kakunas. I wish Beldum knew more moves.

~~~

“I’m serious! Some scientist totally said that they can breed with Wailords!” I was arguing as we were walking.

“And my common sense, which apparently isn’t a requirement for the scientific field, is totally telling me that that’s physically impossible,” Greg countered.

I was about to say something back when we both heard some rustling.

“Did you hear…”

“PINSIRRRRR!!!” came a booming voice.

Rapid footsteps could be heard, but I couldn’t tell from where. Just then, Greg roughly pushed me from the side, causing me to fall to the ground. When I looked up, I saw a huge bug type, almost as big as we were. It apparently had tried charging me from behind.

“I don’t think this one’s letting us get away,” Greg said.

“It tried to kill me!”

“It was probably trying to eat you. Must be delirious from starvation to think you’d be a good meal.”

“I hope it eats your filthy pebble instead!” I shot back, standing up and taking out Shelmet’s ball.

Greg kept his eyes on the Pinsir.

“You did NOT just call Geodude a ‘filthy pebble.’”

He sent out his filthy pebble. I sent out Shelmet.

“Bet Shelmet will last longer.”

“You’re on.”

The Pinsir charged at us again.

“Geodude, Harden!”

“Shelmet, Acid!”

Shelmet sprayed her acid on the Pinsir whilst Greg’s Geodude clenched itself and started shimmering slightly. However, the Pinsir seemed undeterred. It shrugged off the acid and knocked Shelmet out of the way, picking up the Geodude with its huge pincers.

“Oh no! Don’t Pinsirs usually know Guillotine?” I asked.

Greg didn’t look too happy with his predicament.

“It can’t be that strong, and besides, Geodude’s unaffected by those kinds of moves. Still, maybe you can DO something to get him out of this mess!”

The Pinsir was squeezing the life out of Geodude, whom was struggling to break himself free, but to no avail.

“Shelmet, try using Leech Life!”

“Shelm!” she replied, rushing to the Pinsir and attaching herself to it.

She started sucking the blood out of the Pinsir, but unfortunately, its arms were still free, and so it started trying to swat Shelmet off of it.

“Is it trying to use Scratch?” I wondered out loud.

“I think it’s just trying to get your Shelmet off of it.”

“Keep going, Shelmet! Drain it!”

The Pinsir then managed to grab Shelmet and flung it HARD into a nearby tree. It then started increasing the pressure on the Geodude, which only caused the stone to cry out in pain even more so. Suddenly, he began to crack.

“Crap! Geodude, return!”

I returned Shelmet as well, seeing as how the impact knocked her out. I called out Beldum next.

“Time to show them what you can do! Go, Nidoran!”

Greg sent out the pink thing that he was chasing earlier. So it was a Nidoran, huh. A male, based on its biology.

“I don’t think doing a head-on Take Down is going to work with this thing,” Greg told me. “It’ll just lock you between its pincers.”

“If you can get it to turn around, then I can hit it in the back.”

“I’ll try. Nidoran, Focus Energy.”

The spiky thing drew in a deep breath and locked his eyes on the target. The Pinsir certainly wasn’t going to wait around, so it charged at us again, pincers pointing towards us. As we moved out of the way, we both commanded our Pokémon.

“Beldum, hit it in the back with Take Down!”

“Nidoran, Peck it with your horn!”

The Pokémon did as they were told, and the bug did seem to take some damage from the attacks, falling down from them, but it wasn’t out yet. Picking itself up, the Pinsir only seemed to be madder than before.

“PIIIIIINSIIIIIIIR!!!” it yelled, running at us again.

“If we can keep our distance from it…” Greg began.

However, the Pinsir was charging at HIM, and as he moved out of the way, the bug suddenly stopped in its tracks and swerved its big mandibles, hitting Greg and sending him flying through the air.

“Shit! Greg!” I yelled, running to where he crashed to the ground.

“Pinsir!” the bug announced, not wanting that to happen, apparently.

It got hit by Greg’s Nidoran, but the bug managed to grab hold of the critter’s tail, yelping in pain as it did so. Knowing what little I know about the Nidoran lineup, it probably just got poisoned. It wasn’t enough though, and the Pinsir tossed the Nidoran up in the air before jumping up and catching it in its deadly pincers. I took the opportunity to tell Beldum to use Take Down on it while I rushed over to Greg. He was coughing, trying to catch his breath.

“Shit, we’re losing, aren’t we?” he said between breaths.

“Well, your one Nidoran’s about to become two, but Beldum’s here, so everything will be alright,” I replied.

“Damn, we’re all dead.”

We heard the bug cry out behind me. I turned around to see what had happened. Beldum was starting to show signs of fatigue and the Pinsir was down on one knee. Its hold on Greg’s Nidoran was apparently weakened enough for him to wriggle out of Pinsir’s grip and hopped to the ground.

“Double Kick it in the face!” shouted Greg.

The poisonous Pokémon turned around and launched himself, hind feet first, at the Pinsir. His attack landed, whereupon he used the bug to jump in the air and perform the attack again, shooting straight down towards it. As the Pinsir tried to balance itself on its hands and knees, I figured the benefits outweighed the costs and ordered Beldum to attack it once again, but from the side so it won’t go crashing into the ground itself. Beldum swooped down and headbutted the terror on its side, knocking it several feet off the ground.

“We have to finish it off while we have the chance,” Greg explained, slowly standing back up. “Go, Geodude! End it with Rock Throw!”

He threw his ball and out came the Geodude, who immediately proceeded to find the nearest rocks and threw them at high speeds at the Pinsir.

“Pins…” it yelped, before blacking out.

Beldum came back to me whereas the Nidoran and Geodude went to Greg’s side. We both looked at the fallen bug. Then we both pulled out a Poké Ball. Seeing that the other was thinking the same thing, we both threw our Poké Balls at the Pinsir. Luckily, mine hit first.

“Yes!”

“Dammit! You suck!” whined Greg.

The Poké Ball wiggled once before spitting out the offending bug.

“What?! How could it escape?! It’s freaking UNCONSCIOUS!” I yelled in anger.

“Snooze you lose,” Greg said, picking up his empty Poké Ball and tossed it at the Pinsir.

“I hope it explodes.”

The ball wiggled twice before spitting out the Pinsir.

“Damn. That one doesn’t want to be caught,” Greg stated.

“I refuse to give up!” I said, throwing another empty ball at it.

It didn’t even wiggle once before releasing the bug.

“I give up,” I said, dejectedly. “I only have this one free ball left.”

“You should probably save it in case of a really bad emergency.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

We both stared at the unconscious beast again.

“It seems like such a waste.”

“Our Pokémon got some experience out of it, though. So it wasn’t a complete waste. Also, we didn’t die.”

“Always a plus in my book.”

We stared at the fainted Pinsir some more before sighing, returning our Pokémon to their Poké Balls, turning around, and walking away. It would be several more minutes before we found the gate. We didn’t run into any more Pokémon by quickly finding the main path and sticking to it. We couldn’t afford another battle.

“Finally,” I said.

“We could’ve gotten here a lot faster if you hadn’t lost your way.”

“And I wouldn’t have caught Shelmet!”

“I’m sure you could’ve caught something better a lot closer to the gate.”

“What?! If all of our Pokemon weren’t in such bad shape right now, I’d totally challenge you with Shelmet and win!”

“You’d like to think that.”

We passed through the gate, greeting the gate attendant along the way. Finally, we made it back to the city and made for the Poké Center as quickly as we could. Nurse Allison was, unfortunately, there to greet us.

“Back again so soon? Did you remember to pace out Beldum’s Take Down attack like I said?” she asked.

I didn’t like the tone of her voice.

“Yes, I did. And for your information, we got attacked by a Pinsir out in Route 202 and barely managed to take it down. Our Pokémon need some resting.”

“Both of yours?” she said, cocking an eyebrow.

“All of ours,” Greg corrected. “We both caught new Pokémon in the route and had to use them all to take out the Pinsir. It was very strong for a wild Pokémon.”

We both handed her our Poké Balls.

“Wild Pinsir are only known to attack opponents they think they can confidently defeat,” she explained. “If it attacked the both of you, then I would’ve suggested that you both ran away, as it felt it could easily defeat both of you at the same time.”

“I don’t think it would’ve let us run away very easily,” Greg replied dryly. “It was either overly confident or overly starved and desperate.”

‘Which is why you think it attacked me and not you,’ I thought to myself. I knew that was what he was thinking.

“Whatever the reason was why it attacked you two, I would recommend not getting yourselves into that situation again until you’ve both become stronger. I’ll take your Pokémon in the back room now. Please wait in the lobby until they’re ready.”

We thanked her and went to the main lobby, where other trainers were talking about something they were watching on the TV. It was tuned to a station that wasn’t renowned for their journalistic integrity, so debates are often shown. It appeared that the people on TV and the trainers watching it were discussing what type or types a Farfetch’d evolution would be. The two strongest arguments were that it would be either a Normal/Flying type like Farfetch’d or a Flying/Fighting type like the supposed legend that goes with Farfetch’d (other than being hunted to near extinction for their tastiness). However, other arguments were thrown into the chaos as well, such as the evolution being pure Flying and it being a Flying/Dragon. Both of those arguments were ridiculous. I turned to Greg.

“It’s got to be a Normal/Flying type. I can’t see something like Farfetch’d being all gung-ho like a Machamp.”

“Meditite isn’t muscle-bound either, yet it’s still a fighting type. Furthermore, it’s been shown that some Pokémon gain or lose types when they evolve and can look wildly different from their pre-evolved forms. Just look at Magikarp and Gyarados.”

“So are you saying that it’s a Flying/Fighting type then?”

“I’m just saying that it’s not impossible.”

“Well, not like Farfetch’d is getting ready to evolve anytime soon. They’re still on the endangered species list.”

“I think I had Farfetch’d once, with the leek, of course.”

“Was it any good?”

“A little too gamey for my tastes, but basically like a stronger version of the dark meat you get from a Combusken.”

“Huh.”

~~~

We talked some more (not exactly about the debate since I found it to be stupid) before the intercom rand and told Greg that his Pokémon were ready. I was willing to bet that Nurse Allison healed his Pokémon first because she hates me. What a *****. Greg went to go get his Pokémon whilst I went to the vending machines to get snacks before we met back up.

“I feel like we should train some more, but the sun’s starting to set,” Greg said, returning with his Pokémon. “After that Pinsir incident, I don’t know if it would be wise to go back out to Route 202 during nighttime. Who knows what we could encounter. Knowing my luck when I’m around you, we’d probably run into an Ariados or Galvantula.”

“Oh? Your bad luck is because of me? ‘Cause I was about to say the same thing about you. And now that I think about it, there’s plenty of nocturnal Pokémon out there we can catch. If this place is far west enough to host Hoothoots, then that’d be a real asset to my team.”

“I’d go back, but only if we stay near the gate this time, or just take the main path and stick to it until we reach Sandgem Town. But I don’t want to stay there overnight if we’re just going to come back here tomorrow to challenge the gym.”

“What about the other exits? The north and the east? We could train there.”

“Going east would probably mean encountering Pokémon we’re not fit to fight against yet. I don’t know what’s north of us.”

“Pokémon Trainer Eric, your Pokémon are ready to be picked up. Please come to the service desk for pick up. Pokémon Trainer Eric, your Pokémon are ready for pick up.”

“Looks like Beldum and Shelmet are ready for me.”

“I’ll save your seat.”

I went up and got my comrades back. I figured they could use some more resting, so I didn’t let them out of their Poké Balls just yet. I thanked the nurse and returned to Greg.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked.

“My plan is to grab some dinner soon and figure out what to do from there.”

“Sounds good.”

We chatted some more, watched some TV, before finally heading out to find a place to eat.
 

So how about them fun facts? FF#4: In the Sinnoh region, there are also Officer Alyson's. They all look alike, but look different from Nurse Allison's. Some Sinnoh people think that this is a cruel joke. FF#5: It is considered distasteful to have a Pokemon know only TM/HM moves, as that removes the "living creature" aspect of Pokemon. See y'all next month (unless someone comments; then I'll definitely reply sooner than a month).

[The Teller]

Okay, time for the first filler chapter. Fair warning: the language in this one really stretches the PG15 rating. I tried to give clues to older readers as to which words I'm going for without getting into trouble. The filler chapters can take place anytime in the timeline of the story. For example, this one takes place when Eric is around 12. I have a question I want answered: for future filler chapters, do you want to see me continue writing in Eric's POV, or do you want me to start writing in other characters' POV (or 3rd person POV)? If the former, then the story stays streamlined. If the latter, we get to see stuff happen when Eric's not there. Only one fun fact today. FF#6: Most water type Pokémon's cellular structure are 98-99% water. Have fun reading!

    Spoiler:- Filler 1:

Show Spoiler

 

Alright...I can do this. Deep breaths. I've trained all my life for this. I've assembled the best team, gave them the most appropriate items, leveled them up to the point of learning their next move. I've got this.

You are challenged by Leader Whitney!

Leader Whitney sent out Clefairy!

I sent out my Noctowl. I was right in waiting until nighttime to find a Hoothoot. Much better than Pidgey or Spearow. This thing knew Confusion. I know that Butterfree can learn it too, but flying types are so much better than bug types. I also had Hypnosis on this Noctowl as well, which would be good against Clefairy spamming Metronome.

Go! Hooters!

Better start off with said Hypnosis. Knowing my luck, Clefairy would use Metronome and pull off a completely accurate Zap Cannon.

Hooters used Hypnosis! Hooters's attack missed!

What?! I'm doomed! Hypnosis NEVER works when I'M using it!

The foe's Clefairy used Metronome!

Here it comes...

The foe's Clefairy used Tail Whip! Hooters's defense fell!

BWAHAHAHA! Seriously?! I thought it was gonna use Blizzard or Stone Edge or something. I have to use Hypnosis again. I got lucky last round, but there's no guarantee that I'll be so lucky this time.

Hooters used Hypnosis! The foe's Clefairy fell asleep!

Yes! Thank Arceus! Now, to prepare...

Hooters used Reflect! Reflect raised your team's Defense!

The foe's Clefairy is asleep!

And now for the offense.

Hooters used Peck!

Hooters used Confusion!

Hooters used Tackle!

The foe's Clefairy fainted!

Good. I like it when my opponents are in a coma as I bludgeon them to death. Although I didn't expect that Clefairy to have so much health. My Reflect is gone. What a waste. Now on to the main challenge.

Leader Whitney sent out Miltank!

I HAVE to Hypnosis this thing before it gets out of control!

The foe's Miltank used Attract!

NO!

Hooters fell in love!

NO! You b****!

Hooters is in love with the foe's Miltank!

Come ooooon...

Hooters is immobilized by love!

Hooters! How could you betray me at a time like this?! Now is not the time to be fraternizing with the enemy! Crap, I don't have any Mental Herbs with me either.

The foe's Miltank used Rollout!

So it begins. My only hope is to use Hypnosis...

Hooters is immobilized by love!

...or just sit down and wait for death.

The foe's Miltank used Rollout! Hooters fainted!

Of course you did. You didn't DO anything to try and stop it. Okay, something ELSE that can put Miltank to sleep...

Go! Penis!

Heh heh...Penis used Harden. True, it was only a Metapod for three levels, but who could pass up a joke like that? Penis now knew Sleep Powder, and as a Butterfree, it should be fast enough...

The foe's Miltank used Rollout! Penis fainted!

WHAT?! That's so unfair! I didn't even get to use Sleep Powder! Whitney's cheating! Maybe if I tried to paralyze it...

You can do it! Anal Bead!

The foe's Miltank used Rollout! Anal Bead fainted!

Whitney. What are you doing. Stop this. You stop this madness right now.

Go! ASStly!

ASStly used Hypnosis! ASStly's attack missed!

Now I KNOW that Arceus is targeting me specifically.

The foe's Miltank used Rollout! ASStly fainted!

Shut the f*** up. Okay, that was five Rollouts. Rollout's power was now reset. And she should only have normal and rock type moves. Time for payback.

Let's go! RockHard!

Yeah, suck it! My Onix is female! I had to spend a long time trying to find this! I will wreck your s***!

The foe's Miltank used Stomp!

RockHard flinched!

Oh you bastard. You better not be trying to flinchhax me to death. I will kill you. Look, you did, like, no damage to RockHard. You can't have that many Stomps.

The foe's Miltank used Stomp!

RockHard used Rock Tomb! The foe's Miltank's speed fell!

That should put us on even speed now.

The foe's Miltank used Stomp!

RockHard used Rock Throw! The attack missed!

Of course it did. It only has, what, 90% accuracy? That's FAR too low to be reliable.

The foe's Miltank used Stomp!

RockHard flinched!

It is going to try to flinchhax me. No way would Whitney use Stomp four times in a row. Better lower its speed some more.

RockHard used Rock Tomb! The foe's Miltank's speed fell!

The foe's Miltank used Milk Drink!

ARRRGH! Why did you have to undo all my hard work?!

SEVERAL TURNS OF "ROCK THROW/STOMP/MILK DRINK" LATER...

The foe's Miltank used Milk Drink!

I will outlast you. This, I swear.

The foe's Miltank used Stomp! A critical hit! RockHard fainted!

F*** you, too, Miltank. I KNOW you don't have many Stomps left. You won't be able to hurt my last Pokémon.

You're up! B****!

Look at that B****. I've had her since the beginning. B**** has high defense and your b**** now has comparable speed. B**** ALSO has a healing move, so I can stall you out if need be. So bring it!

The foe's Miltank used Rollout!

B**** used Reflect! Reflect raised your team's Defense!

The foe's Miltank used Rollout!

B**** used Poisonpowder! The foe's Miltank was poisoned!

That ought to sap some life out of it.

The foe's Miltank is hurt by the poison!

The foe's Miltank used Rollout!

B**** used Synthesis!

Crap. Now I'm stalling for time. Can I heal enough to survive a quadruple-powered, Reflect resisted Rollout? Have to keep using Synthesis.

The foe's Miltank used Rollout! B**** fainted!

...

...why, Whitney? Why would you humiliate me like this? All I ever wanted was to beat you thoroughly and win my Plain Badge. I prepared. I trained. I strategized. But was it enough? Nooooo.

"Hahaha! You suck. Maybe you should just work at Castaliacone forever or something," said Brad.

"Shut up!" I said over his derisive laughter. "She's, like, really hard to beat!"

I turned off the game so it wouldn't record my loss and halve my money. Brad continued to make fun of my "lack of talent" and before I could turn the game back on to try again, Ms. Pepper walked in, signaling the start of class, so I had to put the game away.

Next time, Whitney. Next time...
 

[The Teller]

Schooling kept me busy, but here's the next chapter! These kinds of chapters will tend to be on the long side, so hopefully you can stand MORE CONTENT. FF#7: Most trainers have a theme song going through their head when they battle, and they change them accordingly based on whether they're fighting wild Pokémon, other trainers, gym leaders, Elite Four members, or other high-ranking League official. The theme song is usually based on the music that plays in the games featuring the trainer's homeland. Most trainers refuse to admit to this. FF#8: Main characters will have themes to their teams.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 4:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 4: To Incite Insects

“Oh, hello there. Do you have a requested gym battle today?” asked the kid in the straw hat and a bug-catching net in one hand, who greeted us at the door. He looked just like the kind of guy who delights himself in creeping girls out with his collection of live bugs.

“Yes, we do,” I answered for both Greg and me.

“Very good, then. What are your names?”

“I’m Eric.”

“I’m Greg.”

“Nice,” he uttered, jotting down something on a clipboard. “Decide which of you will go first and I’ll inform the gym leader that you have arrived.”

He turned around and left, leaving me and Greg to let out our shivers of being near the guy and decide who to go first.

“I thought he was gonna molest me with a Shuckle or something there,” I said.

“Yeah, he’s definitely a creeper. No wonder he works in a place like this. So, which one of us should go first?”

“I want to get this over with and move on to the next town. We’ve been here for days and I’m tired of this place already.”

“Not my fault that reservations were booked for the past couple of days. And I get what you mean by wanting to move on. It feels like I’m behind schedule.”

“Yeah, because it obviously only takes a week or so to become the champion. So are you alright with me going first? I’ll show you how it’s done.”

“Against bugs. Oh, I will be impressed. If you catch me yawning, I’m yawning impressively.”

“Jerk.”

The creeper came back into the room.

“Alright, our leader is ready for you two. Which one of you will challenge him first?”

“I will,” I declared.

“Very well. Please, follow me. You,” he motioned at Greg, “can follow this hallway to the stands and watch the match from there.”

We separated and I mentally prepared myself for my first gym battle.

‘Bug types, so Shelmet may not be the best offense. Then again, Beldum’s not exactly the best long-term battler either. But I trained them over the past couple of days, so it should be good enough. Hope the gym leader doesn’t use a Pinsir.’

I entered the main battle room with the creeper. The entire room was decked out in forestry. Tall, dense trees covered three sides of the building, allowing only a little of the sunlight to peep through the glass windows. The ground was dirt. There’s no telling how deep the floor was. One of the sides of the building had stands for spectators to watch the battles. Greg was seated towards the exit, and only a handful of other trainers were dotted around there as well, talking amongst themselves. They were probably in the gym’s employ. Was my inevitable victory not enough to incite excitement in the townspeople to come watch? Someone was standing at the end of the room.

“Hello, challenger! Welcome to the Canalave City Gym! I’m Bugsy, and as you can probably guess, I’m a practitioner of bug type Pokémon.”

He, though “ambiguously androgynous” would describe him better, had lilac colored hair that almost reached his shoulders, wore a mint green dress shirt with matching shorts and a yellow tie, slip-on hiking shoes, and had the horrible fashion sense to wear ankle-high tube socks. He looked to be quite young for a gym leader, though I heard that the League was hiring younger and younger child prodigies these days to revamp their image and appeal to younger kids.

“Hi, I’m Eric.”

“So how many badges do you have?”

“None. This is my first gym attempt.”

“Oh how excellent! I’m glad that I’m the first one to break you in to the vicious yet wonderful cycle that is being a Pokémon trainer. As your first gym leader, I have some things I need to say before we begin. I heard that another challenger is waiting in the stands, so he should listen to this, too. As you probably already know, the team that each gym leader will challenge you with will be determined by the number of badges you already have. This is to allow trainers to challenge any of the gyms in any order that they wish. You need eight regional badges to qualify for the Elite Four Challenge. In order to obtain a badge, you must beat the gym leader’s entire team. I should warn you, in the Sinnoh region, most of us will use a full six member team. You are allowed to switch Pokémon whenever you please, but be cautioned as I am able to as well.”

He let the information sink into my head for a bit.

“Got it, hotshot?”

“Yep! Bring it on!”

“Alright!” he said, brandishing a Poké Ball. “Let me demonstrate what I’ve learned from my studies!”

“You like bugs? Here! Shelmet!”

“Awesome! Here comes Caterpie!”

We threw out our Poké Balls and released our bugs. Both let out a cry as I analyzed what strategy I should use against the weakling. I mean, it’s a freakin’ Caterpie! How hard can it be?

“Use String Shot!” commanded Bugsy.

Immediately, the squishy thing shot a white, sticky thread at amazing speeds towards Shelmet.

“Shelmet, use Bide!”

Shelmet shrunk back into its shell and closed the “helmet” over its face just as the webbing hit it. In no time, Shelmet was practically glued to the ground.

“So you think I’m just going to attack it while it’s doing that? Think again! Keep pouring on the String Shot, Caterpie!” said Bugsy.

Shelmet was becoming a virtual cocoon by this point and I knew she didn’t know Rollout. I didn’t want to switch out this soon. Could I even switch out? I don’t think the beam from the Poké Ball would be able to penetrate through all the layers of the webs.

“Shelmet, try to burn your way through with Acid!” I shouted, hoping that she could hear me.

“That’s probably not the wisest decision to make,” offered Bugsy. “Shelmet had its helmet on before I covered it, so spewing acid would only serve to hurt it rather than free it.”

I saw a slight twitch come from the mass of webbing and I hoped it was what I thought it was. The Caterpie stopped spitting out threads and started catching its breath.

“Call it back before it starts to suffo-” began Bugsy before taking notice of something.

Though I couldn’t see it at the time due to Shelmet facing away from me, Greg would later tell me that the front of the cocoon was starting to tinge with a purple hue. Bugsy started to look a little worried (either for the battle or for what my Shelmet had possibly done to itself, I don’t know).

“Better make sure it stays down with a Tackle attack, Caterpie.”

The green bug started running up to my cocooned bug in a seemingly adorable way, what with its tiny little feet scampering about and its head bobbing ever so slightly. But no! I’m in a gym battle right now! I must concentrate!

“Keep going, Shelmet! You can do it!”

Just as the Caterpie got to its target, the acid had burned its way through and gushed out at high velocity, hitting the dumb bug square in the face. It cried out in surprise, stopping in its tracks and rising up on its hind legs to somehow shield itself from the spray. But it was no use, as the acid kept pouring onto the bug.

“Caterpie!” Bugsy cried out.

The Wurmple-wannabe slumped to the ground, giving out a weak cry, and noticeably relaxed.

“Caterpie is out!” announced the creeper from the sidelines.

Bugsy called back his Caterpie.

“He probably expended too much energy trying to keep up the String Shot attack. But your Shelmet is probably in the same situation! So let’s see how you fare against…” he said, before throwing a Poké Ball in a dramatic fashion, “Wurmple!”

Aw yeah. S*** just got real. Caterpie 2.0 appeared and fixed a stink eye aimed directly at Shelmet. This was not a bug to be messed around with.

“Helpful tip: Wurmple is part Poison type and stronger than my Caterpie, so Acid won’t work as well against him as it did on Caterpie,” Bugsy provided (or taunted). “It also means that this Poison Sting attack is gonna hurt!”

With that, the Wurmple launched itself towards Shelmet, who was still encased in the cocoon, horn-first.

“Use Curse!” I yelled, thinking the best offense was a good defense in this situation.

“SHELMET!” she shouted.

Whether she had time to do the attack or not, I don’t know, as her back was still turned to me. Either way, the Wurmple collided with Shelmet with enough force to break her out of her prison. She tumbled back towards me, whimpering in pain. I could see that her helmet wasn’t corroded, which confirmed my suspicion that she had, indeed, managed to lift it up while trapped in the cocoon. She turned to me and gave me a look that clearly said she was not out of this fight yet.

“Pretty good,” said Bugsy. “Tackle!”

I had a plan. I waited until the Wurmple was close enough.

“Leech Life, Shelmet!”

She launched herself over the Wurmple and landed on top of it, attaching her mouth to its hide. The Wurmple was understandably not pleased and tried bucking her off, but she was holding on tight.

“Wurmple wurmwurmwurmwurm!”

After a couple seconds, the Wurmple’s movements started getting more Slugmaish. When it finally managed to buck off Shelmet, it was very visibly dazed and disoriented. Shelmet, on the other hand, looked far more energetic than before she had clamped onto the bug. She turned around to face the second of Bugsy’s dumb bugs and shot straight towards it, head first. What was she doing?!

“Shelmet! What are…”

She collided with Wurmple, knocking it straight back at Bugsy. It did not get up.

“Wurmple is out!” said the creeper, sounding surprised that Shelmet would survive this long.

I was still trying to figure out what exactly made Shelmet do what she did. Then I remembered the Bide she used earlier.

“Wurmple, return,” Bugsy said. “I’m already down two Pokémon. That’s pretty good of you for only using one bug type Pokémon.”

“Thanks, but we’re going for a team sweep here,” I replied.

“Shelmet!” added Shelmet.

“I like your enthusiasm, but your winning streak ends here! Go, Sewaddle!”

Bugsy threw out another Poké Ball and out came a yellow-faced Caterpie. At least, that’s what it looked like. I knew from my textbook readings that it was native to somewhere else and was often compared to Caterpie, but there was something distinct about it that set it apart from Caterpie. What was it?

“Waddle!” cried out the newest bug, flaring out its leafy mane in some pathetic form of intimidation.

Oh right. It’s part grass type. For a first badge battle, though, it shouldn’t even know Razor Leaf yet. I wish I had Ho-oh right about now.

“Tackle!”

“Acid!”

Shelmet started spitting her poison at Sewaddle, but that thing was quick. It kept dodging the bursts, charging right up to her and connecting.

“Met!” cried Shelmet.

“Good hit!” yelled Bugsy. “Now use Bug Bite before it can collect itself!”

“Quick, use Bide!”

Sadly, the leafy thing bit down hard on Shelmet with its small fangs before she could do anything.

“Shellllll!”

The Sewaddle flung her across the field. She could barely move. This is bad. I had to get her out of there.

“Shelmet, come back!” I said, producing her Poké Ball and returning her to me.

“One down. And from the look of your belt, one to go,” proclaimed Bugsy, proudly.

“This one’s more powerful than Shelmet, however,” I retorted. “Let’s go, Beldum!”

I sent Beldum out, who, of course, didn’t give out a battle cry or anything. Bugsy only smirked.

“Okay, let’s see how many Take Downs it takes to wear this one off.”

Drats. I guess gym leaders would be knowledgeable about these kinds of things, especially if Beldums are given out as starters.

“We’re about to find out. You know what to do, Beldum!”

Without another word, Beldum rocketed at the Sewaddle, hitting it before the squishy bug knew what happened.

“What?!” exclaimed Bugsy, before a smack of realization hit him. “Oh. It would make sense for Beldum to just attack after receiving permission, since it only has one move to attack with.”

Meanwhile, the Sewaddle stumbled to its feet, meekly gasping for air, before collapsing again onto the ground.

“Sewaddle is out!” announced the creeper. “The score is 0-3, Bugsy and the challenger!”

He could at least remember my name!

“Return,” said Bugsy.

His enthusiasm seemed to have died down greatly. His look of seriousness was starting to bug me.

…heh, “bug me.” I’m hilarious. I don’t care what Greg says.

“Okay, Weedle, you’re up.”

Bugsy sent out his Weedle, which looked slightly confused as to where it was and why it was sent out. It’s like it knows that it’s gonna get KO’ed in one move.

“Take Down!”

“String Shot.”

The bug shot out a string of web which connected with Beldum, but Beldum simply cut the string with the protrusion above its…eye, and continued with its attack, swooping down to Weedle’s level and hitting it, arching up sharply, taking the Weedle with it, and throwing the bug to the ground from high in the air. The red-nosed clown hit so hard, it bounced off the ground before landing again.

“Well that didn’t work,” observed Bugsy, recalling his Weedle. “Maybe this will prove to be more of a challenge!”

He threw another Poké Ball out, this time making a Kricketot appear. Its cry sounded much like a xylophone.

“Use Bide!”

Before Beldum could launch another attack, the musical bug tightened its body and a concentrated look formed on its face, staring right at Beldum. Not that it could do much else, Beldum stared back.

“Beldum, attack!”

Beldum launched itself towards the Kricketot and hit. Surprisingly, the vocal bug embraced the attack, though it did look like it hurt it somewhat.

“Now, while it’s close, use Struggle Bug!”

The Kricketot then proceeded to slap poor Beldum repeatedly across its face, causing Beldum to break away from the Kricketot and fly back to me.

“Let’s see where he’s going with this, Beldum. Bide shouldn’t hurt that much since you’re part steel type,” I told it.

Beldum turned around and looked at me. Probably using its psychic powers again, I felt a sense of trust coming from it.

The Kricketot started charging at Beldum without warning. Looks like it didn’t want to wait on biding anymore.

“Dodge it!”

Beldum veered far to the right, away from the bug’s trajectory. Unfortunately, I was in its trajectory!

“Watch out!” yelled Greg.

I tried to move out of the way, but the dumb xylophone still managed to clip me on the left leg as I was putting all my weight onto it to move. I suddenly felt the ground be knocked out from under me and soon after that, felt the same ground on my face. OW! That really hurt!

“I guess now would be a good time to tell you that the Pokémon gyms aren’t responsible for any injuries you might receive!” called out Bugsy.

“Are you alright down there?” asked Greg.

“Glad to see someone is concerned about me,” I said to myself.

Beldum came up next to me. It seemed worried about me as well.

“I guess you are, to-”

“Struggle Bug!”

“What?!”

The evil bug appeared from out of nowhere and proceeded to start slapping Beldum again!

“That’s not fair! Beldum, punt it in the air and use Take Down!”

“It’s your own fault you got injured by standing directly in the path of an opponent’s Pokémon. Why should I let your rookie mistakes stand in the way of gaining an edge in battle?” explained the jerk.

“It’s called common decency! I hope Beldum turned your Kricketot into the world’s softest piano keys!”

Beldum turned around, gripped the tune bug with its back claw, and flung it into the air. The bug then spread its wings and maintained altitude. Crap, I forgot these things had wings. Nevertheless, Beldum flew up to where it was at and flung itself at it.

“Behind you, Kricketot!” shouted Bugsy, just as Beldum hit.

“Kriiiiiick!”

Bugsy’s Pokémon hit the ground and Beldum came back to me.

“Kricketot is out!” said the creeper. “The score is now 0-4, with the challenger in the lead!”

“Weedle is in no condition to continue fighting,” corrected Bugsy, “so count him as fainted. The score is 0-5. One more knock out and victory is yours, Eric. But I’m still going to make you work for it! Sewaddle, Weedle, and Kricketot really softened up your Beldum. How many more Taken Downs can it handle? And if it falls, do you think your Shelmet can handle the rest?”

“So far you’ve sent out nothing I couldn’t probably take on myself, so why should this final Pokémon be any different?”

Surprised hooting could be heard from some of the spectators in the stands.

“You think you could just trample over my bug Pokémon like they were Trubbish?! You’ve still got a lot to learn about the true strength of bug types, Eric! I’ll knock both of your Pokémon out with my best first-badge bug! Wipe them out, Venipede!”

He threw out his final Poké Ball and out came a magenta-colored thing. It looked rather fat and angry. Maybe it was angry because it was fat?

“Let’s finish this. Beldum, use Take Down!”

“Move out of the way with Rollout!”

The Venipede curled up into a ball and started spinning forward, dodging Beldum’s attack. It wheeled past me and behind me before spinning back towards Beldum.

“Counter it, head on!” I commanded.

Beldum rushed to the bug as it spun to it. The fat lard suddenly hopped up to meet Beldum midair, face-to-spiky back. The resulting collision caused both Pokémon to fly in opposite directions and fall to the ground. I could see that Beldum was very visibly hurt and may not be able to muster another Take Down attack. While the opponent was still reeling from the attack, I could switch out for Shelmet and hope she could take care of the Venipede.

“Beldum, you did good! Return, and let Shelmet take it from here!” I said, holding up its Poké Ball.

“Venipede, now! Use Pursuit!” Bugsy ordered.

Before I could stop the Poké Ball from working, the ball beamed out and encapsulated Beldum, just as the angry bug picked itself up and tackled Beldum, knocking it across the field and out of the ball’s tractor beam. Beldum’s distinct, high-pitched yelp could be heard for just a split second before its eye closed.

“Beldum!”

“Beldum is out! Both combatants are down to their last Pokémon!” shrieked the creeper.

I returned Beldum to its ball for real this time. I should’ve caught another Pokémon. Even if I hadn’t trained it much, I could’ve still used it to stall the battle while I healed Beldum or Shelmet. I could’ve released it afterwards. Now I’m down to Shelmet and I don’t know if she can handle a somewhat weakened Venipede. I grabbed Shelmet’s Poké Ball and looked at it.

“Either send out your Shelmet or forfeit,” said Bugsy.

I hadn’t beaten five of his Pokémon only to walk away now.

“Finish the job, Shelmet!”

“Shelmet…” she said, though not as enthusiastic as before.

Maybe I can use Leech Life and get her health back up.

“Venipede, use Screech!”

The evil bug breathed in deeply and let loose an ear-splitting scream.

“PEEEEEEEEEEDE!”

I covered my ears so soften the blow. I could see that Bugsy wasn’t even flinching. Were all gym leaders deaf? Shelmet, unfortunately, didn’t have the luxury of being able to cover her ears (wherever they are), so she instead flipped her armor down over her face to try to quiet the noise.

“Now, while it’s blinded, use Rollout!” Bugsy shouted over his bug.

That malevolent, murdering bug shut its face and rolled up into a ball again, speeding towards Shelmet. I couldn’t afford to risk her doing another Bide and possibly being knocked out.

“Shelmet, use Acid! Concentrate it into a narrow beam! Knock that thing off course!”

Shelmet lifted her helmet and got ready to spray acid, but by then the Venipede was too close. It ended up whizzing right past her, barely avoiding contact.

“Venipede! You missed!”

The bug stopped where it was and unraveled itself, turning its head around to look at Bugsy.

“No! Keep doing your Rollout!”

“Now’s your chance, Shelmet! Use Leech Life and sap all its energy away!”

She barely managed to get her mouth on the Venipede before it could curl itself back up. It started thrashing about, much like the Wurmple, trying to buck Shelmet off.

“Ven!”

“Mmmmmet…”

After awhile, the bug finally managed to shake off Shelmet. It looked worn out though, and Shelmet looked much more energized.

“Acid attack!” I said, trying to end this long match.

“Defense Curl!”

The purple thing rolled up into a ball again and took the brunt of Shelmet’s attack. After a few seconds of the acid soaking in, the Venipede unraveled itself and started wriggling about and crying.

“Venipede!” Bugsy exclaimed, starting to look worried that his Pokémon might be in pain.

After a few intense seconds of everyone staring at this bug, it finally collapsed onto the floor. The creeper raised his hand.

“Venipede is no longer able to continue! The victory of this gym battle goes to Eric!”

The crowd in the gym started cheering.

‘I…won? Me? An actual gym battle? Not a simulation?’

“Yeah! Way to go, Eric!” I faintly heard coming from Greg, mostly drowned out from the crowd’s noise.

Bugsy recalled his Venipede. He smiled at me as he walked up to me.

“Congratulations! You beat me on your first try, and with only two Pokémon, neither of which had a type advantage over mine!” he said, fishing something out of his pocket. “You definitely earned this Hive Badge!”

He handed me the gym’s official badge, marking my achievement over adversity. I stared at it in wonderment, still not fully comprehending that this was actually happening to me.

“Shelmet?”

I looked down. Shelmet was at my feet, looking up at me. I had temporarily forgotten that I had just finished a Pokémon battle using her. I knelt down next to her.

“You helped me win this. You and Beldum. This badge is as much of yours as it is mine. I’m very proud of you.”

Shelmet just looked like she wanted to sleep.

“Okay, time for a rest,” I said, returning her to her Poké Ball.

“Be sure to place your badge in your badge case. We don’t give out second copies,” Bugsy advised.

I stood up and took out my badge case, something Mom bought for me before I left home, and placed the badge in the Hive Badge-shaped indent. First badge won. Only seven left to get.

The crowd had stopped cheering and was dispersing by now.

“Next gym battle will be in an hour, guys!” Bugsy yelled out to everyone.

Oh right. Greg wanted a badge, too.

“Since this is your first badge, allow me to explain its function. It’s more than just proof that you beat me. The number of badges you have will indicate to shopkeepers what you are able to buy. Think of it like how you need a proper ID to validate your age when buying alcohol. There’s a lot of great technology out there, but if given to inexperienced trainers, they can lead to widespread destruction. Also, thanks to hundreds of years of conditioning, Pokémon, both wild and captured, have come to recognize that the higher number of badges a person has, the more powerful he or she is, the more respect he or she gives to Pokémon and they to him or her, and the more worthy the person is to partner with to better the Pokémon itself. So the more badges you have, the better command you’ll have over your Pokémon and the more respect they’ll give to you, which means it’s less likely they’ll flat-out disobey you. As you already know, you need eight badges to quality for the Elite Four Challenge. This is your first step towards that goal.”

“Congrats again on your first gym victory. You should probably drop off your Pokémon at the Poké Center and then come back if you want to watch your friend battle. Your Pokémon probably need a good rest after that fight.”

“Thanks, I will.”

“Good luck on your journey!”

I thanked him again and went to leave. The creeper and Greg were entering the room as I was leaving.

“It never ceases to amaze me how many new trainers fight and win against Bugsy, but fail to remember that they win money when they do,” said the creepy guy.

I had completely forgotten that.

“Oh. So, can I still get paid?”

“No, just hand over your Pokédex so he can snap it in half,” snarked Greg.

I shot him a look.

“Give me your Pokédex anyways so I can complete the transaction,” replied the guy.

Wearily, I gave him my Pokédex and he swiped a card through it.

“There. Your account should recognize the transaction in around two business days,” he said, handing me back my Pokédex. “You should probably go see the Poké Center now.”

And then he just walked away. How rude.

“So when they woke me up in the stands, they told me you actually beat someone,” Greg said.

“That’s funny. I’m sure I heard your voice cheering loudest for me when I won.”

“Must’ve been some wandering Beheeyem scrambling your brain.”

“You know you love me.”

“Like Maxie loves a bath.”

~~~

“Now finish it off with Peck!” Greg ordered.

His Nidoran charged at the Heracross and hit it with his horn square in the…carapace? Thorax? Chest. The scarily big bug shut its eyes and cried out in pain before dropping over and fainting.

“Heracross is unable to battle. The winner is Greg!” announced a different guy from the creeper.

~~~

“I still say he went easy on you,” I said.

We were walking back to the Poké Center.

“He used a fully evolved Pokémon against me! AND that Durant thing! How was that not hard? You went up against a freaking Caterpie! All things considered, I think he went easy on you.”

We entered the center.

“Your battle was a test of strength. Mine was a test of endurance. Which of those two do you associate most with Pokémon battling?”

“I think you’re just jealous because I had some type advantage moves on my side. What did you have again? Take Down and a weak bug attack? Against bugs?”

Nurse Allison seemed to overhear our conversation as we approached the service counter.

“Did you just come from the Pokémon gym, too?” she asked Greg.

I had told her about my victory when I came by earlier to drop off Beldum and Shelmet.

“Yes I did,” he replied, showing her the badge.

“Congratulations. Are you here to heal your Pokémon, then?”

“Yes I am.”

He handed her his Pokémon and we went to the lobby.

“It’ll be awhile,” he said, trying to start a new conversation.

“We just got our Pokémon and we’re already back to being non-trainers.”

“Mine are healing. Yours were just requisitioned,” he stated plainly.

I punched him in the arm.

“Is it just not possible for you to intentionally say something nice to me?” I asked.

“Maybe.”

Maybe it’s late onset puberty.

~~~

Because our Pokémon were so thoroughly trashed by Bugsy, it took longer than usual to fix them up. Due to this, Greg and I both decided to do some sightseeing while we were still in town. There was an old, historical inn that was boarded up and blocked off with police tape. It seemed to be historical because it was so old. No one really seemed to know why it was historical in the first place, and just accepted the notion as fact.

There was a coast that allowed for a great view of the ocean. According to the travel brochure, it was popular amongst tourists to see cargo boats enter and leave the port from there. We seemed to have come at a bad time, as no boats were sighted. Still, haven’t seen the ocean in a long time and that salty ocean smell was good for a nostalgia trip.

There was also a library. Yes, a library. This was somehow considered “Places to See in Canalave City.” Greg said we should at least go in to say that we’ve been in there. I said that I spent thirteen years of schooling reading books just so that I wouldn’t have to continue doing so after graduating. He called me an uncultured Swinub. I gave him the middle finger. We ended up going in. We didn’t stay for very long. Who knew that a library would consist of nothing but books?

~~~

Canalave City isn’t a big city. Those three things were pretty much all the city had to offer. We eventually decided that spending the rest of the day in the Poké Center watching TV sounded like a good idea. I knew that there was some uncultured Swinub in him.

In the evening, our Pokémon were returned to us and we went out to get some authentic seafood, figuring that we wouldn’t be next to the ocean again for quite some time. Once stuffed (strangely, Geodude was capable of eating seafood, but Beldum couldn’t; we had to find some different food for it), we returned to the center, which thankfully had room, and rested for the night. I kept looking at and rubbing my newly awarded badge every hour until I went to bed.
 

[The Teller]

New chapter time! But first, a forewarning: not every wild battle, trainer battle, capture, and evolution is going to be shown. Most will take place offscreen. If a character suddenly has a new Pokemon in their party or an old Pokemon is in a new form, that's why. Now for some fun facts. FF#8: Powerful TMs such as Fire Blast, Blizzard, and Solarbeam can only be purchased with a license to do so (typically must be over 18 years of age and proof of being a trainer, along with obtaining several legit badges). Passive TMs such as Reflect and Light Screen can be bought without such restrictions. FF#9: Trainers can call a toll-free number to schedule appointments with gym leaders, or schedule them in person, or hope that the gym leader doesn't have any appointments at the moment and can thus be battled right then and there. Walk-ins are acceptable, but rarely happen. FF#10: The job of a collector is to catch as many different species of Pokemon as possible. The Pokemon are usually sent to a professor's lab and are never actually trained by the collector. The professor funds the collector. The purpose is to catalog and study as many different species as possible.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 5:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 5: Hannibal Special

I was pretty sure we were lost, and I had no qualms about eating Greg to survive.

With nothing left to do in Canalave City, we decided to brave the wilderness and head south to Lake Verity, one of the three Trinity Lakes said to house a legendary Pokémon. Naturally, I was sure that I would be the one legendary trainer to catch this Pokémon. According to the brochure and Pokédex, the Pokémon is called Mesprit and if physical contact is made, all emotion will be drained from the person in three days. So all I have to do is beat it into submission with my Pokémon (all of the information specifically referred to humans making physical contact), and I’ll be all set! Maybe then I can get Greg to touch Mesprit and have it erase some of his sarcasm…

We figured just heading south in a straight path would lead us directly to the lake. We headed out in the morning. After four hours (and a break) of walking and battling, we were still walking and battling. Lost in the woods and both of Greg’s Pokémon weren’t edible (one being a pebble and the other being quite poisonous).

“Just so you know, since I can’t eat your Pokémon, I’m eating you first,” I made sure to let him know.

“I can’t see how you could possibly be hungry enough for cannibalism after eating lunch so soon,” he countered. “It shouldn’t take us a whole day to find this place, unless we do end up walking right past it.”

No later than ten minutes after he said that, we came upon a clearing. Ahead of us we saw a huge lake, surrounded on all sides by thick forest, with a small island placed squarely in the center of the lake. A Magikarp bounced out of the water to survey the area before slipping back into the water.

“At least I’ll have something to drink when I’m gnawing on your arm.”

“You seem a lot more enthused about the idea of eating me than you ought to be.”

We walked around the perimeter of the lake.

“Don’t you think there should be some other trainers here, or anybody for that matter?” I asked.

“Yeah, especially around this hour. Seems like it would be the rush hour for tourism.”

“What if this isn’t Lake Verity? What if we just happened to stumble upon another really big but not as important lake?”

“There ISN’T any other big body of water around here. Unless you want to say that we somehow managed to go west and we’re staring at the world’s smallest ocean.”

A Stantler walked out into the clearing several yards away and went to take a drink at the lake. Greg and I both took out an occupied Poké Ball.

“Don’t think Stantlers drink salt water,” I said, eyeing him.

“Don’t think so either.”

We both eyed each other, silently trying to figure out who would try to catch this magnificent beast. Without warning, we both sent out a Pokémon. I sent out Beldum and Greg sent out Nidoran. The Stantler looked up and saw us and our Pokémon. It quickly turned around and fled back into the woods.

“No! Wait!” I yelled, as if the Stantler would actually obey me.

It was no use. We were still too far away to catch up to it. We only ran a couple of feet before giving up.

“You spooked it!” Greg accused.

“You frightened it with your face!”

We both looked back to where the Stantler was and sighed. We decided to continue walking towards the front of the island entrance. Then we realized that we were assuming there was an entrance to the island. And that there would be some way besides swimming or using a Pokémon to get to the island. My dreams of becoming a legendary-wielding unstoppable machine were falling down around me by the minute.

“It’d be nice if we had a fishing rod,” Greg said. “Who knows what kind of Pokémon live down there?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold them in Sandgem Town. Advertise catching a Dragonair with them.”

“A Milotic.”

“A Sharpedo.”

“With your luck? A Stunfisk.”

“Still better than a Geodude.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a lily pad float near the shore. It reminded me of something and when I saw a little bit of blue flesh poke out of the water beneath it, I immediately recognized it as a Lotad. A Poké Ball hit the top of it and it got sucked in.

“Too slow,” Greg admonished.

“Hey!”

The Poké Ball sank to the sandy bottom and Greg ran over to where it was. He waited until he was sure that the Lotad was caught before he started taking off his shoes and socks, rolling up his pants legs as well, and waded out to where the ball laid.

“At least now you have a Pokémon that’s stupider looking than your Geodude!” I called out to him.

“Use Hydro Pump!” he yelled back, throwing the Poké Ball at me.

The ball landed before me and out popped the whole Lotad. It looked up at me and certainly didn’t look like it was about to murder me with 350 pascals of concentrated water.

“Lotad!”

It was like it was greeting me. Greg came walking back up to us.

“Well obviously it doesn’t have a good judgment of character,” he said.

I gave him a look.

“Let’s just find the entrance to the island before I make this thing a salad to go with your arm.”

~~~

We bickered and fought Pokémon for another hour before coming upon what we guessed was the front entrance. There was a small, paved path leading out of the area, a sign that talked about the history of the lake, and, if one peered close enough, a hole in the rocky isle. There was no bridge to get across.

“Well that sucks,” Greg said.

We both felt rather dejected. We could’ve just headed to Floaroma Town instead of wasting our time coming here.

“I’m mad. I’m taking a leak,” he announced, walking off towards the trees.

Once he was safely behind trees, a Poliwag decided then to jump out of the water next to me and run straight for the forest. No WAY was I letting this one pass me by! I called out Beldum and gave chase.

“Take Down!”

Beldum rushed ahead of me and slammed into the fleeing Poliwag from behind.

“Poli!”

It flew forward and hit the ground. Just in case Greg was around waiting for a steal, I flung a Poké Ball at it. It hit the Poliwag and drew it in. The ball dropped to the ground and started to wiggle. One shake…two shakes…three shakes…

It stopped wiggling.

“Ye-ah! Great job, Beldum!”

Beldum turned back to me and said nothing, stoically.

I went over and picked up the ball containing my new teammate.

“You didn’t catch something, did you?” Greg said, walking over to where I was.

I showed him my Poké Ball.

“Send out your deformity, Lotad, and find out.”

We heard a tree fall suddenly in the distance, followed by the faint sounds of a human swearing. It did not sound like nature’s doing.

“What was that?”

“Don’t know. Let’s find out.”

~~~

As we rushed closer to where we thought we heard the noises come from, we noticed that the human voice was not one, but two, and that they continued yelling. We weren’t so sure then that revealing ourselves would be the best course of action. Another tree fell in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. We looked to where the tree had been cut.

Two of the members of that group of chefs I saw in Veilstone City were angrily scanning the woods. The glow on one of their Patrat’s claws was fading. They must’ve had it use Cut. They must’ve heard something, as they both looked at a nearby bush.

“Hidden Power!” one of them ordered the Patrat.

The Patrat formed some multicolored energy between its hands and shot it at the bush. We heard a cry come from it and silently tiptoed over to investigate. The crying came from a Munna and, seeing as how its floral patterns were so faint, a young one at that. The two chefs came over to it. They still hadn’t seen us.

“No more running around! We know you have the power to summon the legendary Pokémon that sleeps at the bottom of that island in the lake. So summon it already!”

“Or be prepared for a lot more pain.”

What the hell were they doing?! Where did they even GET that plan of theirs? How could a Munna summon Mesprit? Greg and I jumped out from our vantage point.

“Hey! You already defeated that Pokémon! So leave it alone!” Greg shouted.

“How is this Pokémon liberation?! I thought you guys wanted to free Pokémon, not beat them into the dirt!” I added.

“Who are YOU guys?” said one.

“Butt out! This is OUR Pokémon!” said the other.

“You were spying on us, weren’t you?! You just want the legendary Pokémon all to yourselves! Well, we won’t let that happen!” said the first.

“Go, Scraggy!”

“Get them, Patrat!”

“Nidoran, let’s go!”

“Shelmet, let’s take them down!”

Poké Balls were thrown and the fight began.

“Patrat, Double Team!”

“Bulk Up, Scraggy!”

The one rodent soon became many, surrounding all of us, and the reptilian Pokémon puffed out its chest and let out a cry, tightening its muscles and focusing its attention on us. Muscles that seem to appear out of nowhere. Greg and I looked around at the many Patrats.

“Nidoran, use Double Kick on the Scraggy.”

The pink critter launched itself at the Scraggy.

“Shelmet, use Bide.”

Greg’s Nidoran did a back flip and landed its two feet on the Scraggy.

“Patrat, Cut down that bug before it does something!”

The rodent sped from all directions straight at Shelmet, hitting her from all sides and sending her into the air. All of the illusions then disappeared.

“Use Acid to rocket yourself at it!” I yelled.

Shelmet did just that, propelling herself towards the once-again singular Patrat, colliding with the force it dealt her, knocking it out before it flew past us and into the nearby bushes.

“Peck attack!”

Nidoran drilled its horn into the Scraggy, which cried out in pain before falling over, knocked out as well.

“What?! Get up, you worthless brat!” shouted Scraggy’s trainer.

“You know, you are seriously starting to piss me off here,” said Greg.

We both faced the two chefs with our Pokémon ready for whatever else they had.

“Rrrgh, this wasn’t supposed to happen,” one of them said.

“We have no choice. You haven’t seen the last of Team Plasmaaaaaaaa!” shouted the other.

He took something out of his pocket and threw it to the ground. It turned out to be a smoke bomb, as we quickly were coughing from it. I threw out Poliwag’s Poké Ball.

“*cough cough* Poliwag, use Water Sport! *cough*”

Poliwag started spraying water thinly into the air. The “rain” soon brought the smoke down with it. When we could see again, we saw that the Plasma chefs had disappeared, but left behind their Scraggy and, presumably, Patrat. It was then that I remembered something.

“Hey, where’d the Munna go?”

Greg started looking around. After a few minutes of searching, we couldn’t find it anywhere.

“I guess it ran off during the fight.”

I looked at the Scraggy.

“What should we do with it? We can’t catch it, since it’s still technically a trainer’s.”

“We should take it and the Patrat to the Poké Center in Sandgem Town. Their trainers aren’t coming back for them, so Nurse Allison should know what to do with them.”

I agreed. We picked up the Scraggy, looked around and found the unconscious Patrat, picked it up, and tried to find a way back to the main path. This took longer than expected, mostly because we got lost again. I looked down at the Patrat I was holding and decided that I wouldn’t share it with Greg once I roast it. Maybe I should’ve had a bigger lunch.

We eventually found a marked path and headed towards what we hoped was the Lake Verity entrance. I guess the wild Pokémon must’ve thought we were easy pickings, with the fainted Pokémon in our hands, as they kept trying to attack us on our way to the entrance. It was good experience for Poliwag and Lotad.

~~~

It didn’t take us as long to find the entrance as we thought. From there, it was only a half hour before we got to the fork in the road, one way leading to Twinleaf Town and the other leading to Sandgem Town. Though we also wanted to visit Twinleaf Town, we decided that a bigger town would have a better Center, so we continued on to Sandgem, making note to stop by Twinleaf at a later date. I noticed a Masquerain flying overhead as we were walking and thought it would be useful in future battles against Greg’s Geodude, but it was too high up and probably too powerful for me to battle; plus, I didn’t want to arouse Greg’s suspicion. So unfortunately, I had to leave it alone.

~~~

“Oh, those aren’t your Pokémon, are they?” said Nurse Allison.

We had walked in with Pokémon in our arms instead of in Poké Balls.

“No, their trainers abandoned them,” Greg informed her.

We then both shared a look, both knowing that he had said something stupid that would undoubtedly set off Nurse Allison.

“I’m not surprised,” she said. “Not everyone can handle being a trainer in this region. Some people just give up and abandon their Pokémon so that no one knows of their shame.”

“Yeah…so, can you help these two?” Greg asked.

“Oh sure! We’ll heal them here and then wait a few days. If no one comes to claim these two, then we’ll ship them to a facility where they can reverse the biological effects that capturing a Pokémon bring about, effectively making them wild Pokémon again. Then they’ll transport them to one of their species natural habitats.”

Greg was about to say something, but I intercepted him.

“Sounds good. Can you heal our Pokémon as well?”

“Certainly.”

Greg looked at me. We handed the two injured Pokémon along with our own and left the counter.

“I don’t like the idea of the government controlling when I have a Pokémon and when I don’t.”

“They have to GET your Pokémon first, though,” I reminded him.

I wasn’t too happy about the amount of power they had as well, but I could see where it might be needed. Our situation was one of them.

“Think of it from the Pokémon’s prospective. Would YOU like to forever be chained to a guy who abandoned you?”

He huffed.

“Look, I get what you’re saying, but I still think the checks and balances are still heavily tilted towards one end. What if someone managed to hack into the storage system and release everyone’s Pokémon at once? There’d be a mass panic. I’m surprised no one’s tried it yet. There couldn’t be that much security against such an action.”

“Well if an attack hasn’t happened yet after all these years, maybe there is.”

We both fell silent after that, and remained as much for the next hour, quietly opting to drop the subject matter and watch TV in the lounge instead.

~~~

Once our Pokémon were healed up, we decided to leave town and visit Twinleaf Town. It’s said that a former champion came from there. We were just outside the town, talking.

“Look, the show said there’s a rare Pokémon living in each route. They’re like the apex predator of the route, which means they don’t need to breed as much in order for at least one kin to survive into sexual maturity, which makes them rare, and trainers often find it difficult to beat, much less catch them," Greg said.

“And the shows you watch are a crock of flaming Rapidash crap. Every route? Including the caves and water routes? That all seems highly unlikely to me. Like, what? The entire Pokémon super-species are conspiring to make being a trainer like a game?”

“We saw a Stantler at Lake Verity, alongside Poliwags, Lotads, Spearows, Rattatas, Wurmples, Magikarps, Shroomish, and that one Oddish. AND the Pinsir at Route 202 alongside Nidoran, Yanma, Shelmets, Caterpies, Weedles, and Taillows.”

“Oh yeah. When I think ‘top of the food chain, unstoppable killing machine,’ I think of Stantler.”

He ignored me.

“I wonder what rare Pokémon is hiding in THIS route? A Scyther? A Gligar? Or maybe a Zangoose?”

“Or maybe a highly intelligent, shiny Noctowl?” I sarcastically provided.

“What? Would it, like, know how to dodge a Poké Ball better or something?” he asked, confused, before his face lit up again. “Oh! Maybe it’s a Herdier!”

His face then took a look of evil and malice.

“It’s going to be a Pansear. I’m going to catch one of those and, even though it’ll be weakened, sic it on your Beldum and Shelmet and watch them helplessly burn.”

“Not if Poliwag has anything to say about it, which he will,” I retorted. “And if a Pansear is living around here, then a Pansage won’t be far behind, and guess what your pebble is greatly weak against and your hideously deformed Lotad won’t be able to touch?”

We stared at each other with murderous intensity in our eyes before we both heard a rustling in the grass to the side of the road. Unfortunately, it was on Greg’s side, so he had a slight distance advantage when we both instinctively threw a Poké Ball at where the noise was made. More unfortunately, we both saw that his Poké Ball hit the target first, whatever it was. The ball rolled out to the main road, wiggling. It’s gonna be a Charmeleon, I just know it.

The ball eventually stopped wiggling, signifying Greg’s new capture. He went over to pick it up as I went for my ball. I fought back the urge to kick his new capture clear into the woods. GOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!

“Let’s see what rare Pokémon I got. Prepare yourself!” he said, flinging the ball at me.

Out of the ball came an adorable, pink, incredibly small balloon with three tufts of hair on top.

“Igglybuff!” it cheered.

My reaction was lightspeed.

“Pffft HA HA HAHAHAHA HA HA HA HA HAHAHA *cough cough cough* HAHAHA!”

I gasped for air.

“Ha hahahaha haaaaa ha ha haha…”

The look on Greg’s face only made me laugh longer.

“Hahaha…”

“Shut the hell up.”

I gasped for more air.

By the time I had control over myself, I was sweating from laughing so much, my throat hurt, and I still had tears coming down my cheeks. I’m sure I must’ve been red in the face as well. Greg, on the other hand, looked royally ticked off, though I’m sure it was more towards me than towards his new capture.

“Haaaa…oh man, that’s frickin’ hilarious,” I said, collecting myself. “You wanna battle with that? Okay, I’m down with that! Try not to pop it too hard, Beldum!”

I threw out Beldum’s ball and it came out, staring at its new opponent.

“Oh sure, throw out the steel type against a baby normal type. Real classy,” Greg snorted, pulling out his Pokédex. “Let’s see what moves you know, Igglybuff.”

Wanting to appear classy for Greg, I waited while he consulted his Pokédex. His face got really angry, so something wasn’t right.

“Son of a…”

“Take Down!”

Classy time being over, Beldum mowed over the baby balloon.

“Your Pokédex is switched to “Battle” too, right?” I called out, reminding myself of how little money I actually have.

“This thing’s so young, it doesn’t even know any attacking moves!” he yelled back. “Forget that! I’m not losing my money to you due to a technicality! Return, Igglybuff! Geodude, rip that eyeball out of its socket!”

He withdrew his Igglybuff and sent out Geodude. Somebody’s a poor loser.

“Magnitude!”

Silly Greg. I have more resources now.

“Return! Stand your ground, Poliwag!”

I did a quick swap of my own and sent out Poliwag to absorb the blow. How lucky for me that the attack was quite weak. Probably a Magnitude 4.

“Water Gun!”

“No! Defense Curl!”

Though it managed to roll up in time, the blast from the water still sent it flying back to Greg. If it weren’t for its Sturdy ability, it’d clearly be knocked out.

“Want me to throw some bubbles on that carwash for ya?” I taunted.

He glared at me, but I knew what he was thinking.

“Go ahead, send out Lotad. I got Shelmet waiting in the wing. Or perhaps Nidoran? Beldum’s still up for a fight.”

He challenged me recklessly and I gained the upper hand because of it.

“Fine, you win. But you only won because I didn’t know that an Igglybuff would be the Pokémon I caught.”

“You’re making excuses,” I said.

We swiped cards. Finally, I had a little spending money. Perhaps I should “challenge” him again while he’s sleeping.

He humphed and turned around and started walking towards the town again. I grinned and followed.

~~~

“What do you mean, ‘no tourists allowed?!’” I said

We had made it to Twinleaf Town and went straight for the house marked on the map. However, there was a gated fence surrounding the house, and a policeman was standing at the front gate. He said no one could visit the house.

“Ever since the kid became a champion, trainers from all over the region have been flocking here, hoping to challenge the youngest champion recorded in the Sinnoh Hall of Fame. The kid left, not wanting all the sudden fame and constant battles, all of which the champion won of course, which just left the mother of the child alone here. Trainers still come by, wanting to challenge the youngling, and the mother just wanted her peace. So now the house is gated and we’re put on patrol to make sure she isn’t pestered all the time. So no visitors.”

We left, dejected. I may know in my heart that I can catch a lake legendary, but I’m not stupid enough to think that I could challenge a champion and win. Hell, I couldn’t even beat the trainers I see on TV. I think Greg felt the same way.

~~~

There was nothing else to do in Twinleaf Town, so we left soon after we came. The sun was starting to set. We battled some more Pokémon on the way to Sandgem Town, strengthening our newest recruits. Greg somehow got his Igglybuff, which he did NOT release back into the wild, to learn Pound, so now it can actually attack a Pokémon. It’s still fairly weak, though. We also saw a passing trainer, to which I asked if I could battle, but when he informed us that he already had four badges, we decided it would be pointless to fight such an incredibly one-sided battle.

~~~

We were nearing Sandgem Town when the sun was almost behind the horizon. We started hearing the telltale sounds of the night (the calls of Hoothoot; the distant but distinct sounds of Kricketots chirping). Suddenly, we heard the sound of something not typically associated with the night.

“PIDGEYYYYY!!!”

A wild, and angry, Pidgey swooped down on us. We covered our faces with our arms and it buzzed past us and high into the sky again. It made a large u-turn, ready to swoop down on us again.

“Why’s it attacking us?! Go, Geodude! Use Rock Throw!”

His Geodude grabbed some dirt, packed it into a ball, and threw it at the Pidgey, but it dodged all the attacks and swooped down on us again.

“Beldum can attack in the air! Let’s do it, Beldum!”

I sent it out and told it to attack the bird. Beldum flew through the air and started charging at the Pidgey. The Pidgey was having none of that, as it swiftly dodged the attacks and started flying beak first at Beldum. Finally, one of Beldum’s attacks hit and the Pidgey struggled to stay in the air. Then I threw a Poké Ball at it. The Pidgey got sucked in and the ball fell to the ground. Beldum came back to me. The ball shook once, shook twice, shook thrice, and then it was mine.

“I guess I got a Pidgey,” I said, picking up the ball. “Wanna battle it with your new catch?”

Greg walked past me.

“Go to hell.”

I looked at him and continued walking. Somebody was still in a bad mood.

 

[Chapter of Charizard]

I liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike it! Check out mine too! its brand new! Also, i love how its in johto. I feel like theyre(fan fics) never in johto (even tho i kno a ton are)

[The Teller]

A couple days late, but here's the update! To Chapter of Charizard, this takes place in Sinnoh. It just so happens that in this universe, Bugsy is the gym leader of Canalave City. You'll find many not-Sinnoh gym leaders in gym leader positions in this story. But Johto is a great place (even if Eric thinks it's the Pokemon world's "easy mode"). Fun facts! FF11: Arceusism is the predominate religion. The philosophy is that Arceus created the universe and everything within it, then went into a deep slumber. Different sects argue over whether Arceus intended for humans or Pokemon to be the dominant species. FF12: If you walk around the perimeter of Celadon City 100 times with a Kabutops in your party and then go to the top of the Celadon City Dept. Store using only the stairs and hugging the wall the entire time, you'll find...yourself very exhausted. FF13: It is very hard for non-psychic trainers to train psychic Pokémon, as the trainer-Pokémon mental bond becomes highly sensitive and thus, as the Pokémon feels pain, so does the trainer. Psychic trainers know how to dampen this effect.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 6:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 6: The Evolution of Friendship

We had reached Sandgem Town just before the sun went down and managed to get a room at the Poké Center. We left our Pokémon with Nurse Allison and went to the Poké Mart to get some cheap food. Is it sad that we’re already starting to worry about money issues? I’d expect there to be more beginning trainers around here, but that hasn’t been the case. Perhaps there’s some sort of trainer recession going on?

~~~

The next day, we managed to make it back to Jubilife City by noon. However, where we wanted to go wasn’t in the city, so we just took a bus to get from one side to the other. At the northern entrance to the city, there were two paths to go by: one led through Oreburgh Gate and to Oreburgh City, and the other through the Ravaged Path and to Floaroma Town. Considering that the gym was located in Floaroma Town, that’s where we wanted to go.

~~~

I hate Route 204. What I said earlier about there not being any trainers around? I take that back. They were ALL hiding on Route 204. Everyone who had a Pokémon and only one badge was hiding in the bushes, the tall grass, or under the pond. Strangely, they didn’t seem to want to battle each other, just Greg and me. It’s like there was some evil exes coalition and they were all signed up for a battle to the death against us specifically. What’s even worse…

“Alright, Nidoran! Use Poison Sting to finish it off!” ordered Greg.

“Nido!”

He charged at the Cherubi, still weakened from the last attack, and sent it flying. It clearly wasn’t going to get up from this one.

“Aw man! You done got lucky ‘cause you got a poison type!” said Cherubi’s redneck trainer.

Suddenly, Nidoran started to glow a bright white. Everyone’s attention was immediately turned to it. The grass underneath Nidoran’s feet began to bend away from him. The white light slowly changed shape. Greg couldn’t have looked more proud even if it was his Geodude that was evolving. The blob resumed a new shape and started to dimmer, revealing a fancy, new Nidorino, who cried out its new moniker triumphantly. I was slightly impressed as well, so I guess seeing an evolution is fascinating to everyone no matter how many times they’ve seen it happen.

But can you believe it? Greg’s Pokémon evolved before any of mine did! Granted, Nidorans are known to evolve early, and now Greg needs to miraculously find a Moon Stone to evolve Nidorino again, but still! Greg looked at me with a smug expression on his face. Going through all of my Pokémon in my mind, I deduced that my Pidgey would likely be the first to evolve. Those are known to evolve early, too.

~~~

“How many Potions do we have left?” I asked.

“Not many,” Greg answered.

“Should we turn around and head back to the Center?”

I was concerned that our Pokémon wouldn’t be able to make it through the Ravaged Path and beyond, all the way to Floaroma Town. I especially didn’t want to become stranded in a cave, waiting for someone to accompany Greg and me out of there. I fished out the atlas.

“I don’t want to walk all the way back there and have to come all the way back here. There’s nothing stopping all those trainers from healing their Pokémon, too, and just battling us again whenever they see us. Though that would be good experience for our Pokémon, it’d just get repetitive. I want to become the Pokémon Champion before I turn sixty.”

“Well according to the map, if we can get through the cave, there will be a clean path to Floaroma Town, so we won’t have to worry about wild Pokémon. Hopefully there aren’t any backwoods serial killer trainers on that path as well.”

“I say we chance that and go through the cave. We’ll just have to ration the Potions more carefully. And not use Beldum.”

“Beldum’s going to pretend you didn’t say that. It needs experience to evolve, too, you know.”

Greg was already walking into the cave.

“I hope there’s a Nosepass in there that’ll stomp your Igglybuff flat!” I yelled after him.

~~~

There was dead silence in the cave. The sound of our own footsteps echoed throughout the corridors. There weren’t any signs of any Pokémon living here. Lights had been strung up to guide people through the caves. Some were broken. It’s hard to tell whether it was from human carelessness or by irritated Pokémon. I thought the place would be swarming with Zubats or Woobats, but I guess the lights kept them at bay. So much for worrying about tiring out our Pokémon. There was a sign near the entrance that we came from that pointed in opposite directions. To the left, the cave continues deeper and no lights will be hung so that wild Pokémon are more likely to wander about, which helps trainers train their Pokémon. Also, the path loops around on itself, so there’s no exit going that way. To the right, there is a lighted path with the exit to Floaroma Town at the end.

“So I’ll go right, and you can go left, and we’ll meet each other at the exit,” I said. “That way we’ll cover more ground.”

Greg looked at me.

“If you lose me, you lose most of your spending money AND half the Potions. This really doesn’t work out in your favor.”

I sized up the situation, trying to figure out whether I could go on without him or not.

“With my team, especially Beldum, at my side, I don’t think I have to worry about losing anytime soon.”

“That trainer with the Shinx gave you trouble!”

“What are the odds that someone will come at me again with an incredibly strong electric type?”

“High!”

“It’s not that high,” I replied, walking to the right path.

Annoyingly enough, Greg followed me. Fifteen minutes later, when the exit was near, we were still bickering.

“I’m trying really hard right now not to challenge you with Nidorino and just leaving your dumb carcass here to fend off the wild Magikarps that’ll be too tough for you to beat,” Greg warned.

“What’s that? Challenging me with a poison type against my steel type?”

“A poison type that knows a fighting attack…”

“What’s that? Trying to use a fighting type move against my psychic type?”

Greg grabbed Nidorino’s Poké Ball and enlarged it.

“Your Beldum’s not gonna live to know what it’s like to use more than one kind of move!”

“Ah! It IS you!”

We both turned around to find the green-haired guy from Veilstone City standing near the entrance, the light shining behind him as if to further emphasize that he is the Avatar of Arceus. He walked up to me.

“You know him?” Greg asked.

“He was the guy I was telling you about that battled me but didn’t register it in his Pokédex so I didn’t get any money,” I explained.

“Do you remember me from Veilstone City?” he asked. “I see you’re traveling with someone else now. But I thought you would be better than this. Solving a squabble with pointless Pokémon battling? Against each other with no one else around to help protect you from other Pokémon and trainers when all of both of your Pokémon have fainted? In this cave, with so much further to go until you safely reach the next town? You’re having the wonderful creatures you captured against their will fight each other to solve your own petty problems, and they don’t have any choice in the matter. Why is it up to them to beat each other up for your sake? Why can’t you solve this without harming your friends? Do you even see your Pokémon as friends?”

“You’re talking a mile a minute and acting like I’m not here,” informed Greg. “And I’ll have you know that my Pokémon are quite capable of defeating Eric’s Pokémon and defending me from harm until I get to Floaroma Town. In fact, I’m sure that they’ve come to see sparring with Eric’s Pokémon as something akin to a game.”

“Your Pokémon…” I started.

“So fighting with the intent to harm is a game now?” Natural interrupted. “Something that you taught them? That’s just sick. Are you even thinking about your actions? You’re teaching your Pokémon to enjoy committing violence!”

He turned to me.

“Eric, do you agree with what this man is saying?”

Oh great. Put ME on the spot.

“Firstly, his Pokémon would go down faster than a Snorlax at a buffet. Secondly, our Pokémon aren’t cold-blooded killing machines. Battles have been going on forever now, and you still see more human-committed crimes than Pokémon-committed crimes. Wasn’t this your hot-button issue back in Veilstone? Of wishing for Pokémon and humans to become separated?”

He smiled.

“I’m glad that you remembered. I want to see things that no one can see. The truths of Pokémon inside Poké Balls. The ideals of how trainers should be. And a future where Pokémon have become perfect. Do you feel the same? I cannot see the future yet. The world is still to be determined.”

He whipped out a Poké Ball.

“I’m sorry if this looks like I'm being hypocritical, but I think my friends and I should test you to see if you can see this future, too. They know that right now, we aren’t strong enough to save all Pokémon.”

“Whoa, hey. At least register this in your Pokédex first so that one of us gets money out of this.”

He glared at me with a steely glint in his eyes.

“I despise Pokédexes,” he uttered, before sending out a Pokémon. “Let’s go, Taube!”

The crazed man sent out a Pidove.

“Pidove!” it cried.

Seeing as I wouldn’t be able to get past him without fighting him, I decided that I didn’t have much of a choice but to fight him without reward.

“Fine. Poliwag, let’s do it!”

“I see you’ve captured new friends. Though seeing as you’re a trainer, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Beldum’s fine company (more so than Greg), but it would still get awfully lonely with just it around.”

“I agree. My friends keep me company for as long as they wish. Taube, use Leer.”

“Use Hypnosis!”

The bird fixed a stare at Poliwag as he chanted a strange sound at the bird. Luckily, the closeness of the cave walls allowed the signal to bounce off them, ensuring that the Pidove would hear it.

“Oh no!” said Natural.

The avian Pokémon started looking drowsy and fluttered down to the ground.

“Now use Water Gun!”

Poliwag shot a stream of water out at the lowering bird, sending it back to Natural. It collapsed to the ground, wet and asleep.

“Taube, return.”

He took out another Poké Ball.

“Help me out, Renacuajo.”

This time, a Tympole came out to greet me. Fighting water with water isn’t the best idea. I don’t recall if Tympoles have that ability that absorbs water attacks or not. I’d better switch.

“Good job, Poliwag. Return. Let’s take them out, Shelmet!”

“Shel…”

“Use BubbleBeam, Renacuajo.”

His tadpole spat out bubbles at rapid fire, hitting Shelmet in the face. They seemed to be more of a nuisance to her than painful.

“Shelmet, use Struggle Bug!”

She marched over and slapped that thing across the face with her iron tail.

“So are you going to help me fight our way out of here, or are you just going to stand there?” I asked Greg.

“This seems rather personal,” he replied.

I sighed. Of course he would say something like that.

“Renacuajo, try to use Supersonic.”

The Tympole opened its mouth and emitted a piercing scream centered at Shelmet.

“Hide in your shell and use Bide, Shelmet!”

She did just that as the noise reached her.

“Use BubbleBeam again, Renacuajo.”

The tiny tadpole started pelting Shelmet with bubbles again. Since she was in bide, she couldn’t do anything else but take the attack. I was confident that she would pull through, though.

After taking one too many bubbles, Shelmet opened up her helmet and charged at the Tympole, slamming into the thing with all her strength.

“Poooooooo…!”

Again, a Pokémon was sent back to Natural’s feet. I’m sure he wasn’t liking that.

“You are very strong,” he said, returning his Tympole and taking out yet another Poké Ball. “But I must persist. For my dreams. For my Pokémon’s dreams.”

He threw the ball out.

“Help me, Vechter.”

Now a Timburr faced me. I recalled Shelmet. She isn’t the best choice for this battle, and Beldum may not be able to handle a fighting type after all the battles it went through today. The best choice would be…

“Pidgey, let’s go!”

“Pidge!”

“Gust!”

“Use Bide.”

The strange canine-looking thing braced itself with its log as Pidgey flew up and started flapping her wings quickly, building up a good wind to take out the fighting type. The small bits of dirt lying on the ground flew up as well, making a semi-transparent mini dust tornado, moving steadily at the Timburr.

“Timburr Tim!” it said.

“No, don’t!” Natural yelled back, raising his voice for the first time in awhile.

The thing tried swinging its log at the tornado, probably trying to dissipate it. It was no use, though. The storm came right to it and began spinning it around and around, all the while hitting it with clods of dirt from every direction. Soon it was completely dizzy and dropped its log, then slumped to the floor.

“Vechter, return,” Natural said, recalling his Pokémon.

How many Pokémon does he have? Am I going to have to fight another 6-member battle?

“You win,” he stated simply.

“You aren’t going to use your Purrloin?” I asked.

“Annerire?” he enquired, smiling warmly. “She is no longer with me. Soon after our battle at Veilstone City, I told her that she had helped me more than what was expected from her, and that she was no longer obligated to help me further my own dreams. So…I released her.”

A flashback of him asking me if I was going to release Beldum briefly played through my head.

“I freed her from my own selfish ways. She is no longer bound by me. She is free to live how SHE wants. I know that is what she wants in her heart. That is what’s in ALL Pokémon’s hearts! Pokémon liberation! My friends that just battled you…their fate that’s intertwined with mine is, too, coming to an end.”

He stared at me, contemplating.

“Our battle…maybe I can’t solve the equation that will change the world. Not through these means. Not alone. What I need is power. Power enough to make anyone agree with me. What holds that much power…I don’t know yet. But I will find it. And then the world will see my ways. Your Pokémon spoke at great lengths to me during our battle, coming to your defense, but I’m still not convinced of their words.”

And then Pidgey, who was perched on my shoulder, started glowing.

She hopped off and landed on the ground as we all shielded our eyes from the blinding light. As with Nidorino, the dirt beneath her was swept away from her as her new form started to take shape. When she fully matured, the light dimmed and the newly christened Pidgeotto spread her wings wide.

“Pidgeooooottooooo!”

Natural looked amazed at her. Then she fixed a glare at him.

“Pidge pi otto pid pi…”

She spoke to him, gesturing with her wings. It was something I had never seen before. Pokémon don’t lecture at humans; at least, not in what appeared to be long, structured sentences. Going by Greg’s expression, it seems like he hadn’t seen such a thing before either. Maybe it was because this Natural guy claimed that he could understand their speech as if they were talking our language?

Natural himself seemed to be surprised at whatever Pidgeotto was saying to him. He probably had never had a Pokémon subject him to such a long spiel before. He reacted with surprise, bewilderment, anger, confusion, puzzlement, introspection, and finally seemed to accept Pidgeotto’s words.

“I see,” he finally said, after Pidgeotto was done talking his ear off.

He looked up at me.

“It saddens me to know that you didn’t truly understand what she was saying. But if she is being truthful, I believe that you have a sense of her general emotion that she was conveying. I have a feeling that your other friends have similar beliefs.”

He turned back to the exit of the cave.

“I must be off now. I must find that source of power so that all will come to think the way I do. I believe, when that happens, that you can be by my side.”

What?!

He ran out of there.

“Wait!”

I ran out of the exit to catch up to him with Greg and Pidgeotto following behind me. However, once we reached outside, we could find no trace of him. He had simply vanished.

“How did he get so far away so quickly?” I wondered out loud.

“Maybe he just climbed one of the trees very quickly…and silently,” Greg jokingly offered.

I turned to him.

“What did he mean, ‘be by my side’? Did I come on to him and no one thought to tell me?”

“He totally wants in your pants,” Greg replied, cracking a smile.

We started walking on the pathway leading from the exit of the cave to Floaroma Town. I recalled Pidgeotto.

“And another thing,” he said. “He simply ignored me. Pretended like I wasn’t there. It was like a special conversation just between the two of you, and I was privy enough to snoop in on it. You were lucky that I was there. If he wanted his way with you, you wouldn’t be able to physically resist him. He’d have you pinned down faster than an Olympic Machamp.”

“Screw you. He’s far more delicate than I am. Plus, I still had four Pokémon able to take him on, and he had none.”

The look on Greg’s face soured.

“From the sounds of it, he will have none in a short while. Why would he release all of his Pokémon? How will he catch new ones? If he’s out there in the wild like we are, how is he going to defend himself? Does he know what he’s doing?”

“You’re concerned about his well-being? Not about the fact that he was clearly saying ‘I’m gonna take over the world!’? I thought the guy was nuts when I met him in Veilstone, but I had no idea he was this crazy.”

“Crazy seems to be the best word to describe him. The way he thought he could understand Pidgeotto’s words…”

“He said that about Beldum back in Veilstone as well.”

“Beldum can’t even speak.”

“That’s what I told him!”

Beldum suddenly appeared from its Poké Ball. It hovered up to my face and stared at me.

“Whoa! Beldum, don’t do that. It’s rude.”

Beldum continued staring.

“What is it?”

Beldum’s gaze was unblinking. Probably from the use of its psychic powers, I got a vague sense of condition from it.

“I don’t have anything on me, Beldum. The next Poké Mart isn’t until Floaroma Town, unless we hit it lucky and find a hot dog stand somewhere nearby, which I doubt, and even if we DID find one, I don’t think they’d be selling metal rods on a bun for you.”

Beldum wasn’t buying it. In fact, I think I only encouraged it.

“No, Beldum. If you have such strong psychic powers, you would know that there’s nothing edible in our bags. No, you can’t eat the compass. You can eat Geodude, though.”

“Hey!”

Beldum hovered over to Greg and pleaded with him.

“No you can’t eat him! Eric, call back your little eyeball before I show it why it’s weak to fire!”

I laughed.

“It only wants a nibble.”

“Eric!”

“Beldum, come here.”

It did as it was told.

“Go back inside your Poké Ball. You’re probably less likely to become hungrier in there, especially if you’re using less energy. I promise that as soon as we find suitable food for you, we’ll feed you. Okay?”

Obviously, Beldum didn’t say anything back, but it held no resistance when I returned it to its ball.

“Hey there! You guys look like you’re itching for a battle!” shouted a young boy, running up to us.

~~~

Within half an hour, we were wondering if we would get less battling by just walking through the forest rather than keeping on the pathway. Sure, we might encounter strong Pokémon that we weren’t prepared for, but all the other Trainers seemed to wish to battle us and all had the same idea to stick to the pathway. We were also down to our last Potion between us.

“You know, if you used your Igglybuff in battle more often, maybe it would get to like you well enough to evolve,” I playfully suggested.

“I thought we already established that having your entire party knocked out would be bad for you,” he returned.

I held up Beldum’s Poké Ball.

“Beldum’s still got some fight left in him.”

Greg held up a Poké Ball of his own, most likely Geodude’s.

“Not for long.”

“Beldum, let’s go!”

“Geodude, smash it!”

“GWWWWAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!”

A beam of energy whizzed past us, hitting both Beldum and Geodude. The two dropped to the ground, fainted. We looked to where the beam came from. An Ursaring appeared from the woods. Greg quickly called back his pebble.

“Crap, we must’ve made too much noise for it! Time to go!”

He took off sprinting down the pathway. I called back Beldum as well, trying to run past Greg. That enraged Ursaring could only eat one human at a time, and I was going to make sure that it was Greg.

“RROOOOOAAAARR!”

I heard another beam being fired off in our direction along with the stamping of very strong feet. It was quickly gaining on us. The beam flew past us and caused some trees to the left of the path to explode, flying high in the air and in every other direction. They just…splintered into pieces. Just like Greg if I can get him to slow down. Maybe I could use Pidgeotto to use Whirlwind on him, blowing him back towards the Ursaring.

We ran past a trainer in a weird, sagging, white hat and green headband, and some red and black outfit, who seemed to be oblivious to our plight. He looked surprised that we were running his way. Greg managed to shout “Ursaring!” before we ran past him. I certainly wasn’t going to stop running to take time to explain the situation to the poor guy. As we were running away, I heard someone call out a Pokémon.

“Sceptile!”

There was soon a massive explosion behind us. I stopped to look back at it. Was the guy okay? He was in the warpath of that Ursaring. Greg came up to me and grabbed my arm in a hurry.

“We can’t do anything! We just have to hope for the best and keep moving! If we’re lucky, that thing won’t bother us if we can make it to some kind of civilization!”

He pulled me away from the scene. I didn’t have much choice but to agree with him. I didn’t see how many Pokémon the guy had with him, but if one of them was a Sceptile, then I’d wager a guess that the rest of his Pokémon were equally powerful and he could take care of himself and hopefully, for our sake, the Ursaring. Otherwise, I’m gonna blame Greg for the murder.

~~~

We stopped running and started catching our breaths once we were sure that we were a safe distance from the Ursaring. The teachers back in school warned us that this might happen during our journeys, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly! Aren’t those things supposed to wait until a trainer is strong enough to beat them to attack them?

“Just so you know *huff huff*, this is…*pant pant*…your fault…” I said between breaths.

“MY fault?!”

“If you weren’t so eager to *gasp* lose to me and made such a fuss about it, that Ursaring wouldn’t have *swallow* become upset.”

“That’s a load of Bouffalant.”

I collapsed onto the ground. I needed to be returned to a Poke Ball of my own. Why didn’t a Hippowdon or a Fearow appear before me and let me catch them so I can ride them to wherever? Greg sat down with me.

“So you think he survived?” I asked.

“The guy we ran past? I hope so.”

“That’s good.”

We fell silent after that, still resting and catching our breath. After several minutes of that, we got up and decided to keep moving forward.

~~~

“Why is this path leading us towards the mountain?” I asked.

It had been another hour’s worth of walking steadily uphill.

“Hmm…perhaps that’s just the way the path was made. I haven’t seen any forks in the road, have you?”

“No…”

~~~

After another half hour’s trek, we came upon a sign.

‘Route 206: 2.5 miles

Eterna City: 20 miles’

Out came the atlas again. Greg peered over my shoulder. I located our current position.

“What the hell! We’re nowhere near Floaroma Town! We passed it, like, an hour ago!” I yelled.

I turned to Greg.

“YOU told me we were on the right track!”

“I DID think we were on the right track! We didn’t see any other paths coming this way, did we!”

“Well there must’ve been SOMETHING we missed! I don’t think they really expect us to instinctually know to wander off the beaten path to get to a major town!”

We stared angrily at each other for a few more seconds before admitting cosmic defeat, turned around, and walked back the way we came.

~~~

“Wingull, use Water Gun on Igglybuff!”

“Buneary, use Pound on Shelmet!”

“Use Mega Drain on that Wingull, Shelmet!”

“Use Copycat! Copy Buneary’s Quick Attack!”

A kaleidoscope of different events happened, with Pokémon flying every which way. It was hard to tell who was friend and who was enemy, or even which whirling blob was my own. It was a double battle with Greg and me on the same team. The two trainers had ambushed us, pestering us into battle, though we managed to get them to agree on a 1-per-person battle. Problem was, we were tired out from all the training we did today, and it appeared that the trainers and their Pokémon were refreshed.

Igglybuff flew through the air, dodging the water attack from Wingull, and delivered a flying kick to Buneary, who was running less swiftly towards Shelmet, knocking Buneary off its course and tumbling to the ground. A green beam came from Shelmet and hit Wingull, which cried out in pain as its energy was sapped from it.

“Oh no! Use Supersonic, Wingull!”

The bird faced Shelmet and emitted a high screech. Shelmet became too distracted to keep up the Mega Drain.

“Use Sweet Kiss on that Buneary while it’s down!” Greg said.

The little puffball ran up to the downed bunny to kiss the crap out of it.

“Now use Jump Kick!” Buneary’s trainer ordered.

I turned to look at where their fight was going on and saw the Buneary suddenly pick itself up, jump high in the air, and crash its foot violently into Igglybuff’s head.

“Use Wing Attack!”

I turned back to my fight, only to see Shelmet get hit pretty hard with one of Wingull’s wings.

“Buneary, Wingull, Quick Attack!” the trainers yelled in unison.

Shelmet never knew what hit her.

The battle was over. Greg and I recalled our Pokémon and forked over our petty cash. The trainers tried to convince us to use our other Pokémon, but we declined. We continued on our way to Floaroma Town, each with only two Pokémon not fainted and no Potions at all.

~~~

Greg was, as usual, trying to get me killed. As the sun was going down and we were starving and the town was supposedly only several miles away, Greg and I were walking on the pathway when suddenly he was overcome with electricity. Seeing as he was walking so close next to me, I felt some of the surge as well and quickly backed away. Then Greg was flung to the side. The spot that he had stepped on smiled. It then dusted itself off, revealing the ugliest fish I had ever seen, and I had seen pictures of Feebas. I pulled out my Pokédex and scanned it.

“Stunfisk, the Trap Pokémon. Type: Ground/Electric. It conceals itself in the mud of the seashore. It smiles when transmitting electricity.”

Well that would explain it. But what was it doing so far from the sea?

“StuuuuunFISK!” it shouted, whapping its tail on the ground before launching its electrified self at me.

I managed to dodge in time. This one wasn’t going to let us run away.

“Poliwag, go!”

“Kill it, Lombre!”

I looked behind me to see an incredibly pissed off Greg looking at the Stunfisk as if deciding how he wants to cook it. Poliwag was exhausted as is, so I wasn’t going to complain about a 2-on-1 wild battle.

“Use Water Gun!”

“Nature Power!”

Poliwag sprayed water at the ugly fish, which took the hit, as Lombre started to glow. Then it slammed its hands on the ground, which sent a minor tremor straight to the Flounderp. It went flying into the nearby grass. Then it turned the exact shade of green as the grass around it before sending off a bout of electricity, hitting both Poliwag and Lombre. I ordered Poliwag to use another Water Gun, but the attack only seemed to cause the fish to start smiling at us.

“What move did it just use, ‘Masochism?’” I asked Greg.

“I’d look through my Pokédex to find out if it weren’t BEATTING US!”

“Poliwag, use Rain Dance!”

He concentrated and clouds quickly began to form over us. I put the hood of my jacket over my head. Greg put on his cap.

The damn thing kept spamming Thundershock, and Poliwag and Lombre were doing their best to dodge it. However, the attacks were coming so rapidly that neither of our Pokémon had time to launch an attack of their own. However, the rain soon came down, and I knew that Lombre would heal up because of that. Too soon, however, another Thundershock hit Poliwag, who was then knocked out. The smug fish had the gall to smile when it noticed.

“Use Fury Swipes!” Greg yelled.

Lombre came up close to the Stunfisk and started slashing away. Unfortunately, the scratches didn’t seem to do much, and the Stunfisk repelled Lombre with a blast of electricity, fainting it as well. We recalled our Pokémon and sent out our last remaining Pokémon.

“Pidgeotto! Use Gust!”

“Nidorino! Poison Sting!”

Pidgeotto flapped her mighty wings, causing a mini-typhoon to form thanks to the rain. The storm hit the Stunfisk, sending it skywards. Nidorino jumped in the air and struck the fish-thing square in the middle with its horn. For whatever reason, the Stunfisk showed more pain from receiving those attacks than when we had used water attacks. The devil fish fell to the ground, finally knocked out. The rain started to let up. We both reached into our bags for a Poké Ball. As it turns out, Greg didn’t have any and I only had one left. It was drilled into our heads in school that you should always have at least one usable Poké Ball in your possession at any point in time in case a strong Pokémon attacks you. That way, you could throw the ball at the Pokémon and, as it’s in the Poké Ball, even if it only shakes once, that gives you enough time to get a head start on running away as quickly as possible.

Screw that. I chucked the last Poké Ball at the Stunfisk. I was gonna make it a part of my team. If it could take down Poliwag and Lombre, and potentially Geodude and Pidgeotto as well, then it belonged with me, where I can sic it on Greg whenever I want.

“Hey!” shouted Greg.

The ball shook once, the ball shook twice, the ball shook thrice…

And then the son of a ***** popped out of the ball and materialized back into the grass, rendering our last Poké Ball useless. The sleeping, smiling Stunfisk laid there, ripe for the catching, but there was nothing I could do about it.

“Serves you right,” said Greg. “Didn’t they teach you ANYTHING in school, or were you just too stupid to comprehend it?”

“You’re just jealous that you couldn’t catch that thing for yourself.”

“I wouldn’t want that thing on my team even if it melted your Beldum down into a nickel.”

The flat fish started to stir.

“We better get out of here before that thing takes out Nidorino,” I advised.

“It’ll massacre Pidgeotto first,” Greg replied.

We backed away and ran in the direction we were heading in before the Stunfisk attacked us.

~~~

The moon was hidden behind clouds when we finally reached Floaroma Town. A bright, reddish glow could be seen on the horizon over some lifeless buildings. Music could faintly be heard coming from the glow along with the sound of people’s voices. What was happening wasn’t important right then, though. My Pokémon needed to be healed, and for that to happen, we needed to find a Poké Center. As official Map Person, I located the site on the atlas and led Greg and me to the place. Walking there, we noticed that almost all of the buildings were without light, neither electrical nor candlelit. They seemed pretty vacant.

Upon entering the Center, we noticed that it, too, seemed devoid of people. Fortunately, Nurse Allison still seemed to be on the clock.

“Good evening. Do your Pokemon need healing?”

“Yes, they’re all pretty banged up. We had a long day and got lost along the way, so we haven’t been able to heal them properly today,” Greg explained.

We handed her our Poké Balls.

“Potions will be vital to your journey,” she said.

“We ran out after we got lost,” Greg replied.

“Well the Poké Mart is closed for the night due to the festival, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to buy some more.”

“Festival?” I asked.

“Yes, the ‘Floaroma Fantastic Festival’ that’s being held at Floaroma Meadow,” she explained whilst evaluating our Pokémon. “It’s an annual event that’s held here every year to celebrate Shaymin’s blessing of this land. It’s quite a popular event here in Sinnoh. It draws many out-of-region visitors to it, which is unfortunately why we cannot house you two tonight.”

“You’re full?” Greg asked incredulously.

“Yes. You might be able to find a hotel room for the night, but I’d hurry. They’ve been filling up fast because of the festival.”

She looked at the computer monitor.

“Because of your Pokémon’s condition, you won’t be able to retrieve them until tomorrow morning. They’ll need the full night to recover.”

Great. So we had no room to sleep in and no Pokémon. AND we still haven’t found a place to eat yet.

“If nothing else, you should go see the festival. It only happens once a year and is quite spectacular,” she offered.

“Okay. Thanks,” Greg said, turning around to exit the Center.

Once we were outside…

“So exactly how many times are we going to be without Pokémon?” I asked. “You know, us Pokémon trainers? That train Pokémon? Which usually involve having Pokémon?”

“It’ll become less common when we catch more Pokémon. Once we get more than six, then we can start rotating them around.”

“But this is happening far more often than it should.”

He didn’t say anything. Then he tried to change the topic.

“We should go see what this festival is all about. They might have food there.”

He started walking toward the glow. I followed.

~~~

We found out upon arriving that the glow was caused by a huge bonfire. The area surrounding the place was decked out in floral arrangements, with the artificial decorations all some shade of green. People were dressed like they were Sevii Island natives; flowers in their hair, girls in short skirts, guys in unbuttoned loose shirts with floral patterns on them, everyone wearing open-toed sandals or flip flops. The sounds of the voices we heard were the people clamoring about, chatting excitedly about this and that. It had the feel of a family reunion to it. The music was live, instruments of all kinds played by musicians. To one side of the festival, there was a long banquet table full of food. I immediately made my way there, starving after having not eaten in a long while. Greg walked over looking less obvious that he was famished.

I piled a plate full of food, some grapes spilling over the edge and falling to the floor. A small Pokémon I didn’t recognize came up and ate the grapes before I even had the chance to pick them up. It looked like a small, quadruped Grumpig, if it was a fire type. It looked up to me to see if I would continue feeding it.

“No, this food is mine,” I told it, holding my plate closer to my face. “Go evolve into something taller and get your own.”

The Pokémon looked sad and walked away.

~~~

The festival was really enjoyable. We mingled a little bit and after I cleared my plate, I went back and filled it up again. I was slowly starting to realize that big amounts of free food were going to become a rare and most wonderful event in my life. It wasn’t until my third trip that I thought about scanning the food table for anything Beldum might eat. Well, it might eat the table itself, but I don’t think the owner would like that.

“When you’re done eating everyone out of house and home,” Greg had said to me, “we should get going. We need to find a place to sleep for the night.”

When he thought I wasn’t looking, he went back to the banquet for a second helping of free food.

~~~

We did finally manage to find a place to stay for the night at one of the motels. They offered a discount for trainers and had a room left available. Even with the discount, though, it managed to put a dent in my wallet. Also, the room only had one bed, and Greg didn’t want to sleep on the floor, so I had to share it with him. We were both uncomfortable.

~~~

The next morning, we went to the Center to pick up our Pokémon. On our way there, we passed by the festival site and saw some people already cleaning up the place.

“Good morning. I hope you found a place to rest last night,” Nurse Allison said when we arrived at the Center.

“We did, thank you,” I replied.

“That’s great. Your Pokémon are ready for you now. Let me go get them.”

She went into the backroom and soon came back with our Poké Balls.

“Here you go. Have a good rest of the day.”

We thanked her and left the counter. We stopped by the Poké Mart to restock our supplies, once again being reminded of just how little money we had. We couldn’t afford any Revives or Full Heals, so we had to stick with basic potions, Paralyze Heal, and Antidotes. We needed to start becoming more proactive in seeking trainers to fight.

“The gym leader here uses grass types, which is good for me since everyone but Poliwag has some sort of an advantage over grass types. You, on the other hand, have Nidorino and that’s about it.”

“And I can see how this will all play out: you standing there, your Pokémon laying crumpled on top of one another, thanks to a Hoppip that you just couldn’t defeat, and then there’s me, blazing through with Nidorino, toppling everything she throws at me.”

“…I hope she has an Exeggcute. That’ll stop your horny bunny cold.”

“A Sunkern. That’s what she’ll use to do you in.”

As we bickered, I put more thought into challenging the gym leader. Perhaps my Pokémon aren’t strong enough to take her on. It’s the second gym leader in Sinnoh. They’re bound to stop pulling punches eventually, and the second leader seems about the right time to do so. Greg faced a fully evolved Pokémon in his first gym match. I perhaps got lucky that mine was more of an endurance match. Now that we were within safe distance of a town, we could afford to go out and battle more trainers and wild Pokémon, at least more recklessly than we had been. There was no need to rush this, after all (except for getting the badge before Greg does, of course). As we exited the Center, we decided that it would be best to train some more before challenging the gym (and for me to catch some more Pokémon to use against Greg).
 

[fixthe_fernback]

Yo, I read the first chapter of Happenings, and I have to say, I'm really impressed with your writing abilities. I didn't spot any spelling or grammatical errors; a rare occurrence for new writers here. The story itself is pretty standard fare, but the fact that it's set in your own universe with its own rules makes it more interesting. Your subtle referencing of the source material(s) is great, as well. I'll definitely work through reading the series, and hopefully I'll be caught up soon.

Until then, keep doing what you're doing. This looks like it has a lot of potential to be something really great.

[The Teller]

Yo, I read the first chapter of Happenings, and I have to say, I'm really impressed with your writing abilities. I didn't spot any spelling or grammatical errors; a rare occurrence for new writers here. The story itself is pretty standard fare, but the fact that it's set in your own universe with its own rules makes it more interesting. Your subtle referencing of the source material(s) is great, as well. I'll definitely work through reading the series, and hopefully I'll be caught up soon.

Until then, keep doing what you're doing. This looks like it has a lot of potential to be something really great.

Thanks for the compliments! I'm not exactly a "new" writer, as I've been writing for almost ten years now. And trust me, spelling and grammar errors do get through my screening process (thankfully, I have a team of proofreaders to weed those out). Also, postings are on a one-chapter-per-month schedule, so I wouldn't worry about falling behind. I'm glad that the references are being caught. I wanted them to be visible, but not blatant and in-your-face. I chose the typical "journey fic" plot because I wanted to do something easy (yes, yes, I'm a horrible person), but hopefully the new rules make up for it. Thanks again for the good word!

[fixthe_fernback]

Back again, after finishing chapter 6, I can safely say you have something really great here. It's not overtly exciting, but it doesn't have to be. Eric and Greg have a great dynamic to their relationship that makes their adventures interesting to read. I think I read in your author profile that you had experience with slice of life stories; that really shows here. Happenings has all of the components that make up a great slice of life story.

As far as grammatical/spelling mistakes, or typos, I didn't really catch any. You seem to be solid as far as that aspect of your writing goes.

Also, If you have a PM/VM list, add me to it
I'm really excited to see how this story will play out, specifically with how/if you'll move forward with your portrayal of N (which is fantastic, so far), and how exactly Eric's Shelmet will evolve...I would assume Eric could just catch a Karrablast, but considering you like to change up the rules, it makes it impossible to even venture a guess! Until next time!

[The Teller]

No PM/VM list, sorry. I've got a Master's thesis to work on, so I don't have a lot of time to spend on here (which my post count should show). No one besides the proofreaders (who "coincidentally" have main characters devoted to them) get to read the chapters early. And I'm glad that my many years of slice-of-life writing is finally paying off. Here's a fun fact: note when "N" and "Natural" are used. N prefers his shortened name, but to Eric, who is not his friend, he hasn't earned the right to be called by a nickname, so he's referred to as Natural. I've got plenty more N-related surprises in store for you. He's almost got main character status (almost).

I'm wondering how Greg's gonna raise his team, what with the trading (Geodude) or stones required (Lombre, Igglybuff, Nidorino). Stones aren't cheap, you know. Coincidentally, I was just writing the Karrablast scene today. Haven't finished it yet, but I'll relent and say that in this universe, Shelmet and Karrablast do need to be traded in order to evolve. No one knows why, considering that it's just logical that a Karrablast can steal a Shelmet's armor at any time in the wild. Maybe the trading method has a higher survivability rate?

[The Teller]

I do believe it's time for another chapter. Will this be the one where Beldum finally evolves?! Will Eric finally confess his feelings to Greg?! Who is the mysterious Racer X that keeps getting them out of jams, only to vanish once his job is done?! Read on to find out!

FF14: Some Pikachus are allergic to Tamato berries, and thus ketchup. FF15: The most popular Pokémon of 2011 was Snivy. FF16: No one knows why all Pokémon consist of, at most, two types.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 7:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 7: Fluffy, Dark Clouds

The sun was shining high over our heads as we headed along the river just outside of town. I had Beldum out “walking” with me since Beldum had psychically let me know that it was feeling restless. However, since it kept wandering around and paying extra attention to the riverbed, I was starting to think it was just hungry and not willing to wait until lunchtime. I started to worry that we might come across some tasty steel types. Was I gonna have to pay for that?

“Beldum, if you’re hungry, you should just tell me instead of saying you’re restless,” I told it after it hovered over to the riverbed once again. “Not that it would help you or anything.”

I heard a splash. In a split second, I deduced that whatever made it was big.

“Take Down!”

I turned to where the splash came from and saw Beldum colliding with a Floatzel. The furry thing fell back into the river. Beldum eyed the spot.

“Wait for it to make its move,” I cautioned.

We waited a few moments before the Floatzel popped up behind Beldum and started shooting star-shaped rays at it. The rays hit Beldum, who squinted as the attack hit, but managed to move out of the way quickly and seemed undeterred.

“Hit it with Take Down again!”

As the Floatzel landed on a rock in the middle of the river, Beldum swooped down and hit it again. The Floatzel went flying to the bank, unconscious. Beldum flew back to me.

“Good job. But that still isn’t going to get you a treat any sooner.”

I looked around.

“Why is it that Greg is never around when I’m being awesome?”

Greg had, in fact, suggested that we separate while training so that there would be plenty of Pokémon to fight between us, and that trainers would be less likely to battle both of us, which would rob us of more experience for our Pokémon. I think he wanted to catch something and use it against me as well. I looked at Beldum.

“Well, let’s get going. Maybe there’s a poor trainer up ahead that specializes in Pokémon made of glass.”

~~~

“My Pokémon are, like, made of glass!” yelled the trainer as Beldum took down his Plusle.

I had already defeated his Minun and Illumise. I was already guessing his next Pokémon.

“Here’s my last Pokémon, Volbeat!”

Time to use someone new.

“Return, Beldum! Let’s go, Nincada!”

We both sent out our bug Pokémon.

“Use Fury Swipes!” I shouted.

He scurried over to Volbeat, quick as a whip, leapt up, and started slashing at Volbeat’s face with frightening flurry. The Volbeat cried out in pain and tried to get him off of it.

“Oh no! Use Flash!”

The bug started shining brightly, causing Nincada to jump off of it and back away.

“Now use Double Team to protect yourself!” the trainer called out.

The Volbeat wasted no time creating as many illusions of himself as possible. Fortunately, they taught us many times in school how to counteract this technique.

“Use Sand Attack! Blow it in every direction!”

Nincada dug into the dirt around him and started throwing it at all of the illusions at an alarming pace. One by one, the illusions fell and very quickly the real Volbeat was hit with the dirt.

“Now use Scratch!”

Nincada was back on Volbeat and slashed at it again. This time the bug went down.

“Aw man! You won! Volbeat, return,” the trainer said, dejectedly.

~~~

“Shroomish, use Absorb!”

Shroomish shot out a seed at Suicune (that was what I was calling the Slowpoke I was facing), and sapped the rest of the energy out of it. I thought about catching Suicune, but with the gym being grass-specific, I figured it’d be better to just focus on my now full team at the moment. Plus, Suicune is just a Slowpoke.

As I walked away from Suicune, I heard a faint whisper behind me.

“Slooooooow……pooooooooke?”

‘Don’t look back. Don’t make eye contact. If he can’t see your eyes, you’re invisible,’ I thought to myself.

~~~

“RING RING RING. RING RING RING. PHONE CALL. PHONE CALL. RING RING-“

I checked the cell phone screen. It said it was Greg. I answered.

“So did you go crying to the Pokémon Center yet?”

“You have no faith in me.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’”

“Screw you. I’ll have you know that I ‘survived’ in Route 205 for the past hour and a half. Wait, do I hear the alluring sound of a Pokémon Center healing machine humming in the background there?”

There was a moment of silence before I heard the humming sound get louder.

“Whoa!” Greg said, as if he was dodging something. “Nice try. Looks like it’s the next thing I’m going to catch. Unless you sent a Vespiquen to take me out of the picture.”

“Always a possibility,” I replied, jealous that he would be catching such a strong Pokémon.

“I’m going to have to call you later. See you later.”

He hung up.

I may have to start investing in Rare Candies to get my Pokémon to evolve quicker.

“Hey you!” came a voice.

I looked over to where it came from. Two women came running up to me. One of them was wrapped in some kind of dirty cloak, her hair frizzy and grey, barefooted, like she was a homeless, crazy woman you’d see outside the grocery store. The other looked like the polar opposite: she wore black high heel shoes, a sharp blue leotard, and that was where things stop being tame. She also had black underwear on OVER her leotard, so maybe she thought she was a superheroine? The strange lady also was wearing a triangle around her neck like a necklace. Yes, a triangle. Her hair was styled to resemble a Scraggy’s tail. This woman was clearly insane, possibly more so than the homeless woman. She talked to me again.

“I’m from the Nimbasa City Gym in the Unova region. The gym leader there, Elesa, is having us scout the world for strong trainers to come challenge her! This lady here says she’s a medium, and that she can sense the potential in other trainers.”

The homeless lady agreed and smiled warmly. Or at least how she would probably describe as “warmly.”

“So I hired her to come with me to point out strong trainers and guess what?! She nailed you right on the spot!”

This sounded dirty, even if it did mean that some homeless lady thought I was super strong.

“You cannot escape your destiny, child!” the homeless woman shouted, pointing a crooked, bony finger at me. “You wield magnificent power! And you will someday become the name everyone will chant!”

“See?! Isn’t that wonderful news?” said the triangular woman. “We simply MUST battle you to see if you hold up to that promise!”

The two ladies held up Poké Balls.

Wait, “we?” As in, both? At the same time?!

“Let’s go, Zebstrika!”

“Come, my Mr. Mime.”

This is SO unfair. I had to keep track of two Pokémon while they only had to keep track of one.

“Let’s get ‘em, Shelmet, Shroomish!”

Shelmet could take out the Mr. Mime, but I had nothing good against Zebstrika and plenty Zebstrika’s good against. A grass type should be able to hold against it for a little while, at least.

“Shelmet, use Struggle Bug against that mime! Shroomish, Leech Seed that Zebstrika!” I said, taking the initiative.

“Zebstrika, use your Flame Charge against that Shroomish!” called out the model.

“Use your hands to put up a Reflect wall, Mr. Mime,” said the homeless lady.

“Dodge that Flame Charge!”

The mime put up a wall just as Shelmet crashed into it, and Shroomish just managed to shoot some seeds onto the Zebstrika before it got hit with flaming fury.

“Shrooooo…!” it cried, tossed in the air like a baseball.

“Augh, try to use a Mega Drain!”

“Doubleslap, Mr. Mime,” I heard the old lady say.

I looked back to Shelmet to see her being dope slapped by the mime.

“You use Mega Drain, too!” I said.

Shelmet latched on to the Mr. Mime and started draining as Shroomish tried to lock on to the Zebstrika.

“Use Shock Wave!”

The Zebstrika fired off a quick jolt of electricity at Shroomish, who got the full brunt of the attack.

“Shroomish, return!” I said, recalling him before he could hit the ground. “Shelmet, use Struggle Bug again!”

At such close proximity, it took no effort for her to start flailing about at the Mr. Mime.

“Nincada, let’s go! Use Leech Life to help Shelmet out!”

I sent Nincada out and both bugs made quick work of the mime, which shortly went down from the combined attacks.

“Flame Charge, Zebstrika! On Shelmet!”

“Dodge it!”

“Striiiiika!”

Shelmet managed to escape Zebstrika’s attack and keep a safe distance away from it. But now I had to deal with an electric type that can use fire attacks by using two bugs against it. Poliwag would be fainted immediately, as would Pidgeotto, and fire is one of Beldum’s few weaknesses. This Pokémon was basically born to wreck my team. The seed Shroomish planted started to spread over Zebstrika’s body.

“Nincada, use Fury Swipes! Shelmet, use Acid!”

I didn’t worry too much about Nincada getting up close and personal with Zebstrika since it was part ground type. He quickly got up to Zebstrika and started scratching away. Meanwhile, Shelmet fired off some purple goo at Zebstrika from afar, taking care as to not hit his comrade.

“Oh no!” cried the model. “Use Thunder Wave to get that ugly thing off you!”

The black beast unleashed a load of electricity, but it wasn’t doing anything to Nincada.

“He’s not ugly, and he’s certainly not going to be harmed by that!” I yelled at her.

The seed was starting to take effect, sapping Zebstrika’s strength and giving it to Nincada. Nincada, renewed with vigor, kept on swinging.

“Shelmet, use Mega Drain!”

Shelmet quickly lined up her shot and fired a silky thread from her mouth to Zebstrika. The thread started glowing bright green as she started sucking the energy from the beast. The combined efforts of the Leech Seed, the Mega Drain, and the Fury Swipes finally brought the Zebstrika down.

“Shocking! Stunning! How electrifying!” said the model, recalling her Pokémon. “Sorry, Elesa gets a thrill out of having us make electric puns after we battle trainers.”

I recalled my own Pokémon. The prize money (at least one of them was a gym trainer, so she’d better have money for me to take) was transferred over to my account.

“You see, child? You possess great power, and you wield it masterfully,” said the homeless lady. “I believe that you will become something great, and that you will succeed in whatever you put your mind to.”

“That’s amazing! Even though your Pokémon are unevolved, I think you would be a match for Elesa!” said the model.

With all the compliments they were paying me, I was starting to believe it, though I wasn’t entirely convinced that I was The Chosen One.

“So would you be interested in coming to Unova and battling our leader?!” continued the model, clasping her smooth, dainty hands on top of mine (which were most certainly not smooth or dainty).

While the idea did sound good, I could just see myself having to explain myself to the passerbys on the street, telling them that I was offered to leave Sinnoh, a world-renown hard place to thrive and succeed in, and flee to Unova which, while not as “easy” as, say, Johto, was still decidedly less difficult than Sinnoh, and that I didn’t just give up and flee the region because I was scared or weak. They wouldn’t listen, and if they did, they wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me. Furthermore, SOMEONE has to take care of Greg. He couldn’t tie his own shoelaces without my assistance. And then there’s all the paperwork I’d have to do and I’d have to give up my badge I earned.

“I’m gonna have to give you a raincheck on that one.”

“Oh come oooooon…”

“I really have to stay here…”

“Let the child do what he wants,” piped up the homeless lady. “You can’t force destiny to go towards a different path. If the fates decide that he should stay here, just as they decided to let him win his match against us, then here he should stay.”

The model looked sad about this sudden turn of events.

“Awww…Elesa will be so sad,” she said with a frown. “But I believe in this woman here, so I’ll have to relent! If destiny says so, who am I to complain?”

She held out a business card.

“But here’s our number, just in case you change your mind, tee hee!”

Being a perfect gentleman (no matter WHAT Greg says), I took the card and thanked her. She beamed with delight and wished me well on my journey. The homeless lady shook my hand and spouted more future dialogue before taking her leave as well. The whole thing with them was a surreal experience, but at least I won money and got confirmation that I was The Chosen One. That THAT, Greg!

~~~

I continued my training until I got another call from Greg, suggesting that we meet back in Floaroma Town for lunch. I think he was just trying to bait me into seeing him so he can challenge me with that Vespiquen he saw earlier. I was sure that I could take it, though.

~~~

Greg was upset that he didn’t catch the Vespiquen. According to him, though he took it out quick and easy, it just wouldn’t stay in the Poké Balls he threw at it.

“When I get the Forest Badge, I’ll be able to buy Great Balls, and these kinds of things won’t happen anymore,” he said between mouthfuls of a sandwich.

“Oh? But I thought ALL Pokémon would GLADLY throw away their lives for the chance to travel with you,” I said dramatically.

“They do,” he countered. “Some just don’t know it yet.”

I told him about my battle with the gym model and crazy homeless lady. He seemed to think I was making it all up.

“Look at my Pokédex! Look at all that money! Did I have that much money when we left this morning? Nooooo.”

“So you beat up a rich trainer while they weren’t looking. And had a cold. And only had a single Rattata as their team. Who also had a cold.”

“And I’m guessing that the Vespiquen you fought really went down as quick as you said? If it was a Vespiquen at all!”

“You’re doubting MY word?! I wouldn’t believe you saying you’re a Pokémon trainer unless I saw the Pokédex itself!”

We grabbed our balls (…awkward) only to be reminded of the fact that all of our Pokémon were still being treated at the Center. While I probably could take him on in a fight, there were too many witnesses around to watch, and Greg would somehow win them over to his side with his charisma.

“When we get our Pokémon back, it’s on,” he said.

“You’re going down.”

~~~

Once we were finished with lunch, we headed on back to Center for our Pokémon. We thanked Nurse Allison and left the lobby, intent on completely undoing her hard work by having our Pokémon beat the stuffing out of each other. Unfortunately, this appeared to be the busy hour at Floaroma Town and the area around the Center was swarming with people and Pokémon alike, so we decided to go out a little ways to have our deathmatch. We soon found a suitable spot. It was perfect, actually. There was plenty of space to move around AND it was nearby a bunch of people, so there would be an audience watching me as I creamed Greg.

“Yoo-hoo! Hey you!” came a loud voice. “You with the jacket on!”

Everyone looked at the direction the voice was coming from. A girl, a young woman really, since she had to be around the same age Greg and I were, was running up to us. Her blond hair reached down her back. Her dress looked too expensive to be running in. She wore…a beret? Seriously? Are all the women trainers in Sinnoh crazy? There were two triangular bumps on the beret. They looked liked Meowth ears. This woman was crazier than the two I met earlier! It was then that I realized that I was wearing a jacket. How do I manage to attract these kinds of women?!

Greg and I looked at each other for an explanation as Princess Persian came closer and closer to us. Clearly, neither of us knew who this lady was.

“Hey!” she said, addressing me, when she finally came up next to us. “I saw you two last night at the festival! Wasn’t that, like, totally cool?!”

“Uh…yeah?” I replied, not knowing what else to say.

“I mean with all the lights and music and pretty colors and laughing and good times and the beautiful banquette and EEEEEEEEE! It was SO cool!” she rambled on.

Greg and I were both clearly terrified.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, as if remembering something important. “I forgot to ask! Are you two Pokémon trainers?”

“Yeah…” answered Greg, nervously.

“How cool is that?! I am too! Kinda. You two looked like SUCH fun people to hang around with last night. Oh! The Pokémon! We should have a battle!”

She looked at me with an unnerving fire in her eyes.

“Come on! Let’s have a round! I’ll warn you: I’m pretty tough!”

“How many badges do you have?”

“None! I don’t do badges. But that won’t stop me! I’m still one tough cookie!”

No badges? And here she is, bloating her ego, telling me that she’ll beat me? I already have one badge, and that was a challenge itself to get, and I’m apparently The Chosen One according to the homeless lady and the gym leader’s assistant. Plus the Floatzel would probably say that I was the one that deserved the “tough cookie” label. This girl probably has a Jigglypuff and considers it untouchable.

“Okay, fine,” I said.

I turned to Greg.

“Watch this. I’ll beat her AND have enough energy to wipe you out afterwards. We won’t even need a trip to the Center first.”

“I can’t believe you’re allowing her to fight you first before our planned battle. Oh wait, it’s because of boobs, isn’t it? You’re that desperate for some female companionship.”

“Are we speaking through jealousy now?” I quipped.

“Weak.”

“Hey you guys! C’mon!”

I turned to her and pulled out Poliwag’s Poké Ball.

“You don’t want this to end too quickly, do ya?” I said.

We both set our Pokédexes for battle.

“Let’s go, Poliwag!”

“Come on out, Skitty!”

She threw a black Poké Ball that I easily identified as a Luxury Ball. For Arceus’ sake, how rich is this girl? From the Luxury Ball appeared a pink feline that I assumed was called a Skitty. It has squinty eyes and mewled, and I figured that if there was ever a Love-type Pokémon, this was it. But it also looked like a plush toy ripe for a beating.

“Water Gun!”

“Use Fake Out, Skitty pretty!”

As Poliwag breathed in to expel water, the Skitty rushed right up to him and tackled him. What I thought must’ve felt like being hit with a feather pillow turned out to be like being headbutted by a Steelix, as Poliwag went flying across the ground and into the brush nearby. Even before he stopped tumbling, I could tell that he was out.

“Poliwag, return!”

A lucky shot? A critical hit? Fake Out is a normal type move and Skitty definitely looked like a normal type Pokémon. Normal types are weak against fighting types, and I don’t want to be down more Pokémon than I already am.

“Breloom, your turn!”

“Oooooh! Things are, like, getting serious and stuff now!” said the girl.

“You like fast? Mach Punch!”

Breloom launched itself fist-first at Poliwag’s murderer and fist connected to squinted face.

“Nya!”

“Skitty honey! Use Copycat! Hehe.”

“Nyaaaa!”

Suddenly that plush toy was punching back, decking Breloom across the cheek. How could it do that with its little stubs-for-legs?

“Now Assist!”

“Nnnnnnyaaaaaa!”

The wind started picking up around the Skitty. What did she have in her team that knew flying attacks?

“Gust!”

“Headbutt!”

Breloom charged forth and the Skitty sent wind blades at him. The sharp gusts of wind stopped Breloom in his tracks, and the remaining gusts sent him flying back to me. This was a disaster!

“Breloom, return! You got lucky with that Assist.”

Gust takes out Nincada and Shelmet, so…

“Pidgeotto, you’re up!”

“Pretty!” the girl cried.

Was she taking any of this seriously?

“Alright, let’s hope our friends pull through for us again, my beloved Skitty, and use Assist!”

“Whirlwind!”

The small little thing started glowing again and opened its mouth. Pidgeotto started flapping her wings vigorously. Anything in this girl’s party was probably a safer choice than this Skitty.

“Nnnyaaa!”

“Hurry Skitty! Use Powder Snow!”

“You have ice moves, too?!”

A sharp, cold wind blew through the Skitty’s mouth, right at Pidgeotto. The winds she was creating died instantly and she struggled to stay in the air. Pretty soon, she plummeted to the earth, hard.

“Finish it off with Tackle!”

The pink blob became the pink blur as it whizzed across the field and knocked Pidgeotto back some more.

“Pidgeotto, return!”

Normal, flying, ice, and who knows what else. What do I do?

“Stop sucking!” shouted Greg, his hands cupped around his mouth for greater sound magnitude.

“I’d like to see you do better!” I shouted back. “Nincada, you’re up!”

“Nin.”

The girl got a good look at it.

“Ewwwww! That bug isn’t nearly as pretty as my beautiful Beautifly!”

Well, that explains the Gust attack.

“Use Doubleslap, Skitty honey!”

Since the Skitty was right there, it reared back and started lashing out at Nincada with its plump tail. I figured Nincada didn’t stand a chance. This was only a vain attempt to wear down the Skitty monstrosity. So it didn’t surprise me when Nincada fainted after it was through with him.

“Return.”

Time to gamble.

“Shelmet, let’s go!”

“Are you, like, a bug trainer or something?”

“Use Bide!”

“Shelllll…”

Shelmet lowered the helmet and clenched herself.

“Uh-oh. We better finish it off in one hit then, pretty Skitty! Assist!”

The menace glowed once again and this time spat a fireball at Shelmet.

“Alright, Ember!” she cheered.

Shelmet continued to store energy.

“Let’s knock it out with Tackle!”

“Nya nya nya nyanyanya!” the Skitty said as it ran to gain momentum and slammed into Shelmet, knocking her into the air.

“Meeeeet!” she wailed, before dropping to the ground.

“Shelmet, return!”

There was only one Pokémon left.

“I hope your last Pokémon isn’t another bug,” said the girl.

“It’s not, but it’s my best! Go, Beldum!”

“Oh no! A steel type! Skitty, sweetie, we need that Ember back!”

“Beldum, use Take Down!”

“Use Assist!”

“NyaaaaAAAAAA!”

And then a powerful stream of flame shot from the Skitty’s mouth. This was NOT Ember.

“Yay! Flame Burst!”

Beldum fell to the ground. I suddenly felt as if the whole world left the heater on and I was standing right underneath it.

“We won! We won! Yay, Skitty! We did it!” the girl cheered.

No badges my ***! She was lying! There’s no way that I could’ve been defeated so thoroughly by someone without any badges!

She came over to me with her Skitty following so that we could swipe cards.

“That was a fun battle, huh?” she said.

“No badges, huh?” I replied.

“Nope! Gym battles are lame! Skitty and I do things our own way!”

“Maybe he should start thinking about doing things your way, then,” said Greg, coming up behind me.

“My way would’ve beaten your way if you were battling instead of her,” I snapped back.

We swiped cards and I felt my life saving draining away from me.

“Yay, let’s go get some ice cream, Skitty pretty!” she said, skipping off to find some frozen treats even though it was late September.

The crowd around us started to disperse.

“Did you see that Skitty? No way your team could’ve beaten it either,” I said to Greg, silently justifying my loss. “That thing was clearly strong enough to take on at least her fourth gym leader. Arceus knows what the rest of her team is like.”

“Well, she did say she wasn’t doing the gym challenge. Whatever she’s doing, she’s been doing it for awhile. Maybe she’s a Pokémon Connoisseur?”

“Then I’d like to show her the perfect match between my foot and her ***.”

“What a gracious loser you are.”

“I’m going back to the Center to sulk and heal my psychologically damaged team. We’ll have to put off my curb-stomping you for another day.”

I turned to leave.

“Oh I’m so relieved,” he replied, sarcastically.
 

Super Secret Spoiler Don't Read: Contents in Author's Notes may not appear in chapter proper.

[The Teller]

Oops. It's the first of the month and I totally forgot. Not having 30-31 days will do that to you. New chapter will be up tomorrow or Sunday. So instead, to tide you over, here's a massive list of fun facts, some new and some old.

The Pokemon League has been hiring younger and younger gym leaders in order to reach out to a younger and younger audience (to get more of them to become Pokemon trainers, which in turn means they'll buy more League merchandise).

You don't necessarily have to beat a gym leader in order to get a badge.

Arceusism is the predominate religion. The philosophy is that Arceus created the universe and everything within it, then went into a deep slumber. Different sects argue over whether Arceus intended for humans or Pokemon to be the dominant species.

In the Sinnoh region, there are also Officer Alyson's. They all look alike, but look different from Nurse Allison's. Some Sinnoh people think that this is a cruel joke.

Powerful TMs such as Fire Blast, Blizzard, and Solarbeam can only be purchased with a license to do so (typically must be over 18 years of age and proof of being a trainer, along with obtaining several legit badges). Passive TMs such as Reflect and Light Screen can be bought without such restrictions.

Trainers can call a toll-free number to schedule appointments with gym leaders, or schedule them in person, or hope that the gym leader doesn't have any appointments at the moment and can thus be battled right then and there. Walk-ins are acceptable, but rarely happen.

It is considered distasteful to have a Pokemon know only TM/HM moves, as that removes the "living creature" aspect of Pokemon.

The job of a collector is to catch as many different species of Pokemon as possible. The Pokemon are usually sent to a professor's lab and are never actually trained by the collector. The professor funds the collector. The purpose is to catalog and study as many different species as possible.

If you walk around the perimeter of Celadon City 100 times with a Kabutops in your party and then go to the top of the Celadon City Dept. Store using only the stairs and hugging the wall the entire time, you'll find...yourself very exhausted.

Most water type Pokémon's cellular structure are 98-99% water.

It is very hard for non-psychic trainers to train psychic Pokémon, as the trainer-Pokémon mental bond becomes highly sensitive and thus, as the Pokémon feels pain, so does the trainer. Psychic trainers know how to dampen this effect.

Main characters will have themes to their teams.

Most trainers have a theme song going through their head when they battle, and they change them accordingly based on whether they're fighting wild Pokémon, other trainers, gym leaders, Elite Four members, or other high-ranking League official. The theme song is usually based on the music that plays in the games featuring the trainer's homeland. Most trainers refuse to admit to this.

Some Pikachus are allergic to Tamato berries, and thus ketchup.

The most popular Pokémon of 2011 was Snivy.

No one knows why all Pokémon consist of, at most, two types.

All the main characters are from different regions, which means they'll each be the most knowledgeable about their specific region's myths and legendary Pokemon.

According to scientists and researchers, legendary Pokemon are most likely only that: legendary. No legendary Pokemon has ever reliably been sighted and recorded, thus aren't part of any Pokedex listings.

There are many different kinds of people who work with Pokemon, such as professors, trainers, collectors, rangers, breeders, coordinators, and more.

There are thousands of species of Pokemon out there, not just 649. Oddly, this still means that there is only a fraction of the number of species in the Pokemon world compared to the real world.

The Pokemon games as we know them are real in-universe, but they play the role of Real-Life Simulators there, to advertise the trainer lifestyle to younger kids (thus making them want to become trainers more so) and to prepare them for what to expect.

Sinnoh is located approximately where Greenland is geographically, hence its reputation for constantly being cold.

Team Rocket's motto, "Prepare for trouble, and make it double!" has since become a pop culture phrase after their fall from power and disbandment, and it's not uncommon to hear Kanto children shouting it on school playgrounds.

Mewtwo is widely believed to have been a hoax cooked up by Team Rocket in order to instill fear in the Kanto population ("We have such a powerful Pokémon at our disposal, you can't possibly stand up against us!").

Hoenn people know a person is a foreigner when said person says that Wallace is gay. Wallace has been in a relationship with Winona for the past several years. Arguments of her being a beard are ignored.

It's likely that Giovanni, Archie, and Maxie said their quoted words as Ghetsis is doing.

Viridian Gym Leader Blue Oak was reportedly involved in a sex tape scandal. This was later disconfirmed.

It is impossible to "hack" a move onto a Pokemon that can't learn it (ex. Seviper and Sacred Fire). A Pokemon is born able to learn any move it can (by Black 2/White 2 standards) and no more.

The 2008 hit movie "The Dark Knight" caused many kids that year to dress up as the main character, Bisharpman, for Halloween. It also caused many college students to dress up as the main antagonist, Joyful Spiritomb, for Halloween.

Scientists believe that Ditto, once transformed, releases a species-specific pheromone to attract a mate for mating, even if the mate knows that the suitor is a Ditto transformed.

[The Teller]

Here's that chapter I promised! Oh the things that might happen! Explosions! Self-Destructs! Attract?! Who knows?! FF31: Little children sleep with stuffed Teddiursa dolls. FF32: It is illegal to own a Porygon-Z, though it appears this law isn't imposed very often. FF33: Charizards cannot learn Explosion.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 8:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 8: Horny Thorny

"Tangrowth, use Mega Drain!"

The massive hive of tentacles that makes all the girls swoon (I assume) lashed out at Greg's Igglybuff, who managed to escape all but one of the limbs. Igglybuff must really hate Greg if it's still an Igglybuff, despite all his training. I wouldn't blame him.

"Try to use Sing again!"

"Tighten your grip! Don't let it get a lungful of air!"

After waiting another several days for an opening to present itself to us for a gym battle, Greg and I figured that we'd better get used to this sort of thing happening. 'That's what we get for not planning ahead,' he had said. Regardless, the extra days helped give us more time to train and for me to mentally recover from that embarrassing defeat at the hands of Princess Persian.

The Tangrowth tightened around Greg's Igglybuff, preventing him from doing any damage. Despite this setback, Greg was doing rather well against Gardenia, especially given the unique condition she gave to him. Hopefully, my battle will be more straightforward. For Greg, the rules were simple: simply survive for 20 minutes. It was almost immediately apparent, however, that Gardenia was not going to go easy on him. Sending out a Vileplume and ordering a Petal Dance AND revealing that Vileplume was holding a Persim Berry tends to create that image. Needless to say, Lombre didn't stay in the fight for very long. However, Nidorino and Staravia were able to put up a better fight.

As I was watching Greg fight, it occurred to me probably around the same time it occurred to him that the key to winning one of these "survival battles" is to simply play defensive and use more evasive actions than trying to go in for the kill. Even the Sinnoh league wouldn't have a gym leader send out these powerful Pokémon against a trainer going for his second badge. Tangrowth, Vileplume, Lilligant, Roserade...all with strategies to best utilize their strengths and protect their weaknesses. Gardenia most likely had two other Pokémon she hadn't used yet. Every time Greg switched out a Pokémon, she did too, keeping her side as fresh as his. After about 5 minutes, Greg noticeably switched from trying to attack her Pokémon to simply evading and only striking if there wasn't a danger of backlash.

Though Nidorino and Staravia had a type advantage and they held their own for awhile, they were simply no match for the raw power on Gardenia's side. Gardenia, for her part, shut down Nidorino by switching from her Lilligant to Roserade, negating Nidorino's poison advantage. It was probably for the best that Greg couldn't evolve it by that point. Greg had also made a big mistake. After realizing that Gardenia wasn't going to pull any punches, he went straight to his Pokémon that he knew had a type advantage. Once they were knocked out, he didn't have anything except those that were weak against grass moves, and the opponent still had fresh Pokémon that hadn't been worn out by battle yet. Lombre didn't make it far, Nidorino and Staravia lasted a little bit longer, by the time he used Azumarill, he was clearly stalling for time, and now he was using Igglybuff, which meant that as soon as it was knocked out, all he would have left is Geodude. Knowing Greg, he was going to bank on Geodude's Sturdy ability to stall for even more time when the time comes. In spite of all this, according to my Pokétch, he had lasted over 15 minutes. At the ten minute mark, the crowd around me noticed that Greg wasn't defeated in a humiliating fashion yet and started paying more attention to the battle, oohing and ahhing whenever Greg's Pokémon dodged an attack or took them head-on. I, myself, would have been giving Greg "encouraging remarks," but talking to a competitor as a bystander was banned from gym battles.

As the referee said before the match began, he would not indicate how much time was spent at regular intervals, only calling the end of the match if the 20 minutes were up or either side's entire party was defeated. This no doubt put a huge strain on Greg and left the audience the task of keeping track of time, counting down the seconds. More and more people were looking at their watches the closer the 20 minute mark approached.

Igglybuff fell to the floor, fainted.

"Igglybuff, return!"

No doubt it was gonna evolve after that display of top-notch battling. Greg had two minutes left before the match would end in his favor. He also only had a Pokémon with a quadruple weakness to the one thing the most powerful person in this room specialized in.

"Tangrowth, you did great! Return!"

"Let's finish this, Geodude!"

Gardenia let out a laugh.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to make fun of you! It's just, well, you were doing so well! But I'm afraid a Geodude was about the worst thing you could send out right now."

"I could've sent out a Beldum," he replied dryly.

"Crush his puny pebble into SilverPowder!" I yelled back.

She laughed.

"Oh my! It seems we have a rivalry going on here! Anyway, it's time to end this match! Goooooooooo Shiftry!"

She sent out her fifth Pokémon, whom fixed a mean look on Geodude.

"Geodude, use Rock Polish!"

The nasty pebble started sharpening his body.

"Trying to raise your speed, huh? Well it won't do you any good! The sun's still beaming from the glass roof from the Sunny Day attack I used awhile ago, and Shiftry has Chlorophyll as an ability, too! Now Shiftry, use Leaf Tornado!"

"Roll out of the way!"

The wooden Pokémon stretched out its leafy hands and shot a barrage of leaves at Geodude. Geodude, on the other hand, managed to dodge the pile of leaves a split second before they reached him.

"Good! Now use Defense Curl!"

"Time's running out, Shiftry! Use Leaf Storm!"

The walking tree stopped kidding around and started spinning rapidly in place, spraying sharp leaves everywhere. Some dug themselves into the surrounding trees. Greg held up his arms to shield himself from the attack.

"DUUUUUUUUDE!" cried out Geodude.

The Shiftry stopped spinning and everyone looked at the battlefield to survey the damage. The floor was littered with leaves. Geodude looked more like a Wormadam than a Geodude.

"That oughta do it!" Gardenia quipped, proud of her victory.

Then Geodude started to glow...

Not really. But it would've been an awesome moment to evolve right then and there. Instead, Geodude started plucking the leaves off itself by the handful. It was still capable of fighting.

"Awesome!" Greg shouted, in a sudden burst of positive energy that's rare to see. "It worked!"

"'It worked?'" Gardenia repeated, confused. "Oh no! Sturdy! Oh no! The clock!"

And as if on cue...

"The match is over!" declared the announcer. "The winner is...Greg..."

His last name was drowned out from all the noise the audience was making. It had been a very close match. I don't doubt that it caused the crowd to get rowdier than usual. Although this did put a tremendous strain on me. How was I going to top that?

Greg received his badge from Gardenia as I pondered about my own team. If I had to do a survival mode run as well, I'd have an easier time at it than Greg did. Shelmet, Pidgeotto, and Ninjask all had a type advantage, and Beldum and Breloom both resisted grass moves. Only Poliwag was at a disadvantage. The easiest way of battle would be a straight up 6-on-6 battle, especially if the focus is more on endurance like last time. Most definitely if her team consisted of a Bellsprout, Oddish, Paras, etc.

"The next battle between Gym Leader Gardenia and Challenger Eric will begin in one hour!" announced the ref.

Greg walked over to me.

"Now all you have to do is imitate me perfectly, which you should have been doing since day one, and you'll do fine."

"Only winning by a technicality, and with only a couple seconds saving your hind? Oh yeah, that's the kind of luck I need following me around."

"Well then, if you think you can do so much better, maybe I'll just head off to Eterna City while you're still battling. Obviously you won't need my help to fend off a swarm of Pinsirs."

"Hey, you were in that, too!"

Gardenia walked up to us.

"You must be the next challenger! I'm Gardenia! I hope you didn't bring as many rocks and water types with you as your friend here did."

Greg was not amused.

"Just so you know, your match won't be a survival run like Greg's was. Gotta keep things spicy, you know? Well, I'm off to get my Pokémon treated and get in a breather before our next match! See you then!"

She walked off and I turned back to Greg.

"Yeah, let's imitate the guy who brought a Geodude, Lombre, Azumarill, and a baby Pokémon to his grass type second gym battle," I said, dryly.

"Who won his battle."

"Because the clock ran out."

"I got my second badge. That's all that counts. It sounds like you'll actually have to beat her team. Better hope it's all Sunkerns."

We bickered some more, though I suspected that Greg was just trying to prevent me from focusing on strategy the entire time.

~~~

"So listen up, Eric!" Gardenia shouted.

We were in the ring now and the crowd was calming themselves down.

"Here's the spiel. I'm the grass type mistress around here and don't let Erica tell you otherwise! I've trained my Pokémon at the Snowpoint Temple and Mt. Ember, raising their resistance to attacks that they're weak against, so don't think you can just push me around with a little fire and ice! You'll have to have the raw power to take me down! This match will be a fight-'til-the-end battle, where only the trainer with an able Pokémon left wins! ARE...YOU...READY?!"

The crowd went wild, as if she was addressing them personally (which she probably was).

"Bring it!" I yelled back.

"This will be fun! Let's have our battle!"

"Go, Poliwag!"

"Let's bring the heat, Bayleef!"

We sent out our Pokémon. Gardenia looked confused as to my choice of leading off.

"What? Why would you...oh! I get it! Trying to wear me down and counter my Sunny Day strategy with a Rain Dance one, huh? Well, guess again!"

Whoa, she's good. Or else she's seen this kind of play plenty of times before.

"Okay then, use Body Slam!"

"Put up a nice Reflect for us, Bayleef!"

"Baaaaaaaay!"

A wondrous wall of light appeared before the Bayleef and Poliwag bounced right off it, leaving the plant unharmed. I could break that reflection, but not with Poliwag. But I still wanted to go through with my tiring out plan.

"Poliwag, use Hypnosis!"

The wall couldn't reflect sound nor the sight of Poliwag's stomach contorting. The Bayleef started to look drowsy.

"Oh no, Bayleef! Quick, return!"

She recalled her Bayleef.

"We gotta get that pesky Poliwag out of the way. Take them out, Servine!"

Out of the Poké Ball came a Servine...with a top hat on. I don't recall Servines evolving with top hats. Gardenia turned red.

"Oops. I forgot. I had entered this one into a Musical yesterday and never took off the hat. Oh well! Leaf Tornado!"

From behind the Reflect wall that was still up, the serpentine Pokémon let loose a bunch of leaves and a sudden gust of wind picked them up and formed them into a tornado headed towards Poliwag.

"Let's see you use that tummy of yours now!"

"Use Rain Dance to try to douse that tornado!"

"Poli!"

Poliwag concentrated and the whole room started feeling more humid. Just as the rain started, the leafy wall of doom hit Poliwag, several times in fact, and soon dissipated, leaving Poliwag unconscious on the floor.

"Sunny Day!" Gardenia shouted.

"Servine!" cried the Servine, and started to glow.

As I was recalling Poliwag, the rain stopped and the glass roof beamed sunlight more harshly into the room.

"Good job, Servine!"

The weakening strategy didn't work, but I didn't want to send out the big guns just yet, so I decided to continue using neutral Pokémon.

"Beldum, you're up!"

"Ooooh, in that case, Servine, return! Wakey-wakey, Bayleef!"

Gardenia switched out her Pokémon, too, and sent out the now-slumbering Bayleef, still behind that Reflect. She was planning on stalling me out until Bayleef awakens. I didn't have much of a choice.

"Beldum, Take Down!"

Beldum shot towards the Bayleef, colliding with the wall. Since the wall was on all but one of the sides of the Bayleef, attacking it from the sides or above was moot, and Beldum didn't know Dig. Beldum reared up and struck the wall again. Cracks were beginning to show. Finally, just as Bayleef was starting to open its eyes, Beldum struck yet again, smashing through the Reflect and clobbering the Bayleef on the side of the face.

"Bayleef, use Synthesis!"

Arceus damn it. I knew that this was going to happen. I don't know how much damage Beldum took from all those Take Downs, but this was starting to drag on. It's time to get down to business.

"Beldum, return! Go, Ninjask!"

"Oh, so you DO have something decent to fight me with!" Gardenia jeered.

"I got a lot more than 'decent' here."

"Oh really? Well then, I guess Bayleef should put up another Reflect!"

"Hit it with a Fury Cutter before it can do that, Ninjask!"

With blinding speed, Ninjask was suddenly in Bayleef's face, slashing away with wild abandon.

"Baaaaaay!"

The fragrant reptilian (that's what everyone knows Bayleefs for, okay?) somehow managed to shake off Ninjask, making him back away to avoid being head smashed, allowing the Bayleef a moment to get its head together. I figured that a moment was a moment too much.

"Get back in there with another Fury Cutter, Ninjask! Don't let it set up that Reflect!"

But it was too late. The herb Pokémon put up yet another reflection wall, causing Ninjask to stop in its tracks just before it.

"We can play the waiting game, too. Use Swords Dance!"

Ninjask suddenly went spastic, flying around all over the place in an intricate dance that I guess increases its strength or fighting spirit or something.

"Uh oh," said Gardenia.

"Keep using Swords Dance as long as that wall is up!"

"We can't let it get that far! Bayleef, use Magical Leaf!"

Some bay leaves from Bayleef's neck turned brightly colored and shot out at Ninjask. Or at least where Ninjask used to be a second ago. Magical leaf is one of the few known attacks to virtually never fail to miss its target, but here was a case of the unstoppable attack simply not being able to keep up with the steadily increasingly fast Pokémon. Still, though, Ninjask WOULD tire out eventually.

"Ninjask, steady yourself over Bayleef!"

He did as he was told and when the leaves were upon him...

"Out of the way!" I yelled.

Ninjask zipped away and the leaves were too slow to change trajectory, hitting Bayleef.

"Wow!" cried Gardenia. "You managed to make an attack that never misses, miss! Not only that, but you got it to hit Bayleef as well! Good job! But the battle's not over yet!"

"Thanks!" I said back, thinking about my next move. "Ninjask, use Fury Cutter from behind!"

Before Gardenia could bark out orders, Ninjask appeared behind Bayleef and started merrily slashing away again. The Reflect shield went down.

"Go in from different directions! Keep using Fury Cutter!"

"Oh no! Bayleef! Use Synthesis!"

The reptilian Pokémon tried to concentrate long enough to get its photosynthesis on, but Ninjask's constant stream of attacks was preventing it from doing so. Soon enough, Bayleef was down.

"Baaaaaa..." it whined feebly.

"You did well, Bayleef. Return."

I decided to try my hand at some mental manipulation.

"After so many successful Fury Cutter attacks, Ninjask is pretty much unbeatable, especially against any grass types. You sure you want to keep going?"

Gardenia looked at me incredulously for a moment before she started laughing.

"Hahaha! Oh my Arceus, are you serious?! Haha! A). The league would chew me out for doing such a thing; and B). You think I haven't ever gone up against a Bug/Flying type before?! Heehee. While I should use Cradily to take out that pesky bug, to be honest, I forgot to bring her with me."

Off to the side, I could see the referee sigh, indicating that this was a common occurrence.

"Instead," she continued, pulling out another Poké Ball. "I think I'll use..."

She threw the ball. Out popped a small tree.

"Snover!" it cried.

Its main body seemed to be divided into three sections. The upper two were white. The "cap" on its head looked like the Icicle Badge, so maybe it's an ice type as well?

"Are ya ready?!" Gardenia shouted.

It was then that I felt something hit me on the cheek. What was that? A stray attack? You can't hit another trainer with an attack in battle (or out of battle, really). Why was it getting colder in here?

"Turn on the sprinkler system!" Gardenia commanded.

At the top of the room, the sprinklers went off. But the water coming from them quickly turned to ice, making it seem like it was hailing indoors. It was coming down hard. I quickly put my jacket, which I had removed and placed on the floor next to me, back on to shield me from the blows. Ninjask started slowing down and faltering, unable to continue flying.

"Snover, use Ice Shard!"

In the blink of an eye, the tree stretched out its branches, formed icicles at the ends, and flung them at Ninjask.

"Ninjask, use..."

But by that time, the shards had already hit Ninjask. The hail pelting him didn't help matters. He was soon grounded.

"Finish it off with Icy Wind!"

The Snover started spinning rapidly, sending gusts of chilled wind flying at Ninjask.

"NIN...jasss..."

"Ninjask, return!"

She thinks she has me beat. I'll show her how wrong she is.

"Breloom, you're up! Smash it with a Mach Punch!"

Breloom came out of his ball and immediately launched fists first at the Snover.

"Hey, come on!" yelled Gardenia. "I was just about to beat you! Snover, Ice Shard!"

The cold tree stretched out its branches again, but before it could form the icicles, Breloom's fist smashed into its face, voiding the attack and causing a considerable amount of pain, hopefully. The Snover was knocked off its feet.

"Sno!"

"Get up, Snover!"

"Knock it out with another Mach Punch!"

"Oh no! Use Powder Snow and freeze it!"

Of course Breloom managed to hit the Snover again before it could get up and attack. This time it stayed down. With Breloom, Ninjask, and Pidgeotto on my team, I had really fast Pokémon that could take care of any grass-related threats Gardenia sent my way.

"Snover, return! Let's go, Servine!"

The snowy tree was replaced with the reptile with a top hat. Both it and Breloom were being pelted by the makeshift hail.

"Cut the sprinklers!" Gardenia shouted. "And Servine, use Vine Whip!"

"Catch it!"

Someone shut off the sprinklers. With the Snover out of the way, the hail was beginning to turn into rain anyways. If Gardenia wanted sun, I bet any of her Pokémon knew Sunny Day and would have no problem turning up the heat a little. The serpentine opponent shot a vine from its body at Breloom. Fortunately, I was right to trust in his quickness, and he caught the vine with an outreached hand.

"Uh oh."

"Reel it in and use Mach Punch!"

Breloom yanked hard, but not so hard as to snap the vine, and the poor fancy-hat Servine was swept off its feet, thrown straight towards Breloom's lovingly prepared, blood-red fist.

"BreeeeLOOM!"

"Ser!"

The hat stayed still. It was the rest of the body that was sent back to Gardenia. Breloom reached over and picked up the hat, staring at it curiously before putting it on his head and looking at me for approval. He...was...adorable. But I couldn't say that out loud, not in front of Greg. Luckily, there were some new fangirls in the rafters, going wild over Breloom's new look.

"Don't get used to that hat just yet, Breloom," I said. "That Servine ain't out yet."

"You betcha it ain't out. You better give that hat back to its rightful owner, or Servine'll REALLY show you its true power," Gardenia replied.

At the far side of the room, the Servine got back up on its feet.

"Now use Leaf Tornado!"

The Servine started whipping up leaves again into a hurricane fashion. An idea came to mind, but I didn't know if it would work. There was nothing else I could do, so I went for it.

"Breloom, use Headbutt! Charge right through that thing!"

Breloom started running right at the leafy tornado and when he was just a foot shy from it, he used his powerful legs to launch himself headfirst through the advancing wall of doom.

'Pleeeease, don't miss!' I thought.

"Vi!" I heard coming from the other side of the attack.

The grass hurricane came down again and on the other side of it stood Breloom, tall and proud, with the top hat and the Servine crumpled on the floor.

"Hey, those top hats don't come cheaply, you know!" Gardenia shouted.

She recalled her Pokémon. While Breloom was doing a fantastic job, I felt that I wanted to secure a win, and that would mean using a Pokémon with an actual advantage, so I recalled Breloom as well.

"So guess what?" Gardenia said. "You're doing much better than I expected! Not that I mean that I thought you were weak or anything. Um...you know what I mean! Anyway, the important thing is, I only have one Pokémon left to fight you with!"

Only one? Sweet! Beldum and Breloom were a bit worn out, but both were still capable of fighting if needed, and I still had Shelmet and Pidgeotto fresh and ready to go with their type advantages. This badge was as good as mine.

"Prepare yourself! Go, Grovyle!"

She sent out yet another reptile, this one draped in sharp-looking leaves. This woman was like a walking advertisement for professors who give out starter Pokémon.

"Take 'em, Pidgeotto!"

Pidgeotto was sent out and immediately took to the air.

"Use Quick Attack, Grovyle!"

The Grovyle was there one second, and gone in the next. The second after, it was next to Pidgeotto in the air, and punched her in the stomach. It then landed on the ground.

"Fly up higher! Use Gust!"

She gained more altitude, almost hitting the ceiling, and started flapping her wings even harder, creating sharp winds, and sent them in Grovyle's direction.

"Grovyle, use Screech!"

The Grovyle turned to Pidgeotto and opened its mouth to shout, but by then the Gust attack was already hitting it.

"Don't let up, Pidgeotto!"

"Quick Attack! Get out of there!"

"Gro! Vyle! Gro! Vyle! Gro!" yelped the reptilian, taking blow after blow.

"Finish it off with Twister!"

Pidgeotto started flapping her wings even harder than before and in a barely noticeable different pattern, causing the gusts of wind to stop and start forming a tornado in front of her.

"Grovyle, use Absorb! Get some of your health back! We can't lose to somebody like him!"

Somebody like me?! Time for this low-life city slicker to teach Miss Empress of Mother Nature a thing or two about winning!

"Fire away!" I told Pidgeotto.

The now violent-looking tornado sped straight at Grovyle, who was too weak from the Gust attacks to dodge it, and was quickly enveloped by it.

"VYYYYYYYYYLE!" we all heard coming from the eye of the storm.

The twister left almost as quickly as it had formed, leaving a mangled Grovyle lying on the ground.

"The match is over!" declared the announcer. "The winner is...Eric from..."

My current residence that I had completely forgot about legally changing once I set on my journey was drowned out by the cheering from the crowd. I looked over to where Greg was and saw him fighting back a smile before giving up and granting me ONE positive emotion directed towards me, along with clapping for my victory. We recalled our Pokémon and Gardenia walked up to me.

"It was the 'somebody like him' comment, wasn't it. That drove you towards your win? Haha! Maybe someday I'll learn to keep my big, fat mouth shut! Anyway, you won fair and square. Scratch that, you wiped the floor with me! Color me impressed! Here."

She reached out and handed me the Forest Badge.

"You earned it. Good job!"

To stretch out my 15 minutes of fame even more, I showed off the badge to everyone in the stands, which just caused them to start cheering loudly all over again. Greg rolled his eyes, probably thinking how childish I was acting. Hey, I won my badge by ACTUALLY WINNING, *******! Thinks he's so much better than me...

~~~

"Well since you 'won your battle correctly and therefore is the true victor,' you should pay for dinner," Greg continued.

"And since you won more money by virtue of winning a survival contest, you should pay for dinner," I countered.

It figures that he would bring this up once we were actually done eating and waiting for the check. It was the waiter's fault. He didn't ask if it was going to be one check or two. The actual meal wasn't TOO expensive, but it was definitely more so than we normally spend. Thankfully, the Center was taking care of our Pokémon's food needs.

When the waiter came back, we said the check was to be split between the two of us. This was naturally going to happen. Neither of us had any plan on paying for the other, and the whole argument was just more rivalry ribbing (and I think a couple of girls seated near us were having gay fantasies about the two of us, but hey, if it makes it easier to get their number...). We were heading back to the Center, where we planned on vegging out for the rest of the day, when we heard shouting.

"Hey! Guy with the jacket on! And other guy! Is that you?!"

We turned around to see Princess Persian running up to us. I froze. She's come back to finish the job when I'm most defenseless!

"Oh good," Greg said, completely deadpan.

She was decked out in some fancy dress with all sorts of accessories seemingly glued onto it and her hair was in two braids running down her back. There's no way the look was currently "in." When she caught up to us...

"It IS you two! I thought I'd never see you two again! I was in such a rush to celebrate with my precious Skitty that I completely forgot to introduce myself and stuff! Like, duh!"

She...bounced? And then she stuck out her left hand for a handshake.

"My name's Emma! Emma Lain! Pleased to meet you!"

Not knowing how to avoid this, I shook her hand nervously.

"I'm Eric, and this is Greg."

Without letting go of my hand, she extended her other hand across her left arm so that she could shake both our hands at the same time. I didn't know how she wasn't recognizing the uncomfortable expression on our faces.

"Pleased to meet both of you!"

"So you live here, I guess?" Greg said, attempting to not sound rude.

"What? Oh, no! I live much higher up. I'm here for the Floaroma Town Super Contest! In fact, I just came out of it! I didn't win though..."

"Tough break," I said, secretly happy to know that she isn't unbeatable. The judges probably got scared of her.

"Aw, it's okay!" she beamed. "There are still plenty of contest halls in Sinnoh! I'll eventually win my five ribbons!"

"How many do you have so far?" asked Greg.

"In this region? Only one. I'm still a beginner here. But look!"

She dug out a rather plain but intricately tied white ribbon.

"I got my Jubilife ribbon! They said I shouldn't wear it on my hat."

"In this region, huh?" Greg said, looking to me. "No wonder she creamed you so bad."

"I TOLD you she wasn't some newbie."

"How many people competed? Especially in Jubilife, there had to be lots," Greg asked.

"Um...I think it was your standard 64 persons single elimination style competition, so...64?" she ventured.

"Sounds about right."

"Greg?" I said. "We were kinda on our way to get our Pokémon, remember? We don't want Nurse Allison thinking that we abandoned them or something."

"She'd only think that of you," he replied. "But it is true. I know I don't like being without my team for very long."

"Let's walk there together then!" Emma suggested. "I need to drop off my Pokémon there as well and change out of this dress! It's very hard to walk in! And you'd be surprised just how tired Pokémon get after competing in a contest!"

She then started walking off towards the Center. Greg and I looked at each other, exasperated at our failure to get rid of her, and quickly caught up to her.
 

    Spoiler:- Author's Commentary:

Show Spoiler

 
Snover's ability just causes the immediate air around it to drop in temperature, allowing for water to freeze and become hail. It doesn't actually provide the water itself.

I want fanart of Breloom in a top hat...now.

Gardenia's personality is that she's accidentally insensitive. She says mean or insulting things, but immeidately recognizes that it sounds mean/insulting and apologizes, but this doesn't stop her from saying mean/insulting things later on.

I wanted to show different styles of gym battles, so that they all aren't "6-on-6, you can beat this with 1 Pokemon as long as you level grind a Pokemon with a type advantage" types. I also wanted to show that not every battle HAS to be epic and evenly matched and "it all comes down to one attack, with one Pokemon on each team remaining!" Shelmet never comes into play because Eric from [town omitted] was just that good in this battle.

Also, it's completely unintentional, but I like how Eric had a disadvantage with Bugsy but Greg had an advantage, but this time around, it's Eric who has the advantage and Greg who is at a disadvantage.

Should I do more of these post-chapter commentaries? I could describe all sorts of literary tricks I used and it could give you an idea for your own stories.
 

[The Teller]

Mid-month filler time! Fillers, as I've said before, can take place at any time in the timeline of the story, including before and after the story proper. This one takes place, um, sometime into the story? It's canon, and that's all you need to know. FF34: Geodude kill more people per year than Sharpedo.

    Spoiler:- Filler 2:

Show Spoiler

 

“Alright! Emma Lain is going to show you two how it’s done!”

“Don’t let her swagger confuse you. It’s ME you should be worried about!”

“Cecilia!”

“Gallade!”

We sent out our Pokémon, both of whom took the moment to glance at each other. Gallade formed a small smile and nodded to Cecilia, who daintily covered her own smiling mouth and blushed slightly.

“Psychics, eh? Well, let’s go get ‘em, Crawdaunt!”

“Krookodile, you too!”

Nice try, guys, but we aren’t that stupid.

“Time for Plan B!” I said.

“Yep!” Emma replied, knowing what to do.

“Gallade, use Leaf Blade on Krookodile!”

“Cecilia, use Magical Leaf!”

“Crap, Krookodile, Dig!”

“Crawdaunt, use Night Slash on the Gardevoir!”

“Block and slice!” I told Gallade, anticipating this.

Gallade leaped in front of Cecilia and shielded himself with his armblades as the Crawdaunt slashed downwards with a pincer. Then he proceeded to uppercut the red menace with a Leaf Blade. We had trained many times to do this exact thing.

“Daaaunt!” it cried, flying straight into the air.

Meanwhile, Cecilia’s magical leaves went straight into the tunnel that the Krookodile was making. They would end up hitting it before it rose out of the ground. The leaves were good for homing in on things, but they weren’t too powerful, so Gallade would have to finish the job once it emerges.

“This is going very badly!” stated one of the opponents.

No duh. What was your first clue?

“Cecilia, just in case of an emergency, make a Wish!”

Cecilia folded her hand-like appendages into a prayer motion and closed her eyes. The Crawdaunt was getting back on its feet.

“Finish it off with another Leaf Blade!”

Gallade rushed over to the Crawdaunt and put it down for good with a deck across the face. Its trainer called it back.

We heard a yelp come from below. The leaves must’ve hit the Krookodile. It still managed to pop up next to Cecilia, knocking into her. She started glowing white (well, whiter than she normally is). The Wish attack took effect and healed her.

“Quick! Use Leaf Blade before it goes underground again!”

“Cecilia, use Captivate!”

Cecilia really started to camp it up as Emma and I both hoped that this Krookodile would be affected by it. It managed to stun the Pokémon long enough for Gallade to swipe at it, however. The Krookodile went down after that.

“We win,” I said, coolly.

“You did awesome, Cecilia! Way to go! You’re the best!”

For their part, Gallade and Cecilia ignored us and glanced at each other. I think they were making sure the other was okay. I was still trying to decipher just what their relationship was with each other. Was it becoming romantic? Or, given Gallades’ nature, was it more of a “knight and maiden” type relationship? Knowing Emma, she was fully convinced that it was true love.

We called the two back and got our money.

 

[Dormant]

LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVEEEEEE IIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! YOUR STORY IS AWESOME!!!!

This. Is. Epic. This is not just some regular old Sinnoh fic! It's a Sinnoh fic with Team Plasma, Hoenn and Unova Pokemons, As well as Mismatched Regional Gym Leaders. I love Eric. I want to see his Beldum evolve later. I also like Greg, he is a typical sarcastic rival that the main character loves to hate. But I'm a bit lost on their Pokemon. What Pokemons do they have? And what happened to Team Galactic? You can't liberate Pokemon with Time and Space(And Dimensions). Or can you?? You are amazing man.

Rate OVER 9000!/10

[The Teller]

In Veilstone City, there is a Galactic building that seems to have been long abandoned, suggesting that maybe the D/P/Pt plot has already happened. However, we also know that not all Plasma members seem to get their information accurately (Munna summoning Mesprit, anyone?).

As far as what the main characters' teams consist of, the filler takes place in the future, suggesting that sometime in the future, Eric will catch a Ralts/Kirlia/Gallade. As of chapter 8, Eric has Beldum, Breloom, Pidgeotto, Poliwag, Shelmet, and Ninjask. Greg has Geodude, Lombre, Nidorino, Igglybuff, Staravia, and Azumarill. Once the characters start to catch more Pokemon, I'll start randomly switching their team members around (assuming that they have access to a PC) to showcase everybody.

[Blaziken10285]

Here from the review game! I took your suggestion and will review Chapter 5.

Dialogue: It was great! It really gave a lot of insight into all of the characters. Without having read any other things, I feel like I knew both of the main two characters really well. It flowed and was funny to read about these two guys interacting, because they seemed like it could have been me and one of my friends.

Characters: The characters, like I have already said, seem realistic.

Other (Battles): The battle was one of the few things that I though could be improved on. I've fallen into this to, and trying to rectify it myself. They seem extremely turn based, like the games. Writing battles should be a little more like the anime. Instead of just saying stuff like "Trainer X told his Pokemon to use a move. Pokemon used move. Trainer Y told his Pokemon to use another move. It attacked", try to have more details and strategies. Make the Pokemon less like fighting robots going through motions and more like the other characters, as live, breathing beings with individual personalities.

Enjoyment: Even though that that last one was fairly critical, I really enjoyed it. The characters were goofy and seemed well thought out. The setting was nice, and it was cool seeing a post-DPPt Sinnoh with Plasma. I was laughing a good bit of the time too. I'll probably go ahead and read more, but wanted to get this review done before I forgot.

[The Teller]

No joke, a new chapter today! But now for some serious discussion. Next month, I'll have run out of chapters to give you. You'll have caught up by then. And it isn't looking like I'll have time to make a bunch of new chapters by June, so that poses a problem. I DO have a couple filler chapters ready to go, though. So here's the choice: we can continue with main chapters at the start of the month and fillers in the middle of the month and be out of content by June, or I can treat the fillers as chapters onto themselves and give them their own month. The second option gives you a more steady stream of content without hiatuses, the first option gives you more content in less time, but will run dry a lot sooner. The choice is yours. FF35: According to conspiracy theorists, according to ancient texts, if a man were to catch every kind of Pokémon in the world, the end of the world will happen. These people protest the capture of Pokémon. FF36: Pokémon have the amazing ability to know what other Pokémon of different species are saying. Exceptions include Jynx (but oddly, not Smoochum), Porygon, Porygon2, and Porygon-Z. People assume Pokémon would understand a legendary Pokémon's speech, if legendaries were real. FF37: There is a holiday, the true meaning behind it long forgotten, where you must go out and find a pink Pokémon and put a formal hat on its head (without capturing the Pokémon with a Poké Ball or other manmade device). Nowadays, only people in Hoenn and the Orange Archipelago observe this holiday.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 9:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 9: Skitty the Horrible

"TOOOOOOOOOOOT!"

The melodious chirping of Kricketots sounded off as the trainer walked up to us.

"How about we give our Pokémon a little wake-up call with a battle?"

"Hehe, okay!" said Emma. "My darlings need to stay in tiptop shape."

Greg and I didn't really say anything. We'd learn by then that Emma wasn't one to be convinced otherwise of something. If she was determined to walk off a cliff, she was gonna walk off a cliff, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

"Let's go, Deerling!"

The trainer sent out a small Pokémon that looked like a baby Stantler. The top half of it was a brownish, orangeish color.

"You can do it, Sunny!"

Emma sent out her Vulpix.

"Vul!"

"Deerling, use Double Kick!"

"Use Fire Spin, Sunny!"

The Deerling pranced around from side to side, preemptively trying to avoid Emma's Vulpix's attack. Her Pokémon, however, kept keen track of the fawn and started spinning its head around and around, spewing a stream of fire all the while. The spirals of flames surrounded the poor fawn and started inflicting it with burns, preventing it from making its attack.

"Oh no! Deerling! Try a Jump Kick!"

"DeerLING!" yelled the Pokémon, leaping out of the fire tornado.

"Quick, Quick Attack, Sunny!"

The fiery vulpine skittered off its feet and was headbutting Deerling before it could rearrange its legs for an attack. Her Sunny knocked the Deerling back into the fiery, four foot tall, pit of hell.

"Rrrrrgh...Deerling, use Camouflage!"

Though no one could see if it was too close to the flames, they could still hear the Deerling's cries of pain.

"Alright, Sunny bunny," said Emma. "Let's make them go night-night with a Flame Burst!"

"Vulpix!"

The Vulpix drew in a deep breath and then unleashed a stream of flames focusing on the column of fire, but also the area around it as well.

"Deerling!" we heard the opponent cry.

The fire settled down and the Pokémon staggered out into the open and collapsed onto the ground.

"Oh no! Deerling, return!"

The trainer recalled his Pokémon before sending out another one.

"You can take 'em! Go, Simipour!"

Out came a rather feminine looking primate. It looked rather laid back about everything.

"Sunny, return! Let's go, Silky!"

Emma swapped out her Vulpix for her Beautifly. Nobody here had an explicit type advantage, but I felt that Emma was still in control of this fight.

"Silky, use Stun Spore!"

"Simipour, use Acrobatics!"

Emma's Beautifly started flapping its wings vigorously, releasing a golden yellow powder from them. The Simipour, however, leapt from tree branch to tree branch like it was some kind of Mankey and quickly positioned itself right over the low-flying Beautifly, and then delivered a flying kick to its backside.

"Oh no! Silky baby!" said Emma.

The Simipour landed on the ground, then dropped to one knee and used a hand to brace itself. It seemed like it still got affected by the Stun Spore.

"Simipour! Now's your chance! Finish it off with Scald!"

Try as it might, Simipour couldn't stand upright.

"Silky, use this opportunity to use Morning Sun!"

The Beautifly flew up closer to the treetops and bathed in the morning sunlight. It started to faintly glow, and its visible injuries healed themselves.

"Now swoop down and use Mega Drain!"

Her Beautifly came down and unfurled its long proboscis, jamming it into the immobile Simipour's skin, and started draining the energy from it.

"Simipour, use Fury Swipes! Get that thing off you!"

"Simi..."

The water Mankey swiped at Beautifly, managing to knock it off but not really inflict any damage to it, and only swiped once, so maybe it could only use Scratch instead?

"Silky, use Tackle!"

Emma's bug flew back a little ways to have enough space to fly quick enough to tackle the helpless simian, and then flew straight at it, knocking it into a nearby tree.

"Simipour, return! Okay, one left. Go Skiploom!"

"Skiploom!" it cried, floating in the air by twirling the flower on its head.

"Alrighty then! Silky, return! Come on out, Lily!"

"Smooch!"

She had showed off her Smoochum yesterday, saying she had caught it near where she lives. Emma said that it was also the youngest of her Pokémon, though how she can be sure, I don't know. Maybe it was simply due to the fact that it was classified as a Baby Pokémon.

"Lily, use Powder Snow!"

"Skiploom, Sleep Powder!"

Both Pokémon began blowing a light blue powder at each other, with Lily's being thicker than the Skiploom's and obviously much colder. Perhaps it was this extra density that allowed her attack to cut through the opponent's dust and hit the target quicker. The cold gust brought Skiploom down to ground level and also stopped it from releasing more sleeping agents.

"Now, Lily, while it's on the ground, use Heart Stamp!"

"Smoochum!"

The baby Pokémon ran up to the shivering Skiploom and planted a kiss on its cheek. Then she punched it in the face.

"Oh no! Skiploom!" said the trainer.

"Way to go, Lily! That's showing them!" cheered Emma. "Now finish it off with Pound!"

"Smooch!"

Her Smoochum drew her fist back and slammed it against the Skiploom's face, knocking it out.

"Skiploom!" cried the trainer. "Return. Good job. Looks like you won."

"Yay! I knew we could do it! Great job, Lily!" said Emma, jumping up and down in excitement.

How embarrassing. Both for us and for the unlucky trainer. Emma and the guy swiped cards, exchanging money. According to her, coordinators also get a Pokédex so they can learn about Pokémon in the wild that they may want to recruit for their team, and there's certainly nothing stopping them from challenging trainers to a good old-fashioned battle (the less stellar coordinators need to make money somehow, right?). The trainer thanked us for the battle and went on his way.

~~~

Our next destination was Eterna City, home of rustic buildings and majestic statues and homeless people. But more importantly, it also housed a gym. But in order to get to Eterna City, we first had to make our way through the Eterna Forest. Not only that, but we also had to resist the temptation to head on over to the Valley Windworks powerplant and catch some rare electric Pokémon AND visit the Fuego Ironworks factory to catch some rare fire Pokémon. Obviously, a place is only worth visiting if they contain rare Pokémon for us to capture (especially if it costs money to enter). Since Greg and I were a little (re: a lot) short on cash at the time and we didn't feel comfortable asking Emma for money, we decided to skip both attractions and maybe come back later when we have the money.

We assume that Emma has money. She's spoke of sponsors already and today she wore a completely new outfit. She deemed it her "trekking in the woods" outfit, which was still wildly not appropriate for what constitutes as an extended camping trip. Her shoes were delicate, her socks had fake jewels sewn into them, her denim overalls looked appropriate but probably cost way more than they should be, her wool shirt was plaid and looked like it was in digital storage since it was made, she wore a string bowtie that drooped from its own weight, and her newsboy cap could probably be blown off her head with a strong enough breeze. How she managed to fit all her hair underneath there is a mystery. She was also very obviously wearing makeup to impress...no one? The trees? Greg and I certainly didn't care.

The plan of action was to stay on the beaten path until we get to the end of the forest. THEN we can explore a bit and see what Pokémon we can find. The atlas didn't come with a map of the area and no one thought to bring one of their own, so we were on our own there. Better to be near the Eterna City entrance and lost than to be near the Floaroma Town entrance and lost or in the middle of the forest with no sense of north and south and lost. We also planned on accepting any challenges given to us since we needed the money badly. We stocked up on potions before we left this morning to prepare for the upcoming onslaught.

~~~

"...and I just kept hiccupping nonstop in front of everybody and the cameras were still rolling! It was totally embarrassing!" Emma said, describing one of her first televised contest matches.

"Did you try holding your breath?" Greg asked.

"I did! But then I just hiccupped again and because I was holding my breath, I ended up farting as well."

Greg and I laughed.

"It's not funny, you guys!" she implored. "I was on TV!"

"That's what makes it even funnier!" I replied.

"Augh, I just wanted to die right then and there! One of the other contestants had a Gliscor and I just wanted it to come over and use a Guillotine attack on me."

"So I take it you won by a landslide then?" Greg continued through muffled laughter.

"NO, I DID NOT WIN. Maybe the 'Worst in Show' award, but not the match."

It was right then that we heard a crackling sound. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one side of one of the trees faintly glow due to an unknown light source. Combine those two things and you get a Pokémon using an electric attack, which probably means an electric Pokémon! I made my way towards the tree as the others were looking around for the source of the noise. Unfortunately, just as I got a few feet away from them, Greg noticed me.

"Hey! You know where this thing is, don't you!"

I made a sprint for the tree. They weren't going to steal MY electric type from me! It was mine! All mine!

"Oh, I hope it's a Pachirisu!" I heard Emma say as they ran to catch up with me.

I rounded the tree and saw an Elekid trying to break open a Watmel berry. Near it was a Watmel tree, and at the base of the tree there was a still-smoking branch. The Elekid probably used an electric attack to get the fruit down from the tree.

Like hell I was gonna let Greg (or Emma) catch this thing for themselves!

"Go, Shelmet!" I said.

"Shel..."

The Elekid looked at us.

"Mega Drain!"

"Shel!"

She launched herself at the Elekid, attached herself, and started draining its energy. I heard footsteps behind me.

"Arceusdammit!" Greg said, seeing as I was already engaged in battle.

It's considered bad form to attempt to capture a Pokémon someone else worked on catching. And since I initiated battle, I essentially called dibs on this Elekid. Greg could only hope now that all of my Poké Balls won't work.

"Awww..." Emma said, sounding disappointed.

The Elekid started zipping around the area, quickly detaching Shelmet from itself. Then it zipped across her, hitting her.

"Looks like a Quick Attack," said Emma.

"Shelmet, use Yawn!"

Making sure the Elekid saw her, she made a big and noisy yawn. The Elekid stared at her in confusion. Then it threw star-shaped rays at her.

"Dodge them, and use Acid!"

Shelmet swiftly dodged the stars and spat her purple acid spray at Elekid with enough force to knock it into a nearby tree. The stars, however, then decided to make a u-turn and hit Shelmet from behind. The Elekid looked up from where it sat and suddenly became drowsy; its eyelids looked to be too heavy for it. Then it slumbered.

"Great job, Shelmet. I'll take it from here."

I threw a Poké Ball at it. The Elekid got sucked in, the ball closed, and it started wiggling.

"C'mon...break loose..." stressed Greg.

"Quiet back there," I replied.

The ball shook a few times and then stopped.

"Yeah! In your face, Bidoofus!"

"Oh yeah, you have the maturity of a champion," Greg replied, dryly.

And then the Poké Ball containing Elekid disappeared.

"Much good it'll do ya," Greg continued. "You can't even use that thing until you get to a terminal."

"Hey, you're in the same boat."

"Nooo, some of us sprang for the phone option of swapping Pokémon around because we're not cheap bastards."

"Not everybody grows up with $100 bills stuffed into their pillows!"

"You guys!" Emma interrupted. "We should be celebrating Eric's new capture, not fighting."

We both looked at her.

"I don't think you're going to fit in well here," I said, plainly.

"Fighting is the only way Eric feels he can validate his existence," Greg supplied.

"Screw you,"

"Oh no! Did I invalidate your existence when I beat you yesterday?!" asked Emma, with a horrified expression on her face.

Greg laughed. I didn't think it was that funny.

"When I become champion, I'm exiling all of you to Orre."

Greg continued to laugh and Emma just looked plain confused.

~~~

We came upon a rather large boulder. Where it came from, none of us knew, as there weren't any other large rock formations anywhere near. Naturally, the first thing I thought was 'Time for Beldum's lunch!'

"Beldum, time to eat!" I said, sending it out.

Beldum saw the boulder and I could feel the joy coming from it. It hovered over to the boulder and started eating.

"Looks like we're stopping for a break," said Emma. "So come on out, Skitty!"

She threw her Luxury Ball and out came Skitty.

"Nya!"

Beldum looked to the Skitty as it was eating, and suddenly I felt cold. Beldum flew to behind the boulder and it didn't look like it intended to leave the spot.

"Beldum, what's wrong?"

"Nya?"

The Skitty walked over to the boulder and I started feeling a little nauseous.

"Emma, I think Beldum's a little scared of your Skitty," I said, starting to look for my own boulder to lean on.

"Huh? How do you know? Who could be scared of my precious Skitty honey?"

"Someone who was beaten to a pulp by it, I reckon," Greg answered. "Since Beldum's a psychic type, I think Eric and it have formed some sort of psychic bond, and right now Beldum's letting Eric know that it's afraid it's going to get another beating."

"It's okay, Beldum. This isn't a battle. That thing isn't gonna hurt you. It's part of the team...for now," I said, trying to comfort it.

"Skitty isn't a 'thing'!" Emma said, angrily.

"Use Selfdestruct!" Greg called out.

"You shut the hell up! Beldum, you don't have to be afraid of Skitty. It just wants to make friends with you. That's all."

Beldum peaked its head (eyeball, whatever) out from behind the boulder and examined the Skitty.

"Nya."

Emma's Skitty crept ever closer to the boulder and Beldum maintained direct eye contact with her. When her Skitty finally made it to the boulder and Beldum saw that she wasn't going to attack, I felt some of the nausea go away. Her Skitty reached out her tail. It looked like she was trying to initiate a Poké Handshake (capitalization optional). Beldum continued to look at her.

"Uh, Emma? Maybe you should tell your Skitty that Beldums don't have hands...or any appendages whatsoever. That 'palm' between its claws is its mouth," I suggested.

"Oh! Skitty, honey, Beldum can't do a handshake. You're putting him in a really embarrassing spot right now."

"Beldums don't have sexes," Greg said. "Does it give you any indication when it 'speaks' to you?"

"It really doesn't communicate in words or tone, so I don't know."

"Skitty, come back to Mama."

"Nya!"

Emma's Skitty bounded back to her.

"Beldum, you can go back to eating now," I said to it.

I turned to Emma.

"I'm sure it'll warm up to you and your Pokémon eventually. It's still pretty young."

"Well now that that's settled, I think letting out the rest of our Pokémon and taking a break will make Beldum feel more comfortable. Plus, they need their time to stretch as well," Greg offered.

We agreed and sent out everybody else and took a break while Beldum continued eating.

~~~

Emma caught a Budew. It was next to a very small and shallow creek, drinking from it. I'm guessing that she feared either Greg or I would catch it instead, because she mowed both of us down to get to it. I didn't even realize it was there until she made a big commotion about it.

"EEEEEEEEE! A Budew! Outta the way, boys! This one's mine!" she had said, pushing both of us out of the way to run up to it.

"Lily, Sing!" she said, throwing her Poké Ball.

Her Smoochum came out and set about singing a melody to Budew, whom I don't think even realized Emma was there yet. The song soon put the Pokémon to sleep (Greg and I had little time to plug our ears). Emma then threw a Poké Ball at it. One, two, three, and Budew was hers.

"Oh my Arceus look guys I caught a Budew isn't she so pretty?!" she said all at once, holding the Poké Ball out and demanding us to somehow see into it.

"How do you even know if it's female? You just caught the thing," I asked.

"I just know! Call it a woman's intuition."

Greg and I were unimpressed.

"I'm gonna call her...Rosalin."

Later, when she was using it to fight a wild Pokémon, I scanned it with my Pokédex and found that it was indeed a female.

~~~

"Hey look! It's a Karrablast!" I semi-shouted to Greg, pointing at the desired bug.

"Yes, yes it is. And?"

"And? You should catch it!"

"Why?"

"Uh, I have a Shelmet? And I really want her to evolve soon?"

"I don't want that thing."

"Yes you do. Now catch it already before it gets away."

"No. Why should I catch something just for your own gain? You want an Accelgor so badly? Have Emma catch it."

"Ewwww," Emma replied. "It looks nasty! I don't want that thing on my team!"

"It'll only look like that until it evolves, which we can do once we get to a Center and trade," I explained, keeping my eye on the Karrablast.

"But I don't remember those things evolving into anything pretty..."

"That's because they don't," Greg unhelpfully explained.

"You're not helping. C'mon, guys. You know I can't catch it myself."

They weren't budging, but the bug was. I had to think fast...and swallow some pride.

"Think of it as me owing you something for the future. A small debt. You know how reliable I am with these sorts of things."

The Karrablast was walking away, back into the bushes.

"Put it on your existing tab," came Greg's voice, and a Poké Ball flew over my head.

A couple seconds later, Greg caught a Karrablast. He didn't seem too excited about his latest addition. The Poké Ball disappeared seconds later.

"If you're not going to train it, then just leave it in storage for now. We can't trade out here anyway," I said.

Greg thought about it. He even put his hand up to his chin. Naturally, I was suspicious as to how he could make this an even worse deal for me. Then he dug out his Pokédex and started fiddling around with it.

"I have a better idea," he said. "I'll make you regret having me do this for you by training this bug into a monster and have it regularly take out your Accelgor in battle. I'll put that ungrateful Igglybuff into storage instead."

"Isn't that a bit mean?" Emma asked.

"Listen to Emma, dude," I added. "She's clearly more in touch with her sanity than you are."

One of Greg's balls turned blue and disappeared (I've been waiting SO long to be able to say that), and was then quickly replaced with an identical ball.

"Nope, already done," he stated.

"Fine. Still doesn't mean you'll win with it or anything," I replied.

With that out of the way, we continued to venture through the forest.

 

    Spoiler:- Author's Comments:

Show Spoiler

 
I needed to bring Karrablast in eventually! Most of these character traits I'm making up on the spot.
 

[The Teller]

Sorry for the delay. School is keeping me busy. Anyway, here's another chapter that justifies the PG-15 rating. Just warning you now. Also, my usual beta-readers failed to give a rat's donkey about this chapter, so there may be more spelling/grammar errors than usual. FF38: "Pokeentomophobia" is "the fear of Bug-type Pokemon," and is common in small children, most of which grow out of this by adulthood. FF39: To be a big name professor, one must be a leading expert in a field no other big name professor is in.

    Spoiler:- Chapter 10:

Show Spoiler

 

Chapter 10: Welcome.

So we got lost. I figured we were when I noticed the same Watmel tree that I caught Elekid at crop up again. That, plus we collectively figured that the forest wasn't THAT big for us to need several hours to trek across.

"Well," Emma had said, "at least there's plenty of food around here to munch on."

After trekking a bit further, we finally decided to just stick to one direction and hope for the best. Clearly none of us were smart enough to figure out the winding and confusing patterns the beaten path took.

~~~

We had gotten lucky. A huge mansion loomed over the horizon. According to the atlas, the Eterna entrance to the forest was landmarked by an old mansion nearby. It only took us forever to find it.

"Yay!" Emma shouted. "Eterna City is close by! And that means a Poké Center is nearby as well! Hot showers and comfy sofas and My Little Ponyta reruns galore!"

"It's a wonder you've suffered for so long without home comforts and not gone crazy," I said dryly.

"Hey! Once you've been on adventures as long as I have, you'll know to appreciate the small things."

"Of course. I wouldn't DREAM of traveling the countryside without my Miltank-hide boots and matching in-season traveling purse. Those are just essential, you know?"

She 'hmpf'ed to herself and looked indignant at my portrayal of her. Then she tried to steer the conversation away by talking to Greg about something else.

~~~

As we approached the mansion, an elderly woman came up to us.

"You look like powerful trainers! Please, you must help me!" she shouted at us.

Greg and I were startled by her sudden outburst. Sure, I was a powerful trainer, but what could Greg do? Emma, however...

"What happened? What do you want us to do?" she immediately replied.

Great. Commit us all to looking for an Oddish somewhere in this whole forest forever. Thanks, Emma. How long are you tagging with us, again?

"My child...my poor Isabelle. She's only nine! We live here in the Eterna Forest. I told her to go pick some Cheri Berries for lunch. I told her to stay away from the Old Chateau. That was five hours ago! I fear she may have wandered too close to the mansion and...it drew her in. Oh, my poor child!"

"'Drew her in'? What do you mean by that?" asked Greg.

"The Old Chateau...it's haunted. Swarming with malevolent spirits, I say."

Haunted? Really? Probably just a lost Munna making people see things.

"The Old Chateau has been abandoned for over fifty years. No one dares to go in there anymore. Most people who do don't come back out. Those few that DO...aren't the same anymore. I don't care about any of that, though! My poor Isabelle...I'd go in and find her myself, but I don't have any Pokémon of my own. I'd have no way to defend myself or my dear child. The malevolent spirits are repelled by the strong bonds between human and Pokémon, however. That's why I've been waiting for strong trainers such as yourselves to come by and help find my poor Isabelle!"

Didn't I see this in a movie before?

"We'll help you find your daughter, miss!" said Emma for all of us again.

"We aren't professionals, Emma," Greg said. "But we'll find this child. The mansion looks to be around 16 rooms. With the three of us, we can cover the whole layout pretty quickly."

Really? Greg, too? Am I just a horrible person for thinking that something's up here? I kept my thoughts to myself. With the three of us sticking close together, any scammer would have a hard time trying to pull one over on us.

We headed to the front entrance to the mansion. The gates were all rusted over and warped from time. The grass was overgrown and unwieldy, attempting to grow over everything. If there was a path to the house, we couldn't see it. The front gate was mostly closed, but parted just enough for someone to squeeze through. The child probably went through there. The partition looked forced. Each of the three of us squeezed through. The old lady waited outside.

"Please save my Liza!" she shouted as we made our way to the front double doors.

Greg turned one of the knobs. The right front door opened.

"Unlocked. After fifty years of people disappearing within it. Of course," I noted.

"Did anybody else notice that the wind died completely and all the Pokémon stopped making sounds once we got here?" Emma asked.

"Weather changes, and even Pokémon have a sense of dread. They probably overheard all the stories about this place and took it as fact. Honestly, I don't think there's any ghosts in here, or anywhere for that matter. That lady didn't look all there, if you know what I mean. Of course someone at her age would believe in ghost stories."

We entered the mansion.

"Well at least someone else here is being sensible," I said. "Seriously, am I the only one here who thinks we're being had? I half-expect some Team Rocket thugs to jump out at any moment, recite their motto, and demand for our Pokémon."

"That sweet, old lady wouldn't be working for Team Rocket!" Emma objected. "Didn't you see how concerned she was for her child?"

"Yeah, because if there's one thing sweet, old ladies are known for, it's being genuinely sweet and telling the truth," I replied, thinking of that one poison Elite Four member from Kanto. "Think about it. If you wanted to describe a spot as 'spooky,' how would you go about it? 'Many go in, few come out,' sounds like an unoriginal horror concept to me. Also, how convenient is it that the ONE THING the ghosts are apparently weak to is 'the bonds of humans and Pokémon'? I'm seeing 'trap' written on the walls here, so we need to stick together and not go 'Let's split up, gang!' on each other."

"I think the lady's words are legit, but yes, we do need to stick together," said Greg.

"Is anyone else cold?" asked Emma. "It's like someone cranked on the air conditioner in here, and I know cold."

A cry. More like a drawn out wail. High pitched.

"That's her!" Emma shouted, running to where the sound was.

"Wait up!" Greg said.

The noise sounded like it was coming from upstairs. We ran for the nearest set of stairs, Emma leading the way. She was about halfway up them when the stair underneath her foot collapsed, sending her foot through the hole and her upper body planted on the stairs in front of her.

"Ahhhhhh!!!" she screamed.

"Emma!" Greg and I shouted.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Let's be careful, guys. This place is more dilapidated than it looks," cautioned Greg.

The crying continued. We helped Emma up and proceeded more slowly towards the noise. We got to the top of the stairs and walked down a long hallway. The noise seemed to be coming from one of the rooms at the end of the hallway.

The hallway had moldy rugs carpeting the floor. There were portraits (they looked to be hand painted) aligning the walls. They depicted people and places, none of which I recognized. Every few feet, there was a glass window with the shutters opened, letting in light. It was the only source of light in here. I didn't expect there to be any electricity running through this place, but there wasn't even any candleholders. How did people move around at night in this place back when it was inhabited?

We made it to the room we thought the noise was coming from. Something didn't seem right, though.

"Why does the voice still sound like it's coming from the other end of the hall?" I asked.

The others looked at me and I knew they were thinking the same thing. Greg opened the door to the room.

"Hello?" Emma said.

The room was relatively small compared to the others. It was easy to see that the girl was not in there. We walked in to inspect the room and make sure of it.

"Well, looks like she's not a ventriloquist," I said. "She's not in here, and there's definitely a cry coming from the other end of the house now. Unless this is one of those old houses that have many secret passageways, I'd say there is no girl."

"We should check the room where the voice is now, just in case," suggested Emma.

She walked out of the room.

"Beldum, come on out."

I sent out Beldum.

"I figure we can use a psychic type to figure out what's going on here, in case there IS something supernatural going on," I explained to Greg, moving to the door.

I suddenly felt...something. Something strong. It was only for a split second, and I couldn't pinpoint what it was. If I had to take a guess, I'd say fear. Beldum withdrew itself back into its Poké Ball. Greg and I looked temporarily stunned by its actions.

"...that's not good," I said.

"Did Beldum share anything with you?"

"Just a feeling like always. Whatever it felt, it was intense. I think Beldum was scared out of its life."

"Where's Emma?"

I looked down the hall. Indeed, Emma was nowhere to be found. She said she was going to the other side to check out the voice's new location, but maybe she went into one of the side rooms instead? But then, why were none of the doors open?

SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM!

The shutters lining the outer walls all slammed shut, one after another, and all in sequential order from where we were standing to the other side of the hallway. It suddenly got very, very dark.

"Oh let me guess," I said. "It was a strong gust of wind that did that, right?"

"So we went from 'scam theory' to 'clearly haunted' now?" Greg asked out loud.

We scooted close to each other, not chancing anything now.

"Okay, think like a horror movie," I told myself. "Why is this place haunted, and how can we put the spirits to rest?"

We heard the young child's voice again.

It was laughing.

"**** this place and the spirits in it! Go, Breloom! Blow a hole through the wall!" I yelled, throwing Breloom's Poké Ball at the wall.

It bounced right off the wall and didn't open.

"We're ****ed."

"Don't panic. Don't move," Greg said. "We panic, we get separated, and if we move without caution, we could wind up going straight through the floor."

We remained motionless while the voice continued to laugh.

"What do you think happened to Emma?" I asked.

"If she was lucky, it was painless."

"Comforting."

After several more seconds...

"I need to get Breloom's ball back, and we need to move if we want to get out of here alive."

"Right. Let's slowly inch our way to the ball, and then try to retrace our steps."

We made our way to the ball and I bent down to pick it up. I immediately dropped it.

"OW! It's boiling hot!"

"What? How did that happen? There can't be a furnace in this house."

"I'm not abandoning you, Breloom!"

I got a spare shirt from my bag and wrapped it around my hand and picked up the ball that way.

"It'll probably cool down once we get outside," Greg said.

"Okay, we need to go down this hall and make a left at the last door. Then it's down the stairs and around the bend and out the front door, preferably screaming."

We slowly made our way down the hall, keeping our eyes open for anything moving. What good it did us, seeing as how it was pitch-black and hard to see anything with the shutters closed.

We made it to the end of the hall when we heard a scream.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

It sounded like Emma! Was she still alive?

"That's her! It came from through the door on the right!" Greg said.

"Hey, wait! Since when do things make sense in here! That could just be the spirits mimicking her voice!"

A couple seconds passed.

"Greg?"

No answer.

Oh ****, oh ****, oh ****...

And then I felt some presence push me backwards. Backwards being where the stairs were.

"NO!"

I couldn't spin around in time to land with my hands. The stairway was too wide for me to grab onto a railing. My only hope was to stop flailing my arms around like a windmill and stretch them out backwards and hope that cushions most of the blow.

I did just that, but I still ended up tumbling down the flight of stairs. I was probably only spared breaking my back by my bag slung behind my back, protecting it from sharp corners. A sharp pain shot through my left arm. Did I sprain it? Break it?

I lay at the bottom of the stairs, trying to catch my breath and assess the damage. Was I bleeding? Could I stand? I was coughing. It was so hard trying to exhale. The floor was frigid, I noticed (with my face). I looked around. It seemed the shutters were closed down here as well. A single beam of light came from the ceiling, where supposedly there was roof damage. I guess the spirits couldn't fix that.

A sharp, creaking sound, like rusted metal being rotated, made itself known. Whatever was moving, it was doing so very slowly. I slowly got back to my feet. From the other side of the room, a red glow started to creep across the wall. Something was glowing just around the corner, back where the front door was. Though it was stupid of me to do so, I shambled my way towards it. From the back of my mind, I could hear myself tell myself that this was a bad idea, but my legs seemed to be moving on their own. Was this what people meant by drawing a Mothim to the light? Maybe...perhaps maybe...it was Emma using her Vulpix to light a fire and try to gather Greg and me.

I rounded the corner and saw that the red glow was coming from a suit of armor. How was it glowing all by itself? I crept closer and closer to it, mysteriously intrigued by the phenomenon. I was starting to get the idea that the source of the light was coming from within the headpiece. What if it was a candle? I could use it to light the way as I made my way out of here.

I stood next to the suit. I reached over and lifted up the faceplate.

Greg's pale, wide-eyed face, with a trail of dark red blood running down to a slightly agape mouth, stared back at me.

"AHHH!" I shouted, letting go of the plate, causing it to fall back in place.

'****. **** **** ****. Now they're just toying with me,' I thought.

Why I made for the faceplate again, I don't know. Perhaps I needed confirmation? I lifted the plate again.

An unremarkable skull that was clearly showing its age stared back at me.

By now I was sure that I was losing my mind. Was it an illusion? Was Greg's face?

I stepped backwards from the surprise. The mansion decided then was a good time to troll me and had the floor give out under me, sending me through it.

"AHHH!" I yelped again.

I landed hard on my back. Well why didn't the mansion just have the ceiling fall on me while they're at it? The room I fell into was back to being pitch-black. I looked up at the newly made hole. The glow no longer was there. I stood up and checked myself over. Somehow I was still not dead. I decided the best course of action would be to find a wall and follow that until I found my way out. I did just that and soon found myself hugging a wall and walking down a corridor. This must've displeased the mansion, because not long after that, the candleholders lining the corridor lit themselves up.

'Ominous,' I thought.

I wound up walking into some sort of ballroom. The candles were lit in this room as well. I suspect the mansion was trying to burn me alive in itself, given all the cobwebs that were made dangerously close to those candles. The elongated dining table was draped with a white, eloquent cloth, and various kinds of foods placed on silver trays were positioned at various spots on the table. A three-pronged candelabrum was placed at the center and was lit. What looked to be two dozen chairs were pushed as far in to the table as they could be. Portraits of bland scenery plastered the walls. A larger candelabrum hung from the ceiling, also lit.

'At least the room was decorated before being abandoned,' I thought to myself, also thinking that now was not an appropriate time to be making snarky comments to myself.

At the end of the room there were two doors leading to other rooms, one on the left and one on the right. I decided to go with the door on the left. I entered the new room and found it to be spectacularly nondescript. It looked to be a storage closet of some sort.

"BELDUM SUCKS *** AND ERIC GOT HIS TWO BADGES OUT OF PITY!!!"

That was Greg's voice! Wait, what did he say?!

"OH, SO YOU DECIDE TO GROW SOME BALLS NOW, WHEN YOU'RE SAFELY HIDDEN IN THE DARK?!" I shouted back. "I'M SURE IGGLYBUFF'S real IMPRESSED BY THAT!"

"I DON'T SEE YOU IN ANY HURRY TO BACK UP THOSE WORDS!"

There! Behind me! Coming from the room on the right! I ran out the room I was in and stopped in the ballroom.

The candles were blown out, the cobwebs were gone, the table had been relocated to the right side of the room, the tablecloth was dirtied and bunched up here and there, the food was strewn across the table and at some parts, smeared, most of the chairs were turned over, some lying on the floor, some on the table, some missing legs, the portraits were slashed, some of THOSE seemed to be splattered with..."paint," as if someone dipped a brush into a paint can and then whipped it at high speeds at the portraits. The ceiling candelabrum was swinging. There was no wind of any kind in the room. I could tell all of this because there was a big freaking hole in the ceiling and some kind of light was shining through it. It couldn't be the sun because there was a floor above the ballroom, but something was being a handy source of light. I'm pretty sure the room was NOT like this a few seconds ago.

Greg ran into the room, looking worse for wear. He did a quick scan of the room.

"I'm guessing this room looks completely different to you, too, right?" he asked.

"Yep."

"I thought you'd died."

"Same here."

"Once I figured out that this place can mess with your mind, I figured the only way to see if you were truly dead was to do things this place couldn't possibly imitate."

"And so you questioned my ability to win badges. Why didn't you just shout that Beldum's mother was a *****?"

"I was getting to it."

"Well, at the very least, you came up with the plan when we weren't that far away from each other."

He hummed in agreement and we both gazed at the room some more.

"I found a staircase to the upstairs in the other room," Greg said.

"Right. Let's go. This room's looking too much like a silent horror film."

We went into the room and, carefully, made our way up the stairs. Unfortunately, we had no idea where we were and where the front door was.

"Nya!"

"Emma's Skitty!" I exclaimed.

"Or is it? We can't trust anything we hear in here," Greg countered.

"Let's find out, just in case. I haven't found reason to believe this place can drown out real noises yet. Try not to go into another room without me again this time."

Greg mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Just wishing you a happy and long-lived life," Greg replied, overly cheerfully.

I whapped my arm behind me, hoping to hit Greg, but I missed.

We walked our way towards where we heard the Skitty's voice come from. The floor creaked underneath us.

"Skitty, use Doubleslap!"

Emma's Skitty came bounding behind a corner, ready for a fight. It stopped once it saw us.

"Nya! Nyanya nyaaaaa."

"What's going on, Skitty?" came Emma's voice.

She soon rounded the corner as well. She did NOT look worse for wear. In fact, it was hard to tell if the mansion did ANYTHING to try to kill her.

"You guys! I was sooooooooo worried about you two!" she said, coming up to us and drawing us both into a hug. "I was walking down the hall and couldn't find the little girl and when I looked back, the hall didn't look the same and so I wandered on and on, trying to find you guys and I was worried something happened to you, but here you are, safe and sound!"

"We're both scraped up, I was pushed down a flight of stairs, and nearly literally scared to death several times, but yeah, totally safe and sound," I replied, feeling pain in certain areas from the hug.

Emma ignored me.

"This place isn't safe! I can feel it," she said, shivering.

"We gathered as much," Greg replied. "Which is why we made the executive decision to get out of here as soon as possible. As in, right now."

"I agree," Emma chipped in.

"So can you use your sixth sense to find the front door?" I asked her.

"No..." she said dejectedly. "But I'm sure Skitty can help! She's great with directions!"

"Why IS your Skitty able to come out of its Poké Ball?" Greg asked. "Eric's Breloom wouldn't earlier and I tried sending out my Pokémon as well, and they wouldn't come out either."

"Really? Well, Skitty here isn't afraid of anything! She'll protect me!"

"Nya!"

And then it started to get real cold.

"Great, you made it angry," I mumbled.

"Let's get moving, now," Greg commanded.

We couldn't get moving quickly since we knew about the mansion's fondness for collapsing its floors on us, but we did move towards a direction.

We picked a bad direction (Greg picked it). We wound up in the furnace room. Perhaps Greg wanted to get warm? Was it getting warm? The air was starting to get wavy. The furnace suddenly came alive and flared up, the sudden heat hitting us like a punch.

A howling sound could be heard. It sounded like a strong wind, but all the windows in the room were still tightly shut. Faintly, I could hear voices in the wind. Whispers.

Slowly, a thing began to appear before us. It was decidedly not human. My mind interpreted a certain spot on it as the closest thing to a "face" as it's going to get, and that "face" was staring right at us. Right at me. Right through me. It was staring right into my soul. Though the furnace was running on full blast, I had never felt so cold. I couldn't hear anything, nor did I acknowledge that I had stopped breathing. Everything around the thing became out of focus. The thing inched forward. I felt as if it were opening a mouth, if it conceivably had one, and I would soon be inside it.

A flash of light and Beldum was in front of me. From deep in the recesses of my mind, I heard the reverberating sound of Beldum's shriek. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Geodude as well. The thing opened its "mouth" wider and probably let out a scream, if I was still capable of hearing.

I could only think in flashes then. I don't know exactly what happened, but next thing I knew, Beldum, Geodude, and Skitty were hurt very badly. I could tell that Beldum was doing everything in its power just to stay afloat. It used that willpower to hover directly in front of me. The thing inched closer.

Beldum glowed a brilliant light. Such a light came elsewhere as well. The thing seized up and drew back slightly. The amorphous ball of light morphed. A burst of raw power came from it when the glow faded and revealed a new form.

"METANG!!!" it shouted.

How, given that it, too, had no visible mouth, I don't know. Perhaps more of Beldum's power? Wait...Beldum?

The thing moved forward again and unleashed an attack.

"Confusion!" I heard someone say.

"Selfdestruct!" I heard another person say.

Beldum, or rather Metang, and Graveler charged up their attacks...and then everything went black.

~~~

I opened my eyes to see the blue sky above me.

"This one's starting to come through. Ease up on the Aromatherapy, Leafeon."

I tried to sit up, but pain shot through my body as I did. I yelped in pain.

"Don't try to run a marathon yet, boy."

I turned my head to the sound of the voice. Nurse Allison was kneeling next to Greg's unconscious body, looking at me. Oh please tell me that it was Greg's unconscious body. Nurse Allison saw me look at him.

"He and the girl are alive. In the same condition as you, I bet, but alive," she said.

Looking past her, I saw a Leafeon walking around us, giving off some sort of dust-like substance. Behind Nurse Allison stood a small crowd of people, whispering and pointing.

Could I talk? I tried to talk.

"What...happened?"

"I wouldn't try to make an inaugural speech just yet either. And anyways, I was hoping one of you three would be able to tell me that. A passerby noticed the three of you unconscious and in bad shape in the middle of the forest and contacted the Pokémon Center. Apparently she was a trainer, since she didn't know the number for the human hospital in Eterna City. You'll still need to go to the hospital, but Leafeon's here to make sure you don't go into critical condition in the meantime."

I took deep breaths. They hurt.

"We were told...by an old woman who...lives in the forest...that her daughter...Isabelle...went into the mansion...and we went in to find her..."

Nurse Allison looked at me with concern.

"You must've hit your head on something fierce. There's no one living in Eterna Forest. Certainly not anyone living in a house. I know because my job requires me to make frequent calls and mail orders and there's no valid area number or zip code for residency in the forest. Nor is there a mansion. In the middle of the forest."

What. I turned my head in the other direction and there was no sign of a big, freaking huge mansion anywhere to be found. We couldn't have teleported clear across the forest. It was like the mansion was never there to begin with!

"And I think I know why you brought up the name 'Isabelle,'" Nurse Allison continued. "There was a documentary on television last night about a duchess named Isabelle who famously traveled to Eterna City and made a controversy. Given that she died over 200 years ago and the rarity of the name nowadays, I doubt she's the one you thought you heard about. You probably just saw the special last night and remembered the name and figured she was still alive and involved in...whatever happened to you three."

The old lady who lives in a house that doesn't exist...the little girl who died 200 years ago...the mansion we went in that isn't there now...what's happening here?!

My head hurts, and I don't think it's from all the heavy thinking. The aching all over my body, the fact that Greg and Emma are lying right next to me, the clear memories of what happened...it couldn't have been a dream. Beldum...where was Beldum? It evolved...if I could send out Beldum now, and it looks different, then I'll know that it wasn't all a dream.

Dream...sleep...

"It's okay to rest now. You're in good enough condition to afford it. The ambulance is on their way."

 

Post Author's Note:     Spoiler:- undefined:

Show Spoiler

 
It'd be really nice if someone could tell me how well I did doing horror. It's very rare that I get the chance to do it. And no, those weren't anything from the Gastly line.
 

[An Enemy Spy]

This doesn't work as horror for one major reason. It isn't scary. At all. It isn't even creepy.

What is the scariest horror movie you've ever seen? Now, think about what makes it scary. It's the atmosphere of the thing. Horror is all about drawing you in and then delivering the scares. All good horror movies know how to build an atmosphere of dread long before any monsters or ghosts show up. The same goes with literature.

Read The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft for an example of well crafted horror. He makes you dread whatever is inside this city long before you ever see what is actually down there.

This story has none of that. Your characters are literally pointing out the cliches as they happen. That isn't horror, that's parody. Another problem is you give almost no description of the surroundings, and when you do, it isn't in a way that's scary or gives me a sense of foreboding. You have long bits of dialogue with no narration, which takes away from the atmosphere, and their dialogue isn't anything that suggests much fear. If not even the characters find your story scary, how am I supposed to?

This is not to say that it without merit. There were things I liked.

"Yay!" Emma shouted. "Eterna City is close by! And that means a Poké Center is nearby as well! Hot showers and comfy sofas and My Little Ponyta reruns galore!"

"It's a wonder you've suffered for so long without home comforts and not gone crazy," I said dryly.

"Hey! Once you've been on adventures as long as I have, you'll know to appreciate the small things."

"Of course. I wouldn't DREAM of traveling the countryside without my Miltank-hide boots and matching in-season traveling purse. Those are just essential, you know?""

I thought this part was funny.

BELDUM SUCKS *** AND ERIC GOT HIS TWO BADGES OUT OF PITY!!!"

That was Greg's voice! Wait, what did he say?!

"OH, SO YOU DECIDE TO GROW SOME BALLS NOW, WHEN YOU'RE SAFELY HIDDEN IN THE DARK?!" I shouted back. "I'M SURE IGGLYBUFF'S real IMPRESSED BY THAT!"

"I DON'T SEE YOU IN ANY HURRY TO BACK UP THOSE WORDS!"

First off, you forgot a quotation mark in the first sentence, but that's a small mistake that can be cured with some simple proofreading, and since you said your normal proofreaders haven't done this one, I'll let it go. FOR NOW!
What I don't understand is why they're yelling at each other like this. I seems to come completely out of nowhere and feels out of place.

Good luck with all future endeavors.

[The Teller]

Like I said last month, no new content has been made. However, I'm going to treat this filler like a chapter, so there you go. I don't think I need to say who is talking in this one. Good news, everyone! I'll hopefully be participating in that oneshot contest that's going on right now, so maybe THAT will act as next month's chapter as well.

Okay...this chapter was written to look like a journal entry, and there were a LOT of crossouts in it, but the site doesn't seem to want to cooperate and show the crossouts, so I had to go back and modify all of them. Basically, if it's in a set of parantheses, it was originally a crossout (also if it's a bad word pun or has '...I mean,' in it). Sorry about that and enjoy!

    Spoiler:- Filler 3:

Show Spoiler

 

December 9, 2109...I mean 20XX :3,

The reported high today was 14 degrees. I think we're gonna have a warm winter this year! Skitty says it'll be warm, too! She's taking a nap by the furnace as usual. We didn't put as many logs in the fireplace today as usual, too. It's snowing outside. As usual, hehe! Little white balls of fluff! Like a Swablu's wings! XD It's supposed to continue snowing for the rest of the day because all the rain packed up and left Celestic Town and headed on over our way! Didn't even stop to say hello to Mt. Coronet. But that's okay. We're used to all the snow here. Hehe, we're more surprised when we can see the ground in the summertime! (Though I am getting a little tired of it. Hehe.)

What an adventure today was! No wonder Skitty is so tired. I could go for a Skittynap, too, right about now. (^-ω-^)zzz... We were running low on wood today and the weatherman on the radio said that we're supposed to get EVEN MORE snow soon, so Mama woke me up extra early today and Dada said I should go out and get more firewood before everyone else does.

Mama made pancakes! She even made sure to put some extra syrup on them. I think it's so I have extra energy to go out and collect firewood today. It doesn't matter because I got pancakes for breakfast with extra syrup!

Dada gave me Becky's Pansear and Kasey's Mawile to help with gathering wood. Hehe, even though those two have names for their Pokémon, I still purrsist...persist on calling them Chim and Cutie! Chim just looks sooooooo much like the Chimchars I see in little Gabby and Sammy's picture book when I read it to them, and Cutie just has such a CUUUUTE face <3! How can they not see why those are so much better names for their Pokémon?

So after breakfast (XD pancakes!), I went back to my room and put on my hiking boots and woke up sleepy Skitty.

"Wakey-wakey, sleepy Skitty!" I said. "We're gonna get some firewood with Chim and Cutie today! You want to continue napping by the furnace, don't you?"

Poor thing yawned and mewled, but she knew that she had a big responsibility to help out around the house when it came to big things like this (and I'd just return her to her Luxury Ball if she got too uncooperative anyway), so she didn't put up much of a fight. Instead, she stretched herself out, shaking any dead hair off her face, and hopped down to the floor, ready for action!

"That's the spirit!" I cheered.

We bundled up (which means I put on my work coat and Skitty got a Silk Scarf wrapped around her) before heading out to the side of the house to get the wheelbarrow. It sure was cold enough for a blizzard already! (Couldn't it wait a little while longer?) I could just taste the hot cocoa Mama was no doubt going to prepare for me already. Since the woods were on the other side of the city, it would be a bit of a walk, but that's okay! That meant I got to talk to everybody today! Yay! Plus, the city isn't that big (it's really more like a village!), so I wasn't walking TOO far. I always have Skitty for company! She jumped into the wheelbarrow and curled up for another nap. Skittys are so lazy (but so cute)!

"Oh hello, Emma," said Mrs. Queeny. "Off to collect wood, I see? Tsk tsk, your father's always doing things at the last minute."

"Hi, Mrs. Queeny. Dada and Mama didn't seem to get the memo until this morning."

A customer walked into her store.

"Oh, I'd better go in and help. Have a good day, Emma!"

"You too, Mrs. Queeny!"

She's such a nice, old lady. Mama was surprised when her husband passed away a few years ago and she continued to run the wares store, but I wasn't surprised one bit. She's a tough broad...I mean, lady.

One of the nurses from the Pokémon Center was taking out the trash and greeted me as well.

"Good morning, Ms. Lain! Oh my, doing last minute chores again?"

"Good morning, Ms. Wey. Yeah, Mama and Dada didn't see this storm coming, so I'm off to get some firewood."

"Well I see you have Skitty with you, so you'll be fine."

"I also have Chim and Cutie with me as well."

She giggled.

"Still calling them that, are we?"

"Yep! Becky and Kasey will just have to get used to it!"

"I'm sure," she replied, smiling. "Well, have a safe journey."

"I will! Thanks."

As I walked through town, I also talked to Mr. Ewig, Mr. Ratinoul, Mrs. Toohun, Ms. Yahi, Mrs. Urmelda, Mr. Ifilidia, Ms. Opaa, Mr. Papenfous, and so much more! Everybody around here starts their day early. If they were to start their day late, nothing would get done. Nobody wants to be outside when it gets dark. Not because it's scary outside or there's monsters that will eat you (those poor children in Lacunosa Town!), but because it gets REALLY cold out when it gets dark, so it's better if you just stay inside with a warm cup of hot cocoa and a warm Skitty! ( I bet all that monster needs is a great, big hug. ) If everyone starts working early, then they can close shop by mid-afternoon and be home before it gets dark. Dada opens shop early in the morning, too.

Just as I got done talking to Mrs. Abernathy, I heard a roar coming from far in the distance. Anyone who was outside would've heard it, too. It sounded like a Beartic. Maybe one of its cubs was being threatened? (I never found out.) It was coming from the woods, but I was so close to the woods by then that it must've come from even deeper in the woods than I planned on going for wood. Besides, I had Skitty on me, and with her Assist move and Chim with me, I can take down anything!

However, I wasn't looking to take down anything. I just wanted some wood (what?!)...wished to do what I was told to do and get back to reading my book, all cozying up next to the fire, with Skitty napping in my lap. So instead of venturing further into the woods to investigate the source of the noise, I instead came to a halt at the outskirts of the forest and started looking at trees, seeing which ones would make for good firewood. (Did you know that all trees look the same? X3D) Only the most purrfect/perfect trees would do, but since this was a last minute assignment, it seemed that most of the good trees were already cut down. Surveying the landscape, I saw many tree stumps cut from the base. Dada is SO behind on these things! He'll just have to make do with what I bring home XP.

"Use Bite!" I said to Cutie, pointing to a thick tree.

The wind was starting to pick up and the snow wasn't letting up at all. Who knew the weatherman would be right for a change? (Am I right, Skitty?) Cutie used her big head jaws to chomp at the tree at the base from just the right angle, causing it to fall over (Timburr!!!) with a muddled thud. Chim came up next to me and started to warm me up by activating the tuft on its head. I knelt down to him and placed my hands around his head.

"Nya!" said Skitty.

"I know, Skitty honey, I know. You want to help, too. Use Assist!"

"NYA!"

My precious Skitty baby (honey bunny sugar plum so cute and fluffy) started to glow and I hoped for her to use Cutie's Bite attack to help chop up the fallen tree.

Skitty instead flipped her tail downwards onto the tree, her three points on her tail glowing a little bit. Well, I guess Chim's Scratch attack would do as well. Her tail cut through the tree, making it become two, smaller trees. I had Cutie use Bite on one of the tree pieces to turn it into easily bundled branches I can put into the wheelbarrow, and had Skitty continue to use Chim's Scratch on the other tree piece for the same reasons. Chim kept us all warm. I couldn't use any of Chim's fire attacks in case one of them sets the whole tree on fire and ruins all our hard work.

The wheelbarrow I used was the biggest one we had (I think it was passed down from generation to generation), but it can still only hold less than a whole, chopped up tree, so it didn't take long before I had the whole thing filled up. Branches were stacked just so, so that, even though the pile was taller than the brim of the wheelbarrow, when I tipped it, none of the branches fell off. Dada taught me how to do it! Once we had enough chopped up branches in the wheelbarrow, I had Cutie use her fake mouth to clamp on to the handle and pull the now heavy wheelbarrow with us. Her jaw strength is amazing! (It should be its own HM, hee hee!) She could easily drag the wheelbarrow. At first, I didn't believe it when Kasey told me Cutie was capable of this. I pulled the wheelbarrow all by myself the first time I was sent out to gather some firewood with Cutie. I told Kasey that there's no way a small cutie-pie like Cutie could pull several pounds of wood. She had to show me Cutie pulling the old truck for me to believe (I'm now a believer! Hehe!).

Once we were on our way back home, we heard the terrible roar again, although this time it sounded a lot closer than before.

'Okay,' I thought to myself. 'If it IS a Beartic, I have a fire type and a steel type with me, and to top it off, I also have Skitty. Nothing to worry about.'

We got out of the woods without incident and were just starting to see the town when...

"BEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!" (x3!)

"Incinerate, 360!"

Chim spun a wall of fire around us, taking care not to catch the wood on fire, and from beyond the fire wall, small gobs of water came through. They were most likely melted Icicle Spears. My quick thinking paid off well, don't you think? Dada always tells me that the Beartics around here will typically start a fight with Icicle Spear, and if provoked, they'll usually start fights covertly (that means "sneaky" :P). But what did I do to make the Beartics mad?

The wall of fire quickly came down and I saw three angry Beartics staring me down.

"BEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!"

"TIIIIC!"

One of them rushed at me with claws extended.

"Chim, use Flame Burst!"

Another sucked in breath and I presumed it was about to do a water attack on Chim.

"Cutie, Astonish that one!"

I didn't even wait for the third one (how rude of me!).

"Skitty, use Fake Out on the third one!" I said, pointing to the third one (its name is The Third One XD).

My darlings gave out their battle cries and charged into the fray. Cutie let out a scream (I covered my ears) as she leapt, fake mouth first, at one of the Beartics. The Beartic was startled by the sudden outburst, which gave Cutie enough time to whap the opponent aside by swinging her fake mouth. Skitty was quick as lightning as she appeared before The Third One, jumped up to eye level, and continued the whapping theme. The Third One was surprised and didn't make a move. Chim blasted the advancing Beartic with a mighty burst of flame (see what I did there?), overpowering its charge and sending it back.

'Let's see. Astonish and Fake Out don't do much damage, so I'll have to hit harder while they're stunned.'

"Skitty, use Tackle on the third one! Cutie, use Vicegrip on the second one," I said, pointing at the middle Beartic for Cutie's clarification. "And Chim, use Flame Burst again on the same Beartic!"

Skitty and Cutie made contact with their opponents and Chim unleashed another attack on his. Yes! If I keep this up, they should go down in no time!

Then Cutie's Beartic started thrashing about. Cutie could only hold on for so long before she was sent flying away. And then, Skitty's Beartic recovered from Skitty's Tackle quicker than I expected and slashed her!

"Nyaaaa!"

"Oh no! Skitty baby!"

Skitty shrugged off the attack, looking just fine.

"Nya!"

"Okay! Chim, use Fury Swipes and Skitty use Doubleslap against the first Beartic!"

I was gonna have to team up on one Beartic at a time in order to take them down faster. Cutie couldn't attack the same target as well without hitting Chim or Skitty. Just as the first Beartic was recovering from Chim's previous attacks, Chim and Skitty were all over it, hacking and slashing away (okay, neither of them were hacking, but you know what I mean XP!).

"Alright, Cutie, use Sweet Scent!"

(Why does something like Cutie have the ability to use Sweet Scent, I don't even)

I needed to do something to make the other Beartics less agitated while Chim and Skitty beat up on the first one.

"Mawile," she said, softly, before releasing some calming pheromones into the air.

She used her fake mouth to fan the pheromones towards the two Beartics. Even though their comrade was having the stuffing beaten out of him right next to them, the two noticeably relaxed (although since they were BEARTICS, it's really hard to tell when they're not angry). The first Beartic went down after many swipes and slaps.

"Cutie, use Crunch on the third one!"

While The Third One was still dazed, Cutie chomped down on its midsection.

"Chim and Skitty, do that again on the second one!"

Both of them proceeded to leap for the second Beartic and started hacking and slashing away again. This one at least attempted to swipe away at them, but it was too slow to connect any of its attacks.

"Alright, Cutie, use Bite!"

Cutie bit into her opponent.

"And now throw it away!"

With her mouth still firmly attached to the Beartic, she easily lifted it up off the ground, swung it around a couple of times, and hurled it on top of the already fainted Beartic. It, too, was now out of the fight.

"Nya!" cried Skitty, as she continued to slap the final Beartic.

The enemy was now confused from being hit on all sides, and it was probably hurting, too, and it stumbled its way towards its buddies. It fell down on top of the pile.

"Yay! We did it, you guys! We won! We won!" I cheered, soooooo proud of my team.

"Nya!"

"Wile Mawile!"

"Pan Pansear!"

Just then, the topmost Beartic lifted its head and let out a threatening roar.

(MEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWTH!!!)

(PUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRLOIN!!!)

(GLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAMEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!)

(Okay, I'll stop now XP :3)

"BEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRTIIIIIIIIIIIC!!!"

I think it was trying to call for help!

"I think we better leave, guys!" I told everyone and ran back to the wheelbarrow.

Everyone followed suite...I mean, suit. Skitty got behind the wheelbarrow, Chim climbed up to my shoulder, and Cutie clamped down on the wheelbarrow handle and started hauling butt. Skitty ran behind the wheelbarrow to make sure none of the logs fell off. And I ran back for town, leading everybody there, and keeping an eye out for anything else that might want to hurt my poor babies.

We managed to get back into town without being attacked again (yay!). Mrs. Abernathy was the first to notice me.

"Well YOU seem to be in a hurry, Emma. Is your mother's hot cocoa that enticing?" she asked, chuckling to herself.

"Oh, no, Mrs. Abernathy. I mean, yes, it IS, but that's not the reason why I'm in a rush. Did you hear all those roars coming from the woods? They sounded all like 'ROOOOAAAARRRR!'"

"I'm sure they did, Emma," she said, not believing me (I thought you trusted me, Mrs. Abernathy! DX).

"No, really! They were Beartics! I think they were searching for their lost Cubchoos or something."

"But honey, Beartics don't come this close to town."

"Nya!" replied Skitty. "Nya nya nyaaaaaa..."

"See! Skitty believes me!"

"If you say so, dear. Now run along. You don't want to hold up your family forever."

"Okay," I said, dejectedly.

I still can't see why Mrs. Abernathy wouldn't believe me. Now that I think about it, I put my coat in the wash after I got home because it was dirty from the fight! Mrs. Abernathy should've seen that! I think she must be going blind. (So sad, given how young she is!)

Mrs. Queeny was on the wares store's porch, rocking in her rocking chair, with her ancient 12 inch screen box TV on (it was plugged into a wall socket Mr. Queeny had installed for her a long time ago because she loved sitting out on the porch so much during business hours). She saw me and the team walking home with the firewood.

"Have a good time, Emma?"

"We were attacked by Beartics looking for their cubs."

"Oh my! Were you hurt? You look out of breath."

"Oh, no. These guys here fought them off and we made a break for it. They were soooooo brave, weren't you guys?"

They cheered. Mrs. Queeny laughed.

"Haha, it sure sounds like it!"

I then noticed what she was watching. It was a repeat of one of the contests. From the looks of it, one of the ones that took place here in Sinnoh.

"Cherrim, display Petal Dance!" said a moderately dressed young woman.

The camera cut to the Cherrim (its face was shown, so obviously Sunny Day was used at some point), and it lulled its head slowly back and forth, shaking loose leaves from its head, and they swiftly spiraled in a double helix form at the space above the audience. You could hear the audience ooh and ahh at the spectacle and there was a loud applause. The camera then cut to the panel of judges, who looked just as bedazzled at the move as the audience.

"Simply remarkable!" you could hear one of them saying.

The camera cut back to the coordinator. She was posing for the audience and you could tell she was very proud of the reaction she and her Cherrim were getting.

And then I thought about myself. It had been so long since I last participated in a contest circuit. Like, almost a whole year! Mama and Dada could easily take care of everyone, so it wasn't like I was needed at home. And now that I think about it, the beginning of the next season of contests in Sinnoh would take place soon. So why WASN'T I filling out paperwork and getting super psyched about competing? This time I wouldn't even have to worry about traveling in a new region! I'd have the home field advantage (batter up! XD)!

(No seriously, why didn't I give this any thought over the past year?!)

"Mrs. Queeny, I think it's time for me to get back into contests again," I said.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah! I've been out of it for too long! I've just been sitting here in Snowpoint the entire time. Don't you think I've had enough time off? Mama and Dada can take care of everyone while I'm gone. They did it all the other times I left. I've got to come out of retirement and show everyone whose boss! Right, Skitty?!"

Skitty jumped from on top of the wood pile onto my shoulder.

"Nya!"

"Yeah!"

Mrs. Queeny smiled.

"You show them, Emma! Put Snowpoint City back on the map, and I ain't talking about making it a skier's destination. By the time you're through, people will confuse this place with Pallet Town!"

"Alright, Mrs. Queeny! We won't let you down! I'll give your store a shout out when I get to the finals!"

Inspired by Mrs. Queeny's words, I started running home, leaving Cutie and Skitty to keep up while bringing the firewood with them XD. I told everybody that I ran into that I was signing up for the Sinnoh contests and bringing them victory. Everybody had nothing but positive encouragements for me.

Finally, I made it home. Gabby and Sammy were playing outside.

"You're home! Emma's home!" they shouted.

I was gonna miss them (sooooo much).

"Hi, you two! Go tell Mama and Dada that I'm home and gonna go put the firewood away, okay?"

"Okay, Emma!"

I returned Chim and Cutie to their Poké Balls and went to the outhouse out back and put away the firewood. Then Skitty and I went into the house. Skitty shook off her scarf and I took off my coat. Mmm, I could smell the hot cocoa already!

"How was it?" Mama asked, handing me a cup of the good stuff.

Dada walked into the room.

"There were some Beartics in the woods and I think they were looking for their Cubchoos and they attacked me but Skitty and Cutie and Chim took care of them for me. Oh, and all the good trees were gone, so I just got the next best looking one and took that home."

"Well hopefully the Beartics found their cubs," Dada replied. "It's the only reason I can think of as to why they would attack someone outside of their territory unprovoked. We should call the city watch, though, in case any more of them pick up on your scent and followed you back into town."

"Speaking of calls," Mama interrupted, "a little Starly told me that you were thinking about joining the contests again?"

"That woman (Ms. Wey, for the uninitiated!) has the mouth of an Exploud," Dada grumbled.

(I giggled.)

"Well she's an incredibly honest Exploud. She hardly ever makes things up. So is this the case, Emma?" asked Mama.

"Yeah! I've been cooped up here for a year now and now I think it's time to see what our region has to offer in contests for me! Don't worry, since it's in the same region, if I ever get homesick or you need me, I won't be as far away."

"We aren't worried about that, dear."

"We were actually wondering when you would feel the contest itch again," said Dada. "We were starting to get worried that you had given up on being a master coordinator, or were just staying here for our sake. We know that you'll try your hardest out there and have fun doing it, which is the most important thing."

"Yes. If you don't like what you're doing for a living, then you're only causing yourself more harm by staying in it."

"I know, Mama. And I wasn't just staying here to help you two out. I guess I just got lazy after my last go around."

"We understand. Now go enjoy your reward-in-a-cup and we'll discuss the paperwork later."

"Be sure to return Grendel and Jawface to Becky and Kasey. I don't see Skitty around, so I take it that she's back to lying next to the furnace."

I looked around and didn't see Skitty either.

"Yeah, probably. I'll give these two back now and thanks for the cocoa, Mama."

"You're welcome, honey."

So yeah, here I am, writing in my dairy...diary, soooooooo excited about going back to doing contests! I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight! I'll just have to hug Skitty REEEEEAAAAALLL hard just to give my arms something to do (she hates it when I do that X3). I hope my sponsors continue to support me across regions! I'll have to think about costumes and clothes and shoes and OMA! So much fun! But I wonder if I'll be able to borrow Pokémon from other people again? What if I can't? I almost couldn't last time. I'll have to catch my very own Pokémon for the first time! I'll have my very own family with me! Wouldn't that be so cool?!

Oh, Mama's calling us to the kitchen for dinner. I'll stop here then. Maybe the next time I write, I'll be a Pokémon Master Coordinator! Byyyyyyyeeeeee! <3