The ride over to Prof. Oak's lab went as smoothly as any other when I arrived directly on Epona. Since the professor was home at rest, I had to check in with one of the lab aides to inform them of my plans. Thankfully, I found Lab Aide, Mr. Willow, who gladly thanked me for the heads up and used a portable radio to contact the Breeders on duty about my pokémon's brief absences from their preferred habitats. The good sir had even offered to ask the Breeders to gather any of my pokémon that they come across to wherever I planned to go, but I turned the offer down.
I sent Sylvie back to the Sanctuary with the express purpose of gathering the others and leading them toward one of the Sanctuary's fenced clearings. After telling Mr. Willow which clearing it was, he contacted some Breeders to clear the place up ahead of time then allowed me to travel there once things were set. The man had even offered me to walk me halfway there in another attempt to convince me to join him on his expedition to Mt. Silver.
He elaborated that he would be convincing more approved trainers for the job as he hopes to research the environmental strains and effects that Mt. Silver has on it's local ecology. That and to compare Mt. Silver's wildlife to others across the region. Last time, he went on an expedition up there to study the differences between the common Onix pokémon found in Mt. Moon and Rock Tunnel. Now he intends to study the average Ursaring that lives on the mountain to the variety that live in our area.
Since it was a coincidence, I make mention of capturing an Ursaring and Tediursa a few days ago. He was thrilled to hear the news and extremely apologetic after hearing of why I caught them. I denied any studying of the Mama Ursaring I caught until I established what our relationship would be or whether she even wanted her and her baby Tediursa to even be apart of my team. Still, I did offer to help him go out and catch another Ursaring to study while leaving my answer toward his invite to join his expedition as a "maybe".
Recently, I've looked back at all of the letters that have been sent to me during my break after the Conference and the load of things to do was already overwhelming. I wanted to introduce Fafnir to the rest of my team before discussing what our plans would be from here on out. Mr. Willow respectfully accepted my answer and sighed that he'll have to put off giving Daisy the same offer until my own answer was concrete.
I had asked why Daisy was even a factor in the conversation, but he ignored me and began whistling a jaunt tune. Something fishy was happening, but reaching the clearing did put my suspicions at ease for the moment.
"Hope everything goes well for you Luke!"
"Thanks, Mr. Willow!"
I waved the muscular lab aide goodbye as Epona, Asch, and I crossed the wooden gates to be reunited with my cherished friends who've been at my side in both good and bad times during my first foray through Kanto. Sure, I've individually seen each after the Conference, but the last time that we've been truly together was during the Welcome home/Congratulations party set up by my mom and all our family friends/neighbors. That was three bloody months ago.
So having everyone around filled me with utter joy. My smile grew upon feeling all of their eyes on me once I slammed the wooden gates closed. I barely got even five steps in before I was beset by one of my faster pokémon that outran the joyous charge of the others.
The all too familiar buzzing that filled my ears was a delight. Any trainer familiar with Viridian Forest would be scared out of their minds with such a noise close by, but not me though. Hard to be scared of the Beedrill that I saved as a little, timid Weedle from a pack of Pidgey and Pidgeotto.
"Hey, Dartz!" I shouted over the drowning noise of my Beedrill's excited buzzing and clicking from my back. He clung tightly to me and buzzed before zipping around to my front to adjust his cool shades and audaciously thrust his needles into the air.
Feeling the spirit, I looked to Asch and as one, we pumped our fists into the air in full support of our hot-blooded bug type pal. It was a shame that Dartz wouldn't let me change his name to "Kamina" after all of the vigorous encouragement I gave him in his pre-evolution stages. "That's right, Dartz! Your needles will pierce the heavens! That I promise you!" Asch happily nodded in full agreement while Epona exasperatedly sighed at our antics.
"You're just jealous that you can't join us." I smirked and shook my upraised fist for clarification. My Rapidash rolled her eyes and snorted in my face before clopping off to the side, just narrowly avoiding the pink blur that tackled my chest and would have knocked me on ass had I not been accustomed to their overzealous antics.
"Good job, Sylvie." I laughed and cradled my lovely pokémon.
"Syl~ Sylveon~!" She rubbed her cheeks against mine and made herself comfortable in my arms.
Asch grunted something over to Dartz, who buzzed about something back in a stilted way that had Asch tiredly glaring at Sylvie. My fairy type went from growling at both Dartz and Asch to Epona, who huffed something by my side.
"Okay, what's up? What exactly am I missing right now?"
"Syl-!" Asch's growling cut off whatever Sylvie was about to tell me before he pointed a claw out toward the rest of my pokémon who were lumbering their way over to me. I saw Kidd, Lenny, Sparrow, and-.
"Macaque!?" I blinked in surprise then back to Sylvie, who relished having my full attention. "How did you manage to find him?"
Rapidash snorted while Asch tapped his claw against the side of my head to remind me to focus. "Uh, right. Figuring out what the problem is…" I squinted my eyes and said, "Aren't they moving a little slow?"
A tap to my shoulder had me looking back to Asch. He points at his eyes then to Sylvie who was heatedly glaring at him. Slowly piecing it together, I noticed how fervently my rushing pokémon appeared as they came closer. The very same eyes that I felt on me were now solely focused on innocently smiling pokémon in my arms.
I groaned. "Sylvie… please tell me you didn't use Attract to gather the others."
"Sylveon?" She tilted her head in faux innocence.
"I know I said to gather everyone here, but I didn't mean for you to do it by force." I groaned and Sylveon visibly flinched back at my disappointment before hurrying to hop out of my arms. She barked once and all the attracted pokémon came to a halt right in front of us. Turning back to me, she began to explain herself and had me playing charades to figure out her excuse.
Asch played mediator for me just to fact check that whatever I interpreted was right, or whatever Sylvie spoke was the full truth.
Did she use Attract to gather everyone here? No. Which was technically true since I do have Asch, Epona, Thor, Leonardo, and Jubilee with me. It was still up in the air about Kamina's whereabouts, but knowing him…
"Scizor."
"Jesus Chr-!" I jumped in fright and whipped around to spot that my stalwart steel and bug type had materialized behind me on one knee. Taking a deep breath, I glared at him. "And of course you'd do that." I turned to Asch and Epona and pointed at the bowing Scizor. "Did neither of you see-?"
My Charizard and Rapidash shook their heads, but I didn't miss their twitching faces. I dirtily glared at them before returning to ask Sylvie my questions. I chose to be more specific this time.
I asked her if she informed the pokémon here at the Sanctuary of my arrival before using Attract on them.
She started barking her name only for Asch to growl which prompted her to growl back at him. I raised my hand to stop the beginning of an argument and tiredly looked to my Starter. "An explanation?"
Asch did his best to mime it out for me. He first pointed at my dazed Primeape before shaking his head and gesturing to the other attracted pokémon. Ah, so that's how it is. "Sylvie just because Macaque was the first one to refuse and not listen to you doesn't mean you should have escalated to use Attract on everyone on the jump after you did the same to him."
To be honest, I'm kind of happy that she managed to stumble upon Macaque so it could save me the trouble of finding him, but I couldn't condone the others getting done dirty like this. I sighed as Sylvie's ears and ribbons piteously flopped to the ground, obviously saddened by my scolding.
Picking her up into my arms, I gently ran my fingers through her fur. "I'm just disappointed, not mad." Apparently, that made her feel worse once she began to piteously croon in my arms. "However, next time please give the others some fair warning without forcing them here. I don't mind having to go out of my way to get them myself if they refuse to listen to you. Just remember that, okay?"
"S-Syl…" She nodded.
"Good." I scratched under her chin and that put a smile back on her face. Asch rolled his eyes at this in exasperation that I was letting this go, but I wasn't. If she were to do this again, I would legitimately get mad since I hate to repeat myself. Plus, I want to have faith that she learned her lesson. "Now could you please release the others so I can get everything ready?"
And so, Sylvie did without a moment's hesitation.
Back to his senses, Sparrow angrily squawked and quickly took the air to settle his nerves from the sudden Attract placed upon him.
Kidd just laughed it off and commended Sylvie with a deep bow in respect. I wasn't even surprised that he's praising her for successfully pulling off a dirty trick on him.
Lenny blinked, looked around and started to bounce in place. The ground shook under his massive weight. The big lug was just happy to see everyone again and immediately sent his tentacles out to try and grab the nearest person or pokémon to hug.
As for Macaque, well…
"Prrrrrrrime!"
"Macaque, you must chill!" I held Sylvie away from my raging Fighting type. He was the only one who took an extremely deep offense to Sylvie's usage of Attract on him. The effort it took to calm him down was minimal especially once he, a Primeape, refused to look me in the eye and look the other way in a huff. Good to know that he's still in a lovely mood after our loss at the conference.
"Syl~!" Sylveon smugly snickered something that had Macaque's large forehead vein growing larger and pulsing faster.
"You shush." I scolded the fairy type before she further aggravated the Primeape.
"…Sylveon…" Chastised, Sylvie pouted and slowly nodded.
I deeply inhaled and saved what I had to say about his recent behavior for later. This was supposed to be a reunion and so I released all the pokémon on me to join the others. Well, everyone save for Fafnir and Tempest were released. My big old Gyarados was still adjusting to living at the port and Dockmaster Aaron seemed to be needing his help with scaring away the unfriendly Sharpedos hanging around the town's beaches.
I stood back and watched the way that all my pokémon interacted with each other.
Happy to be around so many friendly faces at once, Jubilee took to the air to dance and joyously sing her name. Squawking in a panic, Sparrow was quick to follow her and keep a vigilant eye over the baby of the party as Mr. big tough bird hurried to keep pace and fly just below the innocent Togekiss. He was ready to catch her should she fall like those countless times when she was but a newly evolved Togetic. I laughed watching the Fearow act so protective of her like a guardian or older brother.
Leonardo emerged kneeling and reported to Kamina of his recent victories. Kamina was pleased and granted the Squirtle a slight nod before stoically standing guard by my side. To say that Leonardo wasn't trying to hold back his tears from the praise was an understatement. Dartz had even joined in on congratulating the Squirtle with a loud buzzing and righteous thrusting of his stingers to the sky.
Whatever effect the Beedrill's words had on Leonardo had encouraged the small turtle pokémon to energetically copy the poison-bug type and join in on thrusting his fist into the air. All of this happened while Kamina watched in exasperation, he didn't dare scold Leonardo since I cemented how great his efforts were when dealing with a probable conference leveled trainer's (I'll contact Joey later about that Aaron guy) Lucario and Flaaffy.
Electavire's emergence from his ultra ball was filled with laughter and violence. Once the electric type and Macaque's eyes met, a brawl ensued. The Electavire pounced on Macaque and got a few licks in before my Primeape countered with a couple of rapid punches to the face. I swear to Arceus that this always happens whenever the two meet.
Probably has to do with the fact that I went overboard when capturing Electavire as an Elekid with Primeape. It was overkill, but the electric type looked to have enjoyed his ass beating and willingly accepted to join my team for the chance to get his get back from Macaque. The rivalry made between the two was beneficial with how it pushed each other to rapidly grow, but the constant fighting did prove to be an annoyance when the time didn't call for their shenanigans.
Now the two of them were past trying to punch each other's heads off and resorted to a never-ending exchange of brutal suplexes that began to crater the entire field around us. Kidd was having the time of his life watching the two rubes duke it out while eating from a popcorn bag filled with berries. I gave up questioning where he pulled all those berries from since trying to figure EVERYTHING out about ghost types was a lost cause.
Letting everyone enjoy themselves for a little while, I signaled for Asch to gain their attention. The resulting roar and heat emitted from my Starter's Flamethrower had gotten everyone's attention. Silence filled the fields as my pokémon diligently strode over to me. With some protest from Sylvie, I placed her on the other side with the rest of them while Epona clopped over to join the others without my input.
Asch had dutifully remained by my side. As my starter, he was the leader of the pack that kept everyone in check and stood as a strong combatant that everyone strove to equal or surpass. Having my starter just as respected by the others like me, the trainer, was crucial in ensuring a stable hierarchy and lessening any serious in-fighting amongst the party.
Coughing, I took in everyone with a smile. "I'm so glad to be with all of you guys and see that you're doing well for yourselves." Everyone sans a grumpy Macaque vocally agreed with bigger smiles than my own.
"Although, I guess saying that everyone is here would be an error on my part. Tempest unfortunately couldn't join us today on account of his new digs at the port." I noticed a few of my pokémon sighing with even Kidd wiping some sweat off his brow (how a Gengar can even sweat was beyond me).
I nodded in sympathy for them. They all clearly missed him, and it was damn shame that Tempest couldn't be here. He would have been so happy to be around the others too. Oh well, I only hope that he's being the best sea monster that he can be by terrorizing those Sharpedos.
Though none took Tempest's absence worse than Thor, who wailed to the sky and fell to his knees. He repeatedly punched the ground mumbling something that had Epona and Kamina look him in exasperation. Sometimes I wish I could understand their language…
"I know, Thor, I know. I miss him too." I nodded. "But hey if you guys don't mind, we can move this meeting over to the port and check up on him. I'm sure he'll love-!" Thor enthusiastically jumped up with his arms high in agreement before Sylvie's ribbon-like tendrils snapped to wrap around his head and lull him to place mess on the ground without even looking at the electric type.
I would have chastised her then and there, but was too preoccupied with the likes of Leonardo, Kidd, Jubilee, Dartz, and Lenny coming over to give me a hug. Well, more like keep me in place. Lenny wasn't a surprise, and Jubilee just wanted to feel included and followed along. As for Kidd, Dartz, and Leonardo, they insistently shook their heads, and pointed down at the field.
Piecing it all together, I palm-fist tapped. "Ah, you guys are right. Going there now might get in the way of the devastation that he's wreaking upon his prey. We shouldn't be holding him back just because we miss him." I nodded. "I'm so sorry everyone, but let's wait until he's done getting cozy to visit him."
All the pokémon on me save for Lenny and Jubilee sighed in relief, much to my confusion.
After waking Electavire up and settling everyone down again, I pulled out Fafnir's pokeball and looked each of my pokémon in the eye. "The main reason I called you all here is to introduce a new member to the team."
"KISS!" Togekiss bounced in place and flew over to hover near my shoulder. Her eyes locked onto the pokeball holding her new potential friend.
"Easy, sweetie. He's a little shy, so let's give him some space, okay?" My youngest pokémon chirped and leaned into my scritches underneath her chin. She obeyed and flew back to the other side with the other pokémon. Sparrow sighed and rolled his eyes at the Togekiss' antics while Sylvie in annoyance begrudgingly glared at Jubilee and clicked her tongue.
To give everyone clarification, I explained everything regarding the recent trade I made with Clair, the inner-workings behind said trade, and the type of conditions that Fafnir had lived in and his current behavior. I was stern and unmoving when giving the likes of Sylvie, Macaque, Kidd, and Lenny a warning on not frightening him.
As the in-game pokédex entry for her species suggested, Sylvie was unafraid to face dragon-types and quite literally picked fights with them. This attitude of hers was instrumental in us picking off Clair's team at the conference as her disdain for the opposing typing and haughty attitude was enough to work up and lay low the prideful dragons. Now, I only wished for her to not show that anger towards Fafnir to avoid the little guy getting traumatized by the fairy type.
Macaque had to be given a line not to cross because once he heard Fafnir's typing all of that huffing and puffing, he did just to ignore me vanished. His eyes were now focused on the potential strong foe that could push him to his limits. Thankfully hearing of Fafnir's timidity killed the fighting type's interest super-fast.
Kidd should be obvious, so I'll leave the "whys" pertaining to the troublesome ghost type to your imagination.
Lenny was also obvious. His vines were too strong, and I don't want him accidentally hurting Fafnir in a bid to welcome his little friend with a big old bear hug.
My word alone was enough to have them take me seriously, and this authority was also solidified by Asch who growled and grunted his own experience with Fafnir as well. With the ground rules established, I gave an order to my three fastest pokémon in Epona, Kamina, and Dartz to be ready to intercept the Dratini should he flee with Extreme Speed.
Holding out his pokeball, I released Fafnir to the outside world. The small Dratini blinked and shook himself off before going stock still at the sight of all the larger pokémon surrounding him.
I quietly approached him. "Hey, Faffy." He shakily turned back to face me before devolving into a panicked pattern of keeping his eyes on my other pokémon then back to me. I-It's progress, at least he's not running off. Just gotta keep his attention on me.
Picking him up and into my arms seemed to do the trick as he seemed less tense. Also, any chance of running away would be difficult now. "Remember when I said that you'd be meeting the team today?" He shakily nodded. "Well, this is them. Say hello guys."
My pokémon happily gave their greetings to the shaking Dratini. The likes of Sylvie and Macaque were half-hearted at best in the case of the Primeape grunting at the dragon type and Sylvie sniffing her nose with a "hmph" and looking off to the side. This got me to sigh, but at least they were on their best behavior.
Time was set aside for my team to truly get to know Dratini before we delved into the other reason for this meeting. I gave Fafnir to Asch, and the Dratini was fast to wrap its body around the long neck of my Charizard. It was kind of adorable that Fafnir was already this close to Asch despite knowing him for two days. Yet when you look at it from his perspective, after being pushed around and beaten up by bigger dragon type pokémon would naturally have you seek the protection of another powerful pokémon who's willing to defend you.
Asch paid Epona's teasing whinnying no mind and slowly approached my team of pokémon. My starter took it upon himself to introduce Fafnir to everyone in increments than all at once to avoid overwhelming the little guy.
Epona and Kamina, two of the mature members of my team, were naturally the first ones to greet and introduce themselves to Fafnir. Kamina was curt and straight to the point, which didn't scare Fafnir off, but the steel-bug type's silence did intimidate him. Fafnir, however, was more receptive to Epona as the Rapidash calmly neighed and gently licked at the Dratini's cheek, earning Fafnir's adulating croons of laughter. There was some respect forged from their interactions that allowed Fafnir to let his guard down around them.
Next to introduce himself was Dartz, and Fafnir hilariously couldn't seem to grasp why the Beedrill kept thrusting his stinger in the air and passionately buzzing about something. Fafnir looked up to Asch for an explanation, but my Starter simply laughed and shrugged as if to say, "that's just Dartz". Fafnir still didn't seem to know what make of the Beedrill but greeted them back, still a little weirded out.
Following Dartz was supposed to be Leonardo, but Kidd appeared from thin air in front of the Squirtle and mischievously unhinged his jaw and rolled his tongue out at the Dratini to scare him. It certainly did work because Fafnir was gone from Asch's neck in a flash. The Gengar raucously laughed before earning a well-earned Fire Punch, Bullet Punch, and Thunder Punch from Asch, Kamina, and Thor respectively.
Thankfully Dartz was quick enough to capture the fleeing Dratini and bring him back to listen to Kidd's deepest apologies. Fafnir was still wary of the Ghost type, but the hilarious sight of Kid covered in bruises did lead him to accepting it.
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Leonardo was ecstatic to no longer be the newest guy in the team, and excitedly introduced himself to Dratini. His attempts to act cool and mysterious in front of his newest Junior flew out the window when he failed to do a backflip on got stuck wobbling on his shell. Fafnir laughed and in a cute display helped the embarrassed Squirtle up by headbutting his shell to move up. I laughed and knew that those were going to get along just fine.
Thor's introduction was fairly standard much to my surprise. He laughed and waved at the Dratini before leaving it at that. Dratini didn't seem to have much of a grasp of the electric type and was pushed along by Asch to interact with Jubilee and Sparrow now. Asch tossed the Electavire a warning look that had the electric type laughing. Confused, I observed Electavire a bit more closely and noticed how his red eyes never left Dratini and how both of his fists were clenched and releasing smalls pops of sparks. Ah, looks like Thor was going to long game until Fafnir evolved into a Dragonite to face him.
Now Fafnir and Jubilee's first-time meeting didn't go as I expected. I thought that Sparrow would be the one to scare the little noodle off, but no, it was Jubilee. My sweet Togekiss was hyper enthused to finally befriend the small Dratini and her bubbly attitude overwhelmed the Dratini enough to run away and hide behind Asch. Shocked, Jubilee tried again and was met with similar results.
It was so bad that she nearly cried from the rejection of friendship and looked to Sparrow for help. The Fearow simply sighed and squawked something to her before shaking his head. Tearing up, she immediately rushed to my side and started balling her eyes out. I huffed and consoled my big crying baby.
"Shh…it's okay. Remember what I said about not overwhelming him? That's why..."
"K-Kiss…" She whimpered.
"I know you want to be friends, but you can't be so pushy. I know you didn't mean anything mean by it, but Faffy's been pushed around so much by mean pokémon in his life that he just can't tell the difference yet." I whispered more words of encouragement and gave her a pat to the head to cheer her up enough to start giggling.
Jubilee and Fafnir did try to get to know each other again, and things worked out fine. My little girl took my words to heart and cleverly Asch was able to convince Fafnir to give her a chance. Sparrow was gruff yet welcoming to the Dratini after Jubilee was able to befriend the new addition.
I had to step in to slowly help Lenny properly hug Dratini with his thinner vines and surprisingly Dratini found the big guy to be delightful with all the tickles that he received from the grass type.
Macaque didn't react much to the Dratini beyond a grunt, and Sylvie's only form of acknowledgement was a roll of the eyes, a pat to the Dratini's head, and a loud yawn. She trotted over to me and happily leant against my leg, baying for head pats that I begrudgingly gave for her adequate behavior.
Thirty minutes later and Fafnir seemed about as acquainted with the others as he could be, but he still didn't pull himself from Asch's side (or should I say neck?). These things take time so there was no need to rush because now was the time to get shit done.
I loudly whistled and earned everyone's attention back to myself. "Good. I am glad that you all are getting along with our new friend swimmingly well, but we do have other matters to get to. Preferably one that deals with a potential battle that's sure to fall on my lap any time soon." I snickered as all of my pokémon excitedly leaned in at the prospect of getting chosen.
Pulling out some chalk, I instinctively looked for my old chalkboard before remembering that I didn't carry my bag with me, thus it was at home. Great. I groaned and looked over my shoulder at Prof. Oak's lab which was a considerable distance away from here but not TOO far. Still, it was far, and I didn't want to go there and back just to borrow one of their chalk boards.
Snapping my fingers and pointing to the ground behind me, I ordered. "Rock Tomb."
Without blinking, I faced the massive boulder that was a mere foot away from crushing me and happily waved back to the pokémon responsible. "Thanks, Asch." I drew two tables with one carrying the title of "Clair" and the other having the title of "Training Exercises".
"All of you are familiar with Clair, yes?" I didn't need to turn around to know that all of them nodded. Certainly didn't need to hear Sylvie's growling to know that she'd never forget the blunette either. "Good because she's bound to come back to challenge me again after her business with her clan is done. Which is why we're going to prepare for her."
Sylvie proudly puffed out her chest.
"Yes, I know. You were the actual key to beating her team last time, but we can't just be relying on just you, Sylvie." Sylvie huffed and clicked her tongue. My smile fell as I dropped all pretense of joviality, "Our main advantage was her underestimating our skill and the "mystery" behind our effective tactics against her dragons. Clair's certainly arrogant but never a fool. She will wise up to our old tricks and develop counters for them. That is why we'll have to set up a new strategy just for her."
Sylvie solemnly nodded and listened to my every word with rapt attention.
I nodded and faced the others. "Now I severely doubt that she'll be making use of Aerodactyl for this rematch." Asch, Sparrow, Macaque, Sylvie, and Kidd heatedly glared at nothing as hostility filled the air. It was good to know that five of the six pokémon that struggled with me during that tragic fall in Grampa Canyon shared my same disdain for that flying rocky bastard.
Jubilee squirmed from all of the negativity emanating from them and it took me placating the others to get her to calm down.
"The punk's too wild and viscous to straight up use in a battle that quickly. It'll take time, and besides they have plans for propagating his kind." Jubilee and Leonardo innocently tilted their heads at this while Sylveon and Macaque looked visibly disgusted at the news of Aerodactyl's future reproduction plans.
Kidd darkly cackled and started doing things with his hand-! Oh, dear god not in front of Jubilee. "Sylvie, please smack Kidd upside the head."
*SMACK!* "Geng!"
"Thank you, Sylvie." I returned to detailing each of Clair's pokémon: Dragonair (her starter), Dragonite (Sp. Atk. focus on Ice type moves), Dragonite (Sp. Atk. focus on Electric type moves), Gyarados, Kingdra, and Altaria.
"These pokémon are the guys that we defeated last time, and I doubt Clair will be using the same line up as before. Dragonair is an obvious stay in her team, and no doubt at least one Dragonite will remain as well. Her Gyarados is pretty 50/50, it took Dartz and Thor to soften it up before I switched them out for Sylveon's debut and wiped it out." Beedrill's toxic and Electavire's type advantage had softened that serpent of hers just enough for Sylvie to finish it off with a stalling Attract + Draining Kiss tactic. From there I only had faith in Sylvie's capabilities and typing to get me through the rest of the match as I was down one substitution to her untouched three.
"Altaria's a definite no after how quickly Sylveon dispatched of her after Gyarados's defeat. The shame of that quick loss was the key to rock Clair off her game. Kingdra is in the same boat as Gyarados since she plans to stack two water types against Asch." I mulled it over and rubbed my chin. "If I were Clair…"
Come on, I have to try and be in her shoes. It doesn't have to be a perfect one to one, but any form of perspective is better than going in blind. "I'd work to overcome the embarrassing loss to an old foe by working to utterly dominate them." Urgh, that much should be clear, but what else?
"And for the foe that caused me such humiliation, I'll plan to…" I thought real hard on whatever plan that she had in store before a thought came to mind. Thoughts from my old life's experience with the games and the likelihood that Clair would be petty enough to pull it off. "Overwhelm you with a similar face."
I looked at Asch, who curiously blinked at me.
I did find it odd that neither Clair nor Lance had used an Aerodactyl or Charizard in their respective League sanctioned battles before. The reasoning why went above me since I thought they wouldn't be picky about having any pokémon that resembled a dragon despite their typing. Clair specifically, I wouldn't put it past her to start training up a Charmander just to spite me and throw me off kilter.
And…
I really had to dig deeper for why "Charizards" and the "Blackthorn Clan" seemed to fit so well together.
"Wasn't there an episode in the anime where…?" I trailed off and pulled out a specific letter with the insignia of a red flame on it. One of the many letters that were sent to me during my long period of recuperation. "Asch, looks like we'll be heading to Johto for a while."
Without question my Charizard dutifully nodded. I once told him about the invitation in passing and the specifics, but I'm sure he's gotten the gist of our plans. "And Epona, we also got a letter from the Laramie Family." The flames of my Rapidash's mane excitedly grew a hotter degree. "Its nothing serious so it'll be a good first stop to take before we head out."
In high spirits she neighed and looked about ready to go running laps around the whole of Pallet Town at the prospect of returning home.
Now before everyone got too excited about the prospect of travelling, I had to remind them that we had to focus on getting back in order. I don't doubt that they neglected their individual training, but we must move back into the swing of things about training as a whole unit. So, these next couple of days will be spent on basic training just to recount that none of them had gotten rusty with some of their moves and haven't gotten soft with the resistance training.
And so, I started with Resistance training much to a few of their grievances since it was NOT a fun training exercise to do but that was of great necessity. I separated the groups who had a type of advantage against those with their respective type weaknesses and set them off to practice. The prospect of how well each pokémon does in the coming days would better their chances of being picked for the Clair battle.
I advised Asch to keep an eye on Fafnir as he was only tasked to observe for today. My Charizard gruffly agreed before shooting the laughing Thor a glare for the surprise Thunderbolt to the back. Asch didn't flinch nor were his scales burned, which was a testament to his harsh training, but the pain was still present.
Watching them all go; I was left with the one pokémon that I held back.
Crossing my arms, I looked down at Primeape who refused to look me in the eye. "Now what have you been up to lately…?"
"…"
"Not even going to say anything? Fine. I'll get my answers another way then." I observed my Primeape closely and noticed something off about his fur. Reaching out, I slowly reached out and plucked a couple of strands out.
"Grey fur?"
"Prrrime…!" He grunted and turned the other way.
"It's either your anger is stressing you out, your way older than you appear, or…" I narrowed my eyes to him. "You've been deliberately disobeying my order not to use Rage Fist."
"…"
"Fine." I sighed. "If you're going to be this way then don't expect to be selected for the battle with Clair or any of my upcoming ventures to Johto." All that bitter silence melted away into absolute lividness as Macaque whipped around to growl at me. Good, I was finally getting a reaction out of him.
"Then stop it! We've already talked about this. You are not allowed to use Rage Fist until we've figured out it's whole deal!" Macaque angrily stamped his fist. "The risk just isn't worth it, Macaque. We can't rush it and hope for the best!"
"Prrrrimeape!" He angrily gestured to Thor and Jubilee.
"Jubilee wasn't at risk with her evolution, and as for Thor…" I trailed off and lightly winced. "Okay I don't have an excuse for that. I'd like to call that a calculated risk, but I had nearly blinded myself and Thor would have died from all that electricity if we had overdone it." I can admit to when I screwed up, it wasn't a foreign concept to me. Hell, I've learned to swallow that bitter pill for 25 years of my previous life. "However, that's a poor excuse. Why would I just let you go on and use Rage Fist right after seeing how disastrous it is on your body?"
I cursed my ignorance when I willfully told Macaque all about the meta-knowledge I had of his species and their as of yet to be discovered third evolution, Annihilape. Shadow Claw + Fire Punch. It was a combination move that we worked so hard to master, and when we did, we placed all of our efforts in honing the ghost type energy from Shadow Claw and severely shaved down the fire type energy of Fire Punch. Having Kidd to help coach Macaque on Ghost type moves helped the process along.
The fruits of our labor took form when we battled that emotionless doll of a gym leader in Saffron City. That was the first gym before Viridian City that pushed us toward our breaking point. Memories of watching that petulant doll laughing as the girl that held it unleashed her ace, an Alakazam that was tailored for 7 badged trainers instead of 6 badges. To this day, I've never felt so much catharsis watching Macaque narrowly secure our victory by unlocking Raging Fist to pummel the hell out of that broken Alakazam.
It at least felt right to think of that as one of the few good memories during my time in Saffron. The others were far from ever being pleasant.
More thoughts came to the forefront of my mind pertaining to the image of a twisted and torn doll ominously resembling my childhood friend, the frightened cries, and tears of a pathetic girl whose first taste of emotion in years was pure fear, and the delightful look of sheer horror that she exhibited after digging far deeper than she had any right to and saying too much that was intended to push me too far.
I deeply inhaled and soothed my nerves. Clenching the fist that broke that pitiful child's unchallenged arrogance was always enough to calm me down.
Sadly, that moment of triumph with Rage Fist didn't carry over too well into our eighth gym battle against the bastard Don himself. Our efforts to defeat his Eighth badge team was hard fought but a smashing success thanks to Macaque's effort. I didn't even need to use Asch until that bastard gym leader started having different plans for me after pulling his secret "trump" card.
Like a fool, I thought the metaknowledge would be 100% accurate if I had just ordered Macaque to keep spamming Rage Fist on the armored juggernaut we faced at Viridian. 20 times. If he could land Rage Fist that many times, then he could evolve and turn the tables.
We were successful on that part, and Macaque fell. Like the fool I patiently waited for him to get up. He didn't. Then I had to deal with Giovanni's insufferable gloating about how I had foolishly led my own Primeape to his own self-inflicted death while Asch and I had to fight for our literal lives just to eke out a win and show the smug prick up.
"We were so caught up in doing what we thought would work without considering the finality of the ramifications." I unconsciously rubbed my upper right chest down to my lower abdomen, searching for the holes that once riddled my body – my old body – just before I had passed onto this life. "Macaque, you almost killed yourself fighting Mewt-."
"Prrrrrime!" My pokémon defiantly shook his head.
I looked him dead in the eye and nodded. "Yes, you did." Call me harsh, but I don't ever mince words about the dead or those who were close to place one foot in the grave. Death is a harsh reminder that reaches us all. I have the misfortune of experiencing it twice whenever this new life ends, and I want Macaque to somewhat get that without having to live(die?) through it like me.
It was considered a royally stupid move to stare a Primeape in the eye. To them it was a sign of provocation and thus a challenge. It was because of this eye contact that I accidentally made with Macaque as a Mankey on Route 1 that had forced our paths to cross as he and his whole pack of Mankey attacked Asch (Charmander), Sparrow (Spearow) that led to his inevitable capture. Since then, I've learned a thing or two and that was to NOT back down.
It was an oxymoron just to stare down an easily provoked and enraged pokémon until they back down and stowed away their fury. Yet it had worked, to a degree. Macaque stopped glaring at me with rage so hot that it could burn me where I stood.
He faced away from me and huffed to himself.
I sighed. "Macaque you're one of the strongest pokémon I have in my party up just behind Asch." Macaque angrily twitched and yet I kept going, ignoring his small one-sided beef with my starter. "So, know that whether you had used Rage Fist during the Finals does not change the valiant efforts you made against Reggie's Infernape."
Macaque's shoulders momentarily slumped at the mention of his loss before they stubbornly tensed up again. The loss to the Sinnoh starter would always weigh heavily on his mind. It's the reason why he's been acting up in the first place.
"And please don't take your anger out on Leonardo by snubbing him like you did after the Conference. He worked hard and it was Asch and I's decision to field him."
Macaque remained unmoving, but I did see his ear twitch in acknowledgement of my words. Now whether he would heed them was a different story.
"Look, I've also heard word from Mr. Gabe that he spotted you near Pallet Peaks. Is that true?"
"…"
"You know I'm starting to get tired of you doing that…" I groaned. "Can you at least tell me if you were responsible for the Golem and Graveler that fell down and terrorized the pokémon below?"
Macaque furiously shook his head.
"Well, that's comforting." Also, I don't have to go out and apologize to Ranger Gabe for a screw up that my pokémon did; I already deal with enough of that at home with mom so that was a relief. "So, can you tell me why you were off Sanctuary grounds and near Pallet Peaks? Was it to practice Rage Fist?"
"…"
Ugh. "Look, I won't pry since I've already done enough of that already. However, I'm going to give you a choice. If you want to engage in the future battle against Clair, then stop using Rage Fist until I explicitly give you actual permission." Macaque slightly turns to face me. "I'll work on figuring a way to confirm if we're doing things right than halting its use altogether. If you can live up to your end of this deal then I guarantee you'll be selected for the Clair rematch, understand?"
Macaque took a while to respond before slowly nodding. "Prime…"
I sighed in relief. "That's good. Nice that we can finally see eye to eye again. Now…" I loudly clapped my hands and pointed to the rest of my team hard at work. "Lets get to training!"
"Prrrrrimeape!" And like that he's off and quickly piled in to join Asch and Thor's training. Except he jumped in the middle of Thor firing a Thunderbolt, got pissed and started another fight with the Electavire. Asch and Fafnir watched this from the sidelines until I had to step in and get everyone back on track.
Today's basic training was less intensive than the old ones when we were travelling on the road during our first Circuit. Everyone's display of power, speed, defense and accuracy remained the same with some minor improvements since the break. Combination moves for Leonardo were a work in progress as he still hasn't gotten down the Ice Aqua Jet.
Fafnir was excited to join in the training, but I had to stop him since we had to build up more from what he already knows and wait until his next shedding to truly begin. His scales were still old and chipped, so we wanted to reduce the risk of him getting harmed. To keep him preoccupied I told him to start small and try to learn Wrap by trying to choke the life out of Asch's huge ankles.
My Charizard awkwardly watched the noodle try in vain to inconvenience him while trying to focus on his own training. It was quite funny to watch. It was a damn shame that I couldn't bring Angel to make use of her Gravity move and up the ante, but like I said, today was for the basics. Going forward we would go back to doing Resistance training, a Combination moves workshop, and hopefully Gravity training.
Time went by real fast as I started getting into the nitty gritty of perfecting Thor's Magnet Rise, so that he could mimic the ability to fly rather than levitate in place like a sitting duck. I had Sparrow leave our training early to stand watch at Ash's school as he was ordered to usually do on the off chance that school ended early or should something/someone suspicious turn up there.
Call me paranoid or overprotective, but I'd rather be paranoid about the safety of my little brother than simply be lax and later panic should anything troublesome happen. And knowing my brother's record, trouble was always liable to happen should we take our eyes off him for even a moment.
My mind wandered to other things as I focused on my pokémon's training. In particular, the owner of the very Sanctuary that we found ourselves on. "I wonder if Prof. Oak is enjoying his day off. Probably must be bored out of his mind with having no research to do."
----------------------------------------
"C'est magnifique!"
"I take it that these findings are to your liking, Sycamore?" Prof. Samuel Oak chuckled as he reclined back in his bed, surrounded by folders, books, and coffee-stained papers.
"You have no clue, Samuel. This is just what I needed for my research, the data models and the qualitative information provided by your sponsored trainer could finally be the push I need to confirm my hypothesis and go public with my report."
Prof. Oak smiled. "So does this mean you're willing to consider backing my sponsored trainer for the near future?"
"With this boon of data that you've brought to me, it would be poor of me to not compensate the both of you." His old friend's smile was accompanied by a frown. "Though I'm afraid that I can't promise anything concrete just yet. Our league's still weary about opening our borders to the others so trying to provide permission for one trainer is going to be a difficult task to push for the other members of the league's council."
"Quite. Rowan faced similar issues too in the past. It wasn't until last year that he finally got enough leeway to send one of his older sponsored trainers over to Kanto." Oak had felt bad that he kept such information in regard to Luke's final opponent in last year's conference a secret. Yet keeping such secrets were vital for providing the structure for a stronger and unified League.
Though Samuel doubted that Luke minded, he took his loss in the Finals in stride much to his disbelief and relief. The boy was no longer visibly hounded by the loss his family suffered with Asch's passing, and that was a comfort for Samuel. He swore to himself and an old friend that he would never see a child carry such a crippling burden. That isn't to say that boy's issues weren't lingering, but Samuel was optimistic enough to digress and accept when was progress was made.
His colleague's eyes widened. "That's right. No wonder that young man seemed so familiar. I'm impressed that Rowan's trainer was able to best his second conference and so fast."
"Well, you know Rowan. Leave it to him to choose only his most studious students to make a lasting impression." The sight of foreign pokémon combating the Indigo Conference's finest trainers and entering a grueling battle with Luke's pokémon in the finals did cause an uproar amongst the people of Kanto and Johto. Yet the intrigue of these pokémon sparked the interest of these very same people.
Now everyone here in the united regions was curious and demanding answers that the Indigo League weren't going to spill until the moment was right. Oak deeply sighed about the strain placed upon the League's president and Champion. A part of Samuel was glad that he wasn't in Muramasa's shoes right now, but he sent his regards for the who had proven himself a worthy successor to the title.
As for the League's president, he was sure that good reliable Goodshow was providing the best support he can as the Head of the Pokémon League's Conference Committee, but even he couldn't deny that she had her limits.
…
"I should remind Daisy to grab Gary and give Pyrrha a call."
"What was that Samuel?" His friend questioned him on the other side of the video call.
Samuel waved him off. "It's nothing. Just the worried ramblings of a senile old man." Samuel pondered on something.
"So, I take it that the delay with convincing your League would kill his chances of competing there this year?"
"No, it will mean that he'll be extremely late to compete this year. If to estimate…" His colleague muttered to himself before answering, "I'd say he would have four months in all."
Samuel inhaled sharply as his friend laughed bitterly.
"I know, I know. I'm afraid this is the best I can do with the time I was given. Rowan took five years to convince Sinnoh to at least consider sending one of their own to your region. I'm given a shorter timeframe which would normally be killing your trainer's chances of coming here so early. Thankfully a miracle came in the form of another council member taking an interest in your trainer."
Oak blinked. "Really?"
"I was surprised too, but this council member has been of great help once I proposed to potentially be backing a trainer from Kanto. Haven't the foggiest idea how he perfectly guessed it would be your trainer that I was interested in supporting, but it looked like he's a big fan of him. He wouldn't stop praising how "beautiful" of a supernova he was during last year's Indigo League Conference."
Samuel nodded. "I see. This council member seems to be quite…eccentric."
His friend shook his head. "Certainly, but I'm sure you'd get along with him once you've gotten to know him."
Somewhere inside Oak, he wanted to agree but found himself questionably hesitant to do so. "So, four months… this is quite the conundrum. Are there any conditions that he must complete for his visit there?"
"Apart from not making any trouble, then no. Making a name for himself over here and leaving a lasting impression would better benefit your League in convincing mine to open their boarders. Though if I may suggest, be sure that your officials inform ours that they're considering Galar to be the next region considered to be merged with yours. That ought to light a fire under them."
Samuel nervously laughed with the sheer intensity behind his friend's words. It seemed that peace had failed to dull the high tensions between Galar and Kalos since the two great wars. "I'll be sure to inform Pyrrha of the advice."
"See that you do please." His friend frowned. "As for the inconvenience that your trainer will experience, I apologize. You coming to me with this data is going to be a godsend for my research, and it pains me that the region he wanted to go to the most will be a short venture."
When Samuel had asked Luke for the regions that he wanted to visit the most, he was quite surprised to find that his list included: Orre (Oak wouldn't entertain this choice), Kalos, Sinnoh, and Alola. Most of these regions weren't even public knowledge unless you searched for them and knew what to search for.
Oak would have to blame old Sergeant Grouse for going on a tangent about his old missions during the first war. The older man just didn't know when to keep such confidential matters on the hush-hush around the Ketchum kids when begrudgingly volunteering to babysit for Delia back in the day. This didn't quite resolve all of Oak's questions regarding his old student's knowledge of the regions, but he's learned to deal with it.
Besides, he's seen weirder back in his hay day and chose to turn a blind eye on the odd behavior of the Ketchum household's firstborn child. Sammy has always been one to express gratitude to his friends…and the friends of his grandchildren.
"Which is why, I'm willing to provide whatever I can as compensation for his unacceptable short stay here. Does have anything that comes to mind…?"
Samuel shook his head then paused as an old memory arose. Memories of when he'd leave last year's students to study in his lab. He played enrichening piano music in the hope that it would soothe their woes. It did except for one child who looked terrified and unconsciously kept drawing pictures of a pokémon that he should have no knowledge of at all. Another oddity that Oak chose to ignore.
Samuel started. "Well, I might have an inkling of an idea. But first, do you still possess your starter?"
"Hah, as if I could ever part with Nessy. Mon compagnon et moi sommes inseparables."
"Then yes, Sycamore, there is something that you can provide for my sponsored trainer." Samuel happily spilled the beans and laughed along with Sycamore about the ease of which he can fulfill the request. The two kept the talk going, trading any findings of their research in the hopes that it can help the other until it came time to say their goodbyes then log off.
Samuel lazily crumpled back down into bed to look up at the ceiling in a daze. "Ah, I forgot to ask Sycamore if any guests could accompany Luke for the trip. Sorry, Daisy…" He yawned. "I certainly hope that she won't catch wind of this."
"She might."
"Urk!" Samuel felt a chill down his spine as he sat straight up like nail to look his stunningly beautiful and terrifying daughter-in-law in the eye. Her smile was radiant, but the sheer fury behind those brown pools for eyes had him more scared stiff.
The tray filled in her hands slightly rattled in her clenched hands as she angrily took in all of the paperwork and filed in his mess of a room. "Father-in-law, you wouldn't happen to be working yourself to the bone despite this being your day-off, are you?"
"W-Wait, Willow!" Prof. Oak gulped and nervously laughed. "I-I can explain?"
Later that day, Gary and Daisy returned home to find their grandfather, on his knees with his head to the ground, begging their pouting and fuming mother for forgiveness. Their grandfather's Alakazam, Zam, watched all of the proceedings with a cup of coffee while simultaneously doing a crossword puzzle and a booklet of sudoku with his psychic powers. The children of the household took in the scene, shrugged at each other, then joined their father for the dinner that their mother had prepared for them beforehand.
For them it was just another day in the Oak Residence.