Arun whistled in amazement as he stared at the stump Valor had left ruined.
“That Bullet Seed really packs a punch, huh?” He complimented, receiving a wave of happiness in return.
It was surprisingly easy to find a spot to ‘train’ in. The city was off-limits for obvious reasons, but the route outside had dozens of small clearings created by trainers in the past in order to prepare themselves for the league. He’d already passed by a couple trainers already, most asking for a battle, but he’d declined, too worried about Valor’s injury to test him against a strong opponent.
He walked over to the stump as his little Acorn soaked in the sun rays, he did that a lot, Arun noticed. Talia said it was a way for them to grow whatever that meant. He never really got the chance for a better explanation, a trainer walked in with a poisoned Shinx and she went right to business. Maybe it was just his way of getting energy? Healing? He didn’t really know what, but Valor seemed to enjoy it so he let it happen.
Crouching he picked up one of the pellets, inspecting its structure. It was a round thing, rough around the edges, unlike any seed he’d ever seen in his life. Then again, he was a city kid, so he didn’t really know what the average seed looked like.
Squeezing his palm didn’t crush the projectile, so he stepped on it instead, pressing the seed in between the stump and his heel. After a few moments there was a crunch, Arun lifting his foot to find the seed in pieces. Despite being called Bullet Seed it appeared the pellet was hollow, though the fact that it was so durable could open some opportunities for him.
“Valor.” He asked, turning to his little friend, “Think you can change the shape of the Bullet Seed?”
Uncertainty. Unsure. What should I make?
“This seed here.” Arun picked up another pellet from the ground, “Can you make it sharper? Sort of compress the top so it ends in a point.”
It was the simplest of ideas, concentrating the point of impact into a smaller area to deal more damage. It was the basis of spears, arrows, and even bullets if you excluded musket ammo. It wasn’t very bright, but it was a start, he wanted to know how far he could stretch Valor’s abilities.
Speaking of, his partner was currently furrowing his brow, face locked in concentration as he attempted to process the request. Eventually Valor shot out a stream of Bullet Seeds, all of which thudded into the broken stump once more.
“Hmmm, no dice huh?”
Frustration. I’m sorry.
“Don’t apologize, it’d be crazy if I thought you could get it right away. Keep trying, let’s see what you got.”
2 hours.
2 hours of constant Bullet Seeds and Valor’s frustration at being unable to complete the request, despite Arun’s insistence it was ok. At the very least Valor’s accuracy improved, Arun making him aim at various targets at different ranges, as well as ones that moved. No Pokémon, he still wasn’t risking Valor with his injury, but falling leaves and the like were suitable enough for now.
Annoyance from Valor. This is impossible!
“Not impossible, just unobtainable right now. Come on, take a break with me, have some water.”
He’d gone over the basics of caring for Valor with Talia, what food he could eat, what he should be eating. Valor’s small frame meant that he didn’t have to eat too much all the time, but when he did eat it should be foods that had natural sugars and plenty of vitamins.
Fruit, basically.
The biggest issue was that Sinnoh-or the rest of the Pokémon world for that matter-didn’t have fruit. They had berries, and sure, while novel, and downright miraculous in the way they worked, could never substitute for a nice, juicy, mango.
Closest thing they had at the moment were Pecha's he’d bought off at a discounted price from Joy, and he laid them out on a plate before sitting down in the grass next to Valor. He’d sliced them into long cuts as his mother did back when he was just a boy, and he couldn’t help but smile as he remembered the way she always fussed about his eating habits. “Too messy.” She’d always complain, wiping his fruit stained mouth and hands with baby wipes before he got them dirty again.
She was always very fussy over them, worrying and constantly meddling into their business. At the time, Arun felt it was an annoyance, especially during University, what 20 year-old wanted their mother calling them when they were out having fun?
He wished he was nicer to her.
He wished he could tell her he was sorry for being such an irresponsible son, for rarely keeping his promises to her, and for failing to live up to her expectations. Most of all though, he wanted to tell her he was sorry for failing to protect Pranav, not being there by his side when he was needed the most.
Arun let out a sigh, absently resting his hand on Valor’s head as took a bite of another Pecha slice. In the Before…well, before the bombs, he was the irresponsible one. The one that made mistakes. He’d made it into Engineering school, his parents were proud, but after that? Late nights, parties, going out with girls, he’d done everything except study. It was just so easy, when you were surrounded by people who only wanted to have fun, you felt like you had no choice but to go with the flow after that.
“Get your head in the fucking game, Arun!” He still remembered Pran’s words, after his brother found him hungover a day before his exams. “You keep acting like this because your friends do, well guess what? We aren’t like them Arun! We don’t have people who are going to always take care of us! Who’s going to deal with you after our parents are gone? When we’re married with our own families? Are you gonna force our younger sisters to help you? Is that what you want? To be taken care of all the time?”
Harsh words, but they sobered him up. He’d quit drinking completely, focused hard on making a better future for himself and his family. Even now, he’d do the same, it was the same story, different game–pun intended.
Worry, from Valor. You ok?
Arun smiled, his partner was getting good at picking up his emotions now. He sent a wave of warmth back confirming he was okay, before standing and stretching.
“Alright, that’s a decent enough break for now. I’m feeling a bit restless, you?”
Valor chirped in agreement, finishing the last Pecha slice.
“Hell yeah, let’s work your Rollout buddy, see if we can get some more accuracy in that one.”
He needed to be there for Pranav, to stand side by side as his equal as they made their way up in this world. He needed to be a better trainer for Valor, help him gain the confidence he needed to fight in battle. He needed to be resolute, determined, ready to take on the world, because the world was always pitting itself against them.
“I’ll do it.” He promised himself, “I’ll make it so that nobody can hurt us again.”
And nothing would stand in their way.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Felis didn’t really remember too much about his time playing the Gen 4 games. He remembered his favorite Pokémon, for sure, his starter, the stupid ass names he’d given his “rival”. He remembered Team Galactic, and the basics of their plan. He remembered every single one of them was a little egotistical, all on board with the “new world order”, doing bad shit to Pokémon, the likes.
Now, his memory was a little fuzzy, but he was pretty sure Grunts never went bowling.
“Fuck!” Jaxon cursed, as the Voltorb looking ball missed the grey pins, ending his turn.
Felis sat there confused, watching as apparent evil-doers did the most bare-bones basic ass activity known to Western civilization. Oh you and your friends wanna do something cool after school? Go bowling. Got a date you wanna talk to but also do something mildly interesting together? Go bowling. Got a little sister’s birthday you wanna celebrate, but don’t wanna spend too much? Go bowling. The list went on and on, and apparently, it included “hanging out with the new guy”.
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“Sucks to suck.” Elys said in mock disappointment, Jaxon only flipping her off in response. She rose with confidence as the tv screen indicated it was her turn, grabbing the ball and preparing her throw…
Straight into the gutter.
“Sucks to su-OW!” Jaxon yelped as his sister grabbed his ear.
See! That! What the fuck was that? These were the people who were going to jump a 10 year old? These were the stupid fuckers going around, stealing Pokémon, blowing up lakes, and capturing legendries?
“So why’d you guys join Galactic?” Felis asked, causing the siblings to stop arguing against one another.
An easy question, an innocent question, one that would give him a lot of answers.
“Money.” Jaxon said.
“Money.” Elys echoed.
“Hmmm,” Emily actually seemed to consider the question for a moment, “I guess I just…wanted to make a difference for Sinnoh, this seemed like the best place to do it.”
“They were hiring, guess I just wanted to do something with Pokémon.”
Felis stared at them, his mind going a mile a minute. What? These bland reasons were why they joined a literal fucking cult? That didn’t make sense! Every instinct in him fired off warning signals, they were lying, they had to be.
“Are you kidding?” Felis laughed, an easy smile plastered over his face, before bringing his voice low so that the other lanes wouldn’t hear, “We’re going into a fight, guys. With Chronos? You can’t tell me you’re willing to risk your lives ‘cause of that.”
He couldn’t be outright suspicious, obviously. Instead he’d play his role, the friendly new guy from out-of-town, he could ask some questions.
“Felis…just how safe do you think anyone really is?” Hazel asked.
Huh?
“Huh?” He echoed his thoughts aloud.
“There’s maybe…20 settlements throughout Sinnoh?” Hazel continued, “Maybe more if you count the people who try to build their own, but that’s a whole other story. Anyways, most of Sinnoh is wildlife dude, and sometimes Pokémon get angry.”
“What, like they battle or something?”
“No, they destroy. Sometimes a punk trainer steals an egg from a mother, or interrupts a Drapion during mating season."
"That was one time!" Jaxon complained.
"Pokémon are intelligent definitely," Hazel continued, ignoring him, "but they’re still wild, they value strength over other things. We had an incident last year, I think, there was a Gyrados by the docks.”
“Oh I was there!” Jaxon grinned, “Some fuckers were constantly harrassing this Magikarp for some time, I guess eventually it evolved and came right back here, breaking and smashing things apart, the Boss was livid.”
“Holy shit…” Felis whispered, “What happened to those guys?”
“Eaten. First to go actually.”
It wasn’t the fact that people had died that got to Felis, he’d seen death, hell, he’d caused death. It was the way these guys were just so…nonchalant about it that got to him. How could they be so casual about it?
“It gets worse during Circuit time.” Hazel said, “With all the young trainers out and about, kids make mistakes, kids go missing.”
Felis stared, “You’re telling me 10 year olds are fucking dying to get gym badges?”
“10? What? No! They gotta be at least 15.”
Whoopdie fuckin’ doo.
“Did…” He hesitated, “Did any of you lose people?”
The energy instantly went somber, Jaxon, Elys, and Hazel all glanced at Emily.
“2 Brothers.” She said, with a smile that Felis could tell was built to comfort those around her. It didn’t, “I was about 12 at the time, my mother made them go together, to be safer. They found Elton’s body in Eterna about a year later, still no trace of Eren.”
“I’m sorry.” Felis said, and he meant it. “Losing family must be hard.”
“I’m over it now, so don’t worry. Though I guess that ties into why I wanted to work at Galactic. They’re making things easier for future trainers with their tech, that’ll mean less accidents.”
Okay, he crossed Em’s reason off the ‘bullshit’ list, the others he wasn’t so sure of though.
“Damn…” He sighed aloud, “I still don’t see why you guys would choose to fight a literal gang war though, I mean how do you guys even go about doing this without anybody realizing?”
All of them were grateful for the sudden shift in conversation, as he knew they’d be. Swapping from something heavy to something they could easily talk about made it easier to spill info.
“I’m actually a little curious about that myself.” Elys said, “When we did butt heads way back, it was usually just a quick skirmish, nothing real. Maybe some destroyed property but that’s about it. You know anything Hazel?”
Hazel said nothing for a moment, staring at Felis curiously before answering, “Nothing comes to mind right away. But I’m guessing we’ll use the forests and keep away from cities. Could be wrong though.”
“You guys confident?” Felis asked, nodding to Aken who had taken to scaring children from the rafters, though he appeared annoyed that they’d rather play peek-a-boo, “Aken’s good…”
“But he’s still young.” Elys finished.
“Probably lower class 2 by now though…” Jaxon hummed.
Right, that was the level system here, Arun explained it to him already.
“I guess I just want to know what level your Pokémon are at.” Felis continued, “Make sure I’m up to match.”
“Guess that makes sense. Most of us are lower class two right now, honestly, aside from Hazel.”
“Upper class 2, baby.” The man in question grinned.
“We’ve definitely got you on numbers though,” Jaxon continued, lifting his shirt to reveal a belt with 3 Pokeballs strapped to them, “Skorupi and his gang, ready for war.”
The others revealed much the same, though they kept the rest of their teams a secret, their partners were introduced. Elys had Cacnea, Ems a Grimer of all things, and Hazel with an honest to god's Duskull.
“I’d bring him out.” He said sheepishly, “But right now he’s a little…uncooperative.”
“Speaking of,” Ems added, “You should probably hold back on training Aken’s class level, any higher and he might start disobeying you.”
Was that…was that for gym badges? He remembered having to get badges or else Pokémon would “disobey” him, but how did that translate in this life? The circuit wasn’t even in season right now, how did he even work on that? He doubted he even needed to, he’d reached an accord with Aken, an agreement of mutual benefits.
“There a way to fix that?”
“Just need to spend more quality time together.” Hazel said, “It’d need to be away from people though, otherwise they get hurt.”
He breathed a sigh of relief, he doubted he had anything to worry about then. If Aken started to get antsy though, he’d go talk to them again.
“Your turn to bowl.” Ems said, returning to the seats after bowling a 7-point frame. He hadn’t even noticed she’d left.
He stood, licking his lips as the machine chucked out another ball at him, an Electrode design grinning stupidly up at him. Felis grabbed the ball, looking up at the scoreboard–8 and 9’s across the board so far. He needed more, his innate desire to show-off burning inside him as he stood at the start of the alley.
“Fools.” He chortled internally, “I’ve been holding back my true power!”
In the Before, he had a neighbourhood friend from Japan, and that guy was obsessed with bowling. The last time the two had gone together he showed him the “professional” way to bowl, and even though Felis wouldn’t stop making fun of him, he secretly copied the form, just in case.
He held the ball up with two hands, taking four steps forward as he crouched low, as he reached the edge of the line he threw, letting his right hand add spin to the ball, his right leg positioned behind him. The throw was perfect, the ball moved with serene grace, dancing across the floor like a skater on ice. He could feel his heart grow heavy at the sheer beauty of it all, if only he could take a picture. It was nearing the pins now…shouldn’t it have begun turning to the center?
“Hah!” Jaxon laughed as the ball went straight into the gutter. “Nice shot.”
“He looked so serious too.” Ems chuckled.
“Seriously, you see his form?” Elys said, “Thought he was a professional or something.”
“Oh shut it.” Felis complained, “I got one more shot.”
He tuned out the taunting of his companions, grabbing the Electrode ball once more. Where’d he go wrong? Everything was perfect.
“Why did you throw like that?” Aken asked, drifting down away from the kids, who scattered upon seeing a group of adults.
“That’s how you’re supposed to do it.”
“Was your hand supposed to make the ball move?”
“Yea it’s the spin part, it’s supposed to curve the ball.”
“That’s stupid, just throw it.”
“But…but the spin.”
“Do you know how to spin it?”
“Well I mean, I’ve seen it.” Felis defended.
Aken rolled his eyes, “Do what you want, but you look stupid.”
Ouch.
He readied his throw again, pausing as he did so. Grumbling he shifted his hands, taking four steps forward and launching the ball straight down the middle. It wasn’t as beautiful as his last throw, no subtlety or grace, just–
The ball slammed into the pins, knocking them all down.
“Woo!” Hazel cheered, Felis didn’t miss a beat, turning around and bowing dramatically, before giving a little dance as the jingle of a strike played, ending with him flipping off his companions. They laughed, Hazel moving up to take his turn.
He was surprised to find that he was actually having fun. He’d thought he’d grown out of bowling, hell, he sorta looked down on it. But…the people were nice. Felis liked hearing them talk and relax around each other.
“Do what you know, huh?” Felis thought, as he sat down next to Ems. He didn’t know how to spin a ball but he did it anyway, he didn’t know how to relax around strangers and he was trying that out too. Couldn’t he enjoy hanging with people while also using them for his benefit? It’s not like they weren’t having fun.
“So,” He said, “How long until we need to put on our evil goon Uniforms and head out?”
“Evil?” Elys asked, incredulously, “Have you ever worn the uniforms yet? By Arceus they’re so comfy to wear.”
“I’m not arguing that.” Felis argued, ‘cause it was true, they were very comfortable to wear, “I’m just saying we look like evil goons to some supervillain. Like have you seen the higher ups?”
“Boss Cyrus?” Ems asked, “He’s a good leader!”
“Yea, and he looks like he gives evil speeches for a living.”
Jaxon snorted, both Ems and Elys protested, but neither could hide the smile as they imagined it.
“And then there’s Saturn, you seen that guy’s hair?” Felis made two little demon horns with his fingers, waggling his eyebrows at them much to their mirth. “The hell is he even named after?”
“You serious?” Jaxon said, laughing, “The planet obviously. We’re team Galactic, we got the whole space theme going on dude.”
Felis’s smile switched to a look of shock, before swapping back to the easy smile. Saturn as a planet? Here? Was that possible? How? This was a different universe, right? Wait…
“Hey, what do you guys call this planet we’re on right now?”
“Hm?” Emily smiled, “Earth, obviously.”
Oh.
Oh shit.