INTERLUDE – PAUSSO
It was a fine day for a walk: warm air with a light breeze, clear green skies, a pleasant scent in the air of growing things. In most circumstances, Pausso would have enjoyed the outing.
Unfortunately, the beauty of the day was marred yet again by the pointless arguments of the other Pokemon in the group.
“What about this,” the Hoppip who called himself Speckle said as he floated along in the air, lazily windmilling his fronds. “A predator comes right up to your tree and attacks you without warning. And this is your tree, mind, not some random tree. Would you attack then?”
Ixchel, the Natu, had fallen behind as she balanced on a tall stone to the side of the path. Now she teleported forward to perch on a short bush perhaps ten feet ahead of the group’s current position. “No,” she responded curtly. “Better to flee.”
Speckle looked aghast. “But it’s your tree!”
The other Pokemon clacked her beak and extended one wing, almost like she was waving her trunk to make a point. “There will always be another tree. Why take a risk against a predator?”
“Okay, then say it’s another Natu. How about then?”
“I would share my tree with them.”
“What if they didn’t want to share? What if they wanted the whole tree for themselves?”
“I would let them have it.”
The Hoppip made a face and rustled his fronds in agitation. “But it’s –“
“My tree. Yes, you made that clear. That does not make it worth fighting over.”
Pausso could feel his ears flatten in irritation, though he tried not to show it. Their group had been on the road for two and a half days now, and it felt like the two Pokemon who worked with the Florence-girl had been arguing for the entire trip. Fight versus flight was merely the latest topic in a long list of disagreements the two had.
“I agree with Ixchel,” Echo added in her high-pitched voice. “There are many good places to roost. Besides, anyone who does not wish to hang together must not be a good colony member.”
He glanced back at the bat with narrowed eyes. She currently clung to his trainer’s head, as she did so often these days, though her body was mostly hidden under a large straw hat. It had only taken a single day for Monroe to learn that she didn’t do well in direct sunlight for long periods of time. As soon as he’d realized that, he’d gone out and found a hat to shield her from the sun.
Pausso felt jealousy boiling deep inside him, and he ruthlessly stomped it down. True, it had taken at least a week before he and Monroe started to understand each other when they first met, and they still ran into difficulties sometimes. True, it was enormously unfair that his trainer had been able to understand this new arrival from the beginning with barely any need for telepathic communication. That wasn’t Monroe’s fault, and he wouldn’t hold it against him.
He wouldn’t.
Pausso felt his trainer’s attention shift and he hurriedly cleared his mind of the lingering taint of envy. The boy looked down at him and raised his eyebrows. “Everything okay?” he asked in the human language.
He waved his trunk to signal yes. Monroe still felt concerned, so he followed that with a telepathic message. Other Pokemon are arguing. It is fine.
Monroe glanced at Speckle and Ixchel, who were now debating whether Echo’s input should be counted since she had never had her own tree. “Again?” he asked, sounding incredulous. “You’d think they’d get tired of it eventually.”
That caught the Florence-girl’s attention, and she turned to ask Monroe something. The boy looked away to answer her, but Echo twisted her head around so it stayed pointed in his direction. “I am glad we do not argue like the others do!” she told him cheerfully.
“Yes,” he replied, trying his best to keep his ears and trunk relaxed.
He knew he was being unreasonable. He had agreed that Echo could join the team (how could he do otherwise when it was so clearly what Monroe wanted?), and she had been perfectly pleasant company so far. She was working diligently to learn the human language, she did her best to mimic his actions during their training sessions, and she was even trying to shift her sleep schedule from nocturnal to diurnal.
But, night sky help him, he could not help but miss the way things were when he had his trainer all to himself.
Speckle had gotten so caught up in the debate that he forgot to control his leaves, and a stray wind caught him and started to blow him off the trail. The Florence-girl bounded to the side and grabbed him before he could get too far. “Watch yourself, Hoppip,” she told him in her strange language. “You should be better at this by now.”
Speckle paused, then glanced back at Pausso. “She wants me to find water?”
“Watch, not water,” he corrected. “She means you need to focus.”
“What about the second part?” Echo asked, sounding curious. “Was it important?”
Pausso sighed and repeated Florence’s words. In retrospect, he should have expected that the others would turn to him for language help. Still, when he’d left his pack to start his journey he’d never thought that so much of it would revolve around translation of all things.
They walked further up the trail, slowly making their way through the hills, and for once Speckle and Ixchel kept their mouths closed. The humans were talking to each other, but that was alright; it was always easy to tune them out. He closed his eyes, reached out with his mind, and tried to sense any other Pokemon that might be resting near the path.
Nothing. He couldn’t even sense Echo, and she was only a few feet away.
Ixchel teleported over to rest on the ground a few feet ahead of him. “I felt that,” she commented. “You improve with time.”
“Not enough,” he grumbled in reply. He picked the tiny bird up as he passed by so she would be able to rest her mind for a while. “I still can’t sense any of you.”
“But your intention is developing nicely,” Ixchel commented. “Strong intent is key to success.”
He wrinkled his trunk slightly and didn’t reply. He was still partially convinced that sensing others was just something the Natu did naturally, like teleporting. Perhaps he could learn the psychic technique over time, perhaps not. Perhaps he would only ever be able to sense and eat dreams.
A surge of interest came through his bond with Monroe. He looked over at his trainer expectantly and saw that Monroe was looking at the Isaac-man, who had stopped walking so he could point off at a shape in the distance and say something in the human language.
“I think you’re right,” his trainer replied. “That does kinda look like tumblestone.”
Pausso narrowed his eyes and peered off into the distance. Now that he was paying attention, there did appear to be something sparkling out there.
The Isaac-man glanced to the sky, then nodded. “I think we have time. Shall we go investigate?”
Monroe frowned. “I dunno. It is pretty far off the trail…”
“We have four majū on our side now,” the Florence-girl said with a huff. “I am sure it will be fine.”
With no further ado the humans turned off the path and started walking parallel to the hillside, stepping carefully as they went. The girl was still holding Speckle and Monroe had Echo on his head; that left Pausso to scramble behind them with Ixchel held gently in his grasp.
They reached the stone deposit after perhaps five minutes of walking, and Pausso stood back to admire it. This pile of stones was much larger than the one they’d found underground. It gleamed brilliantly in the late morning sun, as if dozens of specks of light cascaded throughout the rocks.
The other three Pokemon gaped at the stones. “What is that?” Speckle asked.
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“Tumblestone,” Pausso replied, feeling just a little smug about his knowledge. “It’s the material that makes poke balls work.”
“It is unsettling,” Echo replied. Monroe had knelt down to begin gathering stones into his bag, so she leaned back on his head and twitched her ears about in all directions to fully map out the area. “It sounds like regular stone, but this feeling… it is like it wants to draw me in.”
He could not help himself. “If you want a really interesting experience, try touching it.”
“Okay!” Speckle replied. The Florence-girl had put him down to focus on her gathering work, so it was easy for him to leap up and land on one of the taller rocks that jutted out from the middle of the pile. Then he frowned. “Nothing happened?”
“It would not do anything to you,” Pausso admitted grudgingly. “You are already bound to the tumblestone in your ball.”
The little yellow creature waved both of his stubby arms from side to side in a dismissive gesture. “Boring.”
“Does it –“ Ixchel began. Then she suddenly puffed up, alert. “Someone is coming,” she said hurriedly. Then she teleported out of his hands and reappeared next to the Florence-girl.
Pausso immediately stood up straight and looked around, trying to find what the Natu had sensed. Monroe noticed his alarm and sat up from his work, frowning. “What is it?” his trainer asked.
Before he could reply a new shape tunneled out of the ground mere feet away from their group, sending a spray of dirt over him and making him bray in surprise. The new creature was about his size, but they were covered in quills and their paws were tipped with long, wicked claws. He could tell at a glance that he would not fare well in a physical fight with such a dangerous creature.
“Intruders,” the mystery Pokemon hissed as she flared the quills on her back. “This is my territory!”
“We’re sorry,” Pausso said quickly, holding his paws out in a conciliatory gesture. “We did not realize –“
It didn’t work; the quilled Pokemon had spotted the tumblestones that the humans were gathering, and she was clearly outraged. “Thieves! The shinies are mine!” she roared as she brandished her claws. Then she let out an ear-splitting shriek, signaling the start of a battle.
Pausso’s mind was already whirling as the battle began, nearly overcome by all the possibilities and everything he had to keep track of. Still, he had gotten better at fighting with practice, so he managed to move into a more stable stance while he waited for the first command. “Drowzee, Confusion!” Monroe yelled as he scuttled backwards, dragging his bag with him. “Zubat, Supersonic!”
The Florence-girl was also yelling orders to her Pokemon, but Pausso tuned her out. He focused instead on honing his mind and gathering mental energy until it spun in a chaotic whirlwind in his mind. Then he slammed that energy outwards, forcing it onto the other Pokemon.
The Pokemon – Monroe called her a Sandslash as he yelled something at the girl – the Sandslash squealed in discomfort from the attack, but it did not stop her. She swiped a paw forward in a quick, cutting gesture, and a volley of brilliant stars exploded out from her and collided with him, leaving a dozen little pockmarks of burning pain across his chest, arms, and legs. He wheezed as he was knocked backwards, and the pain broke his concentration; that freed the Sandslash from his psychic attack.
Ixchel had manifested a dark double of herself that relentlessly pecked at the Sandslash’s side, but the attack didn’t appear to do much damage. Speckle peppered her with Bullet Seeds from a distance, but the Pokemon merely turned her back to him so that the seeds bounced off her quills. Where was Echo?
Pausso turned back to Monroe and stared. The Zubat had wrapped her tails around Monroe’s wrist. She was trying to drag him away from the battle.
Monroe was clearly distracted as he tried to reason with the bat, and that meant he couldn’t provide directions. For a moment, Pausso wavered. Was it best to attempt a Confusion again? Or should he switch tactics to something like Hypnosis or Disable? He had never been good at coming up with strategies in the midst of battle – that was what trainers were for.
Pausso decided to try Hypnosis, mostly at random. He took a moment to focus his mental energy on the feeling of drowsiness, then channeled the power into his hands and sent it off in a wave. No luck; the Sandslash shook off the Hypnosis attack as soon as it hit her, then sent another volley of stars his way in retaliation. He tried to dodge to the side, but the stars merely swiveled around and hit him in the back, causing a fresh barrage of pain.
It looked like the wild Pokemon was now distracted by something Ixchel was doing, so he whirled around to face his trainer and teammate. “Echo, what are you doing?!” he called out. Had something gone wrong with her Supersonic? Or had she been caught in a stray attack?
No; when she replied, her voice was entirely lucid. “I cannot win this battle!” she yelled back to him, still trying to tug Monroe away. The boy dug in his heels as he kept trying to reason with her. “I will help our trainer flee instead!”
“That is not how this works!” he shouted. “We do this as a team! Monroe needs you to listen right now!”
He kept half an eye on the battle as he spoke, so he saw when the Sandslash curled into a ball and rolled forward, slamming into Speckle. The grass type cried out in pain, but the Florence-girl looked undeterred. “Hoppip, fall back and Synthesis. Natu, Night Shade again.”
Echo stopped pulling, but her tails were still wrapped firmly around the boy’s wrist. “I am not strong like you and the others,” she said, and she didn’t even sound embarrassed; she just stated it as if it were a fact. “I will not be able to help.”
He looked at her, and in the blink of an eye, something changed. Before she had been a talented and troublesome adversary, someone that was going to replace him. Now he looked at her and, almost against his own wishes, he saw someone with feelings and worries and hopes and fears. She was just another Pokemon trying to muddle along through life, just like him.
He was the starter on the team. That meant it was his job to help his teammates grow.
“There are many ways to be strong,” Pausso replied. A spray of dirt pelted him as Sandslash took a hard turn to barrel into Ixchel, stunning the little bird and putting her out of commission. “You can find your way, I will help you. But you must try.”
“Echo,” Monroe said quietly in his human language. The Zubat cocked her head towards him as she recognized her name. “You can do this. Supersonic.”
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then she uncoiled her tails and shot through the air, zooming straight towards the Sandslash. She backwinged right above the other Pokemon, opened her mouth wide, and unleashed a high-pitched shriek. Even from a distance the sound made Pausso’s head hurt. It clearly distracted the Sandslash as well, since she tumbled out of her roll and clutched her ears with a whine.
“Good! Keep going!” Monroe said, clearly excited. “Drowzee, follow up with another Confusion, but can you focus on its hearing? And keep attacking as long as you can.”
Pausso stared back at him, unsure what ‘focus on its hearing’ was supposed to mean. After a moment’s consideration he just decided to use his usual attack; he’d ask his trainer for more information later on. He stared at the Sandslash and pummeled her with mental energy, and she cried out in pain as the psychic attack hit her mind.
“Almost there!” the Florence-girl called out. “Hoppip, Fairy Wind!”
Speckle blew a pink, glittery wind out from his leaves and it flew through the air to collide against the Sandslash’s back. Now there were three sensory attacks raining down on the Pokemon at once, and she couldn’t counterattack anymore. She just sat there and whined in a high-pitched way.
Monroe exchanged a glance with the other trainer, then nodded. “Okay, stop!” they yelled out together.
Pausso cut the mental energy off and took a deep breath. He watched, unsure, as the wild Sandslash slowly got to her feet with a paw held to her head.
“That’s right!” Speckle called out, dancing from one foot to another. “D’ya want more than that?”
“Fine,” the Sandslash hissed. “Take the shiny rocks, I do not need them. But if you do not leave my grounds by the time the sun sets I will return, and you will not be victorious again.”
Then she dove back into the ground, tunneling away before he could tell her they’d be long gone by nightfall.
“That was awesome!” Monroe shouted, running towards him with his hand in the air. Pausso snorted out a laugh and leapt up to slap his paw against the boy’s hand. “And Zubat, you did great! I think we’ll be able to do a lot with that attack.”
Echo giggled and winged over to attach herself to Monroe’s shoulder so she could rub her head against his cheek. And yes, the usual surge of jealousy was there, but this time he found it was accompanied by another emotion: pride.
He felt proud that Echo had pushed back her worries and fought anyway. How strange.
“Good work, Hoppip,” the Florence-girl called as she rushed over to Ixchel. The little bird chirped groggily as Florence picked her up. “You really – huh?”
Pausso turned and stopped short. Speckle was glowing.
He held his breath and watched as the Pokemon grew twice as large as he had been before and the fronds on his head shrunk down into a squatter shape. He could feel the energy radiating off of the grass Pokemon as he evolved, and the light was so intense he could barely look at it.
Then the light faded away, and Speckle stood – not tall, still short, but taller than before. The yellow fuzz on his body had shifted color to a bright green, his leaves had changed into a bright yellow flower that bloomed atop his head, and his ears had gotten longer too. His scent had also changed in a subtle way; he still smelled like leaves, but less spring and more summer.
Speckle whirled about as he tried to look at himself. “I evolved?” he asked. Pausso noticed that his voice was still airy, but a little deeper than before. “I evolved!”
Ixchel groaned as she finally recovered from the attack that had nearly knocked her out. She blinked at Speckle, then groaned again. “Oh, ruins.”
“Check it out, Ixchel! I’m an evolved majū!” Speckle bragged as he flexed his flower. “Now I’m one of your elders! That means you have to respect me!”
Ixchel gazed at him blankly. “Being evolved does not make you older than me.”
Pausso shook his trunk wryly as the two Pokemon immediately started bickering again. The humans had erupted into their own conversation as soon as the evolution happened, and the Florence-girl appeared to be entirely unsure what to do with herself. Echo paid close attention to their conversation, probably trying to decipher the words they were saying.
That left Pausso on his own, but that was fine because he was consumed by his own thoughts. Seeing Speckle transform had awoken something in him, a desire that had long lay dormant. It brought back memories of a night with a waning moon when his pack had gathered together to celebrate the growth of one of the strongest Drowzee.
He remembered watching as his packmate channeled her powers into hypnotizing herself, then focused her mental energies into a brilliant beam that erupted into the sky, filling the night with multicolored lights. He remembered how the light in the sky faded, only to be replaced by the light of evolution overtaking the Drowzee’s body as it made her grow to her final form.
He remembered watching the transformation and promising himself that someday, he too would grow strong, strong enough to evolve. He had travelled far on that path already, but he knew he still had much to learn. Still, with all the progress he had made in a mere two moon cycles, evolution felt more achievable than ever. Right then and there, Pausso renewed the quiet vow he had made to himself all those moons ago.
Come dusk or dawn, he would find the strength to become a Hypno by the time the year was done.