Chapter 14- En route.

Bzttt…bzttt

I groggily moved my hand toward my phone that kept on ringing. That alone was quite unpleasant because I did not put any alarm today, hoping to get a full rest. Unfortunately, it seemed that the caller had another idea.

Pulling the phone close to my face and adjusting to the bright light from the screen, I did not even know who it was, seeing the unregistered number on it. I seriously debated answering at that, since I was not a fan of phone calls in the first place. Yet a lifetime of adulthood taught me that sometimes you just don’t have a choice.

Sighing, I cleared my throat, making sure I did not sound asleep before answering. “Hello?”

“Hi, this Nexon right? This is Roxie” the voice came from the other side.

Well, that managed to wake me up. “Yes, that’s me. Can I ask what I can do for you.” I asked. I knew it sounded rude, but I really couldn't control the irritation.

If she noticed Roxie did not seem to care because she continued as if nothing was unusual. “Actually, I wanted you to come to the gym today if possible.”

I was surprised by that and pulling my phone away, I saw 9:03 AM. That was well before the time for the boat to leave. meaning there was no issue with going to meet the gym leader.

“I can be there in around an hour.” I stated.

“That would be great. I’m waiting for you.”

With a final tone, the call ended. I also decided to let the other two know that I would leave the center. No need to alarm them over nothing. Surprisingly, there was already a text in the group chat from Mathew informing us that he was already out and about. Seraphina was radio silent, most likely asleep.

My two pokemon were already awake, apparently having decided to let me sleep in longer. Skoll was sitting in what seemed like meditation which is new. Nike for her part was making a ball float and moved around with more focus than usual.

From our talk with Caitlin yesterday, we learned that Nike had basically an insane amount of raw power to work with. Normally it can only be a positive but in Nike’s case it is an outlier on the scale. It allowed her to brute force her way through mastering moves, especially psychic type ones, but with the drawback that she is basically sacrificing control. That’s why she was able to pick Calm Mind after the brief explanation from Cara and Heal Pulse from Gothitelle.

After she was explained all that, Nike opted to train her control and I approved of it as well. So before going to Seraphina’s place for the celebratory party, I stopped in a shop to by some balls to help her train her abilities. Eventually I will get her a spoon to boost her power and focus but for now she would train with these.

Nike was also the reason that my abilities improved to such a drastic degree. When I asked Caitlin for an explanation, she told me something that answer one of the questions I always had when watching the show. How come Ash always took electricity from Pikachu? Sure, you can argue that he just wasn’t going all out but the answer she gave me made more sense. Simply put you would get a sort of passive effect that strengthen the body.

It sounded non sensical but the more I thought about the more sense it made. Pokemon only grew stronger as time went by, and eventually humans are basically paper to them past a certain point. Yet you have trainers like Cynthia that get tackled and hugged by their monstrous partner as if it was nothing. It was not anything excessive to the point of making superhumans, but enough to make the interactions possible.

And Nike and I were kind of already experiencing something similar. According to Caitlin, there are tests that can go into more depth, but she thought it might be the trigger for the growth. My psychic abilities were basically synergizing with the strengthening and the fact that Nike was Psychic type. She also told me that the bond with the pokemon also affect the strengthening and that honestly made me happy.

And so, while my pokemon were training I decided to get ready to go and meet with Roxie. I of course told them of what we would do, and they were just as curious. Getting ready was a quick affair before we stopped to grab breakfast on our way to the gym.

The pokemon center I was staying was not far from the gym, meaning we did not take long before reaching our destination. In the lobby, the bald guy from yesterday was sitting and scrolling on his phone. He wore a simple black short and a t-shirt with a Koffing on it, as opposed to his full leather jacket he had on the previous day. As soon as he noticed me, he smiled and got up to meet me.

“Yo! Nexon if I remember right? Roxie told me that she asked you to come by. Honestly, I was expecting you to come later. Not use to people being on time you see.”

“Hello. Sorry for bothering you. It’s nice to meet you Mr. Nicky.” I said.

He smile. “Surprised you know my name. Not many people pay attention to the bald guy at the back of the stage. Anyway, we should get going.”

Without leaving me time to react, he started marching off to the side, where the entrance to the gym proper waited. At the center of the field Roxie was playing some guitar and next to her were two Toxtricity, one of each form.

“So she really had two of them…”I murmured.

Nicky looked over his shoulder before speaking. “ Oh, so you had a guess that she had two of them Toxtricity?”

“Kinda? That was my worst-case scenario when preparing. Two of them with the Plus and Minus ability, that is.”

He laughed heartily at that. Before he could continue, Roxie had already made her way toward us, apparently having noticed our arrival.

“And what made you think that?” she asked with a small smile, presenting her hand that I promptly grasped.

“You mean the two Toxtricity?” I asked her.

“No, I mean even one Toxtricity. That’s pretty unusual after all.” She shook her head.

At that, I raised an eyebrow in surprise. “You basically give me all the clue I needed actually so I thought you did it in consideration.”

“I did?” This time it was her turn to be surprised.

I nodded. “Yes. You told me you wanted a battle between pokemon from Galar and from that guessing Toxtricity wasn’t hard given…” I indicated her guitar and the protrusions on the pokemon that made their way toward us. “granted I also hesitated between them and Galarian Wheezing.”

Nicky had been snickering when he noticed that Roxie had apparently given her surprise away by herself. At some point, however, he stopped and both of them were looking at me incredulous.

“What?” I finally asked.

“There is a Galarian Wheezing ?!” Roxie shouted in the end, excitement clearly rising. When I nodded, she grabbed her hand in her hands and screamed toward the sky. “Damn you Piers! You could have said so!”

“Hum Piers, as in the as in the Dark type gym leader?” I asked.

Roxie continued to scratch her head in frustration, so Nicky nodded before asking in a hush voice. “Since you know so much about pokemon, do you happen to know one who like to drum?”

“Hum… I can only think about Rillaboom? It’s the grass starter of Galar…”

“Galar again?! Damn you, Piers ?!”

Watching the two of them cursing Piers and scratching their heads, I actually felt a bit bad. But my main thought was mainly to wonder if Nicky would not scratch his head with his nail given how shiny it was. Looking at the pokemons, they shrugged helplessly and watched with me. After about a minute, Roxie stopped and snapped back to attention.

“Regardless I will deal with him later!” She gritted her teeth before continuing. “Actually, I called you because I realized that in the … chaos of yesterday I did not give you any proper advice.” She said sheepishly.

I honestly wanted to answer but given how volatile my emotions are right now, it’s better to just hold my peace.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

And so that’s what I did I simply looked at her to continue.

“Right, first sorry for forgetting about that yesterday. Alright now to the advice. I noticed that you lack defensive moves, and mainly rely on avoiding attacks or simply tanking them. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t tell you how to fight that is up to you and your pokemon, but a Protect never hurts in a battle.” She said lifting her index.

That was… surprisingly a good advice. With how she stalled with Seraphina yesterday, I was a bit skeptical of her so called advice. She must have noticed because she smiled bitterly before resuming.

“The second and last advice that I will give you is a bit generic but, you should use your imagination a bit more.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” I asked, curious.

“Simply put, the way you battle and think of battles is way too rigid. It almost seems robotic, or that you are following a set of instruction rather that reacting to the environment. Let me give you an example. Please call you Riolu… Skoll I think?”

I nodded and pulled out his pokeball, curious to see where she was going. The fighting type materialized next to me and looked around for a bit.

“Hello little guy, care to help your trainer for a bit?” She asked after getting down to his level.

Skoll looked at me in confusion before nodding with a firm “Rio!”

“Perfect. I will have Toxtricity attack you with Poison Jab and I want you to defend against it ok ?”

My pokemon nodded and the exchange began. The ‘Amped’ Toxtricity proceeded to coat his three fingered fist in poison before aiming for Skoll. Of course, we moved out of the way to ensure that they had all the space to move around.

Because he was asked to defend against it, Skoll did his best to not avoid, but rather blocked, parried or redirected the fists coming at him. Honestly that was a good strategy since it minimized the amount of damage he took when doing that. But soon, even without Toxtricity going all out, Skoll was gradually overwhelmed. The reason why became obvious when he stumbled.

He was poisoned.

“Stop here.” Roxie clapped her hand.

She walked toward the two pokemon, took a Pecha berry out of her sweatpants pocket and handed it to Skoll, allowing him to stand back up after a few bites. I was glad that she came prepared for this demonstration, assuming she had it planned.

“Alright Nexon, if I’m not wrong this is how you would have acted right?” I nodded before she continued speaking. “Alright now look at this exchange once more.” She lowered herself and whispered something in Skoll’s ear.

After that the signal was given and I strained to see what the difference was. It wasn’t hard. It seemed Skoll was using Bullet Punch as his fists were coated in steel. I wondered if he would counterattack this time, but it would defy the goal of the exercise, if it was to give me advices on how to use my imagination.

Watch closely, you must be missing something. I mused.

The exchange proceeded much like previously, with Skoll focusing on blocking, parrying and redirecting the blows. Blows after blows continued to rain toward my pokemon until I finally caught on. Skoll was holding his own. Sure, the force behind the blows were still too much for him, but this time he did not stumble. He was still not poisoned even after the exchange continued for twice the duration of the previous one.

“Ok, that’s enough” Both pokemon stepped back and came back to us.

Skoll was still full of vigor which was not surprising knowing him.

“This is what I mean by using your imagination. Just because the move is offensive in nature doesn’t mean it can’t be used defensively. Although don’t get it wrong, he would have gotten poisoned eventually, but the steel type energy can help to postpone that. There is a reason steel type are usually immune to poison.”

I nodded as I considered some possibilities.

Steel type is immune to poison type. By using the steel type energy from Bullet Punch, Skoll can mitigate the effect of poison move that make contact with the fist I assume. That’s why she had him blocking instead of dodging to show me the interaction. It’s not like the perfect immunity he would gain upon evolving but…

No forget that. My way of thinking is too rigid? I have to admit that it is not a strategy that I would have thought of on my own. I need to review the way I’m approaching the battles.

“It seemed that you have a lot on your mind. Already thinking of how to apply it eh? Fine by me! in exchange for that advice mind doing me a favor?”

“Wait wasn’t that supposed to be his advice for beating you? “Nicky interjected. Unfortunately for him an elbow found its way to his ribs, sending him to the ground.

“Sure.” I said unwilling to end on the ground as well.

Roxie nodded, satisfied. “Once you get stronger, come back here for a one on one, full team battle this time.” She said with a predatory grin and offering another handshake.

I gulped nervously at the pressure she exuded. “I don’t know if I will reach the level you speak of, but if that happens, I will come back.”

If this was how she looked when she was excited, I didn’t want to know how it would turn out to fight her. I really didn’t regret having challenged her earlier.

“Oh you will. You have potential. Just how you handle yourself well in battle and those silent orders mean you will go far. Don’t think I missed those.” Roxie laughed.

After a bit more talk with Roxie, she insisted that we exchange numbers to make sure that she could harass me for the fight. Her words, not mine. Before we left, I made sure to ask her for advice on how to teach Poison Jab to Skoll, which she thankfully agreed, and I noted them down in a notebook. Now I only needed the time to teach train the move.

By the time we were done it was already noon. Seraphina woke up and did Arceus know what while Mathew returned to the Center. I for my part wanted to explore the town a bit but given that we were leaving in a few hours it was not necessarily a good idea. I did get the time to buy some of the cake for pokemon that I found on the way.

I walked through the city and ended up in a park where different people let out their pokemons. There were all kinds really, some found in Unova but also some pokemon that are found only in other regions like one particular trainer and her two Ninetales, one kantonian and one alolan. Or the one busy combing through a Purrloin’s coat.

Since I already had everything I needed in my backpack, I decided to spend a few hours with my pokemon. Both of them were particularly really happy with the cakes that I bought which they devoured in a few bites. While it was relaxing and the cool autumnal breeze made it particularly enjoyable, in the end we still had to meet with the other. I shot them a text and started to head toward Seraphina’s house.

“Nike, Skoll, what do guys want to do when on the boat?” I questioned them. When both of them seemed to wonder what I was talking about I continued. “Well going from Virbank to Castelia is going to take some time. And we won’t be able to train moves or fight.”

Skoll looked absolutely horrified when I mentioned not being able to train while Nike simply shrugged. She floated down toward my backpack so I had to stop to prevent her from. It did attract a bit of attention from the people on the sidewalk with us, but after rummaging for a bit, she pulled one of her training balls out of the bag. And of course, I was the one who had to close it after she was done.

“I guess that answers it for you then. Skoll, do you have an idea?”

His was a look of intense concentration and focus while he tried to come up with anything. While he was thinking I took his paw and resumed our walk so he could focus on finding something. I would at least like for him to find anything that would not be impossible while confined in or on a floating bit of metal.

Granted there were ships that made the trip faster, or even some where we could have battles on deck. But these tickets were freaking expensive. This was mainly because the water between the two cities was not deserted. And the water wildlife could be just as complicated to deal with as the arial ones.

I actually had an idea of what to do with Skoll, but I wanted him to be able to do what he wanted. If he could not, instead of having him bored in his capsule I would explain to him what we could do. For now, think Skoll, think.

Once at Seraphina’s place, Mathew was already there a ready to move out.

“Yo! Done with your tour?” he smiled.

I simply nodded while explaining to him what had happened in the morning. He was curious about the notes for poison jab but given that he had no real interest in it he dropped it when I teased him. I also had my guesses that he had his own notes stashed somewhere.

Seraphina’s Parent and sibling were also back when I arrived. After a few pleasantries, we only had to wait for Seraphina. She was apparently at the poke mart so she should not be long. Proof was that Litleo was actually just lazing around when we entered.

We were proven right when she came back rushing home with Luxio right behind her, bolted past us after shooting a quick hello and went into her room. It took her a while longer but, in the end, she came back down.

“Sorry I made you wait; I am good to go.” she said amidst deep breaths.

And so, our group made its way toward the port where the boat was probably waiting for us. We still had plenty of time, but everyone seemed to prefer being early than late which was a relief. While we were walking Mathew and I made sure to leave the family ahead so they could have as much time as they wanted. Event at the docks, we simply said our goodbyes and took Seraphina’s bag with us to give her as much time as possible.

“Thank you for what you are doing boys. Please take care of Sera for us.” Her mom said with a smile on her face.

“Goodbye Nike…I’ll ask big sis to show you pictures of everyone.” Seris tear-filled voice said.

“Hatenna…” Nike was also sad to leave her friend behind but in the end, she knew we had to go.

Leaving the family on the docks, we boarded the ship. It was halfway between a cruise ship and a private boat. I knew that the description was strange, but it was the best way to describe it. It was a mix of black and blue and was actually bigger than I expected, with what seemed to be 100 meter in length, and maybe around 20 to 30 meter in width. There was a small deck where it was possible to enjoy the breeze as well as an indoor restaurant.

The reason I compared it to a private boat is because of its overall triangular-like shape. I was not a connoisseur of ships, but that was the look I typically saw on the private one. The boarding process, however, was much like the airplane’s one with the staff waiting for you at the end of the ramp and asking you for your tickets.

Surprisingly, even the captain welcomed everyone. He wore an all-black uniform similar to a tuxedo. His face was wrinkled, the same kind of wrinkle that showed that a person smiled a lot. But the surprising feature was his mustache. It was bushy and reminded me a bit of eggman. That was not to say that his pirate theme hat did not raise eyebrows.

“Aye Aye, welcome aboard lads. Come on in, this fine vessel here, the Lidycus, will take you to Castelia City before you even have the time to get bored. Wahaha—Blergh! Cough. Cough. Come on Lidy, you can let me have my fun!”

Amidst the laughter, a jet of water flew straight to his face causing him to have a coughing fit. Turning my head around, I saw a Lapras who was clearly fed up. Evidently, that was not the first time something like this happened. She was laying on what seemed to be a pool or a mattress I did not know. I wanted to laugh but that would have been rude. But a chortle still went through.

The captain swiftly recovered with a more measured cough. “Now, now, please follow Jean here, he will take you to your room. There will be an announcement in about an hour when we leave. feel free to get yourself comfortable.”

“Sure thing, please show me your ticket and I will check you in.”

We did as we were told and handed all three tickets, indicating that Seraphina was simply saying her goodbyes. When he typed on his laptop, Jean frowned before calling the captain over. After a bit of muttering back and forth, with Mathew and I standing awkwardly we finally got our answer.

“Sirs, it seems that your room was upgraded after the booking was made. We will take you to your room now.”

Mathew and I exchanged puzzled look, but after double checking the mane on the reservation and the contact number, we had no reason to doubt what was happening. It was suspicious but when we asked who made the payment, they told us that they were asked not to answer and that a message was delivered to the room by our mysterious benefactor.

In the end we climbed to the higher level of the floor to reach our room. With each floor the size and the price of rooms increased. For context, the original room was on the 1st level and was the second cheapest, with the cheapest being on the same floor as the reception. Needless to say, when we reached the third level, we were sweating buckets.

Once the door was opened, we found not a room like the previous one should have been, but a living room! Stepping inside, we found that it was actually fairly sizable, at least enough space for two people to walk without bumping into each other. There was even a tv and a table to eat on. With a couch and the balcony? I didn’t know what to call it but a glass door leading onto what I would call a balcony, it was actually fairly luxurious in my opinion.

There were 3 doors, two on one side and one on opposite side, with the glass door straight in front of the entrance. I exchanged glances with Mathew before we started to explore. The ranger had been fairly quiet since we got on board. Now that I looked at him closely, he actually looks a bit …pale?

“Mathew are you ok?” I asked worriedly.

“yeah, I’m just not very good with boats.” He said showing me a bottle of pills for sea sickness.

Well, that’s going to be rough on him. As we spoke, we continued to look around and it did not take long to spot a basket with some berries in it. Nike spotted a Mago berry and wanted to jump on it, but I caught her and started reading the card to the side.

“Mathew, I know who upgrade us.” I said while smiling and showing him the card.

It simply said.

[ Cheapskate !

PS: Jeanne was impressed by Nike]

I laughed when I saw that. It seems I would need to call pops as soon as we reached Castelia. Mathew also found it amusing although he did not laugh much. Exploring a bit more we found that all three doors led to one room each. The door on the left wall when entering the was a single room with its own bathroom attached to it. The other two rooms, which were on the right, were identical and shared one bathroom.

In the end we plopped Sera’s bag on the room with the bathroom, guessing that given the choice she would probably appreciate the privacy. This was confirmed when she came shortly before departure and thanked us for the consideration. She was also half panicked, half surprised when she was told that our room had changed, which was a funny sight. No one commented on the redness of her eyes. Soon the interphone crackled to life.

{Good afternoon everyone, and welcome aboard. This is your Captain speaking. We are now leaving port and will be making our way toward Castelia City. You are free to roam the boat unless in case of emergency or storm. We will notify you in such case. We thank you for choosing the Lidycus for your journey and wish you a pleasant experience. Our crew is at your disposition for any additional questions.}

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I am going to try and sleep before its too late for me. Please wake me for the dinner.” The ranger excused himself.

It was actually a bit funny, but I felt bad for him. Meanwhile, Nike started training with her balls. Sera was brushing her companions because their fur truly needed it. Skoll was brooding because he could not find anything to do in the end.

“Hey Skoll. Still nothing?” I asked with a small smile.

“Riolu…” he answered despondently, with his ears drooping.

“Alright how about we train you aura sensing ability then?”

“Rio?” the ears perked back up in an instant.