Chapter 34- Unexpected visits

The next day, we were back in the forest with the sun barely cresting over the horizon. Today was the day they would all master their new moves. I could feel it in my bones. Of course, once we reached the stream, there was no surprise when we found Dewott already training. The sound of his scalchops splitting the air that I got used to yesterday was already resounding through the waking forest.

“Good morning. I hope you rested well!” I greeted the water type.

“Wot!” he shot back.

We somewhat gained his respect after the training session yesterday. There was still definite wariness but enough trust was earned that he wasn’t always on guard. Getting closer I could see his fur fully moist making me wonder if he had slept in the deeper part of the river.

In one fluid motion, two additional capsules flew out of my hand, releasing Tia and Skoll. The fighting type had been extra eager to move because a battle was scheduled between the two. As soon as he materialized, sparks flew between the two in anticipation of the fight to come. I could only sigh at the sight. Both of them were training nuts.

“Alright! How do you want to this Skoll? Do you want to fight by yourself or do you want me to direct?” I ask.

“Riolu!” He declared while jabbing his finger to his chest.

“By yourself, it is, then. I will call out when I want you to stop.” I warned them. “We have a day of training to go through and while Nike can help with the healing, I don’t want you to go overboard.”

Both of them nodded and stood ready in position. Skoll was already grinning and while Dewott seemed to be composed, the tension in his muscle was noticeable even from a safe distance.

“Girls, I’ll need you to set up a Protect if something gets too close to poor squishy me, ok” Once they nodded, I turned back to the combatant. “Begin!”

Both Pokemon dashed toward each other as soon as the signal was given. Skoll’s fists were already coated in metal by the time he reached Dewott, and before the latter could react the punch was on a collision course with his face. I was then surprised when instead of trying to dodge the punch the water type brought one of his scalchops up and had the fist sliding off the back of its bio-weapon.

Skoll was also surprised and had to rely on a quick activation of Quick Attack to avoid Dewott’s retaliatory strike. After deflecting Skoll's opening attack with one Scalchop, the other was in a layer of water that quickly expanded not only the size and shape of the shell but also its reach. The Razor Shell flew through the air, leaving glistening droplets in its wake and slicing straight toward Skoll’s leg. The initial clash had clearly been each of them testing the water, and from what I saw, Skoll’s speed was slightly higher but it was useless due to how Dewott predicted his attack.

Without respite, Skoll jumped back into action, intent on staying in his comfort zone. It was the smartest course of action since he had no distance option while Dewott was guaranteed to have access at the very least to Water Gun. If he had access to Water Pulse was another issue but at the very least, Skoll could not afford to let his opponent control the engagement range.

I need to look into some ranged options for Skoll. So far, we didn’t have an issue but right now a flying type keeping its distance would completely stonewall him.

Uncaring for thoughts of future battles or areas of improvement, Skoll rushed in once more. This time to my surprise, he extended his claws before coating them in metal once more. The enhanced claws once more met the scalchops and my eyes grew wide at the result. Dewott had seemingly decided that a direct clash was still not in his interest and once more tried to deflect the attack. Tried, because once he repositioned his shell, he was surprised when instead of sliding off, they gripped.

I was impressed by how quickly Skoll decided on a new tactic, especially one other than punching harder, but also by the resistance of the shell of Dewott. I had seen what the Metal Claw did to boulders when I first met Skoll and later when we were training. So I wasn’t expecting the shell to remain whole even as Skoll did his best to sink his claws in them. But the struggle didn’t last long.

He managed to quickly extricate himself from the situation and both fighters exchanged a flurry of hits. To be honest I was impressed by their speed. Still, in the end, Skoll managed to bring the situation to a point where his claws were firmly gripping the shell, unwilling to let them go. While they both had their arms in a struggle, however, Dewott still had a means of attack and I winced in advance as I saw him inhale. If I was directing Skoll I would have ordered him to disengage immediately.

“Woott!”

With a warbled exclamation, a powerful jet of water smacked right in the middle of Skoll’s face. I wasn’t expecting Water Gun to be a powerful move given what I knew of the moves, and it truly wasn’t. It was enough to send you back a couple of steps but that’s about it. However, what it did in this situation was stop Skoll from breathing while their locked together, or to breathe in a lungful of water.

Taking advantage of the opportunity created, Dewott who was now free disengaged and closed the distance that had just opened up. In a surprising turn of events, he hooked his admittedly tiny legs behind Skoll’s own. On firm shove and retracting his leg was all it took for Skoll to find himself lying on his back. He quickly tried to roll and stand back up, but a shell was already centimeters away from his neck.

Dewott stood atop his defeated opponent while Skoll tried a fail to find a solution, a combination of moves, or anything that would allow him to avoid admitting defeat. Yet none of his ideas would work and I could see in his eyes that he understood. Reluctance finally made its way into his expression of defiance and he nodded. After confirming the surrender, Dewott took a step back, schalchops already back on his thigh, and extended a paw toward the fighting type.

Said fighting type looked at it before finally grabbing onto it, accepting the help offered. Both Pokemon began to chatter to the other, doing what I could only assume was a talk about the fight. Skoll’s aloof persona cracked as he smiled and talked animatedly, mimicking the final sequence. Dewott also commented, showing something on the back of his scalchop to Skoll who grinned. Both Pokemon now obviously had a glimmer of respect in their eyes for the other that was not present at the beginning of the fight.

Meanwhile, I was still shocked by what I saw. All in all, I think I saw Dewott used a grand total of two moves. Sure, it wasn’t an ultimate or accurate indicator, but Skoll used most of his commonly used moves yet he still lost. From what I saw, only Razor Shell and Water Gun were used. As counter-intuitive as it sounded, he simply used pure technique to overpower the more direct Skoll.

Especially that last action he did. He simply tripped him without even the slightest Type Energy. If I didn’t know better I could have sworn that it was a Fighting type move like Low Sweep or the like. What’s the fight wasn’t even that long and the results were already visible.

I was brought out of my musings by the sound of clapping coming from the side. Startled, I quickly pivoted around to find two young boys. By appearance they couldn’t be older than 12, standing not too far. Only one of them was clapping, however. They both had white hair that was grabbed into a low ponytail yet their looks were distinct from the other. Also, they were probably twins.

“Who are you?” I asked cautiously. Being in a forest, several minutes away from the town with a stranger was not exactly the most comforting of situations.

“Ah! I pray you forgive our rudeness. We did not mean to surprise you.” The one on the left spoke after covering his mouth in exclamation. “And please forgive my brother. He is a mute you see.”

That clarification caused me to look over at the boy in question. Yet when saw his eyes I couldn’t help but do a double take. They were golden. As in so golden that I could tell from this distance. And he fixed not only me, but my Pokemon as well before avoiding his gaze and fixing it on the ground at my feet.

His display of shyness did a lot to alleviate the tension that came over me when I noticed him standing there and clapping. Also, the fact that they were kids did a lot for that. I also took the opportunity to calm my Pokemon that were also agitated and fixing the newcomer. Especially Nike.

‘ Can’t see them!’ She sent in a panic.

I was puzzled at what she meant since they were obviously standing in front of her. I wanted to ask about it but the boy started speaking once more.

“We truly did not mean to startled you. We were simply attracted by the noise of battle and were entranced upon seeing the bout.”

“What do you mean see your eyes have been closed since we started taking.” I tried to joke to ease the nerves of everyone involved. That it didn’t raise some questions in my head.

“Again I ask for your forgiveness, but I cannot see.” He said with a light smile while opening his eyes and revealing dull white pupils.

Fuck!

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be insensitive. Talk about putting my foot in my mouth.” I couldn't help but mumble after the apology.

Yet laughter was my answer. “Pay it no heed. There are plenty of ways to see. Plus, Zor here sees enough for the both of us.”

The shier of the boys, Zor, simply nodded with conviction. Or rather a bit more conviction before stepping back behind his brother.

“Truly.” I heard the boy sigh. “I apologize for bothering you, but could we stay with you for a bit? I am afraid we got lost… and also lost our chaperon at the same time.”

“Uh, sure. Not that I can stop you if you decide to hang around” I shrugged. “ I can also bring you back to the city if you want. It is not that far from here.”

“ It is quite alright. I was told to stay in place if I ever get lost. I don’t think it will be long from now.”

“Well sure knock yourself out. I am just training after all.”

I was still on edge, to be honest, but at the very least they didn’t seem like bad people. At least Skoll didn’t react and even Nike simply said she couldn’t see them. Speaking of which…

‘What do you mean you can’t see them?’

‘Not see…sense?’

There was a questioning lilt at the end of the sentence which was puzzling but it didn’t take much longer to understand what she meant. I tried myself after she said sense but they simply didn’t register on my psychic abilities. They were essentially like ghosts, completely absent despite me knowing they were there. It was as if they simply weren’t there. That wasn’t anything new however since Mathew was much the same. It simply meant that they had a dark type Pokemon, or maybe a ghost if I was a betting man.

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Shrugging, I turned around to speak to the array of Pokemon at my back. “You are right Princess but I don’t think we should poke further,” I said.

‘We have our own secrets after all’. I added privately to her and she nodded.

“Can you take care of the two of them? They shouldn’t have taken much damage but I want Skoll at his best and it's only fair to Dewott. In the meantime, Tia, if you will!”

While Nike went off to use Heal Pulse on the two fighters, Tiamat Set up the training field with her Rock Tomb. Creating as big boulders as she could manage. While it would leave her winded afterward, today we needed bigger targets since their moves were getting more polished. I was expecting Nike to also need a short rest after using Heal Pulse but she seemed to be handling it much better than I thought. Arranging the boulders telekinetically didn’t require much effort for her as well. In a matter of minutes, everything was set up and Tiamat was also rested. The two boys for their part found their way to the shade of a tree and seemed content just observing. I still found it weird as he said “There is more than one way to see” and “he sees enough for the both of us” but like I told Nike, we have our own secrets as well.

“Alright then, let’s get to it. We all know what to do! Go, go, go, go, go!” I clapped my hands and they all ran excitedly to their spot. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling when I noticed Dewott acting the same way as my companions.

Before the training session could go for long, however, we were interrupted by a massive shadow covering the spot where we were training. Looking up, I was surprised to see what seemed like a giant golem flying overhead with fire coming from its abdomen. I gaped at the sight since knowing that Golurk could technically fly and seeing it first-hand were two different matters entirely. What more…

It's bigger than I expected…

As soon as it spotted the clearing, the ground and ghost type Pokemon went from horizontal to vertical in a manner that seemed completely irrational. I would even go as far as to say that it looked alien, but I guess it wasn’t that far from the truth, in addition, it seemed to be holding…something.

“HEEyyyyyyyyy”

As it got closer it was clear that it wasn’t holding something but rather a person. It lowered itself to the ground, and just before it landed, legs extended from seemingly nowhere where the fire was previously emitted. Obviously, with the loss of propulsion, the heavy body crashed toward the ground, and even less than a meter of fall, dust rose and the earth shook.

“Finally, I found you! What ghost possessed you into running like that in the forest?” a feminine and irritated voice came from the palm of the Golurk.

The boy, because the person was obviously not talking to me, smiled. “I apologize Aunty Shantal. We simply found something strange and got too curious.” he tried placatingly.

“That is no excuse! You know that it was complicated enough to get them to agree to-”

“Hum Aunty!” the boy quickly shouted and pointed toward me.”

“What?” the woman with the Golurk leaned to the side enough to see us. “Oh my! Hello there, young friend! She casually greeted me.

As opposed to her casual salutation, the person was anything but. She was dressed in a purple outfit that matched her short hair. Half of her face was covered by big round glasses, but the fact that she was dressed differently from how I usually saw her didn’t stop me from recognizing one of the Elite 4 members. My already-opened mouth dropped even lower as I stared at the Ghost type specialist.

“I.., uh… you.” I stopped here to swallow. “Uh, Hi?”

What else was I supposed to say?! Usually, when you go training in the woods you don’t expect one of the top trainers of an entire region to drop from the sky. Shauntal for her part scrunched her eyebrow before recognition lit her face up. Only after looking at my Pokemon, however.

“Ah! You are Caity little protégé aren’t you? I knew I saw your visage somewhere! What was it again… Newton? No, Nellon right?

“Uh, Nexon…” I corrected her.

“Right! Nexon! Nice to meet you. I’m sorry if my nephews bothered you. I’ll take them off your hand. And you two you didn’t tell me why you ran off like that! I thought we had an agreement.” She rounded on them once more.

I could only stare at the scene playing. Protégé of Caity? She should have been talking about Caitlin, right? Also, they were her nephews.

“Hum, it is quite the misunderstanding. You see, Zor heard the sound of fighting and I also felt a ghost so we thought someone was in danger. We truly meant good.” The boy explained quickly.

“A ghost?” I could hear the frown in her voice. “ Where?”

“It is quite fine from what I know. It was simply them training.” He said, once more pointing to us.

I frown at that. “ I don’t have a ghost type.”

“In that case, you can thank me later since you are being haunted.” He answered casually.

Yet the reaction from Shauntal, or rather her Pokemon was immediate. The head of the automaton rotated 180° and was now fixed on me. The runes on his body also started to shimmer with more light than previously.

“Calm down buddy.” Shauntal dismounted and patted the Pokemon. “Are you sure that you do not have a ghost type?” she asked me.

I shook my head and the boy once more spoke. “Please do not be afraid and let me help you. You have a ghost in your shadow.” He clarified while moving forward.

As he said that, I looked down at my shadow, looking at it closer. It was also then that I realized the ‘Zor’ wasn’t simply looking at the ground at my feet, but rather at my shadow. And now that I looked closer, it perhaps looked a bit …darker? By now the boy whom I still didn’t know the name of was squatting in front of me.

He extended his hand in an almost coaxing manner. “Come now, we know you are here. Please just come out and leave this trainer alone. I promise nothing will happen do you.” He said soothingly.

His words seemed to filter through your ears whether you wanted to or not. And to my surprise, my shadow also reacted. A pair of eyes blinked into existence on the shadow, leaving two yellow spots of the otherwise black slate. Slowly something emerged from my shadow… and ignored the extended hand, opting to wrap itself around me.

“Missy?” I exclaimed while also trying to pry her off. I also tried to restrain a laugh since it was a ticklish sensation.

“Hattrem!” the expression in Nike’s voice was the opposite and sounded upset.

The psychic type quickly made her way to my shoulders and assisted me in prying off the ghost. It was pointless until Missy decided that she had enough hugs for now. But then I was left with the task of placating the two bickering Pokemon under the wry smiles of the spectators.

“I thought you didn’t have a ghost.” Shauntal at least sounded amused at the scene.

“And I don’t. She is the Pokemon of a family member and I had no idea she snuck in.” I explained while physically keeping the two Pokemon apart.

Nike seemed to call for reinforcements, but Tia simply tilted her head while Skoll seemed to calm Dewott down. It seemed that during the whole sequence, the water type was stepping back. Not that I blame him since from his point of view two strong Pokemon showed up from nowhere, and one of them had even been close to him without his knowledge. Thankfully, with the budding friendship with Skoll, he seemed to have explained at least partly what going on.

“She is quite the friendly ghost.” The boy commented, back to his brother.

Missy then turned and approached before seemingly chiding him. He was stunned for a while before laughing. That seemed to give a second wind to Missy who launched in a tired. When she ran out of steam the boy apologized and I watched on as Missy nodded and offered him a ribbon to shake on it.

“I know. It’s weird seeing it happening but he's talking to ghosts.” Shauntal explained.

“I’m sorry?” I asked more out of shock than confusion.

It wasn’t new that Pokemon humans, and in return, humans close to their Pokemon can kind of understand what they say. It was more like a guessing game with good odds. There was of course the exception of psychic-type Pokemon but even they required skill to communicate with any degree of efficiency. But if she meant talking…

“You mean he has an Ability?” I asked in confirmation and she nodded.

“Aunty are you really?” he asked hesitantly.

“It’s fine! You guys would have eventually met at the camp I told you about!” she declared. Both he and I exchanged glances and she continued.” Nexon here is a psychic. At least when you go there you would have one person you know.”

Well, that at least explains why he was acting all mysterious and cryptic all this while.

“Right! It’s all good and well but we really should be going! Also, good luck with the tournament!”

As soon as she said that, she grabbed both boys by the scruff of the neck and grabbed them over to the Golurk. The ghost swiftly grabbed its passenger, creating a platform with his hands, and took off. I barely had a few seconds to react, and they were already gone.

“ I don’t even know his name…” I spoke to no one in particular while Missy put her ‘hand’ on my shoulder.

Right. I needed to also address that. But honestly, right now I didn’t have the mental strength to deal with that. Plus, I had the suspicion that Nana in particular had something to do with the Missy situation. A conversation for tonight I guess.

“You know what? Forget it. Let’s get back to it!”

And with the very mature decision of ignoring the problem until it was relevant again, we resumed where we left off. Under the shifting rays of the sun, the training resumed fiercer than ever. As the sun continued its celestial race, a varying amount of progress was made for everyone involved. And by the end of the day, the amount of progress made was surprising.

The clear winner was Nike fully mastering Misty Terrain. By now, while the quantity of the mist was lacking, it was fully lingering without an ounce of focus from her being needed. There was definitely room for improvement such as the area and quantity of the fairy mist, but it was usable in my opinion.

Next was Skoll. The fighting type surprised me by the amount of progress he made today when compared to the previous day. Ice Punch was effective to use. It was still a bit early in my opinion to use it in battle since it took a lot of focus to launch it. Nonetheless, it was a really cool Ice Punch, pun fully intended.

Then, there was Tiamat who also successfully narrowed the radius of Bulldoze enough that I felt confident that in the next few days, she would have Earth Power down to a T. It wouldn’t be ready for the tournament unless something drastic happened, but it would definitely be perfected for the fight against Elesa.

And the final Pokemon training, Dewott. His case was peculiar. At first, he was doing his own thing and simply tried cutting boulders with his weapons. But then he seemingly shifted focus and practiced some moves. And the moves I saw left me surprised. I saw the obvious ones like Water Gun, Razor Shell, Water Pulse, and Aqua Jet. But I was also surprised to see what at first glance looked like Aerial Ace, Fury Cutter, or X-Scissor- as I wasn’t sure of the specifics- and most surprising of all Night Slash. It was a significant coverage for a while Pokemon.

Some, like Furry Cutter and Aerial Ace, were moves that Dewott could learn naturally. However, if the bug type move was X-Scissor, it required specific training or a TM/ TR. Night Slash was from my understanding an Egg Moves. I already made a point of how difficult it is to teach Egg moves to a Pokemon if they weren’t born with it. That meant that Dewott previously had a trainer who put significant time into training him or had one heck of a parent. Either case made the fact that he was seemingly alone in the middle of the forest extremely abnormal.

I really wanted him to join my team. Not too long ago I was talking about looking for a water type. Plus, the effort he put into training was nothing short of breathtaking. There was also a case to be made about his chemistry inside my team, in particular with Skoll. Each of them seemed to be pushing the other forward in a competitive loop. The positive type of competition. I was however reluctant due to the aforementioned abnormality. But then again, was it such a big deal? I could always make him the offer and let him decide for himself.

Steeling myself, I walked toward the water type who fixed me with his beady, black eyes.

“Dewott, do you want to come with us?” I decided to ask it straight to him. when he didn’t answer I continued. “We are traveling around the region and taking on challenges to grow stronger. And we grow stronger to see more of the world and what it can offer. I want you to join us and at the same time, I will help you grow stronger while offering you a second family and we will all keep each other safe. So, what do you say?”

I crouched and eyes with me. I didn't want to look down on him for such a question. I was unusually nervous as well for some reason. Truth be told, I was struggling to look for a water type. Most of them had a type overlap with one of my companions- which I wanted to avoid- or they were a pain to find in Unova, or too expensive to realistically buy one. If I wanted to look within the more common water types found in Unova I had only Basculin, Ducklett/ Swanna, Frillish/ Jellicent, and Alomomola. They were good but not what I was looking for. Dewott ironically fell into the category of 'a pain to get’ and ‘too expensive’.

My Pokemon soon realized what was happening and each one of them chimed in, with the hope of swaying the decision in favor of joining the team. Well, Skoll seemed to try and sound casual, but I could tell that he was the one who wanted this outcome the most. When Dewott still didn’t reply, it occurred to me that maybe I could leave him some time to figure things out. After all, I wasn’t leaving Nimbassa for a while.

“You don’t have to answer now. You can take your time. I will still come here to train from time to time so when you make up your mind just tell me.”

With that, I stood back preparing to walk home. The sun was already setting and I wanted to avoid walking at night even if I had a ghost bodyguard. Said ghost had long since merged back with shadow. Skoll seemed dejected, but walking with me nonetheless, the other having already followed. Before I made my way to the tree line, the water type had already made its choice and ran to my side.

“Ott!” he exclaimed.

“Does that mean that you want to come with us?” I suppressed my excitement, opting for a confirmation.

“De-de!” he nodded.

A smile threatened to split my face open and I quickly reached out to grab a Pokeball.

“Afraid we can’t have you do that.” A voice sounded behind me.

Before I could turn around and see what was happening, everything went dark.