The entire day was filled with people entering the center I was in and trying to find out how Leaf used Flame Charge, it was kind of annoying since literally no one aside from my friends messaged me congratulations on winning the gym battle but it was expected at this point.
My initial plan of being more famous than the others was working... a bit too well actually. I wasn't at that stage where people knew not to bother me yet, but I bet it would real soon after Chardon evolves and I show Beedrill off a bit.
Unfortunately, after talking to mom and Professor Oak I was too tired to actually leave the center and really talk to anyone so I retrieved the rest of my team from Nurse Joy and headed to my room, making sure to lock the door once I realized that I got followed to it. Somehow Ralts and Woody managed to make the room slightly soundproof by using Reflect, Woody copied Ralts using Mimic, so I was able to rest and recall the entire battle to the egg, which was starting to wiggle every ten or so minutes, and the team. Due to the whole temporariness of Reflect screens, Woody and Ralts had to regularly insulate the room from the outside noise every now and then while I was still awake.
I couldn't leave the room since there were still people milling around outside it, so I just had leftovers, and the team munched on high quality chow, my entire weekly budget mainly spent on restocking their food for each week.
The next day, which I hoped wouldn't have as many people running after me, still had people milling about.
So, I got a genius idea.
After having breakfast in my room again, I headed outside with Ralts and Beedrill, getting immediately bombarded by people asking for a trade or tutoring or breeding rights or an interview or research and it was all very annoying but they all stayed a certain distance away from me thanks to Beedrill trying to intentionally be intimidating without actually hurting people, so I just went past them and started jogging. We went in a swift pace outside the center and headed off into the city part of the port town. The crowd following me increased as we went, and I was surprised to hear that me and the team had a few fans within the throng of people trying to catch my attention.
After making sure that we were a bit ahead of everyone following us, we bounded around the corner of a building, into an alleyway, and the crowd probably stopped in confusion.
Why, one might ask?
It was because Ralts had teleported us back into my room.
I took a quick recheck with the entire team over anything I might still need to pack, finding that everything that I was gonna take was already packed in my bag.
The second time I exited my room was with a completely different outfit, Woody by my side, and my backpack.
Nurse Joy smiled knowingly as she booked me out of my room and then promptly rebooked me in a room that was in the opposite side of the center. Since I didn't want to out myself immediately, I took a walk with Woody, Marshmallow, and the egg into the harbor side of Vermillion; anyone that wanted to talk to me was now on the complete opposite side of the city.
Woody and Marshmallow were less famous than Leaf, Ralts, or even Tabs who was a common bug type here in Indigo so nobody gave me a second glance aside from congratulations about having an egg.
Since I got a big cash prize from beating the Vermillion gym at effectively the fourth badge level, way bigger than the cash prize from a third badge, I headed back into the jewelry store that held deep sea scales.
The cashier recognized me from last time and went to a cabinet to bring out a wooden box into the front. I let Pearl out of her ball to see the item that would allow her to evolve, celebrating with her at getting closer to her evolution before I bought the deep sea scale and headed back out. She kept it in her shell body just to make sure it was safe, even as she was being returned.
The rest of today would be a relaxing day, the team deserved to rest after that gym battle so I sent a message to Mom asking for her to get treats for the team in the ranch while I headed over to where the city might have a beach.
Course, that's when I met Vali.
She had her back facing me as she and a few other people my age were with her trying to look inconspicuous as they looked at a big storage warehouse on the docks.
Having had Pearl rub off on me a bit, I sneaked up behind them without them noticing I was there.
"Yo" I said on Vali's right.
Everyone had the desired effect of being spooked and jumping way in freight, a lot of hands landing on pokeballs on their belt before they took a second to look at my grin and the recording pokegear in my hands.
"Oh," Vali said with a sigh "it's just you."
"Yup" I replied with a pop at sounding p.
The only other guy in the group took a moment to lower his guard before he spoke "You know him?"
My friend broke my heart by saying "Unfortunately"
I took a moment to hold my chest in mock pain, exaggerating every step back I took with groans of pain before I fell into Woody's open embrace as I pretended to faint, making sure that my antics wouldn't lead to me dropping the egg. He and Vali looked absolutely done with me and I wasn't able to hold back my laughter any longer.
My chain of actions, alongside Marshmallow cuddling Vali's Rosellia, eased the rest of the group enough that the jumpiest one exhaled in relief.
I decided to end the charade and asked her "So who are your friends, and what're you doing here in the harbor part of Vermillion?"
"These are my travelling companions; I’m essentially meant to build connections with them since their parents or other family members are all rich and powerful in the economic or political scene.” The other guy looked like he was gonna blow a vein with how hard he was glaring at Vali but since there wasn’t a rebuttal then it must’ve been true.
“Oh, okay.” And I wisely dropped it. “But still, that doesn’t really answer why you guys are sticking around a warehouse.”
“We’ve been following a paper trail of what could potentially be some Pokemon thieves that leads us to that warehouse where they might be keeping most of their acquisitions.” Other guy does not look happy that she’s being so open about this stuff.
“Valencia, why are you telling this… trainer about our hard-earned tracking?”
I decided to answer for her “Because this trainer has a Ralts that can sense emotions like fear or greed so if there are a bunch of scared Pokemon then Ralts will find them and if the guys in the warehouse are thieves, then she’ll be able to find that out as well.”
It was almost like I pressed a big red button when I was told not to with how the others in the group paid their full attention at me. They all focused on Ralts as I sent her out who just huffed and teleported herself on top of my head. Today was Dee-Dee's break day so she stayed in our new lodgings probably watching tv shows and doing a few puzzles I bought last time I was here with Elian.
"Alright Ralts, are there a bunch of scared Pokemon in that warehouse?" I asked
She took a glance at the giant building made of concrete and metal before her head spike thing began radiating with purple energy. She then made an affirmative noise but in that type of way where she's uncomfortable from the negative emotions, I even shuffled a bit because she accidently shot that uncomfortable feeling into my head.
I looked back at the others with a tiny grimace "Well, you guys heard her. There's a bunch of Pokemon there."
One of the girls, someone who was taller than me by a decent bit, nodded and replied with "Then they really are thieves. Father's business partner said the owners of this place only rent out to a textile business so that they could store their materials; Pokemon are naturally classified as living things so either they are thieves or they simply have a few illegal business practices."
The last girl replied with "Either way, we'll definitely have a pass into the safari zone."
Wait "Safari what-now?" I ask
The guy huffs "Everyone knows that you may only have a pass into the safari zone with a notable achievement to one's name. With this we will at least have a one-time ticket into the area."
Huh "Wait, is that why Surge gave me a free all-time pass into the safari zone?"
Pin drop silence ensued.
To prove my point, I put back the egg into my bag and pulled out the note from Surge with his signature and everything.
Ralts started chuckling which led to Woody chuckling which led to me chuckling even though I don't really get why we're chuckling. I just easily chuckle if one of my Pokemon chuckle.
hmm chuckle. Thats a really weird word. Chuckle. Sounds like Shuckle but really its chuckle.
Oh, the dude was saying something.
"-ats why it's imperative we have to do it ourselves. Were you even listening?"
"Nope" I reply with a smile
Tall girl took over "Basically, one can go to the safari zone if one has a notable achievement that helped society. Actions such as community service, taking down or notifying the authorities about illegal operations, or doing acts of valor can allow a pass into the safari zone or a similar stipulation if one wishes."
I nodded along and that's when last girl came up to me to shake my hand.
I shook it as I gave my greetings "Hi, sorry being super late with the greetings but my names Evandros Endo-Morgan from here in Indigo; the Morgan part was from my dad's side and Endo was from my mom's. How do you do?"
"Hey yo, the name's Anne Lopez. I'm from Paldea but we moved to Johto shortly after I was born; and I do quite well."
That was the only greeting I could get before someone else came over.
He was also as tall as the tall girl but unlike the others he actually recognized me, to make it even weirder I also kinda remember him but with the whole being a wandering trainer thing it was bound to happen.
"Y-you." he sputtered, acting all weird like he couldn't believe that I was here.
Vali forcefully steered the conversation "Yes, he is here, and you can have a battle with him later Will. What did you find about the warehouse."
Will grimaced and nodded before exhaling "Well, Loudred says that he could hear the faint sound of Pokemon in there. But the walls are pretty insulated so he can't fully confirm."
"Then what're we waiting around for, everybody is here and we got some extra muscle. Let's just blow this popsicle stand and then get our passes." Anne said.
Vali and Anne were the only one's not looking at me like I was a liability, so I shrugged and took the lead; me and my Pokemon walking ahead of the others to the front of the warehouse.
I decided to knock on the door but the surprised grunts and the quick "No don't" whispers were pretty clear that I probably shouldn't have done that.
A really beefy adult opened the door and even I could sense the greediness in his eyes looking at Ralts before he lowered them to meet my eyes.
"Whaddya want kid?" He questioned with a rough tone.
"Oh, I just wanted to meet those Pokemon that you've got in this place." Not Will slapped his forehead in frustration for some reason.
Immediately, those greedy eyes became angry and defensive as he reached for a pokeball.
A quick uppercut on the chin from Ralts was like a signal for a race.
Nobody noticed the big guy getting knocked out until we were all through the door, our eyes taking a second to adjust to the change of lighting. Everybody in the group began sending out Pokemon. Vali sent out her Pidgeotto, Fridgibax, and the evolved form of Fennekin while Roselia used String Shot to tie up the warehouse grunt Ralts managed to knock out. Will sent out Loudred, Machoke, and a Slowpoke while Not Will sent out an Umbreon, Growlithe, and a weird normal type dog. Tall girl sent out an Electabuzz, a small electric and poison type, and a Magnemite while Anne sent out her Squirtle and a weird looking Pikachu; a regional variant or something.
I sent out Leaf, Beedrill and Pearl since the other three were already out and ready for battle.
Similarly, the other people in the warehouse began realizing that we were going to stop their illegal operations and began sending out their teams and giving orders to further back grunts to move the Pokemon to a secure location. To stop that, Ralts used Teleport and brought me and my team to the back area which was filled with cages in rows with Pokemon of different sizes and regions all stuck in them.
The positioning of the teleport made me lock eyes with a heavily injured Bagon, it didn't even bother giving a look of defiance which was typical for their species.
... If I didn't already think that these guys were bad dudes before, then the cages filled with scared Pokemon would've changed my opinion easily.
The two grunts guarding the cages immediately sent out their Pokemon to attack me and the team, foiled only by a rapid use of Light Screen and a double screen of Reflect. Taking a look closer clued me in that each grunt only had two Pokemon, the mishmash of Pokemon in the cages and the fighting on the other side of the warehouse making it a bit difficult to really see and hear what those four Pokemon really are. Though, more grunts were coming.
"Woody, you and Leaf handle one grunt, and Beedrill, you and Pearl handle the other. Ralts, you and Marshmallow stay back and help with breaking these cages." Orders done, I sent a quick message over to Vali that I was with the Pokemon and they'd be safe for retrieval before I dialed the number for the VCPD and told them all about what was going on.
There were around thirty people here but these grunts were weaker than those hunters trying to steal Tyranitar so I didn't need to worry too much about the team especially since they were absolutely shredding through the Pokemon the grunts had sent out. Pearl's use of Shell Smash was wickedly unfair as she curbstomped anything that tried to battle her as well as Beedrill being more of a ninja-assassin going through the entire warehouse, dodging attacks with his increased speed from Agility combined with his usage of Double Team, and using a combination of Twinneedle and Electroweb to debilitate or knock out the opposing Pokemon.
The only people who were having a difficult time with these guys were tall girl who had an unfortunate match up against a grunt using ground types and Anne who was battling really defensively and waiting for the other guy to say his orders first. Vali was the only one aside from me who was absolutely dominating whatever matchup her Pokemon were getting into, giving orders and keeping a cool head even as her Pokemon kept advancing past every grunt and their two Pokemon standing in the way.
At some point I tuned out how four of my six were having battles without a trainer to guide them as I began looking for a key, none of the grunts that Ralts would knockout had any keys aside from car or house keys so there's probably a head honcho here with them or they're upstairs in the only room within this giant rectangular building.
Either way, my job was plain and simple, keeping the grunts from taking the cages was a simple affair especially since they were dropping like flies getting hit with bug spray. The metaphorical bug spray being my team, Will's team, and Vali's team.
Course, by the time there are only a few stragglers is when the door to the room upstairs and a guy with eight pokeballs on his person began slowly walking down from the only stairs in the entire place. Since he was gonna be closer to me than everyone else, I asked Ralts to send a message to the team to reconvene by my side as I shot another message to Vali.
The grunts who weren't knocked out or got hit with String Shot or something else ended up running to where this guy was gonna come down from, if they didn't just run away through a back entrance or two, but I wasn't too worried. If this guy was as strong as the hunters, then he'd have a difficult time battling both mine and Vali's team back-to-back, if he was weaker then it's basically over before it even began, and if he's stronger than I can just waste his time waiting for Officer Jenny to come around and battle him.
Any way you put it; we won.
Head honcho didn't seem to think so, even as he took his sweet time watching the last few battles take place around the warehouse. By the time he finished walking down the stairs, and advanced past the grunts, we had all finished up our battles and were waiting for him.
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He then did a slow clap like one of those movie villains.
"Well, well, well," "classic villain entrance" I whisper to the team who try to not giggle "look who we have here. Guess we got a few famous faces amidst us boys." He jeered "I bet people would pay a pretty penny for all you's ransom."
I decided to cut him off before he could monologue further "We already called Officer Jenny, so she's probably gonna be here any minute now."
The others looked at me questioningly, so I just brought up my gear again for them all to see my call history. There was also a weird beeping noise that was happening. I check the gear, but the noise wasn't from that.
*Beep Beep*
I checked the others, and the beeping noise wasn't coming from them.
*Beep Beep*
I tried paying close attention at the sputtering head honcho, but the noise wasn't coming from him.
*Beep Beep*
I checked behind me, but the noise moved just as I moved.
*Beep Beep*
I finally realized it was coming from my bag so I opened it up without really paying attention to whatever head honcho was still mumbling about and figured out the noise was coming from the incubator.
*BEEP BEEP*
The noise was coming from the incubator... the same incubator with an egg inside it.
...
"HOLY SHIT MY EGG'S HATCHING!?!?" I yell.
That made everybody pause.
Delicately, since I was holding something extremely valuable, I took out the egg from the incubator and felt the warm and jolting ovoid in my grasp.
"Enough! You kids barge into my operation, take down my workers, and treat me like nothin'! Well, I'll show you why you don't mess with Blazin' Barry!" Was head honcho still talking?
I wasn't paying too much attention at the popping noises of Pokemon being released, on account of the egg about to hatch any second now, but I did notice that head honcho send out a Magmar, Magcargo, Flareon, Camerupt, a monkey mono-fire type, and two Houndoom.
"Leaf, use Rain Dance. Pearl, use Brine. Woody, Mimic Pearl. Ralts, Life Dew anybody who needs it on our side and then support. Beedrill, do whatever man, I trust you." With my orders done, I stopped paying attention and sat next to the Pokemon in cages with Marshmallow by my side; even the injured ones in their cages paid close attention to the rumbling egg in my hands.
I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to watch this egg hatch, even if that means I miss my team doing a battle against a weirdo. My team could handle it, I trusted them.
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Woody was ecstatic, he gets to finally do one of these big battles where his trainer battles evil humans and beats them up so that they could free trapped Pokemon. All those time's he got sent into a forest to stop a dispute between a few Pokemon was finally going to come in handy.
He just wishes that it wouldn't happen right when that egg his trainer's been carrying for months finally decided to hatch. It was supposed to be a quiet and momentous occasion where everybody on the team would look to see the new baby Pokemon hatch.
Woody idly noted how Poison Lance was heavily blushing, and how the humans on their side just looked shocked as his trainer walked back towards the cages, and he also warily noticed before the others how the big bad human who was in front of the other big humans began visibly losing his temper.
"Alright, make that punks Pokemon suffer, you lot." and that was the starting signal to begin their new match.
The fire types in front of him all charged up a fire attack each, so Woody got in front of his team members and used that Rocky Guard move that Lupa and Evandros had come up with. The powerful flames washed over him ineffectively and slowly became weaker as Pearl and Leaf worked together to make a super-fast Rain Dance. Mind Seer gathered some of the falling rainwater and began turning it into a floating blob before she took bits of water out of it and spread it on the injured parts of Pokemon that didn't belong to the grunts, even Woody had to admit to how nice it felt when she put a small splash of it on his arms that he didn't realize were aching from exertion and the stamina he recovered from the move.
Poison Lance was nowhere to be seen but he'd been training to do just that so Woody didn't worry too much as he stepped back and used Mimic on Pearl who fired a powerful blast of water akin to what could be a low-level Hydro Pump. Everyone except for the poor Macargo dodged and Woody winced in sympathy as the fire type was blown back and didn't get up from the super effective attack. Woody then fired a significantly weaker version of the same water move at the Flareon that tried to dodge but its foot caught on some electric webbing that didn't hurt it too much, Woody's water move hurt it worse but only tossed it backwards instead of knocking it out.
His fairy type teammate, after using Life Dew on all the Pokemon in cages and the ones that belonged to the friendly humans, teleported onto the Magmar and began pummeling the back of his head with Thunder Punch even as Leaf snagged his feet with Grass Knot and the combined efforts of the two Pokemon made the fire type fall like a tree in a lumberyard.
The one girl, Woody's trainer had called her Vali, began relaying orders to her team that Woody couldn't make out since he was too busy trying to take down the Houndoom. Her dragon type was already rushing in to contest the dark and fire type who saw it play out and attempted to dodge. Woody realized what Houndoom would do and promptly used Grass Knot to trip the fire type who could do nothing except watch the speeding bullet that was Frigibax.
A moment later, Woody moved on to stop Flareon and Camerupt from trying to hurt Mind Seer as Frigibax followed the impacted body of Houndoom that was flying into a wall.
The big bad guy in the front watched all this and had a look of trepidation, Woody noted, before he took a pokeball from his back and sent out a really wrong looking Charizard, after all, all the Charizard's Woody had seen pictures of didn't have glowing purple eyes.
Ralts stopped her assault to look at their trainer, so Woody looked behind himself right as he was punching Camerupt's face, and he immediately became worried. Where before his trainer was slightly relaxed and had been paying full attention at the egg, he was now holding the egg and Marshmallow close to himself as he inched away from the newest fire type with a scared look and a pale complexion on his skin. The rock type didn't really know much about human body language, but he could guess that humans acted like that when scared.
So, Woody had been right that the Charizard was wrong looking. He'd have to beat it.
The fire type immediately began looking for the nearest prey, Woody stepped up and set a Rock Polish to remove the sluggishness that came from Hammer Arm.
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The gargantuan fire type looked at what she thought would be her newest predator, her mind filled with so much rage and anger and pain that she couldn't think of anything other than destroying what stood in her path and promptly ran towards it.
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Woody simply stood still and used Harden while he waited for the fire type to get closer. He idly noted how the big humans were all scared of the giant Charizard and how the other fire types shivered in fear when she first roared and never stopped roaring even as she ran while coating herself in flames hotter than Leaf's Flame Charge under the effects of a Sunny Day. He noted how every Pokemon was gripped with fear, how the ones in cages that yammered and yelled about being free were deathly silent, how his teammates were filled with grim determination as they used status moves or attacks that didn't connect with the Charizard that hadn't stopped running at Woody, and how his trainer was keeping an eye on the Charizard just as much as he was keeping an eye on the egg.
Woody wasn't afraid though. He'd been afraid of water back then since it could kill him, and he was no longer afraid of it. He'd never be afraid of fire because fire can't kill him as easily as water.
He noticed all of it in the time it took for the great beast to collide with him, his ability Rattled sending the adrenaline in his body into making his brain sharper and picking up more details instead of ignoring pain like those of his species that had access to Sturdy, sending him skidding backwards from the hit and breaking a significant portion of his newly set up Rocky Guard while keeping her momentum to manage a direct hit on him. But he didn't falter nor break into pieces from the hit.
That was good. That meant he had a chance at beating it, however small it might be.
Running back towards his new opponent, Woody used the regular version Rock Throw and fired at the fire and flying type to score a clean hit. His attack hit fiery flesh and if he wasn't paying close attention then he wouldn't have noticed how the fire type's eyes twitched in further pain. He readied up Thunder Punch on both fists and then began a slugfest.
Burning claw met electrified fist. Blazing fire met stony skin. Rocky constructs met flaming wings.
Neither faltered and neither advanced. Caught in a dance of flame and stone & lightning that seemed to last an eternity.
Scrapes and wounds began accumulating as neither side stopped their attacks, the other Pokemon clashing around them as the fire types belonging to the bad humans stopped his teammates and the ones that were under the good humans from interfering and vice versa when the bad human thought he could strike Woody.
A loud noise began, harming the fire types while doing nothing to the other Pokemon field, and Woody knew his Ralts teammate had a hand in the attack through her telepathy ability coordinating with the user to harm only those that belonged to the big bad human.
He noticed it before his opponent. A new person entered the battlefield.
Woody knew what this new challenger was trying to do, regardless of how reckless it might be, and he had to make sure that it worked since it would greatly boost his own chances of survival.
He slipped under Charizard's guard, razor claws chipping away a part of his face as he went under the arms of the fire type, and he grabbed Charizard from the back making sure that she couldn't disengage even as she roared and screamed and burned and cried.
'Wait, cried?' he thought.
It was too late to back down now though, Woody kept holding onto her to let Marshmallow use his move and when Charizard tried to fire flames from her mouth she suddenly found it shut by lightning powered webs, courtesy of a certain Beedrill.
Marshmallow gathered the energy within him and then fired a purple orb that split into two with each colliding with both Pokemon before it exited them and entered the opposite one. Mind Seer immediately teleported Marshmallow to safety and Woody disengaged from the fire type before the burning started extremely hurting.
Mind Seer apparently could already tell that Woody had been badly burnt 'was it that obvious' and began spraying a burn heal on him while muttering death threats at him if he did something stupid. The elixir helped but Woody had to get back into the fight. Nobody else had the strength or typing to withstand Charizard even while she had the power of her fire cut in half from the rain.
He couldn't keep his last thought out though, Charizard was scared but why would she be scared when she's the strongest thing here. It's not like her trainer is an actually tough and menacing person and her pokeball looked brand new and shiny in the way that said that it had only recently been obtained and hadn't gone through much use.
He then looked at her, really looked, and he saw ribs showing through the skin and a paler shade of skin covered in flames that hid the unnaturally gaunt body. She didn't get sent out a lot either to eat or fight or do anything really, but she was still angry and scared and constantly in pain.
The rock type realized he had a stupid idea, one worthy of death threats from the fairy type fussing over him.
"I know it sounds stupid but get the Charmeleon feed from Evandros's bag and ready up Life Dew and Confuse Ray, I'll be mimicking one of them."
"I already know the plan dumbass; I'm reading everyone's mind right now including yours." was her reply
"Oh" Woody dumbly replied, before he noticed how the psychic type was glancing back at their trainer in worry.
She looked back up to him "He was super scared when that Charizard came out all angry, couldn't even think straight, but he calmed down once you started fighting her and didn't immediately turn into a smear on the wall. He's been thinking of what the rest of us should do, you know, to make sure we don't get predictable but he's hardly had any sort of criticism for you." She replied
Woody could only nod at that, he hadn't used any all-encompassing moves like Swift so, of course, she wouldn't have reason to truly enter his mind unless his trainer had an order for him to carry out. He'd think about the weird feeling in his chest after he finishes the fight.
Mind Seer lightly punched his leg even as she nodded and left, making her ability work overtime to coordinate everybody, even as she headed over to their trainer who was keeping a close eye on the egg and less on the Charizard battling that dragon type belonging to Vali that was covered in a white light. He apparently was evolving even while fighting and, since Guard Swap connected, every blow from the dragon and ice type made Charizard go through more pain than any attack that Woody had used.
"Poison Lance! Make the dragon fight something else!" Woody yelled aimlessly and it was only because Woody wasn't an egotistical fighter that led to the Beedrill humoring the request and swiftly picking up and dropping the dragon onto the injured Magmar that was beating up the Electabuzz.
The Sudowoodo ran forward and gathered the attention of the dragon in all but typing, willing his body to drop the effects of Mimic that he'd used to copy Brine from Pearl, as he went towards the flames once more.
This time when the two engaged Woody battled defensively, blocking and redirecting hits while mainly aiming with Thunder Punch to try and get a paralysis effect. His mind running a mile a minute as he took a moment to analyze his opponents fighting style.
Charizard fought with raw power, using powerful legs to keep advancing and mainly fighting with her maw and claws, and wild savagery but for the most part it was a very simplistic fighting style focused on lunges and claw strikes which heavily reduced the different ways the fire type could fight.
That was good. If the Charizard fought with intelligence, then he would have broken a while back.
The sounds of battles continued around him and Woody could only grimace at the sounds of explosions before he used Harden once more and blocked a fiery headbutt from his opponent with a Thunder Punch that she almost entirely ignored for another swipe of her claws.
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It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hur-
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As the battle progressed, Woody was beginning to find it easier to fight. He could see his opponent use the same attacks in the same patterns and found that he could move to dodge or block those attacks mere seconds before they actually happened.
That didn't mean that the fight was now magically easy or that the rock type could relax.
This time he wasn't fighting to buy time, for a knock-out, or in the worst case to kill. This time he was fighting for a moment to stop the fire type from moving.
Where before he would take every opportunity to use Rock Throw when he could, this time he used Thunder Punch to inflict paralysis. Where before he would've appreciated another Pokemon trying to get a cheap hit on the fire type, this time he yelled at them for even making the motions to try.
She should have dropped a while ago, through only her visible wounds. The fact she was still somehow standing and burning so much was a testament to whatever torture she must have gone through to still roar and fight.
Woody profusely thanked Lord Celebi when his psychic type teammate came around and was carrying some pokechow in her arms.
Rattled let him pick up on how the fire type was heavily injured on her left leg from the brief scuffle against whatever Frigibax evolved into, but the rock type hadn't made any advancements to strike it until it was necessary.
Now it was necessary.
The fire type went in for another lunge with her claws outstretched and her body blazing only to find her prey had ducked under the strike, fast enough that the claws didn't strike his face again, and with a swift movement put his all into the Hammer Arm that connected with her left leg; his electric type energy having been depleted a moment ago.
Like a mighty oak whose base had been eaten by a Bidoof, the powerful Charizard couldn't prevent herself from falling down for the first time this entire battle. She tried flapping her wings to not fall onto the ground but a very quick use of Reflect stopped the fire type from gaining any altitude.
Immediately, like the battler he's trying to be, Poison Lance fires an electric webbing once more and manages to cover the fire type's entire body. Woody used Copycat to do the same thing but smaller and focused more on her claws.
Her flaming body would burn the entire webbing so the Ralts decided to use Disable and shut off the move that had been going since the second she started fighting. Left with no other options, the fire type began gathering flames in her mouth, but Woody shut that off with another quick use of Copycat.
The shiny Ralts, seeing the opportunity, used Confuse Ray on the fire type. The ghost type move was known to directly alter the way a mind perceived things and only through sheer force of will could a Pokemon break out of its effects; it could make illusions appear in one's head, change things to alter one's depth perception, or even make Pokemon see friends as foes and vice versa.
The fire type stopped roaring due to her confusion altering her surroundings and shifting her mind away from constantly being afraid and angry. With no better opportunity, Woody took the chow and gently opened her maw and let some of the food into her mouth. Charizard, who was initially very heavily against it, stopped resisting soon after the food touched her tongue and subconsciously crooned for more even as she inhaled the food designed specifically to be as tasty as possible for the fire type's pre-evolution.
As Woody fed her, his teammate went onto the next step and began using Life Dew to heal her injuries and relax her even more. To make things easier on the fire type, she gathered up the electric webbing holding the Charizard in place using her psychic abilities and tossed it onto the group of bad humans subtly trying to escape; completely uncaring about the screams of pain that soon came from that action.
Soon though, the effects of Confuse Ray began fading and the purple glow of the eyes that had been dimmed by the status move was glowing brighter and brighter, so the two teammates swapped places. Woody mimicked the effects of Life Dew and began using the move while Ralts focused on feeding the fire type as she fired another Confuse Ray every now and then.
The bad human who sent out Charizard and the others began yelling at his team to stop the Sudowoodo's plan, but he didn't account for the fact that Woody's teammates were still battling.
As the rock type took a second to look around, he noted his teammates and the good trainers' Pokemon had already knocked out Magmar and Camerupt so there were only three Pokemon the big bad human had and those three were losing badly.
Poison Lance had opted to show himself and was battling the two Houndoom with a couple of Vali's Pokemon by his side, Leaf and the Umbreon were destroying the Flareon, and Pearl was in a battle with the Loudred, that trainer Will called the normal type that, against the fire type monkey that the boy who was being mean to Woody's trainer had called a Simisear. All the other Pokemon belonging to the good humans had been returned or were keeping watch over the bad humans, who had a Pokemon or two of their own guarding them, to make sure they didn't run away.
After what must have been the seventh spoonful of pokechow, Mind Seer asked him "Sooo, how was the overall experience?"
She must have felt that the fights were wrapping up now.
Woody took a moment to think about it before he replied "Honestly, I liked it. I felt like I was actually doing something with my strength instead of hiding away. Plus, at least this time Evandros didn't get injured."
"Yeah, he only got emotionally scarred by whatever the fuck happened that made him so afraid of Charizard's, making his mental progress take a step back. No big deal." She said with a sarcastic tone to her voice. "But on a serious note, he's probably gonna bounce back now that Charizard's sleeping. And that's good since the egg's gonna hatch any second now."
Woody didn't address how his friend was now copying their trainer's mannerisms and simply stood to walk over to his trainer, Life Dew still running since the rock type does not want to risk a fight against a rejuvenated and fully healed Charizard when he himself feels like crap. Mind Seer similarly followed alongside using Psychic to pick up and gently carry the fire type with them.
"I should probably learn Hypnosis." She suddenly sprung while they were shuffling over to their trainer.
Woody looked at her "And what brought this on?"
She only huffed and pointed at the giant fire type that was floating behind them.
The rock type nodded "Yeah makes sense, and we should probably stop that bet about how long Evandros is going to think that his Rock Tomb TM is apparently Rock Polish."
The two chuckled. Because that meant that somehow Lupa of all Pokemon would win the bet.
When they get to the cages which are all in neat rows and stacked on top of each other, neither could pretend not to notice how the Pokemon inside said cages looked at the two Pokemon with reverence in their faces at fighting and beating such a powerful foe with most of the attention going to the wounded Sudowoodo.
They sat down next to their trainer even as they continued using Confuse Ray and Life Dew to stop the pain and anger within the Charizard. Slowly, their teammates began coming back after defeating their respective opponents.
"They're finally coming now" their trainer said, and it caused them all to look at him.
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"Our new friend's gonna be here any second now" I whisper to the team. They all, even Beedrill, look with anticipation at the egg and chitter quietly
A crackle shut us up really fast, and another made me shove my gear over to Ralts who sighed but dutifully recorded the event.
Slowly, the pink and grey jagged lined egg began glowing into the pristine white that Pokemon gain when they're evolving. Taking its time, a part of the egg is pushed out as a hand tentatively feels the air and soon afterwards another joins it on the right. The top back part was being pushed harder than anywhere else but pretty soon it too gave way and like dominos stacked against each other, the entire egg collapsed around and over the newborn.
The light faded immediately afterwards, and I knew that we were all burning the memory into our minds, because in front of us was a new Pokemon.
The first thing I noticed was how tiny she was in my hands; she was just a little smaller than Marshmallow but also heavier too.
The second thing I noticed was her hair that went backwards and turned into a second mouth aside from the one on her yawning face.
She looked unperturbed (is that the right word?) when she opened her eyes and saw the team looking back at her.
"Hi there little one," I whisper "I'm so glad you're here."
Apparently, that was the right thing to say since she perked up and dove right onto my lap to give me a hug. I was careful not to antagonize her second jaw as I rubbed her back in a circle rotation that mom does whenever I get upset or want a hug... yeah, I should probably call mom.
Sirens were becoming louder and louder, and I knew that these Pokemon in cages were all gonna get a happy ending by the end of the day. I already got mine after all.