Mepoli is definitely a change from Maple’s Burrow, the buildings are taller and the streets more crowded. The streets are lined with market stalls and various shops, and on the sidewalks, various performers do their tricks. A particularly impressive one was when a Kadabra showed impressive control over his psychic abilities, turning scrap metal into elaborate and intricate pieces of art.
The air here is only slightly worse than the air in the forest, but still, there’s almost no pollution in the city. And to the relief of Minccino, the streets are mostly trash free with only stray bottle caps that were quickly cleaned up by these small robots with brooms. The cylinder-shaped droid was basically a walking trash can with arms and wheels, as well as a screen showing a toothy grin and two blue oval-shaped eyes. ‘So Rotoms are even used for this type of stuff, huh.’
I managed to find and book a room in a hotel, I plan to stay here for a couple of days so I chose a fairly cheap place. I turn on my phone and log on to the League’s website, going to the tab labeled “Calendar” and scrolling till I reach today's date. ‘We’ve got about three hours till 6 PM, so let’s do some exploring!’ I put my phone into my jacket pocket and start to explore the city a little more in-depth.
I walked past dozens of small restaurants and family-owned Ma and Pop shops and even more big-name brand shops. Some of which caught my attention, looking through the window at the vanity pokeballs I have a realization, ‘How will I tell pokeballs apart?’ Sure I can arrange them on my belt, but if I drop them or mix them up with someone else's pokeballs, how would I find them?
‘The “Edit” app can change poses on statuettes, so it stands to reason that it could do the same with color.’ I decided to test out my theory, looking for a place to hide, deciding on an alley that turns behind a building with all the lights turned off. I pull out my phone as Minccino hops off my shoulder and starts to clean the alleyway. I chuckle a bit and shake my head in a joking manner as I pull out my Arc-Phone.
Opening the app I scan Minccino’s pokeball.
Pokeball (Minccino)
Description: A pokeball for a Minccino, this Minccino is the Pokémon of Elliot Walker. The Pokeball was produced by “Silph Co.” and distributed by the Pokémon League.
I edit it a bit, thinking a bit about what to turn it into. After some thinking, retyping, and finally deciding to go for something simple I type in my edits.
Pokeball (Minccino)
Description: A pokeball for a Minccino, this Minccino is the Pokémon of Elliot Walker. The Pokeball was produced by “Silph Co.” and distributed by the Pokémon League. The top of the ball is a light gray with a small white star on top.
I added the star because I know that Minccino evolves with a Shiny Stone and stars shine and so will he once we start fighting for real. The ball glows a bright white color and makes me turn away and see Minccino stop his sweeping after being startled by the light. It soon fades and in my hand lies the item I typed in, “Hey Min, I changed your pokeball a bit, you like it?” I say with a smile as I present it to him, he takes a quick sniff and then starts to dust the top of the ball off. Shining the top with the fur on his elbow before nodding. I let out a small chuckle and then motioned for him to hop onto my shoulder.
As I walk out of the alleyway I feel something hit my back, a sharp pain jolts through me, not sharp enough to break the skin but enough to garner my attention. I spin around to find a bipedal green reptile, their skin worn like pants, ‘A Scraggy?’ I look at the pokemon somewhat bewildered, “Status”
Scraggy
- Attack: C-/B-
- Defense: E+/C-
- Special Attack: F-/E+
- Special Defense: E+/C+
- Speed: C-/C+
- Luck: C-/C-
- Reactions: C-/C+
- Intelligence: C-/A-
- Overall: A particularly fight-interested member of his kind, nothing particularly of note except for his intelligence and attack. Overall this Scraggy is not destined for greatness.
He motions his hand in a “Come on bro!” gesture, stepping into a boxing stance. ‘Alright then let’s get some practice in!’ I look at Minccino, who was watching just as bewildered as I am, and give him a nod. He nods back and he hops onto the ground on all fours ready to fight. “Minccino, go for a Pound!” The chinchilla squeals as it transforms into a gray blur, using his tail to smack the Scraggy across the face. The dark and fighting type is sent flying backward before he hops back onto his feet and attempts to hit Minccino with a Low Kick, Min reacts by using his tail as a spring, hopping into the air and “Hit him with Aqua Tail!” The whirlpool wraps around Minccino’s tail and goes straight for Scraggy’s head. Just before it hits the Lizard makes an expression that can only be read as “I fucked up!”
Scraggy goes down staggering for a bit before passing out, and I consider catching him. Sure he has a low potential, but that is also subject to change when he evolves. I decided not to risk it. ‘Besides, he probably doesn’t want to be caught.’ I motion for Minccino to come back and he does so with a skip in his step “You’re happy huh?” He nods and says “Min!” in a happy voice. I walk out of the alleyway and check the time, half an hour till the ceremony, “Alright, let’s head to the gym!”
=====
I find myself in front of the stadium, and I hold back a whistle while looking at the white outer walls almost polished to a shine, the stadium is about the size of a soccer field with a dome roof. I walk inside and wait behind a massive line of trainers and the occasional reporter. When I finally got to the counter a man in a red vertical striped shirt and wearing a baseball cap with a pokeball on it, was scanning trainer IDs and checking the lanyards for the reporters. I show him my license and head inside, the place is almost packed, I never went to any stadiums back in my old world but the sheer amount of people crammed together shocked me. ‘Let’s try to find a good seat.’
I shimmy my way through the rows of people, finally settling on a seat just close enough to see the people on the field but also high enough to get a somewhat decent aerial view. The seats next to me are both occupied as most of the stadium is, lights shine onto the field as the audience starts to hush and stray away from their conversations.
A trapdoor opens up, and a man in a poorly tossed together blue suit gets lifted out from the ground, the cameras all focus on him, his face is nervous, bags have formed under his eyes and his face seemed to lost all its blood after looking at the audience ‘Champion Kendrick is notorious for being bad around crowds.’ He taps the microphone in front of him, sending a shriek of static to the crowd.
“U-Um, Testing…Okay.” He fiddles with his tie and coughs into his hand “Ahem, t-thank you trainers for coming to the opening ceremony of the new league year.” His voice trails off as he pulls out some note cards.
“I am Champion Kendrick, the current champion and the one to, uh, ultimately beat.” He goes to a new card. “Please keep watchful-” He stops then flips back a card. “Ah, er, w-we will be holding a battle between a representative of Olamin and a representative of Kanto.”
Two more trap doors open up as Kendrick continues his speech, “The gym leader of this city of Mepoli, Kieran.” The left trapdoor to the champion lifts a platform revealing a young man no older than 20, he has dark greased back hair and a cocky grin and wearing a long black trenchcoat with a pair of black slacks. He holds a dusk ball in his hand as he waves to the crowd, the cheers from the crowd, specifically from the guy to my left, nearly deafen me.
The crowd settles as Kendrick coughs once more, “A-and his opponent hailing from Kanto, the gym leader of Vermillion City, it’s Lieutenant Surge.” A tall man with blond military-cut hair starts to lift out of the trapdoor on the right, Surge wears a military uniform with its sleeves pulled up. Interestingly he has a subtle difference from in the games, on his cheek and leading towards his wrist is a massive scar ‘I think that type of scarring was called a Lichtenberg figure’ a Circuitry of scars formed by electricity. ‘Did he get it when training his team?’
The champion finally goes back to the discarded note “Ahem, uh there is currently an outbreak of pokemon disappearances, please keep a watchful eye on your ‘mons.” He slightly bows as he says “Thank you for your time and enjoy the fight.” Kendrick goes to a seat away from the field, where the cameramen and employees sit. Surge and Kieran start to go to their respective boxes, now in a small white-chalked box as they stare each other down.
Kieran throws out the Duskball he was holding, releasing in a whirl red a Tyranitar the armored behemoth of a lizard snorts as he kicks the dirt like a raging bull. Surge throws out an Electivire, the mass of yellow fur his two tails zapping electricity between them like a taser. ‘Huh, I’ve gotten better at telling pokemon genders apart, go me!’
The announcer states the rules, three on three no substitution, if they’re recalled they’re out. And then chops the air with a “Begin!” The two behemoths charge at each other, the Tyranitar growls and summons several spires of stone that twist towards the Electivire. The Electivire dodges, rolling against the spires like a boxer rolling with punches. The Electivire’s hand gets covered in frost as it closes the distance instantly hitting Tyranitar with an Ice Punch, sending the tyrant reeling backward.
Electivire doesn’t let Tyranitar recover, charging into him with another Ice Punch. A jab, hook, hook, jab a constant combo of attacks aimed at the jaw and temple pummel Tyranitar with a super effective aura. Tyranitar manages to wall off the electric ice boxer with a stone edge, making four walls around him. “Rest!” Shouts Kieran and Tyranitar start to meditate, seeming to fall asleep for a few seconds before his eyes shoot open, fully recovered. During these few seconds, Surge’s Electivire started to zap himself. Activating his Motor Drive ability, speed increases with each zap.
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Tyranitar throws his improv house, the four walls flying to the electric type. But Electivire blurs into a flash of light, as he effortlessly dodges the walls. Tyranitar’s focus snaps towards the electric type's fist covered in frost. Tyranitar hits Electivire point blank with a dark pulse before he can begin his combo. Electivire twists his body avoiding a point-blank hit, but gets grazed across his left side. Tyranitar jumps back and starts to ready an attack, a brilliant white light glows from his mouth Electivire seems to recognize the attack immediately. He readies himself to dodge, knowing the move is too powerful to be canceled through force. Tyranitar unleashes the Hyper Beam, and the beam shakes the arena vibrations hitting the psychic shields formed by multiple Mr. Mime to protect the audience.
The beam flies, the power shaking up the dirt on the ground blocking me from seeing if it hit or not. As the dust settles both of the Pokémon are knocked out on the ground, Electivire now closer than he was before. Above the stadium a screen flashes an infrared video, the reds of the two Pokémon show that Electivire decided to close the distance, a deep blue around his fist showing that he used Ice Punch. ‘He really seems to like that move, huh.’
The two gym leaders recall their Pokémon and say something to them before putting them back on their belts. Almost scarily in parallel, they both moved and threw their next pokeballs. In a flash of red Kieran throws out a battle-scarred Liepard and Lt. Surge throws out his Raichu, his ace as Liepard is Kieran’s. ‘I think they both wanted to potentially sweep by using their aces?’ But that’s just speculation on my part.
I examine Raichu and Liepard, who is currently sizing each other up walking in circles around each other. ‘Oh, right I have status…I can’t believe I actually forgot that!’ I was about to say status but felt a strange chill run across my back. I turn around and see…no one, just the guy sitting above me, who isn’t even looking at me. I gulp and look towards Minccino, but see something weird about him…his eyes are wide and he has a tuft of fur sticking up, that he’s not patting down. I turn to where he’s looking and notice that he’s looking towards the Liepard…, ’Wait a minute.’
I whip my head back towards Minccino, and somehow with no clues, I realize what’s happening. And it makes me chuckle a bit, I turn to Liepard, who was just hit with Thunder Wave but retaliating his a Dark Pulse, and I look closely at Liepard, I want to say Status to confirm my theory, but that chill still frightens me. So instead I look at Liepard, and I know exactly what’s going on ‘Liepard’s a female, Oh my god Min has a crush’ I inwardly ‘Awww’ and turn to the lovestruck ‘mon “No offense bud, but I think she’s outta your league.” Minccino moves his head towards me at sonic speed and starts to prattle off an embarrassed “Min, Minccino” He’s actually blushing, how does that even work? I chuckle a bit but that makes Minccino angrier as he starts to bop me on the head in retaliation.
I turn back to the fight in time to see Liepard go down to a Volt Tackle, and the bops stop, Minccino now lets out a sad “Min…” Kieran returns Liepard and throws out his last pokemon, a hair-covered goblin form from the red light of the pokeball. The Fairy and Dark type Grimmsnarl leads off with a full force Sucker Punch, his fist obscured by shadows as it punches Raichu from his shadow. Raichu quickly recovers and charges at him with a Quick Attack, turning into a white blur of light, the faintest glow of psychic energy signifying that he started to set up agility. As Raichu charges toward Grimmsnarl, the goblin puts his hands up in surrounder. Raichu comes to a screeching halt as he turns towards Surge to give an order, Surge yells “It’s a trick!” but it’s too late Grimmsnarl uses one of his signatures moves False Surrender, and then uses Spirit Break a glow of fairy aura ruptures through Raichu’s body as he goes down for the count and back into Lt. Surge’s pokeball.
Surge glares at Grimmsnarl and then Kieran, but Kieran returns his glance with a smirk and a shrug. The veins on Surge’s forehead start to pop out, as he mumbles something that I could barely lip-read “Fine, let’s play this game.” as he reaches not towards his belt but rather into his coat, I almost thought he was just gonna pull out a gun, but he pulled out something far worse. A blue pokeball with four golden outward appendages, I recognized it instantly as a Beast Ball, ‘Wait, there’s no way…I mean Lt. Surge never had an ultra beast before!’
He tosses the ball, releasing a mass of black wires, forming a loose image of a man, with a giant spark acting as its head. I can taste the static in my mouth. Xurkitree comes out standing easily at 13 feet tall, it instantly plants itself into the ground with its wires activating the move Ingrain. Grimmsnarl looks around as the wires pop out of the ground and start to zap him, giant arcs of electric power fly towards the poor goblin before he even has time to react. As the smoke settles and the smell of burnt hair dissipates, Grimmsnarl is on the ground and quickly recalled. The announcer booms “And the winner is!” pausing for dramatic effect “Lieutenant Surge!”
=====
After that, the two gym leaders shook hands and the ceremony ended, I decided to call it a night and go to the hotel I reserved. The room was pretty nice, had a TV and a bed, all I really need honestly. I started to go through the fight once more, it happened so quickly I barely had time to react, for starters the chill back there, I forgot about it after gawking at Minccino’s crush but I wonder what it could have been. ‘Maybe a loose ghost-type pokemon?’ Secondly, Lt. Surge has a freaking ultra beast, ‘How’d he even get it!’ I scroll through Pory-Goon and this was the first time it was ever seen on Surge’s team. Though apparently, he got those scars the same time he went to Alola’s battle tree…’I guess he must’ve gotten Xurkitree and those scars in Alola, probably why he got the scars in the first place. While catching Xurkitree something happened and either it or something else shocked him.’
While scrolling through the forums of Alola I found a recent photo of Elio, the champion. Now thirteen, but still an undefeated champion, apparently he doesn’t hand any paperwork or stuff like that as he’s too young, but if he holds the position ‘Which face it he will he has Solgaleo.’ when he’s old enough he’ll also start doing more political stuff. Elio looks the same as in the first Sun and Moon games except with slightly longer black hair loosely tied behind his head. He has the same unsettling constant smile as in the games, and it seems like he holds it non-stop, in any video I’ve seen of him, it’s the same smile.
Pokemon Sun and Moons 2, simply don’t exist. Since it’s this weird parallel world with Hau at the start of his journey, unlike Nate from Black and White 2 who became champion two years after Hilbert. Though for some reason Hilbert didn’t use Reshiram in his champion fight ‘Maybe he saw it as cheating, since Nate doesn’t have any legendaries?’ All speculation, but still interesting. I turn away from my phone once I hear the TV turn on, Minccino turned on a battle from Kieran, to be exact a gym challenge video against a seven badge trainer hoping for an eight. I turn to Minccino, and I’m starting to get worried ‘He’s not going to turn into this world’s version of K-Pop stans will he?’
I decide to distract myself from those worrying thoughts by checking out Minccino’s food supply, the custom food that Cora helped me make used a base of standard normal-type pellets. Mixed with Oran berries to help restore muscle fibers and a few gummy vitamins that help stimulate oil production ‘When he becomes a Cinccino he’ll have oil that will help deflect attacks on his weird scarf thing.’ I turn around to see Min absolutely engrossed by the fight on screen, which is now against Liepard and a very miffed Hitmonlee. Min turns towards me and starts to point towards the screen, which is now paused at Liepard mid dark pulse. “I get it you like her!” Min blushes but then shakes his head and points at the dark pulse “What, you want to learn dark pulse?” He vigorously shakes his head.
I rub my chin. “I’m not sure about Dark Pulse, but I’ll see if you can learn any dark-type moves.” Minccino pumps his fist in the air, I sigh and rub the back of my head ‘Well whatever, if being a fanboy is motivating you to train more, who am I to stop that’ I look at my phone and enter a question into the Ask app.
“What Dark-type attacks can Minccino learn?”
Ding
[Fling and Thief by Technical Machine are all the dark attacking moves Minccino can learn, as well as Fake Tears also by TM]
‘Hm, how much do TMs go for?’ I researched a few things on my phone and nearly spit out my imaginary tea. ‘2,000 for Thief and Fling 1,500. Ugh, I don’t have that much money, but I can use this as an incentive!’ I turn towards Minccino and cough to get his attention. “So, you can learn Fling and Thief, and maybe if you figure out how to use those you can somehow patch together a way to use Dark Pulse.” Min looked excited, but I wasn’t finished. “But, these moves can only be taught by TMs, and to be honest we only have enough money to stay a couple of days here, and enough for the trip to Shaleshallows.” Now he’s dejected, “So, if we manage to beat the gym at Shaleshallows we get a cash prize and with that prize money we can afford to buy your TMs.” Now he’s back to looking excited, saying his own name in a peppy and determined tone. ‘Well, that should be enough, with this hopefully he’ll start to grow fast and start to fill out into his potential.’
I decided to go to Shaleshallows as my first gym, it’s on the left side of the circuit circle around the region. Shaleshallows is a beachside town with a Ground type Gym leader, Alira Barros, I chose her gym because Minccino has Aqua Tail, and because it felt right, I mean Brock is the first gym leader of pokemon so it felt thematically correct. ‘Well, on the way I should look for a new party member, while I may be able to sweep with Minccino, I should be careful who knows what tricks Alira has up her sleeves.’
I lay down on my bed and look back at Minccino, he’s finally taken a break from simping to groom himself ‘I really hope that this is just a phase, or that it’ll at least mellow out tomorrow morning.’ I sigh and close my eyes and succumb to slumber.
=====
“Hey, Eli.” I once again am gazing towards the stars, the blurry-faced white-haired kid sitting next to me.
“Yeah?” I look around me, I sit in a field of white flowers, but these flowers are…simplistic almost pixel-like in appearance.
“Where did you go yesterday? You didn’t meet up here like usual.” I cringe back a bit at the faint recollection of yesterday. My mom forced me to study for half of the day, always pestering me to be better.
I sigh through my teeth and say “Yeah, sorry ____, my mom didn’t let me.” I look at my hands, I’m twelve right now, not like in the future I’m actually twelve.
“I see, that’s too bad, but if you get in trouble you don’t have to see me. After all, I only wish to speak with you to learn more.” ____’s demeanor changed, he’s usually pretty reserved and shy but right now, he’s confident and speaks with a sense of empty curiosity.
“Learn what?” I ask with a confused look and voice.
How to be h-” Then it ends.
=====
I yawn as I wake up, Minccino is curled up in a ball on a pillow he liberated from my bed. ‘I feel like I had a familiar dream…’ I shake my head and soon the dream fades from my mind. I yawn and walk toward my backpack, the original plan was to stay here for a few days train some more, and do all of that stuff. But honestly, I’m starting to get antsy, maybe it’s because of that weird chill, but I feel like I’m being watched.
I look at my supplies, ‘The trek to Shaleshallows is a bit long, probably be on the road for a few days. I have plenty of people and pokemon food and I got here in less than a day so I still have a lot of supplies. Plus I’m sure Minccino will appreciate us getting moving on to the gym, so he can get a TM.’ I nod and decide to head out today, hopefully, the weird vibes this city’s now giving me will fade away once I’m on the road.
I double-checked the map, and the route to Shaleshallows was pretty much a straight shot, with only a couple of other paths branching through, and even if I do get lost there’s a bunch of Rangers out there since it’s the start of the League so I’d be found pretty quickly. ‘Yeah, yeah, I can do this!’ I try to sink the bubbling feeling of anxiety, but it doesn’t work, so many things could go wrong, I could be attacked by a wild pokemon, I could somehow be caught in a mudslide or something, I never really camped out before what if I can’t start a fire and I die of hypothermia! “AH, screw it! Writhing in bad thoughts never does anything good!’ I look at Minccino who’s starting to wake up. “Alright, let’s just train then go onto route 103!” I say with faux confidence, Min rubs the sleep out from his eyes and nods, now instantly awake and cleaning up the hotel for our leave. Minccino starts to fold up the blanket but his stubby arms can’t seem to reach the other side of the blanket, I chuckle and decide to help him out.