Chapter: 8

Surprise

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“Psssst…” I whispered, "Hylla's Pokémon are kinda scary."

“Ralts.” My Ralts whispered back softly.

“No they're not.” Chelsea denied my claims but she still gave the two fully evolved Pokémon a wary look.

“Luxray.” Luxray vocally disagreed.

I sighed. “It’s not you, It’s me.”

Luxray gave me the stink eye.

Rapidash stayed silent, just watching me with its creepy orange eyes.

“Hey, can I touch your mane?” I asked the burning horse.

It kept staring at me.

“The flames will burn you, you know that right?” Chelsea asked like I was stupid.

I did know that, something about trust and friendship. Still, I wanted to try it.

Call it me geeking out in a world filled with Pokémon.

I reached out to Rapidash’s head and felt the heat of its mane. I slightly brushed the edges of the flames and felt an intense heat, though it didn’t burn me immediately upon contact.

I pulled back anyway.

“Told you.” Chelsea deadpanned.

Rapidash gave me the same weird stare.

I wonder if I would have some kind of arc about winning Rapidash’s trust, being some kind of summoned hero it would fit to befriend every random side character that isn’t straight up the antagonist.

The flames didn’t immediately burn me, it was just really hot. Was this a sign of hidden power? Some kind of natural affinity for friendship with random Pokémon?

Luxray sent me another glare for no apparent reason.

Or maybe not.

“What did I do to deserve such a mean look?” I asked Luxray, more out of boredom than actual interest.

Hylla’s Pokémon had taken her orders seriously and the three of us couldn’t move our asses without being stopped by Luxray.

Ralts was silently watching the two Pokémon while Chelsea was still sitting in silence.

Now my only conversation partners were a Rapidash and a Luxray.

“So how did you and Hylla meet?” I asked both Pokémon.

Nothing.

“Tough crowd,” I muttered.

And that’s how the entire afternoon passed, me trying to have a conversation with the two Pokémon.

When Hylla came back the sun was already setting.

Her Charizard landed next to us and Hylla returned all Pokémon back into their Pokéballs. She thanked them like all trainers did in the anime, before putting the Pokéballs away.

“So,” Hylla said cheerfully and revealed herself to be holding a paper bag, “I brought dinner.”

“The man,” Chelsea ignored the food, “how is he?”

“He’ll live.” Hylla said, which would be funny if the man hadn’t been bleeding in front of our eyes.

“So what happened to him?” I asked, “How did he get wounded like that?”

“He’s still unconscious,” Hylla said, “But it’s something you won’t have to worry about.”

That sounds ominous.

We made our way towards the hospital while the sun was just touching the horizon. It must have been a long day for Ralts because during our walk back Ralts had managed to fall asleep.

We crossed the hill in silence, everyone, including me, was lost in their own thoughts,

When we reached the hospital I went upstairs and opened one of the empty patient rooms to grab the pillows and blankets.

After collecting everything I went back to my own bedroom, placed the blankets and pillows on the ground and managed to make it look comfy.

I put Ralts down and she happily tugged at the blanket, a satisfied smile was plastered onto her face.

Before I went down I took a glance at the Pidgey cam and saw it hadn’t been moved, it was still sitting in the same chair, in the exact same position.

I ignored its presence and went downstairs.

Hylla revealed she had brought along noodles from a restaurant in Sandgem town, when I arrived the two sisters were already eating in silence.

Hylla handed me a bowl with soy noodles and I began eating them.

I don’t really dislike silence but I hated awkward silence.

Still, I wasn’t going to say anything.

It became even worse when Chelsea went upstairs to her bedroom midway through dinner. It wasn’t that late yet but I guessed that finding the bleeding man in the alley was shocking and took its toll.

It left me alone with Hylla and her undivided attention. The moment Chelsea was gone Hylla fixed her intense purple eyes on me.

“So Dust, what are you thinking?”

That I am in grave danger and you’re definitely hiding something.

“Not much,” I replied, “Just wondering how you got such awesome Pokémon.”

“Aaah,” Hylla said with a nostalgic look in her eyes, “They’ve been my friends for a very long time and I agree. They are quite magnificent.”

“You were a Pokémon trainer?”

“Indeed, I even did the entire Gym challenge.” Hylla said with a smile, “Though I stopped when I had collected 5 badges.”

“Why?” I asked and Hylla’s gaze intensified with at least 50%.

“Do you know about our parents?” Hylla asked, the smile slightly dropping.

I did, Chelsea had told me but was I gonna share that I knew it? There was of course the risk that Chelsea and Hylla talked and then my lie would be found out.

“Yes. Chelsea told me this was your parents’ hospital but they’re no longer here.”

“Well, Chelsea did tell you.” Hylla said with an amused smile that was totally not creepy. “Seems like she trusts you quite a bit if she trusts you with that.”

Or she is a young girl with no friends, damaged by her parent’s death and latches onto the first parent/brother figure she can find which turns out to be a 16 year old boy with memory problems.

I decided not to share that perspective.

“Yeah, I guess.” I said, “So I assume you stopped with the entire Gym challenge when they passed away and you inherited the hospital?”

Hylla chuckled. “That’s a reasonable deduction but not quite yet. My parents passing away happened later, nah I stopped the Gym challenge because I received a better offer.”

Hylla didn’t elaborate on what said offer was and I didn’t feel brave enough to ask.

Hylla’s interrogation seemed to be over because she relaxed a bit more and we had some small talk for the rest of the evening.

Hylla and I cleaned up the dishes together and I went to bed, wondering what kind of twists and turns the next day would bring.

Strangely enough the following two days nothing special happened.

No bodies, no mysteries, just me doing my thing and recovering.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Ralts and I kept training Empathy sense so she could find people and Pokémon even when blindfolded and we made some progress, same for Confusion.

We practiced different formations with the rays like walls and trenches and to my delight we managed to stack multiple low power Confusion on top of eachother, firing them so rapidly that they were basically placed into each other.

They had the same speed as normal low power Confusion but they did double the damage of a full force Confusion.

It could be useful for setting up traps, we could shoot a stacked-slow Confusion and later push the opponent into said ray with a full force one.

The stacked rays were a really good knock out option so that did give me more confidence in Ralts’ odds.

While we were training on the fourth day Ralts suddenly let out a burp which made her face turn red in embarrassment.

I thought she had eaten something wrong that morning but apparently wasn’t it.

Ralts burped a second time, making her turn even redder but the third time…Her mouth opened but instead of a burp a funnel of wind came out of it.

I thought something was seriously wrong so I woke up Hylla to ask what’s wrong, considering her past as Pokémon trainer she was bound to have some basic knowledge.

When I told her what had happened she began laughing.

Turns out, Ralts had accidently learned a new move: Disarming voice.

Guess all the spamming and training was good for something after all.

Disarming voice was not really what I wanted but it was still decent.

It was a lot like Confusion but faster and was basically her weaponizing her own voice.

The funnel of sound waves she produced was, once activated, faster than a full force Confusion but it didn’t have the same long reach. It was shorter and had a smaller window of opportunity to hit.

It was slightly stronger than a full force Confusion but it didn’t give any status effects nor did it last as long as Confusion. Disarming Voice could probably be used to throw out a fast attack and then follow up without having a cooldown, but the attack exhausted Ralts far more than Confusion, way more.

A plus point for Disarming Voice was that it had a physical effect beyond being just a pulse of energy.

The high amplitude of the soundwaves could be used to deflect incoming attacks but also projectile based attacks.

The best part though was that the scream was deafening and if we could apply it at the right time we could make our opponent’s communication with their trainer impossible. I wasn’t sure if meta strategies like that were allowed, I had to look into that a bit more.

In the games Disarming Voice had an always hit effect like Swift but I wasn’t sure how that worked in the real world, still, the move was decent and versatile in its own way, even though it had only one power setting (being full force).

Nonetheless, I praised Ralts for learning the new move.

The fifth day we didn’t do anything special either, just some more training and I played a few games of chess with the two sisters.

They were both quite good, I managed to beat Chelsea around half of the time and I tried to teach Ralts how to play.

She was horrible at it but she looked absolutely adorable while trying to move the pieces.

Hylla however was extremely good at chess and I did not even manage to get close to beating her. It made me suspect she was some kind of human Porygon hybrid.

The last three days were quite relaxed compared to the first two days and it made me wonder if the universe had cut me some slack.

On the sixth day of my stay at the hospital (not counting the three days I was unconscious) I had my first Pokémon battle, or to be precise: a double battle.

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“I can’t wait to see their faces once we win,” Chelsea said while skipping next to me.

“We don’t know if we will win in the first place.” I cut down her hopes.

“Ralts!” Ralts disagreed with me.

“Just saying,” I said, “We both haven’t battled before. Have to be realistic.”

“You two have a decent chance to win,” Hylla interjected, “Melon and Thomas only battle each other for fun and neither side has a huge type advantage over the other. You trained your ass for the last 3 days and you.” She pointed at Chelsea, “have a very versatile Pokémon for a first battle.”

Ah, Chelsea’s mystery Pokémon.

Chelsea had told me her Pokémon was more for company than for battling but the fact that I hadn’t seen said Pokémon since I was here made me suspect I replaced the mystery Pokémon in its role for companionship.

Must suck to be stuck in a ball because a blue haired kid showed up and offered better companionship, although didn’t the Pokémon Sun and Moon developers reveal that being inside a Pokéball was like staying in a fancy hotel suite?

The official battlefield located near the town’s square was big enough for a 2 on 2 battle, which was very convenient.

Apparently Chelsea had run into Melon (read stalked) and challenged the two kids to a double duel. They agreed and we decided to have our battle there.

Thomas and Melon arrived and we exchanged the basic pleasantries.

Melon was a blond girl with freckles, same for Thomas except he was a boy. I estimated them around 14-15 and apparently they were brother and sister. Not much could be said about them.

The pair took place on the opposite side of the battlefield, Chelsea and I mirrored them and Hylla walked to the sidelines.

“I’ll be the referee of this battle,” Hylla announced, formally starting the battle. “Melon and Thomas Grasslinger vs Dust Wildfire and Chelsea Shiner. Each participant uses 1 Pokémon and the battle ends when one team is out of Pokémon. Start!”

Huh, their last name is Shiner, I never bothered to ask for their last name.

“Go Fennekin!” Melon yelled.

“Go Starly!” Thomas yelled.

Ah, so they switched Pokémon. Last time I saw them battling they had it the other way. Maybe they shared their Pokémon with each other?

The siblings threw their Pokéballs and in a flash the two Pokémon appeared.

A small fox materialized in front of Melon and a small bird Pokémon stood in front of Thomas.

“Ralts!” I yelled dramatically. “I choose you!”

Ralts stepped forward and confidently strode onto the battlefield. It was such a difference between the Ralts I found in the forest being attacked by the Zigzagoon and the Ralts that was now prepared to take on any challenger.

The sight alone made my chest swell with pride.

“Chimchar!” Chelsea yelled and threw her Pokéball.

In front of her appeared a chimpanzee-like creature whose tail was literally just fire.

This world is insane, but beside that...Chelsea has a fucking Chimchar? How?

One of the Sinnoh starters? Now that was some bullshit going on.

“You have a Chimchar?” I whispered, not wanting to give away how inexperienced we were.

“A gift from Hylla,” Chelsea answered matter of factly, like people around her get Chimchar’s for breakfast, “now let’s kill the competition.”

Poor word choice aside she was right, my mind shifted mental gears and went full battle mode.

“You two can start,” Thomas offered with a smile.

I pointed, “Chelsea you go for Fennekin, I’ll take on Starly!”

Ralts would be able to deal with the superior air mobility of Starly while Chimchar would be left at its mercy.

“Ralts, fire three Confusions at Starly!” I said and Ralts complied.

She shot three purple rays that flew in rows towards the enemy

“Chimchar use scratch!” Chelsea started her attack.

The three purple rays would force Starly to move up or backwards to get out of their range.

“Starly!” Thomas yelled. “Fly up and do a Wing Attack!”

“Fennekin, meet Chimchar’s attack with an Ember!” Melon countered.

Starly flew up and dodged the three rays and flew towards Ralts, its wings glowing white.

“Ralts wait!” I commanded and Ralts didn’t move out of Starly’s path.

Just before it would crash into Ralts I shouted. “Ralts, side step to the left and hit it with Disarming Voice.”

Ralts nodded and it was like I was watching a slow motion movie, Ralts stepped to the left and twisted her body out of its line of flight. As the Starly passed Ralts’ previous location Ralts opened her mouth and a funnel of sound waves crashed into the bird Pokémon.

Starly was hit point blank and it let out a cry as it was shot through the sky and crashed down on Chelsea’s side of the battlefield.

Chimchar had jumped over Fennekin’s Ember and landed in front of Fennekin and retracted its arms to start the move Scratch.

However Melon was not stupid, she commanded Fennekin to cancel the Ember and meet it head on with Tackle.

Fennekin yipped and slammed forward, its own momentum throwing Chimchar off balance.

Chimchar was knocked backwards and a few seconds later Starly landed with an impact next to Fennekin, being thrown across the battlefield with my point blank Disarming Voice.

Starly was not knocked out like I had hoped it would be.

Now, three of the 4 Pokémon were clustered together. It was becoming a mess.

“Pull Chimchar back to our half of the battlefield.” I told Chelsea the same moment Thomas gave Starly his next order.

“Hit Chimchar with Quick Attack!”

Melon followed her brother’s orders with one of her own. “Fennekin, assist Starly with a Tackle of your own.”

It was a smart move, Chimchar was the nearest and easiest target and Ralts wasn’t close enough to hit with any melee ranged attack and every ranged attack would hit Chimchar as well.

Haha, bold of them to assume I cared about things like friendly fire.

Luckily Chelsea followed my advice. “Chimchar, pull back!”

The two Pokémon prepared to give him a chase, however, Fennekin was about to Tackle and Starly was about to do a Quick attack.

“Ralts! Shoot Chimchar with a full force Confusion, then follow up with 3 stacked Confusions!”

“DUST!” Chelsea cried out. I ignored her and kept my eyes on the battle.

Ralts, being the good girl she was, didn’t even hesitate to shoot her ally. She charged up a Confusion and after two seconds a big purple ray sped towards the Chimchar.

What happened next was hard to follow with the naked eye.

As the ray shot towards the three clustered up Pokémon, Chimchar was hit by Starly’s Quick Attack, next to Starly was Fennekin, ready to follow Starly’s attack up with a Tackle of its own.

Before Fennekin could hit Chimchar and finish it off, three purple rays slammed into them.

It would have hit all three combatants if it wasn’t for the fact that Chimchar had been knocked out of range by Starly’s Quick Attack.

Quick Attack always hit first, I wasn't sure if that would work in the real world as well but it was at least faster than Confusion.

Or so that was my plan.

The two Pokémon fell to the ground, their momentum completely destroyed by the purple ray.

Chelsea finally caught on to what had happened and smiled. “Chimchar, jump up and hit them with Ember!”

“Chimchar!” Chimchar yelled for no apparent reason and it jumped up in the sky and midair opened its mouth and bolts of fire shot down at Fennekin and Starly.

“Fennekin!” The fox cried out which made me feel bad, but only a small bit.

When the Ember stopped, Chimchar landed a small distance away, claws out and ready.

Just in time for a slow stacked purple ray to hit the two Pokémon.

It had taken them a few seconds to cross the field but Chimchar had kept the two occupied.

I held my breath to see if they would get up and for a painful 5 seconds I felt my own heart in my throat. But once those seconds passed and both Pokémon didn’t get, I was starting to relax a little.

I chuckled, all the pieces had fallen in place.

Thomas and Melon were watching with widened eyes…

Chelsea had a smug smile on her face, though I knew she was surprised as well because her hand was trembling.

I for my part resisted the urge to laugh out loud like a maniac.

Hylla raised her arm. “Dust Wildfire and Chelsea Shiner win!”