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It had been a long time since Torterra had felt the energy of the land this strongly, and that was a massive upside to going back to the Hoean Region. The energy of the land can be felt on any piece of land above water. Islands do count to this, but the feel itself is so faint it reminds any and every ground type that Kyoger could drag that small patch of sanctuary under the waterline if it ever felt like it. Hoean itself could be described as a collection of islands to be dragged down to the depths at any moment(admittedly only by the most uncharitable members of Team Aqua), but Groudon, Lord of Land and one of the strongest of the ground types, more than makes up for it. Its presence alone strengthens the energy of the land, fighting strongly to keep the ground on the plates and above the sea.
Torterra wishes Paul could feel this.
Another thing Torterra knew about the ground under its feet is the fact it sits on plates above the magma Groudon rests in. Both Groundon and Regigegus thought those plates were the safest places to put all the continents and chained each and every one to their own home plate. Those who know about how plate tectonics work will question this decision. The plates scrap up on each other and often their matter sinks below the magma to be melted back into the core. In truth, this is a cleansing process. The scraping, while it does cause destructive earthquakes, also knocks loose jagged rocks which fall into the magma. The sinking, while it does take away ground, brings it back into the magma. In both cases, the new material is melted down and placed back into the pot later be used for the land to grow and heal.
Paul’s training strategy has grown to resemble this process, though many Pokemon were not able to keep up with it.
And one of those Pokemon was about to interrupt their breakfast.
“Hey, Hey, HEY!!” barked a Houndoom.
That specific Houndoom was one of the downsides of the Hoean Region.
It had been hounding them ever since the first week of Paul and Torterra setting foot in the region the first time they were here. It barked all day and night every time they crossed paths. It even tried to attack Paul and force the capture the week before they left, ramming him in the gut with the horns that just started to come in signaling it was close to evolving.
And every time Paul did not catch that Houndoom.
Many Pokemon do not make it through Paul’s regiment because they do not have the spirit to, or it is not the right path for them.
This one would not make it though because the regiment would kill it.
Paul and his Pokemon only sit down for a quick half hour at most break to wolf down store bought Pokemon food or fruit for the Pokemon and sandwiches for Paul.
Many who see this diet would wonder if Paul knew what rest was besides a psychic type move(which is not an unfair criticism because sometimes Torterra wonders if
Paul knows what water is besides being the type that beats fire). After everyone gullets their food as fast as they can, they start training at full intensity, no rest.
A Houndoom can not do that because if they do not rest for half an hour to a full hour after they finish eating, their stomachs will flip around and knot around their esophagus and intestine and the gas build up this causes will kill them if they can not get to a Pokemon center in time.
Paul knew this long before this Houndoom even knew them and refused to catch any of them. He may be cold and callous, but not that level of cruel.
“What? Am I just not good enough for you kid?” the Houndoom continued.
All this incessant barking brought the attention of Haunchcrow who had been flying about in search of new Pokemon to train.
“I could have sworn this guy would have been caught long before we got here,” Haunchcrow said.
“Unless no one was strong enough to knock some sense into it before throwing the pokeball. Its dead set on joining Paul, so it might need someone stronger than him to take it down,” Torrterra added.
“Dead set. Of course.”
Leave it to the carrion bird to fixate on that phrasing.
Still, the dog barked at Paul as he sat on the rock and meditated. It’s the closest to rest Torrterra ever saw Paul, and it almost hated how the dog barked at him while in this state. Still, Paul was a stubborn man, and mere barking would not rouse him.
Torrterra took this as a queue to meditate as well. There was no danger, and it was not time to train yet. Haunchcrow took this to mean it could fly off to continue to look for new Pokemon for Paul to try and train.
Though they all should never have dropped their guard this fast. When Haunchrow was just past the treeline and Torterra had just closed its eyes to start meditative breathing, the Houndoom flame charged. The second it made contact it knocked Paul into the water, putting out the flames before the burns could get worse.
As Paul was sent flying, the pokeballs he brought spilled out of his pocket and onto the ground, and the dog wasted no time jumping to them.
Torterra marched up to give it a piece of its mind. Haunchcrow flew back far faster than Torterra could move to smack some sense into the dumb dog.
Still neither of them came fast enough to stop Houndoom from poking its nose on the button of the pokeball before a bright red light covered it and let it in.
Paul drug himself out of the lake to examine what happened. What he found was two Pokemon staring down a pokeball with an almost deadly anger.
Instead of letting out the Houndoom so they could give it a piece of their minds, Paul sent Torterra back to its pokeball before grabbing all the ones the dog knocked out of his pocket and hopped onto Haunchcrow to fly to the Pokemon center.
Even as the crow flies, it took 30 minutes to get to the Pokemon center.
Haunchcrow could feel Paul’s grip on its nape feathers strengthening. They were only flying about 3 feet above the treeline, and the air was smooth as butter. That could only mean Paul was feeling an emotion he is not enjoying, and that in and of itself made Haunchcrow want to Areal Ace that damned Houndoom as far into the atmosphere as possible.
As soon as they were at the Pokemon center door, Haunchcrow landed and Paul ran in, forgetting to put Haunchcrow back in its ball. Instead it decided to walk in behind him as he made his way to the desk.
“Hello, how may I help you?” Nurse Joy asked with a smile, not yet knowing the situation this damned dog may have put itself in.
Paul handed her the pokeball. “This Houndoom knocked me into a pond and jumped in my pokeball, and I do not know if it ate before doing this or not,” he said with the seriousness he gives just about everything.
“Oh dear. Well I’m glad you brought it to be safe. I’ll ta-”
And then that damned dog hopped out of its pokeball.
“Why am I here and not training?” the Houndoom growled.
Haunchcrow noticed it was in no position to try to be intimidating.
Its whole stomach was swollen. Most seconds hatched four legged Pokemon could stand better than this dog. Houndoom had trouble getting enough air in its body to make sure its internal fire burned strong. Haunchcrow listened in on the dog’s heart, and it beat more out of rhythm that a flock of Chattots drunk off of rotten fruit.
This was beyond having a tough spirit. This was beyond reason. This was just pure insanity.
Paul stood strong even under threat of Houndoom trying to tackle him again. Nurse Joy directed her Chancy to flank around Houndoom to catch it if it lunges.
Haunchcrow marched to stand in front of Paul, keeping the dog as far away from Paul as possible.
It growled again.
Haunchcrow did not care.
Torterra would have been a better one to play tank in this situation. Aside from the fact the content Pokemon was far more qualified to stand in one place and shrug off attacks like they were nothing, Haunchcrow did not feel it could hold back from attacking even if the situation does not call for it.
Instead help came from an unexpected source.
Snubbles stand at about a Houndoom’s knee, and the one that just showed up and knocked this Houndoom’s left knee, knocking it to the ground, had to jump up a little. That jump really didn’t knock down the amount of force needed to sprawl the larger dog. Why the knee was the weak spot right now, Haunchcrow did not know, but it won’t look a gift ponita in the mouth(even though the Piplup line has an arguably more disturbing mouth).
The Houndoom lay down and slept more peacefully than it had ever been in this whole situation.
“Pardon me mate, sorry if I interrupted your business, but I thought you needed help,” a voice called.
Haunchcrow looked down and saw a Snubble.
“Pardon?”
“Yeah. I eard that dog barking atcha, and I saw that ruffian givng you a spot of trouble and even looking like it was gonna threaten your trainer, so I thought I’d offer you a helping hand.”
“Thank you.”
And then this Snubble’s trainer came up to Paul.
“Sir, Please tell me Snubbs did not cause you any trouble,” he said in an accent similar to his pokemon.
“No. Your Snubble actually helped stop a problem,” Paul stated before filling in the other trainer on the whole situation.
“I see,” said the other trainer. “I completely understand. It’s something I regularly keep an eye on because I choose to train dog like Pokemon. If you don’t mind, I’ll trade ya that Houndoom for this new Beldum I caught.”
As long as that Beldum is less of a pain than that Houndoom, Haunchcrow had no objections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How long had it been since this Shedninja left the cold hell of the mountain top and floated among the forest? It had not been down here since it was a Nincada. That was not very helpful because Shedninja did not know how long it had been since it was a Nincada. It couldn’t even guess based on the seasons. Mountain storms could whip up even on the most hellishly hot summer days.
Updrafts were also another problem. Shedninja did not have enough mass to fight the wind and every so often if it floats too far from the ground(a thing it wants to do since Shedninja did not shed its bug typing and the ice and snow was still unpleasant to touch).
Honestly if Paul had seen how it was traveling, he would most likely not approve.
Shedninja did not have very many memories of Paul since he caught it as a Nincada a day before Paul and Torrtera were to scale the mountain to build a tolerance to the cold, and since it was a Nincada when it met Paul, it was also weak to the cold.
Their somber band marched half way up the mountain until something happened.
Unfortunately for Shedninja, that part of the memory was ethereally floating through another part of its existence at the moment. Right now it can only remember the beginning and the end.
After everything that went down, Shedninja awoke alone on a ledge below a steep cliff. There were no bodies, which would make sense if a hungry and opportunistic Glaely or Frostlass got a hold of the past companions, but there was one problem with that. Besides the small essence of the afterlife that came with a Nincada evolving and producing a Shedninja, there was none in the area.
This gave Shedninja a reason to leave the mountain to try and see if it can find Paul.
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If Paul had to be honest with himself, psychic type Pokemon were one of the things that unease him. Pokemon in general are a lot closer to humans than most humans in general and unprepared trainers specifically even know or like to acknowledge. Psychic types in specific are on par with or beyond humans in a lot of fields. Even if they are only on par with people, some are extremely proficient in skills such as telepathy, telekinesis, mind reading, mind control, and foresight, whether you believe in full on future sight or extreme ability to understand cause and effect.
Many trainers stereotype ghost and dark types as the ones to turn on their trainers without reason, but many forget that if a psychic type turns on you, they could probably think of new and creative ways to lock you in your own brain as punishment for a slight.
Paul did not fear that stereotype for dark and ghost types. To him they were just as likely to turn and attack him as any other type, even after the Houndoom incident. Psychic types unease him because before Ash, they were the only type to test his training philosophy. His regiment, while admittedly not always the best for all Pokemon, broke down and built up the bodies and spirits of the ones who knew they could benefit from it. No one, including Paul himself, could speak on the effects of his training on the mind.
Right now, the only benefit Paul thought his new Beldum was getting is having Ninjask around to help with Agility training.
This Beldum was only a year or two old at most, but it was already sharper than most knives humans craft. Paul had taken to teaching his team what the names of the traveling supplies he had in case they needed to grab them for him. Most Pokemon took two to three sessions to connect the object itself to its name. Ursaging and Electrivike unfortunately took 2 to 3 weeks to learn most of them. The second Paul showed an object to Beldum the connection between it and its name was already formed and it could fetch it no problem.
As Paul walked down the tree lined path, the only brain training he thought he could provide was knocking down trees and letting it lift them back up and move them out of the way with psychic.
In the distance he spotted a familiar person and groaned.
Walking towards him was Conway, the damned math nerd ready to beat someone over the head with a branch of the tree of math if you didn’t have the sense to walk away. Unfortunately for Paul, he’s walking in the direction that Conway was walking away from.
When they finally met on the path, Conway started the conversation.
“Why hello Paul. Fancy seeing you here,” he greeted. “Tell me how have you been.”
The small talk quickly dissolved to Conway bulldozing over everything to talk about the recent talk of a Dr. and their Alakazam who both contributed to solving an almost unsolvable equation, each doing 50% of the work. Somehow this work contributed to quantum physics. Paul did not understand quantum physics. The regular stuff he could grasp even if he couldn't predict it without having to do some math. Quantum Physics, to Paul at least, sounded like a bunch of authors trying to rip off
Lemony Snicket by throwing weird and sarcastic word combinations at everyone who dared listen.
Still, Paul had enough manners to sit and listen attentively. Regi taught him to do that, and even though in most situations Paul only would later roast the person, right now he was on his best behavior.
After a while, Conway remembered he was talking to someone and not just monologue.
“Have you caught any interesting Pokemon on your journey?” he asked.
“A Beldum,” Paul technically lied.
“Ohh, a psychic type. I don’t often run into trainers with them. How is training going?”
There was no way Paul was going to open up and admitting an insecurity to this man. Back when Brandon and Regi somehow managed to bear his oldest inner struggle to Ash and friends, he felt like a Pokemon egg being forced to hatch hours early cause some Mircrows decided to start pecking at it to get at the yolk inside.
To open up to Conway right now would require the author to find a more disturbing metaphor to describe how unnecessarily open Paul would feel.
“Oh wait. Can I see if your Beldum can do equations?”
What?
Leave it to Conway to bring math back into the conversation after 5 precious minutes of it not being there.
Then Paul had an idea.
The first night he returned to Hoenn he stayed in a Pokemon center. While going to grab dinner from the buffet, he noticed 3 trainers sitting at a table. One of them had a thick book, good for attacking if you ever needed a weapon, and the other two had a mess of papers strewn in front of them furiously marking them with pencils while crying and screaming in pain. Their friend wanted to see how fast the duo could correctly do 20 equations. Paul basically had dinner and a show, glad it was not him.
Unfortunately in the present, it may have to be him for the sake of Beldum being able to train its mind.
“Beldum might appreciate a good mental workout,” Paul said before letting it out of its ball.
Beldum took a minute to examine Conway as he searched his bag for the book he was looking for. It then turned and shot its trainer an unsure look.
Paul tried to give his Pokemon a stern sure look, but the sure part was extremely over exaggerated.
“Oh finally I found it. No wonder it made its way to the bottom of the bag. It’s basic algebra, and I advanced past that myself a while ago,” Conway said, opening the book to the first page with practice problems.
Paul was confused.
“Did you forget the paper and pencil?” he asked.
That caused Conway to shot back into the bag in search of the things that might be able to help both humans understand if the non verbal pokemon got the answer right. Paul and Beldum both shot him confused and annoyed looks.
“Okay, I have everything,” he said, holding out the paper and pencils. “If I have to find a table, I might just scream.”
Beldum used psychic on the book, pencil, and papers in order to levitate them all to eye level. The first question was X=5-2. It added 2 to both sides and got X=7.
“Paul, how old is your Beldum?”
“Two years at most.”
“And it already surpasses most human two year olds.”
It took about an hour of practice problems and quizzes and a fourth of Conway’s spare paper before they found a problem that stumped Beldum.
3X*4=8Y/7.
Regardless of whether or not you personally believe Giratina is the Satan equivalent in the pokemon world, Paul believed it was whoever put double variables in a math problem. His brain felt as sore as his body after his first harsher training session.
While recalling that memory, he thought as annoying and inefficient as it would be to carry around a math text book and some spare paper and pencils, if it helps Beldum, he will deal with it.
“By the way Paul, what moves does Beldum know?” Conway asked.
“Take Down, Agility, and Psychic.”
“Oh my. Well I just thought of a good enrichment activity. Beldum might enjoy being able to calculate the damage it can do with Take Down and how fast it can go after using Agility,” he said before going back to digging in his bag.
What did Paul get himself into?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Shedinja floated through the summer time forest, it clung to the beginning and the end. It did not want to lose them in its whole existence while trying to find the bits in the middle.
Unfortunately, most days what bounced in the spare bit of existence that actively remembers instead of just stored in a stirring soup was nonsense. How many times has that one dumb Chattot song come back again today? Why was the over machismo cousin who already got its comeuppance and character growth by being caught by a coordinator who blasts everyone with the most extreme fem girly pop energy an important thought today? Why was the concept of extreme fem girly pop coming up when Paul barely even registered as anything other than annoyed?
Sometimes Shedinja wished it had a brain instead of chaos soup. Even though they are unbelievably soft and scarily delict, they do a better job of organizing than the soup.
While Shedinja was annoyed at how it stores memories, it got caught in a thorn bush. It seemed like every thorn close to its body wanted to scratch or dig into its shell. There was barely enough life force to deal with a battle, but Shedinja still felt every thorn.
And it then remembered something.
While Paul was leading it and Torrterra up the mountain, the party came across two climbers being overly romantic. One thing Shedinja learned about Paul before they were separated was he feels extremely uncomfortable at strong displays of emotion to the point where his reaction counts as an extreme emotion. The discomfort was so strong Paul decided to take a longer route up the mountain, one he was sure less people would be on.
The path they took was a narrow ice shelf that could just barely fit Torrterra. Paul sent it back into the ball, but Torrterra refused. Paul tried again, but the continent pokemon held steady. There was even an intense stare down before Paul remembered they both were the kind of stubborn that would walk on this ice bridge, and neither would try to get out of training because of safety concerns.
Unfortunately, they’re both going to learn the hard way why safety is important.
The ice itself was thick and sturdy enough to hold Torrterra, even as it clawed the top of the shelf to prevent slipping. The rock of the mountain itself may as well have been made of Parmesan cheese. Over the years there were enough changes in temperature to melt the water and freeze it back to ice to cause erosion. The ice ledge was already a tremendous thing to hold, and when Paul and Torrterra walked across it, it was just too much, and the rock gave out, sending the shelf tumbling followed by some loose stones.
Shedinja was shielded from the fall by grabbing onto one of Torrterra’s trees, and the canopy of said tree protected it from most of the rocks falling.
Paul and Torrterra unfortunately got the full brunt of the fall and were sent sprawling. Shedinja heard 3 cracks, which it hoped was just the ice, and rocks the size of fists slam down on top of Torrterra. Thankfully none of the big rocks hit Paul’s head, but many of the golf ball sized stones pelted his body.
Suddenly the thorns trying to dig into Shedinja were nothing.
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The Second oldest Gyradose in the lake swim paced in front of the the the waterfall that fed its home. It’s been doing that ever since evolving.
The grandma of the lake died 6 full moons ago, and everyone could still feel the weight of its absence. Grandma was the guardian Gyradose of the lake for longer than anyone else remembered and protected all the Magicarp from anything that would ever hurt them. No trainers ever caught a Magicarp without Gram’s permission, and every time a poacher approached the lake, they left with their tails between their legs and were never seen again.
No one ever needed to worry. Grandma was always there until it wasn’t.
Of course, the lake still needed a guardian regardless of Gram’s life status, so this Gyradose and it’s older sibling had to rush train and try to evolve. They were the oldest, so it made sense that they would have to be the ones to take on the mantle of lake protector.
Every day both of them jumped the waterfall scaling higher and higher each time. The older sibling was always ever so slightly higher up, but it was also born ever so slightly earlier. In the grand scheme of things, this should not matter. This particular Gyradose was going to mold itself into its best version no matter what. No small fractions of seconds or waterfalls were going to stop it from doing so.
Unfortunately as fate would have it, fractions of seconds and waterfalls did change this Gyradose’s whole life.
During the last leap up the waterfall both Magicarp took, the older sibling managed to claw their way up to the top and swam up the stream before evolving.
The younger Magicarp just barely touched the top with its crown before being pushed down by the rapids. It could not see its sibling either in the lake or at the top of the fall, but that did not matter. What mattered was it was so close, and the next jump was going to be the one that takes it over the waterfall.
And so the Magicarp took that faithful leap. With all the hope it could muster if flew a full 10 feet over the top…
And saw its now evolved older sibling as it itself started to evolve.
While the lake could handle two freshly evolved Gyradose, as both siblings became more powerful by battling each other, they realized one thing. Gyradose are territorial, even among their own kind. The only other creatures they accept in their territory are Magicarp, and it’s mostly because a lot of Gyradose remember when they were and many have stories of being attacked and ridiculed for being weak, so they fight to make sure other Magicarp never experience the same.
The problem is, this lake already had one capable Gyardose, and the one pacing in front of the waterfall today was obsolete.
Why did it push itself to be the best, when there was someone who could be better quicker?
It was a question that caused this Gyradose to pace in front of the waterfall that evolved it every day.
Every day it never got an answer, and it felt like it was wasting time puzzling this instead of looking for a new place to call home.
Strangely enough, there was never a day this particular Gyradose wished it could jump down the waterfall backswords and go back to being a Magicarp. That was practically beat into its head by Grandma. If water is flowing it almost never goes backwards. It flows down from the top of the world to the sea, and it may take some windy, round about way to get down to it, but it only goes back up the land if something is catastrophically wrong.
According to Gram, flowing water is the best analogy for how a Gyradose should live. Even if they were stuck in a pond or a lake in real life, metaphorically they should always keep going forward in any way they can even if they take up the mantle of Magicarp protector. Every Gyradose already gets its one water flowing back up the land moment when they push to evolve.
Right now, this Gyradose pushed itself physically forward, but can not find the stream to flow down to the sea on.
This Gyradose knew it could fly for short distances, but every time it threw itself into the air, it coudln't find a literal stream to jump into and go down in order to find it’s own metaphorical stream.
The only other way Gyradose could think to leave was both physically and mentally blocked by Gram.
There was a hole in the northern edge of the lake that a normal Gyradose could slip through, but a giant like Gram could only wedge themselves in. Gram told everyone to avoid that hole like the plague. Anything that went in it never came back out. It didn’t mind the Magicarp under its watch leaving. A lot of Magicarp are let out of the lake if Gram decides the trainer who caught them would actually take care of them, and Gram’s only had to rescue one charge from a misjudged trainer, but that is a whole other messy story that no other Magicarp besides the redundant Gyradose know the full details of. Gram just hated that hole with a passion because nothing seemed to come back and inform everyone it’s safe on the other side of the hole. There were rumors of that hole being a death trap even before Gram evolved, and since its hyperbeam couldn’t close off the hole, Gram just wedged itself there and chose to pass on there as one last act of protection.
One last act of protection.
This Gyradose didn’t even get one first act of protection even when training with its sibling. Nope, even in trying to continue Gran’s legacy and do the work still to be done the sibling had to come first. So far the older Gryadose chased off 23 poachers, and the one in front of the waterfall chased off 0. The elder sibling was able to clean up the lake after 3 severe storms without the help of its sibling. Only 2 Magicarp left Gram died because out of the first 10 trainers, the sibling was around to judge all 10 of them and judged 8 unworthy and chased them off.
Every day is a reminder that this Gyradose is a redundancy with no where to go.
Until today.
As the Gyradose paced in front of the waterfall, a strange purple haired trainer made his way to the thick tree stump and used it as a table to organize the cans of pokemon food he had before calling out his team and distributing it among them.
The human only looked to be about 10 to 13 everywhere except his face. That face was so hard set and stern like a Gyradose face. According to Gran, a face like their kind on a human meant the human was a protector like them or one of the most horrifying monsters to ever walk the planet, and do the two rarely overlap.
This Gyradose has never seen the two overlap, and has more than enough experience with the second type of human with the Gyradose face, but Gran taught it a trick to figure out if this human is in the first group.
Always look at their pokemon.
And so that’s what they Gyradose did.
The Torrtera looked as thick and sturdy as they always should, the trees on its back growing just as naturally as they all should crowned with vibrant leaves. A human came by and lopped the tops of trees off one of the near by trees to practice some vanity tree decorating, and Gram said sometimes trainers will do that to their
Torrteras. After seeing that tree suffer and eventually die because human vanity weakened it, the Gyradose could never imagine a human evil enough to do that to a Pokemon.
The Haunchcrow also looked like it had sufficient nutrients, and all the feathers that help if fly and protect it from the elements looked healthy and fully attached to the bird.
The Beldum ate with its back to the group and to the Gyradoese. Still from the first glance, there wasn’t a scratch on its steel body.
Everyone in the team looked well feed and healthy, even if they and the trainer eat so danged fast that they could all choke to death at the exact same time.
Another thing that surprised the Gyradose was what happened after the meal.
The rangers who look after the woods decided the downed stump could be a table for a few more years until it was too rotted to be of any use but as fertilizer. That’s why they set up the firewood collection at the edge of the shore clearing. It was empty for a few days, so this trainer decided to be a good symaritan and fill it back up for the next few rounds of travelers.
It’s just the pokemon who he called on to help him with the task surprised the Gyradose.
The purple haired boy marched over to a topped tree followed by a Gibble. This Gibble could not have been more than a few days old judging by the faint scent of egg fluid coming off it(humans and their weak senses of smell could never fully get rid of the new life smell, but it does naturally wear off eventually.) Gibbles and their relatives further up the evolution line are always losing and regrowing new teeth, though they usually start off with smaller nubs for the first few weeks of life. This one already had its first set and skipped over to that tree eager to test out all of them on the poor tree.
“Gibble, headbutt that tree. Don’t stop till it falls.” the trainer command.
And the second that command left his mouth, the Gibble charged the tree, slamming into it with a loud, meaty thud that echoed thought the forest. It only took two more hits like that to fell the tree.
“Now bite it into logs.”
And with that, the Gibble started tearing chunks off it’s prey before casting them off to rip another piece. They were not particularly neat or uniform chunks, but most of them were smaller than the Gibble, so that counted. Once the chunk pile got larger, the boy would collect some logs and place them in the firewood collector.
Even with all that zest for life a lot of new born dragons get, the Gibble tired. Admirably the child did not tire until the tree was all in pieces.
“That’s good,” the trainer said. “Take some rest. Beldam and I will finish this.”
The Gibble smiled proudly, showing off all the teeth still in its mouth, though there were some bits of wood caught between them.
The tree was then packed up under the combined power of Beldam’s psychic and the trainer’s muscle.
The only other thing of note was the fact the Torterra and the Haunchcrow were staring the Gyradose down ever since they stopped to rest.
Honestly, their persistence was admirable. It’s always wise to keep track of powerful strangers if they are near by. The mutual stardown continued even as the trainer and his Beldum finished. It only got more intense once he and said Beldum decided to join.
Then the trainer spoke.
“You’re not going to just go into a pokeball if we ask if you want to join us, are you?”
Gyradose wasn’t sure what was more impressive, the child’s strong or sturdy voice, or the face he knew most pokemon test trainers to make sure they are worthy.
“Thought so,” he said before turning to Torterra.
It marched out to meet the gyradose at the edge of the lake, the two pokemon staring each other down waiting for the other to make the first move.
“Leaf Storm!” shouted the trainer.
And from the Torterra’s forest shot a volley of leaves that did not miss. When it made contact, Gyradose thought that the term volley would not fully describe what it felt. Everywhere that got hit by those leaves felt more like a massive boulder got picked up and catapulted full force at its body instead of like the small. Gran always said grass types had the power to whallup a water type in a lot of cases, but this felt like something else entirely.
Still, the gyradose had to put up a good fight. It put in all this training, and even if it was obsolete in the lake, all that work had to be good for something.
Ice solidified around its two longest fangs. Ice damages both grass and ground types, and Torterra was both. This is gonna do a number on Torterra and show how hard this gyradoes has trained.
Within seconds, Gyradose lunged at Torterra, digging its fangs into the continental turtle as it stood its ground. A crack was heard as the ice fangs shattered on it’s shell, not even going a fraction of an inch in.
The gyradose only had a fraction of a second to be shocked before the trainer called out crunch, taking advantage of Gyradose’s proximity. Gyradose felt a sharp beak cinch down on it’s neck before it could tear itself away and slither back further from the Torterra.
Right now it was thinking make the thing swim while it charged up hyperbeam.
Of course it could chose to send another leaf storm over, but right now Gyradose just needed a bit of safety distance between the two of them. Just enough to give it a shot to pull this off.
It stood tall, charging the beam.
“Torterra, hyperbeam!” The trainer called out.
Both pokemon fired their hyperbeams at each other, and for the smallest fraction of a second, Gyradose’s beam held off Torterra’s, but it would not hold any longer.
The beam form the more experienced pokemon cut through Gyradose’s and knocked it clean out. The only thing it could remember before fainting was the trainer pulling a ball out of his pocket and throwing it at the gyradose.
It woke back up some time later back in the lake to the feeling of a stinging on one of the new sore spots.
The gyradose lay on its stomach in water that only came up to the trainer’s knees as he waded around spraying a stinging liquid that stripped away the ache.
All it could feel was shame. All that training, and it couldn’t even put up a good fight.
“You kneed a lot more training,” the trainer said.
It knew that. It just didn’t know why the trainer was saying this. This gyradose already showed this trainer it was an unimpressive redundancy. Why was he stating the obvious?
“You’re still impressive, but you need work,” the trainer continued. “Tomorrow I’m going to have Torterra make some stones and you’re gonna practice biting through them.”
That took the gyradose by surprise, but after some thought, it really shouldn't have. This trainer didn’t know about this gyradose’s baggage. All he saw was a strong pokemon that he now wants to train. All that taring somehow wasn't a waste.
This gyradose found it’s new stream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shedinja lay under a tree watching a group of Curlia wielding sticks and swinging them around like swords. All of them said they were training to become Galade when it meet them last night to rest. Their dedication was impressive. Shedinja woke up to the thuds and thunks of wood hitting wood, and they went on well past the sunrise and it sitting in the highest seat in the sky.
Shedinja watched with intent until one of the sticks broke with a loud crack.
Another part of that day forced itself to the front of its mind.
The stick crack was no where near as horrifying as the crack of internal skeletal bone. Still that small crack brought back the three worst cracks Shedinja ever heard.
It’s own exoskeleton was fine, perfectly in tact even. Instead Paul limped forward after crawling out of the ice and rock, putting all his weight on his left leg and only enough weight on his right leg for only enough time to move toward Torterra. Torterra did not fare any better. As it crawled forward out of the ice, it also favored the unbroken legs over the broken ones, though it fared better than Paul, having two extra and only breaking one front and one back, both on opposite sides.
Still this was horrible. Shedinja, even back before it ever meet Paul, knew that if a person or a Pokemon with an internal skeleton broke a bone, they have trouble moving just as if a part of a bug Pokemon’s exoskeleton were to have broken. Getting down the mountain to get help would be an absolute nightmare beyond what Darkrie could ever conjure. Shedinja knew it was not strong enough when it was a Nincada to help them both down, and even at it’s final evolution it was not strong enough to help, even if Paul put Torterra back into its pokeball, Shedinja would have little hope of getting Paul down that mountain to help.
The the best option was for it to fly back up the cliff and go to one of the established path to go find help.
That was until the Glaely showed up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paul would have loved to have been attacked by either Team Aqua or Team Magma. Even if they were chalked to the brim with mid trainers, they still had some respect for their opponents. Paul normally didn’t used to care about respect for the opponent, but even old him at his worst would agree that Team Rocket bringing portable PCs so they could swap out a stomped team with a fresh new team of canon fodder level 15 Pokemon ready to be stopped again would be a massive disrespect, though he would see it as a disrespect of him and all the work he and his pokemon put into being the strongest.
Paul already went through 10 teams from all 4 of the trainers who cornered him in Slaterport city, and everyone on his team was getting tired. Gyradose could only one shot so many angry Quillfish with hyperbeam, and Gibble could only do the same with draco meteor. Ninjask could only cut down so many survivors hanging on by a thread after that onslaught. Haunchcrow could only act as a one bird air force knocking out Mircrow and Fearow for so long. Even with herding help from Beldum it was too much. Torterra could only handle so many onslaughts of Ratattas trying to eat its leaves like a lettuce bar. Paul and his whole team were breathing as hard as they could, trying their best to force enough air into them in order to keep going. Every pokemon was wallpapered in small cuts and bruises that opened, bleed, and got bigger and more painful as the battle drug on.
Torterra knocked the last Ratatta away.
“Alright team,” the Rattata Team Rocket commander said as he returned the rat to the ball, “We only have two more rounds of teams. If we can’t beat this one teenager with them, Giovanni will have our hides on his wall.”
An end goal. Everyone was exhausted, but they have to push through.
“Bring it on!” Paul said.
The two rockets in the water pulled out their Quillfish. The one in the air set loose 3 Mircrow and 3 Fearow. The land rocket released the Ratatta.
Everyone braced for the onslaught.
What no one, neither Team Paul nor Team Rocket expected 6 more pokemon to join the battle.
In the water leaped a Mightyana followed by a Lombre carrying a Sableye on its back. In the air fluttered a Beautifly. On the ground, a Blaziken carrying a Trapinch walked up to stand by Torrtera.
“Pfft, what random trainer thinks they can interrupt this important Team Rocket test?” the Ratatta rocket scoffed.
“This one!” the Blaziken answered.
Paul was taken aback. He had only ever seen one talking pokemon, that one Meowth part of that one branch of Team Rocket who apparently have nothing better to do than follow Ash around. He never expected to find another one let alone battle alongside one.
Still he had to save his amazement for later. Right now, he and the Blaziken needed to work together at full capacity.
“Hey human, how good is your Gyradose at floating on surf waves?” the Blaziken asked.
“It can float across them no problem,” Paul answered. Gyradose could even carry the team. Why this Blaziken needed to know this, Paul had no idea.
“Let Lombre lead the water group. It can handle it, and you need to focus on the land problems.”
Paul nodded. “You heard him,” he shouted to his pokemon in the port, “Your new commander is Lombre.”
His pokemon nodded back to him before turning to Lombre for commands. It spoke the plan in the language pokemon understand before everyone dove under the water. Once everyone was under the surface, Lombre used surf, sending out a massive wave that stunned the Quillfish, leaving them open to attacks from the rest.
On the ground the Blaziken was kicking Ratatta off of Torrtera, sending them meters into the air and thoroughly knocking them out.
This gave Paul more than enough security to turn his attention to the flying pokemon.
“Haunchcrow, keep a clear path for Beautifly.”
And Haunchcrow did, with a single beat of its wings it was 5 feet in the air far enough away for Beautifly to launch an attack. Two Mircrow and a Fearow flew in for an attack only for the Beautifly to flutter a wing at them and launch the sparkling sliver powder of Silver Wind at them. On contact, the silver powder knocked down the Mircrow. Unfortunately, Fearow, are not as affected by that move, and the bird pokemon sprinted at the Beautifly.
“Areal Ace!” Paul called out to Haunchcrow.
As soon as it heard the command, it flew down as fast as it could, balling up a taloned foot. Once it was close enough, it struck the Fearow with all its strength, knocking the poor weaker bird out of the sky.
That victory was short lived as Paul and the pokemon turned to see Beldum being harassed by a Mircrow and herded by two Fearow. Paul was about to sic Haunchcrow on them when he felt a tug on his pant leg. He looked down to see the Trapinch.
“Throw me,” it said.
“What?”
Paul had never heard of a pokemon asking to be thrown before.
“Throw me at that Mircrow!” it yelled.
Paul obliged, taking the Trapinch by the body before tossing it like a football. It cut through the air like a guided missile, aiming for the bird pokemon like its life depended on it. Its head shown like a freshly polished stone, but it wasn’t using a rock type move. It took Paul till the second Trapinch’s connected with Mircrow’s body to realize it was using Rock Smash. By the time the Mircrow realized, it was already knocked out and in a ball as Beldum scooped up its back up on its back and both started floating menacingly at the Fearow trying to fly away.
“Oh no you don’t. Haunchcrow, Beautify, keep them close to Beldum and Trapinch!”
And both flying pokemon sprung into action, Beautifly sending a Silver Wind right at the Fearow and Hauncrow Dark Pulsing right where they tried to run to. With nowhere else to go, they flew right into Trapinch and it’s hard, rock destroying head.
As soon as those last two birds were down, all the Team Rocket sent out their last round of pokemon.
It was the final push.
Lombre summoned a devastating tidal wave, knocking all the Quillfish into each other and stunning them. This gave Gyradose an opening to hyperbeam 3, and Gibble a window to Draco Meteor 3. At top speed, Shedinja sliced and diced 3 with fury cutter, and Sableye followed suit taking out 3 more.
On land, Torrtera stone edged all the Ratatta, putting them on little tees for Blaziken to single kick off into unconsciousness.
In the air, it was no different. Beautifly and Haunchcrow lead Mircrows and Fearows to their dooms at the hands of a now speed up Beldum basically dropping an angry rock smashing Trapinch on them.
When the last Quillfish fainted, when the last Ratatta was kicked away, when the last Fearow and Mircrow dropped, Team Rocket packed up their pokemon and left, running with their tails between their legs.
Paul and his pokemon stood still, collecting themselves as they tried to get some danged air in their lungs.
Everyone, Paul, his pokemon, and the band of pokemon who joined in to help them made their way to the pokemon center. The band took a table off to the side to tend to their wounds with potions and berries while Paul sought the help of Nurse Joy.
“Oh dear. You and your team don’t look so good. What happened?” she asked.
And so Paul told her. He told her about Team Rocket’s new portable computers and the pokemon who helped him thwart their attack on him.
“I was hoping the portable PC technology from Paldea would never fall into evil hands, but I guess it’s already too late,” she said.
Today was the first Paul had ever heard of portable PC tech. A region of trainers having access to all their pokemon from wherever they are in the region sounds convenient. Still, Paul has doubts it would fully work in Sinno. There are just so many remote places that every nav system sold in the region has to have at least half of its digital storage space taken up by mandatory undeleatable maps in case someone ends up somewhere too remote for GPS or something knocks out GPS all together.
Paul half wondered what would have happened if the rockets would have jumped him in his home region as Nurse Joy took his pokemon back to be healed.
He made his way over to the band of trainerless pokemon in the corner. There wasn’t a lot he could do while his pokemon were being treated.
“Aren’t you guys going to ask for help from Nurse Joy?” he asked.
“Why?” The Sableye responded, “We’re not as banged up as your team, and we don’t want to distract Nurse Joy from their care.”
Paul was taken aback.
“Wait, how many of you can talk?” he asked.
“Me,” replied the Sableye.
“I can,” answered the Blaziken.
“Sort of,” Said the Trapinch.
The rest just shook their heads.
“Pull up a seat if you’d like to have a chat,” Blaziken offered.
And so Paul did.
“So does your trainer give you a lot of freedom, or do you just not have one?” Paul asked.
With that question, Blaziken clutched its hands together. If it was holding anything, it would have been cursed under the immense pressure. Lombre placed a
reassuring hand on its shoulder. Mightyana whimpered. Beautifly fluttered to Blazken’s head.
“That’s a touchy subject for our pal right here,” Sableye said.
“Humans are jerks,” Trapinch said.
Paul stared at the small ground pokemon mouth agape.
“Little buddy, some humans are jerks,” Blaziken corrected.
“Right some humans are jerks.”
Blaziken snapped out of it and turned to Paul.
“Back when I was a Torchick, not even a month out of the egg, I was caught by an unethical breeder. He was amazed I could talk and decided to mold me into his best sell. Every time I’d slip up in his eyes, he’d have his Walrain blast me with scald. I could never figure out what that guy wanted from me. If I talked in a way he didn’t like, scald. If I didn’t talk at all, scald. If I did well in training, scald. If I did bad in training, scald. That guy left me with an extreme distrust of humans, and while I won’t double kick everyone who I see like younger me would have wanted, I also never want to be with a trainer ever.”
Memories of Chimchar flashed back to Paul’s mind. Some might say even if Paul’s methods worked, they would have never worked with that specific pokemon. Others would just outright call him a sadist. Their opinions did not matter right now. While the situations may not be a 1 to 1, the Blaziken might find just enough similarities, and if it does, Paul fears what it might do would strike fear even into the old him.
“And I have heard of trainers who do push their pokemon, and pokemon who absolutely love that kind of training style, but I don’t trust myself in that kind of situation,” the Blaziken added.
And for one of the few times in his life, Paul decided to try to change the topic to a lighter subject.
“So what is it like journeying without a trainer?” he asked.
And it worked. Soon, Blaziken and the other talkers were regaling him with tails of their travels, acting as voices for their friends who could not speak.
This went on long into the night until everyone had to sleep. Still Paul stayed awake thinking of Chimchar. He was always a lot better at finding homes for unfitting pokemon or just releasing them in safer areas. Except when it came to that one.
Who knows how that poor pokemon could have ended up without Ash.
He thought long into the morning, even after Nurse Joy gave him back his now fully healed and raring to go pokemon.
“It was nice talking to you and all, but we gotta head out,” Blaziken said.
“Before you head out, may we have a battle?” Paul asked. “It’s not often anyone battles against a pokemon that is their own trainer.”
“Well, when you put it like that, sure,” Blaziken said. “Just so long as you promise not to try to capture us.”
“I promise.”
And with that Paul took his place at one end of the battle field, standing tall as he always does. Blaziken stood at the other, arms crossed as it stared him down.
“Beldum, stand by!” Paul shouted as his Beldum rushed to the field.
“Trapinch to the field,” Blaziken said.
Trapinch waddled onto the field on its tiny legs, snapping its massive jaws at everything in a 5 mile radius of the area.
This little thing could not move fast. The fastest Paul has ever seen a Trapinch move was when he threw this one in particular. Those jaws were punishing, but if you’re fast enough to avoid them, you’d never even know it.
“Agility!” Paul shouted.
Almost imminently, Beldum started zipping around in the air far above the jaws of the Trapinch, gaining speed and confidence.
“Trapinch-”
And before the Blaziken could offer advice to its friend, Trapinch leapt into the air to smash is massive head into the metal pokemon and dent it.
Unfortunately, it missed by a mile and landed on its stubby little legs.
“Now Take Down!”
And with that, Beldam sped towards Trapinch as fast as a run away train ready to do as much damage as said train to this Trapinch.
Somehow the Trapinch with its tiny legs managed to dodge the speeding metallic pokemon. Unfortunately, Beldum was moving too fast fast to use Beldam’s mistake to punish it.
Beldum turned around for a second try only to miss again, just barely missing the steel cracking jaws.
This became a dance where Beldum tried to slam into Trapinch for the small ground type to move out of the way on its tiny, almost ineffective legs. If Paul wasn’t seeing this for himself, he’d never believe this would happen.
And then Beldum finally hit, slamming its head right into Trapinch's and taking recoil from the strong attack.
“Now Trapinch!” the Blaziken called.
Disoriented, Beldum failed to move away fast enough, and Trapinch crunched, lodging its bear trap teeth deep into Beldam’s metal shell.
Paul growled. Even if Beldam was a tank of a pokemon, that crunch still did a lot of damage on top of the recoil it took. What’s worse, that Trapinch would continue to use crunch , further harming Beldam.
“Beldam, use psychic on Trapinch and try to pry it off!”
Through the pain, Beldam focused its psychic energy on the inner joint of the jaw. It didn’t have to move the joint far to get the rest of the jaw to move, but it still needed to move that jaw far.
Unfortunately, Beldam did not account for how deep into its body Trapinch's teeth dug, and the jaws only dug deeper.
Psychic didn’t work, so Paul had to think. Try psychic again, or use take down while Trapinch is still attached and knock it out that way. Both could hurt Beldam more before its freed, and even come with the risk of knocking it out before freedom even comes.
Beldam turned to Paul and nodded.
Paul imminently understood what that meant.
“Take down!” Paul shouted.
And with that, Beldam flew up into the air as far as it could go. The force of the Trapinch now lodged into its shell being drug by the air resistance hurt, but it endured until the pokemon center was but a dot in its vision. Once it was, it flew back to the ground aided by gravity. The two pokemon hit the ground with a thunderous thud, kicking up dust and rock that every spectator had to dodge.
Once the dust cloud settled, everyone saw a crater right in the center of the battle field.
Both Paul and the Blaziken made their way to the crater.
Once they both stood at the edge, they saw Beldam battered still floating and Trapinch out like a light bulb taken out by a misbehaving ground type.
Beldam saw Paul and floated toward him.
Paul shined down a proud smile on his pokemon.
“You did a good job,” he said.
The Trapinch woke up and crawled out of the hole.
“Good job,” it said to both Paul and Beldam.
“Thank you,” Paul said.
“You train your pokemon well. I feel like you won’t make a head case like me,” Blaziken said.
Paul hoped to too.
He felt a tug on his pant leg.
Looking down, he saw the Trapinch he just defeated.
“What is it?” he asked.
The Trapinch handed him a small, blue candy. A rare candy.
“Thanks, but don’t you want this so you can evolve quicker?”
“I don’t wanna.”
“What?”
“Don’t wanna be extra weak to ice types.”
Well that’s a weird way to go about it.
“And Beldam deserves it more.”
“If you say so,” Paul said as he took the candy.
“Good luck on your travels!”
And soon the band of pokemon left, waiving goodbye to Paul as they went. He was not used to waving goodbye to anyone, but not being good at anything has never stopped him before(as Brandon can attest).
And as soon as they were away, Paul found a secluded spot, handed the Beldam the candy, and turned around to give it the privacy to eat.
When he turned back around, he saw Metang, shining like freshly polished metal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s been a while since Ninjask stayed at Reggie’s house. Paul basically decided it, Torrtera and Haunchcrow were going to always be with him during his thinking excursion.
Paul handed his brother a large purple paper bag covered in a stupid amount of glitter.
“Happy birthday,” he said.
“Who are you, and what have you done with Paul?” Reggie joked.
The only pokemon who could remember Paul visiting Reggie on his birthday was Torrtera, and it only remembered the one from before Brandon defeated Reggie and sent Paul on his journey.
Still, he was kind enough to give Reggie a quick call and mail something to him a few weeks in advance. That is more care than he put into his own birthday.
Simply put, he only remembers it for legal documents, and Reggie keeps all the gifts he collected for his brother on the top shelf of his bedroom closet to give to his uber serious little brother.
Paul turned to all his pokemon who were out on the yard.
“You all can take a rest. You deserve it.”
And so everyone followed that command as best as they could. If a pokemon wasn’t as bad as Paul at relaxing before they were caught, they quickly learned to be. The best Torterra could do was meditate in the part of the yard that never gets shady, and Haunchcrow wasn’t much better, perching in one of Torterra’s trees to also meditate. Gyradose was trying to meditate, but somehow it was working stupidly hard to try to relax and failing. Electrovire and Ursa ring were already trying to knock each other’s ribs in with Ursa ring managing to send Electrovire flying more often than the other way around during this. Metang pulled out a math book, some paper, and a pen, and started doing calculations on how much damage its take down should do. Gibble was bitting a big rock it found.
Relaxing just looked like less coordinated training at best.
Ninjask just buzzed about taking in the sun and air. Today was a nice, warm day. Winter was a long way away, and so the bug and flying type chose to enjoy the time before the ice hell.
Still it was on just enough alert to dodge a rock Gibble sent flying and it just flew safely into the bushes on the property line.
“Ahhhh!”
Or maybe that rock didn’t fly so safely
Ninjask darted into the bushes. Best case it just startled some poor pokemon. Middle, it startled or hit a pokemon who always chose fight, and everyone had to come and deal with it. Worst it hurt someone so bad Reggie could not mend them on his own.
By the rock it saw a Shedinja panting more out of vestigial reflex than a primal need to take in air so it can think clearer and solve the problem better.
Still, Ninjask flew closer in case Shedinja needed help.
“Are yo-”
There was no way.
As Ninjask fluttered in place it noticed. That particular Shedinja, minus its halo, it could perfectly fit around Ninjask like a cloak made by the best and most precise tailor that has ever lived.
The Shedinja stare back, most likely thinking the same thing.
The pair stare in silence as if looking at a mirror in disbelief for a long while before one spoke up.
“I know you,” the Shedinja said. “Even if it’s only a foggy snippet of seeing you just moments after evolution, I still remember you.”
And so did Ninjask.
The duo eventually decided to take their reunion back into Reggie’s yard.
“I’m so sorry we left you on the mountain,” Ninjask said.
“Don’t worry, you had more than enough work protecting Paul from the two Glaely,” Shedinja said.
“Three,” Ninjask corrected, “Three showed up, but I didn’t notice the third until I had evolved.”
And so it told Shedinja the rest of the story.
During that fight Ninjask buzzed up as high up into the air as it could on its still wet wings being carried by agility.
Paul and Torterra depended on Ninjask. It just had to do something.
And the first thing it did was spread its wings and arms.
Even as a Nincada, it could feel air movement from a distance. That distance was about 30 meters at furthest, but it was still, it could feel it.
Now that it has evolved, it felt like it could feel every current on this side of the mountain with no problem whatsoever.
And it felt something major coming.
A massive and long lasting wind was coming up the side of the mountian.
Ninjask had to act fast.
It flew down at speeds it only was able to dream of before evolving. Its wings were now perfectly dry and ready, and it used its agility and speed boost to fly down so fast gravity didn’t need to bother pulling it down. With the sharp end of its arm, Ninjask slap down on a Glaely scratching the ice shell. Ninjask kept up, every cut going deeper.
The Glaely backed away into the massive wind running up the side of the mountian.
Weather it was blown further up the mountian or all the way into the atmosphere, it did not matter. One was already out of the way, and it now had to focus on the two attacking Paul and Torterra.
The closest one had its back to Ninjask.
Perfect.
With a punishing slash it cut deep into the Glaely. It’s pained cry rang out over the mountain.
“Why you,” it growled as it turned around to face Ninjask.
“Leave my team alone!” Ninjask yelled.
“As you wish,” it said.
Then it charged.
Tackle? Take down? Body slam? Head butt? The move’s name did not matter. Glaely threw everything physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually into this attack.
Everything including the ability to break mid air.
Moments before it would have stopped from just destroying its foe, Ninjask moved out of the way.
Glaely didn’t even notice the continued movement until seconds before the massive wall of wind was destined to knock it away. It struggled, throwing it’s body back in an attempt to slow down enough only to be caught and thrown into the air.
From behind the frozen earth wall Torterra put up the third Glaely appeared.
“Congratulations. You’re one of the first pokemon who’s ever given us a challenge in a long while. Your prize is me freezing you first!”
The Glaely opened its mouth and shout out a massive ice beam that would have one shot frozen Torterra if it hit. Instead Ninjask dodged out of the way. The second the beam hit the wind, all the water vapor in it froze and formed soft snow.
Still it kept shooting, its beam of icy death missing Ninjask and instead making soft powder snow that was pushed up the wind gust to land higher up the mountain.
“Stay still!” the Glaely shouted before shooting another punishing ice beam from its mouth.
Ninjask ignored the command and continued to nimbly dodge the attacks.
Glaely growled only to be slammed by a hyper beam that sent it flying into the wind current.
Ninjask turned to its team mate Torterra.
“I’m sorry I’m late. It genuinely too me a while to read the wind column as that Glaely froze it,” Torterra said.
Ninjask finished its story with Paul putting Torterra back in its ball before leaning on Ninjask so he could walk off the damned mountian and get some medical help.
“And you should have seen Reggie’s reaction. It was one of the few times I’ve seen Paul accept a hug in public,” Ninjask said.
The duo were now in the middle of the yard in full view of both trainers.
“Hey Paul, your Ninjask made a new friend,” Reggie joked.
Paul took a closer look.
“It looks too similar to my Ninjask,” he stated.
“You’re right. Every time a Nincada evolves it creates both a Ninjask and a Shedinja, though a lot of the time the poor Shedinja is abandoned,” Reggie said.
And Paul though about this for a moment before speaking.
“And mine evolved on Mount Corrinet during the accident. If I was thinking clearly, I would have caught it.”
“You mind I catch it?” Reggie joked.
“Ask the Shedinja,” Paul replied, “I don’t mind as long as it doesn’t.”
Reggie was taken aback for a moment, but then took out a pokeball and approached.
“Hey little buddy,” he spoke in a voice as soft and smooth as honey. He held out the pokeball so Shedinja could headbutt it if it wanted to be caught.
“I’m Paul’s older brother. I think you’re kind of cool, and if I caught a Nincada on my journey, I’d’uv loved to have evolved you to get a Shedinja just like you and train up a Ninjask for Paul so we could have sibling pokemon from the same evolution line.”
Paul growled at his brother’s dorkish behavior.
“What do you say?” Ninjask asked.
“I had searched for Paul for years,” Shedinja said. “but I did not have much of a plan for if I found him alive. I may not be the kind of pokemon he’s looking for, but since he already has you I may as well rest with his older brother.”
And so Shedinja headbutted the pokeball, being engulfed in a red light before burrowing into the ball.
“Yes,” Reggie said.
Ninjask noticed Paul standing with his usual cool aura, but with a small smile on his face.