A Trainer's Journey

[X] accept to help Swablu catch a Sarah

Beatrix has now catched the main objective of any story protagonist a bagholder sidekick.
 
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[X] accept to help Swablu catch a Sarah
Heh my bad!

[x] accept to help Sarah catch a Swablu
 
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Well, looks like the vote is almost unanimous, no one voted for a day, so closing the vote early so I can squeeze in more writing.
Scheduled vote count started by barty on Aug 25, 2024 at 2:50 PM, finished with 20 posts and 16 votes.
 
Chapter 13: Swablu interlude 1
Alright, this was a pain to write. Sorry for the delay guys.

[X] Accept to help Sarah catch a Swablu

"Alright, I'll help," Beatrix decided. The next thing she knew, Sarah was hugging her.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She said a big smile on her lips. "I know I said I would go by myself, but I'm horrible at tracking Pokemon. I never notice tracks until someone points them out to me, and I never had time to teach Hop anything but the ghost cries!"

Beatrix patted her head awkwardly. The poor girl already had some horrible luck the first time she tried to capture a Pokemon on her own. Helping her out would be nice. Between Lavender's Heal Pulses, Hop's hearing, and Cinnamon's Sunny Day to clear out the fog, they should be in no danger whatsoever. This time, she would be getting her Pokemon. Beatrix would make sure of it.




Beatrix had almost forgotten how much she disliked walking in the fog. And this was the lighter fog of the region just north of the Cafe Cabin, not the purée de pois -as a Kalosian would call it- that reigned until you reached the highest of Coronet's foothills and Celestic Town. Here, at least, she could comfortably see her own feet. Speaking of which-

"Here, there are tracks," she pointed out to Sarah.

"That's just the remnant of a puddle!" The other girl protested, to Beatrix's amusement.

"Look on the side of that depression here." Beatrix lectured. "The ground has been dragged by something small and humid. Probably a Shellos, that looks about the right size."

The poor girl had completely neglected her Pokemon-related survival lessons, somehow, while living in the center for Pokemon breeding in the whole region. Cinnamon and Hop hopped off Lavender's back -she'd resigned herself to be her friends' mount about ten minutes after they left- and respectively sniffed and poked at the tracks curiously.

"Shellos is only naturally present near the coast," Sarah remarked. "So that's a trainer's Pokemon."

"And no trainer on foot has any business going toward Celestic Town on foot at this time of the year." Beatrix completed. "Don't bother looking for other tracks, the ground's way too hard here. The Shellos' are only visible because they're basically a tiny trench. Also, look here," she pointed a little farther, to a part of the road that seemed to shine under even the limited sunlight that the fog let filter.

"Is that..." Sarah asked with a crinkled nose.

"Yup, definitely a Shellos. They produce some mucous matter to avoid hurting themself on rough terrain," Beatrix confirmed.

"That sounds disgusting to touch," the girl remarked. "More importantly, that means some other, probably zero to four-badge trainer is looking for a Pokemon around here."

"Why the low badge count ?"

"Shellos evolve relatively easily. A trainer at a higher level than that would have a Gastrodon, and those tracks are too small and not mucous enough for one of those."

Sarah nodded, accepting Beatrix's logic. They started walking again, quicker now, hoping whoever this trainer was wouldn't get to the Swablu before them.



Beatrix had wondered why a group of Swablu would move away. There were very few Pokemon species that occurred naturally in the northern portion of Route 210 and were able and willing to attack them. Flying-type Pokemon are much too hard to catch up with to be worth it, after all.

The answer to that question came as very unpleasantly familiar tracks on one side of the road. The trios of deep, circular gouges in the ground would have been difficult to miss even without the broken stones and fallen Staraptor feathers. It looked like whatever had done those damages had closed in the Route, then changed direction. There were two lines of damaged trees, and the feathers reminded Beatrix of a certain Ranger she'd met recently.

"Uh oh," Beatrix said as Cinnamon jumped off Lavender and ignited his back. "Let's not follow those tracks."

"What does damages like that?" Sarah asked.

Beatrix hesitated. The Ranger she met didn't tell her to keep Metang and the library-lab's existence secret, but she was a Ranger, not the League Trainer she'd hoped would be sent to someone ringing up about a Galarian spy net hiding out in Sinnoh. And Sarah's parents were working for a foreign government...

[] [SECRETS]Tell Sarah about your Library adventure. Make her promise not to tell anyone until someone... official-ish had given them the green light.

[] [SECRETS]Don't tell Sarah about the Library, and tell her you think it's a Metang and that they're dangerous, not to mention impossible to catch with a Poke Ball.


The girls decided to run aw- to wisely avoid the area ravaged by Metang, even though they had little doubt the Swablu had come from there. Such a Pokemon rampaging through the wilds was just the kind of disturbance that would lead a Pokemon pack to relocate. Beatrix looked at their surroundings and identified a strong candidate for the Swablu's new refuge right away: the top of a rocky hill with no tree cover on the other side of the Route relative to the being that had spooked them seemed like just the place for a flock of panicked bird Pokemon to fly off to.




The hill in question was too steep for Lavender to scale. Beatrix had to recall her despite Hop and Cinnamon's protests (mostly caused by their laziness-induced reluctance to walk up the slope themselves, in Beatrix's opinion). The girls were both struggling with it too, especially Beatrix, who was out of breath when they finally got to... well, not the top, really, they were maybe halfway to there, but the part of the hill they had climbed up was mostly made up from scree, and on top of it was a heavily striated outcrop.

"Look," Beatrix told Sarah with a low voice. "This is perfect terrain for bird nests. Swablu prefers trees, normally, but right now they'll want safety."

"There's not a single Pokemon in those cracks," Sarah observed.

"There's probably a few nocturnal ones in the deepest ones," Beatrix answered thoughtfully. "But we're facing Mount Coronet. This hill face is getting direct sunlight for a pair of hours on summer tops."

Sarah raised an eyebrow, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"... but if we go south for maybe two hundred meters, we'll find that the hill face turns to the south there. Didn't you notice? Beatrix asked. "We could see it for a few minutes through the trees from the road."

"Hop was begging for a snack when we went through the last clearing," the other girl answered sheepishly as she started walking south through the scree. Beatrix snorted as she followed her.

A few minutes later, they were at the point where the outcropping they had been following turned south. They stopped at a weird crater in the loose rocks just under the angle, shuffling around a little to find a safe way to pass- only for Beatrix to almost collide with a familiar face as she finally managed to make it to the turn.

"Richard?" She asked. She recognized the tall, dark pink-haired boy in front of her; he was the one who had gotten first place in the Egg attribution challenge. Beatrix wasn't sure, but she thought he had promised another boy to let him have the Pokemon he'd taken. They were never particularly close -Beatrix was a year older than him- but she hoped she was wrong.

"Beatrix? What are you doing here?" A blue-haired girl asked from behind Richard. A Rowlet was nesting on her head. That was his cousin, Danielle. Theirs was the only family that had moved to Celestic Town from another region entirely in four generations. There were even rumors that his grandmother lived somewhere nearby, just out of the Route, because she "got sick of the city". Of course, Beatrix had kept an eye open for a house or a cottage when she first traveled here, but she'd never found anything like it.

"Sarah here asked me for help catching a-"

"I got the Bagon." Richard interrupted Beatrix.

"-Swablu." She finished before what he just said sank in. If her suspicions were right... She decided to bluff. "Really, Richard? That's two ridiculously rare dragons in your team. You better make sure you can actually train them correctly."

"We're trying to get a Swablu too. For Danielle," a second girl said before Richard could react. That was Miranda. She was a close friend of Danielle, though Beatrix thought she was not as fond of Richard. During her childhood, a sickness had cost her her hair, and even though she had fully recuperated, she kept the habit of shaving them millimeters long. A Ralts followed after her nervously.

"Which means Richard took Goomy," Beatrix thought. And now he had a Bagon too.

"They're here," Richard pointed up. A dozen meters above and forty meters away, a gaggle of frankly adorable blue and white Pokemon was bustling around a wide and relatively shallow crack in the rockface. The two biggest of the bunch, however, kept a vigilant eyes on the group of teenagers.

"They had a pretty bad fright," Miranda analyzed. "They're nestling, so wherever their nest was, they don't intend to return there. It was probably completely destroyed."

Miranda was the only person among Beatrix's generation of journey-goers who could confidently say she was better at understanding Pokemon behavior than Beatrix. She was aiming to become a Pokemon Professor someday, and it showed. She wasn't too interested in Pokemon battles, however.

"Is there an Altaria at the head of the flock?" Beatrix asked.

Miranda nodded. "A breeding pair, but one has taken some hits and can't defend the Swablu. The eldest Swablus can forage independently in the forest. Still, one of their parents would normally accompany the younger ones while the other defends the nest and the ones who hatched most recently."

"So the Altaria have three different hatchings they're in charge of?" Sarah asked, interested.

"No," Danielle inserted herself into the discussion. "The eldest Swablu are their male children and their mates. They're probably a few more months away from evolving, even without help from a trainer. The younger ones those one's children, most of the males have left already too, and a few of the females are mated already. The youngest ones art those one's children."

"Woah! That's a big family. Why didn't you girls explain that to me?" Richard asked.

"You were busy preventing your Bagon from headbutting a stressed-out Altaria," Miranda said wrily. "Priorities."

"Hey, now that he knows to headbutt my Goomy, that's done with," he answered.

"Anyways," Beatrix said before the other group started bantering. "How willing are they to join a trainer?"

"A few are interested, according to my Ralts," Miranda answered. "Recent events made them interested in becoming stronger, and even wild Pokemon know that the easiest way to do that is to join a trainer. The issue is that the Altaria won't let that happen. They'll want to test us somehow, the same way they would test... well, the future mate of one of their kids or grandkids, I guess."

"Are they going to fight us if we insist?" Sarah asked nervously. Fighting off individual Pokemon along the Routes was one thing, but fighting an angry flock was another. Angering the cute little birds, or worse, the patriarch and matriarch of the flock would be dangerous, even for the five of them and their Pokemon.

"They will probably insist on us battling one of the stronger Swablu if we want to take away one of their kids," Danielle noted. "Fighting the parent for the right to take away the kid would make sense from their point of view, I think."

"That's how they do it for potential mates for their female children, yes," Miranda confirmed. "They don't need to win, just put up enough of a fight. They sometimes waive that when the mate candidate offers something useful to their flock. Berries or interesting materials for their nest, for example. They like it fluffy, so there's been incidents of Swablu trying to steal Wooloo wool in Galar."

"Well, I think I know how I want to proceed, then." Beatrix decided. "We will-

[][Swablu test] -try to pass their test"
(Sarah and Danielle will battle a Swablu with their Pokemon)

[][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-[] (Write-in how you want to help the flock. If they find your help insufficient, they may insist on a battle anyways. If they find your offer insulting, you may have to run. Altaria are dragons after all.)

As usual, comments and critiques are more than welcome. I reintroduced characters you guys may have forgotten because they were barely mentioned before, so you might want to give a look back at chapter 2.

You may vote right away.
 
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[X] [SECRETS]Don't tell Sarah about the Library, and tell her you think it's a Metang and that they're dangerous, not to mention impossible to catch with a Poke Ball.

[X][Swablu test] -try to pass their test"
(Sarah and Danielle will battle a Swablu with their Pokemon)
 
[X] [SECRETS]Don't tell Sarah about the Library, and tell her you think it's a Metang and that they're dangerous, not to mention impossible to catch with a Poke Ball.

[X][Swablu test] -try to pass their test"
(Sarah and Danielle will battle a Swablu with their Pokemon)
 
Hmmm... Did I not leave enough hints to figure out a write-in, or are you guys fan of the idea of battling for a Pokemon ? Just curious.
 
[X] [SECRETS]Tell Sarah about your Library adventure. Make her promise not to tell anyone until someone... official-ish had given them the green light.

Not sure about fight/gift.
I kinda like the idea of bringing a gift, but sure what we could bring.

edit-
[x][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-[x] offer medical aid to the injured Alteria
 
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Hint: take a look at everyone's move pool and the state of the flock, and know that those Altaria don't have access to any egg moves.
 
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Soooo... Dragby is the french name for Bagon, if anyone got confused 😓
I edited that out.
 
[x] [SECRETS]Tell Sarah about your Library adventure. Make her promise not to tell anyone until someone... official-ish had given them the green light.
[x][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-They're all banged up and Heartstomper has a healing move.
 
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We have a first aid kit, 4 potions, and the required skills to do first aid to familiar pokemon. Between that and heal pulse im thinking
[x][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-[x] offer medical aid to the injured Alteria
[X][SECRETS]Tell Sarah about your Library adventure. Make her promise not to tell anyone until someone... official-ish had given them the green light.

Edit: Id be cool with a battle if we weren't already in the middle of a tournament
 
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[X][SECRETS]Tell Sarah about your Library adventure. Make her promise not to tell anyone until someone... official-ish had given them the green light.

We aren't the government where we need to keep a secret or else lose our job, nor are we getting paid to keep it secret. Better for someones' morally evil experimentation to get out and people to go looking for the culprits than for them to keep sneaking in the dark. Also if enough people know of the incident the more likely there will be trainers and rangers on the lookout for more hideouts and thus a better chance of us hearing rumors and going on an adventure/crusade to stomp on some villainous hearts!

[X][Swablu test] -give them some help."

Only if heartsomper sees the good in them will they recieve the healing pulse. At least Beatrix can give first aid to those heathens. What are the chances Beatrix also gains a swablu? Would they wait for her to gain another pokeball?

Are bagon just that turtle meme where they smack into everything they see?
What are the chances Richard tries to get a swablu with our efforts? It doesn't seem like their efforts have gottem them a swablu so they might try to gain one through us.

That Ralts must be super confused about the emotions from cyndaquil, how is cinnamon spice an emotion?
 
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Only if heartsomper sees the good in them will they recieve the healing pulse. At least Beatrix can give first aid to those heathens. What are the chances Beatrix also gains a swablu? Would they wait for her to gain another pokeball?
Don't you know it's bad form for peoples traveling together to get the same Pokemon ? Are we ignoring the elementary rules of Pokemon etiquette now (also, it's easier to make Pokemon be their own characters when there isn't a quasi-identical one Just There)
 
Don't you know it's bad form for peoples traveling together to get the same Pokemon ? Are we ignoring the elementary rules of Pokemon etiquette now (also, it's easier to make Pokemon be their own characters when there isn't a quasi-identical one Just There)
Make them twins and you can have them play off each other . Birds of a feather flock together and all that. Also my headcanon has Beatrix being quite rude when it comes to etiquette and trainers. Rangers and ettiquette are much different and beatrix has all the respect there.
 
[X] [SECRETS]Don't tell Sarah about the Library, and tell her you think it's a Metang and that they're dangerous, not to mention impossible to catch with a Poke Ball.

[X][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-[X] offer medical aid to the injured Altaria
 
[X] [SECRETS]Don't tell Sarah about the Library, and tell her you think it's a Metang and that they're dangerous, not to mention impossible to catch with a Poke Ball.

[X][Swablu test] -give them some help."
-[X] offer medical aid to the injured Alteria
 
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