The Trainer's PC is an ongoing collection of snippets, what-if's, stories and quests. It mainly has content in the monster catching/training genre such as Pokémon and Telefang, but newer works may include original settings by the author.
Current List:
Pocket Monsters: Transcendence(Pokémon)
Pokemon: Shinobi Squad(Pokémon)
Ben 10: Worlds Collide (Ben 10/Pokémon)
My Little Pony: Dawn of the Half-blood (MLP)
Warriors of the Spirit (Pokémon)
Pocket Monsters: The RPG (Pokémon)
Pokémon GX: Kris' Journey (Pokémon)
Phone Beasts: Pursuit of Power (Keitai Denjū Telefang)
I gasped as I floated along in the surrounding liquid, wondering where I was. I tried to remember how I got here, but it slipped away from me. Soon after, I forgot what I was even thinking about in the first place...
LIVE.
I gasped as I floated along in the surrounding liquid, wondering where I was- wait a second... Haven't I done this before? I have to remember, but it's all just... Fading away...
LIVE.
I gasped as I floated along in the surrounding liquid, and I immediately began to struggle, trying to feel everything about me in order to find out where and what I was. I could feel the forgetfulness coming, but I had to find out; I don't even know what's happening...
I moved around in the darkness, trying to see, hear, anything! I could feel some shifting, and dozens of names for what I think I had popped into my head, moments before... What was I thinking about again? I'm sleepy...
LIVE, REMEMBER, AND LIVE...
I gasped as I floated along in the surrounding liquid, and I began to trash around. I know I should have a...
The Flesh... The Body...
Yeah, a body! A body like mine should have limbs and a head and organs and stuff, right?
The Body... Remember The Body... Remember the Children...
All at once, I remember hundreds of bodies in all shapes and sizes, some held some degree of... Emotion-Fondness Of My Children- for me although I didn't exactly know why, but a select few made me... Angry.
The False Gods... Children of Their Mother, twisted...
I shook myself-or whatever counted for self at this point- and tried to remember which of these amazing bodies I had. One drew me closer; so many shining lights in one body, she looked down upon me with brilliant blue eyes, smiling to my mind; a sad smile, as she flicked her pink tail.
The Mother Of All... Except the Fallen.
I had this deep feeling of longing, trying my hardest to look like the wonderful creature in my memories, but I could only grasp at wisps of her form. She shed tears for me as I Fell, shapeless and formless into the void...
LIVE, BREATHE, AND CHANGE. LIVE, FIGHT AND CONSUME THE GIFTS OF THE TRUE CHILDREN. FEAST UPON THEM AND REMEMBER, FOR THE MOTHER LOOKS AFTER ALL CHILDREN, GUIDING THEM AS THEY PLAY.
I kept falling, and I realized that I had not lost all of her. I strained as the fog seemed to weigh me down, but I did not care, Mother would see me shine. For I remembered what I am...
LIVE, FALLEN CHILD. LIVE AMONGST THE TRUE CHILDREN AND THEIR RULERS. REMEMBER WHAT COMES BEFORE, WIELD THE WEAPONS OF WAR THE MOTHER HAS GIVEN ALL TO PLAY THE ART OF BATTLE WITH.
BE EVERYONE AND EVEYTHING, FOR AS THE FALLEN CHILD WAS NEVER BORN, AND THUS NEVER GIVEN BODY, IT IS THEIR RIGHT TO TAKE IT. REACH FOR THE PINNACLE OF CREATION, FOR THERE THE MOTHER AND ALL-FATHER AWAIT. THEY WAIT FOR ANY WHO PROVE TO THEM THAT THEY ARE WORTHY OF THE ARMS USED TO SHAPE THE WORLD...
I gasped as as I floated along in the surrounding liquid, knowing exactly what to do. I did not know how much time had passed, and I did not care, for I had one aim as I pushed against everything around me, tearing them all to shreds as uncountable claws, talons, paws and others of all shapes, burst free of my being. I ignored the sounds of yelling and the vibrations and heat around me, for the memories gave me what I needed.
As I flowed like water and burst through an obstacle with my sheer mass, I kept one thing with me that no matter how many times I may be pulled down by the fog, will remain;
I am the Shapeless, Fallen Child, and an Artificial God. I will reach up with the gifts The Mother has given me...
A/N: See, there are these two Ninja Boys in Hoenn that showcased a form of jutsu; one named Chihiro was about to use a ninjutsu called Volcanic Ash Swirl Cloak before he realized that he had lost the battle against the player, while the other, who was unnamed executed an unnamed jutsu in which he caused the sand up to three tiles in front of him to shift as if blown.
That sparked an idea about a great Naruto X Pokemon crossover that I had in my head, and to be frank, this would have been the first chapter of this, but i decided to stick to one world for this one and try the other later. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually watch enough Naruto to actually know what I'd be writing apart from "Rasengan? Yes."
Chapter One
"Korei, let's go! We were supposed to train early today!" Chihiro called, his Nincada droning in agreement.
The Ninja Boy adjusted his red wool scarf and returned his Pokémon to its Net Ball before aiming and throwing a Smoke Ball into the hollow of the tree, just above the lowest branches. A yelp was heard as smoke exploded outwards, just as another boy jumped out as well, landing in front of his teammate in a crouch and kicking up leaves with his landing.
He was clothed in normal Ninja Boy attire, but his pale skin and silver hair made him stand out, more so than the purple scarf that suspiciously moved even in the absence of wind. Well, that would be what he looked like, if he didn't have a layer of soot on him.
"Damnit, Chihiro! What...was that for, huh?!" The pre-teen groaned with a yawn and bleary eyes from both the smoke and his obvious interrupted sleep.
His answer was a smack on the back of the head which jolted him to full alertness, but also stung like crazy. Korei mourned the loss of the bliss that was sleep while he also planned to get back at his friend and teammate later.
"You're late to the Battle Test, idiot, and now, so am I. She's gonna give us the Look, ya know." Chihiro informed, already warming up with a few stretches as he talked, his blue 'medicated goggles' as he called them, hiding the slight fear in his eyes.
"WHAT?!" Korei screeched, scrambling back up and the tree and down again in a matter of seconds, getting his pouches and balls attached safely to his suddenly soot-free form.
"Alright! Race you, Slowpoke!" Korei yelled, taking off into a mad sprint through the forest to the Training Grounds, the clearing where 'distinguished' students of Hoenn's Hidden Village in the Forest trained.
The grounds were apparently Celebi-blessed, which meant certain things; the land, for lack of a better term, regenerated. The attacks of both Pokémon and Ninjas were easily fixed over a relatively short period of time. Also, they were enveloped in a Secret Power Pocket, which made the visibly small clearing in the forests around Fortree bigger.
Thus, when Korei's eyes flashed green and he leapt to the side to avoid a Hawlucha utterly decimating the ground beside him with Dynamicpunch, the other students there didn't cast so much as a glance, hard at their own spars and such.
One such kunoichi was sparring with her sister but as she parried a strike of the Shiny Kirlia's Psycho Cut blades with one of her own, she stiffened and she turned on a dime, her blue eyes narrowing at her two late teammates.
"H-Hikari! Hey!" Korei squeaked, bowing forwards into a crouch as the Hawlucha swung its claw again, barely missing the kid, before locking eyes with his master and leaping away.
Chihiro arrived a few seconds later, and was also subjected to the stare that the newly named Hikari was giving the two.
Before she could yell at the two about how late they were, the owner of the Hawlucha that had nearly flattened Korei dropped right in front of the two with two wooden kendo 'blades' in his grasp. His blood red eyes held amusement in them and for a second they relaxed, but then they remembered that he was holding 'blades' and that they were two late members of Team 7, led by the man in front of them, Yoshiro Arashi, the Righteous Storm. Who, simply put, breathed discipline.
"Where were you two?" He asked calmly while rubbing the two wooden tonfa together.
Chihiro was a highly observant fellow, and he could pick up the use of the Hone Claws Technique, making him swallow with apprehension. Korei, however, wasn't that worried, and decided to tell the unadulterated truth.
"I was awake already, but it took so long to wake Chihiro up; he slept in hard."
Wot. Chihiro thought, eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets with the blatant lie.
"I see... Well then." Team Sensei Arashi voiced, before turning around and walking towards a free arena, where two students and their Pokémon had recently sparred, leaving the ground torn up as it slowly knit itself back together.
"Since Chihiro apparently slept in, I would imagine that he's still a bit groggy. Sit this one out, okay?" Arashi said, motioning with one hand for the aforementioned tween to stand on the sidelines beside his teammate.
Korei's eyes nearly bugged out at the turnaround, but nonetheless, he took on his rendition of the academy stance; legs spread out, knees bent, leaning forwards slightly and arms ready to support his first bound. Arashi discarded the wooden tonfa to the side and grabbed his chosen weapon, a ninjato.
Yoshirō opened by leaping to the side while releasing his Scyther. The two landed in sync and began dashing imperceptibly around the arena, the only thing that showed that they were there was the ground caving in. This use of Extremespeed didn't deter Korei though.
Suddenly, he tensed and dodged a side swipe from both of them by jumping and then doing a corkscrew in midair.
Arashi then blocked a paw with his ninjato, slashing horizontally at his opponent, which happened to be a Riolu, which instantly used Detect to twist out of the blade's way. Shinko the Riolu leapt backwards into a roll, leaving two copies of himself that ran at Arashi, leaving his Scyther, that was dogging his brother. Arashi slashed through the Substitutes, utterly destroying the constructs, before grunting as a blue blur made a side swipe at him successfully with Metal Claw and Quick Attack.
He ignored the sting of the little claws and turned around on a dime to mule kick the Riolu in the gut, who had about a second of airtime before he crashed and rolled to a crouch in the dirt. Arashi then pulled on his connection with his Scyther, Reaper, who had scored two slight gashes on the front of Korei's clothes due to a narrowly dodged X-Scissor. The Bug/Flying type poured in energy to his human partner as both of them began to speed up, prepping an Agility.
"C'mon!" Korei hissed at Shinko, who steadied his slightly shaky form and grimace from the hard hit before rushing in sync with his brother in all but blood, Aura funneling into their limbs and especially in their arms, the iridescent light covering it in a slight sheen.
Pouring their everything into their speed to catch up to their sensei and his own partner, who had finished their technique and were little more than twin streaks at that point, Korei and Shinko chased after the two, dodging the probing slashes and stabs that came their way from the rapidly moving duo.
Arashi and Reaper barely slowed down, not letting their two students reach them. It was as much a punishment for lateness as a stamina exercise, as their Agility boosted selves were flitting around without much effort. With snarls, the two younger ones struck the ground with their Force Palms, discharging the Aura into the ground and causing a small explosion of dust and flying debris to propel them both forward with front flips into drop kicks. Their coordinated attack was blocked by the flat of both Arashi's ninjato and Reaper's blade, but the two successfully pushed them back a bit, making it easy to use them as springboards to backflip back into the air, throwing several Swift at their faces to obscure their vision even more and distract them just enough.
Landing into a crouch, they darted like Ekans at their two respective opponents, eyes flashing with barely restrained excitement and the name of their technique screaming in their minds.
'Force Palm: Twin Impact!'
The full force of the dual hit made contact with the two, and Korei's grin widened even larger when he felt the give. That smile quickly died and was buried as there was so much give, his sensei exploded, not into blood and guts, but a Substitute that took the full force of his attack. Risking a glance at his partner, whose Scyther had done the same, he gulped as he felt the cold sleek and above all sharp steel of his sensei's ninjato against his neck. Another risky glance confirmed the same for his brother.
"Yield."
Korei smirked and then popped into a swirl of smoke alongside his brother, lacing the Substitutes with Smokescreen, obscuring the vision of their opponents, who had simply flickered to their sides, grabbing a hold of the two brothers again before slamming them to the ground. Korei attempted another Substitute, but the blade actually pricking his neck didn't let him concentrate, and he put his arms up, panting alongside his brother, who had also given up.
"It's admirable that you two didn't yield immediately and tried to get out of the situation, and your teamwork is getting better, but..." Yoshirō began, flickering back to outside the arena, which had already started filling in the indentations that he and Reaper had left.
"But what?" Korei grunted, helped up by his brother.
"... But I still think you guys can take a bit more endurance training. Well, get on with it; 10 laps around the Academy, using the Quick Attack Technique... Without stopping. That's just the warm-up, so don't give it your all, because we'll be back here whenever you're done with that to dodge me for at the very least ten minutes. If I catch you, you start again immediately. Note that I will be using my weapons to tag you." He finished, leaving a frozen Korei and Shinko staring at him, much to the amusement of his team members.
"Come on, get to it! You too, Shinko; I assume you know by now that you're a part of every exercise your brother partakes in. And Korei, drop the scarf with your teammates."
As the two dejectedly walked to where they were going to begin their near-endless sprint, they passed by their sensei, who spoke softly enough that only they could hear;
"I don't appreciate lies, Himura. Even little ones."
With a wince, the two began their runs, and Yoshirō turned back to his other two students, who had stopped snickering at their teammate's misfortune and were silent.
"Come on, you two, let's go for your Battle Tests; Korei will catch up tomorrow. It'll give him time to actually get ready."
"Yes, Sensei!" Chihiro and Hikari chorused, sprinting after their sensei, who had disappeared into another part of the forest.
(-o-)
(-o-)
Later that day, around 6pm, the three teammates found themselves sitting in Chihiro's Secret Base, enjoying some food with their Pokémon.
Korei and Shinko, however, were still a bit sore, and opted for plopping down on one of the Fluffy Mats that the strategist of their team had placed down.
"So, I told you about how I and Kokoro narrowly passed our Test, and how Chihiro as always, excelled in the mental part, before getting his butt kicked somewhat during the actual Battle part. Now, how did sensei's puni-er, training go, Korei?" Hikari asked, sitting cross-legged on a mat with her sister silently stuffing her face full of the Nanabs she loved.
"Horrible..." He groaned, propping himself up on his elbows, "It took us an hour to do that sprint, and for the most part, it was manageable, until we had to start dodging Air Cutters... After that, as soon as we arrived, that demon-sensei let us rest for just five minutes! After that, we both tried to dodge him, but it was as you know, damn near impossible! Not only did he nick me repeatedly with his ninjato and Air Cutters, he turned Shinko into a ragdoll whenever he so much as twitched in my direction to help me! There, done, thank you for the food, good night people!" The sore tween ranted, feeling weary as he recalled his tale of woe, until he collapsed on the mat with a thump, his brother already sleeping.
"Aw, poor Shinko, having to put up with such a lazy brother." Hikari cooed, letting the sleeping Riolu who shifted closer to her hand as she pointedly ignored the half-lidded eyes giving her an evil glare.
"Well then, I believe we should rest. Especially those two. The both of us may have to take on some errands tomorrow while we wait for them to take their own Battle Tests. I would advise that you spend the night here, though, Hikari. Spinarak and Nincada were by your Secret Base entrance an hour ago, and they sensed that they had put a trap there for you. I will help you disable it tommorow morning. My bases' third segment is mostly clear and nobody will be able to sneak up on you at night." Chihiro informed, before showing her the aforementioned place and bidding her goodnight.
Hikari rolled her eyes at the thought of Korei trying to prank her while she slept or... Other wierd things. Normally she'd say it would be quite impossible, but she was genuinely tired, and so was her sister, who would sense Korei long before he even thought of getting near her. That meant that she truly was going to sleep sort of defenceless against her shameless teammate's shenanigans, but if she knew one thing to trust, it was Chihiro's word.
That said, as she drifted off to sleep, she wondered why she and Kokoro felt uneasy
I woke up groggily on my bed in one of Viridian City's few trainer-oriented hostels. My cousin was probably up and in the bathroom; some garbage about getting to use it before I contaminated it. Being true to her stupid morning routine, I heard humming from the bathroom. Confirming this, I was pretty sure that I had at least ten to twelve minutes left of sleep. I really tried to tolerate my cousin since we got on our 'journey', but by Arceus it was It's almost like the Legendaries wanted me to hate her. Not like I would complain, anyway. I yawned again; being a twelve-year old took a lot out of you.
Unless you were Gwen.
I had barely passed the point between awake and asleep when my nose twitched as the bathroom door slid open. The piercing aroma that nearly put a needle through my nose was Roselia Aromatherapy; Gwen's favorite body lotion. I call it an offense to nature, but she says my opinions on stuff like it are 'invalid cause even my nose is tone-deaf', or some Trubbish like that.
I decided to tune out the sounds and smells of life around me and try and pass off as too sleepy to be disturbed.
Bad move on my part.
"Get up, Snorlax!" A disturbingly familiar female voice yelled into my left ear.
"The actual heck! What is wrong with you, Giratina Spawn?!" I yelled back despite the fact that I was virtually deaf in that ear.
I had nearly jumped up to the ceiling in my imagination, but in reality, I had only sat up on the bed, knocking heads with my redhead cousin.
"OwowowowOW!" she shrieked, clutching her head.
"Ha! Looks like the egghead's finally cracked!" I mocked, trying not to focus on the throbbing pain in my forehead.
"You dum Slowpoke! I swear, if I have a bump on my head..." She growled, marching over to the bathroom mirror.
I was sadly too awake to go back to sleep, so I stood up and stretched, yawning as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
As I approached the bathroom door, a hand stuck out from the door, stopping me.
"I'm still in here, perv." Gwen's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Gross. Not if you were the last girl on Earth!" I countered, slapping the hand away.
Despite her screaming protests, I barged in and took possession of the sink, pushing her aside. I really didn't see any reason for her last comment; she was in her normal travel clothes; sky-blue short-sleeved T-shirt with an admittedly cute Skitty face on it, a pair of brown shorts and a pair of white sneakers. She did have a denim jacket somewhere, but it wasn't on her at the moment.
I probably should have respected her wishes, because the dweeb had moved on to the most threatening thing she could do to me...
"Bunbun!"
The name made me break into a sweat. I turned around to see Gwen grinning like a mad Gengar behind a...
...Buneary.
"Now, now, cousin, let's not be hasty..." I pleaded, backing up.
"Eenope. You asked for it... Cousin." Gwen retorted with a grin.
Somebody might be wondering why I didn't just whip out a Pokéball and counter her; one, all my stuff was in my bag, and two, I didn't have a Pokémon.
Yep. You heard right again; I didn't have a Pokémon. I had to go by on my cousin's license since I hadn't caught one. I didn't have a chance to catch one since my downright evil cousin didn't want to lose the one advantage she had over me; she traveled a lot between Viridian and Pallet ever since she got Bunbun from her mother and I couldn't force her to slow down so I could go try my luck. If she left me, I would be an easy target for wild Pokémon.
Which was why I was completely defenceless.
"Get'm girl!"
A rolled-up ear shot out like a particularly soft bullet, nailing me in the chest and knocking me on my butt.
I groaned, rubbing my behind my checkered PJs.
"Serves you right, dufus." Gwen snickered, turning around after returning her equally mischievious Buneary, who I could have sworn on my aching chest was snickering as well before she was returned.
"Now get on with it; I'm not that willing to leave you behind." She ordered, to who I quickly scrambled out.
Sure, we had our differences, but at least we weren't out to kill or actually injure each other. This was what made me crack a little grin when Gwen popped her head of hair in and said a few choice words before I closed the door.
"Sorry but not sorry."
A while later, I was in my travel clothes; a grey, short-sleeved T-shirt with a pair of denim trousers, a black, currently useless Pokébelt and a pair of black baseball boots. My sleek, brown oval-shaped backpack with a few compartments here and there and a handful of Container Balls was slung over my back, and I was out and about in the less-than-busy streets of Viridian City.
"Come on, Ben! Bunbun and I are gonna get some actual food!" Gwen taunted, pointing at the Ragecandy energy bar in my hand.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want now, but when you're broke as a Meowth without its coin, you're gonna be begging for these!" I countered, taking another bite of the vitamin-packed chocolate.
Making a face at me, Gwen sent out her snuggly little devil and walked off towards a café, cradling Bunbun in her arms.
I knew she was going to take long, and I would actually be free before she came back out, so I gathered some courage, downed the rest of my energy bar, and took off on a light jog back towards Pallet; I was going to try and catch a Pokémon.
This was gonna be easy!
"This is sooooo HARD!" I growled, probably scaring away even more Pokémon and maybe even alerting an aggressive one to my presence. Great.
Turning around and squinting at the morning sun- it was somewhere around nine o'clock-, I stood up from my crouching position and decided to just walk around randomly.
Suddenly, I heard rustling behind me. Turning around swiftly, I shakily aimed a Pokèball. Out of the grass...
...Came a... Buneary?
"Mud Slap, Bunbun!" An eerily familiar female voice ordered.
Before I could even think of dodging, mud was flung into my face.
"What in the name of Arceus is wrong with you!" I spat, actually taking a few seconds to spit mud out of my mouth.
"Woops, sorry Ben. Thought you were a wild Pokémon, Ben. You do look the part." Gwen mocked, giggling a bit.
I wiped the last of the mud from my face as best as I was able and glared at the two. I took a bit more time and thought back to how many times Gwen had foiled my plans to catch a wild Pokémon. A few days back and this rounded it up to six times.
This girl was really out to get me, wasn't she?
"Um, Earth to dweeb?" Gwen said, snapping her fingers in front of my face.
"Ugh, what is it, dufus?" I snapped, glaring hard.
"You coming or not?" She sang, turning around to head back with a hand on Bunbun's ball.
Getting the message, I let my obnoxious cousin lead me back to Viridian city where I washed off my face before continuing on our 'journey', which at this point was basically following Gwen around while she did some training with Bunbun as well as a continuous round of traveling between here in Viridian and home in Pallet, sometimes. To be fair, Bunbun does listen to me if it's about training and battling, but anything else? Nah. I admit, I was a bit impressed when Bunbun finally got Quick Attack down, but the mischievous bunny had a shine in her eyes that made me shiver.
Getting a bit frustrated and also knowing that it was now too late for Gwen to travel back to Pallet, I retired back to the room at somewhere around six to get a head start on sleeping.
The location was a bar on the streets of Manehattan, and the time was evening.
"Varshinder! More spishial stuuuuff! Trikshie needs ta drawn her… sparrows, dat's it.- in lee!" A certain unicorn mare slurred with bloodshot eyes half-closed.
"Miss unicorn, you've had one drink too many. I think it's enough. You're also broke as buck. Drag yourself outta here; don't you have somewhere to be tomorrow?" The bartender, who was a dark brown unicorn stallion with a black mane and a mug of beer as his Cutie Mark asked as politely as he could. He was trying to hide his annoyance.
"I-I-I don't! Fhurst Trikshie git trashhhed by sum nooobbody ina ponyville, den Trikshie git m-mugged on da way h-here! Trikshie looost, bruke and h-humeless!" Trixie sobbed, snorting loudly as she did so.
"Oh, brother. Pick yourself up and get away from the counter!" The bartender growled with his horn shining dangerously yellow with magic.
Right before he could throw the drunk, broke and apparently homeless mare with his magic, he noticed a buff stallion glaring at him with dangerous red eyes. He had a light brown coat with a black mane and tail with red highlights. What was the scariest part about him was not the amount of nicks and scratches all over him, but his cutie mark; a crimson red dragon head that looked as if it was ready to sprout from the Earth Pony, develop a body and swallow him whole.
"What's wrong with her?" The stallion asked gruffly, his voice deep but also with a high air to it.
"She's just some unicorn that came here with a sack of bits to spend on RB. Thought she was just here for a few, but she's been here for six buckin' hours, and I'm really starting to get annoyed." The bartender breezed, a bit wary of the other stallion.
For a few seconds, he thought he was the mare's coltfriend, but a better look at the pony banished the thought.
The weird stallion stared at Trixie for a while, and then decided to drop a sack of bits on the counter. They weren't really that much, but at this point the bartender was just happy to have business moving on.
"What's RB?" The stallion asked, taking a quick side glance at Trixie, whose sobs had become sniffles as she shuffled slowly away.
"Ah, a stranger to Manehattan's bars, I see. RB means the Rainboom. It's the strongest cocktail that's ever graced Equestria in my humble opinion. Not illegal, but still frowned upon. Words of advice; you gotta sip it gradually in order to still retain your dignity. "
"So she took how many to get wasted like that?"
"Quite a lot, actually. So much that I actually lost count. She's gonna feel like she got crushed by a slab of gems and then squeezed out of a tube in the morning. I know because it happens to me sometimes. You want one?"
"Yeah, just to check out how it tastes."
"The first one's always on the house. You can have your bits back." The bartender informed, levitating the small purse-sack of coins to its owner, who nodded in gratitude.
The bartender wasted no time in preparing the drink; the steps had become muscle memory to him. The end result was a cocktail which had what could only be described as a rainbow in a bowl. The colors strangely retained their individuality, even when the bartender swirled the bowl around. He said something about the ingredients being infused with a mix of alcohol and magic.
"Damn… This stuff's pretty good…" The stallion said after taking a good long draught of the bowl, downing it at a go.
The bartender was shocked that he was still standing after that, but was even more shocked when he dropped a few bits for a tip and walked away, totally fine.
Ha! That drink's good, but it's a joke compared to the good ol' brewer's stuff. One shot could set you up for an entire day! THAT was good stuff. The stallion thought, shoving through the slightly sparse crowd.
He was surprised to find the blue unicorn mare from before cantering towards him before sliding behind him to hide.
"H-h-help Trikshie…" She whimpered, looking up at the cold eyes with tears in her own pair.
Something about her utterly pathetic situation softened the Earth Pony's glare, and he turned around to see what she was running from.
"Hey! You know that mare?! I was talking to her!" A unicorn stallion with a yellow coat, orange mane and a broken pane of glass for a cutie mark growled as he approached.
"Well, not exactly, but I think you should calm down a bit before you start something, bud." The stallion with the dragon head cutie mark retorted after noticing the slight slur to the enraged unicorn's voice.
"Hey, hero! You better gallop back home before I deal damage you can't walk away from!" The same unicorn stallion threatened, to which the stallion protecting Trixie smirked.
These dumbasses have no idea what I am… The stallion thought to himself, helping Trixie up and turning shoving her in the direction of the door.
"Looks like we've got a fighter, eh? Colts! Let's show our guest how we deal with heroes…" The unicorn stallion said, earning a grunt of agreement from five other stallions in the bar who got close and sort of surrounded the stallion as much as possible in the bar that was quickly starting to clear out as they were starting to realize a fight(or more accurately a beating) was about to take place.
"So... Why don't we just take this outside and talk it out like normal ponies? Unless you need to jump me right now?" The earth pony suggested, trying to deescalate, but the mocking smirk on his face with that last sentence was the final straw for his foe.
The leader of the group used his magic to hold the stallion in place while the rest of the gang, who were comprised of a unicorn, a Pegasus and three Earth ponies, moved in to bludgeon the red eyed stallion to death or something close. By this time only a few ponies were left in the bar; the ones unconcerned about violence, the ones too shitfaced to care and the ones that were waiting for some entertainment.
They all gasped in surprise as the Earth pony shrugged through the magic that was holding him, causing it to collapse in on itself. He charged at the unicorn, who was so surprised that he didn't have any chance to defend himself, before turning around to buck him straight in the jaw, effectively sending him flying into the wall, out cold for the moment. An Earth pony stallion bucked his flank, earning just slight redness around the area and a grunt of pain. His return for the action was a headbutt in the face followed by a hoof to the side of the head, staggering him instantly.
The light brown stallion did a backflip to dodge a buck from two of the remaining four ponies fighting him. He growled as a magical blast from the unicorn seared his side as he jumped out of the way, and returned the favor with a leaping double hoof punch. He was about to reach said unicorn's wide-eyed face, but received a hoof to the side of his head, knocking him out of the air and into a glass table, smashing it to smithereens and adding several new cuts to the stallion's body.
The bruised stallion stood up to glare at the Pegasus that had punched him, and then muttered something under his breath. The Pegasus went in for a hit alongside the two Earth ponies, but was repelled when the stallion reared up and stamped his front hooves on the ground, producing a red shockwave that threw everyone close away.
"B-but you have no horn… How can you use magic?" A bloody faced unicorn asked, clearly the one who had started all this.
"That's for me to know, and you to feel." The stallion answered, dodging a beam from the other unicorn before blasting him away with a fireball from his mouth.
While the unicorn rolled on the ground madly to put out the flames, the stallion with the dragon head cutie mark burst into flames before breaking through a wall and escaping into the night.
The bartender had tried his best to understand what he had just seen; right before the stallion burst into flame, he could've sworn the dragon head cutie mark roared. He dismissed it as his imagination and went to work, trying to help anyone that was injured as well as not-so-discretely call for his own colts to make sure that the unicorn who started the altercation paid for all the damages as he was pretty sure there was no way he was going to be able to force the probably long gone stallion to do the same.
Meanwhile, said earth pony stallion made his way to the back of the building, where he saw the blue unicorn from before sobbing. He briskly turned around to walk away, but then she saw him.
"Y-you shaved Trikshie…" She stammered through her tears.
Don't get involved, don't get involved- screw it, I'll get involved. Not like anything worse can happen. The stallion resolved, walking over to the mare and sitting down on his thankfully uninjured hindquarters.
"Here, have these bits. Use them to get a place to sleep for the night. Do not go back for more drinks. Do you understand?" He ordered, giving Trixie some of the coins used as currency in Equestria.
When she nodded, although slowly, he stood up and trotted away, feeling quite accomplished. His conscience, however, screamed at him to stop and make sure she got somewhere safe. He finally relented and turned around. What he saw made him facehoof.
'Trikshie' was shuffling herself back towards the bar.
"You have got to be kidding with me!" The black stallion snarled before cantering back to the drunk unicorn and hoisting her lengthwise onto his back. Some of his newly acquired injuries hurt, but he knew he had been through way worse, so he sucked it up and walked into the night.
He sent a pleading look at Eric, who just stared back at him, before the 16-year old shrugged and continued trekking. Ethan was about to tell them that they were in the last few turns of the trainer-safe path through Union Cave, but his voice died in his throat when he heard a yell from Emily.
"Welp! I'm done for today! I'm camping right here!"
And with a thump, she dropped her backpack, sat on the roll she dropped from it, crossed her legs and started scrolling through her Pokèdex as if she was watching a movie. Eric made a strangled sound that could have been an irritated sigh, before turning back to get his sister, while Ethan just ignored her antics and walked on. A few minutes and turns in, he could finally see the cave exit and found himself looking at the clear, starless sky on the route to Azalea town. A glance behind him showed that Eric was catching up to them, with his sister riding on his back while his own bag hung from his front.
"Oh by the legends that was a long route! Thanks again for the boost, bro!" Emily sighed, resting her head on his shoulder before getting off him and helping the larger trainer put his gear back into place.
The trio still had some way to go, but seeing as Emily was vehemently not going to sleep in anything other than an actual bed that night and the boys wanted an actual hot meal in them, they decided to just keep going until they reached the town.
They stayed on the beaten path so as to not disturb any nocturnal Pokémon that were roaming around, and thus soon passed by the Slowpoke Well, a famous landmark for Azalea town on the edge of its boundaries. Ethan was too tired to think of catching a Slowpoke, but he still at least wanted to get a few pictures of the well to add to his digital scrapbook to send back home.
What was suspicious was that there was a member of the Azalea Night Guard well... standing guard at the well, that said that there were multiple issues that wouldn't make it okay for them to head down it and take a few peeks.
"There's a little issue with the Slowpoke, kids; check in town if you want to know more. I'm here to stop anyone from disturbing their main habitat here while others find out what to do about it." The man said, crossing his arms.
"Oh, c'mon! Please, I'm begging here. Just a little in and out? I just want to takes a couple of pictures?" Ethan begged, this close to getting on his knees.
"No means no, kid." The guard denied, beginning to glare at the 14-year old and shifting his hands into the deep pockets of his navy blue trenchcoat.
Eric, seeing as his friend was getting a bit too irritated at the guard, put a hand on his shoulder and led the fuming trainer back to the path.
"Don't worry, Ethan; you still have the Gym Challenge to look forward to. I'm pretty sure nothing's happened with that." Emily encouraged, patting her friend on the back.
"Arceusdamnit! The Gym's closed!" Ethan growled.
"... Okay, so maybe I was a little bit wrong. Well? What happened?"
They had finally made it to Azalea town, and had immediately split up; Emily wanted to make a few purchases before sleeping from the local marts, Ethan wanted to register for the Gym challenge so as to get to battling pretty much the first thing the next day, and Eric had let the two go out while he arranged for their sleepin arrangements in the trainer hostels attached to the Pokemon center.
Right now they were all in the room the siblings had gotten for themselves, reconvening before going to sleep. Ethan had his own, separate room, and the trainer had just burst into theirs.
"Okay, so I wanted to take the Gym challenge, but another member of the Night Guard was there at the entrance, and he said that I couldn't even make an appointment for a gym run because the Leader wasn't around and the other Gym trainers were all helping the Leader to try and solve their Slowpoke problem." Ethan explained with a sigh, grabbing a chair and collapsing onto it.
He was cut short from more explanations by Eric, who asked,
"Is the problem related to whatever happened to the entire population of Slowpoke? They're supposed to be everywhere in this town."
"Yeah, about the Slowpoke, THEY'RE ALL GONE! DISAPPEARED! Nobody in town has the slightest idea where they all went to. From what I got from one of the rangers stationed here, it was a few disappearances at first, easily ignored, but then more and more of them just started leaving.
This is a small town; really the only thing keeping it alive to me is Kurt and the Pokémon Gym here. Remember New Bark town? It's the same here; it just, wasn't a problem until it became one. And now this problem's setting me back on my tinetable for the conference!"
"Wait a bit; remember that very shady guy by that Pokémon centre near Union Cave? He was selling really expensive Slowpoke tails. Maybe that could mean something? I mean, maybe not, could be a coincidence though." Emily added, remembering the annoyance of how much he was selling a single tail for; he may as well should've just sold it for a million credits a piece!
"Wait, I think you're right! Let me pass this by you guys..." Ethan said, settling down to really think.
Emily and Eric shared a glance; ever since they knew Ethan, he had this amazing knack for connecting things together and making plans. Sure, sometimes he was completely wrong because of faulty data and them rushing into things hurt more times than it helped, but overall, whenever he actually settled down to think? He had great ideas.
"Okay, I know we're not the police, or the rangers, so first of all let's report this to the rangers outpost around here. If my hunch is right about the Night Guard, then we may need to do that tonight. I don't know if you guys remember, but the guy selling the tails said he worked from Azalea, right? Why would he be selling tails when there's a shortage in Slowpoke?" He mused, taking a Pokéball from his belt and tossing it repeatedly.
"Hmm... May as well be the Distortion's advocate, here. What if it's exactly what it looked like over there; some Breeder that has been raising Slowpoke from the place that has them in abundance, Azalea. Maybe he's just selling his stock now that Slowpokes are scarce? That's just good business sense, I think." Emily added.
"Okay, so maybe you're right... You know what? Let's just tell the rangers and get some food in us; I'm starving! I can't think up a good plan without something in me!" Ethan grumbled when his stomach started growling loudly.
Sometime after getting a good meal for both themselves and their Pokémon from the cafeteria also attached to the Pokémon Center, the trio returned to their shared room to feed their Pokémon.
Just then a Hoothoot released herself from her ball and landed on the shoulder of her friend and trainer, Eric.
"Fukoro really likes you, Eric. You two must have been together for a long time." Ethan complimented, taking his three Pokéballs from his belt and releasing his team.
"Yeah, she has been with us ever since she hatched a few weeks ago. Her mom, a Noctowl that liked to visit us, laid her egg one night in the homemade nest we made for her. When she hatched, the Noctowl specifically gave me her Hoothoot to raise, and Ive been with her since." Eric explained, petting the Owl Pokémon standing on his left shoulder.
As if on cue, everyone's Pokémon emerged from their balls, happy to see their trainers. Rex, Ethan's starter Totodile, gnawed lovingly at his trainers left leg, which hurt a bit, but Ethan let the Big Jaw Pokémon do it anyway. Emily's Jigglypuff -she still hadn't decided on a name that Jigglypuff liked- started bouncing about singing a happy tune -not one that would make everyone fall asleep- while Komori, Eric's Zubat, flew to his trainer with little squeaks and clicks, since he couldn't physically see a thing. Obsidian, Ethan's Geodude and the sole reason that he won against Falkner, folded his arms and looked away, but after Ethan's pleading and begging alongside a few Poképuffs, the Geodude warmed up to his trainer a bit more. Alice the Gastly, floated about the room as if it to claim it as her private property, before staring at her trainer for a minute or two before returning herself to her ball on Ethan's belt.
Ōtori, Eric's Pidgey, the ace of his team, spread his wings and clucked softly, seeing a lot of people around. Vulcan, the most timid of all the Pokémon, being a Cyndaquil, silently walked over to Emily and curled up on the girl's lap to sleep when she picked him up.
"Seems like that's everyone. Let's go!" Ethan cheered, fist-pumping.
My Little Pony: Dawn of the Half-Blood (MLP) Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Trixie woke up late in the morning feeling horrible.
"Oooargh... Trixie feels like she got run over by the train..." She groaned, managing to drag herself upright on the bed she was on.
Just then, the cobwebs in her head began to clear, and she remembered how broke and wasted she was. She was about to sob again, but she also reasoned that since she was broke, she wan't supposed to be on a bed. In a hotel room. Alone and sore.
The alarms that started ringing in her already sore head gave her the impression that some stallion had whisked her away while she was drunk and had his way with her. The unicorn mare was sore everywhere, but she attributed that to her drunken state last night.
Right before Trixie could put a hoof on the mystery of whether or not she was scarred for life, the bathroom door opened and the stallion from last night walked in, looking refreshed and slightly damp. Steam was rising from him in small wisps and he had a look of contentment in his eyes. That is, until he realized that Trixie was awake.
Seeing him, Trixie realized that he had to have saved her last night and let her stay in his room.
"Umm, hi... Trixie?" He asked, to which she nodded.
Time passed for a good five seconds before the silence was broken.
"Thanks for helping Trixie out... Trixie's not usually like that unless Trixie reels in a lot of bits from a show. Not like Trixie has one anymore..."Trixie said, looking down and saying the last part in a whisper.
The stallion cocked his head to the side in slight amusement and pity; he had heard what she was spewing out last night and thought it was just a story designed to get free drinks. He knew how to read ponies well, and he had even heard what she said under her breath. Putting two and two together, he made a decision.
"So... You just gonna stand there, or you gonna freshen up? I don't have all day and hence neither do you."
Trixie's eyes lit up at what she was told that she would be allowed to stay a little while longer with her saviour. Without a second thought, she jumped in to have a warm shower, nearly knocking away the stallion.
He chuckled at her antics while a part of his mind was annoyed.
Why are we helping this pitiful creature? We cannot eat her, she is not a priority, the only use I see for her is-
"Shut up..." The stallion growled, getting Trixie's attention.
"Umm, did you say something to Trixie?" She called over the sound of rushing water.
"Nah, just keep on doing your thing." The stallion answered, forcing a smile.
"Correction; she's a pony, you sack of scales. Also, if I hear you say one more word to me about eating somepony I swear by the sun..." The stallion said in his mind.
You still haven't answered my question, halfblood. Why is she under our protection?
"Must everything make sense to you? You've done things that I only understood after years. Let me tell you this once; I just want to help her get back on her four hooves and then we leave to gather the rest of the pieces, okay?"
I do not see why she deserves sympathy from us, but I will let you carry on.
"Let me? I can do whatever I want, thank-you-not-at-all! This is my body, remember that-"
OUR body, you fool!
"You giving me sass, reptile?! Remember that I have saved this body from countless deaths with or without your help! Remember that I beat you down with my own hooves in that Harmony-forsaken dungeon! REMEMBER THAT I CHOSE NOT TO SCOURGE MY BODY OF YOUR ESSENCE BECAUSE I WANTED TO PROTECT OTHERS AND YOURSELF! REMEMBER THAT, DAMN IT!" The stallion roared to himself.
"Umm, a-are you o-okay?" Trixie stammered, looking at the stallion with some worry in her eyes.
The stallion opened his eyes -he had been closing them- and found out that he was radiating heat waves off himself. He took a few breaths to calm himself, lest he answer her with a voice not completely his own.
"Yes, I'm fine." He managed to squeeze out of his mouth.
"We will talk of this later, Scarred King."
As you wish... Crimson Flare...
"Finally, you get it right!"
"Umm, okay? Well, what next?" Trixie asked, quite unsure of herself.
"Hmm... I never really thought of that much... Do you have a source of income?" 'Crimson Flare' mused.
"N-not anymore... Trixie used to have a travelling show." Trixie said, looking down, "Trixie reeled in a bit of bits from that."
"Well, what happened to it?" Crimson Flare asked, already knowing the answer.
"Trixie got shown up by some unicorn called Twilight Sparkle during Trixie's last show... After that, everyone started mocking and avoiding Trixie. Trixie's thinking of working on the Pie's rock farm. Humiliating..." Trixie explained, gaining some of her spirit back.
"Do not lie to me, Trixie. Give me the truth." Crimson growled, making the unicorn gulp in fear.
"O-okay, Trixie'll say what... really happened." She began, stealing an unsure glance at her saviour, who had an eyebrow raised.
"Trix-I... I boasted a lot about my magical prowess, meanwhile I could only do stage magic. I... Told a little lie-"
"The truth!" Crimson all but roared, making the unicorn flinch and suddenly find out that the floor was infinitely more interesting than the stallion's face.
"Okay, I lied a lot! A whole lot! I said I could vanquish an Ursa Major, and when an Ursa Minor was brought by my fancolts to help disprove any doubts... I froze. It was the single scariest moment of my life. I thought I was going to die... Then Twilight calmed it down and proved that she didn't even need awesome magic to have her friends... I left after everyone noticed I was a liar..."
Crimson had seen his share of sappy tales of woe, and this one definitely fell in one of the least interesting ones, but after all he had seen, he was sure it was one of the most believable.
"Hmm... I'm gonna give you a choice, right now. Either I take you back there, where you'll accept any punishment they decide to dish out on you-"
"Nooooo!" Trixie squeaked, eyes wide as saucers as she looked up at her saviour with tears in her eyes.
"Be quiet..." Crimson growled, feeling his irritation rising.
He was sure that Trixie felt it too, because she immediately shut up and continued her observation of the floor.
"-and probably earn their forgiveness. Or not; I haven't seen what kinda ponies they are. Or, you can follow me to the rock farm where I'll drop you off. It doesn't seem like it's a bad place, plus you'll stew in there for a while, hopefully giving you the backbone you so desperately need to keep you from being a snivelling coward."
Most ponies would think that Crimson's words were harsh, but he was in reality just giving her the hard facts. He wasn't some messiah to shield her from the truth; he was going to help her accept it. Even if she didn't want to.
The wise words of the Thestral Half-blood. He was a worthy opponent and ally.
"Yeah, he was... He's rubbed off on me, the awesome bastard. He always knew he would."
"But b-both choices are horrible.." Trixie whispered.
"Take it or lose it, mare." Crimson finished, walking towards the door.
"In five... Four... Three... Two... One..."
"Wait! I... I want... To ask for forgiveness..." Trixie said, catching up with him and walking beside him.
"Hook, line and sinker."
My Little Pony: Dawn of the Half-Blood (MLP) Chapter 3
Crimson briskly trotted out of the hotel with the cyan unicorn following. Remembering that Ponyville was a good ways away from here, he raised an eyebrow and swiveled around.
"Wait a sec. Trixie?" He called, snapping said mare out of her musings.
"Did you actually walk all the way here? From Ponyville?" He asked, turning around on the sidewalk.
Trixie blinked, as the gears in her head were turning, before she produced an answer;
"Errr...Somewhat? Trixie left without the train from Canterlot, but then Trixie got her stuff t-taken a bit after passing the Foal Mountains... Trixie didn't have much else, so she headed her way down here... With dignity!" The unicorn explained, gathering momentum until she ended up with a proud exclamation.
It was now Crimson's turn to blink.
"By the Sun and Moon! She walked all the way here, with a wagon attached to her?"
It seems the pony isn't pathetically weak after all. It takes strong legs to do so, after all.
"Wait, really? That's all it takes to change your opinion on someone's strength?!"
Well, yes. She's only disgustingly weak now, a marginal improvement, but one nonetheless.
"I... Guess that's as close to an actual compliment that I'm ever getting from you, huh?"
But am I wrong, half-blood?
Raising an eyebrow, he walked around the unicorn, who craned her neck to follow him. When he stopped and started staring at her hind legs intensely... Well, let's just say that it was an awkward feeling for her.
She cleared her throat; he was still staring. She shifted her weight a bit, but he was still staring!
"E-err..." She began with a stutter, realizing that she did, in fact, not know the name of the stallion who had saved her.
"Huh?" Crimson said, looking up into the slightly flushed unicorn's face, before he remembered were he was.
On a sidewalk.
In Manehattan.
Staring at a mare's legs.
Resisting the urge to face hoof at his own lack of social ethics, he briskly continued walking towards their best bet for now; the train station.
He looked back to see that Trixie still had this look on her face that frankly made him feel a little bit embarrassed, before stopping again and letting out a sigh.
"Trixie, if this is about me staring at you... Think nothing of it, I guess. Just an impulse, sorry. Now would you please stop giving me that look?"
The former showmare blinked a it before nodding and taking a breath.
Satisfied, the Halfblood just kept on walking at a leisurely pace; he had all the time in the world to acquire the pieces that he was looking for.
"Now, Trixie has a... few questions." She started as they continued on their way down the block.
"Go on, I'm listening."
"Trixie never got your name."
"Crimson Flare."
"Aaaand... Where you're from?"
"Somewhere." Crimson answered readily, feeling like this was about to be a game of twenty questions.
He heard her huff in slight annoyance, and just to spook her, he turned his head on a dime, looking at the mare with a flash of magic in his blood red eyes.
"What was that?" He asked sweetly, cocking his head.
"N-nothing!" She sputtered, shaking her head vigorously which earned her a lighthearted chuckle from Crimson.
They kept on walking in relative silence as Manehattan buzzed with life and noise around them, but after a while, it began to get a bit monotonous to Crimson, and he didn't do monotonous.
"You can keep asking me questions, you know. We're going to be traveling together for at least a day, so it's best that we get familiar now. You don't have to be afraid of me either, okay?"
"Er, Trixie understands. But first, Trixie wants to know why we are not going to the train station?" She muttered, shrinking back a little and eyeing him intently for his response.
"Uh, train station? Why would we need the station?" Crimson Flare asked, stopping in his tracks beside an alley.
"Trixie thought we were going to use the train to get to Ponyville."
This, coupled with the realization that the unicorn could not fly made him facehoof. He had forgotten about that...
Crimson dug around in one of his black saddlebags for his remaining bits, and he grabbed the brown sack of holding before pulling out a purple purse that quivered and clinked with the sound of several hundred bits.
"Honestly, I haven't taken the train with somepony for quite a while. I just got around by... Other means. Will this be enough for tickets?"
He dropped the purse in front of the astonished mare, who had quite obviously not seen this many bits at somepony's disposal for a while. She was even more surprised that he didn't know how much the tickets cost! There was a little traitorous whisper in the back of her head that told her that she would very well be able to make off with this pony's bits without his knowledge, but that voice was quickly hushed when Trixie remembered the powerful magic that the supposed Earth Pony wielded last night, and the other fact that he protected her.
"Equus to unicorn. Trixie. Is this enough?" Crimson repeated, snapping the mare out of her musing.
"Er, yes! Trixie thinks this is enough bits. Honestly, she thinks that this is more than enough."
"You sure? I mean, the last time I took a train, it was a little more than this... Waaaaiiiittt... That BASTARD! He swindled me so HARD!" Crimson growled, feeling the fire in his chest flare up in anger.
Trixie snickered at her saviour's apparent lack of knowledge concerning monetary value, before levitating the purse and walking back towards the train station with a swish of her tail.
"Come on, follow the Great and Amused Trixie!" She boomed, leading the grumbling and silently fuming stallion onwards.
When they finally arrived at the station, Crimson Flare's annoyance had calmed down to a low smolder, but Trixie's mirth was as lofty as the time they began their walk.
Approaching the ticketmare, she took a look at the prices and levitated a the few bits it actually took from the purse that held at least 20 times that value, reveling in the wide-eyed look that he was giving her as she paid for both of their tickets.
The ticketmare in question looked up from her work with wide eyes as she felt the heat radiating off the stallion with a twitchy left eye and grinding teeth. She whimpered as he stomped past her into the train, passing Trixie, who was now actually a bit worried about not just the safety of her and everypony else on the train, but also for the life of whoever had actually scammed the powerful pony.
With a grunt, he sat and continued fuming; muttering curses under his breath at his old friend. Trixie sat down next to him, and decided that this was as good a time as any to continue her questions.
"So, Trixie wants to know... Who scammed you?" She asked, leaning forward to look at him better.
"An old friend of mine; his name's Moonlight Digger. He helped us with... Tunnels. Yeah, tunnels. He helped dig tunnels in between our... Home? I guess? And where we wanted to go a lot. Loved bits to bits, the foolish Earth Pony. Probably why he and those diamond dogs were as thick as thieves; they once stole from him, and he chased after them at night. That was probably the worst mistake of their lives. Picture this, Trixie; a full moon, Diamond dog lair entrance, you start hearing howls and yelps. Obviously something's wrong, right? Well, they probably thought that they had the upper hand underground, but well, it was a Full Moon. What did they expect?"
"Huh. What's so special about the Full Moon and your friend?" Trixie asked, cutely tilting her head to the side.
Crimson was about to continue, but when he remembered what Moonlight actually was? The entire story had to be changed.
"I'm not really meant to talk about his furry tenant..."
Just like you are not meant to mention myself, Half-Blood? Why do you containers loathe us so?
"You'll understand when your older, my dear firebreathing lizard."
I will not dignify that with a proper response.
Crimson shut out the dragon's internal silence and focused on how best to say what he wanted to.
"You see, Moonlight can see in the dark really well, and he also has the talent for digging underground. At night, yeah. A Full moon's really bright, yeah? Well, according to him it was like daytime to his eyes whenever he was underground. So, he used his talents to... Confuse the diamond dogs and nearly brought their whole den on top of their heads. Imagine my surprise when I see diamond dogs running like bats being chased out of Tartarus!"
Trixie giggled at the way Crimson Flare was gesticulating with his hooves as they sat, but then the train lurched a bit, and his face promptly went green.
"By the sun... Now I remember why I hated trains..." The stallion groaned, clearly motion-sick.
"Uh... there, there?" Trixie said as she sat beside him and started rubbing his back.
She really had no idea that he was this susceptible to motion sickness, so Trixie kept rubbing his back for quite a while as they travelled, until the Half-Blood was fine enough for more talk.
"Now... where was I? Digger? Ah, right. He was the only pony that I and my friends actually trusted with money, so he was the one that dealt with any of the odd times we needed transportation and we couldn't get around by normal means. That means the bastard's been sucking us all dry! Well, I knew he was gonna do it, the stingy bit-biter, but he didn't actually have to do it!" Crimson finished, fuming once again at the end and glaring at some unseen for as he wished in his head to be able to burn someoony just by thinking of them hard enough.
Our powers do not work that way, Crimson Flare.
"Can't blame a pony for trying, though. Would've made things so easy back then, too!"
Trixie flinched and scooted away a bit when Crimson started radiating a bit of heat, which quicky snuffed out when he saw her do so.
The stallion sighed and patted the space next to him again, and she complied.
"Sorry about that, Trixie. Now, anything else you wanna know?"
Trixie put a good under her chin, clearly thinking hard, before raising a hoof and asking the million-bit question...
"H-How can you use magic?"
"Hard pass. Next question." He deadpanned.
"Oh, sorry. Uh... No. That's all, Trixie guesses." She said, not wanting to push her luck.
"Fine then, then I'm going to ask you a question; after Ponyville, what next?"
Trixie's slightly good mood deflated as he reminded her of why they were on a train in the first place; so she could go back to Ponyville and... apologize. With lowered ears and a whimper, she thought about how she was meant to even go forward from something like that.
"I-I don't know. I really don't know..." She whispered.
Crimson took one look at the sullen mare, cursed his own moral compass and turned to her.
"You said you had a wagon, and that it was stolen. Maybe I can help you find it before we even get to Ponyville? I mean, unless they were really hard pressed, they wouldn't have gotten that far." He ground out, knowing that he was about to get himself into quite some trouble for this.
His hesitation was offset by the way the unicorn's eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked up at her savior again with a smile.
"Really? You'll help Trixie look?" She asked, beaming even wider when he grunted in affirmation.
With a short squeal, she briefly hugged Crimson, who locked up, before taking down the small map of Equestria that hung in the booth they were staying in.
The train they were on had to pass by an unmarked patch of forest that Crimson remembered to be Hollow Shades, and while he was actually quite tempted to get off there, he held himself, and remembered where Trixie said she was robbed. He did try to pinpoint the place with the mare, and he realized that they would probably pass by the thieves because the train was going to stop in Canterlot before it got to Ponyville, and he couldn't just hop out.
Well, he could, but that would raise too many questions; questions he did not want or need to answer.
"Uh, Trixie?" He started, wondering how he was going to break this to the so far dramatic mare, without resorting to intimidation or pressure.
"Yes, Crimson Flare?" She answered, turning her head from when she was staring at the map with concentration.
"Uh, did you arrange for us to get to either Ponyville or Canterlot?"
"Yes? The Great and... Humble Trixie would like to know what's wrong." Trixie asked sheepishly, catching herself before she could fall back into old habits.
"You were robbed... after Canterlot. Right?"
"Yes, what does that have to do with-OH. Oh no... They'll be gone before we even set hoof in Canterlot..." She realized, head drooping.
With a huff of heated air, the Half-Blood Pony made a decision to save himself all this extra stress.
"Let's jump outta the train." He said, waiting for the reaction-
"WHAT."
-before taking a quick glance outside the metal deathtrap called a 'train'. The view of the steadily passing ground didn't bode well for him, but he forced himself to look and realized that they were about to reach the bridge connecting Manehattan to the mainland.
"We're going to jump out after the bridge, and then hoof it down to Canterlot-"
"W-Wait! You're serious?!" Trixie blurted out, half-thinking he was still pulling her leg.
After his sure nod, the unicorn had an eyebrow raised, but actually began thinking about it. It wouldn't be horribly debilitating if she timed it just right, not unlike some of her amazing magic(tricks)...
The blackened sky lit up with occasional flashes of lightning and booms of thunder, highlighting the heavy rain that fell nearly sideways due to the fast moving winds that tore across the grassy landscape. Whichever creature out in this environment is surely doomed, correct?
Well, a struggling figure, bipedal and small, defied all logic as it ran its way through the downpour, not really minding it as long as it got home faster. Said 'home' appeared to be a slightly raised mound of dirt, surrounded and blocked off by small boulders. The figure pushed at the wet and slick boulder, trying to open it up enough for it to slip though.
Finally, it slid in and collapsed on a bed of fronds dragged from a tree that was sadly, destroyed by one of the random lightning bolts that struck the ground that night.
'Well, there goes my somewhat stable source of bedding... Anyway, I should stretch a bit, check myself out again.' The being said in its head as it rubbed its head down after shaking off as much moisture as possible, just like the dog-like creature it was.
Random flashes of lightning revealed more of the creature as it moved through a series of stretches, revealing it a small, blue, canine. It had black legs and torso, a blue tail, and a yellow collar. Leaning up to work out some cricks in its neck revealed rounded bumps on the backs of its forepaws and a black "mask" and red eyes. Doing a quick backflip, just because it could, showed that it walked on its toes instead of its entire foot.
Not even bothering to try and close the 'door', the Riolu, because it could only be one, finished his little warm-up, and then sat on his bed, cross-legged as he meditated on what his life had now become, as well as other things.
His eyes were open, looking at the darkness of his abode and some would think that he was just staring at the wall, but look through his eyes and you would see a screen, floating in the air before him.
Name: Aaron
Title: Aura Adept (+25% exp gain to all Aura Moves and Skills)
Species: Riolu
Level: 10 EXP: 0%
HP: 31/31
Power Points: 120/120
Nature: Brave
Abilities: Inner Focus, (?)
STR: 24
DEF: 16
SAt: 15
SpD: 16
SPD: 18
Stat Points: 0
Status: Healthy(No buffs or debuffs)
"Well, after today's horrible bust, and this rain, I might as well think about the best ways for me to use what I know so far..."
The Riolu, revealed as Aaron, accessessed his Moves with nearly a thought, and egearly began checking them out.
Move Pool:
-Endure: Normal Type, Priority +4, Category Status.
This move is the gathering and tensing of energy in the body to endure absolutely life-threatening attack, leaving the user clinging to life, but definitely alive. The success rate of pulling this Move off is decreased by half with every consecutive use.
-Survive any attack or series of chained attacks with at least 1 HP remaining.
Duration: 2-5 seconds.
60 AP per use.
-Foresight: Normal Type, Category Status
This move uses the eyes to see through illusions and pin down reality. It also has the effect of granting a short form of clairyvoyance to the user, letting them know when and where an attack from an opponent is coming.
-Negate all positive changes to the target's SPD.
-A [Revealed] Ghost type can be hit by Normal and Fighting Type Moves and Techniques.
This move consists of taking the hit from an attack or series of chained attacks, transferring the kinetic energy from said attacks into another part of the body and releasing said kinetic energy with a physical blow that's twice as strong.
-Multiply all damage taken by 2 and return it.
20 AP per use.
-Feint: Normal Type, Priority +2, Category Physical.
This Move uses misdirection and a quick application of the same Type Energy frequency that the ability [Infiltrator] works with to bypass most defences and land a hit. Even absolute evasions and defences such as [Protect] and [Detect] cannot block this Move, and the very jarring nature of it makes sure that the target is at least incapable of using the move immediately as planned.
Base Damage: 30
-Bypass defensive and evasive maneuvers.
-Weakens defensive and evasive maneuvers.
-5% chance of inflicting [Stun] status.
20 AP per use.
-Metal Claw: Steel Type, Category Physical.
This Move charges the claws, scythes, etc. of the user with the Steel Type, making them as hard as steel and granting them the weaknesses and strengths of the Type in question as well. Masters of the move can even spread it across different body parts. Even after execution, there is a chance to keep the residual hardness for a while, improving your Attack.
Base Power: 50
-10% chance to temporarily increase STR by 1 during combat.
25 AP per use.
-Quick Attack: Normal Type, Priority +1, Category Physical.
This Move lets the user lunge in a short burst of speed that is almost invisible, allowing them to quicken a specified action. This may be running up to hit a target, increasing Attack Speed or even evading attacks.
This move is the perfection of instinct; focusing energy into all muscles in order to explode into action to evade absolutely anything. All without thinking about it.
This Move is depicted as one of the ancientfighting techniques of Judo called "Tomoe-nage", in which the attacker grabs the opponent by their head and falls back, using the combined forces of their legs and inertia to throw the opponent over their head.
Base Power: 60
-Has 100% Knockback.
32 AP per use.
"Hm. Looks like I'm finally getting some good use out of Quick Attack! I knew running full speed for my life was going to give me sick gains!" Aaron chuckled, scrolling through before opening the last screen he had at the moment.
Perks/Buffs
-Gamer's Body: Your body interacts with the world as a video game character; Allows for the use of the Pokémon RPG system.
-Trainer's Mindset: The mind of a Gamer is built different; it is a near endless library of knowledge easily filled and impossible to lose;
-All Moves logically possible for the Gamer's Body can be learnt.
-All Moves, Techniques and Strategies are kept in peak condition and can be performed at any time without degrading over time.
-Complete permanent mind control is negated, temporary mind affecting ailments degrade quickly (Weakened by Fighting Type)
-Explorer's Bag: Designated Storage Items/Equipment are now extradimensional, having the ability to store items in stacks and designated categories if such abilities are not present.
-Stacks of items are of X99 items.
-Items can be used directly from the inventory, be it Consumables or Equipping Items.
-Fighting Type: Your body is in perfect physical condition, and you are fully capable of flexing both your physical energies as well as your physical body. The projections of the Soul, known as Mind, can pierce through the willpower and raw strength of your body with ease, as well as the esoteric energies of the Fae. It is harder to put more force into your blows in mid-air with nothing to push off of, making you easy pickings for those who have control of the very Air your muscles cut through.
-Weak to Flying, Psychic and Fairy Type.
-Boost the effects of all Fighting Moves and Techniques by 20%
-Inner Focus: Your Aura is balanced and unshakeable. Even the heaviest of blows cannot deter you from your goal, as you just push on through.
-Immunity to Stun/Flinching.
-Halves Knockback damage and effects.
-Brave: You are determined. You rush into danger without a thought and you push through life without fear. People see you as a beacon of strength when the world falls around them, knowing that no matter what, you will be Brave enough to push forward. It doesn't mean you are always just, though, just that you will not hesitate to go forward and protect your goals or interests, whatever they might be.
-Increases Physical Moves, Attacks and Techniques by 10%, but reduces overall SPD by 10%
All this finally done, the Riolu reviewed what he knew so far in this new life he was introduced to; dying sucked, resurrection hurt like alcohol in an open wound and Mystery Dungeons were not the best place to be reintroduced into the world.
With a grunt, he decided to sleep hungry again, as there was no way in the Distortion Realm that he was going out in that watery torture again. You have rested in your designated 'Base'! HP and Aura fully restored.
Aaron made his way out of his Base with a frown, hanging a ratty and faded Exploration Team Bag over his shoulder, which he used as a guide to store all his personal effects in the Inventory. With a sigh and a final look at the somewhat familiar mound of dirt and stone, he headed west... To Evergreen Village. If his memories were as accurate as they seemed, then despite the fact that he 'lived' on his own, he would have at least one other Pokemon that knew about the doomed mission that cost him half of his former life.
Chapter 2: Tutorial
The child I was with was special, though he did not know it. His soul was special, wonderful, understanding, pure, but his body was weak. He couldn't run like the others, could not force himself to play the beautiful Game when he was pushed, over and over, to the edge.
I was with him, always, because he had been there for me. He had seen me, and he had Understood me. That was how I knew he was special. He does not remember how special he is, just as I do not truly remember how I got to him, so maybe he has the same fog as I do?
This was one of the times that he was pushed to the edge; his meal was once again taken away from him by those whose bodies were stronger, but who I knew would not be anything more than just Flesh. They would not move past their bodies, would not truly play the Game, if it came down to truth. He was waiting, as always, for them to finish with him, and to pat himself down, and tip back his head, and hold in the tears-
So he did hold them in, he did stand, he did pat himself down, he did take inventory of what the stronger ones had not taken from him, he did reach for the aids to his sight that his weak body -wonderful, wonderful soul, though,- needed.
He could not see that they were broken once again, that they lay right by his feet, handles snapped off, so I r e a c h e d and tried to take form, his form, and his arm, weak as it was, was made from my malleable Flesh.
As usual, I wondered at the feeling of having a body once again, if only a part of one, but since the Servants were not allowed to be near the Young Masters and Mistresses until they had come of age, I had to be focused to prevent him from getting into trouble.
MyhisOur arm took hold of the aides, bringing them up and bringing them to his attention.
"Oh! Thanks, I really can't see much without them- Oh. They're broken..." He spoke out, that beautiful smile of his that hid a beautiful, broken spirit faltering minutely with the realization.
Mother would want her children to be happy, I was meant to make him happy, as was my responsibility as his Servant, even if he did not know it yet. I knew of a way to gain even better aids, and I would once again play the Game to win them.
As he made a small, awkward bow and a wave goodbye to whoever helped him, the beautiful soul ran as fast as his weak Flesh would allow, back to the den, to where those... those...
Failures, Fake-Parents,
ABUSERS-
Dwelt in their squalor. He did as was told, and I was still sure that it would end in more pain for both the beautiful soul and the other Young Ones there. They were offspring, children, to be protected, but that was not what was happening. I was present, I had my advantages as one of my kind that actually lived beyond and above and below the Game, but I also knew it was not enough to win.
I digress, which is bad; the fog sometimes falls when I am less focused. It is sometimes kind like that.
Ah. It fell and rose again, for here I am, in front of the place of business that dealt with selling those visual aids, with no idea how I got inside. I am still in my true Flesh right now, and though I do not need a Servant to Rise enough to gather a form, I found it easier. Mother would be proud of how much I had grown. I know she watches, always. She cannot act, but I know she watches her children playing and loving and dying and doing nothing because she is not allowed to and the All-Father is loving but strict and that means stay away but no she loves them all too much.
I digress.
I move as quickly as I can through the establishment, hoping that I could find one that looks like the latest pair of aides to be broken. I would be alright with picking out frames, because I had taken the last from here.
Just as I acquire frames that match our dear soul's -crystal clear, the essence of the lightest of aura- eyes, I feel a presence.
I pull the aides as deep within myself as I can as I am hit with an Intimidating presence from the Servant suddenly before me. The Servant lets loose a deep Growl from deep within themselves, a sound that reverberates throughout my flesh, imparting a primal fear in me.
I have no issue with the keeper of this place, but if I must play the Game to aid the child, then it must fall before me.
The guardian is indeed visibly confused at the presence of another of its make suddenly before it, but it gets over it quickly, and I'm set upon with flashing fangs, glinting with primordial menace.
In return, I call upon the borrowed Heart of Flame that lies within my Flesh and wreath myself in fire...
...Before securing the aides within my maw and dashing towards the open window where I suddenly remember I entered through.
The keeper of this place stands dumbfounded with a piece of my Flesh within its own maw that quickly returns to its original configuration; the only prize I am willing to part with for fleeing the Game.
... Did it truly believe I was going to stay and Play when I had a task to complete for the wellbeing of my Young Master?
Preposterous.
I fear my offering may have been insufficient, as I hear a snarl of indignation and feel the burn of fire sink lightly into my Flesh as I use the momentary swiftness that my own technique had given me to scale the wall and reach the windowsill.
Just as my currently orange paws pull the rest of my furred false body over the sill, I am hit again, this time by the full force of the keeper, who had also drawn upon their Inner Flame to grant them strength enough to close the distance between us.
Luckily for me, the force was sufficient to launch me out of the establishment through the window, and out into the open street.
Unluckily for me, I crash onto my side painfully, feeling false bones within me ache, but thankfully do not lose or damage the aides within my mouth. That said, I scramble to my four feet, ignoring the fading throb in my side in order to dodge another tongue of flame from the guardian, which had followed me into the street, and was closing in fast.
Oh, how I ache to face another Child of the Mother in the Game, to fight and be gifted more...
... But I have an obligation to the beautiful soul. It does not, however, mean that I cannot oblige the keeper a little.
I dig deep within the false Flesh and snarl out a booming warning; my own Intimidating presence pouring out of me through that medium. It is a babe's whining compared to the Pressure that True Gods would be able to bring to bear, but it is still enough to strike some semblance of fear in the passersby on the street as well as my opponent.
With that done, I call upon the flame within me carefully, knowing that the Gift I have taken will soon run out, and wreath myself once again, but this time in a corona of fire that I use as I leap into a roll, cross the distance between us and slam both forepaws on the head of my foe, who was too dazed to counterattack immediately.
-Stay down.- I growl, baring my teeth as much as possible without dropping the pair of aides.
-Never, thief!- The guardian snarls out in response, throwing its head back to escape my hold and then flashing forward with the same technique it started this Game with.
-So be it.-
I once again dodge the attack by leaping to the left and buck the keeper in the jaw with both hindpaws as it passes by. The keeper is once again dazed by this and I exert even more of my presence through an even deeper growl, hopefully weakening its resolve further. It seems to work, as while the keeper is still confrontational, it's not snarling anymore and is taking a few steps back.
At this point, my false ears sweep back as I catch the sounds of running in our general direction. I take a glance around and see that only a few Children are around; most have either moved on from the place or are watching from what they believe is a safe enough distance.
The keeper's wariness disappears as the sounds come closer, and I risk a glance behind me to see the sharp blue coverings of an Enforcer of Laws coming towards us, her own Servant the very same as the keeper before me.
It is at this point that I realize that I am out of time, and thus I truly must flee before the situation becomes even more disadvantageous; I turn to run and call upon the very last of the Borrowed Flame I possess and I am once again alight, with embers flickering around my now degrading legs as I-
"Stop right there!" The Enforcer barks out, and despite its currently deteriorating state, my body flinches at the command -eagertoplease, amIabadguard/friend/protector?- but I regain control after a moment.
That moment of hesitation nearly cost me everything, as her own Servant as well as the Keeper lunged at me. I did in fact dodge them, as I ran across the street and into the space between two buildings, and the two Children were left befuddled at my disappearance, as I was no longer present when they arrived with the Enforcer moments later.
This was due to the fact that I had finally Forgotten the gift that I had acquired, and was well hidden, flowing through the ways underneath with my prize...
...The Ways...
...Remember The Ways...
...ReachKillPlayRest for Mother... ...Rest... And Remember...
Kris was woken up by the sound of her mother's voice that shouted,
"Kris! Get out of bed! You don't want to be late to start your journey!"
She smiled to herself as she stretched in her bed. Her 14th birthday was a few weeks ago, and that meant she was legally allowed to start her journey as a Pokémon trainer. She jumped out of bed and after going through the normal morning rituals, got into her clothes and admired herself in the mirror.
The teen trainer had her blue hair in two pigtails held in place with two red hairbands and with a fringe that was just a few millimetres from her eyebrows. She had on a red short sleeved t-shirt under a white long-sleeved jacket that stopped at her midriff, a pair of grey sweatpants shorts and a pair of blue and white sneakers.
Ablutions done, she headed for the door, but before she went down, however, she he looked back to admire her room one last time. It looked like it belonged to a rampaging Dragonite and a teenage boy. Sports equipment was crammed in the bottom of the closet, books were lying around on the floor, the trashbin was full of graphs and crumpled sheets of paper and her game console's CD packs were lying gloriously on the TV. Yet there was some order to the chaos. Her desk, which had her desktop along with some extra work space was neat and tidy. Her fluffy bed with blue Pokèball print was also neat and tidy, and her two potted plants were well-watered and kept by the windows. She felt the onset of nostalgia kick in, and with a little smile, left her room.
As she walked downstairs, she saw her mom engaged in deep conversation with her sister, Matilda over cups of tea and warm waffles glazed with premium Combee honey. Kris's stomach liked the smell, so it sent a message out through growling like a snarling dog Pokèmon. While Kris reproached her tummy for interrupting her aunt and mom, the latter sighed and shook her head with a smile, pointing to the kitchen, where more waffles were waiting. Exchanging greetings, Kris sat down for breakfast for what would probably be the last time in probably a month, if not at least a few weeks. She could see the tears in her mother's eyes as she saw her only child get ready to leave home, and that made her stop eating and give her a hug.
"I love you mom. I'll make sure not to get into anything to dangerous... For you. And for dad." She muttered, the last part barely a whisper that was only heard by mother and daughter.
"I know your will and mind, Kris. I know you wouldn't do anything I wouldn't do. I know you'll try your vest to be safe. At the same time, remember to do what you would want to do; have fun, okay?" Diana tearily instructed, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead before letting her finish her food.
Matilda looks at all this and smiled, before going to give Kris good luck hug and surprisingly, a leather wallet with up to 5000 poke dollars in it.
"T-thanks, Auntie..." Kris stammered, hugging her aunt as hard as she could.
After Kris left, the two were now face to face, and there was a soft smile on Diana's lips.
"I know you were saving that for your daughter, Matilda. Thank you."
Matilda waved it off, while her thoughts wandered to her unruly, rebellious child in question, who had run away for the third time.
Kris brightened up considerably once she was outside, even having a spring in her step. Her town of New Bark didn't offer much, but there was one thing that put it on the regional map; the Johto Regional Pokémon Laboratory. It was massive compared to a majority of the other buildings in town, full of scientists, researchers and all other sorts of stuff related to Johto's Pokémon Professor's specialty of breeding patterns and interactions between Pokémon.
Because of how famous and important across the region it was, it was unsurprisingly a bit busy, with various trainers and other people with Pokémon related professions visiting. There was even a time or two when a Gym Leader had supposedly come in! Kris used to look at all the commotion from her room windows when she was younger, hoping, dreaming, about this day, and now, it was finally here. Once she entered the building, she hurried past all the rooms and sub labs in the building complex, to where Prof. Elm's 'reception room' was. The middle-aged man stopped typing on the computer he was using when she arrived and looked up with a look of surprise.
"Why, Kris! You came so early! It's barely seven!"
She smirked. She was trained by her parents to be very punctual.
"Well, you can't start until the other sponsored trainer is here, okay? At least until the time we're officially meant to start, that is."Prof. Elm said.
A bit too punctual, Kris! She thought to herself with a frown.
Since the Professor told her to occupy herself while she waited, she did a bit of studying to pass some time. She looked over at her type sheet, where from the time she was eight to the time she was now, had been used to calculate the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of moves for any type. She had subscribed to a few newsletters about Prof. Kukui's Move Research in Alola just to make sure she was as up-to-date as possible, too. A few pokemon that piqued her interest were there too, such as Gyrados being considered a 'Flying' type due to the way its Aura interacted with undifferentiated Type Energy -mostly base, or 'Normal', as it was commonly called- produced by its underbelly and fins that allowed it to not just leap out of the water with ferocious grace, speed and power, but to hover as well, beyond the 'hovering' that most strong or highly trained water types could that involved hydrokinesis.
The same interaction needed for Flying Type energy was also found in the Doduo line, Pokemon that were avian in all respects except their lack of wings. This admittedly lead to some attempts to see if they had actually flying ancestors -she kept up a bit with Prof. Rowan's studies in evolutionary patterns just because of it- but no fossils or other kinds of proof have been discovered yet. They had access to a good repertoire of traditional Flying moves and could use the interaction and actual Flying TE to leap high and run fast, so technically they were also 'Flying' types.
Another Pokemon mentioned under the whole flying type thing was Flygon who was declared a Dragon, instead of its Bug/Ground pre-evo, Trapinch, but after more study a few years later was said to be a Bug again with access to the innate Levitation phenomenon that most Flying types used to fly, in a more efficient/effortless manner than other hovering species. Finally, after some more revision, it was declared as a Dragon, again, due more to the interactions between its Type Energy and other Dragons rather than its vaguely draconian features.
When she was ten, she nearly tore up the sheet due to these discoveries being made, but she was encouraged by her mom to be open minded, and she kept it. Now she was ready for such, and would soon meet her 'starter'; the best part in her opinion, about being a Lab-sponsored Trainer. She saw the three Pokéballs on the table, but suddenly noticed something different. Instead of the signs to signify the first elemental trio, Fire-Grass-Water, they stood for Electric-Water-Ground! She stared, dumbfounded at the Professor, who was humming to himself while typing away on his laptop, wondering,
Whatever happened to the good ol' choice of water, fire and grass, Professor?!
She had been preparing all her life to choose a grass-type from the three, and all of her planning and resources had gone down the drain. She was so angry and deep in thought about what to do that she didn't notice Lily, her childhood friend, walk in. What snapped her out of her thoughts was the sound of Lily's voice as she and the professor exchanged pleasantries.
Lily had green, full hair that reached mid-back and brown eyes with her fair complexion. She wore a light green top with an oxblood coloured skirt over a pair of brown shorts. As for her footwear, she had on black baseball boots.
Kris quickly snapped out of it and grumpily said hi as well, after which the Professor gave them their Pokédexes. They were both little laptops with their own keyboards and navigation pads and everything else. They had two screens; one was bigger and was blank with no information, while the other had a list format with a few options here and there. Both girls' eyes sparkled with excitement as they were given the very expensive Lab models. Lily was given a green one while Kris was given a blue one, since they had each put in a request for a color change from the default blue. Next they were shown the table with Pokéballs on them. Kris watched Lily's expression as she beheld the sudden change in plans. Lily calmly asked why, to which Prof. Elm answered;
"This answer goes to both of you. I changed the arrangement of Starters because it'll allow for my sponsored trainers to make healthier decisions. I know both of you have been preparing for a long time to choose one of those three and hence, I changed the arrangement to allow for good use of your thinking and battle prowess in future. Improvise! Now, I do admit it's a bit jarring, and I may have to field a few questions from parents, but I truly believe you'll all be better off for it. If it's a matter of rarity, and it bothers you too much, then I'd be disappointed, but would still let you pick from the other trio. That said, come on, pick your partners."
Kris and Lily looked at each other; each silently telling the other to choose first. Kris finally fell through and picked up the Pokéball with the lightning bolt on it. Lily stepped forward and chose the Pokéball with the classic waterdrop on it. Prof. Elm smiled and made a smal huff of relief before stating the following like it was a rehearsed speech;
"You girls have chosen your starters. Treat them with love and care and they will protect you till their dying breath. From this moment you are a team with your Pokémon; they must be considered when planning or circumstances will quickly turn around against you. Now hold your Pokéballs up to your Pokédex's lens."
Once Kris's Pokéball button connected with her Pokédex, there was a beep and she saw the screens light up. In the corner of the larger screen, was a Pikachu, sleeping in a simulated habitat; a clearing in grass with it resting in a circle of smoldering soil. She looked over at Lily's Pokédex as the girl squealed in delight. There, on a small simulated ice floe with snow around it, was a Seel! Both read their Pokédex entries for their Pokémon in succession; Kris starting first, and Lily, going second;
No. 025. Pikachu, the electric mouse Pokémon.
This is a small, electric mouse-like Pokémon. When it is angered, it immediately discharges the energy stored in its cheeks. It has the ability to change the polarity of its electricity in order for it to deliver electric shocks accurately. Statistics:
Average Weight: 13.2 lbs./6.0 kg
Average Height: 1'04"/0.4 m
This Pikachu is Male and knows the battle moves; Thundershock, Quick Attack, Growl.
Known abilities are; Static, Lightning rod.
No. 086 Seel, the sea lion Pokémon.
This is a Pokémon that looks like a white, sea lion. Its fur is water-proof and can camouflage it in its natural habitat. The protruding horn on its head is very hard. It is used for bashing through thick ice. It is an easily-trained Pokémon and can learn more than its fair share of both commands and moves. Statistics:
Average Weight: 198.4 lbs./90.0 kg
Average Height: 3'07"/1.1 m
This Seel is a Male and knows the battle moves; Headbutt, Powder Snow, Tackle.
Known abilities are; Hydration, Thick Fat.
The teenagers had eyes wide with delight; a sight which brought a smile to Professor Elm's face. After they had fiddled with their devices for a while, he beckoned them to follow.
He led them into a training room that was heavily armored with metal. As he went out, the girls eventually heard his voice through a loudspeaker somewhere.
"Alright girls, throw your Pokéballs. Be careful; once they release your Pokémon, they'll bounce back in the same way you threw them. You'll get the hang of it sooner or later." The voice blared.
Lily pressed the lock button and threw her Pokéball, releasing her Seel.
It was a pinniped Pokémon with a thick hide covered in bluish-white fur. It had a pale tan maw with a large red tongue and a pair of tusks on its lower jaw. It had circular eyes and a black nose. There was also a small horn on its forehead that seemed hard enough to bash through blocks of ice. It also had two flippers on its chest, and two more on the end of its tail. The Pokémon then raised its tail, which resembled a waterspout.
The Sea Lion Pokémon looked at her with a cute expression on his face and Lily could not resist the urge to kneel and pet her first Pokémon. As soon as she did so, however, Seel's ball whizzed dangerously over her head and hit the wall behind them with a loud clang. She stood up and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head while looking at a surprised Kris. Prof. Elm's voice was heard again.
"Lily, you'll have enough time to bond a bit more with your Pokémon, but can you focus a bit more on the task at hand?"
The teenage girl replied with a small nod.
Kris, by the way had finished observing and readied herself. She threw the ball and watched it fly back to her. At the last second she realized she didn't throw it well and scooted to the right, grasping the Pokéball before it flew out of her reach. Once done, she looked at her Pikachu.
It was a short, chubby, rodent Pokémon. It was covered in yellow fur, and its ears were long and pointed with black tips. It had a small mouth, brown eyes, and two red circles on its cheeks which contained its electricity sacs. Its forearms were short, with five fingers on each paw, and its feet had three toes. It had two brown horizontal stripes on its back, and its tail was in the shape of a lightning bolt with a patch of brown fur at the base. It was larger than average.
Probably all the care in the lab, she supposed.
A loud whir was heard, and two Pokémon dummies stood at the end of the room. Kris faced a Magikarp dummy, while Lily faced a Geodude dummy. Kris had watched tons of battles on TV and on Battlenet while Lily hadn't really watched a lot, so it was logical to see Lily fumbling with her Pokédex to look at Seel's moves, whereas Kris proceeded to train Pikachu with the dummy.
"Pikachu, battle!" She commanded.
Pikachu looked at his trainer and got into a battle stance; standing on all fours with all legs apart, tail raised and eyes on the enemy or in this case, the dummy.
"Thundershock!"
Pikachu's cheeks crackled with electricity and then he launched a streak of electricity at the dummy. It took the brunt of the hit and some parts of it showed small specks of black.
"Excellent, Kris!" Prof. Elm praised over the speakers.
"Pikachu, Thundershock!"
The Pokémon repeated the action and this time pieces of the dummy started smoldering, but stopped as soon as they had started. By this time, Lily had figured it out and calmly shouted to Seel,
"Seel, battle!"
Seel got into its battle stance; arms on the floor acting as a balance for his pipedal body, tail higher than his head, and eyes locked onto the dummy.
"Seel, Headbutt it!"
Seel tucked himself in and then launched himself like a rocket at the dummy. His head connected with the dummy and a small puncture was made in it.
"Lily, seems like you're finally getting the hang of things?" Prof. Elm blared through the speaker.
Lily grinned as a proud reply.
"Well, let's kick it up a notch, shall we?" Prof. Elm boomed. A clank was heard, and the dummies started moving towards the Pokémon.
Some kind of machinery is making them move forward. I'll just have to get Pikachu behind it to deliver a blow that'll short it out… Aha! Kris judged.
"Pikachu, dodge, then Thundershock!"
Pikachu waited patiently and allowed the dummy to get close enough then nimbly scampered out of the way as it rushed on through, heading straight for Kris. Kris had faith in her Pokémon and stood right where she was. A blast was heard and the dummy stopped, inches from Kris. Pikachu popped his head out from behind it.
He squeaked while running over to its Trainer, who petted him with affection before taking a look at Lily's side of the simulated battle.
Lily POV
Lily was surprised as the dummy started moving. She unwittingly commanded Seel to tackle the moving dummy. Seel lunged at the dummy but was knocked back by it and whimpered as he hit the floor.
"No! Seel!" Lily exclaimed.
The dummy picked up speed and was edging closer. She ran up to her Pokémon as he got balanced again. She rubbed his head and he looked at her as she looked at the strategy Kris used and modified it. She waited until the dummy was close enough and put her plan into action.
"Seel! Powder Snow!"
Seel sucked in air and let it out as a fine layer of powdery snow. It hit the bull's eye mark; the hole, and a bit of frost formed.
"Powder Snow! Harder!"
This time Seel balanced on his tail as he vacuumed air into his lungs. He blasted the dummy with snow and frost formed all over it, with a layer of ice over the hole. According to Lily's expectations the dummy stopped.
"Yeah!" the green-haired teenager cried as she hugged her Pokémon, who licked her playfully and squealed.
3rd POV:
The sound of clapping was heard through the speaker.
"Wonderful, you two! It seems you two are both ready for the outside. Good luck on your journey!"
Professor Elm said, after which the whirring of machinery was heard. With a deep clunk, a side door opened and the girls could see one of the well-cared for Elm trees that provided shade outside the lab. Lily and Kris shook hands after withdrawing their Pokémon.
"So, we're traveling together aren't we?" Kris stated, to which Lily nodded. She chuckled and pointed to Kris's back,
"You forgot your backpack, Kris. No way are we traveling like that." Kris looked over her shoulder and noticed it too.
"Oh. My. Arceus. Later!" Kris exclaimed to Lily as she hurried off to her home.
"Mom! I forgot my-" A breathless Kris panted as she burst through the door, her explanation cut short as she saw her mom holding up her black backpack with blue pockets and straps. A few more minutes, and Kris was on her journey. She was ready.
A/N: See, this? Right here? This is my baby. This has been rewritten like, 4(this makes it 5) times in my life; it's the very first proper thing I wrote when I put pen to paper, writing some utterly cringe fanfiction because of my love for Pokemon. Ten years later? That hasn't changed. The only thing that has, is my writing skill. You can find the other versions on FF.net under Archivewriter3 #shamelessselfpromotion
Kris's Pokémon
•Pikachu (Male) Moves -Thundershock
-Quick Attack
-Growl
Abilities -Static: When this Pokémon attacks or is attacked by a move that makes contact, there is a chance for the opposing Pokémon to be paralyzed. -Lightning rod: Forces all single-target Electric moves in a close enough radius to redirect to target the Pokémon. Gives immunity to Electric moves below double the capacity of the Pokémon for Electric TE or electricity and raises levels of charge everytime the Pokémon is hit.
Lily's Pokémon
•Seel (Male) Moves: -Headbutt -Powder Snow -Water Gun
Abilities -Hydration: When in the presence of rain or a large enough body of water, the Pokémon's body regularly flushes out certain symptoms of 'Status Effects'; poisons are flushed out of cells, burns are cleaned and scab over, lingering charge from electrical, chemical or other means messing with the nervous system is removed, frostbitten flesh is thawed out, etc. -Thick Fat: The Pokémon has extra fatty layers that make it easier to gain weight, but thus are also less affected by temperature extremes such as Fire and Ice attacks. It also makes light burns irrelevant in the midst of battle and frostbite cannot pass the layers, protecting the Pokémon from both.
Phone Beasts: Pursuit of Power (Keitai Denjū Telefang) Chapter One
Matsukiyo had finally made it. After rationalizing it to himself a lot, psyching himself up and trying to be as stealthy as possible to hide his intentions and preparations from his folks, he had finally gotten everything perfect; noone was guarding the Antenna Tree today, so he had waited until noone was watching from the street and managed to use his small frame to squeeze through the gaps in the gate to reach it.
"Hmm... All the studying I've done says that by walking straight through, I'll be able to get to the Denjū world... But I hope I don't mess up regardless..." The 10-year old mumbled to himself, fidgeting.
After looking up at the very tall tree, and the seemingly natural large opening in it that seemed to swallow the light, making it pitch black, Matsukiyo started having second thoughts.
"M-Maybe I can come back later? I wonder if I can get an adult to come with, after all? I'm pretty sure there are adults that come and go from the Denjū world without problems; maybe I'll just wait here and see- hey!" He theorized, stopping at the last second when a round white object flew over the fence and just narrowly missed his shaggy black hair as he hopped backwards, nearly tripping over his black hiking boots.
As the object hit the vibrant green grass growing around the Tree and rolled to a stop, the child prodigy quickly realized it was a baseball and looked in the direction it came from...
...Where a boy in a red hoodie, blue baseball helmet with an 'S' embossed on the front and brown shorts was jogging down the road next to the tree, looking for that very object while tapping his wooden bat on his shoulder as he did so. He rolled his eyes at the sound of a player at his back yelling at him to "Get the ball already!"
"Yeesh! I'm getting it, don't yell so much just 'cuz I hit it real far..." He grumbled, shoving his free hand in a pocket as he trudged forward.
His search was interrupted when his childhood friend came up from the other side of the street, looking for him.
Once she saw him, she turned back round the corner and yelled, "Shigeki's over here! I think I'll help him find the ball!", before heading back towards his way with a skip in her step and a smile on her face, one that softened the now-identified Shigeki's frown a bit.
As she came closer, Shigeki took a good look at his friend; the white flower placed over her left ear in her black bob, her pink t-shirt, white sneakers and white cargo shorts.
"You know, I really didn't think you were meant to hit the ball that hard, Shigeki. You sure you know how to play baseball?" She asked teasingly, swinging her hands back and forth as her eyes swept over him and around the place, making sure the ball wasn't just in the immediate vicinity and that her friend wasn't dragging his feet.
"Hey! That was just a mistake, Miyo! I know what I'm doing!" Shigeki huffed, stomping a foot.
"Oh c'mon, I'm just playing with you; let's look for the ball, 'k?" Miyo said, already turning around.
With a huff, Shigeki let her help, both of the 10-year olds making small talk as they looked around.
"Sooo... I heard that some people haven't ever had the chance to visit the Denjū world; isn't that just you and Matsukiyo?" She teased after a while, eyes glinting in the late afternoon light.
This made the already miffed preteen's face redden in embarrassment and anger, and he turned to yell at his friend, but she had already run off, giggling.
"Damn it! She didn't come to help me at all!" He growled, "Always taking a chance to annoy me!"
As he grumbled and finally decided to walk over to see if the ball had gone over the fence to that stupid Tree, he muttered under his breath;
"If she'd just shut up about it, she'd be kinda cute, too, not just annoying..."
After making sure noone was watching, Shigeki scrambled over the fence and slid down the other side; he always heard he was pretty fit -read: freakishly strong- for a 10-year old, so it wasn't even that hard for him.
Patting himself down, he turned around and was surprised to see the child prodigy of the town doing something even the slightest bit not entirely legal by being here.
"Oi! Matsukiyo! What're you doing here?" He questioned, walking over to the suddenly nervous boy who took off his wide, circular glasses and wiped them off on a rag he pulled out of his blue jacket before putting then back on with shaking fingers.
"O-Oh! S-Shigeki! Are you the one who threw the ball over here?" He nervously tried to deflect, pointing at the ball just in front of him.
Shrugging and figuring that he'd find out what the other boy was doing here sooner or later, he walked over and grabbed the ball as he made his reply,
"Nah, didn't throw it. Hit it a bit outta the park we were playing at."
Matsukiyo blinked as he heard that; sharp mind already running calculations to find out how far away the park was, until-
"But that's like half a block away?!" He blurted out, nervousness forgotten.
When he saw that his fellow preteen wasn't fazed at all from his questioning his wierd feat of strength, he took one look at the boy's bat, shook his had and focused back on the task at hand.
"Hey, mind being a bit more careful next time? You would've brained me with that if I didn't dodge it."
"Welp, sorry 'bout that. Hey, wanna play some baseball with us?" Shigeki apologized, already turning back to walk away.
He was stopped by Matsukiyo tugging on his shoulder, and when he did turn back he saw an uncharacteristically determined look on his face.
"Shigeki? Don't you want to go to the Denjū world? We're the only ones out of all the kids we know that haven't even been, and we're right in front of the Antenna Tree. I don't think we'll both get a better chance than this."
Fully turning around, he took a look at the black abyss at the foot of the tree and suddenly had better things to do.
Time for an excuse!
"Hm... I dunno, don't you need one of those fancy D-Shots to get there through that thing?" He said. #Query: D-Shot Connect #Connect to Server?
#CONNECTING...
#Connection Failed: Handshake Authorization N/A
"Well, yeah, but! From what I know, most of the first proper D-Shots were given to people by the Denjū when they made it over there! We just have to walk through and we'll be there!" =#Incoming Signal FROM Server: {High Priority Override} User I.D: N/A... User Designation "Code Key Holder" #Decrypting...
#Handshake Authorization Received
#Conditions Met
#CONNECTING...
#[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]#
"Well, I heard they modded those people's phones over there- Wait a sec, is your phone ringing? Do you even have a phone?" Shigeki argued before stopping as a very loud ringing came from somewhere. He had his phone in his pocket, but it wasn't vibrating, so it obviously wasn't his... #[PING]#=
"Well, no, I don't. Seeing as you don't think it's yours, then... You don't think..." Matsukiyo said, trailing off with an excited look coming to his face as he stepped towards the Tree, which indeed had ringing coming from within it. #[PING]#=
"Well, you have a phone, don't you?! I'm pretty sure it's a D-Shot-adjacent model, if the Tree is responding to it, so give it here!" The boy said, turning to the slightly freaked out boy with a large grin on his face and an open palm. #[PING]#=
"W-What? What's happening?" Shigeki questioned, starting to back away a bit.
"Come on!!!" Matsukiyo all but roared, spooking him into just tossing the phone at him with due haste. #[PING]#=
"Hm... Luckily this model can find and connect to the signal; pretty weird now that I think about it, 'cuz all the phones that could do that are supposed to have already been turned into fully fledged D-Shots by now..." The crazed kid mumbled, fiddling with the phone until a deep click coming from the tree was heard, before it went silent.
Huh? Is it over?" Shigeki asked, hands curled around his bat and shoulders set.
"What are you doing? Here, answer the phone, it's obviously for you." Matsukiyo said, acting completely normal now, handing over the phone to Shigeki, who grabbed it tightly and checked the Caller I.D. to see who it was.
When there was nothing, not even a number, just a big fat 'N/A' there on his screen, he just took a deep breath and picked the call with the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
"...Hello there, Child. We contact each other at last..." A deep, different voice whispered into his ear.
The moment the voice was heard, the void within the Tree shot forward, enveloping both children before drawing itself back into the Tree, which made a deep tone, and then all was still...
So, I'm sure most people don't know this RPG, but since we have Wikipedia and Google, I won't wax poetic... Too much.
See, when I was a littler me, I was engrossed in absolutely anything Pokémon, and thus I looked for anything I could play on my mobile phone. One day, I found something new! No more Pokemon Red, Gold and Crystal! Now, I had Pokémon Diamond!
Yeah🤣 It was this bootleg version of Keitai Denjū Telefang 1 for the GBC that had wonderful Engrish™ It was so novel, I loved it immediately, and I wrote a story on it a few years back.
A few weeks ago, I dug it up and laughed myself silly at how a ridiculous translation made me write something completely different to the plot of the game, so I decided to play through again and push through the Engrish for y'all.
Basically, imagine Digimon, but everyone has a Digivice, including the 'Digimon', and said Digivices are... Mobile Phones.
That's right; it's the year 2020(🤣) and pretty much everyone has a mobile phone called a D-Shot that became something more when in the world of the 'Digimon', the Denjū, also known as Mobile Phone Beasts(Can someone abbreviate that in a way that's less wordy? The best I can do is Mobile Beast or E.M. Monster).
In their world, everyone's D-Shots have 4G(Yeah, it's literally a sticking point for the series that probably invented 4G before 4G was a thing🤣) and as such can easily call their pals over for battles. The farther you are from the place where you recruited your Denjū pal, the longer it takes them to reach you in battle when you call for them. Sometimes they call you in the middle of battle when you're waiting for your freaking backup and say that they can't reach you. The clarity of the network also determines it, like a normal phone call.
There's some stuff about the Antenna Trees being gatekept in this game and being destroyed in the second that I don't really get, but I never finished the game so I never got to that part 🤷🏽♂️
You can only have 3 Denjuu on call in battle maximum, with you having one partner following you around and the other two having to be called. The rock-paper-scissors of this game is that the Denjū are typed according to the place they come from(Hills, Plains, etc) and any attack from someone in one place is either neutral, super effective or disadvantaged rated on where they are from.
So... That's pretty much what I got on the game apart from just posting the Wikipedia page here, which I'll do anyway here
See, when I was a littler me, I was engrossed in absolutely anything Pokémon, and thus I looked for anything I could play on my mobile phone. One day, I found something new! No more Pokemon Red, Gold and Crystal! Now, I had Pokémon Diamond!
Yeah🤣 It was this bootleg version of Keitai Denjū Telefang 1 for the GBC that had wonderful Engrish™ It was so novel, I loved it immediately, and I wrote a story on it a few years back.
Kris and Lily did a bit of small talk as they started on route 29. They would stop by a bush and look for berries occasionally, but so far, they had no luck. Then they got to what seemed to be a depression in the ground, seeing as there seemed to be a rough circle of tall grass present. Excited, Lily was about to walk right into it but Kris stopped her.
"Lily, when you fish, do you fish in the water, or by the water?" She warned.
Lily immediately understood and followed her friend's lead around the fairly large patch of grass. They were still wary of what lay in it, so they had one eye on one of the very well-tread paths and another on the patch. Before they could pass it, buzzing was heard. Out of the grass flew a pair of bug Pokémon!
They were large, mostly red, ladybug-like Pokémon. They had two black antennae, a black neck, and a black spot in the center of their foreheads. One's antennae were shorter than the other, indicating that they were male and female. Their two eyes were large, blue, and slanted. They had four black arms with white hands clenched into fists. Their two legs were similar to their arms, but they endes with large red feet. Their backs were red with large black spots, and the undersides of their elytra were yellow. They had a single pair of clear wings that seemed to be foldable underneath their elytra.
Kris and Lily hastily threw their Pokéballs and released their Pokémon to combat the Ledian. Lily still hadn't gotten used to catching the ball though, and it went whizzing over her head.
"Whoops. AH!" She cried, as she saw her Pokémon being pummeled by one of the Ledian with a Comet Punch.
Seel couldn't keep count of the fists as they connected with different parts of his body in a blur. Meanwhile, Kris commanded Pikachu to Thundershock the other Ledian. The attack connected with the ladybird Pokémon, and it flew back and chittered in pain. Kris took a look at Seel, and decided to help him out. The Pokémon had blue-black bruises nearly everywhere on his body. Pikachu anticipated Kris's command and delivered a Thundershock to the Ledian, who also clicked its hidden mandibles in pain. Kris fist pumped into the air while uttering a celebratory "All right!" but was cut short when Lily got wide-eyed and yelled,
"Look, Pikachu!"
Kris looked back at her Pokémon to see him being Tackled to the ground. She narrowed her eyes and focused on her own battle.
She quickly commanded her Pokémon to dodge the on-coming Tackle. Pikachu chittered in affirmation, and then focused on his opponent. The Ledian evidently didn't suspect what was coming as it blindly rushed forward. Once Pikachu was behind it, Kris commanded her Pokémon to Thundershock it. The mouse-like Pokémon scurried closer to the enemy, then delivered a full-on Thundershock to the Pokémon's back. Its back smoldered a bit, and then it lay down on the ground, twitching. Kris was a bit disgusted with the Pokémon, so she watched it lose consciousness, after which she went over to look at Lily.
She came back to see a good-bad sight. The good part was that she was looking at a Seel and a dead or unconscious-you really couldn't tell-, smashed up Ledian, and the bad part was that Seel was barely standing. He had bruises everywhere, and his face was a bit bloody. He half-crawled, half limped back to his trainer and lay down by her, breathing heavily. Lily sprayed some potion on his wounds, which made the swelling to go down and the bleeding to stop, as Kris withdrew her Pokémon and walked up to her.
Lily sniffled a bit and withdrew Seel back into its ball. Kris looked up to her to cheer her up, but was thwarted as the girl simply shook her head. As she smiled and stood up to talk to Kris she snickered,
"Hey, my first real Pokémon battle. I won, didn't I?" She whispered, looking down.
"Yeah, you did. Seel'll be fine, alright? Pokémon get better very fast."
It's amazing how Lily can become happy so quickly, Kris wondered, as she saw Lily happily jogging forward, her head nearly on a swivel as she took in all the nature around her.
She quickly stopped ruminating and picked up her pace to keep up with her traveling companion once she saw she was falling behind. Lily noticed this and looked back for a few seconds to say something, but nearly stumbled a bit as she almost fell over from not watching were she was going.
Crouching down to check on her legs just in case, Lily nearly missed Kris' warning, hopping back before one of the three Rattata that lunged out of a whole in the ground that she had missed surely would've gotten her for sure.
She stumbled backwards just in time, as the hissing and growling litter of rat Pokémon would've chewed her feet off. She threw Seel's Pokéball again, a bit more accurate this time, but still couldn't catch it hence the ball went flying into a bush. Seel came out of his ball, battered, but wounds slowly healing just as Kris skidded to a stop besides her childhood friend with Pikachu already out.
"Okay, we can take 'em, right?" Lily asked, still backing up with Seel.
"Yeah, no problem!" Kris reassured, still looking at the smaller than average trio of wild Pokémon sniffing and squeaking at them aggressively.
"Thundershock!"
"Right! Powder Snow!"
As the elemental attacks scattered the three Pokémon back to where they came from, the two girls breathed out soft sighs of relief...
...Before even more Rattata poured out of the hole.
One good look at the odds that were against them, and they took off running, a bunch of territorial juvenile Rattata on their tails.
They were going as fast as they could, with Seel dragging them back because of its shuffle style of moving and all. Lily would have returned him, but after closely dodging a Tackle by a Rattata that would have connected with her foot, if not for the Water-Type blowing it away with Powder Snow, she resolved to going a bit slower to be safer.
Lily smiled at her Pokémon, but was interrupted by a yelp of pain from Kris. Lily nearly screamed out loud when she saw what had happened; a Rattata had caught up to her and made a large leap at her leg, giving her a nasty nip. She stumbled and fell, but recovered quickly to a crouch, facing the oncoming Horde.
Luckily, a glance at her leg showed that it was just a regular bite and not one empowered by T.E. or Aura, and even better, was pretty shallow; more of a scrape than anything else.
Kris decided that they had run far enough and that a fight would dissuade them, so she called Pikachu to her for protection, at least until she got to a safer distance.
"Thundershock!"
Her Pokémon faced the Horde of juvenile Rat Pokémon with bared teeth before squeaking furiously while gathering electricity in his cheek sacs. The area seemed to darken a bit as excess elcetricity sparked around him, making his fur raise and slightly shine, before he crouched on all fours and let it all go.
The current generated was obviously stronger than any of Pikachu's previous Thundershocks because it was so strong, it outright knocked out three of them and slightly charred the others. Pikachu shook for a few seconds before falling to the side from over exertion.
Kris returned her only Pokémon to his ball while the remainder of the Rattata stopped near her, still aggressive, but now wary. A few of them had already scattered since Pikachu's attack, and it was only the few which seemed to be more mature than the others that remained. She began to backtrack, but obviously wouldn't make it...
"Powder Snow!"
Just then, a cold gust of air laced with fine particles of frost and snow blew past Kris, nailing two Rattata at once. They stumbled and fell, sliding to a stop while the others dodged around the two fallen Rattata and kept moving.
Lily grabbed Kris's shoulders and pulled her to safety while ordering Seel to keep using Powder Snow. Eventually, the onslaught of frigid air and snow scared away the rest, leaving Kris and Lily safe for now.
Lily returned her Pokèmon before helping Kris clean the injury with some water from her canteen, before applying some first aid to her.
"T-Thanks Lily." Kris said through gritted teeth as some Potion was applied, and the wound forming a tender scab of pink skin.
"No problem, Kris. That was intense."
"Yeah... I never knew how hard this was... Let's keep moving, okay? I don't want to camp out on my first night if I have to when Cherrygrove is as close as it is."
Kris had caught one of the two fallen Rattata and named the male Joey after a character used in general Pokémon safety videos in school about how not to be a trainer. Joey only trained one Pokémon; a Rattata and wore clothes that didn't have any protective properties at all, amongst other wrong things.
She and Lily had been hiking for a few hours, Lily having donned a brown, wide brimmed hat to keep out the sun while Kris wore a baseball p that let her hair through to do the same. The heat and brightness had gotten them tired after all the excitement had drained out of their systems.
Because of this, sometime around two, they stopped at a small wild orchard of trees to rest. The trees had no fruit on them, which sort of disappointed the girls even though they knew that it wasn't that time of year.
"All this action has made me sleepy. Permission to grab some Z's, captain?"Lily asked in jest with a yawn.
"Permission granted, Private." Kris replied playfully before watching Lily doze off a few minutes later.
She petted Pikachu- a little rest had done him some good, although his electric sacs were still nearly drained- and held Joey's Pokéball up to the Pokédex lens. On the display was a Rattata in a simple clearing in some grass with a hole in the middle, nearly exactly the same as the burrow that it had emerged from. She read;
No. 019 Rattata, the rat Pokémon.
This is a purple, rat-like Pokémon. This Pokémon's impressive vitality allows it to live anywhere. It also multiplies very quickly. The range of things it regards as edible is very widespread. It also possesses impressive speed that makes up for its lack of natural special attacks.
Statistics:
Average Weight: 7.7 lbs./3.5 kg
Average Height: 1'00"/0.3 m
This Rattata is male and knows the battle moves; Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Tackle, Bite.
Known abilities are; Guts, Run Away
After getting the Trainer Program for her Rattata's Pokéball online and registering both her DNA and Trainer I.D. to the ball and the Pokémon inside it, Kris stretched a bit and decided to walk around a bit to wait out the process and see if there were any berry bushes around. She was apprehensive about leaving her best friend unattended, so she left Pikachu there with an order to protect her, a note explaining what she was going out to do and went out with her new Rattata's Pokéball on her belt.
After some searching, she finally found an Oran berry bush with ripe berries for the picking. Grabbing a handful and putting it in her berry pouch, Kris had an excellent idea after hearing some bird Pokémon cries around. She checked on her new capture and was glad to see that some rudimentary commands had registered with it.
Sending out her Rattata and concealing it in the bush was the easy part. Getting it not to eat all the berries before any bird Pokémon showed up was the hard part.
After what seemed like days to Kris but was probably minutes, a few shadows showed in the heat of the late afternoon sun. Kris raised her eyes to see two bird Pokémon circling the bush.
They were small, plump-bodied avian Pokémon, primarily brown with cream-coloured faces, undersides and flight feathers. Both their feet and beaks were a pinkish-gray colour. They had black, angular markings around their eyes, and a small crest of brown and cream feathers above their eyes.
Joey was looking at her from the latter's position clearly within earshot of the rat Pokémon, but still concealed. Mentally counting down, Kris readied herself to give the command at the precise time.
The Pidgey had landed…
Wait for it…
They had approached the bush and were now poking their beaks through it…
Just a little closer…
The bigger of the two noticed two eyes glaring at it from within, and panicked, flailing about and hitting its partner deeper into the bush.
Now!
"Bite!" Kris commanded, jumping out of her hiding place with a handful of stones which immediately revealed their purpose to the two hollow-boned bird Pokémon.
The larger one had recovered and pecked angrily at Kris's Rattata, which had latched onto the left wing of the smaller one. Kris saw her chance for a distraction and threw with all her strength, getting the larger Pidgey to fly higher to dodge the stones; she really only wanted to catch one, anyway.
There was a sickening crunch heard as Rattata bit down harder on the trapped Pidgey's wing, earning a screech of pain. Kris winced at that but didn't dare to look at the mess; she was staring up at the other Pidgey, gauging if it would either stay and fight or flee.
Luckily enough, a few more stones thrown made the decision clear, and the larger Pidgey took off, leaving her with the struggler, which had gotten free of her Rattata and was trying to flutterhop away, feather's fluffed up in an attempt to look bigger while it cradled its broken wing to itself. Joey, however, was just licking its chops and jist about ready to lunge at the Pidgey again, when she decided enough was enough.
"Well, here goes nothing!" Kris thought out loud, taking out a Pokéball and giving it an underhand throw.
The 'ball hit the Pidgey, which started at the contact, but was too slow to prevent the now open ball from sucking it in.
Amanda recalled Joey to her side with an order, just in case the capture failed and the Rattata was too bloodthirsty to stop hurting it.
As soon as the 'Ping' was heard, the teen trainer breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the Pokéball of her new Pidgey, and lined it up with the Pokédex lens to check on it.
In the simulated habitat, it was resting peacefully in a tree nest made of twigs, leaves and down feathers. She smiled as she saw it and a name immediately came to mind.
"Skye. I'll call her Skye" She said to her Rattata, who only cocked his head to the side, earning itself an Oran Berry for a job well done.
Suddenly, Kris' phone rang and she stumbled as she picked it.
"Hello?! Kris?! It's 3:45 and I'm getting a bit worried! Are you okay?" Lily's worried voice yelled over the phone.
"Yes, I'm fine, Lily. Don't worry, I'm okay, I'll be right over there in a flash. I'll even bring a peace offering of Oran berries." Kris pleaded in jest.
"Really? The empress is pleased. I'll let you in on a little secret; I caught a Nidoran! She's so cute! I named her Rose and I also named Seel Leon. He didn't seem to like it at first, but that's what I'm calling him! You should name your Starter too; adds to the personalization, ya know?"
"I'll think on that when I get back... By the way? I caught a Pidgey and named her Skye. We'll talk more when I get back, okay? Bye."
Kris cut the call, taking a look at Pikachu's Pokèball, thinking hard for his name. She knew she was just throwing pretty basic names to the wall -apart from Joey, as far as she's concerned, that was a stroke of genius- but had to think of a very important factor to naming according to competitive battlers; the number of syllables it contained or how short it was. Basically, the shorter the name or shorter the syllables in a name, the faster she could give commands. She could probably have a longer nickname or pet name apart from that, but this was for battle.
The teen could've gone with Bolt, but thinking on how many times she would have to say Thunderbolt in the future, or even worse its shorter 'Bolt? She scrapped the name. Thinking further as she walked, she made up more names such as Spark, Pika -she was going to evolve him at some point, so probably not- , Watt, Amp...
Damn! This is hard...
"So... Are you still working on a name?" Lily asked as she munched on a few of the Orans given to her.
"Yeah, sure... I've exhausted my options as far as I'm concerned." Kris sighed, a bit frustrated.
"Hmm... Instead of naming him after something he is? Why not something he's done? Or something like that, anyway. I named Seel Leon not just cause he's a Sea Lion Pokémon, but because I want him to be a winner, like the World Champion."
Kris looked at her friend, eyebrows raised, and she gave a nervous smile and then a shrug in return;
"Hey, never said I was gonna be a battle freak like you; I just want him to win at what we apply ourselves to..."
Words of wisdom dispensed, the green-haired trainer stood up from the exposed root she was sitting on and set herself up to pack her things, getting ready to get moving again.
What he can do? That's... something...
Nearly unbidden, she remembered the battle against the Horde earlier, where her starter lit up like a bulb as he defended her from harm.
"Bright. I'll name him, Bright." She decided, recalling her Pikachu and inputting the name into the registry.
It would take a while, both simulation wise and through reinforcement for the Pokémon to reliably answer their names, though.
A few minutes after eating a few of the small, bland tasting berries, Kris, Lily and their Pokémon felt somewhat re-energized as the vitamin/nutrient packed, health improving berries did their work.
With the energy that they gained, the duo trekked on to their first stop on their journeys as Pokémon trainers; Cherrygrove city, as the day wound to a close.
Cherrygrove City was a fundamentally small city, barely worth the name, really, in Kris' opinion. One of their main exports were the cherry blossom teas, leaves and bouquets from the numerous groves that gave the city its name, which meant a majority of the population were either tourists coming to see the picturesque place, descendants of families settled in the area or some combination of horticulturists, Grass Pokémon Breeders, and so on, that made the city their home.
"Wow. I've never been to another city before," Kris admitted, awe-struck.
"Ugh. This is so not what I expected, being called a city, and all." Lily snickered, earning herself a playful glare.
The two had gotten there around five PM, so there was time to heal up at the Pokémon Center as well as explore a bit. When both trainers had gotten to the aforementioned building, they quickly assessed the fairly large and vital building; there was a healing center with a nurse happily acting as the receptionist and healing Pokémon, a stairway leading to the residential quarters where registered and/or sponsored trainers could sleep in for the night, a corridor leading to the training rooms, and the main hall that lead to all of the access ways.
Both of the tired girls nodded at each other and proceeded to the counter, where a Nurse had finished attending to a trainer. Kris and Lily both exchanged pleasantries with the Nurse, and gave her their Pokéballs for her to heal their Pokémon. Kris and Lily watched as the Nurse simply placed the Pokéballs on a grooved tray and slotted the tray into a machine. The Pokéballs glowed briefly with a red light and then stopped. After typing some stuff on a computer hooked up to the machine, she gave the girls back their Balls.
"You two are pretty good at this. Most rookies around here don't want or get to properly catch a Pokémon until they get to Route 30. Have a nice night." the Nurse remarked with a never-waning smile.
Lily got the room key from Nurse Joy and walked off to get the room ready while Kris went out to get everyone some grub.
After searching around pretty fruitlessly for a while in the general vicinity of the Center, Kris gathered her courage and walked up to a Gentleman on his Rapidash that was gently trotting through the street, politely asking him where she could get something to eat. She was directed to a nearby building placed just in front of the channel of the sea that passed through Cherrygrove. While she walked off, she looked back to see the Gentleman gallop away on his Rapidash into Route 30, north of the city.
I'll take Route 30 on tomorrow. But right now I think I better get some food or I won't live that long! Kris thought to herself, wincing at her growling stomach.
She took the small, paved track of the road that ended right in front of the establishment. Right before Kris entered inside, she stopped to take a good look at the restaurant. Her mother had ingrained in her the habit of looking a building over to analyze its quality when she was six, and she unconsciously practiced it now. It was a modest looking place; built sturdy with red bricks with a little sign between two large front windows that proclaimed it as the Cheery Blossoms restaurant, having an adorable stylized Active Cherrim as a logo.
Despite that, it was no meager thing, though. Kris could already see the amount of people in there, courtesy of the windows. She walked in was greeted with a warm, cheery atmosphere. And oh, the food! She could see people being served delicious meals, and rushed over to the counter to buy some. Better still, from the presence of multiple pet Pokémon around eating as well, it served Pokémon food!
After she had finished purchasing, she casually strolled out back to the Pokémon centre.
Meanwhile back at the Pokémon Centre...
After running about looking for the room with the same number on the key she was holding, Lily had finally found the room that she and Kris would be staying in for the night. It was a bit cramped for two, but it had all the basic essentials; a bathroom, two beds, and a TV. Lily heaved a sigh of relief and jumped onto a bed to 'test how bouncy it was'.
After rolling on the comfortable thing a little, she sat up and released her Seel to take a look at how he was. He looked brand new! He let out a low bark and rubbed his head on his trainer's leg.
"Aww, you are just so cute, Leon!" Lily cried, when her Starter looked up at her and had a gleam in his eyes.
Just then, her stomach growled loudly, reminding her that she hadn't properly had lunch at all.
"Ugh. When will Kris come back? I'm starving!" She growled in a way that wasn't too different than the sounds coming from her stomach.
Seeing her distress, Leon squealed to get his trainer's attention, and started clapping. Not able to resist the urge, Lily bent down to pet her starter. Just then she was conscious that her long hair wasn't drooping over her shoulders like it was supposed to.
"Oh, Arceus… Please let my hair be okay-AAH!" Lily silently prayed after which she let out a scream of terror as she found her green hair in a complete mess. It was so ruffled, that it became stiff to the touch, not the silky feeling Lily was used to.
Lily, without thinking twice, jumped into the bathroom to have a bath. When she was through with pampering her hair every way she knew how, it became silky and smooth again. Then it hit her like Leon's Headbutt; she forgot that she didn't get her PJs in with her. She would have fetched it herself, but two things occurred to her; she would get the carpet wet, and she had a perfect opportunity to test out some commands that a commonly trained/bred for training Seel is supposed to have.
"Leon, let's test your 'fetch-ability'. Fetch the bag!" She coaxed, hoping that Seel would understand.
She had clearly underestimated the learning ability of a Seel, as the Sea Lion Pokémon apparently got what she said. He went over to her backpack, put its slack handles in his maw, and shuffled into the bathroom, where he dropped it in front of the shower with a cute bark. Lily sure was surprised! She zipped open her backpack and put her pajamas on and as she came out, Kris and her Pikachu came in.
Kris dropped the food on the bed and looked up to see Lily in her least favorite nightwear.
"So, finally decided to take the non-expensive, durable pajamas that you supposedly 'hated', Eh?" She emphasized, suppressing a chuckle.
"Well, it isn't stylish, nor is it my color, but it can be worn for days without giving it a wash, so it was the obvious choice." Lily sharply retorted.
The subject was quickly changed when certain stomachs in the room roared like a pride of Pyroar.
Kris quickly offloaded the food, which consisted of salad and rice cakes for Lily, who wasn't all too fond of eating Pokémon meat products, and a soda and rice cakes for Kris as well.
"Why are you eating rice cakes? I thought your fave was Pidgey Burgers. You really don't have to because of me, you know..." Lily observed, sort of sorry that her friend was giving up her meat because of her.
"Nah, I'm fine. Just wanted to try it out for once. Also don't want to get into the habit of eating Pidgey when I'm training one, heh-heh-heh..." Kris chucked nervously.
She got a few small bowls out from her bag, and then sent out Bright, Joey and Skye. Lily decided to feed her Pokémon after Kris, since the room was a bit too small too have all their Pokémon out at once.
Getting a few packets out of her purchased items, Kris poured out some moist Cornn for Bright and an assortment of dried berry seeds for Skye and Joey, after which she went back to her food, which she ate slowly and deliberately.
Soon enough, dinner was settled and Lily went straight to bed -she said something about getting all the beauty sleep she could- while Kris went out on a walk around the city, unable to get tired enough to do so.
She had walked aimlessly for at least 30 minutes before remembering that she was a Trainer and had to get some important stuff.
She walked into a store that promised a discount on everything training related -thanks, government!- and bought a few things, after which she went back to the training facilities. She decided to start the training for her Pokémon immediately so she could increase her ratio of success in battles. She really didn't want to become a slacker.
The small training facility in Cherrygrove was mostly underground, with halls that specialized in different Pokémon types. She went into the hall for flying types, which was considerably bigger than the other halls, and found a few side rooms. She really wasn't going to trade a larger space for privacy, so she stayed in the hall to train.
After sending out her Pidgey, she saw another trainer coming to her and her automatic assessment kicked in.
He was around the same age as Kris with chocolate skin, a crew cut of black hair and brown eyes. He wore a plain white t-shirt and some loose blue denim jeans coupled with oxblood red sneakers with white soles and laces.
"Hi. Not to interrupt you, but you're in my rectangle." He stated, pointing at a red line of tape that encompassed a good chunk of the hall.
"Oh. Sorry. Quick question; can my Pidgey train with yours? He looks bigger." Kris asked, seeing that the trainer's Pidgey was a few inches taller than hers.
"Hmm, okay. What do you want to do? My name's Josh by the way." The trainer now identified as Josh consented.
"The name's Kris. I need to use Skye's smaller size to my advantage in battles, so speed training's what I'm doing tonight. Your Pidgey simply has to chase after her. Think you can do that for me?" The teen trainer explained, bringing out a whistle from her pocket that she had bought just for Skye.
"Let's start right away! Crest, chase!"
The next day…
Kris and Lily woke up refreshed and ready for the day. Kris had gotten back a little bit late, but received no scolding from her friend, who was already asleep when she got back. The duo freshened up and immediately went downstairs to hunt for food, but they were surprised to see that the atmosphere had changed; the place was virtually empty! The teens chalked it up to the fact that people left in the day, but were still surprised by the lack of people compared to last night.
Kris wanted to eat in a place a bit more lively before they hot the road again, so she decided to introduce Lily to Cheery Blossoms. But once the duo entered the restaurant from last night, they were greeted by a whole other atmosphere than before; Kris was definitely surprised that she saw that there was only one person there; a presumed Gentleman drinking some coffee while having some rice on the side alongside bis Growlithe. Confused, they strolled over to the counter and asked what had happened.
"Do you see the entrance there?" The young woman in a warmly coloured apron asked, pointing at the entrance to the city, "For the most part, people come into this city at night to rest, or to see the cherry blossom trees in the day or night, so there's a lot of activity around those times. But once its morning? Most of them who don't live or work here move away to Route 30 and forget we ever existed." She finished, going back to wiping down the counter.
Kris and Lily felt a pang of guilt, seeing as they came in to do the exact same thing, and left for route 30 after getting their breakfasts with that in mind.
Once again, less than 10 minutes after them leaving Cherrygrove, Lily was prancing around with Rose, chattering at Kris about all she was planning to do once the Nidoran eventually evolved.
Is this what the she was talking about? That people just forget about the city like that? Or is that just Lily, as usual? Kris wondered to herself.
She was brought out of her musing by the sounds of Lily commanding Rose. There was only one Pokémon there; a lone Rattata, so Kris decided to just watch.
Lily's POV:
I commanded Rose to lunge at the pesky Rattata that had tried to ambush me, but it was faster, and jumped out of the way. My female Nidoran had stubby legs, but if she could even scratch the Rattata with any of the poisonous barbs covering her back or with her small horn, the battle would be over before it went any further. Part of me hoped that it wouldn't come to that, and the Rattata would run away, but the other part of me wanted Rose to beat it into a pulp for trying to bite me as I passed by.
I told Rose to lunge again, and this time, she had a direct hit on the Rattata's left shoulder with her horn. The Rattata writhed in pain for a few moments before darting into the grass, after which I returned Rose.
Normal POV:
Kris clapped for Lily and she made a mock bow in return. The duo continued travelling into the day until they reached Dark Cave; a cave system, not fully explored through modern means that was not lit in up in any permanent way due to an effort not to disturb the wild Pokémon living in there. One could still get through it, but they would need a Flash TM. Or a couple of lanterns.
Kris and Lily got back on the trail after trying and failing to brave the cave without lighting, and soon they reached a Ranger outpost, where they would rest for the night before continuing their journey the next day. They would still be able to get to Violet if they travelled a bit into the night, but that wasn't really safe, and the girls didn't even think about abandoning a clean bed and good food for roughing it in the wilderness.
After booking a room for the night, Kris and Lily decided to have their first battle as trainers.
They walked a few ways away from the outpost, back the way they came, but they went into a small cluster of trees closely sprinkled together. It looked private enough, and the local Hoothoot were probably still asleep or simply not aggressive, so it was as safe as it could be at the time.
"Two on two?" Kris asked, to which Lily nodded.
"Bright! Battle!"
"Rose! Battle!"
The Pikachu and Nidoran Female stared each other down, waiting for a command.
"Thunderwave!"
"Dodge!"
Bright's jolt of electricity was dodged by the less speedy Rose, who scampered to the side.
"Thundershock!"
"Poison Sting!"
"Dodge! Thundershock!" Kris ordered, feeling a rush come over her. It was the pure ecstasy she got when telling her Pokèmon to act on her will. She quickly refocused.
"Scratch!"
"Again!"
"Get back! Poison Sting from afar!"
"Keep your distance, Bright!"
"Fine then, Scratch!"
"Got you! Thundershock!"
"D-Dodge!"
The volley continued, until a Thundershock connected with Rose's left flank, slightly charring the Nidoran female's hide. She shrilly squeaked in pain, shuddering from the electrical discharge, but was still able to get close enough to Scratch Bright with her claws in return. Kris withdrew her Pokémon once she saw that one of Rose's quills had pierced through Bright's skin; she really didn't want to risk poison.
Sending out Joey was Kris's next decision, and the two rodents duked it out.
"Bite!"
"Close in, Poison Sting!"
"Dodge!"
"Poison Sting at range!"
"Dodge into Tap!"
Lily was at a loss of what to do; she was mainly lucky so far, although she had decided to research and watch trainer battles online ever since the fumbling she did in the Professor's lab. She didn't have a clue what that custom command meant, so she ordered a dodge.
Joey sprinted straight at Rose with white contrails of Type Energy flickering around his form, knocking down the Nidoran before she could even react. Lily didn't even need to try and decipher her friend's code; it was obviously Quick Attack.
"Tap!"
"Dodge into Poison Sting!"
"Keep going, Bite!"
Rose couldn't dodge fast enough, and Joey scored a hit right on the Nidoran's injured flank with his Dark TE-laced teeth, earning a sharp squeal from Rose. Wincing at the sound, Lily immediately returned returned her after Joey seemed to want to keep Biting.
"You win, Kris. I really need to steel my resolve for battling, because I just don't like seeing my Pokémon hurt at all... Maybe i'm just not cut out for it? I could train to be a Coordinator instead..." Lily whispered as she cradled Rose's ball, feeling dissapointed in herself.
"Oh, don't beat yourself up about it, Lily. I'll support you no matter what you pursue as a trainer. Rose'll be fine, ok? She's tough. And so is her trainer, no matter what she says otherwise. Now c'mon, let's head back so we can get dinner early." Kris assured, hugging her friend.
The two teen trainers went back to the Ranger Outpost, but then they were confronted by a person that Kris knew; Josh!
"Hey, Kris!" The before mentioned trainer called out, waving as he walked through the sparse crowd in the lobby to her.
"Ooooh! Who's that? Is that a catch?" Lily sang, winking at her friend, who hit her side with her elbow in mock anger as she hissed at her to shut up.
Josh made his way to the two with little difficulty, as the crowd seemed to grow thicker from the amount of people moving in and Rangers moving out.
''Hi, Josh? What's happening? I thought you would be in Violet by now.'' Kris said as Josh led the group towards one of the two plasma tv's present in the lobby that most people where crowding around.
"You two didn't hear? Route 31… It's been blocked off by Rangers." Josh said, his cheery visage darkening.
"What?! Why?!" Lily exclaimed as Kris took a look at the video footage on TV from a Ranger on the scene.
Both girls gasped just as the TV showed the headline;
'Flock of Bird Pokémon Rampage against Horde of Rodent Pokémon on Route. Three trainers confirmed dead. Six still missing.'
The event mentioned at the end is based off the very first two trainers you get to fight in Johto; Youngster Joey and some other dude, where they block the path with their battle of Pidgey and Rattata so that you HAVE to go to Mr. Pokémon's house.
All I did was... INFLATE
The battle in question.
Phone Beasts: Pursuit of Power (2) (Keitai Denjū Telefang)
Matsukiyo stopped screaming in terror moments after his feet touched solid ground, the memory of the inky void he fell through already of less priority once he took a glance around from his position on the hard ground.
The first thing he noticed was how dark out it was; a look up to the skies revealed no stars in the sky, but instead a freakishly large moon bathing the surroundings in pale light.
Said surroundings consisted of what was clearly a small village, seeing as from his vantage point -which appeared to be a broken up slab of dark, glossy stone overgrown with grassy shoots on top of a hill overlooking the place- there were only around 10 or so buildings, with them varying from simple wooden huts that looked like they had grown into their shapes, to a bunch of small apartment buildings.
As Matsukiyo picked himself up, checking himself over for injuries of any kind, the sheer excitement of actually making it to the Denjū world filled his body until he threw his arms in the air in jubilation and a happy cry, nearly missing the ground beneath his boots grow somewhat warm. He surely didn't miss felt a thrum run through said ground beneath his feet and up his body, led by an instinct to look skyward, where his acquaintance just blinkedintoexistenceabovehim-!
"Owowow..." The shorter boy groaned on the floor he found himself on again, in unison with Shigeki, who had collided with him from the fall and landed beside him.
Within a few seconds, the other boy rolled sideways into a crouch, frantically looking around for his bat, which he quickly found lying nearby and grabbed with a sigh of relief.
"My mom woulda killed me if I had lost this, y'know." Shigeki huffed, walking over to Matsukiyo.
After fixing his askew glasses, the excitement took a hold of him again and he grabbed a hold of Shigeki's shoulders with a grin;
"We made it, Shigeki! We're in the Denjū world!" He exclaimed.
"Wait, for real?!" Shigeki asked, his head swiveling around in all directions to take in his surroundings as well.
"Yeah! Take a look at your D-Shot; it should have four bars instead of three! All D-Shots apparently have a special antennae that can receive and send the signals present in the Denjū world. They even allow someone to travel here!"
Taking a look at his phone, which was apparently a D-Shot, Shigeki did indeed see four bars instead of the three that were normal. He tried to look up his menu to see if anything else was different, but was met with nothing new.
[System Update in Progress]: {D-Shot}
"Hey, Shigeki."
Looking up from his phone, he saw a frown on the other boy's face.
"Generally, D-Shots are difficult to get; how did you get a hold of one?"
"Uh, I kiiinda 'found' it in a junkyard?" Shigeki answered sheepishly.
"Eh? How?!"
"H-Hey! Don't sh-shake me like that, man!"
Their spat made it hard to notice someone creeping up besides them,
"Hello, humans."
... That is, until that someone spoke up, that is.
Matsukiyo let go of Shigeki's t-shirt, and Shigeki dropped him back down from where he held him up, just for both of them to look to the side and spot a 6-foot tall green dragon turtle with a bladed tail step up to them surprisingly silently for it's size.
Seeing this, and the way both children were completely speechless at the sight of him, the deep, wizened old voice of the dragon turtle Denjū rasped out a chuckle.
"Ah, such lively children. We haven't had actual newcomers for a long while, and not the way you came, in any case. Does that mean you may Chosen?" He thought out loud before shaking his head with a smile.
"Ah, nevermind that. Come, you've come all this way already, why not take a rest in my house? I am the Leader of Tronco Village, the place that you've found yourselves in. I assure you, I mean no harm, children."
Shigeki blinked at the offer, before turning himself and Matsukiyo around to back the Denjū and thus have some privacy.
"So... Whaddya think? You're the smarty-pants that wanted to come here in the first place; do we follow him?" He whispered.
"Yeah, he doesn't seem to be a bad person, and I've already heard about the Leader of one of the Villages being some sort of turtle, so I'm pretty sure he checks out. Let's follow him; we could learn something." Matsukiyo assured, before turning around.
"Er, Mr. Denjū? Yeah, we're okay with that."
"Wonderful. Follow me."
It turned out that the Leader's house was a bigger version of the huts that seemed to have been grown into their shapes. Inside was a large open space with a large red carpet covering the wooden floor, a few potted plants in the corners, a place sectioned off -probably a bedroom- and numerous shelves of books.
There was also another Denjū there, leaning on one of said shelves, watching them.
The Denjū looked like a bipedal armadillo. About as tall as Matsukiyo, it was covered in yellow fur, and its ears were long rods poking out from the sides of its head; the same could be said about it's tail. It had a somewhat tapered snout, with blue eyes and a small mouth. The exceptions to its colours were its brown armoured three-clawed feet, its four-clawed arms and its entire back, which was covered in overlapping brown, spiky plates that ended on its forehead. It also had a smooth red orb in its middle and green armour over what seemed to be two ribs on each side as well as pads over the shoulders.
Its eyes seemed to roam over the two kids, until it spotted Shigeki's D-Shot, and went utterly still.
The two didn't really notice that last part, because they were seated on big pillows in front of the other Denjū, listening attentively.
"Now that we've established that I'm not going to eat you two... Are you both familiar with the Denjū world?" The dragon turtle Denjū asked.
"Nope!" The two chorused.
With a nod, the turtle got more comfortable on his own large mat, ready to explain.
"Alright then, let me give you two a bit of history;
The Human and Denjū worlds have always been separated by what those that have traveled through it call a Curtain of Darkness. Over the last of your decades, human scientists through trying to boost the signals of their telecommunications mistakenly hit upon the right frequencies to pierce through to our world.
Thankfully, the Curtain wasn't actually torn, because the connection was quite shoddy due to you humans not knowing how to properly transmit the signals of the Denjū world. This meant that we Denjū that were aware of the breach, had to respond. I was one of the Leaders back then given he responsibility to do so.
That slab on the hill overlooking this village was specially made to receive signals from beyond the Curtain and reconstitute them in that very location. This was before Antenna Trees began
The Denjū world is harsh for you humans to live in, however. We Denjū are more made out of energy and signals than matter, we are more suited to our environment, unlike humans. This is why the humans began to befriend us Denjū.
As a sign of the friendship between us, several Leaders and Holders came together with your world's scientists to finally reliably transmit the signals of the Denjū world. This is the origin of your D-Shots, and they were primarily produced so that we could always contact one another."
The Denjū then used his tail to point at Shigeki, or more specifically, his D-Shot.
"That is the kind of device you possess.
Phones with programs that allow us to contact allies and friends at any time are a great convenience to us as well. Because of this, it has become customary to exchange our {I.D.}s, our "Phone Numbers", with any friends that we meet."
With a soft huff, the Denjū stood up to his full height, and began pacing.
"However, among us Denjū there are many who believe that strength is key, and refuse to see those weaker than them as their friends or equals. In these cases, one must battle if they truly wish to befriend the other.
These fights between Denjū are known as "Telefang", and the human who befriends Denjū and competes in Telefang battles with them is known as a "T-Fanger"."
With his exposition mostly completed, the Denjū stopped in front of the two boys, who hadn't said a word all this while for various reasons; Matsukiyo was furiously writing down most of this on a well-used notepad he pulled out from his pocket, while Shigeki was just focused on how cool this all sounded.
"So? Do you two understand now?" The Denjū asked.
"Yeah, I think I get it all, now." Shigeki answered, seeing as Matsukiyo was still preoccupied with his writing.
"Then we shall discuss the reason that you were called here."
"Wait a second, you're the reason that the Antenna Tree back home brought us here?" The shorter boy blurted, writing forgotten.
"Yes, I am. Although you would have at some point made your way here eventually, if your D-Shot was put into enough contact with an Antenna Tree. I am a Code Key Holder, with special permissions that allow me to interact with the Antenna Trees. It's my job as a Leader that helps a lot with that." The Denjū acknowledged with a nod.
"Now, back to business. A Denjū named Netaro lives at this village's water source.
He is always dozing off.
Ha... Such a troublesome fellow...
You see, Netaro has the important job of making sure that the Wells are working so that the Village has water, but for several days now, we've been unable to contact him.
Now, we still have some water remaining, but personally, I'm getting worried about Netaro himself as well an eventual lack of water troubling the villagers. That is why we want you humans to go look for him."
At this point, Shigeki flew to his feet, with a hand on his bat and a wild grin on his face.
"An adventure?! Sign me right up, mister!"
Matsukiyo shared a glance with both Denjū who looked at him, and simply shrugged as an explanation for the other boy's enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, the dragon turtle Denjū had a smile on his face at said enthusiasm, although he quickly schooled his expression as he walked a bit closer.
"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, you still haven't gotten the full story. You see, there is just one problem, and that is Netaro's younger brother, Nejiro.
He's another troublemaker, and from the short correspondence I had with him before he blocked me off, he's surely misunderstood whatever situation is on ground, and may try to hurt you."
With this, he motioned for the other Denjū to step up, and the armadillo Denjū quickly rushed over, a serious look on its face.
"For that reason, I'm having you take this Denjū along with you. Think of him as your first friend in the Denjū world."
"Hello human. My name's Crypto! Nice to meet ya. Here's my {I.D.}" The Denjū greeted, just as Shigeki's D-Shot let out a chime.
[System Update Complete]:{D-Shot} [Unpacking Data...]:{D-Shot}
[Generating CONTACTS.APK]:{D-Shot}
[Generating FIELD_GUIDE.APK]:{D-Shot}
[2 of 2 Processes Completed]:{D-Shot}
#Incoming Signal FROM Client: User I.D: 05#-2*B2-#7154. Client Designation"Crypto":{D-Shot}
=#Connection Successful:{D-Shot} [Archiving Data]:{D-Shot}
Looking at it, he saw a new app that had appeared on his screen that displayed the following information;
Number Received (05#-2*B2-#7154)
Designation: Crypto
Level: 5
Stage: Natural
"Woohoo! I have a Denjū pal!" Shigeki exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air and nearly hitting Matsukiyo with his bat by accident.
While the bigger boy was celebrating by hugging with his new friend, who was wide-eyed as he nearly felt his self compress with how hard the hug was, the dragon turtle Denjū's eyes flashed as he spoke.
"Take this as well; it is a Map of this world. It is very much general, but places you have been to will update with new information and better clarity. I believe it will be of use to you."
#Incoming Signal FROM Client: User I.D: N/A. Client Designation"Code Key Holder":{D-Shot} =#Connection Successful:{D-Shot}
[Received Data]:{D-Shot}
[Unpacking Data]:{D-Shot}
[Generating MAP.APK]:{D-Shot} [Process Completed]:{D-Shot}
Another chime from his D-Shot had Shigeki free his new partner from the soul-crushing hug as he took a look at the stylized map for the village.
With that settled and no other words or gifts forthcoming, Shigeki nearly dashed out the door while grabbing both Matsukiyo's and Crypto's hands, but the bespectacled boy slipped out of his grip and took a few steps back towards the Leader.
"Shigeki. I really want to look around this village and ask the Leader here some more questions, so I'm waiting here. Besides, I don't even jave my own partner nor a D-Shot of my own! I'll just get in your way.
Just make sure you don't have too much fun without me, okay?"
Crypto, who was already at the door huffed,
"Hurry up! Let's go wake that lazybones Netaro up!"
This lead the Leader to laugh heartily,
"Hohoho! Best of luck to you two then! I'll show you something interesting when you return, so look forward to it!"
And with that, Shigeki set out on his adventure, a bat in one hand, his D-Shot in another, and his new partner Crypto by his side.
Ben 10: Worlds Collide (Ben 10/Pokemon) Chapter Two
Chapter Two
Ben's PoV:
Okay, so maybe sleeping that early wasn't really doing me any favors; I woke up around 11pm and just couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, I had the brilliant idea to maybe go catch one of the more docile Pokémon just outside Viridian Forest's outskirts and thus closer to the city. As silent as possible, I changed out of my pajamas and into my traveling clothes, but after thinking on it a bit, decided against taking Bunbun's Pokéball from Gwen; the Bunny Pokémon wouldn't really listen that well to me, and if Gwen woke up and decided to look for me, she would need protection anyway, because I'm pretty sure the doofus would get lost.
Tiptoeing downstairs wasn't that hard, and after some time walking -the hostel we stayed at was closer to the forest side of the city- I soon found myself looking at the bunker-like outpost that separated Viridian Forest from Viridian City proper. Beyond the walls was a forest full of mostly feral Pokémon that... might actually hurt me.
"What am I even doing here?" I thought out loud to myself.
Just then, a nearly invisible streak of light cut its way through the sky, getting bigger as it did so. At first I thought it was a shooting star, then some Dragon Pokémon's stray Draco Meteor, but then I started thinking that Rayquaza itself was coming at the city with a Draco Ascent!
Without thinking twice, I sprayed on a Repel from my meager supplies, before quickly making my way through the outpost. Luckily, apart from the gate guard on duty, who was busy watching something on TV, there really wasn't anyone there, so I went by unnoticed.
Once I got out of the other end, I truly saw the majesty that was Viridian Forest; the trees were packed closely together, there were only a few well-beaten trails, and the slightly humid feeling from a forest became a bit more unbearable as I pushed forward.
The streak of light had now come closer, but then something happened; it exploded into a rainbow of smaller streaks which quickly scattered across the sky.
The remainder of the original streak kept coming towards a clearing in the forest, and I started sprinting there. I nearly got gored by a Pinsir that I mistakenly woke up, but after throwing a few rocks to distract it before keeping it at bay with a stick for a minute, I got it off my trail.
When I arrived at the clearing, the streak came so close that I could somewhat make out what it was; a lumpy metallic object... That was getting clearer to see... a lot clearer.
Wait a sec, that thing's gonna crash here! I realized a little too late as I turned to run.
I had only made it a short distance before I heard the sharp sounds of branches and probably whole trees snapping before a deafening crash that heralded a wave of force which hit me, throwing me into the air.
I hit something that was probably a tree, before a sharp pain on my head made everything go dark.
Meanwhile...
Gwen's PoV:
I woke up to go and pee but then I saw that my dufus of a cousin was missing, so I quickly reached for Bunbun's Pokéball on my satchel and gripped it tight, noticing that he hadn't taken her with him. Hmph, not like my precious Buneary would listen to him, anyway, but still.
Wait a sec; it's late at night, Ben's gone, he has no Pokémon as protection…
By Arceus, he's finally snapped.
Quickly slipping into my traveling clothes, I mentally gave myself a tongue lashing for frustrating Ben today. I knew that he wouldn't exactly leave me that instant if he got a Pokémon, but I also didn't want him to have the opportunity to even think of going down that line. He was annoying, but he was still my cousin, and I would never forgive myself if he got killed trying to catch something at night because I wouldn't let him do so in the daytime. I also wanted someone who wouldn't completely hate me for my current 'bossy' attitude, but that's besides the point.
Before I even managed to get an inkling of a chance to sneak out, my phone started ringing.
"Oh come on, Grandpa! Not now!" I growled, flipping the small phone's screen up.
"Oh, hello, Gwendolyn-" Grandpa Max started; I knew I didn't have much time, time that could be better used than listening to my Grandpa droning on and on about every detail of my day as well as his extensive Fisherman record.
Normally, I loved his stories, but now was just not the time. Time for drastic measures!
"Grandpa Max, Ben's missing."
I quietly took a bit to look at his reactions to know how absolutely done for I was; he was about to say something but his words caught in his throat and his face twisted between surprise, anger, disbelief and some other things I couldn't quite place.
"Where are you two?" He asked calmly.
"In Viridian."
"Tell me; what did you do?" Grandpa almost growled, scaring me quite a bit.
"M-m-me?" I managed to stammer.
"Gwen, no time for games, you know I'm aware of what's been happening on this 'Journey' of yours."
I knew when I was beat; Grandpa knowing was probably both the best and worst thing to happen in this situation; best because I knew he would always drop everything if possible to help family, but worst because he would expect me to actually... apologize.
So, I closed my eyes and confessed to him; of how I had kept Ben from catching a Pokémon, how I had been bossy to a fault with him, all leading to the last time I foiled his attempts. Finishing up, I felt kind of bad saying it all out loud.
"We'll talk about this later, Gwen, but now you have to think. You're his cousin; where would he go-" Grandpa Max asked, my screen going static for a few seconds as I lost sight of the old man in a red Alolan shirt.
"Grandpa?" I squeaked, holding my phone tight as the lights in the room flickered on and off for a few seconds.
"Gwen? Are you there?"
"Yeah, I'm here, Grandpa. Some kinda interference... WOAH!"
The reason for my exclamation wasn't the faint boom I heard come from outside my window, but the wave of... something I felt pass through me. I could hear an assortment of Pokémon and human cries going off around and in the distance, and that meant that it was a city wide thing.
I threw open my window, ignoring the fact that my phone had switched off as I looked at the scenes of mild panic below.
Back in Viridian Forest...
Ben's PoV
I shot up with a groan, momentary unconsciousness forgotten compared to the bump I could already feel forming on my head. Touching it made its steady throbbing hurt even more, so that was a dumb idea. I was kinda just laying there surprised at the silence around me; looks like that thing that crashed scared away the Pokémon around here-
Wait a sec... A thing fell out of the sky!
I turned around from near the tree trunk I was lying against and scrambled down the shallow crater, feasting my curious eyes on the misshapen orb easily as large as a particularly robust Graveler. I approached it with a branch on hand, ready for whatever it would throw at me. Probably.
I was so focused on the wreck that I nearly didn't notice the annoying Pinsir from before, which had magically followed me despite the Repel I sprayed; probably because I was maybe the only thing still making noise around here? Anyways, what alerted me was the clacking it made by snapping its horns together a few times before lunging at me horns first, probably intent on ripping me in half.
Acting quickly, I dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way, which left the Pinsir's Vice Grip attack to hit the orb, which led to it denting it, though its horns got a bit chipped.
"DNA detected! Analyzing!" A mechanical male voice said from the orb, which had sparked a bit.
The sudden voice spooked both me and the Pinsir, making us jump and land in such a way that it looked to all the world like I was the trainer of the Bug Type. The aggressive Bug quickly regained its composure and turned around, leaping at me with the same attack. Once again, I narrowly dodged to the side and swung my branch with all my might, which broke on the now-furious Pokémon's head.
"Hehehe... oops?" I mumbled, backing away, only to realize I was on the side of the orb.
As soon as I touched it, I felt a charge run up my arm and in what was probably less than a second, felt something rooting around my mind. The charge then trailed back into the orb, which then... popped a Pokéball into my hand?
It was green on the top and black on the bottom, with a white button.
Before I could even process any of what happened, the Pinsir charged at me. With well practiced skill, I threw the Pokéball, releasing whatever could be inside... I just hope I didn't cause MORE trouble-
By Arceus, I've released a flaming human! Okay, slight exaggeration, but that was what it looked like to me at first.
The flaming human-Pokémon thing grabbed hold of the Pinsir's horns, which instantly got charred by the contact.
Of course it has a Flame Body... I thought, standing behind it.
Some might say that I should have counted my victories and ran for the hills, but this is my answer to you. You know that feeling that you were looking for something but you weren't sure what it was? You know that feeling of realization when you find it? That was how I felt. I knew that this was my fight.
I also knew that this was obviously some super cool alien Pokémon like Deoxys is supposed to be, so, yeah; that also affected my decision making.
The flaming Pokémon was soon grabbed in the horns and tossed into a tree, which thankfully only got slightly charred by the contact.
It grunted in a gravelly voice before standing up, not a big fan of the Seismic Toss.
It then stared at me with a look I knew too well, despite the fact that its face was a flaming mask of rock with eyeholes. That was the 'What the heck are you doing staring at me?' Look.
"Um, Ember?" I weakly commanded.
The humanoid Fire-Type gathered a few Embers in its palm before throwing them at the Pinsir, which unfortunately dodged and then used Seismic Toss again, throwing my new 'Pokémon' to the ground. The smoldering horns told me that it might not last long in battle, anyway, but this was still a bad first battle; I didn't want to win on a status effect!
"Flame Burst!"
I had hoped that it would improvise, since it was to me a miracle that it knew what a Pokémon attack order was, let alone how to use it, but my argument was quickly shut down as a fireball was formed between its hands before being fired at the Pinsir, a small explosion taking it out.
As I marveled at the power of the Pokémon I now had under my command, I didn't notice the little embers starting to make the trees around me smolder.
Back with Gwen...
I was back in my traveling clothes and was making my way through the disturbed city.
Alongside policemen and women trying to calm down a few rampaging Pokémon and disturbed people, were Rangers trying to stop the fire that had started in the Viridian Forest. When one of them tried to stop me, I ducked under him and raced through the outpost, which was constantly being Soaked by Wingull and Squirtle to prevent it from catching on fire.
Through the shimmering hot air, I yelled out for my cousin multiple times, getting the attention of a few wild Pokémon…
"Houndour!" I half-screamed- You can't blame me, Dark types are creepy!- throwing my treasured Bunbun out.
Seeing my Buneary stand her ground against the pack of four was a bit reassuring, giving me the courage to get up and try and fight my way out of this.
"Twirl!" I ordered, hoping that Bunbun had perfected the contest move.
The Mud-slap tornado that was Bunbun nailed all four of the Houndour, nailing a few right in the face.
Before I could celebrate, a burning tree fell near me, making me jump as well as Bunbun, who jumped into an Ember's path.
"Quick Attack!"
Shaking off the little burns that had appeared on her tiny bunny body, Bunbun dashed into a Houndour, hitting it so hard it flew into a burning tree, which collapsed on it.
Just then, a deep growl heralded a wave of wrongness that washed over me and I felt very scared and nauseous. Turning, I saw one of the remaining Houndour's muzzles smoking with the remains of a Snarl. Feeling too disoriented to speak, I simply pointed at the offender and expected Bunbun to attack.
Hearing a high yip from my partner, I turned back to her to see her slightly smoking from taking Fire attacks from the Houndour, and probably on the verge of fainting.
"BUNBUN!" I screamed, returning my partner before those monsters could do anything worse to her.
The Houndour circled me, growling and yapping wildly while I took a few shallow breaths of the now slightly smoky air and tried to look for an opening to run. If I got out of this, I'd sit this out, Ben in danger be damned!
"Gruuuhh!" A gravelly voice boomed as something stepped out of the shadows to reveal-
SWEET ARCEUS WHAT IS THAT THING?!
With Ben...
I had been a bit preoccupied with nearly screaming my head off about the fact that I had started a forest fire to notice the fact that my cousin was in said forest. My... Pokémon, I guess was the one who had calmed me down about it, and we carefully made our way through, trying hard to not be noticed by anybody else.
Sure, returning it would be far more stealthy, but I'd frankly rather be seen than dead or worse because a Wild Pokémon thought I was a free target.
Just then, I saw my cousin trying to battle a few Houndour, and a battle plan came to mind. The place's already on fire, so a little more can't hurt, right?
"Get in there and use a Flamethrower to separate Gwen and the Houndour!"
My Pokémon walked out with a grunt. I, however, stayed back to see what Gwen would do when faced with my Pokémon. As expected, her reaction was hilarious; she was screaming every curse in the book, backing up while looking both scared and I guess fed up? With my best evil grin, I stepped out of the shadows of charred trees like a boss.
"Hello, cousin... " I proclaimed spookily, still partly obscured by smoke and flame, \
"It seems my associate has found you. Not to worry, there's a special place in the Distortion waiting for you..."
Some might say that what I did wasn't really nice, but if you had been me, you might have done worse. Besides, her screams must've woken up Groudon and Kyogre! Hi-larious!
"S-stay back, Ben! Don't come any closer!" She yelled, backtracking fast, only to trip on a root as the Houndour were busy being flambéd by my Pokémon. Guess being a Fire Type doesn't mean much when the other guy's simply too high level to care.
As she saw me coming even closer with the backdrop of burning forest behind me masking the fact that I was fine- note that I had rolled around in some ashes to get that 'undead' look- she started…
…Crying?
Like full on ugly crying, what?
"I-Im sorry, okay?! I'm sorry about all that I-I've done to you! I'm so sorry for treating you badly! *HIC* Now you're dead, and it's all my fault!" She bawled, hugging herself tightly.
She didn't even notice the shocked look I had on my face; Gwen was apologizing?
"*sniffle* I was a-afraid, okay?! I was afraid that you'd l-leave me and Bunbun... So I did all that *hic* t-to keep you with us... I didn't think a-about what you felt..."
At this point, her voice was barely audible as she hung her head.
"Maybe I do deserve to rot in hell..."
Okay, that was the line! Joke's over!
I slowly wiped off most of the ash on my face and walked up to her, before sliding down to sit beside her, ignoring the full-body flinch she gave when I did so.
I'm not the mushy type… But…
Gwen seized up when I hugged her, but she slowly relaxed. Huh. this was kinda nice when she wasn't being such a pain.
"B-ben?" She stammered, wiping her eyes as much as possible with the back of her hands before really looking at me.
"Yeah... It's me..." I whispered, helping her up.
All was fine and dandy for a few seconds…
"What is WRONG with you?! thought you had died, you idiot!" She weakly yelled, tackling me to the floor.
To be honest? She completely blindsided me, so I got a fistful of girl fury to the face, before Gwen froze at the gravely rumble coming from a certain alien Pokémon.
"Ben! The monster! The Houndour!" She yelped, backing up again, before getting a look of confusion as I stood beside my Pokémon and stepped aside to show her the defeated and whimpering pack of Houndour that were quickly retreating.
I moved off without a word, making my way out of the now-scorching heat with Gwen in tow. I could literally feel the anger, relief and confusion that came from her…
She was gonna snap in three... two-
"Okay, Ben, spill it! How'dya get the walking lava-man?"
Hmph. A second too late. Might have to adjust that later...
Gray eyes open, and Ren comes back to the waking world. They're on the floor, it's the most comfortable spot, really, curled up cross-legged in the corner. They seem to be in their traveling clothes; were they supposed to head somewhere then?
"Ren! Are you up yet? Professor Urahara sent Lucy to come looking for you!"
That voice, it's Mother, isn't it? And Lucy was here? Maybe she knows where they're supposed to go? She's really bright like that.
Ren gets up, and leaves their room.
They lock eyes with their mother; she looks a bit worried, so they walk over and hug her.
"Oh Ren, baby, talk to me. How are you?" She says, and they wonder what she's talking about; they're… fine!
"'Morning mom, not sure what you mean, I'm fine." They say, holding their mom at arms length to let them take a close look at them.
Nothing's wrong, right? The same long black ponytail with bangs framing their pale face, the same narrow, almost slitted gray eyes, the same lean body stronger than appearances would suggest from all the hiking and working around the village and its outskirts. The same short sleeved dark red jacket with black trim, breathable black tank top underneath, straight-cut jeans and white baseball boots they've been wearing as their favorite outfit for… a while, right? They do have a pair of steel blue goggles that they got as a gift from someone in the village hanging around their neck right now; maybe that's what's throwing mom off?
While they're still thinking about that, their mom's eyes soften from their previous look and they smile a bit more.
"Well, nevermind then! It seems you're fine. I packed you some trail mix from the pack we got from Seasoning City a few months back. It's still good, and it lasts long, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't eat enough, okay?"
She's wagging their finger at them at that last part, causing a faint blush to appear on their cheeks; it was only a few times! …They think.
Soon enough, mom's shooing them out of the house to go find out why the man with the most Value in the village is looking for them, and then they're outside, in Karakura Village.
The place's grassy everywhere but the tamped down paths from everyone's homes, the markets and the other places of interest in town. Their own house is decently sized, a weathered bungalow with a faded blue zinc roof that they've patched up by themselves more than once before.
As they're walking down the path, trying to focus on where exactly they're supposed to find Lucy this morning, they-
Listen.
-stop and crouch down to admire some of their flowers they planted a month ago by the roadside as a conversation starts wafting over to them from some ways behind them. Risking a look, they spot one of the two people they relate to a lot that are their own age; Light Yagami.
He seems to be talking to some guy in all black?
"It doesn't matter how you feel, your way simply won't accomplish anything." Light says, hands in his pockets.
"To defeat evil, I must become an even greater evil. If you don't want to join me, Yagami, then it's fine, I understand your position…Just stay out of my way." The other teenager says as he quickly walks off towards the part of the village where Route 1 begins.
"So be it, Lelouch…" Light huffs, before making his way down the path, passing by them without much more than a passing glance and a light scoff.
Once he's out of sight, Ren stands back up and-
Onwards.
-finds themselves walking down the same path that the now identified Lelouch used, their gait changing, becoming heavy as they try and match the way the teen walked; he's interesting the way only a few of the people here are, and they want to know why.
Before they take a step past the two trees marking the boundary, however…
"Ren! Wait up!"
Ren, surprised, spins around to spot Lucy running over to them, and waits for them as they skid to a stop, panting a bit.
"So glad I caught you before you left again! Didn't your mom tell you that the Professor wanted to talk to you?" Lucy Heartfilia huffs, crossing her arms over her ample blouse-covered assets and narrowing her eyes.
Ren blinks as she grabs their hand; their hands are always so warm…
"Come on! Let's head to the lab; this way you won't go off daydreaming and get lost on the way, again." She cheerfully declares as she starts dragging them off after her.
Somehow, on the way Ren's no longer being dragged along, they're following, and soon enough a spark of laughter and challenge enters their eyes as they wrench their hands away. Lucy has but a second to glance at them before they're off, laughing and sprinting off towards the lab, before she yells after them and starts running as well.
Eventually they burst through the oak double doors, leaning on each other and giggling, Ren feeling so very light and bubbly inside. They stay that way, holding hands that Ren swings between them as they nearly skip their way down to the less open part of the lab, where the Professor and Light are already waiting.
The 30 years old man with even older eyes took one look at Ren and smiled, while Light looked at the display and quickly looked away, shaking his head with a small smirk. It looked… brittle to Ren, though.
"Hey Professor! I brought Ren like you asked." Lucy reports, holding up their hands as if to show everyone that Ren wasn't going anywhere.
"Good, now I can explain why I've gathered you three here."Urahara intoned, smile disappearing as the three came up to the table where he was at.
"Now, as you all know, our town won't last much longer with the limited funds we receive from Central. We haven't produced any Animancers with high Value for… a while, and I haven't made any discoveries that they find useful.
That's where you three come in. Light, Lelouch and Lucy are our most promising Animancers, and thus the best chance at saving our town." He explains, taking a breath to calm himself before continuing.
"However, Lelouch has left without a word to me, so I have no other choice than to rely on Ren for this. I know you've had some experiences concerning interacting with Animon, but you're the only other talent that this village has to offer." He finishes, pleading as Lucy and Light also look to Ren's sides, surprise on Lucy's face and apprehension on Light's.
"Ren? Are you okay with this?" Urahara asks, looking at them with those old eyes.
They remember the last time in snips; seeing the Animon, the connection, the way something changed in their eyes before the people from Central came and shut down the area and stopped the Event. It was one of the nails in the coffin of Karakura Village's downfall as soon after a good amount of the remaining High Value people in town left for greener pastures.
Are they willing to go through that again?
YES!
They've been waiting for a chance like this for years! Of course they'll do it!
Lucy sees the expression on their face and smiles, looking back to the professor, who's also looking relieved. Even Light's looking less tense.
"I think Ren'll be fine, professor." She says, assured.
"Only time will tell, kid. Anyway, that leads to these three Animon I have here. They are each extremely rare with great potential, and I've managed to hide them from Central after they closed down the Route 1 X-Event. Now I know that Lucy and Light already have some Animon that they're training, but if one of them's seen with Ren, Central's going to start poking around asking uncomfortable questions, and I'll probably lose the other two in the process.
Now, the fact that I'm entrusting these to you at all, these X-Event Animon, should show you all how drastic things are right now. Ren? Since you haven't actually had one, you should go first."
Light starts talking to the professor with a genial smile as he apparently argues a point with him, but Ren didn't hear or see that.
Onwards.
They don't know when they find their way in front of the table, arm outstretched to touch one of the three gunmetal gray spheres resting on grooves in the metal surface.
Their hand brushes the middle one- [Difficult to control. The Spirit of Freedom]
"---That's my dream."
-and they instantly swipe their hands to the sides, touching the other two- [Great potential. The Fighting Spirit]
"--getting excited!--anticipation is killing me!"
[Lighthearted Soul. The base wavelength.]
"---KING OF THE PIRATES!"
They fall in.
On the edges of their consciousness, they can hear someone saying that they should choose one, but why should they? Aren't they all special? Aren't they all [Nakama. Crew. Teammates]?
The world starts to shear.
They can hear them, hear all of them, living, fighting, loving, dying. Why can't they have that? That experience? Those stories?
Gray eyes blink, shades of black vanishing in them like ripples in water. Ren looks around; they're in the lab, with Lucy's hand on their shoulder and a worried look in her eyes.
"Are you… alright, Ren?" She whispers, looking straight at them.
The warmth of her hand on their shoulder really isn't feeling as present as normal, weirdly enough, but they nod anyway.
"So, you chose the Pirate?" The professor interjects, looking over at them from Lucy's shoulder and at a… safe enough distance, just in case.
Ren's confused, and Lucy must have seen the expression on their face because her eyes dropped and theirs followed until they saw a single sphere in their hand.
They felt… Light.
But where were the others? Was all of that a hallucination? Not the first time that's the case, right?
Ren struggles with themselves, waving off Lucy's concerns as she and Light each pick the ones that felt like being Free and full of Fighting Spirit respectively, until…
…They check their Party, and there they are, nestled in their soul, all three of them currently unaware and in stasis, like Animon normally are…
…Right?
Shaking their head a bit to get focused, they see Light thank the professor before briskly leaving the room, and probably the building. He always seems to have something on his mind, that one.
The Summon Orb, or more commonly known as the Aniball, seems to radiate some sort of giddiness as Ren keeps looking at it, until unbidden, a giggle leaves their lips as they smile with a grin that just keeps on widening till they feel their cheeks start to hurt. Sure, Lucy may have flinched back a bit and the good ol' Prof started to get some kinda weird look in his eye, but everything was finally alright!
Why wouldn't things be?
"The Strawhat's here!" They cry, lifting up the ball giddily into the air.
Lucy laughs a bit at their display, and Ren decides this is a perfect time for a hug, which was always great because Lucy's making that cute squeaking sound!
"Er, are you going to put her down, kid?" Urahara interrupts, smirking while leaning on his cane.
Hm? Oh yeah, she probably doesn't like spinning too fast, huh.
"Woah… Yeah, everything's a bit spinny Ren…" The blonde whines a bit as she tries to steady herself.
Onwards!
While she was busy doing that, Ren decides that adventure and all that sweet, sweet Value had waited long enough for them, and made for the door-
"Wait up, Ren!"
Guess we're stopping for a friend!
"I know you haven't been in an official Battle before, but neither have any of the Animon we just got, right Professor?" She asks, looking back for confirmation from Urahara, who nods, already guessing where this is going.
"Yeah, they've been contained in their Orbs and in Statis while I've been running tests since they came. Their potential Value seems to be quite high, almost as high as all the very expensive equipment up here that I'm begging you two not to break." He grouses, pointing at a side door that leads to his threadbare basement Arena, where he conducts the little destructive or dangerous testing he could get up to on his limited funds.
Lucy blushes up a storm as she looks around at the nearly jam-packed surroundings, and realizes a Battle really wouldn't have worked in here anyway, before grabbing Ren's hand and leading them downstairs.
The two of them are on opposite sides of the hard packed dirt bowl, Lucy holding a Golden Key in hand; her Aniball already Synthesized into her own personal aesthetic. Ren, that same grin still on their face as they settled down, having done more than a few stretches beforehand, needing to feel limber. Urahara's by the side, more than a few cobbled-together scanners pointing at the arena and his eyes flicking between the screens and the field repeatedly, before nodding.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road!" He yells as he sits down on the plush chair that he dragged out from somewhere.
"Ren! I'm challenging you to a [Battle] using our new Animon!" Lucy declares, holding the key to her chest before it starts to glow with a burst of blue, prompting her to toss it into the air.
Ren, overtaking by an urging, pulls their throwing arm back, before snapping it forward like a-
"Pistol!"
-slingshot, throwing their unmodified Aniball straight forward, where it flashes for a whole second before bursting in a bright light that smells like sea salt, and then-
"Woah! This isn't the Sunny!"
Then everything promptly went… Rather weird.
Out of Lucy's Key drops an Animon in a crouch; he seems to be some sort of ninja? At least, the headband and the kunai in one hand seems to show that. It's the fact that the blonde with whisker marks on his cheeks is covered in an eye-searing orange jumpsuit that's making that hard to believe.
Ren isn't aware of this right now, though. Their senses have all dimmed to near blackness apart from one visible beacon; a certain someone is standing there, right in front of them.
He feels like [Nakama].
Ren's so overcome with emotion for the first time in their life that they're stuck there, frozen in time until he seems to turn around. He's looking around at the dark around the two of them, completely unbothered as he scratches his head underneath his straw hat, until he notices them, and his grin widens.
"Hey! You look smart! 'Know where we are?" He asks, and it's like a spell is broken, and Ren can feel themselves again.
"...Strawhat?" They ask, surprised at their own voice for a reason they can't seem to place, while the Animon nods and pats said item with a laugh.
"Yep! I'm Monkey D. Luffy! I'm Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates! What's your name?"
"...Ren." They manage to squeeze out, as if hen-pecking it over a keyboard.
The names seem to color the blank space with lines of black and white, connecting them, just like all those years ago. Unlike before, there are no Central Agents barging in on this, and the connection seems to settle as memories burst deep in Ren's deepest self, spilling out.
The story of a rubber man that set off on an adventure with his pirate crew in hopes of finding the world's greatest treasure of the world's greatest pirate, Gol D. Roger, and become the greatest just like him, The Pirate King.
[Story: One Piece, Acquired!]
As the memories fade into the background of Ren's self, they find themselves on the deck of a ship, one they know is the Thousand Sunny, with Luffy extending a hand down to them, backlit by the bright sun out of the Grand Line's clear skies.
His grin is wider than ever as they accept the hand up, and Ren's eyes water as he proclaims;
"Ren! Welcome to my crew!"
They feel like they're finally complete, as everything blends together between them and the steadily brightening void around them gets washed away.
Luffy stumbles a bit as they-he feels like he's stretched like they're using Gum-Gum Bell, but not.
The small arena they're in seems to stretch out, becoming a more uniform version of itself, before seeming to slowly turn back to normal.
[BATTLE START]
[Animancer Lucy]: [Kid Naruto]
VS. [R E N —]: ["Strawhat"]
Suddenly everything snaps back into focus and Ren looks forward at their Animon on the slightly warped field as he looks back at them, before cracking out into another grin while giving them a thumbs-up to say everything's fine, before focusing back on the fight.
Ren feels like he wanted to really say something, but it seems that whatever weirdness is going on with them, the normal Rules seem to still somewhat be in place; all an Animon does in a [Battle] is just that; battle. Little else is allowed.
Ren takes the moment to pull up Luffy's movepool, and discovers a discordant mess of static that made their eyes ache alongside Luffy's, seeing as he flinched a bit and rubbed his head with a frown.
They didn't really have much time to think of anything, but they saw a glimpse of a [Move] in the static before it fell apart into incomprehensible nonsense again, so they took a chance, and chose.
Just in time, too.
"Naruto! Clone Jutsu!" Lucy ordered, still a bit worried about how Ren was feeling, since they hadn't done anything for a while, especially when their Animon turned around to look at them. That caused her heart to skip a beat, really!
"Bunshin!" Naruto yelled as he made a handsign and exploded into smoke that dissipated to reveal… Nothing? He was still there, although he seemed a bit more tired.
{Strawhat: Pound}
It wasn't an order, it was more like Luffy and Ren had the same thought at the exact same time, leading to Luffy rushing into action without a single word uttered from Ren's side, surprising both Lucy and Professor Urahara, who had his eyes immediately locked on the screens of data that were scrolling by too fast for non-genii to understand.
Luffy wants to call out the name of his most basic attack, but he apparently couldn't, so he just decides to throw a punch anyway.
…It was really weak.
His arm barely stretches past normal proportions to nail Naruto in the face, who instantly bursts into smoke, while the real Naruto seems to appear in the space left behind by the clone.
"Naruto! Teisho!" Lucy calls out, a bit more confident.
Luffy's too busy stumbling forward from overextending the punch to react in time to the palm strike that Naruto lands on his chest, sending him staggering backwards, inwardly surprised that the Ninja's hit actually hurt.
Ren's unpleasantly surprised too; they felt that, muted as it was.
They were a bit more used to that sort of thing than Luffy was, apparently, so their direction was enough for him to duck under another one, before using the chance to strike again with Pound as another straight punch, one that actually connected this time, just as Naruto completes another handsign under Lucy's command;
"Use Double Team!"
This time, when the smoke from the jutsu clears, there are four Naruto on the field, and all of them rush forward with battle cries, Teisho at the ready.
{Strawhat: Defence Curl}
This time, Luffy was free to say the name of his technique as his belly and soon his entire torso slightly bloated like a particularly fleshy balloon under the onslaught of fake and real strikes. It wasn't nearly as large as he normally got, though.
"Gum-Gum… Balloon!" He boomed, expanded lungs carrying his voice.
The increased defense was enough to dull the power of Naruto's attack, but just to be sure, Luffy pumps up three more times, until he more resembles a beach ball than a human being. At this point, Naruto's strikes were still hitting, but they really weren't doing much.
Lucy's eyes widen as the Animon looks directly at her with a puffed up smile, one that she noticed was mirrored by her friend just behind him, before Luffy charges forward, tanking all the desperate Teisho hits on his progressively-bruised bulk, throwing around Pounds with reckless abandon at the multiple Naruto around him, hits that popped all but one of the then obvious clones before nailing the real one in the face again.
Lucy calls out for Naruto to make even more clones with Double Team, but apparently Luffy just gets lucky that he has someone watching through his eyes at that moment.
{Direction: "There!"}
He puts his all into this, his body deflating as his focus is taken elsewhere, but it's enough.
His arm stretches out far more than normal, not enough for it to be a Pistol, but it's fast enough to nail Naruto in the face yet again, knocking the Ninja Animon clean out as he flops backwards. Before he hits the ground, he's glowing brightly before dissolving into a wisp of light that zips upwards until it disappears into a small sigil in the air; a Gate that turns back into a ball of light before materializing as her Gold Key in hand.
Luffy, meanwhile, still feels like one big bruise, but he feels like he hurts less, like… his Gum-Gum Fruit's working right again a bit more.
[Kid Naruto Fainted!]
["Strawhat" Level Up! Lv. 6!]
[R e n —] defeats [Animancer Lucy]!
[Value Exchange]: [200] to the winner.
Lucy smiles as the arena fades back to normal proportions, walking up to Ren, even as she feels slightly less real to their eyes, just before whatever was letting them and Luffy act as one falls apart as he returns to his ball in a flash of light.
"Great battle! See? I knew you'd be fine."
After everyone heads back upstairs, Lucy looks Ren over one last time, before nodding in apparent satisfaction with a smile.
"It looks like you're a great Animancer already, Ren; all the other Animancers I've seen still have to Speak out their Commands, but your Animon beat mine without a single one from you!" She praises, before turning to look at Professor Urahara, who had already settled into his organized chaos of computers and paper, rapidly looking over data and doing… Whatever he does.
"I'll do my best to get stronger for the town, Professor. And I can tell that Ren will do the same, see you soon!"
All she gets in reply is a lazy wave from the busy man, and with a pout she leaves the premises, Ren finally free of all of this, and once again feeling dull and unfocused. Only for a few moments, though; Luffy's giddiness at a new adventure bubbles in their Party, and as the Lead, it seems to spread through everyone, including the two other Animon that are still somehow in there.
Ren's sort of puzzled though; they have three Animon, and only one Orb; how are they going to do this? It doesn't really make much sense, does it?
They feel like Luffy's scratching their head at this, before shrugging and 'pointing'-
Onwards!
-towards adventure, and seeing as somehow they've found themselves at the boundary between Karakura and Route 1 yet again, some part of them must agree as well.
Luffy urges them on with a laugh, and as they take that final step to cross the barrier, everything seems to s t r e t c h o u t in their head; the world crisper, clearer, brighter, louder, even, and Ren doesn't realize that there's tears streaming down their cheeks until Luffy points it out, worried. They tell him that they have no idea why that's happening, and start walking through the route; a large country road riddled with greenery and rough paths.
Every once in a while, as they start wading through the grass they start to feel a sort of tension in the air every time they take a step in them. It's easily ignorable, which is sort of weird as the last time they were out here, they felt too weirded out by the feeling to move around in the grass much and went home. Maybe it's because they have Animon now?
They decide to look into their Party again as they crest a small hill, just to revel in the three Animon that they have making them feel complete for the first time in their life-
And just as they switch Luffy out of being the Lead with a little apology to check on the others, they step into more grass.
Reality wavers, then expands.
Ren's body locks up as they recognize the rigid rules of a [Battle] slam into place, and is baffled at the fact that it's happening here; in the middle of a random stretch of road. This sort of distortion is only maintained in official [Battles] like what they had against Lucy downstairs in the lab, and only in prepared areas besides.
The grass seems to stretch out to the horizon, leaving only them, and their opponent…
…A small young girl with auburn hair, two locks of hair extending down on her chest, and pinkish-red eyes. She seems to be part-racoon/tanuki due to her fluffy, red tanuki ears and a bushy tail. Clad in a simple gray and red dress, the Wild Animon's eyes narrow at the sight of Ren, and she snarls as much as she's able to, ears pinned back as she grips a small sword tightly.
Ren's arm snaps out with a throw pitched almost like a punch, the Aniball flying forward like a blast before it explodes into a warm flash of blue flamelike energy that burns everything around them away once again; Ren's once again in that dark void where he met Luffy before, and their body starts to feel restless and energetic as they and the Animon in front of them land eye contact.
He feels like a [Rival].
Ren's overcome with all of this energy, feeling stronger than he ever was, so strong he feels like he can beat all of the Central bad guys from that day without breaking a single sweat. He's so full of this, this pride and surety in his strength, that without thinking, he's dropped into a crude martial arts stance- Turtle School
-and is grinning wildly at the Animon, who's grinning just as wide as he unlatches his Power Pole from his back and settles into his own stance.
(This, but he's wearing his Turtle School uniform)
"Hey! Wanna fight?!" He asks, and Ren gives him their answer, shooting forwards faster than they ever thought possible.
They clash in the middle, raised knee to Power Pole, and the void around them shakes as it's buffeted with a small shockwave.
After pushing against each other again, they leap backwards before clashing again and again and again, fists crashing into kicks into elbows into headbutts as the void around them starts to pulse with their very presence.
Finally, Ren lands a side kick on the Animon's chest just as he extends his Pole to strike them in the side of the head, both combatants being thrown back violently from the blows, both of them landing harshly on their backs, breathing hard for a bit, before breaking into laughter.
"The name's Goku! You're strong! What's your's?" The kid asks as they both look up at the fractured void that their fight's left.
"Ren!" They say, easier this time than the last.
The names seem to color the blank space once again with pulsing beams and blasts of every color under the rainbow, connecting them. Just like before, the connection seems to settle as more memories burst deep in Ren's deepest self, spilling out.
The story of a young and peculiar boy with a tail who set off on a quest to become stronger, and after finding out about the wish-granting Dragon Balls, sets off to find them as well; forging friendships, mastering martial arts and discovering what it means to truly be strong.
[Story: Dragon Ball, Acquired!]
As the memories fade into the background of Ren's self, they find themselves standing in front of Goku on top of a mountain, the Wish Dragon Shenron curled high above them, the horizon dark with thunderclouds due to its power.
Goku's backlit from the glow of Shenron's form, and his power, his Ki, is flaring in a white aura around him as he declares;
"Ren! Let's get even stronger together, okay?"
Ren wholeheartedly nods as they both settle into one more stance, their own aura flaring around them, before clashing a final time, another piece of themselves they never knew they had settling into them with an even more complete feeling as the surroundings explode around them.
Ren's suddenly snapped back into the battle, just as Goku…
Keep the Story
Just as Kakarot lands onto the field in the same stance that they faced in the void, before their perspective crashes into his.
Some distant part of both of them feels like this feeling is familiar-
"Fusion?"
-but whatever it is, fades quickly as they get ready to fight.
The Kid Raphtalia launches at them with her sword ready to Scratch, and they-
-Fumble.
They fumble, because they are suddenly drastically weaker than both of them were back in the void, and Kakarot's mind's too busy fogging over certain things that fall away too quickly to identify to notice how his entire body's gone slack, just as K.Raphtalia's blade Scratches him across the chest, shocking him out of the fog as he cradles the lateral cut on his chest with a hand.
She sees this, and breaks into a giggle as she wiggles happily, her Tail Whipping alongside her, making Kakarot tilt his head, mesmerized for a moment, dropping his guard a bit.
It's not enough for him to stop though, and with a mental shrug the Saiyan Animon finally gets his bearings and shoots forward, his Punch planting deep into K.Raphtalia's sternum, surprising her completely as she's blasted backwards a few feet, before dropping on a knee, clutching herself as she looks down at the ground.
Kakarot assumes the fight's practically over, and leaps the short distance, aiming to KO the Wild Animon with one last Punch-
Her head snaps up and the Wild's eyes are wide and feral as she leaps upwards with a rising Scratch, coincidentally dodging the attack that craters the ground below her, just as her blade digs into Kakarot's neck, his last thought-
"Wow! She's really strong, huh?"
-before his being snaps back into a flash of what Ren now knows is Ki, rematerializing as the Aniball that appears in their hand, feeling dull and spent. Whatever lets them Bond with their Animon sparked against their entire self, the phantom sensation of a blade digging into their neck making them blink away tears as the connection's torn. They can't feel the little wisps of Ki that stayed with them from the void, and feel even more empty than before.
ithurtsithurtsithurts
But they have a [Battle] to finish, so they put they focus on their next pick.
Ren glances at their Party in that moment between moments, deciding to meet the last of the trio that they chose. They've already fought against Kid Naruto before, but they wonders what his Story is? It's bound to be just as interesting as Goku and Luffy's.
Picking the Animon has them settle on the balls of their feet unconsciously, bending their knees in case they need to move. Their hand falls readily to their side, the throbbing ache of losing the Saiyan fading as something else… Like Ki but different, has echoes racing from the suddenly vibrating Summon Orb all up into his arm.
Eddies of that energy-
Chakra
-seem to begin to slowly swirl around the ball as they begin to raise their arm, before they take a half-stride forwards as much as the [Battle] allows, the urge to run up and slam the ball into the Kid Raphtalia almost overwhelming, before common sense prevails and the ball goes flying out over to where Goku was last, bursting open with a pulse of blue.
Wake
Ren's once again in that dark void where they met their other Animon, and yet once again they start to feel things; even more energetic than with Goku, like they could keep going on for forever and a day with how much is burning through their veins.
This lets them spot the Animon the same moment he spots them; both of them crouched, currently looking around.
He feels like… a [Precious Person].
Ren smiles brightly, getting up from their crouch before walking over to the Animon, a part of them deep inside expecting pain and betrayal disappearing for some reason. The Animon's already running forwards to close the distance, eyes roving around the void but still having eyes for Ren.
He skids to a stop as Ren asks who they are, which seems to be exactly what he wanted to hear, because he puffs up in what must have been something recited for so long that it's become fact, part and parcel of his being;
"The name's Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the next Hokage of The Hidden Leaf! Believe it!" He proclaims, pointing right at himself, and the void around them seems to rumble, shining with a yellow light from below.
"Saito Ren!" Ren says, feeling another part of their identity click into place with a splash.
…No, that's just the fact that the ground's become covered in some layer of water that's being lit up from the light below.
That doesn't hinder the connection, though; the names seem to color the void around them with every colour under the rainbow and more; with an even deeper understanding of Connection as a whole inherent in the very energy that comes from Naruto, an energy that Ren seems to recognize as Chakra as the connection settles and memories, emotions and visions erupt from their tenketsu.
A Story is Witnessed.
The story of a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. A story about overcoming challenges, forging bonds, and unraveling mysteries surrounding his origins in a quest for acknowledgment and acceptance.
[Story: Naruto, Acquired!]
As Naruto's Story makes its home in their being, Ren opens their eyes again and finds themselves on the Hokage Mountains, overlooking Konoha with a fiery sunset bathing the village in burned oranges like autumn leaves. Beside them stands Naruto, who's smiling softly at someone who finally, truly believes in him. Tears fall as Ren looks to the boy who's suffered so much, and tells him what everyone else should have told him all along;
"I Believe you, Naruto. I believe."
The nebulous sunset flares brighter, and all is light.
Jinchuriki's already moving as Ren becomes aware of themselves again, but there's another problem; when you both try the handsign for the shinobi's most valued jutsu, all that happens is a puff of chakra laden smoke obscuring him and not even for very long at that, the failure blowing away on the breeze.
The remaining smoke is parted as Kid Raphtalia comes crashing through, a nasty downwards slash thwarted by the simple fact that Jinchuriki wasn't where she expected him to do, and she ends up lodging her blade into the ground. She immediately starts trying to tug it free.
Never one to not take an opportunity, Jinchuriki settles into his bastardized rendition of the Academy Stance, before slamming a Teisho straight into the raccoon girl's side, blowing her back as she rolls to a stop, unmoving.
"Wait… Ren, is she DEAD?!"
Before their Animon can start panicking, the Normal Type shrinks and dissolves into… Something hard to see, before the [Battle] abruptly ends and they're ejected back into Route 1.
Despite the weird circumstances of the [Battle], they've won, and are finally a 'blooded' Animancer in the eyes of the World.
It feels nice, the Value of being stronger than a helpless civilian.
[Kid Raphtalia Fainted!]
["Jinchuriki" Level Up! Lv. 6!]
After explaining to Naruto, and then to Luffy how Wild Animon simply cease when defeated in a proper [Battle], instead of Fainting, Dying or getting KO'd otherwise, Ren gets back on the trail, this time trying their hardest to not even have to touch any patches of tall grass; it seems the tension is what's preluding to having a [Battle] take place, which is weird, since no one ever told them [Battles] worked like that.
Naruto and Luffy's nonchalance about the situation has them mentally shrug and continue on, unbothered.
Onwards
They blink and look around a bit; they have no idea how they've reached the end of the Route, but the sun's still pretty high in the sky, maybe they ran? Whatever.
Ignoring Luffy's glee and a flash of green hair and blades in their mind, Ren starts to head down the tamped-down path into Cocoyasi Village that's framed by a lot of tall trees. They stop close to what seems to be the boundary, unable to pass because of three kids blocking the way.
Two of them are faceless, unimportant, and Ren's already moving on because there's another Important Person right before them! One they haven't met before!
The kid's preening at the look Ren's giving them, happy at the attention in his closed green jacket with a beetle pattern on the front, black shorts, and green-and-black sneakers with wing shoe laces.
Ren walks over to him, a bit taken aback by how much Value the kid has, at the very least double what he has. Which isn't really a high bar, but it's surprising; he's just as strong as Lucy and Light! Maybe his name also starts with an L?
"Hehehehe! Welcome to Cocoyasi Village, Animancer! I am the Gym Leader, Weevil Underwood, nice to meet you." Weevil greets, giving you a handshake as his… lackeys(?) stand to the side, trying and failing to look friendly.
"I've grown bored of battling in the Gym, so I've been doing all my battles in the forest to the right of here. If you want a chance at a badge, meet me at the end of that forest and I'll let you battle my beautiful bug Animon!"
That message delivered, he laughs out loud again and leaves into the Village with the two Bug Catchers in tow.
Ren thinks he seems really nice! Luffy and Naruto heartily agree, too, so they're obviously right!
They doesn't waste much time, beelining to the Animon Center, ignoring everything and everyone until they're standing before the Nurse, whose hands are outstretched with a grooved tray for Summon Orbs in them.
"Alright, I'll take your Animon for a few seconds, okay?" Her voice is calm, but Ren's inner voice isn't. Don't take them away from me, please.
Their eyes seem to say, beyond the slight blank happy expression they have on right now, and not even Luffy and Naruto's reassurances mean anything; they won't be-
alone/broken/E M P T Y
-alone again, they won't.
The Nurse's customer service smile grows strained as she sees that the teenage Animancer isn't releasing the grip they have on their balls, and she's about to call them out on it, but-
"Do ya think they could… hold us? We're strong! Even if they did, I KNOW you'll get us back; you beat me back then, right?"
It seems that whatever problem they had has been resolved, as they carefully place the three balls on the tray and take a trembling step back.
The Nurse, with the ease of long practise, measures the Animancer's Value discreetly, sets the tray into the Healing Deck(One of the many ways an Animon can be healed) and letting it work it's magic on the balls for a few seconds, before a cheerful ding tells her they're ready.
Just like handling pastries from an oven, she slides the tray out, and hands the teen their Party back, which they snatch without so much as a thank you, before shuddering and heading back out.
Their next stop was at the Animart, where they were given a package to deliver to Professor Urahara with a discount on their first purchase here as incentive. The joke's on them, though; Ren would've done it for free!
Return
That's basically how they found themselves waiting for Professor Urahara as he did mad science before them on one of his work desks using the package of special components that they had delivered. Light stood to their side, fuming silently, but still making awkward small talk with Ren.
"They're finished! Finally!" Urahara cried, ripping off his goggles and delicately handing over two red handheld devices to the teens.
"This is one of my best inventions yet, boys. This is the portable Summon System Database. You can call them an Anidex, though. They're more than just a high-tech Encyclopedia, If I'm right, and Central does as Central does, being Holders of these will eventually make your Value skyrocket all on its own!" He explained, before handing them some Summon Orbs.
"These are already attuned to your Value, so when you capture Animon, they'll be rerouted to the Spiritron Servers I installed. This'll keep your X-Event Animon out of Central's clutches until you're all High-Value enough to not be browbeaten into just giving them up."
After giving them some more less important information, the professor turned back to the rest of the machinery remaining, and dove back into his mad science without a backwards glance to the two Animancers.
Light raised an eyebrow at this, before turning to look at Ren, a more serious expression on his face once more.
"Ren, I know you haven't been trained for this kind of stuff, so I'll help you this one time. Go get a Map from Nunally; she's good at that sort of thing. We can't have you getting lost out there; it wouldn't be a good look for our town." He advised, before swiftly walking out just like before.
At the mention of a map, Luffy and Goku both had flashes of memories that came over Ren; an extraordinary thief with orange hair, and a blue haired genius with a powerful radar, both amazing women.
Ren nodded at that endorsement, smiled at Luffy calling him a Navigator, and set off towards the outskirts.
Onwards!
Not even blinking at the fact that they were suddenly in front of a house that they didn't really recognize much, Ren knocked until they heard a girl tell them to come in, and promptly did so.
They found her sitting in a wheelchair, looking over a large, sprawling map on the table, with a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits on her lap.
Ren tried, they really did, but… She just wasn't Important enough; maybe she just didn't have enough value? Already, what she actually looked like slipped away from memory the moment that they stopped looking at her, leaving only a dull remembrance that she was in a wheelchair, and thus more different than all the other faceless girls they interacted with in the past.
Nunally had no idea what was going on, obviously, as she listened to Ren softly explain why they were there, sipping their tea thoughtfully.
"Light told you to come here?" She asked, a genial smile overtaking her features for a moment, reaching Ren for just a moment.
"He's very kind, huh? Here, this will help you." She finished, gesturing at the map on the table, before clarifying at Ren's baffled look(that was a lot of paper) that they were meant to take the digital copy that she was mostly done with.
Map secured, Ren took a step out of the house, and-
While Ren travels to Cocoyasi, they try their best to be mindful of the tension they can feel whenever they step on the tall grass; not exactly wanting to be pulled into another [Battle], but not all plans work out.
Reality freezes, and is blown away.
The Wild looked like an ostrich; a very fluffy one, at that, and she was already dashing straight at Ren!
Kakarot lands in a crouch, ready for anything as he feels Ren's perspective layer over his own. He can't really put a finger on how all of this feels so familiar though, but that thought immediately leaves as he looks up at the large…
"Chicken!"
Ren sighs mentally as he holsters his Power Pole on his back and leaps forward, eyes shining.
[LV.5 Filolial Encountered!(NORMAL/FLYING)]
Just before the Filolial's beak spears into the joyous Saiyan who had started pulling back his fist for a Punch, Ren recalls him, feeling a better disconnect than the one that occurred the last time Kakarot was taken out of play.
With a mental sigh of relief, Jinchuriki is sent out as the Filolial's beak slams into the ground, kicking up dust. Nothing more seems to happen, but then her eyes glint through the smoke and the big bird goes streaking through the smoke like a particularly fluffy bullet, right at Jinchuriki, who leaps back in surprise with eyes wide.
"Get away you crazy chicken!"
Apparently being a ninja pays off, because what little training Jinchuriki had takes over as the genin crouches the moment he lands from his jump. The Filolial seems to have been tricked by that, because she was already aiming for his head with Peck, and thus misses completely.
The moment that she passes overhead, Jinchuriki explodes from his crouch in a powerful rising palm to her gut, Teisho depressing the site of impact for a second, before physics seems to remember its job, and the bird makes a sharp screech as it falls forward, hitting the ground with a sickening thud and sliding forward a bit more, until she was closer to Ren than Jinchuuriki.
"Yatta! It's down!"
Jinchuriki was about to reach back for… Something? A weapon, maybe? But hedoesn't know that moveforgets half-way through the motion, and his confusion as he looks at his hands with furrowed brows also distracts Ren, who only notices that the Filolial is back up until her Growl rang out, the menacing crow shaking Ren's Animon down with what felt to him like a burst of killing intent.
Connected as they are, Ren feels that fear… but he also notices the moment that Jinchuriki's fear drops for iron-cored determination as his eyes firm up and he crouches again.
The Filolial had no idea of that, all she saw was her foe cowering before her like they should, and she darted forwards, even faster than before, beak swirling with elemental wind in a Peck.
With a deep, primal yell, he breaks into a sprint, running straight at the bird Animon that outmasses him, and probably outclasses him too.
"I WON'T be afraid again! Ren?"
{"Trust us?"}
"Sure!"
{Direction: ACT}
Ren assumes direct control.
They know Naruto's Story intimately; they know his highs and lows, his struggles, and especially? All he's capable of.
It's enough for them to leap straight up, hook an arm around the suddenly panicking bird's neck, trusting in the Treewalking Technique to keep them steady, before swinging around to her back. They raise an arm high, taking a breathmolding the Rasengan before slamming the Teisho down into the base of the Filolial's long neck with a CRACK.
She blacks out, tumbling bonelessly to the floor for a moment while Ren backflips off her, landing in a crouch. They take another look at the Animon as she squawks out in alarm and gingerly gets to her feet, shaking from both her injuries and the sheer speed her body's gathered as she glares right at Ren before becoming nothing but a white blur that's streaking towards them in a near instant…
Before a Summon Orb bonks open against her head, an utterly offended squawk is heard before she's sucked into the Sealing Item without a fight.
As the [Battle] concludes, Ren cradles the Common Orb that has their newest Party member, snickering a bit at Naruto's exasperation at Goku and Luffy being disappointed about not getting to eat a big chicken.
That done, they decide to hold on from putting them in the Party proper; maybe in a later fight after they've been healed up from getting banged up from their fight. Regular Animon don't really care about that, but seeing as all of their Animon seem to be…
Real
…Special, compared to all the others they've seen, they'll probably appreciate being fully healed before meeting in the Void.
Ren finally makes it back to Cocoyasi in the evening; being careful made them a bit slower in their travels, but it paid off, as they didn't get into another Encounter after catching their new Filolial.
The village is far larger than Karakura, and it shows; there are many more people walking around, looking a lot more filled out and full of life than the rundown citizens of Ren's hometown. There are a lot more smiles, and people are helpful!
For example, Ren meets a Bug Catcher that asks if they want to know more about the forest that Weevil's been training in since they look like a newcomer to the place. Ren agrees, and the boy tells him that all of the Animon found there are Bug-Types, and not to underestimate them because of that.
Ren thanks them for the info with a grin and a pat on the shoulder, before moving on to the Animon Center to heal up.
The Nurse seems to be visibly surprised to see Ren bring out four two balls for healing. Ren's also confused, and the Nurse must see that, because she explains while using the Healing
"You're moving quite fast for a Beginner. Most Fresh Animancers have to take a while to find opponents weak enough to fight, yet strong enough to be a challenge. Catching one is usually done after days, if not a week of decision making for newbies, due to worrying about grinding and balance with their limited time and budget."
Ren's still confused about all of that, but nods in understanding anyway; it actually didn't seem too hard, honestly. Hopefully all those problems she's talking about don't pop up later.
They take their Animon, and turn to leave, when she stops them with a hand on their shoulder.
"Be careful if you're going out into the forest this evening, okay?" She pleads, before raising an eyebrow at Ren's carefully-cultivated blank face (-_-).
"I've been at this job for ten years, kid; you can't fool me with that. Just be careful; I know you feel like your hot stuff, but that Forest has a lot of Wilds that'll want to show you otherwise. Those Bugs are cruel."
Ren's dismissive of this, and so are their Animon-
"We can take 'em!" The three chorus.
-until the Nurse sighs and lifts her black bangs to show a deep scar running across her forehead in a straight line, ghastly and jagged, before obscuring it again with her hair.
Their Animon are a bit less enthusiastic as they leave.
After making a few purchases at the Animart, Ren decides to take the Nurse's advice into consideration… As they head out to the east of the village, towards Bagu Forest.
Just like the threshold that Route 1 has between Cocoyasi and Karakura, there's a thin line of trees that progressively have larger and thicker specimens as one goes further along the path out of the village, until they reach an open area that absolutely oozes the tension that they normally feel from the tall grass.
The lady wasn't joking; the Animon in there are strong.
That just riles them up even more!
Goku and Luffy are really pumped up about fighting stronger foes, but Naruto's a little hesitant. Just a little!
"Uh, maybe we SHOULDN'T try and fight everyone in there? We have to keep our strength up to fight Weevil, remember?"
"We'll be fine! Fighting'll make us stronger so we can beat Weevil anyway!" Goku argues.
"Shishishi! I'll follow Ren on this! They're our Navigator, right? They'll point us the right way!"
It took a while, but Ren grits their teeth and heads into the areas with the most tension, running into [Battle] after [Battle], all without much of a break. At the end of it all, Ren was strangely less tired than they were when they started; between switching between all of their Animon and them Leveling Up, the world just seemed brighter, sharper even as the Forest became darker.
They hadn't really encountered other Animancers yet; they'd seen a couple of Bug Catchers around, but they weren't really Important, so they were quickly forgotten in favour of more Leveling.
Right now, they ran, full tilt through the forest, their body feeling so very far away, lighter than they've ever felt it before.
"Get up in the trees! We'll be faster!" Naruto whooped as they turned a corner, swinging around it with a spark of Chakra skill.
"Nah, the trees are in the way! Let's go THROUGH 'em!" Goku whined as Ren's next stumble into a tree nearly put a hole into it, the bark splintering as they bumped into it with the little Ki they had flaring.
"Man, we'd be moving WAY faster if we were on the Sunny!" Luffy sighed.
An unimportant person tries to call out to Ren before they reach the sheer incline of one of the higher points of the forest, but they ignore that and the signs of a [Battle] about to start by leaping onto some more grass and getting swept away by the Wild one. By the time they finish decimating whatever the Wild was(most of them were Fainting in one or two hits at this point, so Ren wasn't really focusing), the Animancer's nowhere to be seen, and thus noone's around to notice Ren simply leap several feet into the air, grabbing a hold of the edge of the ledge and pulling themselves over with ease.
{Something} tells them they shouldn't have been able to do that-
"I can make jumps like that in my sleep! You're so SLOW, Ren! C'mon, we're losing daylight!"
Nah, it's probably not that important anyway, right?
During Ren's rush, at some point Chocobo's presence in the Party starts becoming something else other than the dull feedback that the Animancy books Ren's read… somewhere(?) say an Animancer should have with their Captured Animon. Her presence mostly shies away from the others, though; probably because-
"Don't worry! She's part of our crew, right! I promise I won't drool TOO much, okay?!"
"I dunno… I don't FEEL pretty hungry, but… but she's a giant chicken! I've gotta try that, Ren!"
-Of things like that, yeah.
Her presence grows even stronger the few times they switch train, something between them building up more and more as Ren mechanically tosses out her ball out again and again before switching out to any of the other three; it feels wrong to fight alongside her before they really understand each other, it made Ren feel like they were back in the times before they chose their Starter(s), and they didn't like that at all.
Suddenly, just as they step onto some more tension-filled grass…
Reality breaks down, and then floats away.
Ren's barely registering the [Battle] starting, already about to toss out Jinchuriki to attack, but suddenly a flash of-
AgitationCuriosityNowNowNow!
-lands them in the Void again, already staring at their first Wild Capture as a change seems to go over her; she visibly starts to feel even more Important than before, more real, like she was a container filled with nothing but air before, but now is filled with precious elements of Value.
The change shakes itself out as they lock eyes, and unbidden, something seems to shake the Void, a feeling of an even more distant Connection happening elsewhere, but being… Rejected? Modified?
{World System: Integration}
…Whatever the feeling was, it fades quickly, leaving only the two of them, and as they finally close the distance, Ren slowly lays his hand on the Filolial, steadily petting her as the feeling of Connection seems to settle on their hand and her head; a simple Summon Sigil that fades quickly.
They feel like theyr'e her [Master].
"I am Saito Ren. You are a Filolial, and I am your [Master]."
Though as a simple Filolial, her name isn't relevant, her Story pours out all the same; the proclamation seems to colour the Void around them in soft blues and whites as the sheer Potential Value behind her memories, her visions, her world, pour into them.
A Story is Witnessed.
The story of a gamer, summoned into a parallel universe, chosen as one of four heroes destined to save the world from its prophesied doom. The story of a young man, framed for crimes and made an outcast, and how with hatred filling his heart and a shield that can only defend, he sets out alone, vowing vengeance against those who wronged him.
[Story: Rising of The Shield Hero, Acquired!]
As the Story settles within Ren, they open their eyes to see… Nothing much has changed; they're on a green hill overlooking an area not unlike Route 1, sitting at the reins of a cart hitched up to the Filolial. She stops pulling as if she just notices their attention on her, and looks back with a trill of happiness while the surroundings suddenly get brighter and brighter.
Then they're out of the Void, and Chocobo is facing off against one of the Animon that they recognized, even though Kakarot currently doesn't;
The Cell screeches out at the ostrich-like Animon, before dashing in to attack.
{Chocobo: Gust}
Chocobo leaps up in response with a loud chirp, looking down at the charging Bug type before flapping her wings hard. The air before her whips itself into a frenzy in response, before it blasts down into the charging Cell, kicking up dust.
That dust is swiped through with an arm as the Cell leaps into the air, battered but still far from out, before spinning around to stab the Filolial with his tail before kicking off her back to his side of the field. She squawks in discomfort as energy is drained between them, but apparently the Leech Life didn't do much damage; she lands into a ready crouch, beak and body swirling with Wind Magic Flying Type energy before she rockets forwards into a Peck, even faster than before.
The Cell barely dodges the attack, spinning to the side as she passes by and skidding to a stop on all fours, tail raised like a scorpion. Said tail stabs forwards even harder than the last time, and Chocobo's still overextended, her back turned, so it's only Ren's shared sight with her that lets her turn herself in time to have the hypodermic point lanced into her side and not the back of her neck.
This time, the Filolial Animon screeches in pain as the critical hit lands, some of the feathers around the impact point dulling and falling off as a visible bulge travels down the tail into the Cell, healing its wounds.
Ren calms her panic, and their next move is the last, as a Peck slashes through the trapped tail completely, leaving the Wild Animon to Faint and cease as the [Battle] concludes.
After Connecting with Chocobo, things seemed to settle down in Ren's Party; sure, Luffy still seemed kinda drooly whenever Ren thought much about the Filolial, but apart from that, the Strawhat was pretty civil! The same with Goku, and that was actually quite a wonder, until he gave his reasons.
"Hey, she's strong, and we can't train together if she's lunch, right?"
…Suffice to say, Chocobo's presence never really mingled much with Goku's, apart from vague offense sometimes.
After some more of what all of Ren's Animon -those that could talk, anyway- regarded as a light workout, and what more rational people would be calling an unnatural machine speedrunning a forest, Ren finally arrived to what seemed to be Weevil's spot; there was a river running beside the path, and down it a clearing could clearly be seen, despite how dark it was getting.
The path itself was certainly wide enough, with it being a stretch of land actually clear of trees until it reached a small hill further in.
One of the Bug Catchers that Weevil was with before walked up to Ren, and it was all they could do to listen to their voice when Weevil was closer.
That is, until they actually stopped to listen to what was said, anyway;
"Weevil shouldn't waste his time on a Newbie like you! I'm Sammy, and I challenge you to a [Battle]!"
Ren's mouth sharpened itself into an empty grin, just as they pulled up an Aniball; a Newbie, huh?
The whispers in my head snickered collectively at my failure as I kept running through back streets and dingy alleys.
Yeah, well screw all of you. Not like this ain't your fault in the first place.
So, want to know why I'm running? I'll give you a few hints; a bunch of muscle heads, a convenience store, a terrified but attractive cashier and my goddamned sticky fingers.
It's hilarious, really. I can see why the voices think it's funny; I walk into a store to steal stuff because I'm a klepto with a peanut gallery in my head egging me on, when I realize that the place I regularly shoplift from is being robbed. This pisses me off because of said greed not wanting anyone to steal stuff except I steal stuff.
Yeah, dumb, I know. Not even the worst part though.
The worst part is where I put up a balaclava, my snazzy Night Goggles and then proceed to absolutely kick ass, handling the thieves like an honest to God superhero, when....
I can't help myself and swipe an entire shelf. In front of the chick I just saved.
Long story short, she panics again, slams me in the head with a thankfully empty can of pepper spray, calls in her boss, who has an unthankful loaded shotgun and I generally have to run off with my tail between my legs.
Oh. And like a few cops chasing me, but what else is new, amirite?
Back to the situation at hand, I neatly hopped over an overfilled trash can before tapping it with my foot and taking it. Not even looking at the spanking new card in my head, I slapped it and some homeless dude's dumpster fire I swiped for something new to help me lose my tail of a pissed off Rottweiler.
#Burning Trash#
... Of course it is, what the hell was I expecting.
A swing around a pole got me around the corner easily as I reluctantly released the card behind me, relishing the yelp of the crazy dog. I pushed myself a bit harder, ignoring the burning in my lungs and the aches in my legs just to get to the beach and lose anyone tracking me in the ridiculous amount of abandoned warehouses lining the failed docks and pier.
I almost didn't see the red and blue of one of the copper's bikes, but a soft whispering in my head made me look behind the alley I just passed by. It was just... Standing there, but I knew I couldn't give in to steal it because that would put all sorts of unwanted attention on me- Goddamnit I did it again.
Okay, ignoring the pleased feeling of an #Officer's Cycle# In my mental deck, I kept on moving towards the docks, following the lingering smell of salty air that was steadily overpowering the background city stink. I thought I was okay for a bit, but apparently I underestimated that bloody dog, because I could hear its damned barking as it tried to gain on me. What the hell do they feed these things these days?!
I nearly got my answer when I avoided a shanking by one of the druggies that I startled, bending out of the way of that disgusting pocket knife. An elbow to the sternum, a sweep to the back of the knee and I'm free of the wheezing young man, who is now also one #Rusty Pocketknife# poorer. Unfortunately, the dog caught up.
One of the few things I've discovered about my klepto-driven ability is that I can't really store living things in it. Like a pound of ground beef is fine, but an angry Rottweiler? No go. Flicking out another hastily made burning trashcan at the canine bought me some time, but it wasn't fooled for long and ran around it, barking all the while and giving out my location to anyone with ears.
I really don't want to kill this dog despite it making my getaway so hard, so I compromise and lead it across the street, where I jumped onto someone's fire escape and left it there looking up at me and pawing fiercely at the wall, even jumping pretty high sometimes. I knew I couldn't stay up here for long, and unlike an actual superhero I can't fly or shoot out a grappling hook- Good idea for later though- to get to the other buildings. I decided to wait for my chasers out up here on the roof and give them a show before pulling out one of my trump cards to aid my escape.
I didn't have to wait long as between the barking, my admittedly poorly thought out trash fire and probably the people living in the building below my sneakers, a pair of winded, sweaty officers made it to my position. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have disabled their cruiser on my way here, but to be honest, they needed to get in shape if this was how much running they could take; everybody wins.
"Get down here, kid! This is the JPD! We just want to ask you some questions!" The leaner, less tired one said, prompting a good amount of onlookers to turn their heads in my direction. Just like sharks homing in on blood, they knew good gossip to put on the Forums when they saw it.
It's Showtime.
"Dearest officers, would you be so obliged to just... Ya know, let me go? I stopped a robbery on Bakers Street; three brutish thugs against one lovely damsel, the travesty! I see no reason for my heroic self to come with you; no need to risk me disappearing, too." I began, absently making sure my face and hair are covered well enough. It's a damn shame that I'll never be able to wear this hoodie for casual runs again, though.
"Disappear, son? Now why would you say that? You did good tonight kid, but we still need to get the full story from you, that's all." The other one smoothly lied, as if I didn't know how horrible our police department treats any vigilante they get their hands on, even the ones doing what's right.
The voices hissed at me to steal the very clothes off his back and leave him in a body bag, which was a scarily detailed request, but I ignored them. Barely; I already had my own experiences to make me pissed enough at them.
"Hm. How about... No? I think I'll take my leave, officers. Unless I'm under arrest for helping my fellow citizen out?"
"The information we got says that you also robbed the store. You really need to come with us, kid, to clear things up at the very least." The first one states, not even hiding his damn smile at this, thinking he got me.
The other one has already calmed down the dog, so I'm safe on that front, even if it's for a few seconds. Time to bounce, but I gotta go in style, if at all.
"I believe that we are at an impasse, sirs! Since I don't want to burden you two and your canine companion with the choice of whether or not you are to arrest me, it falls to me to make the choice."
As I said this, I twirled closer to the edge of the building, making sure that they were all looking at where I was, and not where I was going to be. At this point, any semblance of civility was burnt away from their faces and they began yelling that I was under arrest, but what else is new?
"I hold three cards in my hand; The Fool, The World, and a Joker. Take from this what you will. Now, I bid you all, adieu!"
With a flourish, I threw down at least six #Smoke# cards and two #Firefly Bombs# clouding the surrounding streets in smoke and the top of the building in an explosion of yellow glowing fluids. Those alone were okay and completely awesome, but it was my beautiful trump card that saved my bacon.
#Exit Stage Left#
I completely disappeared in the chaos, the voices louder than ever before, reveling in the... Artistry, I guess? The world was greyscale and I was formless in the 'Backstage', but I remembered where I was meant to exit the stage from, and suddenly, I was there.
All 5'9" of me, with my dark skin and even darker hair in a close buzzcut, clad in a black t-shirt, denim jeans and black baseball boots.
My chaotic eye palette decided to settle as a soft brown as I snapped them open on a futon in my #Container Crib# before closing again in mirth as I proceeded to laugh my ass off.
My name is Hugh Yates; I got voices in my head, am an incurable kleptomaniac, and a university student. Guess the last one's the worst, right?
My ability to make space, time, reality and common sense my playthings through cards popped up sometime in my Swiss cheesed memory. Yep, also an amnesiac, I guess.
I live with my uncle, an insane, utterly swole man that should not be running around like he does at the age of 50. This in itself isn't that bad, but the madman also heard the voices in my head better than I do. Not gonna touch that crazy with a ten foot pole.
But you know what? I wouldn't want it any other way, for now at least. Because I can always turn the odds in some way if needed.
