Chapter 0
Corrupted Hall of Fame
Welcome to the world of Pokemon, a world teeming with life and danger.
In this world, humans have erected many civilizations and inventions as the planet's self-perceived leaders while flora and fauna of countless species live the world over; some in cohabitation with humans and others still masters of their own domain. Somewhere between these classes is a kingdom called Pokemon.
Pokemon are creatures that live and behave as animals (and even plants), but have displayed intelligence on par with (and sometimes exceeding) that of humans. Like "lower" animals, humans first set about domesticating Pokemon for their impressive potential in combat, construction and medicine. However, the main reason Pokemon have remained a permanent and monumental boon to human civilizations is their ability to understand and bond with humans. These days, Pokemon are often considered legitimate family members and have vastly changed human cultures.
While humans widely attest to how Pokemon impact their lives, little research has been done to vice versa. The most that even the world's leading Professors can confirm is that Pokemon grow to trust (or at least obey) their owners or trainers and that they genuinely enjoy competitive battles, so long as they remain more play than survival (debunking early wildlife activist assertions that it was as harmful to Pokemon as it is to "lower" animals). Beyond that, anything regarding the inner workings of a Pokemon's mind and the ways humans impact their lives is still largely unknown and left to assumptions based on behavioral observations.
It presents and interesting study, then, when a team of battling Pokemon has recently lost their trainer.
The Region is Traurig, a neighbor to the Kalos Region but not as popular in the field of Pokemon study and training. The area is Schwarzwald, a dense forest so-named for its tendency to block out sunlight and folklore casting it as a dangerous, forbidden realm filled with otherworldly monsters. While modern science has disproven these monsters to be otherworldly, they are still dangerous Pokemon; so powerful that trainers are barred from entering if they don't have an Elite Four certification.
The day is overcast and a light rain dampens the ground in a lightly-wooded clearing on a sheer cliff overlooking the area's watery Schwarzesmeer. It is here that a team of five Pokemon comes to a stop after a long, frantic run.
"Hold up, hold up!" a female Rhyperior bluntly shouted in between gasps. "Gimme a minute here!" Her large size and bulky limbs have not proven conducive to the retreat her team has been making.
"I keep telling you, we're going the wrong way!" a female Raichu walked up from behind the Rhyperior, not from lack of speed but lack of ambition to run. "Sensei's back there! We have to go back and help-" Her plea was cut short.
"We can't." A soft-spoken Roserade at the head of the group interjected. "It's been a day since those humans attacked and we haven't seen Meister since we ran. You know what that means." The Roserade spoke in as short bursts as possible and kept their back to the group, desperately trying to mask that their appearance was female despite their gender being male.
"No! Why don't you tell me!?" the Raichu shot back, tears welling in her eyes, the answer already on her mind.
"Our Trainer is dead." A Cryogonal answered with the subtlety of a hammer and the emotional warmth of ice. "The bandits had us cornered, so we were at a disadvantage. The bandits were criminals, so they wouldn't hesitate to kill. Our Trainer told us to flee, so we know the situation was dire. It is obvious that the bandits killed our Trainer and likely our teammate."
The Raichu buried her face into a nearby tree and sobbed at Cryogonal's merciless answer. As the Rypherior sought cover from the rainfall under another tree, a Mr. Mime slowly caught up with the rest of the group. His hands folded behind his back, his head down and his eyes calmly closed. The Roserade turned as little as he could to speak to the Mr. Mime.
"What do you think?" Roserade asked. "Could you read their minds to learn anything?"
"An' why did the last guy bother stickin' around back there? Why not just run away with us?" the Rhyperior asked about the team's missing member. Arms folded on her chest casually.
"In all the hustle and bustle, it's never easy getting a peek at peoples' thoughts." Mr. Mime answered with a laid-back, almost grandfatherly tone. "Those thugs call themselves Team Something or Other and despite their silly uniforms, they meant business. As for our other friend…Starters never leave their Trainers. No matter what."
The group stood in silence, save for the Raichu sniffing as she wiped away her tears.
The Rypherior is Tonka, named after a series of toys that were "built tough," much like her rocky hide.
The Raichu, named Asuka, is of a slender build for her species and has longer-than-usual arms and legs that prove much better for Fighting-Type attacks. She wears a tattered red scarf and red tape on her fists and toes.
The Roserade is Kafka. Despite his attempts to look masculine and distant, his soft voice and build still ooze a feminine quality.
The Cryogonal has no special name, but does bear a distinctive scar running diagonally down its face.
Lastly, the Mr. Mime wears a rough, burlap sack fashioned into a hood and cloak. While this hides most of his body, it is clear that his skin colors and faded from the norm for his species. He is not, as textbooks describe, a "Shiny" Pokemon though, as he still has the same colors of a regular Mr. Mime, only muted. His name is Pennywise, after a character from one of his former trainer's favorite books.
Pennywise, sporting a small, simple smile, sat cross-legged on a nearby boulder. Folding his hands on his lap and keeping his head down, his cloak draped all around his body.
"Asuka's right." He said, unprovoked. The others snapped out of their thoughts. "We really should stick together."
"There's no point." The Cryogonal objected without even a moment's delay. "Aside from how few Double or Triple Battles we've had, our Types have no strategic combinations and are all weak to exceedingly-common attacks. Two of us are overwhelmingly weak against Ground-Type attacks while the other two are equally vulnerable to Fire. You yourself are useless against Dark-Types. We would spend more time defending one another than actually fighting off attackers. Trying to work as a team would be more of a burden than a benefit and therefore prove suicidal."
"But we all know each other!" Asuka objected, her voice almost cracking and letting out another sob. "I mean, it's not like anyone else'll help us…Like, if we don't stick together, Tonka won't be able to help us move boulders. And…who's gonna protect Kafka from-"
"I don't need to be protected!" Kafka shouted, cracking a Vine Whip on the ground as he turned to scold Asuka. A second passed and Kafka felt his voice too soft and his body too exposed, so he covered himself with his cape as best he could before continuing. "I'm not some dame…And none of us owes the others any favors. Much safer for us to split up and leave it at that. As far as I'm concerned, we're free Pokemon again."
That last sentiment choked up Asuka, but caught Tonka's attention. She considered something she hadn't considered before. As the possibilities ran through her mind, a grin started to take form on her mouth. She restrained herself before it got too big (no easy feat considering the size of her maw).
As Tonka hung back, Asuka blurted out arguments that largely amounted to emotional gibberish. The Cryogonal disagreed with and rebuked every one of her statements, seemingly for no reason other than to disagree. Kafka tried to distance himself from the group and draw as little attention to himself. Pennywise, ever-quiet and never-moving, sat in the middle of this dysfunction. His head never rose, but his anger did. Too much noise, not enough communicating. If this team wouldn't learn from each other, then maybe they'd learn from an instructor. His mind sent out a message. That message was received.
"Woah…" Tonka snapped out of her daydream as she felt the ground and her tree vibrate. "Hey guys, shut up! Did anyone else feel that?"
The group, sans Pennywise, looked in Tonka's direction. They felt nothing…Then a vibration…Then a shake. Then a quake. Then a crash! Then terror!
Out of the dense forest behind them, a wild Salamence crashed through the trees like they were just grass. It let out a deafening cry that was part roar and part screech. Tonka scurried from her tree and all eyes fell on the massive Dragon. Even on four legs, it was 10 feet tall, twice the size of the species' norm of 4'11", and every inch of its frame was unrelenting muscle.
"What the fu-" Tonka started to exclaim before getting knocked onto her back by a swift Dragon Tail from the Salamence.
The beast didn't give the team a moment to think and started stomping toward them, each stomp causing Kafka's slender feet difficulty in standing. Asuka's broader, more battle-hardened feet easily braced the quakes and allowed her to charge the Salamence in an upright dash. The Cryogonal floated in mid-air, being immune to shaky footing allowed it to take aim for its attack.
"Just what I needed! Something to punch!" Asuka declared as she pulled her arm back for one of her favorite attacks.
The Salamence swiftly shot its head forth at her, aiming to swallow her whole. Asuka managed to backflip just out of the beast's reach. It quickly snapped at her again, but she threw its aim off with a series of Double Team clones. The Cryognal saw this distraction as the perfect time to let forth an Ice Beam. The pillar of white easily nailed the Salamence on its broad, unguarded body, sending the behemoth into a pained shriek. It instantly turned to the source of its pain and saw another beam coming, this time for its face. This time, a circle of blue energy manifested to protect the Salamence.
"I don't understand." Cryogonal thought out loud. Another Ice Beam uselessly collided into the blue shield as Salamence raised its head to look at its cold prey. "What is this attack? I have not seen it before."
"But you have, haven't you?" a voice spoke in Kafka's head. His unsteady footing and the surprise of an unexpected voice felled him to his knees. He looked around and quickly saw Pennywise, still sitting on his boulder. "It's Protect, isn't it? You have the most battle experience of us all. Your knowledge and their powers? Could be quite the combination…"
Kafka felt a dizziness, the kind all Poison-Types feel when exposed to Psychics, but he shook it off. He'd have to trust any of them before he could coKafkate with them. Between their erratic personalities and the way they were always staring at him and treating him like a dainty doll, that wasn't going to happen.
Still on his knees, Kafka raised a bouquet to aim at Salamence, who was still distracted by Cryogonal. While the beast kept throwing Protect up, any attack they tried would be wasted. He knew he had to wait for just the right opening in between shields if he wanted his hit to count. Judging by the Cryogonal's rate of fire, half a second passed in between each attempted Ice Beam. Of course, his years of tutelage under his Meister taught Kafka that he was severely out-gunned in both Type and power against a monster like this. A direct attack would be pointless, so a distraction was the best he could muster. As if this day couldn't get any better…
Ice Beam. Protect. Ice Beam. Protect. Leech Seed. Salamence is confused.
"That won't hurt him, but it will hold him long enough!" Kafka exclaimed to his teammates. "I don't care what you do, but this is your chance to escape!"
"I'm not going anywhere." Asuka responded bitterly, still hiding amongst her Double Team clones. "I've got nothing to run away to and this creep just made my hit list."
The Salamence didn't give Kafka or the Cryogonal a chance to debunk Asuka's strategy because an Ember from its mouth burned the seeds and vines that were tangled in its face. It roared at the sky as the cinders fell to the ground.
"Hate to disagree kid," Tonka grunted as she pulled herself up, still sore from the vicious Dragon Tail from earlier, "but I finally do have somewhere to run away to. And I'm not gonna lose it. NOT TO THIS GUY!"
Tonka's horn drill spun with an ear-piercing shriek. She anchored herself to the ground with her massive arms and plunged her industrial-grade drill into the ground. A Fissure started to crack but its effects were felt even before it could spread.
"Aw crap." Tonka stopped her drill. "We're on the wrong side of the cliff for this to work…"
She was correct. With their backs to the cliff's edge and the Schwarzesmeer below, the only thing a Fissure would accomplish is breaking off the team's side of the rock and send them plummeting. Salamence, standing on the mainland side of the Fissure, would be spared their fate.
Tonka tried to slowly pull her horn out of the ground so as not to spread the crack, but her caution was met with hostility from Kafka.
"Manometer! You didn't think to run that move by us first!?" he pouted as he came up beside Tonka. "You could have gotten us killed!"
"Oh, so now you wanna talk, Pretty Boy!?" Tonka growled back, her self-preservation instinct the only thing keeping her from losing her temper. "An' since when did we become a team anyway!?"
The episode of bickering was cut short when Salamence saw an easy target and Crunched down on Tonka's back. Tonka was still trying to remove her horn from the ground, so the Salamence was free to continue squeezing its jaws. Kafka quickly climbed over Tonka's back and touched down on the ground on her other side. Face-to-face with the Dragon, Kafka calmly raised both of his bouquets to point-blank range.
Before he could charge the proper Beam to fire, the Salamence simply let out a gust of wind through its nostrils. The force of the wind and Kafka's light frame saw him knocked off his feet and flying through the air. The force of the wind alone almost knocked him out, so he couldn't open his eyes, let alone save himself, when he sailed right over the edge of the cliff. Before he flew too far past the edge, however, an opaque energy field gently encased him, stopping his flight trajectory. The energy moved the cringing Roserade back to solid ground and laid him down to catch his breath.
"It seems this is getting out of hand…" Pennywise thought to himself as his Telekinesis released Kafka. Asuka jumped over Pennywise, heading toward the Salamence and Tonka. A few dozen Double Team clones followed suit.
The Cryogonal hovered high above the battlefield to get an optimal angle on the Salamence, still digging its teeth into Tonka's hide. From up there, the Cryogonal saw the platoon of Asukas surround the Dragon and some climb up on its back. This posed a problem. Although the Cryogonal and Asuka could not be considered friends, her vicinity to their common enemy would make raining projectiles down more complicated; partly because eliminating a teammate in the process is strategically unviable (aside from triggering Explosions in Voltorbs and the like) and partly because she might simply get in the way and ruin an otherwise good shot.
"What are you doing?" the sentient snowflake asked. "You are ruining an optimal shot."
"I gotta shot for this guy." Asuka responded as she and her clones pulled a fist back each. "About a hundred of 'em!"
The Salamence saw tiny but furious fists flying into its body from all sides, but it only ever felt one set of fists at a time. Even more confusing, where the fists were landing was constantly changing. Unbeknownst to her opponent, Asuka was utilizing a rare Double Team technique that practically worked as teleporting all around the area of her clones. Essentially, Asuka was switching places with an adjacent clone every second. She could keep her opponent guessing by switching her position before they could get a track on her; in the hands of a true expert, rapidly moving from clone to clone could allow one to punch a target from multiple sides simultaneously.
Small as the sensation of being punched was, it was confusing and annoying enough to pry the Dragon's mouth and attention from Tonka and over to Asuka. Standing still, it quickly snapped up the closest Raichu at its side, but found nothing in its mouth. Mildly annoyed, it snapped again and again, only to find nothing. Before Asuka could grin at her foe's frustration, the foe let out a Dragon Breath and raked it across every clone around its body. By the third clone's destruction, Asuka didn't like her chances and jumped up on the Dragon's back…just in time to catch the Cryogonal's Ice Beam, sparing the Salamence the trouble of getting hit with it. The Beam ended in half a second, but it was enough to knock Asuka down and send her limply sliding off the Salamence's back.
"I told you that you were ruining-GNNH!" Cryogonal attempted to scold Asuka for intercepting its attack, but attracted Salamence's Dragon Breath. The attack sent it falling back to the ground like a flipped coin.
As the Cryogonal fell to the ground, Tonka finally got up from it. Still right in front of the Salamence, it wasn't long before they locked eyes. Being a 7 foot rhino made of rock, Tonka wasn't used to being dwarfed by anyone or feeling defenseless. An overgrown Dragon with fangs sharp enough and a tail strong enough to crack even her hide, however, is certainly enough to put a sense of dread in anyone. The Salamence, seemingly savoring this last victim in a long conquest, let loose a roar to the skies before preparing to attack.
"I finally get away from that human," Tonka said to herself through gritted teeth, "and I don't even get to enjoy it." She dug her hands into the ground and picked up some large rocks, spun her drill and got ready for a last stand. "Laugh it up, Ugly! Let's see how you eat me without any teeth!"
Tonka smashed her boulders together, but found no Salamence between them. Confused, she looked up at her predator and saw that it had a distant glaze in its eyes, like it was in a trance. The Dragon looked around confusedly, licking the air with its tongue to get a scent. Finding nothing, the Dragon reluctantly turned around and headed back into the thick woods, looking over its shoulder to double-check the area before finally disappearing.
"What the fu-" Tonka thought aloud before a voice sounded in her actual thoughts.
"I was hoping for better," Pennywise spoke in all of his teammates' minds, stirring them back to consciousness, "but to be fair, I was expecting worse."
The group slowly but surely got back to their feet; back to a low hover for Cryogonal. The suddenness of the Salamence's appearance and departure and Pennywise's words made it pretty clear how the beast found them. All eyes were on the mime.
"What was all that?" Kafka asked, again hiding his body behind his cape and his voice behind short sentences.
"I sent a psychic invitation to the first mind I could find. I sent him on his way by confusing his senses with Trick Room." Pennywise spoke out loud but still with that calm, doting tone.
"And why's that, Smart Guy!?" Tonka demanded, bringing her drill within an inch of Pennywise's face. He didn't move. He didn't even open his eyes.
"You didn't think you should stay together as a team. I wanted to show you that you were wrong."
"The only thing you proved is that we do not have the training, nor the Type combinations to effectively work together." Cryogonal responded, neither angry about the attack nor gloating that it was right. "As I said, we are more likely to die fighting together than we are to save each other."
"You never worked together before but you survived this long. You are all exceptional on your own. Think of what you could do togeth-" Pennywise was cut short.
"Oh don't give us that cliché." Kafka started walking toward the thick woods. He didn't bother looking back at any of his teammates. "No part of this team was ever supposed to go together in the first place and then you almost got us killed on a hunch! None of us has any reason to trust the other and we're all better off leaving each other alone."
"You can live like an island," Pennywise calmly, almost cheerily, spoke to Kafka, stopping him in his tracks, "but you won't survive many storms that way. Try looking beyond your own shores and you'll see not everyone out there is so hostile."
Kafka couldn't be bothered to respond, he just disappeared into the shadows of the forest. Tonka started making her way to that same forest.
"I didn't know you guys so well, and we did almost die just now, but congratulations." Tonka waved casually to the group without turning to face them. "Enjoy your freedom. You deserve it."
"You say you're free, but are you sure you're not a slave to your past?" Pennywise replied. Tonka turned to see what he was talking about. "I think nostalgia's blinding you right now. What do you plan on doing when you get to where you're going? Be queen of the wee people?"
"I don't know what kinda Psychic crap you're pulling," Tonka replied, her laid-back tone belying her annoyance, "but stay outta my head. Otherwise, you won't get to enjoy yourfreedom…"
With that, Tonka turned back to the woods. At 630 pounds, she didn't bother squeezing between trees. Whatever was in her way was scraped by her rocky hide or pushed over as she saw fit. For unrelated reasons, Cryogonal would not be using the trees for its exit.
"Where are you off to?" Pennywise asked as the Cryogonal started floating over the Schwarzesmeer.
"The most logical place for me to go is the closest, coldest area from here. The most logical route to go is the route of least resistance. Birds will be easier to fend off than Dragons." The Cryogonal's response was simple and straight-forward. No emotional baggage where there was no emotion.
"Can't argue with that." Pennywise responded with a light chuckle. "Good bye stranger, it's been nice. Hope you find your paradise. Just remember, you'll always have a place in misery right here if you get lonely."
"That's impossible. I have no fondness for you, nor will I learn any from the short time we spent together. You would be better off moving on and taking care of yourself instead of everyone else."
The Cryogonal floated off into the distant fog. All that was left was Asuka, Pennywise and the rain. Asuka was chewing her scarf and fidgeting with her tail. She couldn't bring herself to look at Pennywise, so she looked at her feet. Even if he called a Dragon after them, he was all she had. All she had left of her Sensei.
The rain pattered. An eternity passed. Attempts to say something were stifled under losses of confidence.
"You really ought to go." Pennywise shattered the silence with an indoor voice. He turned and smiled at Asuka.
"But…But what about sticking together?" Asuka muffled through her scarf, her eyes still on her feet.
"I'm not going anywhere. Take your time. Think it all through before you decide what you want to do."
"Is that…my good bye speech?" Asuka lifted her eyes to Pennywise but still hid her mouth behind her scarf.
"I don't think you need one. You look like you'd rather have a good bye hug anyway."
Almost as quickly as he stretched his arm out to invite her, Asuka ran up to Pennywise and squeezed him with a bitter love. She buried her face in his cloak and let out all the tears she could and then a few more. After letting the hug linger for a minute longer, Asuka finally pried herself away and hopped off Pennywise's boulder. Taking one last look at Pennywise, Asuka ran off in the direction the team came from. Unlike most Raichus, she ran upright, with her arms trailing behind her with her scarf and tail.
After seeing his teammate off, Pennywise withdrew his arm into his cloak, closed his eyes and looked back down at the ground. To pass the time of hopeful anticipation that his teammates would return, Pennywise said goodbye to his beloved trainer. Maybe while he was at it, he could figure out what the significance of the name "Pennywise" was. Humans can be so strange sometimes…