"Thank you so much for your help, dear."
"It's nothing, Mary, it's the least I can do to help. Besides, we had a lot of fun. Is that right, guys?"
My pokemon chorused an agreement, and continued to help Mary in caring for her garden.
We had spent three weeks in the desert, and we were exhausted when we finally got out. We had met Mary shortly after our exit from the desert. She had offered a ride for us on the back of her truck after seeing our state of exhaustion. She drove us to her house in Fallarbor, where we rested and washed up. I don't think I managed to get all the sand out of my hair yet.
Mary is a very helpful person, and she let us stay at her house for as long as we needed to. I had stayed for a week and today is my last day here with her before I continue with my journey. We are currently helping her to tend to the garden at the back of her house.
My team and I actually managed to reach the famed desert ruins with Snap's help in guiding us there.
The desert ruins are majestic. That's the only word that I could think of to describe it. Even in destruction, the sight of it is breath-taking.
The only building that remained standing and untouched by the wrath of the desert is a five-story building at the center of the ruins. It is beautiful, and probably a building of great importance if it is built to remain standing after so long. There are beautiful carvings that reminded me a lot of egyptian hieroglyphs from my previous world that is decorated across the interior walls of the buildings. There are also many stone carvings depicting the conflict between humans and pokemon, and an equal amount of carvings portraying them living in peace with each other. It felt like they were telling a story. A story so far back that it was long forgotten by the residents of the world, buried in the sands of time.
I saw a lot more wild pokemon in the ruins then anywhere else in the desert. I guessed that the ruins provided a much better shelter for these pokemon in this unforgiving environment. I was about to leave the ruins when Snap brought me the biggest find I had in the desert.
A fossil. A fossil of a pokemon, to be exact. It looked a lot like a Root Fossil from what I could see, and is amazingly well-preserved.
I squeezed Snap in an excited hug. He had just brought me a prize that is even rarer and harder to win in the Lilycove Department Store lottery.
Pokemon fossils are priceless.
The technology to revive prehistoric pokemon from fossils is only recently invented about 10 years ago, and only available to the public 5 years ago, although you need to pay a very hefty fee to enjoy the benefits of such a technology. The technology was first invented by a scientist working in the Cinnabar Lab, and he successfully revived an omanyte back to life. It caught the pokemon scientific and trainer community by surprise, and Blaine, the gym leader of the Cinnabar gym, had to work overtime to protect the scientist and the secrets of the revival technology during the initial period of its news release. However, the revived omanyte died two weeks after its revival, showing that the revival technology is still incomplete.
The PWL was hesitant to approve the continued research to revive prehistoric pokemon. They were afraid that introducing prehistoric pokemon into the world can severely affect the current ecosystems, upsetting the balance that it had been trying to protect for half a millennium. After many debates and researches by the scientific community, it was proven that the revival of prehistoric pokemon would not affect the current ecosystems as it is. Hence, the revival technology was given approval by the PWL to allow its continued research. But it banned the use of such a technology to revive any pokemon that is not a prehistoric pokemon, and gave many other rules and restrictions such that the secrets of such a technology is one of the most guarded secrets in the world.
The original inventor of the revival technology invited accomplished pokemon scientists from all around the world to help in perfecting it. In Hoenn, Devon Corporation held the most number of pokemon scientists, and they sent their best brains to help perfect the research. The revival technology reached its perfection after a few years. The kabuto that they revived, not only survived, but actually managed to evolve into a kabutops. It is still alive and kicking today, and is now entrusted to the capable hands of Brock, the current gym leader of Pewter city, and is one of his best battlers.
Various prehistoric pokemon of different regions were soon revived, and there was a temporary craze in trying to find fossils to revive them. The PWL put a stop to the craze as quickly as it came. A pandemonium is the last thing they need. Still, it did not prevent trainers or archaeologists from finding these extremely rare fossils and revive them. Even Steven have two prehistoric pokemon with him, armaldo and cradily. Both pokemon are native to Hoenn, and is often used in his battles. The only place to revive prehistoric pokemon in Hoenn is at Devon Corporation, as only their scientists have the access to such a technology.
I will have to revive the Root Fossil when I pass by Rustboro after I got my Heat Badge, and then travel back to Petalburg from Rustboro for my fifth gym badge. I can also say a quick hello and visit Roxanne at her gym. I cannot wait to tell her my find. Considering that the lileep evolutionary line is part rock type, Roxanne can also help me in training the sea lily pokemon. I'm not sure if I have the funds necessary to revive it, but my parents will probably be more than willing to fork the money needed for its revival. They did not have a prehistoric pokemon on their farm before and they would be very interested in trying to breed it.
That's how I found another future member of my team. Woohoo!
During the second day of our stay in Mary's house, Snap had evolved into a vibrava. It was not surprising, as he was already showing signs of evolution when we first met, but I did not expect him to evolve this soon.
We spent most of our stay in Mary's house trying to get Snap to acclimatise to its new body. Learning how to fly properly was our top priority. Snap is now the only member on my team that can do true aerial combat, if we exclude Dolly's ability to levitate herself from the ground. Snap is now trying to learn the more delicate parts of flying by attempting to properly water Mary's plants by hanging a watering can from his feet while flying slowly past them in Mary's small garden.
Training does not have to be done through battles alone, there are many ways to incorporate training into our everyday lives if you are creative enough.
While I was replanting some of the potted plants, my attention turned to the newest addition to my pokemon team who joined after Snap. We met her while Mary and I were climbing the Meteor Falls.
My absol, Kelsa, is the fifth member to join my team four days ago. I usually address her as Kel, which is the short form of her name. In my previous world, Kelsa is a name that means "brave" in certain parts of the world, and I chose that name for her when she joined my team. She accepted the name after I explained the reason behind that name, without the part of me being a reincarnated soul.
When Mary and I first met Kel, she was anxiously trying to warn us of something. She did not let us advance further into the depths of Meteor Falls, and chased us off with blasts of Hyper Beam. It was only when she chased us near to the foot of Meteor Falls that a loud crashed reverberated throughout the mountain.
Kelsa had just saved us from a rock slide.
Kelsa is brave. Despite being misunderstood by humans for bringing about disasters, she still tried to warn us despite the danger of appearing before humans. It was only recently proven, with the help of Elite Four Sidney, a Dark Specialist, that the absol species are not the ones who are responsible for disasters that happened shortly after their sightings. Their appearance is merely a foretelling of an approaching calamity. However, not many people believed the claim, and followed the old superstition that many of the older generations have about the absol species. Absols tend to stay far away from humans as a result from the generations of misunderstanding they experienced from humans. It does not help matters that their horns are highly valued in the black market, which resulted in illegal poaching of their species.
That's why I felt that Kel is brave for trying to warn us, and that she deserved her name. She had everything to lose and nothing to gain in trying to warn us, but she still did what she thought was right.
Mary and I thanked her profusely in saving our lives. For some reason, Kel decided to follow us back to Mary's home. None of us minded, but her reason in choosing to follow us still eluded us.
She willingly let herself get sucked into one of my empty pokeballs, without any warning, that same night.
Kel is a little aloof. She can get along with the team perfectly fine, but prefers to spend her time by my side. She does not communicate much, she just follows me around and provides silent company during our time together. Kel is also a little shy when it comes to physical contact, but got used to it quickly enough. She also can be a little vain, and spent a significant amount of her free time grooming herself. Kel also preferred not to battle, despite being a capable and vicious battler. Given her preferences in regards to pokemon battles, I was surprised that she did not mind training with us. Furthermore, she does not shy away from any battles that I chose to let her take part in. She helped me with a few trainer battles during the week I was in Fallarbor, and won every single one of them effortlessly. She just preferred not to get involved in battles if she is not needed. I am fine with her preferences, and tried to respect her wish in not using her in battles that I do not need her help with.
On the last day of our stay in Fallarbor, Flamel, Bigblue and Dolly played a prank on Snap and Kel as an initiation program to welcome the both of them into our team. It is a simple and harmless prank. Dolly merely tripped Kel, who fell on Snap, who was resting on the ground. Bigblue sprayed them with mud to end off the prank. Snap simply retaliated with a half-hearted spray of Sand-Attack. Kel gave a furious scowl, she wasn't pleased with getting her well-groomed fur all dirtied.
I have to defuse the situation by getting Bigblue to wash off the mud on Kel and then asked for Flamel's help in drying Kel using the heat from his flames. I then personally groomed Kel's fur with a brush designed for grooming pokemon. Kel seemed to enjoy it, and I decided to give Kel more grooming sessions whenever I have the time. After many apologies from the three pranksters, Kel seemed to accept the idea of a tradition in pranking future new members of our team. I felt a little sorry for our future members, even if I have not met them yet. Dark type pokemons are known for their sadistic and vindictive streak. Their next victims are not going to have a fun time.
After spending a week in ash-filled Fallarbor, I exchanged my farewells with Mary, and we continued our journey to Lavaridge.
I spent a night at a daycare center which is located on Route 113 after leaving Fallarbor. Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lucy, the elders who ran the daycare center, were generous enough to offer me a place to stay for the night when they saw me wandering along Route 113 in the evening looking for a place to rest. We had a light supper, and talked about ourselves. I talked about my adventures thus far, sharing the exciting bits of it. They shared their experience on raising pokemon, and their journeys as a pokemon trainer before they decided to drop out of the gym circuit to open a pokemon daycare center together. The topic of discussion soon turned to some of the rare pokemons that the elders had raised while running the daycare center.
"The beldum that we helped raised 10 years back, while rare, is not the hardest pokemon we helped to raise on the farm. The most troublesome pokemon is definitely the magmar that we have on hand now."
"A magmar? Isn't that rare? They are hardly seen, even in their native regions. How did you get one in Hoenn?"
"We helped a trainer raised a magmar before, and it left an egg here. The trainer traded that egg in for a discount for our services, and that's how we got a magmar's egg. The egg hatched into a magby. It might be a little clumsy, but it did not give us any problems initially. The problem happened when it finally evolved about a month ago." Bob explained. "We were happy at the thought of having a wider variety of pokemon on our farm, and that it might allow us to branch out into the pokemon breeding business. But the magmar is more trouble than it's worth. The moment it evolved from a magby into a magmar, it turned very aggressive. It will constantly light things on fire and challenge every pokemon we have on our farm. The amount of property damage the magmar caused is unbelievable." Bob ended his speech with a shake of his head.
"We wanted to find a trainer to sell it to, but there are very little trainers that pass by here to Fallarbor to begin with. Fallarbor is not a part of the gym circuit, and trainers do not need to pass by this area unless they want to. Among the trainers that pass by here, none of them have the ability to handle magmar, most of them only have three to four badges on them." Lucy sighed. "We are even giving a huge discount to sell magmar, but the location of our daycare is too far for most accomplished trainers to even consider coming here to have a look despite knowing that there is a discount."
"Long story short, we have a troublesome magmar that is a walking hazard to our daycare center, but we are unable to sell it. We are stuck in a dilemma." Bob crossed his arms and huffed.
I was sitting on the tatami mats in Bob's and Lucy's living room. I absently stroked Kel's fur, who had took to sitting quietly beside me and laid her head on my lap. Dolly is in the building somewhere while the rest of my team are in their pokeballs. I tried to remember as much as possible about the magmar species. They are native to the Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh regions, and even then they are rare. This is because they tend to live in the most dangerous of locations, such as a living volcano or insurmountable mountains. Despite their weird appearances, magmars are smart, and they can be as cunning as dark type pokemons. They are also relentless in battle, and will not rest even if you put them down. They will simply get back up and keep fighting until they defeat their opponents or they are truly and thoroughly defeated. Wild magmars are vicious, and tend to kill anything that comes near their territory. You will need to be at least an advanced trainer to even attempt at training a magmar.
So if the trainer is question is at least an advanced trainer in skill level or higher...
"Grandpa Bob, Grandma Lucy, is it possible for me to have a look at the magmar? I have a trainer in mind who is capable of taming it. I will buy it for you if I deem it suitable for the trainer."
Grandpa Bob waved his hand worriedly in front of his chest. "That magmar is dangerous, Velda. We don't even let it out other than for its meal times or to let it stretch its legs to keep it healthy. If it suddenly gets bloodthirsty..."
"I am a trainer who earned all three of my gym badges by defeating the gym leaders in battle. My pokemon are more than capable of defending me from an untrained magmar. It may be your only chance of getting rid of that magmar of yours." I paused, trying to think of a way to convince the elders to let me see the magmar. "The trainer I have in mind is an ACE operative, by the way, so you would not have to worry about his abilities in taming magmar."
The last sentence is all it took to convince them to let me take a look at their magmar.
I cannot help but laugh at magmar's antics when I first saw it.
The elders let it out a far distance away from us. It did not bother about us when it first appeared, and proceeded to wander around the enclosure it was released in. But within five minutes of its release, it managed to trip on its feet 7 times, accidentally set something on fire 5 times, fell into the same hole on the ground 3 times, and hit its head on the same boulder 4 times.
Nineteen different incidents in the span of five minutes since its release from its pokeball, this magmar is a genius.
The magmar is also a certified trouble magnet, much like a certain someone I know. They will be such a perfect fit together.
With Bob's and Lucy's permission, I released my entire team out of their pokeballs and we entered magmar's enclosure together. We walked towards the magmar, with my pokemon forming a protective circle around me. I wanted to test the magmar's capabilities in battle before deciding to buy it.
Magmar instantly attacked us the moment it spotted us walking towards its location.
The magmar is clearly not trained for battle. It only relied on its instinct to fight and tried to force its way with brute strength alone. Bigblue and Dolly had fun toying with him while the rest of us watched a safe distance away. I got bored after I finished assessing magmar's capabilities.
"Snap, end it with a Sand Tomb."
Snap buzzed and rose into the air before joining in the battle. With a mighty flap of its wings, a large cyclone of sand was conjured with magmar as its epicenter. Bigblue cooperated with Snap by loosening the soil around magmar with a combination of rock and ground type techniques. The entire area around magmar was turned into quicksand which magmar quickly sank into until only its head can be seen. Dolly cackled loudly at the sight.
The magmar stared at me with visible hatred in its eyes. It tried to blast me with a burst of flames from its mouth, only for a large slab of stone to rise from the ground and prevented the stream of flames from reaching me, courtesy of Bigblue.
"Thank you, Bigblue, Snap, Dolly." I said sweetly to the three of them, who felt refreshed from a nice workout. I turned to Flamel. "Don't you think this magmar is the pokemon version of Vance? Both are clumsy and a trouble magnet, and they both have a love for battling. What do you say if we get magmar as an early birthday present for Vance? His birthday is about a month from now. I wonder if he will love it?" I could not keep the glee out from my voice, this gift is too suitable for Vance.
Flamel gave a snort and voiced his agreement by slamming his front left hoof into the ground.
I turned back to Bob and Lucy. "Grandpa Bob! Grandma Lucy! How much are you willing to sell magmar for?"
"Are you sure that this is a good idea, Velda?"
"I am sure, Grandpa Bob, Grandma Lucy, don't worry about it."
After a night of discussion, Bob and Lucy decided to sell magmar to me the next morning. I pressed a wad of cash worth 8,000 pokedollars into Bob's hands, and took magmar's pokeball from Bob. The price I paid was the final price after accounting for a more than 50% discount of the original selling price on the elders' part, and it was still so freaking expensive.
Magmars are just that rare.
"The pokeball transfer system is over there." Lucy pointed to a machine sitting by the far side of the room at the corner of a wall, opposite the counter where they do business with their clients. "You just need to key in the trainer ID of the trainer that you are going to send magmar to. Please inform the trainer that the magmar is a male, the males of their species are usually more aggressive than the females, and it needs to be handled with extreme caution."
"I will." I replied as I placed magmar's pokeball on the pokeball holder of the transfer system, and keyed in Vance's trainer ID. I watched the pokeball vanished in a burst of light before sending a quick message to Vance using my xtransceiver to inform him that the pokemon I just sent is an early birthday present for him. I cannot wait to see the look on Vance's face the next time we video call each other.
"A magmar. You sent me a magmar." Vance deadpanned.
Vance was currently in a training field from what I could see in the video call.
"Yes brother dear, don't you love it? I spent quite a lot of money on this magmar for you, do you know that? Isn't it just adorable? I knew I found the perfect gift for you when I saw him. He is the pokemon version of you, I cannot think of anything more suitable than him for your birthday present." I replied with the sweetest voice I can manage and pasted the most innocent smile on my face, making sure to stress the important words. I am enjoying this way too much.
"How is this a suitable birthday present?! You sent me a magmar, who thought that challenging my salamence the moment he is out of his pokeball, a trained dragon, was the smartest decision! You sent me a magmar, who keeps lighting random things on fire every few minutes, and walrein is absolutely pissed at trying to do damage control! You sent me a magmar, who keeps colliding into things the moment I turned my attention away from it! I even checked his eyesight, and it is working perfectly! This magmar is a trouble magnet!"
"You are a trouble magnet, and you don't see me and Macky complain as much. Accept it, you and magmar are a match made in heaven."
I heard laughters from the other side of the video call, and saw Vance turned away from his xtransceiver to tell his colleagues to shut up.
"Seriously though, your team lacks a strong fire type. Magmar is definitely strong enough to fill that role the moment he finishes the training you put him through and evolve into a magmortar. You are an ACE operative. Your pokemon are more than capable of keeping him in line if he gets rowdy. I would not have gotten magmar for you if I don't believe that he will be an asset to you in the future." I said seriously. "I would have try to get a magmarizer for you as well, but those are hard to find. You would probably have an easier time finding those using your status as an ACE operative."
Vance was about to reply when a loud crash was heard from Vance's side of the video call, followed by a shout of 'Flaming tauros shit, control your damn magmar Vance!' I could hear a salamence's angry roar and Macky's cackle, before hearing an even louder explosion. I could see Vance ducking suddenly behind a boulder to avoid a stream of fire, and immediately jumped out of the way when a huge jet of water burst from outside my vision from the opposite direction to fight the fire. This is the mayhem that I could see from the limited vision of the video call alone. I can only wonder what else is happening that isn't captured from the point of view of Vance's xtransceiver.
Vance groaned and placed his palm on his forehead. "I have my work cut out for me, don't I?"
"Yes you do, brother dear. Yes you do."
It took me another three days by travelling through Fiery Path and riding the cable car for me to reach Lavaridge Town.
Lavaridge is one of the smaller towns in Hoenn, due to the fact that it was built on the side of a volcano. Despite the small size, the people of Lavaridge managed to earn their fortune by taking the full advantage of living near a dormant volcano. The soil around Mt Chimney are the most fertile soil in all of Hoenn, their mineral content outstripping even those of Verdanturf and Fallarbor. Many farmers have made their home here, where they grow the best herbs and agriculture produce. The locals of Lavaridge even managed to tap onto the geothermal energy provided by Mt Chimney, and it is how 70% of the town's electricity is derived from. There are many hot springs surrounding Mt Chimney, which turns Lavaridge into a popular tourist attraction where many people flock to from all around the world.
I quickly booked a room at the pokemon center upon arrival and made my way to the hot springs at the back of the building. The hot springs is divided into two sections, one for males and the other for females. I stripped myself naked and dipped into the warm waters of the female section of the hot springs. While relaxing in the hot springs, I researched about the pokemons that Flannery, the Lavaridge gym leader, is known to use against challengers on the internet forums using my xtransceiver. From what I could find out, her most commonly used pokemon are torkoal, camerupt, numel, slugma, houndoom, ponyta, magcargo, and a growlithe.
Damn, that is a lot of pokemon to prepare for. Some of them are not even from Hoenn.
This gym battle would be on a level of an intermediate trainer. Flannery is known to challenge intermediate trainers to a 4 vs 4 pokemon battle. I would definitely use Bigblue and Snap in the gym battle, their skill sets are suited for this. Dolly would do well in this gym battle provided that she managed to increase her offensive powers. Flamel can probably hold his ground against the gym trainers, but I am unsure if I should use a fire type against a gym leader who is a Fire Specialist. This means that I would have to ask Kel to battle for me. However, my plan still have one missing key component for us to successfully complete this gym battle.
Power. My pokemon needs more power. More specifically, they need the power that comes from evolution.
Lavaridge's gym challenge is designed to be completed by intermediate trainers. Most of these trainers would have at least three fully evolved pokemon by the time they try to challenge the fourth gym in the gym circuit.
None of my pokemon have reached that state of their evolution. The only pokemon on my team that have evolved so far are Bigblue and Snap.
Snap had just evolved, and I'm not sure if he can evolve further anytime soon. I would need to do more research or ask around if anyone knew about the evolutionary process of vibravas. Bigblue, Dolly and Flamel should be ready to evolve soon, all they need is more training to properly induce the process of evolution. Kel cannot naturally evolve unless you count mega evolution into the equation.
Speaking of which, I wonder if mega evolution is possible in this world. No matter how much I research about this issue, I cannot seem to find any records or studies on mega evolution. It is like mega evolution is not present in this world. Is it because mega evolution has not been discovered yet? Or is it because it is a big secret in this world? Maybe I am in an alternate universe of pokemon where mega evolution simply didn't exist? Which pokemon universe was I reborn into anyway? Is it the game, anime, or another totally different universe?
That is another thought for another day.
If my luck with gym leader battles remained as shitty as what it used to be, I would most likely be facing the fully evolved pokemons on her team. That means that I have a high chance of facing her camerupt, houndoom and magcargo, together with another of her pokemon, which I think would most likely be her torkoal. Those would be the main opposition that I should be preparing my team against.
I frowned. This is not going to be an easy battle.
Getting out of the hot springs and wrapping my naked body with a towel, I made my way to the ladies' changing room to get dressed. Time's a ticking and I should spend every waking moment thinking of ways to complete this gym challenge.
I need Flamel, Bigblue, and Dolly to reach their final evolutionary forms. They should have evolved a long time ago if we weren't so slack in our training. I need their power that their evolutions will bring, and I know that they have been looking forward to evolve into their final forms.
They have done so much to help me on my journey, it is time I do something to help them.
I quickly drafted up training plans for each of my pokemon on our first night in Lavaridge. We will spend the mornings doing individual trainings, where each of my pokemon will focus on different things to train on. Our afternoons will be spent looking for trainers to do trainer battles with. I am broke, after purchasing magmar from Bob and Lucy for Vance, there is an imperative need for us to earn money quickly. We will spend some time at night training at Fiery Path, which is located near Lavaridge outside of the town, to get ourselves used to the heat. I had heard from the nurses at Lavaridge's pokemon center that the interior of Lavaridge gym is steaming hot, and it would be best for challengers to get themselves acclimatised to the heat together with their pokemon. Fiery Path provides a close imitation to the kind of heat that we would be experiencing for our gym challenge.
The most abnormal information that I have learnt from the nurses is that challengers have to use the geysers in the gym to navigate through the maze in the Lavaridge gym.
I will never understand the obsession that gym leaders have with mazes.
Training in Fiery Path was the hardest training we had done so far. Everything got affected when we tried our mock battles against each other, from the speed of their attacks, the power behind it, their reaction time, to our physical stamina. While I had expected to face some difficulties, I have no idea that battling in harsh environments can have such drastic impacts in our performance in battle. To make things worse, I have to take frequent breaks every now and then as my weak body cannot handle the stress of conducting strenuous trainings in harsh environments, and I settled for barking commands to my pokemon while I rested on a cool slab of rock that Bigblue had raised for me.
It is times like these that I wish that I could have a healthy body. It feels wrong to be resting while the rest of my team are hard at work.
We kept up with the training, and by the end of the second week of training, there are visible results. The performance of my pokemon in the mock battles that they participated against each other got a lot better. Outside of Fiery Path, they hit harder, got faster, and lasted longer in battles and trainings. They decimated most of the intermediate trainers that we can find in and around Lavaridge, and I had finished earning back the 8,000 pokedollars that I used to purchase magmar.
My pokemon are also starting to show obvious signs of impending evolution. It would not be long for them to reach the power necessary to induce a successful evolution.
We continued the training. This time, I changed the location of the training we did in the mornings to be conducted in Fiery Path. The harsh training that we put ourselves in had done me some good as well. My physical health and stamina had improved, and I could go on longer in helping to train my pokemon without needing to rest as often. It is a slight improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.
Bigblue was the first to evolve after a month of training in Fiery Path. It is a beautiful process, and I could never stop staring at the process of evolution that my pokemon went through no matter how many times I had seen it before. Bigblue had just defeated a pack of wild machops in Fiery Path before he suddenly gave a loud bellow, and began to glow a blinding white. He transformed before my very eyes. He grew larger, his head fin splitting into two and fitting perfectly on both sides of his head. His limbs grew thicker, and he continued to grow until he towers over me. When the light died down, Bigblue was staring at his new body, trying to inspect the changes to his anatomy. He tried to give a nearby boulder a punch, and it shattered without much effort. He gave a happy roar of delight as I ran up closer to him together with the rest of my pokemon to inspect him better. As I ran my hands over his new body, I could not help but remember the times when I carried him in my arms when he was still a mudkip a few months ago.
They grew up so fast.
Flamel and Dolly both evolved into their final forms a few days later. Flamel did not have problems adjusting quickly to his new body since it does not have any major change other than him growing larger and the addition of a horn on his head. Dolly spent two days trying to adjust to the idea that she now have limbs to use.
What surprised us is that Snap evolved again merely a day after Dolly evolved.
I think it was a surprise to Snap as well. I just finished his training with him in trying to perfect his ground type moves when he suddenly turned around and buzzed uncontrollably. The buzz was so loud that I thought that we were about to be attacked by a large group of wild pokemon, and I was about to send out a command to the team to hightail out of the area until Snap started to glow white. By the end of the process, a large flygon was staring at me while I stared back at him with awe-struck eyes.
Snap's evolution set our schedule back by another week as we gave him time to adjust to his new body and powers. Thankfully, I had earned a lot of money from the trainer battles in Lavaridge so I did not need to worry about paying the fees for using the rooms in the pokemon center.
My team now made a very impressive sight. Trainers who were passing through or training at Fiery Path will give me a wide berth when they saw me walking together with a rapidash, swampert, banette, flygon, and an absol. I will probably do the same thing if I was in their shoes, to be honest.
I gave ourselves three days of rest before we attempted the Lavaridge gym challenge. We explored the town, climbed Mt Chimney, and relaxed in the hot springs. Sadly, none of my pokemon could appreciate the sensation of relaxing in the hot springs. Flamel disliked water while Bigblue and Dolly didn't like the heat even if they are able to tolerate it. Snap would prefer drinking the water from the hot springs instead of bathing in it, and Kel absolutely hated getting wet unless I gave her a bath followed by a grooming session. Our three days of R&R was fun, and we grew closer to each other as a team. Dolly kept trying to tell me something when we were climbing Mt Chimney, but I really couldn't understand what she was trying to say. She kept doing some wild gestures with her limbs and pointed at a cliff on the side of the volcano that we were climbing. I could not find anything wrong with it.
Now that I think about it, could the cliff be the entrance to Team Magma's base? In the games from my previous world, Team Magma built a base on Mt Chimney if I recall correctly. But is it possible for them to even build a base in a volcano in real life? They will just get cooked alive.
Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I sunk myself lower into the hot springs as Kel lounged around at the edge of it. Fighting criminal organisations is way out of my league. No 11 years old can hope to take on the base of a criminal organisation and expect to come out alive. Besides, building a base in a volcano sounds like a stupid idea no matter how fanatical they are in trying to summon Groudon. My mind returned back to my pokemon. Dolly was resting in a cupboard in the room we rented in the pokemon center. The rest of my pokemon had gotten too big to fit indoors so I kept them in their pokeballs. Kel is helping me to look after my belongings with a watchful eye.
I exited the hot springs after another 10 minutes. I quickly dried myself and got dressed before heading back to my room. We are going to challenge the gym tomorrow, and I need to run through our plans a few more times before I turned in for the night.
It is time to get our Heat Badge.
AN: I just found out a few days ago that there will be a Gen 8 for the pokemon franchise and my first feelings were 'what?'. I know I was slow regarding updates on the pokemon franchise since the news was first release around May or June earlier this year. Still, I don't think that I will be able to incorporate another region into this story given how I had built the pokemon world in IJWTTTW, unless the canon story of Gen 8 gave me some leeway to weave it in. I doubt that will be happening, so you guys probably won't see any Gen 8 pokemon or the new region. I apologise in advance if you were expecting it.
If any of you are wondering if there will be any villains in this story, yes, there will be. Team Magma and Team Aqua will be the future villains in this story even if they wouldn't be making any active appearances yet. I don't think I will let Velda take an active role in fighting against them. It just seemed stupid to me that an 11 years old can take on an entire criminal organisation and win. It is just not possible. This kind of things is what you leave your government to deal with. If the government can't deal with it, then the taxpayers are wasting their money on them.
On a side note, there are questions on why I chose to write from the pov of a reincarnated oc, since I could simply write about an oc from the pokemon world given how passive my mc is on her journey. I would like to clarify that even if you have the ability to change things based on the prior knowledge from your previous life, it does not mean that you have to change things. If I was reincarnated into another world that I had read about in my life here, I can choose to try and change things, or simply watched as things play out for themselves. People always have a choice, and sometimes we can simply choose to do nothing. Besides, there is no motivation for Velda in this story to try and change things. The pokemon world is currently experiencing a time of peace. I still think the question is a good question though, as it got me thinking on what exactly do I want to do with Velda's status as an reincarnated oc. I thank you for asking.
The purpose of this chapter is kind of like a time-skip arc you see so often in mangas. I need Velda to gain more power by having more pokemon with her and to finally allow some of her pokemon to evolve. Velda's progress is mainly based on my experience with pokemon emerald, and I remembered that most of my pokemon would have fully evolved around this time. Hence, the need for a time-skip arc.
The plot of IJWTTTW will be picking up soon, probably somewhere between the 10th to 20th chapters if I estimate correctly. If you want to see something exciting, please be patient. I will try to churn out chapters as fast as I can, but my main priority is to ensure that the quality of each chapter is not adversely affected in my haste to write them out.
Last but not least, I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter.
Character and Pokemon List:
Velda Vera, Age: 11, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Reincarnated Soul (to be kept a secret until the day she dies again)
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
Vance Vera, Age: 18, Male, ACE operative and second-in-command to his ACE squad, older brother to Velda Vera
Pokemon on hand:
1) Gengar (Macky), male
2) Sceptile
3) Salamence
4) Metagross
5) Gallade
6) Walrein
7) Electivire
8) Weavile
9) Magmar
