The Sardonic Adventure of Briar Casey

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has now reviewed! And thank you to Darkkami. Briar says thank you for thinking her rules were funny... then she made a snide comment about Unova. Oh well.

And I just watched Fabula beat the game, and I thought it was just as sad and awesome and stuff as before! Seriously, she started crying... and she doesn't cry for this kind of stuff. To everyone that has this game (which everyone should) that hasn't beaten it... beat it. If you want to know: I cried. And by the time it (the game) was over, I was trembling. It was awesome. Seriously.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Chapter 6

The Best Fighting Pokemon There Is

About a million rules later, most mocking Cilan's hair or Unovians in general, we arrived in Nacrene. At one point, I thought about bringing up Gracie, but Cilan just seemed so happy a person. And I was on a roll. So I decided it was a conversation for another day.

I've heard that Nacrene is the city of the arts, and I can see why. Everything seemed to echo art: the abandoned warehouses made homes, the music wafting through the air. Dina seemed to like it the best, because she began to spin and dance. Cilan, who had been here before, explained some of the historical value and other stuff about the city. Finally, he brought us to the mueseum.

"And this," he said proudly, as if it was his own, "is the Nacrene Mueseum. Believe it or not, it is the only mueseum in Unova."

"That... is kind of weird," agreed Earl.

"Indeed. Also, the next gym leader is in there. She's the curator, I think."

"What type is she?" Dina asked.

"Normal, and quite tough to beat, too. I was able to beat her when I caught a Timburr in Pinwheel Forest, which is right over there." Cilan pointed to the west, towards the next route.

"What's a Timburr?" I wondered aloud.

"Let me show you!" All of us spun around, and we came face-to-face with none other than N. I looked at him, then I looked at Cilan, and then I smiled mischeviously.

"Are you two brothers?" I asked, looking at their hair.

"I've never even seen this guy before, despite his great hair!" Cilan assured. "Besides, then what me and my brothers be? What's it called, quads?"

"I don't think so," I answered. "I'm pretty sure N over here is older. How old are you, Cilan?"

"Fifteen."

"Hey, N, how old are you?"

"What? I'm sixteen. Wait, I came here to battle you, not be questioned on my age and family!"

"Wait, how old are you, Briar?" Cilan asked.

"I'm fourteen! All of us are fourteen! But now that we have all our ages cleared up- thank you, by the way, I'd been wondering how old you were- I will battle you, N, who looks a bit older than he is."

"Finally!" He reached into his belt and pulled out a Poke Ball. "Go, Pid-"

"Oh, wait, that reminds me!" Dina exclaimed. N obediently put down his Poke Ball. "I'm so sorry, N, but I just wanted to show Briar something." She reached into her own belt, which I now realized had four Pokemon. "Go, Munna!" The familiar pink flying thing appeared and began to fly in circles around my friend. I may be a good evaluator (I still had yet to know what it meant), but I was certainly jealous of Dina's ability to make Pokemon like her on sight.

"You caught it?" I asked, though the answer was floating in front of me. Literally.

"Yep!" she answered happily. "Right before I challenged Cilan. She helped me beat his Lillipup."

"Um... that's nice."

"Oh... oh, you're battle! Sorry, I just wanted to show you."

"It's fine," N replied, which I admit, kind of surprised me. Before I could wonder, however, the boy with the long green hair sent out his first Pokemon. "Go, Pidove!" Everyone, including the Munna, stared at the bird-like Pokemon in front of us.

"Probably level thirteen. Flying type obviously. Hey, does anyone else think this thing looks like a Pidgey?" They looked at me like I'd turned into a Pokemon. Whoops. Made the mistake of speaking Kantonian in front of them. "Never mind. Go, Tea!" My Panpour sprang out of her Poke Ball like a little blue acrobat.

"Wow!" Cilan exclaimed. "You're Panpour is even more energetic than Cress'!"

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me. Tea, use Scratch!" She shot like a rocket towards N's Pidove, a set of fearsome claws extended.

"Pidove, use Gust!" countered N. That Pidgey, I mean Pidove, flapped it's little wings with all its might and was able to blow Tea away.

"Awesome," I muttered sarcastically. As you can see, it's kinda my catch phrase. "Tea, use Water Gun!" Tea spurt all the water she could muster at the little guy, and did it with enough force to propel through the artificial wind and hit her opponent dead on. Pidove fell like a stone to the ground, but managed to get up.

"Use Quick Attack, Pidove!" ordered N. Up from the ground in seconds, Pidove was a blur as it darted towards Tea.

"Stay still!" I ordered, I imagine much to Tea's dismay. I waited only a moment, however, then yelled: "Water Gun, again!" The Pidove was close now, and it couldn't change course without crashing. Tea, realizing this, shot even more water than before. Blinded, the Pidove teetered in the air for a second before crashing an arm's length from his target. I guess the momentum was enough to cause him to faint, because, well, he did.

"You fought well, my friend," complimented N, returning the fallen Pokemon to it's Poke Ball. "Go, Tympole!" A weird blue thing with a tail emerged from N's Poke Ball. I guessed that it was a water type from it's color and knew this would be right up Forget's alley.

"You did awesome, Tea," I complimented as well, returning her. "But this is a good battle for Forget." Forget-Me-Not, whom I preferred to have at my side than in her Poke Ball, waltzed up to our little temporary battle ring. "Let's make this one quick. Forget, use Vine Whip!" The obedient little Snivy that she was, she viciously extended her vines and shot them at the Tympole.

"Try to roll out of the way!" ordered him, but he too knew that this battle was over before it even started. When Tympole zigged, Forget zagged. The vines lashed first his tail, then his body. And not to be boring compared to the last oh-so-exciting battle, but I'll just finish by saying that one Vine Whip later Tympole was out of it.

"Don't worry, my friend, you battled well," N assured it. He snatched up his last Poke Ball and released his final Pokemon. "Go, Timburr!" I wondered where his Purrloin was for about a milisecond, then recalled that this was the Pokemon recommended by Cilan to beat the next gym leader.

"Never in my life will I catch that thing," I confirmed. Timburr is a small beige thing with veins sticking out everywhere, not to mention a log. He was just throwing it around. What Pokemon was this? The veiny, show-off Pokemon? "Forget, let's teach him a lesson on being humble. Use Tackle!" By the time Forget-Me-Not was racing towards Timburr, I remembered that it was a Fighting type and that Tackle wouldn't do much damage. Indeed, N didn't even try to have Timburr avoid the attack. Forget hit it dead on, but it still didn't do much.

"Timburr, use Low Kick!" N ordered. The Timburr dove down, dropping its wood for a moment, and swept it's feet where Forget's were. Without being commanded, she jumped up, narrowly missing the attack. It occured to me that it was unfortunate the grunts weren't as smart as Forget-Me-Not when they encountered Jazelle. I thought about Jazelle for a moment and where she was now, then remembered that my Snivy narrowly missing getting blown off her feet, no thanks to me.

"Forget, use Vine Whip!" So what if it was the only move she was using? It was effective. The vines smacked Timburr away like a fly as he tried to kick her again, and he went soaring. However, he must've been tougher than the others, because he got right back up.

"Use Pound, my friend!" commanded N. Timburr basically did a belly-flop and Forget was the pool. She got knocked down, but was able to snake away. You know... 'cause she's a snake. Oh, whatever. "Now use Low Kick!" It was the same attack, but this time it seemed a lot more like a real kick. Awesome.

"Use Vine Whip to catch his foot!" I ordered. Forget's vines extended again, wrapping around the Timburr's ankle. This didn't stop him however. The foot was rapidly moving towards Forget's face. I remembered the last battle, where Forgert-Me-Not had thrown the disappeared-under-mysterious-circumctances Purrloin into a building. "Throw him, like last time!" Forget had no problem following this order. She swung her vines in the direction of one of the warehouses, and very soon Timburr's face was in one of it's walls. Let's just say, it ended like last time.

"You fought well, my friend," N assured one last time.

"I'm still not catching it," I said. N stood up (Unovian boys were a lot taller than Unovian girls), his pride not shaken.

"You are indeed a good trainer," he told me, "but I have a goal that even you beating me cannot shake."

"What is it?" asked Dina and Cilan at the same time. It occured to me that they were a lot alike.

"I want to be a hero, like the ones in the legends!" he explained. "Those brothers were people that could change the world, and that's what I want to do. Change the world!"

"But you must recall that, in the legends, the brothers fought and fought to the point where Zekrom and Reshiram destroyed Unova," Cilan pointed out.

"I am so lost," I said.

"But what if there was only one hero?" N continued, everyone ignoring my confusion. "And what if what that hero believed was truly the best for Unova? For Pokemon? Then, there would be no fighting. Zekrom and Reshiram felt the need to destroy Unova because of all the fighting and arguing, but what if the need was gone? The two could work together, possibly even become one again."

"If you say so," Earl, who also apparently knew of this legend, said sarcastically.

"What the crap are you people talking about?" I exclaimed, irritated that no one ever told me anything.

"I care not for what you say," N admitted. "I will be the hero, and you can't stop me!"

"Um.. okay, I'm confused, but I'm pretty sure that all of this is a really bad idea, so I'll probably either try to stay out of it completely or somehow get thrown into the heart of it, so... you know what? I just want a fighting Pokemon. And not the veiny one."

"Your snide remarks do not bring me down," N said. "Just watch me! I'll become the hero and change Unova forever!" He started to turn, then waved sheepishly (it would be a while before I figured out who it was to), then marched off in the direction of Pinwheel Forest.

"It's a shame, because he seems pretty cool," I lamented, "but I'm pretty sure he's crazy."

"But did you hear what he said?" Dina questioned. "He wanted to change the world, to help Unova. That may be a little crazy, but at least it's for the good of society."

"Oh, Dina, you're to nice. But I suppose you're right." I turned to Cilan. "Hey, are there any other Fighting-types around here that I can use?"

"I don't believe so," he answered. "There are a few more, but you'd have to travel a while before reaching them."

"Did you say Fighting type?" someone screamed. All four of us jumped and spun around to see who this living banshee was. As expected, the shriek came from the mouth of an old man, who looked a little crazy.

"Um... yeah?" He reached inside his gigantic, tatttered jacket and produced an egg, white with green spots. I recalled seeing a few like it at the Daycare.

"In this here egg," the man whispered, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear, "is the best Fighting Pokemon there is."

"The best Fighting Pokemon there is?" Earl asked, eyeing the egg enviously.

"Yessir," the man shrieked, returning to his former volume. "The Daycare Man gave it to me. But you can have it." I stared at the egg suspiciously. It seemed almost too good to be true.

"And it's not the veiny one?" I asked.

"Nope." I snatched the egg, crumbling under the temptation.

"Thank you, sir. I'll take good care of it."

"You better," he wailed. Then, he teetered away, grumbling all the way.

"Lucky," muttered Earl spitefully.

"Well, I guess you don't have to get a Timburr after all," Cilan said happily. "Congratulations."

"But you'll have to walk around for a while to hatch the egg," Dina pointed out.

"Then I'd better start walking." Earl went to Pinwheel Forest to train, and Cilan went to the cafe, but Dina and I walked all around the city. We met just about every resident of Nacrene City, all lovely people that were great artists. We decided to go check on Cilan at the cafe, but he was giving the head chef a cooking lesson (and not getting beaten up by the large man in the process, which was good), so we left. Earl didn't seem to welcome us intruding on his training ("I'm in a zone, don't bother me!"), so we left there too. Finally, we found ourselves back at the entrance to the gym.

"Well that was a nice walk," Dina remarked cheerfully.

I mentally agreed, tracing the dots on the egg. I couldn't tell if it was three more steps from hatching or three hundred. Combined with the other events of the day, I finally let it all out.

"Why the crap won't you freaking hatch?" I screamed at the egg. Dina jumped.

"Briar!" she scolded. "You have to be patient. If eggs hatched that easily, we'd all be carrying more of them with us than Pokemon." I sighed, knowing she was right.

"I just wanna make sure it's not the veiny one," I whined.

"We can walk a bit more," Dina suggested. "Maybe we can head over to the Daycare again, and the Daycare Man can tell us how many more steps it needs."

"But I'm tired," I complained. "This is just another reason to hate my life."

"For crying out loud, Briar." Dina took the egg from my arms and pointed towards the cafe. "Go get Cilan to make you some food. Arceus knows you need it." I grumbled as I trudged to the cafe. Cilan's mood was a great contrast to mine, because appearently the head chef said he was the best chef ever or something. But, as anyone who ever had a bad day would know, the last thing that a grumpy person wants is someone telling them how great their life is.

"Can you just get me some food?" I asked angrily while Cilan introduced me to every chef in the restaurant.

"Geez, sure," he said, sounding hurt. "Sorry, she doesn't usually act like this." He brought me some food, because Cilan's just a nice person, and I must admit that it was delicious. In fact, I got annoyed at Dina for interrupting me when she burst into the cafe.

"What, I'm eating!" I yelled. I'll admit, I was not at my best that day.

"Well, if you're going to be like that, I guess I won't show you you're newest Pokemon," Dina said defiantly, poking a little head back into her vest. I forgot the food.

"No no no!" I yelled. "Let me see it." The Pokemon must speak English, because it rockets out of her vest at the exact moment. It's definitely not a Timburr. This Pokemon is yellow, with red arms and legs and fearsome eyes, which it stared at me with.

"It's a Mienfoo!" Cilan exclaimed. "A girl, with the Regenerator ability. This is a good Pokemon, Briar!" So Cilan could evaluate, too. Perhaps I'd ask him what it meant later. The Mienfoo trotted up to me and looked at me with her beady black eyes.

"Ming," I whispered. "I'll call you Ming." I guess she liked the name, because she took a step closer.

"Mienfoo is definitely one of the better Fighting Pokemon in Unova," Cilan remarked. "The old man wasn't joking."

"Is it the best Fighting Pokemon there is?" I asked.

"I'd imagine not. But I bet you could make it so." Ming took another step closer. I knelt down and held out my hand, which Ming nuzzled up against.

"I thought that if a Pokemon hatched from an egg it liked the person it saw first the best," I said to Dina.

"It does," she answered, "so I put her in my vest so she wouldn't see anyone until she saw you." Ming inched closer, burying her head in my coat.

"You're awesome, Dina, you know that."

"Yep." I scooped my new Mienfoo, Cilan's words echoing in my mind. I'd imagine not. But I bet you could make it so.

"Make it so," I whispered into Ming's ear.

Author's Note: So this chapter isn't my best, but I hope you still liked it. I was sick today and just laying around in a pool of self-pity, so I decided to write the next chapter.

As usual, thanks for reading and please review.