"Nice job, Zuma!" Sera congratulated as their latest opponent sulked off.
The Zigzagoon puffed up proudly in the wake of her latest victory. I really did it! Senpai's bound to notice me at this rate!
Spitfire rolled her eyes. There are only six of us, it's really hard not to notice each o-
You're just jealous, Zuma accused. That I'm getting so much better and stronger than you on top of being so much cuter.
Spitfire's back fur bristled fiercely as she let out an indignant bark at that, but Sera mumbled a gentle, "Calm down." Reluctantly, both complied, if with a last huff at each other first.
It was true that Zuma's strength was growing rapidly, and Sera could hardly begrudge her for being proud of her progress, but she worried her arrogance might be getting a tad out of hand. Such a thing was common with traded Pokemon, especially at lower levels, unfortunately. But once they got to Rustboro and Sera got her first badge, the energy it exuded should help override thoughts of defiance for a while. Of course, a scant few dissenters of the Games and the League accused this of being an immoral practice, Sera saw no issue with promoting cooperative attitudes among her teammates.
"Looks like it's just across this bridge now, guys," Sera chimed. At this rate they could even take a little while to relax in Rustboro. Sera had been there a few times, but it wasn't often she'd gotten to go to any city bigger than Petalburg, so she was quite excited.
"Hey!" a small voice called. "You have two Pokemon!"
Sera looked up to see a pair of twins, perhaps 10 years old if not younger. How cute! "Actually, I have seven~" she declared proudly, giving them a wink.
They both gasped. "Gina and I each only have one," the other twin said.
"But that makes two between us," the first twin, Gina, reminded her. Turning to Sera she asked, "Wanna have a double battle with me and Mia?"
"'With Mia and me'," Mia corrected.
Gina frowned. "Nnno, you're Mia, I'm- oh that was grammar. Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
Sera laughed. "I'd love to have a battle~" And speaking of promoting cooperation among teammates! "Spitfire, Zuma, what do you say?"
The Pokemon looked at her a little indignantly, but both sighed their consent. If I must, Spitfire murmured.
Just don't hold me back~ Zuma chirped brightly.
"Go Seedot!" "Go Lotad!" Oh nice. Fire Fang should make quick work of the prior, so they could gang up on the latter. This battle was in the bag.
. . . A pause was shared between them all. Looking around, Mia finally asked, "...Do you guys wanna-"
"Yeah we should probably get off the bridge," said Gina.
"Good point," chuckled Sera. So trainers and Pokemon crossed together to set up in the open field instead.
"That's much better," said Mia, with a sudden wicked grin. "Seedot! Secret Power!"
"Say what?" Sera watched in horror as Spitfire got blindsided, and worse, the attack put her to sleep. "Not cool," she grumbled, bringing out her ball.
"Hey!" called Gina. "This was supposed to be 2 on 2! You wanna play fair, right?"
Wow. What little brats. Sera rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever. She'll probably only be out for like a minute or less anyway."
Not to worry, ojou-sama! Zuma can handle this~ the Zigzagoon assured her.
"I hope so," Sera mumbled. "Headbutt that Seedot!"
I've got a better idea! She promptly used Baby Doll Eyes on the Lotad, which would have been great if the Lotad hadn't countered with an unaltered Absorb on Spitfire. But did the hit wake her up? Of course not.
"It's got special attacks," Sera grumbled. "You're gonna have to just hit it."
Fiiiine.
The battle was slow-going, but finally Zuma managed to knock out the Lotad. Spitfire was still asleep, and Seedot began Biding its time.
"Crap. This is gonna be tricky. If you hurry you should be able to take it down before it's finished storing energy but you have to do it now," Sera urged.
Zuma tilted her head and shrugged. What's the rush? Why not just wait until it fizzles?
Sera grit her teeth. "Because then it can use that stupid Secret Power again and it might be you asleep." Heaven forbid she end up with both of them down.
Zuma sniffed. Unlike sooome Pokemon, I think I could do a MUCH better job of avoiding silly effects.
Sera groaned, but a sudden bit of movement caught her eye. "Spitfire?"
The Poochyena at last awoke, and her eyes focused in on the Grass-type before her. She already knew her orders, and intent on proving herself, she leaped forth with mouth ablaze.
"Spitfire!" Sera called, reaching out, but she'd already made contact. The flames spread and washed over the acorn.
It was not quite enough.
Clinging to consciousness, the Seedot unleashed all the force it had just received twice over in a concentrated blast. Spitfire was dead before she hit the ground.
"What the hell, Zuma!" Sera spat. "You could have stopped this!"
Zuma looked between corpse and trainer with a frown. What's the big deal? It was bound to happen. With the equivalent of a shrug, she gave Seedot a last light Tackle to knock it out, no particular drive to avenge her fallen riv-er uh 'comrade', that was it.
"Oh poo! You beat us!" Mia whined as she recalled her Pokemon.
Gina clapped her on the shoulder. "It's okay. We still-... H-hey, lady, is your Poochyena okay?"
Sera quietly recalled Zuma and stuffed her ball into her bag before going and kneeling by Spitfire. "No, she's not." She double-checked her vitals on the very off chance her Nav report was wrong, but the pup was indeed gone.
"O-oh my gosh. I didn't know we were that strong?" Mia murmured. "We uh.. weren't trying to-"
"It happens," Sera sighed. "Just part of the Game, right? Besides, I should've known better than to try to get those two to work together." She scrolled through some options on her Nav until she found the one she sought. A few moments after her request was sent, Spitfire phased and disappeared, just like all the fallen Pokemon in the wild. A small flash of light from Sera's bag indicated that her ball was taken as well. "I guess I still have Flash for Fire moves, and I won't really need a Dark-type for a long time, statistically and historically speaking. But it still kind of sucks," Sera reasoned to herself, then sighed again. Forcing a weak smile, she turned to the twins and told them, "You two make quite a team, though. Keep up the good work."
"Uh… Yeah! Thanks, miss," said Gina with a nod. "Sorry again about the accident."
"Don't sweat it," Sera said. Then she excused herself to make the rest of the trek to Rustboro alone, in silence.
[A/N: Aside from better story justification as to why Spitfire was asleep, this is exactly how her death went in-game. To add insult to injury, though? The old lady just past the bridge gives out a Chesto Berry. -_- ]
Morgan's own trek through the route a few hours later was far less eventful. She had to admit, as awkward as Dr. Scardee here was, the trainers they passed seemed to respect him a great deal- and by extension, her. A few still challenged, but they were much more polite. Although it did not seem wise to stop, Morgan was also rather pleased to see a lovely-looking plant nursery along the way. If she had time to spare later, she'd have to try to remember to pay it a visit.
Rustboro was not only the largest city Morgan had seen in Hoenn thus far, but among the biggest she'd spent much time in in general. It may have been a little overwhelming, had she come alone. Fortunately, between her Nav and Scardee casually sliding into the role of helpful tour guide, she felt much more confident she could find her way through the few streets that were relevant to her right now.
"And here we are!" Dr. Scardee exclaimed. "The Devon Corporation's main headquarters!"
Morgan gaped up at what was quite possibly the tallest building she'd seen in her life, at least this close up. Pictures or seeing things at a distance were one thing, but this was downright intimidating. She supposed it made sense, as important and powerful as the company apparently was, but… still, wow.
"Thank you so much again for saving me, and escorting me this far. If you'll just come inside a moment, there's something I'd love to give you."
Morgan agreed and followed him into the lobby. The moment she stepped through the door, the PokeNav floating beside her beeped twice and hit the floor. "Uh-?"
As she picked it up, Scardee exclaimed, "Oh! I'm so sorry, I should have thought to warn you. Devon has so many sensitive projects in the works, they can't risk anything getting out by trainer broadcasting, or anyone recording, or uh- well you get what I'm saying. So all PokeNavs automatically disable inside the building. B-but don't worry, it's built to take impact, so it should be fine."
"Uh… huh." The fall damage wasn't really Morgan's concern, but okay.
"On that note, there are some chairs here by the elevator if you'll just wait for me to run up to my office." Morgan nodded and took a seat, taking the opportunity to double check her inventory and considering what she might want to buy before her first Gym battle.
Finally, Scardee returned, but when the elevator door opened, he beckoned Morgan to join him rather than exiting. "O.. kay?" When the door closed behind her, she asked, "What's up? Where are we going?"
"We're not. But the security camera in this elevator is broken right now." The hair on the back of Morgan's neck stood on end. UH… Noticing her reaction, he put his hands up. "N-no it's nothing uh- I just.." He stopped and took a deep breath. "This is highly confidential. No one can know I'm giving you this." He produced a small machine and placed it in her hand, placing his own over the top of it.
"Wwwhat is it?"
"This is my groundbreaking Experience Share. The prototype, but a fully functioning one, I assure you. I've found your information in the system and registered it to you, but no one should be looking to notice something like that. So… What it does is hone in on and manipulate the unique energy that makes up a Pokemon's body. As you may have noticed, Pokemon don't grow quite the same way we do. When they get stronger, it's more… permanent, for the most part. When switched on-" he moved his hand to point out an on/off switch- "my device reads the energy signatures every time such a change occurs, and replicates that energy in small bursts that get distributed to every nearby Pokemon registered to the same trainer."
Morgan's mouth hung open. "Uh… So, what you think you just explained to me is that this thing literally breaks the laws of physics?"
"I'd- more say bends them," he insisted. "And Pokemon are such fascinating creatures, this isn't even the strangest thing science is capable of. But as you can imagine, it would be very easy to abuse a power like this. So it should help you greatly on your journey, but for your own safety, no one can know you have it."
"Whoa, hey, I- I couldn't just… Is it even okay for you to give this to me? Like, isn't this cheating and-"
His hands grabbing hers tight silenced Morgan, and in his eyes burned a more determined fire than she'd have thought possible from the awkward bumbling scientist. "Morgan," he said firmly. "You saved my life."
It took her a moment to find her voice, at which point all she got out was a "B-but all I did was-"
"I'm sure it didn't seem like much to you, but…" He took a deep breath, and one hand moved up to pinch the bridge of his nose in hesitation. "Do you remember the uniform that man was wearing?"
Uniform? The pirate get-up? "Kind of?"
"He was with Team Aqua. I… I hope you'll never cross paths with them again, but you should know… They're an extremist organization- some suspect outright terrorists. They've been mostly covert up until now, only just starting to make local news in a few places around Hoenn, but… People like me, we've known about them… longer… Morgan, with the kind of work I do, they may very well have killed me for my research. It doesn't matter that he wasn't a very strong trainer; I'm not one at all. Had you not come along when you did, I…" His hand covered his mouth, and Morgan thought she saw tears forming behind his glasses.
"I… I see…" Well, that was… Humbling. And encouraging, in a way? In her adventuring days, she and her companions had saved lives before, but knowing she was still capable of it here, on her own… She'd certainly have to keep an eye out for this Team Aqua, too. It sounded as though others in their ranks may not be so easily dealt with. "But is it… okay? This sounds really important."
Scardee sniffed and recomposed himself. "Ah, yes, I promise. Figuring out how to build it took much longer than actually doing so, and I hadn't reported its completion yet. Thanks to you, I can build another- probably with a more attractive design this time, even. It should only set me back a few weeks at most. Just promise me you'll use it responsibly, and won't tell anyone about it."
Morgan nodded solemnly. "I promise."
Scardee smiled at her. "If anyone does find out on my end, we'll call it… field testing. Just stay safe out there."
"I'll do my best."
Bearing the weight of this new responsibility, Morgan bid him farewell and left Devon. Conveniently, the Gym was right across the street, but rather less conveniently, it seemed it was closed for the evening. At least she'd know right where to find it tomorrow. So to the Pokemon Center it was.
Once she was thoroughly settled in, Genevieve called to congratulate her on another progress benchmark and ask how she was doing. Morgan had to admit, forceful nature and the whole debatably-kidnapping aspect aside, she did appreciate how sincerely Genevieve seemed to care. She could have stuck to business talk, and that was certainly priority, but she branched out, too. She asked how Morgan was liking her journey thus far, what she thought of the Hoenn scenery, how the food compared to home, what her favorite Pokemon that she'd seen but not caught was so far and why she liked it-
What it was like battling that strange pirate man, and what that nice doctor had given her during the time her Nav was offline. "Uh…" Of course, he'd mentioned wanting to give her something before they'd headed inside, hadn't he. Yet she came out with nothing she could show… "Some really fancy candies he had at his office," she lied. "We ate them all there, and I forget what he called them, but they were pretty good."
"Aww. That's so nice. What a sweet gesture." What a relief, she wasn't asking for details. "What's that, Muffin?" Morgan heard her saying. "I suppose that means it's time for dinner. Well, I'll let you get some rest then, dear. ...Oh, and don't forget to take advantage of the Center's laundry service. Your clothes are starting to look a little dingy."
Morgan barely stifled a laugh as she rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, mom," she teased in response.
. . . Wait that silence was too long. Shit what did she say? "Ah.. Just… make sure you look nice tomorrow. Good night, Morgan."
"... Night." Click.
Well that was awkward… She guessed Muffin may just have been distracting, if Purrloin were anything like every other cat ever. Still, she might want to put that joke on the Not Okay list just to be safe. Eh, no sense in dwelling on it right now, though. She was turning in a little earlier than usual, and that meant time she could spend chilling with Cerberus and getting to know her other Pokemon more outside of battle.
Heck, maybe they could even… watch tv! Wouldn't that be a novel treat. What kinds of shows did Hoenn even have, aside from other televised trainers? Actually, that was certainly tempting as a learning tool if she couldn't find anything else…
However, in the end, she found herself sucked into a cartoon about an apparently super-powered talking… Jellicent, were they calling it? Teaching a class full of middle-schoolers who were supposed to be trying to capture their Pokemon teacher. It was the most ridiculous premise and she could not look away. ...Crap, when did it get so late? ...Well, technically she didn't need to get to the Gym right as it opened its doors or anything, so she could probably afford one more episode… or two… or….
