Arice and I set out on the road the next morning after eating breakfast.
"I will please you today, my lord!" Grime said with her deep voice.
I laughed. "You'll be able to do that if you don't keep fainting."
We followed the exact same plan as the previous evening that entire day. I was sick and tired of the blazing sun and tasteless rations we had to eat for meals. We came across a pond in the afternoon, and even though it wasn't the Buzzing Pond, I made sure our group stayed far away from it, memories of pain flooding my mind.
And the day ended, just like that. We all had fun suffering, and Grime had only fainted twice in the whole day (both because of overconfidence). I taught both of my pokemon new battle strategies, and I had fun getting chased by three wild Zigzagoon at once. Monotone came to my rescue, and had rubbed it in Grime's face after succeeding in wiping all three out with a single well-aimed Acid.
We all made camp that night again, sleeping in sleeping bags, and pokemon inside pokeballs.
"I'm honestly surprised nothing that interesting happened today," I said. "You're like a good luck charm, Arice."
"Thanks!" Arice chirped. "But I don't get everything I want. Remember, I tried catching that Surskit and failed? I really wanted a Masquerain. Their wings are pretty, but they are super strong and ferocious."
"You don't say."
We slept that night soundly, and we were thankfully not killed by Rayquaza that might've felt like randomly attacking us. If Arice hadn't been there, something like that might've happened to me.
The next morning, we set out again, and the boredom became the one greatest problem. It was extremely repetitive; just long, forked paths everywhere (usually with half-broken signs), and a bunch of tall, dried up grass everywhere else. There wasn't that much variation in wild pokemon either, now that we'd been on the route for a long time and had seen every species there at least a hundred times (except for evolved forms; there was only one I'd seen, which was the Masquerain I had killed).
We slept again, and the next morning, we set out again. But as we reached a crossroads a few minutes later, something happened.
"My lord, I do not wish to take the left path. Choose the right path."
"Why's that?"
"Please, my lord?"
"You inconveniencing our group. Left way is right way. Signs says," Montone said.
Grime glared at Monotone. "I know. But... it's dangerous to go left. Bad pokemon."
"Oh yeah!" Arice exclaimed. "Remember how the middle of the route is supposed to be where the strongest pokemon live?"
"That is correct!" Arice's Mudkip, Mudtwo, said in its rubbery voice. Mudtwo acted in almost the same way as Arice, and agreed with her on everything. Quite unlike my starter.
"Exactly. I am from that area to the left. It isn't good for trainers like you. Let's go right," Grime said.
It was silent as I felt five pairs of eyes resting on me. "Why are you all looking at me? I'm not exactly great at decision-making..."
"Voting - my recommendation." Monotone said, and we all agreed to it. Grime voted right... while the rest of us voted left.
"This isn't fair!" Grime complained, trying out its kicked growlithe expression.
I made sure to look away from it. "It makes sense. I mean, we should try braving any danger in order to save time. Tyson and Kyra are waiting for us, after all."
Grime still didn't budge, even while the rest of us had started walking down the left path.
"Grime, I invoke my royal power to command you to come with us down the left path," I said, faking a regal voice. It actually sounded more like an old man choking on his saliva, though.
Grime lowered his gaze. "Fine, as you say, my lord."
And we continued walking down the path. This time, Grime wasn't bounding around us in large circles, but instead was walking right next to me. The pokemon certainly were a bit stronger, and a higher and higher percentage of them were turning out to be Poochyena.
The day ended, with nothing else interesting. Grime never fainted, since she was actually being careful. We had to use a good amount of potions on all of our pokemon, however.
Then the next day started, and we set out again. This time, throughout the entire morning, Grime tried hiding behind the rest of us whenever another Poochyena attacked our group.
A while after noon, I jumped when a wild Poochyena, who had just appeared from the grass, spoke in a dark voice: "You were captured! Ha! So you ran away from our group, eh?"
I looked at Grime, and her eyes were actually watery. "Go away!" she yelled.
"Trainer, she definitely knows this pokemon," Montone said.
"They don't look like friends..." Arice said softly.
The wild Poochyena growled. "Humans. enjoy this weirdo Poochyena you've caught. Humph."
I frowned. "What did you just say?"
The wild Poochyena looked me in the eye. "You understand me? I see. I said that Poochyena you've caught is a stupid weirdo. Got a problem? Unhappy it was her you caught?"
I burned with fury. "You will not insult my pokemon! Grime, head on assault!" I yelled. Head on assault meant Grime would simply keep on using Tackle again and again against the opponent.
That's what happened. When Arice was about to send her pokemon to help, I stopped her. "She should do this alone. This pokemon insulted her, and she needs to beat him up herself."
It was over quickly. The opponent pokemon landed a few shots against Grime, but my pokemon easily overpowered the wild Poochyena. After winning, Grime looked at me and smiled... or at least, that's what I thought the expression on her face was supposed to be.
"I won! Thanks to your training, my lord... I won!" Grime started crying, and I awkwardly patted her head and congratulated her.
"You mildly competent," Montone said. I looked at my starter and smiled. Maybe they could actually get along if given time. But the mysteries and problems were far from over.
"You have some explaining to do, Grime. Why do they think you're weird?" I asked.
"My lord, it's... my ability. The term for it is a hidden ability; a rare ability a pokemon species could possibly have."
I nodded, remembering the concept of hidden abilities from trainer school.
"There's a pack of Poochyena here led by a Mightyena. I'm the only one with a hidden ability... so my whole life, I've been left out and made fun of."
My expression hardened. "Then we'll arrange for you to take out that Mightyena in front of the whole pack. Then they'll respect you, and you can leave with us with pride. Deal?"
"Are you sure!" Arice exclaimed. "A Mightyena! The leader of a pack of wild pokemon! we can't do that ourselves!"
I looked at Arice. "If it's alright with you guys... I would like if all four of us travelled together to wipe out the pack, and we could arrange a one on one, Grime versus the Mightyena, at the end."
"That's fine! A challenge! I like it!" Arice said, pumping her fists. Mudtwo started cheering as well, while the Gothita stayed quiet. It hadn't said a word ever since I had first seen it.
"My lord, I can't take on a Mightyena right now! I'm not strong enough!" Grime protested.
I shook my head. "You're training under me! I'll make you strong enough! Even if your attack power, speed, size, and moves are inferior, together we can find a nice strategy!"
Our group of humans and pokemon continued to debate the matter for the rest of the day. We seemed to have passed the Poochyena pack, as there were fewer and fewer Poochyena, and more and more of other species. Then, three more days passed. We trained hard, and I managed to make Montone interested in battle after starting a contest; whoever fainted more pokemon wins. Of course, it only took a few hours for my two pokemon to start fighting each other, so I had to call of the contest.
We reached Petalburg City. We still had materials to spare, so we weren't in a dire need to reach the city... except for the fact that seeing civilization was so relieving. Living in the wild sucked.
But it wasn't just any civilization. It was a city. Something I had only seen in television. Although far from being a big city, it was still probably 10 times the size of Littleroot Town and Oldale Town combined.
Arice and I returned our pokemon and rushed to the pokemon center., which was five floors high. We still had four pokemon between us, which we gave to the nurse.
"You guys look you haven't bathed in ages! Quickly, show me your licenses and I can assign you rooms. There are only two that are unbooked!"
Arice and I went to our rooms; I was grateful I didn't have to sleep in the same room. I would finally get my own room! I opened the door.
And low and behold, there were two teenagers playing cards on my bed.
My face reddened. "Tyson! Kyra! What are you doing here!"
Kyra shrugged. "It's dusk. Too dark to train, so we decided to stay indoors."
I facepalmed. "Get a legal room! Honestly!"
They didn't respond, so I walked in and set out my things. "You guys were able to make it here, huh? Nice."
"We were," Tyson said. His phone beeped, so he checked it. "Arice texted me. She says she's coming."
I gaped. "She knows you're here?"
Kyra smiled. "She must've taken the other unbooked room, found it empty, and realized we were in this one. Simple."
"Of course," I groaned.
Arice came into the room with some cup noodles, which we all ate together on the bed. She also handed out the pokemon translators, and after that, we all told each other what had happened. Apparently Tyson, who had all of our group's revives, had managed to make it through the route with only one pokemon. Kyra, who had most of our group's potions, made it to Petalburg City through similar circumstances. Neither had caught a pokemon on the route, however.
When it was my turn to talk about what I had done alone, I said the Masquerain flew off after Monotone fainted. Neither of my pokemon had known what had truly happened, so I was going to keep the silver fang a secret. I still kept it with me, since I wanted to make sure no one would ever find out about its power.
"Wow, that's harsh," Tyson observed. "Well, you certainly had it rough."
"Yes. Also, I have a request; can you spare tomorrow for taking care of a Poochyena pack? There's apparently a Mightyena as the leader, who I want my Poochyena to defeat in a one on one."
"I assume you have a strategy?" Kyra asked.
I nodded. "So is it possible? Tyson, your Gastly would get practice fighting a type it's weak against. You too, Kyra. Dark types are the bane of Psychic types, after all."
They agreed to go with me, and I grinned. "Thanks!"
After that, we decided Arice would be sleeping in my room, while Tyson and Kyra would be taking the other room, which was three floors above mine.
"Well, I'll go ahead and kick the bucket. See you tomorrow morning!" Arice chirped.
"Doesn't kick the bucket mean dying?" I muttered as Arice tucked herself under the bedsheets. The room was pretty much the same style as the one in Oldale.
I got up from my chair and decided to walk out of the room to check out the pokemon center. After all, it was much bigger than the two I've seen, and must've had a bunch of amenities.
I walked down the stairs to the first room, where I saw a door with the label 'Pool'. I shrugged and decided to check it out. I had never seen an actual pool before, so curiosity drew me in.
What was inside was chaos.
It was an enormous room, the ceiling reaching up around three floors. Voices echoed all around the walls and water; there were many people there. And the pools were huge. There were even special types of pools, like a hot tub. I even noticed one large, circular pool with only water pokemon in it.
I started drooling. Such fun! City people really had it nice. And as a pokemon trainer, I could enjoy too!
"Hey kid." A voice from behind me said. I turned around. It was the girl with the pink ribbon, wearing swimming gear. I gaped, surprised to see her.
"Whoa! You're disgusting, openly staring like that!"
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"Teenage boys. Honestly disgusting."
Then I realized what she was talking about, and blushed. I explained to her I had never seen a pool before, so I was staring at the pool, not the people in the pool.
"Oh fine. As long as you don't do it again. So, was I imagining it, or were you the boy who got attacked by that creepy old dude?"
"You remembered me? I have to thank you for that. And that Gallade of yours."
"You're welcome. Sorry I had to teleport you to Oldale Town. Pokemon can only teleport to places they've been, and my Gallade has never been to Petalburg City."
"It's fine. I actually caught a Poochyena..." I started saying, before remembering the silver fang. "So why did you want to see Buzzing Pond?"
The girl's eyes lit up. "You know where it is? You see, my Garchomp tore out his silver tooth. You know, the vestigial tooth Garchomp have? Made of pure silver? It was in that pond. I just wanted to retrieve it to get some cash."
Well. "Oh. I haven't seen the pond, actually. But is that all the fang - I mean, the tooth - has to it? It's made of pure silver?"
"Yes? What else would it 'have to it'?"
I shrugged. The girl shrugged too, and we settled into an uncomfortable silence. "My name is Kendra, by the way. I'm 17. I gave up on Buzzing Pond, though, so don't worry about it."
I looked at her and nodded. A few seconds later, I remembered that whenever someone introduced themselves to someone else, they expected that person to introduce themselves as well.
I cleared my throat. "My name is-"
'I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST, THAT NO ONE EVE-' Kendra's phone rang. She picked it up quickly and blushed. It was the hit song that had released a few weeks ago, sung by Ash Ketchum. Ash used to be a favorite to take to the title of champion ever since he started training, but because he kept on switching pokemon like an idiot, he never even became an ace trainer. Now, he was more popular and successful as an internationally-known singer.
"Hello?" Kendra said to the phone. I decided to go back to my room. After finding out the silver fang was actually just a Garchomp tooth, I wasn't so sure it was the fang that was special. Maybe the Masquerain never actually died, and I was just hallucinating? Maybe the Masquerain had a bloody disease or something? It wasn't like I had on a swimsuit or anything, so staying in that room wasn't useful anyways.
As I walked out, I noticed another door labeled 'library'. I shrugged, and walked in.
It was another large room. It was unlike anything I had seen; although it was only a single story high, there were more than 20 books! I had never seen a library like that before.
"Screw you!"
"No, screw you!"
I looked to my left to see two boys my age staring at each other with pudgy, red faces. They appeared to be twins.
"Z-moves are way cooler!" one yelled.
"No! Mega evolution is waaay cooler!" the other yelled.
I sighed, walking in the opposite direction. It appeared unaware numbskulls could be found in the city as well.
"Hey kid!" One of them yelled.
I quickened my pace without looking backwards.
"Hey! I'll give you a free mega stone if you agree with me that mega evolution is better than Z-power!"
I stopped walking, and I turned around, interested.
"Hey! Not fair!" The other one pouted. "I'll give you a Z-crystal if you agree with me!"
I smiled. Looks like I could profit from these buffoons after all.
"HAH! JUST KIDDING! FOOLED YOU, IDIOT!" They yelled in unison.
I sighed, and decided to return to my room. After all, the next day would be difficult, and I would need to sleep a lot if I wanted enough energy.
As I walked out of the room, I noticed another door labelled 'training area'. I felt compelled to open it, but I guessed I would probably run into someone who would compel me to walk out only a few minutes later.
As I stood still, thinking about what I should do, one of the pudgy twins came out of the library, his baggy clothes rustling.
"Sorry about that. Hope your baby-waby feelings aren't hurt..."
I glared at him. "Are you a trainer? What's your age?"
"I'm 13 years old, and a proud trainer. What about it?"
I smiled. "Let's battle. Now. I'm 13 years old as well. The loser kisses the feet of the winner."
The pudgy boy showed his middle finger to me. "&*%^ you. I accept, but the loser has to lick the feet of the winner. Deal?"
I smiled, trying to look confident, but I wasn't so sure. Losing would sure suck...
"Actually, one more condition; the licking has to happen in front of everyone in the pokemon center lobby. Deal?"
I paled. Even though it was early night time, the pokemon center lobby was still full of commotion. Then I remembered how this boy had insulted me, and my expression hardened. "Two on two, single battle?"
"Two on two, single battle. Follow me, loser." The pudgy boy walked purposefully to another door down the hall, labelled 'fighting area'. We both walked in.
My jaw dropped. It was an actual pokemon battle area! Proper size; 50 meters by 20 meters. Edged by a 5 meter wide pool of water. A circle and a line going through the center, written in with chalk. The only thing missing were the thousands of seats that would surround the battlefield in a Pokemon League challenge match.
The boy walked to the opposite side of the field, and took one ball in his hands. I decided to use my starter first. Since my plan was to win, that meant my second pokemon would be the last one standing. Giving Grime that sort of chance would be great for bolstering her confidence.
We both threw our pokeballs in unison. Out came a Poipole from my side. On his side... out came a Metagross. It mega evolved a second later.
"META!" It shouted as I peed my pants.
Chapter 9 MC/age/pokemon changes:
Arice's Mudkip is revealed to have the nickname of 'Mudtwo'.
Note: Kendra and the pudgy boys won't be main characters.
