Episode 10: Always Second Bagon

So there they were, Ensara Lily and Shade, facing Jansen with his stupid smirk. Ensara sighed. This was going to be one of those days.

"Shade, meet Jansen. Jansen, meet Shade Wagers. Shade is my traveling companion and Jansen is…..well he thinks he is my rival. But I don't actually care about him or what he values all that much. He really is just this jerk from my town." She says, waving Jansen off.

"Hey! I'm not just a jerk, I'm your rival jerk! Thats what rivals are supposed to do! Be jerks to each other so that we push each other to be stronger!" Jansen protests back

"and I am fully aware who Shade Wagers is! He is that Unovan dude who lost to Shine Destine in the final match of the Unova League. How pathetic."

Shade eyebrows turn fierce behind his sunglasses. "Excuse me?"

"Hey! Big talk coming from a guy who had three pokemon but lost to one!" Ensara pointed out.

Jansen only sniffs in contempt. "Don't you know anything? Getting second place only means that your the first loser. You either win or you lose, and if you don't defeat others others will defeat you. Only being the absolute best matters, ever. Its why we breed pokemon to get the best specimen of their kind. Its why we use Mega-Evolution. Its why we have tournaments at all. To separate the best person from the rest. To Win! Someday I'll be Champion, and laugh at all the losers under me!"

Jansen finishes with a psychotic look in his eyes. Ensara blinks dully at this and replies "…Are you done with your stupid speech? And since you lost to me, doesn't that mean your the loser?"

"That was a fluke! I have a full team now, capable of defeating you, Ensara! Fight me! I'll show the true meaning of a pokemon battle!" He shouted back, a vein appearing on his forehead.

"Fine, if it gets you out my hair." Ensara replied while rolling her eyes

Shade chuckles. "Heh. I think I know what kind of trainer you are now, Jansen…"

Jansen scowls "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." Shade replies back in a teasing tone, a smile playing upon his face.

"Whatever. Our battle will be three on three, Ensara, get ready to lose!"

Ensara and Jansen face each other. She throws out the first pokeball

"Go! Masala!"

"Go! Inkay!" Jansen shouts in response. A floating squid-like pokemon with a deceivingly cute face appears to respond to Masala's humanoid wolf figure.

The two pokemon land and Dex whispers to her "Inkay is Psychic/Dark. Neither Masala Nor Emerald are good matchups. Switch out."

She does so, returning Masala to send out Fortuna, only for Jansen to smirk and switch out Inkay to send in:

"Go! Phantump!" what looks like a black ghost wearing a stump on its head with two eyeholes appears to face Fortuna's pink furry cattiness.

Ensara growls. This wouldn't work! Fortuna only had normal attacks! there was no way to damage Phantump. But he was grass type. She switches out Fortuna for Flara. Jansen switches Phantump for-

"Frogadier!" Jansen yells

A thus does the evolved blue frog appear to respond to her own fox starter. One would notice that his Frogadier has noticeable scars upon his body and looks particularly angry. Ensara grits her teeth.

Dex sighs. "Zzt! You fool! You allowed him to lock you into three disadvantageous types by switching around so early! Now he knows your team and has all the answers for it!"

"Working on it." She mutters back then yells "Flara! Psybeam!"

In response Jansen switches out Frogadier for Inkay.

"Inkay, Foul Play!" he yells.

The squid-like pokemon takes the Psybeam without a single scratch, then Inkay charges forward while dark energy flares around it in a shadowy corona to hit Flara dead on, sending Flara tumbling and falling to the ground.

"Flara! Try to use-" Ensara shout

"Again." Jansen commands.

Inkay hits Flara with Foul Play as she tries to stand up and she is knocked down again and faints from the hard-hitting blows.

-Hey….I wasn't…..even beginning yet….- Flara complained

Ensara frowns and sends out Masala

"Masala! Force Palm!" Ensara shouts

"Psywave." Jansen answers

Inkay floats to the side to avoid her strike then hits her with psychic energy, overloading her mind, not built to handle such energies and making her faint in a single move.

-What…..what the…..- Masala sent back.

Ensara begrudgingly returns her and sends out Fortuna, sure enough Jansen sends out Phantump.

"Nyaaa?" Fortuna meows in confusion. It was a ghost type, what was she even supposed to do?

"Faint Attack. Finish this." Jansen orders.

Phantump vanishes, then suddenly ambushes Fortuna out of nowhere, hitting her from behind and sending her into unconsciousness as well. Ensara returns Fortuna to her ball, frowning. At this Jansen grins and begins his victorious speech, his brown eyes widening maddeningly:

"Now you see the true meaning of battle! I have won, Ensara. For you see in this world only the strongest trainers make it to the top, and I have proven that I am the stronger of us both, and the strongest is whoever does anything they can to win no matter the cos-"

"Yeah, yeah whatever, you you guys ok? Here, I'll clean you up and get you some potions, we're going to have to work on this battling thing more." Ensara says, waving away Jansen while treating her downed pokemon, not even paying attention to him.

"What!? You lost! Stop ignoring me! I've proven that I'm stronger! Why aren't you demoralized!?" Jansen shouts in rage, his eyes twitching.

Shade chuckles. "I think your barking up the wrong tree there, dude."

"Look." Ensara replies, rolling her eyes. "My goal is to capture Mew. Not to win the Tournament, or become Champion or be the strongest trainer ever. Sure, Mew says that she will only appear to me when I win the tournament, but thats just a stepping stone, a requirement to fulfill. The only battles that count for me are the eight Gyms, the Tournament Finals and the one with Mew itself. Just whats required, no more no less. This battle has nothing to do with that aside from pointing out my weaknesses, so, thanks I guess? And really doesn't stop me from achieving anything I want to. So um, thanks for helping me see what I need to work on, you've been helpful."

Jansen explodes in anger back at her. "No! Thats not how its supposed to go! Your supposed to vow to beat me one day! We're supposed to test ourselves against each other and clash with hatred in our eyes! Not thank me for beating you!"

"Again. Up wrong tree, barking you are." Shade replies while nodding sagely.

"Raaaaaaaaaaghh! I'll show you! I'll show you the true meaning of power, and crush your stupid dream someday!" Jansen then storms off in a rage, completely forgetting to accept any money for the win.

After a few moments of awkward silence, wondering what to say after something like that, Lily broke the ice.

"…How did you do that? You made him angry to win. I've never seen Jansen do that."

"Oh." Ensara says "I just looked at the situation logically then trolled him with the truth. Truth-trolling. People like him can never accept it."

"Yes, but…I'm going to have to say that your going to have to step up your game nonetheless." Shade cuts in. "I'm not going to allow you to lose a battle like that just because its "unimportant." Every battle is an opportunity to hone your skills and prove that you can win for the important ones. I applaud your ability to lose gracefully and to tick off jerks like him, but that won't help you get Mew. And a guy obsessed like that? He might just get far enough to be a threat. You better start preparing."

Ensara stands up, her treatment finished.

"Well, we can't prepare without more pokemon. I need to diversify my team. Lets go out and try and find some!" she points forwards.

"In the desert?" Lily asks, looking around.

"Of course! The Kalosian Wastelands have Ground types, Steel types….even Dragon Types! Yeah, lets try and find one of those." Ensara says, her spirit firing up.

"Only Gible if I remember correctly…so…"

"So what? We'll see if your right soon enough!" Ensara responds while charging ahead. Shade shrugs at Lily and follows her.

"Look a Trapinch!" Ensara says, pointing.

"Go, Masala!" The pokemon burst forth from the ball in a shower of light. She takes a fighting stance while the Trapinch, looks at her curiously. The little sand dweller did not know what to make of these newcomers.

"Use Force Palm!"

-On it. En garde!- Masala speeds forward hits Trapinch with her open palm and it goes tumbling away. Then it flips itself back up, angry and begins calling out angrily, making a lot of noise yet wasn't fighting back.

"Whats it doing? Uproar?" Ensara asks quizzically.

Lily answers. "No! Its calling out for help, you fool!"

Another Trapinch suddenly surfaces out of the sand.

"Ah, one trapinch, two, little difference we can take them." Ensara says confidently.

"No, Ensara." Lily explains "Trapinch is a common pokemon here. Some Pokemon that know that they are numerous in an environment will call out for help as much as possible."

Suddenly there were three, then four, then five, then six…

"…To the point where they form herds for mutual protection and gang up on you."

…Soon there was no counting them and they were all angry. Masala takes a few nervous steps back while keeping up a defensive stance.

-Ensara, I'm thinking this was a bad idea- She sends to her trainer.

Ensara's eyes were wide. "Ok then. Shade, what do you recommend?" Ensara asks

He turns a page of his book nonchalantly without looking up or showing any alarm. "Running."

"…And what about you?" She asks

"I'll run with you, don't worry I can keep up while reading at the same time. The Pokemon information in here is really fascinating." He comments idly.

"This is not the time to be studying!" Ensara all but shouts at him in anger.

"Maybe for you. I need to train my mind every second of every day." Shade explains, unconcerned.

-They're getting closer…-

"Fine! Just run!" Ensara yells as she takes off and the others follow. They get chased out from the wider flats and towards a rockier area full of high cliffs until they hit a wall and find themselves surrounded.

"Anymore great ideas, Shade?"

He waves his hand distractedly. "Stop being wimps and use your pokemon."

"Against this many?" Ensara questions.

"Work through the pain." He advises dismissively.

Lily speaks up "I don't think we're badass enough to do that yet, Shade."

"Yeah, do a thing already! Your the experienced one here!"

He snaps his book close in annoyance.

"Fine! I'll solve this for you." he takes out his Poke-flute.

"Whats that going to do?" Ensara begins to snark with a raised eyebrow "Play them a soft lullaby-"

He puts it to his lips and uses it to make a single deep note. Nothing smooth or beautiful- it shook Ensara to the bones, the terrible sound reverberating through the air, the earth, a monstrous unending discordant note promising nothing but destruction and death. It was the sound of angry dragons and raging bears. It was the sound of something that no one ever wanted to mess with, of natures apex predators when they considered you a threat. All the Trapinch instantly run away from the terrible noise, fleeing from the primal sound he somehow evoked from the seemingly benign instrument. When they were all gone, he puts it away and says simply.

"Note of Terror. Imitates the exact sound of the move Roar through careful practice and focus. Thus reproducing its effects. But yes, I can also imitate Sing as well and put them to sleep, but that would've left them around here and made us have to tiptoe so that they wouldn't wake up."

He turns to Ensara. "There. I Did A Thing. Happy now?"

"…..Thanks." Ensara says nervously, a little scared herself.

Then they all hear something strange shout from above them:

"Baaaaaaaagon!"

The three look up to see a falling Bagon. All three quickly jump out of the way and the Bagon lands causing a small crater as it did so. However bagons are tough pokemon, and it gets right back up only a few seconds later and looks around, excited as if ready to fight. Everyone is bewildered at this development.

"How? How did a Bagon end up here?" Lily asks the obvious question "I thought they dwelled on the western coast, where its full of cliffs. Whats one doing all the way out here?"

"Well Gible is a dragon type to right? As well as Flygon? They're dragon types and they dwell here." Ensara reasons.

"Yeah but they're also part Ground, Bagon isn't." Lily said back.

"Perhaps it is best to ask the Bagon itself, yes? I think it was attracted here by all the noise." Shade suggests wanly.

Masala decides to take the initiative to ask, then relays the information to them

-She says that she will tell you if you beat and catch her.-

"Really?" Ensara says with a smile. "Good! I always wanted a Salamence! Perfect opportunity to get one. Masala your up."

Masala takes a fighting stance in response. Bagon opens its mouth and suddenly forms a blue sphere from its mouth thats blasts off as a stream of blue fiery lightning at Masala, the Riolu dodging aside but feeling a tingle of energy as she barely escapes unscathed the roaring train of energy. Ensara ducks and its flies over here, the attack making her shiver from the vibrations it caused around her.

"What attack was that!?" She exclaimed.

Only Shade seemed to recognize it. "Dragon Pulse. Thats a really powerful attack, but how would a Bagon know that? Unless…"

"…Masala! Goad it into charging! Now!" Ensara commands quickly.

Masala nods and sends while a come hither motion with her paw.

-Bet you can't hit me with that flightless thick head of yours!-

Bagon knew that Masala was playing her, but she wasn't going to back down from a challenge. Bagon leaps forward in a Headbutt attack, coming at Masala like a miniature cannonball. Masala, sensing her trainers intentions dodges out of the way of this attack as well, letting Bagon keep flying straight to Ensara. Just when it seems Bagon was going to crash into her and break all her bones, she suddenly throws a Quick Ball at point-blank range. It hits and Bagon is sucked inside. The Quick Ball falls to the ground and wobbles once.

Twice.

Thrice.

Then….click. It was caught. Ensara picked up the Quick Ball and sends out Bagon.

Bagon protests with Masala translating:

-She says: Hey! No fair! You caught me before we really got going!-

"Hey, I caught you and therefore beat you, didn't I? Quick Balls are practical like that. Get this done fast. That and you never said I couldn't beat you with trickery."

-I kind of agree, that wasn't really a fair fight to just capture her like that.- Masala said back.

"So? Fair fights have rules. I have none, and there were none aside from catching you as a win condition. I achieved that win condition, so spill."

-She says: Fine, but I'd preferred it if you beat me. Ahem. The reason I'm here is because I was cast out.-

"Cast out?" Lily asks.

-She says: I was born from an egg, where many other Bagon lived. Raised by humans. A man was assessing and evaluating them. Every Bagon he disliked, he would release into the wild, discard after declaring them not good enough. He came to me and proclaimed: "only second best." then released me to. Then I wandered the wilds, not sure of what to, wanting only a trainer to prove my strength for so that I may prove that I am best, and not merely second! For I hate that human judging me so, when my true potential hasn't even begun to be realized!-

" that explains it. You were from one of those pokemon day cares, where pokemon breeders try to breed the best most healthy pokemon possible for battling." Shade says. "Such Day Cares make tons of money off of selling high-quality bred pokemon to competitive trainers. It explains why this Bagon knows Dragon Pulse. Its a common attack they try to breed into them as an egg move. Mostly because its powerful, reliable and more accessible and safer than Draco Meteor. The Breeders at the one this Bagon came from must be really good if they can reliably raise and breed Dragon types. Those are one of the harder types to deal with, not just behaviorally and strength-wise, but because they take long to hatch."

"Then why release any?" Ensara asks.

"Because such places have high standards." Shade explains. "They are not the usual day cares where people just leave any old pokemon around. The day cares I'm talking about have perfected the art of assessing, breeding and raising pokemon to be the best possible battlers since birth down to a science. They won't accept anything that doesn't start out right from the egg as the most powerful pokemon they possibly can. That and by releasing the rest, they create scarcity so they can charge a lot for even one. Of course it means that only the richest guys can even get these bred pokemon while the released ones either have to fend for themselves without a proper parent or get caught by a trainer who assumes they are like any other wild pokemon. And of course, by doing this it can wreak havoc on the ecosystem so Pokemon Rangers often have to capture and move them somewhere else."

"Sounds like you don't approve." Lily observes "You have a bad experience with them?"

"No I just prefer to earn my pokemon, as well the pokemon's strength. Besides it feels a bit wrong to custom make them like that just for an advantage in battle. One's bred just to be harmless companions I'm fine with, but battle-breeders are generally both heartless, only in it for the money and don't really care how their actions affect the pokemon they discard or the ones that they don't. Battle-bred pokemon are held to incredibly high standards and often valued for nothing but their battling skills, and the trainers that buy them consider them nothing but things to show off and get far in tournaments. I on the other hand, believe that even if I'm an Ace Trainer that there is more to a Pokemon than just battling, more to their lives and our lives than that." He crosses his arms, clearly lost in thought and remembering other things as he says so.

"You seem to know a lot about this stuff, Shade." Lily comments. "You know a Breeder or two?"

"You could say that. You could also say I've had education on such topics." He doesn't elaborate further than that.

Bagon gapes at this in surprise.

-She says: You mean there are other things in life besides battling and getting stronger!?- Masala translates to them.

"Yeah. By the way, how about a nickname? Excalibria sound good to you, little Bagon?"

Excalibria nods at this.

-She says: Its good to know…but I still want to get stronger. I want to prove that I'm not second best just because of my birth! I want to prove my true strength and skill, that I can beat anyone! I want to fly high, I want to show how great I really am. A Dragon has to have their pride y'know? You get that, trainer?-

"Yes, and my names Ensara. Don't worry, I want you to be nice and strong and flying as well. Flying upon the back of a Salamence has alway been one of my dreams. Second to getting Mew."

-She says: Getting Mew eh? That sounds like a tough enough goal for a trainer! I like you. A little trickster-y for my tastes, but I think you'll grow on me! Now where is a good fight!?-

Sure enough a wild motto-spouting duo of thieves appears, riding on a strange robotic platform surround by marching Trapinch:

Prepare for trouble!

Make it double!

To protect the world from division

to unite all peoples within our religion

to rule all as the blessed few

to give our lives to Holy Mew-

"Excalibria! Dragon Breath!" Their motto is interrupted by a jet of green flame suddenly bursting out at them and Joshua and Hannah dodging out of the way just in time.

"What was that for!? We didn't even finish it!" yells Hannah.

"Your existence you stupid cultists. I only waited so long so that you'd get into range" Ensara quips back.

Joshua proclaims "No matter! With our Hypnotic Arachna-Platform, controlling all these Trapinch, we will defeat you, take all your pokemon and convert them all to worship of glorious Mew! Soon we will raise them to devoted Flygons, and conquer town after town in Mew's name on our crusade!"

"…You know these people?" Shade questions

"Yeah, I've seen them briefly, but Ensara, explain?" Lily asks as well.

"They're just two non-threatening criminals with a religion instead of a team. They're mostly harmless." Ensara says while waving them off, Joshua and Hannah frowning at this assumption.

Shade stretches and yawns. "Eh. I've already done my fair share of criminal thwarting with remnants of Team Plasma. Ensara you do it, I'll step in case you fail."

Ensara rolls her eyes. "Gee, thanks for the support."

"Don't mention it!" He replies with a knowing smile.

"I notice that these are the same trapinch that you scared away Shade." Lily comments "Anything to say about that?"

"Nope." Shade says

Lily gives him a cross look.

"What? Its not as if my flute skills caused this to happen, they hypnotized the trapinch, not me. I solved the first problem, you guys solve the second, harder problem." He leans back and relaxes against the cliff.

"Bagon! Ba, Ba, gongongon!" Excalibria exclaims while pounding her chest.

-She says: Hey let me take care of them all! I'm super-strong, Ensara! You won't need anyone else for these losers!-

"Are you sure?"

-More than sure! Its guaranteed! I'll blow them all away!- The little Bagon say while flexing. Hannah and Joshua snicker and send out Ditto and Meowstic.

"Go ahead!" Hannah calls "Between a Ditto, a Meowstic and an entire heard of hypnotized trapinch, see how far you go!"

"Alright, Excalibria! DRAGON PULSE ALL THE TRAPINCH!" Ensara yells while pointing.

Once again the blue ball forms and fires out as a powerful fiery jagged beam, a destructive force exploding through the trapinch and sending them flying away everywhere. The Mew Cultists react quickly

"Quick, Meowstic! Psybeam!" Hannah calls

"Ditto, Transform!" Joshua commands

"Excalibria, Bite!"

The bagon dodges the Psybeam and jumps forward, clamping her jaw down upon Meowstic's head, her teeth filled with dark energy and injecting that into her victims body to disrupt the carefully set up psychic matrices within. The shock of the bite knocks out the Meowstic in one hit. Suddenly Ditto comes in, smashing its skull against Excalibria and sending her stumbling backwards with its Headbutt. Ensara smiled. That was a mistake.

"Excalibria, Dragon Breath the faker." She calls.

Suddenly green flame burst from her mouth and hit Ditto like a rushing stream going through rapids. The Ditto unable to stand up to the very draconic might it emulated.

"Now! Get them out of here! Dragon Pulse!"

One final shockwave of blue fiery lightning, crashing through the air, and there was an explosion. The Mew Cultists go flying away, proclaiming something that Ensara could not hear.

"Wow. Your powerful, Excalibria. Even as a Bagon." Ensara said with a giddy smile

Excalibria pumped her arms and posed as if that was obvious.

"If thats what you can do NOW….I'll love what you'll be able to do fully evolved."

Bagon growled happily while scratching behind her head in embarrassment, then suddenly flopped over, tired. Ensara rushes over, trying to see whats wrong when Shade chuckles.

"Of course it was too good to be true. Excalibria is powerful, but currently not energy efficient. She can do a lot, but only for a short period of time. Your going to have to develop her endurance."

"Perhaps thats why she was released?" Lily wonders "The way her body is built, she can only use a great amount of power in short bursts, so they chose bagons who can fight well sustainably rather than waste time with one who would finish the fight quickly but would get taken out as soon the battle gets long, which isn't viable in long six-pokemon battles that the Pokemon League demands."

Ensara returns Excalibria to her quick ball.

"Look on the bright side: you develop her stamina, and she will become terrifying, a pokemon that'll be able to sweep entire teams, assuming no Fairy hard counter." Shade adds.

"Thanks guys. C'mon. We got to get to Coumarine!" Ensara says while pointing towards the horizon.

They set out for Coumarine. It would be another couple of weeks through the desert, with Emerald and Masala learn Psychic and Brick Break respectively. Flara meanwhile practices spitting fire until she got Flamethrower down- it wasn't a hard move to learn, just a powerful one that needed the proper control to keep the flames from going out of control. Excalibria mostly just practiced Dragon Pulse repeatedly to try and build up her stamina, but she had a long way to go until she could fight for long periods. Meanwhile Fortuna went a different direction, starting to develop a fighting style of confusing and disabling the opponent then defeating them while they are down- Ensara made sure that she started to learn things like Attract and Dream Eater in particular. If Excalibria was her hammer, it seemed that Fortuna was going to become her dagger. She was not sure where the other three would end up in their styles however.

Moreover both Lily and Ensara improved in their training, through Aura they began to consistently pick up general feelings and one-word thoughts from pokemon that couldn't outright communicate with humans themselves. Soon, they make it out of the wastelands and Coumarine comes into sight. The Third Gym, was not far ahead.

Meanwhile The Cult of Mew were lying in the crater they crashed in. Hannah complains.

"Why did we do that?"

"Because" Joshua explains "A threat was needed to establish how powerful that Bagon was. The writer screwed us over again."

"Great." Hannah. "Now what do we do? Its pretty clear we will never win and are doomed to fade to nothing. Even the writer forgot we existed for a couple chapters!"

Joshua grins. "Ah, but I planned for this." He takes out a second hypno-device.

"I knew that the writer would cause our FIRST hypnosis machine to be destroyed, so I built a second one and didn't mention it until now! Now we simply wait for them to get out of these wastelands, we will simply go back and hypnotize the Trapinch into being our converts again, then we raise them into Flygons while those teenagers move on with their journey. All we have to do is not follow them!"

"But she is a heretic, who thinks she speaks to Mew, when we speak for her!" Hannah protests.

"So? We can take our time. Lets be patient and get us our horde of Flygon. We will purge that heretic in time…" Joshua grins evilly and they go off to round up the Trapinch again.