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I endured a month of the most intense training I could possibly do. Zevoa was many times stronger than she was that month prior, but as her physical strength grew, my mental strength got considerably weaker.
Every night I was tortured by nightmares, every single one was a scenario where I could've saved Jerry had I been brave enough. Or it was sometimes an image of Zevoa in Jerry's place, being crushed to death by that monster's massive jaws.
I needed to kill that thing; not only to avenge Jerry, but because I felt it was the only way to gain my sanity back.
Often times if I couldn't even fall asleep in the first place, I sat up, thinking of strategies to take it down. I even bought a squirt gun, because if I knew onix were 4x weak to water; so I figured maybe that could be my method of bringing it down.
I battled and defeated several people during my training; I gained over 450 crown all together, and planned to spend it on supplies that day. I would be heading off to fight the thing the next day, just me and Zevoa. At that moment I was on route 3, the part closest to Pewter, so it wouldn't take too long to get to the city. I began trekking, Zev' in tow. I would go buy my supplies, spend a night in the city then head out to in the morning.
It was afternoon, thirteen-hundred hours, to be exact. It was November, I didn't have much more than 7 to 8 hours of sunlight most days. Dawn was around zero seven hundred hours, and sundown was around sixteen hundred hours. A stray snowflake would fall, a subtle reminder that winter was coming. I was just hoping I wouldn't be caught in any blizzards, the last thing I would want is to be stuck in a goddamned avalanche.
I felt a finger tap me on the shoulder. I was used to it, I didn't even turn around to meet the challenger. I pulled out Zevoa's pokeball and tossed it onto the ground. Just as my pokemon appeared, she turned around, already prepared for the upcoming battle. She stood there and growled at the person behind me, I kept walking until I felt I reached a far enough distance from the person, then turned around to see their face.
It was a young boy, in his mid-teens, with long red-hair and freckles. I grinned at his goofy looking beaver teeth and pale white skin. The kid looked silly. He fumbled around for his pokeball; upon finding it, it lossed its balanced in his hand as he clumsily tried to keep it from dropping. And to top it all off, he tried to play it off by laughing like an dumb ass.
The ball released an upright standing frog. It had white markings on both of it's hands, like gloves. A swirl-like pattern covered it's belly; completing it's already odd look. I smirked, a poliwhirl. Piece of cake.
"Zevoa, scary howl!" She pointed her nose in the sky and let out an eerie cry, all the while her eyes were glowing. Goosebumps ran up my arm, after all that time I still wasn't used to the move. I laughed a little to myself, eliciting an odd look from the red headed trainer.
"Hypnosis, then douse it!" The poliwhirl couldn't move, it was paralyzed from fear. It was a combination technique, scary face plus howl. The attack boosted her damage output, whilst frightening her opponent into being unable to attack her. It allowed her to become immensely more powerful without running the risk of being attacked. It was incredibly convenient in nearly all situations.
"Now tear it apart," I said calmly. I knew I would win the battle. The bad side of the technique was that as soon as she stopped employing it, the opponent would snap out of its trance. On a few instances, a pokemon was fast enough to block her next move as soon as she stopped the scary howl, but usually they still got knocked out unless they managed to totally get out of the way. But I didn't think that would be the case that time.
"Bubbles!" The trainer frantically yelled, the poliwag quickly covered the entire field with enough bubbles to completely block my view of the battle. I heard something like the sound of a fireman's hose, and then felt a blast of ice cold water hit me right in the face, drenching my entire upper body.
"Zevoa, i'm gonna need you to stop holding back. Hit it with all you got, that damn thing just soaked me in water and i'll be damned if that goes unpunished," I said irately. "I don't care what you do; just don't kill it like you did last time."
As the bubbles slowly began being swept away by the breeze; I could see the frog pokemon fighting tooth and nail to stay alive against Zevoa. She moved faster than the poliwag could detect; her bites were slowly tearing it's skin from it's body. The match was heavily stacked against her opponent, all it could do by that point was feebly block it's face from further damage.
"Just return the thing, it can't fight anymore and we both know it," I yelled over the sounds of combat. I could see the trainer contemplating my words, as he slowly reached for his pokeball to return it. The poliwag laid in a slump on the ground before it was absorbed into its capture orb with a beam of red light.
I slowly strutted up to the trainer, not even planning to except my prize money. I already had more than enough, and every time I accept the cash I always felt like I was robbing the trainer. Who knows, he could've needed the money for supplies or something.
He reached into his bag, digging out his wallet. He flipped through the bills, but I interrupted him, "I don't need it, just keep all of your cash. I've got a bunch anyway." The redheaded boy looked surprised, and did as he was told; putting the wallet back in his bag. He smiled at me with his big goofy teeth.
"What's that move that you used first? Wasn't it 'scary howl,' or something? It's really cool, combining two moves like that. I've only ever seen gym leaders and really talented trainers do stuff like that. It must've been difficult," he praised. I could feel a blush coming on, but because of his compliment, I felt the need to act suave and cool; I wouldn't wanna look like a moron around someone who thought that highly of me.
"Uh, thanks, but I'm not that good. Zevoa here is just a really good listener," I reached over and scratched her behind the ear. She nipped me in the hand, and I yelped possibly the most effeminate sound a man could ever made.
"I was gonna do something like that with my poliwhirl, maybe a water punch or something along those lines. That bubble attack took a while to master; I wanted that technique to encompass the entire field rather than just a direct-attack. It really messes with fire pokemon, on top of obscuring the opponents pokemon's vision, it's pretty cool." He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Good idea, anyway, gotta go. I want to get to Pewter by dark, and it's already getting late," I said. It really wasn't that late, but I didn't feel like sticking around talking to the kid. He was nice and all, but me talking to him did nothing positive for me, so why would I do it?
I waved behind at him as I sauntered off. I kept going until I could no longer hear the sound of his boots hitting the dirt of the rocky trail. I looked behind myself, just to see if he had been following me. He seemed nice enough, but you never know if he wanted to rob me or something because he felt like he deserved to win that battle.
My interactions with the various pokemon in the cave made me very wary of every living thing around me. I had an onix stalk me for 2 days and kill one of my pokemon, how could you blame me for being a little cynical?
Once I deemed the area safe, I continued onward. One thing I was grateful for after escaping that cave was how beautiful everything looked on the outside. The trail was a collection of rocks, some as small as my fingernail, some bigger than my fist. Hills rose from the ground; big enough that I couldn't see anything beyond them without getting to the top of them first. It reminded me of a miniature Rocky Mountains except with less trees.
A few dry-bushes kept the landscape from becoming too plain, otherwise it would just be full of grey and black terra. They were the only vegetation in the entire environment, therefore most pokemon hid in them to keep warm during the nights and protect against predators during the day.
It had been an entire month. If being in that cave taught me one thing, it was that you should always appreciate the little things. Fresh air, sunlight, they were always things that I would never really pay any mind to.
I thought about how well Zevoa's new technique worked out, and how he had said that experienced trainers could combine moves like how I did. Sometimes I would sit and think about what someone like Terry Palmer, or Raymond would handle the very same situations I find myself in if we were to trade places.
Terry seemed like she already was way smarter than me. Just the way that she commanded her pokemon, and her clever way of robbing people by luring them into her room then destroying them in a battle the next day.
She would've probably handled the onix a lot differently than I did. Her slowpoke could've put a ton of pressure on it due to it's water type attacks. Her growlithe was far too fast to be hit by it's attacks, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it could toe to toe with it as far as raw strength. She was probably far stronger than she was the last we spoke, and I wouldn't doubt if she had an arcanine and maybe a brand new pokemon under her belt now.
I wasn't really sure about Raymond, as I had never witnessed him in combat enough to make an actual judgement about his intelligence. All I could gather from him was that he was a trainer for a long time, and I had seen first hand how hard that was. Every one of his pokemon were probably leagues stronger than Zevoa, and I doubted that he was even the strongest trainer in the Ranger Corps.
How he would handle the onix, is out of the question. It would be a complete slaughter. His sawsbuck had an aura about it. It radiated power, like it had been in countless brawls, and had seen a lot of blood in it's life. I wouldn't want to fight that thing if you gave me a pot of gold.
"Zevoa, ice fang, heavy," I commanded, pointing at a groundhog with a thick skull on it's head, going about it's way. I easily recognized it as a cubone. She dashed at it, but her head was met by a bone club, knocking her to the ground.
It proceeded to bash her head in while she was dazed. She rolled over and got to her feet, it swung its club once more, but Zev ducked it and grabbed the bone from its hands. She bit down and snapped it in half. It fell to the ground in two; the cubone then leapt at Zevoa with its arms raised, claws out.
Zevoa backed away for just a second. Her fangs iced over, growing to over twice their regular length. You could no longer see the white of her teeth, all I could see on her fangs were many layers of thick ice. She pounced on the cubone, pinning it down with her powerful paws. Her 6 inch fangs dug into the groundhogs abdomen, freezing all of it's organs from the inside out, killing it instantly.
The new ice fang was much more powerful, it could sometimes freeze things solid. But the downside was that it took a pretty long time to execute. Sometimes if I didn't have the time, I would just use the normal, less potent ice fang, but it would rarely ever KO a pokemon.
It took a while to master, though. Her mouth kept freezing over, and I would have to break the ice off of her teeth sometimes. At least it was easier to teach than the other two fang attacks. Thunder fang would start backfiring before she actually employed it. Fire fang was too uncontrollable, and it would kill things too cruelly and morbidly for my taste.
I almost commanded Zevoa to go find something for me to eat, but then I remembered I had bought a ton of rations the last time I headed to the store. I reached in my bag and grabbed some jerky, protein bars and a water bottle. I sat down on a boulder, and started eating my lunch.
When I got out of the cave, I went to the pokemon center to get Zevoa checked out. One of the nurses saw me, and said that I was under-fed, and that I needed to start eating more or I could fall ill. Apparently the average weight for someone who was my age was 130 pounds, and I was fifteen pounds under that.
At first I just ignored her advice and went on with my business, but then I really did get sick. I couldn't even find the energy to get up in the morning, and would struggle to even throw Zevoa's pokeball. After I got better, I started eating right again. I took a portion of my money and set it aside for food every time I won a battle. I ate three times a day, and gained back all of the weight I loss over the course of the month.
Zevoa was also in better shape. The average weight of her species was about ninety-pounds, but when I made it out of the cave she was seventy. All of the nurses lectured me about how to properly take care of my pokemon, to which I had to explain to them the circumstances which caused her skinny sickly appearance.
"Zevoa, go find some meat," I ordered. I still made her hunt her own food, but I gave her vitamins too on the side. While waiting for her, I flipped open my little notepad and began going over my strategies.
I thought of a few over the month, but they all required a second pokemon to execute them. I felt a sting in my heart at the thought of Jerry. I needed another pokemon, but no matter what I got it wouldn't be able to fill the void he left behind.
I came so close to catching a pidgey, but the pokeball missed and it took off into the sky. I felt like if I didn't come across another pidgey or something like that, then I would probably end up having to catch a rattata. I shook at the thought. It didn't feel right catching one, seeing as how I had the blood of its species on my hands.
Zevoa had got back, with a rattata tail hanging from the side of her mouth. I laughed to myself, yeah, I could never catch one of those.
I let her eat it raw with its fur. The nurses suggested that I should skin and cook her meat, but that seemed kind of like a waste of time. She was about 2 years old, she survived for most of her life in the woods. Her whole life she was eating raw meat, it wouldn't hurt to keep doing what she had been doing for years already. After all, if it ain't broke don't fix it, right?
I got up and hit the trail again, Zevoa in tow. She ran ahead, trotting up the rocky road until she was out of my vision. I wasn't worried though, she never got lost. I looked down at my map, 5 miles to go. Easy enough.
XxXxXxXx
It was dusk, and I had finally made it to Pewter, that dreaded city. If there were any other options; I would probably never go to Pewter no matter the circumstances. It was so boring, with the brick roads and brick buildings. Who the hell had the smart idea to have boulders on every corner for decoration? It just looked stupid.
I rented a room at the pokemon center, one of the bigger ones so that I could release Zevoa and let her stretch. I couldn't stand to keep her locked up in a ball. She was an animal, and she needed to act as such. No matter how much I trained her, I would never make her any less than a wild animal. And wild animals don't deserve to be locked up in cage.
I made my way up into my room, once I opened the door, I took in the feeling of the room. It had been such a long time since I had slept on anything other than a pile of rocks.
I tossed my hat onto the mattress. My shirt and pants went right along with it, and I hopped into the shower soon after. My skin had more than 2 months worth of layers of dirt and mud on it. I had to scrub at every inch of my body with my fingernails because the washcloth just wouldn't do.
Once I was clean, I just stood there, enjoying the hot water cascading down my body. It was so relaxing and relieving that I felt like I was about to fall asleep inside of the tub. I switched off the water before that might've actually happened. It would suck that the way I would go out, after I had experienced so much shit, would be to crack my skull up against the inside of a bathtub because I was too tired to get out.
After I was done with my shower, I got on my bed and didn't even bother putting on my clothes. Zevoa was long asleep on the other bed. I stared at her, thinking about all of my experiences with her. I could potentially lose them all the very next day.
It never really hit me until I was relaxed and calm enough to really think. Terry, Raymond, Zevoa, all of my memories with them, all of my memories of my family, and friends from my world, all of it, could potentially be lost once I proceeded with my plan to avenge Jerry. Was it really worth it? It had to be, he sacrificed his life for me, so it would only be fitting for me to avenge his death.
But, it wasn't right to kill myself after he had died to keep me from dying. My life wouldn't be the only one to be lost, as Zevoa could potentially die in the battle too. It was selfish of me.
No, I would follow through. That thing would die even if it took every fiber of my being to bring it down, I swore. Jerry, 2 young boys, and even more people could potentially meet their end at the hands of that beast if I didn't do something about it. This was personal, and it would only be fitting if I was the one to end it's life.
Those thoughts taunted my brain for the rest of the night, even whilst I slept, they even appeared in my dreams, telling me not to go through with my plan, telling me to quit before I hurt myself. Even though those thoughts seemed logical enough, I just couldn't stop. I spent an entire month training for that day, that would be an entire month wasted if I decided to back out of my decision.
I sighed, and coaxed myself into going to sleep. I needed it, whether I would fight the onix the next day or not. Even if I was going to experience the same nightmares as I had every other night, I needed my rest.
Those thoughts made me want to go back to my world. Back to Jersey, where everything was normal. Where I could just lay in my bed playing pokemon, go to school, be a nurse, blah blah blah. But I had Zevoa to look after, and it wouldn't be fair to her if I were to go back to my world. And it wouldn't exactly look right if I walked around with a hyena in the streets of Newark.
I slowly lost consciousness, and once again delved into a pool of negative emotions and nightmares. No matter what I did the next day, I could never escape my dreams. I would keep having those images appear. It seemed like every day only existed for the purpose of driving me closer and closer to becoming a insomnia-ridden maniac.
Sorry that I haven't uploaded in a while, but here is a chapter to calm your nerves. Even though I doubt anyone was ripping there hair out over the fact I haven't uploaded in 2 weeks. Anyway, I'll try and make these more frequent, but no promises. Review, favorite and follow, I'd appreciate the feedback, it motivates me to keep doing this story. :]