Archie - Pokémon: 7 Deaths: 1
Blue - Pokémon: 5 Deaths: 0
{Monua 28th, 7:02PM}
{Mt. Coronet}
"Bloody fuck, not another one!" Archie griped as the ground rumbled softly under their feet. It lasted for a dozen seconds before going away again- whatever had caused it was too far for it to actually have an impact on them and their location.
"Considering we are in a mountain cave, I would not be surprised to find more Geodude and Graveler living in this place," the Gabite following Blue said. While distancing themselves from Oreburgh, the Kanto gym leader had decided that Archie's Beautifly was not enough to defend them and that it would make good training for the Gible. Girish had evolved about halfway before arriving at the mountain, and was still gaining in strength and experience.
"Well, if any of those fuckers show up, I'm counting on you to smack 'em," Archie growled. "I've had enough rattling around for one day!"
"Is that my next training goal?" Girish asked.
"Nah, don't bother," Blue said. "We don't know where the earthquake started, so there's no point trying to hunt them down."
"Do you mind if we find a place to hide and stop for a bit?" Archie asked. "I'm...kinda concerned that Star hasn't shown up yet. She's supposed to be pretty fast, and we've already been travelling for about four hours. She should've caught up by now."
"She can't have been caught, can she?" Warin said worriedly.
"I hope not..." Archie muttered.
"I see a space sheltered by rocks just ahead, we could set up camp there," Blue suggested, pointing to the area. Archie nodded.
They set all their bags down when they arrived, edging to the wall as closely as they could. It was fairly small and looked sort of like an Aggron had tried to start digging out some sort of tunnel. It wasn't deep in the least, but the couple large boulders on the sides helped make the place look slightly wider. It wouldn't hide them completely, but for now it was good enough.
"Hey Blue, do you mind if I borrow your Pokédex?" the Aqua Leader asked. Blue raised a brow. "Planning to look up information on Star's species. I know she's a Luxio now, but she's really close to evolving and the Pokédex is our best tool for finding out stuff about Pokémon we don't know. I vaguely know about Beautifly and a tiny bit about Budew, but nothing about Luxio or Gabite other than what we've personally seen and experienced so far."
Blue stared at him intently.
"You're welcome to sit and read with me or whatever," Archie continued. "I mean, I can imagine you don't really like people touching that, but I also don't think you'd want to be my book stand for over an hour. I'll try to keep it short and just read up on Star instead of everyone."
Blue stared for a while longer before reluctantly digging for his Pokédex, opening it and pressing a few buttons before holding it out to the Aqua Leader, the display already set on Luxray. "The only buttons you're allowed to touch are the ones for scrolling through the article," Blue said seriously. "Anything else and Girish is slicing your fingers off."
Archie nodded and very carefully took the Pokédex from Blue's hands, deciding to sit at a range and angle where Blue could see what he was doing. He tried to ignore the gym leader's Keen Eye as he focused on the text and images, all about Luxray's habitats, diets, social habits, body structure, abilities, most commonly found diseases…
{Monua 28th, 8:26PM}
{Mt. Coronet}
"You done yet?"
Archie glanced up, tearing his eyes off the screen and looking at an increasingly impatient gym leader. "Almost. Should be about five minutes if I get to focus."
Blue scowled, but stayed put for those five minutes.
Archie eventually held the Pokédex out to Blue again. "Thank you. There were a good bunch of words I didn't always understand because they were either very specific to electric-types or to feline species, but I learned a lot. If Hearthome has a library anywhere maybe I'll try and sneak a peek in a science dictionary or something."
"What all did you learn?" the Beautifly on Archie's shoulder asked curiously.
"Uh...everything in the article?" Archie suggested hesitantly. "Dunno, ask something and I'll answer."
Blue snorted. "What's the landspeed velocity of an unladen Luxray?"
"Seventy miles per hour," Archie answered immediately. "On top of being an electric-type which makes them naturally fast, Luxray can also use their tails to counter torsion and give them balance while chasing prey. They're outclassed in raw speed by a fair amount of species in all domains, be it air, sea, or land, but what really makes them dangerous is their agility. For example, Rhyhorn are incredibly fast is you let them charge, but they have a lot of trouble trying to turn mid-charge, while Luxray can do it easily. They also-"
"Okay, slow down, I got it," Blue interrupted. "Ceez, you didn't even hesitate for a second...do you really remember everything you just read about Luxray the past two hours?"
Archie scratched the back of his head nervously, trying to be mindful of his wig before remembering he didn't have it anymore. "Pretty much. I've got eidetic memory."
"A wot memory?" Blue questioned with a confused frown.
"A bloody fuckin' good memory is wot," Archie huffed, turning up the Kanto accent. He ran a hand through his hair and scratched at the back of his head again, dropping the accent again. "I dunno, I've pretty much always been able to remember things better than most people, and for a longer time. Not everything, and not forever, but still a lot. I wouldn't be able to tell you how many Pidgeys I saw on my fourth birthday or anything ridiculous like that, but I'd be able to list everything you were wearing when we went through Jubilife last week."
"Is that how you remember Saylee's Pokémon so well, even though you've only met them like once or twice?" Blue asked.
"I guess so. I mean, putting their mission to kick my ass aside, I thought they were all pretty cool, so I tried to remember them," Archie said, shrugging. "Kinda needed to anyway, if I wanted to think of any strategies to handle them in case of a battle."
"I can't believe you can have such a useful ability and still be dumb as a rock," Blue commented.
"Well, it's got its downsides, same as any other useful quirk," Archie mumbled.
"Like what?"
Archie didn't respond.
If Blue had been intending to press him about it, Archie was incredibly grateful that a vaguely familiar figure chose to conveniently return at that moment.
"Star!" the Aqua Leader gasped. "You're back! And you evolved!"
"Were you worried about me?" Star asked.
"You bet I was," Archie sighed, reaching out to hug the Luxray. Star purred loudly and nuzzled him. "Oh Kyogre, you're soaked! Did it start raining outside? Or snowing?"
"No, that's not it," Star said, shaking her head. "When I left the city, I could feel that I was being followed, so I ran around for a bit to try and lose them. But they were pretty stubborn, so I did something my mother taught me while she was still around and I took a swim so they couldn't follow my scent. Didn't want them finding you."
"That's pretty amazing," Archie grinned. "Thanks, Star."
"Anything for you, hon," the Luxray said, giving him a lick to the cheek.
"You look pretty fantastic," Warin noted, fluttering off Archie's shoulder and going around Star to inspect her new appearance. "I can't wait for the others to see you, they'll all be proud of you." He paused. "Well, except for Prince maybe. He might be disappointed that you evolved before he did."
"Oh, I'm sure he will," Star sighed, rolling her eyes with a slight smile. "But, if you think about it, I've been out just about constantly since we found out my body can't handle Pokéballs, and Prince had to be returned several times for various reasons. I've had more time for training and such than he did. I'm sure he'll catch up soon enough."
"I'd like to hope they all will," Warin said mildly.
"Don't worry, sweetie pie, it'll take more than the police and a bunch of nutjobs to take us down," Star replied with a wink.
"Well, you're gonna need more training if you wanna keep up with Galactic," Blue said. "You can never be prepared enough against people like that."
"What, are you suggesting we start training now? I just got back!" Star whined.
"I think training is a good idea, but it's alright for you to sit out on it for a bit and recover from all the running," Archie said, scratching behind one of her ears. She was pouting, but the revived purring hinted at something else.
"I am ready," the Gabite stated simply.
"Alright, we'll stay here for now and see what we can do," Blue said, looking around the cave. "I don't want anybody wandering too far in case the police does find us, so that we can return everyone quickly and run for it. I'll go ahead and match up sparring partners."
Both trainers released their teams, and Archie simply sat back and watched as Blue took the reins and started assigning training pairs and tasks. Star settled next to the Aqua Leader, resting her head on his lap.
Having a good memory definitely has its downsides… Archie thought, glancing up at the cave. His brain was already filling in the missing red glow and applying it to Coronet's cave walls, the sensation of heat, the sound of rumbling grounds…
"Hon, you're shaking," Star pointed out quietly. "Are you alright?"
"I'll be okay, don't worry," Archie replied, giving her a pat and trying to ignore the hysteric laughter ringing in the back of his head.
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Short chapter this week unfortunately because I've been busy most of the time with work and greeting Mangaluva at the airport and all the fun stuff, and originally thought "Eh I've got all of Sunday to write this thing" except about six hours before midnight I realized NO I DON'T so then I had to speed-write something because unlike Dimensional Destruction I don't have a gigantic backlog of chapters that I can just post because there's so much that's changed from the original draft I had two years ago that I ended up just rewriting from scratch and I'm still working on it.
Anyway, as you will see (or have seen) in DD's chapter as well, Mangaluva and I will be livestreaming a nuzlocke of Pokémon Yellow this week starting Tuesday, so keep an eye on the tumblr blog sayleeofkanto for updates regarding exact times and a link the channel and stuff :D
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Prince the Prinplup, Star the Luxray, Warin the Beautifly, Basil the Buizel, Rapier the Budew
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Pete the Pidgeot, Adam the Alakazam, Gary the Arcanine, Girish the Gabite