Disclaimer: can someone tell me if I actually have to say I don't own pokémon all the time!
Authors note: in this chapter Laxar… nah I'm not gonna ruin it! Just D.I.Y and read it. P.s. I will start using references to real world creatures since its hard o describe something completely from scratch, I mean I challenge one of you to describe a human without using any reference in a normal way without using things like five centimetre ridge along the middle of the face (nose) its damn hard I tell you!
Chapter twenty: Mr Mc-Cheat and assumed friends
I ran along the road finding mainly low apartments and houses along with the occasional restaurant the sun was rising and people were coming out of buildings to go out and about, I soon reached the end of the paved road, it was just a dirt path now surrounded by a forest and some grass between the two. I kept running, I wanted as much ground as possible between me and that town and more importantly Alex. As I rounded a bend with forestry on booth sided I ran past a trainer. He was tall, blond and pale. His hair was somewhere between mid length and short and was flat against his head, he had no freckles and wore a tight and dark blue jacket with its zip undone to show a white shirt with a poké-ball on it. He was wearing fairly new looking jeans with his hands in his pockets, his head was looking at the floor and I heard his surprised "huh" as I ran past.
"A riolu, fighting types are good on any team. Your mine, Torc use ember!" he shouted from behind me, I turned around to see he had let out a pokémon, a torchic, and it had shot small flames at me, as they hit me I fell over "Go poké-ball!" he shouted as he threw a ball at me, I got up and batted it away with my tail as I spun around "Torc, use peck now!" he shouted and the torchic charges at me with its small pointed beak giving off a light glow, the torchic resembled the rufflet from before except it was orange, it had the same overall shape except it didn't have a fluffy head and its plumage around the neck only came out on its sides and was yellow, that and its main plumage on its head was a three pointed yellow crest of sorts and it seemed to lack a tail. I made one shield with iron defence and batted it away "Interesting…" the trainer muttered under his breath "Torc use scratch!" he shouted at the pokémon who was shaking itself to get rid of its daze, I now made the shield wrap itself around my paw in a gauntlet and made other for my other paw, the torchic was charging at me while swinging its feet around using its claws to scratch the air, as it got close I began to block it with my gauntlets and adding a jab after every block, this wasn't a move, I didn't need one. After a while the torchic tired and was feeling the damage from my jabs on its chest "This wont do. Go Pio!" he said as he threw another poké-ball, out of which a pidove appeared "Pidove assist Torc now!" he ordered and the flying type dived at me with a quick attack which I dodged neatly by stepping to the side, it pulled up in time not to crash into the ground "Torc ember!" he shouted as I dodged, I turned to see the small flames of ember as they hit me one by one and made me stumble back. I recovered quickly as the trainer ordered the pidove to use air cutter, I opened up my gauntlets into shield in time to block the blue crescents from hitting me, this was followed up by a peck attack from behind me executed by the torchic, I fell over forwards onto my paws and knees, I felt something hit my head before my paws got outlined in a red light, I felt my point of view move rapidly into the ball and then it closed, when I was in it I withdrew my iron defence and made a quick force palm on the walls and it opened up, releasing me in front of it. I turned around and charged the torchic with one paw behind my head with the clear green energy pooling into it.
"Rahhhh!" I shouted which came out a "Riiiiii!" as I pushed my paw forwards at the petrified torchic and sent it skidding back across the ground, static crackled through its feathers, it was paralysed, I turned around again to see the pidove attack with quick attack, I put my paw to the ground and charged at it too with sky upper cut, when booth attacks hit I was relatively unaffected by the pidove's move given my experience, it however fell back onto the dirt with its eyes closed, it was knocked out.
"Go Sash!" the trainer said through a slight growl as he threw another poké-ball after returning the pidove, out of this come came a pokémon with a yellow back that seemed to be made up of squares while its underbelly and nose were white, it had small triangular ears and a relatively long tail with short and thick arms each sporting three small and short claws on its hands, its legs were similar to cinders except they had two long claws tipping each, sandshrew "Sash use rapid spin, Torc ember!" he shouted and the sandshrew charged at me, jumping into the air and curling into a ball at one point before beginning to spin rapidly as the attack implied, behind me I felt the embers hit as I stumbled forward into the sandshrew's attack.
"Ahhh!" I cried out in pain which to the trainer was received as a "Riii!" as he grinned, the coward was doing a two on one. I struggled against the attacks but I was being pressed from booth sides, one by ember and one by rapid spin. I didn't fight off Alex and that other guy just to be captured by some cheat! I formed iron defence with one paw and put it between me and the sandshrew, now I began to charge force palm, once I felt a sufficient amount of energy was stored I hit the sandshrew on its side and sent it flying sideways as he opened up from the shock, now I turned around to face the ember and blocked it with iron defence. I began to push against it until I got close enough to perform sky upper cut, once I was there I formed a gauntlet on my free paw and put it to the ground, I retracted my shield and faced the flames in a charge pulling my paw up to strike the torchic under its chin. Its ember attack ceased as it arced through the air falling into the dirt and making brief slide, I looked back at the sandshrew and saw it hadn't moved, good it was knocked out, I turned back to the torchic and saw it was knocked out too.
"Ratta and Enex, your up!" he shouted as he threw two poké-balls, he held up two after doing so and a red light encircled the two who had fainted and they lost their shape to it before it returned to the ball, he two that came out resembled a small purple rat with a white underside and whiskers with triangular ears that looked like each triangle was been stabbed in by its point, three toed feet and a purple tail with a curled tip and two front teeth that stuck out. The second was half black and half light blue, the back part of the body being black, it had a black tail with a yellow, four pointed star on its tip, its fore legs had a yellow band around the ankles and its neck was black with two spikes of black colouring sticking out in front like drawn on fangs, it had two spike tipped fur extensions on either side of its cheeks like whiskers and a tuft of curled up fur on the top of its head, two oval ears on either side of its head each with a yellow star in them and a small red button nose between two big eyes with a yellow colouring. The trainer raised a hand and pointed at me "Ratta use hyper fang and Enex use spark!" he shouted, the rattata charged at me with its mouth wide open ready to bit me. I countered it with a quick force palm to its face with my paw which was encased in its gauntlet, it flew back onto the dirt and was knocked out, this left me open to shinx's spark which hit its mark and made me stumble back and eventually trip over my own feet "Shinx us bite!" he ordered and the pokémon which was about my size charged at me with teeth bared, I raised my gauntlet for it to bite. I used this to take care of the attack while I got up and hit it under its chin with sky upper cut, it let go of my gauntlet and staggered back a few steps before falling unconscious "Go Zigon, you're last up!" he shouted as he threw a poké-ball, I charged straight at it and pulled my hand behind my head as I began to charge force palm, I got there just as it materialized and struck it before the trainer could even command it. It cried out as it was sent skidding over to the trainer's feet.
"Hmmph. Return." He said as he held up three poké-balls which sent a beam of red light towards each of the three pokémon making them all re enter. I let out a sigh of relief as I fell to my knees in exhaustion and retracted iron defence, they may have been fairly weak compared to previous foes but they were six of them and I had to take two of them on at the same time three times, the trainer saw this before he completely turned around and threw a poké-ball at me.
"Enough!" came a shout, a girl by the sounds of it, this was confirmed as a girl jumped between me and the ball and deflected it "You were cowardly enough to use six pokémon on this one and you still have the guts to throw a poké-ball at it after it beat them all? You're a disgrace!" she shouted at the trainer as she stood between me and him "I watched the whole battle and you resorted to try and out number it after it proved to tough to beat for any one of your pokémon alone, plus aren't you ashamed to attack a wounded pokémon?" she asked him expecting it to make him feel some regret.
"No." he answered simply "It looked powerful and fighting types are good in a team in general so I decided to capture it any way I could, and I would have if you didn't jump in the way, As if! Thought to myself and stood up shakily. I walked around the girl defending me to face the one who attacked me.
"Try!" I challenged as I hit a paw to my chest, this came to him as a "Ri!" but he still got the idea so he threw a ball at me.
"No, you wont be able to get out!" the girl shouted with her hand outstretched as the ball hit me, I was pulled into the ball. As I felt my form come back to me inside the ball I pulled back my paw and charged a force palm momentarily before striking the wall of the wall, it burst open without any more trouble. This came to the surprise of booth of them, I let out a vicious growl at the trainer who had just tried to catch me, he put his hands back into his pockets and walked away quietly.
The girl put her hands on her hips once he was out of sight and earshot "You have some guts little guy." She said to me, I growled at her without looking back over at her "Sorry, I won't call you that anymore." She said, she obviously understood reactions better than other people I had met "Now have an Oran berry, it helps you recover strength." She said as I heard her approach me, I was about to jump away but a pain shot through me and instead I collapsed, I saw she rush over and kneel beside me, she put the berry in my mouth and I began to chew "Here, have this as a pillow." She said as she took off her bag and slipped it under my head as a cushion.
"Hurry, I think I see him!" came an all too familiar voice, I let out a weak growl and fainted.
I woke up under the shade of a tree with a few people talking nearby, I recognised them as the girl, Alex and his friend. They were talking about how they came to know me and were filling each other up on the blanks they didn't know about. Scattered around them were the voices of Evona, Lyro, Cynder and three others, they seemed to be playing a chasing game of sort as I heard their shuffling footsteps all over the place. My eyes were almost closed so to anyone I would still seem to be still asleep.
"Stop you're about to step on Laxar!" came a pokémon's shout as I saw Cynder backing into me, I rolled to the side to avoid being fallen on and finished in a crouch before bolting away "He's awake…And he's away…" came Evona's voice with a sigh.
"Go on Bulba and use vine whip to stop that riolu!" I heard the female trainer shout and looked back to see some long vines protruding from a bulbasaur headed straight for me, I jumped and made a spin knocking one of the vines away but the other grabbed my foot. I fell hard onto the ground with a thud "That's it Bulba, pull him back!" the girl, obviously a trainer, shouted and I felt the vines tug me back, I grabbed onto a root and began to pull against the vines. The bulbasaur looked like a turtle like creature with a bulb on its back instead of a shell, its skin was covered in random dark spots with its overall colour being a light green with a blue tint and the bulb on its back being a vibrant green.
"This wont do, Serva come on and use vine whip to and help bring in that riolu!" Alex's friend shouted and I look back to see a new set of vines, this time from a snivy, a snivy is a snake like creature if a tail tipped with a three pointed leaf similar to that of a maple, its snout was fairly long and pointed and its oddest features were that it had thin green arms with three fingers each and thin, white, leaf like legs protruding from its white underbelly, its back was green with a yellow stripe going down it and it had a swirl of yellow going around its eye as well as curved yellow collar around its neck out of which the vines had come from. I felt them grasp my other leg.
"Pull him off the ground so he can't hold onto anything!" Alex shouted and booth pokémon did so, I let go without being able to put up much struggle, it being two on one and I still felt weak from my last battle. Why do they keep stopping me from leaving? I wondered as I was carried heels over head back to where everyone else was, I was held so in front of the trio of trainers.
"Why don't you buffoons leave me alone?" I asked as I crossed my arms, my head began to ache with all the blood flowing to it.
"What he talking about?" the girl asked with a shrug, obviously it reach them as something like "Ri-olu-lu-riol-loo-ri-olu" which complicated things.
"Cynder, translate." Alex said to his pokémon with a confused look on his face, Cynder began a charade by pointing at them then shaking his head and then pointing to me and walking on the spot as to say "You don't let him go away." To the clueless trainers, Alex though understood this "He says we don't let the riolu go away so I'm guessing the riolu asked why we don. Isn't that right riolu?" he said to them then turned to me to ask the last part, I rolled my eyes and nodded.
"Well I don't know about you lot but I want to catch him." Alex's friend said as he held his hand in front of his face then pulled it down to his chest, making it into a fist as he did so.
"Well tough luck, I am." Alex said to him as he crossed his arms, I rolled my eyes at the argument which was about to begin.
"Quit being so stupid, don't you remember I told you he took out a whole team of pokémon, one of which had a type advantage." The girl said with a face palm.
"Well I bet they were just caught, not ones he had worked with for a while like me and Cynder, you and Bulba, Serva and Jack as well as Ruff, I guess he counts since he has had him for a week now maybe." Alex said confidently.
"Well I'm not ganging up three to one on that riolu! Its wrong and who knows how it could end, plus who would keep him if we succeeded." She asked with booth the boys responding in sync with "Me!" which led the girl to sigh "How about we try and befriend him, he could agree to join one of us." She said as she bent down slightly to my level with a smile.
"Well that's not fair, me and him had a rough start since I took him to get treatment at the pokémon center for that cut against his will, plus I have the eevee and pikachu which he keeps growling at now days, they used to be friends I thought." Alex protested seeing as he didn't have much of a chance.
"Yeah and I have already tried to capture him which decreases my odds already, so has Alex so you're the clear choice." Jack joined in on the protest
"Don't be a cry baby, don't forget I had Bulba drag him back. Plus, bringing them back to mind doesn't raise the odds." She said as she patted the bulbasaur by her feet who was one of the two holding me up "How about we all start on a clean slate and you ignore that fact he has captured that pikachu and the eevee, lets all be friends." The girl said to me with the smile still on her face "I'll start, my name is Jane and I'm a breeder as well as a co-ordinator." She finished, this is the first time I had gotten a good look at her and notices she had light brown hair which was plaited back behind her with just one little plait hanging down in front of her left ear, her face was fairly pale with red cheeks and a small nose. She was dressed in a cream T-shirt and some brown shorts with two square pockets on its fronts, as well as a belt around her top she dressed in an almost tomboy manner. I ignored her attempts at friendship and crossed my arms while tossing my head.
"Forgot to add, I think he doesn't like girls." Alex said.
"I don't think that's true." She said as she looked back at him over her shoulder then looked back at me "Is it true?" she asked me and I nodded, much to her annoyance "Well I'm nice don't worry, look I'll tell Bulba to let you go. Just please don't run." She said to me before turning to the bulbasaur and giving it a nod. I felt the vines around my right leg loosen and let go, I began to swing slightly before my body found its center of gravity.
"I suppose you should let go too Serva." Jack said to his snivy who put me down gently, I rubbed my ankles where they had been holding me and shook my head to get rid of the heavy sensation that seemed to weigh it down. As I sat up properly Evona walked over to me along with Lyro. I got up and went over to the nearest tree and climb up to get away from the two, I knew Evona couldn't climb and I was pretty sure Lyro wasn't capable of it either.
"Great, my chances are officially nil. Why did I have to offer those two to join my team?" Alex moaned "How about we do it the old fashioned way and its catch it and keep it?" he suggested knowing that he would most likely have the best chance given he had three pokémon, two of which were more experienced.
"No, I'm pretty sure the riolu wont like that." Jane said as she looked at me while I settles down in the tree "Plus he agreed that he would ignore the fact you have them in your team and it would be a clean slate, did you?" she asked me, I rolled my eyes and nodded "See?"
"What's your name?" she asked me knowing it wouldn't achieve anything but was worth a try. I answered with my name which came out to them as "Rio" as expected "Do you have any family?" she continued to ask.
"I found just over a week ago with those two, I'm guessing they were the only family he had, though by the looks of it they don't like each other anymore so I can guess he is alone" Alex said, bluntly stating the truth.
"Well you could start a new life with us as family, you used to be friends with Evona and Lyro. Why do you not like them anymore? Evona is cute and Lyro is a bit of a clown." Jane asked me curiously with a slight tilt of her head, I began a charade of things I thought would mean trouble, after a few guess they managed it and I moved on to do a imitation of someone teasing someone by pointing at a gap and beginning to laugh and make mock mocks to answer her question "Who teased you and what kind of trouble did they lead you to?" she asked. I pointed at Evona for the first part considering Lyro was a bit to dim to make a joke at someone else's expense and mainly just laughed along, then I pointed at him and did an imitation of laughter before pointing to the almost healed up gash across my front.
"So she teases you and he laughs and they got you into the trouble that got you that gash?" Jack asked me rubbing his chin "Why were you ever friends with them?" he asked me finding as little reason as I had, I shrugged, I honestly didn't know.
"Well let head over to the next town, Laxar can tell us when and who he decides to go with. There is a gym there that I want to challenge and I have heard there is a contest being held there soon, that way the riolu can take a look at and even try out what we each specialize in to help him decide." Alex said eagerly as he headed off down the road.
"What if he doesn't choose any of us?" Jack asked rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Well I'm sure he will choose one of us, it's either one of us peacefully or being constantly bugged by other trying to catch him, on of them might be like Ryan." She said, swiftly responding to the question.
"I have a feeling we are bugging him, plus who is Ryan?" Alex said as he halted in his step.
"Ryan is the guy who tried to beat him by numbers, I know him since he comes from my home town, we got our starter together little more than a week ago." Jane told him completely ignoring Alex's statement about bugging me "Anyway before we go anywhere lets eat, its noon and this riolu looks like it hasn't eaten in days." She said as she pulled a small white paper bag from her blue bag which had an opening at the top which was opened and closed by means of a string that went around its rim. She pulled out a one of those brown pellets.
"Yuck." I said making a face and looking away but this cam out as "loo"
"Nurse Joy said he didn't like pokémon food." Alex noted.
"Try this one, I made it specially for fighting types." She told me as she took my paw and put it on top. I decided to try it so I put it in my mouth and began to chew, this one wasn't half bad. I acknowledged her skills with a smile.
"No fair, I can't make pokémon food. All I can cook is people food." Jack protested.
"Quit complaining I can't cook at all." Alex broke in with his own complaint.
"Quit complaining the booth of you." Jane said ash she reached into her bag and hand out pellets to all the pokémon present. I found a rock to sit on nearby and began to eat from the bag I was given, Evona walked over to me carrying her bag in her mouth with a smile, I didn't return it or do anything of the sort, I just walked away. I passed Lyro on my way over to were everyone else was sitting and I heard him say something to Evona before I walked out of ear shot.
"Give him space, he has had it rough since he woke up."
When I got to where the main group was I sat down on the grassy ground to enjoy the rest of my pellets, a nice and cool slight wind blew my ears around as I ate.
"Hi, I'm Serva." Said the snivy, female evident by the voice and facial features, as she sat down beside me "Sorry for pulling you back by your ankles like that."
"No problem." I said quietly as I shuffled away slightly, I still didn't feel comfortable around girls for reasons I still couldn't explain.
"Why did you do that?" she said referring to what I just did but then remembering what was said earlier "So, what has your life been like so far?" she asked, trying to spark some conversation.
"I woke up about two and a half weeks ago with no memory of before, all I know about my old life is a hunch that I was human and what I saw from two flashbacks to back it up. None of it pleasant." I replied glumly.
"Ohh, well you seem pleasant enough. Mind telling me what you remember from the past two weeks or so." She said.
I rested my chin on a paw before grunting and replying "I do mind, but I can bet you Evona and Lyro wont, they told Cynder everything." I replied, the glumness still in my voice.
"Well how about a battle? I hear your pretty good." She suggested.
"No thanks to that either, quite frankly I have had plenty of those none of which I asked for and some of them were brutal, two almost cost me my life, coming here didn't help since I'm being nagged to battle every Mr and Mrs Catchit I see, your trainer being no exception." I replied.
"Well you certainly have a positive outlook on things." She joked, I grunted in response "What do you mean brutal and almost costing you your life?" she asked having just realised what I said.
"One I ended up jumping and catching Evona to soften her fall, as a result I was stuck under her and about to be knocked out and then who knows what, another I almost burned to death on a solo suicidal mission, that's not the half of it but I wont mention the rest. There were also less life threatening fights." I said and adding the last part like a side note.
"Happy times eigh?" she said sarcastically in another attempt at a joke "Looks like you care though, you said you jumped to catch her in a life risking stunt." She said nodding at Evona who was heading toward the main group of us "But you said you were stuck under her and were about to be hit with some deadly attack, how did you escape?" she pondered
"Asen, probably my only true friend, he had disappeared along with all my other memories but when we met again I instantly saw why we had been friends. He appeared and hit the attacker giving me time to get out from under Evona and finish the battle." I replied, why was I telling her this I didn't know but I knew it couldn't hurt.
"So, how's about a battle when your wound heals or tomorrow when you're feeling better after the battle earlier today. Its not like my trainer has tried to capture you." She said, she obviously didn't know about my battle with Ruff.
"He did, you're his starter right?" I asked before continuing and got a nod "A few days ago, maybe five or so, I don't know I have lost track I ran away from the center and yada yada then your trainer tried his luck at battling me with Ruff." I explained.
"Well then I guess I have missed my chance for now." she said looking and sounding a bit disappointed "Anyway I'm off to find Evona and Lyro." She said as she got up and left.
"Looks like your pokémon might have bought you some points Jack." Alex said as he nudged his friend. I reached into my bag and found it was empty, I must have eaten them all. I made my way to a tree slightly away from everyone and climbed up to wait until everyone was done, Jack had made toasted sandwiches for the people present.