Disclaimer: I feel ridiculous saying "I don't own pokémon" at the start of every chapter
Authors note: no this has not turned into a pokémon point of view region journey, it's a PMD story in the people world just you wait
Chapter twenty one: Truth or Dare!
"Come on you guys, we have to go now if you want to get there before dark." Jane said as she got up and picked up her bag "You too riolu! Or maybe we should call you Rio, that's what you say when we ask you your name." she said as Jack and Alex got up and picked up their bags, I jumped down from the tree and walked over to them. We all headed off to the road, meeting up with the trainer who fought me earlier as we stepped onto the dirt path, I let out a low growl.
"So, one of you caught him? That's a shame, I could have used him better." He said as he walked up to me.
"No, we are waiting until he decides which one of us three he want to go with." Jane corrected him.
"Well then I'm going to capture him, this time I'm ready for his attacks. If he beats Torc I have an attack plan with the rest of my five that I sure to bring him down." He said with a confident smirk, one that I was about to wipe off.
"How about you take him one to one with your torchic, if he wins you can send your five against him and our starters." Jane said holding a fist up in front of her chest.
"Deal, I'll only go for him either way." he said simply "Go Torc, use peck!" he shouted as he threw up a poké-ball from which the torchic appeared, I prepared iron defence into gauntlets "Check mate." He said with a smile on his face. The torchic ran at me with peck all charged up, the second before impact he jumped over me and struck me on the back, I stumbled but didn't fall "Ember." He ordered and the torchic shot a bunch of flame from its mouth. I opened my gauntlets out into shields and batted away the flames before charging at him with my shield out in front of me to knock him back "Over him." The trainer ordered and the torchic jumped over me again, I'm not falling for that old trick. I thought to myself as I turned around I retracted one paws iron defence into a gauntlet and swung it across at the torchic's feet before he even landed and made him land on his side. I followed up by force palm before he could get up, I saw static crackle through his feathers which gave me the sign I had achieved the desired effect but I knew it wasn't knocked out "Torc use scratch on his feet!" the trainer shouted and I saw the pokémon pull one leg back in preparation to scratch me, I crouched and grabbed its leg and begun to turn around dragging the torchic in a bit of a circle before it lifted off the ground, I was getting up progressively in the progress, and I let go as I was facing its trainer, effectively throwing it back where it came from, its slid across the ground a bit creating a dust cloud.
"Was that circle throw?" Alex asked Jane since she was the breeder of the trio.
"No, I think it was just some improvisation. Pokémon don't just have to fight with moves, some make use of their bodies, especially fighting types." She answered simply, confident in her answer and I too believed it was so. The dust was cleared by a breeze and we all the torchic was knocked out.
"Argh!" the trainer cursed himself "Again." He said seemingly humiliated by his failure as he looked down at his knocked out torchic "You failed, but I won't. Go the rest of you!" he said as his hands reached for his belt on opposite sides of his body, he then flung his arms out throwing the poké-balls as he did so. Out came a shinx, rattata, pidove, sandshrew and zigzagoon as with before "You know the drill now move!" he shouted.
"That's our cue!" shouted Alex as he motioned to Cynder to get beside me, Jack and Jane did the same. I was holding my shields up next to each other to block a rain of air cutter and poison stings while the zigzagoon, rattata and shinx circled around me to strike my back, I pulled away one paw and retracted its shield to let the other take over the front while I prepared for the three that were flanking me. I held my free paw in a deceit of charging force palm, they began running at me, shinx from the middle, zigzagoon angling from my right and the rattata from the left, I saw the trio of starters led by Cynder come up behind them.
"Get out of the way!" I shouted, this left them a bit confused but they moved anyway, I waited for my chance with all three pokémon that were charging at me got close, Steady, steady, go! I thought to myself, ducking on the "go!" and letting the poison sting and air cutters fly over me and into the welcoming arms of the trio charging at me, the air cutter hitting them all while the purple pins of poison sting flying around at random sometimes hitting other times just arcing down and hitting the ground. I took this moment of confusion to run at the pokémon firing the attacks and striking the pidove with a normal sky upper cut from my free paw and turning to the sandshrew with force palm before it could react. I turned around to see the three who had gone around, one of them, the rattata, was on the ground unconscious while the shinx and zigzagoon were just barely standing.
"Enex use spark and Zigon use head butt now!" he ordered with a hand outstretched all fingers spaced out and its general direction being my direction. The two pokémon did as they were told and booth began another charge, the zigzagoon collapsed onto the dirt after a few steps which left the shinx charging at me weakly with spark I took my paw with the shield and put it across my body. I waited for the shinx to get close before swinging my arm across and batting it away, it fell sideways and did a slight skid before its head dropped and its closed its eyes, it had fainted "Return!" he growled as he held up the five poké-balls which each sent out a beam of red light each at each of the five pokémon which made them disappear into the balls.
"Way to go!" Alex said as he punched the air.
"Get lost Ryan, he beat you fair and square even thought you didn't fight him that way!" Jane shouted at the defeated trainer, her hands cupped around her mouth.
"Nice trick, what made it come to mind?" Cynder asked as he and the other two walked up to me.
"The more things you add to a battle, the more that can go right, and the more that can go wrong." I said simply, stating my thinking.
"Come on you four, better get going to Necarnea town if we want to make it before sundown." Jack said, he was talking to me and the three starters, we all headed of down the road. Not much happened along the way.
"Here we are you lot, my home town." Jane said as she held out her arms to show the town.
"This is your home town?" Alex asked surprised "Ok, you can go over to your parent's house and we'll go find the pokémon center and get a room."
"This is a small town, we don't have much of a pokémon center. You can heal your pokémon there but there aren't any rooms for trainers." She told him.
"Well how does this town have a gym?" Jack asked.
"Its in the next town over, well in between the two really." She replied simply.
"So what are we supposed to do? Camp out?" Alex asked, he obviously didn't like the idea.
"I'm pretty sure my parents will let you guys stay for the night, I'll be off tomorrow anyways for the next town, I don't see why they should let you two stay." Jane said as she breathed in the afternoon air.
"That brings up a bit of a problem, if we will split up tomorrow the riolu has to choose who to go with before then." Alec noted then added after a pause "And we need to give him a name, "The riolu" is getting annoying to repeat all the time." He added with a look on his face.
"How about Rio (ri-ohh)? That's what he answers when we ask him, not that he can tell us much more." Jack suggested "How's about it?" he asked, looking down towards me, I shrugged. Anything was better than "the riolu" right now.
"Ok, come on you guys, lets head over to my place." Jane said as she began to run down the hill we were on towards the town, they rest of us followed suit. Before long we reached a mid sized, double story house and Jane turn in to its driveway and knocked on the door.
"So is there a spare bedroom or are we gonna sleep on the floor?" Alex asked trailing off slightly.
"There is a spare bedroom but it might be full, my aunt and uncle are supposed to come sometime around now, if they are here I have a spare bunk bed in my room." She replied, she was getting a bit annoyed at Alex's constant nagging on the subject. The door opened now.
"Hiya hun." Said a middle aged man with a short black beard and hair to match, he had a few wrinkles but all looked like ones from joy "Who are these two?"
"I met them on my way back here, could they stay? We have a bit of a tie up with this riolu here." She said signalling to me.
"What kind of tie up? Nothing bad I hope." The man replied, worry tinting his voice but was soon vanquished.
"He is travelling with the three of us and we are waiting to see who he chooses to go with." Jane replied simply.
"Well sure, but your aunt and uncle arrived earlier today. They will have to share your room." He said, Alex let out a slight sigh but was silenced by an elbowing from Jack. We were let into the house or more specifically its living room, it was reasonably large with a gap in the wall that served as a doorway to the kitchen and another gap that begun about halfway up the wall and served probably as some sort of table given it had a bench like extension sticking out or maybe just to allow people to communicate through the tow rooms, in the middle of the room was a rug on the polished wood floor with a coffee table on top, on the wall by which we stood there was a TV. and in the opposite end was a couch with two people about the fathers age sitting on it.
"Hi, thanks for letting us stay the night." Jack thanked the man with a slight wave, Jane then led us up the stairs on the wall adjacent to the kitchen door, the stairs led to a hallway with a few doors on each side and one on the end.
"This way." Jane said, tossing her hand in the direction of the far door as she headed towards it, I walked behind her beside her bulbasaur with Evona, Lyro, Ruff and Serva behind us, Cynder was staying further behind along with Jack and Alex "Here we are, my room." She said as she opened the door to reveal a fairly small room with a window at its far end, on the right was a bunk bed and on the left was a normal sized single, there was a plain wooden desk in front of the window and as I entered I noticed there was a closet door between the single bed and the wall.
"So we take the bunks, what do the pokémon sleep on?" Jack asked, there was no way for us to cram on those beds with them.
"There is an inflatable mattress in the closet." Jane answered as she opened the door, a few articles of clothing fell on her before he tossed them back in and began to pull on something.
"Need some help?" Alex offered.
"No thanks, you two can inflate it." She said as she pulled on the thing again, this time it came out. Along with a few other things.
"You don't lay out the options until their gone do you?" Alex said in a complaining tone before he set to work laying out the mattress in the free space between the beds while Jack began to blow into the mouth piece and Jane left to get changed into her nightgown somewhere else. A few minutes later the boys were done and put on their night shirts and pants, a crimson red for Alex and a dark blue for jack, Jane entered wearing a long and light purple night gown as she went over to her bed and sat on it cross legged.
"Want to tell stories and legends?" Jane suggested as she put her covers over her shoulders.
"Sure, so long as one of you doesn't scream. By the way you might want to get a fire proof blanket for Cynder, his flame bursts on and off during the night." Alex said agreeing and adding the last note as it came to his mind, the two grass types moved away from Cynder.
"I only did it once." He murmured.
"We'll be fine, that plastic will heat up at most. Package says it's tough and durable." Jane replied, none to confident in those words herself "Anyway I'll start the stories." She said as she changed the subject, the two boys fell silent and began to listen. The pokémon meanwhile chatted amongst each other, I saw Serva walk up to me.
"Not many pokémon would throw away the fact they have defeated a legendary pokémon on their own, especially one that is resistant to you. Or a big white one who could burn a rock to a crisp." Serva said with a slight smile touching her lips.
"Well I'm not many, I'm one. I should have known those two would tell you." A said with a slight scowl "Plus it's a lie." I lied.
"They didn't, their lips were sealed. Cynder however is another story, any girl could get anything out of him." She said simply before adding "Its no lie, why would they be so secretive then and why would you deny it." She said, obviously not fooled.
"I know how he is." I said, running a paw over the rough and uneven fur on my tail "The guy burnt me."
"Anyway, how's your arm from taking all those attacks. Air cutter must have done you in since your weak to it." She said signalling to the arm which had blocked the attacks earlier.
"Fine, I've had much worse before and after I lost my memory." I said looking at my arm, it was completely fine, the metal stub though had a few scratches and some more dents "Before you ask I know about two moments in my life remember?"
She nodded then continued "Well why are so glum, why the bleak outlook to life?"
I sighed, could it be any more obvious "So far I haven't had a day in peace, or a happy one. In fact the only reason I ever went along with Evona and Lyro was at first because Lyro was nagging me then because there was a danger to their world and I could help, I don't like to see things come to harm." I said through a sigh.
"Hey you two, how about you cut your date short and come and join us." Bulba said from behind us.
"Obviously you don't listen much." I replied over my shoulder "And if you suggest I'm on a date once more I'll tie your vines in a bow around your legs." I said in annoyance.
"Whatever." She replied casually, man that bulbasaur had an attitude "Now come on and join in." she said motioning with her head to the circle of pokémon on the mattress, I sighed and walked over with Serva behind me.
"Since you two have just come you will go first." Cynder said through a grin "So, which one of you will go first?" he said with his grin widening.
"Better get this over with so just tell me what it is I have to do." I said as I rolled my eyes.
"Pick truth or dare." He said simply, his grin still wide as ever on his face.
I figured I would go for truth, most of the questions I couldn't answer anyway "Truth."
"I have a good one." Said the bulbasaur eagerly "Who do you like and why?"
I sighed again, I was picking up the habit from Alex "If you mean some sort of crush I would personally prefer to wait more than the first two weeks of my life before I go running after some girl, that and if you had been listening back by the path you would know my opinion towards that." I responded as I rolled my eyes, I knew it would end in nothing.
"Your two weeks old? I have never seen a newborn fight like you did." The bulbasaur said cluelessly, Serva, Evona, Lyro and Cynder sighed in unison.
"He lost his memory two just over two weeks ago, in fact maybe its three now." Cynder told Bulba and Ruff.
"Ohh, well then you probably have to do a dare, like go up to Jane and give her a kiss?" the bulbasaur suggested.
"I have a better idea, how about I throw you out the window? Great idea eigh?" I asked sarcastically.
"Fine, you can do some other truth. Like why don't you like being around girls?" the bulbasaur suggested, she had been paying attention, she had just been playing dumb.
"I dunno." I said with a shrug.
"You're pretty blank up top aren't you?" Ruff asked with a tilt of his head, he meant I was pretty clueless.
"If you mean I'm slow witted or have rocks for brains I can give two better examples." I replied simply, I wasn't in the mood for some big argument.
"Like who?" Cynder asked with his stubs on his hips.
"You're the one with rocks for brains, you use ember on my iron defence without having any real reason just because Evona looked at you with a cute face." I replied, I noticed Serva beside me let out a snicker "Now if one of you can't give me a sensible question that I can answer I'll be off now."
"This isn't much of a truth but I have one." Evona began quietly but built in confidence as she saw the eager faces on everyone else's faces "Lyro and I know most of it but they don't. How do you fight specifically, what do you hate and explain your ability." She said finishing with a cheeky smile on her face.
"I fight using my paws and stubs quite plainly, I would expect you all to know that, I hate your constant cheek and my ability is either steadfast or inner focus." I replied giving the stupidest answer I could think of, Lyro face palmed since he besides Evona was the only one who knew what she meant and she couldn't face palm. Everyone stared blankly.
"That was pointless, all that was obvious." Ruff complained.
"That's not what she meant, he's playing stupid." Lyro replied.
"Now why would I be acting stupid?" I asked in an innocent tone with my gaze going up and my best attempt to twiddle my thumbs.
"Reply to the question with what she actually meant, whatever it is. We finally found something you can answer." Cynder insisted.
"One turn one answer, I'll start with the first she asked. I fight with whatever I have but would prefer not to. I don't always use my moves, sometimes I just do what comes to mind like throwing that torchic and sometimes I do what is for another question." I said leaving the air in suspense "Anyway, who's next?"
"Serva, your next." Bulba said simply "Truth or dare."
"Truth." She said confidently.
"How about you ask something, you seem to be good at playing with words." The bulbasaur said to me.
"I've only known you lot aside from Evona and Lyro from today. All I can ask her is why she went up to me and talked to me back at the path and here." I said simply, something made a few of them let out a snicker and a giggle. I raised a stub to use its crude surface as a mirror to see if something was on my face "What's so funny?" I asked looking over the rest of me then looking beside me at Serva who stood there straight faced.
"Go ahead and answer Serva." The bulbasaur said, barely containing herself from bursting into laughter.
"I told you the first time, I wanted to battle. Remember?" she said calmly, now that I thought back that was true.
"Yeah, I guess you did." I said still confused as to why everybody was snickering "Well that proves I'm rubbish at asking questions." I said simply.
"So, who's next?" Serva asked "Why not you Bulba? You seemed so enthusiastic."
"Sure, I can handle anything you've got. Dare." She said proudly.
Serva was about to speak but I interrupted "How about doing one of you own and give Alex a kiss?" I suggested, I kept a straight face at this but no one else did. Everyone stared at Bulba with grins.
"How about we all agree to leave to trainers out of this?" she suggested, everyone besides mean and Evona let out an aww, even Serva.
Evona stood there grinning, she turned to me and I instantly knew it was trouble "Sure, how about you give Laxar a big hug?" she said, the cheek in her voice evident.
"Ohh no." I said as I got up and jumped onto the bed to avoid the bulbasaur.
"Huh? What's going on?" Jane asked as I jumped away and ran to climb to ladder of the bunk beds, her bulbasaur landing beside her as I did, I made a big dome shield with one stub, curled up and used it to cover myself before the bulbasaur got up.
"I can't, he's covered himself up." She called down after using vine whip to pull herself up.
"Hey isn't this meant to make Bulba uncomfortable not Laxar?" Serva said in my defence.
"Guess so." Cynder said agreeing "Bulba cut it out, you'll get another one." He called up to her and she brought herself down.
"What was that all about?" Alex asked, I had been shielding myself on his bed since he had the top bunk.
"Looked like Bulba was trying to do something to Rio." Jack said poking his head out from under the bunk "Maybe some sort of dare, they have been sitting around in a circle and talking, the focus seemed to shift from pokémon to pokémon. Looks like a game of truth or dare."
"Don't be stupid, pokémon don't play truth or dare." Jane said then looked to her bulbasaur "Now don't you do what you just did to Rio again." She said shaking a finger at the bulbasaur.
"Please tell me its over." I said as I poked my head over the edge of the bunk, my ears swinging in front of my face.
"Its over." Cynder assured me, then he turned back to Bulba "So, we need something else for your dare, anyone got any ideas?"
"How about walking in circles in a weird dance saying "I'm a magikarp" for the whole house to hear?" Ruff suggested.
"Piece of cake." The bulbasaur said as she began to walk around our little circle tipping from side to side repeating the phrase "I am a magikarp" over and over for a few circles.
"Who's next?" she asked as she sat back and shook the dizziness from herself.
"What are they doing?" Alex pondered beside me.
"Hey Laxar, coming down?" Ruff asked me.
"No thanks, I want a head start should anything else of a similar fashion arise." I replied with a brief shake of my head
"I think Ruff should be next, so far we have gone clockwise starting with Laxar, Serva and then Bulba." Cynder said logically.
"Fine, I choose truth." He said uneasily.
"Anyone got any ideas?" Cynder said as he looked around for a show of hands "Well I have one. Why did you act so tough, proud and all powerful when you scored one hit in that battle with Laxar? It was only one hit and you ended up with your face sliding across the dirt." He said with a grin which was soon whipped off.
"Yeah, just like you earlier Cynder." Evona said.
"Well it looked like I had it in the bag, and it turned out I didn't." the rufflet said, he had it easiest so far.
"Your up next Cynder, what's you pick?" Bulba asked the cyndaquil who suddenly didn't look so eager to play.
"Ummm…. Truth…." He said trailing off between the two words.
"I have a good one!" I said eagerly, I was looking forward to this so I could get back at him for burning my tail "How come you have a soft spot for every girl you see? I mentioned this earlier about you using ember just because made a cute face at you" I said seeing the cyndaquil's face go slightly red, the trainers had stopped telling stories a while ago and were now staring blankly at our exchanges.
"Yeah why." Serva said as she crossed her arms.
"Umm…. I like to help people out, that's why." He said hoping to have gotten out of it.
"Well when I asked you to tell me what Evona and Lyro had told you about their adventures before they came here how was that much helping out. It was simply asking for information not some assistance." She said, piling on the pressure.
"What adventures?" Bulba asked, backed up by a quizzical look from Ruff.
"Cynder can explain later." Serva replied.
"Its all lies." I said before withdrawing my head out of sight.
"Anyway Lyro can go now since Cynder remains elusive." Bulba said moving the little game along.
"Dare." He replied simply, he didn't seem to have much opinion between the two.
"Well how about taking on Laxar in a mini fight?" Ruff suggested.
"Leave me outa this, its not my turn." I replied without showing my face.
"What I would give to understand this." Jack said with a grin.
"Me too." Jane said in a tone somewhat resembling awe.
"You know I'm starting to think they really are playing truth or dare." Alex said and he looked to me "Are you?" he asked, I raised my paw and gave it a bit of a shake along with a face saying "So-so" considering most of the turns got skipped or side tracked.
"What did he say?" Jane asked as I saw her head poke up from the edge of the bed before she climbed up and took a seat between Alex and me.
"He says "so-so" as in not quite but just about." He responded.
"So what is Lyro gonna do?" Ruff asked, he was getting a bit impatient
"How about jumping off the top bunk so we can move on?" Lyro suggested, the others gave a shrug and nodded. He completed the dare with a little hesitation once he got up but he did it anyway "Ok, Evona its your turn." He said as he picked himself up off the mattress.
"Truth." She said confidently.
"Perfect, I have a great one for this." Lyro said eagerly "Anyone else got ideas?" he asked around.
"No." Bulba replied.
"Well might you tell them about how you used to act towards Laxar and especially what you did one night and tell us why? Then maybe demonstrate why or what you wanted to do." He was with a grin spreading over his face.