Renny: I don't know exactly how long this chapter's gonna be, so bear with me if it only has like 2,500 words or something. I just finished reading the last book of Skulduggery Pleasant, and it was a complete troll at the end. I still loved it mind, so I totally recommend the whole series to everyone who reads this.
Green: Seriously?
Renny: What? It's an awesome story.
Red: She lent me the books, and I gotta say, it totally is. I don't know half the places in it though.
Renny: You wouldn't. Unless you're in your own world, and in here, you don't actually hold any form anywhere.
Red: It's still a good book. Books.
Green: Whatever.
Renny: I'll give them to you when this chapter's done. Anyway, Red, disclaimer.
Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!
Renny: On with the show!
OOOOOO
-The next day-
Green decided to challenge Whitney.
He knew it probably wouldn't be very good, seeing as he could barely speak yet, and he was still sort of terrified of other people who weren't in the Game Corner, but he still needed to get out of the Daycare because the tension in the house was still so freakishly awkward.
Red and Blue came with him, of course. If it was going to become a regular thing, then he would probably start looking forward to this sort of stuff. If not, then maybe he should just stop being so shocked about how many people hate him. He sort of needed to.
Anyway, he still couldn't talk much. Apparently, for him, not talking for two and a half days straight had taken a toll on his voice, and it was taking a while for him to regain it. He was trying, at the moment, to repeat the alphabet to Ice and Twin, but he only got to D before his voice stopped working and he couldn't force anything else out.
Ice said it was the strain from everything that had happened. Something psychological, he'd said. Twin had said it was probably the whole 'not talking for a bit' thing, but Green sort of agreed with Ice. He mostly didn't want to talk, since everytime he looked at someone who looked back at him, all he saw, once they recognised him, was a glare.
'It'll get better' Red had said a few minutes ago. But he was worried as well. Blue was clearly a bit more than worried, being a girl, not that Green would ever say it out loud. She'd kill him if he did.
He caught a glimpse of a few people eating outside a restaurant, and his mind drifted back to when he'd been in the Daycare house.
For some reason or other, Red's Grandma, who was nicer than Red's Grandpa, had asked to weigh Green. She'd already gotten out the scales, so she got Green to take off his boots and bag (he'd taken to carrying it around in case something happened), and he stood on it. The scales moved, but only for a second. That was probably why Red had said they'd go and get some food after Green had battled Whitney.
He hadn't seen what his weight was, but apparently it was enough for Red and Blue to force Green to agree that he needed more food than what he was getting. They also agreed that, while being a vegetarian was a nice lifestyle, it didn't help how skinny he was.
Green honestly couldn't see what was wrong with being skinny. He wasn't going to any use fat, and if he was skinny he could run faster because he was lighter. However, his voice only worked when it wanted to, so he couldn't explain it to them. Ice had the paper at the time, and Green couldn't be bothered to get any out of his bag, so he was stuck with nodding along to whatever they said with no interest whatsoever.
But to Red, Blue and Red's Grandma, him being skinny was a bad thing. He still didn't know why they were worried, but he caught the word 'underweight' when they thought he hadn't been listening.
So what if he was?
But anyway, back to the Gym battle. His whole strategy formed around Amethyst, since Ice couldn't be bothered to fight, Twin was still sour that she only got to take out a giant beetle, and Tick was way to young for Trainer fights. Plus Amethyst could take on anything, literally anything, and probably come out of it unharmed. If not, then with a missing rock chip or two, but still alive. She was a tank, essentially, and because this was a normal type Gym, Green's hopes pinned almost entirely on the fact that Whitney wouldn't be cruel enough to give her pokemon- a Clefairy and a Miltank- any fighting moves.
According to Blue, she hadn't used any, but that didn't stop Green from worrying all the same. Blue had also said that Whitney would probably try to use Attract on Amethyst, since as a Geodude it was near impossible to tell if she was male or female (which Amethyst took as a compliment), and as such she'd be wasting a turn, and therefore leaving an opening for Amethyst to Rock Blast whatever pokemon was out at the time.
Green knew she was going to evolve soon, but when asked, Amethyst hadn't said which level she'd evolve at. Ice hadn't said either, and Green didn't know because he generally hadn't used a Graveler or a Geodude in his Kanto adventure. Now he wished he had. They were so useful and . . . well, awesome really.
So, when the group finally got to the doors to the Gym, Green was incredibly disappointed to be told to wait outside until Whitney was done with her latest challenger. Blue had said she was usually free around this time, said so by Whitney herself, but it looked like someone else knew that as well.
Green sat down on the ground and watched Ice talk with Amethyst about normal types, and their normal battling style. Green had never used one, if you didn't count Porygon, so he wouldn't know much about them. He'd usually considered them weak if they didn't evolve into something useful, like Eevee. But now he was past that, and Tick was a normal type anyway, so he had definitely gotten rid of his stupid 'standards'.
Red had walked off at some point, with his Quilava, Quil, at his heels like a Growlithe or something. It was sort of cute, but Green said nothing as he went, hoping that he'd be back by the time Green could go in. Blue sat next to him and started talking about little things, like how life was going for her now that she wasn't that terrified of birds anymore.
"It's weird." She said. "Like, like I should be screaming from them, but I know it's silly and I don't do anything. I don't think I could ever catch a bird, not for a while at least, but I can handle seeing and fighting against or with them, you know, on my side but not on my team. You get what I'm saying?"
Green nodded, though he didn't understand any of her feelings. His own fear, ghosts, wasn't exactly as controlled as hers was now.
"If I could help you out with the ghost thing I would." Blue told him. "Gassy's kinda sad that she doesn't get to meet you."
Green shook his head at her. He didn't want to meet a ghost, not after . . . nope, not thinking about it. Thinking about then was basically gonna hurt his head.
Red appeared again a few seconds later, in the middle of an awkward moment, holding some ice cream. Green vaguely wondered what season it was- with Kanto and Johto's terrible but sort of warm weather you could never tell- and took the ice cream from Red with a nod of thanks. Red gave one to Blue and sat down on Green's other side with his own, and Green watched Blue send out her team, minus the Gastly.
She'd added a Caterpie to her team, apparently. Blue explained that she was keeping it- him- unevolved until level nine, which she would let him evolve into a Metapod, and then level him up once and he'd get the Confusion move that all Butterfree who evolve at level 10 get.
Red had added a Noctowl to his team. He'd wanted to call it Hoot, after the thing's first evolution, but after it- she actually- evolved, Red changed the name to Noct.
Green still couldn't see the appeal of giving names like that to pokemon, but he didn't have any right to complain. After all, he had a water type called Ice, a bird called Twin, a rock called Amethyst and a shell thing called Tick Tock.
Quil gave out food that was in a bag to the others, including Red's pokemon who'd been let out as well, and everyone set to eating for the next ten minutes. After they'd done, the doors finally opened and a grumpy looking man walked out, glanced at them, grunted, and then walked off.
Green, confused, looked up at the woman who was leaning against the door, rolling her eyes.
"That guy always comes in here." The woman sighed. "Sometimes he asks for a battle, sometimes he tries to ask for a date with Whitney. She always says no in the most horrible way she can be bothered to do at the time. He's asked her again."
"And by how angry he was, I guess Whitney said no?" Blue smirked.
"You got that right. Say, weren't you here a few days ago?" The woman asked, looking at Blue.
"Yeah. This time, my friend here wants to fight Whitney." Blue said, pointing at Green. The woman grimaced and gestured for them all to follow her.
Green picked up Tick, and Red and Blue returned their pokemon. He didn't bother putting his away. Twin hated her ball, Ice had barely gone into it, Amethyst was going to be fighting, and Tick . . . had never been in one and Green did not intend to change that now.
They went inside, and once or twice the woman glanced back like she wanted to tell Green to put his pokemon away, but after a glare from Ice and a small squawk from Twin, she stopped looking back and started walking a bit faster. Green chuckled inside his chest.
Before they went into the main arena area, or at least what Green assumed what the main area was, the woman turned to the group, a hand on the door.
"Uhh . . . Before you have that battle, kid, be warned. Whitney's in a horrible mood right now." The woman sighed. "She's normally really nice, so . . . don't take it personally if she insults you. Just focus on the battle. Also, are you mute or something?"
"He's not." This time it was Red who answered. "He just . . . doesn't wanna talk much right now."
"Huh. I got something that can help with that, hang on." The woman muttered. She started digging into her handbag and eventually pulled out a watch-shaped strap thing. It was black and had a white circle with a few buttons, and Green could make out some words on it.
The woman handed the watch thing to him, and gestured for Green to put it on. He was right handed, so Green strapped it onto his left wrist and stared at it, then at the woman, with curiosity.
"New invention." The woman explained. "Someone in Kalos wanted to make it easier for mute Trainers to battle without having their pokemon learn sign language and have the poor things stare at them all the time. The Translator watch has three buttons- one for the on switch, one for off, and the last one, the biggest, for the digital keyboard to come up."
To demonstrate, the woman tapped the red button, the one with 'on' under it. The watch came to life, with tiny lines appearing across the white parts and down onto the black strap. The woman tapped the biggest, black button and a sort of holographic keyboard, big enough so that it looked like a laptop's keyboard, was projected out of a tiny screen. Just above the keyboard part of the hologram thing, Green saw a long, rectangular box that was probably for typing.
"The whole thing works just like a laptop." The woman said. "You type in whatever word or sentence you want, and this says it for you. All Gyms were given about ten of these to test out, and this one's been cleared. We're giving them away to people who are either deaf, mute, or just can't really talk because of circumstances. I think you apply to this. Keep it, we don't need money or anything."
Green stared at her, shocked. In the corner of his eyes, he saw the holographic keyboard disappear back into the watch, having not been used for a while, and still he stared at the woman. She tapped the big button again and nodded for him to use it.
Green typed in something, and jumped when a robotic voice, neither male nor female, spoke the words.
"THANK YOU." The watch said.
"No problem." The woman smiled. "Besides, if I didn't give it to you, then Whitney wouldn't have done it unless you beat her in a battle. And the whole reason for these things is for battles, so it sort of defeats the purpose. But don't go using it to much, it might be solar powered but I know you can talk but you don't want to. Start talking whenever you're ready, ok?"
"I'LL TRY."
Blue and Red looked happy to finally be able to talk to him somehow. Ice stared at the watch for a second, probably wondering how it worked, but he turned away when the woman opened the door.
Green had been right. The door led to a massive, pale coloured arena sort of like Bugsy's, only it didn't have the raised platform things or the invisible dome. On the other side of the room stood a pink haired young woman, with a horrible scowl on her face. She could have been pretty if the scowl wasn't there, so Green guessed this was Whitney as the woman went over to talk to her.
As Red, Blue, Twin, Tick and Ice headed over to the stands, Green watched as Whitney's face softened a bit. She looked sympathetic, and she glanced over at Green with a sad face, like she knew something was wrong. The woman beside her nodded once and then went over to where the others were sitting, and Whitney called out to Green.
"This'll be a one-on-one match, alright?" She shouted. "Clefairy's kinda sick right now, so she can't do much. Miltank's alright though. You good to go, Green?"
Ah, so she knew his name. At least she seemed to be like Bugsy. Green just hoped she didn't get angry in the middle of the battle.
"YES." He typed.
"Alright then. Let us begin!"
Whitney threw out a pokeball onto the field. It burst open, and then a pokemon that made Green think of a pink Tauros, only smaller and with shorter legs and also udders, stood on its back legs and mooed at everyone in sight. Green looked down at Amethyst and nodded.
The rock pokemon walked out onto the field, and got into a sort of crouch. Though she might have just bent her arms, Green honestly couldn't tell because she had no legs. Which was probably a bit silly really, seeing as Brock's Geodude could float. Green wondered why Amethyst couldn't float, and thought maybe it was a taught thing. Keep your mind on the battle, he reminded himself.
"You can go first!" Whitney called across the arena. Green nodded his thanks and typed in his command.
"ROCK BLAST." The watch said.
He couldn't see Amethyst's face from where he was, but Green was sure she was grinning. Amethyst pulled up one arm and then Green watched five rocks materialise on her wrist. Rock Blast was a move that could last about two to five hits, and Amethyst had gotten the hang of making five rocks instead of the amount she'll use, to scare the enemy into dodging rocks that weren't there, giving her a chance to reload, as it were.
The Miltank mooed and rolled, actually rolled, out of the way of the first Rock Blast. Amethyst grunted and shot another one, leaving only three rocks left on her wrist.
The Miltank was hit this time, and skidded to a halt about five metres away from the small walls that separated the stands from the arena.
"Attract!" Whitney shouted.
Blue had been right; Whitney didn't know the gender of Amethyst. That was something that clicked in Green's mind when he'd first heard of the move, back in Azalea, when he'd been listening to a couple of girls talk about cute pokemon. It made a pokemon of the opposite gender 'fall in love' with the user, therefore making it impossible for the opposing pokemon to attack. This move didn't work on the same gender or genderless pokemon, so it was a sort of basic move only used when you could, or when you didn't know the gender of the other pokemon.
Hopefully Whitney would think that Amethyst could just resist it, and she'd keep using it. He'd heard from Blue that her Miltank's Rollout was devastating if it was allowed to go on for about five or so turns.
If Whitney didn't realise it, he would use that to his advantage.
"KEEP GOING." Green quickly typed. Amethyst still had three more rocks.
The Miltank sidled up to her, grinning slyly. Hopefully the pokemon didn't know the difference between male and female Geodude either. Amethyst stared at it for a second, as if captivated by the movements, and then shocked the normal type by blasting another rock into its face.
"Is that Geodude a girl?" Whitney called. Green saw no reason to lie, even if he didn't want her to know (he had hoped she wouldn't ask, but oh well).
"YES." The watch said.
"Ah, that's how." Whitney chuckled. "Nice going kid. Alright, Miltank, forget the Attract strategy! Go for Rollout!"
The Miltank cooed and backflipped away from Amethyst. Green felt his mouth open in shock, he hadn't known something as big as that could backflip. Red and Blue, along with his pokemon, shouted encouragement as the Miltank started curling up.
Just before it sprung off its back legs, Green ordered a Defence Curl. Amethyst curled into a ball and Green saw a small sheen of silver just before it disappeared, and then the Miltank came rolling into her path. The cow pokemon bounced off Amethyst's rocky body, but Green saw the flinch that the Geodude made. Even if it didn't damage her much, it still hurt her. He frowned and decided to try another attack.
"ROCK BLAST AGAIN." He typed. Going for a move spam was a bit silly, he knew, and not very exciting, but it was the best he had. Rock Throw, while being a good move, was prone to missing a target who could roll around the same speed as a Pidgeotto.
"Rollout!" Whitney called.
The Miltank rolled up again and pushed off its back legs. Green watched the rocks form on Amethyst's arm- a second to late she pulled it forward again- and the Miltank crashed into her and sent the Geodude flying back into the small wall. Green winced and looked as the dust started to clear around the space that Amethyst had crashed into, but he saw nothing but dust and a lot of debris.
"Ouch." Whitney said. "I-I'm sorry about that. I'm sure she's fine. Rock types are always sturdy, right?"
Green had once known a man with a Graveler who was so soft that a normal type move could have finished it off. He knew Amethyst wasn't that soft rocked, but he still couldn't help but wonder.
And then a familiar white light nearly blinded him.
It got brighter and brighter until the whole room was filled with it, and everyone was shielding their eyes. By the time it had died down, Green saw that the dust had cleared, the debris was gone and instead of a Geodude, Amethyst was now a Graveler.
She was big. A big ball of rock, with four strong arms and two short, but probably powerful, legs. Amethyst was definitely not a soft rock pokemon- she hardly had a single scratch on her after that knock back. Two of her four arms, the smaller ones, were tucked onto her . . . body. Green still couldn't tell if it was her head or her body or both, but he didn't really care. The bigger arms rose up and she smirked, and both arms grew five rocks each.
The Miltank looked politely terrified. Just before it could roll out of the way, two rocks- one from each arm- hit the pokemon and sent it sprawling. Two more came after that and the Miltank mooed loudly, and scampered back to Whitney, whining something.
Amethyst, in her evolved glory and awesomeness, turned to Green and smiled at him. He gave her a full grin back and actually spoke, trying not to get a crack.
"Great job, Ame." He said.
"I was so waiting for this moment, you know?" The newly evolved Graveler laughed. Her arms fell down and the remaining rocks went back into them, and Green stepped onto the field to go over and hug her. Amethyst's body was rocky and uncomfortable, but he still hugged her.
She was nearly as big as he was, and a heck of a lot stronger. Instead of letting Green hug her properly, Amethyst lifted him up and put him on her shoulder. She had a shoulder. Green laughed silently at how the whole 'leg, arm, shoulder' thing was to her. Probably a new sensation.
"HOW DO YOU FEEL?" He asked her.
"Great!" Amethyst replied, not seeming bothered that he hadn't used his own voice to ask. "This . . . feels like it sort of belongs to me. Like I've been like this forever. I don't think it'll take long to get used to."
Tick and Twin came over, Tick riding on Twin's back, and the two landed on Amethyst's other arm. Tick jumped into Green's arms and grinned at Amethyst, while Twin quietly congratulated her on evolving. Ice walked over with a cool smirk on his face.
"That's almost all of us now." He commented. "Just Tick left for the evolution. Of course, he'll probably be the only one of us to get one evolution."
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE'LL EVOLVE INTO?" Green asked him.
"No clue. There hasn't been a single recorded Togepi evolution ever. No one even knows how they evolve. By level, or otherwise." Ice said. "But I'm sure we'll figure it out."
Green nodded. "WE WILL."
"Can he . . . understand his pokemon?" Whitney asked as she, the woman, Red and Blue walked over to the group.
"It's a long story." Red sighed.
"You said that he didn't really talk and he was sort of sad." Whitney said, looking at Blue. "I don't know much else, other than the fact that he was in the pokemon League a few months ago."
"WE SHOULD TELL HER." Green typed. Red looked at him with a worried face.
"Green . . . If she doesn't know, wouldn't it be best not to tell her?" He asked quietly. Green jumped down from Amethyst's arm, to listen. "She might . . . be like Oswald."
"That grumpy old sod?" Whitney snorted. "Yeah, like I'll ever be like him. What's this all about? If he's done something bad, then I can tell he's better now."
And with that reassurance, Green nodded to Red and Blue to tell her. With the occasional input from Green himself, and the translations from the others, Whitney and the woman were eventually nodded solemnly.
"I still stand by what I said, kid." Whitney told him. "No matter what you did before, you're better now. And also, ignore the idiots who don't think like that. They don't know anything. Don't let them make you depressed, ok?"
Green smiled and nodded. Whitney reached into her pocket and pulled out a badge, and handed it to Green carefully.
"This," She said, "Is the Plain badge. You've currently already got about three League badges, am I right?"
Green nodded.
"Then go for all of them." Whitney laughed. "You've got about a year until the Johto League anyway, so why not enter that? The registration is actually where they hold the Bug Catching contest, so you could enter the League and the contest at the same time."
Green didn't know what the Bug Catching contest was, but based on the name he guessed you caught bugs for some reason. He nodded.
"Also, fair bit of warning." Whitney continued. "The next Gym is sort of tricky. You'll need a dark or ghost type or even a psychic pokemon for it."
Green's mind thought of a type that was weak to all three, and could only come up with one. He hoped that maybe a new type had been discovered that had the same weaknesses, but Whitney spoke and his heart was filled with dread.
"The next Gym is a ghost type Gym, so be careful." Whitney said.
OOOOOO
Renny: You'll find out why he's terrified of ghost pokemon next chapter. Also, Green gets the Plain badge! I'd sort of accidently called it the Basic badge at some point in an earlier chapter, but I'm too lazy to correct that mistake.
Green: Oh, my Mew. This story has taken ages just to get the third badge? In Sinister Plots, you'd gotten to Celadon city in less than seventeen chapters!
Renny: This story has a lot of heavy crap going on in it. Also I'm trying my best to keep readers happy with a bunch of random stuff that I hope won't make anyone sad. Anyway, the Q&A thing's still going, so keep asking! Only one person's done it so far, and I await questions for the other characters as well! Ok, read, review and comment!