A/N: I really like it when characters introduce themselves for me. I just realized that Dan debuted with his first line in chapter 7 (the guy that tells Tim to cool it). ^_^
Anyways, I want to give credit to Phoenix Vanguard in his story Whim of a Madman for the idea that a screech attack can be used to deafen an enemy Pokémon.
Utopia's POV
The morning of the 21st, a Friday, I nearly had a panic attack. Skyla had told us to text our team name to her last night and I had totally forgotten about it until that very moment! It was six in the morning but I didn't care. I had to make sure that my team was still accounted for. I sprang out of bed and began to text in a frenzy. Landorus, why didn't I remember that until now of all times?
I sent the text and breathed a slight sigh of relief. I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep thanks to that adrenaline rush. I looked around the dim room and saw that most of my Pokémon were still sleeping after my hasty leap from the bunk bed. Hey, at least I wasn't on the top bunk, right?
I saw that Sundazzle was up and giving me a blue-eyed glare from the top bunk. I smiled slightly and nervously at the little trouble-making Pokémon. But other than her, Pebbles, Ole, and Len were all sleeping on the bunk beds, Len and Ole on the bottom bunk of the one I wasn't taking, and Pebbles on the top of my bunk. We all fit in the room well.
Heaving a sigh, I wandered through the gloom to fumble in my pack for clean clothes. It was a struggle, but I found some. I really needed to do my laundry soon. Thank Landorus for free soap and drying sheets in Pokémon centers. Sure, you still had to pay one hundred Poké (which isn't all that much. A single Pokéball is two hundred for comparison) for the machines to run.
I gave up the thought of washing my clothes until I had cleared up the challenge for today paired with Tim. I could only hope that things would go well. I still held a grudge against him for his Archen attack (wow, was it really only a few days ago?). He was still a course person to work with, even though he seemed to be a little more willing to work as a team. I shrugged and took a long and hot shower to wake me up properly. It felt really nice and refreshing, not to mention that it was convenient to have a bathroom close by, unlike the few days spent in the hanger.
My clothes for the day were a graphic tee (with a soccer team logo that my dad liked) covered by a hoodie and another jacket in case of bad weather, coupled with good ol' jeans and sneakers. I thought to wear a necklace as well, so I picked out the one I thought was Ouri's gift to wear. After I was dressed and out of the bathroom, I noticed that Len was staring with wide eyes at my Xtransceiver.
I patted my Pokémon on the bumpy head and picked up the device. One new message was on it, from Cliff. [Yes, we already had it. Tim sent it last night.]
Ooh, Tim remembered. Good job on his part. I gave Len another grin and said, "It's ok, boy. You remember the Xtransceiver, right?"
"Palpi pal." Len quipped and jumped back to where he was sleeping.
"Hey, I might need to get training, so don't you go back to sleep." I gave my sleepy starter Pokémon a don't-get-smart-with-me look. I picked up the Xtransceiver and debated on whether I should send my teammate Tim a text. I smirked at the over-usage of 't's in my last thought. Heh heh, 'teammate Tim a text'… Then again, did I want to train my Pokémon with him?
I had been doing my Pokémon journey for the most part as a solo trainer. My only experience with double battles was when I sent out two of my own Pokémon. What was involved with a fellow trainer in the battle? Maybe I really do need to understand how two trainers fight as a team… But then again who said that we had to fight? What if it was just the standard 'trust-fall' and other teamwork building activities? No, it couldn't be after Skyla gave us that speech about that we would be allowed when we were at our physical limit or something like that.
"Palpi Palpitoad…" Len grumbled and flopped back on the bed. Six was still too early for my normally cheerful sound-toad.
The Xtransceiver buzzed three times to show that I had another text. I pulled it up and saw that my teammate was once again one step ahead of me. Wait, how'd he get my number? "Tim you… how'd you get that number you creeper?" I mumbled at the device. The text read, [Are you ready to start training now? The weather hasn't been all that great since last night, but Chargestone is close enough to the center.] Him and caves… there was no doubt in my mind that he was an archeologist person now.
I sighed and decided to return my team to their Pokéballs and head out. After all, Tim's room was right next to mine. Why bother sending a reply? After four beams of red light were sucked into the red and white spheres and a few healing items slipped inside my pockets, I shouldered my coat and opened my door.
The hallway lights were bright and I squinted for a second to adjust. I looked to my right and saw that Tim was leaning against the door of his room, waiting for me. It was a little creepy at first, but I held back from flinching. I tried to act more awake than I was to not give him anything to poke fun at me. "'Morning…" I said and straightened my back.
He nodded back to me. He was wearing a black coat with the hood up, giving him a creepier than normal look about him. He had his large pack on his back as well. "The gym trainers will give us their locations at eight. We've got about an hour and a half to get our teams coordinated." He got off the wall and started walking to the exit without any further words.
I was fine with that. After a little ways of walking, I said quietly, "Good job for texting Skyla about the team name. I totally forgot about it until this morning."
Tim sighed in reply. He whispered back hostilely, "Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to be the leader of this group? Oh yeah, it's because I plan ahead."
I wanted to defend myself, but I held back. Actually, it was more than less true. I wasn't much of a planner compared to Tim. My strategy of winning the competition was to let things happen and figure out things as they came. Still I didn't like the attitude that he used to say it.
Luke the friendly ghost materialized by my head with a grin to cheer me up. "Morning Utopia, how'd you sleep? Did you have any dreams?"
I thought it was kind of odd to get that kind of familiar greeting from him, but I didn't want to refuse him. "Hi, Luke. I slept pretty well. I didn't realize how tired I was until I got into bed. Man, it felt so much better to sleep in the Pokémon center than in the hanger!" I stretched and concluded, "And I didn't have any dreams, at least that I remember."
"Ok, I like to ask because… well, ghost Pokémon are different from normal Pokémon. We don't sleep like the others. I haven't had a dream since I can remember being a Pokémon. I always like to hear about dreams." The Yamask thought back to me.
"That's interesting…" I nodded back to the friendly little ghost. I then blurted out, "I once had a dream that I had to balance on a rubber ball in a competition against a Darumaka, if you wanted to know." I answered with a slight giggle. I didn't know why I had just spit out that weird little dream, but there was no taking it back now.
Luke closed his eyes in happiness. "Really? That's pretty funny."
Tim gave me a look that could have meant 'are you serious?' or 'what is wrong with you?'. He glared over his shoulder and shook his head.
"What's that look for?" I huffed.
"You don't have to make up things just to amuse my friend." He muttered back.
I crossed my arms and protested, "I wasn't making it up. I was just being friendly and honest. Why do you seem so touchy about your friend?"
"Because he died." Tim replied in a hushed voice as we started walking down the stairs to the lobby.
I kept quiet as we headed out. I could wait on food anyways, I thought as I gave a glance to the downstairs area where food would be waiting in the buffet lines as usual. But staying quiet in the lobby gave me a chance to think more about Luke and Tim.
They were certainly strong friends, they knew each other very well, and it almost felt like Luke was welcoming me as another friend and Tim didn't like it. Or maybe I was completely wrong about it. How was I to know what it felt like to have a close friend as a ghost Pokémon on my team?
Tim opened the door and the wind and rain fell across my face, startling me out of my daydreaming and musing. He continued out the door as if the weather was normal. I hugged my coat closer to my body and trudged out after him, the wind was almost sharpened by the looming peak of Chargestone Cave, and the rain fell at an angle, hitting my face even when I ducked and held my hands up to shield.
Thankfully the trip was short and I breathed a sigh of relief when I entered into the still, blue cave. "If the Gym trainers think they can have outside activities today, I'll punch them in the face." I complained. "Did Mistralton always have this crappy of weather?"
"It's worse in Icirrus. All the ice-type Pokémon will be coming out soon." Tim said and let his pack fall to the ground. I thought I heard some Pokémon scurrying away from the sound. Maybe it was a Joltik… Tim gave me a degrading look as he stated, "Well, let's get out our Pokémon and work on tag-teams."
I nodded and called out my Pokémon, who all were still sleeping with the exception of Sundazzle. I face-palmed and tried to rouse them. "Come on, guys, you can't be asleep now. We've got to battle now. Sleep later." Sundazzle eyed Tim with that strange I-want-to-toast-you look.
Len stood to his two feet and tried to wake himself up. Ole was faking as far as I could tell. I didn't dare touch the creeper-fish for fear of getting a creepy smile and a jolt of electricity. Pebbles squawked and refused to be roused. I groaned. This was my team of Pokémon, and they were performing so well in front of my teammate…
Tim pulled out his team, who were good little Pokémon and were wide awake, ready for action (though I couldn't really tell with his Cryogonal thing). Archen opened its toothed beak in a slight yawn, showing that is was still a real Pokémon that had a real sleep schedule. The black-haired guy gave me another one of his belittling looks and started to think out loud to think of good pairs. "I was thinking that your Palpitoad would be good with Siggy since Siggy has a 'fly' attack, and your Pokémon could use a move like muddy water to hit two opponents at once."
"Mmhmm…" I agreed while poking my Vullaby to wake her up. She pecked at me and I yanked my finger away quickly enough to not get bitten. I was kind of amused with it and continued to try to rouse her with the poking while Tim continued to strategize.
"Then either Crogonal or Archen would need ground assistance from your Stunfisk…"
"Mmhmm…"
"And that would leave your Vullaby and Larvesta with Luke and the Pokémon that doesn't pair up with Stunfisk."
"Mmhmm… Ouch!" I yelped as Pebbles timed her pecking just right. I held my throbbing finger and glared at the sleepy vulture. "You little diaper-wearing-"
"What'd you say?" Tim gave me a withering glare.
"I was talking to my Pokémon. Sheesh…" I glared back.
"Have you been listening to me at all?"
I nodded back while giving Pebbles a glare. "Yeah, Len with Siggy, Ole with one of your floating Pokémon, and then Luke with Larvesta or something, right?" Come to think of it, Tim had all floating Pokémon except for his fossil bird Pokémon. That was interesting… no wonder he was so weak against a rock-type opponent.
He huffed back at me. "I still wonder why Luke lost to your Palpitoad. You seem to have little authority over your Pokémon."
"But I've got one more badge than you. I should technically have more respect from my Pokémon than you…" It was said that the more badges that one trainer had, the more the Pokémon felt obliged to obey and respect the human. Well, whoever came up with that rule didn't have my team in mind. I had won three badges and my team hadn't given me any more respect than when I first caught them.
Tim responded, "Badges don't have anything to do with it. I've spent years with my Pokémon team, and you've only had one year. Not to mention that you seem more like a Pokémon friend or pet person than a trainer. You need to show that you are the head of the team instead of letting your Larvesta do whatever she likes." He added as a side note, "You can be a friend to Pokémon and a strong leader at the same time. Training is almost like parenting."
"Yeah, I think I see your point. Sundazzle can act like such a spoiled brat sometimes…" I admitted, and then tried to defend my training methods. "But I can be a good trainer. I just need my team to wake up, and then they'll cooperate." Tim was right when he said that training was like parenting. Pokémon could act like little kids sometimes, and it was up to the trainer to provide for them and raise them. That's another reason why Pokémon training was so personal: because Pokémon were like kids and the last thing a parent wants to hear is that their kid is a terrible child, even if we knew it to be true.
But the similarities of Pokémon raising and children raising didn't match up when you consider Pokémon battles.
Tim still wasn't pleased with my team's tiredness. "So are we going to be able to practice?"
Luke floated towards and thought to me, "Archen can use screech. It'll wake up your Pokémon, but I'd warn you that you might get a headache. In a cave a screech attack is echoed, so it's even more effective. I could ask Archen …"
I shrugged. "If your friend wants to train so badly, then I'll have to stick with that plan."
The Yamask nodded and hovered back by his friend. Tim got the message and commanded his Archen to screech. Luke quickly thought to me, "Cover your ears, it'll hurt!" before the fossil bird opened its toothed beak and let loose the most terrifying sound I had ever heard.
I clamped my hands over my ears and leaned forward as the screeching rang throughout the cave, ringing in my head. It was thankfully a short attack and I took a second to let my fingers venture out of my ears. Everything seemed so quiet, as if I had just gotten back from a loud concert and regular sound wasn't loud enough for my accustomed ears. I looked at Tim to see if he had a similar affect.
Tim was holding his ears as well, but I think that he had less of a sound barrage that I did since he was behind his Pokémon. My Pokémon were awake after that horrendous sound, though Ole looked disappointed that he didn't get to shock me. Pebbles squawked irritably at Tim's Archen, Len seemed more of a whiner that the screech hurt his sound-toadness… in some way. Sundazzle simply intensified her look of wanting to torch Tim.
I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I guess it worked…"
"You don't need to speak that loud." Tim said in a quiet tone.
Great, now the screech attack was having a bad effect on my hearing, maybe even my Pokémon as well as me. It's ok, I'll get my hearing back eventually… "You weren't hit by that screech." I huffed back. I looked at my much more awake and irritated team of Pokémon. They seemed to have the same reaction that I had to the screech, slight deafness.
Tim was nice enough to wait a little for my ears to start picking up noises again. Once again I still wondered if he was really serious about our truce. He was still Tim, but now he seemed a little nicer.
"Can you hear me now?" "Yamask?" Luke floated up to me and asked.
"Yeah, I think I can hear better now." I nodded to the ghost. I looked at Tim and said, "Ok, so you said that Len and Siggy or Len and Archen would be a good team?"
The dark-haired guy nodded. "Len and Siggy. We've got an hour to train and practice, so let's find some Klinks and other cave Pokémon to fight."
