Hooray for the BW2 characters who I love even though they are really forgettable. And, in this story, minus one legendary. Cheater.
Ryan was used to being woken up by either an alarm clock or sunlight shining in his eyes – and as of more recently, Pokémon trying to climb over him.
Today, however, he was woken by the sound of a high-pitched scream.
I wonder what that was, he wondered to himself in a half-asleep daze, feebly trying to bury his face deeper into the pillow. The room felt colder than usual, he realised, pulling the covers more tightly around himself. He could hear the melodic chirps of Pidove singing in the distance, which would've lulled him back to sleep, if not for the fact that it wasn't something he usually heard when he woke. Was the window open?
The sudden realisation hitting him like a Nimbasa subway train, Ryan jolted into a sitting position. "Smith—!"
He was up and dressed in record time, startling the Pokémon Centre staff as he raced past them in such a hurry. Outside, the ground looked completely dry, showing that it hadn't rained again during the night. The knowledge that he hadn't left his Pokémon out in a battle against the elements provided a sliver of relief, but Ryan was still concerned. Where was Smith? And where had that noise come from? He was pretty certain it wasn't his Pokémon – or any other, for that matter. It sounded like a person.
"Ryan! Ryan!"
The worry lessened slightly when he heard the Trubbish – until he saw the poison-type racing towards him with a panicked expression on his face, arms flailing behind him from the momentum. "Smith! What's going on?"
When he stumbled to a halt beside his trainer, Smith was gasping for breath. "There's… she was…!" He lifted one arm off the ground, waving in the direction he'd just run from.
Ryan looked in the direction he was signalling, not knowing what exactly he expected to see. There was a woman nearby, wearing a large hat and with a Lilligant walking along beside her, but other than that…
No, wait. That woman was walking towards them – she didn't look too happy. Ryan knew she was the source of the problem when Smith took one look at her and wobbled a few steps backwards, as if trying to hide behind his trainer.
"Excuse me, boy, but you should really step away from that creature. It has the potential to poison you," the stranger said plainly, lifting the brim of her hat.
Her words were met with a blank look as Ryan cast a glance at his Pokémon. "Of course he does; he's a poison-type. But he wouldn't do that."
"There's no telling what it might do. Just step aside and let us chase it off back to whatever trash heap it came from."
"What?" Ryan wondered for a moment if he'd heard her correctly. "Why—you're trying to chase him away?" He didn't want to believe this person was implying what he thought she was, but he was getting a sinking feeling…
"I found that disgusting thing amongst the flowers. Trubbish aren't supposed to be on this side of the caves. I'm doing it and everyone else here a favour by sending it back south."
"Don't say that about him!" Ryan snapped. Smith looked worriedly up at his trainer. The stranger's words had hurt him more than she realised. "He's not disgusting, and he is supposed to be here. He's with me. He's part of my team!"
The second he'd finished speaking, the woman's features contorted into a look of revulsion. "Why on earth would you want a Pokémon like that? It's stinking the place up, and it's not even strong!"
"He is strong – and he's my friend. If all you can see in a Pokémon is what's on the outside, you're a horrible trainer." He frowned, fixing the stranger with a fierce glare.
"How dare you say such a thing!" she scoffed. The Lilligant let out a small huff as well, not happy at the insult thrown towards her trainer. "Your Trubbish didn't even fight back against Vivian!"
"I thought it'd be rude to attack someone without meaning," Smith explained quietly. "I didn't want to be like them!"
"You did a good thing," Ryan murmured, trying to keep his voice below the hearing level of the stranger. Now he understood why Smith had so much trouble with the Minccino; they attacked him, but he didn't want to fight back. He seemed to enjoy trainer battles, but they were different. Both parties wanted to fight, in those cases. "If someone attacks you, though, there's no shame in fighting back for self-defence. You could get injured, or… worse… otherwise."
"I guess," Smith sighed. "But… I knew she couldn't hurt me too bad."
So the Lilligant wasn't too strong for him. That was a relief. And being a poison-type, grass-type attacks wouldn't do much damage to him either. "Smith, how about we prove to them how strong you are?"
"You mean battle them?" The Trubbish's eyes widened at the suggestion. "Well, if that's okay with them…"
Ryan looked back to the stranger, who still appeared rather disturbed by the creature – and confused as to why the boy appeared to be having a conversation with the thing. "If you don't believe me, I can prove that he's strong. Assuming you're not too 'weak' to battle a Trubbish." He made quotations with his index and middle fingers to emphasise his words. Ryan didn't like this person, even if they had only just met, so he didn't really care how hostile he seemed towards her.
After all, anyone who would be so harsh to a Pokémon clearly wasn't a good person.
"Ugh— very well," she sighed, stepping back a few paces. "Quiver dance, Vivian."
Giving a brief nod, the Lilligant put her leafy hands together, the greenery and petals on her body shivering slightly as she strengthened herself for the upcoming battle. It almost looked like the grass-type was in a gentle breeze. She was certainly a graceful Pokémon. It wouldn't be fair to blame her for the way her trainer acted, but she seemed willing enough to see this battle through.
"Smith, you ready?" Ryan checked, watching his friend as he trotted forward.
"Yep!" Smith had a smile on his face now, determined to prove his strength to the person who had spoken so badly of him.
"Okay. Clear smog."
If the opponent's tactic was to increase their power, Smith could easily deal with that. Taking a deep breath first, he spat out a large clump of something which resembled mud. It soared towards the Lilligant, exploding into a white gas upon connecting with her leaves. As the cloud hovered around her, she tried to fan it away, but to no avail; her concentration was broken now, and she wasn't faring too well against the poison-type attack either.
"Don't let it get to you, Vivian!" the trainer ordered, grimacing at the sight of the murky fog. "Energy ball!"
Trying to ignore the gas settling around her, Vivian began to gather a mass of energy in her arms. The green orb was fired at the Trubbish, and upon seeing it hit him directly in the face, Ryan felt a brief stab of worry – but all the delicate attack did was push him back a little. The ball of light exploded on impact, creating a small cloud which gave off a rather overpowering aroma of mown grass.
Shaking his head and blinking in surprise, Smith soon righted himself. The flower Pokémon's attack had barely even scratched him.
"Sludge bomb!"
As soon as the words left Ryan's mouth, a brief look of fright flashed through the Lilligant's eyes. Smith collected his strength and fired a ball of gruesome-looking sludge into the small makeshift battlefield. The toxic waste easily hit its mark, splashing onto the grass-type and hissing as it soaked into her leaves.
Vivian spent a few moments trembling, releasing broken chirps as the poison coursed through her body. The Lilligant swayed slightly. Her balance faltered. Then she fell to the ground.
Smith won. As proud as Ryan was that he'd proved his point, he couldn't help but feel just a little bad for the opponent.
"Oh, Vivian—!" The stranger at least seemed worried about her Pokémon, hurriedly returning the exhausted creature to her Poké ball. "Maybe your Pokémon is strong, but that doesn't mean it isn't utterly revolting," she spat. With a glare at Ryan, and more so Smith, she stalked away into the Pokémon Centre.
Even if she was incredibly rude about certain Pokémon, at least she cared for her own. That was better than nothing.
Smith looked a little disappointed as the automatic doors slid shut with a gentle whirring sound. His gaze switched to his trainer, eyes a mix of hope and hurt. "Nobody is liked by everyone, right?"
Ryan didn't know how to respond, biting the inside of his cheek as he tried to think of how to reply. "… No. I guess not." He stared at the closed door of the centre, as if that'd do anything to help the situation. What had they even gained from this? That stranger had still been just as harsh towards Smith as she had been before the battle, and all that had come from the fight was injuring their Pokémon…
"Um, Ryan? I… feel kind of funny…"
He was snapped out of his momentary daze by the creature's words. "Is something wrong? Was it the fight?" Maybe Smith had actually been injured in that battle after all. That only made him feel worse about it. "Are you hurt? Do you need a potion?"
"No, no." Smith shook his head slowly. He looked slightly confused, as if he himself was still trying to work out what was wrong with him. "It's not a hurt kind of funny, it's just… I don't know. It's strange."
It was a relief that he wasn't hurt, but Ryan probably looked just as perplexed as his Pokémon did at that point. That was, until he noticed a very faint glow illuminating from him. "Smith, look! Look! The light!"
"Light?" Smith glanced around in many directions before finally looking down at himself. "Oh! This is— oh my goodness, am I evolving?"
Ryan didn't even get a chance to respond before the light became unbearably intense and he was forced to look away before it could damage his eyes. He took a step back, feeling the ground tremble ever so slightly underneath him.
Gradually the light began to fade. Ryan couldn't tell if it was just his eyes adapting to the change, but the place appeared to be darker than before. When he looked towards his Pokémon once more, he finally realised why.
"Smith!?" Ryan stared wide-eyed at the creature who, while standing next to him like that, was actually casting a rather large shadow over him. This wasn't the little Trubbish who'd barely reached the height of his knees before; now he was massive, standing almost two feet taller than the boy.
"Did you get shorter?" Smith asked. It took him a moment, but he soon pieced two and two together, eyes stretching wide in amazement. "I…!" His gaze switched from left to right, admiring the fact that he now had properly functioning arms and could also see so much more from this high up.
"You evolved into a Garbodor!" Ryan cheered.
"I did! I really did!" Smith's face was painted with the largest grin possible for such a creature. "Yay!" He gave a little cheery hop, much like he sometimes did before he evolved, but now he was bigger, the earth shook when he landed. Ryan had to take a few steps back to avoid losing his balance. "Oh! Erm, sorry…"
"It's fine, it's fine," Ryan said hurriedly with a small wave of his hands.
"So you're the ones causing the ruckus around here!"
The sudden interruption made him jump, glancing around hurriedly to try and find the source of the voice. At last he noticed someone heading their way; a red-haired woman with a blue outfit and tanned skin. A portion of her hair was tied up in a bun by something which resembled a flower – or maybe a propeller. It was difficult to read her expression to tell whether she was angry at them or not.
Ryan looked up at her with a guilty expression over the accusatory comment. She must have been referring to the battle. "Sorry. But that person was insulting my Pokémon…"
"I can believe that," she said with a small sigh, resting her hands on her hips. "Suzanne can be very… judgemental, at times. Try not to let her get to you, alright?" She offered a friendly smile. "I suppose I should congratulate you on having your Pokémon evolve, though. Just remember in future that it's not such a good idea to wage any battles in the middle of town, okay? People can get hurt that way."
"Oh." He hadn't thought about that. They were right next to the Pokémon Centre, too. What if someone had urgently needed to heal their Pokémon? They'd have to try and avoid the battle to get there. "Sorry. We won't do that again."
"Apology accepted," the woman grinned. She patted him on the back – maybe slightly too enthusiastically, as the impact felt like it'd knocked all the breath out of him. "You're a trainer, I take it? Heading for the gym?"
"Mmhmm!" Now that she didn't appear to be scolding him, Ryan smiled brightly, nodding his head. "We were thinking of looking around the city first."
"Well, take your time. I have some supplies to fly over to Lentimas, and I'm not sure if I'll be back early enough to take on any challengers today…"
It took a second for her words to sink in – and when they did, Ryan stared at her in surprise. "Are you the gym leader?"
"That's correct!" she beamed. "Skyla's the name. I haven't seen many challengers recently though – I think Clay's kicking their butts before I even get the chance. Still, gives me more time to do the rest of my work, so I guess I can't complain!"
Ryan responded to her words with a nervous laugh. He could certainly understand why so many trainers might have difficulties beating Clay.
Skyla tapped her chin with one finger, looking thoughtfully at Smith. "You've got some pretty strong Pokémon with you. How many badges already? Four? Five?"
"Five," he nodded. Smith looked ready to burst with pride at a near-stranger calling him strong, especially after what they'd just been through, and Ryan couldn't help but smile.
"Ooh, looks like you might be a tough one!" she chuckled. "Okay, since I'm a little busy today, how about we deal with your gym challenge tomorrow, first thing. The early bird catches the wurmple, after all!"
"Okay! That sounds fine." Ryan wasn't entirely sure how to go about this battle just yet, but he couldn't imagine it being any more difficult than fighting in that dark underground room in the last gym. All they needed was a little training and they'd be ready.
This late in the year with the incoming winter months, Route 7 was painted a beautiful orange hue. Auburn leaves dusted the paths, crunching quietly underfoot as they walked, and the trees above that still clung to their foliage glowed radiantly in the sunlight. The grass here was incredibly tall, swaying in the gentle breeze, and high wooden walkways had been constructed over the top of these patches so that people could pass by without disturbing the wild Pokémon.
Regretfully, he had to return Smith to his Poké ball; he was far too big to be able to walk on the thin platforms, and even before he evolved he likely wouldn't have been able to balance on them. Ryan released Jay and Charlotte instead, the two of his Pokémon who were actually small enough to be able to easily tread these paths.
They challenged a couple of wild Pokémon near the edges of the grass, battling the ones who wanted to fight and respecting the decisions of the ones who didn't. As they trained, Ryan tried to think of a strategy for the gym. They were going to be battling against a lot of very fast and nimble Pokémon – fortunately there were quite a few wild Tranquill and Zebstrika out on the route willing to help them practice.
Perhaps he shouldn't have agreed to a battle so soon. Tomorrow morning gave him an awfully short amount of time to decide how they were going to challenge the gym…
"Whoa!" Charlotte's sudden exclamation certainly took him by surprise; she'd walked a short distance ahead, holding up one paw to shield her eyes from the sun. She glanced over her shoulder at her trainer, urgently jabbing her other paw in the direction of the sky. "Look! Look up there!"
Ryan followed her command – and his jaw dropped in amazement.
High above them, two silhouettes darted back and forth across the blue backdrop of the sky. One was certainly a lot more agile than the other, six wings a fiery blur as it soared and dived around its opponent. In pursuit of the Volcarona was a much heftier Dragonite, but despite its lesser speed, the dragon was trying its best to land a hit while simultaneously dodging the pillars of flame sent its way. It lunged forward, wings outstretched to slice through the air. The bug darted aside at the last moment, swiftly fanning its own wings to summon a high-altitude hurricane. Tearing through the clouds above the fierce gale shot forwards, but the dragon managed to narrowly avoid it, using the edges of the air current to arc through the sky and soar back towards its foe.
"Wow…" Ryan watched in awe, blinking a few times as the remnants of the attack blew a gust over the route, rustling the nearby leaves. Those two Pokémon were strong, especially compared to the wild ones around here. Were they with a trainer?
Jay's ears twitched as his focus went from the duelling Pokémon to the surroundings. "Oh! Oh! It's the flame head man!"
"What?" Ryan glanced over in surprise but the Umbreon was already racing away. "Jay, wait—!" Too late. He wasn't listening.
Giving a mental shrug and deciding that he, hopefully, wouldn't go far on his own, Ryan tried to work out what exactly he'd spotted. His eyes followed the path ahead, the direction Jay was heading, up to another tall patch of grass. There was someone standing on the platform, watching the two Pokémon in the sky. The wild fire-coloured hair led him to think it was Alder, the assumption Jay had likely made as well, but after a moment's observation he realised this person was a lot younger. They weren't dressed quite as abstractly as the former champion either.
Unfortunately, it was going to take more than that for Jay to realise. "Jay, come back! That's not…" He let out a small sigh. "We'd better catch up to him." Ryan's voice lowered to a mutter, realising that trying to stop him would be a fruitless effort.
The Umbreon had already made it to the platform, skipping with rather impressive balance along the raised plank. All that practice climbing trees back in the forest at home had clearly paid off. When he finally reached the person who he didn't realise was a stranger, he hopped up to put his paws against their leg, letting out a happy yip. "Hi flame head man!"
To put it bluntly, they definitely hadn't been expecting it.
The stranger had been so focused on watching the battle that when they did finally notice Jay they almost screamed in shock. Instinctively they tried to move away from the creature that, on first glance, looked like it was trying to climb them. "What in the name of Arceus—!? Waugh!" The surprise was enough to completely throw off their balance, arms flailing as they fell and vanished into the grass below.
"Jay! What did you do!?" Ryan hurried over, trying his best not to meet the same fate as he crossed the raised platform to where his Pokémon was.
Jay hadn't got away completely scot-free either, paws scrabbling to try and pull himself back onto the platform. At least he'd actually managed to grab onto it instead of falling as well. "I thought he was the flame head man! He's not the flame head man!"
Not-the-flame-head-man had climbed back to his feet, roughly swatting the grass aside. "What the hell was that for!?" His fiery-coloured hair rather fit his current angered expression. After a tenth of a second he finally noticed Ryan. "Is this your Pokémon?"
"I'm sorry! He, um… thought you were someone else," Ryan tried to explain – though how convincing he actually sounded, he couldn't tell. He reached down to pull his friend back up onto the platform. Clearly not taking a liking to the angry human, Jay pressed close to Ryan's leg, an odd mix of wanting to protect his trainer from this scary person but also trying to stay as far away from the man as possible.
"Sure he did," the stranger muttered, hooking his arms over the plank of wood as if to climb up. The other, less appealing option would be to walk back to the slope at the edge of the grass and deal with whatever might be lurking within the reeds, but climbing back up from the ground didn't seem like too easy a feat either. Ryan internally debated whether it would be polite or not to offer him a hand.
As it seemed, he didn't need to. There was a fleeting gust of wind as the Dragonite drifted towards them, hovering lower to lift the man up and aid him in getting back to the platform. As soon as he found his balance, the flame-haired stranger patted the dragon's side. "Cheers, Delwyn."
The dragon let out a happy mumble at the praise, checking the ground below before carefully landing amongst the grass to rest his wings. He was tall enough that he could see over the top of the swaying ferns, although a few of them were flattened by his weight. A hum vibrated through the air as the Volcarona fluttered over to join them. It settled atop Delwyn's head, using two of its legs to cling to the dragon's scales and the others to clean its face.
Were the two Pokémon friends? Watching that fight a few minutes ago he wouldn't have thought so, but Delwyn didn't seem to mind the bug sitting on him at all.
"Are you both his Pokémon?" Ryan asked quietly, not realising that he'd subconsciously addressed the creatures rather than their trainer.
"You're asking me?" Delwyn tilted his head to one side in confusion, causing the Volcarona to let out a few irritated hisses as it almost fell off its perch. The dragon was such a soft-spoken creature; it was amazing to think this was the same fierce battler they'd just seen.
"Well, of course they are." The man raised an eyebrow, clearly unsure as to why he was addressing them as well. "Delwyn, Anderson." He pointed first to the Dragonite, then the Volcarona. "Why?"
"They were battling each other," Ryan pointed out, as if the reason was so obvious. He'd never seen two Pokémon on the same team fight before.
"You think any wild Pokémon around here are strong enough to pose even the slightest challenge for these guys?" He rolled his eyes. "We have to train somehow."
"Oh…" Well, that was an idea he hadn't thought of – and one he wasn't quite sure how he felt about. At least the two Pokémon didn't seem too bothered by it. It was the same principle as battling wild Pokémon, he supposed. However, there was something still eating at him… "Do you know the former champion, Alder?"
The question finally brought a smile to the stranger's face. "Of course I know him; he's my grandpa!"
"Oh! Well, that would explain, uh…" The hair. "Why you reminded me of him!" Ryan forced a smile of his own.
"You've met grandpa before, huh? Most people your age don't know much about him other than the name otherwise. It's been a long while since he was the champion." He gave a half-hearted grin, holding out one hand. "Benga. Remember the name, 'cuz pretty soon it's gonna be prefixed with 'champion'!"
He shuffled forward slightly so that he wouldn't have to reach to shake the hand and risk losing his balance. Jay weaved through his legs to get on the other side of him and avoid being pushed off the platform by accident. "Ryan. Are you and your team training to beat the league too?"
"Too?" Benga echoed. He gave a quiet laugh. "You got some big ambitions for a kid, don't ya? The league ain't nothing to us. I can beat the Elite Four with my eyes closed." His expression changed to a scowl. "It's that damn lazy bas— idiot who we can't knock off his throne. He's never at the league in the first place, and whenever I do track him down, his Pokémon are too darn strong. That's why we need to train."
"You mean Nate?" Ryan stared up at him wide-eyed. He hadn't heard anyone else speak so negatively of the champion before now.
"We haven't exactly had many other champions in the past decade," Benga huffed, putting emphasis on the last word. "It's about time someone changed that."
"Well, um… good luck?" Ryan offered, not really knowing how else to respond. He really doesn't seem to like the champion.
Just like that, the smile was back. "Heh, thanks. And good luck in whatever you're up to as well – challenging the gyms to make your way to the league, I'm guessing?" He glanced past the boy, to the Umbreon and Mienfoo who both looked rather bored just standing around on the walkway. "You fought Skyla yet?"
Ryan shook his head. "No. We're going to challenge her tomorrow, after we've done some training first." And hopefully I'll be able to think of a plan before then.
"Well, as I said, good luck. If you have a type advantage over Skyla's team you'll be fine, but if not, it might be a tough fight." He glanced around at the fields. "Keep in mind, though, you can't go too far here. Twist Mountain has been closed to the public ever since the rock slides a few months back; they're still working on building a new path through the mountains."
"Really?" Ryan's eyes held a look of disappointment. He'd seen the mountains marked on his map, and he hadn't intended on heading through that way just yet, but that had been the logical next step after they were done with the gym. Where were they supposed to go? "Is there another way through?"
"Not unless you have a Pokémon who knows how to fly you over there," Benga shrugged. "But, hey, the Icirrus Gym closed down a long time ago, so at least you're not missing out on that, right?"
"I guess…" There had to be other gyms in the region, right? For now, he just needed to focus on the challenge they had coming up.
"We'd best be off. There's still time to train and right now we're blocking the path for you guys." Benga clicked his fingers, beckoning the dragon over so he could climb onto his back and clear the walkway. "See ya 'round. Oh, and if you happen to run into our sorry excuse for a champion, you let him know that I'm looking for him, alright?"