*ahem*
I apologise for my pathetic behaviour in the last part of the previous chapter. From now on, I will not be listening to any morons who say that I am a 'cheap bitch' because I chose Flareon over Umbreon.
Do not take me for a fool, I know the good sides for having an Umbreon. Sure-fire ways to beat up ghosts and a psychic killer, yes, with amazing defence to boot. However, look at the bad sides of having Umbreon.
A weakness to bug and fighting, two types which I have hardly use and therefore do not understand. I have lost many pokemon in a Nuzlocke to these two types of pokemon simply because I had underestimated them- not including Scyther of course, but there we go.
Now, Umbreon is my favourite Eeveelution. You may ask, why did I not choose Umbreon, if it is my favourite?
The answer, to put it bluntly, is simple and should be seen easily.
Umbreon, while it would have been ideal for the ghost type Gym, would only have been useful at that point. Yes, it has amazing defence and the way it looks is cool, but I know for a fact that the other Eeveelutions are more useful and have better defences than Umbreon does, at least where type is concerned.
Now, the reasons why I chose Flareon over Umbreon.
Flareon, while not being as well defended or fast as Umbreon may be, is a lot more powerful. In a Nuzlocke, defence is a good thing, yes, but so is power. If your pokemon can do an OHKO on many occasions, as Eon has done within the game several times, then it would be called a powerhouse.
I already have a tank pokemon, which means a pokemon with good defence. I would say that this applies to Ice, Ziba and Amethyst, but I mostly refer to Amethyst since she can withstand anything. Trust me, I even threw her against water types and she still won.
I also already have my speed pokemon, which are Ziba and Twin. As you all know, I'm keeping Tick, and my reason is because he's incredibly useful, and he has my only psychic move.
But, I was lacking in the fire department. Yes, I am aware that Togetic can learn both Flamethrower and Fire Blast, but wouldn't it be better to have a real fire type have these moves? For the STAB, obviously. Tick already has good moves, I do not want to get rid of any current ones. Yet.
Anyway, I was lacking in the fire types. I needed something to beat steel types, and even though I do have a ground type with Earthquake, I figured that Amethyst should be backup since her typing made her vulnerable to steel. So, I needed a fire type. This also works for when flying type does not kill bug types, such as bug/steel. Nothing but fire is supereffective against those types, and one of the Elite Four members has a bug/steel pokemon. You all know who I mean.
Also, as I've said in the story itself, Eon was more of a physical hitter. Flareon is an amazing physical hitter, and while fire attacks are mainly special, his attacks will probably be the most devastating in battle since he will learn Fire Fang soon enough.
And as for when I asked about what the readers would like Eon to become . . .
I WAS NOT TAKING ANY REQUESTS. I was simply asking for opinions and reasons, which, I regret to inform a lot of you, you did not give. Oh yes, you gave reasons as to why Umbreon was good, but did it occur to you that I may have been wanting a different pokemon since I almost always use Umbreon?
Also, did it never occur to anyone that I may not have been able to train the thing to a good enough level before it evolved? One of my favourite moves from the dark type is Faint Attack, because it never misses, but if I had tried to train Eon to be an Umbreon he would have evolved long after the level on which an Umbreon learns this.
I suppose you would say, in your own defence, that I could have given Eon haircuts and given him Proteins and all that. However, I did not have the Poke necessary for this. Johto is one of the few regions that give very little money for battling, and whenever I do get the money it is always spent on battle supplies, since many of the Johtoian pokemon have status moves that would otherwise kill my team off.
So, to put it all bluntly- I COULD NOT GET UMBREON.
So I settled for the next best thing, Flareon, which is also a good pokemon for reasons I have already explained.
So from now on, anyone who wants to call me a 'cheap bitch' or anything along those lines, just for choosing a pokemon that wouldn't die the second it was hit with a bug/fighting attack, I will not listen.
I will delete the 'review' if it is anonymous, and if you have logged in to say it, I will report it. Understood?
Good.
Now then, to the shorter AN, since bold and very angry writing was the only way I could get anyone's attention in this dammed world.
(Besides, I am incredibly good at coddling 'weak' pokemon. I even made it to the League with a Raticate once.)
oooo
Red's last member suggestions: Houndour, Tyrogue, Forretress, Bellossom, Jumpluff
Blue's last member suggestions: Houndour, Marill, Aipom
Green: That . . . was a very long rant.
Renny: It wasn't a rant, it was a fact. Everything I said there was bloody well true, and I don't want people calling me a 'cheap bitch' for choosing a fire type over a dark type.
Green: Then you have very good reasons for putting that up. And considering the fact that it took up, what, two and a half pages, people should read it . . . probably anyway.
Renny: *sigh* I just hope they will read it. Not my fault they didn't get the message. And I can't go back and start the game over, and get an Umbreon instead. The whole game would be messed up and I wouldn't have the same team either. Or I would, just with different natures and moves.
Red: Like that guy said, ignore the idiots who flame you for no reason at all, and write. Don't let it get you down.
Renny: I won't. I've put in the Moderate reviews thing anyway, so if any idiots who try to flame me want to say anything via anonymous so no one knows who they are, well . . . they got another thing coming. Anyway, disclaimer!
Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!
Renny: On with the show! Oh my god finally . . .
OOOOOO
Ziba finally listened to him. Now that she did listen, Green could train her properly without the fear of being hit by her blade or even her foot, but it turned out that the one-eyed Scyther didn't even need training.
She was already powerful enough, which surprised Green a lot. He wasn't sure why, he knew from his old Scyther that the bug/flying type pokemon were usually powerful, but Ziba surprised him. Maybe it was the fact that she was half blind, and that made him think of her as handicapped? Obviously she was, yes, but it didn't really mean much.
She'd also told Green everything about the events leading to her finding them in the park. When Green had heard about how the Doduo, Double or something, had tried to kill her, he almost got up and went to find the idiot Trainer just to give him- or her- a piece of his mind. But Ziba stopped him, saying that the Doduo had done her a favour.
When Green had asked, she replied with this:
"Being half blind allows me to see things differently. It also allows my reflexes to get better."
It made sense, so Green let it be and allowed her to train on her own, on the condition that she didn't kill anything. While the Scyther had looked a bit more than disappointed, which unnerved Green a lot, she did as she was told and went off to train on her own as she saw fit. Which led to Green sitting around idly near a lake thing that was next to the Tin Tower, fiddling with the grass between his fingers, and watching Eon practise the new Ember attack he'd learned a day ago.
Amethyst and Ice, the only ones with resistance against the attack and therefore the ones least likely to get killed with it, were helping him practise by being his targets, moving swiftly and occasionally causing rocks to appear out of nowhere as shields. As expected, Eon's Ember was now so powerful that he could blast through the rocks anyway. Everytime someone needed a healing or something, Green chucked an item to Ice, who gave it to whoever needed it.
Red and Blue were discussing something a few feet away in low voices, sometimes glancing at Green, who ignored them. Or tried to. He didn't want to have to talk about facing Blue's Gastly in battle yet, but he knew that if he tried to put it off any longer, he'd never get the badge. And Green intended to get the badge from Morty tomorrow at the latest.
Twin was somewhere over the small lake, hunting for fish, and Tick was resting on a small rock that Amethyst had made for him next to Green. Red and Blue's teams were scattered around as well, but as usual Green paid more attention to his own team.
"Try a moving Ember this time!" He heard Ice call.
"How do I do that?" Eon asked.
"Run fast and use Ember at the same time."
While the execution of the move was incredibly bad, Ice did say that it was better than it would have been had Eon not had any practise beforehand, with stationary Embers. Luckily enough the stray Embers got blown away by Twin, who used Gust whenever an Ember didn't die out in mid-air if it missed the target, so Green didn't need to worry about burning down Tin Tower, like the tower next to it, Brass Tower. Apparently there were plans to start rebuilding it in a few weeks, but Green held no interest for that kind of stuff, so he didn't bother sticking around to look at the plans.
It seemed that Blue was interested though, so she stuck around the Monks while they talked about the Brass Tower plans, and Red and Green had walked off to explore Tin Tower. Or what they could, anyway. The floors past the third one were banned from the public, unless they had the Fog badge.
He was distracted from his thoughts when Ziba came flying back, her wings buzzing. She landed in front of him, and stood proudly, looking almost unhurt. Green would have thought she hadn't been training if it hadn't been for the small crack and chip on her right blade. The boy stood up to greet her.
"I defeated many opponents." Ziba smirked, indicating to the chipped blade. "One in particular was difficult to hit, but I managed it."
"What did you attack, a steel tree?" Green chuckled, looking at the chip briefly before going back to Ziba herself.
"No, I fought against a wood-tree-creature." Ziba said.
"She means Sudowoodo." Tick translated, after seeing Green's confused expression. Green nodded his thanks.
"Maybe we should teach you the names of pokemon . . ." He murmured.
"I don't want to learn about things I will defeat." Ziba scoffed.
"Why not? It'd help you beat them, and make you look smart as well."
Even though Ziba didn't look like she wanted to, she eventually agreed. The bug/flying pokemon went off to Twin, presumably to help her find some fish.
"You really know how to manipulate people." Tick laughed, as Green sat back down.
"I think it comes from having a professional con artist as a friend." Green mused.
"Hey, I only steal from total idiots." Blue's indignant voice snorted.
Green turned around to see that she and Red had walked up, and now Red looked more than offended. Oh yeah, Blue had mugged him once. Or twice. Or maybe three times depending on how you saw it- first she conned him and took his money, then gave him fake badges, and then she tried to steal his whole lot by grabbing that weird plate thing that merged the three legendry birds together.
"I'm not an idiot." Red muttered.
He was ignored.
"Me and Red have been talking." Blue began.
"Oh, no."
"Sarcasm will get you nowhere, little boy." The girl warned.
"It got me this far."
"Touché. Anyway, we've been talking, and we decided that maybe you should battle Gassy now." Blue told him. Despite being called an idiot by Blue, Red nodded along with her.
"Um . . . c-can't it wait?" Green squeaked.
"I'm afraid not." Ice said, walking up. "You don't do this now, you won't do it ever."
"But Ice-"
"Kid, I have Crunch and Tick has Extrasensory, between us we can destroy ghost types in seconds. And then you have Eon's Bite and Ziba's Pursuit as well." Ice frowned. "Kid, come on."
And so Green stood on the grass, several feet away from Blue, who held out Gassy's pokeball in her hands. Green held no pokeball as his team were already out, but he sent in Ice like he normally would. Red watched from the spot where Green had been sitting mere minutes before, with the other pokemon.
"Gassy, come on out!" Blue cried, throwing the ball into the grassy field . . . thing. Well, it wasn't much of a field since it was tiny, but it was big enough for a battle. Hopefully.
The Gastly gave a happy cry as it- she- was released, and got into what could be called a fighting position. But it was hard to tell since Gastly were basically big balls of gas with heads. However, she bared her sharp fangs and grinned evilly, scaring Green, but not enough to make him freeze up.
Ice gave him a backwards glance that clearly said 'don't panic', and went back to focussing on the battle.
"Shall I start off?" Blue called cautiously. Green knew that maybe he could have the first go, but that wouldn't help at all, so he nodded.
Blue called out for a simple Lick attack. While the move wasn't exactly what had terrified Green so much about ghosts to start off with, it was still scary to think that he was now engaging in battle with one, when a few months ago he would have done anything to get away from the things.
Gassy threw herself forward, her long and deep pink tongue lolling out. Green had to remind himself that she wasn't attacking him, and he had to call out an attack for Ice otherwise he'd lose this and therefore whatever confidence he had to fight Morty tomorrow.
"U-uh, Water Gun!" Green cried.
Ice didn't even hesitate. He shot the water straight at Gassy, but she somehow disappeared and appeared again right behind him.
"Behind you!" Green yelped, already panicking.
Ice turned around a second too late. Gassy used her- terrifying- tongue to lick him right up the back, including over the red spikes, and Green saw Ice visibly shiver.
"Ugh." Ice muttered. "I hate this attack . . ."
Gassy appeared in front of Blue again, smiling happily.
"Ice, you ok?" Green asked, fiddling with his hands nervously. Ice nodded, his back still to Green, and stood up properly.
"I should be. I don't think it paralysed me, so . . ." Ice shivered again. No wonder; getting licked by a tongue would no doubt make anyone shiver a lot. Especially if it was a ghost, that is.
But now Green was starting to wonder what would have happened if he'd refused the battle, and then turned up at the Gym anyway. Maybe he would have lost his nerve and forfeited that battle, and he would skip the Gym until he could no longer put it off. That . . . was probably even worse than this, actually. He hated being humiliated, but somehow the boy was getting used to it nowadays.
The battle continued for a while until Blue had Gassy use some sort of move- probably Night Shade or something- to try and throw Ice off his feet. Gassy cackled the same way that Koga's Gastly had done, and then suddenly there were several of her everywhere, all of them laughing.
Green whimpered quietly, but he regained composure a little. Reminding himself that he wasn't the one being attacked worked wonders, but he had to do it almost every five seconds. Ice had tried to help out as well, but he couldn't do much since he was battling Gassy. And of course, no one else did, although Green swore he saw Red trying to hold back some of Green's team once or twice. At least that showed they all cared- his team cared because they wanted to help him, and Red cared because he wanted Green to get over the fear.
Gassy moved forward, all of them, and then one of them made some sort of ghostly looking fireball with her mouth. Green guessed that was the real one, since none of the others had done anything but laugh, and Ice was looking in the completely wrong direction.
"Ice, the one behind you!" Green warned him.
The Feraligatr looked around, but the fireball was already being shot. Ice ducked just in time to avoid the fireball, and Green only had a second of relief before he realised where it was going.
The fireball was hurtling straight towards him.
Night Shade had actually been one of the attacks that Koga's Gastly had tried to use on Green and his then-Charmeleon. And it had worked as well, his arms had been coated in the fire, and before Green even realised what had happened, he'd been attacked again and again by the massive ghost pokemon. It didn't help that Charmeleon, being possessed by the Gastly, had started to try and burn and bite him as well.
So it was completely understandable that Green screamed and fell down, curled into a ball to try and protect himself. He could feel himself shaking, however, nothing but memories came to mind.
The Gastly screeched, and attacked.
He saw Charmeleon possessed and turned into a demon again, his eyes turning horribly blank.
Green himself had been through that, but he had the occasional waking moment when Koga was in the tower, just to torture Green even more.
He saw flashes of what he'd been through, the Night Shade and Ember attacks that he'd been hurt with . . .
Someone screamed, but Green didn't know who it was.
Charmeleon tried to kill him, looking at Green with those . . . horrible, horrible blank eyes . . .
Terrified, he'd been. The second Green had been released from the possession, he had tried to get away, yes, but it didn't work and he'd been hurt because of it.
Terror was all he'd felt. Of course, when Red saved him, all he felt was anger, and then terror after they'd gotten out, because how could he face the very fire lizard who had had a forced hand/claw in his torture?
P-p-p-pa-a-a-ain-n-n-n . . .
Make it . . . Make it sto-o-o-op . . .
MAKE IT STOP . . .
He'd been scared, terrified, but he hadn't admitted it to Red because he was an idiot. Green Oak, scared? What would people do with that, he'd fretted. Green was an idiot.
He was an idiot.
Yes, everyone knew that, but it took so long for him to finally realise it himself . . .
Can't feel anyth-thing . . . HELP ME . . .
Green didn't know when the pain had stopped or even started, but all he knew for two weeks was hunger and pain and terror and Charmeleon's blank, blank eyes . . .
PAAAAAAIINNNNN . . .
"GREEN!"
Suddenly it all went away and he was lying on Red's lap, shaking violently. Someone said something but he ignored it, and curled into Red's warm body. It helped get rid of the memory of pain-
HELP ME, PLEASE . . . S-S-SAVE ME . . .
-and he was able to figure out what was real and what wasn't. Someone, something, whatever, was gently stroking him. The fingers were sharp as if they were claws, and Green's messed up head supplied a simple name- Ice.
"I-Ice?" He whispered.
"Don't worry kid, you just had a panic attack."
Not like that was new or anything, he'd had them several times before.
"You'll be ok, just breath and you'll calm down, ok?"
Green couldn't help but wonder if Ice was saying that just to reassure himself, or Green.
oooo
-A few hours later, the pokemon centre-
Well, he could battle ghosts to some extent, at least. If they didn't use Night Shade or Hypnosis that is. But considering the fact that Morty was a Gym Leader, that was going to happen regardless of what Green asked. Green was never going to get the badge at this rate.
But at least he could try.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Red asked again.
"M' fine . . ." Green sighed, sitting up from his position on the bed. "Really . . . Like I said, I've had this happen before."
Red didn't ask about it, which was good, because Green couldn't remember exactly what made him have the other panic attacks without actually having another one and being in incredible pain.
"It's nothing new to me."
"If you say so." Red sighed. "Just . . . try to take it easy for a while, ok?"
Green nodded, and Red left the room. Even if Green still planned to battle Morty tomorrow, he would take Red's advice for now. Besides, Tick was perched on the wooden headboard of the bed, and was currently giving his mind the signals that it needed to sleep.
Tick didn't know Hypnosis, but he was partly psychic, so of course he'd know how to do that.
Just let him have good dreams . . . please, for once he just wanted good dreams . . .
Alright Mom, don't worry. I'll look after you.
I promise.
OOOOOO
Renny: Well . . . I have nothing to say, so . . . read, review and maybe Q&A if anyone wants?