Chapter 35

[Jay]

Chell's evolution may have startled the bullies for a bit, but they're still a mite too dumb to throw in the towel. "You think this'll change anything!? We're still gonna win, and your dumb Pokemon evolving isn't gonna change that!" The first rich bully crows, obviously not too deterred from trying to take down my Pokemon. "Go, Cottonee! Use Razor Leaf!" He commands his Pokemon, who flings out a bunch of sharp leaves at the Dewott in an attempt to cut her down. "Use Magical Leaf, Petilil!" The second kid quickly backs his friend up and orders his Petilil to summon forth another cluster of leaves shrouded in a pink aura, throwing them at Chell to add to the attack. However, they don't seem to notice that since evolving, Chell's picked up some new tricks. Quickly taking a deep breath, Chell then focuses on the barrage of leaves, letting loose a beam of icy cold energy that blasts through the leaves, freezing them solid in midair and cancelling out all the momentum they had a second ago. Although it doesn't reach all that far, it does its intended job. The frozen leaves then fall to the ground, breaking apart like glass on impact. A few of the leaves escape the icy fate of their brethren, but Chell quickly cuts them to pieces before they can touch herself or the Snivy behind her, using her scalchops to slice the leaves apart.

So she managed to pick up both Ice Beam and Fury Cutter!? That suddenly makes this fight all the more easy for me, and all them more frustrating for my opposition. Needless to say, the two bullies are less than pleased with the sudden lack of advantageousness of the situation. "Aw, crap! This doesn't look good, dude!" The second one starts to look a little scared, while the other one punches the second guy across the face. "Calm down, damn it! We can still beat this clown!" He growls, although he doesn't even look that sure of what he just said. "Yeah! Kick their asses, Chell!" Alita cheers, Chell quickly looking back and throwing a smirk our way, making me give her a thumbs-up in response. Nesia, now able to move again, walks up next to Chell and looks to her in gratitude. "Thanks." She tells the Dewott, who nods as she readies her scalchops to fight. "No biggie. Now, let's finish this!" She replies, to which Nesia nods and readies her vines.

She's still not gonna be able to reach the two opposing Pokemon, as both Petilil and Cottonee are prone to running away from fights. However, she's got a move that can change all that, and I know just who she should target first. "Use Water Pulse, Chell! Stun the Petilil!" I tell her what to do next, Chell responding by quickly forming a sphere of water in her paw and lobbing it right at the Petilil, the ball of water hurtling towards the small Bulb Pokemon. Terrified, the small Grass Type attempts to escape the attack by running away from the ball of water. She manages to evade the ball itself, but is still caught in the resulting blast of pressurized water. As a result, she ends up dazed from the force of the explosion, rendering her useless for the opposing side. Now that she's unable to defend herself or launch another status effect move, I decide to send Chell in for the finishing blow. "Now, use Fury Cutter!" I command, Chell quickly running up to the stunned Petilil with her blades at the ready, glowing that sickly green color as she closes the gap between herself and the target.

However, the first bully doesn't seem all too keen on losing just yet. "I don't think so! Cottonee, use Razor Leaf on the Dewott!" He orders, the small ball of fluff readying another barrage of leaves to throw at the attacking Dewott in an attempt to save its partner. However, I don't forget the Cottonee this time. "Ness, grab onto the Cottonee with Vine Whip, and drag it in for a close range Leaf Blade!" I blurt out the order, Nesia instead opting to quickly form and throw out a bunch of sharp leaves that encircle the unsuspecting Cottonee, rendering it helpless within the tornado of leaves. Now helpless, the Cottonee tries to free itself of the pull of the tornado, but to no avail as Nesia's attack holds. As the Petilil finally recovers from the stun of the Water Pulse, it immediately gets sliced into by Chell's dual blades, sending it reeling as Chell doesn't let up with her assault. The Dewott quickly deals out slash after slash, the Petilil quickly fainting from all the super effective hits. Meanwhile, Nesia curls up into a wheel and retracts her vines after a spinning leap into the air, effectively reeling in the Cottonee and slamming into it with her spinning energy charged tail. The combined forces knock out the unfortunate Cottonee, rendering it unable to continue as it smashes head first into the ground. It leaves a small crater as it connects with the dirt, allowing me to see the damage that Nesia can end up doing as I wince. Man, that must've hurt…

As the fight comes to a close, Chell and Nesia stand side by side in triumph as they look at their defeated foes. "We did it, Ness!" Chell smiles, as Nesia returns the gesture with a smile of her own. However, the win is quickly interrupted by the Snivy's body suddenly glowing a bright white. Chell is forced to shield her eyes from the light, since she is the one closest to the evolving Pokemon. As I close my own eyes, I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment as I quickly catch onto what is happening to Nesia. The light quickly fades, leaving in place of my Snivy a much larger, taller Grass Snake Pokemon. As Nesia lifts her head in an arrogant manner, I can see that her tail leaf now looks larger, as well as her color scheme that now looks more refined and elegant. Yup, she's a Servine now. As they both return to me, I quickly pat the both of them on the head. "Great job out there, you two! I'm so proud of the both of you." I grin, Chell smiling due to the feeling my hand on her head, while Nesia just smiles as she lets me pet her. As I see the significant changes to their personalities, I sigh. I should have been expecting this, as certain traits that are universal to the species' evolutionary line are amplified due to the energy rush of evolving, but still…

"Thanks, Mister Jay." Chell responds in a calm and collected manner, her tone much less emotional than from when she was an Oshawott as she sheathes her scalchops. Meanwhile, Nesia's grin just remains, making her seem quite sure of herself. "Not a problem." She replies, looking more confident in herself now. Well, the evolution doesn't seem to have affected Nesia's personality for the worse. Quite the contrary, in fact. For now though, I think that we should finish what we started here before moving on. Taking a look at the two rich bullies, I can see that they're currently in the middle of berating their own Pokemon for the loss they suffered. "Are you serious!? You fucking stupid animals! How the hell could you lose to someone like that!?" The first one is screaming at the knocked out Cottonee and Petilil, seemingly not factoring in that they are unconscious as he yells and stomps his foot angrily at them. I can't help but feel bad for those two Pokemon, being under the ownership of such irresponsible people. It's just too bad that the rich ones are usually the spoiled ones. I'm not all too concerned for the well being of the rich kids, I'm just more worried that those two Pokemon will probably end up getting kicked around a lot. However, the rich kids don't seem to be all that smart, so here is something I can do to help them out…

"Hey, dumbasses!" I walk up to them, getting their attention as I approach. "What the hell do you want? The first one seethes, not looking too happy about his most recent loss. "Well, if you find your Pokemon useless, why don't you just throw 'em away? You could just buy more, and none of your friends will end up buying them off your hands either, so why not?" I suggest, the bullies thinking it over before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, you're right! Who needs these weaklings when we could buy something stronger?" The second one nods to his friend, who also seems to be giving the idea some thought. After a few seconds, he takes his Premiere Ball and smashes it onto the ground, freeing his Cottonee from his command. The second one also destroys his Pokeball by stamping on it after placing it on the ground, freeing the Petilil from his grasp as well. As the two Pokemon remain on the dirt besides their crushed Pokeballs, I smirk as I stare at the two rich assholes. "Now that you've done that, it's time that you uphold your end of the bargain. You will leave, and never come back here again." I calmly tell them, causing the two to stare at me like I had grown a second head, before laughing out loud.

"And what makes you think we would actually stick to our end of the deal, moron!? Those two aren't the only Pokemon we have!" The first one grins as he and his friend both reach for another Premiere Ball on their belts. However, I manage to get out my threat before they do. "Are you sure you want to do that?" I raise an eyebrow at them, my smirk remaining as they look at me in confusion. "What are you talking about? We can beat you easily with these!" The second kid retorts, to which I respond by whistling loudly. The second I do so, all the Durant and Alex, who had been hiding in the bushes around the two, surround them in a flash, causing them to begin to look nervous as they look at the precarious situation that I've put them in. "You were saying?" I grin wolfishly, causing them to take a step back from me in fear as they try to find an escape route from the swarm of angry looking Durant. Yep, the intimidation tactic's working a damn treat.

"You can't do this to us! Do you know who our parents are!? When they find out about this…" The first kid warns, pointing a shaky finger at me as he tries his best to look threatening. But when you're a small, shaking mouse trying to scare off a cat, it usually isn't going to do much in your favor. Sighing, I gesture to the Durant. "Do you think they care about how much money goes up your asses? Sure, you may have powerful parents, but they sure as hell can't save you from these jaws." I reply, one of the Durant slamming its mandibles together in a metallic clang that shakes the two down to their bones. They let out a frightened yelp as they seem to shrink even smaller, allowing me to feel no shortage of satisfaction upon seeing such arrogant asshats become such wimpy little bitches. "If you idiots don't want to get torn to pieces, I highly suggest that you leave. Now." I warn them, my grin unwavering as they look at the swarm of deadly Ant Pokemon fearfully. Shrugging, I add a little more to the threat, just to hit the idea home. "Or you could stay and get chomped into bite sized pieces. Or do the Durant cut off your arms and legs to immobilize you and keep you alive in their nests to feed their babies? I don't remember…" I put a hand to my chin, faking deep thought as the two let out a girlish scream and make a break for it, jumping over the vicious metallic ants and running off towards Striaton City in a panic. This just goes to show that people like that just rely on their money to get their way. Without it, they're pretty much helpless.

As they finally buzz off, Alex shoots one last sentence their way. "Don't ever come back, jerks!" He yells at them, looking to me with a huge smile that threatens to break his face. "Dude, you did it! You chased them off!" He cheers, the Durant looking equal parts disgusted and happy that I had managed to get them out of my territory. The team also looks a little grossed out, Chell and Katrina seemingly hiding it better than the rest of the team. However, Alita is showing blatant disgust towards what I had just described, while Nesia seems to be equally disgusted and fascinated. "Do they really do that?" She asks me, to which I shake my head. "Nah, I just made that one up. Durant don't even eat meat, they eat the leaves off of trees. That's why you'll see a bunch of fallen tree branches around the area where a Durant colony is." I explain, causing Alita to visibly relax as she lets out a sigh of relief. "Whew!" She sighs, while I grin as I look towards Chell. "That really ruffled her feathers, eh kiddo?" I joke, causing Katrina to giggle as Chell remains stoic, but still cracks a little smile regardless. As Nesia rolls her eyes, Alita groans out loud as she flies up to give my head a good smack. "Really!? You just had to do that now?" She deadpans, while I shrug in response. "Why not now? Puns are great." I reply, causing her to shake her head as she looks at me angrily. "No they're not, you idiot! Quit it!" She yells in response, to which I smile cheekily at her.

As she continues to disapprove of my sense of humor, Alex taps my arm to get my attention. "We should tell the queen that you did it, Jay! She's gonna be so happy!" He cries in excitement as I nod in response, a smile on my own face as well. "Alright then, dude. Lead the way. I'll be with ya in a bit, I just need to take care of something." I tell him, getting him to grin widely and nod as he marches back towards the Durant nest with a smile on his face, the Durant following behind. However, the team and I stay behind to take a look at the unconscious Cottonee and Petilil that I had a hand in conking out. Feeling pretty bad for the two helpless Pokemon, I quickly cradle them in my arms and follow Alex and the Durant, the group not having wandered too far from my line of sight. As we rejoin the group, Alita sees the two knocked out Pokemon in my arms, and decides to ask me about it. "What are you doing with those two? Didn't they try to beat the crap out of us a couple minutes ago?" She asks me, questioning my sense of reasoning. "Well, they're pretty helpless now. They won't be able to defend themselves from any wild Pokemon that decide to make a meal out of them, nor will they be able to hurt us. Besides, the two assholes we scared off were making those two fight against their will. The Petilil in particular wasn't looking for a fight at all. She was being forced to use attacks." I reply to her question, gesturing to the two resting Pokemon in my arms. "These guys were basically abandoned by their trainers and left to die out there, and I'm not about to let that happen." I finish, looking at the two Pokemon with concern. Alita lands on my shoulder, allowing me to nuzzle her body with my cheek as she blushes. "What are you doing?" She asks, although I can feel her nuzzling me back. "Giving you attention." I grin at her, to which she blushes even brighter. "I don't really like it…" She huffs, getting me to grin cheekily at her. "Of course you don't. Yeah, that's definitely it." I sarcastically remark, causing her to turn away with a 'hmph'. "I hate you, you idiot." She mumbles, while I just smile at her. "And I like you too, Ali." I chuckle.

Suddenly, I feel Nesia tugging on my hair with her vines. "Ow!" I wince, rubbing my hair with my free hand. "Next time you want to ask for something, you could just call me, Ness." I tell her, to which she seemingly ignores. "Be more respectful to Jay, Ness!" Chell snaps at the Servine, who shrugs in return as she voices her request. "I want to run about in the trees, Jay." She asks me, to which I nod. "Sure thing, Ness. Just don't wander too far off from the group, 'kay? I really don't want to lose you." I reply, causing her to curtly nod as she uses her vines to latch onto the branch of a tree, swinging off into the thick foliage to no doubt burn off some of that energy from her evolution. It appears that her evolution has made her more confident and assertive. She'd never pull on my hair like that otherwise. Meanwhile, Chell just looks quite irked that Nesia had seemingly disrespected me like that. It seems that her evolution is causing her to be more formal and reserved, as she would have done or said something silly by now. It really makes me wonder if she's still the same Pokemon that I had met a few days ago. "They certainly have undergone some changes, haven't they?" Katrina speaks up, causing me to nod in response to her comment. "Yeah. It's really weird, to be honest with you. They've changed in their personalities, but then again some things about them haven't changed a bit. Chell still likes my puns, while Nesia is still quite reserved and curious." I add, sighing as I quickly use my hand to grab Katrina's tail. "And it seems that you've grown much sneakier after your evolution, eh Kat?" I raise an eyebrow as she pouts, retracting her soft, slender tail. "You just cannot let me have any fun, can you Jay?" She huffs, causing me to reach down and scratch her chin in response. She quickly begins to purr in delight as I stroke her lower jaw, my fingers working their magic as her tail begins to swish around a little faster. "Well, you can't stay mad for long, if my fingers have anything to say about that." I throw her a cheeky grin as she smirks playfully my way. "That is because you know my weaknesses, Jay! I must ask that you stop touching me this instant!" She purrs in protest, but her dreamy smile says otherwise. "Calm down, Kat. You still look quite beautiful, even when you enjoy yourself." I tell her, seeing that faint blush creep onto her cheeks again. "Surely that is not the case, good sir! I am not as beautiful as you say!" She shrugs off the compliment, but I shake my head. "Yes, you are! You just don't think so." I smile, causing her to let out a dainty giggle.

As I banter with the graceful Liepard, I can't help but notice that Chell is being quite conservative with her speech, not talking to me at all as she calmly surveys the surrounding area for any and all threats. I'm honestly touched that she'd go to such lengths to protect me, but I personally think that she should try and loosen up a little. There's nothing wrong with having a little fun, and being so uptight all the time isn't good for you. She's quite conflicted anyways, as the look on her face clearly tells me that she has things that she wants to say to me. However, her respect towards me is seemingly stopping her from doing so. I'm about to point that out to the diligent Dewott, but Alex quickly gets my attention by calling my name. "Hey, Jay! We're at the colony now. Come on, let's go! I can't wait to tell the queen about how you kicked those bullies outta here!" He grins widely, quickly crawling after the Durant guards to tell the queen the good news. As soon as Nesia reappears, I call her down and we crawl after the excited kid, but not before I quickly tuck the Petilil and the Cottonee into the hat part of my hoodie, as to not accidentally drop them during my crawling through the tunnels.

As I crawl, I quickly decide to ask the team about the two potentially new additions to the team to pass some of the time. "So, I'm thinking about letting the two Grass Types join us. What do you think?" I ask the team, Katrina quickly voicing her opinion on the matter. "I do not mind their presence." She replies, causing Chell to reaffirm her support in my decision. "If it's your choice, Jay, then I'm fine with it." Nesia doesn't really seem to mind the new additions. "As long as they don't affect us in any way, I don't see why not." Alita also seems to have no qualms in letting them join, either. "Well, if they agree, then I do too." Hearing all this positive feedback, I confirm the decision. "Okay, then. It's decided." I nod, finally reaching the Durant Queen's chambers as the tunnel ends. Finally being able to get up and stretch my back, I see Alex happily chatting with the Durant Queen, telling her in detail about how I had chased the rich bullies out of the Route. "…And then those two ran off like they had seen a ghost!" He laughs, causing the queen to giggle happily as she notices my entry into her domain once again.

"Hello again, Jay. Judging by Alex's description of your endeavors, I presume you were successful in getting rid of those two trainers?" She asks me, to which I nod in reply. 'Indeed I was, Your Highness. Alex sure gets the news across fast, huh?" I reply, to which she giggles. "Indeed he is. Although, I am quite offended that you made up such lies about our race." She looks at me wryly, while I shrug with a sheepish grin. "Well, it got the job done, right? It's only a little lie that holds no weight, so no harm done there." I tell her, causing her to nod in understanding. "All joking aside, I thank you for all that you have done for our colony." She gives me her gratitude, to which I shake my head in response. "Nah, it's not me you should be thanking. Thank my team. They're the ones that beat the crap out of their Pokemon to begin with. Without 'em, my plan couldn't have worked." I reply, gesturing to Chell and Nesia in particular. Smiling, the queen nods approvingly of my attitude. "Now I see why your Pokemon willingly follow you. You are quite the modest trainer, and keep them outside of their Pokeballs at all times. Truly, you are quite the kind person." I end up blushing from her gratuitous praise. "Well, I try to be." However, Katrina is quick to support the queen's description of me. "Indeed, Your Majesty. Jay is quite the competent and kind trainer. He tries his best to help all of us, no matter how much effort it takes him." She adds, to which Chell nods in agreement. "Yeah, he's not that bad. I'll admit that much." Alita says as well, as Nesia nods to show her agreement on the matter. This causes the queen to smile as she looks at me again. "As thanks for ensuring the future of our colony, I feel obligated to give you this." She speaks up, beckoning one of her workers to approach her. When he arrives at her side, she gives him a bunch of what appear to be glowing crystals, glowing in different colors that the worker puts in a woven leaf basket. Alex looks quite surprised at the stones, which gets my attention as I grow interested in the gems as well. When the worker approaches me and gives me the basket of gems, I can now clearly see what they are.

"Woah. Are you sure you want to give me these? You could use them to bolster the growth of your hatchlings, you know." I tell her, not sure why she would so willingly provide me with items this valuable. In response to my worries, she chuckles. "Fear not, young trainer. We have plenty of earth to excavate before we are finished expanding the colony, and we already have plenty of natural food grown from the leaves of the forest to feed our young with." She reassures me as I take the basket and hold it so the team can take a better look at the reward that the Durant Queen has so kindly provided me with. "What are those? Glowing rocks?" Alita blurts out, causing me to sigh at her ignorance. "These are Evolution Stones, Ali. They allow certain Pokemon that come into contact with these stones to evolve immediately, due to the massive levels of power within them." I reply, Chell and Nesia staring at the stones in wonder and Katrina takes a Fire Stone and twirls it between her tail. "They are quite beautiful." She comments, staring at the stone in her tail's grasp with a look of wonder. "Thank you, Your Highness. This is quite the generous reward." I thank the queen, while she giggles at my formality. "There is no need for thanks, trainer. Now, you can exit the colony and continue your travels." She replies, to which I nod and beckon for the team to leave the area. As I get ready to crawl through the tunnel, the queen makes one last offer. "You are free to return to this place anytime you'd like, Jay." She says, causing me to smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll make sure to pay you a visit." I reassure her, bidding her farewell as I leave the colony of Durant, Alex giving me one last wave goodbye as he sits next to the Durant Queen.