Hi, guys! I'm back with another chapter!
Defender31415 - Thanks! And to answer your questions in order: (1) I don't know what's going on between them, since the scene just kinda came to me; (2) She probably will be, but I don't know whether or not I should write that adventure just yet. I'll have to see.
Chapter 37
The next morning, Crystal woke up in the Pokémon Center in Verdenturf feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. She looked around the room, smiling as she looked at each of her Pokémon in turn: Samuel, leaning against the wall next to the door, head bowed as he slept; Ando, lying in the middle of the room where he had stopped moving the night before; Richie, lying curled up at the foot of the bed and looking like the most adorable thing that Crystal had ever seen.
Crystal let out a content sigh and smiled at all of her sleeping Pokémon before she remembered that there was something that she had planned on doing today at Watson's Gym. Instantly realizing that she definitely didn't want to be late, Crystal carefully started to slip out from under the covers of the bed and grabbed a few things before disappearing into the bathroom to take a shower.
When Crystal came back out, her hair, ears, and tail still damp, her Pokémon were up and sitting around waiting for her.
Richie looked over in her direction, and he gave a smile. "Morning!"
"Good morning," Crystal replied cheerily. "You guys sleep well?"
While Richie nodded, Samuel frowned.
"I'm going to have to find a different way to sleep," the Breloom commented. He rolled his neck and shoulders around before adding, "Sleeping upright just doesn't feel right for me."
Crystal nodded. "We'll make sure to figure something out. If you need to take a nap or anything to catch up on sleep, you can do it this morning still, if you feel like it. I'm going to be working with Watson and his Pokémon for a while."
"Why is that?" Richie cocked his head to one side.
"Because he said that one of his Pokémon could teach me a new move, and I'd kind of like to add another Electric-Type attack to what I already know." Crystal paused, then added, "I do have Thundershock, but that move isn't going to do very much if I end up facing against stronger opponents. It would be good to have something that could be at least a little bit stronger than that."
"Oh." Richie nodded in understanding.
"So, let's go and see what move he's going to try and teach me." Crystal picked up her backpack and threw it over one shoulder before pausing when she caught sight of herself in the mirror.
Crystal's outfit had changed a little – mostly because she had found some clothes that she had felt like buying. Now, she was wearing a green T-shirt with an Eevee sitting on top of a tree stump, ears up and eyes bright, with a smile on the Normal-Type's face.
"Well, it looks okay," Crystal remarked, looking down at herself. "Wearing shirts with things on them is going to take some getting used to, though."
"I like it," Richie spoke up, coming over to stand next to Crystal.
Crystal looked down at the Kirlia and smiled in response. "I like it, too. I just haven't really worn shirts like this very much before. It'll definitely be something that I should do more often, though."
After hiding her ears and tail, Crystal made her way down to the cafeteria and grabbed some breakfast for herself and her team before sitting down in a back corner of the cafeteria. Ando was on the floor underneath the table – something that was starting to become a bit of a routine for them – while Richie sat next to Crystal and ate.
Samuel looked between the floor and the table with a bit of a confused look on his face. "Uh…."
Crystal noticed his confusion and smiled a little. "Where do you want to sit? It doesn't really matter where you go, so long as you can get up again."
At Crystal's statement, Samuel paused for a moment before nodding and jumping onto a chair that was across from her and Richie. When Crystal pushed his bowl over to him, the Breloom promptly stuck his head in the bowl and started eating.
Crystal's smile went a little crooked as she held in a giggle. He mustn't be able to use his arms because they're so short when he isn't stretching them.
In a matter or minutes, breakfast was done, and Crystal was once again outside in the fresh, clean air that surrounded Verdenturf and the path between the town and Mauville.
Crystal breathed in the fresh morning air, practically smelling the dew as her shoes crunched down the grass underneath them. "Wow. This place…it almost makes me feel like I just want to stay here for the rest of my life. It feels so peaceful here." She closed her eyes and tilted her head back as she continued walking, feeling the morning sunlight warm her face. "It's just…it feels so much like Pallet Town, but it's so much better than that." She sighed. "I wish that Team Magnus wasn't around so that I would be able to take my time here. Just…wow."
"Yeah," Richie agreed, nodding.
Samuel didn't say anything, but Crystal could tell from the look on his face that he was agreeing with her, as well.
It didn't take too long for them to reach Mauville, and Crystal stepped into the just-as-cool building before pausing in order to have a look around.
"Let's see, the Gym's right over…there." Crystal turned to face down one direction in the hallway, then started towards the part of the city-sized building that Watson happened to work in on a daily basis.
When she and her team stepped inside, Crystal was greeted by the sight of a nearly-empty Gym, with small towers of metal covered in coils positioned in random locations throughout the Gym. Since everything was off, Crystal was able to walk past them without needing to step on switches or avoid Trainers.
Watson was already waiting for Crystal at the back of the Gym, a huge grin on his face. Next to him was the blue and gold Pokémon that had been with him in New Mauville – a Manectric.
"Good morning!" Crystal greeted cheerily.
"Good morning!" Watson responded in a cheery voice. "I'm glad you remembered what I said yesterday! Are you ready to learn?"
Crystal nodded, slipping her backpack off her shoulders and putting it down at the edge of the small arena that Watson had built into his Gym. "Ready as I'll ever be."
"Good!" There was a bright twinkle in Watson's eye. "Do you know how to use any Electric-Type moves already?"
Crystal nodded again. "I learned how to use Thundershock some time ago, when I was traveling on my own. A Flaafy was kind enough to have the patience to teach me."
Watson burst out laughing. "Good! Thundershock is an excellent place to start, since all Electric-Types have access to it at once point or another in their lives. But, like all good moves, it doesn't hit all the time, does it?"
Crystal rubbed the back of her head, thinking back. "Not always, but most of the moves I know do manage to hit most of the time. I know that some moves can have a hard time hitting the opponent depending on how much power you have to put into them, but I haven't really learned too many of those."
Watson nodded. "While there are Electric-Type moves that have very poor accuracy, there is one that will hit your opponent without fail." He grinned. "It's called Shock Wave, and I've made sure that every single one of my Pokémon know how to use it."
"Shock Wave?" Crystal's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I saw Gold using that yesterday - it looked like a pretty useful move."
"Exactly! If you had challenged my Gym, I would have given you a TM as a gift to you as you wanted, but since you didn't and saved my life instead, I figured it might be better if you just learned the move from my Manectric, Max." Watson patted the four-legged Pokémon sitting next to him. "I figured that the TM probably wouldn't work so well."
Crystal shook her head. "I found one that had Safeguard once, and since I hadn't learned it, I wanted to see if I could manage it by using the TM. Something about me just makes it so that they don't work when I use them, I guess." She smiled. "And besides, I like it better when I can learn from the Pokémon that know them, rather than a machine. That's what I ended up doing with Safeguard anyway."
Watson burst out laughing again. "Well spoken!"
The Gym Leader turned and started for the back of the Gym, adding, "I'm going to move up to a more safe location – I'd recommend that your Pokémon come along with me and find hiding places, too, because learning any kind of move can be pretty disastrous."
Crystal nodded in agreement. "Right." She looked over at her team. "You guys better go after Watson. I don't want to see any of you getting hurt because I ended up setting off a move wrong."
"You can do that?" Richie asked in surprise as Ando started moving forward after the old man.
Crystal nodded. "Moves can backfire sometimes. You guys won't have to worry about it because you learn your moves automatically when you reach certain levels of power. I have to work at learning my moves because most of the ones I know actually aren't ones that I can learn naturally. And the moves I can learn naturally are pretty limited – I only learn a new one every ten levels."
"And you're fifty right now, right?" When Crystal confirmed Samuel's question with a nod, he asked. "What move did you learn when you got there, then?"
"Ancient Power." Crystal smiled when the two Pokémon exchanged looks. "Now, how about you two get going and follow after Ando? I don't want to force you guys to stay inside all day."
Richie and Samuel jolted a little at the suggestion, eyes widening as they remembered why they were in the building in the first place. Both of them nodded to Crystal, then ran for the back of the Gym, disappearing behind an open panel in the wall that Watson and Ando had disappeared into.
Crystal watched the two Pokémon disappear, then turned her attention to Max. "So, how do you want to teach me?"
The Electric-Type Pokémon paused for a moment, then stood up and walked over to Crystal. "You said you know Thundershock. Would you mind showing me?"
"Not at all." Crystal dropped the illusion in her ears and tail and started to concentrate on the electrical energy that she had last used in the Petalburg Woods. The energy came to her after a moment, and she released the attack, aiming for the back wall of the Gym.
To her surprise, the Thundershock went for the wall, then took a sudden turn and was absorbed into Max.
"Hmmmm…." Max cocked his head as the electricity ran over him before dissipating. "A little below average, but that's to be expected – you aren't even partially Electric, after all."
Crystal's tail twitched curiously. "Was that Lightning Rod just now? Is that your ability?"
Max nodded. "It is one of the few abilities that my line has access to, yes. It comes in handy when my Trainer's traps go haywire – which they have on some occasions."
Crystal considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, he'd definitely need a Pokémon like you around when that does happen." She shifted her stance a little. "Do you want me to fire off another one?"
Max shook his head, then walked around Crystal, looking over her with a watchful eye. "All right. Releasing electricity is only the first step in using Shock Wave. The next step is being able to release that electricity in all directions, as that is what Shock Wave is meant to do. Most Electric-Types know how to release their moves in one direction, but multiple directions takes time in order reach that point. I want to see you try and do that now."
Crystal paused for a moment, then gave a nod. "All right. I'll see what I can do." She took in a breath and forced her muscles to relax before she started working on gathering energy for the attack. Having just used Thundershock a moment ago, the energy was a little easier to gather.
When Crystal reached the same amount that she needed for Thundershock, she focused on pushing the energy outward in all directions.
The electricity sparked on the surface of her skin before a loud explosion was suddenly set off.
"Bwahahahahahaha!"
Crystal looked up in alarm when she heard the loud roar of laughter, and she caught sight of Watson standing above them, holding his stomach as he stood doubled over, laughing so hard that it was clear that he was crying as a result.
"Oh, wow! I didn't think that a failed attempt would do that!" Watson pointed at Crystal, wheezing.
Crystal blinked in confusion before she realized that there was something up with her hair. Reaching up, her eyes widened.
"How did that happen?!" Crystal started frantically pulling her hair down, wincing every time a loud zap! rang out in the air. "I didn't think that my hair would end up doing that!"
As Watson's laughter petered out, Crystal could clearly hear Samuel snickering as she pushed down her hair.
Crystal scowled unhappily as she finally managed to get her hair to behave and pushed it down all of the way. "This is going to get old and annoying really fast."
"Consider it motivation to get the move right sooner, then." Max clearly looked amused, as well, but he wasn't openly laughing – something that Crystal was happy about. "Try again, and this time, put more power into it."
"More power?" Crystal repeated.
"A Thundershock like that isn't going to be enough energy for a Shock Wave. Try putting a little more in, then force it outward in all directions."
Crystal paused to absorb that, then gave a nod. "Okay. I'll give it a try." She started working on gathering that energy together again, focusing on bringing together more electricity than she had been before.
It was a little difficult after she had reached what she needed for Thundershock, and it took a lot of experimentation that ended more often than not in Crystal's hair and fur getting filled with static energy and puffing out like some terrified Pokémon do when they're terrified.
"You know, I'd have thought that you would have ears where normal humans do," Watson commented after Crystal had failed again. She wasn't making it a point to keep track of how many times it had been, just because she wanted to pay attention to when the move would actually work.
"Hmmm?" Crystal looked up at Watson, then reached up and touched the side of her head – where ears should have been on a normal person, but weren't. "Oh, that? It's because I have the ears on top of my head, I guess. I'm just so used to hearing things from up here that I never really thought about it. And I guess that I don't really need two sets of ears when I can hear just fine when with one."
Watson burst out laughing. "That's true! I simply found it strange that you don't have ears where a normal human would have them."
"Which is why I like leaving my hair down so that no one will notice." Crystal frowned at her staticy hair, wondering why it and the fur on her ears and tail were affected so much by Shock Wave going wrong. "I'm going to need to get all this static out of my hair before I'll be able to set foot outside the Gym."
"Just make sure you master the move before anyone comes in to challenge Watson," Max spoke up. "You'll be fine. Just keep trying, all right?"
Crystal nodded. "Right. Here I go again."
Crystal closed her eyes, and felt the electricity building up as soon as she reached inside and started gathering together what she needed. "Okay…I hope this works!"
Crystal threw her arms out at the same time that she released the electrical energy that she had been building up. The resulting explosion of energy was sent straight for Max, who absorbed it without a problem.
"A little strong for a Shock Wave," Max commented thoughtfully. "You put a lot more in there than I'd thought you would. Still, that was good for a try that actually resulted in the move."
Crystal's eyes snapped open when she heard that. "What, really? I did it?"
"What, you weren't watching?" Watson let out a roar of laughter. "Imagine that! Using a move that can hit no matter what, and she had her eyes shut!"
Crystal frowned up at Watson. "Well, I figured that I might end up getting zapped if I left them open, so I just gathered the energy and let it out!"
Watson kept right on laughing for a moment longer, then calmed himself down. "All right, all right. Well, you've got the basics down, so now the only thing you need to do is practice using it until you can attack without having it backfire on you." He snickered, as though the mere memory of Crystal's hair sticking up was hilarious.
Crystal nodded. "Right. That's how it is with some of my other moves."
"Do you think you could teach one of us how to use the moves that you know?" Richie spoke up. "That Shock Wave looked kind of…cool."
Watson gave the Kirlia a curious look while Crystal looked surprised at the idea.
"Well, I could try, but we don't exactly know what moves you can and can't learn," Crystal explained. "Because I'm part Mew, I can learn any move that I could end up coming across. You guys, though, are a bit more limited in what you can learn. We'll probably have to ask around for you guys."
"If your Pokémon are interested in learning moves that they wouldn't normally learn, I'd suggest heading north to Fallarbor," Watson commented thoughtfully. "Last I heard, there is a Pokémon researcher up there who is an expert on all the moves that any Pokémon can learn at any time. You might be able to talk to him in order to figure out what sorts of moves your team can use."
"You're the second person who's told me to go up there," Crystal responded in surprise.
Watson looked intrigued. "Oh? And who was the first one?"
"Lydia. She said that I should go talk to Professor Cozmo to see if I can find a Dawn Stone for Richie to evolve with." Crystal nodded to the Kirlia, who nodded in agreement when Watson looked down at him.
"Really? Well, then, why not take care of them both at once?" Watson laughed.
"Maybe. I'll have to see about that." Crystal frowned a little. "But what about Gyms? I know that I can go back to Petalburg to fight Norman, but he wanted me to get more Gym Badges first – four, at least."
"Really? Well, you're in luck – there's another Gym along the way to Fallarbor." Watson smiled. "It's in a town called Lavaridge. You can get there by taking a Cable Car up Mt. Chimney and then by working your way down the side of the volcano. I've heard that they recently changed hands with the Gym. Maybe you could help to break the new Leader in." Watson's smile turned into a large grin.
Crystal considered that for a moment. "Well, I don't see why not. If the Leader needs help to get used to the job, I could definitely come up and help. Do you know who the leader is?"
"Well, the old one said that he was a cousin of Blaine from Kanto, and it's his granddaughter that's taking over."
"Blaine has relatives here?" Crystal's ears straightened up in surprise. "I didn't know that!"
"Oh? You know Blaine?" Watson looked interested.
"Yeah!" Crystal nodded vigorously, her face getting a soft look. "He was the first person who was ever really kind to me – Professor Oak was the second." She frowned a little. "I wonder how much his relatives here know about what he's done in Kanto…." Her tail twitched slightly – almost as though it had been agitated.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Watson grinned. "Go to Lavaridge!"
Crystal blinked at the exclamation, then gave a nod. "Right. Okay, guys! You heard the Gym Leader – we're going to Lavaridge next!"
Our destination has been set, folks! :D I'll see you next week, when Crystal starts to set out!