Chapter 36 – a return to Rustboro
About a week after capturing Swampert, James and the mud fish pokémon were becoming a very good team. Physically, it was almost as strong as Blaze, however its Hammer Arm, swung with full force and with its weight behind it, could beat Blaze's Brick Break. It wasn't particularly fast, however it could resist most attacks as long as they weren't of the grass type. Swampert's attacks were powerful – Ice Beam was strong and fast, Hammer Arm was a brutal attack for when the opponent came too close, Muddy Water was almost impossible for the opponent to dodge, and Earthquake was its most powerful move and just as hard to avoid. Take Down however, was a weak link. Not as powerful as its other moves, it also caused recoil damage, and was relatively easy to dodge. James, after using Sceptile's Detect to great effect, developed the idea to teach Swampert how to use its own brand of evading move, Protect.
That was why, one afternoon, he was inside the pokémon trainers' shop in the city. James liked this shop very much, and thought it was something special. There were stands full of potions, revives, status healers, and other pokémon health restorers, and others that were filled with books, some of which contained training tips, others just long lists of pokémon varieties. On one wall there was a display of poke balls. Every different type was there, as well as descriptions on what each did. They went from the basic Poke Ball – ten dollars – to the Ultra Ball – forty dollars. There were also the other varieties, such as the Dusk Balls, which cost fifty. James went past these, to another wall, which displayed DVDs. There were one hundred different ones, each of which there was a few copies. Well, that would be the case in a perfect world. In reality, the disks for Hyper Beam and Giga Impact were overflowing into the places on either side, while there was only a single disk for the move Embargo.
James couldn't find Protect.
He went to the computer next to the display and searched for it. No, Protect was not there. There was, however, a Protect DVD in Lilycove, Petalburg, and Rustboro.
"So yea, I'm gonna be gone, probably just for a few hours but maybe til tomorrow or whenever, I don't know," James told his mum when he had returned home.
"Where we going?" Aria appeared.
"Rustboro." James told her.
"You already have that badge." Aria said.
"I need to go there for a TM." He told her, "And I'm friends with the gym leader."
"You are?" She asked.
"Yea sure, I traded one of the Tropius for Rampardos."
"Did you by any chance tell her that Tropius was one of many?" Aria asked. James stopped.
"Don't know." He said, before running upstairs. "I'm not taking a backpack, just my wallet and some pokémon."
"Oh, which ones?" Aria asked.
"Um, I don't know," James said from his room, "Rampardos, so she can see it again. Eevee, cause she always liked it, and that means that of course I have to take Umbreon, cause it never likes being apart from Eevee." From somewhere in the house Manectric gave a bark, and Eevee appeared a second later. It ran into James' room and he picked it up.
"Stop annoying Manectric will ya?" He asked it. Eevee purred and James put it up on his shoulder.
"So that's three," Aria told him.
"For the other three," James said, "I need Gallade, cause otherwise I cant get there. Or maybe I can just get it to drop us off? Anyway, if that happens then I'll take Sceptile, Blaze and Swampert."
"What a surprise," Aria told him.
"Your just annoyed cause Swampert beat Flygon in a battle," James told her.
"Doesn't count, Swampert didn't win," She said.
"He smashed Flygon into the ground, I think that counts."
"You know," His mother pipped up, "I think you should consider taking your bags and staying the whole week."
James and Aria, in Rustboro, wandered down the streets. James was attempting to remember the way to the pokémon trainers school, or to Devon, where he had a chance of finding Roxanne or Steven, respectably James had tried to put Eevee in its poke ball, however the evolution pokémon wanted no part in it, and was now wandering along beside them, being tailed by Umbreon, who flashed as stranger's came too close. After a while, and after looking at a map of the city, they located the pokémon trainers school, of which the gym was connected. They tried that first. It was designed very similarly to Fortree's colosseum, which also acted as the gym, and the receptionist told James and Aria that Roxanne was battling someone at the moment, however they were welcome to go and sit in the completely empty stands.
They arrived just in time to see her Golem roll over a Swalot.
"Roxanne is the winner!" The umpire announced. The challenger recalled his pokémon, shook hands with the gym leader, and left. It was then that Roxanne noticed them.
"James!" She said, coming over.
"Hey Roxanne, what's up?" He said.
"What you doing here?" She asked him.
"I need something from the shops here." James said. Roxanne looked slightly disheartened. "Hey," He said, "Do you want to have another battle? That is, if you can put up a fight-"
"I'll smash you this time," Roxanne told him.
"Cool," James smiled, "Oh, and this is Aria."
"Hey," She said.
"We don't need an umpire this time," Roxanne told her referee, "You can go, this battles only for fun."
"I already have the badge," James said, smiling.
"Your just lucky that we aren't playing for it again." Roxanne said.
"Sure, whatever," James told her, before pulling out a poke ball. He enlarged it, before pressing the button again. It snapped open in his hand, and red light spilled out of it. Sceptile appeared in front of him.
"Hm, in the flesh." Roxanne said. She had of course seen his photos on facebook, although she hadn't seen James' actual pokémon since before it evolved.
"Go Tropius!" Roxanne said, and the pokémon that he traded to her appeared. James and Roxanne were standing in the trainer boxes at either end of the arena. Aria was in the stands.
"You want to go first?" James asked.
"How sweet," Roxanne said, "Bullet Seed!" Tropius spat forth a barrage of Bullet Seed, which shot across the stadium.
"Detect." James said. Sceptile moved its head, dodging the attack completely.
"Stomp!" Roxanne called. Tropius launched itself into the air, flew at Sceptile, and then folded away its wings. It plummeted toward the ground, but again Sceptile dodged, stepping to the side.
"Leaf Blade!" James said.
"You two!" Roxanne called. Both pokémon slashed out, and both attacks were caught on the other. Sceptile held back the fruit pokémon for a moment, before jumping away, hitting Tropius with its tail and jumping to the side.
"Bullet Seed!" Roxanne shouted.
"Detect!" James said, and Sceptile jumped to the right and span in mid air, dodging every single seed.
"Magical Leaf!" Roxanne called out. Tropius called out and a group of multicoloured leaves flew into the air.
"Detect!" James told Sceptile again. The rainbow leaves suddenly shot toward Sceptile. James readied himself – Magical Leaf never misses, however Sceptile might be able to dodge using Detect. The forest pokémon leapt toward the incoming leaves, before jumping up, off the ground and over them.
"Solar Beam!" James shouted. In one split second movement Sceptile charged up sunlight and released it. James had taught it to always release the attack straight away, unless told otherwise, as it was a strong attack anyway, albeit weaker then a charged one. The Solar Beam slammed into Tropius, blowing it away.
"All right, you win again." Roxanne admitted, as Tropius picked itself up. It could probably continue battling, however trainers usually only pushed their pokémon if they were having an important battle. This was not.
"Good job as always, Sceptile." James told his forest pokémon. Sceptile gave James one of its wicked high fives.
"Where you guys staying tonight?" Roxanne asked the two of them.
"Pokémon Centre." Aria shrugged. Roxanne shook her head.
"You can stay at my place if you want."
"Cool," James said, "I gotta go to the shops first though."
"Careful," One of the assistants told him. Dr Safro hated assistants.
"I know what I'm doing." He snapped. He placed his eye on the lens of the microscope, and looked down once again at the lump of asteroid they recently had shipped from Mossdeep. They had collected the specimen and done some research on it, however the rock was impossibly hard. None of the usual tools would even put a chip in it. Steven had become curious when he heard about the stone, and decided to see whether a high powered laser would cut through it, when even x-rays and other wavelengths couldn't make it through. Dr Safro positioned the small machine to which the laser was attached, and told one of his assistants to power it up. When the tiny light came on, he started to slowly move it across the stone. As soon as it touched the side, the laser cut straight through. Safro drew back slightly, surprised that it had worked so easily. After a second he continued on, cutting straight through the centre of the asteroid with the beam. After a minute he had done it, and the two halves fell apart. Safro looked eagerly at them. It appeared that the asteroid was a sort of casing, and in either half was a strange glittering purple substance. Safro picked up a pair of tweezers and poked the substance gently. Instantly it began to swell, and both halves moved together to form one whole. Safro's hand darted away, as though it had turned into a killer bee. He smiled and looked back at the again stationary substance. Picking up the tweezers, he poked it again. This time it grew bigger, swelling until it was a large smooth purple stone about the size of a football. The sudden growth broke the laser cutter, as well as the microscope that had been slid above it. Safro slid backward on his chair, while one of his assistants quickly picked up a phone.
Steven Stone burst into the room just in time to see Safro touch the stone with the tweezers.