Pokemon Legends: Sinnoh Saga

Chapter 47

A Fish Out of Water

The day after Charon's attempt to hold Sinnoh for ransom, Melany and Dawn had moved to the route north of Jubilife where they would be training together. Though they had already started training the previous day, they eventually left for Jubilife so they could train in the open fields around the city. Rina departed from the group early in the morning from there and continued north to find a pokemon for Dawn.

That same morning, Melany and Dawn were out bright and early to start their training. Dawn had grabbed her newer pokemon prior and, now that they were out in the field, she released them from their pokeballs so the three of them were all standing side by side. Lined up facing the trainers, the first from the left was nosepass, a statue-like pokemon in the shape of a face. Next was a cranidos, a two-legged lizard with a rather thick skull. Finally, on the right, a lumineon, a fish pokemon whose fins made it look almost like a butterfly from the front.

"Yeah, these guys are all fairly tough, but they're still going to need a fair bit of work to catch up with the rest of your pokemon, Dawn," Melany said after observing Dawn's new pokemon. "The cranidos has a lot of physical attack power, so as long as you can get it evolved the difference between it and the rest of your pokemon probably won't even be noticeable. The lumineon you'll have to work out a way for it to fight and maneuver on land. The nosepass... it can take attacks decently well and I think it has an evolution similar to magneton, but that might not matter anyway."

"So... think it'll be worth the effort, then?" Dawn asked her, her gaze remaining focused on the three pokemon.

"Don't see why not," Melany replied.

"Still..." Dawn let out a sigh. "Seems like I'll be mostly working with these three... even though I have other pokemon to get up to speed or find special items for. I don't even know what 'shiny stone' looks like, aside from the obvious..."

"Worry about that later, I'm sure I know at least one place to get one if we're desparate," Melany said. "In the meantime, why not have the cranidos take shots at the nosepass as a warmup while you figure out some maneuvers with the lumineon."

"Alright," Dawn replied, nodding in agreement. She then began to issue orders to the three pokemon. "Cranidos, practice using headbutt on Nosepass. Chika, you'll be training with me so we can figure out ways to get around your inability to move on land." The cranidos didn't even acknowledge Dawn's command before suddenly running off and lining up a charge with the nosepass. Chika, sensing the danger she was in, pushed with her fins and managed to slowly push herself across the grass.

"I see you haven't thought up nicknames for those two yet," Melany said. The sound of rock hitting rock echoed through the air as one unnamed pokemon struck another. Melany watched the lumineon still struggling to push itself toward Dawn, then gave Dawn a questioning look. "But... Chika?"

"Well, she seems to like that nickname, and it'd be wrong to give her a new one since that nickname comes from her original trainer, right?" Dawn asked, then took out her pokedex. She wanted to take a good look at Chika's known attacks and see what she had to work with.

"True..." Melany replied, then tried to take a look at Dawn's pokedex. "Don't suppose she knows Surf by any chance?"

"Surf, Defog, Whirlpool, Waterfall..." Dawn said, listing off a few techniques. "They seem to stick out for some reason..."

"Utility techniques," Melany began to explain, pausing for a moment as the sound of another rock-on-rock collision was heard. After briefly surveying the scene, Melany continued. "Though some of them can be useful in battles, they're incredibly useful to have for travel. Surf creates a wave for the pokemon to ride, making it easier to carry or tow a passenger. Defog clears fog, Whirlpool can briefly disrupt a whirlpool if one was inconveniently in the way, and a pokemon can use Waterfall to climb straight up one. Though, because of the incline, it can still be hard to deal with..."

"So whoever owned her last was using her for non-battle utility..." Dawn mumbled, taking another quick look over the list. She let out a sigh. "Aside from those, Splash is the only technique she knows that's out of the ordinary for her..."

"That works," Melany said. Dawn's head snapped around to look at her in utter disbelief. "Splash is basically just hopping around. That gives her some basic mobility. Surf will give her a wave to ride, and you might even be able to do some water riding with Whirlpool and Waterfall for more maneuverability as well as using them to some degree in battle."

A silence fell between the two, during which another rock-on-rock collision was heard. Then, Dawn finally asked, "And Defog?"

Melany shrugged. "Some techniques just aren't that useful."

"Well..." Dawn was about to comment, but the sound of Cranidos landing another headbutt interrupted her. Both trainers looked toward the source of the sound and Dawn scratched her head. "Come to think of it... that nosepass has been pretty calm about all this. I didn't even tell it not to retalliate..."

Cranidos rammed into Nosepass from behind one more time while the girls watched. Though it was a powerful headbutt, Nosepass only shook slightly when Cranidos hit. Instead, it seemed like Cranidos was the one suffering the most as it backed off while shaking its head. Ramming into Nosepass over and over again was obviously hurting it in spite of its thick skull, but Nosepass was hardly bothered by it at all.

"-Why you no hurting from mine headbutt?-" Cranidos asked, though it wasn't quite looking at Nosepass when it did. Though, from Cranidos's perspective, it was looking at one of the two Nosepass at least.

"-Statues don't feel pain. I am a statue. Therefore, I don't feel pain,-" Nosepass explained simply. Cranidos tried to comprehend this, then suddenly fell over.

"Err... guess that's it for the cranidos for now, then..." Dawn said, then took a pokeball in each hand. "Alright you two, you might as well take a rest then," she said, recalling each of them. With the two rock pokemon taken care of, she then turned to Chika again. "Now, let's get started on teaching you how to move around on land..."

"-Oh, good! All this crawling around is hurting my stomach!-" Chika replied happily.

"While you're doing that, I'm going to take off for a bit," Melany said to Dawn. "You can do this much on your own, I'm sure, and I need to report to Professor Rowan about what happened in Canalave."

"Yeah, I'll be spending some time working on this anyway," Dawn replied.

Melany nodded. "I'll be back later to start actually training them, then." Melany then turned and headed toward Jubilife, leaving Dawn to train with her lumineon, Chika. Dawn folded her arms and put on her most serious face, an expression often reserved for the bonus boss battle.

"Okay, Chika, let's start by testing Surf. It's a powerful water-type technique in its own right, so it'll definitely be one we'll be using often in battle anyway. If we can use that for increased maneuverability, too, then we'll be ahead of the game when it comes time to face the gym leaders!" Chika nodded excitedly in agreement, her own expression looking about as serious and determined as a fish's face could get.

"Now, turn around so you're facing away from me, and use Surf," Dawn insutructed Chika. Chika wriggled around a bit to turn away from Dawn. Then, using her power over water, she summoned a wave up from the ground beneath her. The water rose up to about Dawn's height with Chika floating on top of it, then began to move forward across the grassy field. A damp trail was left through the grass as the wall of water moved over it.

"Hmm... try going in circles with it." Chika turned her body slightly and directed the water to move with her. Of course, it wasn't easy moving such a thing, thus she ended up making a fairly wide turn that resulted in her making circles that likely would have needed the entire width of a standard gym battlefield to perform.

"Surf seems pretty good for speed and power, but only in a straight line..." Dawn mused in contemplation. "Alright, move over here and turn away from me again, then dismiss the water." Chika followed Dawn's instructions, completing one final circle and stopping her wave a few feet in front of Dawn. The wave kept going toward Dawn's right after Chika hopped off, crashing down into the grass. Even though it wasn't aimed at her, Dawn was still splashed a bit by it. Chika then quickly turned herself around so she was facing away from Dawn again.

"That would have sucked if I wasn't dressed for snow..." Dawn said under her breath. Both her jacket and splash pants were, fortunately, waterproof. "Okay, now try moving with Waterfall."

A veil of water formed around Chika as she readied her attack. Then, she pushed off with her tail and shot forward as if she were swimming. The technique was giving her quite the rush of power for the duration of the attack, the kind of power that'd allow her to swim straight up a waterfall. As she moved forward, the grass she was moving across was torn up rather than simply getting wet.

"Okay! Stop!" Dawn called out to Chika. Without any target, she would have kept going until she hit something without Dawn telling her when to stop. Thus, at Dawn's command, she stopped rather suddenly and the water surrounding her quickly dispersed.

Waterfall seems like it might be good for a sudden boost of speed, but only in a forward direction, Dawn thought. Seems like Surf is still the better option in general... but let's see what we can do with that last water technique.

"Next technique, Chika! Use Whirlpool and try to make a small one under yourself!" Dawn called out to her. Chika seemed hesitant at first, unsure if she could even do such a thing. Unsurprisingly, it turned out she couldn't. When she used the technique, she tried to focus the water under her, but it ended up in front of her instead. A small, swirling mass like a tornado made of water appeared, standing only a few feet tall.

"Good enough. Even if that's all you can manage, you can just hop into it," Dawn said to Chika. Chika nodded and gathered her strength for a quick hop, landing in the middle of the miniature whirlpool. It held her up surprisingly well, being narrow enough that she didn't fall inside. Instead, the water swirled against the underside of her body. Though, this also had the unfortunate effect of causing her to spin around on top of it as well.

Dawn's hand immediately went to her forehead. This one's going to take some work, she thought. The whirlpool Chika was riding dispersed before long, dropping a dizzy pokemon on the wet ground beneath her. A LOT of work... but I think it'll be worth it. If she can ride a small whirlpool around, that'd give her a lot more maneuverability out of the water.

"Let's try this one more time and see if you can control it better," Dawn said to Chika. She was still too dizzy to respond, though, causing Dawn to let out a sigh. "Okay, take five, THEN we'll try again."


Meanwhile, near the Valley Windworks, Rina was also giving her pokemon a brief break. Though Knight had certainly flown much further before, she also wanted to check out the windworks herself. So while Knight was taking a brief break, Rina was watching the nearby wind turbines.

"Look at them spin... it really is windy in this valley, isn't it?" Rina said, though Knight offered no response. "I've never seen windmills before. It must be nice living somewhere like this, where power is generated completely by natural resources..."

"-Don't you humans usually use pokemon anyway?-" Knight mumbled lazily. "-Or do they not count as 'natural'?"

Rina thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "They're a natural resource too, I guess, but pokemon are usually only used to power a single building or a small area. Power plants are needed for big cities or to power an entire region."

"-Hmm... speaking of that, what method does that power plant use again? The one near Cerulean?-" Knight asked Rina.

"The new one they're working on uses nuclear fusion," Rina replied in a resentful tone. "If you ask me, something like that is way too dangerous to be using as a power source."

While Rina and Knight were talking, a hardhat-wearing electrician carrying a lunchbox emerged from the front door of the windworks with a lunchbox in hand. Hearing voices, he looked around and spotted Rina admiring the wind turbines and decided to go over and have a chat with her. "Hey there! Like the wind turbines, huh?"

Rina turned to the electrician and smiled. "Yes! We don't have anything like this back in Kanto!" she said. Knight just rolled his eyes, completely disinterested.

The electrician laughed. "Kanto? That's a long way to come to look at wind turbines!" He then sat down in the grass and popped open his lunch box. "So what brings you around here?"

"Helping a friend with a few things, actually," Rina replied. "Right now I'm supposed to be looking for an interesting pokemon to catch."

"Oh?" The electrician grinned. "You must be looking for the ghost pokemon that comes 'round here at night."

"Ghost pokemon?"

"Right, the ghost pokemon. Looks kinda like a balloon." The man made a motion with his hands to indicate something round. "They say these pokemon trick children into grabbing them with their deceptive appearance, then drag them down into the underworld!"

There's no way that's true... right? Rina nervously wondered.

The electrician pulled a sandwich out of his lunchbox and began to chowdown, but continued to speak in between mouthfuls. "I hear they're supposed to be pretty rare pokemon," he said to her. "If you were looking for something interesting to catch, I'd dare say they're a good option!"

He does have a good point though, Rina thought, nodding in agreement. This sounds like an interesting pokemon to catch. I'll wait until tonight, then, and see for myself! Rina then turned to Knight and smiled, causing the dragon pokemon to let out a sigh. He had a pretty good idea of just what Rina was thinking. And that meant they'd be staying there quite a while longer yet.


A small, whirling mass of water formed before Chika, which the fish pokemon then jumped into. This time her aim was off and she landed on the edge of the whirlpool. The spinning action of the whirlpool pulled her around with it, then threw her off after she had spun 180 degrees. She hit the ground head first, leaving her momentarily dazed. The whirlpool dispersed shortly after she was tossed from it.

"You know, I'm thinking this might be harder than I or Melany originally thought," Dawn said after observing Chika's most recent failed attempt. "There has to be some trick to this... hmm... how about forming another whirlpool, but don't jump into it. I want to figure out a way to approach this thing..."

Chika slowly turned to Dawn and gave a slight nod of her head. Then Chika opened her mouth and shot a stream of water at the ground. The water that splashed up from the ground began to swirl like a tornado, eventually drawing up the rest of the water until a small whirpool had formed and remained spinning in place. Dawn walked over to the whirlpool to get a better look at it.

"Hmm... the water moves pretty fast, doesn't it?" Dawn mused. "Can you make it spin in the opposite direction?" she asked Chika. Chika nodded and the whirlpool began to disperse, splashing Dawn again. Dawn quickly stepped back as another whirlpool began to form from the water on the ground, this one spinning counter-clockwise as opposed to the clockwise direction every other whirlpool Chika formed up until then.

"That works," Dawn said, nodding. "Okay, now can you form a second whirlpool without destroying this one?" she asked Chika. "If you could make two whirlpools spinning at the same speeds but in opposite directions, you could probably balance on top of them without being thrown off."

Chika considered Dawn's request for a moment before trying it for herself. She opened her mouth and fired more water, aiming near the base of the first whirlpool. The water began to swirl and spin, forming into a second whirlpool spinning clockwise. As this new whirlpool began to form, the first whirlpool was slowing down. Eventually, it collapsed and brought the second whirlpool down with it.

"Guess that's a no..." Dawn muttered. She was sure she was on to something and such a complete failure was off-putting, to say the least. She wasn't about to give up yet, though. "What if you tried forming both whirlpools at the same time?"

Again, Chika spat out more water and began drawing up all the available water, attempting to form a pair of whirlpools that would be layered in such a way that she could safely ride on top of them. Unfortunately, this attempt had even less success. Rather than forming two whirlpools, no whirlpools formed at all. The forces trying to create the whirlpools spinning in opposite directions were simply negating each other.

Dawn scratched her head and muttered, "This doesn't look promising..."

Just then, Melany finally returned to the training area, riding on Skarmory's back. Skarmory quietly set down behind Dawn and Melany quickly dismounted. Melany realized almost immediately that something was up when she saw that Dawn had stopped training. "Something wrong?" she asked Dawn.

"We can't figure out how to use these Whirlpools..."

"She needs to swim in them," Melany explained. "Create a whirlpool big enough for her to be suspended in the center with her fins in the water. It'll take some practice to get it right, but she needs to move her fins in such a way that the spinning motion of the water pushes her up and down instead of spinning her around."

"Ehh!" Dawn looked at her in disbelief. "How did you know that?"

"Let's just say I know someone who's been practicing a similar move with her own pokemon," Melany replied tersely. "Anyway, like I said it'll take practice to get it right. You might want to get a potion or two ready." Hearing the mention of potions, Chika cringed. She already wasn't liking the sound of Melany's training.


Darkness eventually descended upon the Sinnoh region. By then, Dawn and Melany had decided to call it a day. For Rina, however, the night was still young. She had remained at the Valley Windworks all day, waiting for night so she may see the pokemon that was said to arrive at night. Even in the dead of night, when most of the workers had gone home, the wind turbines continued to spin.

And it was there, after night had arrived, that Rina continued to wait. One hour passed. Then two. She started to wonder if this pokemon would even show up. Three hours into the night, Rina was just about ready to give up and find somewhere to spend the night. Casting one last look to the sky, however, she found her patience rewarded.

"That must be the pokemon that guy was talking about!" Rina said to Knight and Pippi, both of whom had been waiting with her . In the air above them, drifting with the wind, several pokemon could be seen. It was hard to make them out against the darkened sky, but the yellow hands and markings on their faces gave them away. Most were small, purple balloons with string-like arms, though there were also a few that looked more like hot air balloons. As they neared the windworks, they began to descend.

"They really are just like balloons..." Rina whispered as she watched them land nearby. "I wonder what they come to the windworks for?"

While Rina was wondering this, one of the small ones managed to quietly float up from behind her. Neither Pippi nor Knight noticed it either and were thus unable to stop it as it reached out with its string-like arms, grabbing Rina by the hand with its yellow ends. Rina shrieked, startled by the pokemon grabbing her.

"-Come quietly to your doom, child...-" the pokemon said to her, then tried to drag her away. It got as far as the length of its arms. Rina wasn't budging.

"I'm not a child!" Rina yelled, grabbing the pokemon's arms and pulling it back toward her so she could punch it in the face. The ghost pokemon went incorporeal in response so her fist would pass through it, releasing Rina in the process. The pokemon seemed to lose interest at that point, though, as it floated away after becoming corporeal again.

"-Looks like they really do steal children away,-" Knight mused. "-Try to, anyway.-"

"-You're being awfully lax about that,-" Pippi said to Knight. Knight just shrugged in response.

"Well, let's catch one of these..." Rina said, looking toward the group gathered in front of the windworks. "One of the bigger ones, maybe? Let's go try to capture one, Pippi." Pippi nodded and followed Rina as she ran off toward the group of ghosts. Most of the ghost balloons floated away to ride the air currents again when they saw Rina coming.

"-Bored out of my skull...-" Knight grumbled, plopping down in the grass. "-If I'd known it'd be like this, I would have just went back in my 'ball...-"

"Umm... now how are we supposed to do this?" Rina wondered, stopping just barely over ten feet away from the group of pokemon. "I want to try negotiating... but no matter how I look at it I think it'd go over pretty badly if I said I wanted to catch it for someone else. And lying would be worse..."

"-Then let's do it like every other trainer does!-" Pippi suggested with a grin. Sparks shot out from her cheeks, anticipating Rina's response.

Rina sighed. "I don't think we have much choice... Go ahead, then. Pick one of the big ones and..."

Rina didn't even get to finish speaking before Pippi launched her attack. The group of ghost pokemon scattered when they saw Pippi launch a bolt of electricity in their direction. They were too slow, though, and Pippi managed to hit her intended target. One of the drifblim let out a ghostly wail as the bolt struck it, sending electricity coursing through its body.

"-They came... from... behind...-" the ghost pokemon groaned. Slowly it floated down to the ground, landing flat on its face. The rest of the pokemon quickly fled the scene, fearing they may be attacked as well.

"...attack..." Rina slapped her hand against her forehead. "You overdid it, Pippi..."

"-No I didn't!-" Pippi quickly shot back, pointing a paw at the ghost pokemon. "-See! It's getting up again!-" Sure enough, the wild ghost pokemon was slowly floating up into an upright position. It still looked dazed from the attack, but it was at least still conscious.

"Still think you overdid it..." Rina muttered, taking a pokeball out of her backpack. "Well, it's weakened now anyway, might as well finish this..." Rina threw the pokeball at the weakened drifblim just as it was turning to face them. The pokeball managed to hit it square in the yellow 'x' on its face, opening on contact and pulling the ghost pokemon inside. The pokeball dropped to the ground and began to shake as the pokemon tried to break free, then eventually stopped. It locked shut, then disappeared in a white flash.

"-See? That was no trouble at all!-" Pippi said, beaming.

"I feel kinda sorry for it..." Rina said. "Anyway, now we need to find somewhere to spend the night. Kinda late now to go meet up with Dawn and Melany again." As Rina turned around again, she saw Knight shooting her a glare. She realized why, of course.

"I know, I know!" she said to him. "If it helps any, I need you to fly me to Floaroma now?"

"-Yeah, yeah...-" Knight grumbled. He quickly stood up and turned his back to her. "-Hop on and let's go.-" Rina proceded to do so, as did Pippi. The three of them then took off, flying to the nearby town of Floaroma. Upon arrival, she would find there was nowhere for her to stay in the small town, and ended up spending the night in a tent outside in the gardens.


Author's Notes: Finally getting into some actual training for Dawn, which will likely continue at least into the next chapter.

On another note, nuclear fusion is actually a fairly safe method of generating electricity. One which we currently don't have the technology for. Nuclear fission, on the other hand... has a bit of a bad rap which it doesn't entirely deserve but is likely what people would think of if you mentioned nuclear fusion.

Only 3 days remaining now.