Chapter 26

With the Ice plate from Regice in Astrid's hands, the gang continues on their way to Fortree City. They have just settled down for a break in Route 102 and Hiccup was giving his egg a good polish.

Hiccup comments, "Man, I cannot wait for this thing to hatch. I'll bet whatever Pokémon is inside of it is just as magnificent as those Salamence we saw at Meteor Falls."

Astrid sits by him and says, "It is pretty exciting to think about."

Suddenly, the egg starts to glow red. Hiccup holds the egg back a little and asks, "Uh, what's going on?"

Astrid gasps. "Oh my gosh! That means that the egg is about to hatch!"

Hiccup's eyes widen. "What? Now? W-what do we do?"

Fishlegs pulls up a map and says, "Well, if we hurry now we might be able to make it to the Oldale Pokémon Center in time."

Hiccup nods and wastes no time standing and running towards Oldale Town. Once he got to the small town, the egg was starting to glow even brighter. Hiccup says to the egg, "Come on, just wait a little longer."

Hiccup then bursts through the doors of the Pokémon Center and Nurse Joy says to him, "Hello, little boy, welcome to the Pokémon Center. How may I help you?"

Hiccup holds up this egg. "Sorry to barge in but I don't have much time. This egg is about to hatch and I need help making sure it's ok."

Nurse Joy takes the egg and comments, "Oh my, this egg is going to hatch any minute now. Alright, we'll take it back. Chansey?"

"Chasey!" A big, pink ball with an egg in it's pouch appears and takes the egg back with it. The Pokémon has Hiccup follow it.

It was then that Astrid, Fishlegs and Snotlout had arrived and followed Hiccup to the back. Chansey sat the egg down on a bed and proceeded to boil some water so they can clean the Pokémon once it hatches.

Nurse Joy the walks in and proceeds to examine the egg, which was glowing even brighter. She puts a stethoscope onto it, lsitens for a bit and says, "The Pokémon inside does seem to be active."

Hiccup nods and encourages the Pokémon inside the egg. "Come on, you've got this." Suddenly, the egg glows once more with an almost blinding red light as the round figure turns into a small, anthromorphic form with a round head and stubby arms.

The red glow fades, revealing a small, blue Pokémon with a yellow mouth and grey hair of some sort. "Bagon?" The Pokémon says.

Fishlegs smiles wide. "Oh, that's the cutest Bagon I've ever seen. Also the only Bagon I've ever seen."

Astrid notices that Snotlout was smiling wide as well and even had a tear emerging from his eye. "Snotlout, do you, maybe have a soft spot for babies?"

Snotlout looks around and realizes what he was doing. "N-no. Shut up, Astrid."

Hiccup comments. "Bagon, huh?"

He checks the Pokédex. "Bagon, the Rock Head Pokémon. Bagon dreams about one day being able to fly. In doomed efforts to fly, Bagon will often jump off of cliffs. As a result, it's head has become harder than steel."

Hiccup nods as he kneels in front of Bagon. "Hi there, little Bagon. I'm Hiccup, your friend."

Bagon blinks before suddenly crying out. "Baaaaaagoooonnnnn!"

It's cry is so loud that everyone in the Pokémon Center could hear it. "What is it doing?" Hiccup yells.

Fishlegs yells back, "A Roar attack! It must need something, but what?"

"Baaaaaa!" Suddenly, Bagon stops crying as it's stomach audibly rumbles. Hiccup sighs. "WELL THERE." He stops as he realizes how loud he was being. "Well there we go, it's just hungry."

Nurse joy says, "Here, this is a baby Pokémon formula." and hands Hiccup a baby bottle.

Hiccup picks Bagon up and holds it saying, "Here, Bagon, see how that treats ya."

"Ba?" Bagon sniffs the bottle before smiling, "Bagon!" as it slips the bottle into its mouth and starts suckling.

Hiccup sighs. "Well, that's a relief." Bagon sucks the bottle down so hard, it was empty in only a minute. Hiccup comments, "Wow, you really were hungry." Bagon then falls aslseep in Hiccup's arms, looking adorable as ever.

Nurse Joy then says to Hiccup, "Now then, Bagon, let's give you a quick exam." Hiccup hands Bagon over to Joy, but suddenly Bagon wakes up and begins crying again. "Baaaaaaaa!"

Snoltout yells, "Now what?"

Joy yells back, "Oh dear. Here, why don't you take him back, little boy?" Hiccup takes Bagon back into his arms and rocks it a little. Bagon suddenly stops crying and goes back to sleep.

Hiccup asks, "Ok, what was that?"

Nurse Joy comments, "I think this Bagon thinks that you're it's parent, wow."

Astrid adds, "You might be right. Often, the first living thing that a Pokémon sees after hatching it assumes to be it's mother or father."

Hiccup's eyes widen. "So, that means I'm…a dad?"

"It would seem so." Joy replies.

Hiccup looks down at Bagon and smiles. "Wow. That's…actually kind of cool. I guess now I know how my dad felt when I was born." He holds Bagon even closer. "Well, Bagon, I promise that I will protect you and keep you safe."

Astrid pats Hiccup on the shoulder and says, "I think you'll do great."

An hour later, Bagon had woken up and, after another feeding, decided to explore Oldale town a little with the gang. As they were walking along, they got a lot of comments from passing locals saying how cute Bagon looks and how they've never seen a Bagon before.

That is until one familiar looking boy steps up to Hiccup and says, "So, we meet again."

Hiccup raises a brow. "Uh, sorry. Do I know you?"

The boy scoffs. "What, like you don't remember me and my top percentage Zigzagoon? Come on, you have to remember."

Hiccup thinks back and does remember battling a Zigzagoon as soon as he left Oldale Town the first time. He nods. "Oh yeah, you're that kid, uh, Joey right?"

Joey nods. "In the flesh. I see you've come back for a rematch. Well, I promise that this time things will be different." He then notices the blue Pokémon in front of Hiccup. "That Bagon of yours looks pretty tough, but certainly not tougher than my Pokémon. What do you say?"

Hiccup holds his hands up. "Uh, listen, this Bagon actually just hatched and I'm pretty sure it's nowhere near ready for a battle."

Joey laughs at that. "So you're chickening out? Fine, I guess I'll just tell everyone in town how great I am and how lame you are."

Astrid says to Hiccup, "You don't have to stoop to this kid's level, Hiccup. If you don't want to battle then don't."

Snotlout adds, "Yeah, besides, I'm sure I can handle this kid for ya."

Joey shakes his head. "Nuh-uh. Has to be Mr. Too Chicken to Battle or nothing."

Hiccup lets out a deep sigh. "If I battle you, kid, will you leave me alone?"

Joey shrugs. "Perhaps."

Hiccup sighs again. "Fine."

They walk to just outside Town near Route 102 where they initially battled. Joey pulls out a Pokéball and says, "Linoone, let's go!" The Pokéball opens up and out pops a grey ferret looking Pokémon with a brown stripe running down its back.

Hiccup raises a brow and checks the Pokédex. "Linoone, the rush Pokémon and the evolved form of Zigzagoon. Linoone can run at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. However, it can only run straight and if it tries to turn then it will likely fall over."

Hiccup nods. "Ok, I guess Combusken can take care of this."

Joey shakes his head. "Nope. Has to be that Bagon."

Hiccup's eyes widen. "I just told you, Bagon just hatched. There's no way it can battle." However, Bagon stood in front of Hiccup with a battle ready look on its face.

Joey comments, "Well, it seems that Bagon thinks otherwise."

Hiccup was concerned but saw no other real way around this. "Ok, fine. Bagon, go."

"Bagon!" Bagon yells out.

Joey commands, "Linoone, use Headbutt!"

"Liiiii!" Linoone rushes towards Bagon at high speed.

Hiccup quickly commands, "Bagon, dodge!" Bagon quickly gets out of the way and since Linoone can only run in a straight line, it couldn't turn to land the hit.

Hiccup commands, "Bagon, use…uh, hold on."

Hiccup checks the Pokédex for one thing. "Bagon knows the following attacks: Roar, Bite and Rage."

Hiccup nods. "I already know about Roar but, Bagon use Bite!"

"Ba-gon!" Bagon leaps and bites Linoone hard on the left side.

Joey growls. "Linoone, hit it with a Play Rough!"

"Line!" Linoone faces Bagon and proceeds to attack it with a very rough attack.

Hiccup growls. "Come on. Bagon, use Roar!" before covering his ears.

"Baaaaaaaagonnnn!" Bagon roars so loud that it causes Linoone to stop the attack all together.

Joey comments, "Come on, Linoone. You're really going to stop just because this kid is crying?"

Hiccup yells, "Bagon, finish it with Rage!"

"Baaaaa!" Bagon stops crying as it's face gets even angrier and it strikes Linoone multiple times. Each time it attacked, it just got stronger, until pretty soon Linoone was knocked to the ground.

Hiccup pumps his fist in the air. "Yes! Bagon, that was incredible."

Bagon looks back and smiles. "Bagon!"

Joey stands there looking dumbstruck. "What. Just. Happened?"

Fishlegs comments, "I'm pretty sure your Linoone just got taken out by a baby. Yeah, you're a really good trainer."

Joey growls as he retrieves Linoone. "I'll get you next time, you brown haired beast!" With that he runs off while yelling, "Mom!"

Hiccup pats Bagon on the head. "If you were able to do that while being less than a day old, then there's no telling what the future holds for you."

"Ba-." However, Bagon soon closes its eyes and leans in to Hiccup's arms.

Astrid comments, "Aw, little guy must be tired from such a good battle."

Hiccup nods as he picks Bagon up. "Can't say I blame him. Rest easy, little Bagon."

After one last trip to the Pokémon Center to heal up, the gang, and their newest Pokémon addition, heads up north into Route 103 on their way to Fortree City.