Chapter 4: Apprentice to a Champion?
Ethan trudged up the beach, trying to run faster and get to wherever the hell the Tyranitar was rampaging. He managed to reach the wooden boardwalk, sprinting after Archer as a deep, earth shattering roar sounded, making him quake in his boots.
He turned a corner as he tried to catch up to his blue haired cousin, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw multiple townspeople, including a young girl with two pink pigtails, fighting the mighty beast and trying to hold it back as it tore through the city, pushing the defense line further and further back as it approached the east side of the city, taking the people slowly towards the edge of the forest.
"Ethan, get in here and help!" Archer shouted, releasing his own Pokémon, Houndoom, Houndoor, and Crobat into the fray to fight for Goldenrod, joining the efforts of the citizen as Ethan went over the situation once in his head. Two of his Pokémon were useful here, two would be utterly useless.
He tossed out Croconaw and Scyther, the Pokémon in battle stance, having been prepared for the previous battle against Archer, instead finding themselves against an opponent of much greater caliber.
"Croconaw, it's your first real battle, so show me what you've got and kick some rear! Scyther, it won't damage it, but whip up a tornado to distract it and give the townspeople a moment to think and react, then we attack!" Ethan shouted, his arm stretched out towards Tyranitar.
Croconaw immediately kicked into fighting mode, sprinting forward as fast as its stubby legs would allow and leaping onto Houndoom, riding it to battle like a knight rode their steed, only a bit crazier. It fired off water gun after water gun at what appeared to be the monster's weak spot, a gap in its army green armor, a blue diamond in the center of its chest, as Scyther ran around Tyranitar, solely Tyranitar, the wide diameter making it harder to whip up a tornado strong enough to actually last.
"Croconaw! Try something else! Ethan shouted as he whipped out his phone, zooming in first on Croconaw and checking its moves before focusing the camera on Tyranitar.
Tyranitar. Probably the most powerful non mythical Pokémon in Johto, close match with Kingdra, probably weaker because of typing. Dark and Rock type, also one of the strongest Pokémon in Indigo as a whole, evolves from Pupitar which is a stage where Larvitar is inside a giant Cocoon, like a pupa form, which it can see through and control. Hell powerful, near impossible to find in the wild, live in and on mountains, depending on said mountain, each Tyranitar claiming one mountain as its territory among its kind, only for itself and its kin. This one is exceedingly powerful, from the growth probably from Mount Silver, not to be messed with under any circumstances, and by age and strategy estimate from filming so far, knows for sure; Dark Pulse, Earthquake, Rock Throw, Rock Slide, and probably Hyper Beam and Blizzard. Good luck not soiling your pants while trying to escape.
Ethan sighed. Typical Brendan, putting in some of himself into the reply calculator. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, turning back to the battle to see Croconaw now riding a Miltank, having found a club somewhere which it was ludicrously swinging in every direction, one time actually hurting the Tyranitar, as well as Archer running towards him.
"Ethan! My Pokémon are out! They were helpless here anyway! I underestimated this bloody thing! I'm running to my office to get other Pokémon!" he shouted across the road as Ethan nodded, turning his head back towards the battle.
"Scyther, one last push!" Ethan shouted as the bug type struggled to finally set a tornado spinning as all the townspeople retreated, taking their time to catch their breaths and plan ahead.
Scyther and Croconaw lumbered over to him slowly as he pulled a super potion out of his bag, trying to heal some of the wounds form the battering they had just been given.
"Good work out there you two. Now we just need to keep this up until we knock it out, then it's the town's problem to drag it away." Ethan joked as he wiped the congealing blood off of Scyther and Croconaw, taking out an antiseptic and cleaning the wounds before wrapping them for a moment with medicine and fixing bandages around them.
"Now, let's get ready to win a badge without fighting the leader!" Ethan jested, turning towards the dying out tornado.
Tyranitar stepped out of the circle where it had remained inside Scyther's tornado with barely a scratch on its hide.
"Holy shit! Croconaw, Scyther, don't hold anything back, and be careful! This guy means business!" Ethan shouted to his Pokémon as he saw the fight continue, people's Pokémon and the people themselves getting knocked down like bowling pins.
"Croconaw, ice beam and follow up with water gun repeatedly!" Ethan shouted, turning towards Scyther. "Scyther, you need to find a weak spot and attack with X-Scissor!"
Croconaw took to riding an abandoned motorcycle, something Ethan would have laughed at had the situation not been so dire, and Scyther was climbing up the twenty foot monster's back, safe from its stubby arms and attacks, hacking at different spots to see the effect.
Never the less, Ethan couldn't resist taking a quick picture of the scene, Scyther scientifically examining Tyranitar's back with that crazy scientist eureka look and Croconaw holding a club, riding a motorcycle and preparing an ice beam.
"Scyther, found it?" Ethan shouted as in reply Scyther stabbed its blade up under one of Tyranitar's spikes, then another, and another, speeding up as it roared in pain, oblivious to the charging Croconaw who released an ice beam down its throat in the meantime.
Ethan smiled, watching happily until the Tyranitar lowered its spikes, trying to crush Scyther's blades, which were stuck inside it, , summoning a blizzard and attacking both Scyther and Croconaw with it, the former not well off at all.
It released Scyther's blades and reared, tossing it to the ground and turning around, preparing flames in its maw and blasting before turning back to Croconaw.
Croconaw gulped as Tyranitar released a thunderbolt straight at it, crumpling the motorcycle like tin foil and throwing Croconaw back against a building and knocking it out. Ethan frantically recalled Scyther and reached for Croconaw's ultra-ball, placing it in his hand and throwing a rock at Tyranitar with his other hand as it moved in for the kill.
The rock hit the great beast in the eye as it turned towards Ethan, Ethan recalling Croconaw while he had the chance and gulping in fear. Not an ideal visit to Goldenrod.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" a deepish voice sounded as a blizzard struck, a large metal form around as tall as Tyranitar, which is to say nine feet tall, appeared in front of him, grappling with Tyranitar and pushing it back as he got hit in the stomach by a flying shard of ice, losing consciousness.
…
Ethan woke up in a hospital bed, staring at the ceiling as he tried to figure out where he was. He turned to his left, noting the IV drip and the wires leading up to him. He looked over his body to see it covered with heating pads. The door opened and a young man of around twenty one walked in, his silver shirt open over his white V-neck, his black jeans dirty. His pale face was concerned, and his steel gray eyes were hard, his silver hair sticking out in nearly every direction. He looked at Ethan, walking over to him and pulling a chair up, sitting down next to him.
"That was some good battling you did there, for someone with around two or three badges I'm guessing?" the man asked as Ethan merely nodded, unsure of who he was.
"What's your name kid?" he asked, turning towards Ethan again, his steel gray eyes betraying nothing but concern.
"Ethan Photon." Ethan held out one hand, waiting for the man's name.
"Nice to meet you Ethan. I'm Steven. Steven Stone." Steven took Ethan's hand, his iron grip hurting slightly as he shook it.
"Wait, you're the Steven Stone? The next in line to head Devon and the Hoenn champion?" Ethan asked, in awe that the champion of Hoenn was sitting by his bed and chatting with him casually.
"In the flesh. Anyway, you're a good battler." Steven remarked, leaning back in the chair.
"Thanks. What happened to the Tyranitar?" Ethan asked, shifting in his bed, feeling weak.
"I knocked it out, and I was going to capture and rehabilitate it, but a Crobat flew in with an Ultra-Ball and recalled it and it flew off. I tried to tail it, but it was too fast and it managed to shake me by entering the forests." Steven shook his head as he looked at Ethan.
"You have a strong aura." Ethan stared at Steven, trying to process the remark.
"I thought only psychics could see auras?" Ethan remarked as Steven laughed, reaching for a poke ball at his belt.
"If you spend enough time with an aura Pokémon, you start to see them too." Steven remarked, releasing a blue, humanoid, and hound like Pokémon into the room. "This is Lucario, quite literally the aura Pokémon.
Lucario, as it was called, sniffed at Ethan's chest before staring at him.
'It is good to make your acquaintance.' It spoke in a deep gravelly voice, stretching out a paw which Ethan warily shook.
Steven let Lucario roam about, speaking to Ethan quietly.
"Actually, I have an egg, for a young Riolu, and I can't raise it. It would create a rift between me and Lucario for me to raise another unrelated Lucario. Can I trust you with it?"
"You just met me and you're asking me to raise an egg." Ethan raised an eyebrow as Steven nodded. "Pardon my language, but damn you're a nice guy. In any case, sure, I'll raise it."
Steven pulled a fairly sized blue and black egg out of his bag, handing it to Ethan, who promptly rearranged the contents of his own bag and set the egg down inside it to cushion it, zipping it.
"Apart from that, I know you pretty well from well, seeing your aura, and I want to train an apprentice. I have no kin, nor anyone at home who I would want to train. But I find you interesting. You don't have to make up your mind right now, but I have to be in Olivine at some point this year, so when you make up your mind, call this number." Steven replied, handing him a card.
"Okay." Ethan replied, lying back down as Steven recalled Lucario and left, walking out of the room.
Ethan reached for the nurse buzzer by his side, his hands numb as he pressed it and waited for a nurse to arrive.
"Excuse me miss, when can I go?" he asked her, trying to process the bubble gum colored hair that looked like bubble gum as well. Maybe he was hungry.
"Um, well you got hit with a minor part of a blizzard attack, so your body temperature dropped greatly, close to killing you, and we've been heating it to get it to normal. You may feel a bit sluggish which means your blood is still thick. Technically you're free to go, but I suggest waiting until you're not sluggish or numb, or slow or weak for that matter." She explained to him, turning around.
"Wait! Where are my Pokémon?" Ethan shouted across the room.
"Your Typhlosion and your Haunter are on your belt next to you, your Scyther is in surgery to fix part of its left blade, and your Croconaw is being X-rayed to make sure bone fragments didn't pierce its lungs when it broke a rib." She replied walking out as Ethan scrambled for his belt, releasing Quiver and Specter immediately.
"Hey guys. You need a new nickname buddy. Quiver doesn't fit you anymore." Ethan scratched Quiver's head as the fire type growled in agreement. "You have one in mind?"
Quiver nodded and licked him as Specter floated around.
"Tell Specter and he'll tell me." Ethan relaxed as the Typhlosion growled and barked at the ghost, to have it relay a name to Ethan.
'Canis.' Specter whispered the name as though somebody was listening before cackling wildly.
"Okay, you are officially renamed Canis!" Ethan proclaimed, wrapping an arm around Canis as it climbed onto the bed next to him, snuggling under the pads and heating his body much faster.
"That's much better than these stupid pads Canis, thanks buddy." Ethan remarked as he lay down, closing his eyes as his Pokémon stayed by his side, napping.
When he woke up later, he felt much better, and clipped to his belt were his other two Ultra-Balls. He woke up Canis and Specter, calling out Scyther and Croconaw as he read the clipboard left by his belt.
"Your Scyther's left blade will take around another week to heal fully, and your Croconaw is fine now. You can leave if you feel fine, just notify the front desk."
Ethan stood up, recalling his Pokémon and tying his belt around his waist as he walked out of the room slowly, making his way to the front desk and checking out as he returned to the Pokémon center to his room. He walked in and released his Pokémon, letting them all out into the room as he examined the bandages around Scyther's left blade, leaving them alone.
"Guys, Quiver is now Canis. New name. If you want a name in particular, tell Specter to tell me." Ethan instructed as Scyther turned towards the ghost, communicating.
'Blur.'
"It fits, and it suits you Blur. Croconaw, nothing in particular?" Ethan asked, turning towards the last member of the team.
Croconaw shook its head, making some weird gesture.
'He says he'll stick with the nickname you'll give him when he evolves.' Specter explained, cackling pointlessly.
"Okay, thanks for telling me that. How do you guys feel about training a bit, Scyt- I mean Blur, can get used to using only one blade and increase dexterity." Ethan asked, squatting as he faced all of his Pokémon.
There was a collection of cackles, snaps, unknown noises and barks as Ethan stood up.
"I'm taking that as a yes." He laughed, leading them out of the Pokémon center and the city to a small clearing near the edge of the woods.
"Okay, Canis, I need you to focus on learning Lava Plume. Basically you have to send out molten lava rocketing from your back like a volcano erupting. Once you can handle this, Eruption should be easy for you once you're strong enough. Try practicing on that rock over there." Ethan instructed, pointing to the huge boulder in the center of the clearing.
"Croconaw, I want you to learn ice fang. You need to make your jaws so cold that they generate ice upon impact. Practice on a tree. Blur, I need you to learn to use moves that require both blades with one blade. Use trees. Specter, we need to work on getting multiple shadow balls out in one ring so the opponent can't dodge. They don't have to be strong right now, we can work on that later. You targets, pick a tree." Ethan instructed, sitting down as his Pokémon set to work, watching them practice.
Canis was producing lava and sending it into the air, but it wasn't nearly warm enough and kept condensing into stone in midair. At least they had rock throw down.
"Canis, I know creating a high enough temperature to keep lava liquid is tough since you've only dealt with fire before, but I trust you, and I know you can do it. I don't understand you biology so I won't try to instruct you without research right now." Ethan encouraged his starter as it looked at him and blinked before getting back to work.
"Blur, you're doing well! And so are you Specter! They don't have to be strong right now, you just have to get them out fast. How about some paired work. Specter, try and hit Blur with around three. Don't worry about strength since you're just sparring, work on speed first, and slowly work on strength. Blur, being a bug type, you can defend against shadow ball with your blades. Try deflecting and dodging with one blade." Ethan instructed as his Pokémon positioned themselves opposite each other, starting the spar as Specter formed a ring of three smallish shadow balls and fired them off at Blur, who got hit by one, avoided one, and deflected one, knocking the ball back at Specter.
"Good, now both of you work on improving, Specter you don't have to get down if Blur deflects them, after all, that's what he's practicing, you just have to work on aiming correctly and timing, and them we can work on strength. Now I'm trusting you guys to stay safe while I get us all some lunch." Ethan called out, pulling his folding bike out of his bag and setting it up, cycling away.
He reached the city in a minute and rode through it, looking for a subway and entering. He locked the bike at the door, waiting in line until his turn came.
"Triple turkey, toasted flatbread, crushed jalapeno paste, and four bags of food for my Pokémon, a Typhlosion, a Croconaw, a Haunter, do they even eat by the way? And a Scyther." He finished, handing the woman money as she made his sandwich and wrapped it, handing him four bags, each one marked with the type of Pokémon and a drink, and sent him off.
He walked outside, biking back to the clearing to find everything the way he left it, Blur deflecting more than it was getting hit by now, and Specter aiming better, and firing at the same speed. He looked over at Canis, who' lava was cooling right before it hit the rock, still an improvement, and then at the area of broken trees covered in ice, Croconaw still practicing.
"Okay guys, lunch break. Croconaw, afterwards I want you to find another boulder and drag it here and practice on that for strength." Ethan called out as he handed everyone their bags, watching to see what was inside them.
Canis and Croconaw both got huge piles of sliced meat and some lettuce. Blur got mainly vegetables and some honey and bread. Haunter, well Haunter got honey. It turned out that that was the only thing Haunter's ate because they loved the sweet taste and their tongues were the only corporeal parts of their bodies.
He himself dug into his own lunch, wolfing down the sub and finishing off as he waited for everyone else to settle down before holding his hand up to get their attention.
"Okay guys, we'll have a new travelling companion soon. It'll be a Riolu, an aura Pokémon." Ethan explained as he showed them all the egg, carefully settling it away in his bag again.
"So we can all help raise him okay?" Ethan asked as they nodded in unison, lounging about for a while to digest the food before getting back to training.
"Come on guys! They gym leader won't know what hit her!" he shouted, encouraging them as the continued on, stopping at night and heading back to the Pokémon center.
…
Early the next morning…
Ethan crept out of the Pokémon center, not wanting to wake up the nurse who had dozed off after a night of no sleep. He silently walked out of the automatic doors, checking the time on his phone before opening a map to the gym.
He unlocked his bike, riding through the city to the area where the gym was supposed to be located, and sure enough, the trademark gym building was located right there. He stepped inside, locking his bike first and then entering.
Ethan had never seen so much pink in his life, and he lived with two sisters and his mother. Everything in the playground like area was pink, with the occasional white, cream or yellow highlight here and there. There were high running walls going around the playground with archways through them at points and stairs up them at points, allowing people to walk on the walls to try and get a grip on where they were.
Ethan walked straight forward, through one archway to find himself facing a yellow and pink swing set blocking his path. He gritted his teeth and lay flat against the floor, crawling under it to save time and following the path to the gym leader. He reached the end of the gym, where in a tall alcove, the same girl with pink pigtails from the day before was passed out on a huge Snorlax plushy bed. She was quiet literally reeking of alcohol, a nearby tankard proving that she was in fact, drunk.
Ethan sighed and sat down, waiting for her to wake up so that he could get his gym badge, sitting there for over an hour until an assistant finally arrived.
"Oh sorry sir, Whitney won't be up to battling for another few hours." The woman grinned sheepishly as Ethan stood up annoyed.
"In that case, reserve me the battle spot for whenever she wakes up and call me please." Ethan replied, writing his name and number on the waiting list and heading out.
He unlocked his bike, making his way out to the spot where they had been training earlier and letting all his Pokémon out.
"Okay guys, so the gym leader is drunk and she passed out, so we'll train for a while. Pretty much the same as yesterday. Canis, you're on Lava Plume, Croconaw, Ice fang, Specter, work on strength slowly while maintaining speed on some trees, and don't sacrifice aim. Blur, not dodging, but deflecting with one blade. I'm practicing boxing. My punches can't even hurt you so you're safe, and you're just defending." Ethan explained as each of the Pokémon went to find a spot in the clearing to train as Ethan and Blur paced out a little, finding a good spot to spar. He knew that in terms of reaction speed, Blur would easily win, but he was human. He was unpredictable. He needed to teach Blur how to read body language and attack or defend based off of that.
Ethan readied himself, raising his fists and lashing out all of a sudden as his fist made contact with Blur's blade, the bug type stopping his right fist, but then moving the blade down to block his left fist as he tossed that forward too, bringing his right fist up and around Blur to try and hit him.
Ethan stepped forward, feinting an attack with his right fist then pulling back to attack with his left, something Blur expected, but what Blur didn't expect was that the left was also a feint, and then he got hit in the side. It didn't even tickle. But he had been hit. It was infuriating.
Ethan smiled as he went straight back to the offensive for another few hours, Blur working furiously to counter its trainer's unpredictability. He pressed his blade against his head for a minute, trying to go through Ethan's body language during a break.
"Okay everybody, I'm going to get lunch, same as yesterday! Stay safe!" Ethan called out, biking to the same subway and handing the woman his receipt so as to get the same thing as the day before. He pressed his hand against the counter as she pressed the bags into his hands as he payed her and biked off, making for the clearing again to find all of his Pokémon sitting together in an intricate black stone like statue.
It was made up of thick, flat, rounded, wide ribbon like structures, around five of them, which curled around in different directions, creating seats for the five of them. Even Specter was trying to sit down.
"What did you guys do?" Ethan asked, setting the bags down as Canis ran over to another rock and released a lava plume into the air as it went up a short distance and crashed onto the rock, still molten and blazing hot as Canis rearranged the melting rock with his paws before Croconaw cooled it down with a water gun, releasing steam into the air.
"Brilliant! Good job Canis! And Croconaw, thanks for figuring out how to prevent us from sitting on a molten rock! Now lunch time!" he called out, handing out the bags and stretching his legs out in his seat as he ate.
"Okay guys, a little break to digest the food, and then back to training. We cannot lose to someone who had the indecency to get drunk on a working day!" Ethan called out, pulling his mask up and shutting his eyes for a few minutes, sitting there for another hour with his Pokémon before they got up, setting to work again. He pressed his hands against the stone, pushing himself to the ground and setting to work with Blur again before sitting down, exhausted, and pairing Blur and Specter up as he watched Canis and Croconaw spar.
His team was good. They were his friends. Ethan lay back, next to his bag, when he heard a cracking sound. It took a moment to realize what it was, but he figured it out, and calling out to the others, he took the egg out of his bag. He set it down carefully and watched as the egg cracked and a young, blue, wolf like Pokémon came out. A young Riolu.
"Croconaw, give him a bath, will you? And clean the egg out as well." Ethan watched as Croconaw lightly doused Riolu with water, washing him off and then proceeding to clean out the egg.
"Hi. I'm Ethan. I'm your trainer." Ethan introduced himself, holding his hands out, palms up, incase Riolu wanted to sniff them, which it did, before it climbed onto his chest and places a paw over his heart, blue energy coursing through its arm and into his body as a young boyish voice sounded in his head.
'Hi. I'm a Riolu. I don't have a name yet.' It spoke through the aura bonding it had created between itself and its new trainer as Ethan smiled.
'How about Aura?' Ethan asked as Aura nodded, climbing up to his neck and sitting down.
"This is our family. Canis, Blur, Croconaw and Specter." Ethan introduced them as they stepped forward turn by turn, Aura running up and sniffing each of them before happily accepting them as his family.
"Now I'm just going to explain a bit about this, then I'll catch you so you can't be caught by someone else, but you can stay out of your poke ball when you want to."
…
Ethan stopped watching his other Pokémon train Riolu as his phone started ringing, picking it up after looking at the unknown number.
"Hello? Who is this?" he asked, sitting there as Riolu practiced punching.
"This is Melany of the Goldenrod Gym? Is this Ethan Photon?" the woman at the other end asked.
"Yes, this is he." He replied, taking his ultra-balls off his belt and recalling his Pokémon one by one. He had Aura climb up onto his neck since he had sent Kurt the ultra-ball for coloring.
"Whitney's awake and sober now." The woman cut the line after uttering the words as Ethan closed his phone, slipping it into his pocket and getting onto his bike.
He made his way through the city, finding the gym again and taking the same path as Aura climbed onto a small swing set, enjoying itself immensely.
"Last time I saw you, you were saving our hides from a Tyranitar." Whitney remarked, proving that she was sober as she lay on the Snorlax plushy bed again.
"And last time I saw you, you were drunk and unconscious." Ethan replied, reaching for his Ultra-Balls.
"Come on out Miltank!" Whitney shouted as Ethan tossed out Croconaw, the water type raising the club it had managed to keep when it saw what it though was its steed from the other day.
"Croconaw, no holding back!" Ethan shouted as the crocodile ran forward, biting Miltank repeatedly and knocking it out.
"Okay then, Croconaw, return!" Ethan recalled the water type, worried about how weak Whitney was.
"Come on out, Tauros!" she shouted, as Ethan released Blur, the Scyther eager for a battle.
"Tip and strike!" Ethan shouted as Blur disappeared, running towards Tauros and tipping it as one would a cow, as he stabbed and slashed at its underbelly while Whitney tried to stutter commands.
"NO FAIR MEANIE!" She shouted, tossing out another Miltank, by the looks of it, her last Pokémon. "MILKY! RUN THAT BUG OVER!" She shouted as it moved into a rollout, aiming for Blur.
Blur easily avoided the attack, striking at Whitney's Pokémon, but this one was much more resilient than the others.
"Blur, Rodeo Style!" Ethan shouted as Blur whipped around Miltank and jumped onto its back as Miltank tossed it into the air, letting it fly before releasing a rock slide onto it.
"Blur! Rest a bit! You're not down, but you're at a disadvantage!" Ethan called out, recalling Blur and releasing Croconaw again.
Croconaw raised its club again, getting back onto Miltank whacking its head repeatedly until it was knocked out, raising its club in triumph as Ethan laughed hysterically.
"Good job!" he called out as Whitney threw a badge at him, which he pointedly dodged, Aura catching it and handing it to him.
"GET OUT YOU MEANIE!" she shouted, crying as Ethan stopped laughing and recalled Croconaw, picking Aura up and placing him on his neck before leaving.
"Come on buddy, these guys don't know how to lose." Ethan murmured, biking away.