Chapter 19: In the Air
A/N: I know I said I was going to get back on track in December 2019, post recovery from broken arm and other miscellaneous injuries, but I have had a few stumbling blocks along the way with dexterity. Aug 2020 update everything on track. Anyway, Tale of a Legend – Chapter 19. Enjoy, read, review – Alfa19
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"Knight, Dragon Pulse!"
The titanic Pokemon charged up energy in the blink of an eye, the greenish glow of the draconic power growing in front of its maw before the blast fired off at Haxorus.
I grabbed a hold of Knight's back and my Pokemon seemed to pick up on my idea, hauling me up with his hand and tossing me up on its back as Haxorus diverted to avoid the grossly overpowered Dragon Pulse. Knight had tapped into new reserves of power, something Haxorus could clearly tell as it wasn't about to let the stray attack fire into the trees, instead whacking it into the sky with a shining tail.
In the time it took for Haxorus to redirect the orb, the Dragonite pushed off it its haunches, shooting upwards like a bullet. I clung on for dear life as a shear wall of wind hit me, the ground shrinking into an expanse of green below me, the trees becoming indistinguishable as Knight rose higher and higher, slowing to a halt as it surveyed the ground, making sure to keep me balanced on its back.
I've never quite been afraid of heights, but in that moment, I could understand much better why some people were. The idea of falling from here and crashing to the ground below was petrifying. Even hitting the river wouldn't help me.
"But you wouldn't let me fall, now would you?" I said softly, scratching between Knight's scales in a tricky spot near his horn. The great dragon crooned in agreement; the rumbling sound much deeper but just as soft as it had been before its evolution. "You're just awesome." I smiled, looking at the ground once again.
Any trace of fear was wiped away by the sight below me. Looking at a map and then navigating the terrain below was one thing. In and of itself, I absolutely loved immersing myself in the world, so as to create and associate an image and depth with the maps I might lay out on a table. This, however, was something else entirely. It looked as though the features of the route below had been painstakingly traced and carved out of the earth, each tree groomed and set in exactly the right place, deep blue water set flowing like paint running down the canvas.
To my right was the uppermost part of Route 119. It had rained earlier in the day and for the first time since I had arrived, the sun had come out immediately after, highlighting the lush green. The rest of the route extended to my left, stretching out to the horizon and beyond. It was quiet, peaceful. Tranquil, at least until that damn bug Pokemon flew up into the air after us.
Volcarona were supposedly an endangered species in Unova, having been rare to begin with. There were few Larvesta anywhere in the region, and those few that existed were in unknown or unreachable locations.
"Knight, down!" I held on for dear life as Knight roared in assent and angled downwards, shooting towards the ground like a comet and curving up at the last possible second. The green below me panned out like a film sequence playing at a hundred times its original speed, details cropping up as the great dragon's cream underbelly brushed against the long grass.
"Never. Again." I gulped as Knight came to a standstill in one of the more open areas of the route, close enough to the river for me to see it. A small tremor ran through the earth from our landing.
"After next time." I added with a slight grin, readying myself for the incoming onslaught. "Have I already said you're awesome Knight?"
Knight crooned in the background, fists raised to mimic mine. A roar echoed in the background and I reached for my other pokeballs. Lucario, Typhlosion, Specter and Scizor, side by side ready to take on whatever came our way, my mind drifting to how we got into this whole situation.
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8 hours earlier…
Morning had come to the weather institute, and along with it, Day. Eight a.m. I gathered my pokeballs and cleaned up as quick as I could in the nearby bathroom, ready to take on my last day of training with Cassian. It had been a demanding two days, with rock climbing to get in shape, challenges of all sorts with individual Pokemon training, battles, tag teaming and general lessons on strategy. I honestly couldn't wait to put some of it into practice the next time I got into a serious non-training battle. The profiles I'd read were another thing entirely, a small glimpse into the lives of some of the best trainers around. I'd had the chance to read about insanely talented trainers in the indexes Steven had given me to read on the way to Hoenn, but seeing things like statistics with regards to officiated battles, and seeing recordings of their battles, training sessions, interviews, it lent everything a new significance, a weight that I had just begun to understand.
A quick cursory glance to check my pokeballs were on my belt, a granola bar and a bottle of milk to down in a hurry, and I was on my way out to the lounge. When I got there the room was empty, no files on display. I looked around, making sure nothing was waiting and that I hadn't missed anything before heading upstairs to check if Cassian was at his desk.
The weather institute workspace had about a third of its scientists on hand right now in the pale light of morning. Sure enough, Cassian was sitting by his desk, looking at something or the other and talking to someone about it. I started towards his desk, stopping at a nearby empty one and standing quietly, not wanting to interrupt the work. It had to be important if Cassian wasn't in the lounge in the morning.
"Ethan, perfect. I'm a tad busy today, so I'm handing you off to a friend for your last day of training, but I'll be by in the evening to evaluate what you've managed to get done while you're here. Then it's probably best if you head off to Fortree by five." Cassian turned towards me, gesturing towards his desk and the plethora of tabs open on his screen with a frown.
"Anyhow, I'd like you to meet another foreigner to our lovely Hoenn region." Cassian's frown turned into a small smile as he gestured towards the black-haired man leaning over the edge of Cassian's cubicle.
"Ben Day. Nice to meet you." He stood up, messy black hair framing a pale narrow face and sparkling blue eyes. He reached his hand out with a grin, moving around the edge of the cubicle to meet me.
"Ethan Photon." I accepted the handshake, trying to hide my shock behind a stoic face.
"So this is the kid Steven had you working on huh?" Day grinned at Cassian. "Seems sharp enough. Ever been to Unova?"
"Briefly." I answered, folding my arms and waiting.
"Alright. Let's see what you're made off. We'll spend most of the day in training after I see your Pokemon." He gestured towards the stairs with a flourish, his grin never fading.
Without comment I headed downstairs and out the doors of the Institute, making my way towards the bridge, assuming a battle or some show of my prowess was in order. Boy I couldn't have been anymore wrong.
"Here will be fine!" Ben called out from right in front of the building. Raising one eyebrow, I started plucking pokeballs off my belt and releasing my team one by one. Typhlosion, Scizor, Specter, Lucario, Knight, Samurott. A loud clap echoed through the air as the last of the six materialized.
"Fantastic! My oldest Pokemon is my Samurott! My starter Pokemon actually! So those two can spend the day together training on their own!" He grinned even wider as he stared at me.
"What about the rest of them?" I asked, nodding towards Samurott, who happily headed off to the river with Ben's Pokemon as it was released. The other Samurott looked older. Not old enough to seem ancient, but much more experience. Its skin was slightly darker, and its shells had some marks, but were still shining, cared for impeccably.
"Well, the rest of us are going to play a game. You have free reign to recall or release your Pokemon as you wish. I'll only use three at a time. Simple really." His grin grew just a little wider, a little unsettling. A mix of charismatic and chaotic. Just a tad predatory.
"We hunt you."
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"Let's do this guys!" My smile widened as the roar sounded again. He clearly knew where I was, which meant he was just evaluating his options. From far above, the roar sounded again, accompanied by two sharper roars. The world shook for just a moment as a black blotch appeared in the sky, finally near enough for me to see, rocketing towards us with unbelievable speed.
"Lugia help us." The three headed beast arced down the ground, flying at our level straight for us.
From the other side the thundering footsteps of Haxorus appeared in my line of sight, Volcarona following in and trapping us. A fourth set of thundering footsteps, this time slow and steady, shifted my attention to my left, a small groan escaping my lips. The trio of Pokemon were simply circling us as their trainer approached, seated on the shoulder of a titanic Golurk, the Unovan Automaton Pokemon. His blue eyes started out from under a few strands of hair hanging over the front of his face.
"You gave us a good day's chase, but it's over now kid." He grinned down from on top of his Pokemon. "Haxorus! Hydreigon! Volcarona! Take him down!"
"Double team them! Lucario, Scizor, Hydreigon! Knight, Specter, Haxorus! Typhlosion, Volcarona!" I barked my orders out, slowly trying to find a way out of the chaos before resigning myself to staying in the center. To one side, Knight and Haxorus were locked in another tangle of muscle. Not a second later the mighty tail of the landbound dragon slammed into Knight and threw it to one side, swiveling around to lash out at Specter.
"Keep phasing in and out Specter! Knight, back him with everything but thunderbolt!" I called out, looking to my right. Typhlosion was faring slightly better against the ancient bug type it called a foe, trading blows with it and trying to dodge everything. As the oldest member of the team, Typhlosion had taken Samurott under its wing, so to speak. I frowned as it occurred to me that I ought to try and understand what exactly their relationship was after Professor Elm had been forced to reclaim Feraligatr. With the different situation, Typhlosion was firing on all cylinders as opposed to guiding taking it easy on the younger Pokemon.
A low roar distracted me from the battle as Samurott came over as fast as it could from the river, ready to join the fight as I shouted with a grin. Samurott's water attacks weren't powerful enough to completely wipe out the corona of flames and heat Volcarona would summon in its defense, but they were enough to make openings for Typhlosion to physically attack Volcarona, even with fire while exploiting its opponent's bug typing. They even managed to deal some small amounts of damage on the way, and leave windows for the occasional Razor Shell or Aqua Tail.
To the other side was perhaps the most chaotic battle. Yes, Haxorus and Knight were fighting, two immensely powerful species in their own right irrelevant of their training, but Haxorus was much more efficient. While it was unlikely that Hydreigon didn't have its finesse under its trainer, it would seem that it had free reign for this battle to just attack.
In theory, Hydreigon's three heads are capable of using separate attacks at the same time. Part of it is genetics. The reason the Hydreigon line tended to be chaotic was the fact that its three brains function separately, as three individual entities, as opposed to three parts of one entity. A properly (read: impossibly well) trained Hydreigon could learn to think that way and utilize the fact that it has three separate brains. I shuddered just thinking about it.
A normal Hydreigon however is still very much capable of using the fact that it has three heads, by having all three heads use the same attack, simply because they all hear the order to attack if its loud enough. This is what was happening right now. I suspect this Hydreigon was smarter than it was coming across but holding back just a bit. Triple dragon pulses were firing out of its three mouths, alternating with flamethrowers and ice beams, trying to take down Lucario and Scizor.
"Don't waste time with ranged attacks. Get up close and personal. Face to face!" I called out, hoping Lucario and Scizor would understand what I was saying without giving the entire plan up.
To my immense relief, Scizor was up and at it with Fury cutter, dancing around Hydreigon's three heads with as much caution as it could. Lucario followed suit, alternating between Bullet Punch and flurries of Aura Spheres. Blue and red danced around the dark body of Hydreigon, trading blows with the beastly dragon. For all of their efforts Hydreigon was displaying amazing coordination. Each head was fighting to defend itself without interfering with the others fight like an inexperienced Hydreigon might.
Lucario danced around Hydreigon's back, teasing the rightmost head, almost daring it to attack. It snarled at the fighting type, twisting to attack Lucario as the other two heads ganged up on Scizor. The steel type had been dancing to its own beat, trying to avoid the shots of one head and attack it too, but two were harder to deal with. Especially given one of them was the primary head.
All of a sudden Scizor stopped in the open area before the other two heads, overcharging a signal beam to take on the two heads together. I bit my lip as the duo of heads snarled in unison, preparing twin dragon pulses trained on Scizor. A blue blur leaped over the top of Hydreigon, trailed by a flash of light as Hydreigon's third head fired off a dragon pulse at Lucario.
A small laugh escaped my lips as the head's shot sailed straight towards its target. Lucario had picked up on my hint as one dragon pulse crashed into the other two, backfiring in their creator's faces.
"Fantastic!"
"You know what, let's call that spar as evidence enough of your training. I'm done for the day. Hydreigon! Haxorus! Volcarona! Back!" Ben called out, Hydreigon and Volcarona returning to Pokeballs as he jumped from Golurk's back onto Haxorus. The dragon type brought its neck down low to catch its trainer. The pale skinned trainer smiled and scratched Haxorus between its scales, the great Pokemon arching its back.
"Seriously? We're just calling it here? In the middle of the fight?" I asked, crossing my arms with a frown as my Pokemon mingled between themselves.
"Well. You picked up the lesson I was trying to give you. Analyze and exploit. I'm not wasting much more of my time. You're a good kid," Ben shrugged, "But I have a life… and a date."
"Oh. Right." I shrugged, recalling my team and following Ben over to the institute. The vast majority of the trek across the plain landscape passed in silence. I didn't mind. People praised Hoenn for its lush wilderness and the variety it had, and honestly, it was justified. Johto was its own kind of amazing, but it was easily fitted into a box. Old, rustic, classical. Plain by some standards. The vast majority of Johto's routes passed through the same kind of terrain, or at least feel the same to traverse. The western seaboard even managed to fit into the same box. Maybe only the North Eastern corner of Blackthorn and the Lake of Rage might have felt different.
Hoenn, was just… exotic. Exciting, new, wild, unpredictable. There was something about the expanse of its territory and the feel of it all. The southwest had its quiet little corner with Petalburg, Oldale and Littleroot. I'd been told the Southern waterways had a completely different feeling than where I was headed to, the Eastern Seas. Narrower, closed off on one side by jagged bluffs and rock growth, and sandy beaches and islands on the other. The Eastern Sea was a relatively open but decently guided expanse above Sootopolis, which was its own haven, leading to Mossdeep. The South East Oceans were vast open expanses with trenches famous for diving. Then there were Rustboro, Fallarbor, Lavaridge, Mount Chimney, and the desert. Mauville had another feeling, then the eastern side of Hoenn began and now I stood here.
"Ben, do you mind if I ask you a question?" I broke the silence some ways off from the institute, wanting to ask before we reached in case something came up.
"You can ask me anything. Whether I answer is a different game." Day flashed me a grin as he kept walking.
"Why'd you join the Legion Corps?" I blurted out, turning to face him as he slowed for a moment. Without warning he picked up his pace, leaving me behind. I looked at my feet as I lagged behind, figuring I wasn't about to get an answer.
"You're what, seventeen?" He asked a few moments later. "I was a few years older than you were during the war. It hit me a lot harder than it would have hit you. Unova needed stability. I didn't want to be weak anymore."
I stayed silent as we kept walking, catching up to Ben a little bit. He laughed after he spoke, but it was hollow.
"Sorry for asking." I said quietly.
"It's fine. It's not all its chalked up to be, but it's still a decent road. It can be lonely. You work with a team for a while, but there's no guarantee you'll wind up sticking with them, especially if you make it far. I mean look at me. For some reason I'm out here in Hoenn instead of where I wanted to be." He smiled wryly as we approached the building.
One quick detour to the healing machine, and I returned to the lounge, which was more occupied than I'd seen it since I'd arrived, including a few familiar faces. Cassian was standing by a raised workstation, the mains screen in the room littered with data and maps. Lounging around on the couch was a slim brunette, twirling her hair around a finger, and a built, brown haired guy with lightly tanned skin and green eyes.
"Aliana Reynolds and Aaron Ross." I remarked, "Well I'll be damned. It's been a while."
"Ethan Photon! Damn! It's been a while since Olivine. How've you been?" Aaron stood up, greeting me with a friendly clap on the back, though with his strength it almost made me stumble.
"Got caught in the whole mess in Olivine later, escaped, came here. Been journeying a bunch. The usual." I shrugged and grinned, turning to Aliana.
"Good to see you again kid." She remarked with a small smile as Cassian raised an eyebrow, turning towards the last person already in the room. I blinked as an almost carbon copy of Aliana stared up at me from the other couch, only this one had black hair.
"Vanessa Reynolds." She extended a hand which I shook in greeting.
"Ethan Photon."
"Alright, Ethan, if Ben's brought you back here, you're free to go. Fortree isn't far from here, due North on the Eastern side of the falls. Pretty easy going compared to out here." Cassian briefed me, turning towards the Ace trainers in the room. "Let's get Ben caught up, prepare and head out within the hour."
"It's been a productive few days kid." Cassian extended a hand towards me in farewell. "See you around somewhere."
"Thanks Cassian. Good luck." I nodded to everyone in the room and headed out, collecting my things from where I was keeping them in the trainer rest area and heading back out into the fresh air. With a slight grin on my face I pulled my collapsible bike out of my bag and set it up, heading across the bridge and turning North for Fortree.
The river and the falls disappeared behind the tree-line on my left as I ascended the slight slope, making towards the wall of trees I could see in the distance. A few trainers were milling about around the area as I neared it, but nobody wanted to bother with trying to stop a biking trainer as I sailed through the wide road north. The trees on either side of me kept getting taller until by the time I reached the wall in front of me I had to crane my neck and stare upwards at the sky to see their tops.
Slowing down I followed the turn in the road to the right and almost immediately a Pokemon center sprang into view, sheltered in an alcove in the trees. The area itself seemed small. There wasn't much else but another house to my right and some wires and pylons.
"What the…" I frowned, getting off my bike and putting it away as I looked around. this couldn't have been the entirety of the town. A rattling noise caught my attention and I followed it, looking up as my eyes widened. It hadn't been wires and pylon I'd seen. It had been pillars and rope and plank bridges. The trees of the area played host to platforms made of logs and wooden houses built higher up on the trees where there was enough room to build around their gargantuan trunks. Bridges linked the platforms, just like the one above my head, where a young child was running across laughing.
"Darkrai's bloody hell. This is amazing." I gaped as the rest of the city came into focus now that I knew what to look for spreading out ahead of me in the trees.
Slowly coming back to reality, I adjusted my pack and headed towards a staircase made of planks to my right, climbing up to a small house and a platform with connected to the bridge I'd seen earlier. The entire bridge seemed steady, but with just enough give in the planks to produce a satisfying – albeit slightly unnerving – rattle as you walked across. Swallowing, I stepped onto it and started crossing, picking up speed as the sensation of walking on this two-person wide bridge settled in and I could focus more on the fact that I was actually going somewhere.
The other end of the bridge was a platform near the Pokemon center, one in a strip of many going far off to the East. People were milling about, kids playing and running around the two or three steps bridges that connected the many platforms. Townspeople milled about what seemed to be stores, going about their days.
I walked up to what looked like the post office, ducking inside and looking around for somebody who wasn't busy. Spotting a clerk, I walked up to him quickly.
"Hi, could you tell me how to get to Winona's gym?" I asked politely.
"Absolutely!" The man raised his arms in the air, gesturing out the door. "Five platforms down that way and then descend! Have a fantastic day!"
"Thanks, you too!" I smiled and walked out, making my way across the platforms until I reached the fifth, looking around. Sure enough, nestled in a large clearing – and taking up most of it – was a large building that looked like it could house a gym or six.
I made my way down the steps into the clearing and to the door of the gym, pushing it open to a cacophony of sounds from everywhere. The building was indeed spacious, even for a gym. A vast open space was dominated by bars and beams, and narrow walls and ledges. Flying type Pokemon, some with trainers, some without, flew all around, gusts of wind sending bars swiveling and changing the path ahead of them.
Pokemon of all sizes wove in and out of the maze of bars and walls, some with hesitation, clipping things occasionally, and others with a thoughtless grace that made their flight hard to follow with how they twisted and turned. The gym was an avian playground.
I turned around as someone coughed behind me to see the clerk waiting for me to say something. Green Hoenn League suit, brown hair. Just like almost every other Hoenn desk clerk. Similar to the effect of the infamous Nurse Joy Conspiracy of 1982, I was hard pressed to find a difference between them.
"Hi, sorry, I'm not here to challenge the gym. I was sent here to talk to Winona about flight training." I explained, scratching the back of my head just a tad awkwardly as the man diligently typed away at his station.
"Alright, name?" He asked without looking up.
"Ethan Photon."
"And who sent you to Winona?"
"Steven Stone." Finally, the man seemed to skip a beat, pausing and looking hard at my face before returning to his computer. A minute passed, then another and a few more as I waited for him to tell me what to do.
At last, he stopped typing and pointed to the narrow pathway ahead of me, instead of the left wing where the obstacles were.
"Follow it all the way to the top. Stay on the ground." He instructed, returning to his desk work as I headed over.
One of those Pokemon movable bars blocked my path, but I simply ducked under it, starting down the decently long trek to the other side of the building. Something like a third of a mile stretched out in front of me, just straight floor with a slight upwards slant. I kept on, walking the entire way without any of my Pokemon out, unsure why there was the instruction to stay on the ground.
A light chill swept down the alley as I walked, clutching my arms with a shiver. I looked up to see if I could find the source. Supposedly, Skyla, the Unovan flying gym leader, had human launching canons and wind tunnels in her gym. For all I knew there was something similar here. I couldn't have been farther off.
Rocketing towards me was a blue and white Pokemon with wings that looked like a cluster of clouds. It preened as it soared down the straight, and in that moment, I understood what the instruction meant as I dove and lay flat on the ground, waiting for it to approach. With another preening noise it blasted over me, the wind dragging me back a few feet. I stood back up and looked over my shoulder as the avian breezed past the bar and took a sharp turn back to the rest of the jungle gym like maze, a timer on the wall displaying its time, as well as a leaderboard for the day.
Brushing off some dust, I proceeded down the straight, making it to the end before another Pokemon took on the straight. The end (or rather the beginning) of the alley opened into a wide-open area where Pokemon could take a wide turn from wherever they approached and still have room to pick up speed before taking on the alley. The floor was marked with the lines of a battleground, although the vaulted ceiling gave a better idea of how Winona would fight, given her chosen typing.
Standing off to one side of the battleground was the gym leader herself, a young woman with skin pale from being constantly wrapped her light blue flight suit and long lavender hair to match her eyes. She was standing over another Pokemon foreign to me, examining its wings and keeping its attention as a machine scanned it with lasers and sensors. I wandered over to where she was standing, waiting until she was done, watching the process going on. The machine seemed to be developing a model of the Pokemon, with particular detail around its wide red wings and flattish blue torso.
"Hi, Winona?" I extended a hand in greeting as the gym leader turned around to look at me. "My name's Ethan. Steven sent me here."
"So, you're the apprentice." She shook my hand with a smile, turning back to the dragon in front of the machine for a moment. "I take it your Pokemon is ready for flight then?"
"Yeah, we may have had one or two impromptu flights while training on the way here." I scratched the back of my head and grinned sheepishly, turning to the machine as a layer of tinted glass rose around the Pokemon, Winona calming it the entire time.
My jaw sank a tiny bit as lasers flashed inside the tank in bursts, creating an aurora of sorts for a few minutes before they died down and the tank walls sank back into the ground, revealing a leather harness or saddle of sorts on the Pokémon's back.
"Alright Salamence, you can come out now." Winona brought the Pokemon forward, one hand scratching under its jaw. "Ethan, do you want to release your Pokemon so we can fit it with a saddle."
"Oh right. Knight!" I tossed the pokeball up in the air for the effect of the colossal Pokemon forming top down on the battle field. Orange scales, cream underbelly and bluish green wings unfurled, Knight materialized with a friendly wave and a look around the area.
"Ooh, he's beautiful!" Winona gushed, reached over and running a hand across the Dragonite's underbelly. Knight crooned in response, reaching down and petting Winona on the head lightly. I clamped one hand over my mouth as the gym leader looked up at Knight's face and laughed.
"Come on, let's get you both fitted." She smiled, walking over to the scanner.
"Come on Knight, listen to Winona. She's going to teach us how to fly properly!" I scratched between some scaled before patting Knight on the back and sending him off to the scanning area.
"Salamence, keep Dragonite company." Winona instructed the blue dragon that had previously been using the saddle maker, and now sat idly by it. The beast seemed happy with the idea of another dragon, albeit it looked like it was sizing Knight up with a gleam in its eye.
"Where are we going?" I asked, walking with Winona to a row of smaller scanners a bit further down.
"Fitting you with a flight suit. You can always fly in regular clothes, but you can imagine how a loose t-shirt isn't conducive to a comfortable flight." She looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
"Of course." I frowned, stepping into a scanner at her instruction.
"Fortunately, with people it's only sizing as opposed to shape with different species of Pokemon, so we don't need to print a suit onto you." She laughed, "Steven sent me the layers for a standard Devon Aeronautical suit. It'll just get cut to size and put together, then you can change into it."
I nodded as the scanner ran across me at different angles, all sorts of sensors examining me in the open space.
"So how does the saddle thing work with battles anyway?" I asked as I finally stepped out of the scanner.
"Oh, well, pokeballs incorporate those now, so you double tap the release switch you're your Pokémon's out and it releases the saddle onto it, fitted and all. Pretty easy. Double tap to return it too." She walked me over to a bunch of changing rooms, gesturing to the one marked three. "Your suit should be ready and in there."
I headed in with a nod, picking up the suit that was on the rack. It looked quite like a compression suit, with a different weave. No doubt it had other properties, but I wasn't aware of those with sealable pockets and long boots. Black with ivory and red accents, and a Devon Aeronautical Logo on the chest. A bold DA at a slant with a wind coming out the left of the D.
I slipped into the pants, which weren't as compressive as I had expected, and the plain black hard-soled long boots, fitting the jacket over my red t-shirt. Tossing my clothes into my bag and picking up the cap, goggles and mask attachment and headed back out into the gym.
"Looks decent on you. You shouldn't need the breathing mask right now, not in here. And given your hair isn't long I don't think you need the cap either. There're lockers over to that side. Meet me back at the machine." She pointed to the corner of the room.
"Thanks." I headed over there quickly, putting away everything and slotting my minimized pokeballs into the sealed belt type pockets around the waist of the suit. I slipped the goggles over my forehead and headed back over to the machine where Knight was lumbering about outside, playing with the Salamence. Fitted to Knight's back was a dark brown, leather saddle with all sorts of straps and fittings, presumably for me to secure myself to.
Another figure stepped out from around Salamence, wearing a deep green and black flight suit. I paused for a second mid step as she turned around blond ponytail over one shoulder as she caught my eye.
"Blake! Hey!" I called out, catching myself and walking over towards her. Her expression wavered for a second, to something I couldn't quite place, before it settled on a warm smile as she reached out and hugged me.
My breath caught for another second at the contact as I instinctually responded, letting go when she did.
"I thought you only had two Pokemon?" I asked, my eyes flitting to the Salamence with its head under her hand.
"Oh, Salamence, or rather, Shelgon at the time, was with Clara when I came to Johto. She was unwell." Blake explained, smiling and scratching Salamence under its neck. "But she's all better now, and ready to take on the skies."
"You two know each other?" Winona asked us with a glance between the two of us.
"Yep." She responded, turning back to Winona.
"Well then you two can be training partners. It's always good to work in pairs here." Winona smiled wryly. "Mount your dragons now. The lowest straps go around your boots, the next set around your thighs. The upper straps you'll use at higher speeds and altitudes, for shoulders and arms, where you'll be lying flat on your stomach. That's how we'll be working today."
I nodded and climbed onto Knight's lowered back, strapping myself in. I found myself in a mildly amusing position, given if Knight were to stand up normally instead of at an angle, I would look like I was hugging the dragon's back, trying to hang on.
"Alright. You're going to use your hands and the motion of your body to try and guide your Pokemon, hands around the neck or shoulder area. Commands get lost in the wind easy. They're more sensitive than you think to these types of gestures." Winona pulled out a pokeball of her own, releasing the same blue and white Pokemon with cloud wings that had flown down the straight earlier.
Up close I could see it better. It looked like a bird, with its beak and body structure, but its tail split into many ribbon-like feathers, and its wings and a cover of its chest were made of a cloud like substance.
"Come on Altaria, lets show them how it's done!" Winona mounted her Pokemon gracefully as it cooed, taking to the air. Hovering in place for a second, Winona laid flat against Altaria's back, hands wrapped through her saddle's harness and resting just above the crook of Altaria's wings.
I watched carefully as Winona leaned forward slightly, hands shifting ever so slightly as Altaria began forward, careening down the straight as it had earlier. The gym leader kept her position as the flying type neared the end, raising herself ever so slightly as Altaria turned upwards, pulling a tight loop and flying upside down back over the straight, righting itself when it reached us with a twist.
"Well then." I swallowed with just a little apprehension as Winona and Altaria stopped in place, the gym leader remaining atop her Pokemon.
"Come on now, take a shot at the straight."
"Alright." Blake turned from next to me and sauntered over to Salamence, swaying her hips ever so slightly as she walked.
Climbing onto the blue dragon, she settled into a lying position comfortably, although with a little bit of tension visible in her shoulders as Salamence shifted its footing, clearly ready to fly. Everything in the room stilled for a moment as Salamence let out a low, stretched out, guttural rumble.
Without warning, the dragon took to the air like a missile, hurtling down the alley with its wings unfurled and its tail out behind it. Salamence's evolutionary line was infamous for three things. Firstly, only a Hydreigon could outstrip a Salamence's short fuse, and its rage. Salamence was a surprisingly intelligent species given the way they grew up, and their rages tended to be more like furies – intelligent, and cold at times. People said Salamence were uncontrollable when enraged. Effectively correct, but technically wrong. Salamence were in control of themselves unless pushed to the utter extreme. But they bowed to no one.
Secondly, their sheer destructive power, even amongst dragons only rivalled by Hydreigon. People tend to debate which is worse, the chaos a Hydreigon can cause with its three heads and indecision, or the prospect of a fully in control Salamence trying to destroy you. I don't have an opinion as of yet.
The last, and in this case, most relevant thing, is their innate desire to fly. Young Bagon, when seen in the wild, can be found staring at avian Pokemon or the occasional plane with longing, and often jumping off of cliffs and bluffs in naïve attempts to fly. This led to the species evolving to develop a skull and head harder than steel or bone, easily powerful enough to destroy boulders. Salamence, at its pinnacle, achieves the ability to fly, and becomes a master of the skies, an unstoppable force in the air. Aerodynamic, savage, intelligent, and an unstoppable powerhouse. Blink and you miss it. Which is exactly what happened.
"What the-!" I exclaimed as Salamence slowed down inconceivably quickly at the other end of the alley, before banking wide and rocketing back towards us.
"Fantastic! You can fly in a straight line!" Winona clapped. I turned towards her, bewildered at how she went from mild mannered to sarcastic so fast before she added "You'd be surprised how many people can't do that. Your turn Ethan."
"Let's do this." A grin formed on my face as Knight moved in front of the alley, lowering itself on its powerful haunches. I leaned into the saddle, hugging it close, goggles down and eyes on the path.
'Three, two, one.' I pressed my hands into Knight's back lightly and the great dragon shot off into the air, staying low and picking up speed blisteringly fast. I leaned back off the saddle a bit and pressed in a tad with my legs as we approached the end and Knight took the cue, slowing down.
An idea overrode my actions as I was about to try banking right and I lifted both hands just off of Knight's back, maintaining my leaned back position. Butterfree fluttered about my stomach as once again, Knight read my cue accurately, something I attributed to our understanding of each other training together, and curved upwards at the same slow pace, having crossed the end of the alley, until I was facing the roof, still flat against the saddle.
Without wasting any time, I leaned into Knight again, hands touching scales as we rocketed down the straight inverted as Winona had done it.
"YEAAAAH!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as we shot back into the open space in the back, slowing ourselves and correcting our orientation before landing.
"Well, well, well, someone's out to impress." Winona crossed her arms and smiled as I settled down, patting Knight on the back.
"Alright, basically now, we'll be running drills and taking on the rest of the gym as a flight course. Take the twists and turns. A bar will turn if your Pokemon pushes it, so don't stop flying if you're about to hit one. For now, focus less on the part of not hitting bars and more on the making the turns and getting through the course without messing up terribly part of it." Winona explained, turning towards the course entrance. "I'll lead you two off on a lap, and then you'll keep going."
I nodded and readied myself, Knight rising into the air behind Altaria. The blue and white dragon type took off towards an entrance to the maze of crossbars and walls, veering left into an opening. I followed suit, pressing slightly with my left hand and leaning left, relying on both to convey to Knight that we needed to turn. Knight caught on, understanding the idea that for now we needed to learn to work together, especially given how knew its wings were to it as compared to how flight worked as a Dragonair.
"On the wider side." I murmured to myself as I kept up with following Winona at a reasonable pace. Diving meant leaning in, and pressing my hands, legs tightening a bit. Rising meant leaning back, hands off and legs looser. Slowing was leaning back with tighter legs. Speeding up was Diving without the legs. Turning was biasing to one side. For the most part, the not-so-fast paced lap of the course went decently, a few clipped bars here and there, but nothing note-worthy. We approached an exit, emerging where we started, and Winona slowed down, rising above us to give us space.
"So far so good but think about how you might execute a roll without turning, how you want to convey that to your Pokemon. And of course, try and understand what you're doing, because it'll help you if you and your partner in the air understand what you're communicating so your reaction time is better." Winona instructed us.
"I'll be monitoring your times and progress from the main ground. Come over when you feel comfortable with what we're doing. Stay below all the bars for now, we'll take on slaloming afterwards."
I grinned and gave Winona a springy salute, turning to see Blake ahead of me in the curve. I followed suit, taking Knight into a dive after her and following behind her as we flew under all the bars, navigating the course. Flying closer to the ground I could see the shock absorbent padding on the walls and the floor of the main maze.
A dozen laps passed in a blur, from becoming more comfortable with the sensation of being on Knight, to making my own movements and reactions more fluid so as to help Knight.
'So, body follows body and wings follow hands.' I thought to myself as I approached my next laps, heading down a short straight. Deciding to try it, I pressed my left hand into Knight's back, nothing else, and held on as Knight responded by angling his wings and twisting in the air, performing a roll until we were upright again.
"Perfect." I kept an eye out until we made our way to another reasonable straight, picking up ideas for the next trick right again. I pressed my hand into Knight's back again, trying for another roll dangerously close to the corner.
The whole world tilted in my eyes, as though everything was liquid sloshing sideways in a container. Knight rolled anti-clockwise, bringing us upside down and ascending again on the right when I started to adjust, pressing both hands in and leaning forward, the motion for a dive, but in the knife-edge vertical position we were flying it brought us into a dive, or a turn.
"Yes!" I grinned as we pulled out and into the main ground behind Blake, stopping to take a rest. "You've been awesome Knight, let's take a break before we get back on it." I smiled, scratching the dragon between scales as it crooned before letting it roam about.
I walked over to where Blake had dismounted Salamence and was talking to it. With another word she sent it off to follow Knight, turning to face me.
"I'm feeling pretty good about this. How about you?" She brushed a strand of her blond hair out of her face and tucked it over her ear, leaving me looking straight at her blue eyes.
"So am I, I mean you looked pretty good out there." I replied hurriedly with a weak smile as she raised an eyebrow and smiled coyly.
"I did, did I? Let's head over to Winona." With that she turned and headed over to the gym leader on the far side, purposefully exaggerating the sway of her slim hips.
"Huh." Shaking myself out of my stupor I hurried to catch up, going over to where Winona was talking animatedly to someone.
The man cut an imposing figure, a solid three inches taller than me at six three and built. Wearing old jeans held up by a thick leather belt, the man's black Ever Grand Navy overcoat covered most of his upper body, open across his chest. The gold trim stood out against everything else, matching that on his white sailor's cap, and going down to the start of his black boots. A thick white mustache dominated his tanned face, completing the rough, stern look of the man.
"Oh, Blake, Ethan, this is Drake, Leader of the Hoenn Elite Four and the Chief of the Ever Grande Navy." Winona introduced us with a smile, switching from her previous conversation seamlessly.
"Drake, this is Blake Wilson, Steven's fiancée's sister, that's her Salamence," Winona gestured over to the blue dragon, the old sailor's eyes flitting over to it in interest, "and this is Ethan Photon-"
"Steven's apprentice." Drake completed, sizing me up before extending a rough, calloused hand by way of greeting.
Doing my best to maintain my composure, I took ahold of it and shook it firmly, locking eyes with the man. Stormy grey met gold for a moment, and I understood why he was so feared and revered as he looked at me. This wasn't some random sailor with a strong team. This was a strategist, and leader, powerful enough to decimate armies and lead his region. Before Steven became Champion, he had been in charge of Hoenn.
"I've heard about you kid. Steven's first apprentice…" His deep voice was gruff as he looked at me and Knight, who had lumbered over and extended a hand in greeting. The old sailor's lips turned up ever so slightly as he shook the Dragonite's hand, making the Pokemon smile.
"The last apprentice to a Hoenn Champion became Indigo's Champion. Think you can measure up?" Once again, his eyes locked onto mine, waiting for my response.
"I'll be damned if I don't try." I was determined not to falter in front of this man, to show that I was worth the opportunity I had been given.
"That's the spirit." Drake finally cracked a smile, laughing. "Well you already know three of the Pokemon Lance will use. Damn idiot refuses to think about why he shouldn't have three Dragonite in one battling team."
"Hey, why don't you guys break for some dinner and rest, and we can take on slaloming later?" Winona suggested, turning to look at us.
"Sounds good. Ethan?" Blake turned towards me as well, waiting patiently.
"Do you want to head out together Blake?" I asked, taking my chances.
"That sounds nice." She smiled, heading over to the lockers after recalling Salamence.
I recalled Knight with another pat on the back and hurried over, unzipping my jacket and checking to make sure I still had my locker key.
"So, how've you been since I last saw you?" Blake asked, taking her goggles off her forehead as I caught up to her on the way to the door.
"It's been an adventure since I left Mossdeep. Anything and everything. How have you been?" I replied, shrugging and smiling as we made our way onto the main bridge.
"It's been decent. Work, Clara and Steven planning the wedding, Victoria starting a summer romance." Blake gestured noncommittally, "There's a nice café some ways east, let's head there."
"Huh – alright." I caught myself, thrown off guard by Blake's comment. I wasn't sure what to make of it, thinking back to my time in Mossdeep. Choosing to forget about it for now, I followed Blake along the walkway to the café, a quaint little place looking out over the treetops, where we found a table for two quickly enough. Looking out the wide window we could see the sun setting, the wooden city above the treetops lit up by fairy lights and lanterns strung between houses.
"Romantic huh?" Blake remarked with a slight smile.
"Quite." I replied, sitting back and looking her in the eyes.
"So, tell me what kind of an adventure it's been." Blake asked, leaning forward with one hand under her chin and the other on the table, putting down the menu after we ordered. I stopped for a second, processing her earlier statements and trying to make sense of them in context before I spoke.
"Pretty much my first stop was Norman's gym in Petalburg. I've known his family a long time, since I was a kid, so it was an interesting battle. I'd been looking forward to taking him on as the Goldenrod Gym Leader in Johto before they moved here. I caught them in Goldenrod a few weeks after his term ended." I leaned forward a bit as well, deciding to roll with it.
Admittedly it stung a bit that Victoria had already gone off in a relationship. I thought we'd honestly hit it off pretty well, but I guess it just wasn't there.
"Met a group of Ace Trainers, proceeded to get into an altercation with Team Magma on the cycling road and woke up post explosion inside New Mauville, the underground power plant and management facility for the city. Except it's abandoned most of the time to run on its own. And locked. From the outside." I smirked mentally as Blake's eyes widened.
"What even happened in there? How did you get out?" She asked as sandwiches arrived, interrupting our conversation.
"Oh, I may have shut the generators down." I chuckled. "Got Watson to come and open the place up and find me."
"Really?" Blake leaned forward a bit further as I looked around. I leaned in closer after making sure no one was prying before I continued speaking.
"Somehow, one of the legendary beasts of Johto was there. Raikou."
"No." She stopped, staring at me.
"Yes. I was there during the recent upheaval at the Tin Tower in Johto, the supposed resting place of the three beats. They woke. I can't even begin to describe it. I wound up as a witness for Lance and Steven to this whole thing." I continued in a low voice. "It's kind of insane."
"There wouldn't have happened to have been some spatial or gravitational anomaly of sorts there would there?" Blake asked, her eyes focusing as though she was solving equations.
"Wha-yes. How did you know?" I asked, straightening my back.
"Aerospace Hoenn is the Ever-Grand League's branch dealing with all matters related to science. The Devon Corporation, while closely related to our champion and currently in the League's good books, is still private. That's why Mr. Stone, Steven's father hasn't retired yet – other than that he wants to keep working." Blake frowned. "This was recently yes?"
"Yeah, I was in Mauville a week or so ago." I replied, waiting for her to speak again.
"I drop by the Physics division sometimes. We picked up the anomaly, as well as one with a vastly different reading in Mossdeep when you were there. I imagine the clearance is only to those at the highest level. Watson would have debriefed the League. I'm honestly unsure about whether Steven will talk to you about it." She leaned back, crossing her arms. "Wow."
"Tell me about crazy." I sighed, putting my arms behind my head. For the first time, I noticed the AH logo on the breast of her jacket – the Aerospace Hoenn symbol. "So, what do you do mainly at work then."
Blake's thoughtful look was quickly replaced by sparkling eyes and a smile as she sat forward again. "I work in the aerospace division, in craft design. Rocket science. Right now, we're working on a new explorer to try and reach the moon. It's quite the challenge, but Hoenn wants to be the first region with a flag up there. Part of the issue with getting up there is understanding the potential threats on the moon. I mean as far as see it its void of life, but who knows what we might find if we touch down."
"That's really awesome." I smiled, leaning forward again.
"Shall we head back?" She asked as the cheque arrived.
"Let's." I replied, putting a hand over the cheque before she could reach for it.
"Why thank you." She smiled mischievously as I took care of the bill, pulling her chair out for her as we began walking again.
"I was there for the Mossdeep anomaly too." I revealed as we walked, getting her to turn her head towards me. "Somehow I wound up with Dewott in the training room of the Pokemon Center. Beats me."
"You're quite something you know." Blake remarked, "Hot shot trainer, Champion's protegee, and witness to Arceus knows how many unreal events."
"I try." I grinned as we walked back into the gym, making for Winona and Drake, who was still there.
"Ah, you two are back." The Gym leader greeted us from afar, waving us over to where she was sitting with the Elite Four member. "Drake and I were talking about you."
"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow as we reached them.
"You've got a fine dragon lad. You had any help training it?" Drake asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion, "Lance didn't give you Dragonite fever, did he?"
"No sir." I stifled a laugh. "Though I suspect if I'm training with Steven, he might direct me to you for some work with Knight."
"Bring it out, why don't you." He gestured towards the open field and I complied, releasing Knight, the great dragon happy to see people again.
"Fine young dragon boy. We'll see how you do when I put your skills to the test." Drake replied gruffly. "And how about that Salamence of yours, lass."
Blake released her own Pokemon near us, the large dragon dipping its head before Drake. Wide eyed, I stared as it stayed low for another moment before raising its head and turning to Blake.
"What the—" I tried to ask what happened, but I wasn't even sure of what I'd witness.
"Probably something in my scent. A long time ago, I was named one of the Dragons by an ancient Salamence in Meteor falls. Sometime around the first great war, when I earned my stripes. Wound up leading all the region's Salamence in a flight against an attacking fleet." He grunted, smiling slightly. "We obliterated them."
"Woah." An image of hundreds of Salamence soaring through the air and wreaking havoc on a fleet of foreign ships flooded my mind, the sheer destruction enough to make me stop in my tracks. Everyone calls Lance the Dragon Master. But a lot of people in their pride for Indigo forget that there was one before him. The Blackthorn Clan could claim to have produced many masters of the Dragon type, but nobody on par with Drake. This man was the first Dragon Master. This man had reigned Champion over Hoenn from the first war when he was a young man, until after the last one, when Steven had risen through the ranks to take the title and give Drake respite from the responsibilities of Champion. Rumor had it they hadn't fought, rather Drake had acknowledged Steven as his successor and taken the step down in his older age. This man had made Lance the revered trainer he was.
"Let's get you two started on slaloming now." Winona grinned. "Drake, would you like to show them how it's done?"
"Oh, I'll show them how it was done in my day." The old sailor's grin spread even further, and he reached for his belt.
I stilled, in awe of the man I was looking at. He picked the first pokeball off of his belt and threw it high into the air, the red light coalescing on the ground in a shape similar to Blake's Salamence, but different: Bigger, tougher, more wizened, and utterly brutal. Scars decorated the magnificent dragon's blue hide, a dark mottled navy against its skin that looked almost natural on its rock-hard musculature. Its deep red wings spread open, spanning further than Blake's Salamence. The younger of the two dipped its head again, almost to the ground, in recognition of the alpha of its entire species.
"Salamence, let's show these kids what flying really is." In an instant, a saddle formed on the dragon's back, and with one sweeping leap, Drake had mounted and settled into place. "Just try and keep up."
I mounted Knight hurriedly, readying myself to take off as Blake mounted her own Salamence. Without warning Drake blasted off and into the course, hurtling forward with speed I hadn't expected. I followed suit immediately following the Dragon Master and his partner as they wove through the myriad of crossbars. A bar would glow red if it was touched, and the tally would add to a count in some complex system that kept track on the scoreboard. Ahead of me Salamence dipped, ducked, rose, knife edged and rolled through the bars like they were nothing, even with barely enough room for Drake's cap to not touch a bar above and Salamence's feet to miss the one below.
Knight and I stumbled through the course behind them, trying our best to weave through the beams and keep Drake in our sights as we clipped bars here and there, not reacting fast or well enough to keep our run clean. The Dragon Master twisted onto the straight, which was now riddled with crossbars at different heights and angles, putting on a burst of speed and rocketing through the straight. I followed suit, trying to make it through with Knight, although with a bit more effort on the part of not hitting bars.
Drake had dismounted and was waiting for us at the end, times and tallies displayed on the screens high up on the walls. I stopped for a second and looked around the room. Everyone, every single person, had their eyes either on us, or on the screens.
"Drake holds the records here for speed, clean and without crossbars." Winona informed us with a grin. "Never gets slower, at least not enough that he has to justify it."
"That kids, is how you fly." The old sailor tipped his hat to the people in the gym, mounting Salamence again. "Anyhow Winona, I've got to head out. Good to see you. And you kids." He nodded in our direction before blasting off down the straight again, and right out the bay doors at the end.
"It's always fun when he comes to visit." Winona sighed wistfully before turning back to us. "Well what are you two waiting for? Look at your run, then get going again."
|\/|~^-_-_-^-_-_-^~|\/|
Hours later…
It had taken more time and effort than I'd have liked to admit, but finally we'd gotten the hang of slaloming. The crossbars would switch up every couple of minutes, leaving each corner, curve or alley unpredictable. I grinned as we soared through another lap, setting down at the end to wipe the sweat off my forehead and scratch Knight's back. With slaloming, there were far more subtle nuances with body movements, little twists of your core, tightening or loosening grips with your legs, pressing and releasing with your hands, using individual fingers or arching them. Everything was at another level.
"You two have done good." Winona walked over smiling as Blake settled down next to Knight. "But now let's give you the real test. A real flyer should be able to fly with a new Pokemon. Swap dragons and you'll race." A devilish grin decorated her face, oddly fitting with the purple eyes, as she watched us slowly dismount and hesitantly swap Pokemon before steadying ourselves.
Salamence's back was far flatter than Dragonite's, and wider, but I could tell lying flat against the dragon how well suited for the air it was.
"How about we give this a go Salamence?" I asked the dragon softly as it turned its neck to look back at me, before letting out a rumble in acceptance and lumbering over to the start line Winona had drawn in the dirt. It felt odd to be seated lower, and even more so to see Blake higher up, on Knight's back.
"Give this everything you've got. No holding back." Winona grinned as the course as cleared off, holding her arm in the air. "Three."
"Two."
"One."
"FLY!"
I pressed in and Salamence immediately shot off, following my guidance obediently, most likely after seeing my friendliness with Blake, but hopefully with a little respect for me and Knight. I held on as I guided Salamence through the bars, Blake just behind us on Knight, whose horn was halfway across Salamence's length.
Together with Salamence we swerved around a corner as Knight and Blake pulled ahead of us with the inside line on the corner, staying ahead of us for a few more turns. As we approached the next turn, I chose my movements correctly, getting Salamence to bank in a knife-edge turn and cross Knight, just a few feet ahead as Knight fought to cross us.
"Come on." I murmured as we approached the last corner, fighting for each inch on each other as it neared. I pressed in and Salamence pulled into the turn, but there was one thing we hadn't anticipated, and it seemed Blake and Knight hadn't either: each other.
The two dragons caught each other in a tangle of limbs that somehow got me loose from the saddle and sent me into the soft padding on the walls, landing on the ground okay for a moment, before Blake fell onto me.
"Ugh." I raised my head slightly, looking at Blake before I became acutely aware that she was lying on top of me, our legs tangled together as her body pressed against mine. "I guess love is in the air." I smiled weakly as she looked at me with something akin to hunger in her eyes.
"Screw patience and subtlety." Blake looked at me for another second, blue eyes looking into my soul before her lips met mine, hands going behind my head.
For another second, I tried to understand what was going on before I gave in and went with my own feelings, returning the kiss and wrapping my hands around her.
"So…" I took a breath as we broke apart still hung up on her soft, strawberry tasting lips. Blake was still on top of me but sitting up on her knees now. "Are we….?"
"Together?" Blake paused to look at me before leaning down and kissing me softly on the cheek, wrapping her arms around me.
"Yes."