Disclaimer is on chapter 1
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It had been four days now since the cruise ship had cast off from Unova towards the Vellgander Archipelago. Despite a couple problems with several people, Alastor had managed to keep to himself for the most part spending most of his time training Snivy and Kirlia, his most youngest and inexperienced pokemon respectively given there was little else to do on the ship.
"Snivy, attack with Vine Whip. Kirlia, use Calm Mind then evade the attacks." He ordered his two pokemon as they faced one another near the prow of the ship.
With an eager grin, Snivy dashed towards Kirlia as two slim vines began to grow from beneath the yellow collar near her neck to extend to a length of over a metre. Not her limit, by any means but long enough to be used like the move's namesake. Kirlia, for her part, looked more ready to use Teleport rather than Calm Mind before the latter move kicked in and soothed her fears.
"(Here I come, Sis!)" Snivy declared as she began swinging her vines at the emotion pokemon in a steady rhythm that was bound to leave a stinging sensation should they find their mark.
Luckily, due to the effects of Calm Mind, Kirlia successfully evaded every single strike. While at first she seemed to wince and yelp slightly in fright despite avoiding the vines, by the time she had evaded Snivy's vines for the twentieth odd time, she was making it look like she was dancing the way she was moving between the attacks.
"Good. Keep that up. Snivy, move on to Leaf Tornado." The blue haired trainer ordered deciding to take things up a notch seeing as how progress was starting to look good today.
Ceasing her Vine Whip attack, the grass snake pokemon flipped as she began spinning in place so that she was now upside down while a green twister full of leaves began to form on the tip of her tail gradually growing in height and density the longer she spun. As the twister full of foliage began to reach towards the sky, Snivy then flipped herself back onto her feet directing the tornado to come smashing down on towards Kirlia.
Even under the effects of Calm Mind, Kirlia's timidness and great fear of battles was too much for the move to quell at the sight of the large, green tornado and the emotion pokemon instinctively used Teleport to disappear from sight in a haze of multicolored light long before Leaf Tornado finally crashed down on her previous location.
"Damn it!" Alastor muttered under his breath.
Once again, Kirlia's timid nature ruined any training regime Alastor tried to use in an attempt to get her to overcome her nature. It had been an ongoing struggle he had been trying to overcome ever since first capturing her especially since one of the moves she knew before capture was Teleport. Even now, after being his pokemon as he travelled across over five regions, Kirlia had yet to gain much in terms of confidence and battle experience forcing Alastor to avoid using Kirlia when it came to gym and league battles especially after the first few attempts to use her in the aforementioned.
That did not mean he was going to give up on her but, due to her constant use of Teleport, Kirlia was able to travel great distances. Meaning she could be anywhere on the ship. At least, he hoped she was still on the ship.
"Better start looking for her then…" Alastor sighed praying that she was somewhere close by even as he called out Staraptor to do an aerial search for his missing pokemon.
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"Okay! Both sides ready?" Will called out from the edge of the Battle Area arena glancing from the two teams consisting of Caesar and Dragon at one end and Aden and Kara at the other. "And… Begin!"
"Let's go, Vibrava!" Caesar whooped calling out his pokemon, a large yellow dragonfly with green wings.
"Go, Dragonair!" Dragon called out mimicking his partner as his own pokemon, a blue serpentine-like pokemon, materialised beside Caesar's.
"Skarmory, take flight!" Kara ordered calling out a steel bird pokemon.
"Liepard, let's go!" Aden said calling out a purple feline pokemon.
"He who acts first, wins first! Vibrava, set the tone with Supersonic!" Caesar ordered.
"Skarmory, use Metal Sound to fend off the attack!" Kara ordered in response.
As the increased wingbeats of Vibrava and Skarmory began producing sound waves of blue or white rings respectively, the air between the two pokemon began to ripple causing a form of visual haze for all to see along with feelings of migraines and nausea from the two moves respective effects.
Unfazed by the not so melodious moves, Zai scribbled down in what he just witnessed in a notebook before going back to a sketch he was working on featuring all four pokemon battling it out before him. While most of the spectators gathered were watching for entertainment purposes, the researcher was using the opportunity to draw some more pokemon while also take note of anything that might interest the researcher inside of him.
"Interesting. Using a sound class move to fend off another move of the same class…" Zai commented lightly quickly rough sketching Dragon's Dragonair as it used Thunder Wave against Aden and Kara's pokemon.
While Skarmory swooped down and to the left to avoid the move, Aden had Liepard charge towards the attacking pokemon with Aerial Ace cutting straight through the blue stream of electricity without harm.
"Ah. Liepard's ability must be Limber." The researcher noted as it was the only way the cruel pokemon could not be getting paralyzed from the attack.
"How can you be taking notes on the battle while drawing at the same time?" A perplexed Leonard asked as Caesar made Vibrava use Bug Buzz to fend off Liepard's assault.
As if a switch inside Zai had been turned on, the researcher turned to stare at Leonard both the sketchbook and the battle forgotten about it seemed in Leonard's eyes.
"I am not drawing. I am sketching the pokemon being used in this battle and making notes of their abilities moves and trainer styles. Every little piece of information helps in allowing us to understand pokemon better." Zai replied using his impressive height to loom over Leonard in an intimidating manner causing the trainer to quickly bring up his hands in a placating gesture.
"Al...Alright." Leonard replied smartly backing down before things got even more heated between them.
Zai merely jerked his head forward stiffly, still peeved it seemed by Leonard's insult to his precious research, before turning his attention back to the battle. All four pokemon were still able to battle with no clear outcome in sight for the moment although it seemed as if Aden and Kara were slowly starting to wear down Caesar and Dragon. However, from watching countless other pokemon battles, Zai knew that the flow of a battle could easily change in a single moment.
"Don't give up, Dragonair!" Dragon called out to his pokemon after taking a direct attack from Skarmory.
Hearing his trainer's encouragement, Dragonair bravely picked itself as both Skarmory and Liepard came at it in a pincer maneuver when their respective trainer notice an opening to take out on off their opponents' pokemon.
What Aden, Kara and their pokemon were not expecting was for Dragonair to suddenly evolve before their very eyes into its fully evolved form, Dragonite. Having already been moving in to attack, neither Aden and Kara nor Liepard and Skarmory were able to react in time to the dragon pokemon to attack by its own accord, knocking the latter clean out of the sky with it's newly learned Fire Punch and swatting the former across the ground with Dragon Tail.
It had happened so fast that even Will, who was supposed to be refereeing the battle, had to take a moment to comprehend what just happened before declaring Dragonite and Vibrava the winners.
"You did it, Dragonair- I mean, Dragonite!" Dragon cheered as he ran over to his pokemon only to yelp in fear as Dragonite suddenly lunged at him and grabbed him in a big hug. Fortunately, despite the intimidating size, Dragonite still seemed to have it's gentle nature and the hug was not as painful as the trainer first feared.
"Amazing. Did it evolve due to the trainer's encouragement or it's own drive to become stronger?" Zai remarked as he quickly scribbled what he had witnessed along with the time and date in his notebook.
"It was merely pure luck." Cas scoffed in disinterest. "His Dragonair clearly had attained enough experience in battles and just happened to evolve right then and there."
"There are many way pokemon can evolve. Luck may not even be a factor in the way a pokemon evolves, for all we know." Zai calmly argued back.
"So you'll go all intimidating on me yet won't even react to him?" Leonard asked Zai while Cas, feeling like arguing his case would be pointless, walked off.
"Because my line of research revolves around my sketches. See?!" Zai asked showing Leonard his impressively drawn sketch of a Dragonair, Liepard, Skarmory and Vibrava- there was even a Dragonite albeit just a quick rough sketch compared to the rest of the pokemon but still rather impressive in Leonard's mind.
Before the trainer could compliment another impressive, artistic rendition of several pokemon from the researcher, something small suddenly fell between the two punching a hole clean through the sketch as it made its way painfully to the ground.
"(Ouch!)" Kirlia yelped as she landed face first on the ground. "(My nose…)"
"My sketch…" Zai croaked ashen faced as he stared at the gaping hole Kirlia made as she made her unexpected entrance. Noticing the emotion pokemon picking herself up and presuming it to be his Zorua in disguise, Zai's face changed into one of anger. "Zo-ru-ah!"
Hearing someone say something right above her, Kirlia looked up only squeak in fear as she saw the towering, scary man above her reach down to grab her. On pure instinct, the emotion pokemon used Psychic to banish the evil person away from her.
In that moment, Zai deduced two facts: that Kirlia really was a Kirlia as his Zorua did not know any psychic moves and that he was suddenly being flung through the air, right out of the ship and into the open sea.
Fortunately, Alastor's Staraptor happened to have noticed Zai suddenly leave the ship from his lofty position in the air and quickly swooped down to grab the researcher in his strong talons. While definitely heavier than some of the other things he had carried, Staraptor managed to land back on the deck of the ship- after depositing Zai as gently as he could let go of a heavy person beforehand, obviously.
"Thanks… I think." Zai groaned as he rubbed his sore behind silently wishing the predator pokemon could have been a touch more delicate with its release.
"(No problem.)" Staraptor squawked before suddenly finding one of his wings getting hugged by a certain emotional emotion pokemon.
"(Staraptor! I disappeared from Master again!)" Kirlia cried as she clung to Staraptor's wing as he tried to shake her off. "(He's going to be angry with me again!)"
"(Then stop being such a coward. I saw how far you threw that big guy and he is not exactly the easiest thing to carry on short notice.)" Staraptor reprimanded coldly looking up to see their trainer walking towards them.
As if sensing her trainer also, highly likely given she was a psychic-type, Kirlia stiffened up allowing Staraptor to finally free his wing from her grasp. Slowly turning round, the highly timid pokemon looked up to see her trainer looking down at her. From the look on his face, she did not even need to be a psychic-type to know that Alastor was cross with her. The fact that Snivy remained quiet and by Alastor's side instead of rushing over to see if she was okay spoke volumes of how serious this was.
"And here I was thinking you were finally making some progress." Alastor admonished the pokemon not even sounding like he was disappointed with her.
Kirlia could only hang her head in shame as tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. Unable to find anything else to say to his pokemon, Alastor merely held up her pokeball and recalled her along with Staraptor.
"You know, maybe if you treat her nicely, Kirlia could actually be fully evolved already." A familiar voice called out to him as he made to leave.
"Kirlia is my pokemon, Violet. How I treat her is up to me." Alastor replied looking over his shoulder to see Yulie staring back at him crossly, probably due to seeing how he had just treated his pokemon- not that he cared what she thought of it. "Is there anything else you wish to talk to me about?"
He could not be sure, but Alastor could have sworn he saw Yulie grin slightly as if hoping he would say that.
"Actually, yes I do." Yulie said as she walked over to Alastor, the ever faithful Jin following at her heels. "Just wanted to know if you have gotten yourself a tag partner yet."
"Tag partner?" Alastor echoed in confusion.
"Tag partner- as in another trainer you're partnering up with for the preliminary battles." Yulie explained unable to hide the grin now. "It was put into the tournament probably to show support for the peace treaty between Balandor and Faria. Maybe, had you not been hiding away from your 'fans' you would have noticed almost all the trainers here are now paired up."
Ignoring the jabs made at his lack of presence on the ship and the fact that most of the passengers on the ship seemed to hold him in a negative light, Alastor quickly figured out what Yulie was getting at.
"And you've been keeping yourself free until you found out if I have a partner." He stated trying to make it sound like she had been waiting for him specifically which, considering how persistent she had been to get a battle with him, was very possible.
"Of course!" Yulie replied with gusto not even trying to deny it. "Gotta make sure you stay in this long enough to take you on again myself."
While that was true for the most part, Yulie was also hoping that being this partner would help her get to know more about Alastor. Sure, his demeanor and personality practically screamed that he was a ruthless trainer both to his opponents and to his pokemon. But, after witnessing the care Alastor gave to his pokemon when he thought no one was watching had gotten her curious as to who this blue haired trainer from Unova actually was.
"So, wanna partner up for a quick match now, see if we're any good?" Yulie asked offering her hand to Alastor while trying to not look too eager for his reply while the look on Jin's face showed that he would rather his trainer did not partner with the trainer of that obnoxious grass snake pokemon.
Alastor stared at the offered appendage frowning slightly. With their destination less than a day away, there was no telling if he would have enough time to find a partner should he reject Yulie's offer. There was the chance there were other trainers at their destination who were partnerless also but he had no idea if any of them would be competent enough to hold their own in battle rather than slow him down. On the other hand, he had seen how Yulie battled several times now and knew she could at least keep up with him providing she did not get in his way or screw up during their tag battles.
With his decision made, Alastor slapped away the offered hand.
"Don't think I'll let you take me on at any time just because we're partners, got it." He warned her just in case this was all part of her plan. "This is only temporal. The moment I no longer need you, we're done."
"Gee, no wonder you don't have many friends." Yulie muttered rubbing her sore hand despite feeling happy inside for succeeding in getting Alastor as her partner.
Still, at least now she had a chance to understand the trainer better. Even if it was just to figure out how to beat him later on.
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Sorry if this looks rushed or quickly put together, folks. This is mostly up because Greymon Baxt Flashpoint requested his OC, Dragon, have an appearance in this chap for his birthday, which is today (6/3/19XX) plus I really, really have not been keeping up wit my story stuff thanks to real life being so demanding of me of late.
Review if possible & until next- actually, just review if possible. Thanks.