Obviously, I don't own Pokemon.
[=-CHAPTER 7-=]
- (Aurora) -
"Admirable."
His voice reverberated through her body like an echo. A voice deserving of reverence that didn't match Izan at all. Aurora jerked back, her feet planted on the ground. Nidorino's bloodshot eyes abruptly cleared up.
It, however, stood adamantly.
She tried to reach out again to stop him, yet her body didn't listen. A primal part of her from ages long forgotten spoke to her. Somehow, she knew there was no point in intervening.
All would be well while he bathed the world in light.
*Click*
Aurora snapped out of her daze at the sound of the Pokeball clicking shut. She blinked as she watched him casually catch both Pokemon as if it was normal.
The entire exchange amazed her. How easily he dealt with an aggressive stage-two Pokemon. It was done so casually too, with a level of grace she could only hope to aspire to.
In no world was that normal. There was a reason people said cornered Pokemon were the scariest. Calming a bloodthirsty Pokemon on the verge of rampaging with nothing but a word?
That was unheard of for even high-rank trainers, much less a Youngster like Izan.
"I caught a Nidorino!" She jumped back again as he bounced into a stupid-looking pose, holding the Pokeball up high.
Turning around, he seemed normal again. "Alright, let's go before-" She stared. He noticed. "What?"
She stared harder. 'Did he really not see anything weird here?'
"What'd I do?"
She blinked. "Nothing, that was just impressive, is all." That's not what she wanted to say at all, but it would suffice for now.
He sent her that stupid grin he got often. "Nah, it wasn't much. We should get to the Pokemon Center though, these guys are hurt pretty badly."
Nodding dumbly, she returned Glaceon to her Luxury Ball. "Right."
"Let's go, Sandshrew!" He called out to his Pokemon.
Taking it in stride, she hopped onto Izan's shoulder. "Shrew!"
'And there's that, too. Their bond is unusually developed for a Pokemon he hasn't had for very long. It took months before Eevee let me even carry her.'
She squinted at his back as they started to walk to the center.
'Is he some sort of genius?' He tripped over a rock and nearly faceplanted. 'Or maybe he's just a lucky idiot?'
Whatever the case, it brought about a feeling she'd long forgotten. Motivation.
There was something odd about Izan. And she was motivated to figure it out.
- (Izan) -
After rushing back to the center, Joy took the two injured Pokemon in stride, immediately going to intensive care without a word.
The intensity of expression was enough to confidently tell him they'd be alright.
Though, for now, they had nothing to do but wait. Their plans were ruined by that whole fiasco and the training ground was wrecked by the battle.
"So… you're a generalist?" Aurora tried to break the awkward atmosphere.
Izan was sitting next to her with his eyes closed, but he didn't open them. "Nah, I'm trying to be a ground-type specialist. Things just turned out that way."
It wasn't like he caught them out of a need for ground-type Pokemon. He more or less just wanted to get them healed and catching them was the easiest way.
Honestly, he was thinking about selling the female Nidoran. He'd have to consult the Nidorino before doing that though.
There'd be no point keeping Nidorino if it hated him, after all.
"Ah, I see. So you want to evolve both of those Pokemon into their final evolutions, correct?"
He furrowed his brows. "Eventually, yeah." Wasn't that obvious?
"That'd cost a lot of money, you know. Moon Stones aren't cheap. I think a low-quality one costs about 3,000 give or take."
His eyes snapped open. "Low-quality? What's the difference between low or high quality?" He didn't like the way her smile became predatory.
"Well, for one, the stone itself looks prettier." He rolled his eyes. Of course, she would focus on that. "And the higher quality the stone, the greater the energy mastery increases upon evolution."
He'd read about that, actually.
When a Pokemon evolves, it doesn't just burst into a bright light like the anime. It sheds, slowly gets bigger, eats more, things like that. And over time, it sort of shifts into the next evolution.
Sometimes Pokemon got 'stuck' in the middle of an evolution, but that was fairly rare. It usually only happened to Pokemon who was suddenly crippled or whose internal energy was disturbed during the evolution period.
Considering that it happened over multiple days, this didn't happen often as long as the trainer kept their Pokemon out of battle.
During that process, however, was the time a Pokemon's energy would surge out of control.
Their mastery over the base typings they had would increase depending on how well they were accommodated.
A Pokemon like Charmeleon would have their fire-type mastery increased by a stage, and if they didn't have it yet, they would develop flying-type mastery.
"Dammit, just another thing I didn't anticipate." He muttered. It was getting annoying to learn how complicated real Pokemon training really was.
Then again, leveling up by raiding entire ecosystems would make for a poor journey.
"Yes, the amount of funding you'll need for high-quality Pokemon truly is quite infuriating." She commented.
He didn't like her tone. Or that look. "What are you trying to get at? Just spit it out."
She mimicked that business pose he'd made before. "I have a proposition for you." Oh, here we go. "What do you think about me and you traveling together?"
He raised an eyebrow, shifting his posture. That was an idea.
It wasn't like he was opposed to traveling with others. While he wasn't the most social butterfly around, having a few friends here and there was nice.
The only real issue he could think of was twofold. One was pretty obvious. He wasn't the most social and got annoyed when he was pestered by people nonstop.
The other issue was a matter of keeping secrets. Though that could be solved by just splitting up during the day or waking up earlier to do secret things.
On top of that, he didn't need friends. His Pokemon would all have sapience, so he'd never truly be alone.
'She used the word proposition though. Like it was an offer of something besides simple companionship. Plus…'
"If you wanted to, you could just follow me around without consent. It's not like I'd attack you if you did, and you could just use the excuse that we happen to be traveling in the same direction." He pointed out.
That's what Misty did to Ash if he recalled. Though she had a reason to follow around the jackass that stole and wrecked her bike.
"That's true." She acknowledged. "Then, instead of a traveling companion, how about I become your manager."
"No." He instinctively replied. Her eyes widened in shock. "Wait, I just need a better explanation. When you say manager it sounds like you'll be controlling my next move or something."
She relaxed at that, settling more into her seat. "I think you misunderstand, in that case. My job would be to make your job easier. Organize a budget, inform you of recent news, register you for certain events, etc.
I'd take care of all the little details of being a trainer while you focus solely on getting stronger and reaching new heights."
At that, he relaxed considerably.
The whole point of him becoming a Pokemon trainer was so he could do whatever he wanted. So he could adventure. Having someone tell him where to go and what to do would defeat the purpose.
It would just feel like a normal old job, at that point.
"Truth be told, I don't need a manager. I'm fairly confident that I can take care of myself." And he didn't trust her that much.
The only thing she had going for her at the moment was the credibility of her surname. If he wanted a manager, there were smarter options.
Her lips thinned as she paused to think it over.
"But I have a question. I'll accept your 'proposition' if I like the answer, got it?"
She brightened up, fixing her posture to be straighter as she exuded an air of confidence. After taking a breath, she nodded.
'Here goes nothing.'
"Why do you want to be a trainer? I don't know if you realize, but being a Pokemon trainer is a lot of work. And you wanna add even more work on top of that, for some reason. I just don't get it." He admitted.
Her visage crumbled. With each word, she pulled into herself more and more. By the end, she looked downright timid. She frowned, and she frowned hard.
For the first time since he'd seen her, she looked lost.
"I…" She gulped. For a moment, he almost thought she was shaking. But just as it appeared, it went away.
"Aurora, take a breath, it's fine. You don't have to tell me your whole life story just for a job. Just omit the details."
She took a breath, visibly becoming calmer. "Right. Right, okay. To put it simply… I don't.
I don't want to be a trainer. But after some… things happened, I realized I didn't have anything I wanted to do in life. No grand purpose like everyone else.
So I took my older brother's advice.
If I didn't have anything I wanted to do, I'd just need to go find it. After taking a bunch of money, I ran away from home and came here. To rebuild my life from scratch.
Well, not scratch, I think I brought too much money for that, but you get the idea."
There wasn't anything he could think of in response to that. She was looking for a sense of purpose.
It was ironic if he thought about it. His sense of purpose was solidified the moment he woke up in this world, and she couldn't even find a trace of hers and she'd been born here.
Still, that didn't exactly inspire confidence in her management skills.
"So if doing stuff like management isn't what you want to do, why would you propose it?" It didn't make any sense to him.
Instead of responding, she opened her mouth before stopping herself and closing it, averting her eyes.
'Maybe her sense of purpose has something to do with following me around? Or just trainers in general? Haah, I can't stand being indirect.'
Seeing that she wouldn't respond, he continued.
"Fine. You can follow me like a lost puppy if you want." She looked up at him, surprised. The teasing seemed to fly right over her head. "But only after we both become D-Class trainers."
The entire conversation wouldn't matter if she couldn't even do that basic task. Without being a D-Class, she'd be unable to protect herself properly or even travel to the same places as him.
That only seemed to motivate her, though.
Her eyes burned with resolve. "Got it. We'll meet each other after the Rookie Recruitment, then." She put out her hand.
He clasped her hand firmly. "Right. See you after the… the what?"
'The fuck is a Rookie Recruitment?'
He'd been so occupied with establishing himself and becoming stronger, that he hadn't even looked into how he could become a real trainer. A D-Class.
Both he and Aurora split up, deciding to head to bed after such a long day. But before that, she explained to him in detail how the recruitment worked, promising to tell him if anything came up.
But he couldn't get it out of his head, wondering if just getting stronger was enough to become a D-Class.
From what he could tell, the main event was just a tournament. A one-versus-one tournament to be exact, but the trainer could switch out Pokemon in between rounds.
The participants consisted of his fellow F-Class trainers and the graduates who didn't pass with grades in the top 100. And considering Ash already graduated, it meant they were dumber than Ash.
Though to be fair, Ash was a persistent bastard. He was incompetent and overconfident, but he damn sure wasn't lazy.
Those who got in the top 3 of the tournament brackets would instantly become D-Class trainers, while everyone else would have to hope they were impressive enough for a sponsorship from whatever influential name was watching.
It sort of reminded him of the Chuunin Exams from Naruto. You could lose and still win.
Not that he planned on losing.
Though all of that wasn't the reason it stuck with him. It was the preliminaries.
Every year there would a preliminary stage that wasn't shown to the public, and the specifics would change each time. However, it would always focus on three things.
Athleticism, decision-making, and luck.
He yawned as he stood up from his bed, grumbling to himself about the third one. Sandshrew woke up as well, eyes already attentive as she unfurled and pushed off his chest.
After a quick refresher in the bathroom and a shower, he was ready to go. But the idea of luck was still annoying him.
It made sense, in some capacity. There were things you could overcome with just smart decisions and grit, but luck was a substantial factor people often forgo.
Just like when he woke up in this world. The Izan of before made the safest decisions he could with the information he had, and yet he was still fucked over in the end.
Everything he worked for, was gone in an instant.
He yawned again as he made his way to get some breakfast. There was no way to fix the luck issue. He'd have to just deal with it.
A dinging from his Pokegear stopped him mid-walk, earning the curiosity of Sandshrew.
It was a text from Aurora.
[Morning :) Just so you know, there's a sale going on at the Pokemart starting today. They're trying to get rid of things no one buys. Maybe something you'd like to look into?]
Attached to the message was a link to the list of things they were selling at either half price or for barely any money.
He wasn't reading the message past the first word though. He looked around the room, searching for her, but she wasn't there.
'How did she know I was awake? I didn't even leave the Pokecenter yet…'
Shaking off the feeling he was being watched, because he wasn't, he looked at the list of items.
Most of it was useless experimental junk. Like the Pokemon umbrella. A held item where the Pokemon attached an umbrella to their back to protect them from the weather.
A good idea in concept, and something he'd even encourage if this was the games. But in real life? An umbrella on your Pokemon's back?
There were way too many problems. Especially since it was literally just a normal umbrella, if he was reading correctly.
His eyes scanned the list before one of them popped out to him. An item created by Bruno.
Immediately, he profusely thanked Aurora for telling him about it. She didn't respond, but that didn't matter.
The normal cost of the item, at 3,000 Pokedollars, had a 75% discount. It was dirt fucking cheap, and he was gonna take full advantage.
The main reason listed why the item was unpopular was just the opinion of the masses. They deemed it a bit cruel, barbaric, and overkill for their Pokemon. Some even said it was a downright tortuous item.
…Were Pokemon trainers idiots? Or just too emotional?
"Sorry, Sandshrew, it looks like we're gonna have to take a detour. I can't miss out on this." He walked out of the Pokecenter, turning straight in the direction of the mart.
"Shrew?" She tilted her head, more curious than hangry.
"We're gonna go get an item that should make you stronger just by moving around." He replied, hoping that's what she was asking about.
She recoiled. "Shrew, sandshrew?!"
"I know, pretty crazy, right? That's the power of the Macho Brace." He enlightened her on its magnificence.
These fools won't know what hit 'em.
'I underestimated Bruno. This might actually kill me.'
Clenching his teeth, he was taking one step after the other as carefully as possible. To anyone watching, it looked like he was struggling to just walk. Sandshrew was walking much faster than him, but she was still going a lot slower than her normal stride.
In reality, both he and Sandshrew were wearing the Macho Brace. An item that had two distinct functions. He wasn't sure if the second one was intentional or not, but he bought two of them for 750 each.
The first, and most obvious function was that each piece of it weighed a certain amount, and the weight could be increased with just a button. With that, it served as a constant added level of bodyweight that they had to get used to.
The second function that he was unsure about, was that it forced them to walk around without any wasted movements.
Bruno, the creator, is a martial artist, so he was inclined to believe that was intentional.
In any case, it was brutal. He'd never worked out his body this much in either life. It was sort of scary.
Sandshrew would be fine afterward. Her body completely worked like a Saiyan's and would come back stronger from this. His on the other hand…
Well, he had a few assurances.
Although science dictated that he would be destroying his body and joints right now, the humans of the Pokemon world were odd in all kinds of ways. He was fairly sure they evolved from Pokemon, so they must've kept some of those traits, right?
Maybe that's where psychic trainers came from. Or the fact that every Joy all looks the same.
So if that were the case, and if he factored in Bruno's 8 feet tall mountain of muscle, it shouldn't hurt him too badly.
Either way, medical science in this world was insane, he'd be fixed up in no time.
Though it was sort of embarrassing wearing the Macho Brace under his clothes. Because of his baggy clothes, you could only see the collar and wrist parts of the brace.
Although it wasn't the official reason, he had a theory the real reason it was unpopular was that it looked like bondage gear.
He'd still wear it though. It seemed like an easy way to pass that athleticism check. Now he just needed to look into boosting his decision-making skills and luck.
'Maybe I'll pick up a Victini or some shit. Ha! Fat chance.'
He chuckled and then winced. It sorta hurt to laugh.
Now, he just had to fix his training area with his bare hands. Why not? Sandshrew would be helping with her bare hands, too. That'd be a pretty good workout for the day.
A loud grumbling sound startled him into almost falling over.
Sandshrew averted her eyes, blushing.
"Yeah… let's go get breakfast first." He concluded. Sandshrew nodded without saying a word, embarrassed.
Six hours, a whole lotta sweat, effort, and a ton of aprijuice, and it was finally done. Just cleaning up the damn clearing was more of a workout than any other they'd done before.
If it wasn't for the stamina-boosting aprijuice, he wasn't sure they'd be able to get it done in a single day
Now though, he was considering just getting rid of it. The juice most definitely helped with endurance, but it tasted like ass in a can.
Izan and Sandshrew groaned as they laid their heads down at the table. After all of that work, sitting down to eat with Sandshrew was one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.
Shedding off twice his bodyweight was where the majority of the feeling came from.
Though no one could really call it eating. They were just laying there while food sat next to them.
Izan's fingers were red and overworked from pushing and pulling things on the surface. Meanwhile, Sandshrew could barely move from using [Dig] while being weighed down.
The Diglett had messed up a lot more underground than they did aboveground. If she didn't fix it, the ground would've caved quickly.
"Are… are you two okay?"
He blearily looked up and was greeted by Nurse Joy's concerned face leaning over him.
"I'm… man, you are pretty. Are you a Pokemon?" He drawled, laying his head back down but still keeping his eye on her.
She sighed. "Thank you, Izan, that's nice of you to say. No, I'm not a Pokemon." Laying her hand on his forehead, she raised an eyebrow. "No fever. Just exhaustion, then? What'd you do to yourself?" Sandshrew lazily reached up to swipe her hand away from Izan. "And to Sandshrew, for that matter."
"Training." He yawned. "Are you sure you're not a Pokemon? You and all the other Nurse Joys look just as pretty."
She rolled her eyes. "That's because we're related. I assure you we are not Pokemon."
"Do you think there's a goth version of a Nurse Joy like how there's a dark-type version of Rattata? That'd be hot." He rambled.
"I- what? Chansey, can you just come and heal these two for me? Please." She asked, exasperated.
Chansey, who was cleaning up after someone, heard her and happily hopped over. Looking over the two, she put her hands up as waves of pink aura flowed over them.
Immediately, any exhaustion disappeared from his and Sandshrew's body. The smell of food was vivid now that he was alert and up.
And he remembered what he was talking about just as vividly.
"…I regret nothing I said. If you were a big titty goth chick who heals people, it would be hot as shit. Thanks for the heal, by the way, it was…" He trailed off as he started stretching.
None of the kinks he was expecting in his body were there.
He felt great. His muscles weren't even sore like he hadn't just spent six hours pushing and pulling rubble.
He clenched his fingers, and then flexed his muscles.
She noticed his pause. "Uh, are you sure you're alri-" She reached out with her hand again, and he caught it.
"Joy!" He blurted out, clasping her hand in both of his. "Let me borrow your Chansey sometime! No, borrowing would be messed up, I'll pay. 3,000 for a week." He offered, then shook his head. "No, you're right that's not enough."
Nurse Joy was flustered at his sudden closeness. "I-I can't let you borrow Chansey. For any amount of money, she's too important to the people at the center."
Oh. Right.
He deflated. That… that made sense. He was just so excited from the prospect of another exploit.
Healing right after training. In theory, with enough sustenance and sleep, he could fit full weeks of training into a single day.
His ticket to surpassing those who worked just as hard as him. To surpass those who worked harder, even.
A thought occurred to him. 'Vegeta tried this shit, now that I think about it. It didn't stick though, did it? They just substituted the long hours with shorter and more intensive training.'
Gravity training was possible, wasn't it? [Gravity] did exist, after all.
He'd need a really strong Pokemon for that, though. [Gravity] at a normal level was only known to magnify gravity enough to impede flight. It also affected speed, but not like the insane levels Dragon Ball had.
Even something like the [Gravity] that Serebyi's Ferrothorn used would be hard to come by. By default, the move simply affected a large area, not a specific Pokemon.
Maybe [Psychic] could work better? Or maybe just using weights with [Gravity] active?
It was something to think about.
Finally letting go of her hand, he dejectedly started eating. "Ah. Thanks anyway, Joy. You don't mind if I come to get healed after training though, right?"
The red of her face faded as he calmed down. "That's what we're here for. Though I'd prefer if you didn't break yourself into pieces every day just to get a bit stronger."
'Speaking of being broken into pieces, I wonder if Nidoran is getting any better. Maybe Nidorino could help me with training. He used a psychic attack, didn't he?'
"Today was much harsher training than normal, don't worry." He waved her off. "Oh, by the way, how're those two I caught doing?"
Her face fell at the mention of the two rabbit-like Pokemon.
"Nidorino will be fine, I can assure you that. He's a fighter, that one. Nidoran on the other hand…" His heart dropped to his stomach.
His feelings must've shown on his face as Nurse Joy waved her hands quickly. "I-it's not what you think! She just… I've never been good at explaining stuff like this, but she will live. I promise you that."
He held his chest, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
'Why am I so invested in this? Am I normally this emotional?'
It didn't matter at the end of the day. He still felt sorry for the little rabbit and that worry wasn't going anywhere.
"It's just… I don't think she'll be much help to you if you want to be a battler." She took out a tablet, put it on the table, and swiped to images of an x-ray. "If you look here, you'll see she has gone through a significant amount of trauma dealt to her head."
The tablet showed a few pictures of brain scans, with the notable part being the multiple white spots on parts of the brain.
Something that clearly shouldn't have been there.
"It seems that whatever the Diglett were doing, they caused a massive amount of injuries throughout her entire body. The most severe being the trauma to her brain. Besides the risk of extenuating her injuries through battle, I doubt she'd have the capacity to battle efficiently at all." Joy explained with a frown.
So she mentally impaired? Well, that made things easier, actually.
"I see. I was planning on selling her over the league website, actually. I was just going to consult her mate beforehand."
Her lips thinned, but she relaxed at his lack of a negative reaction. "They're siblings, actually. And I, uh, don't think you'll be getting his approval for that. This happened shortly after you brought them in."
Taking the tablet again, she swiped until a picture of the backroom showed up.
In the picture, there was a clearly injured Nidorino sleeping next to a glass intensive care unit. Inside the unit was his sister Nidoran.
Far in the back of the picture was a Nidorino-sized hole in the wall.
'The fuck? Is Nidorino a major siscon? Wait, yeah he is. That much was obvious. But how did he know Nidoran was in that specific room? Or did he just start breaking rooms until he found her?'
'…Did he have to pay for that?'
- (Nidorino) -
Nidorino slept. He dreamt. He once again experienced that dreadful day.
The nightmare reminded him of his promise. Of his failures.
His sister would say that it wasn't his fault. That their parents were strong, and that if they couldn't win, he wouldn't do much better.
Deep down, he knew she was right. Yet that didn't make him feel any better.
So she reassured him again. She reasoned that his transformation stopped him. That if he were to fight off the invaders with their parents, if he were to go to battle, he would be stuck in that form forever.
That, too, he knew to be true. And yet still the nightmares persisted.
Of the final moments with his parents.
Of the creatures, those pink bastards, who roamed with dull looks on their faces. He knew as everyone else did, they would be nothing if it weren't for their leader.
If it weren't for his schemes. For his trickery.
If it weren't for the power that he too harbored within him. The power to control things with the mind.
The promise he'd made to his older sister was the only thing that kept this nightmare away.
And now that his promise had been broken. Now that she'd been hurt, it returned in full.
Yet he didn't have it in him to fight the nightmare.
He deserved this. He was a failure.
A light shone through the darkness that was his nightmare. Gold eyes blazed, looking through his very soul. They encompassed him, benevolent. Empathetic.
They sought to protect him. To protect his sister as well.
The field of blood, of corpses, of death, became one of life. Of grass and flowers and his frolicking family.
…He didn't trust those eyes. There was nothing free in this world.
It, too, would reveal its true intentions.
Yo.
I'm probably not gonna answer to any review questions often later down the line- but I figure I could answer them while there's only a few.
So… Arclight001. I'll try to answer this as concisely as possible since it's a lot more complex than what I'm stating.
Legendaries, as you'll learn in a few chapters, are considered some version of God. (Minor God, Major God, Demi-God, etc.) I have a whole pantheon chart so don't worry on that front.
Because of the way levels work (they're more of a percentile than anything), most legendaries don't have a quantifiable level. They are not all-powerful (usually), but they can't really be measured by the same system as normal Pokemon.
Finally, the relationship between people and the legendaries. Some Pokemon simply aren't legendaries anymore or considered gods. Here's how it would go:
Kyogre is a Major God of the Sea. It cannot be coerced, persuaded, nor captured. It cares not for anything but itself and the sea and will bring divine intervention(temper tantrum) if you poke the bear. Master Ball will not work.
Lugia is a Minor God. The Guardian of the Sea. It can be persuaded or coerced if you manage to capture something it cares for, but it cannot be outright captured. Master Ball may work if weakened enough.
The Legendary Birds are not Gods. Some consider them the Demi-Gods of Ice, Thunder, and Fire, but it isn't true. They can be captured with enough power even in a normal Pokeball.
A Pokemon's role in the pantheon is dependent on both lore and game stats. You might be confused why Lugia is lower in the pantheon than Kyogre, then? Primal Kyogre, 'nuff said.
