Damien fell back into his bed later that night. The party had been pretty simple, some battles and conversation, but Damien didn't mind.
Damien couldn't sleep though, so he went outside to the back yard. "Venusaur, come out." He let the grass type out of his pokeball.
"Saur?" Venusaur asked sleepily.
"Proud of you buddy. You evolved." Damien said, patting his friend's head. Venusaur pushed into it. "Want to just stay out here for a bit?" Venusaur nodded. They sat there for a few minutes, not doing anything except staring at the night sky above. Damien was thankful they lived in Anville Town, where they could see them quite clearly. It gave him something to do on sleepless nights. Damien felt the familiarity of vines wrapping around his arm, but they were heavier due to Venusaur no longer being an Ivysaur. He reflected on everything the two of them had gone through.
"Bulbasaur!" 7-year-old Damien said. "I can't reach that high!"
"Bulba!" Bulbasaur laughed.
"Bring me one!" Damien demanded, stomping his foot. Bulbasaur jumped down off the tree and right onto Damien. "OOF!"
"Bulbasaur." Bulbasaur said. He stood by as Damien picked himself up.
"That hurt." Damien complained.
"Bulba." Bulbasaur said, handing Damien an apple.
"Thank you!" Damien said gratefully, and the two of them sat together eating their fruit.
"Remember our battle against Rose?" Damien asked. Venusaur nodded. "It was rough, but you pulled through. I'd never been so happy to see a Tackle before then."
"Bulbasuar!" Damien called. He was thirteen now. "Come on buddy, get up!"
"Bulb….a…." Bulbasaur said as he slowly pushed himself off the ground. It had been a long battle, Vulpix and Eevee both having been finished off earlier.
"You're Bulbasaur is quite resilient." Rose, the Grass-Type gym leader of Striaton City, said. "Roserade, Razor Leaf!"
"Roserade!" Roserade cried, firing off the barrage of leaves.
"Come on Bulbasaur, Tackle!" Damien said. Bulbasaur got up, and with a surprising amount of speed, he rammed into Roserade, colliding with the Razor Leaf. The attacks left both Pokemon wobbly. Only one fell.
"Roserade is unable to battle, Bulbasaur wins!"
"And our battle against Lenora. She was certainly tough." Damien said. "You got knocked out immediately, but that Poison Powder saved the whole battle and let the rest of the team take the win." Venusaur just hummed in mock annoyance.
"Lillipup, Bite!" Lenora said. The canine charged forward to Bulbasaur, who was too slow to react.
"Poison Powder!" Damien called, hoping to get some sort of shield up. But it didn't happen that way. Lillipup chomped down, and Bulbasaur released his powder, taking the damage anyway. But Lillipup did get poisoned.
"Lillipup, Tackle!" Lenora called. Lillipup slammed into Bulbasaur, knocking him out. Damien returned him.
"Shinx, I choose you!"
"Saur, Venusaur." Veusaur said.
"Yes, I remember." Damien told him. "That guy was one crazy bug type user. Too bad you couldn't be in that battle. You still cheered from the sidelines though.
"Vulpix, use Ember!" Damien ordered. Vulpix opened her mouth to release the fire type move, hitting the opposing Joltik.
"Saur, saur, Ivysaur!" Ivysaur, newly evolved, cheered from nearby, celebrating his team's performance.
"But thankfully we faced a rock type leader next." Damien said. "You had an easy sweep there."
"Saur." Venusaur said confidently.
"Until his last Pokemon." Damien admitted.
Dirge was certainly a good user of Rock-type pokemon, but Ivysaur's newly learned Seed Bomb made it very easy indeed.
"Gigalith, let's finish this!" Dirge said, sending out the large behemoth of a pokemon.
"Ivysaur, Seed Bomb!" Damien called. Ivysaur spit out the explosive seeds, and Gigalith didn't even move. They soon learned why as when the smoke cleared, Gigalith looked unaffected. This was going to be harder than they thought.
"Clay was pretty fun. We were actually his first ever challenger since he took over the gym." Damien said. "He was pretty excited to battle us."
"Alright, you ready to go?" Clay yelled from across the battlefield. "You might be my first challenger, but I'll show you why I got this position!"
"Let's do this!" Damien said.
"Sandshrew, dig us up a win!" Clay yelled, sending out the ground type into battle.
"Ivysaur, let's get our fifth badge!" Damien said, throwing out his trusted partner and companion.
"Then there was the mistralton gym." Damien said. "That was pretty tough, even with me having the type advantages."
"Venusaur." Venusaur said.
"Yeah, I know you weren't in it, but I had three super effective pokemon on my team, I had to use them."
Damien was down to his last pokemon. He'd used Aron and Swinub already, they'd gone down. It was now Shinx's turn.
"Braviary, Aerial Ace!" The bird pokemon shot down to the ground at blistering speeds, right towards Shinx.
"Shinx, Spark!" Damien called. Shinx sparked with electricity, taking the hit and dealing damage in return. Then Shinx started to glow. Getting larger and larger, growing a small mane in the process. When the glow faded, a Luxio stood in his place.
"LUXIO!" He roared.
"Thankfully there was the Iccuris City Gym and it's ice types." Damien said. Venusaur huffed. "Yeah I know you weren't in that either, but you can't be in every battle. You certainly tried to be in every battle though."
"Venusaur."
"Saur." Ivysaur pressed against Damien's legs.
"Ivysaur, no." Damien said. "This is an ice type gym. You're weak to ice types."
"Saur!" Ivysaur said louder.
"No!" Damien said, staying firm. "It's not happening! Aron, Swinub, and Vulpix will do fine. They're super effective, or in Swinub's case, he doesn't take damage from hail."
"SAUR!" Ivysaur roared.
"NO!" Damien yelled. "Ivysaur, come on, be sensible. You can battle the next gym leader, okay?"
"Saur." Ivysaur said.
"Mr. Grumpy." Damien muttered. Ivysaur swatted him with a vine.
"And I kept that promise." Damien said. "You were crucial to fighting Drayden. We got so close because of your efforts."
"Saur." Venusaur said sadly. That fight had been sobering from both of them. The other gyms they'd beaten on the first try, most of them with ease since they were new or he had an overwhelming type advantage, but Drayden was a wall. He'd been around for a while, and knew all the tricks. Damein had tried everything, he remembered the exact number of attempts. Thirty seven. That's the amount of times he tried before he got sent to the Village of Dragons and found Bagon.
Ivysaur panted heavily, exhausted from the fight. Haxorus stood tall. They'd managed to beat Druddigon and Fraxure, but Haxorus simply refused to be beaten. They'd even gotten poison off after multiple attempts but it did seemingly nothing. Haxorus was still a beast.
"Ivysaur, use Take Down!" Damien commanded, hoping to score some sort of critical hit to weaken it and give himself some sort of opening.
Ivysaur charged forward, putting everything he had into this attack.
"Catch it." Drayden said. Haxorus reached down and caught Ivysaur with ease. "Dragon Claw." Haxorus's claws glowed in blue, green, and purple power, and struck Ivysaur.
"Ivysaur is unable to battle!" The announcer said. "Haxorus wins! And the victory goes to the gym leader!"
Damien stood there. So many tries. So many strategies. All of them gone to waste.
"Hmph." Drayden said. "I suggest you should try a contest. That may be more your speed."
"That had been the start of me hating contests." Damien said. "But look at us now."
Venusaur nodded. "Saur." He said wisely.
"I promise Venusaur, you'll be in all of them. I'll register you for every single one. That way, you don't miss a thing." Damien said. A breeze blew by, and Damien could smell Venusaur's flower. The pokedex entry was right. It was soothing. It smelt like everything, and also something completely its own. Vanilla, chamomile, lavender, rose, honeysuckle, lily, all of them and everything else. A smell unique to Venusaur. Damien yawned. Venusaur's vines wrapped around Damien's waist, picking him up and placing him on Venusaur's back, up against the flower that bloomed strong and tall.
"Saur." Venusaur said. Damien didn't reply, but he understood the message, like he always did.
Sleep.
And so he did. Damien fell asleep there, on Venusaur's back, confident in his brother's ability to wake him in the morning.
And that's the chapter. I felt like I've been doing a lot of plot lately, and I just wanted to write something small and nice. So yeah, it's shorter than the other chapters, but I wanted to write it anyway. Also, yes, Damien does view Venusaur as his brother. I mean, they were born at the same place and time and grew up together, and have never been without each other. So no plot this time. Just some filling in on Damien's past, and some nice bonding between the two. But we have a new team to look at, don't we? This time, it's Anne.
Character: Anne
Team: Samurott, Druddigon, Pikipek, Cutiefly, Goomy, Flabebe
Samurott: Sammy
Level: 36
Ability: Torrent
Nature: Adamant (Up Atk, Down SpAtk)
Moves: Slash, Megahorn, Surf, Razor Shell
Druddigon: Kevin
Level: 30
Ability: Mold Breaker
Nature: Calm (Up SpDef, Down Atk)
Moves: Crunch, Slash, Dragon Claw, Hone Claws
Pikipek: John
Level: 5
Ability: Keen Eye
Nature: Lax (Up Def, Down SpDef)
Moves: Peck, Growl
Cutiefly: Emma
Level: 11
Ability: Shield Dust
Nature: Hardy (Neutral)
Moves: Struggle Bug, Stun Spore, Fairy Wind, Absorb
Goomy: Goob
Level: 27
Ability: Hydration
Nature: Gentle (Up SpDef, Down Def)
Moves: Bubble, Absorb, Dragon Breath, Rain Dance
Flabebe: Franny
Level: 15
Ability: Flower Veil
Nature: Modest (Up SpAtk, Down Atk)
Moves: Tackle, Fairy Wind, Lucky Chant, Razor Leaf
