Chapter 2: New Friends
"I'm afraid I have to leave the experiments in your hands, as much as I'd enjoy seeing how this experimental splicing technology could bring out the true power of pokemon, it seems I will be needed off site for a while. Please be careful, these specimens are valuable to my research, don't let them die until you've gained valuable information, preferably on how to help other Pokemon survive the procedure." The doctor spoke fixing his glasses before turning to leave the room. "And be more careful with that Darkrai, despite how rare the other two might be, he is still the most valuable one. And the most dangerous."
"Of course sir, I will not fail to bring you these results!"
*Later*
"Doctor, don't you think this is a little much? What if they have the opposite reaction to the treatment, splicing so recklessly could kill them all!?" A young man spoke while watching the recently captured pokemon behind the glass. "This is too dangerous for the pokemon."
The young man looked inside, a Charmander, a Raichu, and most worryingly a Darkrai were all restrained to a set of tables hooked up to several tubes and cables. The young man had untidy spiky blue hair, green eyes, a gentle face, and a long white lab coat.
"I've told you before Lyte, that progress demands sacrifice" an older less compassionate voice seemed to boom over the teen "It doesn't matter what the subjects are, if we do not test them we'll never make any forward progress and funding will be cut, we'll be shut down and we'll be loose ends to tie up. Is that what you want for yourself? I thought you wanted to be a Professor one day?"
The young man, Lyte, stared through the glass at the three pokemon, sorrow filling his eyes. And unfortunately he saw something frightening, the pokemon were supposed to be unconscious, but there was an ominous glimmer of crimson red emanating from the Darkrai. Wasting no more time, the two scientists left the room.
"Dr. Colress left me in charge Lyte, you'd be wise to not go against our bosses orders." The older man spoke.
"I barely know the doctor, when he asked me to come here it was for simple research, that's what I signed up for, not this!" Lyte spoke up.
"Naïve child. You'll never become a pokemon professor with that attitude."
"We shouldn't forsake our humanity for progress." Lyte said quietly.
*Days Later*
So many feelings overwhelmed Pyre, pain being the most prominent of them all. He could feel more however, two others suffering with him. Based on the aura he could feel from them, a compassionate and powerful Raichu, and a dangerous and terrifying Darkrai.
Yet something was off as time went on their aura's seemed to meld becoming similar, only now he noticed some of his own aura mixed in with the other two. He struggled against his restraints, unable to open his eyes and see what was happening around him.
Suddenly all of the pain fell away. He could feel something terrible in its place, feeling with his aura, he could sense several others, whom he assumed were humans. All of which suddenly being snuffed out like a candle before bedtime.
Pyre unfortunately couldn't retain consciousness long enough to see much more.
*Hours Later*
"Chaaar." Pyre laid himself up stretching out as he did so. He slowly looked around taking in his environment, apparently a forest den of some sort, although it was off in some way. There was a feeling of unease at the sight.
"We're not free. Before you delude yourself into believing that." A deep voice came. And as Pyre turned he was face to face with the Darkrai. It's aura was oppressive, almost beating the Charmander down by simply being in the same room. "This is a conservation area manufactured by humans. The plants and pokemon are real, but we aren't outside, we're trapped in a building. The sky is fake."
"The sky is fake, that's crazy!" Pyre laughed immediately. "I've seen the sky a lot, I know what's real and what isn't!"
"Then go look for yourself."
"Fine I will!" The Charmander smirked and strolled out into the sunlight. He basked in the bright glow for a moment.
"So do you believe me now?"
Pyre waits a minute, a smile still plastered on his face. "Well I'll be damned, the sky's fake." Pyre looked back at the Darkrai. "Name's Pyre, and you are?"
"Leaving." The Darkrai began hovering away.
"Now hang on mr leaving, don't leave yet! I'm still trying to get to know you."
"I'm not interested."
"No you aren't you're Leaving." Pyre fought back a chuckle.
"Enough of your insufferable banter, my name is Shadow, and I'm not staying any longer." The Darkrai seemed to let loose an irritated voice as he once again began to float away.
"Well Shadow it's good to meet you!" Pyre started following him.
"This must be the distortion world."
"Oh don't be like that dude can't ya just stop and be friends?"
Shadow looked down at him "No."
"You'll come around!" Pyre smiled at him.
"Leave me alone or I'll destroy you."
"You're gonna be my friend one way or the other!" The Charmander was confident.
"You really are annoying."
*Hours Later*
"Just stop you're driving me mad" Shadow tried to float away but at some point he sprouted legs to walk and Pyre was clinging to one of them.
"Never, we're friends!"
"We just met and I don't want to be friends!"
"Too bad!"
"Fine ugh, you are far too annoying and persistent. If it will get you to stop pestering me I'll be your friend."
"Yay!" Pyre quickly climbed up the Darkrai and hugged him "Best friends!"
Shadow nudged him off. "Regular friends."
"Come on now tall dark n' edgy, be my best friend!"
"No, friends is enough, why don't you go bother someone else for a while."
"Soooorrry didn't mean to interrupt that giant nothing you were doing! Oh wait did I cut into your brooding time?"
"I cannot believe I've let you live this long out of pity."
"Well since we're friends it's time for friend activities."
"I'm not going to…"
"Let's spar!" Pyre smiled at Shadow widely. "Fight me!"
"Please tell me you're joking."
"Nope put up your dukes fancy skirt!"
"It's not a skirt it's part of my body, and it's more like a cloak." Shadow was becoming agitated.
"Looks like a skirt!" Pyre suddenly swung his clawed fist at the Darkrai only to be caught mid punch and tossed back.
"Fine let's just get this out of the way, I'll test your power against my own then I'll train you. Hit me as hard as you can. Don't hold back or training may be too easy for you."
"Now you're speaking my language!" And with that Pyre dove into the fight flailing his fists wildly and spitting flames all over the place.
"Please tell me you have more than wild flailing."
"Not really!" Pyre struck Shadow not even affecting the Darkrai as he was suddenly thrown back.
"Then we'll need to work on that."
Suddenly another voice spoke out. "Hey, could you train me too?, Or at least help me train?"
The two newly forced together friends looked over to find a Raichu, the very same Raichu from the testing chamber.
"Sure why not, that's no problem right Shadow?" Pyre asked smiling and strutting toward the Raichu.
"You said yes so it really isn't my choice anymore." Shadow gave a disgruntled sigh. "Fine, what's your name?"
"Oh umm…I'm Rai."
"Rai, I like that name, doesn't sound forced or lazy at all!" Pyre said jokingly. "Great name for a Raichu!"
"Enough, this is useful. I can observe the two of you as you train together, and I can help you fix your mistakes." Shadow spoke slowly. "And before you go wondering why I'm not joining it's because I have more than enough experience already without outclassing the two of you during training. Now fall in line."
"Hey Rai, wanna be my friend?" Pyre smiled at the Raichu.
"Sure, why not, never had a Charmander as a friend before." Rai smiled back.
"Please don't encourage him, he talks too much already." Shadow sighed.
With no more speaking from any of them, the two faced each other ready for combat. And with a wave of his hand Shadow let the battle begin.
Needless to say the "battle" wasn't very long, neither of the two pokemon managed any meaningful ground to the point that they ended in a draw.
"That was terrible." Shadow sighed once again. "Why did I agree to this?" He floated to the two of them. Pointing to Pyre, "You've clearly gotten by with raw power alone." He then pointed to Rai "and you've never fought in your life. So I'm going to fix you up to be proper fighters. So that no common trainer could ever catch you easily." Shadow felt an odd sense of conviction. "You'll be better than you are now." He looked to Pyre "Starting with you. I'm only going to focus on one of you at a time since I'm not really a teacher."
Pyre smiled again, that usual sweet smile. "Teach me!"
"Firstly, you're too wild, you're throwing punches and attacks with reckless abandon. That needs to stop, lazy as you claim to be, you need motivation!" Shadow suddenly kicked him into a tree. "Let this motivate you, when you can push me back that far with a single blow you'll be ready to have a proper fight with me."
"G-got it. But uh wasn't that a bit rough?"
"I'm not going to train you if you intend to whine about my methods. That goes for you too Rai." Shadow teleported to Pyre. "Now before I bother showing you how to better use moves, we need to fix your fighting style. You can be relaxed but you need to be stable." He lifts Pyre back up. "Get in your battle position."
The Charmander lifts his arms slightly swaying back and forth.
"First of all, widen your stance." Shadow gently nudges Pyre and he hits the ground. "As I said you need to be stable, you're small, your center of gravity is rather close together, so power your body a bit, widen your legs a bit. Too wide or too thin and you can be off balanced easily, I hover so that's not an issue for me but an easy mistake to exploit." Shadow lifts Pyre up, and adjusts his positioning. Setting one of his legs forward and the other back. "You're heavier than most Charmander I've seen, so don't bother with speed, the only way I see you pulling off any speed is with Flare Blitz and I'm guessing you don't know that one yet."
Pyre nodded.
"Good, now we need to fix that dreadful flailing. Punch forward. Don't just swing your arms around. Only use wide swings like that if there is no way for the enemy to dodge, otherwise, corry yourself forward with your legs." Shadow held his arms out. "Hit me."
Pyre took in what Shadow said and punched his fist forward, slamming it straight into the Darkrai to no effect.
"Now advance while you punch, move forward while you attack."
Pyre pulled his right fist back, stepping forward on his left foot, only to throw his fist forward once again hitting the Darkrai, this time the added force nudged him back a bit.
"Good, now keep practicing that alone for a bit. Try punching the tree. I'll deal with physical conditioning later."
"Yes sir!" Pyre gave a goofy grin and a comical salute.
"Now then, as for you. I can use some of the same methods for you, but you're much faster naturally." Shadow looked down upon the Raichu. "Hit me."
Rai did as he was told, doing as he saw Pyre do. Again to no effect.
"You lack strength. But your speed will make up for it." Shadow thought for a moment. "Don't worry about power, you won't need it, focus on your speed. Dodge."
Suddenly Shadow swept his right leg up and began swinging it downward toward Rai who just barely dodged the attack.
"Good. Ultimately reaction time will be key, and improvising." Shadow looked at him. "Hmm, show me your battle position."
Rai crouched down onto all fours.
"Hmm, we aren't going to prioritize your tail. We're changing your battle position. On your feet!"
Rai looked at him quizzically.
"For what I'm teaching you two legs are better than four." Shadow spoke as Rai followed his instructions. "Pyre will have to rely entirely on his legs for movement so he can only use his fists, tail, and mouth for attacks. You are much more versatile." Shadow floated toward Rai. "Pyre was too relaxed, you're too rigid. To make the most of your speed you have to be relaxed and flexible. Fluid if you will." He pushed Rai's legs apart. "I'll show you more specifically later, but for now keep in mind that you need to keep one foot on the ground at all times, even if that foot is one of your hands. You're defenseless in the air unless you use electricity. So if you can't or don't want to risk hitting someone else, always stay on the ground. As an example."
Shadow floated back and rotated himself until he was upside down.
"Like this, if I use my legs I can still fight." He swung his legs around, spinning himself on his hand, before landing. "Using your body and it's momentum will help with your speed. Above All, for you to succeed in evasion or combat, you have to have stamina. So for your training. Constant movement. Move until you can't anymore, and at the same time, move across the terrain in different ways, get creative, use your tail to swing from trees, jump onto and push off of walls to keep your momentum going."
"That's a lot of information to remember."
"Lucky for you, my teaching method is muscle memory. We're going to work you until your body remembers even if you don't! Now do as I've told you for the rest of today, I'll find food for you. Starting tomorrow, I'll be training your bodies more than your minds." Shadow finally stopped speaking. And without warning he teleported away.
*That Night*
"You're so mean!" Pyre groaned, digging into a large apple Shadow brought back. "That training was baaaallls!"
"You want to improve, this is safer than how I learned it." Shadow replied.
"And how did you learn it?" Rai asked quietly eating some berries.
"The usual, people trying to murder me every day without fail." Shadow spoke nonchalantly, leaving the other to open mouthed at his response. "Like nobody has tried to kill you two?"
They remained silent.
"Amazing, they must have just been massive, what's the word I'm looking for a human said something earlier it was rather amusing. Oh they were just cunts."
Pyre chuckled "hehe Shadow said a bad word."
"There are so many things I wish to say to you, but I'm not going to. Even if I tried I couldn't hurt your surprisingly resilient feelings." Shadow sighed again.
"Well if nothing else I'm glad we're all friends!" Pyre walked up and hugged Shadow.
"Me too" Rai quickly joined in.
And though reluctant Shadow gave the tow a caring embrace as well.