Chapter 21

Feed Them Knuckles Honeysuckle

(-¤-)

I was right, he had dropped it, right before Marks Payback. Which I would be annoyed about if I wasn't snickering at the rest of video.

He wanted to make sure the camera was ok, so the next thing it showed after blackness was a super tight close up of Jacks face. His nose smudged up the lense and basically made the rest of video useless as it was filmed through dirt and snot.

But it was super cute and I was absolutely sending it to nurse Joy anyway. She would love it.

"Oh, I'm keeping this for forever." I closed the pokedex and pocketed it, happy with the video despite my original goal with it. "How are those donuts treating you dude?"

Mark grunted happily past the freshly fried dough he was chewing. The food cart smelled too good to resist and I figured he deserved a treat after that fantastic performance. Just a few however, I don't want him spewing chunks in his next battle because he over ate.

Though they certainly weren't any kind of doughnut I'd ever heard of. They were craggy and covered in powered sugar instead of glaze. The vendor called them 'sata-somethings', I couldn't remember.

Pretty tasty though, I could definitely get used to them.

The next official round should be anytime now. With the large amount of trainers and the limited number of prepped battlefields it was taking awhile, though I'm pretty sure the last ones were wrapping up. I had actually decided to come watch one of them as I waited.

The surprisingly determined bidoof sailed past its opponent in a Rollout, swerving away from the wall with only a slight loss of traction. Sneasel once again Taunted the beaver pokemon in an effort to get it to ram the wall behind them. A strategy that was coming closer and closer to fruition the faster Bidoof went.

Sneasel had proved to be incredibly agile and just as ruthless as Mark, using hit and run tactics to whittle down its opponent without exhausting itself in the process. Clearly using its hunting instincts to chip away at it current 'prey'.

Bidoof on the other hand had proven to be able to dish out some damage in its own right. Hyper fang was a destructive weapon in its jaws and the one hit it did land had almost finished the battle then and there. If not for sneasels quick reflexes and willingness to play dirty then it would have been. Bidoof couldn't stand a Screech directly in its ear and had let the snow weasel go to stop the admittedly horrifically loud sound.

Rollout gained speed as it went, closing the gap between it and the ever dashing sneasel with every pass. One would have to give at some point and soon, Sneasel was only dodging Bidoof by mere inches now and Bidoof had grinded against the wall twice now while trying to avoid a head on collision with it.

Cunning and claws proved the winner as sneasel swiped Bidoof with a Metal claw on its last pass, its paw taking massive damage in the process but proving well worth it as the beaver lost control in its momentum and smashed headlong into the densely packed dirt wall.

The ground shook with the impact and the crowd gave a hearty cheer at the reveal of the unconscious normal type. I clapped as well, it wasn't the most exciting match ever but it still was a hell of a fight nonetheless.

"THIS CONCLUDES THE LAST MATCH OF ROUND ONE!" The referee called out after announcing the winner. "ALL TRAINERS STILL IN THE RUNNING PLEASE REPORT TO THE MAIN DESK TO BE ASSIGNED THEIR NEXT BATTLE!"

Thats my cue, I rose to my feet and motioned for Mark to follow. He decided that he would take a page from Jacks book however and climb onto my shoulder instead of just walking behind me. He quickly downed his last dounghnut ball thing as he got comfortable.

Several other people got up with me to find their next opponent or watch someone elses battle.

Better get there quick or I'm gonna have to wait in line.

(-¤-)

"ON THE GREEN SIDE, TRENT BERYL! ON THE RED SIDE, ALICE THORN OF DELLITOWN! TRAINERS SELECT YOUR POKEMON!"

A paint covered ball entered my hand as I studied my new adversary. He was maybe fourteen, the patchy stubble of puberty struggled to grow on his chin and he already possessed that 'I don't give a fuck' expression most teens had. Probably entered this contest for weed money, it's something I would have done at his age.

Wait, do they have weed here? I need to look into that later.

Jack stood next to me with the pokedex again, with further instructions to not drop it this time. He rolled his eyes at me as he took it, probably not seeing the point in recording these.

"READY, BATTLE!"

I tossed the floral patterned ball into the arena, Karen fluttered out with grace and pompous dignity. Taking in her surroundings and puffing up a bit in pride as the crowd around us cooed at her cute and exotic appearance.

Her opponent materialized on all fours with an air of dismissive importance that held true to its feline origins. The luxio was stocky and graceful, keeping its eyes on my puffball as it groomed itself, static electricity popping off its tongue as it ran through its cerulean fur.

"Stun spore!"

"Double team."

Both pokemon reacted instantly, the cats form splitting into a myriad of mirror images, all of them moving in the same way, a sign that it was an amateur with the technique. But it was good enough to disguise its change in position with it causing the cloud of fiery golden powder to pass harmlessly through the illusion.

"Go up high and use Leech seed!" I barked, I was unsure of its moveset but if she was out of reach then all of its physical moves would be useless. Karen was a long distance fighter and had literally no reason to be within biting distance.

She shot up spraying Leech seeds as the clones dashed forward, the parasitic flora littering the field around her, rapidly sprouting and clinging to any purchase it could find. The images danced around in a bizarre simultaneous ballet, some even evaporating as they came into contact with the walls. No seeds made contact with the real Luxio but they helped us narrow down our options by a large amount as they passed through the artificial copies.

It left us with two options, right or left.

I scanned them as quickly as I could trying to decipher which was the real one, a master of double team could control each copy independently and with fluid movement causing confusion and uncoordinated attacks. It could change the tides very easily in the right hands. But this was a beginner, rife with mistakes and fuck ups.

Case in point.

"The one on the left has a shadow, use Stun spore!"

Luxio stumbled at being discovered for barely a moment, juking out of the way of the paralytic spores.

"Keep going, drench the place!"

Sparkling powder blasted all around as the feline scrambled to find any safe spot from the onslaught. Karen had really done a fantastic job with increasing her powder production in the past few weeks in an effort to set up for her teammates. The nasty substances were a reactive type of complex pseudo matter, basically chemicals that the body could synthesize in large amounts and throw around. Contact with skin triggered the reactions and the chemical compositions were too complex for pokemon to actually learn them, they were purely genetic moves and would most likely stay that way.

The powder fell to the floor in a gentle fog, the place slowly becoming saturated with the toxins. Each spot it covered became a hazard for the electric type as any direct contact would allow it to affect them. Though it was agile and quick, its flexible body and solid musculature allowing it to bound around the field with ease and powered grace. Its natural mastery of acrobatics allowing it to take the occasional electric potshot on its trainers orders, Thundershocks lancing through the air like spears seeking purchase and clawing at Karen. most missing but a few clipping her and making her hiss in pain. It was only a matter of time until it fucked up a landing or ran out of places to jump to.

Lets speed that up a bit, I was getting hungry again. As good as those donuts were, they weren't super filling.

"Swift, don't give it time to think"

"Thundershock!"

Stars and lightning violently crashed in the middle, negating each other with a crackling bang. The grass type dove down into the ensuing smoke unprompted and slammed the ground with a sweeping fairy wind. The gust of anti-draconic wind was crafted to cover as much of an area as possible with no after thought to damage.

Fairy wind was just a fairy type version of Gust. The wind itself had no real effect on the opponent, it was simply a method of throwing the rich energy laced within. The tighter the stream of air the more energy one could deliver. The way she used it here I would be surprised if the luxio even felt an itch. Though hurting the cat clearly wasn't her goal.

The spore laden ground was suddenly swept up in a surging wave of gold that left no room for dodging. Amber waves licked at the shields protecting the bystanders as it slammed against the walls. The luxio had nowhere to run and no way to avoid it, having been lost in the cloud, unharmed by any of the thinly stretched fairy type energy.

It leapt from the mass with a whirring snarl, sparks coating it body as it dove for my cottonee, who was now near ground level.

It seized up mid jump however, its muscles spasming from the crippling spores that dug into its coat. The cat landed harshly with a rolling thump. They struggled for a moment to stand but was interrupted as Karen spat Leech seeds onto its back in copious amounts. Vines burst forth seeking purchase in the fur and siphoning energy from the pokemon.

The cat, now laden with two temporary ailments, attempted to zap its opponent with another Thundershock only for Karen to throw up a Protect. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done any major damage to her with her typing but I suspected that it was more to protect her fur than herself.

It was met with a face full of Razor leaves for its transgressions and stumbled away with muscles jerking in odd ways. A light coat of stun spore would have just made it slow and occasionally feel the halting effects, but they were drenched in the clinging stuff and dealing with an incredibly large dose.

"Mega drain, and fly back up." She huffed at me, but flapped her leaves raising herself up far out of reach. She received a shot from Luxio but once again halted it with a protect.

She treated the rest of the fight more like a chore than a battle, casually draining the cat of its energies and keeping herself in good health. Occasionally throwing some Razor leaves when she felt that it was taking to long to go down.

Luxio did their best, trying to dodge or deflect the grass type moves with thunder shocks but it hindered movements and lack of ranged attacks ultimately led to its defeat. Karen fluttered back to me as her opponent gasped for breath on the field, one more stumbling step and then consciousness finally left the wildcat.

"LUXIO IS UNABLE TO BATTLE, ALICE THORN PROCEEDS TO THE NEXT ROUND!"

Grass types were rarely powerhouses, having no one particular stat that they excelled at. Their usefulness came from their ability to completely disable their opponents with status conditions and vampiric techniques. Grass type masters were bastards to deal with, being able to make even the strongest dragons into harmless lumps of pathetic. Even a nearly maimed grass type can be a major danger due to the almost inherent ability to rapidly heal themselves using their enemies own stored energies.

Karens ability to fly was uncommon for her typing, with only a handful of other grass types that could as well. It gave her the advantage of maneuverability and becoming practically immune to physical attacks so long as she could keep away from her opponent. Most trainers later figure out how to circumvent this by either giving their pokemon multiple ranged attacks or closing the gap in some way.

She landed on my head, nose stuck up in the air in pride at her victory. Fur in primo condition and ready for another battle from draining the cat to its last. At least I assume she was being smug up there, my vision doesn't exactly go up that far.

I picked up my pokedex, thanked Jack as I returned him, and began making my way to the sideline to shake the guys hand but stopped as I watched him storm off. Guess even in other realities guys don't like getting beaten up by little girls. That's fine I didn't want him to touch me anyway.

Someone was already getting to work on cleaning up the field. The rhydon from earlier taking care to gather the top most layer of soil and Stun spore, shoved it up and out of the pit to be stored on the sidelines until the powder disintegrated in a few hours. Contact with oxygen would deteriorate it until it was gone completely, there were ways to store it for medical reasons though, I could personally attest to that.

This match was much later than the last, only a few more until the next round. So I don't have alot of time to do stuff, but I'm sure I have enough for a snack.

I walked across the park, gently swerving around the people milling about and chatting. The lively atmosphere reminded me of a lazy carnival. Strangers gathering for a show and cheering for people they had never met before and making friends, both temporary and permanent.

A few more food stands had gone up the time it had taken the current round to start. Some people had even started tailgating, simple charcoal grills seared seasoned meat and veggies. The scents mixed together into something delightful and complex, full of smokey flavor and cinnamon sweet fragrances.

Music danced through the air as some of the locals strummed on guitars, drums, and odd foreign instruments that I had no names for. Each played there own song, clashing with each other into a relaxing background noise that shifted and changed as I passed by.

The noise and cheer around me revealed the true purpose of this tournament, it was an excuse to go out. For people to hang out with friends or couples to go on dates. It wasn't huge, but it didn't take hundreds of people to have a good time.

I got in line at one of the food carts, a small thing dragged from the back of a truck. The smell of grease and salt was accompanied by the sound of something searing against fire hot steel. I saw the girl at the front leave with a small loaf of bread stuffed with shredded meat and practically dripping spice covered molten cheese. Oh man that looks good.

"Excuse me, your Alice, correct?"

I turned to the voice behind me, confused as to why anyone here was talking to me. What I found was a woman in her late thirties, black hair pulled into a bun, pointed jaw that held a curious smile, with a nose a little on the larger side. She wore her look well, the brown cotton jacket and circular wire frame glasses made her seem casually academic.

"Who's asking?"

"Hi, my names Dr. Brooke," She extended a hand with a smile, "I saw your last battle, impressive stuff."

I hesitated for a moment at her offered hand but grabbed her palm and gave it a tentative shake "Thanks, Karen here just loves putting pokemon in their place." The puffball trilled at her, already so sure that this new person was beneath her as well.

"She's a cottonee, yes?" She gazed at my puffball with curiosity, "Those are native to Unova, are you from there?"

"Nah, I'm from Dellitown just north of Eterna forest." I answered before tacking on a bit of false advertising, "You should check it out sometime, fun place, lots to do."

Such as getting attacked by a rampaging tauros, starring sadly at what used to be hot springs and blackmailing the local politicians. Much better than Jubilife, all they had was thieves and a broken forklift.

"I'll have to take your word for it, my work keeps me from going too far."

"What do you do?" A question that I would have found polite but boring in my past life was a bit more interesting here. It could be anything from office worker to being an anime protagonist nowadays.

"I'm a researcher at the Celestic Town Historical Research Center, I examine and care for the more delicate artifacts." Huh, history nerd. Come to think of it I don't actually know alot of this places history. I just skimmed a quick summary of the past fifty years, probably didn't retain much of it.

"Well I'm a pokemon trainer, and occasionally I kick people's teeth in." She raised an eyebrow at my job description.

"Kick peoples teeth in?"

"Yeah, I had a run in with some dumbass pokemon thieves in Jubilife a few weeks back." The thought of breaking that mans molars made my heart flutter for a moment, ah memories. "I wrecked their whole operation, even got some cash from it."

I wasn't bragging just to make myself look good, I was also doing it to help get my name out there. The best advertising is word of mouth, if I can leave an intresting impression on her she might tell some other people about me. That's sorta my job after all. Besides, if I get famous enough then I might start getting job offers. I probably won't take anything permanent but the occasional odd job would be nice.

"Well you are just a little spitfire!" Huh, that might be the nicest way I've ever been called a bitch before, I like it.

"That's one word for it."

I turned as I reached the front of the line and ordered the bread and meat thing I had seen earlier, as well as a drink. The sounds of scraping metal and sizzling cheese coming from deep inside the trailer egged on my hunger, the donuts from before all but digested and forgotten.

"ATTENTION REMAINING TRAINERS, ROUND TWO IS OVER," Oh that was quick, "PLEASE REPORT TO THE FRONT DESK FOR YOUR NEXT MATCH ASSIGNMENT!"

"Looks like I gotta go," I handed the man a paper bill and told him keep the change as he gave me my heart attack on a bun, "Nice talking to you, but I got some bitches to beat down."

And I hoofed it to the quickly forming line several dozen feet away, trying not to burn my tongue on my new piping hot meal.

(-¤-)

Alice Thorn

May 4


Team

Jack

Buneary

Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense Curl, Baby Doll Eyes, Quick Attack, Jumpkick, Shadow Ball, Low Kick, Swagger, Protect, Fire Punch

Ability Limber

Luke

Golbat

Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind, Wing attack, Confuse ray, Air Cutter, Swift, Protect

Ability Inner focus

Karen

Cottonee

Moves: Absorb, Fairy Wind, Growth, Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Mega Drain, Poison Powder, Protect, Swift, Razor Leaf, Cotton Spore

Ability Infiltrator

Mark

Scraggy

Moves: Leer, Headbutt, Sand Attack, Feint Attack, Swagger, Low Kick, Dragon Dance, Protect, Endure, Facade, Pay Back

Ability Moxie


3306¥


In Box

N/A


I could not upload this chapter via my phone, which is what I write these on. So I had to use my computer this time. Also I found out that if you filter the pokemon fics by followers and exclude Ash this story pops up on the second page, which is insane to me. This story has gotten alot more popular than I ever expected and I'm so glad you all decided to stick around to find out what my idiot does next.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to leave a Review!