Monday, September 18th, 2017
The Pokemon Center ended up wanting Pachirisu to stay for an extra day, so after a full weekend off we were finally ready to depart on Monday morning. Though before we could actually leave, I had to check in with one of the Nurse Joys to officially get Pachirisu discharged. Once I had vacated the room that they had let me stay in, I made my way over to the front desk to talk to a Joy that I was pretty sure I hadn't met yet. While we were talking, Pachirisu wandered back and forth on Joy's desk as she curiously inspected everything that was on it.
"Now she shouldn't do anything strenuous for at least a week," the Nurse Joy told me seriously. "That means no battles, though some training would still be a good idea to make sure that she's getting exercise. Her stitches should fall out on their own, so there's no need to worry about that."
I mutely nodded my agreement, especially since I wasn't terribly upset with the no battling restriction. After losing almost four days on the way to Brainerd, I had no interest in battling any other trainers that we came across. That said, I was curious to see what moves she already knew and was looking forward to getting in some training. With any luck, she would be fully healed by the time we arrived in Brainerd and would be a big help in the gym battle. One of the Sneasel had clearly been paralyzed so she either had Static or knew an electric move, and the latter would currently put her ahead of Peren when it came to effectiveness against water types.
Nurse Joy gave me a few more instructions on taking care of Pachirisu to ensure her full recovery, then gave me permission to return my new Pokemon. Once I'd assured Pachirisu that I was only returning her only for a bit, I affixed Pachirisu's now occupied Pokeball next to Peren and Blitz's on my shirt. Finally, I thanked the Nurse for all of they did over the last few days and left the Pokemon Center to resume the trail north, though there was one other stop that I had to make first. With all of the free time that we'd had over the weekend, I'd completely burned through the 'The Great Gastly,' so I wanted to get that one returned and pick up another book for the road.
Twenty minutes later I had checked out a copy of 'A Tale of Two Skitties' and was back at the start of the trail that would bring us to Brainerd. I tapped the buttons on all three of my Pokeballs and smiled when Pachirisu cheeped excitedly as soon as she saw the other Pokemon when all three had materialized on the trail. Peren seemed equally happy to see our newest member while Blitz's reaction was limited to a few pleased chirps before he took off to land on the nearest tree in order to stare down at us.
Amused by the impatient look that I was already getting from Blitz, I returned my attention to Patchirisu and asked, "Is it alright if I pick you up?" Asking seemed like the right thing to do, and I didn't want to find out the hard way if it turned out that she did have Static. She looked up at me for a moment, confused by my question, and then nodded so I knelt down to carefully lift her off the ground. I experimentally lifted her a few feet and found that she was a bit heavier than I had expected, but was still definitely light enough to not be an issue to carry. After setting her back down, I said, "Why don't you try walking for a while and let us know when you start to get tired. I can carry you the rest of the way after that." Pachirisu considered for a few seconds and then nodded once Peren softly added something as well.
Now that we were all squared away, we set out with Pachirisu walking in front of Peren and me, while Blitz flew ahead on the path as usual. We ended up moving a decent amount slower because Pachirisu was setting the pace, but that wasn't a concern since I was just glad to be making progress again. Because we were walking slower, Blitz ended up spending a good amount of time looking behind at us, though I got the impression that he was watching over Pachirisu rather than complaining about our speed.
Even if Blitz did have issues with our pace, it didn't last long since it took less than twenty minutes before Pachirisu stopped and chirped something at Peren and me. I knelt down again to pick her up but hesitated when I noticed that she had started staring at the ground dejectedly.
"Hey, it's alright," I tried to assure her, "I'm sure you'll be fully recovered in no time, and I really don't mind." Pachirisu paused before slowly moving to my awaiting hands and I lifted her off the ground as I stood back up. I held her somewhat awkwardly for a moment before moving her farther up so that she could climb onto my backpack via my shoulder. Holding her in my arms for long distances would get old fast and I wouldn't really notice a couple of extra pounds on my back given that I'd gotten used to the weight of my backpack. I wasn't able to get a good look at how she was situated, but after a few seconds I stopped feeling any shifting so I asked, "You good now?" Once I'd gotten an affirmative 'Paac,' I resumed moving on the trail north.
We had only been moving for about another ten minutes when several things happened at once. The first was that I heard Pachirisu softly say something. The second was I heard a 'zzzt' noise followed by a soft humming. Finally, I tripped and came close to faceplanting, but thankfully I was able to catch myself and barely stayed on my feet. Peren immediately stopped to give me a concerned look while the one that I got from Blitz was much closer to reproachful.
Ignoring the two of them for now, I craned my head around so that I could barely see Pachirisu and asked, "Sorry about that, you doing alright?" She slowly nodded and looked surprisingly abashed. I moved to the edge of the trail and carefully took off my backpack so that I could check on her. Once I was able to get a better look at her, I saw that she seemed fine but still wouldn't look right at me. "I'm not sure what happened there, but don't worry about it."
Despite my reassurance, Pachirisu still looked unsure, which in turn made me unsure as to what I should say. I was ultimately saved by Peren who softly grunted something and Pachirisu scampered over to his side after a split second. Without slowing down, Pachirisu climbed up Peren's legs and settled down so she was sitting on his back. For a moment I considered objecting since my impression was that young deer were fairly fragile and didn't have particularly strong backs, but cut myself off. All of the battles that Peren had been in already had proven that he was anything but fragile and I trusted him enough to not hurt himself.
With a shrug, I lifted my backpack back up but paused upon realizing that it was significantly lighter than I had expected. I quickly unzipped it and searched through the contents, afraid that a library book or one of one my new Potions had fallen out, but thankfully nothing was missing. Oddly, the inside lining of the backpack had turned black instead of light-gray and I realized that I could still hear the soft humming from before coming from my backpack. With a sudden idea, I ignored the odd looks that I was getting from my Pokemon and grabbed a decent-sized rock that lay at the edge of the trail. I carefully dropped the rock into my backpack and then experimentally picked the backpack up again.
A wide grin appeared on my face as I looked up at my Pokemon and exclaimed, "It's a bag of holding!" They weren't nearly as excited about the revelation as I was, with Peren and Pachirisu sharing a confused look while Blitz shifted back and forth on his branch impatiently. Undeterred, I attempted to explain, "I mean there's more space on the inside than out. And the stuff inside is weightless! Pachirisu, did you charge it?"
When my newest Pokemon slowly nodded, I enthusiastically thanked her before getting another idea and moved on to the final test of my backpack's new capabilities. I unlatched my lightweight tent from where it was attached and slowly lowered it into the backpack and my smile only grew larger when the entire tent fit inside.
"See what I mean?" I asked with a flourish of my hands and Peren's eyes went wide as it finally dawned on him. After zipping the main pouch shut and slinging the blissfully light pack back on my shoulders, I was finally ready to start moving again. With a contented sigh, I rejoined my Pokemon on the trail and eagerly continued the path to Brainerd.
Between my lightened load and the fact that we were all well-rested, we ended up covering a significant amount of ground on the day's hike despite the slow start. It rained off and on throughout the day, but it wasn't enough to slow us down much. With Friday's miserable hike through the rain in mind, I had purchased a pair of jeans and a water-resistant fall jacket at a thrift store over the weekend so the rain barely bothered me today. The fact that I got both for only twenty-five dollars hadn't hurt either.
Once we'd reached a suitable spot and finished setting up camp, Peren and Blitz were both more than ready to continue their training. Peren still had a bit of work to do with learning Bullet Seed since the seeds were still opening mid-air which meant I didn't have to give him any direction at the moment. On the other hand, Blitz's extra training in St Cloud had clearly paid off since he could now Pluck leaves off of trees with very minimal damage to his targets. I decided that I would give him one more day of Pluck practice before moving him onto a new move. Wing Attack seemed like it would be a good next step since my estimation was that it would be like a Peck except with putting the extra energy into his wings instead of his beak.
That left me with figuring out what to train Pachirisu with, though the choice was fairly obvious considering where we were heading. The fact that she had charged my backpack made me fairly sure that she knew an electric move, and given that she was still recovering I thought it made sense to work on something she already knew. That said, today was her first day out of the Pokemon Center so I decided it would be prudent to put off her training for at least one day. I was just about to tell her that she could watch Peren and Blitz with me for today when I felt a light tap on one of my legs. When I looked down I saw Pachirisu staring back up at me while she earnestly pointed farther into the woods.
I barely refrained from asking if Timmy had fallen down a well, instead crouching down to ask, "What's up?" She excitedly chittered something in reply and took several exaggerated steps in the direction she was pointing. I wasn't sure where this was going but shrugged, "Sure I'll come with." Pachirisu bounced up and down at the news but before we could take more than a few steps we were intercepted by my other two Pokemon who didn't look particularly impressed with what Pachirisu and I were about to do. I almost protested, but after a moment of thought, I realized that they had a point given that we were pretty close to where we had fought off the Sneasel.
"Well, we can't all go," I said, trying to maintain at least some illusion that I was in charge, "Someone needs to stay back and watch the campsite." Peren and Blitz looked at each other for a few seconds before Blitz reluctantly flew back to a branch above the tent. Once I'd thanked him and told him to call us back if something came up, the rest of us started walking through the forest with Pachirisu leading the way. Like my last trip through these woods, I was stuck maneuvering around shrubs, fallen logs, and roots while my Pokemon were more or less unaffected by the undergrowth.
It was likely closer to five, but after what felt like fifteen minutes later we finally arrived at what appeared to be our destination. Unlike the rest of the dense forest, this section only had a few trees in what was an otherwise oddly well-maintained clearing. Pachirisu walked right into the clearing and Peren and I were about to follow her, but we both halted in our tracks at the same time when we noticed another detail about the grove. It was absolutely crawling with Pokemon, and of the least ten different species of Pokemon, exactly none of them looked pleased to see us.
Completely unconcerned by the grove's occupants, Pachirisu cheerfully continued walking forward until she stopped only several feet away from one of the large tree trunks. She bent down before turning around and started walking back towards Peren and me holding two large blue berries under her nubby arms. I had slowly moved one of my hands to Pachirisu's Pokeball so that I could return her in an instant if something went wrong, but none of the wild Pokemon moved to stop her. When she reached us, she happily held out the two berries to me which I gratefully took while keeping an eye on the wild Pokemon who were still intently watching.
Once the handoff was complete, Pachirisu turned around to head back into the grove before she was stopped by a quiet noise from Peren. She hesitated for a second before turning back around and rejoining us at the treeline. Now that she was back with us, I slowly began backing away from the clearing, trying to simultaneously watch the Pokemon and not trip on anything on the ground. After about a dozen steps, I finally felt that it was safe to turn around and the three of us quickly returned back to the campsite with Peren's ears occasionally flicking back behind us as we went.
One thing that I was sure of was that I wasn't going to accompany Pachirisu the next time she wanted to go berry hunting.
Saturday, September 23rd, 2017
John arrived in Hinckley a little bit before noon and immediately made a beeline for the brunch restaurant that his parents had recommended. The prospect of eating actual food instead of the prepackaged stuff that he had been living off of for the last week had made him decide to skip breakfast so that he could get into town as early as possible. Unfortunately, it had taken a bit longer than expected, so he was completely ravenous by the time he actually arrived.
Luckily there wasn't a wait at Flaafy's Bakery and John was able to score a seat outside where he could eat his omelet while his Pokemon enjoyed the poffins of their preferred flavor. Well, other than Rockruff who didn't seem to have any particular preference. Back in his Showdown days, John would have referred to it as a neutral nature and would have questioned anyone who was running a Pokemon with one, but now he knew better. While the simulator did have some basis in reality and for some reason, a Pokemon's flavor preferences affected their battle prowess, it was such a minor difference that no reasonable trainer took it seriously.
Speaking of Rockruff, John looked down at his starter and smiled as she tried her best to corral her fellow Pokemon into actually eating their meals. If her position as the 'mom' of the team hadn't already been existed from trying to keep Wooper on task, it had definitely been cemented after John's second catch. Nidoran's excitability put him on the opposite end of the spectrum from Wooper's laziness, but that just meant that the pair's constant distractions had different sources. John had tried to tell Rockruff several times that she wasn't responsible for her teammates, but so far that hadn't made a difference.
Despite his Pokemon's oddities slowing them down, all four of them finished eating around the same time and peacefully sat around as they waited for the waitress to come back with John's card. Once that was done, they would be heading over to the gym which John was pretty sure was going to be a piece of cake. None of his Pokemon were weak to fire and two of them had effective moves. He knew that there was always a possibility of another Wingul situation, but now he had significantly more flexibility in his team than he'd had when he'd been stuck fighting Sally for a week.
John's musings about his upcoming gym challenge were interrupted when Rockruff suddenly sat up, sniffed the air, and then padded away from the table that they had eaten at. Before John could ask her what was going on, a girl's voice cut through the air from the direction of the town's main road, "Hey! Come back here!"
For a second John figured that a kid had just run away from his family, but that notion was quickly disproven when a Houndour rounded the corner and ran right up to Rockruff. The newcomer immediately began trying to lick Rockruff but she quickly put an end to that by pushing him backward with one paw. Somewhat reluctantly Houndour sat down but was almost bouncing up and down with excitement as it cheerfully began barking at Rockruff.
With a solid sense of déjà vu, John turned away from the conversing Pokemon and back towards the direction that Houndour had come from. As expected, he saw a girl about his age furtively looking around so John waved to her and called out, "Hey Cait! Over here!"
She turned around, looking both surprised and confused for a second until she spotted Houndour and her expression switched to being completely mortified. After a small pause, she jogged over to where John was seated and quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry. Houndy knows better than to run off like that." Her second sentence was accompanied by a glare directed at her Pokemon who whined apologetically.
John waved her off with a laugh, "No worries. You know, this is actually the same way that I met Thomas."
For some reason, Cait cringed at that, "Me too actually…"
John wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but it made him remember the other thing that Thomas had told him about their meeting. "That means you're going to challenge me to a battle then?" He asked with a grin.
Cait winced again and hedged, "I mean, we don't have to battle."
"Nah, let's do it. It'll be a good warmup for the gym," John said while wondering why in the world Thomas had described the person in front of him as intense. Before Cait could reply, the waitress came back with John's bill and after quickly adding a tip and signing, he was ready to go.
When John looked back up Cait, she looked conflicted but agreed nonetheless, "Alright sure. Let's battle."
"Awesome. I think I saw an open field we could battle in while I was walking over here," John said as he stood and motioned for his Pokemon to follow. Wooper had become slightly better about walking at a decent pace so it was no longer necessary for John to return him if they were moving more than a few hundred feet. Cait joined John at the front of their little convoy through town with their Pokemon taking up the rear as expected. If it hadn't been for Rockruff, John would have wanted to keep an eye on his team as they walked, but he was confident that she would stop Wooper or Nidoran from wandering off even with Houndy excitedly yipping in her ear.
John's thoughts on his beleaguered starter were interrupted when Cait spoke up shortly after they had left the restaurant, "So which gym did you beat?"
"How'd you know I'd beaten one?"
"The card you paid with," Cait said with a shrug. "Those are the ones that they use for gym rewards."
John felt a bit sheepish about his oversight, "Ah right. Well, Thomas and I actually beat the St Cloud gym in a double battle."
John had expected Cait to be somewhat surprised at the news that they had completed a gym battle together, but was disappointed when she just hummed thoughtfully. "That makes sense. I've heard that Aeric likes to make his battles as interesting as possible."
"Where'd you hear that? I grew up in St Cloud and never heard he was like that."
"Trainers like to gossip," she replied non-committally, "Everyone I've spoken with has had some story about that gym."
"Fair enough I guess. Actually, speaking of gossip, did you hear what exactly happened with Thomas and his Pachirisu? Tammy didn't tell me much other than it was badly hurt."
Cait frowned, "I don't actually know either." After a pause, she continued more quietly, "I didn't want to pry."
John didn't consider himself particularly observant when it came to people, but it was obvious that was something about Thomas that made Cait uncomfortable. To use her own words though, John didn't want to pry so he decided not to press the issue and they walked the last few minutes to the field in silence.
Once they'd arrived at the clearing that John had seen and deemed it suitable for a battle, they moved to opposite ends and John asked, "What sort of battle do you want to do?" He still hadn't battled any trainers other than Sally and Aeric, and he knew that those weren't exactly normal challenges. He'd battled a few wild Pokemon on his way to Hinckley but hadn't met any other trainers that wanted to fight. In a way, it felt right for his first casual battle would be against one of his 'rivals'.
The tail end of their walk had gotten Cait out of whatever mood she had been in before they went quiet and after a moment of consideration, she suggested, "How about a best of three? I already know your Pokemon so you can choose your Pokemon and the Pokeball of which Pokemon I'll use for that round." As she spoke, Cait unclipped three Pokeballs from her sidebag and set them on the ground in front of her.
"Sounds good to me!" John said and instinctively tried to make out the shapes from within the Pokeballs, before quickly catching himself. They weren't battling with any sorts of stakes but he still didn't want to do anything unsportsmanlike such as choosing advantageous matchups when it was supposed to be random. Thankfully because of the distance, he hadn't even been able to tell which of the Pokeballs was empty, which would have marked it as Houndy's. "Let's start with Nidoran and the left ball!"
At his name, Nidoran separated from where the other three Pokemon sat on an approximation of a sideline and eagerly moved to stand in front of John. Meanwhile, Cait leaned down and tapped the button on the Pokeball that he'd chosen, and after a flash of red light a Poliwag appeared in front of Cait.
"You've got this Poli!" Cait said with an encouraging fist pump and the Pokemon bounced up and down enthusiastically. Oddly, Cait had pronounced the Pokemon's nickname as 'Pole-e' instead of 'Pall-e' like John would have expected.
With both of their Pokemon read, John and Cait nodded at each other and John gave the first order, "Let's get started with Poison Sting Nidoran!" John knew that it didn't have the best odds of actually happening, but inflicting Poli with poison would be a great way to start off the battle.
"Bubble Wall!" Cait called out and any questions John had about the attack were immediately answered as Poli sprayed a wide arc of bubbles that formed a semi-circle between it and Nidoran. The lack of wind meant that the wall of bubbles stayed in place, giving John a slightly refracted and blurry view of his opponents.
With an unexpected barrier in his way, Nidoran stopped his charge to look back at John for instructions but his trainer was equally perplexed. "Uh, try Pecking through the wall," John suggested and Nidoran began the slow process of using his horn to burst enough bubbles that he could get through the wall without touching any of them.
Nidoran had barely made any progress before Cait gave her next command, "Hypnosis!" Almost immediately, the bubble wall began to shimmer with an enchanting purple hue that fully captured John's attention for several seconds until he caught himself.
Shifting his gaze back down to Nidoran, John saw that his Pokemon had similarly been entranced and had stopped hitting the wall. "Snap out of it Nidoran! Forget trying to pop 'em and just run right through!" Thankfully, John's words made it through to the Pokemon and Nidoran shook his head for a moment before resuming his charge straight through the bubbles that were between him and Poli, wincing as each one popped on him along the way. The one good news was that Poli had gotten stuck in its own Hypnosis attack and was still focused on maintaining the move despite Cait's warning. With his target being fully stationary, Nidoran was able to jab his horn into the center of the spiral on Poli's stomach.
Even though Nidoran's horn had been oozing poisonous goop, John didn't think that Poli had been poisoned which made a quick follow-up all the more important. "Don't let it recover! Use Double Kick!" With Poli still reeling from the hit, Nidoran was easily able to take another step forward before kicking out twice… and completely whiffing both blows.
While John groaned and Nidoran tried to regain his footing, Cait quickly moved to take back the initiative, "Icy Wind!" Not wasting the opportunity that Nidoran's missed had given it, Poli inflated itself for a moment before blowing a chilling wind out of the center of its spiral. The blast of cold wind hit Nidoran right in the face and all of the remaining bubbles were popped or blown away. Even from across the field John shivered as the cold wind blew over him and when he looked he saw that Nidoran was badly shaking.
John was about to give another order before realizing how much worse the attack would have been for Nidoran. Not only was his Pokemon much closer to the attack, Nidoran was completely soaking from having to force his way through the bubbles. It was honestly a miracle that he hadn't been frozen by the attack. "Hey Nidoran, go warm up. I'll forfeit this one," John called across the field, not wanting to force his Pokemon to continue to fight in such bad conditions.
Cait nodded, "Sure. Houndy, help Nidoran out please." The named Pokemon loped over to Nidoran's side and breathed hot air over the shivering poison type until he looked a bit better. After a few seconds of basking in the heat, Nidoran grunted something before heading over to the sidelines while flanked by Cait's two Pokemon.
"Thanks!" John called across the field and Cait simply accepted his thanks with a shrug. Once Nidoran was good and the field was clear, John called on his next Pokemon, "Let's go with Wooper versus the center ball!"
Cait grinned at John's choice and she leaned down to press the button on the middle Pokeball, which told John that the last match would be a battle between their starters. The typings there would give him the advantage, so he would be in good shape if he could make it to the third bout. He was slightly worried about Cait's smile though. His musings changed to general confusion when Cait pressed the button on her second Pokeball and while there was the expected flash of red light, no Pokemon appeared. Just as quickly as it came, John's confusion morphed to appall when he heard a very familiar buzzing coming from Cait's side of the field.
"You caught one of those things?" John asked incredulously.
Cait's eager smile was instantly replaced with an annoyed frown, "Hey, not all Cutiefly are bad. Flit is a wonderful Pokemon."
John was barely able to stop himself from derisively snorting. It was true that there was nothing wrong with Cutiefly, but as far as he was concerned the same couldn't be said about Minnesotan Cutiefly. He'd lost track of how many camping trips that Erin had dragged him on that had been ruined by the unofficial state flying type. At least it looked like he wouldn't have to deal with its ability since Flit's would have activated by now if it was capable of doing so.
"Are you ready?" Cait asked, and John winced at her flat tone. He hadn't meant to be rude, but he also never would have even considered catching something that everyone he knew had been tormented by at least once.
"Yeah, sorry," John replied and hoped that Cait picked up that he was apologizing for his reaction as well as the delay of the match. Her only response though was a curt nod so John decided to just focus on the battle and give Wooper his first command, "Keep an eye out for it and Water Gun it out of the sky!" Minnesotan Cutiefly were even smaller than their usual counterparts which meant that they were harder to hit, but also that single attack was almost guaranteed to knock it out of the air.
Cait's smile quickly returned as Wooper raised his head and began turning back and forth while trying to spot his opponent. Despite Wooper's efforts, there was nothing but a slight buzz to signal Flit's presence and after a couple of seconds Cait called out, "Supersonic!"
The buzzing quickly grew loud enough to make it hard to think clearly, mostly because of how annoying it was. Thankfully, Wooper had just learned a move that would hopefully be able to deal with this. "Use Haze," John called before covering his ears to block out some of the buzzing. While Wooper continued tracking his head back and forth looking for his opponent, he opened his mouth wide and began to spew out a dark gray fog. Wooper was engulfed almost immediately and the fog continued creeping outwards to cover the whole battlefield. Slowly the volume of the buzzing decreased until it was almost completely deafened, making John sigh in relief.
"Nice idea!" Cait's muffled voice came from the other side of the clearing, "But now Wooper won't see Flit coming! Poison Sting!"
"Shit, she's right," John quietly muttered when he realized that he could barely see his own Pokemon through the fog, which meant that it would be almost impossible for Wooper to see Flit's tiny form. For the second time in scant few minutes, he cursed the windless day before desperately repeating his first command, "Try to spot it coming and use Water Gun!"
John strained to see through the fog but the most that he could make out was what he thought looked like Wooper pivoting around. Though the fact that Wooper kept loudly saying his own name didn't make John think that the exchange was going particularly well. The fog slowly started to disperse but it was too little too late since Wooper slumped over on the grass almost as soon as John was clearly able to see his Pokemon.
John sighed and called out, "Congrats on the win," before jogging onto the field to check on Wooper. He winced when he saw some purple ooze coming out of a spot on the back of Wooper's head and quickly returned the Pokemon. The Pokemon Center would easily be able to cure the poison and there was no sense in making Wooper suffer through it in the meantime.
"Thanks, but don't you want to keep going?" Cait asked from nearby and when John looked up he saw that she had joined him on the field.
"Nah," John replied with a shrug, "We said best of three and you won the first two so…" Plus after how poorly the first two matches had gone, he wouldn't have been surprised if it turned out that Houndy had some surprise method of beating Rockruff.
Cait was silent for a moment before disappointedly answering, "Oh. Well, are you heading over to the gym next then?"
"Well, Pokemon Center first and then maybe. Don't know though," John admitted and sighed again, "I thought I was ready, but now I don't know. I just realized that I'm like one and five now when it comes to battles without Thomas's help."
"Did you not compete in any battle tents either?" Cait asked and John could hear clear bafflement in her question.
"We didn't really have them in St Cloud, so I focused on Showdown instead for getting practice. Aeric made it clear that was the wrong choice."
Cait considered for a few seconds before exclaiming, "We should train together then; I'll help you out!"
Now very aware of where Thomas's opinion on Cait came from, John shook his head, "Thanks, but no. I need to learn to be independent sooner than later. I can't go from relying on Thomas to you."
Cait's expression fell in an instant and she waved her hands in a frantic apology, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so pushy."
Not sure how she had gotten that impression, John quickly assured her that it was fine before conceding, "But, uh, some tips would be nice."
Cait hesitated as if she didn't believe John before finally answering, "Well first you should work on Nidoran's accuracy. You probably would have won if that Double Kick hadn't missed."
John frowned at the suggestion and protested, "Yeah, but that's because of Hustle. He'll just grow out of it when he evolves and gets Sheer Force."
"That's no reason to ignore it," Cait insisted. "Think of it this way, if you work on his accuracy now then you'll eventually have a Nidoking who's super strong and super accurate."
John had to admit that sounded pretty appealing. "So what about the second battle then?"
"You were close there too. You just need to make sure that Wooper leaves an air bubble for himself so he isn't completely blinded too."
While he wasn't sure how to go about teaching that, John once again knew a good idea when he heard it. Maybe Wooper had gotten a good look at what Poli did when it used Bubble and they could use that as a starting point. John nodded to himself, glad to have the beginnings of a plan before sincerely saying, "Thanks for the tips. Good luck at the gym."
A genuine smile came across Cait's face, "Thanks. Good luck yourself and I'll see you around then."
After allowing their Pokemon a few more minutes to say goodbye, John made his way over to the Pokemon Center and then returned to the field that they had battled in to get started on training. Cait had said that the fights had been close, but John knew that he had a lot of catching up to do.
Sunday, September 24th, 2017
I relaxed on a park bench while Peren lay on the ground next to me and I reflected on our travels over the last few days. We were finally almost to Brainerd and if my estimates were right we would arrive early afternoon tomorrow. It had rained a fair amount since we'd left St Cloud, but thankfully it was never enough to force us to take shelter so at most it was a minor nuisance. The other reason that we had been going a bit slower than we could have was for Scout's sake. That was partially so she could continue to recover and partially because of the reason that I was sitting on this bench in the first place.
After that first day, she had begun to run off to collect berries whenever the opportunity presented itself, which in turn had led to her nickname. I hadn't gone with after the first time and had stayed back with either Peren or Blitz while the other had accompanied Scout as a guard. I'd collected a pretty good stock of berries at this point which was certainly appreciated as an extra food source for the Pokemon if nothing else. I'd done some research to see if there was anything else that could be done with them and had found that turning them into Pokeblocks was a trivially easy task. It turned out that most Pokemon Centers had a machine in their kitchens that would take care of the process for you, which was something that I planned to look into before or after the gym battle since I'd already confirmed that Brainerd had one of the machines.
Peren and I sat there for a few more minutes as I absently petted his head until we heard a screech coming from the direction that Blitz and Scout had gone. This time I reacted instantly and jumped to my feet at the same time as Peren, and within seconds we were running towards the noise. I wasn't entirely sure the path that we should be taking but thankfully Peren had that more than covered judging from how his nose and ears were twitching as we made our way through the forest. It didn't take long for us to reach a clearing that was surprisingly similar to the one that I had been in before, and I immediately spotted Scout looking up from where she stood in the middle of the clearing.
"Scout!" I urgently called at the same time that Peren grunted. Scout took one last look above her before turning around scampered to our side. Once she was safe, I turned my gaze upward with dread, knowing full well that it was unlikely that I would like what I saw. That turned out to be an understatement since Blitz was wheeling through the air at full speed, which was about what I'd expected, but his opponent was another matter entirely.
Flying through the air against Blitz was a Vikavolt with electricity visibly arcing across its mandibles that seemed insistent on ramming into Blitz. Thankfully it didn't look like Vikavolt had connected an attack yet since Blitz looked completely fine rather than the mess of charred feathers that I would have expected if he'd been hit.
"Fall back, Blitz!" I shouted but was completely ignored as he kept trying to get behind his opponent to land a Peck on something that wasn't covered in electricity. I briefly considered telling Peren or Scout to help attack Vikavolt, but that idea was quickly discarded. Even after a few days of training, neither of them were especially accurate with their ranged attacks and I didn't want to risk accidentally hitting Blitz. In lieu of another option, I retrieved Blitz's Pokeball with an exasperated groan and closely watched the battle. I knew that the intelligent idea would be to return Blitz immediately and try to run, but I also knew that forcing an end to the battle would cause the hot-headed bird to be angry at me for days.
Suddenly something white shot through the air and narrowly missed both Blitz and Vikavolt before it fell to the ground. When I didn't see anything else in the sky that could have caused it, I looked back down and finally realized that the two berry trees in the middle of the clearing were absolutely crawling with Charjabug. While most of them appeared unconcerned with the battle happening above them, a few had taken notice and begun to fire what I assumed was String Shot up at the two combatants.
After narrowly dodging a pair of String Shots, Blitz banked towards the berry trees instead of pressing his attack against Vikavolt. For a second I thought that he intended on fighting all of the Charjabug as well, so I was relieved when Blitz stayed at the same elevation instead of diving down towards them. Instead of changing targets, he performed a perfect Pluck on one of the berries peeking out from the top of the tree and turned in an arc back towards us.
Vikavolt had been thrown off by the change in tactics so it lagged behind as it struggled to match Blitz's speed. Meanwhile, any of the Charjabug that hadn't noticed Blitz before were now well aware of him and were firing countless strands of String Shot after him while chattering angrily. Somehow Blitz managed to avoid all of the obstacles in his path and made it all the way back to us, pausing only to drop the yellow and orange berry that he had been carrying before turning back towards the tree.
"Wait! Stop!" I urgently called out as I barely caught the berry and Blitz flew away but I was once again ignored. I absently recognized the berry as a Sitrus berry, the first of its type that we'd found, but I didn't have any time to think about that since Blitz running directly into Vikavolt demanded all of my attention.
The wild Pokemon hadn't followed Blitz all the way to the edge of the clearing, which meant that it was waiting for him when he turned around rather than being behind him like Blitz expected. The discharge of the electricity stored on Vikavolt's mandibles was instantaneous and Blitz plummeted to the ground with his momentum carrying him closer to the berry trees as he fell.
I was unable to act for a shocked second as I watched Blitz land in an unmoving heap on the ground before I finally remembered that I was holding his Pokeball. I quickly mashed the button and while the beam of red light shot out as normal, it fizzled out instead of making it all the way to Blitz. I quickly cursed the fact that Pokeballs apparently had a maximum range then darted forward into the clearing with Peren at my side and Scout a few steps behind. We barely made it three yards before we were forced to halt when an angrily buzzing Vikavolt dropped down in front of us.
We had barely finished skidding to a stop when there was a quiet but intense 'riiss' noise from behind me that was accompanied by a small jolt of electricity shooting forward and hitting Vikavolt. The hovering bug type seemed completely unaffected by Scout's Thunder Shock, but it still was enough to get his attention and it slowly turned towards the Pokemon at my side. Peren instantly stepped forward to stand between Vikavolt and Scout, pulling its attention to him instead.
With Peren currently distracting Vikavolt, I began to edge closer to Blitz but saw that something had changed in the field in the last few seconds. Where Blitz had previously been lying on the grass was a large white dome and the Charjabug in the trees continued to add more String Shot to the pile. I desperately pressed the button on Blitz's Pokeball again and despaired when the beam reached the dome but wasn't able to penetrate it.
A painfully loud buzzing noise almost made me drop Blitz's Pokeball and the Sitrus berry as I instinctively covered my ears and stepped away from the angry Vikavolt that was the source. I glanced at my Pokemon and saw that while Scout was covering her ears with stubby arms, Peren hadn't moved from his spot even though he was squinting through the pain.
"Back up!" I ordered desperately when I noticed a trickle of blood slide out of Peren's left ear. "We can't do anything now!" As much as I hated it, there was nothing that we could do to help Blitz. If we tried to start a fight, Vikavolt was an absolutely awful matchup for Peren, especially since it was apparently powerful enough that it barely noticed Scout's attack. And if by some miracle we made it past Vikavolt, we didn't have anything that would protect us against the Charjabug.
Despite my worries about his own stubborn streak, Peren was a better listener than Blitz and he took a few small steps back towards the edge of the clearing. Blessedly, our small retreat was enough to make Vikavolt cease its loud buzzing, though it stayed hovering exactly where it was. Now that we were at a temporary ceasefire, I was able to return my attention to the cocoon that housed Blitz and try to figure out some way of rescuing him. The best that I could come up with was to wait until night when the grove's occupants would hopefully be asleep, but that plan had a myriad of potential issues.
I didn't know how badly Blitz was injured so leaving him alone didn't seem like a good idea. I didn't know what they planned on doing with their new captive. I didn't know if some of the Pokemon would stay up all night and keep watch. I didn't even know if the cocoon would harden or stay sticky, which would drastically change how difficult it would be to break into it.
One thing that I hadn't considered was that Blitz would perform his own jailbreak.
A bright red light suddenly shone through tiny cracks in the webbing that made up the cocoon and the light had fully engulfed it within seconds. Another second later, the light completely disappeared to reveal a Fletchinder standing in its place with his wings completely covered in webs. Vikavolt seemed completely unaware of this new development, but my other Pokemon and I watched in amazement as the newly evolved Blitz summoned flames to surround him and burn away the remainder of the webbing. Unlike Vikavolt, the Charjabug did notice that their prisoner was escaping and resumed firing Strong Shots at him, only for the strands to burn up before reaching their target.
With a flap of his now much larger wings, Blitz took off towards us with flames continuing to dance around him and slammed directly into Vikavolt's back. The bug was caught completely off-guard by the sneak attack, making it lose its stability and fall forward from the force of the blow. Without missing a beat, Peren Tackled it back and the Vikavolt landed on the grass with an angry buzz.
"Run!" I shouted as scooped up Scout in the hand that held the Sitrus berry and made a dash for the edge of the clearing. I didn't look back until we had reached the forested area and was relieved to see that while Peren and Blitz were following me, Vikavolt was not. However, the fact that we weren't followed didn't give me much peace of mind and I continued our hasty retreat through the woods for several minutes before finally stopping.
"Is… everyone okay?" I asked with a gasp of air as I stooped down to the ground to set down Scout. Apparently, all of the long-distance hiking hadn't fully prepared me for a desperate sprint through a forest. Peren and Scout both nodded, with Peren's being slightly pained and Scout's nervous. I turned to look at Blitz and tensed when I saw that he was perched on a log and was preening himself smugly.
My patience finally ran out and I didn't even try to stop myself from yelling at the infuriating bird, "Are you kidding me?! You don't get to feel good about what just happened there! You were supposed to protect Scout, not pick fights with Pokemon way stronger than you!" I momentarily paused in my tirade to take a breath and jab a finger towards Peren. "Peren was badly hurt by that Vikavolt while he was trying to save you from it and now you want to pretend that you did a good job?!"
I angrily turned away from Blitz and as I looked back towards Peren, a part of me regretted my outburst. For the first time since the day that I got him, Peren looked as skittish as he had when I met him at Tammy's lab and my regret only increased when I noticed that Scout had taken shelter behind one of his hind legs. I took another deep breath and tried to calm down before addressing my starter at a much lower volume, "Do you need a Potion?"
When Peren slowly shook his head, I reached out my hand that still held the now badly bruised Sitrus berry. "Fine, then at least eat this. As far as I'm concerned, you're the one who earned it." Peren hesitantly took a bite of the berry, but after chewing it for a second his eyes lit up and he eagerly took the rest off of my hand. Unable to bear the nervous look that Scout was giving me, I returned my attention to Blitz and was surprised to see that for the first time, he actually looked chagrin about something.
I sighed and muttered, "We all know you're strong. You don't need to pick fights to prove it." Surprisingly me even more than his regretful expression had, Blitz lowered his gaze to the ground and slowly nodded. I rubbed my hand over my face before sighing once again and addressing all of my Pokemon. "C'mon, let's get back to the trail. We'll be in Brainerd tomorrow," I said listlessly. Any enthusiasm I'd had about the upcoming gym fight was gone after the day's events, which was compounded by the knowledge that my strongest Pokemon was now a fire type.
All four of us were dead silent as we made our way through the woods back to the trail and the uncomfortable silence persisted for the rest of the day.
A/N: Lots of things that I wanted to talk about here, but first off holy crap the reception that the last chapter got. The story's follow count increased by more than 50% which is absolutely absurd. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed/quietly read.
As to the actual chapter, there were a few small things that I wanted to clarify.
-Technically it should be A Tale of Two Skitty, but that's not nearly as good
-The Fall Equinox was on Sept 22nd so it's intentional that Peren's form didn't change. I'm doing something slightly different with that rather than just going off of the official change of seasons
-The mosquito is jokingly referred to as Minnesota's unofficial state bird, hence the unofficial state flying type joke
-I haven't included any dex updates in a while, so I put the newly reformatted up to date entries for all three main characters at the bottom
Once again, thank you to krazykz for betaing. Next up is Chapter 10: Teambuilding
Thomas
Peren [Deerling, Normal/Grass, Male] (+Dry, -Sweet)
Moves: Tackle, Growl, Camouflage, Sand Attack, Leech Seed
Blitz [Fletchinder, Fire/Flying, Male] (+Salty, -Dry)
Ability: Gale Wings
Moves: Quick Attack, Peck, Pluck, Flame Charge
Pachirisu [Electric, Female] (+Dry)
Ability: Pickup
Moves: Thunder Shock, Growl
Cait
Houndy [Houdour, Dark/Fire, Male] (+Sweet, -Dry)
Ability: Flash Fire
Moves: Ember, Leer, Howl, Smog, Bite
Poli [Poliwag, Water, Female] (+Sour, -Dry)
Moves: Bubble, Hypnosis, Pound, Mud Shot, Icy Wind
Flit [Minnesotan Cutiefly, Bug/Poison, Female] (+Salty, -Spicy)
Moves: Absorb, Supersonic, Poison Sting
John
Rockruff [Rock, Female]
Moves: Tackle, Leer, Sand Attack, Double Team, Rock Throw, Howl
Wooper [Water/Ground, Male] (+Sour)
Ability: Water Absorb
Moves: Water Gun, Mud Shot, Mist, Haze
Nidoran [Poison, Male] (+Salty, -Sour)
Ability: Hustle
Moves: Peck, Leer, Poison Sting, Double Kick
