*six cars can be seen going down the highway together*
Tyler: *using his earpiece to call* Yo, Bruh. Didn't know you liked Toyota MR2s.
BM: Heh, well I do. Love these mid engine supercar slayers on a budget.
Amanda: Keh, 'super car slayer'? I doubt that. Beat me if you can.
BM: You're on! Hey, can anyone do the intro for me? Thanks a bunch! *steps gas pedal harder*
Samuel: Right, right. You owe me though. Heya guys, welcome back to another chapter of Roadtrip! I'm certain you heard our little talk so I don't need to explain why I'm doing the intro this time.
Samuel: Anyways, in the last chapter, Tyler finally learned that his mother wasn't dead and she's actually the former champion, he learns more about Team Galactic and Cynthia's attempt to stop them and all that shit. Then he met Vince and Amanda. Simple shit really.
Samuel: Our favorite dark type doesn't seem too well, especially before a gym battle. Let's find out what's up in this chapter! 'Nuff talking, let's get to it, putas!
Vince: *cough* BMW sucks *cough*
Samuel: Oh, you've done it now, Merc boy! *steps on throttle*
Josh and Tyler: *sighs before following them*
Noir cracked open an eye and glanced around to confirm everyone else was asleep. Noticing the coast was clear, she slowly made her way off Tyler's chest, slipping by Autumn who was curled comfortably between Tyler's leg and jumped off the bed. She sighed and slowly made her way to window.
I can't do this anymore. I…. must get stronger. Stronger and stronger. Strong enough for Tyler to love me.
Noir had been keeping that thought in her head for quite some time. It all started when she took a peek at the Pokedex data on all of the team members after training, including Epsilon's and Ava's:
Species: Metang
Trainer: Tyler Whiting
Battle Level: 32
Ability: Clear Body
Learned Moves: Take Down, Metal Claw, Confusion, Pursuit, Bullet Punch, Zen Headbutt
Species: Amaura
Trainer: Tyler Whiting
Battle Level: 30
Ability: Refrigerate
Learned Moves: Powder Snow, Thunder Wave, Rock Throw, Take Down, Aurora Beam, Ancient Power, Magnet Rise, Round
Noir knew she wasn't as strong as them. She knew she had to be for Tyler to finally love her like she does to him. Noir looked back at Jewel who was hugging Tyler tightly with a grin on her face, Autumn who looked incredibly peaceful, Tyler who stroked Jewel while asleep, Ava with line of ice cold drool coming out of her mouth and Epsilon who rumbled slightly, similar to snoring. Concern bubbled up inside her. How would they, especially Tyler, react? She would only be gone for a few hours, nothing more.
Noir shook her head and walked, fairly swiftly now, to the window. She opened it and leapt out, landing softly on a bush a couple of meters below her. She looked around before finally walked to search for a place to train.
…
A breeze and a small creaking noise woke Autumn up from her wonderful dream where she and Tyler just spent a long time cuddling, which escalated to kissing and more intimate interactions. Slowly, Autumn unfurled herself and opened an eye, noticing Noir had gone and a window was now open. Drowsiness went away as panic now began to set in.
Did she jump out of the window!? Is she okay!?
Autumn poked Tyler with her tails, waking him up hastily. Tyler groaned a bit before propping himself up with his elbows and rubbing his eyes awake before noticing Autumn in front of him.
"Tyler! Noir's gone! I think she jumped out of the window!" She whispered yelled which knocked Tyler off guard.
"W-what!?" He yelled, waking everyone up. Before he got up, he gently released Jewel from her embraced and laid her gently on his bed, letting her wake up on her own accord. He glanced quickly around the room. Sure enough, a window was open. He scrambled quickly to the window, leaning his head out of it while looking around.
"Ugh… What's going on…?" Epsilon groaned as it began hovering again. Autumn turned to it with a panicked expression which concerned it greatly. Ava was fully awake now, also sharing it's concern.
"It's-"
"Noir! Noir! Where are you!?" Tyler yelled with a slight bit of hurt in his voice mixed with a good deal of concern. "Oh Arceus…. NOIR! Where are you!?" He yelled again before running to his backpack and his phone, promptly grabbing them as he headed to the door. He looked back with eyes that darted all over the place.
"Noir's gone! C'mon, let's hurry!" He yelled hurriedly. This got a reaction from everyone as they got up from the bed and ran with him, exiting the Pokecenter soon after.
…
Noir found herself in Eterna Forest after a few minutes of walking. She thought this was the perfect place to train. Plenty of trees for strength training and many weaker, but still good for training Bug types. By now she had been training for roughly twenty minutes, improving her attacks and defenses, not to mention her speed and accuracy too.
Training has been going well. I'll be much stronger in absolutely no time.
Suddenly, the sound of rustling caught her senses, soon followed a shrill cry. This didn't sound like a Caterpie or a Weedle, or even a Grubbin. This sounded much larger and much angrier.
Almost instantly, Noir was knocked back with insane force, smashing her into a tree. She groaned in pain and coughed weakily, with a few splatters of blood spewing out of her mouth.
A green, glowing mass hovered a few feet in front of her which started shining brighter and brighter before exploding, sending a huge shockwave around the forest, knocking down nearby trees. A Scyther with green eyes stood in it's place.
"Gah… What.. Why is a Scyther here? Arceus, he's impossibly strong!" Noir muttered as she weakily got up onto her feet. The Scyther noticed and immediately zoomed towards her, slashing the air in front of him with an X Scissor.
Noir rolled out of the way of the X shaped attack, launching a Dark Pulse around her. Unfortunately for her, the Scyther expected this and barrel rolled left before turning around and crashing into her. He promptly flew back, ending his U-turn.
Noir skidded backwards a good distance, wincing in pain at the super effective moves. She then went invisible, using her Illusion ability to full use. The Scyther looked around, searching for his target.
A crunch of the grass alerted him as he swung his blade at that direction. He caught Noir off guard as his blade sliced into her side, leaving a sizeable gash that bled a good amount. Noir gritted her teeth, in pain. The Scyther had no plans of letting up. In the heat of the battle, none of them noticed the green clad figure covered in blood sitting on a nearby tree, bleeding quite a bit.
Meanwhile, Tyler and his team drove quickly towards Eterna City's west entrance which connected to Eterna Forest. Autumn and Jewel leaned out of their windows a bit, helping out by tracking Noir's scent.
"Why would she do this?" Ava asked from the back seat as Tyler kept gritting his teeth. He took a quick glance behind and answered.
"I-I don't know! And right now, I don't care! I just worry about her safety!" He yelled with emotion. Ava kept silent, as she understood how much Tyler cared for all of them, which made his response appropriate.
As the light turned green, he stomped his foot hard, wringing the tuned engine to the max as they blasted down the road. The reason he was so concerned was that his ability had kicked in, followed with a sense of dread and fear. He prayed to Arceus Noir would be okay.
…
Noir leapt to dodge an Air Slash and ran towards the Scyther, using Fury Swipes to rapidly claw at it. The Scyther dodged and began to bring his blades down for an X Scissor. Noir noticed and launched a Dark Pulse around her, pushing him back slightly. Immediately, a few copies of the Scyther had appeared. He used Double Team.
Noir stood in the middle, panting. She looked around at all of the Bug/Flying types. It was then she realized something that made her situation even worse. They were all moving independent to each other.
He hadn't used Double Team. She was surrounded by five incredibly strong Scythers.
They all rushed her, the first one reaching her launching an Air Slash, which she dodged with a fair amount of difficulty. Noir rolled then leapt forward, Fury Swiping at one of them. Unfortunately, she was knocked off her trajectory by a Wing Attack. Noir tumbled in the dirt a good distance before forcing herself to stand. She cried in pain and tried to suck it up.
This is it… I have failed you, Tyler. I have failed myself…
Noir began crying a bit, her tears wetting the ground. The green clad figure could only look on with worry and sadness in her eyes. Gardenia was incredibly grateful when the Zorua arrived, practically saving her from further harm. Her team was badly hurt, as was her. But now, it seemed like all hope was lost.
The lead Scyther rushed at Noir as she braced for impact. She closed her eyes as her tears came out at full force.
Suddenly, a voice called out. A voice that would not let anything harm his Pokemon, his companions, his partners.
"Autumn, Flamethrower!"
Immediately, a large surge of incredibly hot fire enveloped the attacking Scyther, getting it to scream in pain. The others dodged the massive stream of flame, though barely. There, a few feet away from Noir, stood Autumn, Jewel, Ava, Epsilon and Tyler. They immediately ran towards Noir. The Scythers took this as a sign of aggression, with all of them rushing them.
"Jewel, Swift! Ava, Aurora Beam! Autumn, flank em and use Flamethrower!" He yelled as his team broke off on their own directions, except for Epsilon who stayed by him. Jewel side stepped an X Scissor that smashed into the ground and launched a volley of large pink stars, pelting the Scyther who yelled in pain.
Ava took the brunt of the Air Slash, barely stopping her. She launched a multicolored beam that zipped through the air, crashing into the Scyther with full force, freezing it solid and knocking it back a good five meters.
Autumn used her speed and ran around one of the Scythers, who used Double Hit. Thankfully, both hits missed and this gave Autumn an opening. She inhaled quickly and unleashed a long stream of fire, burning the Scyther severely.
The last Scyther rushed at Tyler with blinding speed. Tyler looked to Epsilon, with both of them nodding. Tyler ran to it as fast as he can with Epsilon keeping up. Just before the Scyther can unleash his X Scissor, Tyler unveiled his plan.
"NOW! Epsilon, Bullet Punch!" Tyler yelled as he slid under the Scyther, which made it go straight to Epsilon who was reeling its arm back. It then swung it forward with incredible speed as it glowed gray a bit, punching the Scyther square in the mandible. The punch was so strong a loud crunch rattled throughout the forest as the Scyther was knocked around twenty meters away into a tree. After the fight with Noir, he already took too much damage. He was knocked out cold.
With all of the Scythers being defeated, Tyler and his team immediately ran to Noir who was still on the ground. Tyler knelt down and picked her up.
"Noir! Thank Arceus, I'm so glad I found you!" Tyler spoke as he hugged Noir tenderly. To his surprise, she began crying.
"Tyler… I thought I'd never see you again… I apologize… It's all my fault…" She muttered through her cries. Jewel and Autumn stepped up to her, joining Tyler and Noir in their hug. Jewel started sniffling.
"Noir, we were so worried about you! When Autumn said you were gone… Tyler looked like he was on the verge of tears." She joked through her tears. Everyone laughed, except Noir who still had tears in her eyes and a frown on her face.
"Jewel's partly right. I was so worried when I saw you weren't there." Autumn added with a soft smile before she frowned a bit as she looked over Noir's injuries. "What were you doing all the way out here?"
"Well, the truth is I… Um…" Noir uncharacteristically blushed and stammered. She took a deep breath and exhaled. "I LOVE YOU TYLER! I love you so much. But I felt I undeserving since I'm the weakest out of all of us. I was jealous because you gave your attention to Autumn, even more so when you and Jewel did the deed! I… wished to be stronger so you can love me back… I'm so sorry…" She spoke.
Tyler looked at her in surprised which only lasted a short time. To Noir's surprise, Tyler lifted her up to look into his eyes.
"You don't have to be jealous of anything. I love each of my team members with all my heart. Including you. So don't beat yourself up for it." Tyler spoke with a smile. Jewel perked up.
"Yeah! We'll share him!" Jewel joked with a giggle as she nudged Autumn who was spacing out a bit.
"Hey, that means you too! Don't think I didn't notice how you acted around him!" She exclaimed with smile. Autumn perked up and turned away with a blush. Tyler simply smiled
"Can't believe I have three girls falling for me. Damn, I think I have Super Luck as an ability too!" Tyler joked which got all of them to laugh. Noir turned to Tyler with happy smile which he returned. "Noir, I want to give you something."
Noir looked at him with a confused look. Suddenly, Tyler planted a kiss on her lips, taking her way off guard. After a bit, she returned it. Jewel was grinning. Autumn was blushing with her mouth agape. Ava let out an "aww". Epsilon looked happy for them. Gardenia groaned as she tried to get up.
The two broke their kiss and soon, Noir began to glow white. Tyler stepped back with his team, his grin widened into a smile. Jewel began jumping up and down excitedly. Autumn and Ava stared with wonder in their eyes. Epsilon did the Metang equivalent of crossing arms and smiling.
The bright light flashed brighter and brighter before dissipating, leaving a tall black and red biped in Noir's place. She now had a long red mane with black splotches behind her which was tied with a turquoise band. Her chest now was covered by a darker shade of gray fur. She had red claws on her paws and feet, not to mention a slim midriff and a wide waist. Red accents appeared on her muzzle and around her eyes. She was now a Zoroark.
"Did… did I evolve?" Noir asked in deeper, even more feminine voice. Tyler still knelt in front of her with his mouth slightly agape. "Arceus, I did!" Noir exclaimed with a big smile as she looked over her new form.
"Wow, you're beautiful. I-I mean, you were beautiful before t-too but you're more now…" Tyler muttered as he got up and hugged her. Jewel smirked.
"Real smooth, Tyler." She spoke with a giggle. Autumn smiled at her joke.
"Woah, there's someone over there! They look hurt!" Ava suddenly yelled out before dashing towards the previously unseen Gardenia. Tyler turned and saw her. Almost immediately, he got up and began sprinting to her, followed by his team.
"Miss! Miss, are you okay!?" Ava, who was the first to arrive, asked with concern. Gardenia groaned as she propped herself up on the tree trunk. "Please don't move. You're hurt…"
"Gah… I'm *cough* fine.. I'm fine." She replied in heavy breaths as Tyler and the rest of the team arrived. Tyler's eyes widened as he saw her. She had a brown almost bowl cut hair which by now was messy. A green cloak covered her torso with her midriff exposed, which was now full of cuts and bruises. She had brown cargo shorts and green hiking boots.
"G-Gardenia? What happened to you!?" Tyler asked with shock. To his surprise, Gardenia gave him a weak smile before pointing to Noir, who had her injuries healed when she evolved.
"Your Zoru- Ugh.. Zoroark took on a group of *cough* really strong Scythers… Even my whole team got beaten…" She spoke weakly as she felt her Pokeballs, smiling as she felt all of them. "Thankfully, I got them all back into their balls before *cough* they got severely injured…"
Tyler nodded and looked back at Noir with a smile. She gave him a happy smirk, laying one of her paws on her hips as she stood. He turned back to Gardenia before adopting a more serious expression.
"C'mon, let's get you to the Pokecenter. I'll help you walk." Tyler offered a hand which Gardenia took, pulling her off the ground. Noir went up to her other side and helped to support her. The group made their way out of the forest and towards Tyler's car which he parked nearby.
…
"Dude, that's insane. You're like a hero now." Samuel said after Tyler finished explaining what had happened. He, Tyler and Josh sat with their Pokemon around a large table in a café. It had been a few hours after the Eterna Forest incident, as it was now called by the media. Gardenia was still recovering at the Pokecenter, though almost all of her wounds had now been healed. Tyler took a sip of his coffee while shaking his head.
"No, I'm not the hero. Noir is." He said after putting down his cup and poking Noir in the cheek as she was talking with Jewel and Autumn, mostly about how it feels to transform from a quadruped to a biped. She blushed a bit as she swatted his hand away.
"Oh, you flatter me, Tyler. I really appreciate it." She spoke with a smile and a bit of her tongue out. "Though, I'd consider it a group effort. Autumn, your Flamethrower is exceptionally strong. I could almost feel my fur being burned off."
"Well, thank you. I still think Ava taking an Air Slash head on without budging is more impressive though." Autumn added with a shy grin.
"We're thick skinned, so it wasn't that great. Now, Jewel's Swift was really cool. How did you make that many stars?" Ava asked with wonder and awe. Jewel giggled as she placed the Pokepuff in her feeler down on the plate.
"It takes a lot of focus and it's also because I hate anyone who hurts my friends! I made sure they didn't mess with us anymore!" Jewel said while puffing out her chest proudly, getting everyone to giggle, chuckle or laugh. "But, did you see Epsilon's punch! Holy Arceus, how did you do that!? I can still feel the shockwaves in me!" She exclaimed with glee. Epsilon did an action that could be considered 'flexing' with it's arms.
"Being in the wild really sharpens your skills. I know someone else who agrees with me." It spoke as it looked at Autumn. She giggled and nodded.
"Yep, I can confirm it definitely does." She said with a hint of pride. Jewel took this opportunity.
"Yeah yeah, but it didn't do wonders for your people skills, huh?" She joked. Autumn awkwardly rubbed the back of her head as they chuckled and laughed.
The group made light talk for roughly an hour as they relaxed and had breakfast. Noir took to her bipedal form quickly, even using cutlery to eat. Jewel and Ava decided to have a staring contest for the last Pokepuff. Autumn got to try various drinks, courtesy of Tyler's wallet. Epsilon took to listening on Samuel and Josh talking about cars.
Suddenly, Tyler's phone rung. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the caller ID, noticing that it was from the Pokecenter. He picked it up, recognizing the voice as a nurse's.
"Hello, Mr. Whiting?"
"Yeah, that's me. What's up?"
"Ms. Gardenia would like to speak with you. She requests you to also bring your team with you, if possible."
"Ah, alright. I'll be there soon."
"Great. Her room is 331. We'll see you soon, Mr. Whiting."
"Nice, good bye." He finished as he hung up.
"Well, I'm guessing all of you got that?" He asked, receiving a bunch of nods in response.
"Right, let's get going."
…
Tyler and his team walked down the corridor, watching the rooms pass by before stopping at 331. He raised his hand and knocked on the door. Not long after, a voice sounded from inside.
"Come on in!" Gardenia yelled from inside. Tyler and his team entered to see her smiling while lying on a medical bed with a few bandages over her. He gave her a smile as he and his team went up to her bed.
"Glad to see you're okay, Gardenia." Tyler said as he sat down on an empty recliner. Gardenia smiled more before grabbing a small box that was on the nightstand beside her.
"Thanks to you and your Pokemon of course. When I saw her fight them off, I suspected her trainer must be special. When you and the rest of your team came and fought them off like that, I knew you were. That's why I called you here. This is for you." She said with a smile as she handed Tyler the box. He opened it an was amazed by it's contents.
Inside was a wad of cash and most importantly, the Forest Badge. Tyler picked it up and examined it, before turning to Gardenia for an explanation.
"You shouldn't be so surprised. If you can beat a group of Scythers that even I can't beat, then what does bode for your Gym Challenge?" She replied with a head tilt. Tyler caught on what she meant before nodding and smiling.
"Thank you so much, Gardenia. I don't know what to say." He added. Gardenia laughed a bit, before waving her hand.
"Oh please, you don't have to thank me. I'd be crazy to not hand it to you after what you did." She reassured.
Not long after, Tyler and his team bid farewell to Gardenia, not before she and Noir talked about her attacks. He and his team exited her room and headed over to their own, wanting to take the day off to relax.
That's it for this chapter! Hope you enjoyed the fight scene, I had some difficulty on planning out on what might happen. Well, I guess I'll see you in the next chapter. See you guys later!
BM: Yes! Eat that, Amanda!
Amanda: Bruh…. We haven't even started.
BM: You're kidding, right?