Chapter 5: The Best Spearow I've Ever Seen

"Modern society is a utopian symbiosis between human civilization and pokemon. Pokemon are given access to the best means at humanity's disposal to help them achieve greater and greater heights of combat efficacy, a very common element in pokemon psychology. Pokemon are befriended, cared for, and treated as equal partners in developing civilization into the future. Humans are given a level of safety and security from the dangers of nature that previously plagued us, we have access to creatures of great power and skill that help us build infrastructure for greater and greater levels of civilization.

Both groups enjoy scientifically verified benefits to psychological and emotional health from close social relationships with each other. Many studies conducted with no association over a span of decades have all found that some of the happiest and healthiest people and pokemon are to be found on dedicated Trainer teams. In fact, recent experiments have verified that epigenetic triggers are flipped in both humans and pokemon when they form close social bonds with one another that eases and empowers the concoction of chemicals in our bodies that promote positive emotions.

Given that our shared society has been steadily improving since the first mutually beneficial interactions between humans and pokemon nearly three hundred years ago, one might be inclined to think that our world can only continue to become more and more utopic."

- From Rethinking the History of Human-Pokemon Sociology, by Dr. Samuel Oak

April 17

Sebastian closed the book and rubbed his eyes. He had been waiting for a couple of hours now. He had done a series of post workout stretches to try to reduce the impact his mad jog would have on him in the morning, but he knew it would be minimal considering what he put his body through. Nurse Joy had popped back for a brief moment to return Dagger and Rattata to him and both were currently tucked away in their pokeballs.

Nurse Joy had listened to his explanation about the Spearow being wild and had begrudgingly stopped judging him about his "woeful mistreatment" of his pokemon. She had extracted a promise that they would go into more detail about the incident. He really needed to stop getting on the wrong side of Nurse Joys. She had told him they would be continuing work on the Spearow and that it would have to stay in observation overnight but it was out of immediate danger. She had assigned him a room to stay in while he waited, but Seb was still out in the main lobby as it was larger and conveyed the idea to Nurse Joy that he was available for any updates she might have.

With a sigh, he looked up to see the time. The clock on the wall showed that it was just after 9pm. His gaze shifted back to the doors that Spearow had been taken through. The automatic front doors swished open and Seb turned to see a pair of people entering. A teenage girl in a long skirted, grey dress and pale yellow jacket and an older man wearing a seasonally and locally inappropriate Hawaiian print… Alolan print shirt. It was burnt orange in color with Exeggutors patterned on it.

The older man was built hefty and heavy and had brown hair that had mostly gone to gray. On his face was a pair of small circular lens glasses and a seemingly permanent smile. The girl had longer brown hair that looked close enough to the older man to suggest a familial tie and it had been done up by two hair ties into what Seb could only describe as spiked hair buns. Wait, is that…?

The pair of them took casual note of Sebastian, but made their way up to the counter and hit a button that would alert the attending staff that a customer was here for service. Neither of them seemed panicked as they waited so Sebastian assumed none of their pokemon required critical care. After a moment more, they approached Sebastian and sat down on a bench nearby.

"Excuse me young man," the older gentleman greeted boisterously, "do you know what might be keeping Nurse Joy?"

Seb looked up to see both of their eyes upon him. He took a moment before answering. "Yeah, I brought in a badly wounded Spearow. They are… working on it." At seeing their concerned faces he quickly added, "she says that he is going to be okay, but he still requires more work." They breathed a sigh of relief.

They were silent again and so Seb decided to just ask outright. "So, pardon my asking, but are you Jasmine of Olivine Gym?"

The girl looked shocked and the older man looked suspicious. The girl answered after a moment. "I… umm… yes. That is correct." Her voice was soft and hesitant. "How… How do you know that?"

Seb scrambled for an explanation. "I recognize you from pictures and by your previous achievements." He said vaguely, but it seemed to be marginally enough for them. Seb jumped to change topics. "Sorry, that was rude of me. My name is Sebastian C-... Strategoi. Typically go by Seb if you prefer. Less of a mouthful. And you are?" He held his hand out to the older gentleman.

The man quirked an eyebrow. For a man who had originally seemed to be all smiles, Seb had managed to dash them from his face. "How is it you know my granddaughter's name, but not mine?" Seb gulped and the man continued. "I'm Myron Ferrik. I'm the current leader of Olivine Gym."

"Oh!" Seb's gaze darted back and forth between them in confusion for a moment. "Sorry, sir. I didn't realize."

"Jasmine here is an Associate Gym Leader, newly appointed in fact. She is able to conduct any of the U-18 challenges starting this year." Myron started to explain, before Seb saw a chance to maybe salvage away a bit of suspicion.

"So that you can focus on the adult challengers?"

"Yep." He grinned, but then his eyes narrowed in thought. "Is this your first year? You seem a bit older than normal."

Seb snorted and sighed. "First week. I'm uh… fifteen."

Myron laughed. Seb seemed to be getting him calmed down at least. "Well, no shame in a late start. A couple extra years of maturing isn't a bad thing. So you left from Pallet then?"

Seb nodded easily. He noted that Jasmine remained quiet, simply watching the conversation play out. "Yeah, Oak was a big help getting me started."

"I'm friends with Oak." Seb had the suspicion that the man felt he was friends with everybody. "He has always been the helpful sort, loves sending out new trainers. I sympathize. It helps rekindle the fire, so to speak."

The doors from the back of the Pokemon Center opened and Nurse Joy came out with a smiling Chancey in tow. "Is it urgent?" She asked of the two new guests.

"No, no. Take your time." Myron said with a smile while Jasmine shook her head.

Nurse Joy nodded once as she continued to approach and faced Sebastian. "Your Sandshrew and Rattata are doing fine and don't require any further treatment or special considerations. They are primed and ready for battle or training when you need." Seb nodded and let out a breath of relief. "As for the wild Spearow, it is pretty much as I predicted. The extended paralysis was both difficult to undue and caused other complications I have been working to rectify. I know you found him today and so couldn't have been around for the original cause, but do you have any clue as to how this happened?"

Seb took a steadying breath. "Remember a couple of weeks ago, a young man came through here with a Pikachu and did…" he gestured at the parts of the lobby still undergoing renovation. "All this?"

"Yes." She said hesitantly.

"He and his Pikachu had been attacked by a flock of Spearow. My best guess is that the Spearow in there took the full blast of Pikachu's desperate survival retaliation." He paused while she took that in. "I'm not an expert, obviously, so I don't know if an extra strong electrical attack could have caused the paralysis to hit harder and last as long as it had."

She hrmmed in thought. "It isn't out of the question. Generally speaking, a young Pikachu like that wouldn't have that kind of output though."

Seb made a point of looking at the building around them. "Yeah, but could one generally do this either?"

"Well, there were other factors at play with the Koffing and all, but yes. I take your point." She admitted. "It is as good a theory as any other and without anything else to go on it might be the best we'll get."

Seb shrugged. "We could just ask the Spearow."

Nurse Joy smiled at him, finally. "That is an excellent point. I had ruled it out as there were so many seemingly improbable possibilities that I would never be able to question him on them all, but since we have a place to start that will work." She mused with satisfaction. "Okay, that is all I'll need from you tonight. Spearow should be ready to be released tomorrow morning, but not ready to battle yet. He will need a few days off." Seb nodded his thanks and she went about helping Jasmine and Myron with their more routine Pokemon checkups.

Seb let out a heavy sigh of relief and slumped back into the bench. The tension and stress of waiting on that news had taken it out of him. That and the run. And the existential crisis. Just all around it had been a tiring day. "I'm on a bench in Viridian Cityyy." He murmur-sang to himself. "Catch some z's along the waaay."

"Umm… what was that?" Seb's eyes snapped open to see Jasmine standing a few feet away. Behind her, Myron was dealing with Nurse Joy at the counter.

He shook his head and sat back up. "Sorry, nothing. Just humming to myself."

"So, uh… I was wondering if… well, you wanted to have a battle?" She asked quietly. "I'll uh, go easy on you."

"Oof. No, no. Don't spare my pride. I can take it." Seb said sarcastically with a half-hearted smile.

She looked horrified at the realization. "Oh, no. I didn't mean-"

Seb laughed at her. "No. It's fine. You're a Gym Leader, well Associate Gym Leader, and I have less than a week's experience. You'd better go easy on me." She let out a sigh of relief. "Not tonight though. You two going to be here in the morning? We could try one then."

She nodded. "Yes, um… that works. Sorry again." Seb waved it aside. Silence stretched between them before Jasmine finally spoke again, clearly uncomfortable after feeling she insulted him. "So… why- why did you get such a late start to the uh... season?"

Seb sighed and thought about his answer. "I guess 'personal tragedy' would be the simplest way to explain it. I needed to take some time to figure out if this was really the right thing for me to be doing." He turned to give her a reassuring smile. "But Pokemon and people conspired together to make me see sense."

Another silence stretched out. Myron could be heard amusing Nurse Joy with anecdotes and jokes across the room. Seb realized he wasn't likely to be done soon and decided to elaborate. "I'm an International citizen. I'm not registered as a citizen of any particular region. My family were travelers, constantly on the move. But I recently, uh… I lost them. So I ended up in Kanto, alone."

Seb didn't look at Jasmine. He didn't really want to see any of the looks he knew that would draw out. "That's… very brave." Her response surprised him. "I don't think I could do it. Or rather, I know I didn't." He turned and saw some of the pity and pain he expected, but also respect.

He looked into her light brown eyes and nodded. "Thank you. I appreciate that. But really it's just… A world full of dreams and adventure with pokemon awaits. I can't let what I've lost cost me what I might gain. Everything I might have now is ahead of me." She nodded her acknowledgement. Seb took a deep breath. "But I've had a rough day. I'm going to turn in. Battle in the morning?"

"Certainly." She answered with a demure, but undoubtedly kind, smile. "I'll see you in the morning."

April 18

"Here is your Spearow, Mr. Strategoi." Nurse Joy Chancey wheeled the little bird out from the back. The Spearow looked annoyed at being pushed around. "He is healthy enough to travel, but not healthy enough to battle yet. He just needs a few good days of limited activity first."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy, but he isn't actually mine." Seb told her gratefully.

"Row! Spearow!" The bird squawked at Seb. Seb shot it a confused look to see it giving him an angry glare. "Sp-row?! Spe- Spearow?!"

Seb watched in growing alarm as the little bird pokemon continued to berate him. He had no idea what it was saying. He felt a tug on his pant leg and looked down to see Dagger giving him a look which conveyed in no uncertain terms that he was being very stupid about something very obvious.

Dagger sighed and opened his bag sitting on the ground next to her. Fishing around for a second, she pulled out a pokeball and pointed at the Spearow. Seb blinked at that. "Wait, are you sure?" He asked Dagger.

She smacked his leg at the same time the Spearow squawked angrily again. "Okay, okay. You're both sure." He knelt down and grabbed the pokeball from Dagger and then approached the Spearow. "Okay, Spearow. This sounds great to me, but I need to give you the rundown first so you know what you are getting into. I am a brand new trainer. I want to befriend and train a team to try and compete in the Pokemon League at the end of the year. We're going to work hard, train hard, battle hard, and play hard. Does that sound like something you're interested in?"

The Spearow looked out the front door of the Pokemon Center in the direction where it had come the day before. Seb couldn't say if it was remembering the battle with Ash and Pikachu, the other Spearow that had bullied it in the aftermath, or Seb showing up to get it to help. Maybe it was thinking about leaving behind the whole world it had ever known on Route 1. But after a few seconds it looked back to him and nodded with determination.

Seb smiled and held the pokeball up and gave it a light, playful toss from a few inches away. It connected with the Spearow, opened to absorb it in a flash of red light, and then clicked shut. The ball shook once on the gurney and then clicked a successful catch. Still smiling, Seb picked the ball up reverently and muttered to himself. "I hope that feeling never gets old."

"Oh, it doesn't. Believe me!" Myron boomed from behind him. Seb jumped and turned around in startled terror.

Seb held a hand to his chest. "Holy co-... uh, Miltank. I thought you'd killed me."

Myron laughed in response. "Well, we can't have that. You still gotta have your little battle." He wore another Alolan shirt today. This one was forest green with a pattern of dancing Plusle and Minun. How many shirts like that does he own?

"Grandpa, that sounds belittling." Jasmine chided him quietly, but vehemently from beside him. Jasmine wore the same jacket, but her dress was robin's egg blue.

"Oh, yes. You're right. Sorry, Jas." He answered sheepishly. "My apologies Sebastian."

Jasmine turned to Sebastian. "Are you ready?"

Seb grinned. "Probably not, but let's get started anyway. Any good thoughts on where to do this?'

Myron answered it easily enough. "There is a battling park a couple blocks away. Should have plenty of space open this early."

As they made to leave, Seb released Rattata and Spearow into the lobby so they could join on the walk. Rattata greeted him cheerily enough. "Ra-Ratta! Ta!"

Seb pet the top of his head. "Good morning to you too. We're going to have a battle if you're up for it." Rattata's eyes gleamed in anticipation. "Battler to the core, aren't you? Well, we've got to walk to the arena first."

He looked to Spearow next. "You good to walk a couple of blocks?" Spearow nodded and then proceeded towards the door, but wobbled and then rocked around drunkenly as it made its way forward. Seb shot Nurse Joy a concerned look as the Spearow lurched precariously, but always upright towards the door.

Nurse Joy winced. "Right, forgot to mention that. It is expected. His nervous system is still recovering. He will be a bit… uncoordinated for a bit. No flying certainly. When he is able to go a day and you don't see any of that, then he should be okay to fly and battle as usual."

Seb's concern did not let up a lot upon hearing this. "His nervous system? He's just going to naturally get better over a few days?"

Nurse Joy smiled at that. "Oh, yes. The paralysis was severe and had had ample time in his nervous system, but we were able to clear it out and now his body is free to recover on its own. Remember, pokemon physiology is uniquely suited to dealing with the extraphysical nature of pokemon attacks."

Seb just nodded. More questions to ask the search engine in his Pokedex, AskPorygon. It wasn't as capable as what he was used to using on Earth, but it got the job done for the most part. Or maybe their internet just wasn't as vast.

After putting his foot in his mouth the previous night with Myron and Jasmine, Seb had looked up the tournament structure. There was a professional Adults' league and a league for anyone under 18. It was never depicted this way from what Seb could remember, but it did explain why Ash was able to achieve as well as he did despite being ten in the anime, he was battling other minors.

Both leagues were structured similarly, requiring the 8 badges of a region to compete and once you had them for a region they were good forever. A Gym's difficulty was based around how many of the other badges you had earned, with the adult difficulty starting higher.

"Spearow, do you want me to carry you for now?" The bird shot him a prideful glare and continued its drunken maneuvering out the door. With a quick turn back he said, "Thanks again, Nurse Joy." before chasing the bird outside. Jasmine and Myron were quick to follow.

"Spearow, wait up!" He rushed out to him and knelt beside him. "Good news!" He said with a smile. "I know what I'm going to call you. Captain Jack… Spearow."

"That is uh…. That is a… strange name." Jasmine said hesitantly, almost as if Seb was insane. Spearow was giving Seb an unamused glare.

"Okay, look." Seb held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Let me just… I mean, he is rocking around like a drunk pirate on the deck of a ship. And Captain, first off, your nickname will be 'Captain.' That is pretty great. Second, I will explain the legend of Captain Jack later. The name will grow on you." Captain looked slightly mollified by being called Captain at least.

Seb turned to the rest of the crew to find Jasmine shaking hands with Dagger. "Oh you are just the sweetest thing." Her typically shy manner was entirely replaced by an upfront friendliness. Of course, Dagger was a steel type. Jasmine would obviously love her. "What is your name?" She stood back up and the group continued their way to the battling park.

"Her name is Dagger." Seb answered her. "She doesn't talk much, but we get along."

Jasmine looked affronted. "Dagger? You named this cute little thing 'Dagger?"

"Hey, hey. I gave her a whole bunch of options and 'Dagger' is the one she wanted." Seb defended himself. Dagger nodded along with him to back him up. "See?"

"Well Dagger, it is very lovely to meet you. Are you who I will be battling against today?"

"Actually, I was hoping for two separate one on ones. I was hoping to give Dagger and Rattata both a bit of experience if you were willing." Seb wheedled hopefully.

Jasmine thought about it for only a moment before agreeing. "I should be able to do that. I have enough pokemon at least. Although…" She trailed off as something occurred to her. "I am not running the badge circuit this season. I'll compete in the tournament at the end of the year, but it means I don't really have a Season Regulation team. This will have to be an Open Regulation match."

Fortunately, Seb had read about these the night before. The standard format for anyone doing the gym challenge was that they were afforded one starter, any pokemon in its first form generally counted, and the rest had to be caught and trained during the course of the season. Kanto-Johto were the only two leagues to have a shared circuit which allowed for a more difficult second year in the opposite region if they chose to continue with their previous year's team. By saying she only had an Open Regulation team, Jasmine was saying she only had the team she had used to compete in previous League Tournaments.

"That is fine, I guess. Not sure how you will be taking it easy on me though." Seb responded and Myron winked from behind Jasmine, but Seb had no idea what it could be about. "If you don't mind my asking, but what brings you to Viridian City? I figured you would need to be in Olivine City, you know… leading a gym."

Myron laughed. "We're only going to be gone a few days at most. It is fine. That and it is rare for anybody to try to hit Olivine Gym this early. It can be rough as an early badge. It helps to get a bit of seasoning and team variety before trying against Steel types."

Seb nodded understanding at that. It was part of why he was confident Dagger would help him get through the local trainers. "So in Viridian City?"

"Oh, we went to the Indigo Plateau to get Jasmine officially certified as an Associate Gym Leader. And then she decided she wanted to see if she could get an Ace certification from the Gym Leader here in Viridian City since we were just a short flight away."

Seb frowned at that. "Ace certification? Sorry, I don't understand."

Jasmine gave him a measuring look. "You are green. Oh!... um… sorry." Seb laughed sheepishly. "You can be certified in a type of pokemon by winning best two out of three one on ones with a recognized representative of the chosen type. So, say you wanted Steel certification, you could go to Olivine and challenge either of us. You would need three Steel types to use to battle three of ours. If you win, you become an Ace Trainer in the Steel type."

Seb nodded along excitedly. "Okay, yeah that makes sense. I'm guessing that is what a lot of the adult professionals do when they are spending time in a region they've already completed. They build up a team to become certified as Ace in a new type."

Jasmine was getting caught up in the conversation and her excitement was helping to break through her shyness. "Oh, yes. Although many of them are actually training for Master's Certification, which is basically the same but even harder. It is a series of five battles in the same format and the certified trainers are stronger and fewer in number. Any Elite 4 member is a Master in their type, though that isn't necessary. Grandpa is an officially certified Master of the Steel type, for instance."

Seb stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at Myron, blinking in shock with a sudden realization. "Does that mean… does that mean you are a Pokemon Master?"

Myron laughed. "Oh, no. Some may throw that term around loosely, but there hasn't been a true Pokemon Master in maybe a hundred years and that was only because we didn't have all the typings figured out yet. We still thought Steel types were all Rock types or maybe Normal types back then." Seb gave him a confused look. "A true, actual Pokemon Master is somebody who has become an officially certified Master of every Pokemon type. There are eighteen types of pokemon. You would need five of each. That's 90 pokemon. Well, there would be some overlap for double typing I guess. Point is that nobody could manage it anymore. Or nobody has anyway. Anyway, I would be called a Steel Master or Master of Steel."

Jasmine spoke up again. "There are a few Pokemon Aces though. They are rare and most don't typically chase that particular distinction. Having a handful of dedicated typings and the odd pokemon from outside that is the norm. Learning a few types really, really well and how to help raise and strengthen them is the common path nowadays."

They walked into the battle park and Seb took it in. A half dozen large outlined battling fields waited. There was a group sharing the one nearest them, but the others were all open. Seb watched the male Nidoran miss a Poison Sting against an opposing Pidgey with a grin on his face. He then realized Jasmine was still talking and scrambled to back track what she had said. "-even your pokemon would be considered an Ace or Master of their type if they won their match that earned the Trainer's qualification. Though Pokemon have a third ranking of 'Champion' as well. That is any pokemon that is on a Champion's team or has beaten a Champion's team."

Seb gulped catching on. "So, wait. Am I going to be battling an Ace steel trainer with Ace pokemon?"

Jasmine smiled awkwardly. "Umm… well, I guess so, yeah."

Seb took a deep breath. "Alright, well. Let's do this. Dagger, you want to go first?" Dagger looked up and gave an affirmative nod and clenched a fist. "Alright, let's take to the field then."

Dagger walked into the field and Seb took a moment to bask in the feeling of standing in a regulation Trainer's box for a semi-official battle. Dagger looked perfectly calm standing in the middle of the field so he decided not to let himself be overwhelmed. One deep breath later, he was ready. "Okay, let's do this!" He called across the field to Jasmine.

She waved back. "Okay." She pulled a pokeball out of her jacket. "Jewel, you're up!"

Seb had had a suspicion this was coming. He knew she was a specialist in the Steel type and he knew what pokemon was most commonly associated with her. He knew the pokedex entries, generally speaking, and thought he had sufficiently braced himself for what was going to appear. He thought he was ready.

But he was not ready.

There was no being ready to face off against a Steelix for the first time. Seb realized there was no proper way for the games or anime to be able to do Steelix justice. Playing the games, he remembered seeing them and thinking Oh wow, cool. A big metal snake thing! But being faced with thirty feet of head to tail steel coated snake was intimidating no matter how well Seb knew the pokemon would never hurt him.

It stood ten feet over him and most of its length was still oriented along the ground. It bellowed a challenge and Seb felt the wind of that breath brushing his hair. Seb considered it one of the greatest achievements of his life that he did not scream or whimper or soil his pants in response to that challenge.

Seb realized his eyes had gone the size of dinner plates however, when he heard Myron's guffaw and Jasmine laughing sweetly. Myron spoke through his laughter. "Now, now Jasmine. Jewel really is not a good matchup. She is a League experienced pokemon already. She may be almost ready for Mastery." Seb noticed that despite being fully intimidated himself, Dagger contentedly waited in the arena and waved a greeting to the Steelix.

Seb's pride was slightly restored when he noticed the other field had stopped its fighting to stare in awe at the behemoth towering over them all. Jasmine sighed. "Sorry Jewel, looks like you'll have to sit it out today." The Steelix, Jewel, turned to her trainer and nuzzled softly against her while Jasmine patted her nose. "I know. We'll do something later on, okay?" With a massive red light, the Steelix returned to its pokeball.

"Alright Ribbon, let's see what you can do." She called and this time a Magnemite appeared on the field.

Seb was much less intimidated, but he noticed movement beside him and saw his Spearow, Captain, taking shelter behind his leg but keeping a wary eye on the pokemon that had just appeared. Seb reached down and patted Captain's head comfortingly. "It's okay. You stick behind me and it'll be fine."

Myron took the side of the field to call the start of the battle. "The battle will be a one on one between Jasmine's Magnemite, Ribbon and Sebastian's Sandshrew, Dagger. The winner will be decided when one pokemon is unable to battle or upon forfeit by the Trainer." He looked to both of them and received nods of acknowledgement. "Begin!"

"Powder Snow as a smokescreen!" Seb called instantly and Dagger dutifully filled the air between them with a wide spread blast of light powdery snow. "Now move and Mist!" Seb was concerned when he didn't hear Jasmine calling any attacks, but saw a Thundershock blast through the screen of snow to hit the arena floor where Dagger had just been standing.

"Good work, keep it up!" Seb encouraged and then heard a discordant sound barely within his hearing range. Dagger stumbled to the ground and clutched her head. "They're trying to confuse you, Dagger. Focus on my voice and head back in my direction."

Dagger nodded and obediently began making her way back towards him. Suddenly, Magnemite burst through the snowy curtain covered in a cloak of electricity and ran straight into Dagger. It disappeared back into the snow as quickly as it had appeared and Dagger got back up unsteadily.

"That's alright Dagger!" Seb called. "Prepare Bide!" Dagger gave him a confused look and he winked at her. He hunched his shoulders and added a scratching motion. She nodded, taking the hint. She used Defense Curl and took a ready stance to attack anything that came out of the snow at her.

They finally heard Jasmine speak. "Keep it up, Ribbon. We can win that back and forth." They both saw movement and Dagger pounced and Scratched. But it wasn't Magnemite. A Magnet Bomb launched through the snow and latched onto Dagger, resting a moment before detonating with a loud bang.

Dagger faltered to her feet again, but again Magnemite darted from the snow to careen into her. After a moment without movement from Dagger, Myron called the match. "Dagger the Sandshrew is unable to battle. The winners are Jasmine and Ribbon the Magnemite."

Seb sighed and nodded. They got outplayed. He could see that. "C'mon back Dagger." He said, returning her to her pokeball. "You did well. We'll get better I promise."

"Alright, Rattata. It's your turn. Are you ready?" The little rodent looked as eager as ever and dashed forward into the arena where the last of the snow was settling down on the field leaving the air clear.

"Grandpa, what do you think?" Jasmine asked of the referee. Seb thought that was hardly fair, but shrugged it off. This was a learning experience more than a real chance at victory for him or Rattata.

Myron scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Locket would be good, I think. He still needs some improvement himself so it would give them both a c-"

"Ratta! Ratta! Ta! Rattata!" Rattata interrupted him with sharp barks of its name. He looked at Jasmine with a challenge in his gaze. "Ratta." It declared.

Seb sighed. Of course. "I think he wants a chance at Jewel." Seb said apologetically.

Jasmine stared back at Rattata. "Are you sure?" Rattata merely nodded. She looked to Seb for confirmation. "Let us have it. If he wants to see what we can do, let's see what we can do." Seb braced himself for what he knew was coming.

But still he was not ready.

Even having seen it mere minutes ago, it still caught him off guard how big and threatening its presence was. He gulped again. "Rattata, back here for a moment." Rattata ran back to him and he crouched down to give it whispered instructions. "Keep moving… always. Hit it with Tail Whip like we were practicing yesterday. Keep that up and I'll let you know when to switch to the offensive. Oh, and feel free to use Quick Attack as a way to dodge incoming attacks if you think that will help. Got it?" It nodded excitedly then dashed back to the field to face off against a pokemon that outweighed it by at least a hundred times. Why am I the only one intimidated here?

"The battle will be a one on one between Jasmine's Steelix, Jewel and Sebastian's Rattata. The winner will be decided when one pokemon is unable to battle or upon forfeit by the Trainer." Once more he looked to the two trainers to confirm their readiness. "Begin!"

Rattata immediately darted to the side and a large rock bounced past where it had just been standing. Jewel had been quick to launch a Rock Throw when the match was begun. Rattata kept up his constant movement, running rings around the edge of the battlefield. All the while, it's tail was swishing back and forth channeling a faint white glow of Normal type energy.

"Keep it up Rattata!" Seb shouted his encouragement. Jewel darted forward to try and close the distance, but Rattata was able to keep out of range of its Tackles by switching from Tail Whip to Quick Attack. Seb began to feel hope building. The plan was actually kind of working.

"Nice! Now back to Tail Whip!" Jasmine's head darted towards him when she heard that.

She finally called another command. "Rock Polish into Harden, Jewel. We can't let them force a stat advantage."

Seb thought about that, interested that Jasmine hadn't immediately seen what his strategy had been. But then, Rattata's Tail Whip was weak with lack of use and so was barely visible. In addition to that, the effect was slow to build making it hard for Jewel to even feel the change in herself. Rattata was back to applying Tail Whip while dodging Rock Throws and Tackles but they were getting closer and closer as Jewel built up her speed.

Seb determined this would have to be enough. "Let 'er rip, Rattata!"

It turned with a savage grin. "RattarattarattarattarattarattarattarattarattarattaTAAA!" It chattered louder and louder as it built up speed for a full force Quick Attack.

Again, Jasmine was silent while Jewel faced the oncoming furry bullet down. Just as it came into range, Jewel darted forward with a Tackle to meet Rattata. There was a loud crash of a clang and smack and thud all mixed into one as they met. Seb was delighted to see Jewel did lean back a bit away from the blow, but she quickly recovered with a shake of her head.

Rattata was also standing, though he looked much worse from the exchange. One leg buckled for a moment, but he corrected and stood back up with determination. "Rattata!"

Jasmine was first to recover and jump to action. "Jewel, Tackle into a Dig!"

"Stay out of it's way! We need to double down on our strategy!" Seb called as he took note of Myron giving Jasmine a sudden, but merely curious look.

Rattata lunged to the side with the tell-tale haze of Quick Attack following him. Jewel crashed into the floor of the arena just missing the nimble rodent and disappeared into the ground. Seb's eyes widened as he listened to the low rumble coming from beneath his feet.

The rumble changed and Rattata darted ahead full speed, barely clearing the area where Jewel erupted from the ground with a menacing roar. Seb rallied and called out to Rattata. "Tail Whip!"

Jewel's roar petered out into a growl of frustration as she could feel the Tail Whip take hold. A chunk of rock was lobbed at Rattata, but it bravely dodged again. Jasmine called an order. "Harden to offs-"

The moment Seb saw the Steelix begin to obey, he interrupted. "Quick Attack now!" And Rattata was in to attack as quickly as it could. He flashed in and got in a quick shot. Jewel glared down at the little rat that had gotten a clean hit on her.

"Jewel: Tackle, Dig and tail!" It was followed by another intrigued look from Myron.

The Steelix was quick to comply. Again, Rattata darted out of the way of the initial tackle and they all waited with tense breath as the rumbling traveled beneath them. The rumbling picked up and Rattata took off to escape the danger point.

But as he moved with all haste, Jewel's tail burst forth from the ground in front of him heading his direction. He tried to leap to the side, but the churning earth and impact of the tail itself caught and threw him across the arena where he lay still.

A few beats of tense silence later, Myron called out. "Rattata is unable to battle. Jasmine and Jewel the Steelix are the victors!"

April 17

Myron and Jasmine had just got their pokemon back from Nurse Joy, only a couple of minutes after Sebastian, the not-yet Trainer of the Spearow, had left. Myron looked to where the young man had disappeared down the hallway that led to where the Pokemon Center's guest rooms were located. The thought made him smile with nostalgia, the frugal life of a young Pokemon Trainer. "C'mon Jasmine. Let's call Professor Oak." He stood and walked to the collection of clunky video phones.

Jasmine dutifully followed. "What for?"

"Can't I just want to talk to an old friend?" Myron asked incredulously.

Jasmine was not fooled. "So you're snooping on Sebastian."

He sighed. "Fine, there is going to also be a teensy-weensy smidge of snooping."

Jasmine gestured him onward. "I should hope so. Get to it. I want to know, too." Myron gave her a side eyed glance. She was sneaky. Probably too much time traveling with Janine the past two years. That girl was nice enough and a good mentor figure for Jasmine, but she passed bad habits on.

Myron made the call and waited while it went through. After a moment, the smiling face of Professor Oak came on the line. "Hello? Oh… Myron?! You old battleaxe. I would have thought you'd rusted away by now. What are you doing in Viridian City? I thought Nurse Joy was calling me to complain about another of my trainers. " He said with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. "You'd think it was unusual that one blows up a medical building."

Myron glanced around the room. "Is that really what happened here? I thought Sebastian was exaggerating when he asked Nurse Joy about it."

"Oh, you met Seb? Is he there?"

"Umm… H-hi Professor." Jasmine quietly said from the corner of the frame.

Oak's face, if possible, lit up even more. "Oh Jasmine! Hello." He smacked his head. "That's right. You were getting certified. How did that go?"

She smiled weakly and gave him a small thumbs up. "I passed. Thank you."

"Congratulations! Myron, you must be proud."

Myron smiled. "Of course, though…" his face darkened a bit again. He snuck one more glance towards the guests' quarters. "We are actually calling because we are curious about Sebastian."

Oak cocked his head to the side in curiosity. "Oh? What about?"

Myron scratched along his jaw. "Well, what happened to him? Jasmine says he is kind of displaced right now. Lost his family or something?"

Oak's face saddened as he laid out the story for them. "Oh yes. Tragic really. Sailing the world with his family on their ship. It capsized at sea. He barely survived. The captain that recovered him said he was nearly a lost cause when they pulled him aboard. They only found him in time because his little Sandshrew was blasting Powder Snow and Mist into the air with all her little might."

Myron nodded grimly. "Pokemon attack?" Jasmine went still beside him and he placed an arm on her shoulder.

"No, actually. Or not directly anyway. Meteorologists and oceanologists have confirmed that the storm possessed unusually high amounts of extraphysical energy." Oak explained. "The changing global mood played a part, but no pokemon were involved directly."

Jasmine managed to speak up again. "No word on the rest of his family?"

Oak sighed. "It has been over two weeks. There is little hope left at this point. I think Seb knew that. Part of why he waited, I'd imagine. I didn't talk to him about it though. Interesting coincidence actually," Professor Oak said, scratching his chin. "He was actually on his way to Olivine with his family. He was supposed to get started from your gym."

Myron and Jasmine shared a startled look. "That's right." Myron said thoughtfully. "We did have a late submission that ended up being a no-show. That was for Sebastian?"

Professor Oak nodded glumly. "Yes. Unfortunate business all around, really."

Myron's face somehow grew even more somber. "It is getting worse, Professor. The attacks and the global conditions. Storms, floods, wildfires, earthquakes. All of it."

Oak nodded and let out a heavy sigh. "I know. Everything you said and more. Blaine is holed up in Cinnabar Volcano as we speak. He and his pokemon are preventing its eruption for now, siphoning off the excess extraphysical fire energy."

Jasmine brought the conversation back around. "So he just… randomly landed in Kanto and set out two weeks after nearly dying and losing his entire family?" Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times at focusing the thought that way. "H-how?"

"A need to keep busy, probably." Myron provided.

Oak nodded. "We also strongly suggested it. He… has an unusual skill with pokemon. Not training or battling. He just… gets along with them easily. He wasn't attacked at sea. Pokemon helped push him to relative safety. They brought him food. And his Sandshrew gave everything she had to save him. That type of loyalty and dedication is normal enough from long trained pokemon, but a group of wild, sea pokemon? Far away from traveled routes? Rather uncanny."

Myron nodded thoughtfully. "You want to know if it is a skill that could be taught. Or even if there is an unusual circumstance or context that could be learned from and adapted."

Oak agreed readily. "He did much the same with the pokemon in and around my lab. Less impressive in that they are much more accustomed to people, but still. They just flocked to him happily. We did a scan… uh… a circumspect scan without his knowing about it. He had some mild extraphysical energy floating around him, but that was more like… like he'd been hit by a few big attacks during the storm and they were slowly fading away."

Myron was nodding more emphatically now. "Yeah, I think I see why you are interested. You can't tell him because it might spook him or even just alter his behavior which would impact the experiment, but you need to keep him out and moving to get more data."

"It isn't just about that. It is good for him too." Oak defended. "I'm not just using the poor child." There was a silence while Oak scratched the back of his awkwardly. "Let me know anything interesting he does?"

Myron laughed with an amused shake of the head. "You're incorrigible. Well, I guess I can tell you about the Spearow he just about ran a marathon for this afternoon."

A/N: I was done writing this chapter and was proofreading it when I realized "Myron" is a pun based on Iron. It took me that long to see the blatant pun. Which I had accidentally doubled down on when I came up with the last name of Ferrik for the Olivine leader family. The guy's name is basically "Iron Iron-like."

Anyway, this is the level of intellect I bring to the table. Aaand I'm now realizing I should have said "Iron-y." His name is basically "Iron Iron-y."