A/N
Now that Grimm can officially begin his adventure, has a bag, a Pokedex, and a Pokeball for both himself and his starter Alonso, let's have a bit of a celebratory double chapter. 10k for chapter 10. Now featuring a disappointing battle and some answers gleaned. A recruitment attempt is made, and Grimm features on national television to his annoyance.
I'm not entirely happy with every bit of writing in this chapter, and I may touch some of it up at this point, but honestly I'm not too worried about it. As always, if you notice a wrong word or spelling mistake please comment or pm and I'll fix it.
Italics is for Pokemon talking when humans are around, underlined is for Pokedex.
Enjoy it if you want.
Wow, this ball was extremely comfortable to be in. Almost unnaturally so. Whoever designed this thing really did a bang up job, even I felt like sleeping when in here.
I could still see the world around me, however, and it was kinda boring to just sit in here doing nothing. Especially when I could be hitting the road and, more importantly, other Trainers.
I feel the Pokeball settle completely and a strange feeling wash over me. Alright, I think I just captured myself. Now, how do I get out of here…? I wiggle and struggle for a small while, having flashbacks to my egg days, before I feel the lid loosen and my world turn to red again as my form is reconverted to matter.
I blink a few times before shaking my head and turning back into a Human. Looking around, I see Alonso found a spot to stand on and was looking curiously at the ball meant for him. I look towards Professor Oak and pick up my Pokeball.
"So… what's with the Luxury Ball? I'm not exactly going to be in it much. Isn't this thing expensive?" I ask, tossing it up and down lightly.
"Oh, well I have a crate of them that I bought at one point. Most people don't seem to want to use them because it's seen as a bit gaudy so they never ask to get them from me like I expected them to. However… it will make an excellent cover as to why your mysterious 'last Pokemon' isn't out of its ball." Oak explains to me, crossing his arms. Dragonite mimics the action of his Trainer and nods.
"Wait, if it was possible to make me a trainer without me being present, why the hell did I have to walk my way from halfway across the region to get here? Couldn't you have just flown Dragonite to Azalea Town?" I ask in confusion. Oak chuckles a bit before shaking his head.
"Well, this was more of a test of character if I'm honest. Only people who are serious about becoming a trainer would trek across the place like you did to get to this point. You're in quite the unique situation and I wanted to be sure you weren't trying to mess with people and actually wanted to do this." Oak states happily, clasping his hands behind his back. I feel my eye start to twitch and a small scowl form on my face.
"You… had me walk for over 2 weeks straight, almost get killed, and travel with absolutely no money or supplies… for a test?" I ask incredulously, looking him in the eyes. He hums thoughtfully for a few moments before nodding decisively.
"Indeed! Think of it this way, would you have met your starter if I didn't have you do that? Or would we have learned that kernel of information you uncovered?" He asks rhetorically.
"I accept the determination part of your test, but you had no way of knowing I'd find Alonso here or that information." I say confidently, motioning towards Alonso. Who was currently messing around with the Pokeball meant for him.
"Alonso, what are you doing?" I ask in slight exasperation as he continues to inspect it carefully. Seriously, he was looking over every inch of the thing as if his life depended on it.
"I like how shiny and reflective it is, Don, but I need to make sure there's no dull spots." Alonso explains, turning the Pokeball more and staring at it again. I sigh at this and shake my head, looking back at Oak.
"He's inspecting the Pokeball for dull spots, apparently." I translate with a shrug. Oak hums again, rubbing his chin with his hand.
"Murkrow are said to search out and find shiny objects." He explains, which reminds me of something.
"Oh, yeah, we don't know all the moves Alonso knows yet. He knows how to use Peck and Astonish, but doesn't know if he has any others." I explain, fishing the purple Pokedex out of my new satchel bag and snapping it open.
"I'm a Pokedex programmed by Professor Oak for Pokémon Trainer Grimm of the town of Azalea. My function is to provide Grimm with information and advice regarding Pokemon and their training. If lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced." The Pokedex rattles off, seemingly just the standard thing that Dexter also had.
"Sure thing, I won't lose you. Can you scan Murkrow here? We don't know his full moveset yet."
"Murkrow, the Darkness Pokémon. Murkrow confuse would-be attackers by luring them into dark mountain trails, where they are sure to get lost. This Murkrow knows the following moves: Peck, Astonish, and Wing Attack." The Pokedex informs us. Professor Elm finally returned from whatever he was doing and skidded to a stop.
"Hmm, interesting. Do Pokemon not naturally understand all the moves they know?" Oak asks thoughtfully. Elm pulls yet another notepad out of his pocket and begins to write information down furiously.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Same thing with me actually. I scanned myself with Ash's Pokedex and discovered I had 5 moves. I only knew how to actually use 2 at the time though." I casually explain to the Professors.
"However, it turns out it's really easy to figure out how to use the move once you try for a little while. It's not like learning a new move, where it generally takes a large amount of effort. You just need to figure out how to use your energy to properly start the move, and after that you're good to go." I continue explaining, rifling through the satchel to see if there's anything else in here. Aha! A belt that Pokeballs go on to. Conveniently in black.
The two professors have a quiet but intense discussion behind me as I strode up to Alonso. Looking at him seriously.
"Ready to start our journey to the top, Alonso? It'll be a hard and grueling journey, but we will conquer all in our path." I ask seriously, grabbing the Pokeball he was inspecting. Looking up at me, he gave a determined nod.
"You seem like a competent kinda guy, Don. Not the kind to let an insult go or treat enemies lightly, but at the same also the kind to let the underlings do as they please and not be too serious." He says, which mostly sounds like a mess of placations but whatever. I let the silence between us hand for a moment before smirking.
"So, ready to beat up on some poor unsuspecting Trainers?" I ask with my smirk solidly on my face, priming the Pokeball and setting it back down in front of him. His face sharpens as he smirks, leaning over and tapping the Pokeball. After being summarily sucked inside of it, the ball doesn't even wiggle. A moment later, it flashes and signifies the catch. I quickly release him from the ball, and he flaps onto my shoulder.
"Oh, and I just lied by the way. We aren't going to beat up Trainers and their poor team. We are going to go through some fun training." I say with a grin, to which Alonso gulps slightly. Oh, he has no idea. But he soon will.
I bid my goodbyes to the Professors and leave my Pokedex number on a spare bit of paper lying around. Just in case they forgot to mark it down. They seem distracted so I'm not sure.
LINE BREAK
Alonso squawks angrily at me as he dodges another stone I threw at him suddenly while he's beating up a tree with Wing Attack. He dodged to the right again...
"I told you we would be having some fun training Alonso. Now, keep killing that tree while dodging." I say from my spot on the ground with a pile of stones next to me for the express purpose of throwing. I pick one up off of the ground and toss it in the air a couple of times with my left hand.
Alonso gives me a glare that screams 'I hate you right now' before turning his attention back at the tree. I immediately wind back my right arm and throw a stone at him.
He notices too late and tries to dodge to the right, only to be hit solidly by the illusionary stone I threw which dispelled on impact. Then he was beaned by the real stone I threw with my left arm, just to the right of his original position. He lost control and fell almost all the way to the ground before regaining flight, frantically flapping his wings to stop his descent.
"Alright, that's enough for now, Alonso. I take it we learned our lesson about dodging in the same direction every time?" I raise my eyebrow. Alonso scowls murderously as he lands next to me, immediately pecking at an Oran Berry provided to him from my bag.
"All that I learned is that you are sadistic when training, Don." He mutters into his wing. I take the obviously intended compliment in stride.
"Well yes, I must agree. I have been rather nice so far compared to what I want to do for training. But victories aren't built upon a single day, and I must be satisfied with our current progress." I say, slightly despondent. I was playing it up a bit, but I really did want to get to some of the juicer training methods I want to use. Alonso just looks at me in confusion and slight fear as he realizes what I just said.
"Don, I have bruises all over my body from the stones you've been throwing." He states in a deadpan. I snort and stretch my back for a moment. I set down my Pokedex, still unnamed, and open the clock feature to show seconds and milliseconds.
"Bah, you have an Oran Berry. Now… time for my training." I say with a grin, striding forward towards the tree Alonso was training on. He has done a good number on it, a large number of gouges mar its bark and a few even strike deeper into the wood below. Good progress on using the move, for a day's work.
I dust my hands off, then quickly shift into Zorua form. Still a bit trippy going from 2 legs to 4, but I'm adjusting better each time. I had a large amount of ideas that just weren't possible without a sparring partner that is land based, but that's fine. I can wait on those. Instead, I've noticed a different problem.
See, Three Fifths of my moveset is Physical. Another One Fifth is a protection move. Then I have One Fifth Special. And from my memories, I know that Zorua and Zoroark are actually Dark Type SpA focused with good attack. And on top of that… about 99% of Dark Type moves are not Special.
I am blessed with knowing one of the… two? STAB Special moves I have by base. And by Arceus I'm going to become as good as I possibly can be with it. My current problem is that it takes upwards of 5 seconds to charge this thing, and I'm immobile while doing so. I'm basically begging to be hit when using this move. Hell, I think 1 second is already far too long for use in combat.
But victories aren't built in a day, and I must be happy with the progress I make in one.
I set my feet and focus. Make the power dark, focus it in my mouth, condense into a ball… condense...condense…
Purple and black rings fly forth from my mouth, driving deep gouges into the tree before the move sputters out and I'm left panting. My mouth always goes numb from that move for a few seconds…
After working my jaw for a moment, I look over at Alonso who is still pecking at his berry.
"How long was it this time?" I ask, getting my breathing under control.
"About 4 seconds of charging, and about 1 second of firing. About average for you Don." He says and I scowl lightly. That is entirely too long and too short respectively!
Make the power dark, focus it in my mouth, condense into a ball… condense...condense…
"4 seconds, 1 second."
Make the power dark, focus it in my mouth, condense into a ball… condense...condense…
"4 seconds, 1 second."
Condense…
"4.25 seconds, 1 second."
Damnit! Make it faster!
"4.25 seconds, 1.25 seconds."
Focus.
"4 seconds, 1.25 seconds."
Dark…
"4.5 seconds, 1 second."
Focus!
"3.5 seconds, 0.5 seconds."
I finally collapse onto the ground, my sides heaving as I lay there. I could feel the sweat drenching my fur, and I glared balefully at the tree. I could see the marks on the side where my later shots wavered, and then went wide. Unacceptable performance.
I force myself back to my feet and shake my head, centering myself.
Make the power dark, focus it in my mouth, condense into a ball… condense...condense…
"3.75 seconds, 1.25 seconds." Alonso calls out again as I ready my next shot.
"3.5 seconds, 0.75 seconds."
I finally call it good and stumble back to Alonso. I slowly nibble on the Leppa Berry I had set out prior, and feel like I was eating an energy drink. Feeling like I was splashed by a cold bucket of water, I sit up straighter and continue eating the berry.
"That was… what? 10 uses?" I checked with Alonso, who was shooting me a slightly worried look. He slowly nods as I stand back up and walk over to my spot again.
"Don, I don't think that it's a good idea to keep going. That's an infamously hard draining move to use. It says something that you can even use Dark Pulse." He explains, flying over to me.
"Alonso… I wasn't exaggerating when I told you I wanted to take this world by storm, conquering all in my path." I state with an intense look. "I picked those Leppa Berries, and I'm damn well going to put them to use."
"Don, those only help so much. You aren't even going to be battling much at all, why are you going to train yourself into the ground?" He asks me, leaning in close.
"I'm only going to be sitting out of the official events. However, I'm under no such restriction about Team Rocket. I fully intend to fight every single battle against them with my own two hands. Well, you know what I mean." I say, gathering the energy again.
Make the power dark, focus it in my mouth, condense into a ball… condense...condense…
LINE BREAK
Alonso POV
I watched in worry as my Don, quite literally, trained himself into the ground. The spot he was standing in was slowly depressing from the ground around it as the force of the Dark Pulses slowly forced the Zorua's feet into the ground.
He only really stopped to stumble over and eat another Leppa berry every few minutes. He was finally out of the things at least, as the number he could fire slowly lowered from 10 to 9 to 8. Currently it sat at 4 uses before he was left huffing and puffing for air and energy, needing another berry to continue.
"Wh...where's the rest of the… berries…?" Grimm questioned with a voice made of gravel. It would get better over the next few minutes, but it certainly didn't sound good.
"You already ate them, Don. Now please, stop training. You're going to pass out or hurt yourself if you do any more. What's gotten into you? You weren't like this at all in the past few weeks!" I demand, my voice full of worry.
"We finally have access to free and guaranteed Healthcare, no questions asked and with no problems. I'd be a fool to not make use of it as much as I can. Even if I hurt something, I can just go to the Pokecenter in human form and check both of us in. I have nowhere to be and nothing to do but get stronger for today." Grimm says nonchalantly, turning into the mentioned form as he lays on his back.
Oh, that explains things. After a few weeks of refusing to do so much as train more than to use a move at all, the worry of injury and exhaustion has left him. He doesn't need to go anywhere or see anyone on a deadline, so being laid up with exhaustion is no worry anymore.
Of all the things I didn't expect to have to have with my Don, an overwork and overtraining intervention was not one of them. I felt a surge of fond annoyance as I looked down at Grimm. Really, a week ago he was perfectly willing to just sit under a tree instead of murder it with Dark Pulse.
My Trainer and Don really was strange at the best of times. There'll be times he just stares off at nothing and mumbles. He has absolutely no regard for safe training practices. And somehow sleeps less than other Murkrow I knew, and they had the ability Insomnia. He was also stubborn as all hell, and that was put to the forefront with this training. But he really was serious when he wasn't busy messing with and pranking anyone within sight.
The Pokemon was a walking mass of contradictions and with no desire to help anyone sort them out. I can't even tell if it's on purpose. He goes from being so careful it's borderline paranoia to doing his best to recklessly break his body if it means he can make a faster Dark Pulse. Then, in the middle of that, Grimm'll manage to still throw an illusory stone at me and chastise me if I fail to dodge.
Why is he so hung up on the stones anyways? It's not like someone will ever throw pebbles at me in a battle.
*BAM*
"Caught you sleeping, Alonso. Pay better attention, I don't want you to get caught out in a battle." Grimm says, arm still extended. I quickly get my annoyance under control as I glare at him.
"Seriously, what the fuck is with the pebbles Don?!" I demand harshly, glaring at both him and the pile next to him. He gets that smirk on his face that signals deep amusement, probably because I finally gave him a reaction.
"Eventually you'll become aware of your surroundings at all times, just from pure hatred of being hit by stones. You'll be a lot better at dodging projectiles sent your way, and moves like Stealth Rock will never be a problem. If you develop detect that's also a bonus, I certainly won't complain." Grimm says, shrugging from his spot on the ground.
Wait, is he back to normal already? Don't tell me he's going to get like this every time he trains now…
I quickly dodge to my left and glare, the illusory stone disappearing once it passed me.
"See? Working like magic already." Grimm says with a smug tone, returning my glare full force.
"Now, don't get like that. Later today we can go and challenge some poor sap to a battle. We can have some fun with it and play with those $2000 that Professor Oak gave us. Those are supposed to be used on some Pokeballs and medicine, but I feel like we can get it to pay more dividends than that." Grimm gains a sharp smile on his face, and I feel myself smile a bit too.
It may be irresponsible to gamble the only money we have right now, but we are honestly extremely self-sufficient. We can just forage for berries and eat them with no problems, unlike most Trainers that have to buy supplies. Sure, the supplies taste better than the berries but free food has a flavor all on its own.
"Now, go ahead and rest up Alonso, we need you at top performance for our betting." Grimm says, and I find myself agreeing. I feel some bruises from the recent rock attacks and go to grab another Oran Berry to heal it up.
"No throwing rocks then, Don. Can't have me getting injured before the fight." I say smugly, only to have an illusion rock thrown directly into my face and make me drop my happy look.
"Don't get ahead of yourself Alonso, I have my ways.~" Grimm says in a sing-song voice.
"Shut up and get some rest. You look like you'll keel over if you stand up Don." I say, eye twitching.
LINE BREAK
Grimm POV
I grin and wave cheerfully at someone in the New Bark Trainer Arena. Normally just shortened to Arena, I've specifically been saying the whole thing to make myself look as newbie as possible. I want to lure in someone as overconfident as I can, before I pull the rug out from under them.
There are plenty of people milling about, and a handful of low level battles in the 'casual' area, signifying that no bet has happened and it's a friendly match rather than a money match. Not really pulling in many spectators, as most are just staying near the 'official' areas in case a money match shows up.
I keep my grin frozen in its cheerful and friendly version as someone has a couple of laughs with their friends, then swaggers up to me. Don't want to give the game away after all.
"Well, you're a new face around here! I think I'd remember seeing someone with as… memorable hair as you. You a new Trainer?" He asks, giving me a smile in return. Big difference though, is that his was easily seen through.
"Oh, yes! I just got my Trainer ID a few days ago and was hoping to have a few battles here now that I'm allowed inside!" I say in a purposefully Naive tone, rubbing the back of my head. His grin widens, and I know I've got him.
"Oh! Well how about I be the one to welcome you. How about a battle?" He asks, holding up a Pokeball.
"Oh, thank you! I'd love to have a battle, will a 1 on 1 match work? I'm afraid I don't have much time to spend here." I say bashfully, really turning up my act. I'm really going for rich and naive, especially with the Luxury Ball sitting on my belt in plain view. I took off my coat and hat so I'd look the part even more.
"Oh, that won't be a problem. Let's have a nice friendly match. Oh, one thing though. It's at least $1k to fight here, think you can ante that as your bet for the match?" The guy asks, giving his friends a huge grin. I selectively ignore the people to my left, battling for no wager.
"Oh my, that won't be a problem at all! Here, we use these to officiate the match, correct?" I ask, pulling out my Pokedex and opening it up. I press a few buttons, and bring up a screen to officiate a 1v1 match with a 1k wager. The guy almost falls over himself pulling a cord from his Pokedex to connect and accept the wager.
I feel my smile turn a bit colder, but thankfully he doesn't notice as he speed walks to the other side of the field. I pull Alonso's ball from my belt as the guy's friends gather around and start laughing, jostling each other around a bit as a few of them 'discreetly' point at me.
I look down at my Pokedex to make sure it went through, and sure enough the 1k was already deducted from my account and is sitting in a virtual pot of money with my opponent's there as well. I set down my Pokedex and face it towards the field. I'm faintly aware of my opponent doing the same.
I swear he mentioned his name at one point, but I can't be bothered to care. Either I crush him or he wins and scalps me for my 1k. Good on him if he manages it, actually, since I've been lowering his guard the whole time.
"Ready to start over there, newbie?" He asks, face turning to an ugly smirk. I give him a thumbs up and a happy nod.
"Boy I am! This is exciting, my first official Pokemon battle." I say out loud, positively beaming on the outside. Cue a round of quiet jeers from the peanut gallery which I ignored.
"Get ready Alonso, we have a crowd buying into my act. Remember the plan." I whisper towards the Pokeball in my hand, giving a friendly wave to the gallery.
"Let's get this battle started then, Newby!" My opponent cries out, doing a pitcher's wind up before throwing his Pokeball out onto his side of the field. Speaking of, it was just your average dirt field with clear dividing lines on it. Nothing special or exploitable. Plenty of air space, but nothing special for an indoors facility.
The Pokeball cracked open and discharged an Ekans onto the field, which immediately coiled and hissed at me menacingly. Having a snake that big hissing at me triggered a small part of my brain before I remembered this is in Pokemon and poisoning is easily treated.
I make sure to put a frightened look on my face anyways. I should get an award for this performance honestly.
"G-Go Murkrow!" I yell out nervously, stuttering as I clumsily throw out my Pokemon. Alonso immediately… stands there and cleans under his wing instead of preparing to fight. Perfect.
"Murkrow, you're in a fight! Come on!" I whine out, and both my opponent and the gallery break out in laughter.
"E-Ekans! Use Wrap and then Poison Sting that Murkrow. Let's end this fast!" My opponent orders between guffaws. Ekans quickly slithers forwards, covering the field faster than I expected.
"Use Peck, Murkrow! Defend yourself!" I quickly cry out in desperation, giving bullshit orders Alonso knows not to follow. Well, partially. If I order Peck, it really means Astonish. If I order Astonish, it's Wing Attack. And Wing Attack means Peck. Really crude, but an easy enough deception for this level of opponent I've lowered the defenses of.
Ekans finally lunges forward, purple energy forming in its mouth as it coils its body to constrict Murkrow the moment contact is made. Murkrow finally 'snaps' to attention, letting out a harsh cry at Ekans while shadows form around his face. Ekans flinches in surprise, purple glow disappearing from its mouth as it quickly leans back and away from Alonso.
"Now Murkrow, use Wing Attack!" I order, my tone changed to my normal one as the jeering stops.
"Quick Ekans, Wrap!" My opponent shouts, paying much more attention all of the sudden. My, I wonder why that could be?
Ekans recovers and attempts to wrap around Alonso, only to be met with a razor sharp beak covered with brilliant white energy speed towards its body. Unable to dodge in time, it eats the Peck as a small chunk of it is ripped out from the Peck, and fails to complete its Wrap. Immediately afterwards, Alonso steps forward and continues to unleash a barrage of Pecks.
Ekans quickly slithers out of the way of the strikes, but is forced onto the backfoot. A few of them land grazing hits, causing ribbons of wounds to appear. Alonso decides to use an actual Wing Attack now, a weak one with little power since he is still on the ground. Power enough to throw away the Ekans, apparently, and knocking the poor thing out with that final blow. This attack was blunt, though, so it didn't cause any new visible injuries.
I stare in disbelief for a moment, looking at the fainted Ekans. Alonso didn't quite believe it either, apparently, and took off from the ground and began to hover. After a few moments of dead silence, I shrug and look at my opponent who has a horrified look on his face.
"You know, I really should get an acting award for that. But did you really have to be so incompetent to battle like you did? I mean, sheesh. If you had just poisoned my Murkrow with Poison Sting and used Ekans' low profile to wait me out you could have just… won. Easily in fact. I feel embarrassed I put on that entire act now…" I say out loud to everyone, rubbing the side of my face.
"So, anyways. I'm out of here. Unless anyone thinks that the Ekans can keep battling?" Silence awaits me, as pretty much everyone just stares at me in shock. Alonso is just looking back and forth between me and the Ekans, knowing better than to get close, in case it's playing dead.
"Okay… I'll be going now..." I say, marking the battle as complete and sending the video to the officiators of all official matches. They don't trust people to claim battles correctly and there was a problem with win-trading at one point. So, they just had the Pokedex of each opponent record the fight as it happens.
Alonso just flies back to me and gives me an extremely confused look as he takes his position on my shoulder again. I attach his Pokeball to my belt and pocket my Pokedex. Everyone starts to unfreeze and yell, but I'm safely on my way out the door.
"So… this is what I've been afraid of fighting this whole time? I expected people to be… better than that. Did I just get an absolute idiot? Or did we pull off that act well enough to fool them?" I ask Alonso, scratching the side of my head as I turn back to look at the building for a moment. I can hear my Pokedex make a "ding" noise signifying a successful battle report. I wonder if there's a version of YouTube I can just upload that onto?
Whatever, that was a solidly disappointing way of earning $1k, even though it all went to plan.
Shit, I'm really hoping that I managed to find the literal bottom of the barrel because this is technically the starter town. If that's the average strength I will be… upset to say the least. I want good fights, not just Youngster Joey and his singular Ratata.
Then, I remember the injuries very clearly showing up on the Pokemon. That's it, I'm finding another library. I'm damn tired of not knowing how this works, is my aura theory wrong? I pull out my Pokedex, smirking at my account showing $3000 instead of its previous $2000. Pressing through a few menus, I find the GPS function and the map function.
It knows I'm in New Bark Town next to the Arena, which immediately makes me question things. Do they have satellites that work for this? Does it only work inside towns? Do Pokedex form a relationship system to figure out everyone's distance from each other?
Alonso brings me from my thoughts by lightly cuffing the back of my head to pull me out of it. I shoot him a questioning glare and he just rolls his eyes at me and turns away. For someone hell bent on ensuring other people don't disrespect me, he sure does a lot of it himself…
Anyways, library. Situated pretty close by actually, maybe a 10 minute walk from here. I get my bearings, looking around at the shape of the streets and orienting myself in the correct direction. Unlike some of the other towns I've been through, this place was positively bustling with activity. The streets were almost permanently crowded no matter the time of day, and without the shield of Professor Oak and his Dragonite I'm left swimming in the sea of people.
Surprisingly, the institution let me inside with absolutely no issue despite me being an unsupervised 11 year old with a Murkrow riding on my shoulder. Or, well, maybe not surprisingly? They didn't have a problem with it last time, but then again I didn't have Alonso then.
I don't know, I just really figured they'd be more careful about who gets to use their computers.
I sat down at one of the few computers still open for use, and immediately brought up their version of google for Pokemon. Inventively named Pokepedia.
"Let's see… 'How do Pokemon not get hurt?'" I say as I type out my question in the search bar, which is being held up by a helpful Dragonite. Cute design, honestly, I appreciate it.
I was immediately bombarded with study after study, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to bother reading through scientific articles yet. Scrolling down further into the page, I discovered a smaller article that is more palatable. It was in the form of an interview transcript with some random professor's picture I don't recognize. I immediately click on it, and start to read out loud in a mumble.
"Pokemon, as a whole, are much more durable than humans… studies have shown that when injured or otherwise in a situation calling for survival, a Pokemon will release chemicals similar to adrenaline into their system? Interesting… These chemicals will almost completely nullify their sense of pain a few moments after being hit and increase their healing factor, causing most wounds to be fixable extremely quickly. Often a good night's rest with minor medical aid is enough to fix broken bones and even missing chunks of the body. Burns are just as fixable, which is a medical miracle, though that varies by species as does everything. Scar tissue is overall unlikely, but can show up for a particularly egregious wound."
I lean back into my chair and think for a few moments, digesting this information. I guess that explains how I felt no pain even though Nurse Joy insisted I was in horrible shape. After a few more moments, I lean forward and keep reading.
"It is for this reason that a Pokemon also faints if injured too much but not killed. It's a recovery state being forced upon the Pokemon telling it that it needs to stop fighting even if it's injured. Thankfully, if the League Standard for fainting is followed, there is virtually no risk of Pokemon death except in extraordinary situations. Of course, there is still risk overall. If a Caterpie is hit with a Charizard's Flamethrower it will most likely die instantly, no matter the rules in place. Even a normal Physical blow would do much the same." The Professor explains.
"There have been some thoughts on the usage of Aura to protect themselves, along with latent Psychic abilities being present that will redirect some of the force. However, we believe the increased durability displayed by Pokemon is a result of the energy they use for Moves also acting as a defensive 'cushion' towards damage rather than any mystical solution. Unfortunately, the energy is used up just the same in defending as it is attacking so there is a limit to this." And there we go. Well shit… I'll have to be careful about how much energy I use when attacking if it means I can't defend. In extended battles that can be a real problem.
Humming thoughtfully, I close this article and open a few more articles, giving them a brief skim. Most of them were in a similar vein to the first one, but there were a few die-hard believers in both Aura and Psychic being the answer. Despite my original thoughts, the original viewpoint made more sense for how I was injured but didn't feel a thing. Also, that is extremely useful in a fight, especially for me. It's a bit embarrassing, but if I start to get really hurt in fights I go berserk. If I can avoid that happening as much as possible that'll be great.
Having got what I came here for, I slowly stand up and yawn before closing out of my session. It's been a few hours and it's getting late for the day. I was beat after that training... I should probably go and check into the Pokemon Center for a room. I have 2 weeks of room and board available in each city for every season. That gives me, what, a good 5-6 months of free housing?
Considering travel time, that's extremely generous. Yet some people will still use up their 2 weeks and have to leave the Pokecenter without their badge, either skipping the Gym for now or just camping in the woods until they get it.
Personally, Alonso and I get a huge laugh out of the nightly "Amature Fails" reel. It's the one thing we make sure to watch, both because it's an amazing reminder of what not to do but also because it's possibly one of the most entertaining things ever. I mean, watching some guy get an absolutely dumbfounded look on their face because the ground type move they tried to use didn't work on a flying type, or because they don't know how abilities work, or just flat out tried to use Ember on someone's Geodude and were honestly confused why almost nothing happened.
Sadly, Alonso was not watching with me since I was forcing him to get checked over by Nurse Joy just in case something was damaged. I don't care what I read, if a member of my team fights they get a checkup.
Which is why I was all the more surprised when my wonderful performance landed my opponent a spot on that very same list, complete with my entire act from walking through the doors. Turns out the guy had been recording the entire thing to show people how cool he was by luring a new Trainer into giving him $1k. Since recordings are sent in to officiate proof, his version got sent in. And since official Trainer battles are, by agreement, able to be shown on public TV if sent in...
And now I felt awkward, since I was standing in the middle of a packed Pokecenter with everyone watching me fleece this man. And considering my looks, I was easily recognizable. It was honestly painful seeing how I was acting, but at least I can now see how good of a job I did.
A few people even sent me pitying looks until the commenters mentioned that it was my opponent's entry onto the list, and not mine, despite how I was acting. They had some good people running the commenter's booth too, since they identified my command playbook with only the handful of moves that were called out.
Seeing the room get whiplash when I got serious was quite the treat, though. God, if this is the reaction from something this minor I really can't wait until I do my big reveal.
For now, though, I satisfied myself by smirking at everyone. Especially when my easy victory was shown and my reaction afterwards. I could hear a quiet "damn, that was ruthless." from someone which made me break out in chuckles. Then, the commenters state that this was my first ever battle on any records. Technically I had that mock battle with Misty using Brock's Geodude, but I don't think that counts.
"Well, it only happened because he was trying to Lure a supposed naive and new Trainer to line his own pockets. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and all that stuff. We all know there's no $1000 ante to fight at that place. He lost as much as he was willing to scam." I address the room with a shrug, which got me some stares and a few shuffles away from me.
Bah, if they want to be babies about this they'll get eaten up the moment someone pretends to be weaker than they really are. I shrug and the crowd parts for me like I'm some leper trying to give out handshakes and French kisses to everyone near me. I shake my head ruefully and walk upstairs by myself. Really, they were going to react this badly? Well, I knew it wasn't everyone. Was just a handful but that's more than enough to influence a crowd of people.
Augh, whatever. I have bigger things to worry about.
LINE BREAK
Considering how hard I trained yesterday, I'm not surprised I passed out almost immediately. What I was surprised by, however, was that I woke up in the actual morning hours unlike the late afternoon I was expecting. Taking it for what it was, I refreshed my ruffled illusion to remove my bed head and wrinkled clothes. Considering for a moment, I threw on my coat and hat as well. Gotta look my Sunday best on my way out of this town after all.
I have no idea if it's Sunday, but a quick glance at my Pokedex told me it was… Tuesday? Alright. I sit down at the provided table and chair, setting up my Pokedex for a video call. I dial Professor Oak's number and lean back in my chair to wait. After a few rings, Professor Oak picks up the phone… facing the wrong direction.
"Ah, hello there Grimm! I saw you on the TV last night, and it was highly amusing seeing you act like that." Professor Oak says, facing my image on the screen behind him.
"Professor, you're facing the wrong direction. Your camera is behind you." I explain patiently.
"Ah, right! So it is. The darn thing seems to move every time I get a call…" he says, grumbling as he swivels around and faces the camera.
"Yes, a lot of people seem to think so as well. Provided that they aren't Trainers, I received quite the cold shoulder over that already." I explain, and Oak looks surprised.
"Why, back in my day that sort of thing was par for the course. Agatha was particularly prone to it, I remember my first battle against her where she acted like a nice ditzy lady. She still hasn't let me live down that loss." Oak states, a mix between a smile and a grimace on his face.
"Well, I don't expect them to go far if they don't like simple deception. I plan on being a Dark Type Specialist anyways, if they expect fair from me they deserve to lose." I say offhandedly, rolling my eyes a bit.
"So, what did you call me for Grimm? I doubt it was just to talk with this old man." Oak asks, looking to get down to business.
"Well, I'm going to start on my journey now. I have a few Pokemon that I'm going to hunt down and get for my team before I start on my Gym Challenge. I was calling to let you know I was heading off." I explain.
"Hmm… what Pokemon are you looking to get? I'm curious what your desired line up is." Professor Oak inquires, leaning forward with interest.
"Well, I'm not sure how available the Pokemon I'm after are. Some of them aren't even available in Johto or even Kanto for that matter. Am I allowed in Kanto? I'm technically an Indigo citizen even though I'm registered in Johto." I ask, scratching the side of my head.
"Ah! Excellent question! You are, in fact, allowed to come into Kanto and catch Pokemon here. I wouldn't recommend it, though, since it would take a long time and would delay you on your journey." Oak says, nodding his head.
"Well, if I'm honest I really just want to catch a Sneasel by Mt. Silver. I'm going to take a peek inside and see if I can find a Larvitar as well." I shrug. "The Pokemon on my hit list, in priority, is this. Larvitar, Sneasel, Deino, Eevee, Sandile, Seedot, Houndour, Skorupi, and Absol. I know I'm not going to get any of these really easily, but Sneasel is pretty close by. Larvitar will also be a bit trickier, but I'm willing to make the attempt."
"Well, that's quite the list! Larvitar and Deino? Those are both extremely rare Pokemon. Not to mention how expensive an Eevee is!" Professor Oak says in slight shock.
"Yes, they are. But I'm going to be serious about becoming a strong trainer. And while you don't need powerful Pokemon to do it, I don't think anyone would contest it certainly helps. Personally, of that list I'd like Sneasel, Larvitar, and Deino for sure. The last slot is basically for the rest of them to fill. I think I'd prefer Eevee into Umbreon for that slot but a lot of others would be fine." I list off.
"Why do you want a Sneasel so much? I can understand most of those but why one of those?" Oak asks me, which is a fair question. It has… 6 weaknesses? Four times weakness to fighting as well.
"Because Weavile will be a core member for my battle strategy eventually." I explain, giving him a mysterious smile. I don't want to give away the game too early, after all. I love my surprises after all.
"Well, I expect you will show me eventually. I suppose I will have to wait and see, hmm? I wish you luck in your endeavors, Grimm, and don't forget that journal and notes." Oak says, terminating the connection after giving me a wave.
"Hmm, well that went well I think. Honestly, 2 Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon might be pushing it… No, like I said if I'm going to push to the top it'd be dumb of me to ignore obviously powerful Pokemon. I mean, Lance has what? 3 Dragonites? Or maybe it's worse and he has that team with 3 Pseudo and 3 Semi-Pseudo." I think out loud as I stand up from the chair, swiping up the Pokedex and pocketing it.
Whatever, I'll look it up when it's relevant. I'm in absolutely no position to be planning for the Champion. Hell, Lance is the champion of 2 conferences. The fact he's still there is a testament to just how strong he is.
I snag the room key hanging on a hook on my way out, twirling it around my finger as I sling my bag over my shoulder. Whistling happily, I walk outside my room and lock the door behind me. When I turn back around, I'm greeted with the sight of someone leaning against the wall and looking directly at me. I look for a moment, letting the silence hang between us for a moment. The guy there was dressed in all black and was tapping the wall behind him slowly.
"So, can I help you?" I ask with one eyebrow raised, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Just in case, I activated my low grade scratch inside of my pockets. He was acting weirdly enough for me to be concerned. After a few more seconds of tapping and me waiting, the man finally responded.
"You gave one of our members the run around and managed to fleece him. My boss thinks you have potential, and wants a meeting with you. I'm here to… escort you." He explains, pushing off from the wall and crossing his arms. I sigh in slight annoyance, cancel the Scratch in my right hand, leaning forward and rubbing the back of my head.
"I take it this is a mandatory meeting and you're not taking no for an answer?" I ask rhetorically, already knowing the answer. The man just nods, content to stand there and wait.
"Alright, fine. Whatever. Just let me grab some of my shit then, I'll probably be checking out anyway." I say flippantly, unlocking my door and stepping inside.
"You have 2 minutes." The man says from behind as I move through the door. I give a smile he can't see as I close the door. I'm completely avoiding this entire situation if possible.
"Jeez, pushy." Is all I say before it closes. I take a walk over to the window in my room, testing to see if it opens. Alright, it does. Good. This room is only on the 2nd floor, so I can easily survive that drop.
First, I rifle through the drawers until I find a pad of paper and a pen. I quickly leave a message for my 'escort'.
"To whom it may concern,
I am not interested in joining your group, I have more to do than be in a local crime organization. I'm not entirely sure that's what it is, but the man you sent to collect me certainly did nothing to disabuse me of the notion. Have a good day, and don't bother me with this again."
I figured I could at least be known to be polite. I'm pretty sure this is Team Rocket though. I'm not going to tip them off that I am gunning for them until I'm damn good and ready. If that means being polite, then that's what I'll do. If they really keep pursuing this, then I'll just stab them. That will eventually solve the issue at hand. I drop my bag, having put my Pokedex inside of it as well as the Pokeball Belt only containing my ball, out of the window and onto the ground below.
I clamber out of the window after it and hang from the sill. Then, I let go of the sill and dropped to the ground. I can feel the impact jarr my legs, but they only take the impact for a moment before I roll to take the weight off of them.
I didn't do it perfectly, since the wind was driven from my lungs and I did more than one roll before coming to a stop. I'll take the success though. I quickly stand up and dust myself off, slowly walking towards my bag. I pick it up and quickly sling it onto my shoulder, before speed walking towards the front entrance.
I push past a few people that were milling in the entrance, ignoring their small cries of outrage at my actions as I continue my power walk to the front desk. Nurse Joy was standing there, talking with a few of the Trainers there. I walk around the congregation and lean against the front desk.
"Ma'am, can I get my Murkrow? I'm in quite the hurry, here's my room key." I ask with a smile, grabbing her attention. She nods happily, and turns to go into the back room. One of the guys from the group decides to walk up with a slight sneer.
"So, just because you made it on TV you think you're hot shit huh? What makes you think you can interrupt our important discussion?" He says with a confident tilt. I suddenly find myself sad that I really have to get a move on, because I so want to mess with this jackass.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Who are you? I don't remember asking for your opinion, but I can certainly check with everyone else to see if they remember asking." I say with a smile, not bothering to turn towards him. My eyes never left the staircase coming down from the Second Floor.
This earned me a few chuckles from the ambient crowd that seems to naturally occur in Pokecenters, including one or two from the group he was in. He turned around and glared at the offenders in his group.
"Oh come on, Randy. You have to admit, he got you there." One of them says, still chuckling. Randy did not take this well, apparently, and stormed up to the guy who just talked. Nurse Joy came back halfway through the ensuing argument, and handed me Alonso's Pokeball. I hand over my room key in response.
"Thanks for the check up, Nurse Joy. I'm leaving town today so go ahead and take this key back." I explain, to which she thanks me and says she hopes to see me again. Always thought that was a weird and ominous statement, but I don't have time to ask after it. I quickly abscond the desk, and power walk to the entrance. In the distance I can hear a commotion starting, one separate from the argument I caused.
I don't bother looking back, instead I just keep walking away. Quickly releasing Alonso from his ball, I explained the situation to him.
"You mean to tell me… the moment I leave your side some guy from another flock comes by to try and rough you up and drag you to a meeting?!" He squawks angrily, looking indignant at the situation.
"Yep. Now, let's get the hell out of here. I don't want to be involved in this, I have places to be." I say, continuing my power walk down the street. Alonso suddenly looks really relieved for some reason, but I ignore it.
"So, where are we going?" Alonso asks me in a questioning tone, looking behind me to see if anyone matching the description of the man was following me.
"We are going to go to Mt. Silver. A bit dangerous, but there are 2 Pokemon there I really want for our team. Sneasel is what we are there for, but we are absolutely going to hunt for a Larvitar while we are there. That's one member we need to have." I explain, turning a corner and walking into a PokeMart. I grin, enjoying the feeling of actually being able to buy things now. I purchased 2 Pokeballs and 2 Potions, which drains me of the $1000 I fleeced from that man yesterday.
Yeah, so it turns out being a Trainer is really expensive if you want to have any equipment at all. Money is actually comparable to the main currencies of my old world. Pokedollars are worth less than the USD, that's for sure, but not to a large amount. Maybe about 3 USD to 4 PKD.
It made my winning taste that much sweeter, though, knowing that that man generously funded my expenses this trip. I get my receipt and stuff all of the items inside of my satchel bag, quickly pulling out my belt and reattaching it. Almost forgot about that, if I'm honest.
Looking both ways before exiting the PokeMart, just in case Mr. Mysterious was sitting outside, I quickly kept moving as I see I'm in the clear. I keep with my speed walking pace, dodging around the slower people on the streets. It gets me a few side glances but nothing special. Seeing someone in a hurry in a city isn't a shock after all. People seem more surprised that Alonso was just hanging out on my shoulder, outside of his Pokeball. Probably some sort of societal custom to not have Pokemon out in public but I'm honestly not worried about that sort of thing.
The crowd quickly starts to thin as I make my way towards the outer portion of the town, which also removes a lot of my cover sadly. I feel extremely exposed now that my shields of other people are gone, and my hair alone makes me stick out like a sore thumb. Ridiculous hair colors are common, but Purple? Not common at all.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone called out to me as I walked past, but it turns out they just wanted to compliment my performance and acting skills. Rather nice, but I didn't have the time for this so I just nodded my head and thanked her for the compliment before moving on.
I felt my heart hammering in my chest with every step I took out in the open, only calming down once I reached the tree line in the outskirts of the town. I let out a relieved sigh, and sagged as I leaned against a tree.
"Oh thank Arceus. I really didn't want to get into a gang fight today. It's too early to get into legal trouble for stabbing a man." I say, groaning as I straighten back up. Alonso gives me a side eye and tilts his head.
"Why were you worried about that man, Don? I'm sure we could have won." He says with what equates to a shrug.
"Not the point, Alonso. It's that now we are on people's radars. We can't be getting into scuffles with them yet. We aren't nearly strong enough. Gym Leader, remember?" I remind him, to which he scowls.
"Look, it's not important right now. What is important, however, is making our way to Mt. Silver and bagging us some new teammates." I say, starting to walk again. I was following the side of the route, solidly in the forest but still in sight of the road.
"I just really hope there's not a lot of dangerous and strong Pokemon roaming about there. That would be annoying to deal with…" I mumble out as we walk, having a slightly bad feeling about bringing a Flying Type to fight an Ice Type and Rock Type.
Whatever, if need be I can also step into the fight and tilt it in our favor. That might ruin their perception of our strength though, so that'll have to be a last resort if everything goes wrong. Now let's hope I haven't developed a fear of caves from that debacle in Union Cave...
A/N
Alright, I might make this a habit of every 10 chapters giving you a double chapter, but let me know what all of you think. Do you prefer the 5k with a 10k special or do you just want the consistent 5k updates and I bank the additional 5k for if something happens and I'm delayed?
Also, you get a sneak peak on what Grimm's ideal line up is right now. In his ideal world, he'd get his hands on the following team relatively quickly.
Himself
Murkrow (Alonso)
Sneasel
Larvitar
Deino
Eevee
It'll be tough getting some of these, and that 6th slot is certainly up for debate, but that's probably going to be the general line up he is going for as a Dark Type specialist. This team will give him a decent amount of coverage and resistances, to the bare minimum that he will have more resistances than weaknesses on a Specialist Team.
2 Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon might really be pushing it, but those Pokemon are also generally considered slow to get going and really weak in their initial states. Hopefully that balances out the late game power spike with these Pokemon.
I hope people enjoyed Grimm's acting, because I enjoyed writing it even if I think it's a little overdone. It really wasn't needed to beat that guy, but honestly I thought of doing it and went with it. I randomly came up with what Pokemon he had and what moves it would know, but by that point Grimm was going to use the idea. I did a little RPG maneuver and rolled a 1d100 to see if the man would see through it. The man rolled 100… on a roll low system.
Grimm neatly side steps a possible recruitment join-or-die situation from what he thinks is Team Rocket. Wonder what will happen with that?
I have a busy weekend, so it might take longer than normal for chapter 11. Hopefully the double chapter makes up for that.
Peace
-Taldor