Hey guys! Back with another update for you! I'm really glad I've had a lot of days off from school lately. It's what gave me the opening I needed to get the last one up. I'm excited that it's not the beginning of the year anymore, and I finally smoothed out my schedule, so I have time to write this. It definitely won't be another huge gap like from Chapter 6 to Chapter 7, that's for sure. I'm gonna keep trying my best to update often. And about Uxie, who do you think should meet Uxie? I have something planned for the person who doesn't meet Uxie, and just felt like I should ask for you guys' opinions on the matter. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
"So, how'd it go?"
Shawn, Anthony, and Diana just grinned as they held up Budew's, Dratini's, and Spinarak's balls respectively.
"I'd like to know what's in them, you know."
"Okay then, let's go to the beach and release them. I'm sure you don't mind walking."
"Why the beach? Did you never release them the first time, right after you caught them?"
"Nope. Anthony scanned Dratini but never revived it. I never released Spinarak. It really creeps me out and I wanted some moral support."
"Well then let's go! I want to meet your new buddies."
Anthony poured the yellow powder into Dratini's mouth, making sure all of it went in. Dratini awoke with a start.
"Hey buddy. You okay?" Dratini nodded. "You know I caught you, right?" Again Dratini nodded. "So, how about you come along with me on my trip through the region? We'd have loads of fun and make all sorts of friends." Dratini became happy at the prospect of making new friends and jumped to Anthony's shoulder. "Speaking of friends, I'd like you to meet the rest of the team." He released Turtwig and Chinchou.
"Whoa whoa whoa, when did you get that Chinchou?"
"I caught it when me and Justin saved a Lapras from Team Hurricane. You named your Lapras Poseidon, right?"
"Yeah, I forgot to tell you guys about that. Shawn, I had originally intended to take you with me, but you went back to the Pokemon Center, so Anthony came along instead."
Dammit, Shawn thought. I could have caught another Pokemon as well. That's annoying.
"Why didn't you ever tell us about this?"
Justin bit his lip. "It... never came up?
"Eughh, whatever. Anyway, here I go!" Spinarak appeared from the Pokeball with a flash of light. Diana carefully approached it before giving it the revive. Spinarak slowly opened its eyes to see Diana standing next to it. It immediately went into a battle stance.
"Whoa, calm down, buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you. If anything, I want to help you. You could be way stronger and make so many friends. It'd be so much fun!"
Spinarak went to a passive stance, as if to say, "I'm listening."
"You could come along with me on my journey. How about it?"
Spinarak seemed to slowly attempt to form a smile before giving up on it and just shrieking happily.
"Mind if I scan you with this?"
Spinarak just stood still as consent.
Spinarak, the String Spit Pokemon. Female. It constructs its web with thin, yet sturdy silk. It then waits staying completely still for prey to arrive. This Spinarak knows the moves Poison Sting, String Shot, Constrict, Leech Life, Night Shade, Shadow Sneak, and Night Slash.
Oh, that's what that move was. Night Slash.
Is has an Adamant nature, and prefers Spicy foods over Dry ones.
"Night Slash, huh? That's pretty cool. Sounds like something that would come in handy later. How about you, Anthony? Dratini know any cool moves?"
"Well, there's Extreme Speed. And Dragon Rage. So, that's a thing."
"Huh. Pretty cool. Shawn?"
"Budew's got a bunch of badass moves. Extrasensory, Sleep Powder, Giga Drain. I got lucky, but Budew's no battle expert. It's still gonna take a lot of work."
"You bring up a fantastic point. Anyway, I'm gonna go to the other side of the beach."
"Why? Isn't it like a barren wasteland over there?"
"Yeah. That's why I'm going there. I'm gonna do some training."
"So we're spending one last day in what's known as the most beautiful city in Jiman, and you're going to spend it... training."
"I know, I'm excited too."
"Yeah, ok."
Justin ran to the other side of the beach before releasing his friends.
"Ready to train, guys?"
They all cheered happily. "Okay, we've got the whole day to do this. Let's go. Blitz, I want you working on flamethrower. Give me one second." He pulled out his Pokedex and looked through the videos. He showed Blitz a video of flamethrower. The Charizard on the screen sucked oxygen into its mouth before releasing a massive blast of flame from its maw.
"You understand? It's just like Ember, but you have to get much more oxygen, and focus the pyro sacs inside your mouth completely on the attack. As you get used to it, you should need less and less oxygen to do it. You ready?" Blitz nodded instantly. "Ok then, get started on that. Zeus!"
Zeus ran right up to Justin. "You're gonna work on thunderbolt. It's just like Thunder Shock, except it requires much more electricity. Think you're up for it?" Zeus nodded. He was ready. "Wait. Let me show you a video." The Ampharos on screen let sparks fly across the surface of its body before releasing it in a massive blast. "You got that down?" Zeus nodded. "Okay, have fun."
Justin walked over to Poseidon. "You'll be working on Ice Beam. Take a look." A Blastoise appeared on the screen, and formed a ball of light blue energy before releasing it from its maw. As the beam traveled, it split into arcs of icy cold power which completely froze over the giant boulder they hit. "Think you're ready?" Poseidon instantly began attempting to form the same blue energy ball.
"Hey Nightcrawler. You ready to learn rollout?" Nightcrawler cheered. "Okay, look at this." The Whirlipede began spinning itself around before launching itself at extremely high speed. "Because you're not a Whirlipede yet, you'll have to curl up into a ball by tucking in your legs and moving your head towards your tail. You think you can do that?" Nightcrawler happily nodded. "All right then, let's get to work. Tuck in your legs first."
Nightcrawler kept trying to tuck in all of his legs at once, but couldn't manage to get them all in because two or three of them always seemed to be stubborn. "You're too worried about losing your balance. But, I have an idea. Try jumping up and doing it." Nightcrawler nodded before jumping and easily tucking in all of his legs. "Nice job. Now, try moving your head towards your tail after you've tucked in your legs, ok?" Nightcrawler grunted an affirmative before jumping and tucking in all of his legs and moving its head in on its tail. "Okay, now you've got the positioning down. Jump as high as you can, and try to spin once you've gotten into position." Nightcrawler began spinning as soon as he got into position, and once he hit the ground, he took off at speeds of at least 25mph.
"Great job, Nightcrawler. Now, keep practicing that, and I'll see how you're doing at the end of the day, okay?" Nightcrawler nodded before jumping up yet again.
Blitz looks like he's having trouble with flamethrower. It suddenly became extremely cold over the side of the field Blitz wasn't on, which happened to be where Justin was. Justin grumbled in annoyance before continuing over to Blitz.
At least Poseidon's getting the hang of Ice Beam. Still, I need to work with Blitz as well. He's not doing too good with flamethrower.
Indeed he is. I could help him if you wish.
No. I don't want Blitz to only use a move with help from a legend. He needs to learn this on his own.
Very well. But I must say, having the Bug-Type jump to complete his roll was a nice idea.
Thanks, but it was really just because I needed to think of something that would work. Right now, Nightcrawler is worried he'll lose balance and fall if he tucks in his legs on the ground. Besides, the jump gives him extra momentum and increases his speed and velocity, so that's pretty cool since it makes rollout stronger.
Indeed.
Justin made it over to Blitz just as Azelf finished telling him about Diana's bond with Mesprit.
Pretty cool, she's chilling with Mesprit.
Yes, although I'm surprised Uxie didn't contact her. She usually enjoys speaking with people like her.
Eh, it doesn't really matter. I mean, what about me? I know I met you when I was little, but I'd personally considered myself as wise, although I'm not gonna brag about it.
Uxie was going to speak with you, but I deterred her from it because of that encounter.
Oh, I get it. Hang on, I need to speak to Blitz.
"Blitz, it looks like you're having some trouble." Blitz vehemently denied it, but Justin just laughed. "Everyone has difficulty with something at some point. Did you know that for my first 3 years of school, I was the top student? Well obviously you didn't, since we hadn't met yet, but that's besides the point. You get it. Then all of a sudden, everybody's catching up. I never realized it before then, but I had reached my peak as a student during year three, and I couldn't learn new things as easily as I did. You probably practiced all of the moves you know quite a bit, basing yourself only on the fragments of the memories of your parents knowing those moves. You learned those easily because you already had a metric ton of examples in your memory. Now, you're learning something extremely complicated based on a single example. It's pretty obvious that you're gonna have some degree of difficulty. Not to mention the fact that you're still a Charmander, and you're small, so your lungs can't hold as much oxygen. Look, the point is, don't worry about it. Let's keep moving forward. Start by breathing deeply in and out of your mouth." Blitz nodded before doing the deep breathing exercises thoroughly. "Okay, you done?" Blitz smiled and nodded. "Now try using ember, but suck in much more oxygen." Blitz formed a massive ember with the extremely deep breath he took in. "Nice one. Do it again, but this time, try combining the ember into a single stream." Blitz sucked oxygen into his mouth again before releasing a small, steady stream of flame. "Good one! Now, just keep doing that, and show me how far you've gotten at the end of the day today, all right?" Blitz smiled and nodded before turning his face to an expression of determination.
It's a pretty small flamethrower, but I'm glad he's got it down. It'll get better as time goes on. Zeus looks like he's doing okay, but I still wanna see how he's doing on this.
"Zeus, you look like you're doing pretty good. Why don't you show me how far you've gotten?" Zeus nodded before sparks began jumping all over his body towards his cheek pouches in a constant cycle, before he let out a massive burst of what might as well be lightning into the air. Justin whistled. "Wow. Okay then, just keep practicing that, and we'll see how much more you've gotten better with it at the end of the day." Zeus nodded before releasing more electricity.
And how are you doing, Poseidon?
Well, in any case, it seems like the Pikachu has made much progress.
Yeah, you got that right.
"Poseidon, show me your Ice Beam so far." Poseidon nodded before forming the same exact ball of light blue energy as the video. Poseidon released it from its mouth, but just before hitting the boulder he'd been aiming at, it fizzled out.
"Okay, so you can form it and launch it, but it keeps dying out. Try making it colder."
"Poseidon formed the ball again, although it shone with a sky blue light and traveled much faster. It split into five arcs of icy energy before completely freezing one of the many boulders scattered across the beach.
"Great job, buddy! Just keep going with this and we'll see how much you've progressed at the end of the day, all right?" Poseidon nodded.
I didn't get enough sleep last night. I'm gonna take a nap.
All right, I'll wake you if, as some humans say, shit hits the fan.
I'm gonna pull a Diana here. Watch your language, Azelf.
Hehehe, it's funny because she's one of the only people that cares about that.
Indeed.
Diana had a look of awe as she regarded the fossil. It was a pure skull, with serrated spiked edges wrapping around the forehead. No other part of the body seemed to be present, but the sandstone surrounding the skull she personally thought looked very pretty.
Wow, what is this? It's definitely a piece of some ancient life form, but what? I'll figure it out later. She dusted off the fossil before carefully placing it inside her bag. She wasn't stupid enough to not be careful with it, since she knew these fossils were ancient and while they were at least perfect preservation of one body part, they were also extremely fragile. I'm definitely hanging on to this, at least until I know what it is. Then I'll decide what to do with it.
"Ouch! What the heck was that?" Shawn looked at his leg to see a large bite mark on it. Where did that come from? He looked to where he was sitting to see a small shark like creature digging around in the sand where his feet had been. So this Gible decided "Hey I'm gonna bite Shawn. Because that'll totally end well." He released Budew. Well it'll think twice before deciding on that again. "Leaf Storm!" Budew nodded before releasing a huge amount of razor sharp leaves and launching them at Gible. Gible dived under the sand, but was denied by the absolute tornado the Leaf Storm created. It was thrown into the air, but landed right in the eye of the storm, and was instantly knocked out. Shawn threw a Pokeball at Gible, easily making the catch. Prick.
Shawn let Gible out of the Pokeball before giving it a revive. As it swallowed the yellow powder, it's eyes opened. Gible awoke with a start before diving under the sand. Shawn returned it before letting it back out. It went under the sand yet again, and Shawn returned it yet again. The cycle continued, Shawn getting annoyed at the fact that Gible couldn't seem to understand that it wasn't going anywhere. After about five minutes, Gible gave up and sat down facing away from Shawn.
Shawn walked over to Gible. I am thoroughly angry, and I don't feel like going through this. "Look, Gible. I caught you. Nothing's changing about that. So, why don't you come with me? You'd get much stronger, and make plenty of friends along the way. And you know what else? You could become a Garchomp." Nothing but the last sentence got through to Gible, who looked at Shawn with awe at the prospect of evolving. Gible nodded and jumped up and down. "Hey Gible, I need to scan you with this." He pulled out his Pokedex. Gible looked at it with wonder, basically asking what it was. "Oh, this? It's a Pokedex. It's gonna tell me stuff about you, like the moves you know and what food you like to eat. That's ok, right?" Gible seemed to get it, and laid back the way Shawn had been, although it only really managed to lay its head down. Its legs remained suspended in midair.
Gible, the Land Shark Pokemon. Female. It nests underground, supported by geothermal heat. Foes that step into their territory can expect to be pounced on and bitten.
Yeah, I already know that.
This Gible knows the moves Tackle, Sand Attack, Dragon Rage, Sandstorm, Take Down, Sand Tomb, Dragon Claw, Dig, and Dragon Breath. Its ability is Rough Skin, which hurts others when contact is made.
Mental note, Shawn thought. Never, under any circumstances, pet Gible. Because I don't feel like having my skin cut.
It has a Jolly nature, and prefers Sweet foods over Dry ones.
Good to know.
"Hey Gible, how about I introduce you to the team?" Gible nodded, seemingly excited about meeting its new friends. "Just be nice, ok?" Shawn released Squirtle, Geodude, and Budew.
"You already know Budew." Budew happily greeted Gible, to which Gible gave a smile. Good to know, there's no bad blood between them. I was worried for a second that Gible would have mixed feelings about Budew for... obvious reasons.
"This is Squirtle, and that's Geodude." Gible decided it'd be a good idea to test how hard Geodude was, and took a bite out of him. It didn't end well... for Gible, anyway.
Shawn couldn't help but laugh at what happened. As soon as Gible clamped its jaws on Geodude, he used magnitude on the ground beneath him, which created such bad vibrations that Gible wasn't even sent flying, but was shaking like a jackhammer as the vibrations went through its body.
Is it strange that I find this funny even though it's my own Pokemon? No, probably not. Justin would laugh, Anthony would laugh, and Diana would laugh. Speaking of Justin, I want myself a battle. It'll be a four on four. Yeah, good idea.
As Shawn calmed down from laughing, he told Squirtle that they were gonna be battling Justin. Squirtle smiled dangerously. "Just tell the rest of the team what to expect from him, ok?"
Just you wait, Justin. I won't lose this time. You're going down, buddy.
Everyone's made absolutely beautiful progress, huh Azelf?
Indeed. Although I feel as though the only one that might have been able to do it without your assistance was the rodent.
First off, very rude talking about Zeus like that. He's not just a rodent. Second, it feels good to know I can help my team, since they always help me. In any case, I think we'll stop for the day. I'll see how they're doing before heading back to the Pokemon Center. Justin woke up and walked towards Poseidon. Pretty cool though, being able to talk to Azelf in my sleep. Better than staying up, in any case. "All right everybody, bring it in! Let's see those moves. Nightcrawler, use rollout!" Nightcrawler jumped and easily spun around five times in the air before hitting the ground and taking off at speeds of at least 35mph. He pulled five laps around the team before coming to a halt next to Justin.
Everything improved! Speed, velocity, power, positioning. I couldn't be happier with the results.
Indeed, he has improved quite a fair amount.
"That was amazing, Nightcrawler! I couldn't have asked for better." Nightcrawler smiled before laying down. With all the effort that came with learning rollout, who could blame him?
"Poseidon, Ice Beam on that boulder." The boulder was one of the only ones Poseidon hadn't practiced on.
Poseidon instantly formed a ball of light blue energy that made the air around them freeze over. He released the ball, and it split into six arcs of icy cold power which completely froze the boulder.
Poor boulder! Poseidon didn't hold anything back. He also seems to be wide awake. At least Ice Beam doesn't tire him out.
Yes, poor boulder indeed. I almost felt that from in the water.
Jesus, that's powerf- wait, what?
Yes, I have been in the water.
Huh. Never noticed.
"Zeus, Thunderbolt." Zeus laid on his back before casually releasing massive amounts of electricity from his cheek pouches.
Well, he's got that down.
Ha, that is surely an understatement.
Indeed.
"Last but not least, Blitz is gonna show up how amazing he is at using Flamethrower." Blitz quickly sucked in a decent amount of air before he released it in the form of a massive flame from within his mouth.
I do not want to ever be in the way of that.
I don't blame you. As a legend, I take those, but you are a human. You gonna die if that hits you.
Yes. Yes I am.
"All of you are doing amazing. I couldn't have asked for better. Now I'm gonna recall you. Let's go back to the Pokemon Center." He recalled them into their Pokeballs before sprinting back to the Pokemon Center. Man, am I glad I took that nap!
After arriving at the center, he remembered that they had agreed to leave tomorrow. Too bad, this beach is great for training. Oh well, I'll find another spot later.
"You all ready to head out?"
"Definitely," Shawn said. "But, there's one thing I want to take care of first." No time to chicken out now. I'm doing this.
"Justin, you already know what it is, don't you?"
"Yeah, I figured as much. You want to embarrass yourself- I mean, uhh, battle me. Yeah. That's it."
"Don't you mock me!"
"Why not? It's so much fun!"
"You know what? Let's do this. You're going down, Justin!"
They both withdrew their Pokeballs.
So, it's Shawn versus Justin once again! What do you think will happen? It may not be what you expect!
I'd also like to personally thank The Straight Elf, Justy1993, and Airenee for reviewing the story. Your advice has helped me so much. I really can't thank you guys enough. With that, I bid you Adieu. Thanks for reading!
-Justin