Diana eyed up Silicobra. It looked rather… weak, in all honesty. It was small, seemed weighed down by its own head, and its eyes made it seem absolutely miserable. It looked at Piplup and its face grew even more miserable. Diana wasn't even sure it would follow Kenneth's orders in battle.
But it was trained by a Gym Leader, so she wasn't gonna hold back. "Hydro Pump!" Piplup let loose a massive blast of water. Kenneth hadn't expected an explosive start from Piplup. "Dig!" Silicobra nodded as it burrowed into the ground with its giant head. Piplup stopped the blast and jumped back as Silicobra emerged from the ground in an attempt to blindside him with… had its head gotten bigger?. "Supersonic!" Piplup loosed a horrendous screech that caused Silicobra to start thrashing wildly. Before its convulsions ceased, Silicobra violently spit out a massive blast of dirt and sand. Kenneth grinned, though Diana couldn't see it. "That's Silicobra's ability, Sand Spit. It's normally a defense mechanism, but you forced it out early. Now we have the advantage! Silicobra, use Sand Tomb!" Diana's eyes widened. With this much sand around, Sand Tomb will render Piplup completely immobile. She grinned. Two can play at this game.
"Use Bide!" Diana barely saw Piplup nod through the roaring Sandstorm, and Piplup stood completely still and closed its eyes as the Sand Tomb was upon it. Diana grinned as she saw Piplup's body begin glowing brighter and brighter with every scratch caused by the wave of sand Kenneth scowled. "Finish it quickly! Use Drill Run!" Silicobra let out the closest thing to a roar it could muster, and began charging at Piplup while spinning itself around quicker than it had any right to.
"Now!" Piplup opened its eyes and grabbed Silicobra's neck out of the air before slamming it into the ground. Piplup grinned confidently as it jumped onto Silicobra and loosed the rest of the energy in a massive explosion around it. Diana and Kenneth both eyed the battlefield carefully. While the explosion cleared out the sandstorm, the battlefield glittered with sand turned to glass from the heat. And in the center stood Piplup, breathing heavily over the unconscious Silicobra. As Kenneth recalled Silicobra, Diana prepared to do the same for Piplup, but was stopped by aggressive chirping and honking from him. Piplup stared Diana in the eye and nodded. It was prepared to keep battling. Diana smiled and nodded back.
Kenneth released his next Pokemon. A mole with the happiest face she'd ever seen and three fingers clearly designed to dig through solid stone as easily as a human could walk through air emerged. The Drilbur greeted Piplup happily, to which Piplup responded with a happy chirp. Kenneth laughed. "Seems they've wished each other luck. I'd like to do the same to you." Diana nodded. "Same here."
Diana led the battle this time. Piplup's gotta power up to win this. "Agility!" Piplup reached within its mind and turned off its limits, glowing with blue energy. Agility was a lot like Close Combat. It involved the user manually shutting down the limitations their body placed on the muscles, allowing for greater physical prowess than what was normally possible. While Close Combat removed the restrictions placed on muscle density and how much energy could be allotted to them, Agility removed the restrictions placed on movement, allowing for bursts of intense speed. But like Close Combat, there was a risk of tearing apart the muscles in one's body, and the technique also resulted in energy crashes if used too long, so Diana knew she had to be careful.
Kenneth frowned as he realized he wouldn't be able to pin Piplup down. "Iron Defense!" Drilbur released an aura of grey energy around himself, forming it into a protective barrier. Diana hummed in thought. She wasn't going to have enough time to break the barrier. Unless…
"Use Hydro Pump and get close!" Piplup nodded and ran toward Drilbur before letting loose a huge blast of water that slightly pushed back Drilbur and caused his barrier to shine brightly. As Piplup got close, Diana smiled confidently. Kenneth knew he had to figure out a way to stop whatever she was planning. "Drill Run!" Drilbur grinned as he put his fingers together, locked his hands over his head, and began to spin rapidly, his barrier continuing to protect him as he charged through the Hydro Pump and slammed into Piplup.
Piplup was sent flying. Diana was mortified as its back slammed into the top of the arena barrier, and fell back down almost as quickly as it rose. Diana reached for her Pokeballs and prepared to recall Piplup, who even now was struggling to his feet. Piplup began chirping rapidly as it rose, obviously proclaiming it wasn't finished yet. Diana didn't care. Before she pressed the button to recall Piplup, let out the deepest noise she'd heard Piplup make emerged from its mouth, and began shining in a brilliant white light. She watched as Piplup grew to nearly double its height, with its arms and beak expanding proportionately. Piplup's large, rounded head seemed to become more human-shaped, and a large dual crest grew on top of it.
As the light faded and Diana looked on in awe, the newly evolved Prinplup bellowed a challenge to Drilbur, who looked in awe before getting into a battle stance. Diana smiled. "Hydro Pump!" Diana grinned wider at what she saw; Hydro Pump was faster, more focused, and more compressed, which made all the difference when it impacted Drilbur. The iron-clad mole was sent completely flying by the blast, landing unconscious after hitting the side of the barrier. Diana cheered and ran to the center of the field, much less annoyed than she would have otherwise been by the amount of glass crunching under her shoes. "That was incredible!" Prinplup preened under the praise and started flexing as Diana recalled him.
Kenneth walked over to Diana and handed her her badge and TM. "This TM contains Drill Run, not Stomping Tantrum. I… kind of ran out and gave your friend the last one. It's been a pretty big season for my Gym. A whole bunch of trainers showed up at the start of it, and the League hasn't provided me with new copies of Stomping Tantrum yet. This actually comes from my personal stock. It's reusable, so you can share it with your friends."
Diana nodded. "Thanks a lot!"
Shawn proceeded to the arena. "Guess it's my turn, then." As he took his place, he thought carefully, eyes on the glass screen between the arena and upper stands. I definitely want to use Wartortle here. But who else? He's probably still got a counter to Grass Types left, so Budew is out of the equation, and I can't go with Gastly or Geodude. Murkrow could avoid his ground-based moves, but he's used Rock moves as well. Guess that just leaves Gible. Hopefully Wartortle will just be able to sweep through his Pokemon. He released Wartortle. Kenneth released a small yet ferocious-looking Sandile, who immediately began snapping its jaws at Wartortle. Wartortle shifted his stance and let out a low rumble in response.
"Begin!"
x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x
Justin made sure Red knew exactly how he felt about this.
As they walked through the relatively small Pallet Town, Justin pouted, sighed, and grumbled his way past every single building and person. I mean, seriously, Azelf, he thought, I get the worst headache ever because Blue didn't know about our link, and he can't even battle Red one-on-one to make up for it?
It does not work that way. You being in pain does not mean the Champion of Kanto suddenly has a free schedule. Calm down.
Justin directed his attention to Red. "So, why are we here? Are we visiting Professor Oak? He was a Champion as well, so it makes sense to ask for his help. Or is it information we can get from him?"
After about four more questions from Red regarding his intentions, he finally responded, primarily out of a desire to shut Justin up. "We're not going to see Professor Oak. There's another stop I have to make that's much more important." Justin's eyes widened. Who could be more important than one of the leading scholars in the entire world?
His question was answered in the most unceremonious way possible as they stopped at a quaint house, a fair bit removed from the others. Red knocked on the door, and Justin was taken aback as it swung open almost too fast for him to follow. He instinctively reached for the Pokeballs on his belt…
… and started laughing uncontrollably as the air flew out of Red's lungs from the bear hug he now found himself caught in. Immediately after being let out of what Justin felt was an attempted suffocation, he was bombarded with questions, spoken so quickly that even Justin's link to Azelf only barely allowed him to keep up.
"Red, sweetie! I've missed you! How have you been? Have you been eating properly? How is Charizard? Have you seen Blue? Professor Oak could really use a call from him every now and again." Red was forced to spew out answers faster and faster as she kept piling the questions on. Just as Justin thought she was done with all of her questions, she turned to him and began anew. "And who is this? Is he some cousin I don't know about? Is he from that Jiman region?" She gasped, "Is he your student? That's it, isn't it! Oh, honey, I'm so proud. You're finally teaching somebody!" Justin kept his smile as Red explained who he was. "I see. Nice to meet you, Justin!" Justin nodded.
"Nice to meet you, too."
They both smiled as Red's mother invited them in. The next few hours were filled with laughter, home cooking, and an extreme amount of embarrassing stories that Red would likely pay money to prevent Justin from telling to others.
As they walked back towards the town gates (Mewtwo's teleportation wasn't exactly the most subtle thing ever), Justin recoiled.
"What did you say?"
Red nearly flinched at how downcast Justin's expression became and re-thought his decision for a split second, but continued anyway. "I want you to return to your travels with your friends. When I was there with my mother just now, and seeing Blue again, it made me remember just why I care so much. I have so many memories with them, and that's not something that I can just let go. I want you to make those memories with your friends. I'm going to give you my contact information for emergencies, and I'll call you if there's something I feel you can help with, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to spend every waking hour training and pushing yourself while we teleport around the world. You're still young. You need to walk the path of a trainer yourself, obtaining your own experiences. Simply put, you need to be Justin, not just Red's Student, understand?"
Justin was about to say something, but held his tongue as Red continued. "I understand your frustrations, Justin, but take some time to think about it, and you'll realize I'm right. We're heading back to the boat for the night, and tomorrow we'll head to Granmerge. That's where your friends said they were going next, wasn't it?" Justin nodded. "Alright, then." Justin walked, head to the ground, the rest of the way back. I'll be back. He'd better know that.
x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x
Sandile continued snapping its jaws at Wartortle, awaiting its trainer's orders. Wartortle stepped back slowly, muscles tensed at the seemingly feral nature of its foe. Both Shawn and Kenneth eyed their opponents up cautiously, waiting to see who would make the first move.
In the end, it was Shawn. "Water Spout!" Wartortle immediately released a massive blast of water like a geyser from its mouth. Sandile hopped out of the way and growled in pain as its tail was nicked by the pressurized blast. Wartortle quickly turned and used his shell to deflect the following bite from Sandile's mouth. Shawn's eyes widened as he realized Kenneth's strategy.
There wasn't one. Sandile fought entirely based on instinct, Kenneth not actually bothering to tell it what to do in battle. Shawn grit his teeth. He battled with Wartortle, calling out moves. His opponent not doing the same thing meant Shawn would always be playing catchup, having to figure out all of what Sandile was doing before the attacks reached Wartortle.
Shawn immediately snapped back to attention as Sandile began charging at Wartortle cloaked in dark energy. Foul Play. "Aqua Jet! Get behind him!" Wartortle formed his own cloak out of water, released from all of his pores, and darted around the charging Sandile, who now released his cloak and looked around for his opponent, before crashing into his back. Sandile roared in anger as he turned to face his attacker, digging into Wartortle with electrified teeth before Shawn could react. He scowled as Wartortle shook off the brutal Thunder Fang after a moment, sending Sandile back to his starting position.
"Aura Sphere!" Wartortle did the closest thing he could to a yell as he gathered his energy into his hands, then fired it at Sandile. Sandile jumped over the blast, and Shawn grinned as the sphere veered slightly, directing itself into the ground and catching Sandile in the explosion. Skilled users of Aura Sphere could maintain a perfect connection with it, guiding it as it traveled, almost ensuring a clean hit. He hadn't practiced it with Wartortle yet, but some of the knowledge Wartortle's parents had on this aspect of the technique had clearly been passed down to him. "Water Spout!" Wartortle roared confidently as he released another high-pressure blast of water from his mouth, directly impacting Sandile, who was still being pushed forward by the Aura Sphere's explosion. Struggling to its feet for a moment, Sandile's legs then gave way and he fell over, still roaring a challenge.
"That's it, then," Kenneth said as he returned Sandile, looking somewhat disappointed. "Sorry about that. I've been working with Sandile on battling without me, just in case it's necessary when he grows up. Seems his instincts still aren't up to snuff." Kenneth smiled as he walked over to Shawn, who looked at him with confusion. "Sorry, kid. I only had Sandile left for challengers with 1-2 badges. Most people come here for one of their last badges, so I don't have many outside of my main team, and I usually let my Gym trainers handle other battles. I only battled you guys because of the fossil your friend had, and because it's my Gym trainer's day off. Take this. I still have a few left over. I normally don't hand these to beginners but this contains Earthquake. Think of it as an apology for not giving you a true Gym Battle. And of course, your badge.
Shawn marveled at the relatively rare disc in his hands. "Gible's gonna love this," he said under his breath. Kenneth's eyes widened. "Later on in the season, come back here. I may be able to teach that Gible some things." Shawn nodded earnestly. "Now then," Kenneth spoke loudly, "I believe that fossil restoration should be done. Let's meet your new friend, shall we?"
Diana excitedly got up, as did Anthony, and the three ran towards the back room…
Only for Diana and Shawn to stop short and watch Anthony crash directly into the figure who materialized before them in a small flash of light.
"Sorry about that. Are you oka- Anthony?"
Anthony looked up in shock. "Justin?" The two immediately burst out laughing as they got to their feet. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you, if I had to guess." Justin looked around the Gym quickly, and muttered a short "neat" under his breath before turning to Shawn and Diana. "Did you guys battle yet?"
"As a matter of fact," Shawn answered, "we all won. Diana's Piplup evolved, too." Justin's eyes brightened at that, and he gave a quick thumbs-up to Diana before turning to Kenneth.
"Guess I'm up next, then." Anthony let out a quick chuckle when he heard that. "Who's going to tell him?"
"Sorry, kid," Kenneth said, "I'm done for the day. Enough of my team should be in fighting form again by tomorrow, though." Justin just sighed in resignation.
Diana began walking towards the back. "It's cool, though. You'll get to see my new teammate. I was able to get my fossil restored into a Cranidos!" Justin smiled and followed along with everyone else.
Entering the back room, Diana saw a Pokeball in place of her fossil and immediately grabbed it. Just before she could release the Cranidos inside, however, Kenneth stopped her. "You guys be ready to release your teams. Fossil Pokemon are ancient, so they don't comprehend most human language at first, and rely primarily on instinct, so this guy might immediately attack if he sees an unfamiliar setting in a room full of strangers."
The group nodded as Diana pressed the release button. After the initial flash of light, the first thing everyone noticed was the borderline sunlight coming off of the newly formed Pokemon's skull, in a brilliant shade of blue. Compared to that, even the white spikes protruding from its skull seemed dull in comparison. It didn't help that almost its entire body was covered in thick grey skin, with the only exception being a much duller shade of blue than the one on its head across its back and wrapped towards the front of its legs, though Diana couldn't tell if it was actually duller or if the exposed skull just reflected all of the light before it even reached its back.
Cranidos looked around with ruby eyes, scanning each member of the group before its eyes settled on Diana and Justin. Its eyes seemed to glow with awe, and Kenneth was shocked as both its tail and head lowered immediately, giving a crude appearance of a bow.
Diana also lowered her head, chuckling slightly. "Hey, Cranidos. I'm Diana. How'd you like to be part of my team?" Cranidos's eyes widened as it eagerly accepted.
Kenneth's eyes widened even more. "I've never seen this before. It immediately listened to you, and even seems to understand human language."
Anthony hummed in thought. "Maybe it's because of how well the skull was preserved?"
Justin nodded in agreement. "That probably had something to do with it." Doubtful, he thought, or it wouldn't have initially been worried. Cranidos must somehow recognize our bonds to the Lake Spirits.
Kenneth scrambled over to the revival machine, tearing through dozens of papers before sighing. "There doesn't seem to be anything different about this fossil. I'll have to keep looking." He turned to the group as he led them towards the doors. "I'd better get my newer challenger team to the Pokemon Center. You kids had better do the same." Diana thanked him again as they parted ways outside the Gym entrance.
Anthony inhaled sharply as realization hit him. "Hey, Justin, where's Red? Weren't you supposed to be receiving training from him?"
Justin put his head in his hands and sighed. Shawn facepalmed. "Please don't tell me that you annoyed him too much, so he got rid of you?"
Justin laughed. "No, nothing like that. He said that he wanted me to walk the path of a trainer myself, and gain experiences and memories, rather than just training like a madman for months. Basically, he wanted me to try and have more fun."
Diana chuckled at that as she crouched down. "Hey, Cranidos, I'm gonna find out more about you with this, okay?" Cranidos nodded as she showed him her Pokedex, staring curiously at the device, and recoiling backwards when it made noise.
Cranidos, the Head Butt Pokemon. Male. Easily identified by its skull harder than steel, this Pokemon roamed the Earth millions of years ago. This Cranidos knows the moves Headbutt, Leer, Focus Energy, Pursuit, Take Down, Scary Face, Assurance, Chip Away, Lash Out, and Smack Down. Its ability is Mold Breaker. It is often noted as having a more oppressive presence than others of its species, resulting in the nullification of many of its opponents' abilities. This Pokemon's demeanor is notably Lonely, and it greatly prefers spicy foods over sour ones.
Diana smiled. "Impressive, buddy! I'm gonna recall you now, alright?" Cranidos nodded as he smiled with pride at the praise. "Let's head back to the Pokemon Center. It's getting late."
Justin nodded as he took another look at the Gym. He'd be back tomorrow. He'd win, get his second Gym Badge, and be one step closer to the conference.
And best of all? He'd do it with his team.
I know this was an absurdly long time, but I was a page and a half away from completion and scrapped what I had for that page and a half eight different times because I didn't like it. I'm not even sure if I fully like this one, but I had to get this out eventually.