Episode 27: For Those That Dream
"Hoopa?" Anto asked after he felt himself trapped in a dream sequence again.
However this was different, the amnesiac was no longer within a bright and sunny beach, rather he looked to be in a forest, a deep dark forest with giant trees that towered as tall as a building and were just wide and ancient. The place itself was pitch black and the trees themselves almost looked like they had no color but the opposite of white.
Anto couldn't see well, but he could at least make out some kind of path that was laid in front of him, as if trying to lead him somewhere.
He inhaled deeply then he exhaled before starting to walk down the path.
As he did, there was this bright light in the distance.
He kept walking closer to it, and saw the light flashing around, dancing among the edges of the path he was walking.
Then, when he felt like he was getting closer, the light started shinning on him and following him.
"Who's there? Hoopa?" Anto called out again but the light suddenly vanished and was replaced by a blue glow.
The dark forest parted, and Anto was greeted by a strange Noctowl—or something that looked like a Noctowl. However, this Noctowl like creature looked to have stolen the stars as it's body looked like that of the night sky with shinning stars across and glowing through its form.
"Kindness is never a weakness, but a sacrifice."
The Noctowl spoke in a very familiar voice to the Amnesiac.
"Do not let the world make you cold and spiteful, my dear friend. Lest you miss the beauty this world also brings."
With that, the very strange looking Noctowl flew up into the sky and melded with the darkness, bringing the night sky, and the star lights back into Anto's dreamscape.
"So you're what it takes to get deeper into this."
Anto turned his head to see Hoopa with some fancy looking night vision goggles worn on his head. "Hoopa?"
"Something isn't quite right. The way that guardian just lighted this place up… It's almost as if those things aren't welcome here as well."
"Wait what? I thought you said they were some kind of guardians to this… realm/dream thing!?"
"That was before we came into this plane. The darkness here was trying to eat both of us whole, but when you came back, the next guardian appeared and warded away the darkness." Hoopa said as he opened up a ring to drop his night vision goggles in.
"So you're telling me that by some chance. Those creatures that we thought were guardians of whatever this place is—aren't actually protecting this place?" Anto repeated out in a confused manner. This was just getting more bizarre by the second!
Hoopa looked at him. "Oh they are protecting something alright, but I was wrong. It's not this place they're protecting. It's you." Hoopa pointed to Anto's face.
That made Anto look in shock. Those things were protecting him? What made him say that? When He first came here, one of them pounced on him! … Right? But then again, something was quite right with that eye he saw at his first dream that didn't seem to be from the first dream. Next was when Hoopa appeared, as soon as the Guardian appeared, Anto started to wake up before Hoopa and it fought. Wait… did it take him out to the fight to protect him? Come to think of it, when he saw the Sawsbuck like creature a second time, it didn't hurt him, and like the strange Noctowl it just said some familiar, nonsensical, but kind sounding words. The more Anto thought about it, the more he realized that the Guardians here have actually made no move to harm him, but repel Hoopa. If these creatures really were protecting him, it would explain their weird and surreal behavior.
"What? They're… protecting me?" Anto, now confused as all heck scratched his head in confusion. Dreams usually didn't make sense, but during said dreams your mind never notices how little sense they made. Here, for Anto, it was now starting to hurt.
"It also brings up another point. Oh darn your already fading." Hoopa said as he looked down to Anto's fading feet and legs on the path. "If those creature Guardians are protecting you specifically; what are they protecting you from?"
That was the last thing Anto heard before waking up in the morning.
Anto sat in a circle with all four of his Pokémon while he was in the bedroom floor of White's suite.
Wes walked by and saw what he was doing. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to brain storm a good idea how to fight Elesa today. I saw some of her battles. I don't think I can win with what I have now." The mute answered. He had seen a battle video of Elesa and she relied a lot on the Volt Switch attack.
Honestly, her strategy looked very hard to battle against for him. She looked to rely on speedy Pokémon who were capable of large mobility through the fights and incase a close range fighter got close enough, she would use Volt Switch to instantly swap Pokémon to avoid and counter her opponents. Takezo, while he did have a ranged move, wouldn't exactly help in this situation, so he would have to sit out of a gym battle for once.
Ohko was technically worse off than Takezo having absolutely no ranged counter. Despite his power and tenacity, Ohko literally had no ways of fighting long ranged opponents.
Lily was his best bet, but Elesa had flying Pokémon, which meant that idea was shut down quickly.
Which left only Sentinel as a viable Pokémon, which even then was not good enough.
If his battle with Burgh was any indication just going in with one viable Pokémon against a gym like that wouldn't end up well.
There was the option of the choice items, but it only worked well against Burgh because he recognized his opponent's Pokémon first hand, so it might not be as effective to use at the first go.
"We are in Nimbasa City. Why not buy some TMs? Get a new move pool and such?" Wes thought out loud.
Anto blinked. "That uhh. That sounds like a good idea. Thanks Wes."
Wes handed him a list. "While you're there, use your trainer winning to buy me this stuff."
Anto grabbed the last and watched it fall to the floor and roll to the other side of the wall. "Why can't you do this again?"
"Oh I'm laying low since they upped security down the mall."
Anto raised his brow at that before realizing something. "Wait, why are you laying low? … Wes!"
"Hey! In my defense, I only needed to pickpocket once every time I visited there!"
Anto rolled his eyes. He unfortunately knew Wes enough that he just needed to pickpocket some unsuspecting rich person just once and he would be set for a day or two. "Fine, at least you're improving."
[Later that day.]
The trainer and his four Pokémon were in the middle of a practice battlefield getting ready to start practicing their new moves.
"Alright, so," Anto held a list close to his face while placing the container with six new TMs. "I found out TMs are insanely expensive, so much in fact that I was half tempted to ask Wes to get them all for me. But I thought against that. But before I left, I was able to go online and find out a list in what Pokémon can learn which TMs and went from there. Since Sentinel isn't public information, I just had to guess from there. Now! Let's start with Takezo. Normal types are the most flexible types in the world with their ability to learn a wide range of move sets. I looked up what you could learn and I tried to find the best move for you. I got Two TMs here that should work…"
Anto handed two disks to the small normal type. "One of them is Façade! Which you and Ohko might want to learn incase either of you get paralyzed, burned, or poisoned. This move doubles in power, or technically negates the burn effect. The other one is Shadow Ball, it's a ghost type move incase ghost Pokémon and such fight you long range. Sentinel already knows this move, so maybe he can help you get the hang of how to get used to it better after learning it."
The mute then looked to Ohko and handed him one brown disk. "For you, Ohko, I've bought Focus Blast. I found it is one of the few long range moves you can actually learn. It's got great power, but the accuracy sucks. We might have to use it a few times before trying to work around that accuracy gap somehow."
"What about me?" Lily asked.
"I wanted to give you something in case you were trapped to fight close range, but I couldn't find a good enough move in the list, so the next thing I did was get these two moves! Double Team and Flash! This will greatly help you hide better and synergizes well if we are to use the Leaf Clone into secret Quiver Dancing strategy." He answered her as he gave her the fourth and fifth TM.
Sentinel looked over to the last light blue TM curiously. "Hey Anti, what's that one then?"
"Oh that? I got it in the deal of buying five and getting one random one for free. It's called Frost Breath it's a very powerful ice move that always critical strikes! And even if it wasn't free, it's a pretty good 'poor man's' Ice Beam, so there wasn't a point in just re selling it since I might get an ice type in the future." As soon as Anto finished, Sentinel took the left over TM and looked at it with his two bony claws.
Takezo and everyone else just stared at the disks.
"Well, let's learn those moves and start practicing!"
All four Pokémon shared a look with each other and their disks. Takezo, being the first to speak up, raised the Façade disk up, "Anto, how do we use these?"
"I…" He stopped as he tried to answer that. "I don't… know…"
Everyone just stared at each other for a few seconds of awkward silence.
"Alright, let me check something."
[Slightly later that day.]
"What do you mean it says, "Apply directly to the Forehead"!?" Lily shouted as she pointed to her trainer.
"That's what it flipping says!" Anto mentally answered back to his shiny Pokémon. "How the heck is apply a freaking disk to the head supposed to work!? Last time I checked, none of you are machines!"
"Yo boss, I think I got it!" Anto looked back at Ohko who had actually tried to place the disk on his forehead but actually wore his Choice Band on his forehead and slipped the disk between his head and his band, not knowing that you didn't need to keep it attached to your head to learn the move.
Still Around Ohko's only right arm, a large amount of energy gathered and formed a rather powerful looking, but not solid looking orb.
"Yeah that looks like it alright. It's supposed to be a rudimentary and primitive version of Aura Sphere according to rumors about this move. Good Job Ohko, but you don't need to wear the Choice Band it only increases physical strength not Special or ranged abilities."
"Pssh!" If Ohko still had his other arm, he would have waved it in dismissal as he made that sound. "Nah boss, I got this. See, with my band, I can throw this thing even faster!"
"Ohko, I'm sure that's not how it—" Anto was interrupted when Ohko actually threw the attack and it speed off like a bullet. However, the main problem about this was that it missed hitting any of the trees and looked to be going towards a man on his knee holding out a ring to a girl.
"Oh Derrick! My answer is—"
Then everything literally exploded on her face. And when the dust settled, the two of them were out cold and covered in dust.
Anto gaped in horror with his mouth hanging out.
"Huh. I missed." Ohko seemed to say to himself before shrugging. "This time, I'll hit that red building for sure!"
"You were aiming for the Pokémon Center!? That's even worse, and not to mention you were facing the wrong direction! Wait, no! Ohko! Do not fire that attack again!" Anto mentally shouted before his senses screamed at him to take away the disk and Choice Band from Ohko.
"I thought that attack never missed." Ohko asked innocently as people were screaming for Ambulances in the street over where the fighting type had launched the attack.
"Ohko, please." Anto thought with some hint of desperation. "Aura Sphere doesn't miss if you aim the attack and the opponent doesn't dodge correctly. I told you that Focus Blast is not Aura Sphere, just that there are rumors about it being based off that attack."
"Oooh!" Ohko said as even more people were panicking and screaming in the background.
Anto put a palm on his head. At this rate, he would have white hair at a very young age. "I wish those guys would stop screaming. I'm getting a headache."
He actually didn't expect them to all actually stop screaming.
His feeling of unease only became worse as he saw Sentinel pop back up from a Phantom Force attack that he didn't even notice him leaving a while ago.
"There! Now we can train in peace!" Sentienl clapped his claws as if to dust them off from a job well done.
"What did you do?" Anto stared on with horror.
"Well remember how you gave me that Ice attack?"
"Oh Arceus why?" Was Anto's quick response.
"Hey let me finish! Anyway, I found out that I could learn that move! But then those screaming people were so distracting, so I went through Phantom Force to go up to them. Then I realized as I was walking through the attack that you said that there was absolutely no temperature in there! So I inhaled the Frost Breath as much as I could while I was there, and when I reappeared in front of all those screamers, I froze them all with a Super Frost Breath!" He beamed with pride. It wasn't because he was mean; it was because he thought his trainer would be proud of how he used his new move. It's really too bad that Sentinel had no idea that attacking people for the whim of it was considered very wrong.
As soon as Sentinel finished, all Pokémon noticed Anto on the ground in fetal position.
"Anto?"
"Takezo, let me be in my happy place. I know it's imaginary because it's peaceful."
After a few more awkward seconds of his Pokémon watching him hyperventilate, Anto got back up.
The mute inhaled deeply, very deeply, before exhaling calmly. "… Alright, Takezo, Lily, did you two learn those new moves?"
The other two Pokémon nodded.
"Good. It's a bit pressed for time, but I would like us to learn these moves quickly before trying out some new Fusion Moves." He sighed before looking towards the Pokémon Center. "So while I'm gone, please practice your new moves a bit."
"Where are you going?" Lily asked.
The amnesiac turned to them but kept walking on. "I'm going to note to Nurse Joy that she might need some fire type Pokémon."
Hey, even when bad things go awry, someone still has to do the right thing. Even if it is their fault.
[Later…]
The challenger for today's gym challenge was waiting patiently around the Mansion of Elesa.
Apparently, the Gym leader was currently putting off Gym Challenges since her gym was currently demolished and her planned, future Gym had already begun reconstruction. However, when she found out it was Anto issuing the challenge she worked in a battle for him and invited him to her Mansion where there was a practice field they would be allowed to battle in.
Still there were some things Elesa probably needed to fix before the two could have their battle, so Anto was asked to wait with his Pokémon in her living room.
While there, Anto had taken out his harmonica, the one he won from Jail and started playing it again. He honestly had not used this since back before he even won his first badge. And as he let his body play musical notes, he found it therapeutic to let his mind wander and let his body do the work. It was the same song as he first played, he didn't know what it was called, but he did like the song none the less.
As it finally ended Anto sighed and opened his eyes—then he saw Elesa silently watching him.
"Elesa? W-When did you get here?!" The younger boy asked in surprise.
"Did I startle you? I didn't want to interrupt your song. You play it very nicely." She spoke with a smile from the couch across from him.
"No, you didn't interrupt me, and thanks. … I don't know what the song is though, but the way my body moves automatically, it must have been my favorite and most practiced song or at least one of my favorite."
Elesa closed her eyes and smiled before speaking to the boy. "Did you know that I once had a high school sweet heart?"
Anto didn't know where this was going to go, but decided to converse with her. "Must have been one lucky guy."
Elesa giggled. "I guess most people would say that. Though looking back, I'm glad I met him."
Consider the young mute's interested piqued. "Care to elaborate?"
"His name was Kail. He was a rather bleak, normal guy who was only known as the highest grade student in Biology and Chemistry. You know Highschool, not all trainers leave home, and some come back to be sent to school. He had this messy dark brown hair and boring dark brown eyes and he looked to be having his hives break out of his face." She laughed as she recalled the time of her past. "I was… trying to find my way, so I wasn't really part of a good crowd. My grades were slipping and my relation with my parents was horrible. My Bio teacher got me paired up with Kail to tutor me in his class."
"I sense you building up to talk about a very interesting first meeting."
"Well, me watching him kissing a baby Poliwag on the head was certainly something." She then laughed hard at the memory, breaking her cool persona.
Anto smiled as he hung on her every word. "Why was he kissing a Poliwag?"
"Well at first, he tried to play if off in a overly tough man voice saying, "Yeah take that poisonous monstrosity, I'm am immune to your supposed deadly poison!" But even I knew that Poliwags were not poison types." She faked man bravado before an honest and serene smile appeared on her face. "The real reason why he kissed the creature was to make it feel better. Before I had come in, the Poliwag had accidentally hurt itself, and it was his way of soothing the poor creature. It was actually a newborn Pokémon and was essentially a baby born for a lab. Kail was one of the people showing it tenderness and care."
Anto stayed silent as Elesa continued.
"We got on together like Oil and Water, I literally blackmailed him and he in return made my study sessions and all of my academic class a living hell by somehow getting all the teachers to focus on me. What finally got us to stop was when Kail extended the olive branch first and gave me a flower for Valentine 's Day. He had basically said that he got tired and ran out of tricks to one up me, so he thought he would just try being my friend and see where that goes from there." She sighed like school girl in love. "It irked me when he did that, I thought he was planning something so I tried to get him to break as much as I could. But despite how hard I tried, he still tried to befriend me, still tried to teach me how to be better in class. When I finally asked him why he was being so stubborn about this… he said that he never had a friend before."
The challenger waited for the Gymleader to stop her reflective thoughts.
"He admitted that he didn't really have any human friends since he spent so much time with Pokémon. But he figured and thought I would be a good friend because we both wanted the same thing: somewhere to belong. … He… he somehow recognized that feeling in me when he saw me glance out a window and just… wanted a friend. I don't get it, but he was right. We then got along a little better after that, our after school sessions became more like hangout time even when my grades were getting better. I found myself smiling more around him, found better friends, made amends with my parents, and left that old group. While being friends with me, he became more sociable, played more sports, worked harder, and may I just say really worked till he got toned out." She purred as she said that last sentence. "Basically life got better and we started dating at the last year of high school." Her smile died down. "Though after graduating, we went on different career paths. We broke off our relationship in pursuit of our dreams, him being a Pokémon Doctor and I—well I'm sure Val told you that story."
"Do you even keep in contact with him?" Anto asked.
Elesa stood up. "… I do… but not in the way I would like to."
The mute boy raised his brow in confusion at how she worded that phrase. "Did something happen?"
Elesa wore that proud smile she always wore. "Life happened, but enough boring you with my life story. If you really want to know what happened, you're going to have to beat me."
"Alright then! You're going down!"
"That's the spirit I'd like to see. Keep that up and even those dirtbags won't be able to touch you anymore." Elesa started leading Anto towards her private battle arena.
Anto had been in a private Gym Arena before, when he and Black used it from the Striation Brothers, but he wondered how different Elesa's was?
Very different in terms of aesthetics.
The giant arena looked to be one kind of heightened stage, tiled and styled almost like a giant walk way.
Elesa spoke out loud as she walked up the stairs. "If you're wondering why the battlefield was like this. I was thinking of experimenting where I could model and show off battles at the same time. It sounded tricky at first, but having thinking things over it seems possible if my gym could double as a runway and battlfield."
Anto nodded before walking to one corner of the giant stage. Elesa took out a remote, activating two large screens on the opposite upper ends of the room revealing both her and Anto's face on the screen with three Pokémon icons on her side and three on Anto's side.
"The Challenge is a three one-on-one battle. I'm sure you're familiar with these rules?" Elsea took out a Poké Ball as she asked this.
Anto nodded once, brandishing his own Dusk Ball.
{Recommended Music: Greatest Battle Music of All Times - Riding High (Impact Music)}
"Then we will begin!" Elesa smiled. "Go Emolga!"
"Sentinel, tear the field asunder!"
As they threw their Pokémon onto the battlefield, Sentinel and Elesa's Emolga appeared into the field.
"Electro Ball!" The model gymleader commanded quickly. And just as fast, her Emolga chaged a rather large sphere of electricity in an instant as it rushed right for Sentinel.
"Fade into Shadow Sneak!" The challenger commanded in response and the Delta Charmeleon, dropped into his own shadow a mere second before the attack could connect. The electric attack burst into an explosion that covered Anto's side of the field. However, a shadow shot out from the explosion and quickly raced out from the location of the attack.
Sentinel leapt out of the shadows, already inhaling before launching a Frost Breath towards Emolga. Emolga was instantly surprised as the Ice attack came her way, but quickly ascended high near the ceiling to avoid the frozen air. Sentinel continued moving though, making his way towards his frozen breath with his Dragon Claw(s) flaring and slashing up the stalagmites his ice breath created when it froze the air. The Delta Pokémon cut off one of the Stalagmites before chucking it at the high flying Emolga who dodged the attack, but then shielded itself when the ice shattered on the ceiling and the dust fell on top of her.
"Emolga, don't stop moving!" Elesa cried out, making Emolga look back down and quickly drop to avoid a Shadow Ball from hitting her.
Sentinel re armed his Dragon Claw and started cutting up more Stalagmites and sending them quickly towards Emolga by either throwing, or even kicking ice chunks on high. Emolga swerved and jinked along the air to avoid all the ice chunks being thrown at the electric and flying type. Deciding she should stop being on the defensive, Emolga dove for Sentinel as he threw another chunk of ice at her. In reaction, Emolga folded her body inward before lashing out with a powerful Air Slash that cut the ice chunk in half. Acting quickly, the dual type sped through the parted ice and launched another Electro Ball at Sentinel, who simply delved back into the shadows.
"Ok this is getting us nowhere," Anto thought to himself as he watched another volley of Electro Ball and Shadows Balls fly across the field. "The two are obviously well versed in keeping up long range combat. And as tempting as it is, I would rather not fight war of attritions considering while Emolga and Sentinel might be able to, but Elesa has more experience as a trainer behind her than I do. The question is though, what do I do?"
Anto watched the back and forth go on for a bit until something hit him.
"Sentinel! Phantom Force!"
The Delta Pokémon seemed confused until the telepathic mute explained his plan. At that, Sentinel literally vanished into thin air.
"Keep your guard up Emolga, keep moving in the air!" Elesa countered.
A smile curled up Anto's lips when Elesa looked at him. "Sorry Elesa, but what made you think I was going to use Phantom Force to get up there?"
To the gym leader's surprise, Sentinel appeared right where he vanished, but his mouth and some parts of his body looked to have some ice frozen…
"Emolga, dive!"
"Unleash all the cold air! Frost Breath!" Anto commanded as Sentinel, inhaling the dark cold of the Phantom Force, unleashed the increased attack high on the ceiling unleashing a pseudo blizzard that froze the ceiling now creating stalactites instead of Stalagmites.
Elesa saw what Anto was doing, he was changing the field to his advantage, if he did another one of those empowered Frost Breaths, the entire field would have been covered by Ice and impossible to move.
"Emolga, Volt Switch!"
"I was waiting for that move! Dragon Claw, hurry and parry the hit!" Anto watched the videos of Elesa abusing her favorite move Volt Switch not only to attack, but to avoid attacking Pokémon as well at times. However, there was one unique property of the attack that the mute noticed in a video of her battles.
Sentinel Charged right for Emolga as she threw the attack towards the Delta Pokémon. However, instead of dodging, Sentinel activated his Dragon Claw attack and put the attack in front of him to block the Volt Switch from harming him.
As the attack made contact, Emolga returned to her Poké Ball.
Sentinel empowered his Dragon Claws even further, making them blaze even brighter before dashing faster towards where Emolga was.
This was because the one interesting fact of Volt Switch was that the Pokémon would replace the user always appears on the very spot the user left.
Elesa's Zebstrika sure wasn't expecting the first thing to see, be a snarling Dragon type slashing with tearing Dragon Claws.
The rend of energy blasted the evolved electric type a good distance away before it stood back up, injured but taking the hit as best as it could have.
Elesa pointed to Anto. "Good move with the ice, but the thing about changing the environment is that any side can use it! Use Flame Charge! Then Flare up!"
Anto's eyes widened as the electric Pokémon used a fire attack before flaring up to intense heat around the room, causing the stalactites above that were created by Sentinel to start weakening on top of them.
The young boy's amber eyes narrowed. What was she doing with that? He got his answer when Elesa called out, "Use Discharge on the icicles above!"
Her electric type unleashed a wave of voltage towards the top, zapping it in such a way that it was causing all spikes above Sentinel to fall down on top of him.
"Thunderwave!" Elesa called out quickly, much to the shock of both Anto and Sentinel as the paralyzing attack hit Sentinel and froze him, making him unable to fade away with either Shadow sneak of Phantom Force.
The debris of ice fell on top of Sentinel made a deafening crash noise and made the two battlers cover their hands to shield from the dust.
As the dust settled, Sentinel was seen, crushed under the pillars of ice, apparently unable to turn himself intangible as the roof he froze fell on top of him.
Anto had to give Elesa credit he was making him work for this badge like everyone else.
Anto returned Sentinel before throwing out Lily.
"… Why is there ice and water here?" Lily asked as she looked around.
"Sentinel and I tried to use the Ice attack. It worked well… until Elesa turned it against me." The mute boy projected.
Elesa's voice surrounded the field. "Zebstrika, Flame Charge!"
The electric Pokémon flared from his area before racing towards Lily. The shiny Pokémon looked towards Anto before seemingly walking towards the charging evolved Pokémon. Elesa thought something was off immediately and only saw her suspicions confirmed when a bright flash of light blinded the entire field.
When she opened her eyes, Lily was already finishing a Quiver Dance set up.
Lily gracefully stepped forward and combed through her 'hair' with her hand to flick if off. "Now then," She locked eyes with Zebstrika. "It's your turn to dance."
Then a flurry of rainbow leaves covered the field.
"Flame Charge!" Elesa said as Zebstrika avoided a burst of leaves trying to hit him. Thanks to the Flame Charge attacks, Zebstrika's speed was raised beyond twice as much. The Electric type dashed for the grass type while his fire move was up. However, The electric type was confused as to why his enemy was not moving. Still he rammed through—only to find out he had just passed through an after image. The electric type stopped and whipped his head around.
There were faint images of Lily everywhere, and the worst part of it was that all of them were using Quiver Dance.
Zebstrika decided to lure out the real one by unleashing a wide spread Discharge attack.
However, Elesa's eyes widened. "Wait! Zebstrika!"
The electric Pokémon was very unaware of how close it was to the chunks of ice debris he was and neglected that they already were being melted from before. He didn't notice the puddle of water just about to reach him because he had been so focused on Lily setting up another Quiver Dance.
His master's call came too late as Zebstrika accidentally shocked himself after he unleashed the Discharge.
Lily, in the meantime, slid out from behind the ice on a pile of dry leaves levitating above the water, as she was pseudo levitating by controlling a platform of Magical Leaves for her to stand on above the ground. In her hands she was forming a rather small but condensed Energy Ball before it bolted and blasted Zebstrika off the runway.
"How interesting! You're grass type is levitating by floating on the pile of Magical Leaves she's still controlling! I can see why Burgh locked himself in his studio for a week." Elesa commented with intrigue before bringing back out Emolga. "Well then! I guess I'll be one of the first to have an air battle with a pure grass type Pokémon! Emolga, Air Slash!"
Her electric type cried out before launching a quick burst of air towards the Lilligant . In defense, the shiny Pokémon flipped off from her platform and the leaves split out of the way of the slash before forming beneath her as she landed straight up with a motion of her arms, more Magical Leaves from her platform shot out towards Emolga who countered by incinerating it with an Electro Ball.
The air fight slightly reflected that of Emolga's fight with Sentinel. However, this time Lily was at a disadvantage. While she was boosted in speed, she could not translate her speed boost into her floating leaf platform and not to mention this was technically Lily's first air battle while using the platform attack. Eventually, Emolga was able to knock Lily off her leaves by out maneuvering her and blasting her back with an Air Slash.
Anto was able to catch her before she fell, and mentally noted that next time, they should actually practice that.
Anto was now down two Pokémon while Elesa still hadn't used her last Pokémon. Still, Emolga looked pretty tired from both Sentinel's and Lily's attack, so maybe his last Pokémon had the chance to turn things around.
The mute took out a Great Ball. "Step it up, Ohko!" The boy called out as the one armed Sawk appeared on the field with a splash on the puddle ground.
Elesa was surprised that her challenger would bring out a fighting type Pokémon agasint her Emolga, but instead of trying for a flying type attack, she would also use the environment to her advantage like Anto did.
"Emolga, Electro Ball on the water!" Elesa pointed out as Emolga launched a fast electric attack towards Ohko.
However the fighting type stood his ground and reclined his right hand back. A burst of light appeared in his palm before he clenched it into his fist and threw it at the Electro Ball. The condensed Focus Blast made contact with the Electro Ball and unleashed a huge explosion that blew most of the water and ice off the runway. Not only that, the Focus Blast attack still continued on despite the clash and raced towards Emolga. Emolga thought she was able to dodge the attack at the last second, but while she was about to get out of its trajectory, it exploded into massive boom.
"What!? Was that Focus Blast!? But it moved so fast!" Elesa cried out as she saw Emolga fall to the floor unconscious, tying up the score.
The mute was actually very surprised that Focus Blast was working so well for Ohko since it was technically his first ranged attack ever. He even thought Ohko had horrible special Attack abilities. However, it seemed that Ohko, in his own strange way, turned a Special Attack in to something more physical. Focus Blast did work similarly to that of Aura Sphere where you had to gather energy and shoot it at your target. Ohko, condensed all the power of a Focus Blast into a palm, making it more tangible and having more physical properties like weight and touch before throwing it instead of aiming/launching it. He had technically negated the low accuracy of the attack by making it move faster and condensing it in such a way it would explode in a wide radius even if the attack would miss.
The amnesiac smiled as he looked at Ohko's back. The harsh people always called him an idiot, but when it came to battling…
"Ohko! One Hit Knock out!"
The fighting type turned back and gave a smirk. "Sorry Boss, doesn't count if they ain't at their best."
Ohko was a fighting genius.
Elesa laughed. "Well this is turning out to be a very fun battle! But I'm not going to lose this yet! Come on out, Tynamo!"
Anto and Ohko were surprised to see the small electric type come out. But they were even more surprised by the fact that the she was wearing a Choice Band!
"Unfortunately for me, Tynamo only knows tackle, but I was able to train her around this in turn for her attacks to be stronger than usual! Go Tynamo!"
"Wait, it only knows Tackle? Sweet! Ohko can just spam Counter and we'll win for…" Anto started off before Ohko looked at him with a somewhat sad look.
"…" Anto sighed as Tynamo came charging in. It looks like Anto was just destined to never get the easy way out. "Just don't hold back Ohko."
"Me, hold back? " Was all Ohko answered with a huge, dorky grin before turning towards his opponent and meeting her attack head on with a punch.
The two attacks collided, blowing the air around the field from the impact, but even with the Choice Band, Ohko powered through and pushed Tynamo back. The white electric Pokémon shook herself before going at it again, Ohko ready to face her attack head on at her best.
The slugfest went on for a bit, but it was obvious that Ohko was overpowering Tynamo.
"I can't do this." Tynamo whined with having her head hurt. "You're too strong!"
"Hey now dude!" Ohko shouted and pointed to her. "Are you really going to give up just like that?"
"But I only know one move, and I was so proud of how I could beat even other Pokémon with just one move! Then you overpowered me, I can't beat that."
"It ain't about being the strongest! It's about becoming the strongest, yo! It's about taking on whatever the world throws at ya and punching back no matter what! So what if I'm stronger right now? You just need to become stronger right now!"
"… Become stronger?" Tynamo glanced back at Elesa who smiled gently at her. "Right now?"
Ohko pounded on his chest proudly. "Right! You want to be the best? You gotta face the best! Ya haven't lost yet, so quit ya moping and fight me with everything ya got!"
Tynamo shook her head and turned serious towards Ohko before charging another Tackle towards the one armed Sawk.
The fighting type met her head on in another powerful clash, but this time, neither one seemed to be bulging from their spots. Until Tynamo was enveloped by a beautiful white light in the midst of the push and started warding back Ohko.
"Oh don't tell me she's!?" Anto cried out as lo and behold: Tynamo evolved into Elektrik! His opponent, who happened to be a gym leader, had her Pokémon evolve in the middle of their match? Anto's luck really did suck.
Then, with new found strength and a burst of electricity around the newly evolved Pokémon, she pushed Ohko away and sent him flying into the ground.
"Ty—no, Elektrik! You evolved!" Elesa exclaimed with pride. Her newly evolved Pokémon smile in joy before looking back to see Ohko getting back up.
"See!? Now that's what I'm talking about!" Ohko declared as he rushed towards Elektrik. The opposing electric type burst with a Spark attack, and ran up to meet with the Sawk.
What happened next was nothing short of a slug fest, each Pokémon landing blow after heavy blow against each other, but still standing tall after each attack. It was a test of endurance and pride, each trying their best to one up the other by kicking, punching, head bashing, tail slapping, or any limb or body part they could throw hard at each other.
It came to one final point where Ohko and Elektrik, both tired and injured but smiling hard.
In one final blow, Ohko gave everything to a Reversal attack while Elektrik put her all into her last Spark attack the two attacks hit their targets head on…
And both of them fell at the same time.
{End Music}
"A draw?" Anto called out as he saw the two knocked out Pokémon in the floor.
"It seems so," Elesa said as the two walked up to their fallen Pokémon. However, Elesa then tossed her badge towards Anto and the boy quickly caught it in reflex. "Congratulations. You win the Bolt Badge."
Anto looked at her in surprise "B-But it was a tie?"
"Winning isn't always what it takes to earn a badge. Sometimes, it's strength of character as an amazing trainer. For example: letting your Pokémon fight it out instead of easily ending the match because they asked you to," Elesa spoke out surprising, the winner. "The moment I explained that Tynamo only knew Tackle, you smiled wide before looking at your Pokémon. He probably asked you not to end this easily huh? Not only that, but I saw my Pokémon losing spirit after each clash with your fighting type. Then before I could, you own Pokémon beat me to the punch in cheering her up. How a Pokémon acts reflect from their trainer, and I've seen who you are from them."
Anto returned Ohko as Elesa did the same with Eleltrik. The gymleader chuckled and mused to herself. "Taking care of fools can be quite troublesome huh?"
Anto blinked and asked her what she meant by that.
The gymleader smiled slowly. "It's about Kail. He wanted to be doctor, but he always didn't like the idea of people coming to him, rather he wanted to go and help people and Pokémon who were too tired to get to the hospital, so he traveled the world as a mobile doctor. One day, there was a landslide while he was leaving one of the towns he was visiting; he would have left to safety, but there was a freaking Rattata that was in danger of being swept away, so he dove in to save the little Pokémon…" She said sadly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Anto sadly said.
Elesa shook her head. "The rat and the Pokémon actually survived though, but he's been in a coma for two years. His family was able to move him over her to the Nimbasa Hospital during that time, and I found out a month after his accident. I've been busy visiting that bull headed idiot these past two years, waiting to tell him off the moment he got up…"
Anto listened carefully and seemed to come to a particular conclusion. "You still have feelings for him don't you?"
She folded her arms, but smile kindly. "I suppose, but I have him to blame for that. You're a good kid Anto, but just remember you also have people waiting for you, so don't just charge in and be a hero, and at least use your head first."
Anto gave a small smile at the piece of advice Elesa was giving. "For what it's worth, I have this feeling that maybe he didn't kick the bucket because he knows what would happen if he met you in the afterlife."
"Dam straight." She said, not really bothering to correct her terms despite how unlady like it was. "But I digress, congratulations Anto." She said as she reached out for his hand and the two shook with a sign of respect.
"So, we're finally leaving town huh?" Wes said as he and Anto were staring down the path towards Route 5 to Driftveil City.
"Yeah. … Feels really quiet and empty compared to when we first entered." Anto commented telepathically. He sure didn't expect so much to happen when he first stepped in this City.
Wes seemed to pause before sighing. "Well! We can't dawdle here all day. Come on, you've got a league to get into and highly trained organizations after you."
"Wait up!"
The two boys looked surpised when they saw both two people catching up with them.
"White? Jamie?" Anto was surprised to see the two brunettes coming up to them.
"Good," White spoke out. "We caught up with you guys."
Jamie nodded in agreement. "I was surprised at how quickly you two checked out of the hotel, so we both had to quickly go after you."
"So what brings you here?" The boy from Orre asked simply as he folded his arms.
Jamie shrugged his shoulders. "I came here for the Music Festival, but since it ended early, I have nothing much to do here in Unova. This place is in a state of alert and every place in and out of the region has upped their security,"
Wes and Anto looked at each other. They had forgotten about that little tidbit, traveling to and from here was a little uncomfortable as of right now.
"So I figured, I'd follow you guys for a while. You don't mind me coming along right?" He asked casually.
"And you White?" The mute asked.
The girl simply sighed. "I'll try to keep it to the bare basics. My mom is in the hospital recovering her injuries. Until she's out, I'm in charge of the BW Company. But my mom didn't want me to stop my journey, while I refused to let her work while she was recovering, so both of us came with a compromise: a good friend of my mother's will momentarily take over, but I will be the one helping her via phone and emails. Because of this, I have less time to go around and continue the league challenge, but I do want to travel the rest of Unova. I also decided to travel with you guys, since Summer doesn't quite trust Wes to be reined in by just Anto alone."
"Tch!" Wes clicked his tongue.
"So as Jamie said, you don't mind us coming right?" White asked plainly.
The Snagger and the Mute stepped out for a second and conversed, Jamie and White wondered what they were going to say until Wes looked back and cleared his throat. "We will let you in, if you pay for your own meal and such!"
"Alright." Jamie said as he and Wes shook hands. However, it was then Jamie noticed Wes smirk and Anto face palm. "What?"
"Nothing," Wes innocently said before walking up the path of route 5.
The new comer looked to Anto, who only gave him a sympathetic look. "Jamie, you screwed up. Big time." Was all he said before walking after Wes.
"Wait what? Why? Why!?" Jamie yelled as he ran after the two other boys.
White smiled nervously at the three boys going ahead of her. "Well this is… different…" She honestly had no idea what to say before following them all on this strange adventure.
{Author notes}
Dream sequences are almost always kind of tricky to write. It's a bit lazy and cheap in writing since "It's Just a Dream" argument kind of doesn't leave room for argument.
I never even watched Inception and I hear that it's very… complex.
As such, hopefully, I kind of wanted to make my dream sequences mysterious but at the same time different in a way that wouldn't confuse people too much.
Which I think I failed at. Huh.
The point of the dreams was to maybe parallel a sort of "Down the Rabbit hole" where the deeper you go, the stranger it all gets. (LOOK AT TITLE OF SERIES.) As Anto and Hoopa delve deep into this "Not-Dimension" they unknowingly are getting closer to answering one of the main lingering questions of this story.
I'll let you guess which question that is.
Next we got Elesa, thought I would add a little more back story. It kind of gave me a reason to have her tell Anto "If you're going to be a hero, don't piss off others by being stupid." I don't know. I imagined Elesa being a very independent woman that need no man! *Snaps fingers* But I also kind of like the idea of true love and having a couple that brings out the good in best in both of them. (Like Wall-e!)
The purpose of trying to at least give her some back story is to make them feel more human. This is a fan story after all, you can write as much as you want without deadlines of funding problems about these types of people. I kind of wanted a character to be a bit more than what they are revealed to be in the series.
Next on the discussion board we got Ohko. My favorite one armed fighting type, and lovable block head. I like to think that despite Ohko's inability in academia and all forms of social knowledge, he is actually more focused in the actual fighting aspects of things since he has been self taught to fight from the beginning of his life. That's why when it actually comes to a fight, Ohko is a natural genius despite his flaws in anything else. I just love it when characters are complex.
Fourth thing on the list is Jamie, he's going to be joining to make a trio with Wes and Anto! They shall be known as the Three Musketeers (plus White), gallivanting the land, stealing from the unsuspecting, and leaving destruction in their wake! … Wait that sounds more like a bad guy…
And about White, first off, she's pretty. Second of all, there had to be someone willing to rein in Wes and take care of Anto, and White has been doing that with Black and Bianca when they were kids so she gets the award in new Hen mother!
One of the next things I want to talk about was the gym battle. As you can see the usage of ice and fire sort of returns but very different as to how Wes and Platinum's battle went since Elesa also used the same advantage Anto thought he created. I kind of like the ideas of gym leaders being super competent in battling. I mean just because you (A trainer) think of something clever doesn't mean the Gymleaders are just going to sit there and take it.
Any who! Whoo! It's only been one week, but dang! 8000 ish words for the next chapter? (And another extra 5000 words from my other stories?) Writing so much is actually kind of fun!
Next chapter, the new trio make their way towards Driftveil! I wonder what problems will appear for our little new comer? Oh well, they'll cross that bridge when they get there… get it?
Thanks for reading! Show your support by reviewing, following and favorite!
Elesa was brining a bouquet of flowers towards the hospital and sighed as she entered a room. To her surprise, there was someone sitting straight up from a bed.
The man turned over to see her, and a smile curled up his face. "Well at least this time I wasn't kissing a Poliwag."
Elesa walked up and slapped the man in the face.
"Ow!"
Then she slapped him with the bouquet of flowers she brought.
"Holy! Did you even remove the thorns from that!?"
Then she shut him up and kissed him.
"…" Kali was silent before he kissed her back. He saw the tears in her eyes and smiled. "Well, I don't mind this type of kissing then."
"I hate you," Elesa said as she hugged him tightly. "So much…"
Kail hugged her back. "Good to see you to Ely."