Archie - Pokémon: 4 Deaths: 0
Blue - Pokémon: 4 Deaths: 0
{Monua 19th, 12:13PM}
{Oreburgh}
{Oreburgh Gym}
"PRINCE!" Archie panicked.
"Don't worry, he's alive," Roark assured, pointing to a little blue figure that was struggling to climb out of the pile of rocks. "Man, he looks worn out. He might need a break."
"NO!" Prince shouted quickly. "We can still battle!"
"Don't overdo it," Archie warned. "Gym leaders all seem to have this tendency to save their best Pokémon for last."
"We can do it!" Prince insisted. He was bruised and battered, and looked as if he was struggling to stay standing, but stay standing he did.
"...Alright," Archie said, "but I'm keeping your Pokéball on hand." He looked back up at the young gym leader. "Come on, then!"
Roark sneered again. "Think you can take out Craig as easily as you took out the others?" He threw out a pokéball and released something that Archie had never seen before.
Craig was squat, with two short legs and two small arms. It seemed as if half of his height was his head, a ring of spikes protruding from his huge round skull. His scaly hide was grey and blue, and he had a short blue tail. "What the hell is he?" Archie asked bluntly.
"Craig's a Cranidos," Roark said proudly. "The first one to live and breathe for over twelve thousand years."
"So you've got fossil resurrection technology around here, too?" Archie asked. Roark and Craig exchanged a look and something that was very nearly a giggle.
"None of your business," Roark said smugly. "Craig, Headbutt!"
"My favourite!" Craig said happily, lowering his head and charging towards Prince. Prince only just managed to stagger out of the way of the main blow, but he still got clipped by one of Craig's horns. The blow sent Prince flying.
"Bubble!" Archie ordered quickly.
"Pursuit!" Roark responded. Craig was hit by the blast of bubbles, but they hit him in his solid forehead, the strongest part of his entire body. He was able to turn sharply and hit Prince again.
"Dammit," Archie muttered under his breath, trying to think on what to do next as the Piplup kept trying to dodge. Prince couldn't just go on like this. Hang on, I've got an idea- "Prince, use Water Sport!"
"Ceez, really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren't you?" Roark laughed, watching Prince spray water all around. "C'mon, I'm not even using fire! Don't make it easy for me to wipe out your Pokémon! Craig, Headbutt!"
Craig rounded and charged at Prince, but his intended charge was derailed when he slipped on the water that had soaked into the dirt floor and turned it into slick mud. He went crashing to the ground.
"Alright, finish him!" Archie shouted with a grin. Before Craig could stumble to his feet, Prince sent a blast of bubbles into his back, slamming him into the mud.
"Owwwwowowowowowww…" Craig moaned, curling up in the mud and shivering. Roark's smug expression cracked as he ran over to check on Craig. He returned the Cranidos and glared at Archie. Then he tipped his head to the side, as if listening, sighed, and stood up.
"Well, this is embarrassing," he said. "I lost to some schmuck without a single badge… but that's tough. Here." He flicked open one of the pockets on his jacket and took out a rounded badge of brown and silver. "According to Pokémon League rules, I have to give you our Gym Badge since you've beaten me, the Leader for the sake of this battle," he added pointedly as he glared at his Magnezone. "Here's your official Pokémon League Coal Badge." He looked like he was going to give the badge to Archie, but he stopped halfway across the field and handed it down to Prince. "Here you go. You're not so bad, little guy, but if I had been using my real team you wouldn't stand a chance."
"We shall return for a rematch as often as you wish," Prince preened, accepting the badge. "It is only a matter of time before we are strong enough to challenge your 'real' team- and win," the Piplup smirked.
"Yeah, fine, whatever. Now push off and get healed. I need to go do the same for Craig. Later." He turned and walked out of the back door of the gym, the Magnezone floating after him.
{Monua 19th, 12:29PM}
{Oreburgh}
"Which way was the Pokémon Center again? I'm starving," Archie said, glancing around as they exited the gym. It was past lunchtime and he hadn't eaten yet.
"We are not familiar with recognising human buildings, so we fear that we will be of no help," Prince told him. "Do you remember in which direction the mines are? It might be worth regrouping with Blue, now that we have finished our challenge."
"I'm sure you can see how much I'm looking forward to that," Archie scowled. "I think they were somewhere that way, though..."
"Blue mentioned going to speak with someone, did he not?" Prince mused as they started marching. Archie carefully tried to match the Piplup's pace. "What do you suppose was so important that he would feel the need to speak with them whether you were present or not?"
"He probably walked off on his own on purpose," Archie said. "He knows I'm not going anywhere as long as he's holding onto Shanks' Pokéball, anyway. If we ask him later why he let us wander off so easily he'll probably say something along the lines of how the other person didn't need to see my 'ugly mug'," he grumbled.
"We were not aware that you had a cup of that sort with you," Prince noted, a little surprised. "Why would you even be required to show it?"
"Not that kind of mug." He really shouldn't be making fun of the young noble's misunderstandings, but the Aqua Leader couldn't help smile at that. Although for a royal Piplup who' claimed he'd never cared to look into human's social structures, Prince seemed to know a surprising amount about human tools and habits in general.
"Oh, look, there's the Pokémon Center!" Archie pointed eventually, showing a building with a red roof. "Once you're healed up, what do you say we go and grab something to eat first? If Blue isn't back before then, we can always head to the mines after. I can also ask the nurse if they have a hunting space somewhere."
"We would appreciate it," Prince said with a smile. When they walked through the building's sliding doors, Archie unclipped the two other Pokéballs from his belt and released their occupants. Mark materialized in his arms, Star-
-collapsed on the floor, shaking and whimpering.
"...Star? Is everything alright?" Prince asked nervously, waddling over to prod the Shinx. She didn't respond.
"I don't like this..." Archie muttered, kneeling best as he could with Mark in his grip and putting a hand over her. Prince took a deep breath.
"WE REQUIRE ASSISTANCE!" Prince bellowed as loud as he could.
{Monua 19th, 2:14PM}
{Oreburgh}
{Pokémon Center}
When Archie, Prince, and Mark finally heard footsteps coming from the room, the three of them glanced up. "How is she?" Archie asked.
"Your Shinx is fine," the nurse reported, smiling as she handed Star's Pokéball back to the disguised Aqua Leader. "She's not in danger."
"What happened to her?" Mark asked, looking up at Archie and Prince. "Did she get attacked?"
"She has not left her Pokéball since the gate three hours ago, same as you," Prince said, shaking his head. "But it is curious. We were under the impression that Pokéballs were to keep a Pokémon safe."
"How long have you had your Shinx?" the nurse inquired. "Is this the first time you've put her in a Pokéball?"
"I've had her for about two days, and yeah," Archie nodded. The pressed the button on Star's Pokéball, getting ready to release her- but it was empty. He gave the nurse a confused look.
"Oh, sorry, eh!" the nurse gasped. "No, your Shinx is still in the back and recovering, but she'll be out in a couple hours."
"Is there something wrong with the Pokéball I used or something? Was it a defect?" Archie wondered.
The nurse shook her head. "Nothing to do with the Pokéball, unfortunately. Rather, your Shinx has an uncommon condition and that's only found in electric-types."
"Conversion allergy, right?"
They all turned to the additional voice that visibly just came in through the main entrance as Blue joined them.
"Conwhat?" Archie blurted, confused.
"Basically a thing that makes her allergic to Pokéballs and to teleporters that aren't Pokémon," Blue said. "How bad is it?"
"Not too bad," the nurse said, smiling sheepishly. "Roark's Magnezone definitely has it a lot worse."
"And how bad does the Magnezone have it?" Prince inquired.
"An hour in a Pokéball could kill him," Blue replied grimly.
Archie swallowed nervously. Star had definitely been in the Pokéball over an hour, so however bad it may or may not be, he was grateful it wasn't Mag-level. "S-So, um...now what?"
"Well, you are going to need to make a choice," the nurse started. "If you want to keep her, you'll need to work around her condition. It's not lethal as long as you don't leave her locked in for extended periods, but it can be harmful to return her at all, so it's best to keep her out. Judging from her state when you entrusted her to us, I'd recommend carrying some Paralyz-Heals in the case you do need to return her. The other option would be to let her go, but..."
"We will keep her," Prince declared immediately, puffing up his chest. "She is a good comrade, and illnesses shall not hinder us in our quest!"
Archie nodded slowly. "...Yeah, we don't have any reason to turn her away," he said quietly. Prince glanced up at him curiously.
"I'll write up a medical certificate for you," the nurse promised, shuffling over to the computer and typing away quickly. "City laws like keeping out only one Pokémon at a time will still apply unless you have another Pokémon with a similar condition, but should you decide to do gym battles or the like for any reason, it'll give her permission to be out of her Pokéball even if there's another teammate on the battlefield."
"Well, it certainly helps understand why Roark's Magnezone had special permission to be out during the battle," Prince noted. Archie nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Oh, so you met him?" Blue asked. "I was about to say that you should go again later because I ran into the actual gym leader and he said he'd be back in a bit. So you...fought Roark, huh? How'd that turn out?"
"Prince rocked the gym on his own," Archie answered as the young noble preened. The nurse snorted and repeated 'rocked' under her breath with a muffled giggle.
"And no legs were broken!" Prince added proudly.
"That's pretty awesome," Blue said. "His real team would've probably crushed you, though. Anyway, I haven't eaten yet-" Archie pressed his lips when his stomach groaned in agreement. Blue snorted. "Alright then, food time. Let us know when Star is up again," the gym leader requested, waving at the nurse and already heading for the Pokémon Center's canteen.
{Monua 19th, 3:58PM}
{Oreburgh}
{Pokémon Center}
"So what did you go and talk about, anyway?" Archie asked. After the canteen, the two human trainers had gone to one of the Pokémon Center's indoor pools. It wasn't much of a hunting area and more just a recreation space for water-types, so the Piplup was now waddling around in the greenhouse and picking berries off the branches. "Unless it's a secret?"
"Nothing secret, no," Blue shrugged, watching one of the other trainers' Marills swim close to them. The gym leader smoothly dodged a water gun prank on the Marill's part and Mark gave it a gentle whack with his tail, making it go away. "Basically I just wanted to ask if there were any recent news on Galactic activity here, or where the next closest place was if we wanted to try and kick some ass. Never actually ran into the person I intended, but apparently there's an operations building in Eterna that some chick called Gardenia's been keeping on eye on, so we can check there."
"Eterna is up north, right?" Archie quickly pulled out a map of Sinnoh to double-check, the screen showing the entire region and the names of important cities appearing one by one. "Yup, there's a straight road that leads right up..."
"Which we can't take, because it's non-pedestrian," Blue explained, tapping the screen to zoom in. "There's Underground tunnels, but we don't have permits. We're gonna have to take the long way around by going back to Jubilife and then through Floaroma," he pointed, the map sliding back to show the towns to the west again.
Archie nodded before folding it back into his pocket. "Who were you looking for? I mean, I'd have thought maybe you're friends with the gym leader here or something, but..."
"We're not exactly pals, but I was initially looking for his apprentice, Roark," Blue said. "Y'know, the kid you fought against. Did he throw a fit when he lost?"
"He gave me a look at a first, but then he looked like he was trying to reason with himself and sucked it up and handed the badge to Prince," Archie shrugged. "So nope, no weird angry shitfest, if that's what you were expecting."
"Always nice to know he's getting better at anger management," Blue mused.
"Well, I'd be more worried about you- he definitely looked less of a sore loser type than you do," Archie quipped.
"Too bad I never lose," Blue replied easily.
Before Archie could attempt to take another jab, he heard a voice calling for a 'Mr Douglas' and turned to see the nurse smiling at him. "Your Shinx is up," she reported, directing to the feline beside her. Star looked pretty sullen, glancing around the pool like she'd been forced against her will to come here, but the instant she caught sight of the boys she perked up and bounced over to them, beaming.
"There you are!" she said, taking the chance to crawl up onto the Aqua Leader's lap and flop on her back between his legs, very clearly demanding cuddles through loud purring.
Archie chuckled and started rubbing around her neck and cheeks. "Good to see you're feeling better."
"We were pretty worried about you..." Mark muttered timidly.
"I'll be fine as long as you promise to never put me in that thing again," Star pouted, looking up at Archie. "I don't know how everyone else does it, but that thing hurt."
"I don't know about 'never', and I'm sorry I can't promise you that," Archie apologized sincerely, "but I'll definitely be keeping you out as much as possible. Just think about life-or-deaths situations," he sighed when Star made a pleading face at him. "I'd much rather have you in a Pokéball and feeling uncomfortable than dead under a rockslide or something, you know?"
"It's alright, hon, I understand..." Star sighed dejectedly. She rolled back onto her paws and glanced around. "Where's Prince? I'd have expected to hear that loudmouth before any of you."
"He's in the berry house," Mark replied, pausing before tacking on a quiet "...I think..."
"He is kind of taking a while, isn't he?" Archie wondered aloud, looking at Blue, who simply shrugged. He dunked his hands in the water as Star hopped off his lap, allowing the Magikarp to swim between his hands and let himself be picked up. "Alright, time to go find Prince."
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The rest of the battle vs Roark was written by Mangaluva, with minor edits from me.
Aaaand we've brought back Pokéball allergy! With a bonus explanation from Blue as a reminder of what it is. I can't remember exactly what the reason was behind that one, but it may have something to do with the fact that Star was very extremely over-leveled compared to the rest of Archie's team by a certain point and that being outside constantly was a reasonable excuse for it :'D
Star was the first Shinx I'd ever caught that had Rivalry as ability, and I didn't even know before then that Shinx could have something other than Intimidate. Suffice to say that running into a lot of female teams made everything just a little too easy for her. What about you, are there any abilities you were surprised to find on certain Pokémon?
PS: Another thing I realized that I forgot and went back to fix was adding the catch info for Archie's team. Putting it here for those who don't wanna go back and hunt for them.
Name: Prince. Species: Piplup. Nature: Gentle. Ability: Torrent. Location: Sandgem Town. Level: 5
Name: Star. Species: Shinx. Nature: Sassy. Ability: Rivalry. Location: Route 202. Level: 4
Name: Mark. Species: Magikarp. Nature: Lonely. Ability: Swift Swim. Location: Route 204. Level: 5
PPS: Archie x Key is now called KeyToDavyJones'sLockerShipping and the blame goes entirely to our friends Ledah and SciZoroark.
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Prince the Piplup, Star the Shinx, Mark the Magikarp
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Pete the Pidgeot, Adam the Alakazam, Gary the Arcanine