Chapter 11: Route 104
Wowee, another chapter! I'm on a roll here. Just a heads up, though, I have a ton of homework due to being out of school for two weeks straight (I have 9 things for English alone!) and because of that and the fact that Christmas is in 3 days and I am so not ready for it, I might not be able to update this fanfic for a few days. I'll try to do daily or near daily updates in the week after Christmas, but I make no guarantees as to whether or not that'll happen. Sorry guys!
According to my alert emails from Gmail, I don't have any new followers or favorites. Oh well, it's not the end of the world. Honestly, I'm surprised I've gotten this good of a response for this story in such a short amount of time. I do, however, have a review!
Miraak Darklight: Thanks for the review, buddy! Is the story strange? Not that I care, I'm a strange girl. (I mean, I could have collected coins, or stones, but I collect paint chips if you can believe it) Yeah, Sapphire sure is a rebel, isn't she? That's okay, punks make for really good protagonists. As for May and Brendan, I prefer to say that they are foolish misguided brats. Since I'm actually doing seven different Hoenn fanfics for the Pokémon Legends series I'm working on, I wanted to make them unique in this fanfic instead of them just being generically nice. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing official! Don't sue me, that'd be a really rotten Christmas present.
Due to her injuries, Sapphire had only been able to make it to the entrance of the woods before being forced to take a break. Ahead of her loomed the thick forest known as Petalburg Woods, a place crawling with Bug type Pokemon. She was at a distinct disadvantage here in this environment, since all but one of her Pokemon were weak to Bug Types. Shade probably wouldn't have much trouble here due to the fact that he was still quite a bit stronger than any of her other Pokemon, and Shadow knew a Fire type move that he could use to fight back. Beldum should be okay since their Steel type attributes would help them resist any super effective moves, but both Dancer and Sword only knew Growl. They'd be sitting ducks. Swampy didn't have anything to fear from the bugs, but Grass types were another story.
It would be tough making it through this area already, and Sapphire hadn't even factored in her injuries and limited supplies. All in all she was looking at spending a few days in this forest before traversing the rest of Route 104 to get to the next city.
Ideally she'd need another Pokemon that was strong against both Grass and Bug types to help her deal with all the Wurmples, Silcoons, Cascoons, and Shroomishes that occupied the area. A Flying type would be ideal, but catching yet another partner posed a problem. Sapphire already had six Pokemon in her active team, meaning that she could not legally add another one until she placed one of the ones already with her in the Pokemon storage system. Sword was still quite weak from his wounds, and Sapphire did not wish to put him through several rigorous battles.
"So now what do I do?" Sapphire groaned. "I can't go back to Petalburg, my old man knows I'm in the area because I was careless. Going through Petalburg Woods is too risky with an unbalanced team like mine, and one of my partners is too weak to battle right now. If that cut hadn't been infected that would be a different story, but the last thing I need is for Sword to open up the wound and reinfect it. That could be downright deadly, and I'm not going to risk his life."
Sapphire knew that if she had a Pokedex then she wouldn't have this kind of problem. All Pokedexes had the capability to transfer captured Pokemon to a trainer's personal account on the Pokemon Storage System. It was a one-way transfer, trainers couldn't just swap their party members out in the middle of nowhere. But right now it would have been useful to send Sword back to safety.
Then again, the girl could not be the only person out there who had wanted to catch a Pokemon out in the wild but already had six of their partners on them. There had to be a way for her to initiate the one way transfer. Perhaps it could be found on her PokeNav Plus? It had a WiFi signal, and after some messing around on it the girl discovered that there were four separate apps on it. AreaNav provided a detailed region map, while DexNav was a program that allowed trainers to scan the area for a Pokemon. BuzzNav gave access to various talk shows, radio programs, and tv specials. But it was the last one, PlayNav, that provided the answer. It had Pokemon Amie and Super Training on it, which Sapphire assumed were apps to help Pokemon trainers raise their partners. But it was the last feature, the Trainer Support System, that piqued her interest. Digging around in it for a few moments revealed an option that was simply labeled Pokemon Transfer. Without hesitation, Sapphire selected it.
"Please choose a Pokeball to transfer, and scan it with the PokeNav." A pleasant female voice instructed. So, it appeared that the girl had selected the correct function.
"Sword, come on out!" In a flash of light and a flurry of sparkles, the shiny Ralts appeared. He still had a bandage wrapped around his head, though there was no red stain marring its surface. Good, it appeared that the wound hadn't opened up yet.
"Listen buddy. You're a really tough Pokemon, and I appreciate how strong you are."Sapphire explained as the Ralts listened closely. "But I don't want to risk taking you into Petalburg Woods right now, not with that nasty cut on your head. The locals said that a lot of the Pokemon in there can cause status conditions, and right now your health is rather delicate. I'm going to send your Pokeball to the Storage System for a few days. By the time that I reach Rustboro that injury should've healed up nicely, and then I'll add you back on to my team for a bit, okay?"
"Ralts…" Sword sounded sad. He wanted to go on an adventure, but he saw the wisdom in his trainer's words. His mother had told him to be cautious of entering the forest to the west, where Bug types were common and could pose a grave danger to him and his sister. In his weakened state he could easily be severely hurt, even more severely than when the Poochyena had attacked him for entering their territory. Sword did not like having to remain behind, even though he knew his trainer wouldn't abandon him. But he knew that it was the only good choice available to him.
"Hey, don't worry." Sensing his sorrow, Sapphire carefully picked the tiny Pokemon up. "You and your sister and I will be a great team, especially in double battles. But if you were to get hurt because I placed you in danger, well, I'd never forgive myself. It's only for a few days, and then you and I will go on our own little adventure together for a night, just the two of us. Okay?"
"Ralts." This seemed to perk Sword up a bit, and he nodded excitedly. Sapphire smiled before recalling the tiny dual type into his Pokeball. Restarting the Pokemon Transfer program, she held the red and white ball in front of the scanner. There was a beeping sound as it registered the presence of the Pokeball, and then a white bolt of light shot out of the PokeNav Plus, enveloping Sword's Pokeball and pulling it into the device.
"Transfer has been successfully completed." The device announce a moment later, signifying that Sword had arrived safely. Sapphire smiled in relief, a tinge of sadness in her eyes, before sighing. She knew that this was the best choice for the Pokemon, but she certainly would miss him.
"Well, I can't afford to dwell on this forever." She eventually said as she let out a piercing whistle, summoning Shade to her side. "Let's see what kind of Pokemon are hiding out here on this Route."
Okay, I admit it, this chapter's more of a filler than anything else. But it's important for a few reasons.
1) It establishes that Sapphire can capture more than 6 Pokémon, setting up what I like to call a rotating team. That is to say she isn't always going to have Swampy, Shade, Shadow, Sword, Dancer, and Beldum on her team at all times. Probably what'll end up happening is that she'll have two or three Pokémon that almost exclusively stay with her, and then she'll swap the other ones out at different times depending on what the situation calls for.
2) It will indirectly help balance Sapphire's team. Right now one good Bug type master could totally flatten her, since all of her Pokémon aside from Swampy have at least one type that is weak to the Bug type. (Shade and Shadow are both Dark types, while the Ralts and Beldum are all part Psychic type). So since she can have more than six Pokémon, it'll balance out those type weaknesses.
3) This part of Route 104 is tiny. There's not a lot to do in it, and I didn't want to cram Petalburg Woods and the first half of Route 104 into one really long chapter.
Either way, it is what it is. I promise next chapter will have some action in it, and you'll meet Sapphire's newest friend too! As always, thanks for reading! If you have any comments, compliments, or constructive criticisms you can either PM me or leave them in a review. Flames will be utterly doused by a Gyrados using Hydro Pump.
