Good day, everyone! I am so glad that everyone had the chance to read this story! I'll even take the time to answer the reviews I got, too! And after that, your prize is a brand new chapter!
Please enjoy it!
Summary: A young boy only wanted to have a Pokémon and to go on a Pokémon Journey. However, he got into an adventure that was bigger than he ever expected…
Alternate Paths
:Chapter Two:
-=Steps To The Victory: The Hero's First Battle=-
Pokémon battles were always a part of the life in Sinnoh, as in other continents. This much could never change; after all, Pokémon were like pets, very important to the populace in general, and the entire world knew of it. Some of the most conservative elders felt distrust over the new trainers of the other regions, however, due to their wild opinions on Pokémon training, as if it were a game where you could be 'friends' with them, a ridiculous thing to say.
Due to this, in Sinnoh things were very old-fashioned; you went out there on the wild with a Pokémon, found another one and beat the stuffing out of it until it was unable to fight your Pokémon, then either used a Pokéball to add it to your team or knocked it out so that some other kid could do the same five minutes later. Simple and effective, even if it involved things such as constant switching of your Pokémon in a ping-pong-like manner or using rocks and sticks to guarantee that the Pokémon wasn't going to run away.
Not like it mattered; Pokémon were meant to be fought, not treated nicely. To do such was stupid and dumb and stupidly dumb. Most trainers learned this the easiest way in school, but there were always those who ignored their lessons and paid for it dearly, mostly because they were harassed publicly by their peers and companions, even their Pokémon ones.
Of course, just because they do their best to teach them doesn't mean accidents can't happen.
…%)
As he walked by the road, Steve was thinking about the Pokémon he had received earlier. Gible were rather difficult Pokémon to take care of, and he had heard of their proud and dominant manners. Seeing as how their evolutions were particularly worse to handle, and how they relied on first impressions, Steve would have to handle it carefully, especially so that the Pokémon wouldn't disobey him and start acting in a dangerous manner. That wouldn't be good for either of them.
For a moment, he took out the Pokéball, enlarging it. As he watched it, Steve would feel it was pretty heavy, even more than he expected it to be. It seemed to be an indicator of whether the Pokéball was occupied or not, all things considered…
"Well… I guess I should introduce myself to him," he decided, opening the Pokéball and releasing the Pokémon inside. Gible blinked, for a few seconds, as it took in its surroundings.
"Gyaa?" it let out, unconsciously, before both eyes focused on the human in front of it. Steve moved himself down, approaching him carefully, and noticing the Pokémon hadn't reacted in any real manner yet.
"Um… hi, Gible…" he greeted, awkwardly. "I'm your new trainer, Steve Mason… I'm sorry about the whole thing that happened before. Do you want to become my friend?" Out of custom, he had extended one of his hands closer, not realizing it at first.
Gible stared at it, for a few seconds, before doing the first thing that came to its mind.
"Gyabu!" it said, before biting the hand.
Steve, who was smiling in a nice way, eyes closed, suddenly realized the pain, eyes opening widely, the smile growing more and more uncomfortable. After a few seconds, he gulped, and looked down, where his hand was.
The Pokémon had let out some sound, before trying to chew the hand, completely breaking the young boy's pose.
"OOOOOOOOOW!" he screamed, painfully loudly, and Gible released his hand, before pressing both of its stubby arms where, presumably, its ears were. Steve didn't notice it at first, however; rather, the blood that was flowing from the various holes made by the Pokémon was enough of a distraction. "T-that's…"
"GYAAAAAAAA!" Gible screamed as well, now, very distressed. With the Pokémon continuously making that noise, ignoring the smell and taste of blood (to Steve's little luck), the newbie trainer was unable to concentrate on what he was supposed to do, having to choose between fixing his wounds immediately or trying to calm the Pokémon down.
He chose the former; taking the Pokéball with his unhurt hand, he pointed it at Gible. "P-please return!" he asked, wincing from the pain, and activated the recalling system. The small and round Pokémon didn't even blink as it was absorbed, with the boy releasing the sphere shortly afterwards. As it fell down to the ground, he used his good arm to release his backpack on the ground, before looking inside. There were a few medical things there, the kinds that would only be used for emergencies, and while he was no real doctor, he could at least clean and gauze his own wounds… that is, if he remembered which of those was the antiseptic…
Taking out the medical box, one of the reasons for the heavier weight of his backpack, he placed it on the ground and opened it. There were several plastic bottles inside, as well as a large roll of gauze and an actual glass container, placed on a special, more padded pocket of it. As he looked in the bottle descriptions, he saw that several of those were a lot less generic than the ones he had for Pokémon, not as many in amount as the other kind.
Picking one up, he read the instructions closely, and let out a breath; this was the bottle he was looking for. Opening it carefully, he sprayed some of the contents all over his wrist's bite marks, his arm jerking in response; that thing was painful… but it was a pain he had to bear with, if he wanted to get his body healed.
After that, he replaced the bottle and picked up the gauze roll, using both hands to work it now that he had recovered some feeling. Once he had enough of it, he cut it off with a tug – one of the wonders of modern technology – and began to wrap it around his wound.
A few moments later, he was done, breathing more carefully now. A few hand movements made it clear that nothing was seriously harmed, and so he decided it was good enough. Looking down, he saw that the Pokéball was still down there, close by, and picked it up.
"Okay… let's try this again…" he said, releasing the Pokémon again. Gible stared at him, after a few seconds. "So… well, sorry about that, Gible. I really didn't mean to scare you like that, it was just…"
However, at this point, the Pokémon's attention had been drawn to a more familiar thing; namely, the hand that was approaching it, slowly.
Thus, it reacted on instinct.
"Gyabu!" it said, before biting his hand again.
Steve was paralyzed for a few seconds, before he looked down again. "Ow… owww…" he gasped, before screaming again.
"OOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
A few minutes later, after having fixed his hand once more, Steve decided to try again. "Sorry about that, Gible… but well, we can still be friends, right?" he asked, and Gible looked at his hand.
"Gyabu!"
"OOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
After another quick attempt at cleaning his wound, Steve released his Pokémon again. "I'm sorry… you're not really angry at me, are you?" he asked, keeping his wounded hand up… but he had forgotten about his other hand.
"Gyabu!"
"OOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
"Do you think we can be friends?"
"Gyabu!"
"OOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
"Please… could you please stop biting my hand, please?"
"Gyabu!"
"OOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
"Please don't hurt me!" Steve pleaded, bowing down, keeping his head right over his hands. They were wrapped in bandages, now, enough that it made him want to scratch them so much yet he was unable to do so, due to the fact that all his fingers were wrapped tightly and unable to do much.
Gible stared at his form, for a few seconds, before its small brain decided that the human in front of it wasn't interesting anymore. "Gyaaaa!" it let out, before turning around and beginning to walk away.
After five seconds without the feeling of sharp teeth biting through his soft and weak young human flesh, the boy opened his eyes, before looking up. Gible was currently trying to eat through a tree, or at least that's what it seemed; the Pokémon was standing sideways and made noticeable gnawing sounds.
"Oh… you must be hungry!" Steve realized, before getting up slowly; his wounded hands weren't cooperating with the weight he had to bear. "That's why you've been biting me, isn't it? You're hungry and need to eat!"
If Gible had heard him, it hadn't given any signs of showing such; it was still busy trying to chew through the tree. Despite that, Steve decided to take that as a positive sign, and began looking in his bag for the bottle full of Pokémon food he had bought – one of three, more than enough for just one Pokémon. After opening it, he took some of the small blobs of food.
Before he would offer it to Gible, however, he remembered all the previous situations, and decided against it.
"Hey, Gible!" he told the Pokémon, coming closer. Once he felt he was close enough, he threw the Pokémon food to the Pokémon, making sure that it would be able to see them. "Come on, it's time to eat!"
As the small things fell on the ground, Gible stopped trying to gnaw on the tree, and instead released it quickly. Approaching it carefully, it picked one of the blobs and sniffed it, before placing it on its mouth. One second later, it had been chomped to bits, the Pokémon feeling the new taste.
"GYA!" it cried out, happily, before proceeding to devour the rest of them, along with the blades of grass and the ground beneath, very messily. When it was done, it was sitting on the floor, apparently laughing at that whole mess, not realizing its mouth was full of mud and grass.
"Wow… you really like to eat, don't you?" Steve asked, and Gible let out a happy cry again. "Guess that means you'll be eating a lot… huh?"
To the boy's surprise, Gible had returned to gnawing on the tree, its teeth biting on the trunk sharply. "W-what's wrong? Weren't you hungry?" he asked, but Gible gave no answer.
After a few seconds, Steve decided to use the device he had been given by Professor Rowan, taking it from his pocket. As he pointed it at his Pokémon, there was a loud beep, for a moment.
"Gible, the Land Dragon Pokémon. Because its teeth are constantly growing, it always gnaws on anything it can place on its mouth." As he heard that, Steve blinked.
"So, you're actually trying to get used to your teeth?" he asked, kneeling by the Pokémon, at a safe distance. "I guess that's why you were always biting me… you know, I also have teeth growing; my old teeth fell off a while ago, so they're new. It really feels funny to eat with them…"
Gible ignored him, even though Steve was oblivious to that; he just kept talking about him, hoping that the Pokémon would understand. After enough time passed, the boy finally opened his eyes, which he had closed as he spoke, only to see that Gible was not even looking at him at this point; rather, it had decided to stare at the tree, having ceased his gnawing for a second.
"Um… are you okay, Gible?" he asked, and the Pokémon turned towards him.
"Gyabu!" the Pokémon let out, before wandering with its stubby little limbs towards an apparently random direction. Just as it took its tenth step, however, another small Pokémon flew by, smashing into the blue Pokémon roughly.
"Staaaaa!" the Pokémon screeched, pained. It was a little brown bird, with a slight curl of feathers on the back of his head, a bland white face with two black eyes and a thin orange beak, a dark brown collar, two smaller feet, wings, and a short tail. Much of its body was in tones of brown, be it light such as its main body, or dark such as its wingtips and collar.
"Whoa… is that a Starly?!" Steve let out, before a sniffing sound came from the side. As he looked there, he saw the Gible was getting up, slowly, before opening its mouth.
"BULUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" it cried, as slimy tears began flowing from its permanently open eyes, going through its face as it grabbed its own head with both its tiny little paws. "BULULULULULUUUUUUUUU!"
"Ah!" was Steve's response, as he realized his Pokémon was crying. "C-calm down! I'll heal you, I promise!" Still, even as he tried to come closer, the Starly flew at him, annoyedly. "OW!"
"Starly starly starly starly starly starly!" the Pokémon ranted, beginning to peck him in the forehead repeatedly. The boy began to lose his balance again, as he stepped back in distress.
"G-Gible, help me!" he squealed, frightened, and the Pokémon stopped its wailing to look at him, even though there were still tears streaming down its small face. "Do s-something!"
"Gya…" the Pokémon muttered, just as Steve fell to the ground again, trying to protect his face. When the Starly swooped down to assault him, however, he was met with forty-five pounds of pure hardened flesh, as the Gible decided to smack onto him as well. "Gyaba!"
"Starlyyyy!" was the reaction, as the Starly fell to the ground, on the side. As Gible landed, Steve was about to congratulate him, until he felt the same forty-five pounds slamming on his ribs.
"G-giiible…" he gasped, the air pumped out of his lungs just then. "G-get off…"
The Pokémon glanced at his face, and Steve motioned to the side for a moment. On that side, the Starly was already recovering, and it drew Gible's attention.
"Gyaba!" he let out, before running off, nearly squashing Steve's arm in the process, and tried to tackle the Starly again. However, the Pokémon managed to take off, one of the wings noticeably weakened.
"St-tarly-yyyy…" it groaned, as it flew away. Gible just stared at its departing form, while its trainer managed to get up again. After a quick check-up, it seemed like everything was fine, and so he let out a smile.
"Thanks, Gible! You just saved my life!" he said, crouching close to the Pokémon and hugging it. "I knew you would like me as a friend! That's great! We're gonna be great buddies, I just know it!"
Gible spent a few seconds staring at his surroundings, before figuring what would be the best thing to do. Its mouth opened wide.
"Gyabu!" the Pokémon said, and Steve's eyes opened; to his poor luck, the Pokémon had decided to bite him again, and he was paralyzed by the pain for a few seconds. As his mouth contorted in pain, one of his eyes began twitching.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"
…%)
Dawn looked around, annoyedly. She had been looking around for a while now for a Pokémon to practice on, so that her own Piplup (she still couldn't believe she had been saddled with it; couldn't she have had at least a Shinx or a Riolu?) would have something to practice its abilities on. Certainly it was a strong Pokémon, one stronger than the norm and able to use skills such as Metal Claw or Bubblebeam!
After enough wandering, she came across, of all things, a Magikarp. It was flopping on the ground beneath it, apparently fished from the nearby lake or something. Still, it would be enough for her to use as a meatbag for her Pokémon to pummel into oblivion.
"Alright, Aquos, turn up!" she said, proud of the nickname she had chosen for her Pokémon. That definitely was what made her the happiest, right now; the fact that she had thought up a very original and cool name made her feel proud that something had gone right, after all. Learning that she wasn't going to receive her super-special-awesome Pokémon was quite a damper on her mood, after all.
The Piplup emerged from its Pokéball, landing on the floor. "Piplup pip?" it asked, somewhat confused.
"Aquos, use Bubblebeam!" Dawn ordered, only for the Pokémon to stare at her. "Come on! I ordered you to use an attack! You have to do it!"
"Pip?" it repeated, and Dawn slowly began to grow disturbed.
"You… can't use that move?" she asked, and the Piplup continued to stare at her. "Okay, then, use Peck!"
"Piplup?"
After such a response, Dawn began to lose her patience. "Come on, you obviously know Peck!" she told him, angrily, but the Pokémon just flinched in response. "Fine! Use Bubble!" A few seconds passed, before the Piplup tilted its head to the side. "Not even Bubble?! Man, you suck! Just attack the stupid thing already!"
Aquos flinched again, this time from the harsh words used towards it, before it turned towards the Magikarp and began running.
"Piplup! Luplupluplupluplupluplupluplupluplupluplup!" it let out as a battlecry, before jumping on top of the Magikarp and smashing its flippers right on top of it. It probably would have been more impressive had it not immediately after jumped off and started jumping in pain as its feet were harmed by the skin.
"What the-how is that even possible?! Magikarps are stupid Pokémon who shouldn't be able to resist even the meager of attacks!" Dawn cursed, and the Magikarp's eyes grew angry. With a flip flop, it tackled Aquos, slamming onto it and making the other Pokémon fall to the ground, knocked unconscious.
"Piiiip…" it groaned, and Dawn pulled her hat off, before throwing it down.
"AAAHHH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOST TO A STUPID MAGIKARP!" she screamed, before opening one of her eyes due to a noise that was growing louder. As she did, she saw the Magikarp slamming onto her, before she fell on the hard ground painfully. "OWWWWW!"
The fish Pokémon proceeded to flop its way to some other place, leaving Dawn to ponder her situation. After five seconds, she came to a conclusion.
"DARN IT!"
…%)
I hope you have enjoyed this second chapter. The next one will be coming once it is finished.