A Journey
Summary: Ash's daughter has NO interest in Pokemon training. So, Ash, being the enterprising young Master that he is, puts her into the middle of the woods in the night while she's asleep with a pack, no map, a Pokedex, and a VERY angry Pichu.
I woke up; yet another day started. Lavender, par usual, was already gone, presumably on another jogging endeavor to trim her nonexistent 'tummy fat.' Maestro was already awake as well, and struggled to get out of my grip. I opened up my arms, and he climbed out and licked me on the nose. He then jumped down from the bed and proceeded to run around the room, squeaking excitedly. He jumped on top of Pichu's sleeping bag, and although he was soon shocked for his lack of consideration, he went on. His tail did the cutest thing; it rotated like a helicopter propeller to keep balance!
"Awww," was all I could say at the cute sight. Chopin rolled his eyes and trilled sarcastically. Or, at least, I could tell he was being sarcastic. Was it actually in his trilling, or did I actually just know him really well?
"What are the usual attacks of rock Pokemon?" I asked the Pokedex. It remained silent.
"What. Don't tell me I actually have to OWN one to know. That's ridiculous!" I said.
I finally got up and brushed myself off. I headed down to the lobby, where a Chansey was serving Peter, Brett, and Lavender some coffee and eggs.
"Hey!" I called to them as I deftly pulled up a chair.
"I'm fighting Roxanne this morning!" Peter said smugly. "Fighting beats rock, and I'll take the 'Rocks' right out of Roxanne!"
I tried not to wince at his terrible pun.
"Cool," I said quickly. "Brett, what attacks do rock Pokemon usually use?"
"I could check my Calcudex with each individual Pokemon, but it would take forever," Brett finished his last words with a whine.
"Are we leaving Rustboro tomorrow? 'Cuz my Pokemon have never had a real fight, and I don't want to instantly put them into a gym battle without training!" I said hurriedly. "I want to get a move on just as much as the next guy," I said, knowing that I probably had more of a reason to get moving than 'the next guy,' "but could we please stay tomorrow too?"
"I don't care as long as we can make it to Verdanturf in a week!" Lavender said brightly.
"The walk shouldn't take more than three days," Peter said, squinting at a map he probably picked up from the Center.
"Perfect!" I said. "Thanks," I said hastily to Peter and Lavender, who probably couldn't wait to move on. I helped myself to some eggs, but took milk instead of coffee.
"How should I train them?" I asked to myself again.
"Find some trainers and beat them up?" Peter asked.
"Wait, you have some weak Pokemon, right?" I asked hopefully. "Could my Pokemon fight with them? That way I wouldn't have to get other people to battle with me!"
"My Pokemon aren't weak!" Peter said.
"I mean… weaker than that Infernape. I want my Pokemon to have a fighting chance."
"Good idea," Brett said.
"Fine, but prepare to be horribly beaten," Peter said smugly.
"Okay, I'm fine with that," I said honestly. I belatedly realized that I should have asked my Pokemon if they were fine with that.
"Hey, Maestro, Pichu, Chopin, you want to work on fighting? I think it will really help you guys!" I asked them.
"Piii!" Pichu nodded eagerly.
"Hey, with great power comes great responsibility. Try not to use that power to kill me."
Pichu shrugged; it clearly wasn't making any promises. Maestro, on the other hand, cocked his head to one side and nodded. Chopin looked a bit grim, but nodded too.
"Thanks guys!" I said happily.
"Three on three battle?" Peter suggested.
"Cool," I said. "Let's do this outside, shall we?" I said.
"I can referee," an amused teenager said. She was probably fifteen, and she was a tiny bit overweight, but had beautiful tanned skin and blonde hair that made her look, to me at least, like the belle of the ball. She had simple clothing, a gray T-shirt and jeans, but she wore an enormous digital wristwatch, and looked like she was very practical. I liked her immediately.
"The name's Camille," she said in her brisk voice. "This will be cool. It'll be like what, Battle of the Weenies?"
"Better than Battle of the Weiner," her companion said. He was one of the tallest people I had seen; he was easily 6'7", but was thin enough to look like a beanpole wearing khakis.
"Stop it," Camille said to her friend with a roll of her eyes.
"C'mon outside, then," Brett said while we were silent. I gathered my Pokemon around me like a mother hen, and we walked outside together.
"We shouldn't do this for money," I said, hastily remembering that I had none.
"Of course not. That would be like robbing you," Peter said with a sniff. That battle glint was back in his eyes again, and he looked at me in a different way than he had previously, sizing me up. It was kind of hot.
"Alright. Substitutions allowed, three-on three battle until one player doesn't have any Pokemon left. Begin!" The girl said, after her friend handed her a red flag.
"Go, Bidoof!" Peter said, releasing an exceptionally friendly and stupid looking Pokemon with enormous incisors. It looked a bit like a beaver.
"Maestro, you take this one," I said with a wave of my hand. Maestro cheeped a greeting to the Bidoof, who gnashed its teeth in response. Maestro smiled and nuzzled it on the nose.
I then recalled Lyall's advice to me in the dream; would my Pokemon really be dedicated enough to fight without sympathy unless I trained the sympathy out of them?
"Bidoof, tackle!" He called out. Bidoof ran towards Maestro, who dodged only at the last minute.
"Maestro, same!" Maestro ran towards Bidoof, and right before he crashed into Bidoof, Peter yelled out, "Defense curl!" Bidoof curled up into a ball, and Maestro slid right off.
"Rollout!" The Bidoof began rolling and picking up speed, and rolled right over Maestro, who was ground into the dirt. According to Brett's Calcudex which I looked at over his shoulder, Bidoof weighed over six times as much as Maestro, so it must have hurt a lot. Maestro got up, but shakily.
"Crap, I'm sorry Maestro!" I yelled. How had I been so able to scan battles coolly before? All I felt running through my head right now was this hot rage. Someone hurt the Rattata that was as close to me as a brother. I couldn't just sit and let him get hurt!
"Maestro, can you still walk?" Maestro nodded feebly, but couldn't jump out of the way in time to avoid Bidoof, who still was rolling around with intent to flatten.
"Maestro, jump on top of Bidoof if you can get there!" Maestro nodded, and waited a tiny bit until Bidoof was near, and jumped. He succeeded; as long as he wasn't taken by surprise, he was fast. It was all Rattata had, but still, we could work with it.
Maestro was furiously running to stay atop the Bidoof. "Beat it with your tail!" I called, and he did so, trying to land a blow on its rapidly spinning face. At least Maestro was avoiding attack, but he was going to tire out soon. Tackling the Bidoof was ineffective, because that it could just curl up. I scanned the surroundings. "Maestro, up that tree!" I said, pointing to a nearby sycamore. Maestro didn't even spare a second to look at me like I was crazy, but I could tell he wanted to.
He jumped off of the Bidoof, and sped towards the tree. "Stop, Maestro!" I yelled, when he was inches from the bark.
Bidoof was coming, and I had to just say, "Maestro, tackle the Bidoof!" Maestro leaped for the whirling dervish beaver, but fell short, and was flattened again.
Maestro didn't get up. My heart jumped into my throat and stayed their, beating its sorrow.
"The Rattata is unable to battle." Camille said, still brisk. I dropped everything and ran to Maestro's side. His form was prone, he was unconscious. He could have been dead if not for the ragged breaths that filled his chest.
"He'll be fine! Keep on battling! This is interesting," the friend of Camille remarked.
"He'll be fine," Brett echoed testily; a battle with no money involved didn't hold his interest.
"I'm sorry!" Lavender yelled.
"It's not your fault," I said, my throat filling with phlegm, my eyes filling with tears. I took up Maestro in my arms. Meanwhile, the Bidoof had come to a shaky stop, but all I wanted to do was wipe the other rodents' toothy stupid almost-grin off of its face. By any means necessary. Battle was horrific, but boy did it spawn more battle.
"Chopin! Be sharp! Knock him A flat!" I said, trying out the terrible puns that people in my father's day used while training. Chopin just started laughing in breathy whistles.
I pointed my Pokedex at him. Growl, Bide, Fury Cutter. Bad moves for what was supposed to be my main combat Pokemon.
"Growl!" I yelled.
"Bidoof's ability is to double all stat modifications," Brett yelled over to me. Growl reduced Bidoof's attack doubly! Finally, some good news! I was just inches from the battling field Camille marked with chalk.
"Growl again!" Chopin growled, still a musical sound, but harsh nonetheless.
"Bide!" I whispered quietly to Chopin, who had sidled next to me. This was a good way to do it, not yelling out my moves so the opponent could hear.
"Tackle then Rollout!" I heard Peter yell. Chopin merely took a wide stance as he was knocked over by Bidoof's Tackle. He had a lot of hitpoints, so I hoped that he could survive the Rollout. Was Rollout a rock attack? Brett stared at me with a worried expression on his face, so I assumed it was. Would Bide retaliate double with the super effective damage he received or not?
Bidoof started to roll again, and hit Chopin. Chopin crumpled like a paper fan, and went and stayed down. The tears that pricked and smoldered in my eyes fell out finally. Chopin didn't even want to fight! He wanted to see a violin, for Christ's sake! Why would I shove him into this hard world of battling?
"Pichu, see what you could do," I said morosely. I didn't want to surrender. I recalled Chopin so he wouldn't get hurt anymore. Pichu stared at me.
"It's just hurt both of my friends, hopefully your friends too someday, if not now. It's stupid looking, so when you shock it, it might not know what hit it." Pichu nodded, smiled unconfidently, and went next to the Bidoof.
It released its Thundershock immediately, and the Bidoof reeled. I hoped it would be paralyzed, but no such luck. It lumbered towards Pichu after having received an order to Rollout. It began to roll. It was much faster than Pichu.
"Jab your tail into it and Thundershock when it tries to hit you!" I called out, forgetting to lower my voice.
The Bidoof wasn't quite as fast as the Pichu, but still managed to work up to a quick roll. It was shocked again by Pichu, and was jabbed with Pichu's tail, but was still going strong.
"Pichu, Thundershock it again!" I yelled. Pichu hit it again. If Pichu was going down, so was that idiotic beaver.
"Rollout! Roll over it three times in a row if you can!" Pichu only weighed around half of what Maestro did! It would die.
"Get out of the way if you can make it Pichu, it means business!" I yelled, fear tingeing my cheeks. Pichu shook its head no, stood firm, and proceeded to jab its tail and Thundershock while it was being run over, like I had it do last time. I thought we were cool, but it wasn't going to obey me, clearly.
The second time, Pichu fell. My world seemed to slow to my pulse; with every beat, it reminded me that I was safe, unlike them. I didn't risk anything with a battle; I risked everything but my own body like they did. I risked their safety, but not my own. Battling is a selfish deed, and my Pokemon lost to a beaver. A stupid beaver.
"Good fight," Peter said, but looked taken aback when he saw my tear-streamed face. "You lost, so what? There's always next time! Part of being a trainer is losing! The better you get, the less you lose." Peter said the last sentence with pride.
I wanted to turn on him and scream, but instead I was merely embarrassed that the boy I liked saw me at my weakest like this.
"Fuck you, dad," was all I said, under my breath. Fuck him, indeed, I thought as well as I recalled my Pokemon, ran the six feet into the Center, and thrust them under Nurse Joy's nose.
"You have to help them! They're badly hurt!"
Nurse Joy just smiled at me. "First battle?"
"Yeah. I let them down," I said, and soon I was sobbing on the counter like a big baby.
"No you didn't," she said. "And don't you ever think that this sadness is a weakness. If you don't care about your Pokemon's health like you do your own, you'd have no incentive to have them fight well."
I nodded a bit, took a tissue, blew loud as a foghorn, and wiped off my tears. Each was a simple action, but through the sorrow-misted goggles I wore, seemed arduous.
"I should probably be getting back outside," I said lamely. "Thanks."
"Here they are!" Nurse Joy said, holding out their Pokeballs.
"Thank you!" I said, and worried about what they would do to me when I released them.
"Go," I said lamely after I got back outside.
"Guys, I'm so sorry. I tried really hard, and I'm so sorry that you got hurt. If you decide that you don't want to battle, then by all means feel free not to."
They all shook their heads. Pichu balled its little hands into fists and stamped for good measure. Maestro hopped into my lap and licked off the remnants of all tears. Chopin shook his head, but at the end, it turned into a firm nod.
"You don't want to battle?" I asked Chopin. I remembered his grim look when he went out to fight. He nodded.
"Has he always hated fighting?" I asked, turning to Peter, Chopin's previous owner.
"I don't know. I caught him like that. I didn't battle him at all before you got him." He trailed off, probably not wanting to remind Lavender that he conned her out of her cruise-won Shiny Dratini in exchange for a Kricketune.
"Do you want to stay here with me or go to learn medical sciences with Doctor Daikon? You could sing to the patients. I know that when you sung to me it helped me feel better."
Chopin shrugged.
Maybe later when I'm too old to travel, but for now I'm fine, as long as I'm not battling.
I jumped. Camille had taken out an Abra.
"You don't mind, do you?" She asked. "I just figured, since it appears to be a pivotal moment in your training and all…"
"No, that's fine." I couldn't help but look down on Abra a bit, as they grew up to become Kadabra and Alakazam that loved using Confusing moves to psychologically force a breakdown.
Maestro also growled at it a bit, and Pichu looked positively furious, and released a shock at it. It teleported before Pichu's attack could hit it, however.
Maestro turned to Abra, then to me, and then squeaked.
It's a way to get all my energy out. I like it a lot. You should too, Twig. The voice wasn't his, cold, psychic, and disembodied in my head, but his words were clearly Maestro's.
The Abra teleported towards the Pichu, but the Pichu shook its head; it didn't appear to want to talk to me, not through a Confusion based Pokemon, at least.
"Thank you," I said to the Abra. "And thanks, guys. For battling, I mean. And to you Chopin, for communicating that you don't want to. How long do Kricketune live, if you don't mind me asking?"
I might make it another two years. Our species is not famed for longevity.
"Do you really want to be stuck traveling with me when you have so little time? You could be studying music with the masters! You could be going back to Sinnoh and starting a family!"
I want to spend my two years doing something worthwhile. Protecting you is worthwhile. Every Kricketune loves music. I am not at all novel in that aspect. Music isn't so much a special interest as an inborn trait among my kind. Besides, who else will tell you the mistakes you made in battle?
"Mistakes?"
It's so much easier to observe when you're not in it, but both Maestro and I do know Cut.
"I knew I was forgetting something!" I said, practically slapping myself.
And when you got Maestro to go up next to the tree, you should not have had him tackle the Bidoof. You should have had him dodge at the last second; part of what knocked Maestro out was that he crashed against a tree. If Bidoof had been the one who crashed at such a high speed against a tree, the impact could have sidelined it.
"That's such a good point," I breathed, amazed that Chopin knew so much. Well, I knew he knew a lot, but for him to be able to transfer it to me, it was amazing.
One last comment- if I were you, I would watch out for
With a flash of red light, Abra disappeared into his Pokeball. Camille smiled at me. "Are you done talking? I actually need to go."
"Ummm, sure?" I said. She looked to be in a terrible hurry, and I figured that Chopin could tell me somehow.
"Goodbye Camille! It was nice meeting you!" Lavender called out sweetly.
Brett and Peter were deep in conversation. Peter was looking at Brett's Calcudex, presumably looking for stats for his Pokemon. Peter extended a hand and Brett shouted a quick goodbye.
"You coming?" Camille asked her tall friend, who had a wry smile on his face.
"Nah. I think I'll just stay here and watch the noobs."
"Nice of you," Camille said with a roll of her eyes.
"I know. I'm freaking Jesus, only taller. Bye, Cammy-chan." He patted Camille on the head, which she seemed to find demeaning, because she hit him in the solar plexus. She then left, sticking the piece of chalk she used to trace the fighting pitch behind her ear.