Aftershock
Chapter 5: Introduction into the Brine
"So you say Ytarrik and I are 'exceptionally telepathically connected'?"
Coming to the Pokèmon Center, the Abra had evidently seen an unexpectedly quick recovery, and had been returned to Amaren along with Ruki's new Bellsprout. It was then, that for some reason, Prof. Oak had invited the three of them to his own estate, joined with his laboratory complex not far from the highlights of the Pokèmon gym.
"Well, yes, essentially," the professor replied. "Nothing abnormal, of course, only slightly unusual. It explains your remarkable talent in battling."
Amaren and Ytarrik looked around to glance at each other; and the latter suddenly radiated a somewhat unpleasantly entertained nerve about him [Oh, I see what you're saying, Professor.
"What?" Amaren blurted, bewildered. Ytarrik was most content in hiding his thoughts from his trainer, but Prof. Oak explained.
"This leads to many interesting effects, such as I have not yet had the opportunity to study," said he, in an air of one building up for certain sensitive matters.
"Study?" Amaren requested for elaboration.
"Oh, no, nothing like the traditional heartless scientific experiments. We are talking merely of observation here. If I could gain access to your telepathic relations with Ytarrik at certain moments in your daily life, I would have a very useful insight into such connections."
Amaren still seemed very unsure, but Ruki chimed in at this point.
"Come on, Amaren, it'll be fun!" she said. "We have the professor of Kanto itself looking after us."
And so, with great reluctance, he agreed. Ytarrik seemed to hold no inhibitions on his part, likely due to the power of his Confusion that he held over the professor, should the man do something not directly related to the Abra's amusement. He was, in any case, most open in expressing this fact to Prof. Oak, though his half-threat was returned merely with a laugh.
Business completed, the three humans slipped into lighter conversations. Ruki, somewhat awed that her young friend was exceptional enough to be worthy of Oak's attention, asked the professor of the 'interesting effects' of Ytarrik's connection to his trainer. Amaren, somewhat unsettled by the center of Ruki's amazement, added an inquiry into how the scientist had learnt of them in the first place.
"Well, to answer your question, Ruki, the full extents of those effects are scarce documented. There is a close cooperation between the Psychic-type and the trainer due to their telepathy, and a friendship such as to make the two equals much sooner than in usual cases, but we have other incidents as well. Your battle yesterday was a perfect example, and then there are cases where the human begins developing psychic abilities under a sufficiently powerful Pokèmon influence." It was difficult for the man to be heard over Ruki's consequent noises of awe.
"Amaren, I must say that your rather exceptional battle with the Mightyena was not quite as inconspicuous as you would think it to be. There were eyewitnesses, and then word travels like wildfire in a metropolis such as this…"
Ruki picked out her Concentrated Storage Device, releasing a most surprised-looking Bellsprout. "I caught my first Pokèmon!" she celebrated, and then: "But what should I name it?"
At the word 'it', the grass-type gave an indignant puff and buffeted its trainer's knee with a surprisingly painful arm-leaf. "Ow, sorry," she ejaculated, and looked over the creature. "I meant, what should I name him?"
The Bellsprout made a satisfied pose and fell silent, only to be awakened once again by the insistent prodding of Angin. He attempted to thwack the Cyndaquil in return, but was scorched by a small burst of fire and retreated in defeat, surrounded by a ring of imagined enemies.
"Oh, don't start," she groaned, and picked him up, thinking. "No, really, what should I name him? Anyone else have an idea?"
[I'd think Akale would be a good one, Ytarrik suggested, and replied with his abdication of thought when Amaren asked him the reason. "Oh well, I like that name," was the general opinion of all concerned, most specially the Bellsprout himself. How Ruki could divine the Pokèmon's acceptance of the idea, however, would eternally be beyond Amaren.
"All right," she declared, holding up the panicked creature for all to see, "Akale is now a member of our team!" And the new Pokèmon, giving up his pretence of rejection, settled down to a curl around his trainer's arm reminiscent of a creeper vine. If any creature could understand a Pokèmon, Amaren decided, it was no mortal who walked the earth.
Unfortunately, his musings were not lost upon Ytarrik, who promptly jolted him with an irritated Confusion.
They set off again for the woods, seeing a fair amount of time yet before darkness fell – a Bellsprout around Ruki's midriff and a Cyndaquil in her arms, as the Abra hovered telekinetically beside Amaren. Ruki's Pokèmon were attempting to wrestle playfully with each other, finding their positions scarce convenient enough, as Ytarrik looked upon the resultant bother to their trainer with mild distaste.
[Any new developments, while I was dying in the Center? he turned to Amaren.
"Oh, nothing much, and stop sending me your memories of your 'final throes of agony', they're barely recognizable enough after seeing you head for so long. Angin learnt some rudimentary version of, er, flamethrower. Except you can see how rudimentary it may be."
[Oh, yes, coming from that kid…
"Still, that's the first time she breathed fire. Means a lot to me and Ruki, strange as it may sound to you."
[I'm not heartless, he retorted, giving every mental indication to the contrary.
"Right you are. Come on, we have to battle."
They entered into another barrage of numerous weak wild battles, most hardly worth incident or memory. Ytarrik seemed to have learnt from his earlier accident, and related his observations to Amaren in between bursts of Confusion as yet another weakling stormed out of the unending forest.
[I think, if you force your psychic mind really far, you enter a sort of rampage.
"You mean the part where you went crazy and outran all of us in your wild desire to destroy the forest?"
With a sheepish thought, [Yeah, that would be it. It's like, your psychic abilities go into overdrive, and you start doing some of the wildest things. You know what I mean? Of course you do. But if someone tries to attack you, you're out right then and there.
"Tough."
[And if you keep going on the rampage for too long, you also get knocked out.
"Are you Psychics really all you make yourself up to be?"
[Well –
– A cloaked figure, riding on the shades of the wind itself, zooming out of a darkened city with triumph in his silver eyes –
Amaren's eyes flashed shock for an instant, then returned to oblivious normality.
An older trainer stood before the two companions, one most intimidating by his very nature, though he stood politely enough. Ruki was conversing with him, as the Professor slunk back into a watchful position, taking out an electronic notepad.
"Fine, sure, we'll battle you, Dekar," she said, and Amaren suspected a desire for impressiveness. "Correct, Amaren?" – here, her eyes were sufficient indicators of what she would bring about if any part of her statement was deemed incorrect.
"Er, yeah," he replied uncertainly. "Yes, I mean, I take your challenge."
"All right, then," Dekar confirmed; "each trainer uses one Pokèmon, against my two. Get your trainer cards ready."
Amaren looked down at his own flashing card, prompting a transformation into what seemed to be 'referee mode'. A display lit up in the back screen, where information of a very useful nature was being calculated in milliseconds. One after the other, the opponent and the ally's chosen Pokèmon, the ratio between the strengths of the battlers (as approximated by the energy currently radiated by their elemental forms), and a vitality bar filled the screen. This last would move progressively down as its respective Pokèmon was attacked, the degree of depletion depending on the apparent damage done. Once it reached zero, regardless of the Pokèmon's will to fight, the battler would be called out of battle and considered fainted by standard training rules.
How would so much functionality fit into a single metal slate, Amaren wondered inside. [It wouldn't, Ytarrik replied in answer, and fell silent.
Out of this new trainer's storage device leapt twin sprays of light, and a young Ivysaur and a Pidgeotto materialized on either side of Dekar, bearing the unmistakable confidence of badge-winners. With an air of slight intimidation, then, Ytarrik and Angin jumped into position.
"Angin, er, remember that move you once used, long ago? Smoke Screen?" Angin instantly followed Ruki's order, and Ytarrik jumped into the fray without waiting for command.
With an only half-conscious suggestion of Amaren's, the Abra raised into the air, placing invisible constructions at random points through the battlefield with his telekinesis. [If we're going for accuracy reduction, I think we should go full out, don't you think? Amaren only replied with a perplexed half-thought, wondering what the Abra was planning.
Rearing back her head, the Cyndaquil shot out multiple balls of some black material, which fell onto the battlefield and promptly exploded in a puff of jet smoke. It was difficult to see anything within the commotion of accuracy-reduction, but the opponent was evidently reacting very calmly to this new development.
A few moments of silence, and a loud beat of Pidgeotto wings signaled the utter and total dissipation of the Smokescreen Angin had painfully constructed. The two defenders against this sudden Gust bared their teeth into it, only to be barraged by a faceful of squirming, green pellets which clung painfully to their skin. Amaren looked up; the Ivysaur had unfolded its single flower to reveal gigantic spore-heads, out of which the Leech Seeds were still streaming.
Stricken with the full blast of the seeds, Ytarrik shoved a dozen of his invisible placements into the space directly before him, and the Ivysaur's attacks began flying haphazardly, in every direction but that of their objective. "That wouldn't be Kinesis, would it?" Amaren asked, amused.
Ruki yelled, "Ember!" and Angin blasted the seeds around her into char with her fire, blowing the heated embers back at the Ivysaur. The grass-type endeavored hurriedly to close its budding flower, but countless glowing pieces embedded themselves into its vast, tender confines, eliciting a roar of pain.
The Pokèmon had done well to evade the Leech Seeds, but not perfectly, and a sizable amount of bulbous loads were still growing off Ytarrik's golden skin, resisting all movement.
"We don't have much time, Ytarrik," Amaren murmured, "before you lose all energy. I think you should just directly start to attack now. Ivysaur is a Poison-type, isn't it?"
Ruki could not help but agree; and she egged Angin on: "Give it your all!"
Amaren marveled as he felt a telepathic connection growing between Ytarrik and the Ivysaur, so strong as to be palpable – and a continuous stream of concentrated, disorienting thought surged down his new achievement, keeping the great grass-type at bay for this moment. Rearing back, concentrating her heat, Angin shot out intermittent blasts of fire, falling all around the perpetrated Pokèmon with great force.
The Pidgeotto was galvanized into motion, buffeting Angin's flames with continuous Gusts; but the conviction of their desperation was indefatigable, and, as always, pushing them into their very limits served only to lengthen their capacities. With a great report, the Ivysaur fell on its back in defeat as Dekar's trainer card beeped to signify its official fainting.
There was only the Flying-type left now to oppose them, and a temporary stalemate stemmed the flow of their fighting; as the Abra and the Cyndaquil stared into the eyes of their single opponent. If the intensity of the match had been absorbing before, this sudden silence served only to pull the humans into an inescapable death spiral with the tides of war.
And then, in a sudden, the opponent trainer laughed. "Quick Attack," he whispered, and with only a faint rustling, both Pokèmon were thrown back, eliciting twin beeps from Amaren and Ruki's cards.
"That Pidgeotto of yours moved faster than human sight!" Ruki estimated, awed.
"I told you I'd already gotten the Cascadebadge, didn't I?" And, with a haughty look of emotionless victory, he strode out of the clearing.