AN: I don't believe in the moves: Cut, Fly, Surf, Strength, Rock Smash, Dive, Waterfall, Defog, or Rock Climb in order to get around. (In other words all the TMs) In my opinion, it's a waste of the move pools, they're basically natural abilities that pokemon can do on their own. Pokemon can cut things on their own, carry trainers through the air and through the sea, push rocks, smash rocks, go underwater, climb waterfalls, flap their wings to dissipate fog and climb mountains on their own without the assistance of a move. (I mean, it'd just be sad if a Machamp couldn't climb up mountains (Four arms for heaven's sake) or if a Lapras couldn't swim with somebody on its huge shell, whenever I think of the moves, I think of Machamp or Lapras.) So unless it's in battle, you won't be seeing those in any of my stories. I'll have them use Razor Leaf or Pound to get through obstacles or something like that, and as you can probably tell, there are a few things that I disagree with the game. You'll probably find out more about them when I get to the specific parts in the story. Such as my disbelief in the Explorer Kit, how can someone dig underground in a couple of seconds? / (And thus ends my rant.) By the way, I tried to keep the levels realistic depending on where Bryce is, but that seems like it's going to be impossible to keep it interesting that way. So I'll try not to warp the levels, too much.
Ch. 13: The Turtwig Conundrum
Bryce sighed as he walked out the doors, a smiling Jenny and dancing Happiny bidding him good-bye. A lot of his problems were weighing heavily on his shoulders but that wasn't anything compared to the problem that he had walking next to him.
"C'mon Turtwig."
'Tur...'
She had been glum ever since her loss against Monferno. It seemed to her that lately, she just couldn't win, even to a point where Lash had to save her. Lash! Of all people or pokemon. Bryce on the other hand couldn't figure out what was wrong. He leaned over, scooped her up and cradled her into his arms while she gave a heavy sigh and slumped her head over his arm. The pokemon stampede, Lash, Cranidos, Monferno. She'd lost to every single one and the pokemon next to her wasn't helping the situation.
'Licki Licki?' (So is the wimp going to cry now?) A smug voice asked, the Lickitung walking next to the pair on the side where Turtwig's head was laid over.
'Tur..." She mumbled again, turning her body so the head was on the other side of Bryce. Lash grinned, fell back, and walked around to the other side of Bryce stating casually,
'Lickitung Licki? Licki Lick Lickitung?' (You know you can't keep that up right? I mean why should you even be on his team when he has a pokemon like me?)
He of course didn't mean this but he was only looking to press Turtwig's buttons which of course worked. She shook her head in denial and leaped out of Bryce's arms.
'Turtwig Tur!' (Just leave me alone!)
She cried out, running towards the cave up ahead while Lash laughed in response. Bryce had no idea what was going on but knew Lash had been talking to her. He turned to the chuckling Lickitung, and glared at him. Lash shrugged with as innocent of a look as the stout pokemon could muster.
'Licki?' (What?)
'Ha-Ha-Ha-Haunter.' A gleeful ghost chuckled as it floated through the cave towards a girl with a small sleeping pokemon in her arms. She sat against the cave wall, her head bowed over asleep with her hair over her face. The specter approached her and tapped her on the head with a clawed hand. She mumbled for a moment before rolling over on her side. The pokemon tried again, grabbing the top of her head and shaking it hard, tousling her short blue hair in the process. Her head suddenly snapped up in alarm.
"Whatsgoinon?" She asked drowsily, the Haunter laughing at her response. He pointed a clawed hand down a cave tunnel blocked by a ton of rocks.
"Well we already know he's down there Haunter, but did you find a way to get through?"
Haunter held up one finger in a "wait a second" motion and floated over to the rocks. The girl sighed and stood up, brushing the dirt off of her jeans and followed reluctantly. When she got there the Haunter floated through the rocks and came back. The girl giggled in response.
"Haunter, you know I can't float through walls." At this, he grinned and opened his mouth wide, reaching in with one hand and pulling out a bomb with a lit fuse. Her eyes widened as she dived out of the way, shielding the small pokemon from harm as the bomb exploded, only managing to char one side of the rocks. The ghost was delighted however, doing an aerial back flip and chuckling once again. She stood up with difficulty, still holding the slumbering pokemon.
"Sheesh, I asked for a way to get into the tunnel, not for a near-death experience." She scolded with a frown on her face. The Haunter simply pointed at the pokemon she was holding. Her eyes widened and she moved to slap her forehead but remembered her position. So she settled for rolling her eyes.
"Man, I can't believe I didn't think of this. Psy, if you'd please?"
"Braaaaaa." The golden pokemon in her arms mumbled, the human and her charge both disappearing in a blue flash.
Turtwig ran through the cave, she just wished that Lash would leave her alone. She skidded to a halt, the cave was filled with boulders. She saw a glimmer of blue somewhere to her left, but otherwise, she saw nothing.
"Turtwig!"
She heard someone call her name and she turned around, rapid footsteps were approaching. Obviously Bryce, but he knew where Bryce was, Lash wasn't far behind and she really didn't want to see him right now. He looked around frantically and upoun seeing a small hole in the rock, squirmed into it.
"Turtwig!"
Bryce called to the small pokemon, he still remembered what happened last time he left her alone and didn't want her to get hurt. As he approached the cave, he saw nothing but large boulders blocking his view. He did however see a hint of sunlight to his right and a glimpse of blue to the left.
"This is weird," He murmured to himself. "I thought dad said he destroyed those rocks years ago."
Yet there they were, not only blocking the way, but serving as a huge annoyance.
"Now how am I going to find her?"
'Licki!'
Bryce turned around and saw the Lickitung waddling as fast as he could after him. When he caught up, he crouched over, hands on his knees, panting hard as his tongue fell to the ground. After he had a moment to recuperate, he wiped his tongue off with a disgusted look on his face. Watching him do this gave Bryce an idea.
"Hey! Lash, can you search for Turtwig with your tongue?"
Lash looked up at the trainer with a cocked eyebrow, his mouth slowly forming into a smile.
'Licki Lick Lick?' (What's in it for me?)
Turtwig squirmed through the small passageway until her head came out with a pop into a large spacious cavern. In it, there were two other tunnels ahead of her that branched off in two completely different directions. To her right there was a rock slide that prevented her from going anywhere else. She squirmed the rest of the way out, surprised to find the tunnel was just her size before looking towards the other passages. She decided to take the one on the left and started walking through it looking around.
As she went farther in, she started to notice the walls started to shine and the tunnel began to expand as if to allow more room. It looked familiar to her but the area in front of her was almost pitch black so she didn't have any other visuals to assist her.
"CLONK!"
That is until a blunt object collided with her forehead. She fell backwards onto her shell, struggling a little until she managed to flip herself over onto her feet.
(Well if it isn't the little Turtwig that couldn't.)
Turtwig immediately wished she could be a Chimchar, because at that moment, she felt as though she'd breath fire from all the rage that was boiling up inside her. Despite this, her words were calm and even,
(What are you doing here? Don't you live in the mines?)
The Marowak snorted, clutching her bone as if she was getting ready to use it again.
(Your ignorance is showing human pet,) She said, practically spitting out the words. (Every decent pokemon knows that every cave is connected through an intricate underground system, now leave and return to your master before you receive the same punishment as before.)
Turtwig snarled, in the past three days, she'd lost to a Cranidos, was badly beaten by a Monferno, tormented by a Lickitung, and was now being taunted by a Marowak, she had just about reached her limit.
(Try it.)
Marowak grinned a mad smile before calling out to the ceiling.
"Marowak! Maro Marowak!"
A rumbling sound immediately followed, Turtwig running back to where she came, but she had no intention of retreating. She heard the footsteps of the Marowak pursuing her, and she heard the rumbling of the rocks falling, ceiling the only way back to its companions. After realizing that its companions weren't following it, the Marowak skidded to a halt and tried to turn around to return to the other passage, but all the commotion the other pokemon made had caused a pile of rocks to block his way. Turtwig turned around slowly and growled.
(Not so tough without your friends are you?)
On the other side of the rocks, the other pokemon started to worry. There was only room for the Geodude at the front, the Sandslash behind them, and the Onix in the back.
(C'mon Onix! Can't you break through?)
(I'm too big, the tip of my tail can't even get through!)
(Well can't you burrow through it Sandslash?)
(Hmph! We don't know this area, there could be an underground lake or nothing underneath us, it's not worth the risk! What about you Geodudes? Asking everyone else to do something when you're just sitting there yourself?)
(Shhh, wait do you hear that?)
(Hear what?)
(Shhh! That! You hear it now?)
And indeed, there was a noise coming from the other side of the rocks, first the sound of struggle, then after this went on for about 5 minutes, the sounds came to an abrupt end. One of the Geodude went forward and pressed his nonexistent ear to the rock.
(It stopped) He reported, still listening hard for anything. Suddenly there was a rapid clinking, similar to the picks in the Oreburgh Mine when they were digging for gems. Geodude backed up with a smile,
(Master Marowak's coming back! I know that sound anywhere!)
The other pokemon grinned and started to talk amongst themselves about the master defeating the human pet. The clinks suddenly stopped and they stepped back, knowing what would happen next. But rather than Marowak charging through the rocks after making a large hole in it with his Bone Club, as they expected, there was a brilliant white light that blinded them. It took a few seconds for the group to figure out what it was but only the Sandslashes recognized it. They looked at each other with horror on their faces before they ran off as fast as they could on all four legs. The Onix turned around calling after them,
(Wait, what's going on?)
(Run!)
They called back in response, which he was only too willing to do at their frantic reply, but his curiosity got the better of him so he only swiveled around to stare at the rocks with the Geodudes. There was a sound of a large object colliding with rock as pieces of debris flew in the pokemons' faces. As the dust cleared, they found what had destroyed the rock was not their master, but a four-legged pokemon with twin bushes on its back. It was bigger than the Turtwig they had chased away but looked surprisingly similar. The pokemon snorted and slowly dragged a front leg across the ground, behind her, they saw several leaves on the ground and Master Marowak KO'ed with a look of surprise evident on his face.
"Grotle?" (Who's next?)
"There he is!"
The girl cradled an arm under her Abra, pointing at the small green pokemon who snarled at her. Haunter grinned and floated around her to confront the Turtwig. The Turtwig snorted, growling at the ghost while Haunter took his middle finger, pulled down his eye, and stuck his tongue out, which only made the little grass turtle even angrier, the scar on his forehead seemed to glow.
"Turtwig!"
It called out, as it roared to the cave ceiling as loud as it possibly could. Leaves appeared from nowhere and surrounded the Turtwig in a swirling vortex, each one a neon green. When they towered to the ceiling, they stopped, swiveled around so the points were aimed at the trio, then went flying towards them. Haunter saw this coming a mile away and flew into the wall for cover.
"Braaaaa." The small pokemon hummed in the trainer's arms before teleporting behind the rocks from which they came. Even though the girl knew they'd just avoided serious injury, she still couldn't help but to stomp her foot in frustration.
"Man! We almost had him!" She said, yelling at no one in particular. Haunter floated at a furious speed through the rocks with a wide grin.
"Haunter wha-?"
She began to ask before a loud explosion shook the cave on the other side of the rocks. She turned around with wide eyes before yelling after him.
"I want to battle him, not kill him!"
She shouted after the phantom when he came back laughing about his little joke. He returned through the rocks beckoning her with his finger, and Abra teleported them both on the other side.
"Ah great, he got away." She mumbled, the only sign that anything was there were the charred walls on both sides of the wall. Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed ahead of her and she grinned.
"He's got to be over there, c'mon!" She cried out, waving her arm in the light's direction in the right tunnel before sprinting ahead, the prankster phantom following in her wake.
Bryce sighed, his backpack in front of his feet. Crouched over he removed all the items, a small pile separated from the rest.
"Ok, so that's 5 Oran Berries, a Pecha Berry, a can of Pokefood,"
'Licki.'
Lash said, pointing to a black object in the other pile. Bryce pulled it out and blinked, it was a pair of sunglasses his mom packed him in case he went to the beach.
"What do you want these for?"
Lash snatched them out of his hands and put them on just over his snout so his eyes were looking over them, even without ears they somehow managed to magically stay on, (like Squirtle in the anime). He spun around and did a pose, his arms crossed over his puffed up chest. Bryce blinked again, staring at the Lickitung.
"Ok then... Moving on, so you'll help?" He asked hopefully.
Lash gave a thumbs up and raised his tongue to the air, even going as far as pushing the food back into the other pile.
"So you're telling me, all I needed for you to cooperate was give you something that'd make you look cool?" Bryce asked in disbelief. Lash gave another thumbs up with a grin as a response and went back to sniffing the air. Bryce only stared on in shock, almost missing the brilliant flash that appeared behind the rock slide from earlier. He instinctively ran towards it and Lash, confirming his beliefs came forward and pointed in that direction.
"Ok Lash, use Pound on the rocks!"
Lash nodded, his tongue whipping out, hovering over the rocks for a moment before slamming down and crumbling one into pieces. Bryce ran on through the space while Lash stopped to pick shards out of his tongue, the disadvantage of using something so sensitive as a weapon. He skidded to a halt, ahead of him, there were two tunnels, one to the left and one to the right. Lash suddenly came waddling up.
"Ok, which way do we go now?"
Lash raised his tongue again and sniffed both tunnels, then blinked, then sniffed again. He scratched his head then looked at both tunnels confused.
"What is it?"
He shrugged his shoulders, they both had the familiar leafy scent so he did what any other Lickitung would do in his situation. He covered his eyes and raised and arm, pointing at one tunnel than the other repeatedly. He started to chant something intelligible that Bryce couldn't understand.
'Licki, Licki, Lickitung, Licki Lickitung Licki Lick" (Eenie meenie meinie moe, catch an Arcanine by the toe.)
After he finished, he opened his eyes, his finger was pointing towards the left tunnel. Bryce nodded and ran ahead, Lash did another shrug before waddling after him.
Grotle snorted, a variety of leaves scattered all over, a colossal thud shook the tunnel as Onix joined his Geodude companions on the floor of the cave. She turned around, kicked up some loose dirt on the ground and walked down the tunnel, defeating a bunch of rock/ground types wasn't as hard as it seemed when they were all rushing at her at once. She didn't get very far before a girl with a golden pokemon in her arms skidded in front of her. A floating purple pokemon followed and grinned at her. She pointed at the grass type.
"That must be him, he's so powerful it's not only possible but very likely that he'd evolve. Haunter, Sucker Punch!"
The phantom whom the girl called Haunter disappeared for a moment, Grotle looked around in surprise. It had simply vanished in thin-air, suddenly, there was a flash and the pokemon appeared right next to her. His fist looked as though it was enveloped in its shadow as it sprung forward in an attempt to land a hit. But right when it was about to connect, the fist went through her head. She stared at the purple pokemon wild-eyed, it was a very disturbing feeling, it felt as though the inside of her head was filled with ice water. He pulled his fist out and blinked, staring at it for a minute.
"Haunter! What are you doing? Sucker Punch him!" Haunter's fist took on the familiar shadow aura again as he took another swing at her, but once again, she just stood there staring and the fist went through her head again. He just turned around and gave his trainer a shrug. He couldn't do the attack if Grotle wasn't trying to attack first. She scratched her head, this was very strange behavior. The word about this pokemon was it was always picking fights with nearby trainers and it was extremely powerful after living 5 years in solitude in the cave.
"Ok then," She said just passing off the lack of hostility as the pokemon being prepared for such an attack. "Try Lick!"
Haunter cackled and stuck out his extremely large tongue, only rivaled by a certain Lickitung's, and prepared to taste the Grass pokemon's face. But the pokemon could already tell the pokemon and human meant her harm so she leaped out of the way and growled at the ghost. Without another warning, she leaped in the air with her beaked mouth open and bit down hard on one of the pokemon's hands.
Haunter yelled out in pain and prepared to phase through the pokemon's mouth and wait for another order but the attack was a Dark type so he was a captive. Grotle, now weighing 214 pounds, landed hard with a thud, the pokemon's wrist still in her mouth and shook him hard like he was nothing more than a cheap plaything. Her bushes started to rustle as the leaves began to fall off, the trainer took this as a hint that the pokemon was about to attack.
"Haunter, Sucker Punch!"
Haunter nodded, his left hand might have been incapable of action at the moment, but his right hand was still free. Trying again once more, his fist became enveloped in a dark aura and he swung at the Grotle, this time the attack connected. His fist hit Grotle hard in the jaw. She was so stunned that she only looked wide-eyed for a moment before she went sliding painfully across her side on the rocky cave floor. She shook off the pain she felt in her jaw and growled, there was really nothing she could do. If her opponent's punch was anything to go by, she had two choices, either cut her losses and run, or fight until she fainted in a strange cave. The answer was obvious.
She fell to the ground, her face falling as she stared wide-eyed at the cave ceiling. Her legs sprawled out to her side Haunter stopped, his trainer looking a bit confused.
"Weird, that was it?" She asked, but she shrugged, passing it off as Haunter being stronger than she thought he was and she grinned. "Nice job Haunter!"
But Haunter wasn't looking at her, he suddenly flew towards her at a rapid speed and tackled her to the ground, hitting her back with the thud while Abra remained inactive in her arms.
"Haunter! Wha-?"
A barrage of Razor Leaves flew over her face and Grotle ran past her as fast as she could.
"Turtwig?"
Bryce called out into the seemingly vacant tunnel, there was a drip somewhere down in the darkness and he could have sworn he heard a Zubat screech, but otherwise nothing. Lash walked beside him, tongue in the air, still looking a bit confused. Every once and a while he'd do a double-take and look behind him but he kept on. Finally, he pointed his tongue straight down the tunnel where there was a low rumbling sound. Bryce stopped, was Turtwig really growling at him?
"C'mon Turtwig, it's me, Bryce?"
The turtle took a few steps until it was out of the shadows. He was still growling and Lash let out a laugh.
'Licki Licki Lick.' (Please, what're you going to do?)
He pulled his sunglasses a little farther down his face and looked over them, stopping for a minute. His grin drooping a little bit, for one thing this growl was lower than he remembered Turtwig's voice to be, and another thing, when did she get that scar on her forehead?
"C'mon Turtwig, Lash is sorry for whatever he did."
Bryce was still trying to coax her towards him, Lash gave a glance towards the Turtwig for a moment, then looked at Bryce. He was having a dilemma, either have a laugh and let this imposter Turtwig hurt Bryce, or save Bryce and maybe get a reward later. But then again, if he did let the Turtwig hurt Bryce, then maybe he'd be next, then who would feed him? The Turtwig was already starting to attack his scar starting to glow and leaves appearing from nowhere around his feet. The leaves swirled around him and started to glow green.
"Whoa, when did you learn tha-?"
But his question was interrupted when Lash rammed into him, knocking the wind out of him. He fell hard with a thud on his back, (Déjà Vu right? :P) and watched the leaves fly over his face. He blinked for a minute before jumping up, the Lickitung following suit.
"Turtwig, what are you doing?" He asked before the grass type snarled came charging at him. Bryce was still staring wide-eyed at his friend, wondering what was going on with her. Lash jumped in front of him crying, 'Licki!' his tongue lashing out and doing something Bryce had never seen him do before. It wrapped around the turtle and lifted him in the air. When this was done, he slowly started to squeeze. Turtwig squirmed hard in the tongue, it felt the air leaving his lungs. He knew what to do, after all those years it was time, conserving energy, saving strength, and defeating weak trainers was for this very moment, and even though he knew he could break out quite easily, he really wanted to show off. He grunted and closed his eyes, concentrating hard.
For the second time that same day, a white light filled the cave, the pokemon grew bigger and heavier, his body changing into a large turtle with twin bushes on its back, but even then it didn't stop, it grew heavier and fell with a thud on the poor Lickitung's tongue who pulled hard until it was free. His greatest weapon incapacitated, he used the only option available, he ran as fast as his stubby little legs could take him, and Bryce followed. Finally aware that this couldn't be the Turtwig he was after.
Grotle ran as fast as her legs could take her, but she found with her evolution, she was heavier and had more weight to carry so she was slower than before. The trainer and her pokemon were catching up to her.
"Hey! What kind of trick is this!" She didn't even look back before she heard the sound of a 'Licki!' and a brilliant white light filled the cave, both the sound and the light were familiar. (Did Lash evolve?) She thought, but this theory was instantly broken when the Lickitung came waddling as fast as he could behind her and Bryce following suit. She skidded to a halt,
(Bryce!) She thought happily, turning around to tackle him, forgetting once again about her additional weight. She fell with a thud heavily on his stomach, the wind leaving his lungs once again. He struggled under her and looked to the girl.
"Hey! Can you get your pokemon off-?" His words stopped for a moment, as he stared at her. She was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his young life, she looked to be about his age, maybe a year older. Her short dark hair bounced with every step and her eyes shined with fierce determination. Her words snapped him out of the trance.
"That's not my Grotle! It's the cave's legendary Turtwig of Challenge!" She said pointing at it, Haunter gliding from behind her and mimicking the point with a laugh. He blinked and suddenly remembered what he was running from.
"Then what's that?" He asked, pointing down the tunnel from which he came where a loud rumbling was shaking the cave. It's immense shadow came first, indicating a monstrous appearance before the pokemon appeared. It was a large pokemon with a small beaked head and a scar on its forehead. It's large brown shell held a small tree on its back which dropped a couple of leaves with every step it took. As it tried to get into the area, its tree got caught in the entrance and it roared.
'Toooooooor!' It cried before it shook its body hard, freeing itself it glared at everyone in the room before its eyes landed on the Haunter. For the first time in a while, the Haunter frowned, there was nothing funny about this. It obviously remembered it as the one who tried to blow it up, unaware that it was supposed to be a joke. It started to clumsily run toward it, but it was unused to the change of body weight. It slipped and fell hard on the ground, its legs sprawled out and shook the cave, rocks raining from the ceiling.
The girl's Abra sensed danger and opened its eyes, 'Braaaaaa.' It cried, its eyes a brilliant blue before it teleported everyone out of the cave. The girl gave a sigh of relief looking around to check that everyone was accounted for while Bryce did the same. As he looked around, he noticed the Psychic pokemon's mistake, when he teleported everyone out of the cave, he teleported everyone. There was the Torterra, shaking its head, a bit dazed from the sudden change of scenery. It stood up and when it regained its bearings it stared at the group before stomping the ground hard with a foot. Sending a seismic shockwave in the ground, it made everyone, save Haunter, fall to the ground. It then rumbled towards them and Bryce's eyes widened, it was planning to flatten them and there was nothing to do. But the girl had another trick up her sleeve, she pulled a pokeball off from the inside of her jacket and hurled it over where the turtle was about to go.
"Combusken, Peck then Double Kick!"
The pokeball released the shape of a small humanoid pokemon. It had a beak and three large feathers on its hands, as it fell through the air, it somersaulted so its beak was aiming towards Torterra's head. It slammed into it, making the pokemon's head hit the ground hard. The momentum from the attack allowed Combusken to do another somersault, flipping herself right side up before she swiveled around and shot one of her legs out, kicking his face out in one direction, then using his other foot to stomp the head hard into the ground. When the attack was done, it stood on the head, turned to the others and took a bow. The girl smiled and applauded a little louder than necessary while Bryce stared on with wide eyes. First looking at the fowl, then turning to the girl. The Torterra was obviously out of it from so many blows to the head. That, and the fact that it was caught off guard.
"Who are you?" He asked awe-struck before the girl giggled and stood up, brushing herself off before offering him a hand to which he gladly obliged.
"That's rude of me, my name is Stormie, and this is Psy," She held up the golden pokemon and pointed at the other pokemon in turn, "Combusken, and Haunter."
Haunter floated over and shook Bryce's hand vigorously, shaking his whole body while grinning widely. Lash grunted and stood up with difficulty, brushing himself off.
'Licki Licki Licki Lick.' (I could've done that if I wanted to.)
Haunter floated over to him and poked him in the chest with a claw.
'Haha Haunter Haunter Haunt?' (Hehe, then why didn't you?) He asked, sticking his tongue out.
Lash copied the motion, slipping his immense tongue out, Haunter countered this by sticking out a little bit more of his tongue, Lash let out all of his tongue, and Haunter promptly licked him, covering his face with warm sticky saliva and knocking his sunglasses off in the process. He snarled at the ghost and tried to leap at him but only met air and fell right through him. Haunter pointed and laughed at Lash's futile attempts while both Stormie and Bryce laughed at the twos' antics.
"Well, that's Lash." He said, pointing at the fuming Lickitung who tried to attack the ghost again. "And I'm Bryce."
He extended his hand and she took it, shaking it warmly. Bryce felt the blood in his body creep to his face as he blushed, looking down for a moment before Stormie spoke again.
"So what were you doing in that cave Bryce?" She asked, curious why the trainer was so deep in the cave, few dared to face the Turtwig so she doubted he was there for that. Bryce looked up with a start.
"Turtwig!" He cried out.
She blinked, "So you were there to challenge the Turtwig too?" She asked, wondering why he yelled it in her face. He slapped himself in the forehead, mad that he'd forget something so important.
"No, I lost my Turtwig in the cave when Lash said something to her and she ran away!"
Grotle meanwhile had stood up, watching all that was going on and stared at her trainer. Why didn't he recognize her? She was standing right there clear as day, she sighed, answering her own question from a lot earlier, apparently she was going to have to do this all the time. She walked over, and chomped him in the leg, hard. Unaware of her newfound power, she tasted blood. Bryce leaped into the air,
"Gah! Turtwig!" He instinctively said before stopping and looking at the pokemon. "Turtwig?"
She rolled her eyes and nodded before the trainer grinned, before he could say anything, however, they heard a low groan and a loud rumbling,
'Toooooorrrrr!'
'Toooorrr!'
The monstrous pokemon shouted, now fully recovered from the attack, he shook the fowl off of his head. Combusken went flying through the air and did a back flip in recovery, landing on both legs in front of Stormie. He ran a finger under his nose before doing a couple of roundhouse kicks. Bryce blinked, was it warming up? But when he started to flex, he could tell he wasn't preparing to fight the Torterra, but instead, was showing off for the group. He sighed and pulled out his pokedex, maybe if he could scan something on the pokemon he'd be able to figure something out.
Combusken, the Young Fowl Pokemon. It toughens up its legs and thighs by running through fields and mountains. This Pokémon's legs possess both speed and power, enabling it to dole out ten kicks in one second.
"Ok, no help there." He murmured as Stormie tried to get Combusken to fight Torterra again.
Haunter, the Gas Pokemon. In total darkness, where nothing is visible, Haunter lurks, silently stalking its next victim. If you trip and fall for no apparent reason or hear a sound when no one is around, it may be a Haunter.
Bryce looked up startled at the ghost who was suddenly aware of his staring and pulled down his eyelid with a finger. Bryce knew what came next so he just went back to his pokedex.
Grotle, the Grove Pokemon, the evolved form of Turtwig. It lives along water in forests. In the daytime, it leaves the forest to sunbathe its treed shell.
Under Grotle's entry, he found a blinking sentence that confirmed Grotle was Turtwig.
"New Move, Bite." He read aloud. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
Torterra, the Continent Pokemon, the evolved form of Grotle. Small Pokemon occasionally gather on its unmoving back to begin building their nests. Groups of this pokemon migrating have been mistaken for moving forests.
Bryce's eyes practically bugged out at this last entry, reading off the level of the particular pokemon. He turned to look frantically at Stormie who was staring wide-eyed at Combusken. Combusken was sprawled out on the ground, obviously exhausted with Torterra standing over it. His front right leg raised, he prepared to stomp down hard on Combusken's limp body. When Haunter appeared out of nowhere, his grin malevolent, he stared at the Torterra right in the eye.
Torterra snorted and got ready to finish what he started when he realized, he couldn't even move. He wasn't even in the forest anymore, he was in a dark realm where shadows swirled around him and phantasmal laughter filled the air, echoing in his ears. The ghost's eyes were in front of him, getting bigger and bigger, multiplying into two, then four, then eight until there were thousands of eyes staring at him with ghastly cackles taunting him.
Back in the forest Bryce blinked, why was Torterra just standing there. All he knew was he was getting ready to break the poor fowl's ribs, then suddenly, Haunter appeared and he froze, staring off into space even after Haunter appeared by his trainer's side. Stormie waved her hand in front of his eyes.
"Don't just stand there, do something!"
Bryce blinked again, what could he do? They were facing a level 51 Torterra who could have destroyed all of them as easily as he could blink. Grotle just sighed and dashed over to Combusken and ramming into it and knocking him out from under Torterra but in the process, placed herself in immediate danger. The Mean Look was wearing off and the Torterra's leg fell on Grotle's back. Bryce started to cry out until he saw she wasn't hurt, all it did was press her into the ground with the same effect of someone stepping on a rock. Frustrated he only stomped harder on her back repeatedly, pressing her in deeper and deeper. When a crack appeared on her shell, Bryce realized that this would only buy them time and turned to Stormie.
"Listen, we have to find a way to get out of here, that pokemon is way out of our league. Maybe Abra can teleport us to the next Pokemon Center?"
Stormie only shook her head. "Abra can only teleport to places that he can see, otherwise we might end up stuck in a wall or something, and trust me, you don't want that to happen."
Bryce looked towards Grotle desperately who was now starting to grunt with each hit inflicted on her shell, the crack growing wider. He didn't want to know what would happen if the foot broke through.
"Well there has to be something we can do!"
She blinked than looked towards Haunter who was with Lash, they were both oblivious to what was going on and were comparing tongue sizes, each one insisting that their tongue was the longest.
"Well, maybe if Haunter could use Hypnosis on him, it'd incapacitate him long enough for us to get away." She started thoughtfully. "But I think Torterra's probably learned to look away from Haunter by now."
Once again he turned to Lash who seemed to have settled his dispute with Haunter and waddled over to his side. He gave a thumbs up when he looked at him and grinned. Bryce nodded and pointed at Torterra.
"Go Lash! Lick!"
Lash waddled while the tortoise was still slamming his foot into Grotle's shell and looked at the pink blob who grinned and stuck his tongue out, slowly dragging it along the Torterra's face. Torterra grunted and shook his head of annoyance as if he was trying to get rid of the saliva. Using the distraction to his advantage, Bryce pulled out Grotle's pokeball and returned her. Lash puffed his chest out and pounded it, mostly trying to annoy him more than anything. Stormie nodded to Haunter who vanished into the ground, Bryce didn't know what was going on but he knew he had to keep Torterra distracted.
"Pound!"
Lash's tongue lashed out once more and slammed into the side of the Torterra's face, knocking his jaw out to the side. He grunted again and turned around slowly, glaring at the normal type, obviously planning something. This theory was confirmed when the tree on its back rustled a little, still keeping eye contact on Lash, he slowly smiled. Lash was distracted by the smile on his face and took a step back, not paying any attention to the tree's unusual movements. The tree's leaves turned a neon green and rose into the air, suddenly shooting towards the Lickitung. Immobilized in surprise, Lash did nothing but stare at the oncoming attack.
Suddenly, Lash's shadow rose in front of him with a wicked smile and opened his mouth wider than anything possible and swallowed all the leaves. Bryce stared on in surprise while Stormie looked a little worried. He then looked Torterra straight in the eyes yet again with another cackle and the Continent Pokemon froze in place. Bryce stared at Haunter, than back at Stormie.
"How, did he-?"
He started to ask before the ghost slowly drifted to the ground. Stormie rushed to Haunter's side and put a hand on him, he was out of it so she plucked out two pokeballs and returned Combusken and Haunter. Bryce mirrored this, returning Lash who was still standing in front of the frozen Torterra.
"I'll explain it later, but right now we have to go." She murmured, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him behind her, still cradling Abra in the nook of her arm. Bryce blushed and nodded, stumbling after her into the cave.
Torterra shook his head, finally free of the infernal attack he blinked and looked around in frustration. Where did the pink one and the ghost go? Where did the two humans go? He took a couple of steps and looked in the cave, not a sign of them anywhere, but one of the humans could have used the gold pokemon to disappear again. He grunted before he heard a footstep coming his way. So the humans weren't as cowardly as he thought after all, he turned around to see who exactly he was facing.
He snarled in anger when he saw who it was, rushing towards the trainer as fast as he can, planning to trample him with all the fury he could manage. But the human merely simply held out the pokeball he was so casually toying with a few seconds ago and sent a red beam of light his way. That was all he saw before he was returned to his pokeball for the first time in 5 years.
(So he didn't get rid of it.)
He thought grudgingly, even so, he still felt hatred for the man with the dark blue hair. The human who had left him all those years ago to join the so-called, "Team Galactic." Saturn would never be forgiven.