And this story continues...Thanks to everyone who waited for this to come out. It is fairly big so It is worth the long wait. Enjoy chapter number 8.
Chapter 8: Musketeer No.1- The Verdant Knight of the Forest
After some last minute studying last night at the Museum and Library in Nacrene City, I awoke in the morning to heavy trumpets blowing and cheering fans outside. I rubbed my eyes as Sam waddled out of the closet.
"So much for having a quiet morning before the Gym Battle." I muttered walking into the bathroom. I had a hot shower before wiping myself up and getting dressed.
Lana had woken up already and I assumed she was in the lobby, flirting with another guy that stayed here. It didn't bother me like it used to, you see ever since I almost kicked Train's head off I have been determined to not only win the Unova League but also stop Team Plasma Rockets once and for all.
"Another morning to look forward too." I muttered to Sam as he took his flippers and started wiping his scalchop on his chest.
I picked up Sam and plopped him on my shoulders, I had decided to keep Sam out of his pokeball from now on. I jogged down the steps that lead to the lobby where there were several posters around the Pokemon Centre Lobby. They all advertised The Pinwheel Festival and its famous Pinwheel Battle Games.
"Pinwheel Battle Games?" I muttered to myself.
I jumped out of my skin when someone behind me started talking.
"It's a tournament where you scavenge through Pinwheel Forest in search of Bug Pokémon badges like these." I turned around to see Conley standing in front of me with Lana behind him; he held up a brochure and opened it up to reveal a picture of a Venipede badge and a Sewaddle badge next to it.
"Hmm...Do you know anything more?" I asked.
"Sure do...There are 18 different badges but you only need 1 to move on." Conley stated.
"Move on?" I pondered..."There's another round?" I asked
"Yeah! That's the qualifying round. In the battling round you pick two Pokémon to do the whole round and use them through substitutions." He explained. "If you lose the battle though you hand over however many badges you managed to find to the winner. This battle round will continue on until one person has all 18 badges in their possession" Conley states.
"WOW! What an epic way to train my Pokémon for the Nacrene Gym." I exclaimed.
"That's exactly why I think you should sign up with Lana and me." Conley uttered.
I nodded in excitement before leaving the Centre and heading to the sign up table. There is a festival going on with bug catchers and trainers everywhere. Behind the sign up table, there was a man with curly brown hair he was wearing a green long sleeves shirt with a red scarf around his neck.
"The Pinwheel Festival...A glorious event that is here for everyone to enjoy...This festival is of course followed by the much anticipated Pinwheel Battle Games which I assume you young little crawlers are competing in." The man assumes.
"Yes, My names Alex Mayes and this is Sam" I said pointing above my head to my Oshawott.
"Conley Roberts. I'm an apprentice to Professor Cedric Juniper" I glared at Conley. What the hell was he on about?
"Ummm...Lana Dukes." Lana greeted, looking at me with a little concern on her face.
"Great, I'm Burgh!" Burgh stood up proudly..."Bug Enthusiast and Gym Leader of the Castellia Gym!" He uttered proudly.
"Hmmm I look forward to your battle against me." Conley muttered.
We bent over and signed up. Conley wrote down his name and his two Pokémon, Newton and Rochelle. I knew Rochelle but who in the blue living hell was Newton? Maybe Conley did a lot more over his little show casing with Aurea than I first expected.
"Newton?" I blurted out loud.
"That would be my newly caught Venipede."Conley stated.
I nodded with just a slight smile now having a strategy just incase I end up battling Conley. Lana stepped forward...
"I can't enter..."She said with a disappointed look on her face.
"Hold up, why? I thought you said you wanted to enter." I asked.
"Herbe is the only Pokémon I have...Besides the egg which hasn't hatched yet."She said dimly.
I put my arm around her and so did Conley.
"MAYBE NEXT YEAR!" We both said in unison.
I fist bumped Sam and then I fist bumped Conley as Lana shook her head with a smile on her face.
"HEY! QUIT THE CHAT AND SIGN UP ALREADY!" A man behind us shouted.
I turned around. I was just about to knock the guy square in his sack before Conley turned me around and pushed me into the table. I smiled like an idiot in front of Burgh before writing down, Sam and Taylor.
"Wott!" Sam cried in glee that he was chosen to be a part of the Battle rounds.
"ATTENTION! THE PINWHEEL BATTLE GAMES WILL BEGIN IN 2 HOURS TIME." Burgh blasted through a megaphone.
I shook my head wildly, attempting to drain out the ringing in my ears. Sam fell off of my shoulders but I reacted fast and caught him plopping him back in his place.
"Hey, Move out of the way!" A boy creamed pushing past me; I noticed that he had black hair that stopped at his shoulders with purple highlights. He wore a white shirt with a pokeball on it with a red jacket over and a pair of black pants. This boy was Chad Nolan, the guy that kicked my ass at Accumula Town when I started my journey.
"Hey!" I yelled at him.
"Well, if it isn't the cry baby, Alex Mayes and his weak penguin pokemon, Oshawott." He said while mocking me and wiping his eyes.
"It's an otter, dumbass" Conley replied sternly.
"You're signing up too?" I asked holding my fist back from punching him square in the nose.
"Yep, and I'm going to win too using my tough as nails Pokémon team, Ferroseed and Sandile."He said calling out his pokemon.
"Dile, Sandile!" Sandile roared.
"FERRO!" Ferroseed roared as well. I pulled out my Pokedex and so did Conley and Lana.
Ferroseed, the Thorn Seed Pokémon; It sticks its spikes into cave walls and absorbs all the minerals they find in the rock. This Ferroseed is a male. His ability is Iron Barbs. Lana's Pokedex, Conley's Pokedex and my Pokedex all said in unison.
"What a bunch of morons...Having to learn from a damn machine. My father says machines are useless creations that won't ever work." Chad muttered.
"Sort of like you, right Chad?" Lana burned him badly.
"Sl-"Before he could finish the word that I thought he was going to say I punched him in the nose.
"SON OF A-"Chad is once again interrupted this time by Lana.
"Female Herdier." She interrupted.
"ARGH! I WAS GOING TO SAY SLACKERS YOU, CRAZY BASTARD!" Chad screamed holding his nose.
"Oh well, you deserved that punch anyway." I said walking away from Chad and his pokemon.
"That guy seriously gets on my nerves." Lana said with a grunt.
"Yeah but you know what else gets on my nerves? A certain friend not informing his two best friends that he is now an apprentice to a Juniper." I said with a hint of annoyance in my voice. I stopped in my tracks before turning around to see Conley with a concerned look on his face.
"As you know Aurea Juniper asked me to help her with her show casing and I did but afterwards her father came up to me and wanted me to be his apprentice. He said eventually I would be Professor Conley Roberts." Conley said with a little smile.
"Con, that's brilliant...Congrats man!" I congratulated my friend.
"But unfortunately I'll be super busy learning from Cedric that I will have to stop in-between my journey to go see him and help out with his show casings. I'm afraid that might put you guys in grave danger. So I've decided that I'll be going on my journey alone." Conley said.
I stood in front of him with my mouth open so wide a bloody elephant could fit in it. Conley scrunched up his fist.
"It's going to hurt but I guess it's the only way." Lana muttered.
"I'm sure I'll see you all later in your journey." Conley said.
I shook my head and closed my mouth.
"You're following your dream my friend! That's great. But first we got a Pinwheel Festival to be a part of..."I trailed off before my stomach rumbled.
"Does that include eating food?" Lana asked already figuring out the answer to the question.
"Damn straight." I replied with a grin.
After running off and eating food and joining in the Pinwheel Parade. I decided to step aside and talk to my team off three...Well, four if you count the egg.
"Alright, Taylor and Jackson...Team Talk!" I yelled calling out Jackson and Taylor.
"Bliiiitzle!" Jackson blurted his species name out as he nuzzled my face.
"Sewaddle waddle!" Taylor cheered.
"Jack, I'm going to need you as my transportation for the whole thing and I'm going to need your good eyesight." I said rubbing Jackson's long head from the top to the bottom. "You up for the challenge, Jack?" I asked my pokemon.
"Blit!" It replied throwing its whole head up and down.
"Taylor, I think this is a great opportunity to train yourself and for you to show me your strength and weakness and you have the home advantage." I said to my grass and bug pokemon.
Sewaddle nodded. My little team talk session is interrupted though as my best friends' dance their way towards me while both of them take a bit out of the veggie puff.
"Hey! Alex, you got loads of time to train...COME AND DANCE!" Lana said doing the Macarena in front of me...Lana said doing the Macarena in front of me?...WHAT-THE-HELL?...The Macarena has been noted to be a woman's dance and the girl that I love is doing it right in front of me? I think I have finally gotten over my love for Lana.
"Alex, I agree with Lana...You need to ease your tension and frustrations, I'm sure being social in this festival would be a great way to ease them." Conley says making a simple sentence of "Yeah, Alex, You need to relax so come and dance and eat." But as per damn usual Conley has to bore me to death with his exact grammar and scientific words.
"I get it and I'm coming." I mutter loud enough for them to hear me, I watch them dance off as I chuckle.
"Only in Unova, I swear!" I bellow as for one moment I look into Pinwheel Forrest. My eyes catch a Pokémon that I have never ever seen before.
"A Pokémon?" I ponder.
The Pokémon lunges backwards and runs into the forest. I return Taylor as Sam jumps on my shoulders and I leap onto Jackson's back.
"Jackson, Pinwheel Forest." I order my Blitzle.
Jackson gallops past the crowd and into the forest as the festival continues. I see the Pokémon's shade running through the trees.
"Jackson, Follow it!" Jackson suddenly stops as the Pokémon steps out.
"Stand back, puny human!"
What the hell? I look around to see who said those words before I stared in the eyes of this beast.
"Did you...just...talk!" I asked, in amazement. It's unusual and extremely rare to a find a Pokémon that can speak the English language. But now that I look carefully, I don't think I've ever seen or heard of this Pokémon in my life.
The Pokémon glares at me with a hint of shock; it didn't expect me to understand it.
"Yes, you imbecile...I am able to communicate with your kind. But only the worthy will have an opportunity to communicate and understand other Pokémon..." It continued.
I looked at Sam, who is still stuck on my shoulders. It would be my dream come true if I'm able to understand Sam and my team, although I wonder why it was watching me.
"You are not worthy enough. You're enslaving your Pokémon, You're making them obey you, and you're ordering them around. You humans don't deserve to walk on this planet. That is why I was watching you."
It paused.
"I will continue to watch you until you learn to treat your Pokémon right. If you fail to do so, I will eliminate you!"
With that the Pokémon sprinted off into the trees.
"Well, that was strange"
I seriously need to get my hearing checked out, I'm hearing voices again.
"Master Alex...What do you think about all this?" A new voice spoke sounding just a tad African.
I looked at Jackson to see him staring at me.
"Was that you, Jack?" I asked my Pokémon
"Correctamundo!" Jackson spoke.
I leaped off Jackson and staggered back as Sam fell off my shoulders and onto the dirt.
"Thanks for the save." Sam sarcastically mumbled.
"I wonder what made that Pokémon allow me to understand you." I pondered.
"Maybe she decided to allow you to understand us so she can see if you treat us better." Taylor said with her head down. Her statement smashed me in the heart; I wasn't treating my pokemon the right way.
I shook my head.
"I'm sorry, guys. I thought I was treating you right when I actually was using you guys as tools." I mumbled to them.
Sam climbed up on my shoulders and patted my head.
"It's alright, Master Alex." Sam chirped.
"No, it's not! Jackson, if you don't want to be my transportation that is okay. Taylor, if you don't want to do this challenge we all don't have too. Sam, if you want to stay out of the pokeball you most certainly can. In fact screw this whole journey; I'm taking you guys back home!" I bellowed courageously
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA! I like it when you ride on my back. It makes me feel important, I like being important." Jackson mumbles.
"And I really want to destroy Chad Nolan in this competition with you. I hate his guts with a passion." Taylor bellows.
"I like being in my pokeball...besides...it's too cold out here anyway..." Sam trails off, scratching his head. "I change my mind; I'll stay out of my pokeball!" He finishes as Taylor and Jackson sweat drop.
I grin.
"Aww, you guys are awesome!" I chuckled as Jackson and Taylor came in for a group hug.
It was suddenly disturbed when a voice over bellowed throughout the Pinwheel Forest.
"THE PINWHEEL BATLLE GAMES WILL SOON COMMENCE!"
"Alright, we got to head back." I said.
"LET'S WIN THIS THING!" Sam shouted throwing his scrunched up flipper in the air.
I nodded as I trotted out of the Pinwheel Forest. There I saw Burgh, Conley, Lana, Chad and another woman. I hopped off of Jackson before returning him and Taylor. Sam remained on my shoulders.
"Alex, what were you doing in Pinwheel Forest?" Conley asked me suspiciously
"Probably cheating knowing you, Alex Mayes!" Chad shouted in my face.
I pointed at his cut nose.
"I can do it again if you want." I said. "I was inside there because I spotted a rare pokemon that was watching me. I went to confront it..." I stopped mid sentence realising it could be a while. "...I am able to communicate and understand the Pokémon language." I said, cutting to the chase.
Chad chuckled out loud before Conley and Lana joined in. Burgh and the other woman just smiled.
"I always knew you were an idiot, this is proof. There is no such thing as an ability to understand what Pokémon say." Chad commented as he slowly stops chuckling.
"I hate saying this but Chad is right, Alex. Don't you think it's just a tad weird?" Conley questioned.
I rolled my eyes before explaining the whole story in full detail.
"Hmm, interesting...Alex, this Pokémon didn't happen to look like this did it?" Burgh said as he pulled out a book before flicking through a few pages before revealing a picture of a Pokémon.
The Pokémon in the picture looks like a deer or an antelope; it is green in color, with horns that end in dull points. It has a pink-tipped leaf on each side of its neck, somewhat resembling a Sky Form Shaymin's 'scarf'. On its back, there are pointed ends of fur ending in a medium-long tail. Its legs resemble pointed knee-high boots and have pointed hooves and at the joint of its knees are pink highlights. It looked exactly like the Pokémon I had seen in Pinwheel Forest.
"Yeah, that would be the one." I mumbled as I read the description in my head.
"That would be one of the legendary musketeers Pokémon, Virizion. Virizion is otherwise known as The Verdant Knight of the Forest." Burgh informed us.
"That would explain why it was in Pinwheel Forest." Lana stated.
"Burgh, you said that it was one of the legendary musketeers Pokémon. Does that mean that there is more legendary musketeer Pokémon?" Conley asked writing down information in his notepad.
Burgh nodded.
"There is also Terrakion, the Stone Knight of the Mountain and Cobalion, the Iron Knight of the Cave." Burgh answered.
"All three of these legendary Pokémon could talk and they also had the power to grant a worthy enough trainer the ability to understand the Pokémon language. Virizion granted you that ability." The woman next to Burgh said.
"And who the hell are you?" Chad asked rudely.
"My name is Lenora, I own the museum in this town and I am also the gym leader here. I happen to know a great deal of information on the legendary musketeers." Lenora greeted. I actually knew who Lenora was after researching her in her museum.
"That's pretty neat; I stopped by your museum to do some studying last night so I am prepared for a battle against you and your normal type gym. I'm Alex Mayes and this is my partner, Sam." I greeted back, confidently.
"I'm Conley Roberts; I am an apprentice to the great Professor Cedric Juniper." Conley proudly stated. I looked over to Lana.
"Hiya I'm Lana Dukes and I am still thinking what to do with my life." Lana greeted with sarcasm in her voice.
"My names Chad Nolan and you better not forget it. I am the next Unova League Champion so I am looking forward to kicking both of your asses in a Pokémon battle." Chad stated with his chest out.
"Over confidence can be the pinnacle of your journey or it can be the sharp end to your short beginning." Lenora mumbled.
"I have no idea what she just said but it sounded cool anyway." Sam blabbered. I understood what he said but to everyone else it sounded like a whole lot of Osha's and Wott's.
"Okay, It was great meeting you all but I have a museum to run." Lenora said as she waved goodbye and headed back to her museum cross gym.
"Alex, Conley and Chad; I look forward to your participation in the Pinwheel Battle Games." Burgh said before he turned around and headed back to the centre of Nacrene City.
"THE PINWHEEL BATTLE GAMES HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!" Burgh announced through his megaphone. "YOU ALL KNOW THE RULES! SO HEAD OF INTO PINWHEEL FOREST!" He finished off as the crowd of participants charged into Pinwheel Forest almost trampling over Burgh. I was one of the first to enter as I called out Jackson.
"Jack, Let's start looking for those badges." I exclaimed.
"My nose is ready, Master Alex." Jackson stated as I leaped onto his back.
Alex: YES! Suck on that Chad!
I suppose you're happy that I got you to punch Chad in the nose.
Alex: Happy? No...Over the moon? Hecks yes!
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Alex: Update coming soon, right?
Yeah sure.