Chapter 18: Family Matters
I decided to leave the egg in the PC for now. It was a hard decision, but I didn't want to loose a slot on the team for a while just to end up putting the newly hatched pokemon in the box anyway. "I'll come back and get you when this is all over. I promise." I whispered to egg as it was digitized into the PC. I yawned, it being pretty early in the morning and grabbed my bag off of the floor. I jumped on my bike outside and took off, making my way towards Cycling Road. I easily passed the checkpoint, giving the guard a shit-eating grin as I passed. While my attention was on the guard, a voice in front of me cried out in alarm. I hit the brakes, sliding to a halt barely an inch away from a man in a lab coat.
"Holy shit, are you okay man?" I asked. He lowered his hands, which he had flung up in order to protect himself I guess. "Yes, I'm fine." he said. "Oh! And you're Nick, correct?"
I was a little put off that he knew who I was. "Yeah?" I said, trying to get a read on the situation.
The man waved his hands, indicating he wasn't a threat. "No, no, don't worry! I'm Professor Rowans assistant! Call me Mr. Platinum."
Platinum, Platinum, where had I heard that name before? Recognition sparked in my mind. "Oh! You're Dawn's dad!" I said excitedly.
"Yes I am." he nodded. "Anyway, the Professor wanted me to give you this. He said it should help you on your journey." He fumbled around in his coat for a second before retrieving a strange device. It looked kinda like a head band, with adjustable straps on the side. Two metal bands stretched up over it, small lights at their tips.
"Hey, that's an Exp. Share! Cool!" I said, grabbing the device. "Tell Rowan I said thanks! I've gotta go, have to make it to Hearthome ASAP." I moved my bike around and took off before he could even reply. What is it with Eterna and people giving me random stuff I thought.
Cycling Road turned out to not be as smooth a trip as I thought. It was littered with trainers, all of which seemed to use Magnemite exclusively. The good news was, that meant plenty of experience for Lin. The Geodude was wiping the floor with the little metal pokemon, making great use of the moves Magnitude and Rock Smash. After what felt like the fiftieth battle, we made it to the end. "You did a great job Lin, I'm impressed!" I said. A soft glow was the response I got, catching my attention as the small Geodude evolved into a large Graveler. The larger stone pokemon now had stubby little legs to move with and four thick arms.
"Hey, I evolved!" she crowed, trying her best to look at her new body. Unfortunately, her head was still pretty much her whole body, preventing her from a thorough inspection. She sighed, defeated and slumped to the ground. "Hey, don't be sad." I said. "Trust me, you look badass." She perked up at the praise and I recalled her, letting Lola out for some more training. While on Cycling Road, I noticed a bunch of tall grass underneath it. I made my way there, hoping to get some new pokemon. Imagine my disappointment when it was filled with Machop and Geodude.
"Dammit! I mean, it's not like I want to replace anyone on the team, I like all of you, but can I at least get a little more variety? My only potential replacements are a Zubat, a Shellos and an egg!" I cried.
"You forgot about Rebecca." Lola teased.
"Hey, Rebecca is an important part of the team." I replied. "Who else can learn all of those HM moves? No one that's who."
We made our way back to the path, turning towards Mt. Coronet. The large mountain loomed above us, looking much more intimidating up close. "wow." I gasped, staring up at the peak. Lola was doing the same, looking pretty impressed.
"I take it you haven't been this close to the mountain before." a gruff voice called. I noticed a large man in hiking gear standing a fair distance away. He had three Geodude with him, each grinning wickedly. "Say, city slicker, figure we could have a battle?" the hiker challenged.
I smirked. "If you think you have an advantage just because Lola's a normal-type, you're dead wrong. Lola, Jump Kick!" I shouted. The match started in earnest, one Geodude moving forward confidently. Lola built up speed before launching herself in the air, landing a vicious kick right in the enemy pokemons face. They sailed a fair distance away, landing near the base of the mountain.
The hiker seemed pretty flustered that his rock-type was loosing. "This cannot stand!" he cried. "Geodude, use our last resort! Self-destruct!"
"Oh shit, Lola get away!" I yelped. I was to late. The Geodude glowed brightly seconds before letting off a large blast, knocking Lola several feet into the air. She crashed nearby, crumpled and not moving. I ran over, kneeling down next to her. "Lola! Hang in there, do not die dammit!"
Surprisingly, Lola smiled weakly. "It's gonna take more than that to take me out." she groaned. I checked the PokeTech, realizing she was at 3 HP. She barely made it! I quickly returned her to her pokeball, stabilizing her condition till we could get to Hearthome. I turned back to the hiker. "That could have killed her." I growled. I sent Lin out, the newly evolved Graveler looking as mean as she could. "I'd like to see your self-destruct tactic work on her."
Lin easily smashed both the opposing Geodudes with a high level Magnitude attack. After the battle, I made my way towards the cave tunnel that connected the west side of Sinnoh with the east. Just before I got inside, I heard someone calling my name.
"Oh, hey Dawn." I said, seeing the black-haired girl run up, her pink coat easily standing out from the brown stone.
"I heard from Dad that you were on your way to Hearthome, thought I could catch you here." Dawn explained. "I was looking through some old stuff of mine and I found these." She held out two objects. One was a small white triangular device that had a smaller, blue triangle in the middle that looked like a button. The other was a square screen with an antenna sticking out of the top. "This is a VS Seeker." Dawn said, indicating the triangle. "And this is a Dowsing Machine." She held up the square. "I've already got newer versions so I figured you can have these older ones."
"Cool, thanks." I said, placing the items in my bag. I knew that the Dowsing Machine I probably wouldn't be using, but the VS Seeker could come in handy for training. We chatted for a small time before Dawn left, having to get back to Oreburgh. I made my way into the cave, eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. The cavern was big, the high ceiling covered in stalactites. I followed the path that was cut through the stone, climbing up some steps and moving around large boulders. Geodude were everywhere, once again preventing me from getting a new pokemon. I sighed in defeat, continuing my trek through the cave. A voice caught my attention, echoing slightly off the walls. I turned a corner and immediately jumped back. Cyrus was standing in the middle of the path, apparently talking to himself.
"Here...this mountain shall be the catalyst. But I need to be higher, closer to the heavens." he muttered, glancing up at the ceiling. "The Spear Pillar is the only choice, but where is it? This place is a maze, and the outer slopes are impossible to climb up." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. After all I have all the time in the world." He chuckled darkly and I heard footsteps moving away as he walked down the path away from me. I waited until I couldn't hear him anymore before stepping out of my hiding place.
"Man, he's even crazier than usual." I muttered. "He mentioned time. Could he be after Dialga? That's gonna be a hard fight." I shook my head. "Focus on the present Nick, let's get out of this cave."
I made it out of the cave without any trouble. Upon exiting, I saw that Route 208 was amazing. Waterfalls fell down the cliffs on my left, the sound of rushing water filling my ears. Bridges made out of thick logs spanned over the falls, allowing trainers to travel around them. Down below, a valley was littered with patches of tall grass and trainers waiting to battle. Not far off in the distance, Hearthome City was waiting, the sun just starting to set over it.
"Alright, let's get into town." I said to myself, setting off. Once I had navigated across the bridge and down the steps to the valley, I took a look around, wondering what kind of pokemon I would find. A rustling in the nearby brush caught my attention, and a rather large group of Budew and Roselia marched out. I sighed as I watched the group cross the path. They seemed rather upset about something, but I figured it wasn't my problem. After they passed I continued on the path to Hearthome.
Passing through the gate, I was just starting to wonder where the PokeCenter was when a commotion caught my attention. "Look out!" a young voice called and I barely had time to react before a Buneary bounded up to me, landing in my arms. She squirmed a bit, clearly not expecting to be suddenly caught by a person. I almost let her go, but I heard to voice call out again. "Don't let her go!" I strengthened my grip on the bunny and looked around for the person who I assumed owned her.
A boy about my age ran over, clearly out of breath. He had black hair, from what I could see under his scarlet beret. He had a navy blue jacket on over a black t-shirt. Black slacks and a white scarf around his neck completed the look. "Thanks a lot man." he said, catching his breath. I handed the Buneary over to him.
"She's yours?" I asked.
He looked at me questioningly for a moment. "Oh, no! No she's not." he said. "She actually belongs to a friend of mine. I was walking her at the park across town and she got away from me. Mischievous little thing." he muttered. "My name's Lucas by the way." he said, extending a hand.
"I'm Nick." I shook it and followed him as he walked down the street. "So Lucas, have any idea where the PokeCenter is?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's right by the Concert Hall. I'm headed there now actually, just follow me." We walked together for a bit, chatting. It turned out, Lucas was from Littleroot Town too, neighbors with Barry in fact. Lucas was never one for battling, he took after his mom with contests. While the idea of contests intrigued me, I decided to pass on the chance to compete. "I'm kinda in the middle of my own challenge right now, can't really take up another one." I said.
"Oh really?" Lucas asked. "The League challenge?"
"Yep." I said sharply, hoping to cut the conversation short there.
"Then you should still come to the Concert Hall." Lucas said. I gave him a questioning look. "You see, the gym leader of this town, Fantina, is currently competing in a contest. She's free the day after tomorrow for challenges, but for now you should meet her, maybe see her pokemon in action at the contest."
"Still think I'll pass." I said. "I just got here from Eterna, I need to crash." We arrived at the PokeCenter and I patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck with those contests man, and don't loose that Buneary again!"
"Will do. Good luck with the gym battle." Lucas said, trotting down the street, still holding on to the fugitive Buneary. I checked out a room for the night and did my normal ritual of letting everyone out of their pokeballs. Problem was, with Lola and Lin evolving, the space in the room was a little cramped.
"Sorry guys, you're gonna have to sleep in your pokeballs tonight." I said. "I'll try to get a bigger room tomorrow." They all grumbled or sighed, letting my return them. Rose was the last one and when I looked over at where she had been, I discovered she was gone. Glancing around, I found her up at the window, looking out at the city.
"We're in Hearthome, arn't we?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah." I said, sitting next to her. "Hey, didn't you say you were originally from Route 206?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah. It's weird, being back after all that's happened." She stared out the window for a few more minutes before hopping down. "Goodnight Nick." she yawned.
"Night Rose." I said, placing her in her pokeball. I turned the light out and crawled into bed, ready for the day of training tomorrow.
"Alright Rose, Magical Leaf!" I cried. It was the middle of the day back on Route 208. Armstrong and Mufasa were already trained up and ready to face the next gym. I decided that next I should focus on Lin and Rose, who were busy fighting a group of Bidoof. The little brown rodents were practically everywhere and so where the Bibarels they evolved into. I focused on having Lin take out the plentiful Bidoofs while Rose attacked the occasional Bibarel that showed up. The process worked pretty well, both of them getting stronger rather quickly.
"Alright girls, I think that's just about it." I said as the Bidoof finally decided to run away instead of fight. "Strange that we've only seen Bidoof though. I wonder what happened to those Budew and Roselia I saw yesterday."
"You saw what yesterday?" Rose asked suddenly. I was a little taken back by the force of the question.
"Uh, I saw a large group of Budew with some Roselia in it. They were crossing the path, looked kind of bothered by something." I answered. "Why, do you know them?"
"You can say that." Rose replied darkly. My next question was interrupted by a loud cry of pain. Looking around, I noticed someone missing. "Shit, where's Lin!?" I yelped. Rose instantly ran towards the pained yells, and I followed. Bursting through some trees, we found Lin, surrounded by the Budew from before. A Roselia was standing with his back to us, using Mega Drain on Lin, who was obviously in a lot of pain.
"Leave her alone!" Rose shouted, stepping forward. The attack broke and the Roselia turned to face her. I noticed that his left thorn on his head was cut short slightly, the tip removed.
He chirped and clicked loudly at Rose, the Budew around us buzzing with excitement. It seriously bothered me that I couldn't understand what was being said, or retrieve Lin with all the wild pokemon in the way. "Rose, what's going on?" I asked tensely.
"These Budew...they're my family." Rose answered. "I ran away a long time ago, wanted to see the world. I think I already told you this sob story. Anyway, stumpy there is my Pa." she gestured toward the Roselia. "The stumps my fault. He didn't want me to leave."
"Wow, you've got some problems." I muttered. "What's he want with Lin?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Rose said. She turned her attention back to her dad. "Let the Graveler go! She's with me and this human, she did nothing wrong."
The Roselia chirped more, clearly not happy with the demand. The Budew hissed in anger, some closing the space behind us. "Uh, that didn't work." I said.
"No kidding." Rose spat. "Pa's pretty pissed cause Lin started poking at the little 'uns. Apparently, she caught sight of them while we were fighting the Bidoof and took off without telling us. Now Pa wants to teach her a lesson." My eyes narrowed, glaring at the wild Roselia. "Look, Pa, let her go and we can all just go home."
There was a long pause, the Roselia looking like he was mulling her offer over. Then he shook his head, reaching back and lightly touching Lin with his left flower. He chirped, and I didn't need a translation to understand that. "No deal."
The sickly green energy returned, sucking the life out of Lin. Rose launched herself forward, dodging a Magical Leaf attack sent at her from her dad. All the Budew surged forward, each adding their own Absorb attack to the mix, quickly draining Lin. Before I could react, I saw the blue glow encase her stony body and watched helplessly as her spirit flew up and away. The wild pokemon stopped their attack, backing away from her body. Rose fell to her knees, crying into her flower hands. I picked up a new pokeball from my belt and tossed it into the air.
"Training time Sora." I growled. "Wipe them out."