Chapter 2
"Shannon."
"Yes Grandmother." It was several days after I met the Professor, and I was currently at the public phone booths at the Pokemon Centre. Even though I had replied with my usual calm demeanor, I was a bit terrified inside. Grandmother was the type of person who would get really scary when mad, despite rarely raising her voice. It was something about the way she spoke, that sent shivers down people's back.
"I had a talk recently... With your mother." Hmm.. I wonder why I'm sweating so much.. It's pretty normal temperature outside. When she didn't choose to elaborate, I hesitantly replied.
"I apologise for leaving without a word, Grandmother, but I was afraid that you would not have let me go if I had told. " It was quite strange. My entire life so far had been almost completely following Grandmother's wishes, and these new changes were... refreshing, but terrifying.
"Shannon.. " I swallowed nervously. "You silly child. Grandmother is proud of you no matter what, okay? However, no matter the reasoning, you are obligated to tell me these things before they happen. Have I made myself clear?" ...aw.
"Yes, Grandmother." Crystal.
After a few minutes, Grandmother hung up. She had let me off surprisingly lightly. I walked out of the general area of the Pokemon Centre, took a breath of fresh air, and felt myself relax. Suri jumped off my shoulders and ran to an extra grassy patch of ground and happily sunbathed. I walked over to join her, finding some nice shade under a nearby tree, laid my head on the bark and drifted.
I woke up to Suri nuzzling my cheek. "Hehe, it seems someone is energetic today, ne?" She hopped around happily as I stretched and stood up.
"Alright!" I said, clapping my hands together. "Let us train!" As a fresh trainer, with my bonded on only her first evolution, I would probably be seen as a completely green trainer. I am, in some ways, especially when it comes to travelling and camping. Even having gone on training camps, it is an abrupt change to go from sleeping on a futon inside a cosy enclosed area, to sleeping in a sleeping bag without cover, and it needs some time getting used to.
But as green we may be as adventurers, we are not so shabby in a battle. As one born of a prestigious family, it is expected for us to train our Pokemon to an extent even if we don't ever plan on battling. Any cocky trainer looking for easy experience will having a bad time. As it is, we have many tricks up our sleeves when it comes to battling. We do come from a grass specialised clan, after all.
Digging through my pocket, I pulled out a string of cut up berries hanging by a vine. The berries was tested beforehand to use the bare minimum of each berry to power Natural Gift. There are many different types of edible berries, and the quality/power of Natural Gift often depend on the quality of the berries. Of course, with a family that runs a flowery natural resort, we get access to all the best ones, and more. We stick to weak berries like Cheri berries and Pecha berries for training, and use slightly rare berries like Tamato and Nanab for Pokemon battles. The even rarer berries are only used for emergencies or gym battles.
Suri often forgoes wearing the berry chains outside of battles, and carries a spare berry with her instead. As many berries we get from our clan and have stocked up, we often end up using many of the different type berries to practice combos of different typings, which drains the supplies. It also doesn't help that Suri has a bad habit chewing away at the berries on her necklace without realising it whenever she felt hungry.
When Suri hatched, my parents had hoped for her to inherit a different egg move from her father. They wanted the stabler, and much more resourceful move, Extrasensory for the Budew. It is usually quite a shocker when a poison type is able to use a psychic move. Even so, Natural Gift is fairly versatile, and lays at the base of many of our battle strategies.
"Light 2 CT! Follow up with CO and then AF!" I watched as Suri nibbled at the berries I indicated, before setting up her moves. Hopping and nibbling a Chesto berry, Suri spun and slowly released small mists of water in a ring, before freezing the air immediately with another Natural Gift, and then blasting fire at the cold mist, leaving behind billowing white vapors. It took Suri less than 5 seconds for her to finish her combo, which is fairly impressive, except the fact that there was only a pretty small area of effect.
Of course, in the event that an opposition knew the berries and berry types off by heart, we created simple codes to attack without alerting them. The current code was quite easy to remember, being just the first letter of the berry name followed by the first letter of the number the berries are listed in a chart at home. In the case of a long match, we could just as easily switch to a new code once the other trainer catches onto the patterns.
As fun as it was to see reactions of the different elements forced together, there was a limited amount of times Suri could power the berries fully before tiring, and her actual strength without the power up from slightly stronger berries was still very weak, since she is still a first stage Pokemon. A bonded usually evolves around when their partner first enters puberty.
That is unless the pair decides not to go through with the evolution, which I find hard to wrap my head around. Why would you not want your partner to have the power up and growth from an evolution, to experience the same stages of growth alongside you? I had once heard a trainee at our resort telling her friend that her bonded was given an everstone because they thought the evolution 'looked ugly.' Needless to say I don't agree with that at all.
Unlike the skill/condition based evolutions of non-bonded Pokemon, the ones with a bonded experience evolution at certain stages of their trainers life, regardless of their skill levels. For a 3 stage evolution Pokemon like Suri, she would evolve into Roselia around when puberty starts for me, and evolve once again when I've become a full adult. Technically a Roselia needs a shiny stone to evolve into a Roserade, but apparently the bond does the work for you so you don't require any rare stones/trades.
After some speed exercises and battling some wild Pidgeys and Rattatas, we went back inside to relax and get some snacks, since we trained through and past lunch time. Suri was fairly full from the berries though, and was content cushioned in my beanie. Halfway through my tea and salad, we heard the sounds of explosions and battle outside the Centre. Why would anyone choose to have a match right outside the entrance too, it would probably be an obstacle for anyone who needed to get their Pokemon healed.
Shaking my head, I drained the rest of my tea before heading out to see what the commotion was about. I arrived just in time to see a hot balloon blow up and fling 2 people and their Pokemon high into the distance. Two teens stood looking out at the scarred grounds, with their Pokemon still out and breathing a bit heavily from the battle.
"Excuse me, sirs." I said, grabbing their attention. "Are those two alright, being flung so high into the air? As acquaintances, shouldn't you be trying to find a way to catch them before they break a spine..?"
"Ahh.. uhh" The shorter of the boys said, turning around. He had messy black hair buried under a red Pokemon League hat, and sheepish looking brown eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with a short sleeved blue and white jacket over it, and light blue jeans. He had a pair of finger less gloves on his hands, which he shoved one into his hair as he thought to come up with an explanation. "Don't worry about them... they're not really important."
"They're a group of thieves that have been following us for the better part of the year. They are oddly persistent." The other teen pipped up, giving the shorter teen an exasperated look, and recalling his Pokemon, leaving on a Pikachu on the grounds. This guy had tanned skin, spiky brown hair and squinty eyes. He had on an orange T-shirt with a green vest over it tucked in by a black Pokeball holder belt and dark brown pants. "Nice to meet you, I'm Brock from Pewter City."
"I'm Ash from Pallet Town!" At this, the Pikachu ran to his trainer and leaped to his shoulder. "And this is my precious partner, Pikachu!"
"Pika pikaaa." Pikachu confirmed happily.
"I'm Shannon Rosehill, and this is my partner Suri." I said, bringing her to my arms as I spoke. "We are visiting from Hoenn. Are you also staying at this Pokemon Centre?" I asked, gesturing for them to follow me back to the lobby.
"Yeah sure, I'm beat." Ash replied, throwing his arms up in a yawn. "I can't wait to sleep in a bed again."
We chatted for awhile before we ordered dinner, and we got to see Ash's rather dismal table manners. I got Suri and Pikachu some Pokeblocks I stocked up on before I left home, and they nibbled on the treats with vigor. Ash and Brock told some stories about their adventures in both Kanto and the Orange Islands, and of their previous travel buddies Misty and Tracey. On the topic of tourist spots, the two offered to show me around the town the next day. I graciously accepted, and turned in for the night.
In the safety of my blankets, I cuddled up to Suri. She cuddled back and sighed happily.
"They were pretty nice people, yeah?"
"Budew." She chirped, agreeing.
"Ash said he and Pikachu are best buddies, ne? Do you think they are bonded?"
"Deeew.." Suri replied sleepily, breath already starting to even out.
"Ahh, Pikachu means he'd already evolved his bonded once, right?" I whispered, petting Suri's head. "I'm almost a bit jealous.."
Leaving thoughts of evolution in mind, I gradually dropped off to sleep.
Notes: AHhhhh... I'm a very bad person.. I could've updated ages ago but I randomly decided to work on a few one shots, one which I was supposed to have finished and posted like a month ago.. and it's still not done... =.=;
Hopefully the next update will be much faster. By the way, in this story, Misty's gone back to her gym, so she probably won't appear until like later. As in very much later, if at all. Idk..
Cheers.
