Authors notes: This is just a little bonus chapter that I had written some time in January but never got around to posting since I never thought the story would require a back story for my characters. But Since it may be a while since I post a new chapter I figured it might be nice to have something to read. As far as I know nothing in this chapter will greatly affect the story so if you aren't the type for backstory you can skip it and not really miss anything.
Side chapter: Lets get to know Jerry's team parts 1 and 2
Part 1 of 8 Apollo
I enlarged the Pokeball in my hand and stared at it. I had earned the right to send out a Pokemon after passing the oral part of the test, getting nine out of the ten questions correct. Stupid question about Shinx and Luxio and Luxray migration to some stupid electric plains. Not knowing that would never hurt anyone. Nurse joy through her Pokeball to the ground and it erupted in a bright red light before leaving behind a blue turtle thing and jumping back to her hand. It was a Squirtle. I had already knew that since I had picked a Charmander that my test battle would be against one. The goal of the battle wasn't to win, just to make sure you understood all the rules and a single rule violation would put you back to two months of school before you could take the test again. I had no plans on loosing my first battle though. I tossed my Pokeball and out popped Charmander. The two instantly recognized each other and the Charmander waved to the Squirtle when he realized he had been picked by this new trainer. The Squirtle realizing that it had not been picked stuck out its tongue and pulled its eyelid down in a familiarly insulting face. Neither me nor the Charmander was amused.
"Don't loose focus Charmander we can totally win this." I said in encouragement. He didn't really seemed bothered by it anyway. The judge had finished his short walk to the sidelines and had raised the flags one red and one white.
"The battle to decide if Jerry is ready to be a Pokemon trainer against Nurse Joy will be a one on one battle. There will be a time limit of two minutes. Leaving the edge will not count as a faint for this battle although take note this is a rare alteration of rules. With all that said let the battle begin.
I was totally ready for this. "Charmander use growl," I said almost before he finished the last word. Charmander was a little started by the quick order and jumped a bit but quickly settled and voiced a cute little sound that made his opponent a bit less inclined to use all he had against it. Lowering stats was a great way to start battles that you were sure were going to be long. And Squirtle's withdraw was going to make this fight probably last the whole two minutes but that was O.K since I was sure nurse joy wasn't going to play aggressive.
"Squirtle use tackle," or not. O well I had spent halve the night thinking of ways to dodge tackles, and get through withdraw. But that would come later.
"Charmander take the hit and get a couple of scratches in." Charmander nodded and waited for the last second before jumping to the left side of the Squirtle as it ran past and kicking it in the shin. Not the first thing that came to mind when I told him to use scratch but he must have used that quite a few times against the Squirtle in the past judging from how smoothly he had pulled it off. I wasn't going to complain. The Squirtle fell on his stomach and the Charmander quickly stepped on the top of the shell effectivly immobilizing him. The Squirtle flailed a little bit and tried to get up but Charmander was just a little too heavy. I sat and waited a few moments wondering If I should command another attack. I didn't see a point since it would just be unnecessary damage at this point. I had never thought the fight would be this easy but it appeared like that was it. Just then the judge spoke up.
"Nurse Joy's Pokemon is unable to continue Jerry is the winner. Congratulations Pokemon trainer Jerry. From the look on his face it was obvious that that was not something that he had expected or maybe he just wasn't happy with the way that I had won. To be fare its not like I told him to do it.
Nurse Joy recalled the Squirtle and it made the Charmander fall on his face not having the convenient shell to lean against. I quickly ran up to him and asked,
"Charmander are you O.K.?" he stood up quickly holding his nose and whimpering. I couldn't help laughing a little bit at it, but he didn't think it was funny. He got over it quickly when I reminded him that we had just won our first battle together.
"Great job Charmander, Give me a high five." I said putting my hand in the air low enough that he could reach it but not to low that he didn't have to jump to reach it. He pondered it for a few seconds before jumping up and slapping his hand into mine.
"Alright! Now lets get you healed up so we can head out. I plan on being halve way to Hoenn before nightfall." I said and walked over to Nurse Joy. The only good thing about living in this dump of a city is that we have a harbor. "Can I please have my Charmander healed?"
"Of course. Come right this way. She said and led me downstairs to the main area of the center where I recalled Charmander and handed the Pokeball to her. "Do you plan on calling him Charmander forever or do you plan on giving him a nickname?"
"Right a nickname. Well I have a whole lot of them that I thought of but I have to ask him which one he likes." I said as the machine finished beeping and she handed me the Pokeball back along with a few things every trainer needed. A Pokedex, a potion, five Pokeballs, and lastly my very own trainer card. I looked at the picture that I had taken just before the battle and Sighed at how bad my smile was. Well at least I could change it any time. It also had a scan-bar that Could be used with most machines and any Pokedex to see information that was constantly being recorded and updated like number of pokemon, total earning, number of badges and other neat stuff.
"Thanks Nurse Joy." I said as I walked out of the center, and strait into Cole.
"So how was the battle?" He said. He knew nothing disastrous happened since I had a Pokedex and six Pokeballs, but all battles were worth hearing about.
"Aw man you missed out on it. I had that Squirtle on the ground and begging for mercy in the first thirty seconds." I said. Then realizing that it wasn't quite fare to tell the story without the real victor I through Charmander's Pokeball to the ground and let him walk with us before continuing on with the story. The Squirtle thought it had us when it tried to flood the room with a surf attack but Charmander here was too powerful for such a week attack to hurt him. He boiled away the water with a flamethrower before it could even get to him. Then before the Squirtle could recover he charged in with a flair-blitz and tackled it onto its back. From there the judge realized how good we were and called the match before we realy got serios."
Charmander just nodded and said "Char" at certain points in my great story. Cole on the other hand was not impressed.
"So your saying that your never before trained Charmander knows the moves flamethrower and flair-blitz for the first official battle of its life."
"Well it was kind of a luck thing, I am not sure we can pull them off again." I said to quickly cover up for the wholes in my story. "Anyway Charmander I need to give you a nickname I can't call you Charmander forever." I said and he stopped to think about this for a few seconds before realizing that I was right and waiting for me to suggest things. "How about Zilla?" I said and he made a halfhearted shrug that just screamed "Ehh" before shaking his head no. "Well how about Charcoal its cool and has the same starting letters as your species name." he really didn't like this one judging by the gagging motions he was making. "Ok well I was saving the best for last anyway. How about Apollo. He is like the god of music and the sun in this awesome story I read during class." He seamed to like being compared to a god and nodded eagerly at this one. Somehow I knew he would pick this one anyway. He just felt like an Apollo to me. As we finally got to the dock I turned back to Cole.
"Well I guess this is my ride," I said pointing to the S.S. Ann. I was the luckiest person in the world that it just happened to be setting sail for its year round trip just the day after my birthday. "I'll be sure to call you and tell you about all the awesome adventures I have. Heh I will probably be back before you are even old enough to begin your trainer journey so we can go together then."
"Yea," Was all he said although it was clear he had a million things he wanted to say.
"Last call for passengers" A Sailor said and I instantly snapped out of my little trance and looked at him before running to show him my pass. Goodby vermilion city with all your borringness and stupid cold weather and lame attractions. Hello Hoenn with all the awesome tropical weather and contests and best battle frontier in the whole world. Nowhere else had the battle pyramid and I planed to conquer it.
Part 2 of 8 Lilly
There it was again... that stupid howling noise...
Those stupid Mightyena and Poochyena just wouldn't stop. They contributed to everything from the constant attacking of helpless people to the hunting of almost all animals and Pokemon in the area to near extinction. What was Arceus thinking when he made an intelligent predatory dark type hyaena-dog. They were a complete menace. And they were coming for me. I glanced over my shoulder for what must have been the one thousandth time just to make sure they weren't actually on my tail. Pshh getting worked up over nothing. The main reason nobody had done anything about it was they agreed not to attack people and Pokemon on the main road. So far no one has reported otherwise... Not that anyone would survive it to tell. There is nothing to be scared of. If they do attack me I always have Apollo to protect me anyway. If it wasn't for that stupid rule that you had to get your starter looked at by the regions top professor before you can challenge a gym I would have already got like two badges. Well not really Hoenn is like the only region with no grass or bug gym so yea I cant exploit my starter for cheep wins, not that I wanted to. Only losers who choose the grass starters do that. I will just have to own Roxanne with metal claw."You have got to help me"
…. Wait I didn't think that. "Whose there," Ugh maybe it's a trick by the Poochyena to lure me off the main path.
"Yes we are the Poochyena and we have learned to psychically communicate with our pray"
"Ha you cant fool me, I am on to you"
"Good Arcues your dense... Well good thing for you I can't just wait for a smarter trainer to come by. I am a Raltz and those stupid things are hunting me. They have been following my every move and just managed to corner me in a tree and I'm to tired to levitate away. Is that a little to hard for you. Do you need me to..."
"Geeze I get it already, so they want to eat you and you don't want to be eaten is that all?"
"How can you be so casual about this. I heard they don't even kill you before beginning to... feast."
"Well I was scared a little while ago but they really don't seem to come near this path so maybe your just imagining it."
Suddenly the image of five Poochyena and two Mightyena starring at me as I looked down at them from a tree happily punched its way into my mind. "Well still think I'm imagining it, or maybe you would like to hear the thoughts they are strongly broadcasting about how good I would look on a split or how this one would love to take my corpse and forcefully... well I will let you know about that one when I am sure your old enough to hear it. Anyway the point is I could really use some help here."
"So why don't you just teleport away?" Only a psychic can trace teleportation.
"Because I am exhausted and even if I had the energy to left teleport I am terrible at it and wouldn't be able to go more than fifteen feet away. Putting me in a worse condition than before."
"Mk what about your family? Can't they help you" Wow I can talk through my mind. Woot.
"Well My mother is tracking them but knows that she can't really do anything to help. When it becomes too late and they catch me she will do her best to hold them off and probably sacrifice herself to save me and stuff. But it wont get anything solved since now that they have my scent they will just come back when they get hungry again, and my dad belongs to a trainer who never even knew I was born. So now that you know my whole life story why don't you come and help me?"
"Thats pritty morbid for a child"
"I am a psychic I know everything that my parents and everything that all the worlds other psychics are willing to share."
"Ok, I'll help. But how do I get to you, I don't even know where you are?"
"Hello psychic right here talking to you, I will just show a map to my location... but first I need to know where you are so I am going to read your mind a little. You may feel a little crowded but it wont last long."
Then there was a slight pressure in my head that I assumed was the Raltz as he read my mind. I always thought it hurt to have your memories read but it wasn't that bad it just felt like there was a lot less space in my head with her there... so yea it felt crowded. After about two minutes the pressure went away and she left a fairly detailed map in my head showing where I as and where her tree was. Fortunately it was only like ten minutes of walking away so about four at a good jog. I took off in the direction as I tried to think of ways to fight them.
"O.K. so there is five Poochyena and a Mightyena how am I supposed to beat them? All I have is Apollo and with their numbers he wont last long"
"Well mom can support you with reflect and some magical leafs you don't have to defeat them all just take out the Mightyena and the rest will run off."
"Hmm so what if I cant defeat it and lose the battle?"
"Well in that case they will probably eat you instead and leave me alone, so no worries just showing up will save me." I stopped talking and thought about what I had gotten myself into as I continued to jog towards the fated tree. What if I really die here? I never even told my family that I was leaving.
"Maybe you should call them after this. Every parent deserves to know where their child is."
"Ugh do you pick up on all my thoughts?" Can you really hear everything I am thinking?
"Yes, and Yes," she chimed in a little bit to happy for her current situation.
"Hope is a very powerful thing, especially when you thought you were going to die mere minutes ago."
"Good point. Anyway I'm just about there how should I make my entrance?"
"The flashier the better. Give them something to be scared of."
"That I can do, Any last second advice for me?"
"How about don't die, or maybe Break a leg, or maybe..."
"Your not helping anymore." I said smiling at her little joke of sorts, She totally has my since of humor. I pulled out Apollo's Pokeball and peeked at the pack of wolfs from behind a tree. Lets hope Apollo can understand this situation quickly or this will be bad, I cant just go and tell them my strategy or they will just protect the Mightyena.
"Can I get you to rely my orders directly to Apollo"
"I don't have very much psychic energy left but I should be able to manage that. Just don't expect me to be doing any attacking during this fight" Fair enough.
Clutching Apollo's Pokeball I dashed out from behind the tree and ran towards the wolfs wooping and waving my arms in a stupid way but hoped to make the Pokemon at least a little scared.
"Apollo Smokescreen," I said as I tossed the ball into the middle of the very much surprised group of Poochyena. He was surprisingly on the ball and as the Pokeball released him in the air above them all and he released a massive cloud of black smoke that hid everything from view. Sadly it only served to put them into a small coughing fit since their dark type gave them amazing vision in this cloud so really this was just going to make it impossible to see Apollo.
"Fill Apollo in and tell him to start running to the Mightyena."
"Already filled him in and he is just about there."
"Ok tell him to keep a safe distance and use a couple embers until he knows how strong it is. Also wheres your mom at?"
"Done and she is right behind you preparing a magical leaf to stop the very angry wolfs from charging you but please don't try to dodge them or anything." I looked up and sure enough there were three Poochyena running strait at me. I somehow got lucky and managed to side step the first one as it jumped at me and kick it in the stomach but there was no way to dodge the second one. I put my hands up to protect my face but instead of hitting me it hit an almost invisible barrier midair and slid to the ground. The third one was thinking about trying a repeat performance but got nailed with a magical leaf attack before it could make up its mind
"Jerry you should focus on what Apollo is doing for now" I looked over and saw him in a bad spot trying to dodge away from the two other Poochyena and the Mightyena.
"Tell Apollo to use ember between the two Poochyena and to charge through the hole and tackle the Mightyena." I said as I glanced back to see the Gardevoir in a large sphere with the three Poochyena trying to tackle through it It held for the first tackle and the second one but the third one went right through and bit her on the leg. The effect of coming in contact with a dark type was instant. The shield disappeared and she could no longer use psychic to hold her self up. She fell to the ground and the other two quickly ran to take advantage of the downed opponent. Luckily I was faster and closer and managed to kick the first one off of her and she grabbed me and we both teleported a few meters away to regain some composure. And by that I mean throw me into a dizzy fit and nearly knocking me unconscious.
"Whoops forgot that teleporting has that effect on non psychics sometimes" The Ralts chimed in as she pushed into my head and somehow I felt much better. The Poochyena were quick to find our new spot and rushed at us again but were intercepted by several homing leaves and they wearily backed off a bit and began to circle us. I took the moment to glance at how Apollo was doing. He was in a pretty bad bind but was hanging in there biting one of the Poochyena while scratching the Mightyena and keeping the other one at bay with his tail.
"Apollo looks like we have to try out the new T.M moves before we can be sure you have mastered them use and Iron tail to get some space and follow it up with a dig." Apollo's tail took on a metal tint and he spun around knocking all three of them back. The aggressive trio tried to jump back on him but he jumped and fell threw the ground like it had turned into a swimming pool. They comically all headbutted themselves in the center before Apollo popped up behind the Mightyena and grabed him before diving back in pulling it in with a yelp.
"Tell Apollo to metal claw as much as he can and if he feels like he is close to fainting switch to ember and use blaze to finish it."
"Noted but it seems like the Mightyena just wants out of the hole, he isn't even putting up much of a fight." The Poochyena were just sitting there looking at the small hole that was left for breathing purposes and sometimes digging a little bit to try and help it. It would have felt sad if it wasn't for the fact that they were trying to eat me and the Ralts earlier. With that solved all that was left were the three Poochyena that were attacking me and Gardevoir. They were done with their circling act and decided to try something new. They closed their eyes and you could actually see a black glow resonating from them. But it didn't seem to be doing anything. Well I thought it didn't do anything until Gardevoir started staggering around and swinging at the air before slapping herself in the face and tripping. The Poochyena decided this was the perfect time to strike and ran at us but before they got there they were interrupted by a quick bark from the Mightyena who was now out and standing beside Apollo. They halted and looked at each other yipping and barking at each other before turning and going to the Mightyena. The three glared at us in one of those this isn't over ways and then they all disappeared into to forest leaving me completely confused about what was happening. The sound of leaves crunching behind me alerted me to to possibility of them sneaking up behind me. I tensed up and turned around ready to jump out of the way of crazy Poochyena but instead it was just the Ralts she bowed to me before once again entering my mind. The minute she did her eyes widened just about jumped out of her skin.
"Good Arceus you always said the emotions given off by Humans had more energy in them but this is insane. Its got to be more than twice as much. With this much energy I could stay in stealth mode indefinitely."
"Um what are you talking about?"
"Oh sorry you didn't know? Our evolutionary line have the ability to feed of the emotions given of by others. Its kind of like a host-parasite relationship but we don't take anything we simply benefit from the energy given off by all sentient creatures. But of all the creatures Arceus created Humans give of the strongest waves. Long story short being near people is all the sustenance we need."
"Well that's Kind of weird."
"Eating is kind of weird."
"Good point," I said tired of all the mind speaking. "So I guess I will be continuing to the lab... Um in all the chaos I think I forgot the way so um which way is Littleroot town?"
"Just go west till you get to the road and then follow it south."
"Um OK then I guess I will be seeing you"
"Hold up. I know you aren't going to just save my life and then leave without taking a reward."
"Well I cant really expect something from you I mean you were on the verge of death anyone would have saved you."
"But that whole they have my scent thing means they will just come back when they are sure you are gone so I think I have a reward for you that we can both benefit from."
"I'll buy it, what did you have in mind?"
"Stop being so dense do I have to get a Pokeball and catch myself"
"But what about your mom? Will she really be happy with you gone captured by some random trainer you only knew for ten minutes."
"Don't sell yourself short I have already scanned all your memories remember? And if that wasn't good enough I also read Apollo's mind and got to know how you treat him. Along with that I have already discussed all of this with mom and she agrees whole heartily that it will be good for me to take on a guardian role."
"What do you mean Guardian role?"
"Eh Ill tell you later."
"No fair!"
After thougths: I tried really hard to give the charactors in this story slightly different personalities to stimulate growth throughout this journey but who knows if it worked. I also found it weird to have a character in my story exaggerate that same story.
Thoughts for the next chapter: O.K. I have procrastinated enough. the next action I undergo involving writing will be the next part of the story so I can finally end this cliffhanger left over from chapter 4