Theme Song
Come on, come out, we don't have all day (Gray and Fortis try getting Durus, Leviculus, Fidens, and Magna out of bed with an annoyed look on their faces)
Let's do this adventure the right way (Gray runs down a road with Chase, Durus, Audino, Tara, Scyther, and her other Pokemon following)
We will look back on what we were (Fortis is pictured on a black canvas before faded images of a Vibrava and Flygon appear behind him in flames)
Even now, we're still unsure... (Team Purity's logo flashes on the screen, and Deus' masked faces appear)
What the future holds! (Gray's final team flashes by)
Be fast, grab your dreams and run (Trentavious, Savannah, and Marcus appear with their starters, and they smirk at Gray while Trent glares)
Look back, make sure to have fun (Gray, Chase, and Tara sit underneath a tree with their Pokemon while laughing)
Remember now, don't look back, Stay calm and give it a crack... (Gray and her Pokemon stand on a hill with Chase, Audino, Tara, and Scyther)
Pokemon!
Okay, last chapter featured Tara telling Gray and Chase about her past, and they still decided to allow her to travel with them. This chapter is about Fortis' past, as he's been having some flashbacks, and I feel it's the perfect time (given the focus on him) to have you guys learn everything. This will be kind of dark, but I'll be keeping most of it PG, so let's get going!
Blaze Falcon: Yeah, Tara will bring some stuff to the table, but it won't happen for a little while (I'll explain later). As for Fortis' past, it's not as dark as I thought it'd be because it put me in a really depressed mood when I was writing it, but Durus will definitely help him out. Durus will probably be Fortis' best friend on the team, though he'll have a love interest coming soon ;)
MerlockVonBaron: Thanks. I figured I'd mix it up a bit and have an "evil" person turn good, so I'm glad you liked it. And that would be cool if Ash could do it, but I think that would make him a little too... perfect? Jessie and James leaving T.R would be a nice change, kind of, but they're starting to be really badass with the Goodra vs Florges thing going on
Defender31415: Lol, she really crapped on Leviculus, but they'll get past that very, very soon. I like the response with Tara's openness being unrealistic, because it was
ShadowDragon9000: Haha, funny intro. And Gray's going to start putting her foot down a little more often (her growing as a trainer), and Leviculus' rude attitude will go away soon, so he won't be a problem moving forward. The gym battle is also done, and I'm currently working on the tournament, which shouldn't take long, so I'll probably move on to things ahead pretty soon
guest: Yeah, I'm looking forward to the dopey awesomeness of Politoed, though he'll be subjected to a few losses until the others can catch up. And thinking about it, I wouldn't have made him, as a Poliwrath, disobedient or an ass. He'd probably be just as happy, but he'd end up crushing Gray in death-grip hugs every time he'd win, haha. And thanks for pointing out the flaw (seriously, this isn't a joke) with Tara's thinking. I knew there was an unrealistic element to it, and I think you hit the nail on the head
MCMXCV: Yeah, she's a good person and will get to show her usefulness pretty soon, I think. And don't worry, I've been down that road with the whole psychopath thing (masked trainer, which makes me sick), and I don't want to do that again. I'm trying to stay away from drama in this story because Kalos was really mentally taxing. Also, Gray putting Leviculus in his place was pretty fun to write, though she'll have to deal with a much tougher Pokemon. As for Tara catching any Pokemon, I don't think she will, only because it wouldn't serve much of a purpose :/
Shion Rasenka: She certainly will bring an interesting dynamic to the group, which you'll find out about after this arc, and Fortis has a pretty awful past, though I didn't make it as dark and graphic as I originally intended (I was scared by how creepy I made it, so I stopped). And I totally agree about Deus' gender breaking the mold, which makes me happy because I'm trying to make this story way different than Owen's stories
Gray's team
Durus, (f), level 28, Scratch, Feint Attack, Bite, Metal Claw, Fury Swipes*, Screech* - (Persian)
Leviculus, (m), level 28, Water Gun, Hypnosis, Bubble, Rain Dance, Body Slam*, Mega Kick* - (Poliwhirl)
Fidens, (m), level 23, Quick Attack, Wing Attack, Rock Throw, Double Team, Scary Face*, Pluck* - (Archen)
Magna, (f), level 24, Confusion, Yawn, Astonish, Uproar, Last Resort* - (Chingling)
Fortis, (m), level 20, Bite, Feint Attack, Sand Tomb, Mud Slap, Bide* - (Trapinch)
"Please stop! I'm sorry!" Fortis screamed as a rush of pain coursed through his veins. An enraged look on the trainer's face was all he could see, and the person wound their arm back before dealing another blow to Fortis, who screamed in pain once again. This time, however, it was much weaker, and then he coughed as a boot slammed into his stomach violently. "I won't lose again, I promise!" the ground type iterated in an attempt to make the beating stop. It didn't, though, and the trainer continued to deal blow after blow after blow, each time making Fortis cry weaker. It was pouring outside and each time he was hit, Fortis saw the crack of lightning, and thunder exploded in the air, ringing in his ears.
"Every time I send you out, you lose! It doesn't matter if it's an electric type or an egg, you lose!" the trainer shrieked before picking Fortis up by the neck and throwing him against the ground. "You're nothing! I don't want you as a Pokemon, if I can even call you that!" As soon as the words ceased, the trainer began walking away, leaving his bloodied Trapinch lying in the mud all by itself. The rain continued to pour down, and Fortis slowly looked up, struggling to keep his eyes open, and he started to cry as the trainer started to disappear from sight.
"Chris, I'm sorry! Please, take me back! I can be stronger... I swear," Fortis whispered as his cries trailed off quickly. Once he realized his trainer wasn't coming back, he knew there was no point in trying to call him. Aside from Fortis' cries, the only other thing echoing through the forest was the thunder roaring, and then, everything went black.
"No!" Fortis shot up from his slumber and looked at his surroundings, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Gray and the other Pokemon. Durus was the only one sleeping on Gray's bed, and she looked more like a statue than anything, while Leviculus was sleeping on the other bed by his lonesome. Fidens and Magna were sprawled out on the floor in opposite parts of the room, and Fortis had been sleeping in-between the two beds, rather comfortably at that, prior to his waking up. Slowly, the ground type rose and looked at the clock, which had its smaller hand on the two. "Man, I need some air," the Pokemon said to himself quietly before walking out the door and down the hallway. After a few minutes of scurrying around the Pokemon Center, Fortis finally arrived at the practice battlefield, and he looked around before taking a deep breath.
Suddenly, a figure stood across the dark battlefield and glared at him, which made Fortis shiver. The look in its eyes was exactly like the one Chris had when... Fortis shivered once again and shook his head before seeing the person had vanished. Slowly, Fortis made his way towards the center of the battlefield and looked at where he had been standing during his training with Gray and Fidens before smiling. His happy mood was dashed, however, when a memory flashed into the forefront of his brain, making him cry in fear.
"Dammit, Trapinch, get the hell up!" Fortis slowly looked around at the other Pokemon and noticed they all had angered expressions on their faces, just like the boy standing in front of him. "Blastoise, hit him with Hydro Pump to wake him up," Chris ordered while turning to his starter. Fortis looked at his teammate pleadingly but didn't see a sign of sympathy from the older, stronger Pokemon. Instead, a blast of water flew out of his right cannon and slammed into Fortis, who was sent rolling across the grass and into a tree. The attack continued until Chris told Blastoise to stop, and he watched as Fortis rose to his feet.
"Now use Earthquake or you're going to get another Hydro Pump!" Chris screamed as Blastoise loaded his cannons with a sinister grin before pointing them at Fortis. The ground type looked at his other teammates in shock before hanging his head. He knew he couldn't use Earthquake, and so did Chris, but the angry trainer insisted on forcing Fortis into practicing the move. Fortis slowly lifted his front feet before slamming them on the ground, but nothing happened, making his trainer shake his head in disgust before pointing at him. Without a word, Fortis was crushed by another Hydro Pump, and he screamed in pain while the others began sparring, hoping they weren't next.
The ground type quickly shook his head and looked around the area to make sure he wasn't in the same situation, and was relieved to see he wasn't. After deciding he had enough of being outside, Fortis went to turn around and walk into the Pokemon Center, but he jumped in shock when a familiar Pokemon was standing in front of him.
"What're you doing up so late?" Durus inquired, looking directly into Fortis' eyes. The ground type looked around nervously before hanging his head, which prompted Durus to walk over and pat Fortis on the back. The ground type flinched violently when he saw Durus' paw fall towards him, which the normal type noticed, and she smiled at him in an attempt to calm Fortis' nerves.
"I just needed some air, that's all." Fortis looked up at Durus, and the normal type could tell he was lying. "I've just been going through some stuff, and I wanted to get outside for a little bit."
"What kind of problems? If it's about us not being all that welcoming, sorry about that. Leviculus and I are still trying to get over Magna and her screaming, so we're kind of preoccupied with that," Durus said a with a grin before laughing lightly. She stopped, though, when she saw Fortis wasn't laughing. "Okay, tell me what it is."
"Wh-what? It's personal."
"Listen, Fortis, we're teammates now, so if something's bugging you, it's bugging me, and everyone else. We're family." Fortis' head whipped up when he heard the last few words Durus uttered, and he looked at her in shock. Durus nodded slowly, knowing that that was what had shocked her teammate, and Fortis took a deep breath before looking at the stronger Pokemon.
"Okay... I used to have this trainer, and he was really awful," the ground type started, looking at the battlefield because he didn't want to make eye contact with Durus.
"Yeah, it was Troy. Why is that bothering you?" the feline quizzed.
"No, it was another trainer before him. He was my first trainer, and his name was Chris. He was really mean to all of us, no matter how well we did in battles. If we won, there wasn't anything surprising about it, we were supposed to win. If we lost..." Fortis trailed off before shaking his head and scowling at the thought. Durus looked on, wanting to know more about the Trapinch, and she waited for him to continue. "...If we lost, he'd beat us... really badly."
"That's terrible," Durus commented, not knowing what else to say. She couldn't even think about a trainer doing that to their Pokemon. Even when she refused to listen to Gray, the thought of being beaten never passed her mind, and Gray never took an action close to that. "Did that... did that every happen to you?" Fortis didn't react to the question for a few seconds, but he slowly turned and nodded.
"I lost a few battles in a row, the last one being against a Pachirisu, and that's when he started hitting me a lot harder than usual. I can still remember it was raining, there was thunder and lighting, and we were in some kind of forest, but I was the only one out with Chris. There was this look in his eyes, it was like something possessed him, and he just started hitting me as hard as he could. I never felt so much pain before." Fortis paused and took a deep breath, trying to gain control over his emotions, which were trying to make their presence known to Durus.
"Hey, take your time. You don't have to talk about that if it's too hard." Fortis shook his head quickly before sniffling, and he looked up at his trainer's starting Pokemon.
"And then, after I was bleeding, he left me and said I was too weak to be considered a Pokemon. I never saw him again, and I didn't think I'd live through that, but then Troy came along and helped me to the Pokemon Center. I thought he was going to be different than Chris, but he wasn't. I was only with him for a few weeks before I met you guys, so it really hasn't been a long time since Chris released me."
"Fortis..." Durus started, trying to think of something to say to her teammate. "I'm so sorry to hear about that. I can't even imagine what it was like having to go through all of that." The ground type nodded and looked away, not wanting to think about his evil trainers. He turned back around, however, when Durus patted him on the back lightly. "I promise that's not going to happen with us, and you can take my word for that. If anyone, and I mean anyone, gives you a problem, tell me and I'll rip them to shreds."
"Haha, thanks, Durus," Fortis replied with a slight smile when he saw the protective look on the Persian's face. "I appreciate it." Durus nodded, and the two Pokemon began walking back to their room, where they feel asleep in the same places as before. Fortis, however, looked up at the top of the wall and a look of confidence spread across his face.
"I'm going to prove both of them wrong. They'll regret ever doing that to me!"
Yeah... we learned a little bit about Fortis' past. To sum it up, his trainer before Troy used to beat him to the point where he almost died... so yeah. Till next time, peace out.
Next Chapter: "Quest for the Crown": While training with Tara and Chase, Gray hears about a contest for all water types. Eager to win, Leviculus is submitted, and he soon learns the prize is a King's Rock! Will Leviculus be able to win and claim the title of 'King of the Water Type"?
Vermilion City Arc
Chapter 27: War-Zone
Chapter 28: Caution: Danger Ahead!
Chapter 29: Sweet Victory
Chapter 30: Rival Revenge
Chapter 31: Forits vs Gible: Winner Takes All
Chapter 32: Fidens' Confrontation