A.N. We finally got this done... Getting into the action starting next chapter. Finals come up in two weeks, GL.
Clefairy: The Fairy Pokémon.
Clefairy are considered to be extraterrestrial organisms, rumored to be ancestral inhabitants of the moon. Centuries of historical art and traditional folklore depict the Clefairy descending on falling stars, to give heavenly decrees to their earthly subjects. One of their quirks, the requirement of Moon Stones to evolve into Clefable, does lend suspicion to the moon being their home planet.
However, paleontology and genetics tells scientists that Clefairy have only been around several thousand years, and while truly descending from space, they came down in meteor events by chance, seeking more hospitable environments from whatever star system that they originated from. It could be said that the Clefairy were the first star-travelers in our galaxy, or at least well before humans in the holocene period.
Clefairy are highly social pokémon. On the night of a full moon, the Clefairy come out of their mountainous haunts to dance. They harness the moonlight in their wings -gathered over several nights in ritualistic moonbathing- and float together in large rings. This behavior is not fully explained, but to some conspiracists and fanatics, it is a representation of the Clefairies' desire to return home, calling for some unforeseen power to whisk them away.
Mount Moon is named after the lively and mischievous colony of Clefairy that live there, often pulling pranks on travelers passing through its many caves.
The sun glared out from behind wispy cirrus clouds, sending warm rays of light over my body. While I was (forcibly) tanning on this hospital gurney on the top deck of the S.S. Anne, the scene before me was chaotic, pokémon and trainers battling all over the boat. Why on earth am I here again?
It came quite late to memory that the S.S. Anne, despite being one of the most prestigious marine vessels of the century, allowed for battling on the decks - the captain a rambunctious old fellow who often became seasick on his own boat - in an elaborate show of the stolidity of the vessel. At least he wasn't as dumb as to say pokémon like my Snorlax and Charizard were allowed on deck (oh, how fun that would be!), but I had to dodge the occasional Rattata [Tackle] gone haywire and the [Water Guns] of the Horsea by frantically wheeling my gurney back lest I tip over the side and into the sea.
Speaking of the captain, he was right next to me, throwing up over the guardrails! I could only reassuring pat him the back as a noncommitted display of camaraderie between two broken men. I'd only assume his first mate did well solo in steering us to our destination; as much as the boundless seas spread out in every direction, I felt like it was a kind of box that limited me, and my pokémon from having fun.
Excluding Pikachu, of course. He was have great fun partying by the pool over there...
I looked away from the deck of fighting trainers and wheeled my way over to lounge chairs closer to the center of the ship. I saw some shady old men passing around some cannabis in the left alleyway, but decided it was unimportant and settled down by a sleeping guy with cerulean hair. Looking closely, what on earth is he wearing? It looked like some bizarre combination of white suspenders with black swimming shorts. Underneath him looked like a splayed out towel, but was actually a cape.
Ah, he opened his eyes and caught me staring. Look away, look away from this weird person.
"That glint in your eyes, you must be thinking I look weird, aren't you?"
Geh.
"Is it because of my luscious hair? Or my stunning abs? Or my fashionable swimwear?"
He started to spout nonsense. Is this guy just a really big narcissist?
"I know, I know. You can't tear your eyes from this beautiful Wallace, I'm just too good looking."
In the midst of his monologue - at that point he started making gestures over his face with his hands and wasn't even looking at me- he said something outrageous. Huh? Wallace? Isn't he the Champion of Hoenn?
"You are…"
"That's right!" He sported a revolting smile at me. "I'm the Champion of Hoenn!" He then grimaced. "But if you haven't heard of me... Then none of the girls will have either! I absolutely must come more often to spread my name across Kanto."
Please… please don't.
His last few words took me out of my dark thoughts.
"If you must excuse me, I must go, my people call for me!" He rose up from the deck chair to launch himself into the pool in lilting strides, inciting a sigh of relief from me. He's abnormal… but then I'm the one laying on a gurney.
I shifted my body and closed my eyes before wondering, wait… if he's on this boat, doesn't that mean I might see him at the PWT as well? Darn it. Capricious people are the hardest to deal with,
The sounds of yelling from two distinctive trainers wafted over, and I subconsciously shivered. I opened my eyes and lifted my head, but couldn't find them across the deck. Suddenly, a giant shudder passed through the boat and a geyser of water appeared starboard. By the railings, the two idiots Gold and Blue were shouting commands to their pokémon.
"Alright, Gyarados, dive under and use another [Hydro Pump]!"
"Feraligatr, dive down and use [Ice Fang] on it before it finishes charging!"
The roar of an angry Gyarados resounded from the floor and a plume of water shot out into the distance, almost blasting a hole through the nose of the ship. ~Aah, the sound of screaming passengers almost blown away~not.
"Oi, you two morons! Stop trying to capsize the vessel!" An angry and green captain started waving a fist at the them.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this duo…
Professor Oak caught my eye as he was exiting the interior of the ship to join in the festivities up top. And he was certainly dressed for the occasion, wearing swim trunks and an islander shirt with pokeballs and pokémon floral patterns. Very professor-esque. He saw me, stretched out under the sun, and waved, taking the chance to saunter on over and sit in the deck chair that Wallace had previously occupied.
"Red, my boy, how is life going?"
"...Is that supposed to be a joke?"
"Why?"
"I'm stuck in a chest and a leg cast, you know?"
"Sorry, bad conversation starter." He rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways, I forgot to give you something back at the lab. It's this." He reached into the pocket of his swim shorts and pulled out two marbles.
"..."
"What?"
"What were you going to do if I wasn't here? Swim with these in your pocket?"
"...yes? Anyways, these are a pet project me and my good friend Sycamore, who is currently in Kalos, have been working on for a while now. These are Mega Stones, and they allow certain pokémon to obtain a temporary form similar to another evolution. This Mega Evolution is something almost unheard of outside of Kalos… and between you and me, this is likely the sole reason why Kalos is inaccessible to us.
"Coincidentally, I've never met Sycamore in my life outside of video chat. We were introduced at last year's pokémon Yellow's Video Game Championships. I'm quite proud to say that I got to the semifinals of that event using my agility Dragonite. Well beaten by the Master Finnich, who later went on to sweep the title."
"And who exactly is this Master Finnich?"
"Ah he's a bug catcher on Route 5."
"..."
"Don't look at me like that! He's a very respectable young man. I think he has what it takes to be a future bug type master in the future. Give him maybe a decade or two, and he'll be running a gym in no time like Bugsy!"
"Anyways, I want you to take care of these two stones for me until the end of the PWT. Give one to your Charizard and put another in your pocket or pokédex or something, ah, remind me to add a function like that to your pokédex, and tell me if anything happens. Feel free to battle with him, in fact, go all for it."
"And if nothing happens?"
"Well then, nothing lost. But if you do lose one of these, I'm charging a million Poké per."
"That reminds me. Why on earth does that guy in Cerulean charge a million Poké for a bike?"
"Oh, him? He's actually a secret millionaire, a distant relative of the Stone branch in Hoenn, he just enjoys poking fun at people by charging them outrageously expensive things. Apparently, he also owns a bicycle shop in Johto now, in addition to a bunch of other random places. Why, I accidently stumbled upon an antique store and found a nice Helix fossil for my studies. And by chance, that millionaire happened to own that shop and charged me ten million Poké! You don't know how mad I was then, hahaha…"
"I should throw a brick at him sometime."
Amused and slightly uneasy at my bad attempt of black humor, Oak tried to change the conversation.
"Anyways, speaking of the PWT, there's rumors of Diantha, the Champion of Kalos, coming over to participate. I believe Sycamore told me that she has a Gardevoir that is capable of mega evolution as well. I'll be darned if I miss that sight." He stretched his arms out behind him. "I also heard that Wallace is on this ship, right?"
"...He was sitting where you are about fifteen minutes ago."
"Really?" He asked incredulously. "How is he? He's become an international sensation in Kanto. I'd love to meet him." Oak leaned in. "Don't tell anyone else, but Professor Birch secretly has a poster of him winning the Hoenn Champions title under his bed." He wagged his finger at me when I gaped at him. "I hear a lot of nasty tidbits in my profession. Comes with the social life."
The sound of whooping echoed over, and the Professor turned his glance away for a moment.
"Anyways, keep those stones with you, make sure to record data on your pokédex for me, and do not, absolutely do not speak a word about Birch's poster. If you need any discussion topics or embarrassing secrets about him, just casually mention that he was pantsed at last year's researcher forum and was wearing Ducklett boxers. Swing on by later this evening so I can add a slot in your pokédex, you hear?"
He stood up and folded his shirt on the chair, and produced a pair of swimming goggles from his swimming trunks before giving me a thumbs up and walking away to the pool. I decided to take a closer look at what he handed me. These so called Mega Stones were pockmarked somewhat like pumice, with a rough texture similar to Charizard's scaly hide, but the pockmarks didn't affect the luster and the clarity of the contents within. A helical ovaloid of fire was frozen inside, surrounded by varying reddish hues.
I held the smaller specimen up to the sun, and it seemed to have caught fire in the bright rays, the center lighting up like an especially strong firework. It also became increasingly hot to the touch, as if it greedily sucked up the radiation from the sun. I gingerly put it back down, into the shade, and gave a cursory glance at the larger one, almost the size of an infant's fist. That stone was similar to the smaller replica, scintillating at the rough edges.
If the professor's work is correct, then if Charizard held one of these and I, the other, then he will achieve a fearsome transformation - as if his current appearance wasn't fearsome enough, a fire-breathing omen of terror - but what exactly will cause this transformation? Presumably, this should be like a sort of evolutionary object, similar to how a Flareon reacts to a Fire Stone. However, it wouldn't permanently alter the pokémon. I wonder if Charizard managed to transform with this, how would he end up like? How long would the transformation even last? Can this thing even activate every battle, and if so, where indeed does the energy come from, then?
It might be best just to let things take its course and see what happens. I mentally added investigating the mystery of the Mega Stone to my very long To Do list.
By the time I returned to my room (from an almost deadly incident maneuvering the gurney down a flight of stairs unattended, almost running a person over in the process), I found a freshly showered Blue and Gold in my bedroom -at least I was sure it was my bedroom- giggling like little girls over two mobile consoles.
"..."
"Ah, Red. You finally came back, we've been waiting a long while for you!"
"How did you two sneak through the entrance to the lower decks when I was laying there the whole time?"
Gold piped up. "Porthole was open."
"Port-wha?"
"It was a tight squeeze, but I made it, with some help with Gyarados," Blue flexed his muscles.
"...I'm not even going to continue. Anyways, what are you two doing in my room?"
Gold waved his console. "I found this old thing in your closet. Told Blue to bring his over and now we're going to link these up and play some 'mon. You in? We have two spares with full PCs, courtesy of Blue's dad."
"Which one's mine?"
Gold casually tossed over a console with a Fire Red cartridge inside. On the screen was a flat little pixel character standing by a small pixel PC. I booted the PC up and found old memories, evolved Charizard and Pidgeot sprites stored in boxes named after legendary effigies. Zapdos Box, Arcanine Box, Mew Box…
The games themselves were based off of the pokémon in the real world, moves and appendages and all. The pokémon centers were cute little things, red ceiling and white adorned walls with interiors much larger than its exterior size would suggest. But ultimately, the real pokémon centers were not such fanciful buildings, and more of older establishments that had been renovated in order to house the injured pokémon. Expensive machinery like healing compartments and advanced scanners required a city endorsement and an official regulator sanctioned by the pokémon League.
Nurse Joy, and her long line of descendants, were one such group that held the certifications to take proper care of pokémon. The other facilities not certified, were just really generous people who decided to help a trainer in need and had minor training in treating ailments. Anyways, these pokémon centers can be in any shape or form, one particularly outstanding being in the shape of giant Magikarp head, down by Route 35 in Johto, run by a certain Magikarp fisherman…
Anyways, where was I? Ah, nostalgia. Right up until Pikachu burnt this thing up after our return from the Sevii Islands...it seems that these two managed to get the cartridge working again without every battle a MissingNo. and a complete freeze over.
I sat down besides them and hooked up the Link Cable.
"Hey, we're missing a player…"
The door opened roughly, and a jovial old man came in. "Did someone say a pokémon battle?!"
"""No."""
"Bad joke. Nice job finding these, Gold, competitive pokémon video game battling is really the best remedy for an old man's passion for the real sport."
"You mean the whole tangent earlier about that Bug Catcher was in relation to this?"
"Why yes, my dear Red!"
"..."
"Ah, ignore this sourpuss. Are we doing doubles or four-man tourney?"
"Doubles! Nothing better!"
And thus our group went on to play multi battles until two AM in the morning, before ending our event, Even Older Old Man Oak passed out over Blue's reposed body, Gold on the velvet floor (a good substitute for a bed as any, at least in the opinion of four wilderness survivalists), and I in my own bed.
The next day passed in a daze, and I was apparently informed that not only Pikachu last night ate the supper portions of three grown men, he apparently got ahold of Blue's room key, explaining why he was found snoozing in a fancy comforter in a queen sized bed instead of in my room.
There was something about an event with a flock of Tentacruel invading the top deck after someone's Tangrowth managed to send ten pounds of [Rage Powder] off the side of the boat and into a passing cluster during a pokémon battle, but since the ship isn't capsized I'll assume someone fought them off. I can't be the protagonist of every bad event, you know?
By the seventh day, we finally landed in Castelia, some seventeen thousand kilometers from Vermillion. When I was first informed of this, I had to take out the 'dex and crunch some numbers. It seemed unimaginable that we were going almost fifty-four knots the whole time, but the bosun reassured us that it was partly because we were carried along the Kuroshiro and North Pacific surface ocean currents, and that the boat was actually going faster at night to make a strong headway.
That did explain why I found the cap'n frothing in the toilet stall next over when I was taking a leak a couple nights ago. Really, why even be on the ship if you're going to be sick the whole time?
In that time, the Professor did find the Hoenn champion and managed to get an autograph from him. It was more like scribble, though… but the Oak was fine with it and promptly left to spend the next half hour bragging to Professor Birch on video chat. It was surprising to find out that Wallace had a niece, called Lisia, who was also on board the S.S. Anne. She was dressed in a fluffy outfit, something that screamed, 'Contest Spectacular!', but it wasn't over the top like her uncle's. She had a decent enough attitude.
Blue managed to fall overboard in the end, after he was quite roundly smacked into the sea by a Lillipup after failing to pay attention. He came up sputtering on Gyarados's back, and I won't say I wasn't smirking at the spectacle.
I was cleared of the gurney on the last day, opting to use a crutch for my leg and a stern warning not to damage anything else.
The pokédex I got back now has a slot on the front, kind of like an SD card you insert into a camera, that was able to fit the Mega Stone in. Kind of unconventional, but I guess unconventional was my thing to begin with.
The ding of the ship's intercoms rang throughout the hallways, and the speaker told us that we had finally cleared the Port Authority to disembark. I stretched my arms and gathered my bag and my belt full of pokéballs. Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder and we went out of our room to meet up at the exit with the other passengers. We found them and joined in line, headed by a relieved Captain, who upon stepping the ground swayed and promptly fell over.
Meeting Professor Oak and the others, we looked up at the towering buildings from the pier.
"I don't think Celadon can compare to this at all...", Mother exclaimed.
"Say, is there a gym here?", Gold called, excitement in his voice.
The professor gave a cursory glance. "I'm pretty sure Burgh, a bug type trainer, is running one. We might get lucky and find him in later."
Hmm. Maybe a gym battle or two to warm up for the World Tournaments? It couldn't hurt...right?