The Safari Zone.
A prestigious and rare institutional that acts as a safeguard for wild Pokémon either displaced from their original habitats or for those with extremely low population numbers. A place where these Pokémon be among their own kind and form a new community without fear of human or predatory interference, save for the occasional researcher and trainer hopefuls. In its own way, the Safari Zone represented utopia for human and Pokémon alike.
For researchers, it was the perfect chance to study the habits and traits of little-known species. To understand what made these Pokémon truly ticked, without regular human interaction making them adjust their behaviors. For trainers, the Safari Zone offered an opportunity to access some of the rarest Pokémon around, provided they are able to catch them, of course. The only Pokémon permitted to enter Safari Zone were owned by rangers and game wardens, which meant any Pokémon captured from inside the Safari Zone more often than not did so of their own volition.
While this was fascinating, and something Robb definitely intended to keep in mind with consideration for his future endeavors, the Safari Zone did not appeal to him in such ways just yet. For Robb, a child of only four years of age, the Safari Zone represented something else. Arguably, something greater.
Daycare.
"Mom!" Robb called out, earning him an annoyed stare from a nearby trainer filling out park access paperwork, a green haired boy looking to be about fourteen years old. They were sat on a couch in the middle of the trainer-access lobby, facing a television on showing the local news with the volume on mute. A television that he did not hold the remote control for, unfortunately. "It's gonna start any second now! Hurry!"
"Coming!" she hollered back from another room. Her office.
Catelyn Stark was a research analyst of the Safari Zone. After capturing her Lickitung a decade ago from inside the zone the reserve had recruited her as a behavioralist. Lickitung were just that rare. Taking to her job like a fish to water, she quickly climbed the ladder high enough to allot her many benefits and freedoms.
One of which included the freedom to bring her children to work whenever she wanted, rather than force them to go to pre-school, so long as they were on their best behavior. It saved her money, allowed her son to have early interactions with Pokémon, and coincidentally made it so he did not have to deal with other children.
Robb appreciated this perk immensely.
The door to her office opened, and awkwardly Catelyn Stark crutched her way out with a remote in hand, hovered over by Kaiser, the elderly gun-toting warden of the Safari Zone, with Chansey right behind, her ever-present shadow.
"You should really consider using the wheelchair, Cat." Kaiser fussed, repeating an age old argument. Robb's mother had been slowly but surely getting over these past four years, her body weakening rather than strengthening with the passing of the seasons, and it was clear to anybody with working eyes that she was pushing herself beyond what she should. "There aren't any stairs or uneven surfaces inside that make it a problem."
"Chansey!" Chansey echoed in full agreement.
Robb shook his head in silence, knowing the futility of their worry, though he dearly wished it weren't futile. Catelyn Stark was obviously sick with something and clearly not getting any better. She was more stubborn than she was sick, however.
"I'm weak, not helpless." Robb's mother grunted, waving away their concern. "If I can do something on my own, I should. I'll never get better if I don't."
"At this point, I don't know how much better you can get, Cat." Kaiser softly stated. "Obstinacy can only take you so far. We really need to start thinking about some options."
She shot him a furious side-eyed glare before ignoring him entirely, content instead to just drop down on the couch cushion next to her son. Handing him the remote, Robb began to fiddle with the channels whilst she pulled out a pokeball from her pocket, releasing her Kangaskhan behind their sitting area.
Kangaskhan let out a happy screech with her release, whilst Kang, her daughter, shuffled out from her mother's baby pouch, of which she barely fit in now, rolling into the space between Robb and Catelyn with her own happy cry. She snuggled into Robb's side and Robb wrapped his arm around her belly, as was their standard.
Kang had matured well over these past four years. Though she was still an adolescent, much like Robb himself was, and grew far slower than most other Pokémon did as a result of the Kangaskhan species, Kang looked much more capable and dangerous than she did as a full-stop baby. Not that Robb viewed her as such, of course, idly pinching her still-remaining puppy fat. Kang squealed in her seat at the assault, aiming an adorable pout his way. It was hard to equate that face with a hyper predator.
But that is what Kang was becoming, an omnivorous Pokémon high up on the food chain well documented to willingly eat almost anything should the need arise. And it was happening fast.
That armored plating the Kangaskhan line were known for had finally started to grow in around her shoulders and legs and spine. Her horns and belly had changed color from the white associated with infantilism in her line, to the yellow of maturity. Her eyes had shifted from a soulful black to a dark red hue, and she stood roughly four feet tall. Soon enough, in another two or three years, Kang would fully develop into a grown Kangaskhan, standing above seven feet in height, her puppyish purple skin transitioning into the weather-tanned musclebound armor denoting her ascension to adulthood. Robb was beyond excited for that day to come.
Without the need for a traditional daycare, and without much desire to socialize with other children of his age range regardless, though his parents had certainly tried to get him to do so, Kang was Robb's best friend in this second life. And Robb was happy to say that he Kang's best friend too.
They did everything together. They played together. They ate together. They slept together. Hells, they even bathed together. And best of all, they trained together.
Supervised. Of course.
Robb hadn't yet learned how to read the language of this world, meaning he couldn't look up any training guides online just yet, but he still remembered a good few details about both the games and the show that made the world of Pokémon special. And through them, he had experimentally tried to coach Kang into learning new moves.
Kang only knew two attacks as of yet. Pound and Growl, moves that a Kangaskhan naturally learned as they developed. Robb wanted to know if he could help her attain anything more. Though they'd yet to develop anything new, Robb had a good feeling that they were almost there with one in particular. One of the only moves he had an inkling on how to train.
And when that smoke cleared, when Kang did learn that new move, when it was determined that this play at training was in fact real training with visible results, Robb was going to ask Kangaskhan to allow Kang to be his Starter.
He had a feeling she would permit it. He knew that she approved of their closeness. But he also knew that Kangaskhan as a species were obsessively overprotective with their children. Kangaskhan were one of the only species of Pokémon that existed that gave birth rather than lay an egg, and whilst most recently born Pokémon were self-sustaining after only a few months, the Kangaskhan line took an average of seven to eight years to become independent from their mothers.
With that in mind, it was going to be a hard ask of Kangaskhan. Robb knew he couldn't ask it of her and expect an immediate answer. She would have to deliberate on the subject for a long while before giving an answer.
But in the interim, there were other things Robb and Kang could do to prepare for their hypothetical Journey together. Just because Robb couldn't yet read didn't mean he couldn't study.
Battles of all levels were recorded, after all. Such as the one he was struggling to find the channel for.
"Ah!" Robb sounded out cheerily. "Found it!"
The channel changed stations, Robb increased the volume, and as he, Kang, and their respective mothers (and Chansey and Kaiser, of course) all settled in, the show began.
Immediately, the screen showed of a man in a referee uniform holding a microphone in the middle of a battle arena. "In an unprecedented upset, the challenger has defeated the Mauville City Gym Trainers with only her Miltank in her first attempt for her eighth badge of the season! She's going for the full gauntlet sweep folks! Outstanding! But will she be able to hold on? It is time us to find out! Here he comes! The man! The myth! The mildly obese! Give it up for Gym Leader Waaattsooon!"
The stadium crowd let out a deafening cry of cheer and mirth with the local leader's arrival, a jovial old man with a wild beard of grey-white hair, wearing a suit of electrical overalls, a flower-patterned shirt, and a pair of flipflops. In essence, he looked nothing like one would expect to appear. Which was probably the point, now that Robb though about it.
Wattson let out a booming laugh as he took his podium, slapping his beer belly with enthusiasm. "Wahahaha! Thanks for the intro Matt! I hated it! You're getting a pay cut this month!"
"It was worth it sir! And how could we ignore the challenger? You know her! You love her! Give it up for the Pink Pummeler from Way Down Under! Whitney Stark of Fuchsia Cityyyyy!"
Whitney rushed her side of the arena from off screen, cheeks bright red with the announcement, smiling wide and girlishly at the attention. Twelve years old and having the time of her life on her Journey, Whitney hadn't changed in much appearance, save for a growth-spurt and her choice in fashion.
"Why won't she just wear pants," Catelyn moaned, palming her face. Kangaskhan chortled from behind, patter her trainer's shoulder comfortingly.
Whitney almost exclusively wore biker shorts and sports jerseys nowadays. Even when it was cold outside, she rarely put on proper pants. She said they were too constricting, that she couldn't move right in them.
Catelyn called her an early bird exhibitionist.
The level of snark this woman had stashed away was something Robb greatly admired about his mother. There was rarely a dull moment when she had something to say.
This was Whitney's second run season as a trainer, though it was her third year out. When she started her Journey three years ago, taking on the Johto League, she did so with two Pokémon at her side, her trusty Miltank and a happy-go-lucky Cleffa, the Pokémon that hatched from the egg she was raising, a gift from their father found during one of his more secretive ranges. Sadly, Whitney hadn't made it to the Silver Conference that year, unable to get more than six badges, and she took that failure to heart.
Last year she took a sabbatical from her Journey to focus on training, traveling around Kanto and Johto regions without any particular destination in mind. Her only goal was to improve her team and capture new and exciting Pokémon, picky though she was in capturing them. Robb knew that when she left for Hoenn, she only had four Pokémon: her Miltank, her Clefairy, a Tauros and a Jigglypuff. Seeing her now with six pokeballs attached to her belt signified she'd finally completed her primary roster.
"This will be a six-on-six battle! The trainer is permitted two substitutions, while Leader Wattson is permitted none! The first person whose team is knocked out will lose! Trainers, release your Pokémon!"
Wattson and Whitney released their Pokémon at the same time. On Wattson's end was a burly Electabuzz, sparks of electricity flowing over its yellow and black fur. Whitney's Pokémon was one Robb had never seen in her arsenal before, a yellow-purple feline with a puffy-purple tail. A Delcatty.
"Electabuzz! Thunderbolt!"
"Delcatty! Zen Headbutt!"
Robb watched in awe as the two powerful moves went head-to-head. Delcatty's skull was protected by a shield of psychic energy, cleaving through the powerful Thunderbolt, though obviously not perfectly if the wincing was any indication. In any case, Delcatty made contact directly with Electabuzz, her attack bodily throwing the Electric type against the back wall of the stadium, a few yards behind Wattson's podium.
Primly, Delcatty performed a backflip from the air before landing, though the primness failed her when electricity arced over Delcatty's body, bringing her to her knees briefly.
"Wahaha! How do you like that? Electabuzz has the Static ability! Anybody that hits him physically has a high chance of becoming paralyzed!"
Whitney let out her own laugh. "Aw, that's not cute. But don't worry, Delcatty can take it. I'd be more worried about your widdle Electabuzz instead. Heal Bell!"
Delcatty opened her mouth, and from it came an eerie gonging noise that coalesced into a mist spreading out over her body. The spasming arcs of electricity symbolizing paralysis dissipated into the air with the mist, and Delcatty pranced around in place.
While Delcatty appeared right as rain, Electabuzz was quite the contrary as he made his way back into the arena.
"Shockwave!" Wattson called out. Electabuzz didn't listen though, instead whining out in protest. The gym camera zoomed in on Electabuzz's face, giving the audience a clear sight of its pupils.
Shaped like hearts.
"Electabuzz isn't the only one with an ability!" Whitney bragged to her flabbergasted opponent. "She has Cute Charm! Contact with any Pokémon of the opposite gender could make them Attracted to her! I can't even blame your Electabuzz's taste, just look how gorgeous my girl is! But her standards are a little too high for Electabuzz, I think. Show him what I mean sweetie! Hyper Beam!"
Wattson shouted orders at his Pokémon, but it was for naught. A blast beam of concentrated power shot out from Delcatty's muzzle, right into Electabuzz's gut, sending him flying into the back stands, thankfully away from where people were sitting. He was clearly knocked out, and as Wattson recalled him, the screen counter showed one of his rosters depleted.
"That was a good one!" Wattson praised. "I'll have to be careful then! If attraction is her trick, let's see how your Delcatty does against something without a gender. Go Magneton! Zap Canon!"
Magneton took center stage, the combined consciousness of three Magnemite come together. The magnets surrounding Magneton centered into a sphere of electrical energy that propelled its way towards Delcatty.
Panicking, Whitney made a call out. "Assist!"
Robb had never heard of such a move before, or at least he didn't remember it. Both were quite likely. Just before Zap Canon reached her, Delcatty opened her mouth, and a stream of flame came from her gullet, filling the stadium with a blazing conflagration that took shape into a five-pronged star.
The camera could not pick up what had just happened, the flames reaching too high, surrounding both Delcatty and Magnemite. When they receded, Delcatty was clearly unconscious, though Magnemite looked quite worse for wear, ash and soot more visible than the metal making up its body.
As Whitney returned her Pokémon, Wattson frowned, sighed, and returned his Magnemite as well, forfeiting it further.
"Oooh, she got lucky with that Assist," the green haired trainer who had been filling out paperwork whistled.
"How so?" Robb asked him. The trainer summarily ignored Robb, returning his attention to his forms.
Kindly, Robb's mother explained instead. "Assist is a move that's totally random. If a Pokémon uses it, they can use one random move that any Pokémon they are connected with can use, even if they themselves can't use that move. In wild, the only real times it's seen is among species of Pokémon that all work in sync together, like when Venonat suck the poison out of Nidoran spikes for nutrition but giving them a bath in the process. For a trainer, it can be used for their current roster. Do you know what attack was used with Assist?"
"Fire… Blast?" Robb answered, vaguely remembering the five-pronged shape of the attack from his games.
"Yes! Very good!" Catelyn beamed, roughly his hair. Robb swatted her hand away with a grumble. "Whitney got lucky. Magneton are Steel-type Pokémon and those are especially effected by Fire type attacks. Wattson did the right thing by forfeiting it. Magneton was on its last legs."
"It doesn't have legs though," Robb argued, trying to fix his hair. Whenever his hair was messed with, he instinctively became more difficult. Something Catelyn knew.
She laughed down at him, fussing his mop of pink hair once again, earning her a whine of protest. Kang snickered from his side. "I stand corrected."
They returned their attention to the television when things picked back up. Both trainers, without needing the referee to call out to them, released their next Pokémon in short order. On Wattson's side was an Ampharos and on Whitney's was her Miltank.
Seemingly, with the loss of her Delcatty, Whitney had become much more serious in the blink of an eye. "Earthquake. Model four."
Wattson shouted his own orders. "Get in the air and use Wild Charge!"
Ampharos moved first, pushing all of its weight down on its tail, coiling it up like a springboard. When that spring unloaded, Ampharos shot high up in the sky, lightning suffusing its body, and as gravity took hold, it blasted down towards Miltank. Miltank stayed oddly put, a calm smile on her face. As Ampharos came close, just a hair away from contact, Miltank moved, far faster than the chubby cow had the right to do. She rolled backwards, avoiding direct damage from the Wild Charge and grabbed Ampharos by its neck in the same process.
Ampharos flailed helplessly to get out of Miltank's grip, but she was too strong. Then Miltank, smiling cheerfully all the while, jumped into the air, plummeting down with Ampharos facing the dirt. When they connected, a sonorous BOOM trembled throughout the arena, debris and the like rising and falling.
In one of the most brutal moves Robb, and likely anybody else who was watching, had ever seen, Miltank performed a point-blank Earthquake on Ampharos, transferring all of the energy that would go into the ground into its body instead.
Naturally, it was a one-hit KO.
"That's not good," Catelyn muttered to herself, biting her nail. "That's not good at all. You stupid girl. You should know better."
Wattson's good cheer had evaporated with the ruthlessness that Whitney and Miltank showed. Returning Ampharos, he pulled out another pokeball from his pocket, whispering something lowly into the sphere. Releasing the 'mon inside, an Electrode took the stage with a demented giggle, rolling quickly towards Miltank, body lighting up brightly.
Whitney screeched for Miltank to move, but Electrode was quicker than one might expect, and an Explosion thundered through the field, right in front of the cow in question. Robb and Catelyn held their breath as the camera was buffeted in smoke, blocking their view.
This time, when the smoke cleared, Miltank was the downed Pokémon, and looking none too good.
Wattson calmly returned his Electrode as Whitney did the same for Miltank, shooting a withering glare at the gym leader. "It is never a lesson I want to be the one to impart," he began. "But one every trainer must know. Especially at this level of play. A trainer battle is meant show the power of your Pokémon, to give them the chance to prove their superiority and show the bond held between you and them. It is sport. Exhibition. But when cruelty and brutality are mixed in, the slippery slope of a sport battle to a death battle becomes muddled far quicker than one might expect."
"Hey! I'll have you know-…" Whitney began to defend herself, only for her microphone to be cut off.
"Your Earthquake variant is powerful; none can deny that." Wattson continued. "But it is not an acceptable move in any sort of modern-day environment. That was a technique employed during the old war, and it was horribly effective. Unless the Pokémon faced with it either was at a naturally high level of training, carried a typing that allowed them to brush off the attack more easily, or an extremely powerful natural defense, not only did that knock opponents out, it killed them. Had my Ampharos not been as well trained as she was, you might have killed my Pokémon. One that I have had the pleasure of training for nearly forty years now. Had you done that to my Electabuzz, he almost certainly would have died."
Whitney's face was the picture of horror. "I didn't- I never- I wouldn't!-"
"I know," Wattson soothed. "Your intentions were pure. You came up with a strategy that you had never seen used before and it was devastatingly effective in training and in action. I do not fault you for this. It is the instinct of trainers to push the limits. To win. But in doing so, you must remember to always be aware of how much is too much. If you don't, accidents of the worst kind can happen, and you will never be able to escape your actions from then on."
"If you would like, we can end the battle here and call it a draw. You have sufficiently shown you are worthy of the Dynamo Badge." Wattson offered. An olive branch if there ever was one. "You will not receive the prize money and TM that is customarily expected in a gauntlet run if you take this deal, however. Or, we can continue as we are, with all the prizes on the table, provided you bench two of your Pokémon and forego the substitutions expected in your challenge. With our remaining teams, the battle will become a 2-on-2 match. What say you?"
"I-…" Whitney began, shuddering. Reality appeared to be crashing in on her at the seams. But she weathered it well, holding strong, and after inhaling and exhaling a long, deep breath, she stood firm, staring Wattson down resolutely. "I came here to win a battle with you. I won't accept a draw. I accept my mistake and the penalty you demand. Let's keep going."
"That's the spirit!" Wattson gleefully roared. "You made an error and you accepted it! As trainers, we must roll with the punches and make do with what we can, for in many cases, that is all we can do! Adaptability! I love to hear it!"
Whitney smiled genuinely at the gym leader, and the counter screen immediately changed from what it was before. Where once it signified a score of 2-4, it now showed an even 2-2 on the board.
"I like your spirit so much that I think I'll give you a surprise!" Wattson announced, pulling a phone out of his pants pocket and typing something into it. A thin podium opened up from the ground by his feet, holding an ultra ball. Wattson grabbed it, tossed it in the air, caught it in his hand and pointed it directly at Whitney. "I have never shown her before in public, but this is, without a shadow of a doubt, my rarest Pokémon. Come on out baby girl!"
Taking form on Wattson's side of the field was a Raichu, but one unlike any Robb had seen before, which went to show how little he'd played the games past a certain point. At least he wasn't the only person that was caught off guard. Nobody seemed to have seen that type of Raichu before, going by the gasps echoed both from the stadium audience and his own mother. Its fur was brown rather than the orange expected of a normal Raichu, its eyes were blue rather than brown, and its ears were more ovular than sharp. It hovered in the air, using its lightning-shaped tail as a board of some sort.
"A variant!" Catelyn was awed, sucking in her breath. "It was only a theory! But there it is, clear as day. Deary me… do you know what this means Kaiser?"
"Wattson is going to be absolutely bombarded with study requests?" Kaiser boredly mused, scratching at his chin. Catelyn let out a pitiful wheeze at his answer, clearly not what she was hoping for.
"What's so special about the Raichu?" Robb asked, wanting to both know and give his mother an out.
"It's a little tricky to go deep into right now, sweetie. I'll explain the most important parts of it after the battle," Catelyn promised, eyes wide and glued to the screen, staring directly at the hovering Raichu who was skating around on the air and happily soaking up the attention. "But think about it like this. Raichu is a Pokémon we already know about. Raichu and Pikachu are originally from Kanto. They've spread out from Kanto to Johto and the rest of the known world over the years, but Pokémon researchers know the species originates from Kanto in particular. And yet, we've never seen this one before. Which means that this is a Raichu that isn't from Kanto. Do you get it?"
"So it's from another region?" Robb queried, unsure. Not for the first time, Robb lamented his sporadic knowledge of the Pokémon franchise. He knew barely anything past Gen 3 and some parts of Gen 4.
Robb stopped playing the games after Pokémon Emerald came out, when the Gamefreak required a DS instead of a Gameboy. His mom didn't want to buy him one, and considering his hectic childhood, it wasn't something he'd felt worth complaining about. Robb only picked the franchise back up a few months prior to his truck-transfer, by way of community created romhacks he could download onto his phone and the standalone Legends: Arceus.
The former didn't give Robb any relevant information that he could really use, and the latter was based in olden time Sinnoh.
Once again, not particularly relevant.
In essence, even though Robb had a vague leg up thanks to his meagre knowledge of this world, he was essentially as blind as everybody else was.
"That Raichu is from a region we haven't found yet, Robert." Robb's mom continued. "One of the Lost. That means that there are more out there beyond the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Orre and Fiore. Researchers everywhere hoped for years that there were more, but they haven't found much of anything. Until today, that is. There is physical proof of the greater world right there before our eyes, Robbie. That Raichu is… groundbreaking."
"Where'd you get her?!" Whitney asked, wide eyed. "She's GORGEOUS!"
Raichu puffed her paws to her cheek pads bashfully, cartwheeling around in the air in shy joy at the praise. Wattson laughed. "Would you believe me if I said I have no clue? It happened a few years ago, when she was still a Pikachu. I was on a cruise with my grandkids that capsized due to a rage of Gyarados. I thank the creators every day for teleporters because everybody got out perfectly safe! Everyone but me that is. I held back to fight off the Gyarados while the evacuation happened, and I was unlucky enough not to get out in time. The ship sank with me still on board, the teleporters didn't see me, and I would have drowned if I hadn't brought my Lanturn along. We swam the ocean for days, nearly starving to death, until coming across a small island bereft of people and Pokémon. It looked like I was going to die there in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn't going to go out quietly. I was determined to have one last hurrah as a trainer! I began to explore the island, believing this to be my final Journey, and came across a most fortuitous sight after hours of walking! A Thunderstone deposit, right in the middle of it all, out in the open air! I theorized that the island must have been storm prone, but before I could study the purity of the deposit further, Pikachu released herself directly on top of the stones and turned into the Raichu you see before you, nothing like I expected. An Electric-Psychic combination! We trained and trained and trained, and Raichu figured out how to teleport all her own! And thus, we were saved!"
"Woooah!" Whitney exclaimed amidst the screaming cheers of delighted fans. "That's amazing! I guess I've been lucky. I haven't been in a situation like that ever!"
"You know what that makes you, dear girl? Normal!"
"The best type of Pokémon!"
"Now that is where we must agree to disagree, I'm afraid."
Whitney, relaxed and open, held up her own pokeball, the red replaced with camouflage mesh of a safari ball.
"She's going to fight a variant Pokémon with him?" Catelyn bemoaned.
Robb blinked over at his mother, confused, before an idle thought came to mind. He looked down at her waist, where her ball belt was strapped, and counted them. There were only four pokeballs. She had five Pokémon. One was missing.
One that happened to also have been captured in a safari ball.
"Lickitung?" He guessed.
"Lickitung." Catelyn acknowledged, voice near monotone. "I wanted to see if there would be any change in his behavior as a battling Pokémon rather than a research one, so I transferred ownership of him over to Whitney for her birthday two months ago. I never expected her to make him a part of her main roster."
"Why not? I thought he was pretty strong?"
"Because it's Lickitung, deary. He could have been as strong as a Legendary and it still wouldn't matter. He's… him."
And considering what the 'mon in question was like, dumb as a brick and with the bad habit of licking everything within his eyesight, including his own feces, her statement was not without merit.
"I guess I'll have to match your Raichu with my own rarest 'mon then. Prepare to have your socks knocked off Wattson! Come on out buddy!"
Only, when Whitney released Lickitung, there was no Lickitung at all. In its place was a Pokémon with a similarly long tongue, similarly beady eyes, and similarly stubby limbs, but that was where the similarities ended. The pink of its body was more of a burnished red color. It had a pompadour of skin over its brow. A bib of pale skin jutted down from its ovular jaw to the middle of its belly. It stood taller than a Lickitung did too, by almost two feet in height, and its body was both rounder and denser in musculature.
But the most important difference had nothing to do with how it looked. The thing that had Robb and Catelyn Stark stupefied, had nothing to do with its appearance, though that certainly tipped the scales of credulity out of their favor in this matter.
It was the clear intelligence in this 'mon.
"Wattson!" Whitney exclaimed; her arms open wide. The crowd had gone completely wild at the appearance of this Pokémon, for on the high screen, where an image of Wattson's variant Raichu was shown, on Whitney's side, a question mark took the place of where an image of her own 'mon should have been.
The only time this happened was when a Pokémon never before recorded in the current League database took the field.
"Meet Lickilily!"
"HE COULD EVOLVE THE WHOLE TIME?!" Catelyn shrieked, standing so quickly in angry frustration that she nearly fell over forward, such was her momentum. Kang hurriedly hopped down from the couch and caught her by the middle before an accident could occur. "I HAD THAT IDIOT FOR OVER TEN YEARS! SHE HAD HIM FOR TWO MONTHS! WHAT THE HELL?!"
Were one to look, they would see the curious sight of Kaiser, Robb, Kangaskhan, Chansey and that random green haired trainer who had been minding his own business up until this point all wearing identically scared looks on their faces. Never before had they seen Catelyn Stark as worked up as she was in that moment, mouth almost frothing with and eyes red with rage. It was a scene the likes of which would be more applicable to a horror movie than a doting mother.
They prayed it would pass quickly.
"WAHAHAHAHA!" Wattson cackled, slapping his belly in pure glee. "What an unexpected joy! A brand new Pokémon, in my gym! You are chock full of surprises my girl! Let us give the world what they crave! A battle for the ages!"
"I haven't had him long, but I'll try to live up to it!" Whitney replied, pumping her fist. Lickilily did the same, a determined look in his tiny eyes, barking out his name, his voice only slightly deeper than it was as a Lickitung; still bearing that rubber-chicken pitch.
Matt, the referee, took this as a signal, and held up his flags to begin the match.
"Electric Terrain!/Sunny Day!"
In an odd turn of events, both moves did not damage the other. Raichu's Electric Terrain coated the gym floor win sparks of lightning, but apparently not enough for it to cause paralysis. Lickilily's Sunny Day however created an orb of artificial sunlight that glared over the whole arena.
"I think I know where you're going with this, and I must warn you! Electric Terrain double's Raichu's speed! He will dodge!"
"Wanna know a great way to make Raichu unable to dodge? Make her not know why she needs to! Supersonic Lickiliy!"
"Cripes!" Wattson cursed, in an oddly British way at that. "Disarming Voice!"
Both Lickilily and Raichu used sonic based attacks on one another, but they were clearly different. Lickilily's Supersonic affected the whole arena, as could be seen by Wattson, Whitney, and the audience all covering their ears with wincing eyes. Raichu's Disarming Voice was a single target blast of sound directly particularly at Lickilily.
Regardless, eat attack hit their mark. Lickilily was buffeted by Disarming Voice, pushed back against Whitney's podium, whilst Supersonic did its job and confounded Raichu in place, clearly disoriented.
"Take advantage Lickilily! Solarbeam!"
"Dodge with Quick Attack Raichu!"
Lickilily's attack required no charge as a result of the artificial sun hanging over the arena. Grass type energy quickly collected, compressed, and was blared out in a beam of near blinding white.
Raichu, confused, neither recognized the order called out by her master nor understand the attack targeting her. Solarbeam was a direct hit. Raichu was punted all the way over to Wattson's arms, the older gym leader proving his spry and surprisingly strong physique by catching her in place. He smiled down softly at her, whispered something in her ear, and returned her in short order.
The score was back in Whitney's favor. 1-2.
"A fine showing!" Wattson declared, pulling out his last pokeball. "Your Lickilily is impressive, and you have done a wonderful job as his trainer!"
"Thanks! Hey, can I ask why you used Disarming Voice instead of something stronger?"
"I welcome the curiosity! Sound-based attacks are very difficult attack for Raichu to handle. Her arms are too small to cover her ears, which are already even larger than the average Raichu. Further, she does not know any Rock or Ground type attacks to escape with. Unfortunately, Protect does not block sonic attacks either. The only other option I could think of was to fight fire with fire, or sound with sound, in this case. Sometimes the sonic attacks will cancel each other out. Only sometimes, however, as we just witness. Alas, it did not pan in my favor."
"Not this time, but I'll definitely remember that for the future!" Whitney said, bowing her head towards her opponent. When her head lifted, her grin turned vicious. "Now let's see your last Pokémon! I'm ready to win!"
"Such confidence! Well, I would hate to disappoint you. Let's see how well you handle my oldest friend. Go Manectric!"
Taking the field as Wattson's last battler was a blue-yellow wolf covered in zigzagging fur and a tri-pronged crown of some fleshy sort of material. Manectric snarled at Lickilily, an action that was quite obviously not returned. Lickilily with his head cocked to the side in a way very reminiscent of his pre-evolution, brought his tongue up and fiddled with his pompadour with it.
Better than the eye, at least.
Matt raised his flags once more, and the fight resumed. "Quick Attack into Shock Wave!" Wattson called out.
"Disable!" Whitney roared. "Then Rollout!"
Manectric took to the field surrounded in the light of Normal energy, speeding through the arena, only to slow down quickly as Disable shut out his ability to use Quick Attack. Undeterred, Manectric fired its Shock Wave at Lickilily. Even when Lickilily dodged with his Rollout, rushing right towards Manectric, the Shock Wave turned right around like a homing missile and hit Lickilily right at the small of back, stumbling him out of his controlled position, now sailing right towards Manectric.
"Take advantage of its position Manectric! Thunder Fang!"
Whilst Lickilily uncontrollably flew, Manectric's muzzle lit up in cruel sparks. Racing forward, Manectric ruined Lickilily's momentum and sunk its fangs into the back of the Licking Pokémon's neck. Lickilily cried out in pain, falling harshly down on the dirt.
"Use Wrap Lickilily! Grab Manectric and then Slam him into the ground!"
"Thunder Fang spam! Go go go!"
Both Pokémon obeyed their trainers without pause. Manectric, maw still attached to Lickilily's neck, continued to summon for lightning from his mouth. Lickilily again cried out in pain, but tanked through the discomfort with enough concentration and grit to surround Manectric in the grip of his tongue. Lickilily pulled hard, but Manectric held on harder, an impressive feat considering Robb's awareness of the tensile strength of that tongue. He'd seen Lickitung lift a car with it once. Lickilily's tongue was probably even stronger than that.
As Manectric spammed Thunder Fang, Lickilily grew progressively weaker. Forced to his knees, Lickilily looked to be barely running on any steam at all, while Manectric looked no worse for wear. The camera closed in on the pair, and the rage boiling in Lickilily's eyes was obvious, as was the smug satisfaction in Manectrics.
With one last vault of strength, Lickilily brought his tongue back in front of his face. Summoning forth energy on his tongue, Sunny Day still active overhead, Lickilily quickly swirled his tongue over his head, directly facing Manectric, and fired a point blank, though weakened, Solarbeam. The attack caused the arena to once more fill with dust. When everything settled, Manectric was seen sitting primly over Lickilily's prone body, clearly scuffed and having suffered damage, but able to continue fighting, tongue lolling out from the side of its mouth like a happy dog would do.
Whitney returned Lickilily, grabbing her last pokeball. From it came her Clefable, the fully evolved form of the baby Cleffa she started her Journey with. The crowd oo'd and ah'd at the rare Pokémon as Clefable danced around merrily, as if happy to be let out, though Robb knew that was just who Clefable was.
Last time Whitney visited the Stark household, Clefairy spent the day taking up the living room to do Zumba. She just loved to dance.
"Let's start this off right Clefable! Gravity!"
A force of invisible power shuddered over the field, sending both Manectric and Wattson to their knees. Whitney appeared right as rain, as did Clefable.
"I say that won't change anything! Thunder!"
"Strength into Meteor Mash Clefable! Hit 'em where it hurts!"
Manectric's Thunder attack went through, but due to the strain of Gravity on his body, it was not well aimed, and Clefable easily dodged the blast by way of her wings. Her first lit up brightly and domed Manectric directly on the noggin. Meteor Mash was a Steel type attack, which should not have done much against an Electric type such as Manectric, but when combined with Strength, the type-energy of the blow seemed to matter less than the power behind it.
Manectric was down for the count.
Clefable rushed over to Whitney, dancing a happy jig with her trainer, whilst the crowd happily roared their approval of the match. Wattson shook his head with a sigh before returning Manectric, walking down to the middle of the field. Whitney skipped over to meet him there, Clefable by her side.
"You did a fantastic job at all turns, Whitney." Wattson said, pulling out a badge from his shirt pocket. "I am proud to award you with this Dynamo Badge. With this being your eighth badge of this Hoenn battle circuit, you are now eligible for the Evergrande Cup. I look forward to seeing how far you go. Know I will be rooting for you."
"Thank you for your time, Leader Wattson!" Whitney gushed, bowing again and again before the older man. Wattson laughed that big belly laugh of his and the two seemed to fall into a conversation that turned quiet as the television shifted to commercials. Catelyn took the remote from Robbs hand and turned the television off entirely, facing her boss.
"We need to start writing out reports," she told him, crutch already in hand. "You saw how much smarter Lickilily was in comparison to the standard Lickitung. This might be the break we need to finally expand the species population."
Kaiser rubbed at his shoulder, his face showing frustration. "Will it even matter? In a few hours Whitney will call you and you'll be able to ask all the questions you want. And the scientific community is going to be far more focused on that Raichu anyway. There's no need to rush around."
"It is exactly because they'll be focused on the Raichu that I want to rush my study of Lickilily. Let them fumble about for a region they don't yet know how to reach. We've got something tangible we can work with right now. I want my questions written out with my research notes at the ready and I want your help in brainstorming the right things to ask. We are going to do this, Kaiser. This will change things."
"Is Lickilily really that important?" Robb asked, earning odd glances from the two adults. He felt it a fair question though, especially when Kang also appeared confused.
"It is." Catelyn stated. "Your sister discovered a new Pokémon. One that hasn't been seen before in Kanto, Johto, or Hoenn. Maybe some of the lost regions have already discovered Lickilily, maybe we're blowing this whole thing out of proportion and we'll laugh about it when our explorers find those regions again, but right now this is all we have to go with. And when you add in the fact that Lickilily proved to be a strong Pokémon, it's going to get attention. Rare Pokémon are always on the tip of the tongue. Rare Pokémon that are also strong get those tongues wagging. The trainers that own those strong and rare Pokémon are talked about even more. Your sister will be one of the well-known names in world for a good while come tomorrow, and she's going to be riddled with studying requests soon enough. Whitney is going to be a very wealthy girl soon enough. Count on it."
"So," Robb began, an idea beginning to come to mind. "What would happen if I also found a Pokémon that nobody else has? What if I find more than one?"
She was fortunately willing to humor him. "If you can do all that, you'll be a legend in the making. Guaranteed."
Robb smiled at the thought. Becoming a celebrity was something he honestly had no interest in pursuing on its own. Wanting fame for the sake of being famous was just asking for problems. But Robb had goals for this world. There were three things he wanted to do in particular.
First, he wanted to become a strong Pokémon trainer. It was almost silly to not want that. Robb recognized the opportunity made available to him in this second life, the chance to truly become a part of this land and be something great brought about from his own merit. To build his team to his own specifications, train them to the heights of their capability, and challenge those that stood on the peaks of power.
Everybody wanted to be a trainer, regardless of their reasoning for wanting to do so. Robb was a proud member of that majority.
Second, he wanted to explore this world from front to back. Robb wanted to see new places, meet new people, found a community that was his and never allow himself to fall into complacency. The world of Pokémon had so many fantastical things going for it that it was easy to fall into that trap. Robb would not, could not, accept that for himself.
And lastly, Robb wanted to find his mom, wherever she may be.
Robb had yet to even catch a whiff of her, but he knew she was out there. He'd already tricked his sister into looking up her name for him when she visited the house during her sabbatical, and sadly it didn't seem to exist in any available databases or social medias. Considering those databases had information on everybody, regardless of age or relevancy, that was saying something. Robb, a three-your-old shit at the time of looking that up, existed in the database, as did the name of his eight-month-old toddler neighbor whose father was a common mailman of no importance.
The League database did not miss its citizens. Which meant one of two things.
His mom had either been reborn under a different name, which was a very strong possibility, though considering he himself kept his original name, he was banking against it. Or, and this is what Robb's gut feeling leaned towards, she wasn't in any of the currently recognized League regions; she was in one of the lost regions, as Catelyn had helpfully explained with regards to Wattson's Raichu.
With these details in mind, how was Robb going to find her?
The answer, simply put, was to shake up the board. Robb wasn't going to find her.
She was going to find him.
That said, for her to do that, for his mom to know to reach out in the first place, required the power of fame. He would make his name known throughout the world. Robert Stark would be a name everybody knew. A powerful trainer with a selection of Pokémon the likes of which nobody had ever seen, who travelled the world and connected regions together. His name would become synonymous with myth, and with the name Robert Stark spoken of every which way… surely she would be able to find him. Right?
…He hoped so.
This is the last of the three chapters that will be available this week.
The next chapter will be a singular one posted next week, and following that will be one chapter every other week.
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