4. Power Displays

I slept surprisingly well that night, all things considered. It must have been that I was feeling safe here, surrounded by very dangerous, but friendly, Pokemon. I was part of a team now, and they would have my back, just like I was supposed to have theirs. And John would be keeping me clear of any needs for the foreseeable future. It would be rough, sure, but I wasn't in immediate danger of death anymore.

We were woken up early on the morning by John and Amethyst. I wasn't so much of a morning person, but I guess I would have to get used to this kind of schedule quickly.

"Come on, we are leaving in 30 minutes" John said, visibly at peak alertness despite the early hour.

My still very sleepy face earned me some amused comments from Kyan, who already got his signature joyful attitude.

After a quick breakfast – Water and rice mixed with unidentified vegetables, I wouldn't be getting any coffee anytime soon – we got on the road. From what I had understood, we would be doing the first part of the way in John's car, then finish on foot. Our destination was deep in the wilderness, and even John's 4×4 pick-up couldn't get us here.

As we got in the car, John took out his Pokeballs and started recalling the team. Of course, given his weight and size, Cobalt would not have fit in the car otherwise. Amethyst and Topaz, while smaller, wouldn't have been comfortable either and chose to get back in their balls too.

The whole Pokeball thing made for an impressive display, by the way. The Pokemon was engulfed in what looked like a reddish halo of light, then seemed to dissolve into the light as it was sucked in the ball. All of that took only a fraction of second. The release of a Pokemon was pretty much the same, only in reverse. As for what it felt, experiencing that, well… it was hard to describe. A feeling of weightlessness, a flash of light, and that was it. You were in. And in the blink of an eye, you were out again, only in a different place and forward in time. It felt like magic, and truthfully, to my understanding, it could as well be.

Only Kyan and me were left outside for the ride. I just sat on one of the back seats, while Kyan was enjoying the wind with his head outside the window. I could have been worried about the possibility of us having an accident, which could have thrown me through the windscreen since I wasn't fastened to any kind of seatbelt. But I guess I had other things to worry about. Besides, John seemed to be a good driver. Occasionally, he gave me short glances through the central mirror, as if he were checking on me. Most of the ride was in silence, though Kyan gave me anecdotes about places known by the team as we were passing by. Eventually, we got to our destination.

"The fact you don't seem to mind the car ride, unlike most untamed Pokemon, kinda confirms to me you aren't wild." John said to me, as he was removing the ignition key. "I hope we will be able to discover more about your past." I nodded. He sure wouldn't be able to even begin guessing the truth about me. I'm not sure I even wanted him to, frankly. He got his stuff out, locked the car, and released the rest of the team outside.

"Alright everyone. We are a bit past 10 am, so we will walk for 2 hours before stopping for lunch. Topaz, let me install your carrying equipment on you."

He fixed some sort of harness on the big dog Pokemon, with two big satchels at each side. That way, Topaz could help carry a large part of the equipment. As strong as she was, she hardly seemed bothered by it. Amethyst got a similar, albeit smaller, carrying equipment. I personally didn't have anything to carry, and Kyan too, given our relatively smaller size. Cobalt was kept in his ball, since his species wasn't really suited for long walks, and he would have slowed us down.

We began to walk in a forest similar to the one in which I had first woken up. It wasn't unpleasant. The shade provided by the trees shielded us from most of the sun heat, which I was thankful for. Black fur isn't something you really want to have under a scorching sun.

We weren't bothered much by the feral Pokemon of the forest. I think most of them avoided us on purpose, dissuaded by the strong look of my teammates. However, some, maybe stronger or more confident than the others, still tried to attack us. I recognized those violet rats I had seen during my first day here – Kyan told me they were Rattatas – but no signs of the Mightyenas that had almost killed me. Not that I was complaining. It proved to be a hard paid mistake for the Pokemon bold enough to try their luck on us, as they every time were dispatched by a single powerful attack from one of my teammates, usually Amethyst. Her ice attacks had the least chance to cause damage to the forest, Kyan informed me. Looking at how devastating to the target they were, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end. I didn't really recognize the type of attack she was using. She was shooting some sort of fast freezing breeze from her maw, and her opponent was every single time knocked back and sometimes frozen solid. It was all one hit KOs. The area in the wake of her attack always got coated in ice. And when she was doing that, the temperature around dropped significantly for a brief instant, often causing me to shiver. It had the engineer part of me wondering how cold it was to cause such an instantaneous effect. And how could she even biologically produce such low temperatures. I

We continued walking for some time, with the occasional feral Pokemon being taken care of swiftly. The other members of the team were talking a lot together, while I remained mostly quiet, not really able to contribute to their conversation. I just did my best to follow them without tripping at every root there was on the ground.

After two hours, and a dozen more Pokemon unfortunate enough to believe they could take on more than one attack from Amethyst, we arrived at some sort of waterfall hidden in the forest. The trees were scarcer here, but we were still protected from the sun, at its zenith now.

"Alright, let's stop here for lunch everyone!" John said, putting his backpack on the ground. I welcomed this pause with relief. My paws had begun to feel a bit sore, and I was starting to suffer from the heat. I immediately went to lay on a fresh patch of grass, close to the water and in the shade. Amethyst and Topaz went hunting something for us while I waited here with Kyan and Cobalt. John was also settling and had begun eating his meal.

After five minutes or so, the Ninetales and the Arcanine came back, each with two preys in their maw. They put the carcasses on the ground. I couldn't really recognize the species, but from what I had seen earlier in the morning, they surely hadn't stood a chance against my two teammates. The positive thing was that I was pretty sure their demise had been swift. The other members of the team then began eating those unfortunate Pokemon, one each. Except Cobalt, of course, who was an herbivore. Still, something bugged me.

"Wait, we eat those like that, raw?" I said, confused.

"Well, how else? Didn't you eat any prey back when you were in the forest?" Kyan asked me, looking up from his meat. He looked surprised.

Shit. Of course, they wouldn't cook them. My dumb self had talked before thinking, and now I had to find an explanation.

"Uh, yes, I mean… no. Never mind. It's still a little foggy in my memory." I explained. I promptly looked down at my own meal, hoping he would drop the subject.

Kyan was still looking a bit dumbfounded, but nodded and got back eating anyway. The others, who also had paused their meal to look at me, did the same. I mentally berated myself and thought I should be more careful about what I say in the future.

Well, I now had to actually eat that. I reluctantly forced myself to tear off a part of the meat. Surprisingly, it didn't taste that bad. Sure, it wasn't Michelin star haute cuisine, but I could work with that for now. I guess my taste buds were different too, now. No, what was really annoying was that I had to sort the actual meat from the rest – the bones and the fur, essentially. It was a lot of work. Eventually I finished it, but long after the others who had been a lot faster.

John, who was also done with his meal, stood up.

"OK, we will now have a little training session in the clearing. Amethyst, Cobalt and Topaz, I trust you can train on your own together? I will go with Kyan and Lapis to assess what our new teammate is capable of."

Uh oh. There it was. The dreaded moment. Kyan joined me in a few joyful leaps, electricity sparkling from his fur. He seemed very excited to help me train. John led us to a side of the clearing, away from the three others who had already begun sparring. I couldn't refrain myself from glancing to their direction. The attacks they were using were even more impressive than what I had seen from Amethyst earlier. Huge columns of flames seemingly appearing from the maw of Topaz. Literal earthquakes produced at the stomp of Cobalt's hoofs. And I was supposed to do something similar?

"So, since we don't know what you are capable of, Lapis, why don't show us yourself?" John asked, looking at me.

I looked back at him, unsure as to how I was supposed to do that or even what to do. I was asked to produce something defying imagination, something that I surely wouldn't have been able, for the life of me, to explain scientifically. Hell, I didn't even know what kind of attack an Umbreon was supposed to use. For a "fire type" like Topaz, sure. Big flamethrower-like effects, that made at least some kind of sense… But wasn't I a so-called "dark type"? What the heck was that supposed to mean? And even if I knew what my attacks were, I hadn't even the beginning of any experience battling. I mean, I wasn't even able to control how my rings illuminated. Speaking of, they were currently glowing strongly, surely because of how stressed I was at that moment.

After a few seconds of me looking stupidly at him, John finally broke the silence. "You don't want to?" he said, his tone unsure. Kyan too seemed surprised by my behavior. "What's the problem?" he asked me with concern.

"I just don't know how to" I replied to the Jolteon, apologetic.

"What do you mean? You don't know any move!? But every Pokemon knows at least some!" he exclaimed.

"Well, no, I'm afraid I don't"

Kyan looked as if his jaw had dropped, while John seemed not to have understood the reason of the problem. He knelt down in front of me, pat me on the back. "What's wrong, Lapis? You don't want to show me your moves?". I shook my head. "It's not that? So what's the problem? You can't?". I nodded. "Why is that?" John was scratching his chin, looking really concerned. I touched my forehead with one of my front paws, then shook my head and whined a little. My ears were flattened against the back of my skull. This proved to be enough to convey my answer. "You don't know how to do any move?" he said, his eyes widening. I nodded vigorously.

"Ok, uh, that's certainly a first." He seemed very surprised by this.

"Come on, you certainly know at least some basic attacks, like tackle, or bite? Every Eevee knows at least one of those pretty much right after birth! I was tackling my littermates as soon as I was able to walk!" Kyan said, almost shouting. He did not seem to quite believe I really didn't know anything.

"I can try if you want, but no, I've never done it before. Or if I did, I don't remember it at all", I told him. I was quite sure I would just end up ridiculing myself, but I thought trying was the least I could do. Besides, Kyan, being another Pokemon of the Eevee family tree, would certainly be able to teach me the basics. And knowing the basics would probably end up being useful if I wanted to survive here, even with John's help.

Kyan took a few steps back, stopping five meters away from me. "OK Lapis, now try to use tackle on me."

"Uh, are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I can take it. It's only a tackle and I've seen worse than that, trust me"

I took a look at John, who had understood what we were preparing and had cautiously backed a bit away from us. He gave me a sign of encouragement.

Well, it's not like Kyan hadn't asked for it. I glanced at him, analyzing his posture. He was turned towards me, relaxed and sporting his usual playful smile on his muzzle. It sure didn't seem like he was worried about my incoming attack. I suddenly went for it and started running towards him as fast as I could. Maybe the kinetic energy of my whole body impacting him would be enough to make him fall? I would just improvise the rest afterwards. Just one meter away from him, I leapt, aiming to collide with him just above his front paws with my back.

Surprisingly, it worked. Well, kinda worked. I hit him where I wanted to. The force of the impact was sufficient to trip him, as I had hoped. We both fell down. Unfortunately, taking the hit at my back proved to be a mistake. I had my air expulsed from my lungs and was left gasping for oxygen on the ground while Kyan got back up on his paws. Shit.

"You know, Lapis, an attack isn't really supposed to inflict more damage to you than to your foe" John said, laughing.

"What was that, Lapis ?" Kyan had gotten to my side as I was painfully getting up. He sounded thrilled. "That was amazing! Though, I'm not sure I would really call it a tackle…"

God, why had I tried to do that? I would be in pain for most of the day now. Worse, I was sure the enthusiastic Jolteon would talk about that for days and days…

John got close to me and petted me, apparently understanding my embarrassment.

"Are you alright? I can give you a berry if you want." I shook my head. I wasn't about to let John waste a berry on me because I was too dumb to think before acting. He sighed. "I guess this proves you will need extensive training, starting from the absolute basics, to get you to an acceptable battle condition." Color me surprised… I looked at my paws and the ground, accidentally letting out a little whine.

"Don't be sad, Lapis." Kyan was still, as always, very joyful. "I will be happy to help you train and teach you what I know about fighting. I'm sure the others will be, too. You'll see, battling is fun!"

I wasn't very sure about that, but it was true that seeing the others use their powerful moves had made me a bit envious.

"For now, let's stay with something very basic that should be easy for you." John said. "I am confident you will be making a lot of progress in no time. Kyan, do you think you could help him learn to do a proper tackle?"

The Jolteon responded with a short affirmative bark. He then turned to me. "Ok, so as an Umbreon, like all members of the Eevee family, you should be able to master this attack relatively easily."

"If you say so…" I said, not really convinced.

"The easiest way would be to give you an example." Kyan was now smirking. "I'm afraid you'll be the target this time" he continued. "I'll go easy on you."

"Wait, wha..!" I didn't get to finish protesting as he instantly dashed towards me. One moment he was still in front of me, running madly in my direction, the next he had stopped behind me, and I was upside down on the ground with pain at my front paws. Damn it, my poor bones wouldn't resist long here.

"See, I tripped you without having to even slow down. Tackle is a very basic attack, one you would use to interrupt an enemy while he prepares a more powerful move. You just have to be quick, pass at the side of your opponent and use one of your limbs to impact him as close as possible to the ground. The faster the better. We Eevolutions often use our tail for that, it is the most convenient. But you can use whatever suits you. I personally like to use a hind leg since as a Jolteon, my tail isn't as long as yours, for example."

Interesting. I did make some sense, and I was now feeling even dumber after my failed attempt.

"Ok, now try again on me. This time try do what I just explained to you." Kyan said, smiling. I nodded.

After getting some space to have time to get to speed, I started running towards him. My acceleration wasn't even close to what he had just shown me, but I decided to go for it anyway. I chose to pass on his right, as close to him as possible. I lowered my tail and directed it to my right at the last moment, stiffening it as much as I could. And it worked. I took a hit at my tail, but I wasn't affected nearly as much as he was, since he was thrown down to the ground, just like I had been.

John cheered for me from the side and clapped his hands upon seeing that. "Nice one, Lapis! That was great!"

Kyan also seemed to be happy for me, judging from his smile, even bigger than the usual. "Yeah, you got it! I knew you had the instinct for tackle in you! Every Eevee does! Though, you will still need to train for this attack. I didn't even try to dodge it and you are a bit bigger than me, so it's easier for you."

We continued to train like that for some time, switching places after each try. Kyan had begun to attempt avoiding my attacks and had encouraged me to do the same. Given our difference in speed, he succeeded to dodge me most of the time, getting out of my reach at the last moment or jumping over my incoming tail. I, on the other hand, was much clumsier in my attempts to avoid his tackles, and by the end of the training session, I was pretty sure I would be able to recognize the taste of the dust from here out of a panel of hundreds of other samples. But being on the receiving end of his attacks had the benefit of increasing my resistance and stamina. And that was something I would gladly take. Plus, as we ended our training, I felt like I had made a lot of progress with my own tackles. Maybe I wouldn't be totally useless if the team ever needs me to take part to a battle.

John seemed pleased with my progress too and had been praising me whenever I managed to land my attack on Kyan. Which hadn't amounted to a lot of times, but still. I was quite proud of myself.

When we got back from our side of the field, the other members of the team were already done with their training and were quietly discussing together.

"Had a great training, Kyan?" Topaz asked the still very excited Jolteon, once we joined them.

"Yeah, it was fun! Lapis learned how to do a proper tackle and I trained my speed" he responded, tail wagging.

Topaz turned to me. "You didn't know tackle?" she said, surprised.

Instinctively, my ears went lower behind my head and my tail was tucked between my hind legs. I knew Topaz was friendly, but I couldn't help being a bit shy in front of her. "Well, now I do. I did say I wasn't very into battling, didn't I? I'm literally a total newbie". I was getting a bit nervous, what with them continuously noticing my lack of experience. If this continued, they would end up suspecting something. Topaz must have had noticed my unease and thankfully dropped the subject. She wouldn't have had the time to continue asking questions anyway, because John chose that moment to speak up.

"OK everybody, I think it's time to depart. If we keep a decent pace, we should reach our destination before sunset." He said, picking up his backpack.

The afternoon walk was pretty much identical to that of the morning, except they let me handle some of the wild Pokemon which attacked us. The others still remained close behind me in case I needed help. But we only crossed path with very weak Pokemon, and surprisingly, one or two of my tackles were enough to take them out. I guess a Pokemon my size body-slamming a Rattata or a Fletchling was maybe a bit overkill, but eh, it wasn't me who attacked them in the first place. Besides, I wasn't about to take pity on them, with their blank eyes and crazy aggressive behavior. Kyan had explained me they were known as feral Pokemon, but to me it looked like rabid was better fitting.

By the end of the day, as we reached our destination, I was pretty confident in my ability to use tackle in any battle. Which felt good. I was now eager to learn other attacks as well, especially the more "defying the laws of physics" ones. Maybe by mastering those I would be able to grasp more of their functioning?

We had decided to establish the camp at the outskirts of the forest, close to the area John was to surveil for the next few days. This way, we would be able to get to work easily and be back to camp by the evening every day. John had explained me he didn't want to camp inside the survey area, because we would have disturbed the local fauna too much, thus rendering the study results inconclusive. This made sense, but it also meant we would have to walk to the area every morning.

Apparently, we Pokemon didn't need the comfort of a tent like John's. We would have to sleep outside for the week. Fortunately, the nights were warm enough this time of the year, and I hoped my fur would protect me from the cold. It wouldn't be fun if it started raining, but in that case, I was told we could take shelter under thick trees or find a recess under some rocky formation. Kyan told me John was only tasked this kind of survey missions during the warmer days of the year. This meant we would never have to deal with very cold weather or snow. In theory, that is. What he informed me, too, was that most feral Pokemon were more or less inactive at night, so I didn't have to fear any unpleasant interruptions during my sleep. This eased my worries a bit, but I was still thankful for the protection of Topaz, Amethyst and the others. My first night in this world had also been outside, but alone, and it hadn't been an experience I was eager to reiterate.

"Alright, now that my tent is up, I will go with Cobalt and Amethyst to make sure there is nothing dangerous nearby, so we are safe during the night. Kyan, Topaz, I want you two to fetch me as much wood as possible. A fire would help us be a little bit warmer tonight, don't you think? Lapis will stay here to guard the camp and our stuff".

Stay alone at camp, uh? Well, I guessed I could manage that. I should be able to fend off a hypothetical feral Pokemon with my new basic attack now. And a little time alone wouldn't hurt. As I watched the others leave the area in two groups, my rings glowing faintly in the growing darkness of the forest, I thought my situation wasn't so bad, after all. I made myself comfortable, and laid down beside John's backpack, taking a moment to contemplate the scenery.

I liked dusk. I liked how everything seems to finally stop, letting silence take over. How the sun, often oppressive during the day, becomes the source of long and everchanging shadows that change the way you perceive a landscape. And how the sky abandons its usual blue tone to display a myriad of colors, ranging from violet to orange, red and pink. Moments like that made me feel privileged to be there, alone, in peace, and able to appreciate the beauty of nature, in this world, or another.

Some notes from the author:

Here is chapter 4. I'm sorry for the delay. I was a little busy lately. I always want to finish the chapter I am working on at a time before posting a new one here, so I can keep a little buffer. Anyway, thank you for reading this.