Chapter 15 - The Hooting Menace

Celeste knew winning would feel good. She just didn't know how good.

Of course, she had won against a gyarados, but she was not counting that anymore. She had a real, proper victory now. One she actually remembered.

And by Moltres, she remembered it.

The rush, the adrenaline, the way the world stopped while she waited for the cloud of sand to clear. The high of winning, the group hug afterwards. It was amazing.

She needed to feel like that again.

To do so, she decided she needed to be sensible. The first step of being sensible? Remembering she won against a spearow, not some hydreigon. And her second step? To train like hell so she and her team could beat a hydreigon some day.

Unfortunately for Celeste and her pokémon, the daily grinding wasn't always as fun and productive as her first day. It was hard work.

On her second day of training, they went to Treasure Beach, and things were difficult from the start. Celeste was sure Aria had mastered Dig already, but it turned out the TM only taught her the basics. And the basics did not cover variations in soil or ways to increase speed. The normal type was slow underneath the earth, but that was not even the worse problem. Executing the move in the sand was.

Sand was easier to dig, but it was also unstable. More often than not, the hole would collapse on the eevee. Luckily, she could dig herself out. But coughing up sand was not good for battling.

Still, this was a minor setback. Cee and her team would keep pushing.

By the fourth day, things finally started improving. They still hadn't figured out how to deal with the digging in sand problem, but since Aria needed to practise, they shifted back to the woodlands on Kindle Road.

That day Patrick was an absolute star.

Yes, his moves often had a large delay and sometimes they didn't happen at all. But the Water Gun was constantly breaking the pieces of wood they used as target.

And then there was the meowth incident.

During their lunch break, the cat pokémon tried to steal one of Pat's berries and the slowpoke got angry. He used his strongest Water Gun yet on the meowth. Obviously, the pokémon, who was infamous for hating water, got even angrier and scratched Pat in return.

With a combination of Water Gun and Tackle, Celeste and her slowpoke crushed the little meowth. Which made Cee feel bad in the end. The poor thing just wanted food. So, much to Pat's dismay, she ended up sharing some berries with it, anyway.

Once day six came, Celeste knew things didn't always go their way. That was especially true for Powder. While the eevee and the slowpoke kept improving, the little vulpix was stuck. She was the one making the least progress. Part of Celeste thought her baby shouldn't go into a messy battle. But she saw how frustrated Powder was getting when she didn't freeze Pat's increasingly stronger water move.

So, after instructing her other pokémon to train Tackle and Quick Attack on a nearby tree, the girl decided to teach Powder Tail Whip.

It was not the most powerful or useful move, but it would be good for the vulpix to work on something different. Plus, the idea was to distract the opponent by wiggling your tail cutely. She was sure Powder already did that every day to everyone she met. No one resisted the charms of her little baby fox.

By day seven, Celeste herself was the one who made a breakthrough. It all started when she decided to figure out how to use Pat's Disable and Yawn.

She knew the slowpoke knew how to do both moves already. According to Delia, that was how they had beaten the gyarados. Still, she had no idea how they were actually supposed to work, and that made her uneasy.

To her, those moves were too abstract. It was easy to imagine yourself spitting water or tackling things. But stuff like Disable? She had no intuition about how that worked. Without that, all she could do was tell Pat to use it repeatedly.

Practice makes it perfect, but only if you have some idea of what you are doing.

To remedy that, Celeste decided to study up and found a book on pokémon moves. It was not a page turner by any means, but she spent the night reading it. By morning, the trainer felt exhausted, but much more confident.

According to the book, any move a pokémon uses leaves an energy signature that sensitive pokémon can perceive. These sensitive pokémon can then tap into the energy of the last move used by their opponent and block it for a while. That was disable.

Research was fun.

Celeste believed this sort of study would do wonders for her in the future. So she was incorporating this habit into her training routine.

Because she had a training routine now. Like a proper trainer.

Finally, day ten came and things were looking up. Nurse Joy said her hand was almost healed and her pokémon were stronger than ever.

The battle with Rey was going to be in two days. Which meant it was time for Celeste to do the one thing she still had to.

It was time she found another trainer to battle.

—*—*—

"No way," Delia said. "You spent the week working so hard and now you are scared?"

The tropical weather that seemed to be a constant on the island was gone for the first time since the girls arrived. The light rain didn't seem like a problem at first, but crossing the narrow strip of sand that led to Kindle Road was more painful than usual. So much that even Aria stayed in her ball for once.

"I'm not scared. It's just that Shelly is strong and I want to battle her. I promise I won't even let Pat out to watch."

Delia shook her head. "Come on, Cee. You know you need to have battles before Rey. And you know you just want to do it with me because it will be easy."

"I—."

"Don't start with the money talk again, please." Delia said as they made their way through the rock wall. "I know you can do this. Where is all that confidence you had before?"

Celeste groaned. She appreciated Delia's support. It was her day off and she had come along to help her train. But she also felt guilty.

Battling usually involved betting money on yourself. It didn't need to be much, and it wasn't mandatory, but it was proper trainer etiquette to do so. Also, if she won consistently, it was a faster way to get the money they needed to leave One Island. Unfortunately, that meant they would need to bet Delia's hard earned money on her battles. And they could lose the money just as fast.

Trainer culture sucked sometimes.

"Where are all the trainers?" Delia asked as they walked down the road.

"Weird, there were a bunch here yesterday. Guess you will have to battle me now." The ever persistent Celeste bumped her shoulders on her friend's.

Delia huffed. "You want to use me to slack off."

Celeste rolled her eyes. She was about to make some snarky comment when a scream came from the nearby woods. Just as the girls turned to look, a boy darted off from among the trees.

He had curly raven hair sticking out from the sides of a purple beanie and wore a grey hoodie and joggers. He looked a little older than the girls and in his arms he held some pink flowery pokémon curled into a ball.

"Run!" the boy yelled as he rushed past the girls.

Instead of heeding his warning, they both looked back and saw something fly up from the trees. It wasn't a big pokémon, but it moved so fast that neither girl got a proper look at the creature. Until it stopped by them and emitted a loud, piercing, echoing sound.

And it hurt.

Celeste brought her hand to her ears. She wanted to get one of her pokéballs, but the bird's shriek was too much. She couldn't bring herself to do anything but try to make the noise go away.

When the bird finally stopped, the girl's ears were buzzing. She looked up at the pokémon flying by her. Round, brown, with red eyes that resembled little glasses and a scowl that didn't fit in the slightest. That was an angry hoothoot. And its beak was glowing.

"Over here!" the boy in the beanie yelled. Or so Celeste supposed. She could only hear a muffled sound and see him waving from behind a rock on top of a nearby hill.

Celeste glanced at the hoothoot, who was diving to peck and took her friend's hand. Barely avoiding the pokémon's attack, both girls rushed towards the rock.

"Dude, that was close," the boy said in a low voice as he looked at the girls. "Are you okay?"

They had lost the hoothoot, but it was still looking for them.

With her ears still buzzing, Celeste yelled. "Why were you being attacked by a hoothoot of all things?"

The boy shushed her and pointed up. "It's going to hear you. We have been at it the whole morning. We can never hide very long."

Delia, who could finally hear again, straightened her shirt and ran her hands through her hair. "And what is it you have been at?"

"Never mind that. Weren't hoothoot supposed to be nice and friendly?" Celeste muttered, rubbing her hand on her ears. "And also nocturnal."

The boy smiled again. The pink blob in his arms opened its eyes and lift its small trunk, letting out a somewhat soothing noise.

"We have been trying to catch it," he answered, blushing. "I mean, have you ever seen such a fierce hoothoot?"

Delia narrowed her eyes at the boy.

"Me and Rev thought it would fit well with our team. But, man, did it get cranky when we woke it up…"

"Rev…?" Celeste asked, her eyes trailing to the pokémon still curled up in the boy's arms.

With a grin, he lifted his pink flowery creature. "Rev is my munna. Oh yeah, and I'm Luan."

"Nice to meet you both. I'm Delia and this is Celeste," Delia introduced them politely, but with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Then she turned to her friend. "Cee, I think our only way out is battling with it…"

"Are you crazy? My ears are still hurting. I don't want to go near that menace ever again."

The boy's face brightened. He let go of his munna, who lazily floated to his head and held Celeste's hand. "You girls are trainers? Now that is what I call major luck!"

"I-Is it?" Celeste asked.

"Yeah! You gotta help me catch the hoothoot."

"Hold on a second…" It was Delia who intervened this time. "Don't you think you already bothered this pokémon enough?"

Luan blushed again and laughed nervously. "Come on, I only tried to capture it once. It didn't need to follow me around all morning. Plus, if we are already battling it…"

"… catching wouldn't be too far off," Delia conceded. "But still… It's not nice to harass a pokémon that doesn't want to come with you."

"Very valid points here, but seriously…" Celeste didn't like this plan at all.

"Come on, there will be three…" Luan started saying, as Delia shook her head. "Two of us against one single hoothoot! Please."

Celeste blinked at the boy.

"Look, I'm on my way to Kanto to try the gym challenge there. That is a noble reason for catching the hoothoot, isn't it?" the boy continued his pleading. "I wanna have a shot at making it all the way to the conference. A fellow trainer has to understand that, right?"

"Sure…" Celeste half smiled at Luan. It might be fierce, but this was still just a hoothoot. Besides the prospect of permanent hearing problems, what could go wrong…?

Delia sighed. "Try to be quick, at least."

Luan glanced at the sleepy pokémon in his head. Then he took another pokéball from his pocket.

Celeste watched him as her hands hovered over her own pokéballs. Which of her team members would be best?

Powder would have the type advantage… But did she want to send her little vulpix to face this devil owl? Her one ice type move was not good enough yet. Pat was getting stronger by the day, but she still didn't know how to get her slowpoke to be consistent in his moves. Sometimes he was fast and responded to her right away, and sometimes… not so much. Then there was Aria, who she relied a bit too much on.

Celeste bit her lips and hoped for the best. "Let's go Pat, I'm counting on you."

Luan looked at the slowpoke and threw his own pokéball into the air.

"Lulu, help me out!" he yelled as a moon shaped rock materialised.

"A lunatone?" Celeste asked, both impressed and afraid. She remembered warnings about sightings of the meteorite pokémon in the hills near Hammerlocke. The local rangers said the rock psychic type was dangerous. Just by looking in its eyes, one could fall into a deep nightmare filled sleep, or even worse, be paralysed by your worse fears. "Wait, aren't rock pokémon strong against flying?"

Luan blushed yet again. "Well yeah, but this hoothoot is fast as hell. We couldn't land a single rock throw."

Celeste bit her lip. That didn't bode well for Pat.

The girl nodded to Luan and followed him out of their hiding place. As soon as they stepped into view, the hoothoot plunged in their direction for a Peck.

"PaAHH," Celeste yelled as the owl pecked her head. Then, with a tinge of panic, "Wa—Water Gun."

The hoothoot shot up as soon as Celeste shouted the command. On cue, Pat… blinked.

Luan looked at the girl. "You know what you are doing, right?"

Celeste bit her lips. For a moment, all eyes were on her and her slowpoke. Not even the hoothoot was attacking. They were all puzzled by her actions… or lack thereof.

Come on Pat, listen. Please!

"Patri…" the trainer started another attempt at a command. However, the pokémon didn't even wait for it this time. He let out a Water Gun, right into the bird's face.

Luan's eyes widened. He had an opening.

"Lulu, don't waste time, use confusion!" he yelled. The moon rock was enveloped by a blue glow that shot up to the bird. Another hit and the hoothoot spiralled to the ground. However, it was still far from being knocked out.

Before Celeste commanded another attack, she noticed the bird was jumping from one leg to another, but never getting coordinated enough to take flight.

"Luan, I think it is confused!"

The boy nodded. He already had a pokéball in his hands. He took a deep breath and threw it at the pokémon. Unfortunately, the little owl kicked it away despite the confusion.

"Come on, dude, stop playing hard to get… Lulu Rock Throw, nonstop!" he yelled as lunatone threw one rock after another toward the hoothoot. Most of them missed, but one lucky shot managed to hit the pokémon's wing. At least it wouldn't be able to fly away anymore. "A little help?"

Right. Their problem was that it kept dodging and kicking pokéballs away. Even though it was still confused and with an injured wing…

Confusion didn't work, but there were other conditions that afflicted pokémon. "Pat use Yawn."

This time the slowpoke got the command on cue, but apparently the hoothoot understood it too. Before Pat used his move, the bird let out the same infernal sound as before.

It wasn't as bad in the beginning, but the screeching kept getting louder and louder until it was worse than when they had first met the pokémon. It got so bad that even the floor was shaking…

That couldn't be right.

"What is happening?" Delia yelled, while showing up on Luan side with hands on her ears and a worried expression. Whatever Luan answered, Celeste couldn't hear.

Finally, the hoothoot stopped. It narrowed his eyes in search of something, and then it chirped and hid behind Luan.

The three teens exchanged glances, just as an onix burrowed its way to the surface. All Celeste saw were its red eyes and cranky expression.

Well, the hoothoot had been quite loud.

From the moment the rock snake emerged, it started roaring at the little bird and whip its giant tail around, almost hitting Pat and Cee several times. And the poor hoothoot? It looked terrified. It seemed to be trying its best to disappear from view.

Luan nervously laughed as the onix roared to his face. There wasn't much he could do, but Celeste still did not expect him to have enough determination (or courage) to pick up a pokéball and tap it on the hoothoot's head.

It clicked without shaking even once.

On one hand, Celeste was happy the boy got his hoothoot. On the other one, the onix seemed to be either furious or confused at the bird's disappearance. Its never ending roars were intimidating. Especially because they always came accompanied by more hammering on the ground.

Finally, things got so bad that the floor started shaking on its own. Whatever this hill was made of, it wasn't stable.

As the shaking got worse, Luan yelled something. Delia did too. She looked angry. But Celeste's ears were still buzzing. She could not understand a word.

In a moment of clarity, the girl recalled her slowpoke. Then, with a violent shake, she was on her knees. Further ahead, the lunatone was glowing, so were Delia and Luan… What the hell was going on?

Another violent shake, and a fissure appeared in front of Celeste.

They needed to get out of there fast.

She tried standing up, just as the onix roared loudly and hammered its tail down even more violently. Was it attacking the others? Celeste couldn't see. The fissure in front of her got bigger, and she started sliding down into some sort of tunnel.

In panic, she tried rolling around and climbing back up, but the rock was too smooth and steep. Instead, she realised she was gaining speed. So she tried to create some friction with the heels of her boots to slow down. It was a good idea, but Celeste wasn't fast enough. The rock ended abruptly, and she was thrown headfirst into some lake.

After the shock of impact, she opened her eyes and stood up. The waters were shallow and warm, and there didn't seem to be any dangerous pokémon around. However, Celeste was really dizzy from her fall.

She tried to stand up. The fact that she didn't drown or got attacked by tentacool was definitely a plus… Yet it felt like she was about to pass out. Would she drown if she passed out here?

Her damn ears were still buzzing after all the bullying from the hoothoot and the roaring onix. But she heard some muffled voice. There was a man running towards her… What was he saying? Something about embers… or a spa?

A spa would be nice right about now, Celeste thought, before the world turned to black.


A/N: I'm on deadline week right now, so lets see if I can post the next chapter over the weekend. :)

Anyway, thanks as always for the comments and support.

NEXT CHAPTER: Ember Spa