Here's another one!
Cappage Boy: I currently don't plan on doing a Monotype team, but I am hoping to branch out from some of the choice team members that are commonly seen.
GreenDragon: I think the story will be following more of the anime setting, but there is still some planning being done there. Not sure what you mean about Karen's words affecting a lot of people. She exists in all Pokémon verses, but that doesn't stop people from sticking with the more powerful Pokémon at competitive levels.
Again, I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback!
Ursaring walked proudly through the forest.
Why wouldn't she feel proud? She had just asserted the dominance of her rule over the forest once again. The Beedrill colony, who had been so arrogant in their overwhelming numbers, fell like feeble Cutiefly before her might.
Here she stands; poisoned, covered in wounds, and physically exhausted, but as the victor against a swarm of hundreds. The poison in her veins only serves to strengthen her body and push her beyond her limits. Ursaring is the queen, and a queen does not fall to petty tricks like numbers and poison.
The memory of the look on the queen Beedrill's face as her entire army was cut through like butter sends Ursaring into a fit of guttural laughter. It's a deep and grating sound that sends all the surrounding lifeforms running with fear.
How dare that oversized insect even call herself a queen in Ursaring's presence?
The beating that bug received was more than satisfactory enough for Ursaring to get over her wounds. However, now that the battle has been settled and her challengers lie vanquished, it's time to deal with the poison.
Ursaring was originally headed for the berry grove before she got caught up in that fight, so she's simply continuing on her way there now. It's not too far off, so she'll arrive shortly.
Something keeps nagging at the back of her mind though. The unpleasant feeling even kills the hearty mood she was in after her victory and cuts off her laughter.
She seems to be forgetting something. Something from before she fell into her berserk bloodlusted battle state…
A certain scent tickles her nose. A scent that is unfamiliar to these woods, alongside the scent of the little younglings of the Zigzagoon pack.
That's right!
The human child! That insolent brat who threw a rock at her to instigate her fight with the Beedrill.
It looks like the chance for revenge isn't lost to her after all. His scent leads to the berry grove. The famous rascal of the pack must have brought them there to heal their wounds.
Ursaring picks up her pace. The battle with the Beedrill swarm, fierce though it was, did not take long. When Ursaring goes berserk, her battles tend to end quite quickly due to her unrelenting offense. Furthermore, she can move much faster than a group of nearly dead Pokemon children and a scrawny human boy. She will catch up quickly.
Running along the path, a new scent brushes her senses. It's odd that a Beedrill would flee a battle involving its queen. The queen must have sent one to chase after their escaping prey.
With a new competitor in catching her prey, Ursaring speeds up even further, running at almost a sprint until the berry grove is just ahead.
"Get out of there!"
A human voice, filled with panic and fear, rings out from the clearing.
Slowing to a halt at the edge of the clearing, Ursaring peeks through the brush to see what's going on.
A Beedrill furiously rains blows down upon the infamous troublemaker of the Zigzagoon pack. The bug is on its last legs, but it seems to be a mid-level fighter from the swarm. This is no newly evolved Beedrill.
Unfortunately for the new human-Pokémon partnership, Zigzagoon is still a child. His gallivanting around this forest has only started in the last two moon cycles, making him barely more than an infant. Talented though he may be, he doesn't have the strength, nor the experience to fight a grown combatant like Beedrill.
The fact that Beedrill is so wounded is the real surprise here. This is also the reason Ursaring has decided to simply spectate the fight. It may be too late now, but she would like to see how the human and the baby Pokémon turned around such an impossible battle. The slash wound from her that she sees in the Beedrill would have helped them but isn't enough to let them win.
With Zigzagoon out of the fight, the Beedrill turns to the human child. Ursaring scoffs when the boy runs away in fear. She must have expected too much from a human. Should she go kill him now, before the bug gets the chance?
Right when her disappointment peaks, something odd strikes her.
The boy isn't afraid. He is running away. This much is true, but he is not running in fear for his life. The boy runs with a purpose.
Ursaring traces his path and sees that he is running to the tree with the best healing berries. The one occupied by the Pinsir, a fairly powerful group of Pokémon.
Is he betting on getting them to fight the Beedrill? Does he plan to use the same strategy he had with her, getting a more powerful Pokémon to fight his battles for him?
Ursaring holds herself back, curious about how the situation will develop.
When the boy reaches the tree, he picks a healing fruit directly in front of a Pinsir. The menacing Bug type would usually attack anyone who threatens its food supply, but the boy must have earned its respect, as it idly allows him to take the fruit.
In one motion, the boy throws the fruit to the downed Zigzagoon.
So that was his plan, thinks Ursaring, the boy decided that they would both perish if nothing changed and decided to sacrifice himself to heal his partner. She can't help but respect his resolve.
"PARTNER," The boy screams out. "I still need you!"
He doesn't seem to have fully accepted his death, but there is no alternative. The Beedrill is close enough to him that not even Ursaring would be able to save him now. Its lance is mere inches from the child's head. The boy has earned her respect, so she can forgive his offense against her, but he still must face the harshness of the wild. He can only blame his own weakness.
"EXTREME SPEED!"
The boy calls out the words, and the Beedrill is blasted away from him before his words have fully escaped his mouth. Even with her trained eyes, Ursaring barely perceived a blurred form crashing into the Bug-type. This was nothing like the speed she has seen the rascal move with in the past. The Beedrill is laid out at the opposite end of the clearing, their momentum only halted by the trunk of a tree. Zigzagoon collapses shortly after.
The troublemaker of the Zigzagoon's younglings has been known for his speed for as long as he has been causing trouble around here. He inherited a move from his ancient lineage that allows him to move in incredibly fast bursts of speed. She has seen him do it several times before. Ursaring hadn't been impressed before, because she could follow his form easily.
This was entirely different. This was something special.
Was it his new connection with the human boy that allowed him to surpass his limits? Could he truly grow that quickly?
While Ursaring is lost in her thoughts, the victorious pair celebrates and chats together. The conversation between the two is toned out as Ursaring thinks about what she has just seen. Though she heard enough to understand that the boy has lofty aspirations. His goals are aimed so high that she doubts the young Zigzagoon could ever grasp them. However…
She can't help but feel a question burning in the back of her mind.
Just how far could these two go?
Fighting them now would be a waste of time. It wouldn't even be a fight, but what about after the rascal's talent has bloomed? What would he look like if he could master that speed?
Now that her curiosity has grown, there's no suppressing it. She can no longer see killing them now as anything but a waste.
Besides, the hunt will be much more satisfying if that weak little Zigzagoon can truly become the so-called "Goliath" first.
The thought that she might never see them again if she lets them go never crosses her mind. After all, everyone will always return to their roots at some point.
She has gained enough respect for the boy to forgive his earlier insolence, but there should still be a price to pay. The hunt will be his price, collected in the distant future.
With her thoughts in order, Ursaring steps into the clearing and approaches the human child.
I'm so dead.
There's no real punch to it, even as I find myself envisioning my impending doom. I had always thought that certain death would come with a lot more despair than this.
After the rollercoaster of emotions this day has brought me, I just don't have it in me to feel any despair. If this is it, so be it.
Pulled outside of my own body and through a portal by a fictional ghost, transported to the world of either a video game or an anime, forced into occupying the body of a dead child, escaping a swarm of super-sized killer bees, and winning a battle with my new partner: sounds like the acid trip of a lifetime.
Now that all that adrenaline has worn off, there's simply nothing left to give.
The Ursaring that continues to step closer and closer is apparently strong enough to defeat a swarm of hundreds of Beedrill on its own. Somehow, I don't see another come-from-behind victory in my immediate future.
"Zag zigzag zagoon!"
Even as the reaper's scythe closes in on my neck, my oblivious partner continues to run circles around my ankles, protesting his shortened nickname.
"Goly!" My voice is firm and halts his motion for a moment. "Be ready to use Extreme Speed to run away."
"Zigzag?" His head tilts to the side.
"Look ahead buddy," I point toward our unwelcome guest. "Seems like my luck runs out here."
Goliath turns to face Ursaring and steadily walks out to stand between us. There is no fear in his stance and no hesitation in his gait. Only cold determination is present in the tiny Pokémon's bearing. The guardian of the pack won't let anyone die.
"Goon!" Goliath calls out to the bear. "Zigzagoon!"
Ursaring stops for a moment, scoffs, and continues to pad forward.
Goliath's hackles rise at the obvious dismissal and he starts to yip out his rage.
The massive bear walks all the way up to my partner's face before simply continuing past him with no signs of aggression. Goly is being noisy with his attempts at intimidation, but Ursaring isn't paying him any mind.
Instead, the beast of a Pokémon walks right up to me, until we're standing face to face. My heart pounds in my chest and sweat drips from my brow. I can barely hear Goly's yips over the sound of my own pulse.
"Ursaring" A deep, guttural voice commands my attention.
A massive claw taps my chest and shoves me on my backside with irresistible force. Before I can entertain the notion that it might eat me alive, I am also passed by and ignored.
Instead, Ursaring snaps up a Pecha berry off a low-hanging branch before heading towards the Sitrus tree. The fearsome Pinsir group has already moved to the top of the tree, leaving Ursaring as much space to eat as it desires.
The ruler of the forest gives the tree a quick pat, and dozens of the delectable fruits fall to the ground. Ursaring promptly lays down before the pile and munches away, looking unconcerned with the actions of the rest of us. However, I notice that the bear's eyes never completely leave Goliath. There's no caution or worry there, but much intrigue.
Unsure of why I'm not being chowed on in place of the berries, but unwilling to stick around and find out, I scoop my feisty raccoon up in my arms and jog out of the clearing.
"Hah hah hah"
After the kind of day I've had, a couple of minutes of jogging is already enough to empty the gas tank. If it really wants me dead, Ursaring can still probably catch me in less than an hour, but the distance I just made helps my confidence if nothing else.
I put down the raccoon who has been looking at my tired self with severely judgmental eyes.
"I know, I'll work on that," I mutter, more to myself than to Goliath, though that doesn't stop him from nodding at me with a smug look. "But first, we need to find our way out of here."
"Zigzag" smugness transforms into confusion.
"Look, I know that we are going to become invincible champions, but the beginner area of our journey is way too high level!" I'm so distraught about this that I've turned to gamer terms. "Like, why is there so much stuff that can kill us here? Shouldn't our first opponents be like Poochyenas and Rattatas? Where is the game balance?!"
My happy-go-lucky little partner clearly doesn't understand what I'm talking about, but my elevated emotions get him all worked up with excitement. I look down at the Zigzagoon running figure eights between my legs and can't help but think that things aren't all bad.
"Ok, the first thing to do is to figure out where we are exactly." Based on the Pokemon I've seen, I think we're in the Hoenn region. Petalburg Woods seems like the most likely choice, but I could honestly be anywhere. "Goly, do you know where any humans live?"
Based on my partner's apparent young age, I don't expect much, so I'm pleasantly surprised when I hear the noise that I've come to associate with affirmation.
"Zig!" My partner nods his head rapidly, excited to be of help.
"Great," Things are finally looking up for me. "Can you lead us there?"
After another nod, my partner shoots off at a high speed to my right. One stray thought passes through my head as I scramble to keep up.
I'm not going to have any choice but to get in great shape with this bundle of energy as my partner.
After only an hour of running, I can already tell that we are not going to make great progress with Goly leading the way.
True to his species' name and tendencies, Goly is incapable of running straight for any long stretches. Instead, he zigs and zags, this way and that. Every little thing is apparently interesting enough to demand an up-close inspection, even unusually shaped rocks or odd-smelling leaves.
I know that this is a staple of his species, and it was actually endearing at first, almost like taking a puppy on its first walk. However, after the hundredth leaf investigation, I'm beginning to think we are never going to get out of this forest. The only things our constant sidetracking is good for are my lungs and my legs. Every bit of forward progress is at nearly a full sprint, so my weak body is appreciating the breaks.
Speaking of breaks, Goly has once again veered off course.
"Goly!" I yell out between my heavy panting. "Rocks and leaves can't be this interesting! You've literally lived here your whole life! What are you going to do when we enter a city and everything is actually new to you?"
I watch as my brave little fighter sticks his nose into yet another pile of leaves.
"No matter how many you check, the leaves aren't going to do anything different." I lament before continuing to walk down our initial path, silently grateful for the break from my running.
"Zagoon"
"Cascoon"
"See, now let's keep going." Wait, Cascoon? I stop in my tracks and spin around. "Wait, what'd you find?"
"Zag Zigzagoon!" Well great, now my partner's getting snarky with me.
It's hard to take offense to the snarky tone when he's rolling a pink cocoon around the forest floor as he says it though.
I'm almost worried that it might attack him, but it doesn't seem like it will. Its eyes are narrowed in what might be annoyance, but it's hard to tell the emotions of a spiky pink ball with eyes. Cascoon only learns Harden, and Goly looks to be having fun, so it should be fine right?
I take a seat on a nearby log and catch my breath, silently wishing I had a phone or camera to capture the moment. This continues for about five minutes before the Cascoon shoots a Poison Sting at a tree, both expressing its annoyance and reminding me that Pokemon can keep their moves from previous evolutions, even in a world where it's not a game.
"Alright Goly, leave it alone now," I call out, standing up from the fallen log. "Cascoon, I can put you back under a leaf pile, if you'd like."
"Cascoon"
The tone sounds like acceptance, so I cautiously approach the Bug-type Pokemon and carry it back to the leaf pile Goly had pulled it from. Its body is incredibly soft to the touch, but I quickly set it down before it gets annoyed enough to poison me.
With Cascoon properly hidden once again, Goly can no longer wait and sets off at a breakneck pace toward our destination once again. That is, until he finds something new to distract him.
Six days later and I'm now much more tolerant of Goly's explorations.
After all, without him, I may have starved before getting out of these damned woods. Even if we double our pace and cut the time it takes us to reach our goal in half, three or four days without food would spell the end for me. Goly's ability to find every berry tree and drinkable water source has been a literal lifesaver.
I had never thought that this forest would be so massive, but I guess that's to be expected now that I'm in a real new world. The maps can't possibly be as small as they are in the games. Still, I'm pretty damned sick of sleeping on the cold forest floor at this point. Goly has been getting antsy and doing much less sidetracking since we started off this morning though, so I think our destination might be nearby.
Jogging at a sedate pace behind my partner who sprints back and forth, I think back on the past few days.
Day 1
After the encounter with Cascoon, not much else of note happened for the next few hours. We found an Oran berry tree and had a quick lunch before stocking up on a few berries to go and heading back out.
A sleeping Slaking had us holding our breath and tiptoeing by, but the pack of Vigoroth around it seemed content to let us pass, so long as we caused no harm. Maybe they too wished to keep their powerful leader asleep.
Day 2
We had our second battle on this day, though it wasn't nearly as intense as the Beedrill fight.
A Wurmple with a massive chip on its shoulder wasn't very happy about Goly knocking it off a tree branch in another one of his little adventures. The Wurmple was larger than any other of his kind that I had seen thus far, so I approached the battle cautiously, but that wasn't necessary. It only knew Tackle and String Shot, but our opening move, Sand Attack, forced all the String Shots to miss. Goly then ran circles around it with his much superior speed and knocked it out after three Tackles. Though we did leave it an Oran berry before leaving because I felt that the whole incident was Goly's fault to begin with.
Day 3
A Mightyena pack woke me from my sleep and nearly made me crap my pants. They didn't attack, but seeing six of them circling us definitely got me and Goly up and on the move quickly. Not even my feisty raccoon wanted to test their patience. That whole day had no sidetracking and only one break to eat.
Day 4
Our third battle, once again instigated by Goly.
During our trek through the trees, Goly sniffed out a Taillow eating a Sitrus berry on a low branch above us. This is where I learned that he probably knows Covet and that Covet is a pretty nasty move. Goly did that poor bird filthy.
He called out to the Taillow and waved to it with a cheerful face, chattering in poke-speak. When Taillow called back, Goly climbed the tree and approached. Even I thought that he was just making a new friend. Seeing him use Cascoon as a toy ball should have clued me in to the fact that my partner's a bit of a little shit. My eyes are wide open to that now though because when Goly got up close with the Taillow, he showed some next-level disrespect. Goly backhand smacked the stuffing out of that bird, stole its berry, and ate the whole thing before anyone could react.
This led to a battle of course, as the poor bird was outraged enough to learn Rage on spot. I felt bad, so I didn't give any orders to Goly here. I just told him he was on his own. He struggled a bit with a flying enemy, but a well-timed use of Protect knocked the Flying type to the ground. The battle was over before Taillow could get back in the air.
Day 5
I noticed that my body was already feeling tangibly stronger at this point. I don't know if it's because of the berries, or just because humans are naturally stronger in a world of superpowered creatures, but it was a welcome feeling.
Early this morning, we came across a clearing filled with Shroomish and Oddish, but with no members of their future evolutions in sight. These Pokemon were very skittish and fled upon noticing us. Goly made his best discovery yet by finding a Leaf Stone where they had been standing. I kept that, considering the possibility of needing it later. Otherwise, I could sell it to gain some funds. I will need to acquire a Pokeball for Goly after all.
Not much else happened that day, but I noticed that the Pokemon that I saw seemed to be getting progressively less powerful on average as we moved. That gave me hope that we might have been nearing human civilization.
"Zigzag! Zigzagoon!"
An excited voice snaps me back to the present.
Goly has stopped and is looking back at me, obviously impatient for me to catch up.
"What'd you find this time bud?" I pick up the pace and kneel down to pet him when I reach my partner.
Goly's discoveries, both the mundane and the interesting, have become a source of entertainment to me by now. You truly never know what he'll find. This could be the 283rd leaf, or it could be a sleeping Nidoking. At this point, I won't rule out the possibility of him finding a mega stone or even Jirachi.
As I pet his soft fur, I look around for what grabbed his attention. He's staring forward now, so I follow his gaze.
A large brown shape, too big to be a Pokemon. I push my head through the thick foliage to get a better view.
In the center of a clearing sits a log cabin with a smoking chimney at the top.
"Skar!"
A shrill call turns my head to a massive steel bird on the opposite side of the roof. The silver raptor narrows its yellow eyes at me and holds me in place. This thing is powerful. That's what my thumping heart is telling me.
The pressure I feel is not as oppressive as Ursaring was, but I can sense that I won't be able to escape this Pokemon if it decides to attack.
"What's out there Skarmory?" The door opens and a woman in a red jacket steps out of the cabin with a Pokeball held at the ready.
Her eyes scan the perimeter of the clearing until they fall upon me, whereupon they widen like saucers and her Pokeball falls to the ground.
Reid Redwood
Badges: 0
Pokémon: 0
Companions:
Goliath (Goly)
Zigzagoon
Moves:
Extreme Speed
Protect
Tickle
Growl
Sand Attack
Tail Whip
Tackle
Covet
