Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 2, Chapter 1
When Louise and Brennaraki had set off earlier at dawn, going south on Route 4, she, and by extension Professor Sycamore, had expected it go smoothly. After all, Route 4, otherwise known as Parterre Way, is widely considered to be a beginner's route. Many families even have picnics on the Route, which Louise saw personally as she passed by several during her now seven-hour trek. However, things were not going to plan. Gone was happy and exhilarated Louise from the start of her journey. In her place, was something else entirely different.
"Why… in the founder's name… did I refuse… transportation?!" Louise wheezed out as she trekked along, with a defeated Brennaraki having retreated into her Luxury Ball and adjusted her backpack for the tenth time in the past half hour alone. "Oh yeah…I remember! 'Oh, you don't have to get a ride for me, Professor! You've done enough already! I can do this myself! Besides, it'll be fun!' Founder, I'm an idiot! This isn't fun at all! My feet hurt like hell, this stupid backpack is way too heavy with all the stupid stuff I bought!" As Louise continued to rant, she paused for a moment to wipe away the heavy sweat that flooded her head and swipe away a small cloud of mosquitoes hovering around her.
If one were to look at Louise, they would assume she was miserable, and they would be correct. As it turns out, Louise and Brennaraki were not in as good of shape as either them nor Sycamore assumed. Now, to be fair, Louise was in better shape than most of her classmates. Lack of proper magic control forces someone to walk and carry a lot, rather than levitate. But Louise had never traveled this far before on foot, especially while burdened with a heavy backpack, and Brennaraki had never gone outside the lab. Indeed, much of the problem laid with the backpack itself, and its contents, something Louise was very much cognizant of.
"'Oh, Louise. I think you got too much. You don't need that many supplies for a two-day hike.' 'It'll be fine, Professor! You worry too much! Better safe than sorry, am I right?' Yeah, right! More like buy enough to break my back!" Louise raged in frustration, all the while extremely grateful that she was alone with her thoughts. "Stupid Poké-Mart Supercenter…" At this point, Louise's rage began to cool, with the day's exhaustion roaring back into its rightful place.
"Forget… this. I got…to take a break…" Louise wheezed as she dragged herself to a nearby tree, sitting down and leaning against it. As she sat down, she removed the large backpack, placing it on the ground next to her, reliving her body of the extra weight. At the same time, she removed her hiking boots, freeing herself from its tight space.
"Ahh, that's better…" Louise breathed out as she rubbed her feet. Before long, Louise began to drift off, until sleep descended upon her, not stopping to wonder where the mosquitoes had gone.
When Louise opened her eyes again, the sun still shone brightly overhead but was noticeably further down. She would only have a few more hours of daylight left before she would have to make camp for the night. With that in mind, Louise reluctantly began to try and move back up, only for a weight to keep her down, not to mention her right arm was still asleep and refused to budge. She looked down to see the still sleeping form of Brennaraki curled up on Louise, using her legs as a bed. Apparently, Brennaraki had gotten out of her Luxury Ball and had decided that Louise's lap made a suitable bed. The fire fox was snoring and judging by the smile on its face was having a wonderful dream.
Louise smiled at the adorable scene before a thought came to her head. She had never actually scanned Brennaraki with the Pokédex. Plus, Sycamore had told her it had a wide variety of functions that she didn't know how to use, and now was as good a time as any. Carefully, Louise maneuvered the backpack around for her to manipulate and reach inside. While searching for the Pokédex, she was quickly reminded of her last shopping experience, but she put the grumbling feelings aside, along with the useless stuff she had bought until she felt the shape of the Pokédex and grabbed it. The Pokédex itself was small, square in shape and pink in color. But, when Louise turned it on, the square expanded into a vertical rectangle, with clear glass forming the expansion. The glass did not stay clear for long, as it quickly turned light blue, lighting up and filling with colorful icons. As Sycamore described it, each icon represented a different application or function of the Pokédex, something Louise remembered as she tapped the first icon, one that looked like a map. The screen then shifted and displayed a map of Kalos, with each route clearly displayed and named. Breathing in amazement, Louise pressed her finger on Route 4, whereupon the map zoomed in and displayed Route 4 in full, with a red 'X' showing her position. Sycamore had apparently already used this app and had set her destination to Santalune Forest, and even when off had done an approximate time for her arrival. Louise had to bite back a curse at this, as according to the map she was only a quarter of the way through and, based off her current speed, would take two days to get to Santalune, and that was without stopping. Louise groaned at this, realizing that it would likely be four more days of walking in hellish conditions, for her anyway.
Sighing, Louise exited the map and pressed the next icon, a rectangle with a circle on the top middle, where the screen then shifted to display Louise's surprised face, along with a wide array of other icons. Louise gasped in surprise, only to accidentally press a circle icon, causing a snapping effect. Once it was done, a still image of Louise's surprised face filled the screen, with a 'Keep? Yes or No' buttons appearing on the top of the screen. Louise then realized what this function apparently was. Apparently, if she had to guess, this was the camera application, which according to Sycamore could take both photographs and videos. Louise, not wanting to keep that photo, quickly pressed no and prepared to exit the camera when the sight of a still sleeping Brennaraki gave her an idea. Louise then proceeded to find and press the flip button, replacing the sight of her face with that Brennaraki. Louise, after shifting the Pokédex to the right angle, took the picture and, proud of her first real photograph taken, pressed the 'Yes' button and saved the image before finally leaving the camera application.
Deciding not to waste any more time, Louise looked around for the actual Pokédex application icon, skipping over most of the other icons, before settling on a familiar Pokéball icon. Assuming it was the correct icon, Louise pressed it, which proved her assumption to be correct as the Pokédex opened. Angling the Pokédex towards Brennaraki, Louise activated the Scan function. To her surprise, a female sounding voice came out of the Pokédex, shocking Louise and waking up Brennaraki, none too pleased to be woken up from her rest. "Sorry…" Louise whispered out, before focusing on what the voice was saying.
"Fennekin, the Fox Pokémon. Its large ears serve as air vents, expelling hot air that can reach up to 200 degrees Celsius," The Pokédex informed Louise and Brennaraki, looking smug at the information. Seeing as how the Pokédex was no longer speaking, Louise decided to continue to the next section, which displayed her acquired Pokémon. As she only had Brennaraki, only her image appeared, with five more open slots available. According to Sycamore, a Trainer could apparently catch as many Pokémon as a trainer so desires, but a team can only be at most six. Moving this to the back of her mind, Louise clicked on Brennaraki's image, which shifted the screen to display more detailed information regarding Louise's Pokémon. Apparently, according to Sycamore, Pokéballs can conduct a more detailed scan of captured Pokémon, transmitting data to Pokédexes to tell trainers the moves, abilities, and stats of caught Pokémon.
"Okay, let's see here…" Louise stated aloud. "Brennaraki, you know the moves…Ember, I'm assuming that was the fireball you made earlier?" Louise asked Brennaraki, who nodded in affirmation, at which point Louise moved on. "And you also know…Magic Coat, which can reflect status moves back onto the attacker. Yeah, I could see how that could be usef-" Louise started before a light clicking noise sounded, to which Brennaraki tensed up, hairs standing on end and steam erupting from her ears. At this point, Louise realized that her arm was suddenly a little heavier than normal and was now emitting a strange clicking sound. Slowly, Louise turned her head to look at the source of the sound and weight, only to see a large green spider looking right into her eyes.
"AHH!" Louise shrieked as she jumped to her feet, causing the spider to jump onto the tree and accidentally sending a yipping Brennaraki flying forward. In a panic, Louise began to run, before an upturned root caused her to trip, ripping her leggings in the process. Louise quickly turned over to her back and began to crawl backward, her eyes never leaving the large spider, who continued to look at her in what appeared to be confusion, until an orange blur soared passed her as Brennaraki charged at the spider. Using teeth and claws, the fire fox engaged the spider, the two tumbling over each other.
"Brennaraki, attack!" Louise ordered, only to receive a look that screamed 'With what?' as it continued to bite and claw at the spider, causing Louise to scramble for an answer. "Uhh, just kick the spider off and bite it!"
At this, Brennaraki kicked the spider off her body and rolled back onto her feet, before quickly launching into a flying leap at the spider, who used a web sling to dodge the incoming fangs. Thinking quickly, Louise pulled out her Pokédex and scanned the spider, all the while Brennaraki continued the assault.
"Spinarak, the String Spit Pokémon. Spinaraks can patiently wait days for prey to come within reach of its webs," the Pokédex revealed as it displayed Spinarak's species information, revealing it to be a Bug and Poison type.
"Brennaraki, it's weak to fire! Start using Ember but watch out for those webs!" Louise ordered, watching the scene with baited breath. Brennaraki began to fire salvo after salvo of fireballs at the Spinarak, who by now was firing off attacks of its own, a mixture of web strings and poison darts. Unlike the Eevee, Brennaraki was much more skilled at dodging, bobbing and weaving in between the Spinarak's moves and firing off a fireball in-between each one. In turn, the Spinarak continued to swing around the tree to swing past the oncoming fireballs, only pausing to shoot out those darts. Those darts, however, went wide every time, both due to poor accuracy of the Spinarak and Brennaraki's skilled dodging, while her fireballs frequently came close to hitting her target. Eventually, a direct hit was scored on the Spinarak, who tumbled to the ground in a heap. Unfortunately, just as Louise and Brennaraki thought they had the fight in the bag, three strings of webbing shot out from the tree, hitting her square on, quickly encasing her in a cocoon of webbing.
"Brennaraki!" Louise shouted in alarm, rushing over to her fallen friend while the Spinarak quickly scuttled back up the tree. Louise quickly began to tear apart the webbing freeing her friend before a thought entered her mind. "Why didn't I grab my wand?!" Louise slapped herself before resuming in removing the web's.
After a few minutes of web tearing, Brennaraki was finally free of the cocoon and began heating up her body to burn off the small web strands still on her body, while Louise angrily up at the tree, her stare returned by four pairs of wary eyes. Before the tense standoff could turn into another confrontation, the eyes disappeared, leaving Louise and Brennaraki alone once again. With the danger passed, Louise allowed herself to release the breath she had been holding in.
"Okay, that was…not very good. On both of us," Louise admitted, only receiving a glare in response, making her pause in embarrassment before continuing on. "I…think we should practice a bit. Your attacks, me giving commands, the whole thing. That should not have happened. That…Spinarak was a Bug-type, an insect. Your Fire should have made this easy, but that did not happen. I should not have panicked like that, which threw us completely off guard. It kept dodging all our attacks, and when it saw an opening, it took it. I say we should work on those issues before we move on, alright?" Louise asked Brennaraki, who nodded in agreement. "Okay, let's get to work."
Although she would begrudgingly admit that she may have gone a little overboard while at the Poké-Mart Supercenter, in this case, she was happy with what she purchased. A set of practice targets had caught her eye while at the store and she decided that they would be good in case Louise needed them. As it turned out, that was a smart move. Using the targets, Louise created a makeshift target range, attaching the targets to various trees or makeshift stands that she made using sticks and duct tape. Several hours later, the seeds of Louise and Brennaraki's labors were beginning to bear fruit.
"Ember! Top left!" Louise ordered to Brennaraki, who fired a single shot at the target in question. "Bottom right!" Again, a single shot rang out.
Louise and Brennaraki had been doing this and only this for the past few hours. Louise would call out a target and move to use, and Brennaraki would follow the command. This practice served two purposes: One, it allowed Louise to get better at issuing commands. Two, it allowed Brennaraki to practice her aim. It wouldn't just be against single, non-moving targets. They would switch it up every so often, with Louise sometimes ordering Brennaraki to attack multiple targets in rapid succession and even throwing a few targets into the air to create a moving target.
It wasn't without its problems, however. During the process of setting up the range, the rip in Louise's leggings, formed during the Spinarak encounter, spread due to the stress of moving, and eventually split the entire garment in half. To preserve her dignity, Louise had to change into a pair of blue jeans she had bought at the Poké-Mart. Overall, however, Louise would say this was a successful use of her time.
"Now, hit all of them!" Louise yelled out, throwing five targets into the air, watching as five fireballs shot out towards their target. Four made their mark, with the fifth unfortunately going wide.
"Whew!" Louise sighed wiping away the sweat from her brow. But, as Louise looked around, she noticed the sun begin to dip below the horizon. Apparently, she lost track of time while setting up the range. Realizing that it was late enough for her to justify setting up camp for the night, Louise called out to her starter. "Brennaraki! We're going to have to call it a night. Help me set up camp."
Brennaraki yipped in response as she trotted over, pride evident in the way she carried herself over her practice performance.
"Okay, first thing is the…tent! Where is…" Louise asked herself as she reached around for the tent capsule. The tent that Louise had bought was the single most expensive item she bought but based off its boasted features was apparently well worth the price. It was rated for sub-zero temperatures, could hold multiple people comfortably inside. It even came in a collapsible container which squeezed the tent into a more manageable size. Louise would have been more impressed with that feature had the small size not made it so hard to find.
"Where…are…you…" Louise grumbled as she pulled out various items in her search. Pots and pans, silverware, glass jars, spare clothes, Louise pulled all of these out and more in her search before finally grasping the cylindered container of her tent.
"Found it!" Louise shouted out in victory as she held aloft the correct item capsule. Smiling, she activated the ball and threw it towards an open part of the clearing she and Brennaraki had practiced in, releasing the tent. At which point, another issue made itself apparent.
"…how do I set this up?" Louise wondered aloud as she gazed at the clumped mess that was the tent, turning to look at Brennaraki in vain hope, only to receive a shrug in response.
"Okay, this shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. I mean, how hard can it be?" Louise asked herself as she moved towards the tent. Thirty minutes later, with the moon beginning to rise above, she had her answer. "This is impossible!" Louise yelled out in frustration, throwing the tent poles onto the ground in frustration. Setting up the tent proved itself to be much more confusing than Louise had anticipated and as such was completely unable to successfully set up the tent without damaging it.
"Well, that was a complete waste of time," Sighing in defeat, Louise stuffed the tent materials back inside the container and placed it back inside her backpack. At the same time, she pulled out her sleeping bag. Like her tent, it two was rated for sub-zero temperatures and thus was very expensive. "At least this is simple enough…" Louise grumbled to herself as she rolled out the sleeping bag, only to stop when a gust of the night wind caused her to stop and shiver.
"Okay, got to make a fire," Louise shivered. She had already gathered some wood earlier that day while setting up the makeshift target range. Throwing the scraps of wood into a hastily made hole in the ground, surrounded by small rocks, an idea formed in her head.
"Brennaraki, can you come over here, please?" Louise asked her starter, who was resting on a fallen log. Perking up at the summons, Brennaraki walked over to Louise and sat down, awaiting further instruction.
"Can you light this for me with an Ember?" Louise asked the fire fox, who nodded in affirmation. At this, Louise smiled and stepped back in anticipation. Brennaraki then launched a fireball at the small pile of wood, causing it to come to a sputtering life. "Alright, good job Brennaraki!" Louise congratulated the Fennekin on a job well done, Brennaraki beaming at the praise.
With the fire going, Louise and Brennaraki began to huddle around it, basking in its warmth, before the sound of rumbling stomachs caught both of their attention. Knowing what to do, Louise pulled out a pan, a grill pan, and some food, placing them all on the fire. Staring into the slow cooking meal, and patience wearing thin after a long day, an idea formed in Louise's head.
"Hey, do you think you can heat this up, too?" Louise asked Brennaraki, receiving an eager yip in response. Taking the pan out of the fire and holding it above Brennaraki, Louise readied herself to eat a hot meal as Brennaraki fired a fireball, only to find herself shocked and disappointed when the food was burnt charcoal black. "Well, that's…disappointing," Louise said to herself, causing Brennaraki to look down in shame.
"Oh, it's okay, Brennaraki! We just…need to work on your control next time, that's all," Louise attempted to comfort her starter, feeling bad for her poor choice of words. Seeing how it wasn't working, Louise reached back into her backpack and pulled out some meal bars, one for her and one for Brennaraki. "Here, see? We'll be fine."
At the sight of food, no matter how unappetizing it may taste, Brennaraki tore into the meal bar. At his point, Louise had changed into her pink Pokéball styled pajamas and had migrated into her sleeping bag, wrapping herself up in its covers like a cocoon. As the fire died began to die down, Louise tried to drift off to sleep, only to find that, without the exhaustion from earlier, the ground was too hard for her to sleep. The sounds of the forest, teeming with nocturnal Pokémon and insects, also kept Louise awake, fearful of what the night may bring, only to feel a warm sensation from inside her sleeping bag. Looking down, Louise saw Brennaraki had squeezed her way inside of Louise's sleeping bag and had proceeded to curl up on her. Sighing in comfort, Louise wrapped her arms around Brennaraki and gazed upwards into the star-filled sky. She began to count the stars and searched constellations until sleep finally overcame her.
Hello, everyone! Here is the next chapter of Outsiders. As you all probably guessed, things did not go as well as Louise intended, but life never quite cooperates with us does it.
Now to answer questions:
MAJORMATT1234: We do have Louise's team all planned out already, and will not be accepting OCs. Thank you for the offer, however. Hers and Saito's teams have all been planned out, each with their own unique personalities.
Celestia's Paladin: This story actually takes place after the events of the XY anime. But, we are incorporating elements of the games where appropriate, as well as our own additions.
For example, you may notice how we do not utilize traditional Poke-Speak in our story. That is a deliberate choice to make the Pokémon seem more natural. Plus, we didn't want to have to keep writing the same name over and over again and try to make it into a conversation.
PokemonFan93: Other characters from the Anime and Games will be making appearances. What they are, we will not say.
Super heavy weapons guy: Her reaction is 100% justified. Anyone in her situation would do such a thing after all.
Thank you all for your support! Stay tuned for the next chapter to be posted tomorrow!