Outsiders (ZnT/Pokémon Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 4, Chapter 2
As the sun rose over Santalune, Saito remained peacefully asleep, the stress of the past few days gone, only to be woken up by the sounds of loud banging on his door. Groggily, he got out of bed and opened the door, revealing a fully prepared Louise, with an impatient look on her face.
"Well?" She began, her hands placed on her hips and tapping her feet. Saito stole a glance to the clock in his room, reading a bright red 'Six A.M.' on its face.
"Do you have any idea what time it is? Saito asked, tired and annoyed at being woken up at this time.
"Six A.M."
"… Why are you up at six in the morning? Why are you getting me at six in the morning?"
"You said you were going to train me today, so I got you up." Louise answered matter-of-factly, as if it was his fault that he didn't have her sleep schedule. He sighed and rubbed his eyes.
"I didn't say I was going to train you at the crack of dawn!"
"Why not?" At this, Saito stopped, unable to form words at how sincere she sounded.
"… You know what, you're right. Why not, indeed."
"Thank you," Louise had a smug look on her face. "I thought the same way."
"In fact, let's start now." Saito had a look on his face, one that Louise couldn't quite place, but she paid it no heed.
"Really!?"
"Yep," Saito smacked with emphasis. With Louise looking into his eyes in expectation, he continued. "First lesson: Patience is a virtue." And with that, he closed the door, Louise's face turning from expectation, to surprise, to finally anger.
"Saito! Saito, open this door, right now!" Louise banged on the door.
"People are asleep, Louise. Go back to bed, wait in the lobby, I don't care. We'll leave in two hours, after I get some more sleep, take a shower, and have breakfast." Saito's voice was more muffled, as if he had already gotten back into bed. Before she could angrily respond further, Saito's muffled voice rang out again. "Besides, I am training you. After all, isn't being impatient what got you into this mess in the first place?"
"… Grrk!" Louise grunted and stomped off to the lobby, unable to form a proper counter argument. "Stupid Saito…"
As promised, and after a longer than usual shower and hearty breakfast, much to Louise's growing irritation and Saito's amusement, the two made their way to Détourner Way. Anticipating that the training might take all day, Saito had suggested, to Louise's initial protests, to bring their full gear, a suggestion to which she ultimately relented. This, however, led to a separate issue.
"Why do you have that much stuff?" Saito asked to Louise, currently collapsed against a tree.
"I…was stupid…" Louise panted through heavy breaths.
"Yeah, I figured, but why? How, even? That stuff must have cost a fortune," Saito responded with a blank stare, to which Louise could only sigh.
"Remember that woman who broke into Sycamore's lab?"
"Yeah? What about it?"
"Her family was rich."
"… Oh… But why did—"
"I was stupid and assumed it would be better to get all this stuff then rather than later, and the PokéMart Supercenter is evil," Louise quickly answered as she recovered her breath, a mixture of embarrassment and irritation filling her voice. Saito paused for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, I can see that," Saito agreed, offering his hand to help Louise to her feet, which she accepted. "Moving on, let's get to why we are here." Quickly releasing his Pokémon, Saito beckoned Louise to do the same, who quickly complied. Ronin and Tanuki quickly ran up to Brennaraki and Aile and turned to face Saito and Louise, looking up at the two trainers expectantly. "Now then, I have some ideas for how to proceed, but I wanted to ask you something first: Where do you think you went wrong?"
"Hmmh," Louise hummed to herself as she looked over the previous battle again in her mind, raking it for every possible error before looking Saito in the eyes. "I got…overconfident, thinking that type advantage would carry me to victory when it couldn't."
"That is true, but you also forgot how your performance completely fell apart when Viola turned the arena into an impromptu ice skating rink."
"…how could I forget about that…" Louise grumbled at the memory. "Stupid Surskit…"
"Regardless of how 'stupid' the Surskit is, the fact is that once Viola froze the field, you couldn't adapt. That lack of being able to adapt is also a key weakness you have. You're too rigid, both in strategy and moveset, even after Aile and Brennaraki learned Quick Attack and Psywave. You didn't even think to melt the field." Saito paced, continuing to lecture to an attentive audience.
'…Founder, why didn't I do that?!' Louise slapped herself in the forehead as she realized the obvious solution to her previous ordeal.
"…So, what do you suggest I do to fix it?" Louise asked, crossing her arms. At this, Saito nodded his head at his Pokémon, who promptly nodded and barked at Aile and Brennaraki, beckoning them to follow. "Where are they going?" Louise asked as the Pokémon ran off, stopping at the opposite end of the clearing.
"I talked it over with Ronin and Tanuki, and we figured that they would be better teachers than either of us regarding teaching Aile and Brennaraki new moves, so they will be doing a separate training from us."
"Us?" A pit formed in Louise's stomach, which only deepened as Saito eyed the backpack she was still wearing. "What do you mean us?"
"Did that school you claim to have been a part of ever have P.E.?"
"…what's P.E.?"
After an hour of doing sit-ups, push-ups, and a wide array of other excruciating exercises, Louise had learned exactly what P.E. was: It was Hell.
"3…2…1. Okay, we can stop now," Saito, finishing another set of push-ups, declared as he stood up and stretched, while Louise, drenched in sweat, collapsed in a heap.
"Whoever…thought…of P.E…. can rot!" Louise groaned, her body sore and exhausted.
"A lot of people would agree with you there," Saito smirked, his amusement audible. "Now come on, get up. We still got run another two kilometers."
"You…can rot…"
"Talk like that and we'll do three kilometers," Saito chuckled, earning a sharp glare from Louise as she rose to her feet, panting. "Relax, I'm only joking. Let's take a break."
"Oh, thank the Founder…" Louise practically collapse from how quickly she sat down. Continuing to pant, she stopped only when Saito handed her a water bottle, then proceeded to down much of it in deep gulps. "Is… Is there a reason why…" Louise panted, struggling to get the words out.
"Why I had you exercise?" Louise slowly nodded at Saito, who remained smug. "Well after spending some time with you yesterday, I got the impression that you weren't in the best shape, and as an aspiring trainer, that is a characteristic you need."
"And all of that was really—"
"That and payback for getting me poisoned."
"How many times do I have to say sorry!?" Louise shouted, irritated at the now laughing Saito.
"It's fine, really," Saito, calming himself down, replied. "Now come on, we've had enough rest. Time for our nex—" Saito began, only to be interrupted by the smell of smoke. Looking towards its source, he and Louise saw a small fire, courtesy of a sheepish Brennaraki, getting put out by Ronin.
"I wonder what they're talking about?" Louise wondered as Ronin began to lecture Brennaraki. Rustling in the trees alerted the two trainers to Aile and Tanuki's whereabouts.
"Don't know," Saito shrugged. "There are Pokémon that can talk like people, but usually they're a psychic, have an aura, or some combination of those." At that, Saito beckoned for her to follow, Louise reluctantly submitting herself to another kilometer of running, leaving the Pokémon behind once more.
As the two trainers ran off to continuing their training, the Pokémon themselves remained behind, concentrating on their own training. As Saito worked on improving Louise's physical strength, Ronin and Tanuki worked with Brennaraki and Aile to improve their counterpart's move sets.
To anyone else, their series of barks, yips, and chirps would be simply that, their understanding limited. But to the Pokémon, each sound and its meaning was clear as day.
"The key, Brennaraki," Ronin, currently kneeling with eyes closed, lectured, "is patience. Let your mind clear, and concentrate. Turn the flame into a great vortex."
"I'm trying!" Brennaraki grunted as she formed a fireball in her mouth. But instead of letting it loose, she kept it stable and still as she tried to manipulate it. "This stupid thing won't spin!"
"You are very much like your trainer. So very short-tempered."
"Don't talk down to me, you wannabe knight!" Brennaraki yipped, accidentally letting go of the fireball, sending it flying into a scorched patch of dirt and setting it ablaze. Before it could spread, a stream of water was dumped into it, extinguishing the flames.
"Heh, heh… Oops?" Brennaraki only received a blank stare from Ronin, directing her to try again. As she turned to do so, Tanuki jumped over them, a speeding Aile hot on his heels.
"Come on, you Slowpoke!" Tanuki taunted, effortlessly leaping from branch to branch.
"If you'd slow down, I would have caught up to you already!" Aile screeched as she sped towards the laughing dog. As she neared, Tanuki suddenly jumped overhead, forcing Aile to sharply bank and turn around. "Gaagh!"
"Where's the fun in that?" Tanuki asked, ducking under Aile once again. "Besides, we're doing agility training. Part of that is concentrating your energy, converting it into a speed boost, and not immediately releasing it. It's easy, really."
"If it's so easy, why don't you use it!?"
"Because I'm too awesome for it, that's why." Tanuki smirked, much to Aile's growing irritation. "Now, what's it going to take to get you properly motivated. Maybe some food that ends up attracting more Beedrill?"
"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry about that!"
"A lot more would be nice," Brennaraki butted in, accidentally letting lose the fireball once more. "Dang it… Wait, that one had a small spin to it!"
"Very good. Now, let's try again." With renewed confidence, Brennaraki began forming a fireball once more. At the same time, Aile continued her training with Tanuki, determined to finally catch the annoying hound.
After another exhausting run with Saito, Louise, wheezing from the exercise, trudged back into the clearing, drenched in sweat. Saito, on the other hand, continued to be in good spirits, albeit also covered in sweat.
"Wow, you are really out of shape, huh?" Saito's smirk was audible to the exhausted girl. Before she could wheeze out a retort, Saito pulled out a water bottle and handed it to the girl, who greedily began gulping it down. "Easy, easy. Take it slow, alright?"
"… Thank you," Louise, heeding his advice, finished drinking her water. As she handed the bottle back to the boy, she noticed it was only halfway full. "So, what now? Going to have me do more exercise?" Louise held back the nervousness from her voice the best she can, but it still made itself known.
"Nah, I think we're good for today." Saito's words were like music to Louise's ears.
"Oh, thank the Founder…" Louise sighed in relief. "So, now what do we do?"
"Now, we get to the reason why we are here," Saito turned away from Louise towards the other end of the clearing, where the four Pokémon were still training. "Ronin, Tanuki, it's time for phase two! Come on over!" At Saito's command, the four Pokémon ceased their training and quickly made their way to their trainers. "Now, getting physically stronger and learning new moves is good and all, but unless you know how to properly strategize, they won't mean much."
"Make sense," Louise nodded in agreement. "So, I take it we're going to have a practice battle to work on that?"
"Got it in one," Saito, taking Ronin and Tanuki with him, walked to the far end of the clearing and continued to talk. "Now, we are going to treat this as a mock Gym Challenge, with me as the Gym Leader. As such, I will not be switching out my Pokémon while you can." Saito, arriving at the far end, stopped and turned around. "You ready?"
"Brennaraki, Aile, any progress on Fire Spin and Agility?" Louise whispered to her Pokémon, who nodded in affirmation. "We're ready!"
"Alright, then. Ronin, you're up!" Ronin promptly ran out onto the field, bowing once again to Louise before readying himself. "You take the first move."
"Aile, let's go!" As the tiny bird flew off of Louise's shoulder and hovered over her starting position, Louse wracked her brain, remembering Ronin's previous performance. Coming to a decision, Louise started to give orders. "Take off with Tailwind! Don't stop moving!" Aile, flapping her wings, created a draft of wind and took off, soaring high above the battlefield.
"Air slash, Ronin!" Saito commanded. "Keep her off balance!" Ronin, pulling out his scalchop, began firing compressed slices of air towards the bird, who nimbly dodged them with a series of rolls and dives.
"Dive down and use Agility!" Aile began a rapid descent, dodging yet another Air Slash in the process, a purple sheen covering her body and sped up considerably. "Don't stop using it until I tell you to!"
"Ah, I see. Trying to compensate for when Tailwind goes away?" Saito asked, continuing to watch Ronin attempt to hit the increasingly faster bird.
"Yes, I am," Louise nodded before quickly regaining focus. "Aile, use Quick Attack!" With the added boost to speed Agility gave, Aile practically disappeared as she sped towards Ronin, who continued to fire compressed slices of air towards her. Just before the blow was dealt, Ronin dodge-rolled to the side, receiving only a graze to his right arm.
"Smart, using Agility to increase Aile's force," Saito appraised the strategy, watching Aile bank for another pass. "But, that strategy has a drawback, you know."
"What might that be?" Louise asked, watching Aile speed ever closer to
"It works both ways," Louise's eyes widened in realization as Saito smirked. "Air Slash on the ground!" Aile attempted to pull out at the last minute, but her speed made it impossible as Ronin sliced the ground in front of him and Aile, sending up chunks of dirt, grass, and rock into the air. Aile tried to slow herself down, but her inertia was too great as she flew straight into the cloud of debris and getting buffeted relentlessly before crashing hard into the ground. As she skid across the ground, a small trough was formed after her, only ending once she impacted a tree. As Aile struggled to lift herself off the ground, Louise wracked her brain for an explanation.
"What…what just happened?"
"Newton's First Law: An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force," Saito began to explain, remembering his high school education. "Sure, by using Agility and Tailwind in conjunction with one another, especially after using Agility multiple times, Aile did increase the force of her attack. But, that also meant that should she need to stop, inertia makes it that much harder. When Aile hit the ground that fast, she might as well have been crashing into concrete."
"…oh," Louise slapped her forehead. "Of course it would."
"Don't get me wrong, it's a sound strategy. It just needs improvement, that's all. Probably use Agility less, and it could work." Saito suggested.
"I'll keep that in mind. Shall we?"
"Sure thing. Ronin, Water Gun!" At that, Ronin let loose a stream of water towards Aile, who jumped over it and took off into the air, the Tailwind dying down as she did so.
'Come on, think!' Louise thought as she observed the battle, trying to find a weakness to exploit before eying Ronin's arm. "Wait a second… Aile, skim just over the ground and fly towards Ronin!" Aile, confused as towards Louise's thought, complied and proceeded to do so. As she sped across the ground, dodging streams of water, a small dust cloud was generating underneath and behind her, a cloud that was only increasing in size.
'What are you planning?' Saito thought to himself, eyeing the bird closely, who continued to get ever closer to Ronin.
"Now, bank!" At Louise's command, Aile sharply banked while the dust cloud kept going forward straight into Ronin. The Oshawatt could only shield his face from the debris, making him lose track of Aile. Regaining his composure as the dust cloud settled, he searched for Aile, his eyes rapidly shifting to and from areas of interest, only to find no trace of the small bird. "Quick Attack on his arm!" Louise suddenly shouted, causing Ronin's eyes to widen as Aile shot forward and, unable to get out of the way in time, received a direct blow to his wounded arm.
"Ronin!" Saito shouted, seeing his starter cry out in pain. Before he could respond, Louise issued another order.
"Latch on and keep using Peck!" Aile promptly wrapped herself around Ronin and began to rapidly peck the arm like a woodpecker, each sharp jab sending ripples of pain up Ronin's arm, who struggled to remove the bird. He began delivering sharp jabs to Aile in a desperate attempt to get the bird off, but unable to do so, he fell to his knees in pain.
"Okay, that's enough!" Saito called out, the battle promptly ending with Aile detaching herself from Ronin and Ronin, grasping his arm, walking over to Saito. "Kind of a cheap move, right there." Saito commented, eyebrow raised, as he applied a potion to Ronin's arm.
"What, you don't approve?" Louise smirked and patted Aile on the head.
"Against my Pokémon, certainly. From a practical standpoint, however, that was smart. Good job," Saito replied as he stood up. "You ready to keep going?"
"Of course." Louise confidently stated, Aile flying back onto the field, lower to the ground than the start of the first round.
"Alright then. Tanuki, avenge Ronin!" Tanuki, at Saito's orders, leapt out onto the field and landed in a three-point landing, glaring at Aile with a slight frown, his normal cheerfulness gone.
"…this is going to suck, isn't it?" Louise, her previous confidence gone, gulped. Tanuki promptly answered by stomping on a nearby flat rock, launching it into the air. Before Louise or Aile could respond, Tanuki delivered a roundhouse kick to the rock, sending it flying straight into Aile, who crashed to the ground in a heap, her eyes looking like swirls. "…Guess that answers my question."
"I'm just going to point out, that was Tanuki's idea, not mine," Saito pointed to a now jolly Tanuki, who was happy to avenge his comrade.
"Figured as such," Louise grumbled, returning Aile to her Luxury Ball and sending out Brennaraki. "Well, I'm not going to let this insult slide! Brennaraki, Psywave!" Brennaraki promptly fired off a wave of psychic energy, its cascading form shooting towards Tanuki.
"Dodge then use Quick Attack!" Tanuki, already preparing to dodge, cartwheeled out of the way and shot himself forward, attempting to tackle Brennaraki to the ground. Jumping out of the way, Brennaraki launched another psychic wave towards Tanuki, who used Quick Attack to dodge out of the way.
"Ooh, that's clever. I should use that…" Louise mused to herself. "But that's for later. Brennaraki, let's try out Fire Spin!" Heeding Louise's command, Brennaraki formed a fireball in her mouth and began to rotate it, turning the small ember into a fiery twister and launching it towards Tanuki. Jumping out of the way, Tanuki, with pride in his eyes, gazed upon the twisting inferno, which remained in place. He, however, did not, as he backflipped over another Psywave. "Scorch the land!" Taking a cue from Viola and her Surskit, Brennaraki began firing more and more Fire Spins and Embers, forming a ring of fire that surrounded the two Pokémon, constricting their movements.
"Limiting his space to dodge, nice touch," Saito commented. "Tanuki, use Meteor Mash!" With a glowing paw, Tanuki rushed towards Brennaraki, who jumped into the raging inferno to escape the blow. Unable to safely follow, Tanuki held back and retreated towards the circle's center, tuning his sense to try and find the fire fox.
"Brennaraki, Ember!" Louise's voice suddenly shouted, directing Tanuki's attention towards a large fireball erupting out of the flames. Jumping over the attack, Tanuki had to lean back upon landing to dodge yet another fireball, this one coming from a different angle.
"Oh ho ho, using the fire as cover! That is nice!" Saito praised the tactic, causing Louise to erupt into a smile. As Tanuki continued to effortlessly dodge the Embers, now joined by Psywaves, Saito analyzed the situation, trying to find a way out. "Tanuki, use Quick Attack straight up!"
Understanding Saito's logic, Tanuki leapt upwards into the air, his jump boosted by the additional speed Quick Attack had given him. Curving himself midflight, Tanuki arced over the firewall, barely getting past the barrier, but receiving a slight burn in the process. Seeing her chance, Brennaraki launched another Ember at the hurt Riolu, only to be surprised when a glowing paw caught the fireball, holding it in place.
"… Huh. Did not know he could do that," Saito admitted, dumbfounded over the development, as was Louise and Brennaraki. Smiling, Tanuki threw the fireball back at Brennaraki, striking her in the face and following up with a Quick Attack. Taking the momentum forward, Tanuki landed blow after blow on the fire fox, dodging any attempts at retaliation she threw at him.
"Stop!" Louise yelled out, halting the battle in its tracks. "I yield." Nodding to her, Saito directed Ronin to begin putting out the flames while he and Louise began administering medicine to the injured Pokémon.
"Not bad," Saito stated as he and Louise worked. "You're learning. Pretty quickly, I might add."
"Thank you. Think I'm ready for Viola, yet?"
"Not just yet. Maybe tomorrow," Saito advised. Unlike last time, Louise nodded in agreement.
Hello, everybody! Here is the latest chapter for Outsiders! Louise and Saito have officially begun their training, and as you can see she is taking the lessons to heart. One thing that characterizes Louise the best is that she does not give up and always works her hardest to improve. But here is the difference. Back in Halkegenia, she was surrounded by less than supportive people. This did not create the best environment for her, hence why she would frequently lash out in an attempt to prove herself. Here in Kalos, however, she is surrounded by people who want to help her and don't put her down. Sycamore, her Pokémon, and now Saito. She is in a much better place to grow in a much more positive direction, and that is something that we wanted to emphasize.
Now, onto the Q&A:
MAJORMATT1234: Yep. We wanted Louise to lose against Viola hard. There is no realistic reason why she, a complete newbie to Pokémon as a whole, would beat Viola, an experienced Gym Leader. And the beat down was so severe that Louise, who knew that Saito, a person she had a decent relationship with, had a Gym Badge, she swallowed her pride and asked for help.
As for other conflicts, stay tuned for those.
Jyoster: Yep, rookie mistakes are inevitable. That is for sure. And yes, we were inspired by Ash's first loss to Viola. There is a reason why we nicknamed the Surskit she had the Hellskit.
MBenz4268: That is a good headcanon and one that we share as well. Part of the reason behind Pokémon Journeys are that they serve as a rite of passage to people. It does create a sense of humility to people. This isn't like what Shudo originally intended. His original plan was for most trainers to become deadbeats and losers. He also wanted the series to end with a Pokémon revolution against humans, but Nintendo obviously put that down. Here, Pokémon training is mostly portrayed in a positive light, as it is in the series as a whole.
PokemonFan93: The thing about how the battle goes actually stems from a practical decision on our end. One of the things that we noticed about a lot of different Pokémon stories is that the action gets broken up by given orders. It messes with the flow, and as such we did not want to do that. Plus, since we are doing a slightly more realistic take on Pokémon as a whole in terms of how things operate, we decided that trainers are less like generals giving orders and more like Coaches. They occasionally give orders, yes, but for the most part merely teach Pokémon how to better use their abilities and get stronger. As for PP and other more game related stuff, we tried to incorporate elements of it in a more realistic fashion. So, with PP, the more a Pokémon uses a specific move, the weaker it gets. It is less of a "bullets in a magazine" and more "water in a tank". Eventually, as the energy gets extinguished, the tank empties, and what comes out is less and less until it can't anymore until it gets replenished.
Also, I forgot to mention this back at the end of Episode 1. SwiftRosenthal, our original editor, left the project after this point. However, most of the Pre-Story planning was done with him, so he does deserve much of the credit for this story. As for our current editor, PurveyorOfBadIdeas had graciously taken over the post. For that, me, Grendel4823, Firebird Zoom, Catboy41, and wildrook all thank you.
We hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned tomorrow for the next chapter of Outsiders!