Outsiders (Pokémon/ZnT Reverse Summon)
Season 1, Episode 5, Chapter 3
As soon as Louise released Saito's hand, she took off in a sprint, leaving the boy behind. Saito could only chuckle to himself, placing his hand in his pocket and keeping an eye out for a taxi. Soon enough, one entered his view, and he raised his hand to signal the driver. As he did, a sharp bang from a nearby alley caught his attention. With a noticeable jump, Saito turned and faced towards the dark alley.
"…Uh, hello?" he called out, his hand slowly reaching for his Pokéball. A dark shape soon revealed itself, causing him to hastily pull out a Pokéball in warning. As the figure stepped into the light, he lowered his hand it revealed itself to be a dirty young boy, staring at him with wide, pleading eyes.
"Hey there," Saito greeted the boy. Looking around in an attempt to find his parents and finding no trace, Saito knelt down to look at the boy eye level. "You lost? Where's your parents?" The boy said nothing, unnerving Saito even more, before suddenly turning around and running back into the alley.
"Hey, wait!" Saito shouted as the boy ran off. Seeing how no one else was around, and unwilling to let a child, Saito quickly took off in the sprint, hoping to find and help the lost child. The boy turned out to be quite fast, with Saito only catching glimpses of him as he traversed the long winding alley until eventually he found himself at a chain link fence, with the boy nowhere in sight. Cursing silently to himself, Saito looked around the alley, only to find nothing but a few trashcans and lose bricks, neither a child nor a hiding place in sight.
As he was silently stewed on where they could have gone, a cold laugh echoed just behind him. Spinning around in a fright, he was greeted by a dark, human-shaped shadow about half of his height that was just standing against the wall of the alley, casually throwing a brick up and down in its hand.
"Uh, hello… I guess you haven't seen a kid here, have you?" Saito cautiously stated. The ghost cocked it's head to one side before violently throwing the brick right by his face and into the fence behind him. Saito quickly expanded a Pokéball as the ghost unleashed another spine-chilling laugh.
"Well if it's a fight you want… Water Gun, Ronin!" Saito yelled out as he threw the Pokéball. In a flash, Ronin landed and quickly fired off a stream of water, however the ghost merely cackled as the water passed through harmlessly. Before Ronin had a chance to attack again, the ghost quickly launched another brick, forcing Ronin to roll out of its way and Saito to duck.
"Ok, water won't work. Try Air Slash!" With a frustrated shake of his head, Ronin grabbed the scalchop from his chest and slashed toward its midsection, but again the ghost allowed the strike to skid across its midsection, apparently only scrapping the bricks it was leaning against, and quickly darted forward with a clawed hand that narrowly missed the otter. Narrowing his eyes in confusion, Saito attempted to scan the ghost in front of him with his Pokédex to figure out just what it was but it returned with an error.
"What the hell is this thing?" he muttered as Ronin fired off another Water Gun that passed harmlessly over it as it melted back into the ground. Another laugh echoed in the alley before another brick was thrown from somewhere, this time slamming into Ronin's head. Seeing how this was going nowhere fast, Saito pulled out Tanuki's Pokéball.
"Ok Tanuki, let's see what you can come up with!" With a cry, Tanuki bounded forward from his ball, but upon seeing the shadow disappear, he scrunched his face up in confusion. The Ghost quickly reappeared again along the wall, leering at the hound. "Meteor Mash!" Saito commanded, but Tanuki remained still as he closed his eyes, "Uh, Tanuki?" Saito asked in confusion before Tanuki suddenly opened his eyes and dashed to a nearby trashcan. Grabbing a lid, he twisted his body around and threw it towards a higher up windowsill.
"Tanuki, What are you do-!" Saito questioned but stopped himself as the lid bounced off something that moaned in pain and then surprise as it fell from its perch and into some garbage cans, the ghost suddenly dissipating into nothingness. The small figure noisily untangled it's self from its undignified landing and stumbled out from behind a bunch of garbage cans clutching its head.
All those present stared incuriously at the figure before them "Tanuki? Are you sur-" Saito started but quickly cut himself off as the Pokémon snapped his head up towards them and growled in annoyance. As it did, two sickly, blue-white flames snapped into life above its head and a garbage can lid was wrenched in front of it like a shield. Tanuki quickly dashed forward but a familiar shadow suddenly darted up from the ground and grabbed his leg, swinging him into a nearby wall. As Tanuki fell to the ground, the figure threw a pair of flames at the downed hound.
"Apparently so...Water Gun Ronin!" Ronin, still unsure of how the battle had suddenly turned out, shot a stream of water at the Pokémon before them. The figure simply waves it's hand, angling the lid to deflect the weak stream and casually threw a black ball that slammed into the surprised otter, throwing him back nosily into the fence. Quickly the figure swiped it's hand back and brought the lid around in time for a fist to embed its self into the middle of it. Tanuki narrowed his eyes, ripped his fist back and kicked the lid up, exposing the distorted figure that quickly disappeared in a haze.
"Ronin, you ok?" The otter responded by flipping himself back to his feet and muttered angerly at himself, apparently pissed off that he got suckered like that. "How about you, Tanuki?" the hound grunted in confirmation as he patted out a few strands of fur that were still on fire.
"Ok, Tanuki, you know where he went?" Tanuki closed his eyes again, only to get beaned by a brick, driving him to the ground, with more laughter echoing around the alley as the figure appeared on a fire escape. Saito was able to get a slightly better look at it, although it was still obscured by shadow. It was small, probably at most two feet in height. Whatever it was, though, it was strong.
"Razor shell, Ronin!" Saito yelled as Ronin dashed up with a war cry, only for it to turn to surprise as his shell passed straight through the figure. The shadow dissipated, only for another to form and grasp the outstretched arm, quickly spinning Ronin around and before throwing him high into the air amid another round of cackling. At this point, Tanuki stood back up, rubbing the back of his head as a deep growl escaped his muzzle. Amused, the Pokémon walked out from behind some garbage bags with a visible smirk on his face while he held his arm above his head.
"Tanuki don't attack just yet!" Saito called out but in warning, he was already in motion, his fist glowing as he ran forward. The figure simply waited until Tanuki was a few feet from him and dropped his arm, causing a flailing Ronin to slam into him from above, driving both of them into the ground, causing the Pokémon to almost double over laughing. Before they could recover, it disappeared into another distorted flash.
"You two ok?" Saito quickly moved up next to the downed pair, "Don't suppose he decided to run away, do you?" An almost musical chirp quickly answered him from behind. Slowly turning around with a grimace, he spotted the little demon casually kicking his feet as he sat on the chain linked fence with a smile grinning down at them. He would have looked innocent if it wasn't for the four flames that hovered around his head and a pair of bricks on either side of him. Tanuki almost charged him but an outstretched arm stopped him.
"Just charging him isn't getting us anywhere, Ronin you distract him and get him to expose himself, Tanuki hang back and wait for an opportunity and surprise him when it happens." The pair nodded in confirmation Tanuki jumped back up to the fire escape and Ronin stepped forward.
"Now, I don't know what it is that we did, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Just let us go, and we'll never bother you again."
"He tells the truth, foul oni," Ronin glared at the creature. "Let us pass."
"Ooh, I'm shaking!" the Pokémon mocked. "How can I possibly defeat a half-assed weaboo playing a samurai and his pet dog. Oh, I suppose the Riolu's around here somewhere, maybe he can take the dog to the vet!"
"… I take it back," Ronin scowled as he pulled out his scalchop, incredibly insulted. "I will enjoy this."
"Alright then. Ronin, spray down those fireballs!" Ronin immediately sprayed out a wide stream of water that snuffed out the balls and swiftly dodged the bricks that were thrown in retaliation. Despite the loss of his fire, however, the demon simply continued sitting on the fence with that exact same smirk still plastered on his face.
"That's a fake, MOVE!" Saito shouted, just in time as a pitch black orb shot out from somewhere and slammed into the ground. As the blue otter dodged, a growl echoed through the alley as two more fireballs hissed into life in the air over him. Ronin prepared another wide stream when Saito noticed a shadow rearing up behind him.
"Duck and use Razor Shell behind you!" With the shadow looming over him, he quickly twisted on the balls of his flippers and delivered an uppercut on the shadow, splitting it in half and immediately dissipating in the air. The action, however, left him open to the encroaching fireballs. Spinning around, he quickly slashed though one that caused it sputter out but the last one hissed into his right arm, sparking another disembodied chuckle that was cut to a panicked wheeze that sounded vaguely above to his right.
Glancing over, he saw Tanuki apparently managed to track him down and was currently gripping him by his throat. He apparently attempted to stammer something out before which only served to infuriate Tanuki even more. Insulted, Tanuki spun the demon around and threw him to the ground hard. To his credit, he only bounced once before getting his bearings and summoning another black orb to his hands. He glared at the hound as he jumped down from his former hiding spot only, to get slammed into a wall by a solid stream of water. When the stream ended he shakenly got back to his feet only for Tanuki to grab his leg, throw him into the air, and deliver a straight punch to his gut, slamming him into the other side of the alley. He remained stuck to the wall for a few seconds before bonelessly flopping to the ground with a pained moan and wet plop.
"Good job guys!" Saito congratulated the pair as he took a Pokéball out from his belt and glanced back at the thoroughly soaked and exhausted Pokémon before him, now finally able to get a good look at it. His eyebrows raised with recognition. He knew this species.
"A Ralts. Hmm," thinking to himself, Saito gazed towards the downed Pokémon. He was obviously very skilled by the fact he could hold off two Pokémon for a while, not counting how skilled Tanuki was, and he could use a Psychic-typing to help round off his team. Not to mention the fact that it knew Ghost-type moves, which crossed off one critical weakness Nodding to himself, he threw the ball forwards.
"Welcome to the team!" he shouted as the Pokémon was absorbed by the light. Holding the ball in his hand, he turned towards Tanuki and Ronin, equally exhausted yet staring at the ball intensely. Whether it was excitement or irritation, Saito couldn't quite tell, but he at least was just happy it was over with. Clipping the Pokéball to his belt, Saito turned around and made his way back out of the alley. Finding himself back out onto the street once more, he sighed to himself as he remembered the bet with Louise.
"Dang it, Louise is probably going to beat me at this point…" Saito sighed as he looked for a taxi, the prior one having already driven off. Another taxi soon showed itself, and flagging it down, the taxi parked next to Saito.
"Prism Tower, please," Saito requested. With a nod, the taxi driver began making his way through the Lumiose streets, leaving Saito to his thoughts.
'Yeah, she's probably already there. I mean, the Gym is seen across all of Lumiose. Who could possibly miss it? Just walk towards the tower and you're there.'
"Where is the Gym?" Louise muttered to herself, staring at the city map to no avail. Unlike the Santalune Map, the Lumiose City map had no dedicated Gym icon, yet she knew that there was one here. She really wished she'd gone with Saito on the taxi, but no, she got confident that she knew the city just because she lived there for three weeks. She didn't recall hearing anything about a Gym during her stay, why was she so certain she could find it? She debated going back to Professor Sycamore's lab and asking for directions, but after all her bravado earlier...it would be so embarrassing.
"Do you need some help?" A female voice asked. Slightly started, Louise turned around to see a shorter, teenaged girl with red hair and brown eyes clad in mostly green, a Pokémon she recognized as a Chespin standing by her side. A ways behind her stood a taller, black-haired, blue-eyed boy, clad in black and blue. Who looked an awful lot like Professor Sycamore when she thought about it.
"Er, yes," Louise admitted in resignation. "I'm looking for this City's Gym?" the other girl paused, before giggling.
"It's right over there, silly!" She laughed, pointing at the large tower at the center of the city.
"The Prism Tower?" Louise asked, gazing in its direction. Her obvious confusion only made the girl laugh even harder, only to be cut off by a grunt from the boy.
"Don't laugh. It's rude," the boy admonished, before turning to Louise. "But yes, the Prism Tower doubles as the Lumiose City Pokémon Gym." Seeing the embarrassment on Louise's face, he added, "Don't worry, it's a surprisingly common mistake. They really should mark that detail on the city maps."
"They really should," Louise muttered, shaking off her embarrassment. "Thank you very much for your help!"
With that she ran off towards the tower. It wasn't until she was halfway there that she realized she forgot to introduce herself, and mentally berated herself for forgetting common courtesy, idly wondering who those two helpful strangers were.
"Another trainer taking on the League, huh? Brings back memories, doesn't it, Alain?" the girl asked, a fond smile on her face as she basked in the memories.
"You make it sound like it was years and years ago. It was only last year, you know" the boy, now identified as Alain, chided. He then looked up at the sky. 'Someday soon...we'll battle again, Ash.'
As Louise finally found her way to Prism Plaza, she excitedly thought that she had managed to beat Saito, despite getting lost. That hope was quickly dashed as she noticed a blue clad boy already leaning on the tower with a victorious smirk on his face. Dejected, she slowly made her way over the tower, disappointed in her loss.
"You're late," she heard Saito's voice tease her as she approached. "What's wrong? Did you get lost?"
"No," Louise insisted with an embarrassed blush on her face. "I simply took the scenic route."
"Sure you did."
"Moving on," the pink-haired girl declared, ignoring her black-haired companion. "We have Gym Battles to win."
"Right, right," Saito agreed, as the two of them turned towards the Gym. "In all honesty, I can't really talk about getting distracted. Got caught up in a Pokémon battle before I found a cab. Caught it, though, at least."
"Wait, really? What kind?" Louise asked her companion as they walked towards the sliding doors, only to jump as a short, blond-haired girl ran out and straight into them. Being considerably shorter than them, neither of the two were really hurt, though the little girl fell backwards.
"Owie...," the little girl grumbled.
"That's why I told you to be careful!" Another voice scolded, as a blond-haired boy clad in blue wearing large, circular glasses stepped out. He then kneeled down by the little girl. "Are you alright, Bonnie?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she insisted, standing up and using her arms to wipe the dust off of her outfit. She then turned towards Louise and Saito, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "Sorry about that. Are you two alright?"
"I'm sorry, too," the taller boy sighed. "My little sister can be a bit of a handful sometimes."
"We're fine, don't worry," Louise assured him. Not wanting to repeat her faux paus from earlier, she introduced herself. "My name is Louise Valliere."
"Saito Hiraga," her companion introduced with a nod.
"My name's Bonnie!" The little girl stated cheerfully, she then held up the yellow bag she was carrying. "And this is Dedenne!"
There was a moment of silence, before Bonnie got confused and opened up the bag herself.
"Asleep again!? But you were awake just a minute ago!" There was a squeaking noise from within the bag, as an orange, rodent-like Pokémon with red circles and black whiskers on its cheeks emerged from her bag, rubbing it's eyes sleepily.
"Dedenne, huh?" Louise mused, pulling out her Pokédex.
"Dedenne, the Antenna Pokémon. It uses it's whiskers to communicate with its far-off allies, and can use its tail to absorb electricity, which it then fires from its lower whiskers." The Antenna Pokémon yawned, gave a small wave towards Louise and Saito, and then went right back to sleep. At this, Bonnie sighed before closing her bag and setting it back to its original position. Something told Saito and Louise that this was a common occurrence.
"Moving on, my name is Clemont. It's nice to meet you." With all the introductions exchanged, the now-identified Clemont moved on. "So, what brings you to Prism Tower?"
"We're here to challenge the Gym Leader," Saito explained.
"Ah," at this, both sibling's faces fell.
"What's wrong?" Saito's face warped in concern.
"You see, he might not look it, but Clemont is actually the Lumiose Gym Leader!"
"What do you mean I 'might not look it?'" Clemont screeched in indignation, causing Bonnie to chuckle.
"You are!?" Louise gasped in surprise, not expecting the Gym Leader to be a boy around her age. Saito, on the other hand, developed a resigned look.
"But since you were just leaving...you can't accept our challenge right now, can you," Saito deadpanned.
"Nope. Afraid not," the Lumiose Gym Leader confirmed with a downcast look. "You see, one of my inventions went a bit awry-"
"-by which he means it exploded," Bonnie interrupted, her face deadpan. Her older brother shot her a look before continuing.
"As I was saying, one of my inventions went a bit awry, and it damaged a few important systems in the Gym. It's going to take me at best a week to fix them all. At worst, it could take me a whole month."
"Oh," the two traveling trainers sighed in unison.
"Normally, I'd be able to have Clem-bot take on your challenge instead, but he's busy making sure nothing else explodes," Clemont explained. "So you'll have to come back another time."
"Clem-bot?" Louise questioned.
"Ah, he's a robot I built to help run the Gym. This Gym is in the center of the largest city in Kalos, so it gets a lot of challengers. Clem-bot usually takes over when I'm gone or need a break."
"Wow, cool," Saito admitted, seeing how such a thing could be useful. Louise thought about asking what a 'robot' was, but decided against it in case it was something that should be obvious to all the natives of this world. She resolved to ask Saito about it later.
"Well, I suppose there's no choice. We'll go visit some other Gyms and stop by some other time." Louise stated. "At the very least, it was very nice to meet you two… What is she doing?" Louise nervously asked Clemont as Bonnie began to look her over with a very intense look in her eyes.
"Hmm," Bonnie hummed to herself as she circled Louise, her hand resting in her chin. After finishing her circle, the entirety of which made Louise equally confused and slightly uncomfortable, Bonnie smiled and pounded her fist onto her palm. "You're a keeper!"
"I'm a what?" Louise was entirely lost at this point, while Saito could only look on in confusion and Clemont developed a look of horror. Bonnie, on the other hand, dropped down on one knee and outstretched her arm towards Louise.
"Please marry my brother!" At Bonnie's earnest declaration, the courtyard went silent, only to be broken as Saito collapsed into a fit of uproarious laughter. Louise turned crimson while Clemont, equally red, extended a large metal arm with three prongs for fingers from his backpack, grabbed Bonnie, and began to drag her away. Bonnie seemed to take it in stride, however.
"I've asked you to stop this a million times!" Clemont grumbled to his sister as he dragged her inside.
"Please consider it!" she yelled out with a wave before getting cut off by the Gym doors.
"You were no help at all," Louise angrily grumbled as she and Saito walked down the street.
"Oh come on, lighten up!" Saito chuckled. "You have to admit, it was funny."
"It was humiliating, that's what it was," Louise glared back. "What if someone's little sister or brother asked you to marry their sister?"
"… Is the sister pretty?"
"Saito!"
"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" Saito laughed as he held out his hands. "I'd say no, don't worry. I'd rather get to know a person first before I make that big of a decision."
"That's good to hear," Louise nodded. "So…what now?"
"I…don't really know yet. I'm planning on going up to the next Gym, but there are multiple options that directly connect to Lumiose."
"Really? Lumiose has multiple Gyms?"
"No, rather they are close by. To the west, there is the Cyllage City gym, which uses Rock-types, to the north is the Laverre City gym, which uses Fairy-types, and to the north-west is the Coumarine City gym, which uses Grass-types. They're all tempting. What about you?"
"Going to plan out my next move over at Sycamore's lab. There is no way I'm going to let what happened last time happen again."
"That's smart," Saito nodded as they stopped at an intersection. After getting confirmation to cross, the two teenagers made their way towards Sycamore's lab, Louise confidently leading the way. She at the very least knew where this was. As they reached the door, however, they paused to allow a man to exit the lab, only for him to stop as he noticed them.
"Sorry, I didn't think the Professor had aides at the moment," the man apologized and rubbed the back of his head.
"We're not working for Sycamore," Louise clarified with an unspoken 'anymore' meant for her. Saito, however, said nothing as he studied the man. He was dressed fairly plain and inconspicuous, with a pair of plain blue jeans and short sleeve shirt along with a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes.
"Ah, you're trainers then," the man nodded to himself and cupped his chin. "Are you here to get a starter?"
"No, we're just staying the night," Saito explained and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think we've caught your name. Mr…?"
"Where are my manners? I'm Nathan, pleased to meet you," the man now known as Nathan smiled, removing his sunglasses to reveal a pair of blue eyes. He started shaking Saito's hand before repeating the same to Louise. "Strange that you're staying with the Professor for the night instead of the Pokémon Center. Must be quite the story behind that."
"There's not much to say," Louise answered the implied question. "He helped me out a few weeks ago and he's willing to let us stay for the night. Are you by any chance working with Sycamore?"
"No, I'm an aide for Professor Juniper," Nathan answered, Saito slightly raising an eyebrow. "Professor Sycamore asked her for some notes on a research project on Mega Evolutions and I happened to be in town." Nathan finished speaking then raised an eyebrow.
"Say, weren't you there when that Pokémon Mega Evolved in the Santalune Forest?"
"The Beedrill?" Saito covered for Louise as she started staring at her shoes. "Yeah, that was weird. I thought Pokémon needed a keystone to Mega Evolve."
Nathan stared at them in thought for a moment before responding. "So did I, though I'm sure Sycamore will figure out what happened soon," he shrugged. "I heard that the Gym was closed temporarily. Any idea what Gym you two will go to next?"
Louise finally managed to pull her eyes off her shoes and responded, "We're not sure yet, actually. We were going to talk to Sycamore before deciding." Nathan hummed in thought before nodding.
"I suggest you head to Cyllage. The trail is easier than the ones to Laverre Town or Coumarine, and the Pokémon are usually less aggressive and easier to catch and train, so long as you stay on the trail." He took a quick glance at his watch and nodded his head towards Saito.
"In any case, it's been nice meeting you two but I have places I need to be. Be careful out there, you never know who will surprise you." With this, he took off at a quick jog down the street and soon disappeared from sight.
"What a nice man," Louise smiled to herself and turned towards the door before noticing Saito not moving, still staring after the man. "Saito? What's wrong?
"I—" Saito began to answer before being interrupted by the door opening once again, this time from a much more familiar face.
"Ah, Louise. Saito," Sycamore greeted them from the door. "Come in, come in. I was just about to make lunch. Tell me, how were your battles?"
"Funny thing," Saito shrugged, "the Gym is inoperable for a week, maybe even a month. We weren't able to battle."
"Ah, I see," Sycamore nodded. "Did one of Clemont's inventions explode?"
"Yes, actually," Louise nodded back, causing Sycamore to chuckle.
"Same old Clemont," Sycamore shook his head. "Funny thing, ninety percent of his inventions end up exploding, but the ten percent that don't end up revolutionizing everything. Like the Pokédex capable of housing a Rotom. But, enough about that. Come on in, I was about to make lunch." Opening the door, Sycamore led Louise and Saito inside, closing it behind them.
Hello, everyone! Here is the latest chapter of Outsiders! Saito caught a new Pokémon, a male Ralts this time, and this one has a bit of a temperament doesn't he?
Now, I know that some people might wonder why we gave both Louise and Saito a Ralts. The answer is simple. In FoZ/ZnT canon, Saito and Louise are Familiar and Master. It is an intricate relationship between the two of them that was never broken, no matter what ordeals they went through. This relationship is something that we wanted to convey, pay homage to, and we all figured that giving them both the same Pokémon would best reflect that. Given how Ralts has two different final evolutions, coupled with our fondness of the line, made the choice obvious.
Now, onto the Q&A:
MAJORMATT1234: Thank you. We all wanted to come up with a good explanation as to why the Mega Encounter occurred and emphasizing Louise as being the cause and tying it to how she got to Kalos in the first place seemed to be the best beg for us.
PokemonFan93: Louise's advice came from experience. She knew what she was talking about. As for Brennaraki, it won't really cause any major issues. Its as Brennaraki said. She just can't stay mad at Espirit. Louise actually does know about the Ralts line. Remember, she spent three weeks with Sycamore before leaving for Santalune. She learned a lot in those three weeks, and after the bad experience with Gardevoir on the internet, she learned about the final evolutions. Plus, she had Espirit for a few days, and as such could use the Pokédex to figure out what her Ralts could evolve into.
Kiri Kaito Clover: I'm glad to see you enjoying it!
MBenz4268: Arceus didn't actually open an Ultra Wormhole. Louise's Void did. All Arceus did was reverse the summoning spell. Think of it like ice fishing. Louise is the fisherman, the barriers between the worlds the sheet of ice, and the fishing pole the spell. Louise's void breached the barrier and let out a line into the other side. Arceus grabbed that line and pulled, which brought Louise through and into the other world. He was only able to do this because Louise kept the opening open long enough.
That is it for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed! See you all...I guess later on tonight at this point.