Whirlipede - Entoma

Dwebble - Gargantua

Wimpod - Cocytus

Heracross - Kyouhukou

Ribombee - Leinas

The sewers were rather drab. Pipes, brick, a creek of water flowing between two sidewalks, it was the most generic sewer system I've seen. I hadn't realized it when I was running, but now that we had been walking for a couple of minutes and everything seemed to repeat. It was very apparent that the architects were going for efficiency. Eh, fair enough, we weren't supposed to be down here anyway.

"Sooo... whatcha thinkin' about?" Roxie asked inquisitively. I had been rather quiet since we stopped running, but it was clear that she wanted to spark up a conversation.

"Interior design."

"What?"

"Just... the look of this place. Seems like there could be a bit more effort put into it."

She laughed a bit and replied, "I like it. Reminds me of Virbank."

"It does have that modern concrete sort of appeal, I suppose. Beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that. It's just that in Virbank, it feels more intentional and has a bit of character. Here? It's just plain concrete, with no graffiti or cracks or any sort of human traces."

"It's a bit empty, I guess. But that's 'cause nobody is let in, y'know? Get rid of that, and this'll be a regular teenage slum hangout. Tags over the wall everywhere. I'm sayin', it might not be great right now but it's a solid base."

Before I could respond, a cacophony of squeaks and squeals came from the tunnel ahead of us. A few seconds later, a dozen or so Rattata came stampeding towards us, clamoring and trampling over each other in a fleeing horde, clearly terrified of something. The group wasn't heading for us, rather, they were passing by into another tunnel perpendicular to us

"Heh," Roxie looked back to me with a trace of excitement in her smile, "Let's see what they were running from, eh?"

I rolled my eyes, "Normally, I would say going straight for danger is a poor idea, but we are looking for something. What, did you think I would say, 'Let's not go do that?' C'mon, let's go find your dangerous Pokémon."

"That's what I like to hear!"

We peered around the corner the swarm had come from, but there was nothing immediately as we looked down the passage. Rather, there was just another empty tunnel.

I looked at Roxie and flicked my head down the path, indicating for us to start creeping along. We slithered down the path, keeping to the less lit sides and checking around every corner. A bit of sneaking later, and we found the source of the fearful Rattata swarm.

Between the two paths, clogging the waterway and latched to each walkway, was a large mass of Grimer with a single Muk at the top forming a mass that reminded me of The Blob. We were traveling downstream, so the toxic water wasn't visible until we had gotten near them.

"Oh, damn," Roxie cursed under her breath. "We have to break that up. May as well grab one while we're here."

Huh, I think that was the first time I heard her curse. But, attacking the many-foot tall poison slime seemed like a very poor idea to me.

"Are you sure? That's a lot of Pokémon, might be rough to deal with."

"Absolutely. Grimer balls like this? They'll keep growing off the water and waste unless someone blows them apart. You don't want to see the sewers after they cap in size. Honestly, I'm not sure why nobody has dealt with this, it's a serious issue."

She was actually pretty concerned, so I figure she knows what she's talking about.

"Alright," I agree, "if we have to. So, how are we going to do this?"

"Well, we're downstream, so if we break apart the cluster most of the Pokémon will be carried downstream and washed out. We have to do it in a quick hit before any of them can realize what we are trying to do and get out of the water. What're your best ranged attacks that you can use on them?"

I thought about it for a second. Entoma and Kyouhukou don't have many worthwhile ranged attacks, especially not against poison-types. Leinas has a bunch of ranged attacks, but none of them are particularly suited for shattering a clump of slime. But, I did have Gargantua and Cocytus.

"My Wimpod has Water Pulse and my Dwebble has Rock Slide, which of those should I use?"

She considered it for a moment, then responded, "Water Pulse is great against a single one, but we need more area. Rock Slide will be best. Keep your Wimpod out though, there'll probably be a few who stay around that will try and attack us once the rest get knocked away. My Whirlipede would be a bit big for here and Koffing is a bit unsuited to fighting them, so I'll be relying on you for now."

We turned a corner to make sure that the cluster would be unaware of our preparations and I called out Gargantua and Cocytus.

"Hey, Gar. I'll be needing you to charge up a Rock Slide to knock apart a bunch of Grimer down that hall. I need you to actually charge it, not use the surroundings. If we cause structural damage, we're in for a bad time. And, Cocytus? You're on safety duty. If any Grimer charge us, blast them with a Water Pulse."

Gargantua was irritated at not being able to toss around the concrete walls but started to generate the six floating rocks regardless. Cocytus seemed happy just to be included.

After a minute or so of waiting, Gargantua had six rocks around half of my size and was visibly exhausted and struggling to hold them up through his limited geokinesis. I put a finger to my lips and motioned for us to start, all of us heading towards the corner.

Gargantua rounded the corner, absent of his usual cry, and silently launched the rocks at the purple mass. As the rocks flew, only the Muk noticed the approaching Rock Slide, letting out a strange gargle and engulfing itself in Protect.

The rock that was heading the Muk's way bounced off its force-field, plummeting down with the rest of the Rock Slide, leaving it. Unfortunately for the Muk, the chunks of rock plowed through the mass of Grimer, even chipping large chunks of the walkway off as it devastated through the center of the sewer path.

The Muk was sent straight into the water as his throne of Grimer was turned into a literal paste, losing all consistency as they were washed away. The Muk was less watered down but was still carried away by the current, letting out another enraged gargle as he vanished down the path.

Only a couple of Grimer remained, the few who were firmly latched onto the sides of the walkway as supports. The three on the opposite side were unable to cross the waterway to deal with us, so they sulked away. The two on our side, however, decided to attack us with scorned rage.

Gargantua was still exhausted, but tossed out a Smack Down, the slamming rock cracking the ground as it went through the nearest Grimer, but not destabilizing it quite enough to knock it out.

The Grimer continued to approach before I called out, "Cocytus, Water Pulse them!"

Cocytus jumped into action, sending his vibrating mass of water straight into the Grimer attempting to take vengeance on my weakened Dwebble. The blast launched it over to the other side of the walkway, an unconscious pile of bubbling sludge. Water Pulse vibrations seemed to have significantly more impact than expected, the vibrational qualities fully transferring into the slime of the Pokémon.

Cocytus launched another Water Pulse at the other Grimer, but because of the different angle of impact, this Grimer was sent back a few feet but stayed on the same pathway we were on.

The Grimer was clearly under the effects of Water Pulse's added confusion effect as it tried to reorient itself after landing, its eyes rolling around and the sludge struggling to move uniformly.

Roxie saw her opportunity and darted forward with a "Go, Pokéball!" The white-and-red orb impacted it firmly in the head, sucking it in with the usual red energy. The ball shook, once, twice, thrice, four- click. Ah, there we go.

Roxie did a fist-pump, ran over and grabbed her new Grimer's Pokéball, and shouted out, "Yea, I caught a Grimer!" doing a little pose.

I just blinked in confusion. I had no idea that people acted like this outside the Anime. She noticed my staring.

"What's wrong?" she questioned, slightly concerned.

"I just... didn't know that people did that."

"Huh? Whatcha mean?"

"The pose, and the one-liner, all that."

She looked at me like I was the crazy one.

"What? Everyone does it, it's tradition. Do... you not?" she queried, starting to look slightly embarrassed.

"I can't say that I do."

She tried to laugh it off, "Hah, well, I do it. I don't see a problem with it."

"There's not a problem with it," I couldn't help but smirk a bit at her uncomfortable smile, "I just found it a little... strange. Definitely worth calling it out to see you embarrassed, though."

Her demeanor switched from uncertain to a glare with a bit of a pout in an instant.

"Oy! Don't think that you can tease me that easily! I'm sure you do a lot of embarrassing stuff, you want me to call you out on that when it happens?"

I snort, "Feel free, if it means I get to make fun of you as well. Now, come on, we came here to get a Zubat after all."

I recalled my team, gave her a teasing smile, and started to walk away with my hands in my pocket. I hear her "hmph" as I walk away, and even as she tries to act irritated, the slight laughter under her breath at the exchange.

Man, it's surprisingly fun to travel with someone.

We continued, getting well and truly lost as we tried to find a Zubat. The mild lighting was likely too much for the Zubat to stick around, I remember they were heavily agitated back in the original anime when Team Rocket strung up lights in Mt. Moon. I wonder if I'll meet Team Rocket. I can't help but respect their commitment to the motto.

"Ohh, that looks prom-is-ing!" Roxie dragged out, looking to her right as she passed by a junction.

To our right, there was a sudden shift from concrete to brick; from well-maintained flooring to old, cracked ground. Lights were far dimmer and often flickered. If I had to guess, I'd say it was the shift between the original Castelia City's old plumbing to the more uniform and modern sewers.

"Yup, seems like a good Zubat roost," I replied.

As we continued on into the older section the lights got even dimmer and less consistent. Leaks let drops of water fall with a plip-plop every couple of seconds and the water flow through the carved center channel grew louder as it grew more narrow. Our footsteps clacked and reverberated throughout the tunnel as we walked.

We kept quiet so that we could hear any traces of Zubat. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait for long.

Every so often, a weak chirping squeal came from somewhere ahead of the tunnel. An ecstatic smile overtook her face and Roxie pushed ahead, taking the lead. She prowled ahead like some kind of cat, her hand holding her Koffing's Pokéball, her hand ready to toss it at any moment.

"Chirp... Chirp" in the distance.

Eventually, the noise was clearly just around an approaching corner. Roxie peered around the corner, and I looked around shortly afterward. A small patch of Zubat hung on a pipe, occasionally chirping at each other.

Quick as a flash, she darted out from the corner and tossed her Koffing's Pokéball.

"Get em' with Sludge!"

Koffing flashed out of the Pokéball and launched an orb of disgusting slurry at the collective of bats. Most of them managed to react fast enough to fly away, but the attack still hit two of them. The first Zubat was merely clipped, its flight turned wobbly. The other Zubat was absolutely soaking in the muck, brought down to the ground by the muck soaking its fur.

The first Zubat fled the scene, leaving the other to rot. Despite being brought to the ground and covered in the disgusting semi-liquid, the remaining Zubat still had a bit of fight in it. It didn't fly so much as it launched itself with its wings at Koffing, mouth mired with the dark-type energy of the Bite attack.

The attack landed, and the bat latched onto the balloon of gas. Koffing let out a strange moan of pain, wobbling around as it tried to stay afloat with the extra weight.

"Hit it with a Smog!"

Collecting itself, Koffing shot out a blast of foul gasses. I could smell them from back here, I can't imagine what it must be like to be right next to them like the Zubat was.

Well, that's not entirely true. Upon the release of the gas, the Zubat made a strange croaking noise as it detached from Koffing and fell to the ground, letting out a wail and some hacking coughs, so I figured it was, at the very least, mildly irritating to be that close.

With Zubat once again on the ground and almost fully disabled, Roxie pulled out another Pokéball and tossed it. Same old, same old, only this time it only took two shakes to click in confirmation. If only it was that easy to catch Pokémon in-game.

She grabbed the ball and repeated her little "I caught this Pokémon" thing, daring me with her eyes to say anything. I just smiled at her placatingly, making her eye twitch ever so slightly.

"So, you've got Zubat and a Koffing, are we getting out of here now? The smell is hardly my favorite, and it's probably best to get away from the enclosed space filled with noxious gasses."

She sighed, her glare lessening, "Well, yea. I wasn't expecting a Grimer, they usually keep sewers clean of 'em. That's a good bonus. It'll take a bit to get out, but if we follow the downstream we should get out soon enough."

I gave her a quick thumbs-up and we began to walk back. The tunnel opening back up to its usual size and features after a bit.

Then, a voice echoed through the hallways.

"I'm telling you, those kids ran into here."

"Well, there sure seems to be a distinct lack of them around here."

Both of us froze. Roxie seemed to be prepared for this though, as she grabbed my hand and dragged me away, keeping her footsteps as quiet as she could make them while still maintaining a decent speed.

Pulling me so that her mouth is right next to my ear, she whispered, "If they have people down here, they probably got people at the entrance. We're gonna have to take the fun way out."

She seemed a little too enthusiastic at the idea, but I followed her nonetheless. We found a little alcove and ducked in there, hoping that we wouldn't be seen. We sat in tense silence until footsteps sounded past us and their voices faded into the distance.

Roxie tapped my shoulder and whispered again, "Alright, we need to get outta here. Follow me."

We slunk around the sewers until we got to a convergence of the streams. The water foamed as it came out and flowed into the sea in a moderately sized waterfall. The water's flow caused enough noise that we could finally speak up again.

"Alright, Nico! Get that Wimpod of yours back out. He'll be our flotation for now," Roxie gave me a cocky smile.

I grimaced, "You want us to jump into a sewer water waterfall?"

"Ehh, it'll be fine. The sea will wash it all out."

"My bigger issue is the whole jumping into a waterfall thing."

She raised her eyebrow, "Really? Ya' spooked now? Cmoooon, we gotta get out of here, and I don't want to deal with the security."

I breathed deeply, held it, and breathed out.

"Alright, fine. If we have to."

I wasn't particularly enthused about the idea of hopping into a possibly dangerous stream of water, but sometimes that's how life goes. I clicked his Pokéball and Cocytus flashed out.

"Hey, we need a bit of floatation. We're going to hop in the water, you mind helping to keep us upright?"

He gave me a nod.

"Alright. Roxie, you ready to hop?"

"Yup."

I picked up Cocytus and grabbed onto Roxie's hand. Walking us over to the few-foot drop into the water, I started the countdown.

"Three, two, one, HOP!"

We jumped into the water, landing with a crash. The water was deep enough to let us sink in and not break our legs, which was rather nice. The current grabbed us, and we were dragged off towards the waterfall.

It was certainly uncomfortable as the current kept us under the water, but it wasn't for long. We got launched out the canal, getting a brief gasp of air. Roxie was still holding my hand, and while we plummeted the ten-foot drop she let out an excited laugh.

Splashing into the bay, a bunch of water shot up my nose. I probably should have tried to ensure that wouldn't happen, but in the moment that was forgotten. We were tossed around in the aftershock of the fall and I lost all sense of direction. A few seconds of near-drowning occurred before both Roxie and Cocytus began to pull me in what I assume was up, trying to get me to the surface.

I struggled to reorient myself, kicking my legs and flailing my arms, trying to get to the surface. A few seconds of desperate paddling later and I broke the surface. Spitting out the saltwater and desperately gasping for air, I just floated and attempted to recover.

Roxie grabbed my shoulder and began to pull me over. I finally got enough air to wipe my eyes and open them, seeing that she was trying to get me to go to the shore. I swam over to the shore, a rocky coast, and threw myself upon a stone large enough to lay upon.

Roxie and Cocytus came up and latched onto the stone as well, giving me a once over.

"You all good Nico?"

"Ye-ach! I mean, yep, I am," I coughed out.

She let out a relieved breath, "Good, you were out of it for a second. Coughin' and all that. Glad to see ya' didn't drown, would have been sad to see you go."

I snorted, "Thanks, hah, for the vote of confidence."

I sat up and took stock of everything. Roxie and Cocytus floated casually, with Roxie holding onto the rock I sat on to keep themselves from needing to work to stay afloat. My backpack and pockets weren't displaced in any way. My backpack was waterproof and I didn't keep anything that could be damaged in my pocket, so that was all good. It seemed that everything but my throat was perfectly fine.

"So, where to next?" I asked.

"Pinwheel forest was the plan, yea?"

"Don't you want to get your new team healed up?"

"Nah, I'll patch them up myself. Start a bit of bond and all that."

"Ah, fair enough."

I rested for a moment, gathering myself.

"Alright, I'm good. Let's go."

She smiled at me, "If you're good, sure."

I recalled Cocytus and gave Roxie my hand, pulling her up onto the rock with me. From there we hopped between rocks, making our way back to the land. I nearly slipped at one point but managed to gather myself. Eventually, we made it back to the mainland.

I hadn't noticed, but we were somewhat near Skyarrow Bridge, which was very convenient. We had entered the sewers over by the east side of the bridge, but we had evidently come out at the western edge, meaning we had gone a decent distance through the sewers.

It was a bit of a climb to get out from the channel, but we made it out decently efficiently. Dirty, soaked, and tired, sure, but still quickly enough.

I turned to Roxie, "Welp, want to start walking now or hold off till later?"

She hummed as she thought about it, before responding, "Eh, better start now and all that. Sleep is for the weak, baby!"

I breathed out a breath of amusement, "Alright, let's get going."

We got a few funny looks as we made our way through Castelia and across Skyarrow Bridge, but we ended up making it to Pinwheel with no issue. Although that wasn't to say we weren't bone-tired, so we went and set up camp again. I doubt it was exactly the same place we camped back here a month or so ago, but it was certainly close and gave me a bit of nostalgia.

You know the deal: A clearing, plenty of trees, the occasional wild Pokémon wandering through. A lovely little place.

I released all my Pokémon one at a time, Roxie copying me with her three Pokémon. Everyone except Leinas and Entoma were a bit apprehensive at the sight of the group of poison-types and their punk leader, so I decided to give them an introduction.

"Well, we've got the time, so I may as well let you all get to know each other. Gang, meet Roxie. Entoma already knows her and Cocytus and Gar met her briefly just an hour or so ago when we were going through the tunnels, but that was more in a "battle mode" sort of situation. We'll be traveling with her for the foreseeable future, so play nice."

Roxie took over, "Pleasure to meetcha'! I'll help with trainin' or whatever. If anyone wants to try to learn Toxic or some poison-type moves, I'm your girl! I just got ahold of these two," she gestured towards Koffing and Grimer, who were little confused, "so I'll be getting them caught up for the next hour or so, but after that I'm free."

I cleared my throat, drawing attention back to me. Roxie broke off with her Pokémon, starting to get to know them. I started a bit of a speech.

"As for training moves and such, be it with Roxie or not, feel free to do that in your free time. I'll be having us get into more dedicated training; We've been sorely lacking on anything but learning new moves.

"Kyou, it'll just be speed and strength training for you. Laps, lifts, the like. Most of your offensive capability comes from the pure force you can produce in a moment, so we need to harness that."

Kyouhukou thought over my instructions for a moment. He seemed to accept them. Giving me a single, firm nod and a buzz of his wings.

"Entoma, it's the same for you. Work on your strength and speed, but make sure to have a focus on maneuverability. It's no use to hit hard if they can just sidestep, after all."

Entoma only blinked at me, but I knew she would listen regardless. That's my girl, always loyal.

"Cocytus, it'll be a bit different for you. Until you evolve, most of your strength is based on your ranged attacks. Don't get me wrong, Water Pulse is pretty damn strong as it is. But, we need more power. Struggle Bug absolutely needs to be improved. I'd say just keep using those, try and improve just how quick and powerfully they fire."

Cocytus didn't have anything to comment, other than a nod.

"Gar, you're in a similar situation. I know how rough it is to summon those rocks. As much as I'd love to be in a situation where we can just pluck them from the ground, summoning Rock Slide is going to be a necessity sometimes. That will be what you work on. Keep to Rock Slide, it'll likely be a hot minute till we get some results, but you've got this."

Gargantua glared at me, giving me an angry gurgle.

"Oh, don't be like that. You know it's for the best."

With a huff, he accepted.

"Alright, Leinas... Leinas?"

Leinas hadn't been paying attention, simply fluttering in the air and staring at the forest in wonder.

"Oy, Leinas!"

She snapped out of it. Looking at me, she tilted her head in questioning.

"I'll be needing you to train your speed and agility. You aren't the toughest when it comes to taking attacks, but if we can get you agile enough to avoid them all, we should be safe."

Her happy smile shifted to a comically serious expression; It was like watching a smurf put on the face of a grizzled war veteran. Holding the emotion, she pounded one fist to her chest and gave a short bow of acceptance.

It took all of my strength to keep from giggling.

I clapped my hands together, "Alright! I'll be keeping an eye out for all of you, give you a bit of help when you need it. Work for an hour or so, then we'll have a break. I'll be laying against this tree, as I have already done far too much today. Now, get to it!"

They all broke off to do their training. Roxie was still talking to her new Pokémon, so I didn't have much to do other than watch.

Gargantua had gone through with my demands, sitting in a field, generating large rocks one at a time. It was quite fascinating to see the creation and then rapid deterioration of the rocks he forms.

One by one, a small boulder would come into existence, floating in the air by his geokinetic power. He would discard them to the side, and as if watching a timelapse, they would start to crumble bit-by-bit. Then, as the chunks continued to break apart, they would fade away into nothing. I suppose that explains where they come from, they're more of an energy construct than a permanent creation of rock.

I'm rather happy with Gargantua's compliance. If I can get him used to following orders, I should have a rock-beast minion to wreck some shit.

Leinas had taken to flying impressively speedy figure-eights around two trees. I'm not sure what her max speed is, but I assume that what she's currently doing isn't the top speed. I would be astounded if she could make those turns at maximum.

I don't know exactly how to train her agility and speed, but I figure she's got a good idea. I might mix it up and have her fly some side-to-side sort of movement, but what she's doing right now works well enough.

Kyouhukou... what in the fuck?

I don't know how I didn't notice, be he managed to rip a decent-sized tree to the ground and was throwing it up and down. I knew he was strong, but damn.

Whatever, I'll ignore that for now.

Entoma was rolling around, weaving between trees. Every once in a while she would slip and hit a tree or just roll over, but she was putting in an effort. Really, it's just hard to train her when her body is completely different from her other two stages. Once she becomes a Scolipede it should be a lot easier.

Cocytus launched Water Pulses and Struggle Bugs into the forest, tiring himself out pretty quickly with the rate he was working at. I'll see how long he can last, then try and school him into something more manageable.

I had lain down with my back to a tree, pulled out my Larvest egg, and was holding the incubator between my legs. It was nice to just sit down and breathe some fresh forest air.

Roxie had evidently finished up her meet-and-greet, coming over to sit next to me.

"So, how was your first day back in Unova?" she asked with a hint of teasing in her voice.

Flicking my eyes over to her, I responded drily, "Relatively hectic. You'd have to be there to understand."

She breathed out a quick "hah!" before speaking, "Well, I figured you'd want a bit of excitement to get you back on the road. Honestly, I would have died if I had to be on a boat for, what? A week? However long with nothing interesting happening."

I swear to God, if Pheromosa becomes an issue and I have to explain how a bug from another reality decided to follow me, it will cause an issue.

For now, I simply said, "Yup, it was rather boring. Though, next time you try and get me to do something fun, let me know if it involves running from authorities. That was... a bit too exciting."

"Aw, come on! You had fun!" She poked me. "You know you had fun!"

I let out a little laugh, "Alright, that was pretty fun. Just, try and keep it a little more relaxed when you can?"

"Yea, yea, fine. Hey, what's that egg of yours there?"

"Oh, the egg? Err..."

Fuck, how do I explain this one? Aliens? No, those are a genuine problem for me. Oh, I got it!

"Just found it on Poni Island. No clue what it is though. A scanner said it was a firebug, so I went for it."

"A scanner? You just took an egg to a scanner? How far from the town was the egg?"

"Eh, half an hour or so."

She gave me a deadpan look.

"You grabbed a random egg, took it back to town, and it was a bug-type?"

"To be fair, it was the third egg I had tried."

She looked perplexed now.

"Do... you just grab eggs to check what they are?"

"Only when I'm close enough to a town to check what it might be."

"Err... alright."

She looked at me like I was a bit off, then we settled into a comfortable silence. A successful deception, if I say so myself. Instead of thinking that I was lying, she thought I was just an egg snatcher.

A few minutes passed as we watched our Pokémon train. Roxie had set her team about learning some gas-based movie I wasn't quite sure of.

"Hey, Nico? I don't recall any fire- and bug-type Pokémon. I'll have to look it up once we get to Nacrene, but I think you got ahold of something rare."

"Huh, I didn't think to look it up. Yea, I don't have a clue myself."

We just relaxed, drinking in the noises of our Pokémon doing their thing. Our clothes had dried by now, so there wasn't any reason not to just lay there.

Eh, for all my complaining, it was still a good day.