I do not own Pokemon
His musings got interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Almost out of reflex, Parker stood up in a guard stance, ready to strike at the large, slightly overweight man wearing a long sleeved shirt with an open hardshell jacket on top, long reinforced trousers and a cap with what appeared to be a Talonflame feather. The man looked surprised at Parker and his pokemons, before narrowing his eyes.
"Who the hell are you, boy?"
Parker got up and extended his hand, despite the other man clearly showing no intention of shaking it. He had to appear as non-threatening as possible. He smiled.
"Good morning. My name is Levi Pryte. I was crossing mount Moon when my pokemons got injured. I know I didn't have a reservation for this cabin, but reaching Cerulean city wasn't exactly a viable option. I left a note and paid the nightly rate, see?"
He reached for his note and handed it to the man.
Still looking at him with suspicion, he glanced at the note, reading it before returning his suspicious glare at Parker.
"What were you doing at the lost and found exactly?"
"Oh, nothing. Vike and Pan here just found a couple of things they like and I just went there to check what they were doing."
The man nodded in understanding, but his gaze remained stern.
"I see. Do you mind if we have a chat outside?" It was technically a question, but his tone made it obvious that it was anything but.
Parker gestured to his pokemon to stay on guard and he followed the man, Worp floating at his side, while Pan and Vike were following behind.
"That's one very unusual pokemon you got there. Haven't seen any 'round these parts." commented the larger man, pointed at Worp.
"Oh, Worp? Yeah, you can say that. It's… I think from Kalos. The newest team member."
said Parker. He felt extremely nervous, but he needed to keep up his innocent facade.
"Kalos? That's a long way to get all the way here to Kanto."
"You can say that." chickled Parker.
"It's strange, because I could swear I saw that pokemon a couple of days ago."
He tossed his pokeballs on the ground, revealing a Graveler and a Steelix.
"Pretty sure it was a sword in a display case in Pewter city museum. Pretty sure there was also a mannequin with the same weird clothes you're wearing at the moment."
Parker frowned.
"And I'm also fairly certain that said museum was robbed a few days ago. So, kid, let's just cut the bullshit: how about you surrender, let me drag you back to Pewter city where I can hand you over to the police? Or I could just have these two beating the crap out of you and drag you there by force, if that's more your style." said the man.
Parker entered a stance, Vike and Pan showed their fangs and Worp twirled, unsheathing itself and pointed its blade toward the opponents.
"I'd take the third option, then. The one where I knock you out and take half of your stuff."
The man snarled "It's your funeral, ki…."
The man's comment was interrupted by Parker's swift kick to the jaw, sending the man sprawling to the ground, unconscious and with a broken nose.
Worp launched itself at the Steelix with blinding speed, his blade loudly clashing against the pokemon armor, leaving little more than a small dent.
The Steelix screeched, the loud metallic sound directed straight at Parker in a clear attempt to make him drop his guard. Surprisingly for Parker, however, the screech instead shook him awake, washing away the few remnants of sleep still in his body. He saw the Graveler launching itself to Tackle him and raised his hands in defense. The pokemon impacted with its rock-hard exterior, scraping Parker's arms and legs but causing far less damage than what he anticipated. Confused by Parker's ability to take such a hit, the Graveler didn't notice Vike swooping down at his leg with a vicious Bite at the pokemon's leg.
The Steelix wrapped itself around Worp in an attempt to Bind the sword, only for the pokemon to simply slip away, barely even noticing the attack, while Pan's Growl came out almost as a mockery to the metallic behemoth.
The Graveler struck once more at Parker, strong of much heavier body, pushing the man to the ground, only for his head to suddenly start spinning and his vision to blur and his expression to turn fearful under Parker's leering gaze.
"Worp! Fury Cutter this Graveler!" shouted the trainer.
Pan growled again, mocking the Steelix's useless attempt to stop the flying sword from striking the pokemon in the back. Parker smirked. Fury Cutter was an attack that grew stronger with every strike, channeling the momentum of each strike to empower the next. This fight was suddenly winnable.
Graveler stumbled, attempting to once again charge at Parker, only to miss completely and crash into the ground, flat on its face.
Exploiting his chance, Vike swept down, burying his fangs into the pokemon's knee, causing it to shout out in pain. Parker tried to jump in, fist cocked back already to a Comet Punch, but the Graveler moved, barely dodging his attack while leaving itself open for Worp's Fury Cutter.
The Steelix changed its target, aiming for the Nidorina that had done nothing but mock it since the battle started. Pan tried to jump out of the way, but the steel coils of the pokemon wrapped themselves around her, binding her. With fury, Pan started to swipe at the creature, her claws dealing little, but their effect was still noticeable on the metal giant, whose metallic sheen was now covered with minuscule indentations from Pan's claws.
The Graveler tried to get up, only for Vike to swipe down, chomping on its other leg and to leave it open for Parker to sweep in with four powerful punches to the pokemon's face and Worp slicing at its leg, forcing the wounded Graveler to once again fall onto the ground, numerous cracks now spreading over its rocky exterior.
The Steelix twisted its body, squeezing the Nidoran that was still furiously swiping at the steel giant.
With a scream of frustration, the Graveler slammed its arms on the ground, causing it to crack and shake under the sheer power of this Magnitude, and forcing the ground itself to collapse and forcing all pokemons to a painful landing on the jagged rocks of a cave below.
The Steelix launched its head at the flying Zubat, tackling him mid-air and dragging the flying pokemon down with the rest of the fighters, but the combined effort of keeping its balance and striking at Vike allowed Pan to slip out of its Bind, badly battered and almost crushed by the Steelix during the fall.
The Graveler held tight to Parker and Worp, dragging the two below its body and slamming them on the ground with its weight. Parker could hear the horrifying sound of Worp's body screeching under the weight, its metal body bending against the Graveler, only for its form to spring back, his blade breaking through the hard stone and slicing through the pokemon body, the blade tip emerging from the back of Graveler's corpse.
With a grunt of pain for the effort, Parker ignored the pain of his bruised ribs and pushed the Graveler's corpse to the side, allowing Worp to slide off to strike at the Steelix to assist Vike, the Zubat flying around the steel titan and biting down at any areas damaged by the fall.
Worp snuck past, joining Vike in their sweeping strikes at the Steelix's weak points, causing the now enraged pokemon to scream in rage at the duo.
With a surprising move, the Steelix twisted its tail beneath the rubble, flinging a massive rock straight at the flying Zubat. The Rock Thrown flew at incredible speed, slamming into Vike and crashing him into one of the cave walls, leaving the Zubat bloodied and battered, but no less determined. With a defiant screech, Vike launched himself back into the fight.
Parker got up. He looked at his pokemons, battered and bruised. Worp might be able to take another hit, but neither Pan nor Vike would survive it. He, however… he knew he could Endure another strike.
"Hey, you moron!" he shouted, catching the Steelix's attention.
"Yes, you! Do you see this one?" He kicked the Graveler, causing the Steelix to roar in anger.
"That's right, you fucker! I killed your friend! What are you going to do about it, uh!?"
The Steelix roared, its tail diving into the rubbles. Parker raised his hands in a guarded stance.
"Here it comes. Rock Throw versus Endure." he muttered to himself as a giant boulder was sent flying towards him. The boulder exploded on impact, launching Parker slamming against the stone wall, causing him to cough up blood as he felt the bones in his arms cracking while he fell to the ground, awake but too hurt to move.
With a war cry, his pokemons jumped at the now bleeding Steelix, covered in Vike's bites, Worp slashed and Pan's claw marks. The trio unleashed their everything, the steel titan flinging another rock at Vike in an attempt to squash the Zubat, only for Worp to intercept the strike, the rock breaking against its steel body, pushing him away without knocking it out. With one last swing, Worp struck the Steelix's neck, opening up a dent into its armor and leaving a clear target for Vike to sweep in and ripping out the pokemon's throat, showering the cave with blood as the Steelix finally collapsed under the weight of its wounds.
A tense silence fell upon the cave, with the survivors breathing heavily, trying to recuperate from a battle barely snatched away from the brink.
After a few minutes, Parker crawled up on his feet, dragging himself towards the body of the fat man. Poor bastard had fallen head first against a rock and there was now a pool of blood under his head. He checked his pulse and frowned, closing the man's white eyes. A tragedy. if that Graveler didn't use that Magnitude, the man would have survived. He looked up at the opening in the ceiling, only two or three meters up. He wouldn't have any issue climbing up, he just needed to pile up a few rocks and reach up, but he knew that he had to leave immediately if he didn't want to get caught. He searched the man's pockets and was ecstatic when he found a total of five Potions. He opened one and started drinking, feeling his broken bones repairing themselves and his fatigue disappearing. He handed the potions to his other companions, handing one to Vike and two to Pan before turning to Worp. He opened up the bottle, but realized he had no clue how to feed it to the sword. Was he supposed to feed it to the scabbard? Before he could voice the question, however, the piece of cloth at the end of Worp's handle twisted itself and launched itself inside the bottle. He saw the few dents in the blade repairing themselves and after a few seconds, the pokemon removed the cloth from a now empty bottle.
"I suppose that's one way to do it." muttered Parker.
He turned to the body. Looting didn't feel right, but the man had a sleeping bag and he absolutely needed one. He quickly searched the backpack for a tent, but the man didn't seem to carry one. What he had, however, was a gray gem that Pam was instantly drawn to. Before she could grab it, however, Parker realized what it was and put it away in his pocket.
"Sorry Pan, I can't give you that Moonstone yet. We have to climb again and if you evolve into a Nidoqueen I won't be able to carry you to the top. I'll give it to you once we reach the other side, ok?"
Pan growled in disappointment, but seemed to accept the explanation.
Parker climbed on top of the Steelix, lifting Pan back into the clearing and jumped out himself. He rushed into his room, packed the sleeping bag and headed back to the front desk. He shredded the note, took back the 1850 poke dollars and swept up two more bottles of Fresh Water as well as seven Lava Cookies before heading outside toward the rock face. He could try his luck in the caves again, but since the man had recognized him immediately, it looked like climbing the rock wall was the safer option. He checked his equipment and frowned when looking at his helmet. When the Graveler had fallen on top of him, it had damaged the helmet, which now was utterly unusable. He was tempted to simply toss it away, but stopped himself. That helmet came from Pewter city's museum. It was evidence of his presence here. He would need to properly dispose of it somewhere else. A small alcove on the way up, perhaps? Regardless, he could not leave it here. Maybe it could even help Pan holding her grip, since now she had to sit somewhat awkwardly half on the rolled up sleeping bag on the top part of his backpack and half on his shoulders.
Notes
Boss: lvl 25 Graveler (Sturdy) + lvl 28 Steelix (Sturdy) vs lvl 16 Parker + lvl 15 Worp + lvl 16 Pan +lvl 16 Vike
Boy, that was a tough battle. Would have lost without the Magnitude friendly fire. Good thing the trainer was knocked out immediately, uh?
In case it wasn't clear, Parker's new ability is Contrary. I't an amazing ability and I feel like it's rather underutilized
Parker's outfit is INCREDIBLY unique, anyone who visited the museum would have recognized it and after learning of the theft at the museum... well, 1+1=2
Do not worry, the Queen will arrive soon. One, maybe two chapters
Not much else to add to this chapter, to be honest. Parker gets some much needed supplies, there's a rather tough fight and then we're back to climbing. I have something interesting for the next chapter, which also include a litterary reference. A Lava Cookie for anyone who gets it