- Traveling New Lands -
Johto Route 29 was an interesting introduction to the region. The common Pidgey and rare Rattata were a good example of how close they still were to Kanto, but there were also small brown pokemon with dark rings along their tail. Alexa's Pokedex called them Sentret, and made them sound very timid. She had seen both those pokemon and their evolution Furret on the teams of other trainers, but there was a big difference between a trained pokemon and a wild one.
Alexa was able to tell the difference to the extent that she could spot a few local Sentret that were at one point either on a team or taught by pokemon who had been on one. There were only a few of the Kanto species with that look, which made sense given there would be far more travelers from Kanto on this route than locals simply due to how few homes there were in New Bark compared to the number of travelers she had met on the road between the two regions. It gave the collector type trainers she spotted a better set of pokemon that would be more accepting to the idea of just being stuck much of the time on a ranch or in digital storage.
Collector pokemon honestly unnerved Alexa, but she knew that a lot of pokemon were fine with just getting out and about for display times. At least most places required a pokemon in their systems to be out for at least thirty days every year. It wasn't much, but collectors were one of the more regulated types of pokemon trainer. At trainer school Alexa had often heard a joke that former Team Rocket officials didn't get as harsh examination after the fall of the organization as a regular pokemon collector.
Most of the older travelers were taking the alternate path along Route 46 to the north, with more of the younger ones staying along 29 to the west. The path was fairly forested along the sides, with a number of fruit trees and berry bushes along the route. Alexa had vaguely considered that direction as well back when it would have brought them to the old Water type Gym a bit quicker, but even that would not have let them get there before the news got out that she had a Charizard that preferred the Water type himself.
"Oh, you're that trainer with the Grass typed Rhydon!" one of the girls who was about to head north interrupted her musings at the gatehouse. "Do you have any other interesting pokemon? I have a Bellossom from my home region," the older trainer said with a smug expression that made Alexa wonder about the specific words used.
"Well, I have a Bellossom too," Alexa noted cautiously. "Maybe we can have them show off to each other?" The other trainer smiled and grabbed a pokeball, and she could see that the plan was to let both out at once.
The other trainer's Bellossom made Alexa double check that it wasn't her own pokemon. There were clear differences, the other Bellossom's leaves and petals were more jagged on their edges and the color was a more orange shade instead of yellow. Both the other trainer and the other Grass/Electric pokemon both looked surprised at her own Bellossom. "Wait, what kind of Bellossom is that?" the older girl questioned.
"Well, there is this moss stuff called Capacitance that can give pokemon the Electric type," Alexa explained while her own Bellossom looked at her smugly and skipped over to speak with the apparently natural version of that alteration. "We don't know for sure if that sticks when the pokemon have kids, but I think regional pokemon variations usually have different reasons to come up. Do you know what makes yours different from what we get around here?"
"Orange fuzzy moss that only grows around an Electric typed Legendary pokemon's home? Because back home Bellossom are only found at a place where there is supposed to be some kind of thunder god," the other girl thoughtfully noted. "I could have imported a Leaf Stone, but not many pokemon back home use those and most Gloom just use the moss or a Thunder Stone."
"Are your Gloom part Electric instead of Poison, or is it a change in secondary type during evolution?" Alexa questioned and got out her Pokedex to record this new development. She wasn't sure her father knew about this yet, and he would love to hear news about the long term effects of Capacitance exposure on a pokemon population if that was what was going on.
"Wait, I thought 'Kanto is all Poison pokemon' was just a joke?" the trainer questioned a bit shocked. "Your Gloom are Poison typed?"
"Oddish too," Alexa said happily. While it was kind of rude to say that about Kanto, Alexa kind of had a team that could make themselves Poison typed whenever they wanted so she really had no way to complain. "What region are you from?"
Alexa spent the rest of the day going over the Bellossom regional variant. It did sound sort of like a case of long term Capacitance exposure, and from the sound of things the Bellossom cultivated the moss in order to keep up the Electric type even though it seemed like the Legendary had left that particular spot long ago.
The change in plans meant she ended up camping much closer to the gatehouse north then she had planned, and that Charizard was a bit grumpy over the delay to their first Gym of this new League. A grumpy Starter meant a Starter that picked over her travel supplies over critically, which once again drew some stares from the other trainers. Stares that now meant a lot more because there was a possible reason for them that Alexa still did not want to think through.
Kingler didn't seem to be as considerate, her Water/Dragon pokemon was clicking out what were clearly questions. Alexa wasn't sure what exactly Charizard growled, but she was sort of happy to see Bellossom and Heracross take his side quickly. Rhydon huffed and stomped over to her, apparently he was on neither side and did not want to get involved.
"Well, how about you Rhydon? There a Gym you want to fight?" she asked her leafy pokemon. He responded with a thoughtful change of shape, just to thin out his legs and puff up his upper body a lot, but the color shift to brown at his legs and yellow at his top was enough for her to understand the intent before he tried to go farther. "Bellsprout? You mean that tower that is supposed to be for Grass types in Violet City?"
He nodded at that, and she heard Bellossom squeak a rushed agreement. That was enough to get the rest of her team away from Charizard's past, and Alexa was glad that going over what the guide book had said about their third planned stop gave him the time to finish going over their stock of camping supplies. It was a fairly focused location, and once they double checked the Gym in that city Bellossom began to send out sparks with a smug smile at the idea of being a pokemon sent against a Flying type Gym.
Charizard interrupted an initial plan on that Gym with a louder rumble, and the sound of shifting paper. Alexa turned and found that he had actually written down a response of some kind. The writing on the previously blank notepad was fairly clear, and only somewhat indicated that it had been a while since Charizard had last written something. It was a short list of things they had not used so far, and another quickly written list of what seemed to be complaints translated for her to more clearly understand.
"Okay, so you want at least one battle, and for the rest of the team to not be so blunt about having you write stuff down," Alexa started to summarize with a dark look at Kingler. "Kingler wants you to do this more often so she doesn't have to try and work out how to tell me herself." The crab pokemon clicked angrily at how she didn't read the rest of what had been written down from the Water/Dragon. "Bellossom wants Rhydon to try out some different soil supplements, because she thinks he isn't getting the best use out of the one I have for her. If those just happen to be the more expensive ones then I guess I would have to still let them share," Alexa noted and shared an unamused look with her Charizard over yet another attempt to go for the kind that had in the end given Bellossom a rash back when they first caught her, even if her natural Grass type liked that one best for some reason. "Heracross apparently just wanted to say more clearly that he doesn't want to be a Bug type if he can avoid it. Don't worry, Heracross, I knew that and we're going to do our best to keep you like that." The former insect chittered happily at that.
Kingler still looked annoyed, but Alexa was half tempted to ask the pokemon to learn to write if they wanted to do this in the future. She held off, because it had to take a lot of effort and they were on a League now. Maybe afterwards they could afford to spend time learning to read and write instead of training. The people who had raised Charizard had actually noted that he wasn't as battle focused as his siblings, but now she wondered about that. Had he really been that far behind his siblings in training for fights, or did they want him to not be a Starter?
"So, what do you think about showing off Kingler's new form to earn a bit more travel money tomorrow?" she asked in order to change the topic a bit more clearly.
Their opponent was another of the trainers like them that were from another region, and Kingler was up against a good sized red and white bird pokemon that carried a large sack. Alexa's Pokedex called it a Delibird, and said it was Ice/Flying, so Kingler knew she was at a bit more risk than before against this pokemon now that she was part Dragon.
She wasn't able to fully dodge an Ice Beam, but was able to send a blast of Dragon Fire back at Alexa's order. The bird pokemon squawked in unexpected surprise. "Wait that's a real Dragon?" they asked and threw a small package out of the bag in a way that seemed to be an instinctual reaction.
"I like the change," Kingler commented with a harsh click and then paused as she felt the box explode on her body in a way that actually gave her energy back. After a quick shake just in case that was a trap instead of some kind of mistake she jumped at the bird in a Crabhammer strike. Her claw connected, along with half her body as her jump overshot noticeably resulting in more of a Slam than a Crabhammer. Her new Dragon type increased her strength greatly, enough that despite the increase in mass she was having trouble with moving too fast along with the issue of a new need to be more careful with her strength.
"I think you got him," Charizard commented from the sidelines, still a bit too serious for her taste. It kind of explained things to know that she technically had two trainers, Charizard had always been a bit too easygoing despite his common assistance with trainer stuff. Kingler had at first thought it was a Starter thing, part of their extra training, but as time passed she had noticed that other trainers didn't really speak with their pokemon as much as Alexa, let alone had them help as much as Charizard did all on his own.
Delibird's trainer apparently agreed, and Kingler saw Alexa collect the winnings from the fight. "I guess I did," she agreed with a thump of her larger claw on the ground. "So, why didn't you become a trainer?" Kingler had to ask.
"I never wanted to be one, and I only took the trainer classes because my parents said they were 'advanced starter classes'," Charizard grumbled at her. "Which from what I've read since then wasn't exactly wrong, but only because I'm not the first to pick Starter after learning how to do both. I almost want to ask that 'William' guy if he considered being a Starter first."
"I'm fairly sure Alexa would have said something to the rest of us if we met a trainer that was also a pokemon. Who is 'William'?" Kingler questioned with a look at Alexa. Their trainer had been somewhat worried while reading some of the stuff on the Pokedex lately.
"The Dark typed guy who basically said he was one. I know that a reason why my family let me just be a Starter was how tricky it is to actually become a pokemon trainer like that," the Fire/Flying reptile sighed, which attracted Alexa's attention.
"Kingler, you aren't still bugging him about it are you?" her trainer questioned, but before she could work out how to explain to the human Charizard waved at their trainer. "You're okay with it?" Alexa now asked him, and he nodded back strongly. "Alright, but I don't want you to be distracted with this stuff while we're working on a League. You have a strong type now, Kingler, but that is not enough to win against everyone."
Kingler flinched at that, because they were all having a bit of trouble with that part. Bellossom was with her on staying mostly the same types, but the others were a bit more open, and a lot more changed. She trusted Charizard to know how to manage the Water type and related variants, but that was because the Fire lizard apparently loved it more than she did, and she had been born with it. Even her new Dragon type needed work, and they only had so much time in the League to work on it.
Alexa carefully watched her team as they got back to training. Kingler had taken the win they had the day before hard, mostly because the crab pokemon apparently still had some control troubles with her strength that friendly combat practice had not worked to fix. Maybe just a lack of practice overall, which is why Alexa was spending a whole day on Route 29 just training. Charizard had written a note to her to say Cherrygrove was just beyond the treeline in front of where they stopped, so this was a good place for it.
"Alright, I really hate to say this guys, but we need to stick with these forms until we're good with them," she admitted to them during a break. Although Charizard got out his new notepad immediately, and as he wrote down his response she considered how they needed to keep those stocked up if this was a change in their interactions that would stick.
"What if we practice with changing in combat instead? Changes between every session? Something to make it so we work on having different bodies all the time instead of just working on each on its own," her Starter's response read.
"Huh, that might be a good option, but we'd probably have to stick to the quick ones. Poison, Steel, and Water are our fastest," she noted with emphasis on the last option with a serious look to Charizard. He nodded back just as seriously. "The moves give us the Bug type, and the other three again. Unless someone has a new one?"
Charizard replied to that by spitting a thick glob of orange goo that looked almost like lava onto Kingler. The crab pokemon clicked with surprise as the clearly hot material splashed onto her, and then began to smoke and shift. Her already altered Dragon armor formed into a set of five pits on her back, each filled with that same think goo that was now burning holes in the grass around her. It also started to drip from her larger claw.
"Ah, you worked out a Fire typed variant," Alexa noted with a sigh at the idea of her pokemon who liked the Water type the most having that capability. "Do you have a name for it yet?" Her natural Fire type shrugged, and Heracross shuffled away from Kingler as the crab pokemon turned and began to rumble angrily at the winged reptile. Bellossom sighed, but Rhydon looked at the new substance thoughtfully. "We can test this Magma Contagion stuff after the Gym."
The next morning Kingler's shell once again shifted to have the five pits in her back, but the rest of her body under the shell simply melted down into hot orange magma. Alexa's Grass types both shuffled back as the heat got stronger and stronger. A few drops of lava dripped off the now Fire/Dragon typed pokemon, and Alexa made sure to take notes and readings on the change.
"Looks like a more Mercury like change than a Toxin one," Alexa noted thoughtfully. "I wonder if that is common to the derived changes, or if the Fire and Steel typed variants are more similar in their effects."
"I'm more concerned with how to keep from burning down the forest," Kingler clicked and turned to Heracross. "Any tips for suddenly becoming a furnace?" The fact she was molten again wasn't as extreme as that prior time, it felt like she was a sticky thicker material this time instead of a thin flowing one.
"The big thing is to keep it inside more," her rodent teammate said a bit harshly at the reminder of that transformation. "At least to start out. That isn't enough to really cut it down to comfortable levels, but if you just try and cool off it stresses you out more."
"That was that issue?" Bellossom grumbled. "What did you drop your internal temperature too far?" Heracross did not deny the complaint. "What! Please tell me Alexa knew to fix that!"
"She did," Rhydon sighed and continued to just inspect his leaves. "It was a quick fix and he barely hit that point. Do we really need a second Fire type right now? I kind of have a double weakness instead of resistance right now."
"So the plan is to wait a week to see if it wears off," Alexa commented before the conversation could continue. "That way we can see how it works for duration in the stuff that was kept in the jar last night." Kingler shook her body with a bit of exasperation. "Although those jars might be helpful enough just as something to keep stuff warm. You said you wanted to try it."
"I can just turn myself back you know," she clicked at her trainer, and allowed some of the cure to pool in her claw to explain before dumping it on the ground. After all she wanted to argue not to demonstrate.
"Yes, I know you can do it yourself. I want you to check that in a minute to be sure, but that's why we are waiting to see if it ends on its own afterwards," Alexa sighed, and Kingler kind of wished she could just speak to her trainer directly. Charizard could at least write even if he somehow went an entire League without telling anyone. "That way we know just in case it works as a third option for Rhydon and Heracross that they like better."
"Okay, I'm not sure that lava and leaves work together, but I am willing to try it to see if we find out," Rhydon admitted at that with an eager nod at their trainer.
"Count me out, I've overheated my surroundings enough for a while," Heracross said with a rapid shake of his head. Bellossom simply shrugged with disinterest towards Alexa.
"Right, let me just check that the cure works first then," Kingler said half sarcastically and actually splashed herself with the light blue substance this time.