I had been to Dewford several times before, but the purposes of those visits were mostly relating to the Dewford gym one way or another. It was only recently that I recalled that I hadn't visited one of mother nature's greatest masterpieces in Dewford, the Granite Cave.
When I first came to Dewford to obtain my Knuckle badge the cave was closed off by the rangers for safety reasons. The existence of the Granite Cave also slipped my mind thereafter in my subsequent visits, which was why I had never visited the place until now. There were many sayings surrounding the Granite Cave. This cavern is famous for its cave art which depicts events from thousands of years ago, although to my knowledge most of the cave art had already been carefully peeled off from the walls by archeologists and shipped off to our museums for proper preservation of our history. There might be more of these cave arts that had not yet been unearthed but if they still exist, they have not yet been discovered.
Another thing that Granite Cave is famous for are the large quantities of rare ores and minerals that can be found here in abundance, but not anywhere else. Another type of rock that Granite Cave has in abundance is granite, which was how it originally gained its name. The Granite Cave is also home to several species of wild pokemon, most notably the sableye, makuhita, mawile, and aron line. There were also rumours that Granite Cave came into being after a huge meteorite fell and landed at Dewford and over time, the remnants of that meteorite eventually became the Granite Cave that we know of today.
The Granite Cave has many lower floors and that is usually where the more powerful pokemon reside. The lower floors are also infamously dark and rangers would strongly advise that only trainers that are on the Advanced level or above should attempt to venture beyond the ground floor. The wild aggrons that make their homes here are notoriously territorial and the wild hariyamas are not necessarily friendly either.
However, these worries were largely inapplicable to me. My large pokemon team aside, I have Blades, and I also have Anna as my bodyguard. There's really nothing in Granite Cave that can threaten my well being and to top it all off, I had easily befriended some of the local wild pokemon here who very generously showed us around after we had hit it off.
I was aware that Dolly had lived in the Granite Cave for a very short period of time before we met each other. She was the one who told me about the wild sableye population living here although she thinks that they are a very boring group. With Dolly's help we had easily located a small group of wild sableyes and it wasn't difficult to earn their trust due to my ability to understand their intentions.
"You can keep this, I have no need for it," I politely declined when a sableye offered me a small shiny piece of rock. Sableyes feast on shiny gems and it is their favourite food. Their species can also be found in certain parts of Alola and they are also the natural predators of carbinks. Despite having a very feeble look due to its lanky limbs a sableye has superbly sharp teeth and powerful jaw strength, which is necessary for them to crunch on gemstones.
Sableye is not a popular choice among both trainers and non-trainers alike, but oftentimes it's due to the high cost of upkeep due to their dietary preferences and the difficulty of running into a wild sableye due to their elusive nature. The average non-trainer would be hard pressed to provide a sableye with gemstones for consumption. For trainers, even if the cost of upkeep is not a concern, the worth of the sableye species lies not in their raw firepower but the utility which they can provide in battles. However, to truly bring out their true potential requires the trainer in question to have a very keen and tactical mind that could make full use of a sableye's abilities, a quality that not many trainers can claim to possess.
Either way, it will be unwise to underestimate a sableye. Looker has a sableye named Sparkles and Sparkles is plenty powerful. Granted, the power that Sparkles possess is an anomaly in itself due to how well Looker had trained it such that it had surpassed the limits of its species, but Sparkles is truly capable of unleashing chaos when paired with Looker's tactical mind.
Speaking of Sparkles, I'm kinda missing him right now. He has a habit of blatantly stalking me from afar but he's also a very sweet ghost.
The area of the cavern which we were in is at least three floors down by my estimate. Light is scarce here but my night vision ability allowed me to view everything as clearly as day. The wild sableyes were eager to show me around when I asked and I saw how they foraged for food when they dug and unearthed shiny rocks along our journey.
We do hear the occasional faint roars released by wild aggrons which echoed throughout the cave but I did not manage to sight any of those. Blades seemed fairly interested in meeting them judging from his reaction. Rena didn't seem to like the lower levels of Granite Cave while Kel looked right at home here. Dolly and Wacky were busy chatting with the sableyes up ahead while Ness brought up the rear and slowly lumbered along behind us.
"I know you said that you liked travelling, but you didn't strike me to be the type to enjoy visiting such places."
"I don't visit places like this all the time because I was unable to, but things are different now," I replied to Anna's question. I didn't used to visit such places frequently back then due to my poor health and stamina, but those had greatly improved ever since I underwent Devouring and while my fitness level is still lower than the average person, it's still a great improvement from before.
That's why I'm starting to visit all the places that I couldn't previously visit. Got to make use of what I gained. If not now, then when?
"Let me know if you need a break, okay?"
I gave Anna a hand gesture to show that I understood her. We continued our exploration with the wild sableyes as our guides. I could feel their excitement when several of them shared the fruits of their foraging with me. To them, it's natural to share the food that they gathered among the other sableyes in the same group, which is also an indication that they truly saw me as one of them despite the short time that we knew each other.
The wild sableyes were being too enthusiastic in trying to share their "food" with me so I decided to pick one small shiny stone so as not to douse their excitement, to show that I had accepted their goodwill. I do have several wild sableyes residing in my shadow prior to my visit to Granite Cave but I had never seen them feast on gemstones before. My guess is that while gemstones are their favourite food, it is not a primary food source that they rely on for survival. They probably could consume many other kinds of things to sustain themselves.
One of the larger sableyes found a really shiny raw gemstone approximately the size of an adult man's fist. It's sparkling a bright clear blue within the dark cave that we were in and the sableye all but shove the gem into my hands, gesturing with its claws and large mouth lined with sharp jagged teeth that I should bite on it. It took some effort to convey to it that I am incapable of consuming gemstones like they do.
Nevertheless, the sableye insists that I should keep that stone that it gave me, a kind gesture that I accept.
"I'm no expert, but that stone reminds me of the blue diamond I saw in Kalos some years back," Anna told me as we continued to head deeper within the Granite Cave.
"Blue diamond?"
"Coloured diamonds are some of the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world. If this really is a raw blue diamond, you really are lucky," Anna said with a teasing voice and even lightly pinched my cheek with her fingers. I gave her an annoyed glare but Anna didn't really seem to care. She has a habit of teasing me from time to time ever since we had started to get to know each other better.
Another sableye called for us, waving its arms excitedly in the air in an obvious gesture for us to hurry up and take a look at what it found. We were brought to the entrance of what seemed to lead down into a bigger and deeper cavern. Even I couldn't make out anything with my night vision beyond this entrance as light does not shine down this far down underground.
"Jarvis?" I called out and my porygon-z materialised from the xtransceiver that I wore on my wrist. Jarvis' eyes shone with a bright yellow light, lighting the way up for us and allowed us to continue venturing deeper underground. The wild sableyes were chattering loudly among themselves, looking very bewildered by Jarvis' appearance while Fuzzy and Dolly tried to explain to them who and what Jarvis is.
The wild sableyes didn't puzzle over Jarvis' appearance for too long and were back at the front again leading the group. The entrance was connected to a long passage that tunnelled underground and at the end of the tunnel lay a wide and big cavern. The sableyes excitedly ran off ahead and the light from Jarvis' gaze followed after them, allowing us to see just what had them so excited.
'Mistress, stand back!'
Rena had suddenly put herself in front of me and even Anna had pulled me back to do the same and had released several of her pokemon. The high powered beams shining from Jarvis' eyes finally shone on the huge shadowy figure lying at a corner of the room that's slowly rising from where it had been resting earlier until the sableyes woke it up. The cavern that we were in trembled a little with every movement it made and even Wacky sounded far too quiet when he finally saw just what the sableyes had decided to wake up.
The largest aggron that I had ever seen finally rose to its full height and gazed at us while the wild sableyes excitedly gathered around its feet, chittering and gesturing wildly. The average wild aggron would grow into about two metres in height by the time they reach adulthood. Those raised by trainers tend to grow a little bigger than their counterparts and might hit somewhere between two and a half to three metres. Four metres would be too tall but not impossible, just like how us humans would view a two metre tall person walking among us.
But this wild aggron was at least five metres in height by my visual estimate. The dents and scratches on its metallic armour-like scales each looked like they could tell a story of the battles that it had experienced down in the Granite Cave. I had not seen the other powerful wild pokemon that I know had to be residing here but just by looking at this aggron, I am willing to bet that it's the indisputable apex in this ecosystem.
Not gonna lie, its presence reminded me a little of the crazy moth I ran into back at the Relic Castle in Unova. It's not unheard of for trainers to run into crazily powerful wild pokemon in the wild but I had too many of such run-ins for me to be comfortable with.
The aggron slowly lumbered over to us and reached to a stop at a distance that's neither too near nor far from us. It didn't look or act hostile, which was a huge relief. The aggron released a low rumble from its throat and Blades walked up to reply with another low trill. A small conversation then started to take place between the two aged but powerful pokemon that Rena helped translate to me.
'He's asking how long has it been since Champion Drake stepped down and what major events had happened since then… He's telling Blades not to worry and he won't harm us unless we mean harm to the denizens of the Granite Cave, and that we are free to explore the place if we are able to give him this promise… Blades is asking him who was his trainer… Gym Leader Frederick Havel?'
Rena looked at me for an answer and my mind quickly recalled the name of a famous figure in recent history. Gym Leader Frederick Havel used to be Dewford Gym Leader many decades ago, during the period of time when Elite Four Drake used to be the reigning Champion of Hoenn back in his prime. He's already a senior Gym Leader when Drake assumed the position, similar to how Wattson and Juan are among the current generation of gym leaders in Hoenn. He's known to be a Steel Specialist, a rare specialisation back in his time due to the difficulty and relatively lack of knowledge among the populace in raising this specific typing of pokemon. Steel Specialists had it harder than most in rising to the higher levels of the trainer community back in those times and thus, they were also far fewer in numbers until knowledge about training and raising steel types became more widespread.
This aggron had to be at least fifty years old by my most conservative estimate, probably even older. The steel typing was already officially recognised by the world when gym leader Havel was still around and the aggron line had been around for a very long time, but most people focus too heavily on the rock aspect of their typing when raising them rather than the steel typing due to the lack of knowledge in his time. Gym leader Havel was the person who compiled his knowledge and published a guide on raising the commonly seen steel types in Hoenn, free of charge, to all trainers in Hoenn. In a manner of speaking, he could also be considered a pioneer of all Hoenn Steel Specialists if we were talking just about his academic contributions to the region. He's a gym leader who's deserving of his title and worthy of our respect.
It was with this knowledge in mind that I gave the aggron a respectful nod when it looked my way and the aggron reciprocated in kind. It then turned on its heels and headed deeper until it reached a large wall of the cavern. Jarvis' gaze followed and the light he emitted finally showed us what was painted on the walls.
It's a large painting of ancient cave art that had somehow been preserved through the erosion of time. I could see depictions of people worshipping the main characters in this painting, legendary figures that I once saw painted on the murals within Mt Pyre where I first met Agatha.
Groudon, kyogre and now, rayquaza too. I couldn't possibly mistake the pokemon painted to be anything else but our Weather Trio.
"Is this… something that I should be seeing?" I cannot help but ask the aggron, who simply grunted as if telling me that it doesn't really care, like it simply wanted to share with me what it thinks is the most fascinating thing in this large cavern. The figures of the Weather Trio painted on the wall also looked a little different from what I remembered them to look like back when they were just characters in a video game. Did rayquaza have such huge lower horns protruding from its jaws back in the Pokemon Emerald game that I used to play? I'm almost certain it didn't but… it's been too long. I couldn't remember anything useful.
I could also spot some ancient words that I couldn't quite understand painted at the side of the cave art. The entire wall is the canvas of the original painter who painted this magnificent painting. I took a few pictures with the aggron's permission, trying to capture the details as much as I could. I plan to send these pictures to Steven as soon as I step out of Granite Cave because anything that concerns the legendary pokemon living in our region would warrant his attention.
"I won't speak to anyone about this without your permission," Anna promised with a finger placed at her lips in a gesture of silence when I turned to look at her, snatching my words out from my mouth. Anything that involves legendary pokemon is usually bad news to the common folk like us. I don't think she would want to get herself entangled into this mess either.
Even as I left the cave later I couldn't stop thinking about the rayquaza painted onto the wall.
Was that really rayquaza? If it was, why did it seem to differ from what I vaguely remember about it?
I didn't dwell on that mystery for too long after I returned to my bungalow at Dewford. I released my pokemon and they soon made themselves comfortable at the huge backyard outside that's demarcated for their use. I headed back to my room, had a quick shower, and rejoined my pokemon outside.
I was seated in the shade on a reclining sun chair with a book in hand. Rena joined me, curling herself up in my lap and closed her eyes for a lazy snooze. The other rowdy members of my team were up to their usual shenanigans while the quieter ones found their own quiet corners to do their own things. It's not everyday that we had the free time to spend together relaxing as a team.
The book I have in hand was a notebook of a researcher famous for her research on the cleffa line many years ago, something that I only managed to get my hands upon with my family's connections. When I obtained Joy as a prize for finishing in second place at the Ever Grande Conference I was also given a moon stone to be used to trigger her final evolution when she's ready for it. Joy is almost two years old now, she will be ready for evolution soon. The world at large is aware that a moon stone is needed to evolve a clefairy to a clefable but there's so little known about the cleffa line to the world at large. Is there anything else that a trainer should take note of before using the moon stone on a clefairy? What other things should we take note of before, during, and after evolution?
There are too many unknowns and mysteries surrounding the cleffa line and while I'm confident that everything will go smoothly when I finally use the moon stone on Joy, I do want to be as fully prepared as possible before the big day.
I briefly lost track of time while reading the findings that the researcher wrote down in the notebook, but after some time I felt before hearing a presence moving to stand beside me. A small gush of heated breath blew at the side of my face and my hand habitually moved to push away the orange snout from the book in my hand, a gesture derived from muscle memory more than anything else since this is a common interaction between us. He might accidentally set my book on fire and I do not want that to happen.
"Toothless, no."
Toothless whined, an action that you wouldn't expect out of a fearsome charizard, but he's always been a bit of a big baby in my presence.
Another imposing presence joined us on my other side. I looked up, seeing Kratos looking down at me with Joy riding at the top of his head.
"Yes?"
Kratos simply grunted and sat down on the ground beside the chair that I was seated on. Joy jumped off from his head and walked up to me, talking to me with animated hand gestures and her voice woke Rena up from her nap.
'The brute lost to Bigblue in a wrestling game.'
I glanced over to where Kratos was seated. True enough, it did look like he's sulking. However, Kratos possesses an ego bigger than the sun, so he's probably too prideful to admit his defeat but also too embarrassed to be able to act like nothing had happened, so he ended up coming over to my side to hide his shame and sulked in silence at a corner where not many people can see him sulk.
Bigblue is a swampert. He can easily tow a ship without breaking a sweat so it's a no brainer regarding who would be the victor if Kratos challenged him to a wrestling match, but Kratos didn't know that. He probably is still puzzled over how Bigblue outwrestled him earlier.
I pretended to be unaware of Kratos' loss to Bigblue to protect his delicate pride, but some of my other pokemon were not that merciful. Fuzzy wasted no time flying over to tease him with obnoxious squeaks and he was soon joined by Dolly and Wacky. Kratos' face visibly reddened the longer the three of them pestered him and he looked like he was about to explode anytime soon. Thankfully, Ness decided to step in and shooed the three of them away, sparing Kratos and his precious pride from being mutilated by those three troublemakers.
"Never a dull day with them around," I chuckled and flipped to a new page of the book in my hand. Kel rolled her eyes at my remark before slinking out of view once more. Hulk was out in the sun practising his moves with Bigblue as his sparring partner, who was blocking his punches and kicks with his large hands. Bigblue looked barely affected by the force behind Hulk's punches, which was cushioned by the powerful muscles that Bigblue packed in his limbs. Bigblue could outpower everyone in the team if we were going by raw physical strength alone, so it would take much more than that to faze him.
Another sweeping glance allowed me to spot Lily, who had for some reason, decided to take root in a small pond that was originally there for decorative purposes. Her head and tentacles were exposed to the sun and she's waving about delightfully, although it makes me wonder if there's a reason why she wanted to submerge herself partially with water this time.
Chill waddled up to Lily and the two engaged themselves in a conversation beyond my understanding. Snap and Archer were exchanging blows, with Snap hurling boulders at Archer using his proficiency over rock and ground type moves while Archer simply sliced them apart effortlessly. Flamel stood under the sun, basking under the heat and light of the sun rays just like how Lily was doing.
I brought my attention back to the book in my hand. Today is the day where I will finally be meeting my fellow ability holders. In a few hours' time they would be arriving at my place and I am looking forward to meeting them. Mika is helping me with the necessary arrangements so there's nothing left for me to do but wait until they arrive.
I was once again distracted from my readings but this time, it was due to a message I received on my phone.
[Seaz] : I know it's a few hours early, but is now a good time to visit?
[Seaz] : Jason and I are already at Dewford and we are bored out of our minds
I blinked in surprise. Both of them were way too early. I have no idea what happened, but I don't see a reason why they couldn't come over now.
[tra~vel~ler] : Sure. Need me to come over and fetch you guys?
[Seaz] : Nah we good. See you in about ten to twenty minutes
True enough, the doorbell rang about fifteen minutes later. I walked over to the gate with Rena following after me but Mika had beat me to the punch, she was already there when I arrived.
"You guys sure are early," I remarked when I saw Zades and my gaze went over to the guy beside him. He's a little tall and lanky and his hair had a slight dark green tinge to it. He did not have much of a presence despite the fact that I knew that he's a trainer capable of going toe to toe with a gym leader. He looked a little meek with how his back was slightly hunched, the type that you would easily overlook if you gave him just a passing glance.
He also gave off the impression like he hadn't had enough sleep for days.
"H-Hi. Name's Jason," Jason stuttered slightly and offered his hand and I reciprocated in kind while introducing myself as well. Zades strode through the open gate when Mika let them through and he took over the conversation. By now, I could sort of sense that Jason is not that good with human interactions. He did look like he was experiencing a mild case of social anxiety even just by standing here.
"As you already know, he's Jason. One of the strongest dudes around in our generation and dare I say, in the entire region," Zades said while jabbing a thumb in Jason's direction. Jason winced at the comment.
"I'm not strong…"
"Try telling that to Wattson."
"He's too talkative…"
"You are a Grass Specialist, right?" I asked Jason, hoping that this might encourage him to open up more if we talk about something that he's more knowledgeable about or is comfortable with. He nodded in response. Jason had been very quiet ever since we first met, quite different from how active he usually is in the group chat. I also remembered Zades telling me that Jason's a very nice guy but it would be a very bad idea to spook him. I'm not too sure what ability he has but if Zades decided that his presence is necessary when we get around to training my ability starting next week, it has to be a powerful one. As such, it would be very unwise to spook him and have him accidentally activate his ability and let it run amok.
So the first order of business would be to try to get Jason to be comfortable around me.
"If you have any questions about raising grass types he's the guy to go to. He also has a cradily, so you guys might want to exchange pointers," Zades added and I looked at Jason in surprise. Jason also looked as surprised as I do, but I could see that he's also curious about Lily.
"My cradily is out at the back basking in the sun. I can bring you guys over," I led the way forward and brought them to where I was lounging about with my pokemon earlier. Zades' and Jason's presence immediately caught their attention but my team was already very well acquainted with Zades. They were more curious about Jason and most of them weren't concealing their curiosity.
"That's a lot of pokemon…" Jason mumbled and looked around. "Most of them are quite rare to encounter… A tyranitar? That's quite a bold choice to make. Flygon? How'd you even manage to get your hands on one?"
"He gets pretty talkative once pokemon is involved," Zades whispered into my ear behind Jason's back. "Just keep talking about pokemon and you should be able to keep the conversation going quite easily."
"I ventured into the desert. That's where I met him when he was still a trapinch," I answered Jason while giving Zades a thumbs up behind my back out of Jason's sight to tell him that I understood the assignment. "Met a bunch of cacturnes there too, not exactly the friendliest of creatures."
"That's true. Cacturnes are not the friendly sort until you get to know them better," Jason agreed.
"How about you show her your team?" Zades suggested and Jason looked at me in silent askance if it would be okay to release his pokemon out here. I nodded and Jason started to release his pokemon from their pokeballs one after the other.
Not all of Jason's pokemon are grass types as I soon realised. His team consisted of lurantis, goodra, venusaur, shuckle, cradily, breloom, and shiftry. Quite a number of them are pokemon which I never had the chance to observe up close before.
"Be nice, don't tear up the place, cos everything here looks expensive and I don't have enough money to pay for the damages…" Jason told his pokemon and his words turned into near inaudible mumblings towards the end. Jason's pokemon weren't as shy as their trainer, seeing as how they were boldly observing the place. Some of them were already mingling with my pokemon.
Lily had uprooted herself from her favourite spot and waddled over to where we were the moment she spotted another cradily like herself. Both cradilies started to stare at each other before cutely mirroring each other's actions, which incited fond smiles from all three of us at their behaviour. They then began to slowly wrap their tentacles together and began to converse in a language that only they could understand. In any case, it looked like their first meeting was a successful one.
Jason's cradily was the third living species that I had personally met. The other one belonged to Steven and I had seen it once when I was at Mossdeep earning my seventh badge. I'm aware that Roxanne had raised one too. I probably should take some time off to visit Roxanne at Rustboro and see if she could offer any pointers about raising a cradily. There's too few of them in this day and age for me to get a good idea of what's normal and what's not when raising a cradily.
"I think they are going to take a while. It was the same when my cradily met Roxanne's the last time around. Let's give them some time alone," Jason suggested when both our cradilies started to be immersed in their own world and virtually ignored all external influences. Jason's pokemon had quickly made themselves comfortable around mine when Zades released his own pokemon as well. I'm also quite curious about some of Jason's pokemon as well.
I've always kinda wanted to raise a bulbasaur.
"May I?" I looked between venusaur and Jason with my hand already partially outstretched. Jason gave a simple shrug of his shoulders while his venusaur simply opened one eye to look at me before going back to lazily basking in the sun with both its eyes closed. I felt a little bolder now that I received both their implicit permission, and finally placed my hand on venusaur's skin and started stroking its head.
It felt a little rubbery.
"He's the ace of my team," I could hear the slight hint of pride in Jason's voice when he talked about his venusaur. "When I was in ACE and when it was a do or die situation, it was always venusaur that pulled us through."
"You were in ACE?" I asked. Zades was right. Jason's social anxiety disappeared the moment his pokemon was involved and the conversation just started to flow naturally.
"It was how Zades and I first met. Both of us had no friends, so we kind of clicked."
"Cos we are both freakshows," Zades added in mild amusement. Mika had reappeared with a tray of drinks and a plate of fruits, set them aside on a nearby table before silently taking her leave, but not before we gave her our thanks.
"How freaky?"
"Similar to mine, Jason's ability can be very showy."
"Not like we can help it…" Jason scratched the side of his head. "I don't like it when plants start to sprout all around me either…"
"You can accelerate plant growth? That's cool, I'm actually a little jealous," I replied. Imagine all the things I can do to my favourite plants back home if I had such an ability.
"In a way, yeah, but I can't control it all that well so plants start to grow randomly at random times, which can cause quite the inconvenience when you least expect it to happen. Well, I can demonstrate if you like…"
Jason walked over to the plate of fruits that Mika set aside for us earlier. He ignored the sliced fruits and simply took an apple and in an impressive show of skill and strength, split it neatly apart by the stem with his bare hands. His grip strength is quite powerful for someone who looked so thin.
He took one seed from the apple and stuffed it into the dirt ground in the backyard with a finger.
"Watch."
It was like I'm watching a timelapse video with the video on fast forward. The seed from the ground sprouted and quickly grew into a small sapling right in front of our very eyes in a matter of seconds. Before a minute had passed a small apple tree had already grown and sprouted before the growth abruptly stopped when its height was about to reach our own, and it was clear that Jason had purposely stopped the apple tree from growing into maturity because this was just a demonstration. If he had continued further I had a feeling that this young apple tree would quickly grow into a fully grown adult tree given a few more minutes.
Zades and his pokemon didn't really bat an eye at the sight, but I couldn't say the same for me and my pokemon. What in the world did we just witness?
"That's so cool."
"Sorry for growing a tree in your backyard without your permission. I will cut it down later."
"No no no it's fine. Just leave it here," I quickly rejected his suggestion. He just grew an apple tree from a seed in the blink of an eye. How cool is that?
"As long as you like it…"
"Wait, I remembered you said that you are the owner of a flower shop or something. Is it because of your ability?"
"It's a good way to earn easy money with my ability. Zades is the co-owner, but he just left me to run everything on my own. Sometimes I wonder if he remembers that he's the owner of the shop as well."
"I gave you the starting capital to open your flower shop."
"That's like the only thing you ever did to help."
"Oh come on, that's the most important part of opening a flower shop, wasn't it?"
"Ignore him," Jason told me and dismissed Zades with a wave of his hand, earning him a scowl from the Water Specialist. "Anyway if you ever drop by Verdanturf drop me a text or a call. I grow many other things, not just flowers, and some of them are very useful for both trainers and breeders alike. Just take whatever you need, free of charge."
"You don't need to give it to me for free–"
"Just take it," Zades interrupted me. "Plant guy can grow things in minutes anyway. It wouldn't affect his business."
"Not my business, our business."
"Fine."
I gave them both an amused look. I could already feel the bromance wafting off from both of them. I think I can sort of understand why Amelia liked to read yaoi light novels so much now?
I quickly shook my head to rid myself of these dangerous thoughts. That's dangerous territory that I almost tread into.
"Accelerating plant growth is just one aspect of my ability. The other aspect that's more combat oriented, the one that makes people label me as a freak is… a little freaky. I don't quite know how to explain it either," Jason continued to ramble and I made sure he knew that I'm listening attentively. The guy looked like the type to need some encouragement to open up and has serious social anxiety issues judging from our past interactions thus far, but he did look like he would make a good friend. He was very nice to me.
"To put it very simply, he has very powerful regenerative capabilities. You had seen a heavily injured pokemon suddenly healing all its wounds with Recover before, have you? It's something like that," Zades explained on Jason's behalf.
"How is that freaky?"
"It's actually just the blood. The blood gets everywhere when Jason's fatally injured and his healing factor starts to kick in. Just imagine you could see his bones, his organs, his beating lungs, and then suddenly the flesh started mending itself and the skin grew back together in a matter of seconds. It just… doesn't look that visually appealing. Many people fainted at the sight before, I found it quite hilarious myself."
"People look at me as if I'm a zombie, which… is actually quite true."
"But I'm sure you saved or helped many people with that ability when you were in ACE, right? Things that only you could have done because of your gift? If so, there's no reason to be ashamed of it. Instead, you should be proud of it," I tried to be as encouraging as I could and it did have an immediate effect seeing as how Jason visibly blushed and looked away. Jason has some serious self-esteem issues, that much was obvious. He needs a lot of encouragement from others to open up and that is what I'm trying to do as best as I can.
Zades also gave me a thumbs up behind his back that only I could see, indicating that I had done a good job. We both exchanged a quick glance before knowing smiles broke across both our faces.
I finally made a new friend today. He's very socially awkward and I don't have many people who I can call my friends, but I got a feeling that my friendship with Jason would last for a very long time if this keeps up.
And if Jason is any indication, I have a good feeling that the meeting with the rest of the ability holders in a few hours time will go swimmingly well too.
That is definitely something to look forward to.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male
