《A random pokemon journey》


 WTF?

    WTF?


    It was a dreary and stormy evening the day my life changed drastically. Before I get into all that I should introduce myself , Alexander Drake a fairly normal twenty year old guy all things considered. I have short thick messy ck hair and job that barely pays for my rundown one bedroom one bathroom house as well as a small amount put into the rainy day funds under the mattress. Sure it wasn''t some glorious existence but I lived alone in two thousand and twenty three America which was quite the achievement let me tell you.-


    I was never very athletic to be honest so I had a little bit of a gut on me but thanks to both a fast metabolism and only enough money to eat a single decent meal a day I was by no means fat. I suppose I also got lucky in the gics area though as I was a solid eight out of ten if my female coworkers and casual hookups were to believed. Never really cared for trying to make myself look good and was likely to wear a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with some sarcastic saying on it to literally any event.-


    I did have one rather big w that I mostly kept to myself but those who knew me long enough were aware of. I had a near crippling level of apathy about everything since as far as I could tell there was honestly no real reason why I should care about anything. I wasn''t emotionless , no far from it , but I simply epted that there was no point to getting stressed over things out of my control which was basically everything. For some people they strived for something greater than human but I epted that it simply didn''t exist.-


    Life is quite fair in that regard as you were born and no matter what you do you will eventually die as nothing more than a human , just like everyone else. So as far as I was concerned why should I do more than the bare minimum to survive until my apportioned fate if it didn''t matter. Obviously I am aware of that now that my situation is vastly different but as I said near crippling levels of apathy. That all changed though on this fateful day when I learned the hard way that reality is much moreplicated than any realized.-


    See I was off on this particr day and as a result had a decent amount of free time on my hands. Most of my free time was usually dedicated to sleeping as was the only way for me to experience what it may be like to be more than just another human. Today though I had been doing my most recent hobby , ying pokemon. To be honest despite growing up with the franchise in high poprity I had never even given it so much as more than a momentary nce.-


    I had unfortunately been forced to grow up and realize that the world was a terrible ce at the tender age of seven due to bullying. I''m not talking about like harmless stuff like name calling and mocking but full on getting punched in the gut and isted by all of my ssmates for years on end bullying. For a couple of years after we moved away from that area and I started to get treated like a normal person I was cruel and angry at the world. But after seeing that anger got me nowhere I eventually settled for cold apathy , sad right?-


    Anyways my coworkers and the few people who might be considered friends had pestered me to no end about pokemon this and pokemon that until I decided to give in and see what all the fuss was about. Apparently the forth generation and bellow was where the games made the most sense and came highly rmended. My coworker Jerome suggested I y pokemon emerald and fire red first , then pokemon heart gold or soul silver and finally pokemon tinum to really get the full feel for the franchise. I refused to watch the anime though since everyone said that it was rather childish.-


    It wasn''t all that expensive to get all these games and the console to y them either. About two hundred dors from my rainy day fund after taxes since I got everything from a reliable game shop second hand. Thirty for each of the ds cartridges , seventy five for the ds lite itself including the charging cable and twenty five for each of the gba cartridge games. I started with pokemon emerald and went through the story within two of my days off. Despite clearly being meant for children the game was actually prettyprehensive in it''s mechanics.-


    Obviously the level system made the type system slightly less valuable to memorize when a higher level tended to mean a pokemon could tank an attack of a type it was weak against if the level difference was high enough and the opposite was true. If a pokemon out leveled it''s opponent it could still seriously harm or even "knock out" a pokemon strong against that type of attack. This was where things got a bit unbnced as it was totally doable to just have your character run back and forth in a specific area defeating the random encounters repeatedly to over level your party of six pokemon thanks to the exp system in levels.-


    Otherwise though the game had a fairly good thing going for it that made it fun to try and y through the game with various limitations. My personal favorite was the "adult" version of the game where if a pokemon was "knocked out" in battle you had to store it in your pc box and release it because it was "dead". This meant I was forced to be more invested in actual strategy then just brute forcing my way through the story and gyms.-


    Once I got toofortable ying with emerald I moved on to fire red then heart gold after that and finally I was ying through Pokemon tinum for the first time when everything changed. I''d like to say that it was some grand spectacle but in all honestly it was not. One moment I was watching the credits of the game after defeating the champion Cynthia and the next everything went ck. I am pretty sure I was instantly killed by the bolt of lightning that I had no way of predicting. I am also pretty sure SOMETHING had grabbed my soul at the moment of my death as When I woke up I was very much no longer on earth. My first thought of course was ''What the Fuck?''.

 Waking up and learning about the system

    Waking up and learning about the system


    I stirred awake as my senses picked up various unfamiliar noises such as loud animal cries that didn''t sound quite right. ''What the Fuck? Where even am I right now?'' I thought as I opened my eyes and saw the rocky and dark ceiling of the cave. Sitting up off the hard stone floor I looked around confused but fairly calm , apathy for the win. It was a small ce really , not more than ten feet deep into the mountain and only a few feet wide and tall. I could only barely stand up in the cave with maybe six inches separating the top of my head with the jagged ceiling. None of that mattered however in the face of what I saw next appear in front of my eyes.-


    [WELCOME HOST TO THE RANDOMIZER SYSTEM!]


    [Dispensing starter pack! Congrattions you''ve obtained 1xmonnguage(skill) , 1x Random skill ticket , 1000x Poke`(currency) , 1x silph co bag , 5x pokeballs(item) , 1x random pokemonpanion)!]


    "You have got to be shitting me!" I couldn''t help but say in disbelief at the floating blue words in front of me. Despite not doing anything the words copsed into a small blue roulette wheel in the corner of my vision leaving a bag with a pokeball symbol on it in midair that fell to the ground. ignoring that I tried to reopen the system ''Uh , system?'' I thought , nothing ''Status?'' and a blue screen popped up startling me for a moment before I calmed myself down again and really looked over the screen curiously. It was in a familiar RPG game type format with my name at the top followed by my age and then the other system features before finally showing me my actual stats.-


    [NAME: Alexander Drake


    AGE:20


    RACE: human


    INVENTORY: 1000 poke` ,monnguage(skill) , random skill ticket , 5x pokeballs , random pokemonpanion)


    ROULETTE


    TRADING SHOP


    QUESTS: none


    Pokemon: none


    Level:1


    SKILLS: none


    ABILITIES: Appraise(novice)(system ability)


    STRENGTH:5


    AGILITY:5


    AURA:5


    INTELLIGENCE:5


    CHARISMA:7


    LUCK:5]


    Now I may not be an expert in such matters but even I knew that my stats were REALLY low after looking my status screen over. ''Um , I don''t know if you can like read my mind or some such but could I get an exnation on your functions , please?'' he mentally begged. [Host is rmended to asked more specific questions for easier assimtion of system knowledge.] The blue message popped up in front of the rest of the status screen proving that this thing was reading his mind. ''Well that''s not concerning at all , whatever. Tell me about these stats and why they are so low.'' he mentally thought.-


    [Strength: the ability to exert force on an object to move it. Agility: the ability to control ones movement with precision. Aura: the natural lifeforce of all things and determines ones ce in the hierarchy of life. Intelligence: the ability to learn and retain knowledge. Charisma: the ability to draw attention and attract or manipte others via words or actions and includes ones appearance. Luck: affects all things you do but is based on the probability of the oue. A baseline adult human has an average score of 5 in each stat]


    I read over this information carefully beforeing to ept it as it made sense all things considered. Before I found myself in this situation I definitely counted as a baseline human with no training or excessive education to speak of. ''What about the Roulette , trading shop and quests?'' I question in mind and another answer popped up exining each of those things. They worked exactly how I had assumed from the names. Roulette used tickets of whatever type I had to randomly draw one such type of thing. The trading shop on the other hand allowed me to trade items and money for tickets for the roulette.-


    Quests however were a bit trickier since the system could randomly decide to assign a quest to me that I could thenplete for a reward. The system had also specified that it could only assign quests that I could actuallyplete with my current means. It was also not allowed to assign quests that directly lead me to near fatal scenarios toplete so that was a relief. The quests were also entirely optional so if I wanted to I could simply opt out entirely , not that I likely would. Are you kidding me? This is the most exhrating situation I have ever been in!-


    ''What about the inventory? How do I use that?'' I asked eagerly. How could I not be eager after learning that I had the ability to be more than just another human? For the first time in a long time I was actually motivated to do more than the bare minimum and I wanted to seize every moment of it! [Inventory is tied to thergest portable storage medium avable to the host.] The system exined in it''s mono tone blue text manner , not that I minded. ''Thergest storage medium is probably this bag on the ground.'' I thought as I eyed the strangely normal looking backpack curiously.-


    If this bag worked like the ones from the games it was frankly busted as all fucking hell. The bags in the games could carry a stupid amount of items in a manner that I can only describe as science fiction nonsense. Clearly it somehow had an expanded space in it that was much bigger than the bags size would make one guess , that or the even more busted ability to shrink things to tiny sizes. Either way I eagerly picked up the bag that felt like it was made of cotton and unzipped the top of it before peering into it.-


    The inside of the bag was actually fairly normal looking as all of the normal items were the size I assumed they would be and somehow seemed to take up nearly no room. The pokeballs were about the size of an orange with the standard red and white stic look you''d image. There was also three in white tickets with ck lettering that said what they were for next to the small pile of golden coins with a seal of some sort likely from the pokemon league. Taking out themonnguage ticket I spent the next five minutes trying every possible means short of destroying it to get it to activate.-


    In the end I chose to ask the system embarrassed at how stupid I must have seemed before I did so. Honestly speaking I didn''t want to rely on the system more than absolutely necessary to learn as It defeated the point of me putting in effort otherwise. Freebies are nice and all every now and then but all the time spoils the experience , like ying a game on godmode. As it turned out the activation method was in fact destroying the ticket on purpose. The on purpose part was rather important as the system warned that idental destruction or destruction via an outside source other than me invalidated the ticket.

 Crazy starter

    Crazy starter


    The first ticket I tore apart was obviously themonnguage one since not being able to speak , read or write just sounds irritating. The sudden influx of information into my head from the ticket gave me a bit of a headache but I chose to ignore it since I could now speak anothernguage. Though I definitely needed practice if the word "novice" next to the skill in my status was anything to go by. Still that was a small price to pay in my opinion since the knowledge from the ticket was prettyprehensive and it was a whole newnguage.-


    I waited few minutes for my headache to subside before I moved onto the next ticket that had me excited and nervous at the same time , the random pokemon ticket. As someone who had yed the games thoroughly I was aware that while no pokemon was bad to have some of them were much weaker from other just as a rule of thumb normally. Tearing the ticket I was surprised to see three roulette wheels appear. The first had the pokemon options on it and I immediately noticed that it was first form pokemon only which was a relief.-


    The second roulette wheel however wasbeled the variation wheel and and had six options that had lower and lower odds yes , yes 2x , yes , 3x , yes 4x , yes 5x and no. The no option had the highest chance with fifty slots followed by yes with twenty. The odds drastically fell from there however as yes 2x had five , yes 3x had three , yes 4x had two and yes 5x had a single entry on the wheel. This made it abundantly clear that variations were extremely valuable and that I should be happy to have one even if it were something like a shuckle.-


    The final roulette wheel had the different types of variations possible on it with shiny being the mostmon with fifty entries followed by royal with twenty , then the rest each had five entries. Those variations were ancient , strength , speed , intelligence , defense and elemental. There was however a single entry of another variation called legendary that had me interested. Apparently the system was waiting for my input before it began to spin the first wheel. Giving it I watched with fingers crossed as the wheel spun round and round before slowing down to stop on a pokemon name , Larvitar.-


    "YES!" I eximed excitedly while punching the air above me in joy. Larvitar was one of the few species that were counted as pseudo legendary due to it''s final form , Tyranitar , having stats close to the legendries in the game. That probably didn''t hold true in reality since the legendries were supposed to be gods basically but that didn''t mean it wasn''t a fantastic starter pokemon. That was when the second wheel began to spin and it dawned on me that I could also get a variant form pokemon as well.-


    When the wheel eventually stopped on yes 2x I was over the moon with tion as this meant myrvitar was bound to be amazing. Finally I watched the final wheel spin and mentally begged for it tond on legendary but I had no such luck. The first variation was the shiny variation which was basically just a color change and slightly disappointing to see. The second spin was also not very special as itnded on the second most re3adily avable option , royal. With the pokemon roulette done I watched in curiosity as a ck and white pokeball the same size as the others appeared out of nowhere in the bag.-


    Picking it up I immediately was startled as I felt a connection formed between me and the pokemon in the ball. It was unusual really as it felt like I was physically a part of the pokemon and it was of me and yet not at the same time. It is hard to describe and so I simply won''t try because nothing I say will do it justice. Clicking the release button in the center of the ball it took a short moment to actually open ''probably to take the act of throwing it into ount'' I thought.-


    The bright red glowing energy shot out of the open ball and solidified into a six foot tall bright green stony bipedal creature with a tall head spike of the same color and a red belly. it also had curiosity filled red eyes and ck markings under it''s eyes and on it''s chest. "Lar?" the thing said adorably as it looked at me with interest. It was painfully clear at this point that the royal variation was pretty much a doubling of size as I knew from the games I yed it would usually only be three feet tall normally.-


    Getting stared at by what may as well be a you sized superpowered dinosaur was ufortable no matter who you asked and I was no exception. "I am your new trainer , Alex." I said nervously inmon but the pokemon merely nodded and sat down on the ground like it wasn''t bothered at all. ''You know what? I am not going toin about it being so chill when I don''t have a fucking clue what I''m doing.'' I thought deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth.-


    Looking at my status I saw that the pokemon tab now had thervitar listed next to it along with a little symbol that I recognized as the female symbol from the games. "A girl huh? Wonder what I such call you?" I said in very rough brokenmon and my pokemon looked confused for a moment before figuring out what I said and perking up. "Lar! Lar! Vii! Tar! Larvitar!" the thing said eagerly like I was supposed to have any clue what that meant. Oddly though I did seem to understand like some sort of instinctual understanding.-


    I decided to spare myself the headache and just rolled with it "Something powerful huh? What about grace?" I asked in roughmon but my Larvitar shook her head in disagreement. "Hmmm , What about Gaia?" I asked and she seemed to think about it before nodding with a smile and cried out "Larvitar!" happily. I couldn''t help but smile myself as it seemed her joy was contagious. "Alright Gaia , I''ll try to keep you out of your ball when I can but might need to store you in itter alright?" I said in slightly bettermon not not by much.-


    "Tar!" Gaia said with what I assume is an understanding nod. With introductionspletely I turned my attention to the final ticket in the bag , the random skill ticket. Much like the others when he tore this one another roulette wheel appeared only this time there was so many different entries that he couldn''t even read them which was clearly because it had all the possible skills he could have. Watching the wheel spin nervously he was left speechless when itnded on cleaning of all the possible options. There was then a massive influx of information about the best ways to tidy up all sorts of things from wine stains to blood and even sexual fluids. ''Looks like I''m going to be one hell of a butler.'' I thought with a chuckle.

 First time for everything

    First time for everything


    Looking at my status again I see that this skill was also at "novice" and shrugged since I honestly didn''t see me needing this skill very much. Unlike themonnguage skill that was likely to be crucial to living in this world cleaning didn''t really seem like a vital skill to my survival. Not to say I wasn''t happy to have the skill since I am pretty sure I can''t have too many skills and every little bit helps. Surprisingly I noticed a change to my race as well as some of my stats on my status screen.-


    My race had changed to Human-bonded and my strength , agility and aura had increased by two whole points. I of course asked the system about this and was surprised to learn that this was one of the perks of being a pokemon trainer. Even crazier was that the boost each bonded pokemon gave was different based on it''s own traits as well as strength. Gaia''s species for example usually only gave half a point as untrained Larvitars but thanks to her royal and shiny variations she gave two points. Normal non pseudo-legendries however usually only gave twenty five percent of a point.-


    "GRUUU!" My stomach grumbled in hunger pulling me out of my thoughts as I noticed that I simply didn''t have any food on hand. "Hey Gaia what do you normally eat?" I asked mypanion since I legitimately didn''t know. How could I when all I knew about pokemon diets was berries , candy and poffins from the games and that was it. Rather than go looking for berries or some other edible thing I assumed asking Gaia if she was an omnivore , carnivore or herbivore was a good idea. The answer I got was the most pokemon thing ever as she simply leaned over and took a mouthful of stone from the caves wall and chewed it up before swallowing it.-


    "Well at least you don''t have very high requirements." I said with a chuckle and got a deep rumble from Gaia in response like she wasughing. "Well stand up , I can''t eat rocks like you and need a bodyguard while I forage for food for me." I said in my roughmon getting another rumble from her as she stood up and started walking out the cave. Once out of the cave I took a good look around just like Gaia did to familiarize myself with the area.-


    The trees were what the sort that I recognized from earth as pine trees that tended to cover most of the tropical south of the united states. "I would like to think we are in Hoenn at the moment from the humidity and heat as that was how the ce was shown but I am not sure about that." I say out loud inmon so that Gaia could also hear. She snorted through her nostrils and began sniffing the air before pointing in a direction.-


    "Is there food over there?" I ask and she nods. "Lets go then." I said and she led the way in front of me in case something were to jump out at us. Something did too , a small dog looking creature with brown and tan stripes and spikey fur as well as two darker spots of fur around it''s eyes and a vicious snarl. "A Zigzagoon , definitely Hoenn then. Gaia Bite!" Imanded and a ferocious look appeared on her face as she leapt forward with her mouth open and closed her jaws around the Zigzagoon''s neck in a move of surprising agility before a sickening "CRUNCH!" echoed through the area.-


    Gaia directly broke the things neck in an instant showing that jaws that are meant to crush rocks aren''t to be underestimated. [DING! Due to your first victory you are reward 1x random skill ticket and 1x exp ticket!] The system chimed in at this point letting the realization of having given Gaia themand to end the life of another pokemon sink in. Surprisingly I didn''t feel all that bad about it which was unexpected. ''Yeah , might need to work on this apathy towards death before I get Gaia involved in actual trainer battles lest she kill all her opponents.'' I thought seriously.-


    Speaking of Gaia she stood back up and acted like nothing happened "Lar!" she said pointing at the corpse before pointing at her mouth. "You want to eat it?" I asked surprised at the idea since there was no mention of eating pokemon in the games. I mean it made sense that there would be food chain involving them in ce in a real world version so I wasn''t off guard very long. Gaia shook her head and pointed at me then the corpse and finally her mouth.-


    I wasn''t stupid so I figured out what she meant easily enough "I can eat it?" I asked for confirmation and she nodded. "I will be honest I have no clue how to butcher or cook this thing." I said awkwardly inmon. Gaia rolled her eyes at me before picking the corpse up by the head and stabbing one of her short but sharp ws into the throat of it and pulling it down hard causing the internal organs and still warm liquid blood to spill out onto the ground. She then raked her ws along the open cavity to remove anything clinging on like the heart and lungs.-


    "Lar! Tar!" she then said and I could somehow instinctively know she was saying that I needed a fire now. ''Well lets see if I remember how to make a fire from all those YouTube videos.'' I thought as I grabbed a bunch of dry pine needles from the ground and some sticks that looked pretty dry as well and had Gaia follow me back to the cave where I piled up the sticks and pine needles. Reaching into my jeans pocket I pull out the remnants of my zippo lighter that I always had on me forfort.-


    It was mostly destroyed just like most of my clothes but the striker still worked much to my relief. Tearing off a bit of my shirt I clicked the striker a few times before the cotton caught and I hurriedly stuffed it into the mess of pine needles and started to blow on it gently. Soon my small pile of sticks was burning as white smoke came from the fire. "Yes!" I celebrated my small victory loudly and Gaia merely rumbled at me in amusement.-


    I had her rip off the skin of the corpse which she did in a brutal show of power by simply pulling it off like she was peeling an orange. I had to make a few tips to collect more pine needles and sticks as well as a log from a nearby fallen tree before using some of the sticks to hold the meat and bones over the fire at an angle like all those videos showed. The fat dripped from the meat into the fire below sending up a heavy meat smell that had my stomach rumbling loudly. Once I thought that the meat on one side was done I carefully flipped over my cooking food and allowed the other to cook.


    Author note : If you have any ideas for skills , abilities , items or pokemon variations that make sense feel free and let me know and who knows if the RNG gods favor you it might actually show up.

 Pokemon stats

    Pokemon stats


    While I waited I pulled out the skill ticket I got earlier and tore it in half causing the skill wheel to reappear and with a mental nod , spin. ''Come on something useful , papa needs a helping hand.'' I mentally chanted hoping beyond reason it would actually do something. My prayer seemed to have reached something as the wheel stopped and I got the metal working skill which filled my head with even more knowledge than the cleaning skill did. "Ugh!" I groaned from the massive headache this caused me. Gaia looked at me with concern but I shook my head to reassure her I was fine.-


    ''While I can appreciate getting the full set of knowledge on the skill , I think I could live without the headache.'' I mentallyined as I sorted through my newfound knowledge. ''Oh , now this I can work with.'' I thought with a grin. As it turned out metal working covered the bare minimum that you needed to use it and it was a very low bar to meet. Basically you just needed a t hard surface and a blunt object to technically work metal. It helped if you tossed the metal in a fire first but cold forging was totally doable as well. -


    The only thing I was missing to start was the raw metal itself and I could probably find some iron by looking around since the stuff is apparently super abundant in nature. ''It helps I have a giant stone monster that can help me harvest the stuff.'' I thought with smirk. "Before all of that though it''s chow time!" I said genuinely excited to try fire roasted Zigzagoon. "Hey you want any of this?" I asked in my usual brokenmon and Gaia looked thoughtful for a moment before reaching over and tearing the roasted and very much hot corpse in half with her ws.-


    She then tossed it in her mouth bones and all and started chewing it up like it wasn''t fresh from the fire. "So that''s what being resistant to fire damage is like in reality? I''m kinda jealous." I said and Gaia merely rumbled in amusement as she swallowed her food. She looked a bit dissatisfied with the portion though if the way she was looking at my food was any indication. "If you bring back some more I don''t mind cooking it for you." I offered and she immediately stood up and walked out of the cave without a sound making meugh.-


    "Seems like I got a foodie on my hands." I mutter with a smile before blowing on a piece of meat to cool it off. Taking a bite of the meat careful not to burn my mouth I was surprised at how delicious it was. Sure it was a bit chewy and oily but vor wise it was very simr to a fine cut of beef. ''It needs some salt and peeper but I could totally deal with not having any.'' I thought before taking another bite.-


    The sun started to go down outside the cave as I ate and hearing heavy footprints I turned to see Gaia holding no less than four more dead Zigzagoon''s. She had already gotten rid of the skin and internals of each of the and casually dropped the bodies on the ground next to me before sitting down at the cave entrance to wait. I carefully set up two of the corpses to roast on one side over the fire before going back to eating my own portion. Unfortunately I was only able to eat half of my portion so I gave the rest to Gaia who was more than happy to eat it and the bones.-


    It was only at this point that I realized she had sat at the entrance of the cave not out offort but safety , specifically my own. The light of the fire reflected several pairs of eyes outside the cave in the growing shadows. ''Likely drawn by the scent of food cooking in the fire.'' I thought seriously as the eyes seemed to slowly fade into the darkness after determining it wasn''t worth the threat of Gaia to attack the cave.-


    That was my first true reminder that I was in the wilderness in this world and I vowed not to forget it anytime soon. Knowing that I needed to gain more strength fast I reached into my bag and took out the exp ticket I had and tore it. [Congrattions on obtaining 1000 exp points! How would you like to allocate them?] The system said a a drop down menu of my options appeared in front of me. They were [pokemon] , [skills] , [abilities] and [level] I immediately chose pokemon since the stronger Gaia was the safer I was.-


    I could always work on myself at ater date but for now Gaia was my greatest reliance. After making my choice another message appeared from the system. [Congrattions on pokemon {Gaia} leveling up to five! would you like to see it''s status?]. I eagerly agreed and aprehensive status screen much like that of the games popped up. ''Hmm , she seems to be primarily focused toward speed and defense. Oh? Her royal variation gives her a boost to stat growth in all directions huh , useful to know. And she has the sand veil ability which is good since it''ll give us an edge.'' I thought looking the status over.-


    [Pokemon: Larvitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:5


    Moveset: Bite(j) , Leer(n) , Sandstorm(n) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(n)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny


    Attack:64


    Defense:75


    Sp. Atk:45


    Sp. Def:50


    Speed:85


    Ability: Sand veil(n)]


    The little symbol next to the moves and ability meant novice just like it did for my own skills which made sense as instantly mastering a move would be pretty crazy. The j on the other hand was the next rank called the journeyman rank and basically meant having an average understanding of whatever it was next to. Personally I was more surprised at her egg move as it was honestly super useful for making her even tankier than she normally would be.-


    I was a bit skeptical about the sandstorm move though as in the game it was sort of implied it legitimately effected the weather in an area but that was a pretty godly level of power for a mere level five to have. ''It probably uses energy to mimic the weather phenomena in a small zone of a certain size in reality.'' I thought since it made logical sense. The other two moves were standard low level pokemon stuff so I didn''t pay them much attention. Instead I focused on the fact that there was simply no HP stat on the screen which made keeping track of her health significantly harder for me.

 Quest

    Quest


    I will need to carefully judge her health based on her injuries which will be slightly difficult but not impossible if I use logic. Closing the system I flip over the two cooking Zigzagoons so the other side could cook evenly as well. A cool breeze blows through the mouth of the cave regting the temperature a bit and making it slightly morefortable. I won''t lie and say that my first day in this world has been pleasant since I''ve been sweating from the heat and humidity all day and the fire certainly wasn''t helping.-


    "Tomorrow we need to find a source of water and maybe some berries." I said to Gaia who merely grunts and nods in agreement. I spent the next hour after that cooking up thest two Zigzagoon while Gaia blissfully munched on the two I had just finished. I was choosing to ignore the wretched state of my clothing that was sweat soaked and charred from having gotten struck by lightning for now since there was nothing I could do about it. I had thought about using the Zigzagoon skins but I knew literally nothing about tanning hides and didn''t feel like trying to reinvent the wheel for a thick pair of leather pants.-


    Once the food was done I handed it over to Gaia before walking to the back of the cave where it was cooler andying down with the bag as a makeshift pillow. There was no point in me staying awake since I had nothing to do so I closed my eyes and slowly sang out the ABC''s inmon to better familiarize myself with them as I drifted to sleep. Exhaustion quickly took me and so it was I ended my first day in this strange new world of mine.-


    It was a fitful sleep as I wasn''t used to sleeping on hard uneven stone and couldn''t getfortable. At the very least though I did get some rest so when I woke up as the sun rose the next day with various aches I wasn''t also exhausted. Gaia had apparently decided to sleep with her back blocking most of the entrance of the cave. I was touched by her concern over my safety despite having only just met yesterday and wondered if this was what it meant to be truly bonded with a pokemon.-


    The fire had burned down and was just a smoldering pile of ashes at the moment so I added some more pine needles and sticks before bringing it back to life. Sure I didn''t n to use it at all but this way when we get back I can just revive the fire again instead of having to totally make a new one. Pressing my hand on Gaia''s sleeping torso I shook her gently to wake her up. "Hey up and at em Gaia." I said as she began to stir awake. She sat up and yawned loudly making me chuckle before doing what I can only describe as a cat stretch that caused her stony exterior to creak slightly.-


    Stepping around her to look out of the cave I wasn''t surprised to see that the skin and internals of the first Zigzagoon from yesterday were gone. "Noting is wasted in the wilderness huh?" I said and Gaia shrugged. "Lar!" she said and I nodded "Yeah we still need to find water and maybe some berries if we''re lucky." I said and she stepped out of the cave and raised her head into the air to smell out the situation.-


    Soon she pointed in a direction "Lar!" she said which I instinctively tranted to mean "water" due to the weird way pokespeech seemed to work. It wasn''t a precise thing however so I was only guessing that that was what was being said. "Alrighty then lead the way." I said in mostly coherentmon. Gaia nodded and started to walk towards the direction she pointed out while I followed along with a grimace as I noticed how the rough ground had already worn a hole through my right sock. I hadn''t been wearing my shoes when I got struck by lightning so I could only grudgingly ept that I''ll need to suffer for a while before my feet develop the proper calluses for walking barefooted in the wilderness.-


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You are in a terrible position to survive at the moment as you don''t know how to in the wilderness!


    Objectives: Find water , Find berries(optional) , Train your pokemon to level 10(optional)


    Rewards: Barefoot adaptation , Legal I.D(optional) , 1x random skill ticket(Optional)]


    I was slightly caught off guard by this random system notification but after reading it fully I grinned widely. "New n Gaia!" I say loudly to get her attention. She looks at me slightly confused so I exin myself. "We are not only going to find water and berries but we are also going to get you some training while we are at it." I say with a grin. She looks excited after I say that "Larvitar!" she cries out and nod. She doubles her speed and while it''s a bit painful for my feet I also keep up.-


    We are soon confronted by a few different Zigzagoon but Gaia mows through them like the tank she is reaching level 6 in the process. Soon enough I see arge bush in the distance to our right that had severalrge blue fruits on it that I recognize as oran berries. "Gaia there''s some berries over there!" I said excitedly pointing the bush out. She turned immediately and zeroed her sight in on the berry bush and nodded "Lar!" she cried and eagerly started to head over to the bush.-


    We got about halfway there when a group of five grey canine creatures with long lower canines and ck fur on their feet appeared snarling aggressively. "You''re outnumbered , Iron defense followed by sandstorm!" I called out and Gaia squatted slightly and a grey metallic shine rose from her carapace for a moment before she roared which caused a brown energy toe from her kicking up a cloud of swirling sand that covered her and the five Poochyena. The pack of Poochyena wasn''t just nning on sitting there and allowing her to do whatever she wanted however as they charged towards her with a white energy on them and crashed into her.-


    Gaia grunted when they struck her with what I had to assume was tackle and her carapace grew slightly scratched to indicate some minor damage in those spots. The sandstorm got to them after that as the entire pack sneezed as they apparently breathed in the sand. A novice level sandstorm was obviously not very damaging but that wasn''t why I had her use the move. "Wait for them to get close and Bite them!" I called out and Gaia hunkered down. Despite knowing my n there was nothing the pack could do if they wanted to end this battle save y along.

 Water source secured

    Water source secured


    The purpose of the sandstorm was three fold in this situation. First was that it raised Gaia''s evasion thanks to her sand veil ability. The second was that it put the pack of Poochyena on a time limit as the longer the fightsted the worse the damage they would take from the sandstorm. The final purpose was to allow Gaia to get more familiar with the move. I was by no means a slow minded person so when I actually needed to strategizing was a piece of cake so long as I had a decent amount of information.-


    Pokemon were usually pretty smart themselves so the pack also figured out at least the part of the n that pertained to them pretty quickly. They growled and chuffed in irritation but refused to run away from the battle because this was their territory and we were the trespassers. I had assumed something like this would be true in reality so I wasn''t surprised. I had never doubted the intelligence of pokemon but I had theorized before my transmigration that they would still behave much more like animals than people. Perhaps this was only true for some species but for now the theory held.-


    Left with little choice in the matter one of the members of the pack grew impatient and glowed white again as it charged Gaia. Almost faster than my eye could follow Gaia side stepped the Poochyena and sank down on top of it with her open maw. A sickening "Crunch!" sounded out momentster and the Poochyena went limp. Gaia immediately let go of the corpse and went back to her waiting position. The other four members of the pack grew irritated and anxious seeing this and when the slightlyrger member who I assume to be the leader let out a sound they all attacked at once.-


    Gaia calmly watched on as they charged her with the white glow of the move on them and then did something that surprised me. A white glow shone on her mouth and she lunged forward with her mouth open. Instantly a wide energy projection of her mouth appeared in from of the real thing and closed around the whole body of one of the Poochyena. The unfortunate creature was immediately crushed sttering blood and organs from both ends. ''Do you mean to tell me she hasn''t even been using the move this whole time!?'' I thought in shock.-


    Sure I had wondered why the tackle from the pack had a glow when her attack didn''t but it had never dawned on me that Gaia was one shotting pokemon with only the raw strength of her jaws this whole time. I mean it sort of made sense given that she literally crushed rocks with those jaws but my experience from the games was starting to interfere with my perception of my new reality a bit. Maybe the pokedex entries implied that such things were actually normal but besides using moves you never actually see any of that.-


    ''That reminds me that I need to find some way to record my knowledge from the games before it fades from memory.'' I thought seriously as Gaia dodged one of the other three attacks but got hit by the other two making her grunt. Before the three remaining members of the pack could retreat however Gaia managed to catch one of them by the leg and crush it''s bones with her jaws. "AR AR AR AR!" the pokemon she caught cried out in pain for a few moments before Gaia finished it off with a bite to the neck rendering the area silent again save for the sandstorm.-


    Thest two members of the pack re at Gaia for a moment before deciding to cut their losses and flee rather than stay in what is clearly a death sentence. With a mournful howl from the leader I watch as they run in opposite directions to prevent Gaia from chasing them. Gaia visibly rxes at this point and allows the sandstorm to dissipate. "Good job Gaia! Now lets get our rightful prize." I said and she nods with a happy "Lar!".-


    Walking over to the berry bush I reach out and hold one of the oran berries in my hand. It''s a dark blue color tangerine shaped fruit with a apple like feel to it that was also about the size of an orange. Carefully snapping the small but sturdy connection between the fruit and bush I hand it to Gaia who immediately tossed it into her mouth. I then spent the next five minutes carefully plucking half the remaining fruits and storing them in the berrypartment of the bag giving me a total of three orans forter.-


    Gaia reached level seven from that battle meaning we merely needed to get three more levels for her and find a water source to finish the quest. "Alright Gaia lead the way to the water and keep an eye out for stuff to fight. We don''t need to kill all of our opponents but if they don''t look like they think the same don''t hesitate to end them." I say seriously and Gaia nods in agreement. We start walking in the direction we were originally going and I got more and more holes in my socks as they got caught on sticks and stones.-


    It was quite painful for me but I powered through it as we walked and soon I heard the sound of moving water and knew we were getting close. As much as I wanted to rush the rest of the way I knew doing so would be a bad idea and resisted that urge. This proved to be a good thing as when we finally caught sight of the source of the sound I had to stop Gaia from going forwards as there at the edge of the stream was a group of seven Wingull.-


    I remembered the sheer amount of headaches these things caused me ying emerald with my Torchic starter. They were one of the few pokemon species that collectively had ess to an elemental attack immediately , specifically water gun. That move was four times super effective against Gaia since she was a rock and ground type until her final evolution that was a rock and dark type. I was not sure what a super effective move actually did in reality but considering the sheer number of the Wingull here I didn''t want to either. "Lets move up the stream to see if there''s a spot without these things." I say seriously. Gaia while skeptical of my concern over what looked to be weak opponents cooperates.-


    Luckily for us we found the source of the stream at the foot of the mountain and it was almost totally unupied save for the small group of three Pidgey that Gaia knocked out but didn''t kill. The source of the stream seemed to be the run off from the ice of the mountain melting and flowing down. Gaia an I helped ourselves to the crystal clear water and I even took a moment to rinse off some of the caked on sweat and dirt on me.

 Quest complete

    Questplete


    I won''t lie and say that I didn''t sigh in relief as the cold water rolled off my skin during my rinse. Hell I''ll feely admit that I very much did. Perhaps very few people truly understand the relief that cool water on sunburnt salt and dirt encrusted skin brought but I did at this moment. While it was fairly pointless I also did a light soapless wash of my clothes as well in the water before I put them back on. The wetness of my clothes helped keep me cool as Gaia and I left the area to find more opponents for her.-


    I don''t know if I mentioned it already but Hoenn was as hot and humid as Satan''s balls after sex. It certainly didn''t help that gnats , yes normal bugs existed here , swarmed around me relentlessly. Gaia at least found my constant swatting and irritable cursing amusing as we walked through the shade of the forest. We found a few a few different pokemon during the next three hours of being local tyrants and attacking anything that looked at us funny. Jokes aside I was surprised to see that there were members of the Treecko species and some of those from other regions as well such as a single spearow.-


    ''I knew that Kanto and Johto were near each other but not that Hoenn was as well.'' I thought interested. ''Appraise'' I used the ability of the system to check each of the members of the Treecko species I saw but none of them stood out to me. ''I''ll wait until I either find an irresistible pokemon or I get properly settled supply wise before I try and expand my team.'' I decided before having Gaia challenge the nearby pokemon to a "friendly" spar.-


    She was quickly getting better at controlling the level of damage she did to her vic-cough- opponents. At the end of our three hours Gaia barely managed to hit level ten as it was getting harder and harder to get a decent challenge out of the weak nearby pokemon. That was actually an interesting take on exp as it actually had nothing to do with the level of her opponent nor was is some set amount but rather whether or not she got a decent challenge out of it. She didn''t even have an exp bar so I assume that her level is based on how good atbat she and her opponents were.-


    [Congrattion onpleting a quest! You received Barefoot adaptation , Legal I.D , 1x random skill ticket]


    The moment Gaia hit level ten I got this notification and celebrated for all of about two seconds before screaming and falling to the ground. As I was quickly finding out rapid adaptation is FUCKING PAINFUL! Imagine getting stung by a yellow jacket and then multiply it by three and spread it all over the bottom of your feet including your toes , that was what I felt as the system gave me my "rewards".-


    Thankfully it ended in only a minute as otherwise I am pretty sure I would have suffocated to death. I like any reasonable person had screamed out my entire air supply and was locked into a silent scream afterwards until the pain ended. Gasping down as much air as I possibly could with Gaia watching on concerned I angrily pulled off my tattered socks to make sure it was worth the suffering I just endured. There at the bottom of my feet was ayer of thick dark callus not unlike hard leather.-


    It was on every part of my feet that could possibly touch the ground including the pads of my toes and was solid to the touch. Standing up I stored away my socks in my bag and looked at Gaia "I''m fine it was just a temporary thing I promise." I said reassuringly in my brokenmon. I was quickly getting better at thenguage after totally dropping english for it when I spoke. I still had to stop myself from switching back when I spoke but was otherwise using it exclusively. Walking around a bit I marveled at how much easier it had be now that every step didn''t hurt.-


    Now that I had the right feet for the job it was now time to head up the mountain in search of metal. What neither I nor anyone else in this world realized though was that the moment my rewards were given every database in the world suddenly had a new entry that only contained the barest minimum amount of information in it to be legal. Not even the digital pokemon guarding these secure servers were aware that a change had happened. Maybe in the future would someone would get suspicious but for now all seemed normal.-


    "Let''s head up the mountain Gaia , maybe we''ll find some stronger opponents for you." I said and her eyes lit up "Larvitar!" she said excitedly. After leaving the forest I briefly stopped by our cave to feed the smoldering fire so it was still alive when we returned in about three hours when the sun started to drop. The mountain was steep and treacherous but thanks to Gaia''s digging ability she made us a sloping path going up at an angle. It was just wide enough that you didn''t need to cling to the mountain wall to walk it.-


    This was because Gaia was rather wide and so made her path to fit her which fit me perfectly. I learned something both irritating and interesting in the process of her making this path. Gaia as it turned out was a metal tooth which is to say she LOVED to eat metal. I learned this because after we eventually found a vein of iron she proceeded to eat it with reckless abandon like a child given free rein over their Halloween candy. I was unfortunately only able to save a few impure fist sized pieces of the stuff from the deeper part of the vein that she ripped out with her ws.-


    We didn''t find any pokemon up here however which upset Gaia a bit as she enjoyed growing stronger. Speaking of when she hit level ten she learned the move screech which was basically an upgraded version of the move leer that she already had in that it lowered defensive stats. How it did that was beyond me but it did so it was useful. Interestingly that whole forgetting a move thing from the games was totally bullshit in reality as she could still use all five of her moves without an issue.-


    As we traveled further up the mountain and Gaia was digging out a path she actually punched a hole into a cave system in the process. To say I was excited at the idea would be an understatement as an unexplored cave basically guaranteed good stuff as every treasure within was totally undisturbed by people. I of course had Gaia fully open us up an entrance which prompted a new quest to drop.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: Thanks to your relentless drive to improve yourself and explore you have discovered an entirely unexplored cave system , explore it!


    Objectives: Explore the cave to the best of your ability , find treasure(optional) , find the secret of the caves(optional)


    Rewards: 3x random item ticket , 1x exp ticket(optional) , 1x ability ticket(Optional)]

 Strange skill

    Strange skill


    ''I was already going to explore the ce anyways but now I am even getting paid to do it? Fuck yeah!'' I did a little celebration as I thought this much to Gaia''s amusement. "Alright Gaia lets head back to the cave at the bottom of the mountain for the night , I want to be rested up for when we head in here tomorrow." I said and she nodded in agreement. As we headed down the mountain I couldn''t help but fantasize about what sort of goodies I might find in that cave. Evolution stones , legendary pokemon fossils , you name it and it was all a possibility.-


    Obviously I was aware that I wasn''t likely to randomly discover actually valuable stuff like a legendary fossil but I could hope damnit. Once back at the cave we currently lived in I had to collect some more dry sticks and pine needles for the fire. I even had Gaia bust up a nearby fallen tree into small logs and stored them near the back of the cave to dry out in the heat of the fire. While I was at it I also collected some pine sap crystals to make a torch because unlike how they were shown in the game most caves were dark as hell.-


    Gaia went out to hunt for tonight''s dinner while I winged it and tried to grind out a bowl for my sap crystals. The only reason I even knew about how mmable this stuff was was because a couple years back I had this obsession about forest fires and this fact stuck with me. I wasn''t a pyro or anything but I was simply curious why everyone always made a big deal about them and kinda got engrossed in the information I found.-


    Anyways long story short I learned that pine resin which is basically crystalized sap was mmable as all hell and if melted down could be used to make a torch. The tick was to melt it with exposing it to fire or you would only have a bunch of burning resin. I basically found a decent size rock near the cave(there is a lot of them) and started to hit it with another rock until it split down the middle. Once that was done I had two nice semi spheres that I agonizingly ground another rock against to hollow out into a rough bowl.-


    Is there a better way I could be doing this , probably. Did I know what it was , fuck no I didn''t. Still now that I had my heating bowl I tossed in some resin and set the bowl near the fire but not in the fire. Honestly speaking I halfway didn''t expect this to even work but it did and I used a couple of sticks to move the bowl away from the fire and grabbed myrge stick/torch in training. Dipping the end in the bubbling resin and spinning it to get a nice coating I then carefully wrapped one of my totally destroyed socks around the sticky resin.-


    I then gave the now cloth and resined stick another turn in the hot stuff and carefully set it aside as my new torch. I had to set it on a rock off the ground to dry and harden but otherwise it was done. Gaia came back at this point with what I can only describe as a small flock of Pidgeys , which was to say six of them. Considering that they were all the size of a chicken and totally hollowed out from a massive hole where their heads were supposed to be I''m pretty sure Gaia was not gentle at all when she killed them.-


    "Well as much as I would love to cook these immediately we need to get the feathers off of them first." I said honestly and Gaia snorted before tossing down most of the birds and violently tearing off the feathers on one of them. I chuckled at that and grabbed one of the birds to get to work on it myself while carefully saving the feathers to be used as beddingter. I may get pricked by the ends a few times but at least I''ll have a semi-soft spot to sleep now.-


    As I quickly learned plucking feathers is a pain in the ass since you have to pull out the root and everything. Gaia was rather irritated to learn that simply grabbing a w full and yanking on them hard tended to break off the roots instead. Her second Pidgey was plucked much more patiently while I dealt with having to fix the firsts roots. After about an hour or so as the night truly fell over thend we finished plucking the birds. Much like the Zigzagoon before I stuck the things on sticks propped up around the fire to cook.-


    While waiting for the food to cook I took out my other two rewards from thepleted quest and tore the skill ticket immediately. I watched as the wheel of skills spun round and round for about a minute before slowing down and stopping on a skill I wasn''t familiar with , aura. (A/N:I shit you not this was what the randomizer wheelnded on.) I closed my eyes as a massive amount of foreign and strange information on the subject entered my head.-


    What I learned stunned and confused me greatly all things considered. See ording to this new information aura was the sort of vital force/spiritual energy of a living thing. It was esoteric as fuck to say the least but apparently with the right mindset , training and techniques it was possible for literally any living thing to tap into and manipte their aura. The aura skill I just got was basically a training guide to mastering this energy which gives some frankly broken abilities in my opinion. For example if you have enough aura and skill it''s possible for a human like me to directly fight a pokemon , moves and all.-


    The full list of things a master of the skill was capable of included reading the intentions and actions of others ,the ability to sense of auras and ones surroundings even with a blindfold on , projection of ones aura in a barrier , attack or transfer it to others which can be fatal if pushed too far. Literal telepathy , seeing and speaking to the dead , and if one has enough mastery and volume of aura even using pokemon moves. As I said this skill is seriously busted when mastered unfortunately the information I received said I was lucky to even be able to sense or project a tiny amount of aura after training for a month.-


    Any faster than that and I was either really talented at it or was naturally born with arge amount of aura which apparently massively helps at the start of the skill. Helpless that I had yet another skill that I couldn''t really use at the moment I went back to focusing on the food. Not going to lie the aromaing off these birds was making me drool a little and Gaia was ring at them as if willing them to cook faster.

 Spelunking

    Spelunking


    I flipped the roasting birds to cook the other side and started to look at my new I.D. It was simr to the size of a credit card and had looked to be made of some sort of stic. It was pale white-green in the middle and had two thick bright green stripes at the top an bottom. On the right side in the middle was a pokeball symbol and a picture of my face. On the left side however was all of my vital information such as name , blood type(A+) , I.D number and allergies(none). -


    Honestly speaking it was so simple looking that I almost didn''t believe that this was a legal I.D but the system hasn''t messed up so far so I''ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Once the food was done I let Gaia grab her portion(the lions share) and grabbed the one bird set aside for my self. I could only watch jealously as she eagerly ate her food without having to worry about burning herself. I on the other hand could only blow on my whole roasted Pidgey until it stopped steaming before tentatively taking a bite.-


    ''OH MY MOTHER FUCKING GODS THIS IS SO GOOD!'' I thought as the rich vor rolled over my tongue giving me a mini mouthgasm in the process. Take the the vor of a thanksgiving turkey and a roast chicken and fuse them together and you''d have the vor of roasted Pidgey. It was moist and rich and if no one ate these things in this world it should be a sin. Jokes aside this was by far some of the best food I have ever tasted in my life and I was so happy to eat it.-


    After polishing off a whole roast Pidgey to the point of feeling bloated I piled up all my collected feathers and promptlyid down on them. It didn''t do much but at least it was slightly softer than the hard stone ground. Remaining perfectly still I began to breath in through my mouth and out through my nose slowly while mentally chanting the mantra of the aura meditation method. I didn''t think I''d get anything really done with this meditation but it gave me something to upy my mind as I tried to get to sleep nice and early.-


    When I next opened my eyes the rays of the sun were starting to peek over the horizon and once again Gaia had blocked the entrance to the cave with her sturdy back. Waking her up after reviving the fire I noticed something outside the cave that definitely wasn''t there before , a corpse. Specifically a familiar looking Poochyena with it''s neck crushed in an equally familiar manner. I was obviously able to tell what had happened. ''So this thing decided to try and attack us in our sleep but got dealt with easily by Gaia huh?'' I thought coldly while narrowing my eyes at the sight.-


    I wasn''t very a big fan of vengeful acts on earth so I definitely didn''t care about whatever thought it was that brought this thing here to do so. "Unless you want to eat it get rid of the body , we don''t want it stinking up the area." I said and Gaia grunted before walking over to the body roughly grabbing it and throwing it as hard as she could over the forest. It was only a few momentster that I heard a loud "CRASH!" as the corpse struck a tree way in the distance and I assumed fell to the forest floor below.-


    "Brutal but effective , good work." I said and Gaia rumbled happily at theplement. Grabbing my bag and now useable torch We leave the cave and start heading up to the cave system we found yesterday. There was a level ten Geodude who thought he was being slick by blocking the path but Gaia calmly picked him up and tossed him over the side down the mountain. This apparently counted as a victory in the systems opinion as she grew to level eleven as a result.-


    Other than that the trip was uneventful and we arrived at the hole she dug out into this new cave system fairly quickly. A rock and ground type like Gaia was right at home in the dark cave as she walked right in without any trouble. I on the other hand took out a couple of the iron stones I had and smashed them together over the torches end until it lit up illuminating the surroundings. Everything was dull brown but there was no stctites or stgmites which showed that this part of the cave hadn''t been formed via water. I only knew that because I once watched a movie where someone got killed by the hanging stone spikes and did research on them just in case.-


    "Alright lets take our time here and keep our eyes open for other pokemon as well as any treasures." I said and Gaia nodded "Larvitar!" she said excitedly as she started to move forward. I followed behind her carefully while looking at each and every wall carefully so I didn''t miss anything. We got pretty far into the cave before anything interesting happened and by interesting I mean we found our first pokemon , a level fifteen Parasect. -


    Not going to lie the thing was straight up nightmare fuel as it was about as big as myself in height but looked like a huge mix of a crab and a spider with the disturbing mouth parts and everything , the only difference was the huge red and yellow mushroom and lifeless white eyes. Gaia seemed to agree with me as she wasted no time at all ripping the thing apart with vicious resolve. She didn''t level up from that but then again it wasn''t much off a challenge since she did not give it an opportunity to use any moves.-


    "Yeah feel free to kill any of those you see , the more unrecognizable the better." I suggested and she nodded with a serious expression. After that I caught a lucky break and found an everstone in the wall that I had Gaia dig out for me. I didn''t think I''d ever really use the thing but it was still valuable and I doubted I was going to live on this mountain forever. Of course I had no ns of leaving the area anytime soon as both Gaia and I were too weak at the moment. The next little event for us in the cave was finding a second area from this one.-


    Gaia and I chose toe back to thatter once we finished exploring this area which was a good thing too as I found a hardstone. I was a strangely gemlike thing the size of a cherry that glowed ever so slightly brown. ''Appraise.'' I thought while looking at the stone and a system entry for it appeared.-


    [Item name: Hardstone


    Grade:2


    Description: A hard stone that when held slightly boosts the effectiveness of rock type move and slightly makes mastering them easier.]

 Spelunking(2)

    Spelunking(2)


    I asked the system what was up with the grade in the appraisal and was slightly surprised to learn that special stones like this hardstone or an evolution stone such as a fire stone actually have different levels of effectiveness and are thus graded. The lowest grade was 1 and meant that the item was barely capable of fulfilling the minimum requirement to count as a graded item. Grade 2 was the mostmon and average level of item that fulfilled the requirements and if it was a high grade 2 had a little extra.-


    In this regard the hardstone I just got was a high grade 2 item since it helped mastering rock type moves. Grade 3 items had the same benefits of a grade 2 but improved by a certain amount. Grade 4 items were rare and had an additional effect beyond to grade 2 and 3 versions in boosting stats. Grade 5 and the second highest grade were super rare and had much stronger effects than a grade 4. Finally there was grade 6 items that were so rare you had a better chance of winning the lottery than finding one.-


    Unlike the previous grades however grade 6 items were not only far more powerful than the others but also had the unique feature of filling their surroundings with dense type energy making them fiercely guarded treasures by the nearby pokemon. For evolution stones however this was much simpler as the higher the grade the stronger the pokemon after evolution. Grade 6 evolution items still filled their surroundings with type energy however. I didn''t mind the fairly low grade of the hardstone I found though since treasure is treasure to me. Having already fully explored this first area of the cave system Gaia and I headed to the second one we found earlier.-


    This one was different than the previous area as there was the sharp spikes on the ceiling showing that this part had water in it somewhere. There was also a noticeable increase in pokemon with Geodude , Graveler , Aron ,iron , Paras and Parasect visible just from the entrance thanks to the torches light. The more timid species like the Aron quickly fled the light while the others merely looked at it curious or hostilely. ''Appraise'' I thought while looking at each of these visible pokemon and started to get a read on how strong they were.-


    I was surprised to see that the average level amongst them was between fifteen and twenty. The Paras fled the light but the Parasects were controlled by the mushrooms on their backs and thus wanted to attack at once. It was specifically four of them that were levels fifteen , seventeen , seventeen and eighteen respectively, "Gaia sandstorm and iron defense!" I called and she obliged glowing brown as the localized sandstorm formed a bit stronger than her previous ones. Following that her body shone silver for a moment as her carapace hardened thanks to the steel type energy.-


    The first of the four Parasect arrived immediately after these preparations wereplete and glowed purple on it''s right front w. "Dodge that it''s poison!" I call out and Gaia quickly avoids the glowing w before using bite on it''s head decapitating it without her touching it. The level fifteen now out of the picture the two level seventeens enter the outskirts of the sandstorm. "Avoid to the best of your ability and try and get them to attack each other if you can since you''re faster then them!" I order and Gaia moves between both of the Parasect before leaping to the side as they try to attack her instead attacking each other.-


    The mushrooms controlling them didn''t posses a lot of intelligence as they began fighting amongst themselves viciously taking heavy damage each. I didn''t even need to give Gaia any orders as she finished off one of them that was on it''sst legs and then the other that hadn''t been able to react yet. Unfortunately the final Parasect arrived as she did so and hit her with a dark green barb that caused yellow energy to flow through the air and into it.-


    Gaia grunted in pain at the leech life but swiped the barb off of her and turned to face thest opponent. "Sandstorm again and then keep your distance , let the storm wear it down!" I ordered and Gaia didn''t hesitate to double down on the sandstorm. This was the biggest difference between the game and reality in terms of this move , it stacked in reality. The storm went from thin and barely damaging to hard to see and stinging winds that slowly scour away at you in an instant. The stupid mushroom knew it was taking damage but couldn''t tell why and went haywire attacking the wind and sand around it recklessly like there was some sort of hidden attacker.-


    Gaia waited patiently for the bug zombie to start wobbling from physical exhaustion before dash towards it and ending the fight with a decisive bite. "Good work Gaia you were great!" Iplimented her and she rumbled happily. She let the sandstorm fade and I stepped forward to check the bodies since I remembered that these thing sometimes had a tiny mushroom on them. I smiled as I found a faintly glowing orange and red mushroom underneath one of the bodies.-


    I plucked it and stored it away since it could be used as a rare food ingredient as far as I remembered from the games. The Geodude , Graveler and Lairon had decided as a group that they didn''t want any trouble after watching how Gaia killed those Parasect with almost no injury. Gaia wanted to get some training in but I convinced her that making an enemy of every pokemon in a cave we were still exploring was a bad idea. I offered an oran berry to the stronger members of these species for a spar instead which tempted a level twenty Lairon to spar with Gaia.-


    It opened up by using iron defense and harden back to back raising it''s defense by three levels but I had Gaia use screech to lower it down to one. As it turns out screech is exactly how you would expect it to be as Gaia screamed at the Lairon while her throat was glowing white. White energy waves flew through he air and struck the Lairon and it shuddered a bit causing it''s defense to drop. Gaia then used Sandstorm for the boost to evasion followed by bite to try and deal some damage.-


    The Lairon dodged to the side of her attack and used headbutt to crash into Gaia''s side making her grunt in pain beforetching her jaws around the Lairon''s neck and squeezing , hard. The Lairon cried out in pain and she released it since it had admitted defeat. I handed over the oran berry as promised and the Lairon left us happily as if the defeat didn''t bother it at all. I checked Gaia''s level and saw that after those Parasect and thisst fight she had reached fourteen. Considering she was out leveled by all of her opponents however this was to be expected. Her size and high stats covered that gap for her perfectly though.

 Secret of the caves

    Secret of the caves


    We took a brief break so that Gaia could recover some of her stamina and let her frankly crazy healing ability fix the minor damage she took as she ate some of the rocks nearby for nutrition. I wondered if her healing ability was the norm for pokemon or something specific to her but I had no way to tell until I either got another pokemon or rejoined society. Neither were in my ns for the moment so I chose to ignore it. An hourter she was good as new and we started looking around for treasure or whatever secret this cave system was supposed to hold.-


    It became pretty clear that we were getting closer to the source of the water as the moisture on the stone walls and air was increasing as we went deeper. Along the way I found a grade 3 dusk stone and even an unusual w fossil which was strangely shaped. I remember what regr w fossils looked like in the games but this one was wider and serrated which the normal version was not. We also got into a couple more fights along the way mostly with Parasect but three times we had to straight up defend ourselves from the Graveler that were quite territorial sometimes.-


    It was only three times because Gaia made an example out of those three that told the rest we can and will kill them if they seem like they want to attempt to kill us. It was a cruel but effective method that got the point across without unneeded conflict. I had already epted that killing was now a part of my life that I would only ever stop when I stopped being a trainer or died. Such was the nature of this world I was in.-


    After all of that however Gaia had hit level sixteen and learned rock slide at level fifteen. She had also reached adept in her bite which made the dark type energy in it stronger increasing it''s damage. I noticed the cave growing much more humid and the sound of gently moving water reached our ears. Soon we saw light, yes light , show up in the distance and started to eagerly speed up to find out why that was. What we found was honestly one of the most beautiful and terrifying things I have ever seen.-


    we rounded a corner and immediately froze as we gazed upon a cavern with glowing crystalline walls and ceilings. Majority of the cavern however was a smallke with crystal clear water and a small spit ofnd in the center of it. theke didn''t hold a single pokemon but that didn''t surprise me considering where the water wasing from. There in the center of the spit ofndy a single ivory tooth three times taller than me and Gaia and nearly twice as wide. Water gently trickled down it''s length and collected at it''s base before flowing into theke.-


    I looked at Gaia "You can''t swim very well can you?" I asked dead set on getting to that spit ofnd. She had a look of displeasure as she shook her head and huffed since she clearly had the same idea as me. "Do you want to wait here with the torch or get put in your ball till I swim over?" I asked seriously. "Lar!" she said which I roughly understood via our bond as the word "ball" so I pulled out the white and ck ball from my bag and hit the button clumsily returning her.-


    Putting the ball back in the bag I zipped it up turning it waterproof before carefully stepping into the water of theke. It was actually fairly warm so I had no problem at all walking into it until it was at my waist before leaning forward and starting my swim to the center. I didn''t exhaust myself by trying to swim quickly but leisurely glided forward while gently kicking my feet and reaching out with my hands cupped. I also regted my breathing to use the air in my body to help me float at the surface.-


    While I was swimming my torch went out which I noticed but was helpless to do anything about as I honestly hadn''t expected it tost this long to begin with. Thankfully I was pretty sure I could collect some of these glowing crystals in order to light the way out of the cave. after ten minutes of swimming I finally felt the hard stone of the inds shore against my feet when I extended to straight down. Walking out of the water I ignored how my clothes clung to me and reached into my bag to free Gaia from her ball like promised.-


    The red light shot out of the ball after I pressed the button andnded on the ground before rapidly taking the shape of Gaia. "See it wasn''t so bad right?" I say teasingly and she huffs at me in response. She gets over her irritation at needing to ride in her ball almost instantly however when she turns to look at the massive ivory tooth not more than twenty feet from us. It was far more intimidating up close than at a distance as I could see how it looked like it had been snapped off from whatever had it originally not more than ten minutes ago.-


    Obviously that wasn''t actually true since it had clearly been here for a very long time but it certainly didn''t look like it as it almost seemed to have a sort of vitality to it. My eyes lit up however when I looked at it''s base and saw fourrge dark blue crystals that looked like they had bubbles in them. That''s right water stones and after using appraise on them I was left speechless as they were all grade 5. Using appraise on the giant tooth I learned why as well as how this cavern formed to begin with.-


    [Item name: Kyogre tooth


    Grade: Relic


    Description: An ancient tooth once belonging to the sea god Kyogre that was lost in one of it''s many fights with thend god Groudon. Due to the way it was lost this tooth still bears a fragment of it''s previous owners power over the seas and so weeps water forevermore. The power in this tooth allows any water type power to be mastered at an elerated pace. Any water taken directly from this tooth will contain dense water type energy and is a massively beneficial supplement for water type pokemon.]-


    I was absolutely stunned at the systems appraisal of this tooth , how could I not be? This was the tooth of a literal god! No amount of in game knowledge could prepare me to face such a thing , are you kidding? A fucking TOOTH that was snapped off eons ago still had enough power in it to produce dense water type energy FOREVER. The sheer amount of power that Kyogre itself must have is beyondprehension and I firmly believe that the games nerfed the unholy hell out of the thing in them as it was nowhere near so big or powerful in the games.

 Double edged sword

    Double edged sword


    I didn''t recover from my awe at the divine fragment in front of me for nearly five minutes as my mind raced with the implications of this information. Once I did recover though I pocketed the four grade 5 water stones and recalled Gaia back to her ball. Sparing onest look at the tooth I then swam back across theke to where my torch was. An interesting thing I had noticed before I recalled her was that Gaia was fine despite the sheer amount of pure water type energy in the air though she looked a bit ufortable.-


    ''Nonmove based energy must not be detrimental to pokemon with conflicting types though it also isn''t good for them either it seems.'' I thought curiously as I swam across theke. ''I wonder why that is exactly?'' I thought totally unaware that it was a very hot topic in the scientificmunity of this world. I wouldtter learn this of course but at this time it was merely one of my many questions about this new world of mine. Once I reached the other shore of theke I released Gaia again who looked unhappy about her stay in the ball however short.


    I was sure that it wasn''t ufortable within the ball so it was probably boring instead. The reason I could know this was that no pokemon would be ok with staying in a ball if it was ufortable for them. "Help me dig out some of these glowing crystals so I can see on the way back." I said and Gaia nodded before going to work on the crystals. In the end I got two foot long carrot-like spikes of glowing crystal that I had Gaia carefully create a hook at the top of.-


    I carefully looped those hooks through the belt loops of my jeans at either side of my hips which didn''t mess with my movement as I walked. "Hmm , I''ll need to secure them betterter but for now this works." I said as we left the cavern and the glow from my crystals allowed me to see ten feet away from me which was enough in my opinion. It was still fairly dark but I could deal with this level of shaded surroundings. We didn''t get into any more fights on the way out but I did find a gold nugget about the size of my thumb that was hidden on the backside of a stone which was why we missed it previously.-


    After about an hour of walking we finally left the caves and I immediately had Gaia copse the entrance with rock slide. I didn''t want to share my discovery with anyone else so leaving the entrance to the caves open was impossible for me. I even went so far as to have Gaia create a small rockslide that erased the path we made to the cave just to be extra sure it wouldn''t be found on ident.-


    We walked down the mountain carefully after that so as to not leave a trail which was harder than you think. I myself earned exhausted arm and shoulder muscles as well as several cuts on my palms for the effort. Using the little bit of daylight left Gaia and I washed up and drank some of the water from the cier stream a bit from our base camp cave. I cleaned my palm injuries as well while we were there before heading to the base camp for the night. Once safe I immediately epted my rewards from the quest.-


    3 random item tickets , 1 exp ticket and 1 ability ticket ticket were all deposited in my bag as I hadpleted each of the objectives for the quest. First I grabbed the exp ticket and tore it in half but rather than send it to Gaia like before I chose to use it on my Aura skill. That was the best decision ever as immediately I had a rush of memories like I had been practicing the skill for an entire month and just remembered it. It was freaky how one second I was a total novice at the skill and the next I had a rough grasp over the fundamentals.-


    In my status the skill was stillbeled as a novice skill but I knew that I wasn''t aplete amateur at it any more. I couldn''t project my aura or read minds or anything yet but the primary ability to activate and sense ones own aura was possible if I meditated now. This alone came with the huge benefit that I healed faster than normal humans without aura skills. There was a downside to the skill however in the form of needing to consume arge amount of calories to rece whatever was spent.-


    After familiarizing myself with my new level of proficiency in the skill I moved on to the ability ticket. Unlike the other tickets I''ve gotten so far that was ck and white the ability ticket was a shiny rainbow color. I assumed this meant it was very valuable and immediately tore it in half. In the system menu a resplendent brightly glowing rainbow colored roulette wheel appeared with a variety of choices. Giving my agreement the wheel started to spin and pick up speed until it was a swirling rainbow circle that hurt my eyes to look at.-


    After spinning for a minute the wheel started to slow down and eventually stopped and I learned the true meaning of "double edged sword". See what I got was [Improved body v1] which as I learned immediately afterwards meant that my ENTIRE body got the same rapid adaptation treatment as my feet did the day before. I have honestly never been in so much pain before that suicide started to look like a viable form of escape but I was sorely fucking tempted. I couldn''t scream as all of my muscles locked up as my skin , hair and nails dried up and was pushed out by new stronger versions.-


    After that was my muscles that tore and stitched themselves together throughout every inch of my body over and over again to grow denser and stronger. Once that was done came the by far worst part in my opinion as my bones disintegrated before reforming much stronger and sturdier like if I had broken them everywhere at once before regenerating. The pain was frankly unreal when that part happened as anyone who has ever broken a bone without adrenaline to numb it could attest.-


    The final step was that my organs were basically reformatted into a slightly stronger and more perfect state that caused me to throw up all over the ground. This process took nearly fifteen minutes and if Gaia hadn''t left to go hunt dinner she would definitely think I was dying during that time. Despite the pain ending I didn''t return to my normal state of mind for at least another fifteen minutes. Gaia returned at that point and immediately dropped the Zigzagoon corpses she had in a panic toe check on me. "I-I''m fine , just give me a moment." I said quietly and she rxed a little bit but still watched me worriedly.

 A new man

    A new man


    I eventually sat up off the ground where I had fallen after the changes started which caused the dull skinyer on me the fall off revealing the bronze colored skin as if I had been out in the sun for years. This only applied to my arms and head however as my clothes had the rest trapped underneath it. I stripped down to get rid of the itchy and ufortableyer of shed skin fully revealed my new form to the world and Gaia. I hadn''t noticed it while I was on the ground but after standing up I noticed that I had grown from six foot even to six foot three and I was slightly taller than Gaia now.-


    This prompted me to observe the rest of my body and I was stunned at what I found. My slightly protruding gut was gone and I had a slightly defined six pack in it''s ce. My manhood had grown from the average size it was before by close to two more inches pointing me firmly atrger than normal. My legs below that were covered in well defined muscles while my chest and arms were simr.-


    I don''t mean the swollen but burdensome muscles of body builders either but those of an athlete that had exactly what they needed for peak performance. My eyesight and hearing had also improved slightly as well. I know because before I died I had needed sses but refused to wear them since my eyesight wasn''t so bad that I couldn''t function without them. Now though I could see much clearer at a distance. My hair had also changed from dark brown to ck as well but I only learned that the next day. "Remind me not to do that again without preparing myself." I joked trying the lighten the mood.-


    Gaia rxed a bit more and nodded in agreement before pointing at the "leftovers" of my transformation "Tar?" she said in a questioning manner. "Yeah we should get rid of it." I said and moved to the back of the cave to grab some pine needles and sticks to clump the mess together before tossing it into a hole Gaia dug outside the cave. This had to be repeated a couple of times before most of it was gone. The stuff that was liquid and thus unmovable with these methods were subjected to the fire I revived.-


    Transferring a burning fire was easy as you just needed to hold the burning materials together as you shifted them. So I moved the fire over to this new spot and let it burn away the stuff under it before moving it back and sweeping the ashes away with a handful of pine needles. I couldn''t even be mad at the system over my suffering as my new form was definitely improved over the previous one just like promised. "GRRRUUUUU!" the only real downside was that I was positively starving at the moment and my stomach was making it''s displeasure known.-


    Chuckling I set up the Zigzagoon to cook while cing my second stone bowl that was previously empty underneath one of them to collect the rendering fat. This stuff was mmable and probably had a bunch of other uses as well so now that I could collect it I did. Once I got all that I could I moved the bowl of yellow liquid to the side to cool. I then divided up the food that was done and Gaia immediately dug in like usual while I had to wait for it to cool.-


    While I waited I tore the three item tickets and had the wheel spin for all three items and I got a Deepsea tooth , silverware set and a full restore. I was left speechless by the draws since one of them was a mperl exclusive hold item to allow it to evolve into a Huntail. The second was a set of silverware of all things and thest was a full restore. Honestly speaking the silverware were what excited me the most. While I didn''t mind eating like a savage I missed being able to cut off a piece of food and blowing on it to cool it down quickly.-


    This new set of silverware gave me this ability back so I wasted no time at all taking it out of the bag. It was a simple set consisting of a knife , fork and spoon wrapped in a washable napkin that made me suspicious that the system had stolen this from a restaurant somewhere. Not minding that though I eagerly grabbed the knife and fork before carefully cutting a small piece of the still hot meat away before blowing on it to cool it.-


    I then bit into the meat and soon realized a problem , I can''t possibly eat very fast like this. Sighing I could only let my civility die a bit and store away the silverware and go back to savagely eating while risking getting burned. As it turns out that was no longer a problem as my heat tolerance apparently went up after my transformation so I could safely eat hotter than normal foods. Not like straight out of the fire hot but hotter than most couldfortably withstand. I also noticed that my appetite had nearly doubled as this time there was nothing left for Gaia except bones.-


    Once done with my meal I turned in for the night after cing my glowing crystals in my bag. I aura meditated myself to sleep feeling out the warm energy in the center of my chest that felt like a small candle me. The next day I woke up feeling the best I have since Inded in this world without any aches or pains at all. Stretching out I felt my joints pop causing me to sigh infort as I stood up and slung my bag over my shoulder and walked over to Gaia.-


    "Wake up sleepy head , we have exploring to do." I said while shaking her awake gently , well as gently as you can a three hundred pound rock monster. She woke up with a bit of grumbling but otherwise without any real fuss. We headed out of the cave and into the forest to look for opponents as well as any useful items that may be lying around. I had to leave my tattered shirt back at the cave since it no longer fit. My pants also didn''t fit properly but I still had enough decency to keep them on.-


    This resulted in them getting ripped along the sides as my thigh muscles flexed while I walked. Specifically along the seam on the sides which was a little relieving to be honest as it stopped squishing my legs. To save a bit of the material from further destruction by getting caught on stuff I took the silverware knife to the jeans removing everything below the knees. Basically I was walking around in nothing but a pair of shorts that had holes in it. It didn''t bother me though since my new skin was almost unaffected by the sun or small thorns of the weeds on the ground.

 Fight

    Fight


    I stored the cloth from my pants in my bag and we continued into the forest in a direction we hadn''t before. From the sun I guess it was northwest-ish but don''t quote me on that as I could be totally wrong. There were a few other types of trees as we walked but most of them were pine trees. I honestly couldn''t recognize most of the nts we passed so I had no clue if they were useful or not and thus left them alone. I did notice that the levels of the pokemon started to go up as we traveled with the highest we saw so far being level thirty five.-


    It was a Sentret with a scared over and closed left eye and otherwise grizzled appearance. It eyed us cautiously but seemed to recognize me or rather what I was and then rxed. I immediately knew that this was a pokemon familiar with humans as only such a thing wouldn''t feel threatened by me. For any of the others born out here they likely only had stories or a vague knowledge and thus were cautious of me at first nce.-


    I had learned from the past few days experiences that most wild pokemon at least in this area behaved this way. The fact this one didn''t meant that it had likely interacted with humans before and knew that only Gaia was a possible threat to it. ''I doubt it knows about aura or else it would likely have a very different reaction.'' I thought with a chuckle. "You seem to know what I am unlike the rest of the others around this area." I said and the Sentret didn''t react much but nodded. "Did you live near a city or road?" I asked and it slowly nodded.-


    "Do you know where the nearest one is?" I asked to get a hint as to which direction to head when I feel ready to find civilization again. The Sentret stared at me for a moment before literally drawing and arrow on the ground pointing where I assume is south. I memorized that information before thanking the helpful pokemon and leaving it in peace. I don''t know much about pokemon anatomy but I am pretty sure that the dull fur and greying face of that Sentret meant it was old and likely close to death.-


    In this ce were thew of the jungle seems to reign that was impressive by several standards. It meant that it was either very powerful or very lucky and those scars hinted heavily at the former. A few miles from where we found the old Sentret Gaia an I were ambushed by a pack of five Poochyena that was led by a level twenty six Mightyena. "Sandstorm , Double Iron defense!" I called out after Gaia batted the leader away just barely. She roared and set up a sandstorm that was stronger than normal which I had a sneaking suspicion was because she hit journeyman with the move but I couldn''t check at the moment.-


    The Mightyena growled and barked out something that I couldn''t trante but that made the five Poochyena charge Gaia with three white glowing tackles and two dark grey bites. Gaia decided to ignore my previous order however and used rock slide to drop stones in front of the charging Poochyena to dy them. It worked as the three using tackle stopped glowing as they dodged to the side of the falling rocks while the biting two slowed down even though their move didn''t dissipate.-


    ''Does tackle need forward movement to be maintained or is it because they haven''t trained the move enough to hold it while dodging?'' I wondered as I noticed this difference from the game. Gaia avoided the first of the biting Poochyena but the second one got her with the move causing a crack to show up on her carapace. It didn''t get the chance to retreat however as she used her much faster than normal speed to catch and dispatch it. The Mightyena roared angrily at this as it had clearly not expected a member of it''s hunting party to be killed in what looked like an easy fight.-


    It assumed that like usual their number advantage would give them an easy win against the single pokemon and human. In reality after the first attack barely injured the pokemon it''s pack mate had been killed. The Mightyena roared and rallied it''s remaining pack to attack all together this time. "Double Iron defense! You can''t take any direct hits from the Mightyena!" I called out and Gaia rumbled in agreement while a metallic silver energy shone from her. The moment it faded however it reappeared showing that her defense had been raised by the move twice.-


    The pack all chose to collectively use bite now that they knew that tackle would be disrupted and Gaia had a stern expression. "Rock slide right next to you! Crush them if they get close!" I ordered and Gaia''s eye lit up as she recognized that this was a good idea. The Mightyena snorted angrily when it heard this n since it meant they would be trading injuries even if they all managed to hit Gaia. It was far toote to back out though so it pressed forward with it''s pack while brown energy gathered above Gaia waiting to form the stones to be dropped.-


    Once the pack got within range Gaia unleashed her held attack surprisingly causing way more stones to fall than normal. ''Can you make new moves if you manipte the originals like she did?'' I wondered seriously. If it was true then it changed everything about battle in this world as it meant I didn''t need to see it as inflexibly as in the games. I had seen the hints of this being the case but this was the first time I saw arge piece of evidence to support it.-


    The pack clearly hadn''t expected the shower of heavy stones that rained down on them as more than a few cries of pain came through the crashing sound of the stones hitting the ground. None of their bites went through as they all instinctively fled from the onught of stones but Gaia was no so merciful as to not opportunistically capture the Mightyena by the left leg with her jaws. "RAAAAAAAWWWWGH!" Therge canine screamed as she crushed the bones in it''s leg but it still freed itself and leapt away with it''s remaining three legs when Gaia went for the kill.-


    I didn''t react at all to the grizzly scene as the Mightyena dragged it''s mangled leg next to it uselessly. If looks could kill Gaia would be dead many times over as the pack leader red at her hatefully. The sandstorm also wasn''t helping as it stung at the packs eyes , ears and noses causing them to grow ever so slightly weaker. "Triple up on the sandstorm don''t let them rest!" I called out and another two brown pulses of energy came from Gaia causing the sandstorm to turn into a flesh tearing death trap.

 Sanded down

    Sanded down


    Natural sandstorms at most will sting at your skin and damage your eyes if it doesn''tpletely drown you in sand. Unfortunately there was nothing natural about the violent dome of sand covering Gaia and the pack. A triple stacked sandstorm like this one actively and slowly tried to remove flesh via constant fast paced abrasion. It was like someone rubbing heavy grit sandpaper over your skin in a single direction. No matter how strong your skin so long as you actually have skin you will quickly start to take serious damage from it.-


    The pack was experiencing that at the moment and in addition to the already weakened skin from the rocks earlier led to serious blood loss. I almost felt bad for them after that as they tried to bring down Gaia but the sandstorm slowly grinded them down until Gaia finally killed thest of them. This wasn''t to say that this was an easy battle as the exact opposite was true and Gaia was panting and having difficulty standing while her carapace was covered in scratches. She even had a bleeding crack on her leg from the Mightyena''s final desperate attack.-


    Still it proved to be very much worth it as she went straight to level eighteen after it was over which clearly signified how much growth this fight gave her. Levels in this world were different than those in the games as in the games you got higher stats from leveling up. In reality each pokemon had the level fifty equivalent stats from the moment they reached maturity. Maturity didn''t mean a particr evolution either but the legitimate age the species was fully developed. This was the reason Gaia''s stats looked so crazy when I got her.-


    Leveling up in this world on the other hand didn''t have anything to do with evolution or stats at all but rather how much battle experience and skill the pokemon had and could use. The old Sentret back there for example was right at level fifty but that would likely be much higher if it was in it''s prime. Judging from the scars and way it carried itself I would assume in the seventies or even eighties in it''s peak. Old age ruined pokemon''s power when they reached a certain point just the same as with humans with a few exceptions such as some legendries that simply didn''t age.-


    I wasn''t sure exactly what could trigger an evolution in a pokemon besides genuine will to keep fighting when they were at their limits. Obviously the phenomena could be forced such as in the case of Eevee or other item based evolutionary pokemon but otherwise I knew nothing of it. I only knew this thanks to the system t out saying so when I asked after seeing the difference in levels between Gaia and other pokemon we ran into. This was why she could jump levels so easily since as a royal variation pseudo-legendary her stats were really good.-


    In this particr case her jump in level was likely a result of learning new tactics against groups and a nifty way to utilize her moves. I had Gaia mark a tree nearby before we headed back for the day as the sun started to set and she was in rough shape. The bleeding crack of her carapace got a tiny application of the full restore since unlike in the games you don''t in fact have to use all of it at once and in fact each bottle had exactly five uses unless the damage was serious.-


    In this case a single use fixed the crack and quite a few of her scratches as well making it well worth it. Therge crack did leave a slightly discolored area which was basically a scar for Gaia. We passed by the area with the old Sentret but it was no longer there. By the time we got home Gaia was feeling much better and we even found a bush of nanab berries on the way back. Nanab berries were strange pink colored things that looked like a bundle of bananas fused together side by side but half the size.-


    I wasn''t he biggest fan of the vor since they were bitter with a slight sweetness to them but Gaia was in love with the things since she apparently liked bitter food. I collected five from the bush and she apparently didn''t feel like leaving any for the other pokemon in the area after trying one and swiped the other six on the bush. I didn''t say anything about it though as I felt just a little bad about her scar even though she seemed unbothered by it. For dinner today I ate an oran berry and Gaia ate a sizable amount of stone from the mountain wall.-


    Hunting all the time would likely just cause the species being hunted to flee away from our cave which would make things harder for us so I chose to take a bit of a break from meat. The next week was not really worth talking about in detail as we basically scoured the area in every direction a few miles from our home. I found a couple of useful items such as sitrus , oran and pecha berries as well as a grade 2 leaf stone hidden in a boulder that got coteral damaged in one of our many battles.-


    Today a weekter and Gaia was sitting pretty at level twenty six and had all of her moves at the journeyman tier at minimum. This list consisted of bite(A) , leer(J) , sandstorm(A) , screech(A) , iron defense(A) , rock slide(A) , scary face(J) and thrash(J). The two newest moves thrash and scary face were something we were still getting the hang of but had proven themselves very useful. Thrash unfortunately came with the downside of confusion which seemed like an extreme form of dizziness in this case.-


    The whole hurting themselves thing also wasn''t true unless a pokemon used an AOE attack like rock slide and doesn''t set it off at a distance but right above them instead. Like they wouldn''t go to use bite while confused andtch onto their arm somehow but ranged attacks suddenly became way more dangerous for everyone involved , including me. Normally I would be unaffected by a battle but Gaia identally set off a rock slide right over the top of me when her opponent at the time circled around her. I obviously spotted the move and ran for my life before the move went off but it was still an attack on myself.-


    Scary face was honestly a move that confused me a bit as other than the type energy it was basically just making a menacing face. I am not joking as to perform it Gaia would snarl and squint her eyes angrily with a dark grey energy around her face. That energy is then somehow projected to the opponent that then gets the shakes causing it''s speed to drop drastically. It honestly made no fucking sense to me but I am no pokemon professor so I didn''t go trying to deal with the headache that came with trying to figure it out either.

 Move training

    Move training


    Today though was different then usual as today we weren''t going exploring but rather I wanted to see if I could get Gaia to make some new moves using the old ones as a base. I shook her awake at our usual early wake up time. She got up with a yawn while I went to work reviving the fire again. I was getting pretty good at it too as I was starting to figure out the best way to blow as well as what the best embers to use for it were.-


    I also had the clean out the heavy ash of the nearly constant burning fire which wasn''t that hard since I just made a temporary torch using resin which burned while I put out the other fire and swept the ashes out of the cave with a handful of pine needles. After that I just set the torch as the base of the burning fire and all was good. "Alright so today I want to see if we can mess with your moves or the energy you use to make new ones." I said in my now journeyman levelmon.-


    Apparently the rank of skills and moves was based on how familiar with them we were with novice being not at all , journeyman being less than optimal and adept being fluent or near instant to use. ording to the system there was expert , mastered and transcended after that. With most of Gaia''s moves being at at least journeyman I believed we had a decent shot manipting some new moves out of the old ones. I had also noticed that Gaia made almost no progress with move proficiency after reaching adept. This training may help with this or at the very least I hoped it did.-


    Once the fire was set we walked out of the cave into the slightly cloudy weather and over to arge boulder nearby. "Ok so lets start with something easy. Punch this boulder as hard as you can without any moves." I said and Gaia looked a little confused but did as I asked. I would like to emphasize that pokemon are fucking terrifying in terms of power. Gaia cocked back her right w after getting right next to the boulder since she has short arms before swinging her full body at an angle as her closed ws shot forward.-


    "CRASH!" stone kes and pebbles flew off the boulder from the impact site and a bunch of small cracks covered the area she struck. She pulled back and I examined the damage carefully before giving her next step. "Good now try to use iron defense but see if you can''t focus it on only your w." I said and she furrowed her brows in confusion but attempted to do what I asked. Her carapace glowed silver grey for a moment before she pouted and shook her head. "Lar!" she saidining that it was too hard.-


    "Don''t give me that on the first try! This is good training right here!" I scolded her for beingzy. She snorted in irritation but tried again but besides the silver grey glow being a bit brighter on her w there was no real difference but it had me excited since it was proof that it was possible. "Keep at it it was working!" I encouraged and she did with very little change for the rest of the day minus a tiny drop in the amount of glowing the rest of her body was doing. "Alright we''ll call it here for today since the sun is going down." I said and she just nodded in between panting.-


    Constantly using a move for hours on end was exhausting for Gaia and likely any other pokemon as well but it was also probably very good training for them as well. My theory was that the type energy that pokemon used in moves was directly tied to both an internal reservoir of neutral energy and stamina. training such as this likely works both of those heavily which much like a muscle should if I am correct be stronger. Until I went back to civilization though I wouldn''t know if only I was aware of this or if others had also found it.-


    It seems strange that in a world such as this one I would have the gall to think that I knew something no-one else did. But keep in mind even back on earth there had to be a first person to discover literally everything and until someone else figured it out that person alone knew it in the entire world. As we as a society learned more and more we started to take things for granted as a given and I very much doubted it was any different in this world either.-


    The way pokemon moves worked for example may simply not be something anyone thinks about and only I as a person not native to this world or it''s norms would try and shake up the understanding of basic things like this. Still I couldn''t help but marvel at how amazing Gaia was as a creature as she quickly began to recover from her exhaustion just by taking it easy. I myself as a human might not recover from an intense workout for the entire day and she was basically good to go merely minutester , insane.-


    I wasn''t a slouch myself either as I also worked out everyday to maintain my body now that I was in shape. I admit it wasn''t the most original idea but I basically followed the full body training method of the aura skill that was supposed to make my body better at circting the energy. It was ufortable to say the least as I was both very hungry and sore after each workout. ''No wonder it said that this skill was not for the weak willed , it''s a lot of work for very little payoff at the start.'' I thought after Gaia returned from her hunt with five Wingull and an annoyed expression.-


    "Quick guess says they all hit you with water gun and it hurt like a bitch." I teased her and she snorted and tossed the corpses at me to be defeathered. "Right on the money huh? I told you to leave the things alone but nooo you just had to go and see what the big fuss was about didn''t you?" I continued teasing her but she looked away embarrassed at being figured out so easily. Iughed at her pouting expression as I got to work getting the feathers off the dead birds.-


    Wingul as it turned out were incredibly greasy birds that had a whole bunch of fat rendered out when subjected to heat. I suppose it made sense given their aquatic habitat that they usually lived by. The oil likely lets them float near effortlessly at the surface of the water much like regr sea gulls on earth did with their hollow bones. Wingull however did not have hollow bones which I found interesting considering how they were still able to fly despite this being the case.

 Strange guest

    Strange guest


    They also didn''t really taste all that good either as they were rather nd and vorless. After dinner we turned in for the night as per usual. Or at least that was the n until the system decided to do it''s random thing and send me a notification. ''Ugh! Why now of all times?'' I thought with a sigh and opened my eyes again. Bringing up the system menu I took a look at what it had sent me and was surprised to see a quest. Reading the description I was very tempted to just ignore this quest entirely.-


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: An Entei is in the area and has discovered your presence , greet it warmly!


    Objectives: y host to the curious legendary , earn it''s approval(optional)


    Rewards: 1x random item ticket , 1x skill ticket(optional) ]


    I really didn''t want to deal with a legendary pokemon that had apparently decided to drop by when I was minding my own business but the heat wave that rushed through the cave told me that wasn''t going to happen. With a sigh I stood up from my bed of feathers while Gaia worriedly stared out the entrance to the cave as the heat grew more potent as the Entei got ever closer. I patted her on the back as I walked over to her "Rx , it''s probably not hostile." I said reassuringly.-


    ''What a joke , we weren''t anything more than a curiosity to this thing if the quest is to be believed. Hostile? Are we even worthy of it getting hostile when it could kill both of us effortlessly?'' I thought to myself as the heat reached it''s peak and it''s source walked out of the woods. This Entei was the size of a horse and had semi-long earthen brown fur all over it''s body except its chest , head , back and paws. The chest had cream colored fur that ended with a grey stone looking te. Its back had a long flowing greyish smoke like mane that was always billowing as well as two grey stone like spikes on either side of it.-


    It''s paws were slightly lighter soft looking canine padded white furred things that had a single ck metallic looking band halfway up it''s legs. It''s face however looked almost like an cartoon explosion in that it''s bottom jaw was the same color as it''s chest but it''s upper face had red stone like spiked growths on it''s cheeks a spike tipped stone grey handlebar mustache and a trident like crest of yellow hair on it''s forehead.-


    The Entei''s red eyes were looking right at both me and Gaia curiously from where it was standing a good thirty feet away at the edge of the forest. ''Appraise'' I thought and the information I got back made me freeze in fear. It was the first time that I had been unable to get a full read off of something with the ability. What I did get though was more than enough to let me know not to piss the big dog off if I valued mine or Gaia''s lives at all.


    [Pokemon species: Entei


    Level:268


    Moves: Insufficient ability tier


    Ability: Insufficient ability tier


    Nature: Insufficient ability tier


    Description: Insufficient ability tier]


    ''Two hundred and sixty fucking eight! We are so fucked if this thing feels like killing us!'' I thought while mentally screaming in panic. Externally however I was stone faced like I was ready to fight if necessary , I definitely wasn''t though. Gaia on the other hand was much more honest with her reaction as she shrunk down to look as small as possible and was shaking a bit with a clear look of terror on her face.-


    "I''m not sure why you are here exactly but can you turn down the whole heat wave thing you have going on?" I asked since I honestly have no fucking idea how to approach the situation. The Entei had an amused look in it''s eyes but the heat wave did vanish so it must have understood what I said. "Thank you , uh I don''t have a lot of room bute in I guess?" I said helplessly struggling to not do anything impolite. The giant canine pokemon nodded and walked over to the cave before it gently nudged me aside with an amused look after I froze when it got near.-


    The Entei then walked over to the fire and directlyid down on it in what I can only describe as the most fire type thing ever. I patted Gaia reassuringly before walking into the cave that was suddenly much tighter then normal and took a seat next to the cave wall at the left of the Entei. Gaia reluctantly sat down on the right of the legendary. "Want a berry?" I offered awkwardly to break up the silence. The Entei nodded and I retrieved my bag from nearby and started taking out all the berry types I had.-


    The legendary carefully reached out with one of it''s huge paws and pinched the stem of two of the nanab berries. It them brought them in front of it and craned it''s neck down to grab them with it''s teeth before flicking them into it''s mouth. It chewed for a moment with a pleased expression before swallowing the berries. I would offer roasted meat but we weren''t expecting guests." I said honestly. The Entei nodded with an understanding look before something surprising happened.-


    A red glow came from it''s eyes and a voice spoke in my head ''Why are you here little human?'' a deep male voice asked calmly. My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide when this happened as I knew exactly what was happening. "You can use aura!?" I yelled in surprise. A deep rumbling sound came from the legendary as ifughing at my reaction. ''All of those you humans call legendries can do this but only with those capable of doing the same in time.'' Entei''s deep voice said in my mind again.-


    "So legendries canmunicate directly with aura users , that''s good to know. But if it''s not to much trouble can I ask why you are here exactly?" I asked curiously. ''A new member of my kind was born nearby and I was on my way to greet it before it could cause trouble. We tend to be rather lost at first and need guidance from an older member or skilled human to reach our full potential. Much like your kinds own offspring in fact.'' the Entei spoke honestly.-


    "A new Entei? That''s got to be like super rare right?" I asked curiously without even noticing how rxed I had gotten. ''Once every three centuries or so usually. But you still haven''t exined why you are here little human.'' the Entei said and I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. It''s not really all that impressivepared to your reason. I simply woke up here and rather than trying to leave I decided to grow a bit stronger before finding the nearest human settlement instead." I said honestly. ''Hmmm , interesting. Your kind are usually far less daring.'' the Entei said with a mischievous twinkle in it''s eyes that I wasn''t aware of.

 Cooking and “door”

    Cooking and ��door��


    ''Of course those like yourself who are bonded to pokemon tend to be more daring but even then few would make the same choice as you.'' The Entei added with what I felt might be respect but it was faint so maybe I am delusional. I chuckled awkwardly "I imagine I''m a bit of an anomaly even amongst humans to begin with." I said honestly while thinking of the system. The Entei chuffed in what I assume to beughter ''Quite so little one. As much as I''d like to stay and watch you grow I do have a rather pressing matter to attend to.'' the legendary said before standing up.


    ''Thank you for the berries little one and if fate allows it may we meet again.'' The Entei said before vanishing faster than my eyes could follow. "Well that was certainly interesting" I said and Gaia nodded in agreement. Surprisingly the fire that the legendaryid down on was totally fine minus the fact that the sticks had been crushed. I had to add more sticks to it but it continued burning just fine. After that I opened my bag and took out my rewards since the quest waspleted.-


    First was the Item ticket that I tore apart without hesitation bringing up the roulette wheel as per usual. I mentally gave the go ahead and the wheel spun rapidly. It stopped a minuteter on the expert belt item. This interested me quite a bit since what an expert belt did in the games doesn''t make much sense in reality. You see in the game it increased the effectiveness of super effective moves which sounds simple but it wasn''t. See what is and isn''t super effective changes based on ones opponent so how then does the belt figure this out?-


    My theory was that rather than the belt improving super effective moves what it actually did was mess with whatever pokemon was holding it''s sense of move control to slightly improve them when the pokemon uses a move it knows is super effective. Unfortunately it was very hard to test this theory since you would first need to trick your pokemon into truly believing a non-super effective move was in fact super effective. As you may be able to tell that was not easy at all to aplish. Still I didn''t really care how it worked so long as it did as it would give Gaia an extra edge against certain types of opponents.-


    Once I was done contemting the expert belts possible function in reality I moved on to my second prize. As it turned out the whole approval of the giant dangerous creature thing waspleted without me even realizing it since the quest didn''t end until the Entei left. It felt a little cheap but I wasn''t about to look a gift horse in the mouth and tore that skill ticket immediately. Once again the wheel showed up and spun at mymand before stopping on a skill I could totally get behind , cooking.


    Look I enjoy roasted flesh just as much as the next possibly unstable individual but I also enjoyed having vor and variety to all my meals as well. The sudden influx of knowledge made me grin widely despite the headache because that was what this skill was all about. To put it very simply it was basically how to take ingredients and make something amazing with it. With the proper equipment the techniques could get fairlyplex but the knowledge of the skill was extremely thorough like usual and covered primitive methods of cooking delicious food as well.-


    Things like y baking , burial pit cooking , and even fermentation so I was beyond excited at the sort of stuff I coulde up with. "Alright Gaia lets try and get some sleep if we even can at this point." I joked and Gaia rumbled inughter. I went back to my bed of feathers andid down while Gaia took her normal ce at the entrance of the cave. Sleep came surprisingly easy after that as the stress of dealing with a powerful legendary caught up to my mind.-


    I ended up sleeping in the next day as by the time I got up the sun had already risen a fair bit though it was clearly still fairly low. Gaia was already awake and had even revived the fire herself ''likely learned from watching me.'' I thought with a shrug. "We''ll skip move training today and instead I''ll be trying to make a pot with this iron I have so we can cook stew. Dig through the mountain here and see if you can find some salt for us." I said calmly to her and she looked interested in the idea.-


    She then looked reluctant and refused to leave "Larvitar!" she said seriously and I frowned for a moment as I tried to trante what she was talking about. The connection might be able to handle simple words or concepts but notplex things. "Lar! Lar! Vi!" she seemed to find the problem an dumbed it down to three words , unsafe , pokemon and protection. "You are worried that if you leave I''ll be in danger from any other pokemon in the area?" I asked for rification and she nodded seriously. "Hmmm , I''ve got it! Follow me!" I say excitedly after thinking about it for a moment.-


    She tilts her head slightly in confusion but decides to see what I had in mind. I quickly lead the way over to the area we normally train her moves that had several veryrge boulders. Find one of the seven footers I point at it with a wide grin. "Move this in front of the cave entrance while you are away and I''ll be safe right?" I asked with a grin. Gaia''s eyes lit up at this idea since that would indeed work to keep other pokemon away. Pokemon are very benefit driven creatures and moving something as heavy as this boulder just to attack a weak human would most of the time simply be unworth it.-


    Gaia like the miniature tank she was got behind the boulder squatted down a little and pressed her ws against the boulder. "Lar!" she shouted and the huge heavy stone started to move ever so slowly out of the small divot in the ground it was in. Gaia grit her teeth and put her all into moving the giant rock and it paid off as the boulder slowly started to pick up speed. It was clearly much easier to move once it was already in motion as she no longer needed to push as hard anymore.-


    I headed back to the cave alongside her as she pushed the huge boulder slowly forward towards the cave in the distance. We got some strange looks by the few pokemon ignorant or stupid enough to hang out nearby the cave but we ignored them. Gaia immediately ced the boulder snug against the entrance to the cave and I could only shake may head with a chuckle. "How do you expect me to get in there now?" I teased and she looked away in embarrassment.

 Caveman metalwork

    Caveman metalwork


    Gaia moved the boulder to the side of the cave''s entrance to let me in before moving it back in ce. I purposefully picked this boulder in order to have enough room left for the smoke to still flow out of the cave freely while letting new air in. This was aplished due to the round shape of the boulder and rectangr shape of the cave entrance that hadrge holes at each of it''s corner while the boulder was in ce to allow proper airflow. The cave darkened up a bit since there was no longer much sunlight shining through but the glow of the fire gave me plenty of light to work with.-


    Reaching into my bag I pulled out the few fist sized chunks of raw iron and chose the ttest one to be my anvil while the roundest small one was my hammer. With that taken care of I tossed one of the rough pieces into the fire and began to furiously fed said fire pine needles to keep the temp really high as I fanned the mes. It took a while but the chunk of iron in the fire got red hot so I carefully removed it from the fire with some sticks and ced it on the t iron rock.-


    Grabbing my hammer rock I struck the hot iron deforming it immediately and shaking the unsecured t iron under it. I ignored this as I readjusted the hot iron on the t one and struck it again deforming it even more. I was sweating heavily during this time as I relentlessly beat the metal t. Once it was t I used the stick to flip it away to cool and grabbed another piece of iron to toss into the fire.-


    I repeated the process until I had three very rough tes of iron each with different sizes. I tossed them into the fire together and heated them up to working temperature before carefully setting them on top of each other on my anvil iron. I then began to strike them hard in order to try and forge weld them together. Forge welding was simply using heat and pressure to force two or more pieces of metal to fuse into a single one. Ideally I would have a furnace of some sort and an actual anvil and hammer for this but I will work with what I have avable.-


    It was hard for me but I eventually got the three tes of iron to roughly fuse together. I took a bit of a break after that to rest my sore muscles as well as to cool off. Hovering over a fire and red hot metal for hours on end in a squat while smashing a fairly heavy chunk of iron down over and over was very hot and tiring after all. Once I was no longer feeling like I was about to keel over I went back to integrating the pieces of metal together.-


    When I was satisfied with my new solidish te of iron I started to round the whole thing out into a very rough bowl shape. I was finally done with making my "pot" right at the same time Gaia returned with a giant chuck of milky white crystal and five dead Zigzagoon. My "pot" looked like a horribly dirty dented and all around beat up bowl big enough to fit on my head. Gaia raised a skeptical eyebrow at the terrible looking thing after she opened the "door" of the cave and came in.-


    "Yeah yeah I know it''s not very pretty but it should work , probably." I said half jokingly seeing the look she had. At this point a surprising thing happened that made me a bit excited to see. [Congrattions host for creating item "caveman pot" for the first time! +1x item ticket!] I was thrilled about this until now unheard of feature of the system since it meant my skills actually had a use besides making me decent at basically everything I had a skill for. I ripped apart the ticket without hesitation and imed my prize eagerly before frowning deeply at what I got.-


    A wok , I got a literal wok for making a primitive metal pot. The sheer irony of the fact I spent fucking HOURS making this shitty pot only for the system to give me a decisively superior cooking implement stung terribly. (A/N: I''m not fucking joking this actually happened with the roulette wheel. ROTFLMAO) I took a few deep breathes to calm myself after this happened so that I didn''t rage out and do something stupid. Gaia just looked at me funny after seeing me get all angry after I tore the ticket from the system.-


    Oh right I forgot to mention it but system items like the tickets weren''t invisible or anything but were actual things that physically existed until I destroyed them and then they vanished. Thankfully as a pokemon from the system Gaia was also aware of it''s existence which was a really good thing since I am pretty sure any other pokemon would have definitely confronted me about the crazy bullshit going on around me by now otherwise. This wasn''t to say I was only limited to system pokemon just that they would be the most convenient in terms of epting my system rted weirdness.-


    Anyways after I calmed down from the irritation of having my hard work spat on by RNG I got busy making our food. First I took out my new shiny ck wok which made Gaia rumble inughter as she figured out why I got upset. Then I had her grind up some of the frankly huge salt crystal she brought back into dust into the wok. After that I had her rip the Zigzagoon corpses into small pieces that went into the wok alongside some cut up sitrus and oran berries. I then ced the wok over the fire and tossed the ingredients together as the metal started to quickly get hot.-


    A wonderful fragrance rose from the cooking food as the fat from the Zigzagoons rendered out and started to fry the ingredients together. Gaia actually drooled a little which I couldn''t me her for as it was the best smelling thing I''d found so far food wise since I got to this world. Still we held off on the temptation until the food was done at which point I portioned out a serving for me in my metal bowl/pot and gave Gaia the wok after specifying that she wasn''t to eat it.-


    You may think that was a given since eating metal was rather unhealthy but Gaia was a pokemon and pokemon spit in the face of such logic. She actually looked disappointed when I said that as if to prove my point. Still she ate her food with gusto and a happy little wiggle while I waited for mine to cool. I stirred it with my fork as I waited for it to cool down but like always she finished before I could even get started.

 Timeskip

    Timeskip


    When I finally did get to eat though I sighed in contentment at the sheer variety of vors in this oil based stew of mine. Salty , savory , sour , and sweet all at the same time with the copious amounts of oil making the vors stick to my tongue. I downed the entire amount of food without any hesitation including the oil itself. Thanks to my physique I was totally fine eating so much grease as my digestion was very powerful. It helped that everything I had eaten was chock full of vitamins and protein.-


    Malnutrition was kinda hard to aplish when berries had grown over time to contain literally every type of vitamin you could ever need. Why would they do this? Because if they are eaten by the right creatures they can spread. An interesting thing I have noticed was that Gaia didn''t use the bathroom , ever. I have had to use the bathroom several times in this world but she hasn''t gone at all. Infact shepletelycked the orifice to do so and had quite some trouble exining it to me. From what I managed to trante via our connection certain types of pokemon simply didn''t use the bathroom in the same manner as others or at all.-


    In her case as a rock and ground type almost every part of what she ate was broken down and added to her body while the old stuff fell off like dead skin on people. By that point it had already basically turned into pure elements such as carbon , iron and calcium. That was why she really liked to eat metal as it literally made her stronger if she ate enough. If this was true then it exined why she never seemed to need to use the restroom.-


    Anyways after dinner we turned in for the night only this time Gaia moved the boulder in front of the cave and cuddled up next to me. It was a bit ufortable for me since she was basically a giant rock and as such was not soft at all. Still I didn''t have too much trouble getting to sleep since it wasn''t much different than sleeping against the wall. Time began to pass after that and soon enough an entire month passed since I arrived in this world. A few things had happened during this little time skip of mine that were worth mentioning.-


    First was that I had gotten another two quests during this time that gave me new skill and five new items. They were simple quests since we didn''t really do anything else worth a quest unlike the previous times I had gotten one. The first quest was simply to defeat an entire small swarm of Dustox line pokemon that decided to move upwind of the cave and use powder type moves for fun. Yeah it wasn''t fun at all to deal with and Ipletely ran out of full restore doing it but that small swarm is gone now.-


    The second quest was a repeating one that only paid out after a certain period of time which was in this case an entire week. I got it at the start ofst week and so had onlypleted it a single time so far. It was basically that I had toplete a specific exercise routine everyday for an entire week in order to earn two item tickets. In this case it was a hundred crunches , a hundred pullups , a hundred push ups , a hundred squat thrusts and a 10 k/m jog.-


    Why was it so hard you may be asking yourself , well the answer is that it was my new physiques fault. Apparently the system thought I wasn''t keeping active enough to grow stronger and decided to incentivize me into self torment , yay. Jokes aside the workout pushed my body to perform it''s best at all times so I was quickly turning more and more savage looking as the muscles grew more defined. My new skill was writing and was much like the majority of those I had totally useless for me at the moment. Writing didn''t refer to literacy in this case but rather penmanship such as calligraphy which was obviously useless to me at the moment.-


    My five new items however were a small steel shield , another expert belt , a hammer , a sooth bell and an anvil. I will admit that I got quite lucky by getting both a hammer and an anvil from these draws but it also irritated me quite a bit as well since the RNG gods seem to love spitting on my struggles. The expert belt I myself used as a utility belt on my waist by threading it through my very damaged and dirt jean shorts belt loops.-


    The soothe bell was odd to say the least as it was a small white bell that when rung caused one to rx and be more friendly. I have no idea at all how it aplished this but I did know for a fact that it did since I had personally felt it''s effects. My preferred use for it though was having Gaia ring it every now and then to keep my mind calm and clear while meditating on aura. It sounds weird but keeping a clear mind was easily the hardest part of aura meditation in my opinion.-


    The steel shield got done dirty by me however as I dismantled it for material after I got my hammer and anvil. removed the straps , pulled off the leather backside of the shield and beat the metal into a VERY rough pair of tongs as well as horrendous block of excess steel. I honestly had no idea how to properly use a shield beside putting it between myself and the dangerous thing intent on harming me. Rather than add learning that from scratch to my te I tore it apart for other materials.-


    The leather for example had been added to my jean shorts in a loincloth esque fashion by cutting it in two and poking a couple holes at the top of the long parts and threading my expert belt through them. Besides that Gaia had leveled up to thirty two during this time and said she was close to evolution which had me a bit excited. Thanks to the move training we have been doing she had raised her mastery of all but her newest moves to the next rank so her current move list read as follows. Bite(E) , leer(A) , sandstorm(E) , iron defense(E) , screech(E) , rock slide(E) , scary face(A) , thrash(A) , dark pulse(J) , payback(J) and rock polish(J) , metal w(J) , sand bomb(J).-


    As intimidating as that looked like it was unfortunately the end of the line in terms of proficiency via normal training. Expert was the third highest mastery of moves but without either inspiration or dumb luck that was as far as she could go with them. Rock polish and sand bomb were my absolute favorite new moves for battle. That special training I had her go through paid off in the form of sand bomb and metal w. Sand bomb was an entirely unheard of move that she created by condensing a full blown sandstorm into a tiny orb the size of a fist wrapped in ground type energy that detonated in an explosion of sharp fast moving sand on impact , it was basically a sand frag grenade.

 Spar

    Spar


    Metal w on the other hand was a move her species simply wasn''t supposed to be able to learn at all as far as I remember. The way she learnt it was by focusing the steel type energy from iron defense on her w alone and striking out at a boulder. It took her an entire week to suddenly have the move itself pop up in her status screen after she first started sessfully focusing the steel type energy. Rock polish though was a move she naturally learned however but it was so very broken on her.-


    I don''t know how exactly it works but rock polish makes the pokemon that used it two levels faster than before. Mix that with her already crazy speed and Gaia was nightmare inducingly fast for her size and power. Those were Gaia''s improvements during this time but my own were no small matter either as my own stats had grown considerably since I arrived in this world. I had collected quite a few small treasures during this time and had been honing mymon to the point I was now very fluent in it getting a system approved A ranking in it.-


    [NAME: Alexander Drake


    AGE:20


    RACE: human-bonded


    INVENTORY: 1000 poke` , Pokeball(Gaia) , silph co bag , 5x pokeballs , I.D , oran berry 12x , hardstone(g2) , everstone(g2) , tiny mushroom , dusk stone(3) , unusual w fossil , water stone(g5) 4x , gold nugget , deepsea tooth , silverware set , nanab berry 6x , sitrus berry 5x , pecha berry 4x , leaf stone(g2) , expert belt 2x , caveman pot , wok , hammer , soothe bell , anvil , rough tongs , steel block , luminous crystal 2x ,


    ROULETTE


    TRADING SHOP


    QUESTS: 1


    Pokemon: Larvitar(Gaia)(32)


    Level:14


    SKILLS:mon(A) , cleaning(N) , metal working(J) , aura(J) , cooking(J) , writing(N)


    ABILITIES: Appraise(novice)(system ability) , improved body v1


    STRENGTH:12


    AGILITY:11


    AURA:16


    INTELLIGENCE:8


    CHARISMA:11


    LUCK:8]


    As you can see my status is very different from when I originally showed up in this world. In fact every single stat of mine had grown considerably since then. Five was the base number for each stat for a normal human and I was at almost double that in each now. Ten ording to the system was pretty good for humans while fifteen was the absolute pinnacle that normal humans could possibly reach via gics and intense long term dieting and training.-


    In this regard I was quite good to go at the moment stat wise so long as I don''t try andpare myself to pokemon trainers with many bonded pokemon under their belt. Interestingly enough I learned that if a bonded pokemon grows stronger the trainer also does as well. It''s not a huge boost honestly since even with Gaia''s intense training I only got a single point in both strength and agility for it. My biggest stat increase though was definitely my aura stat that had tripled thanks to my bond with Gaia and training.-


    Speaking of aura I finally seeded in having some of the stuff manifest outside my body though only for a split second before my reserves were drained. None the less this qualified me in the systems eyes as a journeyman aura user. I couldn''t really show it off or anything yet but progress was progress and I was happy to have it. And now you are all caught up on the stuff that''s changed throughout the month. Today was not any different from another when I woke up as I roused Gaia and revived the fire while she was opening the caves boulder door.


    It was only at that point that things got screwy as Gaia stiffened halfway through opening the door. There standing outside the cave was two Entei with one being considerablyrger than the other but otherwise looked nearly identical. I myself didn''t notice that something was wrong since I was focusing on the fire at the time until the system decided to give mete heads up.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have gained the approval of an Entei that has brought a newborn member of it''s species to challenge you.


    Objectives: Spar with the newborn Entei , earn it''s approval(optional) , catch it(optional)


    Rewards: 5x random item ticket , 1x ability ticket(optional) , 1x guaranteed skill ticket]


    I felt the blood drain out of my face while reading this quest description before slowly turning my head to the entrance of the cave and seeing the two legendries sitting patiently for me. I sighed and stood up from my squat before walking over to Gaia who was extremely tense. Not because of the older legendary but rather from the smaller one that was practically radiating fighting intent. It was painfully obvious why they were here and I could only pat Gaia reassuringly.-


    "I take it you two aren''t merely here to chat before leaving huh?" I asked despite knowing what the answer I should expect. ''Not this time little human. We are here to determine if you are worthy to take this youngster with you on your journey.'' The older Entei spoke into my mind and I could only sigh. "Are you sure about this , I am sure there are many more worthy than me after all?" I ask seriously. ''I am certain that you''ll prove perfect." the older Entei said firmly and I could once again only sigh.-


    [Pokemon species: Entei


    LEVEL:40


    Moveset: Bite(j) , Leer(n) , Ember(n) , roar(n) , fire spin(n) , Stomp(n) , methrower(n) , sunny day(n)


    Variations: none


    Attack:135


    Defense:90


    Sp. Atk:110


    Sp. Def:80


    Speed:100


    Ability: Inner focus(n)]


    I appraised the young Entei and quickly ran through the chances of victory in my head and surprisingly enough Gaia and I were slightly more likely to win. Sure the Entei had considerably better stats than Gaia did across the board but she had most of her skills on adept or expert level mastery which was worth a considerable amount of extra damage. Even more so in the case of super effective moves such as rock slide , sandstorm and sand bomb that stacked with her expert belt.-


    The factor that really decides this fight was experience in battle at this point and the fact the younger Entei is only at forty means it probably has none at all but rather is indeed a freshly born legendary. Thankfully Gaia is fairly resistant to normal type and dark type moves while fire type moves are nearly pointless against her so she has type advantage as well. "Fine then follow us to our usual training area , a fight here may ruin our home." I said and had Gaia follow me to the training area.-


    I wasn''t joking about it destroying the area either as two roughly equally matched pokemon fighting can change thendscape of a small area if they are decently strong. Gaia''s attacks were strong enough to create small craters if she went all out on some of them and I very much doubted the Entei was much different. Rather than risk having my current home leveled in the cross fire I would rather the training area get demolished.

 Spar(2)

    Spar(2)


    Unlike when Gaia was pushing the boulder to our cave there was absolutely no pokemon stupid or ignorant enough to stick around once we passed by. Not that I med them considering the two legendries following behind Gaia and I. "No matter what happens make sure you keep sandstorm up and keep your distance as best you can." I coached Gaia as we walked and she listened seriously. The two Entei could probably hear us as well but I honestly didn''t care since telling her this now or after we start made little difference.-


    The reason for this was because majority of the younger Entei''s moves were up close and personal in nature so it would be trying to close the distance any chance it got anyways. It didn''t take us very long to arrive at the training ground that looked very different then it did when we first started using it. At the moment it looked like a small patch of desert had been ced here as it was covered in thick sand and jagged shattered boulder pieces. No nts had survived Gaia''s training at all so it was just like a desert.-


    The older Entei raised an eyebrow at this and had likely figured out that Gaia was by no means as weak as she was a month ago. It didn''t say anything about it however so that little detail was still hidden from the inexperienced Entei. Gaia and I stood on one side and the young Entei eagerly stood ten feet away. The elder Entei started the match and immediately sand got kicked up with a brown glow from Gaia as she set up our usual sandstorm start. "Rock polish double!" I call out and Gaia starts to glow brown on her full body while she rubs herself down with her ws.-


    The Entei''s unfamiliarity with it''s moves shows at this point as by the time it finally pops off a sunny day Gaia has alreadypleted her sandstorm and is almost done with the rock polish as well. Like actual weather phenomena sunny day didn''t cancel the sandstorm but rather stacked on top of it. The move sunny day itself was actually an orb of fire energy floating high over head that imitated the actual sun but increased the ambient fire energy in the air. This meant that the sunny day did not sh with the sandstorm that was close to the ground at all.-


    The Entei seemed confused about this as it thought using one weather move canceled another and admittedly I was right alongside it in that thought. Still besides noting this down as a possible way to fuck with my opponents in the future I ignored it. Gaia finished her Rock polish thanks to this moment of distraction on the Entei''s part which meant that her speed stat was temporarily almost the same as the Entei''s. Add on the sand veil evasion up she had at the moment and it suddenly became a lot harder for the Entei to hit her.-


    The Entei dashed forward at very fast speed to try and close the distance as it''s front paws both glowed white. Just before it it was going to reach her it leapt up making it clear what move it was nning to use. Gaia didn''t dodge though but rather her right w started to glow brown and an orb of sand from the surrounding sandstorm quickly condensed and she thrust it right into the Entei''s belly as it used stomp on her. "CRASH! BANG!" the two moves struck at the same time and Gaia staggered with several bleeding cracks on her carapace and several smaller ones as well.-


    The Entei got off from that collision far worse than Gaia as it''s belly was pouring out blood since it''s skin had been shredded. I was surprised the damage was so light to be honest since thest pokemon that had been hit point nk with a sand bomb was blown to pieces. ''Looks like legendries are much tougher than normal pokemon by default.'' I noted to myself. Gaia was gritting her teeth in pain which meant it was my turn to direct the fight fully since she will get distracted by the pain and make mistakes.-


    "Screech and scary face!" I call and she obeyed while the Entei was still reeling from the pain it was in. The screech hit the dazed legendary forcing it''s body to rx which dropped it''s defenses before the scary face hit it and it got muscle tremors as well. From my guess I''d say that in game terms it was at about half a bar of health while Gaia was at three quarters. The Entei also seemed to realize it was losing and began to glow red in it''s mouth "Dodge!" I yelled right as the Entei unleashed a torrent of fire at Gaia.-


    Gaia wasted no time at all falling to all fours and charging out of the way of the stream of fire. I also moved out of the way as the fire shot out of the area of the sandstorm by about seven extra feet which was right where I was standing before. The Entei swung it''s head and the stream of fire followed the movement to chase after the fleeing Gaia. This was where the evasion and speed advantage Gaia currently had came in handy.-


    She moved just fast enough to stay out of the me until the Entei had no choice but to stop as it''s energy reserves were getting low. It was stumbling at this point from exhaustion from blood and energy loss. I knew we had it on the ropes "Sand bomb , finish this!" I called out and Gaia''s right w started to glow brown and sand from the storm condensed above the w that she pushed towards the Entei whose eyes narrowed. It jumped to the side so the sand bomb didn''t directly hit it but it still got hit pretty hard by the super effective move.-


    ''STOP!'' the voice of the elder Entei echoed through my head right when I was about to have Gaia go for the double tap. I wish it wasn''t necessary but pokemon can be really stubborn sometimes and simply refuse to get knocked out. I''d seen it firsthand a few times from the spars with the other pokemon over this month. Still Gaia made no further moves and even ended the sandstorm to show that she wasplying. As the dust settled I saw why the elder Entei had stopped us as the younger one was knocked out and bleeding heavily from it''s side now.-


    Gaia stumbled over to me clearly exhausted after using two different sand bombs in such a short amount of time. Unlike in the game there was no pp in reality but rather each pokemon had a reserve of neutral energy in them that was expended when a move was used. For very powerful moves like methrower or sand bomb the moves take a lot of energy to use. Thankfully the energy reserves were like a muscle and grew the more a pokemon used it which was also why pokemon grew stronger faster with a trainer as they were always well nourished and constantly using their reserves.

 Vulcan

    Vulcan


    I gave Gaia an oran berry to speed up her recovery a little while the elder Entei walked over the the knocked out youngster and began looking it over. After it was satisfied with it''s inspection it held a paw over the unconscious Entei and began to glow red as it used it''s aura to slowly heal it. I watched this process like a hawk in hopes of getting any hint at how to do the same thing myself. I was naturally aware that Icked the amount of aura necessary to even attempt to copy what I was seeing but that won''t always be the case.-


    Plus let''s be honest right now I very much doubt I am likely to ever get the opportunity to watch another aura user in action. In the games I yed before I arrived in this world I had only seen literally one in the form of the dude who gives you the egg with the Riolu in it. Compared to the sheer amount of psychics I saw it was pretty fucking clear to me which was easier to learn. I''m not saying one is better than the other or anything but just that psychics were far moremon than aura users.-


    It didn''t take long at all for the knocked out Entei to begin to stir under the helping hand of it''s elder which showed the sheer durability of a legendary if nothing else. Even after waking up the younger Entei didn''t get up but stayed down while it got healed. If the expression it was making was any indication it had been chewed out by the elder for it''s reckless way of fighting. Despite the way their faces were shaped the legendary was actually pretty expressive all things considered.-


    I wasn''t an arrogant prick though and offered the younger Entei an oran berry as well. It looked confused at me when I did like it was a strange way to act. The elder pped the younger one across the head however when it did. ''Stop being stupid and take the damn berry.'' I heard in my head as the elder scolded the younger one. It was rather funny to be honest and I had to stop myself fromughing. The younger Entei did take the berry though in the end so all was well in that case.-


    The elder had told me that the newborn members of it''s species needed guidance but I hadn''t thought it was this bad. From what I could see this younger Entei was both impulsive and a bit arrogant. Honestly speaking if or rather when at this point this Entei joins my team I will need to break it of that mindset to a degree. I''m fine with pride as both Gaia and myself are prideful but I won''t ept t out arrogance especially when it makes you think getting help from someone who beat you is weird. That sort of attitude won''t earn you any real friends but plenty of enemies.-


    Once the younger Entei was decently healed and Gaia no longer looked like someone snapped a bat over her back we got straight to business. ''The young one has agreed that you are worthy of guiding it in the future.'' The elder spoke and the younger one nodded in agreement. ''Do you have one of those balls your people use to create a bond with pokemon?'' The elder asked and I nodded before digging in my bag for one of the five pokeballs I had. Taking it out I tossed it over to the Entei.-


    "Just tap the white button in the middle and the ball will do the rest so long as you don''t resist." I said with a wide smile. I couldn''t help but be happy at the thought of having a legendary on my team. The best part had to be the typing as a powerful fire type is always a mainstay on any team I build in the games. The younger Entei nods in understanding before raising it''s right paw an tapping the button gently. A bright red light covers it''s whole body before getting sucked into the ball that shakes for a moment before settling neatly on the ground.-


    Walking over I pick up the ball and immediately feel the connection between myself and the Entei form. Smiling I release if from the ball "Wee to the team , now then before anything else we need to give you a name so I am not constantly calling you by your species." I say happily. It looks at the older legendary who merely nods in agreement with me. "En! ENTEI!" the younger one says loudly and through my new bond I roughly trante it to powerful.-


    Iugh at this "Did you know when I asked Gaia what sort of name she wanted she said the same thing pretty much?" I asked with a smile. The Entei looked surprised to hear this and looked at Gaia but she looked away embarrassed to be exposed like that. "With her I named her after the titan goddess of the earth so how about Vulcan the god of volcanoes?" I suggested and the Entei''s eyes lit up eagerly "En!" Vulcan said while nodding in agreement. "Vulcan it is then , may we worked together to rise to such heights the whole world remembers our names!" I say with a wide grin as I held my hand out.-


    Vulcan rested it''s paw on my hand "ENTEI!" it roared enthusiastically which I roughly tranted to "let''s do it!" through our bond. The elder was happy to see this and decided that it''s business here was done with this and left. Once I was alone with just me , Gaia and Vulcan I exined my system and how it worked to Vulcan leaving it speechless. I keep referring to Vulcan as it because the way it''s species is born they simply don''t have genders so he or she simply doesn''t apply.-


    After returning to the cave I epted the quest rewards getting me five item tickets , an ability ticket and a guaranteed skill ticket. I of course used thest of those immediately which brought up a list of all the skills on the wheel. I chose the most useful skill I could find at the moment given my sudden increase in food expenses , foraging. The familiar rush of information was aplicated as all hell but at least now I had a rough way to determine what was edible or not nt wise.-


    After that came the ability ticket and I prayed to RNGESUS that it wasn''t another thing like improved body v1. The wheel spun and spun for a whole minute before slowing down andnding on what had to be a horrible ability , emotion suppression. It did exactly what I thought it did and I didn''t know weather tough or cry about it. Basically if I wanted to I can turn off all of my emotions and be a cold unfeeling thinking machine. -


    I won''t lie and say this probably has it''s uses in this world but I doubt I will need it much. All that was left at that point was the item tickets so I did those as well and saw if my luck was just that drained after getting an Entei on my team. Metal powder , max potion , sacred ash , a pokenav and nevermelt ice. As it turns out I did not use up all my luck , that or RNGESUS was smiling down upon me this day.

 Learning about the world

    Learning about the world


    I immediately grabbed the pokenav out of my bag and looked it over carefully. It was a bit bulky but for the most part was about the same shape as an old flip phone. It was sand yellow with a single blue button in the middle of it that released thetch opening the device and a camera lens at the bottom. Once open the entire top part of the device was a screen while the bottom half was a directional pad and clicker button. Pressing the clicker button the pokenav''s screen immediately lit up brightly and a prompt asking for my I.D number appeared.-


    Retrieving it from my bag I carefully used the directional pad to type in the number on the card before hitting ept. It was much more primitive than the tech on earth so I had no trouble at all figuring it out. I got a loading screen after that as the device sent out a signal to the nearest tower to input the data to the server. It didn''t take long thankfully , only about thirty seconds in total before I got put on the home screen. Clearly the device was made to be very user friendly as the seven options were clearlybeled to be chosen.-


    The options were Hoenn map , condition , inte , match call , camera , ribbons and rescue call. Clicking on the first option I was presented with a familiar but significantly different map then the one I remember. In emerald the map of Hoenn was very small and only showed "important" ces alongside the routes. This map was dotted with towns , viges , forests , routes , caves and mountains. Yes mountains as in more than one of the things unlike in the game where it was basically just mt. chimney. This was made it abundantly clear that thendmass I was currently standing on was WAY bigger than in the game.-


    This made perfect sense to me since I always thought that being able to cover the entire region on foot within maybe two days was ridiculous for a whole region. Interestingly the pokenav also showed where I was on this map and much to my surprise I am actually not that far from Littleroot vige. ording to the device twelve miles away from it at the base of mt. grey in fact. The forest around us was also known as needle forest in fact and wasbeled as a tier 1.5 danger area.-


    I frowned at that though as I didn''t understand what it was referencing with that tier so I ignored it for now and began to pour over the map to figure out roughly how big Hoenn actually was. After getting the distance between where I was and the furthest point from me which was the evergrande league it came up to a little over a thousand miles from here to there. This is to say the real Hoenn was nearly half the size of Australia on earth.-


    This meant at normal walking speed it would actually take about six or so months toplete a full gym circuit if one only walked. Obvious people had bikes and pokemon so walking is not the fastest method here but theparison in size and time for travel between reality and the game is clear now. Satisfied with this knowledge I backed out of the map and went down to inte to see if it is the same as on earth. As it turned out it was a little different as it was filled with forums and informational guides but that was it.-


    I looked up danger tiers to figure out what was up with that and was impressed by what I found. The danger tiers were created by the league based on the level of power a gym leader used depending on the amount of badges you have. For example tier 0 means that all the pokemon areplete novices and easy to fight normally no matter how skilled one is. Tier 1 is at the same level as a first badge gym leader challenge. ''This means this area is between one and two badges right around.'' I thought and after remembering the levels of the pokemon nearby I couldn''t help but agree.-


    ''The average level around here is sixteen to twenty five on average with anything lower or higher being unusual. If gyms follow the same level scheme as in the game then my team sits at right around the third badge or halfway to the fourth badge. That''s not super powerful but is at least above average I think , lemme check'' I thought before checking to see the average power level for trainers. Surprisingly there was actually a graph showing the average number of people who became trainers per year and how many reached a certain gym badge level of power in their careers.-


    Surprisingly the number of people who make it past the third badge is massively lower than those that make it to the second. Like seventy percent failure rate low which made me quite confused to be honest. As far as I could tell the only real challenge to reaching past the third badge should be the effort in gettingfortable battling and training. It was only at this point I felt like an idiot because it only just dawned on me that most who try to be trainers are probably just doing it because they can and thus don''t have the drive to really go the distance.-


    Basically the magic of the upation is gone by the third gym so they give up. If the average gym level is the same as in the game then I have already gone past the third badge and was well on my way to the fourth. I chuckled as I remember that I also probably had Gaia train in a way that could be considered unorthodox to say the least so her power was way higher than it should be normally.-


    After that I decided to scratch one of the biggest mysteries of the games , why all the nurse joys looked the same. Surprisingly this was a prettymon question for new trainers and so had an answer from the Joy n themselves. Apparently one of their ancestors had rendered aid to a wounded Mew and the grateful legendary made it so all that persons female descendants looked the same as them minus small personal features and gave each look a like great affinity for healing. ''That is the sort of crazy shit a legendary like Mew can aplish easily if pokedex entries are right.'' I thought with a chuckle.-


    There was also another n that had a simr thing going on for them except they all had great affinity for justice somehow. This was the Jenny n and just like the Joy n they were apparently a massive n with members nearly all over the globe. I also looked up information on trainers with legendary or pseudo-legendary pokemon and sighed in relief at what I found. It wasn''tmon for someone like me to pop up but it also wasn''t unheard of as well. An example was that a man named John who made friends with a Latios in disguise that chose to join his team before he even caught a single pokemon. It was a rare event for people like me to pop up but definitely nothing I needed to worry about causing a hugemotion with.

 Recovery

    Recovery


    Pseudo legendries were a little different however as each recorded tribe or group of the things were kept fairly well hidden from the public to prevent rank amateur''s from getting themselves killed trying to catch a member of the species. In a not so surprising reveal I learned that while it was possible to do as I did and acquire a pseudo without dealing with the older and usually fully evolved members of the species it was a very small chance. That chance dropped even lower however when that pseudo happened to be a variant at the same time.-


    Variant pseudo legendries were almost always extremely well protected since their eggs informed the elders of the species of it''s exceptionalism as they were always very different from the normal eggs. While possible for such an egg to get mistaken as normal and left in a random wild zone to grow up on it''s own it was less than a single percent chance of happening. So when I showed up with Gaia there was bound to be a smallmotion as a result but nothing I couldn''t deal with. If I started taking the gym challenge as well I would actually enter a list of protected individuals since I had a high chance of bing an elite or even champion level trainer in the future.-


    That list wasn''t a joke either as if anything untoward happened to anyone on that list the pokemon league would find the perpetrators ande down on them like the hammer of god. I came across several reports about that exact thing happening before when the list was first established and a gang attacked a guy with a Dratini to snatch it. The nearest gym leader tracked them down retrieved the Dratini and ughtered the entire gang and their pokemon before leaving their bodies to rot to send a message.-


    This world was not a kind or gentle ce and this made that abundantly clear to me and I was perfectly fine with that. That guy with the Dratini eventually went on to be the patriarch of the Wataru n after marrying into the head family. With an example like that it became much less likely some sort of criminal would be willing to take the risk involved with attacking me to steal Gaia or Vulcan after I be a trainer. -


    I spent the rest of the day going through the inte to try and learn all that I need to know such as history andws. Thews imposed by the pokemon league were pretty much the same as you would expect really. No murder , stealing , kidnapping , terrorism , rape , or streaking , you know the usual stuff. There was very much exceptions to these rules however depending on the intent and situation of the crime. For example if someone else attacked you yet didn''t intend to kill you but you killed them then you would not get in trouble.-


    Logical little addendums like that that made sense existed in thews and altogether made this system function well. Obviously there werews that had very specific circumstances around them that I didn''t see being an issue for my self such as not conducting inhumane experiments. Otherwise I didn''t see any problems that I may run into after heading to Littleroot in the future to see the Professor there. The reason I nned to see Professor Birch before anything else was that It would be that I wanted to get my name on that protected list as soon as possible and with a direct line to the upper levels of the league he could make that happen.-


    Unlike usual Gaia needed a couple of days to heal up fully and Vulcan was no different so there was no real training to be done at the moment. Instead I took them both out with me to put my new foraging skill to use. I almost wanted to cry at just how many edible nts existed not more than fifty feet from the cave. Wild potatoes , ginger , turmeric , leafy greens and even hot peppers that were actually tiny red things that I originally thought may have been poisonous.-


    Like most wild herbs they all had a sort of bitterness to them but the other vors I got from them made it totally worth it. The biggest haul though easily had to be the extremely abundant amounts of mushrooms all over the ce. Chanterelles , lions manes , chicken of the woods and portabes were all over the ce. We feasted well after that though I did run out of orans to help both of my pokemon heal faster. I finally got an answer about weather Gaia''s quick recovery was because she was special or not thanks to Vulcan though as it was recovering just as fast despite having considerably worse injuries.-


    By the end of the third day both of them were in peak shape meaning that it was finally time to get Vulcans training started. I hadn''t just gone foraging during this time either as I had Gaia excavate the cave some more with Vulcans help. I did this because not only was the cave kinda crowded with all three of us living here but also because Gaia was showing more and more signs of an imminent evolution as her color was growing slightly darker and her spikes slightly longer.-


    I wasn''t worried about her evolving into a Pupitar since even though it would cause her speed to drop considerably her defense stats would grow to stupid high levels in exchange. My biggest concern with her evolving was her size since she would be REALLY big after evolving. About the size of a normal Tyranitar in fact so the cave needed to be expanded to contain her ahead of time. Now the cave was nearly fourteen feet tall and twelve feet wide all while extending twenty feet into the mountain side with reinforced sides courtesy of Gaia using her ground type energy to harden the walls and ceiling.-


    My n at the moment was to get Vulcans moves up to at least Adept mastery each before we made our way to Littleroot. I woke up on the fourth day at dawn and yawned before sliding off Vulcan waking it up at the same time. I got rid of my collection of feathers the same day Vulcan joined my team because that fur of his was WAY softer. It was resistant to me sleeping on it''s back at first but I can be very very stubborn when I really want something.-


    The best part in my opinion about having Vulcan had to be the fact it could make a brand new fire whenever it wanted. This meant I didn''t need to worry about keeping the fire active all the time which was a relief. "Wake up , we have stuff to do." I said while shaking Gaia awake as Vulcan opened it''s mouth to yawn loudly. She grumbled a bit which I roughly tranted to something about having a good dream. "You can sleepter Gaia , we only get about eight hours of light to work with after all." I said with a chuckle.

 Training

    Training


    Gaia snorted at that but left the matter alone as she got up and stretched causing her carapace the pop and crackle. She walked over to the frankly huge boulder that now covered the entrance of the entrance and with Vulcans help pushed it aside. We left the cave after that and made our way over to the training area ignoring the rain falling from the sky. I had a new appreciation for the rain after living in the wilderness of Hoenn and savored the feeling of the cool water streaming down my now semi long hair and over my skin.-


    Gaia didn''t seem to mind the rain all that much but Vulcan was ufortable in it which made sense considering his typing. We soon made it to the training ground that was covered in thick mud from the sand getting thoroughly wet. Turning to my two pokemon I speak up "Alright so the object of todays training is to improve Vulcan''s mastery of non attacking moves such as sunny day , leer and roar. To keep it fair Gaia will also only be allowed to use non attacking moves , other than that she will also not be allowed to use sandstorm as despite being a weather move it will cause damage over time." I exined to both of them.-


    Vulcan got excited when it heard that they were going to be fighting but seemed to dete a bit when Iid out the rules of this spar. ''Battle junky it looks like , I''ll need to keep that in mind.'' I thought to myself before motioning for them to get in position. Once ready I called out "START!" and Gaia of course went first due to her much higher move mastery and used rock polish to up her speed.-


    Vulcan took a moment but a white glow built up around his eyes before they shed causing Gaia to rx her muscles a bit lowering her defense which was the effect of leer. Despite starting earlier than Vulcan , Gaia finished her move after it since rock polish took a few moments to pull off. Vulcan had clearly had enough of getting wet however and it gathered fire energy into it''s mouth the moment it finished leer and shot a glowing red orb high into the air dispersing the rain in a small area as it created a sort of dome of fire energy rich air.-


    Gaia however made her throat glow white before screeching at Vulcan causing his defense to drop even lower than hers did as the energy infused soundwaves hit him. That was the straw that broke the camels back however as Vulcan had already gotten tired of trading stat decreases and dashed forwards spraying mud behind it. Gaia didn''t seem to react at all to its sudden eleration but just before it was set to arrive she leapt to the side rapidly. Vulcan tried to turn to chase after her but mud wasn''t great for getting traction.


    Rather than turn on a dime like it would be able to normally , Vulcan instead rolled as momentum and unsure footing took over sending it barreling into a rock shard literally head over heels. "CRASH!" the sound was loud and made me wince just thinking about how bad it had to hurt. Pokemon were tough things though and Vulcan got up and shook off the mud with an upset expression. Gaia meanwhile had a mocking look on her face and was rumbling inughter which really seemed to set Vulcan off. ''Short temper as well , Vulcans going to be a handful alright.'' I thought with a sigh.-


    Vulcan squatted down and did something surprising , it glowed white on all four legs before shooting forward many times faster than before. This clearly wasn''t a move of any sort or it would show up on it''s appraisal but it did use move energy which was odd. Gaia was obviously not expecting this and barely managed to dodge though she got hit on the hip by Vulcan. It was only at that point I figured it out and couldn''t help but grit my teeth at the unfairness of it.-


    What Vulcan used wasn''t a move but rather stopped right before that final step that created a move , energy maniption. I had exined how I trained Gaia to manipte her own energy which is how she had created the sand bomb move to Vulcan over thest few days but It was beyond unfair to Gaia that it could figure it out on the first try whereas she needed almost two weeks. I get the difference in talent between a pseudo and an actual legendary was quiterge but this is just insane. Vulcan hadn''t created a new move but rather used the energy of a move to boost his running ability like a knock off quick attack.-


    Sure it was genius but at the same time there is a reason why despite being able to do something simr I refuse to allow Gaia to do so. Gaia had a small scuff mark from that hit while Vulcan''s nose was gushing blood violently. When a pokemon uses a move their body prepares itself for the recoil of the attack which leaves them usually unaffected by their own attack but by not actually using a move Vulcan was hit with all that force right in the face.-


    In other words the trade off was absolutely not worth it in most cases and since Vulcan didn''t know reversal which did more damage to the opponent based on how damaged the user was this was not an exception. Gaia turned around and punched Vulcan in the chest as hard as she could since it was stunned after the recoil hit it hard. "CRACK!" the sound of her attack rang out and Vulcan fell into a coughing fit as the air was pushed out of it''s lungs from the impact but Gaia didn''t look done just yet and went for another hit before I stopped her.-


    "Separate and wait for Vulcan to recover , Remember that this is only to get it more familiar with it''s non attacking moves!" I spoke firmly and Gaia huffed but walked away from the practically defenseless legendary. It took about five minutes for Vulcan to recover from it''s coughing fit and the recoil of it''s half move. The reason for this was because after getting the air knocked out of it it tried to inhale through it''s nose which only made the coughing fit worse as the blood irritated it''s throat and lungs.-


    "Now rather than being a smart ass actually focus on improving your moves like you are supposed to." I said firmly and the legendary looked embarrassed. Training went much more smoothly after that since Vulcan had clearly learned it''s lesson and focused on it''s original task. ''Yep so unfair.'' I thought as I looked at Vulcans status after the training was done for the day.


    [Pokemon species: Entei


    LEVEL:45


    Moveset: Bite(J) , Leer(J) , Ember(N) , roar(J) , fire spin(N) , Stomp(N) , methrower(N) , sunny day(J)


    Variations: none


    Attack:135


    Defense:91


    Sp. Atk:110


    Sp. Def:83


    Speed:100


    Ability: Inner focus(n)]

 Evolution quest

    Evolution quest


    Not only had all three of the non attacking moves jumped up to journeyman but Vulcans level had also gone up by five and had even gained a few points in it''s special defense. The stat points were probably from the first spar Vulcan had with Gaia but none the less it''s growth with so little time was staggering. I didn''t mention any of that though to Vulcan as it already had an arrogant personality and this information would merely inte it''s ego. "Good work guys , it''s getting dark out so we should probably start heading back!" I called out to both of my pokemon that were panting after a long day of hard training.-


    "Gaia you should go hunting for our dinner while Vulcan and I set up the parts we don''t have to leave for like the fire." I said calmly and Vulcan huffed andined that it wanted to go hunting. "And let you burn down half the forest in the process ? Not likely. Don''t go thinking that I didn''t see you stopping yourself from using a fire type move all day." I said bluntly and the legendary lowered it''s head in shame.-


    "It''s fine to be eager to fight but you need to understand that restraint and patience are key parts of battle. If you go charging headfirst into a fight and get killed that would suck pretty hard wouldn''t it?" I asked and Vulcan nodded in agreement. The legendary wasn''t stupid or even all that stubborn just ignorant much like a young child that simply didn''t know any better. As a result it didn''t argue about me having Gaia take care of the hunting for now until I was certain it wouldn''t randomly decide to use methrower on a Zigzagoon a quarter of it''s level.-


    Once back at the cave the two pokemon push open the boulder and Gaia immediately heads into the nearby woods to hunt while Vulcan and I head inside. I quickly get to work stacking up the sticks in the spot the fire normally is and Vulcan spits out some glowing red embers in a weakened version of the actual move. The wood catches immediately as a result so I nodded happy with the now lively fire. Pulling the bag I never go anywhere without off my back I open it up and remove my wok as well as various nts and roots.-


    Taking my now admittedly dull knife out of the bag I rough chop them all up and toss them in the wok with some of the water I store in the empty full restore container. I add some salt to the water and set the wok next the fire to gently cook the vegetables. I stirred asionally to keep the stuff from burning but once the mixture was cooked halfway through I took it away from the fire to slowly cool until Gaia brought back the meat to go with it.-


    She didn''t disappoint either as she brought back three Pidgey , three Zigzagoon and a Linoone that was probably the leader or parent of the three Zigzagoon. It made no difference to me though since I''d be eating it anyways. I cut up the meat and tossed it into the wok while the bones were quick roasted over the mes before Gaia and Vulcan split them between themselves. I meanwhile tossed the warm semi cooked nts with the meat over the fire in the wok that was quickly heating up. It didn''t take more than five minutes for the food to really get cooking at such high temperatures but I never stopped moving it so nothing stuck or burnt.-


    All of our stomachs grumbled impatiently and Iughed before dividing the food up and waiting for my own to cool. The next few days passed by in a blur as we worked on Vulcans moves to get it to an eptable level. I as I started to remove more and more restrictions from the spars Vulcan rapidly over took Gaia in power and was beginning to put her under serious pressure. Both of their levels shot up thanks to this with Gaia hitting forty five herself three dayster and Vulcan sitting pretty at fifty seven.-


    The signs of Gaia''s evolution were ringly obvious at this point and she merely needed a tiny push in the right direction to evolve. Vulcan still was a bit impulsive but much less than originally after learning the importance of timing and patience in battle. Both of them had learned a couple new moves as well with Gaia learning dark pulse and crunch. Vulcan on the other hand learned crunch , extrasensory andva plume. I woke up on the fourth day to a surprise from the system in the form of a quest.-


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: Your pokemon has reached the threshold for evolution and needs your assistance to take that step.


    Objectives: Evolve your pokemon , Command the opponent in a spar(optional) , dominate the fight(optional)


    Rewards: 2x exp ticket , 1x item ticket(optional) , 1x skill ticket]


    I had already nned on removing all the restrictions on the next spar between Gaia and Vulcan but if I get paid to personally step in and take charge damn right I was gonna. I got up full of energy after getting that notification and hurried my two pokemon to also get up.-


    They were a bit confused about why I was so excited until I exined it to them " I had already nned on having you two go all out in your spar today but now I will instead take charge of Vulcan to hopefully pressure Gaia into evolving." I said with a wide grin and both of their eyes lit up in excitement. Until now I hadn''tmanded either of them in battle against the other so they were both feeling a bit odd about me being the trainer. They understood that I was merely letting them get morefortable around each other first before I did but the point still stood.-


    Gaia was excited about the idea of evolving since contrary to popr belief the process was not in fact a guaranteed thing as some pokemon go their entire lives without the opportunity. As a result all pokemon hope to one day reach their full evolutionary potential with the exception of legendries of course. Vulcan on the other hand was excited to finally get a chance to experience what battle under the reigns of a trainer was like. We all eagerly made our way to the training area that had been destroyed in thest few days.-


    The ground had been cratered and scorched while the sand was more abundant than ever with chunks of ss from the fire type attacks having hit it. Gaia took her normal position while Vulcan took his only today I stood behind Vulcan. I picked up a chunk of ss from the ground "The match starts when this piece of ss hits the ground!" I shouted and both of my pokemon tensed up as I threw the ss as hard as I could up in the air.

 Evolution

    Evolution


    "THUD!" the moment the ssnded I started Vulcan off strong with a double leer to drop Gaia''s defense dramatically. She grit her teeth as this forced her to stop her rock polish and go for an iron defense instead. "Get close , stomp!" Imanded capitalizing on the short time frame between Gaia switching moves. Vulcan dashed forward immediately with full trust in my ability tomand it correctly. Gaia finished her Iron defense and I could see her trying to find a way out of this sticky situation. Her speed was currently a good chunk lower than Vulcan''s and he was already getting within range to use his move after all.-


    I went full bore on pressuring her out the gate in hopes the stress would force her to evolve without the need to get injured. Vulcans paws glowed white as it leapt into the air and came down at Gaia hard. She then did something that left me speechless , Gaia quickly reached down and grabbed a handful of sand before throwing it right in Vulcans face before he crashed into her. This wasn''t the move sand attack at all but t out fighting dirty and it totally surprised me since I hadn''t taught her to do that.-


    Still it paid off as Vulcan was forced to close it''s eyes and look away which let Gaia shift the spot it was going tond to her shoulder instead of her head. "BOOM!" the move struck her loudly and spider web cracks appeared all over her carapace causing her to cry out in pain. "Back away a use leer to clean the sand out of your eyes!" I shouted and Vulcan retreated and did as I instructed. The thing about pokemon move energy is that is starts inside their bodies before being sent out in various ways.-


    Thanks to this using leer on regr sand in a pokemons eyes thatcked move energy sent the sand out of the eyes without missing anything. As an added bonus Gaia also got hit with a defense drop again which forced her to waste time using iron defense again. Pretty much I had forced her back into that desperate position but this time she was damaged as well and we were wary of her ying dirty. "Lava plume while she can''t evade!" Imanded and Vulcan raised it''s head and howled with it''s entire body glowing bright red.-


    The red glow sank into the ground and a momentter super hot magma exploded from all around Vulcan including where Gaia was standing. I admit the "while she can''t move" part of mymand was a phycological trick against Gaia to make her think dodging this move was actually possible. In reality I was aware that only something like protect could save one from this move so long as they were in range. Gaia had canceled her iron defense in order to try and dodge which meant even though it wasn''t supper effective against her it still hurt far more than if she finished her move.-


    She seemed to realize this if the re I got was any indication while her carapace was faintly glowing and steaming from the heat. "Swagger then crunch!" Imanded and Vulcan immediately started to glow white as it snorted in a disdainful manner. I honestly can''t say how this move works but it does for some reason. Gaia immediately grows angry and confused while her form seems to grow slightlyrger from the buff in attack. Vulcan immediately follows up with crunch as ordered which much like bite covers it''s face in dark type energy.-


    Crunch differed from bite however in that the dark type energy was much stronger and covered a wider area as well. In other words it was like an upgraded version of bite that also had the added bonus of having a small possibility to lower the opponents defense stat. Vulcan leapt forward and the giant ck purple energy jaws closed around Gaia''s mid section causing her to cry out in pain. Her eye were quickly losing focus and she was uneasy on her feet meaning she was close to getting knocked out. -


    I didn''t give Vulcan any more orders but I didn''t need to either as Gaia grit her teeth in determination and cried out "LAR!" before a huge spike in energy erupted from her body wrapping her in a huge rainbow colored orb of energy that rested in mid air a few feet above the ground. "At a girl!" I cheered with a wide smile. Even Vulcan seemed to be happy for Gaia though I was unsure weather that was because this meant her power was closer to it''s or not. This transformation was nowhere near as fast as depicted in the games and took nearly a whole hour to finish.-


    I wasn''t surprised that it took so long either since an evolution was just as the name suggested so it taking a bit of time was to be expected. The end of the evolution wasn''t all that grand as the "cocoon" of energy simply turned into kes of light that fell away until the entire thing was gone revealing Gaia''s new form to the world. To my great surprise she wasn''t light purple like shiny Pupitar normally are at all but rather steel grey with light purple stripes like a tiger.-


    Other than that she looked the same as any other Pupitar minus the fact that she was twelve feet tall from top to bottom. Gaia didn''t get the chance to celebrate her evolution however as exhaustion overcame her and she fell to the ground knocked out. I chuckled at that and returned her to her ball since that was the only way she was getting back to the cave. While she was there I checked her status screen and was pleasantly surprised.


    [Pokemon: Larvitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:30


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(A) , Sandstorm(E) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(E) , screech(E) , rock slide(E)scary face(A) , thrash(A) , dark pulse(J) , payback(A) , rock polish(J) , metal w(J) , sand bomb(J) , crunch(N)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:90


    Defense:90


    Sp. Atk:65


    Sp. Def:70


    Speed:50


    Ability: Sand veil(J) , shed skin(N)]


    There was a couple of pretty big changes in her status screen worth going over for rity. The first was of course the change in the shiny variation Gaia had went from in to type two. I actually had to really go digging for this one but eventually found out that shiny variation had well variations.-


    A stage two shiny was one that basically got a drastically different coloration from the standard color swap of shinyism (is that a word? Fuck it! it is now.) Basically it was the cooler looking improved version of the shiny variation. Apparently all variations had the ability to do this if the pokemon exceeded it''s racial norm in some manner through training. Not sure what Gaia exceeded on herself since I am not an expert in pokemon stats but good news is good news. The final big change worth going over was the fact that she actually kept her sand veil ability after evolving instead of swapping to just having the shed skin standard of her species.

 Thoughts of the future

    Thoughts of the future


    I actually had to look this up with the pokenav to understand it but apparently this was one of the greatest benefits of having the royal variation. Royal pokemon not only are muchrger than the normal members of their species with stats to match their size but they also get to keep each of the abilities they unlock via evolution. This means that when Gaia evolves into a Tyranitar she will have sand veil , shed skin and sand stream. Thisbination of abilities was extremely advantageous for her since sand stream summons a sandstorm whenever she enters the battlefield for free without needing her to waste time using the move herself.-


    Add on shed skin that lets her shake off status afflictions fairly easily and she is going to be stupid hard to take down. None of this took into consideration her over twenty foot tall body that was likely to intimidate opponents just to see. All in all I was quite happy with Gaia''s evolution and I even got all three of the rewards from the quest as well. Vulcan had a bit of a gripe about how it needed to move the boulder by itself but other wise was also in a good mood.-


    I let Gaia out of her ball once the entrance was open and she took up a considerable amount of space. Thankfully we had expanded the cave so she still fit just fine and would still be able to move once she woke up. She was perfectly healthy thanks to the evolution healing her but the exhaustion was no joke as between the fatigue from the fight and the energy it took to evolve she was not going to wake up for quite some time.-


    I sat down next the Vulcan in the cave and epted my rewards for the quest eagerly. Reaching into my bag I retrieved the two exp tickets and fell into thought about what I should use them on. I knew that regardless of what I chose I could in fact achieve the exact same result with actual training so it wasn''t a matter of survival or anything like that. All exp tickets did was give me the experience of if I were to train for a certain period of time perfectly. With that in mind I was rather curious what would happen if I used them on the appraise ability.-


    For my skills I could improve them by using them and getting more skilled at them whereas despite using appraise regrly it was still at the novice level of mastery. Ripping the tickets in half I chose the appraise ability as their target and closed my eyes as about two months of experiences using the ability filled my head. Oddly I couldn''t remember what the appraisals actually said for any of those uses. That said I did learn what I had been doing wrong this entire time and felt like an idiot as a result.-


    See the correct use of the ability was not to look for an overarching set of information about the target like I have been but rather to look for a specific piece of information. For example if I used appraise the way I have been on Vulcan I get a general set of information but the correct way to use appraise was to look for a specific thing such as it''s age or name. The answer to that first one was six months , twelve days , four hours and thirty seven minutes by the way. Yeah it stung quite a bit to think about the sheer amount of useful information I missed by not using the ability correctly.-


    For example I wanted to know the optimal diet for Vulcan and using appraise I learned it too. The ability was stupid useful now that I knew how to properly use it. The answer by the way about Vulcans diet was not surprisingly one of high protein with a berry booster. Gaia on the other hand simply had no diet at all because apparently her current evolutionary form did not require nutrients. The reason for this was because of therge amount they ate as Larvitars being passively stored for exactly this evolutionary point.-


    Anyways after gettingfortable with the information I got by using the exp tickets I moved on to the two item tickets. Thoseted me a great ball and a grade 4 hard stone which wasn''t great but also weren''t terrible either so I was satisfied with them. Finally though was the skill ticket and I was really praying hard to RNGESUS for something good here. I wasn''t ungrateful for the skills I had or anything as they all had their uses but my situation really made some of them pointless at the moment.-


    RNGESUS did not smile upon me this day however as what I drew was farming , yes the skill to nt , tend , judge ripeness and harvest crops. This skill was once again one of those ones that were super useful in the right situation but for my current one it was pointless. I will not be remaining in this cave for very much longer , perhaps a week or two at most before rejoining civilization was my n. I also didn''t have the money it would take to write all my information on the skill down and start a farm with someone else as my farmer with me just pulling in profit.-


    With a sigh I could only choose to ignore the new skill for now and begin my aura meditation with Vulcan to pass the time. An interesting thing I found out was that If both Vulcan and I train aura together it creates a sort of resonance between us because of our bond that doubles both of our progress with the skill. So far I hadn''t gotten much benefit from it since the skill was a seriously slow burning one but progress was progress so I was happy either way.-


    At the rate Vulcan was mastering each of it''s moves I imagined that there was no reason for us to stay here any longer once Gaia gets used to her new body. I was both nervous and excited about the prospect of returning to civilization. I was nervous because despite how unique some pokemon characters were in appearance I didn''t see a single one that looked like a savage like me. For sure I was going to need to get a new pair of shorts since my current ones were pretty much at the end of their life.-


    My hair was also wild and fairly long at about two or three inches long and not well maintained so it was extremely messy. I was excited though because this worlds civilization is far different than the one on earth and I was eager to fully experience it for myself. For example pretty much every facet of life here was built with pokemon in mind and as such was both more advanced as well as less advanced than earth in terms of technology. Pokemon were the ultimate rulers of the world despite what some people may think as they were stronger , faster and more numerous than humans by a wide margin.

 Destructive potential

    Destructive potential


    I meditated with Vulcan for the next six hours roughly before Gaia started to stir from her slumber. Pupitar were a bit strange in how they moved about as they had a series of vents along the sides of their body that they use to pull in and expelpressed air to move about. Much like you''d expect this meant that when Gaia started to wake up and tried to move the air she shot out kicked up all the sand and dust in the cave. *cough! cough!* "God damn it all!" I cursed loudly while shielding my eyes to keep the flying dust and sand away.-


    Soon though the sand and dust was totally gone from the cave and I could actually take a look at Gaia who was awake. When I opened my eyes I didn''t know whether tough or cry as Gaia had somehow wedged herself at an angle at the back of the cave and was panicking. I knew her unfamiliarity with her new form would be rough after she woke up but this was both funny and sad to watch. "Vulcan go help her get unstuck." I said and the legendary snorted but stood up to do as I said.-


    It was not gentle at all when it helped Gaia though as it grabbed her shell with it''s paw and yanked , hard. Gaia popped out from the spot she was wedged and mmed into the other side of the cave which made my eye twitch just a little. Sure she wasn''t stuck anymore but that was unnecessarily aggressive on Vulcans part. Gaia just red at the legendary and looked like she wanted to retaliate but chose not to. I had expressly forbidden the use of moves in or around the cave since that was a fast way to turn me into a past tense.-


    Since I definitely couldn''t run away fast enough in an enclosed area like this that rule was very important. The look Gaia was giving Vulcan though told me that she definitely nned to get it back for this though and I couldn''t really me her. "Oi! Listen here you! We are a team and treating your teammates like that is a good way to find yourself in a bad positionter , I expected better from you." I said using the most effective punishment I knew of for prideful shits like Vulcan , disappointment.-


    It worked too as Vulcan looked thoroughly dispirited after I chastised it and had it''s head lowed in shame. The thing about an inted sense of pride was that if you hit it with a fact pointing out a w then that pride will shrink by various degrees based on the individual in question. In Vulcan''s case it was prideful because it simply didn''t know any other way to be but was also very much seeking approval from myself. Despite how powerful Vulcan was it was in fact a very young individual and as such was very much like a child in how it thought and acted.-


    So my idea for training away it''s arrogance was simply to treat it how one would treat a disobedient child , with stern parenting. I couldn''t spank it either since that would literally hurt me more than it so instead I chose the other route , ignoring it. Children who did something wrong hated being ignored as it just made their guilt and shame eat away at them. "How are you doing Gaia? Any problems you can feel?" I asked and Gaia hummed a bit in answer.-


    "None is good , now you should have an instinctual understanding about how to move. Slowly use that to try and sit up." I said coaching her to get a hand on her new method of movement. Compressed air sted out of the vents on her direct left and right sides causing her to float off the ground about a foot whilepletely t on her back. Gaia then started sending air from the vents at the top of her shell which tipped her forward. Once upright she stopped sending out air from all those vents and sent it out of the vents at the bottom of her shell instead letting her float above the ground.-


    I gave her a thumbs up "Good work girl! Now slowly float forward so we can get you outside. We need space to let you stretch your proverbial legs as it were." I said encouragingly and she had a determined look as she slowly sent out small burst of air out of specific vents to push her forward while also using the vents pointed in the opposite direction to keep herself from face nting. She failed a few times and had to sit up again but she eventually managed to get out of the cave.-


    The sun was already almost all the way down but Gaia had night vision so it didn''t matter to her one way or the other. Once she got clear of the cave Gaia immediately started sting her vents hard to basically elerate as much as possible. This forced her to quickly get a handle of her new form of movement or risk crashing constantly. And oh did she ever , the mountain , the ground , trees nothing was safe from her hard and destructive facenting. I could totally see how people might think her species could destroy mountains with the sheer destruction she left per facent.-


    If trained enough I imagine there is in fact a good possibility that a Tyranitar could actually rearrange a map by going all out. The reason for this is because while a pokemons stats will rise as it trains and masters it''s moves the toughness of the surroundings remains at the same level it has always been. The worst part though is that humans have found out exactly what level of training is required to be strong enough to tten mountains and it''s not champion level.-


    I looked it up on the pokenav and the answer was a mere ace level of training is required to be capable of changing maps albeit barely. In terms of gym badges that is to say someone with six of them would most likely reach this point. At this very moment Gaia was roughly at the four badge level in terms of sheer power. With that said she wasn''t capable of knocking down the mountain or clearing the forest at the moment but she certainly had the potential to do so. Gaia only took an hour or so of constantly crashing to lesson the amount of it she did which was good progress in my opinion.-


    Her evolution had made Gaia stupidly hard so even after this hour of crashing she didn''t have a scratch on her. The thing that irritated me the most though was that she figured out how to get really high into the sky using her vents. See the way Pupitars air vents worked was that they had two incrediblyrge and powerful lungs that were connected but also functioned in two different capacities. The first drew in air through the vents not in use andpressed it before passing it to the second lung that then released it through whichever vent was needed. So if the first lung filled up with air and the second lung did the same before all that air was released at once then the distance into the air the Pupitar went doubled , Gaia figured that out.

 Leaving the wilderness

    Leaving the wilderness


    Let me tell you seeing a six hundred pound twelve foot tall rock monster go flying sixty feet into the air and thene crashing down is fucking terrifying. Gaia thought it was the best thing ever though and the way she kept staring at the moon as she did it made me think that she was having some crazy idea about reaching the damn thing. "Could you please focus on figuring out how to function without killing someone first!" I shouted at her after she crashed into the ground the fifth time in a row.-


    See while getting up in the sky was easy for her , staying up there was considerably less so. To quote Newton "An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless an outside force is applied". In this case Gaia fell faster than she could refill her lungs and as a result had no force to stop and reverse her fall. I had this sneaking suspicion though that if she did this enough times she may actually manage to figure out how to actually fly , which was a terrifying idea. Can you even imagine a boulder shooting through the sky? It''s fucking scary.-


    Gaia looked entirely unrepentant at her attempts at reaching the moon but at least she started focusing on adjusting to her body again. Vulcan looked at her like she was mental the entire time she flew through the air and seemed to no longer feel bad for getting ignored. This was good because it meant it had left the guilt phase and entered the understanding one , fast learner this one. Seeing that I had hope of actually setting Vulcan straight attitude wise I sat at the entrance of the cave and watched Gaia work out how to move.-


    I checked her level periodically and wasn''t surprised to see it slowly going back up to where it was before she evolved. By the time she called it a night at about two am she had mastered her new method of movement at the low low cost of about two football fields worth of area absolutely demolished in all directions save the cave. A worthy price to pay in my opinion but then again I might not be an unbiased source. I finally got some sleep after that in my new favorite spot on Vulcan''s back just under it''s flowing mane.-


    Things went fairly smoothly after that as we all woke up nice and early before spending the day honing both Vulcan and Gaia''s moves and abilities. By the way shed skin was horribly broken in my opinion as the few times Vulcan got off a burn status on Gaia she would just shiver off a thinyer of energy and be good to go. Interestingly unlike sand veil , shed skin wasn''t a passive ability but rather an active one that required Gaia to activate it which was different from the games but made perfect sense.-


    Both Gaia''s abilities were fairly easy to train since they only required her to get good at using them while Vulcan''s inner focus ability was a pain in the ass to try and train. See unlike in the game where it would just passively allow a pokemon to avoid flinching it had a slightly different use in reality. Flinching is a reaction to pain or fear in reality so what the ability actually did was make it easier to ignore these types of things. To put it bluntly this ability was practically hand made for masochist and as a result needed fear and pain to train.-


    To aplish this I basically just had Vulcan and Gaia fight without any moves at all save rock polish on Gaia''s part to fix her current issue with speed. Other than that the only thing worth mentioning was that Vulcan now had a custom move of it''s own just like Gaia had sand bomb. This new move was frankly broken as it was simr to mud sport in that it weakens the power of a specific type. It was called magma coat and what it did was turn the floor literally intova that cooled on top but stayed hot underneath.-


    This made it so that when it first was used the opponent had a chance of being burned and after it hardened at the top it greatly reduced the power of grass type moves until it was dispelled or the energy wore off. Not going to lie this move had fantastic synergy with Gaia who had a major weakness to grass type moves. If it wasn''t clear this move was a sort of extension from the moveva plume that I suggested to Vulcan since in my opinionva moves were shamefully under utilized.-


    It fuckingva of all things and yet every game only had that one move utilize it at all which I was very offended by. Vulcan was also offended when I told it this fact and wanted to fix this grave mistake personally. Gaia also had a second custom move that I found absolutely hysterical because of what it did. See the move was called stone grasp and what it did was create a giant hand out of rock that crushed whatever it was holding. It was funny because when you first looked at Gaia who has no arms or legs your first thought is definitely not "I should avoid letting that thing grab me".-


    As a result when a huge aggressive stone hand wraps around you and squeezes you hard enough to turn you into a smoothie out of nowhere the expression you would likely make is hrious. Why do I know this you may be asking? Well because the face Vulcan made after Gaia finally pulled it off had me dying ofughter. It was this picture worthy mix of shock , fear and confusion that left it with a hrious expression. After about a week of training we were finally ready to leave the forest in my opinion.-


    [Pokemon: Pupitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:50


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(A) , Sandstorm(E) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(E) , screech(E) , rock slide(E) , scary face(A) , thrash(A) , dark pulse(A) , payback(A) , rock polish(E) , metal w(A) , sand bomb(A) , crunch(J) , stone grasp(N)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:93


    Defense:95


    Sp. Atk:70


    Sp. Def:70


    Speed:60


    Ability: Sand veil(J) , shed skin(J)]


    [Pokemon species: Entei


    LEVEL:60


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(E) , Ember(A) , roar(A) , fire spin(A) , Stomp(E) , methrower(E) , sunny day(E) , crunch(E) , extrasensory(A) ,va plume(E) , magma coat(J)


    Variations: none


    Attack:140


    Defense:100


    Sp. Atk:115


    Sp. Def:93


    Speed:110


    Ability: Inner focus(J)]


    Each of them got some impressive upgrades all things considered and could definitely hold their own in a fight. Since I now had the power to not be a walking target I dered that we were ready to leave this small ce and truly embrace the vast world. I packed all of my stuff in my bag and they pushed the boulder in front of the cave for the final time early in the morning as we began our journey into the unknown.

 Professor Birch

    Professor Birch


    It felt strange to me to know that I was willingly trading away what I have grown used to for a wide and mysterious world. Vulcan and Gaia seemed eager to truly experience what this world had to offer them though. The forest also seemed far more lively than normal as we passed through it as the various types of pokemon that had gotten used to our presence and inclusion into the food chain watched us pass by peacefully as if they were seeing us off. This included one rather old and gnarled Sentret that nodded at us from a stump as we continued our trip.-


    After a couple of hours of travel we officially left all that I have known since arriving in this world behind as we reached a disused but visible footpath. It was overgrown but still present none the less. "Let''s follow this path to see if it leads us to an actual road." I suggested and both of my pokemon agreed since we didn''t really have any set way we wanted to travel. The foot path was a winding and uneven thing that traveled roughly in the direction of Littleroot vige.-


    A few of the local pokemon popped out to take a look at who was treading the path so loudly but after seeing us they immediately noped out of eyesight. I hadn''t gone hunting with either Vulcan or Gaia so I was quite loud when I walked. Ironically enough this was precisely how I met professor Birch as well. We were traveling down the overgrown path when Vulcan growled and charged into the underbrush suddenly. "AAAWWW!?" a panicked scream rang out from that area which drew both mine and Gaia''s attention so we also rushed into the underbrush after Vulcan. There pinned under Vulcan''s right paw was a brown haired man wearing a pair of shorts as well as a whiteb coat.-


    The man had brown eyes and a wide face with a short beard that matched his portly frame perfectly , he wasn''t fat or anything just very wide as he had a barrel chest and wide shoulders that sat on his fairly short frame. The man had a wide eyed expression as he stared up at Vulcan in both awe and excitement , but there wasn''t a drop of fear anywhere on his features. ''I can see why he got attacked by that Poochyena in the game.'' I thought with a chuckled.-


    Pokemon will usually give ample warning before they attack in my experience even when they are hunting so if you simply leave the area after hearing them you would be fine , this man probably ignored that warning. "Let him up Vulcan." I spoke and the legendary obeyed without hesitation. "Fascinating! It listened to you without any hesitation , you mustmand a great deal of respect from it if nothing else." Birch said while standing up and dusting himself off since Vulcans pinning him had smeared dirt on his legs and back.-


    The professor looked me over for a moment after that but looked confused "You don''t match the description of anyone on the protection list , Why?" he asked with a frown. "I didn''t have either of these two until about three and a half months ago when I met Gaia here. Vulcan is a much more recent addition at about three weeks or so." I exined with a smile. Birches eyes brightened as he figured out what I was talking about. "HAHAHA! Goodness you have quite the luck friend! If you don''t mind me asking what is going on with your clothes?" He asked curiously with a smile.-


    I had luckily nned for this question and thus had an answer already prepared. "I got teleported to a mountain over that way several months ago before I could even catch a single pokemon and this is all that''s left of my clothes. I had to add a few scraps I hadying around to cover the important stuff you see." I said semi honestly since that story is mostly true. "That''s simply terrible! I assume this extraordinary Pupitar is your starter from the sound of things then?" He asked and I faked difort at the topic.-


    "No need to worry , I can assure you that you aren''t in trouble at all! It''s rare but not unheard of for folks to find pseudo legendries by themselves in the wild." he reassured. "My name is professor Birch by the way , nice to meet you!" he said holding out his hand with a smile. I took the extended hand firmly "Alexander Drake , I go by Alex though." I said returning the smile. I tried to be gentle when I shook his hand but apparently squeezed too hard as Birch grimaced in pain prompting me to release him and apologize.-


    "Sorry about that. I underestimated my own strength it seems." I say honestly. Birch shakes his hand with a whistle "I''ll be alright , but goodness you have quite the grip , it was like a Machamp had gotten ahold of me!" he joked andughed it off. I scratched the back of my head with an awkward smile "I wasn''t this in shape before I got teleported over to the mountain so I may have trouble adjusting to normal levels of strength." I said honestly. "Had to adapt to your environment to survive huh? Yeah the wilderness is no ce for the weak in mind or body." he said with an understanding look.-


    "Tell you what Alex , why don''t you follow me back to my vige a couple miles away and we''ll see about getting you some proper clothes and food?" Birch offered kindly. I looked at my two pokemon and he hurriedly spoke again "They are of course wee as well since they are with you , in fact I have a small area they can stay while we get you situated." He said and I rxed. I had been a bit worried that my two pokemon would need to be put away but that wasn''t the case which I was d about.-


    We started following birch after that and chatted along the way since it was a couple hour long walk. "So where are you from originally Alex?" Birch asked as we started walking. "No idea honestly , the psychic type that teleported me messed with my memories while it was at it so I remember very little about my origins other than that I was an orphan. I had also apparently only done the bare minimum to get legal with my I.D so that is no help at all." I lied easily.-


    Birch sighed "It''s not unheard of for some particrly mean psychics to do things like that from time to time. Normally a league certified psychic would try to retrieve the memories but in your case too much time has passed so they are gone for good I''m afraid." he said sadly and I acted disappointed but understanding. I worked in retail before I died so acting came second nature to me at this point. "Assuming you aren''t aware already we are currently in the Hoenn region , at the south western part specifically." Birch exined and I nodded.

 May Birch

    May Birch


    "I thought so at first before I managed to get my hands on a pokenav that a Pidgey had been messing with by the stream near my cave and confirmed it personally." I said while digging out the device that I had carefully dirtied and scratched up to make it look like a pokemon had gotten ahold of it. I had thoroughly prepared for what I may face when rejoining civilization again. Birch looked at the device and nodded in understanding. "Probably fell off one of the shipping trucks and got grabbed by the curious pokemon." he said then added with a chuckle "I''ve found at least three while out in the field just like it."-


    "I didn''t try to use the rescue feature when I found out how close I was to a vige since I figured I could make it with these two on foot." I said answering a question he hadn''t even asked yet. Birch chuckled and nced at both Gaia and Vulcan traveling at either of our sides. "I doubt anything in this area is anywhere strong enough to challenge you. That reminds me for whatever reason but how''d youe across that one by the way?" he asked while pointing towards Vulcan with his thumb.-


    "Last I heard it was born up near MT. Chimney a couple months ago before vanishing from the local rangers surveince." Birch said honestly. I didn''t feel the need to lie about that and exined that a much older and stronger Entei had brought Vulcan to me where Gaia and I beat it in a battle and it joined us ever since. "To be honest we would have had a much harder time had it not been for the fact that Vulcancked experience and we held a type advantage." I finished the story honestly.-


    Birchughed and patted me on the shoulder "Luck is a part of strength too you know and it all worked out in the end anyways right?" he said cheerfully. "I suppose it did. What about you? why are you traipsing through the underbrush and without a pokemon no less?" I asked curiously. Now it was his turn to scratch his head awkwardly "To be honest I totally forgot to bring a pokemon with me since this part of my job normally doesn''t require one."-


    "That ties into why I was out here too , see the regional start of the gym season ising up soon and as the regions professor I am expected to have a set of royal starters on hand in case I find any exceptional newers. I was actually on my way over to the Treecko tribe near MT. grey to grab one." Birch exined honestly. I was confused by this however since despite living near that tribe I hadn''t seen a single variant at all , not even a shiny. "There are no royal Treecko''s at Mt. grey though since I''ve seen that whole tribe regrly since I got there months ago." I said honestly.-


    "No no no , I''m not talking about a royal variant when I say royal pokemon or at least not this time. Royal pokemon refers to the three iconic species that exist in each region that can''t be found naturally anywhere else. For Hoenn it is Treecko , Torchic and Mudkip listed as the royal species whereas for Kanto it''s Charmander , Squirtle and Bulbasaur. Given your own starter I can understand your confusion over the lingo." Birch exined helpfully. I nodded in understanding ''I had wondered why each region in the games had those be impossible to get but that makes sense.'' I thought as we walked.-


    "I take it that this means you already have the other two species all set and ready to go then?" I asked and Birch nodded. "If you are only going to get a Treecko from that tribe I happen to know a good one that may be a sort of hidden test for whoever chooses it." I said with a tempting smirk. Birch raised and eyebrow intrigued "Oh? It must be a truly special member of it''s tribe to catch someone like yours interest. I''m all ears." Birch said casually.-


    "It''s the runt of the bunch , it''s got a birthmark on it''s left arm that''s hard to miss. Don''t let it''s size fool you though , out of that whole tribe it alone was the only one willing to strive for strength. It didn''t think I noticed but when I''d train these two it would listen in from nearby and secretly use what I said for itself." I said with a smile as Birches eyes lit up. "That does indeed sound like a fine pokemon and test for whoever gets it. Thank you for the tip , I may have passed up that pokemon for being the runt otherwise." Birch said gratefully.-


    I waved off his thanks though "It''s the least I could do with the help you are offering me for free." I said before holding my hand out in front of him defensively stopping him as Vulcan moved in front of us suddenly. The bushes shook for a moment before a woman with long brown hair tied up in a red bandana and short tight ck bike shorts with a red wind braker jacket on stepped out. She appeared to be about my age at twentyish and was quite athletic from what I could tell.-


    She froze when she came face to face with Vulcan that was staring her down not more than five feet away from her. "Alex this is my daughter May , May this is Alex and his pokemon Vulcan the Entei and Gaia the Pupitar." Birch said cheerfully once he saw who it was. Hearing his voice May snapped out of her fright induced stiffness and finally got to take in the full picture. A legendary , a double variant pseudo legendary and a man that towered over her father and was covered in lean but well defined bands of muscle as well as barely any clothes at all.-


    I could practically see the headache forming in her head as her eyebrows furrowed and her shoulders dropped as she sighed before rubbing her forehead. "Let me get this straight. First you head out into the wilderness without a pokemon but somewhere along the way you pick up a savage man with not one but two very dangerous pokemon?" she asked with a very frustrated tone. "Well that''s just rude , Gaia wouldn''t hurt a fly." I say with a smirk as May seems to short circuit from the ridiculousment.-


    She just got this nk "no ones home" look on her face that made meugh. "May.EXE has stopped working it seems huh professor?" I ask jokingly and the manughs before Mays face turns crimson from embarrassment. "You!" she hisses angrily and I walk right in front of her and stare down at her with a smirk "Me what?" I asked teasingly but get no reply as she seems much more timid now that I was towering over her at my full height of six four to her five eight.

 Civilization

    Civilization


    I was originally six three after I got my improved body v1 ability awhile ago but had grown an extra inch since then , likely because this height was better than my previous one. May blushed as she couldn''t help looking over the grooves of my muscles since they were right in front of her. Her mouth opened and closed like she wanted to retort to my teasing but her mind simply couldn''t form the words. "You know I''m still here right?" Birch spoke up questioningly. I chuckled as I walked back over to him "You heard her , I''m a savage man. So why not y the part?" I asked rhetorically.-


    He shrugged "I admit she brought that on herself but don''t go getting any funny ideas about her , I''m too young to be a grandpa." he said half jokingly half seriously. I smiled "I''ll keep that in mind but in the end the matter rest in her hands but I can promise not to make the first move." I said honestly. I didn''t like to take the initiative in such matters even before I came here since if I failed it made things awkward.-


    Instead I simply waited for the women themselves to show an interest before ying the game. More than a few times the women were simply looking for a one night stand and I as a healthy straight man was more than happy to oblige. In this particr case though I honestly thought I''d never hook up with May since she was clearly both gorgeous and responsible and as such could easily find a decent boyfriend rather than a loose individual like me. Birch nodded happily at my promise but May stomped her foot angrily. I could understand why too , see women were usually vain creatures that wanted to feel desired and I had basically just said I didn''t care either way.-


    I may as well have insulted her in her mind , pun intended. ''Feel as mad as you want , you started it when you called me a savage.'' I thought with a smirk as I went back to chatting with Birch and totally ignored her presence. Vulcan and Gaia found it amusing how May kept trying to show off as we continued our journey but I brushed off her attempts easily. She was clearly a prideful and organized individual so she was stuck on my indifference much to her father''s dismay.-


    "That reminds me for whatever reason but do either of you even have a trained pokemon? I mean actually trained not the one you only use as a deterrent?" I asked after seeing the frankly terrible level of the pokemon May had brought that Birch had forgotten behind at theb. It was a level twelve Zigzagoon that clearly had no actual training since it trembled in fear the moment Birch released it for me to see. No decently trained pokemon would have such a reaction at merely being released.-


    Both of them looked awkward when I asked that "I am merely a researcher so I never needed one and May here is waiting for the me to get a Treecko for her so she can start her own journey to help me by filling the pokedex." Birch said while scratching the back of his head awkwardly. I rubbed my forehead in exasperation "Her I can understand but as a researcher you DEFINITELY need apetent pokemon to protect you if you go out into the field." I say sternly and he doesn''t argue because he obviously knows I''m right.-


    "How about I stick around for a couple of weeks since you''ll need a while to get me all set up with the league. During that time I''ll train that Zigzagoon into a decent protector as payment for your help. Sound good?" I offer helpfully. Both May and her father were surprised to hear the offer but gained a simr gleam in their eyes that told me they would definitely agree. Even before Birch spoke to confirm that however the system preempted him entirely by issuing a new quest. "So long as you let us watch you train it you have a deal!" Birch said excitedly and May nodded in eager agreement with her father.-


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have noticed the horrible power of Professor Birches guardian pokemon and offered to whip it into shape! So put your money where your mouth is!


    Objectives: Train the Zigzagoon to an eptable power(Timeframe:2 weeks) , have it reach level 25(optional) , get it to evolve(optional)


    Rewards: 5x random item ticket , 3x exp ticket(optional) , 1x pokemon ticket


    Failure penalty: 5000 poke , 3x random items ]


    I read the details of the quest and was surprised to see the fact that this particr quest had a penalty attached to it should I fail toplete the main objective. This didn''t put off the quest in my mind but rather made me even more eager to do it as the system was giving me an incentive to do my best. "Deal!" I say with a wide smile and held out my hand to shake on it and Birch takes it without hesitation and then remembers the first handshake he got from me. I was much more gentle this time however so he rxed once he sees I''m not going to crush his hand.-


    As if on cue we step out of the underbrush at that moment and onto a well traveled dirt road that goes straight to a small vige in the distance. "Ah home sweet home~ You can see my vige just up ahead Alex." Birch says with a happy look. From what I can see the buildings were a strange mix of traditional and high tech as most of them looked to be made with wood and stone yet had wires and antennas along their sides while they also had machines I couldn''t recognize attached to them.-


    There was about twelve buildings in total in the entire vige with all of them save two looking roughly the same. One of those buildings that was different however was a two story tall and extra wide rectangr building with much more wires attached to it as well as more machines. To the side of that building there was an overgrown area of a few acres that was fenced in with a sign on the fence that read {Professor Birches pokemon pasture}. I pointed it out "I take it that must be yourb." I said casually and Birch nodded.-


    "The league wanted to build me a whole new building that was top of the line like those gyms but I told them ''I don''t need a new building , I need new equipment!'' So that''s what they gave me instead." the man said with a proud smile. "It was a good choice since I think one of those metal buildings would totally ruin the pleasant rural look the vige has." I said honestly. "Finally someone else gets it! I keep trying to exin that to my colleagues but they justugh it off!" Birchined without dropping his smile. The second building was a slightly different than normal building that had a sign hanging outside the doorbeled {Littleroot general store} and a big warehouse connected to it''s backside.

 Warm reception

    Warm reception


    I almost tripped when a small girl that looked no older than five ran out of the vige with an excited squeal. "FLUFFY!" the child screamed and tackle hugged Vulcan eagerly which made the legendary VERY ufortable. The look it gave me silently screamed "save me!" but i was far to busyughing my ass off with Gaia. Even Birch and May looked like they were having trouble holding it together. Vulcan had no idea what to do with the small child that had already climbed onto it''s back and was happily rolling in it''s long flowing mane.-


    "Look at that Vulcan we just got here and you are already making friends , good for you." I tease and get a positively wrathful re in return that promised retribution. Apparently the girls mother had heard her squeals ande to investigate only to freeze for a moment when she saw our group. To her credit however she recovered pretty fast and rushed over to free Vulcan from her daughters grasp. "I''m so sorry for her behavior! She''s usually so well behaved , I don''t know what came over her!" the woman apologized fearfully with a very worried expression.-


    I merelyughed "It''s no problem at all , Vulcan needs to learn how to y nice anyways so your daughter is more than wee toe bother him as she pleases for the next couple weeks we stick around." I said earning a betrayed look from the legendary in question while Gaia is rumbling loudly as she fell into a fit ofughter. The woman smiles and rxes hearing this "I see , thank you in advance for taking care of Ema." she says while releasing the squirming child in her arms that wastes no time at all climbing Vulcan again.-


    "A bit dyed but wee to Littleroot Mister ?" she starts but awkwardly realized that I hadn''t introduced myself yet. "Alexander drake , but I go by Alex" I say with a smile. "Mister Alex then wee to the vige! I am Emily Vine , but little May over there calls me aunty V." Emily says with a friendly smile. She was an older woman with a few wrinkles starting to appear but otherwise was fairly attractive. On her finger was a wedding ring however that told me she was off the market and thus I spoke in a friendly but neutral manner.-


    I don''t get anywhere near married women anymore in an intimate fashion after I slept with one who said she was recently divorced and the still very much married husband tried to shoot me. If a woman is wearing a ring or has a ring tan line on her finger I avoid getting tangled up with them even a little. Might seem a little paranoid but as the expression goes "once bitten twice shy" and almost dying from an angry husband once was plenty for me thanks. "By the way that pasture over there is where your pokemon can stay while you are here." Birch said pointing at the overgrown fenced in area.-


    "You two go ahead and head over there to get it cleared out of all those weeds while I get my stuff settled." I told both of my pokemon and they both let me know they understood the assignment and headed over that way while Emily headed back to whatever she was doing originally. Vulcan still looked horribly ufortable as it walked away but was at least being very careful not to throw off the little girl on it''s back. After that Birch lead me over to the general store while May also apparently chose to continue tagging along despite us being in the vige.-


    "Lee has most everyday items you could need from simple clothes to food and if he doesn''t then let him know and he''ll order it from his contacts for you." Birch said before opening the sliding door of the shop. Surprisingly the store wasn''t overly filled with merchandise but rather had small sections of every product with the one in the greatest supply being the food. There was even a section that had a refrigerator with various berries , vegetables and meats. -


    The owner , Lee was a middle aged man with short blonde hair and a thick beard that was reading a book from behind the counter. A bell rang when the store''s door opened and Lee looked up from his book and immediately locked his blue eyes onto me with a raised eyebrow. "Hey Lee , I found Alex here on my way over to the Mt. Grey earlier. He got on a psychics bad side and ended up teleported over there and has been surviving for a few months and needs some new clothes as well as shampoo and what not." Birch said with a smile.-


    Lee whistled in appreciation "Thought you looked like a tough customer but hadn''t expected a story like that." he said honestly. "It wasn''t all bad luck , I got some pretty good pokemon out of it and a good amount of muscle too." I say with a chuckle. "I can see that , Don''t know if I have any clothes your size but I can get you set for the rest at no charge after whatcha been through." Lee said in a friendly manner. "I don''t need much for clothes , just a pair of decent shorts will do. I''ve gotten used to not using anything after all." I said with a shrug.-


    Lee nods "I understand , that makes things much easier for me as I was worried about your feet and chest as you are a bit bigger than normal but a pair of shorts is easy since you can just use that expert belt to hold them up if they are a bit loose." he said and gets up the go grab the stuff. "Once you get this stuff settled we''ll head over to my house so you can get cleaned up , I bet you miss a warm shower am I right?" Birch asked with a chuckle and I nod.-


    "Oh yeah , till now I''ve been using a cier run off stream from the mountain to keep mostly clean , but there''s only so much you can do without soap." I said honestly. "Heavens! That must have been dreadfully cold. You are lucky you didn''t get sick!" Birch eximed in horror. "It actually wasn''t that cold by the time it reached where I was from the mountain. My guess is that the sun warmed it up a bunch as it moved down the rocks." I said with a shrug.-


    May spoke up at this point "Did you stay near a fire a lot? You smell like smoke and pine pretty strongly." she asked curiously while exining the reason for the question. I smiled and nodded "Yeah I had a fire going all the time in the cave I lived in and the smell probably stuck to me." I answered with a shrug. Lee came back at this point and handed me a couple pairs of shorts along with a toothbrush , self cleaning products and a belt attachment for holstering pokeballs. "You can go to the bathroom to change and see if the shorts fit alright." he said while pointing to the marked door at the back of the shop.

 Warm reception(2)

    Warm reception(2)


    I thanked Lee and took one of the pairs of shorts that were of the khaki cargo variety and walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind me. Taking off the expert belt I quickly dropped the tattered and horribly damaged remnant shorts I was wearing leaving me totally naked. I originally wore boxers under my pants but those had literally fallen apart within two weeks of me getting to this world so I was fairly used to goingmando at this point. I sighed in relief once the restricting piece of clothing was removed and my dick wasn''t getting pressed tightly against me.-


    While I dealt with the difort easily it didn''t mean that I wanted to all the time. After that I stepped into the pair of shorts that was slightly too big for me but that was fine since after I tightened the expert belt I was good to go. Walking out of the bathroom Birch gave me a thumbs up to let me know it worked for me. "You can toss that old thing into the bin over there." Lee said pointing at a blue trash can in the corner.-


    I tossed the now useless piece of cloth into it without hesitation while grabbing the pokeball holster and hooking it up to my expert belt on my right hip. I then fished out both Gaia and Vulcans balls from my bag and stuck them to the holster. Birch looked at the ck and white ball that belonged to Gaia curiously once he saw it. "Where''d you get that ball from Alex?" he asked clearly interested in it. "I bought it from a street vender since it looked cool and I wanted my starter to have a nice ball." I lied with a shrug.-


    "A pity , I''ve never quite seen it''s like before and was curious how it was made." he said not really all that upset. "If I ever figure it out you''ll be the first to know." I promised with a smile. He nodded and dropped the topic satisfied with how it went. "Well lets get you back to my house so I can introduce you to my wife and let you take a nice warm bath." Birch said with a wide smile. "Thanks for the help Lee , you know where to find us if you need anything!" therge man shouted over his shoulder as we left the store and Lee just threw us a smile and a thumbs up.-


    Birches house was much the same as the rest in the vige with wood and brick construction and a small flower bed in front of it. I had to duck down a good bit to walk through the door however as the building was clearly designed with much shorter people in mind. The professors wife was currently in the kitchen chopping vegetables in preparation for dinner most likely when we walked in. "Lily we''re back and we have a guest!" Birch said loudly and the brown haired woman turned to look at us but paused for the briefest moment when she saw me.-


    "Wee back! And wee to Littleroot stranger!" she said with a warm smile. Birch chipped in at that point and exined my situation to his wife after I introduced myself. "Oh you poor thing! Please feel free to get cleaned up in the bath while I get the couch set up for you." she saidpassionately. I shook my head at that though "There''s no need I''ll sleep out in the pasture with my pokemon like i''m used to , but thank you for the offer." I said appreciatively.-


    The entire family was surprised by this answer but Birch justughed "No wonder your pokemon respect you so much , you must do everything together right?" He asked with a smile and I nodded seriously. "After I get done cleaned up please allow me to treat you all to a meal , not to brag but I''m a pretty good cook if I do say so myself." I offered and they were all taken back by that. "I was actually prepping the vegetables so that works out just wonderfully thank you!" Lily says with a kind smile.-


    "May why don''t you help your mother prep the vegetables while I show Alex how to use the bath?" Birch asked and May agreed and the two women went to the kitchen. Birch then led me through his house to a door past the stairs that went upstairs that he turned the knob to and opened. The bathroom was a pretty average ce with a stone sink and metal toilet andrge stic looking tub. "Just turn the red one for hot water and the blue one for cold and the towels are on this stand right here." He said showing me what he was talking about.-


    He left after that and I turned on the hot water and filled the tub without even touching the cold knob. I spent the next twenty minutes getting rid of the built up filth on me using copious amounts of soap and shampoo before finishing with conditioner. I got dried off and ced the towel I used in the part of of the shelfbeled {used towels} before getting dressed. Now despite still looking like a savage I was a clean at the very least.-


    The women had finished up the prep work with the vegetables and the whole family was rxing in the living room chatting about the events of the day. "...And then this Enteies charging through the bushes and pins me to the ground after a mighty struggle!" Birch was saying while showing off. "He actually screamed like a girl when Vulcan got ahold of him." I spoke up and Birch looked betrayed while the two womenughed. "That sounds more like my husband than what he said" Lily said with a smile. "He wasn''t afraid for very long to be fair as after he screamed Gaia and I rushed into the underbrush and saw him with a look of excitement instead of panic or fear." I said with a chuckle.-


    "How could I not be excited? That was a legendary of all things , any researcher worth anything would be dying to study such a thing from up close!" Birch said defensively. "While I don''t doubt that , typically self preservation aught to win out in that situation no?" I teased and he looked away awkwardly. "Luckily for you Vulcan was under strict orders NOT to kill or injure anyone we met otherwise , well we wouldn''t be having this conversation." I added to make it abundantly clear that my pokemon were not the peaceful creatures they appeared at the moment.-


    He went pale at the thought but didn''t argue or anything since as their trainer I definitely knew my pokemon bettor than he did. "Sorry if I ruined the mood but I figured it would be best to clear that up before anyone makes a mistake in judgement and gets hurt. My pokemon helped me survive in the wild and are probably a lot more brutal than domestic raised pokemon and it''s important to remember that." I said and the whole family nodded in agreement.

 Settling in

    Settling in


    A/N: There have been a few things brought up that I feel need to be addressed. First is that I don''t get to pick and choose what pokemon gets trained , I use a legitimate roulette wheel for that. The only exception to this was Vulcan and that was merely because so very few pokemon fics allow the MC to have a legendary at all and none that I can think of showed the legendary growing strong after being weaker which was a huge pity in my opinion. Second was that a few people are wondering about how friendly he was behaving despite his recovering apathy. The answer to this is that he is a VERY good actor , which had been mentioned previously. His attitude hasn''t changed or anything all that much but he is merely really good at faking it. Third is more of a personal gripe of mine but why is everyone saying "cringe" on the interaction between Alex and Emas mom? Like he''s not flirting with her or anything of the sort but everyone seems to be thinking deeper than that for some reason I just don''t get.


    _________________________


    After that I cooked dinner for the family while fully utilizing my cooking skill for the first time to great effect. See I first saut��ed some Tauros steak cut into fine strips to render out the fat before removing the meat from the pan and adding a chopped sweet onion , two cloves of minced garlic and two julienned carrots that I stirred frequently to let cook down. Then I dezed the pan with some red wine followed by a bit of flour and a pinch of Figy berry powder to add some heat.-


    I then tossed in the meat and diced tomatoes with some salt and pepper before letting that mix and cook down. While that was going on I had also boiled some rigatoni noodles in salted water that was now ready at the same time my sauce , vegetables and meat was done. I ted up three servings and set them on the dining table along with the extra pasta in a bowl next to the pan in the center of the table. "Foods done!" I said with a smile and the whole family rushed over to the table practically drooling since they had been smelling me cook it for the past twenty minutes.-


    "Why are there only three tes , aren''t you going to eat?" Lily asked confusion evident on her face. I shook my head "I eat what my pokemon do so I''ll be cooking for Vulcan and myselfter." I exined honestly. Birch wasted no time taking a bite of the food on his te and moaned with a pleasure. "I''m kinda jealous of your pokemon to get to eat like this all the time!" he said honestly. I chuckled "Today will actually be the first time actually since I tended to cook what I had avable back at the mountain and most foraged things had a pretty bitter taste save the mushrooms." I said honestly.


    "You aren''t by chance single are you?" Lily asked and May choked on her mouthful of food. "MOM!" she eximed with a bright red face. Lily scoffed at her though "Don''t mom me! Alex here seems like a great trainer , he''s fairly well mannered , handsome and can cook! It would be a shame to miss out on such a good match for you." she said reducing May to a blushing mess. "I''m ttered but I am not a fan of getting tied down to any one woman." I said honestly with a smile.-


    She looked disappointed at that "A pity , but I suppose I should have expected something like this. No offense Alex but you do seem a bit too perfect at first nce." she says honestly and I shrug. "I am by no means a womanizer since I don''t believe in breaking hearts unless necessary but I have no issue with casual flings every now and then. Other than that I have no intention to settle down at any one ce permanently , bad case of wanderlust I''m afraid." I said with a smile.-


    Birch nodded "It prettymon for pro trainers to have a simr problem after they eventually retire. They tend to get antsy and bored if they stay put until they shake it off after a couple years." he said in understanding. "Well I better head over to the general store to grab some ingredients for my own dinner but please do enjoy your meal." I said excusing myself. I left the house after that and walked over to the store like I had said I was. Lee looked surprised "I hadn''t expected to see you back here so soon , everything alright with what I gave you?" he asked worried a product was faulty somehow.-


    I shook my head "No no nothing like that. I just came to buy some stuff to cook dinner for my pokemon and me is all." I exined and he rxed. "I''ve got some kibble over in the corner of the food section that should do you just fine. As for whatever else you need feel free to browse." Lee said while waving his hand to gesture at everything. "Got it thanks!" I said cheerfully and did exactly that.-


    I ignored the kibble after reading the ingredients on the bag as it was basically just ground up and dried ingredients that while not a bad and definitely capable of sustaining a pokemon were totally vorless. Now I rather enjoy a good vor to my food and I KNOW my pokemon do too so even if a bit more expensive I stuck to buying a bunch of fresh or frozen ingredients to cook the meal myself. I also grabbed one of every type of seasoning Lee had avable before heading to the counter to pay for everything.-


    "nning to cook the meal for your mon personally are you? To each his own I suppose. All together it''s four hundred and thirty three." Lee said casually. Pulling my bag in front of me I found the coin pocket on the inside and started to count out the amount I needed before putting it on the counter. Lee gave me an odd look at that point "I have money from before I got teleported , it''s just nevere up before now." I exined and he had a look of understanding. I packed up my purchase into my bag before turning to leave the store "Don''t be a stranger!" Lee called after me and I just gave him a thumbs up.-


    It was a short walk to get to the pasture that Gaia and Vulcan were in that now didn''t have a single de of grass on it but instead hard ck rock. It was pretty clear to me what had happened to cause this and I couldn''t help but chuckle at the thought. Obviously Vulcan had taken the time to use magma coat on the whole pasture removing all the ntlife and leaving only the hard ck stone after the fire energy faded away.-


    Gaia was ying a little game I came up with Vulcan that was designed to help them strategize that I called type chess. The game was basically elemental chess and had all the pieces represent a single type with each side having two of each type piece. The exception to this rule was the "trainer" piece that counted as every type and only had one per yer. The rules were fairly simple as at the start of the game the board was set up with one of each type piece much like chess in a specific location on the board.-


    Unlike chess however each piece can only move a single space in any direction around it and a yer can only move a single piece a turn. The twist however came in the form of capturing other pieces. See unlike chess where any piece can be captured by any other piece each type piece can only be taken if the taking side used a super effective type piece or if that piece had been "bumped" by a neutrally effective type piece twice. The objective of the game was to either take the trainer piece or all the other type pieces. The trick was that each yer basically got two chances per type as once that type was removed from their side they can ce the recement type piece in the starting space.

 Settling in(2)

    Settling in(2)


    The board was much the same as a standard chess board but had an extra two rows added on in the middle. With that said it was fairly clear to me that Gaia had created the different type pieces out of different colored stones using rock or ground type energy while the board was carved out of the hard ck stone and filled with tan sand to make the lines. That was a VERY big difference between rock and ground type moves in realitypared to the games as the pokemon who used that type could in fact choose what type of stone they created.-


    As any geologist could tell you , there was a LOT of different types of rocks that naturally existed and could be chosen by the rock or ground type. It took me a while to figure out which piece belonged to which pokemon but once I did I could help but chuckle at who was clearly winning. Most people would assume that my calmer and less trigger happy pokemon would be best at a strategy game like this , those people were wrong. Yes Vulcan was viciously taking Gaia apart on the board.-


    She was using a tiny version of stone grasp to move her pieces but she was clearly distressed as she did so. Not that I could really me her as Vulcan took piece after piece from her including whole types putting limitations on what she could do. In the end she lost handily as her trainer piece was trapped in a corner and surrounded by four of Vulcans pieces. I pped once the game was over "Well done Vulcan. Both on the pasture and the game. The pasture is now almost perfect to train in for what I have nned , I will need Gaia here to make a sand pit though." I said with a smile letting the legendary have a small ego boost.-


    It clearly worked hard and deserved apliment after all which I wasn''t going to hold off on for no good reason. The little girl Ema was still on Vulcans back just grinning from ear to ear without a care in the world as Vulcans mane flowed around her. I chuckled at that but didn''t bother the child as I found the area that was supposed to be our sleeping spot in the middle of the pasture. It was basically rotted out and useless not to mention small.-


    I checked inside it for anything that I thought Birch might actually care about getting destroyed but it was totally empty save the cobwebs and mushrooms , none of which were edible. "Alright Gaia knock it down so we can rebuild it!" I called out and Gaia rumbled in response. i poked the blissed out child on Vulcans back to get her attention. "Hey do you want to see something cool?" I asked and it was like christmas came early as I got an enthusiastic nod.-


    I pointed as Gaia who was hovering over to the shack "Watch closely." I said and the little girl stared right at Gaia with an eager expression. My giant rock monster didn''t disappoint either as she charged up a sand bomb in front of her carapace which took a moment since she didn''t use sand storm first. She thenunched the attack right into the center of the rotten building with a loud disorienting "BANG!" as the building was ripped apart by the force of the explosion and sand shrapnel. Needless to say the building was totally obliterated and I couldn''t help but groan a bit as I noticed people looking out their windows to figure out what made that sound.-


    Gaia happily hovered back over tome "You just had to pick that move out of all of them didn''t you?" I asked with a chuckle. Ema meanwhile was losing her mind in excitement at the violent and shy move. Any child that could run up to an mount a legendary with a huge smile would definitely enjoy seeing another pokemon perform a powerful move. Birch rushed over with a concerned look "Alex what happened to the pasture!?" he eximed in shock when he saw the state of it.-


    "No need to worry we are just doing a bit of renovation to make it more livable is all." I said reassuringly. He took a deep breath to calm himself "Is that what caused that loud explosion?" he asked for rification. I nodded "Yeah I asked Gaia to take down that shack over there and didn''t specify how so she chose her loudest move." I said awkwardly scratching the back of my head. "Certainly sounded like it! We all felt the house rattle a bit when it went off and thought something had gone terribly wrong." Birch exined honestly.-


    "Sorry in advance but there will be a bit more noise as we build a suitable sleeping area on top of the ruins." I said not wanting to lie about it. "That''s to be expected for something like that , plus you''ll be doing me a favor since I kept meaning to fix this pasture up but forgetting." Birch said with a smile. "If you''d go and let everyone else know that would be appreciated , they are sort of staring." I said with augh as I pointed behind him.-


    He turned and looked and saw that I wasn''t joking and merely gave me a thumbs up before rushing over to his neighbors to reassure them. "Alright you two it''s time to get to work! Gaia make the boulders , the bigger the better! Vulcan help me move them where I mark!" I bark out orders and my pokemon got to work immediately. Each of Gaia''s boulders took about five minutes each for her to create and were six feet in every dimension each. I waited until she made a good eleven before marking the spot on the ground that I wanted Vulcan to move them to.-


    They out was four on the left and right sides with three at the back. I then had Gaia manipte the boulders to meld together without any gaps thanks to the energy that they still held within them. Vulcans job was done for now so it was assigned a different one while Gaia built the walls up. See if this pasture was going to be truly used then it needed a few features to be added. One such thing was a water fixture for the pokemon that may need such a thing such as water types.-


    I had Vulcan head over to the dead center of the pasture and start digging a pond via it''s moves. Once the decently deep and wide dirt bowl wasplete it covered the bottom with a thickyer of ckva stone to trap the water inside the bowl. The next time it rained , which knowing Hoenn was long away , the pond would fill up with water. As an added bonus Vulcan had dug deep enough to hit mud so the pond was unlikely to ever dry out either. Gaia meanwhile was creating boulders on top of the others and immediately fusing the together until we had an ugly miniature hill that was nothing but a cave after she covered the top in ayer of carefully ced and fused stone.

 Trading

    Trading


    The sun was starting to set when he finished up with that and I couldn''t help but look over the out of ce thing we had built up. It was a rough and uneven grey granite hill with several pits and cracks all along the outside of it that had a wide opening at the front. ''It almost looks like someone had gouged out a cave from the side of a mountain.'' I thought with a smile. It wasn''t all that pretty or anything but it would serve well to house my team and I while we stayed here and may even prove useful for the good professor after we leave.-


    With that done I took out the cutting board , knife and food ingredients I bought earlier as well as my wok and got to work preparing a meal for Vulcan and I. Potatoes , carrots , onions , celery , garlic , Pidgey stock , diced Pidgey and a few seasoning for vor were all tossed into the wok with some water. Vulcan quickly collected some logs from the nearby forest that it lit up with a full strength ember. I rested the wok next to the fire so the it could slowlye to a boil.-


    In case it wasn''t obvious I was making soup since it was a quick , cheap but filling mean for the two of us. That bottle of wine I purchased earlier was also slightly added to the soup before I allowed the mixture to simmer next to the fire. A pleasant scent wafted out of the wok and filled the air stimting our hunger as it bubbled. ''Now that I have a few extra items and no need to worry about whatever I get making it hard to survive I suppose I aught to use that feature.'' I thought while looking at the {TRADING SHOP} option of the system.-


    In truth I was avoiding this option until now because ording to the system the way it worked was that I could trade items or money with the system for tickets at random. This was to say that I gave up a thing to gamble twice in a row in hopes of getting a better thing. There was no set rate for trading either so if I gave the system a grade 4 water stone I very much could end up getting any sort of ticket including an item ticket.-


    Then I needed to gamble on whatever the result of THAT ticket would be meaning it was totally possible to give a grade 4 item and receive a shirt or pair of pants in exchange. As a result I purposefully ignored this function until now as I wasn''t willing to give up something for a mere chance to get something better. Now though I was nice and safe while also having a nice stash of extra items with berries taking up the majority. As I waited for the soup to cook I held my bag in front of me and grabbed a couple Cheri berries to feed the system.-


    Why did I say a couple because it took two of them for the system to count it as a valid trade. This opened up a roulette wheel that had the options of tickets I could get on it. Exp , item , ability , skill , pokemon were all there in various amounts which showed the odds for some was much better than for others. The wheel started to spin on it''s own and I prayed to RNGESUS for another ability ticket as those were clearly the best for fast improvement in power.-


    My prayer was left unheard however as I got an item ticket instead which I immediately tore within the bag out of sight. I wasn''t stupid enough to do something like openly use a system ticket when in in sight of so many people. The item wheel appeared and began to turn as I watched eagerly to see if this trade was worth it or not. After spinning for exactly a minute the wheel stopped and I was dumbfounded by the result. A green woolen scarf was what I had gotten from the wheel out of all the options.-


    ''I''ll trade two more times before leaving it alone for a while since gambling is a terrible addiction to have.'' I thought and traded another two Cheri berries. This time I was in luck as I got a skill ticket from the trade which I used immediately to spin the skill wheel and see what I get. My eyebrows couldn''t help twitching however when I got my answer , Masonry. I got the knowledge of the skill and couldn''t help but feel like the system was mocking me. The skill taught how to shape and polish stones as well as carve them into whatever I wanted.-


    I immediately decided to not do the third trade since it was clear that my luck was not very good right now. To be honest masonry was not a bad skill to have as people paid a lot of money for a skilled masons work but for a trainer like me it was sorta useless. If I was strapped for cash that I needed you better believe that I''d bust out the skill in a heartbeat but otherwise it was just going to collect dust in my status.-


    ''Now that I think about it I have a few skills that are just wasting space in my status , writing , cleaning , farming and now masonry. At this rate I''ll be a jack of all trades without any use for it.'' I thought with a wry smile. Thankfully the soup began to boil at this point letting me know I needed to stir it with my newdle that I bought. As I stirred the food I checked the meat and vegetables for doneness and decided another five minutes or so should do to finish it up. Birch walked over at this point with an interested expression as he observed the changes we had made to the pasture.-


    "Is that a pond?" he asked while pointing to therge empty crater a dozen or so meters away. "It will be after it rains , figured it would help in case you wanted to have any water types to study." I said with a shrug. "That is indeed quite helpful though I am a bit regretful that all the nts in the pasture were killed." Birch said with a sigh. "Why not consider it an opportunity to fully customize the area. nt the best grasses add a tree or two and maybe even grow some berries." I said helpfully.-


    I didn''t really care all that much to be honest but since it was my pokemon who did it I might as well try to help him fix it. Birches eyes lit up as his imagination pictured the scene of the pasture after all that work was done. It was probably a pokemon paradise in his mind from how excited he seemed. "If you want I can even help you set up all of that while I''m here since with my pokemons help it shouldn''t be too hard." I offered and Birch nodded eagerly.

 Training a scrub

    Training a scrub


    "If it''s not too much trouble I''d really appreciate the help." Birch said with an honest smile. "It''s no trouble at all since Gaia can easily break up thisyer of rock and stir the soil nice and deep , you''ll need a good bit of fertilizer though before you can really use the earth for nting berries but for grasses and trees it should be fine." I said while tapping into my farming skill knowledge. "How much fertilizer do you think I''ll need?" Birch asked seriously to get an idea of what he''s looking at.-


    I point at a few spots in the pasture "Depends on how many berries you want to grow as well as if you want them close together or spread out." I replied honestly. "Do you think five or six bushes would work so that the pokemon could have one of every vored berry?" he asked and I thought about it as I looked at the pasture. "If you keep them separate from each other and have someone tend to them regrly then it shouldn''t be all that expensive , you''d need about onerge bag of fertilizer for each bush to pull it off." I said honestly.-


    He nodded excitedly "I can definitely do that!" he said eagerly. "Well other than that this ce only needs a good seeding with some grass after we churn up the stone and soil to turn into a nice ce for all sorts of pokemon that aren''t ice type , can''t help you with that at all." I said with a smile. "I''ll see to it right away that you get that fertilizer. But anyways I wanted to see if you needed anything out here like a pillow or nket?" the good professor asked kindly.-


    I shook my head and pointed at Vulcan with a chuckle "I''ll be sleeping on that one so I will be just fine , but thank you for the offer." I said calmly. Vulcan huffed at that to make it''s disapproval of the situation known but I ignored it. Birchughed at the interaction beforementing on how good the soup smelt and leaving. The food was done at that point so I grabbed the sd bowl I bought from Lee anddled out two thirds of the soup before handing it over to Vulcan that dug in immediately while I had to wait for it to cool a bit.-


    The soup was hearty and filling so I had noints at all and if the belch Vulcan let out after it was done was anything to go by it didn''t either. I put the fire out after that and turned in for the day having had quite the amount of experiences. I woke but with the sun as per usual and shook my giant rock monster to consciousness as well while my volcano dog yawned and stretched. If that sounds weird that because it is. Pokemon are fucking nuts to rationalize and I live with the things now.-


    I wasn''t going to have Gaia start breaking up the stoneyer on the ground since that was bound to be very loud and people were sleeping still. Instead I stretched my body before starting my daily workout with a fewps around the pasture with Vulcan and Gaia who both liked to apany me on my jogs even though it served no purpose for them. Next up was the sit ups and crunches that I powered through like a champ. It was at this point that people started to stir in the vige with Birch and May being fairly early risers themselves. They watched in curiosity and astonishment as I went through each step of my workout like a machine.-


    Once I was done I walked up to the fence where they were watching me from covered in sweat and heavily breathing. "Morning , you two here to drop off the pokemon I''m training or do you need something else?" I asked in a friendly manner as my heart rate started to slowly fall making my taxed veins and muscles dete. From the outside perspective I probably looked like I had shrunk slightly.-


    May blushed as she traced the grooves of my physique that were very prominent at the moment with her gaze. "Ah! Yes we wereing to hand over Sly(the Zigzagoon) and got distracted by your workout. Do you do this everyday?" Birch as curiously and I nodded before listing my whole workout. "It works the whole body while keeping me limber." I added at the end of hi description. "That''s quite the heavy strain you are putting your body under but it''s clearly working for you so will leave the subject alone. Anyways here''s the pokeball containing Sly , you can get him warmed up while May watches and I go get a something to take notes." Birch said handing over a standard pokeball the size of a grape that expanded to the size of an apple in my hand.-


    I wasn''t ignorant to the shrinking ability all pokeballs had but chose to ignore it since it honestly made no difference beyond storage space. I clicked the button and a red glow shot out of the ball and condensed into the form of the Zigzagoon. It flinched nervously the moment it was released and looked around before stiffening at Gaia and Vulcan who looked down on it predatorily.-


    "Knock it off you two! This one isn''t food you hear me?" I scolded them harshly and they relented under my stern re. "You ate Zigzagoon while living by Mt grey?" May asked with a surprised expression. I nodded "I did. Why?" I asked curiously. "Most people tend to keep them as pets or think they are too cute to hurt much less eat." May exined honestly. "Hard to find something cute when it''s growling at and trying to harm or kill you." I said with a shrug and she shuddered.-


    She wasn''t so sheltered as to not know that truly wild pokemon weren''t docile like Sly that was domesticated but had never personally known anyone who has lived through the true way of the wild until now. Most pokemon either avoided humans or tried to frighten them off first if they were passing through so there was rarely recorded instances of pokemon on human attacks but in the case of someone like me who fully inserted themselves into the food chain in an area it was a totally different matter. Sly who was listening to this conversation now knew why I and my pokemon were so dangerous to it''s instincts , we were killers.-


    All pokemon respected strength , they craved it instinctually and this Zigzagoon was no different. I appraised the moves of the thing and sighed at how little it was to work with. Growl , tackle , tail whip , headbutt and mudp all at novice level mastery was the list I received. Unlike with my own pokemon I simply didn''t have time to waste boosting the mastery of these moves to expert mastery. This meant i had to target a specific set of moves for this training "What moves does it know?" I asked May since it would be suspicious as fuck for me to already know.

 Training a scrub(2)

    Training a scrub(2)


    May didn''t hesitate to give me a list of the moves that I nodded after hearing. "Lets start by having you use headbutt , tail whip and mudp so I can get a feel for your proficiency in them." I said sternly to Sly. The pokemon eagerly but awkwardly performed the three requested moves and I sighed loudly. "Is it really that bad?" May asked not understanding why I seemed disappointed. "It''s not exactly a secret but when pokemon use moves the move itself differs in strength and speed. This is because of the species innate abilities as well as how familiar they are with the move." I exined calmly.-


    May nodded along understanding what I was saying "I know what the familiarity of moves looks like after having fought many battles at the mountain and THAT was about as unfamiliar as you can get." I said motioning at Sly. "Is there really that big of a difference in a new move and one trained a lot?" she asked curiously. "Of course there is , watch. Vulcan use a novice level stomp on that spot over there." I said while pointing at a spot a few meters away. Vulcan jumped up and glowed weakly on it''s paws before crashing into the stone ground that cracked slightly.-


    "Now do it again at your current best!" I called out and the legendary followed the order wlessly as it jumped up and glowed brightly on it''s paws before falling much harder causing the stone to shatter and crater slightly. "That''s the difference between an untrained and a highly trained move , speed , power and utility are all qualitatively better in the trained version. The good news is that I can definitely train this ones moves to an eptable level before I leave in a couple weeks." I said calmly.-


    "Gaia , Vulcan while I am busy whipping this pokemon into shape I want both of you to turn this hard stone into sand before mixing it all up with the soil underneath it. Leave the cave and pond alone though." I ordered and after getting confirmation from my mons they went to work. Birch returned from theb at this point eager to watch me train Sly. May exined what he had missed in the short time he was gone but he didn''t write it down since he already knew this information.-


    He also confirmed what I said about it not really being a secret since pretty much every trainer learns it if they train their pokemon enough. "That said I am unsure how one goes about training a move other than constantly using it." Birch said and looked at me eager to see if there was something specific I would do. I didn''t disappoint either as I had Sly use the moves but change the way it did so slightly. Basically all I was doing was pointing out the parts it needed to work on and having it do so.-


    It was boring monotonous work that exhausted Sly rapidly causing the training to switch over from move training to movement training. Zigzagoon as a whole were quick footed and fast moving things and I had Sly using push that innate trait as hard as it could. It tripped more than a few times facenting hard but I didn''t care and had it stand back up and run again. "You are pushing it too hard aren''t you?" Birch asked worriedly seeing how wretched Slys condition was as it was panting hard and had scabs on it''s nose from the dried blood of it''s face ntings.-


    I shook my head "Pokemon are different from humans in that unlike us they thrive under pressure of this sort. If a human did something like this they might injure themselves horribly but a pokemon only needed a good meal and some sleep to not only recover fully but even grow more powerful , they are simply built differently and so can train much more strenuously." I exined and he nodded serious and wrote that down. "That said they do have limits and he has reached his , watch." I said and both the professor and May saw the Zigzagoon stop and sit down to recover.-


    I walked over to the tired creature and gave it some water as well as an oran berry. "Good work , we are done for today so you can head back to the professor for now." I told the tired creature with an approving smile before returning it to it''s ball. I then walked back to the father and daughter pair and handed the ball over. "When you feed itter give it some extra meat and vitamin supplements so it''s body has the fuel it needs to grow stronger." I said seriously.-


    "You really do seem to have training pokemon pretty figured out." Birchmented appreciatively. I shook my head "I''ve got the way to train WEAK pokemon pretty figured out but anything after that is still guess work to me at the moment." I corrected seriously. "Is there really that big of a difference in how they need to be trained?" May asked and Birch nodded also curious. "Yes" I say seriously. "For weak pokemon it''s mostly training their moves as well as the strength of their bodies andbat experience. But what do you do when the pokemon has a strong body , firm mastery of it''s moves and ample battle experience? I haven''t figured it out yet." I exin helplessly.-


    I myself hadn''t quite reached that point yet since both of my pokemon were species that naturally sat higher up on the food chain and thus needed far more training to really hit the "strong" threshold for their species. Gaia for example wasn''t even in her final evolutionary stage yet and thus had a LOT of room to grow. At the moment she couldn''t really do physical training besides giving her lungs a serious workout but control and move training was still totally viable for her.-


    After my exnation the two of them fell silent as they pondered what exactly the next step beyond the type of training that weak pokemon underwent was. After that I rxed a bit as I watched my own pokemonpete about which of them could powderize the stone fastest. The little girl on Vulcans back was having a st as Vulcan and Gaia destroyed every piece of stone they could. ''That girls going to grow up into a terrorist if she enjoys destruction so much.'' I thought with a chuckle while eating a pecha berry.-


    The berry was super sweet and soft with an overabundance of juice that made it great on a hot day like this. The clouds gathering in the distance told me that rain wasing and I needed to cook dinner early. We still had a few hours until it got dark but I would like to avoid setting a fire in the cave if I could. While it was fine in the mountain cave since there was grass and forest nearby but now that I was in town and there was plenty of ces to set it up outside the cave safely I did so.

 Evironmental combat

    Evironmentalbat


    Obviously I didn''t use all of my food the previous day to make that soup so I still had several days worth of food left in my bag. ''Silph co really knew what they were doing with these bags , they even have refrigerated pockets inside it.'' I thought while pulling out a few vegetables and some packaged Tauros steaks. I diced it all up and put it in the wok along with some rendered Zigzagoon fat and some salt and pepper. It was basically just a nice and simple stir fried dish that I kept moving constantly over the fire.-


    Vulcan smelled the food and immediately stopped what it was doing to bound across the now almost fully aerated and stirred pasture ground. The entire pasture was pretty much ready to be seeded minus a bit at the western edge the Gaia was breaking up and mixing at the moment. It would honestly not surprise me the slightest to find out that farmers all used rock or ground type pokemon with how efficient and fast she got this work done. Still with this I could focus my attention on training Sly up until Birch got me the fertilizer and seeds I needed to reintroduce ntlife to the area.-


    I may not be all that happy with the creature but even I had to admit that it didn''tin or whine about the hellish but effective training I put it through which was fairly impressive considering that Gaia and Vulcan stillin about it sometimes. After eating with Vulcan I was relieved that I chose to cook early since the dark rain filled clouds were overhead and I felt the first drops of water start to fall. Gaia had finished the rest of the pasture by this time so we all headed into the cave for the day.-


    There was still a few hours until the sun went down so I spent that time meditating with Vulcan minus the small pause we took to turn over the little girl to her mother that came for her. The method to train aura after you get it to the point that it can manifest outside your body , which is the journeyman mastery ording to the system , was to create a single thread of the stuff that you extend away from your body. I''d be lying if I said it was easy because it very much was not.-


    Manifesting aura was fairly simply since you just need to push it outside your body without any finesse or skill really involved. The creation of a thread however required behemoth amounts of willpower and control over the energy which I was sorelycking. As it turned out being someone recovering from serious levels of apathy meant my willpower was positively dreadful. I barely had the will to live normally as I just sort of went through the motions before I came to this world but while I was recovering an actual fuck to give it was clearly not enough.-


    Helpless about it I could only focus on the control aspect of the skill that was also irritatingly slow to improve. Thankfully that wasn''t because a character w of mine but rather just because it was innately difficult to do. Still I was making slow progress so I didn''tin , much. Once the sun finally dropped I climbed Vulcan and got nice andfortable under its mane before fading away to sleep. The night was plenty quiet as the rain fell down and soaked into the ground while filling up the pond a bit away from the cave.-


    The next day I woke up to it still raining but chose to ignore it since if I stopped training due to a bit of falling water I would be wasting valuable time. I woke up my pokemon who were both very unhappy about the weather but knew how I did things and joined me in the downpour as I did my daily workout. The entire vige was left speechless however when they opened their blinds and the scene of me and my mons jogging through the mud was seen. It didn''t matter to me though as I put forth my best effort.-


    Birch waved me over after I was done with my workout and the rain was washing the mud off of me. "Perfect weather to teach Sly about fighting in unfavorable conditions don''t you think?" I asked calmly. "Aren''t you worried about getting sick?" Birch asked worriedly from under his umbre. "HA! It''ll take more than a little water to make me sick." I said with augh. What a joke , my entire body had been overhauled and improved which included my immune system so weak diseases like a cold or flu were not even a factor anymore.-


    That didn''t even take into consideration that my ability to actively use aura made my body even hardier. Yeah me getting sick is really fucking hard now and I was more than willing to abuse the hell out of it. "If you say so." Birch said doubtfully while handing over the pokeball to Sly who I released immediately. The poor creature shook itself to try and get rid of the water that hit it but quickly realized that it was standing in the rain. "Zig?" It barked at me questioningly and I didn''t even need to have a connection with it to trante that to "The fuck?".-


    "Your training for today is not like yesterdays training. No today you are going to get a taste for what it''s like to fight in less than perfect conditions. Vulcan here will be your opponent though with a few limitations since you are not even close to it''s level." I said with a smirk as a look of realization set in on it''s face. Birch was almost buzzing in ce from excitement when I said this though I had to kill his enthusiasm a bit. "No need to get excited professor as Vulcan will only be using a quarter of it''s abilities and absolutely no moves whatsoever." I said which dampened the mans spirit considerably.-


    I could understand his eagerness to see a legendary like Vulcan go all out during a sparring match but that would be so overkill in this situation it bordered on a war crime. Anyways dark thoughts aside I looked at Vulcan "You got all that?" I asked and it nodded before walking away to take it''s ce. I then turned to the shivering but determined roon pokemon "You are not meant to be used in a situation where you aremanded by a trainer but rather to protect this guy here and that''s what I will train you for so stop shaking and prepare to meet Vulcan inbat." I said while pointing at Birch.-


    It certainly wasn''t the nicest pep talk but it worked as the small creatures eye burned with resolve and it firmly walked towards Vulcan in the distance. "Needs some work but otherwise you have yourself a good pokemon there." I said to birch with a smile and he grins. "May picked him out of his litter about a year ago." he said proudly.

 Exploring

    Exploring


    We both watched on from the distance as Sly got absolutely manhandled by Vulcan despite it holding back massively. The biggest problem Sly faced wasn''t the rain but rather the mud that made it very hard to find traction. Vulcan had learned that lesson well and had specifically trained to ovee this issue by timing it''s movements so as to stop when it wanted to. Sly made the mistake of charging full bore at Vulcan only for Vulcan to sidestep and casually back handed him as he passed by. Casual or not it was a enough to make Sly ragdoll and roll a few times after it yelped in pain.-


    It wasn''t even hard enough to bruise a hardy thing like a pokemon but it definitely stung. Birch quickly lost all enthusiasm as we watched Sly slowly but surely figure out what worked and what didn''t all while Vulcan yawned in boredom. It was painfully obvious how out of his league Vulcan waspared to Sly as it hadn''t been hit a single time while Sly was barely holding onto consciousness. "STOP!" Imanded and both pokemon froze in ce before Sly promptly dropped into the mud unconscious.-


    "A good pokemon indeed!" I said with a chuckle as Birch returned the exhausted mon to it''s ball. Sly certainly wasn''t very powerful but he had firm resolve to do what he needed to if nothing else which even I found impressive. Vulcan walked over to me casually and stood by until I had something else for it to do. That whole spar took three hours so we still had plenty of time left in the day. "I''d say that sly got some valuable experience from this spar , what about you?" I asked the professor who nodded.-


    "Even I could see the improvement he had during this time and while I think your methods are a little harsh I can''tin since they clearly work." The man said with a sigh. I could understand what he meant as my training could be considered cruel to a minute degree as I push the pokemon to their limits each session. The thing was however that pokemon were built VERY differently to people and what was cruel for us was optimal for them. If anyone was to me it was probably Mew or Arceus that made pokemon like this.-


    I would never speak such ideas however since I know better than bad mouth very real and very present god like beings. Is it likely such a thing would give two shits about a weak insignificant human like me? Nope. Did that really matter in this case? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY NOT! A god was a god and I value not testing such a things magnamity if I can avoid it. I was already an unnatural existence in this world with my system so painting a legendary sized target on my back by being stupid is uneptable. "What do you have nned for the rest of the day?" Birch asked breaking me out of my thoughts.-


    "Not sure really , with the weather being what it is hunting is a terrible idea since all that''s out is water types or things that aren''t worth hunting. I also can''t just hole up for the rest of the day since we''d get bored. Honestly I have no clue at all what I can do besides maybe letting my pokemon spar full tilt but I''d rather avoid that since their spars are rather destructive to thend they are held on." I said at a loss.-


    "I''ve seen a few gym battle recording so I doubt it can be THAT bad right?" birch asked with a confused expression. "A single full power attack from either of them leaves craters behind usually and a good spar between them has anywhere from five to fifteen such attacks unleashed. I''m pretty sure the only reason gyms aren''t wrecked every time a battle happens is because they are reinforced to withstand such power." I said seriously. Birch paled as he imagined the pasture getting torn apart violently. "Yeah it''s probably for the best we avoid that sort of damage." he said seriously.-


    "Yep so I am a bit at a loss what to do." I said with a shrug. "I suppose you could explore the area around the vige. The sea is only a few miles south and who knows you might even find something interesting in the process." Birch suggested. I thought about it for a moment but couldn''t find anything wrong with the idea so I agreed. Birch wished me luck before heading into hisb to probably do some paperwork if I had to guess. I myself had Gaia and Vulcan follow me into the woods into a southward direction.-


    Birch had said the sea was closest to the vige this way and from what the pokenav map showed me it was listed as a tier 3 danger zone at the shore. The reason for this was actually given as the fact that as a coastal location it was possible for powerful deep water pokemon to be encountered there. I had to admit that despite how primitive the pokenav was it was much more durable than any cellphone I was familiar with as it was waterproof up to seventy meters bellow the surface. That meant the rain did a whole lot of nothing to the device.-


    We spotted a few interesting things along the way that I stopped to collect and/or trade for tickets. These included chesto , aspear an wiki berry bushes that I traded four berries each from to the system for 2 ability tickets , a skill ticket and a single item ticket. Apparently the trading shop had a rule where the price to gamble increased slowly the more I used it so instead of the six chances I would have gotten for the berries I only got four. I was still quite happy with my luck though as I got two ability tickets and even a skill ticket.-


    I tore the skill and item tickets immediately to see what I''d get since my luck was great today. For my skill I surprisingly enough got abat skill in the form of spearmanship. It was not all thatplex but was by no means simple as their was importance ces on stance , grip , footwork an even the specifics of the spear itself. For the item on the other hand I got a scope lens that apparently made it easier to strike a vital point for a critical hit.-


    I didn''t use the ability tickets however since there was no telling what sort of scene I might cause getting whatever changes to myself those are done. Instead I wanted to wait until we got back to the vige so that Gaia could cover the opening of the cave from prying eyes. It didn''t take very long for us to reach the cliffs that dropped off into the sea. There were a few dozen Wingul and Pelipper in the area that gave my team and I wary looks but didn''t turn hostile thankfully.

 Beach trip

    Beach trip


    It was a damn good thing they didn''t either as the lowest level any of them had was fifteen and the highest that I saw was a level seventy eight Pelipper. Obviously I was NOT going to do anything to turn the pokemon hostile if I could avoid it. What a fucking joke , that one pokemon could likely kill all of us without much trouble at all. Instead my team and I skirted around the wild pokemon groups until we were out of range. At that point I got to see my first real look at the sea that crashed into the bottom of the cliff.-


    To be more specific the waves went through the bottom of the cliff that had been corroded heavily by the constant relentless tide to this degree over many years. Thanks to the copses of some parts of the cliff though I was able to make out a small beach at the base of the cliff. Getting there was easy as Gaia just used her earth and rock energy to shift the hard stone of the cliff into sand that was moved over the side. She did this at an angle so that we could travel down to the beach without out much trouble.-


    The cliffs weren''t very high so she was only a little tired by the time we arrived at the small beach. We weren''t alone there at all however as it turns out a small colony of Spheal line pokemon lived there. There was only a single Walrein in the colony but it was level seventy three so I made my peaceful intentions clear immediately. I thanked RNGESUS for aura at this point since pokemon are naturally far more aware of the energy than humans the whole colony could feel my sincerity through my projected aura.-


    It cost me most of my reserves but the big boss Walrein epted my presence fairly easily though made it clear it would not tolerate any funny business. I was totally fine with that since I mostly just wanted to look for any treasures that may be found here. While it was possible that they had all be taken by the colony I was hopeful none the less. Out of the colony I actually found a pokemon with a variation which caught me off badly guard. It needs to be understood that this was the first wild variant I had ever seen.-


    It was merely a standard color swapped shiny Spheal but a variation was a variation and so caught me by surprise. I admit I was sorely tempted to try and catch the thing but the "fuck around and find out" re I was getting from the whole colony the moment I looked like I wanted to told me it was best to not do that. If it was alone you better believe that I would have tried but it wasn''t and I wasn''t suicidal enough to try and take on an army of higher leveled and type advantaged pokemon.-


    "Alright guys , split up and see if you can''t find anything interesting and remember if you value your lives don''t fuck with the colony pokemon." I said before splitting up with my team to search the beach. The sand was dirty yellow which made it both easier and harder to spot things in it. The lighter colored stuff like bones , teeth and coral where very hard to spot while other things like scales , nts , stones and fossils stood out like sore thumbs. Yes there was fossils here but not of pokemon. Rather the fossils here were of small fish , crabs and other ancient sea dwelling creatures.-


    That wasn''t to say that I didn''t find a pokemon fossil as I did find a fossilized Magikarp that analyze told me was an ancient member of the species. Unfortunately the fossil would only serve as an interesting show piece as analyze told me it couldn''t be regenerated as the DNA was too damaged. Knowing that in this world there was in fact people who would want a thing like this I carried the huge piece of rock over to the path out of the beach and set it down.-


    My bag might have expanded space and refrigeration abilities but there was always a limit and in this case stuffing a meter and a half wide stone into a foot wide bag opening was it. Whatever nonsense the games made you think was wrong. The logic breaking power of the game bags simply did not trante over to reality. That wasn''t the only good stuff I got from my own search either. In fact I found two other things worth mentioning , a Milotic scale and and an old wooden crate that had likelye from a ship wreck and washed ashore.-


    Inside the crate though was the real treasure in the form of an antique lockbox that was waterproof to protect it''s contents. It was a crude thing made with rough techniques that made me thing it might be several hundred years old. The only reason it hadn''t corroded from what I could see was that it had a thin coat of some sort of gel that along side the rotten cloth packaging and crate had kept the sea away from it. ''It must be quite valuable if there was so much done to protect it'' I though while calling Vulcan over to help me bust it open.-


    It was quite eager to assist in this matter much to my amusement and wasted no time at all carefully crushing the hinges into powder allowing it to pry the lid off without damaging the contents. While I am sure the box itself might hold some sort of value I didn''t feel like lugging it around till I could open it without damaging it. Once the lid was removed I saw the inside of the lockbox and frowned in confusion. The inside of the box held a chunk of ore the size of a grapefruit with a very iron like appearance to it.-


    [Item name: Life iron


    Description: An extremely rare form of metal that conducts aura very well and was prized by aura users long ago as a prime material for a conduit weapon.]


    I analyzed the metal and immediately punched the air above me in excitement "YES!" I eximed happily. This metal had been mentioned in the information in my aura skill but when I looked it up on the pokenav there was nothing , not a single piece of information on it at all.-


    Conduit weapons was a misleading name since the items made with this stuff rarely was weapons. Truthfully conduit weapons came in one of three forms normally that each had their own techniques , needles , jewelry and gloves. Needles had a technique for pressure point healing and or assassination. Oh yeah aura users make extremely potent assassins with the right techniques as all it took was them disrupting the aura flow in a particr manner to end a life. Add on stealth and not only will the death look natural but no one will even realize that the aura user was there , yeah dark stuff.

 Conduit weapons

    Conduit weapons


    Jewelry conduit weapons on the other hand were almost always used to defend the wearer while providing a buff to their abilities depending on where they were worn. Rings and bracelets increased the strength of ones grip while boosting the nimbleness of the fingers as well. Anklets boosted ones ability to run while also drastically increasing the power of each kick. Nose rings increased ones sense of smell and sight passively. Earrings and tongue piercings did the same for the two senses involved there. Nes boosted ones every organ defensively so the endurance of the person in question grew very high.-


    This was actually why jewelry conduit weapons were very popr with aura users as if they managed to get a full set of jewelry they got arge boost in nearly every way. The finalmon shape of conduit weapons , gloves , were different than both of the other two as it was a sort of jack of all trades master of many type thing. For those wondering how gloves got made the system was kind enough to let me know since I had half the skills needed to make them myself.-


    It was a joint effort between an aura user , a metal worker , a tailor and a alchemist to make a set of life iron gloves. First the metal needs to be absolutely saturated with the aura of the aura user before the metal worker gets it. The metal worker then needs to turn the metal into very thin wire that was no thicker than a human hair. That wire is then passed to the alchemist who has to treat it with a special potion that gives the metal the flexible properties of true sewing thread. Finally the tailor needs to weave the metal threads into a pair of gloves on the aura user all while the aura user maintains a constant coat of aura around their hands.-


    I was left speechless at the sheer level of mastery in each skill that was needed to pull this off. I only had metal working and aura but I am almost certain it would take at least expert in both of those to even ATTEMPT to create such a pair of gloves. Assume that the other two skills needed the same level of mastery that was a total of four expert level skills. For reference my skills would grow really slowly the higher I got in mastery.-


    Right now I was still in the inexperienced phase of mastering them but eventually I will need a LOT of effort to improve them. Anyways I got off topic there for a second so back to the techniques of these gloves. Gloves were easily the most broken conduit weapon I had seen so far which made sense considering the effort it took to make them. They could allow the wearer to create and control threads of aura from the tips of the fingers but also attack pressure points with aura , heal others effectively , block attacks and even channel pokemon moves easier.-


    There was a legitimate fighting form involving those threads as well that was basically the equivalent of ripping someone apart from several directions or capturing them. To top it all off the gloves also increased the strength and nimbleness of the hands. Jack of all trades and master of many indeed. I won''t lie and say that I REALLY wanted a pair of conduit weapon gloves but I also knew that unless I wanted to expose my aura cultivation I couldn''t seek outside help for them.-


    Either way there was nothing I could do for the moment with the ore so I stored it in my bag. After that Vulcan showed me all the stuff it had found but none of it was really worth noting at all which was to be excepted since it was searched up near the walls of the cliff. In a ce like that there was likely nothing directly exposed to the surface and none of us were treasure finders. Gaia had slightly better luck it seems as she found a Shelder pearl thanks to her air gusts blowing away the sand under her to expose it.-


    It wasn''t very big ording to the pokenav at only an inch in circumference with a smooth purple sheen to it. Despite Shelder and their evolution Cloyster being basically the pokemon version of oysters the pearls they produced weren''t shiny rainbow things normally but actually had specific colors due to whatever it was they ate before the pearl was removed from them. The Shelder pearl Gaia found was purple which ording to the pokenav was because of the pokemon eating a poison type item or pokemon. Thankfully the color had nothing to do with the actual presence of poison in the pearl so I was under no danger when I picked it up and stored it.-


    The sun was starting to go down at this point so we called it here and left with me carrying therge fossil with me. It was rather funny to see the look on Birches face when he saw the fossil after we got back to the vige. The man was more than happy to keep it in hisb to study it until one of us found a buyer for the thing. I couldn''t me him really as I doubted the opportunity to study the fossil of a genuine ancient pokemon wasmon.-


    With that taken care of I had Gaia block the entrance to the cave as I finally chose to get my next two abilities. Nervously I prayed to RNGESUS not to screw me over with this and tore the first ticket apart. This brought up the rainbow wheel again in the system that then began to spin rapidly for an entire minute while I watched with crossed fingers and earnest prayers. RNGESUS smiled upon me with this particr roulette however as I got {healing}.-


    Not healing as in regeneration but like being able to heal others in a supernatural manner. To my surprise this ability caused a direct change in my aura when I gained it as the color of my aura turned from the standard blue to white in color. That wasn''t the only change either as my aura reserves directly doubled instantly flooding my body with energy. I had an instinctive understanding of this new ability and was surprised to learn that aura healing from the skill was actually created so long ago by an aura user mimicking the way a person with this ability used their aura to heal others.-


    Humans with various abilities were nothing unknown in this world and had all sorts of different things they could aplish. The psychic ability was rampant in the human poption after all thanks to the many generations of trainers with psychic type pokemon the human race has had throughout it''s history. Still my mastery of this new ability was limited due to my low energy pool and inexperience with it. My next roulette however was enough to make me want to cry at how unfair RNGESUS was , {perfect body}. (A/N: I''m starting to think RNGESUS hates my character lol.)

 Changes

    Changes


    I barely had time to stuff a stick between my teeth before the pain rocked my mind. It was worse than anything I had ever felt before. My body was quite literally breaking apart at a cellr level and it was horrible. I can not begin to describe to you what having each and every cell in your body including your nerves burst before reforming over and over again. All I remember is pain and ckness before it ended muchter. A pitiful description I know but that was all I knew at this time.-


    ording to my pokemon though it went sorta the same as my previous improved body v1 with my skinpletely falling off and being reced only multiple times instead of just once. Then it was my bones that lost shape before filling back out and losing shape again. Next was my organs that I directly lost thirty percent of as my body rejected them. My muscture was after that as it writhed and morphed like worms under my skin. I lost all of my blood after that alongside my teeth as a new set grew out. I have no idea what happened after that as neither of my pokemon could see every cell of my body.-


    I woke up nearly five hourster to a dreadful stench and ravenous hunger. "Ugh , why can it never be gentle?" I said with a groan as I sloughed off the thinyer of dried blood and skin wrapped around me. "HHHMMMMMMM!!" Gaia rumbled loudly as she crashed into me in happiness. I expected pain from such a thing but there was none at all , just pressure. It was odd to me so I ignored my giant rock monster for the moment and pulled up my status screen.-


    [NAME: Alexander Drake


    AGE:20


    RACE: human-bonded


    INVENTORY: 567 poke` , Pokeball(Gaia) , silph co bag , 5x pokeballs , I.D , hardstone x2(g2)(g4) , everstone(g2) , tiny mushroom , dusk stone(3) , unusual w fossil , water stone(g5) 4x , gold nugget , deepsea tooth , silverware set , Berries x28(A/N: don''t want to list them all) , leaf stone(g2) , expert belt 2x , cooking utensils x5 , metal working tools x3 , soothe bell , steel block , luminous crystal 2x ,metal powder , max potion , sacred ash , pokenav , nevermelt ice , great ball , mushrooms x12 , Toiletries , Shorts x2 , meat x14 , vegetables x26 , green scarf , scope lens , milotic scale , Life iron ore , Shelder pearl(purple)


    ROULETTE


    TRADING SHOP


    QUESTS: 2


    Pokemon: Pupitar(Gaia)(50) , Entei(Vulcan)(60)


    Level:20


    SKILLS:mon(A) , cleaning(N) , metal working(J) , aura(J) , cooking(A) , writing(N) , foraging(J) , farming(N) , masonry(N) , Spearmanship(N)


    ABILITIES: Appraise(journeyman)(system ability) , perfect body , emotion suppression , healing(N)


    STRENGTH:20


    AGILITY:18


    AURA:41


    INTELLIGENCE:10


    CHARISMA:13


    LUCK:9]


    To my surprise I found that I had exceeded the limit that training allowed humans to reach with decent gics which was fifteen in the two stats rted to my body. It was not by a small amount either as one of them was five points over while the other was three. I was quite firmly superhuman at the moment though only slightly. ''That exins why it didn''t hurt to get smothered by Gaia at the least.'' I thought while pushing the overjoyed boulder off of me.-


    "Remove the rock blocking the entrance so we can clean this mess up." I said while standing up and stripping off my ruined shorts. Gaia did as I asked and I sighed in relief after seeing it was still raining. I hid what needed to be hidden behind my bag as I walked out into the rain naked and quickly vanished into the nearby forest to clean myself in the rain.-


    Before I left I told Vulcan to scorch the whole cave clean so we didn''t need to deal with that awful smell for very long. It was more than willing to do so and a bright glow lit up the area as it directly methrowered the inside of the cave wiping out every trace of the "left overs" from my transformation. I ended up using no less than half my soap and shampoo to get the foul dried stuff off of me entirely.-


    Then I put on one of my spare pairs of shorts and returned to the cave that was burnt clean. I had to wait out in the rain for a few minutes as Gaia fixed the cave that had cracked in several ces from the conflicting hot and cold it was exposed to from the me thrower and rain. Once that was done I climbed up on Vulcan and promptly passed out from exhaustion. I must have slept for quite some time as when I finally woke up the next day the sun was higher than normal but not quite overhead.-


    My absence must have concerned Birch and May as they were discussing whether to personallye take a look in the cave or not. My senses were a couple times sharper than before so i picked up on the conversation as I slid off of Vulcan that was long since awake but didn''t want to disturb my rest. Now that I wasn''t in a rush to clean up and had good light to see I noticed a few changes in my body. First was that I had gained another inch which put me at six five at the moment.-


    The second was that my body was hard from the densely packed muscles under my thick bronze skin. Speaking of muscles the shape of my muscles had changed to be perfect in all regards. My back , legs , arms and stomach muscles were all strange looking to give me the best possible oue with my current strength. My teeth were nearly the same if much harder and with my canines being sharper and longer. ''Hopefully they won''t notice to much of a change.'' I thought as I walked out of the cave and waved at them.-


    They both looked relieved when they saw me approaching "It''s good to see that you are alright Alex! Everyone heard the most dreadful soundsst nighting from the nearby forest as something was clearly killed and was worried when you hadn''t shown up as early as before." Birch said rxing. "I heard it too and it kept me awake longer than normal so I ended up sleeping in , sorry about that." I said with a smile. They just waved it off "Not like we could me you , it was the most terrible scream I''ve ever heard. Was thatmon at the mountain?" May asked worriedly.-


    I shook my head "When something is hunted out in the wilderness at least from my experience it''s fairly quiet usually. In this case it was probably just being unusually cruel to the thing receiving it , it happens sometimes." I said referencing my own suffering without them noticing. They nodded in understanding "Well it''s a bitter than normal but are you up to give Sly some training?" Birch asked with a smile. "Yep , feel free to release him so we can start." I said with a nod.

 Key event

    Key event


    The next week wasn''t honestly all that worth mentioning to be honest as I merely trained Sly in the same manner as before with move , movement and battle training while alternating between Vulcan and Gaia as his opponent. This meant I definitelypleted the quest as he reached level twenty six and had gotten to adept in the three moves he had been training. I hadn''t taught how to manipte move energy though as I was leaving that card hidden up my sleeve. I still had four days until the quest deadline so I decided to focus on Slys impending evolution.-


    His body had began to show the signs of an evolution that was specific to his species which in this case was a shinier and more vibrant fur. The scared racoon pokemon hade a long way under my training as it was now bold and eager to throw down with the likes of both Gaia and Vulcan now. I had also instructed Sly in keeping an eye on Birch at all times so that he was always protected. To add on to this teaching I had hidden it''s pokeball so that recalling it was impossible.-


    Knowing Birch as I havee to within this time told me that if I didn''t do this the man might recall Sly and then leave without him on ident. For a researcher Birch was rather forgetful about things not rted to pokemon science. I kid you not when I say I saw the man forget a pen to take notes no less than three times in a single afternoon. I suppose the only thing of real note was thepletion of my weekly task of exercising that had increased in intensity to amodate my new strength.-


    This gave me five new items , a ck belt , a kings rock , an odd incense , a pink scarf and a grade 3 thunderstone. The ck belt was much like the expert belt in function except that it boosted all fighting type moves all the time. The king''s rock gave me a couple of benefits depending on how RNGESUS treats me. The first was that if I got a Slowpoke or Poliwhirl I could evolve them into a Slowking or Politoed respectively. Theter of which I definitely wouldn''t do since Poliwrath is simply better and I will die on this hill.-


    Slowking on the other hand is a beast of a pokemon that also fills out the water type weakness of my party nicely. If I didn''t get either of those though I could simply give the rock to Vulcan for some chaos as it gained the ability to possibly flinch it''s opponent per hit. No one knows why the strange crown shaped rock worked like this but it did and I was perfectly happy exploiting the hell out of it. The odd incense was a funky smelling incense not bad or anything but just weird in that it had two effects that made no sense.-


    First was that it boosted psychic type moves somehow , I have no clue how to be honest. The second ability at least made some sense as it was that if a mr. mime was bred in captivity then a mr. mime was what would hatch from the egg unless this incense was around the breeding pokemon. Then a mime jr would hatch instead , it was something to do with the incense making the mr. mimes inbuilt survival method of hatching only final stage pokemon turn off somehow. It was weird to me but I didn''t question it.-


    The pink scarf was just a in scarf that happened to be pink so It wasn''t useful at all right now. The thunderstone though gave me all sorts of electric type options that left me giddy just thinking about. Oh right I also learned something nifty about stone evolved pokemon that had an elemental variation in that the stone they needs switches over to whatever the element was. So like a Lombre with with an ice elemental variation would need an icestone to evolve into a Ludicolo instead of a leaf stone which was neat in my opinion.-


    As I said though other than these items the rest of that time was uneventful but on the fourth tost day that changed. See I woke up on this day nice and early and got my daily workout in which was perfectly normal and routine. The difference came in the form of Birch deciding to head over to Mt grey to grab that Treecko I told him about. "That works out perfectly as Sly here was in need of a real challenge in order to evolve." I said once Birch told me what was up. Sly seemed eager at the idea which made sense to a degree with how much pokemon inherently desire evolution normally.-


    There were exceptions to that of course but Sly was not amongst those so it didn''t matter. "You think he''s ready?" Birch asked with a worried look. "I GARUNTEE that unless you get jumped by like half a dozen pokemon at once or some sort of anomaly there is nothing between here and Mt. grey that can beat him without one hell of a fight. If that''s not ready then he never will be." I said with certainty. Sly puffed out it''s chest pridefully at that but I chose to leave it alone.-


    "I suppose you''re right but I''m still a little worried." Birch said with a sigh. I shrugged "If it helps my team and I can follow along to make sure that even if one of those scenarios ys out everything''ll be fine." I offed and Birch agreed immediately. "That reminds me for whatever reason but whats the status on that fertilizer and grass seed you ordered awhile back?" I asked just remembering the matter. "Lee says it should be here in a day or so. No need to worry about you leaving first." Birch said reassuringly.-


    I used Birches kitchen before we left to make and pack us some lunch in the form of lettuce , tomato , pickle and pulled cajun Pidgey on wheat bread sandwiches. I made enough for both of us and wrapped them up before storing them in my bags refrigerated section. We were slightly dyed in our departure though because Mrs. Birch also wanted a couple of sandwiches for her and May. After that we set off along the path as far North as it would take us with my team and I trailing behind while Sly took point.-


    I was quite happy with the mons performance along the way as any pokemon that got too close got a warning before he attacked so they could decided whether it was worth staying or not , it usually wasn''t. There were two times when some ballsy Poochyena didn''t feel like listening to the warning and got fed their teeth by Sly. An adept level tackle hurts like a bitch when you don''t have any training yourself and don''t dodge out of the way. "Oh right! In a day or so the new leader of the Petalburg gym , Norman , is having his family move into the empty house in the vige from Johto." Birch says suddenly seeming to remember this very important piece of information.

 Key event(2)

    Key event(2)


    This information caught me off guard as I had assumed that I had appeared in this world before the events of the games due to the fact May didn''t have a pokemon. But I had totally ignored the protagonist of the Hoenn region games somehow. This was a ratherrge oversight on my part and left me cursing myself for it. ''There is no telling if the events of the games will y out the same way as in them as there are a great many differences between reality and the games.'' I thought seriously.-


    "Norman?" I asked ying ignorant to the name. "Ah! I forgot that isn''t public knowledge just yet , sorry about that!" Birch said with apologetically. "It''s fine but who is this Norman person exactly and what''s this about him bing a new gym leader?" I asked while acting confused. "From the information I have he''s a normal type elite tier trainer from Johto , quite a rarebination let me tell you. Anyway he was offered the gym leader position in Petalburg due to the rarity of normal type specialist and the fact that the old gym leader Tyson recently passed away without any designated recement."-


    "It caused a terrible stir in the league what with the season fast approaching and so they found the best fit for the normal type gym which was Norman , the rest you should be able to guess." Birch exined happily. "So he chose to ship his family over to Hoenn to be closer to him huh? Why Littleroot though , wouldn''t Petalburg be better?" I asked genuinely confused. I had never understood why the mans family was two whole cities away from him rather than in the same city. It certainly wasn''t because of building issues as thanks to pokemon it barely took two days to fully build a functional two story house in this world.-


    And it definitely wasn''t because hecked the means to obtain thend or funds to build the house in the city either. What a joke gym leaders were paid extremely handsomely for their work AND were ranked higher governmentally speaking than even the city mayor. "Apparently he didn''t like how Petalburg was in a spot that saw a lot of pollution from Mt. chimney and wanted his family far from it." Birch said with a shrug.-


    "I suppose I can see that but why not Oldale or Rustboro then? They are closer and don''t get much pollution from the volcano from what I know." I pointed out and Birch shook his head "I don''t know either , we can ask after they move in though." he said casually. "Speaking of his family , got any information on them?" I asked finally getting to the part I really wanted to know. Norman might be a gym leader and all that but the events from the game involving the two terrorist organizations had nothing to do with him and minus getting a badge and meeting Wally he could be totally ignored the entire game.-


    It made sense that he might be more involved in the world other than that in reality but I couldn''t bring myself to care about him otherwise at the moment. His son or daughter though very much interested me as the entire game revolved around them. "Well from what I know his wife is a civilian without any training background while his son is a year younger than my daughter at eighteen and just got out of school. Other than that I know very little on either of them." Birch said with a shrug.-


    ''A bit older than in the game but considering the differences between reality and the games that''s still pretty young.'' I thought to myself as we traveled. After that I put the matter in the back of my mind since being distracted while in the wilderness is a good way to get attacked. While I have no idea why exactly it happens but unlike when they are hunting other pokemon predators will inform people of their impending attack for some reason. I was kinda suspicious that it was some sort of legendary fuckery though.-


    Like I would need to be fucking blind not to notice that humans were the single most privileged species in this entire world and yet seemed oblivious to the fact. We got stronger and lived longer by bonding with and training pokemon. We could develop abilities just like pokemon if we are lucky and were treated differently by literally every pokemon species on the , seems like some divine level shit in my opinion. After walking for a couple hours and having Sly deal with most of the more stupid or aggressive pokemon we finally made it near the mountain.-


    The tribe of Treecko was clearly familiar with Birch as they happily and eagerly greeted him after we approached. I noticed a familiar member of the group though at the back with a smaller body and a dark patch of skin on it arm. I checked it''s stats and couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow at what I found. Not only was it level twelve which was the highest amongst the Treecko but it also had all five of its moves at journeyman , leer , pound , absorb , quick attack and magical leaf. ''I can''t wait to see May''s jaw hit the floor.'' I thought with a chuckle before winking at the small thing.-


    Clearly this startled and confused the pokemon if the look on it''s face was anything to go by. That look was soon shared by the entire tribe however when Birch specifically picked it out as the membering with him. I noticed that the leader of the tribe that was a level thirty seven Grovyle looked rather reluctant to allow the little one to leave. ''Looks like someone else noticed the hard working nature of the runt.'' I thought with a smirk. The leader noticed my expression and a look of understanding crossed it''s eyes before it merely nodded slightly and chose to turn away from Birches collection.-


    I wasn''t surprised about it''s reaction since I had both a pseudo legendary and an actual legendary with me. Each of which was more powerful than it so if I thought the tiny one would do better under a trainer than who was it to argue? The runt also seemed to understand the part I had to y in this matter and shot me aplicated look as it allowed itself to be captured. Birch didn''t imprint the ball however since he was going to be giving it to May as her starter.-


    After that he chose the best looking Treecko for the league requirement and bid farewell to the tribe. "While we are here I''d like to take a look at that cave you lived in if it''s not too much trouble." Birch said as we left the tribes area. I shrugged "I don''t mind." I said honestly before leading the way. It had only been a bit under two weeks since I was there so very little had changed. I did notice that a familiar pokemon had taken up residence in the cave though when we arrived.

 Old power

    Old power


    Looking at us from within the cave was the old Sentret that had pointed the way to civilization some time back. To my surprise Birch let out a gasp of astonishment as a look of recognition appeared on his face. "Trent!?" he eximed in astonishment. The Sentret merely snorted in amusement at the professors reaction. "I take it you know this pokemon then?" I asked Birch and he nodded vigorously. "Tyson was his trainer before old age took him. I knew that all of Tysons pokemon were released as per his will but I had never expected toe across one of them like this." he said honestly.-


    "No wonder he''s so strong , I always thought it strange for such a powerful pokemon to be here until now but that answers that." I said calmly. It didn''t surprise me to learn that the old gym leaders will was respected and his pokemon released despite the unbnce they could bring to the ecosystem if they wanted to. Especially since this was one of the leaders personal pokemon which meant that it was likely champion tier in terms of skill and experience. I was pretty sure that the only reason it''s level was so low was that it was suffering old age and injuries.-


    "Unexpected pokemon aside this was the cave were we stayed before you met us." I said casually. Birch looked it over carefully at this point and clearly spotted the traces of my previous residency here. The charred ck spot on the ground , the w marks Gaia left on the stone as she dug it out as a Larvitar and even a few hairs that Vulcan shed while healing that were left on the ground. "It''s strange how perfect this spot is for survival" he said slight confused.-


    "What do you mean?" I asked curious at his statement. "The cement of this cave , the surroundings and even the pokemon found in this area are all nearly ideal for survival. You have water , food can be found not far from here and this cave serves as a perfect ce to take shelter from the elements. It''s hard to imagine a truly malicious psychic type would knowingly send you here , it''s simply too perfect. The possibility of it being unintentional is unlikely as well since the pokemon tampered with your memories as well." Birch exined and I was surprised about it at first.-


    How could I not be? Until now I had assumed I was just randomly chucked into this world by whatever brought me here but now that Birch pointed it out this spot really was a little too perfect. "I honestly can''t say for sure what it was that sent me here but this is where I met both Gaia and Vulcan so I am grateful either way." I said honestly with a small genuine smile. "Perhaps it was a member of the mew species that sent you here? No one has ever figured out why they do some things and this mystery fits them like a glove." Birch offered an unsure exnation.-


    "Mew , species?" I asked genuinely confused since I had thought there was legitimately one one Mew. "Ah right! I forgot that this was not public knowledge. Well basically there are two types of Mew , the progenitor Mew that is spoken of in legend as the origin of most pokemon we know today." He said before checking to make sure I was able to follow what he was exining. I nodded and he continued "Then there is what we call the Mew species which is believed to be that Mews pureblooded descendants and hold great power."-


    "These are the ones that seem to travel the world correcting bnce in ecosystems and sometimes interfering in the lives of humans. We don''t know exactly how many members this species has due to their ability to perfectly mimic any pokemon species letting them blend in. It may only be a handful or even thousands but we have no idea. All that is really known about them is hear say and legends as none have ever been captured or killed. The few fossils that have been found have been studied but are almost neverplete enough to get any useful data." Birch exined seriously.-


    I was VERY interested in information like this as it was very different from what I knew and was thus a novel thing. I suddenly remembered the task I wanted to get done with this trip and changed the subject. "As a gym leaders pokemon Trent here is probably pretty good at not identally killing his opponents right?" I asked while pointing at the Sentret with my thumb. Birch was confused by the sudden change in topic but nodded to show I was right.-


    Trent on the other hand was looking at me curiously as it was interested to know what I had nned. "Sly here just so happens to need a firm push to evolve and I can see no better safe challenge than Trent here." I said with a smirk. Birches eyes lit up "Now that you mention it that would work out perfectly!" he said eagerly. "So how about it old man , think you have it in you to give this youngster a firm kick in the backside?" I asked the old Pokemon with a smirk. Trent snorted and got up slowly and hopped out of the cave on it''srge furry club like tail.-


    "Looks like you are feeling spry today huh old man?" I joked and Trent snorted in amusement. We headed over to the spot my pokemon usually used for training and sparring and Birch rubbed his eyes as if he thought he was seeing the wrong thing. "You weren''t joking about how destructive your pokemon were , look at this ce!" he eximed. I shrugged at that since I had never exaggerated when I talked about what they were capable of should they get serious.-


    Sly did as I had taught it and quickly checked the terrain before taking it''s position while Trent went directly opposite Sly casually. "Start!" I called and backed away from the area alongside Birch and my pokemon. Sly started out with a tackle towards Trent but the older pokemon didn''t react at all. I was starting to wonder if it had gone senile when it sudden moved. In a blur of white glow and movement the older pokemon vanished from it''s location with a stupidly fast quick attack and mmed into Sly , hard. The racoon pokemon cried in pain as it wasunched backwards from the sheer impact of the attack.-


    I could almost feel my jaw dislocate at the sight of an old pokemon absolutely manhandle a younger one. Trents move pool was clearly extensive as it used close to a dozen different moves all while holding back enough not to fatally injure or knock Sly out. It was a brutal beatdown that was honestly hard to watch as Trent barely even seemed to be using any effort in the matter while Sly looked like a particrly mean chainsaw had went to town on it. It was worth it in the end though when Sly lit up and was covered in a glowing rainbow light orb.

 Planting

    nting


    I chatted with Birch for a bit about casual topics while we waited for Sly to finish evolving. Nothing serious or anything like that , just simple things like my meeting with the elder Entei that dumped Vulcan on me to shirk responsibility for it. Oh yeah I had figured out that that particr Entei simply wanted an excuse to not need to actually take Vulcan under it''s wing. I couldn''t really me it either as it sounded an awful lot like unnned parenthood. If the nearest member of the species was supposed to handle the newborns then it was likely considered a chore that no one wanted by them.-


    So in order to get out of it the elder Entei that hade across me and Gaia decided to pass Vulcan off on me since I had the minimum requirements for the job. The requirements for it probably weren''t even all that high either as I was pretty sure I had figured out at least three , Potential , age and sanity. Like I said they weren''t very high at all and Birch agreed with me when I exined all this as it made perfect sense.-


    The only known exception to this theory ording to Birches information was none other than Byron that captured three legendries after defeating them when he was forty five. These three legendries were a Registeel , Regirock and Regiice that he tracked down. It probably didn''t need to be mentioned but Byron was a champion tier trainer and was also the owner and founder of the battle ind elite trainer resort. This interested me and when I asked Birch about it he exined that the only ways to get onto the ind resort was to either be a well known elite trainer or to pass a test set by Byron that was notoriously hard.-


    So hard in fact that to this very day only champion tier trainers have passed it while they were champion tier , not a single elite tier trainer has passed the test. ording to Birch however getting onto the ind is VERY much worth it. Byron had constructed a virtual paradise for the powerful trainers that had the best food , games , activities , pokemon battleground and had even popted the ind with nearly every species of pseudo legendary as well as many other powerful species that live by thew of the jungle.-


    Sure the ce would be nightmarish for weak trainers but for the elites it was the single best ce in the known world. Hearing all this made my blood boil in excitement as I imagined the ce and I knew I would one day set foot there firmly. Finally the rainbow orb around Sly dispersed to reveal his new form. He was covered by cream colored fur with brown stripes on the shoulders , tail and spine and had a long streamlined body with four short but powerful legs that ended in two sharp ws each.-


    Sly had be a Linoone and was now built for speed as every part of his body was now streamline and aerodynamic. Much like Gaia though Sly immediately fell unconscious after evolving from exhaustion. "Looks like it''s time to head back then." I said while picking up the unconscious mon that weighed close to seventy pounds and slung him over my shoulder. My muscles weren''t just for show and worked well for carrying this amount of weight with only a little effort on my part. "Enjoy your retirement old man!" I called out to Trent as we left back for the vige.-


    Since Sly was out ofmission for the moment I had Vulcan and Gaia handle protection duty to great effect. Absolutely nothing was stupid enough to not take their warnings seriously and avoid us. This led to a nice and smooth trip back to the vige without any need to stop. It only took us about two hours to make it back setting the time right at noon. In total this trip to the mountain and back took about five hours. "What happened to Sly!?" May eximed when she saw me carrying the limp pokemon over my shoulder.-


    "He evolved obviously so he passed out from exhaustion , chill." I said reassuringly. "It was unbelievable May! First Sly chased off all these pokemon and then..." the good professor excitedly narrated our trip with only some minor exaggerations. The funny part was that May seemed to think that Birches description of how easily Trent manhandled Sly was an exaggerating but was in fact totally urate. "It looks like Lee got in a shipment of goods look." I pointed out therge shipping truck parked behind the general store. "Oh that? Yeah it arrived about an hour after you both left." May says not minding that I changed the conversation.-


    "Want to go see if he got in the fertilizer and grass seed?" I asked Birch while unceremoniously setting Sly down on the ground. "Will he be alright here?" May asked worriedly. I nodded "I can''t exactly bring Gaia and Vulcan over with me so they can stay behind and make sure nothing happens to him." I said casually which made her rx. As it turned out Lee did in fact manage to get in the stuff a couple days early which pretty much determined what I was doing for the rest of the day.-


    I had to make a few trips to and from the store thanks to only being able to carry two bags of fertilizer at a time. After that I had Gaia stir the fertilizer into a few different spots that Birch chose for the berries. After that I directly dropped a single berry of each type that he wanted into a hole in the ground and sprinkled the spot with water. Getting the berries started only took about an hour total but the really time consuming part was seeding the grasses. The pasture was a ratherrge area to cover and while I had enough seed for it , it would take me a while to cover it all.-


    Most people would think that they can simply take a handful of seed and throw it haphazardly all over thend and if given some time they would have a nice bed of grass. This was unfortunately almost entirely wrong as like most nts grass needed careful nting and care until it matures. After that though grass was both easy and irritatingly difficult to kill off. Easy because a good drought happens and the grass will dry out and die.-


    Difficult because short from that the nts were stupid good at avoiding death thanks to their long roots. The green edible part above the ground is pretty much totally expendable to the nt and only works to absorb sunlight. I ended up spending the rest of the day carefully seeding the pasture with Gaia''s help. Sly had already woken up by the time I was done and was in the process of familiarizing himself with his new body. It wasn''t as big of an adjustment as with Gaia but there were enough changes that this was necessary for him.

 True meaning of perfection

    True meaning of perfection


    It only took Sly an hour or so to fully get a grip over his new form which restored his temporarily lowered level and as a bonus getting his ass kicked so badly also gave him another four levels setting him at a nice even thirty. I t out told him at that point that his training wasplete and that he was ready to protect Birch from basically anything he encountered. From what I understood of the professor position this was true but I wasn''t omniscient so anything after that level of difficulty I simply couldn''t predict.-


    I did however tell Sly how it should train from now on if it still wanted to get stronger for whatever reason. It wasn''t anything special really as all he needed to do was continue mastering every single move he had all while continuously pushing his body to get stronger. Thanks to this though I suddenly found myself with several days of free time to do whatever I wanted. I didn''t ept the rewards forpleting the quest though since if I suddenly had a pokemon from nowhere near this area without leaving it would set off several suspicions in the people around me.-


    Once I set off on my journey though I would do so since I could then say I found whatever I got off the routes. I would be best in my opinion if I got a pokemon native to Hoenn but I wasn''t really picky in that regard. Still with my free time I chose to start working on my spearmanship skill as it mighte in handy if I needed to deal with people in the future. I should point out that while simple guns like revolvers were a thing in this world they were only useful against really weak pokemon or normal humans.-


    Ability users such as psychics or elemental abilities could stop bullets fairly easily and the things were totally ineffective against an aura user like me. A quick thin coat of aura and the bullet would pancake against me harmlessly before falling to the ground. It was due to all these reasons that guns never really advanced past the revolver phase in this world despite science reaching such weirdly high levels. Thanks to this almost useless nature of guns in this world cold weapons like swords , spears and knives were still very useful.-


    Since I was merely training with the skill I didn''t need to actually have a real useable spear and could settle for a length of sturdy stic pipe that had a stone tied on the end of both sides. The only real requirement for weigh I had with these stones was that one needed to be slightly heavier than the other. The reason for this was because in an actual proper spear the spearhead needed to be the point that was favored weight wise in case the user wanted to throw it. But the difference couldn''t be so great that the spears head pulled the spear hard downwards in the hands.-


    There was a very specific bnce in weight needed for this to be aplished and these two stones I picked out just barely aplished it. Lee had the stic piping I used as the handle as well was the rope I tied the stones with. So after making sure the stones wouldn''te off I began to practice the most basic of movements with my makeshift training tool. Straight thrust , retract shes , side shes , side smashes , pommel strikes and blocks to start out with all while making sure I had the correct foot cement.-


    These movements worked certain muscles in my hands , arms , back , chest and legs as I tensed and released them during my training. It surprised me to notice that my body was very quickly adapting to these movements making each strike smoother and less effort intensive. It dawned on me at this point why the transformations my body underwent were in abilities to begin with. It was about foundation and potential for what the human body could achieve. Why was it that some people could excel at sports or athletic things with far less effort and even go further than others for the same amount of effort as others?-


    It was literally how they were built , shape , muscle configurations , chemical bnce , size , all of these things and more that were set from birth determined what a persons upper limit was regardless of how hard they trained or worked. Sure natural talent could be surpassed by itself with sufficient skill but a skillful talented person was pretty much unbeatable in fairpetition. Improved body and perfect body didn''t refer to a simple thing like muscle strength or something that could be achieved with mere hard work but rather a perfect foundation that had the potential for endless growth.-


    My body was quite literally perfect for all future improvements I under went from fighting to crafting skills my body was designed to quickly adapt and grow for all of them. I couldn''t help but grin widely when I figured this out and started to push this adaptation to it''s limits by going through these movements faster and faster. The air whistled and howled as my makeshift weapon moved precisely but like a blur as I pushed my body to it''s limits.-


    Sweat began to pour from my body like steam under the suns rays and my own body heating up from my elevated heartrate and the friction of my rapidly moving muscles. The sound and sight of me training left the few people living in the vige in awe and even seemed to excite my pokemon. I eventually reached a point when my body could no longer adapt very quickly and my ever increasing power and shifts in movements started to lose their precision. Sure what I was doing was nothing special by pokemon standards and was even greatlycking in fact but for a human it was pretty awesome.-


    Finally I swung the makeshift spear one final time before remaining still and rxing my body. I was covered in sweat but I didn''t mind at all and observed my makeshift spear with a content sigh. It felt nice to learn something new and implement it without any issues. I checked my status and wasn''t surprised to see that my mastery of the skill had risen by a stage to the journeyman level. I pretty much had the basics fully figured out and useable at this point. I knew my speed will decrease as I improved and chose to enjoy the feeling of progress for now.-


    Grasping the basics of a skill was never difficult to begin with which is the only reason it took so little time at all in this case but it will take much longer after this point. "Goodness Alex you never said you knew spearmanship!" Birch said as he walked over with a bottle of water. "It never came up and I figured it might be a good Idea to refamiliarize myself with it before I leave for my journey , who knows it mighte in handy." I said with a shrug while gratefully epting the water which I immediately downed.

 Savage man self defense

    Savage man self defense


    "As much as I hate to admit it you may be right , the leagues been getting reports all over the globe of increased criminal activity and Hoenn has seen some of that as well." Birch said with a sigh. That was not good news for me at all as I had this ominous feeling that I was going to get dragged into the plot of the game in some manner. It made sense if I am being honest as I was a very tempting target for recruitment until the various teams realize that I didn''t care for their modus operandi but at that point they will do one of two things.-


    First is choose to ignore me until I be a problem to them or the most likely oue of them putting me on a hit list as targeted for death. I honestly would prefer not having to deal with the hassle of the teamsing after me but if I needed to I would make sure to cripple whichever decided to do so. I don''t do things in a half assed manner so if I''m going to be the enemy of a team I''m going to be their fucking boogey man.-


    "Hopefully I won''t need to use a spear on anyone at all but it never hurts to be prepared." I said keeping my voice calm and neutral. Birch nodded in agreement "Yeah I can''t argue with that. Think you could show May a thing or two about fighting before you go by chance?" he asked hopefully. I knew that he was worried about what she might have to deal with once she gets a handle on her new pokemon and sets out on her own journey to fill the pokedex for him.-


    "I''m only here for three more days so I can try but how much she actually picks up is on her." I said seriously and Birch grinned "My May''s a bright girl so she''ll soak it all up I''m sure." he said before eagerly leaving to go tell May. I sighed as I watched him leave as despite his good intentions he didn''t even realized what he wanted her to learn. My philosophy for fights were losing means very bad things as is the case in this world is to go for the kill as soon as possible.-


    Drawn out fights leave room for interference or for sheer bad luck to happen and so should be avoided. Birch couldn''t know this of course but that didn''t mean the signs weren''t there. I have mentioned a few times that my pokemon have taken lives before and might have taken his own had I not ordered otherwise before hand. Add on the short conversation and my ability to wield a weapon properly and is should be fairly obvious that I myself am also willing to kill. I made my peace with that inevitability back at the mountain cave shortly after arriving in this world.-


    Still Birch had been a gracious host during my stay in the vige and if he wanted May to learn how to defend herself a little I had no problem showing her the ropes. I had been in a few fights back on earth and knew the spots to hit to cause problems for your opponent and make ending the fight easier. The best move if you know you are going to fight someone with absolute certainty is to get as close as possible and step on their feet before pushing them.-


    The interesting thing about how we move to catch ourselves after we start falling is that we move our feet into a different position to try and correct our bnce and recover. If someone is standing on your feet however this is impossible and you will merely hurt yourself trying to do it anyway. The worst ce to be in a fight was on the ground and they are at the moment after this giving you plenty of options for quickly ending the fight. Assuming you don''t have this option and need to go for a good old fashioned slug fest there are a few spots you want to hit.-


    The first is the legs or to be more specific the knees as if you fuck up that joint your opponent loses almost all mobility and might even directly go down to the ground. If they don''t allow that for whatever reason it means they are either smart enough to know how bad having that fucked up would be for them or they are experienced enough to understand it first hand. Things get more troublesome at that point as you need to get within striking distance to aim for a few parts of the face , specifically the nose and eyes.-


    Anyone who has actually been punched in either of those can tell you how disorienting it is not to mention damaging. Break the nose and now that person who is huffing and puffing air is coughing in the blood going down their throat from their sinuses. You''ll find it''s quite hard to do pretty much anything if you get caught in a coughing fit. Muscle control for your arms and chest sort of goes out the window for a while until you can adapt. Eyes are nearly as bad to get hit in as even if it''s only a single eye you might only see white or ck for a couple moments.-


    I didn''t just dump all of this information on May of course as I was more of a learn via experience kind of guy. Obviously I didn''t fight her or anything way over the top like that but merely showed her a few of these things that I could without causing any actual harm. Like I stepped on the tips of her shoes to hold them down before pushing her over and catching her before she fell and hurt herself.-


    I exined about how she should always avoid getting on the ground no matter what as I lightly tapped all the ces a well ced kick could cause serious damaged while you were down. "What if I have to fight someone like you?" She asked while having to crane her neck to look me in the eyes. "If it''s a guy and you catch them off guard go for the groin and I can almost guarantee no matter how big they are they will be defenseless for at least a few seconds. Might even end the fight depending on how sensitive they are." -


    "As for a women there is nothing you can do save fighting as dirty as humanly possible , I''m talking sand in the eyes , stomping on toes , the works. Any woman that is my size or bigger and covered in muscles will eat you alive in a fair fight so you need to make it unfair." I said seriously. "That''s rather brutal isn''t it?" May asked with a disgusted and reluctant look. "If losing the fight meant death , rape or worse I''d imagine being brutal sounds rather appropriate to avoid it , no?" I asked rhetorically since I knew what the answer was.

 Pre move in company

    Pre move inpany


    May also knew that she didn''t need to answer the question , how could she not when the answer popped into her head immediately as it would any sane person. Yes , the answer was almost always going to be yes. There was nothing wrong with that at all , it is part of ones base instincts to try and preserve their existence and avoid suffering. I ended the lesson there for the day as there was simply no way she could focus with such a heavy idea on her mind. For a kind person like her it was difficult to ept but necessary to move forward.-


    I wasn''t bothered by May or Birch the next day as for May she was still struggling toe to terms with her previous lesson while for Birch it was because he was aware of this. He obviously understood the logic in what I had taught her but the conflicted look he gave me showed his own inner conflict with her learning this. It is honestly amazing what a parent will ept if they think it''s for their childs betterment. Still that left me with the whole day free and I was more than happy to use it to my advantage.-


    I of course did my daily exercises but on top of those I also practiced my spearmanship with my makeshift spear. I didn''t move past the basics however as I wanted to set a strong foundation for my future techniques. Yes spears did indeed have techniques involved with them though they were admittedly just slightly modified versions of the basic movements. Things like angling the spearhead slightly while thrusting to strike tiny joints easier or using the pummel for attacking. That was for the future though as for now I was focusing on getting familiar with the weapon.-


    May apparently settled her mind sometime during that day as she approached me after my workout to learn how to fight in earnest. I chose a spot next to the pond for us and began to spar with her. She was allowed to strike me as hard as she could but I made sure that I slowed my own hits to not be painful or cause injuries. With how sturdy my body was nothing she did had any effect at all save the surface level redness that quickly faded away.-


    She was sloppy and hesitant with each of her strikes at first but after I sent her to the dirt every time she did she quickly got rid of it. The sloppiness was slow going for her to get rid of but I was helpful in pointing out her mistakes based on my own knowledge. She showed decent amounts of improvement by the evening when the first truck showed up in the vige. It was a repair truck sent to fix and renovate the old abandoned house that Normans family was moving into. There was a rather funny moment when I got sized up by thepany mans Machoke-


    Machoke were the second evolution of the Machop species that minus the skin color , arms and head all looked almost the same as a muscr human man. They had round reptilian heads with grey three lined fins and sharp teeth. Their skin was a bluish purple color that covered their whole bodies. On their arms they had several thin red stripes in their skin. This wasn''t for show but because of a unique fact about their anatomy. Those stripes were actually stic portions of skin that they had because their muscles when fully exerted caused their skin to stretch and expand.-


    Without these stripes their skin itself would tear whenever they went all out from the unrestrained power of their muscles. The reason this particr Machoke sized me up was that it found my strength and physique impressive and wanted topete. Thepany man could only watch on with an exasperated look as both I and the pokemon flexed to show off to the other. I was honestly far too happy topete with the thing in hindsight but pride is a funny thing like that. I won out in thepetition though as my muscles were far more developed than it''s were and thus looked more impressive.-


    That was when I learned an interesting habit that the species had in that they mimicked the apparel of the person who beat them in one of thesepetitions. The Machoke went into the house with an extra pair of my shorts that I generously gifted it after learning this and came out wearing them and gave me a thumbs up and a wide smile. Birch was thrilled with the knowledge though as it had obviously been a very rare asion when a human won out in terms of physique with a Machoke and thus hadn''t been officially documented till now.-


    This wasn''t to say that I was stronger than the pokemon , merely that my muscles were better developed and looked nicer. Thepany man apologized for me having to give up a pair of my shorts to his pokemon and offered to buy me an extra but I just waived it off. I enjoyed myself so I didn''t mind the small loss on my part. It was interesting to see how fast the man and his pokemon finished fixing and renovating the old house.-


    The truck they showed up in had all the extra materials they might have needed as well as the appliances intrinsic to the house like the oven and refrigerator. They reced any damaged or decayed pieces of the walls , rewired the whole house for the most modern electrical model and checked the water lines and septic situation all in under four hours. I found it crazy how efficient thepany was at this job that might take purely humans a whole day or two normally. Still I gave the Machoke a wide grin and a pose when they packed up and left after they finished up.-


    I wasn''t even a little sorry for it at all as it was just too fun to see the enthusiasm the mon had when they left. I am pretty sure the thing was going to copy that pose whenever it could and cause it''s owner a headache. I suppose it should also be mentioned that May received her starter at the end of this day since it was deemed healthy by Birch finally. It was apparently league regtion that any pokemon caught in the wild to be given out by a professional must undergo a sort of purification process that cleans out any hidden diseases or parasites keeping the rookie trainer safe.-


    I was obviously exempt from any deep checks since if my pokemon had anything like that I would have already caught it but since I hadn''t there was no issue after a small check up. Still the process took a few days so May hadn''t received the runt Treecko till now. Birch looked away in embarrassment after I pointed out the clear bias in his handing out that mon to his daughter. He seemed happy with his decision though so I didn''t bring it up again.

 Brendan

    Brendan


    May had a bit of a rude awakening though when the runt refused to listen to her orders at first and clearly did not respect her at all. I honestly wasn''t all that surprised about since the little dude probably noticed her newness to the whole trainer thing. Considering that it was sorta my fault that the runt had unreasonably high demands for it''s trainer I pulled it aside and exined that I was a freak of nature to put it lightly and that most new trainers will be far worse than me at it. After that it was mostly obedient though did make it clear to May when she made a mistake.-


    The next day after that the furniture and decorationspany came with the stuff that belonged to Normans family that wasn''t personal items. Simple things like the electronics and furniture that they got moved in and set up. This time thepany used Vigoroth for the muscle to move the items. This was the second evolution of the koth species and had a white furred body that looked like a strange mix between a sloth and an ape as it''s limbs ended in long sharp ws but had no fingers.-


    There were a few brown stripes in the middle of it''s back and a red tuff of fur between it''s eyes. An interesting thing to note was that the members of the koth line were notoriouslyzy in both the first and third evolutions but were very powerful. The second evolution was the only one full of energy and thus usable for work like this. The Truck containing the personal items as well as Normans family arrived after that and I got my first look at the protagonist of the games for the Hoenn region.-


    Normans wife was an older but fairly attractive women with brown hair and freckles that waved at me when she spotted me. Normans kid on the other hand had short white hair held up behind a pokeball logo red and ck bandana. He was older than in the games by a good bit but still was simr enough that I recognized him immediately. It was rather funny in my opinion how shocked the guy looked when he saw me , Gaia and Vulcan looking at him from the pasture. I was well aware that I stood out like a sore thumb in terms of both appearance and pokemon and merely waved casually.-


    He went into the house at that point while the pokemon movers did their job and brought in the boxes of personal items. It clearly took them a couple of hours to get unpacked and for the movers to leave but afterwards both the mother and son left their new house to make introductions with the rest of the vige. May left her house shortly after they visited it and headed out of the vige while fiddling with a small red device that anyone who had yed the games aught to recognize , a pokedex. -


    ''It seems she wants to get a headstart on me to work on her pokedex without missing the league. Also I wonder if the Birch will meet the protag in the same way as the games despite me training Sly?'' I wondered calmly from my spot in the pasture. Much like in the game Birch had left the vige early this morning before the moving people and Normans family arrived and should be on his way back now. Unlike in the game however he has Sly with him and as such should not need rescue.-


    Eventually though the two members of the family present worked up the nerve toe introduce themselves to me. I didn''t me them for their hesitance in the matter as my pokemon and I cut an imposing figure. "Hello , I am Haruka and this is my son Brendan. We just moved into the vige as you saw and wanted to introduce ourselves." The woman , Haruka , said nervously. "Pleased to meet both of you and my names Alexander Drake , but I go by Alex. I am afraid there has been a slight misunderstanding however as I am not a resident of the vige. Merely staying till the start of the league season." I said with a warm smile.-


    I wasn''t faking this particr smile though as I was genuinely pleased to meet them or to be more specific Brendan. I don''t know exactly why but it sent a thrill through me to meet a character I had truly invested so much time into. "Anyways the lovelydy and smug pooch here are Gaia and Vulcan respectively and both my own pokemon." I said pointing at my two mons earning a pleased rumble from Gaia and an annoyed snort from Vulcan.-


    Apparently my friendly attitude let the two of them rx considerably as they both lowered their tense shoulders and settled into more of afortable stance. "You must be an amazing trainer to have such pokemon right?" Brendan asked with bright eyes that showed his interest in the matter. I chuckled and shook my head "Sorry to disappoint you but I am actually a totally new trainer. I got both of these two through a few strokes of good luck before I even got set out on my journey officially. I just needed to lose most of my memories and survive in the wild first is all." I said with a shrug.-


    "Lose your memories?" Haruka asked confused. I repeated the exact same story I told to Birch to them and they looked horrified. "Goodness that must be terrible to not remember anything and find yourself in the wilderness like that!" Haruka eximed after I finished my story and Brendan nodded in agreement. I smiled "Like I said it''s not all that bad since I met these two as a result and am in a better position than I would normally be before my journey." I said honestly.-


    "What about your family? Wouldn''t they be worried?" Haruka asked seriously. I shook my head "I''m an orphan as far as my id says so not at all." I answered with a shrug. "You''ve just had a big move so take a moment to rx , I''m fine I promise." I said reassuringly. They left after that but I kept an eye on the entrance of the vige for Birches return. When he finally walked into view with Sly walking on alert next to him I realized that the events of the story weren''t going to happen exactly the same.-


    I approached the man calmly since I had made up my mind on leaving the vige the next day. "Ah Alex! what can I help you with?" Birch asked with a smile. "I just figured I should let you know that I will be leaving after my workout tomorrow and thank you for all your help before I did." I said honestly. Birch didn''t seem all that surprised by what I said "Honestly speaking I had expected you to leave before now as even a blind man could see how restless you and your pokemon were getting." He said with a chuckle.

 New pokemon

    New pokemon


    "That obvious huh?" I asked with a sigh and he nodded "Yup , started to get really bad in your pokemons cases about a week ago." Birch said honestly. I knew what he was talking about and couldn''t really me them for it either. Both Gaia and Vulcan had been going stir crazy after not being able to train the way they wanted to and were starting to re at absolutely everyone but me as a result. This wasn''t to say they didn''t understand why we were staying here for the moment as well as why we couldn''t train effectively though.-


    To be honest I am pretty sure it was only this understanding that stopped them from turning violent. "They''ll settle down once we can go back to training while on the road." I said and he nodded in understanding. "Before you go I have a bit of a favor to ask if it''s not too much trouble" Birch said seriously. "Depends on what it is but I see no problem hearing you out." I said curiously. I very much doubted that he was going to ask me to fill in the pokedex since that sort of thing wouldn''t interest me all that much and he knew this.-


    "If you see May out in the wilderness , try and help her if she needs it alright?" Birch requested hopefully. "Just that? I would have done that even if you hadn''t asked , but I doubt she will see much of me if at all since I won''t be sticking to the routes." I said with a chuckle. Birch looked surprised at this for a moment "I suppose I shouldn''t have been surprised by this since the wilderness is far more dangerous than the routes and will help you train up your pokemon faster." he said with a sigh.-


    "Just remember to be careful out there as it would be a shame if you died needlessly." Birch warned sternly. "I''m adventurous not suicidal , if I don''t think I can handle a situation I''ll run away. No point being stubborn when it doesn''t benefit me at all." I said with a reassuring smile. He looked relieved to hear me say that and bid me farewell for the night. I wasn''t lying to him when I said I''d run away if I didn''t think I could handle a situation as I wanted to have my name spoken throughout the whole world and being dead sorta prevents that.-


    I stopped by Lees store and blew thest of my money stocking up on status healers , potions and cooking ingredients since it would be a few days at the minimum till I reached the next vige or town. Most of that will likely just be me training up the newest member of my party , whatever that may be. I''ll also need to let Vulcan and Gaia terrorize the nearby pokemon for a bit to calm them down , which while a bit cruel is necessary.-


    After eating dinner my team and I went to sleep eager to hit the road again the next day and see what the system gives me to work with. Okay thatst one might have just been on me but to be fair it was just way too damn interesting for me not to get excited over it. I was honestly hoping for a water type or even an ice type to cover the massive fucking weakness my current team has. The night passed by uneventfully and we woke up nice and early like usual and I got started with my intense workout excited for what the day had in store.-


    Surprisingly Birch and May came to see us off after my workout which left me with a small but genuine smile. It was a cloudless morning as My team and I traveled down the dirt path out of the vige. Once we were a good few miles away and sure that nobody was following us I finally epted the rewards from the quest. This caused nine tickets to appear in my bag that I was holding in front of me at the moment three exp tickets , five item tickets and a pokemon ticket.-


    I immediately wasted no time at all tearing the pokemon ticket apart causing the wheel to appear in the system menu. I watched impatiently as the wheel spun for an entire minute before frowning when it stopped. I got a Caterpie of all things from the system but I controlled my irritation as the second wheel that decided if the pokemon would be a variant showed up and immediately started to spin. Another minuteter and I sighed in relief as itnded on "yes" which while not as good as my luck with Gaia was still good.-


    The final wheel started to spin to show me what the variation would be and I prayed to RNGESUS that it was a mere shiny variation. There was nothing wrong with shinie4s of course but other than a different color scheme they had no other advantage besides being more talented really. My prayers were heard it seems as the variation the wheelnded on was "defense" which was interesting as it was my first time seeing a stat variant pokemon. In my bag a new pokeball appeared that was much the same as Gaia''s ck and white one.-


    Thankfully pokeballs had an in built swapping mechanism that sent a pokemon from one ball to another so long as the owner of the pokemon agreed. This meant that I could openly carry my newest pokemons ball on my belt without having to exin how I got another ball like Gaia''s. After I swapped the Caterpie to a normal pokeball I bound it to myself and released it from the ball. What the red energy solidified into admittedly caught me off guard as while the green color and pale yellow underbelly were the same as a normal member of the species it''s shape was anything but.-


    Unlike the round squishy bodies that Caterpie were known for my pokemon had hard looking squarish body segments that tapered seamlessly from one to the other with the tiniest tip of the tail being pyramid like. The head was the only part that remained looking like a normal Caterpies if you ignored the red Y shaped thing on it''s forehead now looking like a snowke that wrapped around it''s round head. Once I got over the strange look of the pokemon I pulled up it''s status sheet to look over and felt my jaw hit the floor at what I saw.-


    [Pokemon: Caterpie


    LEVEL:1


    Moveset: String shot(N) , Tackle(N) ,


    Variations: Defensive


    Attack:50


    Defense:100


    Sp. Atk:38


    Sp. Def:85


    Speed:35


    Ability: Shield dust(N)]


    ''This damn thing is a fucking tank , dear Christ both it''s special and regr defenses are higher than even Gaia''s!'' I thought is disbelief. I looked down at the foot long giant caterpir creature and saw that it looked insufferably smug. I had gotten good at figuring out the emotions of pokemon based on their eyes and posture since I came to this world which is why I understood the expression it had.

 Tank and alchemy

    Tank and alchemy


    "If you aren''t already aware I am your new trainer , Alex. These two are Gaia and Vulcan and currently have a huge headstart on you in terms of training." I said and the Caterpie nodded in understanding. "Pi! Caterpie! Cat!" the creatures said and I was not surprised at all to get the rough trantion that he wanted a badass name. "Why do my pokemon always want awesome names? Do you all have any idea how hard it is to think of stuff like this on the fly!?" I asked in exasperation. -


    None of my pokemon seemed to care about my plight though so i could only give myself a headache trying to think of a mythical butterfly name. Fun fact there aren''t that many and most of them are tongue twisters or simply don''t fit in this case. "Fuck it I got nothing! What about Tank?" I offered and surprisingly enough the bug type was fine with that name. ''I give up , pokemon have weird naming senses.'' I mentallyined. "Well since we got that out of the way it''s time to close the gap between you and these two. Fair warning it''s probably going to be very unpleasant , apologies in advance." I said while tearing the three exp tickets and targeting my newest pokemon.-


    Tank didn''t even get to try an reject this idea before the wave of new experiences got crammed into it''s head giving it a sharp headache. Three exp tickets was the equivalent of experiencing three whole weeks worth of nothing but training. Needless to say Tank went from level one to level thirty immediately. Caterpie as a species were much like Weedle in that they did not naturally learn any moves until after evolving. As a result Tanks mastery of his only two moves shot up three ranks instantly as that experience went straight to them alone.-


    That meant his originally novice level mastery had gone straight to expert level mastery within five minutes of me getting him , gods I love my system. "CATERPIE!" Tank yelled at me angrily but I ignored the livid mons cursing. "Alrighty then now we just need to stuff your face with food until your body has enough to hold you through your Metapod stage and get you to evolve. Your species eat nts exclusively right?" I asked afterying out my n. Tank calmed itself and nodded once he figured out that I wouldn''t apologize again for that bad experience.-


    "Well that simplifies things considerably as I will just need to give you a few berries every night until you automatically evolve." I said before picking up the surprisingly heavy pokemon and setting him on my shoulder. Yeah unlike most first stage pokemon both Caterpie and Weedle don''t actually need to have a stimulus to evolve during either the first or second evolutions. Instead they need time and resources to be almost guaranteed to reach their final form. The trade off for this however was that like most bug types they have very short lifespans living at most to ten years old before dying.-


    Still bug types were well known for their fast learning and growth abilities that made it a matter of serious effort to turn them into powerhouses. Sadly they were an unpopr choice amongst most trainers who had a choice in the matter due to their short lifespans. The thought of going through thick and thin with a pokemon only to watch helplessly as it grew feeble before eventually passing away stung at the mind and made many avoid that type for exactly that reason.-


    I had prepared myself for this fate when I agreed to train whatever showed up in my random selector. Besides I didn''t need to worry about any of that stuff for several years at minimum so I let it go for now. On a positive note I didn''t need to worry about training Tank in battle until he became a Butterfree as he simply wouldn''t be able to learn any moves until that point. While this meant I was pretty much free to focus on Gaia and Vulcans training as there was no point in battling Tank it also meant I still had a huge type weakness in my team and as such needed yet another pokemon.-


    Left with little choice in the matter I traded eight berries with the system to get two tickets. What I got was an item ticket and a skill ticket. While we traveled I tore the skill ticket and waited for the wheel to stop not really paying attention to it until I saw what I got , alchemy. ''Praise RNGESUS!'' I thought while fist bumping the air. I didn''t even need to wait for the knowledge of the skill to pour into my head to know what this skill was used for.-


    Alchemy was the skill that paid the highest out of literally any in this world other than maybe being a CEO as they were the ones responsible for making all the potions and healing medicines sold globally. They were also amongst the most terrifying people on the because just as they made things to heal they could just as easily make poisons with effects that would make you wish for a quick death instead. There was just one tiny little problem with bing an alchemist , the start up cost was astronomical.-


    For those with only basic level knowledge of the skill you needed not only a set of equipment that consisted of arge mortar and pestle , arge alembic , sks , calcinator and a retort. I looked it up previously out of curiosity and hissed at the price of a good set of equipment , ten thousand poke. The absolute minimum for doing anything in the skill was to have a mortar and pestle that could be used to make balms and salves with weak effects. Despite this price set back I was very happy to have the skill as it would not only save me a lot of money in the long run but would also earn far more once I get good at it.-


    In a good mood from my new skill I tore apart the six item tickets I had to see what I got. First was another pair of shorts , then a full heal , everstone , grade 3 moonstone , amulet coin and final a pink scarf(A/N: been getting a lot of these LOL!). I Traded away the scarf and everstone immediately as I had no use for these things getting me two more tickets , an ability ticket and a pokemon ticket(A/N: a literal 5 out of 145 chance urrence on both of those , I really want this dudes luck.).-


    I Immediately decided that I didn''t want to gamble anymore today as A: I was sorta traumatized by the ability tickets and B: my luck was way too good for a left turn to not being for my ass out of nowhere. Was I being superstitious , yes I was. Should I be , you are gods damned right I should! Superstition can only be healthy in a world with literal gods in it that can have a bad day and make it everyone else''s problem.

 Iron town

    Iron town


    Just because I couldn''t train Tank for battle at the moment didn''t mean I wouldn''t be forcing him to work on energy maniption. I am actually pretty sure that even if he couldn''t learn any more moves until be bes a Butterfree other than harden that this training wille in handyter. Tank was all for it too since he agreed that just sitting on my shoulder stuffing his face constantly with berries wasn''t the absolute best use of his time. Still the only types of energy he had avable to him at the moment was bug and normal since he only had those two as moves.-


    With that all nned out I turned to focus on Gaia and Vulcan as we traveled towards the nearest settlement. Patches of the forest and ground along the way were destroyed when they went all out in their spars. We stopped a total of three times since the sun was going down and none of us wanted to travel at night. On the third day we traveled through the forest until we got onto the main road and I put both Vulcan and Gaia in their balls after having to argue with them over it.-


    Sadly there was an actualw that said it was illegal to have pokemon over a certain size out with you in any settlementbeled town or higher by the league. Thebel for settlements was based on the amount of people living in it with a minimum poption of a hundred needed to be considered a town and viges being under that. A city byparison required at least ten thousand residents to count. Finally there was the hub cities of the world that had over one million residents at minimum , there were at least eight in every region with a gym circuit.-


    The ce I was walking towards however was only a town with about three hundred people living there named Iron town. It showed too as there was not only a pokemart and pokecenter but there were many buildings that looked different from the others in design and several shops for various goods. Tank didn''t need to be put in his ball as a small size pokemon and thus got to marvel at the town in person while my other two had to settle for the view that the ball gave them.-


    Modern pokeballs were interesting in that they somehow allowed the pokemon inside them to view their surroundings. How that worked was beyond me but it did so I wasn''t going toin. Still it was clear to see why this town was named thanks to the many chimneys on the majority of the buildings. There was a lot of weapons and other metal works to be seen just walking into the town that in addition to the heavy scent of smoke made me grin. ''Looks like I can get a good spear while I am here , but first I should head to the pokecenter to check their posted jobs.''-


    ''I''d prefer not selling any of my resources this early in my journey.'' I thought as I walked towards the clean shiny white and red building in the distance. Pokecenters were not just a ce you went to in order to get your pokemon seen to medically but also worked as an inn and job center for trainers registered with the league. The medical services were covered by the league but the other two were the Joy ns money making business as they charged per night and took a cut of the profits from the jobs if there was any.-


    The league turned a blind eye to this as the n had perfectly reasonable rates for both of them that nearly all trainers could ept. I drew quite a lot of attention to myself as I walked through the town but chose to ignore it. With my unusual height and appearance I had long since epted the attention I was going to get. To be fair though the variant Caterpie on my shoulder munching on a Cheri berry probably didn''t help matters at all.-


    I didn''t need to duck to enter the pokecenter automatic doors and still had a couple feet over my head to boot. It didn''t surprise me since the standard for the size of the pokecenter had to be veryrge to amodate nearly any type of pokemon in case of emergency. The trainers and staff inside the center all stared at me for a moment when I entered but the long time trainers or staff quickly rposed themselves. I approached one of the avable counters maned by a woman with long green hair and eyes that had pale skin and freckles on her face.-


    She was fairly attractive all things considered but she was pure business when I approached. "Good afternoon. What can I help you with today?" she said in a friendly but professional manner while craning her head to look up at me. "Hello , I am slightly low on funds and would like to look at the avable job postings if that is possible." I said with a friendly smile. "Is there any preferences for the type of missions?" she asked while opening a drawer in the desk and leafing through some papers. "Nothing long term please. I am merely passing through the town." I exined calmly and she hummed in acknowledgement before pulling out a small stack of papers.-


    "You may sit over there while you look through these , if you find one you''d like to take let me know so I can make a copy of it and mark you down on file as having epted it." the woman said while pointing at a table that had a couch next to it. "Thank you for the help." I said with a nod and headed over to that area to take a seat and sort through the pile.-


    The jobs were both mundane and not in equal parts with a suspicious amount looking like household chores that didn''t even need someone to be a trainer to aplish. Things like painting a house or babysitting were even on the job sheets! There were a few jobs though that definitely needed a trainer to take care of such as clearing out a Rattata infestation and hunting Pidgeys for their meat. There was one job though that paid fairly well and I knew was a rare opportunity that I decided to take which prompted a quest from the system.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have chosen to ept a job from the local pokecenter so do it right!


    Objectives: Capture a member of the species specified as a starter for the client(Vulpix) , have ite without a battle(optional) , Teach it a move(optional)


    Rewards: 12000x Poke , 1x item ticket(optional) , 4000x Poke(optional)


    Time limit: seven days]


    ''So any job I take also triggers a mission in the system huh? Neat.'' I thought before carefully stacking the job papers and walking back to the clerk. "I would like to take this job please." I said while handing over the paper with the details on it while the stack was ce to the side. The woman nced over the job before typing something out on herputer and asking for my I.D card. After swiping the I.D through a card reader she handed it back and wished me luck on the job.

 Vulpix and Ninetales

    Vulpix and Nales


    Unlike in the games where pokemon only showed up in certain ces depending on their species this was reality and many species of pokemon could be found in ces that suited them but was far from where they would be found in the game. Vulpix in this case tended to live anywhere that was decently cold or oddly enough very hot. Iron town for example was built near one of the "hot" spots of the Hoenn region that was a fiery and scorched ce from the regr up flow ofva. This thankfully was a known location where a skulk of Vulpix and Nales lived.-


    I set off from the town in the direction of this hot spot while also making sure to release both Gaia and Vulcan when far enough from it not to be fined. We got some stares from the town patrols on the perimeter of the tall strong fences of the town. As much as people would prefer it to be otherwise it wasn''t all sunshine when living in a world of pokemon as sometimes an asshole will do something to piss off the nearby pokemon and as a result cause a break.-


    Breaks were what happened when the nearby pokemon gathered together and decided to attack the nearest human settlement for whatever reason. More often than not it was the humans fault they happened as someone would steal an egg from the most powerful tribe nearby or steal an item or simply go on a killing spree for a specific pokemon species and fuck up the bnce of the ecosystem. Whatever the case they were very bad news most of the time as very seldom do the pokemonprising the break want to talk about the issue first before choosing violence.-


    That was where these fences came in as they were very resistant to pokemon attacks in order to allow the residents to bunker down or flee from a break. Anyways we traveled to the north east of the town and I noticed the temperature and environment slowly start to shift. The air went from very warm and humid to swelteringly hot and dry while the nts pretty much vanished as the ground turned to hard ck volcanic stone with cracks that spewed intense skin meltingly hot currents of air. Both Tank and myself were very ufortable in such an environment while Gaia and Vulcan were right at home.-


    I was thankful that I remembered to keep a few empty potion bottles around to fill with water at this point as the spray nozzle made it easy to mist up Tank and I to stay cool. I might have fairly high resistance to heat but I wasn''t a pokemon so heat in the one hundred and beyond range was miserable for me. Tank wasn''t much better as he was both a bug type weak to fire as well as usually found in a forest where the temps were pretty low.-


    To save him from unnecessary suffering I ced him in his pokeball at this point and headed further into the area. It didn''t take me long to find traces of the Vulpix and Nales in the area as they left behind fur on some of the sharp rocks that they seemed to like brushing themselves against tob out the shed fur on them. My first meeting with a Vulpix in this area didn''t go so great as I stumbled upon a couple in mid "Act" and didn''t need to understand pokespeech to know I got cursed out vividly.-


    Vulpix were actually fairly normal looking as far as appearance was concerned as they basically were medium breed dog sized foxes with dark rust colored fur and a puffy crest of fur on the top of their heads. The interesting thing about the species was that they had two way to evolve into a Nales. The first was through a fire stone which was very straight forward and thus didn''t need any exnation. The second however was very hard to pull off for the species as they don''t get the long lifespans until after they evolved.-


    See depending on their strength and skill a Vulpix will have between one and eight different tails. The very powerful ones have eight and if they push themselves even further they gain the ninth tail and evolve. The difference between the two different evolutions was like night and day as a stone evolution had an innate weakness unless a grade five or six stone was used in which case they were stronger. But in the effort evolution the resulting Nales was head and shoulders more powerful in all regards than a stone evolved one. The reason for this was the multiplicative effect of evolution on ones strength or traits.-


    See a Nales evolved from a effort based method was already as powerful as a standard stone evolved Nales BEFORE it evolved. This means that after evolving that power basically triples which makes that method way superior. I myself was rather unwilling to try and evolve a Vulpix with this method due to how excruciatingly slow it was to aplish. I''m talking nearly two decades of back breaking training to aplish slow. The upsides were simply not worth it in my opinion as I''d rather just buy a grade five or six stone and get simr results in a fraction of the time.-


    The currently known most powerful Nales was a very special case in which it was trained to the absolute limit but used an everstone to not evolve after getting it''s ninth tail. Instead it and it''s trainer waited for a grade six firestone to enter the market before using the stone AND the effort to evolve. The resulting Nales was the only one known to actually directly step into the realm of pseudo legendary power after evolving. To put that into perspective EVERY pseudo legendary is rated at grade eight danger level once fully evolved and that''s without training.-


    That same Nales was considered one of the guardian pokemon of Johto these days and was at the peak of champion rank power publicly. I had a suspicion that it was actually more powerful than that but the pokemon league didn''t want people to know that such power was obtainable. Got sorta off topic there for a moment but anyways I finally found a newborn Vulpix after a lot of searching and started the grueling process of bribing the thing until it let me catch it without a fight.-


    As it turned out learning a move from Vulcan was all the bribery required for the small one tailed fire type. The move it learned was sunny day because I honestly think every grass and fire type needs to know this move. For grass types this plus synthesis and sr beam is a kick assbination that covers buffs , attacks and healing in a nice neat manner. For fire types it was because the move boosts all fire type moves which is kinda the whole point of having one in my opinion. Don''t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a fire type knowing other move types but a fire type will almost always be better at their own typing.

 Aura smith

    Aura smith


    Once the Vulpix got down the basics of sunny day I captured it without any struggle and made my way back to town. Despite them grumbling about it Gaia and Vulcan were also returned to their balls while Tank was released and took his ce on my shoulder. I still had people stare at me when I walked through the town but it wasn''t as bad as the first time since it wasn''t my first appearance here anymore. I approached the job turn in desk that was manned by a male member of the Joy n surprisingly enough as the man had soft features and short smooth pink hair.-


    It was almost creepy how effeminate he was which showed me the terrible sway a legendary held over something asplex as gics. The quest couldn''t bepleted immediately as per league regtions the Vulpix needed to go through a decontamination process before the client that posted the job could get their new pokemon. Thankfully I was paid half of the payment upfront as my part of the job was done in a timely and smooth manner. Once the client received the Vulpix I would receive the second half as well as finish my quest.-


    I noticed that the reward from the system involved in the mandatory part had also halved to six thousand from the original twelve. '' Guess the system won''t let me get paid twice for the same job.'' I thought with a shrug. It simply didn''t bother me at all to learn this as it made perfect sense. After that I left the pokecenter and looked around for a weapon shop to try and get a read on a good spear. The trouble came in the form of having too many options to choose from as the town was a metal worker gathering hub.-


    There was simply so many different metal workers selling their crafts that I had trouble choosing only one. ''Whatever I''ll just start with the closest and work my way down.'' I eventually decided and walked towards the small shop directly across from the pokecenter. I opened the door and sighed after looking around as there was not a single spear located in the store at all. I wasn''t all that surprised to be honest as I had looked up what the mostmonly used weapons were on the pokenav and spears weren''t even in the top five.-


    The list went longsword , short sword , dagger , cestus and axe at the top and spear ranking at the eight ce which was rather sad given how useful it was. That first shop clearly operated based on this knowledge and only had the top five mostmon weapons stocked. I grew more and more irritated as I went through the shops one by one however as most of them followed this same rule. The few that didn''t mostly sold gimmick things like shuriken , senbon(A/N: throwing needles) and other "ninja" gear.-


    I was honestly close to losing hop on find a spear for sale when I happened to identally find something unusual , aura. I could feel someone using aura nearby and let my curiosity get the better of me. They were sloppy and unrefined which was the only reason I knew that whoever it was wasn''t trained in the skill but likely used it naturally. Such people were rare but not unheard of and tended to go unnoticed unless they tried showing off as traveling aura masters were obviously not amon thing. From the aura I was sensing this person seemed to be a fairly old man as his aura was mature and veryrge from years of use.-


    The sound of metal striking metal grew louder as I walked towards the source of the aura and I quirked an eyebrow when I realized what the aura was being used for. ''The smith is channeling his aura into his works , how odd. Doesn''t he know that only an aura master would be able to wield such a weapon?'' I wondered curiously. The source of the aura was a small building with an old decayed sign out front that read in faded letters {Motetsu metalworks}.-


    I pulled open the sliding wooden door to the building and I felt the confusion in the aura user as they suppressed their aura back within themselves. Even better was that as I looked around the clearly disused shop I spotted a few spears amongst the dusty shelves. I wasted no time at all walking over to those spears and blowing away the thickyer of dust on them. My eyes widened and I grinned when I saw the spears. Perfectly straight handles , integrated de tip , round bnced pummels and a sort of vitality to the wood even though it had clearly been sitting for a while.-


    They were masterworks one and all and I eagerly picked one of them up but frowned at the weight and length. "They are too small for someone like youd." an old rough voice said from my left and I turned to get a look at this hidden aura smith. It was an old man with dark skin and no hair at all that was covered in caked on soot from long exposure to smoke. What caught my attention however was the mans sharp green eyes that were tracing my physique with clear confusion.-


    "Spears huh? Rather unpopr choice I must say. Any particr reason for it?" The old man asked while roughly clearing off the counter from dust and debris. "It''s what I have trained with." I stated honestly. I was curious about this old mans opinion on the matter and smirked at his response. "Sticking to what you know huh? Nothing wrong with that!" the old man said with a chuckle. "Know where I can get a spear that''ll fit me , I''ve been all over this town and no one even stocks the things. I only found you because you were being loud." I said with a grin.-


    The old man scoffed "No louder than any other craftsman in this town." he said dismissively. I raised my right hand and red my aura brightly across it for a moment before bringing the energy back into my body. "I wasn''t referring to the sound." I said with a smirk. The old man sighed "An aura master of all things. Never thought I''d run into one of your lot out here in the middle of nowhere. Felt me use the stuff I take it?" he asked and I nodded.-


    "Tell you whatd , you keep my aura to your self and I''ll help you craft a spear for a discount. Deal?" he offered and I nodded though slightly confused. "Why would I need to help in the creation of the spear?" I asked curiously. "It''s the weightd , my bodies no good at carrying heavy things any more so you''ll need to help me carry the materials and move them when necessary." the old man exined and I nodded in understanding. After that we held a discussion on what sort of spear I wanted and had to settle on the materials.

 Making the spear

    Making the spear


    For the wooden handle I chose Sinnohen ironwood which was an incredibly heavy and durable form of ironwood found on the slopes of Mt. Cor. It was actually a very popr wood for martial artist to build training dummies out of because it was durable enough to withstand attacks from pokemon bellow tier 4 danger level. This meant that even while superhuman levels of strength are used on these dummies they don''t break. Unfortunately the tree while it is alive is far more durable and thus much harder to harvest creating a hefty price tag for a wood.-


    For the head of my new spear I didn''t actually get a choice in the matter as the old man made the choice for me. "This hammer head has been with me for almost sixty years now , care to take a guess at how it''s managed to hold up so long?" the old man asked while showing me a heavily cked hammer with unusual vein-like patterns on it. I admit that I may have cheated a bit and observed it with the system but what I found left me dumbfounded as I had never expected it.-


    [Item name: Aura pulsed hammer


    Grade: 4


    Description: A in steel hammer that has soaked in aura for a long period of time and transformed into a new material with high aura conductivity and strength. The veins on it''s side are the external pathways that allow aura to flow smoothly.]


    The old man smirked at my dumbfounded expression after I read the description of the hammer. "I can tell you''ve figured it out , this hammer head here has been remade after I started to send my aura through it while smithin all those years ago. I''m an old mand and I''ve got no loved ones to inherit this hammer and carry on my legacy. Way I see it if I reforge this here hammer head into the head of a spear it might just reach even greater heights under an aura master like you." The old man said with a nostalgic look at the hammer.-


    So it was that two of the three parts of the spear were decided and the final part , the pummel , came next. I did get to decide what was used for that and I chose a hard Aggron alloy which was the shed carapace of an Aggron melted down into a useable metal alloy. It should probablye as no surprise to learn that the shed parts or hunted parts of pokemon was heavily utilized in this worlds crafting. The materials were almost always superior to man made ones and no normal animals could even begin topare usually.-


    The Aron line was always popr with smiths because the steel types would shed off their carapace that was made of all the metallic ores and particles they had eaten since thest shed perfectly blended together into strong alloys. The smith using the collected shed merely needed to melt it down and they got a perfect material for armors and weapons. "Well now that we got all that out of the way it''s time to get the handle and pommel sorted before we reforge my hammers head." the old man said and motioned me to follow him to the back of the shop.-


    I saw the unfinished de still sitting on the anvil glowing faintly from the slowly dissipating heat in it. There was also very little else in the working area besides the tools of the trade and therge furnace that was still burning steadily near the anvil. The old man walked over to a side of the workshop area and pulled open a sliding door to reveal long rectangr pieces of wood with dust on them from clear disuse.-


    "I stocked up on spear handle wood years ago but never got around to using it all , luck for you Sinnohen ironwoods amongst them." The old man exined and ran a finger across each of the pieces of wood until he found the one he was after. "This one here , eight foot long and taken from the center of the tree so it''s the oldest and strongest piece of the batch." He said and I walked over and strained myself slightly as I picked it up.-


    ''It''s just as heavy as I hoped.'' I thought satisfied while I carried the timber over to the wood carving table towards the back of the room. Dust flew into the air as I set the wood down and the old man got to work cutting it down to fit my requirements. He directly cut off a foot of the foot for a perfect seven foot long piece. Then he started to slowly and methodically shave off the corners until the wood looked kinda like a telephone pole.-


    He then kept shaving off more and more of the wood until it was roughly as big around as a soda can and perfectly straight. The old man then sanded the pole down until it was smooth and grabbed a tin of oil and a tin of wax that he polished onto the handle for weather and use resistance. To my surprise the old man grabbed the hot unfinished de I saw earlier and directly tossed it into the furnace. "It was aggron alloy and after your spear it wouldn''t have been finished since my hammer would be gone." the old man exined calmly.-


    I didn''t talk as we waited for the metal to heat up to the point of being nearly liquid. To reminded me a bit of those blown ss videos I saw before I died in how the very hot metal behaved. The old man paid it no attention though and struck it with his hammer until it was condensed into a dense orb with a hole in the center of it. To my surprise he then had me bring over the handle where he measured the hole with the end of the handle. He then expanded the hole until the handle looked like it would fit snug.-


    The old man then took a groove making tool to the hole so that that it looked like something that would take a screw. He then proceeded to press the handle into the hole while having me twist it slowly to force the handle to follow the groove as it went in. "Now run your aura through the handle down here so that the wood can heal in ce." he ordered and I did so confused.-


    To my surprise the dry and dead wood immediately brightened up and seemed toe alive in my hand as I poured my aura into it at the bottom. The wood even swelled slightly which exined what he was talking about when he said heal. After that the old man took another hammer to his hammer to knock the handle out and free up the head. This time he ced the hammer head into a crucible and ced the crucible in the furnace. Once the head melted he grabbed a mold from nearby and poured the metal into it.

 Rain

    Rain


    The old man sat in his seat next to the anvil while the metal in the mold cooled into shape and he slowly but consistently fed the mold his aura. I noticed that he was starting to get low and suggested I take over while he recovered. He epted this idea and let me pour my aura into the mold in a trickle fashion with majority of it going through the stone and into the metal. It was an unusual feeling as I could sense my aura pressing against the metal and carving new pathways into it''s molten body.-


    When my aura got low the old man who had recovered a bit of his own would take over. We had a total of ten rotations between us before the old man split the mold releasing the still hot but solid spear head. It was about six inches long from the tip to the base that would attach to the handle and looked a elongated great white shark tooth. The metal was still glowing from the heat so I couldn''t tell what color it was but I could definitely see the vein-like patterns on it''s external surface.-


    The old man attached the head in the same way as he did the pommel and had me "heal" the wooden handle firmly into ce. After that he spent the next hour carefully polishing the head of the spear into a fine razors edge. "There''s onest stepd , you need to flood this weapon with your aura. Not just one part of it though but the whole thing at once , gives it a special something and as your weapon its only right you finish it." The old man said while holding the spear up firmly despite his body protesting against the strain.-


    This was by no means a light weapon as it easily weighed over a sixty pounds at this point. I had little trouble holding it with one hand and sat down on the ground cross legged holding it over myp with both hands. I closed my eyes and pushed my aura into the handle while I meditated. My reserves drained and replenished themselves in an uneven manner at first before I fine tuned the flow so that I always regained more aura then I was losing by a small margin.-


    Slowly and gently my aura spread through the wooden handle from my hands. The spear was like an insatiable abyss as every once of energy was absorbed by the weapon and I felt something strange as time went on. Life , at first just the tiniest flickers at the edge of my perception as I poured my power into the weapon. It was like wisps of smoke in a drafty room as they were nearly unnoticeable. As more and more of the weapon was filled with my aura however that feeling grew stronger and stronger. I don''t know how long I sat there exactly but I opened my eyes when I felt the spear reject anymore energy I sent towards it.-


    What I saw after I opened my eyes left me astonished as the spear had dramatically changed in appearance. The handle had turned from dark brown of the standard ironwood coloration to pure white with veins of blue along it as if it were always there. The connection between the head and pommel of the spear had also been covered by a smoothyer of wood as if the handle grew to incorporate them. The vein-like patterns of the head had also turned white and glowing as if to match my aura color.-


    "Final it''s done , my greatest and final work. What will you name itd?" the old man asked softly. "Omega , thest thing it''s foes will ever see." I said with a smile and was surprised to feel the spear itself hum after I spoke as if it agreed with that name. "A fine named. My ghost will rest easy now." the old man said with satisfaction. I frowned hearing him however "What do you mean?" I asked confused and having a bad feeling about what his answer might be.-


    "It is a gift that those attuned with aura have , we can feel when our lives are reaching their end. Lets us prepare for it and settle things before we go. I have felt my ending for some timed , any day now I suspect my spark will fadepletely." The old man said with a smile. "You never intended to take payment for the spear did you?" I asked with a small amount of sadness. It hurt you know , to feel this emotion after years of apathy , this wretched ache in my chest. "Ha! No need to mourn med I''ve had a good life." The old man said with augh and a smile.-


    Thinking on it I couldn''t help but understand<em>why</em> I was saddened to hear of his impending end. Something about him just clicked with me , like a friend I made immediately and had to part with far too soon. ''Loneliness.'' I realized. Like me the old man was alone in the world and epted that. Sure I had my pokemon and even the people I met and befriended in this world like Birch and May. But as far as I knew I was the only person in this entire world not actually from this world , a singr existence like no other.-


    In a manner of speaking the old man was simrly lonely and I connected with that knowledge. I didn''t doubt that the old man did not feel the same since he definitely didn''t know my situation. I left the old mans shop after that with my new spear and a dull ache that wouldn''t go away. For the first time in as long as I can remember I felt RAGE. Rage at this ache in my chest and rage at myself for being so powerless , that I could do nothing to stop the old mans death.-


    His time wasing and no matter how much I wished it so , Time waited for no man. I was in a foul mood over the next three days as I took jobs from the pokecenter and visited the old man on a daily basis to check up on him. On the fourth day I found him still in bed past noon with a smile on his face , dead. I informed the member of the Joy n in the pokecenter of this and they verified it.-


    The funeral was two dayster and it came as little surprise to me that besides that same Joy n member and the person in charge of burials I was the only person attending. It rained that day and I let the water wash over me as I stood vigil besides the fresh grave as a sign of respect. I could see the worry on the Joy n member but in the end the pink haired woman left me alone. That was fine as well since I didn''t need pity or support , merely silence to clear my head and move forward.

 First battle

    First battle


    ''I can''t afford to stay still like this , I suppose I should use those two tickets on the way to the next town.'' I thought afterpleting my daily workout which at the same time the system handed out my five item tickets before resetting the quest for the next week. The only reason I was even still in iron town was because the Vulpix I caught previously was only going to it''s new home today and the rest of my payment wille through along with the quest. Apathy is a bit funny in how hard it is to shake of after it gets ahold of you.-


    Even after that whole episode of sadness and anger I almost fell into the calm numbness of apathy again. I say almost because Tank noticed it and bitch pped some sense into me , let me tell you that bug can hit hard. I was grateful nheless as I knew that the longer I was still gued by this problem the longer it will take me to make progress in my aura. Speaking of aura my new spear was almost able to be considered a conduit weapon with how smoothly it allowed my aura to travel through it.-


    There was a slight irritation that came with my new spear however in the form of the smiths in this town trying to buy it off of me. Most were polite if a bit shifty about it but some actually sent thugs after me to force me to hand it over. In an unrted note a local gang was found in an alley with their heads crushed and the walls covered in blood , the Jenny n officer on the case thinks it was a rogue fighting type.-


    "It would take an inhuman amount of force and precision to cause so much damage to a persons skull without anyone knowing." she had said to the journalist writing an article on the subject. I was hanging out in the reception area of the pokecenter when a in looking man with short blonde hair and a eager look came in. The guy looked about Brendans age from my guess and judging from theck of pokeballs it was easy to tell what his business in the center probably was. I was right as it turns out as the guy was here to pick up the Vulpix I caught for him days ago.-


    I watched the guys first interaction with the fox to see if he needed to "lose it" identally. I might not have many feelings but that didn''t mean I was just going to let an abusive or cruel person have a pokemon that I caught. My intervention was clearly not necessary however as the guy got along well with the fox and had even brought several kinds of snacks for it since he couldn''t decide what to get apparently. Seeing that I chose to ignore the rest of that and focus on reading the regional newspaper for Hoenn to get a read on the happenings.-


    That n went out the window however when a nervous male voice spoke from in front of my table. "Um , can we um , battle , maybe?" it asked softly. If my hearing wasn''t quite good I don''t even think I would have heard it. "Ha." I sighed before folding my newspaper and looking at the speaker. It came as no surprise to me that it was none other than the guy who got the Vulpix. "Did you notice how the little Vixen at your feet is trying to pull you away from me? There''s a very good reason for that." I said calmly.-


    "I thought she was being yful." the guy said confused. "A tip for the future , eyes wide , ears pinned back and tail lowered while trying to back away are all signs your pokemon is frightened. The reason for that in this case is because your pokemon has seen the rest of my team when I captured her and knows that she stands no chance against the other two." I exined calmly. The guy looks at his pokemon in surprise while the nervous creature nods vigorously under his gaze.-


    "I see , thank you for entrusting her to me." he says politely with a bow. I can tell that he was truly grateful as well from his auraso I waved it off. "It was just a job I took no need to thank me , I can tell you are itching to start your trainer career off with a bang. So how about I do you a favor and let your little vixen go a few rounds with tank here. He is the only one of my pokemon that she might actually have a chance to win against." I offered with smile.-


    I wasn''t lying either as Tank only had two moves in the form of string shot and tackle and even had a type disadvantage against the fox pokemon. "Really!?" the guy eximed excitedly. ''This dudes way too innocent , harsh lesson it is then.'' I thought without any outwards change in expression. "Sure , if memory serves the center has a battlefield behind it for just such an activity." I said while standing up. The guy suddenly looked a whole lot less interested once he saw how I towered over him in height.-


    I ignored that though and walked over to the Joy n member manning the front desk. She looked up and greeted me warmly. "Good morning Alex , finally going to let me check out those darling pokemon of yours?" she asked with a sweet smile. This particr member of the Joy n was named Rose and had apparently heard from the border patrolmen when I went out to capture the Vulpix what my team wasprised of. Since then she has been bothering me about giving my team a check up at least once a day. "Not today Rose I need to use the battlefield and wanted to let you know before hand in case something happens." I exined with a chuckle at her pout.-


    Rose looked at the guy next to me and then red at me "I won''t be using those two for this , just Tank here!" I exined hurriedly. Rose might be as sweet as pie normally but she was downright scary if she thought someone was abusing a pokemon. I saw that first hand when a guy brought in a passed out Pidgey that was clearly starved. She went from sweet to vicious in no time t to the point the man started to cry for mercy.-


    The funny part though was that the poor man had only just found it when he was out chopping wood and brought it in for treatment out of the kindness of his own heart. Needless to say Rose certainly lived up to her name as she had some sharp thorns. Anyways once she heard me she brightened right back up like she hadn''t been two seconds away from giving me a harsh tongueshing. She checked the clock on the wall "I have a thirty minute break to use anyways so I will referee your match." she said sweetly with a smile.

 First battle(2)

    First battle(2)


    That reminded me for whatever reason but employment in this world functioned in a very different manner than it did on earth. See here work was very rarely forced onto someone because of cost of living and whatnot. The reason for this was that it was legitimately possible to survive and thrive off of the wilderness around you. The jobs in this world also function ideally as not only are you given a break that you can cash in at anytime but the pay is actually good and not barely enough to scrounge by with.-


    Even better was that the taxes of everything ACTUALLY went towards improving society rather than old bastards who could care less about themon man. The whole world was set up in such a way that everyone who worked did so because they wanted to. Let me tell you with so many people actually willing to put their best foot forward quality of life was stupidly high. This of course brings up the question ''why are there still criminals then?'' the answer to which is that humans are wed beings. See some people in this world either have goals that require less than legal means to obtain or as is so often the case they are simplyzy.-


    Some people would rather take the much easier but morally wrong approach of crime to satisfy their greed than to put in honest hard work for far less. It''s a ssic example of a child reaching into the cookie jar in secret. They don''t want the cookieter when they will get it for good behavior , they want it now and so they steal it instead. Then there is the ss of criminal that has been given the short end of the stick in any given situation and theysh out at the world in response.-


    A good example of this is if a break happens and they lose a love one and rather than ept that it was in bad luck they me the pokemon league for not saving them and seek revenge for their supposed slight. Then there was of course everyone''s personal favorites , the zealots. People who think that their crimes are for the good of the world in some way or another. Team aqua and magma both fall into this category with the exception of a few people in them that might have other reasons for being a criminal.-


    The final type of criminal was the sort I hated the most , the mentally ill. People who get off on the pain and suffering of others and became criminals to satisfy these urges. These people simply can''t hide like they could on earth with all the psychic type pokemon and people in the world. As a result rather than end up with serial killers and rapists that need identifying we end up with knowing who they are but needing to find and catch them since being mentally fucked up doesn''t make you stupid.-


    Anyways Rose using her break to supervise the battle wasn''t a strange thing at all. She led the way to the battlefield behind the pokecenter calmly. Both Tank and I were alsopletely calm as we both knew that there was pretty much no way in hell that we were going to lose. In fact I was certain that it was going to be a blowout in my favor. Tank was at expert level mastery in both of his moves while the dudes Vulpix was about as novice as you could get in all regards.-


    Was it theoretically possible for the guy to win , yes it was. But it was also theoretically possible to beat a Machamp in a fist fight , it didn''t mean that it was very likely to happen. Anyways the battlefield was a league standard fifty yard by thirty yard rectangle with two small half circles at either end for the trainers to stand at safely. The ground of this particr battlefield wasprised of hard rock entirely. I walked over to one of the semi circles before putting Tank in his ball as per regtion and waited for the guy to do the same.-


    He did so awkwardly but I didn''t say anything since I also took a while to get the hang of handling a pokeball. Don''t get me wrong I rarely used the things on my pokemon if I could avoid it but that didn''t mean I didn''t practice how to use them. Once both of us were ready Rose held her hand up from the side of the battlefield before swinging it down hard "START!" She called out. I tossed the pokeball in my hand forward with a spin after holding down the button for three seconds "Set , Tank!" I called calmly.-


    From what I read on a few trainer forums that I browsed via the pokenav it helped to have a pattern for when you released your pokemon on the field. It apparently brought the pokemon in questions move set to mind making it easier to start a battle out strong. "Set , Nix!" the guy called out mimicking me or rather trying to. Unlike my smooth release of Tank onto the field he timed the throw wrong and the Vulpix manifested in midair rather than firmly on the ground. Even more embarrassingly was that the ball alsonded on the field rather than getting kicked back to him like mine did.-


    I didn''t give Tank any orders but patiently waited for the guy to retrieve his ball and return to the half circle opposite me. Once he was in ce I gave Tank a look "String shot!" Imanded and the sturdy bug obeyed. He glowed yellowish green around his head before a sturdy white silk shot out of his mouth andnded on the Vulpix urately. "Um Um , Sunny day!" The guy said in panic and I had the urge to facepalm as his poor pokemon did what he said.-


    "Double String shot!" Imanded and Tank smothered the poor fox in sturdy white threads while it was still struggling to put up the weather move. "Tackle!" Imanded and Tank glowed white as his little legs worked to propel him forward surprisingly fast. "BANG!" he struck the immobile fox head on , hard. A yip of pain came from the creature and the guy was so overwhelmed by what was happening that he couldn''t evenmand his pokemon. "Tackle!" Imanded calmly. Before Tank struck though Rose intervened "STOP!" she shouted and my bug canceled his attack in an instant.-


    "Winner Alex!" she called the battle and Tank made his way over to me before climbing back onto my shoulder casually. The guy recalled his pokemon to get the strings off of her before releasing her again with a down cast look. I could care less however and walked back into the center with my work done. Despite how it may seem if the guy took the time to think about all the mistakes he made he would actually grow as a trainer from this experience greatly. I had pointed out a few things that he had to work on with my actions after all.

 Drama

    Drama


    While that whole battle was disappointingly easy I was still in a fairly good mood as that was my first trainer vs trainer battle. Would have preferred more of a challenge but I was also aware that I was not in the areas that truly skilled trainers might be found. While it is true that one can technically challenge the gyms in any order there was a sort of tradition about which gym was challenged at a time. The first was Rustboro city gym led by a hereditary gym leader woman my age named Roxanne.-


    She specialized in rock type pokemon and had been trained from a young age to run the gym by her predecessor. Traditionally hers was the first gym to be challenged in order to earn the Stone badge. After her was by tradition Petalburg gym but with Norman taking it over the order was shuffled a bit and Dewford gym led by Brawly who was actually slightly older than me at twenty eight who specialized in fighting type pokemon. Then was the Mauville gym led by the only older generation leader still active Watson who was seventy seven and specialized in electric type pokemon.-


    If it wasn''t clear by this point the traditional path of progression followed the games with the exception of the second and fifth spots being in different ces. The path I was taking for the league was the traditional one but the route I took to reach the gyms in that order was heavily skewed to let me experience ces and things differently than the games. Iron town for example simply didn''t exist in the games and was novel to see for me. My next destination was a week from here and was again a new ce called orchard town.-


    I didn''t stop walking after my battle ended and was already out of the town after collecting my payment before Rose or that guy came back into the center. I released Vulcan and Gaia while I walked and we vanished into the distance. It wasn''t a spontaneous choice or anything like that as I already ned on moving out the moment I got paid to begin with. It was certainly rude though and I was well aware of it , I simply didn''t care. I didn''t mind being courteous when necessary but as I will likely never return to this town or see anyone I met there again I didn''t feel like it mattered , I was wrong apparently.-


    The reason I say that was that no more than five minutester my pokemon and I heard the sound of heavy and fast footsteps approaching us from the direction of the town. Confused I watched as a Dodrio kicked up a trail of dust behind it as it booked it straight at us. Vulcan was less than interested in dealing with whatever was going on here and fired off a warning me thrower at the charging bird. Dodrio was an interesting pokemon in that it was basically a bigger version of an ostrich with the sole exception of that it had three fully functioning heads.-


    How that worked I wasn''t sure but it did so whatever I guess. In any case at least one of those three brains decided that not running at us was the best move screeching to a halt all movement. I sighed when Rose jumped off the back of the bird pokemon alongside a member of the Jenny n , both of which looked pissed. "What the hell is wrong with you!?" the Jenny n member yelled as they got closer on foot.-


    Vulcan stepped forward with a snarl towards the two women at which point it seemed to dawn on them that it was not in the friendliest mood at the moment. I can''t say that I didn''t get WHY either as for about a week now it and Gaia have been cooped up in their balls and the moment they get some fresh air this whole drama happens. Don''t go thinking Gaia was not also contemting murder as well as I can tell you for certain that she was , aura was real useful like that.-


    It''s sort of hard to stay blisteringly angry in the face of two much more powerful creatures ring at you with murderous intent practically oozing from them. I have to give it to these twodies though as they only faltered for a brief moment before stomping their way forward again. Once they got within speaking distance though Vulcan and Gaia made it clear that there would be dire consequences if they so much as twitched wrong. "You could have killed us with that attack!" the Jenny said angrily. "If Vulcan wanted you dead at that time we wouldn''t be talking right now." I said calmly.-


    That seemed to cool the Jenny off immediately as she realized that I was probably correct. "How dare you go and humiliate that poor man and then leave without saying goodbye!" Rose spoke up venomously. "First Tank has literally two moves , that''s it. What was I supposed to do , not use them? Second of all that guy has the worst sense of challenge ever. Honestly what part of me screams ''pick me! I''m a great opponent'' to a rookie trainer? Finally is that we aren''t friends , in fact we aren''t even acquaintances. We met literally a week ago and barely talked during that time." I shut down each part of her statement calmly and efficiently.-


    Rose recoiled at that vicious p of reality and even the Jenny looked ufortable after hearing it. "You don''t know me at all and I don''t know you , we are basically strangers that have interacted briefly. I don''t need to say goodbye to you or anyone else in that town. Even more I won''t ever likelye back to that town so you will probably never see me in person again , so with that understood why are you here?" I spoke calmly but I knew the words stung at her.-


    How could it not when everything I said was true and reasonable. She may have formed some strange sense of friendship to me over thest week but I had no reason to do the same. I was leaving in short order from the moment I set foot in the town after all. Rose deted and teared up before rushing back to the Dodrio. The Jenny looked like she wanted to scold me for making Rose cry but one look at my calm and uncaring expression told her it was pointless.-


    They left after that but I paid them no mind at all as I continued my journey with my pokemon. We covered quite some distance after that before needing to stop for the night to make camp. I turned in my item tickets that I had six of at this time and got two scope lens , a sewing kit , tm 86 grass knot , a mental herb , and finally a premier ball. To be honest with you I was rather disappointed with this set of draws. The tm was certainly nice but the rest was pretty much not special at all in any way I even got a repeat of an item I already had , twice!

 Repeats and Rune

    Repeats and Rune


    Author note: Normally I wouldn''t add an excerpt like this but I got quite a fewments on the previous chapter talking about how Alex was being mean and rude. I feel like many of you don''t seem to understand the sort of person Alex is despite my best efforts to all but point it out. He is a realistic pragmatist with a bad case of apathy. What this means is that he looks at the situation from an almost purely cold logical point of view. There was literally no reason why he needed to act friendly after deciding leave town , he acted nice while he was there because it makes things easier to get done smoothly , after leaving he had no reason to continue. He wasn''t being mean because that would involve him wishing harm , he was just being bluntly honest to Rose that''s it.


    _________________________________


    The mental herb apparently worked like a direct counter to whatever it was that caused infatuation in battle but only once so I got rid of it and the two extra scope lenses. This earned me another two skill tickets from the trade in function but the price of that function was starting to get expensive. Tearing those two tickets I got a new skill and a repeat skill in the forms of ancient Sinnoh and spearmanship. Ancient Sinnoh was an archeology skill to a degree as it was basically an understanding of the ancientnguage spoken and written in the Sinnoh region long ago.-


    I honestly didn''t see this being useful unless I went ruin diving in that region in the future. That or perhaps flirting with Cynthia should I meet her since she was some sort of history fanatic if I remember correctly. I found out that repeats of a skill actually works like using five exp tickets on the skill. My mastery of the weapon actually rose thanks to this from journeyman to adept as a result which was ufortable as I felt my muscles shift to a degree.-


    ''Well since I am already doing tickets let me get the worse of the lot over with already'' I thought and decisively tore the ability ticket. I was rather nervous about the result of this particr draw and prayed that it wasn''t something painful. One minuteter I didn''t know whether tough in joy or cry in frustration as I once again got emotion suppression. As it turned out abilities were different about how repeats workedpared to skills. My original ability only worked on myself originally but now I could suppress the emotion of another person as well.-


    I had to be touching them but I could still do it which helped make the ability actually very useful. In an interesting twist my aura color also changed once again while I gained a slightly higher amount of aura. My aura went from white with blue streaks in it to now having grey streaks in it as well. It wasn''t a massive change like when I got healing but it was a change nheless. "And that just leaves the pokemon ticket , wish me luck guys." I said and my pokemon all voiced out their blessings.-


    I took out the ck and white ticket and after carefully checking to make sure their was no one nearby I tore it to bring up the pokemon wheel. With fingers crossed I prayed to the great lord RNGESUS as the wheel spun until I finally learnt what my new teammate was , a Charmander. I was conflicted as all hell when I saw that as I had fire type covered already but at the same time that was a great pokemon.That was when the second wheel to determine if it would have any variations came up and I prayed super hard for at least one in hopes of getting a type variation.-


    My prayers were answered and I couldn''t help but stare in disbelief at what I got , yes 3x. This means that this Charmander will have three different variations which was one over even Gaia. The third and usually final wheel then popped up and I no longer prayed as no matter what I got I would be satisfied. The first variation was a shiny variation and I was fine with that even if it did nothing to help the pokemon. The second variation was a royal one which meant that the pokemon was basically copying Gaia at this point.-


    The final variation though made me smile and punch the air excitedly as it was a type one. Unlike all the times before when the variations would be chosen and then I''d get the pokemon this time a new wheel appeared. The wheel only had seventeen entries on it with the fire and flying types greyed out. I was really really hoping for a water or even an ice variation so that that hole in my team could be patched up. I wasn''t so lucky as to have my hopes fulfilled but I did get a type that I didn''t have and also helped my teams weakness to water a little , electric.-


    The system wasted no time at all manifesting the ck and white pokeball in my bag after the wheels finished spinning. I immediately transferred my new Charmander into a normal pokeball before releasing binding the ball to myself and releasing the creature from it''s ball. The red light that came out of the ball solidified into the most awesome looking first evolution pokemon I have ever seen so far. The general shape of the body was the same as any normal Charmander but there were serious differences.-


    First was that unlike the usual two foot tall version of the species mine was double that size almost like it was a Charmeleon instead of a Charmander. The coloration was weird as well as it looked like the Charmander was supposed to take the colors of most electric types which was a bright yellow but due to the shiny variation ended up back at orange ironically. ''He might as well not even be shiny!'' Iined mentally at the weirdness of the coloration. The biggest differences however came in the form of white stripes like those of a tiger on the Charmanders back and limbs.-


    The small ws on its arms and legs were also ck instead of the usual white of the species. The biggest difference though came in the form of the torch on the tip of it''s tail that all Charmanders had. Rather than a small ball of fire as per normal this Charmander had a pulsing orb of white energy light like looking at pure lightning but not blinding oddly enough. "Char!" therge orange reptile says eagerly. "How about Zeus?" I said to answer the demand for a name.-


    The mon thinks about it for a moment before shaking it''s head surprisingly enough. "Thor maybe?" I offered and again I got a shake of the head. "Char! Man! Char!" the reptile said leaving me dumbfounded. ''Something gentle? What part about electricity is gentle?'' I thought with a headache. "Rune?" I offered and thankfully the Charmander seemed to like that name as odd as it was. "Wee to the team Rune I look forward to traveling together." I said and the rest of the team pitched in as well. Rune was a cheerful little dude and quickly made himself friends with the rest of the team.-


    [Pokemon: Charmander(Rune)


    LEVEL:1


    Moveset: Growl(N) , Scratch(N) , Swords dance(N)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny , Elemental(electric)


    Attack:100


    Defense:61


    Sp. Atk:112


    Sp. Def:73


    Speed:70


    Ability: Volt absorb(N)]


    I was actually pretty happy with Runes stats and his ability was clearly a result of his variation but gave him a way to heal mid battle so I was good with it. Even better was that he had swords dance as an egg move which was by far one of the best stat boosting moves I knew of alongside calm mind for clear damage dealers like Rune. All in all I was quite happy with my draw this time all things considered.

 Aqua grunt

    Aqua grunt


    My food stores took another massive hit with the inclusion of Rune but I had already prepared for this situation by stocking up with food. I had him start his move training almost immediately but quickly figured out a problem. The reason Charmander had scratch rather than tackle as their starting move is because of their leg structure. Rather than being powerful and capable of pushing them forward quickly their walking legs were short and thick leaving them unable to really run all that fast. On the other hand though they naturally had very sharp ws that made it easy to defend themselves from up close attacks.-


    This came with a ratherrge downside to traveling that I found out immediately , Rune needed to be carried by someone or stored in the ball to make good time. Vulcan volunteered for that job by existing and Rune was very happy for his (un)willing sacrifice. I would have carried him myself but at four feet tall he was just a bit too big to sit on my shoulder. Over the next week I trained Rune up using Tank as his sparring partner. This got him up to a decent level seven which from level one was actually good progress considering he hadn''t actually fought yet.-


    During that time he learned two moves that showed me the effect of his elemental variation fucking with his move pool. Rather than ember like he would have normally learnt Rune instead naturally learned thundershock. I can tell you now that that was a nasty move to get hit with even if it was weak power wise. First off it was like most electric type moves distractingly bright to look at and even looked painful. It looked like an arc of electricity traveled through the air and hit you.-


    Then it might cause your muscles to spasm uncontrobly from the lingering energy which was how paralysis worked in reality. Though I had to admit that the speed behind the move was nothing to scoff at despite it''s rather weak power. Apparently nearly all electric type moves shared the trait of being fast as hell which I made a mental note to remember for the inevitable battle with Watson. I had timed my journey perfectly for the league season as I had nine months to hit every gym and make my way to the evergrande league.-


    Contrary to what the games would make you think you do not immediately go challenge the elite four after the gym leaders. The true process of the league was gyms , tournaments of three different levels , elite four and finally champion. I haven''t met a champion or elite four pokemon yet so I am not sure exactly what level that is so my guess is that challenging the elite four would require around level one hundred in pokemon levels. This made sense since fully evolved tyranitar were tier six danger level at minimum which should be around level sixty or so normally.-


    Anyways the league seasonsted for nine months and had a three month rest period before restarted again the next year. Also there was no rule that said that a trainer had to get all the badges in a single season but that was considered the mark of a talented trainer so that was my current goal. From the next town I figured it would only take me three days to reach Rustboro city. Assuming I can get a challenge in that same day I arrive I''ll be early for about a week since I left Littleroot two weeks before the season started to ount for travel.-


    As we traveled through the forests I came across a rather funny scenario that I couldn''t help but chuckle at. See I was a couple hours out from the next town and out from behind a tree this stocky dude in a blue and white outfit with a blue bandana with a stylized A on it jumped out. "Hand over all .. of ... OH SHIT!" The guy yelled confidently at first but horrified after seeing my team staring at him. "Break his leg , I don''t care which." I said calmly and Vulcan immediately dashed forward and swiped left with a paw.-


    "CRACK! AAAAAAAAAAAAW!" I heard the sound of the bones snap followed by the dude screaming in agony. I ignore that and walk up to the screaming man and grab his leg right where it broke. "Now then , you will answer ever question I ask or you won''t like what happens next." I say perfectly calmly. "You won''t get nothin from me bastard!" the man says defiantly before punching me in my face to no effect. "Now why did you have to go and do that?" I asked while holding his leg bones out of ce on purpose before using healing on it.-


    The mans eyes grow wide as I do this and he begins to struggle violently but my grip was like a vice and my body like wood. Once there was no chance of any doctor fixing the crookedly healed bone I stopped using healing. "Now you will cooperate or I''m going to break your leg in a different spot and heal it improperly as well , your choice." I say while making eye contact. "Fuck! Fuck ok ok , just ask away you bloody monster!" The guy said when he saw me moving my hand lower on his leg.-


    "Why are you here exactly?" I asked calmly. "Me and about a dozen others were ordered to wait near the routes to ambush rookie trainers for their valuables and pokemon if they aren''t on the list." The man said nervously. I nodded in understanding "How strong is the person in charge of this operation of yours?" I asked calmly. "Benson? I don''t fucking know , stronger than the rest of us , I think he''s got three badges. I swear that''s all I know!" the man said anxiously. "I believe you so I promise that if you answer one more question I will let you go." I said with a reassuring smile.-


    "Where is this operations base located?" I asked casually."Please anything but that , they''ll kill me if I tell!" The man begged and I began to squeeze his leg , hard. "WAIT! A warehouse on the south side of the town , please let me go now!" the man begged anxiously. I released his leg and walked away "Vulcan." I said and a bright red glow filled It''s mouth. "Wait you promised!" The man said in horror. "I said I''d let you go and I will stand by that promise."-


    "But I never mentioned my pokemon , you just assumed they were included." I said and before the man could speak again a gout of mes consumed him not even leaving ash. "Looks like we are going to be making a slight detour in this next town." I said with a smirk and my pokemon all speak in agreement. Nobody liked criminals in this world and pokemon were no exception to this rule. I balled the three pokemon that needed it as I approached the town and walked into the gates calmly.

 Dissatisfactory payback

    Dissatisfactory payback


    I got quite a few stares as I walked through the gates of the town but I ignored them to walk over to the nearby Jenny. "I would like to report a crime." I said while ignoring the wary look the Arcanine at her side was giving me. Arcanine were almost synonymous with the the Jenny n as they wereperfect pokemon for crime fighting with their sharp senses and instincts. They were also rather powerful which made sense considering their size and type. The jenny noticed her partners wariness and looked at me seriously.-


    "What crime are you wanting to report?" she asked sternly. "There is a warehouse on the south side of the town that is the being used as the base of operations for a thievery and pokenaping operation." I said casually and her eyes widened. She drew her gun on me "You better start exining yourself now!" she demanded sternly. I didn''t even twitch as I stared down the barrel and into her eyes. "One of the members of that group tried to rob me on the way here and told me about the warehouse after a friendly chat." I said calmly.-


    "And where is this informant of yours?" she asked while lowering her gun a bit since I obviously wasn''t concerned with it. "No clue , he vanished after I let him go." I said with a shrug. "You will stay here with my partner while I go get back up to check out this warehouse of yours." she said and I merely sat down on the ground cross legged. The jenny grit her teeth in frustration before running off to do what she said. I remainedpletely still while the Arcanine red at me in warning to not try anything.-


    I had no intention to anyways so I ignored it in favor of reaching into my bag and handing Tank another berry. I rolled my eyes when I saw the Arcanine flinch as I did so but chose to ignore it. I knew why the pokemon was so wary of me clearly. My close proximity to my pokemon without bathing over thest week meant that I smelled heavily of them. This Arcanine is definitely smelling them on me and having a instinctual tug of war as it fought it''s instincts that told it to run far away.-


    About twenty minutester the jenny showed up with three others that each looked only slightly different from each other. "Has he done anything strange while I was gone?" the jenny asked her partner but the pokemon shook it''s head. "Alright then Alexander this is how this is going to go , you are going to the station with us and then we are going to have a nice long conversation before you spend the night in a cell." The jenny said sternly. "So you are arresting me then?" I asked calmly. "Yes I am , got a problem with that?" she asked daring me to argue.-


    "Why?" I asked without any change in expression. "Suspicion of criminal activity." she said smugly. I stood up at that and held out my hands calmly "If you say so one seven seven three six." I said calmly. She and the others stiffened when they heard me but I was entirely calm. I was aware of the reason for this little charade but refused to give them any pleasure from it. The Joy and jenny ns were both tight knit groups so it was easy to understand that this was retaliation for my previous actions involving my leaving of Iron town.-


    ''y nice with those groups it is then.'' I thought calmly as I was cuffed and led away. The police station was a simple metal building much like the pokecenter in design except it had a dark blue roof and grey walls. As this was a small towns station the building was fairly small and I had to duck when I walked in. The res I got told me that I was right on the money about what was going on. Still I cut off all emotion with my ability and deadpanned the entire time I was led to the interrogation room.-


    I was told to sit down on the hard purposefully ufortable chair and I did. The jenny left me in the room and I closed my eyes to meditate and wait. Thanks to my aura I could vaguely feel my surroundings so I knew that there was several jenny''s on the opposite side of the mirrored ss. I ended up waiting close to two hours before it seemed to dawn on the jenny''s that I was willing to wait it out indefinitely. Shortly after that another jenny entered the room and mmed her hands on the table to try and get a reaction from me.-


    I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her without expression , it was pretty clear that my total calmness was starting to get under the jenny''s skin with the look of frustration this one had. "Will you cooperate?" she eventually asked coldly. "I am" I said tly. She grit her teeth "Are you part of a criminal organization?" "No" "Why are you in this town?" "Passing through to Rustboro." this back and forth went on for several hours but the jenny got more and more bothered as time went on as I had made sure that not a single muscle had twitched wrong in my body.-


    In the end I got ced in a small cell while all of my belonging were taken alongside my pokemon who I can tell you were NOT happy , Tank even ate a jenny''s cap. I sat on the floor cross legged in the cell and meditated for the whole night ignoring the periodic banging on the bars a jenny would do in an attempt to keep me from sleeping. I wasn''t alone the whole night though as some aqua grunts were tossed in eventually but I ignored them.-


    Meanwhile a meeting was being held in a room in the station with all the jenny''s here. "Cut him loose in the morning." a elderly woman in uniform said while looking through a window. "But we haven''t so much as gotten a twitch out of him despite all of this , he''s making us look like fools!" the jenny that brought Alex in said angrily. "That''s because we are fools , none of you have even noticed it have you?" the elderly woman asked with a sigh. "Noticed what that he is about as reactive as a corpse?" another jenny asked sarcastically.-


    "So none of you have noticed that he has not moved at all this entire time. Not a single micrometer. He is not reactionless , that IS his reaction! You can''t use stuff like this against people like him , they might as well be trees with how little it bothers them. So cut him lose we have had our toll from him so there won''t be a repeat of this in the future , we aren''t criminals." the elderly woman said and despite looking bitter about it none of the jenny''s argued with her.

 Birches call

    Birches call


    I was well rested after meditating for the entire night and even made some slight improvement in my aura. "Your story checks out Alexander , you can go." a jenny said with clear dissatisfaction but I made no mention of it as I stood up and the aqua grunts all flinched as my joints loudly popped. "My pokemon?" I asked calmly while staring down at the jenny as she undid the cuffs they never took off of me. "At the front with the rest of your things." she said and moved out of my way as I started walking forward.-


    Just because I was feeling extra petty after this over the top retaliation I channeled my aura to the soles of my feet and cracked the tile floors with every step.I arrived at the front desk and stared down at the person manning the desk. "My things?" I asked calmly. They acted like they hadn''t heard me so I started to rearrange the things on the desk until they stopped me. "My things?" I asked again calmly while staring down at them. Knowing that they couldn''t ignore me any longer the jenny handed over my bag and all my pokeballs.-


    I couldn''t help but feel slightly amused when the jenny struggled to hand over my spear that was still attached to the back holster I keep it in. I took it with a single hand and ced it on my back with little effort before starting to look through my bag as if I was counting my items. "Do you think we would steal from you?" the jenny asked with a clearly offended look. I didn''t answer but ce my bag back over my back on top of the spear holster. Wordlessly I walked out of the building cracking every tile I stepped on on the way out.-


    I finally released my emotional suppression ability that I had been holding since I noticed the start of this trouble and everyone within a twenty meter range recoiled in fright as all that suppressed rage came pouring out at once in the form of near physical bloodlust. I took a moment to breath deeply and control myself before walking down the street of the town and entering the pokemart. I needed to stock up on a bit more food before I left the town and did so politely since I had learned my lesson.-


    Even if rather ufortable it was not worth the hassle that came with dropping pretenses the first chance I got. After dropping a thousand poke on food I made my way out the opposite side of the town and released my pokemon immediately. Gaia wasted no time at all leaving thick furrows in the road while Vulcan melted it from pure fire type energy. Tank took his ce on my shoulder and Rune merely red and snorted at the nearby jenny. My pokemon are great am I right?-


    With that inconvenience done with we continued our journey towards Rustboro for our first gym challenge and badge. About ten minutes after we left the town though my pokenav started to loudly make noise. I took it out of my bag and opened it which apparently was enough to answer the match call. "Alex? You there?" Birches voice came through he small speaker at the top of the device. "Yeah what''s up?" I asked casually while holding the device next to my face. "Be straight with me here , did you attack a jenny and joy before proceeding to make said joy cry a few days ago?" he asked seriously.-


    "Is that the story they are telling now? Doesn''t matter I guess but no I did not do any of that. What really happened was that the joy thought we were friends or something and chased me after I left the town since I hadn''t said goodbye. Vulcan thought it might be an attack and fired a warning shot to get the charging Dodrio to stop. After that I calmly exined the truth of the situation and the joy left crying over something that never existed." I exined honestly. Birch was silent for a moment as my words sank in.-


    "So this whole thing was started because of a misunderstanding?" he asked tiredly. "Funny how often that is the case isn''t it?" I asked with a chuckle. "You''re lucky I have some sway with the regions matriarchs in those two ns and can get this matter settled without things escting." Birch said tiredly. "Speaking of what''s up with this list of pokemon I just got after the Jenny n hazed you like night?" he added curiously. "You must be referring to Tank and Rune I assume? I found them in the unexplorednd between the towns. Pretty cool right?" I asked with a grin.-


    "Be honest right now are you some sort of chosen one or something because your luck is bordering on terrifying!" Birch said with no small amount of envy. ''Oh you have no fucking clue.'' I thought with a snicker. "Don''t know about that chosen one thing but I sure as hell am not going to question my own luck so long as it helps me." I say with augh. "Well in any case try and keep yourself out of any more of these "misunderstandings" will you? I''m putting my neck out here and I rather like my current reputation thank you very much." Birch said half jokingly half seriously.-


    "Not to worry I n to y nice from now on though you can sort of expect me to never use a pokecenter for anything beyond jobs from now on." I said honestly. "Can''t say as I can me you to be honest , I''m told the hazing that the jenny n gives troublemakers is a taste of what actual criminals are subjected to." He says and I can hear him shudder through he speaker. "It was just as ufortable for them as it was for me I can tell you that now , you should have seen their faces the whole time." I said whileughing.-


    He sighed "I''m sure I will hear all about it when I talk to the matriarchs. Call me after you reach Rustboro , Birch out." he said before hanging up. "Well I''d say that went well , what do you guys think?" I asked my pokemon and got the equivalent of a shrug. "Welp who wants to go terrorize the locals?" I asked and all my pokemon cheered together. ''I think I might be a bad influence.'' I thought with a chuckle before leading my strange group into the dense forest.-


    The day went great after that as Rune gained five levels thanks to the experience he got from battling wild pokemon. None of them were exotic or anything like that and the strongest we saw was a mere level thirty Linoone. Still Rune got a three more moves out of it in the form of smokescreen , tail whip and thunderwave. Contrary to what you may think smoke screen was actually a normal type move which was frankly weird but I didn''t question it.

 Story events

    Story events


    It didn''t matter anyways since the smoke created by the move was hopelessly thin and white making it actually counter productive to it''s intended purpose. The move is supposed to allow the user to be hard to hit thus boosting evasiveness but Rune was bright orange in a cloud of white. If anything it actually made it easier to hit him at the moment but I could see the potential of the move. Like imagine the entire field being covered by thick grey smoke thatpletely obscures vision , pretty useful in most cases.-


    Tail whip was pretty standard issue in how it worked so I''ll skip over that but thunderwave was a whole other kind of beast. See in the game the move worked by wrapping the target in electric type energy which somehow paralyses them if it could. In reality though the move was much more badass looking and I understood how it worked. When Rune used it he lit up and a sort of pulse I guess of electric type energy came off of him. This pulse had prative properties and sank into the muscles of whatever it hit thus inflicting paralysis.-


    The best part in my opinion was that Rune could decide which prity he wanted the energy to have thus making his next electric type move almost a guaranteed hit. With these new moves added to his repertoire Rune now had an even heavier training regiment toplete since I didn''t have any exp tickets. In a turn of good news though Tank was starting to show signs of evolution which made sense considering his species evolved based on their caloric consumption the first time. Once the required calories were obtained the Caterpie could in theory evolve immediately.-


    But I gave the little dude an everstone to hold so that he could exceed that amount by a wide margin in case it helped to do so. It was my hope that the extra calories caused his defensive variation to be strengthened like Gaia''s shiny one was previously. If my guess was right Tank would reach his calorie limit about a week after I arrive in Rustboro and I can see if my idea worked. That didn''t include the supplements I was going to look into once we reached the city. It was a well established fact that consuming type energy was good for pokemon evolving in this world.-


    This led to the rise of the side branch of the alchemist skill tree that was known as pill mastery. It was still a part of the alchemist skill but was generally considered a separate job entirely due to the differences it had from potion making. Unlike that pill masters didn''t use ingredients for their medicinal properties but their effect on type energy or rather energy conductivity. If done correctly the pill maker creates a sort of pellet that is absolutely chock full of a specific type energy thus giving the pokemon that takes it arge boost when they evolve.-


    I nned on looking into a set of pill maker equipment and materials for bug type energy when we reached the city so I don''t need to shell out stupid amounts of money every time one of my pokemon get close to evolving. Even the lowest tier of supplement was a minimum of a thousand poke after all ording to the pokenav. There was one problem that I forgot to take into ount when nning my route that I now had to deal with , the Petalburg woods.-


    Unlike that disrespectfully small area that you see in the games the actual forest was in fact just that , a forest. This forest covered quite arge area but unfortunately was a necessary thing to go through to reach Rustboro. I had hoped to avoid the events of the game but s it seems that I was not so lucky in this regard. I my team and I traveled through the woods towards Rustboro we came across a man in a green suit and slicked back brown hair walking through them. The man saw us as well a his face lit up before he approached us.-


    ''Seriously what part of me screams "I am approachable!"?'' I thought with a small amount of irritation. "Hello there! You seem like a pretty skilled trainer so maybe you''ve seen a Shroomish near. I just can''t get over the things but have had terrible luck in finding one." the man said with a friendly smile and cheerful demeanor. "Good afternoon , I can''t say that I''ve seen any shroomish nearby but then again most pokemon try to avoid my team and I so perhaps I am not the best person to ask." I said while acting friendly.-


    I had learned my lesson about being rude and was definitely not going to repeat anything like that again. "Ah yes I can see how that might happen "sigh" looks like I will need to keep looking." the man said with a sigh mid speech. At this moment like fate its fucking self ordained it a dude with the same blue and white outfit as the other grunts from aqua showed up. "I was going to ambush you , but you just had to dawdle in these woods forever didn''t you? I got tired of waiting , so here I am! You , Devon researcher! Hand over those papers nice and easy and no one needs to get hurt!" the grunt said as if not seeing me standing there with my team.-


    "EEEP! Please help me!" the Devon researcher begged while hiding behind me. "You mean to protect that guy then? If you know whats good for you you''ll skedaddle!" The grunt says before releasing a level twelve Poochyena like that was supposed to intimidate me at all. "Before we do this can I ask you a quick question?" I asked calmly but loudly. "Fine but only cuz I''m feeling generous!" the grunt smugly said but I ignored it.-


    "Did you hit your head a lot as a kid , maybe your eyes aren''t that good?" I asked seriously. I didn''t want to be the guy who bullied a retarded or blind guy after all. You would need to be either blind or stupid to think a weak Poochyena had a snowballs chance in an active volcano against my team much less that you could win with it. "I was feeling generous but you just had to go and insult me , Poochyena use tackle to teach him a lesson!" the grunt yelled angrily.-


    "Rune take care of it." I said calmly and he hopped in front of the charging pokemon from Vulcans back. "SMACK!" the sound of the attacknding sounded out but Rune merely grit his teeth and endured it. "ZAP! AAAW!" a thundershock fired at point nk range struck the Poochyena making it howl in pain. Rune was relentless though and hit it over and over until the Poochyena was knocked out. "Dam it all your strong! Time to retreat then!" the grunt said while recalling his pokemon and turning to run. "Both legs this time Vulcan." I said calmly and it blurred into motion and almost instantly caught up to the grunt and with a swipe of it''s paws broke both of his legs.

 First true challenge

    First true challenge


    "AAAAAH!" the grunt screamed in pain after his legs were broken but I ignored it as I had Tank wrap him up in string shot silk from the chest down. "Was that really necessary? Not to say that I''m not grateful for your rescue but this is rather excessive isn''t it?" the Devon employee said with concern as he looked at the screaming grunt. "I''m a healer so I can be a little rougher than needed to ensure the criminal doesn''t escape." I said with a reassuring smile.The man sighed in relief "What a relief! Again I can''t thank you enough for the help!" he said gratefully.-


    "Here , this can''tpare to the value of my papers but it''s the least I can give you for your help!" the man said while handing over a pokeball with a blue and red top , a great ball. "Do you want an escort out of the woods or do you think you can handle it from here while I take this one to the nearest officer?" I asked and the man shook his head. "I never did find a Shroomish so I think I''ll stay a bit longer , thank you for your help though!" the man said with a grateful smile.-


    I nodded before walking over to the screaming grunt and healing his legs back to normal before tossing him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Oi! Lemme go you bastard! Just you wait nobody crosses team aqua you''ll see!" the grunt yelled while squirming but I ignored it. Thankfully we were pretty close to the edge of the forest so it didn''t take me long to reach the neatly ttened dirt road that led to Rustboro. There were a whole bunch of new trainers on the side of the road battling or looking for a good opponent.-


    Nearly all of them saw my team and immediately noped out of my way after recognizing the vast power gap between their teams and mine. I ignored the stares I was getting and found the nearest officer or rather they found me. Someone had used their pokenav to inform the police what they saw so an officer was sent out to investigate. "What''s going on here!?" the jenny yelled from the Dodrio she was riding on. "This guy is a member of the criminal group known as team aqua and tried to rob a member of the Devon corp in the woods before I captured him." I exin calmly.-


    "You are going to be challenging the Rustboro gym correct?" the jenny asked seriously and I nodded. "Then leave the suspect here with me and make sure you don''t leave the city for the next week an officer will find you if there is a problem." she said and I dropped the dude on my shoulder like a bad habit. "I''ll be going now." I said as I started to walk away. The jenny looked like she wanted to say something but chose to remain silent and watched as I left.-


    I didn''t waste the opportunity provided by the newbie trainers on this road and started challenging as many as I could to battle with Rune. It was almost funny how many of the trainer double checked to make sure that I would ONLY be using Rune. I wasn''t all that surprised to find that most of those that epted to battle did so because they were using water types but they were in for a rude awakening since they thought they had a type advantage.-


    If Rune wasn''t a shiny electric variant Charmander they would be right but unfortunately he was and they quickly learned how deceptive appearances could be. Rune didn''t get much experience from those battles as he basically one shot those pokemon. The first real challenge for us was a guy with a Seedot. It was pretty clear to me from how he didn''t shy away from my challenge that he was fairly confident. Like usual I balled up Rune and stood twenty paces away from the guy to imitate an official battlefield. "Rune , set!" I called once the referee in the form of another trainer started the match.-


    Rune appeared on the field at the same moment as the guys Seedot that to be honest just looked like an acorn with legs and eyes the size of a basketball. "Swords dance!" I called seriously after seeing the level on that pokemon , twenty four. "Amnesia!" the guy called out and I mentally cursed. Rune was a special attack specialist so the Seedot getting a double up on special defense practically halved the damage of his moves. Swords dance was actually meant to make the guy think that Rune preferred physical attacks but clearly that n failed.-


    "Thunderwave!" I called out hurriedly and the guy frowned as the energy hit the Seedot and paralysis took hold. "Harden!" the guy called but the Seedot twitched to show the paralysis was acting up. "Thunder shock!" Imanded and the guy frowned even deeper before he seemed to figure out why my Charmander was using electric type moves instead of fire. It was far toote for that though as the arc of electricity struck the motionless pokemon. "SEEE!" the mon cried in pain when hit and it''s paralysis worsened. Yes it can get worse unlike in the games if the body is flooded with enough energy.-


    Basic paralysis is inconvenient but not un workable but the worse it gets the less chance of pulling out any moves at all until finally it kills you if the body is saturated enough. The reason for this sudden jump in danger is because of what the energy is effecting at any time. If given too much energy the paralysis takes hold of the heart and well that tends to be fatalst time I checked. Of course by league regtion in a trainer battle no more than three bouts of paralysis inducing moves were allowed before the affected pokemon needs to purge the energy or forfeit.-


    "Synthesis!" the guy called with a frown. It was a brilliant move on his part as by using synthesis the Seedot sped up it''s metabolism thus burning through the stored electric type energy much faster than normal. "Double thunder shock!" I called and Rune obeyed. Two more burn marks appeared on the grass type and it was recalled as the guy knew it reached the league limit and I wasn''t going to allow him to purge the energy. "That was just bad luck , you actually gave me a bit of trouble by choosing to use amnesia at the start." I said with a smile as I took the prize money.-


    "And I thought your Charmander was merely a strange looking royal variant but it turned out to be a mew damned triple variant of all things! Where did you even find a monster like that?" the guy asked with a smile showing he wasn''t sour over his loss. "Rune here actually came to me believe it or not , same with my entire team now that I think about it." I said with a grin.

 Rustboro

    Rustboro


    The guy didn''t seem all that surprised at my answer which probably made sense considering the nature of my pokemon. Variants may be rare but not to the point that it was unheard of for a team like mine to exist. People with teams filled with variants pop up every now and again so my story wasn''t hard to believe at all. I chatted with the guy a bit after that in order to get a feel for any mistakes I may have made. The advice I got was not to immediately try to get the opponent with a trap.-


    This guys entire strategy revolved around the frankly irritating amount of defensive buff skills that Seedot learns naturally. Pretty much he buffs to crazy durable levels before using nature power and bide to slowly wear down his foes. Not a bad strategy all things considered but much too passive for my tastes. I personally preferred a more direct approach when battling with a bit of trickery to up the odds in my favor. We continued down the road challenging people as we went but we never found another trainer that actually looked prepared to face the gym ahead.-


    Rune got another three levels putting him at fourteen at the moment though he didn''t get any new moves. After following the road for a while I finally got to see the city start to appear in the distance. It would be hard to miss honestly as the multistory building stuck out like a sore thumb even from miles away like I was. An interesting fact about the city was that theke in front of it was actually used as part of the defense against breaks from the nearby forest.-


    The wide walkway that went over the top of theke could actually be retracted in case of a break forcing the non-flying pokemon in a break to swim. Which was where the second defensive measure came in the form of the water type pokemon that live in theke. Magikarp might seem useless to most trainers but the things could drown you very easily if you got in the water with them. The city kept a stable poption of the things in theke specifically because they will do this if a break happens. That little detail left me ever so slightly reluctant to walk over the walkway despite knowing it was perfectly safe.-


    Still my team and I went over theke as it was the only way into the city from this direction. The architecture of the city was frankly speaking odd , see there were old style brick apartments alongside metal ones and even fully paved roads and ground. Like any real city there was various restaurants , stores and houses for as far as the eye could see. All of my pokemon other than Tank were in their balls at the moment but I could tell that they were in awe of the ce too.-


    If I thought the stares in the towns were bad then they had nothing on what I was getting from the people in the city. Hundreds of people pausing to gawk at the huge man walking down the street in nothing but a pair of shorts. The best part in my opinion though was the sheer amount of interested women amongst the crowds. I had been a bit pent up so knowing I would more than likely getid while I was in town had me in a good mood. The first thing I did was follow the main road of the city until I spotted my goal , the gym.-


    It was very simr architecturally to the pokemarts and centers except it was both much muchrger and also had a golden or polished brass look to the roof. I wasn''t surprised to find that upon entering the gym I found myself in a reception area that had a handful of other trainers in it. Most seemed to be waiting on their challenge but there was a short three person long line of trainers setting a challenge appointment. That was the unfortunate downside to reality versus the games as walking into a gym and going to work immediately wasn''t a thing.-


    The sheer amount of trainers that challenge it made that impossible for at least the first four gyms. Instead one needed to set an appointment and then wait for your turn to step up to the te. The other trainers in the room all looked at me nervously as I towered over all of them to the point that I needed to hunch over slightly to keep my head off the ceiling. Soon enough though it was my turn to set an appointment and I stood in front of the clerks desk trying to look friendly.-


    I admit that the woman behind the desk was very good at her job and only blushed a little as she took my details. My challenge was officially set for four days from now at noon and as an added bonus the clerk passed me a note telling me she got off in an hour. "I''ll see you then!" I called over my shoulder with a smile as I left the gym. Women in this world were very transparent in how they show interest. I could visibly see it on their faces as if they had nothing to be ashamed of.-


    I made a quick stop at the nearest general store and got a contraceptive for men and some knowing looks alongside it. Contraceptives in this world were very different in this world than on earth for men as it was a pellet created by pill masters. Since stds weren''t really a thing here due to the stupidly good medicine condoms had never been invented and instead you simply took a pill as a guy and no matter how much you came in a women she wouldn''t conceive at all as the pill caused your body to break down the sperm cells in semen rendering the thick liquid sterile.-


    Women had a simr thing as well and if taken together there was no egg or sperm during sex so no messy surprise nine monthster either. Basically the only way an idental child came about was if both the man or woman forgot or couldn''t take the pill while the woman was fertile and had sex. The morning after pills also worked near perfectly so rape babies and unwanted children weren''t really a thing here.-


    The clerk I found out after meeting up once she got off was named Melissa and she wasn''t interested in dating. "The start of the season is always rather stressful as I have to deal with a bunch of trainers. You will be moving on after you get your badge like the rest correct?" she asked after greeting me and I nodded. "Great! Wanna fuck while you''re in town?" she asked in the most straight faced manner I have ever seen. "Sure you want to shack up with a stranger like this?" I asked a bit curious about how eager she seemed. "Look a girl has needs and you are by far the best looking temporary partner who has shown up so far , besides this is actually prettymon for gym staff during the league season." She said honestly.

 Change of plans

    Change of ns


    A/N: So someone had a problem with the way Alex was turning out as a person with you know great pokemon and having a perfect body(They thought he would look like a roid monster lol XD). Obviously this person was either not paying fucking attention or failed to actually understand what I was writing as well as how the story was turning out this way (They even left a poor review about it on royal road if you want to take a look). I will only say this one more time so pay attention EVERYTHING THE SYSTEM GIVES IS BECAUSE OF A VERY REAL AND VERY UNBIASED ROULETE WHEEL AND I HAVE NO SAY IN IT BESIDES ADDING THINGS IT COULD LAND ON! THIS INCLUDES ITEMS , POKEMON , ABILITIES , SKILLS AND VARIANTS SO If YOU DON"T LIKE HOW LUCKY ALEX IS IT IS NOT MY FAULT! For everyone else you are great and I love the support you give.


    _______________________________________________________________


    "I suppose I can understand that , though aren''t there men working for the gyms as well?" I asked curiously. How this ends was pretty much set in stone at this point so learning a bit more about the inner workings of a gym could only benefit me. "Of course there are but do you know how awkward that is after the stress dies down? It''s horrible!" Melissa said with a shudder. I merely shrugged at this since I never really had to deal with it before. "So how are we doing this exactly? I bought the pills just in case but the details depended on you." I said honestly.-


    "You can just shack up at my ce for the time you are here , unless you aren''t into cuddling afterwards?" she questioned and I shook my head to show I had no such problems. Despite how odd it was one night stands asionally wanted to fall asleep while being held after the act so I had experience in this regard. This was basically the same thing just stretched out over the next three days. "Then it''s settled , but first you need a shower. You smell like the forest and not in a sexy way." Melissa said with a wrinkled nose.-


    "Before that I need to make a call since I''ll never hear the end of it if I don''t." I said and she looked curious. "Who do you need to call thates before this?" she asked while motioning to her body. "Professor Birch , we are ... friends I guess?" I said notplete sure on that part. Don''t get me wrong I am sure Birch likely considers me a friend but I wasn''t sure if logically speaking I counted as such. We might have interacted a LOT for two weeks and I basically lived with him but again that was only two weeks so I think I counted as an acquaintance at best.-


    I had problems forming attachments for reasons that should be obvious at this point so I was rather iffy on mine and Birches status. Melissa had her jaw hit the ground though after hearing me. "You are friends with THE professor Birch!?" she eximed in shock. "It''splicated but I am more or less fairly well acquainted with him yes. Now if you don''t mind I really should get this call over with." I said calmly.-


    She gave me some space after that as I took out my pokenav and activated the match call feature on Birches number. "BRRR! BRRRR! BRR ... CLICK!" The call rang for a couple times before getting answered on the third ring. "Alex! You must have made it to Rustboro , I take it the trip was pretty calm or did you pick up another monstrous pokemon again." Birch joked. "Not this time but yeah I reached the city and even got my gym challenge appointment and lodging taken care of." I said casually. "When is your challenge , I will probably watch the live stream if it''s not at a bad time?" he asked curiously.-


    "Fours days from now at noon and what do you mean livestream?" I asked confused. I had looked it up and all the gym battle videos I had found were after the fact but never live. "Oh right! so It''s not known by the public but every gym challenge is broadcast live to all the other gym leaders , the elite fours , champions and of course the regional head professors which is me in this case. Usually we only pay attention if it is a person of interest in our own regions though." Birch exined.-


    That made me VERY ufortable to learn as I knew of one gym leader in Kanto who I really didn''t want to notice me at the moment. All of the criminal teams were lead by dangerous and powerful trainers but none were as dangerous as Giovanni in my opinion. From what I understood the man singlehandedly ran team rocket without anyone else aware of it WHILE being in a position of heavy scrutiny like that of a gym leader. Such a person was the most difficult to deal with because they pretty much cut all paper trails between the criminal side and them.-


    People like Archie and Maxie I could pretty much openly stab in the heart and no one would bat an eye because they were dangerous criminal bosses but Giovanni was a trusted government official as far as everyone knew and I would not have a good end if I did the same to him. "I don''t think it will be a very entertaining match to be honest , you know what I have on my team after all." I said while pushing those thoughts to the darkest parts of my mind until they were gone.-


    "About that ... I MIGHT have kind of possibly buffed the difficulty a smidge." Birch said sound sheepish. I sighed "What did you do?" I asked slightly irritated at the idea of my ns being changed by someone other than me. "Okay so win or lose you will get a badge but depending on which it is you may get a different sort of badge. In exchange for that Roxanne has agreed to use fourth badge level pokemon due to your special circumstances. Don''t worry though she will also only be using two pokemon since your newest two aren''t on the same level as your first two." Birch exined in what sounded like an excited manner.-


    "Please tell me that there is actually some benefit to me having this extra challenge besides entertainment value." I said trying to find a positive to the situation. "Of course there is! Should you win you will receive a star badge. This is a bit of a league secret but there is in fact two kinds of gym badges. The first is public knowledge so I''ll skip over that but the second is the star badges that can only be obtained if the challenge a trainer receives from the gym exceeds the number of badges they have."-


    "A star badge holder is automatically more trusted than a normal badge holder by the league and is eligible for very tasty benefits like discounts at stores , VIP treatment on training grounds , personal training with the gym leaders or higher and the biggest benefit of all , pick of the litter on any league missions. Obviously the level of these benefits depends on how many star badges you can get but it is pretty worth it right?" Birch said like a corrupt salesman.-


    I had to admit that the idea appealed to me greatly as not only would it help me increase the power of my team thanks to them really getting challenged but those were some very juicy benefits. "I admit that does sound like something that would interest me but could you talk to me about this sort of stuff before you did it , would have been a nasty surprise if I didn''t learn of it until I went in for my challenge." I said seriously. "Yup , It honestly slipped my mind with all the drama with the Joy and Jenny ns." Birch said with an awkward chuckle.

 Smash(R18)

    Smash(R18)


    "Speaking of those two ns how did your meeting go with them?" I asked curiously. "Turns out I didn''t even need to get involved since the member of the Joy n involved came forward and exined the misunderstanding after learning what the Jenny n did. I barely needed to say anything before the matriarchs of the ns apologized to me and promised it wouldn''t happen again." Birch said honestly. "I bet the Jenny n in particr looked rather guilty huh?" I said with a smirk. "Goodness did they ever , it was like they bit into a lemon from how sour their expressions were!" he said enthusiastically.-


    "By the way did you actually stone wall the Jenny n members like they said?" Birch added curiously. "Oh yeah , they chose to be petty so I did the same thing and it worked like a charm." I said with a grin. "From what I heard they pretty much think youhave something wrong with your head. " Birch said seriously. "Nah , just really good self control though bottling up my outrage like that led to a rather violent outburst when I released it." I said with a shrug. "I''d say it was a bit more than simply "violent" if those nearby thought an angry pseudo legendary was about to kill everyone present." Birch said suddenly very serious.-


    "They got pretty close to that oue as well , my pokemon aren''t the most even tempered after all." I said not bothered by his concern. "Believe me they know it and are thankful that Gaia only caused some damage to the road rather than going on a killing spree like that line are well known for when angered." Birch said seriously. "So long as the situation is fixed I don''t care what they think of me." I said honestly.-


    "Well that about covers everything then so I''ll let you get back to what ever it is you are doing , Birch out." he said before hanging up. With the call out of the way I was free to follow Melissa back to her ce which was unsurprisingly near the gym itself. She lived in a small but well kept house made of brick that had a beautiful garden out front that she clearly loved. I walked into the house and was surprised how nice it was on the inside. The floors were white tile and the walls were a nice sky blue with pictures of friends and family while the dining room and kitchen were clean and well stocked.-


    Melissa seemed pleased at my reaction to her home "You wouldn''t think it but working for a gym actually pays pretty well all things considered." she said with a proud smile. "I imagine it would considering how stressful the job likely is." I said ying along. "Honestly do you have any idea what I have to deal with on a daily basis? Register trainers which creates a pile of paperwork by the end of the day , deal with stuck up rich assholes that think that is enough to make it as a trainer and even asionally boot people from the gym if they get violent." sheined.-


    "Sounds like a pain in the ass." I said honestly. "I know right , but enough about my job you aren''t here for that after all." she said before leading me to the bathroom "Go ahead and get cleaned up while I slip into something more , intimate." she said sensually before walking away. If I wasn''t already motivated the sudden rush of blood to a certain part of my body at her words definitely did the job.-


    Tank got put in his ball and I stripped naked before putting my stuff in my bag and turning on the shower to scrub of the build up from my travels. I didn''t let the prospect of what awaited me after I was done let me do a poor job of the self cleaning but I certainly went faster than I might normally have. Once I was good and clean I dried off with a nearby towel before wrapping said towel around my waist and leaving the bathroom after downing the contraceptive pill I bought earlier.-


    R18 ahead you have been warned!


    _____________________________________________________


    I found Melissa in the only bedroom of the house wearing nothing but a pinkcy set of underwear that showed off her assets in a pleasing manner. She was clearly no slouch herself was she had a slim figure and a fair amount of definition in her arms and legs. She blushed heavily when she saw me in nothing but a towel that had a very noticeable bulge on it''s front. Her eyes never left the bulge as I slowly walked towards her with predatory intent.-


    Soon enough I was towering over her as she sat on the edge of the bed where i kneeled down and gently took her hand. She seemed a bit confused with this action until I began to slowly and gently kiss her hand while moving up her arm. She shuddered at my gentle but firm attentions as I slowly moved up her arm and neck until her lips were mine. She greedily locked lips with me and even adventurously shifted her tongue into my mouth aggressively. I was more than happy to engage in a tongue joust while slowly caressing her back until I firmly unsped her bra with my hands.-


    "HA~" she moaned lightly as I discarded her top and gently teased her stiff peaks by rubbing my thumbs over them lightly. I took the opportunity to free my mouth from hers and start kissing her neck as I made my way to her breasts. She squirmed as I went down and firmly took her right nipple into my mouth and began to torment it with my tongue as my right hand kneaded her left breast gently. "AH~ UN~" she moaned as I went to work stimting her nice and properly.-


    Once I switched my mouth to her left breast and used my left hand to knead her right one I slowly glided my fingers on my right hand over her stomach causing her to shudder in pleasure before my hand reached her moist tight pussy. I held her firmly in ce with my free hand and mouth on her nipple as I rubbed and flicked her clit with my middle finger while she squirmed in pleasure. "HA~ HA~ UUUM~!" Groaned loudly as I brought her to orgasm with my forey. She practically melted against me with that and I knew it was time to move on.-


    With a single motion I pulled her panties off and then tugged the towel on my waist off revealing my seven and a half inch dick. Perfect body meant that my entire body was at the absolute most ideal for whatever I would use it for which included the main purpose of my reproductive organs , insemination. Her breath hitched when she saw my dick but she only stared as I lined it up with her needy wet hole and slowly pushed it forward. Her back arched as her passage expanded to wee me inside her.-


    Soon i was fully ensconced within her and I rolled my eyes slightly at the wonderful feeling of being plugged firmly against her cervix while her folds quivered and shuddered against my shaft. "HUUU~" I breathed out and slowly withdrew my self until I was about to exit before pushing forward once again. Forward , backward , forward , backward I started to work in a rhythm as our hips pped against each other. "AH! AH! AH!~" she moaned loudly as I focused on my work and got even louder when she was about to cum again but I suddenly stopped which left her looking confused before I pressed forwards hard and came in her which sent her over the edge as well as she wrapped her legs and arms firmly around my back.

 Special training

    Special training


    We took a ten minute break after that so I could get through the refractory period before going at it again. After we were done we both got a shower before I cooked dinner while Melissa reced the sheets. "UM~ A good cook and fuck? I sorta feel bad that you''ll be leaving in a week." she joked as she ate the meal I prepared for her. Like usual I ate with my pokemon who were thankfully small enough to fit in her house minus Gaia of course. "Must be a generalist unless you are a variant specialist." Melissamented with a raised eyebrow after seeing most of my team.-


    "I train whatever I happen to get lucky or unlucky enough to obtain." I said honestly. "Speaking of I will probably be spending most of the next four days training my challenging pokemon in anti rock type tactics for the challenge." I said calmly. "Don''t know why you are telling me since we are merely shacking up un till you get your badge after all." Mellissa said with a shrug. "Figured you''d like to know in case I amte showing up." I exined with a shrug of my own.-


    "Thanks for the heads up I guess , ready for round two?" Melissa asked with a seductive look. We went another couple of times before calling it a night and going to sleep. In the morning I got a quick shower before cooking a few eggs and some Spoink bacon that I paired with fresh squeezed oran and leppa berry juice. Melissa was thankful for the meal before she headed off to the gym for work while me and Tank headed towards the nearest training ground. Each city and most towns have an area specifically set aside for training pokemon of varying power levels.-


    In the case of Rustboro the training areas for higher powered pokemon rarely saw use so it was no surprise that it was unupied when I arrived. The tier four danger area was a wide open area that consisted of extremely hard reinforced stone floors inside of a warehouse like building with equally reinforced walls and roofing. I released my entire team once I was within the center of the area and they looked around curiously. "Vulcan , Gaia for the next few days both of you are going to be working on your ability to face off against rock type pokemon for the uing challenge." I said sternly.


    "Gaia , your metal w is the only move you have that will work against rock type pokemon effectively while the rest are either not very effective or will barely do more than tickle them. Thankfully you are poised to tank or avoid most attacks they can throw at you so rock polish and iron defense are going to be our set up moves right out the gate understand?" I asked Gaia and she hummed in affirmative. I turn my attention to the real problem with facing this gym in the form of Vulcan.-


    "You on the other hand are unfortunately under the worst conditions for this particr typing as every move they have will be super effective against you and you don''t have any moves to return the favor.You have three options for this uping battle that you need to choose between." I said and Vulcan nodded with a determined expression. "The first is to figure out how to perform one of three different super effective moves that your species can possibly learn in the form of iron tail , rock smash and sr beam before getting a decent grasp of them." I paused to let Vulcan process that information.-


    "The second method you won''t like but it may allow you to chip away at the gym leaders pokemon over time. You need to run away and use leer as much as possible before hitting them with stomp while their defenses are at the lowest." Vulcan snarled in outrage at this option. "I get it , really I do but you are that screwed against well trained rock types. Make no mistake our opponents are going to consist of exactly that." I said firmly and Vulcan stopped snarling but clearly hated that idea still.-


    "The final option is also not a great one either as it''s simr to thest except you will use swagger to confuse the opposing pokemon before putting the psychic move extrasensory you have to use whittling them down and hopefully taking at least one of the leaders pokemon down. I think you should focus on learning sr beam personally since in addition to sunny day it will turn you very dangerous for the leaders pokemon." I said seriously and Vulcan nodded in agreement. Sunny day and sr beam were a dangerousbo as it turned a slow and highly telegraphed attack into a fast and very hard hitting one.-


    While I doubted Roxanne didn''t also know this considering how popr thebo was it was still our best option unfortunately. Thankfully it was a powerfulbo I intended for Vulcan to learn anyways so we lost nothing in case she had a counter ready for thatbo. I didn''t even bother trying to n around what pokemon Roxanne had since like all gym leaders she had a wide selection of pokemon at her disposal. I just sincerely prayed she wasn''t going to use something like a Kabutops because that species dual water and rock typing was the bane of my teams existence.-


    "Alright both of you get to work on your move training , oh and Gaia if you can make a more powerful steel type move during this time our chances of victory will increase dramatically so do your best alright?" I asked and both of them sounded off loudly before finding a spot in the area and getting to work. I walked over to Vulcan since I had an idea about how to speed up it''s learning of sr beam.-


    "If you are trying to learn sr beam then maybe it would be best if you had some strong sunlight to focus on." I suggested helpfully. I wasn''t going to directly spell it out for Vulcan to use sunny day but I hoped my hint would help it figure it out on it''s own. I didn''t want to ever find myself in a situation where my pokemon froze in battle because I couldn''t figure out a strategy fast enough. I hoped to stimte their minds into strategizing by themselves in case we found ourselves in such a predicament.-


    While my two heavy hitters were training their own way for the uing challenge I turned my attention to Rune. "You are going to work on your elemental training today so find a spot and get to it." I said and therge reptile did as Imanded. I meanwhile traded away three scarves and four berries for two tickets to see if I got lucky. I did in fact get lucky as I obtained an ability ticket as well as a skill ticket. I tore the skill ticket without hesitation since I honestly don''t think it was possible to have a bad experience with them , I got chemistry.

 Chemistry and Devon superstore

    Chemistry and Devon superstore


    This was my first real science based skill so I was admittedly rather curious about the differences it may have had from it''s counter part on earth. I was horribly disappointed to find that it was basically the same as it was on earth. To exin it in terms anyone can understand chemistry is the art of understanding and replicating chemical reactions. The five basic types of reactions arebination , dposition , recement , double recementandbustion. Using these a chemist can createplexpounds or chemicals as they aremonly referred to.-


    Chemists use the knowledge of the base elements to aplish all this and most of the skill is macro scaled while there is a branch known as atomic chemistry which is micro scaled. Either way the skill was a stupidlyplex field of study and thus gave me a huge headache to acquire. Honestly speaking I never saw a scenario that would require me to use this knowledge at all as while a chemist could aplish the same results as an alchemist with enough effort the work required to do the same things was leagues harder for a chemist.-


    I didn''t even consider touching the ability ticket after I got my new skill as if the system gave me something crazy that changed my body in a fundamental way I doubt Melissa wouldn''t notice. ''Well whatever I will find out after I leave town since the next gym is in Dewford'' I thought as I started my own daily workout. About halfway through my workout Vulcan seemed to figure out my hint as it sent up an overcharged sunny day. Overcharging a weather move was not something I rmend my pokemon do normally as it tends to get distracting to say the least.-


    An overcharged sunny day for example caused the fake sun created for it to be very very bright which was in hard to not pay attention to. That would be beneficial in battle if it wasn''t for the fact that the pokemon under it''s effect were the most distracted by it and thus got sloppy even if they were the one who used the move. For training sr beam though I couldn''t think of anything better than a stupidly bright sunlight. Gaia on the other hand was suffering over the attempt to create a new steel type move as she glowed silver for a moment before it faded away while she had a frustrated look in her eyes.-


    I don''t really interfere with the creative process of a new move that they attempt as , one it''s always interesting to see what theye up with and two beyond postting how the moves might work I can''t actually give advice on the subject. It was clear though that Gaia wanted to create a powerful move but didn''t know what direction to take it. When she learned metal w previously it was because she was focusing her steel type energy on her ws beforeunching an attack with them.-


    Projecting steel type energy though was an entirely new thing for her and so she was a bit stuck at the moment. I had faith that she would eventually figure it out and chose to get back to my workout. I finished that up before unsheathing my spear and picking up a small loose stone from the ground and tossing it into the air. "SWISH! TING!" I thrust forward right as the stone went to fall causing the stone to pop up into the air again as my spears head deflected it upwards.-


    "TING! TING! TING!" I spent the next few hours juggling the stone with the movement of my spear in order to train my dexterity and uracy with the spear. This was a highly advanced training method for the weapon that taxed the spearman''s perception and precision as the stone needed to be struck very specifically to keep it in the air without flying in another direction. "CRACK!" with a final thrust of my spear I struck the stone dead center as it fell shattering it. "HUUUU~" I breathed out heavily as my mind fell out of that state of hyper focus and exhaustion caught up with me.-


    I opened my pokenav and checked the time before sheathing my spear on my back again. "OI!" I called out and all of my pokemon stopped what they were doing to look at me. "PACK IT UP WE''RE DONE FOR THE DAY!" I call out and they all dete as they drop out of training mode and their own exhaustion hits them. None of themined when I put all of them except Tank in their balls. The training area waspletely unchanged from when I arrived which showed that the league knew their power levels.-


    I still had three hours before Melissa got off work and I was supposed to meet up with her and wanted to use this time to check out some equipment and supplements while I was in the city. The best ce for that was the Devon corp superstore not far from the training area. To be honest other than the logo and clear happiness of the employees it looked identical to a Walmart from earth. Just like Walmart the store was separated into several different types of items from food to tech each had their own designated location in the store.-


    As much as I was tempted to just browse the entire selection of the store I knew I didn''t have the time for that and made my way to the tech area. I had to admit that the selection was top notch in the store as there was plenty of equipment to choose from involving various skills from metal working to chemistry supplies. ''Hmmm , one set of basic pill making equipment is ten thousand poke and it doesn''t include any materials to make a pill.'' I contemted as I saw the price tag of the set. At the moment I only had about twelve thousand poke with me and was rather reluctant to spend most of it like this.-


    Not because I was greedy or anything like that but because I didn''t want to have to go do some more jobs at the pokecenter for cash. While I was probably considered a neutral entity with the Joy and Jenny ns after the misunderstanding was cleared up I still wanted as little to do with them as possible. I could of course trade some of my resources that I had an excess of like the grade five water stones from the cave.-


    The problem with that n was that I had no idea when I might find something like that again and didn''t want to get bottom dor for them when I might be able to get top dorter instead. In the end I chose to take the lessor of two evils and purchase the set with what I had on me alongside some pill capsules that were fairly cheap at fifty poke a dozen. The look I got at checkout was rather funny as the clerk looked between me and the pill maker set in utter disbelief.

 Making plans

    Making ns


    I could understand the poor guys confusion as I looked like many things but a pill master was definitely not amongst that list. From what I had gathered off the inte most pill masters were either scrawny unkempt individuals or old folks who had been doing it for a long time. This was obviously a stereotype but it did turn out true more times than not apparently. I did not fall into this stereotype and it clearly threw the clerk off. Still the guy was professional and rang me up anyways and waited for me to dig out the appropriate amount of money.-


    After I purchased the equipment I carefully packed it away in my bag with a frown as I noticed that the main space of my bag was getting full. ''I need to get arger bag soon since I am clearly hoarding arge amount of random junk. That or I can put some of this shit in the PC box and hope I don''t need it when I''m miles away from another PC.'' I think with a sigh as I leave the store. The worst part is I can think of a few scenarios where that might actually prove true and I would feel regret for the stuff I stored away.-


    ''Bigger bag it is then , what a pain in the ass.'' I determined with a groan and pulled out my pokenav to price check trainer bags. I will never get over the strangeness of this world sometimes as when i pulled it up I almost immediately found a bag that had a small houses worth of space including separate pockets with their own expanded spaces. The price for something so stupidly high tech was a measly fifty thousand poke and is customizable.-


    Inparison a single grade five water stone like those I had could cover that cost seventy times at market price which was much lower than I could sell such a stone on auction for. Hell I only needed to do five of the well paying jobs like the one I got for capturing that Vulpix to pay for the bag. ''Guess I should go see what jobs are avable tomorrow while Gaia and Vulcan are training.'' I decided as I headed to the gym to meet up with Melissa. I don''t think I need to exin what happened after we got back to her ce for the day.-


    There is just something about waking up after a night of sex that just leaves a man feeling energized and refreshed. I cooked Melissa breakfast before I left the house and headed over to the training area to drop off Gaia and Vulcan before I went to the center to look over the jobs there. Thanks to the trainer forums that I had ess to as a registered trainer I knew that jobs to catch pokemon are always abundant at the first two months of league season before dropping off sharply on the third.-


    It was fairly well exined that those missions were a cut throat type deal in the cities like Rustboro as other trainers will try and poach the jobs if they can or evenplete the capture and sabotage anyone else possibly on the same job. I could understand why too as they were likely using the generous payment to keep themselves as a trainer. Upkeep on pokemon was very expensive if you weren''t someone with a supporting skillset like pill mastery or alchemy. If you had one though and could get a league certification then it was entirely doable to support an entire team of mons.-


    The requirement to get a certification however was to create a stable supplement for each pokemon type in from of judges. Each supplement also needed to be grade two at minimum which meant you actually had to know what you were doing in the field to get a certification. I may have the skill itself from the system but I was aplete novice in the creation of pills and needed practice before I can try and get the certification. So until that point I needed to still take jobs from the centers.-


    After finishing my own workout I left Gaia and Vulcan in the training area and headed towards the middle of the city that had the center and the pokemart like in the game. It was strange how many details the games got right despite the scale and form of reality being way bigger and more detailed. Still at least it gave me a general understanding of the main cities in this regionsyouts which was helpful in this case. Unlike the center of Iron town Rustboro pokecenter was a huge building that was clearly built to house and care for many more people than the one in Iron town.-


    The building also had a steady stream of foot traffic as well that reminded me a bit of the way blood flowed into and out of the heart. This was an apt way to look at it as well since for most trainers the pokecenter was indeed a vital resource that could spell life or death both figuratively and VERY literally. For me though I was one skill and some intense practice away from not needing the ce at all. Money? Alchemy. Healing? Aura , the healing ability and the medical skill. I was very close to be set up to never need to go to a pokecenter again.-


    Well so long as I personally don''t need medical treatment that is but I try to avoid getting in situations where that ismon. Anyways I followed the ingoing traffic for the center and noticed something interesting after I entered the building. Unlike the one in Iron town this pokecenter actually had different floors for the services they offered. The first two floors were for medical treatments , the third and fourth floors were for jobs and the fifth to seventh floors were the hosing areas.-


    I crammed into an elevator with around twelve other people and pressed the button for my destination on the third floor. Ignoring the difort of the other passengers in the elevator I waited until we arrived before getting off. Like you would expect the floor was bustling with people and had the sort of noisiness to it that came from many voices speaking at once. I walked over to the nearest avable clerk and sat down in front of their desk calmly. The pink haired man looked nervous after he registered who I was since word of things like what I went through likely traveled to every member of the n.-


    "I am here to look at the jobs avable." I said honestly. The man sighed in relief "I see , please give me a moment to bring them up." he says while turning to type something out on hisputers keyboard and click the mouse a couple times. "This is what our most recent update to the list has avable." the man said while turning theputer screen to me and handing over the mouse so I can scroll through it.

 Roulette results and statuses

    Roulette results and statuses


    Skills: swordsmanship ,acting ,alchemy ,swimming ,sneaking ,biology ,pickpocketing ,woodworking ,Ancient sinnoh ,masonry ,writing ,butchery ,Cooking ,Hieroglyphics ,forgery ,engineering ,sewing ,Gambling ,pokemon breeding ,gem crafting ,ball crafting ,archery ,metal working ,Poke medic ,hand to hand ,spearmanship ,zoology ,pokespeech ,farming ,grooming ,Medic ,cleaning ,herbology ,lovemaking ,Reading ,Parkour ,Running ,knife throwing ,torture ,hunting ,architecture ,aura ,knifebat ,Ancient kanto/Johto ,Unknown runes ,fishing ,tannery ,lockpicking ,Ancient Hoenn ,chemistry ,Tactics ,foraging


    Abilities: (A/N: Not going to adjust since there is so many)Telepathy(though speech)


    Improved body v2


    Strengthened skin


    Tremor


    Air res


    Greater nt maniption


    Minor healing


    Air create


    Improved digestion v1


    Ice control


    Mine


    Greater illusion


    3 sec intangibility


    Improved body v1


    Water create


    Pain resistance


    Ice create


    Shadow warp


    Aura arms


    Water control


    Super hearing


    Bird speech


    Earth create


    Time dtion


    Poison resistance


    Water res


    Ambidextrous


    ilusion


    Runes


    Poison skin


    Kill copy


    Light discement


    Shadow control


    Improved digestion v2


    Fire create


    Improved body v3


    Increased breathing efficiency v1


    Sound control


    Impact


    Greater storage


    Heat vision


    Healing


    Minor time dtion


    Earth res


    Greater healing


    Boost


    Berserk


    Mino storage


    Barrier


    Lighning control


    Minor nt maniption


    Major regen


    Air control


    Greater time dtion


    Speed boost


    Perfect breathing


    Fluid movement


    Increased breathing efficiency v2


    Swap


    Maism


    Wealth detection


    Fire res


    Shadow copy


    Light maniption


    Filth repel


    nt maniption


    Super strength


    Emotion suppresion


    Lighning create


    Perfect body


    Minor regen


    Perfect digestion


    Improved digestio v3


    Water breathing


    Sharpening


    Earth control


    Predation


    Ice res


    st


    Xray vision


    Improved perception


    Roar


    Storage


    Fire control


    Lightning res


    Moonlight


    Regen


    Minor illusion


    Slowing


    Gravity


    Pokemon:(A/N: same as above)chikorita


    cyndaquil


    totodile


    pidgey


    spearow


    hoothoot


    rattata


    sentret


    pichu


    caterpie


    weedle


    ledyba


    spinarak


    geodude


    zubat


    cleffa


    igglybuff


    togepi


    sandshrew


    ekans


    dunsparce


    mareep


    wooper


    gastly


    unknown


    onix


    bellsprout


    hoppip


    paras


    poliwag


    politoed


    magikarp


    goldeen


    slowpoke


    oddish


    drowzee


    abra


    ditto


    pineco


    forretress


    nidoran(f)


    nidoran(m)


    yanma


    sunkern


    exeggcute


    wobbuffet


    venonat


    scyther


    pinsir


    koffing


    grimer


    magnemite


    voltorb


    aipom


    snubbull


    vulpix


    growlithe


    stantler


    diglett


    mankey


    meowth


    psyduck


    machop


    tyrogue


    girafarig


    tauros


    miltank


    magby


    smoochum


    elekid


    mime jr


    smeargle


    farfetch''d


    natu


    qwilfish


    tentacool


    krabby


    shuckle


    staryu


    shellder


    cors


    remoraid


    chinchou


    seel


    lickitung


    tang


    eevee


    horsea


    gligar


    delibird


    swinub


    teddiursa


    phanpy


    mantyke


    skarmory


    doduo


    ponyta


    cubone


    kangaskhan


    rhyhorn


    murkrow


    houndour


    slugma


    sneasel


    misdreavus


    porygon


    omanyte


    kabuto


    aerodactyl


    muncx


    bulbasaur


    charmander


    squirtle


    dratini


    turtwig


    chimchar


    piplup


    starly


    bidoof


    kricketot


    shinx


    budew


    cranidos


    shieldon


    burmy


    wurmple


    pachirisu


    buizel


    cherubi


    shellos


    heracross


    drifloon


    buneary


    murkrow


    meow


    barboach


    chingling


    stunky


    meditite


    bronzor


    ponyta


    bonsly


    happiny


    chatot


    gible


    riolu


    wingull


    hippopotas


    azurill


    skorupi


    groagunk


    carnivine


    finneon


    feebas


    snover


    nosepass


    ralts


    swablu


    tropius


    duskull


    snorunt


    lie


    absol


    treecko


    torchic


    mudkip


    poochyena


    zigzagoon


    lotad


    seedot


    taillow


    suskit


    shroomish


    koth


    nincada


    whismur


    makuhita


    skitty


    sableye


    mawile


    aron


    electrike


    plusle


    minum


    volbeat


    illumise


    gulpin


    carvanha


    sharpedo


    wailmer


    numel


    torkoal


    spoink


    spinda


    trapinch


    cacea


    zangoose


    seviper


    lunatone


    solrock


    corphish


    baltoy


    lileep


    anorith


    castform


    kecleon


    shuppet


    wynaut


    spheal


    mperl


    relicanth


    luvdisc


    bagon


    beldum


    Variation determiners: No , Yes , Yes x2 , yes x3 , Yes x4 , yes x5 (A/N: the higher the variation the lessor the chance.)


    Variation possibilities: Shiny , Royal , Ancient , Speed , Elemental , Intelligence , Strength , Defense , Legendary.


    Items:(A/N: you get the idea) gloves


    exp share


    super potion


    Tm


    Meowth statue(24 hour cooldown)


    icy rock


    Tm


    paralyze heal


    sticky barb


    potion


    fresh water


    deepseascale


    Tm


    heal ball


    cherish ball


    spell tag


    stick


    dusk stone


    Tm


    smoke ball


    energy root


    Tm


    thunder stone


    razor w


    green scarf


    ma


    damp rock


    cksses


    hard stone


    shell bell


    luxury ball


    full incense


    quick powder


    everstone


    leaf stone


    Tm


    miracle seed


    choice scarf


    choice specs


    pink scarf


    iron ball


    repeat ball


    max revive


    soap


    nevermelt ice


    pocket knife


    sun stone


    ultra ball


    blue scarf


    yellow scarf


    deepseatooth


    choice band


    thick club


    pure incense


    max ether


    shed bell


    max elixer


    calcium


    rose incense


    silverware set


    up-grade


    old gateau


    soft sand


    Tm


    Shirt


    bright powder


    bag


    hyper potion


    full heal


    moon stone


    sacred ash


    grip w


    fishing rod


    expert belt


    dragon scale


    sharp beak


    rock incense


    carbos


    sword


    dawn stone


    anvil


    lemonade


    destiny knot


    metal powder


    razor fang


    leftovers


    Tm


    protector


    utility belt


    bike


    premier ball


    soothe bell


    silk scarf


    amulet coin


    Tm


    silver powder


    energy powder


    water stone


    awakening


    antidote


    self refilling Canteen(once a day)


    focus band


    metal coat


    fire starter


    ether


    max potion


    fire stone


    fan


    macho brace


    leather


    odd incense


    poke ball


    lucky egg


    light ball


    mystic water


    revival herb


    iron


    protein


    heat rock


    poison barb


    twisted spoon


    nest ball


    metal working tools


    elixer


    zoom lens


    burn heal


    heal powder


    oval stone


    zinc


    Pokenav


    ck belt


    shoal salt


    shiny stone


    mental herb


    full restore


    scope lens


    king''s rock


    belt


    wave incense


    dubious disc


    ck sludge


    smooth rock


    timer ball


    lucky punch


    big root


    charcoal


    red scarf


    soda pop


    light y


    hammer


    cleanse tag


    moomoo milk


    reaper cloth


    rare candy


    toxic orb


    muscle band


    magmarizer


    metronome


    soul dew


    wide lens


    tannery supplies


    grooming kit


    ice heal


    luck incense


    white herb


    quick w


    shield


    dragon fang


    wise sses


    sea incense


    power herb


    great ball


    pants


    focus sash


    electrizer


    me orb


    sewing kit


    quick ball


    revive


    dive ball


    spear


    Trade item tickets: Item , exp , pokemon , skill , ability


    Tms:(A/N:....) 14 blizzard


    74 gyro ball


    59 dragon pulse


    39 rock tomb


    10 hidden power


    16 light screen


    91 sh cannon


    26 earthquake


    4 calm mind


    49 snatch


    86 grass knot


    89 u-turn


    48 skill swap


    11 sunny day


    8 bulk up


    56 fling


    87 swagger


    54 false swipe


    21 frustration


    98 rock smash


    58 endure


    43 secret power


    53 energy ball


    41 torment


    73 thunder wave


    35 methrower


    20 safeguard


    6 toxic


    33 reflect


    97 defog


    96 strength


    62 silver wind


    79 dark pulse


    1 focus punch


    36 sludge bomb


    68 giga impact


    69 rock polish


    17 protect


    40 aerial ace


    30 shadow ball


    51 roost


    7 hail


    12 taunt


    31 brick break


    13 ice beam


    64 explosion


    65 shadow w


    27 return


    99 waterfall


    92 trick room


    67 recycle


    81 x-scissor


    61 will-o-wisp


    52 focus st


    72 avnche


    23 iron tail


    45 attract


    60 drain punch


    25 thunder


    66 payback


    75 swords dance


    95 surf


    63 embargo


    32 double team


    85 dream eater


    50 overheat


    82 sleep talk


    46 thief


    94 fly


    28 dig


    78 captivate


    3 water pulse


    37 sandstorm


    44 rest


    84 poison jab


    70 sh


    2 dragon w


    83 natural gift


    100 rock climb


    88 pluck


    19 giga drain


    15 hyper beam


    9 bullet seed


    57 charge beam


    101 sh


    24 thunderbolt


    55 brine


    18 rain dance


    38 fire st


    34 shock wave


    80 rock slide


    5 roar


    22 sr beam


    102 dive


    29 psychic


    76 stealth rock


    71 stone edge


    77 psych up


    90 substitute


    42 facade


    93 cut


    47 steel wing


    [Pokemon: Pupitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:53


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(A) , Sandstorm(E) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(E) , screech(E) , rock slide(E) , scary face(A) , thrash(A) , dark pulse(A) , payback(A) , rock polish(E) , metal w(A) , sand bomb(A) , crunch(J) , stone grasp(J)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:93


    Defense:97


    Sp. Atk:70


    Sp. Def:70


    Speed:65


    Ability: Sand veil(J) , shed skin(J)]


    [Pokemon species: Entei(Vulcan)


    LEVEL:63


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(E) , Ember(A) , roar(A) , fire spin(A) , Stomp(E) , methrower(E) , sunny day(E) , crunch(E) , extrasensory(A) ,va plume(E) , magma coat(J)


    Variations: none


    Attack:140


    Defense:100


    Sp. Atk:115


    Sp. Def:93


    Speed:110


    Ability: Inner focus(J)]


    [NAME: Alexander Drake


    AGE:20


    RACE: human-bonded


    INVENTORY: 1379 poke` , silph co bag , 3x pokeballs , 2x systemballs , I.D , hardstone x2(g2)(g4) , everstone(g2) , tiny mushroom , dusk stone(3) , unusual w fossil , water stone(g5) 4x , gold nugget , deepsea tooth , silverware set , Berries x38 , leaf stone(g2) , expert belt 2x , cooking utensils x5 , metal working tools x3 , soothe bell , steel block , luminous crystal 2x ,metal powder , max potion , sacred ash , pokenav , nevermelt ice , great ball , mushrooms x12 , Toiletries , Shorts x4 , meat x14 , vegetables x26 , green scarf , scope lens , milotic scale , Life iron ore , Shelder pearl(purple) , ck belt , kings rock ,odd incense , thunderstone(g3) , full heal , moonstone(g3) , amulet coin , Omega , sewing kit , tm 86 grass knot , premier ball , basic pill master set , pill capsule x12


    ROULETTE


    TRADING SHOP


    QUESTS: 1


    Pokemon: Pupitar(Gaia)(53) , Entei(Vulcan)(63)


    Level:34


    SKILLS:mon(A) , cleaning(N) , metal working(J) , aura(J) , cooking(A) , writing(N) , foraging(J) , farming(N) , masonry(N) , Spearmanship(A) , alchemy(N) , Ancient Sinnoh(N) , chemistry(N)


    ABILITIES: Appraise(journeyman)(system ability) , perfect body , emotion suppression +1 , healing(N)


    STRENGTH:26


    AGILITY:22


    AURA:57


    INTELLIGENCE:12


    CHARISMA:12


    LUCK:13]


    [Pokemon: Caterpie(Tank)


    LEVEL:37


    Moveset: String shot(E) , Tackle(E) ,


    Variations: Defensive


    Attack:50


    Defense:100


    Sp. Atk:38


    Sp. Def:85


    Speed:35


    Ability: Shield dust(N)]


    [Pokemon: Charmander(Rune)


    LEVEL:14


    Moveset: Growl(J) , Scratch(J) , Swords dance(J) , smokescreen(N) , tail whip(N) , thunderwave(N) , thundershock(n)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny , Elemental(electric)


    Attack:107


    Defense:63


    Sp. Atk:115


    Sp. Def:75


    Speed:72


    Ability: Volt absorb(N)]

 Meeting up

    Meeting up


    I wasn''t surprised that the list was much longer than it was for Iron town or that it was all digital either. Cities like Rustboro likely went through jobs in a constant flowing manner with the center getting new ones while the old ones arepleted. This meant that if they took the time to print out the jobs the list will be rendered invalid in a short period of time wasting the paper. I didn''t doubt that at least some of these jobs were gettingpleted even now while I was looking through them.-


    Despite that the center was very professional and had a mark that said whether or not a job had been taken already or not that helped greatly. I found five jobs that looked promising for me that hadn''t been taken yet. The first was to work as an assistant to a local pill maker for a day in exchange for five thousand poke` and whatever I learned during the day. The second was to catch a Seedot for someone that wanted one for ten thousand poke`. The third was to clear out a Rattata nest in a warehouse that recently got a new owner for three thousand poke`.-


    The fourth was a very valuable job without a stated pay limit posted by none other than the president of the Devon corp , Joseph Stone. The job was to bring him any rare or interesting stones that anyone may have and if he wants them he will purchase them from you. I was immediately interested in this job because I happened to have a VERY rare stone in the form of a variant Anorith fossil that can even be revived. While I knew how valuable a fossil pokemon was I also had the typebination of Anorith covered on my team making it pointless for me to have.-


    I had ironically nned on giving the fossil to Steven anyways since it would probably make a fine addition to his team if he chose to have it revived and would definitely get me into his good books. By giving it to his dad though I may not only be able to indirectly give the fossil pokemon to him but even get a fat paycheck for it as well. The final job was to spar with a local martial artist but the job specified that only weapon users or other martial artists could apply.-


    I had already pretty much set my sight on the Devon corp job already but I figured I might take one or two of the others over the next few days to pass the time. "I would like to take this job for today ." I said while pointing at the Devon corp job to the clerk. The guy saw the job and looked surprised "Are you certain? Mr. Stone has an extensive stone collection so normal rare stones hold little interest to him?" the guy asked and I nodded.-


    "Alright give me a moment to print out the job form so that you can show it to the Corporations clerk." The guy said and typed out something and a few clickster the printer behind him whirred to life as it spat out a sheet of paper with the details of the job on it. "I take the paper and stand up "Thank you for the help." I say politely before leaving.I left the center and made my way back to the training area to see how my pokemon were doing in their training as well as to collect them.-


    While Mr. stone may not be interested in Vulcan I had a feeling that the same could not be said of Gaia. As an avid rock collector I doubted that the man wouldn''t be interested in a unique rock and ground type shiny like Gaia. Unlike basic shinies that have color swaps that all look the same stage two shinies like Gaia are each unique as their patterns and coloration is never the same as another''s. Gaia was steel grey and had purple stripes that almost made her seem dark or brooding looking when she was pretty chill in truth.-


    Anyways when I got to the training area I was surprised to find a familiar face there with their own starter pokemon. May was off to the side of the area training her Treecko while my pokemon ignored her to focus on their own training. Gaia was still having difficulties with projecting her steel type energy while Vulcan had finally figured out how to use the move sr beam and was working on mastering it. "Oh hey Alex!" May called out with a smile when she saw me enter the building. "When did you get to Rustboro your dad never said anything about it a couple days ago?" I asked surprised to see her.-


    "Justst night actually , it doesn''t take me as long as you to get ces since I have a bike and stick to the normal routes after all." She joked and I scoffed "Why would I ever do something as boring as that plus it seems like it is working for me considering my team roster." I said while motioning to Tank on my shoulder. "Yeah my dad talks about it every time I call to give him an update on the pokedex , speaking of he wanted me to scan your pokemon if I ran into you if that''s alright?" She asked and I nodded while releasing Rune.-


    May wasted no time at all taking out the small red device and scanning each of my pokemon. "I''m sure he''ll squeal like an excited child when you send him that data." I joked and sheughed "without a doubt!" she said with a smile. "Still I can''t believe you managed to get a triple variant Charmander , all the ones I saw were normal and more than a little arrogant." she added while looking at rune enviously.-


    "Yeah I really lucked out on getting him though it''s a little unfortunate that he isn''t suited for the gym. Tank here is also useless in battle until he evolves into a Butterfree as well." I said honestly. "Maybe but what have you been up to besides having ruinous misunderstandings with two of thergest ns in the world?" May asked teasingly. I shrug "I got a new spear and am about to go meet the president of the Devon corporation." I said casually while showing off the spear on my back. "Why would you be going to meet the president of the Devon corporation for?" May asked confused.-


    "He put up a job at the center looking for rare stones that he may be interested in and I happen to have one that fits the bill nicely." I exined simply. "If it''s just a regr evolution stone you might as well just hang it up since the man and his son both have veryrge collections of rare stones including evolution stones." May said sternly and I chuckled "I very much doubt he has a stone like the one I have , it''s possible of course but very unlikely." I said confidently.

 Advice and meeting the president

    Advice and meeting the president


    "Must be a pretty rare rock if you are so confident." May said with a look of interest. "You know that fossil your dad has sitting in hisb?" I asked and she had a look of understanding. "That might work but what if Mr. Stone doesn''t believe you?" May asked worriedly. "I have a different fossil I n to sell to him actually but good Idea to see if he wants to buy the Magikarp one too." I said with a genuine smile. It had honestly not dawned on me that I could offer the Magikarp fossil as well to finally get some good out of it.-


    "What do you mean you have another fossil!? Aren''t those like super rare or something!?" she eximed in disbelief. "Fossils are actually prettymon , interesting fossils like those two however are pretty rare. I actually intended to resurrect the one I have for my team in the future but I ended up filling that typing with a better pokemon so I don''t need the fossil anymore." I exined with a shrug. "What pokemon is the fossil from?" May asked curiously. "It''s a variant Anorith fossil I found on Mt. grey before we met." I said honestly.-


    "Oh dads going to be steamed when he hears you kept something like that from him." May teased with a giggle. "It never came up in conversation." I said with a shrug. "In any case I''m a bit jealous that you have pokemon good enough to not need a fossil pokemon. I haven''t found any pokemon that looked like a good fit for my team yet so it''s just Iggy and me at the moment." She said with a helpless look. "I''m sure you''ll find something eventually , Are you aiming to be a generalist or a specialist?" I asked to see if I could give any advice.-


    "I am going to be a generalist since I don''t think I could really give it my all if I only trained one type of pokemon after all." she said honestly. "Hmmm , in that case you will need to figure out what roles your pokemon will have on your team and then n around types after that. In my teams case I have a status staller in the form of Tank. Gaia is damage sponge with some dealing ability as well. Vulcan is pure offense and Rune is also looking like a attacker as well but it''s too soon to tell for certain."-


    "After that I am only looking to patch up my teams ratherrge weakness to water and grass type moves and I should be pretty much set. In your case I''d say the next pokemon your should look into is a fire or water type , maybe a ghost type if you think you can handle it." I exined helpfully. She looked thoughtful at that and I used thispse in conversation to ball my pokemon other than Tank.-


    "Well if there is nothing else I have an appointment with the president of Devon to get to." I said before I started to leave the training area. "Wait!" May called out and I looked over my shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow. "When is your gym challenge?" she asked curiously. "In two days at noon." I said before asking for her own. "Three days from now at four pm." she answered. "A pity then I''ll be leaving after my challenge since I will probably need some time to get to Dewford." I said honestly and she had an understanding look even though she deted a bit.-


    "I''ll watch the recording and give you a call to let you know what I think , goodbye for now though." I said as I walked away with a wave. Finding the Devon headquarters wasn''t hard at all considering it was the tallest building in the city and was interestingly enough set at the far side of the city as well just like in the game. It was a strangely stone like tower with a shiny brown rocky looking metal outside and Red y colored rugs on the inside.The walls were also designed to mimic stone as well giving the building a very earthy feel.-


    I got a few looks by the peopleing and going from the building but I ignored them to approach the woman manning the front desk. "Wee to the Devon pokemonpany what can I help you with today?" the woman asked professionally without even a hint of obvious interest. I was actually pretty impressed with that since I looked like a very tall male model walking around in nothing but shorts and a bag slung over my back with my spear. It didn''t matter weather or not a woman was actually interested in me for most to blush at my appearance.-


    I reached into the pocket of my shorts and take out the folded paper from the center I put there earlier. "I am here about this job." I said calmly while handing the paper over. The woman unfolds it and reads it over before picking up a pokenav on the desk in front of her and calling a number on it. "Yes sir , the job you posted in the pokecenter , the same sir , I understand sir." I only caught her side of the conversation but I could roughly guess how it went from her speech.-


    The woman then hung up the call and reached into a drawer in front of her and pulled out a i.d badgebeled {presidential visitor} and held it out for me to take. "The president has agreed to see you since he is free at the moment , this badge will let the security know to allow you into his office once you finish taking the elevator over there to the top floor." she exined as I took the badge and attached it to my belt. "Thank you for the assistance." I said before heading over to the elevator and pressing the call button.-


    The elevator took only a brief moment to arrive and I was not surprised at all to see that theyout was pretty much identical to the ones I used on earth. Looking over thebeled buttons i pressed the onebeled {P.O} and felt the metal box start moving upwards. Five minutester the doors opened and two burly looking men at either side of the door looked me over before nodding to say I could enter the office. "My aren''t you a strong looking fellow!" I heard as I entered the room from the elevator and saw the source of the voice.-


    It was an older gentle man with short but wild silver hair sitting behind an unnecessarilyrge desk in a fancy three piece suit. The office itself clearly reflected it''s owners tastes as there were many disy cases with stones in them while the walls and ground both had earthen tones to them. "Comee , I''m told you might have a rare stone to show me and I simply must know if it''s true." Mr. Stone said with a warm smile while waving me over to his desk.

 Sale

    Sale


    I walked over to the edge of therge desk and took off my bag to dig out the fossil. "You''ll forgive me if I take a moment to retrieve it , It hasn''t been important until now you see." I exined while carefully removing things from my bag. "Not an issue at all Mr. Drake , in truth I have actually been interested in you seen the moment I learnt of that Pupitar in your possession thanks to you addition to the list." Mr. Stone said clearly in a good mood as I dug out the fossil.-


    "I imagined you might given your position in the league and hobby involving rare stones." I said honestly without looking up. "It has it''s perks despite all the trouble it can be sometimes and both my son Steven and I enjoy the various geological forms that exist in nature though his interest lean more towards metal than my own." Mr. Stone said with a warm tone. "You sound proud of him." Imented before finally reaching the fossil and removing it from the bag. "A fossil? No a variant fossil, what a treat!" Mr. stone said eagerly as he carefully looked over the fossil I set on the desk while I repacked my bag.-


    "I''m not an expert in fossils but I have figured out it is an Anorith fossil with what appears to be an attack variation judging from the shape and design of the w here." I said while pointing at what I meant. "Good eye! The species is understandably rare since few fossils exist that can be revived so variants are merely spected appearance wise but the scientists theorized an attack variant would have simr structures on it''s ws."-


    We''d need to do some tests on it to see if it can be revived but I will pay top dor for it without that reassurance as a show of good faith." Mr. Stone said with a friendly smile. "Are you sure? I will still be in town for another two days so you could test it before making such a decision." I offered since while the offer was very tempting epting it outright would probably paint me as a greedy individual. While there was nothing wrong with being greedy so long as it wasn''t taken too far I really wanted this man and his son to have a decent impression of me.-


    "I have a good feeling about this particr fossil , a collectors intuition if you will. So while I can appreciate your integrity I must insist." he said reassuringly. "Alright I won''t argue over a good thing then but since I am here already I happen to own another fossil though I can''t carry it around due to it''s size so I left it with professor Birch until I could find a buyer for it." I said honestly with a friendly smile of my own. "I''m a business man Mr. Drake so I know how to read people , you can stop acting friendly when you aren''t feeling anything at all right now." he said sternly and I sighed before dropping the false expression.-


    "What gave me away?" I asked curious since I was quite confident in my acting after spending years pretending to care about things. "Small details that would normally not be spotted if one didn''t know them well but the biggest was your eyes , they are cold and devoid of that spark of life that most have. Like looking into the eyes of a corpse , it''s frankly terrifying." he said honestly. "I am slowly recovering from a bad case of apathy." I said honestly.-


    "My pokemon are helping and I am trying to improve myself in this regard but you must understand that it''s hard to go from total numbness to being normal. Honestly speaking I don''t think I even can get to that point." I said calmly and he sighed. "Did you know that your condition is not as umon as you may think? Psychically gifted individuals tend to be in a simr state from the trauma that came with seeing the thoughts of those around them or gods forbid the future."-


    "Some deal with the state of mind better than others but apathy is a fairlymon trait for them to possess. The other group however I believe you fall into , those who have had bad experiences at a young age and simply lost the will to care. We don''t know for certain though given the pokemon based amnesia." he said seriously. He was right too as that was exactly the case , not that I was going to openly admit it though. "Don''t get me wrong young man I don''t think any less of you for acting like you do or even your condition but I prefer to do business with transparency between both parties." He finished with a reassuring smile.-


    "Can you keep this to yourself please? I would rather not have others find out if I can help it , I don''t want pity after all." I requested and he nodded. "You have my word that this won''t spread from this office but do consider confiding in Birch with it as he truly does speak highly of you." he suggested. "I will consider it but I believe we should go back to the topic of the fossils." I spoke calmly.-


    "Of course. Do you have any requests for items or the like or is cash eptable?" he asked getting serious. "There are a few things that I have need of at the moment. First I need a bag with thergest space possible that also has weight reduction properties. It needs the refrigerated pockets as well for storing food. Second I need an alchemy set , nothing fancy but strong enough to be used in the wilds. Third I would like a portable kitchen set for cooking on the road. "-


    "Beyond that I would also like I way to get to Dewford and teford after my uing gym battle but I have no need for a personal boat if I am only going to use it twice." I said what I truly wanted calmly. "You know alchemy? That''s a surprise to learn but I suppose all of your requests are doable without too much issue on my part. After all of that I estimate that the difference in funds to be around one and a quarter million poke` , is that eptable?" he asked and I nodded. "Wonderful , if you will give me a day I''ll have it all delivered to you , ah right what design do you want the bag to be in?" he asked before he forgot. -


    "A satchel that rests on my hip." I said after some thought. Mr. stone nodded and smiled "I will see them delivered shortly and please do remember my advice." he said and I nodded before turning to leave after recing my act. The rest of the day was fairly mundane as I focused my attention on helping Vulcan master his new move while Gaia kept at making herself a new move.

 Extermination

    Extermination


    When it came time to meet up with Melissa I balled up those that needed to be before leaving the training ground. Melissa was more than happy to take a few turns in the sheets before ordering pizza for dinner after I offered to pay for it. Rune wasn''t a huge fan of the stuff it turned out as it made a mess when he ate it. Vulcan on the other hand looked like it found it''s soulmate and was in heaven. I was thankful that I had Melissa order a lot of the stuff like I had because Vulcan was demolishing the literal stacks of pizza.-


    After that refreshing break I fucked Melissa to sleep before following after shortly. To be fair though the bedroom gymnastics were more the cream on the cake(Pun very much intended) of her exhaustion from work than anything else. Still apathetic gentleman that I am I made sure that she had a nice nutritious breakfast to go with her shower quicky. I myself grabbed that Rattata extermination job from the center while Gaia and Vulcan were training so that I could get Rune some practical experience with killing since while we were on the road Vulcan took care of hunting for us.-


    Rune had battle experience but hadn''t needed to kill his opponent off until now which I aimed to change. The warehouse that had the nest in it was in the less visited and older part of the city that was out of date and not used as housing most of the time. There were a few people living over here but not enough for it to really keep the Rattatas in line. Rattata was a rather controversial pokemon because while it was universally epted that they were pests it was also epted that you shouldn''t eat at a restaurant that doesn''t have one or two hanging out in it''s alleys.-


    The reason for this was because unlike normal rodents Rattata only ever eat good food thanks to their amazing foraging ability from their sharp sense of smell. The Jenny n even used an elite breed of Rattata that served as this worlds drug hounds after getting specialized training from birth. So the opinions on the species were conflicting but none of that mattered to me since my job was to exterminate the nest that had apparently gotten out of hand.-


    The metal warehouse was clearly infested as the metal sides had clear chewing marks from the Raticate using it to shorten their teeth. In the holes several pairs of eyes gleamed as they looked out at us and threatening sound emanated fro the building. I took all this in stride before tossing out Runes ball summoning the electric reptile in front of me. He looked calm about this matter and even seemed excited about it. I wasn''t surprised considering that the Charizard line consisted of predators that asionally ate vegetables as well , hunting was hard wired into his being.-


    "I don''t care how you do it but everything in there that isn''t an egg dies , bring the eggs to me if there is any." I spoke firmly and Rune nodded before walking into one of the holes on the metal wall. "ZAP! RAA! ZAP!" the sounds of electricity and Rattata screams echoed out from the building for the next three hours alongside the sound of flesh being struck. I had started leaning against a nearby wall with my spear resting against my shoulder as I waited. asionally a Rattata suffering from paralysis would stumble out of the warehouse in an attempt to escape and I would put my spear through their eyes.-


    I couldn''t cover every point of escape but the few near me were death sentences for the attempted escapees. Rune was clearly spamming thunderwave which was pretty smart all things considered as it had great effect in an enclosed space like the warehouse that had arge amount of targets to attach to as well. I didn''t doubt that quite a few Rattata had died from heart paralysis as a result but the job was extermination and it did not specify how.-


    "Whats going on here?" I female voice asked sternly and I looked over to find it was a Jenny. I didn''t feel like having to exin myself so I took out the job description that was printed out on a sheet of paper and handed it over to her. She read the information on the paper and was about to say something when a Rattata tried to escape from a nearby hole and I skewered it through the eye before she could blink. "You were going to say something?" I asked calmly while wiping the blood off my spear.-


    She flinched slightly when I spoke but quickly recovered her cool "There was a report of suspicious activity in this area but it seems everything is in proper order. Have a good day." she said before briskly walking away. ''Not friendly but I can live with it.'' I thought as she did so. At the end of the three hours rune came out of the warehouse covered in dried , burnt and fresh blood holding two eggs. "Char! Char! Der!" he said and I roughly tranted that there were three more eggs inside. "Go bring them here." I said and Rune put the two he had down and went back into the warehouse.-


    Once I had all five eggs in front of me I checked them with observe to see if there were any variants among them but there were not. Disappointed I carefully wrapped the eggs loosely with my extra clothes before putting them in my bag. ''After getting rid of that fossil I had some free space but now it is full again.'' I thought with a shrug before making my way to the pokemon center. I got a really dirty look when I passed off the Rattata eggs to the Joy n member on the first floor after I exined how I obtained them.-


    I could understand the look I got since as the medics for humans and pokemon the Joy n probably weren''t huge fans of extermination jobs. Sure they might understand why they were a thing but that didn''t mean they had to be happy about it. Either way I got paid for a job well done and even found that Rune gained six levels putting him at exactly twenty. He learnt quick attack and shock wave which were fairly useful all things considered.-


    Quick attack would allow Rune to get over his speed problem if he mastered it enough while shockwave was a mix of thunder wave and thundershock without the added paralysis. Leaving the pokemon center I was surprised to find a man in a green suit waiting for me with a satchel and a note. The satchel was obvious the bag I had asked for from Mr. stone and the letter was from the man himself. {I pulled out all the stops to get you this top of the line experimental Devon corporation bag with over a thousand cubic feet of space , arge refrigerated pocket and as an added bonus even an incubator pocket for any eggs you may obtain on your journey! P.S everything else is within the bag already except the transport which will be settled after your challenge!}

 Wrecking ball

    Wrecking ball


    I thanked the person delivering the bag and note before finding a nearby bench to start transferring things over from my original bag to my new one. The process was smooth and easy since my new bag had an abundance of space for everything that I owned. The new bag also contained the agreed upon poke` as well as the portable cooking station and alchemy equipment. All in all I was quite pleased with my new bag after I ced the strap over my left shoulder so that the bag rested on my right hip.-


    I found a nearby store and sold off my old bag that I no longer needed for two thousand poke` before making my way back to the training area to oversee Gaia and Vulcans training. When I got there I was surprised to learn that Gaia had seeded in creating a new move though I felt my eyebrow twitch at what it was. Not because it was weak or anything but because it was a double edge type deal. Like the move double edge Gaia''s new move caused her to be hit with heavy recoil when it was used.-


    We chose to name this new move wrecking ball due to the way it worked and the pure destructiveness of it. See the move worked by having Gaia focus a dense amount of steel type energy on her back as she leaned backwards with her air jets. She then gathered an equal amount of steel type energy on her front side before sting towards whatever she is using the move on. On contact with her target the energy on her back gets forced into the energy on her front causing a violent explosion of steel type energy. The move reminded me of self destruct except it was not as suicidally dangerous to the pokemon using it.-


    Don''t get me wrong though I really didn''t like the move since Gaia had BAD cracks and scrapes on her carapace after using it once. I asked her how she even figured out how to make the move and she exined that when she was training with the steel type energy earlier she identally shed two different pockets of energy and rather than mixing they exploded. She then used that as a foundation for this move.-


    Admittedly the exnation wasn''t that easy to decipher since I only had our bond to use as a trantion method but I am clever enough to grasp the general meaning to her speech. "I suppose it works but know that that move is ast resort in thising up challenge." I told her firmly and she rumbled in agreement as I used my healing ability to mend her wounds. I had to do it in spurts since I don''t have enough energy to heal so much damage at once but it still got done. After another p and tickle filled night with Melissa I decided to rx for thest day before my challenge.-


    My pokemon have worked hard and deserved a break to get into the best possible condition for the battle. There were a few ces in the city for pampering pokemon but I decided to bring my team to a spa for the day. Vulcan got a deep fur cleaning and trim alongside a massage while Gaia got the rock and ground treatment. This involved her carapace getting polished professionally with specially designed machines. Rune got his ws done while he received a massage of his own that had small pulses of electricity. Tank got to soak in the mineral hotsprings with me while all of this was going on.-


    After that we went to the amusement park at the eastern portion of the city that was designed with pokemon in mind and thus quite durable and wide open. Vulcan seemed to have the most fun in the obstacle track that had prizes based on your time. It wasn''t fast enough to get the grand prize which was a tm for the move earthquake but Vulcan did get a free meal voucher for one of the more popr food stalls. Gaia won the beauty contest though and earned a ribbon and rock type grooming kit. -


    Rune and Tank didn''t participate in any events but still seemed to enjoy themselves greatly. At the time I was set to meet up with Melissa I balled up my team and left the amusement park. She was waiting for me outside the gym when I finally got to her."Whats got you in such a sour mood?" I asked after seeing her frown as I walked up. "Thest few days have been frankly fantastic for me and now I am a little reluctant to see them end." she said honestly.-


    "All things do eventually." I pointed out and she sighed "I know that but that doesn''t mean it doesn''t suck alright? Out of every league fling I''ve had so far you were overall the best. The sex is great and you even cuddle afterwards. You made me breakfast and dinner everyday and weren''t weird or clingy. Honestly this has been the least stressful point in all the league seasons I''ve worked so I am understandably unhappy with it ending and the stressing back." She said with a depressed slouch. "Should I have behaved worse?" I asked curiously.-


    This was honestly a new experience for me as most of the one night stands I had neversted this long so I had never had to deal with something like this. "No , this is mostly just me being selfish is all. I am dreading the stress that will start to build up after you leave." she said honestly. "I see , shall we go then?" I asked calmly and she nodded. I honestly didn''t care all things considered as this was a no strings attached type thing to begin with so I had no reason why I should.-


    I spent the remainder of the night as had for the previous few days and after breakfast in the morning I left without a word. I did my morning workout and trained Rune a little before it was finally time to go to my challenge. I wasn''t nervous or anything as I had done my best to prepare so I will be satisfied so long as I can honestly say that I gave it my all. My pokemon mirrored my mindset and waited in their balls as i walked into the gym and checked in.-


    The clerk went back into the gym and a few minutes passed before they came back "Roxanne is ready for you now." they said and I followed them into the gyms back area. There was none of those childish obstacles or extra trainers to defeat before the gym leader from the game but the entire back of the gym was a massive sand and rock field with a clear arena outlined. At the far end on the trainer tform stood a twenty ish looking woman with red stocking and a formal skirt thatplemented her well kept and neat ck hair , it was Roxanne.

 Gym battle

    Gym battle


    "I admit that I was skeptical Birch rmended you for a star badge challenge but you seem like you may be worthy of it so show me how sturdy your bond with your pokemon is!" she said sternly before the referee began to narrate the rules. "The challenger is afforded one switch while the challenged is afforded none. Attacks aimed at the trainer or after a pokemon has been dered unfit to continue will result in automatic loss. Each party is also limited to two pokemon in total with evolutions mid battle causing the pokemon to be disqualified. You may begin!" the referee finished with a chop of their arm.-


    "Gaia set!" "Graveler out!" Roxanne and I called at the same time while tossing our balls out onto the field. Two bright red beams of energy flew out of the balls and manifested as Gaia on my side of the field and a Graveler on the other. "Polish!" I called and Roxannemanded her own pokemon "Defense curl!". Gaia glowed brown as she shuddered to perform the move while the Graveler glowed white as it folded it''s four stony arms against it''s body. "Defense!" Imanded after Gaia finished causing her to glow silver as she strengthened her own defense.-


    "Double- edge!" Roxannemanded and the Graveler tucked in it''s arms against its face and rolled it''s round body surprisingly fast while glowing white towards Gaia. "Up w!" I said calmly and Roxanne could only narrow her eye in confusion before figuring out what was happening far toote. The Graveler rolled harmlessly under Gaia as she used her air jet to rise into the air , spin and thene down with her jagged edge covered in silver energy onto the confused gym pokemon.-


    "GRAAA!" The boulder pokemon yelled in pain as the move caused severe cracks to appear all over it''s side from the impact point. "w!" "Rollout away!" both of us yelled at the same time and our pokemon moved simultaneously. Gaia went to use iron w again while the Graveler glowed brown before rapidly rolling out of the way just before she would have hit. ''As far as move mastery is concerned we are pretty close but she hasn''t used a super effective move yet even though Graveler can learn a few.'' I analyzed the moves so far seriously. Things were about to get turned up a notch however.-


    "Outbreak!" Roxannemanded and I didn''t recognize the name which made me wary "Up high!" I called and Gaia shot into the air as the glowing white Graveler suddenly glowed a dark red and popped up from the ground towards Gaia. ''FUCK! Brick break!'' I thought with a small amount of anxiousness that I crushed with emotional suppression. "DODGE!" I yelled but Gaia was still refilling her lungs when I did so I could only helplessly watch as the Graveler flying karate chopped Gaia with one of it''s stony arms. "MMMMMM!" she screamed in a high hum before turning midair with a determined expression as her backside glowed silver.-


    I sighed at this but didn''t move to stop her since the hit had caused a crack to appear on the delicate area around one of her vents and she would be grounded after shended giving up her mobility advantage. She seemed to understand this herself and chose to trade injuries for the chance at an instant knockout on the Graveler rather than struggling to hit it from now on. Roxanne clearly noticed that Gaia was doing something bad but was helpless to stop it since in mid air Gaia had the advantage and the Graveler had none.-


    "CRASH! BOOOM!" Gaia''s wrecking ball struck true and the Graveler and her mmed into the hard ground kicking up a huge cloud of dust. "Graveler is no longer fit to battle!" The referee called and we waited for the dust to clear. Gaia hovered unsteadily near the clearly unconscious and highly damaged Graveler that was bleeding from several ces on it''s body. To be honest Gaia didn''t look so good herself as the front of her carapace was covered in thin spiderwebbing cracks as well as deep ones that dripped blood on the ground below.-


    Roxanne recalled the Graveler without a word as Gaia unsteadily flew over to her original starting point and looked at the gym leader fiercely. Roxanne smiled andughed at that though "How very fitting for a rock type , to the bitter end it is then!" she said before throwing out another pokeball "Aerodactyl out!" she called and my eyes widened when the red beam manifested a huge creature with dull stone colored skin and arge sharp toothed mouth that had two cold brown eyes lock onto Gaia immediately.-


    "AAAAEEERRR!" the ancient pokemon roared loudly to announce itself but Gaia paid it no attention which seemed to set it off. "Leer!" I said knowing that she didn''t want to be taken out of the fight even if it would be a good idea. If Roxanne had more pokemon herpliance wouldn''t be a factor but this was thest gym pokemon and Vulcan was still perfectly ready to go. Gaia''s eyes glowed white and the Aerodactyl shivered slightly to show it''s defense dropped a little. "Take down!" Roxannemanded and the ancient predator swooped down with a white glow on it''s body.-


    "Payback!" I called once the Aerodactyl was too close to back out. The ancient predator struck first but Gaia exploded with white energy causing damage to the thing before the referee called it on Gaia. She was out cold but I could tell through our bond that she was satisfied with this oue. The Aerodactyl had a few tears in it''s skin and one of its eyes took a little damage but it was mostly fine if pissed off. It red at me while I recalled Gaia before moving back to it''s starting point to wait for my next pokemon.-


    "Vulcan set!" I called calmly as I tossed the ball out and Roxanne immediately turned tense as Vulcan made it known EXACTLY who was top dog here at his appearance. "EEENNN!" it roared and a wave of oppressive heat flooded the field while the Aerodactyl dropped any arrogance it had and gave Roxanne a look that screamed "Are you fucking kidding me!?". Vulcan was not happy at all after having watched the battle to this point and it was about to make it''s displeasure known. mes flickered to life around it as the hard stone floor melted beneath it''s feet.-


    An intense red glow filled it''s mouth and it shot a sunny day into the air making the rest of the field reach blisteringly hot temperatures. "Rain...!" Roxanne began before energy started to gather in Vulcan from the sunny day above and her eyes widened in horror with her words getting choked in the middle. Vulcan drained the entire false sun above and had an oppressive glow gathered in it''s mouth , "Sr beam!" I said coldly and a beam the thickness of a barrel sted forth from Vulcans mouth and crashed into the Aerodactyl knocking it out instantly before continuing and crashing against the far wall above Roxanne who was covered in a cold sweat.

 Story events … Again

    Story events �� Again


    "Aerodactyl is unable to continue! The winner is Alexander Drake!" The referee said ending the match officially. Vulcan held it''s head high proudly until I recalled it and stored it''s ball on my belt. Roxanne let out a breath of air and regained herposure before walking across the field to me. "It would seem that your threat level was miscalcted. While your Pupitar Gaia is close to the top of the fourth badge in power that Entei of yours is clearly well into the fifth badge level. Even more was that it knew how to use sr beam which was super effective against nearly any pokemon I could use as a gym leader."-


    "My loss is well deserved given these facts though I admit I had hoped to put up more of a fight. None the less you have proven your skill as a trainer so it is my great honor to present the four star stone badge. As is tradition I will also give you the choice of a rock tomb tm or pure money as your prize for victory." She said seriously. "I think I''ll go with the tm since it''ll be more useful in the long run." I said with a friendly smile.-


    "Very well you may show the badge to the clerk at the front and they will see you receive your prize. I hope to face you with my true team in the future Mr. Drake , should you reach that level." she said before walking away. ''If nothing else she is professional at least.'' I thought as I walked out of the field to the front of the gym and showed the clerk my badge before saying what I chose. The clerk nodded before opening a drawer next to her with a key and taking out a disc with a brown hue to it.-


    I ced the tm into my bag next to the other one I had before leaving the gym since I needed to make my way to to pokecenter to get Gaia looked at. This is the most damaged she has ever been so despite my difort the Joy n was the best bet to get her healed up in good time. My own healing ability was very limited in what it can do after all. I was honestly expecting to hear shouting about a thief after leaving the gym but there was nothing.-


    ''Maybe I prevented it by capturing the grunt in the forest previously.'' I thought before shrugging and making my way to the pokemon center. A nifty fact was that the center had to give priority to trainersing from a gym battle since they were guaranteed to have injured pokemon most of the time. In fact after a trainer makes an appointment with the gym the center also gets a notification to expect a patient at around that date and time. It was all a very efficient system that kept the center from being in a constant state of panic over the trainersing in with injured pokemon.-


    I walked into the building calmly while ignoring the looks I got and approached the Joy n member manning the intake desk. "Alexander Drake , I''ming from my gym challenge with an injured pokemon." I said calmly when she looked up at me. "We have been expecting you Mr. Drake please follow me." she said calmly and stood up before leading me to an empty room medical room. "Please wait here and a doctor will be with you momentarily." she said before leaving.-


    ''About as I expected to be treated so this works just fine.'' I thought after she left and waited for the doctor patiently. It really was only a moment as she said as within two minutes another member of the joy n came in wearing a white coat. If I didn''t know better I would have thought it was the same person but there were minute differences. "ording to the records you would be here to have both your Entei and Pupitar treated correct?" she asked and I shook my head. "Vulcan did not take any hits so only Gaia needs treatment." I rified.-


    She seemed taken back by this but didn''t argue with me "Release the one named Gaia here on this examination bed." she said pointing at the medical bed. I did as I was told and Gaia appeared on the bed immediately getting blood on the white covering on the bed. "Hmmm , well the good news is that is all appears to be surface level injuries like those consistent with a standard pokemon battle so if the testes back negative for internal damage she will only need to take it easy for a week or so before she should be good to train again." the Joy member said after looking Gaia over carefully.-


    She then took out a strange looking silver box from a nearby cab and set it on top of Gaia''s carapace carefully before turning a few dials on it''s front before hitting a button. "WUB WUB WUB!" three audible pulses came from the device followed by a loud "DING!" that told the Joy n something apparently since she looked at the little screen on the device. "Just as I thought she only has surface level injuries and will be fine so long as she rests well. If there is nothing else you may see yourself out." she said while cleaning the device and putting it away.-


    I balled Gaia again and left after that since I no longer needed to be here. I made my way towards the Devon corp headquarters with that taken care of to see about my transportation when I heard a shout. "THIEF! GIVE ME BACK MY GOODS!" it said and I sighed before heading in that direction. I had hoped to have prevented this event from happening with my actions previously but apparently the grunt who stole the stuff sessfully in the city was different from the grunt in the forest.-


    "Where the hell is the Jenny n when they have something that actually required their attention happens?" I muttered when I saw the same dude with a green suit as in the forest pacing worriedly at the edge of town. The man looked like he had been saved when he spotted me and rushed over. "You are the kind trainer from the forest earlier , please help me recover my goods from that thief! If you hurry you should be able to catch up to him!" the man begged desperately.-


    "Fine , stay here." Imanded and the man nodded hurriedly before I took off sprinting. If it was like the game then the grunt had ran straight into the literal one spot that could trap them. My sprint was less because I intended to chase the stupid bastard and more to show that I LOOKED like I was going to. Appearances were key in situations like this where reputation and benefits hinged on specific circumstances. Absolutely nothing decided that it wanted to get between me and where I wanted to go. It should be kept in mind that with my current stats I was a bit over superhuman and so I was moving very fast.

 Jobs

    Jobs


    The funny part was that thanks to my fast speed I actually caught up to the grunt right when he was trying to make off with the Wingull name Peeko. I drew my spear rotated my hold on it and threw it as hard as I could at where I thought the grunts leg was going to be in a moment. "SWOOSH! CRUNCH! AAAAAHHHHH!" The spear soared through the air precisely shot through the grunts left kneecap from behind like it wasn''t even there. The grunt dropped the Wingull and goods screaming in agony as he fell over and rolled.-


    "PEEKO!" the old man I immediately identified as Mr. Briney yelled worried about his pokemon as I hopped a few times to kill my momentum before walking over. "Are you alright? This thief didn''t hurt you before i got him with my spear I hope?" I asked feigning concern. "Ayed , I''m fine and you got him just in time to save my darling Peeko too! If theres ever a need you might have of me feel free to visit and ask it! The names Briney by the way!" Mr. Briney said clearly very grateful. I nodded before turning my attention to the grunt holding his leg in pain while still screaming in pain.-


    I casually released Rune from his ball and walked over to my spear and picked yanked it out of the ground where the head had sank in two feet AFTER going through the grunts kneecap. There was some blood on the weapon so I wiped it on the grunts uniform before picking the goods up and putting them safely in my satchel. "Tank give me a bit of rope." I said and the sturdy Caterpie spat out some silk threads that wove together into about five feet of braided rope.-


    Crouching down next to the grunt i ignored his cries of pain and ced the rope above the knee and grabbed a nearby stick before making a makeshift tourniquet that cut off all cirction bellow it. "Bind this in ce before wrapping him up Tank." Imanded and a sticky glob of silknded on the tourniquet holding it in ce even after i released it. After that Tank covered the grunt in silk below the shoulders. "HUP!" I grunted as I foisted the grunt onto my unupied shoulder like a sack of potatoes.-


    "I''m going to go drop this one off with and officer in the city , want toe with?" I asked the old man but he shook his head. "These old bones would only slow you down go on ahead of me young man." he said and I nodded before jogging back to the city while Rune used quick attack to keep up with me. The reason I released rune instead of Vulcan was that this was both good training for Rune and Vulcan would probably kill anything stupid enough to try and pick a fight at us passing by.-


    I was already going to create a scene by bringing this grunt into the city in this condition and didn''t need the added k from killing a bloody swathe on my way back as well. Most of the pokemon that chose to attack did so in hopes of turning the crippled grunt into a meal but Rune stopped every attack quickly and efficiently. Soon enough the dirt under my feet was reced by hard road and I saw the Devon researcher guy ahead talking to a Jenny. I balled Rune and jogged over casually and tossed the grunt down on the ground with a shrug making him cry out in pain again.-


    "Do you not like legs or something?" the green suited guy asked with an odd look after seeing the crippled limb. "It''s the fasted way to stop them from running." I said with a shrug. "I take it this is the thief then?" the Jenny asked and the man nodded. "Yeah he was about to take an old mans pokemon hostage too before I sent my spear through his knee." I added helpfully. "Thank you for your "assistance" in this matter but I''ll take it from here" the Jenny said with a perturbed look at the wound on the grunt.-


    "Sure , so you want your stuff back now or would you prefer to get it back at the Devon building?" I asked the guy after directly choosing to ignore the Jenny after she dismissed me. I could feel her anger spike for a moment before it got smothered by guilt and understanding. "You should hold onto it until I can talk with the president about this matter." he said seriously and I nodded "After you" I said calmly. We walked over to the Devon building with the man looking nervous as if there were robbers everywhere.-


    The clerk gave me a funny look when I walked into the building with the man but didn''t say anything as I followed behind him. We took the elevator all the way up to the top floor that had the Presidential office. "Wait here while I talk to the president for a moment." the guy said seriously as he stepped out of the elevator while the security guards were giving me strange looks. I could understand why too as in their minds I was just here not long ago to sell something and now I am here with an employee.-


    A few momentster the guy returned "He wants to speak to you ,e along." he said and walked to the side of the huge desk that Mr. Stone had. I walked up to the desk casually "You really need a better way to keep yourpanies secrets safe , this is the second time I''ve had to lend aid for it." I said jokingly. "Oh? Well if you have any suggestions I am all ears." Mr. stone said half joking half seriously. "Hmmm , maybe some security ghost types? Sableye would fit the role pretty well with the right training." I offered after some thought. -


    "HAHAHA! Phoebe would kiss you if she heard what you just said. That girl has been trying to get pokemon of that type into the business sector for awhile now." Mr. Stone said with a boisterousugh. "Based on their traits I am more surprised they weren''t already in use for this stuff." I said honestly. I meant it too as ghost types were perfect for secretly guarding people or objects as they could hide from nearly anything that wasn''t also a ghost type and could get really strong to boot.-


    "The pesky things are like yful children or absolute menaces with absolutely no indication when they switch. They would disrupt work even if they were good guards just from their pranks or random attacks on employees." Mr. Stone exined and I thought about it for a moment and couldn''t really find an argument for that. "Enough about that though , It would seem like you are quite reliable so I would like to hire you for a couple jobs that are also coincidentally on your journey as well." Mr. Stone said with a grin.

 Coincidence

    Coincidence


    "Wait let me guess , you want me to deliver the goods I recovered from the thief and deliver something else as well?" I offered. "Damn good guesses! You nailed it on the head in a single stroke. The goods need to reach Captain Stern in teport while I also need to get a letter delivered to my son Steven in Dewford. I can pay pretty well for your help in advance if you''d like?" Mr. Stone said honestly. I thought about it and couldn''t really think of anything off the top of my head that I needed at the moment.-


    "Judging from your expression you can''t think of anything you want but I can based on what I can see at this very moment." Mr. Stone said with a smirk. "What could I want that even I don''t know about?" I asked curiously. "How about some top quality supplements for your Caterpie , that is why you have it holding an everstone correct?" Mr. stone asked with a wide smile. "That totally slipped my mind!" I said finally remembering that I had nned on doing that while I was in the city.-


    "I assumed so considering what Birch told me when I called him about his rmendation for the star badge challenge. Suddenly learning that your challenge is much harder than anticipated would probably make most people at least a little forgetful. How did that go by the way?" Mr. stone asked curiously. I fished out my badge and showed it to him "So you won then , congrattions are in order it seems. I will go out on a hunch and assume Birch hasn''t told you how to ess the benefits of that badge right?" he asked and I nodded.-


    "I''m not surprised since he can be quite careless sometimes despite his intellect. Well the method to ess your benefits is as simple as registering your trainer i.d on the leagues elite site and then getting the card updated at the pokecenter. Hand me you pokenav and i.d and I''ll show you what I mean." he said while holding out his hand. I took out my pokenav and i.d and handed them over curiously. Mr. Stone frowned a little when he saw the state the pokenav was in but didn''t say anything as he expertly navigated the browser to get to the leagues homepage.-


    He then showed me the elite tab that required verification to enter which he punched in from my i.d and after a few moments for the server to process it loaded up the page. "If you look here you can see other elites as well as their ounts. These is the leagues jobs avable to someone at your level here and this spot lets you book entrance to the training grounds exclusively avable to elites like you as well as the gym leaders offering training." Mr. Stone exined the various parts of the page to me before putting his number into my pokenav.-


    "Feel free to call if you find any interesting stones or you have a business idea. As for the matter of transport that we discussed previously I have arranged for an old friend of mine by the name of Briney to sail you to Dewford and then teport afterwards." Mr. stone said and I was surprised to hear this. "What a coincidence , I actually saved a pokemon taken by the thief that took the goods earlier named Peeko that belonged to an old man by the name of Briney." I said and Mr. Stoneughed.-


    "My that really is quite the coincidence! In that case you are all set then and I can only wish you a pleasant and boring journey." he said before I left. It was gettingte by this point and after receiving my supplements I started to head towards the training ground to sleep there for the night after I gave Gaia a bit of healing. It wasn''t much but I imagine it would let her recover before the time that the Joy told me. It might seem like the joy n member was being a bit harsh to me earlier but I understood that she was probably just busy with pokemon that needed urgent treatment.-


    Doctors back on earth acted the same way when they were swamped with work and someone that didn''t really need a doctor for anything beyond confirmation on something showed up. Gaia didn''t need medicine or anything like that just time to recover so the Joy was a little short with me. Anyways Gaia woke up while I was healing her and and I told her of our victory while Vulcan gloated at being able to beat it''s opponent without injury.-


    This sparked a whole back and forth argument that I didn''t feel like getting involved in since it was harmless. "Think you are ready to evolve Tank?" I asked the little dude on my shoulder while that was going on and he paused mid bite on his berry to think about it. "Pi! Pi! Cater!" he said after a moment which I roughly tranted to "not there yet." which I assumed he was referring to his maximum nutrition storage with. "Alright , well let me know when you are ready so we can try and get you past the Metapod stage as soon as possible." I said and he nodded.-


    I took out my new portable cooking station from my bag after that and was quite impressed with it. The cooking station included a rechargeable gas and electric outlet , a cooking utensil set , a full set of pots and pans and even a processing board for anything we hunted that doubled as a cutting board. All of this fit into a cube the size of an apple that sat in the bag nice and neatly. Like any man with a new toy I put the station through it''s paces with arge dinnerprised of a huge pot of stew.-


    After dinner with Vulcan and Rune I used the aura I recovered in that time to give Gaia a bit more healing before calling it a night. The next day I woke up nice and early as per my usual and healed Gaia some more before taking care of my daily workout. At the end of which I earned my five item tickets that I left forter. I hadn''t forgotten about that ability ticket I got previously but wanted to wait until I was well away from anyone else before I used it.-


    Recalling all of my pokemon into their balls I left the training area and made my way out of the city. I don''t know why exactly but I was simply more at home out in the wilds than in the city and it showed as I could feel myself rxing the further I got from the city. Once I was far enough away to not need to care about it i released my pokemon from their balls so we could travel together. We moved a bit slower than normal since Gaia was a bit sore around some of her vents and was floating a little less freely than normal.

 Travel and roar

    Travel and roar


    I couldn''t help but wonder why Mr. Stone was sending a letter of all things to his son when hispany literally makes the devices used inmunications. I could think of a few easily enough such as how the pokenav''s tend not to work in caves as far as calling went and knowing the games Steven he probably spends all of his free time digging for rocks in exactly such an environment. Then again perhaps Mr. Stone merely preferred letters for whatever reason over calling on the pokenav , who knows. It honestly didn''t matter but the whole idea was just weird enough to confuse me.-


    I passed the trainers on the road that were battling and despite wanting to use them to hopefully polish up Rune enough to train with Gaia and Vulcan nobody was willing to ept my challenge. I could only sigh at this and move on to the forest where I nned to find a nice secluded spot and use my current tickets to hopefully get some useful stuff. Contrary to how it may seem the half million poke I currently had wasn''t actually a lot since the prices of many things in reality were much higher than in the games.-


    Food was by far the cheapest thing if you were only intending to fill your stomach and satisfy your dietary needs while clothes were a close second. No the really expensive stuff came around when you became a trainer. Medicine , supplements , high quality food , grooming , evolution stones , battle fees and training ground costs were a constant and painful reality for trainers. This was where sponsorships came in most of the time as sponsored trainers got an allowance based on their contract and breathed considerably easier than those without sponsorships.-


    The exceptions to these problems are those who know high demand professions like alchemist or pill masters , the rich and then the lucky bastardsing into a windfall like me. In my case though I have the system so I doubt I will ever be so broke that I need to rely on others for my career. Anyways I eventually got into the forest and started heading west since that was the direction of the coast which was the least visited part of the forest by people. The reason for that was because like almost every nonlived in coastal area deep sea monster pokemon asionally wash ashore in a piss poor mood.-


    When I say monster I don''t mean like ugly or deformed or anything like that but pokemon so powerful that their very presence was enough to shift the danger rating drastically. The mostmon of these monstersing to shore is when a Magikarp in the sea evolves into a Gyarados and goes on a rampage near the coast. Rarely however a battle between monsters happens in the sea and the loser flees tond to recover while no one knows it most of the time. The unlucky people nearby then get subjected to the injured beasts wrath as a result.-


    Thanks to this unpoprity however it made the coastal areas perfect for me to do my shy system stuff like getting a new ability. It was always interesting to see how the power of the local pokemon grows the further from people one gets. Half a days walk east in the forest for example saw the pokemon go from level ten to twenty all the way up to level forties and asionally fifties. Rune regrly got sent against the less friendly pokemon on our journey and it was doing wonders for his level as he had already reached twenty five and learned five new moves. -


    Double team , thunder punch , spark , agility and dragon rage to be specific. The downside to this rough training was that I burnt through my potions entirely and needed to make more from nearby nts. Thanks to how unfamiliar I was with this skill at the moment however my new potions STUNG. Sure they worked but the horrible sensation of like ten hos at once going to town on the injury made one want to curse every god they knew the name of.-


    I know this because I got hit with a sneak attack when my team and I was focusing on Runes battle and I needed to used a potion on myself. I not only got arge scar on my back but alsomitted so much sphemy that I am honestly surprised I hadn''t been struck down. "I promise that I will fix that as soon as I figure out how to." i swore to Rune who was giving my a "I told you so" look. It isn''t very important but the Nuzleaf that attacked me died a horrible death for it as all of my pokemon took the attack to myself very personal.-


    Once I was certain that I was far from any other person I had Gaia create the stones i used to make us a hut so I wasn''t exposed during the ticket drawing. It was a simple thing that only fit myself inside since I didn''t n on staying long enough for it to matter. Like always i started out with the item tickets I had which gave me a paralyze heal , tm31 brick break , tannery supplies of all things , tm57 charge beam and a zinc supplement.-


    To be honest i was baffled by the fact I got two tms and even weirder was that they were both for moves my pokemon could learn. The frustrating part though was that brick break would have been most useful to me a week ago when I was preparing to face Roxanne. The tannery supplies were even more irritating because I didn''t even have that skill! The supplement and medicine were both useful to a degree though. "While RNGESUS is with me I should draw this ability." I said and with determination I tore the ability ticket.-


    The wheel spun for a minute like usual and I prayed for something useful , my prayers were not heard. The wheel eventually stopped and I learned what I got with a strange expression on my face , roar. That was the ability I got and I didn''t know what it was about until my throat felt like it was burning up for a few minutes as the change was made in my body to amodate the new ability. The ability was to put it simply an innate ability to shout really really loudly , it was rather underwhelming to be honest.-


    I sighed after the change finished in my vocal chords and I could now work as a drill sergeant. To be fair to the ability it probably had other uses than degrading fresh meat at boot camp but I think those would be pretty niche , maybe singing? Disappointed with my new ability I headed south with my team to go find Mr. Briney. I knew he lived next to the coast since he was a sailor and had a boat but with the differences between the game and reality there was no telling exactly where that was located.

 Beach and quest

    Beach and quest


    A/N: Slight mistake in the previous chapter where it said Alex went east , I meant west so while I will be fixing that mistake just giving a heads up. If you never noticed this issue .... you . saw . nothing.


    ___________________________


    We needed to stay vignt as we traveled as while I wasn''t expecting to run into anything we couldn''t handle I didn''t want to risk it. Thankfully we managed to get out of the forest before the sun went down and reached the coast on this side of Hoenns main continent. As one would expect there was a wide variety of water type pokemon on the coast. Wingul , Marill , Spheal and even Krabby line pokemon were just sort of going about their business as my team and I left the forest.-


    I observed all the tougher looking pokemon to get a firm grasp of their levels and immediately told my team not to cause any problems. The reason for this came in the form of dozens of pokemon between level fifty and eighty. Obviously I noped out of any hostilities with the locals since I am rather attached to my life and would simply hate to lose it. I was relieved when none of the locals felt like picking a fight either and even seemed to actively avoid us.-


    ''I suppose I shouldn''t be surprised since even with a type advantage none of my team are normal pokemon.'' I thought as we traveled further down the coast line as the sun started to set. To my surprise a quest suddenly popped up startling me. Looking at the details I couldn''t help but sigh before epting it.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You are near the area that a ship was recently sunk by a storm , time to get wet!


    Objectives: Find the sunken sink located not far from your current location , Recover at least one item from the wreck(optional), Find the hidden treasure(optional)


    Rewards: 5x exp ticket , ?x item tickets(Per objects recovered)(Optional) , 1x new quest(Chain)(Optional)]


    "Can you swim by chance?" I asked Rune who looked at me in confusion. "I got a new quest to find a wreckage in the sea near here and I would rather not have to fight a pokemon myself if ites to it and the others here aren''t exactly water friendly. My hope is that you being electric type might make you able to handle a swim unlike the normal members of your species." I exined calmly.-


    Rune looked thoughtful and tentatively walked over to the water gentlypping at the shore. He looked hesitant but after finding that there was no difort when the water hit his foot tempted his luck and waded into the water. Everything was going well too until the tip of his tail went into the water. "CRACKLE!" the water got violently electrocuted in a bright disy and Rune hurriedly ran out of the surf panting. "You alright dude?" I asked genuinely worried about his well being.-


    Rune looked DRAINED and was panting as if exhausted but held up a w in a rough thumbs up position which made me sigh in relief. I still used my healing ability on him to be safe but like he motioned his health wasn''t in any danger."So like the rest of your kind your tails tip is also made of pure energy and thus can''t be submerged. It is good that we learned this now and not when it might be a lethal lesson." I said and Rune nodded seriously.-


    "Well lets camp set up our shelter for the night. I won''t go looking for the shipwreck until I have the light I will need to find it." I said and my team got to work. Vulcan used a low energy magma coat to create a hard base over the sand while Gaia createdrge rocks that I had her set up while Rune used his ws to carve them into shape so they fit together like bricks. Tank meanwhile created sticky silk that was used as the mortar for these "bricks". After about an hour of work we had a rough stone shelter ready and able to amodate all of us.-


    I had chosen a spot that was out of the tidal zone so none of us would be getting a salty surprise as we slept. "What are you guys thinking we have for dinner , stew , skewers or maybe tacos?" I asked as I busted out the portable cooking station. ""Char! EN!"" Vulcan and Rune spoke at the same time and I chuckled at the re they gave each other. "As per the rules I will act as the tiebreaker and agree with Vulcan on this ones since I haven''t made tacos for you guys yet and we eat stew all the time." I said and rune pouted while Vulcan looked smug.-


    I chose to ignore my mons antics and focus on the task at hand with cooking up the food. First I chopped up a lot of onions , cabbage and tomatoes for the veggies while therge amount of ground Tauros cooked and rendered out the fat in it. I had Rune stir the meat to keep it from sticking while I ground a bunch of dried corn into powder that I stored in arge bowl and added a bit of seasoning to along with mineral water that i used to create a sort of thick corn flour dough.-


    Once the meat was drowning in it''s own grease I strained it out while keeping the grease to fry the dough into hard shells. The meat meanwhile was seasoned heavily with various spices and herbs while I used some sour berry juice to give it a bit of extra vor. Once the taco shells were done frying I stored the grease away forter in a storage bin and started setting the meal up. Vulcan and Rune both agreed that it was delicious and ate arge amount.-


    A few of the local pokemon showed interest in my food and I split them off a bit of food while i was cooking that they gratefully ate with relish. After we all ate i gave Gaia one final healing session for the day before heading off to sleep. Even though my pokemon took shifts to keep watch it wasn''t really necessary since the locals that ate earlier kept anything with bad intentions away with a defensive huddle around the rough stone construct we were in. The main defender was arge pink Cors that sat in front of the entrance.-


    Unlike how the game would have you believe Cors didn''t actually need to be shiny to have a different color than pink as in truth they were able to change their color based on what they have eaten and where they live. The ones that were pink either chose to stay that way or were newborns that didn''t know better yet , this one fell into the former category. Still Cors were much like shuckle in that they traded their other stats to focus in one particr one which in this case was defense.

 Ship wreck

    Ship wreck


    In the morning when I woke up to the salty sea air and gentle sound of the waves I smiled a small amount before returning to normal and getting up to start my daily workout. I didn''t wake up my pokemon since they would likely wake up on their own soon enough. The exception to that was Tank who was awake on guard duty. "Morning Tank , anything worth reporting?" I asked and the sturdy bug shook its head. I nodded at that and let him climb onto his usual spot on my shoulder as I stepped out of the shelter.-


    I was a bit surprised to see the few local pokemon I fed the previous night sleeping near the shelter but chose to leave them be as I walked by. Once on the beach away from the shelter I started my workout with the squats as a warm up before moving to the next exercise and then the next until I was done. By the time I finished up my workout the rest of my pokemon were up and about with Rune being the most friendly of the bunch towards the local pokemon that had also woken up.-


    The sleep schedule that I follow was by no means unique to me and in fact was followed by quite a few different species in this world after all. "Would any of you happen to know where I can find the ship that sank near here recently?" I asked the local pokemon and most of them looked confused but the Cors nodded. "Can you show me?" I asked and again it nodded before starting to walk towards the sea. I reached into my satchel bag and took out the goggles I bought knowing that I would eventually end up in water at some point and put them on.-


    I then reached down and picked up the Cors "It will be faster if I carry you." I exined when it gave me a confused look. "You guys and girl hang out here while I am gone and if all goes well I should be back in a few hours." I said and the all wished me luck. All except Vulcan who as it turned out was in fact waterproof and could swim but really disliked getting wet on principle. I couldn''t help butugh at this even when it red at me.-


    Still Vulcan and I followed the Corss directions and entered the water. Near the shore the water was sandy and hard to see through but as we went deeper it got clearer as the sand wasn''t getting kicked up anymore. There I saw a vast collection of sea life from fish , ms , corals , pokemon and assorted ntlife everywhere. The normal sea life avoided us timidly while the pokemon saw us and besides being curious mostly minded their own business. There was a Carvanha that tried to take a bite out of me but the Cors in my arm got rid of it with a use of spike cannon.-


    On a side note I would like to say that swimming with one arm carrying a decently heavy object was a pain in the ass. But physically hard enough to be an issue but it had it''s own unique sort of challenge. Funny thing was that I had totally forgotten to check the level of the Cors until it attacked the Carvanha but after I did I sudden felt REALLY d I was on good terms with it. Apparently this particr pink coral pokemon was level one hundred and thirteen which made it the second strongest pokemon I had ever met and I was carrying it like a small child , what a time to be alive.-


    After about an hour of constant swimming though we finally reached the ship wreck and it was not a pretty sight. There was a rock formation just under the water nearby that had damage from when the ship hit it with the storm probably hiding it from whoever was sailing it. The ship itself had a massive hole in it''s side from where the rock ripped it open on impact thus consigning it to the depths.-


    I had Vulcan wait on the rock while I thanked the Cors and set it down so I had my hands free for the dive. "Let me take a small break here for a few minutes and then I''ll head down there to see if I can scavenge anything good." I said as i sat on the edge of the rock. The Cors nodded and to my surprise started to hop down the rock towards the ship wreck. ''Well at least I don''t think I''ll need to worry about getting attacked underwater.'' I thought as I watched it go.-


    After about fifteen minutes I finally stepped off the rock and took a deep breath before diving down into the water towards the ship. The Cors had already arrived and had pushed a few crates out into the open. I gave it a thumbs up before drawing my spear from my back an using it to pry open the crates to see what they contained. The first one released a multicolored pulpy mess that the Cors happily sucked out of the water column which told me that it was probably a crate of berries that the sea water had broken down but hadn''t imed yet since the crate was sealed still.-


    After poking around in the crate to make sure that there wasn''t any hidden objects in the crate of fruit I moved onto the second crate. Prying it open It was revealed to be a container full of berry slush again. I needed to get a fresh breath of air by this point and swam to the surface to exhale and then inhale deeply before diving down again. The third crate was different as it was chock full of sopping wet cloth that was totally ruined from the soak.-


    I had to be extra thorough with searching the crate as it was a pain to unravel the bundles but again there was nothing else in the crate. Going up for another breath I was beginning to think that the system was messing with me as after that I opened thest three crates that the Cors had brought me but it was all in stuff. Helpless that this wasn''t going to be such an easy recovery job I swam towards the cabin of the ship. The ship wasn''t veryrge so it probably only had two or three people operating it in my opinion so I was going to check the quarters next.-


    The inside of the ship was just as tossed and disorderly as the outside with the buoyant items stuck to the ceiling that was trapping them within. There were a few super potions and even a full heal amongst those so I grabbed them and left to get more air as well as cing them in my bag. The cool thing about Devon corp bags were that they were waterproof so long as they weren''t opened underwater which meant I only needed to climb the rock for a moment to store these things before being good to go.

 Victims

    Victims


    Once I stored my loot I headed back down to the wreck to see what other goodies I could find. The answer to that question by the way was not that many. I absolutely SCOURED the entire shipwreck at a surface level and only found three hyper potions , a money stash in a watertight bag , four full heals and an unhappy mperl that decided to shack up in the wreck. The mperl was mostly unhappy that we woke it up but otherwise pretty chill. ''Now I need to find whatever this treasure is that the system says is here.'' I thought after getting more air.-


    This was not a straight forward thing since despite opening any cabs and containers I could find the system didn''t count that objective aspleted. ''There must be a hiddenpartment , what a pain.'' I thought as I resigned myself to finding this hidden treasure. I used every spot that I had seen in tv shows and novels from prying up the floorboards to tapping the walls for hollow spots. I even lifted the mattresses to check under them but it was a bust. I got slightly annoyed to be honest as I was running out of spots to check.-


    Luckily my media knowledge did not fail me and I found what I was after in the hollow steering console of this ship. It was actually a pretty clever spot to hide stuff as it wasrge enough for that while also being important enough that anyone not wanting to scuttle the ship as they searched would leave it alone. Sadly for whoever chose that hiding spot I had sharp enough vision to notice that there were screws that did not belong there. They were painted over and pretty hard to spot normally but I was anything but normal.-


    What I found in the hiddenpartment however had me wishing I hadn''t found it. There in the hidey hole was a total of seven in pokeballs with metal cages on them to prevent them from opening that after I checked with the system made me a bit irritable. Each and every one of them had roughly the same information which coupled with the hidden nature of their location told me what I had found.


    [Pokemon: Eevee(starving)


    LEVEL:1


    Moveset: Tackle(n) , Tail whip(n)


    Variations: N/A


    Ability: Run away or adaptability(N)]


    Pokemon traffickers had been the ones who owned this boat and these Eevee were what they were transporting when it went down. Eevee were a highly coveted pokemon in this world and with good reason too as they could evolve into a pure type of any type in the world so long as they had the right stimulus. The problem was that this same uniqueness meant that they were very rare in the wild as they tended to evolve to survive their surroundings and the evolved pokemon guard their young fiercely. The league only allowed extremely vetted breeders to breed and sell the majority used by trainers.-


    But a few of them were acquired via cruel methods such as ughtering the parents and capturing the children to sell in secret to the highest bidder. The clues all pointed to this second option and that alone made my temper re up. I might not be a saint but I had lines that I wouldn''t cross and this covered several of them. I held the balls against my chest as I left the ship wreck and reached the rock Vulcan was waiting on. I carefully stored the balls in my bag before going to grab the Cors that was making it''s way to us.-


    "Lets go back to the beach so I can make a call and deal with this situation." I said with a a frown. Vulcan could feel my irritation through our bond and chose not toin about the swim on the way back. I was left to my thought during that time as besides the swimming I had nothing to distract me from them. I knew very little about how to treat pokemon in this situation but I knew a bit more how to treat people in simr states thanks to tv.-


    The first rule is that you do not ever let the starving person eat a lot at once because it''ll fuck their system up five ways to sunday. They have to eat a very small amount at first and only over the course of days to weeks does their diet go back to normal. The second rule is that the food can''t be super rich as that will also shock their system for bad results. With these guidelines I quickly set up a few teacups and add half fresh water and half an oran berry that I reduced to mush.-


    I was hopeful that the healing abilities of the oran would help relieve some of the suffering from the Eevees without being too rich for them to handle. Once that was prepared I went to work on getting the metal cages off the pokeballs. They were annoyingly well designed so it made forcefully removing them difficult but not impossible. The cages had several hinges that were stretched taut by the pokeball within that made any force transfer across the entire thing but at the same time the joints were also the cages weak points.-


    It was hard but thanks to the Cors having an acid based attack I was able to corrode the joints enough to allow Vulcan to shatter them one by one. I repeated this process on each of the pokeballs until they were free of the cages. ''Now for the tricky part.'' I thought as I released each of the Eevee from their prisons. I had to suppress my emotions with my ability when I saw the weak brown furred forms with gaunt boney figures. The pitiful creatures whined in fear and pain as they sat on the ground limply.-


    ''This is needlessly cruel and foul , the ones behind this better hope i never find out who they are.'' I thought as I took out a spoon from my bag and gently spooned some of the mixture in the cups into the mouths of the pokemon and massaged their throats to help them swallow it. I was patient and as gentle as possible while I did this until all of the mixture was gone since I had prepared the max I thought they could consume at once , it was a tiny amount to be honest.-


    Once that was done I moved the small and frail things into the shelter while using my spare shorts as a soft bedding and had Vulcany down next to them to warm them with the heat his body naturally emitted. After ensuring that the Eevees were settled in I pulled out my pokenav and called Birch. It took a few moments before he picked up "Alex it''s good to hear from you , to what do i owe the pleasure?" the man asked happily. "I need help." I say seriously and the line goes silent for a moment. "What is the situation?" Birch asked in a surprisingly stern tone.

 Rangers

    Rangers


    "I was making my way down the coast and decided to go for a swim after asking the local pokemon if there was anything interesting nearby. I was lead to a recent ship wreck , sometime in thest week I think. Anyway I went scavenging and found out that the ship probably belonged to pokemon traffickers. I have seven heavily malnourished Eevees and I am at least a day from the nearest Joy n member. It''s bad Birch real bad , I gave them a mix of water and oran berry crushed to mush but I am no medic." I say mostly honestly.-


    I lied about how I knew about the ship wreck but otherwise the story waspletely true."You did good with the oran berry as it will help ease the pain they are in but I need you to listen to me very carefully Alex. In your pokenav there is a function called "rescue call" , you are going to activate it after you get off this call with me. Once you do your pokenav will send out a signal to the nearest pokemon ranger. Each ranger is trained in how to handle this exact type of situation so when they get there exin what happened and follow their instruction to the letter , understand?" Birch asked seriously.-


    "I do and I''ll call you when I can , Alex out." I said before hanging up and activating the only feature I have never used on my pokenav before. Immediately the screen turns red and a simple message , {Signal sent}. "All that''s left now is to wait and keep watch over the little ones , full guard everyone." Imanded and all of my pokemon got into a defensive position around the shelter except Vulcan that had it''s paws wrapped around the Eevees huddled against it.-


    I stood in front of the entrance with my spears pommel resting on the ground with my hand firmly gripped to it''s handle. For the next hour we stood watch for any sign of the ranger or rangers that should being. "THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP!" the sound of heavy feet striking the ground starteding from ind and I took up position on the roof of the shelter to see what it was. In the distance I saw two Dodrio running rapidly towards us but I couldn''t see who was riding them.-


    I didn''t drop my guard though until I saw the green outfits that told me that these were the rangers. The rangers were a lean but fit middle aged man with thick facial hair and blonde hair. The other was a woman who looked to be about my age with short brown hair and dark brown skin. "I am the three star ranger Marcus and this is my trainee Eva. What is the reason you used the rescue call?" The man asked seriously after introducing themselves. I repeated the story I told to Birch to them and they dismounted the Dodrios immediately.-


    "We need to see the Eevees before we can decide what to do with them but so far it sounds as though you''ve done a fine job." Ranger Marcus said seriously and I nodded. "Vulcan friendliesing in , stand down!" I called and the rangers gave me confused looks. "I have one of my pokemon keeping the Eevees warm while protecting them. If I don''t tell it not to it WILL kill you if you try to even stick your heads into that shelter." I said seriously. "Good thing you told it not to then , I would prefer not to die while trying to help." Eva said nervously.-


    "Seconded , lets see how bad the damage is." Marcus said before heading towards the shelter only to freeze when he gets to it''s entrance. He turns to look at me with sweat on his brow "Y-you said you left them with your pokemon right?" he asked nervously. I roll my eyes at this "Vulcan won''t attack you since I told it not to , get in there already." I say firmly. "Lad I''m all for helping those Eevees but that legendary is looking at me like it wants to eat me." Marcus said nervously.-


    I frown and walk over to the entrance and look at Vulcan "Stop ring at the rangers , they are here to help the little ones." I chastise sternly and Vulcan huffs before ceasing his death re. "It''s fine now." i told Marcus and he merely gave me a strange look before cautiously walking into the shelter with Eva who was sweating buckets. "Severe malnutrition and look here see how the fur on the snouts is thin in this area? That''s a sign of heavy muzzles being used on them as the things pull out fur that has clearly not grown back yet." Marcus says to Eva and I have to suppress my rage once again.-


    Oh believe me I was having some next level cruel thoughts about what I was going to do to those responsible for this if I got my hands on them. So many of my bottom lines were crossed that I had trouble keeping my anger from spilling over into my bonds with my pokemon. "You said you fed them a mix of water and oran correct? How much did you give them?" Marcus asked serious and I showed him the cups and exined how much they got.-


    "Good that means they are already on the path to recovery but we need to get them to the Joys before we can say for sure. Do you still have the balls they were kept in?" He asked and I nodded and handed them over as he balled the Eevees. "We will rush these to Rustboro since it''s the closest to here. Do you need any assistance getting where you are going or was this the only thing we were needed for?" Marcus asked and i told him this was it and they left on their Dodrios after that.-


    My first run in with the rangers might not have been in the best manner possibly but I was left with a decent opinion of them after it. Once Marcus used his special ranger variant of pokenav to report the rescue call asplete my own pokenav returned to normal and I called Birch again. "Alex! How''d it go with the rangers?" he asked worriedly. "They took the Eevees and are on route to Rustboro as we speak but they said the little ones should be alright." I said honestly. Birch sighs in relief.-


    "That''s good to hear , still to think you would stumble across something like this out of nowhere. Do you think it might be one of the teams that has been making a nuisance of themselves?" he asked worriedly. "They better hope not." I mutter darkly. "what was that I couldn''t hear you?" Birch asked confused. "It was nothing , so what did you think of my battle with Roxanne?" I said changing the subject. "It''s the talk of the league right now. The way Gaia tricked the Aerodactyl into getting up close to hit it with that strange steel type move was a surprising turn of events. Then when Vulcan showed up and retaliated for the damage to Gaia really had all the leaders excited. nnery has practically been begging me to give her your number so she could ask you all sorts of questions about Vulcan.

 Chain quests

    Chain quests


    "You didn''t actually give her my number right?" I asked and Birch scoffed "Of course not! She can wait just like the rest of the gym leaders for you to challenge her to get it. I did give Roxanne your number though." Birch said calmly. "Wait what do you mean the rest of the gym leaders?" I asked after noticing what was wrong with that statement. "Oh? Well you really lit a fire under them with your performance and got them all a little excited to see what other tricks you will pull out during further challenges."-


    "You need to understand that despite getting many challenges per season very few of those are memorable since the trainers tend to use long established moves and strategies which as you can imagine gets pretty dull after a while. You showed not only interesting tactics but a move that they haven''t ever seen before so they are understandably eager to face you and your team inbat!" Birch exin with a clear amount of excitement. "No use hiding a new move if it can give us an advantage." I said with a shrug , not that he could see it though.-


    "That was pretty close to what Watson said actually. He said a trainer has to know when it was the right time to bare their hidden fangs. Speaking of what was that move if it''s not inconvenient?" Birch asked and I wasn''t surprised about it. It would actually be stranger if he didn''t ask me about it. "It''s a steel type move as you could probably tell but it was created by Gaia specifically so she could gain a type advantage against Roxane , we named it "wrecking ball" due to how it works." I said honestly.-


    I wasn''t going to exin how exactly the move worked since it will take more than a single situational use of it to figure out it''s exact mechanics thus leaving it a dangerous move for those not expecting it. Not to say it wasn''t dangerous , merely that once the move was thoroughly understood it became much easier to n around. A good example was the overly used move hyper beam that had a cooldown after it was used. It was an extremely well known thing that this period of weakness after it was used was an ideal time to hit the pokemon with a heavy blow.-


    In the same vein anyone familiar with the move will notice it''s signs before it''s used and have their pokemon avoid it making it risky in high end battles. But for wrecking ball the sheer unknowness of its mechanics might make an opponent cautious when they actually don''t need to be. "I''ll mark it down for the league but i don''t suppose you would tell me how it works right?" Birch asked and I simply said "No." and he sighed "Yeah I didn''t think so but it was worth a shot." Birch said casually.-


    I ended the call shortly after that since there was no reason to keep it going and I still needed to find Mr. Brineys house. I decided to leave the shelter up since the Cors seemed to take a fancy to it and I felt like it sort of deserved it with helping me find that ship wreck and the Eevees within it. I turned in the quest I got from the system and received five exp tickets that I immediately used on Rune. This brought his level up to thirty nine and gave him a huge headache in the process but it was worth it in my opinion.-


    This way he will finally be able to spar with Gaia and Vulcan while also boosting his mastery of his moves greatly while adding sh , discharge , light screen and thunder punch to the list of moves he knew. All the rest of his moves reached journeyman at the least and a few even got to adept mastery such as swords dance and thunderwave. From the quest I also eight item tickets which was by far the most I had ever gotten from a single quest so far. Speaking of quests I got to see the chain quest I got for rescuing the Eevees as well.-


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have rescued seven abused Eevees from a trafficker shipwreck in the Knick of time. See that they get the treatment they need!


    Objectives: Make sure the Eevees get treatmentplete)


    Rewards: 1x ability ticket , next chain quest(optional)]


    To my surprise I had alreadypleted the next step of the chain quest whichted me an ability ticket as well as the next link in the chain quests. I won''t lie and say that I probably didn''t look batshit crazy when I saw the next part of the chain quest , because I am pretty sure I did. After reading it over I couldn''t help myself and startedughing out of seemingly nowhere which got a few concerned looks from my pokemon untilexined it to them as well.-


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description:Find the ones responsible for the the Eevees being trafficked and ensure they are punished for their actions!(HINT: teport has many shadows.)


    Objectives: Find and make sure the traffickers receive punishment.(Time limit: 1 week)


    Rewards: 6x exp tickets , 4x item tickets , 1 guaranteed skill ticket]


    After my pokemon heard what thest part of the chain quest was the air got heavy as they all showed their animosity and bloodlust towards the traffickers that matched my own. We redoubled our speed down the coast with this motivation and we eventually found the quaint little house with it''s own dock and boat that I assumed belonged to Mr. Briney. "I''ll let you guys out after we reach a spot that I can." I say to my pokemon and they nod though a bit upset at having to ride in their balls again.-


    The house itself was a small two bedroom cottage made of wood and stone and after a careful look around I noticed that it was built in an area of the sea without much waves as well. I walked up to the thick wooden door and knocked "Thump thump!" the sound echoed through the door as I put a good amount of effort into it so that the door didn''t muffle it. Soon the door opened and the old man behind it brightened up immediately after he saw me. "Ah! It''s youd ,e ine in!" he said pulling me in the house eagerly.

 Sailing

    Sailing


    I was here to talk to the old man about having him sail me to Dewford so I could register my challenge towards the end of the month. After that I needed to go find Steven in the cave system near the city that he should be in at the moment to deliver the letter from Mr. stone. Then I needed to go to teport to track down the traffickers since the other stuff on my list of stuff to do should only take me a day at most. Once the trafficker were punished I then needed to have Mr. Brineye pick me up before my challenge date so that I could train my team for Brawly.-


    There was a little back and forth in this n but sadly this was just how it would go until I could get a pokemon that could carry me through the sea safely. With all this in mind I chose to allow the old man to have his way and pull me into the house. The inside of the house was warm and had all the things a home needed such as a kitchen and bathroom but it was clear that it hadn''t had a women living in it in a long time if ever.-


    On the table was the wingul that I had rescued from the aqua grunt looking at me in a friendly manner. "Can I offer you some tead?" Mr. Briney asked while moving to grab a y cup from the rack of them against the wall to the right of the door frame. I agreed to having some tea since I was a little thirsty from the trip here. It was actually quite good too as it was made with ground dried berries and tea leaves in a steeping bag.-


    The tea was thus naturally sweet and had a gentle tartness to it thatplimented the tea leaves well. "You are in luckd , I was actually expecting a guest in the next day or so and might not have been here if you came anyter." Mr. Briney said with a chuckle. "Someone from Devon right?" I asked with a smirk. "How''d you know?" he asked with a surprised look. "Because that person is me , I made a deal with the president of Devon and part of it was transport over the seas. He said that you were my transport." I said smirking.-


    "Hahaha! Goodness that''s quite the lucky coincidence!" Mr. Briney said with a loudugh. "Well I was gonna take you to Dewford and then teport after you got your badge like Stone wanted but since it''s you you just need to ask and me and Peeko''ll see you wherever you need to go. Just say the word." Mr. Briney said with a smile. I then went on to tell him my n and he looked thoughtful for a moment. -


    "I''d rather not stick around so long at teport so best I can do for youd is drop you off ande back to pick you up a day before your challenge." Mr. Briney eventually said and I nodded in agreement. "That''s fine , Honestly speaking I wouldn''t even stop at Dewford until I needed to set my challenge if it wasn''t for the letter I need to deliver." I said with a shrug. "Now that that''s settled just give me a bit and we can set sail." Mr. Briney said and left the house , probably to check the boat over. I chose to wait patiently for him toplete that as I had no knowledge in that field and would only get in the way.-


    About an hourter Mr. Briney came back in the house "Everything is in tip top shape and ready to sail when you are!" he said proudly. "Lets go then." I said while draining thest of my tea and carefully setting the cup on the table. The boat itself was a fairly small one with an inbuilt motor and wind shield that was clearly not designed for anything beyond personal use. I found a seat in the bench built into the boat as Mr. Briney started the motor and steered us away fromthe dock.-


    It was smooth sailing for the first hour and we were making good time too as we had already covered about a quarter of the distance to Dewford. That was unfortunately when things got bumpy as we left the calm low wave part of the sea and entered the part with strong winds and as a result decent sized waved that we had to go up and over. Despite feeling that I would need to take a swim a few times Mr. Briney knew what he was doing and got us to Dewford in one piece.-


    Dewford was much like in the game an ind city with the city itself taking up about a quarter of the ind and the rest being rockynd with a few trees or beaches. The building reflected this as they were mostly made of stone or corrosion resistant metal. The Gym itself was at the highest point of the ind interestingly enough with a steep path being the only clear way there. Mr. Briney parked the boat next to a dock and immediately got to work tying it to the dock.-


    "I''ll go grab some grub with Peeko and wait for you to finish your business hered." he said and I gave him a thumbs up. Walking down the dock I got my usual stares but that was to be expected by this point for me so I ignored it. I didn''t head to the gym first though since I wanted to get this letter delivered to Steven before I did that since the Gym was closer to the boat. With this in mind I crouched down slightly and in the next moment kicked up a good amount of sand as I took off running along the coast.-


    Those stares went from interest to amazement as I ran at inhuman speeds down the coast towards where I believed the cave was from the game. Like usual the cave was much further away from the city than in the game but there was no missing it. There were several colorful signs around it''s entrance and plenty of fisherman on the shore of the nearby beach. I slid to a stop in front of the entrance that was basically just a jagged hole in the rockface about eight feet tall and four wide.-


    I reached into my satchel and removed the glowing crystals that I had from the cave I went through with Gaia awhile back. These crystals would basically remove the need for a shlightfor me as my eyesight worked great at this point. Not enough to see in nearplete darkness but certainly enough to be fine in low light like the crystals would provide. I also released Gaia , Vulcan and Rune from their balls to apany me through the cave. "Gaia you will bring up the rear as I am pretty sure there are Sableye in this cave and I''d rather not have one attack us from behind." I say seriously and she hummed in agreement.

 Steven Stone

    Steven Stone


    "Rune you will be taking care of most of the battles since the strongest thing here should at most be slightly stronger than you." I say seriously "Char!" he voices his understanding. I didn''t even need to tell Vulcan it''s role as the only one left was guarding myself and Tank since we couldn''t battle a pokemon directly. Tank less because of it''s level and more from it''s species limiting it to two rather useless moves in this cave and me because despite being super human I was sub Pok��mon still.-


    With that settled we headed into the cave confidently only to meet up with a man in hiking gear. "Good afternoon! You should know that the rest of the levels of the cave are very dark , Here this TM will let you navigate it with ease." the man says while handing over a TM with a friendly smile. "Why did you just hand out a TM of all things to aplete stranger?" I asked confused. "Ah , well it''s not a very popr move due to how limited it''s use is and since I can afford to give them away I figured why not help out anyone who enters the cave?" The man says with a bright smile.-


    "That''s ... nice I guess?" I say not really sure how to deal with that answer. Such selflessness is so rare that it''s practically myth on earth and even here where most people are pretty nice they aren''t usually going out of their way to help others for nothing. Hell it isn''t even for nothing but LESS than nothing as the man loses money by giving out TMs for free. I was ufortable with this and immediately left that area after thanking the man. The cave on this level was a in brown and rocky and I was pretty sure the rest would be the same.-


    I went down thedder leading to the next level while my pokemon dropped to it through the hole since it wasn''t very deep , maybe like ten feet total. To a pokemon that was nothing and they waited for me at the bottom of thedder. The second level was quite dark like the man said but my glowing crystals did their job and lit up my surroundings well enough. To my surprise Runes tail also served as a bright source of light like a torch that increased visibility substantially.-


    That was also how I noticed the fat looking pokemon with yellow skin andrge ck boxing glove looking hands nearby. It was a Makuhita which was a fairlymon fighting type pokemon and had the typing''s bad habit as well , it wanted to fight. Fighting type pokemon were famous for their strangely aggressive yet friendly baseline attitudes where despite being very friendly they were also all battle junkies. Most fighting type species mating habits actually involved battle so it should be pretty clear how big battles were to them.-


    This particr Makuhita was only level twenty so Rune didn''t have any trouble at all winning against it. He basically just paralyzed it before wailing on it with ranged attacks. Once that was over with we started to head into the cave properly and I couldn''t help but curse myself for forgetting a rather crucial fact about Sableye as a species , they LOVED bright or shiny things. As a result we were being watched by a lot of the pokemon from the shadows. To be more specific they were eyeing the crystals on my waist with keen interest. Like most ghost type pokemon however they were fairly timid and didn''t directly try and snatch them from me.-


    Instead Rune got a continuous back-to-back challenge from each and every one of the pesky pokemon. None of them seemed to want to kill us or anything like that so while it was annoying we also didn''t take lethal action either. I got excited however when one particr member of the species came out of the darkness to fight Rune. This one had a different appearance than all the others as it wasnkier with longer thicker legs and ws , ridges down it''s back and two red horns growing from it''s head. The color scheme was also different as it was white with ruby eyes.-


    Observing it I grinned widely and felt a desire to have it on my team as the system confirmed my suspicion , this was an ancient variant. Ancient variants were rather unique amongst the various variations as it had properties from a few of the other variant types. For example the color was different from normal , the body shape was different and depending on the species the typing could also be different. In this case though the typing was the same as usual as it was ghost and dark type.-


    This particr Sableye had keen eye as it''s ability and was only level fifteen so I felt like it should be young enough that i don''t need to worry about it having bad habits I need to correct yet. "Join my team and I will make you just as powerful as any of these pokemon." I said seriously. The Sableye cocked it''s head to the side at a ufortable to look at angle before speaking. "Sa! Sab! Sableye!" it spoke with a whiny echoing voice like a woman speaking underwater.-


    Tank tranted for me and I roughly understood that this pokemon had no interest in joining me but that it did want my crystals still. I could only sigh at this but had Rune defeat it like the rest since I wasn''t going to just hand over what was mine for now good reason. There was no point in trying to capture the thing either as all that will likely aplish would be to create animosity and disobedience in it. I will admit that I was rather let down by this decision from the pokemon since I was nning to get a ghost type for my team and this would be perfect.-


    Eventually though we managed to get through the throng of challengers and reach the chamber that Steven was in. When I saw it I finally understood why there were Sableye on this ind at all as there were various small pieces of gemstones in the walls of the cavern Steven was in and that species eats gems. Steven was a well dressed man a few years older than me with short well taken care of silver hair and he was looking at the gems in the walls with a magnifying ss carefully.-


    "Hmm?" he hummed in surprise as he heard us walk into the room and turned around to look at me and my team. "Well that is certainly not something you see everyday." he said with genuine intrigue. "Your Pupitar is a beautiful specimen and I love the how the purple and grey blend together at the edges of these stripes here." Steven said with a wide smile as he closely looks Gaia over. ''Well he certainly lives up to his reputation as a rock hound.'' I thought with a chuckle.

 Surprise appearance

    Surprise appearance


    I was observant enough to notice the tenseness that Steven had despite his friendly way of speaking and calm appearance. I couldn''t exactly me him considering that despite the fact he was DEFINITELY more powerful than me as a trainer he also didn''t have any of his pokemon out at the moment and he was in a small chamber with all of my own. In other words if any of my pokemon were to attack with a wide area move he was almost guaranteed to die , he clearly knew it too.-


    "You can rx Mr. Stone we aren''t here to cause trouble but to deliver a letter from your father." I exin calmly while taking the letter out of my bag. His eyes scan the letter briefly before he rxed his tense body. "Thank you for going through the effort of delivering this letter as a show of thanks you can have this TM!" Steven says before casually bringing out a silver colored Tm from the fanny pack on his wait that I totally missed until now since it blended into his suit. "No need , your father already paid me." I say while holding up a hand to stop him.-


    Steven smiled more genuinely at that "Then consider it an investment in your future." he said and tossed the TM to me. I wasn''t going to force the issue since I had already rified that I wasn''t epting it as payment for the delivery. Normally I wouldn''t have said no to a free TM like that but I really wanted to leave a good impression on Steven. "It will teach any pokemon you have that can learn it the move steel wing , it''s one of my favorites." Steven said in a friendly manner.-


    "Maybe it wille in handy after Rune finishes evolving into a Charizard." I say with a shrug as I ce the TM into my bag. "Well now that you have the letter my job here is done so I''ll be on my way now , on a bit of a schedule you see." I added casually and turned to leave. "Wait!" Steven eximed to stop me. I looked back confused since I honestly couldn''t think of a reason why he would want to stop me from leaving. If anything he should want me to leave faster so he can go back to his stone collecting.-


    "I don''t mean to pry or anything but would you be willing to part with one of those crystals on your waist?" Steven asked sheepishly and I sighed since I should have known. I un hooked one of the crystals and tossed it to him before turning around and leaving for real this time. The Sableye didn''t cause us any more problems on the way out and besides the asional Makuhita or Hariyama(the evolved form of Makuhita) the other residents of the cave left us alone. Thanks to that we got out of the cave much faster than we went through it and Rune even got a couple levels putting him at forty one at the moment.-


    I honestly wasn''t sure how close to evolving Rune was since with his triple variation there was simply no record online about what the signs for that in a Charmander like him was. The signs for a normal Charmander were almost entirely absent from Rune so I am pretty sure that his signs are different. As for Tank his signs were ringly obvious since he had already reached the required amount of calories to evolve but had been trying to stock up even further to see if it helped him at all.-


    Gaia would still need at the very least another two months before she could evolve again as royal variants of her species took on average four to five months to show signs of their next evolution.Once I was out of the cave I balled up my pokemon and started heading back to the city so I could apply for my gym challenge. Nothing happened on the way back to the city and even after I got to it there was nothing worth mentioning. Though I suppose the higher than average amount of fit people in the city was something but it was a fighting type gym city so it was kinda to be expected.-


    Still I stood out from the masses due to my minimal amount of clothes and size that was considered borderline unnaturally tall for this world people. Average height in this world was about five foot nine inches and the tallest person ever was someone with gigantism and reached seven foot exactly(I looked it up on my pokenav). I myself was sitting at six foot six at this moment which was only half a foot short of that size so I was very eye catching.-


    I ignored the looks i got however and made my way to the rocky and steep path to the gym and began to climb the incline deftly. All those workouts and high stats weren''t for show and I absolutely tore through the path with brute force and agility. The few trainers climbing up the incline themselves could only stop and watch in awe as I did so. It was likeparing a snail to a chimpanzee in terms of difference in climbing speed.-


    Once I hoisted myself up onto the t ground that the gym rested on I sighed infort "That was a pretty good warm up actually." I said while rolling my shoulders as Tank rolled his eyes. I strolled up to the gym after that and entered the building calmly. To my surprise there was a man who looked about my age in blue swim trunks , sandal and a tight white t-shirt that had tan skin and wild spikey bluish colored hair. "Yo Alex I am d you made it!" the man said with a bright smile. "I admit you''ve got me at a bit of a disadvantage here since I wasn''t excepting to meet you for another three weeks at least." I say honestly while scratching the back of my head in confusion.-


    This was obviously the gym leader for this gym , Brawly , and as I had just said meeting him so suddenly had me all sorts of off center. "Don''t sweat the details dude , all that matters is that we are here now. Just as a wave cannot help but meet the shore so too were we destined to meet!" Brawly says brightly and I''m not going to lie I kinda felt the urge to punch him in the face.-


    Like he was WAY too chipper for me to not be tempted to do it but I resisted my violent impulse. "I''m going to be honest right now so don''t take this the wrong way but like chill please. I can appreciate a warm wee but I prefer calmness." I say bluntly and Brawly actually dims somehow but remains smiling still. "Heh , Sorry about that I have just been so pumped to finally meet you ever since I saw that battle you had with Roxy!" Brawly says eagerly if a bit more subdued.

 Ambitions bared

    Ambitions bared


    "Why?" I asked confused since as far as I could tell the battle with Roxanne had little to do with anything that would interest a fighting type specialist like Brawly. "You man! You made a statement to all of us gym leaders with that battle! You told us that you were here to conquer and you weren''t gonna hold back until you reached the top! We all felt it and are stoked to ept your challenge!" Brawly said with a wide grin. I wasn''t sure if he was telling the truth or if he was pulling this out of nowhere since I am pretty sure I must have looked like a statue in the recording.-


    I mean I might have been projecting my ambitions but I don''t think so. Brawly seemed to understand my thoughts and spoke up again "It''s wasn''t you that gave it away dude but your pokemon. When you get the the level us leaders are at you''ll be able to see through the thoughts and personality of a pokemon at a nce. Your pokemon were practically oozing ambition and pride!" he said with a wide smile.-


    "I won''t deny my ambitions but they are a bit different than you seem to think." I said honestly. Brawly looked intrigued "Don''t leave me hanging bro , what is it that sets your spirit surging like the waves during a storm?" he asked eager to know the answer. "I want to leave behind a legend! I want people to remember my name for the rest of time! I don''t want to stand at the top of the world but to exceed it by so far that I be that thing others aspire to be , an icon , a legend so grand all other pale inparison!" I say firmly and with pride.-


    "HAHAHAHAHA YES! That''s the stuff right there! That passion and confidence that makes me believe you will do it! That is what I want to face in battle and get crashed into like a tsunami!" Brawly eximed excitedly. It was hard to describe what airing my ambitions so openly felt like beyond freeing. It was as though a pressure was dropped off my shoulders and I could finally walk for the first time in my life instead of crawl. Surprisingly it even brought a change in my aura that red up aggressively before settling down in a fiercer but oddly calm manner.-


    ''I''ll have to examine thatter.'' I thought after sensing the change. "You will need to wait unfortunately as ambition doesn''t equal strength immediately." I gotcha bro , everyone''s got to start somewhere and you still need time to swell until you can finally crash down and shake up the world" Brawly said with a wide grin and a thumbs up. "So who do I talk to about setting up my appointment?" I asked changing the subject. This caught Brawly off guard andplete derailed his whole flow which was amusing to see.-


    "Er probably Tod here if I had to say for sure." Brawly answered awkwardly while pointing at the blonde haired man sitting behind the reception desk of the gym. I nod and walk over to the desk "I would like to set my challenge around three weeks from now if that''s possible." I said calmly and the man started to look through the appointed times for challenges. "Since most of the challenges are done with as little time as possible in mind all the dates exactly three weeks from now are empty." the man said professionally. I nod in understanding "Set me in for that Friday please." I say calmly and the man makes a few keystrokes on hisputer before nodding to show he did.-


    "Well I best be off then , on a bit of a schedule at the moment and I''d hate to make my ride wait anymore than necessary. I''ll be back in three weeks for that starred badge." I say confidently to Brawly before leaving the gym. Walking over to the steep rock face I lean forward and allow myself to fall forward. A few people yell in horror at the seemingly suicidal move until I kick against stone face at the perfect time to negate most of my downward momentum and allow me to flip midair andnd on my feet at the bottom of the path.-


    It was an unnecessary maneuver of course since with aura I could briefly reinforce my body to be able to eat all the pressure such a fall would exert on my body without any issue. I wasn''t nning on exposing my aura anytime soon however so this was the second quickest way to get down from the gym. It also would add to my reputation as quite a few people recorded that little stunt and were likely posting it all over the inte.-


    I wouldtter find out that I was correct and the forums dedicated to physical fitness and martial arts would have various experts break down what it was that I did as well as how I did it. There would even be some big names involved such as Bruno and Koga that were both experts in their own rights. Anyways I walked over to the dock where Mr. Brineys boat was docked to see if he was there. I was in luck since he had just gotten back from wherever he had gone to wait for me which let us leave right away.-


    There was a slight problem on the way to teport where we ran into some particrly aggressive Carvanha that saw our small boat as an easy target. I tried ying nice since I was in a good mood and threw out some berries for the group but they were clearly more interested in eating us so I released Rune to show them the error of their ways. After they died from electrocution I hauled their corpses on board before skinning and filleting them with Mr. Brineys help.-


    He didn''t mind the mess it made and I even promised him half of the meat which he agreed to since Carvanha were apparently good eating. I could believe it too as the fillets were clean white meat much like trout or catfish but wayrger. It looked like a small b of tuna meat size wise per fillet as the Carvanha were each a good foot and a half wide and three or four feet long. After a few hours on the sea we finally arrived at teport as the sun was starting to go down.-


    I let Mr. Briney know when my challenge with Brawly was before he left me on the beach so he could head straight home since he would rather risk a night sail than stay at teport overnight. Knowing what I did about port cities and crime I couldn''t me him and wished him luck on the trip. ''Now I need to find us a spot to stay for the night.'' I thought as I saw the bright city lights in the distance and started walking that way.

 Vigilante work

    Vignte work


    teport was strangely lively even after the sun started to go down as the market was brightly lit with papernterns that held slow burning candles within them. The buildings were all made of metal and stic which I figured was likely because of the location of the city being right next to the open ocean. Unlike Mr. Brineys house however that was in a calm area with little winds and thus mostly safe from the seawater teport was right in a windy and heavily waved area. Obviously easily corrodible materials wouldn''t be a good idea for the buildings here as a result.-


    It also came as little surprise to find that the poption of teport was heavily mixed as far as ethnicities were concerned. there were people with dark skin , people with nted eyes , people with sharp angr features as well as those with naturally soft ones. As a result even with my own appearance few people actually spared me more than a curious nce as I passed. With my sharp senses I could see things that most people would ignore such as the deft movement of some peoples hands in the pockets of others bent over to examine merchandise on the ground.-


    I watched these thieves calmly while also watching the merchants selling things to see if they noticed these happenings. I wasn''t surprised to see that most of them did in fact see it happening but chose to ignore it in eitherziness or in a few cases joy at the act. '' Looks like a few of the merchants aren''t as upstanding as they appear. I should start with them to find the traffickers.'' I thought coldly before stepping into the shadows of a nearby alley to wait for my prey to leave the herd.-


    Despite my size and stature I blended into the shadows quite well due to my darkened skin from the sun beating down on it. Hours passed and finally one of the merchants that had joy in their eyes after seeing the thievery in front of them left the market. It was a portly man with greasy brown hair that was pressed against his head by a red ballcap and bulbous facial features. The merchant walked casually through the streets towards the port area which I recognized as a way to avoid drawing attention.-


    On earth I had done the same thing to stay away from any sort of conversation while I walked. The way it worked was quite simple really as humans tended to make assumptions often you tricked them into thinking you belonged in an area by acting confident and casual. This only worked if you didn''t stand out very much like the merchant however. I didn''t need to do that however as I stuck to the shadows while tailing the man so I remained out of sight. This paid off too as he reached the disused warehouses in the city and walked to a certain one.-


    After looking around cautiously he pulled out a screw from a metal wall and lifted to push it to the side with a grunt of effort as it was clearly heavy. This revealed arge hole behind it that he entered once he finished checking to make sure he wasn''t being followed. The metal wall moved slowly back into ce seamlessly hiding the presence of the hole. I am willing to admit that whoever set it up this way did so in a fantastic way as if I hadn''t seen the mans actions I would never have found this out.-


    Walking to the wall calmly I lifted it easily and moved it to the side without a sound before ducking down to enter the hole. Looking around I found that the warehouse was filled with old wooden crates that were clearly rotten and falling apart but worked to block view to the hole perfectly. "What was todays profit?" a male voice asked eagerly and the faint sound of a bag getting emptied could be heard by me as I closed the hole behind me. "A few thousand poke` and some loose jewelry boss." A younger male voice said pridefully as I crept closer.-


    Once I got close enough I peeked around the debris carefully and spotted the merchant along with two others huddling near a old but mostly intact crate sorting through the things on it. Besides the merchant the remaining two people were a young man who didn''t look older than sixteen with blonde hair and a thin almost skeletal figure and a little girl no more than twelve in a pink sundress and sweet looking appearance. The girl had a sneer on her face though as she mocked her victims for their naivety.-


    I leaned back behind the debris and whispered to Tank on my shoulder "String them up after I take out the light from thatmp they are using." I said seriously and he nods. I reach down and pull a rock up from the ground before making my move. In one fluid motion i stood up with my arm cocked back and threw the stone as hard as I could straight into themp shattering the ss and extinguishing the me within. The darkness of the night instantly consumes myself and the trio of criminals as they cry out in rm before Tank gets them with his silk.-


    "Who the fuck is here , show yourself you fucking coward!" the portly merchants yells angrily while looking around as his eyes adjust to the dim moonlight. All three of them are struggling with their bonds as I step out of the shadows into the light calmly. Three pairs of eyes immediately lock onto me and widen in fear. "W-what d-do you want?" the merchant asked nervously as he stared up at me. I walked over to him and crouched down before staring at him "I want information that I think you have and even if you don''t you should know who does." I say calmly.-


    "Sure sure skinny Jim''s definitely got whatever you want to know!" the man said bobbing his head like a chicken in fearful agreement. I smile in a friendly manner "Good so I am looking for a smuggler or group of smugglers operating in this city who recently lost one of their ships off the coast south of Rustboro , know who I mean?" I asked casually. The mans eyes widened in terror "You are after the traffickers!" he whispered in horror and struggled against the silk binding even harder. -


    I pulled out my spear and mmed the pommel against the ground cracking the old concrete in several ces. "I won''t ask again." I said dropping the pretenses and making it clearpliance was in his best interest. "Look friend , buddy , pal please ask anything but that! They aren''t your everyday crooks like us here , those people are monsters in human skin! Thest guy that snitched on them ended up in twenty pieces in a trash bag outside the Jenny''s ce!" The man pleaded in terror. I lean in real close to him a say calmly "I''m worse." I say while letting out all my bottled up animosity towards the traffickers and the smell of piss and shit fills the air as the three crooks lose control of themselves in pure unadulterated fear.

 Vigilante work(2)

    Vignte work(2)


    Emotion suppression did exactly as the name suggested and suppressed ones emotions , but suppression was not removal of these emotions by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it was actually more like making them worse after this suppression was released as they had built up over that entire time. The stronger the emotions suppressed the worse the outburst when they were released. It happened when the Jenny n tried to haze me but that was merely my suppressed irritation at the situation while this time it was far worse as I was extremely angry at the traffickers this entire time.-


    So much animosity being released at once would be enough to give even the strongest pokemon pause much less petty crooks like these three. To them I truly must have seemed like a demon in human form at this point and i hadn''t even needed to harm them. An oh if they didn''t sing like canaries after I put the suppression back in ce. I had descriptions , names , birthdays , favorite colors and locations for the traffickers , everything these three knew down to the most insignificant details. Satisfied with this knowledge I released Vulcan from his ball after leaving the warehouse to burn it an all the witnesses of my presence here down.-


    I was well away from the area when people started to notice that the warehouse was on fire and rushed to put it out. It was a fools errand however as all those rotten DRY wooden crates caused the ze to grow to unstoppable proportions. The best the responders could do was contain it to that one warehouse and wait for it to go out. While that was going on I was entering the pokecenter to rent a room for the night as I wanted to be well rested for the hunt tomorrow.-


    The pokemon trafficking group in the city consisted of twenty people total with most being distributors for the trafficked pokemon while the rest were enforcers or leaders for the group. In total there was thirteen distributors , four enforcers and three leaders. The enforcers were going to be the biggest problem as they were all ruthless killers and had full teams of highly trained pokemon that they had either had from the start or got from working in the trafficking group. The three crooks only knew that each enforcer was about tier five in terms of power.-


    This was pretty good for this early in the gym circuits location but not something I really needed to be worried about. I wasn''t nning on battling with them in the first ce so unless I messed up my n for dealing with them or they reacted differently than I expect it was only a slight inconvenience. I slept soundly through the night and woke up at dawn the next morning and left the pokecenter with the staff looking slightly surprised to see me awake at such an hour.-


    It wasn''t unheard of for people to wake up this early of course,however it was just one of those things that you never expect to see a stranger do. I paid no attention to this and made my way the the beach to get my morning workout done. There were a few people also up and about in the city such as merchants and dock workers, I found a sandwich stall open on the way to the beach and ordered six spicy egg and saut��ed vegetable sandwiches to go. They were good too as the stall owner quickly prepared them on the stalls grill in front of me before wrapping them in foil and bagging them for me as I paid.-


    Two of the sandwiches were for me while the other four were for Rune and Vulcan who joined me in my exercises. The beach was considered a pokemon friendly area thankfully so it wasn''t illegal to have my team out so long as we didn''t leave it. The sand also worked as good environmental training for Rune as it was difficult to move over. Vulcan didn''t have any trouble with the sand as it had plenty of experience with it from sparring with Gaia.-


    After my workout was done I balled up my team minus Tank and set off for my first target in the form of one of the enforcers. He was a brute of a man that acted like the whole world was his toilet. He was nicknamed the boar due to his fat figure and ugly appearance and it was a sort of open secret that he was a raping murderer. He was just not sloppy enough to leave evidence of his crimes behind so the Jenny''s couldn''t lock him up. Mind reading was also not counted as evidence because psychics could nt false memories.-


    Luckily for all the victims families that wanted him dead I intended on granting their wish. The boar was known to live in a house near the north western edge of the city that was apparently the traffickers turf if the crooks were to be believed. The man was my first target because he was the easiest to go after as unless he was "in a mood" or had work he stayed at home sleeping or eating. I stayed out of sight as I walked through the city towards his house which wasn''t all that hard since it was a well known thing that you should avoid this area.-


    Once I got to the house I was disgusted by what i saw as there was trash piled up in the yard and the house looked damaged in several ces. ''He even lives like a pig.'' I thought in revulsion as I walked up to the house to see if he was home at the moment. He wasn''t as it turned out and after checking the doors found that they didn''t even have locks on them which proved either his arrogance or stupidity.-


    The inside of the house was not much better than the outside and in my opinion was even worse as the air couldn''t escape to dissipate the gods awful stench that filled the building. It was easy for me to hide behind the piled up trash and wait for the boar to return to his sty. I was nothing if not patient and was thus rewarded a couple hourster when the fat bastard mmed open the doorining about the lost profit from the sunken ship and how the leader of the group was doubling down on the rest of them to make it up.-


    Soon enough the boar cashed on his couch and started snoring almost immediately. I stood up from my hiding spot and walked over to the man before drawing my spear. "SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!" In a single motion I coated the spear head in aura before stabbing the man three times in rapid session once in the head , heart and groin each before stepping back to avoid the blood that came immediately afterwards. None of it got on me as the body twitched a bit but fell still as death set in fully.

 Epiphany

    Epiphany


    I felt nothing as I looked at the corpse and turned to leave the house immediately when I paused for a moment before retrieving the mans pokemon from his belt. He had two Muk , a Swalot , a Raticate , a Qwilfish and a Kirlia. I checked with observe to see which if any of the pokemon were truly loyal to the man and only the two Muk fit that description while the other minus the Kirlia were forced to obey the man out of fear of the Muk. The Kirlias situation however was the worst as the boar didn''t use it for battle but as a pleasure tool.-


    My grip on my spear tightened so much that a faint creaking sound could be heard as the wood dealt with the pressure I was exerting. Even emotion suppression was barely holding as I was flooded with more anger than I have ever felt before in my life. It was only Tank freaking out on my shoulder that made me realize that I was subconsciously ring up my aura and with such anger the energy was starting the hurt him as it wildlyshed out. "I am sorry about that , I lost myself there for a moment." I told him feeling bad about harming him like that as I swallowed my anger down.-


    Thankfully from what the crooks said only this beast was so bad while the rest were merely without remorse for their actions and acted to earn and protect profit alone. I will of course be personally checking this but it should at least mean that I won''t lose control of myself in the process. I left the boars sty and made my way to my next targets. I spent the rest of the day hunting down and ending each member of the group one by one cutting it down to fifteen members before calling it a day. I also turned over the pokemon that could be rehabilitated to the Joy n secretly while killing the ones that were evil-


    The four others I killed were merely distributers and thus of little importance and probably wouldn''t even be noticed missing for a few days. This was how I spent the next three days in teport city as people started to discover my victims around two days after the first five were killed. The remaining enforcers after the boar were all dead along with the boss of the group so the distributers weren''t aware that anything was off until the bodies started to get found.-


    They called a meeting to see who all was still alive in a terrified manner not even realizing that this merely made my job so much easier. I thought it was rather funny how the Jenny n had been keeping their hands off the case after finding out that I was only killing those in the trafficking group. The n might be thew abiding sort but apparently they were also aware of when they should turn a blind eye for the greater good. I don''t doubt that they have been aware of this group for quite some time but because of how slippery it was and theck of evidence against it they couldn''t do anything about them even though they wanted to.-


    I checked the newspaper each day and the kills were excluded which told me they were covering my work up to make it easier which I was quite grateful for. I was following the distributer on his way to the meeting at the moment when a middle aged man with spikey short brown hair and dark eyes stepped out of an alley behind the man who didn''t notice. The man was wearing a tan long coat with a high cor and stared me down calmly.-


    I recognized the man quite easily as he he was a character in the Sinnoh region games belonging to the international police , Agent Looker. "Why are you stopping me?" I asked calmly. It was not difficult at all to figure out that the only reason a member of the international police was confronting me was if they had figured out that I was the person behind the deaths of the majority of the trafficking group. "You have done enough , we will take it from here. You have my word that they won''t be getting away this time." Looker said before casually walking after the distributer.-


    If a prompt from the system telling me that Ipleted the quest hadn''t popped up I probably would have disagreed with him. ''I guess it''s finally over then , it''s time to go train my team now for the uing challenge.'' I thought as I made my way to a store to get two weeks supplies. To the north of teport was a tier five danger zone with with a vast variety of pokemon that fought for supremacy and survival known as the ashen forest.-


    It was just below one of the regions volcanoes and had fire types , grass types and electric types primarily as the constant heat rising from the volcano and the cool air from the sea shed in a frequent stormy manner above the forest. The ce was perfect in my opinion to train my team as the pokemon there were at the proper level for a challenge while the unique flora of the area gave me a chance to experiment with my alchemy and pill making. Once I got all the supplies I needed I left teport behind and took to the road heading northward.-


    I released my emotional suppression after I got far enough from the city and stood there in silence as the vast amount of animosity , rage , pity and sadness flow out from me. I had an epiphany as this happened and I finally understood why my aura was not progressing so good at the moment. Aura is the the song of life itself and a life without anger , joy , sadness and all the other emotions was iplete and lead nowhere. I made so little progress when I trained my aura because I had no path to follow and was pressing so hard in a direction that didn''t exist.-


    Aura grows as one bes more in tune with life and I was far from it , I simply hadn''t realized how much further from it I was. It was liberating in a way as I knew with this revtion that a small part of myself buried under all my baggage was starting to fight it''s way out , the part that felt everything. I knew I still had a long road ahead of me but finally I cared enough to want to walk it which was the first step.-


    I released my pokemon and with head held high I journeyed into the wilderness hopeful of the future. I hadn''t forgotten about my reward forpleting the chain quest though and with a smile I opened my bag and grabbed the reward that I was most in need of at the moment , exp tickets. I needed to bring Rune up to Gaia and Vulcans level as fast as possible for my uping challenge and each ticket was worth a week of all round training. At this point that was still a lot of training and would let him jump up the levels rapidly but as my pokemon grew stronger I noticed that this leveling speed slowing down dramatically.

 How training and exp tickets work

    How training and exp tickets work


    From what I can tell roughly plus what I found on the trainer research forums there were a few rules involved with how fast pokemon can grow stronger. The first was that the evolutionary stage they were on determined their maximum level of power before no amount of training will do much of anything. Pokemon with a single form were lucky in this regard as they were basically exempt from this rule as they were able to grow without any real known upper limit with enough training and resources. The pokemon with multiple evolutionary stages however still had this problem to deal with.-


    The first stage is of course always the weakest and tends to have an upper limit at about the fourth gym leaders normal pokemon in power. In system terms at about level fifty or so depending on the other rules which I''ll get to in a moment. It needs to be noted that evolving before a pokemon reaches their upper limit for their stage didn''t effect their future progress at all. In fact ording to research a pokemon is encouraged to evolve to their final forms as soon as possible so they don''t have to deal with these limits at all.-


    The second stage is a subject for debate actually as apparently the upper limit of power for that point was wildly different based on the form and species of the pokemon themselves. An example was that a Caterpies upper limit after evolving to a Metapod was entirely unchanged while say a Raltses upper limit nearly doubled with Kirlia being known to be able to hit sixth badge level before training stops bringing any decent benefits which in system terms meant around level seventy. There were plenty of other examples of this vast difference but that about covers what you need to understand about it.-


    The second rule was that ALL variants had higher upper limits per stage than their nonvariant counterparts. Even further research said that the more variants a single pokemon had the higher this upper limit became , to a ridiculous degree in fact. Take the Charmander line for example a normal member of the line has the upper limits set at about fifty and eighty respectively for the first and second forms. A single variant member however had them at about five levels higher and a two variant member ten levels roughly and one with three variations having an upper limit almost the same as a normal second stage member of the line.-


    There was unfortunately not that many with four or five variations so exactly how massive the upper limit could get for first stage pokemon was unknown. But the idea of variants being better than the normal counterparts was a well established rule in this regard. The third rule was that the stronger the pokemon was the harder it was to grow further. A one badge pokemon for example will skyrocket with the right training and resources but like rolling a snowball up a mountain it gets harder and harder therger the snowball gets.-


    This meant that while one exp ticket would be a lot of levels and progress while the pokemon was weak it started to have rapidly diminishing returns. Sure there will still be a tiny amount of progress but barely even a noticeable amount. The final rule was that resources were KEY for training effectively. There was serious research done into this and there is definitive proof that a pokemon regrly eating high calorie foods , supplements and boosting medicines while training hard would always grow stronger than a pokemon that relied purely on the same amount of effort without any of that at a vastly faster rate.-


    Don''t get me wrong pure effort is still capable of greatness by itself but it is much slower than with resources as well. Most trainers who aren''t rich as hell end up having to juggle their finances in order to have a good amount of resources for their pokemon during training. Being a trainer is actually very hard work as most of the na?ve neers quickly figure out. It is frankly speaking a money pit that constantly demands cash even without buying resources as caring for one pokemon alone can get expensive as hell.-


    Unless you only use smaller light eating pokemon or those that eat natural resources like rock or emotions(I am not joking , that is a legit thing) of course. That was an interesting thing to learn as well as I hadn''t even thought about size specialist trainers being a thing until I found this information. It''s mostmonly seen in the beauty contest scene but there are legitimate battlers that specialize in certain sized pokemon even if they are super rare.-


    Unlike most trainers that had to figure out their pokemons needs on their own for supplements and resources I had the system observe that told me t out what they needed at any point in time and I try to fulfill them to the best of my ability. Thanks to my alchemy and foraging skills however I could usually handle these things with spending a single poke` if those skills were high enough. That was why I needed these six exp tickets in fact as with them I could easily find the ingredients to make the resources my team needed personally rather than paying an arm and a leg for them resources.-


    For skills rather than pokemon the tickets gave a month each of experience and as my mastery increased I too got diminishing returns from them. That is what I did once we reached a spot in the wilderness out of sight from the road. Two tickets for my alchemy skill and one for my foraging skill. Three months of day in and day out nonstop training in the two skills filled my head giving me an intense headache. I didn''t learn any recipes or about any nts or minerals from this but I suddenly had practice using the skills at the same time.-


    It was hard to exin really so I won''t even try but I was eager to put this new experience to the test. Thanks to the ever helpful forums online I knew a couple of step by step recipes for a few basic potions and pills that I had the ingredients for at the moment. For example the recipe for the energy potion that serves as a highly nutrient rich thing allowing a weaker pokemon to train longer than normal with double the results.-


    The recipe for this was a liter of pure water , two oran berries , a sitrus berry , a whole ginseng root , a teaspoon of Ghastly grudge spores(pokemon world mushroom don''t bother looking it up) and a half teaspoon of energy root powder. Ghastly grudge was the only nt not mentioned in either earth or the games but was a fairlymon purple mushroom about half a foot tall with a white evil looking smiley face pattern on top of it''s cap that reminds people of Ghastly hence the name. The mushroom itself is highly toxic but the spores have an effect very simr to anabolic steroids without all the downsides if properly used.

 Positive changes

    Positive changes


    The step by step instructions for the potions was quite clear and easy to understand and as I knew from the skills ingrained knowledge timing was a keyponent as well. While it was possible to create potions , pills and supplements by just tossing everything in all at once it almost always turned out inferior to using a steady and organized approach. The first step for this particr potion was to add the berries and ginseng to the grinding pot that was basically just a much nicer and easier to use mortar and pestle.-


    The one I had was sr powered and had various settings for how fine I wanted the stuff in it reduced to paste or powder. In this case it wasn''t a big issue as to how fine it was so i just set it to medium and ignored it before turning to the next step that could be done with the rest of the ingredients minus the spore from the mushroom. Everything was crushed and ced in the alembic alongside the water before getting set to boil over a burner. This served to distill the essence of the ingredients into a clean smooth liquid after the essence infused steam condensates.-


    The left over dregs can be discarded since they lose most of their properties during this process. The grinding pot finished it''s work while the alembic did it''s thing so I took out the paste from it and ced it in a cloth bag that i then sealed before cing in the mixing pot that was used for the final product. The mixing pot was already filling with the distilled essence fluid from the alembic which seeped into the cloth bag and began to cause the medicinal properties of the paste to seep out into the hot fluid.-


    I used a mixing rod to stir around and squish the cloth bag to make sure all the properties were extracted and infused into the fluid that was already a deep blue color before removing the bag and straining the liquid left over in it into the pot. Finally I added the spores and stirred vigorously which caused the fluid to change color into a vibrant green indicating sess. After that I bottled the fluid in six different sks and sealed each.''Now to clean up my equipment before the residues start to set.'' I thought as I went to work thoroughly scouring my stuff.-


    My pokemon watched me as I worked at first but the only one that kept interest in the subject of alchemy was Tank while the rest quickly grew bored and chose other ways to pass the time as I worked. Once I was satisfied with how clean my equipment was I picked up a sk of energy potion and used observe on it.


    [Item name: Energy potion


    Grade:mon(mid)


    Description: A potion created by Alexander Drake that energized and improves the training of the pokemon or person that consumes it. Contains ws from during it''s creation but works as intended.]


    All in all I was satisfied with the result despite the ws mentioned in the description. I knew what the ws were and as a result was aware that they couldn''t be taken out with my portable setup during the creation process. I would need an extremely high grade alchemyb for something like that and those weren''t portable so this was the best I could do with this recipe. Still it was good enough that I could easily sell this to the league without any issue at all.-


    With that done I used the remaining three exp tickets on Rune to bump his level up to forty eight letting him learn thunder. The rest of his move pool improved grades as well which I was always happy to see. His current status looked like this after the tickets were used on him.


    [Pokemon: Charmander(Rune)


    LEVEL:48


    Moveset: Growl(a) , Scratch(a) , Swords dance(a) , smokescreen(a) , tail whip(a) , thunderwave(a) , Thunder shock(a) , quick attack(j) , shock wave(j) , double team(j) , thunder punch(j) , spark(j) , agility(j) , dragon rage(j) , thunder(n)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny , Elemental(electric)


    Attack:110


    Defense:66


    Sp. Atk:121


    Sp. Def:77


    Speed:76


    Ability: Volt absorb(j)]


    If this was based off the game Rune would be seen as a bug existence that was capable of taking on the elite four leveled pokemon despite still being in his first form. Reality however was that he was in fact just a smidge under the four badge level at the moment. I also noticed that much like his stat alignment Rune was heavily geared towards being a special attacker for his typing as most of his moves consisted of these type of moves.-


    ''I should probably start teaching him some physical moves of other types to even him out and give him variety in case electric doesn''t work.'' I thought after seeing his list of moves and his heavily underutilized attack stat. On a positive note however thanks to Runes level he was now just strong enough to spar with Gaia and Vulcan without getting absolutely thrashed. Gaia will always have a type advantage against his primary typing but in a straight up physical brawl Rune can now hold his own with her.-


    Sadly I was aware that after she evolved to her final form that was very much going to change as while she was able to battle effectively as she currently was her form locked her out of a LOT of tactics involving her arms , legs and mouth that her first and final forms had. For example she can''t use her races natural jaw strength at the moment to crush whatever she gets her mouth on. Even worse thanks to her variation as a royal at her final stage she will have potential and stats only slightly lower than Vulcan who was a bonified legendary.-


    Rune was smart enough to know when he was outmatched but tenacious enough to keep trying despite this. At the end of the day while I was setting up camp something happened. "Pi! Caterpie!" Tank said suddenly and I couldn''t help but get a little excited as he told me that he hit his max nutrient storage for his evolution. "Alright take these supplements and give me that everstone so we can see if this was even worth it." I said with a smile as I dug out the high grade bug type supplements I got from Mr. Stone while setting Tank on the ground.-


    Everyone gathered around as Tank devoured the supplements had I retrieved the everstone from him. Immediately bright rainbow colored light wrapped around his form and hovered slightly above the ground. Ipared it to Gaia when she evolved and found that it was nearly the same if much smaller so i was hopeful that the extra effort paid off. "You guys keep watch over Tank while i finish preparing dinner." I said knowing that evolution was not a fast process. My team did exactly that too as they were just as excited about it as I was.

 Spikey boy and RNGESUS

    Spikey boy and RNGESUS


    Dinner was a simple saut��ed meat and veggies mix on rice with a nice gravy from the rendered fat of the meat and some cooking wine. Obviously the portion sizes were gigantic since I was cooking for two pokemon and a person but clearly the cooking set was designed with that in mind. Food ingredients were also cheaper than ever for me after getting that star badge as it turned out most stores had a discount on goods for holders of the things. A few mom and pop stores didn''t but considering the nature of them I honestly wasn''t surprised.-


    Rune , Vulcan and I managed to just finish eating when the light surrounding Tank started to flicker and fade as his evolution came to an end. It was about twenty five minutes faster than Gaia''s evolution actually which I noted offhandedly before focusing entirely on the fading orb of rainbow colored light. Soon Tanks new form was revealed and I am not going to lie , it was metal as all hell. Not literally but rather Tanks general shape was the same as a normal Metapod except there was scale-like spikes along his entire body that made touching him harmful to oneself.-


    [Pokemon: Metapod(Tank)


    LEVEL:45


    Moveset: String shot(M) , Tackle(E) , harden(n)


    Variations: Defensive stage two


    Attack:50


    Defense:140


    Sp. Atk:38


    Sp. Def:115


    Speed:15


    Ability: Skin sling(n)]


    I looked over Tanks new status and grinned when I saw the changes from before he evolved. The first was of course his name as he went from Caterpie to Metapod. The second was that he learned harden which was to be expected but what I hadn''t realized until now was that he had hit master level mastery of string shot which was the first move I have ever seen at that level of proficiency. -


    I am not sure if there was some benefit to raising ones move mastery that high but I assumed so. The third was the biggest however in my opinion as it proved that that extra effort on our part hadn''t gone unrewarded in the form of his variation reaching stage two. As one would expect a defensive variation reaching stage two increased the defensive values of the pokemon with it by a good amount but also had the possibility of changing the pokemons ability if it waspatible with it.-


    In Tanks case it waspatible so the standard shed skin got a bit of an upgrade that made me very happy when I saw what it did. Skin sling worked the same way as shed skin did with stripping the status ailments off of the pokemon but it went a step further and reflected those same ailments back at the one that inflicted them by well slinging the shed skin at them. It was honestly an amazing ability for a defensive pokemon like tank to have as it meant poisoning him and then stalling for the poison to knock him out was actually detrimental unless it was a pokemon immune to poison that did it.-


    Poison stalling was actually a very popr tactic to use against defensive or tanky pokemon before trainer battles since it nearly entirely negated the advantage that being tanky had and put the tanky pokemon on a timer that they had to defeat their opponent by. With this ability however Tank would have no such problems at all. Frankly speaking this ability was busted as all hell and I loved it. I would probably be rather upset in fact when it goes away after Tank evolved into a Butterfree but it is what it is.-


    "Congrattions on the evolution Tank , all that extra work paid off!" I said with a smile and Tank looked happy if rather exhausted. "I would pick you up but you look like that would hurt me to do , what with all those sharp spikes you have literally everywhere." I said with a chuckle and Tank looked embarrassed and a little unhappy at this. Nothing for it I balled him and called it a night since it was getting a bitte.-


    Waking up the next morning I stretched as I got up off Vulcan who I was using as my bed still. I didn''t wake any of my pokemon up and got started on my morning workout. The parts that I could do without really going anywhere to be more exact since I wasn''t stupid or arrogant enough to do the long distance run without my pokemon in the wild. Any hungry predator pokemon would make an easy meal of me if they found me like that. So I saved that part forst as I did the rest while my pokemon also started waking up on their own.-


    Once I was done with my daily workout I turned my attention to the tickets sitting within my satchel. Specifically the ability , skill and guaranteed skill tickets that I wanted to get out of the way. For the guaranteed skill ticket I directly chose the poke medic skill since it would reduce the amount of time I would need to spend in a pokecenter by a huge margin. If I had a dedicated healing pokemon as well I would only need to visit the center for jobs in the future thanks to this skill.-


    "HMMMP!" I grunt in pain as an absolutely absurd amount of information poured into my head from the system on my chosen skill. Pokemon medicine and normal medicine were actually two different skills so while i before I wasn''t quite sure why , now I knew. The way pokemons biology worked was far more mystical in nature that a humans or normal animals by such a degree in fact that there was an entirely different set of rules to them in fact. It was also why it hurt so much to get all that knowledge stuffed into my head as the field was so wide and deep that I am pretty sure it shouldn''t even be possible for a human to understand the entire field by themselves.-


    A single aspect of this skill was enough for one to spend a lifetime mastering much less ALL of the aspects. ''Yep definitely going to end up burning so many exp tickets into this in the future I kinda want to cry.'' I thought with a tired sigh before tearing the normal skill ticket I had as well. I groaned when itnded on ancient Kanto/Johto. ''Do I look like a fucking archeologist or historian!?'' I thought angrily after the information finished getting deposited into my head.-


    ''Please our great lord and empowerer RNGESUS , let this ability ticket grant me some rad ass powers. Your faithful follower , me.'' I prayed to my random lord before finally using the ability ticket I have had since that whole Eevee thing started. My heartfelt prayers were answered it seemed as my great and terrible lord granted me X-ray vision! At least I thought so until I lost all sense of vision and had a horrible pain ovee my eyes causing me to hold my head in agony for a whole twenty fucking minutes because as it turned out to have X-ray vision my eyes needed a total overhaul because human eyes aren''t supposed to be able to , who knew?

 Headache

    Headache


    Once the agony in my head vanished I opened my eyes and immediately threw up. X-ray vision as it turned out was extremely nauseating to use and to top it off gave me a huge headache. I had to take the rest of the day just to bring it under control as well as when activated it went full power right off the rip and believe me that was some intense shit right their. I also learned thanks to my pokemon that when I use it my eyes change shape as my pupils widened drastically and glow faintly as my aura passively flowing into them.-


    Needless to say unless I want to wear a blindfold for the rest of my life the hide it''s usage peeking through clothes in public was a no go. I know right? Really just killed my whole buzz with that understanding as any straight man can tell you that was the first thing they would use it for. I refuse to believe that superman hasn''t peeked at women before with the ability at least once. Still despite the perverted application being pretty much off limits this ability did have plenty of good uses.-


    The best in my opinion was treasure hunting as I could quite literally look straight at any mountain or even the ground and figure out if it held treasure so long as it was within my normal visions range. Hell merely looking through the forest floor let me see several valuable things under the stone meters below the surface. Unfortunately I could only use the ability in short bursts as not only did it drain aura rapidly but it gave me a splitting headache every single time I used it. I of course told my pokemon what ability I got with mixed reviews all around.-


    For Gaia she was interested in how it made it easy to find metal for her to eat after she evolves again. Vulcan thought it was useless if it couldn''t be used in battle which I can''t say I wasn''t expecting. Tank thought it would help me with my poke medic skill which I honestly hadn''t even thought of but was totally true. Being able to literally see within a pokemon without cutting them open or using a machine will definitely help me treat pokemon injuries in the future. -


    Rune was the only one who actually chastised me for getting pervy thoughts about the ability after i joked about how using it for that was out of the question. I may have lost a day we could have been using to train in order to get my new ability to a useable point but I still had eleven days before I had to battle Brawly so i wasn''t panicking. Vulcan out of all my pokemon had the biggest advantage against Brawly as it was not weak to the fighting type and even had a psychic type move that was super effective against it.-


    Even better was that it was also at the level that Brawlys for the challenge would be which was the fifth badge level. At least that was how I understood the challenge to go anyways as Roxanne was using fourth badge pokemon which meant as the gym after her Brawly should use one badge higher. I might be wrong but that was what I was going to train my team to face so I doubted it would be a problem if that wasn''t the case. Tank was less than pleased at how I adapted to his new form for carrying him as I used myst scarf and some silk he made to effectively use him as a back pack.-


    I could only shrug at hisints as it was either this or him chilling in his ball most of the time. Anyways I was currently standing behind rune as he squared up with a level fifty Electrike like decided it wanted to fight. "Swords dance double!" Imanded and Rune did it''s weird little jig while glowing. The Electrike obviously wasn''t just going to stand there and let rune boost up and glowed white as it dashed forward in a quick attack. "Double team to dodge!" I called and Rune glowed brightly and seemed to split into two identical copies for a split second.-


    Double team was the most hack move I have ever seen as it somehow caused the pokemon using it to create a speed mirage that makes them appear to be in two spots at the same time regardless of what pokemon is using it. I legitimately had no clue how it worked as a result as even slowly moving pokemon have this happen ording to the trainer forums. An interesting thing I discovered about the move is that the pokemon using it can choose which image they stop on effectively allowing a near instant dodge.-


    Thanks to this Rune was pretty much untouchable if he pulled the move off in time and the opposition didn''t use a wide area attack. The Electrike was less than pleased at missing and used discharge to try and do damage. I scoffed at that as the st of electric energy struck rune and he shivered in pleasure as his volt absorb kicked in letting him actually get benefit from the attack instead of damage. "Quick attack!" I called while the Electrike was weakened and caught off guard after the attack failed epically.-


    Discharge was a risky move all around as it left the user quite tired afterwards due to the drastic cost of the move from their energy pool. Clearly the Electrike made the mistake of thinking it was fighting a fire type and thought the attack would cause damage while also letting it recover afterwards. Rune mmed into the spikey green furred dog pokemon while glowing white causing it to cry out in pain. "Rush him , don''t let up!" I ordered and Rune obeyed.-


    The Electrike simply couldn''t recover during the onught and soon enough dropped unconscious as I called the fight in our victory as Rune panted. Using moves in quick session like that took a heavy toll not only on a pokemons energy pool but also their physical stamina so a rush like this left one quite tired. That said it held serious merit as a battle tactic as once a pokemon is subjected to a rush recovery bes very difficult. There were a few ways to break out of course but the pokemon getting rushed needs the time and focus necessary to do so first.-


    The most used strategy for dealing with a rushing opponent is a signature of Brawly in the moves known as bide and counter. Bide causes the rushed pokemon to endure the damage in exchange for unleashing it and more on the attacker after a certain amount of time. Counter on the other hand directly had the attacked pokemon return fire after an attack that tends to end a rush before it can really begin. I walked over to the Electrike and used my X-ray vision to check for internal injuries before spraying it with a potion and walking away again since it was mostly just bruised and battered.

 Training results and questionable potions

    Training results and questionable potions


    That battle was not the only one Rune had been subjected to as thanks to my new ability it had never been easier to streamline the training process as I could find healing nts and materials that let me experiment with my alchemy skill to create various potions of healing and even directly see what effect they had when used. Thanks to this both my poke medic and alchemy skills were skyrocketing alongside the power of my battle ready team members. Vulcan had trouble finding worthy challenges in this area but did find a few that really helped it grow while Gaia and Rune easily had the biggest gains.


    [Pokemon: Charmander(Rune)


    LEVEL:48->60


    Moveset: Growl(a) , Scratch(a) , Swords dance(a) , smokescreen(a) , tail whip(a) , thunderwave(a) , Thunder shock(a) , quick attack(a) , shock wave(a) , double team(a) , thunder punch(j) , spark(j) , agility(a) , dragon rage(j) , thunder(j) , shing rain(n)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny , Elemental(electric)


    Attack:116


    Defense:70


    Sp. Atk:125


    Sp. Def:80


    Speed:79


    Ability: Volt absorb(j)]


    [Pokemon: Pupitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:53->64


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(A) , Sandstorm(E) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(E) , screech(E) , rock slide(E) , scary face(A) , thrash(A) , dark pulse(A) , payback(A) , rock polish(E) , metal w(A) , sand bomb(A) , crunch(a) , stone grasp(a) , wrecking ball(j)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:97


    Defense:104


    Sp. Atk:74


    Sp. Def:77


    Speed:69


    Ability: Sand veil(J) , shed skin(J)]


    [Pokemon species: Entei(Vulcan)


    LEVEL:63-69


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(E) , Ember(E) , roar(E) , fire spin(E) , Stomp(E) , methrower(E) , sunny day(E) , crunch(E) , extrasensory(E) ,va plume(E) , magma coat(A) , sr beam(j)


    Variations: none


    Attack:150


    Defense:110


    Sp. Atk:121


    Sp. Def:100


    Speed:127


    Ability: Inner focus(A)]


    This was what my teams statuses looked like by the time wepleted our training for the gym challenge. I have to say that in their own ways they have grown spectacrly as a result of all of our hard work and we were prepared for this challenge. I was especially proud of Rune who really went above all my expectations during this time and even reached level sixty while creating a custom move with my help. The move was called shing rain due to the way it appeared to look like it was raining light.-


    Basically I had rune take inspiration from the move sunny day and create an orb of condensed electrical energy that he sent high into the air. Unlike the weather move however this move turned out purely offensive as electric type energy very much disliked being confined or controlled in a small space. I got a spark of inspiration when I saw how the iplete move sent electric energy in all directions after rune stopped focusing on it and had Rune purposefully create many small holes on the orb and add a spin to it when he spat it out.-


    This caused the orb to release an absolute fuckton of electrical sparks as it flew through the air thus creating the rain effect it was named for. Don''t underestimate those sparks either as due to the amount of energy condensed in the orb each one hurt like a bitch and had a chance to inflict partial paralysis where they struck. Partial paralysis was my new favorite way to cause problems for my opponents by the way as it caused a small area of muscles in their body tog behind the rest which made coordinated movement a fucking nightmare as Vulcan can attest.-


    Like you go to throw a punch but a few muscles in you armg behind and you miss because they move a bitter than the rest or gods forbid you try and run with the stuff in your legs , facent central that one there. That was one of the reasons Vulcan HATED that move when he sparred with Rune. Vulcan liked to leverage his stupid high speed to effectively overwhelm his opponent from up close and personal. Obviously that didn''t work when you are tripping like you took bath salts.-


    That was assuming you could somehow prevent the hundreds of small sparks from hitting you all over your body which just straight up causes paralysis. Speaking of Vulcans preferred method of prolonged conflict I had a sneaking suspicion that it was getting REALLY close to meeting the requirements for the move extreme speed , whatever those were. Every forum I checked had conflicting information about the way to learn the move as some said it came naturally and others said it had to be taught amongst other methods. I was confident that Vulcan would figure it out eventually which will make it a force to be reckoned with.-


    Enough about my pokemons though , lets talk about what I''ve aplished shall we? See thanks to my mad scientist way of collecting damn near everything i could get my hands on and then mixing them in weirdbinations I created three potions that I am quite proud of. The first was what I dubbed the berserker serum that when ingested caused a pokemon to temporarily lose their rational thinking in exchange for a massive also temporary boost to their fighting ability. I used it on a recently defeated level fifty Numel and the damned thing even had Vulcan on the ropes until Rune and Gaia jumped in to assist putting it down.-


    I don''t mean killing it but merely holding it down until the effects of the potion wore off and it dropped like a rock from the bacsh. I theorized that the potion removed the limiters that all creatures have in their bodies in exchange for a highly vicious and aggressive state of mind. My team all agreed that if it looked like we were outmatched in a dangerous situation that they would use the potion in hopes of breaking out.-


    The second potion was actually beneficial without any draw backs and was called tears of blood. It was basically a sort of ocr medicine that needed to be dripped on the eyes to nourish them like liquid eye drops. It was named as it is due to the excess potion dripping from ones eyes like they were crying and as the potion was crimson in color it looked like one was crying blood. This potion helped me recover from the strain that my new ability ced on my eyes which was super useful. The final potion was actually one that I wanted to consider a failure because it didn''t do what I wanted it to but did have a "good" effect so technically wasn''t.-


    It was called demons whisper and was a super potent aphrodisiac to the point I almost wanted to consider it a crime to use it. I refused to use the stuff personally but after giving a drop to a breeding pair of Minum and Plusle the two went at it for nearly an entire day which showed me that the potion was chillingly effective. I didn''t watch or anything but had the pair tell me how well it worked after the fact and demand extra payment for their soreness and exhaustion.

 Business and observations

    Business and observations


    The system said that the potion was powerful but I honestly didn''t realize just how powerful it was until then and tripled the promised payment while embarrassed. ''I wonder if Mr. Stone might be interested in selling this stuff?'' I pondered after paying up. Obviously I was going to dilute the potion by a lot as there was a pretty high chance that at least one idiot would try and down an entire bottle without reading the use instructions first. Still even diluted I had little doubt that it would prove popr due to there not being anything like it currently avable.-


    That was actually an interesting fact about this world that I discovered quite some time ago. The heavy inclination towards pokemon rather than humans meant that quite a few things that were created on earth simply never happened here. One such thing was the sexual stimnts like Viagra that had simply never even been thought about despite there still being people that would want such a thing. Hard drugs were also not really a thing here as even after reading about the drugs that did exist I found none that went anywhere near the level of danger that heroine or cocaine posed to the body.-


    Most drugs in this world were hallucinogens that had addictive properties or of course medicine that also had addictive properties if used incorrectly. In a funny twist recreational hemp use had always been legal here due to it being almost entirely harmless and even had health benefits if used in moderation. Knowing this I didn''t hesitate to bust out my trusty pokenav and dial up Mr. Stone. "Alex! It''s good to hear from youd! Steven let me know he received the letter quite some time ago but I assumed you were busy so I refrained from bothering you."-


    "I take it you are free at the moment judging from your call?" he asked in a friendly manner. "Yeah I''ve been busy training my team for my next challenge while also polishing my alchemy skills. That''s actually why I was calling in fact as I created a couple original potions from my experiments that I think will sell quite well." I said honestly with a small smile. "Oh really? What do they do exactly?" he asked curiously. I then exined what the tears of blood and demons whisper did and even gave the Plusle and Minum pair as an example of theters efficacy.-


    "Hmm , The first one sounds promising for training vision based moves and abilities but the second one sounds rather questionable if I am being honest." He said seriously. "I can understand your hesitance but if you would like you can always put it through a trial phase before determining whether or not to truly sell it in a stable manner first." I said calmly. "Let me talk to my sales team and I''ll get back to you about it but the first potion I know for certain that it will be epted so you can expect to get a nice payment for it at the very least." he said before hanging up.-


    I was fine with how that conversation went as I had already roughly understood the direction it would go before I even hit dial. Honestly I thought it was a pain to even deal with the whole selling of my recipes thing but there was nothing I could do since being a trainer was expensive and any source of ie was wee and needed. Even out of the money I had from my previous sale with Mr. Stone was rapidly dwindling after I got into teport again as I needed to restock on food and materials for normal alchemy work as I had already blown through my whole supply of the stuff in my mad experiments.-


    Vials , sks , pill capsules and purified water were bought in bulk alongside several bundles of healing potion herbs at grade three. More powerful pokemon obviously needed stronger medicines so naturally the ingredients to make those medicines were also graded based on how strong they were. It helped save alchemists and their clients time and hassle when making potions or supplements for their pokemon.-


    Interestingly enough the part of the city that once was heavily avoided because of the traffickers there had quickly been imed by tourists or sailors that didn''t want to leave the city and were all for cheap real estate. I did notice the strange looks I got from the Jenny n as I passed through the city but chose to ignore it. After being told to leave by Looker I was well aware that my small hill of corpses from the traffickers would be known by much of the league in a short amount of time.-


    I didn''t care either as all this would prove was that I was willing to take a stand against crime even if there wasn''t enough evidence for the normal justice system to do so. The criminal moles in the league would then pass on this information to their bosses which would hopefully keep them away from me. ''Ah who am i kidding knowing how arrogant these teams and other criminals are I''ll probably get targeted for assassination.'' I thought with a sigh as I headed for the docks to try and find Mr. Brineys ship since he was supposed toe get me today or tomorrow.-


    I assumed he parked the boat at the docks since that only made sense but I was perfectly willing to admit he may have gone to the beach again like when he dropped me off. I have no idea why most of the sailors had white and blue uniforms on and honestly I didn''t want to know as I walked the docks while looking for the boat. There were a few personal use boats at the docks but none of them looked like Mr. Brineys so I could only sigh and head towards the beach.-


    Unlike during the evening when there it was empty the beach at the moment was full of people that were there for whatever reason. Lo and behold so too was Mr. Briney and his boat rxing with his Wingull as they waited. "I hope you haven''t been waiting too long for me." I said as i walked up. Mr. Briney looked up from his magazine at this "Hmmm? Oh it''s youd , no we just got here about an hour ago in truth." the old man said with a grin.-


    "Lets not dy then and get going so you both can find a ce for the night." I said with a smile. "Good to see you in such fine spiritsd ,st time you had a sort of barely contained fire burning behind those eyes of yours. Not that it''s any of this old sailors business ho ho." he said with a chuckle as he started up the boat and began our ride to Dewford. ''What is with older folks and seeing through me?'' Iined mentally as this was the third time since entering this world that I was seen through by an older person.

 Meeting up and being a tourist

    Meeting up and being a tourist


    It wasn''t a lot but the fact it had happened that much was in weird in my opinion. Still after a few hours on the ocean and a couple of stupid water types that met rune in a less than healthy manner and we arrived at Dewford once again. "I''ll be staying the night at the training grounds , what about you two?" I asked Mr. Briney as he moved the ship next to the dock. "Not to worryd! me and Peeko will just head on back to the old homestead till it''s time toe find you tomorrow after your challenge. Best of luck with that by the way." he said with a grin.-


    I nodded since I wasn''t all that surprised about it to be honest as while the old man didn''t seem like a hermit by any means he also wasn''t the sort to enjoy staying in a city either. Dewford might be an odd city architecturally speaking but it was none the less still a city. So with that I parted with Mr. Briney and walked into the city casually. "YO Alex!" I heard a voice call out and turning to look I was surprised to see that it was Brawly himself.-


    The man had a wetsuit and was carrying a surf board under his arm while his blue hair was dripping wet. "Shouldn''t you be busy with challenges at the moment?" I asked genuinely confused to see the guy in what I can only assume is sports wear. I am not judging him for what he does in his free time but I was very confused how he even had the free time for this. ''I suppose it is possible that he is done with all of his challenges for the day if there are none scheduled past a certain point.'' I thought before Brawly cheerfully stomped on that idea.-


    "Nah dude I took today off so I was in my best state for our battle tomorrow!" he said with a excited smile. I was left speechless at this answer and how casual he was about it. I mean it makes sense that the gym leaders could take days off if they wanted to during the season but for some reason I had never thought any ACTUALY did that. Anyways I recovered from that mental shock a momentter and chuckled awkwardly "I am d you are so eager ... I think?" I said not sure if i should be happy about this or not.-


    "Indeed! As like the waves of a storm against the rocks so too will we crash together in a disy of ferocity like no other!" He said all smiles. "Right , well i''m off to the training grounds to set up camp for the night so I guess I''ll see you tomorrow then." I say while trying to be friendly. I wanted to get some distance between me and this dude as his whole personality made me ufortable , much too chipper for my tastes.-


    I''m not saying he was a bad guy or anything like that but merely that his personality and my own heavily sh and it makes me tempted to punch him. I have enough self control to not do that but you can understand my reluctance to remain anywhere near him. "Alright bro you do you and I''ma go grab me some more waves!" Brawly said before eagerly jogging back off to the beach. ''Well i''ve got a few hours before the sun goes down so why not see what sort of local delicacies this ce has?'' I thought with a shrug after Brawly left.-


    The answer as it turned out was sea urchins or rather royal urchins as they are called that were about the size of a cantaloupe and royal purple with long ass spikes. The things loved to eat the seagrass that grew in the rocky waters around the city and were a pain to harvest apparently. ording to what I was told it was because of how strong the currents were so it was difficult to grab them without getting spiked in the process as the water pulled and pushed you hard.-


    Not going to lie it was positively delicious to eat as the strange orange meat was creamy and rich in vor. My only gripe was that it was expensive as all hell with a single urchins worth of meat costing me almost two thousand poke. I bought three by the way since I also wanted to treat my pokemon to the stuff as well. Preparing it was also stupid easy as you just needed some rice and you were basically set , no cooking required otherwise. Other than the urchins most of the local cuisine was pretty much like you would expect with a heavy inclination for seafood and soups.-


    Not going to lie though the grilled Corphish skewers with sweet and spicy ze were fantastic. They were cheap too as one , Corphish were plentiful in the surrounding waters and two , each one gave a lot of meat. Obviously the ones that showed signs of intelligence were left alone in case a trainer wanted them for their team but the stupid beastly one were fair game. I made the stall owner a happy man by ordering close to four dozen of the skewers at fifty poke each.-


    I alone ate about ten of them while the rest were split between Vulcan and Rune alongside the urchins. I spent the rest of the day after that meditating on my aura with Vulcan while my other pokemon also tried to do the same. They failed of course as unlike Vulcan who was naturally able to use it the rest needed to unlock it through effort like everyone else. That actually gave me an interesting idea that i wasn''t quite sure would work but would be great if it did. See normally when I used an exp ticket on my pokemon they got a weeks worth of intense training in all regards but I wondered if it was possible to focus it on a single aspect instead?-


    If so then it was entirely reasonably to believe that I could in fact teach each and every one of my pokemon how to use aura in a short period of time so long as I had enough exp tickets. It was much the same way that pokemon could be taught other skills as well such as a Machamp learning metal working or an kazam learning alchemy. Hell the most famous example is the Blisey line learning medical skills.-


    There was even a benefit to this idea in the form of the benefits thate from the bond I shared with my pokemon. I don''t remember if I exined it but the benefits I received from my pokemon were actually because of their own auras boosting and rubbing off on my own. This meant that as they grew more powerful and their auras did with them as per normal with pokemon those benefits increased greatly. However in theory if they actively trained their auras then I would get even more benefit from it as their aura would grow from twice as many factors.

 Fight(2)

    Fight(2)


    "Retreat away from the smoke!" brawly said calmly. ''Tsk , he noticed the trap.'' I thought before moving to a different tactic. I had set up a series of orders with Rune that worked for different strategies I made. Smokescreen followed by thunderwave was the set up for an ambush at close range as the smoke worked to hide his exact location and the thunderwave made quick reactions to him difficult for the opponent. In other words I set Rune up to viciously use hit and run type attacks. Obviously Brawly figured this out in no time t but I wasn''t upset since that was what I expected a gym leader to be capable of.-


    "Negative shock!" I called and Brawly frowned not understanding what themand was even when the thundershock hit the Machamp causing it to cry out in pain. "Earthquake!" He called clearly choosing to pull out all the stops. Now it was my turn to frown as while I knew the Machamp had the move I had hoped to not see it used. Earthquake was not a move that the Machop line learned naturally but it was possible to teach them via tutors or tms.-


    It was also the bane of most electric types and had no real defense for besides literally flying above the ground until the move ended. Rune didn''t even get that option until his third evolutionary stage. I had to suppress my concern for him as he screamed as the ground of the arena turned brown and shook violently. "Positive thunder!" I yelled while hopping Rune pulled through the powerful super effective move. "CHAR!" Rune screamed defiantly and a super bright and thick bolt of lightning shot out of the smoke and Brawly sighed in relief as it looked like it was going to miss , then it happened.-


    The thick bolt of lightning suddenly shot to the side the moment it got near the Machamp like it had a mind of it''s own. Brawly was stunned at this result and I am fairly certain that only an electrician or electric type specialist would likely understand what just happened. It is a well known fact that there is positive and negative electrical charges but it is less known that they are attracted to each other. By having Rune hit the Machamp with a negative charge thundershock I primed another electrical attack of the positive charge to be a guaranteed hit , in this case the much more powerful thunder.-


    "Machamp is unable to battle!" the referee called and the smoke cleared to reveal rune as well and he was no looking good at all. He was covered inrge bruises and I was pretty sure a rib or two was broken or at least fractured. He was panting heavily but seemed satisfied with the oue as he had a wide grin before the little shit started to glow and get wrapped up in a glowing orb of energy , he was evolving.-


    "Charmander has started it''s evolution! By league regtions this match is to be moved to the auxiliary arena to continue and the Charmander is disallowed to continue the challenge!" the referee said sternly and both Brawly and I could only shrug andply. This was by no means an umon thing to happen but since it would be unfair to stop the challenge for the hour or so that an evolution may take there was another arena in every gym. Brawly took the brief time it took to get there to hand off the Machamp to a Joy n member that was on standby as well as drink some water.-


    Once we got in position the match started back up and we both tossed out our pokemon. "Vulcan , set!" "Hariyama crashes in!" we both called at the same time as tworge and intimidating pokemon appeared on the field. Vulcan wasted no time at all raising the temperature of the arena upon release while roaring proudly and the Hariyama tensed up but didn''t flinch even a little. ''Fighting types are all battle maniacs so obviously intimidation won''t work here.'' I thought before checking the level and moves of the thing before frowning deeply.-


    "That pokemon exceeds the grade five danger rating!" I announce sternly but also rather confused as I very much doubted that Brawly was the sort to try and cheat like this. "I figured Birch told you?" Brawly said confused. "Apparently not so care to fill me in?" I said still frowning. "There''s a rule for gym battles involving a Legendary where the leader is allowed a single pokemon higher grade than the challenge if the leader does not hold a type advantage , it''s to keep things fair." Brawly said and I sighed while cursing Birch mentally for not telling me.-


    I can''t say that I was expecting such a rule to exist but in hindsight it did make sense considering how broken legendries are. ''I have got to actually look over the league rules more closely after this.'' I decided before motioning for the battle to resume. "Extrasensory!" I called and Vulcans eyes glowed pinkish purple and the air around the Hariyama started to shimmer. "Knock off!" Brawly said with a grin as the sumo pokemons hands glowed dark grey and it pped the shimmering air dispelling it. It was a clever use of the slow buildup of extrasensory to dispel the attack with a dark type move since the dark type energy repelled the psychic type.-


    "fine then , the hard way it is. Lava plume!" I called and Vulcan stomped a glowing red paw onto the ground and Brawly didn''t even bother telling the Hariyama to dodge as it was already in the motions as the small geyser ofva erupted under it. Vulcan wasn''t stupid enough to think it''s opponent would stay still and let the hitnd and thus had it erupt in a cone for less damage but equally greater chance to hit.-


    Hariyama were deceptively fast pokemon for there appearance but it was still not able to truly dodge the attack. "Leer double!" I called seeing this as an opportunity. "Belly drum!" Brawly said with a grin and a gleam in his eye. Vulcan did as I ordered and it was only after theva cooled that I realized what had happened as I had overlooked it''s potential ability , in this case thick fat. This ability might sound like an insult to have but it was anything but in reality. A pokemon with thick fat was nearly fifty percent more resistant to fire and ice type moves as well as the burned and frozen status effects.-


    All in all not good news for me and Vulcan with his most powerful moves effectively half as damaging as normal. "Yup definitely hard way. Roar!" I called and Vulcan obeyed without hesitation after dropping the Hariyama defensive stats by two stages. Roar by the way didn''t work like in the game where it force switched someone''s pokemon but rather was basically a full on oppresive force wave of normal type energy traveling via sound. It was also super disorienting to get hit by and caused confusion.

 Fight(3)

    Fight(3)


    In this case I wasn''t relying on the damage from the attack since normal type was weak to fighting and thus did pretty much nothing to the Hariyama. No what I was after this time was the disorientation and confusion that the move brought. The reason for this was that I wanted to heavily limit the sort of moves the Hariyama could use as it happened to have two moves that were problematic for Vulcan , brine and surf. Brawly frowned at the inflicted confusion but didn''t seem to notice my awareness of his pokemons moveset.-


    It wasn''t all that surprising really as inflicting confusion is usually an advantageous tactic whether or not a moveset was understood or not. "Magma coat , keep it hot!" Imanded and Vulcan glowed red as it mmed into the ground creating a glowing molten floor but unlike normally when it cooled quickly this time it stayed hot. Brawly was clearly taken off guard by this unexpected custom move but immediately noticed a huge problem for his pokemon. See while thick fat may halve the damage taken from a fire type move and resist burn status affliction it by no means cancels them.-


    It can easily be imagined then what sort of pain and damage one might be subjected to by having to y a game of the floor isva with the floor actually beingva. The Hariyama screamed as it hopped around to try and stop the cruel heat from destroying it''s feet while Vulcan wasted no time at all charging over to deal as much damage as possible. "Surf!" Brawly yelled in clear panic as he understood how dire the situation was. So long as theva remained on the floor the Hariyama was on a timer before it was crippled by the damage isted to it''s feet.-


    It was a cruel tactic but probably fit my ruthlessness perfectly in his mind as I forced him to expose his cards if he wanted any chance of victory. Just like trainers prepare for challenging gym leader so too did the leaders prepare for the challengers. My teamsyout was public knowledge to the league so the fact that each of his pokemon for this challenge had inbuilt counters to my own came as no surprise. Still despite the confusion and pain the Hariyama grit it''s teeth and glowed blue as water rapidly formed around it inrge amounts.-


    "Crunch!" Imanded and Vulcan blurred forward as dark type energy condensed at its mouth and it shot through the forming water and closed it''s jaws around the ribs of the Hariyama. Surf as a move actually had two methods of being used. The first was to use a water source nearby to create a wave that mmed into the opponent. This method used the least amount of a pokemons energy and was nearly unavoidable. The second method was to create the water using far more energy and exploding the water outwards. This method however had a critical w in that majority of the damage could be avoided if the opponent charged through the water before it was released.-


    Majority , not the entirety so Vulcan shuddered after going through the water in pain but avoided the majority of the damage in the process. Still the surf did forcefully cool and clear theva on the floor but it was far toote as the damage had already been done to the Hariyama feet. Nick knew thanks to his poke medic skill that so much damage on the feet would take at least three weeks to heal and that was after considering generous use of medicine and potions.-


    In the middle of a battle like this however it was a devastating disability as any move or movement involving the feet would produce agony for the Hariyama. Fighting types were nothing if not stubborn however and the Hariyama red at Vulcan banefully before punching it with a glowing reddish brown fist. This was followed by another and another as the Hariyama used the move closebat. ''Fuck!'' I cursed mentally as that was very bad for Vulcan and shouted "Stomp to escape!" and Vulcan endured the hits to m his paws that were glowing white into the Hariyama which sent it backwards from the counter force.-


    "Retreat and methrower!" I called and Brawly wasn''t just standing idly "Arm thrust followed by brine!" hemanded and our pokemon moved to obey us faithfully. Vulcan however trumped the Hariyama in speed at this point by a wide margin and thus left the range of it while charging a methrower. It released the attack in a cone of me while a orb of water appeared and wasunched forward by the Hariyama to sh in the middle.-


    The water type move had the advantage in terms of elemental hierarchy but methrower was much more powerful even before considering that it was a legendary like Vulcan that used it. Add that on however and you get what happened next. The methrower shed with the brine and rapidly reduced it to steam before shooting forward again and impacting the Hariyama that screamed in pain. "Hariyama is unable to continue!" the referee called and Vulcan cut off the attack to reveal the scorched and unconscious Hariyama. Brawly sighed before balling the Hariyama "I forfeit!" He called and now it was my turn to frown. -


    "Are you certain you want to do this?" I asked seriously. Brawly smiled brightly "As much as I''d like to continue I know when I am in a hopeless situation. Like a tsunami you have crashed into and rolled over me despite having used a team that countered your own. And yet I have only managed to tie with one of your pokemon and give the other bruises despite the advantages I set up for myself. I won''t stubbornly cling to something as useless as pride when the oue is a foregone conclusion so I forfeit." he said honestly and I could ept that answer.-


    There was no shame in understanding how helpless one was and gracefully bowing out without suffering unnecessarily. Perhaps if this were life or death he might struggle till the end but this was not that serious so forfeiting as a good move. "Release your Hariyama again and I''ll heal it''s injuries a bit." I said calmly and Brawly was taken back but did as I said. I walked over to the creature and knelt down next to it while using a burn heal and a super potion on it followed by my healing ability.-


    "You are an odd one Alexander Drake."Brawly said as he watched me heal the gruesome injuries on his pokemon. I didn''t reply to that as I knew what he was referring to and didn''t feel like exining myself. It was a sort of public secret in the league by now that I was a ruthless personality after my ughter of the traffickers in teport so what could be more counter to that then the reveal that I also had the healing ability as well? Abilities tended to shape ones personality so it was difficult to reconcile the differences between my personality and the role of healing that I was "naturally" able to aplish.


    _________________________________________________________


    It is with heavy heart that I must make an announcement that may not sit well with many of you. As the cost of living has recently gone up for me due to a string of unfortunate incidents I can no longer give away so many chapters for free. From now on my free posts will be limited to twice a week while my patrons will be continuing to receive a chapter roughly everyday. Once again I am sorry that this has been made necessary.


    pat /pat reon_loskro Just remove the spaces between the T and R.

 First league mission

    First league mission


    It needs to be remembered that in normal cases abilities were something one was born with or acquired via a true legendries interference. Something along the lines of Kyogre or Groudon for example. It was also possible for REALLY powerful minor legendries like an Entei to do so as well to a minor degree but as stated they had to be stupidly powerful in order to so Vulcan was entirely out as an easy option. Other than that abilities were with someone from birth and thus it could easily be understood that they would heavily impact the persons personality.-


    I refused toment on my perceived weirdness and focused on healing the Hariyamas feet since that was the part with the most severe damage. I ran out of aura but was satisfied with the amount of time I shaved off it''s recovery time. "It''ll need some more treatment but it should be good as new in about two weeks , three if it tries to train while still injured." I said to Brawly sternly. I was well aware of how quickly a fighting type might go stir crazy and wanted to make it clear that this was not negotiable.-


    "Recovery is an important part of training after all. Besides a little trick about fighting types is that it''s not just battle that satisfies them but any challenge , for example board games." Brawly said with a grin. "Huh? Thanks for the tip , it maye in handy in the future if I ever get a fighting type on my team." I said gratefully. "It''s fine dude , you are doing us a favor by healing him so the least I can do is give some advice for the future that might help if you''re lucky."-


    "I also got your badge right here as well as a tm for focus energy since I figured you''d prefer it over the cash reward." Brawly said as he rifled around in his fanny pack for a moment before taking out the items. "You guessed correctly." I said taking the items and depositing them in my satchel with my other tms and badge. "So where will your wave take you next?" Brawly asked cheerfully as he balled the Hariyama again. "I''ll probably head towards Mauville next and train until my team is ready for the challenge with Watson and if I have left over time after that maybe even see about finding me a decent water type finally." I said honestly.-


    Brawly looked confused "Wouldn''t it be better to try and find a water type before you did your training?" He asked not understanding why I chose that particr order of operation. "Not in this case since as you may have noticed my team is rather special in that all of them are variants or legendary and i think I''ll try and make that my specialization from now on. Chances are that if I focus on finding a variant water type that I actually want first then I won''t have time to train before I have to challenge Watson." I answered seriously and Brawly nodded in understanding.-


    "Can''t say as I''ve ever heard of a variant specialized trainer but I believe that with your ambition you may just be the first!" Brawly said with a thumbs up and a bright smile. ''Well I suppose his personality isn''t THAT bad.'' I thought after that as I left the gym. Unlike myst gym challenge though I didn''t head to the pokecenter to get my pokemon checked out as I had already examined them and didn''t find anything that would be an issue for me to handle alone.-


    Honestly speaking Rune had it the roughest with a few broken ribs and cracked leg bone alongside an absolute fuckton of bruises and torn muscles. Or at least that was the case before he evolved as evolution had healed him to peak health while simultaneously leaving him t out exhausted. Speaking of his evolution I got a neat little surprise on his status sheet after he evolved to a Charmeleon. To be specific it was his electric type variation that got an upgrade which also changed his innate ability as well.-


    [Pokemon: Charmeleon(Rune)


    LEVEL:60->63


    Moveset: Growl(a) , Scratch(a) , Swords dance(a) , smokescreen(a) , tail whip(a) , thunderwave(a) , Thunder shock(a) , quick attack(a) , shock wave(a) , double team(a) , thunder punch(j) , spark(j) , agility(a) , dragon rage(j) , thunder(j) , shing rain(n)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny , Elemental(electric)(stage 2)


    Attack:133


    Defense:91


    Sp. Atk:142


    Sp. Def:104


    Speed:97


    Ability: Conduit(N)]


    The evolution and upgrade in variation stage gave Rune frankly stupid stats that almost rivaled Vulcans current ones. Even more so was how straight up broken his new ability conduit was. Where volt absorb allowed Rune to take no damage from and even heal when hit by an electric type move conduit was one step above that in how it works as it gave those effects when Rune used an electric type move as well as when he got hit with one. In simple terms Rune was practically a perpetual motion machine in battle so long as he could use electric type moves. To my great pleasure the evolution also boosted Runes speed drastically as well so he could finally get in some actual movement training rather than needing to rely on quick attack to keep up. -


    Appearance wise there wasn''t any real changes from a normal Chameleons appearance besides the unique features Rune already had as a Charmander in the form of ck stripes and the bright lightning orb at the tip of his tail. Anyways I had to awkwardly deal with the passionate crowd of people that thronged to me as I made my way through the city. Brawly had made our match a public event for the entire city after all so most people were still riding that high when I arrived and were thus a bit overzealous.-


    It was a bit irritating but thankfully no one was trying to get handsy or things might have taken a violent turn. I could deal with an excited crowd around me no problem but I valued my personal space so having strangers trying to grab me was a quick way to end up with me swinging at faces. Mr. Briney already had the boat ready to go when I met up with him which was great as it let me make a get away wlessly. The reason he had the boat ready was because he too had watched my match and thus roughly knew when I would arrive.-


    Halfway to teport however my pokenav went off which confused me a bit until I opened it and got presented a message from the league itself. The gist of it was that there was a mission with a possibly grade six danger rating near Trode town which was smack dab between Mauville and teport. The league sent me the message asking me to take the mission and solve the problem that had cropped up. After looking the mission over I could only chuckle at it as I understood why I was specifically chosen for it.

 Unusual circumstances

    Unusual circumstances


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: Reports of a hoard of pokemon to the south east of Trode town forming under an aggressive leader has reached the league and so you have been called upon to end the threat before a break urs!


    Objectives: Disperse the hoard , Kill the hoard leader(Optional) , Keep the pokemon casualties bellow forty percent(Optional) , Discover the reason for the leaders aggresion(Optional)


    Rewards: 10x exp tickets , 40,000 poke(optional) , 1x pokemon ticket(Optional) , ???(Optional)]


    The system was kind enough to recognize the league mission as a genuine quest and so I could see what my rewards were for it and I was dumbfounded. To say they were generous would be an understatement and thatst possible reward had me super fucking curious as this was the first time I didn''t actually know what I would get for doing something. Even more so I understood that the high reward came from the fact that the risk to myself was equally high. Not gonna lie and say I wasn''t eager to throw myself into that danger either as my ambition would be a joke if I couldn''t handle this much adversity.-


    Once we got to teport and I thanked Mr. Briney before he left with his boat I called up Birch immediately. "I was wondering if you would call after getting that mission." he said the moment the call went through. "I''m not saying I don''t understand why I specifically would be chosen toplete it given my recent actions butst I checked this sort of thing tended to be well into the rangers jurisdiction." I said voicing the part that made me confused. I was right to be confused too as dispersing hoards before they be a problem was the bread and butter of the rangers so for someone else to get a mission involving it was abnormal to say the least.-


    "You won''t get any judgement from me about what you did to those traffickers since as far as I am concerned their kind is a blight that needs to be destroyed even if it calls for those willing to get blood on their hands to do it like you. As for the mission however you would normally be right but due to the increased criminal activities all around the region the rangers have a seriousck of man power in the wilds to keep the wild pokemon from turning into a hoard and causing a break."-


    "That is where star badge people like youe in handy for the league as you can be trusted to have the power needed to handle the problem and are typically free to rush over at any given moment in cases like this one. As for why you specifically were chosen it was actually a suggestion set forth by the rangers order themselves. Apparently you impressed them somehow so whatever you are doing keep at it as it''s working for you." Birch exined seriously.-


    I nodded in understanding "That exins quite a bit but now I need you to try and help me collect information on the hoard so I know what I am dealing with. Nothing to hard to get just things like what the leader is , the size of the hoard and what sort of pokemon it consists of. Without that information I will need to make up things as I go and that might end up unnecessarily bloody." I said calmly. It was true too as without knowing these things I would need to make my own assumptions that could result in a bad encounter with the hoard on my end with heavy amounts of bloodshed needed to retreat.-


    Besides it wasn''t like I was asking for anything unreasonable but merely some intel that any basic aerial scouting could acquire rtively easily. "You are in luck about the leader of the hoard as it is a Milotic with a shiny variation which made it easy to identify. Don''t bother trying to capture it though as it has made it clear that it is hostile to humans after attacking unprovoked six times in the past month alone. As for the rest give me a couple days and I think the league can gather it for you. Birch out." he said before hanging up. -


    ''A shiny Milotic huh? Maybe it was owned by a human in the past that mistreated it?'' I pondered over the information seriously. It was honestly hard to imagine a Milotic that was innately aggressive as the species was highly peaceful to the point of going out of it''s way to try and calm two opponents fighting normally. Everything about this situation screamed oddity to me and even without the unknown reward I would try and seek out whatever it was that drove such a peaceful species to violence.-


    Don''t mistake peaceful for weak though as while the species preferred to solve their problems without violence they could dish it out just as well as anything else if they needed to. The reason I was in luck about it though was thanks to Rune being a hard counter top the Milotic since the species was water type exclusively and heavily utilized moves of that type as well. In addition the species almost always lived inkes or ponds since rivers and seas tended to be very violentpetition wise.-


    This meant that for the most part this hoard leader should be heavily limited movement wise and thus easy to rain attacks down on. With this in mind i walked into teport and headed for the nearest ingredient store. I wanted to buy some things to make a type of narcotic potion to send the hoard to sleep or at the very least make them inattentive from drowsiness so that I could slip by peacefully and go straight for the hoard leader. If it wasn''t for the optional objective to keep the casualties bellow forty percent I would probably just have my team carve a bloody path to the leader for the levels it would likely give. -


    One on one battles in a semi controlled manner were all well and good for increasing the skill and power of ones pokemon but I knew for a fact that exposing them to a whole new type ofbat would give them a huge boost in levels at a rapid rate until they adjusted to it. Pokemon levels were after all a mix of physical power , skill and experience so a newbat experience was nothing but beneficial.-


    Still with that idea totally out I chose to leverage my alchemy skill and create a knockout potion that I could aerosolize into a mist to put the majority of the hoard to sleep assuming it wasn''t mostly consisted of pokemon that didn''t sleep to begin with or could resist it. I bought some dream seeds , nightmare shrooms , illusion grass and Drowsee tears to craft this potion. The first three were nts native to this world that weremonly used create sleep medicine while thest was the literal tears of the pokemon Drowsee that innately held ties to dreams and sleep.

 Attack

    Attack


    With the ingredients secured I left the city for the road and wilds between the civilized ces to find me a nice spot to craft my potion. I of course released my pokemon once I was outside the city with the exception of Rune who was still knocked out from the battle and subsequent evolution. By this point Vulcan was already well on it''s way to recovery as well as a good deal of the bruises it had were starting to fade already. Gaia on the other hand was frankly pissed at not being able to join the battle since Vulcan had been a little too effective and made Brawly quit early.-


    It took me a good hour of coaxing her with promises of dibs on the battles with Watson and lots of good metals to eat after she evolved to get her to drop the matter. In a way I could understand her being upset at missing out on what would have undoubtedly been a very challenging fight which is why I let her have her little tantrum. At the end of that hour though I found a nice clearing in the woods that was perfect to use for my alchemy.-


    I set up my equipment and got to work preparing the ingredients while I mentally went through the steps I created for the potion. For the nts I sent a tiny gentle bit of aura through them to restore their vitality before chopping and mashing them as needed. Contrary to how it seems using fresh ingredients was always the way to go but in a few cases it was a good idea as the remaining vitality helps the potions. about an hourter I ced the deceptively clear liquid in a sealed canister before using the aerosolizer on it effectively turning it into a sleep smoke grenade when opened.-


    I made four of these for wide area coverage before going absolutely crazy on making health potions because something told me I was gonna need them. The sun had started to set by the time I was done crafting potions and cleaning my equipment to store it again. I set up a a fire to roast a Mightyena that Vulcan hunted for dinner and was carefully rotating the corpse over the fire when Rune let me know he was awake and hungry.-


    Releasing him from his ball I tossed him an oran berry that he easily caught in his jaws. "That should hold you over until I am done roasting this thing." I said calmly and he nodded. "Good job during the battle by the way , you missed it but we won so hard Brawly quit at his second pokemon." I said with a grin and Gaia chimed in about how she didn''t even get a turn. Rune smiled pleased with the result of his hard work. "There''s not much difference in shape between your current form and previous one so you shouldn''t have too much issue fully adapting if you do a bit of light exercise , also congrats on upgrading your variation." I said still grinning and Rune beamed proudly.-


    A whileter I finished roasting the food and cut off a thigh for myself before splitting the rest between Vulcan and Rune. After that I had Gaia set up a shelter for us ''She''s getting better at controlling the surrounding earth'' I noted before entering the shelter and meditating myself to sleep. The next morning I got in my workout and was pleased to see Rune hale and hearty as he sprinted around and even kept up with my workout.-


    Once that was good and done we set out for Trode town which at our usual speed should take us about two days to get to. Along the way I had each of my battle ready pokemon fighting any pokemon at or higher level then them that we came across in order of Gaia , Rune and finally Vulcan that rotated. An interesting fact about the way the pokemon league handled the wild pokemon was that barring areas inessible or really far from people the league had the local wild pokemon in certain parts of the regions at a certain range of power.-


    The higher the level the badge for that area was the stronger the wild pokemon were with the area for the final badge having no upper limit. Finding pokemon who could actually battle my team with out getting otk''d was pretty fucking hard as a result. Not impossible mind you just irritatingly hard. Over the next two days we traveled and rested at night while battling during the day Vulcan fought four times and got two levels. Rune also got four battles and three levels while Gaia was the lucky one and got five battles with two levels as well.-


    Finally towards the end of the second day of traveling The town could be seen in the distance alongside lots of smoke and bright shes , it was under attack. "Vulcan if I rode on your back how fast do you think you can close the distance?" I asked seriously after seeing this. "En! En! Entei!" Vulcan barked out firmly and I nodded before balling the rest of my team and jumping onto it''s back and holding unto the fur tightly "Go!" I shouted and the world blurred around me.-


    Entei as a whole species were extremely well known for how fast they could run , to the point in fact that it was a legitimate entry in the pokedex in the games. As a result I had no doubt at all about Vulcans im of being able to get to the town in under a minute. The thing is that such speeds are horribly disorienting to experience from a dead stop. So when we arrived at the town my head was positively throbbing in pain that I had to try and ignore as I released my team again.-


    "Chase them off or knock them out if you can and if not kill them!" Imanded and my team sounded in the affirmative before shooting off into the town to fight off the pokemon attacking it. "Tank cover my back as this might get nasty." A told the spikey mon on my back as I drew my spear and channeled aura to my legs to empower them before taking off in a sprint towards the closest screams. The system also went off but i didn''t have time to check what it was about as a Jenny protecting a woman and her child with her Arcanine partner from three Manectric and not doing so hot either came into sight.-


    "HUUUU!" sucking in a mouthful of air as I strained my whole body while flooding it with aura and cocked the spear back before throwing it at one of the Manectric. "SWOOSH! CRACK!" the sheer power behind the throw sent the spear threw the air like a bullet before smashing into the side of one of the Manectrics head and getting stuck in it''s brain killing it instantly. The Arcanine saw the weapon and capitalized on the opening the surprise attack gave by distracting the other two and charged a methrower that the Manectric were toote to interrupt and thus got roasted to death by. I kicked up a cloud of dust as I slid to a stop in front of the Jenny and ripped out my spear from the corpse on the ground "My team and I are here to help." I said firmly while ignoring the blood that sshed on me from taking out the spear.

 Rendering aid and Milotic

    Rendering aid and Milotic


    The Jenny breathed out a sigh of relief "This isn''t a break but the stragglers of the nearby hoard that got impatient , kill them without mercy." she said sternly and I nodded before sprinting off into the town to find my team. The first one I came across was Vulcan that was unsurprisingly surrounded by dead pokemon and injured people and pokemon that were clearly those fending off the attackers. "Vulcan! Open Season!" I yelled at my pokemon and it roared back in acknowledgement of it''s new orders. I didn''t stop but kept going until I found Rune fighting off three Gulpin but it was clear he was trying to take them alive.-


    "Rune , New orders , Kill them all!" I yelled and Rune immediately released a series of thunderwaves to paralyze his opponents to death. Gaia was unsurprisingly the biggest obstacle for the attackers however as between her stone grasp and shed skin she was a nightmare for the mostly electric and poison type pokemon attacking the town. I skidded to a stop next to her "New orders , execute all of the enemies." I said firmly and she hummed in acknowledgement before the many stone hands holding the enemy pokemon closed tightly crushing them to death.-


    The fence had kept most of the attackers outside the town so it was not long for all but the leader of this attacking group to be taken down by the defenders and my team. The leader was a level sixty seven Swallot that had a taste for human flesh , particrly children. It shouldn''t be need to be said but that made me absolutely LIVID , a sentiment shared by all the defenders and my team. By the time we were done hammering the thing with attacks it would have been possible to stuff what remained in a sardine can.-


    Next came the clean up and recovery part of such an attack as every able bodied person worked to clear away the dead and debris. My team helped with this while I volunteered at the pokecenter since I had poke medic knowledge and a healing ability that could best be used there. More than a few times I needed to help stabilize wounds and work as an extra pair of hands under the orders of the Joys. It was bloody and tiring work but I did it without a word ofint.-


    Fortunately I had made an ass ton of health potions a couple days ago so even when the pokecenter ran out I was able to hand out my own stock. I felt a bit conflicted by the end of the day when I discovered that my poke medic skill had gone from novice to journeyman thanks to all the hands on experience I had gotten today. I was too tired to care though as I had spent thest few hours draining my energy pool repeatedly of everyst once of energy I had and it had taken it''s toll on me.-


    I walked out of the pokecenter sluggishly as the exhaustion dragged me down in a more mental than physical sense. I found a spot on the grass under a tree and took a seat with my back against the trunk before closing my eyes and letting sleep take me. I''m not sure when exactly but sometime while I was asleep the rest of my team found me and grouped up around me to rest as well. Apparently someone in the town saw this scene and took a picture of it and posted it on the forums with the title {savage saints rest}.-


    There was also the story about what had happened to the town and what I and my team had been doing during it. I wouldn''t learn about this until the next morning when Birch called and told me about the buzz it was creating online. He also got me the information I asked for previously and it was definitely a good thing I did too. The hoard primarily consisted of electric and fire types with a smattering of rock and water types however the biggest issue was that it had nearly a thousand pokemon in it.-


    There wasn''t any fliers though which was a relief since it meant that I wasn''t going to get attacked from above when I worked my way through the hoard. With that in mind my n of sending most of the hoard to sleep was still perfectly feasible. There was still more to do in town before we could head towards the hoard though so we ended up spending another day helping out before finally making our way to the hoard. Like I had previously thought as well the Milotic at the center of the hoard was living in a pond with the rest of the hoard surrounding it.-


    I specifically walked around the edges of the hoard until I was up wind from it where I used the first sleep potion. "TSSSSS!" the colorless gas fog left the canister only to be carried by the gentle breeze over the hoard without any of them noticing it until it was toote and the first part started to go to drop. Each canister only covered so much of the hoard so rather than use all of them at once I instead waited for the part of it effected to go to sleep before sneaking past the sleeping pokemon and setting off another canister to knockout even more pokemon further into the hoard.-


    There were a few that resisted the gasses effect and needed to be killed to keep them quiet as we got closer and closer to the pond with each canister. On the final one we reached the pond and rather than attack the Milotic at it''s center I used the system to analyze the water as well as the Milotic itself alongside it''s surroundings with my X-ray vision. What I found made a lot of sense but also made it clear that the Milotic needed to be mercy killed , yes mercy.-


    ording to the system it was not a naturally shiny pokemon but rather an escaped test subject on making artificial variants by Team Aqua. As a side effect however it was in constant pain and had a heightened aggression instinct. To top it off the Milotic had an egg that it was practically rabid to protect in it''s human made madness. It was a pitiable case in all regards and I understood my role here perfectly. I was to serve as the merciful death for the creature and the salvation for it''s child.-


    "Rune get her attention , Vulcan , Gaia keep the hoard from interfering by any means necessary." Imanded and my team got to work immediately. Vulcan created a wide area of hotva while Gaia covered it in an intense sandstorm that turned the area behind us into a death trap. Rune on the other hand sent a few weak thunder shocks into the pond which served their purpose of getting the Milotic''s attention perfectly as it roared in rage and madness while it''s energy caused the water to shake and ssh everywhere as it rushed to the surface.

 Strange egg and reporting in

    Strange egg and reporting in


    The Milotic''s outburst caused the hoard to go into a frenzy and rush towards us but Gaia and Vulcansbined field of death made that very hard. The Milotic''s level fluctuated between sixty and eighty three in a strange manner but I could understand why. It was the madness preventing it from making rational choices and using it''s power fully. "Rune let us ce this one to rest." I said calmly and Rune loudly agreed. "Swords dance." Imanded and Rune started his little jig as he glowed. "MIIIIIII!" the Milotic screamed and charged at him wildly but Rune finished first and moved out of the way. -


    "Thunder punch , double team to dodge." I spoke firmly and runes ws glowed yellow as he started wailing on the Milotic that screamed and iled around with water type attacks getting flung without any target. It was honestly pathetic as the creature was clearly powerful but simply couldn''t focus it''s mind to use that power in any meaningful manner. That said I myself needed to dodge the attacks since random attacks would sometimese my way. More and more wounds were piling on the Milotic''s body and it was getting sluggish from using up it''s energy haphazardly.-


    "Rune finish it off , there''s no need to make it suffer more than this." Imanded and Rune Glowed as he charged up a thunder way beyond what was rmended for a pokemon battle and in a blinding sh and deafening "BOOM!" released the attack on the Milotic. Such an attack drained him of almost his entire remaining energy pool but did it''s job as the Milotic was down and on it''sst breaths. I crouched in front of the creatures face "I will take care of it from here on out , rest now." I said gently.-


    For the briefest moments the madness seemed to clear away and all I could see in the Milotic''s eyes was gratefulness as the life faded from them and it''s body rxed. The hoard rippled as every pokemon felt the presence of the leader fade and like they had broken from mind control they all started to flee in panic. I couldn''t be happy about this result however as there was simply no reason for it. With a sigh I dove into the pond and retrieved the egg that the Milotic had been guarding.-


    [Pokemon: Feebas


    LEVEL:0(egg)


    Moveset: N/A


    Variations: ????


    Ability: ?????]


    Checking it with the system I couldn''t help but have an odd expression as the result I got back confused me. ording to the system the unborn Feebas had a variation but it wasn''t any of the ones that existed naturally and thuscked a name. The innate ability was much the same in this regards which meant whatever the variation was it clearly messed with the ability as well. ''I need to talk to Birch about this after the little one hatches.'' I thought seriously.-


    I didn''t go to dismantle the Milotic despite it''s parts being of high value but rather had Gaia dig a deep hole that I left buried it in as Gaia turned the topyer of soil to hard stone. The egg I got was a strange mix of emerald green , ruby red and steel grey with various chaotic looking patterns all over it. The egg was also a bitrger than a normal one would be but not in the same way a royal variants would be. All in all I had no fucking clue what I was even looking at and could only ce it in the incubator pocket of my satchel.-


    ording to the system the egg should take about a month the hatch so I needed to get a water type carrier for it before that happened. Obviously water type pokemon like Magikarp and Feebas could still live out of water just fine but they are far morefortable in it than out of it. In those two cases for even more reason since theycked the ability to properly move onnd. The fight might not have been overly long at only about fifteen minutes to finish but my team was dead tired afterwards.-


    For Rune he was bone dry of energy and had a few bruises from where the Milotic managed to hit him a few times. Vulcan and Gaia were also in rough shape as even with their set upnd of death the sheer numbers of the hoard meant they still got overwhelmed by those that made it through. Vulcan had the worst injuries but was still standing firmly on it''s feet. Pulling out my pokenav I dial Birch up. "Are you about to go into the hoard Alex? Best advice i can give you is take your time and..." He started saying immediately but I cut him off. -


    "The hoards taken care of and the leaders dead , I have it''s egg which is also some sort of variant but I am unsure what kind." I said bluntly as Birch goes silent for a whole minute in shock. "Hang on a moment." Birch eventually said before the line went silent for a good five minutes. "Okay I have you on speaker and an open channel to Watson and the rangers rep. Start from the beginning and exin what you did and why you did it." Birch said clearly standing away from the pokenav on his end.-


    "Well when I first got the mission I stocked up on ingredients of a narcotic nature in teport that I then used alchemy to turn into a colorless sleep potion that I made specifically to knock out pokemon that inhale it. I then aerosolized it which gave me four uses total. After that I made my way to Trode town with my team and you all should already know what happened there so I''ll skip that part. Anyway I got the recon information and stealthily approached the hoard until I was in a straight line upwind from the leader. "


    "From there I used the aerosolized sleep agent to knock out a great deal of the hoard downwind from me. I still needed to dispatch a few that resisted the agent as I snuck through the hoard using up my supply of agent in the process. Still they fulfilled their purpose as I was at the pond that the leader was in. I had Gaia , my Pupitar and Vulcan , my Entei create an area of high difficulty to pass behind me while Rune , my Charmeleon got the leaders attention."


    "I will state officially that there was something very wrong with that Milotic as it was insane and seemed in agony before any attacks were sent at it and it fought in a reckless and illogical manner despite it''s clear power. In the end it perished and the hoard dispersed while I retrieved a variant egg from the pond that I believe belonged to the leader. I buried the leaders body and called you right after that Birch." I narrated the entire series of events calmly and urately while it was silence on Birches end.

 Uniqueness

    Uniqueness


    "Sounds like thed had it handled just fine!" An old but jolly sounding voice appeared and I immediately assumed that it was Watsons since he was portrayed as such a person. "Indeed though the information on that Milotic has me concerned. I rmend that the egg be brought in for testing in human tampering." a younger but more serious female voice said and I assumed it was the rangers rep. "With all due respect I''d like to care for the egg and hatched pokemon if it''s not too much of a problem." I said clearly stunning them.-


    "Can you exin your reasoning?" the female voice asked firmly and I could almost feel that my next words could decide this matter so I chose to be honest. "Before the Milotic perished I told it that I would and I don''t want to break my word if it can be avoided." I said calmly and the line went silent for a moment. "A respectable reason but what if we say no?" the woman asked clearly testing me. "Then I hope you have a good reason or we may have a bit of a problem." I said without backing down.-


    "Wahaha! You''ve got moxied I''ll give you that but you can rx since I doubt anyone would be better suited to caring for that egg than you , Mister variant specialist." Watson said clearly pleased with my answer. "That is indeed true , you have shown yourself to have a unique affinity towards and ability tomand variants so after the tests areplete I see no reason why you shouldn''t be allowed to keep the egg." the female voice said in a way that also sounded pleased with my answer.-


    "It''s settled then! Alex will bring the egg in for testing at Mauville and afterwards it shall be entrusted to him to raise , so long as he provides ample reports on it''s progress of course." Birch said and Watson and the ranger rep both agreed. The other two left after that leaving only Birch and I on the line. "You''ll have to forgive Marilyn for testing you like that as she has a bad habit of vetting people of interest to the league and you certainly qualify. She wasn''t wrong though when she said you have shown an extraordinary affinity for variants , it''s unprecedented in fact."


    "You need to understand that most variants and legendries are highly independent and territorial so very rarely will more than one be on someone''s team obediently. Yet as far as all indications show your entire team consist of such pokemon that get along as if they were not variants and a legendary at all , it''s almost impossible toprehend." Birch said seriously. "What about the full teams of variants that I read about online?" I asked confused. "In those VERY rare cases each of those pokemon were either rted , had some form of synergy or weren''t as obedient as you might be lead to believe."


    "Your team has no shared parents as far as I can tell , nor due they synergize and even heavily sh in fact and yet they are perfectly well behaved like that was just totally normal to do for them." Birch exined seriously. This information caught me entirely off guard but after thinking about it I discovered that it made perfect sense. Until now I had simply taken my team acting the way they do as a matter of course since that was how the games worked so long as you didn''t get the pokemon at a higher level than you can handle.-


    But it made sense that in reality naturally arrogant or territorial variant pokemon would not want to share a trainer and that those that shed would be even less willing to do so. It also made sense that variant pokemon would likely see their trainer as bellow them and thus be unruly and disobedient as a result. ''What was different about me?'' I thought momentarily before the answer popped into my mind firmly and unquestionably , the system. Without the system I would just be some guy that would if I am being honest get killed in the wild shortly after arriving in this world.-


    Yet with the system I was the single most exceptional human on the entire with the potential to in theory be something akin to a god. This wasn''t a joke either as in the long list of abilities that I could get manipting the very fabric of reality in various ways existed. It also should be remembered that if I gets a repeat of an ability it gets upgraded so if I were to get say healing another four or five times who was to say I couldn''t heal the effects of aging itself or even getting the ability to resurrect someone.-


    The thing is though that I had never kept the workings of the system from my team so it makes sense that they would be fine working under someone like me and getting along. There was no mistaking it either they did work under me , all trainers pokemon worked under their trainers. "I hadn''t thought about it until now." I said honestly. "I know , I didn''t say anything until now because I was worried that it would ruin whatever it is that you have going on but I guess the cats out of the bag already so there was no use hiding it anymore." Birch said apologetically.-


    "It''s fine , I''m just awesome like that is all." I said jokingly and heughed. "Speaking of awesome things are you going to talk about that trick you pulled with the electrical prities?" Birch asked and I didn''t see why I shouldn''t since anyone aware of how electricity works could figure out what I did. Hell I was almost expecting that Watson was going to end up using it against me in this uing challenge at some point.-


    So I spent the next fifteen minutes or so exining how it worked and that I started having Rune work it into his attacks the moment I learned he could change the prity of his attacks freely. "This is all quite fascinating though not revolutionary by any means as a simr idea had been proposed with regards to the Magnemite species." Birch said after writing down a bunch of what I said. I ended the call after that and made my way back to Trode town to help out with the work there. It also helped that Vulcan was a fan favorite with children so despite it being against thew no one bothered us about my pokemon being out in town.-


    Quite the opposite in fact as many were happy to see them as my team and I helped the construction workers and Joys tend the problems in town. The Joys were much more friendly towards me after all my help and some were even downright flirting with me which was slightly awkward since they all had simr looks. Honestly speaking even the two or three Jennies in town were more respectful and less suspicious of me , all in all I would say I had a pretty good public image.

 Aranyani

    Aranyani


    The next day my team and I set out of the town where I finally epted the reward for the quest from the system. As it turned out my pay for the league mission was deducted in exchange for the egg since it would have gone to the league normally. I wasn''t too bothered by it since I was looking for a water type variant for my team anyways so even though it would be a couple months at the least before the Feebas reached a point where it could start training for battle and likely even longer before I could actually use it in battle I was fine with that.-


    On a rted note I got all the rewards for the quest which was ten exp tickets , forty thousand poke , one pokemon ticket and the final hidden reward was the egg itself which made sense given the optional task needed to earn it. "Alright folks lets put it to a vote do I use this ticket now and start training whateveres of it now or after we get the egg checked out in Mauville?" I asked my team seriously.-


    "En!" "Char!" "Hmm!" "Hmm!" "That''s three votes for now and one forter. Sorry Vulcan majority rules." I said and Vulcan huffed angrily at the decision but knew not to argue against a fair vote. Taking out the pokemon ticket I said a quick prayer to RNGesus before I tore it in half causing it to burst into smoke that congealed into the infamous roulette wheel and started to spin. About a minuteter the wheel stopped and I got to see what the next member of my team would be , a Treecko. Honestly I was surprised to see it since so far I haven''t gotten any pokemon actually native to Hoenn until now so this threw me off.-


    Of course the next wheel that determined whether or not the Treecko would be a variant or not showed up as well and I was honestly fine with whatever it woulde out with. Another minuteter and I learned that it would indeed be a variant but it would only have a single variation which was totally fine with me. And once the final wheel to determine the variation finished spinning I learned that it would be a shiny variant which while a bit mundane was still perfectly fine.-


    A normal Treecko had light green skin everywhere but it''s belly and tail that were reddish brown and dark green respectfully. The shiny version however had a slightly darker cyan skin while it belly was ash white and it''s tail was a bloody red. The Treecko I got was no different in this regard as after I switched the ball it was in to a normal one from the one given by the system I bound it to me and released it. Immediately I took a look at it''s status screen to see what I was working with here.-


    [Pokemon: Treecko(Female)


    LEVEL:1


    Moveset: Leer(n) , pound(n) , leaf storm(n)(egg move)


    Variations: Shiny


    Attack:75


    Defense:57


    Sp. Atk: 91


    Sp. Def:82


    Speed:86


    Ability: Overgrow(n)]


    It was clear to me immediately that this Treecko was heavily geared to hit and hit elemental tactics just from this stat alignment. The crazy part though was that fucking egg move which was one of the single most powerful grass type moves that I knew of , stronger than sr beam in fact. The trade off for that power however was a two stage drop in Sp. atk whenever it was used. Unfortunately learning calm mind was not on the table for the species so the move has seriously limited use.-


    "As you should know by now I am your new trainer Alexander Drake , but I go by Alex. These ones you see here are your teammates , Vulcan the Entei , Gaia the Pupitar , Rune the Charmeleon and Tank the Metapod. I also have a Feebas egg that will join the team some time in the future. If you have any questions or requests feel free to voice them now." I exined to the inquisitive reptile looking at me.-


    "Tree! Tree! Ko!" After a few moments of thought the small mon asked for a pretty sounding name. I admit that it was probably thest sort of thing I was expecting to get asked for but it was at least easily aplished. "Ceres?" rejected "Demeter?" rejected "Terra?" rejected yet again , it was at this point that I realized this was going to be harder than anticipated. "Nymph?" rejected with added re "Aranyani?" I asked expecting to be rejected again but instead the small diva nodded in eptance. "That''s a bit of a mouthful so how about Yani for short?" I asked and the small reptile voiced her agreement.-


    "Well then Yani you have two choices at the moment , first is that I use all these exp tickets on you and we skip a whole lot of time that would normally be needed to train you up in exchange for a massive headache. Alternatively we can spend the normal amount of time it would take to train you up which will increase your stats as well but you won''t make it in time for the next gym battle. As an added bonus I can instead use those exp tickets to try and have all of you minus Vulcan possibly learn to use aura." I said honestly.-


    I realized after dropping so many tickets into Tank when I first got him that it was sorta a dick move to do that without asking first , don''t tell him that though. Why was none of these options based on myself instead like say dropping them into my poke medic or alchemy skills? Well from the way I can see it using the tickets on my pokemon was not a waste at all while I was still so horrible unskilled in my skills that I thought it best if I just spent normal time on them instead.-


    I was a trainer first and foremost after all so if I wanted to take on the league tournament avable at the end of the season for those with eight badges I needed to focus my attention on my pokemon. My skills came secondary and were more of a free time activity sort of thing than something I should really focus on heavily. Anyways Yani seemed to think about it for a moment or two before deciding what she wanted to do.-


    "Tree! Ko! Ko! Tree! Tree!" she said which I roughly understood as her choosing the second option. When I asked why though I was surprised to learn that her answer was actually pretty well thought out. Basically she pointed out how learning aura while a long term project would also give the greatest reward in the long term. She also said that if she wanted any hope of evolving her variation she needed to raise her stats as she admitted they were actually lower than the average amount for her species. I was a little disappointed not having another battler ready by the time the challenge woulde up but got over it nearly instantly.

 Trick master

    Trick master


    "Well now that that is settled I guess it''s time to divvy up the exp tickets by how close each of you are to grasping aura already." I said with a smirk. "Do you know how to try and activate your aura or do you need me to exin it?" I asked Yani first since she probably needed the most help with the subject. "Tree! Tree! Ko!" the little reptile surprised me however as she imed to know how to do it already. "Well then everyone minus Vulcan start meditating and I''ll use my own aura to judge how close you are to grasping your own." I said and they went at it.-


    While they all meditated and attempted to activate their auras I rested my hand on them one by one and circted my own aura the see how close they were before moving to the next one. It came as no surprise to me that Tank was the closest since he was entirely immobile and thus could spend every waking moment meditating. I refused to even give him a single ticket because he was only the tiniest bit away from grasping it. -


    Rune came up as the second closest thanks to his triple variation giving him an innate advantage over Gaia who was not far behind him due to trying to get it sooner than him. I used two tickets on Rune which got him through the door and another two on Gaia to do the same. Yani on the other hand was a prodigy with energy control as it turned out as I literally felt her growing rapidly closer to grasping her aura with every breath. I used only a single ticket for her to grasp the energy and even get a little ahead of the others.-


    This still left me with five tickets however to use that I chose to dump into Vulcan after asking who wanted them and why. Vulcan wanted them so that we could lessen the amount of focus I had to divide training everyone. Gaia wanted them in hopes they would let her evolve again earlier than expected. Rune wanted them so he could bezy for the next few weeks without being ineligible for the challenge and Yani wanted them to boost her aura use as far as possible as soon as possible.-


    None of these reasons were bad per se but Vulcans was the only one that benefited everybody so it got the tickets. This boosted it''s level from seventy to eighty five instantly while also letting it naturally learn fire st , fire fang and calm mind. As I feared however it was clear that it''s progress in getting levels was starting to slow down drastically as if I used five tickets on it when it was level thirty it might have gained another thirty and yet now it only got fifteen. Still at least now Vulcan was all but set for the next two challenges which I estimated would have a level eighty and ny set up just for it to face.-


    Gaining another five levels to close that number gap could probably be done with some hunting on Vulcans part so long as it chose to challenge typings it was weak to. As it would happen there were some pretty strong rock and water types in our near future with the desert and route along the shoreline ahead of us both after and before Mauville respectively. Assuming that I don''t go challenge the winstrait family that was consisted of fairly strong trainers.-


    Did I mention that they were also the current Hoenn champion Wace''s biological family? Oh yeah that was a thing that was frankly crazy to think about for me. The man came from an entire family of trainers that were actually pretty strong considering they never really left the area near Mauville. It wasn''t public knowledge or anything like that but it was one of those pieces of information from the games that just sorta stuck with you after you learned it. Another such piece of information that I was going to check was the mirage tower located in the desert area north of Mauville.-


    There was rumors of it in several pokemon forums but I wanted to go there myself because unlike in the games were you could only find a couple of fossils at the top and some rare but good pokemon inside it. There was a very good chance that there was a whole lot more treasure in the tower and I wanted it if that were true. I''m not greedy or nothing but I won''t say no to free money like a fucking idiot either. While we traveled to Mauville we came across a strange building that was quiterge all things considered.-


    ''No fucking way this gimmicky ce is actually real.'' I thought with childlike glee as we immediately walked in. The trick house was by far my favorite part of the Hoenn region as it was a fun little side activity that used the HM mechanic of the games. In reality though I was counting on it to be far more entertaining. The owner of the house liked to hide in the entrance room so I looked around before I spotted a a housent with a set of eyes watching me.-


    The trick master immediately jumped out of the nt pot when he realized I was staring right at him. "Dang it! I was sure I well well hidden that time but clearly that was not enough to fool those sharp eyes of yours! No matter I am the glorious owner of this ce , the trick master!" The man said without bothering about the soil and nt camo he still had on. "So the maze is through there I take it?" I asked to mess with him a bit. I couldn''t help myself as I am fairly sure this guy LIVED for mind games and so I wanted to switch our roles up to fuck with him.-


    I watched on with amusement as he looked like a goldfish for a moment as his entire flow was smashed apart by me. "Um yes? I could have sworn I''ve never seen him before and that this ce isn''t famous so how could anyone know what was going on?" I heard the man mutter to himself in confusion. ''Shit , I think I broke him , ah well whatever.'' I thought before speaking again. "Hey so we are just going to go through the maze so like feel free to meet us in your secret tea table area after that." I said choosing to fuck with him some more.-

 Trick house and monstrous talent

    Trick house and monstrous talent


    After walking through the door at the back of the house I and my team slid down a slide that spat us out in a much bigger underground area that had high walls and several paths going different directions. The "trick" this time was that each path had a sign in front of it that was all scrambled up. "Word puzzles eh? Not my first choice but it is what it is." I said as we walked up to the first sign and I began to move the letters around to form the correct words. "Two wrong paths and one right nifty." Imented and Vulcanined that it was too easy.-


    "I mean you aren''t wrong but maybe it''ll get harder the further we get in?" I suggested and my team agreed that it was possible. I was right too as the next fork had a sign with a math problem on it and each path had a number assigned to it. Yani stepped forward for this one and quickly did the math in her head before giving an answer that fit the numbered paths. Moving forward we found the scroll that had the super secret password on it and the next fork.-


    This time it was two speaker looking things that spoke in the trick masters voice. "One of us only tells the truth and one only tells lies. You can ask us each two questions before needing to choose a path forward." they spoke and I grinned as I knew a few solutions to this logic puzzle. "Are you the liar?" I asked the first speaker thing. "No" It responded. I then turned to the other speaker thing "What is written on the super secret scroll?" I asked with a grin. "Trick master is amazing!" the thing spoke and I grinned wider because that was a lie.-


    The scroll actually had the words{trick master is fabulous!} written on it so I ignored that speaker after it answered me. In all honesty my first question for each speaker was the only one I needed to figure out which was the liar or not. The reason is that whatever answer it gave told you what the truth was. The liar could not say yes to that question at all because then it would have been telling the truth so all it could say was no however the truth speaker could also not answer yes as that would be a lie. -


    So with my first question for each speaker done with I had confirmed definitively which speaker was which. Turning to the truth speaker I asked which path was the correct one and walked away casually. We reached the door and I grabbed the pen at the side before writing the phrase on it which caused the lock to click open letting us through. It was a dug out path that of course lead straight to the secret tea table area that the trick master was sitting at.-


    "Level with me mate , are you physic?" the man asked with a frustrated look on his face. I grinned " Not at the moment." I said before leaving the man lost in his confusion. Once outside I stretched with a content sigh "That was a much needed distraction." I said honestly. I got a "whatever you say" response from my team at that but that was fine. Things had been rather heavy on the mind recently for me so this let me distract myself from it all for a bit if nothing else.-


    It wasn''t much but it let me rx a little and forget all the bad shit recently with the horde , traffickers and harsh training regiment , temporarily at least. Setting off from the trick house we made our way along the coast under the bike bridge over top of us. Contrary to what the games made you think this area wasn''t hyper infested with electric type pokemon but rather only had a few with most of them being Electrike. It was a bit difficult but after about a day of travel I could see the small ind that served as an underground hydront connected to Mauville a few miles in the distance.-


    My battling team members were regrly challenging the stronger pokemon along this route while the lower level ones were getting left to Yani. I made sure none of them were more than ten levels higher than her but I probably didn''t even need to with how easily she handled them. It was honestly kinda crazy how talented she was despite being only a shiny pokemon. Yani picked up new knowledge and energy control at a monstrous rate as it only took her a day to actively move her energy freely like the rest of my team took a week to learn at the minimum.-


    That''s right Yani had Vulcan beat in the talent department which let me tell you hit it''s pride hard. My little cyan reptile had an incredibly sharp mind and as a result shot up in levels at a stupid pace as she gained high mastery of her moves after a few uses and spent time picking apart her battles for every little thing she could fix. In the three days it took to reach Mauville she went from a level one scrub to a level forty six with a bunch of new moves all at adept. -


    Absorb , quick attack , pursuit , screech , mega drain , agility , m , detect , giga drain , false swipe and night sh were all learned by her and raised in mastery in next to no time at all. I was honestly rather off put by just how fast she grew. Her skill growing however didn''t mean her stats also grow in the same way. In fact she actuallyined more than once about how she was being held back by how weak her body was as she could think of ways to improve her fighting style but was not fast enough or strong enough to pull it off.-


    Honestly speaking I had a headache even thinking about how I was going to train her at all. Like seriously how do you train a pokemon that learns faster than you do? The only thing I was better at in this regard was killing as that was a huge w that Yani had , she refused to kill. She wasn''t averse tobat or blood or anything like that but she simply refused to take that final step in ending her opponents. It wasn''t a deal breaker for me though as I had plenty of other pokemon that can pick up the ck in that regard , looking at you Vulcan.-


    At the end of this travel though we reached Mauville city and I have got to say that the games did NOT do it justice. Sure it was a mix of nature and technology but the sheer size difference between the two was staggering. In the game the city only had like maybe twelve buildings total but in reality I couldn''t see the end of the ce from the start. All the building were of the sleek modern sort while the ground was a pretty nice mix of modern road and well maintained grass.

 Watson

    Watson


    Once we arrived I balled up my team and entered the city while dialing Birch to figure out where the hell I was supposed to go. "Yo Alex I take it you''ve arrived at Mauville?" he asked in a good mood. "Yep and I officially have no idea where to go from here so you know a bit of directions would be great." I said sarcastically. "Don''t get snappy with me mister I am on my way so just sit on a bench or something , Birch out." he said before hanging up.-


    ''Now that he mentions it he was over in this area in the game at around the time the protag was so he might have already been nearby.'' I thought slightly surprised to learn that Birch was at Mauville. Still I did what he said and just hung out on a bench and threw berries to the flocks of obese Pidgeys that lived in most cities. Yes fat pokemon were a thing in this world but to be fair most of the time it was because they lived in cities where they never needed to really struggle for anything or were pets that got pampered.-


    Humans could be surprisingly wasteful with food so the trash that got picked through alongside the "kind old folks" that fed them it was no wonder they gained weight. I was thinking about hunting one of these Pidgeys to see if they extra heft made them taste better when Birch called out to me from nearby. "Alex over here!" he yelled out and I and pretty much everyone else nearby looked at him. He wasn''t alone however as next to him was someone that I swear to my great lord RNGESUS was Santa personified but in engineer clothes.-


    It was a jolly looking old man with a decent gut and short white hair and beard that had a cherry red nose and everything. Unlike Santa however this man had on khaki pants and a brown engineers jacket on. "You must be Watson." I said looking down at the man calmly. "You betcha! I have to admit I thought you''d be shorter." Watson said with a chuckle as he looked up. "Speaking of did you get taller?" Birch asked suspiciously as he eyed me. I shrugged "No idea really I stopped trying to keep track of it after I hit six six." I said honestly.-


    I knew for a fact that I had stopped growing finally but as for at what height that was I have no clue. "No matter I suppose we''ll find out soon enough when we get your physical done up and some tests run." Birch said choosing to drop it. "Hold on I thought the egg was the thing getting tested why am I getting tests run on me?" I asked confused. "We want to try and figure out why you alone seem to possess such an affinity with variant pokemon , also is that a fifth ball on your belt?" Birch said before questioning the extra pokeball on my belt.-


    "Oh yeah that''s my newest teammate , Aranyani. She''s a shiny Treecko. Absolutely monstrous talent too and that''sing from me so you know she''s something special." I said with a grin. Birch sighed while Watson burst intoughter. "At least this time it''s a species native to Hoenn , I swear you have this weird fascination with catching variants that are hard to understand being here in the first ce." Birchined though it was obvious it didn''t really bother him.-


    "I like unique stuff , nothing wrong with that." I defended casually ying along. "Whatever you say Mister savage saint." Birch said with a chuckle. "Ugh I hate that name , it makes me sound like an idiot. I''m an alchemist damnit!" Iined and they bothughed. "If you don''t like that nickname then just do something that changes it , create a revolutionary new item or just get strong enough that they call you something else , maybe champion?" Watson suggested with a wide smile. "I already did one of those and am just waiting for the Devon corp toe through on their side of things." I said honestly.-


    "Oh? And what did you create?" Birch asked curious. "I made two potions actually , one that nourishes the eyes making learning eye abilities or moves easier and one that I admit I made on ident and has me conflicted." I said honestly as we walked. "That first potion will likely be quite popr with the sort of trainers that like to apply debuffs in battle." Watson said and I nodded in agreement. "Whats wrong with the second potion though that has you conflicted about it? is it a poison or something?" Birch asked curiously.-


    "Not at all , do either of you know what an aphrodisiac is?" I asked and they took a moment before Watson spoke up "Do you mean those things the breeders use to help produce an egg?" he asked and I nodded. "I made something like that but like a thousand times more potent and it will work for humans as well. I was intending to create a fire elemental stimnt but ended up with that instead so I am conflicted about it." I said exined with a sigh. "Ah! You are worried that people will think you some sort of sex crazed maniac. A valid concern but easily fixed by simply being a trainer as you are." Watson said wisely figuring out the issue I was having.-


    "What do you mean?" I asked confused as to how being a trainer would fix an issue like that. "The leagues got a whole department that has the job of making sure that bad rumors like that that aren''t actually true get squashed alongside those that are true but damage the leagues image. If it was actually true though there would be no saving your reputation as the league wouldn''t move to stop it from getting out of control." Watson said with a thumbs up.-


    That was honestly a huge relief for me as while I don''t really care about what people say about me I know that bad rumors like that would get in the way of my goal. Rumors about me being ruthless on the otherhand would actually help me on my way to my goal since it fit it to begin with. Soon after that we arrive at a sleek shiny metal building with a sign out front that reads {Mauville scientific research institute}. The front doors open and a purple haired woman in a whiteb coat stepped out. Her hair was pixie cut and she had a freckled nose area under her eyes.-


    She looked to be about thirty at most and had pale sun deprived skin that told me she stayed inside most of the time. "Alex meet Doctor Samantha Dimez , the head of pokemon biology here in Mauville. Sam this is Alexander Drake the variant specialist with the Feebas egg that might have been tampered with by people." Watson made introductions. I nodded at the woman "Pleased to meet you." i said calmly. She studied me for a second with her eyes lingering on my waist for a moment before she smiled and returned the greeting.

 Genetics

    Gics


    "Follow me and I''ll bring you to the testingb to see whats going on with that egg." Samantha said casually before leading the way through the building. Like the name of the building exined the ce was a huge scienceb effectively that was separated by the fields of research with Samantha''s being on the third floor going down the stairs. "Why don''t you have an elevator or teleporter?" I asked after we walked down the stairs. "First is for easier containment as each floor has a sealing method that keeps the more dangerous things here from getting out identally."-


    "The second was that those working here rarely have time to get proper exercise so these stairs allow at least a small amount to be had." Samantha exined casually and I nodded in understanding. Soon we got to herb and she pointed out a device that I didn''t recognize that had arge cushioned space in the middle of it. "ce the egg in the empty space there so I can get a scan of it''s gic code to see what we are working with here." she said and I was slightly surprised but not entirely since cloning from DNA was a thing here.-


    Opening my satchel I carefully extracted the egg from the incubation pocket and ced it in the machine. Birch , Watson and Samantha all examined it closely when I did. "That is certainly a strange design on the egg and the mix of colors and size are all off for the Feebas species." Birch said seriously and Samantha nodded in agreement. "Give it a moment to fully map out the gic code of the egg and thenpare it to the sample of a normal Feebas we have on file." Samantha said as she started typing and clicking on aputer nearby.-


    The machines chamber light up softly as the machine whirred and did it''s thing. A few minutester the results came in and Samantha looked them over with a frown. "Well I have some good news and bad news so which do you all want first?" she asked seriously. "I''ve found that it''s best to take the bad before the good , helps curb to stress of it." Watson said and neither Birch or I argued. "Well the bad news is that there is indeed human interference involved here."-


    "I''m not talking minorly either because I can pretty easily figure out how I got these results and frankly the one or ones responsible are either psychopaths or idiots , maybe both. Do you know how variants are born normally?" She asked and Birch piped up "A correct mix of gic and environmental factors correct?" he said and she nodded. "Yep but whoever did this chose to instead extract the gicponent for every known variation and forcefully inject them into the mother of this egg , likely before it evolved into a Milotic. Gics is a fine and precise subject but this approach was brutal and likely highly fatal in almost all cases it was used in."-


    "See each body is built with a very specific number of genes that varies from individual to individual but it is always the same ones in a different order each time barring natural mutations which are only theoretical at the moment since there has never been a recorded case. Anyways by forcefully adding duplicates of genes like this the gic structure of the body is forcefully reconstituted to amodate them as there was now too many genes in one body. Do this with a human and death is the only oue."-


    "However pokemon have an inbuilt safety mechanism that would grant a chance for survival , evolution. The mother of this egg was forced to evolve in order to survive the gic restructuring and the shiny gene became dominant in it while the rest of the lingering changes likely caused madness and agony at all times. Hence while I said only an idiot or a psycho would do this , it''s inefficient and wasteful with no real chance of sess." She broke it down for us and we all looked disgusted when we understood what had been done.-


    "You said there was good news as well?" Watson asked and Samantha nodded. "I''ll be blunt with you all , this egg is a miracle given physical form. Somehow the mother had resisted the madness long enough to mate and create it which I can tell you is so low probability wise that it''s difficult to put in words. But even more insanely all those extra gics had fused together as a result of the mothers unstable gics being mixed with the fathers stable ones. This egg possesses a brand new variation that is like no other in the world and likely will never be seen after it dies assuming that is even possible anymore." she said seriously.-


    "Any clue what I should expect with this new variation?" I asked seriously as I had an idea what to expect from the normal variation but this was unexplored territory. "Well you know how I said it was a fusion of all of the other variations?" She asked and I nodded. "Well what I mean is that certain traits from each variation was taken while the rest were discarded but frankly speaking I have no idea what traits exactly it was that were taken only that they were positive in nature." she answered in a frustrated manner.-


    I could understand why she was frustrated as for a scientist not knowing something like this was absolutely not a fun feeling. "Well if it helps I have been told to make regr reports on the little ones growth and abilities for the league so you should end up with the information at some point." I said and she sighed and shook her head. "That isn''t why I am frustrated, it''s that I can''t keep the little thing myself since it was already promised to you! This thing is like the perfect partner for a biologist like me I''m so jealous!" she said losing her cool as sheined.-


    I genuinelyughed at that as it was such an unexpected thing that I couldn''t help being amused. Watson seemed the most surprised however but not by Samantha but rather from meughing. "Oh so this is what he meant by recovering. Good for youd." He said with a smile. Birch looked confused at thement but I stiffened when I heard it as I knew what he was referring to. For a split second the thought of killing him crossed my mind and Watson picked up on it as he backed up in a defensive position with sweat appearing on his face.-


    I saw this and apologized "Sorry about that! You just triggered my defensive instincts when you said that. I don''t like it when my business gets spread around like that so I will be speaking to Stone about it when we are done here." I said and Watson looked like he understood. "Lad I can understand why your mind would jump to that direction but try not to give old folks like me such a fright." He said jokingly to cut the tension.

 Bloody history

    Bloody history


    "Uh can someone exin what just happened?" Birch asked confused at the entire situation that just happened. "Nothing you need to worry about, just a personal issue is all." I said reassuringly and he looked doubtful but chose to drop the matter there. "Well all that is left is to gets some tests run on you and then you''ll be free to go training in the middle of nowhere again." he says teasingly "What can I say , it''s the only ce I can find a decent challenge for my team normally." I said with a shrug.-


    "Can i get you to leave some blood on this for your tests?" Samantha asked pointing at a slide for a microscope. I drew my spear and jabbed my thumb on it''s sharp tip before wiping the blood that leaked out on the slide under the speechless looks of the others. "Does that work?" I asked as I healed the wound in an instant. "Yeah but why do it like that?" Samantha asked confused. "It was faster this way." I said honestly. "I suppose , now lets see what secrets that tasty looking body of yours is hiding." she said with a wink.-


    "SAMANTHA!" Watson chastised loudly. "Not my fault the guys built like a god and notcking downstairs either from what I can see." she says unashamed of her actions. "And you are free to pursue any such interest AFTER this business is over with." Watson said firmly and she groaned but didn''t argue. She slipped the slide into a slot on the same machine and started it again but this time there was a problem. "What the hell?" she asked confused as she looked at theputer that let out a sound.-


    "Is something wrong with Alex?" Birch asked worriedly and Samantha turned to look at me seriously. "I don''t know why but his gics can''t be looked at. I don''t mean they don''t match but that no information about them can be read , I''ve never seen or even heard of something like this happening before." she said seriously. All eyes turned to me and I shook my head "Don''t look at me I have no idea whats going on." I said honestly. I didn''t either since I didn''t have anything that would exin something like this at all. "Did you get nothing at all from his blood?" Watson asked and she shook her head.-


    "No I got all the normal stuff , you need more salt in your diet by the way." she said with a shrug. "So only his gics were unable to be read? How intriguing , And besides his sodium deficiency was there anything of note in his results?" Birch asked interested in the answers. Samantha scrolled through the results before answering "Well it looks like his is an aura user from how active his cells are but otherwise it says he is pretty normal all around biologically speaking." she said honestly.-


    "Wait you can use aura!?" Birch eximed in shock and I nodded "I haven''t really made any attempt to hide it." I answered honestly. "That exins a lot of inconsistencies at least." Watson said calmly. "Inconsistencies?" I asked confused. "Aye , the reports of things you''ve done match the work of a pokemon rather than a human in a few spots like that bit in teport. Your body might be strongd but humans are pretty frailpared to pokemon in most cases so it just didn''t add up until now." he exined honestly. I nodded in understanding since it was pretty straightforward all things considered.-


    "Why are you so calm about this , do you have any idea how rare aura users are!?" Birch asked in an excited manner. "I don''t see why it would make a difference if I was an aura user or not to be honest. Not like I care to go about unting it or anything." I said honestly. "I''m with thed on this one Birch , it really makes no difference as he is already on the list and doesn''t need to be told not to spread the use of the stuff for obvious reasons." Watson weighed in and Birch could only sigh dejectedly.-


    "Is there something wrong with spreading aura use around?" I asked since I hadn''t seen any such information online when i looked it up. "Ayed auras a mighty and fine thing to have of that there''s no doubt but there''s a difference between natural aura users and those that are taught it. Natural users are all about bnce and the natural state of life and nature in general , they tend to be like you in that they fit in the wild more than they do cities. People who are taught aura however while inclined towards those things are also the same sort of people they were before they learnt it."-


    "Sad to say most people would have the power go to their heads and go about doing bad things as a result. Even worse is when it bes a public part of a country or region such as the case of the old kingdom of Rota that was home to the aura guardians at one time. The orders power is a legendary thing but due to the isted nature of Rota they only epted citizens of the kingdom and refused to share their secrets with the other regions near them , Kanto and Johto."-


    "There was a war as a result and that once mighty order was destroyed to protect the kingdom and with it the secrets of aura they held as their libraries were burnt down and their members exiled into hiding all over the world. It was one of the few recorded instances of Mew herself appearing to intervein in the affairs of humans as she had seen enough needless destruction. The kingdoms still there you know to the north of those two regions but before that wastnd Orre." Watson exined seriously and i got chills since that was no small matter.-


    A fucking legendary like Mew had gotten involved which was more than enough to tell me that the sheer amount of destruction and bloodshed had to be insane. To put it in perspective the great war between Kanto and Johto that they talk about in the games wasn''t bad enough to get the same treatment as that one. I shudder to imagine such a scene as it must have appeared to be hell made manifest for a legendary to feel the need to step in to end it.-


    Legendry''s showing up to aid individuals was umon but still within normal things and was considered an honor. But the ONLY time they stepped in for humanity as a whole was when shit was damn near apocalyptical in nature. "Alright so don''t spread around aura , noted." I said seriously. "The abilities of aura users has been a topic that us professors have been trying to figure out for a long time but natural users are highly rare and unfortunately quite secretive." Birch chipped in eagerly.

 Possible retaliation

    Possible retaliation


    Just imagine the thousands of grass type pokemon that work under a trainer at various power level and then suddenly add a move that turns them from almost pure offense to support and offense. Tag team battles also suddenly got a whole hell of a lot moreplicated as well since now whenever a grass type went out on the field with another pokemon there will always be doubt of whether or not it serves as a healer. Subverting centuries of what was considered standard knowledge is going to create a fuckton of problems as the world adapts to the new knowledge.-


    "It''s not all bad news though as if I create TMs of this new move I can make a heavy profit selling them since only I will have them." I said and Birch paused for a moment clearly thinking about it. "Ha~ Well you aren''t wrong but I suggest you talk to Mr. Stone about it first as despite being on the list many parties will want you dead the moment you are revealed as the source of this new move." He said seriously. "The only ones I can think of would be the criminals unless the Joy n can''t ept that someone else made a breakthrough in healing." I said confused.-


    Criminal organizations were one thing I wasn''t worried about all that much since I was rapidly growing to the point where I could stand up to the strongest they had. At this exact moment my team was halfway between fifth and sixth badge level if all of them were considered. By rights I was nearly considered an ace level trainer which didn''t just grow on trees. Unless I was wrong even Archie and Maxie , the leaders of team magma and aqua were only elite four level trainers themselves. -


    The admins under them were likely high end ace trainers so unless they stepped in soon I would in the next month or two be nearly impossible to kill. The Joy n on the other hand was an entirely different matter as while they were based in medical work that didn''t mean that the n didn''t have a lot of powerful trainers in their ranks. In fact I knew better than most that it was thanks to their understanding of pokemon anatomy and limitations that the n was likely the most powerful group on the since they could use their knowledge and resources to train pokemon to their limits safely.-


    It wouldn''t even surprise me if they had more than one champion tier trainer in their ranks PER region and a lot of elites and ace trainers besides that. It was a bit like how on earth athletes like boxers and runners had doctors that micromanaged their diets , exercise and various other factors to train the athlete up to the peak of normal human limits. Apply that same logic to a n richer than god and with thousands of members and you can understand the horrible power they likely held but never used.-


    "While the criminals would indeede after you for this as it undermines some of their efforts I was not referring to those. No what I mean is alchemists and a few parties that they are backed by. Grass type pokemon are somon that there is no way to realistically restrict them from learning this move and by extension heavily lowering the value of potions that heal. Obviously potions will never be obsolete but they will be moved down drastically in terms of price as fewer and fewer people will really need them."-


    "In other words this one move will cut into these peoples profits and they may decide to retaliate against you as a result." Birch exined seriously. I hadn''t actually considered this aspect of things but I couldn''t deny that selfish and greedy people that earned a lot of money from potion sales would probably be quite unhappy with the results of this new move getting released to the public. Humans have historically done really fucked up things on earth for the sole purpose of earning and protecting their profits and not in isted cases either but as a whole race.-


    The existence of pokemon as a factor was the only reason that this world hadn''t ended up nearly identically as humans here were no different than on earth save a few differences such as the presence of abilities , most of which were violent in nature by the way. "That sounds like a pain to deal with." I said honestly. "You still don''t sound very concerned about it so I assume you have something in mind?" he asked curiously. "I do indeed have an idea but it will take some serious work to pull off and you''ll need to get the Joys involved." I said honestly.-


    "I''m in what the n Alex?" he asked without hesitation. "First I need to get a few TMs made of the new move , then I need them given to both Gardenia and Erika alongside any other influential grass type trainers. The trick here is that I need all these people to simultaneously reveal the move while I keep my own use of it a secret. This will make anyone wanting retaliation have to go through the effort of trying to figure out the true source of the move while the Joy n will be integrating it into their own ranks until the move itself is publicly found everywhere."


    "If we do this right then only you , me and maybe a small handful of people will know that I was the source of the move which should buy me enough time to grow strong enough to deter anyone from trying any funny business." I exin the n seriously. Birch goes silent for a few minutes as he worked his way through the n before speaking up again. "International shipping is heavily restricted and it will be clear that it came from Hoenn if we go through the normal channels to ship these TMs out." He pointed out.-


    "That is the part where Mr. Stonees in as no businessman as sessful as him doesn''t have at least one or two smugglers in their back pocket. He uses those properly and no one will know the TMs origin , especially if he uses Orre as an intermediate stop on the route as thebeled source." I said with a smirk. "Using Orre is a bit risky with how crime infested the ce is but it would indeed throw off any chance of the TMs origin being discovered as few have informants there since it is not worth keeping an eye on." Birch muttered and I knew he was sold on the n.-


    We both agreed to start the n after my challenge with Watson but I had to speak with Mr. Stone about it before hand. That particr conversation was rather heated as I told him off for sharing my secret with Watson which he was apologetic for but at least had good intentions for doing. Apparently while Watson is not a businessman like Mr. Stone the jolly old man has a monstrous perception in terms of personalities and would have definitely figured me out at a nce. By telling him beforehand Mr. Stone helped me keep it under wraps since Watson would have likely blurted it out during the battle if he hadn''t been told to keep it secret beforehand.

 Back to training

    Back to training


    While I was still a little upset about my business getting passed out like that I at least could understand why it was done. After that I filled the man in on the situation and the n we had for it. He was a businessman through and through though and asked for Devon corp to have temporary sales rights to the move in exchange which I agreed to. I was going to be in Hoenn for quite some time still unless something unusual happened that changed that so it made sense that the mega corporation native to it would have been my go to for TMs sales.-


    In regards to the Orre region I was actually VERY interested in going there myself since the region specialized in team battles that had two pokemon out at the same time ALL the time. Battling like that seemed to be a perfect way to train my teams cooperation and my own strategies. Oddly though the region was almost entirely uninhabited by pokemon which threw me off. It''s not because it was a desert region either as people tried to transnt Sandshrew and other pokemon usually found in a desert area but they failed.-


    Nothing wanted to live there at all and something told me that it had to do with a legendary but I couldn''t think of why one would cause such a thing more than as a temporary thing. It was very clearly not a temporary thing as it had been that way since the region was first discovered centuries back. Another interesting thing about Orre was that it didn''t have a gym circuit at all but instead had apetition system that was known as the colosseum and Mt. Battle challenges. The first was basically tournament style battles held in roman esque style colosseums. The second however was an entirely different matter.-


    Mt. Battle was a continuous nonstop challenge of one hundred battles with the first being the easiest and the one hundredth being champion level hard. The best part though was that in a way it was an endurance game just like it was a skill and power one as you only got to take a break and set a starting point beyond the first after defeating ten incrementally harder opponents with an area leader at the end at the strength of the starting trainers of the next area. -


    The ce sounded like a paradise for hardcore training like my team was doing between gym challenges. Needless to say I intended to go to Orre afterpleting my gym circuit in Hoenn as a nice adventure and challenge for myself. I thought of going to one of the other mysterious circumstancends like Oblivia but figured Orre would probably be a more rxed ce to go. Anyways once it was decided that we would start the n after my challenge with Watson It was time to go back to training my team.-


    Gaia was still recovering from the thrashing she had gotten from the Golem previously so it was Runes turn to battle. As for Yani who had caused this whole issue she went off somewhere to work on another custom move she had an idea for as well as evolve apparently. How the fuck she was so confident of being able to pull it off was beyond me but I was past trying to usemon sense on her at this point. She was a little monster so if she said she was going to do something I wasn''t going risk being proven wrong by saying otherwise.-


    While Rune was getting his ass kicked to train i was hanging out nearby and using my X-ray vision to look for buried treasure. There were a few things under the ground that might have counted but nothing I myself would be interested in really. That continued over the next three days as we battled deeper and deeper into the area. On the fourth day however I discovered something out of ce or rather ack of something that should be there. I got excited when the system sent me a mission that confirmed my suspicions on the matter.-


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: Scouring thend for plunder you have discovered a space below the ground that is out of ce , Adventure forth!


    Objectives: Explore the cave , Collect at least two treasures(Optional) , discover the secret of the cave(Optional) , ????????(revealed if prior objective ispleted)(Optional)


    Rewards: 2x exp tickets , 2x item tickets(optional) , 3x exp tickets(Optional) , ??????(Optional)]


    How could I not get excited after reading that description? Not only was there a secret to the cave but it was also big enough that the system had a bonus optional objective and reward if I found out what it was. "Change of ns everyone , I just got a quest from the system after discovering a cave about thirty yards down over there. We will be exploring it instead of training after Gaia digs us out an entrance." I said after gathering up my team again.-


    Vulcan had somehow managed to squeeze out two levels from this area before this and Yani was sitting at level fifty five some fucking how after she went off on her own and had even learnt the move energy ball which was a pure offensive grass type move. She hadn''t evolved though which I was wise enough not to point out like Rune who got a REALLY nasty look in return. It was so bad that I was almost willing to think she used mean look if I wasn''t able to see her moveset that said otherwise.-


    Over thest three days Rune had gained another four levels and was getting close to level seventy while Gaia was sitting at exactly sixty nine and it bothered the hell out of me. She was so close to the level goal I had set for this training trip that it almost hurt to look at. I was nning to use the exp tickets from the cave if she didn''t get it before it was time to take the challenge. Rune was going to be my main focus for levels though as he was three off from seventy himself.-


    It took Gaia about three hours to disce and solidify a tunnel to the cave and immediately we were hit with a st of extremely hot air when she busted through the caves wall. "Vulcan scout ahead. This cave seems volcanic in nature and the rest of us can''t survive breathing those gases but your kind is born in those conditions so you should be fine." I said seriously and it nodded before heading into the cave.-


    I had to wait a few minutes before Vulcan finally returned to give the thumbs up that it was safe for the rest of us. When I entered the cave the first thing I noticed was that it was HOT inside. The second thing i noticed was that I could see without any issue at all thanks to the glowing from the few very small pools of active magma that sat far apart.

 Cave

    Cave


    Despite this ce being perfect for fire type pokemon there was not a single mon to be seen anywhere. ''This bothers me , it bothers me a lot.'' I thought as I suddenly felt like maybe I shouldn''t go deeper into the cave. ''Wait why do I not want to go deeper into the cave?'' I pondered as I stiffened at the conflicting thought. I was well aware that I was not some easily frightened idiot so I noticed there was something wrong with my thoughts immediately. Retreat from a ce without any identifiable danger , why?-


    It wasn''t even like my instincts were warning me or anything like that but that for some reason my mind was telling me to leave without any reason. ''Perhaps there is a psychic factor involved?'' I theorized and shielded my head with aura and I instantly felt a foreign energy sneakily trying to enter. "They chose the wrong motherfucker to try this shit on." I said with a grin as my pokemon looked at me questioningly. "There''s something in here releasing weak psychic type energy to try and get us to leave. You all are too strong to probably feel it but I am a human so it managed to get into my head which is how I noticed it." I exined and my team collectively scoffed.-


    I was bold and headstrong so fleeing like a coward shed heavily with me and they all knew it. "Lets see what we can shake up in this ce and if we are lucky the owner of this power is strong enough to give a decent challenge." I said confidently at the time but woulde to realize that I jinxed it. The inside of the cave was mostprised of the same red volcanic rock that was prevalent near MT. Chimney. -


    There was also nearly a dozen grade two firestones throughout the cave that I ignored since it was wasteful to take them now. Firestones like most evolution stones grew in energy rich environments with that type of energy so while they were grade two at the moment they could definitely make it to grade three if they were left alone for a few more months. It became clear that this was a firestone mine as there was no other way so many would be near each other without one devouring the energy of the others.-


    The deeper we went into the cave the stronger the psychic energy became and the more I had to passively expend my aura to keep it out of my head. I also noticed gouges missing from the rock walls caused by what looked like wide blunt jaws. Something about the marks tickled the back of my mind but I for the life of me couldn''t figure out why. Moving forward I managed to collect a mid tier grade three firestone and even a chunk of diamond the size of my fist that Gaia called dibs on.-


    I could only shrug at that as only a pokemon would want such a huge diamond to eat. The temperature of the cave grew more and more the deeper we went until I discovered why. At the end was a literalke of fire as well as a huge red looking object that I didn''t even need the system to identify. It was a scale from Groudon that I assumed had gotten here in the same way the Kyogre fang got in that cave I found previously. For good measure though I used the system to pull up a description of the thing just to be sure.


    [Item name: Groudon scale


    Grade: Relic


    Description: An ancient scale once belonging to thend god Groudon that was lost in one of it''s many fights with the sea god Kyogre. Due to the way it was lost this tooth still bears a fragment of it''s previous owners power over thends and so flows magma forevermore. The power in this scale allows any fire type power to be mastered at an elerated pace. Any magma taken directly from this scale will contain dense fire type energy and is a massively beneficial supplement for fire type pokemon. This scales power has been partially drained by an external force.]


    The description was nearly identical to the one I got for the tooth previously but this time there was an extra sentence that gave me an ominous feeling. ''This scales power has been partially drained by an external force? What external force?'' I ponder with furrowed brows before noticing the magma near the shore of theke bulging upwards. "Get back!" I yelled and retreated from that area with my team in an instant. The bulge in the magma grew bigger and bigger until it started to slip off the thing making it visible and I felt very nervous as I finally recognized why those gouges seemed familiar.-


    There slowly wading out of the magma was a small house sized creature with a rusty brown body with red spots and four legs that ended in glowing steel crosses for feet. The head was covered in the same steel with two t blunt horns at the top pointed to either side and a wide blunt mouth. Two glowing orange eyes red at me and my team in a very unfriendly manner as I muttered the name of the species nervously , "Heatran!"-


    This was another legendary species of pokemon simr to Entei''s in that they were apparently born directly from volcanic conditions , I''m not an expert though so I am not entire sure of the specifics. That was however where the simrities ended as in basically every single way the Heatran species was superior to the Entei species. The exception was that the Entei species was considerably faster and more mobile. Heatran were dual fire and steel type pokemon and were easily double to triple the size of Entei with powerful innate stats that while not dwarfing an Entei''s were considerably better.-


    It was at this time that the system showed me the hidden objective and any hope of a peaceful interaction was strangled {SURVIVE!(Optional)}. "Fuck! Scatter!" I yelled right when the legendary opened it''s mouth and a wave of stone shot out towards us. Checking the level of the Heatran I understood why the system said survive instead of defeat it as the legendary was level ny eight. This was an elite level legendary pokemon while we were barely at the ace trainer level as a whole. Victory while possible would take either a miracle or serious sacrifice on our part.-


    The wave of stone rolled over the spot we were at previously and shattered the ground effortlessly leaving a deep crater. "Gaia Sand bomb! Rune thundershock! Vulcan leverage your sped to hit it and run! Yani retreat to me!" I barked out my orders and my team moved to obey without hesitation despite the suppression that the Heatran was putting on us. The Heatrans eyes flickered between each of us coldly before it moved. With a m of it''s feet two plumes ofva shot up from either side of it and intercepted both Gaia''s and Runes attacks while Vulcan blurred into view as it dropped a heavy stomp on the Heatrans back.

 Desperate struggle

    Desperate struggle


    "Thud!" Vulcans paw mmed into the Heatrans back and made a dull metallic sound like if a heavy wrench had been dropped to the ground. Vulcan immediately blurred away as the Heatran retaliated angrily. I could only sigh when I saw that there was barely any damage at all despite Vulcan hitting it as hard as it could. ''I should have guessed this would be the case , a physically damaging move like stomp would be very ineffective against a metal body like this.'' I thought but the idea of removing Vulcan from the fight didn''t even cross my mind.-


    It was true that Vulcans move pool was all but useless against Heatran but it was still my fastest attacker and could definitely go for quantity over quality so long as it leveraged it''s speed properly. "Again!" Imanded and my team obeyed while changing it up slightly. The Heatran wasn''t idle either and started glowing brown in the face while ring at Rune which was the start of earth power like it tried to hit us with earlier. "Rune evade!" I called and he immediately glowed white and shot high up to the ceiling of the cave as the wave of stone rolled under him.-


    At the same time Gaia''s sand bomb struck the Heatran in the side and detonated in a violent st of pressure and grinding sand. "RAAAAAAAGH!" the Heatran screamed in pain at the super effective move which told me it had taken a decent amount of damage. Or at least I thought so until the dust cleared and I saw the impact site of the move. There was in indeed damage but far less than I was expecting as the move had created a weeping web of cracks on the location that was painful but barely more than surface level injuries.-


    The Heatran leveled a baleful eye at Gaia that made her stiffen as it used leer on her which was not good. As if to prove this it''s face glowed silver and I yelled out in panic "DODGE!" right as the Heatran began to charge at a pretty fast speed , faster than Gaia at least. She certainly tried to get out of the way but the iron head still clipped her on the side and she screamed as her carapace cracked and she was sent spinning into the cave wall.-


    "CRASH! CRUMBLE!" the stone broke on impact and sent up a huge amount of dust as rocks chipped off the wall and were sent falling bellow. I activated my x-ray vision to see through the dust cloud and at Gaia and paled at what I saw. She was alive but hurt bad as that attack had created a massive weakpoint in her carapace where she was struck from a lot of cracks and even some internal damage. "Yani nature orb there!" Imanded and she obeyed sending a ball of green grass type energy flying into where I pointed.-


    The Heatran looked on with cold disdain at this like we were stupid for using a grass type move on a rock and ground type like Gaia. In any other case I would agree but nature orb was a pure healing move so for once that super effectiveness worked in our favor as the energy healed more than if it were used on any other type pokemon. It was enough to rapidly heal the internal injury as well as most of the external parts but Gaia knew how to fight dirty and acted down for the count as Vulcan stomped on the damage she did earlier on the Heatran making it selectively ignore her.-


    I saw this and knew she must have had a n and chose to trust her on this as I focused on two activebatants in Rune and Vulcan. "Thunderwave!" I called and Rune discharged a wave of energy as he fell from the ceiling he had leapt to previously. The Heatran shuddered and got a bit stiff as paralysis set in which REALLY seemed to piss it off. The surface level injuries had also been made worse when Vulcan viciously targeted them with it''s attack and the Heatran was bleeding from the area noticeably.-


    The magma at the feet of the Heatran began to bubble and froth as the Heatran gathered a massive amount of energy. "Retreat!" Imanded while backing the hell up my damn self. It was a good thing too as the magma exploded from around the Heatran violently in every direction like a storm of fire and molten rock. I admittedly wasn''t all that familiar with the Heatran species moves so I wasn''t sure if that was a custom move or not but I did know it was not something we wanted to get hit by.-


    Even Vulcan that was extremely heat resistant as a fire type avoided the move desperately. Despite my warning my pokemon were both hit with the move and my thoughts were proven correct as immediately the energy of the move seemed totch onto them and move to cause as much damage as possible. "CHAAAAAAR! EEEEEEEEEENN!" they both screamed in agony as burns appeared on them and the energy attacked them as if alive for a few moments as the Heatran panted but watched with sadistic glee. Once the move finally ended both Vulcan and Rune were covered in horrifying burns with charred skin and burnt flesh.-


    Despite this however neither passed out to save themselves suffering but stood firm with determined expressions. Yani and I both moved to apply healing in our own ways as I used some burn heals while she hit both of them with a nature orb. The Heatran no longer looked so smug when it saw how much the move healed both of them and it''s gaze turned coldly towards Yani as it acknowledged her as the biggest threat to it. It was clearly confident in it''s strength but it was also clearly smart enough to know that at group like my team that ganged up on it at once and could be healed greatly in an instant would be a big problem for it.-


    Somehow though the Heatran had seemingly forgotten about Gaia and my girl was about to show why that was a mistake. She had kept it hidden behind a stone grasp she sneakily created during the chaos but in front of her she had a sand bomb that made me nervous to look at. It was about the same size as her and if I wasn''t wrong contained the entirety of her energy.-


    I knew immediately what her n was and it was risky to say the least. That single attack was her all and once she used it she would be a spent force regardless of the oue. She was gambling that it hit and I was going to do everything I could to make sure that it paid off. "Rune shing rain , Vulcan leer! Hit it as many times as you can!" Imanded as I drew my spear. They both looked at me questioningly but I merely nodded seriously and they grit their teeth and started moving.

 Sacrifices

    Sacrifices


    The Heatranunched consecutiveva plumes at us as we dodged and started pelting it with as many attacks as we could to distract it. Rune hit it with a shing rain that worsened it''s paralysis while making it lopsided in movement as only some of it''s body was further paralyzed. Vulcan meanwhile ran circles around the Heatran hitting it with as many leers as it could which lowered the legendry''s defense little by little softening it up for what was toe. I myself took a wide stance with my spear held in my right hand as I burned through my entire energy pool to strengthen my arm , back , shoulder and leg muscles over their limits.-


    I then threw the spear with every ounce of might I had , right into the Heatrans eye. Even at the cost of shredding my muscles harshly from exceeding my limits the spear only barely managed to pierce the hard metal orb that was the eye of the creature and stopped at the back of it''s eye socket. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" it screamed in rage and agony at the injury as it was not even paying attention to me as a weak human in it''s mind , a thing it now regretted very much.-


    It retaliated too as magma , stone and metal were flung in every direction and half my sight vanished as pain clouded my mind from all over my body as I was flung into the wall hard. It was at this moment that Gaia acted and the air was disced as the huge orb of highly pressurized sand and energy tore through the air. The Heatrans mind seemed to return to rity as it''s instincts probably warned it of the danger heading it''s way but between the paralysis and innate slow movement it could barely turn to see what the threat was before it hit.-


    I watched as the remaining eye of the Heatran widened in fear before everything went ck as the orb detonated with an earth shattering "KABOOM!". Pain , that was all I felt when I finally regained consciousness an unknown timetter. I honestly couldn''t say that a single part of my body wasn''t aching or throbbing with pain at that moment. ''Considering I''m not dead I''ll take this as meaning we won.'' I thought with a sigh of relief that hurt to make.-


    Opening my eyes I frowned as I could only see out of one of them ''that''s not good.'' I thought as I moved to sit up and groaned from the red hot surge of agony that washed through me when I did. I pushed through it and eventually sat up and could finally look myself over , it wasn''t pretty as I had harsh burns on my skin and bits of stone and metal sticking out of various parts of me. Nothing further than my muscles thankfully as I checked with my x-ray ability. At the edge of theke of fire was a huge mangled corpse with half it''s head and side entirely missing.-


    ''Well that exins why it made me nervous to look at , it was powerful enough to one shot the thing.'' I then started looking around for my team and found them scattered about but mostly intact. Rune was looking in rough shape but would live much the same as Vulcan where they bothy knocked up. Yani was almost entirely unscathed but had clearly exhausted herself as she was also out nearby myself. Gaia was still in the wall but was knocked out from exhaustion and damage. -


    With a groan I started to use my healing ability to repair the muscles in my legs so that I could stand up again. My arm and torso could wait but movement were a priority for me at the moment. The energy I had regained while I was knocked out was wiped out immediately but I had restored my legs to usable if extremely painful. I reckoned that after a few more treatments I should be able to walk again. With that in mind I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes to meditate in hopes of restoring my energy faster.-


    I''m not sure why but it also felt easier than ever to umte energy with meditation as I even exceeded my previous amount without any real slowing down. After getting about a quarter more than usual of aura I finally felt it slow to a crawl again. Opening my eyes I started healing my legs again startling Yani who was fussing over my wounds. I chose to ignore that she was holding her paws over me with a green glow that sent a soothing healing itch through my body. "Tree Ko?" she asked worriedly. "I''ll live." I said resigned.-


    She teared up but nodded as she continued working to heal me and I focused on restoring my legs to working order. "In my satchel I have some health potions , grab them and take them to the others." I ordered once I felt my legs were good enough to stand on. She looked like she wanted to argue but didn''t as she went into my satchel and retrieved the potions. Her original question was about my eye and I was pretty sure it was gone or at least so damaged that it wasn''t working. I hadn''t intended to sacrifice parts of myself for victory but things rarely work out the way we hope.-


    Using the wall behind me and my still somewhat useable left arm I shakily stood up with gritted teeth from the waves of pain that sent through my body. "Hah~" I let out a long breath and began to dig through my bag for the sitrus berries I had along with the potions for healing I kept aside for my own use in case of emergencies. I ate a couple of berries and sprayed my body with a potion that immediately numbed me as it went to work.-


    Carefully I then started to pluck out them debris and shrapnel in my wounds before spraying them with disinfectant followed by healing potion. It was bloody and painful work but it needed to be done. I waited for the potion I sprayed to run it''s course before reapplying a new coat and waiting again. Thanks to the magical properties of alchemy in this world my wounds closed and started to scar over after repeated treatments and my skin also began to ke away as the dead and damaged stuff was rejected. My muscles however required further treatment and time to repair themselves but I got the process started with a burst of my healing ability every time I got enough energy to use it.-


    Yani also came and went a few times after running out of potion and needing more. I wasn''t about the skimp out now that the stuff was needed plus I had a legendary corpse that was worth a massive fortune even as damaged as it was. The bodies of strong pokemon were valuable things for a variety of reasons and legendries were no exception to this rule. I myself will be taking a few parts for my own personal use as because of Gaia''s attack my spear had been mostly destroyed. The only part that survived was the head of it that had gotten imbedded in the Heatrans skull from the force of the st.

 Recovering

    Recovering


    This wasn''t to say that the head of the spear was not fundamentally changed from this event as the metal now glowed permanently after having apparently absorbed some of the Heatrans aura upon it''s death. Even before now the head was no normal metal object as it had been forged and remade with aura into a pseudo conduit weapon because of the old man who used it as his hammers head for many years. After absorbing the Heatrans aura however it had undergone an entirely new sort of reforging and was now unlike anything my skill had any knowledge of.-


    In other words it was now an object that existed outside the previously discovered understanding of all aura or metal working knowledge by mankind. I understood why this was as well since it was a series of factorsing together that had an abysmal chance of ever being repeated again. First was that a smith was naturally attuned to aura and used it for decades in his work in order to create a pseudo conduit weapon. The second was that the same smith WILLINGLY reforged that pseudo conduit weapon and gave it to another aura user instead of taking it to their grave.-


    The third was that the one who received it continued to nourish it with their own aura before having it unintentionally absorb the aura of a legendary pokemon of decent power. Any one of these things were near impossible to replicate so getting all of them again would take stupid amounts of luck or a miracle. Out of my three knocked out team members Gaia was the first to awaken which made sense considering she was the least injured. She still had several harsh cracks on her carapace and was low on energy butpared to Rune and Vulcan she was a fresh as a spring daisy.-


    They were both out of energy and horrifically injured with more than a few broken bones destroyed skin and a bunch of other issues. Hell I myself was blind in one eye and had half my body in shambles though most of the damage was my own fault admittedly. My state was not one she took well as she got quite clingy and protective. Mother henning aside Gaia would recover in a couple days at most by herself. I used most of my energy on Rune and Vulcan rather than treating my own issues over the next few hours as they were in much worse states than me.-


    Both had been hit with the very edges of Gaia''s attack and on top of the damage they suffered previously they were both in bad shape. Nothing fatal thankfully but they will need a few days to recover if both Yani and myself focus all our energy on healing them. Vulcan was the next to wake up and was understandably quite grumpy when it did. "En! En! Tei! Entei! En!" it demanded after looking at the Groudon scale.-


    "You sure that is a good idea?" I asked seriously. Vulcan wanted to absorb the energy of the scale which I knew would normally be a good thing for it but with these injuries I wasn''t so sure. "Hmmm!" Gaia hummed in agreement with Vulcan which surprised me until I realized that Groudon was also a ground type so it''s energy should also bepatible with her. That brought up a question though '' would Groudons energy influence her evolution that was right around the corner''? I honestly wasn''t sure since for obvious reasons this wasn''t something that wasmon.-


    Gaia had evolved to her current form nearly three months ago so the time that she had left until she could evolve again was at most a week or two. A fact I was very much looking forward to since upon reaching her final stage she will instantly receive a massive boost to her stats and power while her training limit was removed. Add on the fact that she was estimated to reach nearly twenty feet tall and she will prove a monstrous existence to face in battle. "I will trust you guys on this but if it seems like any harm wille of it I''ll call it off understood?" I said sternly and they both agreed to my condition before making their way to the scale.-


    Gaia floated with her air vents while Vulcan was a volcanic pokemon to begin with and directly jogged over to it through the magma. Both of them sat on the wide red scale and closed their eyes to meditate. They were beyond my aura senses range but if they were within it I would be able to sense the energy flowing from the scale into their bodies before getting circted and mixed with their energy pools.-


    I was hopeful that they would benefit greatly from the scale much like the Heatran had as the thing was monstrously powerful even for it''s species. I was almost positive that the thing had been slowly draining the scale over time and so was much stronger than usual for it''s species. It had even somehow managed to use psychic type energy to try and keep the scale for itself via misdirection. How the fuck that worked I wasn''t sure but it did until my stubborn ass came along to fuck around and find out.-


    The Heatran might be dead but this couldn''t be called my victory by any stretch as I had a steep price for it. I couldn''t be sure but I was fairly certain my right eye was totally destroyed and if I wasn''t intimidating to look at before I definitely would be once my body scarred over. I had bad burns all along my chest , arms and legs that would leave scars along with the holes from the debris as well. ''Birch is gonna flip when he sees me in this state.'' I thought with a sigh as I focused on healing Rune up.-


    A couple hourster and he woke up as well but chose to remain perfectly still since it hurt to move. I was right there with him as my whole body ached , throbbed or stung but I pushed through it. For the next two days I stayed in the cave next to theke healing rune and myself as neither Gaia or Vulcan had moved from the scale this whole time. Towards the end of the day however there was a loud "CRACK!" that echoed through the whole area drawing my attention away from my meditation.-


    Looking towards the sound I was left speechless as I saw both Vulcan and Gaia glowing slightly in a reddish brown manner while the scale was starting to crumble. ''They drained it entirely!?'' I thought in horror as I had no idea what this sort of thing would do to them. It needed to be remembered that the energy within that scale was still tied to Groudonsnd divinity even if it was a tiny amount of the whole things. So by taking all the energy of the scale that tiny spark ofnd divinity went to one of them but I had no idea which.

 Abnormal evolution

    Abnormal evolution


    I quickly found out though when Gaia burst into a mass of energy that swirled into a huge orb that looked much like all the other evolutions I have seen so far save one key difference. Unlike the normal evolution spheres that are rainbow colored without any color taking the lead Gaia''s current one was primarily brown with the other colors being much less in volume. "Ugh! This is not going to end well at all." Iined seeing this. Checking Vulcan over I at least felt a bit better as it had gained reached level ny two and had a sharp increase in stats.


    [Pokemon species: Entei(Vulcan)


    LEVEL:87->92


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(M) , Ember(M) , roar(E) , fire spin(E) , Stomp(M) , methrower(E) , sunny day(E) , crunch(E) , extrasensory(E) ,va plume(M) , magma coat(E) , fire st(A) , sr beam(j) , fire fang(A) , calm mind(A) , extreme speed(N) , stone edge(n)


    Variations: none


    Attack:180


    Defense:135


    Sp. Atk:147


    Sp. Def:120


    Speed:147


    Ability: Inner focus(A)]


    The stat boost wasn''t the only benefit that Vulcan got from the energy it took from the scale as well as the battle as it finally reached the second tost mastery of four moves while learning two more. The moves that got mastered were ember , leer , stomp andva plume. I could understand roughly how this happened as well. For the first three Vulcan was already so close to mastering them that thisst battle gave it the inspiration it needed to take thatst step. Forva plume though I imagine that the energy from the scale gave it insights into how better to utilize pure magma which pushed it to mastery.-


    Vulcan learning extreme speed was also probably because of it''s stats growing along side it finally figuring out how the move worked thanks to the battle. Stone edge though was entirely the scales fault as Vulcan had no understanding of rock type energy at all until now and I refused to believe it wasn''t the scales fault that this changed. As an added bonus the energy from the scale also healed Vulcans injuries so it was even starting to regrow hair in the bald spots on it''s body. A fact both Rune and I were jealous of by the way as we were still very much injured.-


    Speaking of Rune he had also jumped up in terms of levels and was now level seventy three and had picked up the moves light screen and endure. No real change in it''s status other than that though minus a small increase in special defense by five points. I had expected that though since he had been hit by an elemental move of the Heatran. "Since you aren''t injured anymore go drag that corpse over here so we can disassemble it for parts." Imanded Vulcan who came to show off. It cursed a bit but did what I told it without much fuss.-


    I looked over the still scorching hot body carefully and used observe to find the parts that were useful or valuable and had Vulcan strip them off it. This meant the heart , eye , skull , spine , ribs and hide in this case. Even with a huge chuck of it missing the hide of the Heatran was a made of a metal that if forged could be turned into stupidly durable armor or weapons. The spine , ribs and skull had simr uses but were much more refined and valuable as a result. The heart was useful in alchemy for creating fire and steel type supplements.-


    The eye on the other hand was valuable only because it was basically a gemstone after the death of the Heatran that as you might expect was one of a kind. I was nning on selling it to the one of the Stones for a hefty sum of cash and maybe a ship ticket to Orre after I finished my league circuit here in Hoenn. If it was smaller I might have had it turned into a fake recement for the one that the legendary took from me but it was the size of a grapefruit so that obviously wasn''t going to work.-


    The stuff that can be turned into weapons or armor I was going to t out sell in auction to the highest bidder. The sole exception was some of it''s skull that I was going to fashion into an eyepatch. To get it all to fit into my bag I had Vulcan bend it down into a smaller size before I stuffed it in my bag. The blood of the Heatran would have also been very valuable but that had flowed out of it''s body while we were all out and been burnt up in theva.-


    By the time we were done dismantling the body of all it''s useful parts Gaia''s evolution also came to an end. Surprisingly she appeared pretty normal despite the strange energy she had absorbed that triggered her evolution early. She was smaller than I expected at about eighteen feet and her body shape was narrower than usual for her species but otherwise she looked like a pretty normal Tyranitar in shape. Her colors had changed a bit though as her steel grey coloration from when she was a Pupitar was now a bit darker and the purple stripes were now ominously simr in color to the scale.-


    There was a slight change that I didn''t notice at first in that at the top of her head a small pair of white conical horns sat that reminded me a lot of those that Groudon possessed. The evolution like always left my pokemon drained so she barely had the energy to wade through the magmake before she passed out at the edge. I had Vulcan drag her out of theke fully before thoroughly checking her out to make sure there weren''t any problems but I sighed in relief as I found none.-


    [Pokemon: Tyranitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:74


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(A) , Sandstorm(M) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(M) , screech(E) , rock slide(M) , scary face(E) , thrash(E) , dark pulse(E) , payback(E) , rock polish(M) , metal w(E) , sand bomb(M) , crunch(A) , stone grasp(M) , wrecking ball(A) , earthquake(j) , hyper beam(n) , ancient power(A)


    Variations: Royal(Queen) , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:199


    Defense:164


    Sp. Atk:124


    Sp. Def:111


    Speed:126


    Ability: Sand veil(A) , shed skin(A) , sand stream(J)]


    Gaia''s new stat sheet was monstrous to look at and I could see the influence that the tiny bit of divinity and the scales energy caused as well. First was of course that she learned ancient power and earthquake and mastered nearly every rock or ground type move she had. The second was that her royal variation had reached the next stage which exined the slightly different body shape and extra horns. Add on the boost in stats that her size gave her and she was a walking disaster thanks to her sand veil and sand stream abilitybo making her have a constant free sandstorm around her at all time.

 Token problems

    Token problems


    All in all Watson was in for an especially nasty surprise in the uing challenge as my team was now WAY stronger than I had expected them to be by the time it rolled around. Then again we fought with our full power in order to survive so perhaps it was only fair that the rewards be plentiful. Speaking of rewards I finally remembered the quest I got for finding this cave and got to see the rewards I was going to get. Rewards: 2x exp tickets , 2x item tickets , 3x exp tickets , evolution token.-


    Pretty much five exp tickets , a couple of items and an unknown thing frompleting the final optional(A/N: Was it really?) objective to survive against the Heatran. I wasn''t sure if the reward was supposed to be whatever the hell an evolution token was or if the reward had been upgraded since we killed the thing. I asked the system what an evolution token was and the answer I got left me speechless at how stupid valuable it was. The system even went so far as to directly state that it was a special item and that I should not expect to get another one anytime soon due to them being extraordinary rewards for exceeding the systems expectations.-


    Anyways the evolution token allowed me to evolve a single thing of my choice with it. I used the word "thing" for a reason here as it didn''t just apply to pokemon but items , skills , abilities , moves , innate abilities variations and concepts , ANY single thing. Now you have to understand that this meant that I could effectively upgrade something crazy like say my lifespan to let me live for a long ass time or even features on my pokemon to create what could only be considered entirely new variations.-


    The sheer value of something like this should make it abundantly clear how highly the system thought of us killing the Heatran. Honestly speaking I couldn''t me it either as only a hare brained n like that one had even the tiniest chance of sess and more likely than not I would have been forced to run away with my tail between my legs to survive. That Heatran was decimating us with almost no real effort on it''s part after all , we were totally outmatched to put it simply.-


    This however led to a very big problem however in that I had TOO MANY choices for what I could use the token on. Good ones too , I could evolve my bodies ability to heal , evolve my aura skill to the adept stage of mastery , hell I could evolve my actual aura to a higher tier so I had more and better energy to use at a time. There was a lot of choices and I honestly couldn''t decide what I wanted to use the token on. I of course told my team about the effects of the token and they all unanimously agreed that I should use it to try and fix my eye but I had to chastise them for being wasteful.-


    My lost eye was at most an inconvenience since I relied on my aura to perceive my surrounds in addition to my normal senses so I was by no means crippled by losing an eye. As a result using the token just to fix the damage done was t out wastefulpared to the potential uses the token had. Once I shot down that option my whole team got stuck with the same problem I had as they couldn''t choose any one thing that would be the best to use the token on.-


    Helplessly I decided to leave it up to fate and moved on to tear the two item tickets in half so I can see what I got from them. Moomoo milk and a full restore ended up being my prizes which I was perfectly okay with since the milk will be good for the baby Feebas while I used the full restore on Rune to fix the rest of the damage he had at surface level and a good bit of the internal stuff as well.-


    At the very least he was now able to defend himself when we started to head back to Mauville. That didn''t mean that everyone was now good to go however as I was still very much fucked up at the moment. Broken ribs , throbbing burn scars and nearly half my muscles being shredded from that spear throw I did. I could walk and use my left arm a bit but I was otherwise helpless at the moment. Balling Gaia and Yani I flopped onto Vulcans back "Lets get out of here." I said tiredly and it began to jog through the cave.-


    Rune followed along while making sure nothing attacked us and soon enough I felt the much cooler air of the outside which itched something fierce on my burns. "Head to Mauville , I still need treatment for my injuries." Imanded before letting my exhaustion win out finally and slipping back into unconsciousness. I was heavily injured and while my body was still working to fix itself while I was awake it was wasting energy that way so it had been trying to get me to go to sleep for awhile now. In hindsight I probably should have told Vulcan or Rune to wake me up when we got near the city but I hadn''t.-


    Instead they both apparently chose to interpret my orders as "Go straight to the pokecenter to get help." As you may have guessed they caused a hugemotion as they walked straight into the city and made their way to the pokecenter while threatening anyone who tried to stop them. Thankfully the league was willing to drop the matter of the brokenws given the state the Joys retrieved me from Vulcan in. It was waved off as "extraordinary circumstances" and totally forgiven.-


    That didn''t mean when I woke up I didn''t get absolutely grilled by a Jenny trying to figure out what the hell happened. Even Watson was involved in the case as I was both on the list and almost an ace trainer yet came in on the back of my pokemon half dead. Shit like that tends to cause people to get concerned to say the least. I was mostly honest with them too as I said I found the cave by luck and ran afoul of an elite level Heatran which we killed at the cost of a bunch of injuries.-


    The story was oundish and crazy but my injuries and the clearly recently obtained scars of my team told them that I wasn''t lying. I even took out the parts I harvested from the corpse as proof which was evidence beyond refute. I also got told that my eye was totally beyond saving since the nerves had been seared to such a degree that normal healing was totally impossible. I had expected that answer though so it didn''t bother me any. Watson was even nice enough to get a piece of the Heatrans skull shaped into an eyepatch for me.

 Challenge

    Challenge


    It felt a bit funny to wear as I wasn''t used to having something on my face but I figured I''d get used to it eventually. I ended up being all but forced to stay in bed for the remaining two days until my challenge date with Watson by the some especially stubborn Joys. I wasn''t alone though as Yani was out of her ball most of the time engaging me in mind games like type chess. I still had a board and pieces that Gaia made a while back and it was a good way to refresh my typing knowledge.-


    Watson came to visit after he was done for the day at the gym and after learning the rules was a huge fan of the game. He praised it as a good game for trainers as it helps teach the type advantages and disadvantages while also having a great deal of strategy involved in it. He asked if I nned to make the game public and I admitted that I hadn''t really thought about it since the game was mostly meant to waste time. He then said that if I ever did decide on selling it to the public that he''d help by having the league support it as it was that good for new trainers.-


    "Now Mr. Drake I expect you to take it easy for another week at least do you hear me?" the middle aged Joy discharging me from the center said sternly. "Yes yes , I promise I won''t do anything I don''t feel up to." I said while holding my arms up in surrender. I found out the hard way over thest two days that the Joys aren''t the pushovers they seem like at first nce. No in fact they can be pretty gods damned terrifying if you do something that truly displeases them.-


    Something like trying to workout when half your body is shredded for example. Admittedly I might have a bit of a problem with not ignoring quests that I have even if I REALLY should. I had attempted toplete the exercise quest that I have and a Joy caught me and I swear that I felt like I was going to be killed. I got yelled at and forced back into bed like a child caught up after curfew , it was horrible.-


    Honestly the only reason that I was allowed to leave was that I had been burning through my energy reserves constantly to repair my body with my healing ability. This led to me being a little fucked up rather than totally wrecked like I was before I came in. That was to say I could move my body normally but would suffer some pain if I tried to push it. After getting discharged I checked the time before making my way over to the gym as I had an hour until my challenge. Watson was a sneaky old man and tried to figure out how strong my team was before hand but I had managed to keep it secret.-


    The Joys also wanted to examine them to make sure they were okay after the story of what we went through got around but I assured them that there was nothing to worry about. After all Watson could definitely check the files after the examination to see if he could spot any increases he needed to n for. I was really looking forward to the surprise he was going to get when I send Gaia out after Rune. If anything though I had a disadvantage in this challenge at the moment as Watson was going to be using four pokemon to my three.-


    That was because that was the league standard for gym battles of the third and fourth badges. The leaders used four pokemon for those challenges and it was up to the trainers to match that level of power. Whether that was via using four pokemon or by having less pokemon that were much stronger the idea was the same. In my case I had Vulcan that was fast approaching elite territory at level ny two.-


    By my estimation an elite pokemon was one that was either near level one hundred or all the way up to one fifty. After that was the bottomless abyss of champion tier which was thest official power level known. Anyways Watson had his gym set up in a way that would give an advantage to electric types due to the sparking electrodes overhead. The air was literally charged with energy that made that type of move go just a little faster through the air. The arena was also an uneven but natural looking style that I understood the purpose of immediately. ''He wants to prevent me from using magma coat like I did against Brawly.'' I thought with approval.-


    By having the arena with uneven terrain unlike standard arenas covering the ground inva with magma coat will instead create puddles of it instead of a single tyer. This meant that so long as his pokemon didn''t stupidly step in the puddles they could avoid the heat on their feet. It was clear that this arena was made to counter that strategy I used against Brawly but I couldn''t me Watson for it given how effective it would be against anything that wasn''t fire type.-


    Against anything that wasn''t either hyper resistant to heat or didn''t need to touch the ground using magma coat and keeping it hot was the equivalent of forcing someone on to a timer that they had to dispel by clearing theva or by defeating Vulcan. That was the only choices avable to terrestrial pokemon and as a result made things hellishly limiting for a trainer. Watson definitely recognized this and as a result removed that strategy of mine right off the rip. "I love what you''ve done with the ce , really makes one feel wee." I joked as i stepped out onto the field.-


    "HAHA!" Heughed with a jolly smile. "It wouldn''t be any good if you controlled the tempo from the start now would it?" he asked rhetorically. Once the ref made sure we were ready they like always went over the rules of the match. It was a simple four vs three with Watson having one switch and I having three. "START!" the ref called and both of us sent out our first pokemon to the field. "Rune , SET!" "Come out Manectric!" we both said as the two pokemon appeared in red beams of energy.-


    "Oh? Using my own type against me right away? Ballsy!" Watson said clearly surprised at who I sent out. I could see why too as generally speaking electric vs electric was a bad matchup not because they did more damage but for the exact opposite reason in that they were highly resistant to their own type moves. My line up was so far with my best elementally matched pokemon up first followed by the second and finally third one. In theory Gaia would be the best due to her typing countering electric type moves. Rune was the exception to the rule though due to his conduit innate ability that caused him to not only not take damage from electric type moves but to even get healed from them as well , in other words a perfect electric type counter.

 Bullying

    Bullying


    This was something that Watson came to learn very quickly as his Manectric not only failed to do damage with the electric type moves that made up the majority of it''s moveset but was getting beaten down by Rune as well.I didn''t even need to call out any orders as Rune wasn''t even out of breath by the time the Manectric had finally had enough and passed out. "What a nasty little trick , took away my specialty right from the get go. Looks like I need to get a bit serious then." Watson said still grinning.-


    "Come on out , Magnezone!" Watson called as he sent out his second pokemon and I couldn''t help but frown slightly at it. "barrier ball!" he thenmanded immediately and I understood the annoying tactic behind this pokemons moves. Barrier was a psychic type move that raised defense by two stages and the move gyro ball was steel type and cost little energy to use so the idea was basically to pelt Rune until he went down while enduring everything he sent at it. ''Shit , Rune''s totally countered here.'' I thought and decisively chose to use one of my switches.-


    Rune might have been able to win by hammering the floating space ship ma looking thing repetitively while constantly using quick attack or double team to dodge. But on the same hand he would also get exhausted and probably quite beat up at the same time. Watson still had another two pokemon and one switch so rather than risk it I chose to send out Vulcan to force a shift in the battle. "Rune , return! Vulcan , set!" I said smoothly recalling Rune and sending out Vulcan at the same time. Vulcan as per usual fully released it''s innate heat and suppressive aura as a legendary.-


    Watsons grin vanished immediately and sweat appeared on his forehead as he felt the weight of a legendary that came for a fight fall on his shoulders. "Magnezone return! Show em what we trained for Lanturn!" Watson called as he used his switch to send out a pokemon I was expecting. While I knew that Watson had at least three electric type variants under his control I also knew that like all gym leaders who had a simr situation that those three were all elite level at minimum. This meant he needed a naturally dual type pokemon with electric type that could fight Vulcan with any chance to win and there were only three in the world.-


    Lanturn which was a water and electric type , Chinchou that had the same typing but was the first stage of the Lanturn line. And finally Zapdos that was a legendary with flying and electric type but was definitely part of Watsons personal team if he even had one. As far as I know though Watson didn''t have one since they were as you might expect fairly rare and prideful so not just anyone could get one without some very special circumstances.-


    I''m not saying Watson didn''t deserve to have one but that he was old and thus most legendries would immediately pass him up as a candidate for that sort of thing. "I suppose my options were rather limited in selection but I think Lanturn here has a shot at toppling your ace there." he said seeming to understand why I didn''t look surprised. I shook my head "Vulcans not so easy to deal with." I said with a smirk but didn''t acknowledge thement about it being my ace. "Sr beam!" "Rainy day!" wemanded at the same time but Watson came out on the bad side of the engagement.-


    While his pokemon was trying to counter a sunny day that never came Vulcan was halfway done with charging the super effective attack that Watson clearly wanted to prevent. "Dodge!" he called but Vulcan was already lining up the shot. "FWOOOM!" the beam of grass type energy tore through the air and from the widening of Watsons eyes probably gave away that Vulcan was massively over leveled for this challenge. "LAAAAAA!" the fish screamed as the beam struck it dead center and washed over it. -


    "Lanturn is unable to continue!" the ref called and Vulcan cut off the attack while casually swallowing the remaining grass type energy back into it''s energy reservoir. That sounds easy but was by no means as it required absolute domination of ones energy even after it was used for an attack. "You got me curious what sorta training you put your team through to get results like thesed. The amount of people I''ve seen grow so fast could be counted on one hand and each of them became champions or simr. Might seem presumptuous but can I ask you to send out that Pupitar of yours since my loss is a forgone conclusion at this point?" Watson said with a happy look despite basically admitting defeat.-


    "Alright , I''ll humor you but do try to give her a run for her money. she''s been chafing at the bit to test her current limits in battle." I said with a smirk. "Wahaha! Lets see what she''s made of then!" he said before sending out an Electivire with a bunch of fighting type moves. I nodded in appreciation of it as it was wonderfully trained but being held back from advancing on purpose. "Gaia , set!" I called and released her onto the field while recalling Vulcan who gave Watson a pitying look before it left.-


    "TAAAAAAAAAR!" Gaia manifested out of the red light and roared so loudly that the ground shook and the Electivire trembled in fear. Vulcans presence was suppressive but Gaia''s was downright tyrannical as her abilities kicked in and a violent sand storm covered the arena at once. "Dynamic punch!" Watsonmanded and the Electivire obeyed if reluctantly. Neither I nor Gaia reacted to the attacking at her with a bright y red gleam. It looked like it was about to hit when Gaia side stepped out of the way and backhanded the Electivire with a ground type energy covered w.-


    "CRAACK!" the sound of the impact was heard clearly regardless of the howling sandstorm as her w struck the poor electric type and sent it flying knocked the fuck out. Gaia returned to her original spot and merely stared at Watson smugly. "Wahaha! What a monster! You wind I forfeit!" the old man said loudly and Gaia reined in her ability letting everyone see her clearly. She stood tall under the lights and cast an imposing figure before I recalled her.-


    "You got me goodd , never would have seen that monstering at your previous level. If you don''t mind me asking does it have anything to do with ... that?" Watson asked while motioning to his left eye. I could appreciate that he was trying to be tactful about it but I wasn''t some fragile flower that can''t take a reminder of a bad experience. "No need to beat about the bush old man , I get reminded of it every moment so bringing it up in a conversation won''t bother me any." I say with a shrug.

 Selling parts

    Selling parts


    "Aye that''s my bad , I keep forgetting you''re made of tougher stuff than the usual folk I deal with your age. Question still stands though about the sudden spike in power you''ve gotten." Watson said turning serious. I nodded "Found a scale down in that cave that had magma flowing from it. Gaia and Vulcan both got a serious boost in stats after draining the energy from it. Add on the beatdown we received before that from the legendary and well you can understand that we gained quite a bit from that delve." I said honestly since I had no reason to hide it after I had already told him about the firestone vein in the cave.-


    "Exins why that Heatran was powerful. A treasure like that scale is has been found before and the things are usually kept highly confidential once word of them reaches the league. If a pokemon aligned with the energy of these treasures gets ahold of them they can be far more powerful than the average members of their species. Probably why that thing was so powerful as well , I won''t lie to youd before that cave I''d say your team might struggle a bit but was perfectly capable of holding down an elite pokemon."-


    "Yet from the way you tell it your team was all but helpless against it and only managed to kill it because of it''s own arrogance and your team distracting it while that Tyranitar of yours used it''s whole energy reserve on an all or nothing type attack. That wasn''t just an elite tier legendary but one easily at the peak of it in terms of pure power from the sounds of it. And from what I can tell those two are pressing against the threshold of elite tier as well , especially that Tyranitar of yours." Watson said seriously.-


    I frowned at this as this didn''t seem quite right to me as though there was something wrong with this situation. Watson seemed to understand my look and gave words to what I was feeling. "I''m afraid I need to call a meeting about making an exception to youd. The gym circuit is meant to train and hone trainers into elites but you are nearly there already so it serves you no purpose. At most you just need to polish up your team in skill and you''ll be firmly at the peak of ace level." Watson said honestly.-


    "Whats this mean for my circuit though?" I asked worried that this might force me to drop out of the gym challenges all together. I understood that that original purpose for the challenges will not apply to me but it would bug me to no end if I couldn''tplete my badge collection as a result of my team being too powerful. "Not to worryd you''ll still get your badges I can promise you that. At most you won''t be allowed to participate in the league conference at the end of the season but I''ve got a feeling that won''t bother you much." Watson said with a jolly smile.-


    He wasn''t wrong as I was already nning to duck out of the conference at the end of the season as by that point in time I will have outssed the other participants by so much it wouldn''t even be funny. I was all for equalpetition but I didn''t want to be the unbeatable boss at the end of these trainers journey. While I doubted that I would hit champion level before the end of the season I don''t think I would be far from it so I would be way beyond those that would take part in the conference.-


    "Anyways here''s the badge and tm for you. Stick around the city and we''ll see how things pan out for youd." Watson said as he handed over my winnings from the match. I left the gym after that and went to find an auction house to sell the parts from the Heatran. If the parts were organic in nature they would have already started rotting but Heatran were made of metal and rock so as long as I kept it out of the elements the stuff would remain good to go.-


    I ended up going to a struggling family owned and operated auction house since I figured it would help them out to sell off such big ticket items. I was refused funnily enough because of that reason exactly. The parts were TOO big ticket for them tofortably auction off or even advertise on the proper levels. It was a bit like when someone won the lottery and then had to pay an fuckton of taxes for the rest of their life that they can''t actually afford.-


    Sure those people could invest and grow into properly rich folk but lets be honest here most people would instead buy a bunch of things they didn''t need and would have an upkeep tax that they totally couldn''t pay for long term. In the same vein the auction house couldn''t sell off the parts as it would set a precedent that would ruin them in the long term. I could only shrug at this and call up Mr. Stone to auction off the parts for me. He didn''t even want money to do it either but rather one of the ribs for his collection. -


    That actually brought up the topic of the eye I also had which was a priceless gemstone like no other. The old man was practically rabid to obtain it for himself and we ended up in some rather aggressive negotiations over it. I wanted some serious money for the thing so even a super rich person like Mr. Stone had to show reluctance to agree to. I had a bottom line though and refused to go any lower than eight zeros after that one. That''s right over one hundred million poke for that eye was my minimum.-


    A bit extreme to be sure but I lost my own eye to the Heatran and I was going to be damned if I didn''t price gouge the shit out of the parts in exchange. Copious amounts of money were sweet anodyne to the loss of a body part in my opinion. Mr. Stone didn''t argue with me about the reason behind the price and even said that he could understand it perfectly. That didn''t change the fact that I was asking for a stupid amount of money though so he started to look for alternative methods of payment that were valuable to me but didn''t cost him as much.-


    One such thing was resurrection or cloning services on fossilized or even samples of living pokemon , within reason of course. This was uniquely tempting for me in particr as I could collect samples of a pokemon I wanted for my team and get a clone of it. For those questioning the morals of cloning or resurrection you can all chill because the pokemon in question are basically newborns of species and are perfectly healthy creatures assuming the scientists don''t fuck around with the process. In other words it''s no less ethical that breeding pokemon normally just that the final result is a copy gically of the original.

 Clones and chat

    Clones and chat


    There was a slight catch however with cloning pokemon in that it only worked on organic pokemon which meant that I couldn''t clone the Heatran or most steel , rock or ground type pokemon as their bodies wereprised of inorganic materials. A good deal of ghost type pokemon were also impossible to clone as well for this reason. In addition to the price that cloning and resurrecting pokemon costs it wasn''t as widely used as one might think such technology would be. Human cloning was highly banned though as that had a whole bunch of problems normally.-


    It had happened of course but the tech wasn''t designed for that and as a result the clones rarely survived for long. For me personally though cloning was a perfect way to add some choice pokemon to my team even if the originals didn''t want to join me. For example I could get another legendary dog or even bird so long as I could get a feather or hair from one of them. That was where the "within reason" use popped up though as I wasn''t allowed to go after say a godly pokemon like Rayquaza to try and get a clone of the thing for myself.-


    Apparently someone had tried that at some point with a feather from the original Ho-Ho and the legendary showed up and turned the entireb and several miles ofnd around it into ss even though they failed to create a true clone of it. Moral of the story was not to fuck with the true godly pokemon in any manner and you should usually be fine. I also knew about Mew two that was either being created at this exact moment or had already been created and broke out of Giovanni''sb but was being covered up by the man.-


    The sheer size of his balls had to be incredible to choose THAT godly pokemon out of all of them to clone. The original Mew was many things but merciful to those that wrong her was not one of them if the many horror stories about her revenge were to go by. I''m not talking normal "you die" sort of punishments either but shit that even made me shiver at the thought of like when she turned a guy into a tree who was constantly growing slowly over the next two centuries with the entire process being extremely agonizing.-


    It was only after a bunch of people begged for mercy that Mew allowed that person to die. Yeah Mew was fucking hardcore and made it clear you don''t mess with her. Needless to say I was totally not going to fuck around with the godly legendries and find out as a result. The lesser legendries though were fair game if I found any I wanted. If you were wondering why gym leaders or elite four members didn''t do that as well then the answer was simply that it wasn''t so easy to get a viable piece of DNA from a legendary as they don''t tend to leave them justying about.-


    It did happen of course but the chances of a person finding and/or understanding what it was were abysmal. I was different than everyone else on the though as I had the system and would undoubtedly end up under the spotlight of the godly legendries at some point in the future. Encountering the others should be par for the course at that point in time in my opinion. Anyways I got three free clones or resurrections from the deal with Mr. Stone that I would definitely be using in the future.-


    In addition to that I also got about fifty million poke as well so I was looking damn good financially. With that all but taken care of I spent the next couple days rxing in Mauville as I waited for Watson to get back to me and as I finished healing up. I missed the reward for my exercise quest but I suppose that was to be expected. Still thanks to me near constantly draining my energy reserve to elerate my own healing I finally returned to peak health.-


    I had some seriously nasty looking scars though that earned me even more looks than normal. I ignored those and simplyzed about in the beach area east of Mauville with my team. Nothing living that close to the city was stupid enough to voice aint about us being there and the other trainers gave me a wide berth. "You know I had sort of expected you to be training when I heard you were here , not just rxing in the sun." I heard a female voice say as footsteps approached me.-


    "Nothing wrong with taking it easy for a few days I''ll have you know!" I shot back yfully as I opened my eyes to see May looking down at me. She rolled her eyes "Whatever you say Alex , still hard to imagine you are almost an elite trainer already." she said as she set a towel down nearby and sat down. "I trained like a madman , which I probably am in hindsight , and I even almost died so I think it would be weird if i wasn''t pretty damn strong right?" I said and she sighed. "You make it sound like the rest of us are cking off but you''re probably right." she said with a shrug.-


    "You are a trainer to help your dad with his research so while you probably train your team well enough training isn''t the be all end all for you but for me it''s both the journey and the goal. I want to leave a legend behind that no one will ever be able to top and you don''t fulfill an ambition like that without paying in a sea of flesh , blood , sweat and tears. In my case that is quite literal." I said pointing at my eye patch.-


    She had this look of pity that made me scoff "I am doing fine without my eye so you can save that pity of yours for someone that needs it." I scolded her and she looked away embarrassed. "Does it hurt at all?" she ended up asking tentatively a few momentster. I shrugged "Not really painful no , A bit off putting in the morning when I open my eyes only to be reminded that one of them is missing but otherwise I barely even notice the change in perception anymore." I said honestly.-


    "That sounds horrible so how are you so calm about it?" she asked with a concerned look. "It sucks a bit but the way I see it , pun very much intended , dwelling on it doesn''t exactly do me any good so why should I? Losing a single eye is barely more than an inconvenience to deal withpared to say losing one of my limbs. Can you imagine trying to make potions with a single hand because I can and it sounds like a pain in the ass." I joked.

 The news

    The news


    May finally let the topic go after that which was good since I was trying to rx and she was ruining that. Watson himself showed up shortly after that and besides chuckling at my team that was casually chilling on the beach didn''t seem to care about what we were doing. "It''s a lovely day , so pull up a chair and rx a while." I said after sparing the old man a look. "Wahaha! As much as I''d love to I still have a lot on my te so I just can''t spare the time. I suppose you know why I am here alreadyd?" Watson replied and I hummed in affirmation.-


    "Probably to give me a good news bad news type scenario right?" I asked casually. He chuckled "Not this timed , all good news you see." he said with a smile. "Oh? Now that''s a surprise , usually it''s a mix of the two." I said genuinely caught off guard by the information. "Yep so it''s been decided that we''ll just give you an elite certification and offer you a job." Watson said with a smile. My eye narrowed "What sort of job?" I asked skeptical.-


    "Nothing behind a desk if that''s what you''re thinking. See the leagues got a few elites and even a couple champs in each region but the problem is that they are usually tied down in some way at a single spot. What we want you to do is what you already are , wander about as you do and if you see something that needs forceful correction you take care of it for us , simple as that." He said honestly. "You all do understand that if I get involved in something there is likely going to be an excessive amount of violence right?" I asked just to make sure he knew what would happen if I got this job.-


    He nodded "That was discussed but you''ve shown that the only ones who get that violence are the criminals so while there were a few who wanted to limit that to the really bad cases most of us understood the hard stance on crime you chose. Fact is that it makes you a damn fine deterrent as even the petty thieves went quiet once you showed up in an area. Speaking of sorry about the stalking but we needed to know if you''d be a problem at some point." he said honestly.-


    I waved it off though "I didn''t even realize I was being followed so it''s fine. Still I imagine that there is a catch or two attached to this job offer as well so spit it out." I said and he directly told me that I wasn''t "technically" going to be employed by the league but rather "generously rewarded" for any problems I solve. "So a mercenary basically. You could have said that from the start and saved us both some time." I said with a chuckle.-


    "me politics that I am used to stretching out even the simplest things at this point." he said with a sigh but not disagreeing with me. "I suppose I''ll take that job since something tells me that I''ll being across quite a lot of problems in the near future." I said after remembering that I am right around the time that team magma goes full retarded and tries to set off Mt. Chimney , while they are on it no less. Honestly that entire n was stupid and full of problems that could have came back to bite them and everyone else in the ass as well , like Groudon sleeping in the damn ce.-


    Whatever they expected to happen when you forcefully caused a volcano to erupt literally on top of Groudon was beyond me. But I know for a fact that if it didn''t kill Groudon from the insane forces involved I would be trying to find Rayquaza as fast as humanly possible to calm it down because that mother fucker would definitely go on a biblical level rampage. Somehow I am also fairly certain that the leader of team Magma wouldn''t be one of the casualties as the bastard would definitely bail out like a bitch.-


    All in all that was a whole event that I am going to force myself in when I go over to Mt. Chimney in about two weeks. ''Maybe I should defeat Maxie at the meteorite machine and then boot his ass into theva? Wait wasn''t Archie there too? Sweet I can get both the leaders of the teams if I am lucky!'' I thought with a smirk. "I am d to hear that , we just need to get a bit of paperwork done and you''ll be good to go." Watson said breaking me out of my thoughts.-


    I ended up having to sign a bunch of stuff and take a few annoying pledges but by the end of the day I was officially working for the league as a certified elite tier trainer. That unfortunately also came with a few caveats that were mildly annoying like being on call for emergencies even if I was on the other side of a region or my personal favorite being everyone''s new best friend. At least it fucking felt like it as I got nearly fifty calls over the next three days from gym leaders , other elite trainers , small , medium andrgepanies wanting to use my face to promote products and various other people.-


    The most nerve wracking of those calls had to be from Giovanni himself who I wasn''t even sure how managed to call me considering he was in a whole other region and the pokenav''s don''t do cross regional calls. A fact I point nk brought up by the way and never got an answer for as the fucker dodged the question. No apparently he was a big fan of my career as a trainer and had even somehow gotten his hands on samples of my potions which he was very appreciative of. Ignoring the dreadful implications of that alone the conversation was surprisingly casual.-


    He had asked a bit about the sort of training I did with Gaia who fell in his gyms typing as a ground type pokemon but otherwise wasn''t intrusive at all. I spent a good three hours after that call scouring every detail of it to make sure that I hadn''t let anything slip or been led by the nose either. I realize that sounds paranoid as shit but you have to understand that that was just how bad news the guy is from what I could piece together from context clues I had from the games and reality.-


    Out of all calls I got though the one that left me confused was the one from nnery who sounded like she was either totally hot for me or had a fetish for fire type pokemon and moves. Either way I was not the sort of person to judge considering my own issues which were getting better at a slow rate. I wasn''t like normal or anything but I at least gave a little bit of a fuck at any given moment which was progress.

 Hobby

    Hobby


    During the time that I was getting these calls I was also traveling north to head to Mt. Chimney that was between me and my next badge from Lavaridge city. I also knew that team Magma was near the top of the volcano likely setting up the meteorite powered device they hoped to set off the volcano with. I wasn''t sure if they were as stupid as in the game though and were wearing the team uniforms in front of the lift to stop people from taking it. ''Considering how stupid the aqua grunts were I am pretty sure they are.'' I thought with a sigh.-


    Still I had at least a week before I arrived at the base of the volcano so I didn''t need to bother with with that quite yet. The wilderness between Mauville and Mt. Chimney was a diverse ce in terms of typing even if one were to ignore the desert to the east of the volcano. Rock , grass , steel you name it and the wilderness between those two points had it. The area outside of the main routes were also infested by the most powerful pokemon in Hoenn as well as the richest in resources and opportunities.-


    In that regards the area was considered much the same as the likes of Mt. Silver or Cor in Johto/Kanto and Sinnoh. The league made it abundantly clear that if you enter the wilderness in these areas death was a very high possibility. The pokemon here were between ace and champion in power on average and if you get REALLY unlucky you might evene across a champion tier pokemon. Needless to say I directly ignored those warning and led my team straight through this area. Let me tell you it was soooo worth it.-


    Rare materials and ingredients practically littered every inch of the ground and the less said about the shit below the ground the better. Walking through the dense overgrowth with my team I collected useful stuff nearly every step. My foraging skill was climbing rapidly as I had to exert it constantly to identify and carefully harvest whatever I wanted , which was most things. "Tree! Tree! Co!" Yani said confidently barely an hour after we entered the area. "Well by all means if you can evolve then do so." I said jokingly before she huffed and got a look of concentration before making my jaw drop as she lit up.-


    The same familiar rainbow colored sphere as usual surrounded her form and she officially started her evolution. The rest of my team snickered at me and I red at them because I knew exactly what they were amused by. Yani had long since proven that she was an absolutely monstrously talented individual but to just will her self to evolve without external pressure was a downright insane idea. Pokemon WEREN"T built to evolve that easily save very very rare cases and the Treecko line was not one of those.-


    So while it was theoretically possible for what Yani did to happen no one , not even mother fucking Professor Oak had seeded. Meanwhile Yani was all like "Fuck this form! Evolution time!" and just set a fucking record because why the fuck not? The worse part is that no one would believe me if I tried to share the news. Until she was ready to evolve again I literally had no proof besides mine and my own pokemons testimonies. "Man I really have to stop attachingmon sense to Yani , what a fucking headache." Iined while my team just unanimously nodded in agreement.-


    While we waited for Yani toplete her evolution I scanned the surroundings with my X-ray vision that had lost a lot of power after my other eye was destroyed because apparently the ability worked by ovepping the image you see in each eye over each other in your mind so you get a clear picture of what you are looking at. When I was close to whatever I was looking at say ten yards or so I could see perfectly but after that things start to blur and get fuzzy.-


    It was irritating as it limited my treasure hunting ability greatly but since I still had a good ten yard distance that I could clearly see through when using the ability it wasn''t uneptable. Still there was nothing really worth going to the trouble of excavating within that distance of me and even the mushroom that was growing inside a hollow area within a nearby tree was only slightly rare but not by much. The mushroom in question wasn''t even medicinal in nature by rather prized by chefs for the deep and bold vor it provides soups.-


    Honestly I only had Gaia bust open the tree to get it just so I could see what the fuss was about. I won''t lie , I really loved cooking after I got the skill for it from the system so long ago. It was the only skill I had at expert mastery in fact after preparing so many meals in the wild with fresh harvested or rebought ingredients. While I freely admit that I specialized in meat based dishes I could just as easily whip up a vegetable dish to dazzle the taste buds. I hadn''t quite figured out how to make inorganic meals from various minerals like Gaia likes but it was a work in progress.-


    In a funny sort of way I myself had picked up the stone collecting hobby like the Stones but unlike themselves I wasn''t after uniqueness but rather vor. Obviously I wasn''t eating the stuff myself since it all tasted like dirt to me but apparently mineral consuming pokemon like Gaia taste entirely different things when eating them. So as a hobby now that Gaia was able to eat again I collected different types of rocks and tried to make gourmet meals by having Gaia eat them in a certain order while I recorded the ratios based on her input.-


    Her current favorite at the moment was one part iron shavings , one part crushed diamond and two parts rough smashed quartz scaled depending on the size of the meal being made. Her favorite mineral to eat though was iron which had a sorta sweet thing going on like oranges. Anyway after i stored away the mushroom forter I was stuck to waiting for Yani to finish up so I started messing around with the ingredients I had found so far for alchemy. By the time she was done I only had a single sessful product if I wanted to even consider it that.-


    So I mixed the extracts and essences of five different ingredients that had an energizing effect on those that consumed it and ended up with a potion that was liquid heart failure. It was such a potent stimnt that even the system said that more than a drop a day would cause heart failure from sheer over work in a Wailord. To put that in perspective that was like killing an elephant because it got a single grain of sand in it''s body.

 Leveled up

    Leveled up


    ''Yeah , I am definitely not selling this to anyone.'' I thought while looking at the ten fluid ounces of potion I had in the ss sk for storage. Rather than sell it I was going to keep it for myself as a stimnt this potent could make training much more efficient if I was careful with the dosage. ''A fifth of a drop per ten gallons of water should suffice for most of my needs.'' I thought before storing the potion in my bag with abel called {Energy} on it.-


    Yani finally finished her evolution at this point and I got to see what she looked like now. I could tell immediately that she had upgraded her shiny variation to the second stage as her colors were off from the normal shiny colors that Grovyle had. A normal shiny Grovyle had cyan like skin and bright red leafage on it''s arms , head and tailbone. Yani on the other hand had dark blue skin with green swirls all over it and her leafage was pure white with small streaks of green across them like tiger stripes. Her chest and belly were also white with green streaks through it like her leafage.-


    [Pokemon: Grovyle(Aranyani)


    LEVEL:57


    Moveset: Leer(E) , pound(E) , leaf storm(E)(egg move) , Absorb(E) , quick attack(E) , pursuit(E) , screech(E) , mega drain(E) , agility(E) , m(E) , detect(E) , giga drain(E) , false swipe(E) , night sh(E) , nature orb(E) , leaf de(n) , fury cutter(n) , bullet seed(n)


    Skills: Aura(N)


    Variations: Shiny(Stage two)


    Attack:138


    Defense:92


    Sp. Atk: 169


    Sp. Def:125


    Speed:183


    Ability: Overgrow(A)]


    Her evolution was a big upgrade in nearly all stats and she even learned three new moves from it with one of them being the well know signature moves for the Grovyle species , leaf de. The other two moves were more of a natural progression type deal and were gained by luck I am pretty sure. I also noticed that the system acknowledged that she had aura as a skill which made me wonder why it hadn''t until now. I t out asked and the answer I got was surprising and interesting to learn. Pokemon at some level have always known how to use their aura but converted the energy to type energy for use without realizing it.-


    This meant that for them to actually count as using their auras they have to hit the same level of skill as a human would at the journeyman level of mastery. Basically this entire time Yani and the rest of my pokemon have counted as before the novice level of mastery and as a result haven''t had the skill show up in their statuses before now. Vulcan was pissed when I exined this to them as it had been practicing aura for months and still didn''t count as having reached the threshold of novice mastery.-


    "So how do you feel?" I asked my not so small reptile as she flexed her body to get a feel for it. "Gro! Gro! Vyl!" She said with a smile. "Of course you feel strong all of your stats have grown dramatically. It would be no exaggeration to say that this version of you is nearly twice as strong as your previous self." I said with a chuckle. Yani nodded in understanding before sping her ws together and a green glow rose from between them. This action confused me until she spread her ws and and cloud of green mist poured out and surrounded her before clearing to reveal her with a proud smile.-


    It took me only a moment to realize what she had done and to sigh in irritation. She had created a wide area grass type healing move much like her single target nature orb but to cover more than one pokemon. "Was this what you have beenining about not being able to do?" I asked referring to her constantints about her bodies limits holding her back. Yani nodded and roughly tried tomunicate that she was all done with the fundamentals of this move but simplycked the energy density needed to actualize it.-


    Moves of course had requirements to use like how an Oddish couldn''t pull off a sr beam right after hatching even if you used a TM to teach it the move. The thing most trainers forget is that the vast majority of pokemon moves have been refined at a near gic level over countless years so that pokemon "Naturally" learn them after fulfilling the requirements. Part of this refinement of course included energy density and capacity in the pokemon using the move. This new move Yani made however was basically the first draft of the move and thus had very high requirements.-


    Ironically she knew the stuff she needed to do to use the move before she evolved but simplycked the requirements to do so. Now she had the energy density that was required to use the move which pleased her greatly. None of this solved the issue that came with her making yet another healing grass type move. I hadn''t even finished my n involving the first one yet and here she was with another. I won''t ever discourage my pokemon from doing something that was by it''s nature good for them but that didn''t mean it was any less irritating of a situation.-


    ''I suppose I will already have a target on my back anyways so whats making it bigger going to do?'' I think with a sigh. Moving on from that we spent the next couple days slowly making our way to the base of Mt. Chimney collecting arge amount of resources in the process. We even had a few more levels grabbed by everyone minus Tank who was still waiting for his next evolution as that wasing up in about three weeks.-


    Yani hit level sixty five like the monster she is , Gaia hit level seventy six , Vulcan hit ny four and Rune hit seventy five. The egg was also moving every now and then in the incubation pocket of my bag which was a sign that it would hatch soon. Within three days ording to the system after I checked with it. I would be lying if I said I wasn''t a bit excited about it as I really wanted to see what was up with the variation and ability that the thing had. I hoped beyond all else though it still had the water typing as my team desperately needed one.-


    Finally reaching the huge volcanos base all of my pokemon minus Gaia and Vulcanined that it was too damn hot. I had Rune , Yani and Tank all ask to go in their balls from how hot it was near the volcano. I couldn''t me them either as even I was sweating profusely and needed to drink some water with a bit of salt in it every now and again to maintain my hydration and saline levels. Thankfully the path to the lift was well visible and had signs along the side to make sure only an imbecile could get lost unless they chose to.

 Smiting Magma

    Smiting Magma


    Following this nice even red stone pathway up the side of the volcano the lift soon came into view and there blocking the way was two guys casually chatting with each other in dark red outfits that had horns on the hoodies and a stylized "M" on the chest while they also wore ck wide leg pants held up with red belts. ''I was expecting this and yet I am still disappointed.'' I thought with a sigh as I pulled out my pokenav to dial up Birch. The call rang for a suspiciously long time before the man answered with a less than pleased sounding voice.-


    "What did you do this time?" the man asked with clear irritation. "I would call someone else if I didn''t know for a fact that you have a bunch of free time. Anyways that aside I am on the side of Mt. Chimney and have spotted a couple of Magma grunts blocking the lift , the idiots aren''t even in disguise. I was calling to let you or more specifically the league know that I was going to take action to stop whatever they were nning at the top of the volcano." i said and the line went quiet.-


    "I''ll let nnery know so she can try and lend assistance since that''s her area , but Alex be careful. You might cause me an endless amount of headaches but I''d be rather upset if you got killed doing the leagues job , Birch out." the man said sternly before hanging up. "Well then with that out of the way who wants to go knee cap those two idiots over there?" I asked my two pokemon that were out at the moment with a grin. Surprisingly Vulcan gave up without a debate and let Gaia take the lead on this one.-


    She didn''t disappoint as two stone grasps popped up next to the two grunts that actually looked at them in confusion for a few moments before realizing that they were under attack. "CRACK! AAAAAAAAAHH!" the crisp sound of bones breaking and the agonizing wails that followed shortly afterwards proved that realization was far toote. Gaia had used the stone grasps totch onto both of the legs of the grunts and squeeze till the knees shattered from the pressure. "Brutally effective as always I see." I said and she grinned proudly.-


    Walking up to the two grunts who were screaming and rolling in pain on the ground I casually stripped their pokeballs off them and stored them in my bag before having Tank tie the grunts up. I of course made sure the wounds weren''t fatal before leaving them nearby for nnery or a ranger to pick up. Entering the lift station I saw the green haired dude from the games that operated the lift on his knees with his hands behind his back and sporting a fearful expression. "Why are you like that?" I asked as I recalled Gaia since she couldn''t fit through the doorway.-


    "I h-heard the screams! P-please don''t hurt me I was ckmailed into helping them!" The man said with a terrified stutter. "I see and the lift still works just fine right?" I asked calmly and the man nodded hurriedly. "Alright guy so here''s how this is going to work. First I am going to tie you to that bench over there , then I am going to take the lift up to stop the rest of these morons before they can actually make a problem of themselves. You just sit tight until someone from the leaguees to get you." I said and the man rushed over to the bench very cooperatively.-


    Tank strung the guy up nice and tight but as promised we didn''t move to harm him after that and got in the lift. It was a little crowded between Vulcan , Tank and myself but I was definitely not recalling them and dealt with it. Unlike in the game it took nearly an hour and a half to get to the top of the lift which was near the crown of the volcano. The heat was more barrable since the high elevation had the cold air blowing across it. -


    It was still not cold or anything but the heat from the stone and the cold from the surrounding sky sort of canceled each other out. I could see from the ss of the lift that nobody was guarding the top of it which was sloppy at best and stupid at worse. Opening the door I walked out and Vulcan immediately took point in the lift station as I released Yani and Rune to prepare to storm the Magma people outside the lift station. Gaia was too big to be released inside the station so I will need to wait until we are outside it to do so.-


    "Alright the n is simple so listen up." I said sternly as my team looked at me with intense focus. "Up ahead is at least seven grunts who we can take care of easily along with three admins that might be more tricky to deal with alongside their leader who should be close to the elite tier and will require a coborative effort to take out. The rules here are simple , all of them go into the afterlife as fast as possible and if you need help ask for it. Any questions?" I said sternly and they all remained silent.-


    Seeing this I nodded "Lets go then , Vulcans got point!" Imanded and we rushed out of the lift station. Immediately there were shouts of surprise as my team attacked the grunts milling about crippling and outright killing them before they could really react properly. The panic didn''tst long however as the admins started barking out orders to hold us back and the released pokemon got ughtered by Vulcan who moved in a blur from it''s stupid high speed. Yani was also raining down bullet seeds that while not highly damaging kept the enemy off bnce.-


    Grovyle were notoriously fast and she certainly lived up to this as she much like Vulcan never remained in ce for very long as she sowed distraction and trouble as she went. Rune however directly used shing rain to create horribly uneven muscr paralysis amongst all of the people and pokemon hit by it. Once an area was cleared out around the entrance to the station I released Gaia and I could see the looks on the Magma admins faces change to recognition and horror as well.-


    ''Looks like my reputation proceeds me.'' I thought with a smirk and had Gaia aim a hyper beam at the admins. Let me tell you Gaia using hyper beam was probably one of the most awesome things i have ever seen because she looked like a straight up godzi rip off , devastation included. Two of the admins didn''t even get the chance to try and run or defend themselves as the white beam of pure destruction crashed into and evaporated them and their pokemon in an instant. Thest admin had moved before Gaia attacked and thus had managed to get away with some messed up clothes but otherwise little injuries.

 Smiting magma(2)

    Smiting magma(2)


    ''Oh hey look it''s Courtney! Nine out of ten would smash if not psycho , you don''t put your dick in crazy after all.'' I thought as I admired her exposed body after her already admittedly skimpy clothes got more revealing from the damage they received. Originally she was wearing a red mini skirt and a stylish open front team magma hoodie with a ck skin tight shirt under it but now her skirt was much more mini in the front and her hoodie and shirt now had holes that showed some choice bits of flesh and even her left nipple.-


    She shifted the hoodie to cover her chest while using one of her free hands to cover her cherry red panties. In a way I was almost regretful about needing to kill her , almost. It was almostical when she actually send out her own team whichprised of a Camerupt , Magcargo , Golem , Mightyena and surprisingly enough Infernape. Each pokemon was between level seventy and eighty which was pretty good but not nearly enough to pose a problem to Gaia or Vulcan. To prove my point Vulcan directly skipped Courtney''s pokemon and crushed her skull with a single extreme speed.-


    In any normal battle attacking a trainer before taking out their pokemon is taboo with even wild pokemon being aware of this. But neither I or my team consider this a battle but rather pest extermination. So long as the pests are killed anything goes and that includes curb stomping the trainers while ignoring the pokemon. I simply had no patience to y nice with criminals like this and like most trainers my team was the same way. It was a phenomena that many professors agreed was because of the bond between trainer and pokemon. -


    Over time and depending on the strength of that bond personality traits from both sides "taint" the other side. It was why type specialist tended to have personalities that matched their specifically chosen typing. Ghost type trainers were yful and mischievous while grass type trainers were bright and friendly most of the time. This wasn''t always a positive thing however as some types had bad personalities by default like dragon types that were prideful and had short tempers. My personality was generally callus and ambitious which passed to my team to some degree while each of my pokemon was innately prideful and had other personality quirks as individuals that passed to me.-


    Vulcan was bloodthirsty to enemies while surprisingly gentle to children. Gaia was casual in everything she did including violence but was also an absolute foodie. Rune was a cheerful ball of energy and Yani was an intellectual that was kind if she could be. Tank was sort of the odd man out in this scenario as he was just in arrogant from what I could tell. I as the trainer got locked in a feedback loop with these traits which resulted in my own personality changing imperceptibly to be more in tune with them.-


    As you can tell this meant that I was totally chill with over the top violence so long as it was against those I believed deserving of it. Blood , screams and destruction was everywhere up here as my team ughtered their way across the area and I was calmly walking through it towards the spot I knew the machine was from the games. I saw Maxie fly off on a Pidgeot as I approached the spot which I felt disappointed by since I was hoping to kill him here but I knew roughly where the Magma base was so I will get another chance soon enough.-


    I can''t say I me Maxie for bitching out when I he saw me on my way as even if he was a bit bellow elite level with all of his pokemon like I suspected that meant nothing if I and my team ignore those same pokemon and focus on killing Maxie himself. The Magma leader had definitely watched Courtney get merc''d even after releasing her pokemon so any thought of recovering the situation with a pokemon battle was gone by the time i started headed his way.-


    Reaching the machine that had an empty slot in the middle of it and shing lights as well as streams of data on the screen at the front I couldn''t help but thing that this must have been expensive , right before spartan booting it into theva below. The machine wasn''t even fastened to the volcano for fucks sake so it was up and into theva in all of about thirty seconds. "Welp my jobs done here. Oh look nnery is here." I muttered to myself as I noticed a ming birding in hot(Pun intended).-


    I casually strolled back to the main area that my pokemon were just about done mopping up the left overs at as nnerynded with her fire variant Staraptor. I checked it out and couldn''t help but give a mental thumbs up as it was level one ten and had a nice mix of flying and fire type moves including a custom move that was her grandfathers signature move. The way the Staraptor looked around in caution despite knowing that my team had everything basically dead already had my approval as it showed a good sense of vignce rather than carelessness.-


    "You arete to the party , we''ve already finished entertaining the guests as you can see." I said casually as nnery got off her pokemon and looked around seriously. She looked at me and besides a faint blush she maintained herposure as a gym leader and representative of the league. "Report what happened here and exin why none of these people are still breathing." she said firmly. "Well first off you should know that the lift operator was ckmailed to help Team Magma with this whole thing and is at the bottom station tied up with two still living grunts. Other than that I simply did some pest control is all."-


    "I try to be thorough so there are no survivors besides any pokemon not taken out of their balls. Oh right before I forget the leader got away after seeing me tearing through his subordinates so I would like your assistance in storming the rats nest as it were." I said calmly. "You know where the Team Magma base is located?" nnery asked in surprise. "I might be wrong but considering the direction the leader flew off towards I''d assume somewhere further down the volcano , maybe a disguised cave system or something." I said with a shrug.-


    "Could he have been trying to trick you?" nnery asked not believing it was so easy to figure out where the base was. "I suppose it''s possible but considering how panicked the guy looked as he fled I doubt it. Rather hard to make deceitful actions when you are panicking after all. That could have been an act though. I''d like to check anyways just in case if that''s okay with you?" I said and she frowned deep in thought before looking at the surrounding carnage then back to me.

 To the base

    To the base


    "I need to call in the league to clean up this ... mess but it would be a good idea to investigate the direction the Magma team leader fled to." She said hesitating slightly when describing the scene around us. I nodded in understanding "That''s fine , I have a feeling the base won''t be expecting us to break down their door anyways." I said with a smirk. nnery didn''t question that rather ominous statement from me and got on her own pokenav to make a series of calls before mounting her Staraptor. -


    "Recall your team it will be faster to go over the volcano through the air so you''ll need to ride behind me on Sunny here." she said while patting the back of therge red bird pokemon. I did as instructed while my team didn''t voice anyints either. Not that I had much toin about anyway as the Sunny didn''t have much room to sit on so nnery was basically riding on myp. She had a toned tight body and nice small but soft ass so I got a little excited at the intimate contact. -


    With as much as I was packing even if I stopped myself from going full mast it was definitely more than enough for nnery to feel it pressing against my shorts. The bright red of her ears as we flew through the air was confirmation enough of this even if I couldn''t see her face itself. As much as I wanted to pay attention to the wonderous view that being so high up gave I had my eye trained on the volcano as we traveled down it''s length. While everything was blurry in my x-ray vision I still spotted the entrance of the base as it was denser than the surrounding stone making it stand out like a sore thumb to me.-


    "There!" I called out so that she could hear me over the wind and pointed at the spot. She nodded and leaned forward tomand sunny tond on that outcropping. We both dismounted the bird uponnding and she looked at the stone wall in confusion. "This looks the same as everywhere else though?" She questioned and I shook my head and point at a small indent on the wall that was in some shadows but was clearly electronic in nature.-


    "How did you even see that from so far up?" she asked amazed at the discovery. "I have really good eyesight. Now stand back so i can get us in here." I said firmly while releasing Gaia on the outcropping. "Dig around here until you can get a grip on the doorway and pull it out." Imanded and nnery watched as Gaia tore through the hard stone like sand before with a groan of metal and stone cracking ripped the entire doorframe and door of the base out of the surrounding stone. In it''s ce a gapping hole that was lit up with artificial light within it.-


    nnery had a serious expression seeing this and pulled out a small ck box and pressed a button at the top of it. The box expanded and opened up into a pole with a light at the top that shed brightly. "A signal for the other league people on their way?" I asked and she nodded. "You are in charge of this operation so whats ourbat parameters?" I asked after figuring out the purpose of the device. She looked surprised at this but seemed to realize I was throwing her a bone as if this goes well it will quiet the people who are rebelling against the younger generation of gym leaders.-


    It wasn''t a huge issue for legacy gym leaders like nnery whose family has run the gym for three generations and been the leader of Lavaridge for even longer. But the fact that quite a few Gym leaders that are recing the older generation of leaders are below the age of thirty has been causing some discord with the older generation of the poption. Many are worried that even if these new leaders are powerful they are too inexperienced to take the responsibilities thate with the position.-


    Taking down a criminal organization or even just dealing it a devastating blow would secure a great deal of support for these young gym leaders in the general poption. I figured that I would let nnery take charge of most of this raid as a favor to her and to earn me some good will with the other leaders when she inevitably tells them. The only part I wasn''t going topromise on was that if we get the chance Maxie is going to die. He created team Magma from scratch once and if he gets even the smallest chance of escape he could do it again.-


    I would rather not be called to deal with that so the man was going to die today if I get the opportunity. I made this clear before we entered the base and despite looking rather ufortable about it nnery agreed. The moment I stepped in the base however I got a new quest from the system. Pausing slightly to read it while I released my remaining team and recalled Gaia since she was too big to fit I frowned slightly at the details.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have ughtered most of team Magmas higher ups but the lynchpin Maxie is still running about. Having chased him to hisir now is the chance to rid this world of his influence once and for all! Hurry for he will soon take desperate measures!


    Objectives: Explore the base , Neutralize as many magma members as you can(0/65)(Optional) , Stop Maxie from awakening Groudon(Optional) , ????(revealed if previous objective is failed)(Optional)


    Rewards: 5x exp tickets , ???(Reward based on performance)(optional) , 2x ability tickets(Optional) , ??????(Optional)]


    The first two objectives were to be expected but thest two gave me a VERY bad feeling. "Capture and as ast resort kill everyone in here and make it fast I have a bad feeling about this!" Imanded my team and the made affirmations. nnery released her team as well and obviously they were all fire type but the selection was impressive. She had her fire variant Staraptor of course but then she also had a Camerupt , Houndoom , Typhlosion , Magcargo and ziken.Each and every one was over level one hundred and I even knew where one of them came from.-


    The Typhlosion was a gift from her grandfather who was simply called Mr. Moore nowadays but used to be the gym leader and had an extremely powerful champion tier Typhlosion on his team. My guess was that this one here was a child of that same Typhlosion and was certainly doing it''s parent proud as an elite pokemon. Unlike it''s father that had decades of experience and training to reach champion tier power this one was very young as far as I understand and yet was already well on it''s way to catching up to it''s parent.

 Titanic problems

    Titanic problems


    It was an interesting fact that while all pokemon had the potential to reach champion tier those that had powerful parents had a easier time doing so. No one was sure how exactly it worked but somehow bing powerful optimizes a pokemons gics to a degree so that the offspring of it had better innate talent. It was for this reason that most natural variants had powerful parentages or just got really lucky. Despite this talent however if the pokemon doesn''t put in the effort to grow stronger then power is not a guarantee at all.-


    Anyway nnery ryed her orders to her team and we started to head into the base at a quick but not overly fast rate. Clearing a cave system entirely was not as simple as one might expect. People could be hiding around every corner and that didn''t even mention the traps that were a pain to get past. Still despite this we made good progress through the cave that as we got deeper became clear was man made. We found huge tunnelers left in certain chambers that were obviously used to create this cave system.-


    The Magma personnel were also on red alert when we found them so it was obvious that Maxie figured out that we wereing after he calmed down. That didn''t bode well at all so I had us hurry as much as we could. We missed about twenty magma members from what the quest said by the time we reached the massive natural chamber that housed the sleeping Groudon. There with a triumphant look stood Maxie with a detonator in his hand. "You almost ruined everything with your ruthless culling of my team but you are toote! When i press this button several explosives set on the sleeping Groudon will detonate awakening it so it may expand thend to overtake the seas!" he said with an madugh before pressing the button.-


    I covered nnery while coating myself in aura as the bombs went off loudly and debris mmed into me but thankfully didn''t get through my aura. "GROOOOOOOOOOOOO!" my eardrums busted even with my aura protecting me as a roar shook the very air of the chamber. Looking over at the source instinctively I finally got a look at the continental creator itself. It stood so tall that it appeared to be a skyscraper almost.-


    It''s general build was simr to Gaia''s but had dark red huge scales all over it''s back and five red delike groves on it''s reptilian head. It''s tail was fairly long , wide and t like a beavers but ending in four delike scales. It''s chest and belly were te grey and along the entire side length of it''s body were white hard conical spikes. The gaps between Groudons scales formed a geometric pattern and it''s two grabbing ws reminded me a bit of a moles with the vicious long ws at eachfinger tip.-


    I shuddered in instinctual terror when it''s gaze swept over everyone in the chamber before stopping on Maxie who was too thrilled at Groudons awakening to notice that said pokemon was PISSED at being woke up in such a way. The gaps between Groudons scales began to glow red and fire energy gathered in it''s mouth and barely had time to curse before the world seemed to explode. "FUCK!" And then everything went white as the ground shattered and a shockwave from the attack detonating at Maxie''s location hit me and I passed out. My aura did next nothing to protect me from the sheer power of the impact.-


    "It''s not looking good Birch , Groudon is still destroying everything on it''s way to Sootopolis. We don''t know why it is headed there but we think it has something to do with Origin cave." I heard a familiar male voice say as consciousness finally returned to me. "Ugh!" I groaned in pain as I opened my eye and leaned forward to sit up. "Whoa there Alex! Easy! Easy!" Birch said as he ignored the other person in the room and rushed over to stop me from getting up. -


    "How long was I out?" I asked while sending some healing energy to the parts of me that ached. "Two days , You had a bad concussion from taking the brunt of the impact onto yourself but nnery had minimal injuries so that''s good news at least." Birch said and I nodded. It was a better oue than I was expecting to be honest as I was halfway sure that Groudon was going to kill us all in it''s anger. "And my team?" I asked and Birch grinned "They are a hardy lot so they were given a clean bill of health shortly after you were brought in. They just had some minor injuries from the shockwave is all." he said and I sighed in relief.-


    "How bad''s the situation with Groudon" I asked turning serious. "I believe that is where I can help shed some light." Another voice said and turning to look I saw Steven Stone standing there. "Not how I expected to meet you again but things rarely work out how we hope." I said and he chuckled "Quite true. But I suppose you were wanting to know what happened with Groudon after you passed out correct?" he asked and I nodded.-


    "It''s not good news as I''m sure you could have guessed. After killing the leader of Magma for awakening it Groudon gouged out a massive hole through the side of Mt. Chimney as it left which has caused vast amounts of damage alone but it didn''t stop there. From Mt. Chimney Groudon has traveled in a consistent line with the city of Sootopolis determined to be it''s destination. To our knowledge the ancient pokemon has destroyed six towns , ten viges and a single city and caused many casualties. All attempts by myself and the other champion tier trainers in Hoenn have yielded nothing but losses in our teams. We don''t know what to do besides evacuate everyone in it''s way." Steven said with a bit of grief.-


    "I know how to stop Groudon so long as team Aqua doesn''t do what I think they will." I said cutting to the chase immediately. "About that ... we just got word that team Aqua went to Pyre and stole the red orb from it''s peak alongside the submarine that Stern had in teport before it got destroyed." Steven said and I groaned. "Then we have to wait for them to wake up Kyogre as well then." I said mildly frustrated.-


    "That seems like it would only make things worse though?" Birch said confused. "Not exactly , see those two ancient pokemon HATE each other because both of their domains sh innately. At the same time however they are equals in terms of power so while their surroundings will get destroyed in their sh the destruction will be limited to just that rather than if they were to wander about aimlessly. The way to calm both of them however and have them go back to their slumbers is in the form of the third ancient pokemon that is stronger than both of them , Rayquaza." I said seriously.

 Into action

    Into action


    "How do you know all of this?" Steven asked seriously. "I know because unlike most people I actually spent the effort needed to understand the legends and myths of the region I am currently in. There was even a forum about the subject on the pok." I said and the two men looked embarrassed at not figuring this out themselves. "Mythology and legends aren''t usually a part of training or researching." Birch said trying to defend them. I wasn''t having any of it though as I firmly believed that with pokemon so powerful they can be considered gods actually existing the least everyone could do would be to understand as much about them as possible.-


    Honestly it would take all of maybe an hour to go over the myths and legends so that if in the very slim chance one were to encounter said legendary pokemon they didn''t get themselves killed while pissing it off. *cough Maxie cough*. "You say that but there is a giant prehistoric pokemon leaving a trail of destruction behind it that none of you knew how to stop that says otherwise." I chastised and Birch sighed in defeat while Steven also looked shamed.-


    "Now that I have made my point clear and am certain you will actually try and understand the things in charge of our world we should probably get going." I said a I pulled the I.V out of my arm and grunted as I stepped off the bed. "Alex you are in no condition to walk much less handle this situation!" Birch said in a panic as he tried to stop me. I looked him dead in the eyes "We don''t have time for this and you know it." I said sternly and he stared me down for a good minute before sighing and moving aside.-


    "For the record I don''t like this." he said and I nodded "I don''t expect you to but I am clearly the only one who has any idea where to go or at the very least is acting on that knowledge." I said and Began to strip off the hospital gown and put on my shorts that were nearby. I winced at the pain that came from moving but pressed on with gritted teeth. It was clear that the shockwave had caused internal damage all over my body that my healing ability was barely alleviating as I burned through my energy pool.-


    Once I got my stuff back in ce I looked at Birch again "Where are my pokeballs and team?" I asked. "The balls should be in your bag and your team was outsidest I checked." he said honestly. I checked my bag and sure enough the balls were all there and Tank was still within his. I attached the balls the my belt like they should be and headed out of the room. "Either of you have a way to get to Pacifidlog and then from there across the sea some distance?" I asked on the way and both Steven and Birch looked confused.-


    "Why would we need that?" Steven asked curiously. "Well from what I understand the ce that Rayquaza tends to hang out is located slightly north east of that town on a small ind. A ce called Sky pir." I said honestly. "You mean the mirage ind?" Birch asked confused and I shook my head. "Nah Sky pir is another ind that is just out of sight of the town from what I know." I said and they both looked surprised to hear this.-


    "Why haven''t we heard of it then?" Birch asked confused. "Can''t say for certain but it''s possible that there are people who have gone to some lengths to make sure the ind never got recorded past the legends and myths so that nobody went poking Rayquaza for no good reason. A good idea to be sure considering the current situation with Groudon and likely Kyogre as well soon enough." I said casually. Neither of the men lookedfortable with the idea of a hidden faction keeping such secrets but they also couldn''t argue that it had worked out until now.-


    With the vast majority of people unaware of the locations of the legendries only a few might stumble across them and if they don''t go bbing about it to everyone that number was perfectly eptable. After all most people don''t go around with the mindset of doing something as ill advised as pissing off a legendary. Hell even in the cases of Aqua and Magma they actually had a goal in mind , a stupid one but a goal none the less. That actually reminded me about team Gctic that wanted to remake the whole cosmos and was destined to epically fail.-


    Like seriously did they expect that Arceus would just let them even if they didn''t get stopped by the games protag? If anything I suspected that Cyrus would get all the way to chaining Dialga and Palkia and MAYBE Giratina before the creator pokemon would decide to make an appearance and null and void that shit immediately. The best part is that I can even see Cyrus trying the chain Arceus as well only for the creator to shrug it off since it would be rather stupid if the thing was actually affected by it''s own creation.-


    Shaking my head to clear away these distracting thoughts we finally reached the exit to the pokecenter we were in. Stepping out I was immediately hit with hot and humid air and I guessed immediately that I was in Lavaridge. Looking around I spotted my team chilling in the shade of Gaia who was sitting next to the pokecenter chewing on a huge chunk of iron. ''nnery must have given it to her.'' i thought as I whistled and my team looked over at me. The ground shook a bit as they all got up and bound over to me. -


    They all started to fuss over my health but I raised a hand to silence them "I''ll be fine but we have a job to do. Groudon is causing a lot of suffering so we are going to put a stop to it." I said firmly and I got collective agreement. Recalling all of them I turned to the two men following me "So how are we doing this?" I asked and Birch immediately looked at Steven. "I have a Scarmory that we can ride for a fast method of travel to Pacifidlog and this sky pir you mentioned." he said as he released the mon in question.-


    I quirked an eyebrow when I saw it as the Scarmory wasrger than normal but not a variant and it''s level was at one sixty three which put it firmly at champion tier if my understanding was correct. "Sil here will be get us where we need to go but fair warning she is a bit temperamental so the ride might be a bit rough." Steven warned and I made eye contact with the pokemon and red my aura. Immediately the steel type stood a little straighter as if to present a better image which surprised Steven but made me smirk. "I think it''ll be the smoothest ride you''ve ever had." I said with a chuckle.

 To sky pillar

    To sky pir


    "Whats going on?" he asked confused. "I red my aura up to show my status as an aura master. Pokemon tend to feel reverence for those blessed with the stuff so Sil here is wanting to show her good side to impress me. To be fair though I was already quite impressed with how strong she is." I said and the bird preened under thepliment. "I see , sounds useful." Steven said as he mounted the birds back and and I followed suit. It was a bit roomier than it was on nnery''s Staraptor so we weren''t right up on each other thankfully.-


    I knew it would take awhile for us to get there and decided to sit back and enjoy the view as it really was awe inspiring. From above the area near Lavaridge and Mt. Chimney there were few trees but one could see every nt and pokemon there for miles in every direction. This didn''t even begin to cover the sheer vastness of the sky itself that looked so much wider than when you were on the ground. Honestly I couldn''t even begin to describe how incredible the view truly was from so high up.-


    The wind was a bit cold and you could asionally get hit by a bug which stung something fierce if the curses Steven spoke afterwards were any indication. Thend below changed fairly quickly as we rapidly flew by and I could admit that flying ces was definitely WAY faster than walking or running. After only about an hour I could see Mauville in the distance alongside the trail of destruction that just barely seemed to miss it. We were heading almost straight south after all so we could see the path left by Groudon and it really struck home just how bad it was.-


    Steven had made a point of showing me the locations that used to house people and in all of them everything was just gone. There was no ruins or partially destroyed buildings but those settlements were just erased entirely without a trace. Clearly Groudon took anything between it and it''s goal as an enemy and vaporized it as all that was left was moltenkes of cooling metal and stone. I didn''t even want to consider the amount of pokemon that had been killed along the way as well.-


    As we passed over Mauville I could just barely make out Watson lead a small army of electric types to herd the refugees and league personnel that were rapidly working to house the now homeless many. "Head down real fast so I can drop off some supplies that might help out." I spoke over the sound of the air rushing by us and Steven nodded before leaning forward and tapping on his pokemon to take us down. Watson clearly recognized the steel bird as he had an area cleared out for it tond on and we didn''t even get off as I started piling up a bunch of potions on the ground next to us.-


    Watson saw this and gave me a thumbs up before we took off again and left the ce behind. I could see Watson bark out orders and some people quickly rushed over and grabbed the stuff I left behind before taking it where it was most needed. It wasn''t as much help as I would have liked to give but we were already on a tight schedule to stop Groudon and possibly Kyogre. Thanks to the differences between this world and the games I wasn''t one hundred percent sure where the sky pir was so we may have to search for awhile to find it.-


    In the games it was a short trip from Pacifidlog but in reality i was pretty sure it was much further away. Otherwise it wouldn''t make much sense that no one seemed to know where it was. I also couldn''t help but find it ironic that after we hit the sea to fly over it Groudon had created a sort ofnd bridge to Sootopolis that while crumbling away at the edges from the sea cutting into it it was technically an expansion of thend. So in a way team Magma seeded in their goal after they had been dismantled.-


    Our path differed from Groudons however so we never caught up with the titan and eventually made it to Pacifidlog. The town was an unusual one in that the entire thing was built on top of buoyant materials that were anchored in ce via the sea bed below them. The walkways between the buildings appeared to be felled logs just floating there but I could tell that was actually just the aesthetics of the ce. "Alright from here it should be north east somewhere." I said and Steven nodded.-


    Rather than tell you all about the boring search for Sky pir I think i''ll skip straight to it after sharing some interesting information about Pacifidlog. See the town had been anchored in that spot for so long that a coral reef of sorts had formed under it attached to the chains. This reef was actually one of the most sessful cases of humans and pokemon living in harmony as nearly all the pokemon living in the reef had been there their entire lives so they only knew how to work with the people living above them. -


    The town was almost part of the ecosystem of the reef as the humans regrly dived down and nourished the reef or collected things from it like food or pearls. The pokemon there also benefited as the people fed them and kept them healthy thanks to the pokecenter in the middle of the town that the pokemon knew they could go to if they were injured or ill. In a fascinating way Pacifidlog had be a recognized neutral ground for pokemon living in the sea so even if a champion tier pokemon were to show up nobody would panic at all as they wereing in peace for treatment or just to rx.-


    A good example of that was the elite tier Lapras I spotted getting barnacles pulled off it near one of the buildings. Trained pokemon don''t get barnacles due to the way pokeballs worked so any living thing on a pokemon gets left behind when a pokemon is balled. Barnacles are part of that so it was obvious that this particr Lapras was wild. Despite that it trusted the neutrality of Pacifidlog enough to allow a person on it''s shell to get the barnacles that it had.-


    This wasn''t the only example of this either as far as I could see but certainly the most notable by quite a wide margin. In a way it was almost strange seeing children swim with Sharpedo happily and not get ripped apart by the predatory pokemon. Anyways after searching for about three hours we finally spotted Sky pir and I had to admit that it was certainly understandable why no one seemed to find it , the whole thing was surrounded by a thick fog that felt suspiciously artificial to me.

 Sky pillar

    Sky pir


    You know how you can pass by a forest that had been nted by hand and despite it not looking off you can''t help but feel something wasn''t quite right? Well that was the vibe I was getting from the fog. Even more evidence of my suspicions was that the fog NEVER went beyond a certain point as though it was contained in a invisible box of sorts. "Be careful this fog doesn''t seem natural." I warned Steven and he nodded seriously. Sil flew forward carefully but the fog seemed to part in front of us as we weren''t obstructed at all.-


    Even using my aura senses I couldn''t pick up on whatever was making me uneasy about this fog even after wended on the ind. The ind itself was entire devoid of fog which made both myself and Steven ufortable. I released my team as I remembered that there lived some pretty powerful pokemon on this ind. Steven followed my lead as he knew less than I did about the ce. "Back me up if it looks like I need it but otherwise follow my lead." I said and he nodded.-


    The tower itself was a monstrous construction that was so tall and wide that I couldn''t even see the top from down here at the bottom. Taking a deep breath I entered the ce with my team ready to face whatever the tower threw at us. The inside of the tower was surprisingly well lit just from the sunlighting in from the windows and the walls had faded painted lines that reminded me of the grooves I saw on Groudons body. Otherwise I could honestly say that the ce was totally empty. At least that was until I used my aura senses at which point I broke out in a cold sweat.-


    The walls were hollow and within them many auras were present and clearly watching us. Using my x-ray vision I was able to confirm that most of it was ydol and Sableye line pokemon. "Under no circumstances is anyone to touch the walls." I warned seriously and my team and Steven with his own looked confused but my tone made it clear I epted no argument. We were VASTLY outnumbered and I didn''t want to give these currently peaceful pokemon a reason not to continue doing so.-


    We crossed the floor and went up the stairs carefully at the other end of the room only to find out that the second floor was almost identical to the first. Continuing up the tower the damage to it started to appear alongside fewer and fewer pokemon. I ended up recalling my team so as to not put too much weight on the floors as it was starting to get crumbly. Steven followed my lead and recalled his team except for his ydol that I told him was fine since it was levitating. That didn''t mean the poor pokemon wanted to stay out however as the exact opposite was true.-


    I couldn''t me it though as the closer to the top we got the more heavy the very air itself felt as Rayquaza presence grew clearer and clearer. "BRRRRRNG!" We jumped in fright as the call sound for Stevens pokenav went off. He answered the call and listened in silence for a moment before hanging up with a serious expression. "That was Birch , you were right Aqua has awoken Kyogre and the ancient pokemon is shing with Groudon near Sootopolis. The city has taken serious damage and the shing power is causing a violent pattern of weather to spread from it." he said and I sighed.-


    "I was hoping that after seeing the death and destruction that Groudon brought aqua would leave the beast be but clearly I overestimated their intelligence. Lets hurry , only Rayquaza can fix this now." I said determined and Steven agreed. In the game Rayquaza didn''t harm the person who came to plead for it''s aid but this was reality and the lord of the sky was not a scripted being but a true living and intelligent one that could just as easily kill us and let the two titans fight it out for many years before intervening.-


    Needless to say I was understandably nervous about how this was going to go for us. At some point up the tower you could feel Rayquaza presence all around you pressing on and suppressing you. For good reason I discovered as there was a hole in one of the walls that was blocked by an emerald green colored thing from the outside of the tower. "It''s coiled around the tower." I whispered in horror and Steven shared my feelings if his pale skin and wet brow was any indication.-


    I knew that like the other two titans Rayquaza would berger than shown in the game by a wide margin but i hadn''t thought it would coil around this massive tower in such a manner. Ten floors I realized were wrapped around by the pokemon and if it had just casually tightened it''s coil could dispatch us without any struggle. This elicited a primal terror that no amount of deadened emotions could stop from arising. Steeling our resolve we continued up the tower and I couldn''t help that notice that the further up we went the worse the damage was.-


    ''The other pokemon living here have been maintaining the towers integrity.'' I thought in understanding. This was how the tower was still standing after so long and so much stress from the colossal pokemon pressing down on it from the top. Soon enough we reached the roof of the tower and we froze immediately. Taking up almost the entirety of the roof was a massive green and red head that had two yellow eyes gazing down at us with what I was willing to bet money was amusement. <em>''You mortals are always so timid , I won''t bite you know.''</em> A deep voiced rumbled in my head causing my eyes to widen.-


    "You speak ournguage?" I asked in surprise. ''<em>Not quite little mortal. I am speaking to you through my own aura , an ability all those born can perform with enough practice. I must say though that you are a most curious mortal however. Your entire being seems to be in a constant state of flux yet also seems to require a catalyst to change , most curious indeed.''</em> Rayquaza says with a glint in it''s massive yellow eyes. "I am afraid the reason for that is unknown to even myself." I said honestly.-


    ''<em>Oh? From your aura I can see you speak truly , how fascinating! Tell me mortal have you ever encountered another of my kin to your knowledge many years back , what you call gods?''</em> Rayquaza asked and I shook my head.<em>''Again you are speaking truly , perhaps I will make inquiries after you leave this ce. Anyways for what reason does two mortals seek me after so very long without so much as a hello? Your kind has only lingered about at the bottom of my rest in recent memory after all.''</em>

 Adjusted goal

    Adjusted goal


    "Groudon and Kyogre are currently shing and we were hoping you might calm them." I said honestly. I also noted that Rayquaza had confirmed my theory of people having known of this location but kept it quiet. ''<em>It''s been about five hundred years since those twost battled so I am surprised that you mortals even remembered that I was the one that calmed them at that time. Usually by this point in your growth cycles you have very few records of us.''</em> Rayquaza said calmly. "What do you mean by growth cycles?" I asked with a suspicion I wasn''t going to like the answer.-


    ''<em>I suppose there''s no harm in telling you. This is not the first time you mortals have formed a civilization that has grown so advanced. In truth it isn''t even that special really as I have witnessed the rise and fall of such a thing no less than twenty times. There are differences of course but the general structure is always surprisingly simr. In an ironic twist you mortals also tend to be the reason for each and every one of those civilizations falling in the end and having everything reset for you.''</em> The legendary said with an amused tone.-


    I REALLY didn''t like what I heard at all. How could I when I had basically just been told that in all reality my goal was impossible to achieve. What good is leaving a legend when the civilization it belongs to will likely self destruct and erase all trace of it with it? I wasn''t surprised to learn that civilization rose and fell over the course of this worlds history as simr things happened on earth but learning they were as advanced as the current one or even further yet still fell put a serious damper on things.-


    ''<em>Ah yes , I recognize that look. You were hoping you were something special right? You mortals always do. Honestly it''s almost funny how you lot always seem to think the world revolves around you only to have that shattered by the reality of just how insignificant you really are. While you stay here and contemte that I should go stop those two before they damage your cycle beyond repair. Do stay put though, I am curious what conclusions youe to.''</em> Rayquaza said before the tower rumbled as it uncoiled from around it and shot into the sky.-


    I hardly even noticed though as I was far to lost in my own thoughts to pay attention to it. I made changes to my goals in hopes of figuring out how to achieve my grand ambition but the only option I came to was entirely impossible. Godhood , that was the only solution I could think of. Bing immortal would let me keep leaving a name behind regardless of how much time passed but even then I would only be able to take a break for a while before being forced to do something to reinvigorate my name again.-


    Bing a god or at least so close to it that no one could tell the difference was the only real chance of leaving a truly eternal legend behind. Think about it , I reach that point and the whole world knows my name. Time passes and a civilization ends but at the start of the new one I reveal myself to all of humanity and boom remembered forever so long as I don''t just totally vanish. It would be like how no one forgets that the godly legendries exist even if the details get lost to time.-


    ''I don''t need my name to be remembered so long as I am never forgotten.'' I decided and rxed finally. "Took you quite some time to get past whatever Rayquaza said to you." Steven said seriously. I flinched slightly at that as I had honestly been so distracted that I forgot he was here. "I''m surprised you aren''t freaked out about what it said." I said slightly confused as I looked at him. He shook his head "Besides what you said I didn''t get a single word of that conversation , can''t say as I am not curious though." he said honestly.-


    "Some things are better left unknown and trust me when I say that what I learned is one of them. I don''t think i will ever be able to see the world the same way again." I said firmly. "I don''t want to know , got it. I assume you managed to convince Rayquaza to handle the two in Sootopolis right?" he asked and I nodded which let him sigh in relief. "Mission aplished then. Lets go , this ce makes me nervous." he said and I shook my head. "You can go if you''d like but I was told to stay here and I have some thing to speak with Rayquaza about." I said and he froze.-


    "How will you get back from this ind without me though?" He asked concerned. I shrugged "I guess I could try and convince some Altaria in this ce to fly me to the maind after I talk with Rayquaza." I said casually. It was true too as while getting to this ind required some help from Steven since Icked a flying pokemon myself getting back to the maind was a simple matter given the many Altaria that were living here.-


    Convincing at least one of them to take me should be possible and if not well I could always risk sounding rude and ask Rayquaza instead. If that doesn''t work I guess I could call someone toe get me because I am NOT swimming. "I''ll stay so we can go together but I think I''ll wait at the bottom of the tower for you to get done here." Steven said and I nodded. "Can''t say I me you." I said with a chuckle. He had already proven his bravery by not shitting himself in the face of Rayquaza in my opinion.-


    There fear and then there''s the sort of inbuilt dread thates from standing before something you have no chance of surviving should it decide to end you. This was beyond simple emotions and was hard coded into every living being capable of determining danger. I certainly wasn''t immune to it as even I froze in front of Rayquaza until it personally snapped me out of it. While I waited for the ancient pokemon to return Steven made his way down the tower like he said he would and I sat down on a broken chunk of stone to wait.-


    About ten minutester I got an update to my quest that told me Groudon had been stopped but yet the quest wasn''t finished. No new objectives showed up but the quest was still iplete which was weird. ''Did this thing glitch out? Wait can it even glitch out!?'' I was starting to panic when the air grew heavy dragging my thoughts back to reality just in time to see Rayquaza coil around the tower again. ''<em>All done , you left out the part where you mortals were the ones who awoken them.''</em> The legendary said without seeming to really care.

 Boon

    Boon


    "You never asked and I would have asked for your aid even if it wasn''t humans who woke them so I didn''t think it necessary to say." I said honestly. ''<em>I see , well either way I am quite surprised to find you not have fled as you mortals tend to do when I leave you here. Why is that?''</em> Rayquaza asked easily epting my answer. "First is that I believe in reciprocity and as you requested me to stay after I requested you to solve the sh between Groudon and Kyogre , I did. Second is that I had questions that you may be able to answer." I said with a shrug.-


    ''<em>Reciprocity? What arge word for a simple concept. You do something for me and I do something for you , a trade of sorts. Though I do believe in this particr scenario what I did is worth more than what you have.''</em> It said amused. "And that''s the concept of value. How do we determine what has it and if it does how much? For me what you did was a great and powerful thing but for you it might be little more than a short trip and a bit of posturing so is it truly valuable or not?"-


    "For me certainly but for you I doubt it whereas I believe my staying here as you requested to be a terrible risk to myself since I doubt I could have any possibility of even struggling should you choose to take my life." I bantered and the amusement in Rayquaza''s eyes deepened. If I had to describe the ancient legendary in a single word I would have to say "Bored". That''s right bored , as far as I can tell Rayquaza is merely using me to entertain itself so I felt it prudent to y along with some verbal banter of my own.-


    I wasn''t bothered by this though as it only made sense if you think about it. Rayquaza had to be ridiculously old and had likely ran out of things to upy it''s time a long time ago. As a result anything that was different from normal was a precious and valuable thing. Rayquaza had already stated that most mortals tended to be timid and skittish with it so what better way to get on it''s good side then to be bold and calm?-


    To be clear I didn''t doubt for a single instant that I was figured out immediately but Rayquaza was bored so it wasn''t going to end the fun if it could help it. ''<em>That is true , I have been alive for so long that you could not even begin toprehend it and I rule over the sky and as such hold power that matches my age. I could snuff you out just as if you were a me burning upon a wick.''</em> Rayquaza paused dramatically and the corner of it''s mouth rose ever so slightly. ''<em>However I am in an excellent mood so I will forgive your presumptuousness just this once.</em> It finished as if it were being gracious.-


    "That''s is certainly good to hear , I would hate to die before I achieved my ambitions after all." I joked and Rayquaza looked intrigued.<em> ''And what is it you desire? Wealth? Females? or perhaps power like so many others?''</em> It asked curiously. "I want to be remembered as the best that ever was , an eternal legend that will remain for all time. A normally impossible goal but I am uniquely set in such a way that it is actually doable but there is one obstacle that I will always need to ovee to achieve it." I said looking it right in the eyes.-


    ''<em>Ah! No wonder you didn''t flee you aspire to be be divine or at the least eternal. Even more so you know that the biggest challenge to ovee is not some mortal affair but my kin and I whom you mortals consider gods. I can say for certain that you have your work cut out for you little mortal. While I and a few of my kin will not care to stand in your way there are some that will seek to test you if not outright deny your ambitions.''</em> Rayquaza said casually.-


    "I know this but I refuse to let this knowledge hold me in ce. I will only ept failure when doing otherwise simply isn''t an option. In other words I will never stop trying until I die and I have a feeling that will only happen if one of you kill me." I said firmly. ''<em>Such a fierce determination! I have rarely seen such intensity in a mortal but I wonder how long that me will burn within you?''</em> It asked with a bit of eagerness. "For as long as I feed it." I say seriously.-


    ''<em>Very well mortal! I shall be the first of my kin to aid you on your journey but I doubt I will be thest!''</em> Rayquaza spoke and instantly it felt as if the weight of the world itself was pressing down on me as it began to glow. I tried to stay conscious but the moment that glow started rushing towards me I lost it and cked out. When I came to I found myself at the bottom of the tower with Steven looking at me in concern.-


    As I looked back at him I knew what Rayquaza had done or at least I thought I did. After I was knocked out the ancient pokemon regenerated my missing right eye or I thought so until I sent some aura to it as it was suspiciously void of the stuff. "ARGH!" I screamed as pain flooded me the instant the energy entered the eye. I could only grit my teeth as the pain throbbed in my eye socket and I felt liquid flow down my face from my eye as I went from blind on my right side to blurry to perfect rity to superhuman vision.-


    Steven watched this happen it a concerned expression but also clear reluctance that I only came to learn was from him seeing I actually had a new eye. I felt super off bnce by the time my new eye was done being integrated into my body. That was where the agony came from by the way as the legendary gave me a new eye but it couldn''t force my body to ept it for whatever reason. As a result I had to experience what it was like to have every nerve that connected to ones eyes reconnect and start sending signals all at once.-


    Getting off the ground I felt horribly off bnce as my right eye was CONSIDERABLY more powerful than my left for some reason. ''Is this the aid it was talking about? Better vision? Seems kinda cheap right?'' I thought confused. As it turns out I was counting my eggs before they hatched as there was far more to my new eye than I realized at this moment.


    ____________________________


    Author here, I apologize for the dy but my inte was out for thest two days and I didn''t have much choice in the matter.

 Boost

    Boost


    As I found out shortly after that my eye was not even human at all in appearance but rather was the slit reptilian of a dragon types eyes. Even stranger it wasn''t blue like my normal eye color but rather yellow like Rayquaza''s own eyes. I also couldn''t keep it open for very long either as the eye passively drained my aura if I did. ording to Steven he felt nervous when I looked at him with the eye as well like if a dragon type was angry.-


    The biggest thing however was that when I went to test out if my x-ray vision was fixed the blood vessels in my nose busted from the sheer information overload I got from the eye. It was as if in that one eye alone the ability had been cranked up to a hundred while the other was still at one. I saw MILES away from me in perfect rity and it was more than I could handle. ''Fuck! Is this a blessing or a curse? I can''t use this damn thing at all without suffering for it and even using it like a normal eye is impossible as it drains my energy constantly.'' I thought in mild irritation as I put my eyepatch back on.-


    I get that I sounded like a spoilt brat but I had a point at least. Having this eye was actually MORE inconvenient for me than when I only had one eye which was bullshit. Pulling up my status I wasn''t surprised at all to find that this new eye was actually ssified as an ability. [Dragon eye(gift of Rayquaza)] , rather on the nose in terms of names but the system was usually like that so i wasn''t surprised. -


    Interestingly however the quest was finally over and my new eye wasn''t the reward for thest objective but rather I got a guaranteed ability ticket. I was perfectly ok with that too as I knew exactly which one I wanted , Boost. The reason I wanted this particr ability was that I knew exactly what it did since it was one of the abilities recorded by the league. Boost was quite simple and at the same time HIGHLY useful for any pokemon trainer or aura master. The reason was because it gave the person possessing it a HUGE amount of energy innately but that was merely a necessary side effect of it''s true purpose.-


    Like most abilities Boost was active rather than passive in nature and what it did was burn the users energy again as fuel to supercharge the energy of another temporarily. In other words in exchange for my own energy I could allow my pokemon to jump tiers temporarily which was what made it a very in demand ability. Unfortunately there had only been a single person known to have the ability , Samuel motherfucking Oak. There was a reason the man was so feared and respected after all.-


    Using this ability in conjunction with his champion tier pokemon made the good professor the uncontested most powerful person in the world. Many have tried to reach his level of power through sheer training but the old man hadn''t just sat on his thumbs while they did so and unlike them he actually had experience of what that level of power felt like so he was able to reach it even without his ability and with it he was a force of nature. It was no exaggeration to say that the old man was the tallest and sturdiest pir the league had and kept wars from breaking out by his mere presence.-


    A example of this was the hostilities between Kanto and Johto that neighbor each other. It was sort of an open secret that the people of both of those regions had quite a bit of bad blood between them from past battles and wars yet are being made to y nice by Oak after he got involved in thest war to put an end to the fighting. Many older folk in those regions wanted the old man to kick the bucket so they can settle their grudges.-


    I knew that if I wanted to ever exceed the man I needed his ability so now that i had the option you had better believe that I aim to take it. I love the system really I do but even then I knew that with the selection of abilities being random and extensive the chance of me getting it normally is miniscule. I obviously didn''t cash in the ticket immediately because I highly doubted that Steven wouldn''t notice that my aura grew by several times suddenly. The rest of the quest rewards were just an added bonus in my opinion at this point.-


    Five exp tickets and six item tickets was useful to be sure but they were mostly short term benefits. This was especially true now that my pokemon were starting to enter elite tier. That was where talent stopped meaning almost anything at all as every pokemon that reaches that point is talented. It was no longer a matter of training hard to grow to champion tier , not to say that wasn''t aponent that is. You needed resources , experience and beyond all else monstrous levels of training. A good example would be the mastery of moves that one needed to reach champion tier being mastered at MINIMUM.-


    The fact was that all champions had moves at transcendent if my own secret peek at Stevens team was anything to go by. What a move being transcendent actually meant was beyond me as I had only just achieved mastered with a few moves my pokemon knew. Anyways we left Sky pir after I got my eye covered and reassured Steven that I was fine. I had him drop me off at the location that used to be teport with the excuse that I wanted to search the area for anyone that might be nearby.-


    It wasn''t a lie since I was intending to do that but it wasn''t my main reason for it even if he believed it was. Still we swapped numbers and he took off in the direction of Mauville , likely to help out however he could. Before all else I x-rayed my surroundings to see if there was an underground bunker or hidden observer in the destroyed city. I didn''t use the ability at full power though since I couldn''t process that amount of information to begin with.-


    Still it turned out to be a good idea anyways as I did indeed spot a secret chamber underground though nobody was in it. Well when I say nobody I meant humans as there was a single pokemon there and it was a doozy. A ghost type pokemon that was new born but gave me chills as I knew what it was born from. A pokemon born from the resentment and death of everyone that lived in teport bound to a single stone by their grudges , a Spiritomb.

 Spiritomb

    Spiritomb


    While I thought the whole ghost types being born from resentment and hatred thing was bullshit I knew that there were a few actual exceptions to this. Spiritomb was one of those as it was a species of pokemon that was only born after many lives were lost in a location. This wasn''t conjecture or myth or some other nonsense but cold hard fact. While it was true that the vast majority of ghost types were born without death being even slightly involved the ones who were born from it had a very bad habit of being highly dangerous and aggressive depending on the circumstances of the deaths.-


    It was so bad in fact that even the league had public announcements to avoid these pokemon because seven out of ten times the pokemon was after your life. The list at the moment of ghost type pokemon to avoid in the wild was Spiritomb , Fross and Drifblim. For good reason too as each and every one of them wanted to kill you in most cases. It was even worse in that very few Spiritomb were known to exist and the ones that were tended to be massively understudied so little was known about them other than one detail that made me very nervous at the moment.-


    The more negative energy that went into their creation the higher the chance of them being a legion Spiritomb. Legion Spiritomb were widely considered the only variant of the species to exist and the defining feature of this variation was the ck color of the spirit body and the many star like red dots all through out it. I was making eye contact with exactly one such pokemon through thepacted soil and metal between it and myself.-


    I watched the jagged red mouth turn into a malicious grin and reacted immediately "DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!" I yelled just in time for the ground above the Spiritomb to explode. Ominous energy rolled out of the hole darkening the surroundings as a feeling of malice and dread fell upon my team and I. This was no mischievous but friendly Sableye that we needed to deal with but a violent entity born from the resentment and hatred of several thousand people and pokemon. While I doubted that everyone who lived in teport had been killed as Groudon passed through I knew that those who had been unwilling or unable to flee had died.-


    So this Spiritomb only had a fraction of the power it may have had should nobody have left the city in time. This wasn''t reassuring though as legion Spiritomb were tricky creatures to deal with no matter the circumstances. The reason for this was best summarized with the phrase "too many cooks ruin the soup." All those different personality imprints from the dead mean that the pokemon is constantly arguing with itself and thus difficult to predict. As a pure energy being minus it''s keystone Spiritomb there was no muscle warning before a move was released and going off expressions was a foolish idea.-


    Contrary to what one might expect Spiritomb is not actually MADE of souls but rather the spiritual energy of those who died shortly after each other. In other words it is a newborn with the fragments of several thousand peoplesst thoughts in one mind. ''If there was ever a pokemon that needs therapy this was it.'' I thought as I watched the red "face" in the cloud rising from the hole swap between many expressions at a constant rate. Rage , sadness , envy , eptance , madness and more all in a weird show of malice and otherworldliness.-


    "I don''t suppose I can convince you toe quietly could I?" I asked and I got a shadow ball hurled at me in response. Gaia covered her ws in dark type energy and stepped in front of the attack catching it with little more than a grunt on her part. The fact she even grunted was a bad sign as she was dark type which meant she was resistant to the Ghost type moves and even used dark type energy to catch the attack yet she still felt it when she caught it.-


    "Gaia, dark pulse! Vulcan attack it''s keystone but don''t use normal type energy , Rune interference! Yani stand ready to assist with nature orb!" I barked out a series of orders rapidly and my team moved to obey. Gaia charged up dark pulse while Rune and Vulcan moved in two different directions with theter heading straight for the stone that the Spiritomb wasing out of. Rune sent weak electrical attacks at the ck and red cloud that was the spiritual body of the ghost type making it hiss and howl angrily while Vulcan circled the cloud to get to the stone but was being blocked by the ghost type with another part of it''s spirit body.-


    ''Note to self Spiritomb can split their attention in multiple ways at once.'' I thought as I saw the pokemon multitask without any issue at all. I suppose it made sense given their many personalitied minds but it wasn''t included in the known information on the things. For those wondering why I was fighting this thing rather than leaving it alone then the answer is twofold. First was because I wanted it on my team , it was a variant legendary after all.-


    Second because now that the whole Groudon thing was over with I imagined that people will want to rebuild here and if I just left this thing here it was DEFINITELY going to kill a lot of people. Spiritomb weren''t the sort of pokemon to leave the area they were born in which put this one in a particrly bad spot. I''m not saying it couldn''t leave if it wanted to only that it would in most cases simply stay here until something disturbed it like a random guy staring at it from the surface or say a construction crew digging out thend for foundations.-


    One might think that I have have some really crazy luck to keep getting in these situations with legendries but you should keep in mind that the world seems to want me in these same scenarios. (A/N: Have you seen this guys roulette though? He''s fucking HARD to make interesting otherwise.) Anyways Gaia finally released a dark colored ripple of energy that struck the cloud body of the Spiritomb and made it contract in pain and hiss and howl in anger. Vulcan took that opportunity to bat the keystone into the air which caused the ghost to panic and move to protect it.-


    I wasn''t going to be exining that it''s keystone was damn near indestructible to it though as this worked in my favor. "Gaia keep hitting it! Vulcanva plume! Rune shing rain!" I barked out my orders and they acted on them. The ground under the falling Spiritomb opened up andva shot up in a geyser as if the molten rock sought to devour the pokemon. Rune meanwhile sent the ball of electric type energy sparking at the keystones destination causing the ghost to take serious damage as it passed through. The final blow was a series of back to back dark pulses that knocked it out leaving a dull looking keystone on the pool ofva that was rapidly cooling.

 Expansion and hatching

    Expansion and hatching


    ''So multitasking also prevents it from attacking? This is probably due to it''s inexperience most likely. It probably got indecisive from the three directions it was being attacked from and froze up as a result.'' I thought as I tapped the keystone with a pokeball to capture the ghost type. The ball shook two times before settling down and I felt the artificial bond form. Immediately I grimaced as a wave of chaotic emotions came through the connection. "Ugh , why did I expect anything different?" I muttered with a headache. Turning the balls button to the right slightly I put the ball into stasis mode which kept the pokemon within in a sort of hibernative state.-


    I did this because I actually couldn''t have any more pokemon active since I already had the leagues max six per trainer. I could probably stretch the rules a bit if I were to exclude the Feebas egg as baby pokemon were legally not allowed to battle until they reached maturity but the fact remains that I did n on having the little one on my team. Thankfully the maturation rate of pokemon was quite fast so I only needed to wait a couple months to be able to train the little one. -


    That said I could just store the Spiritomb indefinitely if I wanted to since ghost types don''t actually need food in most cases. Rather than that though I nned to send Tank to Birch until he evolves into a Butterfree while working on bonding with the Spiritomb in the meanwhile. Unlike most naturally born pokemon ghost types like Spiritomb didn''t usually care about training to be the best they can be in most cases. They required a genuine bond to train and grow and a special sort of person to handle their darker impulses.-


    This meant that my usual method of exining my ambition as well as my advantages simply won''t work in this case. The Spiritomb if anything was likely to just give me a funny look if I tried it as it wouldn''t understand why it should give a shit about any of that. "Good work everyone!" I praised my team and they all looked happy. With the only witness gone I double checked my surroundings before pulling out my rewards to use. I started with the item tickets since those were the least important in my opinion.-


    A full incense , a hammer , a quick ball , a block of light y , a macho brace and agging tail were what I got from my six draws. It was actually a damn good pull to be honest but I didn''t really have much use for this stuff at my teams current level. I gave the y directly to Gaia who ate it with a joyful look that told me she had a new favorite food. ''Girls got some expensive tastes.'' I thought with a chuckle. The incense would lightly be used up by the end of the day when we would practice aura and the rest I just stored away to ignore.-


    I left the five exp tickets alone since I nned on using them on my new ability after I get it in a moment. I was nervous when I pulled out the guaranteed ability ticket and tore it with my chosen ability in mind already. The two halves of the ticket released a bunch of rainbow colored fog as per usual as the wheel with the abilities popped up. A single dark blue option floated out of the wheel and turned into smoke before shooting into my body.-


    Immediately I felt my body heat up starting from my gut and spreading out to epass every inch of it. It was a pleasant sort of warmth at first but after my body was fully covered the heat rose and it started to feel like I was being boiled from the inside. I didn''t even realize it as i was too busy focusing on not screaming and rolling on the ground in agony to put out the fire under my skin but the ground under me had been cracked from the sheer amount of energy I was putting off.-


    To my pokemon it was as if a pink , grey , blue , white and yellow bonfire was erupting violently from my body. It was beautiful but had a sense of danger to it as well that made them nervous. Eventually my body finished it''s transformation to amodate my new ability but I passed out the moment it was done as it pain finally stopped. When I woke up I was astonished to find that my aura had expanded by nearly twenty times it''s previous size. Before it was a small ball of firebut now it was a raging pyre contained within my body.-


    Holding up my palm I smiled as a orb of energy formed above it in a violently circting manner before I pointed in the distance and the aura sphere shot out with a loud "BANG!". It was weakpared to nearly all moves used by pokemon but it WAS a move. That was far better than most aura masters ever achieve as they simply never reach the levels of energy needed to do so. I couldn''t spam the things though as that single aura sphere drained a good quarter of my energy.-


    "Tie! Rani! Tie!" Gaia said with a disapproving look at me. What she said roughly tranted to "Are you done?" with all the sass. I chuckled "Yeah I''m good now , couldn''t help but try it immediately." I said as I got up off the ground. Aura sphere was the first move that any aura master needed to pull off before they could start trying to learn other moves from the other types. The move was considered steel type due to it''s sturdiness but it technically didn''t actually have a typing. From this point on I had to start familiarizing myself with every type energy there was so I could learn most moves.-


    I couldn''t learn EVERY move of course as Icked the body parts required for them such as fly or aerial ace to name a few. Elemental moves like ember , water gun or blizzard though were all fair game. "Now that that''s taken care of we should probably head back along this path to see if anyone needs our help." I said pointing at the wide trail of destruction leading straight to Mt. Chimney. I got affirmation from my team and we started walking while keeping our senses sharp in case we saw or heard a distressed individuals.-


    There was nothing but eerie silence and destruction for the first few hours down this new path until it gave way to the sound of beepinging from right next to me. My team and I were startled for a moment as we tried to find out where the sound wasing from until we figured out that my bag was going off. "Look presentable folks I think the egg is hatching!" I said and my team gathered around curiously as I took out the dive container from my bag as well as the egg.

 Weirdness

    Weirdness


    Dive Containers were a water type trainers best friend if they had a species of pokemon that was limited outside of water. What a dive container was was a sort of spatially expanded pouch that was simr to the bags except that the inside was filled with an artificial environment suitable for mostwater types. That was it''s only purpose , to serve as a way for a trainer to keep their pokemon out of their balls without worrying about finding a body of water first. In this particr instance I had a dive case to make it easier for me to bond with the newborn Feebas as I otherwise would need to keep it balled all the time.-


    The egg I set on the ground shook frequently and a small crack started to form on it''s surface. "Come on little one you can do it!" I encouraged the newborn and my team chimed in as well. We must have cut a strange picture considering how we were all rough and powerful looking yet were cooing at an egg. None of us cared however as we were all about encouraging the little one to free itself from it''s egg. It seemed like our encouragement helped energize the little one as it got much more eager in attacking the shell.-


    About fifteen minutester and the top of the egg popped of revealing the creature within. I don''t use the word creature lightly here either as what we saw made no fucking sense. See most Feebas including the variants tended to have look a certain way in terms of body shape. Typically the species had a shape nearly identical to a Magikarp but with a few small differences like the fins and face.-


    This creature was NOT like that at all and if anything reminded me of a Dratini instead. It had a long slender body covered in jewel-like thick tricolored dragon scales. Its had the standard four fins of the normal Feebas except these ones were longer and had a metallic quality to them. The first two sat on either side of the front portion of the creatures body while the dorsal fin was right at the top of it''s body and looked almost like a sail with how long it was. The tail fin on the other hand was a wide fan shape and had a sort of bone spike right in the center that gleamed purple to likely hint at a toxic quality.-


    The head of the creature was the usual Feebas face if changed to a more slender shape. The only real difference was the mouth full of sharp fangs and a pair of bumps on the top of it''s head. "Wee to the world little one!" I said with a smile as the small creature looked around with an innocent curiosity. "FEE! FEE!" The small creature called happily before doing something that surprised us all , it flew.-


    [Pokemon: Feebas


    LEVEL:0


    Moveset: Ssh(n) , Metronome(n)(egg move)


    Variations: ??????


    Attack:50


    Defense:60


    Sp. Atk: 50


    Sp. Def:80


    Speed:120


    Ability: ?????(n)+ ]


    I couldn''t help but check the little ones status when it casually swam into the air and I was left speechless at it. The first thing I noticed was that it was level zero which I suppose made sense as it had literally just been born. The next was that it had an insane egg move in the form of metronome. It was easy to understand that this was it''s variations work as the Feebas line didn''t learn metronome otherwise.-


    The third thing I spotted was that it''s variation was still a mystery which meant it either didn''t have a name or the system couldn''t give it one for some reason. The ability was the same way but that at least had a plus sign next to it that told me I could get an exnation for it at least. The final thing I noticed was that absolutely INSANE stats this little one had , it''s speed alone was higher than almost all of my pokemon and it was a fucking newborn. To put that into perspective that was like a baby having the physical ability of a twenty year old athlete at birth.-


    As you might imagine I was not prepared for this revtion in the least. "Is this what she meant when she said it took beneficial aspects from every variation?" I muttered in shock. It was easy to understand how these stats came about. The aspects taken from the stat variations directly raised the little ones stats to these abnormal levels and add on the species natural speed and you get this insane stat spread. ''That leaves aspects taken from the royal , shiny , typing and ancient variations to figure out.'' I thought seriously.-


    The shiny aspects were abundantly clear so I crossed that off my list as I observed the small creature happily swimming through the air like it was water. The ancient variation might have something to do with the bumps on it''s head and the sharp fangs as the ancient Feebas did gain the dragon typing after evolving to Milotic but I wasn''t quite sure. For the royal variation I couldn''t be certain as it''s body shape was unlike any Feebas I knew of so I couldn''t reallypare size. -


    The type variations were simultaneously easy and hard to figure out as it''s ability to freely travel through the air meant it had the influence of flying , psychic or ghost typings but otherwise there was absolutely no clue what I was looking at as there was no glow involved. Taking out my pokenav I took some pictures of the little one before forwarding them to Birch. The only variation I knew fairly certainly the little one didn''t have was the legendary variation. The reason I knew this was because it only existed in a pokemon that had legendary parentage , not descendance but direct parentage.-


    Pokemon like that didn''t just pop up out of nowhere as everyone knew exactly who the parent was in most cases as said parent was usually found not far away. While I couldn''t say with absolute certainty that the gic structure of such a pokemon hadn''t been acquired somehow by people I very much doubted it. Vulcan was a very good example of the sort of personalities legendries tended to have so someone getting a sample of one of their children and surviving long enough for it to actually be worth it was not very likely.-


    Not impossible mind you but so unlikely that it wasn''t even worth mentioning. About three minutes after I forwarded those photos my pokenav went off. Answering it the first thing I hear was "Please tell me that isn''t what I think it is?" Birch practically begged over the line. I felt like teasing the man however and replied with "I have no idea what you think it is , why don''t you rify first?" I asked with a smirk. "Fee?" the little one came over with a curious sound when it saw the pokenav.

 Ruthlessness is mercy

    Ruthlessness is mercy


    I smiled at the curious little one and rubbed his head which got a pleased sound from the creature. "Damnit Alex the egg! That thing is from the egg isn''t it!?" Birch questioned clearly not in the mood for teasing. "Yeah he is. Pretty cool isn''t he?" I asked with a chuckle. "Normally I''d agree with you Alex but someone recorded Rayquaza descending and serpentine pokemon have suddenly gotten a lot of attention and not just the good kind either." Birch said seriously and I frowned. "You don''t think someone would actually be stupid enough to try and snatch him from me do you?" I asked with a frown.-


    "It''s not a matter of if but rather when. The entire region is in a tailspin as people are flocking to anywhere with even a hint of snake like pokemon to try and find something simr to Rayquaza. That Feebas if we can even call it that at this point looks ufortably close to the legendary in the videos , especially with that whole floating without wings thing it''s doing. I know you like to leave your pokemon free as much as possible so sooner orter someone is going to try and take the thing." Birch said with a tired sigh.-


    "You know how that''s going to turn out , I won''t even have to lift a finger." I said sternly. "Believe me I wish I could forget the images I saw of Mt. Chimneys peak. Did you know that some people wanted you and your team detained on grounds of insanity? The leaders and champions of three different regions shot down those peoples idea with reports of times they had to do simr things. It''s a mess Alex." he said seriously.-


    "When ites to people like team Magma my philosophy is simply that ruthlessness is mercy on yourself. These people are a cancer and need to be cut out , you''ve seen the result of what can happen if they are left to their own devices. This whole mess with Groudon and Kyogre would have happened without me either way. Damnit Birch Aqua woke up Kyogre all on their own as if to prove my point. I admit that my methods are rather brutal but not even you can deny that they are effective." I said firmly. The line went silent for a moment as I was sure that he was searching for anything to counter what I said but the facts were clear to see , I was right.-


    "Okay fine! Yes I can admit that it works but that doesn''t mean I have to like it! Those were people Alex , regardless of what they did or were nning to do they were sentient minds that you violently snuffed out. Logically I agree with what you did but morally I can''t help but be disgusted by it." he said sadly. "You''re a good man Birch but this isn''t a subject where goodnesses out on top." I say honestly.-


    "I know , just promise me you will at least try to keep the death toll as low as possible alright?" he asked and I groaned "Fine I''ll TRY and use nonlethal methods to dissuade would be pokenappers." I said with emphasis on the word try. "That''s all I ask , but enough about your violent tendencies. Lets talk about the little one." Birch said perking up at the mention of the newborn. "Not much I can say on the subject really besides that he can fly somehow. The little one hatched no more than ten minutes ago after all." I say honestly.-


    "I can update you when I get him checked out in Mauville alongside a new pokemon I found in the area that used to be teport , a legion Spiritomb." I said seriously and the line went quiet again. "Please tell me you captured it and have it in stasis in a pokeball." Birch eventually pleaded. "I assumed there were ns to resettle the area and captured it yes. I am hoping to add it to my roster." I say honestly. "If anyone else were to say that I''d have them detained but you have this knack for doing illogical things so I can only wish you luck in that." birch said with a sigh.-


    I could understand why he said that too as there was no case of anyone ever having a legion Spiritomb on their team. The things were powerful living masses of rage and resentment that simply didn''t get along with others at all. This wasn''t to say that you couldn''t train them as it was possible but in exchange they were the only pokemon you could have as they had possessive tendencies. Like choke your dog to death because you petted it possessive.-


    This of course led to those who were able to train the pokemon to be avoided by other trainers out of safety concerns. The pokemon could turn downright murderous if they thought someone was trying to intrude on their territory which in this case included their trainer. In exchange for all this baggage however the trainers got a single pokemon that could take the role of an entire team as it was just that strong and versatile. I would have passed up the pokemon as a candidate for my team had it not been for a single detail , it was newborn and thus impressionable.-


    I was betting on this factor allowing me to integrate the pokemon into my team without it trying to kill off the rest of them. In a way I was trying to have the Spiritomb not develop that possessiveness at all. It will be tricky but I think it will pay off quite nicely if I seed. After that I hung up with Birch and coaxed the little one into the dive pouch where it was just as cozy as it was in the air which was a relief for me.-


    The little one was meant to be my water type after all so it not beingfortable in the stuff would nullify that n. I made sure to feed the little one which sent it right to sleep and let us continue along the path of destruction. I had of course also bound the thing to a ball to keep anyone from trying to be sneaky and catch it since it was unbound. I didn''t really n to ball the little one ever though as it was legally small enough that it wouldn''t be a problem in cities. It was about the size of a normal Ekans after all and those were free to be out of their balls.-


    Going down this path of destruction left by Groudon turned out to be a good idea as we found a few people and pokemon in bad condition that the search teams likely missed since they were burried under debris. I called in the locations after doing what I can for them before moving on after help arrived to fly them to Mauville. Under Watsons leadership the city had be the trauma center for all those effected by this disaster as it was smack dab in the center of the path of destruction just to the side a bit and thus still intact.

 Helping out

    Helping out


    My new energy reserves were a godsend in this way as I could do much much more before they ran dry. In a way it also made me suspicious about why there was no information that said if professor Oak could actively use his aura or not. I literally couldn''t forget I had the stuff after I got this new ability as the sheer amount left me nearly buzzing like I was hopped up on caffeine. I refused to believe that the good professor wasn''t a natural aura user with so much in him.-


    Yet despite looking through records of his feats not one even mentioned the stuff which felt off to me , not like it was missing per se so much as like he was hiding it for some reason. For the life of me though I couldn''t understand why. With his level of power he was practically untouchable so what was the point of keeping such a thing secret? Suspicions aside I was loving the freedom that this ability granted me as I no longer needed to be stingy with my energy to make itst.-


    Not to say I wasn''t using the energy efficiently but I wasn''t squeezing everyst drop of potential out of it like I had to before. It simply wasn''t necessary at this point and was more work than I wanted to do for a small efficiency increase. Admittedly as we traveled I didn''t spot very many people or pokemon that had been missed in the entire path Groudon left behind. Or perhaps it might be better to say that there weren''t many to begin with. You would need to be pretty unlucky or have terrible perception to not notice Groudoning well in advance and as a result get out of the way.-


    The really sad part was that Groudon didn''t even move that fast rtively speaking but due to it''s immense size covered a lot of ground with each step it took. In more than a few ces I was able to spot crushed remains or rather what was them of them. Like everything that walks Groudons footsteps were uneven at parts as different steps had different weight distribution to them. As a result on some of the "light" footprints the bodies hadn''t been liquified or turned into paste and had actual noticeable pieces remaining.-


    I took care to avoid those as it was a waste of time to try and recover the bodies as even if they had a few identifiable pieces the rest of it was almost always ruined. I wasn''t so out of touch with emotions to fail to understand that receiving the remains might be even more devastating than not ever getting that confirmation. Unless one was delusional they would eventuallye to ept that their loved one wasn''t going toe back and slowly move on. Thanks to how clear the path was my team and i moved fast and eventually got close to Mauville by the time it was getting dark.-


    I called Watson up to let him know we were nearby and shortly afterward someone came to get us. When I went to ball up my team though I was told that only Gaia should be put away as the rest could be helpful. She was unhappy about it but I could understand that her massive size made delicate tasks hard for her. It was just as bad as I had imagined as nearly every part of the city had been filled with people that either had no where to go and no way to help or injured that were getting or needed treatment.-


    The ones that still needed treatment were the sort who had less threatening injuries like broken bones or cuts and scrapes. Obviously a broken arm or leg was less urgent than saw a piece of shrapnel a centimeter from someone''s heart or ruptured organs. I reached the central area of the city that had the people in charge of this whole operation rushing about and giving out orders as necessary. I even noticed a good few individuals with the healing ability using it to stabilize wounds or keeping people alive during frankly dangerous surgeries. -


    Yeah it was so bad that that the surgeons and doctors had to operate in less than sterile conditions. At the head of all this was the oldest Joy I have ever seen as all her hair was silver and she had deep wrinkles and was so weak in the body that she needed to remain seated at all times but gods damn did she have a voice on her. "GET THOSE SALINE DRIPS TO SECTION 3! WHERE ARE THOSE POTIONS WE WERE PROMISED!?" she was loud and controlled the chaos like it was an art.-


    She spotted my team and me the moment we entered the area and ordered us to different ces immediately. Vulcan was fitted with a special two person stretcher set up and set to ferry the injured as necessary. Rune was a bus boy for whatever supplies they needed and Yani was the same with a key difference that made me VERY unhappy. She was told to use her healing move and the order even specified exactly which one was meant. This meant somebody had spilled the beans on the move before I could set up my n and I was pretty sure this meant i was going to have a target on my back.-


    "Lets make one thing clear boy , I don''t like you. You are violent and brutal and stand in opposition to everything my n stands for. We seek to preserve life good or bad and you take it like you are judge , jury and executioner. Why the gods saw fit to give someone like you the gift of healing I do not know but that is the only reason i will tolerate your presence here AM. I. CLEAR?" she said clear disdain and I nodded calmly.-


    "Good now go put your gift to use and stop polluting my air." she said dismissing me and I went to a nearby sanitation station to clean up. I wasn''t bothered by her attitude or what she said because she wasn''t wrong. I took life as I saw fit and with that alone I qualified to be on the Joy ns shit list. Add on my healing ability and I might as well be spitting in their faces regardless of how much good I do. Believe me when I tell you that while the Joys were mostly peaceful they could get VERY mean if they didn''t like you.-


    Their closeness with the Jenny n only made this so much worse as it meant that you were put on a zero grace list. Do something illegal and you got punished for it fully if they found out. Thanks to Birch I knew that the only reason I wasn''t on this list was because most of my actions were in some way or another helpful. Like me wiping out team Magma for example , that team was no longer a problem it was gone , done , finished. This dropped crime rates by a VERYrge amount throughout the whole region.

 Testing the little one

    Testing the little one


    Team Aqua was still a problem but they had lessened their activities after the disaster that had happened. Sad as it was Hoenn hadn''t been this crime free in decades and it was likely to stay this way for at least a few years. Shaking my head to get rid of these thoughts I turned my attention to the task at hand. It was messy work and I got more than a few spiteful looks from the old woman as I burned through myrge reserves of energy to heal the major issues in every person I went to.-


    Where the others with the same ability had to ration their energy to just barely stabilize patients I outright fixed them before sending them off for those that still needed treatment. The old Joy might hate me as a person but not even she could bring herself to criticize my effectiveness. In the short few hours I had been here I had healed no less than twenty critically injured back to minorly injured status. That doesn''t sound like a lot but each of them would take days of treatment to stabilize and much more to heal to their current level if they only got the normal treatments.-


    When I finally ran out of energy nobody stopped me from sitting down and meditating to restore it. Even during that period no one bothered me either under the old woman''s orders since she clearly knew what I was doing. That didn''t mean I didn''t have any distractions however as a man tried to force his way in for treatment for his broken arm disregarding the lives of the more injured selfishly. I frowned after hearing it and opened my eyes and lifted up my eyepatch before sending an aura infused re his way.-


    He stiffened and went extremely pale as he met my gaze before wisely deciding he would live with his arm being broken a bit longer. The old Joy briefly met my gaze and flinched but I ignored it to go back to meditating. After refilling my energy stores I immediately went to work healing the seriously injured again. It was only a weekter that all that remained were the people with more manageable injuries and I finally allowed myself to get a break. My stimnt potion had proven perfect for going without sleep for this entire time but by this point I had to actively channel aura into my head to keep the bacsh of not sleeping for so long from showing up.-


    Human minds weren''t designed to work without sleep for so long and it showed as the consequences of it were quite severe. In my own case I was barely keeping them back with my aura but this wasn''t sustainable. I found a spot and simply allowed myself to sleep and I was out instantly. I ended up sleeping nearly twelve hours before waking up feeling much better.-


    I collected my after waking up and headed over to theb to get some tests ran on the little one that had gotten a lot of attention over thest week. He had been a sort of wellness mascot with his innocent attempts at helping. Despite this however I had to not so nicely tell several people demanding i sell him to them to fuck off. Most of the time it ended there but twice someone didn''t take no for an answer and things escted. They didn''t die but I busted their ear drums since they weren''t listening , leaving them deaf.-


    Was it cruel? Yes it was. Was it effective? Highly. Thanks to those two examples no one else pushed their luck after I told them no the first time. I will point out however that busted eardrums while painful and deafening weren''t a permanent issue and will naturally heal in time. This meant that my punishment wasn''t even that bad all things considered. Still I had given my word to Birch that I would try and avoid lethal measures and so far I had honored that promise even if I had been quite tempted. The old Joy was pissed about my actions though but I could only shrug it off.-


    At theb Samantha was giving me crazy scientist vibes as she ran a bunch of tests on the little one with a maniacal smile. Morphology , fitness , energy readings , type affinity and a few others as well to give a rough but urate overview of the little ones condition. The type affinity was where things got a bitplicated as the little one didn''t HAVE a typing. To be more specific it possessed equal parts affinity to every typing simultaneously. That affinity was HIGH to boot making it perfectly suited to learn and use literally every typing.-


    After going over the results I almost thought Samantha was going to murder me for the little one if the absolutely vicious re she gave me was any indication. By definition the little one counted as normal type but it was clear that it was in a ss all it''s own. The fitness test went about how I expected with himpleting each test well above where a normal Feebas newborn would. The energy readings were also sky high for it''s age as well but again there was no surprise there.-


    The only test that had a strange result was the toxicology test on his tails poison. The poison itself was a mix of dark , poison and grass type energies in a liquid form that quite literally caused whatever it touched to decay. In other words even as a newborn the little one was highly lethal as Samantha t out stated that a single scratch with that tail and a person would probably be reduced to a puddle of goo within five minutes. After learning that it was hard to consider the little one a harmless cute little bundle of curiosity and innocence.-


    Not to say that it changed a thing about how I treated the little one but I now knew that I had to be careful around others with him as he might identally merc somebody otherwise. It wouldn''t even be hard either as a small knick from his tail and suddenly that unfortunate soul is getting rotted to death in a short period of time. I asked Samantha to try and work up an antidote or at the very least a counter agent for the poison so I didn''t have to watch somebody die on ident. -


    I wasn''t personally worried about the poison though as it was energy based which meant my aura was more than capable of basically nullifying it the moment it entered my body. The same was true of the rest of my team as well since they all trained with aura themselves. For everyone else though it would be a wise idea to carry a way to neutralize the poison with me at all times. It took two days of near constant experimentation for Samantha to whip up a counter agent that was able to stop the spread of the poison but not strong enough to remove it entirely.

 Childcare

    Childcare


    This counter agent meant that the poison wouldn''t spread but it unfortunately meant that the effected area would be lost to the poison as well. It was a bit of a hassle to be honest as it also meant I needed to avoid any poison or tail rted moves when I eventually trained the little one in the future. I also needed to work on creating antidotes for the little ones poison as well which will be a pain in the ass. The reason for this was that I needed to chemically speaking reverse engineer the poison to counter itself harmlessly.-


    It was annoying but the only other alternative was to leave the little one in Samantha''s care until she could do it herself. This was very much against my own ns as that would take at least a month if we were lucky and much longer if we were not. That was a considerably amount of time I could have been bonding with the little one gone. I very much doubted that the young mon saw me as anything other than his parent so just leaving it behind like that was cruel even by my standards.-


    While true it wouldn''t be a permanent arrangement it would certainly seem that way to the little one that hadn''t even been hatched that long. No I would rather be slightly inconvenienced than subject him to an experience like that. A sentiment that Samantha actually agreed with surprisingly enough. "In majority of cases pokemon stay with their parents until they reach maturity not because they can''t leave but because during that time they are most vulnerable to outside influence and need to be guided. A single wrong influence not caught in time can ruin the rest of their lives unless someone were to subject them to serious training to correct it." She said seriously.-


    I understood what she meant as well as it was a well studied fact that baby pokemon try to take after their caretakers in most cases and if said caretaker wasn''t the same species as them it can go very badly. For example if a baby fire type is raised by a water type then the fire type might just wander into the water and die thinking that was the way things were supposed to be. Pokemon themselves also seemed to realize this as well which is why cross typing fostering of orphaned baby pokemon are highly umon.-


    In fact in the vast majority of cases when a different type pokemones across an orphaned baby pokemon they just take the little ones to the nearest pokemon of whatever type it is before leaving. Thankfully in this regard it wasn''t a problem as the little one had every typing so there simply wasn''t any wrong behaviors it could learn that would prove detrimental to it. Watson showed up shortly after I began getting my stuff set for the trip to Lavaridge after I got the counter agent.-


    "Wahaha! What an cheerful little fe! Thought of a name for him yet?" the old gym leader asked as he spoiled the little one with rubs and candy he just had on him for some reason. I shrugged "It''s too soon to try and give him a name , you of all people aught to know that names have power and I don''t want to force a name on him that doesn''t suit him." I said honestly. Watson thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement "For what I gather from the reports the little one is suited for any name really but you are right to be cautious in this matter."-


    "It''s important to let the little one grow enough to understand the importance it''s name will have. Seen too many folks give a fierce pokemon a name like fluffy only to find the thing turned into a house pet. Nothing wrong with that of course but we both know pokemon were built for greater things than that." he said seriously. I very much agreed with him on that particr philosophy as I personally believe the creatures were made for battle.-


    I don''t mean that they are merely made forbat but all the facts point to that being their primary design function. Armorlike skin , sharp ws , poisons and many more traits are highly prevalent in even the most peaceful of pokemon species and I refuse to believe that wasn''t by design. Once or twice was a coincidence but in EVERY pokemon? That''s a pattern. The why of the matter was the part that bothered me however. For what reason could the godly pokemon responsible for the normal ones creation have making them all capable of extreme violence innately.-


    Humans didn''t have any of those advantages. We weren''t particrly fast , strong or durable so it wasn''t to keep us in line but no matter how hard I thought about it I couldn''t figure it out. ''Whatever I''m sure I am just over thinking things like usual.'' I thought as I got back to chatting with Watson about the little one. He had a whole bunch of advice about raising a baby pokemon from the times he himself had to since he couldn''t afford to get an adult of a particr species he may have wanted. The best advice he gave was to start the little one out y fighting as it matured so it had a good foundation when the real training started.-


    Nothing really intensive or rough but enough for it to not freeze up inbat as it didn''t know what to do. ording to Watson it was a problem many who raised a pokemon from an egg had as they tended to not give the babies any preparations for their future role so when they were suddenly introduced to it they had no idea what to do and froze up. It could be worked out with a bit of effort on the trainers part but it still wasted time that could be used to progress instead.-


    Watson also suggested I try and work in light move training as well so the little one is familiar with how to use it''s moves after it matured. I had an even better idea at this suggestion however as I could practice with pure type energy alongside the little one as we both could use every typing. What better a thing topare my own progress to than a baby pokemon learning it for the first time as well?-


    Obviously I was also going to take into consideration that the little one was definitely more talented than me since it was a pokemon and a variant to boot but I could still get a fairly decent assessment from witnessing it''s own growth. Once the little one went to take a nap in the dive pouch I confronted Watson about the matter of my custom healing move getting leaked. I hadn''t forgotten about it and was definitely still VERY unhappy with it getting leaked. Don''t get me wrong I understood why it was done but that didn''t mean that someone hadn''t gone behind my back with it.

 Compensation

    Compensation


    "Was wondering if you''d bring that up. The Joy n was the ones that broke faith in this regard I''m afraid." Watson said seriously. I frowned at it though as the Joy n shouldn''t have even known about the move to begin with. Watson seemed to understand my confusion and exined further. "You are on the listd and you are considered an asset by the league too so when you made that whole n and report about the move Birch and Stone both had to report it to the leagues higher ups."-


    "The thing is that we all agreed to keep the move a secret until you set off that n of yours since if it got out before that you''d have a huge target painted on your back. I can assure you that that crone has gotten in serious trouble for leaking it like she did. It kicked up quite the storm in the Joy n as well. A few of them thought she hadn''t done anything wrong given the situation while others understood that she had used this whole thing as an excuse to vent out some of her own displeasure."-


    "Not going to sugar coat itd , the Joy n is not a fan of yours at all. Even so they know when they''ve done wrong and have been in discussion with the league about how topensate you." Watson said with a tired sigh. "Kill her." I said coldly. Watson froze the moment I spoke the words and gave me a stern look. "You understand exactly what you are asking for correct?" he asked seriously. "I am a simple person Watson since this was a personal matter rather than something done by the entire n then I won''t punish the whole n for it unless they insist on protecting her." -


    "That said she crossed a line and must pay the price for it and I don''t believe in giving second chances for people that threaten my life. She dies by their hand or my own , the only difference is the amount of bodies getting put in the ground." I said staring him right in the eye. "There is noing back from this Alex. If I put forth this demand that n will hate you no matter where you go." he said firmly. -


    "I know that but I have tried to y nice with the Joy n and all it got me was some old bat thinking she could get away with forcing me into a bad position. ying nice was the wrong move clearly so it''s time to put my foot down , make the call." I spoke with determination. Watson just stared at me for a few minutes before slouching a bit as if some of his usual energy was simply gone. "You''ll know within a week." he said tiredly before leaving. This wasn''t some emotional decision or anything like that as beyond the betrayal I thought had urred it was little more than an irritating situation.-


    I was an elite tier trainer with a team that was constantly growing more powerful so I was not afraid of anything below champion tier. That said I wasn''t going to just quietly roll over and ept some meaningless form ofpensation from people it had nothing to do with. As I said the old woman had acted out of personal interest rather than because of the Joy n so this was between me and her. She alone will pay the ultimate price for her actions before I am satisfied.-


    The whole bit that implied me storming the Joy n was all bluster though as I am not stupid enough to do something like that. The fact of the matter is that more likely than not I would simply enter a feud with the Joy n for the foreseeable future. For those wondering why I didn''t go after the old crone in Mauville then the answer was simply because she wasn''t there any more. The dusty bitch had left the moment the situation deescted back to a level the normal forces could handle , which was to say after I got involved.-


    Even if she was still there however I still wouldn''t have gone after her in the city unless I was suicidal. She had coordinated the medical aid of the Joy n after the disaster and the city was filled with people who had gotten treatment. The moment I made a move on her I would enter a kill or be killed scenario with the whole city and I didn''t see myself walking away from such a thing , even ants can kill an elephant after all. This way I at least aplished two things regardless of the oue of the Joy ns decision.-


    First was I could see whether or not the Joy n was being sincere or not and second I draw the line for everyone to see clearly from this point onwards. This news will undoubtedly get out and reach people with ill intentions towards me which will likely make them rethink their actions towards myself. If I am willing to demand the head of a member of a hegemonic n like the Joys then I am DEFINTELY willing to go after anyone else who crosses the line. A bit of controlled insanity if you will to keep everyone in line.-


    I didn''t stick around Mauville after that and headed north along the path left by Groudon since it was the fastest route towards Lavaridge. Tank had been sent off to Birch before I left the city and I had the Spiritomb clipped to my belt since I nned to work with it during this travel. Even after I took the ball out of stasis mode however the thing hadn''t tried to leave it''s ball. In fact I was almost willing to bet money that it was watching everything going on from inside it''s ball and making it''s own conclusions.-


    It made no difference to me since my n was the same regardless of what it thought. Once I was good and far from anyone else I released the thing from it''s ball only for it to act like a normal rock by hiding in it''s keystone. "I know you are awake it''s pointless trying to y dead." I said calmly and a small ck cloud seeped out of the keystone and manifest a red "eye" that red at me angrily but also with caution. ''Not perfect but better than nothing.'' I thought seeing this.-


    "In case it wasn''t obvious I caught you for the purpose of adding you to my team." I spoke and the cloud hissed in defiance. "Don''t bother trying the whole stubborn resistance thing , we both know this is only good for you. I can guarantee that had I not caught you the league would have killed or sealed you so the very least you can do is listen to what I have to say." I said calmly and the red eyes turned thoughtful before staring at me impatiently. ''Maybe this won''t be as hard as I thought'' I thought with a smirk, I was wrong I quickly learned.

 Stubborn ghost and Lavaridge

    Stubborn ghost and Lavaridge


    The deal i offered the Spiritomb was quite simple after that. It let me train it and if it felt like it participated in a battle under mymand and in exchange I would shelter and care for it so long as it didn''t go causing problems like attacking random people and so on. The ghost pokemon agreed to my terms after much debate with it''s many personality fragments. Let me tell you that is some weird shit to witness as it hissed and wailed in multiple different tones at once all while flipping emotional expressions like a strobe light.-


    What I had failed to consider however was the ghost type was a real piece of work that had spotted a loophole in what I said and exploited it. See I had said that so long as it participated in a battle IF IT FELT LIKE IT then i would do all the other stuff. The problem was that it DIDN''T feel like it, ever. So I was basically left with a pokemon that I was obligated to take care of and shield from the league for basically no gain of my own.-


    At first anyways before the thing got bored and actually started battling a weekter asionally. It was rather touch and go though as it was very much up to the things whims if it wanted to or not. Don''t even get me started on the damn things love of jump scares that my team found out about the hard way with the exception of the little one. Apparently the ghost was the big brother type when it came to baby pokemon as it was nothing but helpful when it involved the little one. It did cause a slight issue however when a poacher tried to snatch the little one.-


    I got to see Hades cruelty quite clearly as the ghost t out tortured and pulled the poacher apart like string cheese. Oh right I had given the Spiritomb the name Hades by the way. Anyways I had to recall the little one and put it in my bag to spare it''s innocent mind from the sheer brutality of what Hades put the poacher through. The clean up was by far the worse part as there was blood all over the ce from Hades ying with it''s food.-


    Not going to lie I totally understood why the league had Spiritomb as an avoid at all cost listed pokemon after that incident. It reveled in violence and suffering to an ufortable degree and was more than willing to prove it should an opportunity present itself. When we finally reached Lavaridge I kept Hades in it''s ball despite it being small enough to be out as I frankly didn''t trust it not to kill anyone randomly. The city itself was rather interesting as it was built on a high area right on the side of Mt. Chimney that had a natural spring under it thus creating the hotsprings the city was famous for.-


    The really fascinating part though was the fact that the city was not paved at all but all the buildings were made of the same red stone as the rest of the area minus the gym and pokecenter which were nice and modern as per normal. The city wasn''t nearly the same size as say Mauville but could easily be considered the same size as Dewford. Despite this however it was clear that this ce was more along the lines of a retirement home than any normal city.-


    The vast majority of those you could see were the elderly who lived here for the hotspring which was apparently good for the body. As a rather famous tourist attraction as well Lavaridge had plenty of hotels that I could stay in while I was here too. This was good as right now I was REALLY persona non grata with the Joy n after they exiled the old crone to Sinnoh rather than kill her. ording to Birch they were very concerned that I was going to make good on my threat to storm thepound to get her and sent her where I can''t get her as a punishment instead of killing her.-


    As far as they were concerned this matter ended there but jokes on them since I was definitely going to that region in the future and might go collect on this debt at that time. The only positive thing toe out of that whole situation was that I was able to start having the tms sold publicly as my whole n was pointless after the old crone basically publicized the move. I did have a bit of an argument with Mr. Stone though since I wanted every copy sold to the joy n to be triple the normal price.-


    He really didn''t want to antagonize the n like that but I made it clear that he could publicize that it was my call if he wanted but they were going to know I wasn''t happy with the crone merely being exiled to Sinnoh. I asked for her head and instead they basically tried to preserve her life instead by putting her out of my reach. Obviously I wasn''t just going to ignore that slight against me if i can help it.-


    The best part though was that the Joy n could only ept the jacked up price quietly as they knew why it was like that but REALLY needed the move at the same time. Petty action on my end aside the n itself hadn''t bothered me at all and if anything kept out of my way. Like I had expected the alchemists selling potions in Hoenn had started targeting me as well after the prices of the things plummeted by the minute. In Lavaridge all the ingredient stores either closed the moment I looked like I was heading over or tantly hiked up the prices for whatever I bought.-


    The pokemart though was perfectly normal since that was run by the league and the potion makers had no fingers in it. Due to the fact that Groudon had returned to Mt. Chimney the city was nearly devoid of tourist or trainers at the moment so nnery was able to meet me shortly after I had informed the gym staff member manning the counter. "My Grandpa thinks we need more people like you but i just don''t get it." she said as she got into the hotspring i was rxing in.-


    "He probably means people that won''t just let themselves be pushed about." i said without opening my eyes as I leaned against the hot stone wall of the hotspring. "Hmm , maybe but I think it''s stupid to make an enemy of the Joys given your pokemon may need healing at some point." She said honestly. "I can do all that myself so it''s not a big issue besides i''m not making an enemy of them just getting even for something they shouldn''t have done." I said casually.

 The defining feature

    The defining feature


    nnery went quiet at that and I finally opened my eye to look at her "So what else you want to talk about? Maybe my new eye , that ones popr these days?" I asked casually. nnery herself was in a bikini in the hotspring that had me patterns on it and covered what it needed to but little else. At least above the water where I could see anyways as I wasn''t going to use my x-ray just to get aplete take of the outfit. There was no point in it when her expression told me that I''d likely get a good view of what is under it in the next few days I was here in Lavaridge.-


    She was red up to her ears and I don''t think it was from the water with how nervous she looked. "Let me guess you want to thank me for what I did in the Magma base right?" I asked after a moment since she didn''t say anything. She looked startled "How''d you know!?" she eximed. I chuckled "You are acting like a girl who wants to confess to her crush but can''t work up the nerve."-


    " If you were going to offer yourself to me in some sort of bid to not feel guilty you may as well forget it. I don''t do that sort of thing for that reason." I said and she practically turned as red as her hair. "I-I wanted to ... before." she mumbled embarrassed. I raised an eyebrow at that "Oh? In that case you are more than wee to help yourself but I am curious why you''d be interested in that sort of thing?" I said curious. Despite her regrly wearing fairly revealing clothes in the form of a bikini top rather than a shirt she never struck me as the type all that interested in sex.-


    Too na?ve and inexperienced for it so learning she was interested in doing it with me was out of my expectations. Infatuation I could understand a bit since I was built like a Greek god and pretty powerful even beyond that. While I could get normal women wanting to sleep with me for my looks or fame nnery had both of those herself and could get pretty much any guy she wanted including models. Hell she was actually MORE famous and powerful than I was at the moment as a gym leader.-


    One need not forget that the bare minimum a gym leaders personal power was elite level with an entire team and I only had two pokemon at that level in the form of Gaia and Vulcan while Yani , Rune and Hades were at most at the ace level with Hades being the closest to elite level in terms of pure raw power. "I took an interest in you originally when you battled Roxy. The way you acted and battled was everything I wanted to have myself. Free , proud and confident in your pokemon , I wanted to be all of that but I could never pull it off."-


    "Every battle I am nervous and try to act in the way that would bring pride to my family and the rest of the league but i always mess it up." she said looking a bit dejected. ''Well this took a weird turn. I was expecting her to get all flirty and stuff but instead I seem to have been taken for a therapist.'' I thought amused at the situation. I didn''t mind though since I was fairly curious anyways.-


    "You seem to be under a bit of a misunderstanding it seems." I said calmly and she looked confused. "What do you mean?" she asked hoping to improve. "Do you know what every great trainer has inmon regardless of who it is? Personality. Each and every powerful trainer you can think of acts how they do both in and out of battle the same. Not out of some misguided image they think would make someone else proud but because that is simply who they are. Brawly is intense and upbeat , Watson is cheerful but wise and even the current champion Wace is just as mboyant as he shows everyone on the outside."-


    "You inherited the position of gym leader here in Lavaridge after getting all of your team trained to their current level but as a result your own personality got lost in the responsibility you feel. The two DON''T need to be mutually exclusive. You can in fact act the way you normally would so long as you also make sure things keep running like they should." I exined easily what her problem was and how to fix it. "So I should just ignore everyone''s expectations of me?" she asked with a conflicted expression.-


    "Ha! No not at all. Expectations aren''t responsibility or some static thing to conform to , they are only hopes and dreams of what one wants to be. A subjective yearning for reality to fit their perceptions and beliefs. Listen to what those are and if you find that they fit you well then simply allow yourself to live up to them. But remember that in the end reality can only fit so many shapes at once and you too are equally limited to only what you can do. You can''t make everyone happy so at the very least you should make yourself happy no?" I said with smirk.-


    Oh I am very much aware that what I was saying was downright anarchist in nature but that was just how I saw the world. The opinions of others were noted but my own always took priority in my mind. Why should I conform to the rest of the world when it will bring me only misery? Instead I will force the world to witness me as I am and bow or i''ll break it''s knees to get the same result.-


    nnery looked lost as she thought about what I said and while she was lost in thought I left the hotspring. Afterwards I took my team outside Lavaridge to get some practice with type energy done. The way I aplished this was by having whatever pokemon used that type of energy create a thin and weakyer of it that I interacted with my aura to try and grasp. For the moment I was working with Gaia to grasp rock and ground type energies as those were amongst the mostmon elements around me at any given moment. Flying type energy would be a close third given that it was basically just wind energy.-


    This wasn''t an easy process despite what one would think however as I not only needed to be VERY familiar with the way the energy felt but then I had to trante my own energy into the same thing. Whats worse was that after I seeded in doing so I had to remember how I did itter if I wanted to do it again. Keep in mind that the conversion was different for each typing and as a result I had seventeen different conversions I had to memorize.

 Type conversion and assassins

    Type conversion and assassins


    I was good but I wasn''t that good and as a result it was a slow process for me. The same couldn''t be said for the little one however as he felt a type of energy and mimicked it easily. I honestly don''t know what came over me when I thought trying to makeparisons with the little one in terms of progress was a good idea. All I got was a harsh lesson on reality and could only drop that idea immediately. He was a natural at energy maniption which should have been expected in hindsight.-


    The little one was a variant that wasprised of all the other variations minus perhaps the legendary one after all and that meant in terms of potential and talent he didn''t lose out to any pokemon in any regard. In the same vein however he also didn''t seem to realize just how far ahead of the curve he waspared to normal pokemon due to my team being freakish to begin with. All the little one had known and been familiar with was my team where it''s full power was more cute than threatening but if any other baby pokemon was subjected to ying with him it would get ugly fast.-


    Hades didn''t count as a baby pokemon if you were thinking about it as an example of how that was untrue. Spiritomb were born fully mature due to the unique method theye into existence and as a result have the stats to back it up butck the actual life experience of a pokemon that grew up from an egg. This was actually the only reason Hades couldn''t be considered elite level in fact as in terms of raw power it was already there but simply had no real clue how to use it.


    [Pokemon: Spiritomb(Hades)


    LEVEL:50


    Moveset: Confuse ray(N) , Curse(N) , Pursuit(n) , Faint attack(N) , Ominous wind(N) , Sucker punch(n) , Dark pulse(N) , Shadow ball(N)


    Variations: Legion


    Attack:112


    Defense:150


    Sp. Atk: 120


    Sp. Def:125


    Speed:76


    Ability: Suppress(N)]


    As was clear from Hades status sheet in terms of power it was up there. But at the same time it''s level was a mere fifty due to it''s inexperience at using that power properly. At the same time though this wasn''t a bad starting point at all since just the instinctual knowledge of it''s own power was enough to ce it at six or seven tier dangerous.-


    Anyways while the little one was breezing through the type training I was giving my best effort just to convert a spark of type energy at any given time. Despite myrge energy reserve I was still straining myself with over drafting it during this training. I should also mention that I had tried to find a recement handle for my spearhead but the damn thing burnt up any handle I put on it. Keep in mind that was despite using fire resistant wood native to this part of Hoenn.-


    When I say fire resistant I mean like you throw it in a bonfire for an hour and you can take it out and scrape off the charred exterior to reveal perfectly fine wood. Shit was expensive too as it took years for each tree to grow to a harvestable size and there were only so many trees. It was cheapest here in Lavaridge where it originated but by no means was the price small. Not that I was short on cash mind you as the cash was rolling in from the tm sales at the end of each day.-


    At the moment I had nearly a billion poke to my name and that amount was increasing constantly as Mr. Stone got cross regional requests for the tm in almost every region the league was active in. For those curious to know the going price of the tm was five thousand poke in Hoenn(unless you were the Joy n) and ten thousand or higher in the regions further and further from us. Still substantial wealth aside I tried to be frugal and only spend what I absolutely felt was necessary at any given moment.-


    The few expensive things I did purchase was ingredients for my alchemy or things to feed my team since I made sure they got what they needed for optimal growth and training. The weird thing was that the spearhead wasn''t even hot , like at all. The only time that changed was when I ran aura through it and it converted the aura to fire and steel type energies. It didn''t take a genius to figure out that this had something to do with the refinement it got from Heatrans dying moments.-


    I ended up getting a sort of exhibition match with nnery at the end of the week that I hadn''t asked for but was perfectly content to participate in. She hadn''t spoken with me since the hotsprings but had sent warning of some shady folks that came to town and were probably here for me. Oh yeah I had a bounty out on my head in the criminal underworld , not a bad amount either at two million poke. I wasn''t sure who posted it but I had a pretty good idea it was someone unhappy with my tm sales , likely an alchemist of some sort.-


    I wasn''t worried about it though as almost every member of my team would be more than happy to murder anyone stupid enough to try and snatch the bounty on my head. I even nned to leave the corpses as a warning to the next would be assassins , as for the condition of said corpses well my team wasn''t known for being gentle so likely in many pieces. The cherry on top? I could me all of this brutality on the Joy n. It was basically that old crones fault these assassins came after me so it was by extension the Joy ns fault.-


    It was almost enough to make me want to personally pay them a visit to see the looks on their faces when they realize this. The assassins hadn''t tried to attack me yet while I was near Lavaridge though which made sense considering nnery''s close proximity in the chance they failed. Not to mention the risk of me escaping back to the city and holing up. I wouldn''t but it was still a valid concern in any other targets situation. It was clear they were instead waiting for me to leave the city good and proper to strike.-


    They wouldn''t need to wait long though as I walked into the gym on Friday for my match knowing that I wasn''t going to stick around Lavaridge afterwards. The gym was absolutely packed by the way as there was quite a bit of hype around this exhibition match. The running idea behind this match was to help people focus on something other than the recent disaster. I was an up anding pokemon master and nnery was a gym leader so we were going to be having a three vs three bout as intense as possible.

 Exhibition match

    Exhibition match


    I got swarmed by people when I entered the gym and they recognized me. I got questions about if I was nervous, about what my secret was and so on and one of the assassins actually had the nerve to try and stab me before slipping into the crowd again. Sadly they made sure to stay out of my sight so I had no clue who it was exactly but it didn''t exactly help my mood. I had a habit of flowing my aura under my skin in case an attack from a pokemon went rogue and hit me so the stab hit that wall and failed to do anything.-


    It wasn''t the sort with a lot of force behind it but more precise like a needle that was meant to slip in and then out nearly undetected. "Enough!" I said firmly while ring my aura outwards to give me some distance. "I don''t mind a bit of excitement but please respect my personal space." I said calmly before walking forward and the crowd parted in front of me. No one was harmed at all from my outburst of aura since it wasn''t meant to cause harm but it got the idea across well enough.-


    The gym employee didn''t say anything when I walked over but merely opened the door to send me back. The gym was nice and neatly arranged with plenty of guides to point the way to the primary arena. The arena itself was unsurprisingly the same red stone like design as Mt. Chimney outside. Around the edges of the arena hotva flowed and filled the air with heat and fire type energy. On the opposite side of the arena stood nnery in her standard attire of wide bottom pants and a bikini top and her hair tied behind her head.-


    "Went all out on the arena this time I see." I said with a smirk as I took my position. She smiled "I think I''ll need as much of an advantage as I can get if your pokemon are as monstrous as their trainer." she said casually. I nodded "In that case I will endeavor not to disappoint with my performance." I said giving her a wink that showed the double meaning of my words. Or it would have if I didn''t have an eyepatch on that made it look like I was just blinking.-


    Theck of response showed that she hadn''t gotten the message and I realized my eyepatch had ruined it and chuckled before taking it off and opening my right eye. nnery stiffened as my gaze fell on her but quickly got over it. "Steven wasn''t exaggerating , it really is unnerving to get caught in that eyes gaze." she said and I shrugged. "If it helps the thing is constantly draining my energy while I have it open like this so I keep it covered most of the time. In exchange it has the best attention to detail regardless of distance I could ask for as a trainer." I exined honestly.-


    Even at this moment this entire exchange was being recorded and broadcast across the region so I knew that revealing my new eye came with pros and cons. The pros were that it would allow me to notice any tells that her pokemon had before they used a move and outside of this battle would help prevent issues when I was undoubtedly asked to remove my eyepatch in the future. The cons were just as simple as well as it would give others a gauge of how serious I was taking them and also gave out important information that the assassins would need to take into ount.-


    Any assassin worth a damn knew that details meant the difference between sess and death and thus tried to take everything into ount when they could. "Well then lets see if that eye can give you the edge you''ll need to cool me off! Burn them away Sunny!" nnery said fiercely as she sent out her first pokemon , the fire variant Staraptor. We had already gone through the rules for the match in private so technically we were bantering just for show and could start whenever we felt like.-


    "Hades haunt the field!" I called as I sent out the Spiritomb in question to the field. I had already discussed the battle Hades prior toing to the gym and it agreed to participate on the grounds that it would be great training for it. I had a good reason for sending it out as well first thingpared to Gaia or Vulcan, type advantage. I had predicted that nnery would learn from my previous matches that I always sent out the pokemon with the greatest type advantage first.-


    Against most fire types Gaia would indeed have a heavy advantage with her rock typing but I remembered Sunny from before and knew nnery would send it out to counter Gaia with it''s flying type moves. Vulcan was also pure fire type so sending it out gave me no real advantage either which left my third "technically" elite level pokemon, Hades. Did I expect Hades to win? Not even remotely but I did expect it to give nnery a VERY tough time. Sending Hades out also had the unique bonus of showcasing it to the world and raising my fame considerably in the process.-


    The audible gasps from the live audience as the keystone and malicious presence of Hades manifested on the field as the cheeky bastard ballooned his cloud size to it''s max so it looked like a massive wicked demonic face on a ck background. Hades ability shed with the Sunnys own ability as they both sought dominance and Hades lost due to it''s inexperience getting an attack drop right off the bat. I didn''t even say anything before Hades hissed in outrage and sent out a wave of dark type energy using dark pulse.-


    "Sunny day!" nnery called and the huge red bird pokemon tanked the hit as it began charging up it''s own move. "Ominous wind." I spoke calmlyand Hades howled and purple ghost type energy gathered around it before moving through the arena like a dark breeze that made Sunny shiver on contact. ''The ten percent chance didn''t proc this time'' I thought disappointed andmanded Hades to do it again. The sunny day got finished before the next ominous wind and a ball of fire type energy shot overhead increasing the fire type energy on the arena to very high levels.-


    The second ominous wind came after that and I saw Hades cloud shiver slightly as the grin on it''s face widened which told me the stat boost effect had hit this time. Ominous wind had a ten percent chance to raise every stat by a single level when it was used for a max possible amount of six levels up. nnery seemed to have noticed the buff hitting as she immediately ordered a methrower to try and get rid of Hades before it could use these heightened stats.

 Exhibition match(2)

    Exhibition match(2)


    It was a good effort but i wasn''t going to let it work "Sucker punch!" I called and the ghost created a huge w from it''s cloud and uppercutted the red bird mid charge of the me thrower making it flinch as well as causing the fire type energy it gathered to backfire and chock it up a bit. Sucker punch was a tricky and downright nasty move as it always went first however it could only be used right before an attack was going to be sent at the user.-


    The damage the move did was also not something easily ignored either as there was a loud "CRACK!" when the punch hit Sunnys side and it was clear a bone had either been broken or cracked. A quick x-ray nce and I found it to be a rib with a crack but not nearly enough to stop a pokemon as powerful as Sunny. "Ominous wind!" I called while the bird was reeling from the hit and Hades grinned maliciously as it began preparing the move again. "Whirlwind!" nnery called with a serious expression that told me she had figured out my strategy.-


    It was an irritating one without a doubt as I was priming Hades to run a buff and interference strategy. In terms of speed and skill Sunny had Hades beat hands down but if I could manage to buff him three times and rely on sucker punch to interrupt an big attacks that had long charge times like methrower i could exhaust or even beat Sunny as it could only use quick but weaker attacks. Anything that took more than a moment to ready wasn''t feasible as a result of me being able to use sucker punch to capitalize on that opening.-


    This exhibition match wasn''t just a disy of brute force but also skill and I wanted to show off all the best stuff I had. nnery was more than willing to y ball in this regard and which was why she called for a whirlwind. The move was normal type but that didn''t matter as it forced me to switch out my current active pokemon. Hades got of his move before this and I saw the buff activate but then it was forced back into it''s ball and I sent out Vulcan.-


    By league rules after a move like whirlwind was used I had exactly two seconds to send out another pokemon so I assume nnery wanted Gaia to show up but unfortunately for her I have the position of each of my team memorized at my hip. When Vulcan hit the field the crowd went wild in excitement. "Calm mind!" I called without hesitation and nnery red at me. Calm mind raises special attack and special defense by one level each and add on the massive buff Vulcan got from the sunny day and huge amounts of fire type energy in the air with it''s already high stats and I basically just ordered it to sweep Sunny.-


    Vulcan took deep breaths as pink psychic energy glowed around it''s head and nnery had Sunny fly high up and prepare a return. The moment Vulcan was done I spoke two word that made nnery grit her teeth. "Extreme speed." I spoke calmly and not even very loudly but everyone heard it. Vulcan vanished from it''s location leaving behind an afterimage as it circled around the arena in an instant an leapt into the air using it''s momentum to send it sting into sunny who was NOT prepared to be intercepted so far above the ground.-


    The impact alone hurt the bird greatly but the finishing move came in the form of the fall or rather the sudden stop at the end with Vulcan weighing down on it. "BOOM!" the arena shook from the impact and the hard stone cracked at the point of impact. "Staraptor is unable to battle!" The reff called and the cloud of dust cleared to show Vulcan standing with a single paw on the knocked out bird arrogantly staring down nnery. I sighed at this since all it was doing was making her mad if the expression on her face was any indication.-


    ''You deserve whatever she has nned for you after that stunt.'' I thought calmly as I waited for nnery to send out her next pokemon after recalling Sunny. She didn''t disappoint either as she recalled the big red bird pokemon and sent out her Camerupt. The pokemon frankly looked like a hornless yak with red fur and the only real difference was the two mini volcanoes on it''s back. "Magnitude!" nnery called and I sighed but let it happen since Vulcan needed to chill. After reaching elite tier Vulcan had been insufferably arrogant and getting kicked about would be good to curb that.-


    The look I got from it after the ground type attack hit it told me it had learned it''s lesson. "Rock smash!" I called and Vulcan blurred forward and smashed it''s paw into therge bovine but got a grunt from it but that was it. Well the Camerupt did take a good deal of damage but the species was innately tanky and thus able to take quite a beating before passing out. "On it''s back, wail on it!" I called and nnery looked speechless as Vulcan straight up mounted her pokemon and began to beat it senseless from a spot it couldn''t actually attack.-


    "Explosion!" she called and before Vulcan could get away from her pokemon it ejected literally all of it''s energy at once causing VERY heavy damage to Vulcan. The price for this damage however was that the Camerupt was out of the fight entirely. "I''m withdrawing Vulcan due to safety concerns!" I told the reff and sent Vulcan back to it''s ball since any more damage and recovery will be much harder than necessary. So far this match was going my way as I was down one pokemon while nnery was down two.-


    "Magna pull through!" nnery called and sent out a ziken while I sent Hades back out. It was a VERY bad match up and not in my favor either as the ziken was faster, stronger and had a plethora of effective fast moves it could use against Hades. My ghost put up a good effort and managed to do some damage with a couple sucker punches and a pursuit but fell shortly none the less. "Looks like it''s my biggest monster versus your fighter , Gaia set!" I said with a smile as I tossed my girls ball out and released her on the arena.-


    Gaia roared after she manifested and even a brave hearted pokemon like ziken was intimidated by her sheer size and barely controlled power. Gaia''s innate abilities kicked in and the arena got covered by a strong sandstorm while her own evasion went up as a result. "Ancient power!" "Double kick!" nnery and I called our moves at the same time and our pokemon moved to obey. A vast amount of tan brown rock energy gathered around Gaia while reddish brown fighting energy gathered around the charging zikens feet.

 End of the match

    End of the match


    Gaia unleashed a volley of child sized rocks at the ziken since despite finishing her prep for her movest she didn''t need to close the distance to use it unlike with the double kick the ziken was going for. The fire type was well trained however and without skipping a beat used the boulders as footholds to reach Gaia''s face. "CRACK!" both feet smashed into Gaia''s snout knocking a fang loose and cracking her carapace. I winced at that since while it wasn''t a serious injury and the tooth would regrow in about a week it meant she couldn''t eat any minerals or hard foods during that time.-


    "RAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Gaia roared in rage and I could have sworn she got bigger as a white glow started to gather in her chest and make it''s way up her throat. ''Oh shit that hyper beam!'' I thought in panic a split second before the arena turned blindingly bright. The ziken hadn''t had any time to regain distance from my girl before she unleashed her most powerful move on it at point nk range. "ziken is unable to battle! Winner Alexander Drake!" the ref called and I immediately recalled Gaia before she could do anything that we would both regretter.-


    Not that I could see mind you since she had pretty much sh banged me and at best everything was blurry at the moment. My vision was returning to normal quickly but that didn''t really matter since the match was over. I certainly wasn''t alone in my blindness though as quite a few members of the audience were holding their eyelids when I finally got my normal vision back. No body wasining or anything like that as the risk of something like this happening was a well known one.-


    Moves had the potential to cause temporary blindness and deafness at high levels so if anything we were the stupid ones for not getting protection against those scenarios. For trainers it was a set of special contacts that turn dark momentarily if there was too much lighting at ones eyes and as for the whole deafness issue there simply wasn''t any reasonable method to prevent it. Using earmuffs or plugs stopped all sound from reaching your ears which was more detrimental than anything and there were no selective canceling type tech for the ears.-


    The league had been working on such things but they had little luck due to how sensitive the human ear was causing the prototypes to basically turn noise canceling the moment someone even shouted or a pokemon roared. I had ideas about how to use those same prototypes more effectively but was unwilling to share that information at the moment. This world was clearly in the era of criminal organizations and the idea would only make them more efficient if I implemented it on a wide scale. See themunication technology was weirdly behindpared to earth as besides video conferences(which needed a high techputer by the way) the usual methods were quiet and hard to hear.-


    My idea was basically to create a sort of headset that cancels outside sound around the ear but allows the person wearing it to hear the person they were talking to clearly. It wasn''t revolutionary or anything as it just added a bit to the existing technology but it would makemunication way more efficient for everyone which unfortunately included the criminal organizations. Anyways nnery had recalled her pokemon as well though judging from the expressions of the Joys taking her pokemon it was seriously injured.-


    "I have to apologize for Gaia''s hyper beam. She was probably too consumed by her anger to realize how dangerous it was." I said honestly as I walked up to nnery. She shook her head "There was always a chance of something like this happening but what bothers me is I can''t think of a reason why she would have gotten so angry. The attack probably hurt but it should have been that bad right?" She asked confused. I chuckled "No it wasn''t the pain that made her angry , she''s dealt with worse before. Then problem came in when one of her teeth got knocked out."-


    "The girls a foodie through and through and she can''t eat any hard things or minerals until that tooth regrows. That one attack basically denied her her favorite part of the day for the next week or so and she knew it." I exined with a smirk. nneryughed uproariously when she heard my exnation. "Ha~ I can''t believe that such a powerful attack came from what amounts to a temper tantrum." she said with a smile after she got control of herself again.-


    "Pokemon have their own personalities and quirks so obviously they have things that will set them off. In this case Gaia went off because someone took away her ability to eat minerals for about a week. For Vulcan though it''s if you harm a child , big soft spot for the little ones it has you see." I said honestly. "Really?" She asked astonished. "I know right? You''d think the prideful thing would be terrible with something as bothersome as children but no Vulcans a total pushover when ites to children. Rescued some Eevee kits a while back from a traffickers shipwreck and Vulcan looked about ready to kill the rangers we called for help to protect them." I said casually.-


    "Oh yeah , I read about that whole incident in your file but didn''t think anything of it at the time. Still I have trouble imagining that pokemon in particr as gentle in any regard." nnery said honestly. "Can''t say as I me you really. My newest addition that you fought earlier , Hades , is a troublesome little brat though. It''s clever as hell and absolutely loves to jump scare people. Like most of it''s species Hades also has a vindictive streak a mile wide. Despite this though it is very attached to the baby Feebas I have." I said honestly.-


    "I can''t say I expected you to pull out a legion Spiritomb of all things during this match. In fact I was actually counting on either your Charmeleon or Grovyle to win." nnery said with a little bit of helplessness. I shook my head "Both of them aren''t at the elite level yet , in terms of pure skill they are about tied with Vulcan and Gaia if a bit behind but their actual power is still only at the ace level. I estimate they will evolve thest time either right before or right after they reach elite level in power." I said honestly.-


    "I see , out of curiosity can you tell me why your Spiritomb seemed so i suppose inexperienced would be the word?" nnery asked curiously. "Hades was born from the many lives lost at teport recently. I came across it shortly after it had been born and captured it. The reason it seems so unskilled is because it simply is. I have only been training it for about a week now so beside raw power Hades simply isn''t even close to the same level of proficiency the rest of my team is at." I said honestly.

 Understanding

    Understanding


    "teport? Then you mean!?" she asked in horror and I nodded seriously. "Yes , Hades is the product of all the resentment and hatred from the recent disaster given physical form. Ironic isn''t it? That out of everyone toe across it first it was the one person who failed to stop Maxie from awakening Groudon to begin with. The least I felt I could do was make sure that Hades was well taken care of no?" I asked with a small amount of self loathing. I failed to stop Maxie and the result was a great loss of life.-


    I don''t me myself for the disaster since I know that Groudon would have been awoken with or without my intervention from Maxie''s actions. However that didn''t mean I didn''t acknowledge that I could have probably prevented it by being more careful. Maxie was an arrogant and confident person by nature so if I hadn''t shown my willingness to ignore pokemon shes and target the trainer themselves he may not have fled from the machine in self confidence that his team could win. In a way my own ruthlessness hade to bite me in the ass by scaring him into fleeing and in the end awakening Groudon forcefully.-


    "You couldn''t have known that Maxie was going to awaken Groudon so you shouldn''t beat yourself up over it. It''s not your fault." nnery said seriously. I shook my head "Do you know why Maxie fled to begin with? It was because I killed one of his admins while ignoring their pokemon. He fled because there was no hope of him turning the situation around if he couldn''t just battle me to get me to back off. It was why he was so desperate when we finally reached him in the Magma base. He knew he wouldn''t survive and with his death so too would his goal follow him to the grave." I said honestly.-


    nnery went quiet as she couldn''t argue with me as I was right. "Despite what happened I don''t regret my ruthlessness at all. From now on though I will try and hone it into a scalpel rather than a hammer as it currently is. For now however I think I will heal up my team and deal with the wolves waiting to rip into me." I said with a smirk before walking away. nnery was too lost in her thoughts to try and stop me as I left the gym.-


    Out of all of my pokemon to battle only Vulcan and Hades were seriously hurt and even then Hades would be fine after a while since the vast majority of it''s form was smoke. Vulcan only had some burns and a couple broken ribs from the Camerupt exploding right next to it and needed some time healing under my ability. The crowds outside the gym waiting for me were like you would expect quite eager to surround me.-


    I wasn''t having any of it though and simply leaped over them all by reinforcing my legs with aura and then sprinting away. Once I got back to my hotel I released Vulcan from it''s ball and went to work healing it''s injuries. Vulcan was quite unhappy with how it''s battle went not that I could me it as it was doing very good before nnery went for mutual destruction. "Cheer up Vulcan we won in the end." I said and the legendary snorted but stopped sulking which was better than nothing I suppose.-


    Hades was less epting of the lose it took when I let it out of it''s ball. Obviously it wasn''t a hundred percent alright since the cloud was uneven and rather small but Hades was at least recovering quickly. There was a lot of wailing and roaring and hissing before Hades felt satisfied that it had vented out all of it''s grievances. To be honest though I just nodded along like I understood any of what it was trying to convey in it''s strings of iplete thoughts and words. "Now then if you are doneining we can go over your fights to find where you can improve." I said calmly and the ghost hissed at me but was at least paying attention.-


    "First your moves need work , don''t give me that look it''s true and you know it. As I was saying you have trouble moving your energy smoothly and your moves themselvesck any creative ir that would give them any more usability. The good news is that you have plenty of power however so we only need to work on the way you use the moves in training." I said despite Hades not liking my criticism. The ghost didn''t like having it''s ws pointed out like this but it was necessary for it to improve.-


    "The second thing we need to work on is your mobility. The entire time you just stayed in ce and as you experienced it left you very vulnerable to an opponent faster than you that isn''t limited where they can attack you from. Thankfully there are a few ways you can patch this hole in your defense. First of which is simply limiting the direction you can get attacked in by altering the terrain or creating barriers around yourself. Your species can learn rock tomb via tm or serious training so it should be possible for you to at some point be able to modify for surrounds to protect you as well."-


    "The second method is simply for you to directly increase your mobility. I know that instinctually your kind don''t like to move your keystones but if you simply pick it up and move around with it you will be a lot harder to get overwhelmed like you were." I exined all of this seriously and while Hades hissed and howled angrily I knew it was listening to what I said. The ghost was just a stubborn ass when it came to admitting it''s own faults was all.-


    I didn''t really have any advice for Vulcan on how to act as for the most part it had always been nearly perfect in battle. It followed my instructions, tried it''s best and didn''t go for the kill unless it was supposed to. Due to it''s personality Vulcan also never really lost it''s temper in battle unlike Gaia. Not to say it didn''t get mad as Vulcan very much did , just that it never let it cloud it''s mind. Gaia also usually didn''t have this problem but as I discovered getting in the way of her food was a fast way to earn her rage.-


    Speaking of my big girl she was sulking in her ball at the moment and I didn''t feel like aggravating her with criticism until she was done. In terms of injuries she was basically fine minus the fact one of her front fangs had been knocked out. I waited a few hours for Hades to finish healing before putting it''s keystone in my pocket and told it that we were going to jump scare some people. After that I left the hotel openly and made my way to the exit of the city before heading out.

 Sending a message

    Sending a message


    I noticed the people following me from a distance but didn''t move to confront them until I was well on my way to Fortree city. "You know for assassins and bounty hunters you guys are shit at staying hidden." I said after stopping next to the river to wait for my pursuers to catch up. No less than ten people wearing all manner of face coverings from simple scarves to full masks walked out of the nearby trees. "Nothing personal mate but that bounty on your head is going to take care of us fora long time." one of the men said as they all took out weapons to use on me.-


    "You can do whatever you want to them so long as they survive afterwards." I said calmly while patting the pocket that had Hades keystone. ck smoke poured out of my pocket as Hades cackled madly while drowning the would be assassins in darkness and pain. I watched on coldly as the ghost tormented these people in endlessly creative and cruel means while always stopping just before death. And oh did they beg for it , for me to put them out of their misery but I refused.-


    Instead I simply released the rest of my team and left the people to suffer until they sumbed to their wounds or were found by someone else. I hadn''t allowed the little one out of the dive pouch the entire time this was happening since I didn''t want to taint it with something like this while it was so impressionable. My team understood the need for ruthlessness because they were mature and not delusional but besides Hades none of them took pleasure in causing pain and killed efficiently like it was merely a chore that needed to be done.-


    I didn''t mind showing that sort of mindset to the little one as it would need to adapt to it at some point anyway but the sort of stuff Hades did was purely for kicks and not a good mindset to subject the little one to. Hades wasn''t evil exactly but cruelty came easy to a being born of death and resentment like it. In a way cruelty was in it''s nature just as kindness was in a Chanseys. The trick was keeping it neutral until it''s cruelty was needed such as this situation.-


    Once we got far enough from the people I let the little one out of the dive pouch which worked immediately to bring Hades back to neutral as it was still reveling in the suffering it had inflicted not long prior. "Fee?" the little fellow questioned me about why I had kept him trapped in the dive pouch. I just smiled and rubbed him on the forehead "I am sorry about that but you aren''t ready to see those sort of things yet." I said apologetically. The young pokemon forgave me easily enough and just melted in bliss as I gave him attention.-


    The river that we were walking next to was a bit unique as it was one of the few ces with a guaranteed Feebas poption living within it in Hoenn. The only other such ce was the current pokemon champions personal home that was located in Sootopolis. The city was an unusual one in that it was connected to the sea but had a sort of crater circle of raised stone surrounding it and a ratherrge amount of sea water. This meant that the pokemon living in this body of water were protected from the vast majority of the predations of the open ocean.-


    Wace has a breeding pair of Milotic that when not in use on his team serve as the rulers of this body of water that keep the local poption in line. As an added benefit they asionally mated and produced an egg that over thest few years had created a small poption of highly coveted Feebas that were all very talented. The really interesting part though was that Wace had made it public knowledge that anyone could take one of these Feebas so long as they could convince the pokemon to go with them. To date only four people have seeded with each being ace trainers or higher at this moment.-


    Anyway with the river having Feebas in it it came as no surprise that the little one managed to sniff them out over the next week of travel. The strange part however was that the Feebas found all treated the little one like he was a benevolent emperore to visit a backwater town just to make sure his people were alright. Calling their expressions anything but reverent would be wholly incorrect. ''It must be the variation at work but I can''t figure out which part of it.'' I thought with a sigh.-


    The looks we got from the dozen Feebas when the little excitedly introduced his "family" to them was frankly hysterical. Pure disbelief and shock could be seen on their faces much to our amusement. The little one didn''t know just how fucking nuts the collection of pokemon I had under me was since that was all it knew since it was born but the wild Feebas were very much aware of it. Hell I had two legendries just chilling out near each other that was enough to make pretty much any pokemon stop and question it''s sanity.-


    Legendary pokemon RARELY got along for the brief instances when two of them would meet in the wild but having them living together was a whole other sort of nuts. Add that on with the fact all of my other pokemon were also variants and to these Feebas it must like they were hallucinating. I didn''t feel like pointing out that I was WAY more of an anomaly than even my entire team what with all my skills and abilities. Still the Feebas were more than happy to dredge up items from the river bed for me when I asked as a result of the respect I earned.-


    About two day into my travels to the next city Birch gave me a call that was fairly amusing. "I am seriously debating with letting you keep that Spiritomb Alex." Birch said immediately after i picked up the call. "I take it someone found Hades victims then?" I asked casually. He sighed "Yeah a ranger found them and called it in before quitting their job traumatized. I know I asked you to keep the casualties to a minimum but this is definitely NOT an improvement." He said irritated.-


    "Okay to be fair I was minding my own business when they came up and were all like "DIE!" and Hades had other ideas." I said with a smirk. "Sometimes I wonder why I even bother." Birch groaned. "Because we''re good friends and I tend to behave myself normally. also because you are dying to figure out all my secrets." I said with a chuckle. "Sounds about right. Probably going to regret asking but any particr reason you basically tortured and crippled ten people? The Joy n is not happy about it by the way." He asked with a tired sigh. "I was sending a message to anyone else who thinksing after my head is a smart idea." I said seriously.

 A reminder

    A reminder


    "I certainly hope you know what you are doing Alex because as far as I can see you are setting yourself up to be interpreted as a viin." Birch said worriedly. I shook my head "Antihero is a better term for what I should be seen as." I said calmly. "Isn''t that what I just said though?" Birch asked confused. This stopped me in my tracks for a moment as it dawned on me that the term might not exist here like it does on earth. "If you went by pure verbal context then i suppose you would be correct however in this case it does in fact mean something different than viin."-


    " A viin is someone who does bad things entirely for selfish or evil reasons, not to say they couldn''t do good things for the same but you get the idea. A hero is the opposite in that they do good things for altruistic or unselfish reasons and again that doesn''t mean that they can''t do bad things for good reasons either. In a manner of speaking however an antihero is dead center between both of those alignments with a tendency towards having good reasons for the bad things they do." I exin honestly.


    "While the rification is wee by no means does that make me feel better at all. In fact that makes me even more concerned because that sounds an awful lot like someone just one bad day away from bing a viin." He says seriously. I shake my head at this though "You weren''t listening then , Antiheros are sort of the necessary evil type of people. Not like viins who do bad for their own sake or just because they can. Take me for example , while I do bad things I do so knowing that they will most likely have a positive oue on everyone else."-


    "Those assassins are no longer a danger to anyone and will serve as a warning that will prevent more people from getting killed trying to follow their example. I wiped out team Magma and the criminal activity in the region dropped noticeably. The same was likely also true for that pokemon kidnapping and trafficking group I took out in teport as I doubt it didn''t lessen the amount of that activity happening in the region. Extreme measures for a better tomorrow if you prefer." I said seriously.-


    "I understand that Alex but that doesn''t mean I like it. I am not alone either as your actions have created a dangerous precedent that many in the league fear others may try and follow. There are even many in the league who publicly praise what you do while making the same argument you have but when does death be your go to solution? When does life stop holding value to you and you kill not to make a better future but simply because someone irritated you? Have you even considered this?" Birch questioned.-


    "Of course I have , I don''t just go around murdering criminals great and small for no reason you know. Each and every one of those that die by my hand did so because they chose to take the path they did and showed no remorse for their own actions. In the case of team Magma do you really think they didn''t know how devastating their actions would be for others? They simply wrote off all those who would suffer from their actions as merely coteral damage in the face of their own idea of a greater good. Damnit Birch do you think those assassins cared about the suffering they caused with their own actions beyond themselves? Not even a little."-


    "I''m willing to bet money in fact that they me their current situation on me or the person who ced the bounty and not on the ones truly responsible for the consequences of their actions , themselves. The only people who have any right to me others for their situations are the ones who are coteral damage as by no choice or knowledge of their own they suffered from someone elses actions." I said frankly tired of defending my actions.-


    Look I get it really I do but I am only willing to exin the reasons for my actions so many times before I feel like I am wasting my time. It was frustrating to be honest as it was like everyone was so busy criticizing my actions that they refuse to remember that the ones actually subjected to them are much bigger problems. Even the grunts I had killed were part of a much bigger problem and felt no remorse for their own misdeeds. We ended the conversation there as we both knew that any further and we might damage our friendship.-


    When we got to the next town I got a pleasant reminder that there was good in what I did. It was a fluffy reminder in the form of a whole skulk of Eevee that noticed my team from afar and charged out of the town to meet us. A group of seven Eevee to be precise and ones I couldn''t forget even if I wanted to. These were the same starved Eevees I had rescued months ago from a trafficker ship wreck and had handed off to the rangers to rehabilitate. Even after all this time the small creatures remembered us and were eager to greet us.-


    They weren''t unattended however as a woman in a floral sundress ran up to me and my team from the town in a panic. "I''m so sorry they aren''t usually this excitable or friendly with new people! Are you okay?" she asked worriedly as she grabbed one of the two fluffy brown pokemon that was hanging off my shoulder rubbing it''s cheek against my neck affectionately. "Eevee!" the small; fuzzballined loudly but just melted in the woman''s arms after I rubbed it''s head. "We were the one who rescued them but I admit I hadn''t thought they would remember us." I said honestly.-


    The woman looked stunned for a moment before smiling brightly "I see , in that case I have to thank you for all that you have done. I am a pokemon rehabilitator by trade you see and I can not even begin to count the amount of young pokemon have been given to me after being found in a raid or by ident in your case due to those evil traffickers. When these ones were given to me they were highly malnourished and had deep fear of people from their handling prior."-


    "After they recovered physically I had to spend a good deal of time earning their trust and trying to undo the damage to their minds that the trauma had caused , even now they are not as outgoing as their species should be." She said honestly. "Those traffickers have long since been taken care of and will never make any more victims again." I said firmly. The woman just smiled though "I know all about the things you have done Mr. Drake. Perks of the job you see. While many would condemn your ruthless methods know that there are many who believe in and are grateful for the weight you have taken upon yourself, these little ones for example are some of your biggest fans." she said brightly.

 Possible match

    Possible match


    "Is that right? I assume the reason you didn''t recognize me immediately then was that you weren''t familiar with my appearance for some reason?" I asked curiously. "Yeah, I have electric types with poor control over their energye to the center so we have no electronics and I get the news via paper thanks to the leagues." she says honestly. That made sense as it was well known that a single rogue electric type could definitely act as an EMP for a small area. "If you get your news in paper form I take it it tends tock details of what I have done then?" I asked casually.-


    "It has enough details for me to understand that your hands have more than a little blood on them. Since it only belongs to those bad people though I don''t mind it all that much. I have been a rehabilitator for seven years now and in that time I have seen the suffering those sort of people can bring , the world is better off without them." she said with a frown. "I like to think so as well but that doesn''t mean I can''t understand the other sides argument as well."


    "Death is more or less the end and at that point any hope of them changing for the good or redeeming themselves is gone. When I take their lives I force them to lose all potential for good as all that awaits them is likely the void alone. Honestly I don''t mind the idea of giving second chances to criminals captured by the league but I simply refuse to do so myself since in most cases they will just squander the opportunity ording to statistics. It doesn''t mean I am some sort of monster that enjoys killing like those arguing against my actions seem to think." I said seriously.-


    We chatted for a while after that while the Eevee yed with Vulcan and my own little one using Gaia''s mountainous form as an obstacle course. She was good natured for the most part about it and only grumbled when one of the Eevee stepped on her eyelid in it''s rush. The only pokemon I really had to keep an eye on was Hades who was not the most socially adept individual. It didn''t get all murder happy or anything but I could certainly see it being tempted if the side nces it was giving the woman was any indication.-


    ''I really need to work on that just in case I am ever unavable to keep it under control.'' I thought with a sigh. When the sun started to go down the woman invited us back to the rehabilitation center for the night. I wanted to reject the offer but it was really hard to when I had seven sets of wide brown eyes begging me to say yes. The center was a wide ce on the other side of the town with different environments tailored to each natural ce a species might be found.-


    We didn''t get a warm wee by the pokemon there however , no quite the opposite in fact as almost immediately a massive royal variant heavily scarred male Garchomp showed up and directly threatened us. To my surprise though it was a high elite level pokemon and definitely had the power to back up it''s threats. The woman went to step forward in a panic to calm the hostile dragon type but I stopped her and lifted my eyepatch to make eye contact with it instead. This was an open challenge as far as dragon type behavior was concerned but the powerful pokemon merely got into a staring contest with me before bowing out.-


    "My word! I''ve never seen a dragon type submit so easily before!" the woman said in surprise. "You are mistaken this isn''t submission but rather just he and Iing to an understanding. I am not here with harmful intentions but I will fight if he presses us. Dragon types may be proud and quick tempered but they are not stupid. If we got into a fight truly there would be more destruction than he is willing to seee to this ce." I exined and the Garchomp snorted but didn''t try to correct me.-


    "I can''t say that I have ever thought of it like that , in most cases they teach people to try and avoid confronting dragon types and to just do whatever they want instead." she said honestly. "And if you were trespassing on their territory in the wild or came across one you couldn''t handle then that would be correct. However this isn''t his territory and he knows it , he is a guest here same as I am. In fact the only reason he is even here is that he probably wants to try and woo my big girl and was posturing." I said with a smirk.


    The Garchomp growled at that in annoyance at being so easily seen through but didn''t argue which proved my point. "You seem quite calm despite knowing that Rex wants to mate with your Tyranitar." the woman said confused. Iughed at that "While it is true that I am Gaia''s trainer and Rex as you have said his name is is close to champion tier in terms of power. I am only one of the obstacles he needs to go through if he wants to sessfully mate with her."


    "Even if I gave my blessing , which I do since he is a good match for her , he still has to convince Gaia herself and then he has to survive courting her. Dragon mating rituals are notoriously violent and one wrong move means Gaia will kill him during the act." I said honestly. "Should I even allow him to try then? I would truly be saddened if he perished?" she asked concerned. I shook my head at the question "it''s not your decision to make as if you tell him he is not allowed to attempt it while here under your care he will just leave and find us in the wild." I said and she looked distressed.-


    "Calm down he will be fine so long as he is careful and doesn''t get pushy. He doesn''t look like he should make the mistakes a younger male of his species might." I added reassuringly while the Garchomp nodded in agreement "Gar!" it said and the woman sighed. "Fine! But I''ll never forgive you if you die in the process!" she said to the Garchomp that nodded respectfully. It was rather funny to see honestly since the giant dragon type could easily kill her but was likely one of the pokemon she had rehabilitated and thus held extremely high respect for her leading to this scene of a small woman scolding a massive powerful pokemon and it just taking it like a child would it''s mothers scolding.

 Perspective

    Perspective


    Gaia wasn''t out of her ball at the moment since even if the rest of my team shouldn''t have been in town because of their size ,she literally couldn''t be without destroying her surroundings for the same reason. That didn''t mean that Rex couldn''t smell hering from miles away and get ready to put the moves on her. Truthfully speaking I wouldn''t allow just any old Garchomp try and mate with Gaia since her gics were very valuable and her mating with an unworthy partner would only lessen the talent of the child.-


    Rex though was nearly champion tier in power and skill at level one hundred and forty three and a royal variant to boot. As a result he was a perfectly suitable partner for Gaia if she had any interest in it. The woman lead me to Rex''s habitat which unsurprisingly was a rocky area with arge cave that he likely made his nest in. When I let Gaia out of her ball Rex looked love struck as he gazed at her which made me chuckle. Gaia had witnessed the whole event from her ball and as a result gave the him a once over before turning her nose up at him and ignoring him.-


    I wasn''t surprised at all as this was standard practice with both the Garchomp and Tyranitar lines in that the females yed hard to get since they were always in demand but chose their own avability. Still this spoke well for Rex''s chances since it meant she was at least somewhat open to the idea. If she outright rejected him Gaia would have been much more direct in that she would probably have threatened him to back off. -


    This worlds forums were so much more useful than the ones on earth tended to be as they had the personal knowledge of thousands of trainers in nearly every subject imaginable. It was how I knew about all this stuff beyond what was covered in the games. I regrly browsed the forums to learn as much about pokemon as I could , in a manner of speaking I could be considered half a pokemon professor with the sheer breadth of knowledge I had at this point. I didn''t doubt for a moment that actual professors had far more than I did but that didn''t mean I was going to downy my own knowledge.-


    While Gaia was getting the moves put on her the rest of us ended up in the Eevees environment that was just a small grove of trees with and nest under the roots of one of them. The little furballs were so excited to show us where they lived that not even Hades seemed to have the heart to point out it was actually very in. Not to say the vicious bastard wasn''t making problems of it''s own. I had to stop the thing from making an enemy of every pokemon we passed by putting it in it''s ball.-


    Unlike wild pokemon the pokemon at this rehabilitation reserve were nervous and defensively threatened us as we passed by which Hades took personally. After the first time Hades moved to violence after being threatened I recalled it into it''s ball and put it in stasis to keep it from forcefully leaving the ball. "I had always assumed the hostility of the species was merely a stereotype." the woman said concerned after seeing Hades act like that. "Afraid not , all that resentment and hatred from the ones who died doesn''t just get washed away by the species getting born."-


    "When not triggered Hades is not much different than any other pokemon in that it has it''s own admittedly quirky personality. But when it is exposed to hostility even that made defensively it can turn cruel and murderous in an instant. I imagine that as time goes on the species gets better at controlling those impulses but Hades was created very recently and hasn''t gotten there yet." I exined honestly. "It''s rather tragic to know that some pokemon are born with trauma of their own." she said sadly and I couldn''t agree more.-


    It was hard not to pity the species after seeing interacting so closely with Hades for the past few weeks. It was perhaps not the most peaceful or cheerful creature around but it wasn''t only doom and gloom either. Hades could be gentle as with the little one or the Eevees and mischievous when it yed pranks on us. In the same vein Hades could also be fiercely protectively if something threatened one of us. I imagine that most Spiritomb were simr in that they were more than their natures. At the same time however I was acutely aware at all times that Hades was a very dangerous creature for others.-


    While it was clear my team and I had nothing to fear from it the same was not true for others. Hades had so far never NOT shown hostility towards anyone not part of my not so merry band of misfit children. I was working on that but it was counter to it''s nature and as such a very slow process. I would also like to point out that I am very much aware at how cracked my team and I werepared to the norm of this world.-


    Literally each of us was cream of cream of the crop , like the one percent of the one percent of top talents. Gaia had two variants and a spark of Groudon divinity , Vulcan was a legendary , Hades was a variant legendary literally born at elite level power , Tank was a defensive bug type , Rune was a triple variant regional starter , Yani was a shiny variant with an extreme level of talent , the little one was was an anomaly of it''s own ss and I had no less than five abilities and was likely to get many more in time from the system.-


    You could literally go through a list of every champion level trainer ever and not find more than four with a more impressive resume. The fact that there were four was just proof that I still had quite some distance to cover before I could even begin to try and im the peak for my own. So in a funny way my group fit Hades perfectly. Anyway I ended up camping with the Eevees that cuddle huddled us to sleep after dinner. It was nice to be honest , a bit like taking a breather halfway through a stressful day at work.-


    We stayed for about a four days before leaving for Fortree that was the next gym on the list. Rex had sessfully mated with Gaia during that period and had an egg that I sent to Birch after checking it. ording to the system it was a Queen royal variantrvitar but I had no need for such a thing on my team. Gaia was also totally fine giving the egg to birch since Tyranitar usually aren''t very attached to their children to begin with. To rify it took a very short amount of time for pokemon to produce an egg but the real gestation came after the egg wasid taking between four and twelve months to hatch depending on the species.

 Reaching Fortree

    Reaching Fortree


    Birch was super excited to receive the egg as it was a very rare opportunity to study a developing pseudo legendary egg with a variation. We had already discussed what would happen to the child after it was born so it was only a matter of him holding it until that time. The basic idea was that we were going to hold a tournament where the winner gets the Larvitar. Only new trainers would be allowed to participate to prevent ace or elite trainers from basically ruining the point of the tournament.-


    I expected that Brendan would end up getting the Larvitar in the end should he participate which would be perfect since if he was as talented as his game counterpart he would reach champion level in time. Even if Brendan didn''t participate the winner would still be a top talent and the Larvitars talent wouldn''t likely be wasted. All in all it would work out just fine either way and the league had no reason toin at all since we were going to set the tournament up through it. While the Larvitar wouldn''t be from a certified breeder or anything like that the parentage of it was verifiable by a trustworthy source.-


    The rehabilitation reserve was a league run ce and as a result the woman who worked there was a heavily vetted individual and so long as she says that Rex and Gaia are the parents then there would be no problem. Hell if anything we are more likely to getints from gym leaders for not offering it to one of them since it would be a wee addition to any of their teams if they were rock or ground specialists. The tournament would be set in about six months when the egg was likely to hatch.


    Along the way to Fortree we stopped by the weather institute to crack some team aqua skulls since they were after the Castform there. Castform were artificial pokemon much like Porygon that had been created by people though with different methods. Porygon was basically an A.I that had left digital space aftering to life and was a rather debated species. Castform on the other hand were in a manner of speaking ghosts. Not in typing or that they were negative emotions given life so much as how they were created.-


    Castform were born from a dense conglomeration of "weather" type energy that came together into a pokemon. Sounds familiar doesn''t it? Almost exactly like the way a ghost type mighte about except without any death or emotions involved. I couldn''t even begin to tell you how weather energy was collected and condensed but what I can tell you about is why team aqua would want a Castform. It is the only pokemon known to be able to use every weather type move there was and for added awesomeness it even changed typing depending on what the weather was.-


    For a criminal organization that wants to expand the seas to "create more opportunities" the thing was a perfect tool on paper. There was a few very big problems with the species however that made me not want one at all and also made them worthless for team aqua. First was they all had multiple personality disorder. It was based off whatever weather form they had taken and made them pretty much impossible to train. Second was that in terms of pure power they were weak as all hell and add on the difficulty in training them and it was not worth trying.-


    Finally they couldn''t evolve unlike Porygon that had two evolutions each stronger and better than thest. Even if they could evolve there was no telling what sort of strange method was required and frankly I didn''t feel like wasting my only evolution token to see what a second stage would be like. Fifteen dead bodiester and just like in the game the weather researchers insisted I take one for saving them and I sent the damn thing to Birch as an early birthday present. He was thrilled to have it since it was a fascinating species and rtively friendly too.-


    I caught some k for killing the aqua grunts and single admin at the research institute but I just ignored it. I got attacked by two more would be assassins and left them tied upside down to a tree after crippling them. Hades had wanted to do worse but even I had to admit the ghost went a bit farst time and toned it down. After a week of travel and training we finally reached Fortree and it was totally different then I was expecting. In the game it was just a bunch of interconnected treehouses with the gym in the middle on the ground.-


    In reality there was twoyers to the city , one in the tree connected by rope bridges and one on the ground. The buildings in the trees were made of wood and the ones on the ground were stone or metal in construction giving the whole city a strange aesthetic. It worked though as it looked almost like nature had been allowed to grow without control and two factions of people lived here , the with nature and the for man factions. Obviously that wasn''t the case but that was just the sort of vibe the ce gave.-


    I drew more than my normal amount of gazes when I entered the city with the little one following in the air over head but i had expected that. He had grown over thest few weeks as his body matured and was now almost reminiscent of a Dragonair in terms of length and almost half as thick as a normal Milotic. Add on the jewel like scales and airborne activities and it would be hard not to stare at it. Don''t let the carefree cheerfulness of the little one fool you though he had stats that put many mature second stage pseudo legendries to shame.-


    [Pokemon: Feebas


    LEVEL:0


    Moveset: Ssh(n) , Metronome(n)(egg move)


    Variations: ??????


    Attack:94


    Defense:78


    Sp. Atk: 73


    Sp. Def:113


    Speed:150


    Ability: ?????(n) ]


    To be honest i was almost willing to bet that by the time the little one reached maturity and could actually start training in a normal manner it''s stats wouldn''t be below one hundred in any category. I still had no clue what the variation and ability were called though despite regrly sending updates on the little one including any details I found.-


    Interestingly the little one had it''s own dedicated forum page now where people posted pictures of it and talked about what it was. I officially had the title variant specialist apparently as that was how I was referred to on the forums. It wasn''t all positive though as some people had taken to trying to copy me with a full team of variants(rich people obviously) and it hadn''t gone so well as you may have expected.

 Laughable rumors

    Laughable rumors


    As was the previously epted idea non rted variants tended to not get along due to being highly prideful and to a lesser degree territorial. This meant that anyone not way more extraordinary than even the variants themselves had absolutely no chance of pulling it off. As these rich people discovered wealth was not in fact proof of being extraordinary. Their variant pokemon simply didn''t work together like my team did. A key detail I should add is that if a truly head and shoulders superior trainer were to try and collect a team of variants it may be possible for it to work.-


    This was how my team worked and I had no reason to believe the same couldn''t be true for others as well. I couldn''t say exactly how exceptional one would need to be to pull it off though since in my case I had the system which could be considered downright divine in nature. It''s functions were simply yes but as far as I could tell it filled every qualification for such a ssification. It seemed to create and destroy matter, grant abilities and had a seemingly endless amount of information on anything I sought it on.-


    I could check someone''s entire medical history with a literal nce so long as I was clear in my intention and it even included stuff that no doctor or even the person themselves were aware of. Hell my foraging skill was at expert level mastery simply because I memorized facts about nearly every new nt or mineral Ie across from the system ability {Appraise}. This meant that even if you were to take the system ability away I was perfectly set to identify the properties of nts and minerals on my own while exploring.-


    Obviously this was just a small amount of the benefits that I had thanks to the system but it was enough to prove my point. Like most spoiled rich people these failures were quite unhappy that they were unable to simply throw money at the problem to fix it. Most of them didn''t even have a single ability much less were top of the top excellent humans. In fact none of them could be counted as such and rather than admit that they thought I was cheating somehow. Drugs, mind control, electronic chips in my pokemons brains. I got pretty much every reason usible and imusible thrown at me by these people.-


    It didn''t bother me though since the league itself had plenty of records of my team that showed there was nothing off with them at all. It was actually sort of amusing to see all these spoiled people making fools of themselves since any trainer registered to the league could request my files if they thought something was off. While obviously dangerous information like allergies or rtive information was excluded the records of a trainers pokemon are always avable. All these usations as a result had no leg to stand and if anything only made the people making them look bad.-


    There was one thing that had caused a bit of a stir however in the form of my dragon eye. It was public knowledge that I had lost an eye so the fact that I still had one in that spot and that it waspletely different than my other had people asking questions. That was one thing the league was keeping to it''s chest tightly though. While the league was thankful for my help in asking Rayquaza to end the disaster letting the world know my actual involvement in that matter would cause serious problems.-


    For example there was a decent chance that I would be considered a hero since Rayquaza could very easily just kill me and ignore the problem if it had wanted to and I knew that. Not to mention I was actually working with nnery to stop team Magma when Maxie woke it up. The only thing about me at the moment that doesn''t look the best is the addition of Hades to my team since it might look like I was profiteering off the deaths Groudon left in it''s wake.-


    Meeting Hades was entirely a coincidence and I thought it a waste to have it sealed or exorcised and chose to utilize it instead. Even my violent way of handling criminals was more or less epted by the public. Still the public reveal of my new eye in the exhibition match with nnery had caused people to make all sorts of conspiracies. My favorite was that i was some sort of viin that was taking out my rivals but that I was being misunderstood as a hero. It was so hare brained that I could help butugh at it.-


    Ironically there was a theory that actually nailed what actually happened but was not very popr despite for the most part being true. The only part not true was that I was banging nnery in the background which never happened. Got close a few times but never actually moved past the whole talking phase of things. Which reminds me that I haven''t mentioned the sheer amount of gold diggers I havee across recently. The sheer amount of money rolling into my ount on a constant basis from tm sales was pretty public and of course there had been some women quite interested in it.-


    The pussy was nice but I really wish they''d stop trying to get knocked up , it''s annoying to have to argue about me taking preventative measures every single time. I was extremely careful not to get trapped by one of these women despite them putting in quite the good effort. In Fortree for example it took me only an hour or so to secure a ce to stay while I was in town. Like any decent guest I of course tidied up after myself and cooked since takeout was rather unappealing when my food is arguably better.-


    I had that skill at master level mastery after all , my only master leveled skill in fact. I wasn''t surprised considering the essence of cooking was knowing how to bring about the best in any ingredient you use. In many ways the skill blended with foraging and alchemy so progress in one of these skills tended to improve the others as well. Foraging for example could improve the use of an ingredient by harvesting in the best way to save it''s vitality or vor. Alchemy likewise could create powerful extracts from ingredients that enhance vor with the lightest amount.-


    Add on that cooking was a hobby of mine I took very seriously and you can understand how it was at master. In a funny way the food actually made the girl I was shacking up with forget about any sneaky entrapment ns she had. The trick was that while she was busy blissing out on my prepared food i was dosing myself to the gills with preventatives while removing any restraints I could find. By the end of the week when I had a meeting with gym leader Winona the girl probably figured out that she lost her opportunity to snag me.

 Friendly chat

    Friendly chat


    Winona was a rather strange individual in that she took her whole lifestyle and centered it around the flying type. Her outfit was modeled after the aviator outfits from decades back on earth , she refused to be romantically active unless the man was willing to take that whole till death do us part bit extremely seriously. Most specialists were much more normal inparison since while they took after their typing or theme they were still just normal people in most cases. The only real exception to this rule was psychic type specialists but i was fairly certain that was because of their pokemon causing their minds to act weird.-


    In Winona''s case she was just that obsessed with the flying type so I went to this meeting fully expecting some strangeness. The gym itself was a bit special as Winona had fully customized it to benefit her typing the most. I''m talking retractable roof, blue walls with clouds painted on them and a constant breeze blowing through the area all the time. The arena was actually on the roof of the building so that her pokemon could soar through the sky freely.-


    The terrain of the arena beyond that was a simple t stone one and Winona had a table and chairs set up there for the meeting. She was waiting with a smile on her face as she watched her pokemon fly overhead. "Why am I not surprised that our meeting is up here?" I asked with a chuckle as I walked across the arena. "And why am I not surprised to see that you are still half naked?" she sent back with a smirk. "Touch�� , mind if I let my pokemon out? They dislike being within their balls more than absolutely necessary." I said and she nodded.-


    By league regtions an official arena needed to be very wide andrge to amodate even thergest of pokemon so even with Gaia being out there was plenty of room for everyone. Six red shester and the whole team was free. Hades immediately hissed threateningly at Winona but i just picked up his keystone and set it in myp "Hush, this one is an ally not an enemy." I scolded the ghost and it shrunk a little and pouted like a child. "So you really do have that pokemon under control like nnery said." Winonamented with an interested look.-


    "Spiritomb are a bit misrepresented , they are like any other pokemon and have their own personalities. Hades here is really just being protective is all and usually doesn''t cause much trouble so long as I keep an eye on it." I exined while calmly stroking the keystone which Hades enjoyed for some reason. "I see , that is good to know in case I evere across one myself. There have been some rather interesting rumors regarding the rest of your team as well. Perhaps you''d care to clear the air with those as well?" she said changing the subject.-


    I shrugged "Not sure which rumor you mean specifically as there are quite a fewst time I checked but if you are referring to those usations made by those spoilt golden spooners then the league is free to run a full investigation if you want to, I have nothing to hide in this regard." I said calmly. "But you do have something to hide then?" She askedtching unto that part of what I said. "Everyone has something that they would prefer to keep to themselves and I am no different but my "secret" about how I have a full team of nonrted variants that actually gets along is not on that list."-


    "I have figured out what makes me so special and thus why I can pull this feat off. It''s that I am quite literally better than nearly everyone else in the world. I have shown five abilities publicly , I have several skills that would take many a lifetime to master and I have a personality and ambition that gives me the right tomand my team as their leader. You can ask any of them and they will likely tell you the same. I am simply superior and that is my secret in and simple." I said with grin.-


    "Rather an arrogant idea don''t you think?" she asked with a smile. I shrugged "perhaps it may seem that way but arrogance is unfounded pride and nothing I have said is incorrect so is it really arrogant in this case?" I asked and she looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head. "No I suppose not. I doubt many will want to ept this reason for why you alone seem to break the rule though." she said honestly.-


    "ept it , deny it , it makes no difference as all that matters is the truth in the end no matter how bitter it is." I said seriously.She nodded "You wouldn''t happen to be interested in settling down would you?" she asked seriously and Iughed. "Not even a little , I have too much I need to do to stop here. Good try though." I said with a smile. We chatted casually after that for a couple hours while our pokemon socialized. At the end of our meeting Winona passed me two badges , the heat badge and the feather badge.


    nnery had forgotten to give me her badge after our match and had sent it over via express delivery. As for why I didn''t need to battle Winona for her badge it was because I was simply beyond the point where it made any sense to test me as a trainer. As a result I simply needed to meet with the gym leaders to get their badges and otherwise wouldn''t be battling all that much with them unless that was what they themselves desired. That was how the exhibition match worked with nnery and likely how it would work with thest three.-


    The badges themselves didn''t really serve much purpose for me either since I was way overqualified to participate in the end of the season tournament. At my level I was eligible to challenge any regions elite four for a shot at the current championship tournament instead. I nned to challenge the four too but not join the tournament because I knew for a fact that I wasn''t even at the elite fours level yet much less the champions. I was only just into the elite tier of trainers but the four were near the top instead and the champion was even higher up.-


    This wasn''t to make the mistake of saying that the four were much weaker than the champion as in most cases that simply wasn''t true. Most champions were in fact only slightly more powerful than their regions elite four. It was actually why it was quitemon for the champion to be challenged and defeated by a member of the four historically speaking. I wasn''t even remotely close to that level yet and needed to bring my whole team to elite level before I could even consider moving forward to challenge the four.

 Ambush and repercussions

    Ambush and repercussions


    The area after Fortree in Hoenn was amongst the most unique as it was the lushest ce and at the same time the wettest. Between Fortree and the next major city Lilycove was a sort of wild area with ill kept pathways and the perfect conditions to rain almost constantly. Needless to say the only one of my pokemon having a good time was the little one. Even Hades that was unbothered by external stimulus got annoyed with the rain and insisted on getting balled. Vulcan bit the bullet and was the only strong pokemon traveling next to me as all my others wanted nothing to do with the rainy area.-


    The little one was happy as a m in the rain and even went out of it''s way to snap up the drops in front of it''s face to amuse itself. Vulcan and I were instead soaked through but ignored it to keep a vignt eye on the surroundings. Rain was a particrly harsh type of weather for dealing with assassins in as it had a really bad habit of muddling ones senses. Smells be faint and distorted. -


    The water running down the face and the many shes of light off the falling drops made it hard to focus on any area properly unless it seriously stood out. Finally of course the sound of the water hitting the ground was damn near deafening as it overcame almost all other sounds. All of this came together to mean that rain was an assassins best friend with some likely even specializing in using it to their advantage. While the little one was oblivious to the danger Vulcan and I were not and bordered on paranoia. For good reason too as the path we took was littered in traps and hidden assassins.-


    I kept a firm flow of aura just under my skin cautiously so when a bullet came out of nowhere and struck me in the forehead I wasn''t killed like what may have happened otherwise. Vulcan moved the instant the sound of the gun going off reached us and blurred through the would be assassin. Despite my aura keeping me alive by stopping the bullet my head was still ringing from the impact alone and the spot the bullet hit was bleeding as my aura was under my skin and so my skin had still been split open.-


    By the way when I said Vulcan went through the person I meant it very literally as it had extreme speeded into the person and did not stop which reduced them to a bloody mess that was getting washed off Vulcan in the rain. The little one thought the gunshot was far away thunder and thus not bothered by it but was fussing over me since I had stumbled and was bleeding. Before it could get dragged into this matter for whatever reason I returned it to it''s ball. In the same moment I released the rest of my team that moved to protect me or hunt down anyone else nearby.-


    Hades was in it''srgest form with dozens of red eyes balefully scanning for even a whiff of human life to snuff out. Gaia was towering over me protectively and Yani was treating my forehead wound while I remained vignt. Momentster all hell broke loose as Hades found another would be assassin and began tearing them apart. This was thest straw for the assassins who were clearly working together as five of them from various positions began to open fire on us likely in an attempt to save the screaming person Hades had.-


    All they seeded in doing however was pushing even further off the deep end as Hades started releasing moves at the surrounds without care for anything that might get caught in the crossfire so long as it killed the attackers. And oh was there a lot of coteral damage , trees , grass , wild pokemon nearby all got hit by these wild attacks and suffered for it. Everything in sight got transformed into a crater ridden disaster zone with only my team being unscathed. The assassins were killed though as when they gave away their positions by trying to escape the wild attacks Rune and Vulcan picked them off.-


    It was a mess to say the least and needless to say Birch was less than pleased when I called it in. He was especially unhappy when I told him exactly how close to death I had actually gotten with the headshot I took. The Joy n was entirely to me for this situation as that single crones actions had painted a very tempting target on my back. Every single body I drop as a result of these peopleing to im that bounty was on them and I made sure Birch and the whole league knew it.-


    It was a nasty stain on the ns record and not one that could get swept under the rug either as the amount of life lost as a result was far too big for that. This one incident alone resulted in nearly twenty people getting killed after their ambush failed horrifically. Add on any future assassins and the pile of bodies that this single stain on their reputation will leave behind will haunt them for quite some time unless something big happens to distract everyone away from it.-


    This incident was so bad that more than a few groups that would normally pander to the n had distanced themselves to keep the situation from blowing to them by association. It was a sting that the entire n felt in Hoenn. The regional Matriarch of the n even went as far as to issue a public statement about how the n had exiled the one responsible for causing this whole mess in an attempt to repair the ns public image. I also learned that the reason for the exile rather than the execution of the old crone was because she was the Matriarchs younger sister.-


    Wasn''t that a real fucked up fact in and of itself? The person who was at the head of the entire Joy n in Hoenn was the older sister of the Joy responsible for this mess. I didn''t need to try and ruin the ns reputation when that little fact got out as the public was in outrage. ''The sins of family weigh the most after all.'' I thought fairly amused as I watched this n with a long history suffer in the court of public opinion.-


    Not to say I wasn''t still nning on killing the crone who caused this mess to begin with once I eventually got to Sinnoh because that was still very much on the agenda. Perhaps if I am lucky she may even kill herself out of guilt for the suffering she created but she seemed like a stubborn old bat so I doubted it. No , like usual I imagined that she would probably do what everyone seems to do when things don''t go well for them now days and me me. ''It''s all his fault! if he didn''t exist!'' And so on as long as it didn''t involve ming themselves. It was stupid and pointless.

 New chain quest

    New chain quest


    While that whole drama was unfolding I reached the coastal area that had the safari zone in it. Contrary to what the games might lead you to believe the safari zone wasn''t a gimmick with rare pokemon just free to collect as you please. There were a bunch of rules to the ce that the games didn''t tell you. For starters you needed to be at least a fifth badge level trainer to even apply to go into the safari zone. This was for both the good of the pokemon as well as the the trainer.-


    Since the pokemon in the zone were unregted they had the potential to reach elite or higher if they put in enough effort. The second rule was that you had a bag limit that you couldn''t go over. As was shown in the game the zone had rare species living within it that were considered protected to a degree. Not all of the species were like this mind you like the Rhyhorn and Doduo lines for example but many others were in this category. This bag limit was to make sure some greedy idiot doesn''t go into the zone and wipe out a whole colony of Chansey.-


    The way it was enforced was that you left all spatial items at the front desk and are given pokeballs that had camouge patterns on them to use, safari balls. Poachers weren''t a thing either as there was four powerful elite pokemon that watched the whole zone and "disposed" of any trespassers. The best part was that these elites were also residents of the zone that the tycoon behind the whole thing had trained specifically for this purpose. The third rule was that if you killed a pokemon for any reason save to prevent yourself from getting killed you would be banned from every safari zone in the world.-


    This rule was very heavily enforced too as you have your picture, energy signature and personal details added to the records of the safari zones everywhere making it next to impossible to cheat your way back in. There was no rule that you had to keep the pokemon you caught however so there was a great deal of jobs involving going into the zone and getting a certain pokemon for someone who can''t go themselves for whatever reason. Personally I wasn''t interested in the ce but my system was of a different opinion apparently.


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: A group of poachers has taken over the safari zone and is in the process of rounding up rare pokemon to sell for profit before the league can interfere. Defeat and turn them over to the league!


    Objectives: Capture poachers 0/15 , Capture the leader 0/1(optional) , Don''t kill any of the poachers 16/16 (optional)


    Rewards: 2x exp tickets , Next quest (optional) , 1x ability ticket (optional)]


    "Alright everyone we have an new quest so look lively and listen up!" Imanded and my whole band of misfit monsters stopped and stared. Hades had been informed about the system of course but hadn''t seen me use it in any tangible way so far and thus was the most curious about what was going on. "The nearby safari zone has been taken over by poachers and the system was kind enough to tell us. The catch to this mission was that we are NOT allowed to kill any of the poachers." I said and I got groans and growls from my team.-


    I can''t really say that I me them either as besides Hades and Yani the rest of my team had a particr distaste for poachers or traffickers so being told not to kill them was frustrating. "With that said however there is nothing that says crippling the poachers is not allowed as well so if they breaks some bones or lose some limbs I won''t be against it so long as they survive. There are a total of sixteen of them here and pay close attention to their leader , he was specified as a special interest target by the system so make sure he can still talk if you find him before me." I said before recalling all of my team excluding Hades who could hide in my pocket with his keystone.-


    Walking into the safari zone a man in a uniform took one look at me and broke into a cold sweat. "Uh , sir we are sorry but the safari zone is closed at this time." he said trying to y the part of an employee here. "Hades remember ALIVE." I said casually while emphasizing thest word. The ghost cackled madly as it left my pocket and began to flood the reception area with it''s smoky body incapacitating the three poachers supposed to watch over this reception building.-


    Using my aura sense I found the three workers tied up and gagged in a storage closet to the side of the room and rescued them. "Anything I might need to know before I head into the zone to catch the rest of these guys?" I asked seriously after freeing them. "The guardians will attack you if you don''t have a safari badge. These poachers busted up the primary machine for them but we have a back up in the safe for emergencies." A female employee with tied up brown hair who looked about thirty said seriously.-


    A few minutester and I had a badge and the league had been called and informed about the situation. "Hades we are moving on to the rest gather up." Imanded and the smoke shrunk down into the keystone in my pocket reveal three dismembered but still breathing poachers. "Happy hunting Mr. Drake!" the woman said and I gave her a thumbs up over my shoulder as I entered the safari zone proper. Besides having much less trees the zone itself was still a wilnd and was quite expansive.-


    I released all my pokemon except the little one and started barking out orders. "Vulcan you are the fastest here so find the leader and capture or contain them I don''t want to risk that person getting wise and trying to escape. Yani you are on medical treatment , I doubt these guys have been gentle with the locals so find any injured pokemon and give aid. If you find any poachers you know what to do. Rune you are with Yani since both of you cover the others weaknesses. Gaia you are to circle the fences and find out if there is a transport waiting for the caught pokemon and if there is destroy it."-


    "Hades you are with me as my guard and if necessary battler." I said and my team all split like I had dictated. I myself went straight towards the center of the zone in an aura enhanced sprint while asionally taking a nce at the quest for progress. My team was ruthlessly efficient as within fifteen minutes of us splitting up nine of the remaining poachers were counted as captured. This meant there were still three more and the leader out here though and I soon found one of my own.

 Red flag

    Red g


    The poacher in question was battling a herd of Phampy line pokemon with a team of three pokemon at the ace level when I found him. I didn''t slow down at all from my sprint but instead transitioned into a flying kick straight to his knee caps from behind. With a satisfying "CRACK!" both of his legs snapped in unnatural angles and he screamed as he went down. I didn''t even need to help the Phampy as the mans screams distracted his pokemon enough to turn the tide of the battle and cause them to get killed by the angry elephant pokemon.-


    "I am with the league and came to catch these poachers. Do any of you know where any other poachers may have gone?" I asked the herd and like five of them pointed their trunks in a direction and I grabbed the now tied up poacher thanks to Hades and took off in the direction indicated. As it turned out though the herd wasn''t pointing me towards another poacher but rather the territory of a family of Natu that they had believed would be targets of the poachers.-


    It was a good piece of information since Natu and their evolved form Xatu were coveted psychic type pokemon that innately had future sight. Unfortunately there was no poachers there but the family did point me in another direction that might have some. This time the information was good as there was thest two poachers tag teaming a group of Chansey happily chatting about the big payday this job was going to get them. I casually dropped the poacher I was carrying and grabbed the keystone from my pocket and threw the angry ghost attached to it right in the middle of the poachers and their pokemon.-


    Hades was not a fan of this an took out it''s irritation out on the pokemon and their trainers viciously. "Remember we need the poachers alive , the rest are yours to do whatever you want with though!" I called out and Hades hissed but left the poachers be after some "mild" torture. I tied them up and put them over my shoulder before grabbing the one I dropped previously and Hades to return to the safari building to drop them off. I was not surprised to find some rangers there dealing with the poachers my pokemon had already brought back. -


    What I was surprised about was that Vulcan was keeping the rangers away from a red haired man with a missing leg and wrathful re leveled at my pokemon. ''Must be the leader and he looks pissed. His days is only going to get worse from here though.'' I thought as I skidded to a stop kicking up dust before tossing the poachers to the rangers. "This should be thest of them and after I have a bit of a chat with the leader over there you can take him as well. Should only take me a moment to get him to spill his secrets." I said casually.-


    One of the younger rangers looked like they wanted to confront me but an older one stopped them with a serious expression. I dipped my head in acknowledgement at that and walked over to the red haired poacher leader. "I''m going to be blunt here because I like to be efficient about things. You have two options here , first you tell me everything that you know and you''ll merely get away with the loss of a leg and prison time."-


    "Second is that you are stubborn and I torture you until you tell me everything you know before forcing you to spend the rest of your days having a bag attached to your gut for you to piss and shit and needing to drink your meals through a straw without any limbs at all. Your call." I said calmly as I made eye contact with the man. "And they call us monsters!" the man spat scornfully but started to talk about everything he knew , shipping channels , handler names , clients , the whole deal. I wasted no time at all taking out some paper and a pen to write it all down from my bag and once the man was done talking I tossed him to the rangers.-


    I was a man of my word and as I said he got away with the loss of a leg and prison time. The rangers took my ount of things and I said I wanted to see if I could find a rare variant in the zone originally but felt the actual workers tied up with my aura. One thing led to another and here we are. I have to admit that the rangers were real professional about the whole thing and tried really hard not to let their personal thoughts cloud the truth of the matter.-


    I got a little smeared for my brutal treatment of the poachers but otherwise perfectly unbiased reports were taken. I also made a copy of all the information i got from the leader of the poachers and handed it over to the rangers. The looks on all their faces other than the older ranger was priceless as they were dumbfounded by just how much information the guy had given up. "I have to ask what did you tell this bastard to get him to sell out his people like this?" the younger ranger asked curiously while the older one sighed but didn''t move to stop them.-


    I told the guy exactly what i said to the leader of the poachers and the ranger paled and backed away in horror. I left with my team after that while the older ranger looked to be imparting some words of experience to the young one that was mentally scarred by the imagery I had painted for him. That first part of the chain quest was markedplete with a perfect ending earning me the next chain in the line and some exp tickets and a new ability ticket.-


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have taken down the poachers that had tried to illegally harvest the safari zone for rare pokemon! However in the process you have learned of an evenrger web of illicit goods in the region , Take it down!


    Objectives: Capture or aid in the capture of handlers 0/10 , Captureor aid in the capture of the regional kingpins 0/3 , Destroy supply depots 0/38(optional) , Keep the coteral damage to the innocents below twenty percent(optional)


    Rewards: 2x skill tickets , 5x exp tickets , ?x item tickets(optional)(based on amount destroyed) , 1x evolution token(optional)]


    I noticed a BIG red g in this quest immediately in the form of the final optional reward being an evolution token. The system itself had already told me that the things only appear as a reward when the system believes the difficulty was next to impossible to pull off. Like in the case of the Heatran getting killed rather than us needed to flee for our lives like we were supposed to. Was it possible to kill the thing? Definitely. Was it probable? Not enough to be worth considering.

 Prep work

    Prep work


    Seeing this level of difficulty for thatst objective I knew I needed to make some improvements in short order. First I used the two exp tickets I had just gotten on Hades the moment we were far enough away from anyone else. While I would have liked to spend the time necessary to bring it up to par I had ack of time until we reached Lilycove city that ording to the leader of the poachers was a hub for illegal trading thanks to team Aqua running the ce.-


    These two tickets went to good use though as Hades level went from seventy three to ny five as it''scking battle experience got filled in. In terms of power Hades was already at elite level but had onlycked the experience that a normal elite pokemon would have. Thanks to these tickets it had just gotten two whole weeks of control and use experience with that power and so it''s level jumped to synchronize with it''s power much more. It had also learned three more moves, Nasty plot, Grudge and Shadow sneak. I didn''t just stop there though but also used my new ability ticket which like always summoned the rainbow colored wheel that spun for about a minute.-


    When it finally stopped though I was not happy with the oue at all as RNJESUS had forsaken me and I got {Improved Digestion V1}. Pain from my insides literally rearranging themselves to amodate this new ability washed over me but I only grunted and grit my teeth. I checked what the new ability did and was not surprised to find that it was literally just an improvement on my ability to consume things. A good way to exin it was that it was a bit like a mutation to allow me to safely consume things that would normally kill you to do so.-


    For a normal alchemist it would be a godsend ability since you would need to consume your potions to test them if they were meant for humans and this ability would let you survive anything that would normally be only slightly lethal to consume. For me though I had the system and could understand what effect my potions had without needing to test them first. I could only just choose to ignore the ability at this point and call it a loss.-


    I had other things I needed to work on since Lilycove was only a week away and I REALLY wanted that evolution token. With only one token to my name I needed to be very particr about how I used it but if I could get a second one I could be more reckless about it and choose an option that interested me. In this particr case I wanted to evolve my aura or lifeforce qualitatively forward. While my aura changed with each new metaphysical ability I got it was not qualitatively different from anyone elses yet as I didn''t have the quantity of abilities it would take to achieve that yet.-


    When I said metaphysical I was referring to things like Healing , Emotion suppression and Boost that were more than my body alone. These things functioned on a sort of conceptual basis that used my aura as fuel and by extension "refined" it the more I had. I was sure that at some point my aura would transform qualitatively so long as I got more of these types of abilities but by using an evolution token I could skip that process entirely.-


    I was really interested in knowing exactly what a higher form of aura was as nowhere in my skill was there any information on it which meant none had ever encountered it before. Speaking of my skills I learned an interesting thing about them thanks to the refinement my spearhead underwent. Due to the circumstances surrounding the thing being unique and thus not in the rted skills the more I learned about the spearheads abilities and properties the more information got added to my skills. In other words my skills that I had assumed were the be all end all of information could grow if I learned something totally new.-


    At first nce this didn''t seem all that important but it held extreme significance as it meant that I had a path towards being the best with each and every skill I had. I not only could fully master and utilize the skills knowledge but could go beyond any person in history by adding new stuff to it as well. At the moment my aura and metalworking skills were at adept and journeyman respectively but now contained my added knowledge as a sort of addendum. Admittedly I had been ignoring all of my skills besides cooking , alchemy and aura for a while now though so the low level of mastery was to be expected.-


    Anyways the rest of my preparations included crafting various knockout gasses and sharpening my teams stealth and capture skills. The wild pokemon were not happy about that part of the preparations. As was no surprised Hades was an absolute talent when it came to these things as it''s smoky body could turn into extremely thin tendrils that were damn near impossible to spot. Add on Shadow sneak to hide the keystone which was the only truly solid part of it''s body and the ghost was a menace.-


    Out of all of my pokemon Hades alone had a one hundred percent wless capture rate no matter the target. In close second was Rune surprisingly as his electricity could apparently be used to near silently paralyze and knock out anything with nerves by flooding an area with energy charged air. In a way it was a much weaker but much more stealthy version of thunder wave that covered a small area indiscriminately. Vulcan and Gaia sucked at stealth though for obvious reasons in both of their cases.-


    For Vulcan it was simply toorge and bright to miss not to mention how hard to ignore fire was. For Gaia though she was simply too damn big to even attempt stealth unless she was trying to pass for a hill. Yani was pretty good at stealth when she wanted to be but capture was where she excelled. Using rope and vines she could bind anything like a master after she learned various types of knots. Once she figured out how to run at her full speed without making a sound she was practically a ninja as she was nearly impossible to notice before it was toote.-


    A week was barely enough time to get a very rough idea of how we were going to pull this off but one thing that was for certain was that we couldn''t enter Lilycove through the front gate. My face and my pokemon were too well known for that as I was certain team Aqua had lookout for any problematic people entering the city and I definitely fit the bill. Thankfully Lilycove was a ocean side city and as a result was mostly unprotected from the harbor which was also where team aqua had their base as well.

 Stealthy as all jazz

    Stealthy as all jazz


    The moment the city came into view from my spot on Gaia''s head I recalled my team and headed for the coast to our right. Taking out my goggles I sealed my bag and with a deep breath dove into the surf and began to swim under the water. When I needed toe up for air I did so by breathing out slowly under the water without stopping so the bubbles were hidden by the waves. Then I would lift my head out of the water only long enough to suck in a lungful of air before diving down again.-


    There weren''t many pokemon of aggressive temperament this close to the city so besides some funny looks by the ones here in the ocean I wasn''t obstructed at all. As for sharks or anything like that I wasn''t worried as I had my aura sense active the whole time so there was no chance of one sneaking up on me. Thirty minutester I began my approach to the team aqua headquarters that was a repurposed cave much like team magmas. The difference was that this time the base wasn''t built literally around the ancient pokemon they wanted to awaken.-


    Unsurprisingly Archie was one of the three kingpins of the illegal goods market in Hoenn which sorta sucked since I really wanted to kill him but the quest specified capture so that was off the table. Two of the three aqua admins were also handlers so they were also off the kill list but thest admin was fair game and would no doubt serve as a good warning to the other three. My n was quite simple really , walk into the base, kill everything I could and capture the rest before torturing the ones I captured for information on the rest of the goods business.-


    I still had eight more nearly unknown handlers and two truly unknown kingpins to nab as well after all. I say nearly for the handlers because the poacher did know one of the handlers personally from working with them before. It was disgustingly enough an old woman living in Mossdeep city that had a dark type ability to prevent the psychics in the city from detecting her true motives and by extension allowing the goods to move through the city. The worse part was she yed the part of sweet olddy in front of everyone not from the criminal side but was actually a vicious old fox.-


    Team aqua''s base had it''s own internal dock for quick ess to the water but I used this against them to swim right inside and pull myself up behind the only guard that was dozing off on a crate. Silently I reached into my bag and took out a knife before reaching forward and mping my left hand over his mouth as I sank the de through the vertebrae of his neck for a quick and nearly bloodless kill.-


    I carefully checked the surroundings of the docks and not finding any more people I released Hades, Rune and Yani. "We are in the Aqua base. Everyone in here besides the four people not in this exact outfit can be killed but remember stealth is absolutely necessary understood?" I spoke seriously while pointing to the fresh corpse and I got affirmations from each of them before they started moving away to hunt the rest of the team in the base. I waited an hour before releasing Vulcan and following the trios path. Unlike the magma base that had this whole naturalist vibe to it the aqua base had tiled flooring and technology all over the ce in a sort of modern style.-


    It didn''t take long for me toe across the first grunt killed by the three I sent ahead which was a woman with a terrified expression permanently on her face as her head was facing the wrong way on her body. "Ten bucks says that''s Hades doing." I said to Vulcan who snorted as if to say that was a foolish bet to take. It wasn''t wrong as Yani didn''t kill and Rune preferred less brutal means of killing such as stopping the heart or straight up zapping you to death.-


    To prove my point the next few grunts we came across, all dead of course, were either strung up without any external wounds or slightly crispy but clearly dead before they could understand that fact. I wasn''t just wasting the oppurtunity that this base presented though as I regrly stopped to loot store rooms , ingredient containers inbs and even a three fossils that could be revived though none I would be interested in. They were a normal Dome fossil, an ancient wingul fossil and an ancient azurill fossil.-


    The two ancient variant fossils were nice and all but besides better stats and different body shapes than the modern versions there was nothing special about the pokemon that could be revived from the fossils. That wasn''t to say the fossils weren''t worth a pretty penny because they very much were but I personally had no interest in the things. I got a LOT of equipment from throughout the base that was high tech and not exactly open to the public which was great in case I ever made a base of my own that I could secretly equip without anyone knowing.-


    I left theputers and servers though as that was all the leagues to break into and find all the goodies of. I didn''t have the skill needed to hack into the stuff myself and was more interested in the practical equipment instead even if technically the info on the servers was worth way more. My greatest find though was the ever coveted {Master ball} an experimental and highly unstable type of pokeball that was supposedly able to capture any nonbound pokemon. Thanks to the system i finally understood WHY this thing was so rare despite it''s extreme value, the difficulty to manufacture.-


    Unlike what one might believe because of the games the ball didn''t have a one hundred percent catch rate like that. Instead it had a triple redundancy imprisonment matrix built into it that made it next to impossible for whatever was caught with it to escape before the artificial bond was created. After the bond was created however there was a very small chance that the pokemon would try to escape because breaking a bond even artificial came with serious consequences. In a manner of speaking the master ball ckmails the captured pokemon intopliance.-


    Thankfully in order to craft one of the things you need an extremely rare type of apricorn and master level skills in ballcrafting, alchemy, aura and runes or some stupid good luck. In this particr balls case it was made by three masters of everything except aura and only after failing two hundred times wasting a massive amount of money. I kept the thing only as a reference to those fields but I never intended to use the thing as it ruined the foundation of what a good trainer should have with their team, consent.

 Fall of Aqua

    Fall of Aqua


    Contrary to what one might think capturing a pokemon wasn''t automatic grounds for it to obey you in battle or in general. All the artificial bond that the ball created should you imprint it does was make the pokemon consider joining you. This wasn''t a matter of instant envement which a surprisingly high amount of people misunderstand. If a pokemon didn''t want to belong to a specific trainer for whatever reason it could easily just notply with any order it was given making it worthless to the trainer.-


    It was for this reason any trainer worth a damn asked the pokemon if it would even consider getting trained, hence consent was the foundation of a good trainers team. You might be asking about Hades at this point since I had not asked for permission before capturing and forcing a bond on it. The difference in that particr case was that Hades needed to be brought under control regardless and I made the call to capture it instead of letting the league seal or exorcise it. After that though I got it in a controlled environment and t out told it it''s options and it chose to work with me rather than have me hand it over to the league because it was too dangerous to simply release.-


    It was a situational type deal rather than the normal way things needed to be done. For the pokemon from the system though this wasn''t even really an issue as ording to those I got this way the system only "spawned" them with the willingness to be trained by the person with the system, me. The word spawned was very specifically chosen by the way as none of them had any past before the system brought them into existence. They very literally just came from nothing with everything they would need to be considered a normal pokemon.-


    Sorry got side tracked there for a moment, anyways after looting everything I wanted from the base I finally came across four individuals tied up with various different expressions. Archie and Matt had stoic expressions as they were tied up but Shelly and Amber who was actually a dude oddly enough looked pissed. All four of them saw me and paled as I walked casually towards them with Vulcan at my side.-


    "It seems my reputation precedes me. All bad news for you lot i hope?" I said with a grin. "If you are just going to kill us then there is no need to torment us beforehand, just get it over with." Archie said calmly but I could tell he was afraid. "Now who said anything about killing all of you? As it just so happens I happen to have a bit of a proposition for you in fact. See I am currently in the process of wanting to dismantle the illegal goods trade here in Hoenn and your four unlucky ducks happen to have information on the heads of this particr ring."-


    "My deal is very simple, you will tell me everything you know one by one and after cross referencing it with what the others of you had said I will then either leave you intact and unharmed or I will cripple you in a suitable manner so that you will never be a threat to anyone. Ah with the exception of you Admin Matt. You likely have nothing to do with that goods trade from my previous source so you''ll need to work extra hard to convince me not to kill or leave you wishing for death. Any questions?" I said casually as I looked down on them quite literally.-


    "So if we tell you the truth about everything we knowyou will just turn us over to the authorities unharmed? No funny business?" Archie asked suspicious. Not that I could me him considering my reputation where criminals were involved. "If I deem your information to be worth more than the sins you''ve umted then yes that is exactly what will happen. Not to worry about my personal bias getting involved I am a man of my word."-


    "I have never broken it to date and I swear that I will be as impartial as possible a judge." I said seriously and Archie stared me in the eyes for a few moments before telling his subordinates to cooperate. After that I took each and every one of them to a separate room separately and asked them the same very carefully worded questions before putting them back with the rest. Once I was done I went over the answers to each question in front of all of them that they each gave and only one of them surprisingly tried to lie to me.-


    Admin shelly had tried to mislead me on the weight of the sins that team aqua bore and either directly lied about their involvement or underyed it heavily. "I must admit you certainly have loyal subordinates Leader Archie. Matt and Amber bothplied with your order without hesitation and Shelly only tried to lie to cover your backs but otherwiseplied as well. My judgement is thus that only you are going to receive some punishment. As the one who created team aqua your sins are the sins that every single member of the team has rued in it''s name. The price you will pay is simply that I will remove your arms and tongue so that you will never be able to lead again." I spoke firmly.-


    Archie didn''t struggle orin but merely nodded stoically in understanding. His goal might have been stupid and his actions to achieve it terrible but the man knew how to ept responsibility if nothing else positive could be said of him. I wasn''t so cruel as to keep him awake when I removed the parts I specified and healed him to ensure his survival. After that I turned all four of them over to the league as well as the base itself that nobody was stupid enough to ask why it had been stripped of a bunch of things in an obvious manner.-


    In the same day I destroyed ten of the depots as they were in the warehouse area of Lilycove after knocking everyone there out with my alchemical gas and sorting through the innocent and guilty. The guilty were killed and buried under the depots while the innocent were taken to safety before the depots were brought down. The sudden fall of team aqua sent a shockwave through Hoenn as the crime rate dropped to an all time low historically as a vast amount of criminals hid or stopped all activities while holding their breath in fear.-


    My quest had also updated as five handlers and twelve depots were "retired to the league" to hide the rest of the goods trade. This meant I had one kingpin , two handlers and sixteen depots to take down still. Not as big a deal as before but still definitely not a small one by any means. Thankfully the difficulty of the quest going down by a lot didn''t result in my reward being lowered as well since the system wasn''t the sort to punish me for something outside my control.

 Omega reborn

    Omega reborn


    In the list of handlers the league got as a sacrifice by the rest of the goods ring I had noticed theck of a certain elderly handler in Mossdeep city being on it and smiled. It wasn''t surprising at all that she hadn''t been sacrificed considering how rare dark type ability users are not to mention ones who would work for a criminal ring. Ironically such people who were perfect for that sort of work due to their immunity to mind reading tended to avoid it for exactly that reason. This created a weird kind of protection for the few who did though as most dark type ability holders stayed away from crime in the public eye.-


    This meant the old woman was simply too valuable to give up as she was the only person who could let the ring do business out of Mossdeep that was otherwise impossible to do so out of thanks to the many psychics there. It also made my job much easier as I didn''t need to change my ns to go to the city at all. I didn''t leave Lilycove immediately after taking down team aqua though as this city had many rare things in it due to it''s function as one of two maind harbors.-


    The other used to be teport but for rather obvious reasons that was no longer the case. Thanks to this Lilycove was absolutely FLOODED with imports and exports that I was very interested in perusing. Minerals , legally imported pokemon , eggs , cloth , woods and many more things were heavy in the city and being sold for both cheap and outrageous prices. One such thing that caught my eye was a single four by four of wood that was not what it first appeared to be.-


    I had been searching for a suitable wood for my spear head in every town or city I went to and as a result was casually appraising some hauled in lumber from Rota when I saw it.


    [Item name: Aeons wood


    Grade: unique


    Description: A piece of wood harvested identally by the foresters of Rota that came from of fallen branch of the Aeons tree that had grown roots and became a tree of it''s own. Has innate aura rted properties associated with strength and resilience.]


    I didn''t hesitate at all to pay the outrageous price of half a million poke the importer wanted for the wood due to it''s "rarity". The man thought he was scamming me but should have realized when I agreed without hesitation that something was wrong. You could not have convinced me that this wood wasn''t perfect for the spearhead. The wood literally had innate aura properties that were rted to strength and resilience which meant it should be able to handle the spear heads power after being made into a handle.-


    It took me a few days but I managed to find a respected wood carver to create the handle from the wood though I had to pay a bunch of money to get it done since thedy wanted the wood herself after examining it closely. Ipromised to allow her to have some of whatever was left over after she was done making the shaft. Not a lot because I really didn''t want to part with the stuff but some none the less. Like thest attempt the spearhead immediately caused the wood to char and burn after it was attached but by running my aura through the shaft the wood started to adapt and grow to fit the spearhead without burning up.-


    To my surprise the red glowing aura of the spear head began to carve grooves down the length of the white woods body that radiated a sort of heat at first but was cool to the touch after the process was done. For the finishing touches I flooded both the shaft and spearhead with my aura to fully fuse them together and convert the weapon into a conduit weapon like no other. The finished product was a spear about seven feet long with a white wooden shaft that had glowing pearlescent grooves along its length and a spear head that was dark like it was covered in soot with red destructive energy glowing in the grooves of it''s faces.-


    If I ran fire type aura through the spear the head gathered it and emitted violent mes not unlike a pokemon move. I couldn''t be happier with the weapon as it was a perfect weapon to sit in my hands and use. It''s inclusion on my back didn''t go unnoticed either as the league employees still in the city reported it up the chain. Birch called to ask about it and I told him what i could and he all but begged me to let him study it.-


    Aura and artifacts weren''t his field but he freely admitted that he would have to be insane to pass up the oppurtunity to study something like my spear that the league had no records of simr cases at all. He wasn''t alone in his interest in my weapon either as I got calls from Steven and his father as well as an "aura specialist" in Hoenn. The mere fact that the guy said he didn''t have aura himself made me very doubtful about his supposed specialization in the stuff but I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt.-


    Another thing I got from all the imports in Lilycove was a whole bunch of alchemical and cooking ingredients from various ces in the world. Crystal salt from Sinnoh , dried wasabi powder from Kanto and various other things as well. In my hands these ingredients were used to cook meals good enough to bring a tear to the eye. I know because at one point when I was cooking in the wild area outside the city someone had smelled it and somehow worked up the nerve to ask for some under my whole teams not so gentle gazes.-


    The man legitimately had tearsing down his face as he ate the bowl I fixed him. Afterwards he said something that i wasn''t sure whether to consider apliment or an insult. "Despite looking like you''d kill a man for sneezing wrong you are a damn good chef!" he said with a heartyugh. I knew I probably didn''t look like the most friendly of people but it couldn''t be that bad right? As Birch told me when I asked , yes as a matter of fact it was that bad.-


    I was the gods damned definition of "savage looking" ording to Birch and everyone else he''d talked about it with. I walked around dirty and half naked with wild hair , an eyepatch and a big fuck off spear on my back while looking to be made of chiseled stone. Add on my pokemon who were also not very outgoing in most cases and one look told everyone to stay as far from me as possible unless they wanted to get stabbed. It made what the man did in ignoring my appearance for food either more impressive or concerning.

 Salty showdown

    Salty showdown


    When the time finally arrived I headed for the harbor and found a ship heading to Mossdeep to hitch a ride on. It was a small thing with not more than ten people aboard with at least five being trainers to ward off any open water threats. I''m not talking exclusively about pokemon either but pirates and raiders as well. The difference between those two groups was that one won''t kill you unless absolutely necessary and the other might just because they want to. The league was helpless to deal with these groups for the most part as they operated on the open sea with hidden bases on wild inds far from the regted and "safe" waters.-


    Wildnds are a BIG difference from the games as being an actual world there were ces beyond the league influenced or controlled regions. These are called wildnds or unknownnds and have as the name suggests unknown evolutions , resources and dangers. They are such big unknowns in fact that the league itself warns heavily not to try and reach these ces unless you are a champion with a powerful well bnced team. Even these two sea faring groups only inhabit the coastal areas of the inds they are on for fear of whaty deeper in.-


    Why am I bringing this up you may be asking? Well having the absolute shit luck with criminals that I do I just so happened to be on a boat that a set of raiders were targeting. Even worse that the only heavy hitter I had able to battle on the boat was Hades and it was not exactly having the best time of it. The raiders as you might guess employed many water type pokemon and on the sea that was a problem.-


    These guys were pros too as they had jammed the signal out here so I couldn''t call in back up either. The trainers on the boat were trying their hardest to protect it but we were out numbered and at a heavy disadvantage since we were the defenders. "That''s it boys I can almost smell that payday now!" the leader of the raiders barked out with augh. It was a gruff looking man with missing teeth and a big belly. Hades was dealing with his pokemon which was arge elite tier Walrein that was frustrating my ghost to no end by using the sea to pop up and take a potshot before vanishing again.-


    We were holding our own but the other trainers on the boat weren''t having a good time as they were dealing with the raiders less trained but more numerous pokemon. The leader only had this one pokemon from what I could see but it was clear that he sank all of his resources into it rather than spreading them out on multiple pokemon. I wanted to release Rune the electrify the waters but if I did that it would also kill the engine that was keeping us from being boarded as we tried to retreat.-


    If we were onnd I would jump in to take care of the human raiders with my spear but if I threw it right now I would likely never find it again. I did have an idea that may work though as I released Vulcan onto the deck. "Well looky hereds , theres a right tough customer amongst these fish there is! But thed seems a we bit confused as a fire types got no ce on the sea." the leader said with a mocking expression when Vulcan appeared.-


    I ignored that however and got real close to Vulcan before whispering my n in it''s ear. Vulcan nodded before the air turned scorching around it as fire type energy started to gather and condense in it''s chest. The leader looked at this with a confused expression as like he said fire type moves were pretty much pointless on the sea. "Fire st!" Imanded after Vulcan looked to be struggling to contain the power it gathered. The moment Vulcan opened it''s mouth all hell broke loose as an orb of highly condensed fire type energy formed and shot out across the water, straight at the raiders ship.-


    I stole Gaia''s all or nothing attack idea from when we battled that Heatran told Vulcan to use every once of power it had while aiming for the raiders ship. The coldness of the sea that had seamed into the raiders ship met with the intense heat of a volcano and destruction ensued. The leader eyes widened to the point of almost popping out when the attack wasunched but before he could order the helmsman to evade the attack struck and exploded as the move was intended. The front bottom of the raiders ship basically ceased to exist as the heat melted and burnt it all away in an instant.-


    "RAHAHAHA! You can go wild with the bestd! If you ever find yourself in cktooth look up Captain Ben and I''ll treat ya to a pint!" the leader said with augh as they raider stopped pursuing us to deal with the issue of their ship taking on heavy amounts of water. Vulcan was totally drained after that attack and I recalled it to get some rest while Hades needed my full attention because it was still in seek and destroy mode and I needed to bring it down to calmness again.-


    The other trainers on the ship gave me respectful nods before tending to their pokemon that were injured and exhausted. It took me about ten minutes to coax Hades back to a normal state of mind and another ten after that to allow me to help heal the other pokemon on the ship that got injured. The rest of the trip to Mossdeep was thankfully quiet and we arrived weary but no worse for wear. Mossdeep ind was a ce that had lush grass and beautiful flowers all over the ce and was a popr ce to retire as a result. -


    At the highest point of the ind was the space exploration station that specialized in studying the cosmos. The "city" on the ind was not the bustling ce with modern buildings you would expect but rather a ce with small single family traditional stone and wood homes dominating the whole ce minus the harbor and warehouse districts. The only real modern buildings were the gym and the pokecenter. ''I can see why Steven has his home here, it''s nice.'' I thought honestly as I smelled the fragrance of flowers and salty sea air mixed to form an unique but not unpleasant fragrance.-


    I didn''t immediately go and capture the old woman handler or destroy the three depots on the ind as I wanted to go check in with Tate and Liza first since the twins were the gym leader here and it would be rude to move like that on their territory. They might be only twelve but both of them were very mature due to being psychics and were specialized in that typing as well. They were the youngest gym leaders in the world but also some of the most unique due to the fact that they only had double battles.

 Messing with people

    Messing with people


    Making my way to the gym Hades was having a field day fucking with all the psychics who sent probes my way for whatever reason. As it''s species was both ghost and dark type Hades was immune to that sort of energy and as a result would actively find the probes and send a bacsh through them. It was malicious behavior but totally harmless beyond causing the psychic with the probe some mild distress. Those that did manage to hit me with a probe found out the hard way that I couldn''t be read.-


    I wasn''t stupid enough to walk through a city full of psychics without running a barrier of aura in my head to keep them out. Let me tell you they were not happy about it at all. People tend to forget that humans are creatures of habit and in a psychics case they were used to being able to read those around them at all times. With dark type ability users they simply can''t feel their minds presence and are thus mostly unbothered by them. In my case however they could feel my mind but not look at it.-


    This made them unhappy as it broke their habitual understanding of the world and as a result left them unnerved. Interestingly enough there was an experiment done where a verified future sight user had their ability sealed into themselves and thus were unable to see the future and it almost drove them mad. They had gotten so used to always knowing what came next that suddenly not knowing left them anxious and paranoid. Anyways I entered the gym and besides being decorated in a distinctly asian manner it was pretty simr to all the other gyms I''d been to so far.-


    "You must be Mr. Drake. The leaders have been expecting you and told me to send you in the moment you arrived." the gym staff member said as I walked up. I raised an eyebrow at this since it was basically just the twins posturing and showing off their ability to see the future. At least that was what most people would think but I knew for a fact that they can only see at most a few minutes ahead and as a result they likely just figured out this city was my next destination and told the staff to keep an eye out.-


    Still it saved time and I was fine with it as I walked through the doorway to the back of the gym. "Terrible news you havee to deliver." "A hidden threat shrouded in darkness lurking within our domain." the two small asian twins said back to back as I entered the arena. "I pity you precognizants, always looking towards a future that may no longer be true since time is not such a simple thing. I assume that you both saw a timeline where I told you why I am here and what I will be doing?" I asked calmly.-


    "Stop doing that!" It''s disturbing!" the twins said finishing their sentences as I actively made and dismissed a bunch of possible timelines by intending to do something then deciding to change my mind. "It''s funny how easy it is to throw off you guys once you understand how the future works. Try to ignore the future and focus on the present, cake?" I said offering one of my campfire cakes. It was a simple recipe that was basically just pound cake with berries and honey worked into the mix and cooked in a iron pot set near the campfire.-


    "You win just please stop doing whatever you are doing!" "We would like some cake." Tate begged and Liza spoke shortly afterwards. I stopped messing with the twins and divvied up the cake as I took a seat on the floor across from them. Hades sent out a bit of smoke from my pocket to re at the twins at this point which made them stiffen in fright. "y nice Hades!" I chastised the ghost who hissed in annoyance before going back to it''s keystone. "Sorry about that I''m still working on that bit." I said honestly.-


    "We understand." "Ghost can be tricky to control." the twins finished each others sentences again making me sigh. "Well straight to business then, I am nning on taking down three illegal goods depots and capturing the handler on this ind. Well that and I do sort of want to get that badge for my collection if you don''t mind too terribly much." I said casually while taking a bite of my cake. "We were nning to battle you for the badge like normal." "But there is no future in which we win." they said with mildly upset looks.-


    "I''m going to go out on a limb and say the deciding factor in all those futures was this fellow here?" I asked patting my pocket that had the keystone which earned me an annoyed re from the ghost it belonged to. The twins nodded with unhappy looks like they were normal children denied candy, it was amusing. "So about that badge?" I said with a grin and they just waved their hands and a heart shaped badge flew through the air at me. I caught it easily and put it with the rest of my badges.-


    "When you go to destroy the depots do try and keep the casualties to a minimum." "We do not wish to clean up your bloody mess afterwards." the twins said and I shrugged "It''s your city so I''ll spare their lives this time but I won''t be so merciful if I meet them after this." I said honestly and the twins nodded in understanding. I went to stand up and paused for a moment before taking out the rest of the cake and leaving it behind. "Do enjoy the cake and I will be out of your city before you know it." I said as I left.-


    I casually made my way to the handlers house and calmly knocked on the door which the old woman opened with a smile before taking one look at me and sighing. "Who ratted me out? R.J or one of those Aqua bunch? I''d like to know who signed my death warrant before you do as you do." she said spitefully. "Slight misunderstanding on your part, it''s prison for you not death at my hands. As for who told me about you how''s about we make a deal? You tell me who and where thest handler is and I will tell you who sold you out?" I suggested and she looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging.-


    "He''s named Earnest andst I checked he worked as a ranger captain stationed near Pacifidlog. He''s a older chap with no hair and a thick mustache. Now your turn." she said without any hesitation. "It was all of the handlers in Aqua and their boss as well as the poacher who I assume is named R.J. With that settled I imagine this is the part where those three with guns are supposed to shoot me so you can escape correct?" I asked with a mocking smirk as the old woman''s calm broke and she finally showed a look of panic.

 Taking care of business

    Taking care of business


    The three gunmen who thought they were hidden nearby caught the old woman''s distress and fired their guns but to their astonishment the bullets struck a thinyer of energy and shattered. I rolled my shoulders to remove the stiffness in them "They are quite well trained aiming for the center mass like that. Unless you are sure to hit it''s always a good choice to aim for the torso as it''s a bigger target." I said with a mocking grin at the old woman. "Aura master!" she spat the words like they were the most vile things in the world.-


    I patted my pocket "Go wrap those three up would you?" I asked casually and ck smoke billowed out of my pocket as dozens of red eyes and jagged mouths appeared with malicious intent cackling madly. The old woman wasn''t spared a baleful re either as she broke into a cold sweat in front of me. "Hades won''t touch a hair on your head without my say so but that doesn''t mean it doesn''t REALLY want to. You shot at me after all and it has a bit of a mean streak when stuff like that is concerned."-


    "You are likely well informed and know exactly what I mean right?" I asked with a wide smirk. The old woman and her associates that tried to kill me gave up without much of a fight after that. Though one of the gunmen did try to run and paid for it with a leg that Hades decided he was better without. The depots themselves were just three warehouses guarded and filled with illicitly gotten goods waiting for transport to their next destination or sale. I found more than a few trafficked pokemon amongst that stuff and personally gave each and every one a check up as I let them know that it would all be okay from now on.-


    Some were scared of me and I took it nice and slow in those cases to not aggravate their traumas more than necessary. It was rather funny that when the league finally got some people there to go over everything they found me and the smaller members of my team quite literally surrounded by a vast variety of pokemon that were seekingfort with our presences. The younger pokemon that were lonely or frightened tended to be found with either Vulcan or myself while the older ones merely huddled together for safety despite being of different types and species.-


    The scene ended up getting captured in a few pictures and hit the news and inte with a whole bunch of positive feedback. I was a highly controversial topic on the inte that people debated for quite some time now due to my actions and the impact I had had on the region. I wasn''t sure exactly how it happened but somehow the news that I had been the one who sent Rayquaza to settle the recent disaster got out with actual evidence to back it up.-


    Birch, Steven, Watson and I all had a serious conversation on that as besides us no one beyond the elite four, champion and leaders knew about that as we had the records about it locked up tight. What we came up with was that someone was using my involvement in that matter to stir the pot for some reason but we couldn''t figure out why. All throwing that information into the aplished was increasing the controversy to an entirely new level. There were even some people that seemed to believe I was some divine warrior sent to cleanse the world and that even legendries had to bow before my will.-


    That was bullshit and all of us knew it. I was different than anyone else in the world but not to such a degree that I should be thought of as some sort of divine force. Anyway after the illegal goods and trafficked pokemon were settled I took my team and left Mossdeep on a Lapras that was deemed fit to be released from the ind. The thing had insisted on paying me back for rescuing it and refused to leave without doing so.-


    Helplessly I could only allow it to ferry me to my next destination, Sootopolis city. An interesting fact about the Lapras species was that they were considered the darlings of the sea as nothing attacked them without very good reason. This made my trip to Sootopolis smooth and rxed and I was even able to get some nice sleep as the Lapras sang for me while we traveled. It was a soft but beautiful sound that I honestly don''t think I could ever forget. Even Hades that was normally erratic and grim seemed to enjoy it and mellowed out a bit while listening.-


    Unlike what the games would have you believe there were in fact ways to enter the cities area without diving or flying. One such method was via one of the many wide cracks that sea water flowed to and from and had long been expanded into shippingnes. Not wide enough to ruin the istion of the inside but enough that medium to small ships coulde and go if they were careful. I rode in on the Lapras through one of thesenes much to the disbelief of many in the city who regrly watched theings and going of these water ways.-


    Lapras were extremely rare pokemon due to many years of poaching and low reproductive rates having left their poptions over time near the civilizednds very low. Add on that they were more or less a nomadic species that never settled in one ce for very long and you can imagine what seeing a man with a savage appearance casually ride into the bay on one of them might do. Those that recognized me were even more conflicted as Lapras were well known for their gentleness and empathy and I was known for the exact opposite.


    My approach to the shore of the city was slow enough that by the time I finally arrived the whole city knew about it and there was a man wearing a Blue and white cuffed coat and had a white fluffy throat cloth thing with a pair of dark purple shorts over a ck bodysuit and odd looking shoes. He was an older gentleman with ck and white hair that he had styled with a white tuff stand up at the front. He also had a thin sharp mustache and sharp spanish features.-


    "Leader Juan I take it?" I asked as I stepped of the Lapras''s shell onto the rocky shore. "Indeed I am and I know you as well , Alexander drake or do you prefer the savage saint these days?" Juan said sternly. "I go by Alex actually and as for that title I wasn''t the one to choose it. But why the hostility? Last I checked your body count is quite a bit higher than my own or has the "cier" gone soft on criminals?" I sent back making the man grimace. As a result of his city being in a prime location for shipping within this region Juan regrly had to capture and execute criminals that try to operate out of this ce and earned the nickname cier due to his fondness of ice types and habit of freezing the criminals solid to kill them.

 A new first

    A new first


    "I hate that nom de guerre, it has no elegance or beauty! My displeasure is not at your willingness to end the scum youe across , no I apud it instead! What displeases me however is your rough and unrefined methods, theyck the grace and beauty that a pokemon master should have!" Juan said passionately. I admit that this caught me totally off guard since I was expecting to have this whole back and forth banter only to find that the man was perfectly fine with my violence but had a problem with my aesthetics instead.-


    How was I even supposed to react to something like this? "Not to be rude or anything but you''ve totally lost me. We are talking death and torture here not pageantry." I said honestly confused. The man guffawed "That is where you are wrong! A pokemon master should be elegant in all things even the removal of life and the infliction of pain on the deserving!" he said loudly earning a lot of helpless looks from those nearby watching this whole spectacle. I knew the guy was passionate about his beliefs but this was simply too much to ept for me.-


    "Yeah so lets agree to disagree on this. Other than that I imagine you should have an idea as to why I am here." I said choosing to change the topic. The mans whole persona flipped at this point as he went serious. "You hunt the scum that has infested the dark parts of my beautiful city no? In this our beliefs are aligned and together we shall bring down the graceful justice of thew upon them! At least that is what i would like to do but s Ick the knowledge to do so. These rodents have burrowed out of my sight and scurry at the slightest of movements from me."-


    "You alone must undertake this venture, but I have faith you shall prevail before long!" the man said before spinning in ce and striding into the gym. ''Well that was certainly something , now to go grab thest few depots and round up the kingpin lurking in the city'' I thought as I headed to the warehouse district after sending the Lapras off. Unlike most cities that are roughly as wide as they are long Sootopolis was not very long but extremely wide. -


    The reason for this was because the city was built from the walls of the circr "ind" of stone and thus formed a sort of crescent moon shape if looked at above. The warehouse area and harborage were both at the far left tip of the crescent moon and both of my targets were there. Thest kingpin was a woman by the name of Ruby w who ran her part of the goods ring from the depots themselves. She was able to evade Juan and the league this entire time because ording to the handlers and thugs he had asked she was androgynous in appearance and a master of disguise. She could as a result pass for anyone in the area and thus was never able to be caught.-


    What made me different than everyone else sent after her however was that I knew two pieces of information that made hiding from me impossible. The first was that she enjoyed ying this game of hide and seek dangerously and thus always showed herself to those hunting her before donning a disguise. The second was that no matter how you changed your appearance you couldn''t change your aura as well.-


    Thanks to this I memorized her aura the moment she showed up in the distance and bragged about how no one was able to get her yet and that i would fail as well. After that I casually walked through the docks and the moment she appeared again under the disguise of being an elderly man I captured her. She was stunned and demanded to know how I figured her out but I denied her questions as I turned her over to the Jenny n member that had been following me since I came to this part of the city.-


    It was pretty obvious to the members of that n at this point that if I was doing something out of ce in a deliberate manner that I was likely going after criminals. Besides the kingpin all the other criminals in the city didn''t survive the day as I tore down thest depot on top of them with Gaia crushing it afterwards. The rescued pokemon were treated much faster than in the case of the Mossdeep depots since Juan had apparently set the Joy and Jenny ns on standby for when I was done.-


    "I feel I must offer an apology for my earlier words. after witnessing your actions for myself I havee to understand that I was blind to the grace of your own ways. You move with purpose and efficiency of which could be likened to a predator on the prowl. Smooth and without a single movement out of ce, if that is not grace then what is? Please take this badge as I am told you have a fondness for collecting them despite them not serving much purpose for you." Juan said passionately after the matter was over while offering me thest of the Hoenn badges.-


    That meant I now held a full collection of the regions badges which made me genuinely smile. There was a sense of aplishment about it that I couldn''t really exin. I knew that the things were entirely decorative for me but that didn''t mean they didn''t hold value in my mind. I ended up staying in Sootopolis for a few days on Juan''s insistence which proved interesting if nothing else. Hades and Juan did not get along at all. In fact they shed like water and oil which is to say they didn''t mix at all. -


    The leader wanted to teach the ghost type the greatness of control and precision but Hades was more or less of the mind to remove his head from his shoulders instead. I didn''t like doing it but had to put Hades in it''s ball just to prevent the mboyant man from getting murdered by it. Yani and the little one were Juan''s favorites from my team as they embodied his idea of grace and beauty to a tee. Vulcans reaction to the man was strange as the legendary was wary of him. Yes wary as though the man held some form of threat to it.-


    I found out why that was on thest day when a cold breeze kicked up in Sootopolis to my confusion before Juan revealed that it was one of his oldest and strongest pokemon returning. From the sky I watched as a huge light blue feathered bird with long ribbon like tail feathers descended, an Articuno. Not just any Articuno though but a bonafide variant as well if a rather mundane variant as a royal. The bird was smaller than Gaia but not by a whole lot as it was only maybe sixteen or so feet tall with a massive wingspan.

 Chat with snow

    Chat with snow


    "Hello my darling , did you have a good trip?" Juan asked the massive bird with a smile as he walked over and hugged it. "Cu!" the bird tweeted clearly happy to see the man. My team and I on the otherhand were trying to move away from the thing because it was not the sort of creature we had any chance of defending ourselves from as it was level two twelve and made the weather of the entire city change with it''s mere presence. I had met Juan''s entire team at this point and not even his other champion rank pokemon which was a Walrein could hold a candle to this legendary.-


    Despite being a natural disaster with wings though the giant bird was interacting with Juan like a they were childhood friends which might even be true. "Ah were are my manners! Alex this is Snow, daughter of Winter herself. Snow this young man is Alex and as you can see he is an unusual individual." Juan said with a smile and therge crystal blue eyes focused on me with judgement. I am not sure why I did it exactly but I flipped up my eyepatch and made eye contact with the legendary.-


    ''<em>You carry a blessing from my uncle I see. How is the sky lord doing these days?''</em> A gentle but refined female voice echoed in my head catching me slightly off guard. "You must have learned this trick from an older legendary, your mother perhaps?" I said and the bird nodded lightly. ''<em>Indeed it was my mother who taught me to speak through my aura alone , though mypanion cannot hear my words as hecks the talent for aura.''</em> Snow said with a sad look at Juan.-


    "I was surprised to learn that Winter was your mother , amongst those three she was the pickiest about her partners from my understanding. Your father must be quite the exceptional fellow to catch her eye." I said honestly. I had mentioned it previously but some of the original godly legendries did in fact have genders and were known to in rare cases mate with other pokemon and produce what were known as legendary variants that could with the right circumstances be a member of their legendary parents species. The original legendary birds were Winter the Articuno, Summer the Moltres and Fall the Zapdos all three of which were female.


    The first Lugia was Spring and together they were the embodiments of the seasons. Anyways all four of them were known to have offspring on asion but the exact rarity of that event differed based on the legendary. Winter for example was like the season she embodied , cold and harsh in her requirements for a partner. To meet one of her offspring like this was a surprise to say the least and even stranger was that she entrusted that same offspring to a human trainer. Not to say that I couldn''t see why Winter would do such a thing since Juanmanded a fierce amount of authority and respect.-


    <em>''Not really believe it or not. My father was a simple Pidgey that chased after my mother doggedly before she finally epted him. It is one of the few topics that actually makes my mother embarrassed since she put him through hellish trials that he overcame in his infatuation with her. They now share a nest on her private</em> ind.'' She said with an amused expression. The story left me speechless as it sounded like the most storybook backstory ever.-


    From that story however I did learn a piece of information that I hadn''t known previously Winter had her own ind. That doesn''t sound important but it should be kept in mind that no one actually knows where the vast majority of godly legendries spend their time. They VERY rarely are seen by people and in the vast majority of the reported cases it''s not actually them but merely a member of their bloodline that had taken on their ancestors form. The fact that Winter had her own ind was new information but not terribly surprising all things considered.-


    "I see , were you originally a legendary variant or were you born as you are?" I asked curiously. ''<em>I was born a variant and had to evolve to my fathers species final form before finally shedding that form for my mothers. What of yourself? Did my Uncle raise you up and thus give you his blessing or did your earn it some other way?''</em> She exined before turning her own curiosity against me to ask questions. "I earned it through another way. It''s a slightly troublesome blessing to be honest as it draws my energy while I am using it even if only to see, hence the eyepatch." I said honestly.


    ''<em>How very like the old dragon to leave a challenge in his blessings. Still I will not deny that it is an interesting one that is different than the others I have seen in this region. Usually my uncles blessing is in the form of his domains affinity and thus not nearly so easy to detect.''</em>Snow said with a curious tone. "That might be because I was missing an eye when I met him though admittedly I was unaware until now that Rayquaza was a he since there are no records of him creating offspring. Or any real records beyond myths about him at all for that matter." I said slightly irritated.-


    ''<em>That''s because those three are extremelyzy and they rarely awaken or act for any reason other than because they are bored. This as you should be able to guess means that you humans never really interact with them beyond a small handful of secretive worshipers.''</em> She said with a mentalugh. "You said that you had seen people with Rayquaza''s blessing beyond me , can I ask if you know who exactly since I am fairly certain one of them is using me for some reason?" I asked and the bird shook her head.


    ''<em>I know that one of them works with the league as a ranger but the others are inconsequential otherwise with no real power of their own. If one of them is using you for some reason it is likely a personal matter for them rather some overarching n.''</em> Snow said helpfully. I could only sigh at that and thank her for the information despite it not being all that useful for me. Juan did eventually butt in after getting left out of the conversation since he couldn''t use aura.-


    I couldn''t really me him since I was having a one sided conversation with hispanion and he only caught my side of it. I did end up getting asked about Hades and Vulcan and after exining how I obtained both of them Snow clearly felt bad an apologized for all the problems the legendries had caused. She was conflicted about Hades in particr as it was born from the destruction and death that Groudon , who was female apparently , caused.

 Wrapping up the quest

    Wrapping up the quest


    Before I left Sootopolis I did discover why Snow was so powerful since I had asked genuinely curious about it. The truth of the matter was that she left for the majority of the league season every year to visit and train with her mother on the private ind. She had apparently been doing this for about seven years after Juan had stopped being capable of training her to greater strength after she reached champion level. I could only ept that there was no real chance of me being able to replicate this feat due to Snows situation being very specific.-


    None of my team had any deep connection with one of the ancient or godly legendries so unless I randomly caught one of their attention and one of them decided to help me train my team I was on my own. I of course didn''t waste the oppurtunity Snow presented to challenge my team but as you might guess we got taken downughably easily. The skill and power difference was simply so massive that Snow by herself dismantled my whole team in less than two minutes.-


    There was some good out of this one sided beatdown though as Rune managed to evolve thanks to the pressure.


    [Pokemon: Charizard(Rune)


    LEVEL:88


    Skills: Aura(N)


    Moveset: Growl(E) , Scratch(E) , Swords dance(E) , smokescreen(E) , tail whip(E) , thunderwave(E) , Thunder shock(E) , quick attack(E) , shock wave(E) , double team(E) , thunder punch(A) , spark(A) , agility(E) , dragon rage(E) , thunder(E) , shing rain(E), aura sphere(N)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2) , Elemental(electric)(stage 2)


    Attack:173


    Defense:120


    Sp. Atk:192


    Sp. Def:125


    Speed:119


    Ability: Conduit(A)]


    Runes stats were higher than Gaia''s when she had just evolved to her final form but that was to be expected since she couldn''t exactly train most of them while she was a Pupitar while Rune didn''t have that issue. The biggest changes were that evolving let Rune learn aura sphere while the system finally acknowledged him as a novice aura user. In addition to this his shiny variation reached stage two and he finally looked different than a normal Charizard. For starters majority of his previously orange body was now electric blue and the stripes he had were gone only to be reced with these ck Lichtenburg patterns covering all of his body.-


    His level dropped a little bit as he had been on the verge of reaching elite before he evolved but we weren''t bothered as he got something VERY valuable in exchange , wings. Rune could fly now or rather he could learn how to fly. As a previouslynd bound creature Rune had absolutely no clue how to use it''s wings which we needed to work on. It also didn''t help that Rune was now about twelve feet tall and made a very heavy impact when he hit the ground. In terms of size my pokemon fromrgest to smallest went Gaia , Hades when fully extended , Rune , Vulcan , The little one , Aranyani and Hades as the smallest when limiting itself.-


    Having a variable size and shape was a trait Hades held innately but for the actually solid members of my team Rune was the secondrgest I had now. Adorably the little one was the most excited about the prospect of Rune flying for the simple fact that he could join it in the sky where it would otherwise be lonely. I had to hitch a ride on a boat to leave Sootopolis after that and make my way to Pacifidlog to grab thest handler which will bring my quest to a close.-


    This one was going to be a bit trickier than normal however as the handler was ranger captain and thus not someone who the league wouldn''t raise a fuss about me publicly capturing. This meant that this was a stealth grab type mission and needed to be done in a way no one was any the wiser. Thankfully I had exactly the trick for this in the form of knockout potions that I could use to prevent any witnesses. The handler was a cautious man though and never left the floating town for longer than absolutely necessary.-


    I had already called in the handlers man and appearance alongside his job which proved a good move as the rangers organization had agreed to draw the handler away to make the capture easier. It wasn''t hard to do for them either as all they needed to do is sent him a distress signal to go and investigate which was his job. The thing is however that it will merely be a trap to capture the man away from prying eyes.-


    When I got to the town I spotted the man easily as he was sitting near the edge of the town rxing without a clue what wasing. The fucker even smiled and waved at me when he saw me and I yed along not to raise his suspicions. I let the league know I was in position while stealthily keeping an eye on the man for when the signal came in. It didn''t take long at all before he took out a special ranger issue pokenav and grunted as he stood up. He whistled and a Huntail swam up from the seafloor under the town and the man started to ride it away.-


    I had the little one pull me along at a distance from him and once I was sure that we were safe enough from getting spotted moved upwind of the handler before using one of my aerosolized knockout gas potions, he and his pokemon sank like rocks. I ignored the Huntail but grabbed the handler before continuing to follow the signal from his device to find three rangers waiting to take him into custody on a shallow sandbar. "Nice working with you fes." I said with a smile as I dropped the unconscious man at their feet.-


    "This is the end of the trail for this goods ring then?" One of the rangers asked and after briefly checking my quest I nodded. "Yeah this guys thest of them , Try not to let any more groups get so deeply entrenched since I won''t be in the region for much longer." I said seriously. "That''s news to us. Any particr reason you won''t be sticking around?" another ranger asked surprised. "Not much left for me to do here in Hoenn and I have the rest of the world to explore and conquer. The tournament Birch and I will be holding soon will be thest big thing I do in Hoenn." I say honestly.


    I left after that and made my way back to Pacifidlog where I spent the next few days while Rune learned how to fly decently. The little one was especially thrilled with the ce as all the pokemon there were mostly peaceful and thus yed with it. I even met a few of the rescued water type pokemon i had rescued there just chilling after having been released back into the sea.

 Return to Littleroot

    Return to Littleroot


    Once Rune got the hang of flying I rode on his back as he flew us to Littleroot. It was strange being back in this small ce after traveling across Hoenn. The air was fresh and humid with a heavy pine scent like I remembered and the ce was just as quiet as ever. That changed a little when Runended as he kicked up a lot of dust and made a bit of amotion. The people living here checked to see what was going on before seeing it was me and ignoring it.-


    Birch himself walked across the grass with a smile "I see Rune has managed to evolve into a fine specimen of a Charizard since west spoke face to face." he said looking rune up and down excitedly. "You''ll have plenty of time to check out my whole teamter , for now though I am curious to know how Tanks doing." I said as I recalled Rune. He shrugged "You can go see for yourself since he should be back shortly." he said casually. "You never told me he evolved." I said taken back by what he said.


    Birch shrugged "He didn''t want me to , not a hundred percent sure why though." he said honestly. "He probably thought that his weakness after evolving would make himdrag down the whole team and wanted to make sure he could pull his weight. He''s a prideful fellow after all." I said with a chuckle. "Yeah that tracks , did you know that the little fellow practiced harden constantly and made such massive improvements with it that I mistook him for a rock at one point?" birch said withugh. "Oh? I wasn''t aware that move could be used for camouge?" I said confused.-


    Birch nodded in agreement "Me either , it was an exciting discovery!" he said with a happy smile. "So how''s May doing? Last I saw of her was back before I headed to Mt. Chimney and we had that whole fiasco." I asked curiously. "As of about three days ago she got her fifth badge from Winona and is making excellent progress on her pokedex. Normans kid is a better battler ording to her though as she hasn''t etched out a win against the boy since they started their journeys. Last I heard he just beat the twins , used an Absol with his Grovyle to sweep their teams." Birch said honestly.-


    I wasn''t surprised at all since if Brendan was half as talented as the games made him appear I didn''t expect anything short of a meteoric ascent for him. "It''s good to hear that the those two are doing bing strong in their own rights , it''ll make the tournament more interesting." I said with a smirk. "Speaking of that tournament the leagues been wanting to know the venue so they can properly advertise , they also want to know if there are any prizes for the two runner ups as is customary." Birch said turning serious.-


    "teports not going to be rebuilt anytime soon right?" I asked and Birch shook his head. "Then why not hold it there? A tournament where the prizes are powerful and fresh faced pokemon would be an excellent idea to kick things off there." I said with a grin. Birch looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling "I can see the appeal , a fresh start for teport." he said clearly imagining it. "Yeah why don''t we call it "THE NEW LEAF TOURNAMENT" Might even be able to have Mr. Stone revive these fossils I picked up on my travels to be used as prizes." I said smiling.-


    "Fossils? Which pokemon are they for?" Birch asked interested. "An ancient Wingull , an ancient Azurill and a Kabuto fossil. I was thinking that the egg will obviously be the first ce prize followed by the Kabuto for second ce and the Wingull and Azurill for the third and forth ces. If I had another fossil I would make it so that the top five all walked away with something but no such luck. Actually now that I think about it you think Mt. Grey has any fossils?" I asked and Birch shook his head. -


    "I have no Idea but I suppose you can use the next couple of months to try and find one if you want. Rewarding the top five like this is definitely a good way to help out the new generation of trainers though so I am all for the idea." Birch said giving me a thumbs up. We chatted for a bit after that before I saw a veryrge and bulky Butterfree fly out of the woods a little scuffed up but fine otherwise. Tank froze when he saw me "Free?" he said which roughly tranted to "the fuck"?-


    [Pokemon: Butterfree(Tank)


    LEVEL:63


    Skills: Aura(J)


    Moveset: String shot(M) , Tackle(E) , harden(T) , confusion(A) , poison powder(E) , sleep powder(E) , stun spore(E) , gust(A) , supersonic(A) , whirlwind(A) , psybeam(A) , silver wind(A) , tail wind(A) , safeguard(A) , bug buzz(A) , aura sphere(J) , powder bomb(J) , juggernaut(J)


    Variations: Defensive stage three


    Attack:85


    Defense:238


    Sp. Atk:112


    Sp. Def:215


    Speed:150


    Ability: Skin sling(A)]


    "Gods damn dude what the fuck have they been feeding you?" I blurted out in shock at the status I was looking at. Despite looking bulky and having seriously jagged edged wings Tank looked like a normal Butterfree but this stat spread was anything but. First and foremost the sturdy bug had hit stage three for it''s defensive variant and it showed with both it''s defensive stats being WAY higher than I thought they would be. Second he was at Journeyman mastery of aura which was mind blowing on it''s own but to top it all off his harden was at fucking transcendent mastery. I wasn''t surprised about the rest of his masteries.-


    Or even his two custom moves since Tank was literally my third pokemon and had seen how we trained and likely just trained on his own to the best of his ability following that scheme. Forget about him holding the team back he was only missing some skill in order to be able to go toe to toe with an elite pokemon. The bulky butterfly pokemon rushed over so fast that I had trouble keeping up with it "FREEEE!" he screamed happily as he bowled me over. "Ugh! Good to see you too buddy." I coughed out as that impact fucking hurt.-


    After that Tank spend the next few hours talking about his evolution and what it actually meant to transcend a mastered move as well as filling me in on all the shenanigans he had been up to. As it turned out Transcendent mastery was not exactly different from mastered mastery but was a sort of personal enlightenment if you would about using the move as the foundation for a new superior move. In Tanks case he used harden as the base for his new juggernaut move that basically had the same effect but also raised his special defense by two stages as well.

 Preparations

    Preparations


    This raised the question of what would happen if you raised this new move to transcendent as well but I got that answer from the system after asking. While it was possible to do so the difficulty of it increased by multiple times and at some point you will start getting quantitative improvements rather than the qualitative ones like what was going on with this new move. Tanks personal enlightenment of the move harden let him create what was basically just an all around defensive buff move unlike most moves that affected only a single stat.-


    This brought into question exactly how many different variations of a single move can be achieved through transcendence. The answer I came up with was too gods damned many to count. Typing change, effect change, effect boost and so many more possible directions. There was one small problem with moves made from transcendence though , they couldn''t be copied onto a tm. It was my first thought once I understood how transcendence worked. Since it got harder and harder for the pokemon that transcended the move to transcend the new one why not just give the new move to another pokemon to transcend without that extra effort?-


    The answer was simply that whatever made a transcendent based move special also prevented any other pokemon from learning the move. Birch was also less than pleased at that discovery as move mastery at that level was pretty much unrecorded as it pertained to the secrets of the trainer themselves usually. In Tanks case though it was less my own training and more his own effort so sharing it with Birch wasn''t an issue. The good professor documented what he could but any attempt to copy juggernaut failed entirely.


    I supposed it made sense that moves at that level would be impossible to copy as they were likely a sign of prestige once one managed to reach champion level. There was one problem I hadn''t expected toe from Tank having a move at that level , move blurring. Tank described his mastery of other moves as "blurry" like they were surrounded in a mist that made it hard for him to improve his mastery of them. My best guess here was that this was either an innate restriction on how powerful a pokemon was allowed to be by nature or this was simply a new kind of barrier to be broken through.-


    Moving on from there I handed over the fossils to Stone to revive and he was nice enough to do it for free because of what they would be used for. An "investment in the future" he called it it and I merely shrugged and headed for Mt. Grey to try and find one more fossil. While I was there I showed the little one the Kyogre tooth but unfortunately the young pokemon felt nothing from it which I had expected to a degree.-


    It was neutrally typed after all so it got nothing from the tooth unlike if it was a true water type still. The idea of trying to take the tooth with me crossed my mind but frankly speaking I didn''t have a way to do so. While the space in my bag was certainly big enough to hold the tooth the thing was simply toorge to fit through the bags opening. I also briefly thought about trying to get a clone of Kyogre using the tooth but immediately dropped that highly suicidal idea. Much like the original Ho oh I was pretty sure Kyogre would know immediately if someone tried that shit and would retaliate violently.-


    In the end I could only choose to leave the tooth behind for now with the intention ofing back for itter. As Ibed the area around Mt. Grey for a fossil the league was busy advertising the tournament after the preliminary rules and location had been chosen. All of Hoenn was buzzing about it and quite a few of the older trainers were upset that they couldn''t participate as the prizes for the top three were revealed to be highly desirable.-


    The league was getting thousands of projected peopleing to the tournament to watch it and a about forty first year trainersing to participate. This meant that they needed to get construction of the venue done very fast. I and Stone were kind enough to toss some of our fortunes at the project to have a frankly massive colosseum made capable of seating thousands easily. Originally the league was going to just make a temporary venue but I felt this would be a good chance to leave a permanent mark on Hoenn and opted to fund the colosseum.-


    There was nothing even remotely simr in the region and that would help the newly built teport after it was done thanks to tourism alone. Even for my stupidlyrge amount of money funding this construction properly and on a tight deadline cost me a hefty chunk of my worth. Nearly six hundred million poke from me alone went into the project temporarily dropping me out of the billionaire tier. Between my potions and tm sales I had umted a lot of money and that was only from the single target healing move Yani created. If I put up any of my other highly desired moves like magma coat or shing rain for sale I could make even more money but I wanted to keep those moves for myself.-


    Even after spending so much money I still had more money than I knew what to do with and more wasing in every day. Anyways while that was going on my team and i was scouring the area around Mt. Grey in hopes of finding a decent revivable pokemon fossil. My eyedrop potion came in clutch for this situation as I was nearly constantly x-raying the ground to find something. The hard stone ground tried it''s best to impede us but nothing hid from my gaze for long.-


    I had found many busted up unrevivable fossils as I went but that was normal for mountains like this and I needed aplete fossil that could be revived. It took me three weeks to find one and it was unusual to say the least. It was an ancient Tropius fossil of all things which if anything I had expected to find near Fortree where the species usually resides. The strange part was that the ancient variant of Tropius was one of the ones that had a strange typing to it. -


    See the modern Tropius was grass and flying type but the ancient variant was grass and dragon type which was an unusualbination. This particr variant was also highly coveted by alchemists due to the properties of the fruit it grows under it''s chin. Unlike the normal members fruit that was sweet and nutritious without anything special about them the ancient variants fruit held intense supplementary effects for grass or dragon type pokemon. While grass type supplementary ingredients were a dime a dozen dragon type ingredients were as rare as it got as far as ingredients were concerned.

 Plans

    ns


    The discovery of this fossil left me contemtive because unlike the other three I already handed over to Stone I could see myself actually training this one. At the same time it wasn''t a fatal temptation by any means as while the pokemon itself would undoubtedly be a powerful pokemon with the right training I didn''t exactly need it to fill a role and I already had one pokemon too many to train which meant that someone needed to get left behind temporarily while I trained the rest of the team.-


    League regtions on the amount of active use pokemon a trainer could have was crystal clear at six so while I could skirt the edges of that rule with the little one not being technically active use but still a project in the works I definitely couldn''t make the same call with a new pokemon like this. ''I''ll try and find another fossil to put up as a prize while holding onto this one for now. If I can''t then I''ll just shuffle the prize order a bit to set it as the second ce prize.'' I thought with a sigh as I stored therge stone piece away.-


    I didn''t manage to find another viable fossil before it was time for me to make my way back and handed the ancient Tropius fossil to Stone to revive while making a change to the reward pool. It was rather funny the sheer amount of people that called me in hopes that I would directly sell the variant to them instead of using it as a prize. All of them were alchemist which was no surprise at all considering the value that the pokemon held just from the fruit it produced from it''s neck alone.-


    Add on the power that it could achieve with it''s typings and it was understandable that there was a bit of a craze over it. Birch and both of the Stones even asked me why I hadn''t kept since I myself could definitely utilize the pokemon to it''s fullest as both a trainer and alchemist. I exined to them that if I was going to stay in a single region then I wouldn''t have given it away but since I was going to be traveling my current team was the max I could have at the moment.-


    If one of my team felt like they had hit their limit then I might retire them and get a new pokemon but at this moment we were still going strong. Thest members of my team were just now starting to reach their final forms with the exception little one that was growing to maturity. Yani was the only older member of my team that still needed to hit her final form and I imagined she''d aplish that in a month or so. If I''m being honest I was actually rather excited to leave Hoenn for Orre since the ce presented a whole new challenge for me.-


    I didn''t mean in the form of battles or shady criminal organizations but rather the mystery of why the fuck nothing wanted to live there. That whole thing just screamed "legendary" to me and I had a feeling that I might figure it out if I looked hard enough. That said there were rumors that the region had some shady groups operating out of it. Funnily enough I had already been given the green light by the league to exterminate any criminals I found there so that an up anding professor fresh out of school could move in safely.-


    There was one small caveat to this green light though in the form of mary revitalization for the region. Basically the league asked that I spend some money to improve the region in some way while I was there. It didn''t have to be a lot either just enough that it would improve things noticeably. The ce was a backwater dump to put it mildly as even the nicest town there Phenac was basically just a sandy stone ce with an abundance of water. I did my research on the region and knew that there were only four towns in the entire ce with each being far away from thest.-


    Gateon port was the town that held nearly exclusive ess to the region as all other entry ways and exits to the region were hostile or impassable for most people. It was also the most modern of all the towns as a result. Phenac came in second as it wasn''t modern but was well designed. Then there was Agate vige which was a retirement home for elderly trainers and easily the most beautiful ce in the region due to being right at the edge of the Relic forest that was protected by a Celebi supposedly though that was just a rumor without any proof to back it up.-


    Finally was Pyrite town which was apparently a cesspool of roughnecks and shady folks that was basically a rusted scrap heap of a town. ording to the information I could get my hands on the whole ce was rundown and less than intact due to theck of funds to import or hire people to repair it. In case it wasn''t obvious i was going to be spending the money to fix or at least repair some of the town while cleaning it up.-


    The biggest thing in the region was Mt. Battle though that was an active volcano that had been built around as a sort of challenge for trainers to ovee. One hundred battles before a challenger could im to be the best in the whole region with each being harder than thest ever so slightly. Supposedly there was even a Ho oh in the region that was VERY rarely seen around the volcano. Yes I can say that I was looking forward to seeing the region myself in the not so distant future.-


    Anyways the time I spent in around Mt. Grey wasn''t entirely without gains as i found a few different ingredients and even some evolution stones. I had also used the five exp tickets from the quest to boost Tank up to level ny seven which didn''t surprise me all that much considering he was a bug type. I had exined previously but bug types grow more in a shorter time span due to their much shorter lifespans than other pokemon. From what I knew Tank would only live fifteen years at most before old age or sickness would im his life.-


    As a result I wanted to put more effort into maximizing his skill and power over the others before letting him retire in glory with a harem of Butterfree once serious battling became too much for him. The other rewards for the questspletion hadn''t been touched yet since I figured I aught to wait until I am on my way to Orre first. I felt like I should probably work on my current skills before getting new ones and the item tickets were nearly useless for me with how much money I had. The evolution token though had me cautious as I didn''t want to waste it and as a result was hesitant to use it.

 Legendary problems

    Legendary problems


    I had Vulcan incinerate the stuff that had been rejected from my body before finally calling the trip to an end. I had aplished all that I had set out to do here and now it was time to bid this ce farewell for now. When I left the cave however I stiffened as a massive green head peered down at me from the mountain. ''<em>Well now isn''t that a thing of antiquity , a high human of all things. I would ask as to how you managed to achieve this transformation but that would ruin the fun of trying to figure it out on my own.''</em> Rayquaza said with an interested look.-


    "I had assumed our business had concluded already so why are you here?" I asked confused after I calmed down from the sudden scare. ''<em>Don''t be like that now. I had thought we got along splendidly thest time we spoke after all. But if you insist i just got back from making inquiries about your unique constitution and you can imagine my surprise to learn none i spoke to knew of you at all until now. ''-</em>


    <em>''Oh I suppose I should also warn you that most of my kin are now aware of you so expect to meet them at some point if you intend to travel.''</em> the legendary spoke casually while I paled at the information the words held. I had assumed that a godly legendary was responsible for me arriving in this world but the only ones I could think of that Rayquaza probably couldn''t ask were the four involved in creation. Dialga the ruler of time , Palkia the ruler of space and Giratina the ruler of the distortion realm. Time , space and matter that formed all things in the world , gods amongst gods if you would. Above those three however stood the primordial Arceus who held omnipotence.-


    Only those four were beyond Rayquaza''s reach to inquire about my situation and depending on which one was responsible it meant a different thing. If it were Dialga or Palkia I might be some sort of hero they summoned to aplish something or even worse fight against something they can''t for some reason. If it was Giratina however I needed to tread extremely carefully as from everything I knew that pokemon was this worlds version of the devil and being brought here by them had dire implications.-


    Finally was Arceus itself having brought me here. To be honest in this scenario there was absolutely no telling what reason my being here served as Arceus was the legendary with the least amount of information avable on it. It could have positive , negative or even no real reason at all for bringing me here and gifting me the system. As you could likely understand this didn''t exactly reassure me at all. Even worse was that ording to Rayquaza I could expect the other godly legendries to pop up while I explored this world in search of the pinnacle.-


    "Can I expect these kin of yours to be neutral when they meet me or will they be aggressive?" I asked seriously. ''<em>They should be fairly neutral though I imagine one or two aught to have a test or two nned for you. I spoke quite highly of you after all so at the very least none should kill you out of respect for</em> <em>myself</em>.'' Rayquaza said amused at my concerns. For it things that would stress me out were insignificant which was a privilege it held as a godly existence.-


    ''<em>Ah yes I almost forgot but my sister asked me to send you her way when i was on my way here. You know her as Groudon and she was quite interested in speaking with</em> you.'' The legendary added before leaving. I sighed since while Rayquaza was casual in the way it said it I was fairly certain that it wasn''t a request but amand. ''If nothing else this will be an interesting conversation. I need to leave Hades in it''s ball though since seeing Groudon will definitely trigger it''s resentment and hatred.'' I thought while I informed my team and Birch of the situation.-


    Birch was understandably NOT happy that I was being summoned by the legendary but he understood that not showing up might have a bad oue if it enraged Groudon. My team was also not thrilled at the prospect of the meeting either as thest time I met Groudon I got knocked out for two days and then had to clean up the mess it left behind. Hades took the summons the worse as it''s insanity red up badly and I had to put it into stasis just to keep it from going on a rampage.-


    Rune flew me to Mt. Chimney after Birch had the league clear the area just in case the meeting went south. Getting to Groudon was easy with the huge gapping hole in the side of the volcano leading straight to her. There was a sort of river ofva at the bottom of this hole flowing out the volcano that made the air hot and dry as we flew through it. Groudon herself was mostly submerged in ake of glowing magma when we reached the cavern she was in and there was a single dozen meters wide patch of hard rock in front of her head that made me suspect that she created just to speak with me.-


    The legendary didn''t twitch even a little beyond her gaze following us as Runended on the rock. I recalled Rune as he was a shivering wreck in front of the legendary despite her not showing any signs of aggresion. "I was told toe and so here I am." I said neutrally while suppressing my fear with my ability. ''<em>It seems at least one of you mortals understands their ce still. If I recall this is technically the second time we have met though the first likely left a poor impression on you.''</em>A feminine voice spoke directly into my mind.-


    "I and the other human with me at the time were actually trying to stop Maxie from awakening you but obviously we failed. I don''t imagine that is why you wanted to speak with me however." I said calmly. ''<em>My brother was right , you are amusing to speak with. You are also quite correct little mortal as I wanted to see the being that created such a stir amongst my kin.''</em> Groudon said casually. "I certainly hope it''s the good kind of stir since i currently have no hope of defending myself otherwise." I joked but seriously meant it.-


    ''<em>Indeed you are much too weak to prove more than a minor inconvenience for even the weakest of us. In this regard I offer a boon to help you much like my brother though in truth the boon is less yours and more for one of your bonded. She possesses a miniscule amount of my power and is thus perfectly suited as a vessel for my boon. Release her and witness my</em> <em>generosity</em>!'' shemanded and I could do nothing but obey or risk causing offense.

 Boon and nature

    Boon and nature


    I released Gaia onto the small ind of rock but it was hard to really appreciate her own glorious visage when Groudon was sitting right there. Anyways she surprisingly didn''t shrink away from Groudon and stood her ground firmly. ''<em>It is not that you are unafraid but that you can ovee your fear to protect your humanpanion , an admirable trait. I find you worthy of my blessing , take it and see the power!''</em> Groudon spoke and deep fiery red energy erupts from her before shooting into Gaia''s chest.-


    Immediately Gaia lights up as her carapace darkened to nearly ck and there is a dull glowing from the cracks of her carapace now but otherwise there is no real change to her appearance. This didn''t mean there wasn''t any change to her power on the other hand as that was very much not the case.


    [Pokemon: Tyranitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:105


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(E) , Sandstorm(M) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(M) , screech(E) , rock slide(M) , scary face(E) , thrash(E) , dark pulse(E) , payback(E) , rock polish(M) , metal w(E) , sand bomb(M) , crunch(E) , stone grasp(M) , wrecking ball(E) , earthquake(M) , hyper beam(A) , ancient power(M) , fissure(n)


    Variations: Royal(Queen) , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:248


    Defense:229


    Sp. Atk:151


    Sp. Def:132


    Speed:126


    Ability: Desert ruler(N) , shed skin(E)]


    She got a massive jump in stats and even gained the move fissure which was one of the strongest ground type moves ever. In addition Groudon had somehow fused both sand stream and sand veil together with an additionalponent of some sort to produce a new innate ability call desert ruler. I checked what it did with the system and couldn''t help but be amazed.-


    It still functioned like her previous two abilities where when she hit the field she created a sandstorm and while she was in the sandstorm she got a boost to her evasion. But the new ability took this sandstorm affinity even further and allowed her to now get an all round one level boost to all her stats while in a sandstorm. In addition there was an environmental factor to the ability as well where if she was in a sandstorm she could control it to a degree based on her skill with the ability.-


    In all senses this new ability made Gaia equal to any legendary species I could think of. ''<em>I have taken that spark of my divinity you had and transformed it into a me based on your own power. For all intents and purposes you are now the embodiment of the desert , a legendary in all but</em> <em>name</em>.'' Groudon spoke and my eyes widened. Not only because she confirmed my thoughts but because she had identally told me the difference between a legendary and a nonlegendary. A legendary pokemon had a divinity to them regardless of which one it was and normal pokemon did not.-


    It all made sense to me now , Vulcan had the magma or volcano divinities and Hades had the soul , hatred or disaster divinities. That also exined how legendary variants could transform into their legendary parents species as well. The divinity existed within them already from birth but they just needed to awaken or grow it until they turned into their parents species. And now Gaia likely held the divinity of the desert. One thing that confused me however was that besides her carapace darkening where it was already steel grey and the glowing from under her carapace she hadn''t changed appearance at all.-


    ''<em>You seem perplexed mortal. Speak what it is that confuses you and I may enlighten you on the subject before you depart this ce.''</em> Groudon spoke and I sighed before exining what i didn''t understand. ''<em>Your understanding of divinities surprises me little mortal but you misunderstand something about them. Each divinity takes the ce of a facet of the world be it a terrain or even something as ephemeral as that ghost you haves death divinity. You are correct in that the reason the offspring of a legendary can take their parents form is that they awaken their divinity.''-</em>


    <em>''What you misunderstand is that each divinity is based on that original legendary so upon awakening that divinity the power turns the pokemon with it into a copy of the original. In this young ones case however there is nothing that holds the divinity of the desert and as a result no transformation is required. Be warned however that any offspring she produces from now on will bear a fragment of her divinity that can be awoken to take on her form.''</em> Groudon exined seriously. I wanted nothing more than to record this information as it was extremely important for my future goal.-


    Still I at least politely thanked Groudon for the boon before we left and I released the emotional suppression I had and had to withstand all that pent up terror, excitement and impatience. Once that was done i immediately called up Birch to let him know I was on the way back. It was a fast and silent ride all the way back to Littleroot and I was slightly surprised to see that more than just Birch was waiting for my return. Steven and Watson were both there as well when Runended and I got off him.-


    "Best we take this to a more private location before we start." I said before they could ask any questions and they nodded. Birch led us into hisb where there were two assistants working that he ignored as we went into a meeting meeting. It was pretty standard with a wide table and many chairs that we each took one of. "Alrightd spill it what did that thing want with you?" Watson asked seriously. "She wanted to give me a boon much like Rayquaza did." I said honestly.-


    "She?" Steven asked confused. "Oh right I sort of forgot that wasn''tmon knowledge. Anyways those three actually have genders but are simply toozy normally to procreate. Groudon and Kyogre are female and Rayquaza is male." I said honestly. "Fascinating! and how did you learn learn of this fact?" Birch asked curiously. "The Articuno bonded with leader Juan told me after she felt the boon Rayquaza gave me." I said with a shrug. "Makes sense that that bird would know considering who her mother is. How''d she tell you anyways since as far as I know only someone with a bond or who studied pokemonmunication would be able to understand one?" Watson asked.-


    "Aura speech, well to be more specific aura to aura speech. Works a bit like telepathy but takes a whole hell of a lot of skill to pull off. I myself can''t do so but the older or more powerful legendries like Rayquaza and Groudon can do it. You can ask Steven since he saw me talking with Rayquaza himself." I exined and Steven nodded. "Yes it looked like a one sided conversation from my perspective but this exins why." he said honestly.

 Tournament

    Tournament


    "Rayquaza''s side of the conversation was done via aura speech and as you are not an aura user you were unable to follow it. Anyway the reason for my meeting with Groudon was merely a whim of the legendary so there is nothing to worry about." I said and they all looked like they believed me to varying degrees. "If it''s not a problem can you at least tell us what boon she gave you?" Birch asked curiously. The others were also interested in learning this information as well and were looking at me with the same curiosity.-


    "It''s not a huge deal really as she just empowered Gaia a good bit is all. After that I was dismissed and left." I said technically without lying. "Oh? How strong is thess now you reckon?" Watson asked intrigued. "She''s easily the most powerful member on my team with nopetition at all. I can''t say for sure where she stands against the elite four or even a champion level pokemon but she is definitely pretty high up there in sheer power." I said seriously. "At the rate your team is improving you might soon be able to give me a run for my money Alex." Steven said with a smile.-


    That was true too as my metaknowledge from the games meant that I was uniquely aware of all the little details that trainers in this world took for granted but could raise a pokemon to extreme heights in a very short period of time. For example move mastery in most cases was trained by practicing a move over and over again until the pokemon got better with it. In my case though I had my pokemon focus on mastering their type energy instead so that they picked up a move of that type way faster and mastered it in a sh.-


    In addition most trainers try to have their pokemon exercise to improve stats which did work but not as well as full contact mock fights between them where their bodies adapt faster and grow at the same rate. Pokemon were simply biologically designed to rapidly improve from outside pressure and damage so all I did was replicate those conditions in moderation so they grew but weren''t suffering unnecessarily. Add on the regr battles I have them do with the local wild pokemon all my pokemon rapidly improved.-


    I had only been in this world for about nine months and yet was firmly in the elite category of trainers thanks to this methodology. After Steven and Watson left Birch tried to study my spear while I effectively focused on raising myst few members to level one hundred. Yani needed to evolve to hit that point so she was basically excluded from this training but Rune, Tank and Hades needed thatst little push to get over the triple digit hurdle. Tank was the easiest to get there as some intense sparring with Vulcan brought him up and over that point in two weeks time.-


    Hades was a bit harder to elevate due to not really having any type weaknesses due to it''s innate ghost and dark typing. Not to say that some moves didn''t hurt more but none were super effective as both those typings had a strength to the others weaknesses. Instead it was the nature of the move it got hit with that decided if it hurt more than usual. For example ground and rock type moves were pretty much ignorable for the ghost but a fire or electric type move made it hiss and cringe in pain.-


    As a result Hades and Rune were paired up as sparring partners since they were both keyed into the others weaknesses. Rune was faster and had elemental attacks that Hades needed to figure out how to deal with and Hades was all about tricks and low blows that Rune struggled to deal with. Still by the time the tournament I was hosting rolled around the only member of my team not at level one hundred was the little one that couldn''t train like that yet as it was still maturing.-


    It was a cloudless and clear day when the date of the tournament hit and you would have thought it christmas with how excited Birch was. Therge man was in a hurry to get to the colosseum since he was one of the guests of honor and wanted to show his good side. Not that I could me him as he likely hoped that he could try and convince some younger generation folks to take up the path of research. We both rode Rune to the area that the colosseum had been set up in where teport once was.


    The whole area was covered in tents of every color as people had camped out to get good seats when the gates officially opened. Vendors were taking the oppurtunity to sell stuff at marked up prices and there were even a few people that you could tell were here topete as they had pokemon out gettingst minute warm ups down and tactic set up. The colosseum itself was not some grand or gaudy thing but a simple massive stone structure much like a football stadium with many seats for spectators and even a small enclosed area for league officials like the champion and gym leaders to sit away from themon rabble.-


    Birch got dropped off there where a few people had already arrived since this was not an event to miss. Steven, Roxanne, Norman, Brawly, the twins and Elite four Sidney and Elite four cia were already there chatting amongst themselves. I assured them I would be up myself eventually before I made my way to the presentation area in the center of the massive arena. There four pokeballs and arge egg sat on a pedestal with digital projections of the pokemon within them being shown floating above them.-


    I walked over to the foreman in charge of setting up this whole event "Open the gates, it''s time to fill these empty seats." I said and the dude nodded before running off after handing me a ear piece with a mic on the end. I stood patiently in the center of the arena as people began to pour into the colosseum and take their seats. Unsurprisingly the first few rows of seats were taken immediately as those were the closest to the action and thus the most desirable. While this was happening the rest of the gym leaders and elite four showed up with Wace himself arriving fashionablyte after them.-


    Once it was clear that everyone that wasing was here I put on the headset and looked at the sound people at the side of the arena who nodded and gave me the thumbs up. "Wee one and all to the first ever New leaf tournament! I am the host and sponsor of this whole event , Alexander Drake! As you can see before me these are the prizes for this tournamentwith the ultimate victor walking away with my dearest Gaia here''s egg!" I said using my roar ability to really project my voice from the speakers as I released Gaia in all her glory onto the arena.

 Meeting big names

    Meeting big names


    Gaia yed along and roared loudly which shook the air hard enough that the people in the bottom rows likely felt it in their bones. The crowds went wild which was top be expected since that was the sort of thing that really got the blood surging. "Even more valuable is that this egg has a truly powerful pedigree that all but guarantees excellence! In addition to my dearest Gaia here the other parent of this egg is a royal variant elite tier Garchomp! In other words this egg houses a pokemon almost guaranteed to be a royal variant as well!" I said loudly and the crowd cheered.-


    "The prizes for the other top five are also nothing to turn your nose up at either! All four of these pokemon came from fossils that I personally collected on my journey thus far! The second ce winner will receive an ancient variant Tropius! Yes I am giving the lucky runner up a pokemon that even champions would feel tempted to possess due to both it''s utility and potential power! In third ce there is a Kabuto! Forth and fifth ce are ancient variant Azurill and Wingull respectively!" I said hyping things up.-


    "In this regard I would like to thank the Devon corporation for graciously reviving these fossil pokemon free of charge just for this most grand of events!" I said throwing a bow towards where Mr. stone was sitting in the VIP booth which he merely smiled and waved at. I hadn''t actually mentioned that I was going to be thanking him in such a way so his reaction was genuine and impressively controlled. It was a small prank on my part but one that he couldn''t exactlyin about either since this was great publicity for hispany.-


    "With that out of the way I will now exin the rules of this tournament since they are slightly different then normal! This tournament has exactly sixty participants and so will proceed on a process of elimination! Each opponent is randomly selected to maintain impartiality so there may be some unfortunate match ups as a result! Next is that the style of battle for this tournament is double battles in which each trainer mustmand two pokemon at the same time at all times unless they are unable to send out a second pokemon to the field!"-


    "Being a trainer is about teamwork between not only the trainer and their pokemon but their pokemon working together as well!" I said and the crowd went nuts in excitement. Double battle style tournaments weren''t really a thing outside of Orre so this was a very exciting event for them that was quite novel. These people knew what double battles were but they were so rare outside of Mossdeep gym that few actually understood exactly how difficult they were against teams you had no way of nning for. I wanted to make this tournament a learning experience for those participating and I saw no better way than to toss them into unfamiliar territory.-


    "Now don''t go discounting the ones who lose a single battle as each one has a single challenge they can issue to hop back into the tournament so that they aren''t disqualified due to an unfair match up! And finally of course I have decided to add a finalst minute reward just to spice things up! I will personally help the top three train for an entire two weeks!" I said and the crowd went nuts as I left the field with a grin.-


    "You certainly know how to light a fire under folks kid." A gruff older voice said as I entered the VIP booth. Looking over I saw that it came from a ripped old dude with a thick white mustache and long ck coat with no shirt underneath it. "Elite four Drake, can''t even begin to say how many people have thought we were rted." I said with a chuckle that he also had. "I know all about it, this lot has given me no end of teasing over it since you started making a name for yourself. Can''t say as I don''t understand theparison beyond our names since your aggressive nature mirrors my own." he said with a smirk.-


    I shrugged "Mercy on ones enemies is asking for troubleter on, best to nip the problems in the bud and be done with it." I said honestly. "Couldn''t agree more but then again I can''t think of a single dragon type master who wouldn''t, ruthlessness and power is the dragon way after all." Drake said seriously and I nodded. "It''s like seeing a really strange pair of twins." Phoebe said with a giggle from nearby. Hades left my pocket at that and red at her or more specifically at her shadow that just cackled in response.-


    "That one really doesn''t y nice with others it seems." she says casually like she wasn''t smack dab in the middle of where there could be a turf war between ghost types. "Rx, their friendly." I told Hades and it hissed before retracting back to it''s keystone. "I''m still working on the aggression problem with it, sorry about that." I apologized to Phoebe. She just shook her head "I totally get it, Spiritomb are naturally hyper aggressive and irrational due to the way they are formed so if anything your ability to calm it like this is quite impressive." she said with a smile.-


    "I''ve had my share of problems with it but having it bond with my youngest pokemon has done wonders for curbing it''s violent impulses." I said honestly. "Speaking of the anomaly would you mind letting us see it? We have all read the reports you submit but can''t really get a good feel for it without meeting it ourselves." cia asked calmly. I didn''t mind and released the little one from it''s ball where it immediately took to the air and looked around at everyone here curiously before rushing over to Watson eagerly since the old man always had treats on him that he gave to it.-


    "Hahaha! Good to see you too squirt, yes yes here you go!" the old man said with a wide smile as he handed over his treat stash. "How na?ve , surrounded by the most powerful people in the region and the thing doesn''t have even an ounce of caution." Drake said with a frown. "That''s not naivete but trust. Why should he feel any caution when he knows that should someone make a move out of ce they won''t survive long after?" I said as I red my aura at the old man and Hades howled as it red at him with dozens of crimson eyes.-


    Drakeughed though "If I didn''t know better I''d say you were a dragon yourself! Fiercely protective of their own. Can''t say as I don''t see your point though as in truth other than Phoebe who has a ghost or two in her shadow the rest of us would probably die before we could react if you and your own ghost turned hostile." he said casually.

 Possible limit and first rounds

    Possible limit and first rounds


    I stopped ring my aura and Hades hissed a warning at the dragon master before we chose to leave the matter alone. "One of these days that abrasive tongue of yours will get cut off Drake." Watson said with a chuckle. "Bah, if a mere threat to my life was enough to bother me we''d not be even having this conversation. Still couldn''t help but notice that Tyranitar from earlier is different than the normal sort, something we should be concerned about?" Drake said questioningly. "Not really, just a slight increase in power is all." I said calmly.-


    That answer was bullshit and everyone here knew it as pokemon don''t just go having changes like that without some sort of fundamental factor being influenced. In most cases it''s evolution to me or in very rare cases the pokemon getting a blessing from a legendary. Obviously Gaia hadn''t evolved so that left only one option which no one was going to directly point out, not even Drake. My summons to Groudon was known by all these people so Drake had basically just asked if Groudon was intending to cause problems again.-


    "Good to hear, much as I like a good challenge I''d prefer if there was a chance of victory." the old man said admitting that even he considered fighting Groudon to be a lost cause. "Enough about that , lets talk about this little one. We all have read the information recovered from team aqua''s servers and now know precisely what created it. Not going to sugar coat itd it''s not pretty." Watson said honestly as he gave the little one attention. "It doesn''t matter to me since regardless of how it came to be. The little one is mine and will receive all the same benefits as the rest of my pokemon." I said and most of the people here had approving looks.-


    "That''s the thingd, after getting the information from the server we learned that in exchange for this current ability and form the little one may not be able to evolve in the future. In a manner of speaking this one was born fully evolved. That''s why it''s form is long and slender like a Milotic''s and it''s physical abilities are so great. Frankly speaking it''s up to fate whether or not the little one can even evolve again and if so what it will be." Watson said seriously.-


    I wasn''t surprised by this information as I had to some degree theorized that it was the case after watching the little one mature. It''s form far too much resembled a regr Feebas''s evolved form in shape not to notice. As it matured this resemnce increased even further as it grew longer and more reminiscent of a Milotic. "I was already aware of that possibility but thank you for confirming it. Regardless you need not worry about it as my stance is no different even knowing it." I said with a smile as the little one came over and curled around me lovingly.-


    "Seems your moniker might have some basis after all." Steven joked and I groaned eliciting augh from most of the others here. I loathed that title as I was no saint and couldn''t stomach the thought of being associated with the word. We chatted for a while after that and I got a few questions from them about what it was like training only variants and legendries and my own experiences so far. I was honest and exined that it came with it''s own unique set of challenges like needing to push the boundaries of each evolution in order to hopefully get an upgrade to the variation.-


    Then there was diet and the personalities of each of my pokemon that were unusual due to their natures. It came as no surprise that the thing that interested these people the most however was my theory on what exactly it would take to replicate my feat. Each of them admitted that the conditions really were so rare that it wasn''t even a surprise that I was the first. Being born with even a single ability was considered great luck but five or six? Astronomically difficult.-


    So difficult in fact that there was no record of anyone being born like that in Hoenn in nearly two hundred years. Anyways the tournament started in earnest and there honestly weren''t many matches worth watching at first. The random nature of the pairings meant that the na?ve hopefuls at only the bare minimum level to enter the tournament got decimated unless they got lucky. One had to remember that the minimum for entering the tournament was having four badges and the max was being at the end of their first year of training.-


    This meant the highest level technically possible for a normal trainer was at most the eight badge level and was as a result aplete stomp out of the ones below that level unless they got lucky. There were a few of these but most of the lower badge level trainers realized they didn''t have a chance at getting any of the prizes and bowed out after losing a single time rather than challenging to make ae back. May and Brendan weren''t having it easy though as they both were between their seventh and eighth badge at the moment and had a couple close calls.-


    May for example was currently running a teamprised of her starter Treecko that was now a Sceptile, Magcargo, Tropius, Pelipper, Bte and surprisingly enough Luxray. As a result her team held a particr weakness to ice type moves that one of her opponents happened to be a specialist of. Not to make the mistake of saying her team was bad as that was not true at all as she had done her best to cover most possible typings she could face but in front of a specialist she had to deal with more than a single ice type at once.-


    She had clearly been undecisive when she saw that her two pokemon sent out initially, Sceptile and Tropius , were against two ice types. In the end she swapped out the Sceptile for her Bte and had to employ stall tactics to get rid of those first two at the cost of her Bte getting knocked out and her Tropius getting heavily damaged. That was when her opponent sent out two more ice types and she realized she was facing a specialist. Her Tropius and Luxray both got knocked out to take out those two and the final two cost her her Pelipper and heavy damage to both her Magcargo and Sceptile.-


    Still she managed to eek out a narrow victory against a disadvantageous type matchup with a trainer of simr level to herself. Brendan on the other hand had an interesting teamprised of a Sceptile, Sableye, Golem, Gyarados, Pidgeot and royal variant Machamp. The variant came as a surprise for me and most people in our VIP booth as it had been the first one we saw during this tournament.

 Thoughts

    Thoughts


    We were all rather interested to know how he came to have it on his team as in most cases wild variants prefer older more mature trainers that can make the best use of their abilities. This goes doubly so for fighting type variants as battle and power were a part of their way of life. Norman also didn''t know how his son had managed to convince the variant to join him but he was still grinning proudly from it. "You are the specialist here Alex what are your thoughts on that Machamp?" cia asked with an interested look.


    "It''s hard to get a good read on it from the short time we''ve seen it on the field but from what I can see he made a small mistake when training it. The Machop line are born martial artists of great skill yet all the moves we have seen so far don''t incorporate any of that and instead rely almost solely on brute strength. Not to say this is a bad thing by any means only that it wastes the pokemons potential utility to a degree." i said honestly and everyone looked thoughtful before turning to Brawly to see if he agreed with what I said.-


    The guy himself was beaming happily and gave two thumbs up which seemed to make everyone acknowledge my input. "So how would you have trained the Machamp then?" Norman asked curiously. "Personally it depends on a few factors, talent, personality and elemental disposition specifically. Obviously a variant is going to be more often than not very talented but the level of talent differs from individual to individual. Take my Grovyle Aranyani or Yani as I call her, she is only a shiny but in terms of pure raw talent she exceeds every other pokemon on my team bar the little one for obvious reasons."-


    "That might seem hard to believe but she has proven it time and again through her actions. She was the one who developed the healing move that has me so at odds with the Joy n at this moment in fact all without any real help from me. She even went even further and created an area of effect version as well though I will not be selling that one any time soon. Point is I would need to gauge that pokemons talent before I could set a pace on training."-


    "Honestly speaking though Brendan seems like he is doing a fine job raising that pokemon and perhaps only needs a little push to integrate that martial arts knowledge into his move use." I said honestly. "You said that your Grovyle made an area of effect version of that grass type healing move?" Sidney of the elite four asked. He looked like a british gentleman in terms of clothes but had a red mohawk which threw the whole look off. "Yeah, nature mist we call it since it is basically a green mist when used." I said honestly.-


    "If that''s true then why wouldn''t you sell that as well since I can''t imagine that it wouldn''t be just as popr?" He asked confused. "Because the first move stepped on a lot of toes but was little more than an annoyance in truth but if i released another move that would go from annoying to threatening as it showed that it wasn''t a one off. I don''t keep Hades in my pocket because I enjoy it''spany but because if at any point a pokemon were sent to attack me it could buy me the time I need to release the rest of my team if they weren''t already out." I said honestly.


    "Sounds like an overreaction right? I mean you''ve taken care of all the assassins so far just fine right?" he asked casually. "Here''s the thing though, that could change very easily. So far the bounty on my head has not reached the point where these would be assassins are willing to take the risk of attacking me in a city or town where byw most of my team are in their balls. But if my bounty grew big enough the fear of the league stops holding them back and at some point someone is bound to try it."-


    "I''m just making sure that I am ready for that sort of thing." I said seriously. No one continued the conversation after that as I had made my point quite clear. We spent the next few hours watching the matches and by the end of the day there were only twenty participants left who moved on to the next round. Only Brendan, May and six other had managed to get to this point without losing even once but their teams were battered and tired and a day long break before the next matches was called for.-


    Being the person I am I made a trip to each and every one of these top twenty to congratte them for making it this far and even dropped the nugget or two of wisdom while I was at it. Sadly watching weaker trainers wasn''t all that exciting for me so besides the odd creative moment from one of the participants I was honestly bored watching the tournament y out. Pokemon battling had been around for a very long time so it only made sense that there was a lot of repetitive performances to be seen with the same pokemon species being found on different teams.-


    There were a few trainers in the top twenty that were interesting however such as those that came to Hoenn to start their journey for some reason. They had pokemon not typically found in Hoenn on their teams as a result such as a Drifblim or Fearow that were interesting to see. One of the trainers even came from Orre since they had been born there and saved up money for years until they could catch a ship to Hoenn.-


    This let me get first hand intel about the region and ording to the trainer it wasn''t actually as hostile as I had imagined. Yeah everyone was rather rough around the edges but most people were decent enough sorts that didn''t go out of their way to bother others. That was a relief since all the information I actually had just said that the ce was awless ce teeming with criminals and knowing me I would end up causing a massacre before figuring out that there had been a serious misunderstanding. Knowing all this was especially helpful for me so i gave the trainer a bit of money as a thanks since it was clear they were strapped for cash and it wasn''t a big deal for me to give them a bit of help.-


    May was a chatter box about the things she''s seen and done since west spoke and how she didn''t know if she could beat Brendan and get the grand prize. She did admit that even if she lost to him she wanted to at least snatch up the Tropius even though she had one already as she wanted to add a dragon type to her team but didn''t like most of the normal ones found in Hoenn.

 Final day

    Final day


    After the day long recovery break was over the tournament continued in a heated fashion as only a quarter of those left would get a prize. That meant that fifteen of these twenty people were going to walk away with nothing but the experience. Unfortunately this also meant thatpetitiveness got the best of several of them and they used more powerful moves than they should have for a tournament like this. Unlike gym battles where you are supposed to go all out since you will have plenty of time to recover afterward tournaments had a sort of unspoken rule that you were never supposed to go for truly serious damage.-


    Broken bones, flesh missing, things of this nature that were next to impossible to recover from in a sort amount of time were pretty much off the table ording to this rule. A few trainers however got too invested in winning that they ignored this and effectively settled for mutual destruction in order to win. On paper causing your opponents to drop out due to long recovery type injuries sounded good but it was a foolish decision since the moment you show this line being crossed your opponents wouldn''t heed it either anymore.-


    This means while you may win the match your team gets seriously hurt in the process forcing you to either put them in danger of worse injuries or to drop out. It was self destructive at best and downright shameful at worse with everyone in the VIP booth condemning those that did it. Even I with my tendency for aggressive tactics understood and utilized restraint when I was supposed to. It''s a bit like going into a spar only for what is supposed to be a friendly training exercise to devolve into a slugfest instead.-


    It did fair more harm than good as what little you learn is wasted by the several days to weeks of time needed to recover from your injuries. "Looks like these seven are entirely out of the running for top five. A pity since i was hoping to see how Brendan might handle some of them." I said while crossing out seven names from the roster. "Ayed, Those psychics would have given him a run for his money. Those few got a bit ahead of themselves though so theres nothing for it." Watson said in agreement.-


    "Can''t expect every new trainer to understand to value of control in their first year but you can be certain that after this it''ll be a lesson they take to heart if they''ve got a brain about them." Drake said sternly and we all agreed with him. Inexperience might be what lead to this situation but it was a harsh mistake that they would learn not to make again as a result. Judging from the looks a few of them got after the heat of the battle ended I''d say they also figured out the problem.-


    I didn''t just let those few trainers ruin the experience for their opponents though and personally stepped in to heal their teams so that they could try and challenge their way back into the tournament. As an added bonus this earned me some brownie points from those in the VIP booth since I honestly had no reason why I needed to go out of my way like that. Didn''t mean I didn''t have one though as frankly I was unwilling to see my event get ruined like that. While I could heal the bodies of the pokemon with my ability and potions I couldn''t do anything about mental exhaustion.-


    I wasn''t going to offer any of my energy drink either as that would only make the inevitable bacsh much worse. The way the drink worked was that it caused the body and mind to operate under the premise that it had all the energy it needed but when used while out of energy all it would aplish would be to drop your energy to dangerously low levels once the burst faded. Instead of doing that I simply left the matter of recovering enough to challenge up to the trainers and the pokemons innate recovery factor.-


    You''d be amazed how many pokemon directly took that advice to take a nap in hopes of speeding up the process. True to my prediction the seven that went overboard dropped out once they found out that I wasn''t going to be healing their teams as well. Two of them imed I was being unfair but the re they got from Hades and the disappointed look from Watson who came with me since he wanted to encourage these youngsters shut them up really fast. Watson was sort of the league recognized grandpa if you would so his disappointed look was super effective.-


    Hades was Hades so I didn''t even need to exin the effect getting red at by it would have. Eventually there was only four trainers who hadn''t lost a match with May and Brendan being two of them. The other two were a twenty five year old man named Floyd who specialized in fighting types and a twenty year old man named Gregory who was a generalist that preferred tanky pokemon but didn''t have a type preference. These four were allowed a break thatsted until the left over nine battled over who got the fifth spot.-


    After that brawl finished all that was left was for the top four to get cemented in ce by having those four duke it out. May ended up matched with Gregory and lost unfortunately as her team simply couldn''t match the stamina of his team that was built entirely around defense. It was pretty close though as she knocked out four of his six pokemon while all of hers got knocked out. The pokemon that really sealed her loss in was his Walrein that he specifically saved until her Sceptile and Tropius were both gone.-


    "Prefight nning based on his knowledge of his opponent, pretty basic but takes patience to pull off like this after seeing most of your team get knocked out." I saidplimenting the tactic. I meant it too as while it sounds like an easy thing to do while you are in the heat of battle it bes hard not to jump the gun as your mind races with each new move or reaction your opponent does. My emotion suppression helped me remain calm and rational in battle but these trainers likely didn''t have it so it was far from easy to pull off.-


    "Indeed, it is quite clear if you look over the sh as a whole that he was baiting out the two pokemon that were a threat to him from her before sending out his ace. He''ll go far with what we''ve seen." Sidney said and we all agreed. Gregory had very good potential from what he had shown in this tournament even in the face of another extraordinary trainer like May who clearly trained her team well. Brendans battle with Floyd was more interesting as he sent out his Machamp straight out the gate alongside his Pidgeot.

 Final day(2)

    Final day(2)


    The reason this was interesting was that fighting type and flying type were pr opposites with flying type having the advantage. Sending out both at the same time was a risky move since flying type moves tend to cover the whole field and that would effect his Machamp as well as Floyd''s pokemon. This was something that even Floyd picked up on as he frowned in confusion after seeing it. It was only when I noticed the slight red glow on the Machamps fist that I realized what the n was and pped with a smile.-


    "Oh? You seem to have noticed something about this odd pairing, mind clueing us in?" Phoebe asked curiously. I nodded happily "Most people who are unused to double battles like this see the type chart as a purely positive and negative interaction but in a double battle there is a unique case where this is actually not true. Brendan has figured it out it seems and is nning on opening this battle with a rather nastybo move that uses the interaction between flying type and fire type to his advantage. Look closely at his Machamps fist and you''ll see faint signs of the move fire punch getting prepared."-


    "Now if his Pidgeot were to use a flying type move with a lot of wind directed behind that fire what do you think would happen?" I said with a pleased look. "He''s going to create a massive burst of fire to cause great damage right from the onset, what a spectacr idea!" Birch said excitedly. "I had no idea that things like this were possible in a double battle." cia said equally surprised but clearly in a good way. I nodded at that "It''s not surprising to be honest as it goes against centuries of ingrained knowledge about how battling worked."-


    "As you can imagine it is as a result very rare and likely not something with many records pertaining to it." I said honestly. "How did youe to know of it then if you don''t mind saying?" Norman asked curiously. "I regrly train my team in the wilds to work together so naturally I have personally witnessed moments when two moves mix to create something greater than the sum of it''s parts. My first experience with it in fact was between Gaia my Tyranitar and Vulcan my Entei after Vulcan covered an area in magma and Gaia used her custom rock type move stone grasp."-


    "It made a magma hand that was stronger than both moves and had both typings as well." I said honestly. "Well then lets see what one of thesebo moves looks like since the ref is almost done." Drake said and we all turned our attention back to the arena. Once the ref finished with the standard rule listing and warning the battle started in earnest and none of us were surprised when Brendan called out fire punch and gust at the same time.-


    The Machamp had been readying the move since before the match even started and as a result set it off in an instant as mes billowed to life on it''s fist intensely while the Pidgeot flew behind it and set off gust much to Floyd''s confusion. His confusion was well warranted since this looked like self sabotage at best and stupidity at worse. Brendans Machamp grunted in pain as the gust hit it from behind but thrust it''s fist forward perfectly in tune with the flying type move. To Floyd and his pokemon it must have looked like the Machamp had been hit with the gust only to unleash a massive wave of me at his team out of nowhere.-


    He was forced to return both of them or risk serious damage as the mes burned them and caused a lot of damage from the augmentation of the flying type move. "A double edged sword thatbo. Thed may have taken out two of his opponents pokemon with it but his ace also took a not small amount of damage as it had to soak up a super effective move without resistance." Drake said sternly.-


    "Yeah gust wasn''t the best move for thisbo for that reason but rather tailwind would have been since it doesn''t cause damage. Clearly this was a theoretical type deal judging from the look on his face at the moment so I''ll give him a pass this time." I said and the other agreed that for trail and error this wasn''t an uneptable oue. The really ballsy part was that Brendan had dared to use such a dangerous experiment on the field of the tournament. Still it paid off as Floyd was down two pokemon and Brendan only had moderate damage on one of his.-


    Interestingly Brendan swapped out his Pidgeot rather than his Machamp and sent out his Gyarados. "Cheeky bastards using my tournament to test all sorts of interesting things it seems." I said with a chuckle. "Is he going to use some otherbo move?" Roxanne asked curiously. "Not exactly, watch and you''ll all get a kick out of it if he does what I think he is." I said and they all watched closely as Brendan didn''t let up on the pressure andmanded his newly fielded pokemon to use brine on the arena itself.-


    Most water type moves created pure water when used but brine was different as it specifically created salt water. What this meant was that even after the water lost all it''s type energy it still served as a very good means of making electricity flow from one point to another. As the arena flooded with saltwater harmlessly while the Gyarados floated above it Brendans Machamp jumped up and sent down four fists covered in electric type energy that immediately moved through the water and zapped the unholy hell out of Floyds newest fielded pokemon. "Ah ha! He changed the environment to suit his purpose before using it as a conduit for his move! The good old rain dance thunder trick!" Watson said with a wide smile.-


    "Pretty much, the idea was just like using rain dance followed by thunder but instead used a small amount of standing water on the ground instead to guarantee a hit. If I''m not mistaken he should have his Gyarados follow up with another electric type move while his opponents are unable to react." I said and lo and behold Brendan did exactly that with a thunder from his Gyarados. His Machamp merely jumped when it was about to hit and thus only got a small amount of damage from the residual energy.-


    Floyds pokemon weren''t nearly so lucky and got knocked out much to their trainers frustration. Honestly I sort of pitied the guy as this wasn''t even a battle at this point but a one sided beatdown that he was nearly helpless to correct. In a normal battle he may have had a chance of victory but Brendan was here to win and as a result was hitting him with rather unfairbos that left him unable to send out even a single attack of his own.

 Final day(3)

    Final day(3)


    It came as little surprise that Brendan won that match though there was no morebos used which told me that he hadn''t figured out a few of the others I had such as the grass flying type movebo or the steel electric typebo. Floyd had looked like he had eaten several lemons but left the arena without much fuss and it was now time for him and May to duke it out for third and fourth ce while Gregory and Brendan went at it for first. It was bound to be an interesting result regardless.-


    Obviously there was a two hour break for healing and stamina recovery before these matches but that was an easy period to endure as if anything it just hyped up the crowd even more. "Who do you all think will win it all, Brendan or Gregory?" I asked interested in knowing what these experts thought. "Hard to say for certain since both sides are pretty close in terms of power but I''d guess Normans boy might pull through if he can get off another trick or two." Sidney said thoughtfully.-


    "We think" "Gregory is a better choice." Tate and Liza said disagreeing with the elite four member. "As the father of one side I''ll abstain frommenting." Norman said and everyone chuckled since he had effectively said his answer anyways. Obviously as Brendans father he hoped that his son would be the one to bring home the glory. "As Sidney said it really is hard to definitively say with how close in power both sides are but I believe Gregory may have a slightly better chance with how much endurance his team has." cia said and even I had to agree that that was a good point.-


    While Brendans team was by no means weaker than Gregory''s it was spec''d for speed and power rather than the ability to take hits and deal them out like Gregory''s. In a t face off like we will no doubt see since Gregory now knows about thosebo moves Brendans team had an innate disadvantage even with the royal Machamp. "Personally I want Gregory to win since the egg would fit his style perfectly while Brendans style is less optimal for it. Not bad mind you just not the perfect match." I said honestly.-


    "Aye Tyranitar have plenty of stopping power but fall behind in speed in most cases which shes with theds current style a little." Watson said agreeing with me. "Either way that eggs got a bright future ahead of it regardless of who gets it." Drake said in the closest thing to praise he''s said so far. None here disagreed with him either as unless one of the trainers died or the pokemon itself did both trainers were clearly talented enough to take it to grand heights. After the break we got the third and fourth ce deciding match between Floyd and May started.-


    May ripped a page out of Brendans book and yed shutdown with Floyd though as she sent out her Tropius and Luxray before hitting his pokemon with poison powder and thunder wave. After that she barraged his team and the recements ruthlessly. The match was much closer than it was between Floyd and Brendan but not drastically as May got half of her pokemon knocked outpared to his whole team. Finally it was time for Brendan and Gregory to go at it and the two trainers themselves seemed almost as excited for the battle as the crowd.-


    Gregory actually suggested that since it was the final match that they should go by gym challenge standard which meant no holds barred. Brendan was clearly caught off guard by the suggestion but agreed and even I got serious in watching as things got dangerous. Full on shes at this level rarely ended without serious injury to both sides and I was preparing myself for needing to rescue one of the pokemon should an attack prove fatal in nature. The battle started and Gregory sent out his Walrein and Aggron while Brendan sent out his Sceptile and Golem with a frown at the bad match up.-


    Things started off with a pop as Gregory took a page out of Brendans book and used surf followed by sheer cold from the aggron and Walrein respectively. The surf did pretty much nothing to Brendans Sceptile nor Gregory''s Walrein but the follow up sheer cold was devastating for Brendan as the water covering his pokemon froze and immediately sent them into shock. "Ouch, was sort of hoping he wasn''t going to use thatbo set due to how lethal it could be." I said wincing at the show. "I can understand why, thatbo effectively simtes what would happen if you were to fall overboard in the arctic seas."-


    "If those pokemon don''t get treatment immediately they run a serious risk of frostbite or even death." cia said seriously and as an ice type specialist she very much knew what she was talking about. Both the ref and Brendan understood this as well and called it there for those two pokemon who were rushed to the nearest Joy n member for treatment. "Oh damn he''s pissed now, lets hope he doesn''t do anything stupid as a result." I said seriously when I saw Brendan go stone faced towards Gregory.-


    You didn''t need aura to know that the guy was brewing a cold fury that meant his reservation on lethal measures just went out the window. Gregory brought this on himself though as he used arguably one of the most viciousbo moves possible right off the bat. Brendan sent out his Gyarados and Pidgeot beforemanding them into the sky. Gregory looked unconcerned at first but after several uses of rain dance and dragon dance by the Gyarados that changed. What came next was a dual use of twister by both the Gyarados and Pidgeot followed by thunder that turned the massive move made rainstorm into a hurricane that threatened even those in the stands.-


    Winona, Steven and I all sent out a flying pokemon to y defensive and protect the crowd from the dangerous parts. Winona sent out her Altaria, Steven sent out his Skarmory and I sent out Rune. The Altaria and Skarmory kept the winds contained to the arena while Rune ate any stray electricity with his conduit innate ability. This makeshift hurricane was not good news for Gregory at all as both his Aggron and Walrein were effectively treated as helpless ragdolls and battered into unconsciousness as Brendans pokemon kept the storm active.-


    Once they stopped we three with our pokemon out dispersed all the residual effects of the storm. "This is your first and only warning! Endanger the crowd again and you''ll be disqualified!" I used my roar ability to yell down at Brendan who looked around before sagging ashamed at going so far in his anger. Look I understand going all out when you were mad but that was dangerous for a whole lot of innocent people and not eptable behavior for a tournament. Gregory''s ownbo move was nearly as serious because killing another''s pokemon in a battle was heavily frowned on and thatbo was very easily used to aplish that.

 End of the tournament

    End of the tournament


    The rest of the battle was thankfully much more normal after my warning and it was close too as Brendan and Gregory both only had one pokemon out at the end and they were both beat up. It was a showdown between Brendans Sableye and Gregory''s Camerupt. Both pokemon were fighting withoutmands from their trainers as both men sought a single key moment where they could snatch the victory. The Sableye was much faster than the Camerupt but couldn''t capitalize on this because the Camerupt had created a wall of stone around it that forced the Sableye toe from the front or waste energy and time busting through the wall.-


    Suddenly the Camerupt sneezed and Brendanmanded his pokemon to capitalize on that opening with a shadow sneak. It was a trap to lure the Sableye in though as the Camerupt spat out a few dark colored sparks of fire right on the Sableye that failed to retreat in time. "Will-o wisp, this match is over already if Gregory turtles up." I said and no one disagreed. Will-o wisp was a particrly nasty move for stall tactics as it basically guarantees a burned status which will continue to sap the strength of the one inflicted with it over time.-


    Brendan seemed to realize this and once Gregory started to shore up his defenses the guy sighed before forfeiting since he couldn''t win anymore. There was no point in stubbornly holding on either as all it would aplish would be to make his pokemon suffer needlessly. With that the tournament was over and all that was left was to hand out the rewards. Gregory in first received the egg with a wide smile. Brendan in second actually swapped his prize with Mays in third since he already had a variant and didn''t think he could handle the Tropius as well.-


    At least that was the way he put it but in truth I could tell he really just didn''t like the pokemon for his team. Not that I could me him as the pokemon simply didn''t fit his style. Kabuto was a much better fit as it evolved into Kabutops that was both pretty strong and fast as well. May was happy as a m getting the Tropius though so all was well on that ount. Floyd and the fifth cepetitor got the ancient variant Wingull and Azurill but judging from the looks they gave me were unhappy that they missed out on my training as well.


    "In a weeks time all of your pokemon should be fully or mostly recovered so at that time seek me out in Littleroot. I''ll start your training when all of you appear." I said after handing out all of the prizes before leaving. The press and several sponsors swarmed the top five after that as everyone scrambled to grab some of these rising stars attention. It was rather funny watching them struggle to deal with so much frantic energy from these overzealous people.-


    "We''ll need to hold more matches in this style in the future. They are useful for training better trainers." Drake said when I showed up in the VIP booth again. "Up to you guys honestly, I''ll be leaving the region shortly after I finish training those three." I said with a shrug. "Aye, Orre right? Can''t say as I see the appeal from what I know of the ce but you''ve probably got your reasons." the old man said with a chuckle. "It''s nothing special really, i just want tounch my own investigation on why nothing wants to live there while checking out the local challenge scene." I said honestly.-


    "Oh? A surprisingly scientific pursuit for you Alex, you must have a theory if even you are interested in that phenomena." Birch said surprised at my reason. Not that his surprise wasn''t well warranted as I was the most scientifically minded person. "I believe that the godly pokemon are involved but until I can either ask them myself or investigate below the sands I won''t know for sure." I said honestly. "i can see why you might think that given the information on the region. If you happen to find any interesting stones while you are investigating I hope you keep my father and I in mind." Steven said with a smile.-


    I chatted with everyone here casually for a while before they all started heading back to their work since for higher officials like them they rarely have time to rx. I wasn''t envious at all as while they had more power politically than anyone else they were also bound by the responsibilities that came with that power. Steven technically didn''t have any responsibilities since he wasn''t the champion at the moment but still tended to stay in the region to help out as needed.-


    "It''s going to be strange not hearing from you for such a long period of time. You might have given me more than a few headaches but I more or less enjoyed our time talking." Birch said clearly feeling some sort of way. "Bah! I''m not gone yet so don''t go getting all sappy on me since you''re stuck with me for at least another three weeks." I joked and heughed. We stayed to see to the clean up as there was trash and stains in the colosseum that needed to be cleaned up.-


    We were mostly Just here in a supervisory manner as the league staff got most of it on their own and only some of the more questionable things needed input from us. The crowd had stayed to see the hand out of the rewards and then promptly left in a chatter so the many tents and camp sites were getting cleared up as they all started heading home. A few were staying however to help rebuild teport which was nice to see since that was sorta the point of this tournament.-


    Birch and I headed back to Littleroot once we were not needed anymore and I released my team since the next few weeks would be mostly us rxing as we waited for Yani to evolve for thest time and catch up with the rest. For the first week I and my team mostly just worked on our auras while taking breaks every now and again to freshen up our minds since nonstop meditation gets boring fast. Additionally we also socialized with the few pokemon that Birch had in his pasture by hisb. Most of them had been sent by May to aid his research during her journey but there were a few that Brendan had caught.-


    Funnily enough Birch had a sort of arrangement with all these pokemon where he he cataloged what he could noninvasively before getting the rangers to return them to the wild. The funny part was that after experiencing living in the pasture a few pokemon refused to leave as this was way better than their lives in the wild. Free abundant food and protection from predators meant that the more passive pokemon just settled in permanently in the pasture while the good professor didn''t have the heart to just force them out.

 Training others

    Training others


    Just like I had predicted May, Brendan and Gregory''s pokemon recovered right at the end of the week and they came to Littleroot. I might not have much mastery over the poke medic skill but I had ess to all the knowledge on the subject that existed so when it came to making health predictions like this I was second to no one who wasn''t psychic. Seeing the future doesn''t take any medical skill or knowledge though so I still believe I win in that case as well.-


    "This won''t work if you two are shing constantly." I said serious when Brendan and Gregory showed up and were clearly not getting along.


    "He almost killed my pokemon though!" Brendan argued.


    "And in exchange you almost implicated dozens of innocent people in the stands. From the way I see it both of you are in the wrong for that situation. It was a tournament meant to give you experience and a chance at improving your teams, not a deathmatch." I said firmly and Brendan backed down clearly aware I was right but Gregory looked like he was about to say something but I held up my hand to stop him.


    "You are even worse because I refuse to believe you didn''t understand the high chance of death from thatbo. It was a super effective movebo after all and you had other more eptable options but you were trying to show off. His anger at you is entirely justified and you want to argue with me about it?" I said with a re and the dude frowned but dropped whatever argument he had. I knew his type well enough since they were all over the ce on earth, people who tried their hardest to get ahead in life using anyone they could as a stepping stone without care about the suffering they caused in the process.-


    I was willing to bet money that Gregory was going to say something about how it was entirely permissible in the rules of the tournament or some such. He would be right of course but there was a reason that there were also unspoken rules as well that most abide by. Inpetitive battles like that you DON''T use killing moves so casually. "Now that I have addressed this issue I expect both of you to tolerate the others presence or you''ll find that I will make the next two weeks of your life hell, am I clear?" I asked sternly and they both nodded.


    "Good. Now then the way the next two weeks is going to go is that I am going to train each of you and your teams in what I believe to be important things to know for any trainer. First up isbat readiness and I am not referring to just your pokemon. You as league registered trainers need to be ready at any moment forbat and right now you all fail." I said bluntly.-


    They all looked offended by that until they each stiffened in fear as Hades swiped a de of grass across their throats gently. "Hades wasn''t even being stealthy but none of you even noticed it behind you until it was toote. Had it been someone with a knife or gun you''d all be dead because you failed to register your surroundings. It is my firm belief that all trainers need to understand the importance of having clear knowledge of ones surroundings. Criminals won''t announce themselves before attacking nor will they always make it obvious what they are about to do."-


    "By no means am i saying that you should be paranoid but at the very least you should always try and understand your surroundings and recognize when something is out of ce. This will help you both in and out of battle and make no mistake you WILL need to use this outside of battle if you continue being trainers of the league. The next three days I''m going to hammer this spatial awareness into your bones so pay attention." I said with a firm look. I meant it as well as I had already gotten permission from Birch and Brendans parents to go into the rooms they''d be living in for the next two weeks and change things for my training.-


    The basic training though was first pattern recognition as I set up a bunch of things in the pasture before blindfolding them and moving stuff or changing something and having them point out what exactly. I didn''t give them a whole lotta time to memorize the field either so that their minds were trained to aplish this in a short period of time. The first night I left their rooms alone so that they had a base to work off of.-


    Then i would up the ante by changing something when they weren''t paying attention or cing a booby trap in the rooms that was annoying if they failed to find it. See if you were tense it was easy to have your senses stay sharp enough to notice each thing out of ce. But when you were thinking you were safe humans had a bad habit of rxing and leaving themselves vulnerable. Glitter bombs, harmless shbangs, Hades itself and a few other creative but noticeable traps were used over the next three days to train their senses.-


    At the end of this period though all three of them were used to finding what was out of ce even if it was the most mundane of things like how I moved my pokeballs from my right side to my left or if I had left an extra footprint where I was standing. "Well done all three of you for picking up my lesson so easily. In truth this is actually something that tends to take months to years for a trainer to learn and my methods of teaching it are rather extreme."


    "That said you''ve all picked up the basics of it which is worth praise so I have arranged a feast to reward all of you. No tricks or traps involved." I said with a smile. To prove my point I began to carefully take out the many dishes I had personally whipped up for the asion. Braised meats, potatoes in a variety of shapes, textures and vors, my own personal blend of herbs and spices on fried food and nearly a dozen different types of deserts from pies to icecream. All the food was in sealed containers that held the freshness of the dishes for a long period of time so it was all still fresh and hot or appropriately cold.-


    All three of them were suspicious at first but after trying the food threw all caution to the wind as the food was just too damn good. I was a master cook after all so my food was impable in vor and nutrition both. The smell of the food got the pokemon living in the pastures attention and some even came over cautiously to seek out a handout. I watched as Brendan and May had no trouble at all befriending these few but Gregory was too prideful and ignored them as he ate.

 Training others(2)

    Training others(2)


    This was a personality issue and not something I could try and fix in such a short amount of time. Not that I would try anyway since I have my own personality issues to deal with before bothering with someone elses. I was much better than I was when I first came to this world but I still had trouble with more everyday emotions and mostly just existed in a state of nkness. I had drive and ambition that pushed me and my team for improvement but otherwise I felt little at any given time.-


    The only time I felt any emotions was when interacting with my team or someone else or if I encounter something exciting. Unfortunately my aura was improving constantly with practice which showed that this was actually just my natural state of mind. Tearing my thoughts away from my own ws I watched the interaction between these three and these pokemon. After getting ignored most of the pokemon went over to Brendan and May to mooch food off of them while avoiding me and Hades. Can''t say I me them as we were not the friendliest looking individuals which went triple for Hades who was pretty bloodthirsty at any moment in time.-


    The next day when all of my trainees had gathered I exined the next piece of training. "Now who here knows how to forage?" I asked calmly. May raised her hand with a bright smile and I nodded. "In that case you don''t need this next piece of training and I''ll have you help me in teaching these two." I said and she nodded eager to show off. "You''ll forgive me if this sounds presumptuous but I had thought you would be training us as trainers but so far you haven''t taught us a single thing involving our pokemon." Gregory said clearly taking issue with my lesson n.-


    "I am training you as trainers, perhaps you''ve failed to notice but both thest thing i taught you and this new one I am going to teach you directly help you in the wild. Training pokemon is a very resource intensive process if you have not noticed and foraging is an easy method to offset some of that cost. The wilds are full of food, medicines and materials that you can sell or use to feed and create better opportunities for your team even if you have no money on hand."-


    "If that doesn''t seem like something worth knowing as a trainer than by all means do try and give me a better example." I said sternly while staring the guy down. Gregory frowned and looked like he wanted to argue but also like he did in fact see the value in what I was nning to teach and remained silent. "Now that we got that out of the way follow me." I said calmly as I led the way into the nearby forest.-


    "Even so close to a vige you can find resources to harvest like this snakeroot nt that can be identified by these leaves that curl naturally to appear like a snakes head. This nt in particr is used as painkillers due to it''s mild numbing paralytic properties." I said pointing at a nt. I then showed Brendan and Gregory how to harvest underground nts without damaging them before handing out amon copy of native nts in Hoenn to all of them and having May show them how to harvest mushrooms and even how to identify ces they might be.-


    Using my x-ray vision I quickly spotted a leaf stone that was nearby and took over teaching again to show them how to identify areas that had the type stones based on the surroundings. The leaf stone wasn''t even grade one and thus not worth harvesting but made for a good example. In this case the rich grass type energy in the stone caused the grass and other nts near it to grow disproportionately to the other nts nearby. This got Gregory interested in the topic finally since he clearly couldn''t care less before now. I get enthusiasm for pokemon training but he was a bit too focused on things directly involved in the process.-


    It was an unsustainable way of doing it as you simply couldn''t excel at training without other auxiliary subjects getting involved. Resource management, finance, diplomacy and several other subjects came up at higher levels of training that even I and the pokemon champions had to deal with. While actual training consumed most of my time I still had to put focus elsewhere as well. Gregory didn''t seem to want to do this which was bound to bite him in the ass sooner orter.-


    May and Brendan on the other hand were very serious about learning what I was teaching as they no doubt were starting to realize that pure training wasn''t a viable route and thus could appreciate me giving them help with other subjects to ease their journey. If I had more time I was likely to also teach basic field medical skills as well for their pokemon so they could better train without injuring their pokemon more than necessary. For what I had though I was only going to be training them in three ways, spatial awareness, foraging and move mastery. The first two were trainings for the trainers benefit while thest was purely for the pokemons. -


    I spent the next three days showing them how to find various resources in the wilds and even May seemed to learn during the process despite her already knowing how to forage pretty well. Gregory was by far the worst at it by thest day since he simplycked any interest in the subject beyond the stuff he could use to train his pokemon better. Brendan had picked it up easily and even showed a bit of a green thumb about nts that was rather impressive.-


    For the final week Gregory finally found something he felt was worth his time as I showed them a better way to train moves than the standard use it till you master it method. It wasn''t my method of mastering type energy first before focusing on moves but it had elements of it in there. The gist of the training method was that rather than simply using the move exactly like it called for you try and understand the core parts of the move and then slightly alter them. The best example i showed them was when I had Brendans Machamp try and focus a thunder punch on it''s foot rather than it''s fist.-


    The core of thunder punch was covering the fist in electric type energy so in theory one should be able to do the same with nearly any part of the body as well. Sure enough after failing because of how out of ce it felt the Machamp did in fact seed which opened a whole bunch of possibilities for move mastery. Speaking of that Machamp I had shown Brendan my idea of using the pokemons innate martial arts prowess in move use and battle.

 Preparing to leave

    Preparing to leave


    At the end of the week I was happy to say that they all left better trainers than they had arrived even if one of them was a bit problematic to teach. "So that''s it then, thest thing you needed to do before leaving?" Birch said as he watched the three trainers fly off. "Not thest thing but thest important one yeah. I''ve just got to get some liquid money and the ship taking me to Orre set up before I am ready to go. The rest I''ll have to deal with from Orre itself." I said honestly.-


    "Stones got you covered in both of those matters right?" he asked and I nodded. "Yeah the ship will be from a previous deal of ours but the liquid cash will just be a trade between us since it''ll be the fastest way for me to get it. It''s a shame the pokenav doesn''t work outside the region or it''d be like nothing changes for us." I said with a chuckle. "No doubt you''d call me with some headache inducing news of some sort like usual." he said with augh.


    I spent the rest of the day just chatting about whatever topic caught our fancy before having dinner with him and his wife and finally leaving Littleroot for what will be thest time for many years toe. I camped out with my team that night and in the morning went to Rustboro to get myst preparations done. It was funny to see that as i walked the streets of Rustboro I got many looks but unlike my previous trips here I was treated like a celebrity rather than an unusual sight. All of Hoenn knew who I was for the most part so I was easily recognized and awed themon folk just going about their business.-


    A few people came up to me for autographs which I just smiled and signed without much fuss. The few brand new trainers in the city here to challenge Roxanne for their first badge despite the season almost being over looked at me like would one an idol. I chuckled a bit when I saw a couple of people with variations of my own outfit that included a pair of shoes unlike my barefoot self.-


    Couldn''t me them really as going barefoot was a painful thing if you didn''t have the calluses for it. The other slight personalized touched that I saw added on was scarves, googles, sunsses and even one guy who had two handguns strapped to his sides. It was a strange feeling you know? Once being seen as little more than an oddity to be gawked at and now having people going out of their way to copy my style while those gazes that once held disdain or confusion now having respect in them. When I got to the Devon building the front desk clerk just sent me straight up without me having to say a word.-


    "Looks like you were expecting me." I said as I entered the office of Mr. Stone. "Not particrly, I put out a standing order to the clerk to send you up directly if you ever showed up. Until now it''s never been used." the man said with a smile. He had some paperwork on his desk that he was working on but he stopped when I showed up. "Not here for a social call i''m afraid, nothing bad mind you just here about my ship to Orre and looking to trade some digital currency for liquid cash for my trip." I said honestly.-


    "Ah! I had wondered about how you were going to handle the region without funds but that makes sense. The ship was ready ages ago after I learned that you wanted to head to Orre, I figured I''d use the oppurtunity to try and expand mypany to the region as well since the ce has quite a lot of untapped potential. Had an cargo ship prepared to take over the resources and manpower needed to set up a branch of the Devon corp there."-


    "As for the matter of liquid currency that will also not be an issue, is five million adequate?" he said and I nodded. "Expanding Devon to Orre is a good move since it''ll let you go past Sylph co that blocks ess to the northern parts of the world. While I''m in that region i''ll help out a bit should anyone you send there need some muscle to ease things for them." I said and he thanked me in advance as he called his treasury to extract five million poke. While we waited for the money to get here I transferred my five million in digital currency to him and chatted about his ns for Orres branch of Devon corp.-


    He hadn''t decided where he was going to set up the branches headquarters and was nning to wait for the report on the local situation first. From my own information I had gathered I suggested the port town or Pyrite town since the first option would allow easy ess to the shipping in the region while the second option was at the heart of the region and could get a serious boost in economy if a branch opened there.-


    Eventually someone came up with two cases that had two and a half million poke each in them that I stored in my bag. I bid the man goodbye after that and left for Lilycove where the ship was ready to go besides the personnel and pokemon being sent over that needed a couple of days to pack and get there. Without team Aqua lurking about the city Lilycove was allowed to bloom wonderfully as local businesses were finally able to charge reasonable prices since they no longer needed to pay "protection fees" to the criminal organization. Plenty of smiles to be seen on the locals faces as they were rxed and carefree in the city when I made my way to the docks.-


    The ship named [S.S- Devon] had been informed of mying so the crew greeted me and let me aboard without any issue. It was a massive metal ocean liner with many crates of materials and supplies on it''s spacious deck and in the storage hold. The rooms were small butfortable enough and Mr. Stone went serious with the security as about a dozen ace trainers and even two elite trainers came aboard over the next two days to protect the ship. I rxed for those two days with my team before finally saying goodbye to Hoenn as we shipped out.

 Sea journey

    Sea journey


    The trip to Orre was ted to take a whole month give or take a day or two so I used the unique experience to add an extrayer of depth to my teams training. As anyone who has ever been on arge ship for any real time can tell you moving around was a challenge in and of itself. The ship tilted and rose in a constant manner with the movement of the sea bellow us and I was training my team to move over obstacles at fast speed without letting the movement hinder them.-


    Rune and Tank didn''t need this training since they could fly but the rest of my team got put through it. Hades being the clever little shit it was simply cheated and anchored it''s smoky form to it''s destination before dragging it''s keystone over. To be honest I was kinda expecting it to do something like that since the Spiritomb species weren''t exactly well known for their movement abilities. In fact they were practically the definition of the word sedentary as they literally won''t move for decades or centuries at a time. Not in hibernation like Groudon or Kyogre either but literally just because they didn''t feel like it.-


    Vulcan, Gaia and Yani though were serious in this training though Gaia was by far the one most in need of it. Vulcan and Yani were both small enough that the movement of the ship was only minorly inconvenient but for Gaia it was a different matter. If the ship moved when she was taking a step it could very easily unbnce her and make her fall as her weight worked against her. I had to admit that Mr. Stone spared no expense when creating this ship as he had even made an area for the trainers aboard to train and battle against each other to pass the time easier.-


    Admittedly we all needed to rotate between ourselves since there was only the one area but none of us minded all that much. If anything the ace trainers aboard were practically like a pack of hungry wolves that took any oppurtunity they could to insert themselves and their team into the three elite trainers time in the area. That meant I and the other two were regrly getting observed and used to hone the ace trainers teams during this journey across the sea.-


    I was the least popr choice to be used to hone their teams against though as while my team was careful not to cause serious injury when we battled with the ace trainers pokemon we weren''t gentle either. On average each ace trainer needed to pay a two day recovery period after each bout with my team. Despite that however battling my team was still something they all did as my style of battle was clearly an excellent method of drawing out improvements from my opponents as I challenged them to adapt.-


    Interestingly one of the sailors aboard the ship was a spearman like myself which after getting permission from their captain i regrly used as a whetstone to hone my own skill against. He was a slender dark skinned man with red hair named Carlos. He improved as well as he sparred against me with the hollow blunt pipes we were using since the real deal was too dangerous. Carlos used a style of spearmanship that focused on defensive maneuvers and counter attacking that worked wonders against my style that was primarily about aggression and causing so much pressure against my opponent that they couldn''t retaliate.-


    The first week at sea was focused on this movement training and sparring with Carlos after I discovered him practicing in the early morning. The second week at sea was when things got interesting as we were passing through the deep waters and a school of Gyarados got ufortably close to the ship out of curiosity. The leader of which was a royal shiny but only had the base level of the variations unlocked. This meant it was veryrge and bright red but otherwise not terribly different from a normal Gyarados at the elite level such as it was.-


    It was also not some reckless youngster either but clearly fairly old and experienced and as a result spotted me and Hades and chose to lead it''s group away rather than trying to cause problems. Contrary to what many believe Gyarados weren''t mindless rage monsters but merely had temper control issues after evolving to their current form which mellowed out the longer they lived. The reason for this was that as Magikarp theycked the intelligence usually to really feel emotions all that deeply but after evolving they got bigger brains and were suddenly overwhelmed with emotions that they had no experience with and thus tended to get frustrated and angry.-


    Beyond that we had to fight and kill a flock of Wingull line pokemon that tried to use the ship as their own personal territory. This would not have resulted in us chasing them off if it wasn''t for the fact they saw us as trespassers and were aggressive towards the sailors just doing their jobs. I didn''t waste the bodies though but harvested them and cooked up a feast out of the edible parts while handing the rest over to whoever wanted them.-


    Like most nonfish water types the meat was rich in fat that I had to render out before serving with some fresh seaweed and rice with a sweet and savory barbeque sauce. I got along famously with the chefs aboard the ship since I regrly frequented the kitchens to help out and they had honestly mentioned that they hadn''t thought of cooking any pokemon they ended up having to kill during any past shipping journeys on other ships. ording to them they actually tended to just toss the bodies overboard for some lucky predator to eat. There was nothing wrong with that in my opinion as if you had plenty of food stored up you didn''t need the meat.-


    That said there was also no reason why you couldn''t eat the meat as well to make your storesst just a little longer than normal. It certainly wasn''t necessary though as Mr. Stone had stocked up enough food to feed all of us and our pokemon for the next three months despite the trip being ted for only a month. The third week Yani evolved finally which let her reach her final stage. She had pretty good stats too when she did.


    [Pokemon: Sceptile(Aranyani)


    LEVEL:87


    Moveset: Leer(M) , pound(M) , leaf storm(M)(egg move) , Absorb(M) , quick attack(M) , pursuit(E) , screech(E) , mega drain(M) , agility(M) , m(E) , detect(E) , giga drain(M) , false swipe(E) , night sh(E) , nature orb(M) , leaf de(E) , fury cutter(E) , bullet seed(E), nature mist(E), toxic(E), sunny day(E), sr beam(E)


    Skills: Aura(N)


    Variations: Shiny(Stage two)


    Attack:169


    Defense:145


    Sp. Atk: 219


    Sp. Def:175


    Speed:253


    Ability: Overgrow(E)]

 Arriving in Orre

    Arriving in Orre


    Thanks to her evolving she was able to reach level one hundred which rounded out my entire team of active pokemon at elite level. Soon enough the little one would begin training as well as he had stopped growing as much recently which was a sign of him reaching physical maturity. Once he officially reached that point I was going to name him and begin his training. Funnily enough most of the trainers on board seemed to think he was some sort of variant Ekans or Seviper.-


    In terms of size he had already reached about the length and thickness of a normal Milotic which left him at about eight feet long and about a foot and a half thick in the middle. The idea that both of the natural stages of a Milotic had fused into a single stage fit very well with what I could see. Despite this however I was hopeful that he could evolve naturally as otherwise I would be forced to use myst evolution token on him. most pokemon had multiple stages for a reason after all and I was worried that him only having the one where there should be two meant he would suffer level lock.-


    For most trainers a pokemon not being able to grow because of their inability to evolve meant the end of that pokemons journey. Not to say they just get thrown away as worthless or anything merely that the trainer has to make the hard call of retiring them in order to train another pokemon that has the potential to grow still. I thankfully could use my evolution token instead if my fears did be reality. It may seem wasteful but I value the bonds I have with my pokemon too much to care about something like that.-


    The final week of the journey was spent mostly on rxing for my pokemon while I worked on mastering my aura to type energy conversions. I had only started being able to mold type energy after converting my aura to it and was only another step away from true move emtion. It was pretty clear though that humans weren''t designed to use moves though as the energy fought me every step of the way and it took me almost a whole minute just to convert enough to use a move like ember.-


    Compared to literally any pokemon that was pathetically slow. Even worse was that converting my aura to type energy was horribly inefficient and burned through even my massive reserves like it was rocket fuel. Just to get the equivalent of a single embers worth of fire type energy I use nearly half my aura at once. Despite this clear uselessness I stubbornly pushed on as I firmly believed that at some point I could work out this inefficiency and be able to use powerful moves on the fly like a pokemon. There was one big issue with converting my aura to type energy though, it tried to stay there afterwards.-


    The more I converted my aura into a single type while ignoring the others the more my aura tries to adapt to that type in particr. This meant focusing on only a single type conversion was a bad move unless I only wanted to be able to use that one typing. Sadly it was clear just how hard my chosen route was as the information I received from the aura skill originally covered type conversion but only up to the point of being able to use low leveled moves. This meant that once I reached and mastered that level of aura I was effectively in the dark about how to advance from there.-


    [Achievement: Reach Orre! Reward: 2x ability tickets!]


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have set yourself the goal of finding the secret of Orre and will have much work to do before you can seed!


    Objectives: Find lodging for while you are in Orre, Scout out the local poption, Create reliable contacts in each of the major settlements(0/5), Obtain a PDA.


    Rewards: 2x item tickets, 1x skill ticket, 1x ability ticket, hub token+(imable immediately), plete all objectives to unlock the next chain quest)]


    These notifications broke me out of my meditation as it was entirely unexpected. Apparently my system considered me reaching another region as an achievement worth rewarding. It was quite the generous reward too as an extra two abilities would further my aura along regardless of if it were a big leap or small one. The chain quest was also something I was surprised to see since despite having this goal for some time now it had only became a quest after I actually reached Orre. I suppose it made sense though as only by doing so was it pretty much set that it was actually relevant.-


    What interested me most about the quest was the Hub token that was offered for me doing it. Expanding the description of the item I was astonished at what it was exactly.


    [Item name: Hub token


    Grade: System


    Description: A system reward that upon use terraforms an area ofnd into a building bound to the user that has self sustainability and robust defenses.]


    ''This reminds me of the hidden base feature from the games that I was rather fond of when I yed.'' I thought as I read the item description. It wasn''t lost on me that this reward also satisfied one of the objectives of the quest since I could obtain it the moment I got a PDA. I went up to the deck of the ship right in time to hear "LAND HO!" from the lookout. People began to fill the deck to catch a glimpse of our destination and about fifteen minutester we did. Tall rocky cliffs rising into mountains came into view which was not very encouraging to be honest but proved we were truly in Orres waters now.-


    It took another hour before the mountains leveled out into a long strip of desert beach and another two hours after that for us to see the first hints of green that meant we were starting to get near the north western shore of the region that held our destination, Gateon port. The ship started to slow as we approached the small port town and eased into the dock before anchoring and getting tied off securely. Only then was the stairs lowered onto the dock and we were allowed to disembark. I didn''t feel like waiting and simply flexed my legs before rocketing up and over the side of the ship beforending on the hard concrete while reinforcing myself with aura.-


    That show drew many of the residents of the town that hade to see the rarerge ocean liners attention. I must have cut an impressive figure as none of the rough looking folks around dared to stand in my way as I started walking away from mynding point. The aesthetic of Gateon was that it was an old rundown ce with worn streets and modernish metal buildings that had rust all over them. The lighthouse was probably the only building that looked like it got regr maintenance.

 Scouting the area

    Scouting the area


    I honestly don''t know why I was expecting anything else as all information pointed out that Orre was practically economically cripple. Almost all of it''s food was imported and it had no exports at all so the little bit of money in the region tended to stay with individuals rather than circting freely. Besides that money was practically hemorrhaging from the ce as the general stores had to import potions and other essential goods as this region had horrible healthcare. Orre was one of the only regions that both the Joy and Jennypletely stayed out of and it showed.-


    The entire region relied on this sort of master-disciple style medical practice where each town had a single doctor who was also usually quite old and their two or three learning disciples. Even worse was that since the region wasn''t connected to the pok these doctors knowledge was most of the time quite outdated. In other words death from injury was way moremon in this region than most ces in the world. There was a trade off though in the form of the true many generational natives of this ce being practically cockroaches in how hard to kill they were.-


    Darwin would be astounded to witness such clear signs of human evolution I''m sure. All in all I''d say my first impression of Orre wasn''t the best. There was only two buildings worth noting in Gateon after some exploration of the town. The first was arge rusty red building designed to look like a Krabby that was aptly named "The Krabby club" and reminded me of a stand upedy club as it had a stage and seats to watch the shows. It was also the premier seafood restaurant in the area which was a relief because being so close to the sea and yet not serving seafood would be a huge waste.-


    I wasn''t all that impressed with the food since it was quitecking in creativity and vor. Considering the scarcity of vegetation in the region though I was willing to give it a pass since it was certainly not terrible by any means, just nd. Thanks to me spending "so much" money in the ce the owner was more than happy to fill me in on some info that I would need to operate in the region. For example I came to know about the second noteworthy ce in Gateon, the machine parts shop.-


    It was a ce run by an old man named Makan and his grandson Perr and was filled with damaged machine parts of both good and bad quality. It was basically a junkyard condensed into a single building that you could go to in order to purchase tech or machine parts if you were willing to dig for them. Both the grandfather and grandson were mechanically inclined and could build nearly anything if they had the parts for it.-


    "You''re a new face, mustae in on that ship eh?" the old man asked when I entered the shop. "That''s right, the owner of the Krabby club told me you were the person to talk to about getting a PDA." I said not wanting to waste either of our time. The old man seemed to appreciate that "Bout time one of you foreigners had themon sense to know that business alwayses first in Orre, we can chat about other stuff afterwards. Anyway information''s spot on as I am the only person in town that sells the things, not much demand for them usually but every now and again we get you outsiders who want one." He said.-


    Digging around under the counter for a bit he took out a surprisingly high tech looking item. It appeared sort of like a smaller version of a tablet that was made entirely of metal but opened up to show an antenna, camera, wide screen and even external adapter port and cable. The device was a bit cumbersome and didn''t look great by any means but it clearly served it''s purpose well if my information was correct. What I knew of the region said this was the go to method ofmunication within the region.-


    "I sell it to ya for two thousand poke, that''s not up for negotiation either." the old man said and I nodded before counting out the money and handing it over. "Pleasure doing business with yad, device already has my contact in it in case you need anything mechanical taken care of or even just some local information. Don''t go thinking to much on it though that''s just standard service for any outsiders that by from me." he said gruffly and I just chuckled and left with a wave.-


    ''Alright that''s two objectives taken care of and a third partially done.'' I thought as I checked the quest. The PDA objective was ready to turn in and once I used the Hub token the lodging objective will also be done. Finally the objective to get a contact in each of the five major locations had changed from zero out of five to one out of five. Apparently the old man counted as one for Gateon port which worked for me just fine. Seeing this I only needed to scout out the regions poption to grasp the overall situation and get my base of operations set up.-


    I took out my new device and powered it on which it did with a audible hum and the screen came to life. ''Email, map, personal logs, interface and reminders.'' I thought as I read over the options presented to me with this device. It was not actually not all that badpared to the pokenav I had gotten used to using. The method ofmunication was less usefulpared to the Devon corp product and didn''t have ess to the pok which sucked quite a bit but otherwise would suffice for what I needed it to do in the region.-


    Walking over to the docks I found the woman Mr. stone had left in charge of his branch over here and left her my PDA''s email contact before releasing Rune and having him take me up into the air. The locals looked amazed when I released him and in awe when we flew off into the desert of the region. I needed to find a good spot to set up my base with the Hub token and I couldn''t think of a better option than to simply fly over the region until I spotted a good area.-


    Sand , stone, desert nts and more sand, that was what I saw as we flew over the desert but what I didn''t see was any signs or pokemon or even the pokemon themselves. I''m not talking about in just a small area either but for miles at a time as we flew over the desert at high speed. Eventually though I spotted a small oasis that had some grasses and palm trees somehow around it and had Runend before checking the map on my PDA. I was pretty far removed from any of the towns but was nearly smack dab in the center of the desert which was perfect for me.

 Hub

    Hub


    Satisfied with the location I imed the Hub token and quickly dug it out of my bag. It looked sort of like a poker chip to be honest as far as size and shape was concerned. Weight though was an entirely different matter it felt like it weighed a good couple pounds despite it''s small size. On one side of the token there was an engraved image of a roulette wheel and on the other a house. Much like the Evolution token I merely needed to make my will clear to use this token.-


    I activated the token and to my surprise it shot out of my hand and straight into the middle of the oasis pool with a dull "THUNK!" like I had dropped a rock into it instead of the token. Nothing happened for a few minutes though which confused me as the system usually was pretty speedy about this sort of thing. I was almost about to leave when the ground began rumbling and the water began to stir.I quickly realized that i should probably move and had Rune take us into the air as we watched the show.-


    The trees and nts shifted and moved away from a single side of the oasis and dust began to rise as sand was disced as an intricate looking white stone wall with silvery lines all throughout it rose around the entire oasis ending with arge set of matching gates carved with intricate images of all my pokemon as well as myself on them. The walls looked to be about fifteen feet tall and three feet thick and my instincts told me that it wasn''t just for show either. Once that was done a building that appeared to be made of the same material rose from the sand on the side of the oasis that had cleared itself previously of ntlife.-


    In terms of design though the building reminded me almost of gothic architecture from on earth except it was less edges and more smooth transitions. In addition the entire building seemed to be made of a single massive chunk of material. Soon the process came to an end and I had Runend outside the gates so we could inspect the entire area. I also released the rest of my team that were just as curious about the ce since this would effectively be our new home for the foreseeable future.-


    The level of detail on the stone gates images was incredible as I could feel the small grooves that made it by running my finger tips across the material. Yani was actually the one who brought to my attention a series of marks in the wall next to the gate that were nearly imperceptible but perfectly mimicked a part of each of my pokemons bodies as well as my own. Curious what they were for I found the mark that matched my palm and ced my hand there.-


    Immediately I felt a gentle tug at my aura which I didn''t try to stop but let do as it wished. My aura flowed smoothly out of my body and into the wall and to my surprise the silvery lines lit up as my aura began to spread throughout the wall and I had an idea what was happening and quickly told my pokemon to ce their matching part on the wall as well and not to fight the flow. When they did the wall shuddered as the energy of all of us flowed into it and fused with my aura as the center most energy.-


    The silvery lines began to glow brightly in a rainbow hue and to my amazement the air began to shimmer at the top of the wall with the disturbance rising higher and higher before arching and meeting in the center of thepounds sky. At that moment the wall began to slow down on it''s absorption of our energy until it stopped entirely. I marveled at what I was seeing as I had never thought I would see something like this so soon. This wasn''t something new in this world but a fusion of four different skills at grandmaster leveling together to create what may as well be a fortress.-


    Aura, stone work, metal work and alchemy came together to create structures that used aura to create a powerful defensive array around and within the area it was set up in. In a manner ofspeaking thispound was now considered a conduit weapon of supreme defensive capabilities. From the information I had from my skills until the energy within the wall was exhausted NOTHING was getting through the dome surrounding thepound without my permission. That included an attack from a godly legendary.-


    Don''t get me wrong any such attack would exhaust the energy in nearly an instant so it wasn''t really anything to brag about but it still showcased just how robust the defensive capabilities of this structure were. I spent a few minutes marveling at the wonderous construct before walking over to the gate again and gently pushing it open. Despite being several hundred pounds easy the gates barely took a single touch from me to slide open without a sound. Thepound epassed the entire oasis and then a good deal of desertnd so even Gaia with her massive size found the area spacious andfortable.-


    The temperature within the dome was also rapidly cooling from the harsh scorching climate of the desert to an almost mild tropical temperature perfect for any species to thrive in, except perhapsva dwelling pokemon like Magcargo. Once we were within thepound the gates closed on their own which would take some getting used to. Moving on from there though we approached the building and I wasn''t surprised to find that it also required us to fill it with our energy. Doing so the building hummed to life as a nearly invisible beam of energy shot out of the top of the spire at the center of the building.-


    It connected to the center of the dome strengthening it further as well as bringing an additional benefit, environmental enrichment. In mere moments the entire inside of the dome became an aura hotspot as the very air tingled with life energy that made all of us subconsciously rx. Even Hades that was a chaotic mess to look at slowed and flowed in a smooth organized manner as though it''s mind had been calmed. It was an unbelievable feeling and sight to witness as my bond with it all but grew silentpared to the near constant droning of madness and hostility.-


    Entering the building i couldn''t help but smile helplessly as the entire ce was barren of all but the essentials such as an aura powered cooking set up, working bathroom and shower and outlets for electronics. I can''t even begin to tell you how any of that worked beyond that it used the aura energy flowing throughout the entireplex to create these things in working order. It was all so high tier that beyond pure theory I had no real exnation to give.

 Chance meetings

    Chance meetings


    <font style="vertical-align: inherit;"><font style="vertical-align: inherit;">You may think that the Hub token was way too valuable a reward to just had out so easily but it was honestly not. The reason I say this is because it was permanently stuck here, I couldn''t take the Hub it created with me when I left Orre eventually. Sure it was an amazing reward for someone looking to settle down but for a wanderer like me it was only situationally useful. It was only because my goal in Orre didn''t have me constantly on the road that I was even given the thing if I had to guess.-</font></font>


    <font style="vertical-align: inherit;"><font style="vertical-align: inherit;">The hub was literally just going to be my base of operations while I was in Orre researching the secrets of this region and then it would basically get abandoned for years on end as I traveled the rest of the world. Like I said the reward was only valuable situationally. Anyway I left the back door of the building and was impressed at what I saw. The original oasis had been weeded, purified and ordered nice and neatly behind the building with the organic matter having been converted to fertile soil suitable for nting.-</font></font>


    <font style="vertical-align: inherit;"><font style="vertical-align: inherit;">''Is this what the description meant by self sustainability? I suppose that this would indeed count as with the soil as it is and the abundance of life force in the air crops would grow bountifully and quickly.'' I thought amused. I wasted no time nting five of my best berries and some vegetables and herbs that I regrly used. The pond of the oasis was the best part though as it was crystal clear and cool to the touch. All in all I was quite satisfied with the Hub and now it was time to head over to the other settlements and get furnishing for my new base.-</font></font>


    "So I''m going to head over to either Pyrite or Phenac with Rune and Hades but does anyone else want to go or will you all stay here for now with the little one?" I asked my pokemon that were lounging about. A few minutester I was flying over the desert on Rune with Hades keystone in my pocket and Tank flying beside us. Yani, Vulcan and Gaia had chosen to stay at the Hub with the little one that was besides himself ying in the pond.-


    I looked at my map before we left and decided that Phenac was closer to the Hub and also more likely to be able to tell me where I could get some furniture due to the "cities" economy being the best in the region from my information. I emphasized the word city because despite being called that it didn''t count as one by league standards as it only had a poption of about five hundred. It was a town just like every other ce in the region. Unlike I had gotten used to in Hoenn, Phenac didn''t have a fence or wall to keep out wild pokemon that was well guarded but had three entrances that didn''t even have gates much less guards.-


    The wall was made simply to keep the desert sand out of the ce and served literally no other purpose. I was rather confused to find a person battling out in the open at the cities main entrance and for the losers to flee on a weird truck looking thing. It was only after the squirming sack got opened and a disheveled young woman with blue eyes and red hair came out that I realized that those were kidnappers.-


    ''If I leave now I can still catch up to those two but should I really get involved in this matter?'' I pondered not noticing the woman staring at me in confusion and shock. "Are you a pokemon of some sort?" she asked curiously while her new silver haired rescuer looked at me cautiously. His outfit was odd as he had a blue trench coat and ck pants while the left arm of his coat appeared to be a strange device of some sort. Don''t get me wrong he looked cool as hell but something about him bothered me.-


    Turning away from the man i focused on the girl who was rather impatiently waiting for an answer to her question. "I am not a pokemon. Honestly not sure why you would think that to begin with." I said calmly. "Well you''ve got this wild sort of aura around you and stuff and I''ve only seen certain pokemon recently with something simr but theirs is all dark and twisted feeling unlike yours that feels more natural." she said honestly. This caught me off guard and extending my aura senses I checked the girl and discovered that she was naturally gifted in aura arts which had manifested as this "sight" she was talking about.-


    "Oh now this truly is a rare treat, you are a natural aura master but clearly you don''t know what that is. Your kind are quite rare you know and you are even young enough to receive formal training as well. But to exin simply I am an aura master and what you are seeing is the energy that I naturally radiate." I said with a friendly smile. "Alexander Drake but I go by Alex , a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I said holding out a hand for her to shake.-


    "Rui, likewise!" the girl said excitedly as she took my hand. In that brief moment I send a burst of aura into her through this skin contact to fully awaken her gift that was iplete. Her own aura felt mine and roared to life to reject it which made her flinch and move away frightened. "Not to worry I merely just awakened your gift fully is all, you are wee by the way." I said with a chuckle and she looked around in awe no doubt seeing all the aura around her at the moment.-


    Turning the the silver haired guy I smiled in appreciation as he was still cautious and refused to move his hand away from his pokeballs. "Now what of you? I caught the tail end of that whole event with those two and your rescue of miss Rui here but you''ve yet to introduce yourself." I said casually. "Wes, What is someone like you doing in Orre?" he asked seriously. "Hmm? Do you know who I am? I was under the impression that this regioncked many sources of information about the outside, is this not correct?" I asked curiously.-


    "No that''s right but all my instincts are telling me you are a horrifyingly powerful trainer, people like you don''t just show up here." he said sternly and I understood his wariness. More likely than not he simply thought of me as a possible threat and was treating me as such. "I heard about this regions unusual problem with it not having any local pokemon and felt like seeing if I could riddle out the reason why. Consider me here on vacation if you would. I also suggest getting your hostility under control as one of my pokemon doesn''t take kindly to that sort of thing." I said honestly and as if to prove my point Hades manifested a baleful eye ring at him.

 Chance meeting

    Chance meeting


    You may think that the Hub token was way too valuable a reward to just had out so easily but it was honestly not. The reason I say this was because it was permanently stuck here, I couldn''t take the Hub it created with me when I left Orre eventually. Sure it was an amazing reward for someone looking to settle down but for a wanderer like me it was only situationally useful. It was only because my goal in Orre didn''t have me constantly on the road that I was even given the thing if I had to guess.-


    The hub was literally just going to be my base of operations while I was in Orre researching the secret of this region and after that it would basically get abandoned for years on end as I traveled the rest of the world. Like I said the reward was only valuable situationally. Anyway I left the back door of the building and was impressed at what I saw. The original oasis had been weeded, purified and ordered nice and neatly behind the building with the organic matter having been converted to fertile soil suitable for nting.-


    ''Is this what the description meant by self sustainability? I suppose that this would indeed count as with the soil as it is and the abundance of life force in the air crops would grow bountifully and quickly.'' I thought amused. I wasted no time nting five of my best berries and some vegetables and herbs that I regrly used. The pond of the oasis was the best part though as it was crystal clear and cool to the touch. All in all I was quite satisfied with the Hub and now it was time to head over to the other settlements and get furnishing for my new base.-


    "So I''m going to head over to either Pyrite or Phenac with Rune and Hades but does anyone else want to go or will you all stay here for now with the little one?" I asked my pokemon that were lounging about. A few minutester I was flying over the desert on Rune with Hades keystone in my pocket and Tank flying beside us. Yani, Vulcan and Gaia had chosen to stay at the Hub with the little one that was besides himself ying in the pond.-


    I looked at my map before we left and decided that Phenac was closer to the Hub and also more likely to be able to tell me where I could get some furniture due to the "cities" economy being the best in the region from my information. I emphasized the word city because despite being called that it didn''t count as one by league standards as it only had a poption of about five hundred. It was a town just like every other ce in the region. Unlike I had gotten used to in Hoenn, Phenac didn''t have a fence or wall to keep out wild pokemon that was well guarded but had three entrances that didn''t even have gates much less guards.-


    The wall was made simply to keep the desert sand out of the ce and served literally no other purpose. I was rather confused to find a person battling out in the open at the cities main entrance and for the losers to flee on a weird truck looking thing. It was only after the squirming sack got opened and a disheveled young woman with blue eyes and red hair came out that I realized that those were kidnappers.-


    ''If I leave now I can still catch up to those two but should I really get involved in this matter?'' I pondered not noticing the woman staring at me in confusion and shock. "Are you a pokemon of some sort?" she asked curiously while her new silver haired rescuer looked at me cautiously. His outfit was odd as he had a blue trench coat and ck pants while the left arm of his coat appeared to be a strange device of some sort. Don''t get me wrong he looked cool as hell but something about him bothered me.-


    Turning away from the man i focused on the girl who was rather impatiently waiting for an answer to her question. "I am not a pokemon. Honestly not sure why you would think that to begin with." I said calmly. "Well you''ve got this wild sort of aura around you and stuff and I''ve only seen certain pokemon recently with something simr but theirs is all dark and twisted feeling unlike yours that feels more natural." she said honestly. This caught me off guard and extending my aura senses I checked the girl and discovered that she was naturally gifted in aura arts which had manifested as this "sight" she was talking about.-


    "Oh now this truly is a rare treat, you are a natural aura master but clearly you don''t know what that is. Your kind are quite rare you know and you are even young enough to receive formal training as well. But to exin simply I am an aura master and what you are seeing is the energy that I naturally radiate." I said with a friendly smile. "Alexander Drake but I go by Alex , a pleasure to make your acquaintance." I said holding out a hand for her to shake.-


    "Rui, likewise!" the girl said excitedly as she took my hand. In that brief moment I send a burst of aura into her through this skin contact to fully awaken her gift that was iplete. Her own aura felt mine and roared to life to reject it which made her flinch and move away frightened. "Not to worry I merely just awakened your gift fully is all, you are wee by the way." I said with a chuckle and she looked around in awe no doubt seeing all the aura around her at the moment.-


    Turning the the silver haired guy I smiled in appreciation as he was still cautious and refused to move his hand away from his pokeballs. "Now what of you? I caught the tail end of that whole event with those two and your rescue of miss Rui here but you''ve yet to introduce yourself." I said casually. "Wes, What is someone like you doing in Orre?" he asked seriously. "Hmm? Do you know who I am? I was under the impression that this regioncked many sources of information about the outside, is this not correct?" I asked curiously.-


    "No that''s right but all my instincts are telling me you are a horrifyingly powerful trainer, people like you don''t just show up here." he said sternly and I understood his wariness. More likely than not he simply thought of me as a possible threat and was treating me as such. "I heard about this regions unusual problem with it not having any local pokemon and felt like seeing if I could riddle out the reason why. Consider me here on vacation if you would. I also suggest getting your hostility under control as one of my pokemon doesn''t take kindly to that sort of thing." I said honestly and as if to prove my point Hades manifested a baleful eye ring at him.

 Concerning discovery

    Concerning discovery


    Wes stiffened at this but I patted Hades keystone to calm it and with a hiss it withdrew back into my pocket. "Rx, Hades is won''t harm you unless you give me a reason to allow it to. I can tell you still don''t believe me so why don''t you stop by my new home in a few days since I need I furnish the ce and I''ll cook you up a nice meal, my treat." I said with a friendly smile. Normally I wouldn''t care about a random person that I met out of nowhere but something told me that Wes was important somehow.-


    Call it a trainers intuition if you want but I felt like he would be worth knowing like May, Brendan and Steven. "Now then about this dark and twisted aura you said you saw, can you describe it more clearly?" I asked Rui after leaving Wes to his own thoughts. "Um well, it was wrong feeling, cold and hostile sort of like the impression your pokemon gave me but not natural, fake. I don''t think I can really describe it better than that but i did notice that the pokemon that had it was like a fighting machine that was even willing to attack people without hesitation or reason." she said seriously.-


    I quickly went over my aura knowledge before frowning when I did indeed find something that sounded strikingly simr. A forbidden aura technique that closed the door to the heart in pokemon. These closed hearted pokemon were basically monsters as they were insane and in exchange for this they gained a sharp increase in power and ruthlessness. It was an ursed existence that knew only violence and destruction without the tempering influence of morality and care.-


    Even more so anyone bonded to that pokemon was infected by this through their own auras leading them to be more criminally inclined than normal. The issue was that ording to the information i had on the technique there shouldn''t be anyone capable of doing it as it required either a grandmaster of aura or a corrupted life jewel. I honestly didn''t think that without the information I myself possessed on the skill that it was possible to be a grandmaster of aura anymore. A corrupted life jewel was even less likely as to create one you needed both a grandmaster alchemist and jeweler plus countless ritualistic sacrifices.-


    The things also had short shelf lives so it wasn''t possible that someone had simply found one that had been lost to time until now. "I see, if my theory is correct what you describe might be a shadow pokemon and I pray that you are wrong. The techniques to create them are forbidden to aura masters for a good reason, it''s an abomination and perversion of the natural way. Thankfully the technique is revertible so if youe across any I implore you to seek me out with them if you can. " I said seriously.-


    After that we parted ways and I officially entered Phenac properly. My first impression was that this ce was a vacation resort. It was hard not to think that with the cleanness and well maintained appearance the stone town had. There were grooves with flowing fresh water all over the ce and an almost tropical vibe going on. The pokemart was a modern style building that was clean and well stocked and everyone seemed pretty happy. After asking around I discovered that Orre was basically a fitness region which was why no one batted so much as an eye at my powerful form.-


    Practically three quarters of the regions poption were trainers and took their physical fitness seriously as it kept them healthy for longer apparently. If anything the looks I received were more about my sense of fashion as i was wearing only a pair of loose cargo shorts, my bag, spear and an eyepatch. It wasn''t the most over the top appearance but it still drew some curious looks. I unfortunately learned quite quickly from asking around that unless I was going to import furniture from other regions that my options were quite limited in that department.-


    My options were basically stone, metal, synthetic cloth or stic in all regards as for obvious reasons wood was a scarce resource. Even in the cases avable I myself would have to assemble the furniture like it was all from Ikea. The only exception I found was if I were to go north west from Phenac to Agate vige I may be able to get wooden premade furniture there as it was at the edge of a forest and thus had a few wood workers. I got warned though that it was likely to be expensive due to the rarity.-


    In the end I chose to purchase a steel table and chair set , cabs and synthetic cloth couch. I didn''t need a bed as Vulcan was much morefortable than any options I had here. It wouldn''t care anyways since that was the usual way we did things anyways. This cost me a good twenty thousand poke since it included delivery to my house that was way out of the way in the desert. With that taken care of I started scouting out the locals and found a few interesting ces in town.-


    The first was a deceptively small building that was called the Pre gym and was an interesting take on the leagues gyms. The gym leader was a man named Justy that reminded me of Brawly and Norman oddly enough. He was cheerful and friendly but at the same time had a seriousness to him that lended well to his control of the Pre gym. The gym itself worked based on a challenger having to face six slightly stronger than thest trainers before battling Justy himself. Much like the normal gyms each trainer had different teams of pokemon depending on the strength of the challenger as well though low Ace level was as high as it went.-


    After learning this I politely rejected Justy''s offer to take the challenge myself as I wouldn''t gain anything from it as an elite level trainer myself. Still the man insisted on at least swapping contacts since he felt it was a good idea. That settled the matter of my second contact in the region and I leisurely checked out the other interesting ces in town. The colosseum was of course the next worthwhile ce to check as it was exactly as one would expect with a massive arena that regrly held tournaments for rare resources in this region like supplements and TMs.-


    I was t out told I wasn''t allowed to participate though as I was too strong and would ruin the events if I did with my pokemon. That was, admittedly, disappointing to hear but something I could understand. The final ce that caught my attention though was the mayors office as I witness Wes and Rui encountering a tall man with a frankly sinister appearance. He had wild unnaturally flowy serpentine white hair and red eyes. His outfit was a purple skin tight body shirt that revealed his gaunt figure and tattered looking red waist cloth and dark blue pants.

 Getting situated

    Getting situated


    What bothered me the most though was that his aura showed clear signs of shadow corruption to a high degree. Even more concerning was that it was clear that the corruption had also begun to effect outside of the mans body which was where the supernatural aspects of his appearance wereing from. Thankfully any aura user could tell that he was not one himself despite this so he was definitely not the source of the shadow pokemon, merely that he possessed and had regr contact with one or more.-


    Despite this however I made no move to get in the mans way as he left as much like I had told Wes I was here to rx and take a small break from this sort of thing. Besides Rui and Wes were clearly going to be making a nuisance of themselves as far as the way they looked at the man showed. Wes was also smart enough to realize that he was much weaker than whoever this person was and didn''t jump the gun which was a good sign that my time in Orre was going to be interesting.-


    After those two had a chat with the mayor of the town I waited for them at the entrance of the town with Rune and Tank out of their balls. I drew attention like this but I didn''t mind since Orre''s rules were a bit different than the leagues in that I couldn''t have myrger pokemon out near the city. Here besides curiosity and awe nobody really cared so long as Rune or Tank didn''t destroy anything. If anything I was treated much like a celebrity which was reasonable considering variant pokemon must seem like the stuff of myth in this region.-


    Besides the people who came from other regions all the pokemon here were either obtained through eggs of pokemon that others here had bred or by importing them from other regions. Without any natural poptions of pokemon here orrge numbers of the same sort of pokemon the chance of a variant showing up were abysmal. So even though nobody could see Hades which was both a variant and a legendary I clearly had two variant pokemon in the form of Rune and Tank and that was news worthy at the very least. It was rather funny to see Wes''s eyes bug out in shock at my two pokemon when he and Rui showed up at the entrance.-


    I sent him my contact details and the location of my new home before mounting Rune and flying back to the ce. As we approached I was surprised to see that a sandstorm had spawned around it and it became pretty clear when the storm bent around us why. Gaia was flexing her new divinity over the desert and had effectively camouged our new home with a sandstorm that was likely to be hard to get through without permission.-


    Honestly I was perfectly fine with this too as it would allow us to be left alone by any bothersome elements that wanted toe see what was up with me and my team. The best part though was that I knew for a fact that creating such arge sandstorm and controlling it was like breathing for Gaia. It should be remembered that thanks to her royal variation she had both the sand stream and sand veil innate abilities. Add on that she had mastered the move sandstorm and after gaining her divinity got the ability desert ruler that was the fusion of those two other abilities as well as more she was literally a powerful sandstorm walking at any given moment without any additional effort from her at all.-


    Once we got back to the Hub it was pretty clear where she was as there was arge mound of sand outside the wall that was looking right at us. Rather than a dragon buried in gold she had buried herself in sand which through our bond I could tell was rxing andfortable for her. "I''ve got some peopleing to drop off furniture soon as well as some guests in a few days, let them through when theye." I said calmly and she rumbled in eptance before closing her eyes and sand covered her entirely.-


    It was quite the sight really as the Hub was at the eye of the sandstorm so while it was getting sunlight and was unaffected by the roaring flow of sand outside the gate was different. Dim light and sandy winds strong enough to shear flesh from bone dominated that ce. Inside the gate I found Vulcan napping in the strong sunlight and Yani tending the gardens that had already begun to sprout despite the short time frame from the vast amount of life energy in the air.-


    The little one was napping at the soft sandy bottom of the oasis pool at this time as well. Rune and Tank both went on their own way after we got in the Hub''s gate while Hades was perfectly content just chilling in my pocket. I wasn''t sure how long it would take for my order to arrive so while I waited I sent a message to Makan asking how much it''d cost me to get a functioningputer so I could log my findings while I investigated this regions unusual properties.-


    The old man was quick to answer with a number and even several specs for aputer he could straight up make for me for an upcharge. I must admit that I was quite impressed at them too as they were near top of the line in quality, I''m talking like science grade specs. At the same time though I knew better than to purchase the best option for something like this as I had no intention of bing a full time pokemon professor or researcher in this region so i didn''t need the stuffter.-


    Makan seemed disappointed when I chose a middle ground option from his reply but said he''d have my order set up within a day or two and that I''d just need toe get it and pay for it. Honestly i was halfway tempted to drop a small fortune to get the pok set up in this region as well just so I could make digital purchases but I was aware that would just be in wasteful. Also as much as I like the leagues rules and structure this region would get ruined if people started flocking here after I got the inte set up.-


    This ce was practically the definition of isted and as a result surprisingly peaceful as there was no history of even a single war of any sort here. The people seemed a bit rough around the edges sure but they all behaved themselves more or less. I admit that I was sort of a hermit by nature as I preferred being in the wilds or alone with my pokemon and this whole region fit that mindset perfectly.

 Quantity becomes quality

    Quantity bes quality


    It took about four hours for the delivery vehicle to get to the Hub and the looks on the guys faces were priceless. First because they were clearly confused about the unusual way the sandstorm was behaving. Second because most of my team besides Gaia, Yani, the little one and Hades could be seen easily. Finally because the Hub was obviously something special and they knew it. Anyways after dropping off the stuff and having me sign a delivery form stating that I got it they left in a hurry.-


    No doubt they were going to go spreading rumors about the Hub but even if others came to check it out Gaia wasn''t likely to let them in without going through the sandstorm. I had already told Gaia that the next visitors shouldn''t show up for another few days at minimum and that it would only be two people so if it was more or less than that she could leave them to the storm. With my furniture here I got to work installing it all and while it wasn''t the nicest to look at it did it''s job well enough.-


    ''Now I just need to get a reliable contact in Agate vige, Pyrite town and Mt. Battle in order to finish up the objectives of my quest. Before that though I should get these two ability tickets out of the way. May my random lord RNGESUS bless me on this draw.'' I thought praying to the only god I believed in and using my two tickets. I tore the two rainbow colored tickets and the roulette wheel appeared in the rainbow smoke before spinning for a minute as per usual. Since I used two tickets at once though the wheel didn''t go away after itnded on the first ability I would receive but rather that option rose from the wheel before the wheel began spinning again.-


    When the second ability was chosen the wheel burst into a vast amount of rainbow smoke and poured into my body. Immediately my aura began to surge and roil within me as it began to expand painfully before with a sickening pulse condense into a small spark of luminous energy within me no more than an emberpared to the raging inferno it used to be. The reason for this change was because both of the abilities I got were aura rted and finally pushed my aura past quantitative to qualitative change.-


    Before I get into that however I should exin what my two new abilities were. From this draw I received the [Mine] and [Water creation] abilities. The second ability was literally exined in the name but was quite weak all things considered as it barely let me create a cup of water. [Mine] though was both powerful and useless at the same time for me. Let me exin, see the way it worked was that I could create a sort of energy imprint on anything I touched that exploded when disturbed.-


    Powerful because those explosions were like a grenade going off at point nk range but useless for me because the imprints couldn''t be moved so I couldn''t just stick one to say a baseball and lob it at an enemy. In case it wasn''t obvious I wasn''t exactly the setting traps type person and was more reactive in how I did things. All in all unless these abilities got an upgrade I didn''t see myself using them very much. Regardless of that however I was still thrilled at receiving them as they were the perfect means to transform my aura from it''s normal state into a higher form of energy like I had long theorized.-


    I even figured out HOW it aplished this transformation as well thanks to experiencing it first hand which was massively valuable information. The process was honestly rather mundane to be honest but made perfect sense. Basically all living things be they humans, animals, pokemon or even nts have aura within them. However the bodies of these living things can only contain so much energy before they simply can''t hold any more. In order to handle this energy my body did the most logical thing it could, it condensed it all into a much smaller but higher quality energy that didn''t take so much space.-


    A good analogy was that it was like my body was a jar and the energy was pure carbon being stuffed into it in gas form. Once no more gas could fit the carbon was pressed together intoa single drop of liquid carbon. It was still the same amount of carbon as before but in a much smaller area as it was condensed. My aura had effectively done the exact same thing and was thus greater qualitatively than it was before.-


    Oh did I feel the difference too. Before my aura felt wispy, light and airy like fog but now it was like a drop of rain had fallen onto my hand. It had more weight to it and with that weight came power. There was one ring issue however that was quite bothersome, the amount I had now was abysmal. I could feel it growing still as my body was still in shock from having so much more usually but once it adapted that growth was bound to stop.-


    Realizing this I wasted no time at all gathering my team for a group meditation session in hope of reaching at the very least a usable amount of energy before my body adapted to these new circumstances. Which unfortunately revealed a new issue as well, my meditation was much slower working than normal. It wasn''t hard to figure out why either as it was simply a matter of using outdated or obsolete methods to achieve modern oues. My current situation was brand new in all the history of aura which means that the old methods while not totally ineffective WERE inefficient as they weren''t designed with this in mind.-


    I was now in the dark about how to train my aura skill from here as I was the trailzer for this new path in it. All the old stuff still worked but I now no longer knew for certain whaty ahead in the future for this skill and that was exciting. I felt like crying when my body finally adapted a few hourster but I had only managed to get a candle sized me of energy. It really wasn''t a lot but it wasn''t all bad news as while I couldn''t be wasteful with my energy usage like before the effect the energy had was multiple times stronger than before as well.-


    All of my abilities got arge upgrade in power despite still using the same amount of energy which I guessed was because the "fuel" they used had be much better. A hard lesson I learned however was that while my body had adapted to containing the new energy it was NOT able to handle it''s reinforcement. When I first attempted it after this aura evolution my muscles, bones and skin immediately tore and cracked which let me tell you fucking hurt.

 Oddities

    Oddities


    It was frankly annoying that my most used aspect of aura was effectively unavable until my body could get used to having this denser energy reinforcing it. That was bound to take me at least two weeks if not longer to barely aplish so I could only sigh and go about my business while I waited. For now I needed to head over to the next major settlement in the region and scout out the area as well as get a contact there. In this case I was referring to the criminal infested town of Pyrite.-


    I ended up taking Vulcan and Tank along with Hades and Rune when I left the next morning after resting. ''Gaia''s storm has grown since yesterday.'' I noticed idly from Runes back as we flew above the storm towards Pyrite. I was fairly certain that the longer Gaia stayed in the desert the more power over it she would have since that was her legendary domain after all. It was easy enough to see how too with aura as her energy was slowly seeping into every grain of sand as time went on which I theorized might turn the storm semi-permanent if enough time passed.-


    If we were anywhere where this could throw off the ecological bnce I''d stop her from doing it but this region didn''t have any ecology to speak of. In addition my Hub was really far from any of the towns so the storm didn''t effect them at all. Even if the storm ended up bing a permanent fixture it would change nothing at all as far as the locals were concerned as nobody came out here really. Beyond the sandstorm I marveled at how far you could see in this region once more as the t sands stretched out in all directions with tiny distorted shapes barely being visible from so far up in the distance.-


    These shapes were of course the towns of Pyrite and Phenac but many miles away from where I was and only visible due to how t the region was. Unnaturally t even, something that gave me pause as I only now realized it. Deserts WEREN''T t normally, far from it in fact. In a vast desert like this one thendscape should resemble the sea on a stormy day with many high hills of sands created by the wind carrying them there over time.-


    Yet despite this fact this region was almost entirely t without any sand dunes at all as though a giant had taken a level to the entire area. It was a wrongness on such a scale that you would never notice it without being both highly aware of what a normal desert looked like as well as having a birds eye view of a wide area of the desert. Even I had failed to realize the issue until now as I was so focused on my quest and exploration of the regions settlements that it slipped my mind to actually look at thendscape.-


    It was only because I had paid attention to Gaia''s storm that I had realized the issue. ''What could cause this though? The sand as far as I can tell the sand is nothing special and there is plenty of wind in the desert so why haven''t dunes formed over the years? Also if the sand isn''t getting pushed around so much for whatever reason why isn''t the ground made of mostly stone?'' I pondered with a frown. It was concerning just how many details weren''t adding up now that I had noticed this big issue with thendscape.-


    The entire trip to Pyrite town on Runes back I spent trying to understand this mystery. It was pretty damn obvious that a godly legendary was involved but I had to figure out which one and why they would do something like this. My own experiences had proven that these pokemon were not simply powerful beasts but genuinely intelligent beings with the wisdom of a great many years of life. Perhaps it was possible that at some point when the world and by extension the legendries were young and their minds hadn''t been tempered by time that they would do something like this.-


    But the question then bes why hadn''t they fixed it then? Details about this situation weren''t adding up and I didn''t like it. "Dwelling on the nature of things rarely ys out well in the end young man." An old female voice said dragging me out of my thoughts after wended at the edge of the town. Looking over at the source of the voice I found a small elderly woman with round lensed sses and pink hair tied up in arge side buns.-


    "Did you say something?" I asked confused. She just smiled and motioned for me to follow her as she walked into a small building that had arge sign above the door that read [Madam Fateen''s Fortunes]. I recalled Rune and Tank and followed after the woman curious about what she had to say. I didn''t doubt that she was psychic at all since I could see the ability in her aura but even amongst psychics precognition or divination was a very rare gift. It was also a rather controversial one as it brought up the question of whether free will existed or not if one truly saw the future.-


    The fact of the matter was that precog was rarely clear so testing any theory on it''s functionality was next to impossible. People had certainly tried but the results were inconclusive as the timeframe of a future vision could span moments or even centuries ahead. The inside of the building was both extravagant and simple at the same time oddly enough. See there was incense burning and many curtains of red and gold color as well as a expensive looking rug and wooden table with a crystal ball on it.-


    The woman took a seat on the plush chair behind the table and motioned to the opposite chair which I sat in calmly. "I have been expecting you for quite some time now young man and I know why you are here." she said with a smile. "I must admit that meeting a genuine psychic in this region was unexpected but not unpleasant. You wouldn''t happen to be able to just save me some time and tell me whats up with the region would you?" I asked with a friendly smile. "I''m afraid my gifts are rather limited to recent times and thus I cannot help you find your answers."-


    "I do however know of a being that may, if luck favors you, be able to point you in the right direction. It guards over the forest to the north and may be found at an old shrine to it. My sight ends there." she said calmly. "A shrine? Perhaps someone in Agate vige may know what you are referencing. If there is anything you want for this information please don''t hold back, it''s the least I can do with how valuable it is for me." I said seriously but she shook her head. "Your actions toe are enough to satisfy me, though I wouldn''t say no to a delicious meal oho." she said with a smallugh at the end.

 Understanding shadows

    Understanding shadows


    "A delicious meal you say? Easy enough, just give me a bit." I said with a chuckle. If she said my future actions are enough of a repayment then I can read between the lines to know the future was going to be interesting for me here. I stepped outside to prepare the meal since there would be a bit of smoke from the process. Setting up my cooking set I brought out some eggs, flour, rendered fat, heavy cream, Krabby meat and an assortment of spices and vegetables before getting to work.-


    First I made a pasta dough from scratch that I set to boil while i chopped the meat and vegetables into a rough but easy to chew size. On another burner I ced in a small amount of rendered fat as I brought it to temp before throwing the vegetables in on medium low to soften and soak up the vor of the oil. Once those were getting close to finished I put in the Krabby meat a bit of flour and the heavy cream before covering and reducing the heat to low.-


    As that thickened and dispersed the vors all around the sauce I added the spices and a small pinch of salt before straining the pasta and ting up immediately. It was a fairly simply dish in truth but had a rich vor that I was more than happy with. The smell was also godly which was why I wasn''t surprised to see that the people who hung around the towns entrance were looking at the food hungrily. "Theres only enough for three people to have some, do with that what you will." I said as I brought the food into the building after packing up my cooking set while leaving the three portions on the ground on disposable tes with disposable silverware.-


    "Seems you understand Pyrite quite well young man." Fatten said with a smile as I walked in. I shrugged "Not hard to understand even with my limited knowledge. The people of Pyrite are roughnecks sure but they are not an ungrateful bunch. It''s a simple you scratch my back and i''ll scratch yours type deal right?" I asked and she nodded. "I''ve seen outsiderse and go through my many years of life in this town and you''d be astounded how precious few realize that simple philosophy." she said with a far off look.-


    After that she dug into the food with relish while I quietly excused myself. As expected three people were also eating nearby with blissful expressions. I casually approached one of them that was a dude with lime green hair, mechanic googles and a dark jumpsuit. He merely looked me over for a moment before shrugging and going back to eating. I waited until he was done eating before pitching my deal to him. It was quite simply really as I promised a single meal like this one for as long as I was in Orre if he''d keep me up to date about the happenings in Pyrite.-


    The reason I had chosen Cail as I''d learned he was called was because he was the only person watching the entrance to the town and truly observing the stuff around him. This meant he was probably an information source in the town since he probably liked to keep in the know. The guy was a gruff and rather abrasive individual but it didn''t bother me at all since otherwise he was very forting with information once properly motivated.-


    It was thanks to this that I had learned that some sort of group led by someone known as Miror B had effectively taken over the town by forcing the mayor Duking into inaction somehow. They were using the colosseum at the far end of town to just had out shadow pokemon to the winners. Cail himself had one I noted but didn''t try to take it from him as besides it''s condition he treated it pretty well like the rest of his pokemon. I had a feeling I''d see it again soon enough anyways and just left it with him. -


    Still even after I left Cail to explore the town I wondered what the group responsible for the shadow pokemon was even after since I saw no point in just spreading these afflicted pokemon around. Like if they tried to use them to create trainers that were way stronger than normal on their side then just handing the things out only leveled the ying field rather than made their organization stronger. Illogical actions aside I did learn that the group knew EXACTLY what they were doing as the term shadow pokemon was coined and recorded as what the aura masters called the corrupted pokemon.-


    If I wasn''t wrong this mystery group who were definitely not good guys had managed to get their hands on an aura masters records or maybe even found a ruin that held information on the shadow pokemon and they somehow reverse engineered the process to make the things artificially. That inference alone made me tempted to step in and raid them to try and uncover and im the source of their information. The funny part was that if the organization itself found out how much I knew about shadow pokemon they would likely send everything they could at me to get me out of y since their n clearly required the things.-


    It wasn''t just shadow pokemon that were a corruption made through aura that I knew either but even things so much more dangerous. There was a type of aura corrupted pokemon that was even more powerful than shadow pokemon as in truth shadow pokemon were only the first step in a three part corruption process. First you close the door to the heart, then you strip all the corrupted aura out of many pokemon and stuff it into a single powerful shadow pokemon and then you force it to breed.-


    The resulting pokemon that hatched from the eggs were known as "Infernals" and were basically miniature Giratinas that corrupted thend they walked and were extremely powerful but near impossible to control. ording to my information there had only been a single infernal pokemon to ever exist and it was so dangerous that not one or two but three whole godly pokemon came together to erase it from the face of the world. This was why I wasn''t all that concerned at all about mere shadow pokemon being made as I knew that there were things beyond that that were WAY worse.-


    I had even tested Cail''s shadow pokemon which was how I knew how wed the manufacturing method used was. ording to my information this type of shadow pokemon was of the lowest quality and may as well even be considered failures. The power was greater than it should be sure but not nearly as much as was possible by creating a shadow pokemon with the proper understanding. To put it bluntly this mysterious group on a global scale were little more than pests and not worth my time to deal with personally.

 Events

    Events


    As a result I ignored the matter of shadow pokemon as well as shady criminal group and familiarized myself with Pyrite town. It looked just as bad as I had been told as the buildings looked like someone had welded scrap metal together and left it to rust. The street was covered in red dirt and grime and besides the few stone buildings everything looked broken down. Even the pokemart looked like a single solid hit would cause it to fall over. Like you would expect from such a ce the inhabitants were rather free in how they acted.-


    In the open square of the town there was even trainers just hanging out to battle in the middle of the area for fun. Lawless was not exactly urate to describe the town but it was more along the line ofckingws instead. That sounded simr but the difference was that these people did follow the rules for the most part but just that the rules themselves were rathercking. The funny thing was that I got challenged to a battle on the grounds that I felt like a strong trainer.-


    The look on the peoples faces when I casually reached into my pocket and tossed Hades keystone onto the ground was hrious. To them it looked like I had reacted to a battle challenge by tossing a random rock onto the area of the battle. That changed however when Hades smoky form surged out of the keystone menacingly with it''s many eyes all staring down the opponents pokemon. Needless to say nobody wanted to challenge me to a battle after Hades chewed through that persons whole team like it was oatmeal. Assuming that everyone here was roughly the same level I couldn''t me them as none of them were even ace trainers and in front of a true blue elite like Hades helplessness was to be expected.-


    The highlight of my visit to the town however was watching Wes and Rui following what was obviously a grunt of the shady organization to the building they were operating out of from the colosseum. It was like watching cockroaches scatter as the duo tore through the forces in the building like a force of nature. I would have been blind not to immediately figure out who Miror B was out of all this group. -


    He was a dark skinned tall and lean man with a massive afro that was white on one side and red on the other. His outfit was this ungodly gaudy golden thing with stars on it and yellow leather suede shoes. His appearance alone tempted me to take him out but I resisted that righteous urge since I was on vacation and that would very much ruin it. It was amusing to see the looks on Wes and Rui''s faces when they came out of the building and just saw me leaning against the wall across the way with a smirk.-


    "What are you doing here?" Rui asked curiously. "Originally just came to familiarize myself with the town and look for any juicy information. I noticed you two carving a path through that building before sending that abomination Miror B packing. If I wasn''t on vacation and you two obviously having it handled I probably would have cleared them out myself, probably would have left a lot of dead bodies in the process though." I said casually. "You would have killed them!?" Rui eximed in horror but Wes didn''t seem surprised at all.-


    "Don''t act so surprised, I am a league paid cleaner whose job is to deal with people like that when Ie across them. Naturally the best way to get rid of an infestation like that is to exterminate all the members. Like I said though I''m on vacation and you two clearly have it handled so I probably won''t be dropping any bodies unless the organizationes to bother me personally." I said calmly and noticed that while Rui was conflicted by what I said Wes clearly agreed with me. This spoke of experience in this regard and made me a little curious about his past but I didn''t pry.


    "Anyways I''ll be heading to Agate vige tomorrow to chase a lead on what I came to this region to figure out but feel free to drop by my home since it''s all set up, I''ve already instructed Gaia to let you through." I said before releasing Rune and Tank and flying back to the Hub. There was no point in me checking out the colosseum since the most recent tournament had finished today and I doubted there was another set to begin right afterwards. I also had no reason to stick around town either as I had aplished my objectives for this visit.-


    ''Lets see, I''ve gotten a contact in Phenac, Pyrite and Gateon and scouted those areas out so that just leaves Agate vige and Mt. Battle. Once those arepleted I''ll have the first part of this chain questpleted.'' I thought as we flew above the desert rapidly. It wasn''t particrly strange that it was taking me so little time toplete this stage of the chain quest since this was all prep work for the harder shit no doubtingter. This was all standard entrenchment protocol, set up a base camp, scout the local settlements-


    Set up a reliable informationwork with at least one set of ears in each settlement and obtain a reliable method ofmunication. This was the rough outline of the steps literally any long term project in another area follows more or less. After these steps came the more specific tasks such as surveying for ancient ruins or getting an urate read off on the factions in the region. You may be asking why I am not simply just x-raying the ground constantly and the answer is simply that that method was inefficient and time consuming to do.-


    Sure at the end I''d have a vastly superior understanding of the underground of the region but you need to understand that I am merely one dude and this was a whole ass region with many kilometers ofnd to cover fully. If I were to follow that path I''d be here for decades at the minimum. If there was some amazing payday at the end of that I might be okay with that since I have a lifespan of about two hundred or so years thanks to my race as a high human.-


    This meant that a decade was no longer an expensive one tenth of my total lifespan but a more eptable one twentieth. Basically a decade for a normal human was only worth five years to me. This meant that long term projects were not life long projects for me unlike for a normal human. Ironically this meant that I was also better suited to being a researcher as I could conduct research for much longer without age bing an issue. Anyways the point I was making was that while I could spend so long herebing the region I''d prefer to take the much faster route of hunting for nuggets of information from myths, near forgotten history and rumors.

 Struggle and discovery

    Struggle and discovery


    We got back to the Hub and while my pokemon went about their own business I practiced my spearmanship and experimented with trying to improve my aura meditation method to work with my current energy density. My first attempt was to change the visualization I used while meditating from fog to water but that did nothing. This told me that there was an extraponent to the exercise that I needed to find that lied beyond my mind alone. Thanks to this I began to try sitting in different positions while meditating and while I did see a slight improvement while lying with my entire body stretched out like a human starfish it was miniscule.-


    I wasn''t surprised to see that by the time dinner came around I had aplished very little. If it was so easy as only needing a few hours to qualitatively improve a millennia old technique with trial and error there''d be a serious problem. I was smart sure but by no means was I some sort of mega genius capable of such rapid improvement. Hell most of my rapid progress in this world was because I had a view of this ce that was totally impossible for someone native to it to have.-


    As for my skills that was because the system effectively idiot proofed the things by giving me the entirety of this worlds information on the subject right from the start. There was no need to stumble in the dark for the vast majority of the time as the path was long since painted clearly. It was only now that my situation had exceeded this worlds understanding of a subject that I needed to pioneer a new path forward and that meant struggle and making mistakes.-


    My ambitions however were enough to content me on making even the smallest amount of progress. My goal wasn''t going anywhere and this was a marathon rather than a sprint. All I needed to do was make sure I never stagnated and I imagine everything will work out in the end. With this mindset I prepared our food and rested for the night since tomorrow I was heading to Agate vige. Fateen hadn''t inly said that what I sought was a legendary but I was fairly certain that was what she was referring to. Likely even the Celebi that was rumored to live within that forest.-


    It would even fit perfectly as the species was well known for their time traveling abilities so if anything knew about what I wanted to know a Celebi was very likely to be it. The biggest issue I was likely to have was that the species was notoriously hard to work with as they were ky and whimsical. They were a bit like easily distracted children who did what they felt like and only what they felt like. It was one of the reasons those that had them never really used them in battle as they simply didn''t listen and yed around the whole time.-


    There was no mistaking it however the species was VERY powerful when it was that they truly decided to fight. Ignore whatever stats they had from the games as they were irrelevant in reality. The small amount known on the species said that they had innately frail physical forms but in terms of raw energy based power they were powerhouses. A good example was that in Kanto there was a Celebi following a boy around for whatever reason and Team Rocket made a move to attack the boy to capture the legendary that even included powerful pseudo legendries.-


    That Celebi however decimated all of the attackers pokemon single handedly with a barrage of overcharged elemental attacks that left the surrounding mile ofnd looking like a warzone save the spot the boy was standing. Moral of the story was that that cute appearance contained a vast amount of power behind it. Before I had to deal with that however I needed to scout out Agate vige and try and figure out where this shrine was that Fateen said was what I was after.-


    The next morning I served Breakfast before setting off with my whole team other than Gaia who was in charge of the sandstorm and perfectly content to doze off all day beneath the ever shifting sands. This wasn''t even a unique trait that she had either but one shared by most rock or ground type pokemon. They tended to be rather sedentary in nature and slept a lot in the wild for long periods of time. It was ironically this very trait that made Geodude such menaces as while they were asleep they were nearly impossible to tell apart from regr rocks and got pissed when woken up as a result.-


    Effectively it was like you went to take a nap only for someone to kick you in your sleep or sit on you. You''d probably be in a foul mood in that case as well wouldn''t you? In any case Gaia''s behavior was not strange at all and I was fine leaving her behind since it was unlikely that anything capable of threatening her would just randomly show up. She was an elite level pokemon with really high stats and even a spark of divinity that got a not inconsequential boost from her current environment.-


    In short nothing below a high level elite even had the CHANCE to approach her at the moment without her express permission much less fight her. The trip to Agate was as usual boring due to the whole region looking the fucking same. That changed however when we started getting close to the Vige however as the desert gave way to grasnds that I had Rune briefly stop at the edge of to examine. What I discovered left me confused to say the least. This "natural border" if you will was not because of a climate change but rather because the desert part was dead, lifeless. The green part however was alive and full of vitality creating a strange contrast.-


    Using my x-ray vision i saw that this difference wasn''t just on the surface level either but prated deep below like there was a firm dividing line. ''The stopping point of an attack.'' I realized with a start. I had seen simr phenomena in locations that moves had been used and restoredter. ''But an attack that reduced an entire region to desert? What could possibly push the legendries to such an extreme act?'' I pondered with a frown.-


    I briefly considered the infernal pokemon that three legendries took action against but I knew for a fact that this region was not the ce that urred. No that event took ce in Sinnoh with the threeke guardians being the ones that dispatched the creature. The modern location of that event was known as ck reef because that part of the region had been sunk under the sea from the sheer destructive force applied there. Despite that the spot was a well known location of high dark type variations water pokemon spawning rates.

 Agate village

    Agate vige


    Another strange thing that wasn''t adding up was that this whole region was barren of wild pokemon. Using an attack that hollowed out the region before restoring it to a degree was one thing but I still couldn''t figure out what was stopping pokemon from taking over this region like everywhere else in the world. It should be pointed out that pokemon aren''t negatively effected by being in this region even if they didn''t have a bond with a human so it had to be some mystical reason that Icked context for.-


    It certainly wasn''t aura though as my own aura senses couldn''t see a whiff of the stuff anywhere in the ground at all. ''Lets hope that this guardian can shed some light on this situation'' I thought as I mounted Runes back again and continued our trip to Agate vige. It was rather disorienting to see actual trees and grass everywhere as we flew when for pretty much the entire time I''ve been in this region it was sand and stone for as far as the eye could see. It wasn''t a forest though but more like arge t ins that had trees asionally dotting thend.-


    Agate vige was built near the western foot of Mt. Battle and at the edge of the relic forest. The snow from the side of the volcano flowed down into a river that formed a water fall at one side of the vige and many smaller streams throughout it. The aesthetic of the vige when wended could easily be stated as "old". Whether it was the moss covered stone buildings with metal doors or the residents of the vige it all had this air of age about it that demanded a certain level of respect.-


    When I meant the residents were old I meant it too as this vige was the designated retirement spot in Orre and as a result few of the residents were below the age of sixty. Not to say none weren''t but they were the minority and either taking care of the elderly in the vige or family to them. I recalled Rune and walked across the wooden bridge that served as the entrance to the vige with Tank casually flying behind me in the air looking around curiously. From the back edge of the vige you could see what looked like a thickyer of clouds but was in fact a perpetual fog that hung just above the trees of the forest.-


    This gave the vige an illusion of sitting high up even though it was only a bit above sea level. "Oho? Now theres a sight for sore eyes, a variant pokemon in Orre! Never thought I''d see the day!" an old man with a cane and fishing hat said cheerfully from the spot next to the viges entrance as we entered. "This might seem like an odd question to ask right off the rip but do you happen to know anything about a guardian of the forest and a shrine dedicated to it by chance?" I asked and the old man looked startled.-


    "Now what would a youngster like you want to know about that for?" he asked sternly. "I came to this region to investigate why no wild pokemon make this ce their home and the psychic in Pyrite, Madam Fateen, told me that the guardian may be able to shed some light on the subject." I exined honestly since there was no point in hiding it. "Fateen did? Well if she was willing to share something like that with you she must think you worth trusting."-


    "Yes I do indeed know about the guardian of the forest though I must warn you that it''s a fickle creature and may not be willing to give you an audience in any short amount of time." the old man said seriously. "It''s the Celebi that was rumored to have been spotted here right?" I asked and the old man nodded. "The things been here for as long as anyone can remember but rarely shows up for more than a few fleeting moments every decade. Supposedly theres a few items that can call it to the relic stone but I''ve never seen one myself so I am unsure about that." he said honestly.-


    "Relic stone? Is that the shrine to it that I was told about?" I asked but to my surprise the old man shook his head. "An easy mistake to make but the truth is that the relic stone is merely something the guardian blessed to purify the darkness from the hearts of those that visit it. In the forests center there is a true shrine dedicated to worshiping the guardian supposedly but no one has braved the forest in nearly a century so I only know about it from my grandfather who told me of it as a young man myself." he said honestly.-


    This was not the best news I could have gotten since from what I knew of Celebi inhabited forests time moved in weird ways within them. A result of the legendries pension for time travel professor Oak once theorized. ording to his theory the species lived in ces that were "nexuses of time" that made it easier for the species to travel up and down the current of time. -


    The result of these frequent trips caused the time of the environment to be distorted as a result of the species bringing the aura of different times to the present when they shouldn''t exist. It was an extremely high concept topic that gave me a headache even thinking about because time was always an annoying subject to firmly grasp. Anyways to summarize I had no idea whether I would walk out of the forest before or after I entered it originally and even how long the gap between these times would be. There was even a known case where someone entered a forest like this and walked out thirty yearster when for them it was only a single day.-


    I thanked the old man for the help before leaving to scout out the rest of the vige since I still needed to do that as well as get a reliable contact for the ce. I was not surprised to find that the vige didn''t really have anything interesting worth noting beyond perhaps the stone house built under the roots of a huge tree stump. The residents of the house were an old couple like many others however the old man of the pair was apparently an old champion level trainer back in his heyday that was the strongest trainer in Orre.-


    Obviously I couldn''t resist the urge to meet such an individual and I was not disappointed. Eagun had long grey hair and thick eyebrows and facial hair that was well kept. He was polite and kind when he spoke but there was no way I could miss the sharpness in his eyes that told me even at his age that champion level trainer was still in there. I even met his starter pokemon, a Pikachu surprisingly that was an astonishing level one hundred a eighty six but due to it''s old age infirming it had a lowered level of merely seventy.

 Disagreement and planning

    Disagreement and nning


    I honestly felt bad for Eagun and his Pikachu after seeing this as time as always killed all things. "No need to look at us like that young man. Pikachu and I had our time in the sun and have no regrets that it''s over. A lesson that I have long sincee to know is that the thing about power is that you need to know when to let it go. The feeling of being nigh unstoppable is intoxicating butes at a steep cost. The pinnacle of power requires time and suffering to reach before it starts slipping through your fingers while you are helpless to stop it."-


    "Unless you want to end up old and all alone it''s simply best to know when enough is enough and let someone else take the reins." Eagun said calmly with a knowing look. I wasn''t all that surprised that the man likely saw through me easily as an ambitious person with a lofty goal. "Maybe one day that will be true but I have no intention to just let time win without a fight." I said honestly. "A pointless struggle young man, time''s not a physical thing you can simply overpower." Eagun said with a sigh at my answer.-


    This I had to disagree with him on as I knew for a fact that time was in fact a physical thing and I knew EXACTLY how to shackle it if I so chose. Cyrus of Team Gctic discovered the method by researching the old myths and legends so as someone who yed the game in which he put this n into action I also knew how it could be done. Craft the red chain from theke guardians and you can bind the primal pokemon of time or space to your will.-


    Unlike Cyrus however I would never take such an action as I know that at some point the other godly legendries woulde after me if not Arceus itself. tinum itself proved this as Giratina dragged Cyrus into the distortion world for his transgression and while not explicitly stated it was implied that he died there. There were better ways in my opinion to extend ones life as you could simply get cursed with immortality by a godly legendary and call it a day. I do mean cursed too and not blessed as humans weren''t built to withstand eternity.-


    The only reason I still sought it myself was because I was certain that so long as I had the system I could eventually evolve into an existence that WAS built to withstand eternity. The only real issue is that more likely than not I will end up like all the other godly beings in this world with a dispassionate gaze watching as it turned and history moved on with me being an ever present facet in the background. Perhaps that sounded like a fate worse than death but by that point it simply wouldn''t matter.-


    Not that I told any of this to Eagun however as it was best if no one besides I knew this stuff. Rather than argue I simply bid my farewell to the old champion and his wife politely before leaving. Eagun gave me his contact and said that if I ever needed any advice that he''d be happy to help since his old bones weren''t good for much else these days. That just left me with Mt. Battle as myst stop on this tour of the region before I finished up my first part of this quest.-


    I had a sneaking suspicion that the next part of the chain quest would in fact be me heading into the forest but before I did that I needed to make some preparations. First and foremost I needed my entire team to be with me when I did as if my fears came true and I ended up in a different time I didn''t leave one of them stranded for however long I was gone. If I was sent to the past then it would be a more manageable affair assuming it wasn''t TOO far in the past.-


    If I was sent to a future time however things would get screwy as I would need to be careful not to take anything back. If I left Gaia alone however there was a good chance she may even think I abandoned her which was not a possibility I wished to ever see be reality. The second thing I needed to take care of before heading into the forest was that I needed to pack a lot of rations. Food grown in these ces filled with distorted time was recorded to have unpredictable shelf lives as one second it could be under ripe and the next rotting on the nt.-


    This was due to the innate effects of the time energy on the nts grown there. It didn''t work on anything taken from outside the forest though so rations were a very necessary thing to pack a lot of. Next I needed to pack apass since the forest might shift inyout and density as I moved in unnoticeable ways which could easily lead me in circles but thankfully apass was unaffected by these shifts since it worked off maism. Unless the forest had arge amount of maic interference north would always be north regardless of time.-


    Finally I needed to let everyone know that I was going into the forest so they didn''t freak out if I suddenly vanished from the face of the world. Admittedly thatst one was going to be a bit trickier to do in a reasonable amount of time as it would take a few months to send messages to the people I knew in Hoenn if I didn''t go through Rota first. The old aura kingdom had ess to the pok and was technically bordering Orre as it was on the other side of the mountains.-


    In theory it would only take Rune about three days of flying to get us to that ce but the thing was that those mountains were an entirely untamed wild zone and there was no telling how the pokemon living there would take our passing through. Truth of the matter was there was even a good chance that we''d get attacked by champion level pokemon that were just defending their territory. Contrary to what the games would have you believe there was in fact more than just terrestrial pokemon living on mountains and whole flocks of flying type pokemon tended to roost in the high mountain cliffs.-


    This meant the attacks we''d have to deal with wouldn''t only being from the ground but also the sky we are in as well. Naturally the risk to reward ratio was less than optimal in this scenario and that just left me a single less risky but more time consuming travel path. Rather than go through the center of the mountains Rune would fly above the coast for about a week, obviously camping at night on the mountainous cliffs. This would take longer to arrive but would also be safer as well as the pokemon we''d need to deal with would likely ignore us anyways since they lived in the water and we did not.

 Relic

    Relic


    I walked through the vige after leaving Eaguns house with a n in mind to prepare for my trip to the forests center. The air was fresh and clean while there was an pleasant humidity that reminded me of Hoenn and I admit I already missed the ce a little. To be more specific I missed the friends I made when I was there. I went from having constant contact with them to radio silence in an instant and it was disorienting. I kept wanting to call Birch and talk about this region and all the interesting things I found here but that simply wasn''t possible.-


    I wasn''t too bothered by it but it was a bit like an itch that I couldn''t scratch and was slightly annoying. Anyways the grass ttened beneath my feet as I walked and soon I entered the cave near Eaguns house that led to the relic that had apparently been blessed by the Celebi. The cave itself wasn''t anything special as it was just brown stone with green moss on it and a stream of clear water flowing from the other side.-


    I felt the relic before I saw it as my aura senses simply couldn''t miss the massive amount of energy contained within it. As I walked out of the cave I shuddered slightly as the aura flowed over me. It was a pure and peaceful sensation that gave the view even more impact. To anyone without aura or inside knowledge the strange looking pir of stone like arge cylindrical jenga tower at the center of the stone tform would be thought of as the relic, this was wrong. The true relic was the tform itself that looked like an abstract art piece.-


    The stone pir in the center was merely a focusing point of the energy housed within the tform, a bit like the barrel of a gun in fact. ''Who made this thing, theres no record of it in my aura skill yet it clearly uses the stuff?'' I pondered in confusion. I quickly got a theory worked out but I needed to test something before I could confirm it. Approaching the pir at the center of the tform I ced my hand there and immediately the thing lit up in a bright green color. Energy poured into the pir and shot up my arm but I made no move to withdraw my hand.-


    The energy flowed smoothly through my arm until it came into contact with my own aura and the reaction was immediate. Visions of all my good memories came to the forefront of my mind unbidden and the murderous impulses I had dulled and faded but did not vanish. This process was a brief one onlysting mere moments but the impact couldn''t be greater as my aura surged with vigor haven''t never been closer to the natural order than this exact moment. Removing my hand from the pir I smiled as I figured out why this relic wasn''t included in the information I had, time maniption.-


    The relic was a cheeky loophole in fabric of the world that DIDN''T have purification properties at all. No what it did instead was use temporal energy to force one to relive their most positive memories until the dark ones faded or vanished. In a manner of speaking the relic forced one to temporarily attain inner peace and thus get "purified". The Celebi had been cheeky and created something that existed outside the natural flow of time while operating within it at the same time hence why I had no record of the thing in my skill.-


    It was a temporal anomaly that both existed and yet ording to the world didn''t at the same time, a glitch in the worlds margins. "I had not thought I would ever see such a thing in person." Eagun spoke as he walked up. "You probably think what you saw was me getting purified correct?" I asked and he nodded "Indeed the energy shot around you and this darkness seemed to be forced out. If that''s not purification then I wouldn''t be able to fathom what it truly was." he said seriously.


    "You are wrong though, that wasn''t true purification but rather a form of mild brainwashing via temporal energies. Of course I don''t mean that in a negative way as the end result is very close to true purification." I said honestly leaving him startled. "I am afraid I don''t follow, isn''t brainwashing innately evil?" he asked confused. "That''s amon mistake but not one without some measure of misinformation. See the act of brainwashing is merely nting suggestions and impulses within someone. Naturally this means that it''s ce is subjective morally speaking."-


    "Whether it is malignant or benign depends entirely on the context of the situation. Take this relic for example, it forces the one under it''s power to relive all their most positive memories thus chasing away the negative emotions within them and quelling any dark impulses in the process. As you should be able to tell from this information there is nothing evil about this as you have to be willing to ept the process for it to work fully. Despite this however my nature is unaffected so if you were to expose an evil entity to this relic all it would aplish was to put them in a good mood temporarily, like getting high." I exined calmly.-


    "I see, so the rumored purification abilities of this relic are false then." Eagun said with a sigh. "Perhaps so but it''s the closest thing you''ll likely find without bothering a legendary which is worth quite a lot in my opinion." I said with a smile. "I''m curious though, how did you get the stone to activate to begin with? People from this vige have visited and touched the stone from many years yet this is the first time the relic has activated. Why?" he asked curiously.-


    "If my theory holds correct this relic wasn''t made for normal people or pokemon but rather for aura masters like myself. My kind are especially susceptible to negative emotions and impulses due to us being so in tune with the emotions and feel of the life energy around us. This relic was likely meant to cleanse our minds of this influence if it started to cause us problems which is why I was able to activate the relic with ease using my aura. Basically if you don''t actively expel aura in a consistent manner into the relic it won''t activate." I said honestly.-


    "You are an aura master?" Eagun asked in surprise. "I am indeed though my situation is rather uniquepared to the normal members of my kind so best to take my abilities with a grain of salt rather than the absolute truth. Interestingly I actually met another aura master, fledgling though she was not long ago in Phenac. A pure hearted young woman by the name of Rui." I said casually. "Rui? Red hair blue eyes, about twentyish?" Eagun asked with an odd look. "That does sound correct , are you familiar with her?" I asked surprised.

 Mt. Battle

    Mt. Battle


    "She''s my granddaughter." Eagun said with a chuckle. "Ah! I honestly couldn''t tell since she looked nothing like you or your wife. Still your family must be incredibly lucky to have an aura user be born from it, we are very rare for a good reason after all. All living beings are born with aura but as a result few are also born attuned to the stuff as well, a small mutation if you would outside of the normal." I said honestly. Like any good grandparent Eagun asked me a bunch of questions about what it meant to be an aura master out of concern for Rui.-


    I answered what I could and reassured him that unless she suddenly turned evil for some reason the gift was in fact just that. Despite what most myths about the gift said there wasn''t any actual responsibility that came with it just like there wasn''t any that came with an ability. Aura masters were more in tune with nature and as a result were more likely to act for the betterment of the world but by no means did they have to.-


    After that I left the vige on rune and headed for Mt. battle to get myst objectivepleted for this first part of the chain quest. Thanks to the vige being at the bottom of the volcano I merely needed an hour to circle around on Rune and find the starting point of the ce. It was a deceptively in looking ce with an open area outside the reception area that was clearly designed as anding area for flying pokemon as it was just big enough to allow them tond and take off without an issue.-


    It was clearly rare however as the ground was without grass from the many terrestrial feet that constantly tamped it down. Rune and I got some looks when wended but no one seemed all that bothered by how we got here. Like one would expect from an active volcano the air was hot even here at the foot where nova flowed. The reception area was cool though as they had the AC sting and it reminded me a bit of a pokecenter in design with clean tan tiled floors and three desks along with a single door leading up the mountain guarded by a sleeping Abra.-


    The whole building was also incredibly well maintained which was a first in the region for me and I couldn''t help asking about it. "Mt. Battle is the only spot where trainers can fully go all out in training their teams in the entire region regardless of the time, day or week. Naturally this means that nearly all serious trainers within the region pitch in funds and effort to keep it up and running smoothly. You must be from out of the region if you didn''t already know this." the woman behind one of the desks said after I asked. -


    "I came here from Hoenn in fact to research this regions uniqueck of pokemon. I am a trainer first and foremost though." I said with a smile. "A strong one too if my judgement isn''t off. You get a sense for these kind of things after working here for as long as I have. I take it you''ll be wanting to start a challenge run then since you are here?" the woman asked with a smile of her own. "Not at the moment, rather I am here to scout of the local ces and establish contacts in each of them for my research. Would you perhaps be interested in helping in this regard?" I said casually.-


    The woman shook her head "I''m afraid that I''d be no use for something like this since I barely talk more than a few minutes per person so I rarely have any rumors or information that would help inthis regard though I do know of one person here who would definitely be able to help you." she said with a sly look. "Let me guess this person can only be reached through the challenge?" I asked and the woman nodded.-


    "Area leader Loko is well known for her regr rumor gathering and treasure hunting out in the sands of the desert. Unfortunately without serious luck you are unlikely toe across her outside of Mt. battle but when a trainer appears to be approaching her area we contact her to get her to take her ce as the leader there." the woman said honestly. I sighed "What area is she in charge of?" I asked knowing that there was no avoiding this challenge. The woman smiled "Area six, be warned though you won''t find it so easy to reach her." she said filling out the challenge paperwork before I even agreed.-


    "Unless I have a misunderstanding about how this ce works I won''t have any issue at all reaching that ce since the trainers are at most barely ace level." I said confidently. "And what level are you at since I need top know for the records?" she asked not believing me. "Elite level." I said tly and she froze. "I''m sorry but did you say elite?" she asked after double taking. "Indeed, the same level as a league recognized gym leader, the rank above ace." I rified so there was no misunderstanding.-


    "I must be losing my touch to say that an elite will have trouble reaching the sixth area leader, bad luck for me I guess. Still you are all set so good luck I suppose." the woman said while handing me a card that had my information on it and ten empty spaces that I imagine were there for the area leaders to stamp as mepleting the area. epting the card I went straight over to the entrance to the challenge and got waved through. I didn''t even have to battle for the first four areas as the trainers took one look at Tank and Hades that I set as my fielded pokemon and went "nope!" before sending me on ahead.-


    In the fifth area I had to "battle" maybe twice before I got waved forward again. Even those battles weren''t worth mentioning as Hades and Tank curb stomped the opposing pokemon in less than two seconds. The sixth area was little different and so it only took me maybe thirty minutes to reach the woman called area leader Loko. She was about my age with a long tailed bandana and tight athletic thermal clothes and tied up shoulder length blonde hair.-


    "You know when I got a message about an elite tearing through the challenge to meet me I was doubtful but I must admit now that you are here I can''t help but feel rather ttered. If you are here to profess your love to me though I must disappoint you as you aren''t my type, too much muscle unfortunately." Loko said with a smirk. I shrugged "I don''t really have a type beyond not being revolting to look at. I am actually here about your rumor gathering and treasure hunting. To be clear I am in Orre to research this regions history and the reason why it doesn''t have a local wild pokemon poption and was told you''d be the perfect fit as my information contact here at Mt. Battle." I said calmly.

 Next quest

    Next quest


    "Oh? Well before we can even think about working together on something like that you''ll need to defeat me in a battle, can''t have my business partner be weak after all." she said excitedly before taking her ce on the floating tform. I totally forgot to mention it but the Mt. Battle tforms were all strung together with metal walkways and otherwise just floated in ce thanks to some sort of science I wasn''t knowledgeable in. It made each and every battle iconic in it''s own way as it was like you were truly battling above the clouds.-


    In truth the only time you actually got above the clouds in Mt. Battle was after area eight as area nine and the summit were at the top of the volcano itself. Anyways the battle if you even want to call it that was a joke toplete since her pokemon were only level sixty to sixty five. Even with a type disadvantage Tank alone was all I would have needed to chew up her whole team, she didn''t have that anyways since her team wasprised of a Wobbuffet, Wailmer, Ariados, Azumaril and Wigglytuff.-


    Four tanky pokemon and a toxic staller was her whole battle strategy which was fairly good in this scenario when there was no limit to switches unlike league battles. As she quickly found out though Hades and Tank were the worst possible pokemon to try this strategy on. Tank could literally shed off the poison and return it to sender because of his innate ability and Hades just had to withdraw his smoky body back into his keystone to get rid of the poison. Not that it would have made any difference to begin with as in pure stats Tank and Hades had her team beat by andslide.-


    "I should have guessed that I wasn''t ready to take on an elite trainer, much less one with variant pokemon like that. Well whatever, so you wanted me to give you information when I got it right?" She said before we swapped contacts and my quest notified me on it''spletion. I walked into the rest area between area six and seven to register my ce before directly flying off Mt. Battle on Rune to head back to the Hub. I epted my quest rewards in the form of two item tickets, one skill ticket and one ability ticket.-


    I went ahead and used the item tickets whichted me an ether and yet another pokenav which was entirely useless for me since I already had one. ''Well I suppose I can trade it to Makan for some stuff since he''ll no doubt be eager to take it apart and see what makes it tic. Who knows if I''m lucky he''ll even figure out how to upgrade the PDA with what he figures out.'' I thought with a shrug before moving on to the skill ticket.-


    ''Hieroglyphics? Really? Looks like RNGESUS wants me to specialize in ancient writing and archeology it seems.'' I thought mirthfully at the result. I would like to point out that at this exact moment I had three out of the five league documented ancient writing systems and was only missing ancient Hoenn and Unknown runes toplete the set. Out of all of them however the only one I actually wanted was the Unknown runes as they held actual power when written properly. Nobody was sure why but the strange letter shaped pokemon had a deep mystical power in groups that was recorded to even terrify godly legendries.-


    Unknown runes were the result of ancient people learning how to harness some of that power by writing down the image of the pokemon in a special way that no one alive remembered how to. Yes it wasn''t as simply as just writing down the pokemons likeness and boom, special effects. If I could learn how those runes were written and master the skill I could easily create items that bordered on the miraculous. The best known example of such an item is the Sinnoh tes that each hold a deep connection to Arceus itself and had Unknown runes written on the back that spoke of creation.-


    In the hands of a pokemon or person that held the tes typing the tes showed their worth as that pokemon or person got a not inconsequential boost in power. You might then be wondering why no one uses the tes like this most of the time then and the answer was simply that the tes had this weird mystical ability to choose their owners. If a te didn''t want to belong to someone it simply used a moment when they weren''t being observed to vanish like they weren''t there to begin with.-


    This strange property of the tes meant that the vast majority of them were lost to time as they simply vanished after getting dug up. Moral of the story, Unknown runes were something awesome and I wanted them. I saved the ability ticket for when we got back to the Hub which would only take an hour or so so I turned my attention to the next part of the chain quest in the meanwhile.


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have established yourself in Orre and set up a rudimentary informationwork but more work yet remains!


    Objectives: Discover regional anomalies (2/3), Find the lost ruins in the desert(0/1), Investigate the Relic forest shrines Guardian, Investigate the secret of Cypher.


    Rewards: 2x item tickets, 1x ability ticket, 5x Exp ticket, Crime upgrade+, plete all objectives to unlock the next chain quest)]


    To be honest this next part of the chain quest was rather bothersome as it wasn''t even slightly cut and dry in what exact it wanted me to do. The objectives looked straight forward but they weren''t in truth as I had no idea what counted as an anomaly yet clearly I had already found two of them. Finding a set of ruins was also not as simple as just flying over the region and looking for anything that stuck out. The relic forest shrine Guardian objective I had expected so I ignored it in favor of frowning at thest objective.-


    ''Who or what is Cypher? Is it the shadowy group making moves on the region using shadow pokemon? If so why would my quest want me to investigate them when as far as I know they have no connection to the quest at all?'' I pondered in confusion. It made no sense but an objective was an objective so I''d still do it.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Plant manipulation

    nt maniption


    In the end I could only choose to set that matter aside for the moment as I had quite a lot on my te and the shadow organization wasn''t likely to go anywhere in a short span of time. Not saying Wes and Rui weren''t probably going to throw massive wrenches into the organizations ns but all they were aplishing so far was scattering it''s members by busting up the operations. None of the criminal groups members had really been captured during the raid in Pyrite town with that branches leader even getting away after losing a pokemon battle.-


    To put it bluntly Wes and Rui were being way too inefficient at taking on the organization. Even if they managed to somehow put the organization on the back foot it would be temporary at most if the members were left to roam freely. Anyways we soon arrived back at the Hub and I released my pokemon to go do whatever it is they wanted while I myself moved to use my new ability ticket. It was my hope that I got another aura centric ability so that my current reserves could growrge.-


    It may seem like I was taking on more abilities than I could handle training at once but the fact of the matter was that I simply didn''t use a good chunk of the abilities I had for a few different reasons. Emotional suppression was bing less and less useful to me as I got used to feeling emotions on a regr basis if only minutely. Roar I used only when in battle and only then because it made it easier for my orders to go through to my pokemon. Perfect body, Dragon eye and Water breathing were passive abilities. Mine simply didn''t fit my style of doing things and water creation was too weak to use.-


    Out of all my abilities the only ones I used regrly to the point of needing to train them were X-ray, Boost, Healing and Appraise. Not to sound like a braggart but I was pretty damn sure that I was good at all of them already. Besides all this though I had time to work on a new ability if what I got was worth investing time into. I was on vacation here in Orre from being a pokemon trainer so devoting some extra time like this would hardly cause me any problems.-


    With this in mind I took a seat on my new chair before taking out the ticket and throwing a prayer to RNGESUS before tearing it in half. As per usual rainbow smoke billowed out as the ticket turned into it and formed the multicolored wheel that held all my possible options. Fingers crossed I waited as it began to spin rapidly for an entire minute as per usual beforending on an option that was green in color. [Minor nt maniption] was what I got and I must admit that I was excited about it.


    First because it was an aura centric ability like I wanted and second because it was an ability with a stupid amount of utility even for non-alchemists. As the rainbow smoke flowed into my body my spark of aura grew by double which wasn''t a lot of growth but growth was growth so I was happy regardless. With this new ability came the instinctual knowledge on how to utilize it and I was left slightly disappointed. See the nt maniption ability that I was thinking of was the version capable of nting seeds before forcing them to take root, sprout and bloom to maturity in mere moments.-


    Cross breed normally ipatible nt species and even cause nts to produce type energy affinity mutant strains. The most well known user of this ability was simply referred to as "Gardner Saint" as he nomadically traveled the world spreading potent ingredient species nts in an attempt to enrich the local alchemical poptions. That man was one of the few people that I whole heartedly agreed deserved the title of saint unlike myself who should definitely not be associated with the word. While I acted for the betterment of the world I was fully willing to admit how savage my actions were.-


    I carved a bloody swathe through Hoenn that was so horrifying that no criminal with intact sanity was willing to act up with my mere presence in a city. At the same time I was willing to bet that the rest of the criminal organization with ess to the pok were keeping a close eye out for me entering their home regions. No doubt both out of caution as well as to try and kill me off at first sight. -


    I had already proven that if left alone I can and will fuck up these criminal groups and so they may as well bite the bullet and throw everything at me while they still can. It wouldn''t surprise me if Giovani himself were toe to put me down should I step foot in Kanto or Johto. Naturally the clever bastard would leave any evidence of him being involved but I very much doubted that he''d just sit back while I dismantled team Rocket, he might but I doubted it. That was the scary thing about the man, I couldn''t actually say for certain if he would be willing to just cut the organizations ties to him and watch it burn or not.-


    All the records of the man paint him as a cynical realist who wouldn''t hesitate to make the hard call if it meant a better oue for him. You could see it in how his pokemon were trained to sacrifice themselves if it meant victory. Hell he kept a Golem on his team SPECIFICALLY for the self destruction move if he finds one of his opponents pokemon particrly troublesome. Anyways back to my new ability. So I could in fact do the stuff the Gardner Saint could but to a much lesser degree which was where the word "minor" shoulde from in the abilities name.-


    To better exin while he could do all this amazing stuff with nts in mere moments my new ability took WAY longer, like hours longer. Don''t get me wrong I am definitely not going toin as even with this level of power the ability was a godsend for an alchemist like me. Finding powerful ingredients has always been a hassle for alchemists like me and while that was greatly lessened by the foraging skill for me I was still quite limited.-


    This new ability however changed all that as if I wanted an ingredient with a specific property I could forcefully cultivate a strain with it in a short period of time. Funnily enough I was relieved that I hadn''t been stubborn and kept that ancient Tropius back in Hoenn as the main appeal of it would have been rendered pointless the moment I got this ability. Don''t get me wrong the thing had the potential to be an amazing battler just by it''s dual dragon/grass typing but I had an overabundance of powerful battlers at the moment.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Potus experiments and visitors

    Potus experiments and visitors


    Once my aura and ability settled down I immediately moved to use it in the garden that Yani was tending to. Not for anything drastic but merely to test it''s current limits since the life energy rich environment already gave the growth rate of nts a significant boost. A good example of this was that despite nting everything merely two days ago some of the nts were already nearing harvest. Truth be told this alone made the hub easily one of the most valuable pieces ofnd in Orre at the moment.-


    As you may expect given the environment of the region growing produce was a lot of effort and in fact couldn''t even be done naturally but had to be done with hydroponic farms or greenhouses. Even in those cases it is barely enough to feed everyone in the region twice a day and a single bad harvest may even lead to famine on a minor level as the region needed to import food from other regions through Gateon. My Hub though could effectively have sustainable harvests ready in a short span of three or four days which even with the small size of thend would rapidly begin to umte until there was in fact an excess of produce in the region should I choose to sell it.-


    I had no such ns however as there was a much better option avable, gic engineering. See the best way to handle this situation was to modify traditional crops like potatoes and carrots into strains that could grow in the desert like weeds. Naturally this meant that I had to cross breed and eliminate undesirable traits while promoting the desired ones. For example my starter nts would be a normal potato and carrot nt as well as the natural desert flora like cacti.-


    From there I had to cross breed the produce nts with the cacti in order to hopefully create a hybrid that could thrive without regr watering while also being heat resistant and grounded firmly in the sands. Effectively I was nning to make a type of cactus that produced potatoes and carrots. Yani was more than happy to help me with this project as she loved helping people and was generally a kind and selfless individual. Sure she knew her way around battling and didn''t shy away when one of my other pokemon or myself killed things but she herself never took a life.-


    In a funny manner of speaking it was a very superman type mindset that she had. Of course this project wasn''t so easy to actualize as the forced hybridization of the nts came with great risk of undesirable traits and odd new ntsing about. For example my first attempt at cacti/potato hybridization I ended up with what was effectively a lumpy yellow cactus that turned toxic when left in the sunlight. Even more the toxins were loaded into the spines of the nt making it horribly lethal if you got pricked.-


    I scrapped that nt immediately as it was all the worst traits of the two ntsbined in a new worse nt. I ended up repeating this process over and over until I finally got something I could work with on my eight attempt. This new nt was bright yellow with green stripes and roughly shaped like a lumpy sphere covered in spines. The trick was that the entire nt minus the spines was edible and even tasted and felt just like a russet potato, the best part was that each nt at maturity was the size of arge pumpkin.-


    After that I just needed to slowly work in traits for heat resistance, wind seed scattering, drought survival and sand rooting. The final result I fondly named the potus nt and began desert trials. It had taken me four weeks of heavy effort to create the nt and now it was finally time to see if it lived up to my hopes and could survive in the desert. Of course during this time I had also gotten my new PC from Makan as well as bartered for apass and some remote sr charged cameras in exchange for the spare pokenav I had.-


    The old man was thrilled with the extra-regional piece of tech and didn''t have it more than five minutes before I found him looking at it''s internalponents while the motherboard was hooked up to a program that was going over all the programming in the device. Using one of the remote cameras I set up a stream recording the nts progress in real time straight to my PC. That was unfortunately thest bit of fast progress I could make in this regard as only my Hub had the life energy concentration that rapidly elerated nt growth.-


    I had three different stages of the nts set up in the same spot to monitor the full lifecycle of the nt in it''s "natural" environment, a seed, a sproutling and a fully mature nt. With that project done it was finally time for me to take a dangerous trip with Rune to Rota to let everyone know that I was going into a Celebi forest. The way I saw it taking care of that objective was the first I should do as the rest merely took me some effort in the region to do while this one could have serious consequences if I wasn''t lucky.-


    For my trip to Rota I ended up bringing along Vulcan(Entei), Rune(Charizard), Tank(Butterfree), Hades(Spiritomb) and the not so little one(Feebas). Yani(Sceptile) and Gaia(Tyranitar) both preferred to stay back at the Hub for different reasons. Yani wanted to continue caring for the garden while monitoring the experimental nts and Gaia was guarding the Hub. Like always though something came upst minute in the form of Rui and Wes showing up at my doorstep finally.


    "You areter than I expected, been busy I take it?" I asked casually while they both gawked at my pokemon and home. "Forget that, what is this ce!?" Rui asked in amazement and shock. Wes was not much different though he was not much of a talker to begin with and was content to let Rui do the questioning. "This wonderful ce is the Hub, my home while I am here in Orre and an artificial life energy hotspot. You no doubt think that the sandstorm was a product of this ce as well but you would be mistaken as it is in fact actually my starter pokemon, Gaia''s doing."-


    "Speaking of, allow me to make formal introductions to all my pokemon." I said with a grin before ying meet and greet with each of my pokemon leaving Wes and Rui more and more stunned with each one I showed them. The not so little one took the cake for most insane pokemon in my possession however as it seemed to make both Rui and Wes short circuit as they tried and failed to make sense of what they were seeing.

 Purification

    Purification


    I couldn''t really me them since there was so many traits to be found in the not so little ones appearance that he may as well be an entirely different species from the normal Feebas. "It''s no secret in the league but this fellow here was the result of a criminal organization tampering with the gic structure of pokemon in hopes of creating an artificial variant pokemon. They of course failed as the finished product was an unstable creature that while technically a variant would be useless to them as it was insane and had fluctuating power that couldn''t be tamed."-


    "That creature however was this ones mother and as a result this one is a unique existence as you''ll not find another like him anywhere else in the world. I was entrusted with him by the league since I am a variant specialist." I exined honestly. "What happened to his mother?" Rui asked horrified. "She needed to beid to rest as she had be a danger to the innocent people nearby. No need to worry though this one was an egg at that time and has known nothing but care since he hatched." I said rubbing the flying creatures head affectionately.-


    "Sounds like what Cyphers been up to as well." Wes said thoughtfully. "Ah, I believe you are referring to the group that''s been manufacturing shadow pokemon artificially yes?" I asked and they nodded with surprised looks. I chuckled "No need to seem surprised I have looked into the matter in my own way to a small degree but have deemed that you two have the situation covered and my interference isn''t necessary. Admittedly I was tempted to kill that gaudy golden disco ball when I saw him flee but resisted the urge." I said honestly.


    "We are actually here because we wanted a favor after speaking with my grandfather in Agate vige. He said that you would more likely than not know how to purify a shadow pokemon since the relic didn''t actually work to do so." Rui said giving me her biggest puppy dog eyes. "Ugh, that old man heard what I said what but clearly wasn''t listening. I said that the relic was the closest thing to purification you''d find save for bothering a legendary directly. All he seemed to have understood was that it wasn''t actually purification."-


    "Before we get to the matter of purifying shadow pokemon I suppose I should exin a bit exactly how such a thing is aplished. As you hopefully know by now a shadow pokemon is created by closing the door to the pokemons heart. What this means is more symbolic than literal but roughly the idea is to close off all the positive emotions and energies of the pokemons aura leaving only pure negative emotions and impulses that cause the aura to twist into a foul shadowy color which was where the name shadow pokemon came from."-


    "The catch here was that just as the door could be closed it could also be opened again restoring the pokemon to it''s natural state. How this was aplished was via one of three methods that two of were lumped together with true purification and thus mistakenlybeled as such. What the relic does is one of those methods in that it forces the one being effected to experience their most positive memories and emotions until the dark emotions and impulses are ovee. To put it bluntly it was suppressing therger negative with the smaller positive until the positive bes therger of the two thus opening the heart again."


    "The second method is simply busting down the door with brute force and something any decent aura master can aplish. This method is effectively fighting off the negative emotions and impulses in the aura with your own aura until you can forcefully fling the door open returning the pokemon to normal. And of course the final method is true purification where the negative stuff is directly andpletely eradicated from the pokemon which means the door is no longer being held shut by it and thus opens right up." I exined seriously.-


    "So we could just use the relic then?" Wes asked for rification. I shook my head "I believe it''s not quite so simple. When I visited Pyrite town I got the chance to examine a shadow pokemon created by Cypher and I discovered that it had been wiped of all memories before it became a shadow pokemon. This meant that before the relic could even have a chance to work you''d need to create new positive memories with the pokemon and after you make enough the relic will use those to push the door open. Unfortunately this will take arge amount of time to aplish normally." I said honestly.


    I am willing to admit that it was a clever method to create shadow pokemon as the usual process is to heighten the negative emotions in the pokemon until they ovee the positive before forcing the door shut. However by wiping all the memories from the pokemon and then creating negative ones you had no positive emotions to fight back and thus could directly m the door shut far easier. Don''t get me wrong though this was an extremely cruel methodology as it effectively wiped out who that pokemon was entirely leaving them little more than a husk of raw emotions and instincts.


    "So what are we supposed to do to help them then?" Rui asked upset. "Repeat back to me what I told you the methods of rectifying this situation were and then think about that question again." I said calmly since I had already said how to fix a shadow pokemon. Honestly I was beginning to think people in this region had something wrong with their heads since they seemed to only focus on one thing out of everything. Makan focused on tech or money, Cail was all about payment and even Eagun basicallytched onto a single aspect of what I said.-


    Like theres nothing bad per se about this sort of mentality but it was kinda annoying to deal with when exining shit. Still after Rui finished repeating what I said she at least figured out that I had already answered her previous question. "Does that mean I could restore the shadow pokemon?" she asked and I scoffed. "Fuck no! You barely even know what aura is much less how to use it to do something like this. I mean you totally could in the future with the right training but that''s a far off thing."-


    "No I was referring to myself and before you ask , yes I am in fact more than willing to help." I said bluntly to get any such thoughts out of her head before she pays for them. Aura maniption like this was not some sort of game where everything will be fine if you make a mistake. It was delicate and precise work that one wrong move on and you risk killing the patient or worse, getting corrupted.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Opening

    Opening


    "Alright alright, geez you didn''t need to be mean about it!" Rui said with a hurt look. I scoffed at her "On the contrary it was very necessary, you seem to have this foolish notion that aura mastery is something you can simply do just because you are a natural at it. That''s not only wrong but dangerous as well. Manipting aura ESPECIALLY in a way like this takes practice and deep understanding of what you are doing. You make a single mistake and it could kill the pokemon you are trying to help or worse, cause you to get corrupted."-


    "I''m not talking about the forced stuff like these shadow pokemon but genuine corruption of which there is no way to repair the damage save killing the corrupted individual. So yes I did need to be mean about it so that you''d understand how serious this is. Enough about that however, show me this shadow pokemon you brought here." I said sternly. Both Rui and Wes were effected by what I said with Rui looking ashamed of herself and Wes stuck between wanting tofort her and understanding that I was probably right and she needed to hear this like this to understand how important it is.-


    I waited patiently for them to straighten out their feelings and show the shadow pokemon they had came to get fixed to begin with. It took a few moments but Wes eventually settled his turbulent thoughts and withdrew a pokeball from his belt that he clicked the button to releasing the pokemon within it. A six foot long brown and tan striped weasel creature appeared with an erratic energetic movement, a Furret. At first nce it appeared like a normal member of it''s species with a hyper energetic nature as it looked around.-


    However it was clear to me that the reason it was looking around was all wrong as was the creatures aura that billowed from it wildly with a dark coloration. It wasn''t looking around because it cared about it''s surroundings so much as it was trying to find it''s enemy to attack. This pokemon had been turned into a weapon and it showed. The Furret stared me down as I walked up to it ready tosh out the moment the order was given but Wes remained silent likely for this exact reason.-


    I was unbothered by this aggression "Hades restrain it." I said calmly and the ghost manifested from my pocket and surrounded the Furret with a mad cackle as it''s smoky body pinned the violent pokemon to the ground. I crouched down and set my right hand firmly in the Furrets chest above it''s heart that was the core of all creatures aura. Closing my eyes I sent in my own aura which made the creature try even harder to resist with it''s aurashing out at my own in violent but futile resistance. If this was before my aura evolved to a higher state I may have had to struggle against it as a pokemons aura was naturally of a higher state than a humans.-


    Now however my own aura was qualitatively the same as a pokemons though obviously not as expansive. This meant that while the aura of the Furret was wild and moving instinctually my own was moving precisely and in perfectly smooth ways. It was the difference between a master fighter and a uppity gang member that relied on brute force till now. I systematically broke through the feeble defenses and reached the door to the heart in no time at all.-


    ''Now for the less than easy part.'' I thought before pressing my aura against the closed door and pushed. The Furret went still under my hand before it screamed, the sort of scream thates from an animal that is dying and knows it. A death knell that will give even the bravest person pause for a moment. I grit my teeth as I forcefully pry open the door in what was the equivalent to soul torture. The actual process wasn''t all that difficult no the problem came in the form of my raw aura being in direct contact with all this pain and agony.-


    I was effectively torturing myself as well as the pokemon in order to help it but I couldn''t allow myself to slip up from the pain. With a sort of spiritual "click" the door was torn open and the shadowy nature of the Furrets aura was rapidly purged and restored to normal while I myself also got the soothing relief of this as well as I withdrew my aura. "Hah hah hah~ It''s done." I said as I panted while copsing backwards. Wes and Rui looked at me in concern but i waved my hand dismissively.


    "I''ll be fine in a bit, that process is just rather taxing on me is all." I said reassuringly as Hade''s smoky form covered me protectively once it sensed my weariness. I sat there for a good few minutes as I recovered from the experience before getting up with wobbly feet as my head was throbbing and I had a bone deep tiredness in my body, a side effect of straining my aura so much. I took a seat on a chair proper and asked Yani to retrieve my bag that I had hanging up since I was home.-


    She brought it and I dug through it until I found my heavily diluted energy potion and drank the smallest amount of it. The effects were immediate as my lethargy dissipated temporarily. Naturally aura exertion was not truly so easy to counter act and I knew once the potion wore off the bacsh was going to hit me hard but I needed a clear head to talk with Wes and Rui. "The Furret as you can see is fine and well on the road to recovery. I suppose you are trying to figure out why this was so painful."-


    "The best way I can exin it is that it was like a boulder was firmly pressing against the door and I was forcing the door to move against the boulder which put heavy strain on the door. This strain came in the form of soul deep pain for the Furret and by extension myself as I felt it through my own aura. Honestly speaking your best bet for purifying pokemon painlessly is the relic or a legendary as those methods basically remove the boulder making the door open painlessly."-


    "Unfortunately both those methods require arge amount of time or luck to aplish leaving you with this method. I''ll need to rest before I can do another opening like this but for now perhaps you should focus on catching all the shadow pokemon." i said calmly. "I''m so sorry that I thought this was going to be easy." Rui said sincerely. "It''s fine, you couldn''t have known until now but remember from now on that aura is not some toy that can be wielded carelessly." I said seriously before telling them to leave so I can rest.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Leaving

    Leaving


    I wasn''t awake much longer after they left as my body needed rest and that shot of energy potion was rapidly fading away. It wasn''t all that strange since that was entirely why I had taken such a small amount to begin with. Aura was directly tied to ones body so naturally straining mine like this had caused me to be lethargic and tired. I ended up skipping dinner entirely and sleeping till noon the next day before I woke up. After that I packed up the stuff I''d need and all of my team minus Gaia and Yani that was staying behind to watch over the Hub.-


    I then got on Runes back and we took to the sky to head south west where the coast was. It took a good few hours and I was pretty bored during that time as it was all the same desertndscape until we finally reached the coast. From there we took a break and had a meal so that Rune could fuel up for this long trip. Tank was also out but unfortunately he wasn''t a royal variant and as a result couldn''t take over for Rune in carrying me.-


    Not to say that he couldn''t simply pick me up and carry me like that but Butterfree aren''t exactly known for having the strongest grips and a fall from so high up while not fatal would be unpleasant to say the least. If I had a water type pokemon that I felt could protect me and pull me along through the ocean I''d take that route since I did have the ability to breath underwater after all. While flying is all around faster than that method it would give Rune a much more worthwhile break while I traveled under the waves.-


    Rune told me it wasn''t an issue anyways since I only weighed about three hundred and fifteen pounds so long as I kept my spear in the bag. While that sounds like a lot a royal Charizard like Rune could easily handle upwards of a ton so he was barely feeling much strain from carrying me. In case I hadn''t made it abundantly clear at this point pokemon were bona fide monsters and humanity was lucky that they were hard wired to work and coexist alongside us.-


    Anyways despite him being able to carry me without much strain that didn''t mean Rune could fly forever without a break. Like all Charizard Rune wasn''t built for prolonged flights thatst longer than a few hours. A goodparison would be a well trained marathon runner being able to go for a long while but still had limits that their bodies wouldn''t let them surpass. In Runes case his species simply wasn''t designed to migrate the distance between regions all in one flight. This was actually one of the reasons they rarely were found to be in another region beyond Kanto or Johto naturally.-


    Don''t get me wrong it did happen but in most cases it was because that Charizard had been exiled from the regions by the local tribes of Charizard or in very very rare cases simply wanted to create it''s own tribe. In other words extreme circumstances were the only time a Charizard might be found to naturally arrive in a region outside it''s normal two. The funny thing was that Kanto and Johto both insisted that they were two separate regions but were directly bordering each other and could in a way be considered the same ce to a degree.-


    You could in fact walk from Kanto to Johto without any real issue at all besides maybe the border patrols taking issue. Anyways as I was saying Rune needed to rest for a while before we could continue our trip to Rota again. While he did I did a bit of surf fishing without cheating and using my xray to see where the fish were of course. It wasn''t even particrly difficult to catch a giant trevally, arge silver fish that was quite tasty if prepared properly. There were whole schools of them along the coast since fishing in this region tended to be more deep sea than anything and so the shore dwelling fish didn''t know not to eat the "free" food I sent out.-


    Due to not being over fished or hunted there were some truly massive specimens amongst these fish as well as the one i caught was easily six feet long and about a hundred and sixty pounds easy. Normally you''d actually want a smaller member of the species for the best vor as therge ones meat tended to be dry and fairly nd. The trick to eating them at this size however was to put them in a soup.-


    Preparing such a soup didn''t take long as I just boiled out some filtered seawater so all I had for the broth was effectively saltwater without any of the grit in it. From there I added leeks, garlic, onions, some chili oil and the fish meat and bones. It was a very simple soup but it filled the belly and gave energy while tasting good so there was no reason toin. Naturally most of the soup went to Rune but I got a few bowls as well. Tank was an herbivore though so he merely had some berries for his meal.-


    The rest of my team besides Hades were in their balls in stasis mode to preserve our supplies since we only had enough to feed the three of us for the whole trip. We could restock in Rota but while we were traveling over the sea and along the mountain range foraging wasn''t really on the table. After we ate and waited an hour to let the food settle it was time to head out again though this time we went out over the water. I casually used my x-ray when we did just because I could and felt goosebumps rise along my arms at what I saw.-


    There no more than fifty yards from where we were just taking a break was a massive Crawdaunt easily the size of a Gyarados. Much like regr lobsters on earth the Crawdaunt pokemon were "technically" immortal and never stopped growing until something killed them. Whether that be them getting stuck in a molt or some other pokemon or disease the point stood still that only an external force could kill them. For one to get this big however it''d need to have survived for hundreds of years and may as well be considered a legendary in terms of strength at this point.-


    Finding out such a monster was just casually chilling so close to you was the sort of thing that''d give you nightmares. If at any point it had decided that we were bothering it there wouldn''t even be a struggle before we''d get killed. I appraised it and learnt that I was definitely not wrong to be fearful either when I saw the number it had for a level, three hundred and forty eight.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Time and entering the mountains

    Time and entering the mountains


    I couldn''t care less about the fact that this was the highest level I had ever seen as I hurried Rune to put as much distance between us and this monster as possible in as short a span as possible. It was only after we got far enough away for me to calm down that I realized that this Crawdaunt was over a hundred levels higher than even the elder Entei who had brought Vulcan to me so long ago. Such a monstrous level meant either this pokemon was just positively ancient or wasn''t the sort to take it easy for long.-


    Such a level spoke of an extreme amount of skill and experience in battle. I was slightly disappointed in myself for not having checked it''s move pool as well as I doubted I could ever find a better example of the heights I hoped to one day raise my team to. For all I knew that Crawdaunt could have had nothing but double or triple transcendent moves which would have been a good piece of information to known by itself. ''Ah well, guess I can just focus on meditating as we fly.'' I thought with a sigh.-


    I trusted Rune not to get us killed by crashing into a mountain or something like that while I meditated on improving my meditation technique. Closing my eyes I didn''t extend my senses like normal but rather closed them off as I focused inwards. There in the center of my chest was the me of my aura no more than a brilliantly bright candle me in size. Grasping it I began to circte it in ce which stretched and condensed it over and over again causing it to slowly increase.-


    That was almost all I did for the next week and a half other than when we rested for the night to eat and sleep. It wasn''t exactly a morous or exciting trip but one that we needed to do anyways since going into a Celebi forest had serious consequences if you weren''t lucky. Going into the future was pretty harmless unless you brought something back that you shouldn''t have but going into the past caused more issues than any other time rted event. Worst case scenario you created a second timeline as the changes you created in the past were too much for the present timeline to integrate.-


    Yes, if you changed something in the past it transferred over to the present upon your return. The catch of course is that you can''t make any sweeping changes or you''ll create temporal dissonance that wreaks all kinds of havoc. For example if you went back and killed a young Professor Oak then uponing to the present everything the man had done in his life(which is a lot) gets put into temporal flux as time itself works to fix the inconsistencies between the two timelines. Best case scenario everything works out fine and worse case scenario you doom the world to an apocalypse because no Oak means no one to avert that future.-


    As you may be able to guess there was a VERY good reason that not even the most insane criminal casually fucked around with time travel. I''m not talking about thews of the league or whatever but Dialga itself. The temporal sovereign might turn a blind eye to small alterations but can and will step in if you go too far, intentionally or otherwise. A well known example of this was when a scientist lost his daughter at a young age and in his grief wanted to go through a Celebi forest travel to the past and kill the one responsible for the death thus preventing it.-


    Thing was that criminal was responsible for leading to the founding of the Jenny n and his actions threatened to erase the entire n from history. The tale goes that the sky split and a wrathful being smote the man to death moments before he entered the forest. I am willing to bet my left arm that that was either Dialga itself or at the very least one of it''s avatars. Moral of the story, don''t fuck with time and it won''t fuck with you.-


    Anyways we eventually reached the point of the mountain range where things got dangerous as we needed to cut through them now to reach Rota. This meant I had to keep my eyes peeled for any ambushes while Tank and Hades yed defense and interference. The only reason that Hades could even be of use in the air like this was because it''s keystone was in my pocket securely and I was on Runes back securely. This meant even while we were traveling at top speed through the air it''s smoky body would never get far from me.-


    It was only two days travel left until we reached Rota but it was bound to be rough. "SKAAR!" a screech told me that my worries were well found and looking at the source tensed. The cry came from the elite level leader of a small hunting pack of Skarmory that numbered seven. The wild pokemon had done as it''s instincts demanded and warned the human of it''s attack so now it was free to kill us all if it wanted to. It definitely didn''t help that Rune was electric type and as a result was going to be the heaviest targeted out of us all.-


    ''Theres no way we can outrun them as Skarmory are heavily built for speed unlike Charizard. We''ll need to risk the ground to fight them off.'' I thought in a split second beforemanding Rune tond. My n was simply to release Vulcan and either intimidate the pack to leave us be or fight them off with lethal measures. As a flying/steel type Skarmory as a species were the best possible matchup for a powerful fire type like Vulcan as well as a flying/electric type like Rune when he didn''t need to focus on flying in a way that kept me safe.-


    Unfortunately these wild pokemon weren''t stupid and immediately reacted at my order with a synchronized air sh under us to stop Rune from descending. "Rune smokescreen! Hades Ominous wind!" I barked and Rune belched out a thick plume of smoke to obscure our forms from the pack while Hades kicked up a chilling gust that not only buffed it but also pushed the smoke into the pack disorienting them. "Skar! Skar Skar!" the leader called calming it''s group and telling it was merely a petty trick.-


    "Powder bomb." I said just barely loud enough for Tank to hear me. My tough bug type glowed three colors before spitting out an orb of three colors thatprised of all three types of powder moves that shot into the smokescreen that the pack couldn''t see out of and exploded. There were screams of pain, surprise and rage from the smoke before I watched coldly as the paralyzed, poisoned or knocked out pack dropped from the cloud of smoke straight towards the hard ground below.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Rota

    Rota


    I wasted no time having Rune speed away once I saw the hunting pack plummet to the ground. While a fall from this height would definitely hurt them I doubted that it would be enough to kill them unless theynded on their heads or necks. This meant if we stuck around we''d definitely have to deal with some very angry Skarmory in a while. Even after high tailing it out of the area there was no guarantee that the pack wouldn''t go out of their way to track our asses down for revenge.-


    That wasn''t the only time we had an issue while flying through this mountain range today either. No less than an hour after dealing with the Skarmory we were chased by a royal variant Aerodactyl at the elite level that we had to put down after a hard fight. Unfortunately Rune took some injuries during that fight and we needed to make camp on a mountains side for another two days while he recovered. I cursed my small energy reserves a lot during this time as I could barely use my healing ability to shorten the recovery time to that little.-


    That Aerodactyl had peppered Rune with rock and ground type moves so the injuries were worse than if the moves were of some other type. Still it wasn''t all bad news as I imed a few bones from the ancient pokemon that I could use to clone it. A royal variant Aerodactyl didn''t really fit my team all that well but flying and rock type specialists would sell their kidneys to get their hands on it. For good reason too as it is very rare that a pokemon has a dual typing where both types are usually weak against the other.-


    If my memory serves me right there is in fact only six or seven pokemon that naturally fit the bill with Charizard being one and two others being legendary birds. Thanks to this rarity these pokemon were highly prized by type specialists since it let them cover more typings with their team. Anyways thankfully we didn''te across anymore major issues on the way to Rota and arrived in the tiny kingdom just fine. Our arrival didn''t go unnoticed however as we were stopped by the border patrol knights shortly after entering the kingdom.-


    "Halt and identify yourself!" a loud female voice called out and I looked over only to see an armored woman sitting on the back of an armored Pidgeot. Let me tell you seeing a literal knight on the back of a pokemon threw me off just a little. Once I snapped out of my surprise I answered the woman and now it was her time to be stunned speechless. "This is so above my paygrade, follow me back to base so i can report this to the higher ups and figure out what to do with you." the woman said with a tired sigh before turning her Pidgeot around and flying off.-


    Naturally I followed behind her on Rune while taking in the stunning view of the kingdom I had from up here. It was impossible to miss that massive tree with it''s brilliantly glowing branches and trunk in the very far distance. It was almost like what you would expect a world tree to look like with a trunk miles wide and branches so far up they couldn''t all be seen as they were in the clouds above. Even beyond that special tree this kingdoms ties to the ancient aura guardian order were abundant as nature here thrived and was clearly well maintained by it''s people.-


    The base the woman spoke of ended up being an old stone castle surprisingly enough that had been renovated with a modern ir such as the signal tower and metal reinforcements. In the courtyard of the castle you could see people in rich blue uniforms training with cold weapons and their pokemon. Wended in an area that was clearly marked out for fliers and dismounted our pokemon. "You are free to mingle with the soldiers while you wait but don''t try to leave or I''ll have to track you down again." the woman said as she took off her helm revealing her face.-


    She had pixie cut red hair and a green eyes thatplimented her pale skin and toned face. She couldn''t exactly be considered beautiful by normal standards as even with her armor on I could tell she was more muscle than soft flesh like you''d expect from a woman. Still she was certainly not ugly by any means and I wouldn''t mind taking a few rolls under the sheets with her if given the option.-


    She left me alone at that time so I naturally gravitated over to the area that had the spearmen training. "You folks mind if I join you? I so very rarely get a chance to meet other spearmen after all." I said with a friendly smile. The men just looked up at me in surprise "What sort of spear could someone your size even use?" One of the guys blurted out before looking embarrassed. "Yeah I can understand your confusion given my ratherrge stature. Here let me show you my partner." I said with a chuckle before retrieving my spear from my bag.-


    "What sort of weapon is that!?" one of the men eximed in shock upon seeing Omega. "I suppose the best answer would be a conduit weapon though it''s unique due to a series of events involved in it''s creation." i said honestly. "A conduit weapon! The kingdom only has a handful of those and they are all national treasures but nothing like that!" one of the men said seriously. "Omega here''s not some ancient relic but was forgedst year for me specifically. No need to worry about it being some lost treasure or anything like that." I said reassuringly.


    "Forget that I want to know who made the thing so I can get one!" one of the men said excitedly as he looked Omega over. I shook my head "The smith has already passed from this world and this weapon was his final masterpiece. Besides that the head was refined and empowered in the blood and death of a legendary afterwards so you''ll not find another like it anywhere in the world." I said seriously while sending a spark of my aura into the weapon causing it to re up in brilliant me at the head.-


    "That''s so fucking cool!" the men looked at the weapon with stars in their eyes. After that they were more than happy to have some light spars with me but I was rather disappointed to learn that they were barely more skilled than a newbie at the weapon type. They told me when I asked about finding a better spearmen that I''d likely need to find a knightmander to get any real challenge.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Royal meeting

    Royal meeting


    While the border patrol was apparently the most powerful force in Rota other than the royal guard it was spread out to cover the whole border and thus didn''t have a bunch of strong people all in one spot. The minimum level of strength to be part of the border patrol in this part of the region was beginner ace trainer but unfortunately that only applied to ones pokemon. So while learning a cold weapon was a requirement to be part of the regions military forces skill with said weapons only became important when you went for a promotion.-


    Rota had a knight centric military structure by tradition so in order to get a higher position you needed to have solid skill with whatever weapon you chose to use. Still I enjoyed sparring with these other spearmen as while theycked any worth mentioning skill they were still more or less able to use the weapon properly. Nobody was ballsy enough to challenge me to a pokemon battle though while I waited for the woman to return. Not to say that they were cowards or anything but merely that they had standing orders to maintain theirbat strength at all times in the off case that a pokemon or group of them from the wild zone of the mountains decided to enter Rota.-


    In no universe did an ace trainer battling an elite ever end with the aces pokemon walking away without serious injury. The power and skill difference between the two sides simply didn''t allow it to happen. "Her majesty the royal Queen has requested your presence." a female voice sounded out as I casually fended off three spearmen in a mock fight. I looked at the sound and saw it was the woman that had brought me to this ce.-


    With a grunt I pushed the three men back slightly before back stepping and disengaging smoothly. "Now why would the Queen want to see me?" I asked the woman curiously. She shrugged "How would I know? I''m just the messager and escort in this case." she said honestly. "Lets hurry up and go then, best not to keep royalty waiting after all." I said while walking over to where Rune and Tank were just chilling. A short whileter and I saw the capital of Rota in the distance, Cameron.-


    It was a small city maybe the size of Rustboro and was set up on a ind in the middle of theke at the foot of the Aeon forest. The architecture was old and had a heavy emphasis on stone and wood. In the center of the ind was the kingdoms royal castle with all the lovely little details and towers you might expect from such a ce. Like much of the victorian era architecture on earth the castle was WAY too big to be entirely made with practicality in mind. Whether it was the white coloration of the stones that made up the walls or the red y tiles on the roof Cameron castle was a sight to behold.-


    Wended in the courtyard of the castle and this time I had to recall all my pokemon including Hades for reasons that should be obvious whening to meet a member of royalty. The nts in the courtyard were well taken care of and the soldiers were disciplined and only flinched a little when I got close to them. Considering I was nearing seven feet tall and had a powerful figure that was actually pretty damn good self control.-


    The entrance to the castle proper had an elderly man in a suit waiting for us when we approached. Not gonna lie the guy was the spitting image of the elderly butler type that media on earth peddled with short slicked back grey hair and a serious expression. "You must be Mr. Drake. Her majesty is awaiting your arrival but before that I''m afraid I must insist that you change into a more appropriate attire." the man said sternly. I shrugged "I don''t mind but I doubt you have anything that would fit someone of my particr size." I said calmly.-


    "Indeed, never fear however as her majesty has taken the liberty to have the royal tailor prepared to whip up something in short order. You need only get sized and wait a small moment." the man said without any fluctuation in his speech. He then dismissed the woman that brought me here back to her duties before leading the way into the castle entrance. The inside of the castle was just as gaudy as the outside with thick velvet red carpets and many paintings and sculptures lining the long walls as well as suits of armor set on disy.-


    "Oh now theres a rare treat to find, an aura inscription." I said surprised when I found a depowered aura enchantment on one of the doors. "The castle was built back in the time the aura guardian order still thrived within our kingdom and as such has influences left behind from those prestigious individuals. You may color me impressed to find an individual with your ... unique sensibilities being able to recognize them." the old man said with genuine surprise. "It shouldn''t be all that surprising considering I myself am an aura master, it''s a fairly well know fact in the league as well." I pointed out and the old man froze.-


    "It would seem I owe you an apology then. I had assumed that your state of dress was due to ack of refinement and proper modesty but if you are an aura master it makes sense that you would wish to be closer to the natural way in this regard. I must admit that the thought that an aura master hase to grace these halls once again fills my heart with joy. Us caretakers of this ce have been forced to watch as the castle slips further and further away from it''s true splendor but perhaps you could restore it to it''s prime state." the old man said with a smile and bright expectant eyes.-


    I sighed but lightly tapped my pointer finger on the inscriptions energy intake point and sent a burst of aura into the dormant inscription. The old man watched in awe as the circuits of the inscription hummed to life like a great beast awakening from it''s slumber. This particr inscription was nothing special as it was only a self cleaning enchantment meant to wipe away grime from the walls of this hallway.-


    Still it made the old man happy and that alone was worth the effort as I would likely be in his care while I was here. I didn''t intend to stay in Rota for long as I had stuff to do but while I was here I may as well y nice. I could understand what he meant about watching the castle degrade over time after activating the inscription as that wall of the hallway suddenly got brighter and brilliantly whitepared to the off white they were before. Human cleaning methods only proved so effective so over time I imagined that castle had be discolored and less impressive to behold.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Royal meeting(2)

    Royal meeting(2)


    The old man looked at the now restored wall in awe as he gently ran a finger across it. "I can not express how deeply I appreciate this seemingly easy act. For you it was a simple matter but for nearly two centuries we have had to watch as the castle slumbered and lost it''s luster as the inscriptions ran out of power as there were no aura master in the kingdom to restore them." he said honestly. "You said that before but what do you mean? In and so full of life energy I imagine that aura masters have a pretty good chance of being born." I said confused.-


    "That is our kingdoms greatest shame. When the aura guardian order was still standing strong you would have been correct as the tree of Aeons greatly increased the chances of an aura master being born here. Unfortunately this was a curse more than a blessing for our kingdom at that time in history as the other regions wanted the secrets of aura that the order held and brought us to our knees to get them. The leaders of the order realized that the orders eradication would not be enough to prevent this from happening again as the tree meant sometime in the future another group like the order would appear as we produced more and more masters".-


    "With this knowledge they put a grave sin upon their backs and crippled the life energy of thisnd to prevent the birth of any more masters here. While life energy freely flows it is rejected from the bodies of those born here so no aura masters have appeared in the kingdom since that age. We dare not try and have any of those that are born elsewhere move here lest our old enemies return. Your arrival was merely a happy coincidence sir." the old man said honestly and I frowned. -


    Not because what he said was in anyway fabricated because it wasn''t but rather because I myself hadn''t felt this "crippling" in the life energy. "If it''s not too much to ask do you mind if I use my aura on you to try and understand the source of this issue?" I asked and the old man held out his arm."Please be my guest." he said clearly not expecting anything toe of this.-


    I gripped his arm firmly but not enough to harm him and closed my eyes as I sent out my aura to investigate. What I found made me pale and stumble away from the man in shock and fear. There in the mans body hid a will, a use of aura that I knew had only been utilized by a single being since the dawn of history, The great mother Mew. Aura was able to be manipted and transformed by anyone with training but only the godly Mew had ever been able to separate her aura from herself and give it it''s own will, it''s own soul.-


    If myth was to be believed this is how all species of pokemon were born from her at the dawning of the world. To find such a thing within this old man meant that it wasn''t the aura masters who shackled this kingdom but Mew herself. That alone was more than enough to terrify me into distancing myself from this old man. History had proven time and again that Mew was thest godly legendary you wanted to offend if you could help it. She was kind and yful most of the time but when angered she became cruel and vindictive.-


    "You are wrong." I said whileposing myself after that shock. "What do you mean? What did you find exactly?" the old man asked worriedly so i told him. I exined to him what I found and what it meant. "But why? Why would those masters im that they were the ones responsible if it was the great mother who did this?" the old man asked horribly confused. I sighed "Because that was theirst gift to the kingdom, ignorance so that you never sought her out for revenge for what she did."-


    "Perhaps now far in the future you people hold no grudge as it''s merely ancient history to you but at the time it was first implemented can you say the same was true?" I asked and he shook his head. "No, quite the opposite I dare say as the records state that much of the kingdoms citizens rioted and persecuted the remaining masters for denying them their future generations birthright. For those same masters to willingly shoulder that me, to receive so much hate and anger with not a singleint. We''ve done them a grave disservice it seems." the old man said with a sad expression.-


    "No you haven''t, not yet anyways. Those people gave up everything so that your people would be safe. You''ll only be spitting on their sacrifice if you start acting any different now that you know the truth because they seeded, the kingdom still stands and thrives." I said sternly and he straightened his back. "You are right sir, I almost dishonored their noble sacrifices with my behavior. Please follow after me, best not keep the royal tailor waiting as she can be rather prickly when inconvenienced." he said before walking further down the hall.-


    The royal tailor I discovered was in fact a rather surly middle aged woman with blonde hair and sharp tongue. We no sooner walked into the door than she started attacking my choice of apparel viciously. "Cargo shorts, a spear strap and a waist bag? What were shoes and a T-shirt too good for you or something? And what on earth did your parents feed you to make you so damned tall? I might need to waste a whole roll of fabric to cover all of you, you damn giant!" She said all of this and more before I could even get a single word in edgewise.-


    I was all but dragged over to a stool to get measured and the only positive thing i ever hearde out of the woman''s mouth so how perfect my bodies proportions were. Neither toorge or scrawny but the exact ratio of muscle to height that served the best. I can''t deny that the woman was exceptionally skilled at her craft however as within no more than thirty minutes I walked out of the room in a vibrant emerald green formal cloak and pants that ended with ck dress shoes.-


    The outfit apparently suited me perfectly as even the old man said that I had a noble and strong air to me now as I walked like a dragon type on the prowl. I was pretty sure the guy was blowing smoke up my ass since I didn''t feel any different than normal beyond the amount of clothes I was wearing. ''Perhaps that saying "the clothes make the man" might have some credibility to it after all.'' i thought since even the other servants we passed on the way to the throne room seemed to awe at me.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Royal meeting(3)

    Royal meeting(3)


    I should also mention that I activated the inscriptions when we came across them so a good half the castle was now practically radiant. It was clear the old man was purposefully taking me on the long route to the throne room specifically for this reason. It was not really something I minded since it earned me some good will but was also not really necessary on his part as I would have likely done so at some point anyways. It also left us with the awkward situation where only one side of the castle was active creating a odd sort of dissonance.-


    The best way I can exin it was like those before and after pictures that most sales pitches for cleaning products used. ''Aura scrubber, get yours today!'' I thought with a chuckle. Still I suppose it came as little surprise that thest inscription I got led to was the one right outside the throne room. After I activated it I could hear gasps of surprise from the other side of the huge wooden doors that told me that it wasn''t just the queen in there.-


    The old man pushed open the door at this point as there was no reason to announce our arrival at this point given the situation. The throne room was surprisingly cozy unlike the sprawling extravagant chamber I was expecting. Not to say it wasn''t arge room but it was more long than wide with crystal chandeliers for lighting and a literal row of knights on the side of the rich red carpet that ended at the raised area that held a single golden chair that had a woman sitting in it. Contrary to what the name kingdom might have you believe Rota was in fact matriarchal in terms of rulers.-


    The "king" of the country was not really in charge of anything at all and was mostly just the husband of the queen who was needed solely to produce heirs to the throne. At the moment however there was no king of Rota as the queen was only twenty five and not in serious need of an heir. Speaking of the queen she was a blonde with smooth wavy hair that went down to the bottom of her back. She had soft but noble features, high cheekbones, sharp jawline, narrow nose and smooth skin. -


    Her eyes were emerald green and she was at the moment wearing a lc silk dress with jeweled patterning on the center of her chest and a golden crown on her head that I immediately identified as a conduit weapon. "I have brought Sir Drake as you missed your majesty." the old man said with a bow. "From the looks of things you did more than just bring him here from the tailor Walden." the queen said with a smile while the old man just looked embarrassed. "I let me enthusiasm get the best of me , I apologize" the old man said sincerely.-


    "You need not apologize to me, I can understand how you feel. In fact I was actually going to bring it up to Sir Drake as a part of this meeting." the queen said with a giggle. "Ah! It seems this old man has done something unnecessary then, I''ll endeavor not to repeat this mistake." the old man said bowing again before excusing himself. "Now then Sir Drake please approach the throne so we may speak in a morefortable manner." the queen said and I had no reason to not listen.-


    Once I got to the bottom of the short two steps of the raised area I stopped and bowed my head respectfully but not in a way to emphasize fealty. A citizen of the kingdom would be expected to bend a knee but I was an outsider and had no need to butter up the queen with such an act. Proper etiquette however was that I bow my head to the ruler of the country respectfully so that was what I did briefly before looking up to meet her eyes. "Rather bold of you to match the gaze of royalty in their own castle." she said with a raised eyebrow.-


    I shook my head "You have only half my gaze at the moment." I pointed out while tapping my eyepatch. "Oh? Well in that case why not take that thing off and test if your full gaze can match my own?" she challenged and I smiled before doing just that. Nothing changed when I removed my eyepatch but the moment I opened my eye the air grew heavy as my presence turned draconic as my energy began to get used by my dragon eye. The queen stiffened in her throne as we fully matched gazes and she probably didn''t even realize that she stopped breathing.-


    She ended up looking away first unable to withstand the pressure my eye put on her and I closed and covered it back up. "No need to feel disheartened because of failing to match my gaze, I have met few who can withstand it much less match it." I said reassuringly. "The sky lord''s blessing is truly a ferocious thing and I feel no shame at not measuring up to it. Still that was not why I wished to have you brought before me like this."-


    "Rota while not the most advanced ce is still fairly well connected to the happening of the rest of the world, at least the ces with ess to the pok that is. Amongst those pieces of news was the information on a young man who took the Hoenn region by storm in a manner that reads like something out of a storybook. The first variant team of pokemon, a meteoric rise to power, no less than five abilities and a standing feud with the Joy n where they were they ones in the wrong. The less spoken about your activities in regards to the criminal side of the world in that region the better."-


    "You can imagine my surprise to learn that such a figure who to thest known reports was in the criminal region of Orre showed up in my kingdom. Can you exin why that is?" She said with a serious question at the end. "Orrecks ess to the pok and I needed to send a message to my friends in Hoenn letting them know I was going to be entering a Celebi forest soon just in case I appeared at a muchter date than I entered." I said honestly.-


    "A Celebi forest? Orre has such a thing, this is news to me as I was under the impression the region was an inhospitable desert?" she questioned in surprise. "That''s not entirely inurate as most of the region is indeed desertnd but to the far north thends have greenery and of course the Celebi forest that my investigation of the region has taken me to." I exined calmly.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Royal meeting(final)

    Royal meeting(final)


    "I see. Might I ask why you came through the mountains then as I assume you had no need to take such a risk?" she asked after epting my answer easily. I shrugged "It was the fastest way to get here and while I am not exactly on a deadline I prefer not wasting time I don''t need to." I said honestly. "You mean to say you went through those extremely dangerousnds just to save time? I find that... difficult toprehend." she said in disbelief. I chuckled "You don''t get a record like mine without thinking in an abnormal manner. Perhaps to most the risk to reward ratio is unbnced but I REALLY value efficiency." I said honestly.-


    "I suppose I''ll need to content myself with that answer. On to the more important topic then, why I had you brought here before me. As you no doubt already know thanks to Walden the remnants left behind by the aura guardian order so long ago havenguished without energy and thus sat dormant. The league has done a fairly good job covering it up but it is difficult to erase the fact that you are an aura master with your casual attitude in using the energy in public."-


    "In addition your signature weapon, a spear, is not some normal weapon but if my theory is correct a conduit weapon, do you deny any of this?" She said seriously. I shook my head "No that all sounds about right though calling Omega a mere conduit weapon is a disservice to it, it''s far more than that." I said calmly. "And how exactly did youe across such an artifact?" the queen asked with narrowed eyes. "I didn''t e across it" I had it forged, so I have nothing to be concerned about in regards to it''s origins." I rified confidently.-


    "Alright lets say I believe that you somehow managed to find another aura master, a smith no less, that still doesn''t exin where you got wood from a species of tree that only can be found in my kingdom to use as a handle." she said questioningly. "Ah but that''s where things get interesting as I got that wood thanks to your own mistake. See someone in your kingdom, can''t say who since I don''t know, mistakenly cut down a sapling and shipped off the wood to sale."-


    "There it eventually found itself in the inventory of a merchant in Lilycove where I discovered it thanks to my abilities and purchased it, I even have the sales receipt." I said with a chuckle. "We will need to verify to see if this information checks out but I must admit that it is certainly possible, nay probable. If a sapling of an Aeons tree did not have the extraordinary features of the great tree then it being mistaken for a normal lumber species is not unusual at all. The reports state that your spear holds unusual properties for a conduit weapon, can you exin where they came from?" she asked and I did.


    I told her about how the spears head was the lifelong hammer of the old smith and had been baptized by his aura over decades. How it had been reforged into a spear and then imbued in the blood and death of a Heatran thus developing it''s unique properties. I exined my struggles in finding a wood that could serve as a new handle for this spearhead and the discovery of the Aeons wood. "And that''s the whole of it from start to finish." I said ending my exnation. -


    "That is certainly quite the tale and surprisingly not unreasonable to verify either though the murder of a legendary is of course not something we wish to attempt to verify that particr facet of it. That said I would like to see this weapon for myself topare it with a traditionally forged conduit weapon, my crown." she said and I had no problem with that at all and so under the watchful eyes of the knights withdrew Omega from my bag. Even while I didn''t funnel aura into the spear the air warped around it''s head from the heat it naturally radiated.-


    "Such an oppressive sensation! It''s like the weapon itself desires no less than absolute dominance, how very in line with it''s master." the queen said but refused to take the weapon when I held it out to her. If anything she shied away from it nervously though I suppose that was to be expected. Omega had been "tainted" by my own aura over time and as a result carried properties of my own personality. Naturally this also included my dream of reaching the pinnacle as well as my pride that when added to it''s fiery nature came across as oppression.-


    "I can also activate it''s currently inactive abilities if you''d like to see them?" I offered calmly. "That would be appreciated though perhaps you might want to step back first." she said warily. I took a few steps back before holding the spear properly and channeling my aura into it. The grooves of the handle lit up as the energy flowed through it and upon reaching the head ignited brilliantly in a raging me across the spears head. The knights nearby took a step back as the heat mmed into them but just as fast as I powered up the spear I cut off the flow of energy which caused the mes to recede slowly as if unwilling.-


    "Indeed as you have saidparing the normal conduit weapons to that weapon is an insult to that spear. I believe you said it''s name was Omega? Is there any particr reason for that name?" she asked curiously. "It was the final and greatest masterwork the smith made and so we named it fittingly." I said honestly. "I believe that smith would be proud to know that he had such an instrumental hand in the birth of such an artifact." The queen said with a smile.-


    After that she requested that I reactivate the inscriptions in the castle and if possible a few carefully chosen artifacts. In exchange she agreed to allow me to look over the ruins of the aura guardian order as well as the records they left behind. Admittedly thetter were fragmented to say the least and held very little that anyone could extrapte something useful from. Despite this however I was able topare my own information to these records to figure out EXACTLY how far a truly determined aura master might be able to go using these records.-


    The answer surprisingly was quite far as amongst the records was theplete meditation method as well as a few advanced snippets that would allow an aura master to have a wobbly but fast and long growth by normal standards. However I believe that Adept mastery was as far as these records would take someone as literally all the higher information was missing, no doubt hidden away or destroyed by the order.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Best intentions

    Best intentions


    It wasn''t surprising to see this since I had already known it to be the case and after verifying this I moved on to the ruins. As the ces that housed the aura masters of the order as well as their most dangerous artifacts and treasures naturally these ruins had traps all over the ce. Most had been disarmed already by looters or the people of Rota but there were a few remaining. The ruins themselves were hardly worth mentioning as they were merely crumbling stone structures that continued into the ground a ways.-


    It was all nd stone walls and empty torch holsters and rooms for the vast majority of the time. Unfortunately for the aura masters of that time they simply couldn''t have predicted someone like me with all of humanities knowledge on aura avable to them. This meant that what they had hidden behind aura mechanisms that no one should remember how to spot or activate were easy as pie for me to spot and open. The looks on my escorting knight''s face when I opened the first of these hidden caches was priceless. The cache itself wasn''t anything overly impressive really as it just held an aura relic and some outdated coinage.-


    The aura relic was admittedly not a surprise to find as it was a silver globe inscribed with countless unknown runes. This globe was known as an Aura shield and effectively created a programable barrier of energy that could be used to cover an entire small building. If that sounds familiar it''s because my Hub has that same technology worked into it. Aura shields were a type of thing that most of the world considered a lost technology so naturally finding a surviving example of it was a momentous asion, well for anyone else that is.-


    For me though I had expected something like this when I decided toe to these ruins. Don''t get me wrong this was some seriously useful stuff even for me but I knew that there was no chance in hell that the Kingdom would let me just take the thing with me. No, more likely than not i''ll be given some money as a "recovery fee" before being sent onto my way. That was fine though since I knew how to make the thing more or less though I still needed to get the unknown rune skill for it.-


    I opened up a total of five more hidden caches while I was in these ruins but ended up sealing shut two of them because they contained "cursed" artifacts. Dark twisted items that were highly dangerous to even be exposed to for normal people. I of course exined why I closed those caches up and there was a serious argument where they insisted that I had no right to stop them from retrieving the items within the caches. I agreed but then bluntly told them that I also didn''t need to help them retrieve the items either.-


    Naturally we both knew that the only way they were getting those items was if they destroyed the ruins to get into those caches because those aura masters took the security of their things seriously. The other option was if someone opened the caches as they were meant to be opened and let them in. In this case I was literally the only person with the knowledge on how to do that so we were arguing about it. I stood firm though in that I was not going to open those caches back up and they couldn''t force me to either.-


    I eventually sent out my messages to my people in Hoenn while this whole back and forth argument was going on between me and the Rota people. I simply left after that as I had no reason why I should stay, they didn''t like that. "You know you''ll aplish nothing by standing in my way right?" I said calmly while staring down the small army blocking my path out of the kingdom. "All you have to do is open those caches up and we can all part on good terms, you are the one being difficult about it." the heavily armored knight leading this group of people said sternly.-


    "And as I''ve said thest fifty times I will not have any part in those things getting released out into the world. If you want them go get them your damn selves. But lets talk about what the rest of the world is going to say about this since I''ve already sent out the information to all my friends in Hoenn?" I asked with a mocking look as he stiffened. "You didn''t!?" he eximed in horror. "Oh I very much did since none of you seemed to understand what NO means."-


    "Honestly I probably would have kept it all to myself if it wasn''t obvious that you people would pull a stunt like this. So let me be clear here about your options. You can either let me pass peacefully or I''m going to force my way out killing a whole bunch of you in the process. Then again you might kill me too since I refuse to get captured. Any option beyond the first means your kingdom will have to deal with the wrath of the league and we both know you''ll probably not survive that." I said with a calm expression.-


    "Why? Why must you force us to make a choice like this!?" the knight roared angrily. "Believe it or not I''m actually doing you people a favor, those things are better left lost to time. You don''t need them, you merely want them. You get those things and all it will aplish is unleashing cmity on yourselves, leave them alone and forget they exist." I say seriously before walking past the man and all these troops that know they can''t afford to stop me. Knowing that however didn''t stop them from hating me for it.-


    I didn''t mind the hatred though as I truly was doing this with the best intentions. The two artifacts I found were the gue spreader, a dagger that twisted aura to create a virulent gue that had no cure and spread rapidly. The second artifact was the ck talon, a single pitch ck gauntlet that had the ability to rip out the life energy of those it grabs and feed it to the one wearing it to strengthen it. The catch was that the effect slowly twisted the wearer into a mindless beast that drained all the lifeforce in it''s surroundings in addiction to the power it gained.-


    Both of these artifacts were very bad news and I wanted no part in them seeing the light of day again. The really bad part though was that I knew for a fact that the previous wielders of both of those artifacts had been put down by the same godly legendary, Mew. She had much history with the aura guardian order so it was no surprise to find that she handed those things over to them for safe keeping.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Return to Orre

    Return to Orre


    The trip through the mountains was not exactly pleasant as we had to deal with the locals that didn''t appreciate us passing through. We didn''t have any real issues though as it was more the locals chasing off out of their territory before ignoring us. Thankfully we didn''t run into the pack of hunting Skarmory that most likely survived. We also didn''t run into anything that we couldn''t handle with the typebination of Rune, Tank and Hades. To be fair though between all three of them I had almost every typing covered so that wasn''t all that great a boast.-


    Still it took us a good seven days of early morning to dark out flying to return to Orre from the coast. The horrifically old and powerful Crawdaunt had vacated the area thankfully when we reached that beach so we were able to stop and camp out there with Vulcan that was unhappy that it was left in it''s ball for most of this trip. I could only apologize for that as there was simply no moment when it would be appropriate to release it. I allowed Vulcan to run back to the Hub as an apology which it relished eagerly.-


    Entei were nomadic in nature so just staying in one ce was driving Vulcan nuts. This run would help it calm down a lot if only temporarily. It probably didn''t need to be mentioned again but Vulcan was FAST when it really let loose and ran full tilt. If the pokedex entries from the games were any indication it wasn''t alone in this either but rather all Entei were like this. The entry from the games specifically states this speed as one of the most well known features of the species in fact.-


    My only gripe really was that when Vulcan went full tilt I had to bury my head in it''s back while holding on for dear life. The sheer wind resistance of this speed along with the sand getting kicked up meant if I sat up I got stung with the sand and had my skin on my face pressed and pulled by the wind. Soon though Vulcan slowed down and I found out why immediately after looking up. Gaia''s sandstorm was not so small anymore but if my map was right had now grown miles wide which was overkill to say the least.-


    "Fucking Christ is that girl trying to cover the whole bloody region?" I muttered exasperated. The sandstorm parted for us which proved that even at this distance her senses still allowed her to feel our approach. That was a rather terrifying discovery because it meant once she got really good and entrenched in a desert she practically got a form of pseudo-omniscient perception. Now that merely sounds impressive but useless beyond scouting. However add on this sandstorm that was so powerful it was a danger to even rock and ground type pokemon and you have a recipe for legendary intervention.-


    If she could truly sense and control the entirety of the desert Gaia would have all she needed to forcefully evict literally everyone and everything she didn''t want here. It was a sort of unspoken rule but you DIDN''T do that kind of thing because the legendries don''t take kindly to it. Don''t get me wrong they understand and more or less respect the idea of territory but when that territory extends to an entire region they make an exception. And I''m not talking about just for nonlegendary pokemon either but even when one of their own kind gets a bit out of hand like that.-


    The most famous example was when a Deoxys fell to the coast of Kanto and began rampantly iming more and more of the region until the legendries decided that it went to far and stepped in. No godly legendries got involved but then again they weren''t needed either. An Articuno, a Zapdos, a Moltres, a Hoho , a Darkrai and a lesser Mew all ganged up on the Deoxys and killed it. While I doubted something like that would happen in this situation due to the unique nature of Orre I also wasn''t willing to risk it.-


    The moment I got to the mound of sand outside the Hub I immediately told Gaia to shrink the storm back down. Sheined and pouted but did what I told her in the end which was all that mattered to me. While I was happy she was getting to stretch her legendary wings as it were I would prefer if she did it in a way that didn''t have the possibility of bringing the wrath of the legendries on us. Death by overwhelming force was probably not a fun way to go, I would know after delivering it to the criminals of Hoenn.-


    I suppose I should also mention that the moment I checked my messages on my PC I found that there were several asking me what the fuck I was doing over here to create this sandstorm. When it was small nobody cared but at the size it was at when I returned it was starting to be VERY concerning for everyone in the region. Sandstorms weren''t unheard of or even really all that umon here but one this violent and seemingly never ending was new.-


    It was pretty damn obvious to anyone paying attention that the new guy in the region who had just so happened to set up shop in the eye of the storm probably had something to do with the storm. There was apparently a whole bunch of theories about what I had done to create the storm with some be close to the truth and others being wildly inurate. My favorite was the one about me looking to terraform the region and that this was a wind up to see if the device was working. It was some top notch bullshit and amusing to hear about but totally wrong.-


    I sent out messages both letting my contacts know that I was back in the region and reassuring them that the storm was well under control. This was technically true before as well but it probably didn''t seem that way from the outside looking in. It didn''t take long before my PDA went off as I got replies both asking what the fuck happened and where I was thest two and a half weeks. I replied honestly though I left out the information about Gaia''s divinity since that information was best kept close to my chest.-


    The best part was that no one could really say that it was impossible for a Tyranitar like Gaia to do something like this as pseudo-legendries did crazy shit all the time. Hell I can''t even say how many times one of them just casually rearranged thendscape in an area because they were in a bad mood. There was a whole ass forest that got burnt down because a Dragonite had a toothache and went haywire trying to ease the pain for example.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Clones

    Clones


    Naturally there was still some suspicion that I was bullshiting them when I said Gaia was responsible for the sandstorm but I simply pointed out that the storm had already shrunk after I told her to do so. It was rather hard to deny my ims with evidence like that avable so the matter got left there. I also had a message from Wes and Rui that bothered me quite a bit. While I was gone from the region Cypher had made a move on Mt. Battle to get an item supposedly capable of summoning Celebi.-


    The admin that had gone to get it was a man that was nearly as tall as I was apparently but had facial tattoos and red hair. He was named Dakim and it was the shadow pokemon he had that bothered me the most, an Entei. ''How the fuck did Cypher manage to get their hands on a legendary? Even stranger is how the fuck they managed to turn one into a shadow pokemon when all legendries learn how to use aura shortly after they are born?'' I thought rmed by the news.-


    The only saving grace here was that Wes had stolen it from the admin so I sent a message telling them to bring it to me as well as my concerns. Apparently the region dynamic duo was currently in a rut for investigating Cypher and had the free time to travel all the way out to the Hub today. I had Gaia let them approach and greeted them as they arrived. "Wish we didn''t have to keep meeting like this and could just rx and chat for once." I said with a shake of my head. "Maybe after all this is over." Wes said clearly having dramatically mellowed out with Rui''s subtle influence over the time since Ist saw them.-


    "Perhaps, but enough about that show me this Entei you''ve "recovered" from that admin." I said pointing to the empty spot nearby. Vulcan and Hades were nearby ready to intervein if the pokemon went haywire. Wes took out a great ball and clicked the button releasing the pokemon within. The redser light shifted and changed to form the shape of the pokemon before solidifying and revealing it in it''s normal state. Appearance wise the Entei looked entirely normal as it stood there but the thick billowing ck auraing off of it was anything but.-


    I wasted no time circling the pokemon while secretly appraising it to try and ascertain it''s origins. "Ah so that was how they did it, sneaky devils aren''t they?" I muttered when I got my answer. "What is it?" Rui asked worried. "Before I can exin that I need to educate you two on legendary pokemon a bit. Recall it and lets go take a seat, this may take a while." I said calmly before heading into the building of the Hub.-


    Once we got settled in our seats I began to speak again. "Well to start off with I should exin how legendary pokemon are born as it''s aplicated topic. There are in fact a total of four ways roughly that a legendary pokemon cane into the world. The first is via the normal mating route where another legendary mated and produced an egg. Not all species of legendary are capable of mating mind you so this only applies to certain species. The second method is how Entei, Suicuneand Raikou are born which is via natural genesis or to put it simply the world itself spawning them when an unclear set of conditions are met."-


    "The third method is via divine intervention from one of the godly legendries in which case a legendary is forcefully created by them somehow. Don''t bother asking because I also have no idea how they pull it off. The final method is semi-taboo because it applies to those same godly legendries and they do NOT take kindly to it, cloning. Yes legendary pokemon can be cloned but, and I can''t stress this enough, WHICH legendary you decide to clone is extremely important."-


    "None of the godly ones are on the table for cloning because in most cases they WILL sense it and they WILL turn violent which ends up badly for everyone involved, trust me there are records of this stuff. Anyways like normal pokemon cloning you can only clone one of the legendries with actual flesh and blood which excludes a few but still leaves a decent selection. Now when a legendary is born via any method other than cloning members of the species can apparently feel it somehow, not clear on that part myself, and an elder of the species seeks out the new member to teach them."-


    "The thing is however that ALL legendries are born able to utilize their auras and are taught how to control and hone this ability by their elders. This naturally means that turning them into shadow pokemon after being captured from the wild, a feat in and of itself, is pretty much impossible. Care to take a guess at how Cypher pulled it off despite this?" I asked. "Clones." Wes said with a look of grim understanding. "Bingo, a clone neither has any memories nor does it have a guide to using it''s aura. Cypher capitalized on this to create a shadow version of an Entei, to put it bluntly the pokemon you have is a clone and not a naturally born one." I said seriously.


    "If they could clone one Entei whats to stop them from creating an army of the things!?" Rui eximed in horror. "Rx, it''s not so easy to clone a normal pokemon much less a legendary that naturally have a little extra to them. Cloning is both a time and resource consuming thing when using normal pokemon but for legendries? Cypher would have to be ridiculously wealthy to clone more than three."-


    "Giving one to each admin as a status symbol is doable but anymore than that and it simply isn''t worth the amount such a thing would demand of them. Thankfully there is a bright side to this situation if they cloned a single legendary for each admin." I said with a grin. "What is it?" Wes asked curiously. "If you capture and purify each of them you could have that many legendary pokemon on your team without having to worry about infighting amongst them. You could be one of the extremely rare few to ever pull that off." I said honestly.-


    "But what if they are all the same species though?" Rui asked and I scoffed at the question. "It wouldn''t be much of a status symbol then now would it? No if I''m right there are probably a cloned Suicune and Raikou in the possession of one of the admins each remaining. Well I mean they could have cloned a different legendary but having the full set of legendary dogs would be a impressive show of status for them so I doubt it." I said honestly.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 To the forest

    To the forest


    "I suppose that knowing the typing of at least one future enemies pokemon is somewhat useful." Wes said gruffly. "Now then lets get this Entei of yours purified and you two on your way." I said and they agreed. I had a lot more trouble purifying this Entei than I did the previous shadow pokemon but that was to be expected. Once I was done Wes and Rui left and I crashed out to sleep and recover from the strain the process took on me. If I had the massive reserves I used to have before my aura got a qualitative upgrade it wouldn''t have been enough to make me break a sweat. -


    Unfortunately I had very little energy at any given time so when I sent my energy into the Entei I had to use that small amount to deal with the entirety of the pokemons aura. It was a bit like using a pickaxe to hollow out a mountain, possible but highly inefficient. I ended up needing three days of rest before I was feeling back to normal but i can''t say that the gains weren''t worth it.-


    My own aura reserves had grown slightlyrger as a natural response to being so strained much like a muscle in a way. Purifying a shadow pokemon wasn''t like using aura normally or meditating to improve the stuff but was rather the sort of growth that happened when you finish a tough fight and learn from the experience. Now it was time for me to finally head out into the relic forest to find that shrine and hopefully the Celebi itself. I wasn''t going to force any of my pokemon toe with me if they absolutely didn''t want to but it was pretty much unanimously agreed that we went together.-


    To my surprise Gaia had apparently managed to integrate her divinity with the desert sands enough to keep the sandstorm going on it''s own pretty much indefinitely. Only real downside was going to be that she wasn''t going to be able to control it so the Hub was going to be a forbidden zone while we were gone. I sent out my messages to my people in the region telling them what I was doing before finally getting on Rune and setting out into the sky with Agate in mind for my destination.-


    While we flew I kept an eye out on the desert in hopes of finding whatever thest oddity of the region was or the ruins the system said were here but I had no luck this time. Agate vige was more defensive i suppose you could say when I arrived but I wasn''t surprised given what Wes and Rui told me happened while I was gone here. Apparently Cypher had found out about the relic and it''s "purification" properties and sought to destroy it as a threat to their ns. Wes was in the vige at the time though and sent the peons packing near effortlessly.-


    As it turned out the pokemon that got purified were the perfect canvas for him to paint a masterpiece of training and skill as they were nk tes waiting for their potential to be drawn out and oh was he good at doing so. The guy even confessed that the only reason his two long time pokemon weren''t getting left behind was because they were already in sync with each other and himself so they learned just as fast as he did. It was a good sort of problem to have to be honest.-


    Most trainers would kill for the same problem as for the rest of us we had to deal with the bad habits, personalities, preferences and emotions of our pokemon when training which made things less than ideal. These purified shadow pokemon didn''t have these issues as they were little more than mindless drones operating on instinct and orders alone for now. Eventually they''d redevelop a sense of self and personality but for now they were nothing but raw and pure potential. Anyways after seeing that i wasn''t one of the Cypher members the folks of the vige let me in.-


    The greenery was pleasant as always as I skipped everything and went straight to the relic and from there into the forest. The relic forest was not all that different from any other forest in this world as there was nts overgrown everywhere of all sorts of varieties. There were birds and other forms of life as well and once I got deep enough into the forest I even found traces of pokemon. The disturbing part though was that I was found that these tracks weren''t so simple. They had different ages that didn''t align quite right with one print looking no more than a few minutes old and another a few days old.-


    It was entirely possible that whatever created these prints on the ground was in fact a pokemon that lived in the forest before the region underwent whatever change happened to stop wild pokemon from living here. ''Fucking temporal anomalies.'' I thought spitefully as I had my hopes up a little. I had hoped that since this was an area clearly out of the zone that left the rest of the region so barren that I might find wild pokemon here but it seemed I was mistaken.-


    What I did find however was berries and herbs galore as the pokemon that would normally keep their numbers down weren''t present. I didn''t harvest the things without appraising them first to see if they were safe for it and more often than not they had some sort of temporal corruption that would cause them to rot or revert to nothing when harvested. It was a fascinating sort of evolution to see and if I ever got an ability that fucked with time in some way I was definitelying back here to hone it.-


    Time was absolutely cracked out of it''s mind in this forest as some parts I saw were in the middle of winter or something like that while another spot right next to it was totally normal. The part that bothered me the most however was that I didn''t know when I passed through an altered time space until after I did so. Doing so gave you this odd sense of vertigo and offness that was downright nerve-wracking to experience. Still despite time being all sorts of fucked up I had my trustypass to guide me north to the shrine that I was after.-


    When I arrived it was not at all how I expected it to be. I had thought it would be a rundown ce overgrown with weeds and dirty but I was VERY wrong. The surroundings of the shrine were well maintained and looked like a skilled caretaker had just finished up trimming the grass. The shrine itself was a small stone structure carved with many detailed images of events past, present and future. Within the shrine was a golden offering bowl and still lit incense burning next to it as well as a faded but clean tapestry depicting a Celebi.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Displacement

    Discement


    <em>''Long has it been since one of your kind has visited this ce, or perhaps it has been mere moments? Whatever the case you have sought this ce out at great risk to yourself and so it would only be right that I show myself to</em> <em>you</em>.'' A soft male voice spoke in my head but I knew it''s source without looking. Green energy particles came together brightly to reveal a small almost infant looking creature with light green skin and a sort of sprouted onion looking head that hadrge emerald eyes and a small mouth on it.-


    "It seems luck is on my side after all, I had hoped to speak with you but your kind are notoriously hard to find normally." I said with a chuckle. ''<em>Oh? You speak as though we aren''t more often than not within our domains. It is you mortals that make it difficult on yourselves with your fear of times touch within</em> <em>them</em>.'' The Celebi said teasingly. I shrugged at that though as it wasn''t wrong as most people avoid these forests out of fear of potentially getting stranded in a time not their own.-


    ''<em>Now then, where would a high humane from in your original time frame?''</em> it asked curiously. "My circumstances are unusual to say the least. For starters I was once fully human but due to my unique constitution I changed, evolved I suppose you could say, into what I am now. You can confirm this with Rayquaza himself from my original time as he has witnessed me before and after this change." I said honestly. Obviously I wasn''t going to mention the system but even Rayquaza said my body seemed to be in a constant state of flux so why would I make up a lie when I already had a piece of information that could fill in?-


    ''<em>There is no need as your time scent paints the picture clearly for me. I must say though that you are quite the rude individual. So many times you''ve spoken roughly to those undeserving of it. Still I can see that your past actions were for the general good of the world so I will give you a pass in this regard but do try and work on that in the future. On to business then, you seek the ancient lost knowledge of thisnds history.''</em> the Celebi said casually sending chills down my spine.-


    I knew that the species had a special connection with time that allowed them to move through it freely but I hadn''t even considered that they could simply peer through the entire history of a person at a nce. I was thankful however to see that the system rted things were apparently missing from this ability of it''s so it didn''t see the system. "I am indeed, though I am mostly interested in why no pokemon tries to make this region their home. What I have understood has left me with more questions than answers." I said honestly.-


    ''<em>Not surprising given how few witnessed that event and survived to tell of itter. Ah I have the perfect way to satisfy your curiosity, no need to thank me either!''</em> the Celebi said mischievously before vanishing in a sh of green light. "Wait you didn''t actually give me an answer!" I called out but there was no response. ''Of course the thing decided to ke out on me out of nowhere, at least I learned that there was indeed some sort of event that caused the current situation in Orre.'' I thought with a sigh as I left some berries in the offering bowl out of caution and left for the relic.-


    The trip back through the forest was much the same as it was previously but something about it was nagging at the back of my mind yet I couldn''t figure out what. That changed when I finally left the forest only to discover that Agate vige that should be there was gone or rather never existed in the first ce. "Fuck." I muttered once I realized what thatst thing the Celebi said meant.-


    I had been cast back in time and not by a small amount either but thousands of years most likely. I immediately released all of my team without a word. I had long since gone over a scenario like this with them so they knew precisely what they needed to do. Gaia and Vulcan immediately began to clear out an area around the natural cave leading to the relic so we could set up shop here. Rune and Tank went on recon from the sky while Yani, Hades and the not so little one stayed with me in case I got attacked.-


    In the case I got stranded in the past my n was quite simple really and had four rough steps, reinforce, scout, mingle and return. The basic synopsis of the n was to set up a sort of base of operations for this time and explore the surroundings. After that I was to approach any people I found as a traveler from afar and try and learn what I could about this time with the end goal being my return to my own time. For now though I was on the first and second parts of the n with a slight add on in the form of learning about what happened during this time if that Celebi sent me where I think it did.-


    If I could trust what it said at the end then this should be the time that whatever event happened which made this both a golden oppurtunity as well as an extreme danger for me. This event destroyed a massive amount ofnd so I ran the risk of death if I got caught in it but at the same time there really was no better way to discover what happened than to witness it personally.-


    It only took Vulcan and Gaia a couple of hours to set up a rough perimeter around the entrance of the cave leading to the relic. It was mostly just a small wall of stone and jagged ss from Vulcan melting the sand Gaia created into the stuff. It wasn''t particrly strong but it was enough of an irritation to get through that only things really trying would. This meant anything that tried to breach this blockade was likely an enemy or didn''t know how to mind their own business. Rune and Tank likely wouldn''t be back for another few hours from scouting the surroundings so I set up my portable kitchen to make us a meal.-


    It was going to be a simple stew with water from the river and some wild mushrooms and game from nearby. I was of course going to season the stew as well but there was no telling how far in the past I was so I was going to only be doing so lightly as I wasn''t sure howmon they would be. Due to this I wanted to use them sparingly in hopes of making itst longer.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Displacement(2)

    Discement(2)


    There were pokemon nearby so I had Vulcan hunt a few Pidgey line pokemon for the stew since I doubted they were all that important to the timeline. In fact I was fairly certain I could kill rampantly without effecting the future all that much given that most of the inhabitants of thisnd at this time were likely doomed to begin with. This also left me with a rather unique oppurtunity as well. I could seek out variants or legendary pokemon from thisnd at this time to collect DNA samples from for cloning when I went back to my original time.-


    Obviously I wasn''t going to go on a rampage as that would draw too much attention to myself but the idea was easy to understand. I also nned on seeing if I could get my hands on any rare or extinct resources that were found in this region at this time to take back as well. I was by no means an expert with thousands of resources memorized but I didn''t need to be thanks to the fact i could just appraise stuff to find out what was what.-


    I was surprised to see that I hadn''t gotten some sort of quest from the system despite this situation very much qualifying for one but this wasn''t the only time this had happened so there was nothing I could do about it. While the quests tended to have a simr theme to them showing up there were cases where this haven''t been followed. One such time was very early in my journey across Hoenn when I got the quest to find the shipwreck from traveling the coast. Unlike normally where I did something to trigger a quest this time it was a matter of proximity to said shipwreck even though I hadn''t known about it until the quest popped up.-


    A different example of quests not popping up when they probably should was when I decided to be a trainer and collect all the badges. That was a conscious decision on my part and even had a long term goal included within it yet the system remained quiet about it. Perhaps there were some sort of hidden requirements that I didn''t fulfil for a quest to pop up or something like that. What I''m getting at here is that quests are weird and confusing to figure out.-


    Anyway Rune and Tank arrived within minutes of each other when the sun started to set and reported what they discovered. Let me tell you it wasn''t what I was expecting either. First and foremost they both reported that the desert that we were used to didn''t exist and instead was forests, ins and fields. The second was that I was bound to stick out like a sore thumb in my current attire as everyone they saw wore cloth robes with either a single strap or two depending on gender that were very rough looking.-


    The third thing was that pokemon were free to roam as they wished with the people paying them no mind. Both Rune and Tank spun stories of Rhydon, Kidoking/queen, Pidgey living around and with people and even a group of Eevee ying in a field of wheat as a farmer worked it. It sounded almost too good to be true if I''m being honest. I knew for a fact that by this point in history that pokemon trainers weren''t a thing really as there was no way to facilitate a bond between person and pokemon besides time and genuine interaction or aura use.-


    Because of this anyone actually possessing a pokemon was either very lucky or an aura master. Yet all these wild pokemon weren''t violent or territorial like they were in my time. Thing was however that I wasn''t sure if this was because of some cultural thing or because of something else like a legendary making it so. There was no way to find out either without interacting with the people of this time or the legendary responsible. The final thing that I got reported to me was from Rune that flew to the far side of the region, Giratina was here.


    I don''t mean like metaphorically or theoretically or any other fancy way but very literally. In the center of a massive temple at the center of the region Giratina''s massive form could be seen from miles away ording to Rune. I suddenly had a VERY bad feeling that I knew exactly what event it was that caused the region to end up like it did if that particr being was still freely roaming around. If I was right fuck investigating anything, I choose life. I am of course referring to Giratina turning full evil going on a killing spree before Arceus banished it to the distortion world.-


    I didn''t want to be anywhere near that event when it popped off and for good fucking reason too. If anyone ever asked what the most lore terrifying thing to be mentioned in the games was I would without hesitation say that it was Giratina turning evil and going on a rampage. Even in the hierarchy of godly pokemon there was only ever three that were equal to Giratina in power and that was it''s siblings and creator. It wasn''t stated but I was pretty sure that Giratina was the embodiment of matter toplete the trifecta of space, time and matter.-


    The battle that resulted in it getting sealed away had to be damn near apocalyptical in power and I was here at that time. I was right to be concerned with that knowledge and was halfway tempted to just head back into the forest and stay there. One thing stood out to me at the moment however that bothered me, Giratina wasn''t evil yet. If it was Rune definitely wouldn''t have been able to get anywhere near it without dying. Instead however Giratina was just sort of rxing in a templeplex clearly built to worship it.-


    I won''t lie and say that I don''t want to know what it was that turned the thing evil or even if it truly was evil to begin with. Lore from the game and myths from this world said it was but what if that was a lie, a deception? What if Giratina was actually a good being but was corrupted somehow? Theres no reason why it shouldn''t be possible either as infernal pokemoning about proved that such absolute corruption was possible.-


    It was also entirely possible that Giratina just lost it''s mind for no real reason as well but it was hard to believe. Insanity almost always had a reason for manifesting but the question was, what was it? What could push a being like that so far as to go insane? No doubt the Celebi nned to show me for it to bring me to this time. The trick was whether I would survive learning this secret or not and even more dangerous if Giratina would remember me after I got back to my time.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Plan

    n


    As I said previously when you change something in the past it creates a branching timeline that upon returning to the present gets fused and ovepped with the present timeline causing either minor or major changes. If there were major changes you''d never know as you tended to drop dead before you could even time travel in the first ce. As a result before I came back in time Giratina was likely not aware of me but if I stick my nose into this matter out of curiosity, and lets be honest I am going to do it, it will know of me at that point.-


    Once I get back to the present that version of Giratina will have memories of me and the question then bes whether or not it will deem me worth paying attention to or not. It''s hard to say really as in the game when Cyrus chained up Palkia and Dialga Giratina acted to stop him but otherwise didn''t make any move to fully return to the world or even cause a lot of destruction. That might be due to it being a game but it might also be a sign that it had mellowed out or gotten control of itself again.-


    It truly is hard to say what the truth was without personally being present when it goes down in reality. What Giratina''s state of mind is when I return to the present also has serious implications on myself as well. If it is sane again it may try and contact me as I would likely be the only person in existence that knew it before it went mad and would possibly be willing to give it a second chance. The other legendries had made it clear that they either didn''t care or thought it should stay in the distortion world.-


    On the other hand if it was still mad it may either ignore me or decide to drag me into the distortion world on a whim. The game made it clear that the pokemon had the power to punch a hole from the distortion world to this one whenever it wanted but chose not to, perhaps because it didn''t have a reason to? Regardless it could drag me into the distortion world and I very much doubted the other three would lift a finger to rescue me. Why would they for a mere mortal of little consequence?-


    To be fair I was probably greatly exaggerating my own importance here as I was pretty much an ant to Giratina and I certainly didn''t have a habit of paying attention to every ant I saw. "Alright listen up, here''s the n. Gaia, Vulcan and the little one will need to stay here as you will draw far too much attention and I can''t bring my bag or pokeballs with me. Tank I need you to find a set of clothes that look like they might fit me, steal them and bring them back."-


    "Once Tank gets back Yani, Hades and Tank wille with me openly while Rune will follow from the sky. If i''m correct having three pokemon will earn me respect but not draw too much attention. Any more than three though and it will cause a seriousmotion which we want to avoid. The next hurtle will be thenguage as I am unsure if they speakmon or some other ancientnguage. If they speak an ancientnguage I might be able to understand them depending on which one but will likely not be able to speak back."-


    "This is where one of you wille in to try andmunicate for me since as pokemon you understand speech through your auras rather than the actual words being said which only pokemon like you can do. I will send my ideas to you through our bonds and you can in turnmunicate them with whomever we are speaking. Hades I need you to stay in your keystone unless I either say otherwise or I am in danger." I exined seriously. I got a lot ofints from Vulcan, Gaia and the little one but otherwise none of my pokemon had any gripes about the n.-


    I would have had to worry about having more than one bonded pokemon with me if it wasn''t for the fact I was an aura master but since I was having three should be pretty normal in this time period if my knowledge was urate. Early the next day we put the n into motion and Tank shot into the sky to go find some clothes for me to wear. Before that though I had him weave a bag out of his string for me to use in ce of my own.-


    A modern bag would stand out like a sore thumb but a traveler without any bag at all would also draw suspicions. Having a leather travel bag would be best but I had no clue how to make such a thing and anyone with eyes would be able to see how new it was even if I did. A bag made of Tanks string could instead be easily exined away as being easier to maintain on the road which was why I had one instead of a normal bag. As for the clothes I would need to dirty them up before we left so that they looked like they had been used for travel.-


    I myself was already set in that regard with my tanned skin and wild hair that were doubtlessly very convincing of my wandering. Ironically myck of normal fashion worked in my favor in this regard as I could easily pass for someone constantly on the road during this time period. Anyways while I waited for Tank to get back I loaded up my new bag with a few things to make my story believable. Some jerky, dried nts, potions in ss vials, a ss bottle of water and the alchemy stuff that would be avable during this time like a mortar and pestle and small pot and lid.-


    I would have liked to have a y jug of water but the ss bottle was the best I had if I didn''t want to reveal my water creation ability, which I didn''t. My tale was that I was a wandering healer from and far away. Rather simple I know but I had the skillset and ability to pull it off convincingly. About an hour after he left Tank came back with a robe that he nabbed from a clothesline and I had to fray the bottom while smearing dirt there as well before dipping it into the river.-


    Once I was satisfied with how it looked I slipped it on and fastened it at the waist with as rope of Tanks string and it was time to set off. As it turned out the nearest settlement was to the south east at the foot of Mt. Battle though I was pretty sure it had a different name at this point.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 First contact

    First contact


    I asked Tank if it had stolen the clothes from that ce but he denied it and added that he made sure no one saw him take it to begin with. I had thought about flying straight to the ce but decided against it as I didn''t know how the locals would react to an unknown person. I assume that they would be cautious so walking was the better option as it let them prepare more after spotting me if they so wanted to. I have to say though that there was something to be said about this ancient version of Orre.-


    The normal poptions of pokemon and sheer amount of greenery including trees made the entire region WAY colder than it''s present day version. I mean it was to be expected I suppose since a lot of the heat from the sun gets taken by the nts rather than held and radiated back up from the sands. One big thing that I was thrilled to see however was that there were a lot more ancient variants around but considering how far in the past I was that wasn''t all that odd.-


    The "ancient" times were a lot closer in this time than in the present so the gics for it weren''t as recessive here. I was rather tempted to head back to the basecamp to collect as many samples as I could but resisted that urge. One thing I thought was worth noting about these wild pokemon was that elite specimens were basically nonexistent. I saw only a single one over the span of an entire days walking. That single one I saw was a Smence that was clearly returning from a hunt as it had the limp form of a Tauros in it''s ws.-


    Obviously I didn''t jump to conclusions from this small sample size but I had honestly thought that without so much human interference the wild pokemon would be more like what I saw in the mountain range between Orre and Rota. Though now that I think about it Giratina actually having a tangible presence in this region might be the reason for the lower power levels I saw. Powerful pokemon tended to carve out areas of territory for themselves but it is possible that that instinct has been suppressed due to the legendries active presence.-


    Still i camped out at the end of the day rather than push on for thest few hours needed to reach the settlement as visiting at night would be VERY suspicious. People had this historical tendency both in this world and on earth to associate the night with evil and that was not exactly the best first impression you could give. That said I highly doubted that my campfire wasn''t visible from the vige as the human eye is extremely good at picking up light from far away. This too worked in my favor as it meant that the ce would more than likely be expecting my approach tomorrow.-


    I was right as in the morning when I approached the vige there was an old man with a Kadabra waiting for me outside the vige. "Halt! Thou art not familiar! Name thyself and thine purpose!" the old man demanded in a very outdated form ofmon. I felt the pokemon next to him attempt to probe my mind but was repelled by my aura. "Mine name is Drake, wandering healer from afar!" I called back calmly. "Thou art a shaman? Many pardons for mine unbing wee, this one hadn''t known." the old man said apologizing and bowing.-


    "Tis no fault of thine own for it was not clear." I said pardoning the man while trying really hard not to cringe. For a modern person like me speaking like this was the height of cringe worthy and was awkward. "Most gracious of thee sire, please hesitate not if this one can be of service. Our resources art not plentiful but at your disposal." he said humbly. ''It seems aura masters are treated in a simr manner to nobility, good to know.'' I thought as the man led me into the vige.-


    The buildings were made of simple stones mortared together and capped with wood and hay. The "road" was more a trodden down dirt path than anything else and the inhabitants of the vige cautiously watched me from their homes. "I beg of thee understanding on behalf of this ones people, visitors are a rare thing in these parts." the old man said humbly but i shook my head "This one is but a humble healer, a servant to all whom require aid. Thou''st need not seek mine understanding." I said and he rxed greatly.-


    "Thine magnamity truly speaks of thine character well." he praised with a smile. After that I asked about the region and the way of life here while the vigers started warming up to me. None of them found my questions odd since I had said that I was from and far away. They also didn''t seem to question any slip up I had when speaking for the same reason. Make no mistake I DID slip up as it was very hard to actively speak in the manner that they did when I was most definitely not a native to it.-


    Hellmon wasn''t even my firstnguage but something I had to practice a lot when I first came to this world while actively stopping myself from slipping back into english. It was a rough time at first but by now I spoke thenguage just as fluently as any local, better in some cases. For this reason alone the skill was sitting at master mastery in my status page. Having such a mastery wasn''t the be all end all though as there was transcendent after that that I had an idea about how I could go about reaching.-


    If speaking thenguage like a native was what it took to get the master then to get to transcendent I assume that I''d have to be able to speak any dialect or ent of thenguage as well so this was good practice. Anyways from my questions I learned a few things that rified some of my doubts. First was that yes Giratina was responsible for the docileness of the local pokemon poption and low amount of elite level pokemon. Second was that Aura masters or shamans as they were called were considered blessed by the gods and thus noble inherently regardless of birth status.-


    Third was that most aura masters were kind of assholes normally due to this favoritism going to their heads from a young age. Like they weren''t bullies or anything but they were rude when they spoke more often than not with no respect for anyone other than fellow aura masters or legendary pokemon. Finally was that healers were VERY sought after everywhere due to their scarcity from both secrecy and difficulty in learning the profession even more so if they had the ability as well. Thanks to this I had identally set myself on a very high pedestal with my made up backstory.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Change of plans and variant hunting

    Change of ns and variant hunting


    Let me tell you people really needed a healer around too. In this vige alone I came across no less than eighteen bones that had broken and been healed out of alignment. Reason being that they had no healer and they had work that needed to be done and thus could waste time on such a thing. It was pretty hardcore if I''m being honest but annoying to deal with as the vigers all wanted something to take away the pain these past injuries caused them regrly.-


    It wasn''t a particrly hard thing to do though rather tedious since it was basically the same thing over and over again. I could have just broken the bone again and reset it in the correct position before healing it but that seemed a bit too much. Instead I just made some pain relieving potions from nearby nts and handed that over instead. Still this was more than enough for these vigers to believe my backstory entirely and basically hand over any information I asked for. For example there was no real kingdom or anything like that in the region so much as a sort of theocracy I suppose with Giratina calling the shots.-


    There was apparently four priestesses blessed by the godly pokemon that acted as both the go between formunicating with the legendary as well as the enforcers of thews it set in each of the four directions of the region. Recently however there was rumor that the four priestesses had been struck with some sort of affliction. That was my first clue that something was going on behind the scenes. An illness might not be all that odd in and of itself but when that illness effected the four linchpin individuals with a direct connection to Giratina itself that raised a red g.-


    I also learned that Giratina slumbered most of the time and left the worldly matters to it''s priestesses. ording to these people this was because the legendary was blessing thend but I had my doubts. I could understand Groudon and Kyogre slumbering since their jobs were to create the seas andnds but Giratina was the embodiment of matter itself and thus probably shouldn''t be slumbering. I mean from the way I understand the creation trio they each had an active job in maintaining the fundamental forces of the world and thus were always on the clock as it were.-


    I left the vige after about a day there gathering information and when I was far enough away I had Rune fly down and take me back to the base camp. I needed to think about what my next move would be based on the information i had gathered. "Okay so far I know that I should probably go take a look at these priestess people since the vigers didn''t have any details to share on whatever that illness was. Beyond that I may need to take a risk and go to Giratina as well to figure out the source of the problem."-


    "Finally I want to go looking for any double or more variants that may be around this region to collect DNA samples from." I said after I got back to the base camp. "En, En Entei, En?" Vulcan questioned. "Well since a lot of ancient variants are around naturally it only makes sense that a double variation might also appear from that poption." I answered calmly. "Tar, Tar, Ranitar?" Gaia rumbled out about my disguise. "It shouldn''t be a problem unless we tussle with something at the elite level for no good reason." I said honestly.-


    Other than that the only thing my pokemon had an issue with was the idea of me getting anywhere near Giratina. There was no amount of reassuring words that would fix that concern either as even I had to admit that it was a VERY dangerous thing no matter how you looked at it. The legendary could literally snore me to death or twitch in it''s slumber turning me into red mist. It also didn''t help that we all knew that at some point it was going to wake up and chose violence and there was no telling when exactly that was.-


    "Now then Rune, Tank I need you two to go scout out the region for any double or greater variants, they should stand out. Bonus points if you somehow find a variant legendary or pseudo-legendary. I on the otherhand want to work on collecting some of the nearby nts that are extinct in our time that I saw previously." I said and my two fliers saluted in their own weird way before flying up and away. I also wasted no time looking around for those extinct nts to take some samples and hopefully seeds of.-


    Over the next few days while I collected ingredients words had begun to spread of a great healer havinging to thesends from afar who was also a shaman with three powerfulpanions. One such rumor had reached the home of one of the four priestesses and the womanmanded her guardian shamans to find me. Of course I didn''t learn of this until Rune and Tank came back with their report on the double and greater variant pokemon in the region. They had discovered exactly five of those and three variant pseudo-legendries.-


    The five normal variants were an Ancient/Poison variant Ursaring, Ancient/Attack/Shiny variant Magikarp, Shiny/Royal variant Yanmega, Shiny/Dark variant Pidgey and finally a Royal/Ancient/Speed variant Pikachu. Obviously they found more than just this small amount in the entire region but those were species that couldn''t be cloned and thus ignored. The three variant pseudo-legendries were of interest to me though. An Ancient variant Bagon, Ice variant Bagon(siblings apparently) and surprisingly enough a Royal/psychic variant Dratini. Getting a sample from each of these pokemon proved to be a challenge as each of them was either well protected by other members of it''s species or t-out resistant to parting with it''s DNA.-


    The Ursaring was surprisingly chill just handing over some blood. The Magikarp tried to eat me and the Yanmega was a runner. The Pidgey had a whole flock of it''s species that didn''t take kindly to the attempt. Finally was the Pikachu that used the oppurtunity to y tag where I had to chase it for a good thirty minutes before getting my sample. The pseudo-legendary Bagons t-out refused me and things got less than friendly as a result. Hades and Vulcan got a good workout ripping their way through the pack of Smence line pokemon to get me to the two Bagon that looked at me incredulously after I turned to leave after collecting some blood.-


    Obviously we didn''t kill our way through the pack of dragon types but they definitely got a good beating for their stubborn resistance. For the Dratini I ended up having to negotiate with the tribe because they had three elite Dragonite and violence was a VERY bad idea as a result.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Travel

    Travel


    Still in the end I got my samples and had them carefully stored in the cold pocket of my Devon bag to preserve them. Out of all of them the ice variant Bagon was the greatest surprise because it is extremely rare for a pokemon the be born with an elemental variation that conflicted with it''s species innate type. Unfortunately the Bagon was not also dragon type or I might have been tempted to train the clone myself after I returned to the present. The Magikarp and Pikachu however were the real valuable ones though.-


    Not only were they both triple variants but the specificbination of variations meant that they each could be the ace of nearly any trainer. Ancient variant Magikarp gained the dragon typing after evolving into a Gyarados and were not slouches before they evened either. Add on the Shiny variation for some color and the Attack variation and you got a beast of a pokemon that would give even a weaker legendary a run for it''s money at least in terms of sheer power. The only real downside was that Ancient variant Gyarados were notoriously difficult to control and I doubted the other two variations were going to help rather than hinder that task.-


    The set of variations for the Pikachu on the other hand had no real downside involved as the species was pretty friendly as a rule of thumb even if they had the Ancient variation that made them a bit more violent. The Ancient variant of the Pikachu line was not much different from the present day normal ones as they don''t get any new abilities or typings but instead were simply bigger, darker colored and had slightly longer shaggy fur. Add on the Royal variation and the resulting pokemon was about the size of a child at about four feet tall.-


    The speed variation instead lengthened the legs of the species proportionally while thinning the body shape slightly to be more aerodynamic. The final result was fast as fuck and hit really damn hard regardless of physical or elemental attacks. Both of these were worth investing time and resources into even for me but unfortunately wouldn''t work well in my current team. I thought perhaps I could put together a team of newbie pokemon when I went to a different region that had a true league circuit so that I wasn''t stupidly overpowered the moment I hit the circuit unlike what happened in Hoenn.-


    Admittedly I sort of went overboard on training Vulcan and Gaia before I left Mt. Grey and was massively overpowered for someone just hitting a circuit for the first time. If I really wanted to experience the circuit the way it was intended I needed to start fresh with a whole new team of scrubs to train up into monsters like my current team. That said that was a FAR future type goal as for now I want to raise my current team to champion level before I even considered that sort of thing.-


    For now though since I had collected the samples I wanted it was time to hit the road and go see what the deal with these priestesses and Giratina was. Same asst time it was just going to be me Hades, Tank, Yani and secretly Rune from the sky. Vulcan, Gaia and the little one were to stay back at base camp as they would draw far too much attention. I set out once more with the closest "capital" of the region the northern priestesses home that was past the foot of Mt. Battle and thus the vige I went to previously.-


    Tank had been the one that scouted out that part of the region so I knew from him that it was about a weeks worth of walking. I did have to walk too as if I flew most of the way it would risk me getting spotted. Assuming news of my presence in the region had spread people would be on the lookout for me and as unlikely as it was that may include from the sky as well.-


    The next three days were quiet as I walked but I was spotted and approached on the fourth day by a man wearing armor and riding a Doutrio. "Hail sir healer! Thine presence has been requested by her holiness Granine!" the man shouted as he rode therge bird pokemon towards me. "Thou needed not inform me as mine current trajectory aligns with the priestesses ce of residence." I said calmly and the man seemed to do a bit of mental mapping before nodding in eptance. "I implore you make haste as her Holinesses health worsens by the hour." the man said before turning the bird pokemon he was on and having it sprint off in the direction of the capital.-


    Once I was sure the man was gone I turned to my pokemon "Looks like we are going to need to pick up the pace. Thankfully humans are endurance runners so I should be able to run for a few hours to cut the journey down by about a day and a half if I go as hard as I can for that long." I said seriously before securing my bag and clothes and taking off hard.-


    My form was perfect and my body was in the best shape possible so I easily hit fifteen to twenty miles per hour in a fast run. I ran for the next four hours before my legs were burning and begging relief. I had to use my healing ability on them to fix the damage such a reckless act had caused but I had cut down on the travel time considerably. While as I said humans were endurance runners by nature that didn''t mean that doing so was a good idea. We built upctic acid that once we stopped running settled and became a painful problem for us.-


    In this regard my healing ability was kinda broken as unlike most that would need to spend a few days breaking down that acid I could repair the damage and break down that acid far faster. I camped out for the night and set out in the morning for the northern capital. As I expected it only took me about three hours of running to see the "city" in the distance.-


    It reminded me heavily of ancient roman architecture on earth with massive stone pirs holding up the ceilings and marble nearly everywhere you looked. In the center of the city was a massive building that was clearly either a pce or a temple construct, maybe both judging from the many statues worshiping Giratina around it.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Rot

    Rot


    It was clear that I was expected when I approached the "city" as a few armored men stood waiting for me. "Thou art earlier than expected but it is fortuitous timing as her Holinesses health hath taken a turn for the worst. Thine assistance would be of great aid please follow mine lead." One of the men said seriously and I nodded. We rushed through the city and despite the citizens being curious about myself they did not impede us. I got a fairly good look at the city as we went and for the most part it was like what you would expect.-


    There were stalls selling various wares and people busy with their work while pokemon could be seen helping or just existing all over the ce. The vast majority of the architecture was simple square stone buildings with various nts growing on and around them and hollow windows. The people were just normal people really with a general theme in terms of fashion but the odd outlier that was different. One such person was a man I had to actually check if had an ability as he was easily eight feet tall and looked like a mountain of muscle.-


    Unlike most everyone else that had on full robes that covered them fully he only had on a sort of skirt or man dress kilt thing and leather sandals as he hauled a dead Tauros on his shoulder. The man did indeed have an ability by the way, the giant ability. It was a purely physical type ability and a passive one to boot but one that was highly coveted even in the present for a single reason, it allowed a non-aura master to match a pokemon.-


    A weaker pokemon species of course but even then it was an ability that closed the gap between people and pokemon which was something many valued. As a result I wasn''t surprised to see the man using his strength for manualbor like this as it fit. Anyways we soon arrived outside the pce/temple and I got to see the statues in better detail. The first thing I noticed was that there was none of the origin form from the game which made me wonder if the legendary only got it after it was banished to the distortion world.-


    The second thing I noticed was that the sort of tattered ghostly dragon wings that Giratina had from the game in the altered form WEREN''T what was depicted here. In fact the wings shown here were more like those of bat or dragon with feathers covering them but otherwise fairly normal looking. I once again assumed that this was another change that came from being banished to the distortion world though I could have been wrong. Other than those slight changes I could honestly say that it looked almost exactly how I remembered it from the game. Obviously I couldn''t tell what colors it had from mere statues but you get the idea.-


    The inside of the pce/temple fixed that problem though as adorning the long walls on either side of it were morals painted in exacting detail that told me that the color scheme was not the one I remembered exactly. It was simr as the gold parts were still golden and the ck parts were also the same. The biggest difference was that the light gray color that I remembered the skin being was in fact painted as purest white and the red parts were grass green.-


    It was hard to exin but seeing this made me a little sad as the Giratina I knew was ominous and evil looking but this one was almost holy and pure. It was only by knowing what the before and after was that I realized just how badly Giratina had fallen. I was correct by the way in my assumption that the temple was also a pce as after this first main hall that was clearly meant for worship I was shown to a second area that was a spacious and well decorated bedroom that would have been a think of beauty if it wasn''t for the scent of rot and death that filled the air.-


    The source of this scent was the bed in the center of the room or rather the womanying upon it. Her skin was wrapped in thick bandages but what skin I could see was gray and riddled with weeping wounds. Her breathing was shallow and strained while her eyes were sunken and dim. ''This is no simple disease like I guessed'' I thought seriously as I ignored the smell and approached the bed to try and see what I could do. Don''t get me wrong I was like ny percent sure this was far beyond my capabilities but I wanted to take a crack at it anyways.-


    I chose to drop all hiding to go all out here and removed my eyepatch before opening and activating my x-ray vision in both eyes. Some of the aura masters in the room guarding the priestess immediately reached for their weapons when I opened my dragon eye but a low old voice stopped them. "Halt men! He bears the blessing of a god and may be ourdies only hope." the old voice said seriously but I ignored it.-


    What I saw of the woman''s body was not good news at all as forget saving her I was amazed she was still alive. Half her organs were atrophied and decaying within her and her heart was beating so weakly that a small bit of extra strain might cause it to cease entirely. "So be it." I muttered resigned and held my hand above her torso. I channeled my aura into her body and immediately regretted it as despite what her body would make you assume her aura was powerful and retaliated at the intrusion harshly. The bacsh of the retaliation hit me and I tasted copper as a vessel in my nose burst and started draining blood down my throat and down my face.-


    "I''m trying to help you damn it!" I growled out but pushed my aura back into her body. I wasn''t sure if she heard me or not but this time the resistance was much less than before and I soon found the source of the problem. It was a faint as though trying to hide but near the door to her heart I found a sort of presence that made me wary. It was fluctuating wildly between corrupting madness and stubborn resistance and I realized that I had the situation all wrong.-


    The priestesses weren''t being used to corrupt Giratina and thus appeared diseased but rather they were collectively trying to fend off whatever was corrupting Giratina and losing badly. ''Lets see if throwing my hat into the ring will help at all.'' I thought as I stopped holding back and unleashed my full aura into the priestess. There were gasps from the aura masters in the room with me as I did so but I ignored them in favor of following this connection back to Giratina to fight off whatever was attempting to corrupt it.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Humbling and skill

    Humbling and skill


    Did I expect to really make a difference? Not at all, but that didn''t mean I wasn''t going to at least try. I knew this was a poor decision as this definitely counted as meddling in history to arge degree. Or perhaps this was always supposed to happen and I was just following the script? Whatever the case my damn curiosity got me into this mess so I may as well give it my best and bail only if it truly was a lost cause. Following the connection from the priestess to Giratina was a little tricky since I wasn''t the one with the bond but I managed.-


    I almost immediately regretted it as the moment I arrived a heavy pressure fell over me and I felt five different egos, wills really, focus on me with one being much much greater than the other fourbined<em>. ''You should not havee here mortal, but I sense something from you? Something off? Ah! I see! You are not from this time, the work of one of the travelers I take it? No need to answer as I can sense your answer already through this strand of your aura. Unfortunately your effort is wasted here, nothing can forestall what ising now.''-</em>


    <em>''Though now that I think of it your presence gives hope for the future. Goodbye for now mortal.'' </em>A powerful androgynous voice spoke from seemingly everywhere before I got forced back just a suddenly as I arrived. I stumbled away from bedside of the priestess with gritted teeth as a burning sensation covers the hand I had held over her. A single ck diamond shaped mark appeared on the back of the hand before I turned and left the room without a sound.-


    None moved to stop me as I left the pce/temple or even when I called Rune down to grab me and my nonfliers. I hadn''t checked but I was pretty sure they all recognized that I had given up. I lost, there was no resistance or grand and glorious struggle. I was simply and immediately defeated and sent away. I wasn''t so stubborn as to try again and again to get a different oue as I knew that that avenue of approach was now blocked off to me. What can a mortal do in front of a god beside what it allowed? Nothing at all.-


    It was a humbling experience despite how brief it was. I hadn''t even realized it but I had gotten rather full of myself with all my skills, abilities and even my higher race and aura. I think subconsciously I had believed myself unstoppable. Giratina had given me a wake up p that I hadn''t even realized I needed. Beyond that it had given me a gift that left me conflicted because of what it meant. The ck mark on the back of my right hand was not mere decoration but rather a visible sign of it''s blessing.-


    [Lordly cirction(N): An advanced meditation skill that was granted by Giratina. Pulls in aura from the surroundings through the world mark on the body that is circted and refined seven times over before getting added to the users reserves. Can be further improved. Also serves as a homing signature for Giratina.]


    It wasn''t an ability but a skill instead, one that made me feel a little cheated. I mean I get that Giratina likely noticed that I was sort of stuck with an aura that I didn''t know how to improve very well. For a godly being like that that had been around since the creation of the world it was probably a simple deduction as easy as breathing.-


    Creating a skill on the fly to help me improve my aura was also likely just as simple for it to do. But that was where the feeling of getting cheated came from. This gift effectively robbed me of the chance to create this skill myself. Don''t get me wrong it was certainly a great and useful thing for me but I was sort of looking forward to the experience of pioneering the way forward in this regard.-


    Bellyaching about a gift aside thest two parts of the skills description were of greater concern to me. The first was because this was actually the first time I had gotten a skill that said it could be improved. All the descriptions for the rest of my skills implied that they were perfect already. This added line in this new skill however made me think that that might not actually be true. Further evidence of this was the creation of Omega. The creation of such a weapon wasn''t recorded in any of the skills that it should have been which with this new skills description gave me a theory.-


    ''What if all my skills were only perfect at the exact moment I got them?'' I pondered seriously. It certainly worked with the clues and knowledge I had about the matter. When I got a new skill from the system I got all the knowledge pertaining to that skill that was known but only up to that exact moment. This meant that after that if any breakthroughs or new discoveries were made I was just as in the dark about them as anyone else unless I was the one who made the discovery.-


    The second thing about the description was that Homing part for Giratina. Probably self exnatory but having the attention of what was basically pokemon Satan is not good for you in most cases. This meant that I was DEFINITELY going to have to deal with that once I got back to the present. Fingers crossed that the legendary had regained it''s sanity by then and didn''t immediately decide to drag my ass into the distortion world for eternity. Getting the Cyrus treatment when I had tried to help the thing would really suck.-


    With these thoughts I returned to base camp and chose to bide my time until the event started. I practiced the new skill while I waited and I have to admit that it was a colossal improvement over the meditation technique I used previously. The way it worked was a lot moreplicated than the description said though. Like for one it didn''t just suck in the surround life energy in the air and send it to my reserve after getting filtered by the mark seven times. What it actually did was draw in the energy using my own energy before circting the new and preexisting throughout my body seven full times which refined the new stuff into the same as what I already had.-


    It reminded me suspiciously of corruption as I used my own energy to corrupt the stuff I suck in to eventually turn it into more of my own energy. Admittedly I would have probably never thought of such an ingenious approach to improving my aura. It took negative applications of aura and used them for an actually good purpose after all. I avoided the negative applications of aura like the gue they were so whatever I had eventually created would have likely been WAY different than this skill.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Destruction

    Destruction


    With that said there was nothing technically stopping me from just trying to make my own meditation technique like I had originally nned but I no longer had the motivation to do so. While it was true that I had looked forward to the challenge of creating my own meditation technique it was also because I had a need for such a thing, now I didn''t. Besides at some point I was going to need to improve this skill anyways. It was likely to be a far in the future thing but I would definitely reach even higher with my aura.-


    I had felt it though only for the briefest moment, the aura of Giratina. The breadth and width it held eclipsed my own aura by many magnitudes and that was despite it holding out against the encroaching dark. That was where I one day hoped my own aura would arrive, a ne of pinnacle power. For now though I was content with finally being able to improve my aura reserves at a decent pace once again. While my body had adapted to this density and quality of aura it still remembered when I had a lot more of it as well so the increase over the next two days of waiting was not inconsequential.-


    Perhaps it may not sound impressive but I''d recon I had at least a five percent increase in energy volume over these two days. On the third day I knew that the time hade as the sky darkened and the air felt heavy. "GUUUURRRR!" A deep rumbling roar filled the entire region and the shockwave followed it shortly afterwards. Despite being at the far edge of the region the shockwave from the center bowled over trees and ripped up dirt and rocks that hit my team and I about the same time it mmed into us.-


    We barely had time to recover when we felt three more powers appear in the region and sh with the first. The result was devastating to say the least as one moment I could see the grass and trees far away and the next nothing but a dark hole. So muchnd and lives lost in an instant just from a sh between the gods of this world. I felt small, insignificant when I witnessed this.-


    I never SAW any of the sh but I felt it well enough from the ce Agate vige would one day spring from. Mt. Battle took a good deal of the brunt of the damage which exined the massive cracks and gaping openings of the volcano in the present. Despite this the aftermath of these shes had my team and I bunkering down in the cave leading to the relic for safety. Eventually though Giratina was overwhelmed and sealed into the distortion world. There was no sticking around for me though as I watched thend missing start appearing again and just knew that I no longer had a reason to stick around.-


    Thend was just in rock and dirt but I knew it would lose all vitality eventually though I was unsure still why. As far as I could tell there was nothing wrong with it and the attack that destroyed it originally didn''t FEEL corruptive or evil so in theory it should have recovered by the present time and not turn into a desert yet it had. I was still missing some pieces of this puzzle and very much intended to figure out what they were.-


    I balled my team and set back off into the relic forest to the shrine at it''s center. I was not surprised to see the Celebi waiting for me when I arrived. ''<em>Got what you were after I take it? Oh? And a little something extra as well it seems! A blessing from that one of all things from before it lost it''s mind too! Must have done something quite risky to get that didn''t you? Ah you mortals are such fun to to send through the branches of time! Well time to send you back, the big boss doesn''t like if we mess with time too much after all.'' </em>The Celebi spoke without stop before once again vanishing before I could get a word in edgewise.-


    I grumbled a bit but headed back to the relic since it was clear that the Celebi wasn''t going to talk with me. Once I arrived at the relic from the forest I was surprised to find Wes and Rui there using it to "purify" a shadow pokemon. "Alex? When did you get here and what on earth are you wearing?" Rui asked confused. "Did a bit of time travel nothing to worry about." I said with a shrug. "Time travel!? How!?" she eximed in shock.-


    "I used the forest or rather the "guardian" of the forest to travel in time to learn something important. Besides I thought everyone knew that Celebi forests are temporally distorted areas so you can time travel by entering them carelessly? I get the region is isted but even so you people should still have that information." I said a little confused how she wasn''t aware of this. "How in Mews name was I supposed to know to look up something like that?" she asked defensively. "You are literally using a Celebi rted relic and not once did it dawn on you to maybe look the thing up?"-


    "That''s in reckless, anything rted to a legendary is dangerous or potentially so and best only approached after knowing what they are about. And don''t try to argue with me on this one because this ismon sense and not some niche rule." I chastised. She looked away embarrassed and even Wes looked a little ashamed because he had no doubt also failed to do any research on the subject. "Enough about that though how long have I been gone?" I asked changing the subject.-


    "Three weeks give a day or two." Wes answered calmly. ''So I was gone from here about as long as I was in the past then. This is probably that Celebi''s doing, a small favor perhaps.'' I think while nodding in acknowledgement. "If you don''t mind me asking what was the past like?" Wes asked curiously. I didn''t mind sharing my experience and we stopped by Eaguns house and I spoke of all that I saw and experienced while I was in the past over lunch that I prepared. "An audacious thing to do to dare try and interfere in history in such a regard!" Eagun said firmly.-


    I shrugged "It didn''t matter anyways as nothing I did was going to change the oue. Interacting with the people or pokemon made no difference as they all died anyways. The only thing that changed was that I got this blessing that shouldn''t exist at the present." I said honestly. "While that may be true you endangered not only yourself but the entire world with your actions, I had expected better of you." Eagun said before telling me to leave.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Thoughts and Cypher

    Thoughts and Cypher


    Harsh but fair I suppose, I did in fact endanger the whole world with my reckless actions there at the end. At the same time though I truly believe that even if it messed up the timeline helping Giratina was the right move. It was hard not to when I saw what it looked like before it went on a rampage after being corrupted. It wasn''t perfect but it was so much better than what the present had in the other regions. Pokemon and people lived side by side and it wasn''t because the people had been restraining the power of the wild pokemon either.-


    The walls around the cities and towns simply weren''t needed in that past time unlike today. Speaking of corruption I never did find out what happened in that regard and to be honest I probably won''t ever figure it out either. To be honest I''m fine with that too as I more than most understand that some knowledge is truly better left forgotten. How could I not when every time I get a new skill from the system I learn every known usage of that skill up to that moment?-


    While incredible and wonderous things can be done with each skill so too does there exist heinous and foul uses as well. Still as I left Agate vige for my desert home I couldn''t help be a little sad to see the destendscape after having experienced it at it''s best. Endless desert had reced the lush ins of grass and trees and almost no remnants of that prosperous civilization I had seen first hand remained beyond a few ruins at the edges of this desert that had been spared the destruction of the rest.-


    I know that some of those people survived that event and moved to Sinnoh as there were myths of it there but I doubt any mention thend of Orre as the location it went down. After so much time even those myths had be fragmented and unclear. Perhaps that''s why Cyrus seemed so surprised when Giratina interfered with his n in the game? He clearly knew of Giratina but had seemingly not realized what it represented until it was toote. Considering he even got that far with the fragmented myths of the past was pretty damn impressive so a little error in something like that is to be expected.-


    Like his whole n of recreating the world was based on the myths of old speaking of a hero of old that used a red chain to summon and bind the godly duo who were causing problems. After my experience in the past I even figured out why they were causing problems. See when Giratina was around things were bnced as if Palkia and Dialga got into it as they regrly did it could step in and sooth things immediately. With Giratina gone however that restraining bncing force was now missing and the titans of time and space were free to sh as hard as they wanted.-


    My theory was that when Arceus created the trio it had split parts of it''s power into them and thus was now slumbering to recover and thus unable to control them itself. That was where the "hero" came in and saved the day with a failsafe that Arceus left for just such an asion. That was what I believe the red chain was meant to be, a failsafe. A sort ofst resort for when shit started to go sideways and needed forceful correction.-


    Leaving such a thing in a humans hands was both foolish and incredibly smart at the same time. The reason I say this was that while the chain could bind the two titans and thus chill them the fuck out it was basically a temporary p on the wrist for the titans due to the fact that humans didn''t exactly live super long. By leaving the red chain in a humans hands Arceus got the two titans in line but didn''t upset the bnce of things for too long at the same time, two birds with one stone.-


    This was unfortunately also where the foolishness of this n came into y as Arceus had clearly never expected a human like Cyrus to force the red chain back into existence by effectively torturing theke guardians and then dragging the two titans out and binding them despite them not misbehaving. That was why I believe that the present day Giratina had regained it''s sanity as it was only when Cyrus went to upset the bnce of things that it appeared and fucked up his ns. It was also possible that being a bncing force was so engrained in Giratinas being that it waspelled to act.-


    I frowned and cleared my head of these thoughts when we started to get close to the Hub and I saw people outside it trying to get in. ''Why am I not surprised to find these people trying to break into my shit?'' i thought with a sigh after identifying them as members of Cypher. "Land so I can release the others." I told Rune and he obeyed. Gaia''s sandstorm had ended due to her prolonged absence so the Hub was more or less exposed at the moment. Cypher had apparently decided that that was an open invitation to fuck around and they were about to find out why that was a bad idea.


    The red shes from me releasing my pokemon clearly caught their attention but it was far toote at that point. "Kill all but the leader and any shadow pokemon they have, bring those to me." I spoke calmly and my pokemon moved to obey. The Cypher people tried to fight back and released their pokemon but I saw none above level sixty and thus had nothing to worry about. There was screams of pain, battle and fear for about five minutes before it was over.-


    The shadow pokemon were restrained while I returned them to their balls taken from their owners. The leader of this group, a dude in green armor who had a shadow Bayleaf, had been wrapped up by Tank in string and was fearfully awaiting my attention. I wasn''t in a hurry though as I took all the belongings of the dead that I wanted before having Vulcan incinerate them. I didn''t get much some loose poke, a few potions, their surviving pokemon, an a keycard for some sort of electronic device.-


    I walked over to the dude in the green suit and crouched down to look him in the eyes. "Now I''m not like the other two who are currently throwing wrenches in your groups ns. I honestly think people like you lot are best put down at every oppurtunity. That said I am not an unreasonable man and will give mercy to those deserving of it. You alone get to determine how this will go. The first option is to tell me everything you know and I''ll hand you over to the localw. The second option is you keep your mouth shut until I let Hades have it''s way with you and believe me you''ll sing like a Chatot by the time it''s done. The final option is that you simply kill yourself, I won''t try and stop you either." I said calmly.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Doomed to fail

    Doomed to fail


    The guy caved immediately, loyalty to the organization meant nothing to him in the face of torture and death. I learned quite a bit about the ns of Cypher and even it''s inner workings from the guy as he was pretty high up the hierarchy as a troop leader. In fact there was only four ranks higher than his,mander, admin, vice boss and boss. Only the admins and vice boss knew who the actual boss was but everyone in the organization knew it was someone with a lot of money and big ambitions.-


    Despite the guy saying so I didn''t think the ambitions were all that grand to be honest as the whole organization was wanting to take over the world with shadow pokemon. The reason being a sort of shared affinity that trainers with shadow pokemon had that made them more likely to listen to other people with a more powerful shadow pokemon. In a way the whole goal was a sort of widespread inception type deal. It was ridiculous if I''m being honest. The n looked feasible at first if you had limited understanding of what was going on in reality but for me it was clear that this n was doomed from the start.-


    This shared affinity that the entire n hinged on to work was nothing more than the corruptive nature of the shadow pokemons aura being effected by a sort of spiritual gravity. The more powerful shadow pokemons aura''s naturally had a greater "weight" to them and by extension put pressure on those weaker them themselves. But like all forms of weight this pressure was temporary as at some point it would be adapted to and then simply wouldn''t have any effect on the weaker party anymore.-


    The n was doomed to fail as a result as while theoretically they could gain control of "whole world" if they spread shadow pokemon well enough. That control would crumble in a very short amount of time, like maybe a couple of years at most. It wouldn''t work anyways as if they thought the league would just let them act like they have in Orre elsewhere they had a rude awakening in store. Cypher would stick it''s head up arrogantly and get it cut off immediately by the league that was getting VERY close to having a zero tolerance policy on criminal organizations.-


    Though if I''m being realistic here Cypher was never going to make it out of Orre anyways if Wes and Rui alone were enough to drive them into a corner. Not saying that Wes wasn''t talented as he was extraordinarily talented in truth but his pokemon were only at the ace level and not even close to the elite level either. I had checked and his strongest right now was a level seventy eight with the rest of his team being within four or five levels of that point. Certainly an impressive level for this region that was scarce in resources but in the wider world it was only a normal level of power.-


    Ace trainers were everywhere in the league and only by bing an elite trainer was one considered a cut above the rest. Even then there was a lot of elite level trainers as well and not even that coveted champion rank was the pinnacle. There were at this exact moment nearly a hundred and fifty champion level trainers in the world which was not a lotpared to the billions of people but still not a small number.-


    If what this Cypher guy said was true the highest level in the organization was at most barely elite level. Knowing this I was of a mind to kick down their doors like the Kool aid man and figure out why the fuck the system thinks they have something to do with my investigation of the regions mysterious properties. This guy didn''t have a clue when I asked him about it so either it was a super secret bit of information or was something they themselves weren''t aware of. Wouldn''t that be funny? This definitely nefarious organization sitting on possibly groundbreaking information and not even realizing it.-


    "Ah well since you''ve been so forting I suppose I should keep my end of the deal and turn you in to the authorities." I said ever so slightly disappointed that I hadn''t been given a reason to cause some suffering. In case it wasn''t abundantly clear by this point I REALLY don''t like these criminal organization types. They are the worst sort of people with no regard for the suffering they cause others as long as they get what they want. Shaking my head to get rid of these thoughts I pulled out my PDA and contacted Cail to get him to send one of the "cops" in Pyrite to grab this guy.-


    While I waited I entered the Hub and busied myself with clearing the smallyer of dust that had gathered over thest three weeks. It wasn''t much but still needed to be tidied up a little none the less. I also checked the experimental nts cameras recordings and found something interesting, the original nt had produced offspring. Now instead of a single nt there was now four in a close cluster with the offspring being smaller than the parent at the center.-


    Otherwise I didn''t have any other observations to make about it which was a good thing as it proved that the project had promise for a sustainable future. My garden in the Hub had otherwise gotten overgrown as fuck with the nts having grown, produced offspring and spread in short order as the offspring matured and made more. Yani was left in charge of bringing that back under control while the rest of my team went to do their own things. The not so little one went to y in the pond, Hades zenned out in the middle of the yard, Gaia kicked up her sandstorm again, Tank and Rune just chilled near the house while Vulcan bathed in the sunlight.-


    It took about two hours for the rundown hover truck thing driven by one of the cops from Pyrite showed up with Cail himself surprisingly enough. "Nice ce you got here, seems cozy." the delinquent said casually as he looked around. Despite him trying to act calm you''d have to be blind not to notice that the guy was nervous as all hell because of all of my pokemon who were out and impossible to miss, except Hades that was acting like a rock.-


    Can''t say as I me him considering from his point of view he was surrounded by pokemon that could single handedly wipe him out and every single one of them was watching him. Still no one can say I was a bad host as I provided refreshments and tried not to be needlessly rude. I asked Cail why he came and he shrugged and said he was curious to see the ce that had been the subject of so many rumors.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Taking it easy and maturity

    Taking it easy and maturity


    That was a fair enough reason and I had no real reason toin. Curiosity satisfied Cail took his payment and left with the officer and Cypher guy. That taken care of I took off the robe I had been wearing since I got back from the past and carefully folded it and stored it away. It may be rather mundane an item but it was perhaps the only surviving example of clothing made during that time in this region. Despite how I obtained it any historian or museum would salivate over the chance to possess and study it.-


    I wasn''t going to be handing it over though as I figured it''d make a fine memento at some point in the future. Back to my usual outfit I was much morefortable now. Not to bad mouth the fashion of those people but that robe was rather annoying to run and move in as my legs constantly kicked against it as I moved. Byparison my shorts were far better for freedom of movement and breathability. Also pockets were a thing with my shorts which I dearly missed while wearing that robe.-


    I didn''t really do much over the next two weeks beside send out feelers to try and locate any ruins in the region to see if they were the ones the quest told me to go check out. Despite what my grand adventure into the past would have one believe I was in fact on vacation and thus wanted to rx a bit. I wasn''t really in a hurry to finish the quest and leave the region so there was no reason for me to constantly go all out in my investigation. I used this two weeks to unwind and rx in a way as besides practicing my new skill to improve my aura reserves and practicing my spearmanship I mostly just napped or rxed in the pond.-


    [Water breathing] came in handy for that second one as I could just let myself sink to the bottom and chill out at the bottom of the crystal clear waters. It was peaceful in a way that was hard to describe as the sound of Gaia''s sandstorm droned on in the background like a soft white noise. The not so little one also reached maturity during these two weeks so I could train him finally but I hadn''t started just yet.-


    To be honest I didn''t want to at the moment either. This region was probably the worst one to try and train up a pokemon in as there were no wild pokemon here. This meant that all of the possible opponents belonged to someone else and were also trained. Now that doesn''t sound like a big deal but that changed when you take into ount that unlike the people who live in the region I NEED my pokemon to be able to fight both trained and wild pokemon.-


    Any training that I gave the newly matured addition to my team here would be lopsided and unbnced which was not something I wanted for him. As much as people seem to ignore it battling against a wild pokemon was vastly different than battling against a pokemon that had been trained. For starters until the higher levels of power trained pokemon are supposed to know how to and expected to limit the power and harshness of their attacks. Wild pokemon aren''t like that but rather tend to be more like a higher leveled trainer battle where nothing short of full power attacks is eptable.-


    For trainers like myself at these levels it''s because our pokemon have be so powerful by this point that only attacks like that have any hope of knocking out the opponents. For all wild pokemon however thisck of holding back is because injury for them is a much more serious affair, literally life and death in fact. Injury means that until they recover they are vulnerable and run serious risk of being preyed upon by opportunistic predators. Due to this all wild pokemon go all out all the time to try and minimize the amount of damage they take by ending the battles as fast as possible.-


    I understood that the best foundation is to mix trained and wild battles while training a pokemon. That said there was some training that I could get the not so little one to do while in this region to prepare him for battles after we leave, move training. Thanks to the efforts of my entire team teaching the not so little one their different typings of energy the broken things status looked like this at the moment.-


    [Pokemon: Feebas


    LEVEL:5


    Moveset: Ssh(E) , Metronome(J)(egg move), Ember(N), Thundershock(N), Tail whip(N), Gust(N), Defense curl(N), Shadow sneak(N), Absorb(N), Leer(N), Sandstorm(N), Dark pulse(N),


    Variations: ??????


    Attack:84


    Defense:106


    Sp. Atk: 92


    Sp. Def:139


    Speed:169


    Ability: ?????(J) ]


    As it turned out there was seemingly no move typing that he couldn''t learn which meant that his move pool was unfairly bnced. There was not a single typing that he could not eventually handle in the future if he simply learned one move of each typing. Stat wise he was absurdly high for his level but considering that he was basically a Milotic stuck in a Feebas''s body that was to be expected.-


    By the time a Feebas were to evolve normally such stats would be impressive but not TOO far out of the range of expectations. Being born basically at the second stage however meant that he reached this point as a default of maturing. I had a sneaking suspicion that his stats were basically going to be stuck as is until his skill and level grew to match his body. That was a small problem but not really a bad thing as it meant that by the time he was able to increase his stats naturally like normal pokemon he will have perfect mastery of his current physical prowess.-


    Move training was a breeze for him as well since he was in a way ying catch up with his control of type energy. I also had plenty of experience with training the rest of my teams moves so giving hints and ways of doing it was second nature. Something interesting to note was that his scales color shifted ever so slightly whenever he used a certain type of move which I noted down as likely being a part of his variation or innate ability.-


    I wasn''t sure which though or even if it actually had any purpose beyond just messing with his appearance but I wanted to keep an eye on it. Metronome was by far one of the most annoying moves to train as it had this element of randomness to it that made it difficult to truly create a training regime for. All I could do was have him focus on trying to limit what move showed up to a specific typing but it was slow going.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Seeking ruins

    Seeking ruins


    Yes unlike in the games you could in fact control metronome if you trained it properly. The working theory was that the pokemon that could learn the move were closer to the Mew species that could learn any move and metronome was a sort of heavily nerfed version of that capability. In my newest pokemons case this closeness was due to his unique circumstances leaving him with both every and no type. Something I should add was that just because you could use a move with metronome that didn''t mean you could use that move for good afterwards.-


    It was hard to exin really but it was like the move drew from some sort of gic memory of all moves that sort of fogged up the users memory during the use that prevented them from remembering how the move they used was created. It was a little annoying but with training the user of the move could nudge metronome to only use specific types. I theorized that if anyone could push the move to transcendent mastery they might be able to narrow down the moves chosen to specific moves but that would take a long time to verify.-


    Anyway while the not so little one trained his moves with a heavy emphasis on metronome I finally got word back of the ruins that could be visibly seen in the region and even clues on spots that were theorized to have some buried as well. There were a total of seven visible ruins all at the edges of the region unsurprisingly and three possible spots for ruins buried within the desert itself. I highly doubted the spots in the middle of the desert actually held ruins but I was willing to check since a lot of time had passed since that incident so some people could have tried to rebuild in the regions more center areas.-


    "Alright Vulcan we are just going to three spots that I need to check beforeing back since we''d need Gaia to dig them up if something was actually there." I told my legendary that insisted on ferrying me to the spots since it wanted to stretch it''s legs. I didn''t mind indulging Vulcans wish as I could understand how staying so sedentary was messing with it. Vulcans species were wanderers by nature so sitting still like this was ufortable for it.-


    I mounted Vulcans sturdy form and it elerated immediately to speeds I simply couldn''t follow with my eyes. An Entei running full tilt was quite an exhrating experience because the surroundings blur by and the wind presses against your face hard. If there were any bugs in this part of the region I''d probably have been hit by many of them but in this case theck of life worked in our favor. My job during this trip was little more than to tell Vulcan when we were getting close so it could slow down and let me scan the sands bellow for any signs of ruins.-


    The first spot had some debris that looked to be from ancient structures but that was all while the second and third ces had ruins. Though only the third was worth excavating in my opinion as the second spots ruins were limited to pirs and floors alone that survived to today. The third spot had several intact buildings with one of them even having the ability to repel my x-ray vision which was not something I had expected. As for the seven ruins at the edge of the region I chose to ignore them as my quest updated after I found the third spot of ruins which meant they were what I was after.-


    Vulcan was a little upset that it''s run got cut short but only threw a small fit about it before we returned to the Hub to collect Gaia, Hades and Tank just in case things got spicy. Vulcan ran back to the spot after I collected those members of my team. I clicked the buttons on Gaia and Tanks balls when we arrived and they both manifested in a sh of red light with Gaia providing immediate shade with her massive form.-


    "Shift the sand away and raise the ruins up to the surface so we can see what is so special about them." I told Gaia who rumbled agreement before starting to glow. To anyone without aura it would seem as though she was merely charging up a move but to me and my other pokemon who could use aura we could sense her connecting to and binding her power to this piece ofnd tomand it. It wasn''t a permanent sort of binding but I was fairly certain it was a sort of active usage of her divinity over the desert giving her more power over the ground than any normal pokemon.-


    Once she finished binding the area to her power the real fun started as a bright glow erupted out from between the gaps of her carapace and the sand began to bubble and roil like boiling water as the ground rumbled loudly and the ruins started to emerge from beneath the surface. Excavating the ruins normally would have been far too difficult due to the nature of sand so raising the ruins above the sand while more energy expensive for Gaia was also the better option.-


    My eyes narrowed as I saw the familiar roman style structures start to surface. It was clear that this was the same sort of work as I saw when I went back in time and that meant it was likely made by a survivor of that time. When the building I couldn''t see into rose from the sands I hissed as I sucked in a breath because there was something VERY familiar about it, Giratina''s energy signature. I don''t mean the one from after it had gotten fully corrupted either but rather the same one that I myself hading from the mark on my hand.-


    ''Why though? What was so important to it that it would ce such heavy protections on this ce?'' I pondered rather concerned about what I might find within. While it was clear that the energy was weak and on the verge of running out and thus not a danger to us it couldn''t be said enough that the level of protections necessary to even have this much energy left over after so long AFTER that event hit it was massive.-


    Whatever this building held was likely so important to Giratina that it had spent years at least fortifying this ce to withstand even it''s own full power without harm. To be honest I was VERY tempted to just have Gaia sink the ce back under the sand and ignore it existed but my quest made it clear that this ce had something to do with the regions current barrenness. If it didn''t the ce wouldn''t have been mentioned by the quest.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Truth of the fall

    Truth of the fall


    "We''ll open that cest but for now lets get the goodies from the other five buildings." I said when my pokemon started giving me odd looks after I hesitated. They would have been more worried if they could have felt my distress through our bond but I made sure to keep that a one way connection most of the time. Doing this kept the emotional feedback loop mostly uncluttered and confusing. If I opened the connection to where my own emotions fed back to them I''d have to deal with the confusing situation where I felt my own emotions echoing back to me through their side of the connection.-


    This was more of a me problem than a trainer problem as it was due to my high human race strengthening the bonds with my pokemon that this echoing happened. Anyway I moved over to the other intact-ish buildings that Gaia raised up to the surface. The first had somemon evolution stones of various grades and a rusted set of armor that the aura masters of the past wore. I didn''t even bother with the armor as it was so corroded that the only thing keeping it from turning to dust was theck of airflow in the building.-


    The evolution stones on the other hand had been carefully stored to prevent the energy in them from leaking out so they were as good as the day they were stored. The most valuable had to be the peak grade five fire stone that was just a bit away from reaching grade six. The rest of the stones I stored in my bag before moving on to the next building. There I found ruined armors and weapons as well as clothes and beds that told me this was likely a bunk house.-


    There were a few bits of stuff that survived till now such as some coins, jewelry and a single conduit weapon that had been sealed in a airtight container that had kept it preserved till now though that was clearly not the intent considering what it was. It was a small object shaped like a diamond prism that looked fairly in but I knew better than to touch it. It was a dark artifact that bore the name[Carnivore] that allowed an aura user to rip the aura out of other living things and consume it to strengthen their own reserves.-


    Now that sounds good but like all dark artifacts it came with a very big downside, it eventually turned the user into a mindless hunter that drained the lifeforce of anything they could find while growing them more powerful over time. More or less a manmade monster, nasty stuff all around. I stashed the artifact in my bag not because I''d ever be stupid enough to use it but because the materials that made it were super fucking rare and I could disassemble the thingter for something I actually would use.-


    Conduit weapons without power like that artifact were just normal things and didn''t have the incredible durability that a powered conduit weapon might. I moved on from that building to the next and then the next after that as I stopped finding things worth taking. Soon enough I had cleared out everywhere except the main building that was shrouded by a weakyer of Giratina''s power. I got some nice things from this trip if nothing else so even if I didn''t find anything useful in the main building I could be satisfied with my loot.-


    ''No turning back now I guess.'' I thought as I steeled myself and pushed my palm against the thick stone door of the main building. Immediately the energy surged towards my palm but rather than repel me like I thought it would it climbed over my palm before rushing into the mark on the back of my palm. It burned for a moment as the mark began to change shape from a diamond to a three pointed star. I hurriedly checked the skill and found that the energy drawing ability of it had increased qualitatively. The amount and speed of energy getting drawn in was now almost double as potent as before.-


    ''I have a sneaking suspicion that this wasn''t an ident, but why? Better yet how did it know I would be the one to dig this up and prepare for it in that short span of time?'' I pondered with a deep frown. As far as I understood it Giratina was only aware of me for a total on a few days before it went on it''s rampage and got sent to the distortion world which was absolutely not enough time for it to set this up.-


    If anything it shouldn''t have been able to even move much less do something like this in that span of time considering it was fighting off whatever was corrupting it. I simply couldn''t wrap my head around how Giratina had set this up until a thought urred to me. ''What if it set it up so only someone with it''s blessing could get in but I was just the only person who qualified after that event?'' I thought and it certainly fit as if I wasn''t wrong those four priestesses were thest people from that time who got the blessing so this ce just got permanently locked until now as a result-


    Honestly though there was no way for me to know without actually asking Giratina and I wasn''t going to try and open that door at all if I could help it. I was just d that the thing hadn''t ripped open the dimensional barrier between this world and the distortion world and dragged my ass in the moment I came back to the present. It had me more than a little worried because the option was sort of hanging over my head at all times like the de of Damocles but I tried not to think about it.-


    Cautiously I pushed open the door to the building after I recovered from the surprise of my mark getting an upgrade and was confused at what I found within. The building was not all thatrge and the inside was even smaller but the ce was absolutely COVERED in paintings that depicted the entire process of Giratinas corruption. I had mixed feeling when I came to understand what the source of the godly legendries corruption came from, people. The legendary had apparently grown attached to one particr person at some point and when they died did something absolutely taboo for all aura users, it used it''s own aura to resurrect the person.-


    Oh yes it was possible to resurrect a newly dead person using aura but it twisted ones aura because of this absolute defiance of the natural order. The paintings depicted that at first Giratina was fine but as time went on the corrupted part of it''s aura began to spread as it refused to stop unnaturally extending the persons life until it was toote and the corruption became semi-sentient and began to actively consume the original personality of Giratina.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Distortion

    Distortion


    It was a rather sad tale to be honest and even one I could understand quite easily. Giratina likely had realized how little time left it had with the person that died or perhaps they themselves hadn''t wanted the longevity that would have been so much easier to grant. Giratina was a god for all intents and purposes so granting thousands of years of life to a mortal would have been childs y so the death was either unnatural or came seemingly by the mortals own decision to reject the gift of longevity.-


    The paintings didn''t say which was the truth so I was specting here. These paintings weren''t the only thing in this room but I was mostly focused on them. The other thing in here was a tform with a single amber yellow orb held up reverently. The orb was roughly the size of a basketball and had an uneven surface that stuck out like spike nubs. I had a sneaking suspicion as to what it was but only confirmed it when I used appraise on it.


    [Item name: Griseous Orb


    Grade: Relic(divine)


    Description: A piece of Giratinas divinity crystalized and preserved in hopes of one day reuniting with it''s source. Can be given to Giratina to return it to it''s origin form and power while presenting the opportunity to restore it''s original personality. WARNING!: Possession of this item will result in the Lord of the distortion world bing aware of the one who holds it!]


    That warning from the system at the end was unnecessary as I could figure out that bit by myself easily enough. It would be extremely hard not to notice the heavy feeling that showed up when I approached the orb. I knew this sort of feeling from the times I spoke with both Rayquaza and Groudon in Hoenn, something far beyond me was paying attention.-


    If I wasn''t mistaken Giratina had likely felt my mark resonate with it''s power that had been guarding this ce and now felt my mark resonating with the Griseous orb. If before I was merely a slight curiosity now it was pretty fucking clear that I had it''s strict attention. How could I not when this was a piece of it''s divinity, it''s very essence in the fray? Gonna be honest here I was halfway tempted to leave the orb alone but something told me that would go VERY badly for me.-


    I with more than a little reluctance I walked up to the tform and lifted the orb off the stone pedestal. The air immediately grew far far heavier and before I could even say "fuck" space ripped open behind me and a tendril of pure darkness grabbed and yanked me through the tear. Let me tell you now entering the distortion world was NOT a pleasant experience. There was this sensation of all my insides getting rearranged on my outside with sheer wrongness as I got dragged in.-


    The air felt like sludge while reality seemed to twist and turn around me when I finally hit dirt. I threw up immediately as my mindprehended the sensation that followed my trip here. I knew where I was without even looking around as my chest heaved and bile flew from my mouth. I was in the distortion world and that knowledge didn''t help settle my stomach at all. The only saving grace in my opinion was that if Giratina hadn''t already killed me it probably wasn''t going to. It certainly helped that I was still holding the orb that was no doubt the reason I got yanked from the regr world to this ce.-


    Once my stomach was empty and thus unable to expel anything else it started to settle down but I was still very queasy. Finally getting a look at my surroundings I wasn''t surprised at what I saw. Land, water and sky all seemingly in defiance to all reason andws of reality for as far as the eye could see. What was surprising however was that I was not alone in the distortion world as I saw pokemon here as well.-


    Most were of the dark or ghost type but the other types weren''t absent either as I saw Pidgey, Magikarp, Meowth and even Ekans if I looked far enough away. Despite theck of a sun the distortion world was not dark and even had nts growing in it though it was no green paradise and was bordering on barren in truth. Yet even with thisck of resources there was enough that the pokemon I saw didn''t seem like they were desperately clinging to life. I was a little curious as to how these pokemon even got to this ce but had some theories.-


    Tears in spacetime while umon weren''t unheard of so it wouldn''t be a hard thing to ept that these pokemon got brought here through such instances on ident. It was also possible that some of them had even been born in this ce from parents that had been dragged into this ce on ident. One thing that had me a bit conflicted however was that the distortion world weed me warmly. I merely needed a thought for the world itself to move to please me and I knew why too, my blessing.-


    This ce was for all intents and purposes Giratina''s realm alone which meant anything with it''s blessing was a super VIP here. It''s power was so ingrained with every inch of this ce that the ce moved freely by it''s and now my will. The pokemon in this realm also seemed to pick up on this and gave me a wide and respectful amount of distance as I walked towards the location I felt my host waiting. I walked up walls and ceilings, swam down waterfalls and even had to do full flips to reach my destination. I wouldn''t exactly call it the center or peak of the world but those titles were close enough I suppose.-


    Giratina didn''t exactly have a form when I arrived but was this sort of endlessly vast mass of swirling darkness that had two massive crimson eyes staring at me apathetically, like one would acknowledge an insect that walked across your field of vision. I was insignificant and not worth any form of emotion which while harsh was fair. "I believe you brought me here for this correct?" I asked as I held up the orb that seemed to shine when I did so.-


    To my surprise despite the clear longing that appeared in those two eyes Giratina seemed to recoil from the orbs gentle light as though it stung at it painfully. "I''ll just set this down here for when you are ready. If it wasn''t too much trouble might I ask that you return me to where I was taken?" I asked respectfully as I gently set the orb on the ground. A rumble rippled through the air and a swirling portal appeared on a nearby "ind" and I bowed before leaving for it.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Clues and alchemy

    Clues and alchemy


    There was no way in hell I was going to stay here with a potentially homicidal god if I could leave. Just asking to be sent back was a nerve wracking thing as I had no clue if Giratina would just erase me since my usefulness was at an end. Thankfully the lord of the distortion world was generous enough to allow the delivery man to leave. That was pretty much all I amounted to in this scenario, a delivery man. I was brought here to drop off the orb and that was clearly it so I was taking the first oppurtunity to exit this ce I got.-


    I leaped through the portal without hesitation and after yet another gut turning trip was back in the chamber that I had been taken from. The portal closed behind me and to my surprise I discovered that my pokemon didn''t even realize I had been gone as time had apparently flowed differently in the distortion world. I sealed the chamber again and had Gaia sink the ruins back below the sand as it was history best left forgotten.-


    Few myths even reference Giratina so the information on it was scarce and that worked out for the best. It was this unknowableness that had fucked up Cyrus''s n in the game and I hoped would do so in reality as well. What confused me about these ruins though was that I hadn''t learned anything about why the region was as it was. That was the whole goal of the quest after all so I was clearly missing some piece of the puzzle that would have tied the whole thing together. Checking the quest I saw that I only had two objectives left, investigate Cypher and find thest anomaly of the region.-


    The first was the most troublesome for me as it meant getting involved with that whole situation and honestly Wes and Rui were doing a bang up job screwing Cypher over. My intervention was unnecessary and so I wanted to avoid that objective if I could for now. That left thest of the anomalies of the region which was pretty tricky to pin down. The first two were clear with a good observation of the region but the third was eluding me even after I had tried to figure out what it was.-


    I had even asked my contacts in the region about it and the only thing I got was that there was arge reserve of water deep underground for the whole region but that hadn''t caused the quest to update so I doubted that was the anomaly. On the trip back to the Hub I contemted what I knew about the region from all my observations and experiences so far both from the past and present. ''Wait a minute, what happened to the pokemon that I know for a fact survived that day?'' I thought with a frown.-


    The region had plenty of pokemon in it that survived Giratina''s fall as they were on the other side of the volcano or simply far enough away not to get caught up in it. This regions aversion to pokemon living here doesn''t actually effect any pokemon already in the region so logically there should still be pokemon in this region and yet there was not. This wasn''t some revolutionary idea but that was also why i missed it until now, it was so simple that I skipped right over it. I had taken theck of pokemon in this region as a given but after my trip to the past I realize that it doesn''t add up.-


    It was this realization that caused my quest to update which meant that I now had ANOTHER thing to figure out to understand what the fuck was going on in this region. Specifically why the fuck all the surviving pokemon abandoned region after Giratina went off the deep end. Once again though I was missing pieces of the puzzle and it was making things so much moreplicated then I originally thought it would be. I had assumed that it would be a cut and dry thing when I decided to investigate this region but the more I learned the deeper the rabbit hole got.-


    So far I knew that Giratinas fall was the first domino of what happened to the region and a key piece of the puzzle. I also knew that thend had been restored more or less after the attack that hollowed out the region so the surviving pokemon should have spread out and repopted but instead vanished from the region for some reason. And finally i knew that there was something still acting on thend here that kept pokemon froming here from other regions as well as made the desert unusually t.-


    ''It seems that Cypher holds another piece to this puzzle that might finally tie this all together.'' I thought with a sigh. I sent a message asking Wes and Rui to keep an eye out for any historical documents or artifacts in their raids on Cypher before deciding to take a break from my quest. Instead I turned my attention to my nt maniption ability to get some alchemy done. I enjoyed alchemy unlike for most people where it would be a job for me it was a hobby almost on the same level as cooking was.-


    There was something I found deeply satisfying about extracting the essence of ingredients and mixing them to create something with wonderous or terrible effects. Sure it was a little messy and tended to smell quite bad but I wouldn''t trade the skill for anything in the world. My nt maniption ability was opening whole new avenues of research and development for me in the field that any other alchemist would look upon with intense jealousy. For most alchemists they could only afford to specialize as ingredients weren''t cheap or easy to acquire unless they spent ny percent of their time in the wilds.-


    To sort of offset this cost they specialized in a particr sort of effect or field in the skill such as supplements or healing or poisons. I on the other hand had no specialization but learned every aspect of the skill and with my nt maniption ability I was also able to obtain any sort of ingredient I might desire so long as I put in the effort to cultivate it. With the help of the Hub saturating everything within it''s dome in life energy I did precisely that.-


    I spent the next month just going nuts with hybridizations and new concoctions that I was rather proud of. My best in my opinion was the potion of regeneration that let the person or pokemon it was used on regrow entire fingers. I wanted to boost it''s effectiveness to regrow whole limbs but that was not something I could do with my current level of ability and variety of ingredients. Just hybridizing the nts needed to make the potion took all of my current healing ingredients as well as a minor poisonous mushroom that normally gave you cancer.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Raiding the lab

    Raiding theb


    Yes cancer shrooms were a thing in this world though not really a problem unless you somehow mistook the bright red and blue cap for something edible. Even if you ate it though the mushrooms effects rarely were fatal because healing in this world was quite good with cancer being an easy thing to treat with a healing ability or potion. The most popr use for the mushroom to my knowledge was in poison supplements to promote growth in pokemon of that type. Still in my current case the rampant cellr growth was a positive benefit after I limited it to only missing parts.-


    I also created three other worthwhile potions that would make me quite a mint if I sold them. I made a temporary strength boosting potion, a potion of mental stimtion and a potion of food. The strength potion worked by activating that astonishing strength that all people had when they were in danger that showed itself every now and again with people doing crazy shit like lifting cars back on earth. The potion did have a slight side effect where the drinker got more confrontational while it''s effects were going since it did mess with the fight or flight response.-


    The potion of mental stimtion was basically just all the good parts of coffee with none of the downsides. You got the wakefulness and focus that coffee gave you without the anxiety and jitters. Finally was the potion of food that I was quite proud of as it had all the nutrients of a bnced meal AND tasted like a gourmet meal as well. One potion a day was pretty much all you needed to get on fine which sounded weird until you realize that for most people making food was rather time consuming and distracted from whatever you were doing.-


    This potion on the otherhand was something you could down in a minute and go about your day just fine. It even tasted like a really good meal which trust me was a lot harder to pull off than you''d think. Anyways while I was ying weird scientist with my alchemy Wes and Rui had managed to take down yet another admin as well as discover the mainboratory of Cypher. They hadn''t raided the ce yet since there was no telling what sort of traps were within the ce and Wes wanted to hone his pokemon some more as that battle with the second admin had been too close forfort apparently.-


    I had no such problems and after finding out where theb was grabbed Hades, Rune, Tank and Vulcan and set off for it. Once I got there I almost wanted to scoff because it was clear that the ce wasn''t designed to stop pokemon from getting in as it had a high voltage electric fence blocking entry. The building itself was a small white metallic modern ce that stood out like a sore thumb in the desert.-


    I released Rune from his ball and pointed at the fence "Take that down please." Imanded and my electric Charizard casually walked over to the nearest pilon and snapped it off while ignoring the absolutely lethal amount of electricity that flowed through it. With the pilon missing the electricity couldn''t flow all the way around thepound and thus we could walk right in. Which was precisely what we did too. ''The security of this ce is a fucking joke, I didn''t even need an i.d or anything to open the door.'' I thought honestly astounded by the sheer stupidity of this ces security.-


    It was hard to understand how whoever designed the security of this ce thought as this world had electric, rock and ground type pokemon that could basically ignore the fence entirely and yet apparently thought that that fence alone was enough security. There were no checkpoints or I.d scanners at all so I could just walk right in without any issue at all. The inside of theb was sci-fi was hell with glowing wires and metal walls, floors and ceilings as far as you could see.-


    I released Tank and Vulcan from their balls in the lobby while Rune had to go back in his ball due to his size. "Alright the ns real simple, search and destroy. If it moves and isn''t a shadow pokemon or looks important it dies. Also try not to damage any of the equipment since I am curious about how the stuff here works." I said calmly and my pokemon sent out understanding vibes through our bond before moving into theplex. It didn''t take long at all to hear screams of pain and fighting while I casually walked into each of the now cleared out rooms to search for records or equipment.-


    "Don''t be jealous your job is the most important of all, protecting me." I said to Hades that was sending envious vibes through our bond as we listened to Vulcan and Tank bring the wrath of me down on these people. The ghost paused for a moment as it thought about my words before sending proud vibes through our bond as it came to agree with what I said. Sure it wasn''t able to go torture and kill some of the wicked deserving here but my very safety and life was being entrusted to it which was arguably far more of an important job.-


    Living in the Hub had done a fantastic time chilling the ghost out as it was much more mellow now that we weren''t constantly on the road and in danger. There were no assassin''s after me in the region and we had no wild pokemon to deal with either so Hades had been able to rx which did wonders for it. The screams and sounds of fighting all but stopped after my fifth room searched which meant that my pokemon were either dead, done or moved on to a deeper floor.-


    ''Third option it is.'' i thought when I saw the missing elevator at the end of this floor and the tied up people around it that Tank had left for me. "Why are you doing this!? What the fuck did we ever do to deserve this!?" On of the Cypher soldiers with red armor demanded angrily when he saw me walking around casually. "Do I need a reason to crush scum like you lot? You did shit you knew was wrong both morally and legally so you must have understood at some point that you might get retribution brought down on your heads right?" I asked calmly.-


    That made the guy shut up as there wasn''t any real argument to make against that. Sure it could be said that ughtering them like this was going a bit far but they sort of brought it on themselves so I wasn''t bothered. With that out of the way I interrogated my captives under threat of torture to figure out where all the important documents and files were.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Raiding the lab(2)

    Raiding theb(2)


    It came as little surprise that everything really important was in the admin and chief scientist Ein''sb. Some more interrogation and I found out what sort of person this Ein was and while entric he also sounded brilliant as well. Apparently he was the main force behind the technology for creating shadow pokemon and doggedly chased perfection in his research of the stuff. Even more of a credit to the man was that he was clearly working with extremely iplete information given the quality of his created shadow pokemon being so low.-


    Satisfied with the information I gathered I checked thest few rooms on this floor before calling the elevator up. It was a simple ss tube elevator that opened and went up and down in a smooth fashion, likely so that anything fragile within it didn''t get jostled. There were four floors to thisb with the first at the top being the main entrance and living quarters for those stationed here. The second was the data storage and item storage area. I ignored the viscera and blood as I stepped out onto the second floor from the elevator and began to check the floor for any goodies.-


    There was quite a lot of rations and scientific supplies but not much in terms of stuff that I would find much use for beyond a lot of medicinal ingredients for potions, no doubt to keep the shadow pokemon from dying during the process of transformation. The data storerooms on the otherhand had some gold waiting to be discovered. It was easy to get ess to the information stored on the servers since there was no password needed or anything. I found an absolutely massive amount of research notes on the shadowfication process as well as technical jargon that went right over my head about the technology involved.-


    ''This seems like a lot of work for such a low quality product, then again they don''t know that it is a low quality product and probably think it quite good.'' I thought as I read over the information. I copied all the information to my PDA and uploaded it to myputer back at the Hub before heading back to the elevator to head to the third floor that had the mainb and Ein himself. There were no survivors on the second floor which meant no one here seemed important to my pokemon.-


    Of course the shadow pokemon were spared death and I collected them before I left but the normal pokemon got no such mercy. When I got to the third floor I was slightly surprised to find that Ein was tied up but the fight wasn''t over as Vulcan and a Raikou were duking it out with Vulcan having a clear edge but having difficulty subduing the other legendary. It wasn''t a matter of power or skill exactly so much as the Raikou was rampantly unleashing electrical energy around it which kept Vulcan from just smacking the shit out of it.-


    Tank was pretty much helpless to help as well as he couldn''t use status moves without risking friendly fire on Vulcan and he was flying type which meant he had a weakness to the electric type. "Hades go help Vulcan out so we can wrap this up and get back home." I said as I tossed the keystone out near the fight. While that was going on I casually walked over to the tied up man with ck hair and sses that Tank was floating next to. "You! Do you have any idea the setback you''ve caused my research!?"-


    "I was this close to understanding the next line of the ancient glyphs when you attacked this facility!" The man yelled angrily like he wasn''t tied up and totally at my mercy. I crouched down to look him right in the eyes. "Where is this ancient glyph of yours exactly?" I asked calmly. Heughed coldly "Do your worst, you''ll get nothing from me." he said furiously. I nodded "I believe you, A shame you''ll never be able toplete your research." I said calmly before reaching out and lifting him by his throat.


    I choked him nice and slowly so the despair started to set in as he realized that I was right and his work will forever remain iplete if he died now. Physical torture didn''t work on entric personalities like his, no you had to attack the insecurities and aspirations that drove their actions. The mere idea that all they had hoped to aplish and do would be no more than sand slipping through the grasp of history to be forgotten was a torment effective like no other. "W-a-ait!" the scientist managed to wheeze out and I dropped him.-


    "Had a change of heart at thest second have we? Well by all means go on." I said calmly. He coughed and sputtered as he desperately struggled to re-oxygenate himself. "Your word, give me your word that you won''t kill me or destroy my life''s work." he demanded and I was tempted to choke him again but held off since his gaze made it clear that he wouldn''t fold unless I agreed. "I can''t agree to not ridding the world of shadow pokemon but I can agree not to kill you or destroy the information on your work." I said honestly.-


    I meant it too as while I wasn''t just going to leave the shadow pokemon as they were I could bend a little and leave him and his information intact if archived and heavily protected. "Less than ideal but I can recognize that I am in no position to negotiate further. The ancient glyph is hidden behind that wall over there that was made to block even the x-ray ability." He said and I activated my x-ray ability to check and to my surprise he was right except it wasn''t just that wall but this whole damn ce that was a blind spot.-


    "I was wondering why your security measures were so trashy but this exins everything. You weren''t worried about protecting this ce because everything important was hidden in a way that you would only find it if you knew where it was, you could abandon this ce without worry as you could juste backter to retrieve it." I said genuinely impressed. It was a bold strategy that almost worked if this guy hadn''t likely decided to stubbornly stay here and defend hisb. He could have simply abandoned this ce and I would assume that the information had been destroyed or taken and moved on.-


    "That was the n but my foolish stubbornness brought upon this scenario. Hindsight is rather annoying like that." the scientist said self depreciatingly. "Oh good it looks they finally subdued that one. Time to see what this ancient glyph has to say." I said tapping the pokeball belonging to the now knocked out Raikou and putting the captured pokemon in my bag with the rest of the shadow pokemon. Walking over to the wall that Ein had pointed out I pressed it and with a hiss of hydraulics the panel open to reveal arge b of stone with ancient Sinnoh glyphs written on it.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 The final pieces

    The final pieces


    ''Ancient Sinnoh? That doesn''t make any sense, why would someone or a group of people move here from there?'' I thought confused as I immediately recognized thenguage since I had the skill for it. I hadn''t practiced the skill though so I had to take it slow as I tranted the b. There wasn''t much guesswork since I had the skill and thus all the knowledge on thenguage already. But I wasn''t skilled in using that knowledge and thus had to be a bit careful so that I didn''t fuck up the trantion.-


    The contents of the b were disturbing to say the least as the first good quarter of it was practically a step by step guide to creating shadow pokemon if a bit light on details. The rest was thankfully more of a story than instructions. It roughly said that the fall of Giratina was witnessed by a small group of aura masters who saw that power it exerted and wanted it for themselves. They left this now barrennd as it wasn''t suitable for living any more and while most died three of their numbernded in the ancient region of Hisui or what Sinnoh used to be called.-


    Over the span of four generations a group without a name was formed from the children and children''s children of those three all seeking to harness the corrupted power of Giratina using the notes and research of the three that started it all. It was on the fourth generation that a breakthrough was found and the first imperfect shadow pokemon was created. This achievement however was not well received at all by the local legendries that knew more about the terrible power they were in the process of unleashing.-


    Most of the group were killed but the survivors sought refuge in thend that it all began in, Orre. Thend had been untouched by humans for four generations and had made a grand recovery though no legendries could be found there as the scars left from Giratina''s fall lingered still. These same scars were what allowed the group to advance their research on creating and perfecting shadow pokemon but with the goal of getting revenge on the legendries that they felt had wronged them with their ughter. The just recovered pokemon poption was captured, corrupted and killed until eventually thend had been rendered truly barren and dead.-


    The death and corruption of life energy had melded permanently with the very essence of thend and thus the desert had been born where no sands rose into dunes and very little could survive. All pokemon instinctively felt this corruption and avoided it until that impulse to avoid the region became second nature over generations even after it faded. The group however had tipped off the legendries back in Sinnoh through this slow but eventual movement of information that finally reached those powerful beings. Another ughter wasmitted and all evidence of the foul creations but a few crumbs were wiped out.-


    This b was created by the only survivor of that ughter as a record in case his vengeance was thwarted after he returned to Sinnoh. The rest of the story after that wasn''t written here but I knew it as the story of the rise of the infernal. The man created the first and only infernal pokemon that was truly the closest to having the power that his ancestors sought and raged death and war against the legendries of Sinnoh who had ughtered his people and eventually had the three godlyke guardians get involved.-


    "Well what does it say? I have to know!" Ein practically begged with a mad desire in his eyes. I sighed "The first part is a guide to the creation of shadow pokemon which you already know, the rest is the story of the origin of shadow pokemon and the tale of why this region is the way it is. There is no improvements to be found for you research there." I said honestly since there was no reason to lie. "This.. this cannot be? So much time and effort and that was all that was there, a mere history lesson told by the long dead?" Ein muttered with a broken look.-


    I almost pitied him, to know that the only hope for your lifelong research was heading to a dead end where there was no going past. Something like that broke scientists back on earth and applied here as well it seemed. I pulled the b out of the wall and immediately shattered it to sand. "This knowledge is better left in the forgotten past." I said firmly. That was it, the final pieces to the puzzle that painted the full picture of this regions story.-


    It began when Giratina fell and showed people the power of corrupted aura and it ended with the region as it was now. In a way it was funny that despite achieving my goal ining to this region I would be leaving it far more burdened than I arrived. I couldn''t share this knowledge, it was far too dangerous and gods know what people like Giovanni and Cyrus would do if they got their hands on it. I ignored the system notification telling me that Ipleted the quest and unlocked the next part of the chain quest.-


    Instead I contacted Wes and Rui and let them know that I had raided thisb and left the clean up to them. Obviously I had Vulcan incinerate the bodies since it would be traumatic for them otherwise but that was all I did before going back to my Hub. Once there I finally epted the notification from the system and the rewards for this chain of the quest. 2x item tickets, 1x ability ticket, 5x Exp ticket, Crime upgrade+, the next chain quest, my rewards.


    [Chain Quest conditions established!


    Description: You have learned the whole truth of the Orre region and all that is left now is to decide what you will do with this information, Choose!


    Objectives: Publish your findings for the world to know(optional), Keep it to yourself(optional), Publish a partial ount of the matter so that no one ever goes searching for the whole truth(optional)


    Rewards: Option one: 2x skill tickets, 5x item tickets, 1x guaranteed ability ticket. Option two: 4x skill tickets, 2x guaranteed item tickets. Option three: 1x skill ticket, 2x item tickets, 2x ability tickets]


    This was clearly thest quest in the chain and was interestingly set with three different possible rewards based entirely on what I chose to do with the information I had now.


    Each of the rewards were more or less equal though I did notice that the first was slightly more biased with that guaranteed ability ticket. I couldn''t exactly say that was unfair though as that option was also the one that would have the biggest impact out of all three on the world. It was also the only one that was absolutely off the table for me as I had already chosen to keep the information from getting out. I hadn''t even thought about releasing a heavily edited version of the tale but looking at it now the idea appealed to me.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Tickets

    Tickets


    ''Before that though I should check out this crime upgrade that I got.'' I thought and went to look into it. As it turned out it was a new feature added to both my PDA and pokenav that when used pulled up a map of the region I was in and showed me the spots with the highest criminal activity as well as the severity of the crimes in question with a color coding system. Blue was without crime, light red was petty crime and dark red was the big crimes.-


    I supposed it would make my job a whole lot easier when I went to my next region though I hadn''t actually decided where that would be quite yet. If I went to Sinnoh this would help me track down team Gctic while they were in the act so that was useful. As for Kanto and Johto I really wanted to avoid those regions because Giovanni wasn''t just a crime boss but also an elite four level trainer and gym leader. He was also ruthless enough to cut all connection between himself and team Rocket if he didn''t like his chances.-


    Of course he was also much more likely to just try and assassinate me or even slowly buddy up to me so that I leave his criminal empire alone. That was one of the most dangerous parts about the man, he was like a sweet tasting but slow acting poison that spreads through your system until it''s toote to stop him. For me that wasn''t such arge issue since I knew about this already and thus would be on the defensive about it but for anyone else not in the know it was extremely effective.-


    Looking at the colored map I was rather surprised to see that most of the major crime in this region wasn''t in Pyrite town but rather Phenac instead. Pyrite had the highest petty crime but Phenac was straight up dark red. This confused me as I had no information of any real crime in that ce, not anything above petty crime like theft anyways. Annoyingly I also couldn''t ask Justy about it as this was a system reward and not something I was able to exin. In the end I just shrugged and assumed that it had something to do with Cypher and left it up to Wes and Rui to deal with.-


    With that done I startedposing the first draft of my report on what I discovered about the Orre regions situation. I basically just put all the me on Giratina which wasn''t technically false as it was the source of the entire issue. I included my trip through time and the b that had "unfortunately" been destroyed after recovery as my sources. All in all it was a fairly short report but was likely to excite the historians and scientists a little. Needless to say I left out all mentions of shadow pokemon or the Sinnoh legendries failing not once but twice to fully snuff out a big issue.-


    Once my report was finished my quest ended and I got the rewards so I decided to get some of this stuff out the way already starting with the four item tickets. I got a Full heal, a Meowth statue, a Macho brace and a Quick powder. The only things out of the ordinary was the Quick powder and the Meowth statue. Quick powder was a Ditto exclusive item that consisted of a fine blue dust that when held by a Ditto somehow made it faster, don''t ask me how I don''t know.-


    The Meowth statue however was the first REALLY special item I have ever gotten from the item roulette. It was as the name implied a statue depicting a Meowth but it was made of solid gold and had a mystical ability that worked once every twenty four hours, it spawned a random item from thin air. How exactly it did this was anyone''s guess as I could see no runes or perceive any energy from the statue at all yet it clearly had a power of it''s own.-


    The first use of the statue gave me a potion but revealed nothing as one moment there was nothing and the next a bottle rested on the statues outstretched paw. Eventually after trying and failing epically to figure out anything about the statue I gave up and moved on to my next set of tickets, skill. Ripping the ticket I waited for the wheel to stop though i didn''t pray to RNGESUS since I honestly didn''t care too much about what I got. So when the wheel stopped and I got the hand to hand skill I had a strange expression.-


    There wasn''t anything wrong with the skill at all as the knowledge that came with it was extremely useful and even included aura centric martial arts but I was a spearman and had been for so long that going back to straight up punching my way out of a situation seemed like a step backwards. Like if I''m being totally honest this new skill was WAY better than my spearmanship skill in terms of utility but it felt off to me after spending so long using a spear. It was hard exin clearly exactly what I meant which was annoying really.-


    I could only choose to turn my attention to the most troublesome of the tickets while ignoring that discordant feeling, ability. I had three of the things and as I had discovered quite long ago not all abilities were useful beyond the boost to my aura they gave. ''Please give me something useful this time'' I prayed the RNGESUS before tearing the three tickets. Minor storage, Kill copy and water resistance were what I got. I grit my teeth as they all sank into my body and integrated themselves causing changes as they went. Minor storage was a strange ability and ridiculously rare due to it''s ties to space maniption. What it did was create a personally bound sub space exactly one meter in all directions from the center.-


    Any form of the storage ability was considered the ultimate smugglers tool as it was undetectable without an ability that manipted space directly or allowed one to perceive it. It was also one of the few abilities not fueled by the person who had it which meant I got nothing besides a storage space with it. Kill copy on the other hand gave my aura reserves a solid fifty percent extra volume but was one of the only abilities that I was almost willing to bet my entire team I would never use.-


    The reason for this was because it allowed the user to temporarily copy and use the abilities of whoever they killed and it did indeed have to be a person. The simple fact was I had no reason and doubted I ever would have a reason to use this ability, I had so many abilities that I was unlikely to ever need it for anything. Finally of course was water resistance that was exactly like the name implied, the ability to resist the use and effects of water on you.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Relaxing

    Rxing


    The ability usually came hand in hand with water breathing because it effectively turned whoever had it into a fish. You could swim without worrying about water pressure or breathing so for all intents and purposes you could live underwater if you wanted. Obviously few people with these abilities do but the option was there. Still this ability was more physical than aura based so the boost it gave my aura was minimal. As far as color was concerned my aura had long since turned into a pearl color with many different colors swirling in it so these new abilities hadn''t really changed it much.-


    With that done with all I had left now was the exp tickets from the quest and I wasted no time at all using all five of them on my lords cirction skill that was still at novice mastery. When I did so I was assaulted by memories of me using the skill for months on end and while I didn''t actually have the gains from such a thing it wasn''t useless at all. Getting months of intense practice done in a mere instant meant that my mastery of the meditation skill went from novice to journeyman immediately.-


    Unfortunately I had forgotten something rather important about exp tickets in such amounts, the headache that came with using them like that. I groaned the moment I snapped out of my ticket induced haze as my head was pounding. ''Ugh! I forgot about this shit.'' I mentallyined and rubbed my temples. Despite the headache I was in a good mood as I had nothing on my schedule that needed to be done in any short amount of time. I could finally just sit back and do absolutely nothing if I wanted to.-


    That''s what I did too for the next couple of weeks as the situation with Cypher came to a head. For example I noticed that the dark red on Phenac city had moved over to that new fancy tower in the middle of the desert that was apparently a new colosseum. Realgam tower it was called and it was quite the sight to see with it''s almost gaudy design with rotating seats and the colosseum itself held up by a narrow concaved tower. Construction on the ce had just finished and the ce was in the midst of setting up the first tournament there.-


    Ah I almost forgot but the shadow pokemon I took from the people in theb got sent over to Wes to deal with as I frankly couldn''t be bothered with any of them. I mean the Raikou was nice I suppose but Rune covered the position that it could have taken on my team better than it ever could. Honestly the only shadow pokemon I kept were a Magikarp, Sunflora and Mudkip that I purified and released into the Hubs garden and pond. They were rather reserved since they were effectively nd tes after being purified but my pokemon were showing them how to live normally.-


    Yani was teaching the Sunflora how to tend the Hubs garden and the not so little one yed with the two water types when not training his moves. I didn''t need to worry about the two water types ever reaching their third stages because the pond was big enough for them to bothfortably live there even if they did. If there had been a psychic type amongst the shadow pokemon I collected during the trip to theb I would have kept that too since it would mean the Hub would have a caretaker while I was gone from the region.-


    Unfortunately there had been no such thing so I''ll most likely have to either import a pokemon for that purpose or simply add someone I trust from this region to take care of it in my absence. That list was admittedly quite small but none on it were likely to be a good fit for that job for different reasons. My contacts were all deeply entrenched in their respective locations and I was willing to bet that Wes and by extension Rui were going to leave the region after this shadow pokemon business was done.-


    There was no way someone like Wes was going to stick around for very long after Cypher falls. If anything he was more likely than not going to just head for the nearest league run region to hit the league by storm. I could only shrug at this and decide that if I couldn''t find anyone to hand the Hub over to to keep it clean while I was gone I''d just order a housekeeping pokemon from the Devon corp, a Mr. Mime perhaps.-


    Speaking of the Devon corp things had been proceeding smoothly on that front as the construction of this regions branch was well on it''s way topletion with only the finishing touches left for them to start operation at minimum capacity. The locals hadn''t given them much trouble so far that the trainers stationed here by Mr. Stone couldn''t handle, street toughs mostly. It dawned on me now that I had thought about it but I had totally forgotten to invest money in the region it wouldn''t be a huge issue to fix though. I had seen plenty of the region to know that itcked a few features that would drastically improve the quality of life here.-


    Proper medical facilities and some sort of unique export that would get the economy flowing properly were good ces to begin. The medical facilities were out of my hands since the Joy n had a near monopoly on that field and we weren''t on good terms at the moment. The export though I could get set up in a few different ways. The first I was ironically already working on in the form of the hybrid nts I was working on to provide food to the region.-


    Naturally If I wanted I could also create some sort of spice that would only grow in a desert like this region but the trick there was getting the locals involved in farming it and then selling it out of region. Honestly I thing it would be more work than it was worth in that case as the vast majority of the regions poption didn''t strike me as the work in the fields to earn a living type of people. Sadly the people of this region only really excel in one field more than any other region i know of, double battles. That however wasn''t exactly something you could export.-


    Improving the standard of living in Orre was surprisingly hard without risking ruining the unique charm that the ce had. Otherwise I''d just drop a hundred mil on getting the pok extended out to the region and call it a day. I eventually just decided to think on the matter while I rxed since I wasn''t going anywhere in any real amount of time.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Cyphers head

    Cyphers head


    To my surprise I got an invitation to the new Realgam tower the next morning over my PDA. It wasn''t a personalized thing but more along the lines of one of the automated messages that got mass sent. Still I thought it was an interesting distraction as I hadn''t seen anotherpetitive tournament since the one I myself held right before I left Hoenn. "What do you guys think, sound interesting?" I asked my pokemon with mixed responses. Rune, Tank, Vulcan and the little one were interested in seeing this tournament. Hades was as usual neutral in that it didn''t care either way.-


    Gaia and Yani weren''t interested at all though and chose to stay home while the four of us went to go check the tournament out. I rode on Vulcan to the tower while Tank, Rune and the little one flew overhead until we got there. We made a bit of amotion when we arrived as the other peopleing for the same reason as well as those here to participate saw us. There was a lot of gaping mouths and awe filled gazes as I dismounted Vulcan and recalled everyone but Hades that as per it''s usual was chilling in my shorts pocket.-


    "No need to gawk, I''m just here to watch the show same as most of you." I said with a small smile. This was enough for these straightforward folk and I was reduced to just another face in the crowd. By the time it came for me to find a seat all of the lower seats of the huge colosseum stands were taken. That was fine since I preferred sitting at the top anyways as I gave me more room to act if something unexpected happened.-


    To my surprise I was approached by someone in a uniform before I could find a seat I liked. "You have been cordially invited to watch the tournament from Master Nascour''s private booth if you would please follow me." the dude said politely and I raised an eyebrow. ''Does this guy genuinely not know that I was the one who sacked theb or is he ying at something?'' I wondered but didn''t hesitate to follow servant dude as I was confident that I could handle anything they could throw at me. The private booth itself was built in such a way that it was prime seating material at the perfect height and distance from the arena to see all the details.-


    It was a fairly opulent as well with a built in minibar and rich white marble floors and bronze statues of the different legendary pokemon sculpted in exacting detail. Then of course there were the seats themselves in this case having a total of four polished wooden thrones with soft red velvet cushions in which three were already taken. In one of them sat a mountainous man with long brown hair and a thick mustache, the mayor of Pyrite Duking.-


    Another seat had a short plump older man with his hair styled into to balls at the back of his head and was wearing a red gentleman''s suit but despite the smiling face and gentle appearance was anything but. I knew this was the mayor of Phenac, Escade because he fit the description to a Tee. ''So that''s where Cypher got their funding and backing from, no wonder they wormed their way into damn near the whole region. That fucked up aura is even stronger than the obviously evil dude sitting next to him, this guys definitely the big boss of the group.'' I thought calmly as I greeted everyone here in a casual manner.-


    "I must admit that it surprised me to get invited like this considering everything that has happened. Not that I''mining mind you as this seating is truly top notch." I said honestly as I casually took the remaining seat. Duking grit his teeth and Escade chuckled good naturedly but the pale demonic looking silver haired Nascour waved his hand dismissively. "The strong take what they want and the weak have no ce toin. We had something you wanted and you took it, albeit a bit more viciously than perhaps necessary. Recruitments going to be slightly more challenging after that incident." the guy said calmly but his voice had a sinister tone to it.-


    "You speak as though you expect to get away with it but from where I''m seeing all this you still have a ratherrge obstacle to ovee and those two have been dismantling your outfit with unstoppable force. I myself won''t get involved anymore even if they should somehow fail, you all are simply not enough of a threat to warrant it." I said with a smirk.-


    "It is relieving to hear that you won''t interfere, as for those two I will personally handle them if they make it that far." Nascour said coldly. "Now now gentlemen, while I may not understand what exactly you are speaking about what I do know is that we are here to witness this grandest of spectacles right?" Escade said acting as a mediator. I thought about revealing the dudes true colors but decided not to ruin the surprise "Indeed, Ah right that reminded me but Mr. Duking I was looking to improve the standard of living in the region and as the mayor of Pyrite I was hoping you''d like to use my resources to renovate your town?" I said with a friendly smile.-


    "Uh really? Not to belittle my town but even us locals know it''s a rough ce, you sure you want to risk so much on a gamble that may not pay off?" The huge man asked trying to dissuade me but I shook my head. "You misunderstood me, I fully expect not to make any profit from this at all. In a manner of speaking you could consider this me donating money to a cause I believe in."-


    "Orre is not the gentlest ce but it has a unique charm to it I havee to enjoy in my time here, putting some mere money into such a thing bothers me little. So feel up to ripping me off to make your town prosper?" I asked with a chuckle. "When you put it like that seems almost wrong to say no." The big man said grinning widely. "Oh before I forget none of you mind if I let my pokemon watch right?" I asked and even Nascour just shook his head after a tiny peek at Escade who said he didn''t mind.-


    I released my pokemon who bristled slightly at Nascour and Escade but stopped when I held up a hand. Much like myself they all minus the little one knew how to use aura and thus picked up on the two twisted and strong auras the two viins had. "Ignore them and enjoy the show." I said calmly and both my pokemon and the two viins took that as for them.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Cypher down

    Cypher down


    I didn''t bother correcting the misunderstanding on the criminals part and merely turned to watch the show. Interestingly Wes and Rui came up from one of the fancy arena''s elevators and Nascour all but goaded them into a VERY unfavorable situation. The two had betrayed looks on their faces when they saw me but I shook my head and pointed to Duking to show that it was important people rather than just Cypher people up here. Wes seemed to figure it out and calmed Rui down before the gauntlet started. Five battles back to back before Nascour himself stepped in to defeat Wes who''s team while tired had dominated until now and barely gotten injuried.-


    The team Brendan was running was also pretty decent as he had the three legendary dogs that used to be shadow pokemon but weren''t anymore. The other three spots had his two Eeveelutions, Espeon and Umbreon as well as a Flygon that was freshly evolved from a Vibrava. The Ground/Dragon dual type filled multiple roles in Wes''s team so I approved of it. The rest of his team had the rest of the type chart covered but he really needed a flier and this filled that role and also was a heavy hitter like the legendries.-


    If I wasn''t mistaken the two Eeveelutions were really only on his team because they were with him the longest and he was rather attached to them. Nascour himself was no slouch either in terms of teams as he had a Dusclops, Gardevoir, ziken, Xatu, Walrein and finally Shadow Metagross. Those weren''t weak species at all and only the Dusclops wasn''t at it''s final stage of evolution but that might be because the item to get it there was really rare and hard to get.-


    Brendans team had the advantage here though as Nascour''s somewhat lopsided tilt on the psychic type made him particrly vulnerable to Wes''s Umbreon. The biggest problem Nascour had though was that at least one of Wes''s pokemon hard counters one or multiple of his own pokemon and had been trained to levels that exceeded his own. Level wise Nascour''s pokemon were all between sixty and seventy which was pretty damn good honestly. Wes''s team though all sat between seventy five and eighty five. It wasn''t exactly a one sided stomp but Nascour only knocked out Wes''s Umbreon before he lost.-


    "Finally going to reveal your real colors eh?" I asked Escade as he got up to leave after seeing Nascour about to lose. "So you knew this whole time? I should have guessed." he said with a scoff before leaving. Duking just looked confused at this whole interaction so I exined. "He''s the actual boss of Cypher, it''s why they managed to integrate themselves so thoroughly into the region. He is both the source of their funding and greatest power as well all while ying the part of a kind and gentle mayor. Credit where it''s due though if it weren''t for those two he may have actually gotten away with it." I said casually.-


    "WHAT!? How can you be so calm about something like this!?" Duking eximed and I chuckled. "Because Wes isn''t ying fair, Escade is going down there thinking he''s going to mop up the exhausted team of Wes but he doesn''t know that Wes has a second team stashed away under that coat of his. I have to admit it''s a stroke of tactical genius on his part. He predicted that Cypher would pull something like this and set up a contingency that while VERY illegal solved the problem perfectly" I said with a smirk.-


    Oh it was a nasty trick on Wes''s part as no one, not even the actual criminals would expect him to pull a stunt like this. He would have taken me off guard with it too if I didn''t use my X-ray ability anytime it looked like his pokemon were getting seriously injured. At those times it became impossible to miss the six round objects in his coat. It was rather amusing watching Escade or "Evice" after he transformed mocking Wes as the guys team fell one by one from pure exhaustion and stacking injuries, nothing fatal but weakening regardless.-


    That was when Wes reached into his coat and tossed out a level sixty four Meganium and level seventy three Ampharos. The smug victorious look on Evice''s face turned to one of disbelief and outrage when he realized what was happening. Wes''s second team was fresh faced and had a bone to pick with the Cypher boss. In addition to the fact the evil pricks team was down by three members and two of thest three were ragged after taking out Wes''s original team the oue could be easily figured out.-


    "NO! You may have won today but I''ll be back for my vengeance!" the small fat man roared angrily as a single seater helicopter started to approach the arena. "Learn to ept your loss!" I called as I sicked Rune and Vulcan on the helicopter. Or rather I was about to when a big bolt of fire shot down from the sky exploding the thing. "Well I''ll be damned, A Ho ho of all things in this region." I said genuinely surprised. The legendary bird did a few fly overs near the arena, paused slightly when it noticed me and then left in a hurry.


    I chuckled at that since I had a clue why ''I wonder which blessing it felt first, Rayquaza or Giratina?'' I thought amused. I stood up and reinforced my legs with aura before jumping up and forward over the bleachers and right into the arena in one nice clean motion. I then walked over to the speechless gathering of people at the arena''s center that was Duking, his top enforcer, Silva, the two cops from Pyrite and of course Wes and Rui. I don''t count Evice or Nascour since they were cuffed.


    "See what did I say? You had this just fine, no need for me to get involved at all." I said congratting the duo responsible. "I would have lost if I hadn''t already known they were going to y a trick like they did." Wes said seriously. "Perhaps butwhy talk about something that didn''t happen? You won and that''s all that matters at this exact moment, well that and what you will be doing after mopping up the rest of the shadow pokemon that is. Still after a victory like yours I''d say you deserve a prize so drop by my ce when you get a chance." I said with a grin before recalling my pokemon and grabbing the nearby elevator.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Rewarding effort

    Rewarding effort


    I wandered about Realgam tower for a bit after that. ''This ce isn''t half bad actually, it''s got a restaurant, a bar and the arena itself. Not to mention this ce was clearly made without sparing any expense. ck and white marble checkered floors, electromag transit tforms and even pneumatic elevators and polymer construction materials.'' I thought genuinely impressed. Unfortunately I also easily noticed the issues with this ce being like this, maintenance for example was going to be gods awfully expensive. I''m talking the floors, walls and mechanisms all would rapidly wear down if this ce was open to the public.-


    I suppose that if it were used exclusively for higher end trainer battles and only for tournaments every now and again it wouldn''t be TOO expensive but it was still bound to cost a pretty penny to maintain. ''It''s too obvious that this ce was designed with the hope of drawing in money from out of the region. That n clearly failed since Cypher is gone now. I wonder who if anyone is going to take control of the ce?'' I pondered and couldn''t really think of anyone that fit the bill in the region.-


    Orre wasn''t exactly a ce teeming with oppurtunity so rich folk didn''t really have a reason to invest in this ce. In fact I was fairly certain that if I hadn''t shown off the ces specialty, double battles, Mr. Stone wouldn''t have decided to set up a branch of the Devon corp here. Hell I was willing to bet blood that the branch was going to be running at a loss for a few years until a flowing economy got going where money went to the branch and from there outside the region and then back in the form of products not found here.-


    I could speed that up with the whole special spice idea of mine but again actually convincing people here to farm the stuff and sell it was more effort than it was worth, for me at least. I''d rather just hand over a whole fucking lot of money to Duking and let him deal with enriching the region. A good start would probably be creating artificial pokemon habitats in the oasis''s that dot the region by importing berry seeds and pokemon to be released there from afar to start little colonies.-


    Having a healthy poption of wild pokemon in the region would be a very good thing for the ce as it meant potential variants that could further enrich the trainers here. Depending on the species chosen to be brought in it might be possible to also start terraforming the desert slowly around the oasis''s by the pokemon there passively extending the ces radiuses. It would take centuries at least to see a drastic change but once it was sessfully implemented it was inevitable unless something stepped in to stop it. Honestly though I couldn''t see any reason why something would as it was good for the region.-


    Still in the end this was something best left to someone who actually lived in the region as I myself would soon enough be leaving. I had no reason to stay anymore even if the league would probably wish I had to help out with that professor that was supposed to being to the region. I was just going to get the matter of the Hubs care solved before heading to my next region to continue my pokemons training. Anyways once I fully checked out the Realgam tower I headed back to the Hub on Vulcans back while the fliers flew overhead.-


    Once we were back to the loud sandstorm surrounded ce my pokemon went about their own business and I went to meditate. You could color me surprised to see Wes and Rui show up about an hourter. "You know when I said to stop by I honestly assumed it would take longer." I joked. "We have people looking keeping an eye out for the remaining shadow pokemon but it''ll take time for that to pan out." Wes said calmly. "I see and out of curiosity what do you intend to do with the shadow pokemon after you catch them all?"-


    "You can''t just take them with you after you leave unless you get a professor in another region to hold onto them for you right?" I asked curiously. "How''d you know we were going to leave?" Rui asked surprised and I noticed she said "we" and not "i" but chose to leave it be. "Educated guess, still the question stands." I said casually. "Was hoping you might be able to help with that since you are already taking care of three of the shadow pokemon." Wes said pointing at the garden and pond that had the ex shadow pokemon rxing at.-


    I shook my head "This ce isrge sure but it''s nowhere nearrge enough to handle that many pokemon and in the case of those three they have a purpose as to why they are here. They will take care of the oasis while I am gone in the future and I was going to go looking for a house sitter for this ce as well soon. My time in this region is drawing to a close after all since I already discovered the forgotten secrets of this ce." I said honestly.-


    "Really!?" Rui eximed in shock and excitement. I nodded "Give me a moment and I''ll send a copy of my final draft on the subject to your PDA, it''s quite the tale." I said before walking over to my PC and copying and sending the draft to their PDA''s as promised. They read through the draft while I prepared some berry juice from the berries that grow out of my garden. I also ground up some ice to create a sort of smoothie. "Here you go" i said setting the drinks down in front of them.-


    Rui looked at the oddly colored mixture and took an experimental sip from the straw before her eye widened in surprise and started gulping it down. "I know it''s good but slow down a bit or you''ll get brain freeze." I said not more than a second before a pained look came over her and both Wes and I chuckled. "I don''t think she can be med in this case as this drink is really good, how''d you make it?" Wes asked curiously. "Not to toot my own horn but I happen to be a master level chef and currently have ess to premium ingredients whose freshness could not be beaten. Straight from my garden there to those drinks in fact."-


    "As for the actual recipe its the juice of a Mago, Qualot and Iapapa berry in equal portions for about half a ss and then the other half being crushed ice, you could alternatively substitute snow in for ice in a pinch." I exined honestly. "Aaand saved, thanks for the recipe!" Rui said happily after copying the recipe down.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Rewarding effort(2)

    Rewarding effort(2)


    I waved it off though "Think nothing of it, I''m actually more curious as to what you thought about the draft." I said honestly. "It was kinda sad like one of those old fairytales that don''t have a happy ending. You know the ones that are supposed to teach you something instead?" Rui said and I nodded. "The full version is so much worse but considering the contents I thought it best if the public version didn''t have those details." I said honestly. "Something to do with the shadow pokemon right?" Wes asked and I nodded. "So that''s why you raided theb, you were looking for clues on the past and you probably found them right?" Rui asked.-


    "Yeah, Cypher had a b of stone with the rest of the story recorded on it that they used as the base to create shadow pokemon. I destroyed the b of course." I said honestly. "Good riddance! making shadow pokemon is so cruel and we are better off without knowing how to." Rui said happy to hear the b had been destroyed. "Indeed but enough about that you are here for your reward no?"-


    "You came faster than expected so I haven''t had the time to write it out yet but I was going to give you a pair of letters, one for Professor Birch and the other for Gym leader Watson. Birch should be in Littleroot most of the time and Watson in Mauville both of which are in Hoenn. The letters will open many doors for you both while in that region as while I myself am not in a position of power my name does have some pull that those two will use for you after reading the letters. The whole region sort of owes me a favor after all." I said with a smile.-


    "How do you make an entire region owe you a favor?" Rui asked confused. "And ruin the surprise? You''ll find out on your own fairly fast after getting over there but all I''ll say is that you''ll understand some of the things I said after you do. Now then if you''ll give me a bit I''ll write up those letters and you can be on your way while I myself can get back to enjoying the rest of my vacation." I said with a smirk. -


    It really did only take me a few minutes to write both of the letters as the contents weren''t some long drawn out thing. They more or less started with a greeting from me to them then moved to me adding something that they could use to verify that it was indeed from me. Then I exined the situation with Wes and Rui as well as asking them to help the two out a bit. I then ended it by exining that I''ll probably be heading to Sinnoh after my vacation here was done and I had my ce left in good hands.-


    I put the letters in their respective envelopes and addressed each to the person they were meant to go to before handing them off the Wes. The two left after that and I went back to meditating. The next day I set out on Vulcan to Pyrite with my cases of two and a half million and two and almost a half million poke respectively. For this region that was an absurd amount of money but in truth it was maybe fifty percent of what it would take to build a second Realgam. In other words more than enough for nearly any project duking might want it for.-


    "Boss." Cail greeted me as I recalled Vulcan at the entrance of the town. I tossed him some fruit jerky as I passed which he dug into with gusto. I headed to Madam Fateen''s ce first since I figured she might be able to point me in the direction of a good person to take over the Hub when I leave. "You will find what you seek with Duking" Fateen said the moment I walked in. "You could have at least waited for me to ask first but thanks anyways I guess." Imented with a chuckle.-


    "I know not why but and across the mountains and past the sea requires your aid, forces beyond us all move there as the shadows writhe." she said ominously. ''Either I''m mistranting that or she basically just told me that Cyrus is already moving forward with that retarded n of his, no rest for the wicked it seems.'' I thought with a sigh as I turned around and left. I walked down the street of the town for a bit until I was right in front of an unassuming rested building that I entered through the automatic door.-


    "Hmm? Oh it''s you, please have a seat and tell me what I can do for you." Duking said as he looked up from his paperwork. "Just here to drop off the funds and ask about a housekeeper for my ce after I leave the region." I said putting the cases of money on the desk. "How much is this anyways?" he asked after nodding. "Nothing too crazy, just a bit under five millions poke. I have so much more in digital currency so no need to worry about taking it." I said casually. "F-five m-million!?" he stuttered in shock at the amount and I nodded. -


    "It sounds like a lot but once you get to using it I promise it''ll vanish faster than you can blink. This ce has a lot of stuff that needs work or renovation as you should already know and that costs serious cash." I said honestly. "With this much money I might even be able to give all of Pyrite a new lease on life! You said you needed a housekeeper right? I''ll get Silva to do it since I know he can be absolutely trusted to keep it in good shape." Duking said emotionally.-


    "Seriously I have so much more it''s not even funny so there''s no need to get worked up like this." I said trying to calm him down. "No no I get that for you this ain''t nothing to talk about but for Orre, for Pyrite this is enough to make history. It''s hard not to get a little worked up in the face of something like that you know?" he said and I got it. It was an important shift in the winds, a real oppurtunity to prosper on a whole new level.


    <em><strong>___________________________________________</strong></em>


    <em><strong>https://.pa /user?u=81578854#:~:text=pa /pa treon_loskro</strong></em>


    <em>Remove the spaces after the "A".</em>

 Handover

    Handover


    I chatted with Duking for a bit until Silva walked into the building. "I was out looking for the remaining shadow pokemon, why did you need to see me?" Silva asked confused. "That would be because of me in truth, not to worry this''ll only take a few moments at most. I will be leaving the region soon since I discovered why no wild pokemon live here and I need someone to keep my house clean while I am not present. Duking volunteered you." I said calmly.-


    The silver haired dude looked at Duking like he had been insulted. The buff man just shrugged "He just dropped five million poke on the region. Plus you need a ce of yours anyway since you keep crashing here." he said honestly. It was rather funny to watch Silva try to find some sort of excuse to say no but after I mentioned all the perks that came with the job including the VERY well stocked garden that was continuously producing new herbs, fruits and vegetables he had a lot of trouble. "Perfect, just stop by at your earliest convenience and I''ll add you to the array." I said once he agreed.-


    "Array?" he asked confused. "Sort of like a mystical version of a lock if you would, makes it so only people registered to it can open the door otherwise you''d not be able to get in at all." I exined honestly. "What do you mean mystical?" Duking asked confused. I raised my hand and red my aura across my palm like a bright rainbow light. "I''m an aura master, a practitioner of the ancient and deeply mystical art of controlling life energy. The array is made using an extremely advanced aura technique and thus is in and of itself mystical in nature." I exined calmly.-


    "That got anything to do with shadow pokemon?" Silva asked with narrowed eyes. I shook my head "It''s not that simple, aura is neutral, not good nor bad. Like all things though it can be used for evil just as it can good, shadow pokemon are one such example. I am a positive aura user however so the idea of shadow pokemon is repulsive to me." I rified. "I see, so aura is a tool more or less then?" Silva asked and I nodded.-


    I had to rify that he wouldn''t be learning how to use aura nor would it be needed to for the job. Instead it was just a simple matter of adding his name to the "deed" of the Hub. With that taken care of about a dayter I could now leave whenever I wished. I decided to hitch a ride on the next shiping down from Sinnoh to the far north past Orre. The region was at the top of the continent and ridiculously isted. ''If I remember right Stone''s got a branch of Devon there too which means he now has a hold over the northern part of the continent and the far south as well'' I thought as I sat at the bottom of the pond at the Hub.-


    It was rather funny now that I thought about it as clearly Stone was a better businessman that the Ceo of Sylph co that was located in Kanto and Johto. Byparison it was rather obvious that Sylph was probably going to get driven into a corner in the future as the only ce it could expand to would be the wild zones and Rota. The kingdom would definitely repel any attempts on that front and the wild zones were even less likely to work out.-


    The future of thatpany was bleak even if it continued to existter. Devon was on the other hand poised to take over the business world on this main continent. I felt the water move around me as I thought about this matter and I opened my eye to see the Magikarp swimming around me curiously with the Mudkip. I smiled and scratched the fish on the head which it enjoyed immensely. I shifted and dispersed the sand as I stood up and kicked off the bottom to surface.-


    "Are you sure you aren''t a water type in disguise?" Silva asked nearby as he shamelessly took a berry for himself from one of my bushes. "I told you before it''s just one of the many abilities I have, you really should give it a try. It''s very peaceful down there." I said as I got out of the water and just let it evaporate naturally off my skin. "Don''t know how to swim, never saw a point in learning to with the way the region is." he said with a shrug.-


    "You really should learn, these ones love it when I y with them in the water and I doubt they''d treat you any differently. Besides you might need the exercise with how many berries you''ve been eating." I teased. He''d been staying at the Hub for three weeks now and was almost gluttonous in his consumption of the berries that grew in my garden. "I still get plenty of exercise and besides aren''t you acting rather coldly not going to see those two off on their journey to Hoenn, they leave today after all?" he asked and I just shook my head with a smile.-


    "They don''t need to see this mug before they leave this ce and raise all sorts of hell in the league, we''ll meet again in the future I''m sure. Besides I''m going to be heading for Sinnoh in a week anyways so you''ll lose this lovely privacy sandstorm that you''ve been enjoying so far." I said and he grimaced. "Alright I admit that it''s nice having an imprable barrier of sand between me and the rest of the world. I hadn''t realized just how much I enjoyed being left alone till I moved out here."-


    "You did that shit to yourself helping everyone out as Duking''s right hand man. That reminds me but how''s that n of his to convert the oasis into habitats going?" I asked curiously. "Thanks to Wes having a good selection of different species we only needed to import a few more of the same kinds to get a semi-stable ecosystem set up in the paradise oasis. It''ll take a few years before the poptions get bigger and stabilize fully and at least an extra decade after that to be able to open the oasis to the public for catching without ruining the poptions." he said honestly.

 Setting sail again

    Setting sail again


    I nodded at this as I had expected such an answer to a degree. This project was the sort to take a good deal of time toplete but only a few months at most to get started. When it was done though I doubted anyone would fail to remember Duking even long after he dies. I pitied the mans descendants a little as that would be a hard legacy to live up to. This wasn''t a joke either as he was effectively bringing wild pokemon back to Orre for the first time in centuries which might even mean the recovery of the region.-


    My role in this was minimal to be honest as while I spoke with Duking about it and provided arge amount of funds he basically did everything else himself. I was honestly impressed at how quickly he worked when properly motivated. The man was like an unstoppable juggernaut when he got some momentum going on a project and bulldozed through any obstacles he found with ease. I had spent most of thest two weeks till now watching in amusement as he expertly jumped through the many hoops that came with such a project like a well trained show pokemon.-


    "Perhaps I''lle back in a century or two to see how things went." I said casually as I headed to the kitchen to make lunch. "Whatever you say man." Silva said dismissively since he thought I was exaggerating. I wasn''t of course but he certainly didn''t need to know that as that. Still that was one of the perks of extreme longevity like mine as I could return many yearster to see how a long term project like this turns out.-


    I probably wouldn''t need to though since the information would be avable on the pok most likely as it was a very big piece of news that couldn''t be hidden once that egghead got here. Clearing my head of those thoughts I set to work saut��ing some edible mushrooms I had alongside some carrots and onions. I dezed the pan with some mild white wine and added thest of my stored up meat since I didn''t have a source in the region to get more from. It was freeze dried so once it was rehydrated by the sauce came back to life immediately.-


    I boiled some noodles while that was cooking down on low before straining all but a little of the pasta water and mixed it into the sauce as I added the noodles. The final result was a fairly simple pasta dish with a rich but light vor that Silva was thrilled to devour ravenously. "I think I''m going to miss your cooking more than anything after you leave. I don''t know if i can ever go back to normal food after eating so much of your cooking." He said with a sigh. I shrugged "Sucks to be you I suppose." I said with a chuckle.-


    The next week passed by in the blink of an eye and the ship heading to Sinnoh arrived which meant it was time for me to go. Unlike when Wes and Rui left my departure was a quiet affair with few peopleing to see me off. It was mostly just Silva, Duking, Cail and Makan to be honest but that was fine since unlike in Hoenn I wasn''t hailed as a hero here. The ship taking me to Sinnoh was the [S.S. Anne] which gave me more than a little nostalgia from the games but was in fact not the same named pleasure cruise ship.-


    Getting a room on the ship wasn''t hard at all once I met the Captain who recognized me from the pok and was thrilled at the mere idea of me being aboard. As it turned out in the short seven or so months I had spent here in Orre some things had changed in the league due to my past actions. For example crime had sharply dropped as new trainers actively worked to stop criminals though typically less lethally than myself. The second big change was that the healing move was showing up in the gym challenges and making things more interesting for grass type specialists against the other typings.-


    The third was that the old bat had been griefed by angry fans of mine in Sinnoh into taking her life which created a VERY awkward situation for the Joy n to deal with. The matriarch in Hoenn had to step down from that position as she was ovee with grief at the loss of her sister and may have started getting some very not good for the n ideas about retaliating against the fans.-


    Not against me personally as it was beyond questioning that I was not behind that whole situation with my continued presence in Orre being a well documented and proven thing. Not to say I wasn''t totally nning to kill the old bat myself mind you just that she clocked out before I could get to Sinnoh so that point was moot. Obviously the moment the Hoenn Matriarch wanted tosh out at the public for turning on the Joy n like that the rest of the n in Hoenn stopped her and more or less put her on house arrest/ forced retirement.-


    The whole matter pretty much ended there though as with the old bat dead and the Matriarch retired the people that put a bounty on my head quietly withdrew it as there was no one who was distracting the people hunting for the source of the bounty away from them. It probably helped that it was fairly clear that no one was going to be able to kill me at this point so the bounty was just throwing away the lives of the hired killers. Pretty much the people that put up the bounty decided that it would simply be better to remove the thing than continue risking discovery by the league that was hunting them fervently.-


    It was a maneuver a bit like a lizard dropping their tail to escape from a predator. The final big change was one that technically had been started back when I was in Hoenn but only really took off after I left, variant training. To be more specific training more than one variant at a time. Somehow or another somebody had figured out how to increase the limit from only one variant on a team to TWO variants on a team.-


    Not a huge increase I know but an important one nheless. The way the trick worked was that you split your team in half, that was to say into two groups of three each headed by one variant. If done correctly you never had a dominance issue like normal but apetitive rivalry as the two variants try to one up each others part of the team. The "catch" was that only one of the variants could be a species or typing with anger issues so like if you had a variant dragon type you couldn''t have another or things would get hostile between them, it was a delicate bncing act.

 Arrival

    Arrival


    Sinnoh might be mistaken for an isted ind much like Hoenn just by the games but in truth there was a fairly small set of inds dotted between it and the main continent that were so close together that the region was counted as part of the main continent. Why this was I had no fucking clue but that was just how it was. Between Orre and Sinnoh though the distance was at most only half the distance Hoenn was from Orre so it only took half a month to arrive.-


    The trip itself wasn''t worth talking about as it was basically just each day filled with boredom and monotony as we sailed up to Sinnoh. Nothing interesting happened at all as no pokemon attacked nor was this ship equipped with training grounds as it was a pure freight type vessel. It was designed and operated to deliver goods from Sinnoh to Orre once every three months as fast as humanly possible. It was only after we crossed into Sinnoh''s waters properly that I had a break in the monotony as the system sent me a notification.-


    [Achievement: Reach Sinnoh! Reward: 2x ability tickets!]


    ''So that was a built in feature and not a fluke.'' I thought calmly as I epted the tickets to be usedter. ''Rota didn''t count but maybe that was because of it''s minute size so that just leaves Johto, Kanto, Almia and MAYBE Oblivia for the known regions. Perhaps visiting the wild zone inds would also count but I''d need to test that idea. Still that''s at least eight abilities almost guaranteed for the future which may even let me elevate my aura again.'' I thought casually as I stretched. Leaving my small cabin I walked without any issue even though the ship was lurching forwards and back with the waves.-


    This was because of a small amount of aura leaving my feet to grip the deck under me with each step. The wet slippery metal and rubber matted walk space proved to be little inconvenience for me as I walked onto the main deck. "Oi! Can''t you see it''s bloody stormin out here!? What in the threes name makes you think now''s a good time to step out here!?" A sailor who was soaked to the bone yelled at me over the howling winds and torrential rains.-


    "Wanted to stretch my legs a bit don''t mind me at all!" I called with a smile as I casually walked past him heading for the front of the ship. The man just watched with a dumbfounded look as I strolled forward without slipping or even tilting at all with the ship to keep my footing. Naturally the front of the ship was the most violently moving ce in the entire ship but aura made acting like a part of the ship childs y as I anchored myself down. I lifted my eyepatch and opened my draconic eye and activated my x-ray at the same time enhancing my long distance vision dramatically. -


    I ignored the pokemon I could see under the water and focused on looking forward to see if I could spotnd. At first the answer was no but soon I saw the light of Canve''s lighthouse like a tiny pinprick in the darkness of the storm. ''Looks like we have another few hours before we start our approach.'' I thought satisfied with my discovery and closed my eye and covered it back up after I stopped using my x-ray ability. With that taken care of I walked back to my room soaked but unbothered by it.-


    The storm lessened greatly about an hourter and it came as no surprise when the call fornd in sight was made. It was still pretty damn hard to see with how heavy the rain was but lighthouses were intentionally made obscenely bright for that exact reason, so it was impossible to miss while lit. The ship slowed and began it''s approach to the harbor while I waited patiently in my cabin. There was a lot of shouting and the sound of boots on the deck outside as the ship got closer and closer to the city.-


    I felt the ship turn around and begin backing into the port city but remained in my cabin until we stopped moving. Walking out I looked over the railing and got my first look at the city, it was rather underwhelming. Not bad mind you but I suppose the word nd best fits the ce as the whole city was a dull stone grey with the vast majority of the buildings also looking the same as they were dull grey with dark blue roofs. I wasn''t surprised though as unlike Gateon and Lilycove this ce wasn''t a business hub for the region despite being the only real shipping city.-


    Canve city was purely a shipping point and not a ce people really lived. There was a standing poption of a few dozen thousand people but most of the actual people here were just sailors waiting to head out again. The odd part in my opinion was that there was also a Gym here which meant that during the league season the people here surged as trainers came to challenge the ces leader. I merely waved at the Captain of the ship as I jumped off the ship with a slow flip beforending on my feet.-


    A bit of aura reinforcement made a mere fifteen or twenty foot drop with the proper form nothing difficult at all. Now in the city proper I decided to take a look around for a ce to stay. The te tile paved roads sshed as I walked across them looking for an inn or even a pokecenter. A window opened on a nearby house "Lad you''ll catch cold if you keep wandering aimlessly like that." the old woman inside said concerned. "Unlikely but thank you for the concern. You wouldn''t happen to know where an inn or pokecenter is would you?" I asked with a friendly smile.-


    "You''re on the wrong side of the canal for thatd, inns and pokecenter are on the other half of Canve." she said honestly. "Huh? Well that would certainly exin why I haven''t seen any, thanks for telling me I''ll rush over there now." I said before taking off into a sprint down the street towards the nearest draw bridge. I frowned when I saw that it was up and that the other three were also up. ''Looks like I''m taking a swim then.'' I thought with a sigh.


    I put on my googles and dived over the railing into the canal slipping beneath the waters rough surface easily. It was dark as shit and the water was cloudy so I had to use my x-ray vision to see to the other side. I raised an eyebrow at what I saw under the water though as I hadn''t expected it at all. There at the bottom of the canal tucked away nearly out of sight was a small doorway carved into the walls of the canal. ording to my x-ray it lead to a whole ass abandoned house built below the waters surface and made in such a way that it had a sort of moonpool to enter it.

 Checking in

    Checking in


    I casually swam over to the door and pull on it and the long since corroded hinges grinded and groaned at the sudden use but obeyed under my strong force. Door now open I swam in and pulled the door shut with a little more ease this time before heading up to the moonpool a bit ahead. It was very dark in the air pocket room but I simply ran my aura over my torso which gave me enough light to go rifling through my bag for a handful of glowsticks. -


    I rarely needed them but they were useful once I found myself in a situation like this. Cracking the glowsticks I started tossing them in every direction. The green glow from them illuminated the room and I curiously looked around. The ce wasn''t very big, maybe just big enough for a single average sized person to walk around. Naturally my tall ass was VERY cramped in here as I was way taller than the average person. I barely fit even while on my knees in fact but that wasn''t particrly strange given my size. The room itself wasn''t all that furnished either which I assumed was because of the moonpool''s water possibly effecting it if it was.-


    There was a thick wax candle on a table at the far end though that I made my way over to and converted my aura to fire type and sparked the wick till it lit up. A warm glow fell over the room and I could see much better than just by the glowsticks light. ''A quaint little ce that seems to have three rooms in total, this is the entryway and there is a bathroom and bedroom as well. It seems like this person either really like their privacy or may have had the water breathing ability as well.'' I thought calmly as I looked over the ce.-


    There were no artifacts or anything of real worth in this ce which made it clear that the previous resident had intentionally moved out at some point. The air was also being filtered by the thinyer of green moss on the walls so I didn''t run the risk of suffocating. ''Not the best ce to spend the night but I''ll live.'' I thought as I stretched out across the floor to get some sleep.-


    It didn''t take me long at all to doze off and end the day there. When I woke upter I checked my pokenav and saw it was about ten in the morning. The candle was still burning surprisingly even so many hourster so I blew it out before sinking into the moonpool to leave. The water was still murky as shit but That had nothing to do with me as I kicked off the bottom of the canal and to the surface. Breaching the surface of the water I pped a hand to the side of the stone side of the canal and used my aura to pull myself up.-


    Clearly no one was expecting me to just casually climb out of the canal as the people nearby just going about their business had looks of shock when I did. "Don''t mind me, just passing through." I said with a smile before walking off to try and find the pokecenter. I needed to let the Birch and the league know that I was in the region after all. High level trainers like myself were required to do so when we first got to a new region since each and every one of us could upset the bnce of an area easily.-


    Foreign trainers also tended to sh with locals since each region had different traditions and cultures that don''t always meld well. It wasn''t raining today so I got a much better look at the city and I had to admit that my first impression was straight on, this ce was bleak. There were few stores and no real definable features with most of the buildings or warehouses looking damn near identical. This only served to make finding the pokecenter, pokemart and Gym easier as they were the only buildings with a different look and as a result stuck out like a sore thumb.-


    I drew whispers and looks as I walked to the big red roofed building that all trainers knew. These weren''t the sort that I used to get but those of recognition and to some degree, fear. My reputation for brutalizing criminals and taking down big groups was well known all through the league so it wasn''t odd that the people in Canve would be concerned to see me walking their streets. It was quite simr to seeing fully armed soldiers in public, unsettling to say the least.-


    I wasn''t bothered by these looks and whisperings or even the few people I noticed recording me, no doubt to gossip on the. The pokecenter was simr to all the others I had seen in design which made it easy for me to walk right in through the automatic doors. "Wee to....!" the Joy manning the nearby counter started with the usual spiel before freezing mid sentence when they recognized me. "Easy there. I''m just here to report my arrival to the league so just act like you never saw me if it helps." I said calmly.-


    The pinkette quickly recovered her decorum and had an embarrassed expression. "The terminals are down the hall and marked clearly, please help yourself Mr. Drake." she said professionally. I nodded and headed that way since she was clearly putting up a brave front. As she had said though the terminals were a bit down the hallway and through a door with a sign that said that it was the terminal room. I found a seat at one of the terminals and hit a few keys to wake up the sleepingputer. Once it was nice and responsive I logged into my league ount and started going through the steps to report my arrival while simultaneously sending my research to Birch to be published.-


    Academic works like mine needed to be reviewed by a professor before it could be published with the small exception of if you were already a league recognized researcher, I was not. While I was here I also decided to send a message to Mr. Stone, Watson and Birch that was more of a personal affair as I talked about my time in Orre and the events there. I also asked them about how things were going for them since it had been about a month over half a year since Ist heard anything from them.

 Possible legendary

    Possible legendary


    It shouldn''t need to be mentioned but there was a couple hour time difference between here in Sinnoh and back in Hoenn so while it was a pretty normal time for me to be up and about, over there they were still asleep. Once I was done with theputer I shut it off and walked back out to the main lobby. "I hope you found everything to your satisfaction." the Joy said with a friendly smile. "Indeed I did, but I was hoping to see the jobs you had if any as well." I said calmly.-


    She seemed surprised at this butplied anyways by handing over the printed list out for me to go over. ''Exterminate a pest, help at the docks, investigate the sightings of a ghost type near a certain area. Thisst one seems interesting.'' I thought as I looked over the avable jobs. "I''ll take this investigation job." I said pointing out the job on the paper. The Joy looked at the job and frowned "Are you sure? I''m not doubting your skill but even a full investigation by the local chapter of the Jenny n has turned up little more than fleeting nces and empty shadows." she said seriously.-


    "I have a unique advantage in terms of ghost types so I likely have a much better chance of solving this matter than most." I said with a smirk as I patted the pocket Hades was in earning a hiss from the moody spectre. It had been in a poor mood ever since we left Orre or to be more specific the Hub in Orre. I couldn''t really me it either as the ce had a calming effect on all of the soul fragments that made it up and with that effect gone the innate rage and grievances that those soul shards held were rearing their ugly heads.-


    Ironically it was my own general numbness that was keeping it passive at the moment and not murderously twitchy. Don''t get me wrong I wasn''t a purely apathetic person anymore but that didn''t mean I didn''t have a bad habit of sort of zombie walking through my days. I had traded my apathy for a sort of calmness that was hard to really describe. Anyways Hades was sort of leaching off this calmness to keep it''s cool at any given moment.-


    If I honestly thought that it would help I''dtry to get the ghost some therapy but the sad fact of the matter was that no amount of the stuff would help a Spiritomb like it as trauma and mental instability were innate facets of it''s species. Spiritomb were born of death and from what I understand not the peaceful sort either and that meant it''s default state was madness, so how could you possibly fix it? This mission would be good for Hades as it would let it distract itself from itself for at least a short while.-


    The Joy reluctantly registered the mission under my name and after thanking her for her help I left the pokecenter. The details of the mission were simple really and the quest that the system gave me based on it had a few details that weren''t included in the paper.


    [Quest conditions established!


    Description: There have been reports of a pokemon with dark features that floats and is spected to be a Ghost type stalking a certain area within Canve city! You have taken the mission of discovering and potentially removing the creature should it prove dangerous!


    Objectives: Discover the identity of the mysterious pokemon (0/1), Decide what to do with the mysterious pokemon(optional)(multiple choice), ?????(optional)(based on the choice made in the previous objective.)


    Rewards: 4x item tickets, 1x pokemon ticket, ?????(rewards based on choice and oue)]


    ''Dark features and floats? Doesn''t exactly narrow the list down by much since most ghost types fit the bill. Bte, Dusclops and Sableye are all excluded as they are all ground bound and a Spiritomb would be far more violent and not nearly so elusive. Hold on wasn''t there an event in tinum involving a kid with perpetual nightmares that you used to acquire a Darkrai?'' i thought turning serious.-


    If it was indeed Darkrai then shit was going to get VERYplicated for a few reasons. The first was that as both Hades and Darkrai were legendries they might get into a spat over the territory. Depending on the strength of the Darkrai this might mean I''d need to get my other pokemon involved and cause a big scene. While I wouldn''t get in much trouble with the league since a wild legendary causing problems in a city and needing to be stopped wasn''t a new concept, it would still be a pain to deal with.-


    Yeah wild legendary pokemon do asionally decide for whatever reason to just show up in a city and more often than not it doesn''t end very well at all. See if their peaceful everything is fine up until somebody realizes that said legendary ISN''T someone''s pokemon but wild. Wild pokemon in the cities are either heavily monitored or outright removed because unlike trained pokemon there is no one between them and any impulse that says some rude asshole who was otherwise innocent should meet a very unchild friendly end.-


    This brought me to the secondplication of if this WAS a Darkrai, keeping things calm. Despite being walking nightmares by nature Darkrai are from my understanding fairly solitary and quiet creatures. I am by no means an expert on the topic but all research I''ve read on the stuff on the pointed at the species being one of the least aggressive legendary species, friendly even in some cases. For the record the three legendary birds were considered at the top of that list as they caused the most deaths and attacks of any legendary.-


    The finalplication was of course, the league. To be specific how the fuck I was going to convince it NOT to mess with the thing if it is indeed harmlessly going about it''s business. As "the nightmare pokemon" Darkrai as a whole weren''t really wee in any human settlement because of their very presence causing nightmares. It was kinda unfair to judge it harshly because of this but no amount of propaganda was going to solve the fact that the species as a whole were sorta pests to have around, nobody liked having nightmares. In the end I would just offer to take the thing to someone who would treat it well if it needed to be removed.-


    Honestly I was pretty sure any of the big professors would be thrilled having it around and might even create a way to keep the nightmares away from others as a result of researching it. ''Hmm, if I recall this regions professor was Rowan right? A bit on the more traditional side of things but should be a good match for a quiet pokemon like Darkrai.'' I thought seriously as I walked down the street.

 False alarm

    False rm


    I walked towards the area that the supposed ghost type was known to frequent and I immediately spotted it. Not with my eyes but rather my aura senses that I kept extended nearly always and I couldn''t help butugh. It wasn''t a Darkrai or even any sort of really dangerous or mean pokemon but rather a Mismagius. While indeed a ghost type the species was harmless for the most part and quite friendly if a bit shy. Like all pokemon though they had some heavy misinformation about them due to a few unfortunate incidents. -


    The species sounded as though they were chanting incantations and with their dark purple ghostly forms and wide pointed witch hat looking heads it only took a few times of someone pissing one off for superstitions to start. Like all ghost type pokemon Mismagius held grudges for a LONG time and could be very vindictive if given the right motivation. Unfortunately this meant that they had some rather nasty stories attached to them that really failed to paint an urate picture of the species. Honestly speaking if I didn''t go looking for as much information as possible on every species in this world I might have been amongst those with a false image of them.-


    "You''ve caused quite the headache for those in this ce you know." I said with a chuckle while looking right at the wall that the pokemon was hiding behind. This surprised the ghost and I watched it drift to the side to test if I actually knew it was there or was bluffing. It was clearly even more surprised to see that I was still looking right at it even after it moved and hesitantly it left it''s hiding ce.-


    "Ah I see! You probably evolved and immediately came into the city out of curiosity right?" I asked after seeing that it was only level forty three with appraise. Obviously this was a very young pokemon and as a result was likely only here in the city because it was interested in this ce that must seem new and strange to itpared to the wild. I suppose I should point out that Mismagius and it''s unevolved form Misdreavius are kinda shit parents in that theyy an egg and then bolt before it''s even born.-


    This meant that each individual had rather different experiences growing up and evolvingpared to any others. For this one I assumed that it evolved a short while ago and randomly chose to follow a human back to the city and had been sneaking about since then but sucked at it since it had been spotted a bunch. "Mis Mis Ma!" the ghost spoke with a lilting tone that was quite eerie. Still thanks to my aura I roughly understood what it was trying to convey. "You got lost huh? Yeah you ghost types are never great with directions so that tracks." I said with an understanding nod. "Mismagius!" the ghost said offended at thement.-


    "It''s nothing to be embarrassed about, it''s simply part of your kinds nature after all. Come along, I''ll take you to someone who will be more able to help you than I." I said casually before heading back to the pokecenter. The ghost floated behind me eagerly as I led the way and hid behind me shyly when we got some looks but I ignored that. The Joy sitting behind the counter was surprised to see me and downright dumbfounded when she saw the Mismagius.-


    "She will be able to better help you than I will, not to worry she can be trusted." I said to the shy ghost who looked at the pinkette with a mixed expression of hesitancy and anticipation. "If I may ask how did you solve this matter so quickly, it''s only been maybe an hour or two?" the Joy asked curiously after she coaxed the ghost over with some candy that it happily ate. "It should bemon knowledge amongst your n that i am an aura user, I simply locked onto this ones aura and told it that you''d be able to help it, it got lost in the city you see." I said calmly.-


    "I see, thank you for indulging my curiosity. Now then I suppose you''ll be wanting your reward then?" she asked and I nodded. It was a simple ten thousand poke reward which wasn''t much at all but I was kinda out of liquid funds at the moment since i gave all I had to Duking so it was worth getting. There was also the quest rewards which were not anything impressive as it was the item tickets, pokemon ticket and a spell tag. -


    I wasn''t sure if I should even use the pokemon ticket as my current team still hadn''t reached champion level yet much less higher than that and were only on average ten levels above one hundred. They still had another forty levels to go before they qualified as champion level and that didn''t even include move mastery which was where most of our focus was at the moment. Even while we were on vacation and not training so hard we all still did some training. Taking it easy for a while was fine but stagnating was not for us. We probably could have hit champion in the seven or so months.


    Doing so however would have meant that we missed that time to wind down after the rather stressful year we had had in Hoenn. Don''t get me wrong Hoenn was a beautiful ce and I wouldn''t trade my time there for anything but things hadn''t been smooth for almost any of the time we were there. We NEEDED Orre, none of us would openly state it but we were all really tightly wound up when we left Hoenn. Still while our level gain had dropped precipitously while we were taking it easy our internalization of our past experiences evened it out and even helped my pokemon improve their move mastery.-


    Gaia had reached master in three of her moves and even transcendent in one of them and the rest of my pokemon were only slightly worse. Aranyani had mastered two moves and her innate ability but hadn''t transcended any moves yet. Vulcan had mastered one move and transcended another. Rune mastered two moves and Tank four and one transcended. Hades had mastered three moves as well and the little one hadn''t improved too much since maturing since he had been focusing on his energy control mostly.

 Status update

    Status update


    [NAME: Alexander Drake


    AGE:21


    RACE: High human-bonded


    INVENTORY: 2x item tickets , 1x pokemon ticket, 2x ability tickets


    ROULETTE


    QUESTS: 0


    Pokemon: Tyranitar(Gaia)(112) , Entei(Vulcan)(115) , Butterfree(Tank)(117) , Charizard(Rune)(109) , Grovyle(Aranyani(107) , Spiritomb(Hades)(109) , Feebas(N/A)(15)


    Level:96


    SKILLS:mon(M) , cleaning(N) , metal working(J) , aura(E) , cooking(M) , writing(N) , foraging(E) , farming(N) , masonry(N) , Spearmanship(A) , alchemy(E) , Ancient Sinnoh(J) , chemistry(N) , poke medic(J) , Ancient Kanto/Johto(N) , Hieroglyphics(N), Lordly cirction(J), hand to hand(N)


    ABILITIES: Appraise(M)(system ability) , Perfect body , Emotion suppression +1 , Healing(E) , Roar(J) , X-ray , Dragon eye , Boost(E) , Water breathing, Water creation, Mine, Minor nt maniption, Minor storage, Kill copy, water resistance


    STRENGTH:54


    AGILITY:38


    AURA:245


    INTELLIGENCE:45


    CHARISMA:38


    LUCK:27]


    [Pokemon: Tyranitar{Gaia}


    LEVEL:112


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(E) , Sandstorm(T) , Iron defense(Egg Move)(M) , screech(E) , rock slide(M) , scary face(E) , thrash(E) , dark pulse(E) , payback(E) , rock polish(M) , metal w(E) , sand bomb(M) , crunch(E) , stone grasp(M) , wrecking ball(E) , earthquake(M) , hyper beam(A) , ancient power(M) , fissure(E), Desert fury(N)


    Variations: Royal(Queen) , Shiny(stage 2)


    Attack:248


    Defense:229


    Sp. Atk:182


    Sp. Def:142


    Speed:126


    Ability: Desert ruler(A) , shed skin(E)]


    [Pokemon: Sceptile(Aranyani)


    LEVEL:107


    Moveset: Leer(M) , pound(M) , leaf storm(M)(egg move) , Absorb(M) , quick attack(M) , pursuit(E) , screech(E) , mega drain(M) , agility(M) , m(E) , detect(E) , giga drain(M) , false swipe(E) , night sh(E) , nature orb(M) , leaf de(M) , fury cutter(E) , bullet seed(E), nature mist(M), toxic(E), sunny day(E), sr beam(E)


    Skills: Aura(N)


    Variations: Shiny(Stage two)


    Attack:182


    Defense:155


    Sp. Atk: 229


    Sp. Def:185


    Speed:253


    Ability: Overgrow(M)]


    [Pokemon species: Entei(Vulcan)


    LEVEL:115


    Moveset: Bite(E) , Leer(M) , Ember(M) , roar(E) , fire spin(E) , Stomp(M) , methrower(E) , sunny day(E) , crunch(E) , extrasensory(E) ,va plume(M) , magma coat(E) , fire st(A) , sr beam(j) , fire fang(A) , calm mind(M) , extreme speed(T) , stone edge(E), Mach speed(N)


    Variations: none


    Attack:200


    Defense:145


    Sp. Atk:167


    Sp. Def:130


    Speed:179


    Ability: Inner focus(A)]


    [Pokemon: Charizard(Rune)


    LEVEL:109


    Skills: Aura(N)


    Moveset: Growl(E) , Scratch(E) , Swords dance(M) , smokescreen(E) , tail whip(E) , thunderwave(E) , Thunder shock(M) , quick attack(E) , shock wave(E) , double team(E) , thunder punch(E) , spark(E) , agility(E) , dragon rage(E) , thunder(E) , shing rain(E), aura sphere(A)


    Variations: Royal , Shiny(stage 2) , Elemental(electric)(stage 2)


    Attack:183


    Defense:130


    Sp. Atk:212


    Sp. Def:135


    Speed:129


    Ability: Conduit(E)]


    [Pokemon: Butterfree(Tank)


    LEVEL:117


    Skills: Aura(J)


    Moveset: String shot(M) , Tackle(E) , harden(T) , confusion(T) , poison powder(M) , sleep powder(M) , stun spore(M) , gust(M) , supersonic(E) , whirlwind(E) , psybeam(E) , silver wind(E) , tail wind(E) , safeguard(E) , bug buzz(E) , aura sphere(A) , powder bomb(E) , juggernaut(A), psycrush(n)


    Variations: Defensive stage three


    Attack:115


    Defense:258


    Sp. Atk:132


    Sp. Def:235


    Speed:150


    Ability: Skin sling(E)]


    [Pokemon: Feebas


    LEVEL:15


    Moveset: Ssh(E) , Metronome(A)(egg move), Ember(J), Thundershock(J), Tail whip(J), Gust(J), Defense curl(J), Shadow sneak(J), Absorb(J), Leer(J), Sandstorm(A), Dark pulse(J),


    Variations: ??????


    Attack:85


    Defense:107


    Sp. Atk: 93


    Sp. Def:140


    Speed:170


    Ability: ?????(J) ]


    [Pokemon: Spiritomb(Hades


    LEVEL:109


    Moveset: Confuse ray(M), Shadow sneak(E), Faint attack(E), Ominous wind(M), Sucker punch(E), Dark pulse(E), Shadow ball(M), Hypnosis(E), Dream eater(N), Pursuit(E),


    Variations: Legion


    Attack:94


    Defense:136


    Sp. Atk: 172


    Sp. Def:159


    Speed:179


    Ability: Pressure(E) ]

 Byron

    Byron


    Anyways with the mission with the Mismagius taken care of I left the pokecenter again though this time with a different destination in mind, the gym. Canve''s Gym leader was an unusual individual as far as Gym leaders were concerned. See most Gym leaders stayed at their gym or at the very least in the city itself for most of the time but Byron was different. He instead spent most of his time living in a small shack on the nearby Iron ind. This meant he was one of the most out of reach Gym leaders in the world as you couldn''t just mosey on into the gym and find him there most of the time.-


    There was a bit of a controversy regarding this in fact as it also meant that while he rushed over whenever an emergency required his attention he wasn''t exactly timely with his job mandated assistance. More than a few people weren''t happy about this fact but Byron was sitting right on the line between negligence of duty and upholding his responsibilities so he was technically not in the wrong. Personality wise he was one of the most approachable people as he was the sort to strike up a conversation with anyone without any hesitation or reluctance at all.-


    As a trainer he also was easily one of the morepetent ones in the elite level with his team being close to champion level due to mostly residing on iron ind that was for all intents and purposes a wild zone. The ce was a sort of paradise for steel type trainers as nearly every species there had that typing and had this rather unique ecosystem as a result that revolved around the typing. The ind was a sort of preserved area that humans were heavily restricted from interfering with due to this unique ecosystem.-


    Byron as a steel type trainer had made it his mission to protect the ind from poachers, pirates and people who weren''t supposed to be there. While his presence was tolerated by the pokemon of the ind after being there so much he still had to deal with challengers form both the gym as well as the local pokemon that were close to champion level or even possibly at that level. Most wild pokemon had this drive to dominate an area as I''ve said before so he and his trained team were seen as the "dominators" of an area on the ind and thus subject to being overthrown if defeated.-


    In a manner of speaking Byron''s way of training his team by having them deal with powerful wild pokemon was quite simr to my own training. This had me curious to meet him in person to try and get a feel for what that point in my own journey might look like. The gym was not difficult at all to find in Canve as it was one of thergest buildings and due to the style it was built in also vastly different than the surrounding buildings.-


    It had trainersing in and out as they hade to schedule their challenge so I was easily and immediately spotted on approach. There were whispers and and awe filled looks but only a single trainer actually stepped forward to challenge me. It was a girl about five nine with medium length ck hair and green eyes wearing a full set of Devon brand all weather travel gear. "I refuse." I answered her challenge calmly. "What!? Why!?" she demanded loudly.-


    I sighed "Because you would only get stomped if I epted. Look I get wanting to make a name for yourself but you clearly have no idea who I am or you''d know that I ONLY have elite level pokemon currently set as battlers. In other words a trainer going through the circuit normally like you would be massively outmatched in a battle to the point there wouldn''t even be any chance for you to learn from the experience." I said honestly. Canve gym was by tradition the sixth gym one would challenge in the league circuit which meant level seventy-ish pokemon.-


    That was on the lower end of ace trainers so trying to challenge my on average one hundred ten leveled pokemon was asking for humiliation or trauma. I may not be the nicest guy around but I don''t bully those so much weaker than me if I can help it, minus criminal but they don''t count. There was quite a bit of nodding from the small crowd of trainers watching this go down after I spoke. The girl turned red from anger and before she even opened her mouth again I knew she wasn''t going to let this matter drop here.-


    Oh I knew her type well enough, a rising prodigy, a show out, the next big thing, it was all the same as it meant an overinted sense of self worth and confidence. Gregory who had won my tournamentst year was this sort of person and had been headstrong even while I was training him. That was despite him knowing that I was just so much better than he was since I was still a fresh and hot topic in Hoenn. Not only was I NOT in Hoenn at the moment but i also had been effectively inactive for thest half a year so this girls reaction andck of understand was not all that surprising.-


    "He''s right you know." I male voice spoke up from the doorway of the gym as a dirt middle aged man in sweat stained clothes walked through the crowd. "Leader Byron, sorry about themotion." I said honestly. He waved it off though while the girl looked conflicted at the mans interruption, a mix of frustration and confusion ording to her aura. The man waved his hand dismissively "No need to apologize this ones kinda on me, I knew you were in the city and should have expected something like this when you eventually showed up here."-


    "This season has been particrly interesting as we''ve gotten several rising stars and as you likely guessed Miss Wataru is amongst them." Byron said casually. "Wataru? That exins the pride and hot headedness then. Dragon trainers tend to be rather impulsive after all and that n is no different." I said understanding where the girl got her attitude from. "Hmph! If you know then I demand that you ept my challenge!" the girl said haughtily. I sent Byron a questioning look and he just sighed "Try not to destroy anything." he said as his answer to my unsaid question.-


    "Hades show time." I said patting my pocket. ck smoke billowed out and dozens of "eyes" opened to re balefully at the girl who paled as the ghosts bloodthirsty madness rolled over her. "I tried being nice about it but you dragon trainers need a more forceful method to understand when to back down. It''s rather annoying to be honest. Anyways that''s enough Hades, I think she gets the point." I said and the ghost hissed and howled before slowly retreating back into it''s keystone in my pocket.

 Chat

    Chat


    "Rather harsh wasn''t it?" Byron asked with a sigh. I shrugged "Maybe, but it was either this or needlessly harming her pokemon." I said calmly. The girl in question had decided that perhaps it might in fact be best if she didn''t push her luck after this and left. Not to say that I could me her as from my understanding the Wataru n were the most sensitive to murderous intent after generations of training the most likely to try and kill you typing in the world.-


    Hades wasn''t ying around just now, if I gave the go ahead it wouldn''t have hesitated to rip the girl apart with glee. Clearly she picked that up and it got through her head that she may in fact have chosen a rather poor target. "In any casee in and we''ll have a nice chat, I am rather curious as to why you are here in Sinnoh after all." Byron said before walking back into the gym. The gym was clearly steel themed with shiny metal tes all over the ce and even moving gears that decorated the arena.-


    "Rather on the nose isn''t it?" I asked casually as we walked. Byronughed "I would have modeled it after iron ind but then it would have looked like a rock or ground type gym so this was the second best option." he said with a grin. "Makes sense, it must be hard having to split your time between here and the ind like this." I said nodding. "It has it''s challenges. Most of the time though I can handle it but recently crimes been up in the region and it''s been more stressful than normal." he said with a slight frown.-


    "Well the good news is that now that I''m here that should ease up unless these criminals didn''t learn from the events of my time in Hoenn." I said with a little bit of an edge to my voice. I had a particrlyrge amount of distaste for team gctic based entirely on the game I yed involving them. Cyrus was a madman of the worst sort as he was delusional enough to genuinely believe he was going to "fix" this "broken" world. I''ll be the first to admit that it''s not perfect, after spending nearly two years in this world and traveling all over an entire region putting down scum and dealing with issues I can freely admit this.-


    Butpared to what it COULD be like with the superpowered, sentient monsters and literal godly beings this ce may as well be a paradise. Sure the worst parts of humanity still reared their ugly heads and criminals had new and not so great ways of creating suffering but humanity as a whole in this world was brighter and better than on earth. It almost made me wonder how Cyrus would react to being thrust into the environment of earth if he thought this ce needed to be erased.-


    ''Ah who am I kidding that guy would definitely off himself the moment he realized that there was no way to "fix" that ce since there was no convenient deus ex machina red chain to shackle a god that may or may not even exist.'' I thought with a chuckle imagining it. "I don''t know if I should be relieved or concerned with that statement. While I personally find your "methods" unsettling I also can''t deny their effectiveness." Byron said honestly. "It''s only normal for people to dislike what anyone does. You can''t make everyone happy but you can certainly help make them safe enough to express their discontent."-


    "It''s kinda like how despite team rocket being a big problem in Johto and Kanto the locals there m up if you ask about it. They are so afraid of reprisal from team rocket that they won''t even make what they think known, a sad state of affairs in my opinion." I said firmly. "You probably don''t know yet but there was actually some talk amongst the league about trying to lure you over there to take care of that particr issue. It got rather .... heated before that whole incident with Rota you caused." he said seriously.-


    "Let me guess, the leaders from Johto and Kanto were particrly vocal about keeping me out of their regions, something about them needing to deal with their own problems right?" I asked and he almost tripped in shock. "How did you know?" he asked stupefied. I sighed "it''s the way team rocket acts, like thew simply won''te after them. Criminals only act that way in two cases, the first is that they are stupid or overconfident. The second is the most likely case however, they have serious backing from the league itself."-


    "Could be leaders, elite four or even the champion himself though I doubt it given Lances nature. Point is a criminal organization of that size doesn''t get that way acting the way it has without serious backing." I said seriously and he looked mortified as he quickly realized that what I said made perfect sense. No doubt that the idea that the criminal team had backing had crossed through the leagues mind more than once but the very idea that someone IN the league would be the backer had never been considered.-


    I had to hand it to Giovanni, the man was good at covering up any "coincidences" that would help expose him or his associates. He of course couldn''t cover everything as that would in fact draw more attention but just enough that no one would put the pieces together easily was more than doable. "Spection isn''t enough tounch an usation like that, but you know that already don''t you?" he asked sternly. I nodded "I do, yes. Perhaps i''m wrong but even you must admit that it certainly fits." I said calmly and he nodded with a frown. "Ufortably well in fact. How could we have not seen it until now?" he asked seriously.-


    "You can''t be med really. Nobody ever wants to think that theirrades, their friends for many years have betrayed everything they are supposed to stand for. So despite this clear evidence that it is the case you turn a blind eye to it and search for another answer that simply doesn''t exist. Cruel as it is fate has a bad habit of making ones worst fears the truth in such matters." I say honestly. "So it was our own trust in ourrades that betrayed us in the end, a rather disheartening prospect if I''m being honest." he said a little depressed.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Seeking allies

    Seeking allies


    "Reality is rarely a kind thing in matters such as this. If nothing else though once the mastermind is rooted out I doubt the league will allow another such character to appear in it''s midst." I said honestly. Byron nodded "You''re right I suppose but I assume you''ve some idea as to the mastermind given your confidence in sharing this with me." he stated seriously. "You are correct in that I have my suspicions on the matter but I won''t point a finger when I haven''t personally been to those regions to investigate. What I can tell you however is that Oak no doubt has simr suspicions to myself, speak to him as he is definitely better informed on this matter." I said calmly.-


    Byron wasn''t dumb by any means and so easily picked up on the hidden meaning in my words. The message was quite clear ''the person behind this is someone even I dare not try and offend at this moment''. I meant it too as out of all the viins I saw from the games I yed Giovanni was by far the most terrifying. Even Cyrus who was technically the most dangerous due to exactly how close to achieving his goal he came was not as scary but more of a smart but hyper focused man.-


    Giovanni was a VERY different story as he not only ruled team rocket through loyalty rather than fear but also had the league itself ying by his tune since he was a well celebrated gym leader in Kanto acknowledged to be as strong as an elite four or champion. It certainly didn''t help that he was a war hero as well from the great war a couple decades back.-


    The man was dangerous in the worse way possible as he was the sort of evil that you could go your entire life without noticing even if it killed you. If I didn''t know to be on the lookout for him from the games I probably also wouldn''t realize that he was the source of team rocket. Seriously in the game you ONLY discover that he was the boss of the team because he battles you for getting in it''s way. At no other point is there any evidence of him even being involved with it much less in charge.-


    Until I reached elite four levels of power I had no intention of giving such a person a reason to make a move himself to take me out. In this case that meant keeping myself from saying anything that points him out as the leader of rocket. "I see, I will message the good professor about this at ater time then." Byron said not pushing the issue. "Morbid topic aside I was wondering if you might be interested in helping me master steel type energy with my aura?" I asked with a smirk knowing full well he''d take that bait easily.-


    "By the three! You mean...?" he asked in shock and disbelief without finishing the question but I knew what it was and nodded. Holding out my hand a few red sparks of fire pitifully red to life and vanished just as fast. "I have reached a level of mastery over my aura where it bes possible to learn true moves but it''s not exactly easy as I''m sure you can guess. I have learnt to utilize fire, dark, ghost, electric, ground, rock, flying and grass type energies but Ick any pokemon good at the remaining typings which is why I am asking you." I said honestly.


    "But why trust me with this information? Aren''t you afraid I''d sell it?" Byron asked curiously. Iughed "You think a man who has dedicated his life to preserving a ce like Iron ind from those with ill intentions could bring himself to do something like that? I sure as shit don''t." I said. He chuckled embarrassed "When you put it that way I feel kinda silly for even asking." he said genuinely. "So, interested?" I asked with a grin. "You are asking if I''d turn down an opportunity to help a legendary aura master learn to harness my own typing, as if anyone could say no to that!" he said with a eager smile.-


    We didn''t start immediately since the timing was not great for it but he did make sure to clear the whole day next wednesday for it. Honestly speaking I didn''t actually need his help to learn how to utilize the steel type energy. But not only was this a convenient way to elerate my progress on that front but it was also an excellent chance to increase mywork of allies. During my time in Orre I had learnt that having a web of contacts in a region not only helped with finding stuff out about the ce but also served to give me influence over the region if only subtly.-


    Not a puppet master like Giovanni exactly but more along to lines of an inside trader who had a general understanding of the flow of the market. I''ll admit that my attitude in Hoenn was absolutely horrible for the first half of my time there and in theter half was painted over by a lot of bloodshed and finally that tournament. Not exactly a great start in creating a good impression on future possible allies.-


    I was sorta hoping that Byron would let it slip in conversation with the other leaders in the league that I had mellowed out a little while in Orre. Not gone soft mind you but just not as abrasive anymore at the least. I needed allies in this world, a fact that until Orre I hadn''t really believed. Sure I had a few people in Hoenn that I could rely on such as Birch and Watson but I hadn''t treated them as good as I should have and I regret it deeply.-


    Especially at the start of my time in Hoenn, gods I was such an asshole to Birch at the start. I practically burst into his home and embarrassed him in front of his wife and kid before near constantly bothering him with problems one after another even after I left. I treated him better towards the end of my time in that region as I hade to see him as a friend of sorts but the start wasn''t the best. They did a poor job of showing it in the games but even when you were just the yer character you weren''t truly alone in the world besides your pokemon.-


    Each of the people you met, the gym leaders, your rival, the professors, your parent/s. There were people in the background of the world rooting you on and supporting you even if it wasn''t constantly affirmed by the game itself. Reality was no different in truth though theplexity of the situation also yed a part in the support you had as well.

 New tech

    New tech


    We chatted for about an hour after that. mostly about me. To be specific about my time in Orre and what ACTUALLY happened in Rota. I spoke of Cipher and their whole n to take over the world, I spoke of my search for the truth of the region and even my trip through time. Obviously I left out a bunch of details that were best kept to myself but otherwise I was truthful. Byron listened patiently and had various expressions throughout the tale and even broke his silence to give approval when I exined what had happened in Rota.


    "Quite the adventure it seems you''ve had over thesest few months. I look forward to reading your research paper as well. Much as I happen to enjoy this chat of ours though i''m afraid we need to end it here as I''m already quite behind on my paperwork and would like to get some of it done before the days out." Byron said with a smile. I shrugged "Not a problem, I''ll be camping outside town for a bit so if you need anything feel free to message me." I said calmly as I got up.-


    Leaving the gym I was surprised to find the girl from earlier standing there clearly waiting for me. "Alexander Drake, variant specialist, savage saint, savior of Hoenn, so many names for a single man." she said looking me over with a critical eye. "Thatst ones new, annoying too. Anyone with the capability to do the same would have done just as much as I did to rectify that situation, they did too. My role in that isn''t worthy of that title just as I am not worthy of the title saint. But you aren''t here because of that." I said calmly.-


    Thatst part wasn''t a question but a statement. I knew without a doubt that she wasn''t here for that as she wasn''t the fan girl sort, much too arrogant for that. She nodded "I am here to learn from you as those three did after your tournament. I am willing to do whatever it takes to obtain your eptance." she said firmly. I shook my head "Last I checked I hadn''t said that I''d be teaching anyone so what makes you think i''ll make an exception for you? I suggest you choose your answer carefully because if I don''t like it you''ll get nothing from me." I said seriously.-


    The chick went quiet as she could no doubt tell I was beingpletely serious right now. While I wouldn''t mind giving some pointers if I felt the person deserved it or needed it for that matter I didn''t think this girl counted. And unlike with my tournament where May, Brendan and Gregory earned their lessons from me through fair battle this girl had done no such thing. If she didn''t have a satisfactory answer I had no intention of sparing her even a moment longer unless she wanted to fuck.-


    It had been a while since I had gotten my dick wet and she was both physically attractive and most importantly over the age of eighteen, about twenty or so if I had to guess in fact. This meant if she wanted to casually hook up I wouldn''t mind but if she tried to trade sex for training I''d say no in a heartbeat, I had standards damn it. I waited patiently for a few minutes as she carefully thought out her answer before opening her mouth only to shove her foot into it. -


    "My n would be willing to negotiate your acquisition of a variant Dratini in exchange." she said with a satisfied look thinking that that was a great answer. For literally anyone else that would indeed be a tempting offer but I both had a DNA sample for a variant Dratini AND the system that had given me a pokemon ticket quite recently. "You''ve failed. ept it and move on." I said firmly before turning and walking away. The chick was left with a stupefied look as if she couldn''t even begin to understand how she failed.-


    She didn''t try and chase after me though so I assume she understood that she had no chance of changing my mind. It was only early afternoon so i headed for a general store to stock up on meat since I was out after my time in Orre. It was just the standard Pidgey, Tauros and Magikarp options but that was fine as I could just hunt any other pokemon I happened to wish to sample now that I was in a region that actually had abundant wild pokemon. After my trip to the general store I headed over to the local branch of the Poketchpany.-


    The Poketchpany was this regions premium personal assistance techpany like how Devon, Silph and the PDA were for their own regions. Apparently Mr. Stone hadn''t even bothered trying to bring the Pokenav over to Sinnoh with his branch of Devon here for the simple fact the Poketch or pokemon watch was vastly superior as a product. It worked like a smartwatch from back on earth all while still being roughly the same size but massively more durable. I''m talking anything less than a direct hit from an elite level attack on one of these things would at most scratch it a little.-


    The Poketch also had several different "apps" that aplished different functions much the same as a smartphone might but obviously more designed for this world. Unfortunately the tech was as cutting edge as it got which meant that it was also expensive. Ten thousand poke worth of expensive to be precise. While still within most households ie range to afford it wasn''t the sort of thing you bought willy nilly, well unless you were rich as sin like me. I didn''t just buy the basic model of the device either but the one that came with all the apps that had been developed for it so far which was admittedly not many, only twenty two.-


    The watch, calctor, memo pad, pedometer, team list, dowsing machine, berry searcher, day-care checker, pokemon history, counter, marking map, coin toss, move tester, calendar, dot artist, roulette, kitchen timer, color changer, stopwatch, rm clock, pok ess, watch call. These were all the apps currently out and thanks to spending much more for all of them I also got a special feature where if any more were developed I''d get a call telling me.-


    All of the apps as the names suggested were very easy to understand and with the minimalistic style of the device itself being a wrist watch with a screen and three buttons and a stylus to utilize it was very easy to pick up for even an idiot. Thankfully I was able to transfer my contacts from my pokenav to the watch as well as interestingly enough my crime checker that my system gave me prior.


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 Camping

    Camping


    I fiddled with the new piece of tech on my wrist for a while after buying it before my pokemon in their balls let me know through our bond that they wanted out. At that point I headed for the city exit since unless I wanted to rent out a whole training area again I''d definitely get a huge fine for releasing them in the city. Rune and Gaia were both massive as royal pokemon and besides Hades the rest were much toorge to scoot under thews regtion.-


    Thew was quite clear that anything bigger than a person wasn''t allowed to be released within a city with the exceptions on if it was being used to travel or it was an emergency. The Jenny watching the gate to the city eyed me warily as I passed through to route 218. The outside of the city was a forested area that gave way to a stretch of ocean that upon crossing took one to Jubilife city after going through a small bit of forest. I obviously didn''t go that far but rather just went to the distance that would allow me to release my pokemon without incurring a fine.-


    "Sorry about that guys, almost forgot that you''ve all been stuck in your balls for thest two weeks with only short breaks to eat. Feel free to stretch your legs but no sparring since we are still pretty close to the city." I said after letting my pokemon out. Vulcan wasted no time at all dashing off to who knows where while Gaia just sat downzily on the ground that sank in a little under her extremely great weight. Yani wandered off to go foraging for nts and Rune immediately flew off to the sea to try and hunt some water pokemon.


    The not so little one followed Rune and Tank just sort of fluttered about absentmindedly. "Tar Ty Tar Ran Rani?" Gaia asked in a deep rumbling voice. "I doubt it, I''m not running the circuit so unless they are battle junkies I don''t think the leaders will battle us." I said honestly. "Tyranitar." she said with a huff. I chuckled at that as she had more or less just said that it was disappointing to hear that. I suppose I couldn''t me her for thinking that after spending thest half a year doing nothing for the most part.-


    I''m sure most of my team was eager to get back to training seriously instead of merelyzing about and working on their moves. Honestly speaking they were already more or less at the champion level as far as move mastery went if my glimpse at Stevens team told me anything so all they needed was the experience to get there and they''d be golden. That was unfortunately also where a problem came in, wild pokemon who could actually give them a run for their money weren''t exactlymon.-


    Getting trainers at this level to battle us as well was also not such an easy thing to aplish without special circumstances. It should be pointed out that any elite level or higher pokemon was a living disaster capable of rearranging a wide area if it went all out. This naturally was something the league was aware of and put in cews to stop trainer whomanded these pokemon from battling whenever they wanted to. If you were in the wild nobody gave a shit but the chances of actually running into another trainer out there was understandably miniscule.-


    The procedure for an elite or higher battle was that first you needed to find a willing opponent, then you needed to go to an elite designated arena and finally you needed to have a barrier put up to stop attacks from spreading beyond the arena. You miss any of these and that battle simply wasn''t going to happen unless you left the city. It was annoying to deal with but logical so I couldn''t reallyin without sounding spoilt. I busted out my portable camp and got to work prepping dinner after that short conversation with Gaia and though it was a simple meat, herb and veggie stew I put my full effort into this endeavor.-


    Naturally the pot I used for this cook was more urately named a cauldron due to the sheer size of it that almost didn''t even fit inside the mouth of my bag. And I wasn''t even using just one of these things either but four since I was cooking for all of my pokemon after all. The only one who wouldn''t be partaking in this food would be Tank who I prepared and fruit and veggie sd since his species was herbivorous.-


    Preparing the stew was easy as I first added the meat cut up into chunks alongside cleaned and diced vegetables. I let that cook a bit to render out the oil while adding some color to the veggies. I then added clean water to the pots and scooped out the excess floating oil from the surface of the water while adding salt peeper and some frozen stock cubes I had made previously. I let the mixture simmer for a while until it started bubbling at which point i lowered the heat and added the sachet of herbs to each pot for the vor.-


    I then added some starch and let the whole thing cook down into a thick hearty stew that I kept nice and warm to let the vors mingle. While that happened I started going through the exercises for my hand to hand skill since while I was happy with my spear I had to admit it wasn''t exactly great for capturing people without much damage. Not to say it couldn''t be done but it was much harder than say dislocating a dudes arms or choking them till they passed out. Hand to hand covered these things so if I was going to try and sell the image that I mellowed out a little I should at least get a little good at it.-


    Plus it helped that I knew there would be cases when i had to leave my spear at the door so being nearly defenseless in those times could be avoided with this skill. To be fair I was never truly defenseless so long as I had my aura as if push came to shove I could totally enhance my body temporarily and go out swinging. If I had more aura I could even use pokemon moves but that was such a massively energy expensive thing that throwing hands was just that much more efficient.


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 Camping(2)

    Camping(2)


    I finished my exercises shortly after Rune returned with a few dead water types native to this region. A Mantine which was more or less a manta ray pokemon with a white belly and dark blue back as well as a short ribbon like tail. A Buizel that was arge otter pokemon with orange fur and sort of blue floatation sacks on it''s neck. It also had two tails that it could rotate to propel itself through the water even faster than it would by using just it''s limbs.-


    Finally there was a pokemon I ABSOLUTELY refused to cook, a Shellos. Shellos had two main varieties that looked drastically different from the other with one being bright blue and green and the other being pink and cream colored. The easiest way to describe a Shellos was that it was a chihuahua sized sea slug with a slimy body and a head that consisted of a sort of crest on the top and tworge eyes and a toothless mouth. While I could cook the thing I very much didn''t want to since from my understanding they had the consistency of snot even after cooking.-


    Rune was a bit disheartened by my rejection but shrugged and ate it raw which made me shudder in disgust at the mere thought of the sensation. The first two pokemon species he hunted though were much more normal. While we waited for my other pokemon to get back I got to work cleaning the corpses properly. For the Mantine I had to skin it very carefully to get at the delicate white flesh below that toughyer. Much like normal rays the main portion of the bodycked much meat and was mostly organs while the wings were where all the good stuff was, well minus the liver that had a useful oil in it.-


    For the Buizel I skinned it and removed the organs and bones before directly cutting up all the meat into a fine mince since it was far too tough whole to be worth utilizing as is. I packaged and put the harvested food in the freezer pocket of my bag right in time for the rest of my pokemon to show up for dinner. I divvied up the food and we all tucked in without hesitation before going to bed after it was all gone.-


    The next morning we all ate some berries for breakfast before scattering to do our own things. I didn''t know what the others did but I, Hades and Yani went into the forest and nearby coast to forage for anything worth grabbing. The trees were the sort not too bothered by the close proximity of the ocean and were haphazardly grown or rather overgrown which told me they weren''t nted by a person. My x-ray vision came in handy as usual here as I could find Sinnohen silver truffles hidden under the undergrowth which was a wonderful find. These truffles were unique to Sinnoh and highly coveted by many chefs for the rich vor they had.-


    Once cleaned of the dirt on them they shined a dull silver color which was how they got their name. Unlike normal truffles though this variety didn''t have a particr area in the region that they could be found but grew everywhere though there was a catch. They had no scent at all which meant that finding them was a matter of either luck or straight up cheating like what I did. Still I only ended up finding three decent sized truffles despite looking for the whole day.-


    We of course also found many other regional flora that could be eaten, some prized others mundane. The most interesting in my opinion had to be the mutant oran berry nt though. Unlike the normal oran berries that were about the size of a tangerine and blue these berries were the size of grapefruit and dark purple. Normally purple was associated with ghosts or poison in this world but that wasn''t the case this time. The berries were in fact more nutritious and delicious than the normal variant which I was quite thrilled with. -


    Berries mutating like this was quite rare as the things were stupidly stable gically speaking and thus didn''t change even when nted in say a desert or the side of a frigid mountain. That said it wasn''t unheard of for it to ur though no one was sure what exactly was the cause for it in any of the documented cases. Even in this case I saw nothing around the bush that should have this sort of effect on it. I didn''t leave a single berry on the bush either as besides the benefits of eating the berries I could also use my nt maniption ability to grow each and every berries seed into a new mutated bush.-


    A couple of the seeds though I fully intended to send to Birch in Hoenn as I figured he''d be quite happy to have a few mutant berry bushes for the sheer research value if nothing else. I would like to specify that with my ability I could forcefully mutate a berry nt if I wanted to but didn''t n on it since I felt it cheapened something so rare. Anyways after foraging for the day we headed back to the camp where I got started on dinner which was an ungodly amount of stir-fried rice with Mantine and Magikarp bits alongside some veggies.-


    Naturally I had to make batches in order for there to be enough for everyone and I even got a visitor while I was cooking. "Huh? I would have thought you''d use premade stuff to feed your pokemon and judging from the smell I''m a bit jealous of your pokemon." Byron said as he walked up to the campsite. "Not saying theres anything wrong with using the premade stuff but if I can I prefer treating my pokemon to as high a quality meal as possible."-


    "I suppose it also helps that I''m a master chef and expert alchemist and thus can turn damn near anything edible into a delicious meal if I needed to." I said without looking his way. He hummed in agreement "Nothing wrong with a trainer treating his team well at all. I must say though your Tyranitar is gorgeous. Smooth stony carapace and she has this natural presence to her that reminds me of a legendary." he said eyeing Gaia appreciatively which she epted proudly.-


    "She was my first pokemon you know. She''s also the most powerful pokemon on my team as well. My ace if you like." I said with a smile. "Really? I knew she was your starter, hell everyone does, but most, myself included, thought that Entei or Spiritomb were your aces." he said surprised. "I can see why someone might think that since I tend to have one of them with me at all times. But the truth of the matter is that I''d rather have her with me instead but she''s simply toorge to do so." I said honestly and with a little helplessness.


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 Impact

    Impact


    "Most royals tend to have a simr issue. That extra size means their power was nearly unmatched but it also means they are heavily restricted in where they can go. Even your Tyranitar here would cause a lot of unintended devastation if she were to just stroll through a town or city." Byron said with a little bit of pity. "No need to feel bad for us, we have long since epted this. When Gaia was but a Larvitar she was already just about as tall as I was at the time so we knew and epted that when she fully evolved she''d more likely than not spend most of her time in her ball."-


    "Times like this where she is out and can rx are only possible here in the wilds." I said with a shrug. "That reminds me but where are the rest of your pokemon?" he asked curiously. I shrugged "Somewhere nearby no doubt but specifically I have no clue beyond the few you see here and Hades in my pocket of course." I said honestly. "Should I be worried that such powerful pokemon were set free to do as they wish?" he asked with a concerned look.


    I chuckled "Not at all, all my pokemon minus that one know what they can and cannot do when I let them roam like this. Unless a wild pokemon decided to drag them into a problem or a criminal shows up nothing really of note will happen." I said pointing at the not so little one that was trying to be sneaky and steal something out of Byron''s pocket. "Hmm oh! Hahaha you must have smelt the treats I carry on me. By all means help yourself." the manughed and handed over the pokemon grade treats he had in his pocket.-


    "Watsons idea?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and Byron just smiled and nodded. "Even a world away that old fellow still finds a way to spoil my pokemon. You know I once tried to recreate those snacks myself and even though my other pokemon swore that the taste was the same that little one refused to eat them? I gave up at that point." I said with a smile. "It''s different when ites from someone else, more special. Still can''t believe this one even exists after reading it''s file. " Byron said calmly as he fed the floating Feebas variant.-


    "I have had him practicing his moves since he matured but otherwise he''s not had any training so far. No wild pokemon in Orre for that you see. This area is also less than optimal for his training since most pokemon here are too powerful to match his inexperience." I said honestly. "Ah an equalist then, should have expected as much from someone with such an eclectic team." he said with an understanding look. Equalists in case it wasn''t obvious was just a term to describe people like me who trained their pokemon to fight against both trained pokemon and wild pokemon equally hence the name.-


    "I hope you don''t mind but I told some of my friends about you after you left previously." he said changing the subject. "In what regard?" I asked curiously. "Well a few of them were interested to know what you were like in person and maybe how strong you were. It''s quite rare that someone joins our little circle of elite trainers and even more rare for someone to do it before elite level without being a gym leaders inheritor, naturally those of us who only heard second hand stories are curious about you." he said honestly.-


    "I''m well aware of my own anomalous existence. It''s rather hard not to be after seeing the sheer impact that my actions left behind in my wake while I was in Hoenn and in time Orre as well. Can''t say I me folks for being curious when I know this." I said with a shrug. I meant it too as I more than most watched the ripples my actions made in the world. In all but Kanto and Johto crime was at an all time low as trainers took to standing up and dealing with any criminals they found themselves forcing the rest to be more careful and less active.-


    Even more double battles while not very popr before were thriving to the degree that the league as a whole was starting to ponder the idea of a second gym circuit based entirely around that. For reference in the entire league across all the regions it controlled double battles were one in a thousand before now and thus not really worth mentioning. Now though that ratio had be three hundred out of a thousand and rising.-


    The origin of this sudden craze was of course my tournament that showed the world the potential that double battles held much better than the challenges Tate and Liza had in the same format. Before that tournament people sort of dismissed the double battles the twins held because they were gym leaders and twins of the psychic type but after my tournament everyone saw how double battles could be if done correctly. After spending a bit over half a year in Orre I came to understand double battles even better and acknowledged that they could match up to normal battles in excitement and even surpass it.-


    I suppose I should also mention a "negative" change that I brought to the world as well. To put it bluntly less clothes became more fashionable if you had a fit body. People had mimicked my minimalist style of clothing myself in different ways. In my case it was mostly because with my body and constant treks through the wilds or waters wearing only shorts was ideal. The people copying me however were mostly either hoping it actually helped them as trainers or bodybuilders that enjoyed showing off their gains to begin with.-


    There was also of course people who were just fans of mine and thus copied my style as a result. If I''m being honest though it''s weird as hell seeing people copying me like this especially women. For them they started wearing short shorts and bikini tops as their version of my outfit and it was DEFINITELY distracting. Men were simple creatures so seeing so much flesh on an attractive woman had many staring. It wasn''t even a matter of perversion so much as most men simply couldn''t help it. Lust was biologically programmed into us for the purpose of reproduction so when we say it was a biological function only most of us actually meant it.


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 Meeting

    Meeting


    Byron stayed and chatted a bit longer after that before heading back to the city. I on the otherhand stayed here preparing the food for when my pokemon return from wherever they were. I simply prepared the prey hunted by them the previous day and roasted it over the fire at an angle so it didn''t burn while turning it every now and then to get an even cook. It was a simple dish true but there was nothing that said simplicity couldn''t be delicious. My pokemon, the meat eaters that is, appreciated this meal all the same after all.-


    Over the next few days I and my team waited patiently in this way until it was Wednesday and my steel type training was scheduled with Byron. In the morning after breakfast I balled up my team minus Hades as per usual and headed back to Canve. The city was a sleepy as ever with few people other than trainers out and about. I drew the attention of these trainers as some recognized me and others simply noticed the abnormally tall muscr man with few clothes on and a long glowing spear on his back.-


    Not drawing attention was in fact quite hard for me if I didn''t actively attempt to do so and even then it was an uphill battle given my hard to miss characteristics. I like usual ignored this attention and made my way to the gym where there was some trainers rather upset that Byron wasn''t taking challengers today. "What do you mean he has othermitments!? Taking challenges is literally his job as a gym leader!" one clearly entitled guy shouted at the receptionist who was maintaining their professionalism quite well.-


    "Unless the gym leader has scheduled something else with ample time in advance." I said calmly as I walked up. "What?" the guy questioned angrily as he turned around to probablyy into me only to freeze at my form that towered over him. "You seem to forget the rest of the rule regarding gym challenges so I was correcting you. The full rule is that a gym leader may not reject a challenge UNLESS they have scheduled something else with ample time in advance. In this case Byron has had this day scheduled for nearly a week now and thus hasn''t failed in his duty." I said calmly.-


    "And who are you supposed to be, some sort of league expert or something?" the guy demanded once his over inted sense of importance snapped him out of his fearful state. "Alexander Drake, Elite trainer and currently the only variant specialist in the world. I am also the priormitment that Byron had scheduled for though I am not here to battle him." I introduced myself casually. The guy scowled "So you are the reason I can''t get my badge today! I demand that you cancel your appointment with the gym leader at once so that your betters can go about their business unimpeded." the guy said seriously.-


    I red my aura and suppressed him with it immediately forcing him to his knees. "Listen closely and listen well because you don''t want to find out what will happen if I have to repeat myself. I don''t care who you are rted to or how important you think you are. You are too week to demand anything of me or Byron or anyone working for the league for that matter and if I catch you doing it again I''ll discipline you like your parents clearly failed to." I said firmly before retracting my aura and nodding to the receptionist before walking through the doors leading back.-


    Entitled little bastards like that needed a reality check to be set straight and since I didn''t give a shit about offending most people I was the perfect person to do so. I had already caused a serious wound to the Joy n because of what happened in Hoenn and I VERY much doubted that the guy was rted to one of the maybe three people in the world who I actually might hesitate to offend if it came to it.-


    The first person was naturally Professor Oak who despite not exerting his influence often definitely had enough to make me public enemy number one if he wanted to. You think that wouldn''t be enough for someone like me to care about but you should keep in mind if enough antse together even an elephant will fall. I was strong but against the worlds poption I would be nearly helpless. The second person I would prefer not offending is Arceus for reasons that should be obvious. Yes I considered Arceus a person, why wouldn''t it be when I considered even most normal pokemon people?-


    The final person I''d prefer not offending was Giratina since I was sort of carrying around a blessing from it that let it low jack my ass so there was no escape if I made it mad. That was it as far as people I actually would care about offending indirectly like this and I VERY much doubted at guy was rted to any of them. Hell the only human rted to Giratina as far as I am aware of at this time was me andst I checked I was in the gods good books.-


    As for Arceus and Oak one was asleep if my lore wasn''t wrong and the others connections were public knowledge, hell even the trainers sponsored by Oak held a special status in the leagues eyes and thus were regrly showed off to the public. Professor Oak had long since proven that he had a gift for sniffing out talent and potential and had a shining record of backing some seriously important people in his life. Anyways my footsteps echoed off the metallic floor as I walked to the back of the gym where Byron was waiting.-


    "You sure do make things interesting don''t you? Can''t say I disapprove how you handled the boy either as from what I saw he had iting." Byron said with a smile as he leaned against arge Aggron that watched me with sharp blue eyes. I shrugged "Entitled dicks like that need a reality check every now and again and he was unlucky enough that I was around to give it to him. Mind if I let out my team?" I asked and he shook his head "Nah, go for it." he said casually and I wasted no time doing so.


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