Chapter 17: Mt.Moon
Mt.Moon
Steven arrived in the pokecenter a little tired and ready to take a rest. His team dragged their way behind, as they walked like zombies to the front counter. Steven recalled them to their pokeballs and had the nurse joy heal them while he thought about what he was going to do next. According to what he knew, after the trainer gauntlet, the trainer character goes into Mt Moon and has to fight. If everything was similar to that then he was knowingly walking into a trap.
Steven went into the resting room and released all of his pokemon to sleep with him outside of their pokeballs since they preferred to not be in them when at all possible. The only reason Steven only traveled with one of them out at a time was that he didn't want any unexpected encounter if someone had "Ideas" about his lineup.
The next day, after every one was rested he took a good long look at his team and took notes on where he thinks they were at with their power. (AN: I will still be using level 1, route 1 rattata as a measure of strength so that it will be easy to see the progression from the beginning)
First, there was Prince the ralts. He will evolve somewhere around level 20 and would be the first one to evolve most likely, and his final evolution will come at level 34, once he learns the move imprison and absorbs enough dawn stone energy to evolve, assuming Steven could even find a dawn stone. Steven knew that even moon stones were considered odd and out of place in this era of pokemon and the pokemon Gallade was a pokemon that had never existed up until this point. When Steven did find that dawn stone, he would hold a meeting with scientists to witness the birth of a new species, and that would catapult his reputation forever, cementing him a pioneer. Funnily enough, since moon stones were a new avenue that had yet to really be explored as well as the other many types of stones, Steven was going to do this same thing with nidoran into nidoking. He didn't have and wasn't going to train one just for the event, so he had the phone number of a trainer that had some skills in the gauntlet these past 2 weeks. Anyways, Prince had a level sitting somewhere around level 17 and had the strength of about 280 rattata. His moves so far were disarming voice, growl, double team, confusion, hypnosis, draining kiss, and teleport.
His second pokemon was smoker, who he would evolve at level 30 with a fire stone. After Smoker hits level 30 and learns one of his most important offensive assets, agility, Then when he evolves with the fire stone he will learn extreme speed. What bugged Steven about this evolution in particular was that in certain games, when you evolve growlithe into arcanine you gain another move upon evolution just like extreme speed, which was thunderfang. However, Steven intended to do some training with surge as soon as possible to help with that affinity and familiarity with the thunder element. However, Steven wasn't banking on getting thunderfang even though having it would be an extremely huge boon. Growlithe was about level 16 and knew the moves bite, roar, ember, leer, and had a strength around 220 rattata.
The third pokemon was bagon, who upon hitting level 30, the highest evolution requirement, would evolve into Shelgon and then at level 50 into Salamence. Steven knew that bagon was going to require the most work since it was a dragon type and required literally oceans of experience. His bagon was also sitting at around level 16, with the moves rage, ember, bite, leer, and dragonbreath, as well as having about a 270 rattata combat power.
Finally, there was the newest acquisition, Duchess the scyther. This one was going to be another monumental discovery for Steven as a researcher as even though trade with pokemon was done in this world, no one had discovered any of the trade evolution lines. So, Steven would be doing another event for that as well. One of the trainers he met was a rich young lady and the guard taking care of her had a machoke as his support. After telling them he was part of a company called "boundless research", they almost immediately asked for his number when he said that. It seemed like oak, elm and the other professors were making waves in the community without much input from him. It seems like the people who are more well connected to the upper echelons are starting to receive information about his activities behind the scenes. Good, thought Steven, people are finally starting to catch up. He would evolve her by having her hold a metal coat and having oak be the one to receive the final evolution, and that will happen after she hits level 40. He would evolve her a little sooner, but since T.M.'s and HMs are not a thing in this world, at least not yet, he would have to wait so she could learn the move "X-Scissor" which was a staple, stab scyther move that had very high attack power. She currently sat at level 16, and was the newest member to learn a new move, that being double team, and currently was training to control 2 copies from prince, who was giving a crash course. She had the power of about 200 Rattata and had learned leer, quick attack, focus energy, fury cutter, false swipe, wing attack, and double team. This in conjunction with her royal egg move ability "silver wind", made her a force to be reckoned with.
Steven, happy with his team and all that they had accomplished so far, nodded in approval and then turned and set inside of Mt.Moon!
–
Cyrus walked into the cave where the headquarters were, arrogance and ability oozing off his skin, confidence apparent in his eyes. He walked up to a tent that was bigger than all the others in the area and walked in without even so much as announcing his presence. However the person inside didn't even look up from their papers that they were working on.
The person behind the table simply scoffed and said,"Hello, Cyrus."
Cyrus scoffed and said,"Archer? Please tell me you are joking! There is no way with your pokemon and your team that you would ever need my help! What a joke! I'm leaving this farce!"
Archer, still not looking up from his papers, simply responded,"Yes, that normally would be the case, but seeing as how we were originally supposed to be here peacefully and without incident, I lent my team to Ariana so that the magma guys would just shut up about their land god or whatever."
Cyrus stiffened a bit when he heard that and turned around to Archer, asking,"Have they found a clue finally?"
Archer stopped looking at his papers and instead looked out the small window on the tent, saying aloud,"It seems so, a researcher unrelated to the case might have found a rock predating humanities existence that seems to have a connection to their "Land God"."
Cyrus ruminated on this information before asking,"Ok, I get the gist, now tell me what is the opponent's levels and the pokemon he tends to use as well any other important information deemed necessary."
Archer sighed and pulled out a paper and started to read some of the most important information to Cyrus. "The trainers name is 'Steven', who also goes by the alias 'the mute god'" Cyrus scoffed at this," he currently has 4 member on his team that we have managed to document through various encounters, which are his ralts, growlithe, bagon, and his newest addition after viridian forest, the royal scyther queen."
Cyrus' head was a little numb after hearing that, who was this kid?! Archer continued,"His team is believed to be sitting somewhere around level 14 to 15 and he had already obtained Brocks badge, giving his pokemon a 10% boost overall in battle. We believe he may be here to catch a Zubat to train as a flying type, so be extra cautious and maybe try to make a game plan out of that!"
Cyrus nodded his head, now knowing all of the relevant information, and promptly left, leaving Archer there by himself again as simple."Fucking traitor.." escaped his lips.
–
Steven yelled out in his mind,"Double team!" and Duchess controlled a second form of herself to appear beside herself as she ran. The opposing Machop had no idea which one to follow and simply chose to track the clone without knowing it was not the real one. The trainer shouted out, "Nacho! Submission!" to which the Machop complied. It lunged at one of the Duchess' running around on the field and grabbed one, only for it to disappear the moment he grabbed it. This was the moment Duchess was waiting for and she quickly took action as she launched 2 wing attacks in rapid succession on the poor, confused Machop.
Boom! The attacks hit and the Machop is sent flying backwards to its trainer. The trainer runs up to it and says,"You did good Nacho! Get some rest my friend!" and returned the pokemon to its ball and walked up to Steven to congratulate him. As he walked up he noticed that Steven was writing something and when he was standing in front of him, he gave Steven 243$ pokedollars as forfeit from losing the fight. Current pokemon rules state if you challenge or get challenged to a pokemon duel and you accept and lose, 10% of whatever you are currently holding is the prize for the other trainer. Most people kept a limited amount of cash on them for this reason, except for the rich kids and generational adults who didn't really have to worry about this kind of thing.
Steven handed him the note and the gentleman read it,"Real good battle their friend! Your Machop is excellently trained but seemed to be lacking on its speed and its attack. I recommend getting a power bracer to help with its strength in training and let it hold a silk scarf in battle to up its speed. Just some suggestions though! :D"
The cave trainer was slightly taken aback by these suggestions, having his pokemon wear a human made item during battle will increase its speed? This was not something he had ever heard about before but since this trainer had so handily beat him, he decided to try it out. If anything it didn't hurt to try the advice first!
The cave trainer put out his hand and Steven responded with his own, shaking their hands as a sign of two trainers giving each other the mutual respect they both earned. Then the two went their separate ways.
Steven was getting quite the good haul in terms of experience. This cave was so dimly lit that it made the perfect dark training ground and it also gave him a good excuse to challenge his pokemon, making it so unless something important happens where they have to use everything, they were practice their weakest moves and test new ways to to fight against the pokemon and trainers in this cave. This would bring their moves they were struggling into an acceptable level again while also forcing them to adopt new ideas on fighting and positioning.
Steven was also writing down various things he saw in other trainers and giving them advice when he beat them. Some brushed it off, some were too arrogant to admit their mistakes, but every so often he would meet a man like that cave trainer with the Machop and Rhyhorn that would take his advice seriously and felt grateful to be given some advice. Most don't know how elites and champions alike don't share information or secrets, Steven was an anomaly in that case as he just wanted a good fight!
Steven and his team had been in this cave for about a week and even though they had explored quite a bit, this cave was much more massive than it was portrayed in the games. Even if Steven ran from start to finish it would still take him nearly 20 hours to reach the end! Normal trainers take about 5 months to get through the entirety of Mt.Moon. Steven was about 25 to 30% through according to his estimates and it had only been about 10 days, so even Steven would struggle with this long trip!
Suddenly Steven heard Prince's voice in his mind,"My Lord! I sense immense distress coming about a mile from our location! North for .5 miles, west for .3 miles and about another .3 miles north!"
Steven and Prince wasted no time and started running towards that direction, and they passed a couple of trainers who wanted to battle them but were completely ignored. These 2 or 3 trainers were angry that they were just rudely snubbed for no apparent reason and started to follow Steven into the cave further to see just what his problem was.
Steven ran north, then west, and then north again, exactly as Prince had described it, a bad gut feeling looming in his stomach. Steven rushed into an opening and as soon as he entered the mouth of this new cave he nearly puked from the sight before him.
In the cave there were many different things happening at once, first all around the cave their were pokemon, team rocket members, what looked to be researchers and a few trainers dotted about the cave here and there. The trainers in the cave seemed to be having a glorious last stand with their pokemon as they screamed out desperate attacks to their pokemon while dodging incoming enemy fire as well. These were normal civilians! This was not Steven, who would find it normal and maybe even a little comforting, these were actual civilians fighting for their lives here! Next was that this cave was chock full of Zubats and Slowpoke, who were also fighting for their lives but in a far more brutal manner. These pokemon were literally fighting for their lives. The team rocket grunts had Zubats of their own as they confused and life drained the other pokemon into a state of mass panic. They also had Ekans and a few Grimer spewing poison everywhere, making the very ground acid itself. Finally we came to the dead and dying. The Zubats that were finally defeated were getting their wings torn off viciously by a few butchers to the side, and then thrown into a large pile to die with the rest. The slowpoke were held like cattle as their tails were chopped off while they were still alive, adding to their torture. They were then skewered on a stake upside down and cut up along their non prominent veins so that the blood could be collected and there were hundreds of the stakes pelting the cave floor. There were also many human bodies scattered across the floors here and there, as they most likely succumbed to the chaos faster than the others still alive and fighting.
Steven also noticed that there was a group of very small slowpoke being defended by only 1 larger than average slowpoke and a Gligar. Steven immediately understood most of the situation and immediately released everyone out into the open. All his pokemon were stunned as they came to view this gruesome sight. However, they didn't get scared, no, they got angry! Steven immediately jumped into action, calling out to them in his mind, 'Growlithe, you come with me and help the defense of those baby slowpoke! Queen, Dragon dance two times and then go charge headfirst into the center of their formation! Become a Chaos dragon! Prince, I unlift all your restraints, send these fuckers to Giratina! Analyze and swiftly take out the strongest members! Duchess… give them a dance with death..'
All member of his team were startled upon hearing his words because each one had a key phrase that Steven had to say in order for them to use certain things. Now Steven was giving all of them the most unfettered access to their powers!?
To explain, first we have Prince, who has amazing physic prowess but lacks much of his control when using his physic powers in large doses. To explain it simpler, a normal ralts caught in the wild, with a normal bloodline would have a score of Psychic score of 10, With Prince' bloodline being nearly 80% pure his score would get about +8, then his bloodline is a medium-level royal bloodline, so he gets another +6, then there is stevens training which increases it by another +10. So compared to the 10 of the base ralts, Prince as a base would be sitting at 34. Prince certainly had the power, this was never a doubt in Stevens mind, however what Prince lacked was control. No matter how much power you had, if you could not properly control it, what was the point? So Prince had only been using around 12% of his true power so far, which is about the percentage he had fully mastered. However, Steven saying that his seals were unlocked meant he didn't have to do any power measurement before an attack, no calculations, nothing, just free, open combat. Prince was itching to fight and ran off to find someone strong.
Secondly, we have Queen. Her bloodline is purer and of a higher pedigree than ralts so her potential is even stronger than Prince. However, Steven had never allowed Queen to do more than 1 dragon dance and that was because unlike the games and anime, moves like swagger, dragon dance and swords dance do have a consequence recoil. After use, if the user cannot handle the double or more strength it gives the body, the muscles can degrade or even rip entirely and it was this reason that high level sweeps are not common, because it is literally sacrificing the future of that pokemon. Steven had long suspected the Queen would be able to handle 2 dragon dances but had held off until now, and now it was finally her chance to be the Chaos dragon of myth!
Last but not least there was Duchess. This one was harder to explain as besides her purity and royal lineage she also had an innate skill, which is what she has been secretly developing alongside Steven, her own unique fighting style, which she called "Death's Favorite Dancer". It incorporated literal dance moves that Steven had taught her, and she later refined into her own sword style, or more technical, claw style. It hadn't been proven in a proper battle but she had been begging to try it out as she felt she needed a good fight to truly shine it too perfection.
As soon as Steven thought these words to his teammates, the next second all of them were gone! The trainers that had followed Steven saw that he disappeared and ran into the cave to accost him for his rude manners and as they ran into the cave they saw the horror that Steven had ran into. The three trainers looked at events taking place, then at each other, giving each other head nods and respectful gazes, called out each of their pokemon and all three yelled out at the same time,"ATTACK!!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone