Chapter 9: Act I: Chapter 9
Hello everyone,
So the last chapter got the most reviews out of any chapter I've ever posted on this site ...by a large margin. And I understand why. I promise I have a plan/reasoning for taking the story this direction. Last chapter did a lot of things for the story. In fact, it did so much that I might have been better off dragging out some of those reveals for different chapters, but I really don't regret it. I actually think the way I did it works out best in the long run.
So let's get into it! This chapter will expand a little on what happened last, explain the aftermath, etc.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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'Cinnabar Island Gym Leader for Over 30 Years, Found Dead!'
I read the headline on my pokegear, and felt disappointed. Not that Blaine was dead, but that it wasn't by my own hand. The next emotion that ran through my body was shame, before I quickly cut it down.
'Why should I be ashamed at wanting to kill him? He took Tsunade from me.' I thought as I skimmed down the rest of the article.
Blaine's body was found at the 'abandoned' Pokemon Mansion. They had been searching for him for days, since the eruption of the volcano. Nobody could understand why the old Gym Leader hadn't helped his people escape the island, now everyone knew.
'I bet he went to the Mansion after our conversation, to visit Mewtwo. Mewtwo probably killed him in his escape.' I deduced.
'Blaine's delphox, who has tortured seven badge trainers and up for a long time, was also found dead. It is unknown, the cause of death.'
'Yea, that's definitely what happened.' I realized as I read that last line.
'Powerful.' Minato's voice rang through my head, and sent an image of Mewtwo to me. 'Beyond all.'
He was right. Mewtwo is insanely powerful, no doubt the most powerful psychic on the planet. Sabrina reported a random spike of psychic energy. No one had linked the disaster on Cinnabar to the 'random spike'. Everyone was just calling it a natural disaster.
Three of her gym trainers had pokemon that had evolved randomly at the same time, which explained Minato's unexpected evolution also. Apparently the psychic build up in the area had allowed Minato to teleport all the way back to Dewford Town, despite only just learning the move and evolving.
And now the world mourned for Blaine.
'Responsible for thousands of deaths, and nobody will ever know. I pondered. He'll go down as a blueprint for what a trainer should strive for. Gym Leader, inventor, and credited with furthering our society. Nobody will ever know the truth.'
'You?' Minato asked me. I could decipher the question fairly easily. He was asking why I didn't tell everyone the truth.
'I would come off as a nut case. They would think I was a fame hogging hater. On top of the fact that no one would believe a man-made legendary strength pokemon was roaming free in the world. Even if they did believe it, would it do any good for the public to know? It would be mass panic.' I explained to him.
I had been trying to speak to him more often, in our minds. Already, three days after ...his evolution, his vocabulary had expanded by insane amounts. Psychic's intelligence continued to astound me. On top of the fact that he is so young to be fully evolved, for his species. His growth was insane.
'Maybe I should just get used to pokemon's fast growth.' I pondered.
Minato didn't respond, so I looked up from my pokegear. I stood beside a patch of dirt that looked like someone had just dug a hole and covered it back up. Which was exactly what happened, only Tsunade's body now rested in that dirt.
I was still in Dewford town. I stood twenty feet away from the sand that represented the same beach I had captured Tsunade on. I could think of no better place to bury her than where I found her. I had considered digging in the actual sand, but soon through the idea out the window. Someone would find it, sooner or later. This location was as close as I could get.
A bark to my left, and the panting of a dog told me that Madara had returned from playing around in the forest to the spot beside my left leg. I reached down and gave him some attention, which he loved of course. He had slowly become the distraction we all needed from Tsunade. Hashi, Minato, and I had been directly affected by her death, but Madara never really got to form the bond that we had with her. It was understandable that her death didn't affect him as much. A part of me was glad for that, because he would bring us out of our funk sometimes.
I pushed my grief towards the back of my mind, and walked in the direction of my house.
"Let's go boy."
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It was still early in the day, so I knew where I could find my father. He preferred afternoon matches, so that he could get training in the morning done. It was his time with his pokemon. So I was a little hesitant to encroach on that, but he had never found an issue with that when I was a child. Plus, Hashi was currently there.
So, I took the elevator found in his office down to the cavern that was underneath the gym. I didn't know how far it went down, but I knew it was league sanctioned and deemed safe for the city so I didn't dwell too much on it.
Hashi was waiting at the door before I walked in.
Detect. I thought, remembering the new move that had appeared under his profile in my pokedex.
'The same move that let him predict the wave of psychic force that killed Tsunade.'
"Hey Hashi!" I said with a smile, and held my fist out to him. His oversized fist met mine and we walked over to the actual training area.
The cavern actually reminded me of Granite Cave. It had the same type of pillars reaching down from the ceiling to support the structure. If the floor wasn't unnaturally smooth throughout, one could easily mistake it for Granite Cave. But the extremely expensive workout equipment scattered throughout, gave it away.
Electronic weight racks were positioned to look like an extremely high tech weight room. Targets hung from the ceiling at difficult angles, along with other very situational training machines. Most of the cavern was empty, and that was on purpose. It was so his team could go at each other and spar, without fear of collateral damage. And some of his team could cause a lot.
I released Minato and Madara, so that they wouldn't have to stay cooped up in their pokeballs. Madara ran straight to Hashi, who bent down and ran a massive hand over the dog's fur. Minato materialized without a reaction. He was almost constantly connected to my mind, even when he was in his pokeball. I didn't understand how that was possible, but pokemon in general didn't make sense to me so I chalked it up to pokemagic.
Hashi and Minato exchanged a nod and then looked to the extra pokeball on my belt, questioningly. It wasn't Tsunade's ball, no that was in my backpack in a special case.
"Yes, we're doing it today." I told them.
I turned from them and looked around the cavern trying to find my father. I quickly found him on a pull-up bar repping it out. Sweat drenched his form, showing he had been at it a while. I made my way over to him, looking for his other pokemon while I moved around.
Junior was the closest to him. He sat on a raised platform of rock, in a meditative position. Five massive boulders rotated around him in the air, showing off his psychic prowess. Junior had to be the most powerful Gallade known in the regions. He was my father's ace, and it showed. Although I knew that he was not my father's starter, that was a bit of a sore spot for my father, and no one ever mentioned it.
But the scorches on the walls, and in the back of my mind would give away the answer quickly.
A massive, panda bear looking creature stood in a clearing by himself. Pangoro was another of my father's main team now that he had evolved. Brody had used him as the main pokemon for the gym for close to two years before he grew too strong for anyone under six badges.
The monkey that had a fire on the end of his tail was the newest gym pokemon everyone had to get through. It was only a monferno, but it's height, and record against gym challengers would tell you that it too was close to evolution.
Brody had a couple of other pokemon that were scattered around the island, keeping the peace and acting as enforcers for the wild pokemon in the area. His fully grown and champion level aggron was currently patrolling around Granite Cave, making sure that the biggest threats never made it to the upper levels of the cave. It was also the father of most of the aron's you could find in the cave. In fact, a few Dewford Town natives had sought out aron's from his line as starters, quite successfully in fact. Although none have made it to the upper echelon of the leagues.
Brody's second strongest pokemon was currently in the ocean surrounding the island. His poliwrath made sure that trainers and ferrymen could get to and from the island without fear of Sharpedo's and the occasional Gyrarados. The Poliwrath was scarred from constant battles. This world was much like my last, in the fact that the oceans, and what was deeper, were largely unknown.
Although the scariest of my father's pokemon, in my opinion, was the electabuzz that was on the far side of the cavern, practicing his electric attacks. He had searched for a long time for the secret to evolving the little guy. Only one man in the world was known to own an electivire, and that was Volkner, a scary strong Gym Leader. I knew that in the games, an electrizer was needed, but I called bullshit on that in this world.
'Probably just needs to consume a massive amount of electricity.' I thought. 'Maybe stand out in a thunderstorm somewhere?'
"Squirt." Brody said as he dropped from the pull-up bar.
"Hey dad, I had a quick question." I said, pushing past the awkwardness that still hung in the air between us. He still didn't like the fact that I wouldn't wait a few years to start my journey, but we were being cordial so far.
"What's up?" He said as he grabbed a curl bar.
"Base stats are a total sham aren't they?" I asked, dead serious.
He cranked out a few reps, before giving me a sideways glance. "Why would you say that?" Brody asked.
"Because it makes no sense." I replied immediately. "I've seen how physically strong a ...feebas can get, and it's no pushover." I stumbled a bit on 'feebas'. "Yet it's supposed to be one of the physically weakest pokemon in the database."
Brody dropped the curl bar, and took a deep breath. "It's not total bullshit, if that's what you're asking. It's just a general blueprint of what to expect for a pokemon. What kind of training were you doing for your feebas?"
"Weight training, mainly." I said as I dropped my backpack and pulled out the weight harness I had been using on the road.
I heard a grunt that sounded a lot like Hashi and turned to see him on a squat rack. The squat rack didn't have any weight's, just a bar connected to a guiding rail. The metal bar extended into the machine where I knew more and more resistance could be added, emulating weights.
"Hmm well that would explain it." He said. "Just because the base stats tell you feebas has an attack stat of whatever it says, doesn't mean it can't go over that. That is just a generalization used for low level trainers, and onlookers." Brody explained. "Some kids like to go online and research which pokemon they want to build a team, and the base stats are there as a guide for them, nothing else. And to people who watch the league matches online, it's easy for them to go online and research a pokemon quickly."
I digested that information for a moment before replying. "So just because the Hypno line specializes in special defense, doesn't mean Minato can't beef up his attack stat?" I asked, although I already knew the answer.
"Yep, life isn't defined by a number son. Just hard work." Brody said as he got another set of curls in.
'Well that makes sense.' I thought.
My hand brushed against the extra ball on my belt, reminding me about the main purpose for my visit down here. I grabbed it and enlarged it.
"You catch another pokemon already?" Brody asked.
"Not intentionally. Just showed up in my bag after Minato teleported us back…" I answered.
Brody gave me the weirdest look out of the side of his eye. "Well, release it. Let's see what we're working with."
Hashi appeared next to me, ready for me to do as he said. I pushed the button and pointed the ball away from us. A familiar shape materialized in the air before us. The scythe like appendage that extended out from the side of it's head gave it away.
Absol.
"Arceus' balls, kid!" Brody exclaimed.
Junior and Minato appeared in front of us, quickly reacting to the threat. Although I knew that both of them would be weak to absol's dark typing, I still felt better. The Absol didn't react at all to the pokemon it was facing, in fact, it looked bored.
We sat there, waiting for something to happen, nothing did. Neither of us attacked, and absol just looked around the cavern, inspecting its surroundings. I decided that we needed to get this show on the road and moved forward towards it. Its eyes locked on to me, immediately.
'Minato, can you connect us?' I asked my psychic.
'No. Dark.' Minato responded. The dark typing of absol was interfering with Minato's ability to join our minds.
"Can you let us in?" I asked the absol, pointing at my head.
The pokemon nodded at me, showing its intelligence. I felt Minato search for the absols mind in front of him. It took him a few moments to find the irregularity in the air in front of him but he did.
'Why did you capture yourself?' I asked while sending an image of the pokeball it's way.
I got the image of a volcano, Cinnabar Island's volcano erupting in my mind.
'So you did it for safety?' I asked, curiously.
Absol shook its head and nodded towards me. Another memory appeared in my mind, it was me running for Minato and Tsunade's ball in a panic right before a wave of psychic energy impacted me, sending me flying into the sea.
'Me? You did it for me?'I asked, confused.
The absol nodded at me, and then with a thought, it kicked us out of its mind.
"What did it say?" Brody asked, as he watched on.
"Wants to stay with me." I summed up. "It captured itself to get off of Cinnabar. It knew that the volcano was about to erupt and wanted to get off the island."
"A fucking absol." Brody said with wide eyes.
I looked at him, wondering why he was making a big deal out of it. Sure, I knew it was a rare pokemon, but it wasn't one worth noting.
'Unless, it's another situation like Arcanine. It is called the disaster pokemon, another unique pokedex entry....' I thought.
"How many trainers do you know of that have an absol?" I asked Brody. His answer told me everything I needed to know. My father nodded at me, before answering.
"One."
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"Brawly?"
"Yes, ma'am." I answered as I shook the legendary woman's hand in front of me. Despite her red hair, and fiery look in her eyes, her hands were eerily cold.
"I'm Lorelei, Elite Four member of the Indigo League." She introduced.
She needed no introduction. Elite four members are celebrities in the world of pokemon, and represented what ninety-nine percent of the population would never accomplish. They were just ridiculously strong.
"I'm honored." I sputtered out.
'No wonder dad was looking at me with a shit-eating grin.' I thought as I remembered him telling me to head to the entrance to the gym.
The woman in front of me, looked to be in her early to mid-thirties. Her red hair was immaculately styled. She wore a very very high quality trainers dress, along with leggings underneath. Her curvy, but toned body told me she was fully prepared to get into dangerous situations and come out on top. She was really hitting my strict teacher/librarian fettish hard right now.
"Don't be." She said deviously. "I'm here to ask you a few questions about the death of Blaine."
I frowned, before it hit me. 'Oh yea, I was one of the last people to see him alive.' I remembered.
"Ok, would you like to do this here? Or in one of our offices?" I asked her.
"If we could have a seat, that would be great." Lorelei said.
I turned around and began to lead her to the back. I intentionally aimed for the farthest post office, so that I could think for a moment and gather myself.
'Why would they send an Elite Four member?' I wondered. 'I guess since Blaine was such a high profile trainer and probably had a few elite level pokemon, they thought they would send someone who could handle themselves against his would be killer?' I deduced.
I had considered the possibility of being a suspect in his death, but I figured they would watch footage from the Gym, and quickly deduce that I was not really a threat to someone like him.
'Maybe they never recovered footage from the gym?' I wondered.
I was up on time to think, and opened the door for her to enter. I followed her in and she, of course, sat down in the comfortable looking chair behind the desk, leaving me the basic seat for visitors.
"Where would you like to start?" I asked, trying to get the ball rolling so I could get the fuck away from this dangerous woman.
"Let's start with that day." She said, crossing her legs and waiting for me. "Tell me how it started."
"Well, I was finally released from the hospital from a previous incident involving a skarmory." I began. "I assume you already know about all of that."
She nodded at me in confirmation.
"So I booked a flight from Island Three to Cinnabar, with intentions of taking on the gym, or at least booking an appointment." I continued. "I wasn't so sure that he would even face me, considering I had no badges at the time, but I was wrong."
"What would you have done if he didn't agree to accept your challenge?" Lorelei cut in.
"Head up Route 21, to Pallet Town, and follow the usual routes to other gyms from there." I answered truthfully. She didn't comment so I took it as a sign to continue.
"So I battled Blaine, where he eventually lost control over his magmar and called the match, deeming me strong enough to obtain my first badge." I told her. "After the match, he even gave me my newest team member, the same growlithe I battled." I hid the fact that I had an absol in my possession now. I had yet to register it in my name, and was still hesitant to do so.
"And then what happened?" Lorelei asked. Her legs unfolded and she leaned forward. Nothing about her reactions said she didn't believe me, so I rolled with it.
"And then I left." I lied. "Heading towards Route 21."
Lorelei broke eye contact then, and shook her head as she expelled a big breath of fresh air. "I do not take kindly to being lied to." She said seriously.
'Fuck, I guess she has seen the footage.' I thought as my stomach dropped.
"We know Blaine teleported you away. Where did he take you and why?" She asked with a deadly tone in her voice.
'Thank god they don't know why. That means they don't have footage of me admitting my multiversal travel status.' Relief swept through my frame as the realization hit me.
"Sorry." I said. "That was just a prank he and my dad set up. Brody and I had been on bad terms for a bit, so he wanted to scare me." I answered her. "Didn't think that part was important."
Lorelei stared at me for a moment, before she came to the obvious conclusion. "Well, if your dad can confirm that, then you'll be in the clear."
I smiled, and nodded at her. "I'm sure he can, he's in his office." I answered.
'Minato, get Junior.' I told my pokemon, who was in his pokeball.
Lorelei stood up and I followed her. I opened the door for her, and just as she stepped through, Junior's mind touched my own.
I walked towards where my father would be, and at the same time, told Junior the story. I reached his office, and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Brody's voice sounded out.
I moved to open the door, but Lorelei's hand on my shoulder stopped me. "I think you should wait out here." She said. It sounded like a suggestion, but we both knew it wasn't.
So I stepped aside, and she moved past me, into the office. I heard my father greet her, as if they were old friends. I knew they were only barely aware of each other's existence. Mainly because both of them were well known as in the upper echelon of trainers.
I stepped back from the door, and resigned myself to being at my father's mercy. I only hoped he took pity on me.
I hated being at my father's mercy. That's really what me leaving came down to, independence. In my previous life, I was a fully functioning adult with no one to answer to. It's why I left so abruptly, when Hashi was strong enough. I needed my independence. I hate relying on someone else, for anything. I considered it weakness, which is something I will never be.
It was a sick sort of irony that my fate was in his hands right now.
'Fuck, I have to get out of here.' My mind told itself. 'Why can't I just go on my journey, without the league fucking with me so much.'
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Lorelei walked out of my father's office. "Don't be so hard on him, Brody." She said over her shoulder. She looked towards me before continuing. "He's got a lot of potential."
"He's a little shit, that's what he is." Brody's loving voice carried through the door.
She laughed as she closed the door. "Well, squirt." She teased. "You're good to go, sorry for the heavy-handed approach. I just had to make sure."
"I understand." I told her. Relief flooded through my body in response.
"Take care, got places to be." Lorelei said as she walked back towards the entrance of the gym.
"I'll see you soon!" I called out, jokingly but actually serious.
"We'll see about that." She said, throwing the peace sign back to me.
I smiled and enjoyed the view her tight dress provided me as she walked away. My joy, and fun was interrupted by a massive paw landing on my shoulder. I looked over it to see my father giving me a serious look.
"We need to have a talk."
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A/N: And here ya go.
What do we think about it guys? What about Absol? Should we keep it on the team?
In my mind, it's ok to break out of the single-evolutionary requirement. But I want to know what you guys think. I haven't completely made up my mind about it yet.
Let's talk in the reviews!
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