Chapter 11: Chapter 11
'...' for thoughts
"..." for speech
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Note #1262 of professor Acacia's pokemon research log.
Subject of research: Route 16 and Magby
Personal notes:
It's been a month and two weeks since we started exploring Route 16, but it feels a lot longer. We have explored quite a large section of the Route, though still not the entire Route and whenever we got near Zoroarks grove we made a large detour around it.
Cynthia and Skyla sadly left last night as the two months they had planned to stay had come to an end. They are great trainers and even better friends so I was pretty down that I wouldn't be able to see them for a while but at least Elesa is still here.
On another note, my parents surprised me with a vacation starting tomorrow, saying that I can decide where to go, but that it should have a beach, my mother demanded half-heartedly.
I didn't have to think long and decided on Cinnabar Island in the Kanto region, many tourist attractions, beautiful beaches, tropical forests and above all a volcano to finally evolve Magby. As icing on the cake, there's Gymleader Blaine, the leading Magmar expert who lives on this island.
I plan to find Blaine and ask him about knowledge on Magmar and his help at evolving my Magby. I also read in one of his conjectures that Pokémon absorb energy of their typing when they evolve and that a Volcano is the best place to let Magby enter his next phase. Maybe I can even get him to teach me the special technique his Magmar uses to nullify electric-type attacks, that would be super awesome.
But I digress.
I also plan to catch another Pokémon when we are in Kanto, but I still don't know which one. I then let my parents register it as theirs as I am only allowed to own one Pokémon and when I start my journey they transfer it to me. Quite a lot of trainers get their starters from their parents, so there is no problem with that legally.
Now that I come to the topic of Pokémon, some Pokémon seem to stalk us, especially me, whenever we enter the forest on Route 16. Sometimes it's a Pidove, other times a Minccino or Gothita. What's extra strange is the fact that they steal food from us everyday, but they steal only Magbys food from my backpack, nobody else's.
I have a theory as to why they're stealing Magbys food and I am gonna test it today.
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At around 11 am, two hours after he finished his log entry, Jasper entered the forest of Route 16 with Magby.
'This feels kinda weird.' Jasper thought while walking through the underbush. It was the first time he and Magby went into the forest without the girls and their Pokémon.
But Jasper didn't stay on that thought and instead focused on the Pidove that was following them for some dozen meters already.
'I will let Magby fight a few battles and then take a rest, I hope that will be enough for the Pidove to take the bait and steal Magbys food again.' Jasper then looked at another Pokémon on top of a tree branch, roughly 15 meters infront of him. 'And this Liepard over there seems like a nice first opponent for Magby.'
The Liepard turned out to be a much stronger fighter than Jasper thought, even stronger than the alpha of the pride that hurt Gible.
While Magby had superior close quarter capabilities and a fairly strong Flamethrower, the Liepard had the advantage in speed, agility and strength and it was also quite smart.
Once Liepard noticed that Magby could easily beat it in melee combat with his martial arts and Fire Punch-infused attacks it changed its attacking pattern to ranged attacks and single-hit ambushes to maximize its higher strength its evolutionary stage allowed for.
Despite being disadvantaged, Jasper and Magby stayed calm and defended while waited for an opportunity to act. Their patience got rewarded when Magby managed to dodge one of Liepards Shadow Claw-ambushes and following that hit Liepard with a Flamethrower.
The lacking might of Magby's flames meant that Liepard managed to tank the flamethrower without taking too much damage and then retreated fastly, but Magbys assault wasn't over with that.
"Now Magby, Psychic" Jasper exclaimed excitedly.
Magby roused his sleeping psychic powers, his eyes began to glow bright blue, and controlled the fires of Flamethrower to keep sticking on Liepard.
Liepard jumped and rolled around, but couldn't get the flames off it.
Magby took his chance while Liepard struggled. He quickly closed in, struck down Liepard with a one-two combo of Mach Punch and Mega Punch and then kept bathing Liepard with his Flamethrower until it stayed down.
'I'm glad that worked' An elated Jasper watched that beatdown with pride shining in his eyes. 'The battle would have been much easier if Magby could have immobilized Liepard with Psychic, but its dark-typing kept it safe. Right now Magby just controlled the flames, not Liepard itself, so its dark-typing was ineffective.'
After the fight Jasper healed Magby by spraying a Potion on his wounds and then the two set off in search of their next opponent.
The Pidove was still following them.
About 2 hours and a few battles later Magby and his trainer sat down while leaning against a tree and rested for a bit.
Jasper deliberately placed his backpack on the other side of the tree trunk, outside of his field of view, to bait the Pidove.
Comfortably leaning against the tree with his eyes closed Jasper couldn't stop the smirk that rose on his face.
'If I am right about what is wrong with these Pokémon following me around then having Magby use Psychic directly to immobilize them won't work, so I have to catch them using a different plan. A spicy surprice awaits this little thief for I rigged the inside of Magbys lunch bag with a pepper bomb that goes off the instant someone opens the bag.'
A few minutes later, just when Jasper thought that his trap failed, he heared a loud sneeze from behind the tree. He jumped up happily and together with Magby swiftly went around the tree.
There he saw a Pidove wildly flapping its wings without taking off and sneezing again and again. Magbys lunch bag laid open by its side.
But Jasper noticed that something was off about that Pidove, everytime it sneezed a sort of ripple went through it, as if it was a being of water and someone threw a stone into it.
That finally confirmed Jaspers theory about which Pokémon this was.
"Ok Zorua, quickly cancel that illusion and come here, I will help you." Jasper said while taking a nasal douche and a saline solution out of his backpack.
The Pidove stopped flapping its wings and dissipated, in its place appeard the small red-grey Zorua. It had tears in its big blue eyes and was scratching its nose while sneezing.
Jasper filled the saline solution into the nasal douche, walked over to Zorua and got on his knees. Then he held Zoruas head and used the nasal douche to free Zoruas nose of the pepper.
When it's nose finally stopped hurting and it didn't have to sneeze anymore, Zorua sat still and let Jasper stroke its soft fur.
"You were following us around disguised as different Pokémon, right Zorua? Did you steal Magby's food as some kind of test or did you just want to annoy me?
Zorua looked up at Jasper with its big blue eyes and then turned its head to Magby. "Zorua Zo-Zo-Zorua Zorua-Rua."
"Please translate it for me Magby." Jasper requested his partner.
Magby nodded at that. "Magby Ma-Ma-Magby Magby-by."
Jasper then fixed his gaze onto Zorua again, who was also watching him. "So you are saying that you were impressed by my intelligence when I escaped your parent and decided to observe me from then on to determine if I deserved to be your trainer as in the Zorua community intelligence is counted highly. When you were satisfied with me you subjected me to a final test by stealing Magbys food. I passed the test by setting a trap for you and finally catching you red-handed. That's correct so far?"
Zorua nodded at that.
Jasper stroked his chin for a bit and then spoke again. "I would gladly have a Pokémon such as you in my team, but I have a final question for you before I can accept you. Does Zoroark know about this? This is important, I don't want to be chased around by an enraged Zoroark again."
While Jasper waited for Zoruas answer, he saw Magby nodding furiously at his question, and nearly burst out laughing at the comical sight but stopped himself at the last moment.
Zorua then responded and Magby translated another time.
"Then I am glad. If Zoroark supports you to be here I have no other reason to reject you, welcome to the team." Jasper stood up, took out the Ultraball he caught Zorua with over a month ago and presented it to Zorua.
Zorua walked up to the Pokéball and upon touching the button it was swiftly absorb into the ball.
The ball shook just once in Jasper hand and then confirmed the catch with a bright "Ding".
Jasper then released Zorua from the Ultraball again and Magby also walked over to them. "You are now my second Pokémon, Zorua. Let us three work together to learn more, become stronger and catch more good friends."
After saying that Jasper streched out his hand, looked at both Magby and Zorua and grinned.
Magby and Zorua looked at each other and then stacked their hand and paw atop Jaspers hand.
"For a brilliant future!"
"Ma-Magby-By!"
"Zo-Zorua-Rua"
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1640 words
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Black_Dragongod
Black_Dragongod Hey there, here's the author, Black_Dragongod.
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