章 1223: 17
After rubbing my face against the black and yellow rim of the Ultra Ball that held my latest capture, it disappeared in a flash of silver light. I already had eight Pokémon in my party, and the laws of being a trainer meant that Onix had to be sent to Oaks lab due to lack of space. Not that I care, mind you. Onix is going up for sale the moment I find out how to sell him-her-… it.
With a shrug, I gave the cavern we were in a closer look. While searching for the Crystal Onix, I took the time to research the Onix species as a whole by way of my Pokédex, and learned that contrary to popular belief, there was no such thing as a shiny variant for the species.
An Onix gained pigmentation based on its diet, not its genes, as did a multitude of other Rock type Pokémon. The rocks than an Onix would consume upon hatching determined the coloration of an Onix. This was the reason most Onix were colored a dull grey, the most common color of rock found in the world.
Now, with that explanation, there's an argument to be had about specific diets that breeders can give Onix to ensure certain colors. Technically speaking, this is possible. While unlikely, an Onix made out of gemstones could exist. However, it's not the first thing that an Onix eats that determines its coloration, but the amount that's available. There needed to be enough sediment for an Onix to feed off of in order to consume its body weight, and an Onix at birth weighed approximately two tons.
This was the crux of the matter. This was why the Crystal Onix was so rare. Not only was it a highly unique coloration, making it more than likely to sell for a high price, it also meant that there was a location where an Onix, and other Rock type Pokémon, could potentially eat their body weight in crystal and gain the same attribute.
The cavern I was standing in was worth more than the Onix I just caught was.
And I was the only person in the world that knew where this place was.
"Drogon! Thoros!" I called out, earning their attention. The golden scaled Charmeleon had been drinking from the crystal cave's lake while Thoros had been hanging from the ceiling by his tail, snacking on his fruits.
"We're gonna be leaving guys, let's go."
They let out a gargled whine, Drogon from the was in his mouth and Thoros from the food in his own. I didn't give them a chance to complain any further, returning them then and there. I would have kept them out of their Poké Balls normally speaking, but I'd already deviated from my vague semblance of a schedule by a month looking for this cave, and Baelish didn't have the ability to Teleport the three of us at once. He could have simply brought us out one at a time, true, but that would tax his stamina even further, something which I didn't want to take any chances on.
"Baelish, I said, straining my eyes to look at green feathers nestled comfortably atop my head. The fruit shaped bird didn't seem interested in talking. He gripped my hair with his talons and craned downwards, entering my line of sight.
"What?" he puffed irritably. "I was soon to take a nap."
"And you can," I allowed. He earned it. "I just need you to do two things for me first."
He sighed. "What do you want, meatbag?"
Such a nice nickname for me.
"Memorize where this cave is located," I said, holding up a single finger. "I'll be coming back here eventually."
He squawked at me, pecking furiously at my forehead. Ow.
"Memorize where this place is? I am a Natu! I remember everything that matters!"
I pinched my nose, lightly attempting to swat him away. It didn't work. "And I'm telling you this place matters. Anyways. The other thing I wanted you to do was Teleport me out of here. To the beach."
The Tiny Bird Pokémon huffed, and before I could say anything more, details such as where I'd like to land or what landmarks to use, I found myself ten feet above the ocean. Gravity did its job and I fell right in the water, my backpack acting as a flotation device. I sputtered and flailed, as anybody else would do when something as unexpected as that occurred.
Ohhhhhh, Baelish. You've just began a war that- that-… that you'll probably win, all things considered. But you shall feel my wrath all the same! He was circling me overhead, laughing that little smurf laugh of his.
With a growl, I shoved my hand into the water and grabbed his Friend Ball from my ball belt. I returned him in an instant and made the personal decision to keep him inside that ball for a good, long time out.
Looking around, my growl turned into a groan. Baelish brought me about a mile off shore from Sunburst, stranded to the waves of the sea. The open water was a terrible place to release Winter, and Valyrian was more likely to add salt to the wound than anything, so I didn't consider releasing her. None of my other Pokémon could fly with me as a passenger.
Swimming back to shore was out of the question. I didn't feel like it.
That left one option.
Depositing Baelish's ball back onto my belt, I instead grabbed Nagga's. I stared at his Luxury Ball for a good moment, contemplating if this was a good idea or not, before giving in. I released him, immediately bombarded with his loud roar and the stank of his nasty breath. His release caused the water to move about violently, salt getting into my throat. I coughed loudly, gaining his attention.
The blue giant crooned, warbling a greeting, bringing his head towards me so I could rub it.
A fake smile appeared on my face, and I forced myself to be enthusiastic for him. It wasn't Nagga's fault that my mood had taken a dip. "Hey bud! Great job with the Onix! Sorry I had to return you so quickly, but you were a little too good and I didn't want to risk the cave toppling on us."
Nagga purred, seeming to not care.
"But I had a thought! Since I returned you so quickly before, I thought I could ride on your head and go to Mikan Island like that, instead of on Winter. Spend some quality time with my favorite Water type."
His purr rumbled deeply, causing small wakes that moved me to and fro, his eyes curved happily. He dunked his head beneath the waves, causing him to disappear for a scant second before my eyes adjusted. Gyarados really do blend in a little too well with water.
A beat passed, and I found myself being lifted. I was positioned on the left flank of his trident, sat on the divot above his eye. He ascended his head further and further into the air, causing me to grip his frill like a lifeline. At least we were above water, I could survive that. Better than Danny's challenge.
It was also a good thing we were in a tropic. My clothes were dripping all over the place.
"Thanks bud!" I called out, patting his eyelid. He warbled happily. "Just give me a moment to check where we need to go!"
Slowly, I unzipped my phanny pack and pulled out my Pokégear. A hidden feature that I had only found on Sunburst in the device was a multi-purpose GPS. It didn't give me directions per se, but it let me know where I was with regards to the world.
Baelish had apparently brought me to the southern edge of Sunburst, the little bastard.
Luckily though, Mikan Island was only seventy-three miles west of our location.
I put the Pokégear away and grabbed my compass, turning Nagga to the direction we needed to go.
And thus, we were off.
.
It took us three hours to reach Mikan Island. We could have gotten there quicker had Nagga been inclind to sprint, but I couldn't expect him to do that for long. He's a battler first and foremost, not a taxi. Gyarados as a species do not do well with that, not like Pidgeots do at least.
Plus, if the Mikan Gym held true to the same challenge it offered in the show, it made sense to have him go slow. I needed him to conserve his energy.
We made our way to the beachfront of the island, laughing as tourists that were enjoying the tropics shrilly screamed at the sight of Nagga. Funny thought it was, I had a goal and time was a'wastin'. I was quick to offer Nagga my thanks, thanks that included plenty of rubs, and returned him once my feet touched the sand.
Scanning the beach, I saw a lifeguard looking down at me from a high white chair about fifty feet away. Hidden behind his mask of sunscreen, I could see the strain in his eyes.
Naturally, I approached him. The strain grew worse.
"Hey!" I called. "Can I get some directions?"
He peered at me, lips purse and hands gripping armrests tightly. He let out a deep, shuddering breath. "Next time, don't enter the public beach on that monster. Where do you need to go? Pokémon Center?"
I shook my head. "The Gym."
He pointed a finger to his left, my right. "Walk the sand for another four miles. There'll be a stone path with a sign that leads towards the woods. That path'll be another seven miles, but the Gym is at the end of it."
Eleven miles in total. Nope, not gonna walk that. That'd take hours.
With a nod to the lifeguard, I grabbed Winters Poké Ball and released him. He cawed loudly, looking around the shore with a cocked head of confusion. Before doing this, he scanned the area, wary on whether or not Valyrian was nearby.
I hopped on his back, tugging on his crest. With a cry of understanding, Winter shot off, billowing a gust of sand and debris into the lifeguard in that same instant.
I heard him shout at me from below, but Winter took off quicker than I could apologize. Not that I intended to do so.
It was easy enough to direst Winter; I just had him look for a dirt trail in the woods and follow it. His vision was many times better than mine was and he could pinpoint minute details in ways that I would never be able to replicate. It took him a few minutes to find the trail, but once he did it was a leisurely flight to our destination.
Another three minutes later and we were circling the Mikan Gym. It was a small building, with thick white walls and an orange roof surrounding by tall, leaning palm trees offering shade from the sun overhead. The highlight of the Gym wasn't the building itself, but the waterfront cliff it was built on.
Winter landed in front of the Gym and I rewarded his easy behavior with some chest rubs. While doing I was this, he decided I needed some love in turn and began to preen my hair. After a little while I figured it was time to end this, so I returned him and turned my attention to the Gym.
Its doors were made of glass, and I could see the pool just inside. But the lights weren't on, making it so the only thing keeping the Gym lit were windows.
These doors weren't electric though, and they were unlocked too. With a pinched feeling in my gut I pushed the door open and walked inside.
"Is anybody here?" I called out, my voice echoing.
Silence greeted me. I was quick to grow antsy, never feeling comfortable with trespassing. A Gym was a public area, but still. This was weird. I called out once more, and when more silence was what I found I bit the bullet and just started exploring. There was an open door on the other side of the Gym, on the poolside where the Gym Leader was meant to stand. I peered through it.
It was apparent that the Gym also served as Cissy's home. This was like the living space of a condo, compact though well used, with a pink couch parallel to a television with a sitcom of some type playing in the background.
But the couch wasn't empty. There was a person lying on the couch, a woman, quite the pretty one at that. Messy brown hair haphazardly held into a pony tail was her most apparent feature, along with a heart shaped face and fair skin. I couldn't really make out how her body looked, hidden underneath a blanket as it was.
There was also a bit of drool dribbling from her mouth, a loud snore sounding from her nose.
Great. This was Cissy, the Mikan Gym Leader. Now, it would be one thing to wake her up and ask for a Gym challenge, but see, I'm in her apartment. This was the Gym area that was certainly not public.
What to do…
Ah, wait. Got an idea.
I left the room and released Rhaegal. The tiny Bagon let out a happy cry and tried to dive in for a hug, but I dodged her as nimbly as I could. Momentum carried her the distance, slamming her plated scalp directly against the door. It banged against the wall, the sound loud enough to jolt Cissy awake with a start. She shoved her blanket off her body and shot into the air, holding a pillow like a baseball bat.
"Rhaegal! Calm down." I chided. She looked like she was going to cry.
In her defense, this is one of the few times I've reprimanded her. She's a daddy's girl that likes hugs, but her enthusiasm hurts and she needs to be reminded of that every now and then. I just took advantage of her natural reaction to seeing me to get this ball rolling.
"I'm sorry about that," I started, scratching my head. The goal was to make her think this was an accident. I turned around, intent on trying to butter Cissy up, when my words died in my throat.
This was a sight I hadn't expected to see for a while yet.
Boobs.
Cissy, it appeared, did not like sleeping with a shirt on, her lower body covered by a pair of pajama pants.
As I stared at her body quite blatantly, she caught on to the fact that her money makers were out in the open and hastily grabbed her blanket to cover up. Her glared seemed like it could melt fire.
I held my hands up, the universal sign for peace. "Sorry! Really, I didn't mean any of this, I just let my Bagon out while I waited for somebody to come to the front and she came in here. I didn't mean to disturb you."
Her glare didn't lessen. She just clicked her tongue, pointed at the door, and hissed. Message received, I hastily got out of there, returning Rhaegal in my movement.
Three minutes later she made her way to the front, now dressed in a yellow one-piece swim suit. Quite conservative all things considered.
"My name is Cissy," she said, teeth ground together. Uh oh, I'm on Gym Leader #2 that I'm the bad list of. "Leader of the Mikan Gym. What is your name, challenger?"
"Jon Snow."
She breathed in deeply, letting out a rumbling sound. A growl.
Damn, but she was mad.
"I've heard of you." Cissy said, flexing her wrist. "I was expecting you about a month ago, but it seems schedules change."
"I was on the hunt for a Pokémon," came my admission. "I only caught it this morning and rushed over here as quick as I could."
She walked towards the front door, speaking all the while. "Normally, my challenge is an accuracy test, but the Gym is having generator problems right now and I can't get the main lobby running right. So we're just going to have a race on the water. Don't have a Water type? I don't care, catch one then or come back when I can handle challengers."
Thank god for Nagga.
She led me around the Gym, bringing me to the beachfront it was built over, a small paved path taking us from the cliff to the sands. It was a genuinely pretty sight.
"We'll race from here," she said, making a line in the sand with her feet. "To that buoy in the water, then we'll circle back to here. First one back wins."
She enlarged a Poké Ball and released her Pokémon. A big blue turtle that stood on its hind legs took the field, cannons on its back. Blastoise. Swell.
I let Nagga out. There was little enough to say, Blastoise was big, Nagga was far bigger. Both Cissy and her Bastoise craned their necks towards my Gyarados, Cissy with a gobsmacked look and Blastoise growling in challenge.
"I've never seen a Gyarados as big as yours," Cissy breathed. "I thought Robyn was overexaggerating."
…I mean. If you replaced the Gyarados in that statement with something else this would be a very different conversation.
Cissy then seemed to remember that she was mad at me, squashing her interest in Nagga like a well fed mosquito. She picked up a rock roughly the size of her fist and mounted her Blastoise's shell.
I copied her action, save for the rock thing, and mounted Nagga's head, wrapping my arms around his horn. I quickly explained to him that this was a race and that I wanted him to go as fast as he can. He didn't need to worry about me.
Nagga warbled, concern in his tone. His two whiskers, those long buggers on each side of his face, wrapped themselves around my body, securing me to his horn like a seatbelt.
I hadn't known he could manipulate those.
"Are you ready?" Cissy asked.
"I am!" I returned.
She nodded and lifted her rock. "This will let us know when to start. I'm going to throw it and when it hits the water, we will begin."
She cocked her arm and threw it was some serious anime strength. It arched upwards by some thirty feet and then dropped down like the rock it was.
The moment it splashed into the water, Blastoise twisted around and shot a Hydro Pump out of its cannons, rocketing Cissy into the water. Nagga, not to be outdone, roared his defiance and shot into the air like a loaded spring. His massive size made it so that this action let him quickly pass the buoy that marked the halfway point of the race.
He hit the water with a slam, gallons of salt water shooting up my nose. Nagga tuned out my choking like the good boy he was, flailing towards the beachfront.
Cissy's Blastoise was shaken by the wakes of the massive belly flop Nagga produced, but it was still faster in the water than Nagga was. Added to the fact that Nagga's size made him slower than normal anyways, and well. Even with our substantial lead, Cissy was catching up.
We were just past the halfway point between buoy and beach when Cissy reached us. As she passed, she offered a taunting smile, her Blastoise purposefully staying just a little ahead of us so she could taunt.
"You know, I thought your Gyarados was gonna be a challenge! I guess bigger isn't better! It's actually pretty useless!"
Now, I'm all for taunting. Would have happily returned fire too. However, two things held me back.
One: I was stuck. Nagga had tightened his grip on me with his whiskers and I could scarcely breath, forget about yelling.
Two: Nagga was mad. Ignoring his general temperament and normally calm mannerisms, his species was called the Atrocias Pokémon for a damn good reason. He didn't like being called out, didn't like being annoyed. Being insulted? He not only didn't like it, he didn't take it well.
At all.
Nagga began to thrash even hard, his roar of anger and rage filled movements turning his wakes violent. Cissy seemed to get a clue that pissing off a Gyarados King was a horrible idea and commanded her Blastoise to pick up the pace, trying to get the hell out of here.
This did not work.
From Nagga's horn, the same one that I was attached to, a wave of electrical currents took root, arcing towards Cissy. I know this attack, it was one of Viserion's specialties, though I've never been hit by it. Thunder Wave, an Electric type move that paralyzed opponents.
Better than Thunderbolt.
The Thunder Wave found its target in Cissy's Blastoise, causing the turtle to go unnaturally still. It was sad, in a funny sort of way, when I made note of how even though a Blastoise's shell could apparently be used a floatation device, this one couldn't swim. Its attempts at movement were useless, and it wailed pitifully as Nagga swam by.
Cissy yelled at us from Blastoise's shell, looking every bit the woman scorned. Really, she had no business getting mad. This was her own fault.
We crossed the finish line with no further incident.
Nagga panted on the beach, whiskers bringing me down onto the sand. My body was still and a stick, stuck in paralysis as it was.
Cissy, tired of being stranded, ended up returning her Blastoise in favor of her Seadra. The soon-to-be Dragon type brought her back to the beach, picking up on its trainers' emotions with a glaring intensity.
Cissy bit her lip, eyes narrowed in annoyance. She sighed then, apparently giving up. Fishing through her hair, she pulled out my badge and tossed it in front of me. No further words were exchanged, she just returned her Seadra and stomped towards the Gym.
And thus, I won my third Gym challenge.
…I would collect the badge when my body decided that movement was possibly.
Winter/Pidgeot – Male
Moves: Tackle, Gust, Sand Attack, Agility, Double Team, Whirlwind, Quick Attack, Wing Attack, Steel Wing, Twister, Fly, Hyper Beam, Sunny Day, Heat Wave, Attract, Rest, Sky Attack, Aerial Ace
Ability: Keen Eye
Valyrian/Skarmory – Female
Moves: Steel Wing, Wing Attack, Fly, Cut, Peck, Screech, Metal Claw, Metal Sound, Slash, Night Shade, Steel Wing, Icy Wing, Sky Attack, Iron Head, Attract, Dark Pulse, Aerial Ace, Iron Defense
Ability: Sturdy
Thoros/Gliscor – Male
Moves: Sludge Bomb, Slash, Poison Sting, Metal Claw, Dark Pulse, Dig, Guano, Attract, Steel Wing, Iron Tail, Sandstorm, Ice Fang, Crunch
Ability: Sand Veil
Drogon/Charmeleon – Male(Shiny)
Moves: Growl, Scratch, Ember, Ancient Power, Attract, Iron Tail, Metal Claw, Sunny Day, Bite, Flamethrower, Dragon Rage, Dragon Claw, Dig
Ability: Blaze
Rhaegal/Bagon – Female
Moves: Rage, Headbutt, Ember, Dragon Rush(Egg Move), Attract, Skull Bash
Ability: Rock Head
Viserion/Dratini – Male
Moves: Leer, Wrap, Thunder Wave, Water Pulse, Attract, Water Gun
Ability: Shed Skin
Baelish/Nate – Male
Moves: Peck, Leer, Night Shade, Calm Mind, Protect, Teleport, Flash, Confuse Ray
Ability: Synchronize
Nagga/Gyarados – Male
Moves: Splash, Tackle, Bite, Leer, Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Ice Fang, Crunch, Body Slam, Headbutt, Iron Head, Twister, Dragon Rage
Ability: Intimidate
Jon Snow – Male
Date: Feb 17
Badges: Sea Ruby Badge, Spike Shell Badge, Coral Eye Badge
Held Pokémon: Pidgeot, Skarmory, Gliscor, Charmeleon, Bagon, Dratini, Natu, Gyarados
Stored Pokémon: Delibird, Onix
Currency: 12,840
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