Capítulo 13: Redline: Ch 1
A commenter named Rae made a VERY good point about my interpritation of Ghost types being actual ghosts- mainly the fact that they can't be dead people because they can lay eggs.
That's a remarkably good point, and something I hadn't thought about, but it's also just as big of a contradiction in the games themselves. Yamask and Phantump both are said to be dead humans, but you can just... hatch more of them? IDK dude, your guess is as good as mine.
-The Dragon King-
-Arc Start: Redline-
-Redline: Ch 1-
Marcus Cross slammed the door to the cheap Pokecenter room he'd been allowed to temporarily rent out after obtaining his badge. He was back from the Pokemart, and had exactly three new things with him; a leather bound notebook, a rectangular out of date cassette recorder, and a large roll of thick yellow paper tucked under his arm.
"Alright Mark, you've had your fun, and got burnt for it- time to put your brain to work and start getting shit done."
The heavy roll of paper slapped down on the table, and rolled out to reveal a map of the world. Or rather, a map of the known world.
Mark clicked the red button on the cassette, and started planning.
"The place I've found myself is not Japan. It's similar but the shape's off, it's too thick." He mused, tracing a finger around the edge of the island chain that Sinnoh sat atop of.
"Game Freak based the first four regions off of parts of Japan, so either this world is more different than I thought, or the map is partially guesswork."
This world did have limited space travel, and at least a satellite or two, so he would at least trust the big picture things, like continental outlines, oceans, and mountain ranges.
"The map represents humanity's knowledge of the world, and most of the detailed portions of the map are around the named regions with established Pokemon Leagues. Detail drops off once you leave the rough borders, and continues to do so exponentially as you get further away.
"This implies that the wilds are scarcely explored and that humanity, even with all the wonders of modern civilization, has found itself pushed to the fringes of the world."
Mark frowned at the monstrous drawings that didn't resemble any Pokemon he knew, which littered the least detailed parts of the map. It was similar to the 'here be dragons' warnings on old medieval maps, except these had every possibility of being real.
The long stretch of land between Sinnoh and the southern regions was a no man's land of unexplored danger, with only a few minor villages scattered in between. But the map key even went so far as to have a note warning about the accuracy of these, as they are usually too isolated for frequent communication, and every year Rangers find dozens of small settlements outside the regional borders completely razed to the ground- destroyed by wild Pokemon.
Kanto and Johto were on the lower part of the massive island, directly far south of Sinnoh, right next to each other and divided by Mt. Silver. To the west of them was Hoenn, which was only tethered to the main island by the slimmest of land bridges.
"Travel by sea seems to be the main method of mass transportation, which would explain why every region has a coastline." Mark traced his finger off the island, and followed the proudly labeled sea routes across the oceans, which were displayed a hundred times more prominently than the ones on any Earth map.
"The world is split into four separate continents, and this world's version of Japan, named the Jinzu Isles on the map, is located off the coast of a landmass that looks vaguely like someone smashed China and the Siberian tundra together. There are scattered ports and towns along the coastline there, but no one has managed to colonize further inland."
Unova was much closer to Sinnoh than he had anticipated for a region that was supposed to be "Pokemon America", but it was still a hefty distance- separated by ocean and at least three times farther away from Sinnoh than Kanto and Johto were.
There were other regions further away on the other continents that were either new or from games he didn't remember, such as Galar, and there were also plenty of isolated islands that had been taken over by humans. Orre and Alola were the largest of these, with Orre being some sort of settler paradise free of any major wild Pokemon.
But Orre was the exception, not the rule; the rule was that the vast majority of the world's landmass was wild, untamed, sparsely explored, and dangerous.
"If what this map implies is true, then it would be feasible to hide a major base of operations outside of civilization. You could have hundreds of people and Pokemon working at a site, and as long as it's not visible from space, no one would know unless they randomly stumbled upon it."
Interesting thoughts for the future. But that was the future, now was now. And as of now he didn't have the capacity to reliably win a Gym badge, let alone set up a secret military base in the frontier. Speaking of now…
"I need an actual weapon." Mark frowned as he circled his gaze back to Sinnoh, and the miles and miles of uncharted land beyond its vaguely defined borders.
The metal bat he bought a while back had been doing a decent job of beating the shit out of things, but he needed something with a MUCH bigger punch if he was going to be able to survive when something like a wild Luxray decided to charge past his team and try to take him out directly.
"Guns aren't outlawed in Sinnoh, but from what I found online, the technology is much less developed and very few companies bother to make them; all of those facts can be chalked up to the fact there are dragons in this world that can sneeze away houses by accident. Pokemon are better weapons than anything back home, and can be found basically anywhere- Silph Co's Pokeball production is this world's military industrial complex. But I still want something I can use with my own hands. For now I'll settle for a melee weapon, but I fully plan to come back to this when I have more resources, preferably sooner rather than later.
"However, even an old reliable M2 Browning, isn't going to do shit against something like Cynthia's Garchomp. My main weapon will be my team, and I need to start planning that out."
The leather notebook dropped to the table with an audible thunk, and opened to the page that Mark had tucked a pen into.
"Bagon, now Shelgon, is my starter and should be my first and last go to pick for any bad situation. He's going to be the ace on my team that I can count on to power through whatever we're facing. I'm going to be getting him on a dietary regime that will pump him full of so much food that he'll be out of the underweight category within a fucking month, and pair it with training that will have him built like a tank.
"He has good battle sense, and can take pain like the best of them. His movepool is lacking, but I have plans to expand it ASAP. His biggest issue is that he has serious problems with consistently disobeying orders. I've been willing to overlook that so far, since it's been working out and Shelgon likely has more battle experience than I do, but it's gotten out of hand. I fully intend to address this once he's out of the hospital, but I don't want to be too heavy handed about it. Having a fighter capable of on the fly reasoning and self action, is a massive boon and it would be foolish to throw that away, especially when Shelgon is always going to be able to react faster to surprises than I can tell him what to do."
Mark finished jotting down bullet points under "Shelgon" on the left side of the page, and dropped down two empty lines for the next entry.
"Gible is non-negotiable. Not only is Garchomp the most powerful Pokemon in this region, Cynthia has proven that it's one of the strongest in the world. Easy pick, there's not much to say about it."
GIBBLE was written in big letters and circled.
"I don't remember the specifics, since I never got too far into competitive Pokemon myself, but Garchomp-Tyranitar was an extremely popular duo because of how powerful it is. The abilities sandstorm and sand veil had good synergy, and there was something about the move pool counters I think? Again, I just know it's good, but I can't remember all the reasons why.
"I know you could get Larvitar in Platinum, but I can't remember where for the life of me, so that plan will have to be put on hold temporarily. When I achieve it, however, Salamence, Garchomp, Tyranitar, will be a monstrous lineup that will be hard to stop. But it has some major typing weaknesses that I'll need to address."
Tyranitar was put under GIBBLE, and was filled with everything he could remember about the high elo matchup.
"It's not the first thing that comes to mind, but Gyrados might be a potential solution to the typing problem, just because of the sheer amount of moves it can learn. Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Fang, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Hyperbeam, I remember making some crazy move pools for Gyarados out of TMs back in the day. And since Pokémon aren't limited to four moves here, I could take advantage of that to cover basically every matchup I'd face, as well as adding some needed type diversity to the team."
Mark paused and scratched his chin in thought.
"Not to mention it also learns a lot of dragon moves, like Dragon Dance, Dragon Tail, and Dragon Pulse, so it could train with the other two dragons on those things. It's food for thought.
"But do I really want to put in the effort to train a fucking Magikarp? This isn't the games, I can't just speed level one by throwing it in and then immediately pulling it out and still getting a chunk of the exp? The anime made a big deal about how much effort you had to put in to get one."
Graradose was written on the right side of the page with a question mark next to it.
"It's a definite maybe, I'll put a pin in it, and circle back to it later for another consideration.
"Other options for a move pool weapon bay include Wigglytuff, and I think Nidoking- I'm not a hundred percent sure on that one, though."
Wigglytuff and Nidoking went on the "maybe" side of the page, with sketches of Flamethrowers and Hyper Beams around them.
"I have other, less thought out, ideas that have potential for a powerful specialized role, but since I don't have much to say about them, I'll just list them rapid fire."
"Vaporion can apparently turn completely into a liquid, which sounds incredibly abusable in battle. Muk with Toxic, Minimize, and Substitute, was something I got crushed by one time back in middle school. A stall Chansey with self heal, leftovers, and a shit ton of HP would be a terror on the battlefield, and could double as a field medic. Butterfree with Double Team and the ability to just vomit status effects at people, would be a great support and a genuine nightmare to deal with."
The left side of his page quickly filled up, and Mark was happy with the foundation he had laid from just a single planning session.
But there was "the issue" that he had to deal with.
"Fucking Fairy types." He sneered. "I looked it up on the Pokecenter PC, and Fairies are weak to Steel and Poison, that's it. And since they are both the main weakness to Shelgon, AND the go to choice of the world's most annoying brat, I need to find a counter to them."
He leaned back in his chair and glared up at the ceiling.
"Poison is another point towards a Muk or Nidoking, but Steel is just an amazing type, since it naturally resists 11 out of the 18 Pokemon types. Metagross and Lucario are good Steel types that have good secondary typings that would add coverage to my team. That's what I need, coverage- the ability to deal with any situation in front of me."
Agrron was cool as fuck, but he didn't need a Steel/Rock, because that would just make his team even weaker to grass and water. A Steel/Dragon would be… interesting. If he was right about the way that dual type weaknesses worked, one of those would lose every normal weakness of a Dragon in favor of Fighting and Ground- it wouldn't even be weak to Steel's main weakness of Fire since Dragon resisted that by default.
It would also be immune to Tyranitar's sandstorm.
It would be a great Pokemon for his team, but sadly even if he wanted a Steel/Dragon, that typing just didn't exist. Dialga was the only thing he could think of, and that was a legendary, so he'd be stuck with a normal Steel type for now.
Mark's eyes slid up a few lines on the page.
"Gyrados would cover the Fire and Fighting and Ground weakness of the steel type…" He mulled the thought over. "Okay double pin for Gyrados. It's a strong maybe."
Satisfied, Mark made a few more notes and closed the book.
"I just need strong 'mons. But NO Fairy types, that's the only restriction. I don't give a single shit about what kind of things they could help with. They're a poorly thought out fad that Game Freak shoehorned in, to desperately distract from how dated their combat system is. Fairies don't make sense, they're stupid, hairbrained, out of place, retarded, and…"
Mark's face scrunched up as he struggled for more insults to hurl at his previous least favorite type and newly most hated one.
"…Pink."
He nodded in satisfaction. That was a good one.
Besides, they were creepy!
But he was getting off track.
To catch more Pokemon to expand his team he needed Pokeballs, which were expensive. As he expanded his team, he needed money to feed them and for gear to train them. Actually, if he had infinite cash, he could just go to a breeder and buy the seeds for a top tier team right now.
But that led to another problem: he wasn't strong enough to reliably place well in tournaments for prize money, or to win Gym matches for the rewards, and if he couldn't do those things then no one would want to sponsor him. Hell, he didn't even have Shelgon at the moment, since that asshole was still in medical care after disobeying orders during a fight.
Mark closed his pen with a click, and tossed it down on the table.
"Time to get creative, and step on some toes."
-The Dragon King-
Finding the ghost girl was remarkably simple, mainly because she had been doing all the effort for him by stalking him around like his second ex-girlfriend, ever since he won against Roark.
All he had to do was lead her to a dead end in an alleyway, and then trap her so she couldn't run away.
"I-I-It's not what it l-looks like! I-I can explain!" The Hex Maniac fumbled over her words as she cowered against a brick wall. "I wasn't stalking you!"
"Lady, I'll be honest, I don't really give a shit right now. I have bigger problems to worry about. However, if you don't want me to get the police involved, then you need to assist me with a project later today."
"O-Of course! I'll help, just please don't tell Officer Jenny, she already hates me!"
"Re-lax, lady." Mark held his arms out and gave her a reassuring smile that was as fake as the ones used by those Magikarp salesmen. "My lips are sealed, and it'll be like nothing ever happened. Just so long as you help me with this, and don't chicken out halfway through."
Helena nodded frantically, with enough force that it messed up her tangled hair even more, and did interesting things to her chest.
"What do I have to do?"
"Meet me in the forest where we knocked out those Galactic grunts, at 2100 sharp! I'll mark an X into a tree, so you'll know where it is. Don't be late, or the deal's off." Mark grinned, then, seeing Helena's confused expression, he added: "That's 9PM if you've never been around the military."
-The Dragon King-
Later that day, Helena made her way through the forest at the bottom of route 206's ravine with a growing nervousness gnawing at her gut. Marcus… Well he didn't seem like a nice guy, but he also didn't seem like a horrible person. He wouldn't make her do anything untoward, while alone out here, would he?
She managed to make her way back to the spot at a relatively decent time, and sat under an X that had been carved into a tree with a knife.
Five minutes later, Mark came wading through the trees at exactly 9PM.
He had a roll of duct tape hanging on his belt, as well as a cloth bag that was stained pink at the bottom and smelled funny even from a distance.
He also had a frying pan in his hand.
…Why did he have a frying pan?
"Oh good, you're here. I was worried you would be late." Mark flashed her a smile, before raising the pan and repeatedly bringing it down on a rock outcropping.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG
Helena grimaced at the noise, and brought a hand up to massage her ear.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting attention."
CLANG CLANG CLANG
"Trust me, it's part of the plan."
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG
Mark kept hitting the pan against the rocks until Helena was certain that every Pokemon in a half mile radius had scattered from the noise.
"Say, how many Pokemon do you have? I forgot to ask earlier, but it's kind of important."
"I have two, but I'd forgive you for thinking I only have one. Shedinja is the one I mainly use when people are around, since my other Pokemon is, uhm, I love him but he's a prankster and most people have bad reactions to him."
Mark waved off her concerns with his gloved hand. "Don't worry about me, I can handle myself. Use whichever one is strongest, you'll need it."
Helena nodded before reaching into her dress, hesitating for half a second, and pulling out a dusk ball.
"Are you not going to explain why you did that with the pan?"
"Nope." Mark answered as he tossed the bargain bin piece of scrap to the ground, now completely bent out of shape. "We don't have time for that, and you'll figure it out real soon."
"Right…"
"Now I have everything prepared for and planned out, all you need to do is follow my orders, and tough through it for a little bit. Then you'll be golden."
Mark patted the bag on his hip. "I spent the last chunk of my Gym money on this, plus as many Pokeballs as I could afford. And I bought them repeatedly in bunches of ten for the extra Premier ball."
Helena thought that was strange since that deal had been replaced by Silph Co years ago in order to stop clogging up Pokemart lines, so nowadays you could get the same result by ordering them all at once. But she was too worried about saying something weird or dumb to speak up, Marcus probably had a reason for what he was doing.
If the pan was any indication, those reasons worked in mysterious ways.
"Additionally I used the hours before this meetup to collect one of my Pokemon from the Pokecenter, and catch several more to help us with this. Come on out!"
Mark pulled three Pokeballs off his belt and tossed them in the air.
"This is Bidoof1, Bidoof2, and Bidoof4." He listed off as they appeared. "They will be helping you play distraction, and will be your first line of defense. Bidoof3 has attitude problems, and will be coming with me to the main objective."
One of the Bidoof wandered over, sniffed at the cloth bag on his belt and pawed at it.
"No, bad hamster! Don't touch that." Mark gently slapped him away. "Go get back in line."
Mark coughed into his fist and assumed the same position that his drill instructors used to do all the time- his feet squared with his shoulders, and his hands clasped behind his lower back.
"Your part of this operation is simple. You will distract and occupy the enemy while I retrieve the mission objective. Once the enemy is alerted to my presence, they will fall back and chase me. When this happens, retreat back to Oreburgh and rendezvous with me in the Pokecenter lobby. Ghost lady, you'll need these."
Mark handed over the Pokeballs of the three Bidoof to Helena, and then dragged his steely gaze across the group in front of him.
"Questions?"
The Bidoof started yapping, but because they did not speak English their concerns were ignored, just like the depressed foreign cafeteria lady back in Mark's old high school.
"Uhm, excuse me." Helena raised her hand. "Who is 'the enemy' you keep talking about? It's not Galactic is it?"
"That is a good question. But don't worry, it's not the Space Stupids. Actually, it's a wild Pokemon you already know about, and- oh look! Speak of the devil, here she comes now. Look, over in the treeline."
Helena turned around, and froze as she locked eyes with the massive Ursaring that had come to investigate who was intruding on her territory.
Mark pulled the cloth bag from his belt and tossed it on the ground, where it ripped open to reveal several smelly Poke-lures tied to a slab of raw meat with some tread.
"You will be distracting her."
Mark scooped the frying pan off the ground and hurled it through the air, smacking Ursaring in the face, and immediately picking a fight with the territorial behemoth.
"Bidoof army, encircle her when she comes into the clearing! Keep your distance and use your small size to avoid attacks. The strategy is to pepper her with Growl and Leer, to weaken her, and then use Quick Attack to get in, deal damage, and get out before she can retaliate. Work together to keep her off of your teammates, and I have complete confidence in your continued health."
"B-B-Buh Bwi!" Bidoof1 looked up at Mark in abject horror, with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, none of y'all know Quick Attack? Tch, that sucks. Tackle works just as fine for damage, I guess, it just won't get you back out."
"Biiii!"
"Oh stop whining, you'll be fine." Mark hooked his boot under Bidoof1's belly and threw her forward with a swing of his foot.
Bidoof2 and 4 scrambled to follow Mark's orders, getting distance from the bear and using their status moves. Bidoof1 landed next to 4 with a plop, and immediately made that grouping a juicer target via numbers.
Ursaring roared and rushed towards them, swinging her arm out in a backhand. It slammed into Bidoof4 and sent him flying off into the bushes, but Bidoof1 had just enough experience dodging from the Gym battle to slip under the arm and scuttle away to safety.
Having a Bidoof fly past her head snapped Helena out of her shock.
"Haunter, I need you!"
A purple ghost Pokemon materialized in the air, it still had a mostly gaseous body from its time as a Ghastly, but was able to solidify into a semi-solid when it wanted to- granted it was not as capable of doing this as completely as a Gengar would.
"Quick, hurry and throw out Shel…"
Helena turned and called out to Mark, only to find that he was already long gone.
"You- Youuu-" Her cheeks puffed out as he realized what happened. "Asshole!"
Haunter swept across the field, buying time for his trainer, and pulling Ursaring's attention off the beleaguered Bidoof.
A glowing claw passed right through him, as though he didn't exist, and he nearly doubled over laughing at the look on Ursaring's face.
Haunter's laugh scraped like a rusty gate and sounded faintly like screaming. All the Normal type Pokemon instinctively stepped back at the sound, having never seen a Ghost type before, but Helena wasn't bothered- that was just how her purple boy laughed, and there was nothing wrong with that!
"Haunter, use Venoshock!"
Hanter opened his hands wide, and a swirling black-purple goo formed between his claws.
Poison TE is the physical manifestation of decay and rot, it's caustic and toxic, and exists as the anathema to anything alive- there was a reason it had such an outsized effect on Fairy types, who were so in tune with life.
The purple glob shot out like a bullet and splattered on Ursaring's face. She howled and tried to wipe the toxin off as it burnt away at her fur and skin. Meanwhile Haunter's tongue stretched out and licked the side of her face, lapping up the caustic poison like a tasty snack.
The momma bear lunged forward with a Crunch, but Haunter slipped backwards, and she crashed face first into the tree he phased through.
"HAUHAAaHAUhaAUAHAHHAUAHA!"
Haunter's terrifying laugh rang out through the woods, as the Ursaring shook her head and spat out wood splinters from the chunk of tree she had just carved out.
Inspired by proof that the massive bear wasn't actually invincible, one of the Bidoof let out a war cry and charged with a heroic Tackle that bounced off Ursaring's leg with a thunk.
Ursaring brought her mighty claws down with the same move that missed Haunter, and Bidoof2 went squelch.
The other Bidoof began screaming and started running in circles, but Helena didn't react beyond a small frown- she was a Ghost trainer, she lived with death.
"Haunter use Venoshock again, and float up so Ursaring can't reach you with Crunch or Bite."
"Haunt!"
The Ghost type lazily swam into the air, and started pelting the bear like a kid at an arcade machine.
Poisonous shot after shot slammed into the bear, and while each was dangerous in its own right, it was obvious none of them were going to be enough to put the massive hibernator Pokemon down for good.
"RAOOOO!" Ursaring roared in fury, and burning white light began forming in her mouth.
"Haunter, maybe you should mo-"
The skyline lit up as Hyper Beam surged into the sky and completely wiped Haunter out of existence.
He was gone, reduced to atoms by the attack. The only thing left was a few scattered clouds of purple fog.
Ursaring panted heavily after putting so much into that, but she had a bloodthirsty grin on her face after killing one of the invaders.
Then the scattered purple mist swirled back together in clumps, revealing that not only was Haunter completely unaffected by the attack, he was laughing himself hoarse at Ursaring's gobsmacked reaction to his stunt.
He was was laughing so hard that he didn't even notice the massive spear of rock hurtling at him at mach fuck, until the Stone Edge blasted him out of the sky like an anti air missile.
"HAUNTER!"
Helena shouted and ran over to where her baby boy had fallen. The poor guy was slowly floating back to his "feet" and looked like he was half about to pass out at any moment.
"Haunter, you're hurt, return."
The Ghost made noises of protest, but was returned to the Pokeball all the same.
"This Ursaring is wild, she doesn't have a trainer, and doesn't know what Ghost types are immune to. If she's struggling to figure that out, then she'll have an even harder time with you."
Helena pulled her second Pokeball out of her dress and enlarged it in her hand.
"Shedinja!"
-The Dragon King-
Mark slid into the Ursaring's den, like a skater on really bad ice skates. The hole in the ground was pretty big, considering it had to fit something as large as an Ursaring, but he still had to crouch slightly so he didn't bump his head.
At the back of the burrow, huddled in a small bed of leaves, was his prize.
"One, two, three, four Teddiursa, what a haul! I only saw her with three when I passed through the forest last time." Mark whistled in appreciation.
Bidoof3 materialized with a flash of light, and immediately started looking around in panic. Mark ignored him in favor of pulling a bunch of empty Pokeballs out of his new energy wallet that he'd liberated from a Galactic grunt.
The Teddiursa barred their teeth at him threateningly, but when he kept approaching, their nerves immediately broke down and they started wailing for help.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you little guys. I just want to take you to a niiiice new home."
-The Dragon King-
Shedinja's empty husk flew through the air, like a rock on a string, without a single bodily movement. Whenever Ursaring attacked, its form distorted into a dark shadowy blur as its ability Wonder Guard activated, letting everything that came its way pass through as if it never existed.
It was immune to far more attacks than Haunter, and unlike the purple ghost it actually had a decent number of moves that could affect Ursaring in return.
"Again, use Metal Claw!"
Something behind the shell's empty eye's flickered, and the half Halo above it swung out, cutting into brown hide like a bent knife.
Uraring roared, and swiped out again, with yet another useless move.
Then she froze, ignoring everyone else in the clearing, as her ears perked up at a distant sound.
It was the cry of a Teddiursa cub- of her Teddiursa cubs.
Immediately everything else disappeared from her mind, she ignored the attacks, running through Shedinja, and trampling over the remaining Bidoofs to get back to her cubs.
She only stopped a moment at the den to confirm it was empty, with footprints at its entrance and signs of a struggle, before roaring and charging through the forest. She was slow to accelerate thanks to her bulk, but once she got going almost nothing could stop her.
Foliage was trampled into pulp, small trees were knocked over, and any Pokemon in her path had to jump out of her way to avoid getting pulverized.
The cries of her cub was like a homing beacon to her sensitive ears, and in no time at all she had closed the gap.
Ursaring crashed into a clearing with the thunderous roar of a mother wronged, and cut off the kidnapper who dared to touch her litter.
Only, rather than the human she had been expecting, she found a Bidoof.
A single lonely Bidoof, that was cowering up against a log. Its midsection had been wrapped vigorously with duct tape, and the smallest of her cubs was taped to its back, wailing loudly for help.
But there was only one Bidoof, and only one cub.
Where were the rest of her babies!?
With nothing left to do, she descended on the poor Bidoof with a howl of rage that shook the entire forest.
In the complete opposite direction that he'd sent Bidoof off in, Mark grinned like a madman as he booked it back to Oreburgh, now with three newly filled Pokeballs snug on his belt.
-Chapter End-
People are going to disagree with Mark's use of the Bidoof. He obviously views them as oversized hamsters, not youngster Jimmy's bestest friend forever. This is going to kick up the perpetual argument over just how smart all Pokemon really are, both in the comments, and probably in the story later on. Some of them are clearly fully sentient and just as, if not more, intelligent than humans- but how far does that go?
Fortunately, I can just point out a detail and sidestep this issue entirely.
This is not a self insert, I'm not a huge fan of those and will never write them. I am not Mark, Mark is not me. I am the author, and Mark is a character in the story that does not know what I know.
That means he can be wrong. Completely and totally wrong in a way that SI's rarely can be.
I have access to the fandom, the internet, and info on every piece of Pokemon media at a moment's notice. Mark hasn't played the games since his mid to late teens.
He has meta knowledge, the exact same as every other isekai story on this site, but his is out of date, it has holes in it from forgetting things, it's flawed. And that makes it just as much of a massive weakness as it is a huge strength.
Also, he's not a good guy! He's an asshole who only cares about himself, and the people he likes enough to let stick around. This is a Villain story, come on guys, you knew what you were getting into.
And honestly, isn't this a bit refreshing? We've seen the whole "best wholesome trainer" angle hundreds of times over by now, let's see someone who can be ruthless and actually have it pay off for him.
— Novo capítulo em breve — Escreva uma avaliação
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