บท 18: C018 - Fighting a team battle in the wild

"Here boy, have some tea," Isabelle said with a kind smile as she handed Pete a mug with a fragrant green tea.

Pete was still sitting on the hill they had arrived at, a hill with a giant mansion even bigger than the professor's lab on it. He was still a little overwhelmed from the teleport, but Herbert had insisted it was better like that.

One teleport in a day was fine, but if you needed to do several and for the first time, it was better to do them quickly. Like ripping a bandaid off.

Pete had no reference because his story didn't have much teleporting, so he accepted Herbert's excuse if it was one.

Isabelle had also calmed down after trying a bit of Pete's food that Herbert had secretly snatched in a box. And she wasn't an unpleasant person to begin with, so she didn't take it out on Pete.

"Thanks, Isabelle."

Pete cooled down the tea a little with his breath and took a sip. It was a pleasant tea to drink. A little bitter at the start, but sweet at the end. He'd have to ask if he could get the bushes for the tea leaves later.

Isabelle went back to the giant garden on the hill and dragged a chair over. Herbert had hurriedly run down the hill when he was excused. Down the hill was a smaller hill, and behind the hill was what Pete supposed was Violet City. All around them was forest. Even the horizon from the vantage point he was on was nothing but forest.

"Down that hill is the heart of Herbert's company HF&P. Herbert Feelgood and Partners. He has several small gardens and favourable environments to keep the seeds healthy. That hill is actually three pretty large warehouses with different climates that were built into the hill. Their silo doors are on the other side," Isabelle calmly explained as she sat down.

By then, Pete would have been good to go, but Isabelle's pleasant voice and kind gesture of explaining had kept him seated.

"His dad ran a pretty big farm here in Violet City, but before he inherited it, Herbert decided he wanted more. So, in the year before his father wanted to give him the farm, Herbert took his Exeggutor and traveled the world. He eventually brought back seeds from all over the world and me," she gently smiled at the end of the sentence.

Herbert had already told him during the dinner at Elm's place that his petite wife, who was even shorter than he was, was originally from Sinnoh.

"The seeds themselves started selling for more than the grown crops, well if you counted growth, time and labor into it, so Herbert kept up his crazy busy schedule for a long time until HF&P grew to be one of the biggest suppliers of plants, seeds and in some regions even the grown food itself," Isabelle continued.

"He must be crazy rich then, no? Why does he sell seeds on a market all the way in New Bark?"

"You said you were Professor Elm's assistant, right? Well, his first customer buying non-native berries at the exorbitant premium he had tried to sell them at at the time was actually Professor Elm's predecessor Professor Steyox. He's become a lot more business savvy since he managed to woo me and asked me to run the company with him. And except for when he's not in Johto, he's always made time for the New Bark Town market at least every second week. Helps keep him honest he always says," Isabelle narrated with a nostalgic smile.

"That's admirable," Pete mumbled under his breath.

"Hey, Pete! I collected you one seed or sapling of every berry we sell, compliments to the chef if you will. I don't want to guilt trip you, but this comes with hoping you could make some lunch tomorrow," Herbert said as he placed a wooden case and a burlap sack with a few saplings in it in front of the still seated Pete.

"Yeah, I'll gladly accept. But I should probably get going before it's too late to get to the city now," Pete said as he finally stood up.

"What are you saying? Obviously, I'll house my future star model when he is in the city. Look at that giant mansion behind you. We had six kids, and four of them are old enough to live on their own. We have room to spare," Herbert offered, leaving no way to refuse.

"Uh, are you sure? We only just met this morning," Pete awkwardly replied. There was no way people in his old world would just keep offering free lodging left and right. It had stumped Pete even with Professor Elm.

"Vivian vouched for me, no? And you were hired by Elm only a day after meeting him. Clearly, he vouched for you, too," Herbert nonchalantly answered.

After thanking Herbert once more, he still only accepted half of the offer. He used the bathroom and would use the kitchen tomorrow, but he would sleep outside on the edge of the forest. He had promised Blitzle and Ponyta to spend the night in a tent close to them after all.

And the comfort wasn't even lacking to begin with. Tent was fixed by Vivian who sewed the holes shut and Pete had his luxurious sleeping bag. By now, Pete had plenty of chats with Valentino and Elm and knew not to fear Noctowls, so he would sleep much better, too.

Pete was much more relaxed since gaining Elm's backing in general.

He had first thought of everything that could go wrong and then about every consequence lying could bring, and then he feared what he could even do if it all failed. But the best case scenario happened, and he was glad for having met them all like he did.

So after releasing all his pokemon with Herbert's permission, Pete made an impromptu camp at the start of the treeline of the property. Since dinner already happened, he only offered a few treats and asked for two buckets worth of fresh water from Isabelle.

Isabelle herself had called over her three Sunflora and they kind of kidnapped Sunkern for some serious sunflower talk it seemed. Pete hoped his pokemon would gain something from this chance encounter and let him go. The derpy sentient corn did have a bright smile on his face.

When the camp was set up and the sun was about to disappear fully, Pete had asked his pokemon if they wanted to check out the immediate forest for a moment before bed.

Pete did bring his bag with poke gear and an empty one with him in hopes of finding some of the moss he had been eying. Herbert had provided him some sacks that could make sure the moss would survive for a few days inside a bag.

After running in a straight line for almost 30 minutes with most of his smaller pokemon in his hoodie, Pete found his first tree covered in Scarlet Moss. He happily gathered a whole bunch of the needed moss and noticed that the bugs he was thinking about were just about teeming in the moss.

These bugs looked like slightly smaller, chubby cockroaches with thin red shells, and at night, they were slower than even a snail. Pete knew that most bug and flying pokemon absolutely loved eating them.

He had harvested a good chunk of moss from almost 20 trees when Rapidash suddenly turned her head in one direction.

Seeing as the 'prey' had noticed them, three large Mightyena about the size of a tiger growled and stepped closer to their group from behind some trees.

Two Poochyena were following them with similar growling sounds. Pete had thought they would look cute even growling, but these Poochyena looked pretty intidimating despite their size. Having dried blood in the fur around their maws would do that, Pete guessed.

"Guys, get ready for battle. Solosis. Psychic attacks won't do much damage to these guys. Minccino, if you two have to enter the battle, remember what I taught you. Blitzle and Ponyta, stay close so Rapidash can fight without worry," Pete ordered calmly.

If he didn't have Golett as a trump card, Pete might be a bit worried. But Rapidash had proven herself very intidimating on several occasions. If they tried their best not to inflict any status effects on the Mightyena, enabling their Quick Feet ability, Pete thought they could easily drive them away.

"Ponyta, hit Rapidash with an Ember, aim for the tail. Rapidash, if they come closer, prepare Fire Spin but aim away from the trees. We don't want to cause a forest fire," Pete ordered next, trying to activate Rapidash's ability Flash Fire that increases the damage of fire moves after Rapidash was hit with a fire attack.

As the Mightyena stepped closer, one of the attackers took a small Poochyena with him to circle their prey.

"Stay sharp, guys. Solosis, look for some loose rocks you can throw with psychic power to inflict damage. As best as possible, aim for weak spots like the eyes and the throat," Pete whispered next. He could have thought Solosis' order but chose to speak up so the others would hear.

The Minccino, who Pete thought would turn intimidated, instead looked kinda angry.

"Hey Minccinos, if you want to handle that Poochyena, how about one of you uses Helping Hand and the other uses Double Slap. If the Poochyena still stands and your positions are favorable, change up and use the other move. Always get some distance after you got a hit in. The Poochyena line mostly knows melee attacks. I'll let Golett watch over the fight. Solosis, you help out Rapidash," Pete ordered last.

This wasn't the pokemon game where you would get one attack a turn, and the trainer decided it all.

Even in league matches, the pokemon would fight based on training and instinct and only use certain moves when cued in by the trainer. No self-respecting pokemon would wait on their trainer to shout 'dodge' or 'use double-team to avoid the attack' to get away from taking damage. And no battle-hardened pokemon would just wait around in a fight to hear the next attack it was supposed to use.

Once the Mightyena from the back howled loudly, the other two from the front used that as the start of the attack. Clearly, they had hoped everyone of their prey would be distracted by the howl, but that didn't happen.

One of the Mightyena from the front lunged forward, using a rock as a jumpboard, but was instead caught in a devastatingly hot Fire Spin by Rapidash.

The one from the back jumped in too, but suddenly a Golett appeared in front of it and punted it into the ground with a Heavy Slam - a steel type attack that deals more damage the more you weighed compared to the enemy.

And while Mightyena weighed a good amount, he didn't come close an actual mud golem. If it didn't use its ghost influence to lighten its steps, Golett actually weighed a good amount more than Pete. It weighed roughly as much as Rapidash, and Rapidash was a giant compared to Pete.

Seeing the Mightyena from the back slammed into the ground, the two Minccino angrily rushed forward and implemented Pete's strategy to repeatedly attack the Poochyena.

Meanwhile, while the first Mightyena to attack from the front was yowling from inside the Fire Spin, the second Mightyena was about to jump in to attack but was hit in the head with a rapidly spinning stone. Another training method Pete had taught Solosis: applying spin to items and moving them in different directions. Solosis was a natural at that particular move.

Rapidash ran toward the Mightyena stuck inside the Fire Spin and used Headbutt, followed by Stomp to Mightyena's shoulder blade, which took out the first enemy of the battle. Blitzle meanwhile listened to Pete but still attacked from the very back next to their trainer.

It was a short beam from her lightning shaped horn on the head. It took a while for him to think about what move it was, but Pete thought it most likely for the attack to be Charge Beam. It didn't look all too impressive compared to Rapidash's Fire Spin, but it still hit the other Mightyena that Solosis had hit with the rock on the same spot as the psychic pokemon's attack. Right in the head.

The last Poochyena that had stood behind the two Mightyena from the front was gobsmacked. These pokemon from the other side all looked so weak and peaceful, except for the Rapidash. But it turned out they were completely outclassed in every way.

Rapidash strutted over to the other Mightyena that Solosis and Blitzle had attacked and arrogantly used another Stomp to plant it into the ground with an extra broken bone or two.

At the back, Golett had finished off the other Mightyena with a Mega Punch.

And where was Zorua all this time? The Illusion fox had snuck up behind the other Poochyena that the Minccino weren't bullying and used Scratch after Scratch followed by Bite and a Pursuit once Poochyena tried to flee from the battle. Well, Pursuit deals more damage if you were fleeing a battle - rookie move on Poochyena's part.

"Alright, amazing job all around. Come back, everyone. These five attacked us and got what they deserved. There's no reason to be too heavy-handed here. You won't attack us again, right?" Pete first praised his pokemon and then menacingly looked toward the Mightyena who was least damaged.

With a whimper, it nodded so hard it actually hurt its cracked shoulder once more and whimpered even louder.

Pete and his team retreated from the clearing and went back towards Herbert's house. All three Pokemon in his hoodie had their eyes at the back of the team. Zorua, however, was getting carried in Pete's arm. He had received a Scratch and a Tackle in retaliation and was bleeding a little on the left front leg.

Pete had already fed him an Oran berry to promote healing but would still clean the wound once they get back.

And when they came back, it was time for a short battle recap. It wasn't long because Pete was very content with how that fight turned out.