Blazing the Competition - Pokémon SI

Chapter 58 – Scared Straight

The first thing I did after earning myself the Feather badge was to have my Pokémon checked in at the Pokémon center. All of them took a severe walloping during their respective battles especially so in the case of little Orin. After picking up a tray and filling its empty holes with three of my seven poké balls. I walked up to the counter where a younger looking Nurse Joy was waiting for me already anticipating my need for a health professional.

“Excuse me, Nurse Joy?”

“Yes?”

“We just had an intense battle. Could you take care of these three Pokémon?”

“Certainly, they’ll be ready for pickup within the hour. Will that be all?”

“Uhm yeah, I was wondering if a Tranquill and Swellow from Winona’s gym had already arrived? Our gym battle got a bit too intense, and some things might’ve been said that hurt one’s feelings. I just want an opportunity to properly apologize.”

The nurse behind the counter gave me a discerning look before answering the question.

“Any information concerning our patients is protected by our confidentiality clause. But… It is standard policy for our centers to give gym Pokémon priority care. If a trainer let’s say you walked all the way over to one of our locations and back to the gym the travel time alone would probably have been sufficient to have those Pokémon treated and sent back over within that time frame.”

“Thank you nurse Joy!”

“We are going back?”

‘Yes, you know where she is right? Winona already gave us a pass to visit the gym’s rookery. We’ll just go in, praise Swellow’s battling prowess in front of Tranquill and make a head start towards Lilycove City.’

“Already?! What about Flannery and Rena?”

‘Flannery needs to go back to her grandfather’s to help look after all those extra houndour. Her main goals while being our traveling companion have already been achieved. She caught two new Pokémon on her own and now knows what to expect when she debuts as a trainer for next season’s circuit. It’s still early in the morning, if you can teleport us to route 121’s safari zone entrance it’ll only be a four hour walk to Lilycove. When we arrive, we can schedule a gym battle with the city’s minor gym and still be back in time for dinner with your impressive teleportation skills.’

While I was lining out my plans for the day with Victini we made our way back to the Fortree gym. The foot traffic in front of the facility was still massive but since we didn’t have a need to talk with the receptionist this time we just moseyed on through. With Victini staying invisible while giving me directions to the place where we needed to be.

“This is it!”

“You sure? I figured the place where the gym keeps all its Pokémon to have better security measures.”

“Only really strong Pokémon thieves stand a chance at beating the rookery bosses!”

“Who are the rookery bosses?”

“Skarmory and Altaria! They make sure everyone else behaves and they don’t mind visitors. Just go on in!”

With the reassurances coming from Victini I worked up the courage to open the door leading to our destination. I was expecting the Rookery to be a disorganized place with feathers and Pokémon droppings to be strewn all across the floor but contrary to my expectations the place was in pristine condition. With every species of bird Pokémon claiming their own corner of this little paradise. The roof was completely made out of glass and there were multiple exits installed at higher altitudes so that the Pokémon living here could go out whenever they wanted to stretch their wings in the open skies of Fortree City. The various species of Pokémon living here were mostly Hoenn native. Although you could see the odd non native species

The first thing I noticed was the constant chattering between the various kinds of bird Pokémon that lived here. They all seemed to be animatedly discussing various topics.

‘What’s the general vibe?’

“The Pokémon are mostly talking about food, battling and love gossip.”

‘Good, they don’t seem to mind my presence here. Can you lead us to where Tranquill resides?’

“I know this place like the back of my paw!”

My little rabbit Pokémon had to remain invisible so she couldn’t give me visual instructions on which direction to go so instead Victini decided to co-opt the space on top of my cranium and proceed to ratataouille me in the right direction.

I always found the Kalosian Ratata able to puppeteer a human by just pulling strands of hair to be borderline ridiculous, but Victini was able to pull it off, no problems at all. She guided me all the way to the back where I could spot the first glimpse of Tranquill enjoying a light meal while accompanied by the same Swellow we just beat less than an hour ago.

“Tranquill! We’ve come to visit you!”

“Tranq?!”

“Swell!”

“Come on out everyone!”

I released all the Pokémon latched onto my trainer’s belt. Sans Numsy, Orin and Raven who were still receiving treatment at the Pokémon center. Two of them having already faced Tranquill in battle so really only Orin was missing out on this. What I did not expect was our little lightshow drawing the attention of some of the other gym residents.

My entire team gave faint cry’s at the sight of their missing teammate and soon enough the bunch of them huddled around listening in on Tranquill giving a much impassioned speech. Victini translating the more important bits to me in a play by play. While that was happening I was locked in the middle of a stare off with the Swellow who was courting our former team member.

“You know… I came here not just to see how Tranquill was doing. It is also because I felt sorry for being too harsh with my words. You’ve already proven your strength in front of us, Swellow, it’s just that… humans use other criteria for selecting a suitable life partner.”

“Looow?”

“Like what?”

“It varies from person to person but typically it revolves around having matching personalities. In the end It doesn’t matter how shiny or well-kept one’s looks or plumage are if all you do is bicker when together in the same room.”

“Sweeeel!”

I didn’t need Victini’s help to understand that part.

“Alright but just take things slow with her she hasn’t even fully evolved yet. I am not ready to become an uncle yet.”

“Vi!” “Nor me an auntie!”

The sound of the invisible Victini startled Swellow but left the rest of my team and Tranquill unphased having gotten used to having the invisible stalker rabbit’s antics. And also leaving me to have to explain the origins of the disembodied voice to the confused bird.

“Don’t mind her, she's just a Kecleon that I recently caught while staying in this city. Kecleon just loves pulling a fast one on anyone she meets.”

Swellow was giving me that look as if he completely didn’t believe me but didn’t want to make the effort to argue the point.

“You think he’s buying it?”

‘No, but who is he going to tell? Next time try emulating Kecleon a bit better. You don’t sound like a three feet tall reptilian in the slightest.’

I took this moment in time to divide my attention back to my other Pokémon who were just about done listening to Tranquill bragging about her new trainer and living conditions. Especially Halo seemed taken aback by the luxurious lifestyle Tranquill had been enjoying while living at the gym.

‘This is dangerous… one more tall tale about Tranquill’s personal groomer and the communal gym chefs and she might instigate a rebellion.’

“What a wonderful tale Tranquill! Too bad none of us are flying types. Let this be a lesson to us all that with hardwork and dedication we too might get to enjoy such benefits one day. I bet you Tranquill has to work extra hard now that she’s a gym Pokémon way harder than being on a regular team, right?”

“Quill!”

Halo’s excitability simmered down after hearing Tranquill’s eager affirmation. The rest of the team not really caring overly much about living in opulence to begin with.

‘Phew! Crisis averted.’

Half an hour later*

Visiting the gym to catch up with Tranquill was a pleasant affair. Seeing her brimming with positive vibes assured me that I made the right move by contacting the Fortree City gym and having Winona adopt her. Staying for longer proved to be an impossibility due to Halo’s instincts as a bug type kicking in. Somehow being near dozens of bird Pokémon whom she has never met before gave her a near panic attack. Necessitating me to call our short visit to a close. Halo tried her best to suppress her constant twitching each time the shadow cast by a flying type Pokémon passed over us but couldn’t quite cover up her discomfort. She was completely fine with Tranquill partly due to the fact that the two of them have known each other since her hatching day. Which was probably what allowed her to conquer that instinctual fear, but that same closeness did not extend to other flying types in the rookery.

So, after recalling most of my team, me and Victini said our goodbyes to Swellow and Tranquill and made our way back to the Pokémon center where nurse Joy dutifully handed over the rest of my team after which we looked for an inconspicuous location to teleport away from.

“Right around here will do. Unless you want to go all the way back to the Kecleon shop?”

Victini did not even bother to answer my enquiry before grabbing me by the scruff and teleporting us all the way to our destination. As usual teleportation was so fast my senses didn’t even register the transition before, I found myself back in familiar territory right outside the entrance to the safari zone. Usually, I would take the time to go say hello old man Jack, but I knew we were short on time. We had to get back to Rena and the others in time for dinner or else they’d needlessly worry. The latter half of route 121 was filled with tall grass and some of it would grow tall enough to come up to my shoulders. As such I resolved to keep at least one of my Pokémon out at all times this time that being Raven. Her powerful nose would sense any approaching wild Pokémon long before our eyes could.

“Thanks again girl. Once we reach the halfway point and stop for our lunchbreak you’ll be getting an extra berry.”

“Arf!”

I quite enjoyed navigating the route with Raven by my side. She made for excellent company unlike my other canine companion. This one didn’t mind if I messed up her fur with spontaneous pats and cuddles. Although her coat wasn’t as luxuriant as Rena’s being short matted and covered in bonelike spurs, just the extra enthusiasm made up for a great deal of these shortcomings. We just continued on walking until we came across an open clearing with a large tree planted in the middle. The tree didn’t bear any kind of fruits so it shouldn’t have been claimed by any of the more territorial Pokémon living in these parts perfect for use as a picnic spot. The first thing I decided to do was to release all my Pokémon and leave them to do their own thing as I started prepping their lunches. I’ve become quite adept at activating the release mechanisms in one motion opening each of their respective balls foregoing the need to unlatch them from my belt.

“Rupt!” “Lit!” “Vess!” “Nitan!”

“Okay guys, it’s nearing lunch time! You can go out and play while me and Glove take care of all the food prepping.”

Over the course of my journey I’ve come to learn that Glove was quite adept at following simple cooking instructions. It all started back in Lavaridge when I was cooking up Halo’s first meal after getting the go ahead from Nurse Mary that it was safe for her to start eating solid food. Being a trained guard palace he insisted on overseeing the cooking process to make sure no one poisoned Halo’s meals. According to Glove this was standard procedure for personal guard Pokémon. Not seeing the harm in it I let him watch me. This eventually turned into him being my go to guy when it comes to food preparation. In hindsight, him being the only Pokémon on the team with opposable thumbs automatically made him the best at handling all the kitchen utensils. Although I did insist on being the only one handling the kitchen knife.

Victini brought out my deck of playing cards and insisted on engaging in a round of Blitz with the rest of the group. They had worked out a new system where the little rabbit would use her psychic powers to hold the card for the Pokémon in the team who didn’t have the required number of digits to hold the cards in front of them. Which was a blessing because I was tired of buying a new set of cards each time the previous cards got worn out by being drenched in Pokémon saliva.

So, while I was busy cutting up our berry supply, Glove was helping out by weighing the dry stuff and giving correct portion sizes to each member of the team. It didn’t take long to have all their bowls lined up and filled with food and while I was at it sneakily putting one extra diced oran berry in Raven’s bowl without the rest of the team’s foreknowledge. Although Victini did give me the evil eye after I finished doing so, likely having noticed my sleight of hand with her psychic senses.

“Ah this is nice… no spectral tricksters just the team and the open road.”

Most of my team were basking in the afterglow of their well deserved meal when suddenly we could hear the sound of lightning, coming out from the open ocean, followed up by a sudden change in wind direction.

‘It’ll probably be best if we get out of here before the storm hits.’

I was about to pack up my stuff when Raven, who had also been awakened by the sudden noise, started growling threateningly in the direction of a nearby shrubbery.

“What is it girl?”

“Ruff Ruff!”

“She says there’s a stalker hiding in the bushes.”

“A Pokémon, right?”

“Arf!”

“No, it smells like a human.”

I felt a pang of fear emanating from the back of my head. Victini had quite openly been enjoying her lunch time meal with us, not to mention all the time spent playing card games with the rest of the team. If this was just a regular trainer traveling the routes he or she would have come out by now to exchange greetings. The fact that this person didn’t do so probably meant something more nefarious was going on.

‘Tini, can you turn invisible and drag this person out in the open?’

“On it!”

She was the best person for the job being the only one of us able to stealthily ambush and grab a hold of this personage without being noticed or stopped. I’ve some personal experience in that regard Victini’s telekinetic abilities are such that it was almost impossible to get loose once you are in range of her. In order to calm down my growling Houndour I whispered in her ears our plan of approach.

“Victini’s on the case. Let’s just casually walk near the bushes without rousing our stalker’s suspicion.”

Raven and myself slowly got closer to the edge of the clearing but before we had the chance to look behind the bushes Victini already informed me of the stalker’s current status.

“Vi! VI!” “They’re gone!”

Hearing her talking out loud like that both me and Raven sped forward already aware at what we were going to find behind those bushes. Once we got past that shrubbery what awaited us there was absolute zilch aside from the obvious hiking boot indents embedded onto the ground there were no signs of our supposed stalker.

“Arf!”

“Can you still find them girl?”

Raven studiously sniffed the tracks that were left behind before doing a quick turn around and conveying her findings.

“Ruff!”

“She says there is only one scent trail, an older one leading to this bush but there is no new one leaving it.”

“Teleportation, Raven’s growl must have alerted them.”

“Vi?” “Is this bad?”

“These are most likely professionals if the wind current’s direction hadn’t suddenly changed due to the incoming storm, we might have never noticed them at all. Whichever group hired this person to suss you out will now have photographic evidence of your existence.”

“Vi! Vi!” “I don’t want to go back into hiding!”

“You don’t pay private investigators to shadow a rookie trainer without having credible knowledge of an objective. Whoever did this already knew that you existed and just wanted confirmation. That leaves out the typical seedy organizations like poaching rings and insurgency groups. The organization that hired this fellow probably just wants to keep tabs on you.

“Vi… Vi?” “So… we’re safe?”

“I don’t know… you think somebody we know blabbed?”

“Vi! Vi!” “I don’t believe it! All those humans are my friends! Except maybe… that crazy old hermit?”

“Yeah, that old man was pretty suspicious but… it doesn’t seem like he would benefit from tattling on us. The guy lives off route in the woods all the way over in Unova. If he wanted money or fame there are a number of other ways he could get those, especially with his particular abilities.”

“Some random passerby might have just gotten lucky at spotting you and shared that information with his coworkers at the watercooler. In any case pointing fingers will get us nowhere.”

Lilycove City*

We finally made it to Lilycove city. After getting scared by our secret stalker, I made it a point to hurry on along the way. Even though there wasn’t any immediate danger of Victini and I getting ambushed by Pokémon thieves, the encounter did leave me fearful for the future. This wasn’t some motion picture where the bad guys get beat by rookie trainers. If they wanted to steal from you they’d come in force. It didn't matter how powerful the Pokémon they sought to capture was when they could just wear it down in a battle of attrition. Escaping via teleportation wasn’t a sure bet either, any poacher worth their salt looking to capture a valuable psychic type Pokémon would have a partner Pokémon with them capable of using the move Mean Look which prevented their quarry from fleeing.

The sight of the city somewhat calmed my nerves even the most hardened poachers wouldn’t dare operate inside the confines of civilized society. People and Pokémon littered the streets. Lilycove City was a major tourist destination because of the litany of contests being held here. The contest hall in this city is the place where all the top coordinators gather to compete against each other. Tourists looking to experience Hoenn’s contest scene all flocked to this city to come see the best of the best.

“Now remember we just need to make an appointment with the gym leader and then it’s straight back to Rena and the others.”

“Nitan!” “Vess!”

It was around halfway into the afternoon which meant we had a couple of hours until we were expected to come back to Phoebe’s family castle. Halo and Glove were both out of their balls experiencing the urban landscape with me. Halo was especially excited since I promised to her that we would schedule a battle for her as well. One of the many duties of a gym trainer was to have practice battles with novice trainers. Halo had matured enough that I was comfortable having her battle first badge level Pokémon. Especially since this gym specialized in grass type Pokémon.

Walking around with the two of them was a bit slow going but I came prepared. Glove now had a pair of adult sized mittens on to avoid chafing his hands on concrete. Halo on the other hand was not hitching a ride with me; she had grown large enough that doing so would have me huffing and puffing all the way to the gym. She was miffed because I forbid her from riding on Numsy’s back but large cities like this one had rules concerning the number of Pokémon trainers could have out at any one time and whenever Halo’s out and about Glove insists on being her plus one for bodyguarding reasons.

We asked random strangers on the street for information on the gym’s whereabouts. Strangely enough most people living here had no knowledge whatsoever about the minor gym representing the city until finally a nice lady told us that the gym was right next to the giant lighthouse near Lilycove’s commercial beaches. I could’ve looked it up beforehand but exploring new places is half the fun of being a trainer on the circuit. The city was fairly large, so it took us about an hour to get to the place we were looking for. Halo being the least athletic of all my Pokémon started complaining halfway through but I reminded her that being able to cross long distances on her own was basically a requisite of being a trainer’s Pokémon.

The gym wasn’t any sort of traditional building instead being a large greenhouse filled with all sorts of flora. The plants near the glass walls grew thick enough that it was impossible to see through and the only way inside was through the main entrance. Most gyms had opening hours where visitors could just show up unannounced to come see matches or book an appointment so without thinking overly long about it I tried to open the main door but found out that it was currently locked. Being left with no other alternatives I rapped my knuckles across the glass door hoping that would get the attention of those inside.

After a hot minute we could hear the locking mechanism on the door being turned before the door was pushed slightly ajar. Unlike my expectations the one who opened the door was not a gym trainer or the leader but a frisky looking sceptile.

“Tile?”

“Uhm sorry for the disturbance. My name is Egon from Lavaridge town, and I was looking to book an appointment with the leader for a sixth level gym battle. This is the Lilycove city gym, correct?”

Having elucidated our purpose for coming here the sceptile eased up a bit now fully opening the main gate.

“Tile Tile!”

“He says that his trainer closed up early for the day and is now out enjoying herself at the contest hall.”

‘The contest hall… that place is massive. We’d never be able to find the gym leader in those huge crowds. Pokémon typically don’t involve themselves with administrative duties but maybe…’

“Are there any Pokémon here capable of taking a reservation?”

“Scep Tile.”

“He says to follow him to the computer.”

‘Wow this Sceptile sure is talented. The gym leader must thank her lucky Jirachi every day for having this hard of a worker helping out.’

“Glove is it okay if I recall you for this? A large fire type such as yourself would probably scare some of the grass types living inside.”

“Nitan…”

Glove gave me his assent although somewhat begrudgingly. So I returned him to his poké ball. I figured Halo could stay out because of her being a bug type. Thus far she’s only experienced what’s it like to traverse open fields and swamps. Being allowed inside a tropical paradise like this would probably make for a positive experience.

I gingerly followed the large bipedal tree lizard inside. Eager to get this done with but also kind of curious what the inside of the greenhouse looked like. I could immediately spot all kinds of different grass type Pokémon frolicking around. The quantity of Pokémon wasn’t anything close to that of a major league gym but was still a respectable number. I saw multiple seedot clamped onto the branches of berry trees dozing off happily. Seedot didn’t really do much to promote a tree’s growth but some people couldn’t get enough of the little tykes. Seedot only clamped onto trees that were in pristine condition so farmers used them as an indicator to discover which of their berry trees were diseased or damaged.

While Sceptile was leading us all the way to the back of the greenhouse. I was distracted by all the different kinds of Pokémon. The gym was home to all of the native Hoenn grass types, but I could spot a few exceptions. Mainly a lone Bellossom who was practicing her dance moves while a group of energetic budew watched on trying to emulate the flower Pokémon. Eventually we got to the computer in question. The machine was wrapped in plastics probably designed to protect the pc from suffering water damage from the sprinkler system. Sceptile managed to turn on the computer and clicked open a registry file before pointedly asking me a question.

“Tile?”

“He wants to know if next week Thursday in the afternoon is okay with you.”

‘If Rena keeps up her training schedule that should work out perfectly.’

“Yes, and could you also schedule a single battle versus one for the youngest on my team on the same day? That will be Halo’s debut battle. Isn’t that right princess?”

“…Tile?”

“…”

I quickly spun around, not seeing the team’s baby almost gave me a silent heart attack. Somehow while Sceptile was leading us to get registered the little bug type must have wandered off.

“Can we go get her?”

Sceptile let out a sigh of exasperation tapped the keyboard a couple of times to confirm our reservation before shutting down the PC and taking us with him on what I would have expected to become a wild Swanna chase. However, it didn’t take long at all before Sceptile found our derelict and wayward Pokémon. Sceptiles were known for being expert trackers and his sharp eyes easily followed the trail of small indents my little bug type while she was off doing who knows what.

“Vess! Vess!”

We found the little tyke at the base of a mago berry tree wrapped up and in the process of being carried aloft by an upset looking Tangela. The horns on her crowning her head set ablaze by the indignity of being manhandled like a peasant. It didn’t take an alakazam to figure out what happened.

“No! Bad! Sceptile has graciously allowed us to come inside as guests. Running off on your own just because you smelled something delicious is not how someone descended from royalty would behave.”

Over time I had realized that in order to discourage vagrant behavior the best tool in my socialization kit was to equate bad actions to oafish or peasant-like character development. Halo had this innate drive to be aloof or somehow more distinguished than your regular everyday Pokémon. Naturally my admonishing words caused her unjustified anger to quickly melt away to be replaced by a more demure attitude.

“Laaar…”

“It’s okay as long as you apologize for what you’ve done. Say sorry to the nice Mr. Sceptile.”

In the end we were escorted outside with no hard feelings. The older Pokémon was understanding of my plight as a newly appointed stepdad. In fact, Sceptile even shared some stories on how his kids got into all sorts of trouble back when they had just hatched from their eggs.

Victini was oddly quiet while all of this was happening but as we moved away from the gym, I couldn’t help but notice traces of pink berry juices all over her mouth.

‘This little…!’