Chapter 11: V1 Side Story – Pancham (I)

A parent Pokemon’s job is a tough one. They have to teach their children how to be independent in an extraordinarily short time frame because no one knows what could happen tomorrow. Maybe a young Pokemon gets caught by a Trainer, or perhaps they want to set off on their own journey of self-discovery. There are cases where one of these young Pokemon suddenly find a mate and leave home to start their own family. An evil team like Team Rocket could decide to take powerful Pokemon for themselves, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Thankfully these creatures known as Pokemon mature much faster than humans. It takes two decades to teach a human to live without support, but it can take mere months for a Pokemon to be ready to leave home. Because of that, Pancham’s story is as common as finding a bug-type Pokemon in a forest. Pancham didn’t have much time to learn.

Not too long ago, a student of Professor Rowan’s volunteered to temporarily work at Professor Oak’s laboratory in Pallet Town to fill in for a fellow aid who was on maternity leave. Rowan’s student brought his Pokemon along for the job, and amongst his Pokemon were two Pangoro. During their stay at Oak’s research facility the two Pangoro ended up having a child together, a male Pancham who quickly began mimicking his father’s cheeky nature.

The little Pancham learned fast as he figured out how to use Dual Chop, a relatively strong dragon-type move, from his mother. At first he was surprised when green energy suddenly enveloped his hands, but he quickly grew used to it. Wanting to test out this cool new move it’d learnt, Pancham rushed off East into the wild and started battling any small Pokemon he came across. His targets consisted of any weak grass or bug Pokemon in the forest, from Caterpie and Weedle to Leydba and Cottonee.

Satisfied with its test of strength, Pancham called it a day and began walking home. Back to Oak’s laboratory. But it was only born a week ago and had yet to gather its bearings and understand how to keep track of landmarks. To put it simply, Pancham was directionally challenged. He didn’t know what the four cardinal directions were. He hadn’t been taught how the sun rose from the East and set to the West. If Pancham had known this he would’ve followed after the setting sun in order to return to his parents, but he wasted too much time running around in circles. Before he knew it the sun had vanished behind the horizon, leaving Pancham to fend for himself in an unknown location.

As Pancham curled up into a ball, he couldn’t help but think about the warmth he’d feel from his mother as he fell asleep in her lap. But out here in this alien territory, there was no sleep to be had. Pancham was too on edge. 

Eventually light pierced through the canopy of leaves, allowing Pancham to see again. He immediately began rummaging around small bushes in search of food, eventually having some blue Oran and yellow Sitrus berries dropped onto him from above. A fluffy Pokemon coloured every shade of grey puffed its cheeks out as it looked at the food it’d accidentally let go of. When Pancham’s eyes met the Pokemon’s, it ran off along interconnected branches. In a matter of seconds that Pokemon had left Pancham’s vision, but the young Playful Pokemon still called out his thanks. 

Not wanting to go hungry, Pancham ate everything lying before him. Perhaps it was because of how hungry he was, but Pancham was surprised by how good these berries tasted. They invigorated him, making him ready to attempt to get home once more.

Some days later, Pancham finally did it. He’d finally stumbled his way back home. But his parents were nowhere to be found. During Pancham’s unintended outing, Rowan’s student had finished working for Oak and had gone back home to Sinnoh, taking Pancham’s parents back with him.

At first Pancham was upset, crying over the fact that he’d been left behind. There was no way his parents would allow such a thing to happen. Eventually the young Pokemon’s emotions turned to anger and he rushed back into the forest, taking his rage out on any Pokemon unlucky enough to be in his way. Before he was able to tire himself out, a large, wicked Pokemon with white hair travelling down its back and leaves for hands stepped in to put a stop to Pancham’s outburst.

Hurt and disheartened, Pancham simply wandered about the forest with no clue of what to do. He was free to do as he pleased, but that was the problem. There was nothing to do. Pancham was abandoned in a foreign land and left to fend for himself. With no plan, this now lonely Pokemon just walked wherever his feet took him, picking fights with other Pokemon whenever he felt like it. He would get into fights over the most petty things, too. Food was in abundance in this forest, but despite that Pancham would battle other Pokemon over edibles for the sake of battling. It was the one and only thing he knew.

As time passed, the other Pokemon in the forest began to avoid Pancham. He was seen as an angry lunatic that hurt others just for the sake of hurting them. He was a bully. The reason for Pancham’s actions, his constant expression of combat skill, was because it was all he had. He clung onto his ability to fight because there was nothing else in his life. He just wanted this one and only thing in his life to go well, so he fought anyone he could to prove to himself that the endless effort he poured into his combat prowess wasn’t for nothing.

But then along came a Trainer and his Cyndaquil. They beat Pancham. The battle junkie constantly exerting his power against the forest dwellers had been bested by someone. At that moment it was like some sense had been knocked into the young Pokemon. Pancham knew it wanted to be stronger. Stronger than anyone else. He wanted to grow into a powerful Pangoro and rematch this Cyndaquil when it, too, had grown into a stronger Pokemon. Pancham had just been fighting for the sake of fighting. There was no valid reason behind his actions. But just before he lost against the Fire Mouse, he saw it. He saw what he wanted to become. He was wasting time in this forest, achieving nothing in particular, but now he understood what he wanted and could work towards his very clear goal. He would become strong. The strongest to ever exist.

The next day, Pancham set off North. By some coincidence he began travelling at the same time as Cyndaquil’s Trainer and so came across the young man early that morning. Somewhat embarrassed by the thought of being seen by the person who beat him, Pancham hung back a little and tried to go a different way, although was somewhat curious about Cyndaquil’s Trainer so stayed within range to see him occasionally. Pancham wanted to know if there was anything special about a Pokemon battling under a human’s command.

This didn’t last long, however. Ten minutes after the young Playful Pokemon began stalking the human, Pancham felt the hairs on his back stand up. He instinctively spun around to see why he was so fearful, to which he was greeted by a shadow three times his size. Red eyes felt like they pierced Pancham’s entire body and those large, pearly white teeth made the Playful Pokemon feel like he was about to be eaten.

What was it? A ghost-type? In that case Dual Chop should work fine. Pancham’s fists turned green as he lunged at the shadow, which melted into the ground and popped up behind the Playful Pokemon. Three pure black arms stretched out towards Pancham, followed by the main body charging in. A voice screamed inside Pancham’s head that this was a powerful move and that he should run away. But if he wasn’t going to stand and fight now when he’d just started his journey, then when would he? So Pancham used Dual Chop to swat those three pure black arms away. As the shadow’s main body closed in to attack, its glaring red eyes warped slightly, surprised by Pancham’s strength. A fist struck the shadow’s torso, but forget being injured by the attack. The shadow didn’t even seem to feel it.

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In response, the shadow vanished into its surroundings again and appeared behind Pancham, striking him up into the air with a shadowy claw. With just one attack Pancham was out of the fight, but the shadow wasn’t done. It used a move to make Pancham feel drowsy, and then, in the next moment, those bright white teeth split apart and swallowed Pancham whole.

Hours later, after waking up from a black abyss, Pancham was startled to find the shadow still looming over him. And his surprise deepened when the shadow began apologising. Apparently it’d been a while since it’d had the chance to fight, so the shadow had forgotten how strong it was and went a little too far. Shadow Claw was more than enough, but the shadow had gone the extra mile and used Hypnosis and Dream Eater too. To make up for its mistake it not only watched over Pancham to ensure the Pokemon would be okay, but went and collected food and water for when the little Pokemon woke up.

Pancham wasn’t granted a full explanation for what was going on, but the shadow briefly thought Pancham was stalking a certain young man. Believing Pancham to be a threat, the shadow attacked. Although the shadow became secretive from this point onwards and refused to elaborate any further, Pancham could at least piece together that the shadow was following Cyndaquil's Trainer. Pancham would’ve preferred to hear the full story in regards to why this shadow Pokemon was here, but he let it go because the shadow went out of its way to change the subject, and fortunately for it the chosen subject was the correct one. 

It was surprised and impressed by Pancham’s will to fight. While it emphasised the point that Pancham was still weak, the shadow made sure Pancham understood it could be extremely strong in the future. Pancham just needed to carry on down this path of constantly growing and he would become a force to be reckoned with. There was no doubt in the shadow’s mind.

Seeing an opportunity to progress his training at a rapid pace, Pancham asked the shadow if they could work together. If Pancham was going to be strong, it made sense to learn from the most powerful Pokemon he’d encountered in his life. Whatever this shadow was, it was strong. It was the perfect being to learn from.

While the shadow accepted it was strong, it seemed to dislike the idea of taking on an apprentice at first. It had a job to do and didn’t want to be slowed down by Pancham. But after some pleading from the Playful Pokemon, the shadow agreed that having some help would be a welcome change in its life. It had worked alone for many years at this point and wanted company, whether the company was a human or fellow Pokemon. But if Pancham couldn’t keep up then the shadow would have to go on ahead. It had a job to follow through on no matter what.

Boss, as Pancham took to calling the shadow, explained a little more of what it was doing. In its own words, Boss was a guardian angel. A hero. Boss tried its best to get this point across to Pancham, the idea that people and Pokemon needed a reason to fight. For many it was protecting what they cared about, and that desire to do the right thing fueled people’s and Pokemon’s ever-growing strength. Pancham didn’t personally care for this idea of heroics and remained sceptical of the whole thing. He felt no desire to help others. However, Pancham’s and Boss’ beliefs did crossover on one specific point, and that shared belief would allow them to work together moving forward. Boss said good Pokemon need to be strong to fight off threats. All Pancham wanted to do was grow powerful and enjoy battles, and it seemed like getting involved in a conflict would be a good way to test himself. If that involved playing the role of hero then so be it. He would rather be forced to be a good Pokemon than to be punished for being a bad Pokemon. 

With the two of them in agreement on the end goal of getting stronger, albeit for different reasons, Boss began teaching Pancham and watching over the young Pokemon train. The Playful Pokemon was quick to learn, picking up Shadow Punch from Boss within a few days and then marching off to battle stronger opponents.

First, Pancham fought a Luxio in the forest North of Pallet Town. The Playful Pokemon had seen a Shinx or two before, so at just a quick glance he understood he was dealing with the evolved form of a Shinx. A quadruped with a mix of short blue fur and long, messy black fur glared at Pancham as they squared off against each other.

Even with multiple disadvantages, the Playful Pokemon came out on top via brute force. He didn’t know the surroundings like Luxio did. He wasn’t as strong as Luxio in terms of raw strength. And yet he managed to win. In this fight that Pancham barely won, he learnt Agility. This allowed him to constantly dart around the trees and confuse Luxio. In response, Luxio used Thunderbolt and launched yellow electricity everywhere, hitting Pancham once or twice. Even though he’d been hit, Pancham managed to rush in to strike Luxio, back off behind the trees, then come in at a different angle to attack again. This back and forth of electricity being fired at the swift Pancham, who in return used his speed to get an attack or two in before retreating, continued until only one of them remained standing. And he was barely able to remain standing at that. 

A win is a win, but Boss claimed Pancham was too reckless and relied on a fighting style that could easily result in defeat. He needed to think more. Be more strategic. So next Pancham picked a fight with a Swadloon, a yellow Pokemon surrounded by green leaves, and he attempted to take his time and plan things out in his head. Because of this change to the way he fought, Pancham lost in spectacular fashion, not landing a single hit against his foe. Swadloon was fast to react, managing to put up a hexagonal, see-through shield with Protect just before Pancham could hit it. Then it would strike back with ranged moves like Razor Leaf, which was Pancham’s major weakness. If there was one thing he struggled against, it was ranged attacks. Pancham relied too heavily on close quarters combat.

Having gone from one extreme to the other, Boss now had to explain to Pancham that thinking about how to fight didn’t mean stopping to think. There was usually no time to stop and think during a fight. Pancham had to try to see multiple steps ahead while also being on the move and fighting back. It was tough, but it was what Boss considered to be the best way to win a fight.

With this new knowledge installed in his mind, the Playful Pokemon entered a third fight. This time his opponent was a Palpitoad near a river, with Pancham picking this opponent because it looked funny with its bulbous blue body and tiny feet. From the very beginning Pancham felt much better about this battle compared to his previous failure against Swadloon. This time he kept himself moving no matter what, drawing his opponent’s attacks out to get a better idea of what he was up against. Once Pancham was certain he’d seen everything Palpitoad could do, he fought back while taking into account how Palpitoad could respond. Pancham would strike Mud Bomb away and rush in with an attack, then back off from any physical attacks like Rock Smash which involved a thick, tough tail being swung in his direction. Eventually the young Pancham managed to defeat his opponent, making his score two wins and one loss. He was certainly happy with this outcome because this was the battle he’d taken the least amount of damage in. His training was already paying off big time.

Boss was impressed with Pancham’s ability to adapt during a fight, saying once again how the little Playful Pokemon could be quite the force to be reckoned with if this continued. With both Pancham and Boss happy with the progress they’d made, they carried on with Boss’ job which involved looking over the man with the Cyndaquil, for some reason.

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