Chapter 9: V1 C8 – Constant Runaway

It was finally time. Time to move on from Johto and explore a new land. New to Joe, at least. The ferry finally docked at New Bark Town roughly a week after Raikou and Ho-Oh appeared. During his downtime, Joe had managed to experience most of what New Bark had to offer, from an eating competition to a theatre play about an old romance story. Absol gave her odd Trainer the usual side-eye as he sat there bawling his eyes out all while Rotom helped by passing tissues to him.

Once aboard the mini-cruise ship, Joe found himself having quite a bit of fun with the various forms of entertainment to take part in. From a casino that he barely profited from to a cinema showing some of his favourite movies. There was even a swimming pool on the front deck and a Pokemon battle arena towards the back of the ship. Joe would’ve participated in a few fights here and there, but everyone was using strong Pokemon like Blaziken and Togekiss. Joe could have used Absol, but he wanted to use his other Pokemon at this point. Especially because both Shinx and Ralts had yet to enter battle under Joe’s command.

He eventually grew bored of watching movies and the same Pokemon fighting endlessly, so he decided to get off the ship as soon as possible. Joe originally thought he would stay aboard until Vermillion City, but since he had already run out of activities to enjoy Joe figured he might as well disembark at Pallet Town. Considering he would’ve ended up in Pallet Town if he’d made it down the other side of Mt. Silver, Joe didn’t really see it as an issue. He was simply going where he would’ve ended up in the first place.

After four days on a ship, Joe hopped off at the first stop and looked West as he walked down the gangway. While it wasn’t how he wanted to achieve his goal, he was now on the other side of Mt. Silver. He was finally in a new region. But then he looked forward once his feet were on solid ground and was struck with a strange sensation. For a brief moment he felt like he’d been here before, like he’d seen this exact scene before. The buildings of Pallet Town off in the distance, Mt. Silver out the corner of his left eye and a laboratory on a hill to his right. When the person behind Joe gave the young man a little nudge while asking if he was okay, Joe snapped out of his trance and apologised while moving aside. Joe was certain he’d never been to Kanto before, so why did this seem familiar? Did he forget coming here as a child?

Joe pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind. He’d think about it later. For now there were a few things he wanted to do around town. First he walked right until the ferry was no longer in his way, as he was a fan of the view south of Pallet Town. Grabbing his floating phone, Joe loaded the camera app and lined up a shot of a far away mountain. To be precise, it was a volcano. Joe thought it looked good, a brown mound of earth tinted red towering up from the blue sea and into the equally blue sky. He’d caught a glimpse of the volcano not long before the cruise ship docked and decided to wait until he was on solid ground. He didn’t want to be about to take a picture, only for the ship to crash into a wave and throw him off balance, resulting in a blurry photograph.

“Hey Rotom, the next city over is Viridian, right? How long will it take to walk there?” Satisfied with the picture he’d taken, Joe asked the Pokemon calling his phone home a quick question as he let it go so it could float again.

During his boredom aboard the ship, Joe thought about his main method of travel moving forward. There was at least one major road leading from one settlement to another, so if he was in a rush to get somewhere, like perhaps he’d accepted a job that was in another town, he was able to hop on a bus and get to his destination in a reasonable amount of time. Despite public transport making travel easier, Joe decided he wanted to walk everywhere. Many regions were overflowing with wilderness, and there were countless nature trails to walk. It was easy to get from one location to another by just walking.

“Roughly a couple of weeks. I haven’t been able to observe you enough to give an accurate personal time, but the average seems to be two weeks.” The synthetic voice said through the phone’s speaker.

“First stop is an outdoors shop then.”

Everything he’d lost on Mt. Silver was now necessary again. A sizable backpack, tent, sleeping bag, canteen, spare clothes, tools and utensils. The list went on. What a huge waste of money the first backpack of equipment had been. But then again, dropping his gear may have been what saved him. So with his gripe about wasting money settled, Joe walked into the nearest store specialising in outdoor activities and bought everything he needed, then he pawned off his little over-the-shoulder bag to a shop that bought just about anything from customers. He got some basic preserved foods from a supermarket and, wanting his shopping excursion to end, Joe entered a clothes store and simply bought the first clothing items he saw. He left with a bundle of bland one-tone shirts and denim jeans.

“Now then…” Joe spoke to himself in a quiet voice after adjusting the straps on his new backpack. It may be past midday, but it was finally time to set off. Joe didn’t have to worry about reaching a rest stop by a certain time. With a tent he could stop wherever he wanted.

Setting off North through Pallet Town’s streets, Joe ordered Rotom to keep an eye on the Jobs app he’d gotten from Looker. At first he thought receiving an update every hour or so would be fine, but when Rotom said it was a background task that required no extra effort on its part, Joe told the Pokemon to refresh the app every minute. That way it was impossible to miss someone who required assistance. When asked about the range, Joe estimated a fifteen mile radius would be more than enough. He could rush off in any direction and be there within a few hours at that point. But he did make sure Rotom understood to be lenient. If there was a request fifteen and half miles away, Joe would accept that too.

Just as his conversation with Rotom ended, Joe crossed a street and encountered a young boy crying, his mother trying to calm him down.

“I want my Pokemon, Mom!” He cried, rubbing his eye with the back of one hand as his mother crouched down beside him and held his other hand.

“It’ll come back eventually, sweetie. It always does. Let's go home for now, okay?”

The young boy clearly didn’t like this answer. He pulled his hand from his mother’s loose grip, but he obviously wasn’t expected to get free so he immediately stumbled and fell backwards. Luckily this was happening on the side of Joe that Absol walked on, so the boy collided with the Disaster Pokemon’s soft white fur. He was unhurt.

“You all right, kid?” Joe asked, even though he’d heard everything so knew the child was not happy.

He looked up at Joe and began crying harder, burying his face in Absol’s fur and wiping snot all over her. Joe had to force himself not to laugh, thinking he’d have to get Absol cleaned in some river or lake once they were out of town. His Pokemon was most definitely not happy with the current situation as she looked to Joe for some sort of support, to which he ignored her and let the kid hug her.

Joe attempted to figure out what the young boy was saying but his voice was muffled due to Absol’s thick fur, so instead his mom stepped in. “I’m sorry to bother you, his Pokemon ran away and he’s upset about it.”

“Sounds like it happens regularly.”

The woman sighed and brushed her brunette hair behind an ear. “Right, it's an impatient Pokemon, it wants to battle all the time. Professor Oak was kind enough to give Andy a Pokemon early. It was a gift for his eighth Birthday. But I’m not letting my son leave home yet, he’s too young.”

“Does it go anywhere in particular?” Joe asked. He figured if it was after a battle it would bother people around town that have Pokemon or it would go to the outskirts to pick a fight with a wild Pokemon. Maybe it had an easy time finding a fight somewhere specific so it headed there often.

Somewhat surprised by the question, the woman quickly picked up on Joe’s intentions. “Oh no, I can’t ask you to get it back for us. It’ll come back home when it wants to, you don’t have to trouble yourself.”

“It’s not a problem, I was just going to hang around Pallet Town all day anyway. Do some training here and there with my Pokemon.” Of course that was a lie, but she didn’t need to know that. Joe wasn’t going to tell a grown adult he was all about helping others. It was one of those topics that was embarrassing to mention to a normal person.

“Well if you’re sure…” The mother was reluctant but continued. “It’s a Squirtle, and it usually heads that way to a nearby forest.”

Once he’d comforted the young boy and declared his intention to bring the Squirtle back home, Joe set off East to where the woman had pointed. He soon arrived on Pallet Town’s outskirts and, seeing as it was a nice day and Joe needed some help, he let all his Pokemon out of their Pokeballs. Ralts sat on his shoulder, Shinx pranced around the disgruntled Absol and Cyndaquil ignited the fire on its back ready for a fight that probably wasn’t going to happen.

Rotom displayed a picture of Squirtle from the PokeDex to everyone as Joe went over the mission brief. They all knew what they were looking for, but it was a decent sized forest. Joe didn’t want anyone getting lost. As he was thinking about how to handle keeping an eye on everyone, Ralts perked up and said this was the perfect job for her. She had Telepathy and could track people and Pokemon since she could hear their inner thoughts. With Absol as the test subject, they decided to try it out just how good Ralts’ Telepathy was. The Disaster Pokemon ran fast, far into the forest, and to Joe’s surprise Ralts could track other Pokemon for a few miles. Ralts pointed out that she didn’t immediately lose track of someone either, it was more like their inner voice got quieter the further they went. Their surroundings interfered with Ralts’ power, which led Joe to believe if they were in an open field, away from all these trees, then Ralts’ Telepathy would cover a larger radius. They might as well keep it in mind and test it in the future.

“Oh, Absol found a river.” Ralts’ soft, young feminine voice echoed inside Joe’s head.

“All right, we’ll go to her then. I imagine she wants to clean herself off.” He chuckled. 

Joe still wasn’t used to that feeling though, of someone speaking to him directly inside his head. Ralts had done her best to explain it aboard the ferry. Instead of Joe’s ears picking up audio, which then put the information through to his brain to decipher, Ralts could just beam audio straight into someone’s head. It was convenient, but took some getting used to. Joe felt a tingle run down his spine whenever it happened. 

To the young man’s surprise, the sensation he felt every time Ralts spoke to him with Telepathy might be a permanent feature. There were a few options as to why, but Ralts thought the likely answer was she was creating vibrations when she spoke, and Joe was feeling those vibrations in his bones. The other option, and the one that Ralts seemed to hate, was that she was accidentally altering emotions during her communications. Back in the port warehouse when she used Telepathy to speak to Joe, he had felt a sudden surge of fear as Ralts spoke to him. It could’ve been a coincidence, but Ralts feared she had altered Joe’s feelings to be more like her own for a brief moment. Her species were called the Feelings Pokemon for a reason. They could do anything related to emotion, and that included changing someone else’s.

A hand reached up to Ralts’ head and gently patted her. “Don’t blame yourself, you did nothing wrong. If anything I should be thankful, your power is probably what saved both of us.”

Ralts nodded slightly, understanding her Trainer was being genuine. If part of her power really was to manipulate emotions, she would work hard to keep it under control. She understood better than anyone else how terrifying such a power could be.

You are reading story Pokemon: Becoming Legend at novel35.com

At some point during his trek towards Absol, Joe was stopped by his Cyndaquil. A yellowish-brown bug Pokemon with a silver horn atop its head and another at the end of its tail wandered by. It seemed like the Fire Mouse was after a fight as it rushed up to the bug-type. Joe wasted no time thinking about whether or not to battle, if it was what his Pokemon wanted then he’d go along with it. Cyndaquil still hadn’t mastered how to use fire so if anything it was at a disadvantage. The wild Pokemon, identified as a Weedle by RotoPhone, knew Poison Sting, while Joe’s Pokemon was stuck with tackle still. 

Joe’s fears were realised when Cyndaquil was poisoned during the battle, but the little Fire Mouse managed to pull through regardless. It rushed around the battlefield and struck using Tackle when ordered to, significantly weakening the Weedle. Cyndaquil’s second Tackle was what got it poisoned as Weedle managed to move its tail around and hit the fire-type with its stinger just as Cyndaquil tackled it. Poison Point was an Ability that was almost like an instinct to a Pokemon. Pokemon were ultimately animals, and animals act on instinct. Weedle had the well-founded belief that its life was in danger and so automatically struck back with its stinger, poisoning its foe.

On a whim, Joe decided to catch the Weedle. There was no real reason behind it, similar to Shinx. He just had this feeling in the moment so followed through on said feeling. He watched the Pokeball rock back and forth as Cyndaquil winced due to the poison. On the third shake the Pokeball stopped moving and the button flashed white, causing Joe to immediately rush to his fire-type to check on it. A potion wasn’t going to fix this, but it would help ease the pain so Joe went ahead and pulled a potion out of his backpack.

The fire-type was acting tough by standing firm and forcing more fire out of its back as a show of strength, but Joe could see it was hurting. After he’d walked over to retrieve his new Pokemon, Joe reached for Cyndaquil’s ball. As he did so, Ralts spoke of a battle nearby. She’d already called Absol back because it appeared as though Ralts had found the missing Squirtle. Its inner voice was questioning why it had to stay behind, which Ralts attributed to a starter Pokemon stuck with a young child who couldn’t go out on an adventure.

In response, Joe put Shinx away as it worriedly nudged Cyndaquil’s face, but before the young man could recall Cyndaquil it looked him square in the eyes and shook its head. It was still raring to go. It still wanted to pick a fight with another Pokemon. Against his better judgement, Joe accepted this willingness to fight and picked up Cyndaquil instead, holding it in his arms as he ran in the direction Ralts told him to go.

He soon entered a clearing devoid of trees but home to a variety of colourful flowers. There Joe saw a Squirtle battling what Rotom said was a Pancham, and it looked like Squirtle was just about to lose. It was barely standing, had an eye closed due to its injuries, and didn’t seem to be able to muster the strength to attack anymore.

“Let’s go, Cyndaquil.” Joe said as he allowed his Pokemon to jump from his arms.

Pancham noticed the human’s arrival, alongside some trained Pokemon, so turned its attention away from Squirtle. It was a weakling anyway, Pancham wanted a real fight. A grin crept onto its face as it rushed towards a fight with a fire-type, making sure its green leaf didn’t slip from its mouth.

Fire burst from Cyndaquil’s back as Pancham closed the gap between them in order to attack. Rotom pointed out that Pancham are almost entirely physical attackers, and this one in particular was tougher than normal. It was likely due to a move aimed at increasing its own power, with Rotom saying Work Up was the likely culprit.

Considering what he’d just heard, Joe ordered Cyndaquil to dodge Pancham’s first attack, which was a fist wrapped in some kind of black energy similar to Absol’s Sucker Punch. The energy around Pancham’s fist didn’t seem too significant though. Even if it did hit it probably wouldn’t harm Cyndaquil much. And Joe’s idea was correct, Rotom said that Pancham was using Power Trip, a move that gets stronger the more the user has powered itself up. If it were to use Work Up again, Power Trip would be stronger as a result. The more powered up the Pokemon, the more dark energy would form around whatever body part it used to attack.

Cyndaquil barely managed to avoid being hit by rolling out of the way, then the Fire Mouse rushed to its feet so it could ram into its foe. The plan worked, but Pancham stood there and took the Tackle to its torso, only being forced back a few inches. Pancham’s grin widened as it raised its left arm up and used the edge of its hand to strike down at the fire-type. Its hand was enveloped in green energy now.

The fire-type starter attempted to back away but it was feeling the effects of the poison and was in too much pain to perform any drastic movements, resulting in a hand colliding with the top of Cyndaquil’s head and hitting the Pokemon into the ground. Petals flew about as Cyndaquil was hit so hard into the ground that it bounced up, opening the Pokemon up to being struck again. Another green fist collided with Cyndaquil, this time in its chest, blasting it back a few feet.

Of all the moves in Pancham’s arsenal, Dual Chop was its strongest. Not many types could resist dragon moves. It was somehow born with this powerful attack, which Pancham saw as a sign. It was a born fighter.

Ready to swap Cyndaquil out, Joe reached back for his Pokemon’s Pokeball, but to his surprise the Fire Mouse forced itself to get up. Pancham wasn’t the only stubborn Pokemon in this fight. Wincing from the poison once again, Cyndaquil let out a battle cry as the fire on its back grew so intense that nearby flowers were seared from the heat. Its Blaze Ability activated and from its open mouth grew a fireball. Once it was at an adequate size the fireball was unleashed, then swiftly followed by three other fireballs. All four were aimed at Pancham.

Joe couldn’t help but smile at his Pokemon who had gotten stronger. It was about time his starter learned a move related to its type. The young man watched as Pancham swatted away the first two Ember fireballs. Seeing this as a chance while their foe was distracted, Joe told Cyndaquil to rush in with Tackle. The third Ember hit Pancham in the side and the fourth struck its face, making it lose focus. It couldn’t even attempt to retaliate as Cyndaquil rammed its head into Pancham’s face and they both tumbled into the flowers together.

As the first to recover, Cyndaquil was told to use Tackle again while Pancham was rising to its feet. The Fire Mouse did not like this decision, but it followed orders because it had grown to enjoy being with Joe. It didn’t want to be a disappointment by disobeying. So Cyndaquil once again aimed to ram itself into Pancham with Tackle, to which the Playful Pokemon responded with Work Up. It was wrapped in a red aura briefly, and when it wore off a black energy surrounded one of its fists just as its opponent got close. 

It had been a long time since Pancham had been pushed this far. No Pokemon in the forest surrounding Pallet Town wanted to be near him because he constantly made a nuisance of himself. He understood that, but understanding didn’t change the fact that Pancham wanted to fight daily, and he wanted a good fight at that. If he could battle Pokemon like Cyndaquil all the time then Pancham felt like he would be the happiest Pokemon in the world. His grin was no longer out of malice or annoyance for weak Pokemon, it was because he was genuinely happy for a change. He was now living up to his species name. The Playful Pokemon.

Pancham lunged its fist forward with Power Trip, but when Cyndaquil was a mere inch away a new order came from its Trainer. It was told to use Ember at point blank. That was more like it. Cyndaquil was honestly angry when it was told to rely on Tackle again, so using that attack as a feint in order to guarantee the next Ember hits was great. It was more to Cyndaquil’s liking and showed that it should put more faith in its Trainer.

A split second before Pancham’s attack could connect, fire spewed out of Cyndaquil’s mouth. Ember struck Pancham directly in the face and blasted it back a few feet. Payback for earlier.

Coughing gently, Pancham looked up at the sky and smiled. That was the kind of fight it wanted. There was no fun in fighting the weak. Enjoyment came from being pushed to the limit, having to use everything to try and win. Pancham weakly sat up, struggling because of its injuries, and watched the young man rush to Cyndaquil and pick it up, congratulating his Pokemon on being victorious. If Pancham was going to have a Trainer one day, then he wanted someone like this young man. But today was not that day. Pancham wanted to become strong on its own, to go on its own little journey of self discovery. With his usual cheeky grin, Pancham simply rose to its feet and wandered away into the sea of trees hoping to one day have a rematch against Cyndaquil. Perhaps they would both be fully evolved by then.

Once Joe was done praising his Pokemon, he couldn’t see the Pancham anywhere so he turned his attention to Squirtle. It was resting against a small rock nearby. He approached it and knelt down before the Pokemon. “I hear there’s a boy out there waiting for you. He’s quite upset, you know? With you running off and all.”

Squirtle frowned and looked down at the green grass beneath it. It knew better than anyone else that running away was bad, and yet it did so anyway. But it wasn’t fair. Every other starter that Professor Oak gave to young children were able to go on adventures immediately. It was only Squirtle that had fallen behind because it was given to someone too young to be alone.

Since this had been relayed to Joe via Ralts earlier, the young man had a rough idea of what to say. “I understand you want to head off right now, but there is a benefit to waiting.”

When the young man said this, Squirtle kept its eyes on the ground but it made sure to listen.

“You can get stronger on your own terms. You have more time to prepare. Learn alongside Andy, your Trainer. Figure out how you want to fight. It’s not perfect, practising for a fight isn’t the same as experiencing a fight, but if you take time to develop strategies with Andy you’ll be more capable than before.”

Thinking about it, Squirtle thought playing with Andy was just that. Playing. But one way they had fun was aiming competitions, using Water Gun to hit specific parts of a plant. At first glance it was just a child having fun with their Pokemon, but one could see it was practice for the future. Squirtle’s aim had gotten significantly better ever since it became Andy’s Pokemon. Plus they had learned a lot about Pokemon together at school. Andy was one of the children that knew more about Pokemon compared to the rest of his classmates. Knowledge was a useful tool in the right hands.

“And patience is a virtue.” Joe continued. “Your adventure isn’t going anywhere, Squirtle. It’ll wait for you as long as it needs to.”

With a little nod, the water-type starter seemed to understand what Joe was saying and accepted it. While it wanted to explore the world right now, it couldn’t. So it might as well do something it could do, which was prepare for when adventure inevitably arrived at its doorstep. It can’t just run off when it wants, it needs to do what it can right now, which involves being patient and learning with Andy. They will have their time to battle in the future.

“Good.” Joe was happy the Pokemon seemed to understand.

It didn’t take long for Absol to arrive after that, so Joe put Cyndaquil and Ralts away and followed Squirtle home. Since Joe had left to find Squirtle without much conversation, he didn’t actually know where to take the Pokemon once he’d found it. But of course, Squirtle had returned home on its own multiple times. It knew where it was going. Andy immediately ran to his Pokemon and hugged it now that it was back, and his mother gave her thanks to Joe. Because she was so insistent, Joe accepted the woman’s invite to eat dinner with her and her family tonight. It was all she could think of to repay Joe’s kindness.

With a full stomach, Joe gave his thanks for the meal and left for a hotel, but only after he confirmed with Squirtle that it wasn't going to run away again. With a dumb smile, Joe commented, “Mission complete,” as he walked down a street in Pallet Town.