//------------------------------// // Your Geodude Learned Rock Throw! (Episode 1) // Story: We All Live In A Pokemon World... // by 4428Gamer //------------------------------// ? ? ? POV         “Hey, there you two are!” The screen came to life with picture as my sister looked at us with an ecstatic smile. “So, you finally made it to the Kalos Region huh?” Both her and her Skitty looked at us with smiling faces. Although, behind that smile, I could tell that something was off. The smile didn’t seem honest. Instead it looked...Rehearsed. As if she had tried to practice talking to me beforehand. “Y-yeah…” I still tried to smile back at her but it looked nothing but awkward. I’ve wanted to forget all about what happened at the Hoenn League so I didn’t even think about what to talk about. “Uh…” I sighed and dropped the stupid smile. “May, look, I’m really sorry about how badly I did at the League. I mean, I should have had my act together and—” “Wait a second, why are you apologizing? If anything I should be the one saying sorry! I couldn’t even make it there to watch my own little brother in his first Pokémon League. I was so caught up in all the after-events of the Grand Festival that I wasn’t even in the same region to cheer you on with Mom and Dad!” “But...B-But I…” I sighed and rested my face into the palm of my hand. What was I even doing right now? I don’t even know the actual reason as to why I was apologizing. “I guess that...I’m saying, sorry for making you look bad?” Even saying that made me confused. Still, that was the only reason I had. It was the reason I was avoiding her until now. Although that didn’t stop her from trying to find me. She had caught a flight to meet us at the end of the League, which I had to stay for a ‘Final Goodbye’ ceremony with all the other competitors. Of course as soon as that was over I left before May could even find me. Mom got really upset, but luckily Dad was there to take my side after I explained myself. So he had everyone give me some space. Which I was thankful for, but that meant that I didn’t have the chance to talk to my May until...Well, right now. “Max,” And for the first time in almost six months, I heard her call my name. It had almost made me flinch, but I managed to look back up to see her with a worried look on her face. “You and I both know that some silly title doesn’t matter. Let those news stations say what they want. You’re my brother! I don’t care how badly you do at a Pokémon League, I’ll never be mad at you.” I couldn’t help but slouch forwards with a deadpanned stare. “Gee, thanks May.” “Nice to know we have your support.” From my lap Kirlia had spoken up with a tone similar to mine. It was a little hard to do, but she was able to channel her thoughts into sound for whenever we talked over video. Even though we both kept our stares trained on her, she couldn’t help but giggle at our reaction. It was soon followed by Skitty and sure enough the two of us started to ease up with our expressions until finally all of us were laughing. “Thanks May. I needed that.” I gave her a small smile before taking up a more comfortable position in my seat. “Don’t mention it Max.” She gave me a bigger smile before suddenly remembering something. “Oh yeah! So I wanted to ask, what’s the Kalos Region like?! Is it as amazing as the brochures are?!” She and Skitty looked at us with their full attention yet still somehow stayed planted in their own fantasy land. Some things never change. “Well we haven’t seen too much of it yet. We called the second we got off the plane.” May and Skitty’s smiles dipped greatly, but they kept a content look to them. “Still, the airport alone looks pretty great! Not to mention I can see Prism Tower from here and that’s even better than what the pictures showed!” As I told them this I looked behind the screen and saw the tower peeking out from above a few buildings. It wasn’t lit up like the pictures had shown but it didn’t need to be. It looked great enough as it was. “What do you think Kirlia?” “It’s definitely a sight to see.” She had her thoughts sound off again so the phone could pick it up. “Not to mention I’m picking up a calm yet awestruck emotion from the locals. It seems like the people that live in Lumiose are still impressed with the town despite living here.” Well that was about what I expected from her. They didn’t call Kirlia the “Emotion Pokémon” for nothing after all. She could see the emotions either from individuals or groups of people. Sure, it made it kind of hard to keep a secret from her, but it also helped us get through plenty of problems in the past. “Even the locals are impressed?” May leaned back a little. “Wow. I guess everything there is just that beautiful. Maybe I should just come over there and compete in the Kalos Grand Festival instead…” “Nya-nya~!” Skitty started mussing to herself with a blissful look that matched my sister’s. “Oh. Uh. W-W_it—” Kirlia’s thoughts started to stutter as she shook her hands side to side in denial. Neither of us wanted May to come with us on what was supposed to be our own journey. “But May,” I perked up. “Didn’t Mom and Dad say that you were planning on competing in the Unova region with Dawn?!” “Nya~!” Skitty gave a dismissive wave of her paw. “Skitty, that’s the worst excuse that I’ve ever heard.” Kirlia deadpanned. “And besides, if Dawn’s Piplup really does get that clingy than just tell Munchlax that Piplup has a crush on her. That outta keep him away.” Kirlia’s expression turned to one of a devious smile, no doubt ignoring the look I was giving her. “Nya~...” Skitty brought a paw to her mouth as she hummed in thought. While this was going on, May gave out a sigh. “I guess you have a point Max. It wouldn’t be fair to Dawn if I just canceled the trip.” With a shrug she continued. “Besides, at least Harley’s not competing in Unova the same time as me.” “Oh yeah. Harley…” That was one name I hadn’t heard in awhile. He was probably one of the most annoying people that I’ve ever met. He was a Pokémon Coordinator just like my sister May was. The only difference was that he did literally anything in order to win. He sabotaged May, sided with a group of bad people known as Team Rocket with little to no consequence, and finally he had this nasally voice that drove nearly all of us insane. Still, the news of no Harley brought a huge smile to my face. “Yeah, see?! An entire region with no Harley in sight! Nothing sounds better than that!” “Ex-cuse me?!” All of us, Skitty and Kirlia included, flinched at the nasally voice calling out from behind me. And upon hearing it, all of our eyes doubled in size. “No…” As if not to sound off some kind of sensor, I took my time turning around. Yet no matter how careful I was I still saw the last thing I wanted to see. One purple-haired freak in a Cacturne costume glaring straight at us. “What did you just say about me?!” Harley’s fingers curled into fists as he continued trying to turn us to paste with his glare. Why can’t it ever be easy? Spike’s POV         “Alright Spike, here we are. The biodome.”         After pressing a few buttons on the little box the glass doors in front of us opened up. And from what I could see it seemed as though we were walking into a small forest. There were forests that came up to the top of the glass ceiling and a small stream that went from one side of the dome to the other. The place looked to be about as big as Fluttershy's hill and seemed just as full of woodland creatures. Only instead of them being animals, they were all Pokémon. And thankfully they were nowhere near as scary as that weird floating orb thing, which the professor told me was a ghost type Pokémon. As the glass doors closed behind us I kept looking at one Pokémon to the next. Each of them looked so different from anything that I had seen in Equestria. Professor Sycamore started chuckling as he watched my excitement. “I guess I should’ve seen this coming. If there really aren’t any Pokémon where you come from than this must be an interesting sight.” “You're telling me.” I turned my attention to one of the creatures that was watching me curiously. It was hiding in the knothole of a tree trunk so it was hard to tell just what it looked like. All I could really see was a small glowing red orb and black wisps of aura that reminded me of magic. ...Duss… “Ah, there you are Duskull.” The professor walked over to the knothole with a chuckle. “You don’t have to hide from the sun you know. I promise it won’t hurt you.” As he stopped ahead of the knothole I saw the red orb start to angle inwards as if to give off an angry glare. One that cause the professor to stiffen up in utter terror. Duss...KULL! “WAHH!” The professor instantly jumped into the air like a frightened cat from the sound before falling onto his back without any grace. “P-Professor Sycamore!” I took a few steps towards him before locking eyes with the glowing red orb once again. Only this time it only watched me for a few seconds before fading further into the knothole entirely. Once it was gone I went over to Professor Sycamore as he was now leaning onto his elbows. “Are, uh, are you okay?” “Yes, I’m alright Spike. That was just Duskull’s Leer and Astonish attack.” He took my outstretched hand and got onto his feet. “You see, Duskull are nocturnal Pokémon and have a strong urge to avoid any sunlight.” “So then that Duskull Pokémon’s...A ghost type? Like that Gastly was?” “Correct.” He nodded. “But then, why does Duskull not like the sun if Gastly was okay with it?” I tried to spot Duskull in the tree again, but he was still nowhere to be seen. However I did see a grey figure floating off into the shadows of the small forest behind the tree. “Actually that’s something that we’re trying to figure out right now.” After dusting off his lab coat he continued. “You see one of my lab assistants is actually studying Pokémon Culture whenever she’s not helping my own research. Duskull is only one of the Pokémon helping her. “Duskull is actually one of the few Ghost-type Pokémon that don’t actually rest. So it’s a mystery as to why they’re known as nocturnal. So far, she’s discovered that Duskull naturally avoid the sun.” He explained. “Because they’re afraid of it?” I pieced together. “Well...Possibly.” He grew a look of confusion. “You see, I’m not too caught up on her recent discoveries because of my own research.” Suddenly, his face grew into a very upset frown. “As well as covering the damages of my lab…” But thankfully his frown left his face as quick as it appeared. I chose to ignore it as best I could. “So what other Pokémon are helping her?” With one fluid motion he turned to the side and held out an arm towards part of the stream that was next to a leafy bush. “Plenty of them. For instance, there are three Eevees all enjoying their day around the biodome.” Following where he had pointed, I spotted a small brown-furred Pokémon with a cream colored collar of fur calmly drinking from the river. “Yeah I see it. He has a lot of fur on him.” “Her,” He calmly corrected. “And she apparently gravitates towards one certain element more than any other.” “What do you mean by element?” I turned towards the Eevee and watched as she kept drinking from the stream. It didn’t seem to care about how her cream collar of fur was partly submerged in the water despite how well groomed it seemed. “The water. You see, Eevee is known as the evolution Pokémon since it can evolve into several different types of Pokémon. And because of this, it seems that there’s a bit of instinct in the way an Eevee live out its life.” He looked back at me. “That particular Eevee loves being around the water.” I kept watching her as she suddenly stopped drinking the water. It’s fur was still underwater, but it didn’t seem to care as she suddenly began smirking. “So...You think that’ll it’ll evolve into something that has to do with water?” It had only been a few hours since that video call. Since then, Professor Sycamore has been telling me about Pokémon and how they work. One of those things being evolution. “Well, that’s our theory anyways. Eevee has a water evolution called Vaporeon. And so far only this one seems to fit into that category. The other Eevees seem to like keeping dry so the idea is that they don’t want to become a Vaporeon while she does.” She continued to stand perfectly still as her smirk slowly turned into a mischievous grin. One that reminded me all too much about Angel Bunny. I didn’t really get what she was so happy about though. All she was doing was watching a small red triangle float down the stream. As she pulled her head up out of the water, dozens of droplets started dripping from her fur, not that she paid any mind to them. She just kept watching this weird triangle as she got ready to...Do something, I guess. The professor sighed upon seeing this. “Those two are always messing with each other.” “Huh?” I looked up to him and immediately regretted it because while I looked away I heard a splash and some incomprehensible cries of something else followed by something struggling in the water. I could not snap my head back faster as Eevee sat there with her tail wagging back and forth with a content, yet entirely innocent smile as he kept that same red triangle in its mouth. That red triangle was apparently connected to a blue tail. And on the opposite end of this tail was a blue alligator flailing his head and arms in hopes to get away from this Eevee. Its voice was difficult to understand since the mouth was halfway underwater, but I could tell that it was more than startled. “Woah! That. That looks kind of like Gummy…” Yep, no mistaking it. The front legs looked similar and his jaw was nearly identical to Gummy’s. Except this one had some teeth to it. Very sharp teeth. Although Eevee didn’t seem to care about that. “S-So where are the other two Eevees?” “Well, right now the other female Eevee is in the denser part of the biodome, playing with a few of the other Pokémon in the shadows. My assistant believes that since she likes staying in the darker parts of the biodome, she may prefer evolving into an Umbreon.” Professor Sycamore began to smile as Eevee let go of blue alligator’s tail. “Toto,” The alligator called out once he recovered in the water; his head was the only thing above water. “Toto-Totodile!” “Eevee~!” The Eevee gave an obvious wink towards the alligator, And as she winked, a few light pink hearts appeared around her before fading towards Totodile. Once the hearts faded away entirely, Totodile’s face went nearly full red as he started acting really bashful towards her. It looked as though he forgave her for ever snatching him out of the water. The professor sighed. “There she goes again. I swear she’s always using Captivate on that poor Totodile.” Totodile took to swimming away quickly before Eevee burst out into a fit of giggles. “Pip. Piplup Piplup.” Eevee stopped laughing when a blue penguin looking Pokémon looked at her with its flippers on its hips. After a small staring contest, Eevee started to paw the ground in a circular motion. “Eevee eve…” It frowned and sounded apologetic. Or at least that’s what I think she looked like. It was hard to tell when these Pokémon only said their names. Before either of the two could say anything else, they both raised their heads in attention at the sound of two other Pokémon talking to each other. Except both of those voices sounded a little angry about something. “Eevee…” She put a paw to her face as the penguin gave a look of defeated annoyance. “Eevee eve?” “Pip.” The penguin could only give a single nod. Confused, I tried listening in to whatever the two Pokémon were upset about. I didn’t have to try too hard thankfully as two figures made their way out from the thicker part of the biodome. “Ah. I was wondering when those two would show up.” He turned to look at me. “Spike, take a careful look at these fighting types.” I nodded along and noticed the shapes of the two Pokémon walking forward. While it was still in the shadows, I could make out their outlines and that was almost enough to figure out what they looked like. One looked about my size, or at least the size I used to be. He was thinner than I was though and had what looked like baggy pants on him, though I couldn’t tell the colors right now. When looking at all of him, the “fighting type” remind me of...Well, a fighter. He was nimbler than I was and he was saying the words “Ty” and “Rogue” several times. The other one was completely different in almost every way. Instead of being skinny and nimble, he seemed...I guess bulky would be a nice word for it, and was about as tall as Twilight or the others. Instead of looking like a fighter, he was more along the lines of a sumo wrestler. And this one seemed just as upset as the purple fighter and said the words “Hita” and “Maku” just as much as the fighter. “So...Do all Pokémon say just their names?” It was a pattern I was starting to notice. In fact it was kind of hard to avoid noticing it. “Most of them, yes.” His smile grew. “You’re starting to get Pokémon a little quicker than I expected. But anyways,” He looked back at the two bickering Pokémon that had now made their way to the center of the clearing. “Those two Pokémon are Tyrogue and Makuhita. Both fighting types that seem to have quite a rivalry going on.” “How’s come?” “Well, now that they’re out of the shadows, have you noticed the painted emblems on their chests?” He placed his hands on his hips, watching as the rest of the Pokémon, as well as the Eevee and Piplup from earlier, started to walk over towards them. “Y-Yeah,” It wasn’t too hard to see what the professor was talking about. The sumo wrestler Pokémon had a dark blue pattern on the top of his chest and inside of that was the emblem. It looked like a fist ready to punch something and it was painted in silver. Meanwhile the purple boxing Pokémon had the same emblem, but painted in a different color; white. However, he didn’t have the same blue pattern that the sumo wrestler had. Instead, he had bandages wrapped around his abdomen for no reason other than appearance. And on the bandages is where the emblem lay. “Apparently there are fighting-type Pokémon follow a sort of training called The Way of the Punch. This is where they aim to master every “punch” move that there is. Those two actually belong to another Professor by the name of Kukui. Although my assistant wanted to borrow them for a small while in order to see how they interact with one another. “There are other trainings as well such as The Way of the Kick or The Way of the Claw, but for now this is as far as her studies have gotten her. Still, Kukui’s trying his best to find one or two Pokémon that follow under those training styles as well to help her research.” As their argument got closer and closer to a breaking point, the sumo wrestler finally pointed out towards a small tree. “Maku?! Makuhita!” “Ty, Ty,” The boxer Pokémon gave two small nods before they both walked over to a small tree. “Happiny?” A small, pink egg-shaped Pokémon let out a disappointed sigh before facepalming. “Zang,” A red and white bipedal fox-looking Pokémon gave a dismissive wave. It didn’t look like he was at all surprised by the sudden fight between the two. “Bid-Bidoof!” A small beaver Pokémon called out excitedly as he eyed the tree the fighting-types were walking to. It didn’t really take a genius to guess why. “Huh. It looks like they’re about to have another competition,” Professor Sycamore leaned against the larger tree near the entrance. “I wonder who’ll win this time.” “This time?” I looked back towards the Pokémon as the sumo wrestler got in a pose reserved for boxers. That’s when I noticed that instead of hands and fingers like the fighter had, Makuhita only had boxing gloves. “Does that mean that they’ve been fighting like this for—” “MAKU!” The Pokémon suddenly made a jump towards the tree, slamming its fist into the base of the tree with the kind of strength that only Applejack or even Big Mac had. The attack had the tree shaking back and forth with leaves and a few of the weaker branches falling as a result. Although that wasn’t everything that fell. “Burmmmmyyyyyy!” Suddenly, a white line of string shot out from a patch of leaves and swung its way over to towards the next tree closest to it. "Hmm. Makuhita's Arm Thrust has gotten stronger since last time." The professor scratched his chin in thought. "Burm! Burmy!" The odd pile of leaves started to glare back at the two of them before getting comfy in its new tree. The sumo wrestler looked apologetic while the boxer-- "ROGUE!" In a flash of light the boxer went from watching to flying forward into the tree with a solid hit. Pieces of bark and branches flew off from the tree as it stayed leaning in place, halfway out of the ground. And down at the base of the tree stood Tyrogue, who was now beaming at Makuhita with a toothy grin. “Sssssssev-Viper.” A large dark-blue and gold colored snake with long red fangs began nodding in approval, earning a shiver down my spine from the size of it alone. “Biiiiii~” The small beaver that stood beside the snake, somehow not terrified of the splinters nearly hitting him. In fact, the weaker the tree looked, the more excited that beaver was getting. “I never knew something like him could be that strong,” Heck, I’ve never met anything that could punch like him. How did that boxing Pokémon do something like that? “That was Tyrogue’s Mach.” Sycamore informed. “Now I wonder how Makuhita will respond…” He leaned forwards toward the challenge as if it were a title match. “Min-Minccino!” Something resembling a chinchilla was making some punching motions as it looked towards Makuhita. As if it were his personal trainer or something. “Maku,” Makuhita took comfort in whatever the chinchilla said and started taking a few steps back and taking up a defensive stance. And just before his head snapped forward, his fist, as well as his entire arm, turned into solid steel. In an instant, Makuhita vanished from his spot, leaving only a small cloud of dust where he was previously. Next, the tree violently detached from its roots as a sonic boom resounded across the biodome. Directly in front of it stood Makuhita with its arm striking the tree. Finally, in speeds somewhat similar to what Makuhita had earlier, the trunk of the tree was sent flying towards a miniature mountain. And with several more snapping sounds, the tree shattered like glass against the rock, leaving only chunks of a trunk and dozens of loose branches tumbling to the ground. “...” The entire biodome stood silent before a number of Pokémon suddenly broke into cheers and applause with Makuhita being at the center of it. “So it seems that Makuhita’s mastered Bullet Punch. Impressive.” The Professor stood up straight. “I’ll say,” I looked over towards the tree where underneath it a few Pokémon were admiring Makuhita’s handywork. One of which being that beaver who was now in tears over the splintered wood. “How did he even do that?” The tree was in a billion pieces, and only some of them were still moving. But still, it should’ve been impossible to send a tree flying like that. Not even Applejack or Big Mac could hit a tree that hard. Although they were at least able to keep the tree from shaking. Afterwards...? Trees don’t shake… “Geo…” Splinters and mulch started to make their way down the mountain as one of the rocks on top began moving on its own. Next, a set of eyes opened up on the front as two rocks on either side rose up, revealing that the rock had arms connected to it. Meanwhile, I was just standing there watching the magic rock float in the air with a look of complete confusion and fear. "Geo! Geodude?!" The Rock pointed down at the chunk of tree that had fallen onto him as he started glaring at every Pokémon in the area before finally settling his gaze down on the only Pokémon standing near the shattered tree stump, Makuhita. "M-Maku..." He gave an awkward wave and took a few steps back as the rock began to shake in frustration. "Geo...Dude! Geo-Geodude!" The rock reached down towards the rock bed with his arms and, without warning, started throwing rock after rock towards Makuhita. Makuhita instantly ducked out of the way of the first one and jumped again as the second one came right after. And as the third one came flying Makuhita tried jumping higher up to get a greater distance in one bound. However, as Makuhita did that, Geodude started chucking more rocks while Makuhita was airborne, resulting in rocks landing everywhere throughout the room. One slammed into the blue crocodile’s back, launching him back into the water and snapping him out of his daze. Another slammed into a tree and down fell a white ape-like Pokémon with a tuft of red hair and a ribbon on the top of its head. Finally, the third rock that went wide made its way in our direction. I was lucky enough to spot it coming since Professor Sycamore was concerned about all the Pokémon running for cover. So acting quick, I tackled the professor to the ground just as the rock flew right where his head was previously. The both of us looked behind us and watched as the rock slammed into a small red glass box with a hose folded up inside. “That was too close!” Professor Sycamore took the chance to stand back up and help me back up to my own feet. “Thank you Spike.” “Yeah…” I turned back towards the hose. “No problem…” “Eev! Eevee!" We looked back up to see a small set of Pokémon all looking up towards the rock with a glare. The Pokémon in the center looking like an Eevee with several small patches of fur missing entirely as well as a few scars here and there. “Piplup Piplup!” The penguin from earlier started calling out from the stream as it helped pull out the crocodile. “Gee…” The rock lowered his next piece of ammunition as it looked around the room at his handy work. And the place looked like the makings of a battlefield. Rocks were starting to litter the clearing, a few branches had fallen off their trees, some broken glass along the walls of the biodome, and finally all the Pokémon that were peeking out of their hiding places. Makuhita being the only Pokémon in the center of the clearing. “Please Geodude,” The professor took this chance to step forward. “Let’s just calm down and take a minute to explain what was going—” “Viiiiiiggggg..." Every Pokémon, as well as the professor, flinched as a growl emitted from behind them. And slowly, all of them began to turn all at once to see that ape-like Pokémon practically shaking with fury as it was holding the same rock that was used to knock it out of the tree. “Viiiiiigooooo..." Slowly, she began to raise the rock behind her, staring at the living rock ahead of her. “Wait, Vigoroth, please don’t!” Professor Sycamore took a single step forward and that was all he was able to get before the Vigoroth lost it. “Vigorrrrrrr!” The professor and all the Pokémon ahead all dove out of the way as she launched the rock at speeds triple that of what the rock was throwing them at. The rock noticed that, thankfully, and flew out of the way as the rock whizzed by and continued straight towards the biodome walls. All of which were, sadly enough, windows. The rock smashed entirely through the window and echoed throughout the dome, startling everyone. All except for Vigoroth, who was jumping and yelling its name towards the rock. ...Dusk…         “Vig?” Vigoroth stopped its rampage and looked around it, unable to discern where the voice had come from. However, anyone that was watching Vigoroth could see the dark figure appearing behind her in the shade of the tree they were standing under. Dusk...SKULL!         The Duskull went up above the Vigoroth and charged directly down through Vigoroth’s body and into the ground, causing it to shake and shiver with complete fear. “Vig...Vigor…” With all of its anger and frustration gone, Vigoroth fell to her knees and continued to shake without any resistance. “Geo. Dude…” Geodude gave a nod towards Vigoroth with a smug grin before scanning the area for Makuhita. It looked around the trees, past the river, and around the base of the small mountain before finally a snap of a tree branch earned the rock’s attention. He flipped around and cocked his throwing arm as he spotted Makuhita trying to tiptoe away while crossing a number of wooden bits of the destroyed tree. Once Makuhita saw that Geodude spotted him, he gave another shy wave before diving out of the way of the rock, as well as a second, before making a run for it. “H-Hey!” However, as Geodude pulled back his arm with a third rock, it looked over his shoulder to see me with the hose I had pulled out. It had a nozzle on it and from the few times I squeezed the trigger it looked like it would go pretty far. From what I could tell, and hope, it could reach far enough to spray Geodude from where I was standing. To tell the truth, I had no idea whether this hose was going to help with anything. I only had what the Professor told me about “Pokémon Types.” Some of them were kind of confusing and I couldn’t remember all of them, but one of the ones that I did remember was that water was good against rock. “Geo…” It started to glare at me, but made no movement to throw another rock at anyone. “Uh,” I stiffened up a bit and aimed the nozzle towards his face like a water gun. “P-Put the rock down! If you don’t then...I-I’ll use this!” I didn’t sound at all sure of what I was doing. Besides, this Pokémon got up from a tree hitting him in the face and had a rock the size of my head in his grip. Meanwhile I was holding a hose that was a little stronger than a water gun. Already I was starting to regret this decision. “Gee…Geo!” With a yell he turned around to pull back his throwing arm towards me, forcing me to flinch and pull the trigger by accident. Before I could try to stop the blast, Geodude was drenched in water. What resulted was a flailing and enraged Pokémon dropping the rock from his hands and back onto the small rock pile under him. He didn’t look hurt, thank Celestia for that, but he wasn’t happy either. By the time I moved the nozzle away, Geodude floated there soaked to the core. That didn’t slow him down in the slightest, much to my dismay, as he picked up two more rocks and flung them forward towards me in a mad fury. I froze in place before shuffling from one direction to another to try and find a way to run, but I didn’t have time as the rocks closed in like large baseballs. However, just as the rocks were about to strike, a familiar bundle of leaves planted itself in the crossfire and tilted forwards as the rocks suddenly impacted some kind of see-through forcefield and fell to the ground harmlessly. “Woah...T-Thank you!” I looked down and saw that same Pokémon that got knocked out of the tree earlier, who gave me a friendly smile and the word “Burmy” before turning his attention back towards the forcefield. “Geo...Dude! Dude! Dude!” One after another, Geodude kept launching more rocks towards the shield, not even for either of us anymore as he just kept firing a volley of rocks. Still, as each rock hit fell away from the shield, I could see the light getting fainter and the Pokémon that was keeping it up looked as if he were flinching from each hit. Burmy wouldn’t last too long against Geodude. I looked back up and saw Geodude angrily chucking rocks without even looking at them. That was his downfall though as the looser rocks underneath him finally began to disappear. So after three or four more throws, his hand clutched one last rock, only for him to find that it was jammed under some of the other rocks around him. It was the only chance I could think of. “Barn—I mean—Burmy, take the shield down!” I could only here a small mutter with his nod as the shield went down and I picked the hose back up to point it towards Geodude who had finally pried the rock from the ground. “Hey! Hey!” He locked eyes with me as the rock stayed in his hand for a second time now. “Put. The rock. Down.” “Geo…” I could see his hand tighten its grip as the rock let out a dry crack. It took all the strength I had not to flinch. “P-Put the rock down and no pony gets soaked.” Slowly, I took a step forward and curled my fingers around the trigger of the nozzle. When I didn’t see him go to throw the rock I continued. “Come on, put the rock down. All the Pokémon here just want you to calm down. R-Right guys?” I tried looking over towards the Burmy behind me, who called out in agreement. “Lup.” Piplup stood from one of the nearby logs, one that wasn’t knocked to the ground from all the fighting before, and put its arms on its hips. “V...V-V-V-Vigor…” From the ground, still trying to recover from the Duskull scare, Vigoroth tried to step to her feet with a defeated look. “Gee,” Slowly, Geodude looked around and saw most of the Pokémon staring him down. The ones that weren’t looking towards him were helping whatever Pokémon were recovering from the flying rocks. So with a sigh, he nodded. “Dude.” Without any further argument, Geodude dropped the rock. As he looked back at me from the corner of his eye, I smiled and dropped the hose. “See? No rocks, no water.” Off to the side I saw the professor petting the sobbing beaver Pokémon before focusing his attention on the broken window of the biodome. “And no Makuhita.” “What?!” I looked over to spot Makuhita duck out of the biodome and to the left. Sadly as he ducked off to the side, I saw one of the Eevee jump through the broken window as well and take off in the opposite direction. It was the one Eevee that came out when Geodude was angry. The one with several marks and patches of missing fur on its neck “Another one got out too!” “That’s not good! There’s no telling what that Eevee will do in the city!” Before any other Pokémon got anywhere near the window, Garchomp stood guard. As he did that, Sycamore turned towards me. “Spike, I need you’re help. Do you think you can try to find Makuhita for me while I catch Eevee?” “Wait, me?! But I don’t know anything about this town!” I tried looking around for one of the other lab assistants around here, but no luck. It was just us and the Pokémon. “Well, neither does Makuhita, he’s going on instinct. If that’s the case then it might be best that someone unfamiliar to Lumiose goes after him.” Quickly, he started heading for the broken window to follow the same way the Eevee and Makuhita left. “After you find him, meet me at Prism Tower! It’s the large tower in the center of Lumiose, you can’t miss it! Good luck! And thank you!” And with that, he started heading out towards the right. I gave one last look around the room and slumped a little as there was still no lab assistants coming into the room. So, carefully as to not get cut on the glass, I got through the window and looked down the road. “Okay, I guess I’ll go this way then,” Anxious, I turned around to see most of the Pokémon looking back towards. “Well, wish me luck everypon...Every Pokémon?” I shook the idea away and tried to refocus. “And, uh, Geodude? Please don’t throw anymore rocks.” I saw him cross his arms and huff before I turned to run down the road. “Dude…” He looked off to the side before spotting a small ground of rocky terrain that was in the sun and floated over, trying its best to ignore the looks that the others were giving him. Max’s POV As we finally cleared the thick crowds of the street, both Kirlia and I stopped to catch our breath. It may have looked pathetic to anyone that we passed, but once Harley and his Cacturne B-lined it towards us, we ended May’s call and made a run for it. We lost him at one point, but just a few minutes later we spotted him trying to sneak up on us. Thankfully, we had seen several points of Lumiose for Kirlia to simply Teleport us away from him. “So...Did we lose him?” I tried my best to look as casual as possible, but it was hard considering I was about to double over. “I think s_. _ can’t sense a__on_ _ith an enra__d aura anymo__…” Even with her speaking telepathically, I could hear breaks in her thoughts. She was even more exhausted than I was. Picking up on my confusion, she took a second to compose herself. “Sorry. I keep forgetting that it takes almost all my focus to keep a conversation.” Suddenly, she perked up and turned towards the center of the plaza where Prism Tower stood tall. “That’s weird. I’m sensing a few people and Pokémon with aggravation.” “Like Harley’s?” “Not even close,” She waved a hand as if to fan away the idea. “But they’re still upset about something.” “Upset, huh?” Well if it was something serious then it might be a good idea that we look out for it. “Let’s check it out.” Kirlia nodded as she started to walk forward with her eyes closed and focused on the group. Within minutes we weaved our way through a smaller crowd and found ourselves reaching the center of the city. After another minute of rounding the building, I could see a small group of other Pokémon Trainers about my age, with one or two of them being a few years older. However, aside from most of them being angry in one way or another, they looked injured for some reason. Not only that, but it looked like all of them were electrified just as much as their Pokémon. “Um, excuse us,” As we closed in, Kirlia opened her eyes and stopped searching for emotions around us. “What happened here?” “The Gym Leader,” One of them, one of the younger ones of the group, answered with a mix of anger and disappointment. “We each went in there and wanted a battle, but when we told him we didn’t have four badges, he kicked us out. Painfully,” He said as his Pokémon, one I had never seen before, gave out a small whimper as static ran across its fur. “I had enough badges though,” One of the two older trainers raised his hand slightly. He then gestured to the girl besides him. “As did Ashley here. We were able to walk in and all we saw was this guy dressed up as a robot. Then, after he beat us, he sent us out of the gym through the trapdoor.” “Trapdoor?” Kirlia and I shared a look before looking back towards the trainer. “That sounds a little extreme, don’t you think?” “What’s even more extreme is that it leads out through the center of that emblem.” Ashley pointed towards the emblem that resembled a Pokéball in the shape of a lightning bolt. “Everyone who gets kicked out goes flying outta there and straight to the ground. Luckily, someone was nice enough to leave this cushion for everyone to land on.” As she kept pointing, the emblem suddenly opened up with the echo of some other trainer yelling in shock. Although before the trainer flew out, an Aron was sent out of the emblem and fell like a rock, no pun intended, towards the cushion. Before any of us could duck, the cushion gave out a loud pop as Aron sit there, stunned from the fall, but otherwise completely unharmed. “AHHHHHHHHH!” Next the trainer came tumbling out, screaming as he fell towards the deflated cushion. “Kirlia! Psychic! Quick!” Instantly, Kirlia’s eyes glowed bright blue as the falling trainer was brought to a complete stop in mid-air, surrounded in the same blue aura. He started to catch his breath and prepared to land on his feet as the ground got closer to him. “Good Call.” Kirlia’s voice was now coming from my mind instead of being projected like before. I guess she didn’t want the others to hear her speak. “Okay…” Once the aura dissipated, he crouched down to pet his Aron that had just found its way out of the cushion’s remains. “That is the absolute last time that we try to take on that gym!” After seeing Aron look back at him worriedly, the trainer took out a Pokéball. “Come on Aron. Let’s get you to a Pokémon Center.” “Ar,” Aron looked confused, but complied anyway. Then with Aron in his Pokéball, the trainer hurried off towards a Center as fast as he could. “Wait, Wallace! I’m pretty sure Aron’s not…” One of the older trainers, I think her name was Ashley, sighed. “Come on Dave, let’s go after him. Besides, our Pokémon actually do need to go to the Pokémon Center. Good luck, man.” She gave me and Kirlia a quick wave before she and the other trainer started walking towards the Center. “Kirlia? Let’s try and see what’s going on with the gym leader ourselves.” It didn’t take long for me to spot the entrance. “Someone needs to tell this leader that what he’s doing isn’t right.” “I agree. It’s one thing to be a tough leader, but it’s another thing altogether to literally throw out your competitors.” The only thing that those around us could see from Kirlia was a nod. “The trainers and Pokémon said that they fell through the trapdoor. If that’s the case, there must be an elevator that leads up.” “Good point. Let’s hope it’s still active.” Quickly, we started to walk forward towards the entrance as the remaining trainers simply watched as they were checking on their Pokémon that had fallen through with them.