“If I had any regrets from deciding to stick with you guys, they’re long gone by now.” Flare mumbled after swallowing a mouthful of PokéChow.
Fairy and Prism giggled. “Buried under tons of food?” the trainer asked her Vulpix before taking the last bite of her own meal.
“Yep.”
“Hey guys, hurry up ok? I want to get to Ponyville soon.” Spike called, already packing up.
“Why? I mean, we’re not exactly on a hurry, as long as we get there today then it’s fine, and White Tail Woods isn’t very big on this side; the northwestern part, though...” Fairy asked her travelling companion, standing up and walking to her purse. “Then again, I really want to start training you two.” She mused.
“Why wait?” Prism asked her trainer.
“Mostly so we can spend a day or three on the same spot for training, something we can’t do now because both of us are dumbasses and forgot our tents.” The girl pointed out.
“That and we’ll probably find some Pokémon on the way to town. I really want something to fight Applejack with, and Gym battles are always three on three.” Spike explained. “Sure, there are some Leaders who do two on two battles when the challenger has only two Pokémon, and Applejack is one of them, but I don’t want to need that. If what Icicle told us was right, then I want a Spearow or something; there must be a few Bug-types here in this forest as well.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” The female Eevee said with a curt nod.
“Alright, everyone ready?” The boy asked to the rest of the group. Flare nodded and walked to Fairy’s side, Prism jumped to her trainer’s shoulder, finally managing to keep herself there, and Shade mimicked his sister’s actions with his own trainer. “Then let’s go.”
They walked calmly through the woods, paying attention to their surroundings as they made small talk. Fairy and Spike were mainly catching up with what happened to them the last few days while Flare and Prism talked about the Eevee’s life on the lab. Shade sometimes joined the two female’s conversation to tell his point of view of a certain event, but most of the time he just kept silent and looked around, trying to spot something interesting.
“Hey, are you two sure this is the right way?” The male Eevee asked with a frown. “Not that I doubt your sense of direction, but I still want to make sure.”
“it’s ok, and I think we are. It’s kind of hard to tell from here.” Spike frowned before turning to Fairy. “Could you try from a higher point-of-view, please?”
Fairy smirked and threw her purse to Spike. “Sure.” She walked towards a nearby tree and inspected it, Prism quickly jumping down. Without the extra cargo, Fairy quickly started to climb, like it was something natural to her.
Flare stared at the tree for a moment before tilting her head to the side. “Huh. That happened.”
“Our trainer is cool, huh?” Prism asked her fellow fox.
Spike chuckled. “Yeah, before Fairy learned how to operate and build the machines she spent a lot of time with the Pokémon on the lab. She used to play a lot with them, and picked up a few things during the years; some by ‘accident’, some because she asked them to teach her.” He shook his head with a smile. “Seriously, I think the only thing she didn’t learn from them was actual Moves.”
“I did try to learn a few-” Fairy called from above before jumping down to them. The moment she impacted the floor she threw herself forwards into a roll before stopping on a knee. “But Lucario said my Aura wasn’t strong enough to power the Moves, or else I’d be throwing Aura Spheres like there’s no tomorrow.” She shrugged her shoulders as she stood up.
“That’s… a slightly scaring sight.” Spike admitted.
Fairy rolled her eyes. “Anyways, I’m pretty sure we are on the right path, but I found some locals up ahead, if you want to ask them.” She held her pendant up. “Besides, they’re a Flying and a Bug.”
They walked towards the place Fairy said she found the Pokémon from the forest, and a short time after that they could hear their voices. “-can’t believe it fled.” One of them said.
“It’s not my fault your web is so weak.” The other replied.
The group peeked through a bush and found a brown and cream-colored bird and a green spider with six yellow and dark green-colored legs looking at a ripped spider web. ‘Probably a trap set up by the Spinarak to catch their prey.’ Spike and Fairy thought.
The Spinarak turned to glare at her Pidgey companion. “It’s not weak, it just isn’t foolproof. It was probably a Weedle, and it ripped the web to escape; or a Wurple. If it was a Caterpie, it wouldn’t have escaped.”
“Whatever, but we have nothing to eat now.” The Pidgey sighed.
Prism took that moment to step out of the bush, the others from the group following her. ”Excuse me, but could you tell us the way to Ponyville?” The Eevee asked.
Both wild Pokémon jumped from the sudden voice, but quickly recomposed themselves. They turned to face the newcomer, and the Pidgey narrowed her eyes slightly at the sight of the humans. “Yeah, it’s that way.” She pointed a wing to a certain direction, the same they were already walking towards.
“So I was right, then; thank you.” Fairy nodded. “Hey, what happened?” She pointed to the web.
“Intelligent and/or resourceful prey happened.” The Spinarak sighed, shaking her head. “Now we’ll need to follow this moron’s plan to find food.”
“Hey!” The Tiny Bird Pokémon shouted. “I’ll have you know my plans aren’t all that bad!”
The String Spit Pokémon deadpanned. “Last time we followed a plan of yours, we wandered inside Beedrill’s territory.” Everyone winced. “And after managing to flee from the Beedrill, you attacked the first Caterpie that appeared in front of us, which led to their parent – who were fluttering no more than four meters away – to throw us across the forest with Confusion. So hell yeah your plans are bad!”
Fairy pursed her lips. “I don’t know if I should feel bad, but I really want to laugh right now.” She mused. “Actually, I have another thing to ask.”
“Which is…?” The Pidgey trailed off.
“Well, we’re travelling around Equus to see if these things can translate Pokéspeech, which seems to be working-” She said while pointing to her pendant and Spike’s bracelet; both Pokémon blinked when they realized the humans could understand them the whole time. “-and to take on the Gym Challenge. The next Gym is Grass; Spike here needs a Pokémon with Type advantage and I need another to complete three so I can challenge the Leader without her having to go easy on me.” The girl smirked. “I’m sure you already worked out my request.”
“No.” The Normal/Flying-Type said firmly.
“We have food.” Spike offered.
“Still n-” “Sure thing.” The Bug/Poison interrupted her friend.
“What the hell?!” The Pidgey screeched.
“Think for a moment, okay? We can’t grow stronger if all our foes only know Tackle, and we’d probably live better with them than in this shithole; it could be fun, even. What are holding you back? The flock that doesn’t give a single shit for its members? Wasn’t that the reason you started hunting with me in the first place?” The Spinarak countered.
Pidgey stood still for a moment before sighing. “Alright… but if you two really want us in your team, you’ll need to be able to actually catch us.”
Fairy and Spike looked at each other before smirking and nodding. “So, a double battle?” The boy asked, receiving a nod from the wild Pokémon. “Alright then, let’s get ready.”
Both sides put a few feet of distance from each other before the wilds entered their battle stances, the Spinarak clicking her mandibles together and the Pidgey flying above her partner. Fairy turned to her Vulpix. “You’ll just watch this time, okay?” Flare nodded and the girl called her starter. “Alright Prism, show them what you got!”
“Let’s go!” The Eevee cried out happily and took her own stance.
“Are you and all your Pokémon going to do that every time?” Spike sweatdropped.
“Yep.”
“Figures…” Spike sighed, paused to think for a moment before sighing once again. “Screw it. Shade, battle cry!” He called for his own starter while ignoring Fairy’s grin.
“Let’s do this.” The male Eevee said calmly, walking to the battleground and taking a stance similar to his sister’s, but with the paws in the reverse order. While Prism was crouched with her right forepaw slightly forwards and left hind paw a bit back, Shade had his left forepaw forwards and right hind paw back.
“You need to be a bit more enthusiastic, Shade.” Prism told her brother.
“No thank you, that’s your job; mine is keeping you from killing yourself.” Shade snarked.
“Ready?” The Pidgey called; when the group nodded, she smirked. “Then go!” She shouted and immediately surged forwards in a Quick Attack aimed at Prism.
“Quick Attack, intercept her!” Spike called. Shade jumped in front of Prism and impacted Pidgey before she reached his sister. The bird kept flapping her wings to push the male Eevee back, but he grounded his paws and refused to move an inch. “Bite!” Shade pushed the Pidgey with all his strength and tried to bite her, his mouth clacking with Dark-typed energy, but the Pidgey pulled up at the right time and managed to escape.
“Tackle the Spinarak!” Fairy suddenly shouted and her Eevee took off with speed that rivaled a Quick Attack, crossing the field in seconds and making the Spinarak cancel the Poison Sting she was preparing in favor to use String Shot from her rear, pulling herself to a branch. However, Prism jumped to the side, to a tree, and jumped again to gain more altitude, slamming on the String Spit Pokémon and sending her back down.
The Pidgey saw her ally in distress and fired off a Gust to force Prism back a few feet. Spike saw his opportunity. “Quick Attack again! Use a tree like Prism did!” Shade nodded and ran towards a slightly bent tree and sped off, leaving a trail of white energy behind him. He ran to a branch and jumped towards the Flying-type, but the Pidgey noticed his approach and dodged at the last second. She returned the attack with a Tackle which sent him back to solid ground, the impact kicking off a cloud of dust that block the vision for a few seconds.
Spinarak shook her head and launched another String Shot, pulling herself upwards so she would have a clear vision of her targets. She located Shade and shot a volley of Poison Stings. “Dodge!” Spike shouted. Shade jumped back and evaded the line of fire, running away from the rain of purple needles. Pidgey took that moment to appear in front of him a few feet away with a Quick Attack, speeding to impact the Eevee.
“Detect and then Bite!” “Stop the Spinarak with Shadow Ball!” Spike and Fairy shouted respectively. Prism quickly gathered Ghost energy in a ball in front of her mouth and fired at the Poison-type, impacting her and launching her off the tree; at the same time Shade’s eyes flashed for a second and he jumped over his attacker, twisting himself mid-air and clamping his mouth shut on her wing at the same time he fell on top of her, making the Pidgey cry out in pain and crash.
“Son of a- you’re going to pay for that!” She grunted and threw a Sand Attack at close range, causing Shade to yelp and release her, stepping back to rub his eyes. The Pidgey used the distraction to fire a Gust, launching the Normal-type into a tree.
“Heh. You hit quite hard.” He grunted and stood up with a grin. "This is getting pretty fun.” The Flying-type couldn’t help but grin back before surging forwards with another Quick Attack.
“Detect!” Spike called out. Shade pressed himself against the tree and jumped upwards at the last moment, and kicking the tree to be launched over the Tiny Bird Pokémon. She squawked and tried to change course, but was unable to and slammed the tree beak-first. Shade winced at the sound of the impact.
“Tackle!” Fairy called and Prism ran towards the Spinarak, slamming into her and sending the Bug-type flying near her brother. The String Spit Pokémon saw her opportunity and shot a string that wrapped around Shade, and started to use Absorb.
Shade grunted in pain and tried to escape the attack, but his strength was being steadily sapped by the Spinarak. “Bite the string and throw her off!” He gladly obeyed his trainer’s command and bit down on the string, spinning the Bug-type around himself and threw her at her comrade, and she slammed on the Pidgey with a squeak.
“That’s it! No more playing around!” The Pidgey screeched as she stood up and glared at the Eevee twins. She quickly sped off with another Quick Attack, aiming for the one with less ways to hurt her; Prism held her ground with a grin.
“Keep dodging and hit her with Tail Whip, lower her defense!” Fairy called. Prism’s grin grew and she jumped out of the way with incredible speed, whipping her tail around and hitting her opponent with it. Pidgey turned around and tried again, obtaining the same results. They kept at this for a while and Fairy turned to Spike. “Keep the Spinarak occupied, we got the Pidgey.”
Spike nodded and turned to the battle. “Quick Attack the Spinarak!” Shade ran towards the String Spit Pokémon to try and attack her, but she had another idea and fired a String Shot on his paws; the Eevee gasped as his forelegs were bind together and fell forwards, rolling a few feet. “Dodge! Now!” He quickly tore the string and jumped to his feet in time to evade a spider web that had electricity coursing through it.
The Eevee furrowed his brows. “Electroweb? Huh.”
“We trained our egg moves together.” The Spinarak shrugged.
“Really? What’s hers?” He nodded to the Pidgey, who was getting pissed at the Catch the Eevee game she was ‘playing’ with Prism.
“You’ll see eventually.” She chuckled. “Your trainer will be even more determined to catch her then.”
“Must be good then.” Shade nodded.
“Bite!” Spike shouted and Shade turned back to the Spinarak, mouth covered in shadows once again, and she jumped out of the way before wrapping the Eevee with silk in a Constrict. “Shade!” The boy gasped as the Eevee cried out in pain.
Fairy took a quick look at the other battle and called her Pokémon. “Enough, Prism! Attack Spinarak with a Shadow Ball!” The Eevee dodged her enemy one more time, gracefully twirling in the air before quickly firing a sphere of darkness at the Bug-type, sending her flying into a tree. The Spinarak shot her String Shot into a tree and pulled herself to safety, as one more hit would probably knock her out.
“Take this!” The Pidgey cried out and flew up high before doing a corkscrew and flying towards the female Eevee. Halfway through the tackle, she smirked and blue flames lit around her, making her opponents go wide-eyed.
“Brave Bird?!” Spike gasped.
“Let her close in!” Fairy called, an idea forming in her mind. Prism gulped and took a steading breath as she lowered herself into her battle stance. The Pidgey kept approaching, speed steadily increasing; when the Flying-type was just a few feet away Fairy made her move. “Jump and Synchronoise!” She roared. Her Eevee automatically jumped over her attacker and fired off a wave of discordant sound that impacted all Normal-types in the area, including her brother.
Both of them winced as the attack hit them, but Pidgey went wide eyed as her flight path changed, straight down. She gasped and desperately tried to correct her course, but wasn’t able to and ended up Brave Birding the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and cracking the local she impacted.
“Quick Attack the Spinarak!” Spike called and Shade shrugged off his pain, running to the tree that the Spinarak was hiding herself. He jumped on a tree and kicked to a low hanging branch before jumping to another, until he reached the Bug-type and shoulder-slammed her down to the ground.
Fairy took out her empty Pokéball and nodded to Spike. “You called dibs.” Spike nodded gratefully and took another empty Pokéball, eyeing the dust cloud concealing the Pidgey. “Figures.” She rolled her eyes.
Both of them pulled their arms back before throwing the ’balls straight to the Pokémon they were aiming for, both Pokéballs impacting their targets at the same time. They opened and sucked in the Pokémon before clamping shut and falling to the ground. Both of them eyed the ‘ball as they shook multiple times for a few seconds, until the finally went still and ding’ed to signal a successful capture.
Everyone present let out a breath they didn’t know they were holding and smiled and giggled, and the humans walked to the ‘balls that held their respective Pokémon. They bent down to grab the Pokéballs and Fairy smiled. “Alright! I caught a Spinarak!” She said with her little dance, Prism jumping to her shoulder with her “Yeah!”
Spike and Shade groaned and Flare snickered. “That was cute!” She giggled.
“Don’t encourage her.” Spike admonished the Vulpix.
“Spi~ike.” “Sha~ade.”
“Aw, hell no.” Both of them sighed.
“Do it.” Fairy and Prism told them with a wide grin.
“No.” The boys replied flatly.
“Do it.”
“No.”
“Do it.”
“No.”
“Do it!”
“No!”
“Do it!”
“FINE!” They both roared. Spike sighed. “Just, give me a moment to think of something that isn’t too ridiculous.” He stopped for a second before nodding. He put his left hand on his pocket and spun the ‘ball on his index finger, he then threw it upwards with the same finger and caught it with a simple movement of his hand, with the Pokéball pointing its button straight forwards. While he did that, Shade jumped on his shoulder, eyed the ‘ball and nodded with closed eyes when his trainer caught the capsule. “Alright then, I caught a Pidgey!”
The girls applauded them. “Not bad.” Fairy praised.
“Just don’t get used to it.” Spike said.
“Aw, you probably will be doing it on your own in a few months.” Fairy said with a smirk. She shook her head and held the Bug-type’s Pokéball forwards. “Alright, come on out.” The capsule opened and the bright light that came out formed the battered Bug-type, who looked at the human curiously. She nodded when she saw Fairy taking out a potion from her purse. “Come on, Prism. I’ll put a bit just to make it stop hurting, and then we’ll go to the Pokécenter to cure both of you completely there.”She took out her Pokédex with the potion and clicked the scan, setting it down to spray her potion on them.
Spike nodded and let the Pidgey out so he could do the same. “Good idea.”
“Spinarak, the String Spit Pokémon. The web spun by Spinarak can be considered its second nervous system. It is said that this Pokémon can determine what kind of prey is touching its web just by the tiny vibrations it feels through the web's strands.
Gender: Female
Ability: Swarm
Moves: String Shot, Electroweb, Absorb, Constrict, Poison Sting.”
“Pidgey, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. Pidgey has an extremely sharp sense of direction. It is capable of unerringly returning home to its nest, however far it may be removed from its familiar surroundings.
Gender: Female
Ability: Keen Eye
Moves: Tackle, Quick Attack, Sand Attack, Gust, Brave Bird.”
He examined both his Pokémon as he sprayed the potion on them, wincing a little as he inspected the Pidgey’s wounds. “Looks like Brave Birding the floor is as much of a good idea as it sounds.”
The Flying-type deadpanned. “No shit.”
The boy snorted. “You guys swear a lot more than I was expecting.”
She shrugged. “It’s amusing when you call someone ‘son of a bitch’ ad they think you’re saying ‘hello’.”
“Fair enough.” He admitted. “So, looks like everyone here is getting a nickname. You want one?”
“I’ll call you Silk. It’s simple, makes sense and sounds good.” Fairy told the Spinarak.
Silk nodded. “Yeah, I like it.”
The Pidgey looked at her friend and sighed. “Whatever. Go ahead.”
“Breeze?” He asked.
“Are you calling me weak?” She narrowed her eyes.
“No, but it’ll make your foe underestimate you until they get Brave Birded by a freaking Pidgeot.” He grinned.
She looked at him for a moment before smirking. “Alright, I can go for that. And it isn’t bad sounding, either.”
“Alright! Let’s get to Ponyville!” Fairy told them and turned to her Pokémon. “I’ll put you two on your ‘balls for now okay, I’ll let you out as soon as I can.”
“Same.” Spike nodded. Both of them aimed their Pokéballs at the Pokémon and returned them. “Let’s go?” He asked Fairy as she returned Flare as well.
“Yep.” She said with a nod, and both of them ran towards town.