Route 2 is just as boring as Route 3. Rats and birds.
I saw no signs of a oddish or a bellsprout. I'm in a damn forest and there's no plants..... fuck my life.
On the plus side Cleffa was turning into a hardy little beast. Her strength and toughness were building rapidly, her Pound attack, while just a wild haymaker punch was at the point where she would send most of the rats that came at us flying with only one punch. The training had paid off as well, in an odd way. Cleffa learned another move.
We were doing the basic striking exercises, this was usuallyaccompanied by a yell. I forgot what it was called but it was something i used as a training aid. For some reason screaming out as you struck added a bit of force and focus to a blow, and if you were angry enough, scared the shit out of any other enemies around the one you just pulped. Even a mote of fear or a heartbeats pause could be taken advantage of.
This is a fairly common tactic, not to be confused with shouting out your attack before you do it. I had taken advantage of that a few times in the past yelling one thing and doing something else entirely. It only works once or twice on the same opponent or group of them unless you are well known.
Imagine my surprise when a shout along with a hard punch into mitt i was having Cleffa hit, bowled me over to crash to the ground like I had gotten tackled.
After some chaos and a a bit of work calming Cleffa down i started experimenting to figure out what happened.
Seems she had learned something the pokedex called Disarming Voice
We practiced that until we were both a little hoarse.
Well I was a little horse before, but.... never mind, bad joke.
Still it was something else to add to our combat skills. It wasn't very strong, but if the target could hear her, or feel the vibrations....... actually I had no idea how this worked pokemon combat when it went beyond physical was weird to me.
I just accepted it.
I then started getting her to work the cry into her punches, so when she struck she yelled and blasted the enemy with two hits in one.
She couldn't pull it off at first though by the time we made it to Viridian City, she was managing it one time out of seven or eight.
I also gave her a name.
Rose.
Her full name was Sergeant Rose Petal, named after a mare under my command from the 42nd who died when we pushed back the dragon's forces into the Darklands. She was a rather mean cuss as well, tough and eager for a fight as any one else. She was lost in an attempt to secure a forward position across the draconic line. And her team did it too, held it long enough for the rest of us to get there and secure the rise. We used that high ground to great effect until Onyx Wing entered the field.
I closed my eyes a moment. So long ago and I still remember most of the names. How many of them were here on this world with me? How many did I meet again in Equestria in new lives? How many had moved on some where else, did any of them remember like i did? Or were they like my parents and grandparents, the same , yet without the memory of their past lives? Did everyone remember and just not talk about it? It was one of the questions i wondered and never had an answer for.
So i just had to live as i was and take each day as it came.
Rose huffed as my mind trailed, off drawing me back to our training. The little cleffa was thrilled with her name, and was still raring to go.
We stayed on route 2 for about a week before stopping in Viridian City. The gym was closed, according to the locals this was pretty much normal for this particular gym. I wondered how the place remained in operation. We stuck around for a few days battling a few trainers here and there, working on Rose's new ability. We did alright, though we lost more battles than we won, and made more than a few trips to the Pokemon Center.
Rose hated when she lost, but there were too many trainers in town that had poison types. Nidorans, ekans, oddishes, and bellsprouts were in high abundance here. While Rose did well, there were a few better trained ones where she couldn't over come the typing difference with brute force.
Her new ability however made dealing with the birds almost as easy as the rats.
After a few days sleeping under a real roof and having a real meal and a shower or course, I decided to head down towards Pallet Town after another call back home. I had been out here maybe two weeks already and I felt I hadn't done much. I hadn't even caught another pokemon yet.
The trip down route 1 was as much as I expected.
Dull.
I continued my strengthening drills and considered teaching Rose how to use a weapon. She got better quickly in combining the two attacks until she managed it at least one time out of three. Rose had the idea and refused to give up trying to master it. I figured i could call it Fairy Punch or something for when i needed to differentiate the moves, this punch had a range on it which made it sneaky, but it was only sneaky so long as it wasn't widely known.
I wished I had enough for a sword or at least a survival knife, but between the losses and travel expenses I had to make what funds I had last.
That was the main method of making money for new trainers after all. Betting on the fights.
It was something that bothered me at first. Reminded me of the few dog or cock fights Luna and I had come across in our travels. Here though, it was different, most pokemon seemed to want to fight. Some didn't of course, but it was less like a dog fight and more like boxers. If a pokemon didn't want to fight they didn't, a trainers will power could only force them so far. It was why a lot of new trainers never got more than a badge or two, they didn't have the drive for conflict, or their pokemon didn't. Some trainers swapped out their pokemon for ones that were willing to fight. Wild pokemon mostly, a number of the wild ones knew pairing with a human would allow them to become much stronger and thus likely dominate in their home territory when they came back.
I lucked out with Rose, despite being built like a ball of marshmallow fluff, she was very much a fighter.
We had entered Pallet Town and were following the trail that went along the outside of town that lead to one of the Trainer camping sites the Pokemon League had set up.
Pallet town had grown larger since Red left it, but the main draw was the large pokelab in town where a large number of revelations about the nature of pokemon as well as most of the updates to the pokedex came from. The building had started out of some one's garage like back n Ponytaville and expanded to a massive complex that was nearly the size of the town when it started. Of course the town grew as well to cater to the needs of the people who worked in the center. And so Pallet Town should have been renamed to Pallet City, but the locals didn't want to change it no matter how big the place got.
Rose and I were jogging, well I was jogging, rose was doing that weird ground covering skip her kind did though she had to adjust it to keep pace with me.
We had seen the massive wall that surrounded the Pokemon Lab compound. Much of the space it took up were custom biomes for the pokemon. The wall itself wasn't too special . just a sandstone wall with a tile decorated top, there was a bit of graffiti on the wall though.
Everything from the classic 'blank' was here, to the more complex designs of some one bordering on a true artist. I had to stop a moment to look over a well painted mural in spray paint of the epic battle between the Champion and Red. I had watched that on TV and it was still in constant reruns at times.
It was because of this pause that Rose and i missed being burred under a ton of rock as the outer wall exploded. Smoke billowed out of the hole, purple and stinging, looking up a Koffin floated over head spewing out the mist as it ducked into and around the smoke.
“Electrode return!” Shouted a voice from the smoke.” Move it maggots, that paralysis isn't going to last long.”
A figure emerged from the smoke right before us. A black mask covered the lower half of his face, he wore a black outfit and had a few pokeballs on his belt. He was carrying a large metal case with him as he emerged from the smoke. What drew my eyes was the bright red 'R' emblazoned on his chest.
"Team Rocket?" I blinked.
“Piss off kid!” The man growled and swung the case at me.
That was a mistake.
I might not be the big strong unicorn god of battle that I was before, but I had spent all ten years of my new life getting used to my body and training it.
I ducked under the case, the weight of it pulling him off balance before I slammed my fist into his midsection doubling him over, clearly he didn't expect a ten year old to have quite that much force in his hits as a disgusting sounding glurp came from his mouth as he tried to hold back from coughing up his lunch.
I pulled out the ax off my belt, bringing the handle of it down hard on the back of his head as he tried to recover, flattening the man to the ground.
Another rushed from the smoke cloud, she was dressed the same and also had a case, the koffin floated behind her.
“What the fuck.... GREG'S down!” she yelled back into the cloud.
“ROSE” I shouted pointing at the woman as I snatched the heavy case from the fallen man's grip, flinging it.
"CLEF~ FA!!'Rose took the hint and jumped up to slam her fist into the woman's jaw, sending her up off her feet and crashing back into the smoke.
The case hit the Koffin knocking it out of the air with the impact and breaking the case open. Dozen's of pokeballs spilled out of the opened case, all falling to clatter across the ground in the debris or landing with a thud on the grass.
My attention shifted from the loose pokeballs to the third figure stepping out of the smoke.
He was tall, probably about six foot, nearly all muscle, probably about 15 or 16. His skin was slightly yellowish brownish ,sandy color. He wasn't wearing a mask and had short cropped black hair and piercing blue eyes. He had on a brown undershirt with a black leather jacket with the stylized red R on the chest like a frat colt jacket, he was also carrying a case like the other two had been. What drew my attention however was the sword he had on his back. The massive thing was rough and pitted from use and nearly as tall as the man who wore it. A thick leather belt ran over his shoulder, likely to hold the sword and three pokeballs he had on the front.
“Stupid bitch, I knew I should have taken some one more skilled than your stupid ass.” The man snapped at the fallen woman before he looked up at me. The man's blue eyes widened at the sight of me and his face turned into a rictus snarl.
It took me one moment to recognize him, the voice however clenched it. Particularly since I was just thinking about these assholes.
I narrowed my eyes yanking the cover off the ax head as I snarled back at him, my fangs bared, the glowing red of my eye glinting off the head of my ax making the blade seem to glow red as well from the intensity.
“Kaisur.” the man spat my name.
“Claymore.” I literally spat after saying his.
“What the fuck are you doing here!?”
“Bout to make good on a promise I couldn't keep last time you little shit.” I snarled gripping my ax tighter.
“FIRE SPIN!” another voice screamed out causing the area behind Claymore to erupt in a inferno as the smoke exploded, the heat forcing Rose and myself back , though my eyes remained on Claymore.
Claymore cursed, glancing back at the hole in the wall and the pair of fallen Team Rocket members before he swore and glared at me before he pulled out a pokeball and released a rapidash.
My eyes widened at the sight of the equine.
It's horn was broken, and what looked like barbwire was pulled tight like a bridle on the horses face. It's ears were pierced with ragged bits of metal and still seemed to be bleeding. The wire was wrapped tight around it's legs digging into it's flesh and it's mane and tail were cut impossibly short somehow.
The thing that drew my attention though was the brand burned into it's flank, that looked like a mockery of Celestia's cutie mark.
I didn't even want to know what temperature a brand needed to be mark a fire type like that.
The white equine screamed out as it was summoned and the man mounted it, jabbing his heels into it;'s flanks and I could see that he wore spurs that drove into it's sides.
“This changes things. “Claymore growled.”Don't get comfortable Kaisur.”
“I'm gonna choke you to death with your own intestines.” I shouted back pushing forward only for Rose to move between me and Claymore pushing me back as the fire spin continued burning off the smoke the koffing had made.
Claymore took the pause to kick the rapidash in the sides again sending the creature galloping off at high speed crashing through the forest.
“I am going to kill that fucker so damn hard.”I snarled
“WATER CANNON!” the voice called again and a deluge of water poured over the flame filled air dampening it and eventually putting it out before a group of people rushed out of the hole in the wall, each of them with several pokemon surrounding them.
I glanced to where Claymore had vanished, before picking up the sheath for the ax head putting it back on as several of the larger pokemon turned their attention to me.
The fucker went that way.” I pointed into the forest gaining the attention of one of the people with the pokemon, the man dressed as a police officer nodded and gestured to an Arcanine that was with the group , mounting it and taking off after Claymore. A gesture from another sent a Fletchinder soaring off after him with a Fearow right behind it.
A Blastoise and a Magnaton stared me down as Rose turned and glared back at them as if daring the much larger pair to try something.
A older man in a lab coat walked up the rubble towards me, his hands touching the two large pokemon as he passed and the pair of them backed up a little. He paused to take note of the broken case and the scattered pokeballs with a sigh. A woman ran up behind him as he gestured to the balls and the other case which the woman rushed over to open and check.
“They're not here.” The woman cursed.
The man turned his attention back to me, brushing some soot off his lab coat. “And who might you be?”
I reached into my vest pocket pulling out my trainer ID before offering it to the man. “I'm Jer'rahd Kaisur from Ponytaville.”
He looked at the ID, then back to the two on the ground. He gestured to two of the guards who rushed over to secure them.
“Kaisur huh? I think I met your mother.. or maybe grandmother once before.” The man considered before handing back my ID. “ In either case it is nice to meet you despite the circumstances. My name is Professor Oak. ”