As we keep moving, we come upon a forest. It’s not like the one from earlier though, as the trees are farther apart, letting a lot more sunlight through the branches. It makes it look a lot more inviting, so we decide we would just make our way through it. The trail disappears soon after we enter, but we figure we won’t have a problem as long as we just keep going, as we can easily see where we’re going.
Several more Oddish, some Petilil, and a Nidoran♂ are visible wandering through the brush. The only one of them that even pays us attention is the Nidoran♂, who glares and postures from the woods. I pay it no mind, they aren’t that dangerous. Besides, we aren’t threatening it by walking by it.
We walk along, and come across a stream, the thin brook burbling pleasantly and reminding us to drink and refill our canteens. It’s a pleasantly peaceful forest, with large moss-covered boulders dotting the forest floor. Ahead, a grove is visible, with a clearing circling it. The entire stand of trees is somewhat elevated, a cage of roots trapping the dirt to make it almost as tall as I am, and that’s before the trees even start!
Looking up at the tree, I see that it’s bare. Odd how that catches my eye. Then I realize most of the other trees have nests, or holes in them. Not even a Metapod or Silcoon is clinging to the trunk...
I then hear a piercing shriek from beside me. I turn to see what Rarity saw and I see a very angry Nidorino charging at us, horn pointed towards us with intent to stab. I don’t have time to call out any of my Pokémon, so I try to leap to the side. I barely get away in time and it looks like the ponies had a similar idea, though the Nidorino is quickly changing directions to target us again.
The angry, purple pokémon really only comes up to about my knees, but I know how dangerous the venom in its horn is, and I relay this information to the others as I dodge again. It only takes a single poke from one of those spikes to incapacitate an adult human. I try to think of a way to stall it. I toss Geodude out. If any of us would have a chance against a Poison type, it’s him.
“Alright Geodude, stall it!” The rocky pokémon rushes towards the Nidorino, who ends up headbutting it. Though the Nidorino looks merely pissed. It turns around and gives Geodude a donkey-kick, launching my pokémon through a small tree before landing on the ground unconscious. Crap.
I recall my Pokémon and we take the few moments of distraction to try and get away. After some time, we seem to have gotten far enough away from it’s territory and it stops and just yells angrily at us.
Twilight, panting, reminds me of a warning from earlier. “D- didn’t professor Basswood t- tell us not to- to go in the forest?”
“I- I thought she meant- meant the other forest.”
We look around, and I see that the forest is darker here, without so many trees populated by pokémon. Exactly like... oh.
“Okay girls.” I whisper. “Just stay quiet and we’ll see if we can back out of here and get back on track...”
“Which way is the path?”
“No idea, but we really don’t want to be here, our best bet against a Poison type just got trashed, so we need to leave.” I turn around and feel the blood in my veins turn to ice as I am looking a Nidoking dead in the eyes. Oooooooh fuck.
“Rrrrrg.” The Nidoking doesn’t look angry at the moment, merely surprised. I guess nothing really comes into its territory anymore. I take a step backwards, snapping a twig underfoot. The Nidoking’s eyes narrow as it makes up its mind, and I start to run again.
“Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap!” The Nidoking, though not as fast as the Nidorino, is a lot bigger and just breaks down any trees in it’s way, making it much harder to avoid in general.
When all else fails, ask the magic-user. “Twilight, do something!”
“I c- can- can’t c- concen- concentrate!” Twilight yells back, galloping as quickly as she can. Rarity is outpacing us both, and her Ledyba is clinging to the white pony’s back for dear life. I try and think of something, anything to do. Come on... think! Then I get an idea. “Twilight, Spheal!”
At this point, none of us want to argue, so she just tosses out the Pokéball, levitating her pokémon along the way. “It’s Ground type, use Water Gun!”
The Spheal, startled at its current position, doesn’t question who gave the order and sprays the Nidoking with a jet of Water. The concussive force of the Water Gun manages to knock the Nidoking back about an inch and gives us a few more moments to hopefully outpace him. I have one other plan and if it fails, we’re pretty much as good as trampled. “Spheal, Powder Snow!”
The flurry of snow hits Nidoking dead in the chest and he winces for a moment. “Keep it up!” After a few moments, Nidoking’s armor starts to frost over and he slows down.
“Now hurry, before he defrosts!”
Luckily, with the Nidoking paused like that we make it out of the forest relatively safe, though I feel like I’m breathing so hard I’m going to pop a lung. The girls don’t look much better.
A sound of thuds and grunts from nearby catches my attention as I rest, gulping in air as my lungs cool down. Looking for the source of the noise, I hobble over to a pile of rocks, and peer over it. On the other side of the natural barrier, a group of pokémon are working together, a large one holding a solid bar of concrete to smooth the ground with, and nearly a dozen others around it with logs and girders to build something.
The ponies beside me startle, but I calm them down. “Don’t worry, these guys are only dangerous if you attack them first, we should be okay.” I think for a moment. “Should.”
After several minutes of watching them set up a concrete foundation and place steel bars and lines for the base, the framework literally goes up in less than twenty minutes; a two-story house with several paths leading outwards takes shape in those twenty minutes.
Finally, the clan of Conkeldurr, Gurdurr, and Timburr all sit down for a lunch, and my stomach growls. So does Twilight’s and Rarity’s, and the pokémon in front of us all look up as one.
Freezing in place, I wonder what to do. Running might make it look like we’re up to no good, and I’m not sure we could run again so soon anyways. Staying here might be bad, though, if they take offense at us being here...
One of the Timburr is gestured to head towards us by the Conkeldurr apparently in charge of the site. The squat, short little pokémon hops over, climbing the rocks with little difficulty. It looks at us, each of us laying down on the rocks and now looking up at it.
“Heheh, hi guys... nice house there. Hey, you got anything to eat? We just kinda had to run for our lives and uh... Nidoking, you know how it is, right?” I smile ingratiatingly at the pokémon
The Timburr turns to the rest of the group, and says something to them. The group cracks up, laughing and slapping their knees. The Timburr smiles and waves us towards the group. I guess we’re invited in...
While we’re eating, I get to describing their species. “And the biggest one there is a Conkeldurr. If you don’t count extinct species or Legendaries, these guys are rank three for the top strongest pokémon in the known world. Getting one angry would be the last thing you ever do."
Twilight looks a bit skeptical. “Third rank? But I thought you said there were over seven-hundred known species...”
I nod. “Yep. These guys are like pure muscle! I mean, did you see earlier? Those were solid chunks of concrete and he didn’t even break a sweat! Any trainer would feel honored to have one!” I’m feeling a little giddy at being in the presence of such a powerful pokémon, I can’t help but praise it. True it’s other stats are lacking and they’re pretty much a glass cannon, but if it hits first, it hits last!
I look around, still smiling, and see several of the fighting-type construction workers nodding in approval. A second bowl of noodles and a small cup of tea is placed in front of me. “So aside from our little run-in with that rather large Nidoking, I’d say we’re not doing too bad so far.”
Rarity and Twilight laugh a little. The white unicorn speaks up, “Well, I must admit, they’re certainly terrifying. Just as a question, if that was a Nidoking, is there such a thing as a Nidoqueen?”
“Yeah, though they are technically a separate genus. They both come from a specific variety of Nidoran, male or female and though they can breed with each other, they are still considered separate species. The larger purple-pink one that we ran into first is a Nidorino, the middle stage of a male Nidoran and Nidoking, also it’s the male counterpart of Nidorina. They are the only documented pokémon that have a different species based solely on gender.” I realize I’ve barely breathed at all during my triade. That said, it feels good to have my extensive knowledge be relevant.
The two ponies seem interested, and I start explaining more, mostly about how them being classified separately is a result of an older taxonomy method that’s obsolete, but has left that one artifact in the current system. “It also helps that the different genders of Nidoran and their evolutions show the most difference between genders, going far beyond just a minor appearance change, but demeanor and growth in general. Gender defines them much more than anything else, which makes them very interesting.”
We continue to talk about Pokémon for a little while longer, until the work force of Conkeldurr relatives usher us away from the site and goes back to work. While I’d like one of my own, none of them seem interested in following us, and I’m not going to try to snag one. They could easily outrun us and I don’t really want to be turned into meat jelly just to try for a Timburr.
I do point out one fact that had slipped my mind until I stood up and looked at the pokémon’s height compared to mine. “By the way, that Nidoking back there, that was a big one. Usually they’re about a foot or so shorter. In this case, I’m just going to assume that this forest grows ‘em kinda big.”
My companions have no comments on that, so we just keep walking. The Conkeldurr had taken the time to point until I understood he was pointing in the direction of something important, even if I wasn’t actually sure of what. Either way, that’s where we’re heading now. As we wander along the trail, we enjoy the view of fields of grass and flowers stretching in various directions. Every now and then, I catch a glimpse of a Sunkern or a Budew, but they seem rather timid and I don’t get a good look. After an hour or so, we run across a large pond with a few reeds and a bunch of lily pads scattered across its edges and surface.
I briefly wonder about the possibility of there being a Lotad or Lombre among them, and I consider the opportunity. I stop the girls and toss out the Pokéball containing my most recent catch. “Alright Carvanha, let’s see if we can’t scare up some competition, whaddya say?”
The fish-like pokémon snaps its jaws open and shut a few times, showing it’s razor-like teeth. Twilight and Rarity look a little nervous, obviously reminded of the Wailmer. Well, that’s nature, and it’s just gotta be something they get used to.
Carvanha turns around and darts towards... something. It takes a few moments but once the wild pokémon surfaces, I see that Carvanha has gotten the attention of a Lombre, who is climbing out of the water. Nearby, several Wooper are doing the same, all these pokémon crying out in fear and surprise at the sudden appearance of the hyper-predatory pokémon.
“Carvanha, get one of those Wooper back here!” With a huge burst of speed, Carvanha slams it’s body into one of the straggling Wooper. Huh, guess it knows Aqua Jet. If that’s the case then it should also know... “Use Leer, then take it down!” I pause for a moment, thinking about my order. “But don’t eat it, that’s against the rules!”
The Carvanha gives me a dirty look over its metaphorical shoulder, but appears to comply glaring viciously at the tackled Wooper and cowing it into submission. The fish opens its jaws and just chows down at the smaller pokémon, but only leaves a few gashes and wounds. The superficial damage is enough to make the wooper look faint, before passing out.
“Easy. Oh well, not bad anyway, nice job.” I recall my Pokémon and return the ball to my belt. That done, we get ready to wander around, until Twilight catches my attention.
“Uhm, Anthony? This one is being kind of... clingy.” She gestures down at one of her rear legs, and I see that there appears to be a lily pad stuck to the limb. It’s shivering slightly, and it doesn’t take long for me to recognize it as a Lotad. I lean over and peel it off, holding it in my hand upside-down so it doesn’t grab onto me and crawl up my arm. “Eh, if it wants to follow you, then fine. But Lotad aren’t really all that impressive. Given their classification as plants, these guys literally grow like weeds.”
Twilight nods. “Still, the poor thing seems so scared... Oh well, it’ll be fine back in the pond.” she gently levitates the pokémon out of my hand, and places it, right-side up, in the pond. the Lotad swims in a small circle, looking happy, until a huge, orange claw with two flanges snaps into place around it, and the Lotad is dragged to the dark, stirred murk of the pond’s bottom. I barely catch a glimpse of a star-shaped yellow crest before the mud and grit obscure the bottom totally.
Twilight looks horrified, and I can sorta understand; if she hadn’t put it back, it wouldn’t have been gotten like that. But then, I have to thank her for dredging up something a bit higher on the food chain. I toss out Carvanha into the pond again. “Alright, ready for round two? This is gonna be tougher... so go nuts!”
The fish pokémon grins viciously, then darts at the dredged muck. A glowing claw slams into it from the murky cloud, throwing it bodily from the water. I go to return Carvanha almost immediately, seeing the spinning, dazed eyes from where I stand. I try to think how it could’ve done that... then I remember Corphish don’t evolve into Crawdaunt until level 30. Well crap.
“Well girls, I think... we’re just gonna have to let the guy claim his territory. If we try and play hero, we’re just gonna get knocked out like Carvanha there...” Twilight and Rarity nod, and we all move as swiftly away from the pond as possible, heading in more or less the same direction as the Conkeldurr had pointed. No idea what we were gonna find, but he didn’t seem like he was leading us into a trap. Not that he’d need to if he wanted to do away with us.
Along the way, we see a few more ponds, these with Corphish sunning themselves in the shallows, and Lotad playing nearby them; evidently, those pools didn’t have a Crawdaunt tyrant to rule over them. Finally, the sun is starting to set, and we see something on the other side of a hill. A short climb later, and a large wooden house is visible, with the red Pokécenter symbol emblazoned onto a sign visible from the top of the hill. The building abuts another small forest, this one leading towards what appears to be a small, wooded valley, with cliffs on the far side.
“Well, I guess if you guys don’t know exactly how a Center works, I can show you. I’m not going anywhere with both of my pokémon unconscious like this.” With that, I start towards the center, the two mares following behind me. I briefly wonder if they should change before going inside, but it doesn’t really matter if they’re not going to be doing anything terribly important.