//------------------------------// // Chapter 21 // Story: Starlight: Redshift // by the-pieman //------------------------------// After an hour or two of battling pokémon, I set down my bag to rest against, and sit down in the warm shade of a clearing in the grass. “So, what’s next on our agenda? I’m planning on walking into the gym and just running Winston through the wringer, but I’m tired of training for a while.” Twilight, speaking into her éTech as if I’m a mile away, shouts that she’s just getting warmed up. “Eh, if you say so. I think I’ll check through a few more bushes then call it a day. I’ll see you two back at the Center.” Twilight nods distractedly at me, then shouts something to her pokémon. A series of greenish-purple needles fly over Twi’s head, and a Beedrill goes by on-camera before the video cuts off. Sighing and shaking my head, I hope that she doesn’t bring an entire Beedrill hive down on the town. Autumnwash seems like a nice place, and I’d hate to lose the Pokécenter to a bunch of Beedrill infesting it. Looking around, I stand up slowly, and spy a strange, deep-green leaf sticking out of the ground. It looks like a wild potato. Walking slowly over to investigate, I get a feeling in my gut. trusting my hunch, I slowly pull out my éTech, and point it at the plant. The Pokédex app starts up automatically, and chirrups at me, -Voltato, the Potato pokémon. - These gentle pokémon gather up large amounts of sunlight each day, in order to power the electrical jolts they use to signal mates and protect them from predators; the odd thing, is that they are largely toxic, except for their bodies, which are highly nutritious. - At the sound of the Pokédex’s voice, the little plant shivers, and it rises slowly, revealing a foot-tall potato, with three sets of little vines holding it up. It shakes a little, and dirt comes off it. Then, it turns towards me andholyshitthoseeyesareadorable! The little potato-like pokémon has a roughly ovoid body, with a pair of leaves coming off a stalk growing on its head, like a wilder version of Chikorita. It has three big eyes arranged in a triangular fashion on the ‘front’ of its tan body, and blinks them asynchronistically at me. “Tay-to?” it says in a soft voice, though I’m not sure how it’s vocalizing. “Well, not gonna pass up a pokémon I’ve never seen before.” I toss out Geodude. “Let’s see how tough you are, little guy.” The little Potato Pokémon looks at me with a look of utter hurt and betrayal that I actually feel bad for a moment, before quashing the feeling and going ahead with sending Geodude to collect the pokémon. I’m guessing it’s a Grass/Poison type based on the pokédex data. “Geodude, give it a Tackle to start.” I don’t know its base stats, nor it’s level, so I’m gonna have to only guess what the catch rate is. I haven’t got a clue what this thing is even capable of. “But don’t crush it.” The Voltato’s eyes go comically wide as Geodude bears down on the poor thing. It immediately begins scooping up dirt and putting it on top of itself, as if that would protect it, slamming its roots into the soil. When Geodude hits it, he almost knocks it free of the dirt, but it’s too well-rooted in place, though it certainly looks to be battered a bit. Then, a flurry of stinging, slapping vines burst from the ground, smacking away at Geodude and I. I back up several steps to elude them, and Geodude looks to be absolutely shocked by the sudden vines, especially when he’s snapped on the backside by a trio of vines braided together. “Tough little guy for a coward, aren’t you? Good, I like them strong. Geodude, see if you can’t pull it out of the ground.” Geodude nods, fending off several more slaps with an upraised arm. He’s wincing, but he can make it, I’m sure. With a show of might, he digs in his fingers around the Voltato, who opens its eyes in time to get tugged free with a series of snapping sounds. The vines go limp, and the Voltato... grabs ahold of Geodude’s head/body. It’s all I can do not to laugh at Geodude flailing and swinging at the potato clinging to his back, hopping in a circle and generally looking pretty silly. Whatever they are normally like, this one is, at least, tenacious as hell. “Calm down Geodude, hold still!” When Geodude slows his flailing enough, I toss a pokéball at the vegetable clinging to his head and it disappears in the typical burst of light. It barely shakes at all, and then dings, signalling an easy capture. I thank Geodude and return him to his Premier ball, before inspecting the Pokéball that now holds my most recent and exotic capture. It didn’t seem to fight the ball much, so I guess he’s okay with it... I toss the ball out and the Voltato springs out in the white flash. I get a closer look at it. It’s cute but also pretty small, only coming up to my kneecap. I pick up the little pokémon. “So aside from the mandatory Vine Whip, what can you do exactly?” “Tay-to!” It says, and proceeds to unleash a hellish electrical charge, and the pain makes lights explode in my eyes. I fall to my knees, a visible scorch-mark on the ground around me, my entire body blackened slightly. Voltato seems entirely too pleased with this, smiling eyes and all. Voltato have an incredible amount of electrical power stored in their bodies, but are usually too docile to unleash it. - I roll my eyes. “Thanks for that, ‘Dexter’.” I place Voltato’s shrunken ball on my belt next to Carvanha’s and I head off to the Pokémon Center as planned. I wonder if they can treat shocks on people as well. I’m still feeling kinda frazzled. At the pokécenter: “I just discovered Voltato for the first ti-” I start, but the Nurse Joy cuts me off with a knowing nod. “Other regions have Emolga or Pikachu giving new trainers shocks. Here, there’s Voltato. You’ll recover fine in a few hours, but I’d suggest getting some starches and water in you.” she takes a breath and explains. “The electrical jolt can really dry you out, and the resulting adrenaline surge will burn off your calories.” “Ah, okay.” I go over to the lobby’s sitting area and call out Voltato. “Alright, so you’re Electric and Poison... no, you use Vine Whip and Ingrain, so: Electric and Grass? Well, that’s a new one.” I take out my éTech and aim it at the strange tuber. “How do you... Okay, you don’t evolve. Great, so what else can you do?” The still-roughed pokémon closes its eyes and gets a serene look, its leaves and vines glowing. The scrapes and bruising it had slowly vanish in the warm sun streaming from the window. Voltato slowly turns itself to get sun on all its injuries, healing them fully. “Synthesis, not bad. Well if you have that, I take it you don’t actually use Ingrain... Can you use Thunderbolt?” At the Voltato’s confused look I sigh. “Thunder Wave? That’s a basic Electric move.” Another little shrug from the pokémon. The Voltato looks sad now. Y’know, going into this, I never thought I’d see a sad potato and feel bad. It’s a weird feeling. Suddenly a thought hits me. “You know, I’ve basically been treating you like a science experiment thus far. I need a name or something.” I pause, then a silly idea forms in my mind. “I’ll name you GLaDoS!” The Voltato gives me a look of ‘really?’ and cocks its entire body, since it has no neck to bend. That surprises me. “Really? A living potato has played Portal? You’re a wild pokémon, how would you know... aww forget it. I’m still calling you GLaDoS.” The Voltato shrugs again, and goes back to sunbathing. I decide to go back to learning and use the Pokédex on my éTech to glean whatever information on them professors and trainers have pooled together on this little thing. Apparently it learns a few Electric moves later on, and rather powerful ones at that. I stare at GLaDoS and can’t help but wonder... How does such a teeny little thing end up learning Zap Cannon? That and it can learn Gunk Shot. Interesting. “Well, you’re a Grass Type so you’ll be useful against Winston at least. If I really need you that is.” I stop for a moment, then remember Winston’s Hippopotas and the Sandstorm. I look back at Voltato’s movelist. Sunny Day? And he can use it now? “Heh, I might use you after all. This oughtta give him a shock.” “Hey Anthony.” I almost jump out of my skin at Twilight’s voice, and I know I jumped at least a little into the air. I turn, and see that she’s got a lovely bruise along one cheek, and a couple of acid burns in her shirt and skirt. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” “Geez, I get electrocuted and you get... what happened to you!?” She smiles a bit lopsidedly. “About a dozen Beedrill, apparently. I actually woke up about ten minutes ago.” She winces as she sits on the chair, sagging in relief onto the table. “Tepig saved me on that one, though there’s now a large burnt-out patch a few hundred hoo- er, feet in diameter. Twirunt was sitting on my chest and had one of the Beedrill in his jaws. It wasn’t, er, alive.” “Yeah, that’s expected. If he wasn’t Rock type, I’d check him for poisoning though. Beedrill have some potent toxins in their tail stingers as well as their arms. Surprised you didn’t get stung at all, given how territorial those things are.” “Actually, I think I did. I sprayed myself down with some Antidote and hoped for the best. Between all my pokémon, though, I mostly dodged until one of the Beedrill caught me with the base of its stinger right in the eye. I’m really glad it wasn’t the point that got me.” I pause at this. “Uh, yeah. Antidotes are mainly for Pokémon. They’re tougher than humans so the Antidotes and such are more like helpers, not exact healing agents themselves. You look fine, but if you start feeling weak in the knees or light-headed, get to a hospital. Fast.” “Oh, that’s how I was feeling right before I passed out... but that was at least forty minutes ago.” she looks only mildly concerned, and very tired. “Well, if you think you’re alright, then fine. Tomorrow I’m gonna give Winston another shot. Should be easier with this guy.” I say, gesturing towards GLaDoS, who is sleeping and unmoving in the sun. “A potato?” Twilight asks, looking confused. Looking again at my Voltato, I can definitely see why she’s confused. It does look rather like an ordinary potato when it has its eyes closed and roots tucked in. I roll my eyes. “Yes, it’s a perfectly normal potato, and there are no pokémon at all that look like regular objects. Like rocks.” She looks at me for a moment before looking back down. As she reaches out to poke GLaDoS, I hold back a snicker. This should be funny for me, what with ms. ‘Electricity is never harmful’ poking an electric type. And sure enough, she startles GLaDoS bad enough to make it shock Twilight, making her collapse in her seat and stare at the ceiling for several seconds. When she sits back up, the left half of her face twitches every second or so. “G-got it. That p-pokémon.” heh, she’s even stuttering. “What’s the problem, Sparkle? I thought you said lightning was harmless?” “And I’ve c- clearly been proven wr- rong.” She twitches a little with every stutter, making it hard for me not to laugh. She also looks extremely peeved, which just adds to how entertaining I find it. “So where’s Rarity? She still out and about?” “I’m n- not sure, actually. She d- didn’t send me an- NEE messages.” I’m trying to hide my snickers behind my hand, but I’m not sure it’s working. “Well, that’s either a sign of her being fine, or being in deep tro-” I jump again as Rarity says her own hello from behind me. these ponies need to learn to make noise when they walk, human or pony or whatever form they have! I deserve revenge. “Hiya Rarity, you look well. Say, wanna pet my new pokémon?” I pull out my éTech and prepare to take a picture of the result. “Ooh, no thank you. I’ll have to meet them later. By the way, I saw this adorable little potato-like pokémon in the fields, but it was letting loose an impressive amount of lightning at a bird going by, so I came back instead of catching it. Other than that, I’ve just been training against some fairly common pokémon I’ve seen before. Oh! I did catch one thing, though. Here, take a look!” she pulls out a pokéball and sends out a Sewaddle, the little pokémon asleep and curled up in its little leaf-hoodie. “Heh, Bug pokémon are so cute... I don’t understand why you found them gross at first. Just look at this little thing! Anyway, congratulations. This will be a Swadloon by level 20.” Rarity simply picks up the bug type in her arms and gently begins rocking it back and forth. The Sewaddle snuggles up to her and coos a little. “So I’m gonna go back to the gym and see if GLaDoS will help me beat Winston. Having three pokémon will even the odds a little.” Twilight nods. “And having stronger pokémon will help as w- well.” “Yep. So, what are we gonna do for the rest of the day?” The two of them give mostly shrugs, and none of us have an idea... until my stomach rumbles, setting off Twilight’s and Rarity’s in turn. “Heh, I guess dinner is in order. I just hope we have enough to go around...”