//------------------------------// // Chapter 41 // Story: Starlight: Redshift // by the-pieman //------------------------------// Walking around, the place has one major difference from other faires I’ve been to: Pokémon. Some are dressed up in different attire to the point that a few just look like slightly-odd people. Though here in anime land, it’s not that different from everyone else anyway. One of the things I see is a Gardevoir with vaguely military-esque appearance to its ‘gown’ setup, and it takes me a moment to remember that Otaria has some minor differences to a few pokémon’s looks. This one fits in perfectly, looking like a knight out of armor, escorting a female trainer around. You know, I’ve never looked in a mirror since I got here. I mean Twilight and Rarity don’t need much ‘remolding’ what with their hair and rather skinny bodies. I wonder if I changed... I look into the nearest pool of water -a rain barrel- and see that no, I’m pretty much the same. I also notice that there’s some berries floating in the barrel. Oh god, with the size of some of these it looks harder than apples... But a sign says if you get it you keep it. Well, can’t pass up a chance like that. I notice an Aspear berry. Hello Freeze heal! I dunk my head in and try to grab it with my teeth, but my nose keeps bumping it around. Finally I get it in a desirable position and grab it, but its tough skin makes my teeth skim it, rather than grab, so I push it further away. Must. Get. Free. Berry! I finally manage to corner it again and sink my teeth into it with a mighty chomp- Oh for the love of all that is holy, that tastes horrific! It’s so sour I can’t feel my tongue! I pull my head out and scrape my tongue off as best I can, and I see the half-eaten Aspear berry floating on the water’s surface. The guy running the attraction looks at me sympathetically. “Sorry pal, better luck next time.” He grabs the Aspear berry out and throws it into a bucket. “Dang, that was a ripe one, here.” He hands me a flagon of normal unberry-juiced water and I wash out my mouth, the taste still lingering a bit. I watch as a Gallade walks up, dunks his head in and immediately comes up with a Lum berry. Lucky fucking bastard... is the pokémon’s only comment as he walks off. The girls are having quite the giggle fest at my failure and totally soaked head. “Like you could do better!” “Well, I would but I wouldn’t want to muss my hair, you understand.” “Maybe you could give another demonstration.” I stare back at them. “Go suck a lemon.” “You look like you already did, and I think we can learn from your mistake.” Twilight retorts. “Eh, shut up, let’s see what else there is.” I walk along and I see a couple of kids sitting on a log, bored out of their minds and dicking around on their éTechs. They look like the typical city kids who’ve been dragged out here by their parents, and they are doing all they can to avoid culture. Dumb kids, don’t know what they’re missing here. One of them looks up and actually walks up to us. “Hey, nerd-guy. Yeah, in the dumb armor. Wanna have a battle? I need to kill time somehow.” I shrug. “Eh, sure.” The fairgrounds have a special area set aside for battles, so we have somewhere meant for it. Best of all, it’s got an announcer and some stands set up, and the stands look like they’re a permanent thing, judging by the stainless-steel construction. However, the actual battle area is given a very medieval-looking setting, like it’s meant more for jousting, the markings on the ground being the only indication it’s for pokémon in the first place. The kid looks nonplussed at this. He walks to the other end and holds out a shrunken Great Ball. “Try to make this at least half an hour, my parents are at the justing thing.” Bratty kid. I toss out my fully-healed Geodude, who lands and looks around at the place, then at me. He seems rather... displeased. “Come on, this is just another battle, act like it.” Geodude rolls his eyes but immediately goes into his battle stance as the kid tosses the Great Ball into the air, the bright light revealing a Beedrill, which darts into the air. Heh, flying or not... Bug/Poison against Rock/Ground. “You got this Geodude, easy out! Rock Throw!” The stony pokémon drives a fist into the ground, as the opponent shouts for a Twineedle. The tiny points bounce and ricochet off Geodude, who tears up a chunk of rock as big as himself. With a two-handed heave, the rock is used to smack Beedrill right out of the air. The bug isn’t down, though, just looking battered. “C’mon, Beedrill, don’t suck!” Wow kid, you are terrible at giving motivational speeches. Damn city kids. Didn’t like ‘em before, don’t like ‘em now. “Tell you what, I’ll switch out pokémon and give you an extra turn, think that’ll help slow this down enough for you?” Hey, he’s the one who doesn’t want it over fast. “Yeah, whatever. Beedrill, c’mere, I got a potion.” Well, that’s one use for a free turn. In the meantime, I throw out GLaDoS, and order a Sunny Day for prepwork. The resulting light makes all the nearby people in armor become giant glares, and Rarity’s sequin-covered dress makes her totally sparkle, like her whole body is made of silver and- Battle, right. Focus on the battle. “So what’s your next move, kid?” I expect a Bug or Poison move. It’ll be super-effective and get STAB, but all the ones Beedrill learns are physical and that means GLaDoS is in prime position for a quick zap. “Beedrill, fury attack!” Or a normal type move. I wait. Just a few seconds... almost... almost... “Shock Wave!” I shout the split second before the tip of Beedrill’s outstretched drill-arm connects. With a loud CRACK! and the scent of ozone filling the air, the electrical pulse jumps entirely into the Beedrill, and knocks it flat to the ground as a result. The bug-type twitches once, and remains mostly still after that. The city kid recalls his pokémon with a look of shock on his face. GLaDoS has a definite puncture wound, but looks rather proud of it’s quick victory. “Uh, alright, uhm, go Rattata!” The purple rat pokémon hits the field, and is immediately issued a Quick Attack order, which it does. I let GLaDoS take the hit, looking a little battered at this point. “Synthesis!” The green sheen covers the spud pokémon and leaves behind no injuries. “Hyper Fang, Rattata!” Heh, kid’s not used to Voltato. Perfect! “One more Synthesis on contact!” The rat pokémon gets a very unamused look on it’s face as it sinks its teeth into the shimmering potato. “Thundershock!” The resulting electrical current throws the choking-faced Rattata clear across the arena. The city kid yells a rather dramatic ‘No!’ as this happens. “Geez kid, if you wanted to draw this out, you shouldn’t be doing so badly. You done yet?” “N-no! Go Pidgeotto! Wing attack!” The bird has barely formed by the time it’s making the striking move. The dual-typing of GLaDoS makes a Flying move do only standard damage. The Rattata’s H-Fang would do more. I once more let GLaDoS stand still. The little guy seems to know what I know and gives a ‘bring it’ look at the bird with his multiple yellow eyes. Unfortunately, our anticipation led us astray as we hadn’t calculated velocity, mass and a few other things, and the strike sends GLaDoS flying backwards. I recall it with a quickdraw of his ball, zapping it back inside before it hits the ground. “Alright, have it your way. Litwick, you’re up!” “Ha, a fire-type? No problem!” The kid calls back. Man, he’s awful confident for someone all set to get an ass-whuppin’. “Hit it with a quick attack!” “Fire Spin when it gets close.” Needless to say, the Normal-type move has no effect whatsoever on my Ghost-type, phasing through harmlessly, and Litwick launches the flaming vortex at the bird, trapping it in a tornado, already disoriented from missing a supposedly dead-on shot. “Oh no... Whirlwind!” Surprisingly, the move disrupts the Fire Spin. Man, the games really didn’t prepare me for move interaction like this. Still, one thing’s for sure, it needs to breathe  “Smog!” “Whirlwind again, push it right back at it!” the kid yells, and the Pidgeotto crows out, sweeping the smog into Litwick’s face. The little candle pokémon begins coughing and hacking into its tiny fist. “Ember!” Litwick’s attack is lackluster, and misses entirely, and this time the Wing Attack goes through. Litwick goes down. Geez... how is this kid beating me? There’s no way that pokémon is higher level than mine... I don’t want to risk Oddish yet, and I’m not sure about Magomental’s Bug type so... “Carvanha, you’re up!” Landing in the nearby pool with a splash and gnashing its teeth. “Alright Carvanha, be as vicious as you want. Only rule is no killing. Other than that... have fun.” Carvanha sounds very happy with this notion, and even licks her lips... well, her outer-jaw, no real lips to speak of. The Pidgeotto is ordered to give another Wing Attack. “Carvanha... do whatever you want.” I wave my hand dismissively and my carnivorous pokémon grins joyfully as it opens its mouth as wide as possible, and leaping at the bird heading right for it. However, the Pidgeotto turns at the last second and curves upward, delivering the Wing Attack as an uppercut, bouncing Carvanha into the air, where it lands on the ground with a rather final-sound ‘wham!’ Okay, I can understand messing up, but a 1HKO? Damn... “Geez kid, what kinda heat is that bird packing?” “My parents bought it for me!” The kid smugs at me. I need to see these stats, they must know some high-end breeders to get something like that. The éTech detects the Pidgeotto and brings up the data. “No, I want the stats... no you dumb machine these stats, not the generalizat- Suddenly a shrill bleeping noise comes from the device on my wrist, and then everyone starts beeping with a loud ‘alert’ sound followed by a wailing ‘ILLEGAL POKÉMON DETECTED! ILLEGAL POKÉMON DETECTED! CONTACTING NEAREST AUTHORIZED LEAGUE AFFILIATE!’ I look at the kid, who quickly recalls the bird. I run over and hoist the child up my the back of his shirt. “I thought you were just a prick, I didn't know you were a cheater.” “I- I didn’t know! My momma got it for my birthday last year!” The kid looks terrified. Understandable, he’s going to lose that pokémon, whether he knew or not. Someone comes up dressed as a stable-girl and states that she is the local gym leader. Woah. Didn’t know there was a gym all the way out here. I grab the pokéball I recognize as the one with the Pidgeotto in it and toss it to her. “This Pidgeotto is way above it’s supposed level. Like, by at least twenty.” The gym leader takes the ball and pulls a device from under her leather tunic, clamping it around the ball. A couple of seconds later, the device chirps, and a small red light flashes. “Illegal genetic tampering. Geez, kid, this thing’s only level sixteen! Whoever your parents got this pokémon from will be going to jail if they’re caught.” Wait, ‘if’? “Hopefully, they haven’t moved on already. Where’re your parents...” she looks at the device the ball is in, “... Kevin? I need to have a chat with them.” She’s barely as tall as my collarbone, and looks like she’s still in her teens, but there’s no doubt the Gym Leader here is used to being in charge. “I- I just wan’ my pokémon back!” the kid cries, snot and tears dribbling down his face as he cries. Okay, I think he’s had enough so I set him back down. “Sorry little guy. You aren’t going to see Pidgeotto again. Next time your parents buy something for you, don’t take anything that’s alive. Okay?” The kid just bawls and collapses in the dirt. I shrug and decide to let the Gym Leader handle it. I walk back to Twilight and Rarity, who are certainly startled at the events. I shake my head. “The kind of bullshit that parents drag their kids through, am I right?” “That poor child!” Rarity says, looking so very sad, her breath hitching, the motion drawing my eyes to the ripples it causes in her- dress! Yeah, the ripples in her dress. I’m looking at Twilight now. Twilight also looks sad, her entire demeanor helping express this. Even her hat is drooping! I wave to them. “Come on, let’s get going before the police show up. I don’t wanna see a kid watch his parents get hauled away or something.” “Oh... okay.” Twilight sort of... folds in a little, the action pushing her... chest... forward as a result of arm placement. I jerk my head away, and refuse to look at either as we make our way to the camping area set aside for visitors, as the Pokécenter is jam-packed. “Well, that happened. And let that be an example as to how seriously this world takes the treatment of pokémon. You genetically enhance it so it’s only good for brute-force battling, you get locked up.” “That poor foal, though, he didn’t do anything wrong.” Twilight says. “He didn’t know his parents had done that! It’s so... sad...” She sits down on the ground, after having finished her tent. “Aww... now I just feel bad.” “Well we can’t just let him keep an illegal pokémon like that. Sure he didn’t know it or do it on purpose, but he committed a serious crime in using it in battle. Bottom line, somebody did something to that pokémon to make it ‘not-normal’ and the kid used it. That’s all it takes. That’s why I usually don’t condone buying a pokémon, unless you trust your source.” Rarity takes the moment to pull out Feebas, the fish pokémon staring vacantly ahead and gaping happily. I hold up my éTech and scan the fish. “She’s clean. Totally legit.” Rarity hugs the fish, who lets out a happy noise. Her smiling makes her look so radiant in that dress. “And since Twi got Pignite directly from a professor and every other one we got were wild, we are all good. But yeah, there’s no real way to just immediately know a pokémon is ‘enhanced’ and not just a rather high level. If I hadn’t wanted to know what it’s stats were, who knows how long it would have been before anyone discovered that Pidgeotto.” “Yeah...” Twilight says, still looking upset. I don’t know why, but I want to hug her better. “Come on, at least things could be worse.” I put my arms around their shoulders and they latch onto me like I’m a life preserver. “Much worse...” Oooh... it’s so warm, and soft like this... even with them not being ponies, they’re so plush. I blame anime physics. Ah well, it’s certainly not bad... and it seems my lower half agrees. Sigh. “Well, we might as well get my pokémon healed up and head back to the city.” “Can... can we keep the outfits?” Immediately, I begin stumbling on my words. “Well, I’d certainly like to have you er, us, keep them, but I very highly doubt we would be able to, they aren’t ours after all so the chances of you being able to wear those again is very slim and-” “Actually, aside from your light armor sir, they can keep their outfits. We can always get more fabric.” A lady in a princess outfit who I recall running the costume area, says as she approaches. “You just can’t take anything like armor, or props, though.” I give a halfhearted smile. “Well shiiiii-great!” And so continues the embarrassing saga of the ever-prevalent whyboner... fuck me...