Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 24

Stepping into place, Twilight and I give each other confident looks, mine a smirk and hers a smile.

“Just so you know, I’m not going to make this easy for you.” I remind her as I throw out Geodude. “Let’s see what you can do to this.”

As Tepig hits the field, Twilight is already scowling a little. Still, she looks confident. “Alright, then, Tepig. Let’s start with Smog!” Wait, her Tepig knows Smog? I can’t remember when Tepig learns that, but I think it may already be able to evolve. As in, at least two levels or so ago. Either way, I call for Geodude to dodge, by my momentary hesitation lets the hit connect, the gaseous cloud making Geodude hack, cough, and wheeze, windmilling his arms to fan the smog away.

“Alright, interesting choice... Magnitude!” Geodude coughs twice, then slams his fists into the ground. A low ripple spreads outwards sluggishly.

“Alright, jump the pulse! Then, use Defense Curl.” Twilight instructs, and Tepig nimbly jumps over the incoming attack, before tucking in its ears and such. There’s really not much for a Tepig to curl in defensively.

I also have a rather sneaky trick planned. “Geodude, Rollout!” Geodude coughs again, sounding like he’s going to hack up a lung, but begins to charge up a roll, picking up speed quickly as he charges towards Tepig. The little piglet squeals and tries to dodge, but gets almost flattened by Geodude’s first pass.

“Alright, Tepig, get ready to knock him off balance with a Flame Charge!”

I wait for a second and then... “Tepig, jump!”

The pokémon doesn’t hesitate and leaps into the air, and I get a good look at its look of confusion right at the top of the arc. Right as it lands, Geodude finishes his pass, and smashes into Tepig again, sending the pokémon flying. Twilight gives me a dirty look. “That’s against the rules, Anthony!”

I’m too busy laughing like crazy. “Oh god... can’t believe he actually... hahaha! Oh.... that is priceless!” At this point I’m holding my sides, but I do calm down after a moment. “This... this is outside of, hah, official league jurisdiction, and no rules were specified at the start. Oh, that’s hilarious. Tell you what: Just for that, I’ll let you win this!” Geodude gives me a dirty look at the suggestion, and stops his Rollout entirely. “Hey, don’t look at me in that tone of voice.”

Tepig, impressively, stands back up, and snorts defiantly.

“Well? What are you waiting for? I thought you wanted to prove your pokémon was tough enough, Twilight? You aren’t getting anywhere by standing around and doing nothing... but then I guess I can get whatever results I want out of Tepig myself.” I’m probably gonna regret egging her on like this, but my good mood won’t let my paranoia get in the way.

With an angry look, Twilight points at Geodude. “Tepig, start with a Tail Whip, then Flame Charge.” I raise an eyebrow. That’s not going to do much. The pig leaps into the air to Tail Whip and then begins wreathing itself in flames. The piglet charges faster than normal, covered in fire, and Twilight yells something else. “Change to Tackle, now!”

I narrow my eyes. What’s the point of losing Flame Charge’s extra damage or it’s speed boost? She knows it doesn’t take effect until it connects, right?

“Now, as I showed you!” she yells at the last moment. “Pivot- and buck!” I look up, barely catching the moment as Tepig spins on its little front hooves, and turns the high inertia into Double Kick. Holy hell, she tutored her pokémon. I thought it took, like, mystical powers or something, idunno. Or a set of special-edition TMs, or something.

“Huh, interesting...” It takes me a moment to notice that Geodude has been knocked back by at least five meters and is completely out cold. I return Geodude and then it starts.

At first it’s sort of faint, but Tepig is slowly being engulfed in a white light. Seeing it first-hand... evolution is an awesome experience.

“Wait, he’s doing it again! What’s going on, Anthony?” Twilight says, voice full of worry. Oh, right, she doesn’t know what Evolution is supposed to look like, and she looks like she’s getting ready to intervene. No wonder Tepig already knows Smog, she accidentally stopped him from evolving previously!

“Wait! Let it happen... this is gonna be so cool...” I just breathe the last part out as I watch the glow completely surround the little pokémon and it seems to turn amorphous for a second before slowly shifting to a new shape, the radiating glow shifting the form of to resemble a Pignite. Eventually, the bright light sparks with a huge flash that forces me to cover my eyes, and then after I lower my arm, I can see the white silhouette fade into swirls of pale rainbow that settle into the new shape and the glow fades away slowly, revealing the new figure before us.

“Pignite!” The newly evolved, bipedal pokémon flexes its new muscles in a ‘macho man’ pose.

“Buh- wha?” Twilight stands slack jawed. “Th- that’s what ‘evolution’ is? I thought it’s a process by which organisms change over the course of-”

“Actually, that’s just the term that’s used. I don’t know who coined it, but they obviously meant to use the word ‘Metamorphose’. Still... incredible. Isn’t it?”

“Wow...” Twilight’s speechless, and I have to admit, I’m still in awe myself. That was almost unbelievable, but it happened right here, in front of me! So cool. I start to do the only thing I can think of to do. I just start up a slow clap and a few of the straggling trainers around the battle park pick it up after realizing what the glow was.

“Congratulations, Twilight. Your Tepig has evolved into a Pignite.”

Twilight immediately begins looking over her ‘new’ pokémon, machine-gunning questions and chattering happily. Heh, Pignite doesn’t seem to mind, and I shake my head. Off to the healing kiosk for me, then to find Rarity, then to work on leaving. This is shaping up to be a pretty good day, that’s for sure.

Wonder how long it’ll take for Pignite to become an Emboar... All I know is, evolved pokémon or not, Twilight is not going to beat me.

---

After some research into next gym’s location, and find that it’s on the eastern edge of the island, though thankfully Autumnwash is already about halfway there. There’s a long road leading across the plains that goes straight to a city called Great Barrier Port. Apparently, it’s best known for its beautiful reefs and amazing beaches, along with the large islands it has ferry access to. All in all, the islands seem the most interesting, though, as they are basically covered in the adventurer’s sign for great loot: lots of mystery.

“Well, I got one badge, and we aren’t going to get into the league without all eight, so I guess our next stop will be this Barrier Port place.” At least I think there are eight here... it could be different, but I’m not sure. Oh well, guess I’ll find out later.

The other two acquiesce, and we get on the move. The long journey is listed as a two- or three-day trip, simply from sheer distance. Still, it’s supposed to be a nice road to travel, so that’s good.

As we leave out the east gates of Autumnwash, we find ourselves walking along a few hills, beautiful flowers, grass, and other such niceties everywhere. The side of the dirt road is filled in with really tall grass, the grass itself almost as tall as I am. Every now and then, I can hear pokémon move in the long grass, along with the occasional childish laugh. It’s nice, temperate day, so we make good progress before we stop to try testing ourselves against the local wildlife.

I figure since GLaDoS is fairly low-level compared to the rest of my team, it should get some experience. Fighting Winston’s pokémon helped, but it didn’t get me that far. I look for some wild pokémon who would pose a moderate challenge to an average Electric/Grass type.

Spying a Vivillion fluttering past, I take the opportunity to see how strong GLaDoS’ electric attacks are now. I toss out the ball with an order for Thundershock. It should be high enough level to use it if I’m not mistaken.

The little potato pokémon closes all three of its eyes, and a crackling, golden blast of electricity flies out and flash-cooks the Vivillion, sending the bug/flying pokémon down in a smoky spiral. Well that seemed... final. “Okay then, guess you’re tougher than I thought. Maybe find something with less of a disadvantage, then.” Easy victories are nice, but not much is gained from them, usually.

“Tay-to!”

However, I quickly found that anything without a specific resistance or immunity to electricity took very little effort from GLaDoS to take down with mere thundershocks. I’m finding myself amazed that this pokémon isn’t considered more worthy of high-use.

Then, we run across a particularly speedy Spearow, who pecks the hell out of my pokémon before I can recall the poor, out-sped spud. Geodude, however, is fully capable of taking that nuisance out, and I just give GLaDoS some time to rest.

I figure I might as well just move on, but I recall why Pokémon never got into the whole ‘multiplayer campaign’ thing. Waiting for your companions. I may be able to just walk past all this, but apparently Twilight is taking every single opportunity she gets to get the hang of her newly-evolved pokémon. I admit, Pignite’s doing pretty well.

After some time, even Rarity comes back with the look of someone who’s just done something they feel is noteworthy. Specifically, her Ledyba looks sleek and content, and likely just beat the crap out of several things. Once Twilight’s done having Pignite fight a half-dozen various pokémon, we get ready to move out. There were some Shinx in the long grass, but they kept fleeing every time I got close enough to actually see them. Given their electric natures, I didn’t really want to try tackling them myself, regardless of their level.

Besides, I already have an apparently strong Electric type. I can skip on a Luxray I suppose. I just wonder what will happen on our three day journey. If it’s going to be like this the whole way, this will probably be really slow going.

Several hours and a short two-v-two battle against what could only be a ‘cute couple’ battle duo later, I’m feeling rather tired. It’s nearing the end of the day, and walking around is finally getting to me. Thankfully, the girls are fully willing to set up camp before it gets dark, and we get our tents ready. There’s still light out when we finish, so we just sit around and tend to our pokémon.

GLaDoS is able to get better after a few minutes using Synthesis, while my other pokémon just seem to be recovering fine on their own.

“So... what now? I mean, we should sleep obviously, but it’s not that late yet.”

Twilight settles down, a pony once more. Twirunt is asleep at her side already, and she just pulls out her éTech. “I want to read some more, if that’s alright. There’s so much to see here!”

Rarity seems too busy polishing her Ledyba’s shell, the red gleaming even in the evening sunset.

Well, I guess there really isn’t anything to do then. Eh screw it, I’ll just do what Twi’s doing. I set up my hammock and pull out my éTech once I’ve settled down. Now what do I want to look for?

Comments

[catfire13]

“Alright, jump the pulse! Then, use Defense Curl.” twilight instructs,