Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 42

The next day, we’re off again. The fair was great fun, minus the whole ‘illegal pokémon’ fiasco, so the three of us are in good spirits. It took a bit of convincing to get Rarity to take off her outfit, but when I bring up the possibility of a tree-branch grabbing it and tearing it, she was back in her adventuring clothes in under a minute, proving that girls can change just as fast as guys, they just won’t for whatever reason.

Along the way, we come across a small nest of Pidgey, and we all take one to fight, me taking the largest one, Rarity deciding to take the one that looks the most “Scruffy” as she put it. It ends well enough, no major injuries on our end, and I’m pretty sure Glorious got quite the workout defeating that one.

Still, we get along fine against the rabble, and we keep going on towards the city. It’s taking a while, though. But the map isn’t pointing us in the wrong direction, I’m sure.

Several more encounters later, mostly with tired nocturnal pokémon or furtive forest pokémon, we arrive at the edge of the woods once more. A half-hours walk away lies the town of Autumnwash, and we can go from there to Great Barrier Port. I did spend some of the battles levelling up Oddish, so it’s a bit caught up. At this rate, if I don’t get enough seaside battles, Carvanha is going to be the weakest part of my team. Oh well, I’ll come up with a solution to that eventually.

We decide that we might spend a bit of time in Autumnwash before going further. We haven’t been walking for that long, but I doubt the road to Great Barrier got any shorter since the last time we walked it. We also need to stock up on a few things, I’m on my last recovery item: a basic potion. My Sitrus berry plant sprouted finally, but my lack of gardening experience only gave me two.

Rarity’s planters are giving her upwards of four to five berries per plant. I’ve never had a green thumb in my life, so I’m not surprised. But aside from the berry for replanting, I’m down to a Potion and a Sitrus berry. Checking the Max HP of my team... the 20 points will heal more than the one-third the Sitrus berry grants. That is a sign of slow growth...

Then again, I’m trying to level up everyone at once, when my usual strategy was one at a time. If they weren’t all digital, I doubt any of my pokémon would have gotten much time to stretch or anything. I realize that, on a social level, I am probably the worst pro-level trainer around. Well, I’m getting better now at least.

It certainly feels odd walking into a town and not using a main path, just walking up to the backs of a bunch of building a good distance away from a forest border. Still, Autumnwash looks unchanged overall. We walk by the gym and I see a kid sulking away from the door muttering ‘What the heck is a Gible?’

Heh, noob. Learn your Dragon types. We head to the field area just before the exit to the Great Barrier Port path. Finding a park bench we sit down and plan to just relax for a bit before heading on. I just realized something. The signpost just says where the path goes to, there’s no Route Number system here. That’s... kinda weird.

Oh well, not everything has to be about numbers, even if it’s easier to understand. I’m not really sure how that started in the sense of the game, my guess is they didn’t want to name every single one.

I idly begin fiddling around my pockets. When I move to my zippered jacket pouch, I feel something. I didn’t... Oh, right. I pull out the chip. Project Hypergenesis.

I could answer the biggest question in history, how they made Mewtwo... but I know for a fact that knowledge is power, and some power is dangerous.

“What’s that?”

“The greatest answer in nerd history.” I respond without really thinking. “Er, nothing. It’s nothing.” I jam it back into my pocket before Twilight could get a closer look.

“Uhm... okay. You ready to go?”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s hurry. It might start raining again.” I say, recalling the last time we took this road. “Hopefully it won’t take three days and a bunch of towels this time.”

---

Y’know, one thing actually doing this in real life is doing for me, is give me an appreciation of just how fast you’re moving in the games. After all, an average journey between Lavender Town and Fuschia city takes a minute or three if you’re fast or on a bike, but what appears to be the same-ish distance of flat terrain here takes forever.

Still, at least it’s not raining.

We’ve gotten most of halfway across the plains by the time we decide to rest for a while. After all, lunch is a sacred time. My belly says so. We go over our food supplies and I notice that we still have about a week’s worth of food for all of us if we don’t plan on eating a feast during that time.

Of course, the girls realize that we still don’t have any coffee, and I have to drag them along the path towards GB so they don’t rush back to Autumnwash to buy some. “Come on, we’re already about halfway there and you want to go back now?”

“Maybe y’ should’ve, kid.” A voice growls out from behind us. A man in what is quite obviously a Chainer’s outfit steps out of the grass. “Hand over yer pokémon, and I’ll let you live.” A quartet of pokémon with the chain-branding come out of the grass as well, forming a semi-circle between us and the Chainer.

I grab the first two balls from my belt and toss them out, summoning Litwick and Oddish. I figure I’ll save my real muscle for once I’ve determined his strategies.

Twilight taps the metal gauntlet on her arm, from her ren faire costume, and sends out her own pokémon, Pignite. Rarity, acting quickly, simply calls out to Glorious, who is sheathed on her back instead of in a ball.

“Alright, hit ‘em! They aren’t gonna go easy, I get to beat ‘em.” The Chainer’s pokémon appear to be a Machoke, a Gloom, either a Gastly or a Koffing obscured by dark smoke, a Raticate and a Pidgeotto. All of them are badly scarred and look more scared of the Chainer than actually battle-willing. “Machoke, bullet punch, Gloom stink ‘em, bird, you go for their bags!” The Gloom immediately begins letting out a visible cloud of stench, and the Machoke rears back for the first of its punches.

“Oddish, Sweet Scent! Cancel the stink! Litwick, trap that Pidgeotto with Fire Spin!” As my pokémon hop to it, the staccato sound of the Bullet Punch landing on Pignite reaches my ears.

“Pignite, use Ember!” Twilight yells, already reaching for another pokémon.

Rarity, for a moment appearing to be talking with Glorious, shocks me by taking the sword-pokémon’s handle, its scarf-tassel wrapping securely around her arm. A moment later, and her eyes glow a cold blue, the color of the Honedge’s tassel.

“Koffing, lock ‘em up with Poison Gas!” the Chainer yells, settling what the gassy pokémon is. “And Gloom, fire some Razor Leaves at ‘em, too! Machoke, stop fuckin’ around and hit them already!” The beleaguered fighting type goes to throw another punch, I’m guessing a standard Mega Punch or something, towards Oddish. Meanwhile, a veritable fog of purple gas begins creeping across the field, and I can see most of the Chainer’s pokémon backing away from it, even the Gloom, who seems to have already forgotten the command it was given. The Koffing must be the ‘big guns’ of this group, then.

“Litwick, Minimize!” Wanna give it as much chance of scooting under the crap as possible. “Oddish, Stun Spore that Koffing!” My pokémon sends the yellow flurry at the Koffing, but the smog surrounding it is too thick to tell if it hit.

Nevermind, it was just meant to stall. I grab Geodude’s and Magomental’s balls and toss them out too. The two pokémon materialize, Geodude immediately entering a ‘battle stance’ and the swarm of worms that is Magomental mostly just forming into a giant worm-shape.

As they appear, I’m forced to throw myself to the ground as the Pidgeotto I’d almost forgotten dives from the sky for my bag. It doesn’t make it far, though, as a steely-keen blade slashes in and slices deep into the bird pokémon’s chest. I look up to Rarity, face utterly expressionless, stepping lightly to get over and past me, still harrying the Pidgeotto with Glorious.

“Shit, stop fuckin’ around, Pidgey! Peck her damned eyes out!” The Chainer yells, distracted by one pokémon while his other pokémon idle. I’m guessing they’re used to being punished for thinking for themselves.

“Geodude, Rollout the Pidgeotto! Litwick, Night Shade the Machoke. Oddish, Sleep powder on the Koffing. Magomental-” I pause, realizing I’m not sure what it can do.

The mass of worms surges forward and rears up, then seems to glow from within. Then, a sickly, multi-hued wave of energy washes from it and smashes into the Gloom, making the grass/poison type fall back and get the spiralling pupils indicative of confusion.

Once I see Geodude has effectively knocked Pidgeotto out of the air for Rarity to deal with, I have him head over and hold down the Chainer. Don’t want him ditching us while we’re distracted.

However, before he can get a good hold on the Chainer, the surprisingly hardy Machoke smashes a fist into Geodude, sending him flying. The thuggish trainer swears and begins coordinating his pokémon again.

“Litwick, get in there and stall the Machoke!”

While Litwick begins throwing quick gouts of fire at the Machoke, I see Pignite move up behind the Gloom, before using a searing blast of fire. The Chainer is starting to look antsy, and I need to get a pokémon capable of grappling to nab him before he runs off.

“Koffing, countdown!” the Chainer yells, and I see the leering eyes in the middle of the smoke cloud gleam dangerously. The eyes roll up a bit, and I can see the Koffing’s symbol on its ‘belly’ glowing through the fog... except it’s a skull in a nuclear symbol, not vague crossbones. There is literally no way that’s a good sign. Especially since the Chainer is now booking it like there’s no tomorrow.

Before he gets far, though, I see Twilight throw another pokéball out, and some pokémon begins to form nearby him. However, I need to stop whatever the Koffing is going to do, and the way the glowing symbol is beginning to flash faster and faster, I’m assuming it’s like a bomb in a video game.

I think hard, and my plan seems to require more than my team. I take a deep breath to calm myself as best I can. “Everyone target Koffing! Honedge, Metal Sound! Oddish, Absorb, Magomental, Confusion, Pignite and Litwick, give it all the fire you got! Geodude, Spin Dash full force! Give it Hell!” Every pokémon joins in, and I see Rarity hold out Glorious for the attack. Almost as suddenly, I see the Chainer’s other pokémon join in, the ones that are still up at least. Within moments, the Koffing goes down, the flashing stopping and the cloak of fog dropping from it. Thankfully, it seems we’ve interrupted the attack.

Looking over towards where I saw the Chainer running, I expect to see him long gone.

Instead, I see him flat on his face in the dust, a mossy green rug on his back. “Humph.” Wow. Nice use of a sedentary pokémon.

“Oddish, Stun Spore, and make it wide!” My plan is to paralyze the remainders. “Magomental, Litwick, team attack the Machoke! Geodude, take the Pidgeotto with a Rock Throw!” It seems Geodude is still recovering, so I have to give the order again before he snaps back and prepares the attack. However, it looks like it’s unneeded as the pokémon the Chainer were using are sitting, slumped, in front of me. I look around for a moment, and realize that even the Machoke is virtually prostrate in the dirt. Jeez, I guess taking down the Chainer means I won. Er, we won.

That done, I recall all but one of my pokémon, Geodude still by my side. I walk over to the Chainer. “So, what should we do now, pal? You got some balls to try and jump us.”

“We should probably call the League, Anthony.” Twilight says.

The Chainer, however, goes white when she says this, and I’m guessing he’s more afraid of what the League will do with him once they see his pokémon. Speaking of, all of them look like their wounds are on their backs and such. Well, except he Koffing. Not battle wounds, but... man, that only makes me angrier.

“Listen, I say we drag him back to Autumnwash, and take him to Winston. And Geodude can do the dragging. We can call Winston and tell him we got a filthy rat for his buddies to take care of.”

“Wh- what?” the Chainer says, after spitting some dirt out and turning his head to the side. “N-no! They’ll kill me! I don’ wanna die!”

“Yeah, well think of that before you torture pokémon, you sick fuck!” I kick him in the side. “Geodude, grab his arms!” The stony-faced pokémon reaches under the Mossulk, who fails to move, and grabs the Chainer’s arms by the wrists.

“Anthony, no. I’m going to call the League, and they’ll send someone to deal with this, okay?” Twilight says, imploringly. “Don’t stoop to his level.”

“I’m not, I’m just getting dirty with the ones who spread the dirt. Besides, I’m not gonna just leave him here for one second. These criminal types have an innate skill of bolting before the good guys show up. Call them if you want, but until then, I say we keep him right here.” I turn to Geodude. “If he gets rowdy... pimp slap him.”

Twilight uses her éTech, pulling up a number and talking into it. The person on the other side says they’ll send out a team to recover the pokémon and take the Chainer into custody. The Chainer lays there, quietly, for a few minutes while we wait.

I kneel down by the grunt’s face, still partially in the dirt. “Now tell me, what do you know about the laser stolen from Great Barrier? Talk!”

“Th- the what? I don’ know, man, I’m just a grunt!”

“Likely story. You gotta know something. Where’d you come from? Where’d you get these pokémon from? Whatever you do know, spill it.”

“I- I came from Rustoil, but I got kicked out when I joined the Chainers and they gave ‘em to me because they don’t not do what you tell ‘em and I really just wanna go I’m sorry I don’t wanna die!”

“Well, I’m not sure what the League will do to you, but you’ll be breathing at the very least when they come to pick you up.”

“Anthony! Stop! Let the authorities deal with this, alright?” Twilight says, pulling me back from the thug.

“I- I ain’t scared of the League. I’m scared of th’ boss. He’s gonna fuckin’ kill me. Or have me killed. Or somethin’.”

“Know your boss’s name? Or anyone’s name from your little group?”

“I- Idunno. I was told it’s a ‘soulier’ organization, with little bits that don’ know each other. I really don’ know anything, just let me go!”

I turn to the girls. “Well, he’s either just a grunt as he said, or a damn good liar. What do you think?”

“I don’t think that ruffian has enough brains to be a consummate liar.” Rarity says, looking at him derisively. Twilight nods in affirmation.

A low rumble of vehicles alerts me, and I turn around.

A pair of large vans roll up, and a couple of people in police outfits step out. They begin loading the pokémon into one of the vans, while another collects the Chainer, keeping a gun to the back of the man's head the whole while, even after cuffing him. The officer in charge of all this nods to me, and smiles gently, before getting into the van and driving off.

Twilight turns to me to speak as they drive out of view, northward off the road. However, barely a moment after they're out of sight, a large carrier truck with the League symbol on it drives up, with Xavius in the passenger seat. When they step out, the first thing the League official asks is, "Where's the guy?"

Huh? “But you just... sonofabitch! Those Chainers got the call too somehow, they dressed up as officials, they got their guy and his pokémon back! You got a way of tracking vehicles or something in there?” I turn to the girls. “I wanted to turn him in ourselves, but nooooo! You wanted to let someone else deal with it!” I stomp the ground in anger. “Motherfucker!”

Xavius steps forward and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Calm down, Anthony. You did the right thing, calling this in. We just need to figure out how they got here first. They must have a base nearby if they could scramble a response this soon.”

“Yeah...” I take a deep breath, finally thinking clearly. “Yeah, you’re right. But there’s one other problem. I was wearing the same outfit back at the Great Barrier lab. If they get a description out of that grunt and it matches one another guy recalls as ‘interfering’ I might be a target on their ‘hit’ list. Yeah it sounds outlandish, but-”

“No, no, it’d make sense. The problem is that you’re dressed like half the kids these days, ever since that one kid went through the Johto League like it was tissue paper last year.”

“Yeah... alright. Guess the ‘Ethan’ look is on my side. Well anyway, I’ll let you guys get on finding that base. And if we run into another grunt...” I think. “We’ll probably get our butts kicked, our pokémon aren’t in the best shape after that.”

“That’s alright, you can ride in the truck. We need to head to Great Barrier to coordinate, might as well make sure you’ll be alright. I can get your pokémon healed, too.” Xavius says, leading us towards the truck’s holding area, which is fairly spacious and has what looks like a mobile treatment center in it. Fucking hell, I wish I could bring this with me everywhere! There’s bunk beds! And a fountain! It’s all meant for making rescued pokémon feel better, but I know I could enjoy this life.

The girls and I sit down and relax, Xavius sitting in as well. “So, now that we all understand exactly how slimy those guys are, I say next time we manage to bring one down, we give him hell or at least make sure we do it ourselves. Also, you might wanna lay low. I may be dressed as a bad cosplayer, but you two aren’t exactly wearing ‘stock’ outfits.”

“We’ll just have to manage, darling. I’m not going to let my fabulosity be overshadowed by those scoundrels.” She looks imperiously towards the north, where the two vans went. Wait, I should’ve told the officials that.

“Oh yeah, that’s where their vans were headed. Not sure if they end up making a turn somewhere, but if you got an Arcanine or something on standby, you might be able to catch them.” I say, toward Xavius. “Got anything exceptionally fast with good eyesight?”

“Not on me, but I’ll call my partner to go after it. He’s got a Pidgeot who can fill in for that.” Xavius says, before sending off what I assume is a text. “Anyways, are you three alright?”

“Yeah.” I nod, turning towards the girls. “Wasn’t really paying attention to you two. No cuts, bruises? No bleeding or anything? I feel fine I suppose, but...”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Twilight says.

“I am fine, too, dears, thank you, though.” Rarity says. I give her a look, because I’m pretty sure she was literally possessed back there.

“Well, let’s just get to Great Barrier. I say we let the Gym challenge wait a bit so Zoltan doesn’t get interrupted in the middle of a battle. He and Winston are the closest geographically to wherever those vans headed to, supposedly.”

“Oh, if you’re gonna wait on Zoli, you can go to the pool section. There’s some really cool stuff there, though I never have the free time to do anyth-” he stops as his éTech beeps twice. He checks his metal arm, a small display showing something. “Aww crap, I gotta go. You three try to stay out of trouble, okay?” He says, pulling out a pokéball, the truck still moving as he opens the back. I’m about to question what he’s doing when he throws the ball, and the immense Metagross materializes. A moment later, and he’s climbed aboard the gargantuan pokémon, literally leaping up to the top, which I’m amused to see a chair appears to be welded to.

Well, that’s one way to travel I suppose.

Comments

[the-pieman]

5972070 Cortex is also a reference to Crash Bandicoot, who's main Antagonist was Dr. Cortex.

[Enderpony22]

Man I haven't played that game in forever. I wish they'd make a new one or at least do a remake. It was one of.the better platformers

[the-pieman]

5974042 Ehhhhh be careful about demanding more. If people are forced via demand that a game be made and then another and another and another without pause... well, recall what happened to Sonic?

He got popular. So popular that Sonic Team and SEGA couldn't keep up and they had to give us Sonic '06 before we realized "Oh... damn... they really are out of ideas" just so that we'd give them a break.

It's fun to enjoy a series and want more but... be careful you don't go overboard.

[Enderpony22]

Touche