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Borne of Caution (Pokemon Isekai)

Reader mode
Gotta say, I am impressed.

Brendan's own Protagonist Energy drew the attention of a legendary who is interested in being his 'mon, and the explanation about Latias wanting to be the special one just like Ninetails is to Lee was quite well-explained.

Normally, it is the SI or OC who somehow gets their attention! :V

Good to see, by the way!
 
Fuggmann said:
Grovyle is no doubt comparing her growth to his, and finding his own lacking. The sting of comparing himself to an infant is likely even worse.
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Oh poor guy hopefully getting him out of the crater and addressing his insecurities will help clear his head.
Fuggmann said:
Lee Henson's heart is pure, but there is little room left to spare within it," Isis carefully answers. The corners of her eyes are crinkled, and Brendan can tell his unexpected questioning is stressing her. "Thelban Zinnia… She has changed since her departure from our lands, changed for the better. Were you not with them, Latias may have turned her sights upon them, but as it stands, you are the one she wishes for, Brendan Birch
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That's fair lee has his hands full already addressing the issues of his own team.
Fuggmann said:
Before any screeching starts, remember that Brendan is 12. He's not smashing Latias, or anyone else for that matter.
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Yeah no duh Brendan has enough shit to deal with
 
Vanbers said:
No foxfucking, no Legendary Smashing, bah, Desire proves the superior fic time and time again. :V
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Blame spacebattles. Some readers here are icky and LOUD about that stuff. They scared about Lee and Ninetales just hugging in platonic sense.

And in my mind Borne of Caution: Fox Box Snippets (Pokemon) posted in NSWF section a canon for this story.
 
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Game protag gets a legendary, as things should be. I like the SI but I want their bullshit to be built out of their hard work. It tends to be interesting in the "this would be a war crime both irl and in the setting" sort of way.
 
Lee-Henson.png

BTW, I'm really enjoying your story. Keep up the good work, sir!

Also, would Lee be interested in searching for any of the Legendary Titans (Regi Trio)?
 
Retribrutus said:
Lee-Henson.png

BTW, I'm really enjoying your story. Keep up the good work, sir!

Also, would Lee be interested in searching for any of the Legendary Titans (Regi Trio)?
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Noice. He's got a Ninetails for the majority of the story onwards, but this'd make a great piece of cover art.
 
Act 2: Interlude 6
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    • NOTICE: Hey, not dead. Been busy with trying to move into a forever-home and its hell. Nearly done with that, though, so my pace should pick back up. If you want to help smooth that over, see below.


    Take a look here!

    I'm reader-funded, and need your help to keep writing indefinitely. If you like what you're reading and want to help out, see     https://www.patreon.com/fuggmann at the place of patrons. Patrons get to see updates a few chapters early, suggest edits to the final draft before it goes live, and participate in polls to choose what gets updated next during my moments of indecisiveness.

    If you want to keep up-to-date on releases, use discord code     https://discord.gg/hive-of-degeneracy and opt in to the fic-updates role for a ping.

    As always, thank you for reading.

    -4 weeks remain in the Meteorfall Crater-

    Leaning back on the park bench behind him, Andre takes another bite of the partially unwrapped protein bar in his hand, ignoring the crummy artificial Pecha flavor in favor of thinking.

    Just two days ago, he and his pokemon managed to take the Dynamo badge in Mauville. Wattson was a sly old fuck, using Baton Pass to bypass the no substitution condition of the match and to make sure his Manectric fought Absol, but it didn't matter. Nowadays, if Andre's ace can't get out of the way of electrical attacks, he jams an Iron Tail into the ground to disperse as much electricity as possible.

    After that kid Ash Ketchum embarrassed them, Andre made sure they were prepared for the eventual rematch. Without the money for a TM, they had to learn Iron Tail the old-fashioned way. If Andre wasn't good at sharpening the bladed side of Absol's tail before, then after all that practice, he was now.

    Swallowing his bite, the maroon-haired teenager reaches back into the side pocket of his backpack and pulls out a badge case. Popping it open, he glances at the gleaming trophies inside.

    Knuckle, Stone, Dynamo, and Heat. If he turned any one of them over, Andre would find a little "R" stamp on each one.

    Andre smirks, finally, finally feeling accomplished for once in his life. 'And we did it all on our own, too. No sponsors, no handouts, no nothing. Talent and perseverance is all a real trainer needs.'

    As he thinks that, he looks down at the half-eaten protein bar in his hand.

    If he were still back on Dewford Brawly's mom would have been fixing dinner by now, and since it's Sunday, she would have picked up something from the Dewford fishery to cook. Brawly might be the dickhead to end all dickheads, but Andre could never find it in himself to deny Mrs. Toki's affections.

    Grrrr…

    A sudden growl catches Andre's attention. Turning his head, he looks at his partner, who is seated next to him.

    Absol, pockmarked by mostly healed scratches and electrical burns, glances over, meeting Andre's eyes. The Dark-type quirks an eyebrow, silently asking what Andre is staring for.

    'He didn't actually growl at anything, that was his stomach,' Andre glances back down to the half-eaten protein bar in his hand. Without another thought, he pulls the rest of the wrapper off and offers the bar to Absol. "Here. You used a lot of energy today."

    Absol's mouth pulls down into a subtle frown, and he shakes his head.

    In response, Andre simply pushes his hand closer. "C'mon, take it. You cinched that gym match and got us a badge, so this is literally the least I can do."

    Andre's Ace remains unmoved.

    A scowl mars the teenager's face. "What? Are you worried about the money again? We got thousands for our win today, so we can quit tightening our belts for a while. Eat, or this request is going to turn into an order. Your choice."

    Sighing, Absol takes the offered bar in his mouth.

    "And you better eat every fuckin' bite during dinner tonight, or I'm forcing it down your throat."

    Absol simply grunts as he chews.

    Exasperated, Andre pulls his phone from his pocket and gives his notifications a check. 'Dickhead. I'm the trainer, and I call the shots. If I say something, that should be the end of it.'

    Nothing interesting in his email, and no new texts, so Andre does what every bored trainer does and opens up Battlenet for some mindless scrolling.

    'A ton of unexplained crime in a place called Ryme City. Aren't they the guys who try to come down on pokemon battling in their city limits? No duh crime is going to skyrocket if no one is allowed to battle. Dipshit politicians up to no good again.'

    Andre scrolls further down.

    'Zoroark sighting? Fake as hell. Anyone who knows anything about Zoroarks knows you don't find them, they find you.

    The next thread of note that he happens upon is Henson's megathread, making him frown.

    Henson was named a conference shoo-in after his match in Lavaridge. Andre watched the footage of the match, explosive finale included, and was floored by what he saw. It stings, and he'll never admit it out loud, but Henson isn't the worst battler Andre has ever seen. The man is obviously carried by the power of his pokemon, but taming a temperamental monster like a Ninetales and going toe-to-toe with Mura Moore isn't something any old hack can do.

    Henson is still a loser for sure, but less than initially expected.

    Naturally, Andre has checked in on the mega thread from time to time, purely to keep tabs on someone he'll likely be facing in the Ever Grande Conference.

    The teenager takes a look at the news around Henson, frowning mightily when he sees that Henson's latest pokemon is an adopted Sylveon of all things. No expert on Fairy is he, but Andre knows that fairies are a type rooted deeply in emotion similar to Dark types. No one would give away a pokemon as rare as a Sylveon unless there is some kind of string attached. Henson is probably on the hook for something after that.

    Then… That's it. There is no other news. A couple other posters in the thread are wondering where Henson has gone, because he apparently hasn't been sighted in weeks. Theories started popping up in the thread, like how he flew away on his Corviknight to go get something special from another region, or how he's secluded himself in some kind of special training, with a few even speculating that he gave up. His friends, Brendan Birch and a tribal woman named Zinnia haven't been seen either.

    'Probably got too big of a head and got strangled by that Sylveon,' Andre smirks at the thought. He places a hand on Absol's head, combing his fingers through coarse white fur. 'Whatever. It doesn't matter who shows up to the Ever Grande Conference, because we're taking the whole thing.'

    Andre's phone beeps, drawing his eyes to a new email. Without even bothering to look at the title, he opens it up and begins to read.

    '…Mega Evolution? Mega Stones? What is this shit?' He frowns and glances at the 'sender' field of the email.

    From:

    'It's empty?'

    -3 weeks remain in the Meteorfall Crater-

    "Yeah! I got the Balance Badge!"

    Still shaking from the adrenaline of a hard-fought gym battle, Ash Ketchum raises his prize high over his head, taking care not to jostle Pikachu and aggravate the electric-type's bruises.

    The cheers coming from the stands of the Petalburg Gym redouble as the badge sparkles in the sunlight.

    The battle with Norman was hard, one of the hardest that Ash has had to face thus far in Hoenn. Norman's Slakoth, Vigoroth, and Slaking each brought something new and difficult to counter to the field. Never did he expect a Slakoth to know Blizzard of all moves, which froze Pikachu solid. Ash had to burn his one allowed substitution to send in Torkoal, who evened the odds by taking out Slakoth.

    Poor Torkoal couldn't cope with Vigoroth's sheer speed and aggression, and fell to a savage one-two punch of Bulk-Up into Crush Claw.

    Pikachu, given some time on the sideline to thaw, managed to defeat Vigoroth, matching the sloth pokemon blow-for-blow.

    And then came Slaking…

    Even after being paralyzed by Pikachu's Static, Slaking was an utter force of nature. Pikachu fell in one savage strike courtesy of Facade, and it was all down to Shiftry.

    Shiftry won. Barely.

    'I gotta thank Brock for the Sunny Day idea,' Ash thinks to himself. The older teen recommended teaching Shiftry Sunny Day after he evolved. 'If it wasn't for Shiftry's Chlorophyll ability letting him speed in and out under the sunlight, we would have lost.

    As if sensing his thoughts, Shiftry's ball does a little shake.

    The recently-evolved grass-type has been a handful as of late. His new Dark-typing has made him cantankerous even on good days, and it has been reminding Ash of his early days with Charizard.

    'Maybe I'll bring Charizard over for a day to show Shiftry that a strong pokemon and a trainer are always better when they work together,' Ash nods to himself, making a mental note to reach out to the Charicific Valley.

    As the referee ushers Ash, Pikachu, and Norman off the torn up field, Ash searches the crowd for his friends and finds them quickly.

    Brock looks proud, and Ash's smile widens.

    May looks mystified, like she wasn't expecting the outcome. 'Norman is her dad, so it was probably weird to see him lose.'

    Finally, Max…

    Ash withholds a wince.

    Max looks devastated. His shoulders are slumped, and his eyes are teary, in stark contrast to May and Brock.

    The younger boy had been going on and on all day about how strong Norman is, saying that even with all his training and experience, Ash had no chance. It got on Ash's nerves for sure, but he understood that Max is just proud of his dad. That in mind, Ash kept anything unpleasant he had to say to himself, determined to prove himself with actions rather than words.

    And prove himself he did.

    The cheers and chatter of the crowd fade as Ash, Pikachu, and Norman cross the threshold into a small office area behind the gym arena. Ash gives the space little notice, having seen these little administrative areas in gyms many times before. The boy wonders to himself why gyms even bother making these spaces when all they do here is give out victory prizes and do paperwork? The lobby would be fine for that.

    Norman lets out a sigh and wipes at his sweaty brow. "What a fight," he murmurs, gesturing for Ash to sit down at a small table, where a few forms and an aide armed with a laptop already sit. "Talented kids are just popping out of the woodwork these days."

    "That was definitely the toughest gym match we've had in Hoenn so far, Mister Norman," Ash replies with a grin. "I thought you had us for sure!"

    "Chuuu…" Pikachu tiredly chimes in for emphasis, his battered and bruised form sliding down from Ash's shoulder to sit in the boy's lap.

    "Me too," Norman sighs, looking down at the gym aide. "Nina, three on three, nonstandard team."

    "Understood, Mister Maple!" The teenage girl chirps, already typing away.

    Norman turns his attention back to Ash. "So, mine is your fifth badge, then?"

    Ash nods. "Yep. We're thinking of heading to Fortree City after this for number six."

    "Going after Winona next?" Norman asks with a short laugh. "Good luck, Ash. She's a terror. Don't think Rock or Electric types will be able to walk all over her, because she teaches Ground-moves to all her pokemon. Her Altaria even knows Earthquake."

    Ash's eyes widen until he feels his eyebrows touch his hat. "Earthquake? On a Flying-type?"

    "Oh yes," Norman smiles thinly. "If there's any truth to the rumors I'm hearing, she's also looking into getting a Dragonite. Be careful with her, or she'll stonewall you for ages."

    A Dragonite? Ash exchanges a look with Pikachu and mentally reviews all the moves his pokemon know, finding that his team's arsenal is lacking anything Ice or Dragon. 'Oh crud. We should probably prepare for the worst.'

    -2 weeks remain in the Meteorfall Crater-

    Curled up on her tiny bed, her knees pulled to her chest, Courtney stares at the stone wall blankly.

    It's official. She's lost track of how long she's been in quarantine. The fluorescent light overhead is turned off, so it must be the night hours still, but she's been waking at odd hours. Or at least she thinks she is, for the quarantine chamber has no clock.

    The Team Magma standard quarantine period after contact with a hostile telepath is four weeks. Courtney knows this, for she's one of the ones who drafted the measure, which was approved by Leader Maxie.

    'It's been…' Courtney blinks sluggishly. She's not tired, yet her vision is blurry. 'It must have been… Twice standard length. Maybe more. Leader Maxie... I'll be better. Please let me out.'

    There is no answer to the silent prayer.

    Day in and day out has been the same each time. A morning meal, then a visit from a Magma telepathic therapist, who spends hours trying to find out how and when Henson's Ninetales made it past all of Courtney's mental blocks. The therapist reveals nothing to her, but from how they came in every day at the same time, and from how each brain dive gets deeper each day, Courtney knows they're finding nothing.

    Courtney screws her eyes shut as a migraine blooms behind them. Just thinking about the coming 'therapy' is unpleasant. 'For Leader Maxie, I endure.'

    After the midday meal was another round of therapy, then dinner, then a short block of time to herself before lights out. Recently, she's simply been going to bed early, as she has nothing to fill her free time with. Courtney has long since read all the books on the modest bookshelf within the room, and she dares not ask for more. 'Leader Maxie is gracious to have already done so much for me. Where would I be without him?'

    The dark, blank wall by her bed stares back at her, and Courtney swears she sees faces. She sees Tabitha's sneer, her pokemon, worried, and most of all…

    Her breath hitches.

    She sees Leader Maxie, disappointed. His eyes bore into her like drills of ice, and she quakes to herself.

    "I'm sorry…" She curls into a tighter ball. "I… Didn't mean to be a traitor. Please, Leader Maxie. Just one more chance. I will prove myself to you, I promise."

    The expression of the wall remains unchanged, unconvinced, and Courtney screws her eyes shut, clawing at her scalp. The sharp pain of her nails digging into her skin does nothing to make the face inside her eyelids go away. Despite the sterile cool of the room, Courtney sweats profusely and feels her clothes stick to her. Worse yet, she's gripped by a sudden nausea.

    She was compromised.

    She's a failure.

    She's a traitor.

    …Bang bang!

    For a moment, Courtney forgets her woes as a banging noise followed by the sound of scuffling echo through the steel door of her room. Turning away from the wall and swallowing the bile in her throat, the former Magma admin turns over in her bed and stares at the doorway.

    Clang-scritch!

    Something metallic drags against something else metallic down the hall, and she begins to hear actual, human voices crying out.

    "Stop them!"

    "-one berserk! If you can't fight, get out of the way!"

    "They're heading for the quarantine cells!"

    They? Who are they? Courtney's sluggish brain scrambles for an answer as she sits up. "Aqua?" She wonders aloud. "Are they… Attacking the hideout?"

    The more the disgraced admin thinks about it, the more other options seem outlandish. A police raid would be far louder, and a league raid would be lightning fast. An Aqua admin or someone comparable must be assaulting the base.

    Now Courtney can make out violent stomping coming down the hallway, each footfall seemingly shaking the entire hideout, and she jumps when a gigantic dent is put into the cell door with a bone rattling CRASH! All the while, the sound of combat rages further down the hall.

    'If they're breaking down my door, then they must have been tipped off about how I was compromised!' Courtney's eyes widen, and she quickly stands. 'Do they want to be rid of me, or capture me? I can't allow either!'

    Courtney's eyes dart about her cell as the attackers strike the door again, deepening the dent. To her dismay, she sees no serviceable weapons.

    CRASH!

    Wild magenta eyes turn towards the bookshelf, and Courtney scrambles over as fast as she can. She unceremoniously dumps the books on the ground and dashes the bookshelf across the floor as hard as she can.

    CRASH! The dent is getting larger, and the door hinges are giving out.

    The flimsy wooden bookshelf cracks and splinters on the floor, bursting into pieces. Taking a piece that ends in a sharp point, Courtney ignores the splinters stabbing her hand and stands ready.

    She will not be leaving without a fight.

    With a final thunderous impact, the cell door falls, the hinges shearing off with hideous shrieks. With a snort, a lumbering form steps into the cell, and Courtney nearly drops her makeshift weapon.

    "Camerupt?" She questions, scarcely believing her eyes.

    Her own Camerupt stands before her, his eyes sharp and full of hate. When he turns his gaze to her, Camerupt lights up and steps closer, lovingly pushing his head into her torso with a subdued croon.

    "Camerupt, what are you doing here?" She questions uncomprehendingly. "You damaged my cell. That's unacceptable."

    The camel pokemon's expression flashes with hurt, and he takes a hesitant step back. As he does so, the din of battle further inside the hideout begins to die down, and Courtney is treated to another surprise when her Swellow flies in and lands on Camerupt's back, looking exhausted. Trailing in behind Swellow is her Mightyena, who is walking with a limp.

    "What are you all doing here?" Courtney's question sharpens into a demand, a rare prickle of anger within her. "I'm under quarantine by order of Leader Maxie, and I am not to receive visitors. You're going against orders."

    Swellow trills a note tinged with deep concern, her face dismayed. The bird trills once more and gestures over towards the door with a wing, her meaning obvious. 'Come with us!'

    "I am under quarantine by order of Leader Maxie," Courtney repeats, her grip on her shard of wood tightening. "I've been compromised, and until the method used for the compromise can be determined and rectified, I am not to move."

    Mightyena whines, her pearly fangs bared in a grimace.

    "Leave," Courtney forces out, shutting her eyes and looking away from her pokemon. They can't be here, no matter how much seeing them balms her raw nerves. "Leader Maxie has forbidden me from – "

    The blow to the side of her head is as sudden as it is unexpected.

    Courtney's head swims as a pair of twin warmths suddenly find their way to her sides. She's looking at the ground for some reason, and it's moving by at a clipped pace, making her stomach roll. 'I'm slung across Camerupt's back,' she realizes. The warmths she feels are his volcanoes. There are voices, yelling, bellowing, shrieks, barks, and her head pounds. She blinks, but everything remains blurry, both her vision and her thoughts. 'Concussion.'

    Fighting, flashes, doors broken down.

    Then a pair of red flashes irritate her eyes, and Courtney feels a trio of spheres shoved into her pocket. Before she can get her bearings, talons grip the back of her shirt, and the ground falls away. The trees rush by, then they all become a green smear as she rises higher and higher into the sky.

    Despite the cool morning air in the first taste of sunlight she's had in months washing across her skin, the disgraced admin is perilously close to tears.

    If she wasn't marked a traitor before, then she certainly will be now.

    She's failed Leader Maxie yet again.

    -1 week remains in the Meteorfall Crater-

    Sitting on the sidelines deep within the Draconid training chamber, Octillery ponders to himself as a pair of his teammates spar before him. It's something he's been doing more and more as of late. Without a proper wireless signal, Lee's laptop is quite useless to him, so the cephalopod has been turning inward.

    Their seclusion within the Draconid holy land will be coming to an end soon, and they'll be returning to the outside world to resume the gym circuit and the crusade on Magma and Aqua. As regrettable as losing the Dragon TE thrumming through his body will be, Octillery relishes the thought of new foes to trounce and humiliate.

    In these few weeks, so much has happened that someone else's head might spin, but not Octillery's. Disorganization is a trap for the apathetic and dull-witted. He's been carefully categorizing and cataloging each event — his own growth, chiefly.

    'Were I to clash with myself from a month prior,' he begins, imagining many scenarios in parallel, 'then the result would be a foregone conclusion.'

    A 'foregone conclusion' is a polite way to put it. Over the last month, Octillery has seen himself grow to heights he wouldn't have even dreamed of before being brought into the fold of Lee Henson's team. If his current and past self were to meet in the field of battle, then the past Octillery would surely perish. His skills, might, and repertoire have ballooned.

    Protect, Thunder Wave, Psychic, Payback, and Focus Energy have been welcome additions to Octillery's move pool. The usefulness of Protect and Psychic go without saying, and he's found a delightful loophole with Payback after much experimentation.

    Self-inflicted pain will trigger Payback's muscle strengthening effect.

    As expected, Lee did not approve when Octillery shared this finding, but after demonstrating the effectiveness of the results, the man reluctantly allowed Octillery to continue his testing, so long as he was allowed to supervise.

    An unexpectedly pleasing outcome. Octillery planned around being denied outright. It seems his trainer's newfound resolve after the showdown on the volcano is genuine.

    Thunder Wave and Focus Energy were grand boons for this yet-to-be-named technique. Octillery swiftly learned how to modulate the power output of electrical techniques using Focus Energy's amplification. Using Focus Energy in tandem with Thunder Wave, he can electrocute himself. The actual damage from the technique is negligible, but Payback still swells with power when everything is fused together. The discomfort is a small price to pay.

    Then Lee began working on yet another technique with Octillery, one utilizing Octazooka and Psychic; his favorite moves. Octillery is already familiar with Corviknight's Pursuers, and Lee's proposed technique was Pursuers taken to its logical extreme:

    An Octazooka that cannot miss.

    With Octillery's mental prowess, using Lock On for ballistic calculations is simply a waste, so Lee proposed using Lock On's accelerated calculating for something much more devious and intensive. Namely, telekinetically assisted flight control for Octazooka.

    Combining his two favorite moves together seems like a 'no-brainer' as they say, so why didn't Octillery think of that?

    It took weeks of practice and meditation to turn into a serviceable technique. Octillery needed to shift Lock On's thought acceleration property into his control of telekinesis, which was more difficult than expected. Going against the move's in-built programming was hell, but Octillery refused to be controlled by a limitation that is purely mental. He could do without the migraines it causes, however.

    Then came practicing the first part of his new technique. Lee once more proved himself an unusually astute human by handcrafting a small, wooden maze for Octillery and instructing him to move a pebble through the miniature labyrinth as fast as possible without touching the walls. With each success, Lee reconfigured the maze and gave him a larger pebble. Within a few days, Octillery had less than a millimeter of clearance on all sides for his pebble, and some of the maze turns were intentionally made too small, forcing Octillery to rotate the pebble to clear the turn. Then the time trials started, and Octillery had to beat his best time or suffer the indignity of failure.

    Putting all the pieces together, it was sweet to see his Octazooka pull hard 90 turns to dodge around obstacles and pin his target right where it hurt most.

    Ink Spear, they decided to call it. Simple, distinct, and as descriptive as it needs to be. Though, Octillery spied the name Gáe Bulg crossed out in Lee's notebook. Gibberish, or something else?

    A crash draws Octillery's attention outward again.

    In the middle of their sectioned off area of the underground training arena, Ninetales and Corviknight rebound off of each other with a thunderous bang.

    Ninetales' paws drag across the ground as she slides backwards to a stop, her red gaze locked on her aerial opponent. At the same time, Corviknight flares his wings, arresting his momentum midair.

    Three of Ninetales' tails shiver like snakes, their tips shining like steel, then all of them rocket forward, extending far beyond their resting length using a trick she learned from Sylveon.

    Corviknight weaves through the first two and barely dodges the third, which shrieks as it gouges his armor.

    Lee's first pokemon doesn't let up and throws her open maw forward. In a split second, a raging conflagration the size of a Snorlax appears and races towards Corviknight.

    Octillery lazily watches as Corviknight crosses his wings in front of his body, a green barrier, Protect, encircling him. It's all that he has time to do.

    The fireball smashes into the barrier with a furious explosion that shakes the entire cavern down to its foundation. Dust is shaken from the high roof, and the square pillars that make up the floor all dance beneath their feet on the vibrations.

    When the smoke clears, Corviknight's emerald shield is rendered naught but a collection of spiderweb cracks. Protect falls like shattering glass, and the great avian is panting.

    Had he not raised Protect in time, the match would be over.

    Forbidden Sun, a fitting name for the technique, Octillery thinks. Lee explained it to Octillery when asked. The move is merely Ninetales unleashing the fire within her inside a spherical psychic shell and throwing it at the foe. Apparently, learning Protect was the push Ninetales needed to learn shape control with telekinesis, thus turning Forbidden Sun into a reality.

    Lowbrow, but the cephalopod can't deny the effectiveness.

    Octillery lets his eyes roam over the rest of his teammates, who were gathered around and watching the spar.

    Shinx must be the most surprising of the bunch. Octillery expected her to remain a pet to warm Lee's lap, but instead she has been growing at a prodigious rate. Each day, the kitten improved by leaps and bounds. Her techniques sharpen, her body strengthens, her mind is startlingly focused, and even with teammates that utterly dwarf her, she doesn't fall into childish pitfalls like jealousy or pettiness.

    "She's as strong as I was when Lee and I first set out on our journey," Ninetales said at dinner a few nights ago, regarding Shinx with glowing pride. Pride in someone else is an alien notion to Octillery, but he nodded along anyway to keep the conversation moving. "She'll be something wondrous someday soon."

    Shinx looked up from her bowl when Ninetales said that, a silly smile on her face and food stuck to her cheeks.

    Octillery tries not to roll his eyes at the memory and resumes with his thoughts.

    Ninetales, as expected, retains her place as the mightiest of the team. Her power swells each day, threatening to outrun her control, but with Lee's mind joined to hers, she can offload issues of control to him. With two minds and two perspectives to work with, new techniques came to her with ease. Protect, Iron Tail, Energy Ball, Dig, and even the legendary Hyper Beam were learned and brought to a professional level of expertise in just a few weeks. The only reason she hasn't used her Solar Beam TM is because of how unsuitable a learning environment an underground cavern is for such a technique.

    As a control exercise, Lee started Ninetales down the path of Double Team experimentation, hoping it would help her with her fire clone move, Fox Fire. With some focus and imagination, the fox can make her illusions take on the appearance of other pokemon, and even humans. They're still as immaterial as ever, but progress is progress.

    With fire, curses, illusions, telekinesis, and soon clones, it seems as if Ninetales has an answer for every situation.

    When night falls, Ninetales would retire with Lee, often spending time meditating with him. Recently, they've taken to sitting and pressing their foreheads together, eyes closed. What goes on between them is anyone's guess.

    Octillery isn't sure if that's par for the course for a paradoxical gestalt entity, but once he has access to research material once again (the internet), he'll be beginning a side study on the subject. It wouldn't do if the human handing him power hand over fist accidentally lobotomized himself.

    The brooding dark knight of the team is the least remarkable when it comes to improvements. Corviknight continues to train diligently, and makes strides each day, but his movepool is already impressive, and he has few untapped talents to exploit. Lee has been brainstorming a new technique for the raven after seeing how quickly his metallic feathers regrow, but has said little at this stage.

    Grovyle… Where does Octillery even begin? If Octillery has any friends among his team, then the sole one is Grovyle. The green reptile keeps his mouth shut unless needed, is surprisingly wise, and is talented, the last one being evidenced by the way it pushes himself to keep pace with Ninetales and Corviknight.

    When compared to the other senior members of the team, Grovyle falls short in all aspects but raw skill and speed, but with just those, he still thrives. Grovyle's now-signature Siphon Blade is a menace of a technique, and he's adept at slipping his blade past one's defenses to steal their energy. No one makes the mistake of leaving themselves open to him anymore.

    His mastery of Quick Attack is also in a realm of its own. Now bordering on Extreme Speed, any foe without their own grasp of Quick Attack or some sort of omnidirectional defense is simply destined to fail against the bladed onslaught that Grovyle will unleash.

    Yet, frustration still clings to the Grass-type. He yearns for evolution, but it simply eludes him. Or perhaps he yearns for something even further, like the Mega-evolution his ilk are supposedly capable of. Whatever it is, Octillery doesn't really care to ask.

    The sixth member of the team, Sylveon, is also another surprising one. When she was introduced to the team, Octillery recognized the look in her eyes.

    The Fairy looked dead on her feet, like she was merely going through the motions of life. It was something he often saw in his own face before he resolved to be something better.

    Her improvement was not so profound, but it didn't need to be. Being the eldest member of the team by far, she was no slouch, she merely had bad habits that needed broken and poor health weighing her down.

    Lee did away with both, and it makes a twisted sort of sense that a human as disturbed as Lee would be able to easily get into the head of a Fairy. Sylveon has had little time to mope to herself with the intense daily training, and her condition improves each day.

    More recently, Octillery has spotted her watching him and the rest of the team with an expression he can't place, her previous dreary attitude gone. He doesn't waste too much time thinking about it, knowing that trying to make sense of a Fairy is a futile effort.

    Last and certainly not least, Octillery looks towards his trainer.

    Standing several yards away, Lee stands with his arms crossed and his face stoic. His blue eyes follow each one of Ninetales' and Corviknight's lightning fast movements.

    For the longest time, Octillery couldn't make sense of the man, and if he is being honest with himself, he still can't; not entirely, at least. He didn't understand all the sympathy - the unwavering altruism. At first, it seemed like he was just like every other trainer, out seeking glory on the backs of his pokemon. Octillery had no time for such nonsense, as a trainer would simply hold him back. When he woke up in the Lavaridge Pokemon Center and was informed that he was captured, he was dismayed.

    Then Lee gave him the option of leaving, no strings attached.

    "Everything."

    Octillery still remembers the chilling word that Ninetales uttered when he asked just what Lee meant to her. That single word was packed with so much emotion, it made the comforting numb that has been shielding him for years actually falter. Only curiosity kept him with the team.

    He then began to grow under Lee, and at a rate he honestly found acceptable. They faced many foes, some of which were overwhelming and redefined what Octillery knew of power.

    The bellow of the Camerupt upon the volcano was the second time that his numb had fled him for a fleeting moment. In that moment, he felt the terror of his imminent demise once again, for the first time since the river.

    He was powerless. A better had come, and he could do nothing. No amount of ingenuity could save him.

    Yet, despite death coming to claim them all that day, they lived.

    Each one of the pokemon who clashed with Camerupt fought with a desperation far beyond what fear for the self can conjure. It would have made far more sense to lie down and allow the better to end them quickly, but none did. Where did that desperation come from? What caused it?

    Octillery pondered that every day since, and never could he find a satisfying answer. He knows instinctively that he cannot ask, for the pokemon around him would perceive something amiss. No, it's something he has to figure out himself.

    Then, just a few short weeks ago, Lee set them all down and told them a story. One about himself and another world doomed to be washed clean in fire.

    "I died."

    It was outlandish, clearly the work of a delusion, and it lent credence to Octillery's theory of mental illness, but the words made his stomach clench beneath his numb. That should have been the end of it, but Ninetales, Grovyle, and Corviknight all vouched for the story.

    Ninetales could be explained away as Lee's mental illness seeping into her. Corviknight, after his evolution, became a proper and obedient servant, so he could have simply been ordered to confirm the story.

    Grovyle's belief, however, was the tipping point. Subservient he is, but a liar he is not, this Octillery knows.

    In a fashion, he and Lee have the same origin. They are the very last ones. Yet, their paths could not be more different.

    "If there is anything I fear, it's being alone."

    Lee spoke those words a handful of weeks ago, in response to the Draconid Oracle asking his deepest fear. Not fire, not death, but loneliness.

    Is there truly something out there greater than living for the self? Something greater than staving off death? Something that grants such distinguished power? The answer feels as if it should be obvious, yet it escapes him.

    The coat of numbness around Octillery shivers, an occurrence that is becoming increasingly common. Crossing his front two tentacles over each other, the octopus narrows his eyes.

    He needs more examples to study, so it appears he's committed to this adventure for the foreseeable future…

    -5 days remain in the Meteorfall Crater-

    Nigel smiles and sits roughly in his chair behind his desk, savoring the soft padding against his back. The shoulder bag he was carrying is set on his desk gently so as to not damage the laptop inside. Having just returned from Sinnoh's Snowpoint City for a study on the back of his trusty Flygon, a real seat after the nonstop flight is absolute heaven.

    'I knew that the fur density of the average mammal pokemon is influenced by their birthplace, but I didn't expect the deviation between each successive generation to be so profound.' Nigel thinks to himself. The family of Poochyena that were moved to Snowpoint for the study grew thick, winter worthy coats after just a few generations. Raising his arms over his head in a stretch, Nigel let out a pleased groan as his back pops. 'Oof. I think today is going to be a half-day.'

    After waking his computer and sending a message to the rest of the lab informing them that he'll be leaving at noon today, the professor set about catching up with his work. A few requisition requests from his researchers and aides are all approved easily thanks to the funding Lee and Brendan are attracting, a few emails from the Academic Board are answered, as are a few requests from prospective trainers wanting to board pokemon with the Lab. There's nothing new from Lee, which isn't surprising considering that he, Brendan, and Zinnia went off of the grid into tribal land. Before Nigel can do much else, his computer pings with a new email.

    New mail from: Ranch_Monitor@hoennpkmnlab.org
    Subject: Bbirch New Capture

    The email is backdated to a few weeks ago, so Brendan must've just now gotten a signal for his pokedex. Eager to see what his picky son caught, Nigel smiles and opens the email.

    His smile becomes brittle.

    Acquisition Details:
    Pokémon Species: #0380 – Latias
    Gender: Female
    Method of Acquisition: Capture
    Location: ???
    Research Value Index: 0.95

    Oh… And to make matters worse, he's not the only one who gets these emails. Nigel looks up at the carbon copy field of the message.

    The Academic Board got that email, too.

    Before he's given much time to process what he sees, the office phone on Nigel's desk begins to ring. Looking over, he already knows the number on the caller ID by heart.

    It's the Academic Board, and their timing is no coincidence.

    Sitting perfectly still, Nigel lets the phone ring out to voicemail once. Whoever's calling doesn't bother leaving a message and just calls again, making the phone ring incessantly.

    Slowly and carefully reaching into the back of the phone, Nigel yanks the power cord out and the ringing stops. To make extra certain, he reaches into his pocket and holds down the power button on the side of his cell phone until he hears its shut down chime.

    "On… Second… Thought… Guys… I'm… Not… Feeling… Good," the professor quickly types off a message in the lab's IM app on his computer, ignoring the ping of a new email coming in. "Back… Tomorrow… Send!"

    Standing and taking his shoulder bag, the professor quickly exits the lab, pops into his jeep, and begins the drive home.

    "That's tomorrow Nigel's problem…" he mutters to himself. "So is finding something to spend all the incoming grant money on. That boy is going to drive me to drink."

    Below are the names of some patrons who got to view this chapter early and felt like signing it. A huge thanks to them and everyone else who supports this story and everything else I write.

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  • Threadmarks
    • Just gotta love interlude chapters. Seeing the going ons from other people is always fun. And goddamn Courtneys Pokemon stage a breakout! And kek Birch just noping out of that is hilarious. Though I bet Lee and the others are gonna need to deal with idiots trying to steal Latias. Info like that always leaks. Loved Octilleys pov.
     
    Fuggmanm, on here you have the chapter you just posted called "Act 2 Interlude 6" and two chapters back is another one called "Act 2 Interlude 6". The one that's 2 chapters back doesn't seem to exist on Royal Road so that might be whats screwed up your count.
     
    AeonIlluminate said:
    Fuggmanm, on here you have the chapter you just posted called "Act 2 Interlude 6" and two chapters back is another one called "Act 2 Interlude 6". The one that's 2 chapters back doesn't seem to exist on Royal Road so that might be whats screwed up your count.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Oops. I forgot to change the threadmark here. Fix'd.
     
    AeonIlluminate said:
    Fuggmanm, on here you have the chapter you just posted called "Act 2 Interlude 6" and two chapters back is another one called "Act 2 Interlude 6". The one that's 2 chapters back doesn't seem to exist on Royal Road so that might be whats screwed up your count.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    That was the April Fools chapter. Fuggmann forgot to move it to Extras.

    Ninja'd.
     
    Fuggmann said:
    Henson is still a loser for sure, but less than initially expected.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    and the return of edgy mcgee

    Fuggmann said:
    '…Mega Evolution? Mega Stones? What is this shit?' He frowns and glances at the 'sender' field of the email.

    From:

    'It's empty?'
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    oh that is ominous.
    Fuggmann said:
    Then a pair of red flashes irritate her eyes, and Courtney feels a trio of spheres shoved into her pocket. Before she can get her bearings, talons grip the back of her shirt, and the ground falls away. The trees rush by, then they all become a green smear as she rises higher and higher into the sky.

    Despite the cool morning air in the first taste of sunlight she's had in months washing across her skin, the disgraced admin is perilously close to tears.

    If she wasn't marked a traitor before, then she certainly will be now.

    She's failed Leader Maxie yet again.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    damn her pokemon really care for her to stage a breakout for her and the fact that maxie left her in long enough for them to think it was necessary mean that her trust from him is long gone.
     
    Between Ninetails, Grovyle, Corvinight, Shinx, Octillery, and Sylveon, I think that's a full roster. I don't think he'll be getting a seventh pokemon. Frankly, even if he did what hope would it have of catching up to the rest of the team at this point? If he picks one up it would have to be a Legendary to stay relevant at this point.
     
    Artful Lounger said:
    Between Ninetails, Grovyle, Corvinight, Shinx, Octillery, and Sylveon, I think that's a full roster. I don't think he'll be getting a seventh pokemon. Frankly, even if he did what hope would it have of catching up to the rest of the team at this point? If he picks one up it would have to be a Legendary to stay relevant at this point.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah, that was the reason for getting the sixth from the breeder. He'll probably focus on these six until Magma and Aqua are gone at least, then he can probably get more to study and research.
     
    Act 2: Chapter 32
  • Threadmarks
    • NOTICE: Didn't expect this one so quickly, did you? Life is calming down, and I can get back to a more regular schedule again. Thanks everyone for being so patient. The next chapter should be Act 2's finale.


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    Eyes of red, piercing as can be.

    Mantle of gold, majestic as can be.

    A fanged mouth speaking, damning as can be.

    In a void of neither light nor dark.

    The great maw of teeth opens once more, inhuman lips forming words meant for he alone.

    It says unto him –

    Lee's eyes shoot open before he hears a single word, as always. His heart is racing as he stares up at the plain ceiling of his temporary room in the Draconid hut. 'Fuck. It always cuts off before I can hear what it has to say.'

    He doesn't sit up quite yet, content to let his pulse settle under the blanket of golden tails courtesy of Ninetales, who is still asleep next to him. Instead, he takes time to gather his thoughts and form a plan for the day.

    For nearly six weeks he, Brendan, and Zinnia have been down here, training their pokemon day in and day out. Each one of their pokemon have grown leaps and bounds, aided by the seething Dragon TE permeating the air within the cavern. Lee has to admit that he was skeptical at first, but the results thus far speak for themselves. Nine has to have broken into the realms of the Elite by now, with Corvi and Grovyle only a few steps behind.

    Eventually, though, Lee begins to grow restless and slides out from under his furry coverings, letting Nine sleep for a bit longer. Changing into some day clothes, Lee quietly slips out of his room and into the common area of the hut, finding both Zinnia and Brendan already awake.

    In one of the hand-stuffed chairs, Zinnia sits with her head leaned back, staring up at the ceiling, her cloak draped over her like a blanket and her face lost in thought. What the Lorekeeper could be thinking about, Lee isn't sure. The unknown trial that Taxus may spring on them any day, perhaps?

    At her side rests Shelgon, who acknowledges Lee with a glance. The petals of Shelgon's namesake shell have been slowly peeling back over the last few weeks, little by little. His gray skin has also been transitioning into a gentle blue. It won't be long before Shelgon evolves into a Salamence, a dragon revered and feared all over Hoenn.

    On the couch, Brendan lounges with his Latias, both of them sitting calmly with their eyes closed, likely speaking telepathically.

    Brendan has made it apparent in the past that he doesn't care for telepathy - at least not between himself and Ninetales. That said, the boy isn't the sort to let a new and useful tool go unused, and Latias has the proper talent for the art of telepathy. Each day, for a few minutes each morning, he and Latias connect and attempt to speak, trying to get used to the unusual contact. Both of them have taken Lee and Nine's warnings about prolonged contact seriously, and Lee can't help but find himself proud of Brendan's diligence on the matter.

    Latias herself has taken an absolute shine to Brendan, and despite his reservations at first, the boy has grown to cherish her as much as he does his other pokemon. Brendan's approval made way for Marshtomp's, and before long, Latias was slotted into the team like she'd been there since day one.

    Zinnia takes notice of Lee and smirks. "Hey there, Sleeping Beauty. You're the last one to get up. Finally starting to slack off on us?"

    "I sleep under a cover of genuine Ninetales fluff - that would knock anyone out." Lee raises his nose as if he is talking to a peasant. "Besides…" He glances at a clock on the wall. "It's not even 9 o'clock."

    "Yeah, but you're the cook around here, so it's your duty to get up first," Zinnia shoots back, pointing an accusing finger.

    Lee crosses his arms and leans on the wall. "I'm sure you could have cooked up something for yourself if you weren't busy brooding." After a moment of silence, he continues. "Something on your mind? You've been out of sorts for a few days now."

    The question draws Brendan and Latias out of their pseudo-meditation, Brendan looking at Zinnia with concern as well.

    Zinnia opens her mouth to answer, only to stop and consider her words. After another false start, she lets out a sigh, seeming exhausted despite the early hour. "I've been… thinking about going to Aster's grave," she finally admits, averting her eyes. "I haven't been since she died, and I wanted to visit before we left, to tell her everything that's going on before things really begin to take off. I dunno if I believe in the afterlife and all that, but I'd like to pretend that she hears me."

    'Not since her death?'

    "…You don't want to go alone, do you?" Lee murmurs his realization aloud.

    Still looking down, Zinnia shakes her head.

    "We'd be happy to go with you," Brendan jumps in, a small smile on his face. "I'd love to meet her. I gotta at least tell her she made a great choice in picking you for the new Lorekeeper."

    Try as she might to remain dour, Zinnia smiles. "Brendan, give it a few years and we're going to have to beat the girls off you with a stick. I want to do this before I lose my nerve, so how about we have breakfast and head out?"

    And they do just that; Lee rouses Ninetales with a poke to her mind, and she sleepily trots into the room with Lee's pokeball-laden belt in her teeth. Brendan and Zinnia likewise let their teams out, and after everyone is fed and ready, they head outside, and all of the pokemon except Lee's Corviknight, Brendan's Latias, and Zinnia's Noivern are returned to their balls.

    "Ready for your first solo flight, kiddo?" a grinning Zinnia asks Brendan as she helps him saddle-up Latias.

    "I've been flying; I took my flying license test on Corviknight a week ago," Brendan grumbles, already looking a bit green around the gills.

    "Flying on a bird is way different from flying on a Dragon!" Zinnia exclaims, gesturing to Latias, who watches the goings-on with nervous yellow eyes. "A big metal bird may as well be an airplane!"

    Off to the side, Lee sits on Corvi's back, already mounted up and ready to go. The giant crow clicks his tongue as he listens to Zinnia.

    "Don't listen to the adrenaline junkie, Corvi." Lee pats his mount's wing, watching as Brendan unsurely climbs onto Latias' back, making the hovering dragon dip a few inches. "She has no idea what she's talking about."

    Despite knowing that the saddle on Latias was hand-made by a tribe of dragon tamers and should theoretically stand up to just about anything, Lee can't help but be a little anxious on Brendan's behalf.

    Latias is fast.

    Brendan's newest pokemon is a proper and powerful legendary, and that was made extremely apparent to everyone once they did some inter-team sparring. Latias eclipses damn near every other pokemon between them when it comes to raw power, and the only thing holding her back is her lack of combat experience. Of Lee's pokemon, only Ninetales and Sylveon are able to properly stand up to Latias.

    'Latias has to be propelling herself with a positively ridiculous amount of Psychic TE, possibly with Flying TE mixed in. I really hope Brendan doesn't get sick or get blown off of Latias' back. The second one would be really hard to explain to Nigel…'

    'If Latias has any sense, she's holding onto Brendan with telekinesis,'     Ninetales chimes in, watching through Lee's eyes.

    'We can only hope.'

    Once Brendan is situated, Zinnia climbs onto the back of her Noivern, who is also sporting a Draconid-made saddle. "Lee, Brendan, stay on Noivern's tail, and don't get left behind! Fly, girl!"

    Noivern takes to the air with a screech and a flap of leathery wings. Latias follows, and Corvi brings up the rear.

    Zinnia and Noivern rise, taking them out of the crater and up above the plateau into the biting, early-autumn wind. Lee silently curses himself for not taking the ten seconds to get his scarf out, already knowing his face is going to be wind burned by the time they land.

    The group cuts a wide turn, banking south and heading towards a low part of the plateau devoid of any Dragon nests. Once they level out, Lee gazes ahead of him at Latias and Brendan, nodding in satisfaction that Brendan is still securely on his dragon's back.

    The flight only takes about twenty minutes, and Zinnia mercifully directs Noivern to come in for a gentle, gradual landing rather than a dive like Lee was half expecting. One after the other, the group touches down several dozen yards away from a stretch of barren ground covered in mossy stones with an equally mossy hill flanking its western side.

    Slowly lowering herself off of Noivern's back, Zinnia takes a deep breath and stares at the field of stones with trepidation.

    Beside her, Brendan shakily dismounts Latias as Lee does the same with Corvi. Taking in the flat ground, a chilling sensation runs down Lee's back, and he realizes what the rocks jutting out of the ground are.

    Stepping a bit closer to one, Lee kneels down and wipes away the dirt and moss clinging to the stone, finding a flat face bearing the scratchy characters of the Draconid script staring back. "So this is the place?"

    Zinnia nods, evidently unable to find her voice.

    The trio return each of their flyers to their balls, then Brendan and Lee closely flank Zinnia as she leads them to the hill in the distance.

    As they walk, Lee looks around, taking in the graveyard with more scrutiny. 'The headstones are arranged in twos, threes, fours… Are the trainers and their pokemon buried together?'

    A short chill not wholly his own rolls in Lee's gut, and he places a hand over Nine's ball.

    The short walk takes them to the foot of the hill where a jagged stone roughly 4 feet high sticks out of the ground. Like the others, moss has begun to claim it, but the growth hasn't yet climbed up far enough to obscure the scratchy writing.

    Zinnia lays a hand on the stone, falling silent. Her face cycles through emotions so quickly that Lee can barely keep track, but she eventually settles on deep grief. The expression is so alien on her usually-smiling face that Lee is taken aback.

    "Hi, Aster," Zinnia murmurs, rubbing her thumb over the inscription upon the stone. "I'm sorry for not visiting. Hell, I barely mustered up the nerve to come here. It still feels so strange to me that you… aren't here." Zinnia gulps heavily. "It almost feels like a dream - a bad one. Nothing seems real, standing here."

    Brendan takes one of Zinnia's hands, and Lee leans closer, pressing his shoulder to hers.

    The contact eases the pale pallor on Zinnia's face, and she resumes speaking. "I've been doing all I can as Lorekeeper, but I'll be damned if I don't have big shoes to fill," she says with a weak chuckle. "Bagon evolved about half a year ago, and he's almost ready to evolve again - so close that it'll be any day now. From Bagon to Salamence in under a year; isn't that something? I thought you and your Salamence were a bit crazy to give me Sala's first egg, but he's doing his dad proud."

    'Aster's Salamence is Shelgon's father?' Lee files the interesting tidbit away for later. 'So Shelgon is only around four years old.'

    'Considering most dragons have a decade between each evolution, Shelgon's growth is extraordinary,'     Ninetales chimes in, her words heard only by Lee.

    "We wouldn't have gotten there alone, though." Zinnia smiles thinly and puts an arm around Brendan and Lee's shoulders each. "Aster, meet Lee and Brendan - my best friends." She pauses for a beat. "After you, of course."

    Lee can't withhold an amused snort, but Brendan rolls with it, a smile on his face.

    "It's nice to finally meet you, Aster!" Brendan addresses the gravestone cheerfully. "I think I've liked everything I've heard about you, and I'm kinda sad that we'll never talk face-to-face. I just wanted to say that you made a great choice in a new Lorekeeper. Zinnia is like the sister I never had, so I see exactly what you saw in her too."

    Once Brendan is done, Lee speaks up as well. "The love Zinnia had—has—for you is quite apparent every time she talks about you, Aster," Lee begins quietly. "It reminds me of my own late mentor, who set me on the path I'm on today. Did you know Zinnia started traveling with me and Brendan because I reminded her of you?" Lee shakes his head with a small smile. "That's a compliment to me if I've ever heard one. I think we would have been good friends, you and I, judging from all the fantastic qualities you passed to Zinnia."

    A sniffle interrupts Lee before he can say anything more, and looking down at Zinnia, Lee finds her eyes watery and her mouth set into a wobbly smile. "You two…" She says nothing more, pulling both into a tight hug.

    Lee wraps an arm over Zinnia's shoulders as Brendan hugs her around the middle. For a moment, they simply stand together like that, and warmth seeps into Lee's core.

    It feels as if his little family has grown a bit bigger today.

    Zinnia's trembling shoulders begin to still, and she blinks the tears from her eyes with a final sniffle. Her red eyes trail down to the brown cloak over her shoulders, and Lee follows her gaze.

    The ragged, brown cloak is something Zinnia has always kept close, for she's only ever taken it off to bathe, clean it, or if she was otherwise forced to. It's precious to her, as anyone can see.

    'What prompted this sudden inspection?'

    Zinnia gently pries herself free from Brendan and Lee and, after a moment of hesitation, reaches up to the collar of her cloak and unties it. The cloth comes free, and Zinnia heavily steps forward to drape it onto Aster's gravestone.

    "I think it's time I gave this back to you, Aster," Zinnia whispers, tying the neck strap and stepping back, letting the cloak flutter in the plateau breeze. "I don't need it anymore."

    'Oh…'

    All three of them stand and stare at the gravestone for a moment, the only sound being the returned cloak fluttering in the wind, and Zinnia's pokeballs slowly shaking on their magnetic clips.

    'Do you mourn too, Shelgon?' Ninetales wonders as Lee glances at Zinnia's pokeballs. 'Were our places traded, I would.'

    With a tired sigh, Zinnia rubs her arms, as if to ward away a chill.

    "Do you want my jacket, Zinnia?" Lee can't help but offer. "It is kind of chilly up here."

    Zinnia's reply is a short laugh. "Thanks, but no thanks, Dolittle. Don't bust out any charm on me, or your fox will get jealous."

    'I'm not so petty…' Ninetales grumbles with only Lee to hear.

    Lee lets out a half-laugh, half-exhale and smiles. "Okay, but if you change your mind, tell me. I'm not bothered by the cold."

    Oh, and how true that is. Over the last month, he and Ninetales have been practicing with their unusual bond to furret out all the secrets they can. One interesting, if only situationally useful, thing they discovered is that Ninetales can shunt Fire TE into Lee, warming his entire body.

    'But now that you have a good foundation for Fairy TE and can extend your tails with it, I still think a tail-tent or a tail-cocoon is better for keeping warm,' Lee sends to Ninetales.

    Ugh. Fairy TE. What a headache that stuff is. TE already breaks physics, but Lee's now-grizzled inner scientist still nearly had a heart attack when he realized that Fairy TE runs off of pure belief and nothing else. Ninetales can use it to extend her tails because of course she should be able to do that.

    Fairies run off of ork magic. No wonder Fairy experts can't explain how their favorite type works. How do you explain "it just works" to someone and expect them to take it at face value?

    At least the realization has made training Sylveon easier…

    Before Lee can get caught in a spiral of loathing for Fairy TE's flagrant disregard of the natural world, one of Zinnia's pokeballs wobbles furiously, then pops open, making everyone jump in surprise.

    In a flash, Shelgon materializes at Zinnia's feet.

    "Shelgon?" Zinnia blinks in surprise. "What's wrong?"

    The armor-bound dragon growls, looking past Zinnia and into the sky behind her.

    As one, the trio of trainers turn, following Shelgon's gaze.

    In the distance flying towards them is a Dragapult, a Garchomp, and a Dragonite, all of them with the sun to their backs. Through the light, silhouettes of riders can be seen astride each dragon.

    'The Draconid Elders,' Lee realizes, narrowing his eyes. 'What are they doing here?'

    'Perhaps the day has come for the test Taxus insists upon.'     Ninetales watches the Elders begin their descent through Lee's eyes. 'Unless they all collectively decided today was the day to pay respects to the honored dead.'

    Trepidation wells up in Lee, but Ninetales is quick to soothe it. 'Worry not, Beloved,' she says gently. 'We've risen to new and fantastic heights, and I'm confident we can handle whatever it is they ask of us.'

    'You're right…'     Lee takes a deep breath as the Elders land a dozen yards away and dismount. 'We can do it.'

    "Elders," Zinnia tersely greets as Taxus, flanked by Juniper and Danae, approaches. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

    "Such a prickly attitude is unbecoming, Thelban," Taxus says, clicking his tongue. He looks between Zinnia and Aster's grave, his eyes lingering on the cloak wrapped around the stone. "The time has come to test your worth. It is fortuitous that you are here, for this solemn place is where your foe resides."

    Zinnia's eyes narrow. "Here? In a graveyard?" she asks, panning her gaze around. "What, going to sic a Ghost on us?"

    Taxus ignores her and continues on, though his severe scowl deepens. "You three wish for Draconid treasures, and treasures you shall have… should you pass the coming trial. Naraikvejor!" he barks, addressing both Brendan and Lee. "Present your Grovyle and Marshtomp."

    Lee and Brendan reach for their belts, and in twin flashes, Grovyle and Marshtomp stand in front of their trainers with stony faces.

    "For this test most important, we would ask to hold the rest of your pokeballs for safekeeping…" Danae's face looks as if he's sucking a lemon, going along with all of this. "This is a trial for the holders of the treasures, and only the holders of the treasures. We mean no insult, but…"

    "You don't want someone jumping in if things get heated," Lee finishes with a frown.

    "I understand, but I don't like it…" Brendan is the first to comply, reluctantly handing the rest of his team to Danae, who takes the balls with him.

    Before Lee can do the same, Ninetales's ball wobbles before bursting open, letting the vixen out. Once she finishes materializing, Lee's pokeballs float off of his belt, held by Nine's telekinesis.

    'If it is all the same,' Ninetales coolly begins, projecting her thoughts out to everyone around and causing more than one person to tense up, 'then I will observe in-person and retain custody of the team,' she says, practically daring them to object.

    Taxus opens his mouth to do just that, but Juniper beats him to the punch.

    "If you so wish, Naraikvejor Ninetales, but let it be known that interference will not be tolerated," Juniper warns, prompting her sleepy-looking Dragonite to stand up straighter.

    Zinnia is the last to surrender her pokeballs, and does so with a scowl on her face. "We could have avoided this song and dance if you had just trusted me and sided with Danae, ya know," she grinds out, dropping four pokeballs into Juniper's hands.

    The old woman looks away, age-bleached locks hiding her eyes. "I needed to know that you were ready. My wish is to not bar your way, but to not bury another child, O Granddaughter. Would you begrudge me so?" she whispers.

    Zinnia sucks in a breath and turns away herself. "Granny, there is too much at stake to worry about that."

    Juniper closes her shaking hands around Zinnia's pokeballs without answering.

    "If you've any final preparations to make, do so now," Taxus orders. When no one moves, he nods sharply. "We shall begin immediately, then." With that, he turns towards Aster's grave. "Defeat the coming foe as if your life depends on it."

    Raising his hands above his head, Taxus begins to speak the guttural tongue of the Draconids. "O unar vak'thoz vulden, ma yirn tuk zenvok. Fenrok tu zerak, vaz krelki or'nad fruv vor rokam. Zhex mazz fo ur vaz tazhn!" he exclaims, his eyes bulging and voice rising into a roar.

    'What's he doing? Who is he talking to?' Lee wonders, his gut sinking.

    Taxus lowers his arms as he speaks the final word, and the graveyard falls into a tense quiet.

    Then, the hill behind Aster's grave begins to shake.

    No, the hill behind Aster's grave begins to stand up.

    The moss on the hill blackens and smolders as the air grows hot and dry.

    Four stout legs ending in razor claws lift the hill up, as a tail as thick as a tree lifts and slams into the ground, shaking the entire plateau and cratering the rock beneath it.

    The smoking moss flakes away, and from under the burning greenery, a pair of red reptile wings unfold.

    Finally, a head on a long neck rises, and a pair of bloodshot eyes snap open to stare damningly at all of them.

    "No… No way…" Zinnia's eyes go wide as she watches. Her legs wobble, and she actually falls to her knees, staring at the emerging behemoth with disbelief. "I thought he died with Aster," she chokes out, each word wounded.

    Lee can't help but take a step back as Grovyle fearlessly jumps in front of him, glowing Siphon Blade at the ready. Craning his head back, Lee looks up at the monster before them.

    Glaring at them is a gigantic Salamence. No, gigantic is underselling it. The beast is the size of a house and radiates so much heat that Lee's throat is going dry. Each leg could stomp a person flat, and the Salamence's jaws would bite a man in half with room to spare.

    Lee's eyes travel down.

    The Salamence's ribs are showing through his skin, and his scales are dull with malnutrition, painting a horrifying image.

    "Zinnia?" Brendan asks, his words shaking. "Is this who I think it is?"

    The Lorekeeper wordlessly nods, her eyes fixed to the gargantuan dragon.

    'Aster's Salamence…' Lee realizes with a sharp intake of breath. 'He was lying down long enough for moss to grow on him… Has he been lying there since she was put to rest?!' Lee can scarcely believe it and shakes his head.

    "Force these hatchlings from the nest, O Marred One," Taxus murmurs, his words uncharacteristically gentle and reverent. "Prove to us your partner's wisdom."

    The Salamence wordlessly rears his wings back, and Lee winces when the air pressure sharply drops, popping his ears.

    Then Salamence throws his wings forward.

    Lee can't even yelp as a hurricane of howling wind and dust consumes the graveyard. A thrill of panic overtakes everything else when his feet leave the ground.

    'Lee!'

    Even Ninetales' distress is drowned out by the sudden storm.

    Tumbling end over end, Lee tries to open his eyes and see what is going on, only to hiss and screw them shut when sand flies into them.

    As quickly as it came, the hurricane passes, and Lee lets out a cough when he lands hard on his back, knocking the wind from his lungs.

    Beside him, Brendan and Zinnia also gracelessly fall with grunts, as do their pokemon. The only one to land on their feet is Grovyle, who keeps his glowing blade and narrowed eyes ready the entire time.

    'Lee! Lee! Answer me! Are you okay?!' Ninetales urgently asks.

    'I'm fine, Nine,' he sends back, receiving Nine's relief in reply. Scrambling to his feet, Lee looks around and-

    "What the fuck?" He can't stop the words as he looks in the distance towards another plateau, where the Elders, their dragons, and Ninetales all stand as dots. He looks around, and the graveyard is gone. "We're on another plateau?"

    Brendan and Zinnia both stand up, as do Marshtomp and Shelgon. "Seems so." Brendan winces and rubs the back of his head.

    "That was Whirlwind, or it looked like it." Zinnia brushes dirt off of herself. The sound of wings makes her look up, her expression morphing into alarm. "Move!"

    Trainer and pokemon alike all leap backward when Aster's Salamence slams into the ground where they once stood, shattering the rocky ground and throwing chips of stone all around.

    Zinnia lowers the arm she was using to shield her face and stares at the massive dragon with hurt. "Sala…"

    The Salamence doesn't heed his name being called. Instead, he snarls and roars.

    All of them flinch at the ear shattering noise and blast of hot wind. The force of the roar is so great, that each of them needs to lean forward or be thrown to their rear.

    All of them sans Shelgon, that is.

    Shelgon steps forward without a hint of fear, roaring with just as much ferocity as his father. As he meets Salamence's challenge head-on, Shelgon's shell begins to peel back before the eyes of the watching trainers. Half an inch, two inches, six inches.

    Then, Shelgon begins to glow a brilliant white.

    Shelgon's metallic armor explodes off of his body as wings sprout from his back. His body swells with muscle, growing to twice its size and then some. A long tail and equally long neck sprout from rear and front. From the neck comes a flat head, flanked by three fins on each side and a maw filled with dagger teeth.

    When the glow fades, a second Salamence has taken Shelgon's place.

    "He did it!" Zinnia's joy is barely audible over the draconic shouting match. "Shelgon evolved! I knew he could do it!"

    That joy dies a swift death when Aster's Salamence's throat glows emerald green.

    "Salamence, move!" Zinnia orders.

    Salamence aborts his roar, stretches his wings, and flies up just in time. A second later, an impossibly bright Dragon Breath shoots from the elder dragon's mouth, turning the ground into hissing, sputtering lava.

    Both Lee and Grovyle step back, and Lee has to turn away, as the glow of the newly made lava patch is blinding. "Zinnia, what's the plan here!?"

    "Try and keep him off balance so Salamence can get some hits in for now!" she barks back, her eyes fixed on her dragon. "Poor Sala looks half dead, but this isn't going to be easy! Not by a longshot!"

    "Support, got it!" Brendan forces a smile and a thumbs up. "You heard her, bud!" he says to Marshtomp. "Ice Beam!"

    Marshtomp grins a nasty grin and opens his mouth, charging a blue ball of energy.

    Lee and Grovyle meet eyes. "Swords Dance, then get up there and show him your Rock Tomb."

    Grovyle closes his eyes and focuses, blue, sword-like flashes of raw energy manifesting around him. Taking a deep breath, the swords diffuse into wisps that Grovyle breathes in. Seen only by Lee, Grovyle's muscles grow tense.

    'Sala', meanwhile, totally disregards Grovyle and Marshtomp, instead rising into the air to chase down his son. Despite his bulk and emaciation, the elder dragon moves like a fighter jet, rushing down Salamence with vapor tails on his wings.

    Salamence throws himself out of the way, blasting Sala with his own Dragon Breath for the trouble. The emerald flames wash over Sala's hide, leaving only minor scorches.

    Marshtomp laughs and looses his Ice Beam, sending jagged flashes of cryo-energy into the air right at Sala.

    The dragon glances down and snorts, seemingly insulted. He opens his maw, and a white-hot Flamethrower shoots out without any delay, swallowing Ice Beam with ease and coming down upon Marshtomp like a meteor.

    Marshtomp's eyes shoot open, and he swaps Ice Beam with a hasty Water Gun, only for Sala's Flamethrower to plow through it and flash every drop into steam.

    'Shit! Water-type or not, that'll be the last of Marshtomp if that hits!' Lee's eyes widen. "Grovyle, save Marshtomp!"

    The gecko pokemon lights up with a crackling white mantle of Quick Attack, then turns into a green blur that tackles Marshtomp out of the way of Flamethrower with inches to spare.

    The flames bathe the ground a split second after the save, and another pool of lava is burned into the rocky ground.

    'Arceus, this is Mega Camerupt all over again!' Lee complains to himself. 'This might even be worse. I'm not seeing how power like that can be a trick. It's the real deal.'

    "Oh man…" Brendan fixes his eyes on the bubbling patch of molten rock. "Thanks Lee, good save!"

    Lee blows out a sigh. "No prob."

    "Guys, some help, please!" Zinnia angrily orders. "Chit-chat later! Salamence! Dive down!"

    'Right, need to focus. Mega-stones are riding on this.' Lee turns his attention back to Grovyle. "In the air! Quick Attack into Rock Tomb!"

    Grovyle explodes off the ground with a white trail streaking behind him, passing Salamence as he goes. A boulder the size of his own body materializes in his claws with a swirl of particulate, and with a grunt, he hurls it at Sala, who is diving after Salamence.

    Sala's head shines white in what Lee recognizes as Headbutt. 'There is no way he's going to-!'

    The titanic Salamence takes the super effective move right to the head and barrels through without so much as a wince.

    Grovyle's Quick Attack flares and he shoots to the side to get out of Sala's way as the dragon comes down, but an opportunistic flick of Sala's tail catches Grovyle right in his stomach with a loud wack!

    Every bit of air is knocked out of Grovyle as he shoots towards the ground like a cannonball.

    "Quick Attack, stop yourself!" Lee desperately orders, balling his fists up and hoping Grovyle can hear him.

    Grovyle grits his teeth, white energy bursting from his body and forcefully arresting his momentum, turning a debilitating crash into a manageable fall. Flipping through the air, Grovyle lands on his feet with a grimace, his stomach already beginning to bruise.

    "Salamence, Dragon Claw!" Zinnia is quick to go on the offensive again. "Stop him!"

    Salamence swoops low to the ground and flies back up, colliding with Sala in a deadly ball of gnashing teeth and ripping claws. Somehow, Sala remains both airborne and able to fight off the smaller dragon.

    "He needs to be grounded ASAP, or Grovyle and Marshtomp are going to be too limited to make a significant difference," Brendan says, watching Sala and Salamence clash midair. A few feet away, Marshtomp waits for a clear shot, Ice Beam already charged in his mouth.

    The pair of dragons snap at each other, but Sala clearly has the advantage. The older dragon has more strength, more reach, and knows how to use his body, unlike the freshly-evolved Salamence. It's like watching a robin tangle with a falcon.

    "Easier said than done," Zinnia grimly replies, her eyes glued to the fight and waiting to order a disengagement.

    "Grovyle," Lee begins, turning to the Grass-type.

    The reptile practically reads Lee's mind and shoots back into the air, circling around to Sala's back. Another Rock Tomb grows in Grovyle's hand before he thrusts the boulder at Sala's wings.

    Sala hazards a look over his shoulder, and just before Rock Tomb can hit, his wings stiffen and shine with the sheen of Steel Wing. The boulder shatters into pieces on the metallic appendages, doing nothing.

    Then through the dust of Rock Tomb, a long, leaf-like blade coated in caustic Dark TE slashes right at the joint of Sala's red wings.

    "Yes! Good hit Gro-" Lee's celebration is cut short as he watches the sneak attack land.

    Grovyle's Night Slash skitters off of the wing joint like a knife dragged down a steel plate, throwing sparks and leaving only a tiny line of red.

    Grovyle himself is so flummoxed by the ineffective attack that he's nearly struck by Sala's Steel Wing when the dragon grunts and thrusts his back out. Only a hasty flare of Quick Attack pulls Grovyle out of harm's way, where he falls back to the ground.

    "Damn it all!" Zinnia curses as she sees Grovyle's attack barely do anything. "Salamence, get out of there!"

    High above, Salamence snarls and thrashes against his father's hold. It takes all of the younger's strength, but he frees himself from Sala's claws with a number of cuts for his trouble.

    The split second before Salamence drops away, Brendan makes his play. "Marshtomp, fire!" He orders.

    Marshtomp's crackling Ice Beam flies, three-fourths of the way to its target by the time Salamence is clear.

    Sala turns and sees the writhing lance of blue, but it's too late. He twists and takes the beam to his side.

    For the first time in the fight, Sala lets out a noise of pain, and it's only a mere growl.

    Ice Beam splashes across Sala's scales, covering them in short-lived frost that melts away in seconds, leaving behind a patch of blackened, frostbitten scales.

    'A double super-effective hit, and that's all we got from it?' Lee grimaces. He's almost tempted to ask Ninetales for advice, but stays the thread of thought that wants to reach out.

    The Elders don't want outside interference, and he doubts gestalts get a technical pass. He still feels Nine's persistent worry, however.

    None of them are given any chance to follow up on Marshtomp's successful attack, as Sala rushes to the ground with a flap of his wings. Landing heavily and rumbling the ground, he rushes down Marshtomp with a livid roar.

    "Rock Slide!" Brendan doesn't stay stunned by the dragon's speed for long and orders a counter.

    Marshtomp jams his hands into the ground, and with a grunt and a heave, upends the earth between him and the charging Sala. The rocky ground explodes into jagged stones and heavy rocks, all bearing down on Sala with intent to maim.

    Sala growls once more, not letting his focus on Marshtomp slip for a second. As he runs headfirst into the barrage of stones, he sucks in a deep breath and lets out an earth-shattering Roar.

    The blast of sound and air blows a wide void through Rock Slide, letting Sala charge through without being hit by so much as a pebble.

    "Grovyle!" Lee calls, hoping to save Marshtomp.

    "Salamence!" Zinnia barks, having the same thought.

    Both pokemon, however, are a hair too slow, as Sala's head shoots forward, his jaws wrapping around one of Marshtomp's arms.

    Cra-cra-crack!

    The sound of Marshtomp's arm breaking like a dry twig is loud, even over the remnants of Rock Slide crashing to the ground, but Marshtomp doesn't so much as flinch. No, instead, he bellows in anger and throws a savage Mega Punch crackling with fury into Sala's jaw with his free arm.

    The dragon winces from the blow that would have brought a house down and twists his neck, making to throw Marshtomp away.

    In reply, Marshtomp drives his free fingers into the ground and grips the plateau with everything he has, gritting his teeth and stopping Sala in his place.

    Sala growls and yanks on the broken arm in his teeth, only getting a grunt from Marshtomp.

    "Guys, disable him now before Marshtomp gives out!" Brendan urges.

    "Rock Tomb!"

    "Dragon Claw!"

    Grovyle and Salamence charge at their trainer's orders. Grovyle rushes and leaps onto Sala's back, forming a boulder in his grasp as he does so. With a cry, he smashes Rock Tomb right into the slowly bleeding wing joint he cut earlier, forcing the wound open further with blunt trauma. Then he leaps away as Salamence comes down like a dropped anvil, landing on Sala's back. Salamence roars as he jams his red-and-blue claws into the wound Grovyle made, savaging everything he can.

    Sala's eyes bulge, then narrow in hate. He tugs Marshtomp again, pulling the mudfish's hand out of the ground, then he bucks wildly, throwing Salamence to the ground.

    The damage, however, is done. Sala's left wing is limp, but rather than chase Grovyle and Salamence, he instead turns his rage to Marshtomp, intent on finishing off the foe he caught before taking another.

    Sala raises his head, then slams Marshtomp into the ground like a ragdoll.

    Again.

    And again.

    And again.

    "Marshtomp, no!" Brendan reaches a helpless hand out, his face stricken.

    Grovyle and Salamence rush in to help, but Sala whirls around with deceptive speed. He uses the barely-conscious Marshtomp like a flail and smacks Grovyle aside. Sala's tail, meanwhile, coated in the cloak of Dragon Tail, smashes right into Salamence's skull, knocking the younger dragon for a loop.

    Finally, Sala releases Marshtomp, throwing the bloodied and brutalized Water-type to Brendan's feet in an unconscious heap.

    "Quick Attack, move in and flank!" Lee dares only spend a second looking away from Sala as Grovyle and Salamence start the fight anew, and he cringes when he sees the shape Marshtomp is in.

    The poor starter's right arm is entirely purple and twisted, and the rest of his body is covered in countless contusions and lacerations. Lee is betting Marshtomp has a few broken ribs with how labored his breathing is, a feat considering just how damn tough Brendan's first pokemon is.

    Brendan himself looks as if he's been stabbed in the heart, his face screwed up in turmoil. With a heavy sigh, he schools himself and takes out Marshtomp's ball. "You did amazing, Marshtomp. You're the toughest 'mon I know. Take a rest and return," he murmurs, pointing the ball in his hand down.

    In a flash, Marshtomp is safely back in his ball…

    …Leaving the fight a losing one.



    'This is bad.'

    Grovyle jumps out of the way of a gout of fire that would have incinerated him. Instead, the Flamethrower carves a shallow channel into the rocky soil. Landing back on the ground, the gecko pokemon frowns mightily as he considers what to do.

    From the very start, this fight has been an uphill battle, but with Marshtomp down, things are looking grim.

    Grovyle has no illusions on the matter. Of the three pokemon chosen to fight Sala, he is the weakest, no matter how much it shames him to admit it.

    Marshtomp's barehanded blows made Sala flinch, and Ice Beam was enough of a threat for the great dragon to focus Brendan's partner down.

    Salamence is… well, a Salamence. His claws, bites, and dragonfire slowly but surely wear upon Sala, and his raw power is something to behold. If not for Sala presenting an unfair comparison, Salamence would be awe-inspiring.

    And then there is Grovyle.

    Weak, ineffective Grovyle.

    The gecko struggles to not grit his teeth as he watches Sala and Salamence clash again, rumbling the plateau down to its foundation. The starved dragon is losing steam, but all he can do is hold back and look for an opening, hoping to be useful.

    'It seems like hoping to be useful is all I can do…' he thinks bitterly, sending a glance to Lee.

    The man Grovyle calls Master has a 'poker face' as humans call it. Others find his face and thoughts hard to discern, but after months together, Grovyle can read him perfectly. The deeper-than-usual frown, the slight tilt of his eyebrows, the slump where he should be tense.

    It all points to Lee losing hope for this fight, and he should be.

    'After all, he has to rely on me, the failure of the team.' Grovyle clenches his grip around his leaf sword and touches the scars on his chest.

    All the movement is making them sting.

    These last weeks have seen Grovyle rise to new levels he thought impossible before, but compared to everyone else? He may as well be running in place.

    Ninetales, Corviknight, Latias, and Shelgon (now Salamence), would all trounce him easily.

    Breloom, Mawile, Marshtomp, Octillery, Altaria, and Noivern would each be a fight that took his all, with no guarantee of victory.

    Tyrunt, Sylveon, and Electrike all nip at his heels, threatening to overrun him.

    The only ones he can say he is truly better than are Goomy and Shinx, and comparing himself to an infant is pathetic.

    'It'll be even more pathetic when Shinx overtakes me…'     He narrows his yellow eyes down to slits.

    Lee promised to take Grovyle to heights unseen, to be the very best, like no one ever was, and in accepting, Grovyle silently promised to live up to such lofty expectations.

    Lee's side of the bargain remains fulfilled, while Grovyle has been reduced to a liar.

    The gyms? Mostly losses.

    The volcano? Swatted down like nothing.

    And now here, during a critical trial that decides if they get tools that could help save the entire world?

    He's losing.

    What has he done for the team during his tenure? Why, he won a piddly beach tournament after Shelgon and Vulpix did all the hard work.

    Because he is Grovyle, the failure.

    "Quick Attack into Night Slash, left flank!"

    Grovyle's body moves on pure instinct at the order. He flies across the ground and swings his sword in a wide arc, aiming to drive the slash right into Sala's frostbite weakened skin.

    The attack connects with the blackened flesh, and Grovyle is rewarded with a mere trickle of blood.

    'Not enough.'

    Grovyle ducks and retreats when Sala turns and snaps with flaming jaws, nearly catching and roasting Grovyle alive. The dragon turns back to Salamence with a snarl when a Dragon Pulse catches him in the side of the head, and the two dragons are back to their melee.

    Fueled by a fresh evolution or not, Salamence is beginning to flag under Sala's onslaught, and it's plain to Grovyle. His limbs shake, his wounds are piling up, and the blood on the ground is more his than Sala's.

    Once Salamence goes down, it's all a forgone conclusion.

    As if to punctuate that thought, Sala bullrushes Salamence, barreling over the smaller dragon and driving his electrified Thunder Fangs into his son's neck.

    "Salamence, get out of there!" Zinnia screams, eyes wide in fright. "Listen to my voice and push him off!"

    Salamence can only screech in pain, twitching as he's electrocuted.

    "Grovyle, get in there! Night Slash into his back wound!" Lee orders, desperation in his voice.

    Grovyle's feet move before the last syllable is out of Lee's mouth. The world blurs to Grovyle's eyes, and a second later, he's bearing down on Sala, stabbing his purple-hued sword into the ugly mess of a wound on his foe's back.

    Sala was apparently waiting for this, though, as the beast turns with devilish speed and rams his skull into Grovyle's stomach, not at all caring about the Night Slash that scrapes across his thick neck.

    Blood and spittle is forced from his mouth, and Grovyle feels a rib shatter. When he hits the ground, he struggles to draw breath through the pain, but he still forces himself back to his feet.

    Sala turns away from his panting son, his bloodshot eyes regarding Grovyle with annoyance.

    Not wariness, not anger, just annoyance.

    Then Sala slowly begins to stalk forward, the ground rumbling with each step, and Grovyle knows he's done for. Still, he raises his sword, and looks towards Lee.

    The man smiles gently back, free of blame or accusations. Like this isn't Grovyle's fault.

    'It is, though. It's my fault for being weak. I can't defend anything I hold dear.' Grovyle screws his eyes shut, frustration bubbling over. 'I don't want to be weak, I don't want to be the only ordinary one amongst the extraordinary, I don't want to be left behind,'

    In his mind's eye, he sees Lee, Corviknight, and Ninetales, all walking with their backs to him.

    He tries to chase them, but he runs in place as they get further and further away, walking towards a light, something grand that he can't have. Then Octillery passes him, and Sylveon, and Shinx.

    'I don't want to be left behind.'

    They take another step.

    'I don't want to be left behind!'

    Their silhouettes begin to fade.

    'I don't want to be left behind!'

    They're gone.

    Gone.

    Gone without him.

    'I refuse!'

    A dam breaks, and a shining cloak of white bursts from Grovyle's scales, drawing a gasp from him.

    His muscles writhe and his bones creak, and the ground grows further away as his limbs lengthen. His tail thickens, sprouting bladed leaves. The leaf on his head retracts, forming ridges over his eyes. On his back, a dual row of seeds push themselves from his scales.

    The light fades, and Grovyle is no more. In his place is Sceptile.

    Sceptile looks down at himself.

    On his chest, his scars are no more, reduced to a faded starburst in his scales. He twists his arms, finding no pain or pulling.

    Oh. Oh, he can feel everything.

    Everything.

    From the tip of his tail, to the point of his nose, and every scale in between, he can feel all of them.

    Awareness of himself, in utter totality. The direction of the breeze on his scales, the beat of his heart, the synapses of his brain firing, each one consciously accounted for. It should be overwhelming, his brain should be melting out of his ears from the overload.

    With a thought, his heart slows down to almost nothing. As he expects, his vision blurs and his limbs grow chilled, so he lets go of the organ.

    Then he speeds it up, and he grows warm and restless as his blood surges.

    It's all natural, just as natural as the muscles as taut as spring-steel beneath his skin.

    He lets out a breath and allows his heart to settle.

    He feels so light, so unburdened. If he so much as twitches his ankles with too much excitement, he'll fly up and never come down.

    Sceptile turns his head towards Lee, and his heart soars.

    Lee is looking at him with undisguised awe, an expression usually reserved for Corviknight and Ninetales.

    'I won't be left behind.' He smiles around his chewing twig. 'Not now, not ever.'

    Whatever shock Sala was feeling after witnessing Sceptile's evolution passes, as the dragon growls and charges once more.

    On pure instinct, Sceptile spools up both Detect and Quick Attack, and the world slows to a crawl to him. Sala looks as if he's running through molasses, and is so slow that Sceptile has enough time to count each scale on his foe's face, if he were to feel so inclined.

    One of the leaves on his forearm lengthens and twists, forming a blade as long as a Sceptile is tall with the same- no, greater- ease he did as Grovyle. Grasping his weapon, Sceptile sends Lee a smile and a wink.

    In slow motion, Lee smiles back with a nod.

    Sceptile turns his attention back to Sala. "Now, foe of mine." He lethargically raises his weapon. "Let us see how you combat that which you cannot hit."

    The gecko pokemon races forward, and with all the might in his reforged arm, swings his Siphon Blade into Sala's leg.

    His arm strains against the blue scales, but where nothing gave before, a split opens in the elder dragon's limb and blood begins to run.

    In Sceptile's slowed world, it takes a few seconds for the pain to hit. Sala wastes no time moving once it does hit him, though, lashing out with flame-coated fangs.

    Fangs that Sceptile has already dodged. He's on Sala's other flank.

    "A failure no longer!" Sceptile declares before raising his sword and swinging again.

    Blood flies through the air.



    "Grovyle evolved…" Lee can barely contain his excitement, having waited for this moment for months.

    Gro-Sceptile takes the brief moment of surprise from everyone to look down at himself with a discerning eye, turning his hands over and bouncing lightly on his feet. He turns his gaze to Lee, and Lee can only beam.

    Sceptile smiles back.

    'He's needed this for so long, and to evolve right here of all times and places! I knew you'd pull through for us, Sceptile.' Lee puts his hands together and says a short thanks to Arceus.

    Sala, evidently tired of waiting, charges Sceptile with a chest-rumbling growl.

    The Grass-type on the field gives Lee a wink, one that says "trust me", and Lee nods back without hesitation.

    Then he blinks and Sceptile is… gone?

    Lee blinks his eyes again and Sceptile seems to vanish. A second later, Sala lets out a deafening roar of frustration, drawing Lee back into the fight.

    'Wait, what the hell happened? I looked away from him for only a few seconds!'

    On Sala are four wounds that weren't there a moment ago, each one is long, deep, and weeping red onto the ground. They look like sword strikes, not claws.

    Then another opens on his back, blood spraying up in an arc.

    Another slash appears on one of his hind legs, which buckles under the wound.

    Tiny cuts are slit right above Sala's eyes from a source unseen, which send irritating blood right into his vision.

    The dragon roars in rage again. From his throat, white fire pours out as he spins in a circle, setting the entire rocky field ablaze and slagging the ground. The suddenly superheated ground prompts Zinnia's Salamence to shake off his electrocution and rise into the air with a flap of his wings, lest he suffer burns.

    "What's going on? Where did Sceptile go?" Brendan asks, panning his head around.

    Lee recalls where he saw something like this before, all the way back in his gym match with Moore in Lavaridge.



    Lee blinks when he hears a squeal of pain, and as he blinks, Arcanine disappears from his sight. No, wait, what happened?!

    Arcanine is already upon Octillery, mauling the octopus and shaking him around like a ragdoll. Octillery twitches and writhes under the crackling, electrified fangs digging into his flesh.

    'What the fuck?! I could've sworn I saw him standing still a moment ago!' Lee's mind whirls. Arcanine didn't leave behind some kind of illusion, did he? No? 'Lord above, he moved so fast that he actually tricked my eyes. I just saw a real after image.'



    "Honest to Arceus afterimages…" Lee whispers in disbelief, drawing looks from Zinnia and Brendan. "Sceptile is so damn fast we can't even see him!"

    As if to prove Lee's point, Sceptile appears on Sala's back like a phantom. No blur, no whoosh of air, nothing. He's simply not there one moment, then there the next. Before Sala can do much of anything, Sceptile lashes out with a kick that slams into the back of the large dragon's skull, nearly driving his muzzle into the ground.

    Sala turns his neck and snaps his jaws, but Sceptile is already long gone.

    "We can win this. We can actually win this! Salamence!" Zinnia's manic grin is on full blast. "He's getting tired! We just need one good knockout blow now! Use the openings Sceptile makes!"

    Another slash bursts open on Sala's side, and on pure instinct, the dragon turns and bathes the area in fire.

    Salamence launches a Dragon Pulse right into Sala's unprotected side, making the larger dragon flinch.

    Sala turns to Salamence with a growl and fires off his own Dragon Pulse, which rages right along with its wielder, only for Salamence to twist midair and dodge.

    There is a barely visible flicker of green, and another cut rends Sala's side, forming an X with another wound.

    Sala turns and blasts the area in fire, missing, and opening himself up for another Dragon Pulse from Salamence.

    The game of cat and mouse continues, with each new wound slowing the great beast of a reptile down further. With his wing crippled, he can't hope to chase down Salamence, and Sceptile's new speed is simply something he can't keep up with. Sala tries changing tactics, like smashing the ground with omnidirectional attacks like Bulldoze, but Sceptile simply leaps high and avoids being struck.

    'Aster's Salamence is something else. Heartbroken, starved, bleeding like a stuck pig, and he's still trucking through a two-on-one. How strong would he have been in his prime?' Lee wonders, conjuring an image akin to Godzilla in his head. 'Hell, maybe Zinnia undersold Aster, if that's even possible.'

    Eventually, though, Sala's focus slips too far, and Zinnia calls for the last blow.

    "Zen Headbutt!"

    Sala turns his head just in time for Salamence to smash his shimmering forehead between his eyes. The sound of the dragons colliding is like a bomb, and is just as harsh on the ears.

    With a tired, pained groan, Aster's partner falls to his stomach, his head drooping from the blow. He stares up at Salamence, who is panting and covered in wounds, with something akin to pride in his eyes. Then unconsciousness finally takes the behemoth, and his head falls to the ground with a thud!

    For a moment, everyone waits with bated breath to see if the monstrous pokemon will get back to his feet. When he doesn't, Lee lets himself relax. "Holy hell…"

    "Holy hell," Zinnia agrees, turning her eyes to the distant plateau where the Elders are mounting their dragons. "If that didn't impress, then I don't know what will."

    Lee shakes his head as Sceptile materializes next to him in a flash of movement. "If they want anything more after an exhausting fight like that, I'm telling them to stick those mega-stones where the sun don't shine."

    Zinnia snorts, then turns her attention to Salamence, who is lumbering over. "Excuse me, boys, I need to go admire my dragon," she says with a wide grin, almost skipping over to Salamence.

    Beside Lee, Sceptile smirks around his twig and crosses his arms. He looks down at Lee and makes an inquisitive, throaty trill, one that seems amused. "So what's that about an exhausting fight? I'm the one who fought. How are you the tired one?"

    "Don't spoil the pride I have for you." Lee levels Sceptile with a mock glare, but can't quite stop the smile that wants to rise to his face. Grovyle evolved! It still feels so good; so good, in fact that he throws an arm around Sceptile's shoulders and pulls him into a side hug.

    Going for a hug, however, makes Lee notice that the Grass-type is now a good eight inches taller than him. "Huh, you're taller than expected. You're going to need another physical so I can get a new baseline on you."

    Sceptile sighs. "Can't it wait?"

    "Until tonight? Sure thing."

    The next sigh is twice as exasperated.



    Below are the names of some patrons who got to view this chapter early and felt like signing it. A huge thanks to them and everyone else who supports this story and everything else I write.

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