947Hello everyone,
So I just want to get this out there. Brawly is a flawed character. Some reviewers made it known that the 'revenge' motivation wasn't what the story promised in the beginning of the story, that being defeating Lance and becoming champion. I completely agree, and it will all be addressed eventually. Brawly is just blinded by hate, guilt, or whatever it may be.
So I just want to ask that everyone be patient, and give it some time.
Anyway, on to the chapter!
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Reminder of pokemon and names:
Hashirama aka Hashi - Hariyama.
Minato - Hypno.
Madara - Growlithe.
Shika - Absol.
Asuma - Teddiursa
Tobirama aka Tobi - Gyarados
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
I didn't head to the gym battles immediately.
Instead, I sat down for some research. I had a few goals that I wanted to accomplish before taking on the gyms. I also had decisions to make.
First and foremost was which gyms I wanted to take on. On one hand, I wanted to send a big middle finger to the league, and travel to some of the weaker gym leaders. If I went that route, then Falkner and Bugsy were in my crosshairs. I was confident in my pokemon's ability to run through whatever they threw at me.
But there was that voice in the back of my head that told me something completely different. The true middle finger to the league would be to wreck the strongest gym leaders. My foolish pride wouldn't allow anything less. There were a couple of options there, however.
I really wanted to rub something in Lance's face, so that made the decision for me.
Clair would be my sixth badge. I would take the Blackthorn badge.
Plus this would be great practice for the day I take on Lance. Clair had a lot of powerful dragons, if the games were to be believed. Dragonite, Garchomp, and Salamence posed the pseudo-legendary threat. Altaria was no pushover, and then there was her signature pokemon, Kingdra.
There were only a couple of recorded cases of Kingdra in this universe. Once again, the unique ways of evolving pokemon was relatively unknown in this world. I knew that a dragon scale was needed to evolve Seadra, that was something the Blackthorn clan had in spades. They essentially had a monopoly on some of the strongest and most versatile pokemon in existence. There were exceptions, of course, but that statement held true for the most part.
But who would be my first challenge?
That was the question I asked myself as I sat in front of a computer in Oak's house, searching the pokenet for my options.
I quickly marked off Bugsy and Falkner, they seemed too easy in my opinion. I also discarded the gyms I already defeated. That took off Brock, The Sisters of Cerulean, Blaine, and Erika. I continued to narrow down my search by taking a look at how the gym leaders like to handle the fifth and sixth badges on the pokenet.
By the end of it, I found four to be especially brutal. Morty was surprisingly difficult to defeat with his ghost type pokemon, if the match record was anything to be believed. Lt. Surge threw absolute power and speed at his enemies. Badge five was when he started bringing out his Electivire.
There was Giovanni, of course, but he wasn't an option until badge number six, so that was ruled out because of Clair.
The last option was Sabrina. In the games, she was notoriously difficult because Psychic's were broken in generation one. That definitely translated into this world. Her pokemon had ridiculous type coverage, there was no way around it. That combined with what was no doubt the strongest Alakazam on the planet made her a formidable threat. There was a video of it launching three huge shadow balls at its opponent, at one time…
After that last video, it sealed the deal for me. Sabrina would be my next opponent. It sent a message too. Hashi was known as being my starter, and overall best pokemon. He held a type weakness to the gym. Although, with the coverage moves my pokemon were beginning to learn, type advantages were starting to disappear. It was another, much subtler, middle finger to the league. Most people would be above such petty showings, I wasn't.
I quickly scheduled two matches with the gym leaders, two days apart, with the last challenge being on the thirteenth day. That gave me twelve days to prepare.
I grabbed my backpack, and started out the house, prepared for war.
Soon, I climbed out of the saddle, and off of my arcanine's back.
Madara was more than happy to ferry me across the world, but somehow riding him felt wrong. I couldn't help but think that he was better than that.
I reached for the pokeballs for the rest of the team and released everyone, including Tobi. We were back at our lake on Oak's ranch, and this is where we would stay until we left. There were a couple of goals for the short training session.
One was for Minato to master teleporting while holding a shadow ball together, and taking it with him. The theory was sound, he should be able to. Oak's alakazam was proof of that when I asked if it was possible. We just had to get him there.
The second was to get my little bear to evolve. Asuma was growing more and more aggressive as the days passed, a sure fire sign that it was time for him. That was Hashi's job. So my starter guided the not-so-little teddiursa over to an isolated piece of land to train. He had orders not to take it easy on the little guy. I sensed conflicting emotions, but he would get it done.
Shika was already very strong and fast, but I wanted her to perfect ice beam. Most of my pokemon had ice punch or fang in their arsenal, which would be good for dragons. But Ice Beam was just so much more powerful, and after a little research, she was able. Shadow ball was quickly mastered by her, as I assumed, so that was already in the bag. That also gave my team more special attack coverage. We were heavily focused on straight up speed and attack. I didn't mind that at all, but it did leave some weaknesses.
My hypno sat down in his normal meditative position, and summoned the shadow ball. It hovered in front of his face for a little bit. I sensed him try to split his focus and teleport, but the psychic type energy phased out every time he tried. But he continued trying, and that was the important thing.
Madara had one job and that was to get used to his body. As graceful as he already was, he stumbled at times that should have been very graceful. So he was to master his body, and if he managed that quickly, to master extreme speed.
I quickly deciphered that the reason Arcanine are so 'legendary', was because of that move right there. The fact that a three-hundred and forty pound dog could travel so fast was incredible. And with his high attack stat…
Imagine flare blitz combined with extreme speed. Or wild charge. Or any type of physical impact from a three-hundred pound pokemon going that fast. It would wreck anything that wasn't a tank.
The fact that arcanine, dragonite, lucario, and togekiss were the only pokemon capable of learning the move normally said a lot. So I needed him to be able to fight at that speed, because Lance had a couple of dragonite at his disposal.
I turned to my last pokemon, who swam in the lake while looking towards me. I sent him a smile and mental commands.
"It's time for you to fly!"
I spent my full time trying to get Tobi to fly.
For the first two days, we made absolutely zero progress. I tried everything I could to get him to harness the flying type energy.
I made him use waterfall out of the lake and into the air, before transferring into a controlled hurricane. That only sent Tobi further out into the lake, flipping and spinning. He glared at me after that, so I scrapped that plan fairly quickly.
I made him use bounce, which was a move he hadn't perfected and only resulted in him jumping into the air about twenty feet. That wasn't much considering he was thirty feet long. It was like watching an old white guy try to dunk. Just wasn't happening.
I even tried having Minato teleport him high into the air. That just resulted in all of my gear getting wet from the massive splash it made when he hit the water.
More ideas were made and discarded once they failed. Eventually, I gave up on him learning to fly before I had to defeat the two gyms so I had him focus on something else, his dragon type moves.
Dragon pulse was mastered very quickly. Tobi had the move down by the fourth day, so I continued on the same path.
On the fifth day amazing things happened. Asuma evolved, marking the first win of the day.
It was nothing special, unlike most of the other evolutions that my pokemon had gone through. I just got done commanding Hashi to go a little harder on the teddiursa, something he was reluctant to do. So, Hashi sparred with him, for real this time.
Asuma was naturally weak to fighting type moves. It was actually the only typing he didn't do well against. So when Hashi smacked him with a force palm, it must have triggered something in the little bear, because when the white light died down he was no little bear.
Asuma finished his evolution with the roar of a bear. I've never been so terrified and happy at the same time.
That's what caused the second win of the day to happen.
Tobi, who was busy trying to internalize his dragon type energy, let out a roar of happiness for his family member and jumped out of the water. Apparently this was the catalyst for pulling off dragon dance. The purple energy coalesced around his body and he twirled in the air.
The most curious thing was when he paused in the air slightly. Light bulbs went off in my head. I ignored the information for a second to congratulate my newest pokemon on his evolution.
Asuma stood at about six foot six inches after his evolution, fairly large for his age. But there were records of ursaring growing to be about eight foot. It did seem odd to see my hariyama still tower over my ursaring. Hashi was closer to seven and a half feet by now, tall for his race although not the tallest recorded. That belonged to an eight foot monster sometime in the last one hundred years.
Asuma loved the attention I gave him and rolled over for me to scratch him all over. He let out grunts of affection the whole time. It reminded me a bit of how Madara acted, but more like a bear than dog.
After that, he got a little too arrogant, because he challenged Hashi to another spar immediately. Hashi didn't even break a sweat and managed to beat him into the ground swiftly. I smiled, knowing that Asuma just learned a valuable lesson: There is always someone stronger.
Now that I gave Asuma enough love, I turned back to my massive water dragon and the light bulbs hit me again.
I asked myself one valuable question.
How can a dragonite fly with such small wings for it's frame? It's not just pure strength.
The answer I managed to come up with actually hinged on another pokemon with the same typing as dragonite. Rayquaza was also a dragon/flying type pokemon, but he didn't have any wings. And why was Rayquaza's most powerful move considered flying type, but called 'Dragons Ascent'? How did this make sense?
The theory I managed to come up with was that dragon type energy, and flying type energy went hand in hand. Similar to water and ice type, or rock and ground.
So then I asked another valuable question. Is dragon type energy necessary to make a gyarados fly?
After another two hours of experimentation with Tobi, I decided that my theory was sound but needed more testing.
If I had Tobi use waterfall out of the lake and into the air, and then have him transition into dragon dance, he would snake around the air a few seconds before eventually falling. It looked like how chinese dragons were depicted moving around the air. Kind of like they were snaking through the air.
I knew I was missing something, but I wasn't sure what it was.
The last win on the fifth day happened just as I called for everyone to stop for the day and eat dinner. Minato wanted to try one last time to teleport while using shadow ball.
It wasn't a complete success, considering the shadow ball fired in my direction while he disappeared and landed somewhere in the forest. Luckily, Asuma was beside me and tanked the ghost type move since he was completely immune, but it was a close call.
We managed to celebrate, even if it was a little reserved.
"I thought you left."
Daisy's voice called out to me from her position on the back of Professor Oak's porch. I knew that she was lying to me, she had kept tabs on me the entire time, as the league wanted.
I just smiled at her, as if I bought the lie. "Not yet." I responded.
Daisy made a show of looking at the watch on her wrist. "Three days?" She asked curiously. "Shouldn't you get a move on, or have you given up?"
I was starting to dislike the strong trainer in front of me, and the look on my face must have given it away because she smirked at me. I was tired of her doubting me. Especially after I helped her convince Oak of getting her into the Mega Program. I didn't expect to be thanked, but I sure didn't expect whatever this was.
The attraction I felt for her was practically gone at this point.
"No." I said simply. "Is the Professor around?" I switched the subject. My tone changed, into the tone you give someone when you really don't want to be around them.
There was a flash of hurt on Daisy's face and it sent confusion through me. First she's rude as fuck, and doubting me. The next she's hurt when I take offense to it? Damn women.
"Sorry, my hormones have been all over the place, ever since… Anyway, I shouldn't doubt you. I'm actually a bit jealous of you." Daisy admitted.
Didn't Oak say she had a worse reaction to the dragon and fairy type energy of Altaria? Is that why she's been so cold towards me?
I never learned exactly what happened to her, but fairys and dragons were polar opposites. No wonder it was throwing her hormones and emotions out of whack. A dragon loved to dominate. A fairy was just loving. I didn't envy her in the slightest for that.
"Now I understand. I didn't realize it affected you so much." I told her. In my mind, I felt myself forgive her a bit. Something like hormones jumping around in a woman was never good. "Why would you be jealous?" I wondered.
Daisy's eyes softened a little and I couldn't help but attribute it to the fairy type energy. "Gramps loves you. Every time I see you together, I see it. It pisses me off." Daisy told me. Her eyes changed from soft, to very hard and threatening quickly. I could tell that she really was going through a bitch of a time with the mood swings.
"You know what might help that?" I asked truthfully.
Daisy shook her head. "What's that?" She obliged the conversation.
"Fighting." I offered. "Sparring. Wearing yourself out. Burn that aggression from the dragon typing out."
Daisy tilted her head, and I could tell she was thinking about it. "That's actually a good idea. Are you offering?" Daisy asked with a dangerous glint in her eye.
The prospect of sparring with her appealed to the male side of me. I noted the hypocricy of my mind. Not two minutes ago I wanted nothing to do with her, and now the opportunity of getting close and personal with her sounded great.
"Maybe when I get back." I agreed with a softer smile this time.
"Deal. Gramps is in the lab. Said he didn't want to be bothered." Daisy told me, finally answering my question from earlier.
I nodded. Oak was very serious when he told others he didn't want to be bothered. I knew that extended to me too so I just accepted the fact that I wouldn't get to talk to him before I left.
"Tell him I said thanks for everything, ok?"
For the first time since the three Team Rocket trainers attacked me, I was back on Route 7, heading to Saffron city.
My gym battle was tomorrow, and I wanted to rest my pokemon. So they lumbered beside me as we traveled down the route.
Route 7 was one of the more popular routes, because it provided a decent challenge to trainers with three and four badges. Most of them looked at my powerful collection in awe as I passed them.
Madara wasn't by my side, most of the time he was off in the woods, speeding around and eating things. It was quite a shocker when I tried to feed him his normal pokemeal after his evolution to find that he didn't want it. He much preferred to hunt for his pokemon, if you could call running up on them with extreme speed, killing them quickly and then scarfing them down hunting.
I remember him coming back with a half eaten baby snivy from Professor Oak's ranch. I paled at the starter pokemon getting massacred like that but quickly just chalked it up to nature. It saved me another bill and Tobi was already having to hunt for himself also. I actually expected Asuma to do the same soon, he was already getting tired of his pokemeals and I saw his nose twitch in the air every once in a while as he caught a scent.
It was on Route 7 that I found Professor Oak's hard headed grandson, Gary Oak. He recognized me immediately.
"Wanna battle?" Gary asked me before I could greet him, like a true trainer.
I looked at him like he was crazy. "You don't want to battle me." I told him confidently.
"My pokemon are powerful, they can handle it." Gary said with a smirk, just as confident.
I thought about it for a moment, and decided he could do with a little embarrassment. "Fine." I agreed.
Asuma wrecked all three of his pokemon, a very rare and powerful bunch if I say so myself. Gary already collected an abra, nidorino, and a charmeleon on top of his wartoirtle. I saw another ball on his belt but did not press him for what it was.
That was five powerful pokemon. Four of which I knew would be on his strongest team list. I wondered if he was sending his extras back to the ranch or not. He could afford the luxury of throwing balls at anything that moved, with Oak's ranch. What was twenty more pokemon to that vast ecosystem of pokemon?
Gary left with a confident swagger after his defeat. It was only then that I realized he was trying to knock his pokemon down a peg. No doubt they were getting a big head from embarassing the trainers that normally populated this route.
I was in a little dead spot in the route when I saw him. This particular spot in the route was notorious for not having cell signal, so most trainers stayed away from it. Of course, I didn't.
And that is how I met the protagonist from the hoenn region, for the second time in my life.
"Hey Brawly." Brendan said from his spot on the tree. The Hoenn version of Ace Trainer gear draped around his frame.
I stopped, and my mind wondered what a Hoenn Ace Trainer was doing all the way on Route 7, in a dead spot. My paranoia reared it's head, rightfully so I might add.
"You're a long way from home, Brendan." I told him, watching him curiously.
"So are you. And you've collected a nice set of pokemon too." Brendan replied. He must have thought himself smart for that little jibe.
"I would be willing to bet that you are the same." I offered. "What can I do for you?" I asked, getting to the point of this standoff.
"I come with an offer. Let's just say we know of your situation, and would be willing to treat you much better." Brendan answered. It seemed he was tired of our dance too.
"If you know that, then you know I'm not going to run from them. I'm taking the top spot over here." I answered truthfully.
"I told them you'd say that, but they didn't listen." Brendan returned. "What do you say to a battle, for old times sake?"
I pondered the offer, for a second. "Off the record of course." I thought out loud.
"Of course." Brendan agreed and his hand dipped to his belt and grabbed a pokeball.
I thought he would have chosen the same pokemon that beat Hashi last time, but instead he threw out his starter pokemon, Blaziken. And boy did it look like a specimen.
The last time I saw the pokemon, it was a combusken and it was saving me from a skarmory. I wondered if he still had that skarmory.
"I never thanked you for saving my life." I said as Hashi moved forward in front of me.
"Please, never do." Brendan retorted.
A silence fell over the field, and my pokemon tensed, all of them. I felt Madara racing back to our position from wherever he was in the wild. Turns out that I shouldn't have worried.
Brendan's blaziken moved forward slowly closing the distance between him and Hashi. I gave Hashi the command to play defense, and match the starters strength.
I got a mental confirmation when the Blaziken flew into a normal kick. There was no fire surrounding it, no fighting type energy, nothing. Just a regular kick.
Hashi blocked, and returned with his own.
The two fighting type pokemon began sparring. The blaziken was surprisingly nimble and acrobatic. He integrated his longer legs into the fight beautifully. It was obvious that Brendan had taken the time to properly teach his blaziken how to fight.
But Hashi was better, there was no way around it. Hashi deflected, blocked, and dodged every strike with maximum efficiency. His braided blue hair danced in the air around him.
Without warning, the blaziken kicked into another gear. The punches were faster and more powerful, the kicks needed to be dodged, not blocked because of their power.
I gave the command for Hashi to go on the offensive, and he obeyed. The next kick that was sent his way, he grabbed. Then he used his weight, and slammed the blaziken on the ground.
I couldn't have been more impressed the way the blaziken managed to torque it's body to take the minimum amount of damage possible. And then, with skillful manuevering, it flipped Hashi off of it and stood up.
I expected the fight to escalate, but instead Brendan returned his starter. "I've seen enough. The offer stands, Brawly. Hoenn will provide you protection, if need be." Brendan said while a Claydol floated out of the trees behind him.
Then they disappeared.
A/N: Boom!
Little training, and a little action. Asuma evolved! I feel like pokemon don't evolve enough in mundane ways in fanfic. It's always during a battle. It makes sense though. Normally it takes adversity for them to evolve, and battles provide that. But I wanted to switch it up.
What did we think? What about Brendan showing up? What about the offer?
Let's talk in the reviews!
